tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63803272024-03-14T05:30:36.657-04:00Rahul Tyagi or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blogmy place, I guess it will mostly have my thoughts about cricket, movies, music etc. Lets see.Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.comBlogger346125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-21660858916702164202017-02-16T10:59:00.003-05:002017-02-16T10:59:54.200-05:00Back<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
But this time, probably just for personal microposts. a sentence here, a paragraph there. Just as a journal I will be able to come back to later to see what I was thinking in the past. </div>
Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-18359707732487542982013-02-24T15:15:00.002-05:002013-02-25T01:29:12.051-05:00My wish list for today<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Wish list.. not predictions. I have somehow forgotten what was the point of prediction. :P<br />
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1. <b>Picture</b>: Haven't seen Les Miserables yet. The ones I enjoyed most among the nominees were "Silver Linings Playbook", "Argo" and "Django Unchained". Most of the others were pretty good too. My favorite: SLPlaybook.<br />
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2. <b>Actor</b>: Joaquin Phoenix and Daniel Day Lewis were the two great performances here (again.. not see LesMis yet). It will be a really pleasant surprise if JP wins it, though I don't have anything against DDL. He was brilliant as he always is.<br />
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3. <b>Actress</b>: Not seen The Impossible yet (but heard really good things about Naomi Watts there.. will see this soon). Favorites: Jessica Chastain and Quvenzhane Wallis. Wallis winning would be awesome! though surely not going to happen.<br />
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4. <b>Supporting Actor</b>: All of them are really great, other than perhaps Alan Arkin who had the least substantial (but still really enjoyable and fun) role among the 5. Christoph Waltz and Philip Seymour Hoffman are my favorites. I am such a huge fan of Hoffman that I am in danger of jumping around in joy like a teenage fangirl if he wins. :)<br />
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5. <b>Supporting Actress</b>: Not seen The Sessions and Les Mis (and apparently Anne Hathaway is great here). Among the other three, perhaps Sally Field.. but really no real wish here.<br />
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6. <b>Directing</b>: my favorites: Ang Lee, David O. Russell and Benh Zeitlin. Perhaps Ang Lee's job was the most difficult and his vision for the movie made it really memorable. Having said that, Zeitlin's vision was also similarly unique in Beasts of the Southern Wild.<br />
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7. <b>Original Screenplay</b>. Django Unchained and Moonrise Kingdom were the most fun. though the award is not necessarily about "fun". still, would be nice to see one of them get it.<br />
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8. <b>Adapted Screenplay</b>: Not having read any of the books, it's difficult to say anything about how good the adaptations are. But in terms of enjoying the writing, SLPlaybook and Argo are probably the top ones. Though, considering how difficult it must've been to translate a story like Life of Pi from book to screen, perhaps Life of Pi is the biggest achievement here.<br />
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9. <b>Animated Feature</b>: Oh! What can I say? first time that I have seen only a single movie among the nominees. and that is obviously the Pixar movie. So, no real wish, but it is always nice to see Pixar win. I have heard really good things about all the other nominees too.<br />
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10. <b>Foreign Language Film</b>: Only seen A Royal Affair and Amour. No real wish. In any case, Amour might be the favorite by a long way, but this category is very frequently a surprise. Because it almost always consists of 5 really good movies, some of which only get wide exposure after the oscars. So, perhaps one of the other 3 might win. I'll be happy if that happens, not because the ones I have seen weren't good. Because that'd mean that there's a possibility an even better movie will soon come to theatres for us to see.<br />
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11. <b>Animated Short</b>: All of them were pretty good in their own way. (one is most beautiful. one is most innovative. etc.). But the most charming for me was Paperman. Hopefully they'll win.<br />
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12. <b>Live Action Short</b>: Again, all were nice and there are no real wishes here either. Perhaps I liked Curfew, Death of a Shadow, and Henry slightly more than the other 2. Probably Curfew just a bit more than the others. :)</div>
Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-78496530076200171312013-02-04T15:02:00.001-05:002013-02-04T18:15:14.529-05:00The man who ate the banana...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I have my weekly group meeting on monday noon. This means that I am quite busy preparing my slides on monday before noon AND there is no time for the usual going out for lunch.. so, I try to take something that keeps me full till 2pm, when I can think about proper lunch.<br />
<br />
Today, I decided to take a banana.<br />
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I came in, put the banana on the shelf above my computers and started to work. There was a lot of work. 2 things were being juggled together. Results were being calculated and slides being made simultaneously. Absolutely no time to even stand up, let alone thinking of the banana, even though the tummy had started to grumble. Finally, at 11:45, I found some time for the pre-lunch snack that was waiting for me in the shelf above the computers.<br />
<br />
I looked up.<br />
<br />
There was no banana.<br />
<br />
"hmph! that's funny! I could've sworn that's where I had kept it!<br />
Maybe on the other shelf?...<br />
Nope! Not there either..."<br />
<br />
It was then, as I sat there wondering where exactly my notoriously bad memory is failing me this morning (Did I forget to get it from home? Is that distinctly visual memory of keeping it there just a reconstruction from what I expected, rather than real?)... so, it is then that I felt a slight banana-ish taste on my tongue. It took me aback!<br />
<br />
"Surely, I haven't eaten the banana and absolutely, completely,entirely, as-thorough-as-is-possible-ly forgotten it!..."<br />
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And then it struck me! Aha! If I had eaten the banana, where's the skin, eh? (Let's not think about the taste on the tongue for a while.. it is too traumatic to go near the possibility that I really might've eaten it and forgotten it) There was clearly no sign of the possibly-eaten-but-more-likely-vanished-into-thin-air banana's skin as far as I could see (which isn't much when you sit in what can only quite generously be called a cubicle).<br />
<br />
This was a riddle, the only solution to which was that not only did I completely forget eating a banana, I also had no memory of getting up from my seat to throw the skin in the small trashcan in the corner of the office. So I, reluctantly, and very apprehensively (along with perhaps Bernard Hermann's music from a Hitchcock movie playing in my imagination) got up and took 3 steps towards the trash can.<br />
<br />
There it was on the top. The unmistakable skin of the lonely banana from my fridge that should've been on the shelf above my computers covering the banana that I clearly had eaten but have no memory of eating.<br />
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What will happen to me when I am 60? or even 40? *shudder*</div>
Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-6652354905303654912012-02-26T18:57:00.003-05:002012-02-26T19:07:53.179-05:00The obligatory oscar post<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
Last year I had published just 1 (yep... One...) post on this blog. That was because I just couldn't not make my obligatory oscar post. With that sort of history, and my recent claim about reviving my blog, there is really no way out this time either. So, here goes... as usual a hurried post, but an oscar post nevertheless.<br />
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Only writing about the categories about what I have any opinion one way or another. <b>Bold </b>is for "probably going to win", <i>italics </i>are for "my choice among the ones I have seen" while * means "still have to see this movie".<br />
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Best Picture: <b>The Artist</b>, (The Descendants or Hugo could also win.. though The Artist is the frontrunner), <i>Hugo </i>(Loved it!), *Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close<br />
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Best Lead Actor: <i style="font-weight: bold;">Jean Dujardin </i>(though I won't be surprised if Clooney wins... I'll actually be pleasantly surprised if Oldman wins, but perhaps that's not going to happen). *A Better Life<br />
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Best Lead Actress: <i style="font-weight: bold;">Viola Davis </i>(Streep might win it too.. I haven't seen 3 movies here, so no strong opinion anyway) *The Iron Lady, *My Week With Marilyn, *Albert Nobbs<br />
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Best Supporting Actress: <i style="font-weight: bold;">Octavia Spencer</i> (I'm not sure if she is really the frontrunner, but she really elevated The Help by her performance.) *Albert Nobbs, *Bridesmaids<br />
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Best Director: <i>Hugo </i>(Perhaps <b>The Artist </b>is the frontrunner.. but i don't know... maybe they WILL give it to Scorsese.. if the do, I'll be happy.. I actually will also be pleasantly surprised if Terrence Malick gets it for The Tree of Life, but that is probably not going to happen)<br />
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Original Screenplay:<b> </b><i>A Separation </i>(I don't know who will win. haven't seen Bridesmaids, and I didn't think Margin Call was THAT good.. any of the others won't be a big surprise but I REALLY want A separation to win, as you might've guessed by my last post :) ) *Bridesmaids<br />
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Adapted Screenplay: <i>Moneyball </i>(perhaps this will go to <b>The Descendants</b>, and I won't mind that too much. Though Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was pretty good too) *The Ides of March<br />
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Cinematography: All beautiful movies here! But I prefer <i>The Tree of Life </i>and <i>War Horse </i> over others. Maybe they'll give it to <b>The Tree of Life</b>.. or perhaps it is going to be the day of <b>The Artist</b>.<br />
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Original Score: <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Artist </i>had to breathe through its score, and it was really good. Though all the other contenders were really good too.<br />
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Foreign Language Film: <i><b>A Separation</b> </i>(though I haven't seen any of the others.. still, a movie will have to be awesome to beat A Separation, and that can only be good! Another great movie to see! But I really do think that is probably not going to happen.) *In Darkness, *Footnote, *Bullhead, *Monsieur Lazhar<br />
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Animated Feature: <i style="font-weight: bold;">Rango </i>(not seen 3 of the contenders, but I'll be surprised if Puss in Boots beats Rango.. and mildly surprised if even Kung Fu Panda 2 wins.. no idea about the other two. They might actually be good enough to win) *Chico & Rita, *A Cat in Paris<br />
