aBOUT nOTHinG

After numerous failed attempts to watch a play or screening of
a foreign film at IHC, I managed(just in the nick of time) to reach
their today to watch "About Nothing" a musical directed by
Ashley Lobo, as a part of the ongoing Hungry Heart Festival '07..
Got slightly disappointed initially as we were made to buy tickets
@Rs200/person and not @Rs50(the amount we had settled for earlier)..

With 500 coming from one pocket, 200 from another and 100
from another we managed 800 bucks for 4 tickets
(A friend also had to sprint to the ATM to get some cash for our dinner).
That was the day's end for our disappointment,anxiety and any other feeling
that can be categorized as non positive..

Enter the world of Drama,Music and DANCE.....

About Nothing is a visual interpretation of story of a boy named
Salman, his moments of joy, despair,angst and pain in his quest
for survival.

The Musical was narrative in nature, with just one protagonist who
verbalized about various things/feelings that one encounters in
the journey called Life. A bald guy in late 20's played the
protagonist, speaking in English with an occasional word or two in Hindi.
The motifs change every 5-7 minutes varying from
"The pressure children go through these days" to "Relationships".

I found it extremely good that after every few minutes of
"food for thought" by the narrator, a Dancy(another word is born)
version of the same followed..The performances came in numerous forms
with eclectically chosen, made for each other, pieces of music..I wonder
if anyone from the audience could pronounce which had a broader
spectrum, the topics that narrator's spoke on, the forms of music or
the styles of dance....

Few lines that clung to me

Relationships...Why at all do we need relationships ?
Why are we always on a lookout for new relationships or
trying to better the existing ones ?
Can't we all be living on isolated islands, Alone without being Lonely ??

Profundity...
Is the Joy a rich kid gets from fiddling with a new remote control more
than the Joy a street urchin gets by dragging a tyre with a rope ??

Sophistication,Love, Relationships,Respect,Family,Joy
and a few more were the words that were dissected and shown various
facets of...Though the verbalizing was quite good, the dance got better
of it almost every time..From Rumba to Tap Dance, Dance all the way
it was..Young girls and boys performing the toughest,never seen before,
how can she do it moves had the audience enraptured....

For the songs that were played the ones that familiar ones were
chamma chamma, welcome to the jungle and a song from devdas
..As far the dance was concerned I particularly liked the Tap Dance
(they created music by clapping/tapping n what not), rumba and
another concoction that came after the theme "Love"..The on stage
chemistry for this piece was as amazing as the dance itself....

It was a bonus to see some familiar faces(from Dx) on stage namely
Pooja, Garima and Shohini. I am quite certain that I would have
enjoyed "About Nothing" as much had I not been a Dance Enthusiast myself.

Kudos to Ashley and the Danceworx team for this splendid effort.

Dead Poet's Society

Dir: Peter Weir
Cast: Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles

At some community on Orkut a random poll question read

"When u r not happy with ur surroundings wat would u do???".

I nonchalantly voted for "Watch Movies".

After two days I found myself in that very situation and I did
Watch Movie the movie being "Dead Poet's Society". I had
heard of this movie before but it was when i read
"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute.
We read and write poetry because we are members
of the human race. And the human race is filled
with passion. And medicine,law, business,
engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary
to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance,love,
these are what we stay alive for." that i decided DPS
would be the next movie I'd watch(at home).

Carpe Diem is the phrase that comes to mind every time I
think of DPS, as it's the essence of the movie. The movie is
beautifully written and has much more to it than the life at
a boys school, it hints rather it hits at some of the all time
deep philosophical ideas like freethinking aka freethought
and Carpe Diem. The movie is to each according to his/her
perception.

Robin Williams does his role as Keating quite naturally and is
needless to say quite good at it. Robert and Josh also do
justice to their roles and as far as other's are concerned their
wasn't much of acting needed in their roles..With some
visually appealing scenes and a nice background score DPS
is a heady mix. The movie also has it's share of some really
funny moments like this one

Keating: Language was developed for one endeavor, and that is,
Mr. Anderson. Come on, are you a man or an amoeba? Mr. Perry.
Neil: Uh, to communicate?
Keating: Nooo!! To woo women

Parent's enforcing their ambitions on their children, corporal
punishment, Institutions thriving on tradition are some of the
more explicit themes in the film. It is one of those films
that can and should be watched multiple times to bring
the prescribed thoughts home.

