The Road Ahead for Movie Buffs – Foremost, The Road

Tis’ no secret in these circles that Viggo Mortensen is one of our favorite Hollywood actors.

We loved Viggo as the the laconic Everett Hitch in Appaloosa and adored him for his solid portrayal of a footsoldier with the Russian Mafia in Eastern Promises.

One of the fine actors of our time, Viggo won the Academy Award nomination in 2007 for his role in Eastern Promises but much to our immense chagrin when the envelopes were opened the winner turned out to be Daniel Day-Lewis (There will be Blood).

So, it is with mucho anticipation that we await the release on November 25 of Viggo Mortensen’s new film The Road, a post-apocalyptic movie in the literal sense.

Directed by John Hillcoat, The Road also stars Kodi McPhee, Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce. Young Kodi McPhee, who plays Viggo’s son in the movie, has also earned high accolades for his work.

By the way, The Road is based on Cormac McCarthy’s eponymous Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

As father and son make their way south after the apocalypse has wiped out much of human civilization on the planet and turned everything to a fine ash, the duo walk upon a perilous road.

The nights are very cold. There’s not much to eat. And there are unsavory gangs around, the rump of civilization if you will.

Here’s an excerpt of the conversation between the young boy and his father from the book, The Road:

Can I ask you something? he said.

Yes. Of course.

Are we going to die?

Sometime. Not Now.

And we’re still going south.

Yes.

So we’ll be warm.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay what?

Nothing. Just okay.

Go to sleep.

Okay.

I’am going to blow out the lamp. Is that okay?

Yes. That’s okay.

And then later in the darkness: Can I ask you something?

Yes. Of course you can.

What would you do if I died?

If you died I would want to die too.

So you could be with me?

Yes. So I could be with you.

Okay.

Betcha a million bucks these lines will find a place in the movie.

Movie buffs will quickly recognize Cormac McCarthy as the author of No Country for Old Men.

You can watch the trailer of The Road here.

Here are the other movies we’ll be watching soon.

* Godavari (Telugu) – This 2006 film features lesser-known Tollywood stars Sumanth, Kamalinee Mukherjee and Neetu Chandra and is directed by Sekhar Kammula.

A love story, Godavari seems to have found favor with the audience.

Most likely, our Netflix DVD (we hope to receive it tomorrow) will come with English subtitles.

* Bandhana (Kannada) – In the 1980s, Bandhana created quite a stir in the South Indian state of Karnataka.

The Kannada language movie resonated with fine songs and had a decent cast comprising of Vishnuvardhan, Suhasini and Aswath.

Noorondu Nenapu and Ee Bandhana cast a spell over legions of Vishnuvardhan fans.

18 Responses to "The Road Ahead for Movie Buffs – Foremost, The Road"

  1. Twig   November 18, 2009 at 3:49 am

    Oh no! Who has asked you to see ‘Godavari’?
    It’s one of the boring movies ever. It’s the director’s second movie after the decent effort ‘Anand’.

    If you want a nice recent (I mean in this millennium) Telugu movie with a nice script, go for ‘Aithe’. It’s a cool movie considering that was the first movie for many actors/technicians.

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    You write above: Who has asked you to see ‘Godavari’?

    1. Some of your esteemed fellow commenters. 😉

    2. Added Aithe (2003) to our Netflix queue.

  2. Twig   November 18, 2009 at 3:57 am

    You can also try for the movie ‘Anukokunda Oka Roju’. The second movie from ‘Aithe’ director. I guess you might have seen crappy, idiotic hindi version of ‘Anukokunda oka roju’ called ‘Sunday’. Telugu version is infinitely original and better than ‘Sunday’.

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    1. You write: You can also try for the movie ‘Anukokunda Oka Roju’.

    Balaji, that Charmy or Charmi or Charmeee or Charminar or charm-wateva gives us the creeps. 😉

    2. No, haven’t seen Sunday.

  3. aaapu2confusedesi   November 18, 2009 at 4:37 am

    Did u saw 2012? Hollywood answer to Villu??!!

