Movie Review - WALL E

WALL – E is an abnormal story of warmth-filled silence (film has hardly any dialogue), animated, on an earth which is uninhabited except for a cleaning-robot called WALL-E and his sidekick (a cockroach).

You hardly have any hook if you just hear the story before viewing it. But my god, even the machines can espouse emotions and that’s when you realise you are getting interested in the whole affair hardly 30 seconds in to the movie.

Pixar, the makers of this animation, show how real the animation can go, when you realise that the vast angles shown of earth and its sky scrapers are animated schenes and not the real life photographs/ videos. How the movie carries on with its narration despite no characters and no dialogue is a new chapter in movie making. A must watch for those who like feel-good movies.

The movie is a love story of Wall-E with another cute robot Eva. Premise is pre-posterous, of two machines falling in love, but not at all unbelievable the way it has been portrayed.

Anything from Pixar next time, and you will surely be tempted to see what new frontiers have they conquered. Wall-E is a defining effort.

Review - Rock On - the Hindi Movie (genre: musical)

I have seen two movies in last two days – ROCK ON and WALL-E.

'Rock on' ke baare mein kya kahoon! It’s a wonderful musical, lekin who music rock hai is baare mein shak hai mujhe. Music behad acchha hai, kahani ko aage badhata hai aur film ki jaan hai, lekin pop-music ki tarah sunayi deta hai aur mere ROCK jaanane waale dost kahte hain ki electric guitar use kar lene se aur drum ke sounds highlight kar dene se koi music rock nahin ban jaata.

Criticism aside, the film has got something that keeps you engaged (depsite its slow pace), mixes emotions in to stories and songs to good effect and when the film credit rolls you can see everyone humming one or two lines from one of the 6 songs……….. lyrics are ajeeb – pedestrian but unique and hence its difficult to decide whether its lyricist’s genius to write such simple and well meaning lyrics or its one of those ‘chance’ products. Farhan, Arjun Rampal, Luke Kenny and Purab are top-class performers – on stage and in acting. All said and done, one of the rare musicals made in India that really shall find its place equal to “once” or “singing in the rain”.

DARK KNIGHT - Moview Review

I saw the movie "Dark Knight" yesterday at a multiplex. The movie is too good, but I am confused about the genre I should place it in. It is a superhero movie, action movie, thriller, social drama, great face-offs through dialogues, great photography, great acting, moral drama where characters play mind-games (see Heath Ledger to know what the evil looks like. One of the promos for the movie said for the character played by him "Joker" – "Joker doesn't have any shades of Grey. He is absolute.")

One of my colleagues who watched the late night show said to me next morning that he couldn't sleep because Joker's slurping face came before his eyes the moment he closed his eyes. Such is the effect this character has on mind. So much so that even superhero Batman finds it difficult to understand his motivation and hence find a way to corrupt him. In one of the scenes, Joker burns all the money that whole of underworld had as parallel black economy saying that "Crime because of money is petty. All present day crop (of convicts) is sub-standard. Gotham city needs better grade (of criminals), of those who do not do it because of these petty gains." He, in another scene, questions "You do good, that is good, but what is good. That's a good question. I mean, if what I do was labeled good, you would have felt good in doing this as well. Its about everything going as per plan. If I blow a lorry full of soldiers, you won't feel a prick, because its acceptable in world's sinister plan. But if I kill a single poor Mayor after announcing that I will kill him, your world topples over its head because its not what the plan is. I do not plan, but make sure to demonstrate that no plan succeeds." Well, others have done their part very well, including Christian Bale as Batman. Special effects are top class, so is specially-done photography with new-gen camera with INOX experience (didn't know what it means, till I saw it and it looks spectacular). But no one comes close to what Joker stands for – pure evil, who is surprisingly convincing.

Are TV serials barometer of societal paradigms?

What precedes what - TV content or socially popular/ acceptable norms? Its a classical debate just like "Do films affect society or society gets reflected in films?" If saas-bahu serials are famous and have lot of viewership, does it make the content "in-vogue". Logically, YES.

There will always be people who will have a niche liking for specific content. And there will be a choice of masses. Many a times, the short-tenured fashion (fad) lives like a tornado - momentarily powerful and just that. The bitchy programs are perhaps like that. It was attempted earlier too - in 2001, Neena Gupta presented "Kamzor Kadi Kaun", a game show with participants eliminating by group vote the one they all feared was most likely to succeed, thus increasing individual's chance in next round..... and the program was a flop, signifying perhaps that India was not ready for such a show then. But it seems to have changed now, with Raodies, Big Boss, Get Gorgeous, Splitsville and many other shows capturing/staging the acrimony between participants/ mentors to enhance their TRPs.

