..Otherwise what's the point

If you are one blessed with a keen sense for cinema, and can tell a Hitchcock movie..even in the blind..you might as well cite and defend a couple of Directors with a more critically resplendent body of work and a superior story-telling faculty...than Martin Scorsese.
You'd stand a relatively better chance though, at naming a few actors Robert de Niro might loose out to, were acting flair and screen intensity being arbitrated.
Your chances however, would shoot, if the argument were to meander to "what's numero uno amongst movies" and you had to defend against Scorsese's 'Casino' staking claim. (sadly it's always been a lesser Scorsese classic)
And, nobody frankly would argue spiritedly in favour of De Niro's 'Ace Rothstein's' status in one of those "Cinema's most Curious Characters" debates. (hell, even Joe Pesci's 'Santoro' would stand a better chance')

But it so turns out that the not-so-cult opening lines by De Niro's 'Ace Rothstein' in Scorsese's 'Casino' would hold its own if it was all to boil down to "The most passionate romantic monologue in a gambling/gangster movie based on a semi-biographical book"
Sample this and marvel its verity..

  "When you love someone, you've gotta trust them. There's no other way. You've got to give them the key to everything that's yours.

...Otherwise, what's the point?..."

 Man....[at the expense of sounding cheesy]....isn't that definitive now.

So...You [yes the un-ubiquitous you] must be wondering...What is it about this morose-monday-morning that's got me all muddled and ...ammm mushy. Is it the soothing Bob Marley strumming...the insurmountable sleeplessness from last night...or is it just the hackneyed bloody rush! Its...that clarity which follows utter restlessness...and since it shouldn't be wasted on sounding silly and hypothetical...its a good time to be talking movies.
Now...being the moderate cinephile that I have turned into [although i hate the term...infact anything -phile] i should feel in-the-zone with near about any genre; but considering the modest stature of this blog and more so the current flavour of my hormonal cocktail...'romance' seems like a pretty bet.
There's this thing about romantic movies that make them unduly popular. So...while a crime fiction or a sci-fi or a westerner might be viscerally arousing...you can never in your existence hope to actually pull-off that heist ...date an alien or be the horse-riding-cigar-wielding-baddie-shooting son of a gun. But you should or should hope to...get your turn at sweeping your silly girl off her slippery feet and make her long and amm...moan.
So romance is the standard source for in-house heroism...which is exactly why romantic movies are so viciously escapist. They stretch the fantasy canvas just enough to contain it within the realm of your wishfulness.

But before I run out of bull-shit..let me get down to business..and let me do it the way Men like best - make a favourite five list. Here goes then

5. [these guys never thought somebody might want to count-down] Now pardon me if this post has coaxed any bated breaths...but the fact remains romantic movies are my last picks for when i feel the urge. Simply because they are populist and goofy and none of the great directors make any. Since i've seen too few...fifth up should be the many i haven't, the one's that are particularly popular with teenage girls and lovelorn boys... 'When Harry met Sally', 'Sleepless in Seattle', 'The Notebook', 'Pretty Woman', 'if Only', 'Notting Hill'....you get the idea...the kinds you develop a block for once you become presumptuous and begin to pick-n-choose your cinema. I'd also throw in a couple I've seen but that didn't make the cut...'The English Patient', which seemed lost between some beautiful lines, 'Serendipity', which was too fancy, 'Revolutionary Road', which was too unhappy and 'Jerry Maguire' which had Tom Cruise.

4. Okay...before you give up on the promise...there is the Richard Linklater's duo 'Before Sunrise' and 'Before Sunset'...the 'Dialogue Romance' that you'd instantly fall for. Yes, they are imaginatively shot and elaborately written but they are here because the idea is so stimulating and for a long time they would be my top picks, but....you grow out of it. The thought of unearthing your true-love out of the blue spending with them the time of your life and leaving it at that as memories to die with, without indulging in the mundane everyday... is poignant but its not very practical. All first steps are exciting but they are over-rated..boring to re-track and often lead to nowhere.
Did that even make sense!
Anyways i'm just glad that there apparently might be a third episode, wonder what it'd be called though. ['Before Midnight' would sound too zombie]

3. 'Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind' is a fascinating Charlie Kaufman story...and features a glum Jim Carrey performance and a 'tangerine' Kate Winslet hairdo. But its more a great movie than an extraordinary romance. So it has.. the human compulsion for companionship and one with that inexplicable connection... in a science fiction setup with numerous nuances thrown into what would make an exemplary piece of screen-writing. That's a movie for all seasons and moods.

