What is the price that you have to pay for your freedom? As Persepolis answers this question, it rings a bell with all immigrants who have moved to greener pastures elsewhere in the world, seeking that elusive pot of gold called Freedom - Financial or otherwise. One of the most imaginative movies that I have ever watched, Persepolis registered on my senses immediately as I felt emotions such as happiness, melancholy, horror and hope all in the space of less than 2 hours. And oh! what expressive use of the language of music and animation as we are drawn into the life of Marjane Satrapi, who along with her parents, grandmother and relatives, long for an Iran which is free from the autocratic Shah, the Iraqi war booms and ultimately the repressive Islamic government.
This autobiographical tale uses the most evocative color schema, just shades of black and white to evoke feelings of depression and longing in a country where longing for something as pure and innocent as physical touch from a loved one is considered a crime. You feel thankful for the immense deliberation shown by the directors of this little classic, Marjane Satrapi (The story is based on Ms. Satrapi's memoirs) and Vincent Paronnaud, in choosing a schema so expressive as compared to have flesh-and-blood characters enact the story. What unfolds is a tale so expressive in a language so unheard of, that it logs immediately in your senses as an unforgettable movie.
You so empathize with the life of Marjane who comes to a foreign country and is bugged at the stance taken by her new friends, for whom independence and luxuries of life are a given. You completely understand it when Marjane, in a bout of depression runs back to her country, and where she is totally torn between her feelings of love for her motherland and still wanting to lead a free life. And that's the best part of the story - the story is specifically about Marjane, but many of the millions of immigrants worldwide would relate with the story. You see Marjane as one of those countless immigrants whose experience in the West was one of frustration and miscommunication. When she runs back to Iran saying, "In the West, people don't care if you even die on the streets", somewhere in the deepest recesses of your mind, a bell tolls.
It's such a surprising and refreshing movie, while being oddly entertaining, and still it rivets the audience with the age-old questions about identity and homeland, autocracy and religious dictactorship.
It's also a pleasant reprieve to see old-fashioned, hand-drawn animation battling it out successfully with the modern 3-D Pixel animated movies. Although technically the movie might be a wimp as compared to all the other big studio animation movies, where this movie succeeds is in its tactful story telling. It makes you realise that if you still believe in your movie and if your story has its heart in its place, the end product would be fascinating. Satrapi and Paronnaud have fashioned something rough, real, raw and old fashioned, with a narrative authority that has hardly ever been used in our studio-driven, sales-hyped digital age.
It's only in a few and far-in-between scenes that the color schema changes from black-and-white to multicolored hues, during flash-forwards to an older, and lonelier Satrapi remembering vivid scenes from her childhood in a lonely Paris airport. The movie ends with Satrapi remembering the most memorable character from the movie - her Grandmom - who constantly reminds her to be "true to yourself". In the image that lingers above all in this most memorable movie of all times, the old woman unsnaps her bra and lets it drop. The gesture sends forth a shower of flower petals, her perfume of choice. And I can just smell the jasmine. And feel the tears roll down my cheeks.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Book Review: While England Sleeps
What a beautiful tale - The perils of love as it blooms, unfolds, and ultimately withers away. Love, love confused, love lost, and love long lost and the lives of two young hearts as it follows these stages in the backdrop of the Spanish revolution.
While England Sleeps is set in Pre-World War II London, UK, and the author David Leavitt does a very good job in recreating the scenes and sounds from that era. It almost feels as if the book is written in that time by someone from that time, rather than 50 years later which is actually the case. It is actually much to my surprise later that I found that David Leavitt is an American by birth and upbringing. It requires a strong literary nerve for a non-English writer to set a story in the England of the late 1930's. And the efforts are totally laudable. The language is so lucid, yet so classical and lyrical in its approach that it immersed me in the era, without too much information overload. I particularly liked the numerous scenes set in the London underground train system. It's a brilliant pictorial representation of the London underground train system in words, I could almost smell the steam engines as I sped through the pages. Take for example this beautifully written piece, the first few lines from the book:
"It began like this: a bird flying through the chambers of the underground, like a fly caught in a nautilus. No one noticed but me. First the wind blew - that smoky, petrol-smelling wind that presages the arrival of the train - and then the twin lights pierced the darkness, and then there it was, gray and white, a dove, I think, chased by the train's smoking terror. It fluttered and hovered above my head for a moment, as if trying to figure out where the sky was, then sailed up the exit stairs and was gone."
This and many more glum scenic descriptions of the 1930s London, paint a bleak picture of love in the times of war. Set against the rise of fascism in Europe at that time, While England Sleeps tells the story of a love affair between an aristocratic young British writer Brian Botsford, who thinks homosexuality is something he will outgrow, and Edward Phelan, a sensitive and idealistic working-class employee of the London Underground and a Communist party member. It's a romance separated by class, and the separation is further exacerbated by world events during that period of time. When the strains of class difference, sexual taboo, and Brian's ambivalence impel Edward to volunteer to fight against Franco in Spain, Brian pursues him across Europe and into the violent chaos of war. What happens henceforward is a heart-breaking tale travelled across countries that tells about lessons learnt, but a tad too late. The final scenes of melancholy where you can see that no matter how much Brian tries, he has to let go of Edward is too vivid in its description and the strain of melancholy is too much to bear. So much that you almost begin to ache for the author to euphemize his words.
Sorrowful, accomplished, restrained and yet so romantic, While England Sleeps is an entertaining and easy read. Here's looking forward to reading more of Leavitt's works.
While England Sleeps is set in Pre-World War II London, UK, and the author David Leavitt does a very good job in recreating the scenes and sounds from that era. It almost feels as if the book is written in that time by someone from that time, rather than 50 years later which is actually the case. It is actually much to my surprise later that I found that David Leavitt is an American by birth and upbringing. It requires a strong literary nerve for a non-English writer to set a story in the England of the late 1930's. And the efforts are totally laudable. The language is so lucid, yet so classical and lyrical in its approach that it immersed me in the era, without too much information overload. I particularly liked the numerous scenes set in the London underground train system. It's a brilliant pictorial representation of the London underground train system in words, I could almost smell the steam engines as I sped through the pages. Take for example this beautifully written piece, the first few lines from the book:
"It began like this: a bird flying through the chambers of the underground, like a fly caught in a nautilus. No one noticed but me. First the wind blew - that smoky, petrol-smelling wind that presages the arrival of the train - and then the twin lights pierced the darkness, and then there it was, gray and white, a dove, I think, chased by the train's smoking terror. It fluttered and hovered above my head for a moment, as if trying to figure out where the sky was, then sailed up the exit stairs and was gone."
This and many more glum scenic descriptions of the 1930s London, paint a bleak picture of love in the times of war. Set against the rise of fascism in Europe at that time, While England Sleeps tells the story of a love affair between an aristocratic young British writer Brian Botsford, who thinks homosexuality is something he will outgrow, and Edward Phelan, a sensitive and idealistic working-class employee of the London Underground and a Communist party member. It's a romance separated by class, and the separation is further exacerbated by world events during that period of time. When the strains of class difference, sexual taboo, and Brian's ambivalence impel Edward to volunteer to fight against Franco in Spain, Brian pursues him across Europe and into the violent chaos of war. What happens henceforward is a heart-breaking tale travelled across countries that tells about lessons learnt, but a tad too late. The final scenes of melancholy where you can see that no matter how much Brian tries, he has to let go of Edward is too vivid in its description and the strain of melancholy is too much to bear. So much that you almost begin to ache for the author to euphemize his words.
