Launchpad of a kitten

And God Created Woman (Et Dieu… créa la femme; French, 1956)
This film became a commercial success not because of a storyline (hardly any), dialogue or cinematographic skills but purely due to exploitation to the maximum of her well endowed physical attributes. This PETA loving animal activist started as an animal herself, a sex kitten!
It is draggy movie with no purpose in its storytelling. It just goes on and on mundane things. Guess, viewers are not there for some exercise activity but rather stimulation of the visual kind.
Julliete (Brigette Bardot) is a 21 year old precociously promiscuous orphan who gains the ire of her guardian. She is uncontrollable immature highly sexed girl who flirts with many guys in town. She is sent back to the orphanage. She shows interest in two guys in town - a elderly Carradine who plans to build a casino and Antione, a hunk who is only out for a one night stand and whose land Carradine is trying to buy over.
In twists of events, Antione's brother, Michel marries Juliette. What follows are series of waste of time, flirting, unnecessary scenes, infidelity, wondering of confused mind and feud between brothers. All it takes to put everything back in order in end is, like a typical Tamil movie, a few good tight slaps from the husband. She then toed the line.
Do something more worthwhile.....

Don't criticize, others did not have the advantages that you had!

The Great Gatsby(1974)
' "Don't criticize, others did not have the advantages that you had!"'. That is what Nick Carraway's father told him and that is the motto he lived by as he sees the antics the people do in the roaring 20s. He starts job selling bonds and lives as a neighbour to a mysterious character named Jay Gatsby (Robert Redford). Gatsby is an obscenely wealthy character who enjoys holding boisterously wild parties to attendees who usually come uninvited and leave even without knowing who the host is!
In keeping with the F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel, this ambiance, costumes and settings are very reminiscent of the 20s where the fairer sex found their new found freedom and expression. The prosperity in the land also fueled many of the vices of man - adultery, drunkenness and  bigotry.
Nick (Sam Waterston) is caught in the centre of two extramarital affairs and how it ruins everyone's family. He was just a passenger, watching the world go by, minding his own business.
A lovey dovey movie that did not excite me much.....

A British-Canadian masala

Midnight's Children (2012)

It has been said that Salman Rushdie could not sell his movie to any studio. So, he finally sold its right to a company for $1 as it was a personal achievement for him - his 1981 Booker prize book being made into a movie. Almost a year after its release, Rushdie is yet to receive his $1!

This story is a quasi-historical quasi-masala British-Canadian movie shot mainly in Sri Lanka, not Pakistan or India where the story happens, for fear of backlash for Hindu or Muslim communities. It tells a tale of a boy who was born on the stroke of midnight on the date India obtained Independence. It is a sort of a biography of his grandparents all the way down to his son with the history of India and the turmoil it went through the 20th century, from the serene lakes of Kashmir in 1917 through the blackest hour of  Emergency in 1977 in the background.

The film had an impressive ensemble of famous Bollywood, Kollywood and even British-American actors - Rahul Bose, Shabana Azmi, Shreya Saran, Soha Ali Khan, Anupam Kher, Siddarth and the son of Indian Harvard Professor in English Literature and Humanities, Homi K. Bhabha, Satya Bhabha.

Saleem (Satya Bhabha) is the protagonist who narrates about his grandparents and his parents. It dwells a bit about life in the Pre-Independence India and its internal squabbles. He tells us how he, as a newborn, was switched by the attending midwife at birth with the son of a singing vagabond. It happened all because the nurse's communist boyfriend was fighting for equality of classes.

Satya Bhabha

Saleem grew up disturbed, seeing his mother having an affair and visions of an invisible band of children, all born on Independence Day midnight, communicating with him. The boy whose place he replaces is Shiva, a restless and unhappy child. The midwife who had done the switching felt remorse and decided to dedicate her life as a nanny to Saleem.

One day, the cheat is discovered when a blood test revealed Saleem having a blood type incompatible to his parents'.  Accusations of infidelity are hurled, and Saleem is packed off to Pakistan, his aunt's house. The uncle is a high ranking officer in the Pakistan Army with political ambitions.

A coup after another happens. Saleem is drafted into the Pakistan War.
The story weaves around like a snake around a twig with Saleem meeting Parvati, another member of the Midnight Children's Club and having a duel with Shiva, by now a high ranking Indian Army officer and finally embracing his son whom Shiva is the father.

