Elysium (2013)

Director     : Neill Blomkamp
Screenplay : Neill Blomkamp
Running Time : 109 minutes
Cast : Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, William Fichtner.
Budget : $115 Million

“Diseased, overpopulated, ruined”.

Welcome to Earth - 2154, the opening scene of Elysium, Neill Blomkamp's latest science-fiction thriller. Elysium is a man-made utopia orbiting around Earth, 'created by the super rich to preserve their way of life', according to the movie. The citizens of Elysium live in bliss, completely ignorant of the happenings on Earth, which has degenerated to a state of Malthusian disarray.

The movie lets you explore an interesting world with lots of thrilling action pieces. The design and technology of everything in Elysium  manages to balance between reality and futuristic cool stuff. The director has incorporated some stunning special effects that go along with the tone of the movie. The cinematography was simply superb and we appreciate the attention to detail in many aspects of the surrealistic world.

The protagonist Matt Damon plays a disgruntled citizen of Earth, Max, who has been obsessed with the idea of reaching Elysium since childhood. However, faced with the harsh reality that getting to Elysium (or rather, getting citizenship of Elysium) is next to impossible, he indulges in crime and later tries to reform himself. Forced into a life-or-death situation and into a perilous condition, he realizes he has a far higher purpose to fulfill than simply bringing his own desires to fruition.


Jodie Foster superbly plays the part of Delacourt, the ruthless, steely, corrupt, and power-hungry Secretary of Defense of Elysium(watch out for her accent!). This is in stark contrast to her role in Silence of the Lambs, where she is docile and at mercy to the whims of Hannibal Lecter. It is a tribute to her acting that she is able to pull off both roles with ease. The awesome William Fichtner (The Dark Knight, Alex Mahone of Prison Break) convincingly takes the role of her emotionless and equally ruthless co-conspirator.

The engaging Sharlto Copley (District 9, Murdock  of The A Team) also deserves mention for pulling off a villainous role with ease , acting as Kruger an earth-based agent of Elysium.

Society is split into the “haves” and the “have-nots”, and self-preservation takes precedence over any sense of civic sensibility. Each of the main characters is corrupt in one way or another, including the protagonist, providing a refreshing break from the archetypal heroes we’ve been exposed to recently in cinema halls. Matt Damon’s slow progression from a man interested only in keeping his own life to one who is ready to sacrifice it, makes the plot line almost a “reverse tragedy”, so to speak. After watching the movie, we felt that Alice Braga was not the only thing common between this movie and  Will Smith’s I am Legend.

Several things set this sci-fi apart. For one thing, the movie seems to be a political commentary on the world today. Delacourt seems uncannily like Angela Merkel: both are “iron ladies” chiefly interested in preserving their own state's way of life and prosperity. Los Angeles has become a ghetto where Spanish and English are interchangeably spoken. Latinos and Africans trying to overthrow the whites and gain control. Yes, we get the point Mr.Neill!

Bizarre observations :
For a movie set 100 years in the future, the Earth computers were ancient and basic - Running on DOS!
Also, the president of Elysium is an Indian(funnily named Patel).

Ultimately, the movie presents provokes thought about questions that are relevant in today’s time. Can altruism be justified in a world running out of resources? If protecting your own way of life involves killing others, is it right to do so?

Well, if you are one of those who just wants some good action and killer acting with your popcorn and coke, this movie does just fine.

Rating : 7/10

This One Glides Sublimely Over the Chicane

Director: Ron Howard
Screenplay: Peter Morgan

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Brühl, Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, Pierfrancesco Favino

Music: Hans Zimmer
Running time: 122 minutes

1976. It was an age before strict safety standards, press room decorum and radio transmissions with the team. It was the era of the monstrous V-12 engines, uncountable overtakes, flimsy unstable cars, a Ferrari pit crew in striking yellow, and a nightlife that would make Hugh Hefner jealous. It was also the year that will go down as the most exhilarating, the most unpredictable and the most dramatic of all Formula One seasons, thanks to the legendary rivalry between Brit James Hunt and the Austrian Niki Lauda. And Ron Howard’s makes it all come alive in the sleek, finely crafted sports drama Rush.

