Rakka a.k.a. Oats Studios Volume 1: Rakka (2017)Directed by Neill Blomkamp Some weeks ago, we got a trailer for a project called "Oats Studios", from filmmaker Neill Blomkamp. Under this banner, experimental short films were to be released. The first film, a short called "Rakka", was put out a couple of weeks ago. The film is an alien invasion story. An alien race (Blomkamp calls them the "Klum" – rhymes with plume) shows up on Earth, harvesting and conducting experiments on humans, and transforming our world into something that resembles theirs. There is a Resistance, but they seem to be on the losing side. Amir, a young man who has been experimented on by the aliens and survived, might help them turn the tide. Sigourney Weaver stars as Jasper, one of the Resistance Leaders. My favourite Neill Blomkamp film is the awesome "District 9" (2009). I liked his "Elysium" as well, but have not seen "Chappie". "Rakka" seemed to echo the tone and style of his earlier works. That's probably the one criticism I have of "Rakka", in that it seemed quite familiar. However, I thought it was very well made, it has high production value and a gritty and intense tone. The visual effects and the bloody and violent action scenes were also nicely done. If this had been a feature film, they could have probably resolved and tied up the characters' stories. But what we get now is a bit of world building and then when things start getting interesting, the short ends (which is probably a good thing, to go out on a high note). Overall it's a very good film and mandatory watching if you're a science fiction fan. Do read Neill Blomkamp's explanation / breakdown of the short. I drew Sigourney Weaver as Jasper from the movie (from the scene where she says, "cut off its fucking head"), it was drawn in pencil and then scanned. #268 / 25-Jun-17
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I had the opportunity to take over the Sodabottleopenerwala Instagram account today. From noon till about 8 PM, I was posting stories and pictures on the account. Do check out @sbowindia to see them. I took this one flatlay photo, showing Tea and Bun Maska (one of my favourites there), my laptop and my sketchbook, with my Wonder Woman drawing. #samsung #galaxys7
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#ThrowbackThursday A drawing from more than a year ago. This is sketch number #25 on this account, and was one of the drawings that people liked when it was exhibited at The #ArtConf Hyderabad 2017 last month. This is a sketch of Marla Singer from "Fight Club", one of my all time favourite movies. This is a scan. The original drawing (framed) is for sale.
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Startup Cricket League 3 Special / Nolan Batman Trilogy Miniature ArtFor the upcoming third season of Startup Cricket League, @im_gunda has invited artists to create art based on the theme of "3". This is my contribution. This is based on the concept of 3 equals 2 plus 1, and I made miniature drawings of the villains from Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy. The 2 and the 1 are the size of a 2 and a 1 Rupee coin respectively. There is no 3 Rupee coin, so that's the size of a 10 Rupee actually. The miniature drawings are inspired by the works of @anindianminiaturist, @lorraineloots, @chrismclellanart, @klibecap and @woodcastles. Of course their work is so much more detailed, but I think this isn't bad for a first attempt. This was drawn with 0.5mm 2B mechanical pencil on a sheet of A5 200 GSM Watercolour paper and scanned. I actually scanned the coins separately and pasted them into this. #The3Art #SCL #SCL3 #SCL2017#267 / 18-Jun-17
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Inside Man (2006)A Spike Lee Joint As some of you may know, I am part of the organizing team of Cinephiles Film Club at Hyderabad. Last week, we conducted a movie quiz (questions are in a comment, on this post), in which one of the questions was based on this movie. The question was, which Bollywood song is used for the opening and end credits of this movie. I love the opening scene of this heist movie. Clive Owen speaks directly to the audience – and says "My name is Dalton Russell. Pay strict attention to what I say, because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself. I've told you my name – that's the 'who'. The 'where' could most readily be described as a prison cell. But there's a vast difference between being stuck in a tiny cell and being in prison. The 'what' is easy – recently I planned and set in motion events to execute the perfect bank robbery. That's also the 'when'. As for the 'why', beyond the obvious financial motivation, it's exceedingly simple – because I can. Which leaves us only with the 'how'. And therein, as the Bard would tell us, lies the rub." Cut to, Opening credits. Beautiful! I rewatched this movie on Netflix recently, and I drew Clive Owen from the opening scene. This is one of only a couple of scenes in the movie where his face is visible! The drawing was done with pencil on paper and scanned. #266 / 15-Jun-17
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Maanagaram a.k.a. Nagaram (2017)Directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj I signed up for Amazon Prime Video after quite a few people told me about it. In India, it's available at a very low price, INR 499 per year, so it was a no-brainer to get it. This was the first movie I saw on Prime Video, a few days ago. "Maanagaram" is the original title of this Tamil movie, it was dubbed into Telugu as "Nagaram" and released in theatres here a few months ago, but I didn't have the chance to see it then. The movie tells the stories of four characters in a big city (Chennai), and has the plot lines intersect in a case of kidnapping. It's actually better to watch the movie with little knowledge of the plot, it's more interesting that way. The actors, Sundeep Kishan, Regina Cassandra, Sri, Charlie, all give very good performances, and the story is engaging. One clever aspect of the screenplay is that none of the main characters' names is ever revealed to the audience. The only criticism I have of the movie is that some scenes seemed stretched out more than they needed to be. The movie would have felt even more taut had it been shortened a little. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it and it's a credit to all involved for making it a thoroughly efficient drama-thriller. I drew Sundeep Kishan from the movie. This was done in 2B pencil and scanned. #265 / 9-Jun-17
