Vakrokti

Watching Rundskop (Bullhead)

2012-02-13T01:29:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: Tortured by his past and despairing of his stultifying present life, Belgian cattle farmer Jacky becomes entangled in a violent web of deceit involving local mobsters and determined policemen after he uses illegal growth hormones on his herd.
…
Writer-drector Michaël R Roskam's feature film debut is the most intense neo-noir made till date. The story is about the Belgium’s illegal hormone trade with the Flemish neighborhood depicted in a very Hemingway-ish style – the filmmakers early experiences there must have helped. But above all it is a brooding character study of a man on the edge of bursting out.

The filmmaker plays with the audiences expectations all the time. Belgium's history in the illegal hormone trade, and film's easy swing from one language to other keeps you expecting a bloody break out any moment – Roskam showcases violence and gore of a very different type. To begin with you know that Jacky is addicted to the hormone injection – but the back story still is very unexpected, and proves how they can expand the understanding of a character – without normalizing the extremities. Quite a few films of late manage to destroy a characters appeal by way of a back story – guess, that's why many a filmmakers are doing away with them even when they seem essential.

A Greek hero - perfect for this Flemish tragedy

Roskam does not waste even a single frame. He has long story to tell, and he gets to it from the word go. Every scene counts, every relationship and every flashback important. Roskam goes to great lengths to allow every aspect of his characters to be developed and revealed. His characters are crafted with delicate care, and he allows you to fall for them – without stooping to sentimental melodrama.

Matthias Schoenaerts plays Jacky Vanmarsenille to perfection. His physic seems to have morphed to fit into the role. You look at him and think – this guy is definitely taking supplements, way more than necessary. But that is not all – he also seems to embody the pain and sadness of his character. As the film progresses, you want to get in there and stop him from hurting himself, pause the action so he remains unhurt. He plays a doomed Greek hero – cursed to begin with - perfect for this Flemish tragedy.

Bullhead gets very ugly, but even if you are among those who abhors onscreen violence, this is worth the watch just for Schoenaerts perfect synthesis of pain and anger. A great watch.

Menschenfresserin - 16

2012-02-12T06:30:00.002+05:30

In a room full of paintings – masterpieces – you are sitting with your legs stretched out, and I am lying with my head between them – my hair tickling you a bit – your finger moving on my brow. And you think of me being born – all over again – nourishing me, cuddling me. The paintings change into mirrors. In a room full of mirrors, eyes closed. But the mirrors are too bright – reflecting a lot of light all over, unlike the paintings which were in relative dark – for their own long life. The mirrors force us to pry our eyes open with their borrowed lights, we look around. Cover them up, all of them. Their space warps create confusion.

Huge, huge white room, filling us up from all sides, no mirrors, no paintings, nothing but us, creating most intricate patterns, most layered designs, all over the walls, in vanishing ink.

Do you know by passing a pen over what we wrote in our own hand one can feel what we felt? Well, nobody would feel that – our tracks will vanish leaving them to fill the gaps with their own feelings. Reading room of hell.

Menschenfresserin - 15

2012-02-12T05:26:00.002+05:30

Woke up late, and went straight to the painting exhibition. It was a hot weekday afternoon, there were a few other patrons admiring the paintings. Big canvases spread across two large rooms – surprising for me as she used to paint only A4 size canvas when I knew her.

Over the years she had become a painter of considerable repute. Yesterday evening I had seen the announcement of her first solo exhibition in our city – I hardly see the printed newspaper anymore, everything is available online. An urge to see her had pulled me here. We had not been in touch for quite sometime now, too busy becoming someone the other will not recognize – or so I thought often. Did not meet her here anyways.

I was told that the exhibition was opened two days back, and the painter was here then. She had to leave for... But I was satisfied, I saw a part of her in the paintings – this part, at least, had not morphed into a stranger yet. They were places we had lived through – book shop we met to chat in, music shop where I spent hours waiting for her to come back from work, restaurant that gave us a complementary soft drink as the thali we shared had just one with it. Some of the paintings had a young Lavanya in them. Old gloves.

Menschenfresserin - 14

2012-02-11T15:39:00.002+05:30

Woke up, had drunk so much cough syrup that my hearing was almost gone – like cotton-wool was stuffed into my ears, everything muffled. This is why I like cough syrup more than Scotch everyone else seems to love – that makes even the faintest sounds exceeding shard, cutting right through my skull. The room looked prim – empty but for the bed, but a damp smell came from the walls. The paint was still intact, but the walls were full of leaked water, soon enough it will be all visible.

I woke up to a lady singing, wailing. “I'm drowning here please, anyone. I don't think I can, save myself”. I open the door, and the wall of the room it open into is exactly how I was thinking this room will soon be – strange spots of dampness, the paint pealing away, long nerves. I see the singer – close-cropped hair, dress shirt and trousers, floating in an immersion tank. “I'm drowning here please, anyone” and the young crowd went berserk. It was her.

After one of our oft-repeated break-ups, she had moved into a room next to a parking lot. I went there just once. Her self-portraits stared down from every wall, every inch of the walls. The windows, the roshandan – everything was barricaded. No one could have guessed from the outside, as they were all – and the door – was draped in the blackest possible curtains, heavy. Inside was a smell of detergent mixed in with the smoke of her cigarette.

I chose the wrong day to try and make up with her. She had a splitting migraine, that was the time she hated light – even the slightest hint was enough to make her throw up. And I walked in with a bottle of sunshine for my love. Oh! She never let me in again, though we did make up with in the week and we were living together again.

Watching Yes Boss

2012-02-11T12:52:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: This uproarious romantic farce follows Rahul (Shahrukh Khan), an ad agency employee who's paid extra to juggle his boss Siddharth's (Aditya Pancholi) multiple mistresses. So when young Seema (Juhi Chawla) catches Siddharth's eye, he asks Rahul to pose as her husband as a facade. But Rahul's in love with Seema as well, forcing him to make the impossible choice between true love and his lucrative job. Gulshan Grover and Reema Lagoo co-star.
…
A fairly routine yuppie romance is made charming by a heartfelt portrayal of the chamcha by Shahrukh Khan. Great chemistry between the lead pair, plus a fun location-shoot in Switzerland, a widowed mother (Rahul's) with a heart condition – the stage is set for true love to triumph all. Well, the film stops short of making them rich – in the end Rahul & Seema are still on a Vespa with the slogan changed from "Don't Worry - Be Rich”. Also, some nice tunes with a jumpy SRK making every song fun to watch.

So many people have tried to recreate the magic of this great entertainer and failed. You know, you not gonna get a young SRK again!

Menschenfresserin - 13

2012-02-09T20:13:00.003+05:30

It was a place I did not want to step into. It looked all natural, but there was a pervasive smell of household cowardly deeds everywhere. Sickening green light filtered in from a distant gray sky, snakes crackled through the brushwood. Some hung lazily from the trees, wound around themselves.

Filled with disgust, I followed my guide – carefully avoiding the darker spots, afraid I would end up stepping on a snake. We came across a rotting corpse.

– Eating human flesh heals the soul. Flesh is the savior, not the sinner it is made to be – said The Artist.

The skull was cleaned to the bone, a snaked housed in it – right where the brain should have been. The body looked as if the crows pecking on it had to abandoned it in a hurry – their wonderful meal interrupted. – The crows will come back to finish it, they never want to be late for any of the conferences scheduled - offered my guide.

We walked on, and from behind a large banyan spied on a great clearing in the middle of the forest. The clearing was full of crows, the slightly larger ones – never will such large gathering of humans be as disciplined. Though they were crowing like ordinary crows, it appeared to me they were pausing a lot more, as if they were talking, discussing something in sombre tones.

Menschenfresserin - 12

2012-02-09T01:57:00.002+05:30

A lonely crow crowed. I looked up at it, and it flew away.

As a child I used to love ghee-namak se roti, still do but haven't had it in years. I don't even remember how much I love it, not till I saw this crow. As I stood at the door, munching on my roll, a crow attacked it. It happened twice more, only then did I realize that I should eat indoors.

Later, I thought that crow and I shared some interests, some tastes. If I had tried, we could have become friends. It would have been great to know all the stuff the crow would have seen. Secrets of so many people. Don't crows have a conference where they discuss their strategies? And, of course, their knowledge of the dead – the very many accident sites the crow hunts on.

- Wasn't that crow bigger than usual? - Yes, it was. These ones are more intelligent too. - ah! I thought so! - But this one has been shunned by the community. - Why? - Come, let me show you something. -

Watching The Woman

2012-02-07T16:43:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: When hunter and backwoods lawyer Chris Cleek (Sean Bridgers) brings home a feral woman (Pollyanna McIntosh) he found lurking in the woods, he locks her in the shed and orders his family to actively participate in her "civilization." But they take to the task with varying enthusiasm. And the more the Woman resists their attempts to make her human, the farther away the family gets from true humanity.
…
Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee had teamed back in 2008, and the result was one of the most under-appreciated revenge thrillers of the decade – Red. The Woman once again proves that the team is the best one to make human horror – nobody else gets horror next door to where you live. Oh! Why was this team broken for Offspring? Yes, you have the cannibal survivor from Offspring, but this is about the ugly underside of civilization and about the “enduring legacy” of domestic violence. “Boy will be boys”, says the father.

The most shocking horror is the one that happens right down the street – who needs mythical monsters when we, humans, are capable of the most horrific acts? The filmmakers spend a lot of time in establishing the characters as someone you have met before, the dysfunctional family can be found in any city. That is why the finale hits you like a punch in the guts.

The framing - showing whats not shown

McKee knows exactly how an audience will react to his film. He picks exactly what to show, what keep off-screen, what right outside the edge of the screen – his framing is perfect, he makes you believe you have seen it all, even when it was not in the frame. And, when he does show the violence, guts and gore, it is as bad as you had imagined – maybe even worse! The editing makes you panicky. And the reveals in the end will keep the horror fans talking for a long, long time.

Nature: You want her free, and are afraid of her freedom

Pollyanna McIntosh is great as the last surviving cannibal. Covered in mud and blood, snarling and ready to bite anyone off – she is scary enough to live in your nightmares, she is like nature. As the true evil of the film reveals itself, you want her to be free – and are worried about what would happen if she is free. Brilliant!

Too many people are complaining either about misplaced humor or misogyny in the film. The humor, I suppose coming from McKee, is what makes this tale real. The collaboration between two artists has never been more seamless. About misogyny, all I can say is that this is the kind of film horror fans live for – a depiction of horrors we read about in news every other day, taken to the logical extremes.

A must watch.

Menschenfresserin - 11

2012-02-06T10:11:00.000+05:30

The first work of The Artist, part of his personal collection which the world has not seen, is a painted human skull – it is the only skull which has caved in. I asked him why – because it is so special that the deformity doesn't count – special? – it belonged to my step-dad when I was 16 – I couldn't ask him anything more, but he told me that it was dug out of his grave.

By this time my friend has had his fill and we moved on. The dog without any eyes and a beak for a nose was no more around. I felt a wave of relief pass over me.

The tracks. We sat down again. – Maybe there was an accident. – No, no accidents happen here. – oh! –

When I was young, I used to run off to see accidents. Rather the aftermath. The accidents had always already happened by the time I reached there. I only got to see the aftermath. People cut in half, intestines all over the place. Cars compressed. Mostly I had to depend on films for my accident fix. Gore fix.

Maybe I should have acted on my instincts. Rigged a few accidents. It would have been fun. Just the small ones.

Watching The Acid House

2012-02-06T05:56:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh adapts three surreal, darkly comic vignettes from his collection of short stories set in the Scottish slums, including the title tale about an acidhead who switches bodies with a pampered infant. In "The Granton Star Cause," a slacker faces a string of rejections, thanks to the whims of a cruel, foulmouthed God. In "A Soft Touch," a hapless husband struggles with a sadistic neighbor.
…
Just because Danny Boyle's adaptation was great, does not mean the same style has to be employed when adapting Irvine Welsh for the screen. If this trilogy was just one short – The Granton Star Cause, it would have been one of the best, but by being a full-length feature it has become a real disappointment. The director gets stoned by the end of first third, and is incoherent after that.

The first third is even more hard-hitting than Tainspotting, God turning up as a foul-mouthed local drinker among the most enjoyable scenes ever. If only the filmmaker could have maintained a similar tone for the remainder of the stories. The last third – The Acid House – is the one most desperately trying to ape Boyle, and falls flat on its face. What could have been most surreal, most darkly comic episode turns into a tedious, boring affair.

Seeing Welsh on-screen was underwhelming. Better read him on paper.

Watching Alien: Resurrection

2012-02-06T05:11:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder star in the fourth installment of the Alien series. Two hundred years after Lt. Ripley (Weaver) died, a group of scientists clone her, hoping to breed the ultimate weapon. But the new Ripley is full of surprises … as are the new aliens. Ripley must team with a band of smugglers (including Ryder) to keep the creatures from reaching Earth.
…
The only reason this film exists is that the production house wanted to make more money out of the fans of the series. Well, but Lt. Ripley was truly dead. Haven't you seen enough soap operas to know nobody is ever dead? Anyways, watching Alien: Resurrection is a very frustrating experience where I went WTF at least a dozen times.

Here even usually reliable Weaver has no idea how to play Ripley. In every installment her character was different, but it was very consistent with in that installment. Here, she keeps changing between scenes, its not a much that she is out-of-characters in some sequences, more like she has no characteristics at all – other than acidic blood. All other characters are just props too. Its a shame that a series that spent time on building characters should end up like this.

Then, there are aliens. Well, they are pretty much what they were earlier – they are still kind-a cool. There is an alien swimming as well, that's cool if you wanted to see alien swim. But they are completely non-scary in the new setting, the blood & gore is not effective at all as you just don't care for the ones dying. The Queen is back too. But she just sits there, no more vicious – and gets killed by the most ridiculous aliens of them all – The Newborn.

The Newborn? Seriously?

Whoever designed The Newborn should drown in a spoonful of water! Its the most pathetically designed creature ever to come on screen. It is a disservice to the franchise designed by Giger. Then, it even cries “Mommy”! It may have been laughable, if it wasn't so cringe-worthy.

An epic waste.

Watching Trolljegeren (The Troll Hunter)

2012-02-05T04:53:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: Three students enter the Norwegian woods to film a documentary on a bear poacher named Hans. When they find him, he claims that bear hunting is just a ruse, and that he actually tracks trolls for the Norwegian government! This footage captures the trio as they follow Hans deep into the forest. If the hunter's story is true, they'll have the makings of the best student film in history. Otto Jespersen, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Johanna Mørck and Tomas Alf Larsen star.
…
Dark fantasy told via a found footage mockumentary. Coming into the film I thought the gimmick is done to death, but the film surprised me by putting the technique in its right place with self-aware humor. The film never takes itself too seriously and is a tongue-in-cheek re-imagination of Norwegian myths about Trolls/

The script integrates the mythology wonderfully with the real world, making a point to answer every question that the audience may ask about the trolls. So, we are educated about why the light hurts the trolls, why some burst and others petrify (the best pseudo-scientific explanation in years!), we learn about their origins and see their homes, and also learn that they are mammals!

Designed to be believable, not horrific

The question why they hate Christians is left unanswered. But this isn't anti-christian or anything like that, just a reference to pagan origins of the mythology I suppose. The last fragment of a much older magic.

Along with the real-life references, the special effects are designed with believability in mind. The huge trolls are cleverly designed to look realistic onscreen. They are not terrifying, and are not shown breaking huge skyscrapers down – we only see some uprooted trees. But to see them is to believe them.

Every scene keeps one engaged. Great watch.

Watching Alien 3

2012-02-05T03:30:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: In the third chapter of this sci-fi saga, Lt. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is the lone survivor when her spaceship crashes on a planet inhabited by former prison inmates. Her fears that an alien was aboard her craft are confirmed when bodies begin to pile up. But as Ripley tries to lead the inmates into battle against the creature, she makes another horrifying discovery. This edition includes the theatrical and restored print versions of the film.
…
Despite all the studio interference, and David Fincher disowning the film – the film isn't as bad as claimed. It works rather well in most parts, I only hope that a director's cut is released at some point in future – though it appears highly unlikely. A lot is made of the deaths of survivors from Aliens, but it corresponds to how Aliens was a self-contained flick in itself.

The films biggest problem is its Alien – it isn't scary at all, and has turned green – finishing of its ability to merge in the background. But what works is the religious allegory. This is a very slow, dark film – the darkest of the quadrology. Fincher does not try to match the first two, but tell a dark tale of his own – creating characters the way we have come to know he does, the monologues. Yes, the monologues haven't reach the wonderful precision they have now, but then he did not even get to edit the film together.

Reborn?

