Myriad thoughts on a million things
Reviews
The White Tiger – A ‘Dig’ at the Darkness within the Light
4Arvind Adiga’s Booker award winning debutant novel is a whiff of fresh air. I have found that some Indian authors have an inclination to wrap the real story in a mesh of imagery, similes and complex characterization in an effort to project that they can also write pompous prose. (It could be attributed to some kind effort to prove to the world that we’re educated and can write too!)
But Adiga…he’s got the skill of telling an interesting story, from a hitherto unheard from source and telling it with the simplicity and homour that can only come from the most talented craftsman.
Balram Halwai, an unlikely entrepreneur, tells his story from the depth of the darkness of rural India to the chandelier lit brightness of Bangalore. An unlikely recipient of the story, the Chinese premier, Mr. Jinbao is offered the narrative as a letter in a simple and aimlessly unwinding sort of way.
From the darkness of rural India, the cruel reality of generations of servitude, to the lives of Dilli drivers and their entertainments, to the internal dark struggles of Balram and finally his break from the roosters coop.. Adiga unfolds the story beautifully. One is left waiting with bated breath page after page and wondering how finally the break from the coop is going to happen. Along the way, Adiga also manages to make some entertaining and yet pertinent digs at Indian Politics, Religion, Police, Indo – Chinese rivalry and the declining influence of the white man. (And how the next century is going to belong to the yellow and brown man.)
The only thing I was left wondering about at the end was moral behind it all… was the story about breaking the coop and treading the unchartered path or one of selfishness and crime rewarded?
Luck By Chance – A lucky break!
3Well I didn’t expect to eat my words so soon…After ranting about the inexplicable ability of Bollywood to churn out crappy movies and still make money, I wasn’t expecting to see a movie that would re- assert my faith in Indian movie makers.
Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Luck by Chance’ really took me by surprise. Funny, entertaining and insightful, the movie had me laughing and wondering about life at the same time. Zoya of course has had an insiders view on the machinations of the movie world for some time and she uses the movie to poke fun, albeit politely, at the A to Zs of Bollywood… Stars of yesteryears and their gullibility to flattery from yore, Star daughters and mamma hens who watch protectively over every little detail of their launch, poor ole’ producers running after stars the age of their sons to beg for dates, Stars and their excuses for dodging movies, struggling actors and their lives, people paying their dues and still not seeing stardom and others getting lucky through the weirdest twists of fate.
Farhan Akhtar and Konkana Sen have done a brilliant job of their acting and the script is well written (Even I couldn’t find a loop hole!). I especially loved the realistic ending. Not a stereo type bollywood ending of happily ever after. J
Kala Ghoda Art Festival – A kaleidoscope of colour!
1I’ve been in Bombay for over 5 years and have always heard of the magnificence of the Kala Ghodha Art festival, but never found the time and energy to go all the way downtown to catch it. This year, I decided to finally go see it. Giving up a nice relaxing Sunday nap, is a huge sacrifice as far as I’m concerned, so I was hoping that it’ll be worth all the effort.
Driving past the Kala Ghoda festival venue, looking for parking, the one thing that caught my eye was this huge mountain of colored buckets, stacked one upon the other, for a good 15-20 feet. I remember thinking, the buckets better be worth my Sunday nap…and boy was it!
A predominant theme of the festival was saving the environment. An enterprising artist had thought of the bucket pyramid in an effort to highlight the need to save water. Buckets, mugs, plastic taps, plastic bottles hung from the huge pyramid and I thought it was an interesting piece.
The festival also had all kinds of art forms up for display. As we walked past the pavements, artists from all over the world showcased their unique art. From paintings made of train and bus tickets, to exquisitely painted armoires/ boxes, (even an innovative bar chest!) painting on leaves, charcoal drawings, canvas paintings, the festival had everything.
