Saat Khoon maaf : Watched this movie because the plot sounded interesting and it was directed by Vishal bharadwaj. The movie was pretty boring and uninteresting for most of the time.It was based on a short story where a woman marries every once in a while and kills her husband few months after marriage. Priyanka chopra was very good and there are a few husbands who are really interesting. I loved the part with Irfan khan. Irfan khan played one of the husbands who is a soft spoken romantic poet for the outside world but actually is a violent sexual sadist who cannot get into the mood until he beats the shit out of his partner. The movie was fun in parts.


Chloe: I wanted to see this movie for a very long time. I think the movie released in 2010 and when I saw the trailer it looked like an erotic thriller. I love all sorts of erotic thrillers like Basic instinct, body heat, fatal attraction, single white female etc and the movie's trailer looked very much like one. What all these movies have in common is that the central character of the movie revolves around a woman who uses her sex as her weapon to get what she wants. This movie pretty much falls into the same genre and was really interesting. The main role was played by Amanda Seinfried. The plot of the movie is that a woman hires a call girl to spy on her husband who she thinks is having extramarital affairs. The call girl was supposed to lure her husband sexually and report back to the wife about his behavior.

Fresh: Fresh is a low budget independent movie from 90's.I watched this because roger ebert, a very famous film critic who I regularly read, recommended this in his blog and it was available on netflix instant. The movie starts off very slowly and I had a very tough time following the dialogues. The movie takes place in a seedy black community where all the people are directly or indirectly are involved in drug dealing. The main character of the movie is an intelligent 12 year old boy who is in love with a girl from his school. This girl gets killed in an accidental gun shoot one day and his sister, who is always on drugs, gets exploited by a drug dealer. He meets his father now and then, who is a bum making his living by playing chess with random strangers on the street. He visits his father occasionally and his dad teaches him the strategies of chess. How this boy uses the lessons he learnt, in chess from his dad, in the real life to get his revenge is the movie. I think this movie was awesome and you will most definitely love it.

The Girlfriend experience: I saw this movie for 2 reasons. The director of the movie, Steven soderberg, who is famous for making the oceans 11, 12 and 13 is originally an independent filmmaker who got famous for making a low budget movie in 90's. When he is not directing the oceans films, he still continues directing the small films most of which are amazing. I thought this one will be like that too. And the second reason was he casted a real life porn actress called Sasha grey in this movie for the main role. I got curious and watched some interviews of Sasha grey. She is really beautiful and looks like an intelligent girl that would make you wonder why in the world she entered the world of porn. I saw some actual videos of Sasha grey's porn and she really did very very mean stuff in them. Any thing you name, lesbian, threesome, analsex, blowjobs, gang bangs etc.. she did it. In an interview when someone asked what's her aim in her life, she said "I want to destroy the fabric of civilization". Anyway, I got curious and wanted to see the movie. Coming to the movie...it was a disappointment for me. May be it is a good movie if you are really patient. The movie has 2 main characters, an escort girl and her boyfriend who is a personal trainer in a gym. The movie follows the escort girl's life with various high profile clients who hire this girl for both sex and a girl friend experience, who will listen to whatever they have to say. To me, the movie was very boring and slow and I had a hard time completing the movie though it is very short (76 mins).

Mother: This is a Korean thriller which released last year. This was directed by the same guy who made a great monster movie called "The Host" few years ago. It was a great film which falls in the same genre as cloverfield, godzilla, independence day etc but is much more interesting than any Hollywood movie of such genre. Coming to this movie, it is a about a story of a mother of a retarded young man who gets involved in a murder case. The movie takes place in a small and peaceful korean town. The movie starts with few scenes showing how much this mother loves her son. One day, a girl gets killed in this town and all the evidence points towards this guy and the cops arrest him. Then the mother gets involved and the movie shows her struggle to prove her son's innocence by finding the real killer. This movie has some great thriller sequences that will put you on the edge of your seat. Whoever the lady was who played the role of the mother in this movie, she was simply amazing. Apart from being a thriller, both this movie and "The host" are really very emotional that makes the whole movie and motivations of its characters very real. Loved this movie.

