Udaan

• Just finished watching udaan, though it was on my to watch list since
long. I had heard about the movie , a boy returns from hostel to home
,tries to adjust to life , to an authoritarian father , to an unknown
brother. I suspected it to be another lakshya, 3 idiots or wakeup sid
with good things thrown in, some speech by our hero and a happy ending.
Well ending is not sad but it is uncertain and frightening. • His long
stay in hostel and how his friends wish for a life outside hostel
reminded me of many of my friends who were in hostels since their
school time. Most of them were there because they were from villages
and for lack of good educational facilities they were living in big
towns and hostels. But I have seen quite a few boys who were
essentially shunned by their parents and what harm it does to their
psyche. • Character of father is a case study character. Believe it or
not we were told with pride by people around us how their father used
to beat them for slightest of pretext, how one of my seniors used to
hide all his cricket bats before his dad came in home else he would be
beaten by them, how parents of many of my aunts and uncles had no idea
in which class their wards were and so on and on. As a society we
condone this behavior and cruelty towards kids. • Film captures local
environ of Jamshedpur beautifully, I never knew city was so beautiful.
Bihari tone of characters is very authentic, not clownish like other
movies but not snobbish either. • Though his college seniors who are
supposed to rag him and drinking scene with those guys seem to be
forced • It is also interesting that no neighbor or relative other than
his uncle is shown • Acting by all three leading men are superb. Ronit
roy who is shattered from inside and has converted himself into a demon
unknowingly. • Initial poem is very good which he recites to his friend
in school, and so is background track in the movie. • It somehow
reminded me of movies like being cyrus or ek choti si love story. Style
of movie telling is erringly similar , stories are told from point of
view of protagonist, lonely childhood is captured effectively.

Love Songs

A great movie. obviously it goes beyond Indian sensibilities but it show how young people deal with relationships.

I saw Louis Garrel in 'dreamers' and then I discovered him. he has tremendous screen presence and a special melancholy look in his eyes. He does comic scenes also very good in this movie.

it has various sub plots but handles them very well. sub plot of relationship of Julie & Ismael, Their relation with Alice, Julie's relation with her family and her elder sister Jasmine's relation with Ismael.
But real gem is acting of Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet. I am in love with him....

Boat that rocked

a wonderful movie.

my usual routine is to check a movie in news on IMDB and see the recommendations which crop up or If I happen to like some actor/actress go to his/her profile and scan past movies to find some less talked about gem and this is how I reached to this movie.

it stops of being a direct comedy and is not as rebellious as requiem for a dream but still manages to lift spirits.

Loosely based on FM radios which popularized rock music in UK , one can find canny similarities with all times and all places in different cultural milieu.

e.g. we had a minister who tried to bank smoking scenes in movie.

owner of the whole enterprise is one quirky character and so are various RJs.

especially the late late night RJ and the fellow who becomes friend to our hero.Hoffman is terrific as count and Nick Frost who tries hard to fix James up ends up sleeping with his girl....


movies does show human emotions at play between an estranged father /son and jealousy which hoffman has towards new American celebrity.

overall a good watch

Pundit Nehru's autobiography

Nehru's Autobiography
yes u heard it right .Nehru's autobiography .Despite having an interest in politics I never knew that NEhru has an autobiography to his credit apart from largely overrated discovery of India till I got it form a friend.
Literary quality or narration style wise book is no good but still it is worth reading because
1. Unlike Gandhi's celebrated My experiments with truth , this book gives no major revealation but Nehru admits of all his shortcomings.
2. Book is limited till 1935 only , so no insight on partition devleopments or Independent India.
3. This book is am ust read for all psychophants tlaknig aobut Nehru family's sacrifices .Books make it pretty clear that everyone in their family played very safe with britishers got in & out of Geol at will ,enjoyed their quiet whisky & hill resort holidays & had a REAL disdain for poor of India though they blamed british for this.
4. This book shows why most of our inital efforts towards development failed becoz they were made by peoplehorribly out of tune with the realities of India. At one palce nehru claims to have interacted with 10 million people in a span of 3 months of election campaign .( remember franchise was limited & communication very difficult).
5.Nehru obviously has a disdain for revolutionaries & he doesn't hide his contmept of Gandhi for his inner voice. I think only nehru could dare to do such thing in India withou being branded RSSite.
6.All people who paved his way were good ,all those not were bad. Jinnah finds mention only once in the whole book!!!

