Movies that I saw recently

Here are the some of the movies that I saw recently

1. Sunset Blvd: Gloria Swanson is amazing,this will surely barge in my all time favorites list soon,the opening shot is amazing and ofcourse Gloria,just can't help talking about her,pity she missed an oscar.
2. Nuovo Cinema Paradiso: Young toto is wonderful,touchy and emotional storyline.Great movie and an awesome soundtrack
3. Water: Some real heart wrenching scenes
4. Pan's Labyrinth: Good movie,but fantasy is surely not my cup of tea,but reality and fantasy are nicely inter wined in the movie
5.Hero: I like japanese action more,those jaw dropping,newton defying stunts just don't impress me much.Movie scores very well on color theme effects, direction and the scale and aura of the some shots.

I will surely write more about Sunset Blvd one of these days,just not in the mood to write much.

Currently reading "What should I do with my life",by Po Bronson.

Amores Perros

Amores Perros which roughly translates as Love's a bitch,is an example of a portmanteau film.It has three sub-plots that are connected by a car accident,a theme that is borrowed and adapted in Indian scenario in Mani Ratnam's Yuva. To Mani Ratnam credit the subplots in yuva are completely different and well suited to the Indian scenario.Anyways lets talk about Amores Perros.

Amores Perros is the mainstream debut of Alejandro González Iñárritu the director of famous films like 21 grams and Babel, which has been nominated for this year's Oscars in the best film category.

Reality they say is stranger than fiction,it bites. You are stung by Amores Perros, a feeling which I also got while watching Cidade de Deus and Hazaron Khawishyein Aisi .All three movies are based on poignant realities in the third world countries in which they are set.The armed robberies and broad day light murders in Mexico city as shown in Amores Perros or the teens in Rio de Janero with Uzis and .22's in their hands controlling a drug racket as shown in cidade de deus or the backwardness of Bihar and naxalite movement of the 70's as shown in Hazaron Khwasihein Aisi,form harsh realities of these countries. But at the same time,the plots in Amores Perros entertain and keep you glued

The subplots of Amores Perros are not as strongly inter wined as in Yuva,the accident connects all three plots, otherwise baring a few exceptions the three stories have their own directions. But to directors' credit the plots are very subtly connected by the underlying themes of love,violence and dogs. The characters in the subplots commit adultery,live by vanity and resolve to violence and in end undone by it,something that gives the movie its moral dimension. One character of each story is betrayed in love or in some way loses love.

Dogs also link the three stories,Ocatvio(Gael García Bernal) uses his dog to earn money through dog fights,Valeria's(Goya Toledo) pet dog in the second story forms a very important of her life,may be as a companion and is later in some way a cause of her doom and El chivo(Emilio Echevarría) in the third story cares for stray dogs which are his companions in exile.

To elaborate these themes more specifically I would have to reveal the plot,which I don't want to may be because of my laziness or may be because I don't want to write stereotype reviews.

Amores Perros stands out for its great direction, beautiful underlying themes and a fierce and poignant portrayal of realities. The accident sequence is quite amazingly shot,but the same seqeunce albeit not particularly well shot, looks more grandiose in Yuva, probably because of the Howrah bridge.

In drawbacks, though it might be rather viewer specific,in the end you can't help but wonder what was the ultimate fate of the characters that were built in front of you.Though I would I say it is very viewer specific,an emotional viewer like an Indian might feel this more than a European viewer. But I felt that director implicitly but clearly draws the fate of characters,its just the matter of perception.

Viewer perception is important ploy in movie making,brilliantly used by Akira Kurosawa in Rashomon. In fact the power of viewer perception was proved in this brilliant experiment known as the Kuleshov Experiment.


I also saw Ran and Pather Panchali and was deeply moved by both of them. Ran would now stand out as of one best movies of all time in my list. I would write a review for Ran when I see it again.

Pather Panchali should be regarded as one of best debuts in the world, one of the best examples of Neo-realistic cinema. Ray's debut film I think puts him among the greats like Kurosawa and Hitchcock. I would comment more on Pather Panchali and Satyajit Ray's cinema,after I finish watching the Apu trilogy.

In other news I feel its quite a blot on country's rich claims of a sustained democracy and freedom of speech,when great films like, Water by Deepa Mehta, are nominated for Oscars in the foreign film category as Canada's entry. Fims like Parazania and Black Friday based on controversial subjects have problems on their release.Parazania has a grim future in the Gujarat, with bajrang dal already issuing a warning,it might be banned in a few days.

All men are equal but some men will always be more equal.

Guru

The best time to write a movie review and especially of a Hindi movie is just after you have seen it,so here am writing it for guru after the night show.Finally I managed to see a Hindi movie after a gap of two months,of course during the gap I saw more than 30 non-Hindi movies(non hindi counts English,German,Japanese,and italian),anyways lets talk about guru.

