A handful of movies

While I write the proposals, get into calls and try and shape my future I have been catching up on a few movies in the last couple of weeks viz. The Constant Gardener, Goal, Iqbal.

I had started reading the Le Carre novel (Gardener) a while back but somehow it started gathering dust and I never got back to it. So when the movie came out, it had to be seen. The immediate comparison as far as the setting goes would be to Hotel Rwanda. But these are two totally different movies and brilliant in their own ways. Ralph Fiennes is his assured and brilliant self while Rachel Weisz role is her best till date. The chemistry between them is very good and the movie keeps going forward and back smoothly as good scotch. Its been nominated for 4 Oscars thsi year. This should definitely qualify for your weekend viewing.

There's not too many football (not American football) movies made. Maybe thats because its not that hot in USA where the money comes from NBA and MLB. So we get the usual dose of basketball or american football movies and quite a few of them have been quite good. Remember the Titans, Friday Night Lights, Coach Carter, Rebound etc. So when this football movie (which is the first of a trilogy) was out, I had to definitely watch it (add to the fact that I follow football a lot). Well, all I can say after watching it is that its neither good or bad. Its a DVD movie that you don't mind watching at home. There are some nice skills and tricks but the whole movie is full of cliches. Why would someone fly from the USA to get a trial at Newcastle? Wouldn't he better trying for MLS? You get to see fleeting glimpses of Beckham, Raul, Zidane in addition to the Newcastle squad (of last year) and dear old Sven (English manager). The movie hints at Santiago (the main lead) joining Real Madrid in the next part. Save this one for a rainy day.

The one I liked most was Iqbal. I had been wanting to see this for quite sometime and but was too lazy to watch in the theatre. So finally bought the DVD and watched it. The first of this movie is brilliant with Shreyas Talpade (as Iqbal ) and his sister (Shwetha Prasad) warming your heart with their acting. The story is quite simple. Iqbal is a deaf-mute boy who lives and breathes cricket and has even named his buffaloes Kumble, Harbhajan, Kapil, Balaji and Irfan. But then the cliches start. After he is thrown out of the academy (headed by Girish Karnad) he looks to Naseer (an erstwhile player and village drunk) to hone his bowling skills. Then he gets into the Ranji squad without playing a game and then wins the Ranji trophy. Throw the bribes and ego-tussles with coaches and you have cliches unlimited. But inspite of that Shreyas and Shwetha are like diamonds in the rough and their smiles are infectious. So catch this one if you haven't seen it yet.

On the sitcom side, I have been watching the 3rd season of 24 and after having watched the first four discs, I'm really disappointed. Its nowhere gripping as seasons 1, 2 and 4. Some of the characters are too painful and its drags a lot. I can't seem to download the new episodes of Season 5. Sigh!