Sorrowful, accomplished, restrained and yet so romantic, While England Sleeps is an entertaining and easy read. Here's looking forward to reading more of Leavitt's works.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Book Review: On Chesil Beach
Innocence, ignorance, virginity, love and love lost form the core of this book 'On Chesil beach'. This is the first Ian McEwan read of mine. Thanks Shree for the fabulous birthday gift and introducing me to the world of McEwan. There is such a powerful and composed demeanour in his writing style. In a literary world where shamelessness has become like a high stakes art form, it is so refreshing to know that there are still writers like McEwan who can spend about 200 pages writing about the physical action of making love and still not make it seem dirty in the least. The clinical, yet beautiful way in which he treats the act of foreplay and that of making love is laudable. It's a story of a single night and what transpires between a newly married lovely couple on that night.
On Chesil Beach begins thus:
"They were young, educated, and both virgins on this, their wedding night, and they lived in a time when a conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible. But it is never easy."
In the sexually liberated otherworld called the US of A, it might be difficult for young readers to see the point that McEwan is trying to make. But coming from a sexually repressive land like India, I could totally see the same point. That when talking about sex and learning about sex is restricted to badly made pornographic movies and make believe hearsay from peers and older friends in school, the naivette that is unknowingly absorbed into the act of first sex could be the make-or-break part of that relationship. Come to think of it, how many of us are still in talking terms with the very first person that we lost our virginity too? And haven't most of us gained the most knowledge about sex, just along the learning curve of doing more of the same thing over and over again? I still need to find out how this tale resonates to a younger American generation of modern American sensibilities. For McEwan, when he might have begun writing this novel, it might have seemed an uphill task - how can he explain this reticence to younger readers — the children and grandchildren of the generation to whom loss of virginity is taken for granted and to bother about it is merely an oddity?
Probably McEwan decided to make this arduous task easier by staging this drama as a period piece. The date is 1962, just before London began to swing and civilization as we know it today succumbed gratefully to sex and drugs and violence and internet. Thank God for small mercies! And for all those sweet evil discoveries! So the lead characters of On Chesil Beach, Edward and Florence, like all middle class and upper class kids of those days were sexually unaware, inexperienced and ignorant. They were also again like all middle class and upper class kids of those days obedient, well behaved, class-conscious and withheld. Maybe the former mentioned qualities were an offspring of the latter. How beautifully McEwan puts it as "This was still the era, when to be young was a social encumbrance, a mark of irrelevance, a faintly embarrassing condition for which marriage was the beginning of a cure." Oh how strongly this condition relates to a younger Indian generation today - to whose symptoms, the only antidote suggested by an older generation is a grand, arranged marriage. Who should know this better than an unmarried guy, of a highly marriageable age like me?
Just like our parents might have thought in their hey days, Edward from this novel "firmly believed that to make love—and for the very first time—merely by unzipping his fly was unsensual and gross. And impolite." And to top it all, besides all these feelings that he has to overcome to make love to his newly wed (whom he is most clearly in love with too), he also suffers from premature ejaculation. A condition that he is slightly aware of, and which scares him mighty whether it would create an indelible blot on his masculinity the very first night that he can rightfully claim his place in the echelons of manhood.
On the other hand, his lovely, newly married wife has her own set of problems. She loves him passionately, but only with her eyes: "her whole being was in revolt against a prospect of entanglement and flesh.... She simply did not want to be 'entered' or 'penetrated.'" She loves him and needs him, but with an "excruciating physical reticence" — which of course makes her even more desirable to him. She never had sampled the taste and the fruit of such passion, but just the thought of it made her inner body coil and revolt. She had such revulsion to the entire act of making love, that she had all these ghosts to fight off the night they got married.
What would happen on the wedding night between two such people who had little help from the outside world in solving these problems? At a time when talking about sex was taboo?
His erotic expectations and her physical dread turn the wedding night into a catastrophe. He comes prematurely all over her, "filling her navel, coating her belly, thighs and even a portion of her chin and kneecap in tepid, viscous fluid" — as always, McEwan is clinically precise — and she reacts with almost Victorian disgust: "Nothing in her nature could have held back her instant cry of revulsion."
What path does the story take from here? I am almost tempted to narrate the rest of the story out and further dissect my feelings regarding that part. But I would have to resist. If even one person can pick up the book and read it from beginning to end, experiencing the sheer surge of emotions with every line of detail as only a master conductor can orchestrate, I would consider my review on the book to be of use. A must read, a sheer delight, which will make you dream of all the times in your life when you made the wrong decisions and wrong choices in life due to words not said and actions not taken. You will close the book and recount those numerous occasions and think 'What if?'
On Chesil Beach is brief and carefully plotted, a quick, interesting read, the writing style is very composed, the tone of voice is nostalgic. As I pondered a bit more about the book, after finishing it, I couldn't but help wonder whether the same set of problems occurred between a set of partners, in today's world, who are more sexually experienced and aware?
On Chesil Beach begins thus:
"They were young, educated, and both virgins on this, their wedding night, and they lived in a time when a conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible. But it is never easy."
In the sexually liberated otherworld called the US of A, it might be difficult for young readers to see the point that McEwan is trying to make. But coming from a sexually repressive land like India, I could totally see the same point. That when talking about sex and learning about sex is restricted to badly made pornographic movies and make believe hearsay from peers and older friends in school, the naivette that is unknowingly absorbed into the act of first sex could be the make-or-break part of that relationship. Come to think of it, how many of us are still in talking terms with the very first person that we lost our virginity too? And haven't most of us gained the most knowledge about sex, just along the learning curve of doing more of the same thing over and over again? I still need to find out how this tale resonates to a younger American generation of modern American sensibilities. For McEwan, when he might have begun writing this novel, it might have seemed an uphill task - how can he explain this reticence to younger readers — the children and grandchildren of the generation to whom loss of virginity is taken for granted and to bother about it is merely an oddity?
Probably McEwan decided to make this arduous task easier by staging this drama as a period piece. The date is 1962, just before London began to swing and civilization as we know it today succumbed gratefully to sex and drugs and violence and internet. Thank God for small mercies! And for all those sweet evil discoveries! So the lead characters of On Chesil Beach, Edward and Florence, like all middle class and upper class kids of those days were sexually unaware, inexperienced and ignorant. They were also again like all middle class and upper class kids of those days obedient, well behaved, class-conscious and withheld. Maybe the former mentioned qualities were an offspring of the latter. How beautifully McEwan puts it as "This was still the era, when to be young was a social encumbrance, a mark of irrelevance, a faintly embarrassing condition for which marriage was the beginning of a cure." Oh how strongly this condition relates to a younger Indian generation today - to whose symptoms, the only antidote suggested by an older generation is a grand, arranged marriage. Who should know this better than an unmarried guy, of a highly marriageable age like me?
Just like our parents might have thought in their hey days, Edward from this novel "firmly believed that to make love—and for the very first time—merely by unzipping his fly was unsensual and gross. And impolite." And to top it all, besides all these feelings that he has to overcome to make love to his newly wed (whom he is most clearly in love with too), he also suffers from premature ejaculation. A condition that he is slightly aware of, and which scares him mighty whether it would create an indelible blot on his masculinity the very first night that he can rightfully claim his place in the echelons of manhood.