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    No, we didn’t ‘saw’ 2012, we only ‘sawed’ Paranormal Activity over the weekend.

  4. shadowfax_arbit   November 18, 2009 at 6:00 am

    No Tamil movie in the list 🙁

    You being fan of psycho genre, I suggest you watch Tamil MA. It is a very nice psycho movie. You’ll surely like it.

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    1. The Road should be very interesting.

    Hopefully, it’ll release in India too soon. These days some Hollywood flicks (e.g. 2012) are releasing on the same day in India.

    2. You write: I suggest you watch Tamil MA

    Just checked. Netflix doesn’t carry Tamil M.A.

    Plan to watch Kandukonden Kandukonden on Friday. With Mammooty, Tabu and Ash, it can’t be that bad.

    Must be at least ogle-worthy. 😉

  5. Twig   November 18, 2009 at 6:59 am

    No, no, Tamil MA ( Katradu Tamizh, whatever) is a nice family movie. A tremendous joyful, cheerful, uplifting movie actually. One should see that movie with kids and pet dogs 🙂

    @SI: But Charmee was good atleast in that movie. Anukokunda Oka Roju.

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    1. Just checked out Tamil MA on Wiki. Looks interesting.

    2. You write: Charmee was good atleast in that movie. Anukokunda Oka Roju.

    We’ll see.

  6. Vetti Jijaji   November 18, 2009 at 7:58 am

    it has songs that I like
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kattradhu_Thamizh#Soundtrack

    youtube doesnt seem to have good quality copies of those songs.

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    Thanks to Kattradhu Thamizh a.k.a. Tamil M.A., we now understand Newton’s Third Law. 😉

    Now we are looking for a primer on the gene splicing process….are there any Tamil movies that can help? 😉

  7. Vetti Jijaji   November 18, 2009 at 8:48 am

    so coolies get scorned in India too 😉

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    ??

  8. Vetti Jijaji   November 18, 2009 at 8:49 am

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blCfo2etU7k&NR=1

    madras basha

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    Too many nut cases in der Vaterland a.k.a. Germany.

    No wonder a Hitler could arise only in Germany. 😉

  9. Vetti Jijaji   November 18, 2009 at 9:34 am

    The scene where he confronts a call centre employee, in the middle of the night on a deserted street and pours his scorn and frustration at the system, is brilliant.
    says the wiki.

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    True…..but the context is different as we understand from the Wiki profile.

    The protagonist’s anger seems to arise not out of empathy with Americans whose jobs have been outsourced to the Coolies but due to the inequitable job market/pay structure within the state in which Tamil teachers are scorned and earn little.

  10. medytrance   November 18, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    Going by Jeeva’s obviously unreal beard in the movie, the movie doesn’t seem as realistic as the makers would want us to believe.

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    Surely, it can’t be worse than Villu, Aegan or Ayan.

  11. elnino.aurora   November 18, 2009 at 8:03 pm

    @Twig –

    Godavari was a tad boring, alright. But a decent movie to watch.. like all Sekhar Kammula movies. SI has seen absolutely trashy movies ( Singh is Kinng, Blue, Aadhavan etc etc.. endless list) and even had the mood to write reviews for them. Evlovo parthuteenga SI, idha parka mateengla enna 😉

    @ SI – neenga “feelings party” na surely Sekhar movies ellame enjoy pannuveenga 😉 Although I believe you are long past that age 🙂

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    1. The Godavari DVD (2hrs and 33min) arrived today.

    So we’ll watch it for sure, most likely tomorrow.

    2. You write: Although I believe you are long past that age

    True, we’re in the autumn years of our life heading into the cold winter days. 😉

  12. elnino.aurora   November 18, 2009 at 9:11 pm

    @ SI –

    Watched 2012 on its opening weekend. I’ve seen too many Emmerich movies.. same old disaster-American President-human survival plot. Got bored but somehow sat through the movie. You would trash it for sure.. but for some I guess it will be the perfect disaster movie (who haven’t watched Emmerich’s movies before). If possible, check out the review of the movie on The Washington Post. Very interesting.

