Paradise Now : Movie Review: Recommended for its intent

Even before starting to talk about this film, as a piece of art, I would like to recommend it. Its a must see, no mater what are the ratings and what are the short comings.

This Golden globe award winner movie, apart from being very contemporary, gives a message that is required to be told and retold to the world.

Every one wants peace. Terrorism or militancy is idea of a group of people to achieve peace. Its a classic clash of dilemma that everyone faces in their dire times. Many a times it happens that as a group of people we are fighting for a cause, and over a period of times fighting becomes more important and bigger than the cause itself. These are the times for introspection. Look inside and check your self.

Is the path you are taking the correct one? Aren't there any alternatives?

Unless we ask ourselves this question, we are not going to find any alternatives. Unless we ask ourselves this question the power of hatred is going to spread across the world. Let us stop for a while and think about what in the world is wrong that fights and Jehads have become bigger than the cause they were started for.

From The Most Unexpected Place Comes A Bold New Call For Peace

Nablus. A small search on the world map will tell you why is Nablus the most unexpected place as it is mentioned here.

This beautiful city of Nablus is the part of west bank which is under the Palestinian Administration. The Movie is based in Nablus and is hence a Palestinian view of put forward by a Palestinian director of the movie Hany Abu-Assad. The movie talks about the place which is one of the important nodes of unrest under the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The district has about 14 Israeli settlements with a population of around 10,000. It has the largest Palestinian Refugee camps in west bank, Askar and Balata, which means it has the most concentrated amount of wrath of palestinians against the Israelis.

To know this is important to understand the story of the film. The basic language that the people here use is also important for understanding the same. Israelis settlements are called "Occupation" and the Israelis are called the Occupants. A palestinian resident who works along with the Occupants for whatever reason (Money, safety etc.) is a Collaborator. And the one who kills the occupants and helps in the cause is a Martyr. (I am sure a film if shot in Kashmir, on similar topic might have some similar definitions.

This whole background of the place makes it the most unexpected case for making such a movie.

Story

The movie is about two childhood friends, Said (Kais Nashif) and Khaled (Ali Sulaiman), who are a part of the Muslim Majority of Nablus. Both of them together represents two different psycholgy, two different kinds of people, two different temperaments and two different ways of thinking.

Said is the one who is thoughtful and contemplates everything a lot before doing anything while for Khaled if he thinks it is correct, he just does it. This could very well be seen in the first scene were impulsive Khaled loses his job from the garage for his rude act towards the customer. Khaled feels that whatever is done by Israelis is wrong and he will be a martyr one day for the cause of good. Said on the other hand has a past, his father was a "collaborator" and he needs to clean that black spot out from his past and feels that whatever "occupants" do to exploit the residents and turning them into collaborators is a big crime in itself. He too is determined for the cause. The movie goes on to slowly introduce the two of them to us as they sit, sipping a cup of tea and smoking the hukkah, on the hills of Nablus.

Suha (Lubna Azabal), is a new comer to Nablus but her roots lie there. Her dad was a Martyr and she does not believe in fighting fire with fire. She comes to us as a fresh external view to the everything happening in Palestine. Her relationship with Said is flourishing into a nice romantic tale for her.

Both Said and Khaled had volunteered to become Martyrs to match the might of Occupants, they had volunteered to become suicide bombers against Israel. And then comes a day out of the routine of their lives when they are told that they are to execute the plans on the next day. Jamal (Amer Hlehel) and the resistance group tells both of them that the next day they have to go to TelAviv and bomb the Military check point there, blowing one after the another causing as much damage as they can. Before going on the mission they have one day to stay with their family. That night, Jamal stays with Said and his mother (Hiam Abbas). Then starts the missions with them recording a message in name of GOD and their cause, bidding their family good bye.

They shave of their beard and hairs to look like the occupants with a cover of wedding and are attached with an explosive belt, which they need to blow once at their target. They are briefed about the entire plan on how they are to cross the border and move into the Israel occupied area and how would they blow the place one after the other.

As both of them sit near the border waiting for a call to cross it from the other side, they talk and Said asks Khaled "Is this right?" and you can very well sense the dilemma in the eyes of Said. Khaled knows this is right. And he knows this is the only thing that is right.

They have to do this...


As they try to cross the border, Said could cross it and go in to the other side but Khaled has to return as someone has informed the forces there about their attack. Khaled for the first time in the story, gets separated from Said. And Said feels that the cause is bigger than him and his friendship. He has to go there and blow them apart.



