Sufiyum Sujathayam (Malayalam)

 MoView:  Sufiyum Sujathayam (Malayalam)  BAGEO Rating: A(verage)

Year

2020

Rating

PG-13

Genre

Drama

Language

Malayalam

Runtime

2 hrs

Story	Shanavas Naranipuzha
Screenplay/Script	Shanavas Naranipuzha
Cinematography	Anu Moothedath
Key Actors	Aditi Rao Hydari, Dev Mohan, Jayasurya
Direction	Shanavas Naranipuzha
Producers	Vijay Babu, Vinay Babu

Summary: A romantic love story of a Hindu girl who is dumb and a Muslim young man of Sufi tradition in a remote village setting.  The story is unique and very touching and the actors have done a good job in their roles.   There are some enjoyable Sufi style dance and song scenes. The cinematography including the picturization, camera angles, lighting etc. are good with nice & enjoyable scenes to watch. The movie has tried to show a typical village setting with a river flowing by, daily prayers in a mosque, the typical malayali home (tharavadu) of the girl etc.  

I feel the screenplay (script, dialogues etc.) have no depth in them.  The story starts as a flashback of the girl visiting her village from abroad on hearing the death of the Sufi boy and rest of the story is a flashback.   However, the story does not move much till half time of the movie and then it seems to jump into different situations quickly.   The climax and resolution of the story itself changes towards the end with a tension build up on the loss of passports of the characters. 

I think the movie story was an good platform to show the similarities, strength and connection of the two communities (faiths),  win of love over religious bigotry etc.  and end it in a pleasant way, instead of dragging the situation and abruptly ending it with a totally unexpected climax.

Other interesting points: As per IMDB  this is the first Malayalam movie to be released directly in a virtual platform (Amazon Prime) instead of theathers.  This may be due to the Corona Virus pandemic situation in the country. 

Overall: A time-pass movie to watch.

BAGEO Rating: A(verage)

Shakuntala Devi (Hindi)

 MoViews:   Shakuntala Devi  BAGEO Rating: A(verage)

Year

2020

Rating

PG-13

Genre

Drama

Language

Hindi

Runtime

2 hr 7m

Story	Anu Menon (a true story dramatised)
Screenplay/Script	Kunal Mehta
Cinematography	Keiko Nakahara
Key Actors	Vidya Balan
Direction	Anu Menon
Producers	Sony Pictures Vikram Malhotra

Summary: A true story of the famous mathematical genius Shakuntala Devi who was widely respected for her mathematical and astrological abilities.  THe movie is shown from the point of view of her real life daughter Anupama Mukherjee (acted by Sanya Malhotra) who had many arguments and disagreements with her mother in the way she was brought up and even living separately with no contacts.  The movie shows the struggles and challenges Shakuntala as a mother and at the same time focusing on her passion of numbers.  However towards the end of Shakuntala Devi's life, the daughter-mother due  patch up and understand each other's compulsions and situations. 

It shows many inspirational moments of the genius though  - like participating in many number competitions in many famous universities in US, Europe and other places.  It has a few catchy dialogues too - like an incident where Shakuntala is asked if age has impacted her abilities and she replies  'age is just a number and all numbers like her'.  The director has used technology  to show the number calculations in the screen for the viewers to know better.

Though a biographical movie , the movie is a dramatized version in a typical Hindi movie format with songs that are not catchy or melodious.  The main drawback on the movie for me is the frequent changes in the timeline and related incidents.  There seems to be no clear flow of the storyline and many times the script seems to be jumping from one incident to another drastically.  Also, the movie moves back and forth in periods which I think could be very confusing to the viewers. 

Overall, I think the camera and cinematography including the visual elements, lighting, framing and some great picturesque scenes of UK are the only good part of the movie. The acting of the key actors, especially Vidya Balan as Shakunthala Devi is good, but I felt in many scenes her make up, dialogues etc. are too dramatic and not natural. 

I am compelled to compare with the movie 'The man who knows Infinity'  which is true story about another great Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.  This 2015 movie directed by Matt Brown and starring Dev Patel as Ramanujan got rave reviews and was successful in the box office as it depicted the struggles and virtues of the mathematician in a realistic limelight.  I think the current movie on Shakuntala Devi had the same potential in terms of story line and climax, but the director did not bring it up to a professional level of a realistic movie.

Other interesting points: Except for the scenes in UK, nothing much was special or interesting. 

Overall: A time-pass movie to watch - especially for kids to know who this genius was.  No other value add from this movie.