Sculptures made of all kinds of mediums – wire, hay, meshes, clay, metal – were interesting and the thoughts behind making them a mystery for you to unravel. There was this sculpture made of wire meshing that looked like a rocket… and it had pigeons stuck in it all over. I’d like to think the piece was trying to portray the problem of the large pigeon population in Mumbai… something to say that a rocket cannot break through the skies of Mumbai without running into a flock of pigeons (okay I know that’s mean, but pigeons really bug me with their guttur guttur when I’m trying to have my aforementioned very precious Sunday afternoon nap!)
The organizers had put up a stage at the center and various artists were performing throughout the day. The one performance we saw was by a percussionist group called FAD. Not much of a fan of this kind of music, to me it really sounded just like synchronized noise making… but many others seem to have enjoyed it!
The festival had a lot to offer to all – Painting, Photography, Sculptures, Street Food, Music, book readings, workshops, street magic, puppet shows, heritage walks, shopping etc (check out their official website for all the details). We couldn’t do all the things, but the time we spent there was absolutely awesome!
What’s with the Indian Movie Scene?
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Sometime I wonder that Indian movie makers must think that the Indian Audience are really dumb and that’s why they think that anything will go with them. And surprisingly, sometimes, the audience proves them right.
Take for example the case of Ghajini. This was from the stables of the great actor/director and the usually sensible movie maker – Aamir. So I had to give it a fair chance… but OMG! How can someone make a movie with so many loop holes? A 15 min short term memory loss problem or a complete loss of common sense problem? Given how the hero has to rip off his shirt every time he wakes up and how he yells and screams for his loss, one would guess that the whole movie would be just one series of ripping off shirt, trying to remember what the tattoos are supposed to remind him of, yelling and screaming in anger and poof… 15 mins are up! Time to start the whole process of remembering again. Jeez… they could have atleast given him memory span of ½ a day to make the story credible. And hey…this is not to miss… in this age of internet and superfast information flow, here is a Cell Phone Company Tycoon and no one knows what he looks like?? Rrrreeeaaalllyyy? You expect us to believe something that stupid? Or hows this for thinking the Audience are a bunch of Neanderthals… Mr. Cell phone company tycoon with memory loss is going crazy looking for a Mr. Ghajini. And he can figure out a solution to the complex problem of how to remember people, but no… he can’t sit on the net and google Mr. Ghajini? Come on…he’s the supposed CEO of a Pharma company… anyone should be able to find him… even memory loss suffering Psycho Cell Tycoon.
Ok… let’s try and let go of the obvious omissions in the story line of Ghaniji and focus on the much touted Rab ne bana di Jodi… Love story of the common man or story of a wife cheating on Husband with Husband’s atler ego? I mean it’s ok…you don’t explain to me why she forced to marry Mr. Simpleton in the first place or why she feels so indebted to him… atleast explain to me how she cannot know her husband from crazy color riot of a Mr. Hep alter ego? Or maybe how she can possibly stand being near the irritating Mr. Hep?
Fine… I accept, I am a difficult person to please in terms of movies. Everyone who bothered to hear my nit picking issues out, said one thing to me… ‘When you go see Hindi Movies, you need to leave your brains outside and just have fun’. Maybe the movie makers are cashin in on the trend and are therefore making dumber and dumber movies.
Letters from Iwo Jima
0I recently saw the movie ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’. It’s a movie about the US invasion of the Japanese Island Iwo Jima during the 2nd world war. The movie is in Japanese and shares the story from the Japanese view of events. The story of a small helpless section of the Japanese army fighting against all odds and keeping the enemy at bay is tragic, desolate, yet heartwarming.
The story shares how the Japanese fleet is destroyed and there are no back up ammo or resources that Japan can send to the troops on the island. Yet, the soldiers on the island, do all that they can to fight for their island, knowing fully well that they can do nothing much else except delay the inevitable invasion. It is interesting to see how soldiers sway between valour and self preservation at various points of time during the movie. Seeing a young baker, forcefully enlisted in the Imperial army, digging trenches and asking himself ‘are we digging our graves?’ makes one wonder about the futility of war. With a deep belief in honour, Japanese soldiers prefer to kill themselves than fall into enemy hands. The scenes of soldiers killing themselves with hand grenades and the reluctance of some overridden by collective pressure are quite the tear jerkers.