As he reaches a bus stand where he wants to blow of the people who has inflicted those pains on his people, he sees that everyone around are just normal people, like him and his family. He sees children whom he cannot blow in name of GOD. He returns in despair.

Khaled on the other hand starts searching for Said as he understands that he could be killed either by the militants who had sent them or by the forces in Israel. Khaled keeps on searching for Said who in the mean while visits the various parts of Nablus, confused, disheartened, not knowing what to do. He goes to his family but runs away from there. He has a cause to fight for and he could not meet the same.

Khaled realizes that in times of such desparir his friend will go to his father's grave and Khaled finds him there as he moves around searching for Said along with Suza. In the time they were searching for Khaled Suha tells Khaled that this is not "the way" to solve the issues. They debate and Khaled understands her point. They find Said and dismantles the bomb.

Now, after a lot of introspection, Said is convinced that the mission should not be dismissed and he has to do it for his father's sake. He has to do it for his cause. he tells the same to Abu Salim(Mohd. Bustami), the resistance leader.

They are again sent across the border as Khaled tells him to return. Said in the end, cheats Khaled and does not return, as Khaled runs back towards Nablus in the car, Said loses himself to the cause. And you understand that for Khaled,

"The biggest act of courage sometimes is the one you don't (do)"

Credits to the filmmaker:

The movie is not one of the most brilliant cinematic experience that you might have watched, nor does it claim to be one. Writer-Director Hany Abu Assad and the producer Bero Beyer are to be applauded for attempting this. The flow of the movie is kept very simple and nice.

Another special credit that I would like to give is for the dialogues (Abu-Assad, again), they are beautifully used in the movie to create some memorable scenes. Two of my favourite ones are:

First when Suha is coming in a taxi, and for things that taxi driver is saying she tells him :

" Don't worry, One day things will be better" to which he replies simply,
"Sounds like you're not from here."

One more is when Said is justifying himself to Suha, one when Suha asks him,

" They make a lot of cinema in France. Have you seen Cinema?"
"Yes, 10 years back I had gone to Royal Cinema to burn it."
"What has cinema to do with all this, why cinema?"
"Why us?" he replies.

Brilliant use of dialogues, though I dont understand Arabic, the english subtitles where impressive enough

Editing, Music and cinematography disappoints and just loses everything that everyone else puts in to make a good movie.

Acting by Kais Nashif is the best part of the movie. He acts well in a role of thoughtful Said, who is always in a dilemma of what is good and what is right. Lubna Azabal too shines in her small role. Ali Sulaiman is good in parts. He fails to impress in a very important scene when he is debating with Lubna about reaching the "Paradise Now". Others support the lead actors just adequately. No brilliant performances there. This too brings down the impact of movie at times.

But here is a strong strong recommendation for this movie, for what it says more than anything else.

3* for the movie. And a heart for the message.

MY Views on Preparing for a B-School Interview

Well am no way an authority for conducting interviews or being a part of it. But having given some 10-15 odd interviews for different B-schools before doing my MBA and then following people giving these interviews year after year, there are a few things that I feel are important while preparing for MBA interviews. Am just jotting down a few points for the same here: (you might already be knowing this)

Well this is definitely not an exhaustive list of all you should prepare but is only to give indication of where to start with.

Know Yourself

Well whatever classes or coaching you are taking this is the first thing they will tell you and ofcourse it’s the most important thing.

Most Improtant Question : Why MBA?
Most of the applicants are applying to MBA colleges with actual reasons like : Great Money, it’s the ‘in thing’, I want to be a CEO, Want to run my own business.

Well actually for an interviewer these are not good enough. He needs to see through your clarity of thought process and understanding of what you want to achieve through your MBA.

Firstly ask your self what would you like to do after MBA.
What field?
which companies I would like to work for?
what subjects will I take in MBA? how would it help me?
my long term objective?
what are the skills I am having right now?
what are my strengths? what are my weaknesses?
what skills do I want to gain to achieve my long term objectives?
Which subjects in MBA will help me achieve it?
How would it make a difference?

Write all this down in a book Read it again and again. Internalize. Be sure that whatever you have written there is from the bottom of your heart. First sell the idea of your pursuit for MBA to yourself only then will others believe you.

Prepare
Based on the above questions you will have a list of certain things that you want to do. Now you need to be up-to-date on this list.

