dhobi ghat (mumbai diaries) - Review

dhobi ghat (mumbai diaries) - four people living in a big city, different perspectives, their lives intertwined by strange coincidences.


dhobi ghat is a movie that signifies the new types of movies that have become the staple of aamir khan's production house. You can always go for one of his movies confident that you will not leave bored or frustrated.

With this movie though, I had my doubts, it was his wife's production, they billed the movie as, "not for everyone". But I felt the movie was really worth a watch, if for nothing else but the sheer honest acting by all 4 main characters.

The four characters in the story are so completely different, that they bring completely different perspectives to the story.

Prateik Babbar, plays Munna a dhobi and rat killer in Mumbai's slums. A boy who came to Mumbai from Bihar because he was starving. His introduction begins with him telling his brother that, even though being a rat killer is disgusting, it's at least an honest days work. But he has dreams as well, he wants to be an actor he wants a better life.

Monica Dogra plays Shai, an investment banker in the US who goes to India on a sabbatical looking for inspiration and a change of scene. She brings into the story a kind of naivety that she has developed with her many years outside of the country.

But the best performance in the story is from Kriti Malhotra who plays Yasmin, a young bride who has come to the city immediately after he marriage. She has a video camera with which she is writing a video letter for her younger brother back in the village and her entire story is told from behind the lens.

And then there is Arun (played by Aamir Khan), the artist who looks all around Mumbai for his inspiration. He calls the city his muse, his whore and his love. His character serves as the bridge between the other three as the story is told.

The movie starts off slow and never really gets much faster, but then it's just the story of 4 people, I guess it's not meant to be fast. You see how different each of their lives is, while despite a number of people around them how lonely they actually are.

I would say the movie by itself is a work of art and not for everyone. I liked the movie. Go ahead and try it for yourself. I would rate the movie a 3.25 on 5. But I wont be surprised if you either love or hate it. 


Rahul.

Where's has my Cricket gone?

IPL - A runaway train - a wreck waiting to happen (Players Won, Fans and Cricket Lost)

The first season of the IPL was wonderful, with new teams being formed, a concept developed and icon players in each of their teams. It was a gala of cricket with some of the best names thrown in for a bit of fun. T20 cricket was just evolving, people were already calling ODIs dead and test matches was the premium product that was served in small doses. It was a great event with really high quality cricket and all the teams played brilliantly.

Despite the tournament moving to South Africa for a year and then coming back to India a year later, all 3 seasons of IPL provided wonderful entertainment and action for all involved. The amounts of money involved was ludicrous for 6 weeks of cricket, but India is the money spinner of cricket, and more money for everyone can't be a bad thing right? Maybe it can. Over the last 3 years, for a lot of the cricketers the importance of international cricket has gone down. They have started calling themselves Professional freelancers (Flintoff, Symonds). Folks are retiring prematurely to play jut T20 cricket, all sort of stuff happened with the cricketing world. No other cricket league has since formed, which has the scale this one does.

But early retirement and professional freelancers not withstanding, the rest of the world still thought of international cricket as the holy grail. No one is quite sure anymore what the priority for Indian cricketers is. There was a time when cricketers were dropped from the national team and they slogged and slogged in domestic cricket to make their way back. Even Saurav Ganguly had to fight his way back to international cricket before the IPL. But now, cricketers who have been pushed aside by the selectors still have a flood gate to fill their pockets, the glorious IPL.

This year has been nothing but scandal after scandal for the IPL. To be quite honest I didn't understand all the nitty-gritties and legalies of why RCB and KPXI were removed by the BCCI. Purely from a fan's standpoint, all I could care about was that I would have 2 less teams in the IPL to watch. Two teams that I had enjoyed watching. RCB for the way Shane Warne had groomed the youngsters who were playing with him into good players, who eventually represented India and KPXI, just because I liked watching them lose. Don't know why, but I didn't really like the team. Months of speculation and at the end of the day they were cleared and IPL was all set to have 10 teams. That's a good number, the season should be fun.

But then this auction came along and left a very bad taste. Why does the league need an auction every 3 years.Why can't it be like 10 companies operating for the best cricketing talent in the world. the spending cap makes sense to level the playing field, but if you have 16 players in your squad today, shouldn't you get the first right of refusal for each of them. Shouldn't players get to choose who they play for? So tomorrow if Delhi wanted to buy Dhoni for $2 Million, shouldn't the three parties hash it out like a company and trade for players? New players show up on the scene, set a salary cap for them until they have played for their countries for a year or two (or set a number of games as the criteria), at the end of the day these are companies, they are not going to throw a huge chunk of money at every player that comes along. But these player retention, open auction, uncapped player rules along with the amounts of money shelled out for the Indian cricketers makes the head spin.

