Almost every time we watch a movie, there are a few things that linger on to the mind; a few scenes from movie, or a character, or just a place. And I have a habit of judging the quality of a movie by how long it is able to cling on to my senses.
Well here is one movie that might be able to create an impression for a lifetime. I am hearing the songs (actually the background music) of the movie right now and the scenes run through my eyes...the most visible form of magic for me I should say.
As all of you must be knowing by this time, this is a story of a blind and deaf (and hence dumb) girl and her tutor, played so effectively by a small girl first (I dont know her name anyone?) and then Rani Mukherji and the maestro Amitabh Bachan respectively. This would definitely go down as one of the best performances for both of them. As for the director, very frankly I for one, never expected a story like this from the creator of Devdas. The parallels in the two movies are the breathtaking settings. But thankfully the similarity stops there. The director found something better to fit into the grand settings:). Kudos to Sanjay Leela Bansali.
Some of my friends have been judging the movie by the number of times they cried...by that measure, yes..I did have teardrops in my eyes, but unlike other movies (and also unlike what I expected), these were for most parts, tears of joy..of optimism, of a feeling of a vicarious thrill for the girl on the screen. One heart rendering dialogue which I am still thinking about is this-"Mainae shayad Jindagi se kuch jyada hi maang liyaa thaa..."-which translates into-" I probably asked a bit too much out of life."- the misery of a girl not able to get things that others take for granted couldn't have been put in better words. In order not to spoil the experience for those who are yet to watch the movie I will stop here.
The best thing about the movie is the ringing optimism in it. If you are expecting a teary portrayal of the miseries of a girl with such disabilities, be warned....neither the director, nor the tutor is in a mood for that. There are beautiful jokes scattered here and there which make you smile without losing perspective of the bigger picture.
This movie deserves every accolade film industry can provide...but more importantly it deserves audience's support for producers to be able to do away with the "Murder"s and "Jism"s which have come to plague the Hindi film industry.
After you watch the movie do drop in your comments.
Monday, February 21, 2005
The Stay
We had a few imaginations about the place we were going to stay in. But the one we got surpassed our wildest imaginations. We were given the biggest apartment I have ever lived in. The entire floor was covered with a soft (I am not sure what to call this..) flooring which is the norm here for all apartments. I felt sleeping on the floor more comfortable than my bed back home:). The rooms were spacious and we had every home appliance that one could think of- Refrigerator, microwave oven, dish-washer, knife-set, washing machine and so on. Ofcourse for $100 a day which my company was paying them these were the least they could do:).
Ofcourse we left all the kitchen equipment almost untouched. The appliance we found the greatest use were indeed the TV and VCR (you read it right-here VCRs and video cassettes are are still immensely popular. We watched a movie almost every weekend. More about that in
another post.
I was feeling a bit eerie with the huge house and living all alone and decided to move in with Raghu (he had a two-bedroom apartment). Then began the party-time. Raghuram often became so sick with hotel-food that he used to cook at home and ofcourse I helped with him in the most crucial part-eating and certifying his cooking skills. He is so sweet that inspite of being enraged at my watching TV endlessly while he toiled with rice and puliyotharai mix (he became a specialist in making puliyotharai-tamarind rice) and making empty threats of cooking for him alone-always at the end of it there it was....I had steaming rice, watery, but tasty sambhar, sometimes curry, curd and to top it all-Puliyotharai:). You are a pleasure Raghu:):)
Towards the end we took detailed videos of the whole house. Here apartments are not stand-alone entities. They have a set of apartments forming a community kind of thing and they have facilities common to them. There was a small swimming pool for the place and we deigned on it only once during the whole stay. They had a tennis court as well.
We had the chance of watching the firemen in action twice during our stay. When there is smoke in one of the apartments there is an alarm that goes off for the entire building. Everyone in every apartment who hears that is supposed to leave everything and rush outside. The firemen are automatically alarmed and they arrive within few minutes. They are very professional. In full gear, a few of their men march inside the house and make sure there is nothing serious and declare "All Clear". People can go in only after that. Both the times thankfully only the fireplace had had some problems and was emanating too much of smoke.