I think the movie is done brilliantly, in a simple, realistic manner while exhibiting a deep understanding of the Japanese psyche. Clint Eastwood has indeed done an outstanding job!
Hamlet: The clown prince
11I recently went to see Rajat Kapoor’s ‘Hamlet: The clown prince’ at Prithvi. The play, (in gibberish and English as the advet said) was supposedly hilarious. I went in wondering how one could possibly make whiny and serious Hamlet funny….And I came out holding my sides, for they ached from all the laughing I did for 2 hours straight!!
The play has a company of clowns presenting their version of Hamlet along with multiple doses of digressions to share their own lives and personalities. Clowns being clowns, the play is not only funny, it’s filled with contemporary influences which manage to present the classical tragedy with a modern feel.
I was a little stunned when it started…. a clown opened it with something that sounded like a frantic mix of French, English, Chinese and some alien language all at the same time! That’s Gibberish for the untrained and it does take some getting used to. I wasn’t too sure whether the gibberish was really a needed ingredient (others with me felt it added a comical hue), but I thought the play would have been as funny even in just plain English.
The play was uproariously funny to say the least… the multiple digressions by the clowns where they would totally forget that they are enacting Hamlet were entertaining and the involvement of the audience members into their dialogues was ingenious and extraordinary. The actors were really good… it would take a lot to deliver a flawless 2 hour play. A special mention for the lead actor who played the clowning and the serious parts with great aplomb (His heartfelt speech on the death of Ophelia had me almost in tears!) I personally really liked the clown who played Claudius… he was brilliant in his portrayal of the airheaded disconnected clown and a devious step father to Hamlet at the same time. His impromptu dancing and breaking into songs from Lion king really had me holding my sides. At one time, he also played Hamlet’s dead father’s ghost (who by the way is not allowed to talk… being a ghost and all) where he was trying to, through dumb sharads, explain to the clueless Hamlet what he wants him to do to avenge his death!!
It is a challenge for anyone to present Hamlet in it’s entirely in 2 hours and this play did cut around some of the interlacing stories, but that did not make the story less complete in any way. The play ignored the whole Prince Fortinbras angle as also the betrayal of Rosencratz and Guildenstern… but it added a lot more through the stories of the clowns and their relationships with each other.
All in all, I was amazed at the creativity and the skill of the cast and the crew of the play and felt that the standing ovation they got at the end was really too little an appreciation! Hats off to the team and to Rajat Kapoor (who by the way was there at the venue sporting an arty look with a long unruly beard) for a great show!
Wine and Dine – Moches’ style!!
6This is the first of my review blogs and I want to start with my review of this delightful little bistro called Moches’ in Cuff Parade, Mumbai. The ‘townies’ might have enjoyed its existence for a bit, but for a ‘suburban’ like me, it was a pleasant little surprise!
When we (Abhi & I) had some friends ask us over to town for an evening out on a working day, I was as one would expect, grumpy! I mean who wants to go all the way from Andheri to Cuff parade after a day’s hard work? There are a million nice places to go to in the suburbs, then why, I questioned, did our townie friends want to meet in town? I mean I’m totally the go half way, expect others to do the same kind of person, so I suggested meeting in Bandra. Totally fair, one would say right? The only problem with that turned out to be that, I had been to every joint in Bandra at least a dozen times over. I mean I could be, and really at one point in time was, a walking talking Bandra eating/hang out joints directory. So much so, I remember a time, when I used to stay in bandra, that every one of my colleagues/friends who wanted to go eat/hang out in bandra would first call me to check on which place I recommended!
Anyways, back to the point, so the dilemma turned out to be, whether to go half way to bandra and do the same thing we’d done many times over or go through the torture of 2 ½ hours in traffic and sample a new place in town? (And hey, before one of you who might be a seasoned traveler on the Mumbai roads points out that there might be a wee bit of exaggeration on the time, please note that this is happening in July – a mean month for any Mumbaikar, since the rain makes the usual traffic, tougher and crazier!)
