Whiplash (2014)

[**** stars / *****] 

Terence Fletcher: "Truth is I don't think people ..understood..
what it was I was doing at Shaffer. 

I was there to push people beyond what is expected out of them.... 

I believe that is an absolute necessity...otherwise we are depriving the world of the next Louie Armstrong, next Charlie Parker...I told you that story about how Charlie Parker became Charlie Parker, right?" 

Andrew Neiman: "Joe Jones threw a cymbal at his head." 

Terence Fletcher: "Exactly." 

Andrew Neiman (Miles Teller), a 19 year-old drummer at Shaffer Music Conservatory, New York, seeks the attention of Terence Fletcher (J.K.Simmons) a reputed teacher /composer. 

Aspiration meets reality when Andrew is selected as alternate drummer in the Fletcher-headed conservatory band. 

Then all hell breaks loose.  

Neiman experiences firsthand why other band members cower like nervous school children at Fletcher's arrival. 

In his cream-lighted indoor dark room sessions (recurring movie ambiance), the teacher subjects the band and especially Neiman to utter humiliation, abuses and insults. 

Always wanting to be a great drummer and nothing else, a demonic rush to please Fletcher seizes Neiman. 

Drumming becomes a sole, life-threatening obsession. Everything else becomes insignificant, even as his love life lies ruptured.    

Intense, Fiery 

There is no escaping Whiplash's well-directed intensity. 

The major storytelling triumph is the minimalist, straight-forward character-driven approach. 

The story vein stays with the two main protagonists, both fiery, unyielding, turbulent and riveting. 

Fletcher and Neiman are the film's metaphorical wrestlers and bookends. 

Barely a dull moment, barely. 

Beyond the Music

Director Damien Chazelle doesn't use any jazz-based soundtrack for inducing overwhelming emotions from the audience. 

Instead, unlike many other music-based movies, he banks on revealing the uneasy, stormy, agitated human spirit. 

That demented spirit behind the seemingly tranquil music making. 

Top grade performances by Teller and Simmons, a clean screenplay and razor sharp editing (love the ending) makes Whiplash a mini-classic, a must-watch.

Memento (2000)

[**** stars / *****] 

As far as cinematic experiences of the mind go, nobody has influenced and hypnotized us in recent times like director Christopher Nolan. 

Though often leaning towards the incomprehensible, incoherent and logic-defying, The Batman trilogy (2005-2012), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014) and Dunkirk (2017) were unforgettable big screen experiences.

Nolan's best movie yet?
For me Memento is Nolan's finest, grounded and most convincing 'mind-awe' film. 

Based on a short story by Christopher's brother and frequent collaborator Jonathan Nolan, Memento is a jigsaw puzzle that comes together with alarming clarity.

Memento story 
The reverse-chronological narrative cuts across two timelines. 

Both story nerves feature at its center, Leonard, an insurance investigator who suffers from anterograde amnesia (short-term memory loss). 

Leonard's condition, as he puts it, is a consequence of two men attacking, raping and killing his wife, while severely injuring Leonard. 

The first attacker was caught, Leonard is in search of the second fugitive attacker, believed to be called John G.

Memento review 
As habitual viewers of linear storytelling, Memento may get you disconcerted and impatient at first. There's a good chance you will pause and opt for another movie. 

Don't. 

Hang on and watch carefully. 

Cinema lovers will relish if they are patient, as the threads untangle the horror and puppetry of it all.

As a vindication of Christopher Nolan's early, unmistakable genius, Memento is his finest psychological/mystery thriller film yet.

(Yes, Indian film viewers will identify the similarities to A.R.Murugadoss directed revenge films, the Tamil version, Gajini (2005) and the Hindi remake Ghajini (2008). Both films just used Leonard's memory loss premise, rest was a rehashed formulaic revenge saga, at best.)

Hey Ram (2000)

[**** stars/*****]

"About thousands of years before Christ, even back then this civilization knew the need for a sewage system. A civilization where children were given toys to play. Not like ours, where we adults use our religion to fight each other with."  


Fury, madness, savageness. 

What does it take for a man to kill another man?

India is on verge of partition. Saket Ram is an archaeologist working at the Mohenjo-daro remains with his colleague and dear friend Amjad Ali Khan (Shah Rukh Khan). The excavation is abruptly stopped in fear of widespread rioting. 

Saket rushes home to Calcutta, into the arms of his beautiful school teacher wife Aparna (Rani Mukherjee). Meanwhile, riots erupt in the city, and a chain of horrific events culminates in sadistic, retaliatory killings. 

A chance meeting with Hindu nationalist Shriram Abhyankar (Atul Kulkarni) sets Saket on the extremist path. 

Such is Saket's crazed resolve that he hallucinates practice-shooting with a sniper gun while making love to his wife in a drug-induced haze. 

Brave, compassionate cinema
Hey Ram (Oh God) is a 196-minute ambitious, intense period drama on the aftermath of India's barbaric, shameful partition violence and the malicious mob mentality thrust into free-thinking individuals.

Hatred and killings in the name of religion remains a widespread phenomenon in India, years after independence.  

Director, story and screenplay writer Kamal Haasan delves sensitively into the canvas of this alternate historical drama, making stark, powerful points on India's communal divide. 

The screenplay master cuts involve a misplaced gun, tense dialogue interplay between the two lead characters, an impactful death, light at the end of the tunnel and inevitable, irreversible loss.

Kamal Hassan is superb as Saket Ram, how he gradually turns grave anguish into single-minded deadly intent is enthralling to watch. 

Shah Rukh Khan (excellent in brief role), Rani Mukherjee, Atul Kulkarni, Vasundhara Das, Naseeruddin Shah, Vikram Gokhale, Saurabh Shukla, Girish Karnad, Hema Malini and Gollapudi Maruti Rao (wonderful emoting) are among the aptly chosen supporting cast.     

The art direction, cinematography by Tirru, the Ilaiyaraaja soundtrack add conviction and layers, the length never feels stretched. 

The initial revenge-death scenes seem to be mass-audience appeasing, the rest is bold cinema.    

Hey Ram is a towering achievement of heart, goodwill and purpose, overtly relevant, powerful cinema.

  (Hey Ram, streaming on Amazon Prime (India) in its Tamil version (English subtitles available)).