Cinema par Excellence!! CASABLANCA (1942)

"Casablanca" opens on maps while a narrator gives a detailed exposition of the many twists and turns of Casablanca in the French Morocco, as a refugee route from wartime Europe...

Rick's Café is the point of intersection, the espionage center, the background for Allied offensive, the focal point as refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe seek to gain exit visas to Lisbon... The interesting club so well organized, leads to an open arena of conspiracy, counterspies, secret plans, black market transactions, in which the games and fights are between arrogant Nazis, patriotic French, idealists, murderers, pickpockets and gamblers around a roulette wheel, where a ball could rest on Rick's command against the settled number 22...

"Casablanca" is an adventure film which victory is not won with cannons and guns... The action, the fight, the war takes place inside Rick's walls rather than outside...

But who is this Rick? What is his magical power? His secret weapon? Rick is the anti-fascist with hard feelings, the former soldier of fortune who has grown tired of smuggling and fighting, and is now content to sit out the war in his own neutral territory... Even loyalty to a friend doesn't move him as he refuses to help Ugarte, a desperately frightened little courier who is fleeing from the police...

Emphatically, Rick says, "I stick my neck out for nobody." But we know he will do just that in a very short time, for into his quiet life comes a haunting vision from his past, the beautiful woman he still loves and bitterly remembers... She is married to an underground leader and she desperately needs those papers Rick conveniently now has in his possession... The cynical Rick's facade of neutrality begins to weaken as he recalls the bittersweet memories of his past love affair, memories triggered repeatedly when the strains of "As Time Goes By" come from Sam, his piano-playing confidante...

But "Casablanca" basic message is a declaration of self-sacrifice... War World II demanded all! The words stated by Rick at the airport had their impact: 'The problems of three people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.' It goes without saying that Bogart is incomparable when he seems most like himself... His way with a line makes "Casablanca" dialog part of the collective memory: 'I remember every detail. The Germans wore gray. You were blue.'

Ingrid Bergman is fascinating as the lovely heroine, the mysterious impossible woman of an impossible love, the tender mood of every man, the love-affair, the quality of being romantic, the traditional woman enclosed by two rivals, symbol of a besieged Europe...

The magic that developed from the teaming of Bogart and Bergman is enough to make a new romantic figure out of the former tough guy... To his cynicism, his own code of ethics, his hatred of the phoniness in all human behavior, he now added the softening traits of tenderness and compassion and a feeling of heroic commitment to a cause... They helped him complete the portrayal of the ideal man who all men wished to rival...

One can look at hundreds of films produced during this period without finding any whose composite pieces fall so perfectly into place..., the music score is inventive, the editing is concise and timed perfectly... Bogart's and Bergman's love scenes create a genuinely romantic aura, capturing a sensitivity between the two stars one would not have believed possible...

"Casablanca" though released in 1942 is still a masterpiece of entertainment, an outstanding motion picture, and must watch for every one.

REVIEW 'THE NOTEBOOK'

Yesterday saw movie The Notebook, Its been a long time since I saw a romantic movie so just thought to play The Notebook. The movie starts when rich girl Allie (rachel mcadam) comes to beautiful town sea brook, North Carolina for summers to spend vacation with her family. A poor guy called Noah (Ryan Gosling) sees her and suddenly falls in love, then he just do anything to impress her and got her attention finally and they fell in love and spend entire summer together, this part of the movie reflects the teen age, tender love between them, they do any kind of crazy things and relish the company of each other, but then their background cames in front and they get separated, well what happened after that is full of drama, emotions, betrayal, romance, anger.
The most significant part of this movie is that you see the character grow by the time, and after some time everybody realise that their is difference between physical attraction and LOVE. At the end of the day when you are in love you just want to spend time with your loved one, no matter what, you just want to see her, just want to hold her and you just want to do things she likes, no matter she cares for that or not, in the movie when noah makes promise to build the dream house for allie, he finally makes it even when he knows that allie is in relationship with some one else, but it says that when you love some one set her free, if she is yours she will come back and if she doesn't then she was never yours, and allie finally comes.
The best part is when they get old and allie caught by a disease where she dont remember anything even then noah stays with her all the time and read her all their story, so that everyday even for some minutes when her memory comes back they can be together and love each other, what a great portrayal of true love, and without the great cinematography by robert fraisse the feel of the movie could not have come, he created the wonder with camera. I must say that those who are in love or want to be in love, this movie is treat to watch, ha you may have tears in your eyes in the end though.

Review Ishquia

From the very beginning I am following Vishal Bhardwaj, and now I can say that apart from having creative skills, he possess very good sense of business as well. He never neglected the demand of today's youth, neither he under the influence of his own intellectual impression tried to be very correct all the time. He used his creativity in very open way which represent the non filmy presentation of every situation, and that clicks, Even in this film Abhishek Choubey (The director) who represent the same so called bhardwaj style which used to be style of parallel cinema earlier, (shyam benegal type) to reflect the poverty and miserablity, bhardwaj uses this style to express greed, humour, lust and you can use the word dark comedy for his films,
Ishquia is film about strong characters who are non-apologetic about their shrewdness, and vulgarity and they keep the story going by throwing dialogues which hits you like punches, bhardwaj is dialogue writer in this film. Bhopali Dialect in the film is used pretty well and twists in the film never lets you relax for even a minute. Nice different way of presenting a story and all the people who like grounded and earthy way of film screenplay should go and watch this movie. Arshad warsi is spontaneous and chilled out actor whereas naseer played the role so beautifully that some times you dont relalise that this is film. Vidya looked very seductive and it can be lesson for all the other aspiring actresses that in complete cloths one can look more sensuous.