Blog: Memories of Movies

Watching film is not an inevitable act. I mean, it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, films have etched a crucial mark in human history. It has become a subject for academicians as well. Overall, films have become more than just a waste of time.

I too enjoy watching films, moreover, alone. During my school days, Hindi films had left an influence on me. Later, I started watching Hollywood. I was taken to Hollywood by my cousin brother Bhups. And gradually, my interest on foreign movies rises along with my reading. Writing about films is another difficult thing for me. But here I have tried to share my personal feeling after watching the given movies at different times.

Aama (2020): It’s a plain story. I watched it on 2077 Magh 16, Friday night. On Martyr’s Day I had watched this. The story is very simple. A dying man was brought to the hospital and he dies there; his daughter performed the funeral rituals. While watching it, I remembered a Hindi movie “Piku.” There was no story there. The simple journey of three man from Delhi to Calcutta in a taxi was the movie. Simply accomplished. Well, some shots in this Nepali movie I found remarkable. One main scene was about a doctor telling the girl about the truth of her dying father’s treatment. The hospital was not really treating the old man, and this message was conveyed to the girl in gallery of the hospital. It was shot in half darkness. How the doctor’s body was shown as the shadow was the best part to see. Picking the phone while in charge, looking at the side mirror of scooter on a rainy night, woman offering the sweets to mother and daughter, emotions on both old man and old woman’s face etc. are some of the remarkable scenes I enjoyed. The subtitle was appreciable. Such a movie I got in YouTube, and I was completely grateful.

Taste of Cherry (1997): Before watching this film, I was unknown about such type of genre of films. I watched it when I had just finished my university and started my job. That was a time period when I was overwhelmed by documentary films. Directed by Abbas Kiarostami, this film is a journey of a middle-aged man who set out to kill himself. He was driving his car and at the same time asking the strangers to help him bury. All of them were scared except an old man who shared his experience of attempting suicide by hanging himself on a cherry tree. Simple facts can change our life. This simple story from that old man saved the main character from getting buried. So simple presentation, and quite natural. After watching this film, I was all trapped into the world of art movies.

Flight (2012): What a great act from Denzil Washington! I made him my favourite actor for a while. The story revolves around an alcoholic pilot. He landed a plane in critical condition saving many lives. However, the problem was that he was under intoxication during the flight. In the first scene of the movie, Whitaker (the pilot) was sleeping with Katrina (a hostess). When in the morning they set for the flight, the pilot was fully out of control. He took two more bottles on the plane during announcement. Quite unfortunately, the plane engine started to dysfunction and they have to land it on a safe area. After great turmoil killing four people, the plane landed. All passengers were injured including the pilot and copilot. When the event was investigated, the vodka bottles were found and it was a great question. Whitaker could free himself by prosecuting the charges to dead hostess, but he chose honesty. He accepted that he had drunk those two bottles. He was sent to the prison. It was one very interesting movie that I have watched during the lockdown.

Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2019): A Turkish drama. A remake of a Korean film with same name. One half-wit guy was arrested and sent to prison to be hanged being prosecuted of murder of an army official’s daughter. In fact, it was not the murder but a harsh coincidence. However, the halfwit guy could not understand what had happened to him. Inside the cell, he acted naturally that the fellow prisoners were stunned. They were filled with compassion to find how much he loved his daughter. Gradually he was liked by most of the fellow prisoners. One tough guy wanted to help him. He brought him his daughter inside the cell. When they came to know that he was innocent, they were determined to free him. One man inside the prison was always silent. He did not speak even when the little girl visited him. He was busy looking at the tree drawn on the wall in a very abstract manner. He was in fact thinking of the tree where he had hanged his daughter. Later he agreed to be hanged instead of that halfwit. He was in jail for murdering his daughter. Now he wanted to confess his crime by accepting halfwit’s place. In this way, halfwit was released to meet his daughter. And the whole story was told by his daughter, when she was grown up. The story line is too touchy. The performance given by the actors is more than you expect. I watched this movie late night with tears in my eyes. I cried so much that I wanted to cry loudly. So loudly that to hell with that man who hanged himself. To hell with the lady teacher who supported the daughter while her father was in the cell. To hell with mother who died seeing her innocent son going to jail. To hell with the soldier who was the only witness. To hell with them all, all, I just wanted to cry out my heart. I wanted to celebrate with my tears.

