A little bit of Bollywood

If you remember, a long time ago I had expressed my disillusionment with Hollywood and my increasing admiration for Bollywood. Bollywood for the longest time has been making formulaic, melodramatic movies. The song and dance types. While they had their own charm, I have been more and more impressed by the new age Bollywood movies. And I do not mean the Karan Johar, Farah Khan, block-buster bullshit. I am talking about movies most people do not even know about. Movies which do not usually have big stars but have good stories to tell. Here a few of the best I have seen in the last few years.

1. Tango Charlie.
A hugely under-appreciated movie. I always thought Bobby Deol had excellent script sense (his only talent). This is a movie about the Bodo insurgency in Assam and the story of a soldier who never really wanted to be a soldier. It has an excellent script and some scenes that will shake you up. I would really, really recommend this movie with one warning. It is a little bloody.

2. Black Friday.
A very well-done dramatization of the Bombay bomb blasts that happened in 1993. It is a story every Indian needs to see and hear. The destruction of the Babri Masjid, the resultant Islamization of the Indian mafia and their role in the Bombay bomb blasts are  honestly depicted.

3. Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Limited.
A non-intense, non-serious movie for a change. Story of six couples on a road trip to Goa. Very funny, quirky and a lot of fun. As a side note, I saw this with a guy friend of mine since we could not get tickets for Black Friday. All around us were couples. Boy, did I feel gay !

4. Iqbal.
A story of a poor, deaf and dumb cricketer who dreams of playing cricket for India. This is your usual feel-good movie. What makes it stand out is brilliant direction and superb performances by the lead actors.

5.  Johnny Gaddar
A classic crime caper full of twists and turns. You have to watch it to see how good it is. Bonus points for Dharam paaji pulling a Harrison Ford, “It is not the age, it is the mileage”

6. Bheja Fry
I have never seen a movie more aptly named. Vinay Pathak in one of the greatest roles essayed in modern Bollywood. I am very partial to comedies and this is one of the best I have seen in a while

 There are so many more that are worth a mention like Chak De India, Dhoka, Hat-Trick, Ek Haseena Thi, Ab Tak Chappan, Metro, Gandhi-My Father, Manorama-Six Feet Under etc. I feel a bit sad that Bollywood is still thought of as a song and dance industry. But it is not an unfair depiction. Even today most of our big budget movies are fluffy romances with 10 songs and big stars. And no substance. Movie gems like the ones I mentioned above generally go un-noticed. Hopefully, if some of you go ahead and watch a few of these movies, this post would be worth it.

A little bit of cricket and a lot of ass-whooping

India JUST lost the 1st cricket test against Australia at Melbourne. Our bowlers put up a good show but the vaunted Indian batting line-up did not show up for the party. You can check the sorry details at http://www.cricinfo.com. Off-topic, someone needs to buy that website. It is a money-spinner.

I am not going to do what almost every Indian fan does. Which is put our team down. They deal with too much pressure from a country of a billion idiots as it is. All I can say is you cannot hope to win if your strength i.e. batting turns out to be your biggest weakness. One half century just does not cut it. And most batsmen also got decent starts.

The key is a good start. On the last tour of Australia, Virender Sehwag and Aakash Chopra gave us good and positive starts almost every innings. This match, Mr. Wall a.k.a Dravid played like a f@#$@ing pussy-cat. Super-slow, nervous starts do much more damage than it appears. Dravid either needs to be dropped or pushed to number 3. He is a great batsman but his mind seems messed up. I think he needs to cheat on his wife with a movie star or something. Certainly worked for Ganguly.

But one thing is certain. We need to try Sehwag again at the opener’s slot. He is in shitty form but if he comes good, by GOD we can compete again. Hang in there team India. This was just the first game. There is always hope.

A little bit of Christmas

A belated Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Year.

I always feel a bit guilty around Christmas since I have never ever bought anyone a Christmas gift. The reason is that almost everyone I know is well-off. And getting a good gift for people who already buy what they need around the year is beyond me. I do not like gifting someone a sweater just because protocol calls for it. Truth be told, I am a much better gift-taker than gift-giver.

