The shining (1980)_FILM REVIEW

The shining

The shining (1980) is an American film directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the horror novel The Shining (1977) by Stephen king. It’s the psychological thriller film, a most rated horror film in the history. Shining film opens with a bird’s eye view helicopter shot, subjects being a mountainous background with the snowy region under the bed of the mighty river. Second frame is a yellow car on a highway road in-between the mountain is fixed as a main subject in order to create suspense, although the opening title music doesn’t make the audience to fear a lot. No close up shot is used and the suspense music is scored originally, the car on a wide shot reaches a snowy mountainous region far away from the town or the living residential place, which is not easily reached on any emergency situations .


The car is parked outside a hotel. Shining music score makes us fear continuously, even though the genre is psychological thriller .The film is treated as horror in all reviews but the film never exposed horror content in natural way, it caveats the horror in other dimensions. There are no intercut and fast cut between the shot and everything is expressed in the angles .No other film maker except Kubrick will taste success of the film within the rules and guidelines of the film ethics and he never cheated in music and never used ramps. The films inciting incident happens when Jack (protagonist) gets a job at the Overlook Hotel near.


The hostel will be no man’s land on every winter, due to the heavy drizzling snow. He is assigned as a caretaker in the hotel on the month April – May by paying huge amount with hospitality to his family. The Manager of a hostel reveals that the hostel’s last caretaker psychologically went wrong and killed his own daughters and wife ,Jack replied that the job could meet his novel writing idea and as well as his salary. He accompanied with his wife (Wendy) and his 7 year old son Danny who is a foreseer and a past predictor. Danny’s psychologically issues were not known to their parents, it was briefly explained in a sequence that Danny negotiates his father’s plan of taking up a job at hotel. This film was shot in a five places like Hotel, Jack’s house, Dick’s friends shop, Airport, Dick’s house.


In the first day at hotel everything looks fine for jack and his wife, they loved the place and since it is comfortable and luxurious .Danny sees the illusion image of two twin kids, who were the daughters of Mr. Grady, the overlook hotels -expired seasonal caretaker, it is noted that the own family members were assaulted by Mr.Grady and chopped them with axe till death. The every shot of the film is caveat in nature and creates thrilling experiences through camera movement with realistic Music. Kubrick threatens us not only with the no man’s land script., it’s also with his clear musical background and a camera angles .The fictional Redrum (Danny mumbles) is MURDER, the reverse of redrum .The redrum is a flow of blood which caveats the audience about the upcoming danger .Earliest death which is unfolded in the opening of the movie create curiousness among the viewers, since Grady is affected psychologically due to his isolation from outer world. Second day of his job, Jack dreamt of killing his whole family and it exactly resembles Mr. Grady’s earlier murders. Jack jeopardizes his wife by telling what he dreamt of.


A blood scar in Danny’s face received a negative impact from the room 237. The 360 degree shot in the veranda following Danny threatens the audience for upcoming scene. In 360 shot, trolley is used to follow Danny; In fact it is one of the greatest shot in this film. Jack visits the room 237 and finds women in bathroom and at last she becomes a ghost. Third day, Wendy frightened about her husband and son behavior. Danny confirms the foresee murder and mumbles REDRUM .Wendy is helpless and tries to call the forest officers, the phone connection is dropped down .She argues with her husband and explains her intention to leave the hotel. Now, jack is psychologically controlled by the illusion (Ghost) Mr. Grady and orders to finish the mission soon, Mr. Grady warn Mr. Jack that Wendy and Danny were extremely talented.

 This film travels in the point of view of Jack Torrance. This movie does not have a single unwanted shot which could affect the story line and the screenplay."All work and no play make Jack a dull boy" is the sentences which are repeatedly printed for 100 pages in the jack novel script; Mrs. Wendy Torrance came to know that Jack is running out of mind. When she plans to escape Dick Halloran comes direct to visit Torrance family after the loss of phone connectivity last night .Danny hides in the kitchen and Wendy hiding inside the toilet .Jack heard the noise of the snow cat and goes to the ground floor and smashes Mr.Dick with his axe.

Then Danny escapes to garden and Wendy chases jack .The garden portions were shot in a steady cam .At last Wendy and Danny escapes, Due to the injury in his leg, Jack can’t walk further and died in the freezing cold.


_Lingaraja Sivanaiah

Meghe Dhaka Tara _FILM REVIEW

Meghe Dhaka Tara
By Ritwik Ghatak

The Cloud-Capped star 1960 is a script which does not provide an ending like other nostalgic series; mega taka tere is sequenced in a novelistic style in order to execute the realism. Meghe Dhaka Tara is a Bengali movie written and directed by Ritwik Ghatak, based on a novel by Shaktipada Rajguru.

The opening portions of the frames are shot in the border of East Pakistan and Hindustan. The story of the movie revolves around the four main characters goal and desire. Neeta is a bread finder to her whole family .She takes care of her parents, (Gita) sister and (Sankar and sanat) two brothers. Meghe Dhaka Tara meaning the stars is hidden under the clouds. 