Ofcourse we left all the kitchen equipment almost untouched. The appliance we found the greatest use were indeed the TV and VCR (you read it right-here VCRs and video cassettes are are still immensely popular. We watched a movie almost every weekend. More about that in
another post.
I was feeling a bit eerie with the huge house and living all alone and decided to move in with Raghu (he had a two-bedroom apartment). Then began the party-time. Raghuram often became so sick with hotel-food that he used to cook at home and ofcourse I helped with him in the most crucial part-eating and certifying his cooking skills. He is so sweet that inspite of being enraged at my watching TV endlessly while he toiled with rice and puliyotharai mix (he became a specialist in making puliyotharai-tamarind rice) and making empty threats of cooking for him alone-always at the end of it there it was....I had steaming rice, watery, but tasty sambhar, sometimes curry, curd and to top it all-Puliyotharai:). You are a pleasure Raghu:):)
Towards the end we took detailed videos of the whole house. Here apartments are not stand-alone entities. They have a set of apartments forming a community kind of thing and they have facilities common to them. There was a small swimming pool for the place and we deigned on it only once during the whole stay. They had a tennis court as well.
We had the chance of watching the firemen in action twice during our stay. When there is smoke in one of the apartments there is an alarm that goes off for the entire building. Everyone in every apartment who hears that is supposed to leave everything and rush outside. The firemen are automatically alarmed and they arrive within few minutes. They are very professional. In full gear, a few of their men march inside the house and make sure there is nothing serious and declare "All Clear". People can go in only after that. Both the times thankfully only the fireplace had had some problems and was emanating too much of smoke.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
The Flight.
I actually had imagined quite a few things about the flight journey after hearing that in Singapore Airlines each seat had a LCD monitor and each passenger had a choice from 17 movie CDs to watch and also that Lufthansa was even better than Sing Air. Well...it turned out to be otherwise. The seats were cramped and there was one small monitor for some 20 seats, the person in the corner seat has to stick out his head to see it avoiding the over-head baggage box and as luck would have it I was in the corner seat quite a few times.
Frankfurt airport was quite something. It is not huge, but it is bustling with activity. There are 2 magnetic levitation train between the 2 terminals with a frequency of about 1 in 5 minutes. It was truly amazing to go in that. We saw the freeway of Germany and the speed with which cars flew (literally!!) was just amazing. We did a lot of window shopping until we were tired enough to return to the boarding gate. There are car-like vehicles inside the airport for old people to commute!! The security check was amazing. Each person was asked to remove everything metallic (even shoes..if they have metal strips) and put in a seperate box which goes through the scanner. They frisk you completely with gloved hands (no metallic detectors). Then we flew to Los Angeles and got down. The queue at the immigration check was simply amazing. There must have been atleast a thousand people there!! We waited for almost an hour on our queue. After that was done came the dreaded customs and agricultural dept checks (where they throw out most our indian foods if they are not satisfied with our explanations) and whew..there was no checking at all. They let us go without even stopping us for a moment. LS airport is huge with a lot of terminals.
Finally we reached Seattle and took a taxi home. The taxi was moving at a speed of almost 75mph (120kmph)..little did I imagine that I would be driving at 100mph very soon!!!
Frankfurt airport was quite something. It is not huge, but it is bustling with activity. There are 2 magnetic levitation train between the 2 terminals with a frequency of about 1 in 5 minutes. It was truly amazing to go in that. We saw the freeway of Germany and the speed with which cars flew (literally!!) was just amazing. We did a lot of window shopping until we were tired enough to return to the boarding gate. There are car-like vehicles inside the airport for old people to commute!! The security check was amazing. Each person was asked to remove everything metallic (even shoes..if they have metal strips) and put in a seperate box which goes through the scanner. They frisk you completely with gloved hands (no metallic detectors). Then we flew to Los Angeles and got down. The queue at the immigration check was simply amazing. There must have been atleast a thousand people there!! We waited for almost an hour on our queue. After that was done came the dreaded customs and agricultural dept checks (where they throw out most our indian foods if they are not satisfied with our explanations) and whew..there was no checking at all. They let us go without even stopping us for a moment. LS airport is huge with a lot of terminals.
