Me And Cinema

not really negative

2008-03-03T21:56:00.001-08:00

i am not really a negative kind of person. but i look at the people surrounding me and i just wonder what's wrong with these people. can't they think. ibm corporation at one time had the sign "THINK" in all the offices. a few years back there were no rains in bangalore area. and the then chief minister had this brilliant idea to walk to talakaveri in coorg to bring rains to bangalore. that's really good thinking. and then he puts on his designer walking shoes, designer shades and ofcourse designer walking outfit and his favourite designer wig. he walks all the way upto kengeri and suddenly decides to continue rest of the journey in the accompanying automobile. obviously the rain gods did not appreciate his action and so there were no rains. this is just one example of the incompetence of these people who are governing this state. and yeddiyurappa decides to change the spelling of his name so he can become the chief minister. he then visits all the temples of the state to get the blessings of some religioius goons. and this kind of people are at the helm making policy decisions.
of course we also have visionaries like narayanamurthy and sudha murthy.this morning i read narayana murthy becomes the advisor of hsbc bank with an annual remuneration of 55 lakhs. that must be nice. for a man who is nothing but a supplier of bodies for american corporations getting this kind of monies is not bad. mysore kamalamma also had the same credentials, for she also supplied bodies but she does not get any name recognition. this is a cruel world.
i also read this morning some junior cricketeers are returning victorioius from some tournament and there is a big procession form airport to cricket stadium during the peak rush hour. that should be fun to watch. last week it took me 3 hours to come home from the airport around 6 in the evening. and these cireketeers will get several lakhs of rupees in appreciation of their win. i wonder who's money is being spent.
so this goes on and on.
see you tomorrow.

march 2, 2008

2008-03-01T17:04:00.000-08:00

this clown rk misra gets facilitated again. times of india had a whole page reporting this event. so many pseudo sophisticated ass wipes of bangalore attended. i am curious what this rk misra going to accomplish. it has been three weeks since they coronated him and i do not see any changes. traffic still crawls all over bangalore and the rest of the country. still no drinking water for half the population of bangalore. no end to corruption in government offices. yeddiyurappa celebrated his 66 th birthday and he gets a garland weighing 66 kg's.
are we stupid. have we lost it. who cares about yeddi's birthday. what's the big frickin deal. i want to see rk misra with a shovel in malleswaram and work on the underpass. we have so many other idiots like rk misra in india. that joker sri sri ravishankar is one. if you listen to him for five minutes you will throw up. that is a guarantee. and there are a few other cologned reformers like ramesh ramanathan and this guy has been in the bangalore circle for more than five years. guy gets lot of press coverage but zero accomplishment. i want to see a Robespierre with half a dozen guillotines descend on india to clean up the mess. thanks for reading.

february 29, 2008

2008-02-28T20:58:00.000-08:00

another day in this piss poor country called india. this marwadi controlled news paper just recently started a campaign called lead india to sell more paper. india is already in the toilet and don't know where else times of india wants to lead india. they called this fart of a guy called r.k misra the winner. every day some organization is honoring him for winning the contest. this is so pathetic. so much of time and money is wasted in this. nothing changes in india. it has been more than 60 years since india gained independence, we cannot build proper roads with drainage. our sewage system is hundred years old and every time it rains raw sewage flows like a river. so how can this sapless sap rk misra change all that. he just goes about getting honored and giving speeches. actually i live in a place called malleswaram in bangalore. and they are building a underpass near the old malleswaram circle and every day i see some two or three laborers dong some work. it seems the contractor needs to bribe the government engineers to get any payment, some of them refuse to bribe these scum bags so work is almost not happening. i wish r.k misra would come and do some manual work and get things rolling. may be he can invite the losers who campaigned for him to join him and build this underpass. no chance of that happenig. because to take such an initiative you need guts and class.

vanya

2008-01-27T22:45:00.000-08:00

my favorite actresses and actors

2008-01-06T21:02:00.001-08:00

List of my favorite actresses (not in any order)

1. Lee Remick
2. Elizabeth Taylor
3. Silvana Mangano
4. Kim Novak
5. Heddy Lamar
6. Gina Lollobrigida
7. Grace kelly
8. Dolores Hart
9. Madhubala
10.Meena Kumari
11.Rita Hayworth
12.Catherine Deneuve
13.Claudia Cardinale
14.Deborah Kerr
15.Donna Reed
16.Leslie Caron
17.Juliet Binoche
18.jean Seberg
19.Meryl Streep
20.Audery Hepburn
21.Bette Davis
22.Ingrid Bergman
23.Greta Garbo
24.Julie Christy
25.Jane Fonda
26.Brigette Fonda
27.Naomi Watts
28.Marlene Dietrich
29.Lauren Bacall
30.Shirley MaClaine
31.Mia Farrow
32.Vivien Leigh
33.Marilyn Monroe
34.Barbara Stanwyck
35.Lana Turner
36.Goldie Hawn
37.Anna Magnani
38.Brigitte Bardot
39.Jean Peters
40.Paz Vega (sex and lucia)
41.Erica Marozsan (gloomy sunday)
42.Leela Naidu

List Of My Favorite Actors:

