EVEREST

 Everest, perhaps one of the most hostile environments on earth for a human being. As a character in the movie puts it, ‘the human body was simply not built to function at the cruising altitude of a 747’. Everest is perhaps the ultimate challenge for any mountaineer, the top of the world with no higher to go; that is pure adrenaline, and a sense of accomplishment. That is why a group of adventure seekers have gathered at base camp in the summer of 96; to take a shot at the King of all mountains.

Based on a true story, Everest is the tale of this group of adventurers led by the Adventure Consultant who are attempting to go for the summit on May 10 1996. Among the group is a lot of mountaineering experience, some very serious causes and emotions. But scaling the King of all mountains is no mean task and we all know that. Problems are compounded because the Adventure Consultants are not the only group going up the mountain, there are others and that means a slow wait along many treacherous passages while everyone gets through.

Before going to watch Everest, you have to get one thing clear. It is not the regular Hollywood mountaineering movie. We have seen movies like Cliffhanger and Vertical Limit. Everest is nothing like any of them. A regular mountaineering flick would typically involve avalanches, broken ropes, people hanging off cliffs and a lot of heroic rescues. While all that is entertaining, it need not be real. Everest tries to keep it real, as real as cinema can afford to. There are none of the regular thrills set up for us. Instead we are shown the slow grind that mountaineering is, almost as everything is in slow motion. Legs start getting heavy, head starts getting dizzy, eyes don’t see too well, hands don’t grip too strong, and you begin to wonder why you are even up here. That is what mountaineering is all about, and that is what Everest shows you, the battle with one’s own body, the importance of knowing when your body tells you that you cannot push any further; it is about knowing one’s limits and stretching them while still staying alive. In cinematic terms of pace and editing, this is more like Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours.

Everest surprises you by taking you to the summit almost around the halfway point. Going by the normal graph of a Hollywood entertainer, you would expect that to be held back for the home stretch. But, Everest is different. There is no triumphant background music, no panoramic aerial shots, the reaching of the summit is shown as just another event, the mountain is quiet, the cold wind blows and the climbers hardly have the energy to stand. One more thing Everest shows you very clearly is the importance of sticking to the deadlines that are set on a mountain. And then of course, the movie also shows you that once you are on the mountain you are at its mercy, the mountain makes the rules.

In a movie where most central characters are always wearing thick coats and goggles the actors don’t seem that important. But Jason Clarke does come across as the earnest guide who wants to get everyone back alive, and Jake Gylenhall has a few good moments as the mountaineer who just won’t give up. Keira Knightley gets precious little time but manages to form a strong emotional hook for Jason’s character. And one really wonders what Sam Worthington is doing in this movie!

 Everest doesn’t try the usual tricks to excite you, it doesn’t intend to. It does not try to entertain, thrill or enthrall you. It wants to provide a real look into what a mountaineer’s challenges can be. Of course, if you have watched enough Hollywood movies you might be able to predict the characters that are going to get into trouble. But that apart, there is nothing typically Hollywood about Everest. It is slow, it is deliberate, it is never over the top, it is neither pop corn cinema nor a connoisseur’s delight – somewhere in between!  

A real look into a mountaineer’s challenges!

2.5/5

THE IMITATION GAME

‘Based on a true story’ says the opening card of the movie. By the time the movie ends you wonder how such an important event in history was not public knowledge for decades. We have seen dozens of WWII movies, and quite a lot on the launching of the Second Front at Normandy beach, which was a decisive moment in WWII. But, who decided the moment and place of that attack? Have we ever thought of that beyond perhaps the generals and commanders who decided the strategies of war? What if those were not the decisions of the Generals, but that of Christopher? Who’s Christopher? Watch The Imitation Game to find out.

Its 1939, the Nazi’s are threatening civilization and the allies have no clue about their movements. There is a way to know their movements before they actually happen. But to do so they have to break a code, the code called ‘Enigma’. Espionage thrillers usually have an undercover agent in enemy territory pilfering information for his people back home, risking his limb and life. Here, the spies are in the comfort of a radio factory, in cozy huts with sheets of papers. They are the best cryptographers in all of England, and they have been chosen because they solved crosswords faster than anyone else. How do they break ‘Enigma’? That journey and the bigger journey that Alan Turing takes through this task is The Imitation Game.

This is as different a WWII movie as you can think about. Yes, there are fleeting footages of war that

remind us of the devastations of the period that the movie is set in. But for most part, the movie is a drama set within a military camp where a group of certified geniuses rack their brains. While all of them want to use pen and paper and their gray matter to crack the problem, Alan Turing, professor of mathematics at Cambridge, wants a 100,000  pounds with which he wants to buy rotors and wires. What’s he up to? That’s as much as one can reveal about The Imitation Game.

If you need just one reason to watch a movie, then here the reason is Benedict Cumberbatch. He plays the irascible genius to perfection. He is not good at talking to people, he never understands why people mean something and say something else and yet expect you to know what they mean. He never wants to explain his ways to others and believes that even if he tried they would never understand the importance of what he was doing, not even his fellow geniuses. He can’t take orders, he can’t work in a team. He’s just not normal! But as it is said many times in the movie, almost always at the right time, ‘It is the people who no one imagines much of, who do things that no one can imagine’. All those traits portrayed with seasoned expertise, underplay and expression at the exactly right places. This is a pitch perfect acting masterclass by Cumberbatch.

And his brilliance has rubbed off on others too. Everyone around him transforms into min-geniuses in their own ways. Keira Knightley comes in as a very important character who makes Alan Turing likeable to his other teammates. Their romance that seems to spring from the admiration of each other’s intellect and oddities comes across as refreshing.

The script, and the way it ahs been shot, beautifully shows the ways in which geniuses function on a different plane. Their daily frustrations of knowing that there is someone or something out there smarter than them, their processes of elimination and calculation; and most importantly the final moment of truth when they hit upon what they have been looking for all this while! It is not all said in a way that a layman cannot understand. Especially, the simple piece of logic which gives them the final breakthrough is very understandable.

A special word of mention for the dialogues. They are witty, sharp and deep at different points and you will enjoy them as they sprinkle humor along the way. The movie begins in 1951 as cops enter the house of Alan Turing whose neighbors have reported unusual sounds. The movie then flits between 1951 and the WWII, as the police investigate into what or who made those unusual noises. One small detail that could have been better here is a clear demarcation of the two periods. The scenes shift so fast from one era to another that there are a few seconds before one can actually pick up which it actually is. That apart, the few looks at the boyhood of Alan Turing are revelations into the growth of his genius and some of his predilections.

In the end, it is a bit sad to know how late in history this man has been acknowledged. Nevertheless, The Imitation Game is the beginning of a very late tribute that the world owes to Alan Turing.

Brilliantly executed portrayal of brilliance that changed the world!

4/5