2. Now that you've bought into the concept of this list...its a good time to bring in a few that've never belonged in  a romantic-5 list. 'True Romance', 'Natural Born Killers' and 'Wild at Heart' are lurid, violent 'Hippie-Romance' movies. The first two are Quentin Tarantino's abandoned babies [while he was still the God] the other is a David Lynch's lowly film [he's a perverted poser in my books, otherwise]. These are tails of passion...of living it out with the love-of-your-life...of unbridled crazy-about-each-other-romance...the kinds you'd be considered shallow and indignant for mentioning too high on your list...but the ones you unabashedly wear on your sleeve. Yes they're loaded with the unreal and melodrama but they're absolute in romance. You wouldn't hope your love-life'd be that spectacular...but you'd wish your love is.
Ofcourse 'True Romance' stands out.

1. No.1 as you must've guessed by now is not 'Casablanca', which you could actually watch a million times... for Ingrid Bergman. I personally prefer its distant derivative [and i don't mean geographically] Sudhir Mishra's 'Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi', which you could equally well watch a zillion times for Chitrangada Singh. How else the two match-up is a separate can-of-worms...but what is the perspective they bring to this list? Tails of unrequited love is it! Human beings are inherently self destructive...and we're not even talking jihad or green-house or junk-food here. The tendency shines bright in the face of lost love and heart-breaks by-far outdo successful love-stories. So...what does all this mean? ..probably nothing. But these are good movies and 'Hazaaron..' is my favourite romance.

Okay...I see this is a mess....but thats just me.
I also see..I missed what Ace Rothstein goes on to say...

 "...And for a while, I believed, that's the kind of love I had."

Profound!

P.S. : if you plan to post a comment do mention your favourite romantic movies..if you do not plan to post a comment just mention your favourite romantic movies.

Captivity of Negativity

I had given up on blogging.
Just as I had given up on - wearing that Astro suit (i was persuaded into believing i might be a tad too brilliant for it), working for google (and what a loss to humanity must this be) and scoring on a certain variety of women(this one's as fresh as yesterday). Besides giving up on being an investment banker (yup the term still exists in dictionaries), dating an "in her thirties" Pamela Anderson (but boy, I'd kill for that date even when she's a corpse) and Quentin Tarantino.

But then this is such an age for giving up (yes i turned an inglourious 24). This is when you go helpless with crossing out and desperate with ticking in.

Thankfully though, blogging doesn't give up on you. Every now and then it throws up an amateur plagiarist, a self-proclaimed dumbass or a puny poet and you realize all the cool guys are outta business. Thats when you think up a smartass title for your next could've been a post, you germinate two earnest sentences before you give-in to your social networking obligations or ping that girl you've only just started stalking, that'll be it then for uptill the weekend.. the weekend that'd never be.
Unless ofcourse you happen to be travelling lucknow to delhi over the weekend, sitting besides a bearded crook of a guy and the only women in your compartment are either burqa clad or have sagging breasts.
If by divine inervention you've exhausted your laptop's battery, have just finished reading Jeremy Clarkson and can find the back of a ticket and a reynolds, well you've struck the right recipie for revival.

So, what'd you cook?
Its been ages since you've had views on anything terrestrial.
Being a single bachelor you've lived your life in those lunch table discussions restricted to cussing 'you've got more potential' bosses or 'we'd set you straight' proffs.
And, those coffee table deliberations ranging from your opposite sex preferences to opposite sex's appalling lack of preferences.
Besides those beer table arguments where the nation's greatest grouse is the now irreparable smart guys to passable girls ratio and where every unboyfriended girl epitomises whoredom.

Your favourite movie flavours has meagered to such solelessly remarkable flicks as Zombieland and District9 and you barely have a favorite tv show or sport anymore for either an overkill or want of them.
 Socio-Politico-Economical contemplations!...well, they've never been your sphere of influence. You may attempt musing on the past, cribbing about the present and going all hunky-dory for the future; but the Theory of Insignificance retorts you into retiring.
 Yes there've been long fantasy phone calls but they make up only or embarrassing phone bills unless you're yet to move on from that black swan of a relationship.


Your life then has arguably been irreverent and there are no holes you can hope to plug over a blog. You see right through the happyness illusion. Your spiritual and material lives are incoherently disconcerted.
You are, every bit of you, an Evidence of the 'Quarter-Life crisis'

So what'd you cook?
Bullshit!
But thats exactly what you've managed in the past hour...some pretty unimaginative bullshit.

P.S. - Feel the post touched something in you, perhaps so would this

Politically Charged

At home...nothing to do...devoured the editorials of 3 English dailies and got...Politically Charged...

