As you ppl might already know, I am not a regular blogger. I blog only when something hits me on the face hard and makes me get up from my lazy ass to type. :D Inception hit me hard... It actually hit me, broke my head and made mincemeat of my brain..
I have watched many mindfucking movies, Believe me..( I had watched memento before ghajini came out :D) but inception is a cut above them. Here is a movie which is layered on so many levels ( no pun intended.. people who watch the movie will know what I am talking about :P) and still is coherent enough to be a summer blockbuster.
Inception tells the story of Cobb who is a dream extractor. A wealthy CEO gives him a job to do the reverse of what he has been doing till now. That is to inject a thought/idea into a person. The story offers tremendous scope and Nolan exploits it completely. Most of the logic offered by the director are very far fetched but seem eerily possible. Also since this movie is mostly based in the sub conscious of the characters, Special effects can be used in abandon and Nolan gives a lesson on how to use special effects in movies.
Special effects must be used to augment the plot and take the plot forward but most movies use it the other way around for ex avatar,2012, etc... The special effects are brilliant in this movie. But I feel Nolan would have found an alternate way to tell the story. Even without special effects.
The main winner of the movie is its script. I don't know how Nolan comes up with such stuff... Its so smart and yet so accessible. No wonder Nolan dint have the nerve to pitch this movie to Warner Bros before giving a hit. We have to commend Warner Bros also for green lighting such a project. Also hats off to the editor. Its one thing having 4 distinct storylines all happening at the same time with the same characters at different places on paper but its much more difficult to put it on screen without getting the viewer confused. This couldn't have been done without a very good edit team. If inception doesnt win the oscar for best editing i dont know what will....
One of the problems Nolan faces with such a dynamic and different screenplay is that he has to explain things to the audience.This creates lots of verbose dialogue which might go over people's head if they aren't paying attention.So if you are planning to watch inception, Dont go late. You wont understand shit.
Coming to the performances, As with all Nolan movies, Content is the hero here... Not much is expected from the actors. But Di Caprio performs very well in a somewhat complex role. But i think he should stop doing such lonely widower roles. It was overshadowed by an amazing story here but look what happened in shutter island... Ellen Page looks awesome. Nothing much from the others. The music is another trump card of this movie. Hans Zimmer builds tension and suspense with brilliant music.
Chris Nolan has come up with a movie which not only lives up to the hype but goes above the hype. Its path breaking and boldly original. Its a stunning piece of cinema that engages the viewer and makes us think. This could turn out to be one of the greatest films of the decade and might fetch Nolan the much deserved directing Oscar.
Dont go into this film expecting action like the a team. Go in within an open mind. You will come out stunned.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Internal Lessons
You'll take my life but I'll take yours too....
Initially it sounded like a pretty good idea to have an army of guitars to wake you,But I was starting to feel that it was a bad idea when my ears started sending urgent electric signals to my brain which was busy relaxing. Finally, when the electricity was a little too much for my brain,it relented by sending an electric signal of its own to my right hand which switched of my mobile's alarm. In hindsight, I think having The Trooper as your alarm isnt a good idea if you want your ears to function properly. But it does fulfill its function as an alarm.
So, due to the various electrical interferences inside and outside my body I woke up with a splitting headache.
I learnt the first lesson of the day,a lesson I had learnt a countless number of times earlier:
Never piss off your brain.
Still groggy from the headache and the noise pollution, I stumbled towards the bathroom to perform my morning activities. I noticed that there were enough mosquitoes in my room to lift and take me to a galaxy far far away. For the first time that morning electricity came to my rescue in the form of the mosquito bat...
No.. not mosquito mat.. mosquito bat...
Those nifty tennis racquet shaped bats which kill mosquitoes with a spark is the greatest invention since TV for slobs like me. It makes me do a little bit of a workout and also gets rid of the mosquitoes.
"Ore kallule Rendu Manga"( 2 mangoes from a single stone)
After finishing my morning tennis practice with mosquitoes(During which I made some brilliant top spinning forehands even Nadal would have be proud of), I turned towards my phone. Though I am not a member of the "The First Thing I Do When I Wake Up Is Check My Phone" group on Facebook, checking my phone does feature on my morning routine. There was a message from my friend, saying "macha did you do 7th question in qbnk???" I was thinking which subject which question bank???