Without spilling too much beans, the 1976 F1 season is ingrained in popular motorsport folklore for the bitter, fierce and tumultuous feud between Hunt and Lauda – both on and off the track; and it also saw one of the most amazing comebacks in the history of competitive sports. Going into the German Grand Prix at the then notorious Nürburgring circuit, Lauda, driving a Ferrari, had had a clear advantage over Hunt, who had been having a disastrous season up till then courtesy a very unreliable McLaren. Driving in precarious weather, in a race that would later go on to define his career, Lauda crashed his car and suffered burns that threatened to end his racing career, if not his life. His absence from the track helped Hunt gain in on invaluable points and bridge the gap in the Championship Standings. About a month later, however, against the advice of all his doctors, the phoenix of Lauda – quite literally – rose from the ashes to compete in the last four races of the season amidst universal shock and admiration and tremendous amount of pain.

But what makes this rivalry one for the ages isn’t just the battles in their respective cars, but the polar opposite personalities of the two men. Hunt – British wit notwithstanding – was the quintessential F1 playboy, living each day as if it were his last, with a hedonic lifestyle involving a lot of women (including a short-lived marriage), drugs and alcohol, and always drove an aggressive passionate and often reckless race. Lauda on the other hand was a level-headed tactician, an Alain Prost of that age.

And does Ron Howard capture all this in a movie spanning less than two hours? Bloody hell, he does!

After mediocre outings like The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, Howard shows the skill seen in earlier films such as Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man. The race sequences are adrenaline-filled, edge-of-the-seat affairs and yet keep you invested in the characters in a way no no-brainer action flick can do. You get more than a glimpse into the steely, stolid mind as the face disappears behind the visor as the drivers put on their helmets. Never once getting histrionic, there is enough drama to differentiate it from an insipid made-for-TV biopic, and I for one was engrossed as if it were all a real race being played out live before me. More importantly, the film manages to capture the evanescent nature of the whole sport; how it’s all so uncertain; how so much of it depends on luck. 

Peter Morgan (of The Queen, The Last King of Scotland and Frost/Nixon fame) crafts a screenplay that is engaging and well-paced, and never once does the movie seem prosaic or uninspired. The Hans Zimmer score, unsurprisingly, does not disappoint. The two leads cap off fine performances, with Chris Hemsworth stepping out of the pretty hammer wielding god image and effortlessly becoming the roguish, witty and likeable – and sometimes disturbed – Hunt, complete with a surprisingly good British accent (Hemsworth is Australian) and a mischievous twinkle in the eye to go along. The German actor Daniel Brühl (you might remember him as the German war-hero turned film star Frederik Zoller from Inglourious Basterds) is perfect foil as Lauda, with the characteristic level-headed obstinacy and no-nonsense speech that epitomizes the Austrian driver. The most memorable moments of the film are those where both actors share the screen and exchange nasty pleasantries.

Lauda (angrily, after their first race against each in Formula 3): Hey, what’s your name?
Hunt: It’s James Hunt. It rhymes with c***. And that’s what you are.

As a movie on Formula 1, Rush gets almost as good as the sublime Asif Kapadia documentary Senna. The vintage cars, the driver’s eye view of race sequences as the cars whiz past chicanes, and the glimpses into the lives of two antitheses of racers – both united in their drive to win, are all welded masterfully to present a smasher of a film. All in all, Rush is a well-made biographical action-drama, which ranks with The Damned United and even Chariots of Fire as far as sport dramas go, which never gets cloy or pretentious (like Remember the Titans), rusty, dry or brainless, and has more than enough poignancy, soul and mind, amalgamated with the right amount dry humour, to stay with you for quite some time.

