Early Morning Observation

Between 7 am to 10 am in downtown Vancouver, if you see anyone walking about without a cup of coffee in their hand, be sure they are headed towards their favorite cafe.

the impropmtu holiday

Have you ever envied those ladies who are seen enjoying coffee/lunch or shopping on a weekday afternoon? I have. Often. This fantasy of having every weekday afternoon free to sip coffee and indulge in shopping can only be turned into a reality if I quit my job but then, will I ever be able to motivate myself to get out of the bed in the morning? I doubt it. Therefore, I decided to live my fantasy for a week and begged the boss to give me a week off to join the husband on his business trip to Vancouver. I needed it, you know? He will be gone for about 20 days and often too, so what does a girl do? Right? So I should not feel guilty about spending a bomb on the tickets to the other part of the world, right?

Anyway, it is too late to wonder. I am already in Taipei, waiting for the connecting flight. :p

Much excited. Little plans. Will basically walk the streets every single day for five days. Take pictures, drink coffee, and take more pictures. Shopping? Well, we will see.

Expect daily posts.

PS: Just realized this is the first time I am traveling alone internationally! * gasps *

PPS: Its intersting how every single sign/instruction in the Taipei airport is also in English but most people do not understand the language. Unlike China/Japan, where you see all signs in the local language, English dominates the sign boards here.

Tweet-Post: Favorite Eveh Bollywood Dialogue

“Paraye Ghar Mein Anjaan Logon Se Itna Dostana Kaafi Rang Laya Hai”

Mouthed by the awesome Mohnish Behl in the terrific Maine Pyar Kiya. Yours?

Reading Ramayana

Ramayna is one of the most read books in India, but I have recently come to realize that it is still not appreciated enough. My grandmother owned a copy of Tulsidas’ version in Sanskrit with translation in Hindi, and she read it every day. However, she read the same pages because they gave her peace. Although, there is nothing wrong with such a thing, but it can definitely not be qualified as reading a book. She prayed everyday is more like it.

I have myself known of Ramayna in great detail since an early age thanks mostly to Ramanand Sagar and C.B.S.E textbooks. However, reading C.Rajagopalachari’s version was an experience I won’t forget in a hurry. He based his book mainly on Vaalmeeki and Kamban’s versions but his writing displays his in-depth knowledge of not only this but many other scriptures of different religions and beliefs. His version of the story of the mighty King Rama can be read and enjoyed without any religious connotations, and that is why I loved it.

Besides having the qualities of any well-researched story being retold, his writing is decked with archaic yet simple and beautiful English. He writes in pleasant words strung together to form attractive prose, full of information. It is lyrical without being a rhyme. And I am only talking about the language right now.

Another thing I deeply enjoyed about this book was the logic. Most religious stories are fed to us by our elders whose devotion to the God makes them stick to every word sung in his praise. Dare we question anything which might even remotely sound anti-devotion, we get hushed. As a result, we grow up with many questions; at least this is what happened with me. Therefore, you can only imagine my joy when Rajaji answered all those unasked questions in his book, and he did so with genuine devotion combined with crystal clear judgment and rational.

The author often takes a break from storytelling and talks about why Vaalmeeki or Kamban described such and such in a particular manner. He helps you widen your perspective about the society of a different era, asking you not to judge it by the current social standards. He spells out for you the motivations behind the actions of the characters, and he clarifies the beliefs that one has been blindly harboring because someone said so.

Rajaji regularly draws parallels with other scriptures like the Bible or the Geeta while making a point. This helps the readers to open their mind and widen their perspective. One realizes that it is not the fundamentals that one needs to question, but the human nature and its motivation.

So if you have ever wondered, why a King so great as Rama, Narayana incarnate himself, forced his wife to walk into blazing fire soon after he risked everything to win her back from the evil King, you should read this book.

If you have ever wondered, why a powerful and intellectual King like Ravana resorted to stealing another’s wife, you should read this book.

If you have ever wondered, why the holy Rama, devoted to honesty and dharma, kill Vaali from the back while hiding in the forest, you should read this book.

The beauty of this particular version is that it is told like a coming of age tale. A 16-year old prince who starts off on his endeavors at the beginning of the tale is a learned, experienced, and mighty King by the end of the book.

Thank you for all the cats

I wrote a long verbose post on how Manish Malhotra, not Shah Rukh Khan or Aamir Khan, is the Bollywood hero of the ‘90s but in the end, I decided to stick with A picture speaks a thousand words, and here you go.

