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.

Movies watched recently (bollywood)

Even after reading and listening to so many good things about some movies in Bollywood, I have been a skeptic and I tried my best to avoid watching any Hindi movie when I am at a friend's home for dinner. The last movie that I saw in a theater after reading a raving review from Taran Adarsh was Krishh. I hated that movie and hated the review even more. I thought if that movie received a 4 star rating, then I don't need to read any more reviews and nor pay attention to what people say about hindi movies. I had this feeling that all the new directors in hindi were very pretentious and were trying to make their movies look artistic and intelligent when they clearly weren't. The pretentious attitude in a movie, to me, is unbearable. On any given day, I can watch a B grade soft porn malayali movie than a movie which tries too much..

Recently while browsing through Netflix I saw several hindi movies that were available and I queued a few of them just to take another chance and boy...am I surprised. Here are a few that I really, really liked..

A Wednesday: I read the reviews and some people, with whom I normally disagree when it comes to their opinions on movies, told me that this movie was brialliant and as usually, I said I will definetly remember to watch the movie when I can and of course I ignored them. After finding it on Netflix, I queued it up and I watched it last weeek. I don't think I need to add anything more than what has been written about it already. It was brilliant. I especially loved the dialogues at the end of the movie by Nasser. A great actor indeed and the way he delivered the lines without making it sound preachy was simply awesome. (4/5)

Black Friday: I remember watching a few minutes of black friday long time ago on youtube or some other website and was immediatly bored. I thought Anurag was much better writer than a director and here he was trying too much. My Mistake. I watched the entire movie recently but this time on a big screen tv and an original DVD. The movie is nearly 3 hours long and my only complaint is that it was too short. I did not want the movie to end and I wanted to know more about the characters of Dawood, tiger menon and the attitudes, life styles of all the people involved in this tragedy. For someone like me who does not pay attention to the current affairs and politics in India, this movie was enlightening. The role of Pakistani's ISI in the bomb blasts was a real shocker.
There is a chase scene midway through the movie that was shot in Dharavi's slums which incidentally inspired Danny boyle for a similar scene in Slumdog millionare. Though Slumdog's scene was shot with better production values, the scene in Black friday looked more natural. Bombay is a world in itself and there is no other movie (except Satya) which evokes that feeling in a better way than this one. (4.5/5)

Johnny Gaddar: I liked Sriram Raghavan's earlier movie "Ek hasina thi" and I thought he was a very competent filmmaker. I knew that Johnny Gaddar would be good but did not expect it to be this good. This is really some serious first class stuff. I am sucker for film noirs and I never expected bollywood to come up with a good one. I think Mumbai is the ideal city for a setup on a film noir but unfortunately our major filmmakers project a completely incorrect version of the city. The movie had everything I love about crime thrillers. Double crosses, twists and turns, promiscuity, affairs with the wrong women etc.. This movie made me change my opinion on the new wave in bollywood and I am going to watch all the good ones that I missed in the past few years. (5/5)

Jaane Tu yaa Jaane naa: The way this movie started made me roll my eyes in disappointment . But it won me over in no time. The movie opens up with a scene where a group of friends are driving to the airport and the newbie in the group is a insensitive bitch. She does not believe in romance and life long relationships. So they start narrating a story to her to contradict her opinions. Now....at this point ...you know what is going to happen. We would see an U turn in her opinions and by the time the movie ends we know that she will be transformed into a believer in relations. This is the point you say to yourself..."Come on ..not again.."... but to my surprise, though the movie ends the way you expected it, you will be laughing with the movie but not at it. Every generation needs a coming of age love story and I think this is the one for this generation. Qayamat se qayamat tak did that for 80's and DDLJ did it for 90's. I don't think this movie was as good as them...but it was certainly very sweet and mature enough for it's content. Rahman's music was a great plus and that is no surprise. Genelia was really sweet unlike in her telugu movies where her dubbed voice gets on your nerves. (4/5)

Here are the bollywood movies that I have lined up in my queue and let me know if you guys have any recommendations :

1) Phoonk ( I love RGV and no matter how bad his movies are.. I will continue watching them)
2) Oye lucky lucky oye
3) DEV d
4) Hazooron khawashiyen aisi
5) Blue umbrella
6) Masoom (the old one)
7) Aamir

New year resolutions

I hate new year celebrations but the last few weeks of the ending of an year brings a hope in me, an excuse to jot down some resolutions and start a new life which I always keep postponing and deep in the heart knowing that I will not keep any of the promises. Well, last December was no different and I planned to write about my resolutions, "Stop procrastinating" being the top priority and ironically, I am posting this 26 days too late. So, excluding that, here are my resolutions:

1) Gain weight : This one is long long long due. Have been skinny all my life and failed on completing this thing almost every year. If I stick to the plan...Apr 2009 should be the target.

