Long Lost – One Book August 21, 2009
Posted by myth in Uncategorized.Tags: Book, reviews
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Memories have been a trickery slope for me, most of them bein formed at an incredible rate. This brings us to the curse of limitations. Until the next nerdy chap invents a external brain for storage, I would be stuck with pushing one too many to the back of my head!
A nice little conversation made at the college book club today, reminded me of all those wonderful treasures I have lost. After the advent of internet, my pains has been assuaged to an exntent by the firendly folks at Shelfari, Good Reads, flixster and all.
But many have slipped through the cracks of my cluttered brain over the time, and one such amazing book prompted me to make this post this night
How would you like to be part of Mr.George F. Babbitt’s life for a while? Would you enjoy this middle-aged gentleman’s life in the prosperous Zenith, feel tedious over his real estate business, left speechless by his enjoyment of profession?
I bet you might even feel a little guilty for despising the fictional protaganist engage in mundane activities ,for a novel (all the while remembering the last weekend where your life felt a similar theme!!)
Sinclair Lewis’s Babbit is a book that looks at the heart of American culture through its painstakingly conformist title character. The society, the rules, the standards all are described with a quite amusing canvas of satire. Here we have a various set of characters all brought up in the conformist tide, No Dean Moriaty’s here, all displaying various degrees of contempt and admiration for this conformism!! As the book leads you into the American Dream, the discovery of the mirage, the courage for change and the realisation of the ugly truth – you couldn’t help but laugh at the characters and your own self!!!
Here is a classic I enjoyed, thanks to a Bong bibliophile in Bangalore and the famous Blossom’s used books on first floor!
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Love Aaj kal August 9, 2009
Posted by myth in movies, reviews.Tags: Bollywood, Hindi Movie, Imtiaz, reviews, Saif
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Now two films old, Imtiaz Ali has built enough reputation to have expectations from his third love story. The good things, the movie does feel better than 90% of movies that Bollywood shamelessy churns out every year. It has good music (inspired or not), great look , aesthetically pleasing. Starting with a story was never the fair thing to do for Imtiaz’s films, considering his strong suit were dialogues and characters execution. Even here he tries to create a more realisitc and non-melodramatic protagonists.
****Minor Spoiler Alert*****
But his strong suit seems so re hashed. For anyone who remembers the pretty cool and different plot basis of Socha na Tha can identify the trend here also.
In both the films,the characters basically end up being more honest to each other since the pressure of a relationship ahs disappeared. In both films they keep a ‘friendly’ thing going, talking about their current plans etc. And both movies, THE realisation comes in their own time.
All these points by themselves make a good movie, except for the part where its BEEN DONE! and by the same guy
Its no wonder the dialogue delivery also resonates his first venture!
So here is a movie that starts fresh, until it seeks comfort in the tested formula of the director and then sort of redeems in the end. It a bumpy ride which sort of has witty detours. May be if it had been a single love story Imtiaz would have no choice but to develop his characters, but by juggling two Jai & Meera seemed to be etched in our minds by filling in gaps from our familiar sameer of DCH and I guess a female version of sorts witj Meera!
On a side note, was Deepika’s diction always a little problematic? It felt very forced and uncomfortable in this movie, Donno about her other features.
Personally ,Its hard for me to not compare the two films and Socha Na tha is a definite winner, not just because of its fresh ideas but also Abhay and Ayesha were also very real and non-melodramatic through out. But since I end up only having to 2-3 films every year which doesn’t make me cringe when i watch them…LOVE AAJ KAL is in the better list.
Recommendation:You won’t be regretting it for a hindi movie, enjoy a lazy afternoon. If you are a bloke who hasn’t watched Socha Na tha, you will enjoy this
PS- Any Deja vu about DDLJ is not completely ridiculous 
PPS – This review is slightly prejudiced due to the power of zipping and zapping I excersiced 
