Reflections of Passions

There are films that try to tell emotionally complex stories and succeed in making an impact. The 2005 Marathi movie "Uttarayan" does just that. Adapted from the Marathi play "Durgi" by Jaywant Dalvi, the film remains true to the theme and concept for the most part. The film explores the concept of love and companionship in old age.  The story is told through Raghuvir Rajadhyaksha (Shivaji Satam). He is a widower for the past 14 years and has been staying alone in Nagpur. He visits Mumbai for the wedding of his 30 year old son. He meets his teenage playmate Kusumavati (Neena Kulkarni), who works as a librarian. Kusumavati is now known as Durgi as her husband's family in Pune rechristened her name post marriage. She has been through a traumatic marriage because her husband, despite being a barrister, was an alcoholic and a womanizer.  Durgi is back in Mumbai and is taking care of her aging mother (Uttara Baokar) and the film talks about how they rediscover thei...

The 2005 Canadian film "It's All Gone Pete Tong" is an English film made by filmmaker Michael Dowse. The story of the film follows the life of a DJ Frankie Wilde (Paul Kaye). He is a pretty successful DJ playing music at the nightclubs of Ibiza, Spain. The film begins with the fact that he is bearing incompatible noise and one day goes completely berserk one night and is carried out from the club on shoulders. The initial part of the film focusses on his denial in accepting the fact that he is becoming deaf.  It is later established that he went deaf due to high volume of music blaring through his headphones. The film follows his downward arc which is harrowing especially the way he loses his hearing ability. The inability to accept his deafness results in a lot of overacting.  Frankie is a chemically imbalanced wreck and his wife leaves him once the money begins to run out. He then meets Penelope (Beatriz Batarda), a hard-shelled woman who can stand up to the wild sid...

I have always been an adrenaline junkie and since I had done anything worthwhile to pump up the adrenaline in me, I read the notification about a blogger meet organized by IndiBlogger in collaboration with Vodafone and the deal was the Vodafone Speed Fest with Lewis Hamilton on 16th September. (Please pardon the delay!). I narrowly missed the Indian Grand Prix in Noida last year and was determined that I would not miss the Vodafone Speed Fest at any cost.  I had watched Formula One races on TV and this was my first real chance to witness the event live. The thought of seeing Lewis Hamilton gave me a head rush and I had to get my heart to pump harder.  Incidentally, it was only after the Vodafone Speed Fest that I actually found my appetite for F1 racing increasing. I had seen F1 races on TV before but I didn't know how fast these cars were meant to be. So, a 500 metre road was cordoned off for the Speed Fest and Lewis Hamilton literally burnt rubber on the roads with his ca...