Ek Udaan

Had missed this movie when it came (and subsequently disappeared as well) in the theaters but about two months back sat down with Ashwini to finally watch this. And I was blown away by the movie. Would rate it as must watch, cannot miss. I had read about this movie but my resolve to not miss it came when I heard Amit Trivedi and gang play a few songs in last year's Mood-I.

The story line is about this boy who is expelled from school and returns home to an extremely abusive father and an innocent younger half brother. The acting is really good, Ronit Roy as the tyrant father and Aayan as the younger half brother really do a good job. The music of this movie is such a high. The lyrics, music and the filming of the songs standout. The climax “run” of the movie with Aazaadiyan playing in the background leaves you at the edge of your seat. Another song ‘Naav’ also stands out with its lyrics and music.

Dabangg

So despite knowing that this is a Salman Khan flick, we somehow still went on to see this movie because of a few people recommending it quite highly.

And the movie is good. Once it hits you that the over the top theme of the movie is intentional you settle down and start to appreciate the movie. Everything is over the top right from the Matrix and Jackie Chan type of stunts right in the first 5 minutes to the extravagant Salman dance moves. I haven't seen anyone dance like that since probably Amitabh ;-)

The music is superb. Tere Mast Mast Do Nain, a Rahat Fateh Ali Khan song is my new favorite these days. Other songs are very good.

Acting is good, Salman fits and plays the Dabangg character right till the final extra 'g'.

The director is Abhinav Kashyap, brother of Anurag Kashyap (Dev D, Black Friday). But Abhinav, I found out from Wiki, wrote the dialogues for Manorama Six Feet Under. It shows in this movie too the dark undertone about corruption and life in rural India. But the deliberate "fizz" of this movie is what ultimately stands out. See it like that and the movie is the most enjoyable ;-)

The 11th Hour

Caught portions of the movie 'The 11th Hour'. This is a documentary in line with Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth'. This movie seeks to increase the awareness of the hideous condition of our environment and tries to bring about a change in how we think. Definitely liked what I saw but one para narrated by David Suzuki, an environmental activist, really stuck. Here is the paragraph:

Economists don't include all of the things that nature does for us for nothing. Some technologies would never be able to do what nature does. For example, pollinating all of the flowering plants. What would it cost us to take carbon dioxide out of the air and put oxygen back in, which all the green things do for us for nothing? It's possible to do a crude estimate of what it would cost us to replace nature. Well, it turns out, Constanza, estimated it would cost us $35 trillion a year to do what nature is doing for us for nothing. Now to put that in perspective. If you had added up all of the annual economies of all the countries in the world at that time, it would come to $18 trillion. So, nature is doing twice as much service for us as the economies of the world. And in the madness of conventional economics, this is not in the equation.

These are the kind of things that people should listen to. Everyone has their view of this world. This particular point should be noted down by economists and business people. Global Climate change is not just a problem that science alone can fix. It is not something you should think about only in your individual capacity but it is something that big Wall Street firms can sit up and take notice too. After all there is an economic formula that can applied even to this. This environmental problem that we face needs a change in everyone's thinking and at all levels...

Ek Hulchul

Ek Hulchul, ek aberration, ek weirdness...that is what the movie Dev.D is...

Of the tons and tons of things that are wrong with our Hindi movie industry, Dev.D is an aberration. It is what is right and how the industry should be. The movie is bold, frank and risky. It is all things that the Hindi movies should strive to achieve. The movie is so good that I totally don't care about its flaws, which is mainly its length. The movie should be shorter by about 30 minutes. But despite that everything about this movie, I appreciate...

Anurag Kashyap, Abhay Deol and the whole crew, they don't deserve to be thanked with just a pat on the back. They need to be blindly given all the awards for this year. Just give it to them, all of them. The movie on a whole is brilliant, the concept, the story and the script. The direction, the music etc all stand out. The movie is just too risky and risqué! So glad that they made a movie like this, really shows the talent that resides deep inside bollywood.

The music is outstanding. The songs Ankh Micholi, Duniya, the rock version of Emosanal Attyachaar all are good stuff. Nayan Tarse is really good, the start is so Pink Floyd-esque, it's a trip ;-). When has a Hindi song ever been a trip (Tell me if you know of one, maybe I haven't heard it). Dhol Yaara Dhol and Saali Khushi really stand out. Dhol Yaara Dhol is actually outstanding with its beautiful Indian folksy music, arrangement and singing. But the song I liked the best is the uplifting 'Ek Hulchul Si'. That is exactly what this movie is...Ek Hulchul!