2) Blog more: Realized that this is the best way to dump the ideas/emotions/fears in my head. Should do it more often.

3) Read more: I wonder why it is that the most rewarding things in life are the tough ones to start. B0oks are rewarding than movies and good old movies are more rewarding than any of the new ones. But it is tough task to actually open a book and start the process of reading and the easiest thing to do is to watch some silly videos on youtube which you regret later. I hate why the best things always have to be so tough. Goal: make a habit of reading atleast 50 pages per day.

4) Stop fooling around on internet and getting the work done: Have been lagging behind on many assignments and now I am famous for not turning up with results by time in office. It's high time to stop it.

5) A Better photographer: Has been a dream since long time. Already decided on the gear. Come February, get some good books on this and start shooting....

6) Save some money for the big trip: Have never been a spendthrift but just start getting a little cautious on this ...Time for a dream since I came to this country to be realized...Bringing mom & dad to USA for a few months.. They have never been out of country, actually never been out of state until last year. I am so glad that I could show them some important places in India. More on this later...

7) Make a firm decision: The big question: USA or India. I love to live in this country but it comes with a hefty price of living far away from parents when they need me the most and being a stranger to my brother's kids. I almost cried when I had to leave them while coming back from last year's India trip.. Already missing a lot in this aspect...

8) Keep in touch with old friends: I have been so lucky to find some great friends during my engineering and Masters. Too bad that I have lost touch with most of them and I have no news on what is going on with my best friend from engineering.. Sad that I felt uncomfortable talking to him on the phone last time I called him.

9) Movies ofcourse: This promise I know I will keep for sure. Already made a list on some great american and foreign old movies that I wanted to watch for quite some time now. I am back with Netflix (more on this later) again...Yay ..

Fears of commitment

I am at a very crucial stage in my life and to put it mildly the way I feel everyday, I have to say I am scared shit less. The reason: I am 27 and my dad is anxious to get me married ASAP and I don't want to. The reasons for why I don't want to is something I tried to explain to my dad only to find that it is an impossible task to make him or for that matter anybody else understand what I feel about such things. So, I have been trying hard to put my feelings on paper .. let's see how it goes..

1) What about feelings, emotions??
We take several decisions in life and we reach the final decision by considering all the rational possibilities of pros and cons. However, when it comes to things like who we want to get married, love and make our friends, I always thought we don't take a conscious decision by weighing the pros and cons of the person but it just happens and your heart tells you what to do. For instance, we don't ask what caste a person is and what their family background and social status is before making anybody our friend. We know that is very cruel and that is the whole point why I detest the very idea of an arranged marriage. The marriage broker has a checklist of things (caste, jobs, family background, educational background) and person who has passed all these checks, per our parents and society, is a deserving candidate. So, two people who have same qualifications and who draw the same salary and are from the same caste, they are then equally qualified to be somebody's bride? Doesn't something sound really wrong??

I say this because most of my friends and me are very similar when you compare our qualifications and yet each one of us is a world apart when it comes to ideas/feelings/personalities/emotions etc. Aren't these the criteria that you look for when you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody and we know that it is not the case when you actually think about it in a scenario of a typical arranged marriage. You hardly get to know the person before you tie the knot and anybody who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves. A couple of phone calls cannot make you understand a person.

The whole idea and process that goes behind an arranged wedding kills the romance between a man and a woman and marriage, to me ,is the final nail in the coffin to it.

Recently, I was asked to say Yes or no to marry a girl who is from our family but who I never interacted with. My dad's logic that since she is from the same family and brought up the same way that I was, we should be a perfect match for each other. That sounded outright stupid to me and I convinced myself that since my dad is a little old school and considering his view of the world and his generation's ideas, it is not really surprising that he thinks that way. What really irritates me is when people of my age group talk this way. I cannot control my seething anger in situations like those. Of course, I said No but I was left very disappointed and every day since then, I feel dejected about the fact that I could not make my father understand why I really rejected that match.

2) Security & Expectations
Just as I am typing this, a colleague stopped by my desk and he is worried about the all hands meeting that is scheduled for next week. Rumor is that our company will be laying off several employees and many people here are a little scared. Honestly, I am a little worried about it too but not nearly as much when compared to the others. Not because I am a brave person (which I am not) but because of the fact that I am not liable to anybody but myself if I don't have a job and if don't make enough money. I was indeed planning on spending 2 weeks just chilling out if we ever get laid off and then start looking for the next project. But till that happens, I am not a least bit worried about it. But will it be the same, if I was in a relationship, worse an "arranged relationship"?

