Slumdog is Top Dog!

So ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is the talk of the world having bagged 8 Oscars and especially the current rage in India what with one of the country’s best musicians coming back with 2 of the gold plated statuettes, a little known sound editing guy winning an Oscar all the way in the US of A and having made the country proud.

Better still, they made the world sit up and take notice of our country.

Isn’t it a wonderful thing? I am very proud of the people who have won the award and am even more proud of the fact that they belong to my country. I am immensely happy. Much more than I can express…

So why is it that in most places that I have come across it’s been received with mixed reactions?

Everywhere I have read about it, it’s got its fair share of criticism.

It’s a movie that’s been made by a British director, produced by an American, based on a storyline written by an Indian author….

Right from the talk that this is far from Rahman’s best composition, to the fact that it shows India in a poor light to the reason that it’s opened up a lot of avenues for the West to boost their market for entertainment in India.

Agreed, it may not be Rahman’s best composition till date. He’s rendered lots of wonderful songs that can be said as one of his best. But then how many of those films have made it to a globally accepted platform like the Oscars? And in comparison with the rest of movies that Slumdog got pitted against at the Oscars, wasn’t Rahman’s the best score?

Fine, the movie did show India in a poor light… but that’s what one part of our country is like. Why are people so scared to accept/face reality? This is our country. Good, bad, ugly, deprived, and a whole lot of other things. That’s why we are called a developing country, people!!

Fair enough, it’s going to open up a lot of doorways for the glamour/entertainment sector of our country. That’s business. That’s what movies are made for. No one person is interested to make a movie just for the sake of entertainment. At the end of the day, it’s all for money, honey! No one is disputing that. But that does not in any way mean that we are suckers for the West and are waiting for them to give us a world of recognition so that our talent is portrayed to the world. The rest of the world I think knows enough about the store-house of talent that exists in India. How else do you explain our actors getting exposure to Hollywood and forays?

Instead of savoring the fact that fellow Indians have made us proud, and celebrating, basking in that glory, we come up with extended views of business, market for the entertainment sector, cribs about the fact that the West would never actually hit India if unless for the reason that it’s a bearish market and therefore they need the money too!

I don’t know. I find that ridiculous. And degrading too!

It’s almost like making a point enough to say – there’s a time and a place for everything and this is not the time to make negatiev comments.

People who have got worldwide recognition from India have not gotten it just because the developed countries want to throw tidbits our way. If that’s the way the world runs, then it’s sad! And I do not agree to it.

I am happy for the fact that India is in the news. The world is taking notice. And our fellow-men have made us proud.

And I want to savor this moment without any negative feeling of regionalism, or the West throwing us tidbits because we lap them up or any such thing.

This is in India’s time. The time to celebrate.

Kudos to the entire crew of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.

You have done us proud! Congratulations!

SA-RO-JA review...!

I saw this movie called SA-RO-JA yesterday.

I don’t know what to term it as… Comedy, Drama, Suspense, Adventure…. It’s a mélange of all this… Nice movie to boot…

The way it’s been shot is very interesting… for the first half hour you question yourself as to what’s the whole point …. It’s all different threads that get weaved extremely well in a classy way too… the actors are all new faces (at least to me!) save a few like Prakash Raj, Jayaram, S.P.Charan …. Which brings me to the fact that Charan did a great job… I liked him the best of the lot… :-)

The storyline was nothing new but the way it was shot made the movie worthwhile… and without doubt it’s one of the best movies made recently in Tamil.

I want to watch the original English movie too – heard it’s based on ‘Judgment Night’ or something like that!

But SA-RO-JA was so totally worth it…! :-)

Good acting by everyone, a gripping storyline the premise of which was a little weak but was depicted well and brilliant comedy. Seriously! The fact that the movie managed to pull off comedy dialogues in the midst of the most serious of scenes was amazing! Not all movies are able to pull that off. Add to it the fact that it was shot quite realistically instead of any sort of matrix-like action or unbelievable scenes was a good thing! I think that’s what worked for the movie.

In my opinion…. Don’t miss this! It’s a good watch!

Personality Viruses...

Points to ponder:

1) How come there are always people who know how to do a better job of doing something?

2) How come there are always people who know everything about every single topic under the sun?

3) How come there are always people who know what exactly is going to happen in a crisis?

4) How come there are always people who have an opinion on anything that happens and are so sure that their opinion is the right one?

5) How come all these people are the ones whom I end up having the misfortune to meet?

As life goes on, you have the fortune (mis!) of meeting a wide variety of people. People who are of the fixed notion that, they are better off than anyone else, they are the best in whatever they do, they are always right and suffice to say, they are perfect!

Far from it….