With recent movies like A Wednesday, Rock On, Dasvidaniya and Dev.D this "hulchul" seems to be catching momentum and it for sure has whet my appetite.

Johnny Gaddaar

Cool movie to watch, a total mash of ingredients with all the bollywood masala. But wait it has more, it has good acting, it is really well directed/shot and has good music. The title track is really good. Actually the title track totally sums up the whole movie. It’s brash, loud and nasty but still classy and thought provoking.

The movie is about a criminal gang of five trying to pull off a quick deal in a matter of 4 days. But obviously one of them wants to make away with the whole thing and launches a warped plan. As the plan unfolds it leaves behind a series of betrayals and dead bodies. The plot thickens significantly with infidelity, fake notes and accidents galore. And where will it all end of Johnny Gaddaar is the question that hangs in balance, keeping you at the edge of your seat.

“Heyyyy Johnny, Zindagi jua hai khel yaar” goes the title track…

An Inconvenient Truth

A while back I saw the movie An Inconvenient Truth and would highly recommend it to everyone. The movie is about climate change and the global warming issues facing us. It tries to convey to the world that if you think that the impact of climate change is far into the future or just a theory or surely we'll be prepared for it when it eventually happens, then you need to wake up.
We are going to face the impact of global warming in the next 50 years or so. The dangerous changes are not many generations away but lurking just round the corner. The term 'Greenhouse' which we all heard as kids is now more dangerous than terrorists like Bin Laden.
Anyway, the movie does not go into the depth of the issue but wants people to acknowledge the fact that we are leaving behind a world that even our grandchildren may not be able to enjoy...

The rapid increase in energy needs, the complete dependence on fossil fuels and the forever increase in emissions rates prompted some effort between the various countries to contain this impact. The Kyoto Protocol was the result. This treaty is the United Nations international treaty to address climate change. It aims to assign and implement emission standards around the world to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and 5 other greenhouse gases.

Currently in the world the US is responsible for nearly 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. That is more than South America, Africa, Middle East and India, all put together. And to make it worse the US is not part of the Kyoto protocol. Two consecutive administrations Clinton and Bush accounting for 16 years of power have not taken the Kyoto Protocol to the American senate to get it ratified.

We have all seen the labels 'EURO II', 'EURO III', 'Bharat Stage II' etc on the back of the cars in India. These stickers are nothing but the emission standards that are being put in place by the participants of the Kyoto Protocol. The table of these various emission stages is pretty impressive, these greenhouse emissions can really be brought down. But the US still does not participate. Their emission standards are the weakest in the world. They are so weak that US cars, as is, cannot be sold in Japan and most of Europe and Asia. Japan is right at the forefront of these standards. They are high above everyone else leading the race to curb our greenhouse gases emissions. Europe is behind and India is a little behind than Europe. Europe is at EURO IV and India is at Bharat Stage III which is equivalent to EURO III.

Little Miss Sunshine...

Oh this movie is one of the most enjoyable movies I have ever seen, right from the name of the little girl 'Olive' to her older brother's antics of taking a vow of silence and using a scribble pad.
The story is about the Hoover family taking a cross country trip in their VW bus to fulfill the deepest desire of 7 year old Olive to participate in a beauty pageant. Olive, a small girl with a big heart, big dreams and big spectacles, under the tutelage of her beloved grandpa wants to win the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. The family with its internal wrangling needs to pull through and deliver for this girl.

The cast really makes this movie work. All the central characters of the Hoover family do an awesome job on the acting front. And Olive is the best, her smiles bright enough to light up the whole sky. Olive’s gay uncle Frank (played by Steve Carell from the sitcom ‘Office’ where he plays an annoying boss) is another character that stands out in the movie. Frank is a recovering from a suicide attempt of slitting his wrists after falling in love with one of his grad students who didn’t love him back. Olive’s reaction to that is ‘That’s silly.”
Very good comebacks and slick dialogues delivered very appropriately by the actors are scattered throughout the movie. For me this particular aspect was what made the movie so engaging. One of the most memorable parts of the movie for me is when Olive's brother finds out that he is colourblind and that crushes his passionate dream.

The photography of this movie is really good too. A simple movie which probably doesn't allow for too much of computer graphics or spectacular visuals, it is full of interesting and heart warming picturization. I still remember the low angle shot of the VW family bus passing under those symmetrical freeway flyovers of a big city. The music throughout is really appropriate and good.

