Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

When the truth behind the lie emerges,

The whole wide world gasps and watches,

The inhumanity of humanity,

The untimely death of serenity

‎Fahrenheit 9/11 , was listed as the best film of the decade in some list i read some time ago.. And i thought,, how can this be, it's just a documentary! Shortly afterwards i got hooked on to documentaries, but didn't see this 1 till today.... And now i see the justification.. It is truly an indicator of how easily we can be succumbed into believing something when fear is used as a weapon..

The documentary by Michael Moore mainly centers around George Bush's term as the president of united states, the unjustified and utterly selfish decisions he made just for the benefit of a handful people and in a very subtle way indicates that democracy in a real sense is non-prevalent in the modern world. Starting with the "who won Florida" controversy right till the aftermath of Iraq war, Moore follows Bush and points out the gaping flaws within the political system.

Some of the most disturbing images of war, the grief of the mothers who lost their sons, the crying shrieks of relatives have been used frame after frame along with false promises and assurances of American politicians and congressmen and the hypocrisy of the leaders is highlighted diligently..  

This film received a 20 minutes standing ovation at Cannes(longest for any film), and it is also the longest selling documentary of all times. Without revealing any plot details, i would say it is a must watch film which will drastically improve your understanding of the world.

Cinematic equivalents may be drawn with zeitgeist and the 11th hour.. 

Maverick Definitions (part 2)

EXAM--- The dangerous sequence of events including the JAMming of the EGG(metaphor phor the brain :P) in the course of which the flow of necessary information is interrupted.. The condition may worsen, sometimes leading to cracking of the egg, which in turn results into some queer circumstances...  All these events grouped together is called EGG-JAM..




 PROGRAM-- A secret underGround PROject undertaken by the government of India to intricately scrutinize and find out all the lands that were owned, rented or leased by sri RAM and give a detailed report afterwards....  This highly confidential event has been called PRO-G-RAM....


 Elephant--- The shriek of anguish(EEEEEEEE....) emanated from a person's mouth when he/she discovers that he/she has grown so fat that he/she doesn't fit into his/her old LEE(or levis or any other brand) PANT.... This is called EE-LEE-PANT... 


 STUDY--The dangerous course of action undertaken by a STUdent whose marginal overdose can compel him/her to DIE.. This may be regarded as a primary stage of suicide and must be avoided at all costs..


This "severely injurious to mental and physical health" act is often referred as   "STU-DIE" in colloquial terms...

Black Swan(2010)

It was dark, or it was dawn??

Or it was just a hallucination??

The mind tells a different story,

The nebulous perfection, mandatory??

Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky's fifth and latest film delves deep into the human mind and induces a queer mix of hallucination and reality. The protagonist, Nina Sayers works in a ballet company whose business is declining. Their most high profile dancer has been forced into retirement and a new production "swan lake" is just coming up. Nina fits perfectly into the character of the white swan, beautiful, fragile and all goody-two-shoes; but her life comes into a predicament while portraying the white swan's evil twin, the black swan. In come several characters, her domineering mother who was once a ballet dancer herself, the gray shaded master of the ballet company Thomas Leroy, and lily, who perfectly fits into the character of the black swan.

And Nina's dedication to dancing and performing takes a pivotal role with her mind playing tricks on her.. On her quest to achieve perfection she loses stability of her mind, imagining the impossible, doing the unthinkable. In this regard Natalie Portman's role as Nina should be mentioned specifically. She has trained for this film for months and all the effort shows in the dance sequences. Her eyes spoke, her body language killed. And her performance was definitely one of the best in quite some time. Don't be surprised if you see her walking home with that golden statute for "best actress".

All in all, black swan is a superb thriller revolving around a ballet company, painted mostly in rich dark shades by the director mostly in order to portray the mental state of the protagonist. The transitions from dream to reality, white to black have been shot meticulously well. But as this film delves much into the dark side, it may seem unpleasant for a category of the viewers and i'll advice them to refrain from this film.

Cinematic comparison may be drawn with David Lynch's Mulholland Dr or Mary Harron's 

American Psycho. 

walking past the presence of future

Am I,, chasing the mirage behind the shadows??
Trying to feel the wind behind close windows??
Am I,,desiderating to dream with open eyes??
Wanting truths to re-surface from the depths of lies??

Was I, alive? or living under the illusion of life?
Too lost in the reflection to notice the shimmering knife?
Was I, watching the watch, or was the watch watching me?
Counting each passing moment, anticlockwise till eternity?

