The Lunchbox
Ritesh Batra
Ila (Nimrat Kaur), a lonely housewife looks to rekindle her lost love with her husband by cooking her way to his heart. But the “dabba” (lunchbox) gets delivered instead to Saajan Fernandez (Irrfan Khan), a lonely widower. This marks the start of a series of conversations through letters between the two, through which they share their views on life and help each other face difficulties with a smile. Irrfan is his usual remarkable self with an excellent supporting performance by Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Nimrat Kaur made everyone sit up and take notice of her debut performance. A beautiful tale on love, life and relationships, with a warm and heart-touching climax, the film is a welcome break from many of Bollywood’s masala offerings.
The Prestige
Christopher Nolan
It’s professional rivalry at a whole new level between two magicians — Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) when the former performs an ultimate trick on stage and the latter is hell-bent on finding out the trick’s secret. With gripping twists at regular intervals throughout the film and a mind-blowing climax, Nolan has proved once again that he is the best in the business. With some good support by stars like Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, a brilliant performance by the lead actors — Bale and Jackman, amazing cinematography and a hint of history here and there, The Prestige has all that it takes to be named as one of Hollywood’s best.
The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan
Part two of the brilliant Batman Begins now sees the vigilante superhero (Christian Bale) team up with Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart),Gotham’s newly elected district attorney and old friend, commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) to tackle the rise of a psychotic criminal mastermind who calls himself, The Joker (Heath Ledger). Bale, once again proved himself a committed actor but the star performer of the film was Heath Ledger, who managed to pull off the role of his career with perfection but died an unfortunate death before the film’s release. Thought-provoking dialogues, wonderful background music, and a breath-taking climax tell us, why this is one among the greatest superhero films ever made.
Anbe Sivam
Sundar C.
The film revolves around a set of comical events when Nalla Sivam (Kamal Hassan), a physically challenged, witty socialist and Anbarasu (Madhavan) an arrogant ad filmmaker who supports capitalism meet on a trip from Bhubaneshwar to Chennai. Topics such as compassion, globalisation and rationalism in today’s world are explored in this film where Nalla makes Anbarasu realise that there is more to life that materialistic pleasures. Powerful lyrics, rib-tickling humour, soul-warming music, noteworthy screenplay and a climax that leaves the audience thinking… Anbe Sivam is a film with a purpose.
Salangai Oli
K. Vishwanath
This film centred around art is about Balakrishna a.k.a Balu (Kamal Hassan), a disadvantaged but multi-talented dancer who wants to make it big in the field of classical dance but refuses to commercialise his art and talent. Balu finds solace in alcohol after he fails to realise his dream. Kamal Hassan has given the best dance performance of his career in this film. Sarath Babu who plays the role of Raghu, Balu’s best friend has lent some brilliant support while Ilayaraaja has once again proved why he is the maestro with his music. With a strong message at the end, the film is a brilliant attempt to capture the life and dreams of middle-class youth during the 1980s.
Those that almost made it:
Stanley Ka Dabba : Amole Gupte
Lagaan : Ashutosh Gowariker
The Dark Knight Rises : Christopher Nolan
Varumayin Niram Sivappu : K Balachander
The Pursuit of Happyness : Gabriele Muccino
R. Pujaa is a class XI student of a Chennai-based school. She loves to watch action-packed films and comedies.