Qarib Qarib Single (2017): The night I watched this film, next day I heard that Irrfan Khan is dead. That night he was over fifty and yet single. Mostly a poet, he was all centred to himself. The woman who wanted to date him was not sure about their future. However, they met. Irrfan made a trip to visit his ex-lovers. Two of them they visited. While talking about the third one in Guhati, the woman was irritated and she wanted to take a break. She said that she is going to see her ex, and he should go himself. At this point, Irrfan felt a pinch in his heart. He wanted to stop the woman. Now then he realized that the seeking of love should end here. Finally, he stopped her and they mingled. It was his story that night. But at the same time, he was fighting with killer disease in the hospital, and he died the very next day. Who wasn’t sad? Ram Dutta called me and expressed his sympathy. Irrfan died but we watched Maqbool the next night.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019): Tarintino makes me feel good. I have watched most of his films: Django Unchained, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction. I think I will write about them one by one. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the story of two people who worked in Hollywood. One was actor played by Leonardo di Caprio, and another was the stuntman, played by Brad Pitt. They became friends. The movie gets more interesting when they were set to be killed by a group of psychopaths. They both struggled hard to save themselves. The movie has shown the emotions of the actors beyond screen. The reaction of Leo when he forgets the lines was interesting to see. Similarly, a famous actress enjoyed watching herself on the screen. How freely and dangerously people lived off the city using the drugs, was another interesting thing to see. The busy and one-sided life of people working in Hollywood is good to see. It’s creative.

Reservoir Dogs (1992): A hell of a drama. The story is twisted. Acting is outdone. A group of strangers gathered together to loot the diamonds form a bank. They train themselves. During the training, they used the names like Mr. White, Mr. Pink etc. Same idea was adopted in Lacasa da Papel as well. They were ready to make the heist. But the police appeared during the action. Among them one was an undercover cop. The movie is a dialogue between the reservoir dogs to find out the rat. The same film was adopted into Hindi language film as well. The undercover cop was shot and he was saved by Mr. White. Mr. Brown is a tough guy who wanted to play rough. He even cuts an ear of the cop while torturing. The clean performance is shown between the actors. How they speak, even more how they express their pain, anger, aggression, threat, suggestion, happiness etc. is another very interesting part. In the beginning, they were talking in a restaurant. Table full of meals and drink and their conversation full of f-words. Next, they were raiding the bank and many of them were killed in the battle. Remaining of them fled to a safe place. There they shouted what the hell had happened to them. Now they were sure that there was a rat. While they were in that safe house, the flash back was shown: how they met each other, how they took training, and how that cop was introduced. The gang leader was on the way, till then they played rough while waiting. The presence of another cop became an advantage for them. Mr. Brown tortured that cop so much that the fellow cop shot him dead. When other guys came, there was a turmoil of play. The drama, the question, the answers, the witness, the whole damn rat thing. Finally, they came to a scene where everyone had to point a gun to everyone. The old man to the cop, Mr. White to the old man, old man’s son to Mr. White, cop to his son. The hell of a circle. When one was shot, all died. They were all obedient to their job. I held my breath.

Pulp Fiction (1994): It is another good movie by Tarintino. I watched it the second time. When I watched for the second time, I understood it much better. Two men, one black and one white, worked for Mr. Wallace, a rich businessman with beautiful wife. They collect the money from the people and go on killing. There is another boxer, who was kidnapped along with Mr. Wallace. Here, the white one had time to spend with wife of Mr. Wallace. He was in the middle of love and responsibility. The white one was killed during one accident while he was after the boxer. The movie ends with a scene in a restaurant, where a couple were planning a robbery. In the very restaurant, the black and the white were present. Rather than the result of actin, the movie gives attention to the series of acts. John Travolta and his friend had made it look very great. Bruce Willis on the other hand had softened the movie. The life style of rich people is shown with hungry emotions. The drug shots they take is another good thing to watch. I enjoyed listening to the dialogues.

Leon the Professional (1994): This movie will add love to your life. A tough guy looking like an Italian kills other for money. He is a professional, named Leon. A small girl’s family lived next door. They were in drug business. A rated cop was after the family killing them all. Only the girl was saved by Leon. During their stay, the girl learned killing people. They spent the time together. But it was not safe for them since the cops were after them. When the cops found out their place, they were thinking of living happily by quitting the job, now they have enough money. But it was late. The cops surrounded the building and particularly the flat. The last scene was heartbreaking. All the cops after Leon. He was successful to save the girl. He saved himself as well, but was found out by the mad cop. He killed him and died himself, since the bomb was attached in his body. I enjoy the crime movies. But it was a different from other. Very unique love story was included. I came to know that the fire lane is in the centre of the road. It was shown in the casting scene.

