Thoughts on Inglourious Basterds

Going into a QT film assures at least one thing - it will never be a staggeringly bad film. Which is not saying much but at least you know where you stand. Quentin Tarantino understands, and appreciates, badassery like few other directors do. Or to put it more accurately, Quentin's films and characters are more consistently badass than most other directors. My favorite bits in all his films are the digressions characters choose to take during key conversation pieces and how it all ends with almost poetic violence.

The opening scene in Inglourious Basterds is a classic instance of how to build up to a denoument which the audience already anticipates. From the moment the farmer hears the hum of the German motorbikes approaching you know serious evil is afoot and that people will die before the scene ends. But its the treatment of the scene that takes the breath away. And of course it helps if you have a character like Hans Landa to work with. Chrisopher Waltz approaches the character like a chemist would when performing a titration experiment. His affect on people around him (and the audience) is slow, assured, awe inspiring and eventually deadly.

Sylistically Inglourious Basterds is a departure from Kill Bill, infact almost its mirror image in the sense that KB was a series of set piece action sequences with sporadic bursts of dialogue where as IB is a series of conversation set pieces with intermittent spells of violence.

A nod especially to Melanie Laurent's Shoshanna who is hauntingly gorgeous in every frame she inhabits. The Basterds themselves were fun but, ironically, probably the weakest link in the film.

Koftey Hard Ho Gaye!

Jugni Chad Di A.C Car

Jugni Rehndi Sheeshe Paar

Jugni Moh Mohni Naaro Di Kothi Sector Chaar

( Jugni Hasdi Ve..Hasdi ) Te Dil Vich Basdi Ve..

Dibakar Banerjee must have spent the better part of his formative years as a fly on the inside wall of a Punjabi family in Rajouri Garden. What else can explain this phenomenon. The guy gets Punjabis the way Shakti Kapoor gets shady.

Khosla ka Ghosla was inventive, mad, funny and uplifting. OLLO is outrageous, dark, witty and depressing (all in a good way). Dibakar Banerjee has created a parallel Punjabi universe that is at once endearing and cringeworthy. And the music. Bat out of Punjab! Superchor has been playing on my mind in a loop ever since I heard the thing.

Badi "varaity" hai ji is ladke mein.

Rajni Introduction Number

A neat review of the music for Thalaivar's eagerly awaited release - Sivaji The Boss.

My favourite excerpt.

"At some point, though, the most avowed rule-buster has
to bow down to hoary tradition, this being a Rajinikanth film after all — and
Rahman does that with Balleilakka, where Na. Muthukumar writes what are surely
the most iconic lyrics ever for that sub-genre of the Tamil cinema song
situation known as the Rajinikanth Introduction Number. (Would that acronym to
RIN?) "

Man! I cant wait to watch the film now...

Jo Jeeta Memories

Yet another absolutely pointless "long" weekend went whizzing by and I managed to reduce my backlog of things to do by minus five. Three days of inane channel surfing, excessive sleep and a re-reading of Terry Pratchett's "Making Money". All in all one of the better weekends Ive had in a while.

The piece de resistance though was a rerun of that "classic" Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar on Set Max that I managed to catch. Brought back a deluge of memories it did, and a smile to the old dial. Bollywood has a sketchy history when it comes to making movies on sporting matters. Most efforts have been dodgy at best, and almost universally cheesy. Awwal Number and Hip Hip Hurray aren't exactly what one would call inspirational films that capture the soul of sport.

In this context Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar was, in many respects, a first of its kind in Indian cinema, with its central premise revolving around the annual cycle race for boys in a fictional school setting. For a generation of kids who were in school during the early nineties, the film has almost a cult following. Moreover you would hardly find anyone who does not like the film.

And there is a good set of reasons for this. The film never takes itself too seriously and all the characters are rooted in reality. There are no stars. In fact the audience has more empathy for the character of Ratan (played rather competently by Mamik) throughout the film than for Sanju (Amir Khan) who is a bit of loser tending towards asshole. The music is refreshing and the acting just about competent to hold things together. It had everything in it that your average schoolboy/girl could relate to - Anti Establishment behaviour, sporting rivalry, sibling rivalry, a sexy minx, the sweet girl next door who doubles up as best friend,the achiever, the jerk and the demanding parent.

And the best endorsement for the film is that even now in 2007 it does not feel trippy (yes and that inspite of Deepak Tijori and Pooja Bedi) and Pehla Nasha still sounds like music to the ears.

