back!!

like they say, the show must go on, and so here i am back from a year and a half hiatus. back to watching the films lying around...
last 2 were slumdog millionaire and a wednesday.
the former was interesting, i loved the music and the kids and the pace. but i was shocked at the awards it picked up. it just didn't seem "that good". then again, the premise of the film makes for an outstanding storyline, so i am hoping the screenplay wins. and the score. about the rest, the direction was impressive, but best picture... i am not so sure!
a wednesday was simply OK. good plot, but it fell apart at times. good performances by the two stalwarts, kher and shah, other than that, it waxed and waned, just couldn't keep up the momentum...

just a forward

To all the wonderful kids who were born in India and survived around the 70's:

First, we survived being born to mothers, some, whose husbands smoked or drank while they carried us. The mothers ate whatever food was there, and didn't get tested for diabetes. They were mothers who did not keep checking their blood pressure or go for special exercise classes before delivery.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or childproof doors on cars, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking or going out on our own. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags. We sat on top of our or neighbors car without a second thought.
We drank water from the garden hose or for fun imagined it to be a captured snake. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this. We would share a dosa, dip a chapatti into someone else's plate of curry without batting an eyelid. We ate sandwiches with pickle on bread and raw mangoes with salt and drank orange squash with sugar and water in it.

We ate at roadside stalls, drank water from tender coconuts, ate everything - bhel puri to bhajias and samosas, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING - We jumped on each others backs shouting 'kity-kity' & went places in rented cycles & fixed its chain if it came out, on our own. We had no gadgets, we just hoping-goed & batting-goed & sometimes turned our sofas & chairs into 'land' and floor into 'water' or put 'jolly' dots on our palms and sometimes got 'statued'. We celebrated with 'same pinch' and 'new pinchs' with buddies & felt joy.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day during the holidays, we were never ever bored, and we were allowed freedom all day as long as we were back only when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day by mobile phone. We got drenched in rains, made paper boats, got pleasure from imitating croaking frogs, catching tadpoles and cutting earthworms. We touched street dogs & adopted their pups. And we were O.K.

We swam with an inflated tube which we got from somebody who was replacing their car tyres. We ran barefoot without thinking about it, if we got cut we used iodine on it which made us jump. We did not wash our hands ten times a day. And we were OK.

We did not have parents who said things like "what would you like for breakfast, lunch or dinner". We ate what was put in front of us and best of all, there was never any leftovers. We knew our cousins & our friends family well and had un announced lunches there. We never said to them "Thanks for having me over at your house to play" yet we were not dubbed "manner less". We had birthday parties at home & not in a party hall. The same B'day menu of cake, wafers & Thums-up still excited us & there were no return gifts, yet we looked forward to a friends birthday.

We fell out of trees numerous times, got cut, broke bones and teeth. We ate fruit lying on the ground that we shook down from the tree above. And we never washed fruit. We had a bath using a bucket and mug and used Lifebuoy or Hammam soap. We did not know what shampoo and conditioners meant. We sang along & recited all the 10 TV ads that came only before start of a program and enjoyed them as much as the program. All converged on Sunday time pass by watching Magic Lamp or Hindi movie on a black & white TV.

Yet this generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers & problem solvers ever! The past years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
Those were the days my friends, those were the days !

bang of brothers

watched diehard 4.0 and thought that bruce willis still rocks. the film had some great action, with lots of extra sound effects. it was fast paced and the chemistry between the male protagonists was really good. willis seems to have a way with kids. all his films which feature him saving the young ones have all done well if you've noticed.

pitter patter

its raining outside and i am so thankful for that. had just about enough of the heat and i do love the rains. it makes me feel like finishing all the books i had kept aside for a rainy day. am currently reading shantaram which i love because it talks about the bombay i knew. leopolds, colaba causeway, gateway if india, reminds me of the late night sojourns with old friends. don't usually like reading books set in bombay but this one makes me nostalgic. also saw shrek 3 just to keep my movie quota up. wasn't bad at all. tried watching kevin costner's postman but it was just too dark, but then his films on the future of civilization usually are! looks like he used the same set as waterworld here. on the desi side watched honeymoon travels which i loved, bheja fry which i liked. i say liked for the latter coz i am a claustrophobic kind and any film shot in just a living room makes me want to scream for air. but it had a good script and great acting.

nachos?

watched nacho libre the other day. and though i found it mildly annoying, i had to watch, since i am a big fan of jack black's humour. the movie has some great shots, though i didn't get too taken up by the script... probably because it revolved around boxing, which i completely hate watching!

