saw 300 today... quite liked it...
main to bas spartans ki muscles - arms, abs aur chest hi dekh raha tha... hehehe...
am planning to go for 'pursuit of happyness' in the coming week...

i havent seen 300 yet but have read a few articles and blog posts.

anil : u werent alone to marvel at muscles it seems. i had read even stranger reviews of the muscles and their strange effect on some men

there has been a lot of fact and fiction dissection of 300.

a few links : http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/03/21/151333.php


i saw "water" recently. though it may not depict our times but makes a subtle impact in your mind. i dont know if the similar things are happening in India even as we speak, even today. seriously speaking it is one issue that is very difficult to handle for the widow or even widower and the families involved.

Watched "300" and "the namesake".

Personally, not a fan of violence, but I liked 300 for I felt Spartans were rightly depicted on-screen.

Some of my friends found it a little too graphic esp in the be-heading scene. The movie was well directed and actors did a fabulous job.


The namesake

Mira Nair: once again has done a great job by bringing Jhumpa Lahiri's novel, by the same name, to life.

She did such a fine job that as the story unfolded, I felt the onscreen presentation of the novel came out better than the book version of it. Five stars to the main characters.

The only thing, I felt stood out like a sore thump (for me) was when Tabu and her family were visiting Calcutta I got a glimpse of "ATM-card" add on one of the buses when the story was staged in early 1980s (at least so I assumed). Aren't ATM-cards 1990s creation?

Overall, a well directed movie, good selection of actors, great authentic scenes of India, and a suttle yet powerful portryal of culture differences between the East and the West.

As for the books:

Just got done with "The Nanny Diaries"--had to rush through it as the movie is coming out sometime in April. Wouldn't suggest this to guys, but a definate read for the girls. Very light, full of incidence. As I approached the end, I could sincerely feel the pain of "the Nanny." Though it is supposed to be a fiction,I bet many Nannies must go through such gruelling schedule.

Next in line- The Inheritance of Loss

Namesake : i was very impressed by the book and befor mira nair came with the line that all of us are immigrants in some way or the other i felt the same. specially we rung or other pahadis feel it more as we deifinitely have to find our existence away from our real homes... away frommour cultures. i used to think that young gogol could have been played well by saif. anyway will wait for the movie.

This week got to see 3 movies :

Blood Diamond :
This is one of the focus Africa phases of hollywood, what with spate of movies like Hotel Rwanda, Last king of scotland and this to name a few. As everyone already knows that this is about the conflict diamonds from Africa. Inside story of how africans are paying with their lives for the greed of the rest of the world. How everyone wants to get their share of loot and get the hell out of africa. For ages now everyone seems to be intent on getting out of mother continent.. west or east just get out ...and those left behind are caught forever in the fight for power. today's rebels are tomorrow's government and so the cycle goes on. Story of Blood diamnond is made out as much as a story of the black african father's struggle to keep his family together as it is of 2 white people whose lives revolve around all this. One is diamond smuggler white african who is good at heart and as much african as a black man and the other is the white journalist who has to cover the mindless african wars, poverty to make a living and gutsing it out to get the story of her lifetime.
it made me misty eyed though in the end.

The Departed :
i must say Martin Scorsese finally won Oscar for this. It keeps you on the edge all the time. You are always concerned for the Di caprio's character. But the end is just too abrupt.. leaves u a bit cheated.. but hey in real life too not always good guys win..or rather live to win.

The pursuit of happiness :
last one is movie made on true story. It is heartwarming story of struggle to survive not only for yourself but for your kid. i think we all should watch it... never say die sometimes ends in fairytale success.

So its UK top 10 movie this time!! a friend of mine asked as to why i was going for this movie...little knowing that there arent many choices in Bhopal for good movies and movie halls. i think finally as cable conked off there was nothing but going to london ki sair for 3 hours.

But what i wasnt prepared for was queue of teenagers ( read boys) outside the hall. as the movie started i think there were more whistles for akshay than for katrina ( i hope that isnt idication of bhopal's predilections on sexual preferences )

as for movie i think this is one of those for which u have leave brains at home and carry earplugs for those musical interludes. though self praising indians have always been around in hindi movies, this time we have punjabi jutt doing it while ms. kaif translates it for him to rub it in. rubbing is a lot in this movie be it the rugby which our jat mistakes for 100 meter dash, one can easily make out how goras are trying their best to hold themselves back to let our jat hero touch downs again and again.

these days goras and goris are getting quite big roles in hindi movies and occasional appearance for african descent boys in dreadlocks ( speciaaly musical interludes) makes them look quite like beneton ads

anyway there isnt much of story out there.. just the moral of the sotry, if jat can speak english... he is lovable