We shall illustrate our point using the most gorgeous actor of newer times. The face that lunched a thousand ships not only in India but also at the ports of our friendly neighbor, Madhuri Dixit.

Madhuri Dixit Pre-Manish Malhotra

Madhuri Dixit Posing as a Canary

Style icon of the '90s

Heart throb of the nation and beyond

Madhuri Dixit Post-Manish Malhotra

The new Madhuri

Older and prettier

Lesser makeup, lesser curls, we like

Therefore, Manish Malhotra is the person we need to thank the ’90s for. He rid us of frills, ribbons, puffs, thick eye brows, and dazzling danglers.

End of discussion.

Circle of life

My colleague and I were making what can only be qualified as polite conversation on our way home in the train. I saw him glance behind my back a couple of times and then, I heard an old voice from behind.

“Oh, the rents are much higher now!” it interjected. Turning around I saw an old Indian gentleman of around 70 (well exactly 70 as I later found out.) smiling at us. With much interest in his voice he continued to tell us about the high living cost of Singapore and how it has driven his only son away from him. He then proceeded to enlighten us about his great investment skills, his old job and current pension, the medical facilities of Singapore, the CEO of DBS bank, the landlords of India, the IT culture, the accents of Indians and that of Chinese, the great facilities of Citibank 20 years ago and so on. In less than twenty minutes he had shown us his loose trousers and the whole wheat bread he was carrying in the bag.

I am not a kind of person who usually picks up conversations with strangers; my colleague does not even make conversation with us unless we poke him into talking. Nevertheless, neither of us minded this strange old guy hijacking our conversation. And I think you can guess why.

It is scary, this old age that comes hand in hand with loneliness. Usually, it is no one’s fault. How can I blame the old guy’s son for abandoning him for a better life in the UK when I myself live in Singapore leaving my mom and parents in another country?

Ten Reasons Why Rocket Singh is Better than 3 Idiots

I saw Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year yesterday and thought I’d review it today. But then I happened to watch 3 Idiots in the night. The time difference between the two films was way too less for me to not draw a comparison.

1. Characters and their Motivations: All the characters of Rocket Singh are beautifully etched and once established, stay true to their boundaries. Harpreet Singh is a boy of strong conscience as is reflected from the pizza and brushing teeth on seeing the screen saver incidents. These little things convince us that he is the kind of person who’d stand up for principles and do what he does. Motives of the supporting cast are so clearly visible – like Giri is in it for profit only and therefore, is the first one to panic and spill every time. Koena is in it for pride, and that shows and so on. Plus 1 point.

As opposed to this, 3 Idiots has feeble character motivation or at least they are not clearly conveyed to the audience. The movie is about the three friends but how they became such great buddies remained unclear to me. They found themselves in the same hostel room and then? When Farhan first meets Raju, the latter does not even respond to his greeting but in the very next scene we see the two sharing secret glances. Also, a gardener’s son who is studying to satisfy his hunger for knowledge and is helping someone get a fake degree preaches one and all at every opportunity? Minus 1 point.

2. Script: Rocket Singh is a simple story of a boy entering the corporate world and trying to make a career he can be proud of. What makes the story powerful is the well-etched characters and a crisp script. Every scene is in there for a reason and not just to make you laugh or cry or some such. The reason Harpreet Singh was brought up by an old grandfather is not because Shimit Amin wanted Prem Chopra in his film but because the principles and beliefs of Harpreet Singh are purer and a little old-fashioned, definitely instilled by someone of yester-generation. Plus 1 point.

Complicated story with lots of twists to entertain you, and give you a wholesome masala experience in 3 Idiots. Scenes are in there to make you laugh, choke, and giggle only. They are often over the top and unreal, but they establish the super powers of the characters, for only a super human can deliver a baby with a vacuum cleaner, in my extremely humble opinion. Even worse is that the jokes are stale and remind me of the days when I created my first Yahoo! Mail account and all my friends would send me forwards. Apparently, Raj Kumar Hirani never deleted those forwards. But I think I heard the astronaut’s pen joke before the Internet came into our lives. Minus 1 point. Wait, have you seen this? Minus 2 points.

