Books am reading....

 

been reading this for some time now.. but just cant seem to finish it..everytime i pick it up, i start at the beginning.... :) 

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An amazing book.. picked it up cos a friend recommended it, and must say i've not been able to put it down.. got another 20pages to go!! very nice..funny, wacko.. and so insightful!!  

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Bought it at Odyssey cos it seemed interesting, just started on it!!!  

Movie marathon!!! :)

 

My friend and i went for the movie - The Mummy:Tomb of the Dragon Emperor/ The Mummy 3, with tickets not being available for any others... anyways, we enjoyed the movie... loads of wacko scenes.. action... amazing effects... the sights are worth it!!!  Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh launch into a vigorous sword fight — and what a grand pleasure it is to watch these two world-class stars in action again... 

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Ever since we saw the promos for Bachna ae haseeno, me and my friend wanted to check it out... we knew it was probably a brainless romantic , but dint expect a diff version of DDLJ....  

The journey of rich spoilt boy Raj Sharma (Ranbir Kapoor) is the main plot of this movie.... He meets three girls at different stages of his life: Mahi (Minissha Lamba) - a small-town girl from Punjab, who is looking for Raj(SRK of DDLJ), Radhika  who becomes Shreya (Bipasha Basu) - a model from Ranchi in Mumbai, with whom he has a live in relationship and finally flees when he gets a proj in Aus... and finally Gayatri (Deepika Padukone) - an NRI taxidriver from Australia. The film is about a boy who goes from one love affair to another, only to run into true love and then being dumped, cos she isnt ready for marriage... this forces him to look back on all the nasty heartbreaks he has been responsible for, and he goes back to all those women!!! 

Oh, how can i sign off without mentioning the drop dead Gorgeous Kunal kapoor...divine!!! :) 

Except for Khuda jaane, none of the other songs are really nice.. infact songs not really needed!!  

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I saw this movie at my friend's house.. she was sleeping and i was sifting thru her dvd collection, thought this might be fun.. and i LOVE animated movies.. but it was wacko and a bit boring!!!  Am talking about The Ugly Ducklinbg and me... the only sweet thing about the movie is --- don’t worry if you’re not accepted by those around you, you are special!!!  

[Movie] Freedom Writers

It is very rare to come upon a movie that affects us so deep and leaves us soaking in its dialogues and acting...

A movie i saw couple of days back was like that ... i was randomly surfing channels, when i hit upom HBO and what i saw had me glued, so much so, i told my grandparents to wait a bit to have dinner... The movie was  Freedom Writers

These are days when am so glad i have a set top box and have the privilege of watching such wonderful movies...!!!

It is based on a true story of a young idealistic white school teacher who gets a job in a high school filled with black kids and gangs. Yes, the initial many of the scenes reminded me of Michelle Pfeiffer in  Dangerous Minds,  and Sidney Poitier in To Sir with love, but this was different.. It is Freedom Writers, adapted from the diaries of Woodrow Wilson High School students, with Hilary Swank as the teacher[her 1st time in the job] who is trying to change the world, or atleast teach and make a mark on couple of students, who have the potential but not given adequate attention.

Erin Gruwell aka Miss G, (Hilary Swank) is a simple white girl with grand ideas and thats is when she volunteers to take her first teaching job[actually she is a student teacher] at racially charged, run down Wilson High School in South Central Los Angeles [ The film is the city reeling with the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles riots]. Located in gang-ravaged Long Beach, California, Woodrow Wilson High is a filled with rough kids and  violence. On her first day, she walks into the class in a bright cherry-red suit and black pumps, her strand of pearls gleaming in her neck, and looks quite goofy in a class of rugged black kids...

The students are understandably skeptical, excruciatingly contemptuous. From where they sit, slumped and hunched, some with their backs literally turned away from the front of the room, Erin looks like the stranger she is, but slowly weaves her way into the lives of these helpless kids!!

While never having heard of the Holocaust, these kids are well-versed in the pain of poverty, the legal system, and death. Their devoted teacher Erin Gruwell never gives up, she slowly bonds with her class, giving them books to read{Diary of Anne Frank, Odyssey], helping them vent out all the pain and agony within them through the journals. The Scene where she gives them each a book and says she will read them only if the student gives her permission is where the change happens [ the trust develops and slowly they open up to her and learn to alter their lifestyles,. looking fwd to school...]  

  

Meanwhile, a strain is put on Erin's marriage as her student involvement gradually takes priority over her personal life. The intensity with which Erin relates to her work threatens her husband (Patrick Dempsey), who in seeing Erin's transformation, is reminded of his own stagnancy.. She even pleads with him to take up studying architecture, which is what he wanted, but he walks out, leaving her lost and alone... 

