Trailer : The Wolf of Wall Street

This looks like a fucking insane movie, especially Leonardo's character. Only thing missing in 2nd trailer was the background theme used in earlier one. Scorsese-Leonardo pair are in probably for a very good movie.


The 1st trailer, if you missed it.. both awesome trailers.

Movie Analysis : Insomnia

Directed by : Chistopher Nolan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278504/


Very unlike Nolan cinema, but not a weak film. Terrific performance by Al Pacino.

Just as you are about to dismiss something, think about it. Look at it again.


Read at your own risk, the post may have some spoilers. 



One of very different movies from the usual Nolan ones, reason being that the character's performance (Al Pacino) dominates much more than the screenplay/story.

Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) are two detectives who are brought to Alaska to solve a young girl Kay Connell (Crystal Lowe) death's case. Will has some differences with Hap over the past cases, and while trying to solve Kay case, a mishap leads to Hap's death. Will can't sleep now, with the images of Hap's death in his mind. He has a case to solve, and a death of Hap which he isn't sure if he did it intentionally or was a accident. When the killer of Kay contacts Will telling him he knows how Hap died, Will goes into a dilemmna. Should he support the real killer and keep himself and his reputation safe, or should he tell the truth to everyone and let the justice prevail.


Except for the 1st scene, the blood one, Nolan keeps the narrative linear, which isn't the case in his movies. That is one reason why I am writing this post after seen the film just once. Though he uses flashback shots of few seconds every now and then, be it the Kay's death ones when Will sees her body, or the conscious mind of Will dealing with Hap's death guilt.

The background theme that constantly plays with Pacino ever since the Hap accident, was effective.. gives a emotional feel to his character.

There's a scene where for first time Dormer hallucinates, imagines Hap walking along with other guys. But Nolan, doesn't try to go into this territory further. Similarly, the scene where Dormer feels head moving slowly, while at the station watching people around, we see the 'less sleep' effecting him little bit for first time.There are night scenes, where his conscious doesn't let him sleep, and then the scene where he is driving and almost has a accident. Or when he confuses himself between Ellie (Hilary Swank) and Kay while talking to Walter Finch (Robin Williams)  If I had seen this movie when it released, these two points may not have been of much importance, but since I saw recently and having seen his all other movies, what I felt was Nolan could had gone deeper into hallucination or insomnia creating problems, and given further layers to the movie. But, he doesn't do that.

Nolan is more interested in a simple point 'If you go wrong way, you may make it a habit.. and make it tougher for you to come out of it'. Dormer started it with Dobbs who in his view deserved to be in jail, so looking by his part, he did right even though it was wrong way of doing it. Just like the receptionist tells him 'Its about what you thought was right at the time, Then what you are willing to live with'. There's no clear answer given to whether Dormer actually killed Hap willingly or it was the fog that made his sight not clear. I would like to believe that it was fog, and not his will to do that, even though the situation looks ideal for him to kill Hap.

I like the end, Dormer tries to stop Detective Ellie going the way he went since Dobbs case.

The scenes between Dormer and Walter are very powerful, the first two calls Walter makes to have attention of Dormer. And then, the chase by Dormer which almost takes his own life. The ship sequence where Walter makes Dormer realize how similar situation both of them are into, for killing people they didn't mean to. The truth Walter tells about how he killed Kay, on phone to Dormer, as Dormer astonishingly listens and hangs up the phone feeling this is a murderer who deserves to be in jail just like Dobbs, but he has seen him kill Hap. The station scene between them gets very interesting as Walter tries to do things which Dormer warned him not to do, ofcourse Dormer was trying to make sure Walter doesn't let any innocent (Randy) get accused. But Walter wants Randy to be the one getting involved,  thereby making Dormer very angry and almost ready to kill. Walter was pretty smart all the time, except for that novel that he left by that allowed Dormer to find him. But he knew how to set up Dormer, with all the wild cards and fake story to make Randy look the murderer. In a scene, Dormer argues 'It took you 10 fucking minutes to kill her, you call that an accident?', to which Walter replies 'It took you fraction of a second to kill Hap, does that make any more of an accident?', you wonder how true both are, none can justify they were right in  their killing that happened by mistake.

