Sholay

**Some spoilers ahead**

Sholay was not what I was expecting. Somehow the posters or some imagery that I'd seen had led me to expect a film that was about grand politics, perhaps vast armies fighting in the desert.. Instead, and this is all I have to compare it to, some kind of western?

I enjoyed the plot twists. I wasn't expecting the various deaths in the film, especially towards the end. The songs were all pretty good. One felt almost modern somehow.

Some scenes I felt went on quite a bit longer than they needed, particularly early on. I am told that the action scenes were praised at the time, though they too felt a little too long for my tastes.

All in all, some strong character portraits, and I feel some precedents set for future films. I half wonder if there's a sequel where Gabbar escapes from the surely-minimum-security prison to which he gets sent.

Kapoor & Sons

A bittersweet family drama set in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu. This was a picture of India I wasn't familiar with, and purely as backdrop this went a long way for me. The story with Tia (played by Alia Bhatt) seemed vastly underfunded in the plot, and the stumbling block was artificial. A number of strong ensemble scenes, though, and just enough grit in the ending to make sense to this viewer.

Dil Dhadakne Do

A family travels around the Turkish coast on a cruise ship, while romance and past transgressions erupt among them. Some catchy dance moments in this film, but the plot felt too scripted, too unnatural. Too much like Titanic, or perhaps Midsummer Night's Dream at times. Fun, but forgettable.

Looking the Wrong Way: Faces in 'Arrival'

In Denis Villeneuve’s excellent new film, Arrival, suspense is handled more eloquently than is the norm. I won’t spoil the plot for those who still plan on catching this in the cinema, but it isn’t revealing much to say that this is a film with contact with extraterrestrial beings and spaceships. That much you can even figure out from the poster.

We’ve all seen films where this is handled bluntly with brute force: masses of computer-generated effects, amp up the soundtrack and throw in a few explosions for good measure. (Exhibit A: Independence Day).

Arrival chooses to reveal its cards not through directly witnessing the spectacle itself, but rather by focusing on the faces of those who bear witness to what is going on. To be more specific, for much of the significant moments in the film, the camera focuses on Amy Adams’ face. It probably only works because she’s a great actor, but it just goes to show that sometimes subtlety and doing the opposite of what convention dictates can go a long way in making an impression, even in a big-budget Hollywood film.

(An unrelated note: if you enjoy learning or thinking about language(s), you'll probably want to check this film out, and/or possibly the short story on which it is based, Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang.)