My Rating: 4.25/5 (after flip flopping between 4 and 4.25)

Imdb Rating: 7.7/10

Dialogues I Liked:

1) No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas
can change the world.
2) There is a time for daring and a time for caution,
and a wise man knows which is called for.
3) We're not laughing at you - we're laughing near you.
4) I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...
to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to
die, discover that I had not lived.

5) McAllister: "Show me the heart unfettered by foolish
dreams and I'll show you a happy man."
John Keating: "But only in their dreams can men be truly
free. 'Twas always thus, and always thus will be.

6) Boys, you must strive to find your own voice.
Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you
are to find it at all. Thoreau said,
"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation."
Don't be resigned to that. Break out!

7) John Keating: Now we all have a great need for acceptance,
but you must trust that your beliefs are unique, your own,
even though others may think them odd or unpopular, even
though the herd may go, [imitating a goat]
John Keating: "that's baaaaad." Robert Frost said,
"Two roads diverged in the wood and I, I took the one less
traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

8) Just when you think you know something,you have to
look at it in another way. Even though it may seem silly
or wrong, you must try! Now, when you read, don't just
consider what the author thinks. Consider what you think.

“Carpe Diem! Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary.”

Scenes that clicked:

1) All of Keating's classes.
2) The one on soccer field.
3) The first DPS meeting.
4) Tow Knox meets Chris for the first time.
5) Tow "The world's first unmanned flying desk set".
6) Tow "Phone call from GOD".
7) Tow "Knox asking Chris for a play".
8) The last scene with boys standing up on their desks.

Trivia:
1) DPS partly inspired a Bollywood hit called "Mohabbatein"
starring "Shah Rukh Khan" and veteran actor "Amitabh Bachchan".
2) DPS is Loosely based on the experiences of private school
students with Samuel Pickering, who is currently a Professor
of English at the University of Connecticut.
3) The movie's line
"Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary."
was voted as the #95 movie quote by the American
FilmInstitute (out of 100)
4) Originally, Professor Keating was supposed to die of leukemia.
But the director decided to have the story focus on the boys instead.
5) The film was also inspired by the book Goodbye, Mr. Chips
by James Hilton, which has been adapted for television or film
at least four times.
6) The quotation from Henry David Thoreau read at the
beginning of each meeting is incorrect. It actually reads
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,
to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not
learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived. …
I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear;
nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite
necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow
of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all
that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to
drive life into a corner…"

Links:
1) Script
2) Wiki
3) Peter Weir
4) Misc Link
5) List of Poems in DPS

Are You The Favourite Person of Anybody ?

Got to know of Miranda July after watching 
Me and You and Everyone We Know  reviewed here. Obvious
that it is, she's got loads of Talent that too not just for a
particular thing or two.

"Miranda July (born February 15, 1974) is a performance artist,
musician, writer, actress and film director" --Wikipedia

Anyone whose wathced MAYAEWK can vouch for the fact that MJ
can write, act and direct beautifully and it can prove difficult to say
which one's better, MJ the actor or MJ the director.

Sample this No One Belongs Here More Than You . I haven't come
across something with creativity quotient(Aah another term gets 
coined) this high for a long time. I mean who scribbles on a stove,
takes its pics and make a tiny website of it ? Getting back to
AYTFPOF. It's a very small short film lasting 3Minutes and
57 Seconds. But this doesn't mean that it's trivial  in anysense..
There's nothing more to the movie then its title but that  itself is
quite thought rich content.

What would you say if someone out of no where asks you 
Are you the Favourite Person of Anybody ?

Lemme think it for myself...hmmmmm....The answer that comes 
Naturally is  "NO"..
How sure am i about this ? 1) Very Certain 2) Confident 
3) I think so 4) Not so sure 5) Could be..
Confident is my answer

I know it doesn't sound good but then that's the way it is, unless
there is some small kid somewhere who doesn't know much
about the world and myself and therefore has me as his/her
favourite person...Not quite practical though..

Ok now how about taking a 180 degree turn ?
Whose my Favourite Person ?

That's kinda interesting as well...Eureka...With very li'l thinking 
i found the answer and the answer is "My Mother"....
Yep, she's my favourite person..For all she's done for me and
the way she makes me feel....Love you Mom...



Things that clicked

1) The concept of the film.
2) Some many prominent people are not anyone's favourite. 
3) The 2nd responded being very certain about not being anyone's
    favourite (despite havin a g/f)..i know but still...
4) (A) I am not interested in these kind of things
     (B) what sort of things?
     (A) These things Free Love and all that..

