Heartbreaker (L’arnacœur)

So many movie gems are found by serendipity. In the case of Heartbreaker (L’arnacœur), a 2010 French romantic-comedy, discovered at a recent screening at the university. The trio of Alex (Romain Duris), his sister and her husband are in a special business, that of breaking up a girl in love. They take the contract from the victim’s relatives and Alex becomes the heartbreaker, who will floor the girl with his charms and thus show her the inadequacy of her current partner. Their undefeated streak runs into trouble when they are hired to break up Juliette (Vanessa Paradis), who is marrying an Englishman in 10 days at Monaco. The trio set up elaborate plots to give Alex a shot at her, none of which work and meanwhile Alex actually falls in love with her.

Heartbreaker is a truly entertaining movie arriving after a long dry spell in the rom-com genre! Engaging from the opening scene itself, the movie totally rests on the cocksure and comical Romain Duris. The sunny glamourous setting of Monaco, the Frenchness (if there is something like that), the racing plot and the romantic ending, all complement the movie nicely. Funny in every other scene, Heartbreaker never takes itself seriously and yet captured me in a rapture that ended only when the credits rolled.

I Hate Luv Storys

Rating: 2/4 (A sorely muddled romantic comedy that leaves the viewer exasperated.)

If you are going to mock someone, your game be better good. I Hate Luv Storys tries to mock the formulaic Bollywood romantic movies, but it turns out to be just as boring as the worst of them. The movie stars Sonam Kapoor as a love-smitten girl and Imran Khan who hides under a rock at the mere mention of love and commitment. Ironically, both of them are working on the sets of a Karan-Johar-style romantic movie called Pyar Pyar Pyar (sic). Sonam has been in a steady but boring relationship with her boyfriend (Dhyan) since childhood. Imran drops in, stirs the waters a bit, attracts Sonam. But, he finally loses her since he cannot commit to a relationship. Predictably, he has to woo back Sonam in a never-ending overly-complicated mess of a climax.

Sonam Kapoor and Imran Khan are a great on-screen pair, especially for a romantic comedy. Imran continues to be completely incapable of emoting through dramatic scenes. (Remember Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na?) The premise of the movie is great, but the plot is so muddled that it turns out to be a long drawn confusing affair. The movie has some great tracks which have been on my playlist for several months. My favorites are Bin Tere (both the original and the acoustic guitar versions) and Bahara. I Hate Luv Storys is a sorely muddled romantic comedy that leaves the viewer exasperated.

The Social Network

Rating: 3/4 (A good drama on the murky beginnings of Facebook)

Releasing in 2010, The Social Network is the first big-budget Hollywood studio movie about a software company. It is a sign of the times that such a movie revolves, not around IBM, Microsoft or Apple or even Google, but Facebook. The movie is based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich and portrays the murky beginnings of Facebook. It also felt ironic watching a movie about an Internet startup sitting at a theatre! 😉

In 2003, Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is a geeky Computer Science student at Harvard, who is irritated because he has no access to the final clubs. He is pissed off one night when his girlfriend dumps him and in his drunken stupor he proceeds to insult her on his Livejournal blog and creates a website called Facemash, a Hot-Or-Not clone website where Harvard female students can be compared by their photos. Facemash becomes a hit and Harvard shuts it down. But, Zuckerberg’s notoriety attracts the attention of the Winklevoss twins and their friend Divya Narendra. This rich trio invite Zuckerberg to join their startup called The Harvard Connection, a social network exclusive to Harvard students. Zuckerberg agrees, but cheats on them by instead starting to work on his own social networking site called TheFacebook with financial help from his friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield). TheFacebook, later shortened to Facebook, takes off like no one imagined and Saverin’s friendship is tested when Zuckerberg brings on the flamboyant Sean Parker (founder of Napster) on to the team. Zuckerberg and Facebook are caught up in lawsuits with Winklevoss, Divya and Saverin and are forced to settle with all of them.

