Future Posts

All future posts will be found on http://whowrites.blogspot.com under the labels Books, Music and Movies.

Self-Inflicting my Namesake

As I started reading through Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, I had this strange feeling come over me time and again. All that I had in mind about the American dream was clearly defined in the book and weighed by its pros and cons. It is a stirring write-up on chasing the American dream that can wake you from your slumber. Life throws us a lot of challenges, both simple and complicated, and it is upto us to rise and perform, take decisions that can be sometimes satisfying, and sometimes disturbing, and walk through it as if you were never affected by it. It is not an easy thing to do. It is never easy to answer your heart as the questions surface and resurfaces time and again.

The Namesake is a deeply moving, touching and stirring (though I feel like using another hundred adjectives to describe it) novel about an Indian couple who are staying in the United States. It deals with their lifestyle, their urge to be with their family members that gets suppressed, their endurance and tolerance to the new identity that is created there, and at the same time to retain the Indianness within them is deftly handled in the book. They have to live with mails and phone calls to connect back home. All the good news and bad news pours through the phone. They beget a son Gogol alias Nikhil, and his tryst with the Indo-American image leaves him thoroughly confused. He is not attached to his Indian roots and he loves anything and everything that is American. Even during his annual visits to Calcutta, he compares the diverse lifestyle in India with a clearly defined one in America.

This story is not about which culture is better, nor about highlighting the pros and cons of each of them. It is a story of what an Indian family undergoes in a foreign land. It is about their emotional surges, their inability to do anything when it comes to a problem back home and all other issues that really makes us cringe in fear. It is difficult to maintain a tough composure while reading this book and it is easy to put yourself in their shoes if you are staying abroad.

The book really makes you think what you want in the long run, and whether anything is worth sacrificing at the cost of your country. It is not easy to embrace something that you are not comfortable with, and The Namesake explores the dark interiors of this unimaginable reality. This book takes you to your roots and it is upto to hold on to it tightly! To sum it up, The Namesake delivers.

Neat adaptation - Da Vinci Code unravels!

The outcome of the movie version of the hugely successful book The Da Vinci Code was eagerly awaited. It is not an easy task to generate frames in perfect adaptation to what was conceived in the book. It requires a lot of planning and skill to etch such a movie. Ron Howard must be feeling happy at the end of the day, as he has done full justice to the movie. The critics might argue that it maybe a good adaptation, but not a perfect adaptation. True, but they should know that the movie lasts only for two and a half hours, and it is no easy task to churn out close to a 1000 pages into a movie in the given time frame.

The story of the book is no secret as it has made big news in almost all the newspapers around the world a couple of years back. Dan Brown brought out a highly controversial topic, and the pros and cons of the theme are discussed even today with the same fervour. Everybody knows the book is unputdownable, and so the movie had to live upto the expectations of the millions of readers. Silas, Saunniere, Langdon, Neveu and Teabing are picturised in exactly the same way as what one would have of them in mind after reading the book. There are particular scenes in the movie where one would expect the finer details to be addressed, but fails to do so. In the beginning scene, when Langdon is brought to the Louvre to "help" the French police solve the murder mystery of the curator, one would have expected something about The Vitruvian Man. But sadly, there is not even a mention of it. There are many such places which are toned down, but obviously there is no choice but to exclude them in a two hour venture.

Tom Hanks, as Robert Langdon, is perfect. He fits the role to a nicety. Audrey Tautou, as Sophie Neveu has done a good job. But the biggest credit must go to Paul Bettany for his role as Silas. His varied emotions throughout the movie are well captured. Overall a nice movie, and while watching, one is not taken to wilderness with respect to the book as it absolutely follows the plot of Dan Brown. It is better to read the book and then watch the movie. It would also save the audience the trouble of I couldn't understand half the things in this movie.

Pristine Water!

Impinging the elements of natural catastrophe with the veil of darkness created by man cannot wreak more havoc for the sufferers. The early twentieth century was never a period of ease for the widows when the so called religious officianados imposed restrictions that was stretched to no scalable limits. The pall of gloom for a married woman on having lost her better half was compounded by the misery of having to live the remaining part of her life in treacherously outrageous conditions. All this in the name of religion hounded by the devils of yesteryears!

Water captures the essence of life from a widow's perspective. The film, set on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi portrays the stringent atmosphere prevailing in what could be hailed as the most conservative and orthodox period in Indian history. Talking about the old customs, the legacy carried on from the old generations stifled the masses into obscurity. The story starts off with the nine year old girl Chuiya, played by Sarala being left in a widows' home(Ashram) by her father. Embracing widowhood at a time when not even knowing the meaning of husband and family is menacing. She is left in the lurch (rather discarded) by her family, though she lives with the hope that one day she would return back to her home. There, she strikes chord with the beautiful Kalyani played by Lisa Ray. A person who is at the zenith of his life when begins his final walk, the overlap is really difficult to handle. Such is the state of Chuiya and Kalyani. They are exposed to eventualities commissioned by the brutal force of the unheeding society. The head of the ashram is an old woman, Madhumati, played by Manorama, and her perception towards these people is not any friendly. Her only friend is the pimp Gulabi, played by Raghubir Yadav whose main job is to sell Kalyani as a sexual object. On the ghats one day, Kalyani meets Narayan, played by John Abraham. The stigma on the widows in the society poses a major restriction to break the ice between Kalyani and Narayan. Though both are attracted by the other's presence, both of them are not able to cross the lines. Narayan is a broad minded individual, a nationalist, follower of Gandhiji's ideals and his overtones are more for a rationalistic society with better living conditions for the widows. His argument with the friend goes thus If you are married to a girl, and when she dies, if you are snatched away of all your rights, would it be fair? is very realistic and thought provoking. Seema Biswas as one of the widows is brilliant. She is caught between the two worlds - that she is a widow and her fear that she is not one. When one of the old ladies in the house dies, she tells Chuiya, I hope atleast in her rebirth, she would be born as a human being. That explains her pent up emotions that is concealed by her tough exterior.

Will Kalyani and Narayan meet up in the final phase? Will Narayan's family concede to his demands? Will both of them be able to break the social barrier? Will Chuiya go back to her mother? Will there be a radical change in the outlook of the society? Get the answers to these questions by watching this brilliantly crafted movie. Deepa Mehta has taken up a very sensitive issue and her portrayal of the sufferance of the unfortunate section is really touching. I think the religious communalists should have waited before they froze Deepa Mehta's sets in Varanasi. This prompted her to shoot the movie in Sri Lanka with totally a different cast. The original cast had Shabana Azmi playing Seema Biswas' role. Nandita Das and Akshay Kumar were supposed to play Lisa Ray and John Abraham's role. Lisa Ray is truly enchanting and her inner conflict to break the chains is clearly depicted. John Abraham after his meaningless tryst with conventional movies has essayed out a stellar performance. But the real highlight of the movie is the young girl, Sarala adorning the role of Chuiya. The mischievous gleam in her eyes, coupled with childish innocence and maturity well beyond her years sticks to mind for a long time. The plight, the anguish, the pain, the sorrow and her helplessness causes her to accept what she has to undergo. Truly a fantastic performance. The background music by Mychael Danna is fantastic and so are the songs by AR Rahman.

The Indian audience should keep its fingers crossed to get an opportunity to see this brilliant movie. It would set the minds rolling to see what thresholds have been cleared en route a clear society.

Simple but effective!

Nagesh Kukunoor has this uncanny ability to generate the best out of "The Common Man". His themes are effectively simple and reflects the day to day activities of an officegoer, householder, student or any other from a similar walk of life. Hyderabad blues, Bollywood Calling and others portray a story that is very much inherent within the masses and for the masses.

Iqbal is a heart warming story of an individual who wants to make it big in the world of cricket. In today's competitive world, it is very difficult to stick to a goal. It is as easy to forget what you want in life when you realise what you want. Perplexing sentence but that's the truth. A vision encompassed within your mind should not just be confined there but forced into action. How many of us live for a cause? Nagesh Kukunoor depicts the life of a deaf and dumb individual who fights against all odds and pursues what he wants devoutedly. Hailing from a typical Indian middle class rural background, he has to find his way through the drudgeries of poverty, corruption, influence and affluence to realise his dreams. How does he end up doing it forms the backdrop of this brilliant movie.

I have no idea of the actors except for Girish Karnad and Naseeruddin Shah. Both are talented and versatile actors and there is nothing much to say about them. They have essayed their role just as they normally do. Perfect and slick! But what about the guy who plays the role of Iqbal. He is Shreyas Talpade. One gets the feeling that he is a seasoned actor and this is his nth movie. Iqbal's sister is played by Shweta Prasad. The first scene that she entered I wondered who this girl was with those horn-rimmed spectacles. But her love for her brother with her crisp dialogue delivery left me wishing for a sister! The background music is fantastic and so are the lyrics for the songs.

Overall a brilliant movie with fine acting display. Not the usual run of the mill kind and definitely a movie with a message. This movie definitely conveys a positive message unlike...

