The Twilight Saga breaking dawn!

FROM ISSUE # 193 (January 2012) | IN THIS ISSUE
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The movie isn't likely to attract brand new comer to the franchise for it does depend on the viewer having followed the plot so far. Yes, the premise is absurd. Yes, it can be ridiculous! But yes, this particular take on werewolves and vampires is hugely popular and has a huge fan following.

There's a lot more blood this time around, and dream sequences and hallucinations and werewolf visions and shots of veins crystallizing with vampire venom inside the body. That's the good stuff! There's also a lot of romance this time around… well, with the wedding and honeymoon finally happening, I guess this was to be but expected. 

So how do Robert Pattison, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner fare this time around? Bella (Kristen Stewart) as the 18 year old bride getting ready to marry her vampire lover and then becoming just like him-undead, displays restrained excitement, confusion and in one of the most true moments in the film- absolute terror.

The story shifts into Bella's painful pregnancy as the vampire baby is a much bigger danger than she could have ever guessed and quickly wastes away into a painfully undernourished scrawny shell. Kristin Stewart finally comes into her own as Bella, and it's the best she's ever been playing this character.

Edward, on paper, is a well-crafted character- achingly beautiful, forever young, noble, quiet, sensitive and powerful. Robert Pattison is beautiful… but the rest of him as Edward in this installment of the series is wooden! He just seems lost and uncomfortable and lost (oh, have I already said that!) and at one point, he googles 'demon children', leaving me to wonder why he didn't google 'vampire-human birth control' before whisking Bella off on their honeymoon. Edward's smiles are still swoon worthy and when he asks Jacob to kill him if Bella doesn't survive the pregnancy, awwww Edward, you almost made me shed a tear.

Jacob (Taylor Lautner) is more interesting than Edward throughout the movie. He's got the better lines and the hair and make-up people have been much kinder to him than they were with Edward. Jacob looks dark, manly, muscular and tanned and all grown up. I loved when he stood his ground to werewolf Sam and takes back his stance as the wolf pack's alpha. The movie had Jacob just as much as E&B. Some people are like; "Jeez Jacob, get over Bella already!" But his constant presence is not of him pining away for his lost love; it is as him protecting his best friend.

All in all, at the end of the day, I still love the Twilight series, and it doesn't make a difference how much I bitch about this one, because you know I'll be booking my tickets for the first show this summer for the concluding movie of the saga- Breaking Dawn 2.

New Year, New Nepal , Old Values Movie Review of Masan 

Long after the credits rolled and the theatre emptied, the last scene of Masan lingered on in my memory: Helen, the female protagonist observes her ex-husband Krishna and his third wife as they walk around a temple courtyard. Helen is homeless and her life is in shambles, while her husband leads a normal life with a new wife, indifferent to all the events that transpired.

Released this past November, the movie was adapted from renowned playwright and poet, Gopal Prasad Rimal's drama of the same name. The play is set in the early 1900s and provides a biting social commentary on our male-dominated society's fixation with male heirs and its despicable treatment of women.

The story revolves around the life of a young couple, Helen (Keki Adhikari) and Krishna (Raj Ballav Koirala), who is unable to conceive a (male) child. Although Krishna is happy with his marriage and adopted child Bhotu, the pressures of not bearing an heir for the family continually torments Helen. After much coaxing she convinces her husband to marry a second time and they welcome a much younger second wife (Neeta Dhungana) into the household. What follows is a whirl wind of family drama - the second wife gives birth to a son, but feels trapped and used by Helen and Krishna only for her body, and relationships between Krishna and Helen and Helen and the second wife rapidly disintegrate. Ultimately, Bhotu is abandoned, the second wife dies from long term complications during labour, Helen leaves her husband, and Krishna marries a third time.

What is more upsetting than Helen's fate is that despite the progress we have made as a country, women today are still tightly bound by old patriarchal values and customs, much like Helen a hundred years ago.

Rimal's original drama is power packed and merges compelling themes into a very coherent story. Nir Shah's (producer) cinematic adaptation, however, fails to live up to Rimal's version. Poor screenplay that borrows heavily from the drama comes off as very unnatural. Fancy prose might read well on paper, but when characters on screen talk to each other poetically it becomes artificial. The makers of the movie should have tried to craft dialogs that reflect the way regular Nepalis communicate with each other. At 90 minutes, the length of the movie is apt. But the 'dream sequences' were unnecessary: they did not propel the plot and instead took away the story's authenticity.

Acting, on the other hand, is the biggest strength of the movie and the female leads in particular are superb. Adhikari's portrayal of Helen's pathos, desperation and inner turmoil is outstanding and is very convincing in the role of a high-caste barren woman. Koirala does a commendable job, but the character of Krishna needed further character development. Dhungana as the second wife shines in her short role.

Overall, Masan is an average effort as there were much higher expectations from the maker of a masterpiece like Prem Pinda. The movie is no longer running in theatres, but is available on DVD. I also recommend picking up a copy of the original play from local bookstores!

I'm Lovin' Vidya Balan!

The Dirty Picture should be renamed 'The Vidya Balan Picture' because she owns it. OWNS it! From her first shot to the last, Vidya brings to life the life, times, trials and tribulations of 80's siren Silk Smitha. A performance as brave and uninhibited as this is rare especially from Bollywood actresses. She bares herself, both physically and emotionally, and displays a complete lack of vanity. She is said to have put on over 12 kgs for the movie and she lets it all hang out, literally. While the early promos dwelt on the lure of skin show and shock-value to grab attention, it would be doing a great disservice to Vidya Balan to dwell on just those aspects. And note, how I mention Vidya, and not the movie for while it seems to have everything, great actors, cracking dialogue, a foot-tapping soundtrack, detail to the fashion and make-up of the times, in the end it all kinda falls flat. The makers have taken what seems like a new, unconventional idea and storyline and just made it completely predictable.

As Silk Smitha, Vidya is the epitome of Indian womanhood, with her raw, earthy appeal, heaving buxom bosoms and brazen exploitation of her sensuality. And when she stops traffic by dancing on top of a car, or gives an interview naked while lolling in a bathtub, or even grabs the spotlight in her first dance sequence by whipping herself into a frenzy, she uses her sexuality unashamedly for that is what Silk did. With a less accomplished actor, it could all have looked cheap and vulgar, like a B-grade movie, and for the fact that it doesn't, Vidya Balan deserves all the credit.