The Man from the earth: Harika's brother who is into movies like Matrix, Inception etc which deal with scientific details and explanations asked her to watch this movie. Usually, I hate such movies. To me, movies should be an emotional experience rather than being a science or maths lecture where I have to apply my mind. So, I was very reluctant watching this one. I think this movie never released to theatres as it looked like something that was made for TV. The movie did not make any sense to me for the first 15 to 20 mins. The whole movie takes place in one room and its just people talking. But, after first 10 minutes or so, you will come to know what this movie is about and from then on..it is a very very interesting discussion. This is a movie about a guy who has spent his last 10 years with a group of people and acquaintances. Now, its time for him to move to someplace else and he invites all his friends to his home to say his final good bye. They start talking and this guy brings up an interesting theory about a book that he wants to write. He says it is a book about a person who is alive for 14000 years and still looks like a 30 year young man. He asks the group of people about their opinion how this person would look, talk, behave etc. The discussion becomes really interesting and after sometime he starts claiming that he is that person who has been alive for the last 14k years. I thought the movie's basic premise was great and after you complete the movie you might come up with several theories that don't make any sense but while watching the movie you may not feel them.

The Girl with a dragon tattoo, The Girl who played with the fire and The Girl who kicked hornet's nest: This a trilogy of movies based on the highly popular novels, by the same names, written by Steig Larsson. All the books and movies are originally in Swedish. The books were translated into English and now the movies are also being remade. Manchu has asked me to watch the first movie long back. But I was reading the book then and wanted to complete the novel before I watched the movie. However, being very lazy, I never got to complete the whole book. But, I have to say that upto the point where I stopped reading the book, it was simply great. The suspense was unnerving. If you have enough time on your hands I would ask you to read the books before you see the movies. I have seen lots of people in airports, parks, bus station reading this book in 2009 and so I started the first book. In Swedish, the name of the first book translates to "Men who hate women". The whole story is about an young and highly intelligent woman called Lisbeth Salander who gets sexually abused by her father during the childhood and then by her legal guardians. She is a computer expert and works for a security company during the first movie. The first movie was basically a straight forward mystery. In the second movie we get to know about her father's empire and how she brings it down. The best movie of the all, in my opinion, is the third one. The majority of the third movie is a courtroom drama where needs to get herself acquitted from all the false charges laid against her. The girl playing lisbeth salander was very apt for the role. The book describes her as someone who is just short of 5 feet in height who looks very slender and not strong but has an intelligence and attitude which is matchless. This movie is now being remade in Hollywood by David Fincher (Social network, Fight club). Recently saw the trailer and I did not like the girl at all who is playing Salander. Watch all the 3 movies when you have time.

Yosemite

Rakta Charitra

Watching Rakta Charitra in a theatre with full of people who came not for their favorite hero but to see and hear a story would remind one why we go to the movies in first place. Not being a fan of any hero but being a fan of movies is tough for a telugu audience. Because all you get to see are launching pads for heroes these days. Today, after a long long time, I have witnessed the event where people sat rapt with attention and being spellbound by a telugu movie. For years, reading the reviews of the movies in terms of songs, dances and interval bangs diminished by interest in telugu cinema to a minuscule level. The only reason I went to see a telugu movie has been the love for my mother tongue and to be in company with my social network.

For nearly an year and half, since RGV announced the movie, I have been dying to see this movie. In the back of my mind, however I was a little scared that he would screw this up like the way he screwed up so many movies in the past few year. The RGV that we knew from Shiva, Satya and Company was long gone. Though Sarkar and Sarkar 2 were RGV kinda movies, they lacked that hard hitting element which sensationalized RGV in Shiva and Satya. Today, I saw him back.