3. Plot Holes: I have a firm belief that setting a clever story, telling it fascinatingly is way easier than winding it up convincingly. Therefore, I usually give some benefit to all films and ignore if the end is not very realistic. Rocket Singh did a superb job of keeping things real even towards the end; Mister Puri did not have a change of heart out of the blue, he was getting rid of the company that had become a liability. Yes, he accepted defeat and said a few humble things but still the director won me over by adding a blink-n-miss detail. As Puri walks away after handing over the company, Harpreet murmurs “See you in the field” and then proceeds to set his things on the aisle! So true to the character. Plus 1.

3 Idiots is a funny film, not because of the aforementioned jokes but because of the lack of reasoning. Let’s do a quick role play. Say you are the daughter of the principal of an institution and are in love with one of your father’s student. This love of your life goes missing after graduating. In the following ten years when you continue to pine for him, will it ever cross your mind to get his records pulled out and try to find him? Oh, and you are the same person who illegally copied your father’s room keys to help your lover’s friend. Also, when you get down to finding him all you really need to do is land up at the city square of his city and ask for him. Minus 1 point.

4. Casting: Rocket Singh is a story of youth straight out of college. The youth is portrayed by a 27 year old actor. Since this is the basic need of the film, no special points.

The main lead of 3 Idiots is a college kid with brains extraordinaire. He is portrayed by a 44 year old actor. Since this is plain stupid, minus 3 points.

5. Sense of Humor: Subtle jokes that are not told like you are reading them out of Champak are the best kind! Rocket Singh has humor entwined in its script. When the loving granddad buys his grandson a shiny red scooty that starts with a push of button, we are in splits. When the porn-addict Giri displays the sales records bar chart using hot girls, the God-fearing Mishra with Lord Ganesha, and Harpreet with rockets, we are in splits. When Harpreet risks his new job to call up granddad to ask him to not wait up for dinner, we smile. Plus 1 point.

3 Idiots’ sense of humor is not poor because it uses the jokes that we cracked in our classrooms and our parents in theirs, but because it is also in very poor taste. If I was aghast to see a paralytic father as a prop for comic relief, I was downright disgusted to see rape being used as a joke! I refuse to even talk about this any further. Minus 5 points.

6. Misplaced Moral Values: Rocket Singh sees the protagonist cheating his boss to get back at him. All this while he is guilty and he knows what he is doing is wrong. He never proclaims to be the honest goodie two shoes. He is what he is. Plus 1.

3 Idiots has this awesome Rancho who tells strange girls that their fiancés are money-minded and steals question papers for his friend but he also monkey-arounds with Chatur’s speech in front of the whole University just because he likes to cram and compete to stand first in the class! Minus 1.

7. Suspension of Disbelief: A movie is a movie and requires some degree of suspension of disbelief. While I am more than happy to achieve a degree as high as 90 for a sci-fi or a fantasy film, there is only so much one can do for a film trying to be real. Rocket Singh had exactly one scene that I needed to let go past – the scene where Puri walks in and hands over the company and says that Harpreet deserves it. May not happen in real life. 1 +.

3 Idiots required suspension of disbelief to match Avatar’s degree! Be it the ability to stop the plane by faking heart attack, engineering makeshift instruments to electrocute people or deliver babies, or bringing stillborns back to life by sprouting slogans! As if this was not enough, even the human nature is questionable. Like Pia first ditching her fiancé on being provoked by someone who just ruined her father’s reputation, and then 10 years later, marrying the same guy. Like the two friends and one girlfriend immediately understanding that their fair friend abandoned them for a reason beyond his control. Maybe I am just a very bad person, but I do not get this. 1 -.

8. Villains are Bad People: Often the baddy in the film has no motivation to be bad. He is a Mogambo who just wants to rule the world! Rocket Singh has grey characters, which is the biggest strength of the film. All characters behave the way they do for a reason. Puri is the bad guy because he is a mean employer who works to maximize his own profit. Lesser commission the employees get, more money he makes. Simple formula. Plus 1.

Principal in 3 Idiots is the villain who drives kids (including his own) to suicide by building pressure because he likes to do so! He is bad just because. He does not see logic, he does not have feelings, and he is just a mean Mogambo. Okay? Okay. Oh yes, he has a change of heart and takes back the rustication of the three students who had stolen an exam paper just because they vacuumed his grandchild out of his daughter on a ping pong table on a rainy night when Delhi became Mumbai and traffic came to a stand still. (Which has never happened in Delhi, at least, in my life.) Minus 1.