also saw an inconvenient truth and would recommend it to everyone i know, especially those who care about the environment. al gore makes a good case for the perils of global warming and the earth as he sees it 100 years from now. enough to make you switch to cycles instead of cars, and plant trees in all available corners. ominous, but an intelligent watch, though gore's detractors claim he is making an unnecessary hue and cry!

happy feet is for smiling happy people so if you're smiling and happy at the same time, you can take a look at it. the penguins make for a cute star cast, though their walking styles now remind me of a lot of my childhood buddies who have simply let themselves go!

cruzing thru

managed to catch volver the other day. from the little i saw, penelope cruz was quite impressive, more beautiful than ever and with varied facial expressions. she has come a long way from the bimbette in woman on top. i didn't take to the movie though, felt it was a little loose in parts. but the story was interesting, about a woman who comes back from the dead to make changes in the living. interesting!

oscar fever?

ok so i saw kate winslet shed all her clothes and get nominated for an oscar in little children, i saw ryan gosling give a heart-rending performance in half nelson so much so i have transferred my loyalties from leonardo to him... i saw helen mirren get all royal in the queen and transferred my compassion from diana to her!
(little children by the way is as bizarre as suburban america can get, and if you like that kind of paedophile-is-your-neighbour thingie, then don't miss it.)
the queen meanwhile makes you think twice before marrying into royalty, so don't watch it if you are about to marry your prince charming.
and please watch half nelson. it's the saddest story about a brilliant teacher hooked on coke and his favourite student who finally ends up selling it to him to make a quick buck!

ruled out?

liked these 2 New Rules for 2007:
New Rule: Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone. Here's how much men care about your eyebrows: do you have two of them? Okay, we're done.

New Rule: When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to know in months. "27 Months." "He's two," will do just fine. He's not a cheese.And I didn't really care in the first place.

over to leo

i'm really hoping leonardo di caprio wins the best actor oscar this time round. i thought he was awesome in departed and have yet to watch blood diamond but i am sure he will not disappoint.

also think little miss sunshine is a great film since it works on the one premise that i find most reassuring: keep it simple.

they kept it simple and i was in splits at the end. very clever!!

no kidding?

i have been busy helping a friend set up a playschool for kids between 2-4 and through teaching them i have learnt so much about human behaviour.

when i first started out i was quick to divide the group into the ones that were irritating and those that were cute. had a lot of experience with this albeit for a slightly older age group.

soon i realised that there was more to the irritating behaviour than what met the eye. so i decided to closely observe the parent that came to pick them up each day. and soon very soon i quit getting irritated with the kids. i just transferred the irritation to the parent, usually the mother in this case.

lesson no. 1: we are what we come from.

realized that parents are becoming more adept everyday at creating monsters. then when its too late they ask themselves why their kids are in disarray!!

like so many of the kids keep banging their heads...this is sometimes due to an under-stimulated environment or just to recreate the act of rocking that they enjoyed as kids.

similarly, if a kid is showing aggression or has just knocked someone over out of spite, the trick is to give your attention to the one that is injured making sure there is enough drama to indicate that something very wrong has taken place. the villain of the piece should ideally be given time out or taken to another room and made to understand that he will qualify for timeout each time he decides to play bully!

i am trying all this out on adults now and have found that it's working brilliantly.

each time someone irritates me now, i take much longer to react since i try to make myself understand that its not the person to be upset about but where he comes from... read spouse/ home/ work etc.

its back to school for me!

tick tock

is greatness really in the genes or does it get diluted with each passing generation? only recently i chanced to meet the great grandson of Lokmanya Tilak and i thought that i would get the feeling that comes when you're in the same room with a slice of history. but what i saw was a young, handsome man, sitting behind a huge desk, with a black and white portrait of his famous ancestor over him, looking perfectly, well, uncomfortable!
that same week i heard tushar gandhi on TV trying to justify why his form of gandhiism didn't make an impact on politics. and i was left wondering... often one's place in history is only about good timing.
the beatles were a hit coz they were at the right place at the right time. would they have made as much of an impact on people if they had appeared earlier or later? similarly there are so many great people in our midst today who will remain unknown coz, "their timing is not right".
which brings me back to the old saying:
There is a time for everything under the sun..
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.

