Movie Reviews - Crimson Gold, 8 1/2

Crimson Gold

Another Iranian movie. Made in 2003 and directed by Jaffar Panahi and written by Abbas Kiarostami (who wrote and directed 'Ten'), the movie starts off with a jewellery store robbery, and then shows us all the events leading up to that point. We follow the life of a Pizza delivery man, his relationship with his fiance, would be brother in law, colleagues, customers, and other people he encounters over the course of a few days. Each of these encounters serves to highlight the contrast between the rich and poor in the city, showing us how a perfectly normal and mild man might be pushed over the edge.


8 1/2

This 1963 black and white Italian movie deals with a director who's facing director's block, and as such, is having a hard time trying to begin shooting his massive science fiction movie. He doesn't have a clear cast or script and his expenses are apparently skyrocketing, not that he can do much about it. He seems to have little or no creative input or interest in carrying the movie forward though he realises the seriousness of his situation and knows it must move in some direction.

The fact that he has a half hearted, hesitant approach towards the movie and his awareness of his helplessness form the main story. This is interspersed with scenes from both the director's actual past and his imagination and fantasies, that show how the director sees and interacts with people from his present and past in an alternate world, in such a way that we can't always identify which scenes in the movie are really happening and which ones are merely flashbacks or figments of the director's imagination.

The movie is about making a movie, and many other things. One perspective in which to see this movie is as a parody of itself. Towards the start, we view an exchange between the director and his writer. The writer says that the film they're making is a series of complete senseless episodes, which is what many would describe 8 1/2 as. Another perspective is to see this movie an an evolution or roller coaster ride of the director's expressions of love and how he deals with the fact that he cannot form proper relationships with people and if he manages some form of reconciliation towards the end.

The second Frederico Fellini movie I've seen after La Strada. Unlike La Strada, which was a movie that told a simple story, I'm not entirely sure what story I'm watching here. As a reviewer said, as a movie that leaves you with answers is preachy, most good movies leave you with questions and no answers, leaving you to discuss, think and figure the answers out for yourself. At the end of 8 1/2, however, you're still left wondering what the questions are.

Movie Reviews - Crimson Gold, 8 1/2

Shamiana

They screened ‘The Incredibles’ in the office in the afternoon. I saw a bit of the movie – it was good – before returning to work and my computer screen, which, due to the lights in the office being turned out, left me both giddy and nauseous an hour later. I managed to reach home in one piece, skipped dinner and went to bed.

Woke up Sat morning with no appetite. Skipped lunch, and went to 'Not Just Jazz By the Bay' at Marine Lines along with some friends for a short film festival organised by a group called Shamiana. Here’s a quick review of what I saw:

1. Mission Good Morning (mostly silent) (India)

An interesting take on how millions of Indians start their day.

Dir: Tariq Mohd
Dur: 3 mins

2. Guided Storm (Korean)

A South Korean movie made by an Indian. Outlines the disillusionments and disappointments encountered in the search for someone. The scenes swing between the past and present.

Dir: Tascha Eipe
Dur: 15 mins

3. Freiheit (silent) (U.S) (1966)

A short about a man trying to cross the Berlin border and being shot to death.

Dir: George Lucas
Dur: 3 mins

4. Hridaytteieykku Oru Madakayathra (Malayalam) (2008) (loosely means ‘Journey back to the Heart’)

A tale of father-son conflict.

Dir: Abhinand Kumar
Dur: 15 mins

5. Muslim…but NOT a Terrorist (Hindi)

A story of a young Muslim boy and his ordeal and dreams. I found this film too preachy. Linked it here - http://www.buzz18.com/videos/videos/muslim-but-not-a-terrorist/16291

Dir: Douglas D’Gama
Dur: 12 mins

6. IMAGO (animation) (France)

A beautifully made movie about a young boy who dreams of becoming a pilot. Years later, he hasn’t fulfilled his dream but sees the same passion in his Grandson. 30 second clip linked here - http://www.revver.com/video/54781/imago/

Dir: De Cedric Babouche
Dur: 12 mins

We headed off to 'Janata' in Bandra after the screening, got tired of waiting for a table, and went to Toto's, where we encountered the same problem. Finally got a place to sit at around 11.30 though.