What if your spouse expects that you always have a well paying job and not be lazy sitting around watching movies ? People say that you should really love people for what they really are, but what if your spouse is not that person? They don't really care for this criteria when checking off the list of things you need in your spouse, do they??

3) Being Strangers:

Probably I have been just ranting over and over with some petty issues which stems from my fear of commitment but the most scary thing for me in a marriage is that I could be a complete stranger to my spouse even after living together for decades. I see this happening in many families and this could be the biggest tragedy.

Roger Ebert, a favorite film critic of mine, in one of reviews said, "Don't ever marry a person who does not share the same tastes in movies as you." I think he was pretty serious when he said it. Though it sounds funny, I think it is true. I find many people with whom I cannot discuss certain movies, books and ideas. Not that I am belittling anybody's emotional ranges but it's just that you cannot connect with some people no matter how long you know or live with them. For instance, out of thousands of acquaintances and friends I made through out my life, there are only two people with whom I can really have a discussions when I am really sad or happy. I think it is true for most of the people as well. Each of us have very very friends with whom you can share your deepest fears and feelings. So, I wonder what the possibility of finding such a person is. This is my greatest fear.

Wierd dream(s)

I don't know if dreams are supposed to make some sense or not but everyone of us knows how weird and crazy they can be. I never tried to analyze any dream of mine and even if I did I never found any answers on why I had a dream like that. The main reason for this being that I forget what the dream was about as soon as I wake up. I know that some people have this super natural ability of remembering dreams for so long that they narrate it in great detail the following morning. My retention time is pretty short, actually really really short, like 30 seconds once I wake up. However, once in a blue moon I will have this really demented dream that I would remember a little longer, like say..till 2 minutes.

I just woke up from this demented dream and I tried really hard re-collecting what it was about for the next 3 minutes. There were actually 3 episodes (dreams often occur in episodes, like a twilight zone series) in this dream of which I could remember only 2. But suddenly, in a flash of second, I remembered what that missing episode was. Anyway, here they are and my analysis on probabilities of why I had this dream:

Episode 1: My un-eventful wedding
The dream: It's my wedding on 19th. I don't know which month and which year it is but strangely, only the date and 19th is nearing by. I did not invite anybody, not even the closest of my friends. It was not a deliberate decision but because I did not think it was that important and nor I was excited about the wedding day. Me and my parents were unaware of the approaching date and we almost forgot the wedding date (the way we sometimes forget our birthdates till that very date) and only on 19th morning did we realize that it was my wedding date. So, in a great hurry, the preparations began. We got a call from the bride's home that they will be arriving by evening, as the wedding was in our place. I started getting all dressed up and I was neither excited nor depressed, but just indifferent to the entire process and very very tense about how I should reveal this rude surprise to my close friends that I got married without informing/inviting any one of them and pissed at myself and my parents that we forgot my wedding day.

We were ready for the show by evening and when the muhurtam time came, we realized that there were no guests, not a single soul. We were shocked and finally made a decision to post-pone the event.

My analysis: I never gave a serious thought to marriage till now or should I say, I gave so much serious thought to it that I convinced myself that marriage is not for me. The reasons for this will take a whole new blog (sometime soon). Anyway, the point is that I have been trying to avoid my marraige and in my last trip to India, I had a very tough time convinincing my parents on canceling a marriage proposal they brought to my attention. I assured them that I will get married but the time is not now. In every one of my phone call to India, my dad somehow tries to bring this topic into the discussion and I always find a way to avoid it. And I have this strong gut feeling that if I get married just for my parent's sake, it is going to be a disaster. But, I don't spend too much time thinking about this topic in my daily life. Probably, the few minutes of my phone call to India revolves on this topic and I forget it immediatly. So, there must be something lurking in my sub-consious mind that unleashes in the form of this dream. Was the dream seconding my gut feeling that my marriage will be a disaster?? I don't know.

