The other day, I was introspecting (I am sure you are wondering if this is what I am getting paid for !!) and asked myself some questions. I have been asking myself the same questions time and again and I know my responses. You can take a shot at them too:
Can you name 5 people from your past -
1. Who have done something very good for you and that you remember often?
2. Whom you have helped and who you think will remember you for it?
3. Who have wronged you and you are still trying to come to terms with those bitter memories?
4. Whom you have wronged and probably regretted it later?
Did the names for each of the above questions come at the same pace? Did you have to think really hard to find the answer to atleast question number 4?
Why is it that I am still not able to make peace with memories of friends who betrayed me and my friendship in the name of love? Do I not have any good memories of such friends at all? I must have, for why else were they friends in the first place?
Why can’t I respect relatives , who in my memory, treated me and my family like dirt because we lacked money? Have they never been good to me?
How many people have I hurt? How many friends did I lose, thanks to my reckless attitude?
Time is a strange healer. It lets you forget the good things done to you and the bad things done by you. In retrospect, almost every bitter memory, seems to find you as the victim and memories of your good deeds seem bigger than what it actually was. Ever wondered why?
We often hear some old people going on and on about the past. Most stories that they narrate would make you think they were God’s idea of perfection!! They were always the best in everything. Everyone around them simply loved them. They were the noblest people you could find on earth, yet people around them took advantage of them. They helped everyone with a pure mind, but people were ungrateful. Their memories have blunted their wrong-doings and sharpened their good deeds.
If everyone is a victim, according to his/her memories, who is the perpetrator? If there is a cause and effect for every action, why is it that people always behave meanly with you even though you are goodness incarnate?
Sometimes, I think all of us are basically masochists. We love to hurt ourselves. If there is no one else who will hurt us, we take up the responsibility ourselves. We sit down to feel miserable; think about the past, about people we trusted but who betrayed us and so on. Not for a second do we think that if we helped someone, there was a reason to it. We probably were repaying some kindness the person had done or we just did it in a moment of generosity. Similarly, if someone did something bad to us, there are chances that we had done something in the past to hurt them and they are exacting their revenge on us.
I remember reading a very beautiful anecdote by Swami Sukhabodananda :
A disciple went and told him that his friend had cheated him of some money and although many years had passed, he was unable to forget his betrayal. Swami asked him to list down 5 movies that he detested. The disciple was surprised, but he obliged. Swami then told him that he would be locked in a room with a TV and a VCR and these 5 movies. Would he like to watch them back to back over and over again? The disciple was shocked and told the Swami that when he hated watching them even once, why would he watch them again and again. The Swami said that was exactly what he had been doing. If a memory pained him, why play it over and over again in his head? Why seek sorrow ?
Simple but really profound example, don’t you think?. I try to shake away my bad memories, thinking of the above anecdote, but trust me, it is not simple!
Love relies on the future, but hate seems to thrive on the past ! (My, my!! I am beginning to sound like a philosopher these days !!). Reminiscing is fine, as long as it is about some good memories, that will make me happy, since bad memories serve nothing except to make me unhappy and sad.
Following Swami’s example, I try to imagine watching KANK, Devdas, KKKG, Baba and some such movies back to back and that is enough for me to get out of my brooding !!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Wordsmith - A word a day
One of my friends, who knows about my passion for words and the English language, sent me a gift subscription for the Wordsmith - A word a day newsletter about 5 years ago. It is one of the best gifts I have ever received and one that makes me think of my friend often !
The newsletter delivers what it promises. You are introduced to a new word every day for 5 days a week. There is a theme for every week and words related to the theme are sent in the newsletter. The meaning of the word, the etymology (or history of the word) and an example of its usage - from a current newspaper or magazine, form the body of the newsletter.
At the end of the newsletter, there is an interesting saying by some famous personality. And since it is only one word a day, you get to know a lot of new words. You may not necessarily remember all of them, but if you can remember at least 1 out of 100, you are still making good progress. The words are also available online on the website - http://wordsmith.org/
A weekly digest is sent every weekend. This has feedback from the readers of the newsletter, with many of them narrating interesting anecdotes about the words discussed in the past week. In the beginning of the digest, links to some interesting news articles about language in general and English in particular are provided.
Wordsmith.org was founded by Anu Garg, an Indian-American, when he was still a student. Today it is a huge online community with about 600000 linguaphiles from over 200 countries (courtesy : Wordsmith.org). Anu Garg has also authored some interesting books on words.
Visit the site when you can and send a gift subscription to those you love. Its free and it is useful !
The newsletter delivers what it promises. You are introduced to a new word every day for 5 days a week. There is a theme for every week and words related to the theme are sent in the newsletter. The meaning of the word, the etymology (or history of the word) and an example of its usage - from a current newspaper or magazine, form the body of the newsletter.
At the end of the newsletter, there is an interesting saying by some famous personality. And since it is only one word a day, you get to know a lot of new words. You may not necessarily remember all of them, but if you can remember at least 1 out of 100, you are still making good progress. The words are also available online on the website - http://wordsmith.org/
A weekly digest is sent every weekend. This has feedback from the readers of the newsletter, with many of them narrating interesting anecdotes about the words discussed in the past week. In the beginning of the digest, links to some interesting news articles about language in general and English in particular are provided.
Wordsmith.org was founded by Anu Garg, an Indian-American, when he was still a student. Today it is a huge online community with about 600000 linguaphiles from over 200 countries (courtesy : Wordsmith.org). Anu Garg has also authored some interesting books on words.
Visit the site when you can and send a gift subscription to those you love. Its free and it is useful !
Friday, July 18, 2008
The 'I' in me..
The few seconds in front of the deity in the temple, when I feel great peace, before pride for being such a devoted person sets in..
The time I spend with my little niece, watching with awe, the miracle of life, without worrying about work..
The few minutes when I can listen to music without analyzing what goes in and how the artist is performing …
The few seconds when I sing and become one with the music, before starting to think how good my voice sounds ..
The time spent with friends in silence, knowing words aren’t necessary and they will not mind, before I feel the urge to fill in the silence with some ‘intelligent’ crap ..
A couple of hours I spend with books, getting lost in someone else’s life without wondering how I would have written the story..
Guess there are very few times when I can simply be me without being self-conscious. Everytime I do a good deed, I am aware I am doing one and seem to be full of pride about it. I supposedly help someone selflessly all the while thinking how kind-hearted I am.
I rehearse mentally every statement before I utter it, with the sole aim of impressing people around or getting a word of appreciation. I try hard to seem casual and cool and all the while know I am pretending !
I comment caustically on others’ words, as though I am perfect and realize how shallow I myself am, for considering myself above everyone else !
I seem to have atleast 3 different people in me - the I who does things, the I who is aware of what I am doing and tells me how to do it and the I who watches these two losers trying hard to obtain the approval of the others outside !
