Our reviewers select and review the best independent and foreign films on amazon.com, cd universe, and netflix

The most overused phrase in filmmaking is “the music will carry it.” Whatever doesn’t work in shooting or editing gets a second chance when the perfect musical score deftly underscores emotions. The best composers know how to do this without telegraphing emotions. Classic film music techniques include creating a theme for every major character plus a broader thematic statement encompassing the whole movie. More contemporary scores from gifted composers like Stewart Copeland (drummer with The Police) mix classic techniques with rock innovation.

You might question why a blog post called “The 10 Most Overused Songs in Movie History” originated on a site called Online Certificates. The purpose is to get you online dental or medical or fitness certification online. But the authors have peppered their site with interesting “best” articles like “10 Unfinished Pieces of Art,” and “20 Best American Cities for Music Buffs.”

I guess the rational is health certification isn’t exactly fun time, so you might as well read something interesting while you fill out the questionnaires. Among the most overused (a subjective judgment, I assume) are O Fortuna by Carl Orloff, Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd), and In the Hall of the Mountain King( Edvard Grieg). I think Carl Orff’s Musica Poetica that Terry Malick used in Badlands and has been overused ever since is an equally good list entry. But I won’t quibble with most of the others. You can see the whole list at: The 10 Most Overused Songs in Movie History. Take a look.

Title : Garam Hawa
Year : 1973
Directed By M. S. Sathyu
Starring : Balraj Sahni, Farukh Sheikh & more.

“Garam Hawa” is a gem which has to be there in the top brackets of any kind of list compiled about the movies made on the subject of India’s Partition. Also considered as one the Top 10 Movies made in the Hindi Film Industry till date, “Garam Hawa” is among the favourites of many renowned stalwarts of Bollywood, who still remember the aura it created at the time of its release in 1973.

For me, it is one of the best works conceived around the subject of India’s partition in 1947. The film is based on the story of famous Urdu Writer Ismat Chugtai and captures the moments of those tough times in just the right spirit without going into any blood-shed or extreme violence. Truly speaking, the director and writer show the trauma of that era more through their characters and their breaking relationships than by showing some bloody scenes of deadly riots full of mutual hatred.

It has Balraj Sahni, the most natural Indian actor of all times playing the lead character, caught within the communal tension and his performance is undoubtedly among the Best Ever performances of Hindi Cinema. In fact why he is known as the most natural actor, is righty proved by this film without any doubt.. Thoughtfully directed by M. S. Sathyu, the film gives you a chance to feel the violent conflicts between Hindus & Muslims, before & after the partition, as a first-hand experience. Each character in its script is affected in his own way by the hard & unexpected decision took by the leaders of that time. And as you see it, the terrifying moments are bound to make you go numb and speechless for few minutes.

Undoubtedly one of the most intense movies on this topic which makes you sit back and think about the situation our ancestors had to face at that particular point of time. In a very sensitive and subtle way it captures the dilemma every Hindu, Muslim and Sikh had at that time, about whether to move away or not. And further it has a well shot climax which is a complete chapter in itself to study, leaving many open questions for the viewer to think it over.

More on http://bobbytalkscinema.com/recentpost.php?postid=postid041209010024

DVD available: http://www.amazon.com/Garam-Hawa/dp/B000FVE49W/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1312966885&sr=1-1

Water (India 2005, 117 min. dir: Deepa Mehta, cast: Sarala, Lisa Ray, Ronica Sajnani.

All movies shot in India are fabulous on a 46-inch flat screen. Water makes you want to swim in the Ganges. Seeing Water it’s hard to imagine this sacred river is filled with pee, chicken feathers, dead cows, and worse. Sacred sewer is probably a better description.

But Deepa Mehta is not a filmmaker focused on ecology. His river is serene even though the people who live along it are troubled, spiritual and venal. This doesn’t include Kalyani (Lisa Ray) or her hopeful lover, Kunti (Ronica Sajnani). Both are beautiful.

And even though the movie takes place in 1938 against the rise of Gandhi and Lisa Ray plays a prostitute; she looks like she has her hair styled at Jean Louis David. Ronica Sajnami wears three-day whiskers a la mode. I don’t think Indians in 1938 were anything but clean-shaven. But then, I don’t want to seem petty.

The story is about Chuyia (Sarala), who was wed in an arranged childhood marriage and saw her old husband die soon after. She’s carted off to the windows’ ashram where she is supposed to live the rest of her life. Her she has her head shaved and meets the group of flinty old harpies she must live with and who try to crush her childish yen for freedom and fun.

Kalyani befriends her. She’s the pretty one so the harpies have not shaved off her hair. This way they can make some money pimping out her sexual services to pay the rent. Wouldn’t you know, handsome Kunti falls in love with her without knowing she’s servicing his father?

There’s a lot that is good in Water, even though it’s fun to pick apart the plot contrivances and glamor excesses. Not the least of the important stuff is the rise of Gandhi, the awakening of women, the injustice of the caste system, and the transformation of the British colony to an independent state.

It’s also worth noting that Lisa Ray gives an impressive performance. For a Canadian girl who started as a swimsuit model and didn’t speak a word of Hindi (she learned for the film, but was later dubbed), Water is quite an accomplishment.

Chronicle of an Escape (Argentina 2006, 103 min. dir: Israel Adrian Caetano, cast: Rodrigo de la Serna, Nazareno Casero, Lautaro Delgado, Matias Marmorato).

Why does torture inflame our imagination in ways love never does? Thanks to a 1976 coup by its military leaders, little Argentina is up there with Nazi Germany in the torture Olympics. Of course the number of Argentine films about this era is nowhere near the number about Nazi Germany, but they are all first rate.

Chronicle of an Escape (also called Cronica de Una Fuga and Buenos Aires 1977) is up there with the best about this purge like The Official Story, Garage Olimpo, and The Secret in their Eyes. Based on true stories told by the victims, this film is the story of a group of young men held in an old mansion in the suburbs of Buenos Aires and subjected to endless torture until they managed a daring escape.

At one point the lead torturer remarks, “This is how the FBI started.” Not exactly correct, but the resemblance to CIA black prisons is very clear. The “Dirty War” in Argentina went on from 1976 to 1983. It was methodical, government sponsored violence and torture to rid Argentina of any leftist or Communist elements. And estimated 13000 people were killed. A favorite way to dispatch prisoners was to drug them, put them on airplanes, and dump them from altitude into the sea (see Garage Olimpo).

This kind of fun didn’t stop until the military government overstepped its limits and invaded the Falkland Islands. The British promptly responded, drove out the peasant soldiers and their portenos leaders, and reduced their army to scrap metal.

So why is it we love torture movies? Because sadists are so much more imaginative than nice people. One of the coolest scenes in Chronicle of an Escape is stripping the prisoners naked, chaining them to their beds, standing on top of them while moping them with disinfectant. Who could invent stuff like this but a gifted sadist?