The cute little fella is the movie

Watched Taare Zameen Par after a lot of glowing reviews and feedback. But it was Darsheel Safary's bunny teeth that pulled me into the theatre on a Sunday afternoon. TPZ is the story of Ishaan, a seemingly misfit boy who's spirit is almost broken down by the demands of uber-competitive today's education system.

The first half of the movie is wonderful - we get introduced to an adorable 8-year old who is not quite the model child, but one with a lot of spunk. Ishaan's world is slightly different, its ruled by colours and feeling - a sensory world that has little room for mundane, everyday things such as studies and homework. Ishaan is more interested in the bird outside the window and the letters in his books keep swimming out of reach. Aamir Khan does admirable work in letting us get a glimpse of Ishaan's world, his day away from school is simply brilliant. But Aamir is trying to make a serious movie here, with a message and all that jazz. So we get highly caricatured parents who try their best to whip (not literally) their wayward son into shape all through.

Enter Aamir Khan as this extra-sensitive, overemotional art teacher who takes it upon himself to bring Ishaan back into the light. Or something like that. And the movie begins to slide into preaching mode. To paraphrase G, the movie 'underestimates the viewer's intelligence'. We know how the system works here, we know about pressure on school kids, we are aware that parents can be demanding. But Aamir goes overboard, I wanted to hurl a brick at Aamir whenever he got preachy with the father (Vipin Sharma), who is treated pretty unjustly here. He is portrayed as the guy who scowls when his elder son fails to win a tennis tournament and we are supposed to believe that he has no affection for Ishaan because he's not an achiever. For a movie that stresses on the demand placed on kids to be achievers, its strange that Ishaan's redemption (and parental acceptance) comes from a damn good achievement. Aamir, if you want to make a point, then stick to it, don't dilute your own message!

That said, I loved Darsheel Safary. That kid is amazing!He simply rules in the first half (the focus shifts to Aamir in the second). That expression on his face where he finds out his father is just fooling him about going away forever - priceless! Darsheel is the heart and soul of TPZ. Him, and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music. Those guys have done a fabulous job again.

Verdict: Not bad, would have been better if it hadn't been so preachy!

Phew!

I thought it would never get over, and then one day it did! My first sector report as solo analyst is out!! Over a month of hectic work, hope at least a few people read it. Now, its a week of marketing, and then I'm off to get hitched. There, I said it. Hope to catch the Iron Maiden concert in Mumbai before I go.

RIP

K.S. Mahadevan - 1923 - 2008. RIP.

Busier than a bee

An eventful weekend. Got bumped into not once, but twice. Wanted to tear those filthy $%@#&s apart. They should be grateful that I am not physically violent by nature! Was therefore doubly wary of the crowd at the Standard Chartered Marathon the next day. But enjoyed myself thoroughly, and got noble thoughts about running in the next one. Only time will tell. G finished the half marathon in 2:03 hrs - am so proud of him. 21 kms, all the way to Haji Ali and back. And he had the energy to go shopping (not for me) in the evening! Maybe he can shame me into participating the next time around.

In the meantime, work is killing me, and my to-do list (at work and otherwise) is getting longer and longer. Once again, I have overextended myself for this Saturday. And will probably get rogered for it. Cheerios folks, hope you're having a better time of it than this.

Reassurance...

... my foot!

Humankind's lofty ideals and exulted emotions are but a blink of the eye of some pseudo sapient universal order. Individuals are inconsequential, mere bits of soggy paper thrown about in a maelstrom. Some individuals, bless our poor souls, are more so - worse than dogs who wag their tails in the promise of a bone, only to be pelted with stones and slink away with our tails between our diseased legs.

Some times...

... all people can do is disappoint you. Enjoy your Monday morning folks!

It makes me wanna hurl...

... thats why I didn't want to blog about it till now. But its difficult to ignore something as big as women being molested right outside one of Mumbai's poshest hotels, while the police commissioner makes statements about making mountains out of molehills! Calling this an outrageous act would be an understatement. The women I know, and I, have been rendered speechless by the enormity of this event. A lot of women I know like to go out at night with family and friends. This scares the hell out of all of them.

