On the Right Track

There are moments in cinema when you give it to the medium, apart from the reasons you should be, that is for content. This is for me one of those rare instances and for good reasons when form blows you away. Then you put all those ideas of perfect cinema being the one with content dictating form into your mental trash cans, and just enjoy the beauty. Well I agree if form were to dictate the content that would be manipulation at some level. But isn't cinema all about manipulating you at some level? Good cinema is about conviction and more of conviction, and when that is present everything is justified. Audacity, chicanery, urge to show off are all pardoned, and considered the core elements of the medium.

For me I have not seen such an audacious display of kinetics in a long, long time. Okay, the last time was Saving Private Ryan (1998). Joe Wright and Seamus McGarvey take us on this long ride (pun unintended), and a display of coordination, free flow whose highest quality is its seamlessness. I would have felt let down or downright "cheated", "fooled" if it were CGI phenomenon at display. Thankfully the digital additions were bare minimum, just restricted to a few ships, and some smoke I learn.



Atonement (2007) 5minutes 6 seconds



But had this prepared me enough for the Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil"?! Considering the time it was made in when tracks ruled the roost, and steadycams were unheard of, the opening sequence took my breath away.

Sweeping across the roads and junctions, hovering over buildings... aaah! framing, and what framing!

Touch of Evil (1957) 4 minutes 31 seconds



Tracking shots at their very best. What a ride!

People Trafficking

If you were to break the rules on road in Hyderabad during the non-peak hours, you pay for the crime.

You get to serve as a traffic constable for a day.


But do we want a city filled up with "traffic constables" to the brim?


Do we!

Evolution

The call for the "upliftment" of the Marathi Manoos well may turn Raj Thackeray into a Marathi Manhoos for Maharashtra, and worse, India in the bigger picture. The agitation no matter how justified by the MNS goes against the very fabric of India, something I have been personally proud of. If Raj can be practically evil, I could be devilishly ideal. The fact that a region, a country could be held ransom to an individual's ideology is frightening. Call me outdated but I feel fundamentalism will have it's share of limelight in may be 3049 AD.

I gushingly went in with my dad earlier. I win this this round appa. May be some other time for you.

Deep Throat

When God made Anu Malik, Strepsils were still in clinical trials

Khan Film Festival

,which is just an alternative name for the cinematic farce that has been celebrated and quite irritatingly venerated over years, the Filmfare Awards do it this time? While it is quite remarkable on their part to have Darsheel Safary nominated in the Best Actor in a Leading Role category, skepticism and cynicism in equal amounts come to the fore when the ultimate outcome is thought of. Bennett,Coleman & Co. might pat themselves for doing this groundbreaking act, and emerge winners in the first round. It truly remains to be seen if they are worthy enough for self appreciation the next time around, and when the unthinkable happens the gentlemen at B, C&Co. needn't worry for the whole cine folks shall salute them. Can they rub the power batteries on which their businesses run the wrong way? Wait! have Power awards 2.0 or some such crap have already been created to appease the powers that be? Nuclear Power awards, may be! or Power of Powers; or worse a Life Time Achievement marking the elegies. While these could be imagined when the stars in the fray do not have anything considerable or nothing at all to brag about, the bad news is that near apologies of performances in the form of C' De India, Guru of 2007 could be very well honored and Darsheel Safary might have to go back with some Critics' lollipop.



If the unthinkable were to happen the gentlemen at B,C & Co. needn't worry for the whole cine folks shall salute them

Knotty People, Knotty Ideas

Aalasyam amrutham visham should read their motto.


The top honchos of the Law Commission of India would have us believe that 18 is better than 21, the sooner the better, or in other words the marriageable age of men had better be brought down to 18 from 21. Their rationale is that if we guys could think for ourselves and better, decide for ourselves, why wait till 21!

Probably they haven't heard of my family.

Uncommon Man

An Iyer in Pune.

A quirky, wry, insouciant, double-tongued fantastic soul. Great lineage with two brothers making for two contrasting case studies.

Extraordinary.

Uncommon.

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Laxman



Thank you Anuradha SenGupta, Thank you Sudhir Dar, Thank you Dileep Padgaonkar, Thank you Abhishek Singhvi, Thank you Ravi Shankar, Thank you Rimanika Laxman, and Thank you CNN-IBN.

Thank you Bennett, Coleman & Co., The Illustrated Weekly and The Times of India.

Double Negative = Positive

"Zindagi kam hui hai, khatm nahi" Vishal Bhardwaj ("Blood Brothers")



God bless Vishal

God bless Guillermo Navarro

Surely in this case Lahu Ke Do Rang!