Rush is worth every rupee and even more.

Rating: 8.5/10

PS. If any of you snicker at Niki Lauda's surname (as did many in the theater I went to), I curse that your mind doesn't mature beyond where it is right now.

Get Off The Express And Hit This Cafe Baby

Director: Shoojit Sircar
Writers: Somnath Dey, Shubendu Bhattacharya, Juhi Chaturvedi(dialogues)
Cinematography: Kamaljeet Negi
Editing: Chandrashekhar Prajapati

Starring: John Abraham, Prakash Belawadi, Nargis Fakhri, Rashi Khanna, Siddharth Basu 

Music: Shantanu Moitra

Running time: 130 minutes

Budget: INR 35 crore
Revenues: Hopefully more than Chennai Express


Let it be known up front that I give this movie a rating of 5/5. This, simply put, is world class film-making.

Shoojit Sircar's Madras Cafe is a political espionage thriller set against the backdrop of the Sri Lankan Civil War. It opens with an almost unrecognizable John Abraham, lumbering his way to Church, to confess that he could have prevented the assassination of India's Ex-PM (modelled on Rajiv Gandhi). Narrated by him, the film's first half does a fantastic job of getting the audience familiar with the two warring parties, the Tamil guerilla forces of the LTF, headed by Anna (Ajay Rathnam) and the Sri Lankan government/army comprising the Sinhalese people. Central to the story is India's role in trying to ensure a peaceful end to the strife, in the form of political elections. We find out how Major Vikram Singh (John Abraham) was appointed by the Indian intelligence agency R&AW to head its covert operations in Jaffna (a small island to the north of SriLanka, and the base of the LTF).

Vikram's meeting with his superior, the alcohol guzzling Bala (Kannada actor and director, Prakash Belawadi in a superb supporting act), is where the film turns it on, with Vikram being forced to take shots in the dark, unable to tell who's on his side and who isn't. R&AW, in its attempt to ensure an election, tries multiple strategies to dethrone the idealistic Anna, who rejects the idea of an election, believing that the army would swiftly eliminate his Tamil people, once the Indian authorities pull out. Parallel to this strife, Vikram's meetings* with British Journalist Jaya (a thankfully, solely English-speaking Nargis Fakhri) lead them to a massive conspiracy being hatched by international players and the LTF, complete with traitors cutting backroom deals at Madras Cafe, encrypted messages, and large sums of money to seal the deal.

While the first half focuses on the Sri Lankan civil war, the second half is all about the plot to assassinate the Ex-PM. Although you already know that this story does not have a happy ending, the unnerving pace with which the events unfold grips you till the very end. Saying anything more about the second half would probably ruin some of the magic for you. In the end, the film makes it clear that there are no winners in war, just innocent civilians caught in crossfire.

The cinematic beauty and tenderness with which the scenes depicting war and bloodshed are shot is reminiscent of Blood Diamond. There are absolutely no extra scenes in the entire movie.** It simply moves from one brilliant sequence to the next. Hats off to the phenomenal editing and cinematography for giving us 130 minutes of sheer brilliant story telling and visuals.

The actors all do a fine job, with John Abraham displaying remarkable depth in this role. A few of us noted a subtle South Indian touch to his accent, and kudos to him if it was intentional. Nargis Fakhri, slips into her small yet important role of a determined, wartime journalist (her minimalistic look accentuates her beauty). The unconventional casting of Siddharth Basu (more famous for his TV Quiz shows like KBC) as R&AW chief Robin Dutt works really well. So does Rashi Khanna as Vikram's wife Ruby, as she battles with her fears for her husband's safety.

So, stop wasting time and go catch this ASAP in a theatre near you. The teasers before the movie (Zanjeer and Boss) and during the intermission (Phata Poster Nikla Hero) will go on to reinforce just how amazing and different a film Madras Cafe is.