(P.S. Its 11:45 p.m, I have a severe headache and its way past my bedtime !! No wonder I am writing a lot of pseudo-philosophical trash !!)
The time I spend with my little niece, watching with awe, the miracle of life, without worrying about work..
The few minutes when I can listen to music without analyzing what goes in and how the artist is performing …
The few seconds when I sing and become one with the music, before starting to think how good my voice sounds ..
The time spent with friends in silence, knowing words aren’t necessary and they will not mind, before I feel the urge to fill in the silence with some ‘intelligent’ crap ..
A couple of hours I spend with books, getting lost in someone else’s life without wondering how I would have written the story..
Guess there are very few times when I can simply be me without being self-conscious. Everytime I do a good deed, I am aware I am doing one and seem to be full of pride about it. I supposedly help someone selflessly all the while thinking how kind-hearted I am.
I rehearse mentally every statement before I utter it, with the sole aim of impressing people around or getting a word of appreciation. I try hard to seem casual and cool and all the while know I am pretending !
I comment caustically on others’ words, as though I am perfect and realize how shallow I myself am, for considering myself above everyone else !
I seem to have atleast 3 different people in me - the I who does things, the I who is aware of what I am doing and tells me how to do it and the I who watches these two losers trying hard to obtain the approval of the others outside !
(P.S. Its 11:45 p.m, I have a severe headache and its way past my bedtime !! No wonder I am writing a lot of pseudo-philosophical trash !!)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
I said 'LOOK AT ME' !
We are waiting outside the conference room for the previous group to vacate. The Program manager from the customer's side walks towards us. He smiles, he waves at everyone. I say 'Hello', but he is not looking at me ! Must have missed me, I think to myself.
We are in the meeting room and status of different projects is discussed. I sit right opposite this man. As is normal, when he talks I am looking at him. He looks around, at each person in the room. He looks to the person on my left, to the one on my right, even at the person behind me ! But I wonder why I am being ignored !
What is happening ? Couple of justifications spring to my mind:
a. I have lost weight completely ! I have become so unimaginably thin, that people cannot see me easily !! As Wodehouse says I have become all length and no breadth. This reason seems too implausible even to me ! (Alas, there are mirrors in the restroom and not all of them lie !!)
b. I am having some sort of psychic experience, where it is my soul lurking in the conference room and my physical body is still in my seat browsing and refreshing the blog site ! Although this seems more likely, others in the room talk to me as if my physical body were there too ! So, wrong guess again !!
c. This guy probably has a secret crush on me and is afraid that he will start stuttering if he meets my eyes !! All Indian romantic movies that we have seen, tell us that the hero stammers when he meets the eye of the heroine. But something in me tells me not to flatter myself too much !! I mean, ok I am good looking (there goes my humility again !!), but not so much that it can leave people speechless !!
Come on, who am I kidding. This is not the first time this is happening and this guy is just a jerk with a super-bloated ego, who thinks he is too far above me to speak to me.
Wow, that felt so nice and liberating!! I am feeling better already !!
I remember an instance in school, where we were staging a mock-parliament for a competition. All through the rehearsals, there was one senior guy who would refuse to look at me in the eye while talking to me. I was annoyed and decided to hit back by staring at him non-stop when he was playing his part. Poor chap would stutter and stammer on feeling a pair of eyes boring into him.
Sadly, the guy here is the customer and I am in his territory! There is nothing I can do except pretend to take such things in my stride and get on with my work - probably crib about it in a blog post or try and refuse to meet his eye in the next meeting (thing is, such people will not even notice that, because they are anyway not looking at you !), but nothing else.
I wish we can switch places, and I become a king/queen i.e., a customer, so that he can try really hard to catch my eye and I can refuse to look at him. Till then, let me imagine some sequences where he is at my mercy and I avenge myself and treat him like the scum he is !!
Don't you just hate people who don't make eye-contact when they talk ?
We are in the meeting room and status of different projects is discussed. I sit right opposite this man. As is normal, when he talks I am looking at him. He looks around, at each person in the room. He looks to the person on my left, to the one on my right, even at the person behind me ! But I wonder why I am being ignored !
What is happening ? Couple of justifications spring to my mind:
a. I have lost weight completely ! I have become so unimaginably thin, that people cannot see me easily !! As Wodehouse says I have become all length and no breadth. This reason seems too implausible even to me ! (Alas, there are mirrors in the restroom and not all of them lie !!)
b. I am having some sort of psychic experience, where it is my soul lurking in the conference room and my physical body is still in my seat browsing and refreshing the blog site ! Although this seems more likely, others in the room talk to me as if my physical body were there too ! So, wrong guess again !!
c. This guy probably has a secret crush on me and is afraid that he will start stuttering if he meets my eyes !! All Indian romantic movies that we have seen, tell us that the hero stammers when he meets the eye of the heroine. But something in me tells me not to flatter myself too much !! I mean, ok I am good looking (there goes my humility again !!), but not so much that it can leave people speechless !!
Come on, who am I kidding. This is not the first time this is happening and this guy is just a jerk with a super-bloated ego, who thinks he is too far above me to speak to me.
Wow, that felt so nice and liberating!! I am feeling better already !!
I remember an instance in school, where we were staging a mock-parliament for a competition. All through the rehearsals, there was one senior guy who would refuse to look at me in the eye while talking to me. I was annoyed and decided to hit back by staring at him non-stop when he was playing his part. Poor chap would stutter and stammer on feeling a pair of eyes boring into him.
Sadly, the guy here is the customer and I am in his territory! There is nothing I can do except pretend to take such things in my stride and get on with my work - probably crib about it in a blog post or try and refuse to meet his eye in the next meeting (thing is, such people will not even notice that, because they are anyway not looking at you !), but nothing else.
I wish we can switch places, and I become a king/queen i.e., a customer, so that he can try really hard to catch my eye and I can refuse to look at him. Till then, let me imagine some sequences where he is at my mercy and I avenge myself and treat him like the scum he is !!
Don't you just hate people who don't make eye-contact when they talk ?
Monday, July 14, 2008
Cautionary Tale - Do NOT watch this one !!
Serves me right for going with star ratings a movie gets !
Serves me right to experiment with world cinema !
I definitely deserved what I got, to watch a movie, because Quentin Tarantino apparently raved about it !!
Some very disturbing imagery, some very troubling memories, an upset mind and consequently a slightly affected purse - What do I owe all these to ? A Korean movie called 'Oldboy' !! Our own 'desi Tarantino' aka Sanjay Gupta remade the movie as Zinda in Hindi.
I was hoping for a better original, since the premise seemed interesting to me. A man gets kidnapped by some unknown person on the eve of his daughter's birthday and is locked up inside a hotel room. He does not know the name or face or voice of the captor ! He is fed on a staple diet of fried dumplings through a small opening in the door. (SG did not want to waste his creativity on this trivial point and proceeded to change it to Samosas ! How creative is that !!)
