Early this year, I thought of keeping tabs on which movies I see over the next twelve months, and how many times. In part inspired by adgy, and partly because the DVD buy/watch ratio grew to somewhat alarming levels in December. Eight months later, I get the feeling that certain tasks should not be undertaken. New Year resolutions suck. Yeah, I have been watching too many movies.
I watched 14 movies over the three-day weekend. Some of them were repeats, Jay and Silent Bob, for instance, and Akira, and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
Oldboy. Finally managed to watch it last week. Park Chan Wook is God. Now to look out for the DVD of Sympathy For Lady Vengeance. And watchJSA sometime this week.
The Rising. Maybe because I spent 200 Rs for a ticket (at Inox, night show, dunno why the bastiches charge 200 for night shows), and maybe because I missed meeting Aamir Khan because I was watching Stealth at five in the evening, the movie did not…I dunno….affect me the way I thought it would. No goosepimply moments, except at a bit towards the end. Aamir Khan rocks, Rani Mukherjee doesn’t. ( her tummy wobbles quite a bit throughout the movie, but that’s a rock of a different kind, I guess) Toby Stephen’s best lines are wasted, courtesy Om Puri’s bland-voiced commentary that pops up during any bit of English dialogue – Stephens also gets quite a bit of Hindi lines, which lose out on intensity and dramatic effect because it’s pretty obvious he is reciting them.
Some very interesting gaffes – an English lady mouths a very twentieth-century “Wow!” when she sees an elephant, one of the Indian villagers in one of the crowd scenes is wearing a pair of trousers and shoes.
Unfortunately, most of the songs do not fit into the narrative – except for the title song, which pops up at three different places, but again, the timeline is screwed up. I mean, the way the lyrics of the three versions are written – they evolve over a period of time. The closest analogy I can give is this. The first version, ‘Mangal’ is Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Wake Up’, beginning with an ear-grabbing refrain, and ending with an acoustic high – an appropriate background music for the birth of a hero. The second version, ‘Agni’, is like RATM’s ‘Killing in the Name’, sound, fury and the right amount of feeling throughout the song, echoing the call to arms. The third version ‘Aatma’ is calm, much like RATM’s ‘Beautiful World’ ( ok, ok, I know ‘Beautiful World’ is a cover, but I really cannot think of anything else that comes close to Quietly RATM), an ode to martyrdom, and tinged with a bit of poignancy. OK, so you see the setup, right? What happens in the movie is – the first version plays on the day Mangal Pandey is about to die ( and doesn’t, because of certain reasons you’ll discover if you watch the film), the second version plays during the flashback, very appropriate; and the last version plays on the next day, the day he actually dies. THEY SCREWED UP THE TIMELINE, GAAAAAAAAH!!!
(You know, it’s surprising how anal I can get about minor things, but that’s just me, I guess….)
And on top of that, I am lonely.
Oh, before I forget,
Isn’t Aatma the one that begins with “Tanana tanana..”? I thought that would have made a better Agni.
Did you friend manage to find shoes?
He didn’t find them yet, I’m afraid.
Yes, Aatma is indeed that one. Agni begins with “Mangal Mangal” and very rousing percussion. The “Tanana tanana” bit is like quite sudden, but then it becomes very calm, right? Very prayer-like, the first song.
You can give him my number if required.
I love the anguished wail in the background during the slow “mangala mangala”, and its effect lasts longer than its actual presence. Perhaps that doesn’t let me relate to the song as calm. I do see where you’re coming from, though.
He’s left Bombay, is in Mandu now, enroute to Khajuraho. I think he’ll look for them in Delhi. The problem is he’s looking for very specific kinds of trekking boots, and hasn’t found them anywhere at all. Trekkers in India, asa far as I found, are happy with Woodlands or Power shoes, or they get their boots delivered from abroad.
Am listening to Mangala Mangala again. A guy in the office is playing the album, and has enqueued the three versions together.
Lady Vengeance hits DVD in Korea in November.
You can bet your booty that I’ll post about it as soon as it’s availability comes to my attention. :)
I shall stop salivating till then. :)
Did you notice that they suddenly decided after the first hanging doesnt happen, to make it a public hanging?
Yeah. Pretty much mindless, I must say.
Did you trot over to the Landmark Quiz this year, d00d? I couldn’t find you.
Nope, not this year. Too much work.
Aw damn. You missed out on snarking at Derek O’Brien and Naveen Jaikumar acting all lovey-dovey.
Joined. Now give me my chocolate!
Bah! Watchers don’t count as members, my man. No chocolate for you!
:(
Can’t watch it anymore.
“# This community is not an mp3 trade-centre. If you like AR Rahman’s music, please go and buy the CD or the cassette. If a particular CD is not available in your locality, drop us a line and we’ll try and help you find an online store that sells it.”
Hahahahahahahaha! :P
Eh? What’s so funny?
The king of pirates mouthing words like “go and buy the cd”… Isn’t that funny?! :P
Word. :P
>Oldboy. Finally managed to watch it last week.
Heh heh. I finally managed to watch a movie before you did. ;)
Everything I hear about The Rising turns me off. Meh.
Turns you off? As in, it fails to ive you a er.. raise?
>it fails to ive you a er.. raise?
Oh, I get it! “rising”…”raise”. Risible.
Anyway, that would be my boss who fails to give me a raise.
So what does he give you, eh? A let down?
Naah, he just gets a rise out of me. But I get my revenge by raising cain in the office.
You are abel to raise cain in the office? My, my, I am impressed!
>You are abel to raise cain in the office
It’s the raisin’ d’etre of my career: unwilling to work and abel to raise cain.
Ok, I’ll stop now.
Oh, you cain stop now!
That was hideously cainful.
I hope you know that we’re all going to a special hell for unrepentant punners.
I finally managed to watch a movie before you did. ;)
*Sniff* Very true. But don’t I get additional points for prolonging the pleasure? :-P
>But don’t I get additional points for prolonging the pleasure?
Bah. Just because you don’t keep up with the times…grasping at straws, I call it.
Even I make a list of the movies I see and the books I read. But it is also a very painful exercise when I go through it occasionally and realise that I spend way too much time on these things. But then I don’t learn!
I really want to find one person who liked Mangal Pandey. That would give me someone to blame when I go and see it on the big screen after spending too much money, and hate it as almost everyone else.
Painful is the word.
And while I didn’t really loathe Mangal Pandey, I did not not like it, either. There, there goes my double negative sentence of the day.