Episode 2: The nosy neighbour
The dream : I was in my small and little home in Vijayawada with a friend. It's actually a joint complex of 4 homes where I lived all my life. We live in the first portion and rented the other poritions to families. Apparently, we sold our house to this guy and now we are living in what used to be our home by paying rent to him. Anyway, I don't know who this guy is but my friend told me that he is a very nosy guy and he wants to know everything that goes on in everyone's personal lives. We were playing , is it caromboard or chess I don't remember, and we thought it would be good idea to close all the doors, windows so that he would not hear us. We were just talking about some stuff and I realized that the back door was slightly ajar and there was a guy standing behind. I immediatly realized it must be the owner though I have never seen him. Since even he knows that I don't know him, I thought it won't be problem if I yell at him. I yelled and he left and I closed the door. We resumed our chat and now this guy was peeking from the side window. I got furious and yelled at him again. Then he came in and told us that he was just wondering if we needed anything to drink or eat. He also warned that we are loud to which I got very angry and disgusted. This used to be my home for god's sake. He called his wife, who came with her little daughter who could not be more than 3 years old but all dressed up in a school uniform.

I observed that she had no legs. Her mom called me and requested my help in pulling her leg. I said "What" and then she lifted her daughter by the shoulders and told me that her legs are inside her body. I saw them and it was a very weird sight. Her legs were stored inside her body and once we started pulling them, they came out and then she started walking. The lady then brought us some iced tea with whipped cream (Yes, it is weird).

My analysis: We still own our home. It's only in my dream that we sold it to this unknown guy. But the thing is that we are in a financial limbo, where we might have to sell our home to meet some other needs. I always opposed my father in his decision of selling the home and tried to find some money in meeting the goals. The reason being that I love that home though it is of no use to us now. I lived all my life there and all my memories of childhood and early adulthood are tied to that home. This is the place I want to stay in during my last days.
So, is the dream an indication that we should not be selling our home? I don't know.

Episode 3: Tryst with Tarantino
The dream: Again, it's in Vijayawada and it is near Urvashi center. I was driving in a car (though I never drove one in real life) and was trying to find a place to park. I happened to see the people in the other car in the parking lot. They were Quentin tarantino, Oliver Stone and one guy, let's call him G, from our office. I thought they must be there for the premiere of W. I don't know why but I felt a combination of a great excitement of seeing QT and jealousy on seeing them with this guy called G. G would not know squat about movies and what QT and Oliver stone mean to movies. If there's anybody who should be hanging out with them, it should be me. Anyway, QT gets out of the car and I give him a smile and he returns it. I go near him and offering a hand shake and I tell him " I am a big fan of yours" like every other guy who meets a celebrity and CUT..Time to wake up.

My analysis: I am huge huge huge fan of QT and to an extent I like works of Oliver stone, whose "Natural born Killers" is my all time favorite. I always wondered on what I should say when I meet QT as there are so many things I want to ask him and so many things I want to tell him about how his body of work has impacted me. The reason being that I now live very close to hollywood and I often to go to these theatres where this a good chance of celebrity spottings. QT being a regular to those theatres, there is also a good chance of bumping into him.
So, when I think about what I should say when I meet him, I am usually left with a feeling of despair. If I say something cliched like "I am a big fan of yours", I will be treated like every other guy who saw his movies.
Also, QT and Oliver stone don't see eye to eye as they had a big fight over natural born killers. But I love both of them and often wondered what it would be like if they get back together.

The only part I am still concerned about this episode is, what has Mr G got to do anything with this?

My best history lesson

I watched "Shiva" when I was 9 years old and till this date that's my most memorable movie experience. I did not know who Ram gopal varma was as I was too young to care about who the director of any movie was. Later, down the years I came to know about his movies but very little about him. Ramu was my most favorite director along with Maniratnam in those days. I formed a mental picture about what this guy was like through his movie. But in those days, as there weren't any TV channels and as I had no access to any film magazines, I never read any interview of his except from listening to some people saying that he is a very arrogant person.

After the advent of internet, I think in 1999 I came across this fansite for RGV and for the first time I read some of his interviews. I was shocked on reading some of them as RGV from those interviews turned out to be very different from what I imagined. Even till today, after reading/watching hundreds of interviews of him, I still get those shocks. I think that is most unique trait of the maverick Ram gopal Varma.

My fascination with most of the actors, directors dies out after knowing everything there is know about them (professional and personal). Infact, most of them are very normal and uninteresting and there is very little that is worth knowing, especially the big ones. Probably, this is why I still follow every interview of RGV with a great interest. I never get to understand him and just when I think I am getting closer, RGV says something that will make you wonder if you know him at all.

One thing that has been most common about this man is that he talks very little about his personal life. I am not interested in personal lives of any celebrities but RGV is an exception. I used to read interviews of every actor/technician/writer who has ever worked with RGV with a hope that they will reveal something about this man that I don't get to know directly from his interviews. The most curious aspect of RGV's career to me was how a guy with no practical expereince in any department of cinema and with no friends/relatives in that field got a chance to direct a movie, that too in telugu where the issues like family, caste and experience matter a lot. I never really got a concrete answer to that question from anybody.