It has it faults but bugger!! who cares. Amir changing gears at the last moment and pipping Tijori to post still retains its capacity induce gooseflesh.

The movie left me shouting gently to myself..sabse acche ladke kaun...veer bahadur ladke kaun....

Of flying pigs and decent gigs - Roger Waters Concert Review

I wish I hadnt bought the ticket online. Them buggers were selling tickets at the scene of the concert and handing out free WorldSpace radios. Not quite fair trade.

Nevertheless as I moved along with the throng, in queue, to get into the enclosure, the old heart was agog with more than a spot of anticipation. The appreciation of rock bands is a serious business to be treated on par with that of football clubs or even art. Snubbed you will be, by the powers that be if you dont BELIEVE in the right kind of rock band. And I've had my unfair share of being treated with absolute contempt and the respect accorded, exactly like TTLB does, to an insignificant microbe.

I remember once in a party where I had been regaling the audience with my penchant for highbrowed wit and sparkling repartee, I happened to mention that Def Leppard were a cool band. Suddenly the music stopped playing, people in my group started shifting uneasily in their chairs. Some excused themselves to go to the washroom and conversation drifted to the topic of how lack of taste in good music was the bane of humankind and what could be just punishment for the offenders.

That rather lengthy digression aside, the point I am trying to make is that be very careful about the rock bands you choose to like, because some of them might turn back and hit you on the head. But there have always been some bands in the history of this glorious genre which can be termed "Safe Bands". Eveyone is supposed to like them. If you named one of them in a group, no one would bay for your blood. Led Zeppelin I've realized tops this list. Queen and Pink Floyd would make it unchallenged. And probably Metallica with an outside chance. Then there are bands which very few people have actually heard but have an amazing amount of respect for like Jimi Hendrix, and The Grateful Dead. Death Metal is strictly for college kids in their second and third year of graduation. Everyone secretly adores Mark Knopfler and his burnished fender tone but very few admit it. I refuse to speak of Modern Rock bands like Linkin Park or Evanescence because they lack a reasonable length of demand history to be forecasted properly on the time series of rock longevity.

So there we have it. Me at the Roger Waters concert all agog. The opening was fabulous especially the fireworks on the stage. It reminded me of Bret "the hit man" Hart's entry for a matchup on Monday Night Raw. Some of the favourites were played early on including Mother and Wish You were here (yes, that was a gooseflesh moment).

The diversity in the crowd was astonishing. There were MDs of Multinational companies, their wives, Foreign students, expat executives, college gangs, families of four (couple and two kids), anti social looking men of the age of about 29 with CNC machine cut french beards, people with pony tails, people who work with software companies, myself and believe it or not a Tamil Iyer Mami. All of them bonded by the Pink strands of Floyd. I had a lot of fun watching this group of college kids trying to head-bang during Wish You were here. Poor little buggers.

Then Roger introduced us to his new song called Leaving Beirut, which though terribly political and all that was quite fun. Nice touch to have the lyrics flashed onto the big screen so that the crowd could sing along. America and Bush bashing is again a very safe topic. Not many people are offended by this, so that went pretty well. The much touted pink pig arrived on the scene, provided a diverting moment with its political and social graffiti and flew off into the void.

After a break there was a complete rendition of The Dark side of the Moon with some improvised guitar solos (which in my opinion felt a bit jaded), and American Idol like crooning by one of the support singers. Pink Floyd's biggest attraction for me is the quality of their words which overshadows the quality of their music, which mind you is exceptional. And Waters after all these years still sounds freshly gruff and soothing. The overall sound was decent, but not specacular. I thought the Mark Knopfer concert was much better in terms of sound quallity. And the sound special effects in the form of Michael Jackson's Thriller laugh, psychedelic chants, helicopter sounds only served to distract. These could have been done without.

Finally before the end the audience got what it had been waiting for. A rendition of Another Brick in the Wall, thought most of it sounded lip synced and directly played from a CD. The end though was mind blowing, in the form of Comfortably Numb.

And thus it ended.

Ratings out of *****

1. Feel Good Factor - **** (the fact that one made to a Waters concert is good enough. Everything else is a bonus)

2. Waters' Performance - *** and a half.

3. Entourage - *** and a half

4. Sound Quality - ** and a half

5. Overall - ***** (who tf am i to be rating Roger Waters. Isnt he supposed to be God or something?