Overall a must read for people who are tired of Manishankar Aiyer's argument of Savarkar being communalist patriot & Sonai Gandhi 's daily prayer of Nehru parivar' balidan.
A good book togive an idea about NEhru- gandhi relationship. otherwise useless.
In fact as a person u can have glimpses of real Nehru than what you get in his much celbrated biography by S Gopal.

Rag Darbari

One of the very first books i read...
to be precise in class 11th

Rag Darbari by Srilal Shukla is am ust read for people interested in Hindi but who are always put off by memories of Premchand read during school days.
Well all of you would agree that no matter how much we read Vikram seth , AMitava Ghosh or Chetan Bahgat real India specially Hindi hertland can be explored & felt only through Hindi literature.
But out english medium education & cliched movies form Bollywood & Ekta Kapur serials make us heaveily biased agianst Hindi Literature.

Rag Darabri has a background of village politics but in a humourous way .We can call it Black comedy. It breaks the romantic notion of Indian village propounded by Gandhi & nurtured by bollywood movies.
It does not show some Naxal infested & Zamindar oppressed village as one would imagine in communist literature.
Rather it shows how a typical (90%) Indian vilalges are.
obviously it was written in 70s so we can't see vilalge life after liberalization but in addition to that it is nor bulky , thmese are simple but with good insight & it does not preach anytihng. Characters are gray not pure black & white which is rare in Hindi literature.
So if someone wants a real taste of Rural India Raag Darbari is highly recommended.

ishqiya

This is how life ends not in a bang but a whisper…..
This is the way I gues s one should describe the movie and despite building up a credible plot ending leaves something to be desired. One good point is that Hindi films are maturing now and apart from straight college boy girl romance other angles are also being pursued and similarly in relationship areas apart from normal father –son, mother –son or friend angle complex relationships like guru- chelas whose object of affection is same girl, two buddies, two business partners, or mistress and wife are being presented in very nuanced way just as they are in real life.
Movie’s name is very apt because the entire protagonist including the kidnapped businessman or slain dacoit makes seemingly life threatening choices just because they are in love with someone. As they say love follows similar pattern to insanity and this movie exemplifies.

Some obvious loopholes – vidya’s effort to entice the two gangsters are too much obvious. There should have been some kind of subtlety here. It is inconceivable that police is attacking the house from front and they can easily slip from back. A big businessman with underworld links in lawless areas and without security? . caste war angle is just used to create useful coincidences in film, which could be done otherwise as well.

But scenes involving brother in law of naseer is hilarious to core and so is the concept of vidya finally finding solace in company of these two men.

It is difficult to say if it is inspired from some movie, Indian or foreign but I remember seeing one Brazilian movie where a woman with some fatal disease has a threesome with two youth who fall in love with her.

Julie & Julia

Butter to my bread breath to my life……

Love the movie. It is about hope , perseverance about how if one decides no feat is impossible and how life always gives you a second chance and how one can find joy in very simple things and get success as per standard of world in seemingly unworldly ways.

Some scenes like child couple celebrating valentine day or Julia child thanking her husband at the end were very touching. I am a vegetarian but the movie makes me think that non veg won’t be that bad….

Something on relationships…the way Julia feels when her sister is pregnant and she can’t have child or how mother of Juli’s supports here finally.
The scene where Julia cuts onions fervishly is hilarious to the core and also the one of being hot as stiff cock.

A good watch. Makes you feel hopeful gain in life. And Madame Bassart was adorable

"I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by – set the tone for me…