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Live Action Short: No personal favorites really. All were nice. Though perhaps <b>Tuba Atlantic </b>and <b>The Shore </b>might be more 'oscar like' and might win.<br />
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Animated Short: <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore </i>(Though Pixar's <i style="font-weight: bold;">La Luna </i>was pretty cute too, and might win.. all the other 3 were nice enough actually.. but TFFBOMMLessmore (phew!) was easily my favorite among all 5. </div>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-87038257527564182692012-02-22T17:47:00.001-05:002012-02-22T20:55:30.366-05:00A Separation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
I had almost completely given up on my blogs. Every once in a while something would make me think of writing a post, but the more time a blog is dead, stronger is the reason that is needed to revive it. After a while, almost nothing seems strong enough. Not even year-end lists. I actually did make a "best hindi songs of 2011" for my own amusement, but even that didn't get me to finally publish something here.<br />
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And then, I saw "A Separation".<br />
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I saw it on 18th (my birthday), but waited for some days because a) I wanted to give myself some time so that the initial euphoria can die down and b) GG has been asking me to start blogging again, so now this can also count as her birthday gift! :P (Happy B'day GG!) :)<br />
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Anyway, for those of you who don't know about this movie, <b>A Separation </b>is an Iranian movie about a couple in contemporary Iran and some extraordinary circumstances that they find themselves in. You can see the trailer below, and it will tell you enough about the movie's plot and genre etc for you to decide whether this sounds like something that you'd want to see.<br />
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I was quite looking forward to this movie because it was easily the best reviewed movie of the year (95 on metacritic! no. 1 on Roger Ebert's year-end list..). The trailer increased that excitement. This was obviously the kind of movie that I normally like. When we found out that it is releasing in St Louis the day before my birthday, we really didn't have to think twice about what we were going to do to celebrate my birthday - Go and see if "A Separation" really is as good as we were hoping it to be.<br />
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It was. It really was. A lot of times when I go to see a movie with high expectations, there is a danger of me underrating it just because it didn't live upto the expectations. This movie not only lived up to them, it surpassed them. I was quite excited after watching "Hugo" recently, and "Black Swan" last year, but I really don't remember feeling THIS good about a movie after watching it for the first time since, probably, "The Lives of Others".<br />
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The movie is quite verbose. And completely devoid of any background score (which made me think of Satyajit Rai.. apparently he didn't like using music to guide and enhance emotions in movies.. a sign of inadequate storytelling skills). If you look at the trailer, it essentially seems to be about a family's troubles. Perhaps a tragic family drama, one would think. But it is really about much more than that. At times, it plays like a mystery and keeps you hooked because you want to know what the truth is. Then again, it raises Rashomon-like questions about truth itself. About morality. About letter and spirit of the law. About right and wrong and most things that are neither. And it touches you because you really do care about all of these characters. You think about those big questions BECAUSE they impact the lives of these people who really are trying to do their best given the situation they are in. The overall feel of the movie also made me think of Dekalog. Perhaps because while the movie is about big questions, it never feels that way because those things are translated so incredibly well into the lives of simple, ordinary people with seemingly simple lives.<br />
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It really is a triumph of storytelling and performances. If the trailer makes this movie seems anything like the sort of movie that you like to watch, then DO NOT miss it whenever you get an opportunity to see it. </div>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-78635682934670502402011-01-25T09:55:00.000-05:002011-01-25T09:55:30.091-05:00Oscar Nominations 2011<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
The nominations were announced about half an hour ago, so here is the obligatory 'reaction post' (even though the equally obligatory 'my wishlist post' never made it beyond my facebook status message).<br />
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<b>Delighted:</b><br />
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<b></b>- for A R Rahman, of course. Twin nominations, once again! And this time it feels even better than 2009 because that year those nominations were almost inevitable, unlike this year. 127 Hours lost a lot of steam because a lot of people just weren't interested in watching it (the theme/story doesn't really make it an audience magnet). Also, right at the fag end of the year True Grit released and sort of pushed around some of the not-so-sure nominees out. I was afraid that 127 Hours might've missed the bus. But it didn't!!! :) Now I'm getting greedy. I actually am hopeful that he'll WIN one of these. Perhaps not for original score, but If I Rise must stand a very good chance!<br />
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- for Pixar, as usual. Best picture and Best animated feature were a given but I didn't think the screenplay would get the recognition. Moreover, I had completely forgotten about Day&Night being in the run for the best animated short.. so that was a pleasant news!<br />
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- for Jackie Weaver. Animal Kingdom was a movie well worth watching, and Jackie Weaver's performance essentially carries the movie through the extremely engaging last hour or so of the movie. Ben Mendelsohn was actually really good too, but one can't have everything!<br />
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- for Winter's Bone. 4 of the biggest nomination categories!! Picture, actress, supporting actor and screenplay! It was a pleasant surprise to see that people remembered this small movie even though it was released way back in the summer. (unlike The Ghost Writer, which released pretty early in the year and was completely forgotten)<br />
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- for The Kids Are All Right. see 'Winter's Bone'. except that this actually did release closer to the oscar season, and hence wasn't really a surprise.<br />
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- for Javier Bardem. Haven't seen the movie yet, but I'm always delighted whenever a performance in a foreign language movie gets such attention. He missed out on a nomination for Mar Adentro, but perhaps this will be his year again (after Anton Chigurh got him a well deserved oscar). Then again, Colin Firth (or James Franco) might have something to say about that..<br />
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- for all the obvious nominations of The Social Network and Inception. There's no way they were going to miss out on the obvious ones like best picture, screenplay, music etc... Then again.....<br />
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<br />
<b>Sad/Dejected/Disappointed</b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
- for Nolan. now THIS I didn't see coming. He has never been nominated for direction before (actually, before today he had only 1 nomination.. for Memento's screenplay), but this should really have been his. The guy has had an astounding decade. I think they will soon give him a lifetime achievement award (at age 45!) to atone for all these sins.<br />
<br />
- for Inception editing! If anything could be even more disappointing and puzzling than the Nolan snub, it had to this! Inception, NOT nominated for editing! I have no idea what to think. I REALLY need to see those other movies. </div>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-51746046219383591882010-07-18T04:56:00.002-04:002010-07-18T04:56:56.611-04:00Trailer Park 3Let's start with Frieda Pinto... Julian Schnabel... and Bombay Theme!<br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ck96h97y9Vs&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ck96h97y9Vs&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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One for fun....<br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AAaAKBvFxpM&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AAaAKBvFxpM&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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And the rest.... interesting for one reason or another... <br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/g8csr68LjUM&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/g8csr68LjUM&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0wluNK6kqgw&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0wluNK6kqgw&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eECq3J7L4gw&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eECq3J7L4gw&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mWoUgftTj3Y&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mWoUgftTj3Y&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CaaGLogbrfY&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CaaGLogbrfY&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-35207732294382752202010-07-16T12:54:00.001-04:002010-07-18T04:56:04.056-04:002010... the awards so far...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">I have seen Inception only about an hour ago, so clearly this post will be unduly colored because of that. But that's ok.. we'll not consider this my "movies of first half of 2010" post, but a part of my "let me salute Inception" posts.. :)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Note: the foreign Language movies are mostly of 2009, but got proper US releases only in 2010. so....</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">so.....</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><b>Best Supporting Actor</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">: John Hawkes (Winter's Bone), Guillermo Francella (The Secret in their Eyes), and Niels Arestrup (Un Prophete)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">special mentions: Pablo Rago (The Secret in their Eyes), Nana Patekar (Raajneeti)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><b>Best Supporting Actress</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">: Priyamani (Raavan/Raavanan) and Olivia Williams (The Ghost Writer)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">special mentions: Soledad Villamil (The Secret in their Eyes), Dale Dickey (Winter's Bone), Ellen Page (Inception) (well, she looked great.. and we KNOW she is a great actress... didn't have to do all that much here though.. still, they are my awards, aren't they? :P which reminds me.. I think I'll give one to Marion Cotillard too!!)