The 2 victims weren't even 'provocatively dressed' as some would call it. But these men needed no provocation. Like Tony Curtis famously said, being a woman is like waving a red flag at a bull! The police have caught 2 of the 50 odd men at the scene (4 if some reports are to be believed). One of them has been in fact turned in by neighbours. Admirable, yes. But does nothing to cover up the fact that Mumbai is no longer safe. The solution lies not in women staying at home, but ensuring that we set an example. Hang these men I say, that ought to scare the hell out of everybody else!

It has begun...

"What has begun?", they asked, confused. "It" I snapped, "move!"

Reading The Unwaba Revelations, so couldn't resist. The eagerly awaited part three of the Gameworld trilogy by Samit Basu. Reading currently hampered by

• Lots, I mean, lots of work
• House hunting- Gaaah!
  
• Socializing - inevitable, its the new year
  
• Lesser time for self - unintended consequence of recent decisions.
  

2008 is off to a roaring start, and I have no time to breathe!

What a year!

Every year starts off with great promise, gets a little muddled up around the middle, ends with mostly with a whimper. Why should 2007 have been any different? Yes? But it was. Started off on a cool, moonlit night with bisons and barbecue; should have taken a hint then. Towards the middle, it got pretty dizzy. August was the culprit, leapfrogging into mayhem with casualties all around - marriage talks and interviews (of the professional kind). September, October and November tippled through. December brought the first whiff of foreign shores, burgeoning work loads. Won't mind much if it ends a whimper, as long as the next year starts with a bang!

The apples of the valley hold
The seeds of happiness,
The ground is rich from tender care,
Repay, do not forget,
Oh, dance in the dark of night,
Sing to the morning light
- The Battle of Evermore, Led Zeppelin.

Happy New Year Folks!!

Things never work the way we want them to...

... and thats the way the cookie crumbles.

Thursday Morning Blues

Sometimes the weather is just so you. Smoked out, pale and moody on a Thursday morning. Shivering in the cold morning breeze and envying the rickshaw driver all muffled up in multiple layers. Taking out your snug earphones to shut out the wind. Your head exploding with a long lost song and the words flowing through your system, the four right chords can make you cry.

Rediscovering music on a morning like this can be a revelation. One that puts things in perspective - that all is true is just you and your music. Everything else, everyone else is transient.



Inspiration? The muses drawing breath for you? God? Nah, don't believe it, you'll get entangled in Heaven or Hell
- 5 A.M., Allen Ginsberg

PS: I'm rediscovering Ginsberg as well.

Rescue Dawn, or, One more reason to love Christian Bale

I was watching Batman Begins for the nth time, when it struck me that I loved Christian Bale in Rescue Dawn. After I saw Saving Private Ryan, I told myself, "This will be the last war movie I'll see". For all its critical acclaim, Saving Private Ryan was cheesy, and played to the gallery till the very last note. So when Rescue Dawn came along, I dismissed it as another war movie, or worse still, an ego exercise for a rather intriguing actor. Eating maggots? Ew, I thought! But when I saw Rescue Dawn on the list of in-flight movies on a 5-hour flight, I couldn't resist taking a peek.

Rescue Dawn is no war movie. Yes, it is set in the thick of the Vietnam War, and the protagonist is a US Naval pilot who is shot down and held prisoner. But thats all there is to it. Like Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries), Werner Herzog wisely stays away from political statements (In this case, the machinations of the war in Nam). For instance, Dieter Dangler (Bale) is shot down in Laos (this is based on a true story), where the US is not supposed to have ever been. That the US bombed Laos to the last centimeter so that if one waters the ground there, a bomb tree would grow, is not something Herzog wants to get into. Nor does he portray the Viet Cong as black villains who indulge in horrendous forms of torture.

