Ten day you Challenge - Post 8. Three films.

Lights, Camera….Action…

I am movie buff to the core. I have loved watching movies for as long as I remember. I grew up watching Yash Chopra brand of cinema, all love and no war. The ‘happily ever after’ types movies. Well I still love them,  but I have evolved to some extent to accept ‘itches and glitches’ and  ‘not so happily ever afters’.

From the moment I understood cinema, Shah Rukh Khan became my favourite. I think I have watched almost all his movies, barring a few real bad ones. I loved his portrayal of that caring loverboy image and to be honest, Shahid Kapoor does that part really well. I loved him in Jab We Met.

So ya, after watching DDLJ in mid-90s and Jab We Met after almost a decade and a half, I think I want someone who is just like Raj Malhotra of DDLJ and Aditya Kashyap of JWM….perfect amalgam of the two…(sigh)…

Ahem…ahem…back to the topic of my favourite movies, well, choosing three is such a difficult task. Very difficult. I will try and not cheat by putting options in one choice… My favourite genre in movies is romance, drama and thrillers. I particularly like racy political thrillers like Frost/Nixon and A Mighty Heart.  

I am not too much of a fan of animated movies and I also don’t like movies which have tameless wild animals flying all over the city…I am sorry if I am being offensive to lovers of such cinema but I don’t understand this and I have no intention of spending time in making friends with this genre either.

Now that we are sorted, let’s get started.

1. The Pursuit of Happyness

There is no reason why anybody would not like this movie. I have seen this movie many times and every single time there is a new learning. There is some positive energy around this film. The honesty with which Will Smith plays Chris Gardner and does justice to this true story, moves you. There are many scenes in the movie where your heart goes out to Smith when he is running to make his ends meet while raising a kid.

My most favourite quote from the movie happens to be the conversation between Chris and his son, Christopher Gardner:

Chris Gardner: Hey. Don't ever let somebody tell you, you can't do something. Not even me. All right?
Christopher: Allright.
Christopher Gardner: You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period.

2. Pretty Woman

I absolutely love this movie and love the lead pair even more. Again, I have seen this one also many times. I usually try to catch it everytime it is airing on any channel. And, I so want a sequel to this one.

The characters of Edward and Vivian are so clearly etched out in memory and so are the dialogues.

My favourite dialogues are:

“I'm gonna treat you so nice, you're never gonna let me go.” – Vivian to Edward

“It must be difficult to let go of something so beautiful.” – Hotel manager to Edward

3. Parineeta

It is a beautiful movie in terms of characters, story, cinematograpghy, music, dialogues and direction. Its such a treat watching it everytime. Every scene looks like picture portrait.

My most favourite scenes are when the camera stops at Vidya Balan’s face while she adjusts her saree and applies bindi and the scene freezes with the movie title appearing on screen. She looks gorgeous in that red and white saree draped in Bengali style.

Other one is the entry of Sanjay Dutt, when Vidya brings the lantern closer to his face to see who he is. And the other one is when Vidya asks Saif Ali Khan for money to give back to his father. Those eyes and that silence between the two speaks volumes.

I believe, this role was tailor-made for Vidya and she did complete justice to the character. Saif and Sanjay were also gentlemen. I also liked the other characters in the movie which were all so well-etched out. Music just adds to the beauty of the film.

If you have not watched this one, please do so. Its worth it.

These are my three most favourite movies and ofcourse I am very tempted to add a few more names to the list but let’s go by the rules this time.

May be a post dedicated to all my all-time favourite movies…some other time…  :)

Come back tomorrow and sing along, for it is two songs…