Toss of a Coin

 It happened one summer night. Ramesh and I were quarrelling at a petrol pump. We had gone to fill petrol. It was the night we had finished our exams and we were in a happy mood. We were on Jonathan’s motorcycle and Ramesh and I were fighting over who would sit in the middle and who would sit at the back.

 We were arguing till Jonathan said, “come on, let’s solve the problem. Let’s toss a coin.”

“Heads,” I said unhesitatingly.

 We watched as the coin spun in the air and landed on the grease-stained ground. We peered into the shadows and then Ramesh leapt up and punched the sky with his fist.

“The mark of a champion” he said, and I didn’t want to argue anymore. Jonathan started the motorcycle and then I got on and Ramesh sat at the back.

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The Perfect Crime

Bobby Franks was a bright 14-year-old student at Chicago’s Harvard School for Boys in the spring of 1924. On Wednesday, May 21, as he was walking home from school, a grey and black Willys Knight sedan pulled up alongside him. Franks didn’t recognise the driver, but he knew the passenger, Richard “Dickie” Loeb. The Loebs lived near the Frankses in a very well-to-do Kenwood section of town. Loeb offered Frank a lift home. The lad accepted, and moments after he was introduced to Nathan Leopold Jr., the blunt edge of a chisel came down on his head. After dark, Leopold and Loeb drove to Wolf Lake Park, a place Leopold knew from his birding excursions. They dragged the body to the edge of a culvert, poured hydrochloric acid on the face and then pushed it down.

Why? For no reason than to commit the “perfect crime”

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The President (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)

Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s latest film is absorbing and gripping. The director discloses a unsuspected gift for satire and suspense, in an old-fashioned storytelling manner. Makhmalbaf and the co-screenwriter, Marziyeh Meshkiny created a drama and a parable. 

An allegorical lesson about dictatorships and the cycle of violence they breed, the movie unfolds in an unnamed country. The story concerns an ageing dictator, known only as the President, played by Georgian actor Misha Gomiashvilli. When his regime’s sadism, cynicism and brutality become too much to bear, there is a coup.

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Court (Chaitanya Tamhane)

We had more than enough number of court room dramas, produced in Bollywood, Tollywood and all types of woods. But this Court, Chaitanya Tamhane’s impressive debut, flays India’s justice system while commenting on class, education and access to power with conviction. It is hilarious and heart breaking. It's a brilliant film, particularly for a debutant. In a film industry that sells half-baked fantasies and jerkers and is constantly churning out movies like fast food, this Court is a breath of fresh air.

This film shows us a man's life and another man's death can be the stuff of laughter when they're part of a case being heard at a lower court in Mumbai.

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Red Amnesia (Wang Xiaoshuai)

 Red Amnesia is a bold Chinese thriller cross genre cinema by Wang Xiaoshuai. It is a tale of paranoia, regret, past misdeeds, and retribution. Wang Xiaoshuai is mainly known to the Western audiences for the 2001 Silver Bear winning movie, Beijing Bicycles. Wang considers Red Amnesia to be the last film of his Cultural Revolution trilogy, which includes 2005’s ‘Shanghai Dreams’ and 2011’s ’11 Flowers’   

An award-worthy performance by stage vet Lu Zhong fuses together the elements of “Red Amnesia.”

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One for the Road (Jack Zagha Kababie)

One for the road is usually a drinker’s jargon. It is also a famous political play by Harold Pinter. One for the Road’ by Jack Zagha Kababie is not a road movie also. It is more than mere road-trip. This 91-minute movie is interspersed with graceful sketches of self-realisation portrayed through a simple narrative. It is the story of a determined voyage undertaken with a never-ending zest for life, and a celebration of life after 80.

‘One for the Road’ (En el Ultimo Trago), a 2014 Mexican film by Jack Zagha Kababie narrates the story of three 80-year-olds who embark on a journey to fulfil their dearest friend’s last wish. It is a portrayal of vivid imageries of life through colourful characters. The movie inspires the audience to look into their inner selves.

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Dancing Arabs (Eran Riklis)

The strife torn Middle East is always an enigma to the growing generation, whether it is the Jew, Arab or Christian, as for centuries they approach each other with suspicion and with simmering hatred.

‘Dancing Arabs’ is the name of the semi-autobiographical novel it’s derived from, by Israel-based Palestinian scribe Sayed Kashua, who also wrote the script.

This 105 minutes Israeli film which was aimed at to make Jews comfortable with Arabs, tells the story of a young Arab student in Israel struggling to find his identity.

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