Cheeni Kum

Ok, so i had the time to watch this one just a few days ago... and ok, i know most of you would have seen it already... but still, here is the review:

In a word: Fantastic!

Amitabh Bachchan sparkles as an absolutely acidic chef serving up sumptous Indian food in a classy London restaurant... He is (for a change) playing his age of 64 :) and falls in love with a girl who is 34, whose father is actually younger than him :)

father: a cricket mad paresh rawal

the movie is all about the 2 of them getting the father to agree to their marriage... set in a very green London and an astonishingly picturesque Delhi (I loved the Qutub Minar scene), its a superb way to spend a rainy evening...



There is amitabh's mother (!) too, who has a body building fixation, and there is sexy a 6 year old lil girl suffering from blood cancer who is amitabh's neighbour... The interaction between the kid and the veteran actor are to watch out for!

Tabu who plays the (34 year old) woman falling for amitabh also does a superb job and its an extremely believable jaunt thru London and Delhi... the only hint i got for cooking in the movie is put the hing in first, then the onions for a better flavour in a Biryani, not the other way round :)... they could have added some more :)

The Cheeni Kum song which kept popping up through out the movie was also perfect for the setting...

Do yourself a favour and watch this movie with some people you love ...

Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa  

Indie is Back!!!

Indie is back!

Only now he is called Dr. Henry Jones the second... Harrison Ford has aged but he is the better for it, like a finely aged wine he sparkles on the screen, setting it alight with his presence! The Hat and the Whip are still very much there... The hat gets rescued many times from very sticky situations :)


It’s 1957 and there are no Germans, this time around, there are however, the Russians along with the mass hysteria against communism that was at it’s peak in the US at that time. The Russians of course are far more evil that the Germans coz they want to play with the minds... exploring the paranormal for their benefit... but they are equally, if not more ruthless and die in much more interesting ways than the Germans ever did :)

It’s so much fun to watch an action movie with the quiet assurance that nothing is going to happen to the main characters as they swashbuckle through absolutely stunning motorcycle chases, jeep chases, truck chases... fight with poison dart wielding primitive tribes in the amazon, escape from killer ants(!), survive a nuclear explosion(!!) all in absolutely spectacular locales and fall over 3 (!!!) waterfalls among other things :) :)


Dealing with ancient Mayan lore deep in the amazon and dabbling with alien invasions, this movie is an absolutely delightful romp and a complete must see in a theater... Indie, his old girl friend, and a young man who loves bikes and is NOT afraid of snakes make up the winsome trio fighting an entire army of reds and winning and walking away into to a very satisfying sunset (figuratively)...


The sound track is orchestral, loud and rousing - John Williams at his very best and an audiophiles delight... and perfectly complements all the locales and sequences in the movie...

This is one movie i am going to definitely watch at least 2 more times... and maybe, just maybe there will be a few sequels as well... Steven Spielberg and George Lucas should really stick to this kind of movie making... They do a superb public service!!

Do yourself a favour and go watch it with some people you love!

Oh yes, i forgot to mention, there is this crystal skull in it as well :)  

Sci-Fi

Rajeev Bharadwaj, a friend of mine introduced me to science fiction. It was an arena of books that i had never read before, and very soon i was devouring Sci-fi at an alarming rate :)

Isaac Asmiov's Foundation series is perhaps the best introduction to this genre... The series was writtnenover a span of 40 years by the author! The enigmatic Hari Seldon and the branch of mathematics called psychohistory is the basis of the entire series of books and all that can be asked in great fiction is there... an absolutely believable setting of a galactic empire on the verge of collapse, one man actually fighting to hurry the collapse which he predicts will take 30,000 years into just a 1000 years, and all the mystery and suspense about how the Seldon plan (based on the foundation of psychohistory, which i will leave you to read about) will work.



Asimov has also written the Robot series and is actually credited with coining the word Robot. And the 3 laws of Robotics. Again a series of brilliant books about how robots become more and more human, until there is little to differentiate between man and machine...

He was a prolific writer and write on many, many diverse subjects... from the bible to the big bang theory and lamost everything in between! I especially enjoyed his short stories :)

The other author who i think about in hushed terms is Arthur C. Clarke... his novels are lyrical, with surreal beauty and superb plots. There were two of his books, Childhood's End and the Fountains of Paradise which i absolutely loved... His Rama series which deal with an encounter with a mysterious alien space ship is also nice, though i didn't find the endings of the series satisfying... He does have a habit of killing off his characters at the most inopportune times. His other very famous books are the 2001: Space odyssey series which almost, almost managed to mimic what happened with earth's fledgling space program... you should read the books and then read up on the things that actually happened... i thnk only the monolith on the far side of the moon was not there :)... ofcourse you have no idea what i am talking about... read the books and you will know! :)



Dune is also a fantastic series set on a desert planet. So vividly written, it made me sweat and feel hot just reading it.

