Your Incredible Luck

Do you believe in luck? I do. More than ever, now! The significance of luck in the existence of every human being is appreciably larger than what most of us would like to agree. People would always love to believe in themselves and their abilities. And that’s not a bad thing, not until you overestimate your own control on things. A comprehension of what is beyond your own capabilities is always good. And apparently what is in your control may become microscopic when you compare it with what is beyond you. Luck is essentially everything that is out of our control and that what controls us. Everything that directly or indirectly shapes up the evolution of our civilizations. Our co-existence with an elaborate social structure is heavily influenced by our chances.  

Our present can be seen as an outcome to an array of both controllable and uncontrollable events of past. We generally feel blind about what is out of our power and consequently comes to think that all what is happening is a net resultant of all what we are doing. It’s basically a delusion.  We generally care only about that microscopic part of our life of which we are in control. And perhaps for ensuring some sort of a progression in our existence such a delusion is very important. If we stop caring about what we should be cared about, it’s failure again. So consider Mr. A, who is presently doing engineering, and if A works hard, in future he would become a successful engineer. ‘If he works hard’ is the microscopic controllable fraction and all what we are concerned about. There is an indomitable past, present and future to it. ‘A’ was born in a family, a place, a country where he could afford to go learn engineering. Mr. A possibly couldn’t have had any say on such things. Then there is an equally uncertain future. What if Mr. A get’s into an accident or what if America decides to attack Mr. A’s country? A becomes not what he chooses to be, but what a set of random interrelated incidents around him leads him to be. Chaos.

 Then there are two other concepts of fate and destiny, which I think is absurd. In fate your luck is predetermined. It was already determined that Mr. A should be born in that particular place, family, country and should go to engineering and no matter how hard he tries he wouldn’t become a successful engineer if the fate has it that way. Now that’s perennial hopelessness.  But in many ways luck is not. Your luck is not predetermined. But you couldn’t do anything about either. You are not in control. Nobody is!

 So who decides what luck should come to you? GOD, maybe? No I don’t think so. Because if he was in control why would GOD give Mr. A all the luck in the world to become an engineer while Mr. B born in a poor family in Afghanistan, who happens to be a little more intelligent and talented , get’s neglected ? Why would you get the providence today to enjoy that  late night party with your friends, when in some other parts of the world men are mourning the deaths of their own sons and daughters? Why them and not you? Is god biased that way? May be, the intervention of the divine power in our lives is a far more complicated and unsettled subject.

So, it’s just a thought on how random and uncertain our life is. It’s not about the good luck or the bad luck but about how out of control everything is. Most people would tell you that you can make your own luck. I believe they are lying. Lying, probably only to help you out. Only to sustain a harmless fallacy that would lead to an overall happiness. I believe in luck for all the livid perplexity it offers. Like Woody Allen I believe in the man who said ‘I would rather be lucky than be good’.

P.S: Sorry for that shameless lame example of Mr. A and engineering. Just too sorry about that!

Oscars 09

Oscar 09 is not so much of an interesting subject, I know. But last time I wrote a similar post on the Oscars and ended up getting some major traffic on the blog. So that’s not a bad thing and here we go again.

It’s a mess when you think of this year’s Oscar nominations. Forming an opinion is too confusing. But predictions would be easier, I suppose. The suspense of the academy awards have become so much of a cliché that I think they must start doing something just to break this predictability. They must give the awards randomly to completely unexpected contestants. Of course there would be a lot of uproars and criticisms but they will be there anyway and will only do good to the business. Okay, I was kidding and the academy shouldn’t really get confused over that. Let’s go deep into the matter!

Now, I can bet my very own ass over the ‘Slumdog millionaire’ this time. Slumdog is on this dream run which is totally getting on my nerves now and which would most probably continue at the Oscars too. Wait, let me explain. I did like the slumdog first time I saw it, for the sheer quality of film making drawn in and didn’t care to think further into the subject as it appeared nothing more than a complete entertainer to me. Don’t you all remember that dance number at the end of the movie? And I thought all such stuffs are included in movies as a signal for the award guys to stay away. I was apparently wrong and I don’t like it that way. I mean you knew they were never going to consider the Dark Knight for the awards and why couldn’t they be a little more clearer with all their procedures and rules? But anyway, Slumdog is in and the Dark Knight is not. So let’s discuss about slumdog. Never has a movie been made before, which had the slums of Mumbai portrayed in such details and beauty. Mumbai is the capital to bollywood, where countless movies are made every year and never have you been able to see such close and heartwarming image of the slums as you see it in the slumdog. The first time I saw the movie all the comparisons were up between the slumdog and the richy rich bollywood movies. At least I believe they are on the same genre of mass entertainers. Slumdog did well in such a comparison. But when you move further, when you see all this ‘sweepings’ that the movie is doing at every international film awards, things gets a bit difficult. I saw Slumdog two more times since then. Yes you really can’t completely disagree with those people who claim slumdog to be another example of poverty porn and yes the realism of the story seems to be heavily influenced by how the westerns would like to see it and yes to most of such appraisals. But above everything, does the plot involving the story of a slum guy winning this huge prize money on a TV show and the senseless romantic plot that supposedly leads to all these, hold such credibility to win all these awards all around the world? Purely it’s a NO from me. The story is neither convincing nor moving beyond let us say, a general level. But I do repeat that it’s well made. Be it the perfectly immersed cinematography or the gripping editing, everything had the kind of feel goodness about it. But most importantly, the music department of the film, which played a major role in me liking the film the first time and something which helped me get through the whole deal the second and third time. And this brings us to the mastero A .R Rehman. The three nominations in the name of A. R will be the most important part of the Oscars this time for any Indian. Music of slumdog was nothing short of being sensational and it will finally bring some due international acclaim to the great Indian music director. But again, there is no great tension over that, as I think Rehman would surely win the award(s).

Then there was The Curious case of Benjamin Button, which became a disappointment for me in many ways. The movie was not bad, but it was disappointing anyway. When one of your favorite director and actor teams up to make a movie on a curious enough subject, you are certain to form some expectation levels of your own. In my case this exactly became the trouble. Well it’s difficult to see some one of the caliber of David Fincher ending up with such a conventionally styled movie. You expect these men to break the pattern and they do just the opposite. Benjamin button has got almost every important ingredient in it- a great cast, curious plot premises, amazing visual effects, top notch technical quality etc etc. But unfortunately all these things wouldn’t add up to an interesting cinema. I don’t know exactly why, but the movie is just not very engaging in most of its moments. The performances, especially that of Pitt’s, was just awesome. The period detailing by Fincher was awesome too, but as I already said, it is still very difficult to find such charm in the end product. For a movie which came with the promise of being ‘curious’, Benjamin button’s story ended up being too ordinary. But no much surprise on the huge list of nominations that this movie have managed in the academy. And it would possibly win many awards too, most of them in the technical side. It’s exactly the kind of movie that these academy people love to encourage.

Moving on, Frost/Nixon was quiet a good movie from Ron Howard. The movie was very successful in inflecting the necessary mood. The line between the documentary and drama is properly maintained by the script. The interviews which form the essential point of the plot is so very well presented that it gets both exciting and intriguing. The performance of Frank Langella as Richard Nixon was exceptional. The acting gets so convincing, especially towards the end of the movie that it really becomes the highlight of the whole film. However, I ‘am not quite sure about many awards for this movie. Not really sure.

Now, the academy’s love for gay movies are very well known and this time too they have made no difference with Milk. Milk pulls off because of its extreme faithfulness to the portrayal of the life of the San Francisco’s first openly gay elected official. All the spirit that the movie evokes is truly and completely what the true life story of Harvey milk holds in it. Backed by the amazing performance by almost all of them in the cast, especially the one by Sean Penn, this movie has surely got good chances at the Oscars. But, except for the extremely brilliant performance of Sean Penn, I don’t really see any reason why I should remember this movie for a long time. But anyway, I would love to see Sean win the best actor award but they simply has got too much competition in that category.

