Thursday, January 29, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire - Review

Poor guy makes money. Gets the girl he wants. That sums up the storyline of Danny Boyle's most awaited movie of the year - Slumdog Millionaire.

So what's new and why are people going gaga over it? Well, it is the treatment of the plot that makes this movie pretty memorable. (Well, given the fact that G spent two hours clutching my already cold hands and won disapproving glares from A, itself explains why I will not be able to forget this movie in a hurry)

The quasi-narrative plot opens in the riot-stricken Mumbai slums with the happy-go-lucky brothers Jamal and Salim. Despite deep poverty, the two brats get into every possible mischief. (The best part of the movie still remains the Amitabh autograph scene. I fell in love with the sheer cheekiness)

Circumstances force the brothers to move to the north and there again the brothers impress with their audacity and imagination. Finally Salim gets drawn into a web of local kingpins and Jamal goes on to become a chai walla at a call center.

Somewhere in the middle, the movie loses pace and becomes predictable. In fact it remains racy and gripping until the boys grow up. Salim impresses more than anyone else in the movie. Anil Kapoor too has assayed his role with ease.

The music is not very impressive, but the BGM is pretty haunting at many places. The scene where the boys tumble down from the train, the riots, and the first police chase sequence has music that is incredible. I wonder why ‘Jai ho’ won the Globe instead.

In short, Slumdog would have managed to strike, minus the hype and hoopla.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Realization...

I stooped down to smell them. But I could only see the sullied mud beneath.
I reached out to listen. But I could only see the wiry stalks that drooped.
I tried to hold them. But I could only see the thorns that pricked.

When I realized,
The mud beneath was clearer than my conscience,
The wiry stalk was stronger than my heart,
And the thorns were not as perilous as an aimless mind,

I stooped down again.
By then they were already safe, in another hand.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Bingo :)

Quote
Sing like no one's listening,
love like you've never been hurt,
dance like nobody's watching,
and live like its heaven on earth.
-Mark Twain, Author.

De-Quote
Dance like it hurts,
Love like you need money,
Work when people are watching.
- Scott Adams, US cartoonist.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Haaapy New Yeeeer!!!

Happy new year all ye folks. Have a wonderful year ahead. 2008 was pretty eventful for me. Highs and lows. Elation and grief. Triumph and failure. Life and death. Learnings and un-learnings.

I have also learnt that when life seems dark and murky, and nothing seems to go right, the only thing that can save you is belief. An indomitable belief in yourself. This reminds me of a poem by Robert Frost.

“I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree~
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches."
-Robert Frost.