Nimbupani Designs

I made the mistake (in my flu induced delirium) of watching Partner an idiotic rip-off of Hitch. I would strongly recommend against watching this movie (which will take you one step closer to heaven or Oprah - whoever you believe in). The most interesting “subtle” prejudice that was seen was that the single mother in the movie was Christian (while every other character in the movie is Hindu). I think the majority thinking being Hindus cant be single mothers (which I know a lot of Hindus actually believe). Of course, just like Namastey London there is a token white man who bears the brunt of Salman Khan’s lecture on the guilt of the White Colonists.

Technorati Tags: bollywood, partner, hitch

An advantage of being in the U.S. is watching movies as soon as they are released - and not waiting for eternity (or downloading a bad quality print). So, as soon as I was free, I made my way to the nearest theatre to watch my most anticipated movie of the year Ratatouille (yep, I am copy-pasting from google’s very helpful suggestion for my contorted spellings of the movie).

Of course, there is one thing that is better than the movie - and that is the short “Lifted” that plays before the movie starts. I kinda slept through the boink-boink sheep that played before Incredibles, but “Lifted” is a whole new world. Ever know what goes on in the minds of aliens as they try to “lift” sleeping humans into their UFOs in the dead of the night? If you dont, you have to watch Lifted for a very hilarious take on it.

On a sidenote, Brad Bird is my new hero. I have read on several animation blogs how he took charge only 18 months before and significantly re-wrote the script while personally going through every animation. I loved Incredibles and I am so in love with Ratatouille.

Back to the movie. Ratatouille obviously means a french vegetable dish, but to us french illitrates the most obvious conclusion is it has got something to do with a rat. Ratatouille (the french dish) plays a very critical role in the film, while also ending up as a name of a restaurant (in the film). We get to see Remy, the rat, develop an acute sense of culinary excellence while watching Gusteau, the celebrated french chef on TV (whose claim to fame is the book “Anyone can cook”). The most excellent scenes in the movie are when Remy tries to get his brother to understand how to sense taste and what good food means. If you have cooked for a while, you would understand exactly how that feels like.

Then there is Linguini, the pimply boy who is so painfully shy and so afraid of saying “no” and always screws things up. But, the character that takes the cake is Mr. Anton Ego - the harshest food critic of all France. Peter O’Toole excels in his voice over which is completely contrasting to what you know of him. Mr. Anton Ego looks talks and writes like a vulture but at the end - is a transformed man.

There are interesting scenes where Gusteau appears as a “figment of imagination” of Remy. And Remy asks him, “Didnt you know this?” and Gusteau (voiced by Brad Garrett of Robert Barone - Everybody Loves Raymond - fame) replies “I only know what you know, after all, I am only a figment of your imagination”. It is a kid’s movie and this kind of intelligence is never shown in any such movie. Perhaps, it is time for children’s movies to grow up!

There are hilarious moments in the movie which are not just witty dialogues but amazing physical humour. What struck me was the amazing character design that was necessary to bring all this to life. Every pose of Remy or Linguini is potent with action that voice seems almost unnecessary. It almost transported me back to the era of silent tom and jerry.

The bottom line is: Watch the movie. It makes you a child again!

Technorati Tags: ratatouille, pixar, animation

Times of my life has blogged about something I thought was lost after I grew up: Giant Robot.

Even though, this series was apparently most popular in the 70s, it was aired in my dear old DD (India’s only television channel till early 90s) in the late 80s - early 90s.

I remember fragments of the series mostly because I remember being scared by the robot and how threatening it looked but also enthralled by fights with godzilla and other mean creatures in Japan.

I never really bothered to find out about it and let it be a show that I once enjoyed till I saw the post on Times of My Life. And I cant imagine, for the life of me, why I was afraid of the stupid looking robot (though there is some fun in watching the idiotic actions of the robot). Nevertheless, it still captures my attention - which is why I spent the last half an hour catching glimpses of it on youtube!

More about Giant Robot on wikipedia

Technorati Tags: giant robot, nostalgia, doordarshan

Babel is one movie that anyone with as much patience as a woman in labour should never watch. In fact, you shouldnt even try to see the posters, or get tempted by the “beautiful cinematography”, and other such comments that friends might make to entice you to watch.

I unfortunately did.

I found the story line naive, the fractured sadness of every cast member including the poor Winchester Rifle unbearable, and the mere presence of Brad Pitt intolerable. Sigh…if only there was a flickr set of the images in the movie, my 2 hours and extra minutes would have been better spent looking at them rather than watching the movie.

I am still reeling from the effects of this movie. I have warned you.

I went to watch this new Mandarin movie simply because it was produced and written by my colleague at Landmark Education - Eileen Cheng. But thankfully, I did! Smell of Rain captures the emotional torment in a human being in a poetic manner but also echoes some of the conversations that we have had at some point in our life. The main character Xiao Qi doesnt like the smell of rain because it reminds him of the day his mother left him. And he is afraid of getting into a new relationship because of the same reason. This film captures very poetically the torments he undergoes when he is faced with the choice of declaring his love for the girl or not. The power of the film is not in the dialogues but in the long silences that puncture the lives of the characters. Silence gets new meanings and dimensions while also acting as an accessory for humour. What I best loved about the film were the dialogues (which I got to ‘see’ rather than ‘hear’ in the subtitiles). Especially, in the beginning where Xiao Qi talks about what smells he likes and how he likens the smell of rice to happiness, which is exactly what I do too! I somehow feel happy to know there are mothers and families that are having a good lunch and dinner when I smell rice.)Of course, one crib I have is that it could have been sharply edited. But I guess, for first time movie makers, I can excuse them for that ;)

My unfulfilled wish finally came true today when I woke up fresh, as if I had never slept, at 5.00 a.m. Unbelievable, but true. Even before the nasty alarm clock. And I blame it on an update to the human matrix that the machines are doing.