The room has a toilet, a bed and a TV. Once in a while, the hero hears a certain tune, when some sort of gas is released into his room and he faints. This goes on for about, hold your breath, 15 years !! Meanwhile, the hero tries hard to remember the names of all the people that he has harmed in the past. He also tries to tunnel his way out of the building with a fork. While in captivity, his wife gets murdered and he is blamed for the murder.
At the end of 15 years, he is suddenly released and left on the terrace of the building. The hero decides to find the person who ruined his life for so many years and to avenge himself. He meets a young female chef, who tries to help him in his quest for revenge.
The man who was responsible for this and his reason for the punishment are too hard for a normal person to digest. It is scary and troubling to think about the dark depths of the human psyche and the extent to which a person can go to wreak havoc in the life of the person he hates !
The end of the movie shook me completely and not in a good way. I was feeling nauseated and disgusted ! To think that a person was able to conceive such a plot itself seems revolting !
Funny how I always thought of myself as a strong person ! I realized I was not ! Most reviews that you read on the net about this movie would talk about the intelligent screenplay, amazing cinematography etc and almost all of them will mention some sequences that totally gross you out, like the one where the hero eats a live octopus and another where in a tight close-up the teeth of a guy are pulled out with a hammer.
Well, if you ask me, I think those are the slightly more decent scenes in the movie, if you compare them with the psychological torture the movie portrays !! Some of the movie directors intend to shock and to achieve that, are willing to go to any lengths ! There seems to be no relationship that holds any sanctity to these people and their idea of a good movie is a movie that will disturb.
My cousin read out a review of the movie by the noted film critic Roger Ebert. These lines in particular were the highlight of the review :
'I am not an expert on the Korean cinema, which is considered in critical circles as one of the most creative in the world ("Oldboy" won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes 2004). I can say that of the Korean films I've seen, only one ("The YMCA Baseball Club") did not contain extraordinary sadomasochism. "Oldboy" contains a tooth-pulling scene that makes Laurence Olivier's Nazi dentist in "Marathon Man," look like a healer. And there is a scene during which an octopus is definitely harmed during the making of the movie.'
Sadomasochism !! Thats the term I was looking for !! That is definitely not my cup of tea !! I dont take perverse thrill in watching suffering or gory and gross sequences on screen !! I cannot take, relationships that I have been taught to treat as sacred, being slaughtered in the name of shock value and in the name of art !!
Thanks to this extremely bizarre and depressing movie, I/we had to get out of the house to get some air, see some normal people (all the while wondering what kind of people they actually were !!) and spending some money on stuff that we definitely did not need to get the stupid movie out of our minds !!
Serves me right to experiment with world cinema !
I definitely deserved what I got, to watch a movie, because Quentin Tarantino apparently raved about it !!
Some very disturbing imagery, some very troubling memories, an upset mind and consequently a slightly affected purse - What do I owe all these to ? A Korean movie called 'Oldboy' !! Our own 'desi Tarantino' aka Sanjay Gupta remade the movie as Zinda in Hindi.
I was hoping for a better original, since the premise seemed interesting to me. A man gets kidnapped by some unknown person on the eve of his daughter's birthday and is locked up inside a hotel room. He does not know the name or face or voice of the captor ! He is fed on a staple diet of fried dumplings through a small opening in the door. (SG did not want to waste his creativity on this trivial point and proceeded to change it to Samosas ! How creative is that !!)
The room has a toilet, a bed and a TV. Once in a while, the hero hears a certain tune, when some sort of gas is released into his room and he faints. This goes on for about, hold your breath, 15 years !! Meanwhile, the hero tries hard to remember the names of all the people that he has harmed in the past. He also tries to tunnel his way out of the building with a fork. While in captivity, his wife gets murdered and he is blamed for the murder.
At the end of 15 years, he is suddenly released and left on the terrace of the building. The hero decides to find the person who ruined his life for so many years and to avenge himself. He meets a young female chef, who tries to help him in his quest for revenge.
The man who was responsible for this and his reason for the punishment are too hard for a normal person to digest. It is scary and troubling to think about the dark depths of the human psyche and the extent to which a person can go to wreak havoc in the life of the person he hates !
The end of the movie shook me completely and not in a good way. I was feeling nauseated and disgusted ! To think that a person was able to conceive such a plot itself seems revolting !
Funny how I always thought of myself as a strong person ! I realized I was not ! Most reviews that you read on the net about this movie would talk about the intelligent screenplay, amazing cinematography etc and almost all of them will mention some sequences that totally gross you out, like the one where the hero eats a live octopus and another where in a tight close-up the teeth of a guy are pulled out with a hammer.
Well, if you ask me, I think those are the slightly more decent scenes in the movie, if you compare them with the psychological torture the movie portrays !! Some of the movie directors intend to shock and to achieve that, are willing to go to any lengths ! There seems to be no relationship that holds any sanctity to these people and their idea of a good movie is a movie that will disturb.
My cousin read out a review of the movie by the noted film critic Roger Ebert. These lines in particular were the highlight of the review :
'I am not an expert on the Korean cinema, which is considered in critical circles as one of the most creative in the world ("Oldboy" won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes 2004). I can say that of the Korean films I've seen, only one ("The YMCA Baseball Club") did not contain extraordinary sadomasochism. "Oldboy" contains a tooth-pulling scene that makes Laurence Olivier's Nazi dentist in "Marathon Man," look like a healer. And there is a scene during which an octopus is definitely harmed during the making of the movie.'
Sadomasochism !! Thats the term I was looking for !! That is definitely not my cup of tea !! I dont take perverse thrill in watching suffering or gory and gross sequences on screen !! I cannot take, relationships that I have been taught to treat as sacred, being slaughtered in the name of shock value and in the name of art !!
Thanks to this extremely bizarre and depressing movie, I/we had to get out of the house to get some air, see some normal people (all the while wondering what kind of people they actually were !!) and spending some money on stuff that we definitely did not need to get the stupid movie out of our minds !!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Road Rage, Spielberg and an Indian remake !
There is a popular saying in Tamil, which goes - 'Vilayum Payir, mulaiyile theriyum', literally meaning 'How the plant will turn out, will be displayed in the seed itself'. What it really means is how an adult will turn out, can be guessed by how he behaves as a child. Forget it, I am not here to talk about children or how they should shape up to become responsible adults etc. All I am here to talk about is a movie on road rage directed by none other than beloved Spielberg ! This was his debut movie and it was a made-for-TV movie. The name of the movie is 'Duel'.
