Up in the Air

Director – Jason Reitman
Cast – George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick

Jason’s previous works – Thank You for Smoking, Juno and Up In the Air. My personal favorite Juno. Up in the Air has multiple Academy Nominations including one for Best Director and Adapted Screenplay for Jason. Thank you for Smoking and Up in the Air both have a contemporary view of an odd-ball job which no one knew could be turned to a subject for a film or a book. Juno is a class apart, and I give more credit to Diablo Cody for the concept and screenplay :)

George Clooney has done a similar ‘I-am-the-janitor-you-can’t-live-without-me’ role before too…His good looks somewhat hide his real acting potential from exploding on the screen. I feel his role as Michael Clayton had more impact.

Vera Farmiga- I have seen earlier in Breaking and Entering and The Boy in Striped Pajamas and remember her roles quite clearly. Though I have seen Departed, I do not recollect her now. Strangely when you look at the roles she has played, there is so much of versatility. It was only when I started reading about her and checked the various roles Vera has played that I learnt a lot about her. When you see a string of movies, then you notice one particular actor, you think have I seen the actor before. It’s an interesting and spiraling form of discovery. I discovered Laura Linney too in the similar fashion.

Anna Kendrick – Frankly did not feel her performance as geek-turned-corporate-honcho-far-away-from reality deserved an Academy nomination, though my opinion hardly counts here :)

Hedda Gabler

Cast: Sheeba Chadha, Neeraj Kabi, Denzil Smith, Samar Sarila, Tillotama Shome, Shipra Singh and Veera Abadan.

I walked into Rangashankara picked up the ticket and wanted to get some grub before the show. I saw two persons at the café, who apparently had met after really long years and I assumed they would be some veterans of the circuit. It was only later that I realized tha one of them was not only a lead cast in the play but also a popular actor on the play/cinema circle – Denzil Smith.

www.denzilsmith.com/

The play was decently executed, and the actors looked absolutely confident and were showing off their command and control. This hint of exhibitionism I feel somewhere came in between the character they were portraying… Never the less the play being Hedda Gabler had more than enuf matter and substance to look for than all the false pretences of the actors.

The duration of the play was almost 2 hours and during the 10 minutes break; all the civilized gentlemen and ladies became unruly savages when it came to picking tea/coffee from the counter. It was clearly survival of the fittest, with no consideration whatsoever to order and sanity.