The Dark Knight Trilogy

 

The Dark Knight Trilogy

            Ufffff!!! The series I wanted to review the most. And will be tough not to make it a very long one!!

One of the greatest trilogies and the hottest topic of every movie forum. The series which created such a huge wave that changed the entire style of movie making in Hollywood. And I am not exaggerating it for the below reasons.

A decade after the crushing death of Batman movies, when fans put their hopes down and thought it’s impossible to picturize a man wearing a Bat costume and beating bad guys maintaining the dark gritty grounded world around him. Entered Chris Nolan, a new kid around the block with a promising talent. Who took up a lost character and made him the coolest super hero ever.

The 3 movies under the title - Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.

Batman Begins: The movie that set a trend of reboots and the most original approach to an origin story. Origins are always predictable when it comes to the flow of the story but that’s where Nolan brought out his best skills, Screenplay and Non-linear story telling.

In a plot where the result of a motivation is easily predictable, Nolan mixed up the story-lines such that the result is shown 1st and made the audience wonder about the motivation. This kept the audience guessing at each and every turn of the movie and along with a much grounded screenplay created a gripping movie which was named the “BEST SUPERHERO MOVIE EVER”!!!

The grounded approach to the story with a strong flow of character development and sub plots, Nolan made the audience believe a Batman can exist in the real world.

It’s not easy to convince the audience that a Billionaire kid would become a Batman just because his parents were killed. Hence Nolan took a very fragile base character as Bruce Wayne and built a motivation in multiple layers piling up on each other. He made him go through series of events where his impulsive characterization just created more hatred and pain around him till he was pushed off the edge to become a completely lost psycho with some misunderstood principles.

Later taken up by his mentor Ra’s Al Ghul to refine his principles and to line up his deranged thoughts to make him what it takes to be a vigilantly. Each of them wanting the same result but different with methodologies turned them against each other. Ra’s Al Ghul’s characterization and principles made him a strong formidable villain who couldn’t be convinced. The thoughts puts by Ra into Bruce Wayne’s head i.e. strike fear in your enemies heart became the theme of the movie and a reason for Bruce Wayne to choose Bat as his symbol and conquer his fear(as a kid he feared bats the most and this fear led to his parent’s death).

The other aspects of the movie which made it feel so grounded were the sub plots involving Gordon, Alfred, Lucius and Rachel. The 1^st kind of super hero movie where the evolution of a man to a super hero was shown in steps distinctly, Nolan went as far as to even bring up the company that made his Bat ears. Also was 1^st super hero movie where the police were not just bunch of guys who showed up at the end with guns and walkie talkies. Nolan made sure the police force acted as they would in a real world to the situations that arose and with a multi layered plot made it look that their actions would have been in total vain if not for Batman.

Unlike other super heroes Batman never targeted petty thieves, bank robbers, saving his girlfriend from thugs etc. Batman’s goal was to remove crime/corruption from the core of the city, while other super heroes focused on the people, Batman focused on the city and to find a permanent solution which just increased the scale of the plot.

The movie had enough characters that made the plot look believable and each character had their importance for the plot. The plot was so well written that each and every element in the movie had a contribution to the plot without which the plot wouldn’t have been complete. Screenplay was packed with new ideas and fast paced. All in all Nolan created a new style of movie making which has inspired looooot of movies and reboots. Action was kept minimal and not the main theme of the movie but yet the few action scenes created enough character development around Batman to show what he is capable of. Of the 3, Batman begins remains Nolan’s best directed effort and created a believable dark gritty world where Batman fits in perfectly.

To add up and upscale the effect of the movie Nolan got in one of the greatest minds and a visionary in the field Hans Zimmer along with talented James Newton Howard. A mixture of fast paced, gloomy, gritty, explosive, slow background themes where each layer of the music provoked different feel and perception was just the perfect icing to the well made cake.

Summing up Batman Begins stands out as the most unique, well thought, a revolutionary, the best super hero movie of its time and one of the best movies made.

Review of The Dark Knight & The Dark Knight Rises coming soon....

Kireedam : A Flawless Cinema

Kireedam (1989-Malayalam)

           This movie has a very special place in me. This is the movie where Mohanlal became my favorite Indian actor. The role proves that Mohanlal is one of the best and most versatile actors India has ever produced. Also a revolutionary genre in Indian cinema.

Synopsis -The story revolves on the philosophy how an environment and situations could change the perception of a character. Their journeys of Sethumadhavan (played by Mohanlal) whose steps to becoming a Sub-inspector changes and end up being the most notorious criminal of the town.

Every element of this movie right from acting, direction, screenplay, dialogues, music etc. are right on spot.

The movie’s Screenplay and Direction is so grounded and relatable to a typical middle class family life style, the screenplay clearly but in a very subtle way has split the plot into 3 acts and flow between them is beautifully handled.

1^st act the plot focuses on character development and has been handled like a masterpiece. The scenes don’t involve the typical plot devices to portray a character of each roles or cliched movie dialogues to show how good the character is or how much he cares etc. The entire 1^st act is done so natural, just a day to day life of Sethumadhavan (Sethu) but yet the character and dynamics of each role has been painted with impeccable resolution.

2^nd act is where the main turn of events takes place and again here Sibi Malayil did a great job to keep the pace and tone in sync with the 1^st act and builds up on it. He made sure to keep the audience in the emotions of Sethu and to sympathize the character. Audience emotions are pushed to levels, after each tragic incident audience tend to have a ray of hope that things would go right. This was handled with such natural approach, every character in the movie stuck to their characterization and events happening seem so normal n genuine and yet has devastating effect!!

3^rd act is where the movie picks up its pace and audience starts losing hope and sets to gear up for a tear-jerker. The fight scenes have been handled with a very artistic touch. For a movie where in its time (even now :P) fight scenes had flying actors, the natural and the long established fight shots were revolutionary. Seems like Mohanlal was asked to fight for real!! And unlike other many movies the skills of the roles also never deviated from the character defined, a rare thing in Indian movies :D. In the last shot Sibi Malayil gives a classic climax with a great emotional build up and an end. May be one of the best climaxes!!

Acting in this movie has been top notch by all actors but standing out in this gold mine is Mohanlal and Thilakan (Sethu’s father). Mohanlal’s acting took the movie to an extent that even Sibi Malayil had not predicted! The precision of each emotion and transcends from emotion to emotion in fraction of seconds without any effort. The shift of his behavior throughout the movie was so subtle and yet effective. Nowhere in the movie has he lost the essence of his core character. I would say Mohanlal didn’t act the role of Sethu but Mohanlal became Sethu. This exceptional performance made Sibi Malayil’s work on established shots way too easy. Nothing less by Thilakan giving a powerful and convincing show. These 2 could convey emotions just by a look what pages of dialogues cannot.

Plot on the shell looks very simple but crafting a plot where Sethu’s character perception changes from end to end and yet maintaining the core of its characterization is just writing at its best! The plot never deviates from the Philosophy it’s trying to portray. Nor depends on plot devices where Sethu goes out of character to make it happen. This has been tried by many movies in this genre after this but never succeeded. Also the plot makes sure to sympathize the rowdy version of Sethu making it so undesirable and hence putting out a very strong message that has a visceral effect.

In short it’s a true cinema and flawless in all aspects. Highly recommended for Drama fans.