Super Cop Super Con

Well this is the story weaved from different stories and its about Super Cops and Super Cons.

Scene 1.

Super Con on his mobile phone, driving his car to glory. Super Cop spots the prey, chases the prey till his home. Super con realizes there is no escape. He has been caught red-handed. He looks at the Super cop, smiles, gives him a I-am-no-super-con looks. He adds you look like a real Superstar from Kannada films. Super Cop happy, gleams and gloats. Super con walks away free.

Scene 2.

Super con coming wrong way, against the traffic. Super cop, is alert, quickly gets into action. Super con has local advantage, knows the local language. She points out to her friend waiting for her. Luckily she was waiting in front of a hospital. Her story makes her friend completely unwell, and needs to be rushed to hospital. Super cop’s humane part melts, let the super con leave. Super con and her friend get on her way to the next nearest mall.

Scene 3

Super cop stopping all vehicles for routine checks for documents and license. Super con, w/o any proper documents is caught. Super con pleads, begs and asks for mercy. Super cop, agrees to let him off at subsidized fine. Now the bargain begins. Super con convinces that he does not have money to eat food, and all the shopping bags he has are for his friend. He is so poor, he cannot even think of eating three meals a day. Super cop take super subsidized fine. How much - 30 bucks!!!! Because the con does have only 30 buck to spare and 20 buck for three meals.

Scene 4

Super cop waiting behind a tree. Two super cons, good looking and handsome, working as executives in MNCs in their night Chaddis, caught by super cops for riding w/o head light and West Bengal registration vehicle in Karnataka. Now hear the super con story. They are security guards!!! Super cops believe the story ask for subsidized fine of 100 bucks. Super cons not willing to pay more than 30 bucks. Big heavy bargaining, threats to seize the vehicle also of no help to resolve. Finally the deal is struck at 50 bucks. Super cons are dejected after one hour duel that they could not get off for 30 bucks.

Everjoy & Co - Footsteps in Time

Neatly tucked on the first floor of a building on the busy Commercial Street is Everyjoy and Co which deals in watch repairs for all international watch brands. It has stairs leading to the store just adjacent to a posh jewelry shop in town. When you climb up the narrow stairs you come to a well lit store with leather couches for customers to wait. There is a small counter, behind which I have seen an old lady, probably in her late 70’s dressed in an impeccable manner, and usually draped in a silk sari. Its so happens that is the only store which does this kind of work, and all the other retailers of the international brands would direct you here for any repairs.

Once when I had gone to get a original leather strap for my Swatch, the person who was there at there at the counter was in his late 70’s or early 80’s. The old lady was also there at the counter and their son, who himself was in his late 30’s. Astonishingly not only did the person advanced in age, know which was the black strap for Swatch and where it was kept but also himself in front of me removed my old strap gingerly with his instruments and replaced it with the new one. He is a person with humorous temperament and as you would have guessed, an eye for detail. When my card did not get swiped, he jokingly said its because its not signed on the hind side. I mean someone with such a zest for life and precision at work at that age was indeed a moment of inspiration for me. He also knew that the model which I had taken for a leather strap originally does not come in leather strap version. He shared this information with his son, who was all ears to what he had to say.

Today when I went to get there again, to put a new battery in the watch; the son attended me very politely. Quickly took the watch inside, (you can see what goes on through the glass door) and himself replaced the battery. Father like son, he too knew his job, and did not expect the other people employed at his store to do it. As no one was there, he himself did and with so much panache

New York I Love You

There are some things I check when I step out of the house. My wallet in my back pocket, check 1. My wrist watch, check 2. My mobile phone, check 3. My handkerchief and bunch of keys check 4. So three taps on my trouser pockets, and I am ready to go. While inside the auditorium, I knew I was lighter, and after three taps and I realized my keys were missing. I decided to look for it during the interval. Well, to my luck, like before I had left it in the parking lot and had to go to the security in the basement to collect it.