Erin asks the kids to write letters to Miep Gies (Pat Carroll), the woman who hid Anne from the Nazis. In order to raise money for Gies to come to California, Erin takes a weekend job at the Mariott! With three jobs, shewords towards taking her students on field trips (to a Holocaust museum) and dinners at the hotel’s restaurant.  The other teachers balk. They go to the school board and protest,but Erin wins!!!! :)

Freedom Writers works because the group of teenage actors they’ve brought together in it are anbsolutely awesome, raw, and their  performances make it worth watching. 

Starring: Hilary Swank, Imelda Staunton, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Glenn, Robert Wisdom

Director: Richard LaGravenese
Screenwriter: Richard LaGravenese
Producer: Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher

[Movie] My Sassy Girl aka Yeopgijeogin geunyeo

My Sassy Girl, A movie i had no clues of, and had bought couple of weeks back only because the cover looked interesting.. Little did i know that Bollywood was going to come out with their version of this, titled Ugly Aur pagli ....

Its one of those movies that has you smiling, laughing and gasping every now and then. A light romantic comedy where the lead actors are Gyeon-woo( cute simple looking (Korean pop singer Cha Tae-hyun, in his feature film debut) and ofcourse the vivacious, brash,sweet, genteel girl (who doesnt reallly have a name, but is ref to as Ji-hyun Jun, played by Gianna Jun)..

The movie has three parts... 1st one being the First Half... Second Half and then the Overtime!!

The story kicks off with college student Gyeon-woo crossing paths with a drunk girl in the train station. He then hoists her into the train, where she promptly pukes on a fellow passenger, and before passing out, the girl looks at Gyeon-woo and calls him 'honey'. The other passengers assuming him to be the hapless girl's boyfriend, demand that Gyeon-woo look after her and he takes off his shirt to clean up the passenger's(on whom she threw up)shirt. After carrying her on his back for what seems to be miles, Gyeon-woo takes the girl where he meets destiny... he gets arrested and thrown into jail, where he gets a chance to rub shoulders wit a gang....  Here is where the movie begins, and all the fun unravels...

They meet quite often, coincidence at times, and others is when she calls him and orders him to get somewhere to meet her... She is brash, and a bully at it.. :)  When they dine out and Gyeon-woo orders anything but coffee, she barks her mantra "Do you wanna die?" and then promptly changes his order to coffee. When her feet begin aching from walking wearing heels her mom got her, she talks him to a point where he is forced to switch his comfortable running shoes into her high heels.

Since she likes to write, she subjects him to reading her scripts.. Each one with a twist, but one commonn thread being the girl is from the future..[ In one of the funniest scenes, Gyeon-woo gives her screenplays to a film producer, who winds up getting ill, throwing up minutes after reading it... ]

.. Inspite of her constant whacks and thwacks, Gyeon-woo finds himself hopelessly hooked on this 'sassy girl'. And though the girl seems to relish in humiliating and belittling those around her, it becomes clear that underneath the brash exterior is a wounded soul who holds a genuine affection for Gyeon-woo. She is going through a heart break so deep, she finds herself confused unable to decide....

Their relationship continues in this manner for quite some time, and they are more like friends, except they arent really just friends.... The meetings with her family where her dad drinks a few shot and then Thud, falls on the table... Gyeon woo's mom beating him with whatever she has in her hands, are some of the wacko scenes in the movie....

Towards the last part of the movie, it takes a U turn, adding a bit of twist to the plot... What happens to their relationship... how far do they go or not.. and what is her story are told beautifully... the scenes touch us so deep, that we become one with the characters...

The final scene takes the cake!!!! [noway, i aint given it out...]

Watch it to enjoy it!! the movie runs for nearly 2hrs, which is a rare thing for any movie apart from our Indian ones!!!

Oh and watch this clip... one of the beautiful scenes in the movie... couldnt resist.... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRNgGWpzmp4

[Movie] Khuda ke Liye - In the Name of God!!

A movie i had been wanting to watch ever since i read about it in the papers and heard raving reviews from my friends... yep, am talking about Khuda Ke Liye, [In the name of God] directed by Shoaib Mansoor ... This Pakistani movie has become one of my favorites over night, and am going around telling others to watch it!! its probably the only movie of its kind that i've seen till date.... 

I wonder why it dint get released in the theaters here?? sad.. i wish more such movies came about....

here is a sneak peek into what the movie is all about... 

