Movies :: The Prestige, Guru and Salaam-e-Ishq

Some new movies I have seen worth checking out.

The Prestige

With Michael Caine, Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, with Scarelett Johansson in a small role, The Prestige is a movie that grips you from the beginning and doesn't let go till its over. The attraction of magicians performing magic, and the delight in knowing how the magic is performed was surely the high point for me in this movie. Bale and Jackman are two friends who start out in life as budding magicians, under the guidance of Caine. A freak accident while performing a magic trick leaves one of our magician's wife to die at the hands of the other magician. Thus, the two magician friends turn rival and try to upstage one another by performing more daring and complex tricks for the audiences, to the point where it soon becomes deadly. Since I love period movies set in London, I absolutely loved the 19th century Victorian London depicted in this movie. The acting is first rate, the sets, costumes all delicious but its the magic tricks that are the real stars of the movie. The twists at the end went one twist too far, but they certainly were twists! 4.5 out of 5.

Guru

Any movie by Mani Ratnam is guaranteed to be a different one (check out Roja, Bombay, Dil Se) and Guru is certainly a very highly enjoyable movie to watch. Guru is supposedly loosely based on an Indian man whose story was literally from rags to riches. Guru played here by Abhishek Bachchan is a young man who sets off to Turkey to make al iving, till he comes to a point in his life where he longs to return home and start a business there. His attitude being: I shouldnt have to work for the white man; I should be self sufficient. So he comes back home, starts up his own clothing manufacturing business, marries and settles in, till the media starts to pull him down on his unprecendented success. How Guru deals with the media, the negative influences on his work and comes out unhurt forms the basis of the rest of movie, with several deeply emotional scenes. It's a delight to watch a movie where it's all about the story and not about the stars. Acting was superb, the songs were amazing, and the story was awesome, straying away from the typical Bollywood movies. 4 out of 5.

Salaam-e-Ishq

Six love stories, all connected with one issue: Love. Although at first this movie may seem like a rehash of Love Actually, the only connection that Salaam-e-Ishq and Love Actually has is the premise of several love stories connecting at one point. All other comparisons should be left aside, because surprisingly Salaam-e-Ishq had great story lines of its own.

Couple 1: A struggling actress flies to Indian bumping into a man she made up to gain press attention
Couple 2: A married man, working in a senior executive position, with two kids and a lifeless marriage being attracted to a younger woman who is a dancer (shades of Shall We Dance? and American Beauty)
Couple 3: A couple in relationship, where the guy is afraid of committing to a marriage, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend
Couple 4: A journalist whose reporter wife is caught in an accident and loses her memory.
Couple 5: An Indian taxi driver who dreams of meeting his white girlfriend coming at the airport.
Couple 6: A Punjabi couple, where the guy is desperate to spend some time with his wife alone, but due to circumstances cannot.

The last couple are not connected, but the other five couple all interact with one another at one time or other in the movie. Different couples, different situations, different dilemmas and problems, and different outcomes. I loved two songs from this movie, the title song and the sad one. It's a long movie, about 3hours 40mins, but once it was over, it felt like such a short movie because it was highly enjoyable and watchable. 4 out 5.

Mansur