Blood Diamond

If you are even a little bit interested in English movies, then you would have easily recognized from the title of this post, that what this post is all about. Yes, this post is more like a review of the movie – Blood Diamond which I watched last Saturday at Adlabs, Mangalore. Don’t worry; I am not going to leak the story out here. So please keep reading and honour my blog with your gracious presence. :-)

Frankly speaking, when I went for the movie, I did not knew a single bit about the movie – what the movie is all about, who are the lead actors and blah-blah-blah. But as usual, a boring Saturday evening inspires (or rather compels) you to pass time in whatever possible way you can. So last Saturday evening, I went to Adlabs, Mangalore for passing time. Most of the movies screening there were already gulped down by me or they were running full with only front row seats available. So I settled for Blood Diamond with no expectations. Infact the show had already started at 6:45 PM while I bought the ticket and entered the theatre at 7:05 PM (20 minutes late to be precise).

The first 5 minutes went in understanding what is happening in the movie. In those few minutes, I understood that movie is setup somewhere in Africa and is about diamonds and may be its smuggling. What the hell, another of those Hollywood smuggling craps. No…!!! But soon I realized that it is not that kind of movie. The movie is about “Conflict Diamonds”. Now one more term to be learned! Am I watching a movie or documentary? Yes, it was a documentary beautifully shaped into a movie or vice-versa which keeps you glued to your seats for full 2 hours. The movie is setup in the backdrop of civil war which took place in Sierra Leone in 1990s. I was not even aware that a civil war took place in this small African nation in 1990s while we were happily studying in our schools at that time. Thanks to my poor Current Affairs knowledge which I never tried to improve. Ok, so returning back to the movie, it shows the plight of people in this small African nation who are caught up between the warring factions. It also tells about the diamonds are illegally smuggled to the whole world by warring factions and how the people of the country get deprived of their natural resources. The film not only reveals these details but also portrays strong human emotions of a father for his family and a son who had been taken up by rebel armies as a child soldier. Ok, so no more revealing of the story. That is only a trailer. Just go and watch it, if you find the trailer interesting. Atleast I found the movie very meaningful and informative. And after seeing the quest of survival of all those people in the movie, it made me feel that I am much luckier that all those folks as I am born and living in a relatively free and more prosperous country.

Moreover, it was one of those rare occasions when I was able to understand almost 80-90% of a movie’s dialogues (generally this percentage does not go above 40-50%, thanks to my poor grasp of American accent). Has my grasp of American accent improved or the film’s dialogues were in a more comprehensible accent for me? Don’t know!!! Have to catch another English movie somewhere in a theatre or some movie channel to verify this.

I won’t say that you go and watch this movie and it’s a must see because all these are personal viewpoints. Something which I like, you may not like at all.

From my side, Kudos to the whole team of the movie!!! They have done a real good job and have produced a real meaningful movie which not only keeps you glued to your seats for 2 hours but also makes you think at the end of 2 hours.

~Mayank