A really warm movie with a very human story involving very lovable characters. A definite must watch for those who haven’t already, certainly deserves a place in any movie collection. It’s already there in mine…

Bheja Fry...

How irritating is the central character, played by "Vinay Phatak", of Bheja Fry? Oh you better believe it, it is one of the most irritating characters executed in films.

Bheja Fry is an awesome movie that will leave you guffawing throughout and exclaiming "My god, he is so irritating!" The story is about this innocent, downright stupid and obsessive income tax officer who somehow lands in the net of a rich music executive to recruit a bakra/muse for him and his rich friend's weekend stress busting pastime. Bharat Bhushan played by Vinay Phatak (One of the hosts for 'Cricket Crazy') is that bumbling fool who questions "kya idiots insaan nahin hote?" Central to the movie is that fateful night where Ranjeet Thadani (played by Rajat Kapoor from Monsoon Wedding and Dil Chahta Hai) auditions the guy who will turn his world right on its head.

The movie is damn funny and is made that by its dialogues and not by slapstick visuals or anything of that sort. So pay good attention to what is being said and also observe the subtle facial expressions of Vinay Phatak, they are priceless. This guy always goes off track, especially when he is on the phone for a particular reason then without fail he ends up going completely off track driving people insane or frying their bheja ;-)

Go see this movie, it is totally worth it. I wish bollywood made more and more comedies like this. I did hear/read somewhere that this is picked from a french movie but the movie has been adapted enough to fit in the Indian context that it deserves its own merit...

Two articles worth reading in the otherwise pretty much useless 'Bangalore Times'.

The first one is featuring Aparna Sen. I have loved all her films and admire her work a lot. I think she is one of the best Indian directors ever.

Here is the article about her and her upcoming film: I can't make those feelgood, laugh-a-line films

The second one is about probably a lesser known person, Gerry Martin. He is the first Indian National Geographic adventurer specializing in snakes and crocodiles. I had seen him once on Nat Geo when he was trying to catch a Cobra for an anti venom institute. In the program, even though Gerry manages to get a hold of the Cobra's head, somehow the snake manages to bite him on his hand. Gerry, actually unfazed, proceeds to bag the snake, gets behind the wheel of a car and drives himself to the hospital. He explains that the reason he himself is driving is to keep himself alert. Gerry points out that the cobra's venom affects the nervous system and in order to fight that he should remain alert and not slip into a lethargy [sic ???]. He gets an anti-venom injection and then gets discharged from the hospital the next day. He then adds "I don't hold a grudge against the snake, what would you do if someone was pinning you down, holding the back of your head?"
Here is the small article on Gerry: Gerry Martin, Wildlife Expert

Parkour

Have you seen the latest 007 movie, Casino Royale? No? Then first go down to the end of the post and click on the Casino Royale movie link and watch the initial 5 minute chase clipping. Ok now if you have seen the movie then you probably remember the chase right at the beginning of the movie. In this sequence Bond is chasing some bomb maker type of suspect through a building construction site having those typical tall cranes and heavy machinery. Bond chases the suspect at full speed and they both jump around like crazy from heights and through holes so small that it almost seems impossible. Well that is Parkour or free running. And the black guy Bond is chasing is Sébastien Foucan, one of the founders of free running/Parkour.

Parkour (l'art du déplacement) is defined as the aim to move from point A to point B as efficiently as possible, using the abilities of your human body to the limit. Also known as Free Running, it is doesn't need an obstacle course, an arena or any specialized equipment as such, it is basically meant to be done in your surrounding environment, where you live, work, play, etc. In articles it is not recognized as a sport but more of an art which combines martial arts, gymnastics and self defense. The idea is to use dexterity and physical strength of your body to efficiently escape or simply get from point A to point B. It could be done while climbing down stairs or just while going somewhere.

I recently saw a feature on Parkour on Nation Geographic and man did it look exciting. The techniques, the roll after the jump, the balancing, etc, looked extremely exciting. I like running and this, on the face of it, just seemed like a new way of running. But obviously Parkour is extremely tough and requires super strong upper bodies to pull yourself up from any hanging or inclined position and powerful legs so that you have balance after jumping and even in awkward positions. Strong abdominal muscles are probably key too with all the twisting and bending. Finally, agility and flexibility are definitely required. So roughly speaking it requires a super fit and super flexible body…ha! :-)

In many cases effective Parkour techniques depend upon rapid redistribution of body weight and by utilizing momentum to perform seemingly impossible or difficult body maneuvers. Absorption and redistribution of energy is also an important factor. Example, the body rolls when landing which reduces impact forces on the legs and spinal column, allowing a jump from greater heights than those often considered sensible...