1. Laurence Olivier
2. Montgomery Clift
3. Marlon Brando
4. Glenn Ford
5. Burt Lancaster
6. Charles Boyer
7. Peter O'Toole
8. Yves Montand
9. Al Pacino
10.Robert DeNiro
11.Peter Falk
12.Marcello Mastroianni
13.Woody Allen
14.jack Nicholson
15.Anthony Quinn
16.Yusuf Khan (Dilip Kumar)
17.Warren Beatty
18.Humphrey Bogart
19.Gerard Depardieu
20.Maurice Chevalier
21.Jean Paul Belmondo
22.Alain Delon
23.Jeremy Irons
24.Gary Cooper
25.Maxmilian Schell
26.Spencer Tracy
27.Frederick March
28.Victor Mature
29.Dirk Bogarde
30.Peter Sellers
31.Charles Chaplin
32.Buster Keaton
33.Ray Milland
34.Harold Lloyd
35.Edward G. Robinson
36.Gregory Peck
37.Cary Grant
38.Robert Mitchum
39.Dustin Hoffman
40.William Holden
41.Alec Guinness
42.Oskar Werner
43.Walter Mathieu
44.Jack Lemmon
45.Alan Arkin
46.Richard Burton
47.James Stewart
48.Errol Flynn
49.Clark Gable
50.Van Heflin
51.Steve McQueen
52.Paul Newman
53.William Powell
54.Tyrone Power
55.Charles Laughton
56.Claude Rains
57.George C Scott
58.David Niven
59.Joseph Cotton
60.Gene Hackman
61.Michael Caine
62.Steve Martin
63.Tom Ewell

Guru Review Courtesy IMDB (fzkl)

2007-01-13T20:51:00.000-08:00

Guru is what you get when you combine a cash starved director/producer high on cocaine under the influence of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead trying to help an upcoming actor whose popularity ratings are as high as pathetic the movies under his belt are.

It is not tough to imagine that when the title of the movie is the name of the protagonist, the movie should be a three and half hour ad for the protagonist. But really, Abishek Bachchan is so over-hyped with very lame movies to his credit that he badly needed a good movie to justify all the hype. However, if he thought that a movie with Mani Rathnam titled Guru would give him the credits he was badly mistaken.

Then I wonder, how did Mani Rathnam manage to make a movie as lacking in substance of any sort as this one? Then I reel back and realize that all his good movies most often never made money because they were never for the masses. Most had a serious tone and were of the depressing sort. But good movies they were and hence ended up not making any money. Probably realizing that he might not have enough life left in him to make money, better now than later, he has concocted a commercial lame a** movie.

Within the first half hour you are subjected to two pointless songs. This is followed by the bearable first half of the movie. The ability to bear only arises if you are the kind who likes the rags to riches kind of story and is all waiting to know what happens next. The music is bland and is best described as a collection of sounds from previous AR Rahman tracks. Nothing original here. A DJ in a club could spin better sh*t. Add to this pointless entities like Aishwarya Rai, Madhavan, Mithun Chakraborthy and Vidya Balan and you have the perfect recipe for a commercially successful film. I have no doubts this movie will go on to make a lot of money because the movie gives the viewer just what he wants to see with no scope for using the brain. The cinematography (the usually saving grace of the worst of Mani Rathnam's movies) is mediocre at best.

Mithun Chakraborthy gives me nostalgia of an earlier generation of stars I watched while in my childhood. Vidya Balan is cute but that is all there is to it and I might as well go to go-ogle image search to admire her cuteness. Not sure if the 170 bucks was worth it. Aishwarya Rai looked true to her age of 35. Old and wrinkled. While I thought that way in the early part of the movie when she was supposedly playing young, she looked like a granny when she was supposed to look 40ish. She should give up on the movies and see if she can play a dumb and deaf grandma in one of the soaps, well enough. It would be too hard to be bad at acting at least in this role.

As the movie progresses, so does the overconfidence of Gurukanth Desai and the progressive misery of Abhishek Bachchan's acting which culminates in an Indianized version of the courtroom scene that comes up in The Fountainhead. While its a disgrace to mention the book in the same article as this movie, its simply the truth. There is a line in The Fountainhead, after the courtroom speech by Howard Roark that goes "Roark stood, his legs apart, his arms straight at his sides, his head lifted - as he stood in an unfinished building. Later, when he was seated again at the defense table, many men in the room felt as if they still saw him standing; one moment's picture that would not be replaced". It is quite clear that this was the effect Mani Rathnam was trying to obtain out of Abhishek Bachchan's dialog in the climax but it ended up something like "Gurukanth Desai stood, his hands bent like a leper as he would on an old building overlooking a lake. Later, when he left the silver screen and reappeared as Abhishek Bachchan the public thrashed him so bad that for a long time in his life he felt as if they kept thrashing him ever day for aping Howard Roark; one moment's picture that he would definitely like to forget".

The saving grace of the movie is how the introductory credits were put across. Names printed on possibly a typewriter. Verdict: No good movies have been in theater in the recent past and if one is desperate, then of the existing movies this might be bearable.

Update: A friend of mine reminded me of the Vidya Balan - Madhavan lip lock and I had to include a line on that. I remember reading somewhere that kissing consumes more calories than sex and a full workout. I don't know if thats true, but what I do know is that the dude dehydrated Vidya Balan to death!.

kabhi alvida na kehna

2006-08-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

found this review on the net
please read and enjoy
Karan Johar was inspired to make 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna'(Never Say Goodbye), his study of love and its complex nature in these rapidly changing times, after a single viewing of Richard Linklater’s 'Before Sunset'. For the sake of all of us, may his DVD collection burn and/or the library he rents titles from run out of classics. And pray to God that he doesn’t get inspired by 'Before Sunrise'!