9. Trying too Hard: I have heard that if you achieve great success, life only gets tougher and you have to constantly try to keep up with yourself. Shimit Amin did not let his Chak De India success overshadow his Rocket Singh project. Plus 1.

Raj Kumar Hirani tried desperately to add everything that Munna Bhai had to 3 Idiots, including an aging actor as a college student. However, one has to be blind and deaf to miss what he was trying to achieve with “Aal Iz Well,” but sadly, it is no “Jadu ki Jhappi!” Minus 1.

10. Because I Say So: Rocket Singh was breezy and funny. But I do not care for any particular scene in it as much as dislike a few vulgar ones from 3 Idiots.

Total Scores:

Rocket Singh: A shiny 8

3 Idiots: An abysmal -16 (To be fair, it aint that bad a movie. It is just that one expected better from both Raj Kumar Hirani and Aamir Khan. If this were an Akshay Kumar/Ajay Devgun comedy, I would not even bother with a post.)

Avatar: Of Splendor and Absurdness

It is today that Avatar has been officially declared world’s number two film, surpassing Gandalf and his hobbits of LotR: Return of the King. When someone of James Cameron’s mettle takes close to fifteen years in making a movie, the whole world has to have an opinion about it. You have to either love it, sing praises of it and make it the number two film of all times, or you have to malign it until it begins to resemble the kerchief you dropped in a muddy puddle and then a convoy drove over it.

So much has been said about this film, but the best-est thing I read about it online was here. Although, I whole heartedly agree with this summary, I still loved Avatar enough to watch it twice over a weekend.

The movie is about those colossal but striking aligns and much credit to the director for not wasting too much time before introducing those. The movie sets up the basic background of the story, and introduces the characters and establishes the motives swiftly, and while I was still marveling how Phoebe’s brother could talk so cleverly, the stunning avatars were introduced.

Phoebe's Brother Can Talk Straight!

Phoebe’s brother interestingly wants the supremely expensive and rare metal imaginatively called Unobtainium. The metal is very rare because it is only found on Pandora, but is also very expensive. Wonder if it is the new bullion on planet earth? Whatever the reason, Phoebe’s brother must obtain large quantities of Unobtainium by digging deep into Pandora, and for that he has hired two teams: team one is made of scientists who are cloning the beings of Pandora and by taking their form, they want to mingle and then obtain Unobtainium for Phoebe’s brother. They are the good people. Team two is that of the military people, who are ready to kill to obtain the Unobtainium for Phoebe’s brother. They are the bad people, more so because they are not fighting for their nation/planet but for money that Phoebe’s rich (another shock to me!) brother pays them. Very bad people, indeed.

Jake Sully - The Good People

Jake Sully, awesomely portrayed by Sam Worthington, is a twin of one of the good people who got murdered and the other good people had no choice but to bring the handicapped ex-marine in because he shares the DNA with the avatar of his brother, seen in the background of the above picture. Yes! That is how ridiculous the story is. But sincerely, I do not care. Not now, not when I was watching the film. For despite being of the length of a Bollywood movie, the film is well-paced and things happen all the time; also, nothing happens without a reason. The attention to detail is amazing.

Colonel Miles - The Bad People

I found the villain of the film quite well chalked out as well. Stephen Lang is the colonel who heads the military operations and is ready to kill. Just look at his get up, is it not perfect? He looks every bit like the guy who takes pleasure in pumping bullets, but does not like to waste any. My attention was directed to the gang-like ring he is wearing throughout the film, which is not explained (thankfully) but totally adds to his character. Besides him, the director paid complete attention to the ships, war-vessels, and bots used by the humans in the film. Considering that the movie was set in a fantastical land, it was very easy for the makers to forget about the usual human things. Extra points from me for making such convincing military base and vessels.

Birds of Steel Also Impress

So yeah, the good guys get into their avatars and land on Pandora, the astonishingly striking planet with creatures of great splendor.  The opening scene on the Pandora finds Jake Sully walking around amazed and curious, touching everything hesitatingly and I felt as if I was right there with him! Maybe it was the 3D effect, maybe the splendid visuals, or maybe good direction of the scene, but I found myself gasping and sighing with the avatar on the screen. Especially, the fireflies and the touch-me-nots took my breath away.