Will I, ever wake up? to feel the warmth of a dissolving noon?
Or will a cold morning fade into a colder evening too soon?
Will I, be able to conjure a dream out of reality again?
Or will the dream become my reality,marked with a bloody stain?

I am,, watching the night with eyes wide open;
Taking in the darkness,noticing the black turning ashen.
I am,, looking at the horizon, waiting for the next dawn;
Preparing for a fight, a fight into the light, a light out of the night..

Headlight

Headlights staring blankly into the bleak night,
Dark asphalt, spread before like the wings of a mummified albatross..
The smell of burnt diesel rising up inside my lungs..
Dark night, pierced only by the slowly dwindling headlights...




Obfuscated trees flying along the window pane,
Like some resurfaced forgotten dreams fleeting away from memory..
The difference between the sky and the ground,real and imaginary;
Is also melting away,, only thing separating them are the slowly dying headlights..


Is it my past life I'm running from?
Or the uncertainty of the future?
But at the middle ground, both look the same, dark.
Just a glimmer,, showing the way,,the flickering headlights...


Destination, still unknown,,dawn, still not in sight,
Remaining only the fossilized excerpts  from an untold story,
Scattered along the forgotten alley along the paths of memory,
The hope of reaching still rests in the twinkling headlight...


No noise ring in my ears,, just an eerie silence
Except for the revving engine..
But even that sound is being muffled slowly,
As seen by the last vision of the dead headlight....

Abohoman(2010)(Bengali)

The sun has set,

The evening appeared as a gem;

The flower blossomed,

The lady closed her eyes in grief,

The chirping birds head for long fostered abode,

The moon appeared, with twinkling smile..

The fragrance of flowers melted into the air around,,

And at that moment the question rang-- which flowers would you choose?

What wealth would you get?

The goddess of sleep descended into the eyes of the sleep-deprived souls....

The sun has set...........

Abohoman-- means flowing....  And the story keeps flowing, into the past, takes a peek at the present and goes back into the past again.. It is this fluidity which keeps the spirit of the film alive.. Right from the first scene, the comparison between the bygone days and the present day has been drawn.. Two parallel stories- one about the situation after the demise of world renowned film director Aniket dies and the other while shooting for his film Binodini...


According to tinsel town gossip this story was loosely based on the relationship between Satyajit Ray and Madhabi Mukherjee... But in this narrative Rituporno transcends the story to a greater height, make it more than a tale of scandal.. The dilemma between the characters, the personal journeys, everything has been portrayed with a certain glitz.  


The two stories often get intermixed intentionally to obscure the boundaries between the characters of Sikha and Binodini. The acting has been top notch from all the actors,with a special mention to Dipankar Dey and Ananya Chatterjee.. 


This film is not above flaws,, and draws much from Rituporno's own earlier film The last lear.. the editing has been lackluster with the dubbing not being proper,,.. But all this minor flaws can be overlooked considering the heart of the film.. Such type of films should be encouraged and it definitely deserved the National award. 

The Fisher King(1991)

I love to dream of fame, maybe I'll shine,

I'd like to see your name right beside mine,

I can see were in harmony, looks like we both agree,

On what to do and I like it,

How about you? 

The depths of guilt, anguish and sorrow are visited and revisited again and again in "The fisher king"..  An once famous radio jockey loses his life when one of his listeners committed a mass massacre , apparently after hearing his advice.. Lost in life, he attempts at ending it.. But upon a curious turn of events he meets an apparently crazy person and together they tie the strings and pull the chords and ultimately sing the lore of the flowing human spirit..

But buried within the layers of fantasy, sometimes the truth surfaces it's ugly face, the past comes back to haunt over and over again, love seems lost, beauty seems transitory.. But that's not life is it? Beyond the mundane cup of honor, does really the holy grail lie? 

One of the most wonderful displays of acting I've ever seen. Jeff Bridges as the disgruntled RJ, Robin Williams as the homeless guy with a tragic past, Mercedes Ruehl as the loving friend and Amanda Plummer as the uncoordinated girl,,, every single one outshone in this Terry Gilliam classic....

 

Das Wunder von Bern(The Miracle of Bern)(2003)

That was my last shot, right into the net;

That was my best shot, i can bet.

Did we win, did we lose, does it matter?

But i know with every shot, I'm getting better...

