ratnakar-sadasyula By Ratnakar Sadasyula Tony Scott was not an auteur, nor was he a director with an artistic touch. Unlike his brother Ridley, whose Blade Runner has been dissected  and analyzed, and whose Alien was as a landmark in sci fi horror, one would not  really ponder over every frame of Top Gun or even his best picture to date True Romance. Make no mistake, Tony Scott was as popcorn  as it gets, his movies were hard core entertainers all the way.  Still it takes some amount of skill to churn out an entertainer by itself, and Tony Scott was extremely good at it. His... 

Ratnakar Sadasyula Seeti Maar Rajesh Khanna’s Kudrat(1981) By Ratnakar Sadasyula Among the Anand brothers, Chetan Anand had his own distinct identity. Not a flamboyant superstar like Dev nor a very popular director like Vijay , Chetan neverthless managed to carve out his own distinctive identity. His very first debut as a director was with an offbeat movie called Neecha Nagar( 1946) scripted by K.A.Abbas. In 1954 he directed brother Dev in a noirish crime flick Taxi Driver, which also had some great songs, following it up with Funtoosh in 1956 kind of a black comedy. He also came up with... 

Seeti Maar Film review – The Descendants By Ratnakar Sadasyula The Descendants is a simple story, where if you were to put yourself in the shoes of the protagonist Matt King (George Clooney), you would feel anxious and scared about your world that seems to be collapsing. It is about a man trying hard to hold the pieces of his world in place with a smile and with dignity, while seeing sides of him that he never knew existed. Set in Hawaii, the narrative takes off with Matt telling us about his wife Elizabeth’s speedboat accident which has left her comatose. For the last 15 days,... 

1893, Chicago, The World Parliament of Religions - A young monk from India, dressed in orange robes, stood up to address the gathering. He bowed nervously to Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning, and started with “Sisters and Brothers of America”. The 7000 strong audience, stood up to a man, and gave him a standing ovation for 3 minutes. None had ever spoken to them like before. When he finished his speech, the people in the gathering rushed over to congratulate him. For the first time, Hinduism, was not seen as an exotic Oriental oddity, but as a philosophy with immense depth, from... 

Seeti Maar Robert De Niro- 1970s By Ratnakar Sadasyula He drove all around New York city in a taxi for his role in Taxi Driver , he put on 60 pounds and learnt boxing for Raging Bull . And when he had to play Al Capone, he actually tracked down the original tailors for Capone, and got his clothes designed by them. Perfectionist, method actor, legend, superstar and one of the greatest actors of all time, Robert Mario De Niro Jr, a.k.a Robert De Niro. Johnny Boy The 1973 movie Mean Streets , would propel De Niro into the limelight, it would also signal the beginning of his association... 

Seeti Maar Robert De Niro- Taxi Driver By Ratnakar Sadasyula The 1970’s was a decade of disillusionment for the US. It was for the first time it found it’s superpower status under threat. While Vietnamexposed the limitations of it’s military might, back home the Watergate scandal, made people lose faith in their elected Government and the office of the President. In the East, a rejuvenated Japan, rising from the rubble of WW2 , was emerging as an economic superpower in it’s own right, especially in the field of automobiles and electronics. OPEC’s decision to raise oil prices, and... 

Seeti Maar Brian De Palma Special By Ratnakar Sadasyula Brian De Palma has always been one of my  all time favorite directors. From gangster dramas likeScarface, Carlito’s Way, The Untouchables to action thrillers like Blow Out, Body Double to horror movies like Carrie to war dramas like Casualties of War he has covered it all. Add to that some stunning visual montages be it the Odessa steps scene in The Untouchables or the pool room shoot out in Carlito’s Way. Here is a tribute to the director with some posts of mine. Blow Out:Only the Paranoid survive Ted  Kennedy,... 

Seeti Maar Jack Nicholson-90′s & Beyond Ratnakar Sadasyula In 1992 Jack did another of his scene stealer acts in A Few Good Men , where in a negative role, he stole the show from Tom Cruise , as Col Nathan Jessep, a US Army officer who covers up a murder. His outburst in the “You cant handle the truth son” scene ranks as one of the greatest. His next biopic Hoffa directed by his friend Danny De Vito , about the controversial trade union leader Jimmy Hoffa, was however a critical and commercial dud, followed by disappointments like Wolf and Mars Attacks . And just when... 

Seeti Maar Jack Nicholson- Part Two- 80′s By Ratnakar Sadasyula One of Jack Nicholson’s most chilling performance was in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining . He is Jack Torrance , an alcoholic former teacher, who takes up a job at Overland Hotel , inspite of warnings about it’s pretty unsavory past. Strange events in the hotel, make him lose sanity, and turn on his own family members. Jack’s portrayal of the half crazed psycho, does make your hairs stand on an end. He is homicidal, insane and crazy. You certainly would not want to... 

Seeti Maar Jack Nicholson’s, early days: late 60′s & 70′s By Ratnakar Sadasyula Between 1967 and 1982, Hollywood was exposed to a new style of movie making. The studio system still existed, but the new breed of directors and actors were more influenced by European new wave and the counter culture trends. The failure of big budget extravaganzas like Cleopatra, Dr.Dolittle, Hello Dolly, Waterloo put Hollywood on the back foot. The youth of that period were totally exposed to Fellini, Truffaut, Antonioni, Kurosawa and at the same time thanks to Vietnam, Watergate , a...