The ball starts rolling, literally, as we are introduced to the four principal characters in what has got to be one of the cheesiest opening credits in a long time. Dev Saran(Shahrukh Khan) is a football(soccer) player who has just earned a penalty and is about to make that guaranteed spectacular goal that film heroes always do. Remember Hrithik Roshan’s entrance in Karan Johar’s previous film, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham(Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sadness), where he hits a guaranteed spectacular six! It was cricket then, and because the football fever is so high what with the World Cup and everything, it is football now. That wouldn’t and shouldn’t have been a problem, except that this film takes place in the United States of America and all sense prevailing football is the one sport that Americans know nothing about or aren’t even interested in. Even the national team of USA defeating Brazil 6-0 in a competitive match wouldn’t make the news! Anyway, our very own desi Beckham(he actually has a tattoo on his hand that says Victory; Beckham sports one on his hand that has his wife Victoria’s name) shoots and scores! Desi Beckham has a wife Rhea(Preity Zinta), the diva of DIVA magazine. Don’t you get it- Victory + Rhea = Victoria! What a subtle tribute to the Beckhams, aye? Rhea is an ultra-modern, independent woman. In Hindi film convention, such qualities make you a bitch! Thankfully Johar redeems her character in the second half, but more on that later. We are still at the opening credits. Next in line- Rishi Talwar(Abhishek Bachchan), a man-child! Rishi is about to be married to bachpan ki dost(childhood friend, baba!) Maya(Rani Mukherjee/Mukerji/Mukherji/Whocaresji?). It is at this wedding that Maya, having double thoughts about her marriage, meets Beckhamji in a meet-cute that is lifted very conveniently from the Brad Pitt starrer Meet Joe Black! Didn’t Karan see Before Sunset?!? Beckhamji convinces Mayaji to get married and they part ways, turning back every alternate second only to find the other turning away until…..if you’ve seen Meet Joe Black, you know what! Don’t fret. Beckham only injures his leg. No sweat.

Fast forward 4 years later. Beckham has lost the agility and strength of his right leg. Or is it left? Who cares? More importantly, he seems to have lost his screws in the process. Dev-id Beckham is now irritating as hell, blowing his fuse and making rude comments at the drop of a ball…ahem, hat. Rhea somehow is still bearing him(perhaps for their kid who resembles Chicken Little), besides the fact that she is now truly Victor-Rhea as she is the major breadwinner in the family and the one wearing pants. Or is it micro-mini skirts? The problem in their marriage is apparent- she jogs; he is giving an audition for Langda Tyagi! The other couple has its own share of problems none bigger than Samarjit Talwar(Amitabh Bachchan)- father to Rishi Talwar, father-in-law to Maya Talwar, Casanova to anything that moves! Samarjit aka Sam sleeps around with high-end call girls and justifies it with his deceased wife! Doesn’t the mere description of this sub-track make you feel like we’re talking of a completely different movie, maybe a Mahesh Bhatt venture! But woe is us and woe is you Mr. Bachchan for taking on a role that reduces you to dressing like a pimp, acting like an oversexed dirty old man and mouth lines that’d shame even the most ardent of your fans. At the receiving end of his remarks Kirron Kher, as Dev-id Beckham’s mother, gets complimented for her butt…you read it, her butt. Papa Talwar calls Mama Saran’s butt Chandigarh! If this joke doesn’t make you cringe in your seat, rest assured others will.

Back to the Talwars. Maya cannot have a baby and Rishi cannot give up being one! Maya and Dev meet again, through a plot device so contrived it actually has to conjure up a child-kidnapper called Black Beast! Maya and Dev, unhappy in their current relationships, befriend each other. They are compatible you see- she cannot bear a child, he cannot lift his leg(what were you thinking pervert?). Meanwhile Rhea still can’t bear Dev and Rishi still cannot give up being a child. Why didn’t they just call this movie Bears, Children and One Broken Leg! Maya and Dev start out with good intentions, trying to save their respective marriages by advising and consulting each other. Let me warn you- these two should be the last people you’ll ever go to in hopes of saving your marriage and even then they’re disastrously dangerous. Maya suggests Dev to massage Rhea, giving him a public demo in a bed-linen store. Dev’s suggestion is simple, sexy lingerie. Except his definition of lingerie is whips, belts and garter. He takes Maya to a store that houses S & M stuff, but is supposed to be a lingerie store! I was further scared when Dev actually asks Maya to spank his bottom. And oh yes, earlier Dev compliments Maya on her bottom too! Sr. Bachchan likens a butt to a Punjabi city, Shahrukh asks for his bottom to be spanked and comments on the cuteness of Rani’s butt. And yet, the expletives in Omkara are offensive!

When the efforts with the massage and sexy lingerie end up in disastrous results(they weren’t great ideas to begin with), Dev and Maya begin to realize that their respective marriages are a lost cause. They also become aware that they are falling for each other; something which the viewer knows is inevitable from the very first reel. Dev and Maya acknowledge their predicament and accept it. This, apart from the shockingly crude jokes, is the only refreshing aspect in an otherwise typically clichéd Karan Johar film. But the conservatism of Karan Johar never lets down. In order to make his audience endear to his leads indulging in extra-marital affair, he resorts to making Rhea earn hatred and Rishi come off as a nincompoop. Almost as a conditioned subconscious reaction he does a complete 180° turnabout post-interval where, upon realizing that it’d be blasphemous to boldly make an argument in favour of adultery, he makes us sympathize with the situation that Rhea and Rishi are in by labeling the actions of their respective spouses selfish and inconsiderate! Also absurd is the sermonizing on love and loyalty by Amitabh Bachchan’s Sam, a speech that is no more enlightening than the agony-aunt columns in your newspapers. That a man who makes light of an issue as grave as call-girls and exhibits his lewdness with such gay abandon should give a morality lecture is indigestible. And what was all the pre-release hype that Karan Johar had cut down on the melodrama. Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna has the requisite rona-dhona and dollops of it.

