Life and other weird things

I can never have a favourite movie permanently. Sure - there are a few movies which I like a whole lot more than I do others, but I can never name a single favourite movie.

My current favourite is Majid Majidi's 'Children Of Heaven'. It's definitely one of the best films I have seen.

The story deals with the relationship between two pre teen siblings, and is held together by the theme of the children's desire to own a pair of new shoes.

Amazingly - that's the whole story : Two children yearning to own a pair of shoes.
But Majidi, along with the fantastic lead actors of the film - Amir Hashemi(as Ali) and Bahare Siddiqi(as Zahra) - manage to tell a tale of such simplicity with such beauty that it is just breathtaking.

The film shows the children coming up with a plan to cover up their loss of an old pair of shoes from their parents, who are hard up and cannot afford a new pair. Most of the film is about this plan, which eventually leads to a climatic sequence where Ali stands to make up for his loss of his sister's shoes.

The film makes use of a lot of close ups and tracking shots, which make the viewer feel part of the flow of the story. The excellent camerawork and intelligent editing all contribute to the smooth, almost lyrical flow of the story. The film does not aim at being a tear jerker - but as a viewer, you cannot help but connect to the pain and pleasure felt by the protagonists.

This is one of those films which make the viewer think about the complexity which humans infuse into life. The film is - in that sense - a study of human beings in the real sense.

If you inhabit this planet and care about the fact that you are human, this film is a must see.

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Visited the Pench Wildlife Santuary a few days back. What stood out in my mind after the visit was the sight of a bison in the wild. I have never seen such a picture of pure strength pass by. The animal was bristling with muscles and moved around with such obvious physical power that it was impossible not to feel a lot of respect for the fact that I was in a jeep and not facing it on foot.
I later read that these animals weigh more than a thousand kilograms and that they have no natural enemies. The latter part of the sentence means, of course, that they do have an unnatural enemy - humans. It's a hugely saddening thought that this magnificient species is at the brink of extiction today. All I could think of saying to the one which showed up in front of me was - to quote Ali G - 'Respect'.

Just watched Danny Boyle's 'Millions'(2004). I must say, I am becoming a fan of the man. The film is fantastic. The man has child psychology down to a T. The whole story can be summed up in a line : 'What two little kids do with a million quid'. I would especially recommend this film to all religeous nuts who think they have it all figured out.
Two thoughts :
I have never heard a better explanation of the 'fish and bread loaves' miracle.
and
The halos on the saints are uber cool.
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I don't know why Anandamela does not publish more Satyajit Ray stories in comic form. The few they have done are very good. I especially liked Boshpukure Khunkharapi and Unicorn Expedition. We could do without the sad Archie translations.
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What's half an MBA done for me ? I'm sure it did something. But I can't remember it at this time. It's been about 10 days since I've been in India on vacation, living a life of sedentary ease.
I'll be able to answer my own question after the 7th of June, once I'm back in a hostel.
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What are some other 'must-see' films that have been seen by yours truly in the last week ?
The Other Boleyn Girl. Mississippi Girl. Children of Heaven.
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Nothing in Cinema comes close to matching the genius of this and this.

In 2000, when Clinton stepped down, the wealthiest 1% of USA shared 9% of the country's GDP.

Here I am doing my MBA.
Rather, here I am with the luck and freedom to do my post graduation after 5 years of work.

And here is another part of the world. Not very far away.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/02/22/world/asia/1194838044017/class-dismissed-in-swat-valley.html

I sometimes think, is what I'm doing worth it ? Worth anything ?
Or is it better, and more moral to go to one of these places and try to help a young child find their way through.

Maybe a few lives are worth the trouble to try.

Who is a 'good person' ?

Who is 'moral' ?

What is 'morality' ?

I can't speak for everyone, but these are questions that pop up in my mind from time to time. Colonel Kurtz's classic monologue from 'Apocalypse Now' comes to mind :

"I've seen horrors... horrors that you've seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that... but you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies. I remember when I was with Special Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for Polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember... I... I... I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget. And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God... the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters. These were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment. Because it's judgment that defeats us."

