non sequitur

Random Thoughts

When Harry Met Sally - A Woody Allen movie with a happy ending. (06-July-09)

Anand - India's bona fide gay movie. (22-May-2009)

I see no reason why the whole country should go gaga about the zoozoos. I say, fuck zoozoos. If vodafone cares spend a fraction of the money it spends on those commercials towards improving its myvodafone website, it would make the customer's life less frustrating. It is only a testament of what shallow times we live in. (21-May-2009)

Sin City - A comic book with a pulse. (20-May-2009)

Lotus Notes is worse than Kolkata Knight Riders. To paraphrase a great writer, the next season, KKR might do well, but Lotus Notes will always remain the worst email application. (19-May-2009)

'Rosebud' is cinema's greatest MacGuffin.

My favorite line in the movie is '...You know what the headline was the day before the election, "Candidate Kane found in love nest with quote, singer, unquote." He was gonna take the quotes off the singer.'

Do your children a favour. Give them a godless world. If there is a god, he will be pleased with both you and them.

I think that The Godfather: Part II is a better and superior movie than The Godfather.

Did you notice? The background music of the new Surf Excel ad is a direct lift of Anton Karas's 'The Theme of Third Man'. Dirty fellows. Pirates. and all the other Captain Haddock abuses. (circa Nov 2008)

Same old story. This time at the Australian Open. Only, it don't make the headlines no more.(21-Jan-2009)

The Importance of Being Michael Jackson

Today morning when I woke up, I saw a missed call on my phone. I know that I do not get calls that early in the morning unless it is something urgent or important. I return the call to find out that break-dancer and singer Michael Jackson is dead. I come to office and when I login to gtalk, the first message I receive shares the news that Michael Jackson has passed into the ages.

Of course, no coffee corner conversation with a colleague or a call with a friend is complete today without the mandatory reference to this news. As you see, even the thought I am sharing with you today refers to the news of his death.

For a lot of English-educated Indians western music began and sometimes ended with Michael Jackson. Well, let me even proceed to knock off 'English' from the previous sentence. Michael Jackson is probably the most popular western music icon in India - in a Democratic, Socialist, pan-Indian way. The coincidence that the only other international star to probably enjoy such popularity is another Jack is trivial- the fast-action-entertainer, Jackie Chan. Young adolescents found Michael Jackson as a window to foreign music and it gave one a great deal of confidence to share a seat in the council of the musically literate.

If you jog through your memory of Indian movie songs of the 80s, you would find his name in the lyrics of many a bizarre dance numbers. The tunes of his songs were ruthlessly recycled by enterprising music directors in movies of all languages. Making a more personal reference, any blue-blooded fan of Chiranjeevi, as is the case with me - and probably the entire state of Andhra Pradesh, his recent electoral debacle notwithstanding - is inseparable from his knowledge of Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson practically invented the break-dance which established the megastar a dancing sensation - Chiranjeevi virtually moon-walked his way into the hearts of thousands of young Telugu people. I can take the Pepsi-Challenge on this - you would not find a kid growing up in the mid-eighties who would not have demonstrated his own skills in the rope-walk or moon-walk to his parents and relatives in the way of family-talent-shows.

Mithun Chakraborthy, Govinda, Prabhu Deva, Hrithik Roshan – these are only a few names in Indian showbiz who owe something to Michael Jackson.

These are a few thoughts that come to my mind upon the news his death. You can share your own thoughts if you have any and it would, I am sure, be very interesting to hear your memories of Michael Jackson.

May his soul dance is peace.

