Vimarsh

Joint Security Area is an area of heavily fortified border that separates North and South Korea. Park Chan-wook takes up this controversial subject as his third film as a director. The film is based on the novel by Park Sang-yeon and entitled ‘DMZ’. The 2000 film ‘Joint Security Area’ becomes a critical and commercial success. It becomes the highest grossing film in Korean film history at the time of release. The film also wins prestigious awards like Blue Dragon Film Awards and Grand Bell Awards. Swiss Army Major Sophie E. Jean arrives at DMZ on behalf of Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission to investigate a shootout there, in which two North Korean soldiers have died and one North Korean soldier and one South Korean soldier are injured. Both the countries are putting allegations on each other, and eager to break the war on this issue. Officer Jean interviews both the surviving soldiers. She finds the inconsistency in the reports. Sergeant Lee Soo-hyeok, a South Korean...

The fourth film by Rajkumar Hirani is PK. Released in 2014; PK is a satiric comedy with some blend of science fiction. The film is written by Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi. Hirani, this time, tackles the institution of religion. Though it has instigated lot of controversy, the film emerged as one of the highest grossing Indian films of all time. Part of the controversy is a Muslim actor questioning the religious dogmas and superstitions of Majority community of the country. The movie PK is about a humanoid alien who comes to earth to do research here. As soon as he lends, his spaceship remote gets stolen in Rajasthan. Eventually, he learns that clothes and money are requisites on earth. He starts getting clothes from ‘dancing cars’, that is, he begins stealing clothes and money from couples having sex in cars with open windows. In Burgess, Jaggu falls in love with Sarfaraz. Jaggu’s father is against this relationship as Sarfaraz is a Pakistani Muslim and Jaggu is an I...

The debate of Civilized and Savage, Urban and Rural, advanced and out-dated is very old and has been tackled in a number of ways in different forms of arts including cinema. The 2005 film King Kong by Peter Jackson is yet another installment and argument in the debate, though metaphorical. The film is a remake of 1933 film King Kong by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack.​ The film is approximately 200 minutes long and pushes the limits of technology and imagination at the same time. Film wins three academy awards for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects. The film's narrative is presented in terms of the dichotomy of Civilized, the director - Carl Denham against the savage - the Kong. We can read the film from both these poles. The uncivilized Kong who is the King of his province falls for one of his prey, Ann Darrow and in the act of her protection, he eventually gets killed. He succumbs to modern chemicals...

'3 Idiots' is a satiric comedy released in 2009. This is third film of Rajkumar Hirani. The film is based on a novel by Chetan Bhagat, entitled 'Five Point Someone' and its screenplay is written by Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopda. The film was an instant hit at the box-office. The film featured some of the real inventions done by the common people of India. Like the earlier two films of Hirani, this film, too, follows the same design and fights against an institution, namely education system.  The film is about Ranchhod Das Chanchad, "Rancho", who is crazy about learning but doesn't believe in institutionalized approach to learning in which we talk about higher grades and better paying jobs. He wants to learn for the sake of knowledge. His two room-mates at Imperial College of Engineering Farhan Qureshi, who wants to be a photographer but doing engineering because of parental pressure, and Raju Rastogi, who hails from poor fa...

‘Modern Times’ is 1936 satirical comedy written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. This was his sixth film as a director. Charlie Chaplin was not only a director, but also an actor, writer and composer. He is one of the most important names in the history of cinema and anyone having any connection with cinema is aware about his genius. The film was also screen "out of competition" at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. The film is often listed in hundred best films ever made in the history of cinema by many critics. This film features the famous character of The Tramp played by Chaplin himself. Here, the tramp is struggling with newly arrived machines of industrial era and the 'great depression', a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The opening line of the film says, " Modern times, a story of industry, of individual enterprise - humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness. " In this film, audience can, for the first time...

"Lage Raho Munna Bhai" is the second film in 'Munna Bhai' series, released in 2006. It is a second film directed by Rajkumar Hirani. Munna Bhai and Circuit are there in their original roles, the rest of the characters are new. In this film, Munna Bhai visualizes Mahatma Gandhi and following his ideas initiates ' Gandhigiri ', a neologism based on the words  Gandhiwad  (Gandhism) and  Bhaigiri  (hooliganism). This time the fight is against the institution of Society. The fight is against the prevalent corruption and superstition in our day-to-day lives and the people who thrive on it, the people with established interests in such social evils. "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" was a box-office success. The film wins four awards in National Film Awards of 2006: 1. Best Popular Film, 2. Best Lyrics (Swanand Kirkire), 3. Best Screenplay ( Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Abhijat Joshi) and 4. Best Supporting Actor (Dilip Prabhavalkar, who played Mah...

'A Clockwork Orange' is a 1971 dystopian crime film directed by Stanley Kubrick. The film was based on Anthony Burgess 1962 novel of the same title. The film simultaneous raises multiple socio-political issues. But, the film is better known for its realistic, disturbing and violent depiction of the life of the protagonist Alex, played by Malcolm McDowell. Alex and his 'droogs' are into all types of anti-social activities. Alex's interests include classical music, especially Beethoven, rape and, what he calls, Ultra-violence. Most of the movie is narrated by Alex himself in Nadsat , a slang composed of Slavic (especially Russian), English, and Cockney rhyming slang. Ever since its release, A Clockwork Orange has been in controversy, yet, like the book, film also gets recognition of a cult classic that every movie-buff must watch. The way the subject is handled, use of color and symbolism is some of the most original and distinguishing characteristic...