A sigh of relief. After 16 years, the wait is finally over. The man never ceases to amaze me. RGV in his blog started writing about his first break and reading about the behind the scenes of "Shiva" is the best history lesson (if history is the right word) ever.

Waiting for more from RGV......

The Golden triangle tour

I did not step my foot out of my home state Andhra pradesh till I was 18. Even at 18, I went outside AP only for a day to Chennai to get my visa for USA. I distinclty remember that during my second grade in Kendriya Vidyalaya, our Social Studies text book had a separate chapter for each Indian State. I used to love that book and especially the pictures in it. My personal favorite was Qutub Minar. I don't know why, but I used to think that Qutub Minar was the tallest construction ever and I used to dream about it. Any way, years passed but I never got a chance to visit those places.

Atleast, after I grew up and started making my living out here in USA, I roamed around the world and visited a lot of places. But my parents (especially my mother. Dad atleast roams the city) never got a chance to see the world outside our home. So, I planned this North India trip last year and this year during my India trip, we did it. So, here is my Travelogue:

Starting Point: Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh:

We booked our travel package with Southern Travels, Vijayawada. Looks like this organization is very famous with most of the South Indians (especially telugu people). They charged a very minimal amount, in my opinion, for the actual trip but very unfair amount on the hotel stay. The people at the hotel were very indifferent and rude as well, (more on this later).

We took a train (GT) from Vijayawada to Delhi and as per our Railways, it's a Superfast express. The train and calling it a Superfast express is a big joke. I would have reached Delhi faster if I started out on my bike. Thought the journey was pretty slow, I got a chance to take a closer look at many villages, small towns of my India. I almost felt ashamed of not travelling and not knowing my own country. Maharastra was vast , wild and wonderful. I think we passed through a national reserve during our journey. I got to see some wild animals and many many many monkeys in this region.

The train finally reached Delhi nearly after 27-30 hours. After getting to the hotel (only after 2 hours of waiting did we get a room, which we reserved a week ago) and getting freshed up, we took a local tour with some local travel agency. The fare was Rs 120 per person and in my opinion that's a steal.

New Delhi Tour in 8 hours

The guy who took us in to the bus was very dishelved and shouted at us in hindi for being late. I thought he was a spare driver or the cleaner of the bus. Surprisingly after the bus started, he took the mike in his hand and started speaking, " Good morning , 'the' ladies and 'the' gentlemen. Welcome to the New Delhi tour". I was taken aback. This guy was our guide and to my surprise ,he spoke understandable english if not good and was very knowledgable in his area. Our first stop was at Laxmi Narayan temple in Mandir Marg.

Birlas have built a lot of temples all over India but I think this was the best among what I have seen so far. It was very spacious and peaceful, except for some local guys running around foreigners. Unfortunately no photography was allowed.

After visiting the temple, we were asked to board the bus on the other side of the raod. There was a subway that we took to get to the other side and it's the single most horrible experience of the entire journey. The subway stinked of urine, piss and god knows what...the smell was unbearable.

After Mandir Marg, we stopped at the Indira Gandhi memorial. This place was formerly the home for our late PM Mrs. Indira Gandhi and her family. After her death, they made it into a musuem. The museum had a lot , really a lot of pictures of her and her family. Also were some of her personal stuff, her favorite books, clothes e.t.c.

Seeing the clothes Mrs Gandhi wore on her day of assasination was a little creepy and so was the place where she was shot down.






After the museum, the next stop was near the Parliament house and President's house. As per our guide, tourists were not allowed near the Parliament house. So, we had to stop nearly a couple of hundred meters away from it and just take a look. This part of the city was really good looking wide wide roads and disciplined traffic. This makes me wonder when we really have the intelligence and the resources to build such roads, why can't our govt apply the same model to the whole city. Because, outside this region and except for some wealthy areas, the rest of Delhi was really really ugly.



After this, our guide showed the residence of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh while driving. We could not stop at these locations for the obvious reasons. Next was "India Gate". I still don't know (even after the grueling lectures from school and after even more grueling lecture by our guide) the difference between India Gate and Gateway of India (in Mumbai) and what they stand for for. Anyway, the architecture and the locale were very impressive.



It was time for lunch and here is the interesting part with the travel agencies. During this entire trip of 3 days, they take us to specific location for lunches/dinners which according to them is the best place in the town. They would not let us eat else where. Obviously, they have a commision from the restaurant owners. I don't have a problem with that but what I have a problem with is paying Rs 60 for a single plate of Idly.