A Wednesday - Movie Review

I'm quite keen on movies. Especially the ones about vigilantes. I find the whole mythology surrounding vigilantes fascinating. Take my favorite vigilante, the Everyman, as played by the inimitable Naseeruddin Shah in 'A Wednesday'. Not a very young hero. The movie is not particularly well-marketed. But the mythology... The mythology is not only great, it's unique. Now, a staple of the vigilante movie is, there's the vigilante and there's the back-story. Take as examples, the body of movies directed by Shankar. 'Indian' lost his daughter to corruption. 'Gentleman' lost his friend to the flawed educational system. 'Anniyyan' lost his sister to the indifference of the society or whatever. Nana Patekar in 'Prahaar' lost his officer to the goons of the society. When that character starts off, he is just an everyman oblivious to the evils of the society. He has to lose someone very close to him to open his eyes to the ills plaguing the system. After that he goes on to wreck vengeance on his villains in particular and take up the larger cause of the society in general. And it is in that characteristic the Everyman stands alone. The Everyman didn't become Everyman. Everyman was born everyman. When Everyman wakes up in the morning, and goes to the office, his wife calls up to enquire if he caught the train on time. When the Everyman is toiling his hours in the office, his wife calls to ask him if he finished his lunch. As Naseeruddin Shah so wonderfully explains, she is not asking him if he has finished his lunch; she is calling him to check if he is still alive - to see if he has not become yet another victim to yet another terrorist attack. The Everyman didn't need the mandatory back-story to wake up and do something about the problems surrounding him. The absence of the back-story made the movie much shorter and more powerful. 'A Wednesday' is how Everyman views the idea of each one of us needing a wake-up call to act. 'A Wednesday' is a critique on the whole genre of vigilante movies.

The last line of the movie qualifies to be the best last line of a movie ever.

The Commissioner of Police, again, wonderfully acted by an equally great actor, Anupam Kher, says something to the effect of, 'mein uska naam nahin boloonga. kyun ki log naam mein mazhab dhoond lete hai'. It poorly translates in English to 'I shall not reveal the name of this person, because people search for religion in a name'.

Desert Sand of Dead Habit

Picture 1

The psyche of the nation is still steeped in antediluvian values of saving up for the girl child's wedding and saving up for the boy child's big dreams. The advertisement (Picture 1) under advertisement here is so casual in driving home the point that your daughter's wedding is a very special occasion for which you have to slog your blood and sweat for your life while the boy's side is automatically expected to be the free-loaders to the party throwing tantrums on subjects of paramount importance - like for instance, the temperature at which the cup of coffee is served.

Picture 2

Consider the next advertisement(picture 2) which encourages you to let your child's dream soar. Notice the child being a male-child in most cases where such schemes are presented.

The few TV commercials I remember revolving around the education of the girl child are always trying to wring out tears of emotion and pride on the fact that the girl child is being educated and getting selected for a great job. And if my memory serves me right even these are commercials of some cream that will make the girl fairer in 14 days or some other snake-oil-salesmen attempts to similar effect- implying that it takes beauty for a girl to get somewhere in life - another revolting abomination of the society.

All these are shouting out at us from hoarding on the roads when we step out of the house or from the television sets where we are eagerly awaiting the telecast of the next frivolous game of twenty-twenty. In the backdrop of such regressive ethos are dreams of India as a super-power and a vision 2020 of a developed nation. what a dump!

...Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the
 dreary desert sand of dead habit...
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
-Rabindranath Tagore

1stDay2ndShow

05th Jun, 2009

Movie:    Star Trek
Place:     INOX Movies, Chennai
Time:     10.20pm

22nd May, 2009

Movie:    Watchmen
Place:     Satyam Cinemas, Chennai
Time:     10.30pm

As a preparation to this movie, a few weeks back I finished reading the 12 issues of the eponymous graphic novel/comic book on which the movie is based.

Quintessential Tarantino

Original Post: 17-April-2007

Have you observed? Quentin Tarantino has shown a special liking for rhyming nouns in his movies. Here are some instances I have come across in his films to make you appreciate this aspect of probably the most intelligent director of modern cinema.

My name's Paul,
and this is between y'all (Paul, the bartender in Pulp Fiction)

My name's Pitt,
and you ain't talkin' your ass outta this shit. (Jules in Pulp Fiction)

My name is Buck,
and I'm here to fuck. (Buck in Kill Bill)

Zed’s dead baby, Zed’s dead. (Butch in Pulp Fiction)

Kill Bill (The title of the movie rhymes)

Have I overlooked any other instances? Show them to me.

Updated on 15-May-2009

Well, I did seem to have overlooked at least one more rhyme. Just watched the movie last night for the zillionth time and here's another rhyme I caught.

