EKLAVYA THE ROYAL GUARD DVD Mini Review
04-25-08, 01:31 AM
#1
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 6,290
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
EKLAVYA THE ROYAL GUARD DVD Mini Review
Ridley Scott
+ Shakespeare
+
India
+ Samurai
=
I don't know why the EKLAVYA THE ROYAL GUARD movie almost slipped by me. This film is afterall directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the director who did my favorite Bollywood film MISSION KASHMIR (which was one of the first Bollywood films picked up and distributed by an American DVD company, because it was a great Bollywood flick). And everyone that has seen Eklavya says it was "good" or "okay" and "not typical Bollywood flick" and it was India's pick for Oscar foreign film submission 2007. I basically didn't see anyone's enthusiasm for this flick. What no one told me is that this is actually a great film, regardless of it being from India or not. First off, it's not really a Bollywood-type film - it's got one song in which a character asks a woman to sing a lullaby (not an out of the blue song), it's less than 2 hours, the acting and storyline is like a normal non-Bollywood film (no grading curve for this flick as I curve most Bollywood films), no filler, no wasted scenes, and it's actually one touching flick. I've only shed tears for very few Bollywood/Indian films - such as Devdas, Dil Se..., Mission Kashmir, Fiza, Monsoon Wedding - and now I add Eklavya The Royal Guard. (I'm not saying whether it's happy or sad tears
...see the movie for yourself.)
As I watched this movie, I felt like I was watching Ridley Scott do an Indian Royalty flick. The cinematography, excellent use of sound and music (reminded me of the sound design of a Terrence Malick flick as well), lighting, action, pace all felt like a Ridley Scott flick. This is one beautifully visual eye candy film - and I don't mean beautiful like in a Bollywood look-at-all-the-pretty colors/costumes/sets way - but the visual beauty of the film is more in the realm of Scott/Malick cinema beauty. On the imdb site, they show a poster of some critic comparing this film to a lost film of David Lean. I can't say since I've never seen a David Lean film, but that's probably a fair comparison.
EKLAVYA THE ROYAL GUARD is exactly what I expected to see in China's disappointing THE BANQUET and CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER. The small amount of action and the Shakespearean drama in this film is much better than those two cold, no-soul Chinese flicks. The action in this film is much more beautifully choreographed than those two Chinese flicks. If you want to see a good Shakespeare-type triangle drama film with some action, go see this film. It's a quality over quantity film. But overall, it's a visually exciting intense film from beginning to end. It doesn't even matter that the film has few action scenes - those scenes are just a huge bonus to an already exciting intriguing film.
This is also Amitabh Bachchan (India's Al Pacino) best acting film I've seen. Usually he's sort of cartoonish to me in all the Bollywood flicks I've seen. But in this film, he acts like a quiet samurai on the verge of exploding - it's one great performance. That's the thing about all these crappy Bollywood flicks. Most of these Bollywood flicks are so bad that you start to believe that most of the Bollywood actors are pretty bad. But once you see the rare good Bollywood film, and see that these Indian actors can actually act if they are in the right film with a good director, it's sad, depressing and annoying that they don't do more good films. It's like they do 3 good films to 200 bad films ratio.
I bought the Eros Region 1 NTSC DVD version. The anamorphic video is very good. The only annoying thing about the DVD, as on all Bollywood dvds, is that a transparent Eros symbol pops in and out throughout the film at the upper corner of the screen. It's no big deal if you are used to Bollywood DVDs. The DD 5.1 Hindi is excellent. This movie has a great sound design, with the constant background score/music and uses of surrounds during the knife throwing scenes and other action scenes. The English subtitles are excellent with no grammar mistakes. And the only extras are some trailers to other films.
FILM: 9 (i'm not even using my Bollywood grading curve)
DVD VIDEO: 8.5
DVD AUDIO: 9
EXTRAS: 0
I highly recommend anyone seeing this film. I don't recommend this film as a good "bollywood/Indian" film. I recommend this a good film period.
