dis Zindagi stays true!

Japan suffers major earthquake

An Eastern tragedy

japan bore nature's fury as the earthquake caused a 13 foot ( 4 metre tall) tsunami which gulped buildings and cars. Heartfelt condolences to people who lost their loved ones and property

P.S: click on the link above to view the video.

hail PORTMAN!

The remarkable thing about Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan is the ease with which Portman portrays her transition into losing her mind while learning to master the art of ballerina as the black swan.
It reminds me of our homegrown Devdas starring Shahrukh Khan,where it appeared that the Indian star lost himself and his very mind to master the art of a sore drunken lover. Both movies would appear a little empty had it not been for its lead cast. Portman lends herself to the role with such an expertise that the viewer begins to accept the madcap energy and melodrama of the movie as the central plot without which the movie's soul would seem misplaced.
In his second film running, following THE WRESTLER, where Aronofsky explores the art of weightlifting (if it may be called an art), the director delves into the psyche of the art as much as the artist. Laying stress on the individuality of ballet dancing as an art, he stresses enough the need of the artist to lose oneself in the character to have a desired impact and hence justifies brilliantly the need for Nina's character to explore herself deeper and deeper to bring out all the black and even create new ones. Under a bout of self-admonishment and constant criticism by her trainer played autocratically by Vincent Cassel, Nina starts getting delusional and losing herself in the process of turning into the black swan she wanted to be.
The film also possesses sub-texts which leaves the audience's wondering if Nina wanted to be where she is today. Her over-possessive mother and her failed career as an ballet actor does suggest that she pushed Nina into this profession. Nina's mother's role is so overbearing that a significant marker of her black persona overtaking the white persona is when Nina disobeys her and walks out on her decision. In a character, which is very well-written, Barbara Hershey sparkles and her failure to realize that she may have pushed Nina onto the path of ballet dancing against her wishes brings out her strong desire to master the art of ballet which she seems happy to have realized through the exploits of her daughter.
To Nina's discomfort there is another sub-text involving a once-the-best but now spent ballerina played by Winona Ryder, whose presence constantly looms over Nina reminding her of  the impending insanity as Nina continues to prepare for the role of the black swan.

Portman's performance has been a revelation as never before she has played a character, with so much of physical and mental exhaustion. Months of training in ballet dance made her dance like a dream and together with Aronofsky she conjured brilliant over-the-top drama as she slipped slowly but surely into insanity.

warne vs tendulkar!!

This is neither Chennai test nor the Mumbai test where turning out for their countries these champions crossed swords. This is something deeper, something more intriguing and layered; this is a study which shows how these two players, within themselves,  embody every trait and every character that is needed of a modern day cricketer to succeed. There is no winner in this contest and there are no trophies to be taken home;it's just an entire gamut of personality traits put on display by these giants of the game. The thought crossed my mind when i saw two headlines on the day following Tendulkar's 50th test century:

• the first sang paeans about the god-like status of the little man and quite rightly so,
• the second published pictures about Elizabeth Taylor dumping Warne after a whirlwind romance

& then i came across a third when i found out about a potential Shane Warne comeback into the Australian team after their national team's ashes debacle.

They can't stop talking about him,down under! Can they?

While all these headlines and the following expert talks made sense it struck me no matter how different these 2 individuals were what stood out was the ability of their mental faculties to overcome whatever problems their lifestyle would bring upon them.

To be very honest the likes of Tendulkar are rare, once in a century ( if i am not exaggerating) and that's got more to do with his off field behavior than his on-field heroics.Such control and abstinence is near impossible in today's media frenzy and amidst such craziness for that little scoop and byte.Tendulkar always knew the weight of expectations would fall on his shoulders after making his entry into a pedestrian Indian team of the early 90's and decided to handle it by keeping away from the trappings of supercelebritydom. He stayed away from the hype and the hoopla and the big crazy parties and the bunch of sycophants who vanish with the first signs of trouble. 

