Thursday, March 31, 2005

A little bit of everything....

Movies:

Tango Charlie (3.5/5)
Finally a movie that does full justice to Bobby Deol's hidden potential....Thank you Mani Shankar !!

Pluses:
Slick movie with a running time of less than 2 hrs
Appropriately episodic screenplay
Well executed action sequences (a little too gory for the weaker sex)
Bobby's natural performance
Kelly Dorji

Minuses:
The glam dolls
Yet another 'method acting' performance by Devgun...its getting tiresome, dude

Mahanadigan (1/5)
My Dad's cousin had been going ga-ga about this movie for a long time calling it nothing short of Amaidhi Padai-2 for sheer nakkal so when I watched it with gargantuan expectations, I was in for a total shock

Pluses:
Namitha and Mumtaj ;-) (Is someone listening ?)

Minuses:
Rajini nakkal scenes...Thalaiva, how dare they !!
The atrocious flashback and change-of-heart of the hero
Visu Visu Visu...all contributions to his retirement fund are welcome
Everything in the movie

House of Flying Daggers (3/5) (PG)
Two prominent Oscar nominations and the irresistable Zhang Zhiyi were more than enough to persuade me to rent this Mandarin flick and have to admit that I wasn't disappointed.

Pluses:
Amazing choreography and stunts
Riveting musical score
Awesome performances by the lead trio
Two twists, one of which had me gasping for breath

Minuses:
Absolute masala with action, romance and sentiments mixed in equal measure
The first 45 minutes are a real drag

Book corner:

A story that marries rich modern history with classical Hindu myth, prose that sometimes borders on the insolent, humor that is reckless to say the least, allegories that drive your imagination wild....Utterly unputdownable but still a book that needs to be read in short spurts if not for anything but to enjoy every single word printed....For the unfortunate few (sorry PnI) who have had the misfortune of being seated besides me during those long shuttle rides from EC to K2 and from M3 to EC, when with book on one hand I've grinned like a Cheshire cat or suddenly burst into peels of laughter, I dedicate this recommendation

The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor

An absolute Tour de force...Easily the best book I have read in the last couple of years. And yes, for someone who's been pestering me for a long time on this front, there are hajaar digs about one Mr. MK Gandhi :-))

Music:

Speaking of MK Gandhi in the previous para reminded me of a long overdue reco on the music front. Yes, I am talking of the music of Bose - The Forgotten hero as some of you might have guessed. I know I have taken my own sweet time to pass judgement but this being one of ARRs non commercial albums and the fact that the music has been long-in-the-making made me give it more than the usual share of hearings before I reached my verdict. So after a good two weeks and multiple listenings, I can safely say that it is definitely not gonna be a commercial success but if you are an ARR fan who can appreciate music that is not of the season's flavor kind but more of the suit-the-screenplay type, then this is a must buy. Most of the songs are bound to easily fit into the historical context of the story and yes, there are songs for Sonu. For a more detailed review, pls chk out Ramanand's review which comes as close as it gets to my own opinion on each of the songs.

Joke of the week:

4 easy steps to cook noodles
Step 1: Boil one cup of water
Step 2: As soon as Ganguly goes for batting, put the noodles in the boiled water and put the tastemaker.
Step 3: stir till Ganguly is onfield.
Step 4: As soon as Ganguly is back in pavilion, your noodles are ready to eat.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would not 'Irreverent' be more appropriate instead of 'Insolent'. Just my 0.02$

Jupe said...

Humor is irreverent, prose might not be so...insolent might actually be apt(er) ;-) But still I think I get your point, my faithful English Teacher.... Mmmwaaaah !!

Of course, I know who you are...Who else would miss out on a chance to correct me ;-)

Anonymous said...

U can have Mumtaj.. leave Namitha alone.. and yeah, I saw only one song from hers where Satyaraj is watching her perform.. and what a performance.. I went directly to the climax ;)

Joke of the week been circulating in full force I see.. and book of the last two years has been seeing great reviews in the Hindu Magazine too, even in his won column :P

Unknown said...

dei dei dei, i am back...when i was out of town, saw that you stepped a little into my territory...hmm..nice sentences mama...
Anyways shes pretty cute....so do try ur luck,...and i have said some nice things abt u..she also tam brahm....

neways since u would have already known, went to Milan, Venice and Frankfurt for an extended easter weekend!!...
Was at the San Siro (okie truth is I was outside it ) for the Italy Scotland..WC qualifier...10000 Scots in kilts and all of them drunk, 21 arrested...was actually frightening, but the Siro is magnificient!!!

Anonymous said...

Where do you get the time to read,watch the movie and write abt them , and also manage a promotion ...

Either you are a GOD , or your boss is one...

Jupe said...

For the specific case under consideration, the reading part was from 7:50 am to 8:25 am every day and again between 8:30 pmand 9:05 pm every day...

The movie watching is mostly done over the weekends but also during the odd day when I am back from work early..

The writing happens at very odd hours...this one was partly written at 1 am on the lappie when I could not get sleep..

Yeps, my boss and I are both GODS...Someone build a temple for us nuh...