Underdog stories where someone or some team comes up victorious in the race of life, overcoming all hurdles is quite common in the celluloid history.. But very few of them are as honest in the depiction of events as "The Miracle of Bern". It follows the story of the journey of the German team in the 1954 world cup. But more intriguing are the various sub-plots running parallel in perfect cohesion, like that of the soldier who returned home after the war and finding it extremely difficult to cope up, the small boy trying to live his dreams and how life goes on despite all the oddities.


It may not be as thrilling as some other sports films, but it definitely touches the heart.. The feelings of tenderness, love and trying to get one step ahead abound in this film. It is inspirational in it's own way.. 

A-pee-Jay :D

Both Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan go to auditioning for the role of James Bond in a new Bond film.. 

They are told to perform a stunt sequence where they have to jump above an obstacle... Both jump, but one breaks his leg.. But the other person is perfectly alright.. 

 Guess who didn't break his leg??


 Daniel Craig..

 










why? 

 
















bcoz Shorter Bonds are harder to break...

My friends, my life, my phone

The eastern horizon was ravishingly red,
But alas i was on my bed, sleeping like dead.


Just then my ears buzzed with a nostalgic tone,
It was the mesmerizing alarm of my mobile phone!


Calling me into a life full of dreams,
A walk down the memory streams..


Reminded me of my lost days under the sun,
The moments with my friends,the hours of fun..


The mindless clicking of pictures of a sleeping buddy,
The long sms chats, while pretending to study..


All those nights we spent talking with each other,
The strange meanings of friendship we tried to decipher;


Life seemed so bright, as we seized the sands of time;
But didn't know it would slip away,like a defeated king's regime..




Those days stared back at me blankly, didn't say much;
What if I could bring them back with just OneTouch??

Maverick Definitions

 REPAIR-- when you love for the first time, someone breaks your heart... u love again and ur heart is healed.... This phenomenon is called RE-PYAR.... :D

 INDUSTRIALIZATION-- The process by which TREEs are turned INto DUST and the people responsible for this LIE that this is actually for the progress of mankind.. this is IN-DUST-TREE-LIE-zation.......

MOSQUITO-- A group of blood-thirsty creatures who have been instructed that they MUST-QUIT-O(Blood group, of course).... Not to be confused with similar creatures who hail from the TWILIGHT.... 

 JUSTIN BIEBER-- JUST a TEEN who sings like a BEE with a BARitone.... This specific person is named JUST-TEEN BEE-BAR.

NIGHTMARE-- The scary dreams experienced by the people of Gotham City when Batman got affected by recession and sold his bat-mobile to buy a female horse(MARE).. This phenomenon was termed as KNIGHT-MARE..

 MODIFICATION--- The  changes to the game of cricket brought about by  Lalit K MODI when he shortened the boundaries,along with dresses of cheerleaders,,,  and in turn paved the path for the most innovative ways of match fixing(news is he is going to modify the popping crease and make it parabolic so that no-balls can be bowled with ease, from next IPL)...  All these changes as a whole are called MODIfications....

 CHIMPANZEE-- CHIcks who do weird stuff(like slapping in slow motion,, screaming with their mouth shut,, talking telepathically,, being immortal,, etc etc) when the camera PANs on them, during daily soaps on ZEE(and sony and star plus ,etc etc) are cumulatively known as CHI-m-PAN-ZEEs....

The tunes that don't leave me!!

Everybody likes to hear songs, tap to the beats, sometimes even gather up courage and take hold of the microphone on the stage [This reminded me of a recent event, and since i've nothing better to do, I'm gonna share it here, although it is quite unrelated to the topic on which i thought i wud b writing when i started typing.... So it was teacher's day celebration at our college.. And everything was boring as usual, typical speeches, dripping air conditioners, super-miserly food etc etc... And when the program was almost about to end, a guy stepped up on to the stage.. A first year guy,took a hold of the microphone and started singing.. 2 seconds passed, 4 seconds passed and that's when the audience realized that now even Himesh had competition.. And as all sane people should do when they notice another indication towards a vocal attack(read indication of the third world war, or the apocalypse),they started clapping.. And after around 15 seconds the guys controlling the microphone switched off it's power.. But that singer guy was as strong and defiant as Mallika Sherawat when asked to do a dance sequence with all her clothes on.. He stood up in the face of firing(read claps and boos) and continued his singing( or whatever the sound coming out of a vocal chord that could scare an octopus into taking up arms{:P} is called)...  and this continued for the next 4 minutes.. God knows what he was singing, but nobody could ignore the courage and dedication this guy had shown.. He sure will shine in whatever he does in his life( but let's hope he doesn't take up singing, because humans' tolerance limit  to Himeshs' is always less than or equal to one)..]]