On the other hand, his lovely, newly married wife has her own set of problems. She loves him passionately, but only with her eyes: "her whole being was in revolt against a prospect of entanglement and flesh.... She simply did not want to be 'entered' or 'penetrated.'" She loves him and needs him, but with an "excruciating physical reticence" — which of course makes her even more desirable to him. She never had sampled the taste and the fruit of such passion, but just the thought of it made her inner body coil and revolt. She had such revulsion to the entire act of making love, that she had all these ghosts to fight off the night they got married.
What would happen on the wedding night between two such people who had little help from the outside world in solving these problems? At a time when talking about sex was taboo?
His erotic expectations and her physical dread turn the wedding night into a catastrophe. He comes prematurely all over her, "filling her navel, coating her belly, thighs and even a portion of her chin and kneecap in tepid, viscous fluid" — as always, McEwan is clinically precise — and she reacts with almost Victorian disgust: "Nothing in her nature could have held back her instant cry of revulsion."
What path does the story take from here? I am almost tempted to narrate the rest of the story out and further dissect my feelings regarding that part. But I would have to resist. If even one person can pick up the book and read it from beginning to end, experiencing the sheer surge of emotions with every line of detail as only a master conductor can orchestrate, I would consider my review on the book to be of use. A must read, a sheer delight, which will make you dream of all the times in your life when you made the wrong decisions and wrong choices in life due to words not said and actions not taken. You will close the book and recount those numerous occasions and think 'What if?'
On Chesil Beach is brief and carefully plotted, a quick, interesting read, the writing style is very composed, the tone of voice is nostalgic. As I pondered a bit more about the book, after finishing it, I couldn't but help wonder whether the same set of problems occurred between a set of partners, in today's world, who are more sexually experienced and aware?
Friday, January 18, 2008
Catchy Curses
Clean Curses
crotch-grabber
mouth-licker
boot-face
jack-head
donkey-smeller
farting-jezebel
rim-sucker
stink-toed vench
crab-feast
cowboy-underpants
burger-panties
Kelly Clarkson (?)
trash-heart
sweaty pie-hole
meat-crotch
Dirty Curses
cock-ass
bitch-fucker
shitty-dink-fuck
shit-ass
cum-whore
shitting-shit-shitter
fucking-fuck-fucker
jesus ball-juice
burger-pussy
american ass
canadian cock
gaping fuck-hole
horny ass-crack
squirt shaft
Source: The movie 'The 40-year-old Virgin'. For the scene where the virgin is getting his chest mow-waxed for augmenting his sex appeal, he has to give some choice abuses each time the waxing lady pulls off a strip of hair coated hot wax from his chest. And the entire movie production team had come up with the above listed curses of which only the best made it to the movie halls. But all of them are quite interesting. So I listed them here for reference. Some day when I want to really respond back to some bugger, this list is gonna be handy.
P.S.: I thought a lot, before deciding against letting my fear of putting these abuses on my post. I doubt how many readers I am ever gonna get for my blogs. For those choice few who know me well, who read me, it doesn't matter.
crotch-grabber
mouth-licker
boot-face
jack-head
donkey-smeller
farting-jezebel
rim-sucker
stink-toed vench
crab-feast
cowboy-underpants
burger-panties
Kelly Clarkson (?)
trash-heart
sweaty pie-hole
meat-crotch
Dirty Curses
cock-ass
bitch-fucker
shitty-dink-fuck
shit-ass
cum-whore
shitting-shit-shitter
fucking-fuck-fucker
jesus ball-juice
burger-pussy
american ass
canadian cock
gaping fuck-hole
horny ass-crack
squirt shaft
Source: The movie 'The 40-year-old Virgin'. For the scene where the virgin is getting his chest mow-waxed for augmenting his sex appeal, he has to give some choice abuses each time the waxing lady pulls off a strip of hair coated hot wax from his chest. And the entire movie production team had come up with the above listed curses of which only the best made it to the movie halls. But all of them are quite interesting. So I listed them here for reference. Some day when I want to really respond back to some bugger, this list is gonna be handy.
P.S.: I thought a lot, before deciding against letting my fear of putting these abuses on my post. I doubt how many readers I am ever gonna get for my blogs. For those choice few who know me well, who read me, it doesn't matter.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
The pop-a-pill illness
As my eyes opened in the morning, I could feel my body warmer than usual. And when I tried to lift my head up from the cushion, I could feel the weight in my head. It was as if my brain had suddenly become a 1000 times more meatier and the heaviness was pulling my head down. The pain was terrible. And when I tried to get up from the bed, my legs seemed too heavy too. It was as if the leg muscles were paining from a sudden burst of exertion. But I didn't remember doing anything physically stressful over the past 2-3 days. That was when I felt that I was probably developing slight fever and sickness. I walked over to the counter where I had kept my medicines. I picked up a pill and popped it straight in. Half an hour I was feeling much better and an hour later I stepped out for work.
At work was when Shibu pointed out this article to me. Scary, isn't it?
A particularly important piece to be noted from this article:
"Dr Altaf Patel, physician, Jaslok Hospital, lists four of the most common types of pill popping:
• Non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAID). These set off asthma attacks. In Tanmay's case, it led to a massive cardiac arrest and subsequent coma and hypoxia.
• Cold medicines containing phenyl propanol amine. These can raise blood pressure, so blood pressure patients beware of popping pills to control that running nose or a cough.
• Aspirin. Dr Patel says that it's only a misconception that this is safe. Often, it causes internal bleeding and one doesn't even know about it until it develops into something serious.
• Paracetamol. The common use of paracetamol is to beat a hangover after a night of drinking. It causes liver damage.
"Only vitamin B-complex and anatacids should be sold over the counter, nothing else," says Dr Patel.
"95 per cent of drugs shouldn't be available OTC," agrees Dr Yeolekar, director, KEM Hospital."
I have decided now to at least think a thousand times before just casually popping a pill in.
At work was when Shibu pointed out this article to me. Scary, isn't it?
A particularly important piece to be noted from this article:
"Dr Altaf Patel, physician, Jaslok Hospital, lists four of the most common types of pill popping:
• Non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAID). These set off asthma attacks. In Tanmay's case, it led to a massive cardiac arrest and subsequent coma and hypoxia.
• Cold medicines containing phenyl propanol amine. These can raise blood pressure, so blood pressure patients beware of popping pills to control that running nose or a cough.
• Aspirin. Dr Patel says that it's only a misconception that this is safe. Often, it causes internal bleeding and one doesn't even know about it until it develops into something serious.
• Paracetamol. The common use of paracetamol is to beat a hangover after a night of drinking. It causes liver damage.
"Only vitamin B-complex and anatacids should be sold over the counter, nothing else," says Dr Patel.
"95 per cent of drugs shouldn't be available OTC," agrees Dr Yeolekar, director, KEM Hospital."
I have decided now to at least think a thousand times before just casually popping a pill in.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
28 reasons why '28 Weeks Later' did not work for me
1) 28 Days Later is at least 28 times better than 28 Weeks Later. Period.
2) The movie starts off with a brand new set of actors. What happened to the actors in the original '28 Days Later'? When you traditionally go to watch a sequel, it's because you genuinely liked the original and wondered what happened to the likeable characters from the original movie. That idea does not hold true with this sequel.
3) The movie then takes you to a zombie-ravaged Britain 28 weeks later. USA led NATO forces have undertaken rehabilitation efforts of London and are working on repopulating the city. But where is the British government? Where is the Queen and the royal family? Did all of them die too? I would like to believe not. If they had managed to run away to some other country, it would have made more compelling viewing to see how the British Government in exile agreed to let the US military into British land and let them control power in their land.