Well, adventurers at heart that we are, we decided to charter the unknown course and give the new a chance! Though with adequate warnings to the friend to pick a joint in town that we had never been to and would find it worth the while to be in after we’d been made cranky by the torturous Mumbai traffic! So on our quest we set off… leaving our Andheri east offices at 6 pm and fortifying ourselves for a long and ardous battle against raucous rains, psycho horn happy drivers, clueless mamus and adrenalin pumped bikers who have no respect for traffic rules and even less for their own safety.
As any quest would produce, there are many a stories about the experiences of Mumbai traffic that I can tell, but this blog is really about the review and I should probably be getting to it now!
So we get to Cuff Parade after our ordeal at 8:30 pm and I step out of the car to be greeted by a courteous valet, who gets a brusque, ‘point me to the loo!’ for his all his effort. (I did however, in the end, after I was topped up with bacchus’ divine drink, give him a goofy giggly ‘thank you’ to try and make up for the earlier brusqueness!)
So back to the delightful Moches’….. the place is small and quaint. The tables and chairs outside give it a little rustic french café look, while the well placed plants, creepers give it a natural feel. Sitting outside would have added to the whole charm of the experience if it wasn’t for the wet season. So we decided to give up the natural surroundings for the comfort of the A/c. The restaurant had only about 15-18 tables, these though making it a tad bit crowded, still managed to give it a cosy feel.
Am not really sure if Moches’ stands for something in french (it sure sounds like it!), but the menu had a healthy mix of French, Italian, South American picks and the wines were even more geographically spread. Like a traditional Cheese and Wine place, Moches’ does not have any offering for those who are not wine drinkers. So while it was a slight disappointment to my husband’s beer loving taste buds, it was a delight to my wine loving ones. In an Indian market with all kinds of alcohol import restrictions, it is not every day that one has the opportunity to drink something other than the regular Indian wines. So we choose the Californian rich red wine with much care and were actually quite happy with the results. The wines, since imported, were by the bottle, and were in the range of Rs 1800-2200 per bottle. The price aside, I thought the selection was diverse and well selected. The Cheese platter was traditional and had a variety of cheese to suit the different palates. Personally not much of a cheese person, I ordered some olives which went really well with the wine.
The Food indeed was praiseworthy. The starters were really just that… appetizers that did not take away appetite, rather laid way for the more sumptuous main course. The chicken skewers were nicely spiced and potato and exotic vegetable salad was an agreeable blend of fresh and sautéed ingredients. For the main course we settled for some char grilled chicken breast in red wine sauce and a beef steak in burnt garlic sauce. The garlic bread accompaniments were fresh baked and had a cooked with care feel rather than a off the shelf feel to them. For the second round of wine, we tried a light fruity french red wine which really got mixed reviews from our table. For desert, there was a wide array of top it offs, and honestly, till the time we got to that section, I was happy and beyond and for the life in me, cannot recall what I ate for desert! But for what it is worth, I am sure it was really good J
The attending staff were courteous, there when you needed, attentive but not intrusive. But maybe a little more attention to the table orders and cross verifying the cheque would have helped. Not sure if it’s a strategy or a mistake. They could have simply messed up our cheque or it might have a more thought through strategy of checking for the drunkenness of the party and then trying and squeeze in some extra items in the cheque that the party did not order. Anyways, we landed up paying for two portions of (I’m sure very tasty) expresso chicken that we did not order (at least we are quite certain of that, unless it came and went express fast and we did not notice!)
Overall, with a bill of Rs 7500 for 4 people, the evening was not too expensive, though completely enjoyable. With a relieved friend, who was happy his choice of place met with my approval, we set off into another adventurous foray into the Mumbai traffic in a bid to get home. From that journey, I have no memoirs, since I was in snooze land all the way back. All in all, a quest worth its efforts and a restaurant I would recommend to all.
Cheers!!