Reader is possibly the most ditched movie among this year’s Oscar nominations, both by the regular movie lovers and by the top critics. I don’t understand why that is so, but I surely loved the movie. Now the very low expectation levels in me may have helped, but that’s not important. The peculiar character of Hanna Schmitz played superbly by Kate Winslet remains to be the most important, interesting aspect about this cinema. The filmmaker’s approach to the portrayal of Hanna Schmitz is also very interestingly peculiar. Maybe this same ‘unusualness’ has resulted in many misunderstandings about the message of the movie and ultimately to all those negative opinions. Schmitz’s character has got this undeniable evil shade to herself throughout the movie. But we are restrained from making any sorts of judgments. The filmmaker quiet successfully pushes the entire question of right and wrong with tremendous amount of perplexity, on to the viewers. The decisions that most character’s makes in the film are so realistically strange and we are constantly made aware of how fragile we are all with our own secrets and choices. The emotional presentation of the tale is also quiet beautifully handled so that the movie is completely engaging when it should be. The intense performance of Kate Winslet remains as the main strength to the whole movie. Kate would win the award, I think. But besides that I don’t see too many chances for this film.Nevertheless, I was deeply moved by this one.

Mickey Rourkey’s performance as the struggling wrestler in the movie  The  Wrestler is truly a sensational comeback performance, as they call it. And the movie itself is no less beautiful. Aronofsky’s craft is well evident in this simple but intense tale of rare characters. The documentary feel in the story of a wrestler guy is quiet strange but that’s exactly why this movie is so involving. Under any other style, the whole plot premises would have appeared silly to most of us. Aronofsky’s is too brilliant a filmmaker to go completely wrong! It’s mostly like how you shoot it on your handicam and it feels so close to us that way. Especially the final moments of the movie involves such catharsis for the viewers. It is a shame that the academy hasn’t given this movie a nomination into the best movie category. I really feel that this film was one among the best last year.

Wall-E would most probably win the best animated movie Oscar and I also see good chance at the best original screenplay category too. But they would give that to Wall-E anyway. I’am not sure about the screenplay department this time, but Slumdog shouldn’t really win the adapated screenplay category. But again, I think they will give it to Slumdog only. Whatever. Heath Ledger should surely win the best actor in a supporting role category. If he doesn’t, that will lead to huge public depression, that wouldn’t  really do much good to the business! But yeah, Heath ledger was really phenomenal and there is no reason why he shouldn’t be honored by the award. 

I ‘am not going further into making more predictions. A post of this size was not really in my intentions. But anyway, I ‘am stopping now. Huh wait, I have got another idea too. Here is how I voted at the joblo’s Oscar prediction contest. In case you are interested. In some categories like the foreign film and documentary film etc the vote has been made with the help of throwing a dice!! Wish me good luck in winning the i-pod and have good fun for yourself too!

Luck By Chance- Review

I have never been this close a follower of the Hindi films as I ‘am right now, that I have started feeling a bit guilty about it alltogether. Lately, I had a few real bad experiences at the theater in the form of some bollywood blockbusters which led me to this above mentioned guilty feeling. I wouldn’t have cared to go to the theater for another hindi movie now, if not for all those great reviews everywhere, the good mouth publicity, the ’Akthar’ factor and everything that differentiates this cinema. So, last day I watched ‘Luck By Chance’, and yeah, I was not disappointed. Not a bit!

The safest and perhaps the most appropriate option before any filmmaker on his/her debut is to make a movie on a subject which is very much familiar to him or her, a subject on which he or she has got an immense grasp and a direct involvement. Zoya Akthar has hit bull’s eye just doing that. The movie, ‘Luck By Chance’ is so much of a first person account on the hindi film industry, by someone who was born and bought up in the midst of all those glamour and glimmer, that the entire movie looks almost cent percentage authentic. And perhaps the most important point is that it is not as authentic as it appears. The director apparently knows too much on the subject she is sharing with us. The perfectly executed comical inside commentaries in the movie becomes such an important aspect of the film’s narrative, that it really holds the entire movie together.

But despite everything else, I wouldn’t have loved this movie this much if not for the nearly flawless performance put on by the entire cast of the film. Rarely do you get an opportunity to see such solid acting here in the bollywood. The comicalness, the fun is mostly in the manner how  the actors perform it and not it any dialogues or goofy filmy situations. Konakana Sensharma is sensational as Sona, an aspiring actor, who is struggling to find a place in the industry. It is with such great essence that Konakana actually brings out every tiny little gestures of the central character sona alive on the screen. Rishi Kapoor is hilarious as the big shot movie producer, Romy Rolly. Even Juhi Chawala, in a comparatively smaller role as the beloved wife of Romy Rolly, shines where ever she appears. Farhan Akthar’s performance as Vikram Jaisingh is nothing exceptional. But he too manages to avoid any serious flaws. He delivers such a plain performance, that’s neither too great nor too bad. The script is straightforward and a very well thought out one. Cinematography was fine generally, though at times the visuals seemed largely influenced by the commonly followed prototypes. The songs were incorporated beautifully in the movie that they had a separate beauty in the film. The Bgm used is also very light but is quiet effective.

