Weekend Blues !!

Aah!! Finally, after a long time, a weekend in which I don't have to work. But why am I still bored? I think I have gotten myself addicted to going to office. The feeling of having nothing to do is eating away my mind. I think I need some sort of therapy or something. I have somehow picked myself up to write these few lines....

Here's a list of things that I usually do on a weekend when I am not working:

1. Wake up @ Lunch time

2. Spend some quality time in the Gym.

3. Have Golgappas in the evening (With rainy season already in town, this activity will take a severe hit for sure)

4. Go shopping (The activity starts off aimlessly as just Window shopping. I move around without even the faintest idea of what I want to buy & end up buying something that I never thought I wanted, but still did!)

5. Lie on the couch swapping channels, not exactly sure what to watch. They all seem to be the same anyways.

6. Watch some quality, entertaining movies (And still cant coerce myself to writing some reviews).

See, thats a pretty exhaustive list. But, even With so much to do, I still feel bored. I seriously think I need a break, or maybe just a simple trip to rejuvenate my spirits. Though that doesnt seem to be coming any time soon !!

Movie Review: Ghajini (2008)

Genre: Drama, Action
Director: A.R .Murugadoss
Cast: Aamir Khan, Asin Thottumkal, Pradeep Rawat, Jiah Khan

It was the second most awaited film this year for me (the 1st slot had been taken by “The Dark Knight”) & it definitely was worth the wait. Based on the concept of Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece “Memento”, A.R. Murugadoss’s “GHAJINI” had all the ingredients to be a masala potboiler. Aamir khan, his most talked about 8 pack abs (you should see the no. of people flocking the gym nowadays) , Asin’s bollywood debut, remake of a superhit Tamil movie, the “Memento” link & all the hype surrounding it. These were reasons enough for people to be drawn to the theatres. No, I haven’t watched the Tamil version yet & I have watched “Memento” several times.

The movie follows the story of a telecom tycoon, Sanjay who falls in love with an aspiring model Kalpana. The depiction of their sweet love story is the hallmark of the movie. However, it wasn’t one with a happy ending, as Kalpana is killed & Sanjay is severely injured on the head. Sanjay develops a case of “Anterograde Amnesia”. He can remember things for only about 15 minutes. He sets off to find the man responsible for Kalpana’s death & the only clue he has is the last word Kalpana had whispered into his ears…. “Ghajini”. It’s a story of revenge, or should I say…RETRIBUTION.

Aamir sparkles yet again in both his avatars in the movie. He plays the gentleman tycoon with flair & does an even better job playing the killing machine who has only one thing on his mind…Revenge. You can almost feel his raw animal instincts taking over every time he fights. Asin plays the bubbly & sweet Kalpana with elan. She couldn’t have asked for a better debut & we certainly would want to see more of her. Pradeep Rawat plays Ghajini, the bad guy, & he doesn’t disappoint. Jiah Khan does a decent job in her second movie (I haven’t watched “Nishabd” & have no intentions of watching it in the future :P).

A.R.Rahman has given us some great music in 2008 & “Ghajini” is probably the best of the lot. He has experimented with the songs a lot & the results are amazing. The camera work is very good. I loved the visuals of the song “Hai Guzaarish”. It has been shot in a desert, probably to draw the analogy of Sanjay waiting for Kalpana’s response as the desert waits for rain. My favourite song however, is “Kaise Mujhe…” as it leaves a haunting feeling every time you hear it.

Overall, I found the movie very entertaining. Even though it was 3 hours long, it never felt slow or boring. Found some people complaining about the so-called “excessively gory” fight scenes in the movie. Well, the answer for them is: “People, the guy can remember things for only 15 minutes. So if he doesn’t get the bad guys knocked out in 15 minutes, he might forget that he was supposed to be hitting them in the first place. Hence the work outs and hence the fast paced & severe blows. Its simple logic…..Besides, if you think THIS is gory, puhhleeezz go & watch “Sin City” or the like”.

Yes, there are loopholes in the story, but even then, the movie definitely is good paisa vasool! Go & watch it…coz if u haven’t done that till now, u have committed a heinous crime against the institution that we call the Bollywood Masala!

P.S: I am a fan of good bollywood masala movies so it might seem a bit opinionated….but this is MY blog remember!!!

Movie Review: Requiem for a dream (2000)

Genre: Drama
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans
This movie tells the story of several characters whose life enters a vicious circle because of their addiction problems. Everyone has some aspirations, but life is never simple. Some decisions can change your life forever. Amazing performances by all the actors makes this movie one of the best I’ve watched. Ellen Burstyn & Jennifer Connelly, in particular had very difficult roles to play, but they have managed to carry them out with aplomb. That does not in any way undermine Jared Leto’s performance, which was equally good. The use of hip hop montage & split screen makes the movie even more appealing, though I thought it was a bit too much at times. The background score is HAUNTING, to say the least, it gets you every time you hear it. Loneliness & isolation are the words that come to my mind when I listen to the soundtrack, which is apt, considering the theme of the movie. The movie left a bad taste in my mouth after I had watched it. The reason being the fact that I could relate to the characters & felt for them. None of them were larger than life in any sense. It was like something was happening to the people I know. The scenes with the refrigerator terrorizing Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) were amazingly done. Cinematography is definitely one of the hallmarks of this movie. No wonder it has won so many awards & an Oscar nomination. Overall, it did not take me much time & effort to love the movie & the way it has been made.

