SECTION 375 - A Rape Case In Bollywood - " we are in the business of law, not justice !"

Video Source: Amazon Prime

This movie is a Mumbai court room drama. It gives the impression of being a realistic story. [The movie can be considered educational because we learn about the police procedure for rape victims, the chain of custody and terms like 'in camera'  ! 

Instead of boring us with behind the scenes melodrama as some Bollywood movies do, the movie spends most of the time in the courtroom via the dialogue between the lawyers, judges and witnesses. It boldly handles the lax handling of the evidence by the police, the divergent views of the defense and the prosecution regarding the alleged crime and the authoritative voices of the judges in making judgments despite the mad protesting crowd in front of the courtroom that might threaten their well being. To make the story more interesting, the defense lawyer is fighting against his student as the prosecuting attorney.

Synopsis:

The story is about a young lower middle class girl who works as costume designer for  a young movie director.  It is clear from the beginning that the director is rather blunt and rude but his employees have to tolerate his behavior. The movie jumps right into the rape scenario within first few minutes when we are shown the director forcing himself on the girl first on the sofa and then dragging the victim to the bedroom !  The shy victim and her family report the crime to the police where she is grilled about the details of the rape. [We later learn that she was also beaten by her brother who is upset by the rape-that is not abnormal in the conservative Indian society !!]. As the case progresses we hear the defense lawyer philosophize about the practical aspects of law and the abstract concept of justice!! He also presents an alternate scenario where the rapist says that they were having an affair and the sex was consensual and corroborates this with details of their earlier meetings. However, the judges decline to release the rapist-director and he is sentenced to 10 years in prison!!

The movie ends when the victim makes the remark to her lawyer that the defense was right, it was not a rape but very close to it!! So one is left confused as to the validity of her story and her mental status at the end of the proceedings - it would have helped the story if the victim girl had been put on the stand a second time to confirm or deny the story propagated by the defense.

The Life Of David Gale - Framing An Innocent In a Democracy!

Video Source: Amazon Prime


This is a movie about one of the issues that Americans love to rebel about. The debate is  between those who are rational and kind and those who are short sighted and short-tempered. The issue is abolition of death penalty. The educated professor of philosophy, the hero of the story,  abhors death penalty because many an innocent are accused, locked up for years and then hanged without proper investigation by the politicians who are in  power. [Maybe the lawyers and their minions are part of the scam as well]. He is part of a small organization called DEATHWATCH which includes his lady friend [Linney] and her poor Spanish husband. There is even a Texas lawyer with Dracula teeth and Texan accent named Bilyeou [rhymes with Bill You]. It is a shock to see how easily even a celebrated professor can be put in prison just by someone making an accusation !!

Confession: I had trouble understanding the movie in its entirety the first time I watched it. There is problem with the accent of some of the characters; the words are hard to understand and I had to watch some parts more than once with CC on! The plot is also complicated because there is flashback within a flashback and also because the information regarding the murder is released slowly in three steps one becomes confused about 'what is going on'!! 

Synopsis:

The professor (Kevin Spacey)  is framed first for raping a student (Rhonna  Mitra) and then a little later for killing his lady friend (Linney) from DEATHWATCH ! He is put in prison for the first crime  but released on bail. We are shown that the professor is innocent and accidentally falls into the hands of a seductress-student at a party. She pursues him relentlessly even when he turns her down at first. She wants him to pass her in the tests in lieu of sexual favor !!

The second time he is in prison for the death of his lady friend from Deathwatch. He is put on Death Row. As we later discover, it was a suicide made to look like a crime by the Deathwatch team. The lady knows that she is going to die because of leukemia and so agrees to [or is convinced by the professor and her Spanish boyfriend] suffocate herself with the video camera rolling!! The suicide at first seems horrendous - the naked body looked like a large rubber doll to me until I saw the lady struggle !!

And who does all the running around and discovery three days before the professor is killed by lethal injection ? It is Kate Winslet, playing a journalist for a magazine that agrees to pay the professor half a million for his story. The journalist and the intern pursue the clues in the form of video tapes which show the lady from Deathwatch committing suicide. However, she is unable to save the professor because she is a late by few minutes (with the suicide videotape)  to prevent the professor's death. The professor it seems had planned to send the half a million to his separated wife and his son who had moved to Spain after discovering his infidelity with the student and so the surviving Deathwatch member delivers the suitcase with the money to her after the professor's death.

Kevin Spacey as the professor seems like Kevin Spacey in other movies but minus all the make up in the prison he looks different than his any other roles. I feel like I have met the latter Spacey somewhere on the streets .. Kate Winslet is excellent as the reporter as is Laura Linney and her well maintained body!!

The DeathWatch team tests the legal system, even at the cost of their lives, to prove the point that the legal system is inadequate in making decisions in these cases and death penalty should be abolished.

Witness - Police corruption in the Amish Neighborhood !!

Video Source: Amazon Prime


The movie is unusual and interesting because it is set in the Amish village in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Otherwise, it would be like scores of other crime movies!! [I have mentioned in the Personnel Messages blog that we occasionally drove thru the narrow road shown in the movie while we lived in or near Pennsylvania!!]

A corrupt police officer and his friends surreptitiously sell millions worth of drugs which were captured by the police from drug smugglers. A very young 6 or 7 years old Amish boy witnesses them shoot another police officer but manages to escape their attention. His mom and him are on the Amtrak train station (Philadelphia ?) on the way to visit a relative when this happens. The young boy tells his mom who informs the police about the incident. He is later able to identify one of the killers while waiting in the police station with our hero police officer (Harrison Ford). Harrison Ford is injured in a police shootout while hiding in the Amish village with the boy witness. But how can a hero die ? He recovers gradually as the Amish treat him with their homemade remedies but only after romancing the boy's mother in the Amish village!! The cruel police officers are finally killed/caught towards the end.

As I have mentioned above, the movie excels because of the time spent in the Amish village. All the main characters including the hero, heroine and the boy act well in the movie as do the Amish actors.

Play It Again , Sam - 'cos of blank ya'!!

Video Source: Amazon prime

Woody Allan is known for his neurotic acting style, his big nose and balding head with long hair and his wooden expression that make him unique in America's movie industry. In other words, he does not care how he looks on screen.His words are apologetically hilarious but his expression remains blank, always. MAD magazine used to run a parody of his movies!!

                                          Link To Trailer

In this movie he is lonely after being separated from his wife. His kind friends, Diane Keaton and her boyfriend - a white guy who acts like a black person - try to 'fix' him with one of their compatible woman friends. Woody is so nervous that he starts fidgeting and knocks down bottles, boxes and lamps when he is introduced to these potential mates. In one scene , he is unable to control himself while drying his hair and you are reminded of the 'Pink Panther' movies. 

Woody, our hero, is a big fan of 'Casablanca' in this movie and gets advise from an imaginary Humphrey Bogart about how to romance a lady. Bogart's presence thru out the movie give it a somewhat serious look. Woody falls in love with Diane Keaton, his friend's wife instead but very wisely gives her up towards the end...

This is a movie where conversation and commentary override everything else. The movie moves slowly but is not boring. I wish I had friends like those Woody the hero has in the movie!! Do such well mannered selfless people really exist in America or is it all fiction -  a hallucination of Woody Allan's head ? !!