I heard about the movie from a friend about 2-3 years ago. He remembered the movie, the story, the director but not the name and told me the name of the movie was 'Road rage'. I searched the whole world for it and could not find any movie by that name. Then I hit upon a brilliant idea (Ok.. brilliant by my standards !!) and searched Wikipedia for Spielberg's movies and found out about this one finally. (My mom would have said that if I had put in so much effort while at school or college, I would have turned out differently !!). Anyway, I finally watched the movie a few weeks back with my cousin.
Wow, what an experience !!
Imagine this. You are driving your decent sized car on a deserted highway and you see a huge monstrous looking truck ahead. What would you do? I will tell you what I would do - 9 times out of 10, I would try and overtake the truck from the adjacent lane, just because I know my car can drive faster and also because I will have better visibility of the road ahead.
What if this truck-driver is a complete psycho? (I can hear you saying, aren't all of them psychos anyway ?!)
Dear Stevie, took this as the premise for his debut movie ! 5 minutes into the movie, you know what it is about ! What you dont expect is how engaging a 90 min (originally 74 min) movie on only road-rage can be !
Brilliance of the director shows in every frame. You never get to see the face of the truck-driver. All you see of him is in one instance, his hand, when he waves to the protagonist - David Mann to overtake him, and later his boots as Mann comes out of a restaurant looking for the driver.
High on adrenalin, this movie has a good sound track and the director makes good use of silences to accentuate the dread that the hero feels in the movie. The shot, where the truck driver waves to Mann to overtake him and Mann almosts collides with another car coming from the opposite side, sends chills down your spine !
There are technically only 2 characters in the movie - David Mann (Dennis Weaver) and the Truck !! After a point the truck seems to take on a live of its own and I bet you will never look at a truck the same way again ! As is to be expected, the dialogues are few in number and silences speak louder than words in most places !!
Being a person, who suffers from a modest amount of road-rage, when driving in India, this movie scared me to the core. I am always a little wary of huge trucks, whether in India or in the US. After watching this movie, I have learnt to control my road-rage a little and to try really hard to stay as far away from a truck as my limited patience will permit me !!
P.S : After posting this, I suddenly got thinking (you guessed it right- in the rest room !! Wonder why all great thoughts are born in the rest-room, but thats a topic for a separate post!!) - Can this movie be made in India ?
Not impossible, but I think we need to keep in mind the following: (There I go, bullets again !!)
First thing - where do we go looking for a deserted highway ??
There is no question of overtaking if the vehicles are anyway moving at 10kmph
Silences are impossible. The hero Mani (instead of Mann), would start honking as soon as he spots the truck a km away!!
Where do we fit in an item number? Maybe make Mani go into a roadside dhaba and Bipasha/Urmila/Isha Koppikar or one of the other aging divas would dance to a raunchy song. So that requirement is taken care of !!
What about the heroine who wears an inch of clothing more than the one doing the item number? Where will she fit in? Ok, Mani thinks the psycho driver is going to kill him and imagines his first duet with his girlfriend/wife! Everytime the situation becomes too hot to handle, Mani thinks of subsequent duets. So thats out of the way too!
What about the comedy track? The truck driver can have a cleaner who will get beaten up everytime the driver is angry at something other than the hero. The cleaner will do a lot of foolish things to make people laugh.
And most important, what about the story? I mean, you cant show only the road-rage thing right? Why not throw in a background story for the enmity between the truck driver and Mani? That will give us an opportunity to have a happy family that was destroyed. The family could be Mani's or the truck driver's. Depends on who you think should be the hero !
Entrusting such a responsibility to the more popular directors would not be advisable :
a. Karan Johar - Driver has an affair with Mani's girlfriend and Mani has an affair with Driver's wife. But on seeing each other, Mani and driver realize they are gay and live happily ever after. Road rage cannot be fit in well enough ! Too much glycerine required for shooting. Too much of importance to matters of the heart.
b. Yash Chopra/Aditya chopra - Necessity to introduce chiffon saris and a wet sari song in case of the former and shirtless Mani and skimpily dressed female driver and cleaner in case of latter. Female chorus singers turn emotional at every turning point and start screeching the same theme song (for Yash)! Very expensive but very little clothes (for Adi)! Road rage will appear in a single scene, to introduce the actors.
c. SLB : Truck is in gold. Mani is poor but drives a Ferrari. Road is purple and sky is green. Theme of the movie is Purple and Green. Loud Background score hurts ears. Mani and driver confront each other with loud music playing in the background and both have tears in their eyes. And the truck driver gives away the female cleaner (formerly Mani's love) to Mani, but the cleaner who was constantly crying decides driver looks better than Mani and goes back to him. Where is the road rage?
So the best person that I can think of is Sanjay Gupta. He is very faithful at remaking (!!??!!) English/World movies and does not change the scenes or the story one bit. The dialogues are directly translated to Hindi and Sanjay Dutt acts for free in his movies. Pritam can be the music director, for all he needs to compose music is the internet. The movie will work out to be very cost effective, since all scenes involving the truck and the truck driver can be used as-is. In fact the whole movie can be used as-is, except when Mann is shown. Those scenes can easily be replaced with some close-up shots of Sanjay Dutt mouthing profanities and cool dialogues. Spielberg has not heard of Sanjay Gupta yet, so plagiarism is not an issue (Tarantino did not question our man, why would Spielberg??).
What say folks?
I heard about the movie from a friend about 2-3 years ago. He remembered the movie, the story, the director but not the name and told me the name of the movie was 'Road rage'. I searched the whole world for it and could not find any movie by that name. Then I hit upon a brilliant idea (Ok.. brilliant by my standards !!) and searched Wikipedia for Spielberg's movies and found out about this one finally. (My mom would have said that if I had put in so much effort while at school or college, I would have turned out differently !!). Anyway, I finally watched the movie a few weeks back with my cousin.
Wow, what an experience !!
Imagine this. You are driving your decent sized car on a deserted highway and you see a huge monstrous looking truck ahead. What would you do? I will tell you what I would do - 9 times out of 10, I would try and overtake the truck from the adjacent lane, just because I know my car can drive faster and also because I will have better visibility of the road ahead.
What if this truck-driver is a complete psycho? (I can hear you saying, aren't all of them psychos anyway ?!)
Dear Stevie, took this as the premise for his debut movie ! 5 minutes into the movie, you know what it is about ! What you dont expect is how engaging a 90 min (originally 74 min) movie on only road-rage can be !
Brilliance of the director shows in every frame. You never get to see the face of the truck-driver. All you see of him is in one instance, his hand, when he waves to the protagonist - David Mann to overtake him, and later his boots as Mann comes out of a restaurant looking for the driver.
High on adrenalin, this movie has a good sound track and the director makes good use of silences to accentuate the dread that the hero feels in the movie. The shot, where the truck driver waves to Mann to overtake him and Mann almosts collides with another car coming from the opposite side, sends chills down your spine !