Fincher also moves ahead of the anti-capitalist stands of the first two films, he gives us a post-industrial world. He creates a decaying world, which at some point was a flourishing industrial area. Now, with a religion of its own. Ripley, too, joins these strange monks after the funeral. She challenges the existing order and is “reborn” after the alien refuses to kill her. Her self-sacrifice is an obvious reminder of a crucifix.

Alien 3 isn't a great film, nowhere close to the first two. But it isn't all that bad either, it works rather well as the closing of Ripley's story. The last quarter of the film is very skillfully handled and makes it worth your time. With Giger's design and some very good casting, there is a lot to like here.

Watching Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade

2012-02-05T00:16:00.000+05:30

Its really unfair to change the voices of your favorite characters. But still, it is Recess, and if you have enjoyed the TV show - you will enjoy the movie too. Yes, growing up is hard work. So many changes, so many disenchantments. Suddenly, what you always believed in is no more true. But that's okay, you still have lots of fun. Enjoy the show. (Its on youtube, you know :D)

Watching Intrepidos Punks

2012-02-04T05:10:00.000+05:30

Summary: Crazy punks do whatever they do, then some cops get them jailed.
…
This is a biker film, with a punk twist. That makes this Mexican film even better than Mad Max, this is the true leader of the pack. As far as the punk exploitation goes, this beats even the genre classics like Class of 1984 and Never Too Young to Die. This batshit crazy film rolls everything awesome about film misrepresentation of the punks with every convention of exploitation films – drugs, orgies, super cool hair, satanic rituals, murder, rape, loud music etc etc.

Star Attraction

The film open with a few nuns walking into a bank and looting it without much fuss. After all they aren't nuns but women among the gang of the titular intrepidos punks. They need cash to buy weapons and drugs so they can free the imprisoned male members of the gang in a superbly convoluted scheme. But the transformation of the nuns into the punks has to among the greatest of them all - they strip off their uniforms to reveal leather thongs, metal tops, chains, and all varieties of fluorescent colored punk rock hair (did they use glo-stick?).

But she took my heart

The leader, Beast, is played by Princess Lea (now, that's a name!) in studded leather bikini, and gravity-defying platinum blonde hairdo. She obviously is the star attraction, but I liked the girl with choppy red hair and spider-web face paint the best.

The girls next kidnap the wives of prison officials, but when Beast makes the ransom calls everyone is too busy with an orgy to answer it. Of course, she goes into rage and permits some of her male punks rape the wives – the men appear to howl and giggle rolling top of the screaming women – while their in-house rock band sets up in the living room. But the cops still wont listen, and leave Beast no alternative but to mail a chopped hand to them.

In-house Band

No more plot from me. But we also follow two mustachioed cops occasionally. These heroes are appear far more evil than the mad villains, evil with intelligence to cover it up. The punks on the other hand are more like wild animals – mostly communicating in howls and growls. They can't be evil because they are Beast and Spider. Its like watching Sid Vicious in a completely different setting. Its not a anarchic rebellion against the norms of the society, rather a complete lack of knowledge of existence of such norms. An extreme revelation of the id, especially because only character the punks have is the color of their hair.

Extremely mad, goofy entertainment. Do not miss this!

Watching Aliens

2012-02-03T22:29:00.002+05:30

Netflix Summary: In this acclaimed sequel, the only survivor from the first film, Lt. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), finds her horrific account of her crew's fate is met with skepticism -- until the disappearance of colonists on LV-426 prompts a team of high-tech Marines to investigate. Ripley travels with the team as an advisor, only to find that her biggest fear has come true. Weaver was Oscar nominated for Best Actress, while James Horner's chilling score also got a nod.
…
I am not a great fan of James Cameron, and went into this film with very low expectations. But was surprised by the great film-making on display, this is Cameron's best till date. As a self-contained film, this is wonderful – but as a sequel, it set the series on the path that lead to its disastrous mash up with Predator. Gone is the dripping psychological horror of the original replaced by fast paced action-adventure, and the character of Ripley is completely changed.

Cameron spends a long first half establishing his characters, we like most of them. We, along with Ripley, know what is waiting for them – and we fear for the overconfident unit. And once the mayhem begins, there is no looking back. The last half an hour is one of the most exciting cinematic experience ever. So, if one alien was horrifying, here are hundreds of them and each is equally terrifying. Then, there is the Queen Alien – the stuff nightmares are made of. Of course, Cameron's strength has always been his production design – and it is wonderful here. Stan Winston's special effects are brilliant, do not forget it still is 1986. Aliens are puppets, people in rubber suits and some are giant marionettes. Cameron's use of camera to bring them to life is astonishing. Once again the aliens are hidden in plain sight and in some of the greatest moments drop off the wall when nobody could see them before – what trickery!

Sigourney Weaver returns as Lt. Ripley, and delivers her finest performance. The shift in her character looks most believable, and when she decides to help a little girl – we want her to stop being foolish. The colorful characters are likable too. Science fiction action rarely ages well, but Cameron has made a classic that will always be loved.

A great watch.

Watching Hodejegerne (Headhunters)

2012-02-01T19:28:00.000+05:30

IMDB Summary: An accomplished headhunter risks everything to obtain a valuable painting owned by a former mercenary.
…
Headhunters is great fun. It starts out as a polished, sleek thriller. But then surprises you by taking the hardboiled route. Whatever I want to tell you about this one, will spoil it for you – its the twists in the tale, and more importantly the sudden shifts in the tone that makes Headhunters so much fun. Now, usually that would have been jarring, but Morten Tyldum – adapting from Jo Nesbø's novel – keeps it wonderfully under control.

On the way, we have some wonderful violence, not the thinking man violence that you may expect from the trailer, but Hobo with a Shotgun kind. The whole extravagance is modulated by a very dark sense of humor – I found myself saying - “holy shit! Not that!”. Okay, many may find it disgusting more than anything else. I, for one, enjoyed the ride.

A must watch.

Watching Alien

2012-02-01T15:24:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror classic stars Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, a tough-as-nails warrant officer who stares down one of the most terrifying movie monsters of all time: a bloodthirsty alien that stalks and eviscerates its prey. As the deadly creature winds its way through the air shafts of the spacecraft Nostramo, the crew members consider deploying the ship's escape shuttle … but there's only room for three people.
…
Ridley Scott's Alien is one of the defining films of the genre. It has so many ideas and buried guns rolled in that independent strands can be developed into franchises in their own right. A lesser filmmaker would have failed to pick his way through so many influences, Scott gives us a methodically paced masterpiece with moments of screaming terror stitched in.

Most big Si-Fi films are about production design, but even before you get familiar the filmmaker impresses you with his characters. The crew on the mining ship are not scientists trying to widen the horizons of humanity, instead they are corporate slaves doing a job for the money. They never let you forget that, behaving like a team you may work with at a work assignment. They behave like people – some hanging back, some fearless, some stupid – you can see their actions coming, this film would have been interesting even without the alien.

The alien itself is nothing like you have seen before and, strangely enough, you haven't seen him enough in the film. The creature never gets a full-shot, never shown for more than a few seconds. Always covered in slime and lost in the background. The part reptile, part insect hallucination created by Giger benefits a lot from the audience imagination. Were they tubes on his back? Does he have multiple jaws? And whats with the head? Remember, this isn't CGI. Its done the old fashioned way – a man in a rubber suit.

How many jaws?

Then there is the set. The spaceship itself isn't streamlined, state-of-art but some industrial equipment put together by a company who cares for the money, not its people. It is dark, and full of messy corners. Big, but claustrophobic. Over the years we have seen a few better ships, but for its time – when Star Wars had its attractive ships, Nostramo stands out for what Si-Fi is meant to be.

Alien is simply the best Si-Fi horror produced in the twentieth century US. (My all time favorite are still from Tarkovsky). The theatrical cut was good, but the director's cut is still better. Not just more footage to look at, but a deeper view of the world created by the filmmakers. A must watch.

Watching Abduction

2012-02-01T02:23:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: When teenager Nathan comes across his own childhood picture while scrolling through a missing persons website, he begins to question everything he ever took for granted -- including the people he always assumed were his parents.
…
Abduction starts out as a teen-star vehicle for Taylor Lautner, but soon turns into the most unintentionally funny film that came out last year. The film takes itself too seriously, and makers must have been stoned. The whole conspiracy theory makes no sense, and the super stupid cuts and worthless tracking shots don't let you connect to the action at all. Plus the blaring background score lets no tension to build in the attempted thriller. The film gets exactly one thing right - product placement for BMW.

Taylor Lautner definitely has a good body for a 19-year old. But I am not sure he ca survive after Twilight, to begin with he needs to pick better films. And he has to know what to do with his accent – it can't work all the time! Of course, no accent could have worked with the kind of dialogues written here. This film is full of quotable gems. "Wow, that was much better than in middle school." says he girlfriend after a brief kiss, Nathan replies - "That's because I know what I'm doing now". Rest of the film attempts to prove him right, but fails miserably. Actors like Sigourney Weaver, Michael Nyqvist run around Lauter kidding themselves into believing he can act.

It has got everything – house explosion, inconsistent but magical surveillance, character deaths that can be forgotten about, train sex, football field sized plot holes, B-grade Cold War-era villains, hilarious dialogues and stars who can't act. Sure watch it with popcorn.

Watching The Artist

2012-01-31T23:06:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: This modern-day silent film artfully recounts the poignant end of the silent-movie era in the late 1920s. The story contrasts the declining fortunes of a silent-screen superstar with his lover's rise to popularity as a darling of the "talkies."
…
It is strange to watch a film depicting 1927-32 drawing influence from films made in 50s. Though the director talks a lot about Chaplin's City Lights (I haven't seen that film yet), I see very obvious influence of Singin' in the Rain and A Star is Born. Then, there is Vertigo. I don't see anything wrong in using it in the score – but I don't see any point in doing it either. The recognition dampens the affect of the moment, that said the background score otherwise is excellent.

Story itself is very straightforward, everything happens exactly as one would expect – many found it moving, I did not. But it is the treatment that makes it good – the black and white cinematography is beautiful.

Intertitles! They are still effective!

Uggie is wonderful. Jean Dujardin looks like a star from the period, and delivers a superb silent performance. Bérénice Bejo doesn't look like a diva from then, but is surprisingly effective in the role. James Cromwell and John Goodman have really little to do. Goodman looks a very different actor when he gets to speak, he is just not a silent actor. The director just does not let any of the characters to develop – probably wondering how to do that in a silent film.

Nevertheless, deserves a dekho.

Watching 장화, 홍련 (A Tale of Two Sisters)

2012-01-31T16:34:00.001+05:30

Netflix Summary: Terrified sisters try to exorcise their home of two dark forces -- their evil stepmother and a vengeful entity -- in this ghostly tale. Hospitalized after their mother's death, young Su-mi (Im Su-jeong) and Su-yeon (Mun Geun-yeong) return home to find a nasty new stepmother (Yeom Jeong-ah). The girls suffer terrifying events, but their father doesn't care, even though evil lurks around every corner. Can the girls free their home from its demons?
…
A modern adaptation of age-old Korean folklore. Ji Woon Kim tuns it into a beautifully crafted psychological horror. But for the last 20 minutes we stay with Su-mi's vision of the world, we do see the holes in her vision – the father only talks to her and she is sick, but medicines go to her step-mom – but we see her fight evil & are concerned about her well-being above all. The filmmakers have designed the house with evil lurking at every corner, the camera movements fill us with anticipation and atmosphere is truly creepy.

The acting is top-notch, especially by the young girls. We want to help the sisters as much as they want to help each other, we want to know what is going on because we care for them. The visuals draw us in, and are so effective because we care for the characters. Many a scenes will make you uneasy, full of worry – and some would jolt you with a shock. The background score adds to the already brilliant atmosphere.

A must watch.

Watching The Girl from the Naked Eye

2012-01-31T03:13:00.000+05:30

IMDB Summary: When Sandy, a call girl at "The Naked Eye", ends up dead, her friend and only ally in the world, Jake, goes on a manhunt to find out who killed her.
...
A wonderful B-film. What's with the US film industry? They seem to be doing at least as good as 80s Bollywood. Okay, so this one is kung fu action in a neo-noir film. Some very beautifully fitted tributes between The Naked Eye Club and Heartbreak Hotel.

Jason Yee, who co-wrote the film, carries the film all by himself. Of course, it helps that he is surrounded by a lots of nudity – all sexy ladies, including Sasha Grey. He is set to be a big action star – as soon as he gets that one film. Then there is Ron Yuan, onscreen in an extended cameo – he packs a punch into action sequences. Yes, this is true noir – the whole film happens in the night. How could it not have a femme fatale? Sandy has to be the sweetest femme fatale ever.

Jason Yee as Jake

The production values are as good as in any other film – thats a surprise considering the shoe-string budget it was made on. The filmmakers had to struggle for 3 years – they started with Italian characters that finally got morphed into Asian.

All said and done – ladies are mostly naked, action is always hard, that makes a great entertainer. Period.

Watching Anonymous

2012-01-30T22:27:00.000+05:30

Netfix Summary: Who was Shakespeare? This Elizabethan drama imagines that the man we call the Bard really didn't pen his body of timeless plays. The stages of London erupt in intrigue as the real author of the classics credited to Shakespeare comes to light.
…
By Ronald Emmerich standards, this is Pure Gold. The film looks great – the costumes are perfect, I am sure the Oscar is in the bag. Elizabethan London looks perfect – yes, the gray pallet is very gloomy. But suits the setting perfectly. The only sad thing is that this historical drama doesn't care much about history.

Now, I don't mean the part about Shakespeare not being the writer, that is the premise the film portrays, fine by me, but the other historical details all are wrong. The political thriller as such is pretty interesting, but by being a complete fiction reduces the believability of the Shakespeare-related theory the film wants to forward. I mean, that is the heart of the film, isn't it?

Shakespeare may not have written, but he did invent stage-dive.

Emmerich is known for really bad dialogues – for once, they are good. There are stretches of film where the dialogues draw one into the drama – but that happens only every now and then, teasing you with the promise of a great film. And, people talk exactly in the same way on and off stage – that works for me as the whole film is framed as a play.

The film's take on the purpose of Shakespeare's plays is kind-of dumb – but nevertheless it works with the opening of Henry V. But with Richard III, it gets over-the-top – but then it is Emmerich! The reaction of the public is totally lost on me – but totally enjoyable in its goofiness. And Shakespeare stage-diving is...

Worth a watch.

Anyways...

2012-01-30T14:53:00.000+05:30

I woke up, surprised that I had been sleeping. I was wondering if I should send her an SMS, maybe I should, maybe I shouldn't, was thinking of the past. And then sent her one - "I was thinking if I should SMS to you - I decided I should".

Then, I realized I could hear the first line of a bhajan from Devdas, but right at that moment it stopped. Maybe I had imagined it, auditory hallucination - that couldn't be uncommon when you are still sleepy. Went back to sleep. Anyways, here's the bhajan:

Watching Agneepath

2012-01-28T06:05:00.000+05:30

This is nowhere as good as the original, nevertheless manages to be entertaining for most of its super-long duration. The filmmakers remain close to the original plot, but thankfully do not try to recreate the iconic scenes of the original – instead try to create its own magic. This is like a masala film gone dark – and that works fine for me, mostly. Every dialogue is a punchline, and action is over the top. Actors pull it off superbly.

An entry that stays with you.

The strength of the film is its core cast – Hrithik Roshan, Sanjay Dutt and Rishi Kapoor. Rishi Kapoor looks surprisingly despicable as Rauf Lala, this has to be among his best performances ever. He commands the respect the most wanted criminal of Mumbai deserves. Sanjay Dutt, as was obvious from the trailers, redefines stereotypical villain, listen to him quote mythology – menacing. Wonder if Amitabh's Aks had anything to do with this. Hrithik's Vijay is very different from the original – but is as effective. If Amitabh delivered the most memorable dialogues, Hrithik does it with his emoting. The filmmakers, intelligently, play his strengths rather than force him to measure up to the original – that would have been impossible. Sadly, bit players leave no impact at all.

Among Rishi Kapoor's best performances.

The brutal action scenes and some great framing makes the film a treat to watch. Sanjay Dutt's entry is something that stays with you throughout. Of course, his sheer size adds on to the evil Kancha. Since Munnabhai, this seems to be the first time he wants to leave an impact.

But the involvement in the action goes down as one doesn't really feel connected to Vijay. Yes, he does deserve the revenge – but he is like a machine seeking to finish its task. The hurt is there somewhere, but one never connects with it. And, the poem never leaves the impact it did in the original – it almost feels forced.

Watch it for the actors. Now, I am going to see parts of the original again – I remember that one scene for scene, wont ever happen with this one.