After lunch, I was told we will be visiting Qutub Minar. I got goose bumps after seeing the Minar even from a half kilometer. I loved this sight even more than Taj Mahal. Somehow, Qutub minar was my childhood favorite and seeing it for real made me immensely happy.



I don't exactly remember the history surrounding the Qutub Minar but the area was some sort of fort for one of the local kings. I used to think that Qutub Minar by itself would be an isolated construction in a desolated area. Not true. There were lot of Mughal forts just near the Minar and it was really breathtaking. The detail of the stone carvings was mind boggling. Here's one snap.





We were already very tired and did not even have the energy to wait in line to get into the Lotus temple. The line was just too long. So, we just saw the temple from the outside. Ofcourse, it was brilliant.



The final stop of our Local Delhi tour was Raj Ghat, Mahatma Gandhi's memorial. After looking at sprawling acres of just vacant land I would be convinced if somebody was to claim that half of Delhi's area belongs to family of Gandhi's funerals, homes, memorials and museums. No offense to any Gandhi (whom I respect and revere) but when thousands of people are homeless in that very city, I thought it made no sense in having hundreds of acres for a funeral.



We drove through Shakthi Sthal after this but our guide did not make a stop as it was already dark and this concluded our Delhi Tour.

Day Two: Jaipur

After a night's stay in Delhi, we had to start at 6:00 am in the morning for the next destination Jaipur. When people used to say that Delhi, agra , Jaipur are not that far from each other , I used to think that the distance between each place would be nearly 50 to 70 km. I was surprised to learn that it's nearly 300 km during my trip. Anyway, we reached Jaipur at Lunch time and the first tourist spot was Amber Fort.

As per our guide, the city was built around 9th century and after Muslim invasion some of the hindu constructions were demolished to make way for mosques. Still, there are some hindu constructions (note this, from 9th century) left untouched in this vicinity. We took a Jeep to get to the top of the Amber Fort and the sight of the town from the top of the fort was breath taking. Mughals indeed knew how to live.





I am an iliterate of Mughal history but my dad is an expert in it. He devoured history books during his teenage years and can narrate the story as movie director would. He was really fascinated with the tour and that made my tour worth it. I too was bowled over by the ancient construction but after the hours of guided tour, I can't really remember which building is what and who constructed it. So, instead of misquoting the locations, I will just insert the pictures for the ones that I am not aware of what they are.








( The construction in above picture is Jal mahal. We were told we cannot stop at this location as the water really stinks. Tourism board has done less than impressive job in preserving this monument. Looks like it is going to get a make over. http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/sep/29spec1.htm)



Above is Hawa Mahal. In addition to Delhi's Qutub minar, Hawa mahal used to be another favorite of mine during my school days. The way I pictured it during my schooldays and the way the Mahal is actually located are strikingly different. I used to think Hawa mahal was some sort of fort and would be located far far from the actual city. However, the fact is that it is not actually a Mahal but just a facade built for the royal women to watch the proceedings on the street.



Different people have different tastes. I loved Qutub Minar and my father's favorite was Jaipur fort. My mother liked the obvious, Taj mahal and it was my brother who went crazy after knowing Jantar Mantar. It was indeed incredible that in those days, centuries ago, our ancestors developed methods to calculate time right down to a second with such tools. Not just time, there were several constructions in this place which were used to draw astronomical charts, to find the birth signs of any individual, instruments that were used to name a person e.t.c. Most of the instruments you will get to see in this locations use a single tool to calculate everything : shadows from the sun rays.

Day 3: Fathehpur Sikri, Agra and Mathura

After spending the night in Jaipur, we had to start at 3:00 am on the following day as there was a long day ahead. Fathehpur Sikri before lunch and Taj mahal after it. Mathura in the evening and return to Delhi by night.

We did not get enough time to stroll and look around Fathehpur Sikri as our guide rushed us. The better option is to go on a 5 day tour instead like our 3 days.





Taj Mahal is indeed a beauty and looking at it I forgot all the monuments that I visited on the tour. It is unbelievable to think that Shahjahan even dreamt of constructing such a beauty in those years and it is difficult to even imagine what the construction workers had to go through in realizing his dream. Apparently, Shah jahan had a proposal to build another Taj mahal (in black) and even laid the foundation for it but even before he could start the construction, he was arrested by his own son (Aurangazeb) and was imprisoned in his own fort, where he eventually died. A romantic story indeed.