Celebrate, ye of little faith! The Indian woman is finally empowered! We made a woman our Prime Minister more than 40 years ago, we anointed a woman Super Prime Minister three years back, our States have had a succession of woman Chief Ministers starting with Sucheta Kriplani in the mid-50s - in fact, at this very moment, Mayawati and Vasundhara Raje preside over the destiny of two of our largest States. We have hundreds of women judges, legislators, administrators, bank chairpersons. India's information and biotech boom is largely propelled by women. But till one gets a woman President, we cannot claim India's women have been truly empowered. So, we must get together and jostle Pratibha Patil up the formidable steps of Rashtrapati Bhawan. In her person, we will have India's first empowered woman holding a distinguished office.

Indeed, Pratibha Patil is a perfect example of the empowered Indian woman politician. So it is in the fitness of things that we elevate her to the country's highest office. For those who doubt the extent of her empowerment, here are some clinching factoids:
# Unless she was an empowered woman, would she have succeeded in building an enviable monetary chest for her family?
# How many women can boast of setting up an entire bank as an extension counter to her family fortunes?
# Do we have many women leaders who can claim to have presided over her family's march to fabulous prosperity through such clever methods as pulling in money from farmers only to redistribute it among family members by way of loans, which were then waived?
# If Ms Patil were not an empowered woman, would her family cooperative been given Rs 17.7 crore by way of bank loans, which her kin blissfully refuse to return even after 12 long years?
# How many women politicians would have remained unscathed even after her family enterprises failed to hand over public contributions for Kargil War Widows' Fund and Tsunami Victims' Relief Fund to persons in whose name the money was collected?
# Could any non-empowered woman have managed to get Government funding to construct four working women's hostels and procure official waivers to circumvent the rules in order to make these lucrative money spinners?
# Had she not used her protective powers, would not the police have hounded her husband, charged with abetment to suicide by a teacher in one of the myriad educational businesses the family runs?
# Unless Pratibhatai were truly empowered, would fees collected for the education business have been effortlessly siphoned off to benefit the same family's sugar mills?
# Had she not extended her empowered umbrella to her brothers in Jalgaon would the investigators spare the one accused of masterminding the murder of the victorious candidate belonging to the rival faction in the District Congress Committee president's election?
# If she were not an empowered woman, would the inquiry into the murder have been dusted under the carpet and the main accused (the 'supari' killer) died a mysterious custodial death?

This...from The Sunday Pioneer...Columnist : Chandan Mitra

To bring things in perspective ... Chandan Mitra is a BJP supported Rajya Sabha MP so one wouldn't expect him to be politically neutral on this issue....But her illustrious profile establishes that Mrs Patil has all the makings of a wonderful puppet president. Her political stature has been thoroughly utilized by her family..as documented above,and the congress party now looks set to similarly use her presidency. To me she is a typical female caricature, who would be an emblem of pseudo female empowerment for the next five years of my life.

Courtesy India Today's 60th anniversary spl. (and a 24 hr train journey)...i gained ample insight about the times and ways of Mrs. Indira Gandhi and about what presidents she kept at her disposal. The similarities between then and now are not all that remarkable because Sonia Gandhi doesn't seem to be a potential threat. Yet it is disheartening to see an intellectually challenged ruling party which seems to be convinced that no one but the Gandhi Family is capable of fooling the masses and wresting power. Does Sonia Gandhi even have the intellect to govern 'the once upon a time' illustrious congress party...leave apart governing India.
It is indeed disgusting to hear of important national issues being packaged and tagged: "To be decided by Soniaji"...Does she have better credentials than an ox-bridge grad Manmohan singh or a political veteran Pranab Mukherjee. What makes these people stoop so low.

I hope Pratibha Patil's presidency proves congress' nemesis...to a layman like me there governance has been largely unimpressive ...though ofcourse there apparently are no worthier alternatives. It is also annoying to note that one section of the media [TOI] has completely blacked out these revelations while another[Pioneer] wants her dead or alive.

By the way one such lady who was supposed to be a dalit-female-caricature is playing Dennis the Menace at UP... thats Miss. Mayawati. I feel as humiliated, living next to her version of a dalit Taj Mahal [The Ambedkar Park], as are the thousands of bureaucrats who're getting the real sense of a life on the move[transfers at the rate of dozen a day are commonplace]. I'd pray she's not the next big thing in indian polity...as she's being touted[lucknow university recently started a course in social engineering!!]....

Hmmmm... discharged for now.

P.S....I hope none of the comments above sound racist, casteist or chauvinist though i hardly give a damn.