If your hand ain't off that case,
I'm gonna unload right in your fuckin' face.(Pumpkin in Pulp Fiction)

A few more thoughts on QT's Pulp Fiction are here.

Zed's Dead, Baby

It was in the 80s when my cousins were little toddlers and were belting out nursery rhymes that I remember them singing the popular rhyme that teaches kids the letters in the English alphabet in a sing-sing manner thus:

ABCDEFG
HIJKMNOP
LMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ
XYZ, butter and bread
if you don’t like it better go to bed.

Today, after the turn of the millennium, I see the children of my friends singing the same nursery rhyme in the aforementioned way only till the third act and from here on, the script is given an entirely different spin.

ABCDEFG
HIJKLMNOP
QRS TUV
WX Y and Z
now I know my ABC
next time won’t you sing with me?

If you still need a more elaborate explanation, bread and bed rhyme with Zed while C and me rhyme with Zee.

Quentin Tarantino rem acu tetigisti-ed it best when his Butch in Pulp Fiction said 'Zed's dead baby, Zed's dead'.

Ironically, the dead Z has entered other areas where S was previously holding court. I being the luddite and anglophile that I am insist on spelling the words the way my English teacher taught me - Microsoft Word's spellchecker notwithstanding - viz. Organisation, Realisation, Cocacolanisation.

When two Andhrites meet...

Andhrites: meaning - people belonging to the State of Andhra Pradesh, India.

Back in my college days, coteries were formed based on the State from which students hailed from and the formed groups moved like packs of hyenas for the rest of the years of education – not always necessarily the prescribed four years. The matter of interest is that the power structures within the group were established very early during the course of joining the college, the parameter for which was the size of the city from which one came. Hyderabad, being the capital city was the automatic winner and fellows from the city were presiding over the rest of the group like the rightful hairs of the erstwhile Nizam and own the Salar Jung Museum and all its artifacts. Their arrogance bordered on hilarity.

It was easily distinguishable when one came from Hyderabad and another from Anantapur or when one belonged to Vijayawada and the other, Tirupathi. Trouble started when there was one guy coming from Podili and the other from Kanigiri, both villages so obscure that you will live your whole life without knowing of their existence if you didn’t meet these two guys or read this post. These two guys turned out to be the most enthusiastic to settle the power battle and the rest would be mute spectators in the arguments of which village is bigger – for, no one knew any data related to either village save the two sluggers.

Maybe the village with the longer name ought to be bigger. Kanigiri with four syllables could win over Podili which has only three syllables. Only on this basis, you could see many unintentionally funny Hyderabadis shouting out from the proverbial rooftops that Hyderabad is bigger than Paris. Definitely the length of the name is not a correct barometer of measure for the saner individuals of the society and hence the argument comes to a head when Podili-Seenu stumps Kanigiri-Mohan and the rest of the pack by delivering the coup de grâce 'How many cinema halls does your Kanigiri have?' Everyone is thrown away from their canteen-stools and the bloke from Kanigiri is more than ready to tackle this situation. He says '6' and counter-questions Podili as to his standing in the situation. Podili smugly retorts '6'. Here the plot thickens. Even the Hyderabadi, who until now maintained his usual supercilious attitude in such matters, is now sitting with rapt attention at the edge of his stool to see how this conundrum is resolved. Always the first to offer a way to resolve the issue - confident that his town would in the end prevail - Podili now delivers a new blow to Kanigiri, 'How many cinema halls boast of Air-Conditioning?' Kanigiri here gets a bit defensive and is reluctant to continue the debate. Encouraged vociferously by the onlookers he is forced to confess that there are no movie halls with AC in his town. The triumphant Podili bangs the table and declares that there is one movie hall that boasts of Air-Conditioning equipment. Kanigiri's fate is sealed for the remaining four years in college.

We movie-mad Andhrites - I read somewhere that Andhra Pradesh has the maximum number of cinema halls in the Country - are always ready to apply movies to resolve any problem we come across in our daily life.

Happy Ugadi.