Movie review: Taxi Driver (1976)

Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Jodie Foster, Peter Boyle, Harvey Kietel
Another one of Scorsese’s best. For the first few minutes, I felt that the movie was a bit slow. I am not a great fan of slow paced movies, but boy, was I wrong. It tells the story of Travis Bickle (De Niro), 26, a mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran who works as a night time taxi driver. Travis is unable to sleep & he doesn’t know why. He is deeply affected by the sleazy night life in the city & the degrading society all around him.

“12 hours of work & I still cant sleep…DAMN…days go on & on . They don’t end..all my life needed was a sense of some place to go”.

He maintains a journal where he enters all his feelings & thoughts. He finds himself attracted to a political campaigner Betsy (Cybill Shepherd).

“I first saw her at Palantine campaign headquarters at 63rd in Broadway. She was wearing a white dress, she appeared like an angel…out of this filthy mess, she is alone…THEY CANNOT TOUCH HER”.

He tries to woo her, but fails to do so. Betsy doesn’t answer his calls after he takes her to a porn movie on their first date. Travis, who doesn’t understand this as he is “not fond of movies”, feels that she is like all the other women he has come across.
Travis feels that he needs to reinvent himself. He wants to do something that will give him an identity.

“You got a job & you become that job”

Travis buys four handguns & sets out to assassinate Senator Palantine, but he fails to do so & is chased away by the bodyguards.
Meanwhile, he forms a strong attachment with a child prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster), who he tries to rescue from a pimp Matthew (Harvey Kietel). His efforts to persuade Iris to go back to her parents & rejoin school turn out to be futile. Travis finally ends up killing Matthew & his gang. Iris goes back to her parents & slowly moves towards leading a life of normalcy. Meanwhile Betsy realizes that indeed has feelings for Travis, who is now famous because of his struggle with Matthew’s gang.
The soundtrack & camera work are absolutely in sync with the story & add to the fantastic performance dished out by De Niro. The movie eventually lost out at the Oscars in the Best Movie category to Sly Stallone’s “ROCKY”, but there is no questioning the fact that it’s another gem of a movie from a gem of a director. You cannot miss this if you are a De Niro fan.

Quotes from the HOUSE...

Recently, I took the risk of watching a parliamentary debate on national television. The debate was for the Nuclear deal (123 agreement) between India & the US. Some speeches & remarks made by our honoured parliamentarians left me baffled to say the least. Here are some which I could remember...

"This deal is Anti-Indian"- No figures quoted, no numbers to prove the same, just a single blank statement, which was then repeated, again & again, without any other substantial subject matter.
"We have huge resources of coal, why not concentrate on building more thermal power plants to harness this, rather than focus on Nuclear technology?"- Progressive thinking at its very best, I would say! And coal is supposed to last, like FOREVER!!!!!!! So, lets just allow our neighbours to make use of nuclear technology, and if we run out of power in the future, I am sure our helpful neighbours would give us some of their electric power for cheap, coz they love us so very much!
And finally...my favourite of the lot:
"It will make us slaves of the US for 400 years" - And how exactly did you arrive at an exact figure..I mean 400?....are u sure its not 347.5678 years or something? If I could have the algorithm for this calculation, I could earn billions, and may be, become the next Bill Gates.
Many more hilarious quotes, but these are the ones that strike my mind right now.Poems were read, stories were told & even verses from Holy books were quoted,most of which were quite irrelevant & a waste of time. Not one person from the opposition spoke something which could be of any significance to the topic being discussed (atleast for the duration I watched the debate).
I finally budged when my mom entered the scene. "Why do you waste your time listening to them?", she said & changed the channel, so that she could watch her daily quota of saas-bahu drama. All I could say was, "Thanks mom....you just saved my life..a couple more speeches & I would've died laughing"!!

The Darker Joker….

After having watched “Batman Begins”, my expectations from “The Dark Knight” were sky high, to say the least. And as it turned out, the sequel was even bigger& better than the first installment. Enough has been said & written about the movie & about the performance of Heath Ledger, so I won’t be getting too much into it. But I must say, I was feeling a cold shiver running down my spine at times, while watching the movie. Its not that I was afraid, just the sadistically sarcastic personality of the Joker had some effect on me. An enjoyable experience in fact. It’s a pity that we would be deprived of seeing Heath reprise his role in the future. Thanks a lot for this performance Heath; it certainly has immortalized you in a way!
P.S: This post was written a long time back, after watching the movie “The Dark Knight”

Weekend delight....

Huh…it’s a pity that none of my classmates are in Bhubaneswar. Weekends get pretty boring, but life goes on. Took a bit of time, but I have learnt to live like that. The new season of the English Premier League has started this weekend. So, my weekends now, are set to be less boring. Chelsea got off to a flier beating Portsmouth 4-0 in their season opener. Could well have been 7-0, but for the presence of David James, who did his best to restrict Chelsea, & some missed opportunities. But the real attraction of the game was the splendid show put up by the Chelsea midfield. Ballack, Lampard, Deco & Joe Cole, sparked right from the start of the game. Deco in particular was sweet with his passing. Set up a couple of goals & scored the 4th goal which, by all means, was a scorcher from about 25 yards out. He would certainly be my choice for the Man of the Match. Absence of a few key players due to injury was not felt at all. So, here’s hoping that this is a sign for things to come this season. Watch out ManU…The BLUES are back…with a BANG!!!