Watching The Descendants

2012-01-27T16:00:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: When his wife is killed in a Waikiki boating accident, distant father Matt King (George Clooney) begins an iffy journey to repair his fractured relationship with his two daughters. But he's also trying to decide whether to let go of some valuable family real estate. Judy Greer, Beau Bridges and Matthew Lillard co-star in this tragic-comic tale of legacy and unexpected loss based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings.
…
A sobering look at a family coming together in face of a crisis. All three central characters try to cope with loss in their own ways, and discover that the best way is to stick together. Hawai seems to parallel the broken paradise the family is, beautifully shot. George Clooney lifts the film up with his very contained performance.

Overall, a good watch. Though I quite did not understand why elder daughter's boyfriend had to take so much space (maybe because its the US?), or why Matt decided what he did about the property. I do like the film, but I end up comparing it to Japanese classics or A Separation, and feel let down.

Watching Coriolanus

2012-01-26T05:36:00.000+05:30

First time director Ralph Fiennes re-imagines the bloody drama of self-destructive Roman warrior as a political thriller. Ancient Rome is given a modern dressing and suddenly the contemporary relevance of the Bard's work becomes obvious. The parallels to conflicts like the Yugoslav Wars become explicit without any effort from the filmmakers. The bloody conflict plays out quickly, and the subplots involving food riots, raving politicians and populist street protest come to the fore.

Fiennes also keeps Shakespeare’s dialogues intact – and has them reassigned to unorthodox narrators including Channel 4 and ITN newsreader Jon Snow. If the idea was to make the artificiality of the medium apparent – it fails after an initial shock. I found that most audience gets absorbed into the action simply ignoring the language – its like watching a film in a language you know just a few words of. It is an achievement in the visual storytelling that the dialogues feel unnecessary for most part – that made me wonder, will someone attempt a silent adaptation of the Bard?

(It was said about Disney's Three Little Pigs that “if voices could reinforce behavioral differences, then it was no longer necessary to use character design so crudely”.)

Ralph Fiennes is pitch perfect.

The trouble with using Shakespeare’s dialogues is that not everyone delivers them with consistent flourish. Ralph Fiennes is pitch perfect – a performance that stays with you (after all he got his training on the stage.). Vanessa Redgrave also gives a solid performance. The bit players are good too, but the supporting cast lets down at various points. Gerard Butler's body language and voice seem out of sync – like one is acting and completely different person is talking. Jessica Chastain as Virgilia seems to drag down all others who are in a scene with her.

Nevertheless, don't miss this. Watch it for Ralph Fiennes – the actor and, more importantly, the dirctor.

Watching Midnight in Paris

2012-01-25T15:41:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: In this bittersweet dramatic comedy, legendary director Woody Allen focuses his lens on a young engaged couple (Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams) whose experiences traveling together in Paris make them begin to question the kind of life they want to live as a couple.
…
As my friend Jibran put it – it is the kind of film you call “Lovely”. I think, that sums it up.

The hero travels between two, no, actually three different worlds – something Woody's hero have done before. But here he gets to meet the artists he loves, and there are quite a few of them - F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Faulkner, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Bunuel, T S Elliott. Oh! Time travel was never so fruitful. And Paris never so beautiful, in color at least.

Owen Wilson gives a wonderful performance – watch him as his expressions change on being introduced to Ernest Hemingway. Out of all the artists he meets, Hemingway is the one I loved watching – I don't know if Hemingway really talked in punchlines, but I just believed in the one on-screen.

See his expressions change as he meets Hemingway.

The cinematography, as I already said, is perfect and the background score beautifully recreates the times long past. The beautiful montage that opens the film is so luxuriously done that one forgets that it is a cliché. Woody's marriage with Soon-Yi Previn is still talked about a lot, but if that results in wonderful films like this one – it must be a good thing! I love the cynic in him, but I sure am happy if he discovers something beyond it. This may not be as sharp as Woody's best but the melancholy drips like a light rain on Paris. The witty dialogues are still as enjoyable as ever - “Wonderful but forgettable. It sounds like a film I’ve seen. I probably wrote it.”

A must watch.

Watching Destroy All Rational Thought

2012-01-24T05:02:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: Filmed in Dublin in 1992, this documentary is an account of the Here to Go music and art festival created to celebrate the life and works of beat poets William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Organized by writers Terry Wilson and Joe Ambrose and Irish singer Frank Rynne, the festival showcases visual, literary and performing artists. Featured figures from the scene include the Master Musicians of Joujouka, Ira Cohen, Hakim Bey and many more.
…
People do not know enough about Brion Gysin, neither do I. Here to Go festival was an attempt to set that right. But the documentary gives me a feeling that it utterly failed to do that. For one, it engaged very little with Brion Gysin – everyone involved seemed to believe that the audience already know him, that's strange considering the goal of the festival.

Second, it had more to do the celebrity rather than the contributions. Its really sad because Gysin and Burroughs were people who wanted to stay true to their art – even if it meant shunning success. The celebration came across like something trying hard to be cool – to be in the limelight.

If the festival was like this, it did a great disservice to the greats whose name it used. If the documentary focused on wrong aspects of the festival – then it should be thrown in the bin.

The full movie can be found here: http://tubegnosis.com/destroy-all-rational-thought
Hope it is legally available, I am not aware.

Reading The Reluctant Detective

2012-01-24T04:34:00.000+05:30

Since Chetan Bhagat became a phenomenon, Indian writing in English has exploded. The number of novelists making a debut would not have been this high ever before. But I have not enjoyed these novels much – they either tell similar stories or tell a different story that is very poorly researched. One expects a writer too have keen eye and the craft lies in how they describe everyday life – but most of them never seem to have looked below the surface. And, most of them do not have a command on the language they are writing in.

After the disappointment that Chetan Bhagat was, the only debut novel that I enjoyed was My Friend Sancho by Amit Varma. Finally, today I found another novelist who I would like to read again – Kiran Manral. Her debut The Reluctant Detective is immensely enjoyable, and the voice of her narrator is a voice that I recognize immediately. That, of course, is very close to the voice of her blog and tweets – her own voice. Well, if you have read her online, you know exactly what to expect. The humor – ah what won't I give to just sit down for a coffee with her and listen her joke about everyone around (including myself). I only know a little of her online personality – but the novel makes me feel that she has put parts of herself into the work, nothing else could have made it this honest.

A must read. My mom, after looking at the author's blog, had said - why just a blog, a whole book could be written on such a cute child - I, too, am waiting for that one.

Watching Love in India

2012-01-23T00:23:00.001+05:30

Netflix Summary: Indian filmmaker Q explores the clash between contemporary and ancient sexual mores in his native land, which is famed for producing the erotic masterpiece Kama Sutra yet it exists under centuries of harsh, shame-based repression. At once a celebration of human sexuality, an investigation into the seeds of strict sociosexual morality and an excoriation of societal hypocrisy, the film helps drag India kicking and screaming into modern life.
…
I have never had so much fun watching a documentary. Well, I am not sure how much of it is non-documentary – much of the film documents Q's personal life and some of it may sure be mockumentary. But that does not in anyway taint the authenticity of the documentary.

I could not stop laughing through half of the film – not because it is meant to be funny, but because it exposes the hypocrisies and myths surrounding sex that are spread across the length and breadth of this country. Q deconstructs our ideas about sex and presents to us what we do not want to talk about usually. Many would find this documentary to be as offensive as Gandu, though it sure is a better film – because it does not try deliberately to shock, it just happens to deal with a subject most find shocking.

The film won the national award for best film on family welfare. The surprised me, but it deserves it every bit. I was also surprised to see that it is an international co-production. Anyways, a must watch.

Watching The Debt

2012-01-22T19:07:00.001+05:30

Netflix Summary: Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren) is a former Mossad intelligence agent forced to relive her 1965 pursuit of a notorious Nazi war criminal when the bold and dangerous fugitive is thought to have reemerged 30 years later in the Ukraine. Director John Madden's redo of Assaf Bernstein's 2007 Israeli suspense piece also features Jessica Chastain as the young Rachel Singer, along with Sam Worthington, Tom Wilkinson and Ciarán Hinds.
…
Another remake that should not have been made. Not that the film isn't good, but remake adds no value to the original – rather the changes seem to dilute it down. The film opens with hero's welcome of 3 member Mossad team – they have killed a German war criminal. Then, 30 years on – a book is released about the incident by the daughter of two of the agents. As Rachel reads from the book – we see what happened back in 1965. The trouble is that it is immediately apparent that we are seeing the book's version of the events and that kills half the suspense. Guess the trick has become old now – showing a false flashback. (Wasn't that a recent development in using the flashback? Tricks get old very soon now!) I wonder if it would have been better to have the voice narration instead – especial given that the older versions of the characters are far more exciting than the younger ones.

And that brings me to the second trouble with the film – we have 6 actors playing 3 characters, with action being intercut. Half the time I was wondering who is who – where was the time to enjoy the “real” suspense? Plus the younger ones are not half as good as the older ones – but get all the “action”. By the time the older guys get to the action, the film had already lost my interest.

Plus the undue focus on love triangle – getting two of the agents married, makes the film that much less believable and makes it spend time where we are not interested at all. Finding a villain in here wasn't a great move.

Anyways, the film does have some good action sequences. The extended escape sequence is beautifully choreographed – the use of POV shots is brilliant. Full marks to the cinematography. I would still say watch the original instead.

Watching Moneyball

2012-01-21T05:28:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: An all-star cast brings to life the true story of Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), a former jock turned general manager who uses unconventional methods to bring the best players to the Oakland A's, a major league baseball team struggling against financial hardship.
…
I went into Moneyball with fairly low expectations. I know some great names associated with it – but then it is about a sport I know nothing about. Oh, maybe if it was the docu-drama that Soderbergh intended I may have liked it better. Really, could it be anything like Chak de? Well, it is – in a certain sense – it has the same spirit, if you will.

So, I was surprised by the emotional depth and intelligence the film has. Much like Social Network, Sorkin has once again written scene where people talk of something mundane, but personal frustrations seeps in unnoticed. The very first conversation between Billy Beane and Schott – an exposition scene stating the premise of the film – made it clear that this is about people and business, sports is incidental – just a case study. It is about intuition versus numerical analysis, about human nature. And, well, everyone loves an underdog.

Frustration seeps in.

Jonah Hill as Peter Brand is understated. He looks so very natural, like the computer boys who know they are right, but also know nobody is listening – changes don't ring in easy. Someone who hasn't ever played baseball, but has analyzed it enough to know all about how to pick a team – he is the perfect mix of tentativeness and firmness. Look at him make a fist of triumph, and then wonder if he did right.

Did I do that right?

This has to be among Brad Pitt's best performances – right next to Inglorious Bastards and Fight Club. A reclusive, lonely man recovering from his failures, the pain is visible in how he moves even. Many a scenes work not just because they are brilliantly written, but more so because how they have been acted. One senses that with a lesser actor, they film would have been too flat.

A must watch.

Watching A Lonely Place to Die

2012-01-21T00:14:00.001+05:30

Netflix Summary: Five friends on a hiking vacation in the Scottish Highlands stumble upon a tiny chamber in the woods, in which a young Serbian girl is trapped. When they free her and try to take her to safety, they become the kidnappers' next targets.
…
Mountain thrillers are so few – and when one as good as A Lonely Place to Die comes along, one wonders why. Okay, this isn't actually a mountain thriller – but the mash-up comes closest to being one since Vertical Limit. So, we start with almost-disaster mountaineering sequence – the only one where tension is built up. We are quickly introduced to the two couples and their guide – and the not-so-good conditions suggest a mountaineering accident waiting to happen, but instead the group digs up a kidnapped girl and are chased by the kidnappers down a beautifully picturized mountain.

The kills are fast and vicious. And surprising, the filmmakers break tradition by getting the kills when you least expect them – no tension is built, no musical cues, nothing at all. The film gets into serious business quickly, and keeps moving fast – the drawback is no characterization happen. Thats not a problem till the very strange last quarter where one line of narration is about people you don't care a single bit about. The other line – turning the chase into a homage to the home invasion genre also feels undercooked, it just ends so suddenly. But as long as it lasts, it is one of the most exciting sequences filmed.

That said, the film keeps you interested for most of its length. The cinematography is brilliant, and the action sequences are beautifully choreographed too. Despite its final act, this is a film that will be loved by most film fanatics. A must watch.

Watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

2012-01-20T00:19:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: John Le Carré's classic thriller of Cold War espionage follows an English spy as he returns to MI-6 under a cloud of suspicion. In the years since he was sacked by the agency, some suspect he's become an operative for the Soviet Union.
…
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the most creatively composed English language film in a long time – both in terms of how scenes are framed and how the narrative is structured. The very early cut from the interior somewhere in London to a cold, gray skyline in Budapest can be disorienting for some – but the falling drop of sweat at about 4 minutes mark was enough to tell me that I am going to love this film.

The Quest for Karla is known for the minute details that the author has crafted into the thriller about the information flow. The filmmakers employ a wonderful structure to keep information flow right in the center – this is not a spy film that one enjoys laying back into the seat. Much of the success comes from the demands it places on its audience – the complete involvement required to enjoy this espionage.

I can go on and on about how Tomas Alfredson fills up details into very short sequences – it is a minimalistic film in a sense that it uses the screen time most economically. For example, a 20 second shot in which we see a car from behind, and a bee buzzing in the car. Without showing any faces (only the back of the heads) the filmmaker beautifully establishes George Smiley – there is nothing else to tell about his personality or his methods. Much later, we get another character scene – with Jim pointing Smiley out to a young schoolboy.

The shortest character scene I can recollect

Then, the film also has the most power-packed performance by an ensemble cast since The Departed. Gary Oldman as George Smiley is perfect – his first words come at around 18 minute mark, but by then you know if pretty well. His nod when Control (John Hurt) says "Smiley is coming with me", reveals little about what he feels, but a lot about who he is – another time we look at the back of head.

The more I see of Benedict Cumberbatch, the more I like him. I have made up my mind – I am gonna watch everything he has acted in so far. That reminds, I had made a similar decision about Depp – still to watch all his films though.

A must watch. Hope it will be a trilogy.

Watching Puss in Boots

2012-01-18T16:37:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: Voiced by Antonio Banderas, the dauntless feline of legend goes on an animated adventure to purloin a priceless golden-egg-laying goose. To help him on his mission, Puss brings along his friends Humpty Dumpty and the super-stealthy Kitty Softpaws.
…
There is exactly one good thing about Shrek sequels - Eastwood-esque Cat With No Name Puss in Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas. Now that Shrek as a franchise is dead – this spin-off is, obviously, a way for Dreamworks to generate more money.

That said, its only Puss in Boots who could have had a movie of his own – thanks to Banderas alone. He manages to make Puss into a Western hero, who is fully a cat. What makes Puss in Boots so loveable is the fact that he can be reduced to a common cat on the fly – after all, we all fall at one occasion or another thanks to our intrinsic humanity. Don't know if Dreamworks can sustain that over a franchise – they do manage it in this film.

Puss in Boots avoids the pop culture references that were piled up on Shrek, instead it uses a nursery rhyme themed action. And, is witty enough to be enjoyed by adults as well – a quickly delivered pot joke may shock some. The film has it flaws – but colorful animation keeps them all glossed.

Dreamworks has a tendency to fill their films with celebrity voices who are not good enough. This one is a obvious exception, with some great delivery by Banderas, del Toro. Zach Galifianakis is really good in the non-comic part he has got. But Salma Hayek is, sadly, flat.

Very enjoyable watch.

Watching The Ides of March

2012-01-17T13:48:00.000+05:30

Neflix Summary: Dirty tricks stand to soil an ambitious young press spokesman's (Ryan Gosling) idealism in a cutthroat presidential campaign where "victory" is relative. The film, directed by George Clooney, is inspired by the real-life experiences of an aide who worked on Howard Dean's failed 2004 run.
…
That politics is a dirty cutthroat business, filled with unprincipled opportunists is not a reveal, and therefore a film that tries to shock with just that is definitely not the inside story. George Clooney's political drama has little to do with how US presidential campaigns are really designed – and that, probably, is the biggest weakness of the film. As Clooney puts it, “It could be Wall Street; it could be Hollywood; it could be a hospital or Home Depot" - then why set it in the American politics?

The film builds Molly as an ambitious, career-minded individual who can match up to Stephen (Ryan Gosling), but then lets her react in a manner utterly unsuited just to push the story forward – and sentimentally manipulate the audience. Clooney, of course, peppers the film with echoes of campaigns and difficulties that Bill Clinton, John Edwards and others faced – but those are not explored to their depths and are restricted to the obvious. Clooney's character is never depicted as a better candidate – but the filmmakers claim as much off the screen <*facepalm*>.

