Lights Camera Action and ...??

The last couple of weeks have seen a lot of movies released, watched and they have come in all sorts of packages.
Errr for instance the complete clueless, hyped "Dhoom2".Worked all night and went straight to watch a morning show. That might have been cause of the tainted view of this much hyped movie .But in retrospect...even in my woken senses, the storyline did not make sense. Abhishek looked pregnant and completely not there. Biphasha seemed like a prop used to give audience a view to bikini clad women and skin.She was optimized to play heroine for two of the heroes Abhishek and her twin sister for Uday.How original and innovative can Bollywood get Aishwarya with her "like" in all likelihood should do some serious thinking about her acting skills.Uday was a natural and brought in the few moments of laughter much needed in the 3 hour long ordeal Hrithiks performance was the only saving grace of the movie, albeit not enough to make your penny worth the watch. The story had so much scope for better twists and plots ..it almost seems like a shoddy job done and a waste of such a large and top heavy star cast!

Also watched "Don" and to my surprise it turned out to be not as bad as I had expected it to be for a remake.The original Don was completely an actors movie and this one a directors. SRK did not make the movie unbearable as I had anticipated him to. However Don would have been a success SRK or no SRK..It was out and out Farhan Akhtars movie. The movie was sleek and modified to changing times. Of course it had its flaws but the direction went to show again that Farhan can make some seriously good stuff,

Then came "The Departed". Brilliant performance by Jack Nicholson and goes to show that there is hope for good cinema. Loved the subtle digs showing how the world is hypocrisy and filth at every corner.Was violent though and language was kind of crappy:) But then despite that a movie I will remember for a long time.. This one prodded me to pull out my old collection and watch - As Good as it gets. Every time I watch the movie I tend to like it even more. Jack Nicholson only gets better each time I watch it.

"Dor" by Nagesh Kukunoor was another rare movies with unexpected performances by Gul Panag and Ayesha Takia. A movie about women's emancipation.What struck me most about the movie was purity of most characters . Just makes me wonder can purity ever be found like shown in the movie. Do people without any sort of Malice exist?

"Woh Lamhe" was also a good recount by Mahesh Bhatt. Arth has always been a movie ahead of its times and the story it said was a lot more true and non glamorous than the KANKs of today. Arth was a bag of brilliant performances from all accords- Smita Patil, Shabana, Kulbhushan and Mahesh Bhatt.Arth showed the effect of the affair from the wife's point of view. Woh Lamhe, if what is said is true, is about Parveen Babis angle to the story and amazing how Mahesh Bhatt has the grit to tell us his own story over and over again in different forms.Maybe life and its experiences are more inspiring.

Finally after much thought and with remakes being the theme of the year gathered my guts to watch the new "Umrao Jaan" and argh!! Lesser said the better about the movie. No comparison to the original and amen "Rekha" !

Cough Sneeze and Bangalore always manage to get me sick and tucked in bed around this time of the year. A good time to pull out my precious collection and watch , re-watch and find new dimensions to movies I have loved, performances which mesmerize and stories which leave an effect.

So some recommendations:

• Masoom
• Hazaron Kwaishen Aisi
• Before Sunset ( Before Sunrise )
• Ice Age:)

Confessions of a weird mind

I believe this post is a follow up of a tag blessed by dear Sowm. Apparently I am supposed to write down 9 wieird things about myself.. Why 9 ??? I don't ask! But tags are just these unquestionable imposing things which atleast pull you out of your laziness and get me to blog again.

So here goes:

1. I am super sensitive about smell and CAN fall in love with some dude with a sniff alone . I CAN be driven to dislike people who do not believe in doing some social good by smelling good:)
2. I believe sleeping is a waste of time and life is meant to do so many more interesting things than waste it snuggled in bed!
3. I can almost never spell weird correctly in my first attempt. This time was no exception!
4. I get extremely hyper reactive with people who speak on cell phones in Movie theatres! I normally walk up to them and ask them to shut up! NOt many times do they take kindly to my free advice:) But its a good way to get that angst out!
5. I just cannot get to bed (those rare moments when I need sleep), if I have not checked every corner of my roof for cob-webs. If I see one, I would most probably get up and brush it off! I also would feel very uncomfortable if I have not chatted with Sowm and Tey or had my most needed fone convo with Arts before I hit the sack.
6. I have to start my day reading Calvin and Hobbes and cannot survive a trip to the bathroom without a book.
7. I can never have nothing to say!:)
8. I still have chits/ notes from ever and tend to collect every single ticket/Boucher to any place I visit when I travel.
9. Every book that I own would have a small note giving it a feeling of belonging and reminding me of where I bought it for reference years later.