Stream :
You need to understand the basics and fundamentals of the stream of manangement that you are choosing. Generally it will be one of the following :
Ø Marketing Management
Ø Financial Management
Ø Human Resource Management
Ø Operations Management
Ø Strategic Management
Ø International Business

Now you need to understand the fundamentals of whatever line you choose and will have to dig deep into which substream would you like to follow within the main stream.

MIT open courseware can help you a lot over here : whatever you chose just understand its fundamental with the courses listed on the following link of Sloan school of Management

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Sloan-School-of-Management/index.htm

To understand more models and fundamentals you can also visit:

http://www.valubasedmanagement.com/

Industry:

You should be clearly aware about two industries :
The one you want to go into as per your answers to the question written down in the book
If you have work experience, industry that you are in.

What should I know about these industries?
Recent Happenings :

you can visit any of the newspaper sites and you would find the news categorized by industry over there(for e.g. economic times, Business week ) . Just read through the headlines atleast for the recent happenings. If there are any major events, analyze it, read analysis if available. Collect as much data as you can. Company that you are working in might have online database and reports on various industry. See if you can lend it for your reference.

Form your Views on the industry:

Understanding and analyzing the news jot down your thoughts on what do you think is the current state of the industry. Who are the major players? what is their situation in the market? which company do you think will do well in coming years and why? which personality in the Industry do you like the most? How did budget impact your industry and what do you expect from the coming budget?

Write down everything that you are thinking on paper and read it again and again to firm your thoughts.

Learn Business process for these Industries. Learning business processes is again very important especially if you are currently working somewhere. To know about various sectors and its classification what you can do is :see the sites of various stock exchanges (BSE, NSE, FTSE, NASDAQ etc.) it will give you their classification of industries.

alternatively, take NAICS classification of your industry and see the various subsectors, then check each of it in wikipedia.

Personality traits and personal goals:

well this is one place no one can help you at. Know yourself well. Your strength, weaknesses, achievement, failures, vision, 5 years down the line, 10 years down the line, what type of work you are looking for, what do you want to do int management all should be clear to you.

Well would like to end this here. Hope it helps some of you.

After The Wedding : A bollywood story told differently

Movies are essentially stories told in an interesting manner. How interesting is entirely up to the writer's imagination.

So here is a movie, whose language for dialogue delivery is Danish, but I feel the primary language for the movie should be called the "body language". Yes, eyes, face, lips, hands, movement, forehead, all of them talks and they say more than what can be captured in words. The movie shows the power of visuals and its superiority over written stuff in a certain way.

Most of the times I have seen movies where the first half of the movie deals with character introduction and character development and second part speaks about the events that bring the characters together and makes a plot. Well, this movie does it differently, it starts with events that weaves the character one by one in to a plot and then develops the characters as the layers of revealation of the depth of relationships is explored.

The movie is not a thriller, the movie is not a suspense movie, but still it has proper twists and turns at every juncture to tell an emotional tale of relationship in an interesting manner.

Story {Note : Spoilers ahead}

The movie starts with a Zealous Jacob (Mads Mikkelsen) working in slums of mumbai for running an orphanage. Taking food, shelter and education to the kids who require them the most, his only motive apparaently is doing good for them. The orphanage will have to close unless Jacob gets money for running it from somewhere.

Jacob's love at the orphanage seems to be the young boy whom he has raised since 8 years, Pramod(Neeral Mulchandani). Pramod finds it easy to play with and to demand things from Jacob just the way any little kid would demand from his parents. Jacob gets a message from some wealthy businessman in Denmark, for interest in donating money to his project. He has to leave for Copenhagen to know about the same. He feels sad getting parted from Pramod whom he promises to be back before his Birthday.

Reaching Denmark, Jacob meets Jorgen (Rolf Lassgard), the clear headed rich businessman, who informs him about his wish to donate money into one out of the 5 projects he has shortlisted. Jacob's Orphanage is one of them. Jacob has to wait till the next week to get an approval. Jorgen invites him to marriage of his daughter on the weekend.

Jacob hardly knows, that his life will be changed completely after the wedding. He does not realize any motive of Jorgen in inviting him to the marriage... But... There is.

The marriage is of Christian (Christian Tafdrup) and Anna(Stine Christensen), Christian is a young employee of Jorgen's business and Anna is Jorgen's daughter. In the wedding, Jacob meets Helene, Jorgen's wife (Sidse Knudsen) who had been his girlfriend before he left for India.

The eyes meet, the forgotten touch is mused over, a simple "hi" with troubled and surprised eyes pass by as Jorgen introduces them to each other. The marriage goes on fine till there is a toast made by Christian and Anna.