Although sankar got enormous talent in sijnging, he is trying to achieve his goal and her sister keeps her hope on him. Shaktipada Rajguru , a novelist gave this title because the characters are trying to achieve and shine in the world. The first shot of the film visualized in the boarder of west Bengal with a song .The background is a giant Banyan tree and the subject looks small in the screen, as the subject comes closer to the frame the tree is sent to background. 

When she crosses the banyan tree, the shot gives the feeling that her whole family is dependent on her, as the whole world is dependent on the tree at some cause. The subject is Neeta who is going to her office finds her brother in a river bank practicing the song, at that time a train was about to pass the frame, and it is partially explained that the train’s coach is compared to Neeta’s burdens in life. And the Triangular composition also delivers that the story is going to revolve around Sankar and Neeta. This scene was not like other film which has a background song without purpose, this montage presents the particular happening in the screen, When Neeta is shown, Sankar’s vocal noise is added in that frame in order to stay away from montages in Indian cinema.

Neeta’s Fiancé Gyanesh Mukherjee , a drawing artist marries Neeta’s sister and settles in life. It’s to be noted that Neeta has helped him, whenever he suffered without money. Neeta’s Parents expectations revolves around money but not love .They are very much greedy and they need somebody to fulfill their needs. Their selfish part is incredibly exposed in many scenes. Neeta loved Gyanesh Mukherjee very much and now she is left alone. Her routine work resulted in illness leading to tuberculosis (TB). 

Earlier Sankar cannot afford for his shave and the provision owner denies giving single blade for credit, at last the same shop owner and the rest of the village mates waits for sankar’s autograph. This one shot explains his performances in Bombay and everybody calls him for dinner and breakfast. Sankar reached him goal and ultimately he wanted her sister to stay in home, in order to acknowledge her dedication towards family.

The film also visualized with emotional scenes, the meeting of Neeta and sankar, (while he returns from home.) gives a big shock to Sankar ,and it leads to dilemma whether the victory is worth or useless,..Neeta’s family wanted her to go away from home, fortunately sankar came home from Bombay with some money and Neeta is hospitalized. sankar meets Neeta in hospital ,she cries and hugs his brother for his love and affection.

Ritwik Ghatak hasn’t ended the film with a usual film style; he had shown a young girl who is working for her family .She resembles Neeta. Neeta’s introduction was similar to this girl’s introduction with torn slippers. Sankar is watching this girl from long and concludes many of the sisters (Working women) dedicates her life to the family and scarifies her own desires and love. It can also be concluded that another Neeta’s story is started and it’s unstoppable in this world.

_ Lingaraja Sivanaiah

DREAMS _FILM REVIEW

DREAMSAkira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa, a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years. Seven Samurai, Rashomon is one of his greatest movies and”dreams” stands tall of all. Kurosawa is the first director to assign crowds (atmosphere) to his movies, especially in seven samurai; he also used black ink with the mixture of water to differentiate the rain from the background.

Dreams, a science fiction movie which was constructed with seven unimaginable sequences which can be considered as threads to human life.

Dream 1

Sunshine through the Rain

The first sequence can be an adoption from his childhood bed time stories. Mother warns her son not to go out from home when it’s raining, but the son goes to forest while raining, His mother already said it’s a curse to be on rain since it’s the auspicious occasion for the fox to dance. The boy sees the human being disguised fox dancing for traditional Japanese instrumentals. When the small boy reaches home, his mother sends him back to the forest for apologizing to fox. She also gives a clue that the fox are living under the rainbow.
Old people use to say “Fox is getting married” When sunshine’s through the rain, the rain ends leaving the rainbow. So, Kurosawa has left a clue for us to think it’s an old myth portrayed in the sequence. It’s to be noted that no parent will accept his child to play in rain. In order to apologies, the child is going in search of rainbow where fox can be seen.

Kurosawa installed eight plots in his eight dreams

1st plot – when the mother gives knife to her son. It cannot be accepted since she is the original guardian. It can happen only in dreams. This dream will not have a perfect conclusion and the director will end the sequence while the kid moves closer to the rainbow. Kurosawa attempted fiction with myth in a single platform. This dream is packed with seven greatest dreams.

The Blizzard

The Blizzard is the third dream of Kurosawa that possibly reflects Yuki-onna of Japanese myth and it can be compared to Ukraine flight crash on Andes Mountains ,Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, also known as the Andes flight disaster, and in South America as Miracle in the Andes (El Milagro de los Andes) was a chartered flight carrying 45 people, including a rugby team, their friends, family and associates that crashed in the Andes on October 13, 1972. At last 16 survivors were rescued on December 23, 1972, more than two months after the crash. Later, Alive (1993) was filmed after this incident, the lead character and the narrator is the person who survived among the 45 people.


The Weeping Demon

Seventh dream of Kurosawa “The Weeping Demon” is a mixture of social message and a fiction. Kurosawa exhibits ‘how cruel the war is ‘and also he mentions the loss of animal and plants in environment. It has a similarity of Hiroshima Nagasaki bomb blast incident which still has the radiations. The radiation reduces the chance of growing tall, it also the major cause for the Japanese why are short.