But one thing the film does show is the disappointment with Obama. “We’d been working for about a year and a half on the screenplay in 2008,” says Clooney. “Then Obama was elected and there was such hope, everyone was so happy. It didn’t seem like the time was right to make the movie—people were too optimistic for such a cynical film! About a year later, everybody got cynical again, and then we thought we could make this film.” Sadly, the fimmaker did not feel compelled to examine what this disappointment with Obama could mean.

That said, it is one of those films that is full of holes but still manages to keep you interested. It works as a thriller – thanks to brilliant performances by all the actors. Especially, Ryan Gosling makes Stephen come alive, makes his transformation – loss of innocence – look believable. Clooney is his usual top grade.

Watch it for the performances.

Watching 志明與春嬌 (Love in a Puff)

2012-01-15T18:04:00.001+05:30

Netflix Summary: When the Hong Kong government enacts a ban on smoking cigarettes indoors, the new law drives hard-core smokers outside, facilitating a meeting between Cherie (Miriam Yeung Chin Wah), a makeup saleswoman, and Jimmy (Shawn Yue), an advertising exec. Their shared passion for puffing up fuels endless talks and adventures around the city. But it's unclear whether that's enough to ignite a lasting romantic match.
…
Pang Ho-cheung first Cat III film is probably his tamest. Unless, of course, one finds smoking offensive. The story as such is non-existent, but the filmmakers keep it entertaining throughout with help of the banter that accompanies any smoking break. Heiward Mak delivers another great script following on High Noon – both the films, I am told, beautifully captures the HK Youthspeak. The depiction of dating rituals, the dependence on SMS, the late night karaoke feel so authentic.

The performances are spot-on. Unlike most HK comedies, the actors do not go into exaggerated histrionics. Mariam plays Cherie just as one would expect in real life. And, the interviews of people around the story are used beautifully. The direction is very light-handed - the camera just stands back and lets the characters interact. Plus the crisp visuals never let one realize that this is a low-budget film.

I can't say how many jokes I missed not knowing the language, but I had a lot of fun with the subtitles as well. Most entertaining watch.

Watching Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil

2012-01-13T17:29:00.002+05:30

Netflix Summary: Expecting to enjoy a relaxing vacation at their rundown mountain cabin, backwoods boys Tucker and Dale see their peaceful trip turn into a nightmare when college kids camping nearby accuse the duo of being psychotic killers.
…
Horror-comedy is a tough genre. Mostly it doesn't have enough horror to satisfy the horror nerd or enough comedy to tickle the funny bone. But when done right you end up with an Evil Dead II or a Shaun of the Dead. Put Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil right next to them.

Eli Craig fills it up with enough gore and killings to keep it horrific, along the way he also tips his hat to a lot horror sub-genres – plus you are laughing your head off. In short, it has everything that a horror-comedy should. The killings will easily fit in a Final Destination, but its all entertaining here.

Casting Tyler Labine as Dale and Alan Tudyk as Tucker with Katrina Bowden (Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive 2011) as Allison was perfect. Tudyk and Labine have a great chemistry and break the hillbilly stereotype for good. Go watch it at the least for them.

Reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist

2012-01-13T11:12:00.001+05:30

This is the single most haunting voice created since Johnny Got His Gun. It is difficult enough to sustain a distinctive voice for a monologue even over a short poem – and this is novel of just under 200 pages! And the voice is perfect in every sense – formal but not sombre.

The fundamentalist is not an enigma, but a person you understand and empathize with, his disillusionment comes in small, progressive steps – and as such is completely believable. The author fits in some wonderful ironies and parallels, without being heavy-handed – Erica being the prime example.

This is a must read, simply because Hamid creates both a compelling argument and a loveable protagonist in a very crisp narrative that can be read through in a single sitting. With about 60 pages to go, I was so worried about how the protagonist would react that I had to force myself to read on – I wanted him to be a pure white hero, but then he is so real.

Watching Få meg på, for faen (Turn Me On, Dammit!)

2012-01-11T23:37:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: Alma is a sexually curious teenager living in a small town. To cope with her boring existence, she indulges in an active fantasy life with the help of a phone sex chat line. Soon her peers learn of Alma's ways, forcing her to stand up for who she is.
…
First things first, the summary isn't great better check the trailer out. A film with a name like “Turn Me On, Dammit!” (actually, Goddammit. But, Americans won't take that) and full frontal nudity, is the most thoughtful sex comedy you have ever seen. Certainly among the best films to have come out in 2011.

It was different for me, and I hope it is different when I become a parent, if I do, but parents don't understand sexuality. Or, they just do not know how to talk about it. And, I suppose, it is more difficult for the girl child with far more social taboos ruining the picture.

Now, you would have seen a lot of coming-of-age films with a teenager struggle to come to terms with his sexuality. Oh! It is always a boy. But girls have the same confused feelings as boys, and can act out in similar way. Turn Me On, Dammit! is a refreshing romantic-comedy about such a teenage girl. Do not think that it simply replaces the male hero, rather it is a frank, honest portrayal. The situations are created not to make the audience laugh out loud, but to show what the girl really feels and experiences.

Growing Up? Sure!

It is coming-of-age film, not because it shows the lead making a transition into adulthood, rather it shows Alma coming to grips with what it is to be a 16 year old. The very heartwarming closing sequence shows that she has finally become comfortable with herself, but it also indicates that a lot of growing up is still to be done. And, I am happy that a film finally shows what giving-the-finger really is – not a rebellion, but something childish that teens do thinking it is very grown up.

A must watch.

Reading Chanakya's Chant

2012-01-10T09:57:00.001+05:30

Ashwin Sanghi sure had a great idea for a novel, and two fairly good stories to tell. But it is the telling that I fond lazy. Chanakya's Chant juxtaposes two stories separated by 2300 years – a history-fiction centered on Chanakya and a modern political-thriller centered on Gangasagar Mishra, the new kingmaker. Though the stories involve similar thought process, they are fairly different stories – making the novel so much better than other such attempts.

The trouble starts with the language Sanghi is using, the contemporary dialect doesn't suit any of the stories well. The present day spans around 70 years, and the one-liners Chanakya spurts out are obviously written much later. Though Sanghi claims his aim was to write an entertaining, fast-paced thriller – I find it difficult to believe that a more suitable dialect would have made it any less entertaining. Plus having Chanakya quote Yes Minister is hilarious, even his other one-liners only helped to push me out of the story's world. Here is a author who certainly has the ability to write a great novel, but chooses to be satisfied with a best-selling one.

The stories themselves start feeling a bit of a drag as all the strategizing seems to happen on one side of the fence only. Also, people surrounding the main strategist seem to be utter fools for most of the novel – who cannot understand whats going on until even the mundane is explained. I do not think that intelligent people suffer fools gladly, do they?

Fairly average. Though sure better than better selling works of Amish Tripathi and Chetan Bhagat.

Reading The Sense of an Ending

2012-01-10T01:43:00.000+05:30

Since The Sense of an Ending won the Man Booker Prize, enough has been written about it. I cannot say anything new, only hope that other writers' take a leaf out of this compact novel and know that brevity does not mean reducing intensity or creating half-baked fictional world. Here is a novel that speaks to me, I feel most of us would identify with the self-deluded, emotionally repressed hero in a lot of ways – if not his situations, then his reactions.

A must read.

Watching Don 2

2012-01-08T05:51:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: With Asia under his complete control, criminal mastermind Don turns to Europe, battling the mob bosses of each nation along the way. One step ahead of the authorities at every turn, Don's stranglehold on the underground world seems unstoppable.
…
If there was one thing Hollywood had a monopoly on, it was Action Blockbuster. Look at Don 2, and you know that it is ending. This may not compare to the best from Hollywood, but is easily placed above a Italian Job or an Ocean's Eleven – and that without the ensemble cast or the comedy. (Well, Players is out too, and I have no real intentions of watching that! The trailers were more than sufficient.)

For once, we have a Hindi film that is purely an action flick. Don was a out-and-out masala flick, a tribute to the original with romance, comedy, song-and-dance, but the sequel cuts right to the action and stays there. Farhan Akhtar wastes no time in developing characters – hey, who hasn't seen other two Dons? Also, it is all about Shahrukh Khan (why the spelling change from Shah Rukh? Only for this movie?) - too many films have wasted time in developing his character like Billu, Ra-One etc. when it is enough to know that it is SRK!

With in minutes you know it is a star vehicle, plain and simple. Either he is present on screen, or people are talking about him. Even when Vardhaan (Boman Irani) is talking to Lara Dutta's character – whatever her name was – SRK can be seen magically projected into the frame, smoking away characteristically (Practically impossible to run a scroll I suppose). SRK justifies it all with his super charisma. Don speaks only in one-liners, and whatever he says is the only dialogue – everyone else talks only so he doesn't end up talking to himself – that reminds me, he is the narrator too. No one else could have pulled this off. That said, the supporting cast is good too. Hrithik's cameo is a nice touch.

Magically Projected in the Background!

Jason West impresses again after Rock On. Farhan Akhtar must make him a permanent member of his team. Berlin is beautifully utilized in what is definitely the best car chase sequence in Indian cinema – from traffic to tunnel and back. Stunt work is pretty impressive too, and a lot of gun play to keep the fans glued in. And, thank God, no song-and-dance sequences to slow the film down. Hai Yeh Maya is real cool though.

A great watch. Do not miss this.

Watching Magnum Force

2012-01-06T23:05:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: The second of five Dirty Harry movies, Magnum Force finds Clint Eastwood revisiting his career-making turn as a tough-as-nails detective who makes his own rules. A wayward cop is enforcing vigilante justice by assassinating several criminals who manage to escape punishment by slipping through legal loopholes, and "Dirty" Harry Callahan is on the case. Watch for an uncredited appearance by a young Suzanne Somers.
…
The follow-up to Dirty Harry is far less violent, and the moral ambiguity of the original is gone. When some new recruits pick up the vigilante ways of Harry, suddenly Dirty Harry isn't all that dirty. This brand of justice is alright if Clint Eastwood delivers it, but otherwise it is too be opposed.

So yes, once again criminal scum is blasted but it isn't half as much fun as the original. Plus cinematography is real bad – most scenes are in dark and invisible. I haven't seen the whole of the series, but I really hope it got better from here on – at least as good as the first film.

Anyways, some good action and Clint Eastwood style can still be enjoyed.

Watching Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (A Separation)

2012-01-06T15:50:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: An Iranian husband and wife split up over his decision to stay and care for his aging father instead of leaving the country with his family. But his fateful choice to hire a stranger to do most of the caretaking breeds unexpected consequences.
…
I have had a lots of friend complain about how arthouse cinema is a bore. But Asgar Fahradi’s Jodaeiye Nader az Simin is a prime example of how to make an exploration of moral complexity – individual, legal, religious, political – interesting by employing suspense. Too often we think that suspense is a genre in itself, but it is rather a storytelling tool that narratives employ – create expectations about upcoming events, an then delay fulfillment. People assume that Serious Cinema lacks suspense, and therefore, cannot be enjoyed as much. But Iranian cinema seems to have mastered the art of creating suspenseful art films.

Key action takes place off-screen, most of the action is introduced through reactions of the characters we see. The suspense is not driven by chases, stalkings, cliffhanging rescues but by physiological maneuvers – people talk a lot and stubbornly stick to who they are, much more stubbornly than in most other cinema – no easy resolutions here driven by sudden change of heart. Asgar Fahradi also employs some beautiful framing, giving his characters a frame of their own (or they seem to be looking at very different points) – highlighting how their moral stance has cut them off from others.

Characters get their own frame, expressing their stubborn positions.

I believe one of the biggest reasons for this is the regular confrontation that Iranian filmmakers have with the censors in the country. The censorship has unwittingly managed to shape the national film culture into something the world can be proud of.

Jodaeiye Nader az Simin starts by portraying the suffering of an old man who has Alzheimer's, but soon suspense is built up on many levels. The progress of the divorce, the old man's declining health, the caretaker's actions – where did she disappear? - and a death – who is responsible?. Turning points come fast but we realize their full import later – the film as much depends on our ability to remember what happened earlier as on its characters. Not all suspense is resolved – and that forces us to reexamine the film's portrayal of parent-child relationship.

Lots of action is introduced through reactions.

A great watch, employing suspense not just to push the story forward but also to make us reflect on morality.

Reading Sympathy for the Devil

2012-01-05T10:29:00.000+05:30

Kent Anderson's Sympathy for the Devil is a brutal novel about the mad chaos of a war. Parts of the novel were censored because of the violence they portray, but this isn't a work celebrating violence – rather it is, like the best war novels, about an individual coming to terms with the reality of war.

The novel starts by throwing us into the war with a hardened soldier - Special Forces Sergeant Hanson. It is end of his first tour to Vietnam, and on his “return to the world”, he struggles to get the war out of himself. By the end of Part I, we seem to know him very well.

But Part II takes us back to the draft days – and we come to know much, much more about Hanson – much like knowing a friend for years, and then being surprised by something in his past. For most of the narrative, we stay with Hanson, and that makes the war feel very clumsy – when you are in there, you cannot see the big picture, you don't even care about it – do you even have the luxury?

And then, Hanson comes back to Vietnam. In the very end, when he fires of his own forces – the madness feels very true. Unprepared, unintelligent America in an ill-planned war – no other novel, with exception of Tree of Smoke, has managed to picture it so well. Sympathy for the Devil was written lat enough to allow Kent Anderson to be true about the war, and to allow his experiences add value to his narrative.

I would love to read his follow-up novel, in which Hanson becomes a police officer, much like the writer himself.

Watching La Piel Que Habito (The Skin I live in)

2011-12-31T00:43:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas), a brilliant plastic surgeon, seeks to overcome the grief of his late wife's disfigurement in a fiery car crash by inventing skin that is impervious to injury, but his experiments on a living woman hasten his descent into madness. Directed by Oscar award winner Pedro Almodóvar.
…
If it is the structure that you like, then you would love this film. Pedro Almodóvar's “The Skin I live in” is among the best uses of flashbacks I can remember. As with most films that use flashback as a tool for narration, the film starts well along the stories development – somewhere close to the middle of the linear storyline.

We see a young woman imprisoned in a very postmodern mad-scientist's-liar – and before the first quarter finishes we have plenty of questions cropping up – esp. because the prisoner asks to stay with the scientist forever. We quickly assume that the prisoner is the object of experiment for creating fire-resistant, bite-resistant perfect skin – the use of CGI to air-brush the skin is wonderful. But when a jewel robber – dressed in tiger's skin for carnival – breaks in and recognizes the woman more questions rise.

Melodramatic twists come through various flashbacks – one “recalled” by the prisoner herself, which curiously does not feature her. There are secrets here which I cannot reveal, though I would love too – all the fun is in stitching the story together from the bits being supplied through flashbacks. All I can say is unlike most flashbacks that fulfill the images already created and flesh out the story – this one pulls the rug from under anything that the opening reveals. The filmmaker's eye for fashion is wonderful - credits list brand names like Gucci and Prada, and in them he buries some wonderful motifs like:

That said, it is one of those rare films that cannot be enjoyed on a second viewing. Once the story has been stitched together, one feels sad about the lack of any psychological play about the main theme of the film – if one is expecting anything like what Kōbō Abe attempted, one is in for a big disappointment, like I was. The film feels like elaborately designed fashion jewelry which has a great surface finish, but is hollow otherwise.

Nevertheless, a must watch.

The Most Awaited Films of 2012

2011-12-29T02:47:00.000+05:30

First I decided that I would make a list of 10 films that I am eagerly waiting for. But 10 turned out to be a difficult number, so I zeroed down on the Devil's Dozen.

So here it is:

13. Warm Bodies

A Zombie Romance – After eating the brain of a suicidal teen, R is overcome with love for the teen's companion, Julie Grigio.

12. Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

An alternate reality where the former president of the US is a vampire killer. If that's not enough: Produced by Tim Burton, Directed by Timur Bekmambetov

11. Talaash

Aamir Khan's next. Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti come together again.

10. Haywire

Salt-done right by Steven Soderbergh, starring mixed martial arts star Gina Carano, Antonio Banderas, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas and Channing Tatum.

9. Shanghai

Dibakar Banerjee directs Abhay Deol in a political thriller inspired by Vassilis Vassilikos’s book Z. Also stars Emraan Hashmi, Kalki Koechlin, Prosenjit Chatterjee.

8. Frankenweenie

Tim Burton remakes his ow brilliant short from 1984. Written by John August of Burton’s Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Big Fish

7. Prometheus

Big budget SiFi from the man who changed the face of SF – Twice.

6. Red Lights

Robert DeNiro, Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver and Elizabeth Olsen star in Rodrigo Cortes next. Nobody has forgotten Buried, right?

5. The End

A sort-of continuation of the excellent Certified Copy. Director Abbas Kiarostami makes a Japanese language film this time.

4. Love

Legendary Michael Haneke returns with a film about an elderly couple, retired music teachers whose neglectful daughter returns home when the mother suffers from a paralytic stroke. If you have seen The White Ribbon, you know how well he can handle this Ozu-like theme.

3. Gangs of Wasseypur

Anurag Kashyap is making a 2 part epic. What else can I say?

2. Vishwaroopam

(That's a fan poster.)
Kamal Haasan directs a bilingual spy thriller. With Rahul Bose as the villain. Also - Isha Sharvani.

1. The Dark Knight Rises

THE most anticipated movie of 2012. Period.

So, What are you waiting for??

Watching Gandu

2011-12-28T21:21:00.002+05:30

Netflix Summary: Nihilistic Gandu suffers through life in modern-day Bengal with his mother, the mistress of an influential businessman. After Gandu picks the man's pocket, he embarks on a porn- and drug-fueled rampage with a rickshaw puller in this abstract film. As his escapades become more elaborate, Gandu enters a surreal hellscape in which his own senses can't be trusted. Will he make it out alive and achieve his dream of becoming a famous rapper?
…
If Jack Kerouac made a film today – it would be very much like Q's Gandu, now that Q was working without a script, its almost like first draft is the best draft. Not that Bengali Protest cinema has not been made before, rather Q takes it to its logical extreme – it has never been this abrasive in its approach.

Even if the filmmakers started without a proper script, they clearly knew what elements the film had to have – the editing is brilliant and if you find an element that seems to be present for no reason, be sure there will come a point where the design would become clear. Of course, you may have to see the film a few times to figure it all out.

The first hour is a straight from the gut character portrait. We get to see the world as Gandu experience it, and we meet his friend – Ricksha. Gandu is burning with a misdirected anger, and dreams of sex as his only escape. Then, there is rap. If the black-n-white images leave something out, the rap clearly lays his inner world out – and so often that the film may easily be called a Rap Musical. I was heart broken to find out that Five Little Indians have broken up.

In the last half-an-hour, as Gandu literally runs away from his bleak existence and the drug hits, it becomes impossible to separate the fantastical from the real. Did he actually make a tape or not? The only trouble is that some elements are there with the sole intention of shocking the audience. That does not work for me at least, Q and his team has lot to say (so much, that they have dropped the last names to supplement what the film says)– why waste precious time to just shock instead? Especially because the audience who would be shocked will not watch the film. But then, I can't really criticize Q for doing right what he wanted to do. Anyways, he marks the fetish out in color.

Its sad that we do not have censor system that would allow a film like this find a wide release. With only 3 categories of certifications available, we are forcing our film industries to produce fairly uniform products. Transgressive cinema needs some support before it dies down. With films like That Girl in Yellow Boots and Delhi Belly finding mainstream audience, there is some hope even for the more out-of-stream works like this one.

A great watch. We all have been losers, haven't we?

(Yes, I have decided to add the trailers to my entries.)

My First Top 10 List

2011-12-27T23:02:00.001+05:30

Ok, I decided that I would make a list of the best films of 2011. Though 2011 looks so dull compared to 2010 - Certified Copy, Uncle Boonmee who can recall his past lives, Buried, That Girl in Yellow Boots, Udaan, I Saw the Devil, Mysteries of Lisbon... But I have to start somewhere, so here it is:

1. Margin Call (25 January 2011)
2. Paul (14 February 2011)
3. A Separation (15 February 2011)
4. Source Code (1 April 2011)
5. Melancholia (18 May 2011)
6. This is not a film (20 May 2011)
7. Kung Fu Panda 2 (27 May 2011)
8. Shaitan (10 June 2011)
9. Avan Ivan (17 June 2011)
10.Delhi Belly (1 July 2011) [Hinglish]

How come the list ends on 1 July? No good films after that?

What say you?

I haven't seen Hugo and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - waiting for Indian release.

Watching El Espíritu de la Colmena (The Spirit of the Beehive)

2011-12-27T00:45:00.001+05:30

Netflix Summary: In this mesmerizing allegorical tale set in post-Civil War Spain, precocious young Ana (Ana Torrent) becomes obsessed with finding the spirit of Frankenstein's monster after watching director James Whale's 1931 classic. When she happens upon a wounded military deserter, Ana believes that she's evoked the cinematic creature. Helmed by Victor Erice, the film also stars Fernando Fernan Gomez and Teresa Gimpera as Ana's disengaged parents.
…
The best art is born out of restrictions imposed on expression – sometimes by the context, at others by the artist himself. That is what makes The Spirit of the Beehive the most acclaimed among filmmakers' works. The allegory is generalized enough to have relevance always – and the film works even if one is unaware of its political setting, the Franco's Spain.

To begin with, there is Frankenstein. The filmmaker tells you that a film's story is not what the filmmaker shows, but what the audience see. (Republican) Fugitive can be Frankenstein’s monster because Ana and her sister are too young to understand the philosophical issues the film deals with – this (mis)interpretation gives the story a new meaning – and who is to decide if the meaning is correct or not.

The film itself resists the allegory it presents. Ana is at odds to the world she inhabits, and her wide-eyed stares give her a too fierce individuality to let her represent Spain in general. Everyone else is lost in their own obsessions and avoid the reality as much as possible – she on the other hand is trying to find a balance between the outer and inner world. The fact that the film beautifully portrays the inner world of the child – and hence avoids lots details further leaves the film open to the meaning the audience invests into it.

Then, there is the landscape. The opening credits show the words, “Once upon a time … Somewhere on the Castilian meseta in the 1940s,” the camera focuses on a wall on which the Falangist yoke and arrows are painted. Although the precise setting on the film is shown, the opening words seek to generalize the settings. The human figures appear dwarfed by “the emptiness of the space and the vastness of the silence”, a strange open cage where the conditions have persisted for centuries – the haunted faces suggest that the power that be are just a coincidence, further stressing the oddness of Ana.

A must watch.

Watching இளமை ஊஞ்சல் ஆடுகிறது/ వయసు పిలిచింది ( Ilamai Oonjal Aadukirathu/ Vayasu Pilichindi)

2011-12-25T22:12:00.001+05:30

Only the 70s could have given us a wonderful film like this one – progressive and trapped in its time at the same time (Okay, the Hindi one came in 80s, but I haven't seen it and do not think it will be worth a watch.). A film that deals with one night stands, but cannot think of a way to resolve itself other than killing off a lead.

Frankly, it seems like the director was under tremendous pressure to deliver a happy ending. He seems to try his best to push it away. Anyways, the film is still very interesting for the first three quarters. The staging is a delight to watch, almost no filmmaker cares to work on it anymore. And, Illayaraja's music makes one think it is far better than it actually is. Seeing Kamal Haasan and Rajinikant together is another bonus. Though all the English doesn't come naturally to Rajini.

Watching El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth)

2011-12-24T18:14:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: Living with her tyrannical stepfather (Sergi López) in a new home with her pregnant mother, 10-year-old Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) feels alone until she explores a decaying labyrinth guarded by the mysterious Pan (Doug Jones), an ancient satyr who claims to know her destiny. If she wishes to return to her real father, Ofelia must complete three terrifying tasks in director Guillermo del Toro's Oscar-winning fairy tale for grown-ups.
...
Most fantasies – because they are made in America, and have to make money – are compromised by being targeted to children or so-called Young Adult. Del Toro took Pan's Labyrinth to Europe precisely to avoid such pressures – its obviously not for children, as the R rating for "graphic violence and some language” will tell you – and delivered the best defense of fantasy since Tolkien's On Fairy-Stories.

Pan's Labyrinth is one of those rare works that brings obviously incompatible material together, and stays true to both. Much like it forces its heroine, it forces the audience to make a choice about how to read it. It creates a word where the fantasy and reality live side-by-side – you amble from one into the other – not cut or jump into each other, though they are very much independent of each other.

The opening scene sort-of summarizes the whole film for you. The film starts at the end and we rise from the underground (underworld?) to the light of the day. The time is running backwards, and the camera is lying down with the heroine – and through her eye enters right into her mind – this is where the most of the action takes place. And then, we see her running out to the surface and we are told of “escape into reality”. And suddenly, we realize we have been swept into the real world – and these sweeps would define most of the transitions in the film.

The non-fantasy world is the world of absolute black and white – it is the world of many non-fiction works that glorify freedom fighters. All the moral choices are to be made in the fantasy world – where the faun looks good sometimes, and bad at others – he isn't either, rather he is offering a choice, and his actions can be read as either benevolent or dangerous.

Its are fantasy film that stares into a real war. The heroine is always reminded that she will have to grow up to it – unlike, say, how “Life is Beautiful” tries to deny the harsh realities of a concentration camp. But that does not mean it tries to banish fantasy as unreal, rather it gives it a very important role. The fable of blue rose embedded in the film captures the argument beautifully – and is exemplified in the reactions of the two mother-figures Ofelia has. Watch them closely.

Del Toro and his cinematographer create a beautiful world. The fantasy creatures look like they have escaped from nightmares , you have seen them before – at least in books and paintings – but never on screen before. And here is an actor who has mastered the art of emoting while buried in layers of make-up. The music – variations based on a simple lullaby – is so perfect that you cannot imagine it having a presence independent of the narrative.

One of the greatest fantasy films ever. Watch it thrice, at the very least, to digest its wonderful scale and see its many readings. (I want to say more, but I don't want to destroy it for you.)

Watching Hard Candy

2011-12-20T02:12:00.001+05:30

Netflix Summary: Ellen Page (Juno) stars in this suspenseful drama from director David Slade as Hayley, an intelligent teen who's got her own reasons for spending so much time with Geoff (Patrick Wilson), a much older man she met online. Even though Geoff is a charming, good-looking photographer, Hayley should know better than to go home with a guy in his early thirties -- especially since he might have ulterior motives.
…
Red Riding Hood with the wolf, one thinks seeing a young 14-year old – with a red cape – going with a 32-year old man. But you know that's not all in this horrifying parable about pedophilia. Though claimed to be based on a real life incident in Japan, the film seems to derive more from Takashi Miike's Audition.

The film manages to tell its story without any nudity at all, and both the leads have given terrific performance – especially effective is Ellen Page. The ambiguity in the character of young girl makes it much more interesting – is she enjoying torturing the man at some level? Is the film, at some level, feeding into sadomasochistic fantasies?

I feel that if one has seen Audition, this film – like the imitations of the bloodshed from the original – looks phoney. The whole girl power theme seems unconvincing – it failed to make me believe in the goodness of the vigilante.

That said, it still is a gripping film. Most of it focuses on the odd couple, and even if one feels that there are two perverts in the room, the mind games they are playing with each other are a treat to watch. Page makes it easy to believe that a 14-year old can do what she does, even though her motives are left in dark.

Watch it for Page.

Watching Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

2011-12-18T07:26:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: Super-agent Ethan Hunt dangles from skyscrapers and otherwise takes daring to new heights on another operation from the Impossible Missions Force. Helping Hunt get the job done is droll fellow IMF agent Luther Stickel.
…
This is what an action film is supposed to be like. Period.

The film opens with Ethan Hunt breaking out of a Russian prison, and the action set pieces keep getting better and better. Even by MI standards, having a small magnet hold a man wearing steel mesh underwear was a bit of a stretch – but hey, I am not complaining! Jeremy Renner as Brandt does a great show of being frightened, and anyways the elaborate distraction with Anil Kapoor keeps one from seeing the goofiness.

We also have the Kremlin being blasted off, a fight sequence in a parking garage which keeps moving cars up and down, and, of course, the Burj Khalifa sequence. Ethan Hunt borrowing powers from Spiderman and – I am told – no CGI, no doubles. Cruise sure needs a doctor – but that is one of the most beautiful sequences. But, hey, it is the small things that impress me the most – like Hunt swinging one level below in the Russian prison, now that was smooth!

Brad Bird as the director was a great choice. He has been great at creating loveable characters – The Incredibles, Ratatouille – and he does that here too. Plus he gets in those small jokes – the details that keeps one happy in the midst of all the destruction. Only trouble is the film ends too suddenly – but I am ready to overlook that.

Its good that Tom Cruise came to India to promote his film – after all a lot of it is set in India, but not shot in India. MI's Mumbai has Kannada signboards – but then it is an American film! So, you got have the American vision – Camels in middle-east, strange dancers in India – checklist complete.

The MI-team gives a great performance – all four of them. Simon Pegg as Benji is awesome – you look at him and you know that this is the guy who walks into any building with a laptop and controls the whole of it in a jiffy. Renner enters a bit late as an Analyst – but delivers a power packed performance. You have seen Anil Kapoor do that before, so that works too. And, the theme score is back!

Loved the film. Catch it on the biggest screen in town – I will go to IMAX soon.

Watching Suspiria

2011-12-16T12:34:00.005+05:30

Netflix Summary: This horror gem follows Susan (Jessica Harper), a naïve young American girl whose talents have brought her to an illustrious European ballet school. But once she gets there, she realizes there's something strange going on as she's faced with a cluster of freaky happenings, from a shower of maggots to poison in her food. What she soon learns is that the school has been a meeting place for witches for many years. …
…
Dario Argento is arguably given us the best of giallo, his influence on modern horror and slasher films is most visible. And Suspiria is his trophy film. I would easily place it in top 5 horror films ever – certainly not the scariest and goriest, but with perfect amounts of everything.

The filmmaker quickly kicks off with a super gruesome murder – but nevertheless builds up the atmosphere like an arthouse horror before you reach there. Some fans may even think if they would manage to sit through the whole of it – but then, it draws one in with its wonderful pacing. For the gore lover, you have it all - brutal stabbings, hangings, death by glass, razor wire and slit throats. The gore is beautifully crafted – murder by the seeing-eye dog is among the craziest scenes I have ever seen.

The retro Technocolor visuals of this surreal fairytale are among the very few of the period to have aged this well. Th colors get bolder as the atmosphere gets darker. Ironically, the whole gothic setup was inspired from another fairytale movie – Disney's Snow White. Thats the way to twist a fairytale!

Then, there is music – by Goblin. Its – let me say that again – the best horror soundtrack ever, right next to Tubular Bells theme. I feel this should be the background score of real life, every cold night I get out of the house – I want the whispering background score – now that would be some atmosphere to be in! (I couldn't find any other films for which Goblin has composed, please share).

Jessica Harper, of course, she had mastered in what she does here – for such an innocent looking lady, she has done a lot of psycho-roles. She everything one wants the survivor to be – beautiful, naïve – just love her. On the other hand, Udo Kier is the stuff creepy nightmares are made of – she makes your skin tinge.

Great Horror. Must, must watch..

Reading Inheritance

2011-12-13T12:22:00.000+05:30

There has been an Internet wave of criticism about Christopher Paolini's Inheritance. And, I agree with most of what they say – but the book has a redeeming quality that makes one want to read it – cover to cover. I still think that Brisingr was best of the lot (I know, I know, it is the most hated one) – that is where the meat of the novel is – the characters are fleshed out and the politics of the land made clear. The loving details is what turns low-fantasy into high.

Paolini's style changes once more with Inheritance – if it is action you missed, here it is. Though, it still does little to push the plot forward. The fights do get overlong time and again – but the details of the world still keeps one intrigued. Yes, the details do little to advance the plot – but an epic has to build a world.

Then, there is the gore and torture sequences – written in a style one could not have expected from the 15 year-old who wrote Eragon. It is most satisfying to see a writer mature as one reads his works one after the other – but hope Paolini will not take the markets too seriously and will do his own thing.

An enjoyable read. Paolini has a bright, bright future.

Watching Melancholia

2011-12-13T00:51:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: This inventive drama charts the disintegrating relationship between newly married twentysomething Justine and her melancholy sister, Claire, just as Earth hurtles toward certain collision with a newly discovered planet.
…
A film about end of the world that is as good as Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice. And that is because it is a very personal end – not an end made spectacular for its audience. Von Trier stays away from all the SiFi cliches – news updates, cabinet meetings, shots of famous monuments being destroyed – the easy stuff – is all not there.

Instead he gives us a harrowing portrayal of how a clinically depressed mind works – a mind that was always expecting the worst. As her wedding is abandoned, Justine's last words to her lover are “What did you expect?” - she is well beyond all expectations – and therefore, better equipped for the biggest disasters.

Film opens with a flash-forward to the world's end – a montage of ultra-slow motion shots, some of which relate to the events in the story that follows, some don't. With this, von Trier frees the viewer from thinking of the end – no more a mystery to resolve, and the story from the burden of suspense. Instead all are free to concentrate on how this “family” is reacting to the end – the extreme focus of knowing that you going to be dead in 5 days.

For once, von Trier gives us truly polished images – so polished that even he has once apologized for how good it all looks! But those wonderful visuals are not a weakness, despite whatever the filmmaker himself may believe. Here are visuals that have an immediacy apparent only in the best of art – in all his earlier films, the visuals are intellectualized – sometimes overtly, not here though. I think when Antichrist was made, von Trier was too close to the depression to not intellectualize about it. The distance is what allows Melancholia to be so much better.

Kirsten Dunst carrier best act. Ever bit role has been played to perfection. And von Trier is at his very best, regardless of what he may believe. A must watch.

Watching La habitación de Fermat (Fermat's Room)

2011-12-08T11:39:00.001+05:30

Netflix Summary: Drawn together by a mysterious host (Federico Luppi), four mathematicians wind up locked in a shrinking room and bombarded by a series of tricky riddles. To avoid horrific deaths, the frantic scholars must quickly figure out the link that unites them all. This engrossing Spanish thriller from filmmaking duo Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopeña stars Lluís Homar, Alejo Sauras, Elena Ballesteros and Santi Millán.
…
Films whose plot is based of mathematics are rare – so thats a good enough reason to give Fermat's Room a chance to impress one – and impresses it does. Writer-Director duo Luis Piedrahita and Rodrigo Sopeña debut with a Saw minus the blood & gore. The thriller is very well paced, and the actors keep the very flimsy plot grounded. All the four mathematicians look very believable – and get better as the tension keeps rising.

The sure isn't a perfect film – the puzzles are the kinds most have solved as children, but the pacing keeps one's mind off it. Plus, the twists and turns inside a small room make the film more and more interesting. The climax may disappoint some horror fans by not being about a single survivor – but this end suits the film much more.

A gripping watch.

Listening 17th Street

2011-12-08T09:52:00.001+05:30

Hammers of Misfortune is one of those rare bands that go through so many changing line-ups but still build up a laundry list of great albums – if extremely underrated. I can only think of NIN as another band which did that (not underrated though) – this is also almost a one-man band. With all the changes, it still is the brainchild of John Cobbett.

Recession has been cruel for many, but Cobbett's reaction has been the most enriched art. If Ludicra's The Tenant was black metal's response, 17th Street is a document of current times in more traditional metal. On the way, Cobbet has fought an ruptured appendix (uninsured) with special merch sales and donations, had Ludicra split up and supported Occupy through his Twitter account and on the ground.

Its rare for metal to give us concept albums – it always seems to through some great tracks, great riffs our way – but HoM have brought the concept back. The kind of guitar riffs through which bands like Judas Priest make anthems to bang your head, HoM creates heart-wrenching emotions. And then, they also have the piano creating some of the most memorable melodies metal has ever given (I wonder if it is still metal!).

Cobbett's lyrics communicate a fear thats scary for it feels very real. “The Day The City Died” stands out, as Joe Hutton croons, one wonders if the band would be one day thrown out of their own city – and by extension, if that could happen to any of us.

A great album, I hope HoM breaks through to a bigger audience with it.

Watching 7ஆம் அறிவு (The Seventh Sense)

2011-12-06T10:20:00.001+05:30

IMDB Summary: A genetic engineering student tries to bring back the skills of a legend of the past and use his skills to save India from a deadly virus attack by China.
…
A. R. Murugadoss obviously had big ambitions for 7aum Arivu, he had concept which had a newness for its target audience and a big scale to overwhelm them. But, he seems to have picked up team that was not up for the task – not a bad team at all, but unsuited for this particular film. If you aren't a fan, it becomes so much less enjoyable.

Don't get me wrong, it certainly is an entertaining film – but it could have so easily been a masterpiece. And before the opening scene ends, the misses become apparent. First, the background score is Harris Jayaraj is very ordinary – it sticks out like a sore thumb, distracting the viewer from the film itself – dampening the effect of narration.

Then there is Suriya. A wonderful actor who does not dominate the screen – something that hampers the film here. The character of Bodhidharma is towering – the actor has to submerge everyone else by his sheer screen presence – something Suriya cannot do. Someone like Vikram or even Arya would have been a better choice. And, I am not very sure if Aamir Khan is the right choice for the remake.

Watching Rockstar

2011-12-04T13:24:00.001+05:30

Netflix Summary: Determined to become a rock star, musician Janardan Jakhar decides to woo Heer, the most popular beauty in college -- believing that once she breaks his heart, his music will become deeper. But his connection with Heer takes a surprising turn.
…
I saw the film in the opening week, and if something has stayed with me till now is the music. A R Rahman is the real rock star of this film, Ranbir Kapoor gives one of his best performances – he sure has come a long way, so has the writer-director, Imtiaz Ali – but not necessarily in the right direction.

Imtiaz started with Socha Na Tha – which bombed on the box office, but went on to acquire a cult status of its own. Then came Ahista Ahista, a most lovely adaptation of White Nights – surely among the best. His next was released just a week before Bhansali's take on the story hit the theaters – but this one had the masala, and did wonders to Imitiaz Ali's financial credence. And then, he made Love Aaj Kal – the director growing in confidence and playing with timelines a little. But the trouble was visible – the director was clearly far more wonderful while dealing with the simple settings rather than the modern one. He doesn't seem to know the glamor-filled world he designed, and did not seem to know his modern characters over a long enough time.

Rockstar, certainly is his most ambitious project. He chooses a structure filled with flash-forwards – and handles them beautifully. One can see how thoughtfully he has spaced them through the film. The pace is just perfect for the story he wants to tell. But, once again, he seems to know his key character only for a very small duration – like a friend you knew for may be an year, but imagine how his whole life would be based on that.

Rockstar tells a tale spread over many years – but the characters don't seem to grow at all. For a film called Rockstar, intertexual references to rock scene are sorely missing. Plus all the characters feel underdeveloped and unidimensional.

Ranbir Kapoor gives a solid performance, one can see his pain – almost feel it. But understand him we don't. He seems in a time wrap – and one wonders when will he grow up – for, you know, he is from the 21st century. The other trouble is the unbelievable performance from Nargis Fakhri – and the very heavy-handed direction doesn't help. In trying to create visually appealing 'epic' shots Imtiaz Ali makes the extra-marital affair unintentionally funny. Overt sentimentality feels very misplaced after how the characters are sketched in first half.

Overall, an strictly average offering – which I failed to enjoy. Just maybe my expectations were all wrong – but then, isn't this all about managing expectations?

Dear Blog...

2011-11-29T13:52:00.001+05:30

Dear blog,

Long time no see.

Well, it is after long – about two weeks – that I am awake for more than 3 hours without feeling an urge to go back to sleep. But hey, thanks for still being there – not many others would have waited for this long.

Since you been so good to me, I will also be more faithful to you – more disciplined – will see you everyday of the week, and will try my best not to make you as sad as Franz Kafka's diary. Okay?

And, I hope, I will not be forcing myself on you. Almost everyone else I try to get close to thinks I do that – not you, I believe.

Okay, thats it.

Luv.

Watching Hobo with a Shotgun

2011-11-05T02:40:00.000+05:30

Netflix Summary: This gory, gleefully over-the-top revenge fantasy stars Rutger Hauer as the Hobo, a bum who rolls into town hoping to start over, only to find his adopted city saturated in violence and ruled by a vicious crime lord known as the Drake (Brian Downey). The Hobo's answer? Pick up his handy pump-action scattergun and start laying waste to crooks, corrupt cops and every other lowlife who crosses his path.
…
Second awesome film to have born out of the Grindhouse trailers. Hobo with a Shotgun – written by John Davies and Jason Eisner, and directed by Jason Eisner – surprises one by having a heart. A grindhouse film that makes one feel emotional is a rare treat – making this better than all the neo-grindhouse films ever made.

It no doubt derives from the '70s energetic, over-the-top masala films – but takes the ideas to their logical extreme. To be frank the filmmakers wants one to take what any sensible audience will find offensive as homage or satirical or absurd – usually the last. The violence isn't the easiest to take in – but the over-the-top emotions/ morals nicely balances it out.

Rutger Hauer dynamite of a performance is just what the doctor ordered – not once will one find all the funny stuff going around difficult to believe in. He looks like he does believe that a shotgun can repair the whole world – and one believes in his belief. Brian Downey as The Drake is pure evil – '70s style.

A must watch.

Listening Item

2011-11-04T07:06:00.001+05:30

Euphoria are certainly the best live act in India. Their infectious energy and the way they enjoy themselves on stage makes them great to watch – the only Hindrock (is that word still used?) band to breakthrough. But they fail to capture this energy – should I say raw energy – in their latest album.

Item sounds overproduced. Songs start out alright, but then instruments just pile over one-another making them sit down rather than jump up like Palash on-stage. The straightforward honesty that one perceived in most of their earlier songs also seems lost here – though they are using similar imagery, it seems forced on Item.

The only 2 tracks that work for me are the ones that derive from their earlier works – could very well have been written earlier. Akela – a sequel to Ab Na Jaa – works the best. On the whole, a strictly average outing.

Listening Lulu

2011-11-03T12:35:00.001+05:30

Lou Reed and Metallica coming together to create an album based on Frank Wedekind's Lulu was sure not going to get any of them any new fans, esp. when Lou Reed hasn't really delivered a hit, ever. But they do create the most grueling album in years. Its a soundtrack for the character Lulu – as painful and shocking as the plays would have been.

Rest assured, this isn't a metal band trying to be Velvet Underground. Reed writes some of the most intense lyrics one would ever hear even in the metal scene – and Metallica make it louder, heavier. Some of the best guitar riffs from the band are put over a loop as Reed delivers his vocals.

And at the very end, comes poetry that Reed has performed before – Junior Dad – but Meteallica's music make this 20-odd minute track an epic. Among the best songs from Lou Reed. A great album – a must for a Lou Reed fan, though Metallica fans will certainly ignore this and move on.

Reading Super Sad True Love Story

2011-11-03T06:20:00.001+05:30

Yes, 2011 will soon close and I am still reading stuff that I should have finished in 2010. But then it is some of the best stuff.

Super Sad True Love Story is the most touching satire to come out in years. I usually prefer such works to be wickedly funny – stuff thats sad, but makes one laugh – but Gary Shteyngart creates a world thats funny, but makes one sad.

His dystopia is as frightening as 1984 – but without the politics and filled with retail and social networking. A future that is more of today – impossible to be, but highly identifiable. But the best part is the earnest characters he creates – a May-December relationship that one may fall in by end of this week - a struggle worthy of its title.

A must read.

The things I think I did...

2011-11-01T03:11:00.001+05:30

Aditya aka Shetty Anna suddenly flared up in anger, asking me to recharge my prepaid phone. I said – No, I won't – and he looked at me as if I was crazy.

I do not want to give up the comfort of being able to message her without worrying about her reaction, without worrying about the fact that we are no more together, without thinking that it is plain wrong to send her messages. Especially after I asked her to leave me alone, to give me space-time to find some new friends, some new lover. Especially after she said that it was too early to decide one way or the other.

Especially after that one broken relationship dominates all my relationships. Especially because any message that gets through is disowned by me – intoxication – weed, whisky, whatever.

Whatever gets you through the night, is alright, is alright. It seems you are in love if you read the messages that were exchanged long back, I struggle to read the letters you tore apart, you do remember them, don't you A?

Remember how we used to converse just through the Beatles' lyrics?

The things I think I did...

Watching 阿飛正傳 (Days of Being Wild/ The True Story of Ah Fei)

2011-10-31T18:10:00.001+05:30

Netflix Summary: After learning that the woman who raised him is not his mother, Yuddy (Leslie Cheung) acts out by manipulating two women -- quiet Su Lizhen (Maggie Cheung) and glamorous Mimi (Carina Lau). Su Lizhen eventually catches the eye of Tide (Andy Lau), while Yuddy's friend Zeb (Jacky Cheung) falls for Mimi. Meanwhile, Yuddy learns the identity of his birth mother and heads off to find her. This film won multiple honors at the Hong Kong Film Awards.
…
The breakthrough film for Wong Kar-Wai. A huge list of stars (Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, Maggie Cheung Man-yuk, Andy Lau Tak-wah …) and a complete new aesthetic. If A Better Tomorrow gave HK Cinema new audience, Days of Being Wild widened the horizon by giving it a new approach to storytelling. Considered the best thing to happen to HK Cinema in last 30 years – though was a box office failure. Suddenly the characters an their struggle with emotions/memories became more important that visual style or the story itself.

Wong Kar-Wai not only makes his characters struggle with their memories, but also makes the audience exercise their memory. The whole film seems to be a preparation for the last act – which is full of references to the past. Much like his other films, even this one is available in multiple versions – and we see his technique being developed when looking at both these – the technique that makes him both loved and hated. Both versions remember different parts of the pasts – and exemplifies how simply changing what one shows changes the impact of the story. And, as in all his films, the opportunities for untold narratives simply blossoms – making the film feel far more fleshed out than it actually is.

For example, the final conversation between Tide and Yuddy begins with Tide saying: “The last time I saw him, I asked him a question” - is it an inner monologue, a self-conscious narration or is he talking to an unseen character? - coupled with the enigmatic final sequence of a silent Tony grooming himself – someone who we have not seen yet, and will not see again – raises many possibilities. (and the non-international version raises some more possibilities, while giving an explanation for the scene. Here, rather than an ending we have a framing sequence.)

Coming back to the final conversation – in the international version we see a sequence with Tide talking and Yuddy responding from off-screen, in the other version we see Yuddy with Tde responding from off-screen. A neat shot-reverse shot conversation between the two versions. This change and use of musical motif in the international version make the exact same conversation tell very different stories, with very different emphasis – a wonderful example of what visual narration can do for you.

(I want to say more, but I am worried about spoiling it for those of you who have seen just one version.)

A great watch.

Menschenfresserin - 10

2011-10-29T15:01:00.000+05:30

We started, and my newest best friend decided its time to visit The Artist, a friend of his. As we walked, I realized someone was following us – turned round to see a dog without any eyes and a beak for a nose following us. Dogs – they always fill me with fright – esp. the dead ones. I dug my nails into the flesh of the cannibal – Don't worry, the dead dogs only bite the dead men – Oh well! Whatever!

So he picked up a stone and shooed the dog away. At The Artist's door was a painted cat skull – hanging – to ward of evil? Turns out he sells painted bones over the Internet – a big name in the circles – may soon be winning the Turner Prize. Inside, the walls were lined with painted bones and manufactured skeletons – cat, dog, monkey, human – and where do you get the bones from? - Oh! I just dig them out of the graves around here, and humans come from a medical supplier.

Many years back – when he was unknown to the art world – he was arrested for committing 7 murders. While in jail – some of the painted bones – not the human ones – made their way to e-bay. And then, the art community cried in unison – an artist of this scale cannot be a murderer, cure him of whatever mental illness he suffers from. And, that's what happened – he was let go after spending sometime with the doctors. Since then he has amassed a fortune selling his art pieces across the globe. The Artist is widely credited for inspiring the reemergence of Visceral Realism in literature.

This is where my homeless benefactor had got the bone to chew on.

I-Score: The way forward for Management Education In India

2011-10-28T00:50:00.006+05:30

YET ANOTHER FIRST FOR IMI

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing it is stupid” –ALBERT EINSTEIN

“When there is a radical change, lessons from the past don’t work” - Dr. PRITAM SINGH .

Apart from being the first corporate sponsored B-school, IMI has emerged as the first B-school in India to have a Balanced Score Card for students. Keeping in view our short term goal of being in top 5 B-school within the next 3 years we, the students of IMI, have come up with a revolutionary and innovative concept. I-score , a balanced Score Card for students. Our long term goal however is to be in the top 20 b-schools of the world. We are very confident that both these goals are achievable. Our confidence stems from the mentorship of our visionary director Padma Shri Dr. Pritam Singh and the intellectual capital of IMI, which is ranked 3^rd in India. We believe that a single question in the CAT or the institute one enters do not have a major say in how good a manager one can be. The value addition in these two years is the key determinant.

Why I-score

If someone asks “how professional are you?”, “How good are you at your passion?”, “How much value have added to yourself?”, “How socially responsible are you”, one cannot answer “Highly professional”, “a lot of value”, “Highly responsible” etc .Such subjective answers are not expected from future managers and leaders like us. Hard numbers with minimum subjectivity is what is expected because numbers speak louder than words.360 students,45 days of brainstorming and a vision “Excellence through innovation” was what it took us to come up with I-score.

I-score explained

I-scholar: CGPA component

I-reach: Social Responsibility component

I-excel: Extracurricular activities

· When I perform within the purview of IMI…..I reflect.
· When I perform outside the purview of IMI …..I project.
· For me to excel and reach I need to project as well as reflect.
· When I Reach and Excel.…I-score.

This initiative will be a sustainable differentiator for the Students.

(Thanks Mehaj for sharing this.)

iScore

2011-10-27T12:31:00.000+05:30

A first-of-its-kind initiative from IMI

Because people respond to initiatives.

Watching Ra.One

2011-10-27T12:00:00.001+05:30

Netflix Summary: When the hit video game he created to impress his son becomes all too real, geeky computer programmer Shekhar must transform himself into G.One, a superhero with the technological know-how to save his family from the game's marauding villain, RA.One
…
A mishmash of genre, much in the tradition of Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World and Bunraku, and even Shah Rukh – Farah films, but the beautifully designed elements are not integrated at all. Not that I had too much faith in Anubhav Sinha's direction, but I had hoped that the filmmakers would edit it well before screening it – then, what can one expect from a film that was being shot till 10 days before the release? A lot of effort is gone into the film – but the director clearly failed to pool it all together, so the film ends up with some superbly executed sequences which stand alone.

First, the film fails to explain its world and its superhero. Here is a film that needs a lot of exposition – but it chooses to explain the obvious rather than the required. All the time is wasted in jokes that don't work and song-and-dance sequences that are great on their own but distract one from the main narrative – the time that should have been used to push the theme forward.

It is not that the details of the world are not worked out – one can see them in the small graphic novel and the video game developed. But the film decides to undermine the efforts put in there. Shah Rukh's efforts at transmedia narration are commendable – something no other Hindi film has tried till date. But then the fact that he played a big role in conceptualizing and designing these – rather than the director of the film highlights what has gone wrong.

That brings me to the second thing thats wrong with this film. A film, all said and done, is the director's vision. Anubhav Sinha had one, a great idea that Shah Rukh obviously loved – so he went ahead and decided to give it the scale that he likes to work on, assembled a great team and let his on VFX studio to go o full drive. But he seems to have forgotten who the team leader is – Anubhav lacks the experience, and even the skills, to handle such a team. One even feels that DoP is working independently of the director. He is at his best when making films like Tum Bin and Aap Ko Pehle Bhi Kahin Dekha Hai – rather than the over-the-top, stylized films he has been attempting of late. Shah Rukh should have realized that and roped in someone else to direct this one – probably he realized this too late.

The film could have worked despite its flaws – if the crass jokes were chopped off at the editing table. The unfunny humor is annoying at its best. Whenever the film begins to pull one into its extremely simple story – the filmmakers feel compelled to crack a joke that shocks you out of it. Plus, Shah Rukh is most unconvincing as a Tamil – his diction is horrible.

That said, Ra.One has the best special effects seen in an Indian film till date. VFX certainly is the best studio in this part of the world. The cinematography and the action choreography is brilliant. A chase sequence on the roads of London, and a train sequence in Mumbai are a thrill to watch – the references to other films works beautifully. Never thought that the destruction of the gothic CST would look so brilliant.

Also, Kareena Kapoor looks super hot. Arjun Rampal is truly an anti-god, the best anti-hero in a long, long time - remember his from Om Shanti Om.

A great effort, mostly wasted. Still, I am a fan of both Shah Rukh Khan and fannish cinema.

Menschenfresserin - 9

2011-10-25T08:56:00.002+05:30

The ragged philosopher came back with a plateful of meat for me – cooked meat. - I had stopped to pay my respects to the fireflies. Their grave isn't far from here. - He told me that children from all over the town come here to bury their pets – kittens and dogs most often.

- But you don't have to worry, you would never die. When Earth will collapse many, many years from now, we would travel on to a new greener earth with our superior intellect developed over the year. - And when, inevitably, the universe will collapse? - Ah, we would jump through a black hole to reach a different world. A happier world.-

The Way will open again. But I am sure much sooner than my homeless friend tells me.

- Lets go back, the train must be about to reach. -

Reading Damned

2011-10-23T14:36:00.000+05:30

Damned tells the story of a 13-year old who finds herself in hell, under mysterious circumstances. The only trouble is that the voice that is created for her is not always the voice of a child. The fact that Chuck Palahniuk wrote most of it when his mother was struggling to stay alive, with her death almost certain may explain why Palahniuk may have chosen a child narrator. But the dark humor and the amount of intertexuality that Palahniuk puts into all his works seem misplaced here.

That said, if you have been reading Palahniuk, Damned is exactly what you would expect. The wit, the one-liners, the delivery – all of it is vintage Palahniuk, and I prefer that any day over an authentic child narrator. A breezy, enjoyable read – though only the cult fans would love this one.

Also, the book beautifully sets up the stage for Book 2 of the trilogy. And that, I expect, will appeal to a wider audience. So, don't miss this one either - the creation versus the creator.

Reading The Orange Eats Creeps

2011-10-19T07:37:00.000+05:30

Grace Krilanovich's debut is supposedly about “Slutty Teenage Hobo Vampire Junkies running amok in the pacific northwest” - it most certainly is not that. Or not that in a way you would expect it to be. For me, this is a collection of memories corrupted with more memories and visions the narrator had for herself.

There is no real plot to talk of – though there is an entry and an exit – rather, multiple entry and exit points, the narration moves in circles with memories colliding into each other. I have not seen cut-up being used any better than this since William S. Burroughs used it himself. The Orange Eats Creeps owes a lot to Burroughs – many of the routines clearly develop from his routines – and Krilanovich's inventive use of words, phrases never lets him down.

Only thing that I did not like was an obvious time lapse to jump to THE exit. I felt it was an unnecessary attempt to give the narrative a superimposed arc.

That said, I loved this novel – loved not knowing what is fact and what is hallucination. If you have some expectations from a novel – you will hate this one. Otherwise, a must read. And, if you are a Burroughs' fan – make it a point to read this.

Watching Professor

2011-10-15T19:30:00.000+05:30

Summary: When recent college graduate Pritam (Shammi Kapoor) has trouble finding a job, he decides to tutor four unruly ladies. To do so, however, he must disguise himself as an elderly professor because the ladies' overprotective aunt, Sita Devi (Lalita Pawar), won't let them talk to young men. One of the girls, Neena, likes Pritam, and Sita Devi falls for the professor. This Indian musical feature earned Shanker-Jaikishan a Best Music Director Filmfare award.
...
Shammi Kapoor, the youngest, and therefore allowed to be restless & amorous, son of Prithviraj Kapoor is widely considered to have ushered in a sexually-charged romance to the Hindi cinema with his breakthrough hit – Junglee. A self-assured seducer, whose sexuality jumps out through his body language, especially in the song-and-dance sequences, and the plot seems to be only meant to support his persona. Great music by Shanker-Jaikishen and Darjeeling beautifully shot by Dwarka Divecha only seem to be an extension of his persona.

Pritam Khanna is an unemployed graduate – but unlike the unemployed of '50s such as Vijay in Pyaasa or Raj in Shri 420 – his economic blues are hidden behind trendy wardrobe and are nothing more than a pretext to insert him into a household of sexually-repressed women. His entry is marked with intertextual reference as the silence is broken with cries of Yahoo!. Forced to become a professor of over-50, Pritam also seems to acquire some wisdom that comes with age and acts as a buffer between Sita Devi and her nieces.

As the niece contrive plot after plot to get the professor fired, he decides to get back to the elder one in his undisguised avatar. His well-known persona comes to fore in beautiful song sequences like Aye Gulbadan. As the couple falls helplessly in love, a more beautifully portrayed relationship develops between Sita Devi and the aged professor. In their interactions, Shammi Kapoor and Lalita Pawar give some of the most credible performances – and the fifty-something Shammi is far more interesting and likable than the India's Elvis.

Although the film is certainly part of the sexual-revolution that Shammi represented, it is certainly caught tight in its times. Sita Devi's troubles that arise from a wrongly assumed male role are solved when a heavy handed psychic transformation, assisted by Pritam, turns her sexual desire into maternal love – making her a non-erotic being. And, of course, premarital sex is okay as long as it ends in marriage.

Nevertheless, a great watch.

Watching Bunraku

2011-10-12T14:46:00.001+05:30

Netflix Summary: When an enigmatic drifter (Josh Hartnett) and an obsessive Japanese fighter (Gackt) make their way to a town run by cruel crime boss Nicola (Ron Perlman), the strangers combine their martial arts skills to take on the powerful crook in this visually innovative, genre-bending action film. But Nicola's beautiful associate, Alexandra (Demi Moore), makes their mission even more dangerous. Woody Harrelson co-stars.
…
Buraku aims to mesh up eclectic influences – Seijun Sujuki mixed up with A Clockwork Orange, part musical par noir, video game and comic culture. And the parts work great, though are not necessarily joined up together. Sadly, the film is released not too far from Scott Pilgrim Versus The World, which succeeded exceptionally in doing what Bunraku attempts.

This is certainly most heavily art designed English-language movie in years – I can't think of any film that comes even remotely close. The filmmakers make no effort to hide the artificiality of the firearm-less future it depicts. And the pseudo-philosophical dialogues work great for me – though some may feel the urge to slap the filmmaker for such obviously misplaced quotations. But we fans who do that all the time enjoy them immensely.

The fight choreography is brilliant – in midst of all the artificiality, the fights look very believable. Fight choreographer Larnell Stovall shows some of his own martial arts skills in the small role he gets on-screen. But, more importantly, he works wonders with the cast – each fighter is given a unique style, if Gackt is a typical samurai, Hartnett only uses is fist, some derive their style from musicals rather than martial arts and some other from A Clockwork Orange. The wide and beautiful variety on display is great to watch.

The acting is consistently strong. Only Demi Moore seems as if she has walked in from a different film. But then, she doesn't even have much to do here. To have such wonderful performances in a film that relies on overt narration and visual trickery that is meant to be just that – look! I am cool! - makes it so much more enjoyable to watch.

A post-modern cult classic. Must watch, even if you are going to throw tomatoes at the screen.

Watching Not A Love Story

2011-10-07T07:25:00.001+05:30

Summary: A fictionalized account based on Neeraj Grover’s murder by Emile Jerome, assisted by his actress-girlfriend Maria Susairaj.
…
Fresh of Dongala Mutta – a film that was shot in 5 days flat – RGV seems to be stuck in the same mode. Not A Love Story was shot in 20 days, and a lack of preparation shows. If with the earlier film he wanted to prove that films can be made with super low budget – like we did not already know that – with this one he wanted to prove that a film can be made about a cold-blooded murder – whether it is good filmmaking or not is besides the point.

RGV's signature visual style – steep angles, unexpected zoom-ins, use of obstructions - is all too evident here. But it does not work here at all – for one, it is no more unexpected, and second, it appears arbitrary – a spoof of what he is so good at. His visual style works when he uses it to highlight certain gestures of his actors or give them a space to act in – here he almost cuts his actors out of the frame, as if he trusts his technique to tell more than his actors can.

The film does have some flashes of great cinema – but it is lost in the gimmicky camera work that numbs one out of the film. Overuse kills everything that could have been good about the movie – including the constant reference to Rangeela. If RGV was trying to make a film that is impossible to watch – he succeeds by making a bad romance, not horror. The very flat characterization is disappointing, to say the least.

Mahie Gill's strong performance, despite the odds against her, is what makes the film bearable.

Menschenfresserin - 8

2011-10-04T03:34:00.000+05:30

My homeless friend hadn't returned yet. I decided to explore the empty room a little – there must be a door somewhere. After a few steps I could here some mice – but they were nowhere to be seen. I thought – if I was hungry enough, would I smash a mouse's head and eat it raw? Guess I would find it too ugly to eat. Or maybe not.

Not finding anything, I sat down against the wall once more. As a young 15 year old, I used to lock myself up in my room and sit against the wall. I hated going out – I hated meeting most people. I hated the world almost as much as I do later in life, but back then had no idea what to do with it.

A few years down the line, Maa – my granny – used to live with me. I had a double bed for myself and she used to sleep on a folding bed. I hated to let her for out. She was very active for her advanced age, and almost always wanted to walk around the house, talk to others. But I used to keep her locked in with me – people outside weren't all that great.

By then I was no more interested in her wonderful stories – she had forgotten most of them anyways. But she used to chat about all sorts of people she had met with – whatever broken episodes she could remember. And she used to speak about her youth – when she used to travel from one village to the other for her shopping.

And, she used to shout at me for not letting her go out – for keeping her tied to the bed.

Watching Mausam

2011-09-30T03:34:00.000+05:30

Summary: “Exceptionally attractive soulmates are repeatedly separated by wars, riots, religious strife, terrorist attacks and their own chronic inability to discover each other's forwarding addresses.”
...
Everybody told me that Mausam is horrible, really really really really bad and irritating in its stupidity. So, I decided that I have to watch it. And, three of my friends jumped in to accompany me – yes, I have such awesome friends who would say – come on! Lets jump of the running train together – rather than – Bro! Worst idea in a millennium – you get the picture?

Pankaj Kapoor's directorial debut is like Hum Tum gone bad. But then Hum Tum never wanted to be a epic – then again the only thing epic about this one is its length. The filmmaker had a wonderful idea – but placed it in a wrong decade altogether. When the romance starts one feels that it must be the 50s or at best the 60s – but it is 1992! The comedy is so bad that you can't help slapping your head – ditto for the stupid lovers. (Even if I try, I can't do it as well as Sahil does: Check this out.)

We were laughing out loud at the escalating melodrama that builds up the super extended, over-the-over-the-top climax. By the way, most of the film takes place in 1999, but nobody seems to know of the Internet – and the idea of exchanging mobile numbers seems alien to all.

Also, there is a horse in the climax – which the hero saves from the fire during the aftermath of Godhara. I am sure it has the same role that the horses have had in films as old as Andrew Rublev and as recent as Asoka – though it would have been better off having a Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na kind of a role. Top Gun clearly had a lot to do with wartime heroics – including the pilot revving up his motorcycle . But the special effects are a let down, making the whole sequence look comic.

All said, the film is designed to showcase Shahid Kapoor – and the man is up to the mark. He may not be someone who can carry off a film as full of plotholes and technical flubs as this one – but he is nevertheless pleasing to watch and does deliver his best performance here – as good as Kaminey, if not better.

By the way, in one of the shots Sonam's lips were so red that I was convinced she is a vampire - that would have been a great twist to have.

Dumb film.

Watching The Elephant Man

2011-09-27T12:19:00.001+05:30

Netflix Summary: In this Oscar-nominated drama based on a true story, physically abnormal John Merrick (John Hurt) endures ostracizing, taunting behavior as a sideshow attraction in mid-19th century England. Despite his horribly disfigured face and body and barely perceptible speech, concerned doctor Frederick Treves (Sir Anthony Hopkins) recognizes Merrick to be highly intelligent and works to save the Elephant Man's dignity. Directed by David Lynch.
…
Lynch's second feature surprises one with sickly sentimentality that he employs. He was obviously trying to be more mainstream by mixing the surreal vision with a disfigured hero. Unluckily, it leaves one underwhelmed. He seems to aim for something that a film like Edward Scissorhands did years later, but The Elephant Man is expected to be a biopic, not a dark fairytale.

That said, there are parts that are beautifully done. Lynch is a master craftsman, and Freddie Francis' brilliant cinematography is reason enough to watch the film – one of those rare films combining monochrome with 'scope. The Elephant Man himself is painfully believable – Hurt is a brilliant actor to emote from under tones of makeup. Hopkins, of course, is his usual self. Its Michael Elphick who is most convincing of all as the cruel night porter of the hospital – he even got abuse from random strangers after the movie was released!

The trouble with the film is that it choses to be moralizing rather than explore the various facets of human behavior it touches upon. Ultimately, it makes the behavior an exception, something that isn't going to happen in other places.

Reading Making It Up

2011-09-26T03:06:00.000+05:30

Penelope Lively's long time fans may have loved this work – it showcases all her styles in stories that re-imagine her past. This confabulation is a very interesting idea, but it does not usually work here, for me at least. I picked the work up expecting something close to Word, but was disappointed with stores that tasted like lukewarm weak tea. Not that I don't see why she is so very popular, just that it did not work for me. Thats about it.

Watching Paul

2011-09-23T05:37:00.001+05:30

Netflix Summary: Nick Frost and Simon Pegg star as two science-fiction freaks who, while on a quest to discover what lies at the heart of Nevada's infamous Area 51, cross paths with an alien (voice of Seth Rogen) on the run from earthly authorities. The irreverent duo that brought us Shaun of the Dead assembled an impressive cast that includes Jane Lynch, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig and Blythe Danner for this raucous cross-country romp.
…
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost come together again, and deliver one of the best Si-Fi comedy in recent times. The film starts out at a stall-for-stall recreation of comic-con – for sometime the film looks like it is about to alienate anyone who I not a geek. But with a new director in Greg Mottola, the film serves up clichés for the more mainstream audience.