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><b>Best Actor: </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Tahar Rahim (Un Prophete)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">special mentions: Leonardo DiCaprio (Shutter Island/Inception), Filippo Timi (Vincere), Naseeruddin Shah (Ishqiya), Vikram (Raavanan)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><b>Best Actress: </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone) and Giovanna Mezzogiorno (Vincere)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">special mentions: Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Vidya Balan (Ishqiya), Hye-Ja Kim (Mother)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><b>Best Screenplay</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">: Christopher Nolan (Inception)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">special mentions: Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3), Park/Bong (Mother), Sacheri/Campanella (The Secret in their Eyes)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><b>Best Director</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">: Christopher Nolan (Inception)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">special mentions: Roman Polanski (The Ghost Writer), Debra Granik (Winter's Bone), Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon), Juan José Campanella (The Secret in their Eyes)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><b>Best Picture</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">: Inception</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">special mention: Toy Story 3</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">slightly less special mentions: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Secret in their Eyes, Vincere, The Secret of Kells</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">ohh.. and some more: Mother, Winter's Bone, Ishqiya, The Ghost Writer, Shutter Island</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">ohh.. wait.. Best Picture isn't the last award here.. I have another...</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><b>Master of Rahul's Movie Universe</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">: Christopher Nolan :) :)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b>Update:</b></div><div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><br />
</b></div><div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">After seeing Inception second time....</div><div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I'm replacing Ellen Page with Marion Cotillard in best supporting actress... :)</div><div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Also... needless to say, Inception takes all the technical awards... Best Editing, Best Sound Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Music Score (a very special mention to Toy Story 3 but, really, Inception's score is something else entirely), and maybe even Best Cinematography (with Shutter Island and The White Ribbon giving it tough competition... perhaps even sharing the award).</div></span>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-77667031257725610582010-07-04T15:34:00.001-04:002010-07-04T15:34:20.170-04:00Trailer Park -2 (The animation edition)Some pretty good trailers of upcoming animated features. All of the movies might not turn out to be great, but definitely all of them do look promising to some extent.<br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jwPxfIeHkYc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jwPxfIeHkYc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qPqwlgqO_x0&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qPqwlgqO_x0&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yJtot_f-snU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yJtot_f-snU&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wCxuxrLNrsw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wCxuxrLNrsw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-19982431355184666282010-06-30T02:10:00.000-04:002010-06-30T02:10:03.357-04:00Trailer Park -1Ok, this is a new series by me. I'll post, for the busy world's benefit, any trailers of upcoming movies that I find interesting. Some of these would be great trailers of movies that will eventually turn out to be crap. Some others will probably be crappy trailers of the movies that I have high hopes for. Hopefully there will be none that even I won't have an idea about why I posted them. Hopefully. We'll see.<br />
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So, here goes, sans any comment (and in no particular order of interest)...<br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yFN0nf6Hqk0&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></p><p></param></p><p><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yFN0nf6Hqk0&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/U0DTUErg9-A&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></p><p></param></p><p><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/U0DTUErg9-A&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GHWWH2bdowM&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></p><p></param></p><p><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GHWWH2bdowM&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y9dBeef9KWc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></p><p></param></p><p><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y9dBeef9KWc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kymQcM4ej3w&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></p><p></param></p><p><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kymQcM4ej3w&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RDlXdujRSD8&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></p><p></param></p><p><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RDlXdujRSD8&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/K3kOxns7lfM&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></p><p></param></p><p><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/K3kOxns7lfM&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4ywmoXZwkA0&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></p><p></param></p><p><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4ywmoXZwkA0&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/t1JFFQfwl3s&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></p><p></param></p><p><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></p><p></param></p><p><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/t1JFFQfwl3s&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-54945991390594028432010-06-25T06:57:00.002-04:002010-06-25T06:57:10.995-04:00Ratnam Remixes Ramayana<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">By the time I went to catch a show of Raavan, it had already been mauled by almost everyone online. The good reviews, and I have seen many of them now, came much after I myself had seen the movie, <a href="http://baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/2010/06/19/review-raavan/">one of them</a>, from my favorite indian movie critic, Baradwaj Rangan. It is still easily one of Mani's worst reviewed movies yet. Dil Se had about as bad reviews as this, as I'm sure Thiruda Thiruda would've had. I don't remember how much I liked Thiruda Thiruda, but I really do like Dil Se even though the last half an hour or so is quite cringe-worthy. I have met some people who like Dil Se and don't know/remember that it got some pretty bad reviews; I've also met people who didn't see Dil Se when it released because of the universal jeers it seemed to be getting in the media at the time, but caught it on TV later and wondered why anyone would consider it to be so bad. That was the hope I was holding on to when I went to see Raavan. The hope that while some of the bad reviews might be from critics who really don't share my taste anyway, at least some of the others might be overcritical for the simple reason that this is a Mani Ratnam movie and you *do* expect him to do better than this. The rating at allbollywood was about 50% which doesn't make it the worst movie ever (it makes it about the 10th best movie of 2010 so far with reasonable number of reviews considered), it certainly is much lower than what I normally consider to be my threshold for being "worthy of a watch". Also, MNIK is 74% and Raajneeti 62%, and I considered the former to be just about watchable, the latter entirely forgettable, making Raavan sound like a horrible movie that would be unbearable to me.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">All I'm saying is that I was hardly expecting that I'll be going to see this one twice.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Now, lest you assume that my watching the movie twice means that I really liked it, let me explain my "watching twice" philosophy to you. There was a time I watched almost every movie more than once before forming any stable opinion on it. But that time was long, long ago. Still, I found that there are some kind of movies that are likely to improve on second viewing - movies that are obviously "have to see it again to really get everything in it" type like The Usual Suspects, and the movies that seem annoying/awkward because of unexpected/unfamiliar/difficult stylistic choices. The latter includes films that are partially or fully slower than one expected (2001 A Space Oddysey, Dekalog etc), unfamiliar style (early kurosawa, Farewell My Concubine etc), off-putting yet intentional pace inconsistencies (Kill Bill, Rang De Basanti etc). What happens is that the first time these things happen, I'm not really prepared for them and they affect my overall enjoyment of other things that actually might've been better than I thought. Once you have already seen the movie, you know what is coming and it doesn't bother you that much. So, unlike Raajneeti where the bad parts were just bad content and not style and the good parts weren't good enough to merit a second watch, Raavan seemed a perfect candidate for being such a movie. Not that it improved to the level of being a really good movie, but certainly some of the worst things seemed much less bothersome. What were these things? Read on...</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I am still to make up my mind as to what really killed this movie. There are many candidates.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><ol><li>A screeching Aishwarya in about 30% of her scenes that happen to be mostly in the first half. I can understand that it might've seemed a good thing to make Aish scream in a hoarse voice indicating her tortured and agitated state, but it certainly didn't translate on the screen as well as it might've been on paper. It just seemed annoying. </li>
<li>Abhishek's way over-the-top "mad Raavan" act in about a similar fraction of his act that was just plain annoying and unintentionally funny. Again, it probably seemed a good idea to justify the title "Raavan" by making it "ten heads.. as in ten different ideas running in the mind simultaneously" thing, but things like that are very hard to show on screen, unless you have a really charismatic performer to carry them through. Expecting Abhishek to do a Gabbar, a Joker or a Jack Torrence is hardly fair on the guy.. that sort of thing is just not his strength. I can see a Manoj Bajpai do wonders with this role.. even Madhavan would've probably made this work.... Anyway, I hear Vikram is able to bring much more physicality to the role much more convincingly in Raavanan. That itself should make the movie better by some margin for me. </li>
<li>Almost complete lack of "action" in the first half, and by action I mean worthwhile forward motion of the story... it is completely replaced by what we normally consider "action" sequences.. they just don't go anywhere. The way these action scenes are shot, it makes one think (and expect) that things are moving very fast but when you think about it, all that we are being shown are glimpses of a random "search in the jungle" with all the important parts of the story happening off the screen where Ragini must've done some seriously impressive stuff to muddle Beera's mind so much. I know that everyone can imagine their own effective stories about how exactly did things change in the minds of Beera and Ragini, but surely you can't blame the audience to not feel for your characters if they don't really see them doing much. This is even more frustrating because this is exactly the sort of thing that I love about Mani - two characters interacting.. playing with each other with just dialogue. As wonderful as all those jungle scenes with Dev running around look, all that time could easily have been used to use 10 pages of interesting lines for Ragini and Beera to speak. </li>