So those are the 9 thinks I could think of weird or not so weird. I am too lazy to tag anyone else now.

From where the Kangarooos Live

And this ones for Murphy, the pal who always shows up. He would make a super boyfriend. He can be demanding, always there giving you small little surprises and yeah just hanging around even after you think it was over..I mean what if ...!!

Anyways I am here in Australia, despite getting my passport 10 minutes before my check in time with a visa (yeah you need one of those to prove you are not a terrorist, you don't pose a threat to the kangaroos , you can basically walk past immigration and say- u cant screw me! Its a different thing that as a child I thought that people can take a bus or walk around the world buy land, build houses as they took pit-stops!). Well after having had my nervous system on the edge and a battle through the security, I just sit and sit and sit waiting for a boarding call. The airports a mess, suddenly all of India just shows up from no where and grabs all the seats that exist. I just park myself on the floor and realized that no one was really in a hurry to get anywhere. No seats got available even though flights did take off and time just ticked. Then we are told, coffee day is the mantra to relieve us of any inconveniences caused cos the plane just wont take off! It wasn't in the mood to! So free refreshments at 2.00 a.m.?! Its so much a price to pay for forgiveness! Sigh! Eventually after much anticipation, speculation and hope, a plane shows up. We are asked to board and it decides it can fly and that it takes off but cannot land! So it flies and flies forever until someone says no more air after Singapore. Scared of falling it does land. Just an hour after my connection has taken off! Sigh! 12 hours on airport seats another long flight cant be the idea of fun. I land straight into my customers office presenting something and I think he would have just gifted me sleep had he got one of those knock off coupons instead of a project!

Anyways the truth is, despite Murphy I am here and ....Even though I have never been to this continent, I always dreamt of having a farm house in Australia as a child! I guess I was just a hopeless child who thought about real estate way back then! However, reality was rather disappointing. The place is so dead after 6, seems very cold and has not yet managed a wow factor! It has a beautiful harbor but no one to walk and admire it. Everyone just sleeps. It is ridiculously expensive in terms of food and tourist stuff. Its not yet appealed to me in a way that I would remember it and long to be back! Maybe its cause I am yet to see nicer parts. I have only looked at it as a city to live and work at and not yet seen the tourist spots.

I had the most amazing food though and intend to give the city a better chance tomorrow. Just came into these spaces and decided..maybe I should just update by blog so that people who do complain can let me be for a while!

Kangaroos, I am yet to see....they don't really walk on streets out here like i had thought!

New News!

News Channels in India never fail to amuse me these days. Ever since they turned 24X7 they have become more creative and make sure they provide the curious viewer enough gossip, trivia and entertainment and did we want news??? When bored of monotonous K soaps,I turn to news channels to catch up on Bollywood, Bihar or to take a crash course on dramatizing any calamity. Did I say I planned on making Karan Johar type movies some day??

When I tuned in today a woman who had incidentally just landed from the Amsterdam plane, was possibly cursing her luck for being intercepted by a journalist who asked questions almost like a psychoanalysis round:

Journalist: So when the plane turned back did any of the passengers have any clue what was happening
Lady (totally excited) : No No, we were all asked to look in the front ( now does that mean anything?)
Journalist: So what exactly happened on the plane
Lady (Recollecting): There were bunch of people, they had a lot of cell phones which they exchanged across the journey.
Journalist (Running out of questions): So did any of the passengers have any clue what was happening??
Lady: No we were just all very quiet. ( wow different question different answer)
And the saga went on and this question almost popped up as a filler.
Journalist: Blah blah
Lady: I wanna leave and get home for Christs sakes! I was already delayed by a day!

Irked by the plane saga,I changed channels and found the TV displaying a video preview of the scene at the Indian Parliament. Portion of this video (what seemed almost like a snippet from a possibly porn movie) was pixilated. It turned out that some dude called Sadhu Yadav was kicking Prabhunath Singh and another MP jumped over the table to actually separate these two morons clad in a Dhoti looking like they were fighting in a "mushtandon ka akhaada" News reporters then were shown interviewing Mr Laloo was his expert opinion on the issue cos probably he is the most well behaved of the lot we have. They reach out to kids asking them if what happened was ethical..Poor kids posed with a choice between political entertainment and a politically right answer looked torn answering the same.