At the end, Luck By Chance is not an unconventional experimentation of cinema or a pattern breaking attempt on storytelling. It’s just another hindi film, with all those commercial aspects carefully included, like all those fast dance numbers and the celebrity cameos. It follows the very conventions of a normal bollywood movie. But still it’s a good movie. And that’s the point!

8/10

Whining.

“We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.” 
                                                                                    -Tyler Durden

To be satisfied with everything is such an impossibility. And so is being unsatisfied about all things. When the excuses you find becomes of no further use, then you want a change. You are so much unsatisfied about yourself and you have to choose. You have to find out the best façade among all. But the one you choose would never work with you. And that is why you are always so much unsatisfied. Then you got to make another choice. It’s like a cycle. And soon you will forget what you really want and what you really are. Being confused about how to pretend is such an awkward state of life. I’ am tired about it.

Now, do forget the bakwaas. A while since I came on the blog now. This should be an update post or something. Life continues to be that little bitch. But it’s quiet okay with me now. The college is getting so boring and I find no interest in whatsoever they teach there. The fucking Lab guy there wants my hairs shortened. I have been working on this shit for a long time now and all of a sudden he wants it all cut down. No, it’s not about losing the hair, but about ‘Why the fuck should a bald headed lab assistant guy tell me what I should do about my hair?’ Is this their way of making the perfect bunch of unemployed engineers for the days to come? Fine anyway. Also, Internet connectivity had become such a scarce thing in my life. With more working days and the poor fucking wifi network provided by the college, the future seems so dull. By the way, why on earth am I droning about the college in the blog? Nothing makes any sense no more.

Last night a few of us friends had a weird interesting conversation on ‘How important it is to have an ability to sing’. Singers are turning out to be the sexiest people on the world. People unconditionally love this singer guys. Girls do it with added ‘unconditionality’. Now that’s something which surely doesn’t comfort you too much. Especially when you know that you can’t sing very well. While in the conversation we all admitted how envious we are all about these singing people. I mean we do love singers and all that but ain’t this a bit of a biased kind of world that we are living in? You could see this as the weak man’s side of the story, but that makes no difference to me whatsoever. Okay, now nothing goes unresolved when we friends have a serious talk. Finally we all decided to learn at least one musical instruments in our days. To splash water over that burning feeling of unworthiness and to convince ourselves that we are trying. Sick it sounds, but sicker it would be without something like this! No, but seriously, I have been craving to learn some kind of a musical instrument for a long time now. Haven’t decided which one or where, suggestions are open and are welcome on this. Lately, I have been so much depressed about how lazy things are getting to be and how badly I ‘am being all the more invisible to the world which I would love to get noticed by. It’s all complicated and it happens with everyone I think.

Well so much for the whining now. The perfectly senseless and weird post already served its purpose, as I ‘am feeling a bit better now! And I ‘am feeling hungry too.

P.S: In Tyler Durden, we trust!

A-Z Movie Meme

 

Ok. This is a fun ‘Meme’ which I stole from ruhi. The idea is to list out all your favorite movies in the alphabetic order. Quiet simple, but fun. Fun because there is no complication of rating one movie over another and such stuff. So here we go…

A is for Annie Hall – Woody Allen
The woody Allen favorite. Sincerely funny! I think this movie is a prototype to the entire work of Allen.
(or American History X  )

B is for Bicycle theives -Vittorio De Sica
Pure Classic and Beyond any words!
B is also for The Big Lebowski –Coen Bros. 
True inspirational stuff! I ‘am aware of the irony here but the dude is simply too cool!

C is for The Children of Heaven- Majid Majid
The language of the film is surprisingly simple and touching. A movie that can be watched again and again. 
(or  The City of Gods)

D for Dr. Strangelove- Stanley Kubrick
Arguably one of the Kubrick’s best work (Space Odyssey is not being avioded. It is  considered as something much much above any catogarization!). Quoting one review in imdb- “the only movie that will make you laugh at the end of the world!!”
D is also for Desharadham – Sibi Malayil (Malayalam).
Beautiful movie and one of the finest performances by one of the finest actors in the country- Mohanlal.

