My Name Is Khan

Okay, I know I already made a review about an Indian movie, but I cannot let this one pass. Haha. Anyway, the film 'My Name is Khan', is also one of the best yet. Having the Bollywood superstar and King of Bollywood himself, Shahrukh Khan, star in this film as a person with a disability. The film tackles the discrimination the Muslims felt after the 9-11 attack.

Rizwan Khan(Shahrukh Khan), is a Muslim child who grew up with his brother Zakir and his mother Razia Khan in a middle-class family in Mumbai. It can be observed that Rizwan is unlike any other children, but he has skills and intellect particularly in repairing anything mechanic. There was one time that he invented a pump that will rid their compound of flood water. Because of this, he got special tutoring from a scholar. His mother gives him extra attention because of his peculiarity. As they  grow older, his older brother got jealous with him and left their family to live in the US.

Despite his jealousy with his brother, as an adult, Zakir sponsors Rizwan to come live with him in San Francisco after the death of their mother. Zakir's wife then diagnoses Rizwan with Asperger Syndrome. Asperger Syndrome is one of the autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), which are a spectrum of psychological conditions that are characterized by abnormalities of social interaction and communication that pervade the individual's functioning, and by restricted and repetitive interests and behavior.(*Courtesy of Wikipedia ) Rizwan starts working for his brother and in the process meets a Hindu woman, Mandira and her young son, Sameer or Sam, from a previous marriage. Mandira works as a hairdresser. Even though at first Mandira seem to be repelled by Rizwan, the two eventually marry and settle down. Both Mandira and her son take Rizwan's last name, Khan, as their own. They live next door to the Garrick family. Sameer is close to their young san, Reese while Reese's parents, Mark and Sarah are a friend of Mandira.

The Khan's peaceful life was disrupted after the September 11 attacks on New York City. Mark, being a reporter, goes to Afghanistan to cover the war and unfortunately dies there. At the same time, the Khan family experiences post 9-11 prejudice in their community and Reese drifts away and turns against Sam.  One afternoon, the two of them had an argument but it turned into a racially motivated schoolyard fight between Sam and a gang of older students. Reese, tries to stop the fight but is held back and Sam is punched and kicked multiple times and the older students finished by hitting him on the head with a soccer ball. As an act of revenge,  Sam hits the leader on the head too. The gang continued to hurt him and the lead older student kicks the soccer ball, hitting Sam's stomach, rendering him unconscious. The gang threatens to hurt Reese if he tells anyone about the incident, thus keeping Reese quiet about it when asked. Sam was rushed to the hospital but dies of severe internal bleeding and ruptured spleen. Mandira was shattered and blames Rizwan for Sam's death, stating that Sam 'died only because his last name was Khan.' She then tells Rizwan that she no longer wants to be with him. When Rizwan asks her what he has to do to be with Mandira, she sarcastivally tells him that he has to tell the people of the United States and the President that his name is Khan and that he is not a terrorist.

Rizwan take's Mandira's request seriously, and thus sets out on a journey that takes him from one US state to another, to meet the president. During his travel, he arrives to Wilhelmina, Georgia where he befriends Mama Jenny and her son Joel. The mother and son, took care of him during his stay in Wilhelmina. When he arrives at Los Angeles, he prays in a Mosque and overhears a violent rhetoric from Faisal Rahman. He reports this to the FBI but there was no response at the moment. Later, while waiting in the crowd to meet with President Bush, he repeatedly said the words, "Mr. President, my name is Khan and I am not a terrorist.", Rizwan was misheard and misinterpreted by one of the people in the crowd that leads to his arrest.

While in prison, he is interrogated as a terrorist suspect and meets the psychiatrist Radha, who believes he is innocent. While he was in prison, some Indian students, who accidentally caught him on tape while saying "My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist" starts a media campaign to prove his innocence. They proved his innocence by unearthing his attempts to inform the FBI about Faisal Rahman. After he was released, he returns to Wilhelmina, which is currently hit by a hurricane to help Mama Jenny and her son. His efforts attract the media's attention and numerous Muslims come to help as well.