Do you think Irfan Pathan would have any more incentive to try and get back into the national setup with a paycheck that reads $1.9 Million. He was a brilliant fast bowler, a good all rounder until he fell out the form and the national team. I really think he could have a second burst like Zaheer and become one of India's better players. But would he still have the incentive to do that?

Then there's also the simple fact about how you build team loyalty. Come on, if the entire structure of the team changes every 3 years, how can you really keep following that team. Think about it this way, you come together as a team today, build strategies and skills together. Now as long as your core stays you can grow, but changing the entire team means re-building from scratch. If one or two guys move to a different team, that may give you some money to go get some new talent and will create an interesting situation when you have that one player in the opposition you knows your tricks. But putting them all back in different places causes chaos. That's why I think the Chennai team is best placed with the number of players they have retained and retrieved, the core has remained, I would always support my home team, but I feel for the internationals who follow the IPL, they may had some favorite cricketers, Gilchrist & Symonds maybe and would have built and affinity towards the Deccan chargers. But now one's the captain of Punjab while the other is in Mumbai. It devalues the franchises.

And then people keep asking the question if future players will now aspire for the Indian team or an IPL team. IPL is a distraction for the fan, international cricket at the end of the day is the real deal. Do you think if the Indian team starts doing badly in international cricket, people will still like the IPL. People would start looking at the price tags more cynically and would start criticizing the salaries.

So now I ask the question. Where has cricket gone in all this mess?
I say, let's forget the IPL for a while. Look forward to the World Cup, the real cricket.
This entertainment extravaganza will come and go.. Hopefully some better Tests and ODIs will follow so that we forget this ever happened, until the auction comes around 3 years from now. (or maybe by IPL 7 people will learn and things will change. Hey, we can always hope!)

Rahul.

The Fighter - Review

The Fighter - A gritty real life drama,with compelling characters, drugs and boxing. Worth a watch.


The fighter starts off with Christian Bale (Dicky Eklund) in front of a camera talking about what a great boxer he was, the then introduces his kid brother Mickey Ward (played by Mark Wahlberg) who is an up and coming boxer in the small industrial town of Lowell Massachusetts. He talks about how he was a quick boxer who liked to stay out of the way, but his brother liked to get into it and throw some punches. He has taught his little brother every thing he knows.

Right at the get go you look and Christian Bale and realize that he has done it again, he has transformed himself into the character (for those of you who have not seen these transformations, you can see his best work in The Machinist or The Prestige, which are by the way two of my favorite movies). He plays this lanky, but way past his prime boxer (the pride of Lowell), who's being followed around by cameras, on his road to a comeback. But 10 to 15 minute into the story you realize that he's nowhere close to comeback, he's a pothead with one big moment. All this time his brother, Mickey Ward is in his shadow, a boxer with a lot of talent, eying something better. Mickey is trained and managed by his family (his brother and mother).

In Mickey you see this man, who is not young in years but still has that idealistic look in his eyes. A man who is hoping for the big time. Mark Wahlberg plays him with a great sincerity that makes you really feel for the character.

The entire cast of the movie does a brilliant job to take you in an not let go. They tell you a very important story with an amazing grace.

Spoiler Alert:
The story starts of slow with the introduction of all the characters as they set the scenes. They show Dicky and his mother Alice, as they try and get Mickey back on his feet after a string of defeats. As you are watching the scenes unfold in the movie you realize that there's a lot more going on here. The family is a mess and they are dragging down this potential talent with them. 


The mother (Alice Ward) and the sisters are trying to ride a gravy train that has long been dry. They are trying to hold back Mickey from what he can really do. All they can see and aspire to is what Dicky was, what he could have been. They don't see what has happened to him, and what they are doing to Mickey either.The turning point in the story comes when Mickey decides he needs to do what's best for him after another big skirmish in which his brother is arrested and he starts doing what's best for him. 


At the same time you see Dicky in prison as he slowly comes out of this addiction deal with what the documentary was really about, Drugs and Lives lost, not about some big comeback. He comes out of prison a changed man, a clean man who helps his brother to his biggest victory.


A wonderful movie. Brilliant acting. Definitely worth a watch. All in all 4 on 5

Rahul.

Guzaarish - Review

Click the image for the trailer

Guzaarish - A well made movie, but not something that everyone may like.

It's along the lines of most Sanjay Leela Bhansali movies. It's full of artistic expression and tries to convey a strong message. The movie tells the story of Ethan Masceranas a quadriplegic who appeals to the court to permit him to take his life.

