More movies, more mazaa!

As promised, I watched both Deewar and Fahrenheit 9/11. Guys - don't put so much pressure on me!!

Deewar was okay - a Bollywood movie with an interesting concept, one which I think could have been made better. Its about a group of Indian POWs held in Pakistani prisons since the 1971 war. They have tried umpteen times to escape and failed - until the son of one of the prisoners, Major Ranvir Kaur (played by Amitabha Bachchan), reaches Pakistan to rescue his father. Far-fetched? C'mon, its a Hindi movie! But then, who said James Bond was realistic anyway :-)

Fahrenheit 9/11 was an interesting movie, rather an interesting documentary. I read somewhere that the movie does not contain a single planned scene or dialogue - its all made out of previously shot news footage or real life interviews etc. It seeks to provide a conspiratorial angle to the reaction of the Bush administration to the events on and after September 11. Michael Moore has a few things to say about Bush and his administration:

(a) Bush is an idiot - yeah, he almost says it point blank!
(b) The administration is controlled by powerful corporations which have significant economic interests in Middle East oil - hence the war on Iraq on flimsy grounds.
(c) The terror hysteria which has been perpetuated on the public since 9/11 is the govt's ploy to ensure that the public blindly supports the govt in its immoral wars.

Michael Moore presents a number of facts and interviews with former govt officials to prove his claims. I won't put them here since it might spoil someone's plan to watch the film. However, at the end of the day, I was left with this nagging feeling that this is after all election year in the US and you cannot trust all you hear. After all, if the kind of power play he hints at can take place, coming out with a movie to sully the other camps reputation is a pretty small move. As always, the truth must lie somewhere in between what Moore says and the official view of the Bush administration.

But yeah, it is admirable that a film that is so scathing in its criticism of the govt could actually be screened in this country. There were troubles, and quite a few people tried their best to prevent it from being shown. However, the fact that it was ultimately screened shows that there are some very remarkable things about this country - free speech being one. Can one imagine a movie supporting Kashmiri separatists in India? I am not saying that such a movie should be made or anything. Just trying to say that the kind of freedom of speech Americans enjoy is truly awesome!