Shamiana

Light Traces

Thursday saw me go to the St Andrews auditorium at 8 P.M to catch a show called ‘Light Traces’ and ‘Surkh’ by the Terrence Lewis Contemporary Dance Company in association with the American Centre. Luckily, I wasn’t alone. I called up TP about 15 minutes before the show started to tell him free tickets were available (I wasn’t sure before) and so had company. We took up seats at the top row.

The audience consisted of mostly young college going type people, some of whom didn’t seem too appreciative of the performers. That’s what happens when you let people in for free – you get the wrong type of crowd. Surprisingly though, I didn’t see any older or even middle aged people, and the auditorium was not packed to full capacity. I wonder why the older people stayed away. Maybe they got scared away by the free tickets (thought it was a scam or something), leaving the whole venue open to a young crowd. The crowd was so young, I almost felt like I was back in college attending one of the competitions that St Andrews College always holds in the auditorium.

It was all contemporary and interpretative dance. A little performance art as well I felt. I liked the opening of the Mumbai local performance. It started of with noisy scenes from a Mumbai local flowed by a fade to black followed by the same scenes fast forwarded. This was more of an acting and performance art piece which was then followed by contemporary dance which also formed the crux of all the other pieces. I didn’t really get the dance parts and did feel a bit bored watching them. How do you enjoy something you can’t understand or appreciate no matter how hard you try? I got the impression that most others didn’t get the performances either.

We went to 5 Spice at Pali afterwards for dinner with SL and Sang. Had a Long Island Iced Tea – lovely. Went to Boat Club later for a short while (it was Hip Hop night) before leaving for home.

Light Traces

Movie Reviews - The New World, 3:10 to Yuma, It Happened One Night

The New World

The Pocahontas story directed by Terrence Malick, the same guy who directed ‘The Thin Red Line’. The story has not been changed much from the original. Explorers arrive from England to America to found a settlement in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. They meet the natives and develop a choppy relationship with them. One of them, Capt. John Smith (Colin Farrell) falls in love with a local (Q'orianka Kilcher) and then leaves seeking new adventures. Believing him to be dead, the local remarries John Rolfe (Christian Bale) and later travels to England.

This movie is different from most other Hollywood fare. It could be described as what a poem would look like if made into a movie. The literal feeling that the movie induces in its viewers is one of poetry. In many parts of the movie, the storytelling consists of many not-so-related scenes cut and stitched together. In fact, a lot of the shots are stitched together to weave into the musical score. This film is not perfect, but it is an audio-visual masterpiece. It does get a bit monotonous at times, but the cinematography is brilliant.

Extra features on the DVD reveal a lot of interesting trivia. Shot on location, this entire movie was made with minimal technology; the cameras were mostly handheld, and the lighting was almost completely natural. Terrence Malick would actually follow his actors around with his camera no matter where they were, just to capture interesting shots, often to have them act in character even when not officially shooting. Colin Farrell once tested this by walking towards the crew, forcing them to dive for cover as Terrence’s camera followed him around. The crew also faced storms never seen before both in Virginia and the U.K during filming.

This movie also features Wes Studi, in perhaps his hundredth Native American role. I love this guy from the character Sphinx in Mystery Men.

3.10 to Yuma

Another movie featuring Christian Bale. The story revolves around a rancher who volunteers to help escort an outlaw to a train to prison. Complications arise as the outlaw’s gang chases them. In addition to this, they also have to deal with the outlaw’s mind games and escape plans.

A remake, this is a pretty good Hollywood western, directed by James Mangold, the man who gave us Walk the Line, Kate & Leopold, Copland and Girl Interrupted. Like all Hollywood movies, it does have its clichés, but recommended anyway for being entertaining.

Interesting trivia includes the fact that the gun on the moving stagecoach at the beginning of the film is made of rubber so that the horses don’t get tired from dragging it along. Also, special exploding capsules were used during the shootout chases in the town to make it seem that the bullets hitting the wood of the buildings created sparks or splinters, not something that would have really happened as lead bullets don’t spark and just embed themselves in wood. This artificial effect seems to be quite widely used in Hollywood. Also, budget cuts prevented the crew from building the whole town towards the end and the scaffolding featured during the final chase is really what couldn’t be completed. Another piece of interesting information includes the fact that a part of the movie was shot at one the locations of the original Batman T.V series.

It Happened One Night

This is a 1934 movie directed by Frank Capra. Claudette Colbert, playing a spoiled socialite who has recently married out of spite and just escaped from the clutches of her over protective father, takes a cross country bus trip, hoping to dodge the press, police and private detectives. She meets a reporter, played by Clark Gable, who discovers who she really is and promises not to give her up in exchange for an exclusive story. Over the course of their travels, they fall in love.

