Reflections of Passions

Given the way Bollywood has failed me in the past few months with any hardly good movies to watch, I thought this was the best time to catch up on movies I have missed on home video. The first one I caught was the Neil Nitin Mukesh starrer, "Johnny Gaddaar". RED is the colour of passion, the colour of passion and the colour of treachery. The movie is filled up with every frame shot in red. The colour used is for sensational effect and everything in this movie is red even the beanbags, shirts, blankets, mid-burger slices of tomatoes, sitar covers constantly get highlighted and meticulously framed by persistently dull colours around it. Thankfully, this movie is not shot in black and white or it is not made on a computer but still the way the director Sriram Raghavan dabs the red colour and assimilates it is just awesome. The cinematography is masterfully executed and is a perfect example of a fast-paced thriller. Funky lowslung camera angles to a kickass old school title seque...

The worst puns in the world were playing out on the news channels over the last few days and the sole reason was Mr. Jarnail Singh, who inspired so many others to follow suit and fling shoes to show their anger against the politicians. Mr. Jarnail Singh calmly threw a sports shoes towards the Home Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram. Of course, the news channels showed the incident from every possible angle, in slow motion, with freezes and the works. Then we saw the closeups of the shoes sitting on a carpet. The shoe-throwing incident has spurred a series of such incidents and surely has become a nationwide timepass session. After this Jarnail Singh issue, I guess everywhere there have been some people asking if you could throw shoes on whom would you throw: I would say Shahrukh Khan tops the list since he deserves one from me. I just saw one man, who threw a Kolhapuri chappal on the Deshdrohi actor and director. I am really amazed at the way the news channels failed to tap the full potential...

I had a dream last night. I was imagining myself as a gandharvan. Gandharvans are celestial men who are very good musicians. Their job is to keep the Gods happy with their music in paradise. They are also womanizers, who often get caught. If they are found guilty, they are punished and forced to stay away from paradise and spend a certain time on Earth. The Gandharvans during their stay on Earth keep on doing what they are well known for, seducing women. They seduce women on earth and go back to paradise after the punishment time is over. What an interesting life!! I would love to be one and if it was in my hands, I would have instantly chosen to be one. This Malayalam movie is about one such Gandharvan and a young college girl Bhama with whom he falls in love with. She goes on a tour to some seaside town and while standing alone in the beach, she gets a statue. The statue is so beautiful and turns into a man at night. This particular Gandharvan is someone who does not enjoy living in ...

India is warming up for another season of elections. This election season really seems to be quite colourful since there are so many layers to these general elections. The phase that India is passing through is going to be a catalyst, with the economic meltdown and the issue of terrorism scaling new heights post 26/11. In the past few months, I have noticed that general news has just disappeared from the news channels these days. Almost every other news channel has a special agenda to grab eyeballs and almost every news channel seems to focus only on the election. Yes, I do understand that this election is an important one but it shouldn't be so much that it leads to an overdose of election mania. The mania has just lead the media go haywire with every story seeming to have a piece of sensationalism attached to it. In the recent past, the citizens have become increasingly consciously about their duties. It is no longer only the political parties that contest the elections; it is co...