This, and watching Stephen Dalry's briliant 'The Reader' today, made me think today. How can we judge people by our moralities ? How can we pass a sweeping statement about an act being right or wrong, or a person being 'good' or 'bad', based on what WE consider right ? Is it possible to pass such a judgment? And is it right ?

'The Reader' is based on the award winning German novel "Der Vorleser', and takes us through the lives of two people, from the mid 1950's to the present decade. The protagonist and narrator of the story is Michael Berg - who appears first in the story as a school student and ends up being a moderately successful lawyer. The second, and vastly more interesting character is Hannah Schmitz, who appears in the story as a lonely tram ticket collector, before one realizes that there is more to her than her present lonely life in West Germany.


Without giving too much away, the gist of the story is as follows. Michael and the much older Hannah have an affair for a summer, during which she makes him read out many classics of literature. Her abrupt departure from the city leaves Michael emotionally scarred, from which he never really recovers. A chain of events after Hannah's departure leads Michael to find out certain startling facts about his temporary flame, which changes his life forever. The facts revolve around Hannah's past in a very different Germany of the 1930's and 1940's, at which time moralities were different, as was the sense of right and wrong.

The movie goes on to show Michael Berg's attempt at personal redemption from the shackles of his own mind, which refuses to let him off the hook from what he considers to have been an immoral affair in his youth.

Kate Winslet, and Ralph Fiennes have come up with stellar performances as Hannah Schmitz and Michael Berg. The pain in their lives is not seen overtly through actions, but is visible in their eyes.

Many times in life, it becomes easy to blame a person for being 'immoral', or 'bad'. Life being what it is, such judgments are never quite that simple. The perceived morality of an action by an observer is almost never representative of the point of view of the actor. This is more true while judging actions taking place in a time frame when the entire society's sense of right and wrong was different from what exists at the time of judgment. Like Colonel Kurtz, or Michael Berg, or Hannah Schmitz, there are people who justify their actions, and are, in their own way, in their own space of events, quite right.

To me, that's what The Reader is all about. A brilliant movie. Must Watch.

I remember a few incidents when I was completely bowled over by technology that I witnessed first hand.

The first time when modern technology truly silenced me was when I first saw an ATM machine give out money. It was sometime around 1994 when two HSBC ATMs were installed near the Orange County at Dickenson Road in Bangalore. I remember very clearly the astonishment I felt when my uncle punched in some numbers at the machine and the contraption spat out a few hundred rupee notes.

Some other instances when I was stunned by technology include :
- the first time I saw personalized TV screen for flight passengers(1996)
- the first time I saw trains stop in front of doors in underground stations and align themselves perfectly with the marked 'door zones' (1996)
- The first time I booked a train ticket online (2003)
- The first time I saw a cellphone display the names of places where I was passing through using the 'cell info' option (2002)
- The time I used the cell phone to buy an item from a vending machine (nearly shit myself when it worked - 2006)
- The time when I realized that the fare machines (EZ-Link) in Singapore buses were all controlled by GPS (2007)

And these are just the incidents that are on top of my mind. It happens a lot these days.

Today it sort of 'blew my mind' to see a somewhat unusual technology at work here in Singapore.

I have always lived in places far from the LRT systems in Singapore, and thus had never used the system before, except for one very short ride.

The LRT, or Light Rapid Transit, is a public transport system that is designed to get people from the bigger MRT (Mass Rapid transit) train stations closer to their public housing. They are small driver less vehicles that wind their way about through HDB blocks on elevated lines, dropping people off at important junctions. Today, I traveled by LRT to Bukit Panjang.

On the way from Chua Chu Kang to Bukit Panjang, I noticed the glass windows of the LRT suddenly go opaque at times. One moment I can see the city outside, and the next minute it's like someone pulled the blinds on me. And it's not like all the windows in the train behaved this way at the same times. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what on earth was going on.