Rakta Charitra is a landmark achievement for two reasons. The first and foremost is for just getting made amidst so much of discouragement, threats and hatred for the filmmaker. From the numerous number of interviews that I have seen I haven't seen a single person who did not say that movies like these should not be made. Bigwigs from the political arena and the movie world would be so cautious touching such a sensitive subject in a public forum let alone make a movie about it. When asked in a interview if it was necessary to put his life at stake just for the sake of movie RGV said that he cannot live with himself if cannot do what he wants to do. Bravo!!!. The second for making a movie which tells a story. Though it sounds like an obvious reason for a movie just ask yourself when was the last time you saw one which did not try to please all sections of audience but instead just told a story.

Coming to the narration of the movie many people might have problem with factual events of the movie. But basing on the pure dramatic value there is no question if RGV delivered or not. For me and many people this movie will be a double treat. Knowing about Paritala ravi and reading about the epic nature of faction tales in ananthpur piqued my interest for quite some time. I read and watched everything I could find on this epic tale in the last 3 to 4 years. On the other hand, being an RGV fan I have been disappointed for years with the movies he was making. I was waiting eagerly to see a movie in the genre of Satya and company. When RGV announced Rakta charitra, I couldn't imagine a better combination than this.

Finally, I feel the faction tale of Anantpur and RGV were made for each other. Was RGV born just to make a movie out of this story or did the real events happened just so that RGV can make a movie out of it. I have to agree with what RGV said in his blog. What happened in cinema was real and what really happened was cinema.

Favorite Indian pop songs

Last week, I came across some old Indian pop song videos on youtube which made me very very nostalgic. Ofcourse, we don't have a pop culture but during 90's some songs really made it to the top and made us believe that by the next decade we will have a parallel music industry with private music albums. Sadly, the pop songs in 2000's was only limited to the re-mixes of the old music or if there are some really good pop songs in the last few years, probably I am not in touch.

Anyway, I spent an entire Saturday just browsing through various videos of 90's and boy..I am surprised. There are a lot of memories and thanks to youtube, I could find those very rare gems which I never thought I could find them again.

Here are my top 10 favorites.

10) Choodi jo Khanke

Agreed, this is a girly song. But it was a sensation at that time and Richa is one of the girls.



9) Nigori kaisi jawani hai

This was probably from the late 80's if I am not mistaken. One of the very early pop songs that I could remember. Ila arun became a household name for such songs after this one and since this was before cable TV, parents did not have an option to switch the channels when this song was on TV.



8) Dooba Dooba

The song took it's time to catch up with people as it was too slow but when it did catch up, people were in love with the tune and video. The video had stunning visuals for it's time and too bad that this group (silkroute) did not come up with any other good songs later..



7) Afreen

Sexy.
I distinctly remember one shot where Lisa ray, in the hot sun and in a desert, wearing skimpy clothes pours sand on herself. That was too much to handle for any teenager and the haunting music and the voice of Nusrat fateh ali Khan made Lisa ray look even sexier.



6) Pyaar ho gaya

I think I was in my third year of engineering when I saw this. Sitting in my room in the lazy evenings with nothing to do, I remember watching this song over and over again whenever it played on the V channel. I remember my friend used to like this song very much but I hated this song initially but later on just fell in love with it.



5) Made in India

Ofcourse, this song has to make it's way into the list. Probably, the most iconic song of the Indian pop albums, this song must have inspired a many to venture into the pop world. I have never seen people actually buying the cassettes of a pop album in this magnitude neither before nor after this.



4) Sayonee

All I know is that this was a Pakistani song and I haven't understood the lyrics when I initially heard it and I don't understand most of it even now. But, this is intense. I can certainly feel the angst and the theme of the song and that's what matters. I fell in love madly with the song for it's sheer intensity and I think I was probably 16 or 17 then. As I did not know the band name of these guys, I couldn't find this song for years. Thanks to youtube, here it is now..