4) And what about the rest of the world? How did the world leaders react to a situation like this? It is impossible to believe that while in one corner of the city there are still rotting bodies from a deadly virus waiting to be cleared, and there are still rats and dogs scattering about the bodies, USA led troops have already started the process of rehabilitation in another part of the city. Don't you think the rest of the world would vehemently oppose such an idea if it were to be implemented?
5) Just like the Saw and Hostel series (which I totally enjoy - completely mindless and slapstick gore) and other stupid horror films of the like, even this movie depends on its lead characters performing foolery all the time to lead the gore chapter forward. The kids and the government officials fall into every horror-movie trap ever set, as if they have never seen a horror film: Don't leave protected confines for a solo trip, don't kiss the half-zombie, don't turn off all the lights when the zombies are breaking in, don't enter the abandoned subway and tunnels.
6) How old is the US Army's chief medical officer Scarlet (played by Rose Byrne)? 28? Isn't she at least 10 years too young to be in charge of an operation this huge?
7) Talk about gaping holes in the movie plotline. First you've got talk about the U.S. Army and its extremely tight security protocols. Then, the next moment, there is practically none. Two kids easily escape. What about Quarantine for a potentially infected person, who just minutes ago is revealed to be a carrier of the deadly virus? There is no quarantine. In a real situation none of the plot turning points could have happened. A janitor or caretaker having unsupervised, total access through a military quarantine facility to get through the area with NO ONE noticing. And this scene is a fulcrum of the entire movie. LMAO.
8) This movie borrows heavily all the good ideas from the prequel, 28 Days Later. And while this movie had added a couple of ideas, the director totally wasted those ideas by focussing more on the gore and violence and blood.
9) One of the good ideas that the director completely wasted was the lead character Don's (played by Robert Carlyle) guilt. This could have been a very good movie about his guilty conscience and how he deals with it. Rather it is tackled the easy way out - get him infected as well.
10) Another idea that is totally wasted is about how to explore Don's wife, Alice's (played by Catherine McCormack) potential for carrying a cure for the virus in her blood.
11) The obvious political allegory in the movie also did not work for me. It might barely be possible to claim it's a commentary about the US led war in Iraq: When soldiers can no longer tell infected people from healthy civilians, they have to execute everyone to prevent the epidemic from spreading - Code Red. But I think this kind of philosophizing would ennoble a movie that has no agenda other than to frighten the movie-going audience. Why did the director venture in this direction when he did not want to explore that theme anymore?
12) It is in moments like this that the movie begins to lack pace. There are moments when it seems confused between whether it should make a moralistic statement or whether it should pander to the zombie movie going audiences' tastes to set the cash registers ringing.
13) The usual sequences found in accepted zombie genre can be found here, including, in no particular order, scenes of zombie hordes approaching over the crest of a hill; a zombie attack on a conked-out vehicle, and a zombie assault on a charming, peaceful countryside hideaway.
14) Which is what brings me back to my core rant with this movie again - The director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo seems more interested in rattling nervous systems than in developing a truly scary movie. There is no coherent plot, rather just a hotch potch set of gore sequences conjured together.
15) The movie's focal gross scene is when a helicopter pilot aims his chopper blades at the screaming, chasing zombies, and blood and flesh begin to splatter. There are heads and limbs flying here and there and the entire scene turns a tomato sauce red. Still not even a drop of blood falls on the chopper pilot, inspite of his chopper getting painted a dark red. How did the pilot escape uninfected through all this gore?
16) And the 12-yr old kid Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton - more about him later on) is much more smarter than James Bond. Everybody else in the movie die when aimed with a shot once. Just like James Bond, Mithun Chakraborty and Rajnikanth (the latter two being Indian superstars), no matter how much you attack Andy, he will always escape unhurt.
17) Why do the zombies always walk and run as if they will lose in the very first round of 'Dancing with the Stars'? And they screech as if they will lose in the very first round of 'American Idol'? Well, come to think more about it - perhaps, they might just win the contest.
18) And why is Scarlet so attached with the kids? Why does she care so much about some random strangers she just met?
19) The last shot of the movie - infected people running through Paris, with a grim looking Eiffel Tower in the background - leaves out scope for further increasing the money making gambit, exploiting the same concept. This way the moviemakers can go on and on with the same concept, never really bringing the series to close. I hear that the next sequel titled '28 Months Later' is already in the books and it will be set in Russia. The way is left open for more movies in a lucrative franchise: 28 months? 28 years? 28 decades? 28 centuries? Who cares? I will probably look forward more eagerly to similarly titled porn versions - 9 months later? 9 inches later?
20) The characters in the movie are totally uninteresting and you don't care about any of them, and certainly not the kids. The kids are generic and the script doesn't care much about the adults. The adults in 28 Days Later inhabited better developed and more sympathetic personalities. Tension in horror movies results from viewers caring about what happens to characters. The audience's connection to the protagonists of 28 Days Later made it a compelling experience. The lack of such a connection in 28 Weeks Later reduces this to a number of sequences just characterized by shock moments.
21) What irritated me further was the jerky camera action. Apparently, Fresnadillo believes that the proper way to film any action scene is to shake the camera violently and pan it wildly back and forth, thereby making it virtually impossible to figure out what's going on (and pushing viewers with motion sickness).
22) To give the the gore sequences added effect without spending much effort in filming them, Fresnadillo's crew came up with another idea - choppy editing. So none of the shots taken during the gory sequences last for more than a second. With the camera jerks and the random edits, what ensues is a mishmash of red colored characters and mumble jumble cacophony of sounds.
23) For further added effect during the blood curdling sequences you have an irritating throbby background score. Old school gore is old news. So Fresnadillo pumps up the volume with his loud, pumpy score aimed at further disorienting the audience with sound. At peak moments, an industrial-grunge soundtrack pumps up to intolerable volume. The results are sickening and frightening, yes, but not exactly remarkable filmmaking.
24) The culminating scene is shot in complete darkness and I really couldn't figure out what's happening until I discovered that Scarlet is dead, because I just couldn't see her anymore. Did I care? No.
25) Most movies with kids aim at making the kids appear all cutesy and cuddly (the most recent criminal to this - I remember the kids from the movie 'The Holiday'). In this movie, Fresnadillo tries too hard in seeing to it that the kids don't seem all bogus cute. In effect, the kids appear to be made of nerve and steel and indefatigable. Which doesn't work either.
26) While 28 Days Later ended with a sense of hope and solidarity (I am not talking about its alternative ending here), 28 Weeks Later ends with a foreboding sense of doom, which says that try as much as you might, humankind cannot get rid of the virus.
27) After the movie ended, I still had to look up IMDB for the movie names and the real life names of the characters in this movie - that's how less I cared about them. If I enjoy a movie, I sit through its credits and the names register in my head. Not in this one.
28) And when I looked up IMDB, what did I find? The kids's real life names are Imogen Poots and Mackintosh Muggleton. Poots? and Muggleton? I hope IMDB is not pulling a fast one on me. :)
2) The movie starts off with a brand new set of actors. What happened to the actors in the original '28 Days Later'? When you traditionally go to watch a sequel, it's because you genuinely liked the original and wondered what happened to the likeable characters from the original movie. That idea does not hold true with this sequel.
