Reverie Part II

You know it’s NOT your day when…

1. 1. When, of the 4000 odd songs in your playlist, the mp3 player plays ‘Backstreet Boys’. And your friends walk in!
2. When the dhobi misplaces your favourite pair of jeans, the only one that fits! And that jeans has your Rs 200 worth food coupons!
3. When the person, whose monitor you were using, wants it back.
4. When your mouse doesn’t work. And you keep getting headshots after headshots in counter-strike.
5. When you play some horrible football with the ball hardly ever going to the place it is supposed to.
6. When, while playing Scotland Yard, you can go anywhere you feel like, and you chose a path that leads to nowhere! And before you even know it, you are deservedly caught. Horrible!

You know it IS Your day when…

1. When you pass the football in no-man’s land and hope the player gets to it. And the player gets to it! And has a shot at goal as well!
2. It rains! And you have the whole road for yourself. :)
3. When your Di reads the blog and says its not bad!
4. When you get hold of Gulaal soundtarck. And it is as amazing as you thought it would be!
5. When your fan gets fixed, making the Rajasthani summer a bit more bearable. Not to mention the rain!
6. When you win your team a couple of rounds in counter-strike and are not too far off the leader.
7. When you set the new 2 new high scores on your friend’s mobile phone game. And in the process almost double the previous one!
8. “Wish you were here”, the song by Pink Floyd, being played on the mp3 player, which is set in shuffle mode, when writing this blog entry.

But you still have this nagging feeling. Everything is not what it seems. And all this will lead to nowhere. Does it ruin the day? Should it? Perhaps. But there is hope still. And that is never a bad thing. And the day is still good!

A happy weekend to all.

Cheers

Jais

Is Slumdog Millionaire worth the praise?

Is Slumdog Millionaire worth the praise it is getting? It is a well made no doubt. But the more you think about it, the more you realise that the movie doesn’t live up to the hype. In the so called review, I said “from a cinematic point of view, this is a very well made and  directed movie and definitely worth a watch.”

What I had failed to mention, and what is pretty obvious to me, was written in a piece by Matthew Schneeberger (not me obviously) on rediff.com titled, you guessed it, “Is Slumdog Millionaire worth the praise?” (http://www.rediff.com/movies/2009/jan/29is-slumdog-worth-it.htm)

Some of the issues raised against the movie, which i tried debating against Anorak (Who had written a review of the movie), have been put forth in a clear and precise manner. I shall reproduce the same verbatim taking nothing away from the author.  Read on…

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“Is Slumdog Millionaire worth the praise?

…

Yes, despite what the most zealous of naysayers claim, India’s problems are real and manifold: extreme poverty, communal violence, child beggary, painful vestiges of the caste system, to name a few. And all of these exist even in modern, urban India, the India of all those Western magazines profiles, the India of business process outsourcing and information technology.

So it’s good that someone has held up a mirror to remind India that, yes, you’ve come far, but that you have a long way to go, too.

Before seeing the movie, I thought those who claimed that it portrayed India in a negative light were being ridiculously defensive. Having seen it, I understand where they are coming from. Yes, Mumbai has squalor and violence and cruelty. But it has great humanity and brotherhood and character, none of which were adequately represented in the film.

One of the first negative reviews of Slumdog I read was from the blog The Great Bong, who absolutely lacerated it. In it, the blogger wrote, “Well yes these things do happen in India. However the problem is when you show every hellish thing possible all happening to the same person. Then it stretches reason and believability and just looks like you are packing in every negative thing that Westerners perceive about India for the sake of crowd pleasing.”

He goes on to propose a film about an outlandish string of events happening to an African-American boy in the US, and says, “Even though each of these incidents have actually happened in the United States of America, I would be accused of spinning a fantastic yarn that has no grounding in reality, that has no connection to the ‘American experience’ and my motivations would be questioned, no matter how cinematically spectacular I made my movie. At the very least, I wouldn’t be on 94 percent on Tomatometer and a strong Oscar favourite.”

He’s right. Say an Indian director travelled to New Orleans for a few months to film a movie about Jamal Martin, an impoverished African American who lost his home in Hurricane Katrina, who once had a promising basketball career, but who — following a drive-by shooting — now walks with a permanent limp, whose father is in jail for selling drugs, whose mother is addicted to crack cocaine, whose younger sister was killed by gang-violence, whose brother was arrested by corrupt cops, whose first born child has sickle cell anaemia, and so on. The movie would be widely panned and laughed out of theatres.