Add to this the fact that every major holiday has been taken over by corporations who lure people into buying way more stuff than they need or afford. Yes, I believe in conspiracy theories Christmas is about giving, but not the kind of giving that we see usually. Life has to be about giving more of yourself and less of material things to the people who love. People are pulling 14 hour days so that they can get Sony Playstations for their kids at Christmas. I think they are on stupid pills. Or selfish. It is easier to buy stuff for people rather than spending quality time with them. So maybe corporations are not to blame.

And it would be wrong of me to paint just one side of the picture. There are many, many families in the US (and all around the world, I am sure) who know the true meaning of Christmas. Families who invite their less fortunate friends, people who are away from their familes to their homes. People who serve at homeless shelters and soup kitchens during the holidays. Kids who donate Christmas presents for those less fortunate.

I have a feeling they are the ones who have a really Merry Christmas.

A little bit of cricket

India take on Australia starting today at Melbourne. The dream of any sportsman is to pit his skills against the best in the world. And in cricket that would be the Australian team. A supremely skilled, fiercely competitive unit that plays the game HARD.

 Beating the Aussies is the cricket equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest. As an Indian fan, my hope is that the Indian team fights to the end. The Aussies will push relentlessly day after day. Hopefully we can match them blow for blow. I do not think the Indian team is lacking either in skills or in balls. We just have to hang in there.

To use a cliche that has been used a billion times this year, Chak De India

A little bit of reflection

I seem to be using big words needlessly. No one has said nething but I think that I have started doing that on the blog. I used to pride myself on the fact that I choose words well. So I need to be careful in future and review my posts better.

A little bit of humor

Humor- the most powerful anti-depressant ever. Have you guys ever wondered how boring and burdensome life would be if we lost our ability to smile and laugh? It is what makes the good times better and the bad times bearable.

I do not take myself very seriously and am a huge fan of people who are like that. They are always fun to talk to and hang out with. I wish more people were like that, especially Indians. So many are, for want a better word, dry. Am pretty sure, it has something to do with a culture that respects achievement and success and wisdom a lot more than wit and humor. It is very important to appear sincere, nice and respectful.

I grew up in a family that never joked or horsed around. And sadly, I do not know one single family around us that did. It just wasn’t the done thing. My parents were great parents. The provided me and my sister with the best upbringing and education one can hope for. And it is not like we were strictly disciplined or such. We always had plenty of space and freedom. It is just that we did not joke around much, if at all. Neither did anyone else I knew.

The reason is that I believe humor is not a big part of Indian society in general and the Marathi community in particular. When was the last time you met a funny Indian? Indians are nice, dependable, intelligent but not really funny. In our regimented society, the only time we laugh is during a funny play or a movie . God forbid, if you should make a smart-ass observation about your family or friends. You will be shunned for you are disrespectful. So many things about Indian society and religion are frankly ludicrous, yet joking about them is blasphemous. If you make an observation about drinking cow’s pee (and how is this not funny?) your grandmother will not talk to you. We Indians are a bit touchy, aren’t we No wonder Indian humor has been reduced to Shekhar Suman impersonating Laloo Yadav.

I think we need to stop taking ourself so f#@#ing seriously. We need to laugh and laugh often. You can always find time during the day to sit down with your family and have a good laugh. Tell a funny story. Pull somebody’s leg. It is just as important as studies, work and exercise.

Do teach your kids the value of humor. If you do, odds are they probably will never need a shrink.

A little bit of dissociation

I was reading the Runner’s Magazine a few days ago and I read an interesting article. It mentioned how marathon runners try not to think about the run itself during the run. Seems like thinking about something , something that is especially boring and tedious or gruelling makes the task much harder.  So they practice dissociation.

Now smart people (not me) would ask, why the heck run so much? After a point it stops being excercise and starts being an excercise in masochism. Let me tell you a secret. Runners are crazy. Not me, I stop at 5-6 miles max.