A lesser director would have added more drama, shown us blisters on sore feet, cut to a painful grimace of the man who is brave in the face of adversity. A lesser actor would have hammed it up, given us soulful stares and ponderous dialogue delivery. Instead, Dangler salvages a single rotting shoe and gives it to his fellow escapee Duane Martin (Steve Zahn) with the glee of a child who has found a stray marble. (Spoiler alert!) A few scenes later, he snatches away the same single shoe from the the dead Martin's foot without so much as a second thought! Bale does eat real maggots (if media reports are to be believed), but its not a big deal in the movie. Nor is it when Bale strips off a snake's head with his teeth (hope at least that was not real!).

Rescue Dawn could have well descended into a weepy, heavy handed picture. Instead Herzog and Bale work to create one of the most beautiful testaments to the human spirit that we have seen. I'd like to watch the Golden Globe nominated "Into the Wild" to see if Sean Penn even comes close! Bale is a class act, even without fancy outfits and terrible weight loss programmes (well, he had to lose some for this role, but not as bad as The Machinist). Note to self: see 3:10 to Yuma soon. Steve Zahn does some good work here as Duane Martin. In some scenes, he almost steals the thunder from under Bale's nose.

Verdict: Great movie. Bale is now at the top of the list along with Gael Garcia Bernal, and therefore earns the tag "amazing"!

Yeah, right!

A change in lifestyle, no matter how small, can range from irritating to painful.

They broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven!
Pavements, trees, radios, tons! lifting the city to
Heaven which exists and is everywhere about us!

Visions! omens! hallucinations! miracles! ecstasies!
gone down the American river!
Dreams! adorations! illuminations! religions! the whole
boatload of sensitive bullshit!

Breakthroughs! over the river! flips and crucifixions!
gone down the flood! Highs! Epiphanies! Despairs!
Ten years' animal screams and suicides!
Minds! New loves! Mad generation! down on the rocks of Time!

Real holy laughter in the river! They saw it all! the
wild eyes! the holy yells! They bade farewell!
They jumped off the roof! to solitude! waving!
carrying flowers! Down to the river! into the street!
- From Allen Ginsberg's Howl

The Boss knows best

I mean Bruce Springsteen. He knows exactly how to convey the meaning of low. Enjoy.

Supergood

(Review expedited due to request from CrazyBugga)

Comparisons to American Pie (the first one, of course) are inevitable, so let me start by saying that Superbad is way better. Way grosser, yes, particularly since these kids are in high school, but way more witty. The plot is simple - 3 high school kids, bordering on the geek-nerd phenomenon, obsessed with sex in the way only teenage virgins are, attempt to get laid. Given their natural nervousness towards the opposite sex, that they are convinced that a copious amount of alcohol is the only way of getting their dream girls into bed with them.

Seth Rogan (Knocked Up) apparently wrote the script for Superbad while he was a teenager, so the kids talk nonstop about boners and girlie bits from dawn to dusk. We hope thats true, else it would be a sad case of art imitating life (Rogan plays a trigger-happy, juvenile cop in Superbad). That said, its a hilarious glimpse into the hormone fueled life of a teenager. The boys Seth (Jonah Hill) and Evan (Michael Cera, George-Micheal of Arrested Development) are perfect for the role. Hill, as the chubby loser-ish guy whose idea of friendship also includes comments on the mammary glands of Evan's mother, is amazing! The bit where he steals alcohol from a party in detergent cans - hilarious! Christopher Mintz -Plasse as Fogell, the wide-eyed nitwit who poses as McLovin with his fake id, is an absolute scene stealer. I cracked up every moment he was on screen. Cera could have done this role in his sleep, and no one could have been better.

That said, the girls in the movie are little more than cardboard sweeties who seem to fall for guys clearly out of their league. Rogan has not attempted to even give them half-brains or personalities beyond their tight tees and short pants. This is a movie written by a guy and is sympathetic towards the plight of the not-so-cool boys at high school. But its greatest failing is that it treats the girls as little more than objects of the boys' testosterone driven fantasies. And then there is this obligatory brothers-over-girls angle as well.

That said, its a damn funny movie, hilarious in most parts. And unlike American Pie, the movie doesn't try to please all sections of the audience. So, the guys will simply love it, most girls might get offended, but the rest of us will simply unhook our brains and have a good laugh!

Verdict - Didn't you read the title, folks?