My disclaimer continues on to this post as well. Still a little rusty and I am already starting to find this weekly posting thing pretty damn hard. I guess I took on too much with this '5 point' business :)
Anyhow, no time to fret, so here's my 5 for the week. All those expecting 'Royal Baby' comments and my experience in Mumbai's torrential rain... wait for next week's post (Oops! gave it away didn't I?)but read this one while you're here. I find it a little strange actually that most of what I'm talking about here was actually just last week's news and yet seems long long ago now... such is life in a weird wired world I guess. Still let's not be instant noodles I figure so let's risk talking about yesterday once more.. (or that I've been so lazy all week to write this that I am just late.. period :))
All personal opinion and apologies if I am commenting on things I don't know enough about.
1) I closed last week with 'Ship of Theseus' - went with a friend who was probably the only other person in my circle who had a) heard of it and b) wanted to watch it. Truth be told I didn't even bother asking any of the others because I had a really bad experience many years ago when I forced the world to go see 'Traffic' - that Steven Soderbergh masterpiece. Some of my friends left half way, others stayed back just to curse me. 'Traffic' for me is still one hell of a screenplay and very well packaged. But that was my lesson.. not every masterpiece is entertaining for one and all. 'Ship of Theseus' is exactly that. This is a breakthrough in Indian cinema no doubt - gutsy, well conceived and very well acted with nice dialogue. But if the film was always meant to be a public release, it could have at least been 'less' boring. The characters were so well painted but Anand Gandhi spent so much time on landscapes, city lights, people walking, thinking etc. that my head really kept spinning every five minutes. Such wonderful characters and a brilliant plot like this could have been magical while maintaining the same spirit and sensitivity to inanimates.
Having said that if you have the patience of a rock and a love of cinematography or philosophy, you'll like this. The movie dives into intelligent debate in all 3 storylines. The Theseus Paradox is woven very well indeed and handled with maturity. My favorite story was really the last one with Sohum Shah but favorite character was Maitreyee, the swami in the second story facing a dilemma - again how I wish the screenplay was rich enough to make us live with the characters. Neeraj Kabi is an awesome actor - never seen him before but I hope we see more of him now, he's like a machine on screen - 100% perfect!
Go watch it if you're in the mood to encourage something unique and truly independent but don't say I didn't warn you that you might nod off for a bit. (as did my friend and yet strangely he went and saw it another time! lol!)
2) When I first read last week about 22 children dying because of poison found in the mid-day meals, my reaction was of absolute horror! Then acute sorrow and then rage. This is a pattern of emotions I (and indeed many of you) have been feeling often in recent times - but where do we go from here and what do we do about this? The mid-day meal is a well thought through subsidy that has benefitted so many children since the 1920s that it was almost taken for granted that despite all else going wrong, the good this scheme does will still prevail. Confidence was shattered yet again for me that day and more so today - a week later because all we are talking about today is the Royal Baby, the Joe Biden visit and worst of all SRK and Salman hugging each other. I sure hope the all powerful media keeps the radar on this and diverts the story away from statements around conspiracy theory and endless reports of contamination in other parts of the country - that are flooding the news today. I would be deeply interested in a debate around subsidies - it's as a good a time as any to examine how we should be distributing subsidies and what controls we can develop. I do not know enough to comment right now but I hope to read and discuss this a lot more in the months to come. I will not even try commenting on the Sen-Bhagwati debate so let's not go there!
3) It was a year before last week that India lost its first and only superstar Rajesh Khanna. One major reason why I thought about mentioning this is really my mom :)What I find strange and actually kind of adorable is that she was more the Dev Anand fan growing up and had only taken a liking to Rajesh Khanna off late. I guess this coincided with her discovery of Youtube, Google and all the wonderful things the internet and social media have to offer. So the enthusiasm doubled and quadrupled day by day. Then she started following his health and a few weeks later suddenly, her searches for 'Rajesh Khanna health' returned with RIP messages and reports of his death. I distinctly remember her weeping on the phone when I called her from work that day.
What am I trying to say? We grossly underestimate how much celebrity contributes to who we are. We may not be consumed into knowing every single detail of their lives, but the fact that for a little while, what they do - be it movies, sports, music and the likes - takes us away, makes us forget yet remember, cry, laugh, scream and express every emotion there is, is more than enough evidence that we will need these icons in our lives forever. Let's not forget that most often they are easy targets to blame for an entire movie, or a cricket match or a wardrobe malfunction gone wrong.