There are technically only 2 characters in the movie - David Mann (Dennis Weaver) and the Truck !! After a point the truck seems to take on a live of its own and I bet you will never look at a truck the same way again ! As is to be expected, the dialogues are few in number and silences speak louder than words in most places !!
Being a person, who suffers from a modest amount of road-rage, when driving in India, this movie scared me to the core. I am always a little wary of huge trucks, whether in India or in the US. After watching this movie, I have learnt to control my road-rage a little and to try really hard to stay as far away from a truck as my limited patience will permit me !!
P.S : After posting this, I suddenly got thinking (you guessed it right- in the rest room !! Wonder why all great thoughts are born in the rest-room, but thats a topic for a separate post!!) - Can this movie be made in India ?
Not impossible, but I think we need to keep in mind the following: (There I go, bullets again !!)
First thing - where do we go looking for a deserted highway ??
There is no question of overtaking if the vehicles are anyway moving at 10kmph
Silences are impossible. The hero Mani (instead of Mann), would start honking as soon as he spots the truck a km away!!
Where do we fit in an item number? Maybe make Mani go into a roadside dhaba and Bipasha/Urmila/Isha Koppikar or one of the other aging divas would dance to a raunchy song. So that requirement is taken care of !!
What about the heroine who wears an inch of clothing more than the one doing the item number? Where will she fit in? Ok, Mani thinks the psycho driver is going to kill him and imagines his first duet with his girlfriend/wife! Everytime the situation becomes too hot to handle, Mani thinks of subsequent duets. So thats out of the way too!
What about the comedy track? The truck driver can have a cleaner who will get beaten up everytime the driver is angry at something other than the hero. The cleaner will do a lot of foolish things to make people laugh.
And most important, what about the story? I mean, you cant show only the road-rage thing right? Why not throw in a background story for the enmity between the truck driver and Mani? That will give us an opportunity to have a happy family that was destroyed. The family could be Mani's or the truck driver's. Depends on who you think should be the hero !
Entrusting such a responsibility to the more popular directors would not be advisable :
a. Karan Johar - Driver has an affair with Mani's girlfriend and Mani has an affair with Driver's wife. But on seeing each other, Mani and driver realize they are gay and live happily ever after. Road rage cannot be fit in well enough ! Too much glycerine required for shooting. Too much of importance to matters of the heart.
b. Yash Chopra/Aditya chopra - Necessity to introduce chiffon saris and a wet sari song in case of the former and shirtless Mani and skimpily dressed female driver and cleaner in case of latter. Female chorus singers turn emotional at every turning point and start screeching the same theme song (for Yash)! Very expensive but very little clothes (for Adi)! Road rage will appear in a single scene, to introduce the actors.
c. SLB : Truck is in gold. Mani is poor but drives a Ferrari. Road is purple and sky is green. Theme of the movie is Purple and Green. Loud Background score hurts ears. Mani and driver confront each other with loud music playing in the background and both have tears in their eyes. And the truck driver gives away the female cleaner (formerly Mani's love) to Mani, but the cleaner who was constantly crying decides driver looks better than Mani and goes back to him. Where is the road rage?
So the best person that I can think of is Sanjay Gupta. He is very faithful at remaking (!!??!!) English/World movies and does not change the scenes or the story one bit. The dialogues are directly translated to Hindi and Sanjay Dutt acts for free in his movies. Pritam can be the music director, for all he needs to compose music is the internet. The movie will work out to be very cost effective, since all scenes involving the truck and the truck driver can be used as-is. In fact the whole movie can be used as-is, except when Mann is shown. Those scenes can easily be replaced with some close-up shots of Sanjay Dutt mouthing profanities and cool dialogues. Spielberg has not heard of Sanjay Gupta yet, so plagiarism is not an issue (Tarantino did not question our man, why would Spielberg??).
What say folks?
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Rocking in the Smokies !
I am not an exercise-person. Nor am I a trek/hike person. Then what am I ? I am just a very lazy person, who loves to hang around at home reading or watching movies or just chatting.
But the July 4th weekend seemed, even to me, too long a time to spend in above mentioned cerebral activities. After several unsuccessful attempts with various friends and relatives to get an invitation to visit them, my cousin - Niranjan, his wife - Anu and I decided to go on a trek to the Smoky mountains, which was about 7 hours drive from where I live.
I have often mentioned my keen interest in food, so even before we could plan out other details for the trip, Anu and I were excited about what we would eat on the way ! Idli-molagai podi was a good idea, and so were puliyodarai and curd rice. Preparations for food started on Thursday afternoon. The whole workplace was empty post lunch on July 3rd - Thursday, especially after the client manager sent an email asking us to feel free to leave by 3 pm.
I went home stopping midway at the grocery store and picked up some bread and my mouth started watering at the thought of the amazing hummus that I was planning to make. Anyway, with all the preparation done, I set the alarm for 5:30 in the morning, since Anu and Niranjan were supposed to pick me up from home by 6. I knew I had to sleep, but an idea for a blog post was gnawing my mind and I simply could not sleep till I posted it. So I spent some time on typing out the post, reviewing it and publishing it.
I woke up as planned, packed everything and waited. I had a cup of coffee and waited. I then checked for comments to be moderated for my post, approved all of them and waited. Still no sign of cousin dearies. Went through some other blogs and waited. Finally the call came. It was Niranjan and he was going to start in 15 min !! Grrrrr… I should have known and should have slept for a longer period.
In any case, expecting a nice mid-size car, I went out to see a small Ford Focus waiting for me. Our usual trick of requesting a compact car, only to get a free upgrade to a mid-size car, backfired miserably and we actually got a compact car!! Bloody Enterprise !! The guys were so unpredictable !!
Anyway, it was almost 7:30 when we started. We started the trip with a good samaritan act, by helping a veterinarian jumpstart her car, with ours, since there was no one else around to help her start the car. With the mandatory Carnatic Music CD playing in the start, we commenced our journey to the Smokies. We had not even crossed the state when we were pulled over by a cop for speeding. So much for a good start !! Niranjan got a ticket and we continued on our journey, cursing the cop all the way.
We stopped at a rest area for breakfast at about 10:30 am. While Anu and I were waiting for Niranjan, we were approached by a guy who claimed to represent a local channel and wanted to ask us some questions for a feature he was making on rising gas prices. I was the more talkative one, so I chose to answer the questions. I gave the American audience some gyan on renewable sources of energy like Solar energy, wind energy etc, that I had studied about in 8th standard. Presumably, the syllabus is different for the Americans, for the guy seemed stunned at my ideas!
Anyway, we reached Smokies without any further incident (excluding the last 8 miles, which we covered in 3 hours, thanks to the snail-paced traffic).
