August 25, 2004

Weekend movie marathon

This past weekend I saw 3 films, very different from each other.

Everybody Says I'm Fine | imdb
This is one of the recent (though made almost two years ago) Indian English films that I wanted to see. I first got wind of the film when I listened to the soundtrack composed by Ustad Zakir Hussain. The soundtrack is a very interesting, and entertaining mix of Blues, Qawwali, and Indian film music (and has Carlos Santana playing on the title song). The film itself is a mix of a variety of influences - most importantly, the fact that its set in moden day Mumbai means its a very cosmopolitan film. Thus, the set of characters - Bombay socialites, college kids, young romantics, a struggling actor and a powerful businessman. The small idea - a hairdresser who can read his client's thoughts as he cuts their hair - is unusual and leaves a lot of scope for creative interpretations.

I thought that the film on the whole was pretty good. The cast was fabulous, especially Rehan Engineer and Koel Purie in their so-called lead roles. The build-up of the story was gradual, building up to a climax; it was more subtle, a bit too understated rather than powerful. All the characters were decidedly one-dimensional - except for Koel's - possibly explaining why Xen couldn't read her mind.

This was a good start to what turned out to be a fabulous movie-watching weekend.


Old Boy | review
An awesome, twisted, funny, cruel, one-of-a-kind movie. This Korean movie won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival 2004. Its a fabulous film, period. The soundtrack, which uses Beethoven, techno and compositions in the western classical style is absolutely amazing - and perfectly suited for the film. The film can be very emotionally disturbing, and has been known to cause sleepless nights.



The Dreamers | imdb

August 09, 2004

Andre beats Andy!

It was a great match, and I was there!

Agassi was precise and used his minimalistic style (short backswing, quick hands, close to the baseline play) to great effect. Roddick was powerful, and accurate in general, but on court I could see that he didn't have Agassi's variety. Agassi seemed to know just where every serve and every shot from Roddick was going to land. He played the angles very well, and kept Roddick off balance. Of course, almost the entire crowd was cheering for the old man, and that must've helped!

Will post some pictures soon!

August 05, 2004

फना

होने दो
दिल को
फना