Lists

  • Raindrops on roses etc.

    A few weeks ago, when my 15 year old cousin was visiting and wanted to watch a funny movie, the first one the came to mind was Arsenic and Old Lace. He loved it, of course. Once I managed to convince my cousin that my recommendations weren’t hopeless, I went on to recommend The General,

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  • I wrote this for the GE Global Research blog – Edison’s Desk. An excerpt: We go to the movies for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is vicarious wish fulfillment. For the more scientifically inclined among us, much of this aspect has to do with the cool gadgetry in the movies. It’s

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  • A bigger boat

    Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat has a brilliant section about the protagonists making a list of things to take with them on the boat trip. The first list they make turns out to have so many items that the boat would likely sink under the weight of it all. Then one of

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  • Turkey Roast

    I owe my abiding love for B-movies to Dabba. The official name was Sri Ganesh Talkies ad it was located a couple of kilometres from the campus gate at BITS, Pilani. It had four walls, a makeshift ceiling, and the projectionist’s dhoti for a screen. I’m guessing he diligently washed it every February 29th. Front

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  • Five Rahman moments

    Thanks to his Golden Globe for Slumdog Millionaire (and the possibility of an Oscar), Rahman is now the flavour of the month. While I haven’t been too impressed with much of his recent work, it made me think about his career over the years. I heard Roja when I was in high school — to

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  • Your movie sucks

    The title of this post refers to a compilation of Roger Ebert’s reviews of movies he hated. I wouldn’t be surprised if it sells very well. Every once in a while, someone posts a message on this blog saying, “I’d like to read your review of Ramgopal Verma Ki Aag” or something along those lines.

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  • Unconventional voices

    No, I still don’t like Himes-bhai‘s voice. Although I will admit that the occasional Mika number works for me – Mauja Hi Mauja from Jab We Met being an example. This post is mostly about A. R. Rehman. Not his singing voice (which I’m not very fond of but works well for some songs), but

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  • Okay, so here’s what happened. I was channel surfing this weekend and found that my viewing choices boiled down to: Die Hard 2 – The one where Bruce Willis fights off a bunch of terrorists in an airport Lizzie McGuire – The Disney TV series, not the movie version And, put your drink down before

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  • With movies that are adapted from books, you find lot of people saying: The book was better. In many cases, I’m inclined to agree. With a well-written book, our imagination creates a more interesting experience than is usually captured on celluloid. Mind you, more interesting is usually just another way of saying different. Another factor

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  • My review of Chak De India seems to have started off a discussion on the use of a standard formula in most sports movies. Giri, Rajendran and Ratnakar are right: you watch them for the adrenaline rush. It matters not if they’re formulaic. There’s an amazing passage in The God of Small Things where Arundhati

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