On the acting front, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is a mixed bag. Preity Zinta and Abhishek Bachchan have been relegated to less than supporting roles, although Abhishek has it worse. Abhishek sleepwalks through his part and save his high-intensity face-off with Rani Mukherji, is awfully absent. Even his chemistry with Amitabh Bachchan is missing here. In fact, their dude banter gets on the nerves. Preity has a role with no meat, only bones. Rani Mukherji, it seems, doesn’t know to do anything wrong. She is as dependable as always. But whoever said that this performance is better than her deaf-mute-blind turn in last year’s Black is stupid. Arjun Rampal makes an inconsequential appearance, and so do Kajol(in a booty-shaking dance) and Saira Mohan(woman with the perfect face). The friendly appearance of John Abraham in the ‘Where’s The Party Tonight’ song, cements his position as a favourite in the Chopra-Johar camp.

Technically too, the film is a mixed bag. While Anil Mehta’s cinematography captures every location in a pleasant manner, Sanjay Sankla’s editing leaves much to be desired. The movie is over 3 hours long! Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are not at their best here. ‘Where’s The Party Tonight?’ is the only track that bears their trademark stamp of contemporary awareness. Karan Johar does a good job however of making the songs easy on the eyes, especially ‘Tumhi Dekho Na’(See It Yourself)- a song that uses blue, yellow, orange, pink, red and green as colour codas. Talking about coda, why did Karan Johar find the need to mock ballet? Farhan Akhtar, his contemporary, had shown wonderful maturity when he presented opera, another alien art form to Indians, with dignity in his debut feature Dil Chahta Hai. And why did the writers(Shibani Bathija, Niranjan Iyengar and Karan Johar) find it obligatory to set this story in the United States. Couldn’t these characters exist in any Indian metropolis?

As a movie, 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna' is better than Karan Johar’s previous films. But those aren’t very high standards to overcome. However, for once, despite the melodrama, K-Jo seems to have taken a step towards saying what he’d like to. One hopes he goes the complete distance the next time around.
2 stars (Pretty Crappy) Abhishek Bandekar - 08/11/06 09:52:27

In The Mood For Love

2006-08-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

had seen this in california several years ago. at that time the movie did not appeal to me. but yesterday at my own kapu talkies it made a great impression on me.needless to say that i loved it.
the hypnotic walks and the ever so hauntingly romantic background score transported me to a different time and space. i would not have seen this again if i had not seen "2046". "2046" stayed with me for several days. wong kar wai is a magician.

REVIEWS

BLACK ( Worst Indian Movie )

2006-08-01T03:53:00.000-07:00

Review from IMDB
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Black is the answer to all Hollywood's misgivings till date" "Bhansali's Black is comparable to any of contemporary cinema's classics." Blah…blah…blah…..

Now time for some truth….. Hear it from the horse's mouth…. Ladies and Gentlemen: presenting before you the man himself… Feel blessed, feel honored…. The final word on the most confusingly reviewed and misinterpreted movie of all times….yes you are bang right, we are talking about the much raved about, famously pronounced as "The sole deserving candidate for the academy awards", a masterpiece of art, creation beyond comparison or even explanation, a movie so huge you feel like disappearing in thin air when it rolls, and wish you could run away from those pretentious pricks applauding in the dark asylum amidst an alarming vacuum of misconception and misinterpretation, and may be catch something subtle at home, for a change, far from the maddening crowds, who rejoice at every howl, who jump at every brawl….. Take me away, O lords of my destiny, if this is BLACK, I prefer WHITE! This is easily the most misconceived movies of all times, at least in the Indian celluloid history. The minute the movie rolled, and I saw a schizophrenic Amitabh, I knew what was coming, and guess what, I was RIGHT! The protagonist, the small girl looks like an Indian impersonation of the two girls from The Ring and The Exorcist, with due apologies and respect to Verbinski and Friedkin, respectively, who keeps howling all the time as if she has just come back from watching Black. She looks like she went to see Sixth Sense and missed THE scene. Agreed that it was supposed to be a DARK movie, agreed that they were supposed to garner sympathy and tears for its hollering monologue sessions, and agreed that as human beings you do tend to get swept away in the stream of emotions so basic to our survival, but tell me one thing. Where were the emotions?! All I found was noisy confrontations all through the tiring 95 minutes (well if the actual movie is longer, I would kiss the guy who gave me an edited DVD!) in first few minutes of the movie, I thought it will take me a while to get attuned to the dark, unexpressed emotions, but when it didn't affect me a penny, I started getting worried about my reaction time and nerve impulses' functioning. But they were not to be blamed, may be I have seen way too many movies by now that such blown-up sagas of pathos don't influence me any longer even in the minutest possible way. The movie did have some inspiring aspects, like the sets, the camera, the lights, but let me add just one thing, they all were looking way too Victorian to fit the depicted time period in the movie! Amidst all this mumbo-jumbo of Black making it to the Oscars, I have some thousand thirty inhibitions about the remote possibility of that being true. The movie attempts a daring depiction and storyline of disabled people, which is a very commendable step to start with. They have even tried showing the constricted views of the world towards the chances of their betterment to a certain successful extent. But if the moviemakers had embarked upon such a noble task of diverting the attention of the hackneyed audience, who have become used to the song and dance routine much too often now, may be they should have worked a little more into understanding as to what their world is all about, beyond the stereotypical BLACK that they keep hammering from pillar to post. I understand that Black substantiates their concept and symbolizes a world devoid of all things colorful and lively, but couldn't they leave a few things to the intelligent audience's imagination, an assumption that they sure must have made while spending such obscene amounts(read a fifteen crores INR!). A few things like the much-publicized KISS between the lead actors, which truly I was imagining all the time waiting for it! This could have been a rare creation by Mumbai cinema, considering the oodles of moolah they waste on lavish sets and costumes, which make no sense whatsoever. All the movie relies on is gaining sympathy on characters oozing with self-pity and pretence. Way to go, Bollywood, you don't get Oscars by stuffing things like Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, amnesia and the works. Remember, someone said, Keep It Simple, Stupid!