Of Climbing Trees and Making Friends

Here, the movie changes pace and becomes all about discovering the wonders of Pandora and every frame is stunning. Jake Sully befriends Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldana, who is obviously the chieftain’s daughter. She also is betrothed to the successor chieftain and of course, our Jake Sully hits on her big time. She likes. Together they ride gorgeous beasts by connecting to the animals with the thin stems coming out of their own braids, catch fireflies, skip on trees, and tame dragons. He is a nincompoop in Pandora land to begin with, but being a super fast learner, he impresses Neytiri in no time.

Neytiri: The Real Good People

I was supremely impressed by Zoe Saldana in the film. She has the raw magnetism of a big cat and at the same time is graceful and refined as a girl could be. I flipped over the two scenes where she jumps and puts her body over her lover’s to protect him, and then growls. Oooh, so cool!!

The indigenous live in a humongous tree called home tree that sits atop the largest deposit of Unobtainium. They pray to another tree – The Tree of Souls, which connects the life cycle of everything  on Pandora.  The life of the Navi (people of Pandora) and their routines reminded us of Dances with Wolves. Oh yes, same old same old. But, did I not have fun following them around in this fantastic world?

Neytiri Again: Because She is Grand

The good people are taking too long in mingling and convincing the Navi; obviously because they are more busy wooing the Navi chicks. The bad people are growing impatient and decide to forget the whole avatar bullshit and come down old school – tanks, coppers, and big friggin’ guns. The good guys want to protect the Navi, and therefore, change sides. Phoebe’s brother does not like being double-crossed, but colonel Miller does not like it even more. So he decides to kill the good people before he kills the Navi, but the indigenous also want to kill the good people because the good people are essentially conniving liars who have had a change of heart.

Lover's Tiff? A Little Worse, I'd Say

Amidst a lot of commotion, and accompanied by the few other good people, Jake Sully needs to save the Navi. But before he does that, he must win back their (and more importantly, his girl’s) trust. So he decides to tame the un-tameable great dragon – Toruk. Of course, he succeeds. He has the cunning of the being of the planet earth, does he not? So riding on Toruk’s back, he thus proceeds to save Navi from the greed of Phoebe’s brother, colonel, and his cronies.

Battle in the Air

The climax fight sequence is as stunning as the initial introduction of the align planet. They fight amidst hanging mountains, clouds, and all things pretty to the eye. The action sequences were well done, especially because they were extremely easy to follow. I wish the movie ended with the falling of the colonel. Despite its ordinary and ridiculous in parts story, the film would have been perfect to me. Alas, it was not to be.

The next scene shows the Navi sending Phoebe’s brother and his other non-military type people back into their ships. Only a few are allowed to stay. Such a dampener, this scene was. But what came next was even worse. Nytiri’s mother (the physic of the Navi) proceeds to transfer Jake Sully’s sole into his avatar with amazing ease and expertise of someone who does so every day before breakfast. Bah.

I know they want to make a sequel, or at least keep their doors open. I do not have any problem with that. But wonder what is wrong in a well-paced neat little recap followed by bridging the gap in the next movie?

All said and done, I let those little things pass by. The over all experience is brilliant and that is why I loved the film.

hello, twenty ten

A shiny new year is here. With the coming of which a couple of mini projects on this blog have ended and I feel a little bewildered. I am a creature of habit and when any change kicks in, my first reaction is to resist and throw a tantrum.

While I have little control on the changes that life presents me with, I do have a choice to keep my blog just the way it was in 2009. But, I shall not. I have begun with transferring the links of my friends’ blogs to my RSS reader, and removing the twitter and flickr feed. Surely, there can be too much  of me. Let us cut down the clutter, I say. Let the chi flow in freely.

The other major change is introduction of weekly review posts on the blog. Starting this Friday, I shall post a movie review every Friday and Monday. The movies can be of any era or language, about anything I happen to watch and feel strongly about. Besides the regular movie reviews, I shall try to write about every book I finish reading.

The Project 365 still has 100 more days to go; I struggle with it every day. Since I am not linking to my Flickr feed any longer, I may post certain photos that I am particularly proud of. Won’t happen too often. :p

Yeah, so that is the POA for the blog in the first year of the new decade. Forget talking about the ’80s and the ’90s; Make way for the ’10s.