3) The movie then takes you to a zombie-ravaged Britain 28 weeks later. USA led NATO forces have undertaken rehabilitation efforts of London and are working on repopulating the city. But where is the British government? Where is the Queen and the royal family? Did all of them die too? I would like to believe not. If they had managed to run away to some other country, it would have made more compelling viewing to see how the British Government in exile agreed to let the US military into British land and let them control power in their land.
4) And what about the rest of the world? How did the world leaders react to a situation like this? It is impossible to believe that while in one corner of the city there are still rotting bodies from a deadly virus waiting to be cleared, and there are still rats and dogs scattering about the bodies, USA led troops have already started the process of rehabilitation in another part of the city. Don't you think the rest of the world would vehemently oppose such an idea if it were to be implemented?
5) Just like the Saw and Hostel series (which I totally enjoy - completely mindless and slapstick gore) and other stupid horror films of the like, even this movie depends on its lead characters performing foolery all the time to lead the gore chapter forward. The kids and the government officials fall into every horror-movie trap ever set, as if they have never seen a horror film: Don't leave protected confines for a solo trip, don't kiss the half-zombie, don't turn off all the lights when the zombies are breaking in, don't enter the abandoned subway and tunnels.
6) How old is the US Army's chief medical officer Scarlet (played by Rose Byrne)? 28? Isn't she at least 10 years too young to be in charge of an operation this huge?
7) Talk about gaping holes in the movie plotline. First you've got talk about the U.S. Army and its extremely tight security protocols. Then, the next moment, there is practically none. Two kids easily escape. What about Quarantine for a potentially infected person, who just minutes ago is revealed to be a carrier of the deadly virus? There is no quarantine. In a real situation none of the plot turning points could have happened. A janitor or caretaker having unsupervised, total access through a military quarantine facility to get through the area with NO ONE noticing. And this scene is a fulcrum of the entire movie. LMAO.
8) This movie borrows heavily all the good ideas from the prequel, 28 Days Later. And while this movie had added a couple of ideas, the director totally wasted those ideas by focussing more on the gore and violence and blood.
9) One of the good ideas that the director completely wasted was the lead character Don's (played by Robert Carlyle) guilt. This could have been a very good movie about his guilty conscience and how he deals with it. Rather it is tackled the easy way out - get him infected as well.
10) Another idea that is totally wasted is about how to explore Don's wife, Alice's (played by Catherine McCormack) potential for carrying a cure for the virus in her blood.
11) The obvious political allegory in the movie also did not work for me. It might barely be possible to claim it's a commentary about the US led war in Iraq: When soldiers can no longer tell infected people from healthy civilians, they have to execute everyone to prevent the epidemic from spreading - Code Red. But I think this kind of philosophizing would ennoble a movie that has no agenda other than to frighten the movie-going audience. Why did the director venture in this direction when he did not want to explore that theme anymore?
12) It is in moments like this that the movie begins to lack pace. There are moments when it seems confused between whether it should make a moralistic statement or whether it should pander to the zombie movie going audiences' tastes to set the cash registers ringing.
13) The usual sequences found in accepted zombie genre can be found here, including, in no particular order, scenes of zombie hordes approaching over the crest of a hill; a zombie attack on a conked-out vehicle, and a zombie assault on a charming, peaceful countryside hideaway.
14) Which is what brings me back to my core rant with this movie again - The director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo seems more interested in rattling nervous systems than in developing a truly scary movie. There is no coherent plot, rather just a hotch potch set of gore sequences conjured together.
15) The movie's focal gross scene is when a helicopter pilot aims his chopper blades at the screaming, chasing zombies, and blood and flesh begin to splatter. There are heads and limbs flying here and there and the entire scene turns a tomato sauce red. Still not even a drop of blood falls on the chopper pilot, inspite of his chopper getting painted a dark red. How did the pilot escape uninfected through all this gore?
16) And the 12-yr old kid Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton - more about him later on) is much more smarter than James Bond. Everybody else in the movie die when aimed with a shot once. Just like James Bond, Mithun Chakraborty and Rajnikanth (the latter two being Indian superstars), no matter how much you attack Andy, he will always escape unhurt.
17) Why do the zombies always walk and run as if they will lose in the very first round of 'Dancing with the Stars'? And they screech as if they will lose in the very first round of 'American Idol'? Well, come to think more about it - perhaps, they might just win the contest.
18) And why is Scarlet so attached with the kids? Why does she care so much about some random strangers she just met?
19) The last shot of the movie - infected people running through Paris, with a grim looking Eiffel Tower in the background - leaves out scope for further increasing the money making gambit, exploiting the same concept. This way the moviemakers can go on and on with the same concept, never really bringing the series to close. I hear that the next sequel titled '28 Months Later' is already in the books and it will be set in Russia. The way is left open for more movies in a lucrative franchise: 28 months? 28 years? 28 decades? 28 centuries? Who cares? I will probably look forward more eagerly to similarly titled porn versions - 9 months later? 9 inches later?
20) The characters in the movie are totally uninteresting and you don't care about any of them, and certainly not the kids. The kids are generic and the script doesn't care much about the adults. The adults in 28 Days Later inhabited better developed and more sympathetic personalities. Tension in horror movies results from viewers caring about what happens to characters. The audience's connection to the protagonists of 28 Days Later made it a compelling experience. The lack of such a connection in 28 Weeks Later reduces this to a number of sequences just characterized by shock moments.
21) What irritated me further was the jerky camera action. Apparently, Fresnadillo believes that the proper way to film any action scene is to shake the camera violently and pan it wildly back and forth, thereby making it virtually impossible to figure out what's going on (and pushing viewers with motion sickness).
22) To give the the gore sequences added effect without spending much effort in filming them, Fresnadillo's crew came up with another idea - choppy editing. So none of the shots taken during the gory sequences last for more than a second. With the camera jerks and the random edits, what ensues is a mishmash of red colored characters and mumble jumble cacophony of sounds.
23) For further added effect during the blood curdling sequences you have an irritating throbby background score. Old school gore is old news. So Fresnadillo pumps up the volume with his loud, pumpy score aimed at further disorienting the audience with sound. At peak moments, an industrial-grunge soundtrack pumps up to intolerable volume. The results are sickening and frightening, yes, but not exactly remarkable filmmaking.
24) The culminating scene is shot in complete darkness and I really couldn't figure out what's happening until I discovered that Scarlet is dead, because I just couldn't see her anymore. Did I care? No.
25) Most movies with kids aim at making the kids appear all cutesy and cuddly (the most recent criminal to this - I remember the kids from the movie 'The Holiday'). In this movie, Fresnadillo tries too hard in seeing to it that the kids don't seem all bogus cute. In effect, the kids appear to be made of nerve and steel and indefatigable. Which doesn't work either.
26) While 28 Days Later ended with a sense of hope and solidarity (I am not talking about its alternative ending here), 28 Weeks Later ends with a foreboding sense of doom, which says that try as much as you might, humankind cannot get rid of the virus.
27) After the movie ended, I still had to look up IMDB for the movie names and the real life names of the characters in this movie - that's how less I cared about them. If I enjoy a movie, I sit through its credits and the names register in my head. Not in this one.
28) And when I looked up IMDB, what did I find? The kids's real life names are Imogen Poots and Mackintosh Muggleton. Poots? and Muggleton? I hope IMDB is not pulling a fast one on me. :)
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Plagiarism International Unltd.
If anything about Bollywood always made me feel content, it was the music from the dream factory. Sadly it was only the sole Bhangra music that captured the attention of the international listeners when they heard about Indian and Bollywood music. But over the last few years, I am noticing more and more mainstream Indian songs being incorporated in international songs, which is a good sign.