Hrithik Roshan plays the role of this once great magician with a wonderful grace. Today, despite being unable to care for himself, he brings hope to a lot of people through his radio program. So when he appeals for the court to take his life, it leaves most of his friends and family devastated.

The cast is supported by strong performances throughout, Aishwariya Rai plays Sophia D'souza, his nurse for the past 12 years who takes care of every aspect of his life right from brushing his teeth to changing his clothes.

There's a deep connection between Sophia and Ethan which is shown very subtly in the movie. But that's not the main topic and it's good that they don't focus on it. They show us how he struggles through his day to day life. The best scene is when his roof starts leaking and there's nothing that he can do but watch the water drip on his head. A couple of scenes in the movie, especially Sophia dancing in a restaurant could have been avoided. It does not add anything to the story and makes you wonder what the point of it is. All in  all, It's a good movie to watch. I'd say 3/5.

The movie tries to address the serious topic of euthanasia with a very delicate hand, showing why someone may actually want to do something so extreme. When I first heard him say, "I want to ask the court for permission to take my life" I thought to myself that it was wrong. I felt that if it were allowed, people would misuse it. But by the end of the movie, I found myself thinking that there was good reason to allow people who cannot help themselves, people who are in unbelievable pain an opportunity to end their lives. I guess I just wont comment on the topic anymore. It's a personal choice.

Rahul

Battlestar Galactica (RDM) - Review

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (BSG)


This science fiction series that aired from 2003 to 2009 is one of the best space epics that I've seen. Being a huge fan of every Star Trek series out there, I think I now have my all time favorite split. The only series that comes close to BSG is Star Trek: Deep Space 9. Baring a very few episodes the entire series continues the story arc from the first to the last episode. The premise, the concept and actors all add to the character of the series and bring it to life.


Spoiler Warning:
Before I start talking about BSG. Let me say one thing. If you've not seen the series. Don't read the entire review. Every line you read may have a spoiler for you. If you like science fiction (or even a good action series) watch BSG when you find the time. The series is not as long as most (it's just 4 seasons). But at the end of it - it  leaves you feeling extremely satisfied, thinking about the concept and in awe at the quality of the story. 


Let's get into it....


The Universe of Battlestar Galactica derives a lot of it's concepts from Greek mythos, the zodiac and concepts that say man came to Earth from the beyond. They talk about a race of humans that live on the 12 Colonies of Kobol, which are 12 planets that mirror our 12 signs of the Zodiac.Humanity once lived with the Gods (Apollo, Aphrodite, Aries, Zeus and the rest) on the planet known as Kobol. Many thousands of years ago, 12 tribes left Kobol and settled on these 12 planets to begin life anew.

As humanity evolved they developed artificial intelligence to improve life on the twelve colonies.
These creations were known as Cylons (Cybernetic Life FOrm Nodes)
The opening line of the mini-series (pilot) described it the best.

The Cylons were created by Man.

They were created to make life easier on the Twelve Colonies.

And then the day came when the Cylons decided to kill their masters.

After a long and bloody struggle, an armistice was declared.

The Cylons left for another world to call their own.

A remote space station was built...

Where Cylon and human could meet and maintain diplomatic relations.

Every year, the Colonials send an officer...

The Cylons send no one.

No-one has seen or heard from the Cylons in over forty years...

The mini-series begins at this point - 40 Years Later. (Spoilers Begin)

The Cylons return to destroy their masters - they believe that Humanity is a flawed creation and orchestrate a holocaust of the 12 colonies. At the end of this all that is survives is a rag-tag group of soldiers aboard an aging Battlestar (that was about to be decommissioned and converted to a museum) Galactica. They also find many civilian ships that survived the attack and together they are all that's left of humanity. 50 thousand souls.
These ships become what remains of the Colonial civilization and they are in search of a mystical planet known as Earth. The Twelve Colonies believe that there was once a 13th tribe on Kobol, that left their brothers behind and went on to look for a new world to live on, Earth. This fleet in retreat, continually pursued by the rampaging Cylons trying to take them out is on this journey to find their lost brothers of Kobol and a new Home.

When the colonials fought the Cylons during the first war they looked like our typical representation of a Robot - Huge metal creatures. Only that they were robotic and biological components. Over the last 40 years, they have evolved - they now look and feel human.

This adds a sense of mystery to the series as the colonials meet each of the Cylon models.

But at the end of the day, in addition to the story, the concept and the visual treat that the series provides. What stands out is the wonderfully depicted characters.

