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TAKE two young men, one who strums a guitar, the other quite miserly with his words, and put them on a bus. The one thing they have in common is contempt for the system. And just when you think it is an "on the road" movie it takes a U-turn. It’s the first red herring in Taking Lives. There are many more. As the title implies, it is about a psychotic killer and the weird way he operates. Cut to months later, or is it years? Detectives in Montreal, Canada, handling a local investigation, reluctantly ask for outside help to get into the head of a cunning serial killer. Enter top FBI profiler, Special Agent Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie), whose methods are unorthodox and at times annoying to her detective fraternity. She seems to have all the answers. And is too glib for comfort. Agent Scott is also beautiful and single, two qualities that would attract men to her like bees to honey. And working with her are three Canadians, two young men and one not-so-young. Can she hold her own on the emotional front? May be she has secrets in the past, "her Chinatown." On the professional side, she theorises that the killer is "life-jacking" — that is assuming the lives and identities of his victims. Hence the fare is more a whydunnit rather than a whodunnit. Based on a novel by Michael Pye, Taking Lives is endowed with an intricate plot with suspicion sprinkled about like mustard thanks to a strong screenplay by Jon Bokenkamp. True, after Psycho and A Beautiful Mind psychology has soared to new heights and it assumes an "anything is possible" dimension. Given these parameters, director D.J.Caruso does well to keep the viewer glued to the edge of his seat right through the film as episode follows episode and new light is shed on the subject. Trying to give Jolie a glad eye from her are detectives Emil Duval (Jean-Hughes Anglade), Joseph Paquette (Oliver Martinez) and chief Hugo Leclair (Tcheky Karyo), art dealer Costa (Ethan Hawke) and a shadow lurking in the background (Kiefer Sutherland). Old-timer Gena Rowlands has a brief cameo as the killer’s mother. It is 100 minutes of absorbing, nail-biting suspense because the perspective keeps changing all the time. May be too many red herrings but Taking Lives good, why even great, while it lasts. Worth seeing.
Playing prostitute
Call girls seem to be the flavour of the season in Bollywood. After Kareena Kapoor in Chameli, Neha Dhupia took to playing a call girl in Julie. And now it is former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen’s turn to follow suit in Kalpana Lajmi’s The Postman and the Prostitute. Based on a real life story by Assamese litterature- singer Bhupen Hazarika, this love story has Karan Nath sharing the lead as a postman who reads out letters to the illiterate in an obscure village. The story was set in the Assam-Bhutan border, but Lajmi will locate her film in Maharashtra. "I plan to start shooting in January 2005 when my finances will be in place," revealed Lajmi. "Though the shooting will take place at Wahi and Panchgani Maharashtra, we will recreate a typical Uttar Pradesh village in the film." The director disclosed that owing to budgetary constraints, she will not be able to take her cast and crew to shoot in "authentic surroundings" in Uttar Pradesh. "I will create a village bazaar on the sets," she said. "Wahi is very similar to Benares and since I need a temple background, it suits me perfectly." Sushmita’s role will be that of a prostitute who solicits clients at the weekly bazaar. The postman, who visits the prostitute quarter in Lalbatti to read out her letters for a little extra money, falls in love with her as the movie progresses. Raveena Tandon had initially agreed to play the prostitute’s role, but lost interest after her marriage. Bipasha Basu was Lajmi’s next choice, but she wasn’t interested. Then Preity Zinta was approached. "When she heard of the budget of the film, she too backed out," Lajmi narrated. — MF
Sarika’s comeback
"It’s almost like home-coming." says the light-eyed actress, whose last appearance on the Hindi screen was Qatl, in 1986. "Nothing much has changed in all these years. All my old friends are the same. They are as warm towards me as they were before." Sarika has just come out of a messy divorce, following two years of separation from Kamal Haasan. Obviously relieved to be out of the media glare in Mumbai, Sarika says that after her break-up, she never really went out looking for work: "But people are good at putting two & two together. They guessed I would be interested in a comeback." In Dholakia’s film, Sarika is playing a middle-class Parsi girl, opposite Naseeruddin Shah ("It is about how each of us cope with a loss in our own ways") while in Narain’s Kal: Yesterday and tomorrow. She is cast as a typical high society woman doing the cocktail circuit. "It didn’t feel different facing the camera again," she narrates. "But for my kids, it was a revelation. They were once watching a film on TV and laughing at how Shabana Azmi was talking to a silly woman in a scene. Later, I realised that the silly woman was me. I was looking awful my clothes, hair, make-up." Sarika had been keeping track with developments in Bollywood through her friends and TV. Much as she knows what to expect, she admits that she herself has changed over the years. "I feel different as a person now," she concludes. "As you experience life, even your imagination changes." — MF
Madonna in high spirits
It has also labelled the bottle with a similar design as Madonna's Immaculate Collection album. A spokesperson for JW Lees said: "We brewed the ale to mark Madonna's return to Manchester after 10 years. "She played the Hacienda in 1994 and we thought that it would be a good way to mark her first gig back in Manchester." According to sources, the dark, fruity ale that boasts of a 7.5 percent alcohol content, has a "nutty" flavour to it. However, Madonna is a self-confessed Guinness drinker and enjoys a pint of the black stuff when in London with hubby Guy Ritchie, The Sun reported. — IANS
Brooke back to Broadway
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Eighteen
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Brooke