E is for The Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind- Michel Gondry
An extremely well constructed romantic sci-fi (or whatever you call it)!
(Or The Edge of Heaven)

F is for Fight club- David Fincher
Get ready to resurrect yourself with the fight club! This movie was almost an addiction to me at a stage. Tyler Durden is truly one of the best movie characters ever.
(or  Fargo or Following)

G is for Goodfellas- Martin Scorsese
Arguably Scorsese’s best work. Joe pesci is unforgatable. Truly a priceless piece of art.
(Or The Good  the Bad the Ugly)

 H is for Heat- Michael mann
Its Pacino v/s De Niro Like never before. And also Mann’s craft in conceving crime saga is most evident here.

I is for Iruvar (Tamil) – Mani Ratanam
Mani ratanam’s best. Mohanlal’s best. Exceptional cinema.
(or In the mood for love)

J is for Jackie Brown- Quentin Tarantino
Best ‘J’ movie I have seen. A great QT treat with de Niro! Its amazing!

K is for Kill Bill Vol 1&2- Quentin Tarantino
Pure Tarantino magic again. Extremely well etched out cinematography, fighting sequences, Bgm etc.  And the intensity of Uma Thurman! Well you seriously can’t ask for more.

L is for Laberinto del fauno, El (a.k.a Pan’s Labyrinth) – Guillermo del Toro
A movie which restructured the genre of fantasy movies. A haunting Experience. Del Toro is simply too innovative.
(or Life is beautiful or L.A Confidential)

M is for Memento – Christopher Nolan.
One of the most intelligently constructed movie ever. An unbelievable work by Nolan. Also one of the most inspiring work of art for me. I mean how could people create movies like this?
(or Moonam pakam (Malayalam)- Padmarajan)

N is for No Country for Old Men- Coen Bros.
Simple, powerful and breathtaking. Coens at the top of their craft.

O is for Oldboy- Chan-wook Park
From the beginning till the end a breathtaking thriller. And these Korean actors,  they are simply awesome.
(or O brother where art thou- Coen Bros.)

P is for Pulp Fiction- Quentin Tarantino
A movie which essentially changed my outlook on movies. QT at his best. Travolta, Bruce Willis, Samuel Jackson all at their best. One hell of an experience.

Q is for ‘Ask them to make more ‘Q’ movies’!

R is for Requiem for A Dream- Darren Aronofsky
An intense take on drugs, loneliness, love and human resistance and much more. Aronofsky  is a genius.
(or Ragging bull or Reservior Dogs)

S is for Saving Private Ryan- Steven Spielberg
Exceptional again .Spielberg is too good when he makes movies like this.  The cast is also great. I love Tom Hanks.
(or Schindler’s List or Sandesham (Malayalam) )

T is for Twelve Monkeys – Terry Gilliams
One of the best time travel movie I have seen. Beautifully and intelligently constructed. A thrilling experience.
(or Taxi Driver)

U is for Untouchables- Brian De Palma
A perfect classic style crime saga.

V is for Vertigo- Alfred Hitchcock
A murder mystery that is so much more than what it seems to be. The tremendous depth in the characters of the movie is just awe-inspiring. Greating acting too.
(or Vanaprastham(malayalm)- Shaji  N Karun)

W is for Wall-E- Andrew Stanton
Pixar movies seems to be getting better with each new one. Really lovable characters and enjoyable plot are mostly their highlights. Wall-E is no different.

X is for X-men- The last stand- Bret Ratner
The best ‘X’ movie I guess.

Y is for Yojimbo  - Akira Kurasowa
A great example to the great story telling talents of Kurasowa. Beyond any distinction of generations, languages and cultures. Like almost all of his movies. Maybe the ‘coolest’ movie from Kurasowa. Loved it. Totally.

Z is for Zodaic- David Fincher
I think it is the fascination of an ongoing case being made into film that differentiate Zodiac from other movies. The true essence of the original happenings can be felt in the cinema and hats off to Fincher for that. Needless to say I love this man and I love his movies very much.

 

Uhh….The Longest post ever! I should have been really mad to write this all up! Shit!

P.S: One important point to be noted here is that the priority was given in finding and assigning at least one movie for each letter. And hence this may not be quiet the  list of my favorite movies. There is a slight difference between the two.

I would love to see  more people doing the meme, by the way!