Anna toasts for all the love that her parents Jorgen and Helene had showered on her, even when Jorgen had not been her genetic father. One more layer of relationship seems to open up. Jacob is visibly disturbed thinking over and over again as to "is she his daughter?"

She indeed is and without a dialogue that comes clear between Jorgen, Helene and Jacob.

Oh my, should he be happy, for finding his daughter after all this years or should he feel angry for not having her for all these years. He does both.

Angry on Helene, for keeping his daughter away, he reaches their house after the marriage and has a fight with Helene on the same. Here you learn getting a layer deeper in the relationship that Helene had left a drunk, broke and drug addict Jacob as he cheated on her once. Surely Jacob has changed a lot since then. He asks them to inform his daughter about the same. Helene and Jorgen tells her daughter about the same.

Anna, now wants to know more about her father. They meet and they meet again. Anna is discovering a lot about his real father.

Jorgen also arranges a meeting between Helene and her old boyfriend. He takes his kids away on a fishing vacation as Helene and Jacob talks.

Anna discovers that Christian, her husband is cheating on her. The girl is disheartened and weak and she gets support from her parents, Jacob and Helene.

Jorgen now approves Jacob's request and sets up a fund in name of Anna and Jacob for the orphanage, but his demand is Jacob should stay in Denmark.

Why is Jorgen doing this? why did he do all that he did?

The answer slowly comes forth as you learn along with Helene, Anna and Jacob that Jorgen is having a disease and that he is going to die, and die soon. All he wants is to make Jacob replace him to take care of his wife, children and Anna. The final peel is now reached and all the pieces of the jigsaw now fits to give us a complete story.

The movie ends with the death of Jorgen, and with Jacob going back to India to see how is the new construction site of the orphanage. Pramod decides to stay back at the new place.

Credits

Well the movie is essentially a Bollywood story of lost and found and of "Anand" style Jorgen helping everyone getting united. But what makes it stand out is the way the director tells us the story and the way camera moves to let us know the same.

The story as I have already described, moves on slowly to disclose each secret and makes itself interesting. Susan Biers (Story) does a decent job with story though not great, but Anders Jensen (screenplay) just makes it interesting with the screenplay.

Most interesting part infact is the editing(Christensen and Hojberg) and cinematography (Hein and jacobsen) with extra closeup shots of faces, lips, eyes explaining each scene with vivid details.

Camera like the characters depicted is up, close and shaky.

My favourite scene in the movie happens to be the one where Anna goes to the hotel room for meeting her father for the first time. There they are, standing infornt of each other, not knowing what to say, not knowing how a young girl should talk to a father like Jacob, and Jacob not knowing how to talk to a young daughter. All he manages is blurt out a line "Do you want some coke?" Anna says yes visibly tense as the camera moves over her hands which tells you how nervous she is. All she then manages to say is "did you never know that I exist?" Jacob has no answers he is choked and so was I. Beautifully shot, very emotional.

One more scene that I liked was when Anna comes to Jacob with her photographs of growing up showing him all that he missed in the years that passed by.

Director ( Susan Biers) shows her brilliance with emotional scenes also in many other scenes like the one where Jacob meets Helene after all these years, a scene when Anna goes to Jorgen after knowing that he is dying. Scene where Jacob and Helene consoles their daughter who is facing what they had faced years back. Scene where Jorgen hugs Helene to cry that he does not want to die.

The music (Johan Sodgervist) of the movie is average and fails to impress.

Acting by all the actors is simply superb. The movie is to be watched for their acting more than anything else, especially Mads and Stine, who does beautiful work as father and daughter. Their chemistry as father and daughter stands out in all the scene. Rolf Lassgard does good barring certain scenes where he hams. Sidse Knudsen looks elegant and beautiful as a mother.

An ordinary story told in an extraordinary way. See it if you like emotional bollywood stuff. See it if you like to cry occasionaly watching a movie.

3.5* for the beautiful direction of the below average story.

Look!!! She is here : Malena - A movie review.

Well, two things at the begining:

• This is a movie for the matured audiences in India.


• This is an Italian Movie in Italian Language , watch it only if you don't mind reading subtitles.

I would like to start talking about this movie with the last dialogue of the movie. A grown up Renato, who was once a teenager, narrates the story, ending it saying :

"Time has passed, and I have loved many women.
And as they've held me close, and asked if I will remember them,
I've said, "Yes, I will remember you."
But the only one I've never forgotten is the one who never asked

... Malena. "

Its Malena's story from Renato's eyes.

