Coconut Cruncher

Tonight after a weeks of slogging, I made some time off to watch a documentary I’d been meaning to watch since I first saw the trailer. The film ‘An Insignificant Man’ has been released on ‘Vice’ – a film directed by two young independent film makers – Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla. The film was largely crowdfunded, and was shot during the period of 2012 - 2015. The film covers the establishment of the AAP right until its massive victory in the 2014 Delhi Elections. 
 
 
 The thing I liked the most about the film is how neutral it is in its political stand, how it focuses on Kejriwal’s journey, and provokes discussion on idealism VS politics. In India we are always surrounded by politics, but one doesn’t get to see it first hand in its entirety and truth. It is always seen through the lens of the media – which comes from mostly unreliable and biased sources. It was amazing to be able to see it presented as what it was. During the course of the film I learnt the many iss...

7th Dec 2017 I have been thinking of making video essays for a while now, but hadn’t thought of it through fully because of work. Today I found out that ‘Every Frame a Painting’, one of my favourite channels on youtube that does video essays on Cinema - is officially dead. It was extremely saddening to hear that they have decided that this was the end for them, and that they had to move on to other endeavours. EFAP taught me a lot about film, about art, and about making video essays as well. Their article covers their journey so far, along with their learnings, challenges and rewards. I thought to myself - if they couldn’t do it, who can? But I’m so glad that something so great has been put out there that will be available to anyone anywhere - forever. I wish them good fortune and all the best the world has to offer, and a big thank-you for all the learning and inspiration. :) You can read their overwhelming article here > https://medium.com/@tonyszhou/postmortem-1b338...

27th July 2017 When I saw the trailer for Circle something like a year ago, it seemed pretty interesting, something similar on the lines of Black Mirror. As the film progressed I only noticed how bad the writing, direction and acting was (despite the renowned cast). There was an obvious, in your face message of the dangers of a world surrounded by surveillance and a lack of ‘privacy’ in a futuristic digital world. The main character Mae’s decisions are so contradictory to her established personality, she feels very superficial and unrelatable. Her actions seem to be without motive or any prior driving force.   The very apparent difference between a series like Black Mirror and a film like Circle, is that the former allows room for question of ethics and basic human rights. It provokes deep thought and discussion. I guess they intended to present a larger-than-life social commentary on the ‘dangers of technology’ but instead leave you absolutely disappointed with...

23rd Jan 2016 I watched La La Land today.  I’m not really one for musicals, but the story completely overpowered the ‘genre’ of the film. The trailer didn’t excite me much, but I was curious to know why it won SO many Golden Globes, and besides – it was directed and written by Damien Chazelle, the same man who made ‘Whiplash’; another film I was awed by.  I still have first-screening frenzy, but I’ll try to look at this as clearly as I can. This was not just a musical. It is an honest and heartfelt film about dreamers; a subject which is very relatable to us all. Emma and Ryan are so cute and charismatic, and it’s lovely to see how their ambitions unfold and how one makes the other push forward and become someone more. I don’t think it’s a love story, but a story about the honesty and drive with which the characters dream. However you do root for the two of them, and the love story is beautiful to watch at parallel. I was left speechless choked up by the end....

Hey guys! Some quick TV and Film Reviews of this week: Arrival, Moana, Westworld Arrival I went into this movie blind. Akshay was super excited for it since he was anticipating it for a long time, and I was advised to go without watching any trailers! I was pleasantly surprised to watch such a kickass film. The direction is so good, so subtle and smooth. I watched this last week and since then have been trying to figure what the story of the film is – I’m still not sure, but I like how it showed the concept of time in such a beautiful unconventional way. Most films involving time definitely have some loopholes – it is indeed a difficult subject to tackle in film; but Arrival conveys it smoothly with the help of SciFi devices fitting well in the world of the film. I especially loved the colour key of and pace of the film. It made it look so simple, effortless and void of distraction. Amy Adams as always was brilliant, and all the supporting cast did great too. The writing I im...

21 Nov 2016 I loved Before the Flood​. It definitely focused most Coal Consumption, but I thought it could still be much more holistic covering all major sources of global warming. It seemed a bit biased, and gave little or no emphasis on other major causes of climate change like cattle consumption. I just came across Nat Geo's first episode of Years of Living Dangerously​. It covers the US energy situation where the powerful and corrupt utility monopolies are making it impossible for their solar to succeed. On the other hand, David Letterman covers India's energy consumption as an emerging economic power, and the decisions India has taken to switch to cleaner energy. The US situation got me so depressed, just like I felt with Before the Flood, but India's situation only felt positive. I was so relieved to see that we're actually taking steps and have energy goals to accomplish by only 2019! I always thought we were backward, and hated India's government for b...

17th Sept 2016 So I watched Battle Royale recently, and finally understood why it's compared to The Hunger Games so very often. Battle Royale (2000) is a Japanese film where a class of 9th grade kids fight till the death on an island in a 'game' invented by adults. I absolutely loved the film, as gruesome as it was. I felt the overall theme of the film was friendship and trust, and how these two variables change depending on different individuals and the situation they are faced with. Each character, (as long or less as they appear on screen) has a clearly defined personality and a justification for it. It's interesting to see how the game forces each one of them to change. Some of the situations have so much irony. (SPOILER AHEAD) For example when the girl who poisons Nanahara's food accidently kills another girl, all the girls who seconds ago trusted each other turn on each other and die on by one - but the girl who started the whole affair gets ou...

The Witch is directed by Robert Eggars. It's his directorial debut. It's based on true recollections of people who have witnessed witchcraft and evil spirits in old England. The film is about a puritan Christian family that encounters forces of evil and witchcraft in the foods near their farm. The story picks up when their baby suddenly disappears, and their daughter Thomasin is blamed for it. It evolves to discover a witch in the woods, who reappears later in the storyline. The characters all turn on each other at various points, and you see them all going through a steady mental and physical decline. Different elements are used to symbolize dark forces surrounding the family, like the rustle of leaves, the goat giving blood instead of milk, the male goat with the horns, and the rabbit who misses a bullet in the beginning. Initially the film was a bit slow to me, but the metaphors and acting really held it together. The palette is dull and desaturated, and t...