 

 

A Day With The Director

Unni, Me, Arun, RENJITH, Hari, Damu

When we reached Tiruvandapuram at morning 4 0’ clock nothing had any amount of certainty. Standing in the packed train for more than four hours to reach here, had already made us tired to death. The plan is to meet the acclaimed writer-director Renjith for an interview for the college magazine and to have some good fun at the ongoing international film festival of Kerala. Except for that plan, everything was in perfect chaos at that point of time. The friend who had an uncle, who supposedly was arranging everything for us, was not even available on the phone. Our expectations were quiet low and we were completely prepared to get kicked in the ass.

It all began when we heard that our college magazine has got three pages reserved for an interview every year. Since the editor was a guy from our own hostel, we made sure that we will do the interview this year.
Since then we had kind of elaborate plans and all such stuff. It must have been several months now. We tried to contact Renjith on phone but failed many times. So, everything was in ‘out-of-the-hands’ state when last day suddenly I got a call from my friend. He said Renjith had agreed for the interview on 15^th morning 8 o clock (that was a day after tomorrow then!) at Tvm. It was 200+km and just one day ahead. Wow!

The plan was to make the questions for the interview while in the train during the 4 hour journey. But the train was fucking too crowded. Not even enough space to stand straight. Fantastic. Also some friends called telling that they probably couldn’t make it.

So now we stand at the capital city perfectly unaware of anything that’s coming our way.
Square one state!

After some 2-3 hours came the Friend’s phone call. Things gained pace with that. The vagueness started to disappear and to our own surprise, everything started to get into an order. At 10 o’ clock morning, we finally talked to the man on phone and he asked us to come. The venue was a theatre. Two of his movies were going to be screened today and he was awfully busy. We found him in the middle of a group of some top shot directors of Malayalam. Now, assuming our excitement level is your job!

Interview lasted for something like one hour.

The man was just electrifying. He started to give elaborate answers to each of our questions with such ease and frankness. He suddenly took the control of the whole deal going on. We felt a particular warmth and love in the way he reacted. We felt valued!

It was a cricketer’s delight at his maiden century or a child’s excitement on being at the top of an elephant or the  ecstasy of the lost at being heard. It was beautiful. May be the interview wasn’t that good. But when we finally walked out of the place for some food, we felt really good.

Then there was a bunch of worthy movies to watch at the IFFK. But bad luck for us there. A pass was required to watch the movies and what did we knew. We went to watch Priyadarshan’s Kanchivaram, and were surprised by the huge crowd there. We understood that it was impossible without a pass and peacefully roamed around the city talking a lot of photographs and gradually started back home by noon.

It was still a worthy deal for us anyway.

I will post the interview (which was in malayalam) after our college magazine comes out. The photos are strictly copyrighted.

On Mumbai Attacks

The fierce battle in Mumbai is finally over. Now, get ready for some second rate political dramas which are to follow soon. Every single bit of the tragic incident will be now politically utilised. The impact of the terrorist attack over the world politics and Indian politics would be severe. America even speculates a fully fledged war between India and Pakistan. The article In NY times does talk about some real possible consequences (read this and this too). With the PAK deciding not to send the ISI chief to India, the tension only seems to double. I just can’t figure out the logic behind, such a denial from their part, especially in the present circumstances. Was it the real intelligent remark from the part of the Pakistani opposition parties that, ‘it would be like accepting the crime’, that prompted such a stupid reaction? With the ongoing investigations resulting in more and more evidence against the Pak based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and with the suspicions on the possible suppourt from the ISI for the operations of Lashkar, things may be going out of hands for the Pak administration. The fact that the terrorists were actually aiming at foreigners (Israel’s, American’s and British people) will keep the international community also very much interested in the subject. The best thing that Pakistan could do now is to offer full cooperation (not just in words) on India’s anti terrorism operations. This could in a way neutralise the situation of the ‘blame game’ to a certain extent. Things wouldn’t be too easy with India either with more and more interference from the International levels as well as some internal political issues. Eyeing the fast nearing national elections, different major parties in India are sure to play their part in the whole issue. In fact, they have started their internal ‘blame game’.

Politics apart, as an aftermath to the terrifying attacks, the sense of patriotism is at an all time high. A sense of unity is felt everywhere around, which is really good. On one side the proud and brave work done by the NSG commandos and on the other side the overwhelming stories of great human loss, This is indeed a wakeup call before us. I firmly believe that things will not be the same now, at least with terrorism. India had enough from it and seems to be united against it now. So is the world.