Having said that, this is something they've signed up for so I will by all means bring the house down when we think they've screwed up or worse, taken my affections for granted. Yet, I humbly acknowledge that my relationship with celebrity is something that has added to my life more than I even know.
As for Rajesh Khanna, well all I can make out of all this is that he is probably India's first filmstar - watching the BBC documentary on him gives you only a sense of just what the euphoria would have been like because I have seen none like it. See the documentary here!
The bottom line for me (and I said this on my facebook page); if I had seen him in this song for the first time ever on a 70 mm screen, I'd have definitely been one of those crazy fans!
4) Rolling Stone magazine's cover feature on Dzokhar Tsarnaev - I feel a little nervy about commenting on this since it has invoked so many extreme reactions these past few days already - yeah this is my blog and I can say what I want but I am still conscious that what I write here can potentially be read by millions (I am not that good yet I know :) Still you never know and again, I do not know enough to comment but I still want to say something..
'Let's be aware' is what I take away from all this -
For those of us who looked beneath the cover and actually read the article - I liked this Janet Reitman piece. The fact that Dzokhar (referred to as 'Jahar' in this one interestingly) was driven to becoming a monster by a series of many unfortunate circumstances stares at you in the face when you read this. Read the article here. I am not inserting a picture of the controversial cover for the simple reason that for me the discussion should really be about the piece and not one picture. If you're curious, Google it!
This is a good piece of investigative journalism (Rolling Stone is good at this, was a discovery for me only now. I always thought it was a cornerstone for music essentially but am pleasantly surprised); and I want to give the team benefit of doubt and believe that this was thought through and responsible as far as they are concerned. But I can't blame people for perceiving this to be irresponsible. It is a cover that will attract eyeballs in newsstands and websites instantly and Rolling Stone need to have known that.
Also if we are arguing the Charles Manson cover from long ago as a justification, with respect - that cover was not released in this day and age of connectivity when the spread of current news and more so controversy - is so rapid. Let's be aware that the effect of anything we write today is multiple number of times greater than the non - internet days. I know that also gives critics an opportunity to air as much of their views as they want, but more responsibility lies with the origin in my opinion. Also these are times when much has gone wrong with the world and we are in a situation where we seem to be losing sight of what's important as society.
I am unable to wrap my head around where I stand on this because I am personally a believer of free and open journalism always, yet I know that it is more important now than ever for those with power to be responsible. So I'm leaving it meandering for now.. more thinking to do on this for me.
5) July was also the month when all this happened;
Benedict Cumberbatch;
a) Celebrated his 37th birthday
b) Did so last weekend while simultaneously marrying (officiating :)) the wedding of two of his friends in Ibiza
c) Was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for his performance in Parade's End
d) The first trailer of 'The Fifth Estate' came out. If you have not seen it, you clearly don't know what Brilliant Benedict can do.. so see it here.
e) Learned that 3 of his films - 'The Fifth Estate', 'August: Osage County' and '12 Years a Slave' are going to be a part of the Toronto International Film Festival in September. They might as well call it The Cumberbatch Carnival. Lol! (Click on the film title for trailers)
The point I am making - I told you so! Definitely one of the finest actors in today's set. I am a fan and proud to be so.
I will say however that there is such a thing as overexposure and I fear that might just be happening here. San Diego Comic Con 2013 and the funny video he made for the Sherlock panel went instantly viral I hear. My focus now is more on all the awesome films that are all coming out in Sept-Oct and Sherlock's 3rd batch. And I am sincerely hoping for those to be legendary to say the least - that's when we'll really know what he's made of. Fingers crossed :)
A note to make on Parade's End though - this series, Behind the Candelabra and many other fine works that are nominated this year - really give us a sense of how far Indian television needs to go. These are made for TV movies and miniseries guys! Has anyone here even tried that? Also 'House of Cards' - which is the 'in' series at the moment is actually available only on Netflix to stream and watch.
I was just thinking about the fact that we need to start at 'Balika Vadhu' and then get all the way up to 'House of Cards' or 'Breaking Bad' as well as introduce internet and feature formats while we're at it. Lol! That's gonna take a while I think..