At the same time, a remorseful Reese confesses to Mandira and tells her the identities of the students who killed Sam. She then informs Detective Garcia who has been assisting her in the case and he arrests the students. Mandira gets a  call from Sarah to forgive Rizwan, "I've lost my husband; don't lose him."

 

 

 

Mandira realizes her mistake and joins Rizwan in Georgia, and they rekindle their love. However, the moment she arrives, Rizwan is stabbed by one of Faisal's followers, who accuses him of being a traitor to Islam. Rizwan is rushed to the hospital. With Mandira's help, Rizwan survives and meets the President-elect Barack Obama who tells him, "Your name is Khan and you are not a terrorist." The film ends with Rizwan and Mandira going back home.

movie trailer

The thing I like about this movie is that it tackles the sensitive issue of racial discrimination, especially of the Muslims. This movie serves as an eye-opener that, not because you are a Muslim, you are already tagged as terrorist. People should learn from this movie and stop stereotyping. Aside from the lesson this movie points out, the movie was very touching and heart-warming. Also, this also proves that, disability is not a hindrance to anything. A person can still do noble things and deeds even though you are different from everybody else.

I would also commend the acting abilities of  Shahrukh Khan. He's acting's so great. I believe that it isn't very easy to portray such a role. It takes such great skill to portray a person with a autism.

This is what I like about most Indian movies I have watched, you can always get a life-lesson and they don't usually use the overused formula of cliche movies. They always present something unique and intriguing.

P.S. Sorry for the short post. I'll make up on my next post. PROMISE! >.< 

3 Idiots

This was the first Bollywood movie I have ever watched and has become one of my favorites. The film has english and hindi as its language, but the majority of the dialogues were in Hindi, and that is where the subtitles come in handy. The subtitle made it easier for me to understand the movie better.

3 Idiots poster

 The film stars, Aamir Khan as Ranchhoddas "Rancho" Shamaldas Chhanchad/Phunsukh Wangdu,

Kareena Kapoor as Pia Sahasrabuddhe, R. Madhavan as Farhan Qureshi / Narrator, Sharman Joshi as Raju Rastogi, Boman Irani as Viru Sahasrabuddhe (ViruS), Omi Vaidya as Chatur Ramalingam (Silencer), Rahul Kumar as Manmohan "MM" aka Millimeter / Centimeter and Mona Singh as Mona Sahasrabuddhe.

 Trailer

3 idiots revolves around the story of 3 engineering students who were roommates in the residence of Imperial College of Engineering. They are Farhan Qureshi, Raju Rastogi and Ranchhoddas "Rancho" Shamaldas Chhanchad. Farhan studies engineering to pursue his father's wish but his real passion is in wildife photography. Raju Rastogi studies engineering to get his family out of poverty. Rancho studies simply because of his love and passion for machines. 

The THREE Idiots
Left to Right: Farhan, Rancho and Raju

Chatur

 