<li>Speaking of which, the lines that WERE spoken had hardly anything engaging about them. And this, I think, might be the single biggest factor in making the movie such a bland experience. Look at any Quentin Tarantino movie and you know that a scene doesn't necessarily HAVE to move the overall story forward for it to be interesting. All you need is some wonderful writing, and I don't mind one bit what it might be adding to the overall picture. The dialogue is one of the best things about Mani's movies. Even if some of the charm probably gets lost in subtitles, they are still pretty good. Dil Se and Yuva had some interesting writing by Tigmanshu Dhulia and Anurag Kashyap respectively and even Guru (with Hindi dialogue by the same Vijay Krishna Acharya who worked on Raavan) was actually pretty engaging througout (other than the silly climax, of course). Raavan, on the other hand, is full of simplistic, banal dialogue. It is perhaps difficult to separate banal acting with banal dialogue, and perhaps the same words would've worked had the performances worked, but I do think that they really needed some better lines here. </li>
</ol><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Phew!! Ok, so much for things that didn't work. Why did I go to see it again, then? Well... mainly because the second half seemed so much better than the first half. The first half just seemed so uneven, that I thought maybe the unevenness will be less bothersome the second time and it will make for an overall better feeling. More importantly, there were some truly good things going on. Like I said, the good things in Raajneeti were not good enough for me to want to see them again.. unlike that, the good things here were actually really good and I really wanted to see them again. So, the good stuff.... </div></div><div><ol><li>The beginning!! The 4-5 min long sequence that comes before the opening credits is a really, REALLY great piece of cinema. It reminded me of Godfather at times, and that can never be a bad thing. Perhaps it helped that VKAcharya didn't have anything to do in that sequence as it is almost entirely devoid of spoken words. This is as good an opening to the movie as one could've expected. </li>
<li>The photography! This one is a seriously good looking movie, even from Ratnam/Sivan standards. Ratnam has set almost the entire movie in and around jungles and waterfalls and that makes for some truly wonderful frames right from the first scene to the last. So much so that I think I would've enjoyed this movie more if it had been on mute! :D</li>
<li>The songs. This isn't even close to being one of Rahman/Ratnam's best collaboration, and for once Mani seems quite uninterested in spending too much time on songs. But, in this case, even a less-than-interested Mani is good enough to give some good songs/picturizations. The album itself is good enough, specially if you add the "Jaa, ud jaa re" to it, but most of the songs actually seem that much better on screen. Kata Kata, Behne De and Khili Re all worked pretty well for me... Khili Re, specially, is really well choreographed. Surprisingly, I didn't even mind "Thhok De Killi" in the movie. The song hadn't really worked for me before.. the trailer actually made it worse, but, for some reason, it doesn't seem bad at all during the movie. Perhaps it is positioned well. Or perhaps it just seemed better in comparison with some things in the first half. :D "Jaa, ud jaa re" is a pretty haunting song and it is used pretty well in the movie too. </li>
<li>Some memorable scenes which are vintage Mani. One scene, in particular, reminded me of something from Dil Se.. Abhi and Ash talking while he is on a boat, rotating all the while.. There are scenes in Dil Se where a similar thing happens. The actors are talking, and something goes on in the background that doesn't really have to. You could have Amar and Meghna saying the same lines without that woman continuing to pound whatever it is she was trying to pound in the background... or when they are talking in the AIR office when people are walking past and the door in the background keeps opening and closing... these things dont have to be there at all.. and are perhaps pretty distracting for some people... but the effect is memorable.. I might not remember anything about what they were talking about in those scenes, but I will never forget the visuals that were quite beautiful and distinctive... </li>
<li>The whole flashback with Priyamani works really well. The credit should probably go to her charming and convincing performance. That part of the movie is probably the only part where I actually cared for the characters on screen. </li>
<li>Govinda in some of his scenes, and Ravi Kishan throughout are quite good. Even the guy who plays the other brother of Raavan (Vibhishan?) was good, even though he only had 2 notable scenes. I think Ravi Kishan's convincing portrayal actually makes you realize even more how much better Raavan's role could've been done. While Abhishek seems adequate in most of the scenes where he doesn't have to do the 'mad Raavan' bit, you still find it hard to believe that he and Ravi Kishan's character are brothers. Ravi Kishan brings a certain earthy/rustic quality to his role that is just not there in Abhishek's performance. As for Govinda, they really could've done without the referencing Hanuman bit in his intro scene but I don't quite mind that as much as many people seem to have. </li>
</ol><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Which brings me to another point. I think some people were turned off by what they think were "literal adaptations" of Ramayana scenes, just like the Hanuman scene, but it didn't seem all that bad to me. I felt most of those things were actually tongue-in-cheek references to the epic rather than trying to force some direct references to remind people that it is Ramayana after all. Surely, it seemed to bother me to during the first watch, but something changed the second time round. And it wasn't just that I already knew that they were there. (Now what follows in this paragraph is full of big SPOILERS, so please don't read it if you havent seen the movie... ) I think that by the time this movie ended, it seemed pretty clear to me that Raavan is not a typical anti-hero here. There is nothing that they show Raavan doing which would make you think that he is the bad guy (well, almost nothing) and there is nothing that Dev does that might make him a hero. You sort of go in with those expectations because you know your Ramayana, and because Ratnam seems to confirm those assumptions by making Dev a cop and Raavan an outlaw. But, really, this is a movie where Dev really is the villain and Raavan is the hero. Seeing the movie again from this perspective actually made things much better, including the fact that I now wasn't thinking that I am watching an "adaptation of Ramayan", but more like a normal hero-villain story with some tongue-in-cheek story and character references to Ramayan thrown in. While Hanuman jumping around in the trees and the 14 days/14hours/14 min thing are direct references, almost every other reference is actually twisted around to make them interesting, rather than boring. The polygraph test reference that just seems horribly forced the first time around actually seems rather clever way of using audience expectations to hide what the real meaning of the scene is. Every other time when one sees the Ramayan parallel, Ratnam twists your expectations to make things unpredictable. Hanuman goes to meet Sita and gets caught? Next must be him giving them a slip by something like "burning the Lanka"? Nope... Ram finds an injured Jatayu on the way? He'll tend to him.. be nice to him? Nope... Vibhishan goes to meet Ram? He'll probably join them or help them in any way? Nope... Ram, the villain of this story, is never more villainous as in that scene.. Even the Surpanakha's nose thing was put in quite convincingly with her mocking the cops by saying "police ke kutte" and sniffing pointedly... </div></div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">So... so many good things and bad things.. where does the balance lie? I think probably towards negatives. Raja Sen, at the end of <a href="http://movies.rediff.com/report/2010/jun/18/raja-sen-reviews-raavan.htm">his review</a>, says something that I agree with.. "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif, FreeSans; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;"><em>Raavan</em></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif, FreeSans; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px;">'s deadliest sin, however, isn't in the clumsy dialogue, hammy acting or lame, oversimplified adaptation. All of that can be forgiven if the tale engages us".</span> And that is very true. For all of the good things going on, I really was just sitting there are watching things quite passively. If only the Raavan-Ragini-Dev trio could generate in me any sort of emotion at all, this would've been a pretty good movie. But they didn't, so it isn't. I've heard good things about Raavanan, so I'm looking forward to it. But this one will be added to the list of disappointments. What else can a movie like this be, coming from the people who made Iruvar?? Does that make it a bad movie? Nope. Not even close. There are quite a few redeeming features that are way better than most other one-tone banal movies around. </div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I haven't seen "Robin Hood", so that part excepted, my feelings about Raavan are exactly what Richard Corliss says at the end of <a href="http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1999246-1,00.html">his review in Time</a>: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">As a showcase for some of Indian cinema's most renowned talents,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i>Raavan</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">has to be considered a disappointment. But as a big summer epic about a forest bandit, hey — it's better than the Russell Crowe</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i>Robin Hood</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">. And, thanks to A.R. Rahman's infectious songs, this one you can dance to.</span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br />
</span></div>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-27754848675228003632010-06-19T19:20:00.001-04:002010-06-20T04:59:55.139-04:00Two down, one to go...Summer, to me, <a href="http://everyflavourblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/3-movies-of-summer.html">meant three movies</a>. Two of them released on the same day and, in a flash, 2/3rd of the summer is over. Verdict? Mixed, so far... Read on...<br />
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<b>Toy Story 3 </b>(and <b>Day & Night</b>) :<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig7kDQSes3sVqJIfo7oSy42aSNtpuBx3KPweS-GPTyzpjZa-kKrZnu2_DQnd4TVzzk4Lq3jlnekmJD6eZFNz9DtnKrxF3Do_kmy5YuyFDLzGQ2uxM8cdbRrEG5-dZfI4W4CSnWVw/s1600/0611101552-00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig7kDQSes3sVqJIfo7oSy42aSNtpuBx3KPweS-GPTyzpjZa-kKrZnu2_DQnd4TVzzk4Lq3jlnekmJD6eZFNz9DtnKrxF3Do_kmy5YuyFDLzGQ2uxM8cdbRrEG5-dZfI4W4CSnWVw/s400/0611101552-00.jpg" width="600" /></a></div><br />