movie review "SARCAR"

2006-07-29T05:34:00.000-07:00

SARCAR by Ram Gopal Verma a review by anonymous source

Members of the Indian film industry feel insulted sometimes when the industry is referred to as Bollywood. Well, a cheap, wannabe imitation such as Sarkar certainly justifies the label. I have read in places that the movie bears little resemblance to The Godfather. Well, the obvious references to Michael Corleone, Solozzo, Sunny Corleone, McClusky, Kay, Bonasera, the Don himself and a host of others, would beg to differ.

I have always believed that Ram Gopal Varma's films have been the heights of uber-pretentiousness...Sarkar touches hitherto unexplored depths. The long, overdone pauses, overkill melodrama and meaningless camera angles do not speak of good direction. They speak of yet another novice trying to match up to another great director, in this case Coppola. The typical, clichéd (might I add wrongful) use of classical and devotional music to emphasize deaths and melodrama do not help RGV's cause. The long pauses may suggest good direction to some. On the contrary, they are pretentious attempts masquerading as good cinema. Think Mani Kaul. It is one thing to have pauses for effect. It is quite another when it is overdone and exaggerated. This is an example of RGVs policy of hammering the message home to the audience. Subtlety has never been RGV's forte. To illustrate an example: Coppola shows Bonasera begging the Don for justice and we see the Don eventually agree to dispense that justice. With that out of the way, we assume that it is done, simply through Brando's impressive manner and later events. In Sarkar, RGV actually goes to the length of showing the justice being dispensed as the perpetrator is pummeled. This is just one example to show the difference between good film-making and RGVs brand of film-making. RGV probably assumes that the audience is so thick that it needs everything driven home with a sledgehammer. If one is to blatantly copy something, one should at least do a good job of it!

In addition, the movie seems to lose its way in the middle, starting off as a story of a powerful man, taking a jab at family drama, rushing down the avenue of a gangster flick and finally getting thoroughly lost. Had RGV managed to incorporate all these elements and wrapped them around the central storyline, we would have had a much better film on our hands. However, this is a point which I have to make regarding most of RGVs films. Even a movie as critically acclaimed as Company, went all over the world in the course of deciding on a plot and themes.The movie degenerates into a typical mainstream flick with melodrama worthy of a soap-opera.

Another important issue that one must consider now is: How long can directors go on making cheap imitations of great movies, calling them 'tributes'? Whether we like it or not, Sarkar bears too many resemblances to The Godfather as regards the plot and characters (the similarity ends here however, as the true film-making element enters leaving RGV stranded in the wake of a truly great film). If one were to consider the direction and cinematography of Sarkar, yes, it is not similar to The Godfather. I repeat, if RGV was going to shamelessly copy something, he might as well have done a good job of it. However, this occurs not through a want of trying. It boils down to one simple fact: RGV is one of the most overrated filmmakers in India today. I just wasted some good money renting out Sarkar. I plan to demand a refund tomorrow! In case you have watched the movie too, I suggest that you do the same. Eminently forgettable. Or, to maul a famous quote: "Forget it Jake. Its Tinseltown." At its very worst I might add.

Review of Devdas (New)

2006-07-26T04:21:00.000-07:00

very interesting take on Bansal's devdas. source unknown.
___________________________________________________________________

The Devdas dilemma: should literary works be mummified in their original
form or should they be re-jigged any which way possible to create
nouvelle entertainment for those dumb folk who are unaware of the classics?

Las Vegas meets Durga Puja in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas. The result
is catastrophic, tasteless kitsch. The sets are like lost cities of
Xanadu. Devdas's own home is a gigantic statue-crowded,
chandelier-infested Parthenon. Paro's abode is a mutant cathedral ringed
by stained glass verandahs. Chandramukhi's kotha is a part-Mughal,
part-Hindu Gujarati fantasia. The costumes are strictly mythological.
Modern designers dive into Amar Chitra Katha and surface with lengths of
gold and silver that are wrapped around bejewelled L'Oreal encrusted
nymphs. Frescoes, tapestries and Khajuraho images streak by. Gregorian
chants, Hindustani classical and Indi-pop rise in crescendo. The viewer
cowers in his seat, stupefied by the designer horror unleashed by Bhansali.

