On movies

Of late, I have been reading up a lot on movies, movie reviews and following it up by watching lots of movies. I am not yet into watching them in DVDs, I just settle with whatever I chance upon on cable TV.And once I am done watching some movie that I like, it doesn’t have to be a masterpiece for me to like it, I generally follow it up by reading up whatever imdb.com has to say about the movie.

The other day, I watched CRASH , and followed up reading up on it on imdb.com. I loved watching the movie and then realized it won the Oscar for Best Picture and I would say, rightfully so. The one thing I loved in this movie was the way a lot of things were left unsaid. You are just there soaking up in the intensity of the moment, you don’t need words to reinforce that feeling. In fact words would spoil the effect for me.

I can quote many moments in the movie, a white officer gropes a black woman, she is deeply hurt and then later on, she is stuck in an accident, moments away from her car exploding, and this very officer comes and recues her. She says “Anyone but you”.. but he speaks her out, and braves the flames that are just emerging and rescues her in nick of time. She doesn’t thank him, that would have spoilt the entire scene. She just looks at him, poignantly and he looks at her while walking away.

And another where an Iranian store owner goes to shoot the locksmith, because of whom, his insurance claim is rejected. And as the store owner is about to shoot, the locksmith’s daughter comes and hugs him (the locksmith) trying to protect him.. a shot is heard but nothing happens.. here again, the emotions do the talking.. no words.. and I loved the scene..

I like it when movies leave scenes to the audience’s interpretation, or intelligence.
In Hindi movies, I liked Kaminey for this reason. The narrative just kept going forward without stopping to reinforce anything for the audience’s benefit. You could turn around and talk to the person next to you, and you would have missed an important plot point.

And then there are movies, where everything is so beautiful till characters involved open their mouth. Sigh! So yesterday I watched a Tamil movie, which was sort of inspired from Crash, I would say. But only sort of.. the whole story was different and the setting was all Indian, all tamil. So this police officer harasses a guy, just because he is muslim, and later on, this very muslim guy saves him from a terrorist attack. A meaningful thanking look would have been enough, but the policeman has to hold the other guys hand and thank him, which was totally unnecessary.

I would say, directors, please trust the intelligence of the audience.

PS: It is obvious, i had a very fruitfull weekend of movie watching and household chores. :)

Baby, job, lay off and some such

There are a few updates regarding kutti Sanjay. Well, he is almost seven months old and has learnt a few new tricks. He is trying to crawl. And he is saying “mmmmmmmaaa” , almost “Amma” and this is music to my ears and the icing on the cake, he is trying to sit. I feel so proud looking at my son, I scream with joy and pride as he displays every new skill. It is beautiful to watch a child begin to do new things..but now that I am working, I don’t get to see things the first time he does them….i miss that..but at least he is gracious enough to show me a new trick or two once I am back from office.

Talking about Office, things are not looking all that good. There was a lay-off in my company, some say 60-70 people and some say 120 people. People were suddenly called for a meeting and informed that they were being fired, or being let go , like they say in politically correct circles and they were asked to leave immediately. How miserable would that be? One day you are at work and the next day, you don’t know where the next salary is going to come from. I feel sad for them.

What would I do if that happened to me? I would take a break till the kid is a year old and then search a new job, but the very thought is scary. Tough times. I pray to God to give everyone the strength to carry on and find better options and carry on.

Not totally unrelated to the above, I sometimes wonder if I have a career choice other than the one I am currently in. I love writing. I used to write stories when I was in school. Pity I stopped doing and moved to random four lines that I call poetry. Doing something creative gives me a high. Creating stories is one such.

What would I love to write? I would love to write pleasant romances, not the ones where the guy is rich and handsome and the girl is pretty and all such clichés. But like “Jab we met”. That’s one movie I totally fell in love with. The characters were so real. The situations real too. Its not all sweet for the heroine alone, she gets chased by wrong characters, she gets advised by the station master and she retorts.But whats most interesting about the story is the contrast between the two characters, how vivacious she is, how optimistic she is, how much she enjoys the little joys in life and how he is so silent and serious and how they both change completely after time, how they have influenced each other. How She helps him in the beginning and later he helps her ….mand, that’s one movie I would watch a thousand times. I want to able to write a story like that..seriously.

My friend says,I should write my own love story. It is not cutesy like “Jab we met”, though it does have its cute moments. But as time goes by, I am forgetting all the nitty-gritties and the little nothings of my obscure love story. But If I do write I would put in all the clichés and make myself the pretty damsel in distress and my husband , the knight in shining armour. Who wants to be odd man out???

Hah!! I could write a love story inspired by my own and use a pseudonym!!!

But if my writing is going to be as obscure as I have just written , the chances of me making a career out of it is very slim. But who doesn’t dream impossible dreams??