Some of these types that you meet can be classified into –

The “I-am-sorry-I’m-still-in-the-past-century” type:

They have fixed notions about how things should be, how people should behave, follow rules and regulations for every single thing right from eating out or talking to sending a mail. They hate it if someone questions their way of living and are more of the old-fashioned type. They get defensive for every single thing, can’t accept a single thing about the way people or society is at present and in general irritate the normal people. And god forbid, if you’re a girl caught talking to a boy…. Be prepared for a lecture! Right from advising you on how to behave with superiors to how you should be sending a mail, these are the kind that gets you irritated more so than often.

The “here-use-my-shoulder-to-weep or sob-whether-you-want-or-not” type:

These people think they are god’s answer to people’s troubles. They have a solution for everything and an ‘I told you so…’ look on the face whenever a little trouble comes your way, more so if you have made the mistake of not letting them know the minute details of your life. Of course even if there is nothing untoward or no trouble they still have this ‘you’ll live to regret this’ kind of expression on whatever your actions are unless it’s the one that they advised you on.

The “I-can-do-a-better-job-of-doing-this” type:

These are the guys who think that whether its running the country or managing an organization or simply just doing a task, it’s them who can do it best… the others no matter how good they are, can only just about manage it…. these guys have an opinion on everything, a better way of doing things, and more often than not, try to show off their half-baked knowledge on whatever it is – Stocks, Computers, Nuclear Physics, Metallica or Mallika Sherawat.

The “plain-old-artificial” type:

They simply seep artificiality. It’s like its part of their blood. They make passionate speeches about jingoism for e.g.:, stand up for lesser known causes, make a hue and cry about how something that is common in society should be considered as taboo. You can feel it when they make those long drawn out, point-validating monologue on a particular thing. The artificiality just oozes out of their pores…! It more or less makes you want to puke.

The “let-me-help-you-out” type:

These are the guys who interfere, butt in, and basically poke their noses into whatever you try to do at any point of time. They seem to think that you are in dire need of help and therefore offer to help you out irrespective of whether you want it or not. Sometimes it gets to the point of saturation and then … KAPUT..

Anyways…. So those are some of the types that you might end up meeting in your life….

And we all know what harm any of the above hybrids can do…

Mostly these are the reactions that you’ll have!!

a) A tendency to throw the nearest thing at the person intended

b) A feeling so frustrating that you just sit with you head in your hands and try to shut out the monologue

c) An uncontrollable itch to slowly gouge out your body parts considering that it would be comparatively better to listening to the crap that is being dished out

d) It can also invoke religious fervor in you to save you from the clutches of the being.

e) Beating your head on the wall to avoid the other mental trauma.

Me- I am the lucky one. I have actually felt like doing all of those sometimes all at the same time ….

I am a privileged soul, you see….

Some of the above-said characters I get to meet every single day! :-)

Me and Romance!!! Bah, Gah and Double Gah!

"And what’s romance? Usually, a nice little tale where you have everything As You Like It, where rain never wets your jacket and gnats never bite you... "

I am not romantic…!

I know this! In fact I realized this - a long while back! I mean I am good with writing stuff and all that… but to be verbally romantic is something that goes right above my head… I just can’t bring myself to do it… I am every romantic’s idea of a spoil-sport…. Ask my fiancé, he’ll give you loads of examples… I am a horror cartoon when it comes to romance… I find it very artificial to be verbally eloquent in saying romantic stuff… the books are ok! I laugh at that too! I just can’t for the life of me figure out how can people say romantic things with a straight face… if I ever started to say something, I’d probably end up laughing..!

You know there was this one time that me and my guy were chatting on the phone and we were kind of discussing on the topic of romance. He told me that since I read quite a lot I should know some romantic wordings… he asked me to tell him something romantic… and I told him (repeatedly) that I cannot say something romantic… I find it very weird and funny… yeah yeah go on laugh! I can hear you! So he baited and cajoled and requested and all that in a very sweet nice tone and I fell for it!! I might not be romantic but I secretly like it when I hear something romantic … :P just some things! Not everything! (Point to be noted).

So I told him this – “she gave him a dozen roses, 11 real and 1 fake and told him – I’ll love you till the last one dies”….

Yes that’s my idea of romance! Go on snort and snicker!

For a few seconds I heard nothing from his side. Just silence… then slowly he said, “What was that? I did not understand it.”

Wow… just my luck…! I know that it sounds a little different when you actually say and read it… but then still!!!

So I repeated it again! And then I had to explain it word by word! Like you know, fake roses don’t die and therefore the love is symbolically represented as being forever types…!

That’s not the end of story. I really wanted to know if what I said was so tough. So I tried the same thing on my brother.

Blank stare. He gave me a look which said, “don’t tell me you tried this on your guy!!”.

I still did not give up.

I told it to my parents. They said, “Please don’t do this! Please don’t spoil your love life. Agreed it’s romantic and all but it is a little difficult. Don’t give that poor boy so much trouble!”

Now what am I supposed to do…

You know, me being romantic and all that…..

I rest my case…

PS: Ashwin from now on… my romance is limited to letters ;)

Can someone help??

Any of you happened to see 'Luck by Chance?'