The final confontration scene between them however was dissappointing, it ended up like a routine finale without any major thrills.

Its good that some of the key changes were done from original script, like Pacino doesn't grab the girl by legs in car instead he threatens her by reckless driving (which was a super scene). Then, the dead dog is alive originally, which he kills later (that would had been much more terrible). And, Pacino flirts a lot, eventually almost raping the Hotel receptionist.. in the original script. All this scenes if were used as it is, then only thing it would had done was you would feel no sympathy at his death in last scene.


Al Pacino gives a brilliant performance, the way he walks and solves case.. gives the feel of how long its been since he slept properly. In the movie, we are told its 6 days, but maybe the insomnia started for him with  Dobbs case as he looks in similar kind of state when in jetplane arriving Alaska. All upto how you wanna interpret the pre-movie part. The idea of chewing gum to stay awake was good one, gave that style into Pacino's dialogue delivery that looks so good on him. Love how he extracts information out of Kay's best friends.

Robin Williams played his psycho character very well, specially the scenes where he leaves Dormer into a dilemma, and the confession scene on phone about how he killed Kay.

Hilary Swank was good, look at how excited she is to work with famous Detective Dormer together. But after Hap's incident, she starts noticing a change in Dormer, and her investigations regrading Hap death leads to serious doubts over Dormer. Love that scene where she tells Dormer 'A good cop can't sleep because something's missing, while a bad cop can't sleep because his conscience won't let him'.


Insomnia may not be your first choice when you think of watching a Nolan movie. But, I wont like to call it Nolan's weakest film, its just a film that can't classify as Nolan's classics as it fails to reach upto the standards Nolan films usually have. Watch it as a regular thriller (though slow), it wont dissappoint.

Movie Analysis : Following

Directed by : Christopher Nolan
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0154506/

Great movie made in low budget, Nolan's fascinating cinema started from here.

You take it away, and you show them what they had.


Read at your own risk, the post may have some spoilers. 


This is Nolan's first directed feature, that started a new 'Nolan cinema' .. which has been unique and full of questions ever since. Each and every movie has tested the brain cells, so is the case with 'Following'.

Clearly made on a low budget, with the camera its shot or the production setup you notice.. all that actually falls in favour of this genre. To add to it, Nolan uses his mind to film it black n white completely, that adds to the mysterious element, almost like a new layer.

The non-linear narrative style he had used right from this movie itself. I would like to call this film more of a pre-Memento film. In Memento, he explores on a larger scale probably a good budget helped.

Following is the tale of a lonely unemployed guy, Bill (Jeremy Theobald) who wants to be a writer. He follows people, strange people.. people he doesn't know. That gives him scope to know many aspects and maybe he would find that character to write on too. On the flip side, its a way for him to connect to the world, as he has no friend (atleast not shown to us in the film). But, his habit turns into a nightmare when the person he follows, Cobb (Alex Haw) entices him into the burglary world which Bill can't resist.

As is the case for most of Nolan films, I decided to watch this one 2nd time before writing on it. I used editing software to reconnect shots in correct order (with odd problems of voiceover dialogues), and watched the movie in chronological order. While that did sort out the entire plot with very few confusions (which wasn't the case when I saw it 1st time with non-linear narration), the point to note would be that the film loses its credibility watching it this way.. unless you have doubts on the plot, you would be better off watching it in the original format only.

There are 3 segments used in the narration, 1st is the conversation between Bill and the police investigator, 2nd is how Bill and Cobb meet and then combine to do some thefts, and 3rd is the new look Bill who gets interested in blonde lady (Lucy Russell), and this segment is further divided into part where Bill is following closely people that enter the pub owned by blonde lady's man. Nolan has used mainly blackouts which I felt were overdone, and gave a jerk feel at times. If I remember correctly in Memento, he continued story without any stoppages, at most places. Here, it was like making the viewer ready to shift to other segment.. maybe as first film he didn't want to make it too tough for the audience.