Everyone, in their teenage days would remember their infatuation with someone which turns almost into obsession. You watch the object of your desire move around, you try and learn as much about him/her as you can, you try to follow, you try to overhear, you try to secretely desire, you fantasize, but you never let the other person know anything about it.

The movie is about this infatuation of a young boy Renato (Giuseppe Sulfaro) , well you can call it pure love the way he sees it, with an older married woman Malena (MonicaBellucci) who does not even know him.

Renato's First touch with beauty : His Bicycle and Malena ...

The time of the story is set in 1940, during world war II, as Italy goes in to the war and radios all around buzzing with the updates of the war.

On one of these days of 1940, two things happen to 12 year old Renato, one he gets his new bike and two he sees Malena for the first time. As the movie starts Renato's father (Luciano Federico) buys him a bicycle like all the big boys of the town. And powered by this new gift Renato is allowed to join the gang of old boys and do things that the grownups do. Along with the gang, he waits for Malena, who arrives walking by, making Renato feel the power of beauty by very looks of hers. The first sight and our Man is infatuated.

They Love Her...

She is extremely beautiful. She is the one desired by all, old, young, very young, in the town. Her magic makes heads turn in the market. Every one as she passes across the streets of the town, stares at every part of her body. The clothes seem to disappear in the looks of the men in the town. Everyone has a lustful eye on her. Everyone wants her. And so does Renato.

They Hate Her...

Ladies in the town, everyone, feels that she is making people fall for her delibrately and feels that she is not a good woman.

But Renato feels differently.

Powered by the unknown forces of teenage he keeps following her. He keeps waiting for her on the roads of town, infront of her house, at night peeping through holes in her house, at night following her in his dreams and fantasizing just the way everyone else does. He writes letters to her, but does not have the courage to hand it over to Malena.

Courage defeats Renato... he chases her just to run away from her..

His life is changing as he is discovering more of her following her to her father's house, following her at night through the holes in her house to see her dancing with her husband's photograph. A young lady whose husband has gone to Africa to fight in the war, whom she has not heard of since long, with whom she loves dancing on a romantic tune.

Her husband Nino Scordia (Gaetano Aronica) is missed by her dearly as she walks down the town with dishonouring stares looking at her, poking her mind with disgrace she hardly could bear, hearing abuses from the women all around for being so beautiful. She needs protection.

"She was too Beautiful and he was too young to protect her."

And so he visits church, prays god to protect her for some more years till the time he grows up. He is the only one in the town who knows her now through the escapades at night around her house.

He knows she is a honest woman, loving no one else except her husband. He knows she is longing for her. He knows there is no other man after her husband in her life... except him. He wants to tell her all this and more, writes letter, but could never find the courage to hand it over.

As he fights his way through the sexual needs in his life, with his father helping him through it (taking him to a prostitute), Renato discovers how strongly he loves Malena, and how much he wants to protect her. He keeps taking revenge in his own small ways with the people in town who are bad mouthing Malena. News of Nino Scordia, Malena's husband, dying at the war front makes everyone think that she is now "available". Her Father dies in the meanwhile in an air strike on their town.

Everyone wants to put their hands on her.

She is not having any source of income now. And a dentist in the town is obsessed with her to a point that he proclaims her to be his fiancee. Dentist wife sues Malena, a lawyer fights a case for her. With nothing to pay his lawyer, and lawyer wanting something more than money, she is forced to give in. She loses her honour as Renato can do nothing but watch. Man after man everyone exploits her. She is disgraced for money, for food and for everything in her life. Renato could do nothing as he sees her cutting her hairs through the hole in her house. Malena turns to prostitution.

She moves on to bed all the soldiers in the town, forcing her to live a life that she herself finds shameful.

When the women in the town gets a time to revenge, they beat her up and shaves her head, to throw her out of the town. She leaves with a heavy heart, punished for her life for being beautiful. Renato follows her till the station as she leaves. But can do nothing but see.

By the time you feel that the movie is reaching its gloomy end, comes Nino Scordia, who was not dead but has lost his hand. He is searching for his wife in the town, no one is going to tell him where she is as no one knows what happened to her after she was beaten up. One man knows.

Man-to-Man he writes ...

He writes a message to Nino, telling him that he is the only man who knows the real truth about his wife. He has learned a lot about courage but couldnot find enough to talk to Nino "Man-t0-Man" and he tells him how dearly she loved him and where did she go from there.