Search for Parkour on YouTube, it has a ton of videos showing amazing maneuvers and tricks from all round the world…
Casino Royale sequence
Parkour – Wiki
Parkour/Free Running video

Snipet of the winners at the Oscars:
Best Picture: The Departed (Other nominees: The Queen, Little Miss Sunshine, Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima)
Director: Martin Scorsese for The Departed
Screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine
Actress: Helen Mirren in The Queen
Actor: Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland
Foreign Film: The Lives of Others (Germany)
Animated Film: Happy Feet. I felt Cars was better...
Al Gore's movie about global warming and climate change "An Inconvenient Truth" won the "Best Documentary Feature" award.

Haven't seen a few of the movies so can't argue much or agree/disagree but 'The Departed' definitely deserves the awards. Anyway so the next must watch movies for me are:

• Little Miss Sunshine
• Letters from Iwo Jima
• Pan's Labyrinth (nominated in the Screenplay, Cinematography, Foreign Film and Art Direction categories).
• An Inconvenient Truth

Further Farther

Sitting in one of my favorite (not!) meeting, the "operations staff", someone remarked "We are farther ahead today." Immediately my mind digressed, that happens a lot when I am in this meeting by the way, but I digress again now ;-)
Anyway, I started thinking about the movie "Finding Forrester". In that movie a very snobbish English professor passes a snide remark at a student saying "Perhaps your skills do extend a bit farther than basketball." This kid is pretty smart and takes up the professor’s challenge.
He says, "Further. You said my skills extend 'farther' than the basketball court. 'Farther' relates to distance. 'Further' is a definition of degree. You should have said 'further'.

Anyway a very cool scene that one, but by the time I thought all this, only about 15 seconds had passed instead of the 15 minutes I had hoped for ;)

Perumazhakkalam (When it rains hard)

This is the Malayalam movie from where Nagesh Kuknoor borrowed the story for Dor. He did officially buy the story from the writer and gives the writer due credit in the credits section of Dor. The Indo-German film festival screened this movie and all that this movie shares with Dor is the overall plot. The filming and handling of the two movies are totally different and both are originals in their own rights.

The story here is the same, in a fight between two Indian roommates in the Saudi, one guy “accidentally” kills the other. And the wife of murderer takes a journey to seek a signature from the wife of the murdered guy to pardon her husband. This movie is much more grounded and closer to real life. If such a thing actually happened then the story in real life will closely resemble this movie rather than Dor.

In this movie the wife doesn’t take a daring independent journey not knowing where to find the other lady. She knows exactly where the other lady lives and she sets out with her father accompanying her. Upon reaching the village, right from the first meeting she sees the other lady and begs her to sign the papers but the family members intrude and throw her and her father out. This repeats every time she makes an effort to convince her to sign. The wife of the murdered man is aptly shown, right from the beginning, lost in what to do. Finally on the last day despite knowing the consequences from her family will be dire she takes a priest’s help and makes the reverse journey to go and sign the papers. Then she returns to her house to face the brunt of the family...

The big downside of this movie is the songs. They are totally misplaced and useless. Also in the first half an hour the director seems confused as to what kind of a movie he is making, a commercial movie or an off-beat movie. The director isn't able to bring out the significance of the title in a very powerful way. For the first half the cinematography actually is very confused (other than the opening scene) but things settle down and the rest of the movie is well directed and shot. Overall if you, as I have, manage to blank out the songs then it is a really good movie, in fact better than Dor at certain places.

Mehr Filme

The Indo-German film festival is going on here in Bangalore…

Oktoberfest
This movie shows the amalgam of life on the last day of Oktoberfest, the two week beer festival held yearly in Munich. There are several stories running in parallel that are loosely linked here and there. The stories are about best friends, about relationships falling apart, coming together and about parents and children with the central theme sort of being love. None of the stories in the movie are intense as such and it just shows day to day people. The director himself said that if you really stand in Oktoberfest and take notice you will see all the things in his movie. What I really liked in this movie is that none of the stories as such reach a conclusion. There are left as loose knots that you can make up your mind as to where they will go next.

