mere funde

I am back from the trip home. However, due to the work that has piled up, I haven’t had much time to post or do pretty much anything else. Plus we (Bansal and me) are shifting to a new flat over the coming weekend.

Good news is that the new place has broadband so the internet activity would hopefully see a surge. Also, I saw The Bucket List yesterday; will review once I am free.

There is a huge difference between other boxing movies like “Rocky” and “Cinderella Man“, and “Raging Bull“.  While Rocky and James Braddock are shown to be entirely white characters, Raging Bull portrays Jake LaMotta as a failable human being. Somewhat like a Shakespearean character, with a mix of black and white, a grey character.

The movie opens with a tragic soliloquy of Jake’s fears, sexual anxiety and confusion, and from then on we are taken into the down the hill journey that is Jake’s life. We are introduced to him when he is almost at the peak of his career, and are shown how he is made to suffer and his life becomes a horrid mess.

He is a self made man who doesn’t want to take any favours from the mafia because he knows that they would come at a big price. However, his brother Joey, played brilliantly by Joe Pesci, convinces him to throw a match once to get a title shot. He does that and from then on, loses respect for himself. He weeps bitterly in the arms of his trainer after the fight. Though he gets his title shot, and also wins it, his fears turn more violent. He doesn’t trust his wife or his brother any more. He takes himself on a path of self destruction and ends up in a jail. The last scene is a poignant one  with Jake reciting the famous lines from “On the Waterfront”. He blames his brother for making him throw the match that changes the course of his life. His life completes a circle from dizzying heights to near obscurity, where he has to do stand-up routine at shady bars.

It wasn’t him, Charley. It was you. You remember that night at the Garden you came down in my dressing room and you said, ‘Kid, this ain’t your night; we’re going for the price on Wilson?’ ‘remember that? ‘This ain’t your night?’ My night. I could’ve taken Wilson apart that night. So what happens? He gets a title shot outdoors in the ballpark, and what do I get? A one-way ticket to Palookaville. I was never no good after that night, Charley. It was like a peak you reach, and then it’s downhill. It was you, Charley. You was my brother. You should’ve looked out for me a little bit. You should’ve looked out for me just a little bit. You should’ve taken care of me just a little bit instead o’ making me take them dives for the short-end money. You don’t understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody instead of a bum, which is what I am. Let’s face it. It was you, Charley. It was you, Charley.

Robert De Niro is brilliant as Jake and his acting is top notch. It doesn’t come as any surprise that he bagged the Oscar for this one. His physical transformation within the movie had been carefully manipulated by him. He gained around 60 pounds for second half of the movie when he plays the older Jake with a huge belly. Joe Pesci plays the part of his younger brother to perfection and the facial similarity they share add to the character. The direction by Martin Scorsese is top notch and everything is perfect, including the Italian accent. The black and white composition gives the movie an authentic era look. All in all, a wonderful movie. Must watch!!

So gimme a stage
Where this bull here can rage

Slept till very late in the morning. Saw off Chaithu. Watched some TV. Went and watched the movie Welcome (crappy movie).

I think it is pretty damn good start to 2k8!!

Worst movie in my memory. Even Yaadein was better. The 7.5 rating on IMDB is a joke and I personally think that it does not even deserve a 2!

Some brilliant scenes -

• Kills a villain by stabbing in the eye with a carrot. Yes, you read that right, a carrot.
• Hurts 4 people by two bullets, in a trick that would make even Rajni cringe!

The good things first - Helena Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange - devious, evil and totally believable. Imelda Staunton as that old hag, Dolores Umbridge. The dark side of the novel has been brought out brilliantly. The fight in the Ministry of Secrets.

The bad - is not as good as the book, which itself was not great. The book was long, and even though the movie tries to capture as much as it can, it misses out a lot and there is a lot of discontinuity.

Radcliffe plays his part as a frustrated Harry really well and Rupert Grint is loveable as ever. Emma Watson is cute as (swoons) Hermoine, but she does not play that significant a role in the movie. For that matter, no one does. And that is the entire problem. Other than Harry, no on else has a beefy role and it shows on the movie. I used to love Richard Harris as Dumbledore and the Michael Gambon, though he tries hard, does not match up. I think Gandalf from Lord of the Rings would have been a better replacement.

The kiss between Cho Chang and Potter isn’t worth all the hype and Ginny Weasly’s character has been built up slowly but solidly. The look in her eyes before Cho and Harry get “snoggy” is priceless. You can just feel her love for Harry.

If you are a Potter fan you will like the movie, even though you feel that many important parts have been paid less attention to. Go watch it. I would rate it 7 on 10.

