The eternal loser

Who else but Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas? Or Anurag Kashyap’s modern day Dev D. An honest and in-your-face yarn of the quintessential loser. The best part of the movie for me was the fact that it showed Dev as how he actually was, a pitiful, self centred egoist with double standards. And the fact that the 2 women of his life actually had an identity of their own (a strong one at that) and could kick his ass anytime he took them for granted!
I loved how the music was a part of the narrative. Bravo Amit Trivedi. Make way gentlemen, the new age music composer has arrived. One more aspect that took the movie to another level altogether was the cinematography. Each frame is vivid and remains in your mind. In the 2nd half of the movie especially, it was fantastic the way the focus changed from the foreground subject and background depending on who was talking. (On another note, notice the graffiti on Dev’s room wall)
I don’t want to think of the flaws in the movie. I only know that I came away thoroughly entertained. I wasn’t bored even for a second. The engaging and bold dialogues added to the wonder of the movie. Some of them were truly priceless. Ready to get ‘Emosanal Atyacharred’ anyone? Don’t miss it, it’s radical, contemporary, honest and entertaining!

Fed up

of hearing why Slumdog Millionaire doesn’t deserve all the accolades ‘coz it glorifies the Indian slums. Really, everywhere I see (blogs, websites, newspapers, discussion boards, friends), there are discussions on why the West is honouring this movie and it has been attributed to the fact that it showed the dark side. People are arguing about how all the other great Indian movies have been ignored by the West so far, and now since a non-Indian has made this movie it’s being talked about everywhere.
A few important points all these people are forgetting: 1. It’s an adaptation of a novel written by an Indian . 2. The movie is actually a very typical Bollywood movie with the truimph of the underdog and love being the centre point. 3. The gory aspects of the movie and the slums are a reality, it has been exisitng for a long time and it will continue to exist until the government wakes up to do something about it. 4. It’s just a movie and a terrific one at that with some great acting (by the kids especially) 5. Surely Rahman has composed better music in his earlier (and ongoing) films, so what? His music (the background score I mean) in this movie lifted the narration to another level.
I wonder sometimes why people can’t just enjoy a movie without dissecting every aspect of it? We go to the movies to be entertained (and inspired sometimes, but mostly entertained) and I think the movie did exactly that. Watch it if you haven’t!

More on the New Year…

I seem to only be reading columns and articles and seeing programs about what to wear, how to decorate, what to cook, how to get over a hangover, what the celebrities are doing for the New Year’s Eve. That’s pretty much what almost all TV channels are showing and most of the magazines and newspapers (especially the pathetic excuse for a newspaper, the Times of India) are publishing. One article was completely ridiculous, it was talking about how a girl HAD to be dressed in the best-est clothes and have all the right make up, or else there would be no meaning to a New Year’s eve. I mean really, are we so starved for approval and looking good that we can’t just be ourselves? Do we so seriously have to ape the Americans? I understand, for a celebration, dressing up is a part of the whole process, but making it the only thing is taking it a bit too far don’t you think?
Hmm anyway, one thing I do look forward to at the end of the year, is to see all the Best of the year shows on TV…espcecially on the movies, where finally it’s ‘doodh ka doodh, pani ka pani’
My Hindi movie picks of the year are: ‘Rock On’ and ‘A Wednesday’. In English, I loved ‘ The Dark Knight’. I also liked ‘Body of Lies (though I guess it was not such a big hit).
I had this conversation with a friend about how nobody really keeps up to their New Year resolutions…I think I stopped making them years ago since I never really followed it beyond 2 months! This time however, I sincerely want to:

1] Start an exercise regime (even if it’s just walking for an hour in the morning)
2] Stop having late work evenings (plan work ahead unless there’s something critical)
3] Learn to cook Amma’s signature dishes (atleast one dish every 2 months)
4] Re-Learn to drive (As much as I loathe Bangalore traffic, I have to do this)
5] Spend more time at home…reading and increasing the colleciton for my precious library
6] Call my out of town/country friends atleast once a month

I’ll probably add to this list as I think of the other things I want to do

Weekend movie

I watched Sex and the City last weekend. With some of my friends. We’d always been following the series and the thought of watching it back to back (and not just for 20 mins a day) was all the reason we needed to watch the movie (None of us own the DVD series yet). So I pretty much juggled work that day so that I could leave on time. Knowing Blore’s legendary traffic woes especially on a Friday evening, I had no choice but to leave almost 2 hours before the movie was scheduled to begin. Reaching the multiplex, my friend and I were about to dig into some yummy chaat in the multiplex’s food complex, when our other friend called to tell us she’s running late and had not picked up the tickets. Whattt? I left work early to see others go past me for the movie??? Some frantic calls and 25 mins of standing in the queue, we got our tickets. Phew! Ran upstairs, literally gobbled some food, squeezed oursleves in the lift that had women and more women all heading to watch the same movie and found that we’d be sitting right in the first row! Gandhi class if you may!

We loved the movie. Totally. It delivered what it promised. Women, men problems, sex, marriage, style, fashion, emotions (over the top of course!!) and love, love, love, love.  There were some priceless moments that left us in splits.  There’s something so relatable to such movies, serials and books. On some level, you connect. And laugh. That’s the best part Go watch it if you already haven’t.

A movie review

I was in Chennai last week for a day on some work. I had some time to kill in the morning and going out to explore was not something I really wanted to do (it was so hot and humid). So I was switching channels on TV and came across a Kannada movie channel (really surprising, I remember last time I was in Chennai, the hotels only had Tamil channels, a few English news channels and just one or two Hindi channels). And the movie ‘Manasasarovara’ was just starting. I had seen this 80’s movie a few years back. It had some melodious music. Not an extraordinary story, but a story told with just the right amounts of everything in it! The direction by Puttanna Kanagal was of course the clincher.

(This has spoilers)
The story is about a middle aged doctor (psychiatrist). He’s married, but his wife is not very happy with him ‘coz he doesn’t fit into her image of the ideal husband (he’s not very good looking, he’s an idealist, a poet/writer, an introvert basically). So she flirts around with some of his friends and finally goes beyond just flirting with one of them (rich, smart, loves to go out and party kinda person). This prompts him to leave her and go to his estate in a village.