That, to me, is Slumdog Millionaire: contrived, pretentious, absurd, hollow, inauthentic, a pseudo-statement about social justice. And yet today the film stands on the precipice of Hollywood’s highest honour, the Academy Award for Best Picture.

… “

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That kinda sums up what i wanted to write about Slumdog, albeit more creatively. Somewhat an extension of the “Real India” stuff i had written.

Cheers

Jais

Recent Releases – A Reflection (Part I)

As Murphy would say, one’s interest in his/ her Blog is directly proportional to the length of the piece. This ‘piece’, in my case, becomes the so called review that I write from time to time.

One of the problems of writing movie reviews is unwanted urge to write reviews for all the movies that you have seen, recently or not. And sadly, I’ve seen too many.

Anyway, an opinion on couple of new releases I have seen recently.

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ( 2008 )

Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The movie is directed by David Fincher, based upon a short story of the same name by  F. Scott Fitzgerald, and stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton amongst others.

The story has been publicized a lot in the media. It’s basically the story of Benjamin Button, a man who starts aging backwards.

The movie is intriguing to say the least. At its core the movie is essentially a story of love, loss and sacrifices . However, it deals with so many emotions, so many situations and circumstances, that makes the movie an experience. The acting is uniformly excellent. Brad Pitt delivers his one of his best performances. Cate Blanchett  is equally amazing. So is everybody else.

The direction and Cinematography is amazing. David Fincher has an eye for detail (which was evident in Zodiac) and the movie relives the era. However, I don’t remember anything about the background score.

However, the length is one major issue. I wouldn’t blame the pacing but at 2hrs 45 minutes, the movie is tad too long, even if it doesn’t feel that way.

The curious case is a fascinating tale of human relations with a twist.  Satisfying experience if you have three hours to spare.

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Pride and Glory ( 2008 )

Pride & Glory

It drama directed by Gavin O’Connor and stars Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight and Noah Emmerich.

The crime drama is centered around a police family. However, this family faces a stern moral test when Ray Tierney (Edward Norton) investigates a case revealing police corruption scandal involving his brother and brother-in-law. Loyalty? or the truth?

The acting is uniformly good. Edward Norton, Colin Ferrel, Jon Voight and Noah Emmerich are believable in their respective roles. It is the direction, the uneven pace and the stupid climax that doesn’t let the movie achieve what it could have. However, that does not mean the plot or the story had anything new or interesting to offer. This is the typical formulaic and derivative cop corruption story where one believes in the truth and the other in money. And sadly, the acting, however good, cannot elevate this movie from its pedestrian end product.

The climax was abrupt, meaningless and simply absurd. But I did like the background score and the inventive use of songs towards the ending, which had nothing else going for it. Also, certain side stories were there which did not add to the narration or the story.

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That should do for the time being i suppose. Will write a few words about Milk and Frost/Nixon later sometime. Both worth watching though. Anyway, that’s for later… if I am so inclined.

Cheers

Jais

Reverie

Fact: The most visited link in this blog is “About Me“, which doesn’t have anything about me.

What does that tell you about the blog?

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas dear interested readers. Wish you have a peaceful New Year as well.

Jais

Commitments to myself? Screw it!

I happened to view this blog by chance. Couple of days back. Found it interesting. I could totally relate to it (minus the last paragraph). Please note that i have nothing against the author. absolutely nothing. just that i think there are other smaller things that matter. The blog in question:

http://ronnie8in.rediffiland.com/blogs/2008/11/18/Commitments-to-myself-Screw-it-up.html

Sometimes I wonder why i haven’t become the person of my dreams. Is it what i never got a change? If was completely honest with myself … Often i see so many dreams. I want to live with so much enthusiasm, often I see myself a hero, lover, sometimes i am a loquacious speaker, sometimes I am cogent; sometimes I am sophisticated, sometimes I am a prankster. There are so many things in the world that I want to be, yet I didn’t become any of them. Why haven’t I lived upto my own standards? Why am I not the man of my dreams?

I looked inwards for the answers. I discovered how I have sabotaged myself for umpteen years by shying away from the moment. Our destiny is not shaped by a few decisions that we ought to make in a few critical situations that appears in our lives (although it might seem so), but by those countless small decisions that we make each and every day. Our decision of what to focus on, our decision to respond to an unpleasant situation, our decision of whether we are willing to take a risk or not. Yes, everyday we have at least one chance of subjecting ourselves to risk.

Have you ever seen an interesting stranger whom you would so much like to talk to, but you never accost him or her out of your fear of rejection. Have you ever let go an opportunity to take part in group discussion or public speaking because of stage fear. Have you ever wanted to stand for something but decided not to fearing that people will make fun of you.

