Posts

Showing posts with the label Movies

When Destiny Sends Its Helpers

Image
Keep running. The right people find you on the way. At different stages of life, you’re confronted with different challenges. And each time you cross a hurdle, you feel that familiar sense of accomplishment. It’s tempting to attribute that success to your own skill, tenacity, and willpower — to pat yourself on the back and feel proud of how you handled it. But when you zoom out and look at the moments where you somehow managed to trump the odds, a quieter realization sets in: It’s never just you. There is always an unseen army that shows up at the right time. It was 2005. I had decided to pursue my Master’s in the US. I picked a few schools in the Midwest where the expenses were manageable, and that’s how the University of Missouri–Rolla entered the picture. But funding was still a massive question mark. I hadn’t secured any assistantship, and we didn’t have the means to pay out of pocket. We went from bank to bank, hoping for an education loan. Each manager aske...
2 comments
Read more

Bangalore cinemas

Image
Nataraj Theater (courtesy: Flickr ) The times were clearly in favor of standalone theaters in Bangalore; a time when multiplexes were an unheard of phenomenon.  A building hosted a single theater that could withstand a capacity of about six hundred or more people easily.  There was a clear demarcation between the first class and the balcony tickets.  Just like the categories bestowed by the Indian railways, first class seating was second best in this case as well.  The balcony tickets were the premium priced tickets and people clamored well in advance to get the special seats.  It was priced more not without a reason.  It was a good ten or twenty feet above the supposedly inferior seating arrangement, and the viewers seated in this area did not have to crane their necks to catch the reel life heroes in action. Plaza (courtesy: Flickr ) Like today, the nineties too believed in location centric charges.  A theater in a good location charged a...
4 comments
Read more

Reliving and awaiting...

For the past few days, I tried to read the much recommended book of " Freakonomics ", and as I gradually made my way to the middle of the book, I thought it was time to quit what I was reading and venture out to something different. Definitely, it had some funny anecdotes, but I guess, it was not the right time to read the book. It really depends on your frame of mind to enjoy a particular book. So, I called it quits (yes, yes, yet another book) and wanted to read something which reminded me of home. Who else can I turn to, but our very own, RKN . I desperately wanted to read Bachelor of Arts , in spite of the fact that I have read this countless times in the past. If somebody asks me to list out my favorite RKN book, I would list out Swami and Friends , but inherently, I would gloat over Bachelor of Arts and take immense pleasure, as if I was the author of this wonderful literary piece. In spite of having written a review of this book earlier , I just can't contr...
7 comments
Read more

Anbe Sivam

Image
Our lives are governed by facts and beliefs over a period of time that we have got used to these things; practices have been stamped with unquestionable beliefs. It is only a confined section of the society that tends to think on iconoclastic lines, and majority of us find it difficult to have our views matched with the minority section. I run into a severe thought process; most of the times, they are about trivialities, and the rest, about the extremes. It is always a great feeling to know that you have complete control of life, and that you want to think and act independently. But, ironically, it gives us great comfort to think that there is a power vastly superior than us controlling the various stages of our lives. Who is He? is a big question, but it gives great comfort to know that there is a He governing our lives! Last week, I happened to watch the movie Anbe Siva m once again (you can safely put the number of viewings to a double digit value). Some of my non-T...
9 comments
Read more

Jodhaa Akbar

Image
Ashutosh Gowariker , when he decided to make a magnum opus on one of Indian history's significant and finest characters, would have had a tough time to take up the challenging task of bringing out the appropriate fusion of fact and fiction. History is a daunting subject, the moment you decide to merge it with the present, there are people - those who know history and those who have no idea about what happened five hundred years ago , are literally baying for your blood for an unknown reason. There is little wonder that Ashutosh researched on his pet project for more than four years before getting down to the basic aspect of film making. It would have been easy for him to give up and proceed with the same old cliched subject of hero romancing heroine set in contemporary times. But, he stuck on to what he had set out for, getting the right people to do what he wanted, and in the end, he has come out with an outstanding movie of monumental grandeur transcending all possible imagin...
7 comments
Read more

Kannada movie; an afterthought

Image
My knowledge of Kannada movies was strictly limited to the single source of entertainment channel in the mid-nineties. I used to wait for the Saturday evening show (later moved to Sunday evening) eagerly, hoping I could see Annavaru Dr. Rajkumar , "rebel star" Ambareesh, "Kottigobba" Vishnuvardhan, or the Nag brothers in action. Movies were plain and simple, and it always ended in a feel good factor. I was never into watching Kannada movies in cinema halls. But as the years went by, as different channels came into existence, I could not keep up with the pace of Kannada movies; not that it was way ahead, but sadly, it had fallen way behind the standards set by its regional peers. So, I moved away from the solitary source to keep track of other things, but I still made it a point to watch the movies played on DD9, the regional equivalent of DD1, as and when I caught the Kannada movie watching mindset. Though I am not a big fan of Upendra , he brought some enterta...
10 comments
Read more

