The Proposal

Opening this weekend: The Proposal, directed by Anne Fletcher

Can't say too much about this one... if you are likely to want to see it, then you probably already know about it. The movie's website is here.

Luck by Chance

Showing at MoMA: Luck by Chance, directed by Zoya Akhtar

Synopsis from the film's website:

A starlet and a struggler meet while trying to navigate through the Hindi Film Industry and end up changing each other's lives forever.

Luck by Chance is a slice of film industry life, in which self advancement is the sole motivator. Here, notions of superstition, fate and destiny may underline every decision, but it is the gigantic egos, the grand desires and the small opportunities that converge to form strange patterns.
Patterns that we call kismet.

In such an unpredictable climate, is success and failure what others define for you or is it something you decide for yourself?

The New York Times review is here.

Smile Pinki

Showing at MoMA and on HBO: Smile Pinki, directed by Megan Mylan

Synopsis from the film's website:

Pinki is a five-year old girl in rural India born desperately poor and with a cleft lip. The simple surgery that can cure her is a distant dream until she meets Pankaj, a social worker traveling village to village gathering patients for a hospital that provides free surgery to thousands each year. Told in a vibrant vérité-style, this real-world fairy tale follows its wide-eyed protagonist on a journey from isolation to embrace.

Smile Pinki won an Oscar for best short documentary film, and it moved one of the Freakonomics guys to tears. Audio interview with Megan Mylan here.

Firaaq

Showing tomorrow at MoMA: Firaaq, directed by Nandita Das

Synopsis from the film's website:

Firaaq is an Urdu word that means both separation and quest. The film is a work of fiction, based on a thousand stories.

The story is set over a 24-hour period, one month after a campaign that took place in Gujarat, India, in 2002. It traces the emotional journey of ordinary people—some who were victims, some perpetrators and some who choose to watch silently. As an ensemble film, it fo9llows multiple narratives that are at some times interconnected and at times discreet, yet all are united by their spatial and emotional context.

A middle class housewife closes the door on a woman desperately seeking refuge, and then struggles to overcome her guilt. The loyalty of two best friends is challenged in times rife with fear and suspicion. A group of victimized young men seek revenge as a way out of their helplessness and anger. A modern day Hindu-Muslim couple struggle between the survival instinct to hide their true identities and the desire to assert them. A boy having lost most of his family in the riots wanders through the streets searching for his missing father. A saintly musician clings on to his idealism until an evidence of civil strife shakes his faith.

Through these characters we trace the ways in which violence impacts both inner and outer lives. Violence spares nobody. Yet in the midst of this madness, some find it in their hearts to sing hopeful songs for better times.

Yes Madam, Sir

Showing at the Museum of Modern Art: Yes Madam, Sir, directed by Megan Doneman

Screening tonight and tomorrow as part of MoMA's "The New India" film series.

Synopsis from the film's website:

In these uncertain times comes a heartfelt story of boundless courage, determination, and inspiration…

Filmed in India over six years and narrated by Academy Award winning actor, Helen Mirren, Yes Madam, Sir is a ‘David and Goliath’ epic story profiling Asia Nobel Prize winner, Kiran Bedi – India’s first woman police officer.

Yes Madam, Sir carries the audience through an emotional, tumultuous, frustrating and often hilarious journey of a person who defies all odds, makes history, ruffles feathers, and who triumphs to ultimately affect change from within a centuries-old world.

A modern day Gandhi, Bedi is an intriguing paradox: deified by millions for her commitment to social justice and her public stance against corruption; vilified by the establishment as a publicity seeking, uncontrollable megalomaniac. The true drama lies not in Bedi’s extraordinary audacity, but in the inherent contradictions in her character. In Bedi’s eyes, she fights the fight of the underdog on an ultimately sinking ship.

With her baton at the ready, Bedi will always find a battle. Paradoxically the very qualities that propel Kiran Bedi to triumph could ultimately spell her downfall. The contradictions in Bedi’s character are never so evident than when her work and personal life are paralleled. Through exclusive scenes of Bedi on the job as India’s most controversial police officer, and through intimate home scenes with her father and daughter, and tender moments with her estranged husband, the filmmaker’s uncensored access unravels the truth behind the icon to reveal the most tragic, poignant and comedic moments of the film.

Packed with heart, Yes Madam, Sir is a roller coaster ride of the triumph and frustration, fame and infamy, comedy and tragedy, passion and pain of a sole leader, and a searing insight into a lawmaker who becomes a law unto herself.

Unfortunately, I can't find any trailers or clips, but this movie has been scooping up awards from film festivals left and right, so it is worth checking out. Interview with Megan Doneman is here.

My Life in Ruins

Opening this weekend: My Life in Ruins, directed by Nia Vardalos

Synopsis, from my head: αγόρι meets κορίτσι. Ethnic hilarity ensues. The reviews are dreadful, so I won't bother posting any.

Herb & Dorothy

Opening this weekend: Herb & Dorothy, directed by Megumi Sasaki

Synopsis from the film's website:

Herb & Dorothy tells the extraordinary story of Herbert Vogel, a postal clerk, and Dorothy Vogel, a librarian, who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history with very modest means. In the early 1960s, when very little attention was paid to Minimalist and Conceptual Art, Herb and Dorothy Vogel quietly began purchasing the works of unknown artists. Devoting all of Herb's salary to purchase art they liked, and living on Dorothy's paycheck alone, they continued collecting artworks guided by two rules: the piece had to be affordable, and it had to be small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Within these limitations, they proved themselves curatorial visionaries; most of those they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned artists including Sol LeWitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Tuttle, Chuck Close, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, Robert Barry, Lucio Pozzi, and Lawrence Weiner.

After thirty years of meticulous collecting and buying, the Vogels managed to accumulate over 2,000 pieces, filling every corner of their tiny one bedroom apartment. "Not even a toothpick could be squeezed into the apartment," recalls Dorothy. In 1992, the Vogels decided to move their entire collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The vast majority of their collection was given as a gift to the institution. Many of the works they acquired appreciated so significantly over the years that their collection today is worth millions of dollars. Still, the Vogels never sold a single piece. Today Herb and Dorothy still live in the same apartment in New York with 19 turtles, lots of fish, and one cat. They've refilled it with piles of new art they've acquired.

Herb & Dorothy is directed by first-time filmmaker Megumi Sasaki. The film received the Golden Starfish Award for the Best Documentary Film and Audience Award from the 2008 Hamptons International Film Festival. It has also received Audience Awards from the 2008 Silverdocs Film Festival and the 2009 Philadelphia Cinefest. Palm Springs International Film Festival named Herb & Dorothy one of their "Best of Fest" films in 2009.

The New York Times review is here, and an interview with Megumi Sasaki is here. The movie also has its own Facebook page.