Yet, the film's a hit. The irritating NRI whose chief aim seems to be to
patronise films that show India as a land of lurid traditions and comic
book landscapes is thrilled. Indeed, the sets of Devdas are being flown
to Brussels for the wedding of a Gujarati diamond merchant's daughter.
At home, folk who have never heard of Sarat Chandra's novels, are
flocking in feverish numbers to inhale Bhansali's monumental mistake.

The entire point about Devdas the novel is that the love of Devdas and
Paro is perennially and tragically hidden. Love is unspoken. Undeclared.
Who can forget that the most romantic sentence Devdas ever uttered to
Paro (delivered in Dilip Kumar's sensual drawl) was, "Tu kitni badi ho
gayee hai, Paro."

In this film, by contrast, D&P prance past 5-star hotel swimming pools,
pose in calendar art tableaux or say "ish" and "theek acche" in
caricature Bangla. And why on earth do Paro and Chandramukhi meet? Their
very raison d'etre was that they were worlds away from each other! And
Devdas was not just a lovesick drunk. Rather, he symbolised the
emotional collapse and pathetic decline of the Bengali leisured class.
But all Shah Rukh Khan does is hurtle through mammoth Arabian Nights
moonscapes brandishing bottles of amber liquid. Oh please!

Yet, some adaptations have been as great as the original. West Side
Story was an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Peter Brook's Mahabharata
created modern drama from a traditional epic. Othello has been
beautifully re-told in Kathakali. Rozencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
was a highly successful take-off from Hamlet. Playwright Jean Anouilh
adapted Antigone, the Greek tragedy into a modern political satire. The
Bible was transmogrified into a brilliant rock concert in Jesus Christ
Superstar. So why not Devdas?

Why not, indeed. Bhansali would argue that more people will seek out the
original story after seeing his film. That the idiot multitude might
even buy a copy of Sarat Chandra's book. Yet the tragedy of Bhansali's
film is that new generations will receive nothing of the emotional depth
of the novel. They will not remember Sarat Chandra's tortured
protagonist and his paralysing inability to express his emotions. All
they will remember of Devdas is a multi-coloured circus.

Landscape In The Mist

2005-12-30T21:05:00.000-08:00

last night saw this charming movie and i am glad i did.this is a film from greece directed by Theo Angelopoulos. this is sort of a road movie. story of two children who run away from home in search of their father. haunting images stayed with me for a long time. this is pure cinema with very little dialogue. the movie actually transported me to a different world. did not feel like coming back.
wish i could write better so i could formulate my thoughts to good prose. one of these days if i keep up with this exercise will get there.
woke up in the morning and glanced at the "times of india", learnt that s.m. krishna is in bangalore releasing some booku. he is the governor of maharashtra and why he keeps coming to bangalore to attend these meaningless functions is beyond me. then there is the news of dharam singu attending a weddingu of some multi millionaire's son. these people make me sick. these clueless clowns are in charge of the state and no wonder this place is a mess. then there is sudha murthy getting another public toilet ready for sm krishna to innagurate. believe me most of these public toilets are awful. there is one near gandhi nagar which is frequented by the local pimps and get busy late in the evening. if you should ever come to malleswaram, look for the one near the malleswaram grounds and you will see distinguished members of malleswaram urinating around the public toilet and no one bothers to use the toilet. it is a big joke but sudha murthy gets all kinds of awards for her philanthropic work.

Mysore, Bangalore and Mangalore

2005-12-18T20:18:00.000-08:00

Our idiots are at it again. Main idiot is this bloke u r anantha murthy. comes up with this brilliant idea to change the names of major cities of mysore state. this is what happens when you stick your head up your ass. half the people of bangalore do not get water supply in their homes every day. this inspite of the world bank granting gigantic grants. u.r.a should investigate what happens to all the grants that the mysore government receives. actually our vidhana soudha bandicoots spend all the money on non existant projects. don't think this will ever change.the cancer is deep rooted. u.r.a is a big joke.

Quotes From "The Sheltering Sky" (1990)

2005-12-03T21:24:00.000-08:00

Tunner: We're probably the first tourists they've had since the war.
Kit Moresby: Tunner, we're not tourists. We're travelers.
Tunner: Oh. What's the difference?
Port Moresby: A tourist is someone who thinks about going home the moment they arrive, Tunner.
Kit Moresby: Whereas a traveler might not come back at all.
Tunner: You mean I'm a tourist.
Kit Moresby: Yes, Tunner. And I'm half and half.

Tunner: You've been to North Africa before, Port. Kit and I will just follow your plan.
Port Moresby: My only plan is, I have no plan.

Kit Moresby: Other people's dreams are so dull.

Port Moresby: Kit has days when everything in the world is merely a sign for something else. A white Mercedes can't just simply be a white Mercedes. It must have a secret meaning about the whole of life. Everything is an omen. Nothing can just be what it is.

Kit Moresby: Oh, Tunner, stop trying to be interesting. On you it looks terrible. And you're too good-looking.

Tunner: Do you and Port ever... share the same room?
Kit Moresby: Tunner, when you travel for months on end, you have to set it up this way. But if you're talking about sex, the first rule of marriage is never to confuse it with sleep.

Kit Moresby: Now we're going to have to choose between two tortures: taking the train or driving with them.

Kit Moresby: Champagne yes, philosophy no.