Well his life changes as much as hers by this revelation.

Life moves on, Renato finds a girlfriend, Nino finds Malena and brings her back to the town. The town now finding themselves guilty tries to friend Malena.

And for the first time before running away from her Renato talks to her wishing her

"Buona fortuna, signora Malèna " ( best luck, Madam Malena).

He runs away from her to remeber her for ever.

The story by Vincenzoni which every one who has ever been a teenager would relate to makes you go through the love, the desire, the angst and the fears of the young boy.

Well what makes the movie really special is the acting by the two lead actors. This movie was official introduction of Monica Bellucci to the American audiences. She and no one else would have looked so beautiful in the role she played. She looks absolutely mesmerizing with her beauty and charm.

The boy makes you relate to him instantly and you see how good an actor he will be in future. Most of the time in the movie Malena does not speak anything and most of the times Renato is speaking to himself. And its acting in these scenes that make the movie beautiful.

The scenes when Renato goes to the church and prays for her, when he looks at her crying from seeing her cut her hairs, when women beats her up, and the last scene are very well shot. The movie is at times funny, at times sedcutive and many times emotional.

The era is beautifully shown through the cinematography and the sets in the movie. The screenplay (Tornatore and Vincenzoni) is sinful and hooks you to the screen for knowing more about HER. The very charm of Malena captures you as the war goes on in background.

The editing (Massimo Quaglia) could have been better. Original music by Ennio Morricone is great, especially the composition," Ma L'Amore No ". Cinematography (Lajos Koltai) is equally mesmerizing.

The unidimensional thought process of a young mind, sexual at times, obsessed generally and pure in intention works both for and against the movie. The whole mood of the movie comes from it and it gets kind of monotonous after a while. Well i watched an edited 92min version of the film and there is more to it in the European cut of 110 min. Sexual overtones involving a teenager might not be recieved very positively with all the audiences and that gets a little too much if it goes on to 110 min.

If you like Monica Bellucci watch it for her. If you just like watching different kinds of cinema and want to try this one, its worth it.

A 3* movie anytime to be watched for all its human connection that you may find yourself identifying. Its a movie from 2000, you can get the DVD in the nearby store.

My Views On Citizen Kane : A Review

Well writing about a movie that generations has reviewed, watched and liked is not so easy. THe movie has been voted (though controversially) the best movie ever created. I will hear attempt to review a movie the way I found it. Well I almost watched the movie twice.

First day when i watched the movie, I found it boring, because since 1941 there has been hundreds of such movies in tens of languages that has said the same story as this. I did not find anything new, I did not find anything different, and I made up my mind that this movie cannot get anything more than a 2*.

Well, just after that I tried to find why then, is the world going ga ga over this movie. And the reasons that I read, made me watch the movie again. And I really found the technical brilliance of Orson Welles shine through Citizen Kane. Definitely one of the best made movies ever. My apologies ot welles for not getting this correct the first time.

Well before we go to the story, let me just give you the back ground of the times when this movie was made. During the second world war, at the time of rise of America as a super power. At times when the technology of movie making was not completely developed. At times when the directors had vision but the equipments never supported it to create a masterpiece. Orson Welles in those days came up with a hard effor putting everything in every shot of the movie, making it look as beautiful as movies in the times to come.

Story

This is an all American film, about an American of great reputation, Charles Foster Kane (Played by Orson Welles himself). He is a legendary newspaper Icon, who even after having all the riches in the world, making the 2nd biggest man made creation on earth, his palace Xanadu, is a lonely man at his death bed.

The movie starts with the "No Tresspassing" board along side a big "K" and Xanadu. The movie starts with the death of Charles Kane. And within in the first 8 min of the movie you learn everything about Charles Kane through the newspaper headlines that swamps the screen. The last words of the man dying in the big palace alone were "Rose bud"

A news reporter, Thompson (William Alland) believes that there definitely is a mystery behind his last words and goes on in search of the solution to the mystery.

The story of Charlie Kane unfolds as he moves on to interview people close to Mr.Kane. Each interview leading to a flash back showing a part of the legendary life of Mr. Kane. First he interviews Mr. Thatcher (George Colouris), who talks about the childhood or Charles Foster Kane, and how he was forced to leave his mother whom he so dearly loved. It is this love of her mother (Agnes Moorehead) that he longs for all his life and fails to get even when he is dying. The movie then moves on in a non-chronological sequences of Charles Kane's life.