PS: I am again in love with Nauheed Cyrusi. Watched Anwar partly last night.

Fans of American History X would know this line - “… someone else has already said it best. So if you can’t top it, steal from them and go out strong.”

I took the advice and here is the review. All hail GB!! All hail HR!! Jai Prabhuji!!

The first question that comes to your mind after watching the movie is - why the hell is Chitrangada Singh not acting in any more movies? Damn - she is right up on my list after Scarlett Johansson.

Anyways, the movie is based on the Indian society and the revolution and Emergency in the 1970s. The film is centered around the lives of three DU students Vikram (Shiney Ahuja), Shiddharth (Kay Kay Menon) and Geeta (Chitrangada). I already have a very high opinion of Shiney and Kay Kay and to me they represent the best of Indian actors, ahead of the Khans and the Bacchans, well at least one Bacchan.

The movie weaves through their lives, while in college and then outside it, and is interlaced with the political upheaval in India in the 70s with Emergency, and Communism just about finding it roots. Siddharth, son of a judge, is attracted to the extreme Communist ideology and swears by the Naxalite movement. Geeta is initially reluctant about the movement but joins in later and starts working in a village. Vikram uses his networking skills to move up the social ladder. He is the man who can get things done. Though Vikram is manipulative and a political figure, he remains good at the bottom of his heart, and his love for Geeta is unending. Siddharth, though committed to the revolution, loses focus as the movie progresses. Geeta, initially not so optimistic about the revolution, works whole heartedly once she starts working, and in the course of her faces every possible misfortune and even gets raped by the autocratic police. Siddharht too suffers a lot at the end of the movie and is mentally disabled in a police beating. However, it ends on an optimistic note with him and Geeta coming together at the end.

The movie is very well directed and very well paced, and the actors give brilliant performances. In all, a must watch movie. I dont know how I missed the movie when it was released. The movie draws its name from a Mirza Ghalib ghazal quoted below:

हज़ारों ख़्वाहिशें ऐसी की हर ख़्वाहिश पे दम निकले
बहुत निकले मेरे अरमान लेकिन फिर भी कम निकले
मुहब्बत में नही है फ़र्क जीने और मरने का
उसी को देख कर जीते हैं जिस काफ़िर पर दम निकले

Another couple of lines from Rahim, which I really like and believe in are used once in the movie.

रहिमन धागा प्रीत का मत तोड़ो चटकाए
टूटे सो फिर ना जुड़े, जुड़े गाँठ पड़ जाये

Its been almost a week since I saw Apocalypse Now. But it keeps coming back to me. This one line in particular.

Kurtz: I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That’s my dream. That’s my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight… razor… and surviving.

The next line is in because I was watching a documentary on the word “Fuck” yesterday, with Tera Patrick in it (Hell Yeah), and all I could think of was this line from Brando. Am I going insane?

Kurtz: We train young men to drop fire on people. But their commanders won’t allow them to write “fuck” on their airplanes because it’s obscene!

I have been watching a lot of movies with blood and gore lately. City of God is no exception. Directed by Katia Lund and Fernando Meirelles (of The Constant Gardener fame).

Based on the real life story of journalist Wilson Rodrigues, it is based in one of Brazil’s biggest ghettos, Cidade de Deus, and is a story of a young boy Rocket and Ze. Rocket is a honest boy while, Ze is a pshycopath who wants to become the City’s biggest gangster and loves bloodshed. The movie is narrated in reverse fashion and is directed impeccably. Though Wiki tells me that most of the cast were rookies and many from the City itself, it seems hard to believe given the awesome performances of most of the cast. The movie gripped my attention, despite the subtitles which were bad at the best and pathetic generally.

The most disturbing scene was at the end when you see a group of kids, the Shorties, killing Ze and proclaiming themselves as the new bosses. Remind me of Blood Diamond and the children soldiers, and how they get sucked in to the entire thing without really knowing the consequence. Also, the scene where Steak dies and you see Knockout Ned remembering how he says:

“Listen man, I smoke, I snort… I’ve been begging on the street since I was just a baby. I’ve cleaned windshields at stop lights. I’ve polished shoes, I’ve robbed, I’ve killed… I ain’t no kid, no way. I’m a real man.”

Insane. A definite must watch for everyone, though you need to tolerate a lot of blood.

PS: Alice Braga is so hot!!

30 years have passed since the day the first Star Wars movie was released. Rediff asks you about your favourite scene. I am listing down mine.

• Princess Leia in the gold bikini - Hell yeah!!
• Dooku vs Yoda
• Vader vs Skywalker
• Darth Sidious (Chancellor Palpatine) talking about good and evil and the Sith in the “Revenge of the Sith”