To me the story of the wheelchair guy pretending to be handicapped was really good. Twenty odd years ago there was a bomb blast at Oktoberfest and this guy keeps harassing the fest police over the phone by asking them questions like “Could it have been prevented?” In the middle he meets a girl who runs one of the rides at the fest. They obviously like each other and spend some time getting to know each other but in the end the cops catch up to the guy and arrest him. She is totally betrayed when she finds that he is actually not handicapped. At the police station he finally explains to the chief, who was patrolling the day of the bomb blast, that his father lost his legs in that blast. He was kid then and had made a big fuss about an Oktoberfest t-shirt. His dad had gone back to the fest area to get it for him and had got caught in the blast. Finally the next day he comes back to meet the girl but the scene fades there, you are left to think about what she says to him and where they go from there…

Overall the music is really very nice and had me tapping my feet time and time again. The movie is well shot given that it is almost completely oudoor and was made in the actual Oktoberfest.

Off-Beat
This is a story about kind of a reclusive guy who as a kid survived a serious car accident in which his parents were killed. After the crash, apart from the trauma, he has some medical complications for some years but now he has grown up and works as a paramedic where his nickname is “Crash”. He continues to have flashes and nightmares about his past life including the accident and it is through these flashes his story is told. His grandmother raises him and there is a beautiful scene in which she tells him about strength and courage. She says you can forget about everything else but there are only two things you can do in tough situations “inhale and exhale”.

Crash is kind of a loner but a workaholic who keeps helping all kinds of low lives on the streets. The tag line of the movie is “probes the soul of a troubled young man who rescues others but is desperately in need of rescue himself.” In his dreams he sees a woman who he actually doesn’t know. Finally one day he does meet her, the situation is complicated (I won’t explain much why it is complicated, but believe me it is nothing like a typical love triangle complicated) and they do fall in love but at the end of the movie life repeats itself in a horrible way. The scene where Crash is pulled between life and death has been shown is one of the most unique ways. So many movies show people dying but finally making it back to life due to a touch or a tear drop, this movie does the same but adds a very nice twist to it. To me the whole movie is worth watching just for that scene.

The movie also touches one of my favorite animal stories. A very touching story about a really brave and faithful mongoose, written by Rudyard Kipling: “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”. In the ambulance when the girl tells Crash “I feel sorry for you” dealing with death, blood etc “and you always arrive late”. Crash replies with “My grandmother told me this and I believe in what Rikki-Tikki-Tavi said ‘There is reward in every good deed’.” And with that they burst out laughing.

Overall the story is pretty good and the movie is well made but it is very graphic since he is a paramedic, people with a weak stomach will have trouble.

Dry Spell

I don’t know about you but in terms of blogging the past 2-3 weeks have been dry spell. Strange and funny thing is that a bunch of blogs that I read, mostly all of them by my friends, also have suddenly hit the same dry spell. Other than Mr A posting some video links :-) from YouTube and Google videos there were basically no postings. Anyway…

The Departed
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin

Awesome movie, a gripping mob flick with plenty of violence, bloodshed and twists and turns that has lots of people going “Scorsese is back!” Although probably not as good as Scorsese’s own “Goodfellas” but it comes really very close. Personally I thought it was a little long but apart from that the story and the acting are pretty good. Jack Nicholson as the mob boss is flawless. Almost everyone in the acting department is...

The story is about the mob and the cops infiltrating each other, sending their people under cover. Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) the boss of an Irish mob systematically puts his youngest and brightest man (Matt Damon) to infiltrate the police and rise in their ranks. At the same time two good cops (Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg) send their brightest cadet (Leonardo DiCaprio) to infiltrate the Irish mob. Both the undercover men do well as a cop and a gangster and quickly rise to the top, all the while passing critical information back to their people. Slowly both sides become painfully aware of the rats and then to make it worse become aware that there isn't just one rat in their group, that is when the movie picks up pace. Watching the rat become a thorn in the side of Jack Nicholson is really riveting. The cops and the mob spin circles around each other through their informants and find themselves frustrated time and time again. On the side both young men thrown in the fray find themselves struggling to tell apart the lies from the truth and at the same time having internal struggles with trust and loyalty.

Memorable quotes:
Dignam (Mark Wahlberg): Who am I? I'm the guy that does his ^$%#in' job! You must be the other guy!

by Frank Costello:
“One of us had to die. With me, it tends to be the other guy.”
“When I was growing up, they would say you could become cops or criminals. But what I'm saying is this...when you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?”
“I don't wanna be a product of my environment, I want my environment to be a product of me.”
This last one is very similar to the quote by George Bernard Shaw that goes “all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” So looks like whether you are a mob boss or a software engineer or anything else, to get ahead in life the same principle applies ;-)

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…

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.