It was already 5:30 pm and we decided to take a small trail that day to warm us up for the next day. What was I thinking !! Why did I ever stop exercising !! I was out of breath very soon. The road was extremely steep and we were heading towards the highest point on the Smokies, called the Clingman’s Dome. The view from this point, on a clear day was supposedly spectacular. However the day was not clear, but the view was still beautiful.
On the way back, we took a trail instead of the road and it was way better than the road (probably because we were climbing down). That night we checked into a cheap motel. I had unknowingly chosen a smoking room and the stench was unbearable. Anyway, we got used to the smell after some time and crashed. Thanks to the very late lunch of puliyodarai and curd rice and the subsequent hike, I was sick to the core and had a splitting headache and went to bed without dinner.
The next day was the big day and in spite of our best laid plans, we managed to start the trek only by 11:30 am. The complete hike was about 8.8 miles to a point called Charlie’s Bunion. The Appalachian trail is known for the Bears that prowl around the place. There was a mild rain and I was expecting snakes to be around too. I was terrified of the very thought, but we had decided to hike and I decided to play along.
The first 1.5 miles were terrible. The trail was rocky and extremely steep. I was usually last in the line and had absolutely no breath remaining in me to utter a single word. Thanks to the experience from the previous day, we carried a couple of trail mix bars, a bottle of Gatorade and a can of tomato juice (for the sodium). I threatened a couple of times to turn back, but some stubbornness kept me going. We kept our target simple and always aimed for the next nearest point. In the end, we managed the complete 4.4 miles trek and Whew !! What a relief !!
The difficult part of the trek is that it can get monotonous after a point. Green trees, green bushes, green grass- beautiful, great, wonderful, but after 2 miles, enough !! Still Nature tried her best to offer variety in terms of lighting. While it was raining mildly in the beginning, after some time, it became extremely sunny, and sunlight seemed like poetry when it fell in between the leaves of the trees around us. At some places, the trees were so dark that it seemed like it was night.
Overall, at the end of the trek, we were physically exhausted, but experienced a mental high like never before. A feeling of achievement and as a consequence satisfaction, helped in forgetting about physical fatigue and muscle pains and the worse thought of going back to normal life the next day !
I am no photographer and my camera has the uncanny ability to die out before any momentous occasion and works only when I look like a beggar at home. Here are some pics taken on my cousin’s camera. Obviously, the good ones either have me in them or were taken by me (Humility has never been one of my virtues. Also, my cousin does not care for credits!! )
Day 1- Return by the Trail. ">
The rocky trail and the play of light ! 
The Trail !! 
The Cool Canopy ! 
Light Green, Dark Green, Its all Green !!
From Darkness to Light !!
We met this lady on our way !
Tree Trunk or Elephant’s head ? 
Smokies !!! 
But the July 4th weekend seemed, even to me, too long a time to spend in above mentioned cerebral activities. After several unsuccessful attempts with various friends and relatives to get an invitation to visit them, my cousin - Niranjan, his wife - Anu and I decided to go on a trek to the Smoky mountains, which was about 7 hours drive from where I live.
I have often mentioned my keen interest in food, so even before we could plan out other details for the trip, Anu and I were excited about what we would eat on the way ! Idli-molagai podi was a good idea, and so were puliyodarai and curd rice. Preparations for food started on Thursday afternoon. The whole workplace was empty post lunch on July 3rd - Thursday, especially after the client manager sent an email asking us to feel free to leave by 3 pm.
I went home stopping midway at the grocery store and picked up some bread and my mouth started watering at the thought of the amazing hummus that I was planning to make. Anyway, with all the preparation done, I set the alarm for 5:30 in the morning, since Anu and Niranjan were supposed to pick me up from home by 6. I knew I had to sleep, but an idea for a blog post was gnawing my mind and I simply could not sleep till I posted it. So I spent some time on typing out the post, reviewing it and publishing it.
I woke up as planned, packed everything and waited. I had a cup of coffee and waited. I then checked for comments to be moderated for my post, approved all of them and waited. Still no sign of cousin dearies. Went through some other blogs and waited. Finally the call came. It was Niranjan and he was going to start in 15 min !! Grrrrr… I should have known and should have slept for a longer period.
In any case, expecting a nice mid-size car, I went out to see a small Ford Focus waiting for me. Our usual trick of requesting a compact car, only to get a free upgrade to a mid-size car, backfired miserably and we actually got a compact car!! Bloody Enterprise !! The guys were so unpredictable !!
Anyway, it was almost 7:30 when we started. We started the trip with a good samaritan act, by helping a veterinarian jumpstart her car, with ours, since there was no one else around to help her start the car. With the mandatory Carnatic Music CD playing in the start, we commenced our journey to the Smokies. We had not even crossed the state when we were pulled over by a cop for speeding. So much for a good start !! Niranjan got a ticket and we continued on our journey, cursing the cop all the way.
We stopped at a rest area for breakfast at about 10:30 am. While Anu and I were waiting for Niranjan, we were approached by a guy who claimed to represent a local channel and wanted to ask us some questions for a feature he was making on rising gas prices. I was the more talkative one, so I chose to answer the questions. I gave the American audience some gyan on renewable sources of energy like Solar energy, wind energy etc, that I had studied about in 8th standard. Presumably, the syllabus is different for the Americans, for the guy seemed stunned at my ideas!
Anyway, we reached Smokies without any further incident (excluding the last 8 miles, which we covered in 3 hours, thanks to the snail-paced traffic).
It was already 5:30 pm and we decided to take a small trail that day to warm us up for the next day. What was I thinking !! Why did I ever stop exercising !! I was out of breath very soon. The road was extremely steep and we were heading towards the highest point on the Smokies, called the Clingman’s Dome. The view from this point, on a clear day was supposedly spectacular. However the day was not clear, but the view was still beautiful.
On the way back, we took a trail instead of the road and it was way better than the road (probably because we were climbing down). That night we checked into a cheap motel. I had unknowingly chosen a smoking room and the stench was unbearable. Anyway, we got used to the smell after some time and crashed. Thanks to the very late lunch of puliyodarai and curd rice and the subsequent hike, I was sick to the core and had a splitting headache and went to bed without dinner.
The next day was the big day and in spite of our best laid plans, we managed to start the trek only by 11:30 am. The complete hike was about 8.8 miles to a point called Charlie’s Bunion. The Appalachian trail is known for the Bears that prowl around the place. There was a mild rain and I was expecting snakes to be around too. I was terrified of the very thought, but we had decided to hike and I decided to play along.
The first 1.5 miles were terrible. The trail was rocky and extremely steep. I was usually last in the line and had absolutely no breath remaining in me to utter a single word. Thanks to the experience from the previous day, we carried a couple of trail mix bars, a bottle of Gatorade and a can of tomato juice (for the sodium). I threatened a couple of times to turn back, but some stubbornness kept me going. We kept our target simple and always aimed for the next nearest point. In the end, we managed the complete 4.4 miles trek and Whew !! What a relief !!