Guru:Guru is a drama quite faithfully inspired from the life of Dhirubhai Ambani and the fact that the movie has reached the mainstream makes it obvious that it is eulogising from the start but then Dhirubhai was a man who deserves it.

Good things first,its great to have a script that smells Indian and is not a foreign lift,not many tweaks, quite faithfully follows Dhirubhai's life right from his days of struggle back in Yemen(ofcourse dancing with Mallika Sherwat hardly shows struggle) to his tussle with Wadias and the media campaign against him led by Ramnath Goenka and his Indian Express.

Abhishek Bachchan is good, his wide grin comes very close to Dhirubhai's,he tries to imitate his dad's accent at times and is wonderfully successful at it,on the whole the elan of Gurukant Desai does give that feel of Dhirubhai Ambani.Mithun Chakraborty also gives a good performance. A.R Rahaman does churn out a few good numbers like the song that introduces Aishwarya Rai and the title number.

The final reference made to Gandhi has an important point that the laws made by the government are not always correct.It is widely known that our economic system had serious flaws pre liberalisation,license Raj was seriously detrimental.The fact that Dhirubhai Ambani was genius at tweaking it and many other numerous legislations doesn't entirely make him a hardcore sinner.Through his promotion of the equity cult he brought wealth to shareholders and that is a glaring truth.

Now the bad things,with a huge chunk of revenue coming from music sales and the fact that songs in films is a trademark of bollywood cinema and a necessity for its million viewers makes sure they can't ever be left out.But there placement,spacing and number can always be taken care of,two songs in less 10 minutes into film is not appealing at least to me.

Cinematography surely lacks,shots aren't that great,something that is a hallmark of great directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Akira Kurosawa.Goofs and anachronisms can be easily found, like disappearance of Guru's white hair during songs and its consequent reappearance.

But on whole some good performances and a fascinating storyline does favor Guru a watch.

Here some other articles related to Dhirubhai Ambani that find reference with the events depicted in the movie.

1.His famous Battles.
2.Another article by rediff on his life.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Considering the extreme time constraints(?) and my inevitable laziness,I have decided to write small reviews rather than writing long posts and then never continuing the trend,so mostly from now on I'll just be writing the things I liked(or disliked) about the movie,instead of following a general reviewing pattern.

Lets start with some of my present favorites.

1.Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb: People say this is Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece,although I am not sure of that, may be because this stands out as the only comic offering by the director but this is definitely one of the best political satires I have ever come across even better than the Great dictator which was my previous best in the genre.Anyways its not fair to compare movies even if they are of the same genre.

The plot of the movie is very simple,it is the brilliant direction and some great performances that infuse life in the movie.Kubrick is brilliant with the character profiles,from the president, his generals and the ambassador are so very close to the reality. I think it is the character profiles which make the simple plot so interesting and give the film that eternal feeling so that you enjoy it even after more than 40 years of its making .

I especially like the character profiles of Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper(sterling hayden) and Gen. 'Buck' Turgidson(George Scott) which are quintessentially found in military. Ripper a paranoid,high-esteemed brigadier who thinks warfare and national security are far too important and complex matters to be left to the politicians. Turgidson on the other hand is an over confident sycophantic sceptic,easily capable of misleading the leader.

There are some shots like the ones in the President's in his war room discussing with his generals,Hayden in his office delivering with a cigar in his mouth,which are absolutely brilliant. Peter Sellers' has a triple role in the movie as the president,captain Mandrake who is Ripper's executive and as Dr. strangelove.His performance as Dr. strangelove is definitely commendable.Another great thing about the movie is the background score, the instrumental of "When johnny comes marching home" played whenever during the plane shots just tops as the cream.

For the cast,plot and other details click the movie title link.

Here's something interesting, while watching movie I felt that I have heard the background music of the movie before in a hindi movie,so when I was searching for the same I came across two wonderful sites which catalog plagiarism in hindi movies.

1.Bollycat catalogues plagiarisms in hindi movies.
2.itwofs catlogues plagiarism in hindi music.

So as I suspected the music has been lifted by Rajesh Roshan. Here's the link on the same site

The Phoenix

It's only the phoenix that can rise from its ashes,there must be something unique about it,isn't it,for not everyone can be a phoenix.

So,what's cooking?
Last sem of my dubious engineering carreer, with the end of a rather tumoultous year in my life.This sem would solely devoted to my passions:movies,quizzing and books.To say that I have watched loads of movies in last few days would be an understatement,it would be more appropiate to say that I have been living movies for past few days and have been pretty fortunate to have come across the best.Here's a small list,lets hope I do manage to come out with some reviews.

1.Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
2. Faboulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain
3. Rear window
4. Rashomon
5. Seven Samurai
6. Der Untergang
7. The Pianist
8. City Of God
9. 12 Angry men
10. Kabuliwala
11. Being John Malkovich

Let's see if I can complete the imdb 250 this sem.