Billy Elliot
I watched this movie again over the weekend. It is about a kid living in a poor northern England town and how he takes to dancing ballet. Billy discovers dancing is what interests him rather than boxing which his father wants him to take up. He really doesn't know why and in the process he gets badly beaten by his father and teased by his brothers who are miners and going through tough times themselves but Billy gets support from his teacher and they develop a close bond.

The movie is really funny and has this sharp edge to it. Especially the scenes when Billy just dances free form in the streets of his town to awesome background music and like when Billy figures out his best friend likes to dress up as a girl (Billy’s expression is priceless). Then there is his grandmother always passing loopy statements in middle of serious situations. Also the conversation between Billy and his teacher when Billy asks her “Miss, you don’t fancy me, do you?” and then tells her “All right, don’t blow your blob (head)”.

Lots of touching scenes like when Billy reads his mother's letter and when his father comes around to suport him. The acting by Billy and his father are what stand out in this movie especially near the end by his father. The movie has a great soundtrack with really well placed songs and music. You almost feel like dancing with Billy at times. It is a really nice feel good, kind of simplistic movie about friendship, family and following one’s dreams…

Ahhhh!!! Finally a long weekend has arrived. We are having a long weekend after nearly 4 months and the team in office is going into a comatose :)

I recently bought some 30 movies. Actually 4 of us together bought 57 movies and my share was 30. Been meaning to rebuild my collection and finally got down to it this week. But you know what after buying these 30 movies the "to get" list has already grown back to another 30 odd movies... :)

Here are some of the movies I bought...

Fight club
To kill a mocking bird
Motorcycle Diaries
Gandhi
Bitter moon
Adaptation
American Beauty
Usual Suspects
Black hawk down
Capote
Crash
Finding Nemo + Ice age

Now just need find time in office to finish watching them ;-)

Rwanda Rwanda...

...can anybody hear our cries, can't you hear us calling you...Wyclef Jean sings in "Million Voices" from the movie "Hotel Rwanda".

Over the weekend I got some "education" on the genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994. A friend gave me the movie "Hotel Rwanda" and a documentary called "Ghosts of Rwanda" with a warning "Hey they are disturbing". I had had some exposure to various civil wars in Africa and the horror of their killing methods. Wilbur Smith in his books describes some of the horrific ways in which people are killed in these African wars. In the mid 90's I also remember the news of the tens of thousands bodies floating over a lake into neighbouring African countries. Anyway, so I watched the movies...

In about hundred days following the assassination of Rawandan President on April 6th 1994 about 800,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsis and Hutus were slaughtered by militant Hutu groups. One of the groups called themselves the Interahamwe ("coming together") and Machetes were used as the main weapon for the ethnic cleansing.

Despite pre warnings sent by both the Red Cross and the UN peacekeepers the world didn't react until it was too late. No one in the world, the UN, the powerful countries, no one reacted. Everyone just sat and watched about a million people being hacked to death.

UN had a decent sized peace keeping force but at the start itself Belgium pulled out most of its troops and the commander of the UN peacekeepers Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire was then left with some 450 ill equipped troops to guard the whole country. He had requested for only about 2000 peacekeepers to handle the situation. 80 countries in the UN were approached but none of them agreed to lend any troops. And to think a few thousand troops could have saved maybe half a million human beings. It was a gut wrenching ordeal to see Dallaire as an individual take full responsibility and say:

"I was the commander and my mission failed and hundreds of thousands of people died and that I can't find any solace in statements like "I did my best". A commander can't use that as a reference in any operation. He succedes or he fails and then he stands by...to be accused of and to be held accountable for...and my mission failed".

The UN tied Dallaire's hands by telling him that he should not take any pre-emptive action and "avoid armed conflict". Before the killings started he had requested Kofi Annan, who was the heading the peace keeping department at that time, for a strike at the arms cache of the militia and was told not to do so saying "you do not have enough data".

The Clinton administration still suffering from the setbacks of peacekeeping at Mogadishu, Somalia also did not do anything to prevent or control this tragedy. (On a quick side note "Black Hawk Down" is an awesome movie about the Mogadishu incident, one of my favorites). The Clinton administration made excuses and played with words like "We don't know yet if this is a Genocide. Genocide has a legal meaning to it and we don't know if we can say that". Only later in 2003 Bill Clinton would accept that "...I will always regret about the Rwandan thing...".

Here are some Wikipedia links:
Rwandan Genocide
Genocide
Genocide in history
Rwanda