Suddenly realization hit me like a truck travelling at 60kmph hitting a concrete wall(All you nerds reading this please don't calculate the force in Newtons). Today was the day of first internals.
Learnt the second lesson for the day: Feed internal dates dates in phone calendar
Furiously typed a message enquiring about the portions and sent it to my group of friends. Got a unanimous reply from all of them: Question Bank. (Some of them sent qb, others sent qbnk. But I inferred it was Question Bank)
Then as I was contemplating the pros and cons of the said message,another realization hit me like a truck hitting a concrete wall, but this time the speed was only 50kmph...
I did not have the question bank.
Gosh!!!! Aren't we in a pickle!!!!
Quickly realized that I am in this predicament because I have been watching too many British gangster movies... Well thats a bummer...
Somehow gathered my thoughts and made the first(and probably last) useful call of the day and got the question bank dictated to me over the phone.Finally I had something to work with. As a wise man once told "You cannot build bricks without clay". I had somehow obtained the clay.
But the wise man hadn't told me that the process of making bricks from clay is harder than obtaining the clay itself.
Oblivious to this fact,I started to study.
10 minutes into the task and I knew it was a fruitless,useless and thankless endeavour
So went to Plan B: Make Chits.
20 minutes into this task and i realised this was a arduous,onerous and unrequited undertaking...
So went to Plan C: make micro xerox.
This plan seemed to be the best one considering time available. Another motivating factor was that it involved little effort. Hence the next 20 minutes were spent finding out the answers to the questions, marking out the important portions and trying to figure out what all to photocopy.
After finishing the marking, Went down to the parking lot of the hostel. Had a look at the security guard who was sleeping(as usual), directly went to my bike and tried starting it. Bike did not start.. Think it was rebelling against me for the 3 yrs of misuse. The end result was that I had to walk to the xerox shop. Went to my usual xerox shop and found it closed.
Yenna kodumai sir idhu ( what torture is this)...
The tea stall next store was playing melancholic sitar chords filled tragedy songs.Guess even the RJ somehow sensed my pain and agony.
Made a mental note to open a 24-hour xerox shop if don't pass engineering.
Thankfully the xerox shop opened by 9.15 and i got most of the stuff xeroxed and somehow made it to the coll 20 minutes before the test started. Now the wall and bench art started. You see even though I had made micro xerox of almost all the probable questions, I wrote the other answers also on the bench. I would have been happy to pass the test 2 hours back but now I wanted to get full.
Student mentality...
The invigilator was looking like a rowdy from the Upendra movie Om. I was thinking not to use chits. But desperate times call for desperate measures, using prodigious skill I was copying from the xerox and somehow filling the pages in the blue book, when suddenly my classmate sitting beside me asked for the answer to the second question.I passed her the chits. She hadn't spoken to me for the past 3 years and now suddenly she was asking for chits. I was over the moon and started day dreaming.
Baad Idea....
Kuch Kuch Ho Gaya.... Kuch Kuch Kuch ho gaya...
Bari oolu!!!( All Rubbish)
Suddenly got interrupted by the invigilator's voice.
Sir...
Baro iili... How many times should I call you..
I had heard Baro illi as Bari oolu, Now my internal marks were going to be Bari oolu.
Whats in your calci??? Show it...
I was having the moment every engineering student dreads, getting caught for chits...
Chits aah.... Get out... I will tear and throw your blue book...
Learnt the third lesson for the day: Do not daydream during the day... I know... Its a paradox, But its true....
1 month later
Run to the hills!!! Run for your life!!!!
Ears sending Urgent electrical signals..... Truck hitting concrete wall..... Making micro xerox..... NOT getting caught for chits and getting chucked out of class....
Perpetual Deja vu....
Initially it sounded like a pretty good idea to have an army of guitars to wake you,But I was starting to feel that it was a bad idea when my ears started sending urgent electric signals to my brain which was busy relaxing. Finally, when the electricity was a little too much for my brain,it relented by sending an electric signal of its own to my right hand which switched of my mobile's alarm. In hindsight, I think having The Trooper as your alarm isnt a good idea if you want your ears to function properly. But it does fulfill its function as an alarm.
So, due to the various electrical interferences inside and outside my body I woke up with a splitting headache.
I learnt the first lesson of the day,a lesson I had learnt a countless number of times earlier:
Never piss off your brain.
