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'Sara'S' review: Anchored by a powerful script, this simple film breaks the conventions of the feel-good template

Jude Anthany Joseph's third feature, after Ohm Shanti Oshana and Oru Muthassi Gadha, released on Prime Video at midnight today. This seemingly feel-good film, also seemingly made in limited spaces and with a shoestring budget, tackles a concept and issue never tested before in Malayalam cinema  circles. In Sara'S, we follow the life of Sara Vincent (Anna Ben), a young, bubbly, yet unapologetic filmmaker who struggles to make it big in the industry. She continuously assists male directors and is in the scripting works of her dream film. Sara has decided, from her school days, that she would not bear any kids. This is when she meets Jeevan (Sunny Wayne); her relationship with him subsequently brings her ideology and decision into a confrontation with the established norms of society, family and child-rearing.  Anna Ben in Sara'S The best aspect in which Sara'S has excelled, without doubt, is its hard-hitting taut script. Debutant Akshay Hareesh deserves praise for managin...

Black Panther and Spider-Verse: Why Marvel had it's biggest night at the Oscars

Marvel had it's own reasons to celebrate in the 91st Academy Awards, even when favorites like Green Book, Bohemian Rhapsody and Roma ended up achievers of the night. Two exceptional movies from the Marvel comics made it's way to earn the coveted statuettes of the Academy Awards- Black Panther from the multi-billion colossal Marvel Cinematic Universe and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Sony Pictures' animation venture (which was not an MCU film). Both movies had earned critical as well as popular acclaim, with many praising them as novel works of sorts.



An Academy Award was something that the MCU had lacked ever since it's inception in 2008 with Iron Man. Albeit receiving numerous nominations in the category of Best Visual Effects for it's blockbusters such as Iron Man, The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy etc., never had once the franchise grabbed a win in this category.



Interestingly the only Marvel film to win a statuette was Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 which starred Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst as Peter Parker and MJ respectively. The 2004 hit had won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

Signs had shown up indicating an achievement for the MCU, given the spectacular success of Black Panther. Even after a year since it's release, the eighteenth installement of the MCU is still being hailed as a cinematic achievement, depicting the less-portrayed African culture in a utopian way. A powerful cast and magnificent screenplay gave not just Marvel fans but even moviegoers a wonderful theatrical experience. Adding to that was the scintillating soundtrack by Ludwig Goransson featuring African vocalists such as Baaba Maal. As the Academy announced it's nominees for the 91st  Academy Awards, Black Panther ended up with seven nominations including one for Best Picture, also earning the rarest distinction of becoming the first film from comic book pages to secure a nod in the category. On the night of the Oscars, the crew of Black Panther went home with it's head high after winning awards for Best Original Score, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. By winning the Best Costume Design award, Ruth E. Carter became the first black woman to win an award in the category. Kevin Feige and his team can pride in the way their film has gained accolades on Hollywood's biggest night.



Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, as one of the best films of 2019, had already been considered as favorites to earn the award for Best Animated Feature. Watching this spectacular movie was similar to sifting and reading through the pages of a comic book, with pace and visuals as strikingly similar to the manner in which the saga of the web-slinging superhero was drawn in comic pages. Characters were as simple and humane and the multi-dimensional storyline was treated with much elan. This film was absolutely the best tribute Sony could give to its' iconic character.



Avengers: Infinity War,  the previous years' biggest commercial success, had also earned a nod for Best Visual Effects, although it lost to the Damien Chazelle biopic First Man.

The future editions of the Oscars may see more Marvel movies getting acknowledged and this year's achievements will definitely serve as an impetus and inspiration, now with more movies coming out to captivate the audience.

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Reviewer-The Blog©

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