Skyfall

Caught the latest Bond flick doing the rounds. I like Bond, and I like strong alpha male figures. There's just something very fascinating about a guy who has brains and manages to still kick someone's ass if required.

Having said that and shown I'm clearly biased towards James Bond, I know the movie has not got as good reviews as its predecessors have. However, I believe this is more to do with the fact that Bond in our minds has been moulded into this sleek gadget wielding, casanova types. So when we see Bond movies with not that much sex and machines. I actually like the less objectifying of women as sex objects part to be honest, I like Daniel Craig's James Bond movies more partly for this. Hardly seen him making out as much as the previous Bond's did. And I say this after having been a big Pierce Brosnan fan from his days of Remington Steele. Plus there's no denying that Craig is a more hand's on Bond. And I like the delving into the past that I see in these movies. I loved discovering how Bond became so emotionally detached from women, or that he is a rich Scottish(?) orphan. And I definitely liked wathing him trying to save M and a list of agents(somewhat Mission Impossible I-ish) rather than watching him go catch hold of weird baddieswho want to nuke the world in hopes of getting their oil to somewhere else or similar nuke related Bond stories. Not that I did'nt like those. But I think people are being harsh giving these not so good reviews. I think an unbiased viewing of these movies would actually help you enjoy them more. Why must Bond always save the world from an impeding near end? I know I went in not expecting Bond to be the Pierce Brosnan bond flicks and was on the edge of the seat. I could not even wait for the title song to end cos I was so eager to see how Bond was gonna come back next.

 And now I'm going to be a girl and let the girlie instincts take over. Daniel Craig is awesomely hot. I love his eyes (thanks to the title song where they are in focus and make you think of clear blue oceans and sandy beaches :D) I was even more excited to see Ralph Fiennes(one of my all time favouritest actors in the whole wide world :P) come in as M. He's super awesome. And the new Q is cute too. And my dad told me Daniel Craig is 50 years old when I started gushing over him on the phone. Dads! Anyways, I hate to see Judi Dench leaving. But all in all I liked this movie too. And I'm glad to see a change in perspective and them trying to do something new.

Hotel Transylvania

Interesting animated flick, Different concept. It twirls around the age old dilemma of who's actually afraid of whom. so there's Count Dracula and guess what, his daughter has just turned 118. He has raised her all on his own and watched her grow. He has built a castle where no human can ever enter and this is now a hotel; Hotel Transylvania;a hotel for only monsters where they can feel safe from humans. She has lived 118 years surrounded by only monsters.

And now it's her coming of age. She has finally turned 118. There is a lavish party as usual for her. All the monsters you can think of are there right from Frankensteing to the werewolves to the zombies. And he knows that for her 188th bday she will argue that she wants to go explore the world. So he stages a scene of a village dresses up zombies as humans and sends her out there for a half an hour flight. It has the desired effect, she returns vowing to never go out again. However when the Count's band of zombie actors return from the village a young backpacker who had heard stories of this castle follows them straight into the hotel. The Count now has two tasks on hand, ensuring this youngster gets out without anyone figuring out a human made it to the castle, which would ruin business for him as the castle would no longer be a safe getaway from humans and two ensuring the boy and his daughter do not fall in love. And invariably he fails miserably at both.

A sweet romantic flick which plays amazingly well with the emotions of a father trying to protect his daughter from his worst fear and then eventually giving in to her wishes in order to see her happy, its a nice watch and has many other subtle messages about acceptance and forgiving and letting go off the past and adapting to the future. Over  all I would see watch it when you are in the mood for a nice animated flick you can see with your family. 