I absolutely, with all my heart and all my senses detest/loathe the word MIDDLE.Its implications and all its effects and designs on my life.

Phew!..that was officially rant number 2.Seems to be season of some.

She Killed me!

Sometimes anxiety kills you and it really does, and in the end you are not sad,not happy,not gloomy,but confused,for why did it happen and why were you so anxious. Wonder what they are going to do on 19th.So does curiousty kill the cat,find out later.

I just shifted to beta blogger, and the template design and font settings supposed to have gone haphazard,so excuse me for that.

Muhammad Yunus gets a Nobel!

Do check the post below this one.I am pretty happy today.

Great People,great work

These are the only words that can be used describe the work done by Muhammad Yunus and off late Vikram Akula.Great stories like should be face of newspapers more often than be buried in editorials. Here are some more interesting stories

1) SKS

2)Unitus

3)Men behind Lalu


And,as I listen a bunch hooligans (no offence intended but sadly it seems to be the most appropriate word) dancing on ear-deafening music on the Mess rooftop,I wonder if I am making most of my life.


On a personal note Indore trip for PT quiz semifinals was great.Everything from journey to 4-star accommadation was great, but sadly everything except the quiz; even hate to call it a quiz.Haven't come across a format that undermines quizzing and intellectuality more than this one.I hope I refrain from participating in such quizzes in future.

Wary Neighbours

China,Pakistan,Myamnar,Srilanka and till most recently Nepal.Whats common to them?There are our neighbouring countries but at the same can be major sources of worry for us in future.No it isnt the Yossarian effect a but reality.Any country with an abysmal state of internal affairs or totalarian regimes is an obivious threat to its neighbours.

Military rule in pakistan can't lost forever,General Musharaf cannot live as long as Fidel Castro and after his death the its State affairs are bound run amok.

It's been more than a decade since LTTE has been fighting with the lankan government future I dont think is any peaceful.

China most interesting of them all will sooner later break down,this claim would surel need a post though.

Burma also has military regime , the government is also known as military junta.

Read this wonderful speech by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and this article about current state of affairs in Burma.Here are some parts of the speech I relished..

"It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it."

Glass splinters, the smallest with its sharp, glinting power to defend itself against hands that try to crush, could be seen as a vivid symbol of the spark of courage that is an essential attribute of those who would free themselves from the grip of oppression.

Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavour, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one's actions, courage that could be described as 'grace under pressure' - grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure.

The world that is..

The whims and caprices of few men, are largely responsible for the difference between the world that is and the world that could have been or the world that should have been or the world that might have been, for many others.


So,there was Howard Huges,the aviator,who built Hercules the largest flying boat with the largest wingspan marrying a soon-to-be outdated technology — flying boats — to a massive airframe using some truly ingenious engineering innovations.

After lots requests to N number of friends to download the movie for me and after missing it N-1 times on the TV, I was finally able to catch the last part of the movie yesterday and I truly loved it.

Coming back to the theme of the post imagine what would have been of the most of the world if the Soviet had not invaded Afghanistan,Osama Bin Laden and much of the terrorism would not be there.There are ofcourse and will always be several other examples to support this theory. These days I prefer to call all of my vacuous thoughts as theories.

I am thrown back into a deluge of unrestrained thoughts everytime I think of the book Animal Farm and Geroge Orwell's profound words

"All animals(men) are equal,but some animals(men) are more equal"

Found the english translation of my favorite poem by Mirza ghalib "Hazaaron khwahishen aisi" on this wonderful website which is an anthology of some of the most beautiful poems ever written.

These words truly encircle and might for a long time to come define my state of mind.

HazaaroN KHwahishaiN ‘eisee ke har KHwahish pe dam nikle
bohot nikle mere armaaN lekin fir bhee kam nikle

Here's the translation..

A thousand desires such as these,that each takes a lifetime (an eternity)
I found many desires and yet they aren’t enough

Violence

I am a firmly believe in the ideology that "Violence always begets violence". Anybody who has gone through the history of middle east clubed with jewish history will agree.


Here is an interesting article related current scenario of Israel -Lebanon conflict.

Still...

" At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life ..."


Well they say people like me are still sleeping.

But here's the good news there's a new bookstore in Vadodara,huge,almost three times as big as crossword which was the only one till date.Real feast I must say,got myself "War and Peace " by leo Tolstoy and "Made in America" by Sam Walton.


In case I forgot to mention I didn't die in floods.Because we make a tryst with destiny every new day.

If only I knew

If you would be in my shoes you would understand that most exasperating and hillarious thing in the world is to have sudden sporadic mild strokes of alzheimer's disease.Imagine staring the computer screen,rather flat computer screen after opening blogger window because you have forgotten what you wanted to write.