ViruS

The story starts with Farhan on a plane getting a call from their college classmate, Chatur. Upon hearing news about Rancho, he fakes a heart attack which forces the plane to do an emergency landing. He then, fetches his friend Raju and they both went to their College. Upon their arrival they saw no sign of Rancho, only Chatur. Chatur called them for the judgement day for a bet he made with Rancho 10 years ago. The three went on a journey to find Rancho. The movie then shifts to a flashback from 10 years ago, when they were still in college. During their college, Rancho was then showed to be a man who loves learning. He believed that they should follow excellence, and success will chase them pants down. However, his ways seems to incur the wrath of the College President, Viru Sahastrabudhhe or popularly known as "ViruS". Chatur, ViruS's favorite students believes that mindlessly memorizing everything from a book over understanding will bring him to success. There was one instance that during class Rancho was asked to define the word 'Machine'. He gives a simple but concise definition, but the professor didn't accept his answer but instead applauded Chatur for giving the definition given by the book word for word. Rancho, still implying that he gave the same answer in a much simpler way was asked to get out of the room, on his way out, he forgot something and on the act of about to get what he left, he was asked as to why he still hasn't left. He answers in a very long and elaborate way, this confuses the professor and asks him to just get to the point. He then answers that he left his book. The professor asked why he didn't just say book in a simple manner. He answered that he tried to answer in a simple way a while ago, but that doesn't seem to work. The professor was left in shock. Ranju,who was initially annoyed by Rancho's ways, transfered to Chatur's room, but he just fared worse. To save his friend, Rancho decides to give him an example. He sabotages the speech that Chatur asked the librarian make for him by replacing the word "served" by "screwed". Chatur with his lack of understanding in Hindi, memorizes the speech which was for Teacher's Day and deliver's it infront of the whole school, the Minister of Education and ViruS. Chatur, became the laughing stock of everyone. Rancho then says to Ranju that, that is what cramming will do to him. Chatur got mad to Rancho for embarrassing him infront of the whole school and made a bet with him to see whoever comes more successful between them after 10 years, thus the present day commotion. Meanwhile, Raju's paralyzed father, suffers cardiac arrest and was then saved by Rancho and Pia(ViruS's daughter who is doing residency at the city hospital). This changes Raju's mind about Rancho and became close friends with him along with Farhan. The angry ViruS always try to break the three's friendship apart. The three of them always stick together, Rancho always get the top ranking while the other two, always get last, barely passing because of Farhan's passion in photography and Raju's cowardice. Things got worse four years later, when the three of them drunkenly break into ViruS's house for Ranchu to be able to profess his love for Pia, but Virus found out about their breaking in. The next day, Virus threatens Raju to rusticate him from the college unless he blames Rancho for the drunken incident. Raju, not wanting to betray his friend and family contemplates suicide and ends in a coma. After two months of extensive care, he got well and was able to attend a job interview which he passes. Simultaneously, during the interview, Farhan finally convinced his father that he will not be pursuing engineering anymore but will be pursuing his dreams of becoming a photographer. Virus got his beloved mustache shaved after he lost to a bet with Rancho, that if either one of Raju or Farhan, gets a job, he will shave his mustache. Not wanting to accept defeat, he plans on failing Raju in his final exam by making the test questions himself. Pia then informs Rancho about this and gives him a duplicate key to ViruS's office to steal the test questions. They were discovered and was asked to leave the school. Virus then asked Pia who gave Rancho the key to his office, she admits that she did and tells her father that she should've done the same for her brother so that he should still be with them. It is then found out that, Virus's son committed suicide for the pressure of not being able to pass the entrance exam for ICE three times. Pia blames her father, that if he didn't push her brother to be an engineer and just asked him what he wanted, he would still be alive. Pia also said that her brother didn't commit suicide for her father's pressure on him was the one that murdered him. Pia then leaves the house and heads to the hospital. A storm was ongoing, and as the three were about to leave the school, they saw that Pia's sister, Mona was about to give birth so they carried her to the recreation hall and placed her on a table tennis table. With the help Pia's instructions and Rancho's inventions(Virus Inverter and the Vacuum suction) they were able to deliver the baby. As Rancho was about to leave, Virus stopped him and gave him the space pen, which he notes that his director when he was college gave it to him and ask him to give it to a remarkable student if he finds one. The three were able to graduate with Rancho being the best student. Unbeknownst to them, the graduation day was the last time they will ever see him. Back to the present day, on their way to find Rancho, they discovered that Rancho's name wasn't really Rancho and that he only went to college so that the real Rancho will get an engineering degree. The real Rancho gave them their friend's address. On their way to their friend, the picked up Pia in the middle of her wedding. When they arrived to the school at which their friend was supposedly teaches, they meet Millimeter, who is now Centimeter. He then tells them where 'Rancho' was. Pia was the first to find him. They professed their love for each other and shared a kiss. Farhan and Raju followed, and jokingly punched and kicked Rancho. Chatur was the last, he was teasing Rancho that he stooped down from an engineer to a teacher. He then makes him sign a Declaration of Defeat which he signs using the pen Virus gave him. Upon seeing the pen, Chatur took the pen saying that the pen was for winners only. Then, Pia, Farhan and Raju asked if Rancho wasn't his real name, what was his name. He answered that his name was Phunsukh Wangdu. They were surprised since Phunsukh Wangdu was a scientist with over 400 patents and the Japanese were wooing and at the same time the person that Chatur was going to have a deal with. Phunsukh Wangdu, calls Chatur and tells him that their deal is off. Chatur asked why, and he said that he won't be able to sign since he took Wangdu's pen. Chatur was confused and Wangdu made it clear to him that he was the Rancho he knew. Upon realizing that he mocked his client, he apologizes and says that he wished that whatever was their personal issues be forgotten and proceed with the deal. The film ends with Chatur chasing after Wangdu/Rancho and his friends.