haves and have nots

there are different kinds of people you meet today: the ones who are in synch with their lives and those who are not. the latter are usually the ones who are living the eternal lie. yes, they are seeing new places, trying new restaurants, trying new designers, redoing homes. but look into their eyes and all you can see is intense boredom.
only recently i met a friend who had had a life altering experience read divorce and she seemed to be scared. even though she had a great career ahead of her she looked scared. the loneliness scared her, and the fact that she might live really long with no one to chat with on a rainy day.
but then again i have met so many people in their 50s and 60s who even with scores of kids are completely alone. and they have the same fear. the fear of being alone.
in fact, more women today are showing signs of insanity very early on purely on the premise that they will die all alone. while men handle it by becoming irritating, women try to get past it by acting strong and in doing so, lose it along the way thus alienating themselves even more as no one wants to be with them.
the one thing that cheered me on was a single friend of mine in her 50s who told me that she was looking around for a good retirement home where they have yoga, meditation, and interesting people to spend the last few years of your life with. supposedly a place like this actually exists! so even if it attracts a band of very loony people, at least, there will be a method to the madness? and lots of hope for everyone who dreads the fact that people today are living well into their 90s... all alone!

top dog

does a higher education really matter when it comes to reaching the top? i don't think so anymore. all you need is clever packaging and you can rise faster than the froth in your beer glass. but of course, staying there is another matter altogether, and this is where those degrees come into play. i have encountered many bright chaps who have pulled off a top spot but haven't a clue about managing people or themselves after reaching there. all they do is surround themselves with people less fortunate than themselves to feel like they belong. but in effect, they don't and they know it.
then again, what degrees can't touch is experience, and that's for another post. till then...

deeply depp

Films I caught.
Water: Brilliant cinematography. Lisa Ray was superb, so was Seema Biswas. It was a chilling tale of widows in the pre-independence era. And it was done unpretentiously, with no holds barred. The child widow (i don't know her name) deserves an award for her sensitive portrayal of a girl child banished from the external world on the death of her aged "husband". Simply unforgettable.

Pirates of the Caribbean-Part 2
I have always wondered why Hollywood never gives Johnny Depp his due. He was flawless in Finding Neverland and he is once again flawless in Pirates- Part 2. In fact, I preferred this to the first part. Depp had various emotions running across his face, and so did Keira Knightley. Clever scripting!! Also, the villians of the piece were tres extraordinaire, in fact, the entire package was completely spectacular. Some of the fight sequences and action scenes were outstanding, and very very creative. I really liked!!

Blue
This is a part of a French trilogy. There's also White and Red. The latter has won countless awards. They are all stories of liberty, equality, and fraternity. Told through the eyes of ordinary people, and everyday dilemmas. Blue is about a woman who has to deal with the sudden death of her child and husband. How she shuts out the world is cleverly scripted and executed. It's the little things that stay with you, stark symbolisms, that foreign films love to explore! Bollywood should try it someday -- less talking, more acting!

click flick

you know how we are always talking about the photgraphs we have shot, the hills, the sunset, baby's first smile etc. but what if we were to write about all the photographs that we didn't shoot? images that weren't captured because, well, the camera was too far away.
this site is far more interesting than any photography site i have seen because it revolves around the images that got away... like i recall so many instances where i feel i should have clicked a picture-- it mostly had to do with people's prized expressions-- but unfortunately the camera wasn't near at hand! i should have written it down "his eyes were narrow slits, his cheeks had sunk in, and the mole between his right eyebrow and forehead glowed menacingly..."

bread of fresh air

mumbai never ceases to amaze. it always offers you whole packages which is what makes it different from the service sectors in other cities. like it is the only city i have encountered that has a lounge bar also selling a range of exotic breads.
so people who have downed a couple extra on a saturday night can in their hazy states throw some breads into a basket for a late sunday brunch.
the brown breads and pink magaritas both hold equal sway, which makes it all the more interesting... talk about innovative night-outs.

dreams unlimited

Two films really got me thinking last week.
One was Requiem for a dream, the other The Sea Inside.
They were both so riveting that I feel it is not right for me to say anything about them just yet. they are both still sinking in.
The first one shocked me. it hit me right in the stomach.
the other, left me bedazzled.

i have never seen a more beautiful film perhaps. and it amazes me to say that maybe i never will?

The Sea Inside will always stay with me whenever i think about film making being intuitive. you just need to believe in what you are telling, and show it in a manner closest to your heart.

that's pure for me.

storylines:
requiem for a dream: it's the story of america and its addictions to a better life no matter what the price. it's not just the very young who are vulnerable here, but also the very old. finally it is about a descent into madness to keep addictions alive. at the cost of love, sanity, and most of all, self esteem.
shocking, scary, and absorbing!

the sea inside: don't think i can do justice with my five liners here, so i will not say much. it's the story of euthanasia, and a man bedridden for 28 years who tries to find somebody kind enough to kill him off! how he escapes from reality without moving an inch is a marvel to watch!