After Agra, we headed back home to Delhi and on the way was Mathura, the birth place of Lord Krishna. The place gave me goosebumps because of the Hindu-Muslim sensitiveness of the area. The area was invaded by some Muslims some centuries ago and they have built some mosques near by. So, all you see in this area are hindu temples surrounded by mosques. One can imagine the tension whenever a hindu-muslim riot should be triggered in a place like this.

This concluded our Golden triangle tour and the following day our flight back to hyderabad was at 3:00 pm. We planned to visit Aksharwadam temple before hitting the airport but unfortunately it rained very hard and we had to cancel our plans. For my mom and dad, it was their first time boarding a flight and I loved accompanying them.

Diablo ... You are AWESOME....

I have met Diablo Cody in person just hours ago and I am pinching myself to make sure this indeed happened. If I could choose to meet any 3 people in the world, Diablo would have topped that list along with Judd apatow and Quentin Tarantino. After watching Juno, her interviews and reading her blog, I was completely taken over and I became a big fan of her writing and more importantly, herself.

She is probably the most daring, frank and interesting woman you would ever get to see and I am pissed at myself that I didn't have the nerve to prolong the conversation with her. I know everybody says the same thing when they meet a celebrity that they were very down to earth and friendly. I don't want to sound like a cliche, but Diablo was really cool and down to earth and that was certainly not a put-on to pretend that she was simple. She came to the theatre like everybody else, parked the car on the street and walked straight into the theatre. She is a regular at the New beverly theatre and knows the names of all the staff members of the theatre. There were no formal introductions and QandA sessions. She lighted up a cigarette and sat on the platform near the screen and narrated her experiences in other countries where she promoted the film.

Before getting ready to go to the theatre, I was a bit hesitant as I already watched the movie once on the big screen, rented once from blockbuster and then bought the DVD and watched it twice after that. I thought I would probably be bored. Boy, how wrong was I? I did not look at the watch even once during the show (which I normally do for every movie) and there was not a single boring time, not even for the 6th time.

There were not many people who came to the event but every body roared and applauded when Diablo's name appeared on the screen.

Apparently, Diablo is going to be present for the rest of the festival and I hope I will get to talk to her again..

Cassandra's dream

Like other Woody Allen' s movie in the same genre, Cassandra's dream has an ending that will not be digested by the majority, as it ends on a note which is not only against to the expectations of the audience but also against the code of karma, that most of us believe in. I don't want to give away the ending of the movie but just want to give an idea about the world that this movie lives in.

May be this not as good as the other movies that belong to the same style from Woody allen, but it is definitely not bad as most of the reviews that I read about this one. The other movies that I am talking about are "Crimes and misdemeanors" and "Match point", which are certainly much better than this one. Let me give out an outline on all these movies.

The movie has a central character or characters in this case, who get an entangled in an financial/personal issue and in order to get out of it unscathed, they have take an extreme action, may be taking a human life. The common factor in all the three movies is that the central character is not a monster. He is just another human being who is selfish like most of us are. He commits the crime and later repents like you would expect from any other person who is not completely stone hearted. The same theme in the hands of a lesser director would have been about the way the crime is committed, reducing the movie to a normal hollywood thriller. But Woody allen makes it much more interesting. It is not about the way the crime is committed but how the central character comes to terms with life after he commits that crime.

He is not chased by the law. He family doesn't have a clue that he murdered a person. The only thing he needs to face is himself and his conscience. Will this crime haunt him for the rest of his life or will he continue leading the rest of his life peacefully as if nothing has ever happened?? I don't want to sound like the guy who writes the movie descriptions on the back of the DVD cover, but these are precise questions that these movies made me think about.

The best one of the three in my opinion is "Crimes and misdemeanors" and this movie might be the weakest. Weak, only because of 3-4 scenes that are utterly unconvincing. Apart from that , the movie is quite good.

My photo blog

In spite of my zeal to blog regularly, I end up averaging less than a post for a month. It's just not because I am lazy (which is definitely one of the reasons) but also because my thoughts vaporize by the time I sit front of the computer to type up something. I found something which does not require much thought but which is equally, if not more, interesting, A photo blog. I discovered this great website, www.eyefetch.com some 2-3 years ago and was dreaming to open my account there. Finally, I did and I started my own photo blog.

If you somehow miraculously land on this page, please visit my photo blog, http://kishankakarla.eyefetch.com and leave a comment.

I find it an interesting and engaging hobby. I hope I don't loose my interest. I need to buy the gear now. A camera and a pair of lens. Researched a bit on google and now I am stuck between Nikon D40 or Nikon D40X or Canon EOS Rebel.

Let's see how it goes...