Argo! please watch! Go!!!

i'm so exhausted! but I did catch a movie this weekend too. right after the 24 hour stay in office. It was Ben Affleck'd Argo. It is amazing. It's based on a true incident and it is awesome. i loved everything about it and i'm unabashedly going to say, it's probably the first Ben Affleck flick i have truly enjoyed. There's no unnecessary romantic angle, no added drama, it delivers the story in a nice crisp manner which keeps you on the edge of the seat throughout while also making you laugh at the occasional stabs at humour. I would suggest this movie as a must watch to everyone. And im really not in a very verbose mood right now but this is something I had to say today itself, because I loved it so much. We were flooded with familiar faces but they all essayed their characters to the t and no one over stepped the border and there were no unnecessary heroics. Go for it without thinking twice.

Movie Marathon

I'd promised I'd give you my own honest, unbiased review of the movies I watch so here I have been on a movie marathon, all for the benefit of you guys. Ok fine, I went on a movie marathon cos I was stuck at the dentist's for an hour and I pushed myself to go through thatordeal so i also was morally obliged to make it up to myself and hence the movie marathon :)  But you guys get the reviews anyways so what do you care how they came your way.


English Vinglish: Awesome. I kind of got it because it tackled a very real issue in india. Men here hardly ever marry their equals. They want women who will stay at home, take care of kids and their parents, cook o.k. let me cut them a little slack they at least want women who are not half as successful as they are so they never get questioned, don't have to push tp prove their point can dominate and have everything their way. I have heard this from guys in IIFT, a pretty good B-school for people unaware of IIFT, that he would rather have his wife sit at home and not work or be bothered about her education cos he does'nt want a Double income no kids family. So coming back to the movie, it tackled the issue of a woman being married with two kids, one of whom is a teenage bitch and is literally ashamed of her mom. The husband though not meaning to , insults her through his insensitivity. So this lady comes to the US to help her widowed sister arrange her daughter's wedding and she joins a learn english in 4 weeks class. And lo and behold, she regains her self-confidence, and does something for herself and in the process still manages to hold on to her family(it's an Indian movie after all) and prove a point to them that she is a free broad minded, can do it woman of today and should really not be taken for granted. I liked Sri-Devi in this movie. And the other highlight of the movie for me was the guy who plays the french chef in the movie Laurent, Mehdi Nebbou. He's super hot and cute at the same time.

Next, Killing them Softly. Good cast, Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini. Everything you liked in a good gang/crime movie. Too much gore and card playing and manipulation and plotting for me though. Maybe it was the effect that i had watched something as heart warming as English Vinglish, but these movies have never been up my alley and it's more my fault than theirs, I suppose. i got grossed out by the violence. My brother however will love it and it has got excellent reviews so I would urge you not to go by my words unless your a girl who has not like movies about stealing from gamblers and getting caught and brought to the book for it, trust me there have been a few of these.

And OMG- that's the title of the movie. Not me exclaiming. It was an awesome movie. it preached my philosophy. A middle class man disillusioned with all the rites and rituals surrounding god and places of worship takes on God, when his insurance company refuses to pay up for the damage to his shop in an earthquake citing it as an act of god. He takes on all religious outfits who are monopolizing god and says pay up! In the process he ends up unfolding a lot of conclusions, a) that these rituals and rites are man-made and mostly illogical, benefiting only the priestly classes b) none of these when you think of it is really something God would want you to do if he existed, and being a good person and a true philantrophist will get you much further anyday and c) Just because someone showed you some light of day is no excuse to deify him. There is also an important point made at the end of the movie by one of the main god men, that most people would listen to you for a while but soon when something goes wrong with them they would return to the same temples and do the same things they have done all their lives, fall prey to the rituals because they are more god-fearing than god-loving. Now that was a conclusion I had not reached on my own in the past and I think it's pretty profound. However, I was impressed. I wish it would have an effect on people beyond them watching it for fun. It could change the world a little of people really understood all the underlying messages and behaved themselves. Another conclusion from the movie was never take away anyones religion or faith from them because then they will only turn you into a saint, martyr or god-forbid, god himself :P True and profound. not all human beings have the capacity to go on with life on their own believing that there is nothing out there looking after them. Hell, not many have the capacity to exist believing all religions are same, all people are same and there is one god. you will harm the population more than help them if you take their religion away from them .