The difficult part of the trek is that it can get monotonous after a point. Green trees, green bushes, green grass- beautiful, great, wonderful, but after 2 miles, enough !! Still Nature tried her best to offer variety in terms of lighting. While it was raining mildly in the beginning, after some time, it became extremely sunny, and sunlight seemed like poetry when it fell in between the leaves of the trees around us. At some places, the trees were so dark that it seemed like it was night.
Overall, at the end of the trek, we were physically exhausted, but experienced a mental high like never before. A feeling of achievement and as a consequence satisfaction, helped in forgetting about physical fatigue and muscle pains and the worse thought of going back to normal life the next day !
I am no photographer and my camera has the uncanny ability to die out before any momentous occasion and works only when I look like a beggar at home. Here are some pics taken on my cousin’s camera. Obviously, the good ones either have me in them or were taken by me (Humility has never been one of my virtues. Also, my cousin does not care for credits!! )
Day 1- Return by the Trail. ">
The rocky trail and the play of light ! 
The Trail !! 
The Cool Canopy ! 
Light Green, Dark Green, Its all Green !! 
From Darkness to Light !!
We met this lady on our way ! 
Tree Trunk or Elephant’s head ? 
Smokies !!! 
Monday, July 7, 2008
My failed attempt at becoming a good samaritan !
‘You are so materialistic’, said my friend, when I was gaping at the watches displayed at the store.
‘Well, is gaping at women spiritual?’, I shot back angrily.
The repartee was all very well, but the remark still stung. I had always had this feeling about myself, that I was not doing anything for the society. I was actually very materialistic, thinking about new watches (God, how I love them !!) or new clothes. If not shopping, all I was interested in was books, music, cooking - anything that did not involve people !!
So I jumped at the first chance I got to display my hidden altruism. I had heard of people donating blood every year. Hell, my own brother and sister, both younger than me had donated blood at least once. And here I was, always talking about it, dreaming about how I would have a pleasant smile on my face and donate blood every year on my birthday (as if I was a film star !!), but never once actually donating !
My first chance came in my previous company. There was a group mail from some employee, whose friend’s father was to undergo a major bypass surgery that evening. Donors, of any bloodgroup were required. I realized that my chance had come, called my parents about my good act for the day and set off to Vijaya hospital with the colleague, who had sent the mail.
Things were simpler than expected. The nurses did some preliminary tests and did not find me wanting - meaning they said I was healthy enough to donate (you didn’t have to run any tests to see that I was healthy, you just had to take one look at me !). Well there I was on the bed, happily donating blood and joking with the nurses. They thought I was handling things quite well and told me so. After the donation was the usual snack time. Some biscuits and very sour Tropicana orange juice. The nurses told me to take some rest, for about 1/2 an hour before leaving.
I sat for some time, felt okay and started to leave. Everyone asked me if I was sure and I said I felt just fine. My colleague offered to drop me off and we started walking towards the parking lot. My colleague walked fast and I was following him.
I suddenly realized that I was not walking fast enough. I was feeling cold but still sweating (I am talking about Chennai, so you know that feeling cold at any time of the year is abnormal). I felt the ground beneath me slipping away and thought my legs were slowly melting. I staggered to the reception area and collapsed into a chair. I was trying hard to keep my eyes open, but simply could not. I was retching over and over. That was the first time in my life, that I thought of death. This was probably how people felt when they were about to die, I thought. But that thought was too feeble for me to pursue.
People suffering near-death experiences often talk about seeing a white light and about seeing their entire life replayed like a movie. I did not feel any such thing, so I was probably still alive. The next thing I know, I was back in the blood donation room, with a couple of nurses around me and my legs raised as if in some weird yoga posture. The same colleague was standing next to me and I started apologizing immediately for having caused so much trouble. They had to arrange for a cab to take me home and I arrived home looking like I had just had a blood transfusion or something ! I had the after-effects for a couple of days when I was feeling dizzy all the time (Is that how people feel when they are drunk? If so, I don’t want to ever drink !!).
Not one to give up easily, I tried my hands at donating blood once again after a year. This time it was for a relative and I was in the hospital. I was psyched out, thanks to my first and very bad experience. This time it was worse- I started feeling weak right at the time of donation (probably my panic caused it too) and my feet and palms were turning cold. And what was worse, I was forced to watch the television, playing some popular lewd song, where the hero and heroine seemed to be sniffing each other. I was disgusted, but was not allowed to close my eyes. I still think that some of my family members probably planned the whole thing out of spite or something !!
Anyway, this time I rested for the stipulated amount of time, ate what was given and then left for home. After reaching home, I told my mother that I would have lunch a little later and went upstairs to bed. I was feeling okay and then went into the bathroom, when hell broke loose. I started fainting again and fell inside the room. My mother, who was downstairs could not hear me and I staggered to the top of the stairs (now that scene reminds me of the song ‘O Priya Priya’ !!) and managed to call my mother. Not only that, I somehow dragged myself to the bed, managed to put some pillows below my feet to keep my legs raised and then fainted (how courageous of me !!). Once again, calls from all my relatives, asking me if I was ok, instead of calling up the relative who went through the bypass. Oh, the humiliation I had to endure due to the entire episode !!
Later my mother told me that she had suffered such problems too. The first time she went to donate blood, she fainted on seeing the blood. The second time, she went with my brother and sister, she fainted on seeing them donate blood and never had to donate at all !! So I guess, it is in my blood (pun unintended). The very thought of donating blood gives me cold feet (again pun not intended !). My salute to those who can do it without flinching over and over again. For now, I am trying to think of a simpler and less humiliating way of showcasing my kindheartedness !!
Disclaimer : The above are only my experiences and do not necessarily represent common reactions to blood donation.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Music, Mozart and a Great Movie
I love music in general and stand in awe of musicians - especially the composers. They are way too above me, for me to envy their talent. All I can do is salute their genius and creativity and wish I have the talent to atleast appreciate their art.
I have heard of Mozart, not heard a lot of his music though. I do not understand Western Classical Music and find it difficult to follow the intricacies of the music. So it was with some skepticism that I sat down to watch the 1984 classic - ‘Amadeus’, which is based on a play that is in turn loosely based on the real life rivalry between Mozart and his contemporary composer - Antonio Salieri, who, turns out to be his nemesis. To sum up my reaction to the whole movie - ‘Mind Blowing’.
The whole story is from Salieri’s point of view. The movie begins with a now old Salieri attempting suicide since he believes he murdered Mozart. He is saved and is put in an asylum, where a priest meets with him and suggests that he should confess his sins. Salieri, is initially uninterested, but a remark from the priest gets him started.