BAGEO Rating: A(verage)

The Circle (2017, PG-13)

MoViews:   The Circle   BAGEO Rating: G(ood)

Year

2017

Rating

PG-13

Genre

Drama

Language

English

Runtime

1hr 49m

Story	Based on book 'The Circle' by Dave Eggers
Screenplay/Screen Writer	James Ponsoldt
Cinematography	Matthew Libatique
Key Actors	Tom Hanks, Emma Watson
Direction	James Ponsoldt
Producers	Gary Goetzman, Anthony Begman, James Ponsoldt

Summary:  An interesting story on the pros and cons of non-privacy in today's social media led world, based on the book of the same name by Dave Eggers.     The protagonist, acted wonderfully well by Emma Watson as May Holland gets involved in a commercial project from her company  'The Circle'.  The goal is to be transparent all her time to the rest of the social world. Her organization brings this as a commercial product with their small wireless cameras that can be placed everywhere and communicated through the satellite.  May takes it as a challenge, but soon realizes the nuisance and dangers it brings when her own family and her close office friend moves away from her circle. To make matters worse,  her dear friend dies in an accident when the cameras keep following him after May initiated a search for him with her new program .  However after a  break she decides to use the  transparency factor in a better way for the society, when she turns the tables around and starts focusing it onto the company operations and its CEO (Tom Hanks) and COO (Patton Oswalt) by publicly publishing their emails.   The movie directors stops there and leaves the question of 'what next?' to the imagination of the viewers.  I think there are many questions left unanswered and to think through at the end of this movie.

Interesting story, but screen play is confusing with rapid change in scenes.   Also, I feel there is no continuity on development of the key role (of Emma Watson), how she was suddenly pushed to limelight etc.   They show how the company got to know the disease of May's dad (MS) and one would think they help in finding a curable solution to it, but it does not happen that way.  Don't know how the book with the same name by Dave Eggers fared in the market.

Camera focus and lighting is all perfect and normal. Absolutely no violence, fights, vulgar scenes or wordings, so wonder why it is PG-13. It could be a G rating.

Other interesting points: Got to know that the location for the movie is not headquarters of Google or Apple in CA as shown, but a combination of many locations and even some stage set up!.  It looks like an exact high end tech company.  Excellent work from Matthew Libatique who is the Cinematographer.

Overall: Very relevant story and messages for today's social networked world, but overall I think is  just an average movie to watch and not a must watch movie.  Could have added some more depth to the storyline with a proper ending.

BAGEO Rating: G(ood)

SELMA (PG-13)

MoViews: SELMA (PG-13)         Year: 2014             Genres:  Drama                     Language: English           Runtime: 2 hours 8 mins.

Overall BAGEO Rating:  E

Direction:  Ava DuVerney  ;   Cinematography: Bradford Young

Written By:  Paul Webb

Production: Paramount Pictures

Producers:  Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt among others.

Key Actors: 

• David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr.
• Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B Johnson
• Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King

Summary:   A wonderful movie based on the true incident in 1965 of the Selma march by Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK)  to secure basic voting rights for blacks from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama that resulted in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed by the then President Lyndon Johnson.  The movie starts with Martin Luther King (MLK) receiving the Nobel Peace Prize of 1964 and very nicely portrays the involvement of MLK for the Selma march of 1965 and how he was mentally torn with the situation and threat of violence.  Ultimately, he does succeed in getting the President Lyndon Johnson to sign an order to register the voting rights of all people including blacks. 

The movie shows some wonderful speeches of MLK and  many motivating quotes  from all the key characters including MLK, LBJ and other protestors.  The one that impressed me is when MLK declares to his people that  " I am here for what GOD wants" in his talk to the group of men who are with him in the protest.

Other interesting points: The movie Selma was screened for free at the Selma Walton Theater in Selma, Alabama (from iMDB)

Though the film is American, the key actors are all British. (iMDB)

Overall:  A very good movie to watch and learn the actual incidents from history - especially for teenage kids.    BAGEO Rating: Excellent.

Outsourced (2006)

MoViews:     Oursourced   Genres:  Comedy       Language:  English           Rating: PG-13 
Runtime: 1Hr 45Mins

BAGEO Rating:  E(xcellent)

Direction:    John Jeffcoat

Cinematography: Teodoro Maniaci

Key Actors: Josh Hamilton (as Todd Anderson), Ayesha Dharker (Asha), Asif Basra (Purohit)

Summary:   An enjoyable movie about a company that outsourced its call center to India and how its manager (Todd Anderson) sent for managing the India operations, gets used to life there. In the end, he learns to respect the traditions and culture in India and gets a lover girlfriend in bargain!  Shows some realistic and funny situations in the rural location outside of Mumbai (Bombay) where they have the operations, such as adjusting to the Indian style toilet,  renovating the office  building which never seems to be getting done,  floods inside the office,  managing taxi 'wallahs' (drivers) etc.  Has some poignant scenes where left over plate of food is passed over the wall to the other side for poor  'dhobis' (clothes washermen) and how they show their culture of magnanimity and altruism,  inspite of their meagre earnings and extremely low standard of living, by inviting Todd for lunch with their family, though they could not talk one word in English.  Of course no western movie about India goes without referring to the sex encyclopedia of India - the  Kama Sutra, which is lavishly referred here. There is also a good explanation of the significance of Shiva Lingam from a philosophical view point.  Ironically, the movie also ends showing the typical capitalist outlook of the organization, when the company moves its call center from India to China and Todd is enticed to move there, which he refuses.  A wonderful movie to watch.