3) Ho gayi hai mohabbat

Hands down this is the most beautifully shot & probably the best romantic Indian pop song ever.
The quality of youtube does not do justice for Santosh sivan's photography.
Watching this song years later made my day and made me want to fall in love. Imagine what it would have done to the teenagers..


2) O Sanam

When I first heard and watched this song I felt that this guy must have seriously lost someone he loved in his life. This song felt so real and painful that I couldn't imagine someone just composing this song without having to feel those emotions in real life. Every image of the song, be it the women in burkhas or the guy on the camel leaving his wife in a desert, has a story to tell.



1) Paree hoon main

One of my earliest memories. I think this song made it to the scene even before we owned a TV in our home. I remember watching the song in our neighbour's home and the song used to scare me every time I saw it. The black and white images of the young girl and slow motion shots and the haunting music on the top of it just made the perfect song that I couldn't make out what it meant at my tender age. But I understood that the teacher was trying to seduce the little girl.

Sunita rao in an interview said that they didn't know what they were doing when they wrote/composed/shot this song and in all her life no matter how much effort she would put in she can never recreate that magic. I agree.

A ray of hope

I never voted in my life and I never intended to do so either. Like most of the people of my generation, I never cared enough about the current affairs, elections and politicians. I am very much into my own life and my problems and I have very little interest in what happens in assembly and parliament. The reason why me and many of us are so indifferent towards politics in general has probably got to do with our own natures but another major factor for this attitude, in my opinion, lies with the politics itself. The way our leaders talk and fight and way they make no sense at all has probably convinced all of us that no matter which political party gets the power, there will be no difference.

Last year, I closely followed the final phase of elections in United states between Mc Cain and Obama. By the time the election date came closer, I became a fan of Obama and I sincerely wished to have a right to vote in this country, which I never felt in my own country. Till then, I used to think that the indifference in me towards the current affairs in my country had to do with me and entirely me. But then I realised that, in addition to my nature, a nation's politicial system, it's media, and the way the players respect the public and more importantly themselves plays an important role in creating interest in its people. I also felt saddened by the fact that I could never come to like any one in my country like the way I felt about Obama.

And then, I came to know about Loksatta. Though, I heard about JP Narayan and watched some of his speeches, I did not know about the party itself. I can sense that this man is pure and whatever he is saying, he is saying it from the bottom of his heart. This, I have never seen in either in CBN or YSR and I can never ever expect that from Chiranjeevi. More than being pure and honest, the important thing for a politician is to be strong, clear in his thoughts, resonable and not emotional. This last aspect is clearly missing in all of the current politicians. Reason always takes the backseat and emotion, which is a dangerous thing, unfortunately is pulling the crowds.

I believe people always get the government that they deserve. We always complain about the politicians whenever we see something grossly wrong happening in the society. We conveniently forget our role in putting those people there. But most of the times, we have no option and we need to choose the lesser evil among the options available. Now, we do have an option, not just a normal option but glaringly different and clearly the best among all of the politicians. Something tells me that we will just ignore it and go back to choosing one of the other three and then start complaining again. This is not right.

I can understand when an uneducated or uninformed person votes for either CBN or YSR for favoring his caste/family etc and others voting for Chiranjeevi, who take him literally to his filmy roles. But, when an educated/working class person fails to even recognize a party like Loksatta, that is not pardonable. 

The best things that I liked in Jay prakash narayan's speeches:

• He is the first AP politician that I ever heard who acknowledged the fact that government is neither a ruling authority nor a servant to the public. It is a collection of representatives of the people.
• He did not promise any freebies like color tv's or 2 Rs rice. I always thought 2 Rs rice was a very very mean policy. Recently, I watched a video of NTR announcing the 2 Rs rice scheme to the public. There are two ways to interpret it. If you are die hard fan of NTR, you will probably be overwhelmed by his kindness. But on the other hand, he is not supposed to be KING who rules and provides gifts/freebies to his submissive public. We forget that it is his job to make sure that there does not arise a situation where people cannot spend more than 2 Rs for rice. We don't need to be grateful for such an act. I haven't seen any one remotely making that argument and acknowledge the fact that instead of giving freebies the job of the govt is to improve the life styles of people so that they don't need to be dependent on such schemes.
• The idea of having hundreds of towns and cities in our state was the most radical and probably the best I have ever heard. Today, any body who is into IT or any other high paying job has to leave his town or city and head back to hyderabad, the only city in our entire state for such opportunities. That is a shame. In any other developed country, you will hundreds of cities where you can work in almost any industry you aspire to.
• No donations from a political candidate whatsoever. Donations come from the public who are interested in his policies.
• Less talk on what others did not do and more on what his party will do.

George Carlin

"Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy to those who feel."

Know that streak of joy when you listen to somebody who puts your deepest feelings into sentences in the best way possible ? To me, George Carlin is that person.

When an old celebrity dies, it is customary to say that the world will sorely miss him, though we know for a fact that the person has nothing else to add to his career. George Carlin is a real exception to this case. When George died at 71, in addition to being sad, I felt very disappointed and a bit angry that I would have to live with the same videos that I watch over and over for the rest of my life.

Unlike most of the celebrities, George got better and better with time and he produced his best stuff when he got closer to death. I became interested in watching stand up comedies few years ago and started following some comedians and then I watched one video of George talking about religion and that was about it. I could no longer watch any other comedian. Most of the comedians narrate some funny incidents or in great detail explain about sex to get their laughs. But the real comedy of life can only be found in the miseries of daily life and society. I haven't seen anyone else who can make a comedy out of tragedies as good as George Carlin.

The early career of George to my surprise was not that impressive. He got better and wiser with age and by the time he was in 50's, his comedy tackled with serious issues like war, religion, society and the hypocrisy of Amercia and it's culture. In my opinion, he is one such person which every society needs who can tell them bluntly about their deepest fears, insecurities as clearly as one can.

After watching some of his videos, I used to find a strange sense of relief. Because, I think a lot about those issues in the same way he speaks but could never find the right words to put it across. Sometimes, you cannot express that opinion in public as it is politically incorrect to do so. Let me give some examples:

Boring People:

"God...People are fucking boring. People are just fucking boring." --George

We go to friend's homes for dinner parties and their kid's birthday parties, etc. I could never understand the fun in it. We exchange pleasantries and then they serve us the dinner and we have a very formal chat safely avoiding any issue that can cause a disagreement and discuss about our boring lives, which usually linger around your car, salary, boss at work and your kids (which I am least bothered about). I find the whole exercise and the people boring. On the other hand, I love discussing or just listening to someone who can make me feel alive. Talk about music, movies, books, politics or relationships. But nobody talks about it the way it is as we belong in a society and admitting that you have no interest in listening to other person's adventures/misadventures in life is boring to you. I found George discussing the same in many of his videos, of course he made it funny as hell. Here is one link:

Bullshit in Life:

"Bullshit is the glue that binds us as the nation". ----George
Being a kid, we believe in everything we are told. Growing up, we start questioning some things but unfortunately accept many things at face value as we are told so by some authentic sources, which could be parents, religious leaders, political figures, celebrities or the media. Religious gurus tell us we should live life with content and be always thankful to god. Political leaders assure us that they are there to help us whenever in need. Media wants to us listen to them as they are sources of truth and corporations guide us in what to buy and what not to.

If you start thinking about the things surrounding us, I bet you will sense that bullshit is everywhere and we grow up with so much bullshit around us that we fail to notice it when it right in front of us all the time.