High viewership for such programs do reflect achange in Indian choices, even if they may be limited to a specific section of population (read youth). There will always be alternate programming available for arty/ serious/ moral/ traditional/ cultural viewers and its possible that many choices of their are not "mass choices". But so be it.

Guruji of Adilabad

Dec 2002: I was at Adilabad for two months. It’s a tribal area of Andhra Pradesh, very close to the Maharashtra border. Ashish, my senior from IRMA, introduced us to Ravindra Sharma (fondly called Guruji). This man, in such a place, spoke to me in a Hindi that put me to shame "Aapki dincharya kya hoti hai? Aapke shodh ka vishay kya hai? Iska prayojan kya hai? Aapne vishraam kiya na! Agar sihran ho to mutthhi baandh lein, thand muthhiyon mein band ho jaayegi!!!!"............

http://pa-jugalbandi.blogspot.com/2007/10/besaba-baat-badhaane-ki-zarurat-kya-hai.html

What he remembers well is Rama's story in Awadhi, and his knowledge of languages is intact....... his cow's family has grown now to three, and NIFT students are now taught by tribal supervisors....... He still speaks to Ashish in the same SHUDHH HINDI.

He signed off a recent conversation by saying, "Ye purabiya log (people from Bihar and West Bengal) sangeet ke rasik hote hain. Maine desh bhraman ke beech dekha, unke jeevan ki har lay mein ek geet hai, har kartavya mein ek sur mila hua hai, har kadam mein taal ki anubhuti hoti hai. Isliye hi wahan chinta nahin hoti....... desh mein kuchh bhi ho, garibi kitni bhi aaye, baadh aapki saari jama poonji baha ke kyun na le jaye.... agli subah wo phir muskura denge. Samaaj ka dhancha wahan mazboot hai, saahitya sabal hai, aur shayad isliye arthvyawastha kamzor. Woh geet nahin suna - O ram-e-ram, saiyaan daaru pee-ke unghalad khet mein....... naayika roti hui apne sasur se keh rahi hai ki mere pati ko dhund laaiye. Sood bahut chad gaya tha, to saahukaar ne hal waapas le liya........ Acche log hain ye purabiya, unke jaisa nazariya rakho to jeevan mast hai, sahal hai, sulajha hua hai."

Chicken Soup for the soul - In Hindi. Nahin!?

What makes music soothing?

What is it in music that makes for good listening, and, at a higher plane, for soulful relaxing. Perhaps its "naad", a sanskrit word meaning "origin of sound", which generates this experience of sound, thus words, and thus songs - giving human existence an exalted position in universe. Perhaps its because music has rhythm, a flow, which helps human atoms synchronise itself with his/ her surroundings. Like a magnet helping electorns in iron bar straigtening themselves, giving them power hitherto unknown to them to attract metal henceforth. Music does it with our heart....... giving a sense of belonging to otherwise chaotic and unattached existence.

Just watched "Music and Lyrics " starring Barrymore and Grant. Genre was musical, but what I loved was the way words unfolded the story, in themselves evolving but helping the progression in an easy flowing manner. And, at the end was the question that i asked at the start of this piece - What is it in music that makes for good listening, and, at a higher plane, for soulful relaxing.

Amrita and Imroz

Amrita and Imroz...... its almost a decade since I first read about them. Since then, have read or heard quite many times of their unique relationship which is difficult to define in terms of social or familial ties but not that difficult to understand.

Amrita Pritam is one of the famous punjabi-Hindi writer from 1950s, imroz is an impressionist who sketched for the publishing house that published Amrita's novels. Amrita was from present day pakistan, she was a rebel of sorts. First married when she was a teen, she took divorce and started living in Delhi. There she met imroz first in late 1960s.

Imroz is a very good artist. I have seen his published work. Amrita is a good writer, specially when she writes about herself and her surrounding. Her autobiography "raseedi Ticket" - The revenue stamp - is a masterpiece in Indian literature. Her creative writings are not as good. But this book alone places her on the top.