And of course, really proud of the great commandos, who risked their life for the security of our nation.

Peace. 

Read this unbelivable article too.

O brothers…

After watching two of their movies back to back now, I ‘am left speechless over here. That feeling you rarely enjoy from the rarest of those movies, yeah I ‘am having some of them now. Yes sir, I ‘am speaking of the great Coen brothers. The two headed director who has (have) blessed our times with their supreme artistry in filmmaking. The two films were, ‘O brother where art thou?’ and ‘Miller’s crossing’. It was an experience which has got me thirsting for more and more.

There is a hell lot of amusing patterns and symbols followed by the Coen’s in each of their works. Starting from the easily recognisable alternation between black comedies and crime noirs to the very detailed aspects of colours and tones, there is a lot of them. For instances, in the movie ‘O brother where art thou?’ you wouldn’t see a single green leaf! Leafs are kind of yellowish instead. The entire earth has got this yellowish green template throughout the movie. This yellow is perhaps the colour of the movie. Think of ‘Fargo’ and the colour is white. There is a tone to each movie, of which the colour forms an integral part. The wide range of tones, plots and characters which they introduce through their movies are just awe-inspiring.  Now, like ‘Miller’s crossing’ most of their movies are set in the past, over a certain period of time. Homage, references etc. are dispersed all over. ‘Miller’s crossing’ is a huge homage in itself to the crime noirs of 70’s & 80’s. Presence of a ‘cool-under-fire’ type of character (mostly in the lead) is one another thing. Like, Tom Regan’s in miller’s crossing, The Dude himself in ‘The Big Lebowski’, Marge in ‘Fargo’ and Anton Chigurh in ‘No Country…’ Simply those characters are so much fun. There are a lot more of such patterns, like the spinning materials (the ball in ‘Big Lebowski’ and the Hat in ‘Miller’s crossing’) seen in their different movies or the frequently used fast talking characters (mostly Steve Buscemi). (read more here)

Above all these, it is the sheer intelligence exhibited in the plot development and presentation, which distinguishes the Coen’s Bros as film makers. The kind of talent involved in drawing two extremely different characters of Anton Chigurh and The Dude, with equal clarity, is indeed one of the rarest qualities. The Coen movies are the most wonderful show-case to characterization of greatest intensities. It’s extremely difficult to forget a character from a Coen movie, because they appear before us as almost complete human beings with a certain amount of eccentricity. I hear people complaining a lot about the vagueness in the plot of ‘No country for old men’, but before me it is the one of the greatest character studies of all time, where the film makers goes to such extent of realism in the plot for its ultimate aim of faithful character elucidation. ‘O brother…’ is also basically a very beautiful character study (a lot of characters), where the only difference is that the characters are a bit more fictional (the right word is poetic). The comedy in Coen movies is of the highest quality, which is a right mix of the dialogue driven type and the situational type. ‘Big Lebowski’ is one movie that had made me laugh the most. A guy who has seen this movie first, wouldn’t recognise ‘No country…’ as a work from the same directors. That is something indeed, right? The intense detailing in the plot is another important aspect. Like in the case of Miller’s crossing. The plot is very complex and thick but quiet ingeniously offered. It would require you a couple of watching to recognise the cleverness in the plot.

The technical side of Coen brother’s movie making is also as rich as the creative side. The photography, editing etc. are almost flawless. The Visual language is stunning. Music, BGM etc are also of the topmost quality and is of perfect coherence. I read that the sound track of ‘o brother…’ was a bigger hit than the movie itself! No wonder.

Now, I haven’t completed their filmography yet. Highly acclaimed movies like ‘The man who wasn’t there’ and ‘Blood simple’ remains in the yet to watch category. But am already on it, anyway.
Oh and yeah, without people like Coen Brothers and their works, how dreadful our lives would have been…!

On A.R Rahman

 

With two new movies, Yuvvraaj and Ghajini, A.R Rahman’s music is again all over the place. And like every time, the music is going to be appreciated and detested with great intensity. It has been some time now, since some people have started groaning against A.R and his works. I didn’t care about all those uproars at the beginning.  But as you listen to more and more of those old classics from Rahman, you would slowly start to contemplate some kind of a ‘fall’ in his present day’s works. I ‘am not good at technically specifying ‘what went wrong’, but I sure can assure you that something is not the same.  It’s with great hope and delight that we are waiting for each new work from ARR. But faithfully, things are not paying like they used to be.