 Here are some of the quotes that I found memorable:

"All is well"

 "Salt water is a great conductor of electricity. - 8th Grade Physics. We studied it. He applied it." - Farhan regarding Rancho.

 "Engineers are a clever bunch, but they haven't made a machine to measure mental pressure. If they had, all would know this isn't suicide... It's MURDER." - Rancho to Virus during Joy Lobo's funeral.  

"No sir, I wasn't teaching you Engineering, you're an expert at that. I'm teaching you how to teach." "I'm sure that one day you'll learn, because unlike you, I never abandon my weak students." - Rancho to Virus when he asked Rancho to demonstrate on how he will teach.

"We'll study with all our heart, but not just for grades. To quote a Wise One - Study to be accomplished, not affluent. Follow Excellence and Success will chase you pants down." - Rancho to Raju and Farhan

"With fear of tomorrow, how'll you live today?... Strange buddies! One lives in fear and the other in pretense." - Rancho to Raju and Farhan.

"Rancho has a simple belief - Make your passion your profession then work will become play." - Farhan to his father when he was telling them about being a photographer.

The film was hilarious, entertaining and filled with values. The film has many lessons in it. One is that, you should follow your passion, since if you try to do something that you don't really love, you won't excel in it. Another is that, in learning you should understand and not memorize. The film tackles the common dilemma of college students, specially those who are engineering. Another thing that you can learn from the movie is that, success chases after excellence. What I love about this movie is that, I can relate, since I am an engineering student myself. I can relate to the pressure and the hardships that you face in pursuing this profession. But, if you really set your heart into it, if it really is your passion, you will succeed. This movie served as an inspiration for me. 

 Zoobi Doobi - Rancho and Pia

This movie, was the highest-grossing film in Bollywood, topping over the previous film, Ghajini which also stars Aamir Khan, the one who played Rancho/Wangdu. Also, the thing I noticed from this movie as that it has that song and dance number that you can always tag in a Bollywood movie, which is quite fun and entertaining actually.

This is one of those movies that doesn't have one of those Hollywood cliche's and a movie which actually has an essence to it. If you haven't watched this movie yet, I highly recommend watching this.

The Wandering Samurai

Last December 2012, The Live Action Film adaptation of the manga and anime of Rurouni Kensin, or more popularly known as Samurai X, was released in the Philippines in SM Cinemas. As a fan, I was filled with excitement knowing that one of my favorites will have its live action adaptation and will be released in the Philippines. I used to watch the anime when I was a kid, and when I got into highschool, I started to read the manga though I still haven't finished the 28 volumes manga.

Wanderer that is what the word "Rurouni" means. Rurouni Kenshin, takes place in the Meiji era and is about a wandering samurai who participated in the Bakumatsu war as an assassin, named Kenshin Himura. During the Bakumatsu war, he was known as Hitokiri Battōsai. Hitokiri meaning man slayer. After the war, he wanders the countryside of Japan offering protection and aid to those in need to atone for the murders he committed during his time as an assassin. He then arrives at Tokyo and meets Kamiya Kaoru, instructor at the Kamiya Kasshin Ryu dojo, who's fighting against a person who claims to be Battōsai and is tarnishing the name of the dojo her father left her. He helps her with her problems and Kaoru in return lets Kenshin stay at her place.  He accepts the offer and starts to establish a life long relationship with Sanosuke Sagara(a brawler,former member of the Sekiho army), Yahiko Myojin(an orphan from a samurai family) and a beautiful doctor named Takani Megumi. As time passed by, he encounters some enemies, old and new. 

Here is the movie's plot. Hitokiri Battōsai participates in the Battle of Toba-Fushimi and leaves the battlefield as the Imperialist forces celebrates their victory. After a decade, he arrives in Tokyo and meets the owner of a Kendo school left to her by her father. Kaoru's only student was a young boy named Yahiko Myojin. Later, the dojo was attacked by a group of thugs who are under the employment of the rich, opium smuggler Takeda Kenryu. He arrives and defeats the thugs. Police arrives and he was brought to jail for illegal possession of a katana. Before he was taken to jail, Kaoru asks for his name and he tells her that his name is Kenshin Himura. He was seen in jail by Sanosuke Sagara, who was also in jail. Kenshin was freed after his meeting with an acquaintance, a person who was also in the war. Upon Kenshin's return, Yahiko helps a drenched in rain Takani Megumi. Megumi starts staying with them, not knowing that she is on the run from Takeda Kenryu. She told Kenshin her story when there was a case of poisoning in the area, the victims were brought in Kaoru's dojo and Megumi helps cure the victims. Megumi leaves after the poisoning incident and went back to Takeda's mansion to kill but fails in her attempt. She was then held as hostage. Kenshin and Sanosuke attacks Takeda's mansion, who has armed himself with a gatling gun. After the battle, Megumi was saved but tells Kenshin that Kaoru's in danger. Kenshin then found out that Jin-e Udo, a hitokiri like him who was also at the Battle of Toba-Fushimi has kidnapped Kaoru. The battle between them ends, when Kenshin broke Jin-e's elbow and Jin-e committed suicide(seppuku?). The film ends when Kaoru woke up and starts searching for Kenshin in fear that he might have left and finds him walking back inside the dojo bringing vegetables. She then says to Kenshin, "Welcome back, Kenshin".

Characters: (Live Action vs. Anime/Manga)

Kenshin Himura (LA)

Kenshin Himura(Anime)

Kaoru Kamiya (LA)

Kaoru Kamiya (Anime)

Megumi Takani (LA)

Megumi Takani (Anime)

Sanosuke Sagara(LA)

Sanosuke Sagara(Anime)

Yahiko Myojin (LA)

Yahiko Myojin(Anime)

Kanreyu Takeda (LA)

Kanreyu Takeda (Anime)

Jin-e Udo (LA)

Jin-e Udo (Anime)

There are difference in the movie and the manga. Firstly, in the movie, Yahiko Myojin,, Sanosuke Sagara and Takani Megumi are all directly introduced, where in the manga, Kenshin saves Yahiko, Sanosuke battles Kenshin first and then much,much later helps Megumi. Also the movie only covered 2 arcs in the story. The arc where Kenshin battles Udo and the arc with Takeda. This 2 arcs happened at differect time frames in the manga, but occured simultaneously in the film.

What's cool in this film is that, it's a good adaptation of the manga although there are small differences. The movie made the stunts and the jutsus in the manga much more life-like. It is rather fun seeing them fight using swordskills that are closer to reality. Also the both the film and the manga depicts, certain parts of Japan's history. The Bakumatsu war and the Battle of Toba-Fushimi are both events in Japanese history that talks about the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate, the end of the Edo period and the coming of the "new era", the Meiji period. Also Kenshin Himura is based on one of the Four Hitokiris of the Bakumatsu, Kawakami Gensai.

CAST:

Takeru Sato as Kenshin Himura

Koji Kikkawa as Jin-e Udo

Emi Takei as Kaoru Kamiya

Yu Aoi as Megumi Takani

Munetaka Aoki as Sanosuke Sagara

Teruyuki Kagawa as Kanreyu Takeda

So there, although its a bit late to talk about this movie since it was shown last year, I still enjoyed sharing these things to you, since I'm a fan of this manga and I'm an otaku myself. :)

The 38th Metro Manila Film Festival

Last December 25, 2012 the official movie entries to the 38th Metro Manila Film Festival was released in cinemas. The list of the film entries were El Presidente, One More Try, Shake,Rattle & Roll 14, SiAgimat, Si Enteng at Si Ako,  Sisterekas, Sosy Problems, The Strangers and Thy Womb.. During the festival, no foreign films were shown in Philippine theaters to support the locally produced films. 

In the list of the official movie entries, I was able to watch Shake, Rattle & Roll 14 (because I was required to make a paper about this in one of my subjects, though I would have preferred to watch Sisterakas for being a comedy film haha. I mean who doesn't want a good laugh in the break?). Anyway, the film just like its thirteen predecessors, consist of 3 different horror stories which are, you can say, very Filipino(well except for the 3rd one, you'll see why). 

The first of the three stories was 'Pamana', This is about 4 cousins who all of a sudden inherits money worth 20 million pesos and 4 of their uncles most valued comic artworks which are all scary. Out of the 4 cousins, 2 keeps the artwork while the other 2 throws it away. The 2 that threw the artworks they inherited became haunted by the characters and results into one of the cousins dying. They went back to their deceased uncle's mansion, and was haunted there by all of the characters in the artworks with an additional one. In the end, only of the four cousins survived and she inherited all of the 20 million, but not knowing that one of the devils from the artwork was with her. 

["Brrr. Don't Touch Me." HAHA]
Kondenado, one of the artworks that came to life.

The band of good looking soldiers out to face their worst nightmares

The next story was 'Lost Command'. I must say that this is the scariest of the three, though not really bordering the scary factor you get from other horror movies. This is about a platoon of soldiers venturing in a dark forest going after unknown hostiles. Unbeknownst to them, the hostiles they are going after is a band of soldier-turned-into-man-eating-monsters-who-recruits-other-men-to-be-part-of-their-army. The army turned out to be the lost command the Philippine army lost years ago. Out of the soldiers in the venturing platoon, only one survived. He wakes up in a hospital, and finds out that the bodies next to him were his former friends in the platoon that became monsters. It was then implied at the end of the movie that he didn't really survive since he got turn into one of them in the hospital. 

One of the soldier-turned-into-man-eating-monsters-who-recruits-other-men-to-be-part-of-their-army
There's someone behind him.
Beware, he may be out to get you. >:))

The boyfriend and the not so lucky supposedly survivors

The last story was entitled 'Unwanted'. A couple was having a problem in their relationship and they went to a mall to buy each other a present on the expected to be doomsday, 21st of December year 2012. It was then implied that the woman might be pregnant since before she parted ways with her boyfriend to go to the restroom, she was eyeing the baby things in one of the stores. The unexpected happened, the mall was then struck by an unknown large object. The boyfriend wakes up frantic and starts to look for his girlfriend along with other survivors. On the way, most of the survivors the boyfriend was with, died because of the creatures not from this planet. He finds his girlfriend gets out of the mall but they both died after they met the alien beings and the mall collapsed above them.

The couple reunited

That's the three stories. The last story, Unwanted, seems to me like it was referenced to one of those alien/invasion movies in Hollywood. The movie was okay, a bit entertaining since even if it wasn't that scary, it has some comedic relief in it. The actors who played the roles where very good in acting and I think they conveyed their roles really well. The movie also deserve a praise for using very good visual effects, though it still far-off if you compare it to Hollywood movies. The movie all in all, was not really very scary, it tilts more on the funny side rather than it being scary, but still the funny parts were entertaining. I think the movie The Strangers is scarier than this.Enough with the movie, let's go to the awards the movie received. Well I must say, at least it got an award even though it isn't the top grosser. It got the Best Visual Effects award. They really deserve this, I think since, the visual effects were good. Well, I must say that it was an okay movie to watch though I would still really prefer to watch Sisterakas because it's obviously funny because its got 2 of the best comedians in the industry. Oh well, these might be all, about the 38th Metro Manila Film Festival.

Perhaps a Comment no? Even a violent reaction is welcome. Please?