At home this diwali

At home this diwali vacation, carrrying on in high spirits of movie viewing, here are some more comments on the films I saw over the vacation break...

My second of Majid Majidi's films, Baran, turned out to be yet another beautiful and touching story, narrated with the simplicity that is typical to Majidi's work. Although this is only the second of his movies that I have seen, his earlier film Children of Heaven also had the very same gentle appeal to itself. The movie does not have any deep plot as such, its just the simple narrate of a young worker in Tehran, Lateef, who falls in love with the Afghan worker, Baran, when he realises the truth of her identity. Though not professing his love for the pretty Baran, Lateef goes out of the way to ensure the comfort of the girl he has fallen in love. A simple and interesting story told in the backdrop of a pretty countryside, this movie is a good watch!

Children of Heaven, also has the same simplicity about itself. A story of a little boy and his sister, whose shoes he has lost, and the innocence with which the deal with their shoe crisis! :) It is really a very "pretty" movie. The charm of the young children and the decisions they take while trying to figure out a way to manage the lost pair of shoes, is just so touching. The story line is also impressive here, as Majidi brings out some subtle and ironical twists to the tale. Another excellent watch!


Monica Belluci is so beautiful!!!! Thats all I could think of while watching Malena. Really....! :)
Well, I quite liked this film too, and I would recommend it. Quite a sexy film, narrated by a teenage boy who is enchanted by the beauty of the talk-of-the-town Malena Scordia. In the backdrop of Mussolini announcing war, this story is of a town "attacking" the life of the beautiful and helpless woman Malena, turning her from Bride to widow to prostitute, leaving her no other means for survival. Young Renato however, a boy of 12, silently "watches" over Malena and safeguards her innocence until the return of her presumably dead husband. With the war having ended the couple returns to live in their family home and are treated with respect by the locals this time.
Some reviews I had read on this film, had drawn interesting parallels between Malena and Italy itself, in the way both are cherished, mis understood, illtreated and then respected again as they go through a period of war / struggle. Interesting!