On the other hand,  big pretty cars and prettier WAG's were always Warne's cup of tea;he always knew how to wriggle out of a situation in an unmichaelclarkesque fashion and come on to the cricket field and turn on the heat & to that effect i don't see a reason why should warne not be marketed as the "model cricketer" as often as Tendulkar is. Why should he not be targeted as a role model for cricketers coming up in the post IPL universe where there is money at every nook and corner of the game. Warne's significance is even greater here as a case study on him would have a much deeper impact on a cricketer who gets KAMBLIED. One look at Yuvraj Singh and you might argue he needs Warney lessons to find his bearings and tuck back that ever-increasing waistline.Abstinence is good but control over one's temptations is even better. One might even argue India might have been able to save the likes of Vinod Kambli and Laxman Sivaramkrishnan had Warne  occurred 20 years ago. To know your biggest temptations, to give in to it and then come out and perform like a champion is a hallmark of a genius and Warne should definitely get more credit for that than he actually does. Not to forget Warne did it every time, well most times than not and almost on all big occasions; who can forget his 4 wicket burst in the 2003 world cup semi-final and final.

So what if Warne's flawed and corruptible, he is certainly doing better than the likes of Tiger Woods (he btw didn't win a single tournament this year!!!) and Wayne Rooney, he was the best in the business by a long shot and probably will remain forever &  guy does deserve some credit for taking your eyeballs off Tendulkar with his escapades even when the little master has just completed his 50th test hundred. That's an accomplishment in itself.

the cop story the way it should be!!

You've have to understand where it is coming from!! Fed intravenously on Mr. Bachchan's movies, cop stories invoke a different kind of reaction in most indians. For the unlucky few like me, they give me a sense of "BEEN THERE DONE THAT". The image of Mr. Bachchan single handedly destroying mafioso while at the same time fighting corruption was exhilarating at its best,for some and well, escapist at its worst.He played his role to perfection,the ever-so-powerful Hindi Film hero with great gutso and enthralled an entire generation of a nation but I would be disappointed if he would admit that he ever believed really(i mean really really ) from the core of his heart in the optimism of the cop stories that he dished out or maybe he was just too blinded with the popularity and the adulation to really think that way.

Last Sunday i watched Sidney Lumet's Serpico and watching Pacino's seminal work as an incorruptible cop my entire idea about cop movies shifted into a different zone. Released around the same time when Big B was literally running amok among the audiences' minds and emotions with his angry young man/cop against the system act this movie takes you into a completely different world of its own, a world where cop movies should rightly belong: gritty, full of instances of desperate life-threatening measures taken,lives put on the line in the way that it should be( and by this i definitely don't mean dodging bullets).

The movie opens with Pacino being taken to an hospital as he is shot and then goes into flashback to tell the viewer how he reached this particular state. It tells the audience that he is the most dangerous cop alive and that's cause he doesn' t take money and not because he can kill goons by the dozen. I mean c'mon dudes and dudettes !!give the guys a break, beneath that uniform they are men like us!!

Serpico then takes us into the world of Frank Serpico who gets into the police line to do the right thing and then sees himself entangled into a system which is engulfed and deep-rooted into corruption from all sides. He embraces hippie counterculture, grows a beard and dresses like a road goon to look like one during his patrol sessions. You can smell the sincerity oozing from his performance as he succesfully convinces his superior on the futility of being a plain-clothed policeman wearing a shoe and socks combination which is a clear giveaway. He aspires to become a detective and hence joins a training course just to realize that he has wasted his time there as nothing fruitful is going to come out of it.

In the meanwhile, he is becoming increasingly frustrated with the corruption around him and wants to clean it up and takes help of his friend in the department to expose the racket,but ALAS!. He slowly realises that corruotion is an all pervasive evil but refuses to neither give up nor give in. Increasingly, he gets frustrated and decides to approach people outside the bureau(read : media) and antagonises a whole bunch of cops who are now gunning for his life.The cops decide to take matters into their own hands and in one of the drug racket-busting expeditions of theirs, leave him for the wolves. Serpico gets shot in the face and  survives but something more important within him dies and that is his belief to cleanup the system. The look on his face in the hospital says it all when he looks at the award of merit bestowed upon him.

We're then told he retires the following year and i believe, that is far away from the maddening world of corruption.

Lumet weaves a simple storyline with a stupendous performance from his leading man Al Pacino, as he  occupies most of the frames to the point of making everybody look like mere sidekicks. Pacino, on his part, makes it a delight to watch with a performance which matches up with some of his best ( and trust me there are many vying for that spot).

But for me the movie means a lot more, it reminds me of the old cop movies that i have grown up watching and makes my movie viewing experience poorer to say the least. I wonder if we lacked the ability to show cinema as a reflection of reality or we shied away from it because we were always bothered by a movie's box office prospects or maybe we were too psyched about the presence of an all-conquering hero in our movies. Whatever it was, Serpico is a brilliant cop classic, and it is as good as it gets.

t-30 and counting!!!

