What do you call a movie that has no story, no screenplay, one chest barring hero, two half clad heroines and a few shabby villains? Most of the Indian movies. What do you call a movie that has a jobless dude and a dumb dudette chasing each other's arse and paining ours too ? The remaining Indian movies. Now, what do you call a movie that is very poignant, stimulates the grey cells of even an analog engineer :) and creates a cult following. If you aren't able to guess, then try this clue - It generally has Christian Bale in the lead. Yeah a Nolan masterpiece what else! To me a Nolan movie is like a mind-blowing Ph.D
dissertation - an unbelievable premise brilliantly explained in a
complex manner. The 'beyond belief themes' sow the seeds for the rich
harvest. If it was teleportation machine in The Prestige, it was dream machine in Inception. And in Memento it was short term memory loss - Nolan's
greatest contribution to Indian cinema. He then weaves a complex
screenplay surrounding this theme. Its so complex that a simple
distraction by that niggling couple sitting next to you means you need
to skip this show and catch the next show! And in the end he skillfully
concocts all this to produce a movie that leaves you flabbergasted both mentally and emotionally.
It has by now been clearly established that I am a huge Nolan fan. But my loyalty will always be questionable as I am yet to watch Memento! By no stretch of imagination was it due to the satisfaction of having watched our own billionaire-lover boy-short term memory loss patient, Mr.Ghajini. It is just one of the few unexplainable things in life. Also I got to watch The Prestige before Batman Begins. I was immediately consumed by its theme which was quite different even for Hollywood standards. It had all the 'Nolan' ingredients like a dark leitmotif, an analytical screenplay with an emotional connect and an awesome conclusion. Next was Batman Begins where Nolan demonstrated the art of making a super-hero movie that is dark, realistic, pulsating and thoroughly enjoyable all at the same time. His collaboration with Hans Zimmer was duly noted from the arousing BGM which lent an epic flavor to the movie. Then came the movie which elevated him to the status of a cult figure - The Dark Knight. It once again re-defined the landscape of super-hero movies by achieving the perfect fusion of sight, sound and substance. The movie featured a never-again-in-a-lifetime performance by Heath Ledger which earned him a posthumous Oscar. And with Inception he entered the realms of sci-fi thriller. The movie was literally the stuff of dreams with temporal multilayer and seamless transitioning between them. It is impossible and an injustice if I try dwelling into the movie in this forum, but in short it transformed film-making from mere entertainment into a niche field where only very few creative geniuses are allowed to play. And Hans Zimmer's Dream is collapsing BGM was... LEGENDARY! It is then only natural that his latest offering The Dark
Knight Rises (TDKR) had created unprecedented expectations among both critics and fans. It was considered a near impossibility to match the
brilliance of its predecessor and the untimely death of 'The Joker'
wasn't going to make the task any easier. So does the final installment
in the greatest super-hero series ever made make for an awesome
conclusion?
The film understandably has a much bigger canvas than its previous installments. From the beginning the director makes his intentions clear that he wants to end the trilogy with a blockbuster showdown between Batman and his toughest nemesis Bane. So he slowly starts building quite a few characters in this direction. In-fact the first half of the movie is spent on this and I felt it was a bit stretched, though you can sense the gradual increase in momentum. And in the second half Nolan starts putting together the various pieces of the puzzle in his own inimitable style accompanied by Zimmer's crescendoing BGM which is sure to give you the goosebumps. The climax is very much cliched for a Hollywood super-hero movie. But when you are planning to wrap up the proceedings of one of the greatest trilogy, there ought to be a grand farewell and TDKR surely provides that.
The biggest testimony to the genius of Nolan is the widespread following he has among people with diverse tastes (and gender :) ). This is because his movies achieve that rare amalgamation of Kurosowa's ingenuity, Kubrick's intensity and Spielberg's epicness to create a new genre called 'Nolanism'. Its very tempting to declare Nolan as the best of this era, but out of immense respect for the past masters I would just stop short of uttering it. In a career spanning just few films he has entered the pantheon of the 'brightest and bravest' leaving an indelible mark on film-making. And fans like me can be rest assured that the best is yet to come! Take a bow Mr.Nolan. And long live your tribe... (The Nolan tribe includes director Christopher Nolan and his younger brother Jonathan Nolan with whom he has immensely collaborated.)
