The Madras Mail

5 words.

Malcolm McDowell is fucking insane.

For a review, read http://sunkster.blogspot.com/2006/06/clock-work-orange.html

Malcolm McDowell is still fucking insane.

Reconciliation is a very difficult thing, especially when it involves familial problems.

I just finished watching a masterpiece of a movie by one G. Subramaniam a.k.a Mani Ratnam, Agni Natchatiram. For a movie that was released in 1988 (yes, I get all the facts from Wikipedia), it was far far ahead of its time. The bigamous father, feuding sons, helpless wives and mothers, a caught-between-her-father-and-her-brothers sister, the quite pointless but nonetheless beautiful starlets, and of course, the smooth talking son-of-a-bitch villain, a beautiful smorgasbord of talent which comes together to make a great movie, which it is.

If there was one thing that I miss from the tamil movies now is that the heroines look slutty rather than beautiful, the hero is still larger than life but c’mon, SJ Surya coupled with superman is not what I paid for, the storyline in most movies still suck, for example, Bheema, jeez, an excuse for a gangster movie, the music, Ilaiyaraaja is God, period, and finally, yes, I want more of meaning and less of masala.

I’m not trying to sound like a stuck-up ass who likes to watch only serious movies. Many people, atleast in the tamil film industry, seem to think that an artistic or a good movie means that it has to have the perennially grieving widow, the ever grumbling m-in-law, and the waiting to get revenge son. Crying and artistic sense are NOT the same. Oram po, another great movie is a perfect example, doubtless it had severe influences of Guy Ritchie, but the sheer audacity and the grip of the movie is simply what is lacking in most tamil movies of today.

As ever, Mani Ratnam is still God (yes, I believe in the multiplicity of God), and am just hoping that Nemichand and Hitesh Jhabak turn out to be as well.

1700 hrs
“Machaan, my toe is badly hurt, just came back from Pallava after cleaning the wound and dressing it. Okay, we’ll go meet Mr.Bhai, do our bit for ‘warming the globe’. Why don’t we go watch a movie?”

1800 hrs
“Wat velai? Will convince my parents that am fine, call up that f***er George and ask him whether he is coming.”

2100 hrs
“Come down ass”

2134 hrs
“Sir, you have exactly 26 minutes left for ‘witnessing’ the movie, National Treasure – The Book of Secrets. Kindly check your tickets sir. 3 tickets, for the 10pm show, Row no.E, Sathyam theater”

“Eh?”

Sundeep messed around with that guy for a while, and I was laughing my ass off, and George, who is night-blind, was ‘trying’ to park the car.

2200 hrs
“… prince jewellery …. saravana stores … shreya …. prince jewellery (again) … *silence*”

We were sitting in the ‘Elite’ class, 120 bucks.

“… a Jerry Bruckheimer production …”

2 hours of totally absurd ideas being acted out by an even absurder band of actors, who are all in the pursuit of the ‘lost city of gold’. The only saving grace was Diane Kruger, who in one scene, hinted that she might ‘fornicate’ with someone, that did not happen, and ended as an awkward kiss with a ‘White house aide’ who looked like he’d been run over by a truck after she was done. I don’t blame him though.

0030 hrs
The female in the seat front of us wore her shirt after being intensely groped by the guy sitting next to her throughout the movie

0045 hrs
“… 3 rajas and a Zippo …”

0130 hrs
Back home

An evening well spent.

“Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love.”

This is probably one of the most profound statements that Joanne Kathleen Rowling has ever made in any of her books. A fitting end to an epic series that has enthralled me and millions of others for the past few years. It does not in any way match to JRR Tolkien’s, ‘Lord of the Rings’, but what Harry and his friends have to say is something special. Hats-off to JK Rowling and her inimitable writing style.

The seventh and the final part of the series – ‘The Deathly Hallows’ does not disappoint. Rowling has tied up all the loose ends pretty well. Even though there are gaping holes in many places, she has done a pretty good, rather a great job of concluding the saga of Harry Potter. The book on the whole was very dark and more loaded with information and facts than the previous books. And as rightly said in the review by TIME, the final book does not have the necessity to deal with all the minor details. The book depicts the final battle between good and evil and Rowling has done an amazing job. The pre-final chapter, which is the final battle between Harry and Lord Voldemort, is decently written, though not as well as I expected, but on comparing it to the final battle in LOTR, I got rushes reading the final pages of the Return of the King, not as much in HP7.

Anyway, on the whole, it is a very satisfying book and thank you again Mrs.Rowling for giving the world such a wonderful book, though not of any literary value, a book which is absolutely entertaining and worth all the trouble of reading it.

Here are a couple of passages I enjoyed the most in the book,

But Harry had eyes only for the man who stood in the largest portrait directly behind the headmaster’s chair. Tears were sliding down from behind the half-moon spectacles into the long silver beard, and the pride and the gratitude emanating from him filled Harry with the same balm as phoenix song.

“Albus Severus,” Harry said quietly, so that nobody but Ginny could hear, and she was tactful enough to pretend to be waving to Rose, who was now on the train, “you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew.”

Anyway, ……….

“The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.”

‘….We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness‘, reads the American Declaration of Independence signed in 1776.

The ‘Pursuit of Happyness’, I have no words. Simply fantastic.

After three hours of that I’m thinking that anything is possible. First of all the movie was absolutely entertaining. Comedy, glamour, topics of public interest, and a whole lot of other stuff. Rajni is at his best. The guy absolutely mind-boggling. Has a bit of Matrix, Kill Bill, Fast n Furious, completely Indianized (or should I say Rajni-ized). Vivek, god, without him the movie wouldn’t have been so good. Hilarious shit, the stuff he does on screen. Shreya was absolutely HOT (WOW !!!). Usual cast and I must say whatever they said in Hindu was true, only a mature actor can allow people to imitate him on screen. Anyway am not going to write about the story and spoil it for those who haven’t seen it yet. Must watch movie and a great way to spend a totally vetti afternoon.

till now i have seen many movies that are purported to be scary or horror flicks but generally end up as a movie where skeletons move around screaming or there is meaningless blood and satanic symbols all over the place…me n sundeep went to this dvd shop in anna nagar and bought some movies…one of em was a dvd with SAW I, II, III

the cover was pretty gud and the reviews great…sat comfortably and started watchin the movie…first thing i noticed….very very grisly movie with violence as the central theme..musta been directed by one sick fucker…the ideas by which violence is inflicted on people is simply mind blowing….defenitely not for people who cant stand the sight of blood…but plz dont see scary movie 4 before watchin this movie…might end up as a joke….the twist at the end of the first movie was amazing..i mean even better than the twist at the end of Da Vinci Code (the book..)

i watched the second movie after a coupla hours and continued watchin the third movie as well….one hell of a trilogy….each movie ends in an extremely bizarre way where you have more questions than answers and leaves u thinkin abt how important the gift of life is..(the last bit is overkill…hehe..)..anyway..this is not a movie with just meaningless violence but actually has a pretty gud storyline and leaves u perching at the end of ur seats to see what is goin to happen next….a must see….a fuckin great movie(s)…..