I wanted to tell you about ghettos,my experience with them,of why I believe ghettoism is most detrimental thing to happen to versimilary united India.

I wanted to tell you about, "The arguementative Indian" and the veritable ingenuity in Amartya Sen's approach to focus on the argumentative tradition in India in his writings on Indian culture and history, away from the banal and trite religious approach.Infact I was really suprised to read about Caravaka,the atheist school of thought in ancient India.I was absolutely ecstatic after reading this line in the book,a quote by Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

"Imagine how terrible the day of your death would be,when people would go on speaking and you wouldn't be able to argue back"

And atlast about the magic Gregory David Roberts aka Shantaram can create with his literary prowess.
But I am in no mood right now,I have come to realise that just as success after hardwork can be the most beautiful thing in the world to happen to you,failure after the same can be the most bewildering thing in the world.

CNN-IBN

Rajdeep Sardesai's CNN-IBN has come of age, just a year after its launch and it has not only created space for itself in this multitudinous 24 hr news broadcasting but also seized some from others biggies like NDTV and Headlines Today much to their chagrin,while Aaj Tak still reigns supreme among Hindi News portals when it comes English News I think CNN-IBN is name worth reckoning. A clear story of how entrepreneurial leadership can do wonders.

It has very well designed website may be something that it has inherited from its parent CNN.More recently I came across CNN-IBN blogs.

Rajdeep Sardesai's Blog:Width of article is really commendable.Width as in area of discussion

Here are some which I found worth reading

1.No goal for India

2.My Friend, Mr Mahajan

3.Sonia's "Sacrifice

Sagarika Ghosh's Blog: The Cosmic Ceiling is surely worth a read.

Here's another interesting story.

Why Rajdeep Sardesai quit NDTV

Another channel India TV which was launched way back in 2004 is still struggling to find terms I guess.Sting'y' Journalism, chintzy and spicy stories can never be a long term strategy.

Holocaust Heros

The Holocaust saw many heros scripting great stories of courage, comradery and altruism.Here are some of them.

Oskar Schindler:Easily the most famous of them all courtesy Speilberg's brilliant movie 'Schindler's List'.He saved around 1200 jews by having them work in his enamelware and munitions factories.


Nicholas Winton:Often called the Schindler Of Britain,he rescued 669 czech children from Nazi death camps.


Raoul Wallenberg: A swedish diplomat who saved many Hungarian jews from the holocaust.Often called the 'Hero without the grave' because he went missing after WW -II


Ruth Gruber: An American journalist who secretly escorted a group of 1000 jewish refugees from Italy to USA.

Alexander Pechersky:Hero of the sobibor rebellion

They are many more ofcourse but these are the stories I found interesting.

Here are some other interesting links:

1.WW-II Resistance movements.

2.The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority.

Women,the extinct species

[Again one my posts on a orkut community]

For the past few weeks TOI has been carrying a news feature on dropping sex ratio in Gujarat and other states of our country. The problem is not as grave as title suggests. (Though if you would ask me skewed ratios are considered a problem of national importance in engineering colleges)

On a more serious note as they say the litmus test of a utopian society is the status of women in it.
The dropping ratios, a result of female foeticide, a pestiferous act, have led to several other crimes against women.

India is often called the land of "sanskars”, of values and of rectitude, an ostensible insignia if you would ask me, has had a social structure which is harsh on women. Why do we in this modern age still continue commit atrocious crimes like female infanticide?

Finally do you believe banning ultrasound procedures can be a solution? Personally I believe banning anything is never a solution. Defaulters always find a way. The number things that can be done illegally in our country are a stark example.

The problem is far deep-rooted than this.

Cindrella Man

I had downloaded this movie last year.Just saw it.I guess i saved it for the right time.Truly inspired

[sounds like a telegram message..]

Cindrella Man at imdb.

James J Braddock at wikipedia.

Gandhi

This post is a copy of one my posts on an orkut community.

Here are some interesting articles I came across

This article is Nathu Ram Godse's defence speech in court. I know its almost blasphemous to discuss this here but as democracy demands let us lend an ear to all.

This article will also show you how fanaticism using communication can seem so convincing.Bending words to justify irrationality. After all hitler also had supporters.



Below are two articles part of a special series of "What If" carried by Outlook.These are articles are essays basically exploring past the if gandhi had lived on.The articles require online registration which is free.

1
2


I hope you find them interesting.

More on this later.

Superman

Now here's deeply confounding a question that just struck me..

Why does superman need that red robe?

a) You miserable physics student, thats there to help in the aerodynamics.

b) It comes in great help when needs to blow his nose.

c)It matches with his underwear.

d)All of above.

Now I almost 1.5 hrs surfing through askmen.com today ,one of those very few sites which are informative , interesting and a pleasure to eyes.:)