Anyways I am sure if I cared long enough I would have figured why SRK loves hugging Priety or If Ayesha Takia really got a return gift for tying a Rakhi to Nagesh Kukunoor. In the world where breaking news at 8.00 p.m can have a kid in a village in Bihar being pleaded by reporters to get out from under a khaatiya (which could be lifted mind you). All this to cover a tyrant mother story !! Where news can have titles like "Thand Main Thiturti Uma Bharti" who narrates the story of a plane headed to Delhi which midway changes it course to land in Pakistan. Then compares it to the way BJP functions, subtly at that..( man she should have a show of her own),I am sure the viewer shall be entertained and more emotions shall be cast, more disasters dramatized, trivialised by over exposure. Whoever said NEWS meant information and highlights of earth shattering events...After my 10 mins of viewership, I AM a more informed and aware individual ..so why complain!

The Kite-Runner

Have been reading over the years..decided to just also put in afterthoughts of reading a book on this space...My weekend read was:

"The Kite Runner" - Khaled Hosseini

Just finished this book which was rather touching and well written ..left a marked impression on my day..
Set across two continents - the story is about two brothers, two friends , of love, betrayal and depicts in the words of the author - Afganistan across 3 decades. The book sort of redefined courage yet again and made me question integrity. How often do we as humans have the courage to face the truth, stand up for our beliefs and fight for fairness in the framework of our morals. Often it is easy to be honest and do things which are outside of our moral framework...and somehow feel good about the fact that atleast one was honest. Anyways on one end one has liberation and on the other end a restraining urge steered by what we call morals , beliefs and faith.

The book had a very touching storyline and was nicely narrated. The relationship between Amir and Hassan was beautifully described ..However what probably diluted the effect was the ending which stretched a little and ended up being rather "filmy". A good read,for it made my Sunday pass rather pensively - keeping in line with my blog identity:)

Some more recommendations are:

• Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri
  
• Maximum City - Suketu Mehta
• Ladies Coupe - Anita Nair

The home coming!

Having survived several trips far east, I decided its time I actually sit down and take stock of my life..Take stock of where I am and how do I define it..In all this travel I have lost the sense of "home", "belonging" and its strange when every place suddenly seems like home or not home! I wonder if it is the food , or the place or the people that one usually relates to?

Each trip has sorta brought about bigger realizations of how most boundaries cultures are so human made and time based. You start to do something and in some time it becomes habit and in much larger time with more people joining the clan it becomes culture! I had never fathomed enjoying or relishing Chinese food and craving for Chinese dessert! I don't know if this is what people call being converted, but today I wouldn't mind indulging in the above. Its amazing to see how not so far away from home land there is a place which seems like this factory churning out almost everything that is a commodity far west..Intricate hands hired for their innate abilities of finery...soldering packaging and turning circuit boards to fine mouth pieces! Or be it in buildings stocked with yarns and yarns of thread..they are all there providing employment to many and artifacts for use to the rest of the world. I have lived in places far out from humanity and in settlements so full of life and people..Going past such variation in rapid speed can cause some amount of dis orientation and one can actually feel mis placed. But then suddenly when the last and final boarding call is announced and the plane takes off....it feels like the journey is taking me back..Back home? I dont know! Back to my balance amdist the chaos!

Anyways now I am back and seems like I would be for a while...before I go trotting, changing and lost in quest of home again!

8 things

Seems like the whole tagging thing never gives up. At least it pulls me out of my complacent little zone in the virtual world and gets me to visit my blog space. So after my friend "primalsoup" tagged me, here are the rules of the game.

1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover.
2. You have to mention the sex of the target.
3. Tag 8 victims to join this game and leave a comment on their comments saying they've been tagged.
4. If tagged the 2nd time, there's no need to post again.


Perfect lover?? Sounds like an oxymoron to begin with. But hey no one said the person has to be realistic and possible. So my perfect lover a MALE should be

1. Cool about my obsession with SRK and many such men!
2. Let me watch my K soaps for an hour a day and should be ok abt my fone conversations with all my girlfriends. Like any other woman, I also need that gossip to survive a long hard day.
3. Should have hopefully been in a relationship before to be able to understand the intricacies and complications that come along. And hence would hopefully not be sentimental and touchy about the regular up's and downs of a relationship. I really cannot handle all those sensitivities easily:)
4. Should be ready to get wet in the rain, just leave and go to Africa if bored, or enjoy the small joys of eating chaat in a crowded street.
5. Should love music, plays, books ( in that order).
6. Should have a patient ear to be able to sustain my endless chatter
7. Should have a mind/life of his own and also let me have mine.We should not be this superly "our" and "we" sorta couple.
8. Should not be super obsessive and also let me have my moments of attraction with other men:-d (did some one every say humans were monogamous?;-)

Now I supopse life is about tagging the next few people. So i tag
Rt
Smiloo
Somu
Div's
Divya
Greesh
Avi

Man i give up..dunno too many people in this space!:)