He very perfectly uses the shot of a man following someone else's belongings with his gloves on. The background theme, my fav one runs with it as the title 'Following' comes written. The other theme comes too at same shot which is shown in detail later, a very light one. At other places the background is kept very silent.

 Also, he uses a shot from 3rd segment, as well as a shot from pre-3rd segment part (i.e just before he starts following blonde lady's man pub) in the start. He gives small hint to where the story would lead, and then Bill himself reveals when his following went wrong.

At first, I felt that Cobb is also a insane follower like Bill, only that his ways are different. But when he takes Bill to his profession of burglary, in the 1st burglary sequence it is revealed that Cobb is way more insane as he believes in hiding things so that the people who come back in that house later realize what they had and never cared for.

One of my fav scene is when Bill crosschecks Cobb making him try to steal from his own home, just to check if Cobb falters anywhere in case he was a fake person. Then, the one where Bill checks blonde lady house, its same one he and Cobb went to steal 3rd time around. But Nolan's non-linear narration meant that we see the burglary scene much later.

The main reason why this narration actually works apart from making the viewer engaged and interested, is that this way Nolan can keep the suspense part till very end. While watching you never get time to think that Cobb is setting up Bill, and blonde lady is setting up Bill too, while blonde lady is being set up by Cobb. Because you just need to focus on next segment while watching, you aren't given enough time to think over. Those who still did it in 1st view and guessed suspense right, kudos to them.

One of those movies where the end doesn't go in favour of the 'good' protaganist. Or in short, good didn't win over evil. Bill never knew that his obsession of following will lead him to such a trap he won't be able to come out of.

The final shot is classic, we see Cobb as individual in the crowd with the mid shot.. a fellow person passes by and Cobb is gone in the crowd.. now we see crowd or maybe a new individual (there was some guy visible just before blackout happens).

Among performances, I specially loved both Jeremy Theobald and Alex Haw. Jeremy played the loner in search of friend/love yet not sure who very well, the expression on his face when Cobb caught him was superb. While Alex Haw looked confident, and never gave a hint of what he really was upto.. and he surprises you once atleast if not twice.

Some things that I noted from film and comments of various people :

• Both Jeremy and Alex have done almost negligible amount of films since Following. Infact one person quoted aptly that Alex Haw remained into his character of Cobb, gone missing in the crowd and hasn't since then seen in any other movie.

• Nolan re-used Cobb name for Leonardo Di Caprio in Inception, interesting thing is that he was also a thief but of mind.

• The batman logo on the door of Bill house when Cobb goes with him for 2nd burglary. Don't know if Nolan had Batman series in his mind then, or it was just a tribute thing.

• There's a mention of old man by Cobb before he kills blonde lady. I assume it was that pub owner, but Nolan may be linking to someone else. I ain't fully sure.

• Jeremy Theobald character name is Bill to Cobb, and Daniel to blonde lady, while credits refer to him as 'the young man'. So, his real name is never disclosed which he probably must had told the police officer.



Overall, Following though Nolan's first movie.. its good enough to be called among his great works. Also, this film tells how good Nolan's command over narrating a story was since the start. He knew how to use certain elements, and how he can cheat or confuse the viewers. With a better budget, and those blackouts thing sorted, he improved those weak parts in further movies. Following works for the way its sustains the mystery part with the performances that compliment the direction very well. Also, the length of movie is just 69 mins, didn't overtry things and kept it simple yet special.

Trailer : Shaadi Ke Side Effects

I was excited for this project ever since I came to know of Farhan-Vidya pair. Both are such talented actors, and to see them together would be great. Also, I loved the director's last movie 'Pyaar ke Side effects' which had awesome humour.

The trailer is funny, with the post marriage torture shown humurously. Hoping the film is as good as the trailer.


Dheere se kaise girte hai  ? 

Trailer : Singh Saab The Great

That last dialogue 'tad tad tad tad' alone is enough to watch this movie in theatre for me. Though, the action looking expectedly very over the top with Sunny Deol as lead, so all about how well drama is executed. Anil Sharma's films haven't clicked ever since Gadar, maybe this might bring that change. One bad thing is that have to watch Prakash Raj once again in same role he doesn't stop doing.