Finally we reached Seattle and took a taxi home. The taxi was moving at a speed of almost 75mph (120kmph)..little did I imagine that I would be driving at 100mph very soon!!!
Redmond....
I was fortunate enough to be sent over to Redmond by Microsoft for three whole months to undergo training. These three months were definitely an experience I would cherish for a lifetime, not just because this was my first foreign trip or because the place was "so cool", but more because I was there with a set of very close friends, an opportunity that few people being sent "offshore" get. We had so much fun there the term weekend itself has acquired a special meaning for most of us:)
And while I was there, I used to write mails to myself describing the experiences at the place, starting from the flight, to the food, places we visited etc. I couldn't complete it there. I will try to do that here. From now on I will post our experiences under different headings.
I wanted to do this earlier, but didn't get the bandwidth to do it. I will delay this no longer....
And while I was there, I used to write mails to myself describing the experiences at the place, starting from the flight, to the food, places we visited etc. I couldn't complete it there. I will try to do that here. From now on I will post our experiences under different headings.
I wanted to do this earlier, but didn't get the bandwidth to do it. I will delay this no longer....
Monday, January 31, 2005
Just a passing thought
Today I had an interesting chat with a friend I havent met for quite some time. All his friends know him as a silent, composed person who keeps his deepest feelings and thoughts to himself but is always cheerful with friends. He has just joined a very good company (lets call it L) after a long and difficult time. So as is usual with anyone, I started off asking "How is life at L?" and he asked "What do you expect as an answer". I told him "Honestly I am not 'expecting' anything...so go on and tell me whatever your answer is..
Then he asked "Is it life at L or L in life? I feel it is the other way round...isnt it?" For a second I didn't understand him...then it struck me..it was like an "Aha reaction...":). Most of us limit our (and others') lives to the mere circumstances and work that we do at that moment. But life is bigger than that...to realise that life is bigger than Microsoft itself was a big realisation for me personally:).
I am not going to conclude this entry with my judgements like I generally do.....I leave it to you to decide for yourself how you want to interpret this one...
Then he asked "Is it life at L or L in life? I feel it is the other way round...isnt it?" For a second I didn't understand him...then it struck me..it was like an "Aha reaction...":). Most of us limit our (and others') lives to the mere circumstances and work that we do at that moment. But life is bigger than that...to realise that life is bigger than Microsoft itself was a big realisation for me personally:).
I am not going to conclude this entry with my judgements like I generally do.....I leave it to you to decide for yourself how you want to interpret this one...
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Friday, January 21, 2005
Why they call them classics....
It has been a while since I wrote anything....no reasons for that though I would have loved to claim that I have been busy:)...I guess I have just been plain lazy. So here goes a fitting compensation for the lost time....
I would have titled this "Inba Kana Onru Kandaen", but for my propensity to keep non-Tamil folks entertained as well. I had the opportunity of reading the novel "Gone With the Wind". For the facts-this is a novel written 1936 and is around 850 pages long. It describes the American Civil War of 1860s through the eyes of one character called Scarlett 'O Hara.
There were two factions in the Civil war one headed by Abraham Lincoln (called the Yankees) which was bent on freeing the slaves and the other were the Confederates (or Southerners) who were so imbibed in the system of slavery that they felt that their birthright was being threatened by the Yankees. Our Scarlett belongs to the confederates, who are very conventional people sticking to their "old" practises of men doing the "war-work" and women folk taking care of the family. And as one would expect our heroine is anything but conventional. She is a spoilt child who has never even tied the laces of her own dress (as there are black servants to do it) and she is pushed into a post-war world where she has to work on the farms doing double the men's work and saving every penny selfishly. The transformation is slow, but beautifully described as she receives each blow with amazing "gumption" which is a term the author uses to describe strength and instinct for survival and she undergoes physical and emotional changes.