Out of the three movies, this one I was least excited about. I know I shouldn't have been. It is Pixar, after all. Still, a part of me was never quite convinced that Pixar could do what Godfather and Star Wars couldn't - come back after decade(s) to make a worthy sequel. Specially, because this TS3 seemed to be a consequence of Disney taking over Pixar. One could never be sure of what direction things will be going. Is is just Disney forcing Pixar into their usual 'make box-office-hay while the sequel-sun shines' model or did the Pixar wizards REALLY have something Pixar-worthy to offer? After all, the other sequel in the pipeline is Cars 2!!! What other reason can they have to go back and make a sequel to the only Pixar movie that seems to be less than adored by everyone other than model-car loving toddlers and the merchandizing-loving Disney execs. If that is not a Disney finance-driven decision, I don't know what is. And yet, isn't this exactly what I had thought when Miramax had announced that "Quentin Tarantino's Fourth Film Kill Bill" was actually going to be "Quentin Tarantino's New Films Kill Bill Vol 1 & Vol 2". We were all cynical about it and chuckled when Quentin said "it really makes complete sense. This is a creative decision." Turned out, they were right all along. How can anyone even imagine combining KB1 and KB2 now? We learned that there are some things we should take on faith. When QT says something, listen. And if there is one thing you can have full faith in, it is that Pixar never fails. It just does not. Nope. Not possible. Having said that I am still apprehensive about Cars 2, but if TS3 is anything to go by, I need not be.<br />
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One of the reasons I was apprehensive about TS3 was that I have never really been as much a fan of the Toy Story movies as almost every other Pixar movie (other than Cars, and perhaps A Bug's Life). And I have never really understood why that is so. Every time I see TS or TS2, I end up thinking "hmm.. this was really entertaining.. why do I not seem to love this as much as the others"? I think the reason is that as good as they are, they are still probably the closest Pixar comes to making a Dreamworks' like movie. You know, an action/adventure/comedy movie targeted mainly to kids that seems to be full of pop culture references a la Shrek. The problem with that is that as great as you might make it, you can perhaps give me full paisa-vasool entertainment for my money, but you are never really going to touch the greatness reached by things like the "Carl and Ellie's life together" sequence in Up or the entire cute, touching, astounding first hour of WALL-E.. or the scarcely believable decision to make "critique of critics" sequence the climax of Ratatouille. Now, THAT is what Pixar can do. To me, the least impressive parts of Pixar movies are those fast paced action/adventure parts that they do as well as anyone else, but doesn't make them stand out in any manner. The "run from the pack of dogs" sequence in Up, the "malfunctioning robots spreading chaos in Axiom" in WALL-E.. the "chase among the thousand doors" in Monsters Inc.. the climactic battle in The Incredibles, etc. And Toy Story movies, as well as they are made, seem to always leave the impression in my mind that they are almost entirely full of just these sequences. And I find that I am wrong every time I see them again. Perhaps the other things aren't as memorable in them as in other movies. Anyway, the bottomline is, Pixar has made another Toy Story movie and it has done it as well as the first two.. maybe even better. This one is, again, just a REALLY well made and entertaining action/adventure/fun movie for about 70% of its length but it ends on a note that makes it entirely worthy of those other great Pixar movies. For about 70% of its length it seems another great Toy Story movie (and that itself isn't something easy to do... how many movies do we know where the essential charm doesn't completely vanish after the first sequel?), but what they do with the last 15-20 minutes took my breath away. And I came out of the theater entirely satisfied, and appropriately ashamed of my lack of faith in Pixar.<br />
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This isn't a review. It wasn't meant to be. It doesn't have to be. After all, all of you are going to see it anyway, aren't you? :) Rest assured that if you liked the first two, there is absolutely no way that you aren't going to love this one too.<br />
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Oh... and there is also the small matter of catching one of their cutest short films. Day & Night is as good as most other Pixar shorts (which makes it a masterpiece :P). Go, watch NOW!<br />
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Coming up next... How Mani made a disconcerting movie that seemed bad enough for me not to recommend it to others and yet intriguing enough for me to want to go and see it again....Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-42131016871488094962010-05-27T20:21:00.000-04:002010-05-27T20:21:06.648-04:00My favorite optical illusions<a href="http://everyflavourblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/gravity-defying-ramp.html">A post on the other blog</a> inspired me to post some of my favorite optical illusions. Here...<br />
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1) Same Color Illusion.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/images/checkershadow/checkershadow_illusion4med.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/images/checkershadow/checkershadow_illusion4med.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">copyright: Edward H Adelson and web.mit.edu</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div>Look at the image above. Which of the squares A and B do you think is the darker shade of gray? A? Well, as it turns out in every such optical illusion, the answer is - None. They are the same shade. Exactly the same shade. :) The brain interprets the intensity based on the context. Ever wondered why sunspots are dark? As in, it's not as if those regions aren't bright and hot themselves, so why do they appear dark? It's because they are embedded in much hotter and brighter regions of the Sun. This is exactly what is happening here. A seems darker because it has light squares around it. B seems light because it is surrounded by dark squares. I feel that the strength of this particular image is in the fuzzy boundary of the cylinder's shadow. This means that B's shade merges into the light square's shade seamlessly fooling the brain into expecting that B must actually be the same shade as the light squares, only that they are slightly darker due to the shadow. But same as A? No way! well, it is. :) Perhaps the image below will help in visualizing it.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/images/checkershadow/checkershadow_double_med.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/images/checkershadow/checkershadow_double_med.jpg" width="547" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">copyright: Edward H. Adelson and web.mit.edu</span></div><br />
2) Blue or Green?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/files/2009/06/colors.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="550" src="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/files/2009/06/colors.gif" width="550" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka </span></div><br />
You know what's coming. But you can't believe it, can you? The spirals that are clearly blue and green are actually neither blue nor green, but a combination (RGB=0,255,150). i.e. they are EXACTLY the same color. unbelievable? I know. This one actually makes one forget the first illusion entirely. I mean, it was difficult to believe that one, but surely this is simply impossible? Well, copy it to paint/photoshop and see the RGB values. Or, just crop some pixels from the blue and green spirals without their pink/orange context and juxtapose them. Or, if you don't really have to do it yourself to believe it, just head on to <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/06/24/the-blue-and-the-green/">this article</a> at the badastronomy blog and see for yourself. This really is stunning.<br />
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3) Ok, this one is fun. Look at this one. Which direction is the (apparently nude, but I digress... ) spinning? Clockwise? Counter-clockwise?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.moillusions.com/wp-content/uploads/i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb234/vurdlak8/2007b.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://www.moillusions.com/wp-content/uploads/i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb234/vurdlak8/2007b.gif" width="300" /></a></div><br />
No idea about copyright, but I found it <a href="http://www.moillusions.com/2007/06/spinning-sihouette-optical-illusion.html">here</a>. Anyway, once you know your initial answer, look again. Perhaps looking at the shadow of the feet will do it the first time. The spinning direction flips instantly! It is actually much easier to flip the interpretation in your mind after you succeed in seeing it once. I can do it within 5-10 seconds now, and yet it is such a rush everytime it happens! :) Specially when I focus on her face. Suddenly the hair jumps from front to the back. :) I think this is essentially the same thing as flipping the 3-D interpretation of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necker_Cube">Necker Cube</a> in your mind. But, somehow this spinning girl makes it much more fun! :)<br />
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4) And now, the killer. Hollow mask illusion. I don't need to say anything as they say it all in the video.<br />
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Incredible, no? I have always wanted to have one of these masks at home. Specially this next one, with einstein. But it is definitely not worth 60 dollars....<br />
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<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yAQaJ16R3Pw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yAQaJ16R3Pw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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Do you have any favorite illusions? Do share in comments.Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-86404979292609767072010-05-27T20:18:00.003-04:002010-05-27T20:18:44.231-04:00Kata KataNew trailer for Raavan. This is actually surprisingly good. Surprisingly, because I was apprehensive about this song picturization.I was thinking something on the lines of "Ek lo ek muft", but this is actually pretty well done.<br />
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<object height="424" width="528"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eQHpc7XL5HY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eQHpc7XL5HY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="528" height="424"></embed></object>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-92173073980491079562010-05-17T04:50:00.003-04:002010-05-17T05:06:19.938-04:00Cannes via Ebert<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://twitpic.com/1n0p66"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNSc-rr2Tng2Xp27bWVnvBco1I2TXSTvjy7la5tK-1C8zLh8P45U6lIUWKAB6TyeTfVrL3JKdcML2LJajyMU6FsBPhj6x7xsHVXwqNeSruXthxfSF01HucKUl75_jHvCtSrh2zBA/s640/99129966.jpg" width="427" /></a></div><br />
Roger Ebert has been <a href="http://twitter.com/EBERTCHICAGO">tweeting</a> (and <a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/">blogging</a>) from Cannes, and I'm reading every word that he types, trying to fool myself into thinking that I am at Cannes myself. :) This post (and hopefully some other upcoming ones) is to suggest everyone else who might be interested and lukkha enough that following Ebert might be a pretty good way of keeping an eye on Cannes.<br />
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For those, who are interested but not lukkha, this post and others in the series will point to whatever I find interesting. If I am able to pique your curiosity about any particular movie etc, you can always head on to Ebert's blog later.<br />
