Sin City

gore is a dish best served in plenty. sin city creator frank miller and director robert rodriquez dish the violence out with style and have created a genre that most indians would succinctly identify as "masala". movies that take off from books suffer the scrutiny of readers who'd compare each scene to its corresponding page. sin city dives right off a comic storyboard and comes out not as a adaptation but as the comic itself. despite being only a small time comic book fan , i could imagine portions of the dialogs appearing as talk bubbles and there is a fair amount of narrative that could appear in a narrative box on its own. a lot of close-ups, exaggerated expressions and over the top dialog delivery complete this movie's make-up as a comic. oh yeah another thing, this movie is drawn in good ol' black and white (and lots of grey) with certain portions highlighted in really bright color (like a blood red car, shining blonde hair and piercing blue eyes). even the blood when it pours (and pour it does) is in a sort of fluorescent white which doesn't detract from the gore at all. the laughter from the audience at each decimation and decapitation was quite reminiscent of 'kill bill'. no surprise considering that tarantino is a "special guest director".

it starts with the story of hartigan who rescues a young girl from her abductor but quickly moves to another about marv , an ugly hulk who sleeps with a kind hooker. the hooker is killed when she's in bed with him and he seeks revenge. the body count starts there and soon you lose count.whether its due to the lack of fingers and toes or the spectacular,vibrant grey imagery is debatable. the next is about a bartender shelley and her lover dwight. dwight takes on her ex-lover who is finely chopped by another sword-wielding hooker while dwight looks on. they later find he is a cop and have to cover it up. the third is about hartigan again but now the small girl has grown up and blossomed into a fine young jessica alba. there are times in the movie when one wishes it was in plain color. her scenes were some of them. the abductor hunts her down again but hartigan saves her yet again.

as is obvious , i'm skipping plenty of comic strip panels here, including some very stripped ones that had more of the aforementioned hookers. i didnt think it was the best story ever told but the way it was told was quite unlike any i've seen. it certainly wont please everyone. i'm looking forward to see how it goes down with the indian audience who i'm sure will take it up only after feasting on chandramukhi,sachin,mumbai express and anniyan.

Website : http://www.sincitythemovie.com/
ogle at jessica alba and others there or at a theater