The stars of the show are Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, they play Commander William Adama and President Laura Roslin, the two heads of the fleet of survivors. They are by no means perfect leaders, but are instead two people who inherited the position because there was no one else left above them.

Neither of them put in the best acing performances, but then they portray flawed characters, so I guess it's apt that the acting was flawed as well. The series is brilliantly supported by a wonderful cast, some of whom you like from the get go and some that you learn to love.

- spoiler alert 2 - stop now - 

The first two seasons show the conflicts within BSG and the fight for survival against the Cylons. You see the story arc evolve as Laura Roslin becomes a prophet and starts having visions of Earth. She believes that she can find Earth, find salvation for her people. She believes that she is The Dying leading in the prophecies. They find Kobol, they find the humans left behind on Caprica. The show brings the entire cast together by the end of the second season as they settle on a new Caprica to begin a new life.

The third season takes the show further by setting it one year after they settle on new Caprica and shows their struggle for survival. The 3rd season starts concentrating more on the Cylons as well, exploring their lives and beliefs in the one true God. It shows in a subtle way the differences between all our religions, the differences in our ways of life.

But the turning point in the show was when they decided to make sense out of an over used line "This has happened before. This will happen again."  This one sentence gives all the meaning to the BSG series. The 13th tribe were humanoid Cylons. They lived in harmony with humanity on Kobol until their beliefs caused them to go out in search for a new world. They found Earth settled, grew and eventually forgot they were machines. They developed their own Cylons. There was another war that destroyed their world. It's at this point in the show that all the strange overtones in the series, like calling a human-cylon child the future of things to come start making sense. Both humanity and cylon on their own are flawed. Perhaps they can survive as one.

God(s) eventually leads the fleet by chance to pre-historic planet where humanity has evolved. They are hunters, gatherers. They have not even developed speech yet. With no where else to go Humanity and cylon settles on this planet and integrates into their lives, returning to their roots. (a fresh start). Of course this planet is what we know as Earth.

But the best scene in the entire series is the last one. Earth - 150,000 years later. Today in our terms. Two angels walk through New York city. They reminisce Caprica city before the fall and question if it will happen again. As they walk out of frame, they show all our robotic advancements till date. It's a thought.

A brilliant series. Nothing that I've seen (except DS9) comes close. 5/5.

The movie that followed - The Plan - don't watch it. The movie tries to explain the Cylon Plan - the first two seasons. It does not add to the story (3/5). Let the last scene be the last of this BSG series that you watch.

Rahul.

the social network - Review

the social network - Review


How did Facebook become the phenomenon that it is? How did Mark Zuckerberg create this sensation at 20 years old? I don't know one person who uses Facebook who will not want to watch this movie. 


Accept it or not, facebook is a huge part of our lives. But back in 2003 did you think that you would abandon  most of the other social networking sites like MySpace, Orkut and whatever else was out there. Only in 2007 I blogged about how Orkut was helping me stay in touch with my friends. I guess Facebook at the time was still just growing and it had not become the phenomenon that it is now. I don't even think Zuckerberg can define Facebook. In the movie he says, "We don't know what it is yet. All we know is that it's cool!" Yeah, I agree it's cool. It's a polished and clean website that is totally customized to you and in the process making everyone at Facebook a billionaire. 


Well, Billionaires yes, not every one got their fair share. The movie is plays like a carefully scripted documentary with all the glitz and hoopla of a Hollywood blockbuster thrown in. When the movie starts of in a bar, with Zuckerburg blabbering on and on and on to some girl at a break neck speed, you wonder. What the heck is this? But the moment she storms out of the bar after calling in an a****le. You realize what made the facebook. How the ideas came to be. Facebook is the creation of a genius mind of a teen who just got dumped. And he did it why? To get back at her of course. His best friend, Eduardo Saverin provides him the key ingredient, an algorithm to create a website that can rate girls. facemash.com. These 2 co-founders of the best social networking site on the planet, started crafting the idea over beers and thousands of lines of code. The beauty of the movie is it shows you the evolution of an idea. A small spark that led to another and another and ultimately Facebook.


I learned a lot of things yesterday. For the longest time I didn't even care who created facebook. Until I learned that Mark, was the youngest Billionaire on the planet. He's as old as me & he made facebook. Wow! 


The movie does justice to all parties in the film. It shows you that facebook was not an idea that came from one guy. It was the culmination of the best from all the facebook pages in Harvard, the social networking capabilities of MySpace and Friendster and some simple day to day aspects of college life. The movie is a must watch. Hats off to the beautifully crafted story. It never gives you a chance to get bored, without evergoing too fast.


My Rating: 4 on 5.


Rahul.