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So far he has talked about a possible animated movie nomination for next year's oscar, a french movie by the maker of "The Triplets of Belleville" called <b>The Illusionist</b>; an english movie with a rather intriguing concept directed by Hideo Nakata, the director of "The Ring", called <b>Chatroom</b>; the "Wall Street" sequel by Oliver Stone, called <b>Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps</b>; and a korean movie called <b>The Housemaid</b>.<br />
<br />
Out of these <i>The Housemaid</i> seemed pretty interesting to me. Ebert mentions that some people are already speculating that it might be a frontrunner for Palme d'Or, though it is still quite early in the festival. Ebert's synopsis -<br />
<blockquote><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">It takes place almost entirely within the huge modern house of a very rich man, and centers on the young woman he has hired as a nanny. It involves the man, his wife, his daughter, the older woman who runs his household, and the mothers of the wife and the nanny.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">This is a house where living is an expensive form of art. The couple are smooth, calm, sophisticated. They value themselves very highly. The nanny forms a bind with their 7-year-old daughter, and assists the wife during a pregnancy with twins. More than that I choose not to specify.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">But look at the mastery of the film's construction. The nuanced performances. The implacable deliberation of the plot. The way the house acts as a hothouse to force the growth of anger. And the film's unforgiving portrait of people damaged by great wealth. This is a thriller about the ideas people have of themselves.</div></blockquote>The trailer is pretty exciting too. Thrilling, as the movie promises to be, with some pretty good music and interesting look.<br />
<br />
<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QgZvI_RZYzU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QgZvI_RZYzU&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
<br />
This is another South Korean movie that seems exciting, after <i>Mother</i> that released earlier in the year and is one of the best movies that I have seen in 2010 so far. Hmmm... I should write about <i>Mother</i> one of these days...Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-12630889455482892612010-05-17T04:49:00.001-04:002010-05-17T05:04:29.852-04:00Excitement++whoa!!! Nolan!!!<br />
<br />
I started the summer with Inception and Raavan being my top 2 most anticipated movies. But with Raavan trailers decreasing my excitement a little, and with this trailer being so exciting, Inception is now officially the most anticipated movie of the summer for me.<br />
<br />
<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/z75o-F6ja2I&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/z75o-F6ja2I&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-41560648196117377392010-05-03T16:31:00.002-04:002010-05-03T16:31:59.691-04:00Smiling lips and singing heartsI recently finished reading "Musicophilia" by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Sacks">Oliver Sacks</a>, and I thought that a condition mentioned in one of the chapters is worth posting about here. It is called "Williams Syndrome".<br />
<br />
In WS, certain anatomical features are underdeveloped or faulty. This includes certain facial features (you'll see them having unusually wide-eyed expressions), certain heart and artery muscles etc. More importantly, perhaps, specific parts of the brain are highly underdeveloped, while others are either overdeveloped or at least unusually dominate because the others parts aren't developed properly. The parts that are underdeveloped are the ones that have an important role in numerical/logical thinking and spatial sense. The parts that are often overdeveloped or seem to dominate are the ones that have roles in linguistic skills, social skills and apparently emotional impact of music (thats where "musicophilia" comes in).<br />
<br />
So, people with WS are highly gregarious... extremely friendly and social with everyone.. they almost completely lack any social inhibitions, so that they seem to be completely comfortable in the presence of almost anyone, regardless of whether they are familiar with them. Moreover, they actually seem to enjoy such interactions and seem to be unusually clued-in to the emotional cues in other peoples behavior/facial expressions etc.<br />
<br />
Their linguistic skills are almost always highly developed, making them highly articulate. This, along with their friendly/social nature means that you'll always find them having long, extended conversations with almost anyone. On the other hand, they find it extremely difficult to do even the most simple math problems. You could be talking on phone with someone who has WS and probably won't realize that anything is unusual (other than the person being unusually charming and friendly) until you ask him/her to tell you what 3+5 is. Chances are, they'll fumble through the problem and will probably only guess an answer, which will probably be wrong anyway. Lack of a normally developed spatial sense means that they find it hard to work with even simple geometric shapes (like the toys that toddlers play with) and can hardly draw even simple things like a triangle or a circle. In short, as Sacks says, they are almost anti-autistic in their characteristics.<br />
<br />
Sacks talks about some people having WS that he has met. There are really interesting stories here. e.g. when one little girl's mom told her not to talk to strangers, she replied with "but there are no strangers, there are only friends"<br />
<br />
Another girl he met (she was about 7-8 years of age) was so clued in to other people's facial features and was so completely uninhibited in front of strangers that she surprised him by sensing his slight diffidence and said promptly something like "don't be shy! I'll make some muffins for you". This, from a girl, who had never met Sacks before. Sacks had gone to her home to see her and was probably only about as inhibited as any of us would be when we go to someone's house for the first time (Well, some of us are probably more inhibited than others... my diffidence would probably be easy to sense for almost anyone. :P )<br />
<br />
Anyway, so she went ahead and got some muffins for him. In some time, Sacks asked her (perhaps after covering the plate, though I am not sure) to guess how many muffins there were in the plate. She guessed, with some effort, "3". Then he asked her to go ahead and count them. She tried and counted them one by one and came up with 8. There were actually 13.<br />
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Another girl, a 15 year old, had an IQ of 49 - quite typical of people with WS. So, her average mental level was of around a 7-8 year old kid i.e. about a student of 2nd standard. But that doesn't mean, as I said before, that you'd be able to tell that by just talking to her. It's not as if they seem "retarted" in any sense. math/logic/spatial sense don't work properly, but they are exceptional in linguistics. They are highly articulate, which makes things difficult when they are in new company (difficult for them, sure, but also difficult for these new people). After all, none of us expect someone to be that articulate, YET having mental problems<br />
<br />
Take this 15 year old girl with IQ 49. They asked her to tell them about what an elephant is. And her response, quoted below, is amazing in its detail. It is almost as if she is telling a story rather than answering a simple question :<br />
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"And what an elephant is, it is one of the animals. And what the elephant does, it lives in the jungle. It can also live in the zoo. And what it has, it has long gray ears, fan ears, ears that can blow in the wind. It has a long trunk that can pick up grass, or pick up hay… If they are in a bad mood it can be terrible…If the elephant gets mad it could stomp; it could charge. Sometimes elephants can charge. They have big long tusks. They can damage a car… It could be dangerous. When they're in a pinch, when they're in a bad mood it can be terrible. You don't want an elephant as a pet. You want a cat or a dog or a bird…"<br />
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So, to put it mildly, she knows something about what an elephant is. The amazing part is, after this, when they asked her to draw an elephant, this is what she drew -<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wsf.org/behavior/images/elephantdrawing.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wsf.org/behavior/images/elephantdrawing.gif" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">copyright: Ursula Bellugi, the Salk Institute</span></div><br />
(The labels were put by someone else to help others see what she might've been trying to make. She only made the figure.) Clearly, she knows about the fan like ears and tusks etc, but she can't draw any of those details at all.<br />
<br />
The connection with music is pretty interesting actually.. all of them are strongly sensitive and emotionally attached to music. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that all of them are very good at playing music or singing (though a lot of them are). This is, as Sacks points out, quite unlike musical savants. Musical savants are almost finished articles. They will dazzle the whole world by their exceptional musical talents, yet, they might not necessarily derive as much pleasure out of music as a normal person around them. WS patients, however, invariably feel very strongly towards music.<br />
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This strong emotional connection to music, in combination with their completely uninhibited nature means that you'll find them merrily singing or whistling or playing music or swaying to music a lot of times. if you are walking on the road and they suddenly hear you even humming something they'll just smile broadly and will likely start singing along with joy. Some parents/guardians of a lot of WS patients decided to get a lot of together for a camp. Sacks describes what he saw at one of these camps and it sounds amazing. 15-20 people with WS - most, but not all, very young - sit together and talk to each other as if everyone is part of a close family. Talk about everything under the sun. And then, suddenly, someone starts humming and everyone joins in.. Some play their instruments, while others jump in and harmonize. Some just let their bodies follow the rhythm. I'd say that it is pretty sad to know about this, but it's really difficult to feel that way after reading about their joy in these camps or, indeed, their connection to music.Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-9613378754282827302010-05-03T16:30:00.000-04:002010-05-03T16:30:51.652-04:00Kelly and O'ConnorMy friends on the other blog were posting some classic english song videos. So I decided to post the one old classic song I always think of when I think of old classic songs.. :) presenting... Gene Kelly.. Singin' in the Rain.<br />
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<object height="359" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x76bf2"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x76bf2" width="480" height="359" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br />
<b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x76bf2_gene-kelly-i-m-singing-in-the-rain_music">Gene Kelly - I'm Singing in the Rain</a></b><br />
<i>Uploaded by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/goldrausch">goldrausch</a>. - <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/us/channel/music">See the latest featured music videos.</a></i><br />