All in all 2 thought provoking movie and a third one which I do not appreciate but am sure is good in it's genre because experts of that genre seem to think so. And a very fruitful tiring sunday. Time to sleep. Good night! :)

Up in The Air

I re-watched this movie today. More because of George Clooney and a little because I kind of relate to it. So the movie deals with this HR consultant who works for a firm which handles downsizing of organisations. He seems to be the typical I am a smart guy, I don't need anyone to take care of me, I'm just having a care free existence type and the last thing I want to do is settle or get married. There's also the young girl who he gets burdened with mentoring.

 She's just out of school and has all these ideas with which she wants to revolutionize the world. He is someone who understands the industry, cold-blooded or not, and does not agree with the changes completely. They go through quite a ride interacting with each other. it glamourizes the whole living out of the suitcase, being so career driven that you don't have a home to go to but all the hotels and travel industry people seem to love you. 

However, here's the part which I relate to, not that I'm flying around every few days but I seem to be on the way there. I've earned my degree, I have a good job, since I am in the services industry there is huge scope for travel and customer interaction in the future as I grow and I pick up things fast so hopefully that will be very soon. All this excites me. But there is the flip side. I) live away from my family, so far away in fact that even if I get leave for a week, the best option to get to them fast and give them most of my time is by flight. I see most of my friends settled or on the verge of settling down. And these days this includes kids 2-3 years younger to me and there is absolutely no one out on the horizon even for me. Most of my thoughts from the moment I wake up to the moment I sleep and quite often even when I fall asleep, revolve around meeting the next deadline.

 And I think this is characteristic of most people who have struggled to get a good education. They want to make sure all that effort doesn't go to waste. That they do end up making a difference to the world. They are full of ideas and want to see them come to life. But at what expense? Where is the balance between their work and personal life? Is it lost "Up in The Air"? And this was actually what came to my mind on watching this movie. Where does one draw the line? For someone who has been taught to live by targets and once those are achieved reach for higher ones, does the quest for more ever end? Are we just being greedy? 

Another line which caught my attention " I do not mind being married to my job, I know it's not going to hold me while I sleep in my bed, but I don't want to settle" I do not want to settle. I want to get everything I deserve, everything I work for. I do not want to be in a certain place just because its the right time to be there. The right people and place matter just as much. but what if that never happens? And what if in search of this perfect Shangri-La all the not so perfect but almost there opportunities also walk away forcing me to eventually settle anyways. And that's when I wish there was someone who could look at me and tell me this is what is going to happen to you, if you do this with absolute certainty  the future scares me, the fact that the friends I was used to leaving behind are now leaving me behind in life scares me. Its not the race I'm referring to here, it's my life and there isn't much going right in it right now and that scares me.

I had once foolishly/naively answered the question what's your biggest fear with a bold "Nothing!" A few years later a slightly more aware version of me answered the question with that "I will die alone." I am sitting today at a stage where I have finally realized I was wrong both the times, my biggest fear is that "I will live alone. "

Two movies, One day

I had a busy sunday today. Initially I planned on watching Arbitrage today and leaving Barfi for next weekend. But then there was so much chatter about Barfi, that I decided I'm going to do the back-to-back shows. If there's one thing I love it's being told stories and good ones at that.

So in a nutshell, I found Arbitrage a good movie once again. There was a lot of dilemma a lot of if's and but's and permutations and combinations and bending the rules this way and that so everyone got out ok. It was a smart movie, with awesome actors and a good plot. However, I believe it's not the best movie for the general crowd, at least not in India unless you are speaking about the lot who has the basic knowledge of how business works, negotiations are carried out, out-manouvering the other etc etc. So a comment I got to hear after the movie was I never knew when it began and when it ended. Nor was my roommate pleased with it. But that does'nt matter, I loved the way Richard Gere played this guy who thinks money fixes everything, plays even the "patriarch" role to the core ensuring his kids are fine at any cost. I loved the way "Jimmy" for not knowing the actor's name is the opposite of this, someone who helps Gere's character out of loyalty than material gain and even tries to explain money cant make things go away and displays good moral values and principles throughout. i loved Susan Sarandon's character of being the wife who ignores the faults in her husband for the greater good of her family, and for having the strength to stand up to him when it starts affecting her brood. And Tim Roth gives a very similar to Lie to me performance without analysing the micro-expressions. Here he's toobusy analysing the micro cuts :P