Then the movie goes on through the interviews of Kane's Second wife Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore), Kane's personal business manager Mr.Bernstein (Everett Sloane), his best friend Jeddiah Leland (Joseph Cotten) and his butler Raymond (Paul Stewart). Each flash back taking us through the life of the great Kane.

How he choses as he grows to run a newspaper out of all the business he inherits, as he says that "Running a newspaper will be fun". He then turns to making profit anyhow, which makes him controversial with his yellow journalism and the news paper soars in popularity. He hires the best journalists for his paper. He marries the niece of the president, Emily Monroe Norton (Ruth Warrick).

He moves on to the second phase of his life, that of popularity and controversy. He Runs for the election of Governor. Loses for him involvement with a struggling singer, who goes on to become his second wife Susan Alexander. Kane's personality, dominates Susan's aspiration, he wants her to become a big Opera singer and wants her to be happy in the way he thinks she will be happy. This very nature of Charles Kane destroys their relationship. Her singing career drowns with Kane's best friend Lealand writing a "weak" review about, and he firing Leland for doing that.

As Charles builds a huge palace ( which Susan later says to be a 49000 acre of scenery and statues) to satisfy his ego, but still is not able to make Susan happy. She is lonely in a big place, having no one but a work-obsessed partner, who wants her to live the life that he has decided for her.

She leaves him in the end. And Kane is left all alone ironically in a Xanadu. And he dies alone in that big place.

All the interviews put together could not solve the puzzle of "Rosebud" for thompson, and he finally decides that this will always remain a secret. The last scene of the movie that shows the old Sled that Kane had in his childhood when he was with his Mother being burnt, and on it is written "Rosebud". This solves the mystery of what he missed on his death bed, what did he long for.

Performance

Orson Welles shines in all the department that he puts his hands on : Direction, Production, Acting, Story, Screenplay. It is his movie.


Well, everyone in each faculty of the movie performs brilliantly. The actors sufficiently supports the story with their acting. Orson Welles shines as Charles Kane. Joseph Cotten's and Everett Sloane's act were neat and noteworthy.


Technical Brilliance

Well, the movie as much belonged to the people behind the camera as to the one onscreen. One of the greatest Cinematography of its time by Gregg Toland, bringing innovation to everything that they did. Teaching for the years to come, the art of film making to the generations who learns film making there on. Editing too, by Robert wise was top grade. Music by Bernard Hermann was good with outdoor scenes showing good loud happy music and the indoor gloom of Xanadu captured with silence. Make up by Mel Berns, must have been the best in times as the same actors transcends age easily. Details were taken care to an extent that hazy contact lenses were used to show Leland's aging.

Sets prepared and the techniques used to show the grandeur of the movie was absolutely superb. All the department of visuals, special effects, sounds and screenplay shows an effort that was never put in before 1941, when the movie was made.

It was as if the art of movie making was rediscovered with Citizen Kane.

Innovations

Well the list of Innovations that the movie achieved was unbelievable. Am trying to list a few here.

• The most important technique that Tolland popularized with this movie and for which the movie is known is the extensive use of Deep Focus. In every scene, with the sharp focus you can see all the parts of the screen. The focus is not just in the central part. For example this scene in the first narration. Look at the young kane playing in the background. The same is also clear in almost all the scenes showing glasses, bottles etc. in the front and the main scene going on in the back, with focus on all of it.


• Other important innovation was in the area of camera work was the feeling where it almost looked as if they have used Zoom, where as zoom was not available in the equipments then.


• A great use of glasses and mirrors can be seen through out the movie to enhance the effect of the movie. You can especially feel this in the last scenes when Kane is left alone.

Use of glasses can also clearly be seen in the song. (There were no computers in those age to give this impressions). More important was the use of optical printers to layer one piece of scene on another as the movie transceds back and forth from the interview to the flash backs.

• Generally the movies then were shot in sound stages which did not have any roofs and hence the low camera shots were never tried. This was the first movie which shows many low camera shots (camera kept at a knee level) through out the movie.
  

• Visual Effects were created using miniatures to show Xanadu which was never done so efficiently before this movie


• Extreme Closeups was an art of shooting introduced with this movie.


• Sound innovations, overalapping of sounds and dialogues , “Lightning mix” a technique to connect scenes through set of sounds were all introduced to movie making through this movie.


• The movie pioneered the technique of putting the audio ahead of the visual in scene to make the soothing transitions between the scenes.