To wrap up the disappointing 2009…

So I yielded to the yearend madness and here is my list of the top five Bollywood films of the year. Bollywood in 2009 has been largely disappointing for a film buff like me. It both perplexes and pains me to see that the highest grosser of the year are films like Wanted, De Dana Dan, Kambakkhat Ishq and the likes. The problem is that box office success of such films will lead to more pointless cinema in the coming year and therefore, this absurd trend shall continue. Therefore, my 2010 movie resolution is to not give my money to any nonsense churned out by the Bollywood. Coming back to the point, here is the best three films of 2009. I was planning to list top five, but I cannot come up with any more than three. To be fair, I have not seen Paa and 3 Idiots, and you guys have been raving about those two. But from where I stand right now, there were just three mentionable movies in 2009. Tch tch, Bollywood.

Number Three: Kaminey

For most of us, the movie begins with its music release and the OST of this film sold the film to me soon as I heard its title track. Bringing back of retro tunes of the ‘70s in so much style, Vishal Bhardwaj and Gulzar FTW. The following experience in the movie theater met my high expectations, despite the shaky camera, which I particularly dislike.

Shahid Kapoor was terrific as both the stuttering Guddu and lisping Charlie. Priyanka Chopra was in fact more arresting than her usual self and I loved her Maharashtraian  avatar. However, what really worked for the film was its unusual narrative approach. The attention to details and perfect touches to each character, including the ones with slightest screen time, show that the makers of the film cherished the project.

The dialogues are funny, the story unpredictable, the ends tie, and it is yet a lot more than an average masala film. The film reflects good research on its subject and a marvelous continuity, and these are the little things that make a film memorable, at least for me.

Number Two: Luck By Chance

This film was the breezy film of 2009. You could miss it if you blinked, thanks to the jarring promos of films like Billu Barber (sue me if you want, but that is what you call the guy who cuts hair!), Chandni Chowk to China, and Delhi 6. However, the word of mouth worked for this film and I seriously hope enough people watched it to encourage the industry to make more such films.  People often look for truth in the films, what I look for is the film being true to itself. For me every film is a fantasy, but if your fantasy means something to you, only then you make a good film. Else you make a maudlin New York and get away with fooling half of the country.

But I digress again.

I enjoyed watching Farhan Akhtar and Konkona Sen though their short journey in which their characters grow beautifully. But almost every other character/actor in this film was a joy to watch, be it the controlling insecure star mom – Dimple Kapadia or the manipulative super star – Hritik Roshan. Even Sanjay Kapoor with his awesome movie posters and cool hat was a laugh riot. Of course, the best of the lot were Mr and Mrs. Romy and Minty Rolly played by Rishi Kapoor and Juhi Chawala. Their chemistry worked like magic and they were better together than they have been during their hay days in the ‘90s.

Besides the acting and very tight script, the direction of the film was smooth. I especially liked the bold end of the film, something one does not come across in the popular Hindi cinema. What’s more is that I did not hear anyone complaining about it; kudos to the Akhtars for that.

Number One: Dev D

It was huge blank canvas and Anurag Kashyap brought along his best color palette and used sweeping, bold, and accurate strokes to paint this wonderful film for us, the much deprived audience of Hindi cinema. Thanks for that. You saved my year, Mr. Kashyap.

The story is as regular as can get – boy likes girl, but is too self obsessed to realize. Girl likes boy because she is familiar and he is the best in her limited world. They mess up again and again, and in the end, they are still messed up but each meets their fitting messed up other. That sounds like a very happy and yet realistic ending to me. I am still in awe of the Devdas take of the film, and of such convincing characters even though the events and circumstances in the film are mostly extreme.

Abhay Deol reestablishes his already secure spot (in my head, at least) as the best actor in the industry at the moment. All the other actors are convincing as well; there is a specific scene where Chanda is being goaded by her grandparent while she sits and reads her book that is imprinted in my head for no perceivable reason. Except that Kalki is a strong actor who conveyed a lot without uttering a single word in that scene.

The most beautiful thing about this film is the thought that has gone in conceiving it, and the hard work reflects in every shot.  Again, the knowledge of the characters is crystal clear in the director’s mind and it transforms beautifully on the screen. You do not empathize with anyone in particular but you still smile when they end up almost fine together.

With that we come to a sad end of 2009. I am sincerely hoping that I can include an addendum to this post soon as I watch 3 Idiots, but a part of me is scared to think it is all hype that is playing with the audiences’ minds. Guess, one shall find out.