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Rick and Morty (2013-present) Created by Justin Roiland and Dan HarmonI recently started watching this show on Netflix, so far I'm on Season 2 Episode 4. An entertaining sitcom about obnoxious alcoholic mad scientist Rick Sanchez and his grandson Morty getting into adventures across the multiverse, it's fun to watch. The lead characters are obviously a parody of Doc Brown and Marty from "Back to the Future", and the show takes inspiration from many other science fiction properties. Each episode being just half an hour long, it's easy to watch the show. I drew this in pencil and scanned it, and added the colours in Photoshop. #264 / 8-Jun-17
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Wonder Woman (2017)Directed by Patty Jenkins Count me in as someone who actually liked all the DC Extended Universe movies released so far. I don't remember too much of "Man of Steel", but there was a lot to like about it. Despite the critical backlash towards "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" ("Martha" moment and all), and "Suicide Squad", I really enjoyed both of those movies, and am eagerly awaiting "Justice League". So, I was excited to watch "Wonder Woman", especially more so after the praise the movie was getting. I watched it on Saturday. The movie was an effective origin story, and takes us back to the WW1 time frame. When Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crashes into Themyscira, Diana (Gal Gadot) saves him, and comes to learn of a threat to humanity in the form of weapons experimentation by German General Ludendorff (Danny Huston). She decides to leave Themyscira along with Steve, with the intention of ending the War. I thought the movie did an excellent job of developing the characters and story. The acting, cinematography and music were all good. The action scenes were spectacular as well. Gal Gadot was fantastic in the role and the best thing about the movie. She is beautiful, majestic and a fierce warrior fighting for all that is good, and nothing about the character seemed forced. Chris Pine was terrific too. I'd rate the movie a 9/10. Very entertaining and a must watch, and deserving of the title of "Best DCEU movie till date"! I drew Gal Gadot as Diana from the movie. It was drawn with 2B mechanical pencil and scanned. #263 / 5-Jun-17
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Entry for @instagram's Weekend Hashtag Project, #WHPgetaway. Of course, going outside for travelling or meetups is good (tomorrow, I'm attending the Instameet being organized by @hellohyderabad, check their profile for more information). But once I've done that, there's nothing better than sitting at my table at my laptop, editing photos, or watching movies, or drawing. In the frame – you can see my sketchbook with my latest drawing of @priyankachopra from "Baywatch", which I did for @dailymoviesketch. After editing this photo in Lightroom and VSCO as I'd do usually, I added some Ambience and Tint in Snapseed, after looking at @j.osh's editing process on his IG story. I thought it added an interesting effect to it, so thanks Josh! See @karthikabhiram for another similar photo I shot at the same time but with my 24-105mm lens. #VSCOCam #Canon #5DMarkIII #50mmf14 #Snapseed
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Baywatch (2017)Directed by Seth Gordon Back in the 90s "Baywatch" was hugely popular. I never watched much of the TV show though (my preference was more "The X Files"). When it was announced that a movie version was in the works and that it would be an R-rated comedy, I immediately thought of how they rebooted "21 Jump Street". I loved that movie, so was interested in this one. The trailers however didn't seem that good. Anyway, I watched the movie last night. The plot, about new guy Matt Brody (Zac Efron) joining the Baywatch team led by Mitch Buchanan (Dwayne Johnson), and the team having to take down rich drug dealer Victoria Leeds (Priyanka Chopra) could have been fashioned into a really funny action comedy. Sadly, this isn't it. I thought there was nothing original about this movie that hasn't been done better before. I didn't like the characters and the way the story was developed either (no meat to any of it). I thought that the three main actors, Johnson, Efron and Priyanka Chopra did really well with the material they were given though. The movie is good for a few laughs but it's amusing at best. Our overly sensitive Censor Board also contributed to ruining our enjoyment of the movie, as they've made several cuts to it despite giving it an A rating (I've always maintained this is a stupid thing to do). It's hard to say how much is cut, but a lot of the dirty jokes and dialogues from the trailers weren't in the movie. Reinstating the cut footage might have helped.Overall I'd rate this movie a 6/10. It's a passable watch. I enjoyed Priyanka Chopra's performance as the antagonist ("I'm not a Bond villain… Yet"), and it might have been a really memorable role had the movie been better. So I did a sketch of her. This was drawn with 2B mechanical pencil and colour pencils, and scanned. #262 / 2-Jun-17
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