* Big shout out to the writers for resisting the temptation to let two of the most gorgeous people on the planet engage in a hot and intense one night stand, as they keep the relationship between Vikram and Jaya strictly professional and friendly.

**While some believe the 'blink-and-you-miss-it' love scene between Vikram and Ruby was unnecessary, I thought that it was the most likely thing that would have happened in a similar situation in a normal household. Also, can you blame innocent Ruby for wanting some action, when she rarely ever gets her hunk to herself?

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Jabtej Singh, Pavan Malhotra, Sonam Kapoor, Divya Dutta

Music: Shankar Ehsaan Loy

Running time: 195 minutes

Rakeysh Mehra reclaims his place behind the camera for the much awaited “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag”. The movie recounts the life of champion Olympic runner Milkha Singh and the events leading up to his final race at a friendly Indo-Pak athletic event while also throwing some light on the Indo-Pak split which was the cause of Milkha’s traumatic childhood . The first thing that stood out about this movie was of course the length. But strangely enough, the 3 and a half hour film did not really feel long until the last 30 minutes or so. The chapters were pacey and just as long as they needed to be. The movie followed a pretty standard storyline with Milkha’s tale being discussed by his coach on a train journey. This would have been pretty bland if not for Mehra’s beautiful visual narrative.

Rakeysh Mehra brought the story to life with the use of warm and atmospheric colour (and a very unexpected cameo). Milkha’s troubled childhood was bathed in a dull, melancholic haze while his days as a lovelorn teenage troublemaker were full of colour. Mehra brought back the ‘Rang de Basanti’ vibe with some attractive black-and-white transitions during the story of the death of his parents. This was coupled with some innovative shots including a sped up tracking shot of the 200m circuit. He summarized Milkha’s victories in a stylish sequence of parallel shots in slow motion; and boy does he LOVE slow-mo. The film was riddled with innumerable slow motion shots and few too many songs (for a ROM flick) which probably gave the film its extra hour. The jolly Punjabi vibe was welcome.

Desi me rollin'

Farhan Akhtar hit the sets after a year of training with a vein popping chiseled body and a commendable performance. Following some very average acting in his previous movies, Farhan showed us a different side to his abilities with some intense bathroom mirror moments and insane running on the track. But he was defeated by the brilliant performances of Jabtej Singh as young Milkha and Divya Dutta as his elder sister. Sonam Kapoor reprised her Delhi 6 role as the ‘chulbuli’ village girl and makes a quick exit (just the way I like it). Pawan Malhotra was charming but Yograj Singh was very disappointing as Milkha’s Olympic coach. Prakash Raj had minimal screen time and a character that did nothing but lighten the mood with an exaggerated Southey accent while speaking Hindi. 

The storyline was quite straightforward and had some very touching moments and well-timed comic relief. The Farhan-Sonam love story was short and bittersweet which really pleased me. However the key message of the film failed to come through. The film intended to focus on how Milkha’s success was a result of his determination, perseverance and hard work but the idea fell apart. In a nutshell, Milkha lost a race because he had an affair with an Australian girl (The gorgeous Rebbecca Breeds) and won all the subsequent races because he said no to the Indian swimming champion. Parts of the movie describe Milkha’s gruelling training and his resolve, but him pulling a tire around a desert till he collapsed from exhaustion was not very provocative. Additionally, the Indian coach telling the Pakistani coach to F*** off after Milkha’s victory was in very poor taste, even if it was muted. Despite these shortcomings, Milkha’s story invited a lot of applause and left us swelling with patriotism as we exited the theatre.

When the screen went blank, I was left with a pleasant warm feeling which faded away as I got into the car. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag gave people a cause to celebrate one of the country’s most respected athletes and is a good candidate for the Independence Day special on Zee TV but did not leave a lasting impression. 

3/5

Quotes: 

Pakistani coach Javed: "Milkha, Yeh tumhare zindagi ki Aakhri daud ho sakta hai"

Milkha Singh: "Aur daudunga vaise hi"