Initially I was quite put-off by the huge size and the never-ending descriptions that the author employs for each scene. She would meticulously describe each and every detail, which I found at times to be even redundant. But after crossing 150-odd pages I realised the purpose and the genious behind this method of writing....pretty unconciously you stop reading the words and start seeing images. The picture built slowly and painfully over the pages sticks to your mind so well that you start living the life of Scarlett 'O Hara. Through those 800 pages I have loved her, admired her, despised her, pitied her and finally as I put the book down I could see her in my mind's eyes as if she were living next door to me.
There is one point in the book where a major character who has been pivotal to the story dies and to tell you the truth I could literally feel the grief for her. The images of that character and the consistency in her actions are so coherent that I am sure you would feel a tinge of grief at that point and I would really appreciate if someone who has read the book can echo their sentiments at that point to prove that I am not alone:)
Well, I "had to" read Da Vinci code given that it was the best-seller this year and you seem like an ignoramus at many places if you have not read it. But (no offense to hardcore Dan Browne fans) despite the story being so riveting and the information being so fascinating I should say I really couldn't get out of the Scarlett shell to appreciate anything that is fast paced and edge-of-the -seat stuff.
I am dying to watch the movie which grossed half-billion more than what Titanic grossed in adjusted dollars and is considered to be the greatest American movie ever produced. Lets see if this can dislodge Godfather from the top spot in my heart:).
I would have titled this "Inba Kana Onru Kandaen", but for my propensity to keep non-Tamil folks entertained as well. I had the opportunity of reading the novel "Gone With the Wind". For the facts-this is a novel written 1936 and is around 850 pages long. It describes the American Civil War of 1860s through the eyes of one character called Scarlett 'O Hara.
There were two factions in the Civil war one headed by Abraham Lincoln (called the Yankees) which was bent on freeing the slaves and the other were the Confederates (or Southerners) who were so imbibed in the system of slavery that they felt that their birthright was being threatened by the Yankees. Our Scarlett belongs to the confederates, who are very conventional people sticking to their "old" practises of men doing the "war-work" and women folk taking care of the family. And as one would expect our heroine is anything but conventional. She is a spoilt child who has never even tied the laces of her own dress (as there are black servants to do it) and she is pushed into a post-war world where she has to work on the farms doing double the men's work and saving every penny selfishly. The transformation is slow, but beautifully described as she receives each blow with amazing "gumption" which is a term the author uses to describe strength and instinct for survival and she undergoes physical and emotional changes.
Initially I was quite put-off by the huge size and the never-ending descriptions that the author employs for each scene. She would meticulously describe each and every detail, which I found at times to be even redundant. But after crossing 150-odd pages I realised the purpose and the genious behind this method of writing....pretty unconciously you stop reading the words and start seeing images. The picture built slowly and painfully over the pages sticks to your mind so well that you start living the life of Scarlett 'O Hara. Through those 800 pages I have loved her, admired her, despised her, pitied her and finally as I put the book down I could see her in my mind's eyes as if she were living next door to me.
There is one point in the book where a major character who has been pivotal to the story dies and to tell you the truth I could literally feel the grief for her. The images of that character and the consistency in her actions are so coherent that I am sure you would feel a tinge of grief at that point and I would really appreciate if someone who has read the book can echo their sentiments at that point to prove that I am not alone:)
Well, I "had to" read Da Vinci code given that it was the best-seller this year and you seem like an ignoramus at many places if you have not read it. But (no offense to hardcore Dan Browne fans) despite the story being so riveting and the information being so fascinating I should say I really couldn't get out of the Scarlett shell to appreciate anything that is fast paced and edge-of-the -seat stuff.
I am dying to watch the movie which grossed half-billion more than what Titanic grossed in adjusted dollars and is considered to be the greatest American movie ever produced. Lets see if this can dislodge Godfather from the top spot in my heart:).
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