My favorites were the incorporation of 'Aao Huzoor Aao' before the song 'Quizás Quizás Quizás', filmed on a drag Gael Garcia Bernal in Pedro Almodovar's fabulous 'LA MALA EDUCACIÓN'. And who can forget the diamond clad Nicole Kidman singing Chamma Chamma (the original being filmed on a ultra hot Urmila) in Moulin Rouge?
But even a bigger trend nowadays is incorporating hindi tracks in Reggaethon and Hip hop tracks.
So you have Adnan Sami's Kabhi to Nazar Milao's few lines featuring in the track Un Chi Chi by Aventura, Anu Malik's Eli Re Eli from the movie Yaadein featuring in the track Mirame Mirame by Daddy Yankee and Bappi Da's Thoda Resham Lagta Haifrom the movie Jyoti featuring in the track Addictive by Truth Hurts
Finally our good old Hindi film music getting its due recognition from internation quarters. For once Bappi Da and Anuji can sue the international artistes for loyalty purposes.
Btw, when we are talking about plagiarism here, I should also say that its not that none of the Indian artists mentioned above have never been "inspired" by any other international numbers. Particularly there is little thing that I still vaguely remember about Bappi Lahiri's 'Kaliyon Ka Chaman' plagiarism mess.
Of course it is known story that Bappida sued Dr Dre and won the lawsuit against them in the case of plagiarism for using his composed music in the song Addictive. The other part of the story is an Indian twist to the copycat story. This one features in the assorted remix compilation UMI10 - Volume 3! The music is credited to composer Harry Anand. When some journalist asked him about the origins of his song, Harry responded back saying that he was asked to remix the US smash hit in his own way by the record label. He apparently had no clue about the movie 'Jyoti' and the actual original! Even more funnier is the video for the remixed Indian version...its a straight lift of the US version! So they lift our song, and we lift the lifted. We also lift their video! Interesting equation, this!
P.S.: If you have noticed all the URLs in the post above, Youtube yay!
My favorites were the incorporation of 'Aao Huzoor Aao' before the song 'Quizás Quizás Quizás', filmed on a drag Gael Garcia Bernal in Pedro Almodovar's fabulous 'LA MALA EDUCACIÓN'. And who can forget the diamond clad Nicole Kidman singing Chamma Chamma (the original being filmed on a ultra hot Urmila) in Moulin Rouge?
But even a bigger trend nowadays is incorporating hindi tracks in Reggaethon and Hip hop tracks.
So you have Adnan Sami's Kabhi to Nazar Milao's few lines featuring in the track Un Chi Chi by Aventura, Anu Malik's Eli Re Eli from the movie Yaadein featuring in the track Mirame Mirame by Daddy Yankee and Bappi Da's Thoda Resham Lagta Haifrom the movie Jyoti featuring in the track Addictive by Truth Hurts
Finally our good old Hindi film music getting its due recognition from internation quarters. For once Bappi Da and Anuji can sue the international artistes for loyalty purposes.
Btw, when we are talking about plagiarism here, I should also say that its not that none of the Indian artists mentioned above have never been "inspired" by any other international numbers. Particularly there is little thing that I still vaguely remember about Bappi Lahiri's 'Kaliyon Ka Chaman' plagiarism mess.
Of course it is known story that Bappida sued Dr Dre and won the lawsuit against them in the case of plagiarism for using his composed music in the song Addictive. The other part of the story is an Indian twist to the copycat story. This one features in the assorted remix compilation UMI10 - Volume 3! The music is credited to composer Harry Anand. When some journalist asked him about the origins of his song, Harry responded back saying that he was asked to remix the US smash hit in his own way by the record label. He apparently had no clue about the movie 'Jyoti' and the actual original! Even more funnier is the video for the remixed Indian version...its a straight lift of the US version! So they lift our song, and we lift the lifted. We also lift their video! Interesting equation, this!
P.S.: If you have noticed all the URLs in the post above, Youtube yay!
Technology at work
So last week my team at work achieved a huge technological breakthrough with our videoconferencing / teleconferencing options. It was simply brilliant! While we have all been using Teleconferencing and Videoconferencing and Netmeeting and other Screensharing options, each with its own share of benefits, never before in my experience had such a huge team met over a brainstorming session spread across so many locations. So we had 13 team members from 7 different locations spread across the globe - London, Dusseldorf, Paris, Spain, New York, New Jersey, Atlanta.
There were 6 of us in the conference room in New York. Our Videoconferencing facility in New York had 3 projector screens. So on one of the projector screens, we had a split screen and couple of our team members from Dusseldorf and London were projected on the split screen. On the other screen, we projected the document that we were all gonna talk about. Now this is the interesting part! One of our fellow team members joining from Spain was working from his hotel room, and of course he did not have any video conferencing facility in the hotel. He put his webcam on, shared his screen with the rest of the team using a screen sharing option and all of us viewed him on the other projector. The remaining team members were not on Videoconference, we could just hear them through the teleconference.
It was a richly rewarding experience and there was a free exchange of thoughts throughout the session. And we could easily interact with different participants located in different parts of the globe, without incurring travel expenses or other expenses associated with face to face communication. Technology has indeed come a long way!
There were 6 of us in the conference room in New York. Our Videoconferencing facility in New York had 3 projector screens. So on one of the projector screens, we had a split screen and couple of our team members from Dusseldorf and London were projected on the split screen. On the other screen, we projected the document that we were all gonna talk about. Now this is the interesting part! One of our fellow team members joining from Spain was working from his hotel room, and of course he did not have any video conferencing facility in the hotel. He put his webcam on, shared his screen with the rest of the team using a screen sharing option and all of us viewed him on the other projector. The remaining team members were not on Videoconference, we could just hear them through the teleconference.
It was a richly rewarding experience and there was a free exchange of thoughts throughout the session. And we could easily interact with different participants located in different parts of the globe, without incurring travel expenses or other expenses associated with face to face communication. Technology has indeed come a long way!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Break free of the procession poppycock
I heard from Amanda during our weekly socials, about the 'Processional Caterpillars'. The thought that she shared with us was pretty interesting and hence what better way to share it with others, than through this blog post.
Just like the ant colonies and the bee colonies, these caterpillar colonies are some of the most advanced social cultures in the animal kingdom. Click here to read more about the social characteristics of this little creature.
But what intrigued me most was just like ants how these caterpillars too walked head to tail behind each other in a single line, following the path laid down by their leader.
You can watch a video shot of the caterpillars walking behind each other in the link provided above and also in this Youtube video link.
A biologist once experimented with these processional caterpillars. He lined up the caterpillars on the rim of a pot that held a plant so that the lead caterpillar was head to tail with the last caterpillar, with no break with the parade. The tiny creatures walked around the rim of the pot for a full week before they died of exhaustion and starvation. Not once did any of the caterpillars break out of the line and venture over into the plant to eat. Food was only inches away, but the follow the leader instinct was even stronger than the drive to eat and survive!
This example is used by many organizational behavior experts to demonstrate the difference between 'Productive' thinking and 'Reproductive' thinking.
Productive thinking or Creative thinking would mean to break out of the mould - just like it would have done good for the caterpillars to break out of their Procession rigmarole and scout for food on their own, rather than depend on their leader to take them to the food. The power of productive thinking lies in its potential to increase your chances of finding, developing, and ultimately implementing unexpected connections.