So Are you the Favourite Person of Anybody ?

Thought's / Quote's

Quid me nutrit me destruit

- Latin Saying

_________________________________________________

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog....

Mark Twain

________________________________________________

Life's a bitch and then you die -- Kurt Cobain, Nirvana

I haven't deciphered it yet......

_________________________________________________

Movie-What Dreams May Come


You have to break in half to love somebody....

I'd say:

You have to break into a million pieces to love somebody...

__________________________________________________

Once in a while I come across a quote/line or something about whose meaning
i am not really sure, here's one of them

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simple - Albert Einstein

Any thoughts ???

____________________________________________________

Days are always blank;
you can fill them with whatever you wish to...
or whatever mood you are in...
It is the nights which have their own flavour
and you can just get drowned in that flavour...

Me and You and Everyone We Know..

Dir: Miranda July
Cast: John Hawkes, Miranda July, Miles Thompson, Brandon Ratcliff

Asked a friend for a thought provoking, that's how i came across this film.
Couldn't think of anything better than watching a movie on this ideal
Saturday evening so thought of trying this one out.

Abstract, that's the word that comes to mind when I think about this
movie. Don't know why but it reminds me of a movie titled "Happiness",
hmm...probably because it's also got a whole lot of stories running in
parallel. Short stories of a few people who stay in a neighborhood and of a

few who are somehow linked to these people(neighborhood).

The best thing about the movie is the sheer variety of characters
involved and the multiple facets of the contemporary life it reflects.
I am quite sure everyone can relate to something or the other from
the movie. There are some movies that start in a not so different way
but slowly start showing their mettle while there are others that start in
a unique way and set the mood for everything that follows..MaYaEWK
being the latter. The way it starts made me sit back alertly just to ensure
i catch finer nuances of the dialogues.

The stories flow seamlessly into each other and back while the
background score adds another subtle layer to these stories. Love,
Experimentations with Sex, Troubled Relationships, Falling Marriages,
Fatherhood, Peer Rivalry and Longing for Companionship..the movie
has it all

))<>((

My Rating: 3.75/5

Imdb Rating:7.5/10

Dialogues I liked:

1)I'm gonna be free.I'm gonna be free. And I'm gonna be brave.I'm gonna be brave.Good.And the next one is—I'm gonna live each day as if it were my last.Oh, that's good. You like that? Yeah. Say it.I'm gonna live each day as if it were my last.Fantastically.Fantastically.Courageously.Courageously.With grace.With grace.

2)Cause it's life—It's life.And it's happening.It's really, really happening...right now

3)No one is going to live your life for you. Okay. That's not how it works, but okay.

4)I can't sleep at night thinking about her. I just wish I had met her 50 years sooner.- Yeah.- But then maybe I needed 70 years of life...to be ready for a woman like Ellen.

5)People think foot pain is a fact of life...but life is actually better than that

6)I don't want to have to do this living. I just walk around. I want to be swept off my feet,you know? I want my children to have magical powers. I am prepared for amazing things to happen. I can handle it.

7) Ice Land is—It's kind of like that point in a relationship, you know...where you suddenly realize it's not gonna last forever. You know, you can see the end in sight.

8) How did you do that? Oh, well, do you want the long version or the short version? The long one. I was trying to save my life, and it didn't work. What's the short one? I burned it.

9) I've long since stopped trying to make people...do things they don't want to do.But she's the love of your life. You're just gonna let her go? No. She's just... going

10)We have a whole life to live together, you fucker! But it can't start until you call

11) You can be sure Pam and I would be sent to our rooms for all our fighting. Yes, they would give us a time-out...and tell us we could not come out until we had really thought about what we had done. What have we done? But... there are no time-outs. There's not enough time for time-out.

Scenes that clicked with me:

1) The Opening Scene with Christine.
2) Christine and Michael try to save the fish.
3) Christine's and Richard walk towards Car Park.
4) Neighborhood Girls with Peter.
5) When Robby meets his chat friend.
6) When Christine scribbles on the inside of her car's mirror
7) "Me" and "You" shoe scene.
8) Slyvie discussing interiors of her future house and talks she'll have with her daughter.

Trivia:

1) Took me 1.5 hrs to watch the movie and about 2hrs to write this review
2) Wrote the whole of it single handedly(with just my left hand as my right thumb is injured)
3) Movie Script
4) Movie's official site

Trailer: