THE DARK KNIGHT FALLING

First of all, Please all you fellow Batman fans and enthusiasts, Please don't get me wrong from the title. I'm equally hungry for THE DARK KNIGHT RISES coming into theatres as you are. And it's in no way to demean this awesome superhero creation, but this title has been kept for its literal meaning - that's 'FALLING'.

Whether it's Iron Man or Batman, one thing is common between both of them which has differentiated them from the other lot of superheroes, that's their human-ness, this thing bring them more closer to a common man who's without any superpowers. Both of the fictional characters has utilized their education, their intellect in order to justify what amaze the people around them, and make their enemy terrified. Tony Stark utilized his engineer skills for his aerodynamics powered exoskeleton of Iron Man. Bruce Wayne also used his intellect, detective skills, science and technology to make his Batman avatar possible. This preparation and vision of them makes them more identifiable & likable characters over the years. 

Now let's just discuss about our Dark Knight. Even though this Caped Crusader fights the crime with great passion and zeal, but his methods and techniques of justifying his daredevil acts has come under the scrutiny of physicists. Don't mind, but only Batman in the western world could have afford the study on its characteristics, otherwise other extra-magical & superfluous heroes don't have the balls to compete with science. Four physicist of University of Leicester has conduct a study over the Dark knight and shared some doubts over the capability of the Batman suit and techniques to perform what he conveniently does in comics and movies. For example, If Batman has to jump from the building, he has to keep one parachute for safe landing. On screen, Batman is able to jump from buildings with his cape spread out like wings, quite similar to the base jumpers who use the wing-suits to jump from buildings, bridges & cliffs. But they do carry parachute with them for landing. However Batman don't have this life-support with him as of now.

Given his current cape designs, Batman could glide to the distance of 350 meters, if he jumps from the building of 150 meters height. That's okay, but when he'll reach the ground level, his falling velocity will rises to around 110 kilometers per hour. At this speed, his landing will prove quite fatal until and unless he has parachute to slow down the speed, or he has some cushion-type base to land upon. Like the super-stuntman Gary Connery has recently made history by jumping from two thousand feet without any parachute but using the wing-suit and card boards as base. So there has to be some changes in Batman cape which needs to be done if we have to enable Dark Knight to perform in the most heroic fashion. So the scientist concludes that, Crusader require a large wings, parachute in backpack, and some propulsion jet to make his landing clean and safe. But let's take the scientist study forward and scrutinize it further. Well, Sheldon Cooper of Big Bang Theory would have liked that.

Even though scientists are mocking our Dark Knight for keeping parachute backpack and propulsion jet, I would say our super-intelligent Bruce Wayne might not have missed this scientific safety in the design. The Cape might be internally equipped with some fluids or gases such as helium to make the composite mass of Batman little lighter. Also the same Cape could have the modified feature of becoming a parachute in worse velocity scenarios. But if the stunts visuals of the movies is to be taken as a case, it lacks the method and approach for the same. But in the able hands of Director like Christopher Nolan, this could have been done in the more proper fashion. In order to keep our crusader afloat, we need to tackle the downward force of gravity which pulls us down to the ground level. The help in this case can be the upward buoyant force of air particles which balances the gravity. This balancing pressure decreased as we ascend up the air, and the corresponding gravitational force increases. So the Cape of the Batman has to imbibe the upward pressure thrust in its design to maintain the balance with the gravitational force pulling him down to the ground. I'm sure Bruce Wayne will find the way to do that in his laboratory.


Pictures credits (Kevin Nowlan, Neal Adams, Giordano/Layton )

SIR 'TOM HANKS' TURNED 56

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks completed his 56 years yesterday, I thought I should dedicate an article for his birthday as this man has given me some precious celluloid moments. I have grown up watching his impeccable movies. So at least this much I could do for the legendary artist who is working since 1980 with the same passion and caliber virtually unstoppable.

He is an inspiration to many, his selection of movies have always shown basic emotions like struggle and survival with a niche of himself. Who can forget his Academy award nominated-or-winning movies like Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away, Terminal, Green Mile, Apollo 13, Big, Da Vinci Code, Charlie Wilson's War etc, You can easily gauge the scope of the movies I have mentioned here. All are timeless classic, and the way Tom Hanks have enacted different roles time to time is so commendable. My personal favorite is Saving Private Ryan, I have seen many war movies, but no movie comes closer to this one. And who else other than Spielberg could have make it. I have a deep respect for Saving Private Ryan. My father has retired from army recently. Whenever we watch any war movie with him, he has a habit of finding mistakes in the scenes execution, mostly saying," It doesn't happen like that in real". But when I make him saw Saving Private Ryan. He said it was quite closer to the reality he faced in Military. I was very happy.