PS: If you are wondering what would have ensued if Kanigiri indeed boasted of say, one cinema hall with AC, the possibilities are infinite. I offer the 70mm screen and the price of the lowest and the highest class of tickets as only a couple of parameters, leaving the rest to the imagination of the reader.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

“The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A death. What’s that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy retirement. You drink alcohol, you party, and you get ready for High School. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last 9 months floating with luxuries like central heating, spa, room service on tap, then you finish off as an orgasm! Amen.”
-George Costanza, Seinfeld.

And the Oscar goes to...

This year I have decided to release my Oscar predictions. Let us revisit the list on 23rd February and see how many of my predictions came true. I have not included a few categories here because of personal reasons.

Legend: Movies I have watched are in italics and the winner is in bold, italics.

Best Motion Picture of the Year

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

'The Reader' is my favorite movie of the year. It is one of the best romances - yes, for me 'The Reader' is a romance - I have watched in a long time and I was very touched by it. Ralph Finnes, I thought, was terrific in the role of a middle-aged man with a secret sorrow - I could not believe that the same guy was the terrifying sociopath Amon Goeth in 'Schindler's List'. The scene where he meets Kate Winslet as an older man for the first time in prison was the one of the high points of the movie for me. My favorite scene in 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' comes when Benjamin and Daisy are holding each other and Benjamin observing the two of them in the mirror in front of them says 'I wanna remember us just as we are now'. I say the Oscar for the best picture would go to 'Slumdog' and I write about the other movies. It is the novelty factor that will win all the awards for 'Slumdog' this year and it is quite understandable. Well, 'Slumdog Millionaire' didn't have anything in it for me that left an impression after watching the movie. My complaints with the movie are not about depicting 'the soft underbelly' of India and things to that effect. The movie simply is an average movie. The cinematography of course, was top notch.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Richard Jenkins for The Visitor
Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn for Milk
Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler

I was blown away watching Sean Penn in 'Milk'. It is one of the best performances I have watched in recent times. Mickey Rourke - he was amazing in 'Sin City' - in 'The Wrestler', as a fellow who is perpetually in self-pity mode didn't impress me much. Neither did the movie. It has an all too familiar plot. I liked Frank Langella's performance in Forst/Nixon; specially the bounce in his step when he walks out to his car after each of his interviews and then the slow lumbering long walk to his car after the final interview.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie for Changeling
Melissa Leo for Frozen River
Meryl Streep for Doubt
Kate Winslet for The Reader

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Josh Brolin for Milk
Robert Downey Jr. for Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt
Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon for Revolutionary Road

Now, this award is everybody's guess. And most deserving too. Heath Ledger mouthed all the best lines in cinema in 2008.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Amy Adams for Doubt
Penélope Cruz for Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis for Doubt
Taraji P. Henson for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei for The Wrestler

Every one is saying Viola Davis for 'Doubt', but my personal favorite is Marisa Tomei for 'The Wrestler'. I liked her performance very much. In my list, Taraji P. Henson comes a close second.

Best Achievement in Directing

Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry for The Reader
David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant for Milk

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Claudio Miranda
The Dark Knight: Wally Pfister
The Reader: Roger Deakins, Chris Menges
Slumdog Millionaire: Anthony Dod Mantle

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, Craig Barron
The Dark Knight: Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Timothy Webber, Paul J. Franklin
Iron Man: John Nelson, Ben Snow, Daniel Sudick, Shane Mahan

Best Achievement in Makeup

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Greg Cannom
The Dark Knight: John Caglione Jr., Conor O'Sullivan
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008): Mike Elizalde, Thomas Floutz

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Alexandre Desplat
Defiance: James Newton Howard
Milk: Danny Elfman
Slumdog Millionaire: A.R. Rahman
WALL·E: Thomas Newman

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song

Slumdog Millionaire: A.R. Rahman, Gulzar("Jai Ho")
Slumdog Millionaire: A.R. Rahman, Maya Arulpragasam("O Saya")
WALL·E: Peter Gabriel, Thomas Newman("Down to Earth")

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

Bolt: Chris Williams, Byron Howard
Kung Fu Panda: John Stevenson, Mark Osborne
WALL·E: Andrew Stanton

I don't remember a Pixar Animation movie that didn't win the Best Animated Film award. I didn't like WALL·E. I found the movie very boring.