:)

Ozy Anthem

Humko Monkey Shakti Dena

US vs them or us vs them?

For a while now I have tried, in vain I realize in hindsight, to compare and contrast the two places that have meant so much to me in terms of sensibilities, and now geography. I have tried and tried, and realized I have been barking up the wrong trees. May be Pluto and Neptune, may be Madagascar and Honolulu. Not the US and India.

The US is as confused as India is, and may be at some level it has come to terms with the dichotomy in the application of its principles and well, living with it. Both the US and India cannot be pinned down, and that really says something.

Q.E.D

I have also realized it is good to take the best of both the cultures, and make it my own. Geography never came in the way when relating to the other sensibilities. People assume a lack of identity. I don't blame them. Sometimes I doubt my belonging. I do not know if I fit in "them" or "us", and that probably explains the title in whose word play otherwise I would have felt a little smug.

Exclusivity, anyone?

There are twelve astronauts who have walked the moon. The number of CEOs who have walked a golf course with Tiger Woods isn't much higher.

Del Jones
USA Today

Handling with Care?

Why is it that the carry bags in the US, no matter what load they are supposed to take, do not have handles?

Why is it that the boxes that are supposed to ferry loads of stationery in academic circles do not have handles or bars?

Earlier I had seen this in the movies, seeing it first hand now.

Life's Like That

of frozen tears
of supple bosoms
of inclement gods
of unrelenting water
of receding goals
of suppressed anger
of Frozen Tears

aiseech!

lalo, lelo, aur andar lelo, kaatlo, aur kaatlo, achhi tarah dabao...

for all the perverts letting their imagination run wild, that is a parking lot volunteer guiding a car into the right spot.

Hyderabad.

Pop Quiz Hot Shot

Where does one find Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Sanjay Dutt, Salman Khan, a weird WWF star, may be Sachin Tendulkar all together or in some incestuous combination, at a single place?

("Visual" Hint: White patches, arms at perfect right angles to shoulder joints, same with other limbs too)


ans: Hyderabadi Bone Setting Centres...

this Reader cannot Digest

the fact that the one publication I have looked up to, and in whose association my family has felt immense joy and pride, can commit such a blunder. Of late "alphabets" has become a common occurrence across all forms of media; not to forget "the alphabet A", "the alphabet Z" etc etc.

DeWitt Wallace might squirm in his grave.

tch

night in gale

I have realized I have never respected nights per se. Not that it has been a source of nuisance to others but personally speaking I have cared two hoots for the clock when my stuff was in question. I have drawn flack for it when body gave up at times. If things had to be done, they had to be done. Period.

So I should not be complaining of jet lags or body clocks going haywire!

I should not be.

Aayo Re

Cool breeze... Air of familiarity... Hyderabadi/Deccani... Rajiv Gandhi... Marredpally West... CCMB... Sahara States... Warm home... Warmer room... Cosy surroundings... Homely food... Home food... Calls of concern... Courtesies... People... Rascals (Sreenidhi, Aatreya, Sukruthi) "when are you getting married mama?"... Jolts from unexpected quarters... Concern... Health... Airport again... Farewell... Unnikrishnan, Bombay Jayasri on "Narumugaye"... Departures... Pals... Relations... "American dream at the cost of relations and occasions" (Ashish Narain)... Planning... White wonders... mails from Vijay Marur and Rama... Home theatre... Australia vs New Zealand... Chappell-Hadlee... ESPN-Channel 9... Olive Green score cards... The Da Vinci Code... HBO... LSU disaster...

Chicago Hope

12th December '07; O'Hare International, Chicago, US

Connecting to Frankfurt, Germany : ~ 30 minutes

Listless.

Out came the cell phone and quickly were punched in ten digits with equal listlessness.

"Hey! Hi T K"

"Are you travelling?"

"Yes"

"Where are you?"

"Chicago"

"Terminal?"

"C 12"

"OK! See you there. I am in C 16"

Yes, I did know I would meet him at all costs this time around, my choc-a-bloc schedule notwithstanding.

Never did I know it would be this soon at a place less anticipated.

Destiny?

Chicago to Frankfurt seemed smoother, and full.

Listless no more.

I still don't believe it.

Fourteen years!

B +ve

Cipher... Dignity... Hope... Truth... Trust... Courage... Frustration... Class... Hemant Chaturvedi... Faith... Love... Hate... Inevitable... Poise... Loyalty... Role Play... Shabana Azmi... Poignance... Boman Irani... Life... Cipher

Farhan Akhtar