The questions asked at the end are of-course was it fair? Would I have done the same were there so many minor aspect I had to take care of? The answer to the first is a clear no, its absolutely unfair. The second gets dicey; would I not have done everything to ensure that my family comes out fine, even if it hurts my image to them? I would have done that. Everyone is absolutely correct when they said well he should not have been such a class A asshole in the first place, he should not have had the affair, he should not have driven when he was exhausted, he should not have blah blah. But the focus is he did it and now what? What does someone who is a guilty parent and spouse do to protect his family? I loved the layers to the movie. It was fun. And I could go on like this forever but I do want to get to the second one before you get bored. So I think pointing out the layers is good enough for this one go watch the movie and get answers to these questions on your own. Better still ask more questions.

Barfi was as expected a touching film. I loved Ranbir Kapoor in this flick. He was good. It made you laugh and cry. It had some rather strange twists and turns but it was sweet altogether. Barfi is a good family entertainer, though I doubt too many kids below ten will get the intricacies of autism and deaf and dumb people , as I witnessed first hand from the questions being asked by the kid sitting with her parents next to me.

Off the context of Barfi, this is the thing about hindi films though, they are so tailor made to fit the expectations of Indian audiences that they do not give me much fodder to think about or analyse. A comedy is a comedy, a horror flick is gory and stupid for no rhyme or reason and the latest genre India seems to be encouraging, the sprouting of sleazy sex films as drama, the integration of films which should have remained restricted to the bhojpuri audiences into the mainstream, well the lesser said about it by me, the better.



But Coming back to Barfi, it's nice. It does'nt do much for the autistic or the deaf and dumb but it does tell a nice, funny story. Ranbir Kapoor did manage to make you laugh quite a bit, though I had the feeling I had watched similar sequences in the old Charlie Chaplin flicks or the Jackie Chan movies. He manages to make you cry too. I liked the simplicity in his logic of love. They managed to get the flashback manner of showing the movie pretty correct too though at one stage I was confused in the sequence.

 It's a good movie by Indian standards. And I don't think I'd be going too far when I say Ranbir Kapoor is really blossoming as an actor who fits all sizes. I was rooting for Imran Khan when both of them were introduced, almost at the same time actually,  but Ranbir Kapoor seems to be beating him hollow as far as the variety in acting is concerned. it's nice to see a guy who's actually acting different roles and characters out for a change rather than doing the same thing in every movie he does which is so the case with most Indian actors. I'm definitely impressed by the movie and its lead actor.

rock on + tahaan

hello people... though i dont think anyone more than 3 people reads this... so hello to the three of u... hehe... well i havent seen this blog for a very very long time..... so i said shame on me... im occupying space on the web and not doing anything about it... must exercise my freedom to expression a little bit more.... u know the best part about me is the moment you give me az pen or a keyboard i keep talking away anything .... should translate this to the real world too i think....

well watsup ....which translates to leave comments ... dont disappoint me... i watched rock on this wekend with my brothers girlfriend... it was fun... esp since both of us were absolutely drooling over farhan akhtar. I think i must say he is simply amazing... wat can the guy not do .. he acts, sings, directs and also dances like axl rose(f guns n roses fame).... ok he definitely cannot code but still hes amazing.... i loved rock on... i want the songs of that mv.... and v cheekily theyve written a msg saying dont dwnload the songs buy the cd at the end of the film.... Swati are you wondering wat to get me for my birthday? get me the rock cd and dvd... pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease,.....