Gosh, what was i trying to write about?? Forgot... well, let's keep that for another day.....

Do i use too many brackets?

The last survivor

Towards the blinding light,
The last station at sight..
Towards the nebulous uncertainty,
The last survivor of a nuked city..


The sky turned grey,
World turned into ashtray,
Smoke seemed solid now,
He wiped the last drop of sweat from his brow..


Hope? was there a thing like that?
When survival was not a threat?
He couldn't recall the meaning of the word,
Only a vague feeling crept into the absurd....


The dying screams of thousands rang in his ear,
That was the last music he could hear,
And he thought it to be a masterpiece,
How could God's last beat be anything else?


God? was there a thing like that?
The broken debris at his feet didn't help him decide,
Neither did the forgotten prayers he used to recite.
Nor the corpses of the soldiers dead in combat..


He strode along the path where his home used to be,
Where once laughter rolled,beside the old palm tree,
The places etched into the walls of his memory,
Were now burning pages of a forgotten story....


The sun was coming up, redder than ever,
Reddening the already bloody river,
He looked up, his stare blank..
He was the last survivor,but didn't know whom to thank....

Toy Story 3

The distant memories of childhood all rush back while watching toy story... And it was no different for the third installment of this classic pixar franchise, arguably one of the best animated film series ever which gets better with each film..... 

Andy is 17 years old and now he has to go to college.. Will he abandon his old  playmates buzz, woody, jesse and others and put them with trash? Or will he stash them in the attic? The confusion lingers on as new places, new toys and new adventures unravel before us...

Toy story leaves us spellbound at the innocence of childhood, the fragrance of old days that linger on, the decisions we have to make, the hearts we have to break, the unfulfilled promises,, but the thing which shines out amidst all these is the feeling of togetherness... Whatever be the situation, the warm feeling of friends looking after you and caring for you.. 

Dirge of a dream, death of a seeker

Came and went the moment of truth,
The seeker sought after the evanescent sleuth 
But he returned from his quest with bare hands,
'Coz the tracks of time had vanished within the sands...


The mythical sands of time had blown past the horizon,
Hiding the already red sun and the dusky dawn,
It pierced the yellow withered leaves
Along with the lonely heart that convoked grieves..


The seeker didn't know that his quest,
Was never meant to be fruitful,
He didn't know that the pain in his chest
Was his own treacherous heart afoul..


All that he believed in faded into the void,
All his dreams deserted him, 
And he stared at the reality,
Which he was trying so hard to avoid...


He couldn't face the truth nor could turn away,
His barren heartland had nothing more to say,
The seeker had lost another battle,
His dying sigh didn't even make the last grain of sand rattle...

10 Steps to writing fiction

10 steps to writing fiction: 

 

Step 1: Decide the subject matter- 

The first step into writing good fiction is deciding on the topic you want to write about. For starters it would be good to pin-point on one idea and then elaborate it. In case of a novel 

there should be many sub-plots which will be connected to the main plot. But in case a of story the number of sub-plots should be kept at a bare minimum. 

Step 2: remember truth is stranger than fiction:

You should follow the events happening around you. Many famous fiction stories have been inspired from the surroundings including peter pan. Who knows which event will inspire you to write a masterpiece! A falling leaf can become the pioneer of autumn, so always keep your eyes and ears open for inspiration.

 

Step 3: Discuss

You should always discuss your ideas with friends and family. Don't make a belief in your mind that they will laugh at you. They can be your first proof reader and can even suggest improvements. This really works, so don't refrain from sharing your ideas. 

Step 4: Have a sound base in the language you are writing:

A good knowledge in the language you are writing is of primal importance. Correct grammar will take you a wrong way and if it is the other way round then your progress will be halted in midway. So if your grasp over the language isn't good, first improve that and then start writing.

Step 5: Think crazy

While writing fiction, you can't be bound within the stereotyped relationships and yawn inducing storyline. You have to think out of the block. When Jules Verne wrote about submarines, nobody considered him seriously, but see the situation now. So give wings to your dreams and let them fly, unobstructed.