It is the story of two brothers, Mansoor (Shaan) and Sarmad (Fawad Khan). Both of l them love music, and have been performing as a team for years now.. they belong to a family who lets them live their life the way they desire, and does not beleive in forcing anything on anyone.... Mansoor is all about music, focussed and knows he is off to USA for a future in music... on the other hand, Sarmad is confused, and that is when he turns towards religion to give him guidance... her is where the movie takes a turn, he comes across the self proclaimed Islam prophet, Maulana Taheri (Rasheed Naz), who turns the soft spoken Sarmad into full fledge Jehadi... 

• Music is against Islam
• Wearing western clothes is also against Islam
• Women should wear a veil

are the messages drilled into him, so much so, that he stops singing, grows a beard, wears only salwar kameez, and even asks his mom to wear a veil....

Things are complicated when their cousin Mary (the beautiful Iman Ali who has acted well, excpet for where she tries for fake a Brit accent, but that fades away against her acting..) arrives from London to spend a few days with them, only to discover that she has been tricked by her father into coming to Pakistan to avoid her marrying her Non-Muslim boyfriend Dave. All this, while he has not been living life the Islamic way, and has a live in relationship with a British lady.... 

Meanwhile Mansoor leaves for Chicago to enrol at the “School of Music”, which is when his life goes through so many changes, that at the end, he does not know who he is anymore (literally). He meets Jani (Austin Marie Sayre), a fellow music student, who he falls in love with, and eventually they get married.. The song they sing together Bhadya ho is absolutely mind blowing...  Around this is when the 9/11 attack happens and one night, he is abducted and interrogated to find out if he was part of the Al Quaeda group.. these scenes made me cry, they are heart wrenching... its almost like every muslim is a terrrorist, and as the cop says "but every terrorist we've come across is a muslim"....  

How the tale goes from Pakistan, to UK and to USA is where the movie stands tall and strong... the battle Miriam( her name is changed to Miriam when she is forcefully married to Sarmad) fights to take revenge on her father and the man who forced himself on her, just bcos the Maulana said he needs to bear a child to prove he is a man is an amazing segment of the movie... This is where, Moulana Wali (Naseeruddin shah) steps in, and takes control of the entire situation , bringing to light what Islam is all about in REAL... 

Few of his dialogues --

“Two men who did the greatest service to Islam in Pakistan, Mahomed Ali Jinnah and Allama Iqbal, did so without a beard and out of the so called Islamic dresscode, in western dress." 

“There is beard in religion, but no religion in beard,”

All this opens Sarmad's eyes, and he withdraws the case against Miriam, and mends his ways, getting back to music...

Shoaib Mansoor does not miss a beat, he does not leave any stones unturned. While all characters have more or less the same significance in this plot, it is Mansoor who is at the centre of it....The grandeur of the Wazir Khan Mosque is simply breathtaking....  and so are the deserted moutains of Afganisthan...


 The movie depicts the lives of those connected with Pakistani society and shows the wedge between the moderates and extremists, it also brings to the fore the less-acknowledged truth, that, Muslims are being viewed with increasing suspicion in the West.

A must watch! 

 

Click here To listen to Khuda ke liye songs, and here to download em.... :)

[Movie] The Dark Knight

Wow

Awesome

Fantastic

Mind Blowing

Unbelievable..

Now, these are not just words.. they are all that come to my mind when i think of The Dark Knight, by Christopher Nolan.. A movie that had gripping to my seat, enjoying every second of it, and there were some scenes where the audience was so involved, that we were holding our breath, clapping when something amazing happened on screen.. I've never really been a Big fan of the Batman, or Superman and such movies, but decided to watch this movie for Heath ledger, i had seen him earlier in Brokeback Mountain and thought he was a fantastic actor.. and then he had to go on and die. well, atleast he left us something to remember him by.. the role of Joker!!

The movie which is supposed to be all about Batman and how he keeps Gotham city clean has turned into a movie that is all about the JOKER, and his ploys..A man who has no rules, who does not steal cos he wants money, who does not kill cos he likes blood is one who keeps the momentum going thru the movie.... The Dark Knight” is not a simplistic tale of good and evil. Batman is good, yes, The Joker is evil, yes. But Batman poses a more complex puzzle than usual: The citizens of Gotham City are in an uproar, calling him a vigilante and blaming him for the deaths of policemen and others. And the Joker is more than a villain....

Thriller? Action? Good guy vs Bad guy? Dazzling spectacle? Devilish fun? Check the movie out. The Dark Knight creates a place where good and evil — expected to do battle — decide instead to get it on and dance around it. "I don't want to kill you," the Joker tells Batman/ Bruce Wayne [Christian Bale]. "You complete me." Don't buy the tease. He means it.....