I don’t know about you but I have done it over and over, day in and day out. But today I make a commitment to myself that I will never shy away from the moment. I will never fear rejection.I’d rather like to have more real problems then imaginary ones. I’ll try hard to put myself in a challenging situation. I wont care about critics I wont care ending up looking like a fool. I will be energetic, enthusiastic, zealous,CRAZY!

I’ll screw it up, I just wont care.

Just a thought…

Have i let go of an opportunity to take part in a group discussion or public speaking because of stage fear? Yes. Have I wanted to stand up for something but deciding not to fearing people might make fun of me? yes. And i also have done it day in and day out, over and over. Does it make those decisions wrong? Should i regret not making those decisions?

I have wanted to be a singer, an actor, a cricketer, footballer, poet, writer (i even started this blog!), artist. But i am not. I am me. and i don’t regret it. I keep shying away from ‘moments’. But i don’t regret them. I do not regret not doing anything so long as i did what i thought was right without the benefit of hindsight bias (there are very few situations where i actually regret not doing something, even with the benefit of hindsight bias). However, what i do regret is screaming at somebody, getting pissed or angry, saying something which i shouldn’t have or hurting somebody when there was another way out. I know every action (or inaction) will shape my destiny. And i know i won’t regret it.

I know that didnt make sense. but what the heck! this is my blog!

And now i should get back to studies considering i have an exam tomorrow. Is this a decision that will shape my destiny? Do i make myself butt of peoples’ jokes by studying or not studying? Should I care about critics? Do i take the risk?

Screw it! Am off to sleep.

Cheers

Jais

Kashmiriiiiiiiiiii

Hello world! my 5 post in don’t know how many days or hours. i can see the excitement waning. But this is exam time. and i don’t feel like studying… anythings possible. this stupid blog might just survive!

Read somewhere that blogging is when you don’t have to say anything but you say it anyway. that’s true. i don’t have to say anything as of now. And i seriously doubt i ever will.

However, the present dilemma is whether to go out for food to Kashmiri. Amazing non-veg. not that i am a hardcore non-veggie. i prefer the position of being a non-veg who prefers veg. i doubt such a position exists. What to do what to do…

chalo, will fill this stupid blog with nothing later on. now its time to contemplate.

Cheers

Jai

Update!

Well, i did indeed go to Kashmiri yesterday. A dhaba near the railway station. and what amazing non-veg food. the chicken was awesome. The Kima fry was mindboggingly amazing. A bit on the spicier side, but i do find everything a bit spicy. Dahi (Curd) was the best; delicious, rich, creamy and uniformly thick.  One can go there just for the cud!

We have this policy of no compromise on food. And that’s the thing with kashmiri, there’s never any question of compromise. The place changes the definition of hogging. I was so full by the end of it that i couldn’t have an ice cream. (actually, i did… but that was a BIG mistake. shouldn’t have had it.) Overall, amazing non-veg food. worth every penny. Came to about 100 Rs per head. Not bad for the kind of hogging we do.

Cheers

Jais

Name

Here goes the second post. Since i don’t have anything to write about, thought i might introduce you my beloved readers as to why i chose the name “Autumn Almanac”.

I don’t have creativity. Nil. Zero. Zlich.

“Autumn Almanac” was the track i was listening to on winamp when i had to fill in the name. its by the Kinks, a British group formed in the 60s. been listening to it nowadays. they have that distinctive 60s flavor that i found in the initial albums of Beatles as well. Anyway, more on it later… if i am so inclined.

Anyway, there were others tracks also which were under consideration. some examples, Hanging By a Moment by Lifehouse, Electioneering by Radiohead, Warm Machine by Bush, They Don’t Really Case About Us by Michael Jackson… Couldnt really have any of them as a blog address, could i? Imagine… hangingbyamoment.wordpress.com or theydontreallycareaboutus.wordpress.com. Actually, dont imagine.

And Autumn Almanac has that ring to it; that sophistication; the creativity that i yearn for… I mean just think about it… autumnalmanac.wordpress.com.  what beauty! the simplicity astounds me… i am in tears!

By the way, the track Autumn Almanac, is considered to be an absolute classic, “a finely observed slice of English custom, a ‘weird character study’ and for its ‘mellow, melodic sound that was to characterize the Kinks’. Supposedly^.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autumn_Almanac – The source of all knowledge)

Cheers

Jais

‘The’ Blog

Oh well, there goes the first entry. Considering nobody would even bother reading it, the question is, why the bloody hell am i writing it… there’s a reason i suppose. Watch this space… or some space on this link. if you want to that is.

Cheers

Jais