Movie Reviews - The New World, 3:10 to Yuma, It Happened One Night

Website - Sky Design

I wandered upon this design company’s official website recently, and was quite shocked (in a good way) at the level of quality present therein.

I guess I’m used to more mediocre stuff. The firm’s name is Sky Design and their web address is:

http://www.skydesign.co.in/

These guys seem to have created a lot of beautiful work worthy of international recognition. The question is, how do I now go back and face mediocre websites and products after experiencing this.

Website - Sky Design

Book Review - Adventures in Antarctica

This book, written by Suravi and Rishi Thomas, is a true account detailing the kid's travel to and activities in Antarctica in 2005 along with their parents and other travellers. Diplomatic residents of Chile, Suravi and Rishi received places on a Chilean Navy ship sailing to Antarctica as a Christmas gift from their parents. They were 15 and 12 at the time. The book details the many stops they made both on their way to and in Antarctica, including the wildlife they encountered, bad weather, and the people they met.

The photos that the kids took in Antarctica were probably excellent but their reproductions in print form are not good enough. The writing also needs further editing as there are a few grammatical errors in the book. Also, for a kids book, it seems too content heavy with many continuous paragraphs and not much engaging content for kids. Apart from these points, it really is an interesting book - you see Antarctica through the eyes of children and learn a bit about the continent too.

Book Review - Adventures in Antarctica

Movie Review - The Green Butchers

Rarely do you get to see a movie as fresh and entertaining as this one. This 2003 Danish movie directed by Anders Thomas Jensen is a dark, morbid comedy about two men, Svend and Bjarne, who set up their own butcher shop. They both have personal issues which confront them as they go about their business, which leaves an impact on the way they do business as well.

Svend can be described as having very low self esteem. He tries to hide it with false confidence, rudeness and pride. However, anyone can see that despite his loud, arrogant, rude nature, he’s hurting inside and it won’t take much to turn him into a nervous wreck. Bjarne has his own skeletons which aren’t so apparent.

They break away from their employer, the town’s reining butcher, to set up their own butchers shop. At the end of their first day however, they find themselves with no customers and Svend accidentally locks the electrician in the meat locker. He discovers the body the next morning, but when a customer places a sudden large order, he makes a rash decision, does the unthinkable, and serves a part of the body to the customer, soon earning Bjarne’s wrath.

With no choice but to continue with work as they can’t go to the police, matters are complicated when they discover that people actually like the human meat. Svend, obsessed with his sudden popularity, wants to continue killing people, against Bjarne’s opposition. Added to this is the fact that Bjarne’s twin brother, who happens to be slow, has just woken up from a coma after Bjarne has taken out a loan against harvesting his organs, and is now pursuing Bjarne everywhere, even though Bjarne doesn’t want to meet him. 

Movie Review - The Green Butchers

Willingdon Rain Dance

Attended a rain dance at the Willingdon Gymkhana this Sat with friends.

The evening started off on a quiet note. Left home at 6.00 P.M, hung around St. Peter’s in Bandra till about 7.30 when TP, SL, M, G, K and a friend showed up (tried to get a Kesar shake from Karachi while waiting) but they were out of Kesar?!? Then travelled to and hung around Willingdon realising that it was 8.30 (the event was supposed to start at 7.30) and they were still setting up scaffolding that would in turn hold up sheets that would protect the tables and chairs around the dance floor from the rain. Befriended a friendly cat while we were waiting.

Once everything was set up though, the party started quickly. It was fun, despite the fact that we had to move thrice, the first time because we were too close to the speakers, the second because our table was getting dripped on by too much rain, and the third because we wanted to be nearer the action. Drinks and snacks were really cheap – 60 bucks for a Pepsi and two rums. Around 50 bucks for a plate of snacks like Tandoori chicken, etc. Which was good since we were hungry. Variety was good too.

Three of our party had to leave early, two of them being sick (admirable how they still came) and the remaining three of us wound up soon after. TP and I then headed to the Mumbai Times Cafe (Fifth Floor, Crystal Shoppers Paradise, Off Linking Road, same lane as KFC, Bandra) to catch the Euro Cup at about 11.30 with his friends. As we walked from the elevator to the MTC, we saw a guy being carried out by two other guys; he obviously had had too much to drink. As they passed me, I patted him on the back and said something to the effect of “it’s alright, hang in there”. There’s nothing that raises your hopes of a place like seeing another guy stumble out drunk. The reasoning is, if he’s had a good time, chances are, you will too.

