Sunday, October 29, 2006

Here are the reviews of some of the movies I saw over the past couple of weeks...

No Man’s Land
A war story set in an open field with the Serbian line on one side, the Bosnian line on the other and two soldiers, one from each side, caught bang in the middle in No Man's Land. The story depicts the idleness, confusion and blind hatred of any war. It shows how clueless sometimes the sides involved and even the UN are in these civil wars.
A tragic story bringing out the hopelessness of the whole situation. I really liked the movie since it was really very simplistic. Made in one open field with trenches, a few guns and vehicles but the situation is what is very interesting that leaves you thinking.
This movie won the 2001 Oscar for the Best Foreign Film (Country: Belgium; Director: Danis Tanovic).

All About My Mother
A very moving story about a mother but women in general. This movie is very progressive, blunt and sexually explicit so not everyone may be able appreciate the film but the overall story is quite nice. It revolves around a single mother who loses her beloved son in a freak accident and then makes a journey back to face the demons from her past that she had left behind twenty years back. A Pedro Almodóvar movie that definitely stirs up controversy.
This movie won the 1999 Oscar for the Best Foreign Film (Country: Spain; Director: Pedro Almodóvar).

Munich
This movie captures what Israel did in the aftermath of the 1972 Olympics where 11 of their athletes were brutally murdered by Palestinian terrorists. A group of Mossad agents led by Avner (Eric Bana) are recruited to hunt and kill the people responsible. Eric Bana does a really good job of portraying an assassin who is serving his country but at the same time a family man. Avner's struggles indicate how difficult it is to kill anyone doesn’t matter who they are. He and the team constantly find themselves at odds with the mission and to make it worse they soon realize that they themselves are being hunted.
A good Steven Spielberg movie which definitely communicates the darkness of the subject and the struggles involved in the world of secret agents and assassins.

O Brother Where Art Thou
A movie by the Coen brothers (Fargo is by them too) which at its center has the escaped convict Everett (George Clooney) trying to catch a break in life. He has two accomplices and together they bumble onwards trying to reach a treasure. Everett is a smooth talker and these guys get into the weirdest of situations including a KKK rally. They even end up being a big musical hit by the name of “Soggy Bottom Boys” and their song catches on in the whole state. One of the funniest scenes is when Pete, one of the convicts, questions Everett’s leadership and then they proceed to vote on who should be the leader. Everett and Pete vote for themselves and the third guy, Delmar, who has the deciding vote cluelessly says “Okay, I am with you fellas.”
An awesome movie with tons of smart alec dialogues, great acting, good music and with a very catch story all along. The song “I am a man of constant sorrow” from the movie aptly describes the situation of Everett and his buddies.

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
The follow up to one of my favorite animation movies Ice Age, this movie is a continuation of the adventures of the 3 characters: Manny the Mammoth, Diego the Saber-toothed Tiger and the outrageous Sid the Sloth. A very enjoyable movie where the 3 friends are now facing the end of the Ice Age and the rise of water levels. At the same time Manny is facing the possibility of being the last Mammoth alive until he meets a female Mammoth named Ellie but incidentally she has been raised by possums and thinks that she is one too.
Just like in the first part the oblivious squirrel continues to retrieve and store its beloved walnut in the weirdest of situations.

Small Time Crooks
A typical Woody Allen comedy with other comics like Jon Lovitz and Hugh Grant. Woody Allen is a bumbling con who keeps hatching get rich quick plans. This particular time he finds that his wife, who was acting as the front selling cookies, is actually making a much bigger fortune than his plan. They build a big empire selling the cookies and this sudden fortune finds them rolling in high society. Then they try to fit in by hiring Hugh Grant to teach them to be sophisticated but he has his owns plans to get rich.
One really funny scene is when Woody Allen says his nickname in the jail was “The Brain” and Jon Lovitz points out that the name was meant in a sarcastic way but Woody Allen does not realize this and continues to believe himself to be a genius. Good time pass watch…

Thursday, October 19, 2006

I have slept some 20 hours in the last two days...Why? Because I am on a $%#$ vacation ;-)

Diwali is here and I am lounging at home for the past two days. I got about 10 movies to watch during this week and already have finished 4...should have got more of them...

Went for a run early in the morning around 7am. It is so damn hot here that early morning is about the only time suitable for running. Getting down here from the flight at 11 in the night the temperature was 29 deg C, day time it must be 34-35. Anyway the run was really good, ran next to lake and then all the way to the departments and by my school. School starts really early now and I saw the kids go in...felt really nostalgic and my attire was almost exactly like their uniforms navy blue shorts, white t-shirt and black shoes. Maybe I should have gone inside and antagonized the teachers again, just for old times sake :)

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Straight to the point...fast!

I happened to attend one of the most inspiring and open & direct presentations a couple of days back. This was by one of our vice presidents in the organization where I work and man am I glad this guy works for us.

He is as straight a shooter as one can get, this person is pretty foul mouth but is just so damn inspiring. He didn't mince his words one bit. He openly shredded some of our internal practices and policies. He took the HR people sitting on the front row on a ride a few times. I am sure they were shivering in their pants as to what he may say next but we didn't mind, we were too stirred up.