On the other hand, Reproductive thinking would mean following well worn patterns which is what most of us do most of the time, and churning out products and babies one after the other. As a society, mankind has evolved so much over the ages that there are processes and rules and set patterns laid down which most of us follow most of the time. Don't get me wrong. Not that this is not needed, in fact, it is absolutely essential for the smooth and harmonious running of our day-to-day activities.
However, the tethering effect of following well-worn patterns can be a major barrier to Creative thinking. In India, elephant wranglers, or mahouts, prevent elephant calves from wandering by chaining one of the animal’s legs to a stake deeply embedded in the ground. Try as they might, the young elephants aren’t strong enough either to break their chains or dislodge the stake. Attempting to do so is not only fruitless but uncomfortable as the chain tightens around their legs. Pretty soon they stop trying. As adults, elephants are kept in place with a length of woven hemp (much cheaper and more convenient than a chain) tied to a stake hammered into the ground with a few strokes. Full-grown elephants can pull away from their tethers easily, but they don’t. They have a deeply ingrained pattern that tells them that escape is impossible. For the elephants, the pattern has become more powerful than the data. (This example is quoted from the book 'Think Better')
There is a time and place for both Productive and Reproductive thinking. When stuck in a jam and things do not seem to be moving forward, we need to put on our creative hats and think better. But Creative thinking is not an art that you can learn in a single day. Rather it requires practice, and the more we try and think logically and creatively on a daily basis, the easier it is to put this thinking hat on, when facing difficult circumstances.
(The book Think Better suggests some basic ways and means in getting used to the idea of Productive Thinking.
P.S.: This is not a sales pitch for the book, I am yet to read it. I am just fascinated by the Productive v/s Reproductive Thinking approach)
Just like the ant colonies and the bee colonies, these caterpillar colonies are some of the most advanced social cultures in the animal kingdom. Click here to read more about the social characteristics of this little creature.
But what intrigued me most was just like ants how these caterpillars too walked head to tail behind each other in a single line, following the path laid down by their leader.
You can watch a video shot of the caterpillars walking behind each other in the link provided above and also in this Youtube video link.
A biologist once experimented with these processional caterpillars. He lined up the caterpillars on the rim of a pot that held a plant so that the lead caterpillar was head to tail with the last caterpillar, with no break with the parade. The tiny creatures walked around the rim of the pot for a full week before they died of exhaustion and starvation. Not once did any of the caterpillars break out of the line and venture over into the plant to eat. Food was only inches away, but the follow the leader instinct was even stronger than the drive to eat and survive!
This example is used by many organizational behavior experts to demonstrate the difference between 'Productive' thinking and 'Reproductive' thinking.
Productive thinking or Creative thinking would mean to break out of the mould - just like it would have done good for the caterpillars to break out of their Procession rigmarole and scout for food on their own, rather than depend on their leader to take them to the food. The power of productive thinking lies in its potential to increase your chances of finding, developing, and ultimately implementing unexpected connections.
On the other hand, Reproductive thinking would mean following well worn patterns which is what most of us do most of the time, and churning out products and babies one after the other. As a society, mankind has evolved so much over the ages that there are processes and rules and set patterns laid down which most of us follow most of the time. Don't get me wrong. Not that this is not needed, in fact, it is absolutely essential for the smooth and harmonious running of our day-to-day activities.
However, the tethering effect of following well-worn patterns can be a major barrier to Creative thinking. In India, elephant wranglers, or mahouts, prevent elephant calves from wandering by chaining one of the animal’s legs to a stake deeply embedded in the ground. Try as they might, the young elephants aren’t strong enough either to break their chains or dislodge the stake. Attempting to do so is not only fruitless but uncomfortable as the chain tightens around their legs. Pretty soon they stop trying. As adults, elephants are kept in place with a length of woven hemp (much cheaper and more convenient than a chain) tied to a stake hammered into the ground with a few strokes. Full-grown elephants can pull away from their tethers easily, but they don’t. They have a deeply ingrained pattern that tells them that escape is impossible. For the elephants, the pattern has become more powerful than the data. (This example is quoted from the book 'Think Better')
There is a time and place for both Productive and Reproductive thinking. When stuck in a jam and things do not seem to be moving forward, we need to put on our creative hats and think better. But Creative thinking is not an art that you can learn in a single day. Rather it requires practice, and the more we try and think logically and creatively on a daily basis, the easier it is to put this thinking hat on, when facing difficult circumstances.
(The book Think Better suggests some basic ways and means in getting used to the idea of Productive Thinking.
P.S.: This is not a sales pitch for the book, I am yet to read it. I am just fascinated by the Productive v/s Reproductive Thinking approach)
Ah! New York's finally getting onboard with Public Restrooms!
This is a blog post in which I had written about one of my NYC pet peeves - no public restrooms.
And today I read this. New York's finally getting on board with paid public potties. Yay!
So New York has finally come of age - with people getting some more choices of where to pee, when the holding gets tough.
But with all the features mentioned in the article above, I just wonder whether the administration could have come up with something simpler and easier, earlier on and saved the millions of city dwellers the trouble of having to hunt (and walk funny while hunting).
Anyways, better late than never.
I just hope that unlike Mumbai (and I am sure many other cities in the world), it does not turn into another haven and hunting-ground for hookers. You know 15 minutes is a lot of time! And with a warning bell that goes off at 12 minutes, you even have sufficient 3 minutes to clean up yourself. And you can walk out without bothering about cleaning the restroom after yourself. Leave the cleaning of the restroom to itself when the doors close.
And today I read this. New York's finally getting on board with paid public potties. Yay!
So New York has finally come of age - with people getting some more choices of where to pee, when the holding gets tough.
But with all the features mentioned in the article above, I just wonder whether the administration could have come up with something simpler and easier, earlier on and saved the millions of city dwellers the trouble of having to hunt (and walk funny while hunting).
Anyways, better late than never.
I just hope that unlike Mumbai (and I am sure many other cities in the world), it does not turn into another haven and hunting-ground for hookers. You know 15 minutes is a lot of time! And with a warning bell that goes off at 12 minutes, you even have sufficient 3 minutes to clean up yourself. And you can walk out without bothering about cleaning the restroom after yourself. Leave the cleaning of the restroom to itself when the doors close.
Friday, January 4, 2008
What’s in a Name?
Posted on four big signs set along US-63 South en route to the north-central town of Toledo along the edge of a farm :
Sick of DC?
Ready for Change?
Vote for the Candidate
With the Funny Name.
Of course the candidate they are referring to Obama (Its so funny when my friend accidentally referred to him as O-la-bama a few days back, and we all had a hearty laugh about it)
But is it only Obama for whom this sign-post could work? What about Huckabee ;)?
Sick of DC?
Ready for Change?
Vote for the Candidate
With the Funny Name.
Of course the candidate they are referring to Obama (Its so funny when my friend accidentally referred to him as O-la-bama a few days back, and we all had a hearty laugh about it)
But is it only Obama for whom this sign-post could work? What about Huckabee ;)?
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Bollywood in 2007 for me
My fav Bollywood movies in 2007:
1) Black Friday
2) Taare Zameen Par
3) Jab We Met
4) Metro
5) Chak De India
Aaja Nachle, Om Shanti Om, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd were fun movies as long as they lasted
And yes, Saawariya was the biggest yawn!