Upon entering however, I was disappointed. The atmosphere didn’t appeal to me. It resembled some kind of restaurant/lounge bar. However we were assaulted with EDM being played at eardrum shattering levels that actually made the furniture vibrate, which was more akin to a nightclub. Now, I like cafes/restaurants/lounge bars and I like loud music, but I don’t like them together. You want loud music when you’re dancing in a club, not when you’re in a cafe/restaurant setting where you’d like to talk to the person next to you instead of being forced to simply sit/eat/drink and nod your head in turn to the music like a zombie - because that’s all you can really do in a place like this. There was of course a small place measuring about 4 square feet in between two lounge areas where a few people were dancing but I’m not sure that was supposed to be a dance area in the first place; and it was only guys dancing?!? Did I miss something?

In retrospect, this appears to be the case in a lot if Mumbai’s so called lounge bars. You don’t go there and ‘lounge’ out of choice. You really don’t have a choice cos they don’t let you do anything else. You can’t dance to the great music for lack of space which is taken up by seating, and you can’t talk to anyone either because of the loud music. A waste of two completely good resources.

While TP took his friends back to his place, I went home.

Willingdon Rain Dance

Wildlife NGOs - A Quick Summary

I've been following the work of quite a few NGO's recently and while I'm happy at the number of organisations and people vying to protect Indian wildlife, It's also interesting to see that each one has a definite vision and and clear purpose. While the goal of each organisation may be the same - to protect India's wildlife and environment, the paths that they follow to achieve this may be different. I've described a few of the major ones below.

Wildlife Protection Society Of India (WPSI)
http://www.wpsi-india.org/

Provides support and information to government authorities to combat poaching and escalating illegal wildlife trade.

Wordwide Fund For Nature (WWF)
http://www.wwfindia.org/

Conducts education and awareness programmes for the public, studies threats related to wildlife and the environment using scientific information gathering and works with local NGO's and government agencies to develop and implement solutions for these threats through education, capacity building, policy development, etc.

Greenpeace
http://www.greenpeace.org/india/

Lobbies for issues of concern and campaigns to spread awareness of the same.

Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS)
http://www.bnhs.org/

Focused on research based conservation. Research followed by government lobbying. Also conducts education and awareness programmes for the public.


So each organisation has a different vision. While WWF India is involved in more or less the entire spectrum of conservation programmes, WPSI is mainly focused on combatting poaching, BNHS on scientific research, and Greenpeace on activism.

Wildlife NGOs - A Quick Summary

Rajasthan Royals Win

The Rajasthan Royals won the inaugral IPL tournament yesterday. Can't help feeling a bit proud of them since they're owned by a company I'm associated with.

I did attend the semi final match between the Royals and the Delhi Daredevils at the Wankhede stadium at 8.00 PM at Churchgate on Friday with about a hundred other mates from the office (the company graciously paid for our tickets). While the match was exciting, it was quite one-sided as the Daredevils didn't put up much of a fight.

It was my first time attending a live cricket match in a stadium, and Wankhede is legendary, though those who attended the Royals-MI match at D.Y Patil tell me that that stadium is a whole lot better. It's hard to describe the excitement that we felt watching a live match. We couldn't see the ball half of the time but still cheered for each run and even danced on the benches for every four and six.

The continuous cheering left our voices sore for the remainder of the night, and for my compatriots, probably for the next day as well. It was also sweltering in the stadium sitting under the harsh floodlights for 3 hours. We were drenched in sweat from more or less the time that we took our seats, and didn't stop sweating till we left the stadium. Not to mention that food and water were hard to come by and priced double, which didn't stop the office guys from trying to buy packets of water and ice cream in between cheers and jigs.

Still, I was ready to party after the match. Everyone else, on the other hand, seemed exhausted, probably because of the above reasons, and quickly trooped back home, leaving me stranded with nothing to do. Not one to let my office friend's apparent ineptitude for fun dampen my spirits, I called up MD, met him and three other friends at Kandivli, and hit a couple of bars. Strange that suburban bars are so crowded at 2-3 A.M in the morning.

Rajasthan Royals Win