No Country for Old Men (2007): This is another crime thriller I had already watched but by the second time I understood it a bit more. Once my friend Pradeep Joshi told me that the actors in the movie threats in such a way that we the people watching outside also gets afraid. I couldn’t get the point but this time while I watch this movie in the night of Sanothimi, 07 Aug, 2021, I felt his sentences. The main killer of the movie was truly a crazy giant. His act was 100% out of our mind. His performance was so very rascal that we could never have such type of feelings. At the same time, we could love that character because after all we are also the murderers in our heart. This film is telling us a story of a killer who was never disclosed by any person in the world. He had become successful in every attempt to kill others. When he didn’t get some person to kill, he would kill a bird and have his heart filled with satisfaction. This is a true psycho.

Dreams (1990): A series of dreams. Ranging from the lyrical to the apocalyptic. Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Most of them are about nature. Related to nature. Worth watching. After reading Nagarkoti’s note on dreams in Shilapatra.com, I decided to watch this movie. In fact, it was available in YouTube and I downloaded it. I too downloaded Nomadland. The Oscar winner movie. Well, watching dreams was really like a dream. I was watching the section The Blizzard. It was about snow-storm. All was white. Once I feel that my room is filled with smoke. The section about Crows was nicer, as Nagarkoti noted. It was a fictional journey that a man did in Van Gogh’s painting. And I loved this man since I read Lust for Life.

14 Peaks (2021): I got this movie from one Agriculture Instructor at our school. He praised for it and told that it should be watched by all students as well. I was wanting. Today as it was a Saturday (18/12/21), I had a chance to gain it. The documentary was based on the project of Nims Purja, a Nepali mountaineer. He had accomplished climbing 14 eight thousanders in six months and six days. The best character of this documentary was Reinhold Messner, the German climber who had climbed all 8000 peaks. It took him sixteen years. he says that it is truly difficult to climb all peaks in one lifetime. Furthermore, he presents his respect to Nims Purja. Well, I liked his personality, his speech, gesture, and body language. His most powerful quote was, “Most of us are forgetting that from the beginning of our life, we are approaching death.” The hell of a quote. Besides, the scaling of Nimsdai along with his team of four, was tremendous, dramatic and melodious. As Messner says, “Climbing is meditation,” I enjoyed the show. It was a good this for us all that it was done by a Nepali brother. Hail!

Gandhi (1982): I watched this film on a Friday. In fact, I have started watching this film the Thursday night but it was longer than three hours so, I continued to watch next day as well after finishing online classes. The schools are closed for two weeks (Poush 27 to Magh 15, 2078) because of Omicron virus affecting our lives. I watched it enjoying the moments. Most of Gandhi’s life has been read but the act was all top. I have to take Google’s help for finding out Daniel-day-Lewis. Overall, that was done the best act. I enjoyed the acts. The story moved smoothly and performance breathtaking. That was kind of master piece. The director’s work was out of rating.

Omkara (2004): Whenever I talk about Omkara, I wanted to talk about the last scene of the film. The main actor killed himself after killing his wife because he came to know that she was innocent. He fell dead on the hanging chair and his wife was under it. The chair dangled for a long time to make the audience realize the flashback. That was the best scene. I almost didn’t enjoy the film but when I see the last scene, I found everything how they died and I liked the film. After watching this film, I completed the trilogy of Bishal Bhardwaj.

Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (2009): This is the movie prescribed in English curriculum of school level. I remember this movie watching in 2015’s night at a friend’s. After dinner, I asked if he had any movie in his laptop and he simply replied there’s a dog’s tale. Well, I got into that. I remember how it was very difficult for me to stop my tears. It was maybe because of alcohol or moreover the story was truly hearty that I totally fell for that. In this film a dog is shown to wait for his master’s arrival at a train station even after nine years of his master’s death. It is cruel and psychological- a dog waiting and waiting. I couldn’t stop my tears. One thing I realized from this movie is about a great lesson from Geeta: keep on working and never wish for outcome. This dog kept on waiting, as the station master says, “Alright Hachi, you do what you have to do.” It gives us a lesson about our duty and responsibility. Kudos to the music and black and white scenes, the dog’s view.