_ Lingaraja Sivanaiah

Wild Strawberries _FILM REVIEW

Wild Strawberries

Wild Strawberries (1957) is a Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, about an old man recalling his past.1960’s Golden globe award winning movie. An old man named Issk borg was a lead character dreaming and recalling his past, Dreams of Isak is the dilemma of unimaginable things played by a real life character. It’s a Swedish movie which brings out the difference between the dream and the recall.

Isak was accompanied by her servant Mrs.Agda for almost 40 years after his wife died. Dr.Isak starts to recall Memory 1 – A life threatening dream, Dr.Isak was left alone in a no man’s land, it is a big silent street and there are no sign of human existence. He is wandering around the street corner. At last, he saw a big clock tower without hands, over the top of his head. An anonymous slips down when he tries touch Dr.Isak’s back and bleeds to death. He also sees a chariot which carries a funeral box. Accidently, the Chariot crashes on the platform light and funeral box opens when it falls down. The body resembles Dr.Isak and he himself touches the hand, as it grabs him in,. This clock resembles his father’s pocket watch without hands.

In one of the scene Dr.Isak’s mother reveals an nostalgic treasure of his father’s handless pocket clock, Thus the director exhibits the childhood memories of the lead character’s Dr.Isak .He suddenly awakes from his bed and comes out of his unconsciousness .

 Dr.Isak has a son, and there is a relationship breakup between his son Dr.Evald Brog and Mrs. Marianne, a daughter in law. Dr.Isak is a traditional and neat person throughout his life; he helped the poor people and showed kindness. Dr.Isak was travelling to Lund to receive his honor for serving as a doctor for more than 50 years. He drove the car on his own with her daughter in law.

 Mrs.Marianne, away from his husband due to his compulsion to abort the child. Dr.Isak and Mrs.Marianne reaches a resting place where Dr.Isak spent his summer in childhood, there he recalls . Memory 2 – It’s a palace surrounded by a garden where his family members used to spend the whole summer. Isak’s childhood lover named Sara is searching for wild strawberries .Sara is sweet seventeen, she hesitates when her cousin romances with her .Sara is in love with Dr.Isak’s, But unfortunately marries his brother segretti .Dr.Isak’s memories were fading when a teenage girl asks for a ride to Lund.

The memories are the mixture of his childhood romances and expectations, the director argues and exposes that, it is totally because of his loneliness. This was revealed by Dr.Isak’s mother in reality and she announces that the pocket watch without hands will be gift for her grandson who is going to celebrate his 50th birthday.Mrs.Borg greets Marrianne and shares her past life, and feels that she had a eleven children, everybody has died except Dr.Isak and she laughs that she is having 20 grandchildren’s. Accident Journey with youths Dr.Isak gave a lift to music band teenagers (two young men and a beautiful young girl) who are going to attend a rock music party. They are singing and expressing their thoughts while driving down to Lund. Suddenly a car crashes with Dr.Isak’s car and nothing happens to both the sides.

The opponent couples from the other car cannot start their car again. So, they accompanied Dr.Isak. The couple acts in an uncivilized manner and her husband sympathizes that she is suffering from hysteria, she continuously criticizes everybody and suddenly she shows some aggression on her husband. The couple was asked to get down when she slaps and beats him continuously. Memory -3 The members rest in a place near the highway, when Dr.Isak is about to recall, the teenagers were searching for flowers to wish his excellence in medicine .The 3rd memory is the continuation of 2nd one, Sara is playing piano and his husband grabs and kissed her ,then took her to supper. Dr.Isak who is watching from the transparent door tries to knocks it; an old man comes out and takes him to the examination which determines his honor in medicine.

He is asked to read the text written on the board and to examine the bacteria which is under the microscopic view. Dr.Isak fails in both and looks back, it is class room filled with his co-mates who is travelling to Lund in his Oldsmobile car. He is also given a last chance to examine a patient, a hysteria patient who drove along with Dr.Isak after the car crash. In fact, the examiner is the man who drove the car which went down to the bushes (husband of hysteria patient). The examiner takes him to the garden where a middle age man rapes a girl. The memory fades and Isak comes out from unconsciousness.

He shares the uncontrollable dreams with Mrs.Marianne; she also says Dr.Evald (her husband) has the same kind of problem. They drove down to Lund and Dr.Isak meets his mother. Dr.Evald meets Marianne and their dispute is coming to an end .Dr.Isak receives honor in the presence of his family and medical officials. The music band youths were pleased to see him honored .They greeted him with the strings of their guitar and left beyond Lund in a car of an old lady. Dr.Isak start his unavoidable memory recalls in the bed, it was his father and mother who is fishing in the hot summer at the palace, while he calls (as a kid).

They respond and Dr.Isak was watching this from the scene. Suddenly Dr.Isak awake from his sleep. Director has involved Matured Isak in each and every childwood dreams of Isak which also fictioned with a real life pass by characters .It is totally Dr.isaks memory which has his earlier affection, love, and feeling. It’s also portrays his dream of owning his father’s pocket clock.

_ lingaraja Sivanaiah