But I told myself, let us try this theory. Seems to make sense. And I love for things to make sense.  So when I was running last week, I was not really running. I was enjoying a cozy dinner with Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Anniston, both :) And we didn’t really talk about Brad. When I biked, I was actually being funnier than Chris Rock in front of a stage audience.

And by GOD, it worked. I blew past my distances and numbers. OK, I did not blow past them but let us say I did real good. I also really enjoyed myself, enjoyed the weather. Usually when I run my thoughts are usually as follows

*String on unmentionable words* followed by Why am I doing this?  (I think this very often)

OR

*String of unmentionable words* followed by Boy, am I glad I live in SoCal! (I think this every once in a while)

This experience was so much better. I had seen a pretty funny movie called Happy Gilmore where whenever the hero is under pressure he takes himself to his “happy place”. This is sort of similar. And it works !!!

A little bit of cooking

I do not cook often, at most once a week. A clogged sink might have something to do with it, since I have to do dishes in the shower. Not only that, I have a pretty low opinion of my own cooking. I am OK without being anywhere close to being a gourmet cook.

But the stars were smiling on me this Monday. I won the Yahoo! Santa Monica cooking competion. I had made mutter-paneer and jeera rice. And I blew away the judges. I must say it was one of my better efforts and it felt real good to win. I am not a big fan of participating in a competition just for the fun of it. I compete to win. If I lose, I like to lose knowing I tried and I lost to a better opponent. That holds in sports and that holds in cooking. To be honest, I really wouldn’t have minded losing this one. All the other entries were amazing, especially the chocolate and cherry cheesecake, YUM! Seems like the big guns (the really good cooks at Yahoo!) were not competing. But that is not my problem. I can only beat the competition in front of me. And I will happily take the 150$ I got in gift certificates.

Also I think my victory was important. The message needed to be sent. Single, straight guys can cook too!

A little bit of reflection

I was thinking how even something as ordinary as my blog reflects human society at large. Entertainment gets more hits than science/philosophy

I think it is partly due to the fact that it is a common thread running among all of us as opposed to some of the other things I have posted about. Also people are sometimes cautious of sharing their views on the “big ticket” items

A little bit of movies

Now for a little lightness I was watching the movie As Good as it Gets yesterday. I really like that movie, even though it is of a genre I do not usually enjoy. It is a quirky, romantic, feel-good comedy with all the cliches in the world. It even has the token gay guy. I think this movie started that trend. The reason I love this movie is that rarely do you find a movie with two great actors who fit their roles so perfectly. See this movie and you will know what I mean. It seems like Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt were put on earth to play the lead in the movie.

That got me thinking of actors that fitted their characters like a glove. Here is my top 10 (12 if you count Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt)

Jim Carrey in The Mask
The greatest role ever played by any actor. PERIOD. The movie is nuts and Carrey is nuttier. It is a sacrilege that the Oscars do not take comedies seriously. Without him, the movie could not have been made.

Russell Crowe as Maximus in Gladiator.
Amazingly intense actor in the role of his lifetime.

Kevin Spacey in Usual Suspects.
Cannot say nething without giving away the surprise of the greatest crime thriller ever made.

Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones-Raiders of the Lost Ark.
I do not think anyone could have played the “academic” explorer-adventurer with the panache of Harrison Ford.

Marlon Brando in GodFather.
He was THE GODFATHER in one of the best-written roles ever.

Julie Andrews in Sound of Music.
Sound of Music was overall a brilliant movie but Julie Andrews took it to the next level.

Whoopie Goldberg in Ghost
Fitted the role of a psychic to the T. She is good at whatever she does.

Sean Connery as James Bond.
Another example of great casting.

Haley Joel Osment in Sixth Sense.
Again, a brilliant movie to begin with. He made it even better.

Leonardo DeCaprio in Catch Me If you Can.
One of the best actors of our generation. But a prisoner of his looks and the fame that came with the one of his worst movies, and I do mean the Titanic. He was brilliant in this movie though.

Eminem in 8 Mile.
This was easy. He was playing himself  :)

Do let me know if I missed some good ones.