The Star Wars original trilogy is perhaps the BEST Sci-fi movies ever made... if you have not watched them, PLEASE do yourself a favour and buy them on DVD and watch them on as big a screen as possible with the volume turned on HIGH!


Before they went onto the gory german nazi movies, steven spielberg and George lucas gave us some really really nice feel good, happy ending sci-fi movies: ET, Star Wars, batteries not included, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones... According to me, all worth owning on high quality DVD and watching once every 2-3 years :), maybe sometime i will write a review for all of them :),

Just for the record, i really didn't like the story of darth vader which was told in episodes I, II and III, which were actually made years after episodes IV, V and VI... its kind of complicated :)

As much as i loved Sci-fi, i love fantasy even more... but that's for another post, some other day...  

Prince Caspian

A lot has happened in Narnia, 1300 years of it... and the old Narnia is threatened by the humans who have somehow managed to get there...

An evil uncle, a good doctor, a prince, 2 Kings (one of them is a high King, as edmund says its complicated), 2 queens, dwarves and the Godly Lion Aslaan along with a potpourri of talking animals and some pretty angry nature make a nice movie with good morals...

There is very good acting from all the 4 children, though Prince Caspian seems a bit jerky and uncomfortable. The Location is fabulous. Made me feel that we really have to halt this global warming so more places on the planet can become like it again...

Enjoyable fare, worth watching once...

Oh yes, there is also a torchlight... :)  

An Inconvienient Truth

Its a movie about global warming. Its the movie that got Al Gore (the hero), the Nobel Peace Prize. Its thought provoking, scary and told with humour and sensitiviy... It offers few solutions, but does provide some hope...
It also fails to mention that eating Non Veg food, and the meat industry contributes to 27% of global warming (that's more pollution than all the vehicular traffic of the world put together) , coz Mr Gore himself is a meat eater, and that fact wouldnt have gone down well with the (decision making) people in the US and the Nobel Prize committee...

Its a well made film, that completely fails to give THE one solution that could really help our planet... unfortunate when politics, and personal ambitions are even in this time of crisis that the film so fantastically shows are put first...

Whoever is reading this, please know, that when you eat non veg food or just watch others eat non veg food and dont educate them, you are contributing to global warming and the rape of our planet...

You stop, and then gently educate and make others stop... for the sake of your health, the animals and our planet...

Jai Gurudeva !
love
bawa  

The Spiderwick Chronicles

A superb, scenic, old , old house in some of the most beautiful countryside of the US, with autumn colours in the woods make the setting for this really nice fantasy, adventure movie...
Add 3 children, a screamy, brave older sister, 2 boys who are twins and maybe 12ish with very different attitudes (one guy fights with sister, the other just walks away... Why didnt you help me??? ... sorry i dont do conflict!)
A struggling mother of the 3 who is obviously recovering from a useless husband who left her, and so is nicely out of the way most of the time... AND
a house brownie who turns into a small monster when angry, but can be made to cool down with honey, some funny, ferocious goblins, a hobgoblin who loves to eat birds, a griffin, a book of secrets that should not be opened, an evil, evil ogre who wants it...
Shake well...
Stir in some really tender scenes with mom and kids
season with cool fights between good kids and bad goblins
garnish with a lot of comic moments...
Serve in an ice cold auditorium in the middle of summer!!

You simply cant resist it... I loved the movie and so did all who came with us... and after all those special effects, you walk away with the feeling that maybe, it is just possible that maybe fairies do exist... all you need is a hobgoblin to spit in your eyes (ewww...) to make you see them!!  

Ratatouille

Watched Ratatouille (pronounced Rat-a-too-e) today... its a movie about a rat who loves to cook and a guy who has to but cant!! utterly delectable, superb french music (the movie is set in Paris)... and i got a few nice tips on how to cook as well :)

Everything a movie should have: comedy, action, rats, food, music, love story, slapstick, comedy and more rats all simmered gently with the usual Disney Magic to come up with a really cute serving of total fun :)

There is a quote from the movie that stayed with me:
"If you focus on what you left behind, you will never be able to see what lies ahead!!"

Will leave you smiling and hungry :)... dont watch this movie if u have nothing in the fridge :) :)

Jai Gurudeva !
love
bawa