Port Moresby: You know, if Tunner didn't take such long siestas, I'd never be alone with you. I think he's in love with you.
Kit Moresby: Port, don't be silly.
Port Moresby: Sillier things have happened. The way he hangs around making inane conversation, the way he looks at you when he fingers his DDT can...
Kit Moresby: What else?
Port Moresby: Oh, the ferocity with which he counts your luggage.
Kit Moresby: Oh, he counts yours too.
Port Moresby: It's not the same.

Kit Moresby: Someday they're gonna kick the French out of this country.
Port Moresby: Well, with trousers like that, who can blame them?

Tunner: Do you think, uh, Port suspects something?
Kit Moresby: I think he knows, but he doesn't know that he knows.

Kit Moresby: According to Port, everyone eventually gets used to anything.
Tunner: If that were true, it would be the end of progress.
Kit Moresby: No, I'm sure it's true. I just don't know whether it's good or bad.
Port Moresby: Neither.

Port Moresby: Could you be happy here?
Kit Moresby: Happy? Happy? How do you mean?
Port Moresby: I mean, could you like it here?
Kit Moresby: How do I know? God, I wish you wouldn't ask me questions like this! Really! I can't answer them. What do you want me to say? "Yes, I'll be happy in Africa"? I like Ain Krorfa so much, but I can't tell whether I want to stay for a month or I want to leave tomorrow.
Tunner: You couldn't leave tomorrow even if you wanted to. Can't get any information about how to get out of this place. No buses, not even a fruit truck. Nobody speaks English. Anybody for a nightcap?

Kit Moresby: Is that the plan?
Port Moresby: More or less, yes.
Kit Moresby: More or less?
Port Moresby: Uh... Less, actually.

Narrator: Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well, yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.

Berlin Days

2005-09-03T23:46:00.000-07:00

Visit to Berlin was a total joy and surprise. Joy because we very much enjoyed walking around the city and were really thrilled to ride the metro to go places.

During the war berlin was completely destroyed by the bombings carried out by the allies, now there is no trace of destruction.

Was really thrilled to see "Billy Wilders" Cafe Bistro Bar at the Potsdamer Strasse.
http:www.billywilders.de
And the new film museum is a must for any film enthusiast. I say not tobe missed. Also you can have a drink at the bar where Chaplin met Garbo. The whole Potsdamer Srasse area is very very classy.
We stayed at the Berlin Hilton and the concierge was visibly annoyed for i asked him directions for sites like the bunker of Hitler etc.
Visit to Checkpoint charlie was interesting. And there is a museum near the place where the berlin wall stood. All these places were walking distance from out hotel.

One thing that impressed me most was the avenues of berlin. The footpaths or side walks are wider than the Mysore 100 ft road. And it is a great pleasure to walk.

In the beginning i said berlin was a surprise. It was a surprise because i had preconcieved ideas about berlin and berliners. Found the people extremely friendly and at the restaurants i had no problem getting vegetarian food. Would love to go back again and spend more time. This time i was there for some 9 days, could easily stay for a month. Would love to visit one of the famous tango places, it seems buenosaires is no longer the prime place for tango. Next will tango in berlin.

Ranjan, MGR or Dilip Kumar

2005-09-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

this is about movies.the other day while walking i started thinking about the movies of late forties and early fifties.remembered ss vasan's "chandralekha". ranjan was my favourite hero then.loved those sword fights.and the kissing scene with t.r.rajakumari fascinated me.my mother was thrilled how she avoided ranjan's advances.

vasan was a very capable director.he made some wonderful movies. losely based on dumas count of montecristo he made this tamil movie "venji kotte valiban" except for the sissy looking hero the movie was just charming.actually one of my favourites.

then it was MGR's "marma yogi", which i saw at mysore chamundeswari theater.was fascinated by that movie.probably will get bored if i see it now.

but those days any movie with sword fights caught my fancy.vasan's "chandralekha" has not aged even after all these years.that i believe is good film making.
i graduated to hindi films after watching dilip kumar's "andaaz" and "deedar" and raj kapoor's "awaara" and "sri 420".
after all these years i still thnk Bimal Roy's Devdas is india's finest hindi movie. and dilip and suchitra sen's portrayal of devdas and parvati simply marvellous and no other performance by any other actor or actress comes even close.

Nykoping Days

2005-07-21T14:38:00.000-07:00

the flight was very comfortable but for my miserable cold.the discomfort got worse as the flight progressed.landed in paris on time.plane landed away from the airport and we were shuttled to
the arrival terminal for customs and immigration formalities.immigration guy just opened the
passport and stamped without even looking at it.anyone could have entered france without a legal document. customs also no one asked a question.we came out and rented a taxi to take us to the beauvais airport.arrived at beauvais after about one hour.driver was very nice, managed to understand what we said. he was thrilled when i gave him a 10 euro tip.
beauvais airport is very small, our old bangalore airport was much better.one bathroom was really bad.we were hungry, some french bread and milk chocolate for me and vijaya tried a
peach yogurt and stole part of my french bread.flight took off earlier than the scheduled time.
when the plane is full, they just take off.seats were cramped, since this is a cheap airline this is
tobe expected.arrived an nykoping 10 minutes sooner.entered sweden, no immigration check or
customs inspection.jp and yamini were waiting.there was a light drizzle.the volkswagen passat took us home.cute apartment, very nice floor plan.kitchen and dining area is the best part of the house.it has two bedrooms and a spacious living room.they have bought a new sony lcd tv.
now the sun does not set till about 10 pm.
19th july 2005.
last night could not sleep properly because of my ear problem.finally got some sleep after i
took some ibuprofen pills at about 2 am.woke up at about 5 am.brewed some espresso and
went for a walk.this is a very quiet town.we walked around for some 30 minutes and returned
home.
yamini prepared breakfast, masala dosa.

