Clint's Torino...

Just finished seeing Gran Torino by Clint Eastwood and it was great. The story of a hardass Korean war veteran mentoring and protecting Hmong family next door has Clint's signture all over it. The movie and any of his movies will make you realize that when it comes to good movies the only things matter is a amazing story and a breath taking performance. Its amazingly subtle. Its hardly ever about any incident but always about relationships. Relationships you wont find everyday, everywhere but is more fulfilling and can altersomeone's whole life.

Through the movie one wonders why its called "Gran Turino" named after the 1972 car that Clint owns in the move and treats like a old war friend. But everything falls into place as he sings,

"Gentle now, the tender breeze blows.

Whispers through my Gran Torino.

Whistling another tired song.

Engine humms and bitter dreams grow.

Heart locked in a Gran Torino.

It beats a lonely rhythm all night long"

Benares's Romantics

After reading “The Romantics” by Pankaj Mishra I have been wondering how this book managed to stay away from the best-sellers' shelves and from the pirated book-stalls.

It’s a wonderfully written tale of the narrator “Samar” who comes to the city of Benares and is pushed into the world of some foreigners who have come there to spiritually enlighten themselves. The book shows a beautiful and ironic picture of the confusions and realizations of the expatriates in the country mixed with the Samar’s curiosity and awkwardness towards these aliens and their life. The book proceeds, taking Samar to Pondicherry for a while where he meets his father who then sends him to Dharamshala. All this while he tries to come to terms with the past and make a sense of his life. The story ends in Benares again where he comes one last time to face the past he had left behind. The very nature of the three places played an important role in Samar's life. The hustle bustle of Benares represent the restlessness Samar felt in the new world. Pondicherry made him realize what he had left behind and sort of help him in his transition to everything which came later. During the seven years, the silence and serenity of Dharamshala makes him lose himself in the memories of the past and the realities of life's expectations.

I believe this book puts Pankaj Mishra in same league with Amitav Ghosh and Jhumpa Lahiri not because of how good they write but because of their capacity to take a part of one ordinary man’s journey through life and make it look extra ordinary and truly beautiful. Being his first novel he doesn’t gives any signs of immaturity, the credit of which goes to the fact that he has written two travellogues and is also a regular writer in Nytimes Opinion columns. He is very lyrical in his narration and gives a beautiful picture of Benares. It’s so good that one can’t help imagining being in the city himself. I would say the story ends up provoking a thought that we all go through these similar extra-ordinary situations and gradually morph into what we truly are today just like Samar did. It also made me realize that there is an amazing story in all of us, it just looks deceptively ordinary.

Hornby's Humour

Recently I read two novels of Nick Hornby. Surprisingly, it turned out to be pretty nice change from the usual stuffs I read.

The first book, "High Fidelity" which I read is about a record store owner in his 30s recalling his five most memorable breakups. He eventually re-examines his failed relationships which leads him back to the last girl he broke up with. Next was "About a boy". The plot is about Will, a 36-year-old bachelor, and Marcus, an eccentric, introverted, bullied 12-year-old with a suicidal mother and how they meet each other and learn the lesson of life together.In the end Marcus evolves and becomes a “normal” kid, while Will becomes mature enough for his age.

The thing I liked about both his novels is that they are distinctly different from the usual stuffs I read which are like overtly gloomy with gloomy characters going on with their gloomy lives.Nick gives a humourous and a charmimg touch to the "not so perfect lives" of his characters. This makes the experience of reading his book quite cheerful. The humour of his makes sure that no matter how bad a phase the character is going through, in the end he will make it out of it.

Its a must read for people who believes no matter whatever problems we are going through there always be a space for a little humour in our lives.

Dark Knight Dilemma

How can a writer review a movie of his childhood comic book hero without making his readers think he's still into reading comics. Though its restricted to a very few "Intellectual " ones. Pretty complicated isn't it.

Lets consider, the movie the writer saw was the recently released "Batman-The Dark Knight".First of all he should completely refrain from describing the 'cool', I mean the 'amusing' gadgets like the bike "bat pod" batman was riding or the secret 'high tech' hideout he had.It sounds a bit kiddish. I assume the writer might find the plot much better than the previous movie 'Batman Begins'.He could describe it a bit which somewhat goes like Batman and his confidants(Harvey Dent and Com. Gordon) are after the Gotham mob and meets his psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic nemesis "Joker" for the first time .What ensues is a bitter battle between them where Bruce Wayne loses a number of friends and also an old lover. The movie revolves around Batman's struggle to stick to his moral code as he tries to stop Joker rampaging around the city he has vowed to protect. The plot has its share of twists and turns which adds to the to the movie's flavor.

Oh coming to the characters the writer can say how every actor perfectly fitted into their character. Heath Ledger as The Joker needs a special reference for his amazing performance. It surpasses way beyond the performance given by Jack Nicholson in the 1989 Batman movie. Even Christian Bale as the Batman gave a much better performance. The transition of Batman from a enraged young man looking for some answers to a 'feared' vigilante with immense power has been showed nicely in this movie.

No review can be completed without any appreciation of its technicalities. Obviously if our writer is such a big fan then he must add some facts that the film was shot in Chicago,London and Hong Kong,.For the first time four major action sequences were shot using Imax cameras and the movie was falsely titled "Rory's First Kiss " to lower the 'visibility' of production. The music has been composed by Hans Zimmer who is best known for winning an Oscar for The lion King.

Anyways I suppose thats quite a head start for our writer.But I believe he just might have already found a method of showing his appreciation for the movie and might just get away with it. Watch out for it...

An Evening with "Doubles,Triples and Quadruples"

Plays are not boring.. They are certainly not always serious. Instead they can be hilarious, touchy and can really make your day as the last play " Doubles,Triples and Quadruples" I saw, did. It is performed by a troop called Evam at Rangashankara. The play didn't have a full length story as I expected it to have, but turned out to be a collage of snippets from life brilliantly portrayed by the group's amazingly talented actors.
The play included some hilarious sketches like the confusions of the newly wed couples,three gangsters hellbent to kill each other without knowing the reasons, a father pushing his son towards manhood and also some sweet and touchy ones like the last sketch involving two people finding love in old age.Even the monologues presented by the actors in between the sketches were pretty well done and didn't bore me for a single second.

In the end it was a great evening.. nice play.. lots of laughter.. nice company of friends..well it wasnt exactly great, it was an ideal Sunday evening.