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Matha (2012)
Matha: Terrible Redefined
'Matha' in short is the most shameless piece of Sri Lankan cinema I have seen. It takes a highly sensitive issue that plagued Sri Lanka for more than 30 years, mutilates it into a series of blunt opinionated views and then delivers it to viewers as subtly as sledge hammer blows to the head. The story of 'Matha' starts off with short introductions to childhood incidents of Yoga(Dharshan Dharmaraj) and Parvathi(Yasodha Radhakrishnan); two Tamil kids who survived the 1985 Yal Devi Bombing. There is no real character development beyond that to speak of. But the narrative jumps in a schizophrenic fashion to key events of Sri Lanka's battle against the LTTE up to their final defeat in 2009. In this sense, regardless how controversial it maybe, 'Matha' is more or less a reenactment of key events spanned across two decades of war. But these events are glued together using a frail fictional love story between Yoga and Parvathi. This love story seemed merely a gimmick as it is only used as a backdrop to lambaste the LTTE as monsters and highlight the bravado of the Sri Lankan Forces. If anything this film is true to the type of work expected from Dr Ariyaratne Athugala, the writer of this obnoxious monstrosity. Mind you that he was chairman of Sri Lanka's state TV channel, Rupavahini and present Director General of the Government Information Department. So it's quite understandable that he can't shake his habit of delivering uncontested propaganda. But I expected better from Boodee Keerthisena, the director of 'Matha'. I assumed he can judge a story from a banal and frankly lazy attempt of painting one of the most controversial conflicts of defeating terrorism of the 21st century as a monochrome fairytale. Each scene is so hopelessly obtuse and brash, Dr. Athugala might as well have taken viewers to a presentation and shoved his one dimensional opinions down their throats. Dr Athugala has taken every liberty in the book to paint the LTTE as bogeymen of the worst kind; a fact that any Sri Lankan know by default. Recruiting child soldiers, shooting unarmed civilians, rape of their own LTTE female carders are just outlines of the grand mosaic he tries to create. But he fails so miserably to give context to any of these events making the movie an emotionally dead string of events. To be told in graphic detail what I already know is not what I go to the movies for. Insight into actions of the LTTE, the Tamil civilians or Sri Lankan soldiers are not explored at all beyond the boneheaded 'we are the good guys, they are the bad guys' rhetoric. I've seen more multifaceted story telling Sylvester Stallone's Rambo movies. This film goes into incredible lengths to justify killing terrorists. An example that got stuck in my mind was a Sri Lankan pilot giving a 'thumbs up' after bombing a LTTE camp. Are the viewers supposed to feel good about it Boodee? Didn't the first half of the film try to convince that the LTTE forcefully brainwashed children to fight their cause? So is killing hundreds of mislead children with a supersonic jet OK now? Apart from morally bankrupt scenes like that, 'Matha' also make Sri Lankan soldiers look inhuman with their ever exuberant displays of generosity and selflessness. A battle fought and won by humans being told through cloying clichés is an insult to real human sacrifices made by Sri Lankan Armed Forces in my opinion. As far as dubious achievements go, 'Matha' also make it wickedly difficult to tell if the actors are good or not. Yoga and Parvathi has a feeble grasp of the lead roles, but their characters are barely examined. It is indeed a waste of time to even discuss other characters in the film because they literally exist for the sake of acting out scenes that doesn't amalgamate into a meaningful whole. To the credit of the director, I felt that imagery and camera angles used in the film were creative and fresh. A scene shot in twilight showing mass forceful evacuation of Tamil civilians by the LTTE particularly captured my attention. Even with little screen time the lead actor and actress gave glimpses of having definite talent in acting which would best suit real films and not as props in bigoted glorification of war. The same can be said about the rest of the cast. More established actors like Dharmapriya Dias and Mahendra Perera inject little doses of life to 'Matha' thanks to their acting prowess but that barely helps this wreck of a film. Seeing good actors playing one dimensional cameos is like seeing a lions in a circus. Making majestic kings of the wild jump hoops is exactly what Boodee Keerthisena has done to his talented cast.
Gin-iro no kami no Agito (2006)
Waste of interesting ideas ...
In short, this film was an overall disappointment in many levels. The story contained some very interesting ideas, but they were delivered in a blunt and mediocre fashion. Some of these concepts are clumsily mentioned and ignored for the rest of the film.
At times I got the feeling that this film tries to force its message on me. There were way too many clichéd and predictable moments to make things worse.
The main characters were annoying and shallow. The film doesn't give enough focus to any of the characters but continuously shuffles from one to the other in a disjointed fashion.
The visuals were impressive but that's something very common among many anime films. At times it felt as if some scenes were artificially added for visual value.
Gin-iro no kami no Agito, feels pretty much like an incomplete story board strung together hastily. If you are a fan of this genre, I recommend that you are better off with titles as 'Princess Mononoke', 'Grave of the Fireflies' or 'Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind'.
3 Idiots (2009)
3 Idiots definitely tries to do things differently ... to certain extent successfully!
I generally avoid commercial Hindi films but I watched 3 Idiots because I was told that it does things differently. For the most part, I found that to be true.
Story: While the theme of the story is quite valid it's hard not to notice that it was discussed by a very similar Hindi film starring Aarmir Khan recently (Taare Zameen Par). In both films Aarmir Khan plays a similar stand out role which create a continuous sense of déjà-vu. The main story line of 3 Idiots oscillates between being simple, heart-warming and humorous to outrageous and silly. This makes things pretty awkward. One moment you would be engrossed watching a story of two troubled students being helped by benignant idealist and the next moment the idealist starts acting like Jesus himself with infinite wisdom. The story never hits a good balance. Personally, wise cracking Aarmir Khan's character got under my nerves far too often.
Acting: Acting for the most part was quite solid with the exception Kareena Kapoor. Either all Hindi film directors want her to act the same role in every film or she has been copy/pasted from another film. Most scenes involving her were predictable resulting all attempts at humor to fall flat.
Direction/Editing etc: The film is pretty long which made me feel that editing was not great. There were a few scenes that were quite irrelevant and overdone. But 3 Idiots packed enough comedy and charming sketches to keep me interested until the end. The characters are skewed so much to black/white and right/wrong; the film gave me the sensation that the director wants me to enjoy the film in one particular way. There was very little to think about after watching.
Visuals: Most of the scenery and visual elements used to drive the story along was quite good and well thought out.
All in all, 3 Idiots is enjoyable and there are lot of things to like. It's still aimed at the core Hindi film fans but it's accessible enough for others too.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
Chances are that you have already seen this standard action/adventure film.
If you have seen enough Hollywood blockbusters then you have already seen this movie. Its full of the same old punch lines, comic relief characters, clichéd moments etc. If you are up for something like that, Prince of Persia isn't particularly a bad choice. The visuals are decent, acting is above average and the film manages to deliver a story in a watchable fashion.
For people like me who have already played the game and know the back story of the prince, this movie is nothing but a massive disappointment. The Prince in the games was such a unique and flawed character. These flaws and how the Prince overcomes them was the reason for the success of the game.
In short I felt that anyone could have taken any action video game and pump it through this formula for the same result. Its not particularly a bad result but nothing special either.