Grand canyon

Shoot 'em Up - The real senseless fun

I never really understood the phrase "senseless fun" and when some critics (especially on rediff.com) say that we should leave our brains at our home while watching so and so movie. I often felt insulted when critics use those phrases and honestly, I don't want to leave my brains at home when watching any movie. Also, most of the movies, in fact all of bollywood movies don't belong in that genre. They are not the "senseless fun" movies as the filmmakers say they are but are simply "senseless".

This is the real "senseless fun" if there is one.

Here, the filmmakers know exactly what they are doing and when things go crazy, I mean really crazy, we know that we need to laugh with the movie as opposed to laugh at it.

There is no point in knowing the story of the movie, as there isn't any and even if there is one, the movie twists and turns it in so many weird ways that you need to pinch yourself to believe what you are seeing. All you need to know is that Clive Owen is the good guy who is trying to rescue a new born baby from the baddie played by Paul giamatti. And yes, there is hot girl played by none other than sexy Monica Bellucci. His weapons - the usual guns and a carrot. Yes, a carrot does a lot of things in this movie and you have to see it to believe it.

I cannot compare this movie to the anything I have seen before. The closest one that comes to my mind is "Transporter 2" which had a few scenes similar to this one. But it was not even half as much fun as this one.

For a brief period of time, I got a little tired of watching movies and postponed my hobby for several weeks now. I am glad that I started my usual schedule with this movie. I liked it so much that I showed it to a couple of friends the very next day and I sat through the entire thing.

One friend who knew what the movie was all about enjoyed it and the other one was confused on whether this was a comedy or a serious action movie.

My rating : 3.75/5

New on DVD-Enchanted

Movies like Enchanted are my current favorites. I am not sure how to explain when I say, "movies like Enchanted". They are the movies where there is parallel universe in addition to the one we know and live in. There is happiness, self-satisfaction and not to mention magic and things which cannot be explained by rational thought in that parallel world. Adults do not believe in that world but kids do. Other great movies that belong in this genres are Harry potter series, Spiderman, Ratatouille , to mention a few.

The very idea of the movie, where a princess from another land is pushed into empty and lonely city of New York, itself is enchanting and in addition to that we have the lovely Amy Adams in the leading role. I loved her in her previous film "Junebug" where she played an innocent country girl. She is again brilliant in her new role and we believe her in every scene that she is as innocent as she appears to be.

The first 15-20 minutes of the movie is shot in animated format where we learn that the princess is looking forward for her dream Prince to come and take her into his arms. She sings about her dream lover and when the dream lover finally arrives to marry her, his step mother comes into the picture. She cannot let her marry his step son as she would loose her crown. So, she throws the Princess down the abyss of a well to the other end of which is a man-hole right in the downtown of current day's New York.

The Princess is alone in the New York city and she is found by an handsome young man who allows her to sleep in his apartment for the night. The young man is realist, rationalist and does not believe in tales where people live happily ever after. As expected, he takes her to be a mentally challenged girl and helps her with money, clothes and some advice on practical life. However, he loves the innocence in the girl and eventually falls in love.

Susan Sarandon plays the evil step mother and she does make an evil entrance as needed by the film. Her sidekick is the British actor who played the role of Peter Pettigrew in Harry potter. He is just the perfect cast for the role.

The movie is rated at 97% on the tomatameter and it certainly does deserve that rating. After watching this movie, I am waiting for the next movie in this genre of parallel universe. Needless to say, this movie ends where all the characters will live happily ever after.

My rating : 5/5

New on DVD - The Mist

Nothing special. I had to skip here and there and fast forward the movie (mostly during the second half) and felt the movie would have been better if it was at least 20 minutes shorter.

This is another typical Stephen King story set yet again in a small town in Maine, where everybody knows everybody.

Apart from being a typical King's story, this is a typical monster movie as well and that is the bad part. The movie is very good till the monster attacks start and once it does it is almost a cliche, almost.

This time the set up is in a local grocery store where all the characters in town are stuck and have to deal with one another to get out of the situation safely. The most interesting character in the movie is played by Marcia gay haden as a devoted Catholic. She feels that it is the Judgement day and manages to convince a majority of the people in her beliefs and if needed she will even not hesitate to kill the non-believers.

The ending of the movie is very sad and reminded me of "Storm of the century", another King's novel about a monster attack in a small town (yes, again in Maine).

I cannot quite recommend this movie but it is fun at times and boring/routine most of the time. There is one scene that I absolutely loved and almost applauded. I will not reveal the suspense but I can give you a hint. It has to got to with the crazy Catholic woman.

My rating : 3/5