HP-NH-HG-EW-HD

Image
Well, well, well, before I break your head with acronyms, three out of the five refer to the same topic. I am referring to the Harry Potter (HP) series, which had readers hooked all over the world, thanks to JK Rowling . What really pleased me was the fact that there was so much anticipation, that kids and adults alike had lined up stores at midnight to procure the first copy of the book. That really is a good step and it was good to see people give so much importance to literature instead of other trivialities. I read the books after a long time, actually, really long. After the final edition of the series had come out, I took up to Harry Potter reading. I just wanted to know what was there in the book that people were going crazy about. I read the six books in about two or three weeks time, in between office and household chores. I don't know why, but I could never take out time to read it over the weekends. There was a point when I was reading the fourth book that I fel...
8 comments
Read more

Partner - Mindless laugh riot

Image
There are some movies to be watched, just leaving your gray matter behind. You should not question why some things are happening and take things on screen value. After a rather eventful day at Newport, RI, we caught up with the latest David Dhawan laugh riot, Partner , starring the old time favourite Govinda along with the current controversial macho man, the ever undressable ready Salman Khan . The duo along with the beauties Lara Dutta and Katrina Kaif just got us entangled in what can be called as a feel good movie, combining all elements of reel life to get us hooked to two and a half hours of absolutely mindless comedy. I am sure it would make no sense for me to give a review of the movie with a structured baseline of the story. Come on guys, it is a Dhawan movie. You can't expect a strong storyline to fill the minutes. The scenes are churned faster than the speed of the light, with reel after reel of What the hell is happening on the screen. It was funny to see Govinda...
Post a Comment
Read more

Who is in the herd, Ms. Sengupta?

Hello Ms. Porcine Creature, I am sure I have the right to address you that way after reading your column on IBNLive . Ms. Anuradha Sengupta , a prominent reporter of IBNLive, I would have expected neatly worded sentences than the crap you wrote on your insane piece of so called review. It was disappointing and totally disgusting. More importantly, it was totally unwarranted. Do you realise that it was not due to certain individuals that the whole country was talking about the biggest movie of the year, the Rajini starrer Sivaji . Are we the ones who control the media? I remember every ounce of publicity being generated from every leading channel, and of course, even your sty (IBNLive) was a part of the campaign. Did we as the general public ask IBNLive to splash photos of Rajini all over your front page? Do you think we cared about how much money it made on the first day? Thanks to all the media hype, the movie made an impact like never before in the publicity arena. Every individual...
10 comments
Read more

Sivaji Rightaa.....Athiradee!

Image
There has never been so much hype and hoopla surrounding a movie release. All the big guns of Indian cinema are involved in the latest Tamil film, Sivaji . Rajinikanth , the style icon of India got together with the showman of Tamil cinema, Shankar in sync with the best music director of today's times, AR Rahman to generate funds from the oldest production house in Madras, AVM studios to come out with a product that was going to kindle the masses. The end result was something hyped beyond what any normal movie could achieve in hundred years. The sheer magnanimity of the production costs can fill anyone with awe and wonder. The movie was made at a whopping budget of close to 80 crores, no small amount by any means. A Rajini, Shankar, ARR and AVM movie obviously would get all the media attention. How can I miss such a movie. I am sure even if the reviews were bad, I would have gone to watch the movie. When the reviews from all the channels were good, there was no choice but to wat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Yeah, she is the type

Image
After much contemplation, we (read me and my roommate) decided to watch Choti si baat . The best part about watching this movie is that, the characters are so close to reality that it is easy to step into the character's shoes. Amol Palekar fits the middle class character so perfectly that it is easy to map yourself in his position and feel like a fool or bask in his glory. There were certain scenes where you really feel for the hero, when he is trying to patafy (Indian slang meaning to woo) the heroine. Ok, that's not the point that I am trying to convey here. I wanted to talk about girls in certain movies who set me thinking for an instant. Yes, she is the type of girl I would like to spend my life with. That's happened to me with a couple of movies big time. So, when we were watching Choti si baat , both of us were drooling over Vidya Sinha . The simplicity of the lady just bowled us out. She was the perfect example of a calm and composed face with oodles of beauty. I ...
11 comments
Read more

The Namesake Captured!

Image
The essence of a novel taken to big screen lies in the way the originality of the book is preserved. It is highly important that the core values of the characters etched in the book is translated to perfectly similar characters on the big screen. It is not entirely impossible, but only very few film makers can pull off such a thing with absolute conviction. Mira Nair had a very tough job on her hands to maintain the standards of the brilliant book by Jhumpa Lahiri . At the end of the day, I now can understand why the entire crew was so confident of the movie. I had the opportunity to view the movie at Seattle. I generally do not expect much from movies based on adaptations from literature because it is no easy task to realise the originality of the script. This was no different though all the reviews were positive. The movie started off in a brilliant Calcutta setting, reeling off titles in English embedded in Bengali script. The start itself gave me a feeling of an unknown au...
1 comment
Read more

