This is one of those posts left unfinished and unpublished for a long time. After a point, with its contemporaneousness and freshness in question I put it in the cans. However, my newfound determination to finish the unfinished tasks has come as a breather for this and many other posts.
Avatar
(The contents in the parentheses concerning this section of the post are written/typed/added at the time of publishing this post, including this line)
(The contents in the parentheses concerning this section of the post are written/typed/added at the time of publishing this post, including this line)
I watched Avatar in 3D yesterday. (This was in the third week of the movie's release, 4th Jan 2010 to be exact)
Avatar is a breakthrough film of our generation. The technology is disruptive. Avatar has the best possible, hopefully for the time being, in motion capturing.
"The People" as they call themselves, the Na'vis and the creatures of Pandora seemed very real.
The movie is shot in such a way that, most of the time you are walking/jumping/running beside/behind/ahead of the characters. Sometimes you are talked to, even though your conversing back may not be responded accordingly.
This movie has left me longing to become a Na'vi myself. I wish I were in Pandora.
After this movie, I am thinking, if you do not seem to get a paradise, create one for yourself. Cameroon seems to have done just that. I am now seriously looking out for ways to create my paradise. (Its nearly five months since then, am still looking out, may be it is a continuous process with no ending)
2 States
(The contents in parentheses concerning this section of the post are as old as the first draft of this post and not written/typed/added at the time of publishing, except this line. The first draft is dated 5.01.2010)
I was never much interested in reading English works of our Indian writers, have not read RK Narayan, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Gosh, but have read couple of novels of Kushwanth Singh (A train to Pakistan and I shall not Hear the Nightingale, former is a must read for all those who have not suffered the aftermath of partition, so did I read). Chetan bhagat is a recent craze among my book-crazy friends. I was not interested in his plots. However, all his works were recommended to me either directly (Friends) or indirectly (Reviews). An eBook of his latest 2 states reached me through mail. I had downloaded it into my pen drive, though never had the urge to read it. On one Monday night, I was going through my collections in my PC and hit upon '2 states'. I thought why not have a go at it and decided to complete reading it only if the first few pages are interesting. However, I did not stop reading until I finished. It was 4 in the morning. The read was paused only for intermittent laughs (there were numerous) and one deviation to honour the nature’s call.
The book was worth my sleep of 7 hrs. It was enjoyable. I enjoyed the Tamil Brahmin part the most.
At the end of it, the triumvirate in me (Indian, Tamilian and Telugu babu, necessarily in the same order) were all happy. Indian was happy because the story was all about national integration. Tamilian was happy because he has never heard anybody else talking about him like this. It was funny. Telugu babu is not exactly happy but he is not dissatisfied too. Now he fantasizes to script his own story of national integration. The Indian and the tamilian wishes him all the best for his success probably with a Gujarati or an Assamese girl.
Kites
I watched 'Kites' yesterday (21.05.2010). This is probably a stimulus/reason to complete this post and publish it.
However, I am obliged to warn you that my new found determination has nothing to do with the quality of the movie. It was less than 150 minutes (Thank god).
The movie has Hot and sexy bodies of Man, Women and cars (Eventually all ruined) but no Love (as claimed) and Life (supposedly omnipresent).
There is nothing fresh in this movie. We have seen cross country love affairs (Veer Zara etc.), cars being blown up (many B-town movies, but here they were given more on screen time than usual, may be I am just imagining it).
At least some good dance from Hirthik, again the feel of Déjà vu. Probably inspired by 'Step Up' series, including the proceedings leading to the dance sequence.
I watched the movie with couple of my friends (Balaji and Grandhi). The movie was an opportunity to meet my friends is the only respite.
It was good cinematography or good locations? I do not know the difference. The BGM tries to incite life into the already dead proceedings.
Then why did I choose to write about it?
This is my idea of bringing Life, freshness and contemporaneity to my 'left to die', 'long canned' post.
1 comment:
Nice to see you updating your blog after a long time.
I can't comment on Avatar and Kites, ass I haven't watched them. Let me stick to "2 States."
I also read it in E book format. I liked it, but I didn't feel it was very great. So I was bit flummoxed to find your praise for that.
I found it as an Okay - Okay sort of novel, that can be read once, may be in train travel or when it was boring.
Ya, the laughter was there. The beginning was good. Towards the end, the novel turned too prophetic for my liking. The story line too, I felt had little too many cliches.
However one major complaint, I always had about Chetan Bhaghat is is lack of research. However since this was more or less his auto biography, he has fared well in that part. May be he got all his facts right, w/o even doing research.
Over all I found your praise for this novel, bit exaggerated. I could have accepted this feedback from a first time Novel reader, but not from a seasoned reader like you.
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