Salieri grows up watching Mozart, a gifted composer, who started composing music at the age of five, with envy. Thanks to a ‘miracle’ - Salieri’s father who was opposed to him taking up music as a profession, dies on the dinner table- Salieri enters the world of music and eventually becomes the court composer at the emperor’s court. He hears a lot about Mozart and is waiting to meet with him. He gets deeply disappointed when he watches Mozart fooling around with a girl (who later becomes his wife) at a gathering where some of his pieces will be played. Mozart comes across as a childish and playful prankster, quite in contrast with the brilliance of his compositions. However, his music still amazes Salieri and he is one of the first few to spot the genius that is Mozart.
Salieri gets enraged with God for bestowing such a talent on someone as undeserving as Mozart, where as he himself is just a mediocre composer. He decides to renounce God and tells himself that he will destroy Mozart. From then on, the movie is about Salieri’s plot to kill Mozart and the gradual deterioration of Mozart.
The film is about 160 minutes long and it is surprising how fast those 160 minutes seem to go. Visually, the movie is stunning. And since it is a movie about musicians, there is no wonder that the movie has a great sound track. Most of the tracks are original compositions by Mozart.
Coming to performances, F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as Mozart are equally wonderful. While watching the movie, although you understand that Salieri is wrong, you cant help feeling sorry for him. Your heart goes out to Mozart for his child-like innocence and complete lack of regard for authority. He is coolly confident to the point of arrogance ! But then, why shouldn’t he be? After all, he is the best !
The movie is full of brilliant sequences and it is difficult to single one out. However, I loved the initial sequence involving Salieri and the priest. Salieri tells the priest that he is a very popular composer and the priest is unable to recollect any of the pieces that Salieri plays. Salieri tries 2-3 pieces that he composed and which received a grand ovation, when they were played originally and the priest simply doesnt remember hearing even one. Then Salieri plays another piece and the priest’s face lights up in recognition. ‘I know that one ! I did not know you were the composer of this piece’. Salieri’s face falls and he grudgingly tells the priest, that it was a piece composed by Mozart. A simple scene that says a lot about the music of these two - Mozart’s stood the test of time and Salieri’s did not !!
Another brilliant piece comes near the end of the movie, where a very ill Mozart dictates and Salieri transcribes the music for ‘Requiem mass’. Mozart goes on dictating and Salieri asks him to slow down, as he is going very fast. Mozart can apparently hear the music that he is dictating, while he is dictating, but Salieri finds it difficult to follow him. When Mozart pauses to let Salieri catch up, Salieri reads the notes again, this time slowly and his face lights up when he realizes how beautiful it is. What kind of a genius does it take to imagine music in the form of notes and to dictate it like you were dictating notes for an essay !!
There was a lot of debate on the accuracy of the events depicted in the play and the movie. Even if the historic details are not accurate, Amadeus is pure cinematic magic, all by itself. It is one movie that made me choke with emotion at a couple of places and some of the sequences gave me goose bumps !
The movie supposedly won 40 Awards world-over including 8 Oscar awards (all well-deserved, I should say !). A must-watch for music-lovers and movie-lovers!!
I have heard of Mozart, not heard a lot of his music though. I do not understand Western Classical Music and find it difficult to follow the intricacies of the music. So it was with some skepticism that I sat down to watch the 1984 classic - ‘Amadeus’, which is based on a play that is in turn loosely based on the real life rivalry between Mozart and his contemporary composer - Antonio Salieri, who, turns out to be his nemesis. To sum up my reaction to the whole movie - ‘Mind Blowing’.
The whole story is from Salieri’s point of view. The movie begins with a now old Salieri attempting suicide since he believes he murdered Mozart. He is saved and is put in an asylum, where a priest meets with him and suggests that he should confess his sins. Salieri, is initially uninterested, but a remark from the priest gets him started.
Salieri grows up watching Mozart, a gifted composer, who started composing music at the age of five, with envy. Thanks to a ‘miracle’ - Salieri’s father who was opposed to him taking up music as a profession, dies on the dinner table- Salieri enters the world of music and eventually becomes the court composer at the emperor’s court. He hears a lot about Mozart and is waiting to meet with him. He gets deeply disappointed when he watches Mozart fooling around with a girl (who later becomes his wife) at a gathering where some of his pieces will be played. Mozart comes across as a childish and playful prankster, quite in contrast with the brilliance of his compositions. However, his music still amazes Salieri and he is one of the first few to spot the genius that is Mozart.
Salieri gets enraged with God for bestowing such a talent on someone as undeserving as Mozart, where as he himself is just a mediocre composer. He decides to renounce God and tells himself that he will destroy Mozart. From then on, the movie is about Salieri’s plot to kill Mozart and the gradual deterioration of Mozart.
The film is about 160 minutes long and it is surprising how fast those 160 minutes seem to go. Visually, the movie is stunning. And since it is a movie about musicians, there is no wonder that the movie has a great sound track. Most of the tracks are original compositions by Mozart.
Coming to performances, F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as Mozart are equally wonderful. While watching the movie, although you understand that Salieri is wrong, you cant help feeling sorry for him. Your heart goes out to Mozart for his child-like innocence and complete lack of regard for authority. He is coolly confident to the point of arrogance ! But then, why shouldn’t he be? After all, he is the best !
The movie is full of brilliant sequences and it is difficult to single one out. However, I loved the initial sequence involving Salieri and the priest. Salieri tells the priest that he is a very popular composer and the priest is unable to recollect any of the pieces that Salieri plays. Salieri tries 2-3 pieces that he composed and which received a grand ovation, when they were played originally and the priest simply doesnt remember hearing even one. Then Salieri plays another piece and the priest’s face lights up in recognition. ‘I know that one ! I did not know you were the composer of this piece’. Salieri’s face falls and he grudgingly tells the priest, that it was a piece composed by Mozart. A simple scene that says a lot about the music of these two - Mozart’s stood the test of time and Salieri’s did not !!
Another brilliant piece comes near the end of the movie, where a very ill Mozart dictates and Salieri transcribes the music for ‘Requiem mass’. Mozart goes on dictating and Salieri asks him to slow down, as he is going very fast. Mozart can apparently hear the music that he is dictating, while he is dictating, but Salieri finds it difficult to follow him. When Mozart pauses to let Salieri catch up, Salieri reads the notes again, this time slowly and his face lights up when he realizes how beautiful it is. What kind of a genius does it take to imagine music in the form of notes and to dictate it like you were dictating notes for an essay !!
There was a lot of debate on the accuracy of the events depicted in the play and the movie. Even if the historic details are not accurate, Amadeus is pure cinematic magic, all by itself. It is one movie that made me choke with emotion at a couple of places and some of the sequences gave me goose bumps !
The movie supposedly won 40 Awards world-over including 8 Oscar awards (all well-deserved, I should say !). A must-watch for music-lovers and movie-lovers!!
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