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And while looking for that I ran into another amazing video from this movie. What physical talent, this O'Connor!! see this if you haven't seen the movie (starting from about 2 min, I think, if you don't have those extra 2 min to spare).<br />
<br />
<object height="360" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x4obs5"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/x4obs5" width="480" height="360" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br />
<b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4obs5_singin-in-the-rain-donald-o-connor_fun">Singin In The Rain Donald O'connor Lyrics, Make Em Laugh</a></b><br />
<i>Uploaded by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/musical-films">musical-films</a>. - <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/us/channel/fun">Click for more funny videos.</a></i>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-11640431151221180702010-04-24T05:58:00.000-04:002010-04-24T05:58:09.589-04:00Raavan Day 1 - disappointing<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Ok, let me be clear. Disappointing only because this is Mani/Rahman/Gulzar. Disappointing in the same sense as Guru's music was a disappointment. After all, a Mani/Rahman album has no business having "Ek lo ek muft" and "Baazi laga" in it. Then again, every other song except those two were thoroughly deserving of being there. It is somewhat similar with Raavan too. I must say, though, that this is just the first day impressions. Chances are that a week from now I'll be posting "what was I thinking? Raavan! disappointing?"</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Anyway, here is a mini-review.. just some thoughts on the songs...</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">1) <b>Beera Beera</b> : Fabulous song! The shortest song in the album, but carries the maximum punch. They thought of putting an "african" song for a maoist's introduction! well, maybe the "jungle" connection is there. The reason I call it "african" is because if I filter the lyrics and pretend that I am not listening to something in Hindi I can clearly hear something from one of the south african countries. :) The vocals by Mustafa Kutoane add so much to the song. Can't wait to hear this in ARR's voice in Tamil.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">9.5/10</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">2) <b>Behne De</b> : Starts with a background of music that feels just heavenly. And then Karthik starts singing. wow! pretty good soft, slowish romantic song. The only drawback, if you can call it that, is that it seems to follow pretty much standard ARR soft song script. Makes me think of Bhoola Tujhe .But then that's not a bad thing. Also, I have absolutely no doubt that when I listen to it with more attention, I'll find little instrumental/melodic gems throughout that will be completely uniquely of this song. This IS the sort of song that ARR seems to "polish" a lot to satiate his thirst for innovation.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">9.2/10</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">3) <b>Thok De Killi</b> : This is the "Ek lo ek muft" of this album. perhaps better than that, but still doesn't work for me at all. At least not till now. I noticed some instrumental turns etc that were engaging but overall this is what the cliche "situational song, will work in the movie" is used for. The song talks about this group (maoists) talking about "Dilli" thinking them as "pichhda huaa" etc. I don't see how something like this will work in the form of a song. Then again, perhaps a better song would've made it work. After all, "Chale Chalo" is such an anachronism for the time in which it is set in, yet it works beautifully because it is such a great song. This is just disappointing. I don't see it improving even in Tamil, but I hope it surprises me.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">5.5/10</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">4) <b>Ranjha Ranjha</b> : Do I like this so much because it comes right after Thok De Killi? :) I don't know why, but I find it really seductive. Not that it is terribly original, just like Behne De. Reminds me of Taal's songs. Something in between "Ramta jogi" and "Kahin aag lage". And from recent songs, very reminiscent of Blue's "Yaar mila tha". It has something to do with the structure (female and male voices alternating... conversing in the song), but it's not just. There is something to do with the way rhythm seems just that bit off-expected lines and the way words seem to seem to follow the contours of the rhythm. Needless to say, Rekha Bhardwaj gives the song her own unique flavor. And it is always a pleasure to hear Javed Ali's silk-smooth vocals. As for my 'not terribly original' comment, that doesn't apply to the instrumentals going on here. ARR seems to be having a lot of fun playing around with things in this song. Then again, even THAT isn't unexpected. He can't help it. :D Good for us, I say! :)</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">8.8/10</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">5) <b>Khili Re</b> : Remember what ARR did to Ghazals in Tehzeeb? The singer is singing a perfectly "Ghazalish" Ghazal and ARR just adds modern instruments in the background that seemed so awkward in the first hearing. It definitely grew on me later and I actually liked what he had tried to do there. I think this is exactly the case here. Try to filter the instruments, and this seems another of his devotional melodious numbers that I have a weakness for. "Man mohana" didn't engage a lot of people but I thought it was really amazing. I could never resist its charm even though it is really such a simple bhajan. That is also true for "O paalanhaare". Trouble is, the instruments are doing something completely different here. This is ARR's Tehzeeb moment in this album, though much more subtle than that album. What that does is it makes the song <i>seem</i> ok, but there seems something awkward about it, something amiss. That's why what I think as of now is that it is 'sweet, but not nice enough'. However, I think there is a very good chance that this one is going to grow on me later. As of right now, the rating is..</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">7.9/10</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">6) <b>Kata Kata</b> : The start is absolutely <b>wow!</b> It is almost as catchy as Beera Beera! I have caught myself singing the first line of this song almost as much as Beera Beera since I heard the samples for the first time 3-4 days ago. But then, it sort of derails. And I suspect it has a lot to do with the lyrics here. Not the meaning of the words, per se, but the flow. Something tells me that this one was composed with Tamil lyrics first and they just couldn't do a good enough job of writing lyrics in Hindi that'd have gelled well with the flow of the song. If that's the case, this will gain a lot from a hearing in Tamil. in any case, i have noticed that I don't particularly care for hindi songs with "aunty ji chorus" :D Basically all the wedding type songs where some women are teasing the bride/groom. There is something about it that I don't like. But this only happens in hindi. I can think of a lot of tamil songs that haven't been dubbed in hindi which have similar chorus but I don't mind that at all. I am really hopeful that this song will gain a lot in its Tamil version. Like I said, overall, the rhythm is really, really good/catchy. It might catch on with junta. then again, it seems that this will be picturized like Ek lo ek muft, with the whole village dancing around (Mani seems to like this a lot). I don't see that being particularly junta-entrancing. Hopefully I'm wrong.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">7.7/10</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">So, that's the first-day impressions. The reason i said it is disappointing is because one of the songs is just a complete let-down and two others are, as of now, not Mani/Rahman level. While the other three are really good, I think the sum of Barso re megha, Tere Bina, Ae Hairate, Jaage Hain and Mayya Mayya has to be higher than these. AND Guru wasn't even close to being one of ARR/Mani's best albums. So....</div>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-22370361119875183432010-04-21T21:00:00.000-04:002010-04-21T21:00:43.414-04:00Tamil ARR songs for a non-Tamil.A friend of GG asked her to get me to send her some Tamil songs that she might like. She hasn't heard many Tamil songs before and GG tells me that she tends to like Slow/Soothing/melodious kind of songs in general (not that she doesn't like any fast paced ones.. just that if I have to make a small list, I'd do well to choose slowish songs).<br />
<br />
So, I spent half an hour browsing through my ARR tamil albums and making a list of about 25 songs. That sounded too many, specially for someone who might not have heard many songs in a language she doesn't understand. So, Pesc suggested pruning it down to about 10, and sending the list in a mail with some comments about them. I had to take some gems out because of various reasons. I didn't wish to include any song that has already been dubbed in Hindi as there'd be a high chance she'd already have heard them. (Still, one of them is in the list... ). Also, there are some songs that I find it difficult to decide whether the movie/picturization etc add a lot to my love for them. If I suspected that, I struck them out too.<br />
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So, here are the 10.... well, 11 actually, since I added one right at the end probably because my media player decided to play that one right when i was about to send the mail and I just could not get myself to ignore it!! :) The resulting mail follows..<br />
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<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span">Nice... Soft.. Soothing... Melodious... </span></blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">well.. almost all.. some of these are fast/non-soothing. But ab list mein daal diya to daal diya.. :P</span><br />