At this point I can't think of a single show or production house that's even pointing in that direction :( If you can, drop me a comment please?) The eternal optimist in me wants to think there's quality in Indian Television.
Anyhow, no time to fret, so here's my 5 for the week. All those expecting 'Royal Baby' comments and my experience in Mumbai's torrential rain... wait for next week's post (Oops! gave it away didn't I?)but read this one while you're here. I find it a little strange actually that most of what I'm talking about here was actually just last week's news and yet seems long long ago now... such is life in a weird wired world I guess. Still let's not be instant noodles I figure so let's risk talking about yesterday once more.. (or that I've been so lazy all week to write this that I am just late.. period :))
All personal opinion and apologies if I am commenting on things I don't know enough about.
1) I closed last week with 'Ship of Theseus' - went with a friend who was probably the only other person in my circle who had a) heard of it and b) wanted to watch it. Truth be told I didn't even bother asking any of the others because I had a really bad experience many years ago when I forced the world to go see 'Traffic' - that Steven Soderbergh masterpiece. Some of my friends left half way, others stayed back just to curse me. 'Traffic' for me is still one hell of a screenplay and very well packaged. But that was my lesson.. not every masterpiece is entertaining for one and all. 'Ship of Theseus' is exactly that. This is a breakthrough in Indian cinema no doubt - gutsy, well conceived and very well acted with nice dialogue. But if the film was always meant to be a public release, it could have at least been 'less' boring. The characters were so well painted but Anand Gandhi spent so much time on landscapes, city lights, people walking, thinking etc. that my head really kept spinning every five minutes. Such wonderful characters and a brilliant plot like this could have been magical while maintaining the same spirit and sensitivity to inanimates.
Having said that if you have the patience of a rock and a love of cinematography or philosophy, you'll like this. The movie dives into intelligent debate in all 3 storylines. The Theseus Paradox is woven very well indeed and handled with maturity. My favorite story was really the last one with Sohum Shah but favorite character was Maitreyee, the swami in the second story facing a dilemma - again how I wish the screenplay was rich enough to make us live with the characters. Neeraj Kabi is an awesome actor - never seen him before but I hope we see more of him now, he's like a machine on screen - 100% perfect!
Go watch it if you're in the mood to encourage something unique and truly independent but don't say I didn't warn you that you might nod off for a bit. (as did my friend and yet strangely he went and saw it another time! lol!)
2) When I first read last week about 22 children dying because of poison found in the mid-day meals, my reaction was of absolute horror! Then acute sorrow and then rage. This is a pattern of emotions I (and indeed many of you) have been feeling often in recent times - but where do we go from here and what do we do about this? The mid-day meal is a well thought through subsidy that has benefitted so many children since the 1920s that it was almost taken for granted that despite all else going wrong, the good this scheme does will still prevail. Confidence was shattered yet again for me that day and more so today - a week later because all we are talking about today is the Royal Baby, the Joe Biden visit and worst of all SRK and Salman hugging each other. I sure hope the all powerful media keeps the radar on this and diverts the story away from statements around conspiracy theory and endless reports of contamination in other parts of the country - that are flooding the news today. I would be deeply interested in a debate around subsidies - it's as a good a time as any to examine how we should be distributing subsidies and what controls we can develop. I do not know enough to comment right now but I hope to read and discuss this a lot more in the months to come. I will not even try commenting on the Sen-Bhagwati debate so let's not go there!
3) It was a year before last week that India lost its first and only superstar Rajesh Khanna. One major reason why I thought about mentioning this is really my mom :)What I find strange and actually kind of adorable is that she was more the Dev Anand fan growing up and had only taken a liking to Rajesh Khanna off late. I guess this coincided with her discovery of Youtube, Google and all the wonderful things the internet and social media have to offer. So the enthusiasm doubled and quadrupled day by day. Then she started following his health and a few weeks later suddenly, her searches for 'Rajesh Khanna health' returned with RIP messages and reports of his death. I distinctly remember her weeping on the phone when I called her from work that day.
What am I trying to say? We grossly underestimate how much celebrity contributes to who we are. We may not be consumed into knowing every single detail of their lives, but the fact that for a little while, what they do - be it movies, sports, music and the likes - takes us away, makes us forget yet remember, cry, laugh, scream and express every emotion there is, is more than enough evidence that we will need these icons in our lives forever. Let's not forget that most often they are easy targets to blame for an entire movie, or a cricket match or a wardrobe malfunction gone wrong.