Duniya buri isliye hai kyunki acche log ek saath milkar apni taakat ka sahi ishtemaal nahi karte. 

Movie Analysis : Mickey Virus

Directed by : Saurabh Varma
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2796318/


Average comedy thriller, watchable for some hillarious moments.

Ek aalsi aadmi ko jab koi mushkil kaam do na, toh koi na koi aasan tareeka dhoondh hi leta hai karne ka.


Delhi Police seeks help of a hacker Mickey (Manish Paul) to solve a hacking case. Mickey who is a lazy person, gives in after a while only to realize that he has got himself into a big problem.

The start to the movie is funny with first 20-30 mins full of good creative dialogues, specially the small finger one. But, after that the film starts to fade off. We see a character trying to fool us, when we know the motive of that character right from the first scene itself. So, its waiting game as to when it will get exposed in the movie, good thing is it happens at interval point. That makes 2nd half worth watching, but its a let-down too with a very weak climax. The first time director tries to make a good comedy-thriller but except one suspense element, everything else is easily predictable.

Songs are pretty much average, Tose Naina gives good romantic feel.

Manish Paul in his debut performance is likeable, he gets the dialect pretty well and I was almost sure his comic timing would be good.

Elli Avram is very average but she looks too hot, specially her entry scene in the yellow saree.

Varun Badola was other great performer in the movie, with the haryanvi accent he gives some of best humourous scenes, sadly his role is limited to a supporting actor. In a scene, he fails to differentiate between Hawker and Hacker. Also, that conversation where he talks with his wife on mobile.

Among rest cast, Puja Gupta shines as the friend of Mickey who is very lively and hyper. Also, Nilesh Pandey does well in a small role.


Mickey Virus starts well, but falls down very quickly especially after 2nd half. Its watchable for some good funny dialogues, the comedy isn't loud, its the drama where the movie fails to impress.


Verdict : AVERAGE

Movie Analysis : Rush

Directed by : Ron Howard
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1979320/

Read at your own risk, the post may have some spoilers. 



Films based on real life people have been on a rise lately, and I have seen some very good ones, Rush tops the list.

Plot is about the rivalry between Britain's James Hunt (played by Chris Hemsworth) and Austrian Niki Lauda (played by Daneil Bruhl), 1970's Formula 1 racers.  The rivalry is limited to the races and attempts to get above each other in championships. In personal life, they don't really treat each other as enemies.

I have never seen a single Forumla 1 race even on T.V, so clearly someone who has no interest in this sport. Still, the film succeeds in creating a large impact, and the reason is the film focusses more on the emotions and drama.

The film begins with that deadly Aug 1, 1976 race when everything went wrong for Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) who describes 'I was chasing him like an asshole'. Director sets up formula one environment, and the relation Niki shares with James during races.. before he cuts abruptly to begin the flashback, telling the story of both racers when they were amateurs and trying to reach the Formula One stage.

The screenplay is impressive, it keeps a balance between the races and the pre-post races events in both racer's life. The championship montage is well done, covering most of the important aspects while leading to the two main races.

There are many sub plots in the movie, like James Hunt who lives a life of playboy suddenly marries Suzy (Olivia Wilde) probably to get his focus on the sport as is seen in the pre-wedding scene where he tells Suzy how he has changed from the old James practising for next race and keen to make a mark in Formula 1. Special mention to the marriage scene which happens right after James out of no where asks Suzy for marriage, probably one of quickest propasal-marriage sequence I have ever seen. The narration is always pacy only time it slows down is when James faces 'no races' phase, and  he shows his frustration and anger on Suzy. A key scene happens here when Niki Lauda after winning a race during a party asks James 'I heard you got married, where is your wife ?'.

On the other hand, Niki Lauda's backstory is setup with him telling his father that he will become a champion racer one day. He uses his talent, first with the owner of Formula 3 to help build speedy cars with the perfect knowledge he possesses. And later joining Ferrari, one funny scene comes here when Niki mimics the person's reaction who says 'it was a good car'.