This is where the film works the least – an unnecessary romantic track and oft-repeated gay jokes do not work. With the director of Superbad we also have the foul-mouthed dialogues rather than the wit of Shaun. Luckily, there is enough good in the film to stop it from going off track completely. For one, the film is crammed up with in jokes and ideas that will keep any Si-Fi fan engaged. Paul is too human, but thats part of the fun of watching the film.

The cameos are wonderful, and Sigourney Weaver almost steals the show. I did miss the fast-paced editing and visual styling of the earlier outings of the duo, nevertheless this is among the best geek-friendly comedies. Do not miss.

Alternative future ...

2011-09-18T19:01:00.002+05:30

At this station, the train stopped. It wasn't supposed to stop here – after all it was an express. It had to avoid so very many small stations that sit pretty along its route from Hyderabad to New Delhi. But this wasn't one of those obscure stations either – obviously, quite a few trains stopped here. The moment our train did – (our train, my compartment – yes, I own a train in part, I am cool like that!) - Banana & Orange sellers got in, 5 of them in my small compartment. They made some unexpected quick business, I guess – had to jump off the running train – must be used to that though.

The station sat pretty engulfed in greenery. Trees all around it – I couldn't see the road or traffic or houses anywhere around. The platform was at the same level as the tracks. On a bench were two oldish men – in their late 60s, I guess – clad in white kurta-pyjama – their slippers and jootis kicked off. Between them was a young boy of maybe 6 years. Standing. A little jumpy, but relaxed. Enjoying the company of the balding grandfatherly figures.

One of them was tapping a little tune on the bench – I could see him making this tune – couldn't hear it. Obviously, hearing the tune would have spoiled it as well. The old friends – looking at the world, contemplating in silence – occasionally making some thoughtful remark to each other – made me imagine papa a few years down the line. With a grandson and an old friend – maybe Devraj uncle – a namesake at that! But I cannot imagine the platform at Khatauli to be as calm – I seem to remember it bursting with people – nor is it captivated in greenery. Need to move them off to some other place – a quite beach? - but that isn't familiar enough! A hill station may be.

Well, they would sure find a place – and share the evenings with me later in the nights – over dinner or maybe after. Alternative futures wait...

PS: It is a good time to travel - all green and washed clean, rather than burnt brown and dusty.

Watching Cherry 2000

2011-09-13T10:24:00.003+05:30

Netflix Summary: In this futuristic '80s flick, successful businessman Sam Treadwell (David Andrews), accompanied by sexy gun-for-hire E. Johnson (Melanie Griffith), travels to a post-apocalyptic wasteland on Earth. It seems that Sam's android wife, Cherry 2000, has short-circuited, and he's desperate to replace her. But as they buddy up to brave the dangers of this treacherous region, will Sam come to appreciate the real, flesh-and-blood woman at his side?
…
Cherry 2000 is like a Mithun starer B-classic based in future. But it lacks the belief that everybody associated with a Mithun classic had. That said, Cherry 2000 is a very enjoyable film – thats because even if one wants to make some sense out of it, one just gives up after a few tries and surrenders to the films sheer forceful stupidity.

This is future that only the 80s could have produced – it is basically the 80s with robots – and not just any robots – sexbots. We are still a step away from the killbots and the self-awareness, but we do love our robot wholeheartedly. As soon as Cherry 2000 is short-circuited – one wonders who is she washed – but that isn't all that important. Seeing Laurence Fishburne negotiate a one night stand is wow! What do people do before they become famous! Almost everybody other than Melanie Griffith gives a decent performance. This has to be her worst – though her career is filled with worst performances alone. Though her awesome red hair are still worth a dekho.

There are scenes where one is wondering what is going on on-screen – whatever it is, it is done up pretty well for the obviously abysmal budget. So, E is the best in what she does, though she never does anything that suggests that she even has an average mind – and that she could survive with such super stupid tactics like rushing head-on into a ambush is a miracle. There is Six-Finger Jake – who is legendary because we are told so. And Lester, played by Tim Thomerson, is the most fearsome warlord – though one cannot stop laughing on seeing him, and he does nothing that makes one fear him.

No internal logic here, but great fun nevertheless. Go enjoy this one. (I want to say more, but it has to be seen not talked about.)

Watching Grave Encounters

2011-09-07T06:50:00.003+05:30

Netflix Summary: In this horror flick, the stars of a paranormal-investigation TV show spend the night in a derelict psychiatric hospital, hoping to uncover what's been going bump in the night. As their cameras roll, they find themselves trapped -- and hunted.
…
Grave Encounters is fun to watch. This is a film that you are going to enjoy sitting around with a lots of friends – or maybe your girlfriend. But I am not very sure if that is a good thing for a film that is meant to scare, to make the bone chill. It keeps one engaged nevertheless.

For one, you have seen all of this before. The homage to Blair Witch Project and the like is so obvious that hand-held cameras no more serve the purpose they did in the original. The high self-awareness of the characters gets in your way of watching the film. Dialogues like “oh! Did you see that?”, “that's totally creepy” makes you go wtf after repeated use. But the biggest trouble with Grave Encounters is that it is so busy in scaring its characters that it forgets to scare its audience – the overkill, I think for the first time in a horror film, is a killjoy. The screams and the running around is funny.

Watch it with friends, and enjoy the screaming.

Menschenfresserin - 7

2011-09-06T07:50:00.002+05:30

Though this wasn't the first time we had broken up. Every time we broke up one of us found a reason to try and stay together. Almost always it was her. She said that she has invested much more in the relationship – that I just don't give a shit – that it is her humility that has kept us together – that if it was anyone else they would have left an NPD like me long back. I said – well, even I put up with OCD like you. And that would trigger another bout of anger – about how she takes care of me – else I would rot in my rags – else I would be a mess impossible to sort.

The only time I knew she wouldn't find a reason – I found a way to push the break up away. I had to do something that will make it impossible for her to even think about moving away from me – and I did – that was the last time I committed suicide. Seeing me die meant she was so concerned about me that she let all our differences be washed away – the trick worked. The only bad thing was – even after being so close to death, I did not have a near-death experience. So very many people have that, but not me.

I wonder if John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester was satisfied with his life. He sure wasn’t happy. How can one who hates the world and its ways be happy? I mean, you can’t change the world, can you? But I feel he must have been a satisfied man, even when he was suffering from syphilis, gonorrhea, other venereal diseases, and the effects of alcoholism, in whatever combinations.

Is being happy really important? Or is it satisfaction that matters? I guess the question is can’t one be satisfied without being happy? They are two different things, are they not? And they do run in opposite directions, don't they? Forcing you to choose one.

Watching Ram Jaane

2011-09-05T22:14:00.003+05:30

Netflix Summary: In this drama, Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan is literally slumming it, playing a fast-talking man from the mean streets whose devil-may-care name, Ram Jaane, translates as "God knows." For his social worker friend Murali, efforts to reform this handsome criminal end disastrously, as Ram Jaane seems more keen to steal Murali's girl and turn other boys to crime than change his ways.
…
The only thing that Shah Rukh Khan can be accused of as an actor is that he does not disappear into most of his roles. Of course, there are exceptions – and those are absolute delight to watch. But the character that he plays disappearing into him is not a very bad thing – in fact, it is most delightful thing that happens to films like Ram Jaane.

Ram Jaane is a very ordinary remake of Angels with Dirty Faces. Shah Rukh plays the role essayed by James Cagney with tremendous energy and does not stand still for a single second. It is almost as if he is on steroids. Without his mannerism full of nervous energy looking to be used up and bursts of emotions the film would have been downright unwatchable. Not to say that it is very much better with him.

Unlike the original, Ram Jaane does not even try to explain the bond between the children and the anti-hero – they just admire him, maybe because he is Shah Rukh Khan. Instead it aims to give the heroine, played by Juhi Chawla, the pivotal role. But sadly, Juhi’s role is badly underwritten and cannot lift the film above mediocre. The really bad music slows down the film to a crawl every now and then – though shah Rukh’s dance move are sure to make one laugh out loud.

A forgettable remake. Even for a Shah Rukh Khan diehard like me.

Menschenfresserin - 6

2011-09-03T10:53:00.003+05:30

But she did leave her number with you before she left. - said Sofia.

There was a nest out side my window - back when I was in a college. It had been abandoned by the time I had moved opposite to it. There were feathers in it - small and white - like pieces of a cloud. Looking at them I thought - whether the birds return or not, this nest will always belong to them - the marks they have left show how much they loved this place. Sofia, do you know owning a house increase life satisfaction by a huge amount - how would you know? You live inside my head.

But now, when I picture that nest, I think I was a fool. Those feathers - those small pieces of a cloud - they were marks, not of love, but of the violence that made the birds fly away - if they did get to fly away. They can fly away - they do not have words - they do not have memories - they can get away - the past stays behind. But for me, the past creeps into everything I see - and when I don't notice it, it bursts out - tearing open whoever I am looking at - and laughs into my face - a laugh much like the laugh I heard on a TV serial years back - a ten headed laugh.

Menschenfresserin - 5

2011-09-01T06:23:00.000+05:30

Though this wasn’t the first time we had broken up. But this will certainly be the last time – the one which will last. Every other time one of us found a reason to try and stay together. Almost always it was her. I never knew why she should change her point of view just to stay with me. The Master said it was because I was extremely individualistic – He cured me of it, He made me realize the importance of the collective, of being together.

The first time we broke up was because I thought of marriage. Do people make a cost-benefit analysis before their wedding? Do they end up with benefits far outstripping the costs? – so that things would be alright even if the costs unexpectedly shoot up or some benefits have to be forgone? I figured benefits were miniscule, and so she left. Well, I thought, good we weren’t in a wed-lock! Or she would have been stuck with someone she did not want to be with.

But, we were living together just a few weeks down the line. I was happy. Umm, delicious! Hope I was as well.

Watching Mr. & Mrs. 55

2011-09-01T05:43:00.002+05:30

A lighthearted comedy from Guru Dutt team that went on to make Pyaasa & Kaagaz ke Phool. Guru Dutt poking fun at upper-class liberal reformers fighting to impose their ideals on society at large isn't strange. But the politically incorrect theme that shows bespectacled feminists as westernized man-hater that wants to deprive Indian women of the simple pleasures is, especially if one has seen his Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghulam before.

That said, if you can laugh at the gender stereotyping and the implicit male fears that women's rights would break the family down, there is a lot to enjoy here. Great music, Geeta Dutt's voice, wonderfully picturized songs - on location and Madhubala - radiant in Murthy's high-contrast frames.

Guru Dutt's version of Chaplin - his dressing, his silence through his introductory shots - contrast well with Raj Kapoor's Raju, unlike RK's version this one is melancholic rather than clownish. Glimpses of R K Laxman's cartoons are wonderful too.

A must watch.

Menschenfresserin - 4

2011-08-28T04:14:00.000+05:30

Now Sofia was sitting where Philemon was before. I asked her about The Master – I always asked you to stay away from him. Never to follow rules set by someone else. How do you expect me to tell you about him? –

Sofia looked as if she had been shaken out of sleep. Still tired, eyes swollen, lips puffy, side of her arm warm from sleeping on it. Sofia reminded me of her sleeping. Her sleeps were odd – a shiver used to pass through her every now and then. And, she hated kissing before she brushed her teeth – she was odd like that.

Once she had a dream – her mom, dad and she – all dressed in black – a color she hated, so did her mom – she was drinking her dad up – and her mom, in turn, was drinking her up. When she woke up, she cried for hours, full of guilt. I had never seen her in black – she must have been looking good. I wanted to tell her, but what good is telling her something she already knew? I looked up to ask Sofia – but she was gone.

Reading The Secret of the Nagas

2011-08-28T03:20:00.003+05:30

Reading the second book of the Shiva trilogy makes me feel Amish was really lucky to hit the jackpot with the first book. I think, it was the novelty of the concept that made the book sell, more than anything else. Now, the second book will sell because first was a hit. Yes, you do get to be famous for being famous.

This one is certainly better than the first one. Dialogues have improved a real lot. The language is still far from satisfactory. The errors that have slipped into the printed form are a horror - like it's instead of its, may instead of might... Every now and then a word pops up so out of place in the narrative, its like a pothole on the road.

His story gets a little more complex. His Shiva can show multiple emotions - but the he is nowhere close to Shiva of Shiva Puran Retold. But, it is selling at 295 compared to 95 of others, must be something.

Menschenfresserin - 3

2011-08-26T03:26:00.002+05:30

She found out late in the night – feeling guilty about ever showing it to me. It was around midnight when she showed me this little pink thing – I did not have a clue what it was. She said we made her together, and then I could see my features reflected in it. But she saw my eyes glaze over – I had no memory of making it. – I am sure you will see differently when you wake up. – Obviously, I did not.

Early in the morning – even before the morning star appeared – she was at the cold river. Pouring mug after mug of water over her head, taking short shocks of breathes – and exhaling loudly. Then, she waded through the river to the other side. I couldn’t see her go – I wasn’t there. The fog was still heavy anyways.

She did occasionally call me up later – a sort of last resort person to talk to. But that need has disappeared over time as she has grown in her own life – a life away from me. Success came to her as soon as she left – or she left as success was knocking on her door. I couldn’t figure that out.

A few weeks after she had left I joined The Master. The Master gave me hope. He made me believe that I would be able to breathe in fresh air again.

Reading The Bell Jar

2011-08-25T13:18:00.002+05:30

Sylvia Plath describes a life where killing oneself seems to be the most logical thing to do. Insanity descends into the narrator Esther Greenwood's life with such suddenness that one is left wondering if it is even possible. On day one you are an over-achiever (if there is such a thing), and the next you need to be institutionalized.

What makes The Bell Jar specially disturbing is that the reader is trapped within Esther's point of view - there is no escaping the bell jar. You have no idea about what others are seeing, you only see them distorted through the jar - and you don't know how much distorted.

Sylvia Plath fill The Bell Jar with lot of dry humor and edgy wit. This is very easy to overlook because of the overarching theme of the book - and because of her legacy. Reading this makes one wonder how this wit would have bloomed in her later works - we have sure been deprived of some of the most mercilessly funny writings.

A must read.

Reading The Art of War

2011-08-23T18:11:00.003+05:30

Well, What could I say that isn't already said about The Art of War? Yes, I should have read it much, much earlier. But that is corrected now. Can such a small book tell you everything about strategy? I don't think so! But, if you could learn anything about how to strategize through a book - you will learn that through this small one.

A must read.

i won't let you go

2011-08-22T02:41:00.005+05:30

Before leaving for San Francisco
You gave me your number
Saying it would get activated
Once you reach New York.
Though I kept wondering why,
Not why you were going
You were long gone, as you may know,
But why you gave me the number
We have had nothing to talk about
For years now.

You had even created a mail id
Nouvelle – New Born, just for me
But I have had nothing to report of
Other than that you are gone.
But you do know that already
Maybe not as well as I do.
So I should let you know -
But when I try, I realize
This is not the easiest news to report.

Prof. Sondhi tells me, in the class when no one is looking
Or when I think so,
My face turns into a glass
And she can see the turmoils inside
Like tornados, I imagine
Colourful tornados – each of a different colour
Colliding into each other.

I want to draw those down
For you to see,
Write you a letter – of doodles and scribbles
And of glyphs
Telling you without any words
That you are gone.

Menschenfresserin - 2

2011-08-21T19:37:00.001+05:30

His house was a large, large room – with pure white walls, ipod white. It was so large that it reminded me of the Eden Garden – where a lonely, cold night was spent years back in a Bengali novel. I sat down near a wall, and suddenly Philemon – the elder brother of Pokemon – came out to meet me.

I asked him if he knew how I could talk to The Master – he said he can't tell me anything that I did not already know. I couldn't figure if it was a yes or a no – but by then I already was wondering why was he here. He asked me to give him the key I was carrying in my right pocket – I wasn't – come on! Put your hand in there. I took the key out and handed over to him. And he was gone.

But what was that key for? I should have asked him – but now he was gone. I could have blackmailed him for more information – after all, I had something that he needed. Don't even know when he would return – if he would return. And, I wondered, where was the homeless cannibal I came here with? Would he get more bones for me? Whose?

He wasn't anywhere to be seen. Instead a full grown fetus was staring me down. I asked what his name was – Lavanya, she told me. – Lavanya? Weren't you supposed to be dead? - Dead, yes. But not gone. – That reminds me, I too am a man-eater. I ate up Lavanya, about a year back. It was December. 2 years back I guess. A December warmer than usual – but darker too. The hunger cost me the most wonderful relationship I could have had.