Later this evening during a conversation, I learned what this was about. Since the LRT system passes too close to HDB dwelling, the buildings have sensors on them to let the trains know they have come too close and will now be passing near people's windows. The LRT windows have some kind of LCD sandwiched between their double sheet panes which change state to become opaque for the time the vehicle is between residential blocks, to protect the residents' privacy !

What a wonderful use of technology ! What an absolute thrill to actually see it !

Unfortunately the next time I see this happening, it will just be another one of those things I pass by. Writing it down will hopefully help me remember that it takes brains and fantastic creativity to come up with a design solution such as this.

Triple disasters do happen.

The day started off with two disasters, each worse than the last, in the form of two quizzes at college. Within moments of laying eyes on the question papers, I felt my mind drawing blinds on itself and quietly going into a semi hibernation mode.

To try and end the day on a happy note, plans were made to head out of campus to catch the latest Aamir Khan thriller - Ghajini. In retrospect, this was a plan roughly equal in its folly quotient to Mamata Banerjee's "plan" to get political mileage by holding the Nano hostage. In other words, Ghajini was the third disaster of the day.

There are quite a few words to describe Ghajini, and none more appropriate than the old Anglo Saxon adjective - 'Horrible'.

How a person like Aamir Khan with his acting and production prowess could agree to be part of this unadultrated mass of tripe is beyond my understanding.

Cut to the chase. Sanjay Singhania(Khan) is a man who runs an uber-successful telecom company in his spare time. What he during the rest of his waking hours is not clearly shown in the movie, but there are suggestions to indicate that he suffers from a form of mania involving an obsession of carving his body into an incredible mass of muscle, making him look more like a renaissance statue than a human being. A completely random set of coincidences and chocolaty circumstances result in Mr Eight Pack Dollar Millionaire falling in love with a melodramatic twit played by Asin (in her first, and hopefully last, Bollywood role).

The more observant among you will notice that the movie did not really make the impression on me that the producers desired.

Moving on. Another set of random incidents ensure that the aforementioned twit heroine ends up on the wrong end of a knife wielded by a tribe of villains, all of whom seemed to have escaped from The Hospital for the Steroid Enhanced. The leader of this bunch of bulges is a man who speaks in rural snarls, and who has 'badass' written all over him in each scene. This man is of interest to us, since it is he who lends his name to this....err.....film. After dispatching Singhania's girlfriend to the afterlife, the arch villain, Ghajini decides to use Singhania's head for a golf ball. The man had barely begun to get into the mood after teeing off with the Singhania skull using a rather rusted rod, when Singhania decides to take control of the plot and promptly gets 'Short Term Memory Loss', wherein he is unable to remember events for longer than 15 minutes.

Not that any of this matters, for director Murugadoss does not seem to have heard that little thing called 'logic' which helps movie plots along.

To make a molehill out of a veritable mountain, Sanjay goes out to take revenge on the reprehensible Ghajini for paying golf with his fiancees and his own heads.

The flowchart of the movie 'plot' can be summarized as :
Sanjay is beaten up by Ghajini -> Sanjay get short term memory loss-> Sanjay takes revenge on Ghajini despite his condition.
Murugadoss takes upwards of 3 hours to articulate this, what with asinine songs liberally inserted into the screenplay, and hamming heroines whose acting prowess made the hemispheres of my brain clang against each other in frustration.

The thing that completely got my goat in the film was the STML affected hero go into complete pyrotechnic mode at regular intervals, with no identifiable reason. Eek.

I tried hard to think of ONE redeeming feature of Ghajini. Unfortunately, other than the few seconds of joy in realizing that the movie had ended, every moment spent watching this bundle of cinemanure was spent in stress and agony. Stress on realizing how much better the evening could have been, and agony on watching one of my favorite stars walk deeper and deeper into a morass of bad scriptwriting. The music was average, and the camerawork - shoddy at best. Acting was not really noticed in this venture, so comments about it are irrelevant.

Well, that was the long review of Ghajini.

The short review is - 'Watch it at your own peril.'