Still groggy from the headache and the noise pollution, I stumbled towards the bathroom to perform my morning activities. I noticed that there were enough mosquitoes in my room to lift and take me to a galaxy far far away. For the first time that morning electricity came to my rescue in the form of the mosquito bat...
No.. not mosquito mat.. mosquito bat...
Those nifty tennis racquet shaped bats which kill mosquitoes with a spark is the greatest invention since TV for slobs like me. It makes me do a little bit of a workout and also gets rid of the mosquitoes.
"Ore kallule Rendu Manga"( 2 mangoes from a single stone)
After finishing my morning tennis practice with mosquitoes(During which I made some brilliant top spinning forehands even Nadal would have be proud of), I turned towards my phone. Though I am not a member of the "The First Thing I Do When I Wake Up Is Check My Phone" group on Facebook, checking my phone does feature on my morning routine. There was a message from my friend, saying "macha did you do 7th question in qbnk???" I was thinking which subject which question bank???
Suddenly realization hit me like a truck travelling at 60kmph hitting a concrete wall(All you nerds reading this please don't calculate the force in Newtons). Today was the day of first internals.
Learnt the second lesson for the day: Feed internal dates dates in phone calendar
Furiously typed a message enquiring about the portions and sent it to my group of friends. Got a unanimous reply from all of them: Question Bank. (Some of them sent qb, others sent qbnk. But I inferred it was Question Bank)
Then as I was contemplating the pros and cons of the said message,another realization hit me like a truck hitting a concrete wall, but this time the speed was only 50kmph...
I did not have the question bank.
Gosh!!!! Aren't we in a pickle!!!!
Quickly realized that I am in this predicament because I have been watching too many British gangster movies... Well thats a bummer...
Somehow gathered my thoughts and made the first(and probably last) useful call of the day and got the question bank dictated to me over the phone.Finally I had something to work with. As a wise man once told "You cannot build bricks without clay". I had somehow obtained the clay.
But the wise man hadn't told me that the process of making bricks from clay is harder than obtaining the clay itself.
Oblivious to this fact,I started to study.
10 minutes into the task and I knew it was a fruitless,useless and thankless endeavour
So went to Plan B: Make Chits.
20 minutes into this task and i realised this was a arduous,onerous and unrequited undertaking...
So went to Plan C: make micro xerox.
This plan seemed to be the best one considering time available. Another motivating factor was that it involved little effort. Hence the next 20 minutes were spent finding out the answers to the questions, marking out the important portions and trying to figure out what all to photocopy.
After finishing the marking, Went down to the parking lot of the hostel. Had a look at the security guard who was sleeping(as usual), directly went to my bike and tried starting it. Bike did not start.. Think it was rebelling against me for the 3 yrs of misuse. The end result was that I had to walk to the xerox shop. Went to my usual xerox shop and found it closed.
Yenna kodumai sir idhu ( what torture is this)...
The tea stall next store was playing melancholic sitar chords filled tragedy songs.Guess even the RJ somehow sensed my pain and agony.
Made a mental note to open a 24-hour xerox shop if don't pass engineering.
Thankfully the xerox shop opened by 9.15 and i got most of the stuff xeroxed and somehow made it to the coll 20 minutes before the test started. Now the wall and bench art started. You see even though I had made micro xerox of almost all the probable questions, I wrote the other answers also on the bench. I would have been happy to pass the test 2 hours back but now I wanted to get full.
Student mentality...
The invigilator was looking like a rowdy from the Upendra movie Om. I was thinking not to use chits. But desperate times call for desperate measures, using prodigious skill I was copying from the xerox and somehow filling the pages in the blue book, when suddenly my classmate sitting beside me asked for the answer to the second question.I passed her the chits. She hadn't spoken to me for the past 3 years and now suddenly she was asking for chits. I was over the moon and started day dreaming.
Baad Idea....
Kuch Kuch Ho Gaya.... Kuch Kuch Kuch ho gaya...
Bari oolu!!!( All Rubbish)
Suddenly got interrupted by the invigilator's voice.
Sir...
Baro iili... How many times should I call you..
I had heard Baro illi as Bari oolu, Now my internal marks were going to be Bari oolu.
Whats in your calci??? Show it...
I was having the moment every engineering student dreads, getting caught for chits...
Chits aah.... Get out... I will tear and throw your blue book...