The biggest Khan of the year:
Irrfan Khan - The brilliant actor in the movies Metro, Aaja Nachle, The Namesake (wish he gets an Oscar Nomination this year for this movie), A Mighty Heart (He even walked the Cannes Red Carpet this year with Angelina and Brad Pitt, and that too without all the mighty PR resources that Ms Rai has to her benefit), and The Darjeeling Limited. Irrfan, you rock!
1) Black Friday
2) Taare Zameen Par
3) Jab We Met
4) Metro
5) Chak De India
Aaja Nachle, Om Shanti Om, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd were fun movies as long as they lasted
And yes, Saawariya was the biggest yawn!
The biggest Khan of the year:
Irrfan Khan - The brilliant actor in the movies Metro, Aaja Nachle, The Namesake (wish he gets an Oscar Nomination this year for this movie), A Mighty Heart (He even walked the Cannes Red Carpet this year with Angelina and Brad Pitt, and that too without all the mighty PR resources that Ms Rai has to her benefit), and The Darjeeling Limited. Irrfan, you rock!
301/302 - Disturbing!
What do you make of a "food" movie that does not make you feel like wanting to eat after the movie's done?
301/302 is one such movie. It was awarded South Korea's national prize for best film of 1995. And truly well deserved, if I could say so. This movie is so disquieting and disturbing, that hours after having seen the movie, the scenes are still afresh in my mind.
Viewing this movie comes for me at the right time around New Year's that I made a resolution to lose my weight. I am sure I have lost my appetite at least for a few days having watched this movie.
301 and 302 are two neighborhood apartments housing two lonely women with dark pasts. The movie opens with an investigator questioning the lady in 301 (an obssessive chef who thinks that food is the solution to all problems) about the lady resident in 302 (a lonely writer who has long lost the will and the longing to eat, make love and simply live), who seems to have disappeared. The investigation seems to be just a ploy to get the viewers interested in the story. Once the story lazily shifts gears between numerous flashbacks across numerous periods of times, you realize that the movie is not just a simple mystery/thriller. Rather it is a dark tragi-comedy, delving deep into the inter-relationship between food, love, sex and violence.
Through the course of the investigation and flashbacks, 301 is revealed to be compulsive about both food and sex. When she does not get sex and love, 301 resorts to more of cooking and feeding herself and people around her. And 302, who is revealed to be the daughter of a butcher, has some nasty skeletons in her closet explaining the reasons for her bulimia. When 301 learns of it, she begins cooking for her to attempt to shake her out of it. Unfortunately, it doesn't work out as per 301's plans. All of 301's hard work in delicately preparing meals for her anorexic neighbor, goes in the trash and down the toilet, and the relationship between the two gets tenser and tenser.
As the movie was progressing, I was so badly hoping that the director does not chicken out like most other directors and resort to a lesbian angle to reduce the tension between the two lonely women. And this is where the director scores majorly from my side. Not only does the director not go down the beaten path, he resorts to a much more brutal, and logical end to this tale. Beware! This movie is not for the faint hearted.
The movie is filled with rather disgusting visuals of food preparation (I could almost see all my vegetarian friends cringing, I still cannot take my mind off the scene of the preparation of the loach soup). The close-ups of people gorging on various food items are bound to make anyone squeamish. The cinematography is great with an excellent use of vivid colors. Also, the inventive set design deserves praise, as most of the film takes place either in 302 (very sterile, library-like apartment) or 301 (very sleek and vibrant restaurant-like apartment with a futuristic looking kitchen). Using crisp cinematography and extreme close-ups, saturated colors, compelling set decoration, the overall production design is, in large measure, responsible for creating the movie's lingering sense of disturbance and disquiet.
Of course all this is brought together by the excellent direction, and I must really appreciate the director for his vision and guts in putting forward this brave movie. The editing, at first, I thought could have been a bit more taut, but on second thoughts, maybe it was the lazily paced narrative and extended cooking and eating scenes that made the movie all the more memorable. There are some unanswered questions till the very end (who was 302's mysterious male caller? Why did 301 cut her hair short in the very end to almost resemble a look similar to 302? And finally how did the investigation culminate?), but it would be nitpicky on my part to graze on these minor short comings in an otherwise interesting movie.
Ultimately the movie works because it's an odd relationship between the two women, where – if not predictably – these two women are destined to be together, one way or the other. Only 301 can fix 302's problems … with a solution that isn't exactly your or my definition of a gourmet meal.
301/302 is one such movie. It was awarded South Korea's national prize for best film of 1995. And truly well deserved, if I could say so. This movie is so disquieting and disturbing, that hours after having seen the movie, the scenes are still afresh in my mind.
Viewing this movie comes for me at the right time around New Year's that I made a resolution to lose my weight. I am sure I have lost my appetite at least for a few days having watched this movie.
301 and 302 are two neighborhood apartments housing two lonely women with dark pasts. The movie opens with an investigator questioning the lady in 301 (an obssessive chef who thinks that food is the solution to all problems) about the lady resident in 302 (a lonely writer who has long lost the will and the longing to eat, make love and simply live), who seems to have disappeared. The investigation seems to be just a ploy to get the viewers interested in the story. Once the story lazily shifts gears between numerous flashbacks across numerous periods of times, you realize that the movie is not just a simple mystery/thriller. Rather it is a dark tragi-comedy, delving deep into the inter-relationship between food, love, sex and violence.
Through the course of the investigation and flashbacks, 301 is revealed to be compulsive about both food and sex. When she does not get sex and love, 301 resorts to more of cooking and feeding herself and people around her. And 302, who is revealed to be the daughter of a butcher, has some nasty skeletons in her closet explaining the reasons for her bulimia. When 301 learns of it, she begins cooking for her to attempt to shake her out of it. Unfortunately, it doesn't work out as per 301's plans. All of 301's hard work in delicately preparing meals for her anorexic neighbor, goes in the trash and down the toilet, and the relationship between the two gets tenser and tenser.
As the movie was progressing, I was so badly hoping that the director does not chicken out like most other directors and resort to a lesbian angle to reduce the tension between the two lonely women. And this is where the director scores majorly from my side. Not only does the director not go down the beaten path, he resorts to a much more brutal, and logical end to this tale. Beware! This movie is not for the faint hearted.
The movie is filled with rather disgusting visuals of food preparation (I could almost see all my vegetarian friends cringing, I still cannot take my mind off the scene of the preparation of the loach soup). The close-ups of people gorging on various food items are bound to make anyone squeamish. The cinematography is great with an excellent use of vivid colors. Also, the inventive set design deserves praise, as most of the film takes place either in 302 (very sterile, library-like apartment) or 301 (very sleek and vibrant restaurant-like apartment with a futuristic looking kitchen). Using crisp cinematography and extreme close-ups, saturated colors, compelling set decoration, the overall production design is, in large measure, responsible for creating the movie's lingering sense of disturbance and disquiet.
Of course all this is brought together by the excellent direction, and I must really appreciate the director for his vision and guts in putting forward this brave movie. The editing, at first, I thought could have been a bit more taut, but on second thoughts, maybe it was the lazily paced narrative and extended cooking and eating scenes that made the movie all the more memorable. There are some unanswered questions till the very end (who was 302's mysterious male caller? Why did 301 cut her hair short in the very end to almost resemble a look similar to 302? And finally how did the investigation culminate?), but it would be nitpicky on my part to graze on these minor short comings in an otherwise interesting movie.
Ultimately the movie works because it's an odd relationship between the two women, where – if not predictably – these two women are destined to be together, one way or the other. Only 301 can fix 302's problems … with a solution that isn't exactly your or my definition of a gourmet meal.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)