Hyped beyond proportions

I have always maintainted that watching a movie which has a lot of hype and hoopla will always end in disaster and Rang De Basanti is no different. A movie which backtracks to the heroics of Bhagat Singh and his group ends up in histrionics translated by the present day characters. A movie while all the time talks about conveying a message is in reality a farce. The sad part is people are influenced by the movie for all the wrong reasons. The movie is interwoven with a lot of amusing moments, but when a movie conveys a message that is not good with the current system in the society, one has to take it with a lot of indigestion.

It is not an easy prospect to watch a latest Hindi movie in Rolla. We have to make plans days in advance starting from booking the tickets online, hiring a cab and looking for a guy who can drive around to the multiplex. The worst part is that you will be losing the entire day off for the movie. So, we do not go for the run of the mill movies. We wait and decide to take the plunge only based on the response. Like others, we had to toe the line to watch this GREAT movie. The expectations were soaring from each one of us.

I wouldn't be going in depths about the story of the movie as I guess it is most talked about. Every Tom, Dick and Harry takes pleasure in citing that it is a different kind of a movie. What is the director trying to convey here? If you are not happy with the system, kill the guys involved in the system to cleanse it. Is this what he is trying to project after having made comparisons to the martyrs of the Indian Freedom Movement. Truly, you must be joking Mr. Mehra! What the martyrs did was not for a personal cause. They did it for the country. A personal vendetta cannot be compared to a social cause. I totally agree that we have a lot of flaws in the system and that we can't change them overnight. Mehra could have projected the loopholes in the system and come up with more realistic ways of eliminating the weak points.

I think how a movie fares depends to a large extent on the media. It is the media that creates or destroys the movie and when the critics are penning their points, they should have an unbiased scale in rating a movie. When movies like Swades and Yuva fail to generate good reviews among the critics, then I don't see the reason for Rang De Basanti getting good reviews. All these three movies are running on parallel lines and it beats me why the other two failed to excite the critics. Ashutosh Gowariker had come up with a movie that could stir the feelings of passion and patriotism towards the country. Mani Ratnam proved a point by representing the youth as the next big forward step in Indian politics. I can't think of a similar parallel for Rang De Basanti. There was a void at the end of the movie.

On an overall note, there were some terrific moments in the movie. That particular scene where Aamir Khan realises that he has done nothing for the sake of the country is brilliant. All that that has been confined to his heart gushes out, and he painstakingly realises the flaws in the system. That to me was the unbeatable scene of the movie. It was really moving to see Aamir Khan express his anguish and the strain is easily noticeable in his acting. The rift in the community is clearly exposed and the way Mehra handles it to show to the masses that it is wrong to have communal prejudice is very well handled. Music by AR Rahman is once again delightful. His tunes grow on you on repeated hearing. Luka Chuppi is the song of the album for the music, lyrics as well as for its significane in the movie.

Overall a watchable movie and it is entirely dependent on the individual as to what he takes after the movie.

Munich...Gripping reality

When Spielberg makes a movie, it creates headlines. But this one was different. Two weeks prior to the release of Munich, Spielberg revealed about such a movie and the reasons are obvious. The movie is about the aftermaths of Black September that hit the 1972 Olympics at Munich where 11 Israeli athletes were brutally murdered after the Palestinians attacked the Olympics village. A sensationally picturised movie of the Israeli intelligence wing, the Mossad, reactivating its assasination wing to eliminate the creators of Black September forms the theme of the year's best movie undoubtedly.

I have no clue of the actors who form the part of this movie. But, almost every unknown name seemed to fit in the role with ease. There are eleven people who plotted the 1972 disaster and there are nine of them whom the Mossad end up eliminating leaving the other two in perpetual fear. The story is about how the people selected for this mission end up killing the plotters and the traumatic experience, each of them undergoes.

Steven Spielberg has taken a neutral stand in this classic. He beautifully has potrayed the ill effects of terrorism, and though the vengeance operation has been carried out, he says that nothing can be done to reduce terrorism. Though people who have plotted the brutality are being killed, new ones are filling the voids in almost the same pace, which ultimately would lead to perpetual killing. The main protagonist of the movie who leads this low key but high profile operation essays the role to perfection as an Israeli agent. His and the team's traumatic experience of the operation is depicted in a way that only Spielberg can do justice. At the end of the day, he loses his entire team in the operation. The story does not end there. The post operations trauma that he suffers is truly a heart wrenching sight. He becomes a victim of his own suspicion and bitterness.

The film not only deals with the Israeli hit back but also what is lost in the entire operation. As I walked out of the theater, I was filled with a sense of uneasiness that gripped me of the terrorism that plagues the society and happiness of having watched another high quality movie from the stable of Steven Spielberg.