Speaking of Yuvvraaj, the main track ‘Tu meri dost hain’ appeared promising and signaled something greater in the original album. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. ‘Mastam Mastam’ and “Zindagi’ are the only two tracks that can be categorized as ‘likeable’. “Zandagi’ was almost near becoming a real good one, but failed because of its evident similarity with other works (“Lukka Chuppi”- RDB, anyone?). Then there was the fast number, ‘shano shano’ which simply..err… pisses you off! Usually you can’t easily hate a ‘Rahman work’, however bad it may be, but “shano shano” is an exception. “Manmohini morey” is another good composition, but I seriously doubt how many will really like that song.

A very interesting point about the album “Ghajini” is that the best track is the instrumental version of “Kaise Muhje”. But now if you listen to the original version of ‘kaise mujhe’ it’s a letdown (for someone who loved the instrumental). Can’t understand why that is happening.  I wouldn’t go as much to call the main track “Guzarish’ a bad one, but come on its A.R Rahman and you rightly deserves a lot better.
“Guzarish” is however, the kind of song that would get better with each listening (something which doesn’t applies to the ‘Yuvvraaj” tracks). Other songs in the album are just ‘okay’ kind, by the Rahman standards.

In Tamil, “Sakarkati” another recent work from ARR has this fast number “taxi taxi”, which will just make you go like, ‘come on Rahman didn’t do that…’ Maybe that song is not bad as such, but that’s something anyone out there could easily create. Neither Rahman’s magic nor his great experience is needed for such a sunken piece of music. It’s really what you call a down fall. “ADA, the way of life” is the only album in recent times, that could be called as a ‘complete’ work from Rahman.

At some point or another, all these songs would get really exciting and will have that Rahman seal in them, it could be a humming or a fading instrument in the background or anything, but unfortunately nothing is getting complete. Like with all those great guys, Rahman’s greatest competitor is he himself.  His works can never be rated on comparison with the works of another music director. That’s because even the worst work from Rahman is better than the best of many others. Still, when you feel a particular album from him is disappointing, it’s because you didn’t get the kind of delectation that you considers granted with every Rahman songs.

Maybe this so called ‘fall’ is just the invention of some unimaginative and conventional kind of perspectives, which can’t afford to understand the depth of change. Maybe it’s Rahman going in search of music with greater depth.

Whatever, I simply don’t enjoy the kind of intimacy that I used to have, with AR’s music these days, and that is really a bad thing!

 

Tagged!

Big bro Rohan tagged me with ‘The list of 150 things you must do before 30 ‘. The list seemed so incomprehensive for me and my highly adventures life! Besides, I ‘am just 20, and there seems to be a hell lot of time before me. So I decided not to do the tag in the conventional way.

So here I present

“Things I wouldn’t mind doing before turning 30” (from the list)

1.       Buy everyone in the bar a drink
2.      Take a Ferrari for a test drive (no plan to buy it, though)
3.      Bungee jump!
4.      Go inside the great pyramids (and say hello to the mummies!)
5.      Visit Paris (Sydney and Cape Town too)
6.      Watch a lightning storm at sea (from a helicopter maybe)
7.      Take a trip in a hot air balloon
8.       Get drunk on champagne (yay!)
9.      Dance with a stranger in a foreign country (I prefer a Latin American!)
10.    Go sky diving (this one is a ‘must do’)
11.     Kiss in the rain (Hell yay!)
12.     Be in a movie (a horror flick!)
13.     Crash a party
14.     Go to Las Vegas
15.     Pick up and move to another city to just start over (I got plans!)
16.     Survive an (all the) accident(accidents) that you shouldn’t have survived
17.     Write articles for a large publication
18.     Lost over 100 pounds (strictly no exercise and no diets)
19.     Break someone’s heart
20.    Fire a rifle, shotgun, or pistol (Shotguns…a spas 12 gauge will be       perfect!)
21.    Have your picture in the newspaper (again and again) 
22.    Built your own PC from parts (and make my own parts too)
23.    Sell your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you (ofcourse, at unreasonable prices)

 

yeah, that’s it!