When Black touched my heart and "Gandhigiri" stemmed

Image
In the midst of a hectic schedule, I caught up with a recent movie which received rave reviews from all quarters, and an other one, released in 2005, which took the nation by storm. The two movies I am refering to are Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006) and Black (2005). Both of them are emotional and touchy, with fantastic messages passed across. After watching Parineeta , the simplistic Vidya Balan had hit the right chord with the masses. Her elegant and graceful South Indian looks was enough to bowl out almost any stone hearted individual. The grace and elan she evokes is so different from the other heroines. She plays the lead role in the sequel to Munnabhai MBBS . The other characters had the star cast lifted from the prequel - Bomman Irani, Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi . Arshad Warsi had his career going to great heights after the first part, and to be honest, he deserves all that he is getting and more. He has played a terrific role in this one too, with classy dialogue delive...
2 comments
Read more

KKJMND

Image
KKJMND ! What the hell is that? I think the best way to release your pent up emotions is to blast your way through a short writeup on undoubtedly the worst movie of the season. Last night, my friends and I caught up with a one hour viewing of Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (KANK). I don't know whether it is a Naa or a Na , since you see Karan Johar is pretty superstitious about these silly things. To top it all, the media gets excited when Karan Johar changes the title from some silly name to another equally silly name. Obviously it has to be, since only a single letter gets edited in his new title. Now, let me add some adjectives to this movie: silly, idiotic, stupid, outrageous, maddening, foolish, nerve wrecking, head breaking (not path breaking please as KJ claims), goofed up to the core, foolhardy, reckless, unwise, pathetic, nauseating, wretched, pitiable, dismal, sad, deplorable, useless and above all disgraceful . I wish I had more time to look for worse adjectives in any ...
6 comments
Read more

Neat adaptation - Da Vinci Code unravels!

The outcome of the movie version of the hugely successful book The Da Vinci Code was eagerly awaited. It is not an easy task to generate frames in perfect adaptation to what was conceived in the book. It requires a lot of planning and skill to etch such a movie. Ron Howard must be feeling happy at the end of the day, as he has done full justice to the movie. The critics might argue that it maybe a good adaptation, but not a perfect adaptation. True, but they should know that the movie lasts only for two and a half hours, and it is no easy task to churn out close to a 1000 pages into a movie in the given time frame. The story of the book is no secret as it has made big news in almost all the newspapers around the world a couple of years back. Dan Brown brought out a highly controversial topic, and the pros and cons of the theme are discussed even today with the same fervour. Everybody knows the book is unputdownable, and so the movie had to live upto the expectations of the mi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pristine Water

Image
Impinging the elements of natural catastrophe with the veil of darkness created by man cannot wreak more havoc for the sufferers. The early twentieth century was never a period of ease for the widows when the so called religious officianados imposed restrictions that was stretched to no scalable limits. The pall of gloom for a married woman on having lost her better half was compounded by the misery of having to live the remaining part of her life in treacherously outrageous conditions. All this in the name of religion hounded by the devils of yesteryears! Water captures the essence of life from a widow's perspective. The film, set on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi portrays the stringent atmosphere prevailing in what could be hailed as the most conservative and orthodox period in Indian history. Talking about the old customs, the legacy carried on from the old generations stifled the masses into obscurity. The story starts off with the nine year old girl Chuiya, played b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Simple but effective

Image
Nagesh Kukunoor has this uncanny ability to generate the best out of "The Common Man". His themes are effectively simple and reflects the day to day activities of an officegoer, householder, student or any other from a similar walk of life. Hyderabad blues, Bollywood Calling and others portray a story that is very much inherent within the masses and for the masses. Iqbal is a heart warming story of an individual who wants to make it big in the world of cricket. In today's competitive world, it is very difficult to stick to a goal. It is as easy to forget what you want in life when you realise what you want . Perplexing sentence but that's the truth. A vision encompassed within your mind should not just be confined there but forced into action. How many of us live for a cause? Nagesh Kukunoor depicts the life of a deaf and dumb individual who fights against all odds and pursues what he wants devoutedly. Hailing from a typical Indian middle class rural background, he ...
1 comment
Read more

Hyped beyond proportions

Image
I have always maintainted that watching a movie which has a lot of hype and hoopla will always end in disaster and Rang De Basanti is no different. A movie which backtracks to the heroics of Bhagat Singh and his group ends up in histrionics translated by the present day characters. A movie while all the time talks about conveying a message is in reality a farce. The sad part is people are influenced by the movie for all the wrong reasons. The movie is interwoven with a lot of amusing moments, but when a movie conveys a message that is not good with the current system in the society, one has to take it with a lot of indigestion. It is not an easy prospect to watch a latest Hindi movie in Rolla. We have to make plans days in advance starting from booking the tickets online, hiring a cab and looking for a guy who can drive around to the multiplex. The worst part is that you will be losing the entire day off for the movie. So, we do not go for the run of the mill movies. We wait ...
Post a Comment
Read more