Celda 211(Cell 211) - A Spanish Movie Review



 
 
As my friends ordered, I thought of writing, a bit detailed movie suggestion/review.

The reason, I have been so adamant in continuing movie suggestion/review is, I love writing (sathiyama ungala torture panra ennam illa!!).So, please don’t feel bad if you are not able to watch the movie.

I watched this movie almost a year back. I came to know about it through rotten tomatoes. Have the [bad] habit of browsing rotten tomatoes, searching for award winning art house movies. After watching, it kept lingering in my mind for two to three days. May be I can say, this was one of the most entertaining movies I have ever seen.

This movie won many Spanish awards (eight) and Hollywood official remaking is on. I don’t know how many Indian film makers unofficially doing that (A R Murugadoss, Shankar and others- with lots of masala!!).

Story…A young prison guard (over)enthusiastically (angathan thappu pannittan) tours the prison, a day before joining duty, leaving his pregnant wife at home. A ceiling plaster falls on his head and becomes unconscious for a while, simultaneously a prison riot breaks out and his colleagues abandon him in an empty cell -211. He has to act like an inmate to survive.

The riot is for betterment of jail facilities. Inmates take hostage of bosque separatist leaders (ETA) to negotiate their demands.

One small event completely turns his life upside down. His pregnant wife comes to know about the riot through television and gets caught in the middle of the protest by relatives in front of prison gate. She loses her baby and her own life following an assault by a prison official. Our hero takes revenge and gets killed at the end.

While watching this movie you realize no one is completely good or bad. Many times circumstances make a person good or bad.

Reasons I liked this movie so much, are...

1.   Pace of the movie. The very first scene (so intense), an inmate makes a razor out of a cigarette filter and commits suicide (cell 211), sets the perfect tone for the movie. The way it is filmed infuses adrenaline rush, suspense and thrill in to you and that feel stays till the end.

2.   The story. You feel like watching a live incident on TV, so real. No Hollywood, Kollywood heroism. Hero struggles like a common man.

3.   Actors. The real hero is the riot leader Malamadre. His looks (a tattoo at the nape of neck), acting and voice perfectly fit the character.

4.   Romance. Though very little, it breezily (particularly the underwear related one) intersects the violent prison story in a nonlinear fashion.

 

Finally one caution, it is a violent film, definitely not for kids.

We may discuss more about the movie later (if any one watches!).

 

02-08-14,

7 pm.

 

(Started writing movie reviews for my whatsApp group friends, this was the first post)

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ragging: When My Heart Skipped A Few Beats!

Image
Short Story Since many of our friends felt sad and traumatized by the true, sad ragging event I have described in my short story, I have decided to share one of my sweet memories of that period. Yes, what you are envisaging is correct, sweet memories can’t be without a girl. I am sure guys, the incident would make you feel jealous of me. This happened when I was in GMKMC- year 1991. I was hardly a week old in that college. Had been undergoing many depressing ragging events at the Hostel. As it happens in a typical masala movie, those sad scenes followed by this romantic incident. Even after 23 years, while writing this, I could feel  butterflies in my stomach. Fortunately, in the college campus – Ponni supermarket campus- seniors had to maintain certain decorum, ragging cannot go beyond boundaries. The incident took place on a monsoon day. Weather was fantastic. Just stopped raining. Everything looked so fresh and clean. Gentle breeze was blowing across, soothing every
Read more

Lage Raho Munna Bhai – “GandhiGiri” a modern tribute to Mahatma

Image
Let me clear the air first. This is not an art film; neither a film of international standards- technologically. Pure commercial entertainer. Choosing this movie is a desperate attempt to rescue my image, which is dangerously close to masochist tag- due to the sad, depressive, pessimistic films I’ve been reviewing! Every film maker would agree that comedy is the most difficult genre to pull through successfully. Easier to make the audience cry emotionally rather than tickling their funny bones. This is Rajkumar Hirani’s second film, as a director. When his first movie, Munna Bhai MBBS was released everyone was dumbfounded; it became a cult classic and created history in Indian cinema. Turned out to be so popular that the movie was reviewed by British Medical Journal! It has been remade in almost every Indian languages. Its Tamil version was “Vasool Raja MBBS”. Rajkumar Hirani wanted to be a film star; was involved in theatres- stage play, during college days
Read more

Mahanadhi - a common man's fight against flawed system

Image
I felt like coat-Gopinath (boot – Buddhan!), because of my sardonic approach towards Indian/Tamil film makers, perhaps gone a bit overboard. Like every one of us, they are too entitled to have excuses and justifications. Many directors became emotional when they met me to explain their hitches (in my dreams!). Past history is not supporting them to make altruistic movies; many disappeared with just one film (Aval appadithan?); many dreams, careers and lives have been shattered; many families have been pulled to the streets. The stakes are high in the film industries. Crores of money is involved. Producers are businessmen; want to make profit; can’t expect them to change the system or the society. Hence, lack of talent is not the hindrance for creating good films (sathiyama lanjam vangala- kanavila kooda!). With so many loops around their neck- risk of imminent strangulation, only few film makers are able to make responsible, sensible movies over a period of time.
Read more