17 july 2005 Bangalore to Madras

2005-07-20T23:26:00.000-07:00

the jetair flight got delayed by some 30 minutes.Ahmad from radisson promptly was at the madras airport to receive us.stay at radisson was a complete disappointment.they had agreed for a certain rate and when i checked in they hiked up the rate and refused to give me a breakfast coupon.i think it is a very cheap outfit.will never stay there again.
but the room was very nice and the band in the evening at the coffee shop was really superb.
forgot the singers name, but he had a crackling voice and he belted some of my favourite
songs including autumn leaves, besa memucho,shadow of your smile and strangers in the night.
totally satisfied with the nice dinner and the music.i talked to the singer and thanked him profusely.it seems he was singing at the orange county in bangalore some time back.his voice
reminded me of sachmo.
at 12 midnight reached the airport,check in formality was a little tiresome.they wanted to open
one suitcase and check.but for that check in was fairly smooth.then waited for the flight at the
delta lounge.2 45 am is a very odd time.but the flight was on time. i was completely exhausted by the time i boarded.

Travel Itinerary July Thru Nov 2005

2005-07-16T17:16:00.000-07:00

Leaving Bangalore for Madras on July 17th afternoon.
Stay at Radisson while in Madras.
Will catch the Delta Airlines Flight to Paris at 2:45 AM on July 18th.
Arrival in Paris 9:45 AM at Charles De Gaulle Airport(Roissy).
From Roissy will take a taxi to Beauvais Airport.
Will fly Ryan Air to Nykoping(Sweden).Flight leaves at 2:55 PM and
reaches Nykoping around 5 PM.

Break in Sweden till August 2nd.

August 2nd to Berlin, Germany on a SAS flight.
Stay at Hilton Berlin till the 9th.
Fly to Budapest on the 9th on SAS.
Stay at Hilton Westend Budapest till the 13th.
Fly back to Berlin on the 13th, stay overnight at Hilton.
Next day will fly to Stockholm.

While in Sweden plan to travel to Oslo to meet my friend
M.K.Ramesh.And may be fly to Barcelona for a few days.
All in planning stages.

On sept 20th will fly to New York from Paris.
Stay with my friend V.T.Shadagopan till Nov 10th.
Return to Paris and to Nykoping on Nov 10th.
Fly back to Madras from Paris on Nov 20th.
Will reach Madras on Nov 21st.

Peter Cheyney

2005-06-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

I've seen a lot of women in my life.All sorts and conditions of women in all sorts of places.But I'd never seen any one like this one. There was some odd, indefinable quality about her, something , that got you like a punch between the eyes, and it wasn't only that she was absolutely lovely, that everything about her matched her loveliness. There was something else. An essentially womanly, very defenite, Allure that was all the stronger because she was quite unconscious of it.

Women could be the devil, he thought.They deflected you.You were going to do something or go somewhere and some woman turned up and so you didn't do what you were going to do or where you intended to go. They were soft and attractive and alluring. They were perfumed, charming and seductive. They were hell!

A suggestion of her perfume came to his nostrils!

She was a mixture of decency, violent desires, utter recklesness and a certain ability to take life as it came without making a song and dance about it.

Any man who's fond of a woman and realises that she's engaged to somebody else always thinks she's making a fool of herself.

Beginning

2005-06-12T05:44:00.000-07:00

Mr. M.V.Krishnaswamy, observing my keen interest in movies, asked me to document how and when i got interested in films. A good friend of mine thinks that i am prejudiced for i have such a low opinion on current day indian films, with the exception of some bengali and malayalam films.

I think once you enter the dark cinema hall, it matters little where the movie was made.If the movie has any merit it transports you to a different world.

Perhaps the first movie i saw was an american movie called "OneMillionBC", http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=36385 starring Victor Mature.Saw this at Mysore Olympia Talkies, do not remember the year, maybe 1948 or 1949.just last week walked in front of olympia talkies and they were showing the kannada movie "Mr. Bhakra".And that says a lot in itself.I better leave it at that because this is not about the state of indian films.

My mother took me to see "Quo Vadis" at Gayathri Talkies in Mysore.Other films that i saw during that period were "Raja Vikrama", "Jagan Mohini" both at RajKamal Talkies in Mysore.I think i went with my mother.During those days there was a separate section for ladies in the theater.One Mr.Kempa Raj produced "Raja Vikrama" and later he also made a movie called "Jala Durga" based on "Count of Montecristo" by Alexander Dumas.I could not see "Jala Durga".

Those days going to movies was really a big problem.It was considered a big waste of time and money.

The one movie that really impressed me was Raj Kapoor's "Sri 420".Went with my maternal uncle one Mr. Rama Ballal to the night show at Olympia Talkies.And that was my first night show.Year was 1953 or 1954.Perhaps that was when i got hooked.

Next prominent movie that made a very strong impression was Fred Zinneman's From Here To Eternity.Those days i was in the habit of collecting Heralds of American and British Movies.Would go to both Gayathri and Ganesha talkies and ask them for the heralds.Had a very big collection.The names became very familiar.I had this herald of Hitchcock's "Notorious", I only saw the movie later after i migrated to America.That was just one example.Now my collection is lost,woud give a thousand dollars if i could get hold of them heralds.

TO BE CONTINUED