Every plot.. Every explosion is so well executed that no one has a clue what he is upto, but himself...

How Batman and his team (Morgan freeman, and Michael Caine] work on creating a suit that will help him fly better, and how he zooms about in his Batmobile stuns us!!! the kind of effects, technology, stunts that has been used in this movie is probably a 1st of its kind...

Not to foreget the amazing performance by the D.A, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), who stays above corruption in the city and vows to change the face of Gotham city, and in the 2nd half, he looks "wow", no words, the ripped apart face, bulging eyes, and the make up is divine.......Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes has done a lovely job as the woman who is torn between two men, one her friend and other the one she loves.....

A movie that you should watch to experience high paced action...

Bruce Wayne: I knew the mob wouldn’t go down without a fight. But this is different. They crossed the line.

Alfred Pennyworth: You crossed the line first, sir. You hammered them. And in their desperation they turned to a man they didn’t fully understand. Some men aren’t looking for anything logical. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn

[Theater] The Hindu Metro Plus Theater Fest!!!!

Read about the Theatre Fest



Wrote about it...



And finally managed to watch the 1st 2 plays.... the rest of them i dont find too interesting, going by the titles and the subjects.. but i might catch the one on Aug 7th - The Whale

1st day- 1st Aug- Midsummer Nights Dream

 A play that was in korean, with english sub titles(yes, they displayed the sub titles on the screen] had us all absolutely engrossed and enthralled by their acting.. there were about 7-8 actors on stage, who were the actors[playing diff roles], musicians[yes, they would run quickly sit down and start playing their instruments], singers[oh,yes, and they were good] and the ones who had us all completely involved with the act.. there were 2guys, need to make specific mention cos they were simply outstanging[its them in the pic on left side]. 

They did all sorts of antics, and acrobats, also managed to get the crowd involved by throwing out some bangle kinda thingies[well, atleast thats what they looked like from where i was sitting, which was way upstairs...nope, dint get any, but sure enjoyed the evening]... oh, and the best part was , the actors had managed to sneak in a few dialogues in TAMIL [yep, you read it right, and they did it so well, there was no awkward pausing, starin at paper, etc.. they just spoke it.. in pure korean accent, which was damn sweet] ...

Sambar sadam venuma..?

Appuram,

Thayir saadama?

appuram

vaadu manga venuma...? [this was the best of it all]

A wee bit different from the original version by Shakespeare, nonetheless as much funny, if not more, this play by the Yogongza theater group was awesomeeee!!





I was so glad i went for the play!!!

 2nd day- 2nd Aug -- Love Letters

This play was by  an indian production house called Rage, and was directed by Rahul da Cunha... Ages ago, i had been to one of his other plays - Class of '84.. which was quite good.. i remember it was the day before my bday, a treat i gave me and mum, cos it was the day after hers and the day before mine... :D

Anyways, reached the venue a bit early, and was in my seat by 7.20, and on the dot at 7.30 the play began, or rather the MC began his welcome address,etc etc, which took not more than 2mins i tell you...

This play had just 2 people in it.. yep, Rajit Kapur and Shernaz Patel... it was all about the letters that went between them from when they were little till one of them finally dies. The kind of bond they share thanks to these letters is damn sweet and very endearing... the way the letters reflect their lives, what they are going thru and how at times they stop because one of them is upset with the other....the love that grows between them, but which is kept away till late in their years, and what happens at the end has been beautifully narrated... 

The actors  stood on either side of the stage, with a mini make shift seating arrangement, which consists of a bunch of colourful boxes, whcih they rearrange everytime there is a change in their feeling, or just to break the monotony... But i was stunned at the way they were able to keep up with the dialogues, and go on and on without a squeak or shrill in their voice... Hats off to them both!

At the end of the play, with a 10min break in between, the Rajit said this was the 1st time in 16years that they had an audience of over 1000 people... what an honor it was to have been part of that crowd!!!  it was almost like there were too many people as against the seats available, cos some where sitting on the steps and watching the play.... 

Well, now am looking forward to the Whale.. hopefully that should be good!!!

Oh, and they have a Contest running... 2 years back when i had gone for these plays, the contest was to write and send a review in less than 160characters on sms.. and guess what, i won the prize.. it was Rs1000 off on my Airtel mobile bill... :D

This time we have to send in our reviews (150words) by email before 11am the next morning.. and the prize is lunch for 2 at The park.. crossing my fingers to see if i get lucky again!! :D