On a separate note, some movies I want to watch:
1. X Men The Last Stand
2. Scanner Darkly
3. V for Vendatta

As Uma said, the first half of the movie rawks. It shows all signs of greatness in the first half and would have achieved it had it not veered towards unnecessary violence in the second half. The story of the three revolutionaries was touching and real. I was not at all moved by the Bhagat Singh duplicates that flooded the market a few years back and this movie is the only one that bowled me over. Somehow, it all seems so real and relevant. But, violence never attains what it sets out to achieve is a reality that the film does not cover even though it could have.

Swades didnt strike a chord, not as much as Rang De Basanti, but it did show what could be done to transform the society we live in. And Rang De Basanti does that with a whimper - for two minutes after depicting violence for more than two hours. But it was enough to inspire me. The only complaint I have is against the glorification of violent acts.

Parallel Thoughts:
What kind of history is being taught in Pakistan schools? More about Muslim League and less about Congress ( the reverse being the case in India!)?

Irony of it all: That the grandson of the Father of Pakistan has to be an Indian Parsi!

HAMAS confronts its electoral victory and the shock waves it sent across the world. Hopefully, we will see a reprise of the dismantling of the IRA. Perhaps the best solution to terrorism is to thrust power to the unsuspecting terrorists. Humanity will take care of the rest.

What is being done about the MiG crashes anyways? Why blame the Defence Minister when the nation has seen more Defence Ministers than governments? What is the Air Force doing?

Crossposted at Naachgaana

Bobby is a movie that captivated the masses and pushed Dimple to stardom. In fact, there is a site that is dedicated to everything about Bobby - including the fashion styles (which explains far better than I do!). But what I like about Bobby is the poster which is just a reflection of the psychedelic 70s. In fact, it is the only movie to have such psychedelic posters (Garam Masala tries to, but doesnt quite create this effect).

It is obvious why the film has such posters when you watch the movie. Even though the plot is as old as Raj Kapoor, the costumes that the actors wear is as scandalous and as far from reality as it can get. In that sense, it is a radical departure from “normal movies” where the designers stick to being as less creative as possible.

This movie introduces the ubiquitous scarves - this style didn’t reach the masses till the early 80s and persisted till the 90s! It does look good with the clothes Dimple wears in the film, but when used with frumpy oversized salwaar kameezes and jeans, it looks quite disgusting! Whew, I was so glad when people started getting over this hideous design! In fact, this film introduces several design elements which were all contorted to suit the moral taste of India and became hideous in that process.

The polka top is another. I remember wearing a similar top except it reached beyond my waist! Ugh, I get depressed every time I reflect on my dressing sense in the 90s :)

Bobby is a film you should watch for the Indian take on the psychedelic 70s look. Now you know how well the poster fits the movie!

Saurin asked me to watch Acting Like a Thief. It is quite a short movie but raises critical questions.

As the site says, it brings to the front the struggles of the actors from the community of “thieves”. The police torture, the shame, the embarassment, and trying to find a job, and a career that is so poignantly presented in the 15 minutes.

These guys are doing something that makes a difference to the society in ways unimaginable. Please support them by donating to their cause, so that they can create the bigger film and popularise the cause of Chharas.

Crossposted at Naachgaana.

I had the good fortune of watching this relic, that I have never seen before (I usually discover the oldies on the T.V.) and it was such a hilarious experience!

Baat Ban Jaye was released in 1986 - just in time for the horrible 80s. It is striking to see what 80s does to people. Zeenat is the main actor in the movie. She has horrid fluffy hair ( which seems to be mismash of the 60s “buffo”), loose frocks which are ultra tight at the hips (like in the 60s except the frocks reached beyond the knees in the 80s and were synthetic). On the whole, 80s was the era when digital equipments and new materials were discovered and people didnt know what to do with them.

This is obvious from the advertisements. The doorbells that chime in our houses these days appear in jingles :) Everything is shiny, and with fake animal prints. Even the names of the products sound funny now you think of it (“Lure”, “Fabxotica”, “Vicco”, etc).

Now, Baat Ban Jaye is one of the early movies when the Denim wave started and “low cut was unheard of”. We had denims that ended up much above the hips, just like the pants in the 50s and 60s did. Zeenat also wears the “Business Woman” suits, one of the early indian actors to do so.

Men’s fashion had lost their appeal, but surprisingly, moustaches made a big come back - a drastic change from the 70s. Perhaps it is reflective of the “Afro” craze that was left over from the 70s. I remember my dad’s big moushtache that he didnt have in the 70s :). You can see several side actors in the movie who sport big moustaches. This is better reflected in Tamil movies where moustaches have always signified “male strength” and the early 80s movies (Rajnikanth especially!) had the male actors sporting the “afro” look with moustaches.

This film is a riot if you are looking for The 80s design. Also, Utpal Dutt looks almost identical to the character he portrayed in Golmaal which was one of those late 70s film.

P.S. Fashion Era captures the best and the worst of the 80s around the world. Please note the extra bright blues and yellows. :)

P.P.S. In The 80s is the best source for everything about the 80s!