• For screenplay department the Non Linear time shifts in the movie was definitely innovative


• Use of lighting too was great. Especially for thompson, who tries to become the eye of the viewer as he interviews the characters. Most of the time his back was shown to the camera and whenver his face was shown it was kept in darkness. This makes it easy for viewers to palce themselves in his position. Brilliant.
  

• Trailer of the movie was as innovative as the movie itself. with Orsen welles the most famous voice on radio then, anchoring it.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyv19bg0scg&feature=related
  
  Another Important Innovation was the start of Auteur Theory with the movie, where a movie is considered to be rightful creation of the director. Its his vision and creation. Its' Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.

My criticism

Still after all this, the movie failed when it was released, though now it is a master piece. I understand that the reason would be the same which I felt while watching the movie for the first time.

Firstly, the movie went on becoming slightly borring. I did not find the narrative to be gripping.

Secondly, the story did not move around thompson talking about Rosebud, which I thought was kept as a key theme at the begining. Even the end leaves you with discontent over the mystery.

Thirdly, now in this age, after all the techiniques that were used for the first time then been used, and hundereds of stories done on the same lines, the movie becomes slightly irrelevant.

Lastly, the technical brilliance might not be appreciated by the viewer, they require more than that to watch a movie.

Overall for the technical brilliance ,which definetely was worth a 5*,, the narrative and relevance in present times, drags the film to a 3.5*.

But for people learning filmmaking this movie any day would be a masterpiece with a 5* learning from it.

May My Country see More Reemas Like You

Once in a while you come across a story of a really gifted child or a really gifted person who fights all the odds and goes on to become what they believe they should be.



Well the last time I heard of an artist who defied all odds was Sudha Chandran, who lost a leg in an unfortunate accident and still went on to become a good classical dancer.


Now as I was going through paintings of various Indian Painters, I came across the name of a 21 year old student of psychology, who also is a painter,Reema Bansal. As I read her profile on wikipedia, I feel it must have been quite a journey for a young girl like hers to be where she is.

I read that she turned to painting at an early age of 3 and i quote her biography, "had persisted with the brush despite her neuropathy- a disease which entails weakening of hands, arms, feet, legs and so on". Ofcourse challenging to turn to an art form using hands with a disease which is not easily curable. Add to it the lack of opportunities, in a small place like Jagadhri (Karnal).




But talent just shines, this young girl from Jagadhri to my surprise had been painting despite all the odds since last 18 years and with pity for her story i move on to look at her gallery, what would a young girl paint!! I would confess I did not expect the kind of depth of thoughts that i saw in her painting truly admirable. She has had 3 solo exhibitions which in itself talks about what this young artist has achieved. Her last exhibition with a painting titled "Miles to go" seems to present her spirit in colour :

And then there were a few more paintings of her which I thought were really thoughful for such a young age. Two of My personal favourite were Partners and Salvation.

Partners

As could be seen here the painting has colours representing a lot which cannot be truly expressed in words, something that says about human relationships, about the different rides of emotions attached to it, which is beautifully captured by reema at this age.

Salvation

Salvation again is a painting which speaks about eternal bliss. About the joy of knowing one self, reaching it, looking at it, touching it and feeling its oneness with the surroundings. How beautifully the colours show it!!

I admire the use of bright colours in her painting which represents a lot of optimism in her. May you go miles before you rest Reema.

All her painting apart from these two like Agony, Bliss, Hues and Horizons are equally beautiful and full of hope. You can check the same in her gallery .

Her story comes across to me as a very inspiring one. Lessons that we can learn from her is :

• Never give up
• Don't just do things to succeed, do things that you enjoy!!
• Most importantly, It also tells me that please don't pity anyone just for what happened to them, rather go ahead and encourage them to outperform others by their special ability.

Reema is a undoubtedly special gifted child. Reema, hope to See more of you in news in coming years. All the best.

There is one more thing that I would like to point here, Reema had special abilities that her parents spotted and developed despite the physical shortcomings that she had. We can understand that all we hence need to develop abilities in children is proper guidance. And for children of her age I think all it requires is dedication and believing in something very strongly.


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Just a random thought

I want to just divert myself a little from Reema's story here and want to appeal to people who can make a difference.


There are many in our country who are not even as previleged as Reema who require more care and opportunity in life to develop themselves. Look around you children working in chai shops, children polishing the shoes at railway stations, Children whose future might just go bleak for the lack of proper education. Can we by any means, divert a part of this hidden potential to persuade art in some form. I am sure we can get good singers, good painters and good musicians out of them. Would like to see more academies being opened for these children.