In recent times, Tom Hanks has been seen wearing the hats of symbologist Robert Langdon (character) in Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons. He has essayed the role quite well. I personally feel very touched with his one more classic CAST AWAY. Especially the scene where his attachment to that non-living football becomes more emotional than anything else. Sheer class, great acting and execution.

                                           

                                                   

Although his career didn't started that well, he gave series of flops and his acting in those movies were also not upto the mark as cited by him. His first success came with movie BIG (1988), then again he gave few flops and find success in A League of their Own (1992). He was not so good in his earlier films but he constantly improved movie after movie. Once he quoted to Vanity fair, that in this modern era, because enough self-discovery has gone one, his work has become less pretentiously fake and over the top. And he proved this with the success of Sleepless in Seattle & Philadelphia in 1993. Former was a great box-office success, and latter awarded him his first Academy Award. The very next year he won the Academy Award for Forrest Gump consecutively, only the second in Hollywood to achieved this feat.

                                                   

Post 1996, he ventured into Writing, Producing and Direction part also, with From Earth to the Moon (1998), American Experience (2000) - a documentary. He also Produced Cast Away (2000). In 2011, he produced, written and Directed Larry Crowne which was not received well both critically and at the box office. Nevertheless, Tom Hanks is geared up for his upcoming flicks Cloud Altas( Post-production), and Captain Philips (Filming). Lets prepared for this cinematic treat this year. Happy Birthday Tom hanks once again !!

THE CLOSEST SUCCESSOR OF GURU DUTT - AAMIR KHAN

I was just reading newspaper and wondered how the media is now constantly using 'Mr Perfectionist' nickname for Aamir Khan. Though the adjective is quite heavy in itself, and should not be use for just anyone. But then I tried to study Aamir, and then started comparing the traits of his with Guru Dutt.

I personally belong to this modern era and somehow lacks total character study of Guru Dutt, I know Guru from his movies, and through various written material we have courtesy his friends & colleagues, Like Dev Anand, Abrar Alvi & VK Murthy to name the few. Though still that info can not be compared to today's twitter-friendly & FaceBook-Driven actors and superstars.

I always wanted to have the more detailed study of Guru's thought process, his ideologies and his point of view about the world around him. That has played an important part in his cinematic outburst like Kaagaz ke Phool & Pyaasa. Clearly, he was the original Mr Perfectionist of Indian cinema without doubt. His way of treating Film-making as an absolute is quite well-known. His issues and rifts over the minute subtle artworks of his cinema has often led many legendary artists to avoid Guru Dutt. He had that heat of Iron, that uncompromising attitude which made him produce and direct many classic stories. Now let's connect the dots of Aamir & Guru.

Aamir favorite life-changing movie is Guru Dutt-starrer and Directed movie PYAASA (1957), he has often quoted him to be great inspiration in his career. Aamir Khan, though has directed only one film till now and that's Taare Zameen Par, but it was worth an effort. Even Aamir has given several co-actors and directors a hard time while filming of his movies due to his extra-specific scene demands and retakes-till-perfect behaviours. Also, many times he has been criticized by his Directors and producers that he always change his mindset and demands re-shooting of any sequence he thinks was not up-to-the-mark as per his vision. Recent feud between Reema Kagti & Aamir over his upcoming flick Talaash is also one example. Guru was also very specific about his sequences and treatment, that also gave his cameraman VK Murthy a hard time working over and over again for the perfect scene. It happened in KAAGAZ KE PHOOL trademark light-beam shot, which has became world-famous, and Pyaasa's last auditorium scene for which Guru Dutt took over 100 retakes. He always was unsatisfied with his final product, his intent always remains EK AUR SHOT, EK AUR....but this unsatisfaction was not just with his actors and actresses, but with himself too, his scene was never up-to-the-mark according to him.

He was so involved in the technical aspects of the movie that he used to guide his team how he has imagined the shot. At first his too many retakes thing was misjudged by the industry people who termed him as a novice Director who don't know the craft. But later everybody started respecting Guru. Thankfully, he was blessed with cinematographer like VK Murthy. Even Dada Saheb Phalke-winner VK Murthy thinks, that Aamir is best suited for the autobiographical movie on Guru Dutt which Anurag Kashyap & Rakeysh OmPrakash Mehra were planning. According to Arun Dutt, Guru Dutt's son, Aamir has been approached for the role and he has asked for the script. Infact Aamir also did one photoshoot posing as Guru Dutt with Katreena posing as Waheeda in a trademark poster-picture of Pyaasa.

So if the film on Guru Dutt's Life actually becomes a reality, It will be interesting to watch Aamir preparation for the role. Though these characteristics traits and similarities are enough to state that Aamir Khan is more closest Film personality to Guru Dutt, Infact one newspaper even quoted him to be the incarnation of Guru Dutt. That's a bit too far. I think Aamir has a lot to prove in order to justify that phenomenon. But still he is lucky to be compared with the timeless genius Guru Dutt.