Everybody says I am fine





With a story line way above the expected, my euphoric thoughts carried me for the whole 100 minutes to an entirely different level altogether. But I must say, seeing the intensity of the film left me wishing to see more films directed by Rahul Bose. The 2nd Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival 2014 has given quite a treat to Guwahatians this weekend starting 19th April through 21st April. 

Everybody Says I'm Fine! is an Indian film, released on 12 September 2001 at the Toronto Film Festival. It marks the directorial debut of Indian actor Rahul Bose. For his work on Everybody Says I'm Fine! Bose won the runner-up John Schlesinger Award for best directorial debut at the 2003 Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Plot

The film revolves around a small group of elite Mumbaikars whose lives converge at a hairdresser's salon. The protagonist Xen owns the salon and has a unique gift of connecting with the minds of his clients and reading their thoughts while at work. Most of his customers maintain a facade of normality in order to gain semblance and hide their tumultuous lives to some extent.

As backdrop to Xen's ability, it is revealed that as a young boy, he witnessed the death of his parents in a freak accident at a recording studio, where nobody could hear his cries for help through the sound-proof booth as he saw the flames rising. Ever since, Xen's life plunged into some sort of forced silence. Xen uses his gift to help most of his clients, notably Tanya, whose private life is being indecently probed into by another one of his customers, Misha. Xen manages to get the dirt on Misha, who is a secret cocaine addict, and more unsavory details surface where it comes to knowledge that Misha has even gotten some children at the orphanage she works at addicted to it. Xen slips the information to Tanya without her knowledge, who then confronts Misha with it when Misha becomes a little too inquisitive in Tanya's personal affairs.

Xen is however, clueless in his own silence, and to add to it, he is unable to probe into the mind of one of his customers, Nikki/Nikita who arrives in his saloon one day and asks him to cut off all her long hair. He begins to develop feelings for her, sensing some form of distress in her being, unable to reach her but somehow wanting to help.

Later, as Xen serves one of his regulars, a respectable businessman, Mr. Mittal, it transpires that the married Mr. Mittal is busy planning a liaison with another woman. More facts slowly unfold to reveal Mr Mittal is, in fact, Nikki's father, and Nikki has been subjected to an incestuous relationship. Enraged, on gradually learning the truth straight from the thoughts of his client, Xen strikes a heavy blow to Mr. Mittal's head, killing him, and later disposing of the body.

The death of her father triggers in Nikki a sudden response, and she crumbles to the ground in Xen's arms. He is now engulfed in her disconcerting train of thoughts, disjointed, and echoing her torment of many years. The final scene of the film shows Xen waking the next morning to find the silence in his life is now beyond him, and he can hear, as clearly and wholly as the next human being. Nikki embraces him; the mutual catharsis has made them both more wholesome beings.

Cast

Actor/actress	Role
Rehaan Engineer	Xen
Koel Purie	Nikki/Nikita
Rahul Bose	Rage
Pooja Bhatt	Tanya
Anahita Oberoi	Misha (as Anahita Uberoi)
Boman Irani	Mr. Mittal

Crew

• Director: Rahul Bose
• Writing Credits: Rahul Bose

Konikar Ramdhenu




We all scramble to watch the best movie and when we know its won the National Award, it only gets the better of us if we don't get to see it on time. So even after knowing that Konikar Ramdhenu received the National Award in 2002, I was destined a see only this year and that too while anchoring for the 2nd Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival on the evening of 19th April, 2014. I decided to sit through this whole film and taste its flavour inspite of a hectic schedule on stage. And it was the best decision I took in some time! An intense movie, it had little to do with the physical 'dhishum dhishum', but so much more about tormented souls, who needed to be heard!
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Konikar Ramdhenu (Assamese: কণিকাৰ ৰামধেনু) is an Assamese language film directed by Jahnu Barua. It was released in 2003.The film was shown in Indian Panorama section of IFFI during October 2002 in Delhi and Mumbai International Festival in 2003.^[1] It is the last installment of his trilogy, the other two being Xagoroloi Bohu Door (1995) and Pokhi (1998). Konikar Ramdhenu depicts the horrors that happen in a juvenile home.

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The story revolves around an imaginative and intelligent 11-year-old boy Kukoi who runs away from his village home and starts working in a motor garage in a city. One day the owner attempts to molest Kukoi. In self-defence, Kokoi hits the owner with an iron rod killing him on the spot. Kukoi is produced before court and then sent to the state juvenile home where he is traumatized. Biswa Boro, the warden of the home, is an understanding man. He coaxes the boy into a confession of the true circumstances of the painful event. Kukoi is brought before the magistrate who orders his release and custody to his parents or any authorised guardian. Biswa goes to Kukoi’s village where he discovers that the boy’s mother died years ago and his stepfather has disowned him. Biswa, who is now retired and does not have children, decides to adopt Kukoi.

Director Jahnu Barua visited 12 juvenile homes before making the film. He observed that out of 100 cases, more than 80 end up in “negative situations”, much below expectations.

Directed by	Jahnu Barua
Produced by	Sailadhar Baruah
Written by	Jahnu Barua
Starring	Bishnu Kharghoria Moloya Goswami Reba Phukan Dinesh Das Ronik Abinash Sharma Ashwini Bhuyan Indrani Gogoi
Music by	Reeta Das Baruah Y. S. Moolky
Cinematography	P. Rajan
Editing by	Heu-En Baruah
Distributed by	Dolphin Films Pvt. Ltd
Release dates	2003
Running time	112 minutes
Country	India
Language	Assamese

INSIDIOUS Chapter 2

Insidious: Chapter 2 is a 2013 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wan. It is a sequel to 2011'sInsidious. The film stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne reprising their roles as Josh and Renai Lambert, a husband and wife who seek to uncover the secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world. The film was released on September 13, 2013. It was a major box-office success, grossing over $160 million worldwide against a budget of $5 million, even though it received mixed reviews from critics.

I really think that director James Wan was sleep walking when he made the sequel of Insidious Chapter 1. Chapter 2 was just a non-scare, the first being far better in giving goose-bumps. I could actually see so much of copy-paste from the first that I just wondered how James Wan could have been so unfair in story-telling and that too when I was all prepared to be 'scared to death' and that too at the dead of night! So there you have it, an absolute non-scarer; Insidious 2! It beats me how it grossed $160 million! Every scene seemed repetitive and the story predictive. 
As a movie-buff, I want more excitement and certainly no predictability. Why should I be able to say the story when there is actually someone else to imagine it for me? I want to sit back and let someone else do that job for me! But James Wan let me down big time! I wish I don't have to predict Chapter 3! I am only waiting! 
I have heard that Insidious 3 will have a totally different story, with no connections whatever with the first two sequels. It is coming in 2015, with the script already ready with discussions on in full swing! Good for them but I wish they would do away with the 'ghost-busters'. They somehow don't fit into the plot!