Step 6:Don't think too much about future:

Sometimes writers ponder too much about things like "what will happen when my first book is published", "what will I say during my Booker acceptance speech" and things like that. This will only rupture your concentration and nothing else. What will happen will happen. You have no hand in that. You just need to write a good piece which everyone will enjoy.

Step 7: Know your limits:

Don't overestimate yourself, and for that matter the reverse is also true- don't underestimate yourself. You are the only person who knows your capabilities. So remain within your boundary while writing and create exquisite stuff.

Step 8: Don't be afraid at writer's block:

All writers experience writer's block at some point or the other. Ideas seem to dry up and all the paths seem dark. But don't get frustrated. There is always a way out. So just keep your mind open and think about what you are writing every once in a while.

Step 9: Submit your work:

You have to be brave enough to be able to submit your work. Don't live under the fear of rejection even before you have tried. If you have done your job whole heartedly, then success is bound to follow you one day or the other.

Step 10: Learn to accept rejection:

Many people break down at rejection and find it hard to find new inspiration to continue writing. But rejection is just a step in the path of success. Take rejection positively and begin again with new vigor and enthusiasm. You will definitely overcome all the obstacles one day. 

Ambushed and forgotten!

How often have you wondered what is the basis or what is the origin of the word you are so frequently using in your daily life? Did you know that when you say to someone- “You are a nice person”, you are actually calling him an idiot in Latin? Our vocabulary is replete with such words whose meanings have undergone a huge change since their actual conception and no one remembers the original meaning any longer. That is quite an awful fact to notice, where awful refers to its original meaning- something delightful and amazing...

Frailty(2001)

Hand of god, or an evil desire,

Lurking in the dark depths of your heart?

You want peace,or another fire,

To silence the joys yet to take birth?

Frailty is a strange tale of delusion and paranoia mixing with spirituality  and veiled by a thrilling background. First of all it needs to be stated that the content of this film may offend people who don't take a film as a film, and may also hurt some religious sentiments.

Now getting down to the plot, this starts with a young man visiting a FBI chief and telling that he knows the identity of a notorious murderer whose recent murders were becoming a menace for the police. And then he justifies his theory by revisiting his traumatic childhood and the bizarre nightmarish events that he had to encounter.But soon the tables turn, the prey becomes the predator and another side of the story unveils itself leaving the viewer in a dazed state.

The film is very well acted, the suspense element builds right from the beginning and doesn't let go at any time of the story. The semi-illuminated close ups, the haunting background score everything indicates at something ominous taking place, and it does; but not in an ominous way!!

Paprika(2006)

 

The sun during midday will light up the dark night.

Night dreams of day.

Light dreams of darkness. 

But the ignorant sun will chase away the darkness

and burn the shadows... 

eventually burning itself!

The shade of the tree

with the flowers that bloom at night

is where the residents of darkness rest. 

The people of daytime are not allowed!

What happens when dream mixes with reality and their intermingling creating a world so unearthly, a dream so vivid, a nightmare so dark that the very fabric of the cosmos is being threatened by it?

This is what paprika is.A dream, two dreams, many many dreams all of which verge in on a huge delusional nightmare.

The main thread of the story is 'DC mini' a next generation technology which lets one to see his dreams and others to enter that dream. we have seen infinite times before that a virtually innocuous thing may turn deadly, and exactly that happens here. Dream terrorists rise, people penetrate into other people's dream and try to control them, and amidst all these our central characters run within dreams and realities whose distinction is being constantly blurred.

Paprika is not about reality and not about dream, it's about the mixture of the two and hence can't be totally comprehended by neither the conscious nor the subconscious mind. It will leave you in a dreamy state.

Recommended to all those who like David lynch's stuff, Miyazaki films, the fall, tim burton's big fish etc.

21 Grams(2003)

The earth turned to bring us closer,

It turned on itself and in us,

Until it finally brought us together;

In this dream......

21 grams is the weight which a human being loses at the moment of his death,and this movie explores the myriad emotions that are attached with those 21 grams,the several forgotten memories hidden within those 21 grams,the guilt,the tears,the love and smiles which comprise those 21 grams.

The fragmented story telling in this film creates a emotionally wrenching impact as in one moment we are introduced to a character and in the next we find him lying,flooded with blood.This in a way is complex to follow,but if you let your mind flow along with the unveiling of story;in the end everything will be clear as a cloudless sunny summer day.