30th of last month started off on a different note, and i hadn't bumped into a super hot girl showing unusual amount of interest in me, it was something more,or something less depending on which way I see it,but it was definitely something.

My last month with TCS (aka notice period) kicked off amidst no fanfare :( and i fell in love with the idea of the feeling i was gonna experience in a month's time. Two years,2 eventful years had passed by in this organisation in the blink of an eye. I was now looking forward to an ocean of nothingness which surprisingly appeared to carry more hope than the idea of continuing here( i m saying this at the risk of  eating my words later:)).

Glancing back into the past, i realise that the time i had in the last two years in this city will go down as one of the best i will ever have. The memories i will take with me would bring a mischeivous smile on my face every f%^$%#$% time and send me down  streets of nostalgia..!! MAN it was some fun!! i can look back and happily say that it was not abt the much talked about marine drive or the nightlife,but it was about what i did there and how much of fun i had visiting all these places. It's about the kind of people i met,became friends and acquaintances and the life's lessons i picked up from them. It was about living it up completely and totally like the lyrics of this Black Eyed Peas song:
Tonight's the night

(Hey!)
Let's live it up
(Let's live it up)
I got my money
(My pay)
Let's spend it up
(Let's spend it up)
Go out and smash it
(Smash it)
Like oh my God
(Like oh my God)
Jump off that sofa
(Come on!)
Let's get, get off

The high-points have been many and it would be unfair on my part to narrate them on a blog post;they deserve a more personal mode of communication. It's sufficient to say that it has been full of fun and frolic,lot of carelessness and impulsiveness which i would remember for the rest of my life.It seems almost dramatical now that the city which always attracted me is the one where i had the time of my life.

I move onto bangalore from here,  into a student life, - unemployed with six months of preparation time for exams and then a lifelong of abstinence from this kind of life. how interesting!!!Things would be more organised from now on, and i would have a role and responsibility to perform ,expectations to meet amongst other things. I might eventually start enjoying all of this;maybe i would do good at the exams and surprise myself and make everyone proud but nothing would fill the void of the time that i had in this city.It's quite fitting that i enjoy my third monsoon here and go cribbing about the water-clogged roads with a smile on my face reminding me of the last time i splashed into a puddle.
Mumbai u beauty!!

it's my favourite detective at work again!!

I just happened to catch Sherlock Holmes and i was wondering how do they choose these actors for these superhero roles/ Robert Downey on the basis of his performance in this movie deserves to take up/eat up all forthcoming superhero roles.The finer nuances of nonchalance so expertly on display keep you spell binded and the complex yet delightful relationship between Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes engages oneself throughout the length of the movie.The movie is visually engaging throughout and takes the viewer into the world of 221 Baker street set in 1891.

The most important part of the movie though is a paradigm shift in the character of Mr. Holmes as played by Robert Downey and as conceived by Guy Ritchie,the man who gave us Snatch. The director has made a mockery of certain prototypes in the process of creating the character of Mr. Holmes and it is indeed his this interpretation of probably one of the most loved fictional characters which is far more interesting than the movie itself and that's a huge compliment. 

The movie as is the case with Guy Ritchie brand of cinema has a very strong action/plot of sequences which opens fantastically with Sherlock Holmes and Watson preventing a sixth murder as we are told by Lord Blackwood, a practitioner of black magic.From then on it unravels the life and times of Sherlock Holmes, his world confined in a room where walking without hitting into something is nigh impossible,his quirky experimentation with Watson's dog and his apparent weakness towards Rachel Mcadams, about whom we are told he has already lost twice.What is on display here is Robert Downey's own quirkiness tripping over into the character of Mr. Holmes and it seems that is what the doctor ordered as it makes for very interesting viewing.

The character of Mr. Watson and his relationship with Holmes is another one of the highlights of the movie and it does remind you some of the old movie double acts which light up the screen. Jude Law as Mr. John Watson perfectly plays the part of Holmes sidekick and the evolution of the role of Watson is a welcome change from the past versions of Watson where he was shown as a dumb duck. Watson's reputation in the minds of Sherlock Holmes will only improve and it's a completely original take on his character than any of the movies/tv episode/movie ever pictured on the famed pair.

Sherlock Holmes is that visual delight which promises and succeeds in enthralling the viewers that every bit and hence is delightful in every way.