rang de viggo

Being Cyrus: very irritating. don't know why this film got on my nerves, but that's exactly what it did, much to my bewilderment. it was very good in phases, and so irritating in the rest, that it is all i remember of the film. irritation!! i think dimple really overacted, naseer, was wasted, saif did nothing noteworthy... the only ones who i liked were the guy who played the old father, boman, and simone singh who was understated and a relief. so what was all the brouhaha about? "path-breaking" and "indian cinema has arrived" were what i kept hearing about this thriller-in-patches. not in my books, it was not! you see countless such "dark" films on star/hbo between 2-4PM if you take a day off and stay glued to the tv screen. one saving grace: good soundtrack!

rang de basanti: oh-mi-god! another letdown. it didn't even come close to dil chahta hai. where was aamir the powerhouse? i searched for him everywhere, through the fields and the college campus, but i couldn't find him anywhere. what i did find was another gem, but then again, i couldn't find his name. he was anupam kher's son in the film and i think he did a fabulous job. soha too was endearing, and a complete natural. she looks like she was born to act. the film had some excellent moments, like the blokes jumping from a height into the pond below etc. but i found parts of the story unrealistic and difficult to believe. for one, would any political party in the heart of delhi have the guts to beat up a peaceful procession carrying candles, and put one old lady into a coma? i don't think so!! similarly, i don't think the last scene of the film made any sense. the cops just start killing the boys without finding out if they are ALL armed? wouldn't they enter into a dialogue with them first? ask them to surrender, or some such thing? given the fact that they are live on air!! i dunno, but this film on the whole was very unconvincing. the music was good! thank god.

history of violence: they say bad things come in threes:) hmm. brilliant first half. stupid second half. that's all i can say. viggo mortenson was terrible. he was like a flop porn star all throughout. no expression. just waiting for the next love scene to appear so he could start acting again. the story had an amazing start, in fact, it was fast-paced and snappy for the first hour, but then it disappeared into an abyss of mediocrity. a happy loving mcdonald-like family is shattered by a piece of unexpected violence. now you can do wonders with a plot like that. but no. the film has to go and get all entangled in its own web. the end leaves you amazed -- you can't imagine that something so right could end up so wrong!!

tagged!!

i have been tagged by mindcurry.

5 people who top my shit list..... and why:

1. People who are nice on your face and bitch about you behind your back
2. People who can't bear to see other people do well
3. People who put other people down in order to look/feel good
4. People who pass snide remarks out of insecurity
5. People who look around for people to blame when things go wrong


5 Guilty pleasures:
1. Sleep
2. Dessert
3. TV
4. Daydreaming
5. Tuning off

5 things I never want to forget:
1. My friends as a journo
2. Bandra
3. The first time I walked into my present home
4. Living on my own
5. Discovering the magic of cinema

5 things I wish to forget:
1. Bad friends
2. Bad jobs
3. Bad films
4. Bad bosses
5. Bad moves


5 exotic dishes I have tried ( most were exotic coz of the people who made them, otherwise have tasted better in random restaurants)
1. My grandmother's mutton curry
2. Stuffed Bombay Duck at Gajali, Santacruz
3. Mother-in-law's prawn wadas
4. Stuffed bhangra at Calangute beach
5. Vindaloo at a Goa wedding

5 most valued possessions
1. my memories
2. my downloaded music
3. my diary as a schoolgirl
4. my crucifix from fort aguada
5. my patience

it was men-to-be

The Constant Gardener: There's not much to say about Ralph Fiennes in The Constant Gardener. The movie happened each time Rachael Weiz walked in, and paused each time she walked off. No matter how hard Ralph tried to pull off the subterfuge, the jealous husband, and the weed puller, he couldn't get the camera to fall in love with him, as Rachael unintentionally did. She was provocative, honest, and completely impassioned in her role as the vociferous activist for the down-trodden in Africa.
As with most other movies set in Africa, some of the shots were heart-rending, others kept reminding you of India.
The plot weakens in places, but it manages to keep you spell-bound with the rest. Not to be missed. Especially the politics of the giant pharamceuticals in under-developed countries. It's enough grist for the NGO mills.
Walk the line: Joaquim Phoenix, that's what the movie was. But yes, Reese Winterspoon won the Oscar for her role as his one and only love interest. Phoenix was Johnny Cash all the way, the way he swaggered, hung his guitar, or twisted his facial expressions. His love-sick moments were quite commendable, the drug battle even more so. There were so many parallels here to Ray Charles -- both men lost a sibling at a very young age and blamed themselves for it, were very very unfaithful to their wives, and pursued drugs for a good night's sleep. The only difference was that Ray married the right woman, and Johnny Cash the wrong. That's what made their music so impassioned?