This is Cinema!

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2017)

"Jazz - Let it die, it had its time. Well, not on my watch!" For the majority of the movie buffs in India, who barely know anything about Jazz music (which includes me too) that line wouldn't make much impact. But embark on the 2-hour musical voyage of 'La La Land', feel the time freezing around you while Sebastian presses the keys to his piano one by one in the end, and you would seriously reconsider your stand on it. Jazz would barge into your playlists and hearts with ease!
Like the bits and pieces that we carry from movies like 'Titanic', 'Casablanca', 'A Beautiful Mind', 'The 'Pulp Fiction', 'Dark Knight Rises', or take any other all-time classics for an instance, there are a whole lot of elements in 'La La Land' too that would win an eternal life in your memories.
It's a magical blend of the following concepts – success that comes with a price, the beauty and liberty in Jazz that the musicians are trying to rescue from extinction, love that's governed by the universal laws, drama that isn't so dramatic but sweet and unbelievably beautiful with insanely vivid shots, the art of dreaming and the life through a musical kaleidoscope, and so many! It's pure magic. Mia and Sebastian will make you stoned with their dreams, music and love. You might cry like a baby at the end of it – not because of the story, but for the perfect blend of something that the world of cinemas has long forgotten.
Two parallel, but very different streams of realizing the dreams that starts at a common point, but having no confluence and only a hard-hitting end, which is hard to digest!
About the two streams: One reminds us of a line from the book The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho, "The miner was about to give it all up, right at the point when, if he were to examine just one more stone – just one more – he would find his emerald."
And the second is a story of success through sacrifice that's part and parcel of certain decisions; they are the game-changers, but you can't actually judge if it's good and bad. It's life - the art and beauty of pain that makes for a melancholy.
Mia – I never knew Emma Stone was so talented. If Jennifer Lawrence won an Oscar, I think 'Mia' in 'La La Land' shouldn't even be challenged this time. Hollywood has the firepower, I have realized and I have madly fallen in love with 'Mia'! (Futile, I know)
Sebastian, a gift from God that fell into Ryan Gosling's laps. With his nonchalant yet musical expressions, he will show you that this is the role he was born to do!
Well, every shot is beautiful, and even if it is irritatingly pink and candy at times, you wouldn't care! This is CINEMA without the privilege of RETAKES, depending only on sheer talent, and perfection through hard-work and practice!
I don't think I have done justice to this write-up, and I seriously think 'language' should give writers unprecedented liberty to come up with new words and phrases to expresses themselves when it comes to movies like this! No other go!
I repeat – this is Cinema!