    Thanks to people like Emmerich, I feel Hollywood is just a not-so-masala ish version of Bollywood 😀

    Kudos to the man for the usage of technology though – awesome special effects. (a little tacky in the water scenes)

    SI, I have been noticing one thing- it seems as though Hollywood movies are getting longer by the year (Transformers 2, 2012, Pirates of the Caribbean) and Bollywood is shortening its movies( Wake up Sid, the most recent example).. . I really dont know how to interpret this. If you could present a write up on this with some more examples from both the film fraternities , I guess it will make for interesting reading.

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    1. 2012 seems to have taken India by storm

    2. You write: Thanks to people like Emmerich, I feel Hollywood is just a not-so-masala ish version of Bollywood 😀

    But Hollywood is still infinitely more tolerable. To compare like to like, take a look at their top grossers and our top grossers. The quality chasm is wide enough to march an army of Vadivelus.

    As we’ve said ad nauseum, Indian movie-folks fail at the fundamental level – they can’t script a decent story without stealing and most of them are plain alien to the notion of acting.

    Take the analogy of software development – the Indian Coolies are cheap by Western standards and so they have cornered the global market presumably because in addition to being cheap the Coolies also offer a certain minimum quality with all the SEI-Level 5 et al.

    Now look at the Indian film market – by Hollywood standards (where it can cost $200m-$300m for a big budget film), the Indian film business is downright cheap. Yet, even with the English subtitles, liberal use of English in the movies and overseas filming we can’t get anyone outside our moronic desis to sit through our movies. Why? Because they are plain trash with zero quality.

    3. We’ll look at this phenomenon of shorter Bollywood films. Not sure if Wake Up Sid was an aberration.

  13. shadowfax_arbit   November 19, 2009 at 3:29 am

    >> The scene where he confronts a call centre employee, in the middle of the night on a deserted street…..

    is indeed a BRILLIANT scene.

  14. shadowfax_arbit   November 19, 2009 at 3:33 am

    SI you are absolutely right in getting the context of that scene. Ofcourse thats least surprising given your intellectual capacity 😉

  15. medytrance   November 19, 2009 at 11:07 am

    Vadivelu deserves better than your “army of _____s” comment. Over the years, watching him perform has given us more joy than all your Hollywood masterpieces and classics put together can ever manage.

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    You write: Over the years, watching him perform has given us more joy than all your Hollywood masterpieces and classics put together can ever manage.

    The problem is that Vadivelu’s antics are so poorly integrated with the rest of the story that it usually jars like hell.

    Among the countless Vadivelu comedies we’ve watched Avuru rombha nallavaru should easily rank among his Top 3. The text and his expressions are both hilarious. 🙂

  16. medytrance   November 19, 2009 at 1:08 pm

    🙂 Nice to know that you like his comedies too.

    My favorite Vadivelu comedies come with the following ‘keywords’:

    soona paana, I am sing in the rain, kaipullay thoongu, valikkuthu azhuduruven, I see just for jatti, my family total damage, you see Bruce, enna llookku, enna fffeelingu, telex pandian, sirippu police, athu pona maasam naan solrathu intha maasam, varoon aana varaatha, athu vera vaai ithu naara vaai, ayyo pochey, isai engirunthu varuthu, ennaa kayya pudichu izhuthiyaa

    Unfortunately my mobile’s tedious non-qwerty keypad isn’t allowing me to type more, else I could fill pages and pages with my favorite Vadivelu ‘keywords’. 🙂

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    Just watched a couple of Soona Paana episodes.

    Will watch the rest of your Vadivelu keywords over the next few days.

  17. medytrance   November 19, 2009 at 1:57 pm

    I didnt mean keyword in the Google sense, so I’m not sure you’ll find all of those scenes on YouTube. 🙂

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    No matter.

    YouTube has loads of Vadivelu comedy excerpts.

  18. ajm2009   December 6, 2009 at 3:05 pm

    The Road opened at number 10 in US box office…

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    Have you seen it? We doubt it’s released in your country.

    The Road is on our list of movies to watch.

    Read the eponymous book recently.

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