A few favorite Original Soundtracks from Hollywood

Here are a few songs that figured in movies most of which I have seen and occupy a special place in my play lists. The list is not exhaustive and I just picked 10 that came to my mind from the huge base. I will be soon coming out with a list of favorite movie themes (ya ones without lyrics). So watch out!!! :)

1. Gonna Fly Now- Rocky
2. Mad World - Donnie Darko
3. Streets of Philadelphia - Philadelphia
4. Raindrops falling on my head - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
5. Into the West - Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
6. Now we are free - Gladiator
7. Needle in the Hay -Good Will Hunting
8. Can't take my eyes off you - The Deer Hunter
9. Singing in the rain - Singin in the rain
10.Kiss from a Rose - Seal

Apocalypse Now - Intro

[Scene 1] Coconut trees. Rows and Rows of coconut trees. Distant humming of a helicopter. Silhouette of a helicopter passes through, unsettling a lot of dust. Guitar starts rolling slowly. The blown up dust seems to dance to the guitar rolling in the background. More Helicopters enter the scene and the forest starts to explode.

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end

The inverted face of Martin Sheen smoking a cigarette is visible along with the overhead fan, all in a montage with the burning coconut trees and the passing helicopters.

I’ll never look into your eyes
Again
Can you picture what we’ll be,
So limitless and free?
Desperately in need
Of some stranger’s hand
In a desperate land

The guitar continues.The montage shows papers,photos and books lying over his bed with all the fire burning the trees. Sleeping face, Cigarettes, a lighter, a bottle of Martell and his handgun.

Lost in a Roman
Wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah

The rotating fan seems to sound like a Helicopter.
This sound wakes him up. He takes a look outside the window and says-

"Saigon"
"Shit"


The first four minutes of "Apocalypse Now". Makes me speechless and moody every time I see this. On the contrary, I feel like seeing this, everytime I am moody and speechless :). Kind of sets me in the right mood.

The song is 'The End' performed by 'The Doors'.
Here is the link to the sequence in Youtube. (around 7 minutes)

Can someone please remake Leon again?

A few years ago, released a movie ‘Bichoo’ starring Bobby Deol and Rani Mukherji where Bobby played an aging cold hitman and Rani played a young girl next door (yes,literally!!) whose family gets killed in a shoot out involving drugs. Rani seeks help of the hitman-neighbour for the clean up job, in the process falls in love with him, sings and dances on roof-tops and scenic mountain tops. I really don’t know how the movie ends.I could never make myself to sit past the next five minutes whether its the beginning or the middle even after multiple attempts. I have seen the song-n-dance sequences in those countdown shows and yes, I am a big fan of Leon a.k.a The Professional from which Bichoo is ripped off.

Directed by the French Director Luc Besson, Leon tells pretty much the same story except that the hitman is an aging character played by Jean Reno and the girl next door Matilda is a 12 year old played by Natalie Portman. The movie is so well made that it works as an action movie, as a heart warming comedy and as a story of human relations beyond romance. Gary Oldman pulls off a scary and psychic villain character in this flick.

So what is the point, I am trying to make here? Well, if some skilled director is running out of ideas and they are looking for inspiration somewhere, why not Leon? Leave Bichoo alone and don’t even talk about it. Cast Big B as Leon, find a youngster for the role of Matilda (maybe the girl from ‘Black’) and Boman Irani as the cold blooded DEA officer.

Just make sure that the movie is not going to be promoted as the story of a pedophile or it will end up as a disaster like Nishabd, just for the wrong reasons. Not to forget the legal rights for the remake.

Aamir - The Leader

The moment I heard that Anurag Kashyap is associated with Aamir, I had made up my mind that I have to see it (being a big fan of 'Black Friday' and a bit disappointed with 'No Smoking'). Even as the initial reviews declared the movie spectacular and unconventional, I had my doubts when I walked into that literally empty cinema hall to see it for myself. To be honest, I would have regretted if I had missed Aamir in the big screen. So what makes the movie so special?

There are umpteen number of write ups about Aamir in the internet and I have no intention of repeating the movies' plot here. The story can be explained in one line or two. The plot is nothing entirely new but a bit unconventional (and vaguely similar to a Filipino movie Cavite which I haven't seen yet).

What caught my attention first was its background score. The visuals were so synchronized with every little beat in the songs/tracks that you would wonder whether the visuals were made first or the score! Once this catches your attention, its like a genius unfolding his skills right in front of your eyes. For a Hindi movie, it is a tremendous feat to have the main theme score humming in your lips during the movies' intermission (mind you, an instrumental and not a song), just like we do for Indiana Jones or Superman.

The absence of familiar faces anywhere in the cast was a major plus. This took away the predictability part from the movie. To give one sample, Suppose you see Kay Kay Menon in Sarkar. You know that he is an actor and he is going to have a meaty role. The only question that would remain is whether he is the good guy or the bad guy. Now take Aamir. Except for the guy over the phone (Gajraj Rao) and Aamir (Rajeev Khandelwaal), we never know who are important and who are not. Just because everyone else are never-seen-before faces.

The cinematography and editing both are top notch. The movie neither tries to be stylish like Guy Ritchie's nor does it employ weird camera angles which is a familiar sight in RGV movies. The shots maintain its normalcy but still the hand-held effect adds a realism to the proceedings. Editing is crisp without any unnecessary stunts.

Finally, if you are careful, you would notice its budget or lack of it. It doesnt take away ANYTHING from the movie and the budget is best explained by the only explosion scene in the movie. Glass-cracking, Bus tire getting punctured and an exploding sound makes up a bomb explosion in Aamir unlike usual Bollywood stuff where either CGI or unused-cars-buses-lorries propelled-into thin-air-as-if-they-hit-an-air-cushion are used for the effect. Aamir is what it is becuase of this shoe string budget and full credit to the crew for pulling this off. (I personally feel they could have saved some money by avoiding the 1 minute scene in London but then its upto the director to decide :-) )

Rajeev looks promising and does justice to Aamir here. But As far as his acting capability is concerned, I would wait till his next movie is out before being judgemental!!

Wait and get hold of the 'Aamir' DVD if you missed it in the big screen. It should be out soon.

PS: The title display in the movie was a very nice touch. Heard a few rounds of applause from about the 15 people present in the theatre. The movie was taken of the theatre after 3 days.

First one in

So here, finally I start another blog, this time exclusively for movies!! To start with, my comments on movies that came to theatres this week in town.

Incredible Hulk - Well, an Edward-Norton-starrer-Superhero-movie turning out to be a usual Hollywood popcorn trash was a bit of a surprise for me. There was a bit of CGI overdose, Liv Tyler looked damn old, actors like William Hurt and Tim Roth have been wasted and that sums it up well. The appearance of Tony Stark from Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) in the epilogue turned out to be a small bonus though.

De Taali - No plans of seeing this one. Saw the promos in TV. Rimi Sen with her hands tied up, Ritesh Deshmukh her kidnapper. Reminded me of 'Saving Silverman' starring Jack Black and Amanda Peet. The scene looked exactly the same. I havent seen 'Saving Silverman' but it comes in HBO usually and have caught glimpses of it. Now the Rajeev Masand review tells me that its infact an inspiration or copy or remake or whatever you want to call it... Sigh!