The script by Aaron Sorkin turns The Social Network into a movie about the most primal of human characteristics: love, greed, envy and wrath. The plot is dark and engaging, laced with sarcasm. The cinematography is delicious and the acting is spot on. Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake (as Sean Parker) are especially good. I also loved the background score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, lots of techie beats, Moby-like. The Social Network is a good drama on the murky beginnings of Facebook.

Pancharangi (ಪಂಚರಂಗಿ)

Rating: 3/4 (A colorful set of characters and philosophies clash in Yograj Bhat’s funny treatise on life.)

Pancharangi (ಪಂಚರಂಗಿ) is the fourth Kannada movie by Yograj Bhat, the director famous for Mungaru Male. Written by Pawan Kumar and Yograj Bhat, here a bunch of interesting characters and their philosophies clash onscreen leading to interesting situations. The story takes place over 2 days in a gorgeous old thotti mane (ತೊಟ್ಟಿ ಮನೆ) in a village situated right by the Arabian Sea coast. In the thotti mane live two sisters Latha and Ambika, along with their parents and a couple of entertaining servants. To see Latha, a family from Bangalore arrives at this remote village. The potential groom is the caricature of a typical software engineer, shy, boring and lost in his cellphone. The protagonist is his younger brother Bharath, the black sheep of the family and a nihilist to whom the entire world seems full of lifeless objects. He expounds his dark outlook on life by constantly quoting it in the form of pithy verses ending in Lifeu Ishtene (This is all life is). Bharath and Ambika rub off well on each other, though both have opposite outlooks on life. A mysterious sadhu (Anant Nag) they meet on the beach and a surprising turn of events deliver the climactic moments of the movie.

ಒಂದೂರಲ್ಲಿ ಒಬ್ಬ ರಾಜ ಇದ್ದ. ಆ ರಾಜ ಈಗಿಲ್ಲ.
ಹಿಂದೆ ಯಾವಾಗ್ಲೋ ನಾನೂ ಇದ್ದೆ. ನನಗೊಂದು ಹೆಸರೂ ಇತ್ತು. ಈಗದೇನು ಇಲ್ಲ.
(Anant Nag’s entry in the movie.)

It is hard to describe or define what Pancharangi is! This is not surprising since the scriptwriter Pawan Kumar himself has admitted that the script was created in a nontraditional way around the characters and their doctrines, rather than around a story. This leads to a very intellectual and interesting experience, but feels somewhat disconnected. The nihilistic Lifeu Ishtene philosophies spouted by Diganth, Anant Nag and Yograj Bhat (as a background voice) instantly attract and entertain. They seemed to me as a modern avatar of the vachanas by Sarvagna. As we have come to expect from Yograj Bhat, there is a whole suite of interesting characters and they have all acted extremely well. Diganth is cuter than ever, Nidhi Subbaiah (a SJCE Mysore alumnus) looks fabulous and Raju Talikote entertains with his rib-tickling pragmatic chatter in the North Karnataka accent. The cinematography and locales look gorgeous. To see a thotti mane in all its richness and glory is a visual treat. Two historic thotti mane, an unbelievable 600-year old one in Nellikaaru (ನೆಲ್ಲಿಕಾರು) and a century old one in Badilaguttu (ಬಡಿಲಗುತ್ತು) have been used in the movie. The last time I felt this lost in a thotti mane was in the movie Naayi Neralu. The songs in Pancharangi are all earworms. While the Lifeu Ishtene songs written by Yograj Bhat are philosophical, Udisuve Belakina Seereya (Let me drape you in a saree of light) by Jayant Kaikini is poetic. I also loved the choreography of the song Udisuve. Full marks on everything, so what is lacking in Pancharangi? Something seems to be amiss. The movie definitely felt more solid on the second watch, but still. The pace seems too fast, the story feels a bit disconnected, and these feelings never went away. Regardless of this, Pancharangi is a rib-tickling movie of intellectual and entertaining characters and situations.