You can buy either version at the webstores listed below. I'm not sure of the dvd specs of the PAL version:
UK PAL DVD version: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eklavya-Roya...9100791&sr=8-2
USA NTSC DVD version: http://dvdstore.erosentertainment.co...l_Guard_DVD_1a
here's the trailer at youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFEc48n5oRE
+ Shakespeare + India
+ Samurai=
I don't know why the EKLAVYA THE ROYAL GUARD movie almost slipped by me. This film is afterall directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the director who did my favorite Bollywood film MISSION KASHMIR (which was one of the first Bollywood films picked up and distributed by an American DVD company, because it was a great Bollywood flick). And everyone that has seen Eklavya says it was "good" or "okay" and "not typical Bollywood flick" and it was India's pick for Oscar foreign film submission 2007. I basically didn't see anyone's enthusiasm for this flick. What no one told me is that this is actually a great film, regardless of it being from India or not. First off, it's not really a Bollywood-type film - it's got one song in which a character asks a woman to sing a lullaby (not an out of the blue song), it's less than 2 hours, the acting and storyline is like a normal non-Bollywood film (no grading curve for this flick as I curve most Bollywood films), no filler, no wasted scenes, and it's actually one touching flick. I've only shed tears for very few Bollywood/Indian films - such as Devdas, Dil Se..., Mission Kashmir, Fiza, Monsoon Wedding - and now I add Eklavya The Royal Guard. (I'm not saying whether it's happy or sad tears
...see the movie for yourself.)As I watched this movie, I felt like I was watching Ridley Scott do an Indian Royalty flick. The cinematography, excellent use of sound and music (reminded me of the sound design of a Terrence Malick flick as well), lighting, action, pace all felt like a Ridley Scott flick. This is one beautifully visual eye candy film - and I don't mean beautiful like in a Bollywood look-at-all-the-pretty colors/costumes/sets way - but the visual beauty of the film is more in the realm of Scott/Malick cinema beauty. On the imdb site, they show a poster of some critic comparing this film to a lost film of David Lean. I can't say since I've never seen a David Lean film, but that's probably a fair comparison.
EKLAVYA THE ROYAL GUARD is exactly what I expected to see in China's disappointing THE BANQUET and CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER. The small amount of action and the Shakespearean drama in this film is much better than those two cold, no-soul Chinese flicks. The action in this film is much more beautifully choreographed than those two Chinese flicks. If you want to see a good Shakespeare-type triangle drama film with some action, go see this film. It's a quality over quantity film. But overall, it's a visually exciting intense film from beginning to end. It doesn't even matter that the film has few action scenes - those scenes are just a huge bonus to an already exciting intriguing film.
This is also Amitabh Bachchan (India's Al Pacino) best acting film I've seen. Usually he's sort of cartoonish to me in all the Bollywood flicks I've seen. But in this film, he acts like a quiet samurai on the verge of exploding - it's one great performance. That's the thing about all these crappy Bollywood flicks. Most of these Bollywood flicks are so bad that you start to believe that most of the Bollywood actors are pretty bad. But once you see the rare good Bollywood film, and see that these Indian actors can actually act if they are in the right film with a good director, it's sad, depressing and annoying that they don't do more good films. It's like they do 3 good films to 200 bad films ratio.
I bought the Eros Region 1 NTSC DVD version. The anamorphic video is very good. The only annoying thing about the DVD, as on all Bollywood dvds, is that a transparent Eros symbol pops in and out throughout the film at the upper corner of the screen. It's no big deal if you are used to Bollywood DVDs. The DD 5.1 Hindi is excellent. This movie has a great sound design, with the constant background score/music and uses of surrounds during the knife throwing scenes and other action scenes. The English subtitles are excellent with no grammar mistakes. And the only extras are some trailers to other films.
FILM: 9 (i'm not even using my Bollywood grading curve)
DVD VIDEO: 8.5
DVD AUDIO: 9
EXTRAS: 0
I highly recommend anyone seeing this film. I don't recommend this film as a good "bollywood/Indian" film. I recommend this a good film period.
You can buy either version at the webstores listed below. I'm not sure of the dvd specs of the PAL version:
UK PAL DVD version: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eklavya-Roya...9100791&sr=8-2
USA NTSC DVD version: http://dvdstore.erosentertainment.co...l_Guard_DVD_1a
here's the trailer at youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFEc48n5oRE
Last edited by toddly6666; 04-25-08 at 02:04 AM.
04-29-08, 06:49 AM
#4
DVD Talk Special Edition
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 1,004
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
toddly,
I have a big pile of unatched dvds full stop
137 not including bollywood ones.
those I get mainly for other members of the household as I am personally only interested in maybe one or two bollywood films a year. But I've been slack, not even watching the ones I've meant to for the last few years.
I have a big pile of unatched dvds full stop
137 not including bollywood ones.those I get mainly for other members of the household as I am personally only interested in maybe one or two bollywood films a year. But I've been slack, not even watching the ones I've meant to for the last few years.