Having said that, this is something they've signed up for so I will by all means bring the house down when we think they've screwed up or worse, taken my affections for granted. Yet, I humbly acknowledge that my relationship with celebrity is something that has added to my life more than I even know.
As for Rajesh Khanna, well all I can make out of all this is that he is probably India's first filmstar - watching the BBC documentary on him gives you only a sense of just what the euphoria would have been like because I have seen none like it. See the documentary here!
The bottom line for me (and I said this on my facebook page); if I had seen him in this song for the first time ever on a 70 mm screen, I'd have definitely been one of those crazy fans!
4) Rolling Stone magazine's cover feature on Dzokhar Tsarnaev - I feel a little nervy about commenting on this since it has invoked so many extreme reactions these past few days already - yeah this is my blog and I can say what I want but I am still conscious that what I write here can potentially be read by millions (I am not that good yet I know :) Still you never know and again, I do not know enough to comment but I still want to say something..
'Let's be aware' is what I take away from all this -
For those of us who looked beneath the cover and actually read the article - I liked this Janet Reitman piece. The fact that Dzokhar (referred to as 'Jahar' in this one interestingly) was driven to becoming a monster by a series of many unfortunate circumstances stares at you in the face when you read this. Read the article here. I am not inserting a picture of the controversial cover for the simple reason that for me the discussion should really be about the piece and not one picture. If you're curious, Google it!
This is a good piece of investigative journalism (Rolling Stone is good at this, was a discovery for me only now. I always thought it was a cornerstone for music essentially but am pleasantly surprised); and I want to give the team benefit of doubt and believe that this was thought through and responsible as far as they are concerned. But I can't blame people for perceiving this to be irresponsible. It is a cover that will attract eyeballs in newsstands and websites instantly and Rolling Stone need to have known that.
Also if we are arguing the Charles Manson cover from long ago as a justification, with respect - that cover was not released in this day and age of connectivity when the spread of current news and more so controversy - is so rapid. Let's be aware that the effect of anything we write today is multiple number of times greater than the non - internet days. I know that also gives critics an opportunity to air as much of their views as they want, but more responsibility lies with the origin in my opinion. Also these are times when much has gone wrong with the world and we are in a situation where we seem to be losing sight of what's important as society.
I am unable to wrap my head around where I stand on this because I am personally a believer of free and open journalism always, yet I know that it is more important now than ever for those with power to be responsible. So I'm leaving it meandering for now.. more thinking to do on this for me.
5) July was also the month when all this happened;
Benedict Cumberbatch;
a) Celebrated his 37th birthday
b) Did so last weekend while simultaneously marrying (officiating :)) the wedding of two of his friends in Ibiza
c) Was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for his performance in Parade's End
d) The first trailer of 'The Fifth Estate' came out. If you have not seen it, you clearly don't know what Brilliant Benedict can do.. so see it here.
e) Learned that 3 of his films - 'The Fifth Estate', 'August: Osage County' and '12 Years a Slave' are going to be a part of the Toronto International Film Festival in September. They might as well call it The Cumberbatch Carnival. Lol! (Click on the film title for trailers)
The point I am making - I told you so! Definitely one of the finest actors in today's set. I am a fan and proud to be so.
I will say however that there is such a thing as overexposure and I fear that might just be happening here. San Diego Comic Con 2013 and the funny video he made for the Sherlock panel went instantly viral I hear. My focus now is more on all the awesome films that are all coming out in Sept-Oct and Sherlock's 3rd batch. And I am sincerely hoping for those to be legendary to say the least - that's when we'll really know what he's made of. Fingers crossed :)
A note to make on Parade's End though - this series, Behind the Candelabra and many other fine works that are nominated this year - really give us a sense of how far Indian television needs to go. These are made for TV movies and miniseries guys! Has anyone here even tried that? Also 'House of Cards' - which is the 'in' series at the moment is actually available only on Netflix to stream and watch.
I was just thinking about the fact that we need to start at 'Balika Vadhu' and then get all the way up to 'House of Cards' or 'Breaking Bad' as well as introduce internet and feature formats while we're at it. Lol! That's gonna take a while I think..
At this point I can't think of a single show or production house that's even pointing in that direction :( If you can, drop me a comment please?) The eternal optimist in me wants to think there's quality in Indian Television.