21 grams is basically the story of 3 people- an ex con who tried to reform but always found himself at the wrong end of the stick;brilliantly played by Benicio Del Toro, the wife of a man who gets killed in an accident along with his 2 daughters;portrayed by Naomi Watts and ultimately sean penn playing the role of the man whose ailing heart is replaced by the person who died in that accident.

The story moves without any definite time frame and the characters are revealed bit by bit in each scene until at the emotional climax when everything gets mingled in a picturesque manner...

A beautiful film, recommended for those who enjoyed memento,7 pounds, stay, fracture etc...  

A nightmare before xam

I woke up at the middle of the night,
Struck by fear,startled by fright;
The demons that plagued my nightmare,
Seemed to linger near and stare.....

They were no ordinary fiend,no blood sucking vampire,
They were the evil spirits of tomorrow's exam,the scariest out there.
They devour on happiness,chase away peace of mind,
No spell can peter-out them,they're only one of a kind....

I sat bewildered,the table on which i was sleeping groaned,
The gaping book ahead,which yesterday i had loaned,
Was smirking,and i could see the flash of it's teeth,
Ready to chew me in, page number seventieth..


I took a look,into the book;but to no avail,
The words seemed to run away,leaving no trail.
And i started running behind,trying hard to catch,
But every-time they eluded me,ahead of me by a notch..


Tired of running i finally decided,
Better not to make my brain any more confounded,
So once again i took the book as a pillow under my head,
And once again i slept like dead........

Dev D(2009)

 koee ummeed bar naheen aatee
koee soorat nazar naheen aatee
maut ka ek din mu’ayyan hai
neehd kyon raat bhar naheeh aatee?
aage aatee thee haal-e-dil pe hansee
ab kisee baat par naheen aatee
 jaanta hoon sawaab-e-taa’at-o-zahad

The ultimate tragic hero of Bengali literature, saratchandra chattopadhay's superlative creation, Devdas finds a new incarnation in Anurag kashyap's Dev-D. It is in a way a ground breaking film in Bollywood where the actors don't sing and dance around trees(here beer bars),and nobody is morally and politically perfect.And the hero the the most morally compromised guy in the whole movie!!

It begins with young dev sitting on the staircases near a river and paro running with a tiffin box in her hand, her destination-dev.Dev goes to London,comes home vilaiti-munda whom everyone looks up on,he takes advantage of all the attention and slowly but surely drifts away from paro.. Paro tries hard to reconnect,to re-spark the lost love, but Dev seems beyond repairs.And ultimately paro marries some other guy and goes away.And the time was ripe for dev to realize that paro was the love of his life.. But he has gone to a point of no return and his only way out is immersing himself in wine. Carrying out this way of life he meets with leni(chanda) and falls in love with her too..And then  a series of events unfurl,taking dev towards his destiny.

All the performances were top notch.Abhay Deol has already made a mark in Bollywood as an actor who doesn't follow the formula.His potrayal of dev is one which stays and lingers on,even when the film is over. Mahie gill as paro symbolized Indian feminism,with eyes speaking for her in situations when the lips didn't part.Kalki Koechlin as leni was a revelation.The ease with which she carried the supremely complex character deserves more than a standing ovation..The music was exemplary, blending perfectly with the tone and grayish hue of the film..

Dev D doesn't seek for sympathy of the viewer,it connects with the viewer and tells-this one could be you,,,  films like these are keeping bollywood alive,helping it to survive among all the trash being churned out at the speed of knots..

A time to kill(1996)

A time to kill,
and a time to heal;
a time to break down,
and a time to build up;

Another John Grisham courtroom drama cum suspense thriller turned into a film,, with serious doses of some 'ism's...
To begin with, racialism, then sexism, then favoritism,then clan-ism and at last 'they all live happily ever after'-ism....


It begins with two white guys almost killing a 10 yr old black girl by means of some very graphic acts,the father of the girl getting enraged and killing them both in-front of a million eyes...And then the usual Grisham stuff follows, legendary lawyers,prodigious lawyers,good jury, bad jury,complicated judge and a scintillating courtroom drama..

Apart from the clan thing thrown in here and there, which seemed outright foolish and out of place,this film was enjoyable and thrilling. Acting was good, Matthew McConaughey as the prodigious young lawyer who felt for the convict,Sandra Bullock as the his helper, and Samuel L. Jackson as the convict;everybody delivered...

P.S- Samuel L. Jackson looked like Nana patekar's clone in this film.. see for yourself...