I had a pretty amusing bunch of people around me for watching the movie. Some could not figure out the movie got over, some were in awe for the movie to see the directors name roll over…blah blah

One thing I realized was some times it is better not to speak and put into words what you feel after, say, watching a movie. What you liked and the sorts, and to just savor the feeling within yourself. Some times when you speak or write you may not find all that means to express what you feel and you may trivialize the whole thing. Like what I felt after watching New York I love you, I prefer to be silent and savor it.

Confidence

Cast : Rachel Weisz, Dustin Hoffman, Paul Giammatti, Edward Burns

Clever Plot, the Hollywood way.

My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown

I watched this movie with friend of mine, whom I met after two years. He had mentioned during lunch, that for the last six months he had not watched TV or any movies; as he always had someone or the other dropping by at his place. When we started watching the movie, I was not sure how would he take the movie. This being the intense kind of movie, not all are cut for it. The other thing was the complication of watching a movie with someone. Inadvertently, when a watching movie of your choice, there is need that the movie should match the requisite standards, meet the expectations of the accompanying viewer. However, when watching the movie alone, there is no need to please/meet the expectations of anyone. It helps me relish the movie more and I am free to my judgment.

Strangely, my friend got hooked to the movie and was quite content in the end. He appreciated the movie.

Watch it for the Academy award winning performance of Daniel Day Lewis.

Sherlock Holmes

Fast paced, edgy, witty, humorous, action packed, classic, intricate….Robert Downey steals the show, hands down. And the duo of Jude Law and Robert Downey, makes it even more deadly. I had watched a couple BBC series on Sherlock Holmes, and Guy Ritchie’s version supersedes all, for a film, that I must add.

Lunatic in my head

The novel is very visual. Though I have never been Shillong, I have created a visual imagery of the place and the people. There are many characters, each with their own myriad subtleties and psyches. All this together weave the fabric of the novel. You start developing a liking for the characters, you know sometimes how they would react. There are times when you want sit near them and talk to them, console them, understand what going on in their mind, help them and be a part of their lives.

Breaking and Entering

Director: Anthony Minghella
Cast: Jude Law, Juliette Binoche, Robin-Wright Penn
Year of Release: 2007

A beautiful name Bea. Fulfilling career. A beautiful wife/girl friend to come home to.. What could go wrong?

I loved the way how Amira and Mirsade bond, and also, Jude confessing that he is an idiot and does not know what to do. And how Robin is scooped by Jude…

JFK

Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci, Kevin Bacon
Year of Release: 1991

I knew JFK was assassinated, I knew it was a sensational case, I never knew this many details into the assassination earlier. I never knew so much about what was going around in the media and in the minds of the people then. An insight, a deep insight into those times.

Dances with Wolves

Director: Kevin Costner
Cast: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell
Year of release: 1990

Cinematic Masterpiece. Don’t miss it!!!

Taming of the Shrew (BBC)

BBC presents the modern version of Taming of the Shrew. Set in London, Kate is the leader of the opposition and opposite anything that is normal and social. Rest what ensues, is what changes her course of life. Not only hers but others too.

Normal

Interlinked stories of families, dysfunctional sometimes, people, hurt people, accidents, accidents which mar people for lifetime, needs and wants of people, expectations – met and unmet, people who get along and start afresh, people who still stuck to old times, people who are unable to overcome the grief, unable to forgive themselves.

Separate Lies

Director: Julian Fellowes
Cast : Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson
Year of Release : 2005

Set in London, this story works on multiple levels. Adapted from a book by Nigel (A Way through the Wood). For a movie with so many levels and melodrama, it usually is an adaptation from books. The screenplay gives the anchor to the plot and the movie. The actors are superb and give the movie the needed pace and depth. There are times when they shun typical English mannerisms and break free in times of frustration and desperation.

An evening with the Genius - Adoor

Nizhalkuthu

When NECAB, whatever it stands for, I did not bother to read about it, and after the screening, even more so. Well NECAB has nothing to do with the movie, they had arranged for the screening of the movie and also, an interaction with Adoor Gopalakrishnan himself. Had they not been so pompous about their association and had carried on their business like serous cinephiles, they would not have got my wrath. They way how Collective Chaos used to arrange for screenings and interactions.