I am sitting at home today.... in the first half anyways....i love my house... i bought a new 4 gb transcend pen drive finally... so now im dependant on no one for pen drives...yay!!!! and no u cant ask me why i didnt already have one... i also watched tahaan this weekend... the kids cute... i love kashmir... very pretty...

Well im gonna write a blog everyday before sleeping now... i hope... at least i am thinking of making a new post every day... i hope u guys check it out and leave some comments........ i want comments... i reply to each one of them... wats your prob u useless lazy idiots ... if i can write so much u can write a two lkined commen... :) God i sound so pathetic... anyways have fun.. tc...

DELHII HEIGHTS!!!!!!!!!! and Equilibrium

And what heights that movie reached.... Now dont ask me why i watched that movie...suffice to say I watched it.... I saw Jimmy Shergill and Neha Dhupia and said Yummy! Lets watch this both of them are cute and punjabis....hehe... I love punjabis as u must have guessed by now....one of my mamis is a punjabi and i think she is just swell...They are so fun loving and chilled out....And they look so good...I think they r the bets looking people in India.... Never mind coming back to Delhii heights please dont ask me why there is a double "i" at the end of Delhi thats how the title was spelt I am not compulsively making the same mistake again and again no matter how adamantly you might want to believe that I have a problem with spelling. You know what I have just realised... all the smsing I do is affecting the way i write for eg I instinctively write u for you and tht for that.... Ths is nt gud at al pls undrstnd d dilema i am faced wth nw tht my lnguge cntns no vowels....hh(see with out the es in the middle you dont know that hh is actually me laughing hehe) Sorry. Oh yes this blog is about delhiI heights...and what heights it reached... SO we had a bookie, a real estate consultant,a compulsive flirt and fraud, and two very high end executives working for rival companies but who are married to each other living in one family with quite a few more colourful characters who i dont remember..... The reason I found it educational was that i thought oh this could happen that people who are equally qualified with similar job profiles get married and have problems because the dude is just a big male chauvinistic Pig and cant handle the fact that his wife might be better than him...but then I realised that the wives are always better than the men they are married to... its just that they dotn show it....hehe...so yeah thts basically wat tht movie spoke about.


And then yesteray night i decided to watch Equilibrium... Actually i had woken up at 2 in the night one day and having nothing better to do I had switched on the telly and watched the first half of equilibrium already.... You see the movie has Christian Bale in it.... Now Christian Bale is Batman and as a 10 year old kid I wanted to marry batman when i grew up...my first love so its just obvious that i would take interest in Christian Bale(hehe)... So this movie too like DelhII Heights was very educational.... It showed a world which was dominated by a man called Father who had laid down certain rules for the world to follow so that they do not enjoy any of the normal pleasures (for the dirty minded that is music,dance,paintings pets etc not anything else...shee i am disgusted with you guys) . And there are watch people who maintain this order and the highest amongst them are the clerics... and Christian Bale is the best cleric...YAY!!!! And he sudenly realised that this was not a good decree and decides to free the world from this torment.... So he goes and kills father and a lot of others along the way...and the world is saved.... Oh the best part was both his wife and the woman he fell in love with after that were killed for being sense offenders(hehe thats what father called the people who went and enjoyed things like music etc which were banned) so i was like YAY!!! all movies should kill the girlfriends and wives of the good looking actor in the lead role...it allows more screen time to be alloted to him...who wants to see them anyways....So as you see i am watching very very educational movies which are improving My thought process tremendously and helpinh me take very informed decisions in life such as

1) Tell the dude you are with to just accept the fact that you are better than him and live with it\
2) Never kill the woman Christian Bale is in love with just because she is a sense offender....

hehe... ciao

btw i go and tell mummy the story of the movie(equilibrium ) she watched delhii heights with me and asked me at the end of it why were you watching this movie? So i go and tell her the story of equilibrium and she realises it is not the kind of movie i like or watch and instead of asking me why i watched it just says was the actor cute.... she understands me sooooo well... I love my mom...