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">So, here is the list, roughly in the decreasing order of priority.. i.e. listen to the top one first.</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">1) <i>Vellai Pookal</i> from <b>Kannathil Mutthamittal</b>: very soothing. Awesome song from a great movie. one of the best songs sung by ARR himself, and that's saying a LOT. </div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">2) <i>New York</i> from <b>Jillonu Oru Kaadhal</b>: very melodious. "All time favorite Rahman song" of my roommate. Again, ARR keeps an awesome song with his own voice. :)</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">3) <i>Elay</i> from <b>Sakkarakatti</b>: not slow/soft/soothing. reasonably fast, but great fun.</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">4) <i>Ithuthan Kadhal Inbada (female)</i> from <b>Pudhiya Mugham</b>: you might have heard this already in hindi. But even if you have, well worth a revisit in its original form. A beeyouuuutiful song.</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">5) <i>Ennuyir Thozhiye</i> from <b>Kangalal Kaithu Sei</b>: absolutely heavenly piano in the interludes. That part itself makes this a great song.</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">6) <i>Sonnalum</i> from <b>Kaadhal Virus</b>: I think I especially like songs with slight Carnatic classical touch. and ARR obliges with a lot of melodious songs that have just that tiny classical touch to them yet seem so far away from classical finally. And the chorus here is to die for.</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">7) <i>Enna Solla Pogirai</i> from <b>Kandukondain Kandukondain</b>: Not slow/soothing but one of the most popular songs from one of his greatest albums. Shankar Mahadevan got a national award for singing this song. I could've blindly chosen almost any song from this album actually. went for the most catchy/popular.</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">8) <i>Udhaya Udhaya</i> from <b>Udhaya</b>: In many aspects it is like Sonnalum. a soft soothing duet.</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">9) <i>En Veetu Thotatil</i> from <b>Gentleman</b>: They lifted 3 songs from Gentleman without crediting Rahman, and left this gem. Perhaps because they thought it has too much of a "southie touch". They didn't know, of course, that soon that "southie touch" will take the nation by storm in Bombay/Hum Se Hai Muqabla etc... :)</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">10) <i>Evano Oruvan</i> from <b>Alaipayuthey</b>: Alaipayuthey was remade into Saathiya and they kept all the songs except two. One of them is this. I was aghast when I heard that they have composed a new song for this situation because, again, this is too "southie". Didn't mind in the end, because that new song was "Mera Yaar Mila De... Banjar hai sab banjar hai... ". Doesn't hurt to get another good new song, does it? :) But this one is definitely as good, if not slightly better. the female voice just melts me.. and the flute!! wow!!</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">11) <i>Theekuruvil </i>from <b>Kangalal Kaithu Sei</b>: Bonus song. not slow. not soothing at all. very fast actually. and perhaps a little difficult to like initially. But just keep an ear for the female singer's vocal acrobatics. What singing!!! very fun song, but really, it's the singer that makes this a must-listen. </div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I can see that I have written more about the songs that are actually lower in the list. :) Doesn't mean that the top ones weren't worth talking about. Just that I got into the flow of discussing in depth later in the list. :) sorry.</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">By the way, standard conditions apply. You are not allowed to hear any of these songs unless you are able (i.e. have the time) and willing (i.e. have the enthu) to give it 3 hearings. continuously. i.e. hear 1, then again hear 1, then AGAIN hear 1, before moving on to 2. Take as much time as you need before this condition can be met, but don't break it. Please. </div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">And, no laptop speakers, of course. not even external speakers. good earphones/headphones are a must. :D</div></blockquote><br />
The youtube links are posted below, if anyone is interested but too lazy to find them him/herself. :)<br />
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Close your eyes for this next one. that is probably a good idea for all of these if you just want to enjoy the song without being distracted (positively, or negatively) by the video, but this one is actually not even the real video of the song. Someone took a song video of Anniyan and added the ARR song with it!<br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xQqt7W3FTxU&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xQqt7W3FTxU&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GwlGH-prXmc&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GwlGH-prXmc&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IuwSrFzqR6c&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IuwSrFzqR6c&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br />
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<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1Zxud42ZUDc&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1Zxud42ZUDc&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-59053540975569337742010-04-17T19:11:00.001-04:002010-04-17T19:11:56.232-04:00This poster rocks!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img362.yfrog.com/img362/6269/ravanyellowposter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://img362.yfrog.com/img362/6269/ravanyellowposter.jpg" width="440" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">pic courtesy: <a href="http://satyamshot.wordpress.com/2010/04/17/images-from-raavan/">Satyamshot</a></div>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-29869245833679246572010-04-16T14:08:00.000-04:002010-04-16T14:08:04.967-04:00Woohooo!!!!!!!<object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZG09iGjKH0E&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZG09iGjKH0E&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-23229812262204135262010-04-14T22:40:00.000-04:002010-04-14T22:40:34.455-04:00Raavan Tracklist is here... Yay!!!!<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Yay!!!! :) Though I wish this is incomplete. I want more songs!!!! :( Though, perhaps it is expected, I think most recent Mani movies have only 5-6 tracks, except Alaipayuthey/Saathiya. Still, hoping for some more tracks, if only instrumental themes.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Here is the list as given on bollywoodhungama.com</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">Behene De - Karthik</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">Beera Beera - Vijay Prakash</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">Kata Kata - Ila Arun, Sapna Awasthi & Kunal Ganjawala</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">Khilli Re - Reena Bhardwaj</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">Ranjha Ranjha - Rekha Bhardwaj & Javed Ali</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">Thok De Killi - Sukhwinder Singh</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">Hmmm... Reena AND Rekha Bhardwaj. Rekha is Palash and Vasudha's "Rekha bhabhi" of course (they consider Vishal Bhardwaj their spiritual brother). Reena must be the "Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlaata Hai" (Meenaxi) and "Main Vaari Vaari" (1857 - The Rising) woman. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;">Sapna "Chhaiyya Chhaiyya" Awasthi AND Ila Arun together!! Has THAT ever happened before? :D</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Can never hurt to have Javed Ali sing one. And solos for Karthik and Sukhwinder sound promising too. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">So, people, ARR season is here again. Yay!!!!</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">PS: just to be clear, the list is out, not the music!! Patience junta, patience! </span></span></div>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-75581909779530184862010-04-12T21:07:00.002-04:002010-04-12T21:07:36.320-04:00(3) movies of summerLast week, in one of those free moments when I think about movies that I am waiting to watch, I began thinking of, well, the movies that I am waiting to watch. Specifically the movies that come out this summer. More specifically, the BIG movies that come out this summer (i.e., excluding all those smaller, independent/foreign language movies that I am more likely to see and like than most summer blockbusters). There are some like Iron Man-2, Robin Hood, Shrek- Forever After, Despicable Me etc that might turn out to be good, but I'm not really anticipating them nearly as much as the three listed below.<br />
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<b>Toy Story - 3</b>: Pixar. Probably no need to say more. :) Still, for some reason I'm not nearly as excited about this as I have been for every Pixar movie over last decade. Perhaps some part of me thinks that Pixar might compromise with their high standards in order to just continue the franchise. Then again, it's Pixar.. how bad can it be? :)<br />
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<object height="303" width="450"><param name="movie" value="http://www.traileraddict.com/emd/14881"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.traileraddict.com/emd/14881" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" width="450" height="303" allowFullScreen="true"></embed></object><br />
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<b>Raavan</b>: Mani Ratnam. He hasn't really touched his erstwhile heights after Kannathil Mutthamittal, but Yuva/Ayitha Ezhuthu and Guru definitely had enough Mani moments to make them very good movies nevertheless. And, if nothing else, the music can't be anything less than phenomenal, can it? :)<br />
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No trailers yet. I heard that the first look promo will release this week (and the music within 2 weeks from now). If so, you'll find it here as soon as possible. :D<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaDJtT8aSYkko2L4VRf0CYsLvK-WFcEl6uYldGedLcXgXAGu_H2vswG3EW-uYmBUUN83wg9MiAh3-C0lbKzGud5lZd9trS0TVfhWaRCslBVT9nWYeenfnkc0iv40NbXiDzuyYnIA/s1600/Maniratnam-and-aishwarya-rai-at-Ravana-shooting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaDJtT8aSYkko2L4VRf0CYsLvK-WFcEl6uYldGedLcXgXAGu_H2vswG3EW-uYmBUUN83wg9MiAh3-C0lbKzGud5lZd9trS0TVfhWaRCslBVT9nWYeenfnkc0iv40NbXiDzuyYnIA/s320/Maniratnam-and-aishwarya-rai-at-Ravana-shooting.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<b>Inception</b>: "What's the most resilient parasite? An idea". Christopher Nolan. two of his movies were part of <a href="http://rahultyagi.blogspot.com/2010/01/2000-2009-shout-out-to-my-favorite_09.html">my top 10 of the last decade</a>. and Memento made it to the "<a href="http://rahultyagi.blogspot.com/2010/01/2000-2009-shout-out-to-my-favorite.html">just missed the top 10</a>" list. His<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Knight_(film)"> last movie</a> is perhaps one of my all time favorites. The fact that it stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page and Michael Caine is merely delicious icing on what is without doubt a Christopher Nolan cake. Can't Wait!<br />
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PS: the title of this post refers to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(500)_Days_of_Summer">this</a>, in case someone was wondering.Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6380327.post-70716846324695229922010-04-07T23:42:00.001-04:002010-04-08T17:40:37.295-04:00Brangan says it best...<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">I completely relate with this sentiment on Brangan's blog today..</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;">I wonder ... if it’s a mere accident of profession that I’m able to easily endure — and be enlightened by– difficult</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;"><em style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">movies</em></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;">, but fall into impatience with embarrassing quickness in the case of not-so-easy books. Would book critics feel the reverse, embracing arty</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;"><em style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">books </em></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;">over art movies?"</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;">For those who don't know who Brangan is - Baradwaj Rangan is easily my favorite movie critic from India. He is a writes reviews more as just a member of audience who is writing down his thoughts/feelings rather than an expert handing down movie-enlightenment to readers. This is exactly how it should be, IMO. But, more importantly, he is a superb writer.. so, it hardly ever matters whether you agree with his opinion of a particular movie or scene etc. It actually doesn't even matter whether you are interested in the movie at all, because the these reviews are pretty good pieces of writing in themselves. Again, that is exactly how it should be with any review IMO. So, to those who don't know rangan, and might be interested in movies etc, I introduce his blog <a href="http://www.desipundit.com/baradwajrangan/">Blogical Conclusion</a>. </span></div>Rahul Tyagihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07164782710858832988noreply@blogger.com0