Here are some videos of George on bullshit in America ( I think it applies everywhere)


Religion:

"Religion is the all time champion of the false promises and exaggarated claims" --George

I have been very modest about my religious beliefs since childhood like most of the people. Our parents and elders tell us to pray to the god whenever in doubt and we meekly submit ourselves. Though I never prayed consciously, I did not take the entire God and religion stuff seriously as I thought I did not have enough wisdom to think and understood such things. But slowly, I started realizing things and understood the fact that the most of the people are like me and they wouldn't have the understanding about these things as well. Religion could be a total mind control. I turned athiest gradually and started reading/listening to people who handled this issue with reason. I found Richard Dawkins, Christopher hitchens ,Bill maher and some youtube vloggers to be very enlightening speakers on these issues. But, one video of George Carlin made me forget everybody else. The above mentioned people wrote hard bound books, made documentaries and movies explaining how harmful religion could be. But nobody explained what religion actually is like way George did...It is bullshit.

After watching the above videos it is quite understable if one feels that George is a very cynical person and to a degree he might even have some sort of hatred towards mankind in general. Not true. I think, we need to be some what cynical in the current state of society if you want to cut through the bullshit and see the real nature of things. That does not mean we need to stone hearted. I always thought George had a very soft side as well and my doubts confirmed when I read the following excerpt of his.

George loved his wife and he wrote this when she died....

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up to O tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. W e plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. -- George

Black Friday - The book

This has to be one of the most interesting books ever. I am not a very quick reader and it usually takes me a month, on an average, to complete a book and I completed reading this book in a single day. It was that hard to put it down.

I watched the movie a couple of months ago and ordered the book right away on amazon. I was around 12 years old when the bombay blasts took place and as a kid I did not pay any attention towards this issue . Growing up, I came to know about the Babri masjid demolition and Dawood's hand in the entire operation of these blasts. However, as any normal citizen my knowledge on this issue and about Bombay underworld was very very limited. Media focusses on the issues that they think public would be interested in and that's what we finally come to listen and care about. But, in the grand scheme of things, the news that usually makes headlines in newspapers can be actually very irrelevant. 

The author has spent around 4 years in his research for completing this book and I am not surprised. It was very hard to keep track of all the names & places in the book. Half way through, I gave up on this effort and tried to follow only the important players. More than 600 people were questioned during the interrogations and nearly 175 people were directly involved in the planning of the blasts. While reading the book, I felt a deep respect and admiration towards the Bombay police and the CBI and and at times the book also made me feel ashamed of some of the people we have in these departments. From the time since these blast occurred and 1998, nearly 76000 people were booked under TADA. Anybody and everybody who was even remotely connected to this operation, that means you could a friend of friend of somebody who knew somebody who was connected to the operation,  landed in the jail.

The movie, in my opinion, spent a lot of footage on Badshah Khan and his experiences after the blast and this in the book was confined to very few pages. The entire episode of Sanjay dutt did not make it into the film and rightly so. It is funny how the media focussed their attention on such a silly issue when there were so many important events going on at that time. The chapter dedicated to bollywood made me sympathetic towards Sanjay and his family. 

The author interviewed several people from CBI, Bombay police, Bollywood and several other people directly or indirectly connected to this operation and in most cases, he reconfirmed what he found with another source. The few pages dedicated to Dawood to me was the most interesting. I googled Dawood several times before and I never came up with any more information that what I already knew. This book, though it is very few pages, provided some interesting info on him, his hobbies and his fall out with Chota rajan. 

Ram gopal varma, on his blog, mentioned about a man called Hanif Kadawala who he met at a producer's house in 1999. Hanif who had links with underworld apparently told RGV about how Chota rajan still respects Dawood even though both of them want to kill each other. This gave RGV the idea for his movie, Company. As I was very interested in knowing about underworld, I googled Hanif kadawala but could not find much information. While reading the book, when I came across this guy's name, it gave me goose bumps. However he was a small fish in the operation and he did not have any role with the actual bomb blast. But still he had to pay for his involvement with Dawood with his life. In 2001, when Chota rajan came out of Dawood's gang both the parties killed several people in each other's territory though they had very little to do with anything.

If you are even remotely interested to find some facts about the 1993 blasts don't miss this book.