Imroz is younger to Amrita by some 6-8 years. Amrita moved with him with her children. They never lived like couple. They were soul-companions. Their collection of letters I read at piyush's place last week at pune. It rekindled life, a part of it, inside me. Its intensity touched me. Amrita writes for Imroz - mere mehboob, my letters are like 800 kms long hands of my love reaching you. On women, she had views that you can't term feminist. She says: Any civilisation will be termed evolved when a woman is able to say no to any physical advances made against her wish. Amrita was criticised for her exressions in Punjabi literary circles, but she was much liked in hindi. Imroz paved that way by being there, caring for her, being more than a friend and almost like a soulmate, except for physical intimacy.

They lived with it, made their life the talk of folk lores. Their love and friendship is an example, not only of mitigated differences of religion, language and cultures, but also of intensity, dedication and companionship.

Where u can touch clouds bare-handed!!

Saw the natural beauty strewn in post below. This is how I responded.

Is this Heaven!! I bet it is. It’s so beautiful, it almost seems like a fake. Another way of saying – too good to be true. But I have known atleast one place as beautiful and tranquile as this – Jharipaani – near mussuorie. I almost lost myself there…….. clouds would cut-across you when you walk on thin rounding aisles on mountainous roads. The mist woould be all-pervading, yet one felt a clarity. A connect with the surroundings. It was as if you can extend your hand and touch the beauty all around. And I was fearful if I raised my fingers I will destroy the equilibrium. So, I sat, for hours, looking at the picturesque scene, not moving, just observing – a pony carrying load of grocery, another carrying box of cold drinks (huh!! Pepsi in so cold a region, who will drink it??)…….. a farmer ploughing his –stair-cased field…. a car moving on the road, appearing on each upward bend for a split second and taking another 5 minutes to reappear on even upper one again, thus keeping me engaged and thinking………

Koi kah de mujhe aake, ja raho tum pahadon pe
Khush ho-oonga ja rahunga, prakriti ke nikat jaake.

Sorry, flow mein bah gaya zara. Never mind.

Rainbow at Elam Bend - Missouri

Disclaimer - I received this as a forward, but didn't change the first person account.

On this day a rare February Rainbow was seen here in Northern Missouri at sunset. This rainbow was visible over much of the area and was noticed by many people. It was seen as a partial bow in some areas and completely full and even double in others depending on where the rain was falling. The photos on this page were taken at the Elam Bend Conservation Area near McFall, Missouri.

As I pulled the truck up next to one of my favorite trees I looked over my left shoulder and there sat the most vivid rainbow that I had ever seen. It appeared to me to be about a 100 yards away or maybe even closer. I was unable to get a great shot at first. I couldn't get out of the truck with the camera because it was still raining fairly hard. I didn't want to get water on my lenses. notice that the sky inside of a rainbow is much brighter than the area outside

As the rain moved on and the rainbow dissipated the view was still picturesque to the east. Notice that a small portion of the rainbow (primary and secondary) is still visible on either side of the tree paralleling the trunk

Five at Five: Welcome 2008

Not till now I have welcomed a dawn like this.

Five of us (Amit, Kiran, Hafsa, Ananda, and I) welcomed turn of an year at midnight at Restaurant 5. Sitting till 5, sipping hot cappuchino at Barista, we rejoiced in randomness. Thoughts flew like cotton wisps, all bright and light all around.

Ananda told us, in single breath, how the hollywood classic "Fistful of Dollars" was made in to masterpiece and how Ms. X (of KMBL) was qouted out of context to be depicted as a lone desperate woman appearing in Agony Aunt Column. Kiran spoke about Mandal and politics of caste, and also how his favourite dance step is of Govinda's partner sequence. Hafsa and I dreamt of a magazine called View Points, to which amit Added "RVP" or random view points. Amit parodied few famous songs, and also told us how Pakistan fears disintergation due to Baluch-NWF-Sindh-Punjab divide and threats from destructive forces.

It was 4 when we actually realised that we have sat through night, chatting and gossipping as if there will never be another day. It reminded all of us our PG days when such events of not sleeping through night was common.

In the morning Amit has gone back to Bangalore, sleepy eyed but smiling. Ananda told me aroudn noon why he felt good. He said that we spoke for such a long time, without pulling anyone's leg and discussing everything under the sky. This doesn't get any better these days.

Year has started on a positive note. Work is half done. And I do not feel sleep-deprivwed despite the late sessions. Good for me. Touch Wood!