Other interesting points: Movie shows how the new gen youngsters get adjusted to IT call center life, adopting artificial western names and learning to pronounce in the American way!

Overall:  Good for Story, Screenplay. Excellent for Cinematography, Direction                     

Danny Collins (R; 2015)

MoViews:   Danny Collings     Genre: Drama       Rating:  R                  Runtime: 1hr 46 mins

Overall BAGEO Rating:  A

Direction:  Dan Fogelman 

Cinematography: D

Screen Play:  Dan Fogelman

Key Actors: Al Pacino, Annette Bening, Bobby  Canavale

Summary:   A made up story of a musician (Danny Collins) who was very addicted to the life of tours, alcohol, drugs and women and has lots of money, but gets  enlightenment to come back to ethical life after reading a letter written to him by Beatles John Lennon about 30 years earlier.  Whether he really turns around is a question even at the end of the movie for me.  The story is supposed to be inspired from a real life incident of another not well known British singer (Steve Tilston), who received a letter of John Lennon very late in his musical career.  In this movie, that's the only true incident - rest of the movie story are all made up.  The story line goes slow and as expected but it I felt it kind of ends unexpectedly. The rest of the story is to be assumed by the viewer based on the suggestions from Danny to his son.  Al Pacino acts  as the musician Danny Collins in his remarkable usual way.  His son acted by Bobby Canavale also does well.   The movie gets good ratings from me on the nice background music scores and the screen play/direction.  However with many drug/alcohol scenes, a couple of full (front!) nudity and abundant expletives in the dialogues, it is only for matured adults and not for kids & children.

Other interesting points: During the end credits, a clip of a Steve Tilston (the inspiration for Danny Collins) interview and a couple of newspaper headlines (that describe Tilston's finding of the John Lennon letter) are shown.

Overall:   Average for Screen Play, Story. Good for direction, musical scores, acting            

BAGEO Rating:  Average - may be good if too generous.

Unbroken (PG-13; 2014)

MoViews:  UnBroken          Genres:   Drama          Rating:  PG-13           Runtime: 2 hrs 13 mins

Overall BAGEO Rating: E

Direction:  Angelina Joile   ;   Cinematography:

Screen Play:  Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Richard Lagravanese, William Nicholson   Production Designer: Jon Hutman

Key Actors: Jack O'Connell

Summary:  

An amazing movie based on the real life story of Louis Zamperini who was a potential Olympic runner for the USA, but was destined to participate in a rescue mission during the war against Japanese.  The rescue mission went wrong and he along with two of his colleagues were trapped in a raft in the middle of Pacific Ocean for 47 days.  To make matters worse, he and another man Phil (the third soldier died in the ocean) were captured by Japanese soldiers and forced thro a horrible torture in different prison camps. Zamperini survives all the torture against all odds and returns back to the US and to his family.   It is said (and not in the movie though) that after a few years of recovery from the trauma, Louis becomes a spiritual man and goes back to Japan to his war camps and forgives all the Japanese soldiers who tortured him.   He was supposed to have participated in the Tokyo Olympics which was cancelled , so  he had the honor of running with the torch in Japan in 1998.

The movie is based on the book 'Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption'  by Laura Hillenbrand and directed by the celebrated movie star Angelina Jolie.

Amazing bombing scenes from fighter jet at the beginning.   Fills the screen with sound effects and realistic scenes.    Many  motivating lines in the script including  "Go on living the best you can.  Try to have some fun along the way", ""If you take it, you can make it"".    For me, the scenes in the ocean resembled the Life of Pi movie, but the story takes a drastic turn when they were captured by Japanese.    Ferocious scenes of sudden attacks from sharks.  A very tragic situation of one of their man (Mac) dying and his body respectfully lowered into the ocean.   After sometime even the viewer may start wondering when their difficulty ends when they are caught by Japanese and cruelly tortured (abused?) and even separated. A lot of cruelty in the war camps - can't believe it.    The movie sets for the war scenes are very realistic and elaborate.  Can't believe Japanese were so cruel in their treatment of prisoners.  Amazing scene of all prisoners bathing in the river   An unbelievable true story of survival, resilience and redemption indeed, as the title of the movie says.  In one of the most anguishing scenes, a malnourished and tired Louis Zamperini is ordered by his Japanese commander to lift a huge log of wood as punishment.

Got to know the movie was filmed mostly in the Gold Coast of Australia.  Not in the movie, but it is said that Louis became was suffering from trauma after the return (understandably) and became an alcoholi, but at the insistence of his wife,  started attending the sermons of Billy Graham and became a born-again Christian.  He then went back to Japan after his recovery from the trauma and met his former Japanese soldiers who tortured him and forgave them for their acts.

Other interesting points:

Overall:   An excellent movie based on a true story.  Difficult to watch for kids.                        BAGEO Rating:  E