He took two sessions, one on Leadership and another on Intellectual Honesty. We came back all fired up from his session. Here are some of the quotes from him (assume a little hyper but serious guy is telling this to you and at a fast pace):

He started with this: "Everyone raise your right hand, up high, put it in your pocket...now take out that bloody cell phone and switch it off"

"Today we will have a exchange of ideas. It means you will come in with yours and leave with mine."

"BKMs suck" (BKMs = best known methods; its an acronym we use almost everywhere in our org)

"Consensus is the source of all evil"

"If you think the meeting is a waste of time then just stand up and say "It's bull $%@#"." (People in my group are itching to use this!)

"I love chaos, I love arguments. I love to participate and see people arguing in meetings." He said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Someone said attack the issue and not the person. So I asked them back "Ummm...then can I say that the issue is a son of a @#$%^?" What do you mean don't attack the person???"

In his presentation he quoted George Bernard Shaw "The resonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
Our group came back and on the pretext of being unreasonable decided to be the biggest jerks and pain in the you know what around ;-)

Another thing he said that our organization should do is "Always challenge status quo...without fear." And "Can Do!"

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

How these threads of life weave us together...

In our trek through life how when we are blindsided but still end up taking the leap of faith and in return find something in someone or with someone that is so unforeseen but yet so meaningful that it is difficult even to fathom, is what the movie Dor is about...

Ok about the movie (other than too much about the story obviously)...

Dor is close to be being almost flawless. Nagesh Kuknoor has struck the ball out of the stadium. The movie is just spectacular in its direction and cinematography. Just when you think that the movie will fall apart by becoming melodramatic or "filmy" the reigns are pulled by the director and the actors. It sticks to its course beautifully. Speaking of beauty, the locations shot in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan from where the two women around whose "Dor" the movie is based on come from, just take your breath away. Especially the beauty that comes through from the shots of the deserts and life in Rajasthan are incredible.

The acting by everyone (other than by Kuknoor himself in his short role, but he is forgiven :)) is just exact. Apart from the two women who just shine through and through, Shreyas Talpade as a behroopiya, Girish Kannad, the grandmother and others all give great performances.


Gul Panag who plays Zeenat and Ayesha Takia who plays Meera, the women in question in this movie, deliver stunning performances. It is their lives that intertwine. The forces than bring them together and the bonds they form about love, goodness and more importantly freedom liberate them both in their own way. Many scenes will stand out, the scene where Behroopiya drunk goes and "proposes" to Zeenat in his own unique way is pretty funny but I actually found it quite touching. Such scenes will speak to you make sure you make them yours. Another one I really liked is when Meera asks the grandmother "Aap mere saath itna kathor kyon thi."


The songs and music are just right and well suited but "Yeh Honsla" stands out. It is an extremely beautiful poem and song...

You just cannot miss this movie...and make sure you watch it first in a theater.

As good as it gets...

I have been writing this post for some time and had left it as a draft for probably a month now. Anyway just decided to post it today in whatever state it was...

I am sure that if you have had friends who went or go through tough times or a crisis, you have egged them on by saying "look at the bright side, you still have your family or health or job" or whatever else the case might have been. But now what happens if that person goes on to lose someone from their family or lose their health in a really serious way say cancer. What if some of their decisions backfire on them...

This is what someone narrated to me that had happened to them. What do you say to that? Now that you have been made to eat your words how do you comfort them?

…What if this is as good as it gets...

This line is from the movie "As good as it gets" and Jack Nicholson delivers this line in his usual flamboyant style.

What if that this is as good as it'll get. This hopelessness that faces you is as good as it'll get. Forget god, higher force or anybody else coming and saving you, not going to happen. Pick a path, work for yourself with fervor and conviction and definitely live...

Oh I just found that my Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex is probably damaged! :) This I found while reading "Blink" by Malcom Gladwell the author of The Tipping Point. The tag line of this book is "The power of thinking without thinking"...

Anyway in this book there is a mention about the Implicit Association Test (IAT) developed at Harvard. I would encourage you to go and take a few of them. The tests are available at: implicit.harvard.edu/implicit

What these tests measure is our attitude towards things at an unconscious level. Varied subjects like racism, religion, computer operating system preference etc. We are probably not even aware that we have such an attitude. This attitude is the first thing that comes out even before we have had a chance to think when we are faced with a particular situation or circumstance.

The book says "The disturbing thing about the test is that it shows our unconscious attitudes may be utterly incompatible with our stated conscious values". I didn't find too many discrepancies in mine but in case if you do find that, for example you have a racist implicit attitude then there is a way to deal with such things. What you do is to increase familiarization with what you have an negative attitude against. Spend time in the environment in which you have developed a bias against. Learn about the good things of that aspect because it is the bad things that you have absorbed from the evironment around you and hence developed the implicit preference...

There are some tests related to India also at: implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/india/

It is bandh time again here in Bangalore. This time some issue with Belgaum. Cable tv is blacked out including even English/Hindi news channels. So after sending the WFH (working from home) mail there was nothing much to do ;-) other than chat with folks and write a couple of blogs. No! Not this particular post but a couple that I'll post shortly. But for now the pace needs to seriously pick up so gonna toss a coin and choose between two Brad Pitt movies Fight Club or Snatch... ... ... ... ... ...Snatch it is! "Stealin' Stones and Breakin' Bones!!!"