I did and I also wrote a review about it a week or so back.

Anyways, so if you have watched the movie you would remember the last few scenes where Farhan comes to talk to Konkona and apologize for whatever happened and talk about getting back together. And she refuses him. Reason being, when he talked so fervently about what he could do with his life with her in it, she failed to understand what her life would contain apart from giving him support and standing by his side, in sickness and health and all that!

Am I the only one who could relate to that or was there nothing in that scene?

I mean, a couple of days back, me and a colleague were having a discussion on the movie, especially on this scene and he said that there was no point in having that scene. Apparently because the film was made by a woman, it was warranted that there should be a woman-centric scene in the movie which would give the heroine a bit of standing. Now what was that?? Seriously! The hero was ‘oh-so-passionately’ describing about how his life would be with her and the girl gets blamed because she refuses his offer to spend the rest of their lives together. Where did that come from? I mean, how come no one else caught the subtle point that the guy was talking only about HIS life and HIS aspirations and all that, what about the girl’s life??? HER individuality? HER life before she came into his life?? Suddenly all that becomes a closed chapter is it? And is that not what the heroine asks the hero too….

And so we get branded saying – “Ah… you’re a feminist… that’s why you have that opinion!” Oh wow! So basically the fact that I relate to the scene because I am independent and I maintain my individuality makes me a feminist…

I am somehow losing that thin line of distinction here…

Can someone help!??!?

Things that I don’t understand!!

› Why is that when you are a girl/woman in the corporate world (especially if you are not part of the upper management) people tend to take whatever you say on any subject a little less seriously than they do with guys/men? Is it that their ego can’t take a girl talking about politics/science/stocks/technology as good as any other person well-versed in them or is it just that ‘Bah! She’s a girl… what would she know about such stuff’ kind of thought process?

› Why do some people talk as though they carry the burden of the entire world on their fragile shoulders and talking about the better good etc … If I am not commenting on whatever your thoughts are and I say whatever I think, why do they give me that look of derision as though I am committing a crime thinking just about whatever my life is concerned with?

› Why do some people have to always butt in with their opinions on whatever 2 other people are discussing?

› Why do people have to do a post-mortem on stuff that has happened ages after it happened? Can’t they just let it be?

(to be contd.)

Yay for all women!!! :-) (and some men too!)

So there you go!

Someone finally thought up of something to kick some people right up their asses and what an idea!!

Yay for all women and men part of this! Hats off to you all and kudos too… Congratulations are in order too… good for you… nice… well done..!

God bless you!

For all the others who want to know more….

Here’s the idea and the link….

The ‘Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women’ ---> visit this for more info…

I am just sorry I heard about this so late… but then Better Late Than Never..! :-)

Of Books and Movies!

Yup… so it’s been a while since I posted something..! Not for lack of time or anything… but for lack of topics..!
Watched a couple of movies… read some books…
Here is my take on them!

Slumdog Millionaire
I saw the movie and then I read the book. So fair enough to say that I had a lot of expectations from the book (I believe that any movie made on a book is bound to be much below expectations than the book!). In this case though, I found them both starkly different. Yeah given that the storyline and the premise on which the movie is made is the same as the book. But there is a lot more in the book than which is depicted in the movie and for once I liked the movie better than the book. I felt that the book was too filmy. There are parts in the book that feel a bit dragging when compared to the movie which is crisp and in which the actors have done a great job. Commendable, to say the least. Of course changing the name of the book to cash in on the publicity of the movie sure helped the sales! The book was out of stock for about 3 weeks in all major book chains. The fact that some of our prominent celebrities made a hue and cry about the movie is a little too silly because some parts of our country are like that. Not portraying the other face of our country is not akin to hiding it. But all said and done, I liked the movie and I liked the book but both for different reasons!

Luck by Chance
Nice movie! One time watch! Great songs! Good acting! And very very similar to Madhur Bhandarkar’s realistic movies. It brought together quite an unusual pairing in Konkona and Farhan and they both did a great job in their respective roles. I liked the character of Abhi as well. Portrayed very well…
But somehow at the end of the movie I was left with this question as to whether the movie talked mainly about Konkona or Farhan! Given that it showed the nitty-gritty of a struggling actor, the end of the movie quite depicted as though it was Konkona’s life under the scanner or was it!?!
I am still confused. But I liked the movie though I thought Hrithik’s character was a total waste in the movie.
The song ‘Sapnon se bhara naina’ is amazing! And sung extraordinarily!

One Fine Day
Yup… the pretty old movie starring George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer is beautiful. I so totally fell in love with Clooney’s character. He is so endearing and charming in a very weird way. And the last scene where they both fall asleep on the couch is cute! :-)
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On the list to watch is ‘Dev D’ (heard drastically different reviews about this one from a whole lot of people), Arundhati (a Telugu supernatural thriller), Koncham Ishtam Koncham Kashtam (Siddharth’s new movie), Wanted, …. Etc etc..!!!