Niki's relation with Marlene (Alexandra Maria Lara) interests me most, as he was more honest towards her. They meet by chance when Niki asks her for a lift, only to find later that she gave lift to one of well known Formula 1 racer. When Marlene complains that he has got no looks and way of driving that resembles a formula 1 racer, Niki replies 'There's no need to drive fast right now, why take risk'. Its a point shown at various places in the film that Niki had lots of talent but he never drove in rash manner as he felt there's a 20% risk of getting killed in such a sport. Special mention to the editing here, how he cuts the scene to championship race.

My fav scene between Niki and Marlene happens right after their marriage, when Niki feels that now he has got something to lose, therefore happiness is his enemy now. To which Marlene very well replies, 'If you feel its your enemy, then you have already lost'.


I was more tilted towards Niki Lauda's story, as he was much more serious towards his goal. In a scene he tells James 'I am a serious guy, I go to work, come back home.. I don't go to parties that are full of assholes'. Plus, party lovers never attract me which James was. Infact, for most of his career as is shown in movie, James comes across as a careless racer who has the talent to win when he gives his best like that final race.. but he's never serious about it unlike Niki.  That is one more reason, why you feel to support Niki in every race, that he should win and not James.

Cinematography is excellent, the way it captures all the racing sequences, especially the cloudy and rainy ones. Love the feel given to Aug 1st race. Hans Zimmer's background score is fantastic, the main theme has a rivalry plus emotional feel to it and very. How his background gives a signal that something bad about to happen in final two races. Also, it doubles the tension because they are the only two times a complete race is shown to us.

Good build-up to the Aug1 race, firstly using a fan asking for Niki's autograph with a date as 'who knows it could be his last', and then Niki's request to cancel the game owing to poor weather getting cancelled since James has more people's support, 'You know Niki, sometimes its good to have people who like you' is what James tells Niki. The accident sequence is disturbing, especially the follow up hospital scenes. Its as tough to watch them as it is for Marlene in the movie. There's a scene where Niki wants to get back to racing, as James who until then was behind Niki is now winning races to jump up the ladderboard. While doctors give vaccum to Niki, he watches James snatching his points making him desperate to return. He tells James in next race 'If you were responsible for what happened to me, then watching you win those races, while I was fighting for my life, you were equally responsible for getting me back into the car'. That's the kind of rivalry they both shared, it was never ugly one. I was actually happy to see Niki come 4th and not 1st in that race after accident, simply because making him come first would had been over-dramatic. If you go by facts, he did came 4th only.

The press scene isn't taken from real life, therefore James getting angry at a journalist question and beating the hell out of him, was only to add 'the care' feeling into James character as we never see both of them share light moments in movie until ofcourse the last dialogue scene.

Final race is presented dramatically, with lots of slow motions, the tension for Marlene to see Niki race in what is much worse weather than it was during accident race. James still feeling guilt for last time, tries to cancel the race but the representatives don't agree. And therefore, when race is about to begin on the field, James turns behind from his car to watch Niki, and both wish each other good luck. Its the only time they do in any of the races shown in entire movie. Perfect moment chosen for it though. Visually, this was the best race, as a viewer you wonder would Niki risk his life at such a race, with Marlene not able to stop him after Niki told her 'if you love me, you won't say anything to me'.


You feel bad for Niki, watching him not win the championship.. but just as he says 'No regrets', you know he would had most likely lost his life had he continued. In the final dialogue scene, we see a happy smiling picture of real James and Niki, where Niki says 'I always liked him'.

Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl both deliver excellent performances. Personally, I loved Daniel much more, specially with the accent he had while speaking the dialogues and all the mannerisms. Both females playing supporting roles did great job too, and both looked very beautiful, Alexandra Maria was my pick though. Another interesting thing to note is, the make-over for these 4 actors resembled completely with the real life characters.





Rush is the best Hollywood movie I have watched this year. And its gonna be tough to beat this film. From performances to narration to technical aspects, the film is a big winner in all regards.