A nice story with a tinge of historical nostalgia and venture into controversies like Indo-Pakistan relationship and Indira Gandhi's emergency era and forced sterilization. Unfortunately, because the story is long and had to move the stop to keep with the contents of the book, the film failed to develop the characters. We do not end up feeling sad for the characters. T feel a disconnect with the film. I would any time read his book, with all his sarcastic nuances and logorrhoea.

A peek into the Roaring Twenties

The Great Gatsby (Literary Classic)

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Another coincidence again...
Just as I was about to watch the 1974 edition of The Great Gatsby movie, now that there is a new version of this movie and I cannot seem to download online, my daughter handed me this classical 1925 American literature which is used by many school as their English literature text.

The edition that I read is a 150 odd pages' Penguin edition and is probably abridged for younger readers. It was certainly a much simpler read than the 'King Solomon's mines' and '20,000 leagues under the Sea' that I had to grapple with in my early secondary school days.
GG is a simple story of the  narrator, Nick's neighbour in New York, the mysterious filthy rich Jay Gatsby. Gatsby, with his humble beginning, became miraculously rich through bootlegging alcohol, tries to rekindle his old romantic relationship with Daisy. Unfortunately, Daisy was married to Tom. Tom, on the other hand, has his own extramarital affair with Myrtle, the wife of a mechanic from the poor part of town.
Nick, being Daisy's second cousin and Tom's acquaintance, is the cement that binds all the character together.
It depicts the decadent times of the roaring 20's where some people had lots of money and did not know what to do with it, so they had lots of parties and morality and decency were out of the window. Alcohol was prohibited in America, creating a booming bootleg business. And it was a white man's society.

Now, I will watch the 1974 film 'The Great Gatsby' starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow.

A rock star finding for the Truth

Living in the Material World (Documentary, 2011)
Director:Martin Scorsese

No, this documentary has nothing to do with Madonna and her living in a material world.

 

Yes, we do not seem to have enough of the Beatles. The Beatles can never die. Scores of decades from now, we will still be talking about these four lads from Liverpool and their ability to transform the world music scene.

 

Well, this documentary is not about the Fab Four per se but was the product of his widow's perspective on the quiet Beatle. It starts with a look at his humble beginnings in the Beatles as the go-along non-assertive guy. The decisions in the band were made primarily by Lennon and McCartney. He was always composing songs in the background, only to have his compositions steamrolled by the domineering duo.

 

I suppose after maturing along the way, he demanded recognition and walked out of the Beatles even before the final break-up.

A good proportion of the 3hour 2-part show is devoted to his personal life post Beatles. Through a series of interviews (old and new), we get a glimpse of what happened to George after the glitz of showbiz.

There was the decadent years of LSD and cocaine, the uncertain years of search for meaning of life, his dive into the mystical world of Hinduism and Indian music, his friendship with many icons from varied fields - Jackie Stewart (F1 racer), Ravi Shanker, Eric Clapton (who wrote about and stole his wife, Patty Boyd), actors (he plunged into movie making in the 80s), Travelling Wilburys etcetera.

We discover that he has started to live a quiet life, writing songs that try to find the meaning of life. He went deep into Krsna consciousness, albeit a non-overtly metamorphized one (a closet devotee)!

The film ends with his fight with cancer and an insane intruder into his mansion.

Most of us grew up with either John or Paul as our favourite Beatles. Rarely does anyone pick George, and almost never does anyone pick Ringo. But as you grow older, you start appreciating George's meaningful songs about life and the meaning of life.

The cry of the 99%

I have heard this story about the bubble going to burst for at least 20 years now. The bubble had been resilient all this while. Whilst the bubble is threatening to break at all times, it still keeps on growing and growing till a time it reaches the point of no return. To identify that proverbial straw that breaks the camel is indeed the million dollar question.
Our purchasing power is limited, no doubt about that. A purchase of a decent TV would eat up a month's salary of an average new graduate, whilst in a developed country it would be a fraction (less than a  quarter).
Social safety nets are limited, hence the drive to be self sufficient and build your stockpile for a rainy day is not a necessity but also a life saver.