Review the reviews

Recently, two of my movie reviews got published in Hindu NXG. So the purpose of this post is, to share the links of those reviews, and also, to bore you to death, by praising myself, and by describing the appreciations  that I received from a large number of people. These people, even include, Aravind Adiga’s watchman’s uncle and one guy who has seen, Jaideep Sahni , once, from a distance of hundred meters. But besides all that, I also received an overwhelming lack of response from the mass readers, which was very encouraging. 

Find the links below.

Puss in Boots

Sherlock Homes : A Game of shadows

Moneyball

Due to the huge volume of appreciations, I am not able to share all of those here. Will just share two, in the form of conversations.  

Conversation #1

The following exchange of words took place between myself and my Dad. I would refuse to disclose what percentage of the following is truth, and what all things, I made up. 

D : What is that paper that you were showing to your Mom?

Me : Er.. I got a movie review published in ‘The Hindu’

D : Oh really? Good. Which movie did you review?

Me : ‘Puss in Boots’ and, um,..

D :  What? ‘Puss in Boots’? Is that the movie name?

Me :  Yea, It’s an animation movie, actually. A prequel to the ‘Shrek’ series.

D : You wrote the review for a cartoon movie? You still watch cartoon movies?

Me : Er.. not exactly a cartoon movie. This movie isn’t for kids.

I tried to explain how good a movie series Shrek was, how Puss accompanied Shrek in all the adventures, how Shrek could kill fishes with his fart and all that. But he didn’t seem very impressed.

D : Okay. Whatever. Did you get paid for it?

Me : Um, not exactly. But yea, I got this coupon to go to this Spa and salon.

D : Spa? Wow. Doesn’t that sound awesome! Don’t talk about this to anyone and embarrass yourself.

Me : Ugh. Umm.

Conversation #2

I decided get the response from one of my friends, and mailed him the link. I was sure that he wouldn’t have seen it, because him, reading a newspaper, was as rare as a sensible ShahRukh Khan movie.

Me : Dude, did you check that link?

Him : The one you had mailed? Yea, I did.

Me : yea, exactly. What do you say?

I held my breath and prepared myself to bask in the incessant flow of appreciations.

Him : The Chick isn’t so good, man. Why did you send that link?

Me : What? What the #@*% are you talking about?

In the Puss in Boots review page, there was an advertisement (which has changed now) which featured a good looking female model. And he thought that I sent the link for that. 

 I replied, in a calm voice. My reply, mostly, involved his ancestors.

There are some other, exciting reader responses as well. Can’t post them here, since blogger 
hasn’t got an option to upload physical objects, hurled with fairly good power.

That’s all, for now. Ciao!

Two tragic events

Tragedy no.1 (I'm sorry if that reminded you of some lame Govinda movie. Ok, if it did, that's another tragedy. But let's say, it's far less important compared to the tragedies being discussed here)

Bhopal tragedy. But I am sure that there are some people who find it very difficult to agree with the public opinion in India, that the incident is, actually a tragedy. Why can't it be called as a comedy? It is a comedy, indeed. At least for a few people. Just consider Mr. Warren Anderson. You treat the poverty stricken people of a country as guinea pigs, continue the functioning of a plant despite serious threats being raised during a safety audit, cause 15000 deaths, conceal the composition of the gas that leaked so that the compensation to be given isn't huge, and after all these, escape to your homeland, enjoy a happy and luxurious retired life. Aha!

I remember studying about Bhopal tragedy in history text books, when I was in 6th or 7th standard. At that time, I never knew that verdict was yet to come out. The bloody thing happened in 1984, and after 26 years, we are still mourning. Do we have any right to talk about achieving developed country status? We have a huge mess to clean up before that, including our judicial system which still runs damn fucking slow.

Trgedy no.2 - Raavan

Watched Raavan three days back. A total disaster. I was so eagerly waiting for that movie. I love both the ancient epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, for the variety and subtlety of situations and characters that they offer, if not for the philosophical aspects of them. I grew up, listening to stories from them and Puranas, and later, reading them. An adaptation of Ramayana seemed really promising to me, that too from Mani Ratnam. But the movie was totally disappointing.

Screenplay had no strength in it. It even looked too stupid at times. Abhishek has made good efforts. Aishwarya does a lot of screaming, and nothing much other than that. Govinda looks like a clown. Ok, that's the way he looks in all of his films, but come on.. This was a Mani Ratnam film.. Vikram didn't get to do much of acting.