Learnt the third lesson for the day: Do not daydream during the day... I know... Its a paradox, But its true....
1 month later
Run to the hills!!! Run for your life!!!!
Ears sending Urgent electrical signals..... Truck hitting concrete wall..... Making micro xerox..... NOT getting caught for chits and getting chucked out of class....
Perpetual Deja vu....
Saturday, February 6, 2010
The Train Incident
Unlike the usual sweltering heat of Chennai, this was a pleasant day... Was it a sign of things to come??? I dint know then... I had to go from Chennai to Bangalore with my aunt and uncle and i was were really contemplating how to spend 5 hrs(6 hrs if train was delayed... which was almost a sure event) of train travel...
The signs were definitely not good... I had forgotten my ipod and all my novels at home....Another problem was that my uncle was a real 'kathi'(boring by talking too much) party ( infact we call him kathi mama at home:P) and i dint want to get bored by him for so long..
We found our seats.They were decent seats; not too near the door as to hamper the ac effect due to the frequent opening and closing of the door and yet not far enough from the bathroom to make the walk to the bathroom seem long... :D The train was empty... Not many people had come. I have always had very bad luck in trains wrt to co-passengers. Most of the time its people with their babies bawling or old grannies asking you to help with suitcases. As i was preparing for the most boring 5+ hrs of my life, i saw a girl coming to the seat behind me.
A hot girl in the train... A guy's greatest dream and also his worst nightmare....
She was the quintessential modern girl. Wearing jeans and a sleeveless top... in typical indian style she wore a dupatta over her top.My question is why wear a sleevless top if you are going to cover yourself with dupattas and shawls??? :D
Anyways coming back to the story...
Its a great dream if you are alone... then you can ask for magazines,food, and maybe even her number :P but a total nightmare if you are in the train with family... its a totally different matter if her family is also there,which was the case here. This contrary to popular belief, is good... You dont believe me???
For example, I could casually start a conversation with her mom, Which could go like this...:D
Me: maaami can you pass me the kumudam...
Mom: ya... i thought that you young ppl like dont read tamil...
Me: Ayo nothing like that maami... i know to read...
Mom: Paru maa indha payyanku tamil padikku theriyumam... you told no youngster knows to read tamil...
Then the girl looks at you.. and you smile back.... ;) get the drift... Ok... getting back to reality... :P
I got the idea that i can check her name and age in the chart... Think it was in the movie unakku 18 enakku 20 ( or vice versa... i dont rem the correct name :P) then thought cha.. all that is cheap...
Then i remembered anniyan vivek-vikram incidents... Then realised this was a day train...
Then i thought about 'before sunrise'... Then realised that was Europe and this was TN...
Then I realised i needed a wingman... and who better than my uncle??? All I had to do was somehow steer my uncle to the girls' dad and somehow strike up a conversation. I looked at my uncle thinking about topics to chat, but my uncle was fast asleep... I had a face-palm moment right there.... 99 times out of 100 I would have been happy with this situation.. but today i was unhappy... The story of my life... :( :P
So I resigned to my fate and went to sleep... woke up to see dinner being served... saw that the girl's family had packed 'thair saadam' and 'lemon saadam' in typical iyer fashion for the train... again I was thinking why people pack food in a train which provides food and charges it to your ticket... More idiosyncracies... *sigh*... By this time i had given up on talking to the girl... so ate my dinner and went back to sleep...
I woke up after an hour or so... surprisingly the train was on time,and the station was just 5 mins away... My uncle and I hauled the suitcase down and were going towards the exit... suddenly my uncle shouted... "Dai ramu.. how are you.. so many days" and walked back...
I turned back to see my uncles newly found old friend... Ramu was the hot girl's father.... It was the perfect "yenna koduma saar idhu" moment... The elders were talking for the next 5 mins wheras i sulked in the corner thinking of all the missed opportunities... was still sulking as i went towards the auto stand... I knew something was wrong when the weather was so good in Chennai...
Went to the auto stand and started the usual bargaining... Saw a girl from UP or bihar struggling to explain the destination to the auto driver... Thought I will go help her... She wanted to go to koramangla... I helped her... She smiled at me and told a very heartfelt Thank You... I smiled back... Went home humming This :P
Train forgotten, Ramu forgotten, Ramu's daughter forgotten... :D
Story of my life :D
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