There is a little I wish to say about the movie, well for such movies, there is a bleak chance to do justice to it. But what I do wish to share is the interaction with Adoor.

Adoor, comes with a high dose of intellectual humor and wit with him, which he uses adequately in the interaction. He is absolutely calm, and knows how much and what to speak, always in control.

The interpretation he gives to the movie, changed a lot of perspective of the film for me. And hearing it from him directly made all the difference. The key lies in the name of the ‘Nizhalkuthu’ Shadowkill. Shadow kill is the ability of magicians to be able inflict pain on someone by doing something to their images. The movie’s central theme is an interpretation of that. And in that woven are so many other practices, rituals, facts, and other intricate details. Adoor says he wishes to tell the truth to the people and nothing else.

Oru Pennum Randaanum (A Climate for Crime)

I have seen Naalu Penungal, and this is a continuation of the same series. Adoor says that for all the festivals where this movie was screened, it was always house full and that this was movie which was for him has bought the maximum number of awards worldwide. The universality of the subject and also the genius of the writer who wrote these stories when coupled with the genius of a filmmaker what you get is this

Paleri Manikyam

Well when I heard the name of the movie, and vaguely remember seeing some trailers, I though it was all about black magic. I was well, what should I say soft talked to come for the movie. I do that sometimes, because after all a movie does have something to offer, always.

With all those at the back of the mind, we walked into the movie theater with a particularly low attendance. It starts of with a narrative from Mammootty, and sometimes I find the narrative in Malayalam movies to be forcefully literary w/o any particular need. I felt the same about this maybe till the time the story actually goes back to the time when it actually happened.

There are so many characters introduced, each one having a role to play, each of them knowing some part of the truth, each of them linked to the plot intricately. There are some phrases which I still remember something to the tune of saying that Sreenivasan was the ‘intellect of the village’, the madman ‘the sleeping consciousness of the village’. Also like in Shakespeare, the madman has the liberty to speak, speak his mind freely. Even in a free world, even amongst people whom we know and are free, are we really free to speak our mind, we are conditioned, hence we sometimes do not.

I am not sure if the movie is an adaptation of a book, because it so very looks so.

Absolute Power

I did not know that Laura Linney was in it. Neither did I know that Clint plays her dad. I had seen a particular shot from the movie on Warner Brothers, but didn’t pay too much heed to it. Later a few days back it was playing again, I just could not believe the odds of two of my favorite actors sharing the screen space together. I did not see the movie from the start, but then it was a treat, not so much for the plot or the film, but to see Laura and Clint together. Did I ever wish them to come together, maybe never, it never crossed my mind.

The Enforcer

I am not sure of the chronology of the Dirty Harry series, I could have, should have looked up in IMDB. This time around I decided to do a blog with any reading or checking before hand. It goes from my mind to the screen. Of course for those who read these lines, it could very well be from you to me. Well it ain’t all that dramatic what I wish to say about the movie, but the melodrama here is, more so my state of my mind. Not essentially because of this movie but then a confluence of so many things, which also includes this movie and all the other movies and everything else that happens.

Getting back, Harry is back, Dirty Harry is back. I liked ‘Dirty Harry’ more than the Enforcer. I like the girl in the movie, her trying to catch up, trying to learn things on the job, and the way how Harry teaches, pretty much in the job. And that too learn it the hard way, if you are smart, then you might do it faster. May be that’s how things happen around at my work too…And of course few one liners as always, but nothing like, Magnum talking in Dirty Harry. So pretty much this article is more about Dirty Harry and me than its about ‘The Enforcer’. So it be.

The Unforgiven 1992

This is the first time for most of part of the movie, Clint Eastwood is just a legend of the past. The man who was like no one, and the one who has mend his ways, well a complete U turn. Then no particular reason which was obvious to me, though he has taking care of hogs, decides to return. And when he does hell breaks loose.

That’s not what was of particular interest to me come to think of it. It was the narrative which runs in the beginning and in the end, and that was something