DIFF 2010 - September Rain

In essence the story is that of a veteran musician who is surviving in current Syria in the middle of all cultural, social and class divides, ( as is true with any city in the world), and is surviving on his talent passed on - that is - 4 sons who play music at a restaurant and a fruit selling business.
What one fails to understand is that what compels the director to express through such a laxed screenplay. At one point you may think the slow cold pace of the movie showcases the mood, nostalgia or metaphoric thought that the film so desperately tries to invoke. Ofcourse that starkly opposes the vivid and warm storyline that the protagonist pursues and you soon realise your interest is losing out due to the heavily crippled sense of pace !
Too many unneccesary bends in the storyline / screenplay, ( one cant tell which without submitting to being judgemental), surreal interludes and back and forth jumps in no apparent pattern. The film begins to lose its sense of continuum and logic and moves to the point where we ask ourselves why the 'son's' feet bleed instead of his heart, why all the loves of the story depart at the same time and in no charming pattern either that; and then why one of them mysteriously returns back to save the mopping and sobbing household, for no apparent reason ofcourse! God save the family first ... then us!
13-12-2010; MOE 3

DIFF 2010 - Harud (Autumn)

The tale of a Kashmiri youth beaten by his circumstances, lost in the political divide, detached from a sense of motivation and helpless towards his own future. This film is the story of a Kashmiri everyday and perhaps also the strength of this movie-making, that is takes you far and away from the 'political, terrorist and military mammoth' that we better know Kashmir as. This definitely deserves credit in the director/writer's kitty for a unique potrayal of the serene locale, almost the heart of heaven, and the show of terrorism that exists as ancillary, within and around. And while you watch the boy (Rafiq) struggle through what one could call an 'everyday', there is still not a single minute in the movie that doesnt remind you of the lack of calm and unrest.
Having said that, what the movie totally takes away from you is your patience and motivation to watch it. From extreeeeeme slow screenplay to jerky story movements, this ride seems nothing short of a steam engine on a rusted track. The movie works around minimal dialogues, thus leaving us with tons of silent (audible and visual) spaces and truckloads of empty full-close-up gazes from the protagonist. Abrupt endings to suddenly heightened emotions, lack of control over pace, illogical sequencing and very sparse plot formation. This movie thoroughly lacks what could be called effective thought directioning and one wonders that when the crew did take the efforts of shooting on location in Kashmir, (a fact that was rubbed in more than thrice by the director present), and with local actors, etc., then why does 70 per cent of the movie show you only close-up single-gaze faces of the family with blurred or No contexts?! All this ofcourse vividly interspersed with painfully long saturated video-camera stills of the beautiful Kashmiri autumn landscape - the 'Harud'.
Clearly you are arent sure whether you are feeling as cold as the winter to come in Harud or as bored to finally realise the cinema A/C blasting on you.

10:00pm, 13.12.2010 MOE 1