Oscar Wilde & "V"!

Oscar Wilde - "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the Truth." 


In case you haven't seen this pic before, find and watch the movie - V for Vendetta. Its a must!

My Imagined Life - A life of Sound :)

If i had to live an entirely different life, I would aspire to be a professional musician...This is how it would have ideally panned out - (No harm in living out your fantasies through a blog...isn't it ;) )

I have always had a fascination for music and consider myself to be good Vocalist. I have been a part of various music bands throughout the years and in ideal circumstances would have continued to create music. Mixing reality with fantasy, the following would have been the imagined life:

I would start vocal training at the age of 8 years and in due course would join the school music band. I would also start experimenting with writing lyrics while in high school.

After joining college, i would be quickly noticed by the existing college rock band and take the role of the lead vocalist and songwriter. This group would win many laurels for the college in a few years after which we would convert ourselves to a professional outfit upon the recommendation of scouts from Music companies which support rock music in India. To support ourselves financially, we would perform at various festivals and concerts and keep promoting our music. We would finally get an album deal and get the recognition that we desire.

At our Zenith, we would be recognized as one of the great Indian rock bands who gave Indian music a worldwide name while experimenting with its different forms.

Later on in our lives, we would start an organization to give a chance to niche Indian musical talent to showcase themselves. This would be our way of repaying the musical debt. At the same time, our band would keep on playing for as long as it can for the joy it brings us.

Greatest Movies - My Pick!

There are some great movies that i have seen in these 25+ years and trust me, i have seen quite a few. Some of them are quite brilliant, some not so much but over the years i have found that my basket of movies tend to be split in generally three baskets;

1. Average and Bad movies - whatever the language,
2. Great Movies but which do not appeal to me, &
3. Movies that have really made me cry/ wonder/ gasp/ shout/ laugh/ feel intense happiness

I have also realized that most of these films in the 3rd category are those that deal predominantly with Fantasies - Magic & Wizardry, Surrealism, Extreme Romance, Resurrection of thy self. There might be a few exceptions but that is because the movies would have blown me away with the sheer magic of the acting.

I Present this list of top 25 movies and will also like to present a listing of top movies within each genre as i know it. One factor that i have kept in mind is that multiple parts have been clubbed as one movie preferably.

Top 25:

1. Forrest Gump
2. Vita e bella, la (Life is Beautiful)
3. Shawshank Redemption
4. Godfather Series
   
5. Lord of the Rings Series
   
6. Wall - E
7. Before Sunrise/ Before Sunset
   
8. Jaane Bhi do Yaaron (Forget about it, friends)
   
9. Kannathil Muthamital (Kiss on the cheek)
10. Rocky Series
    
11. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (Yup i am Mad ;-) )
    
12. Requiem for a Dream
13. Saving Private Ryan
14. Usual Suspects
15. Raat (Night)
16. Laberinto del fauno, El (Pan's Labyrinth)
    
17. The Terminal
18. Gandhi
19. Gladiator
20. Braveheart
21. Dumb & Dumber
22. The Dark Night
23. When Harry met Sally
24. Wall Street
25. The Exorcist

Genre Wise:

• Romance - Before Sunrise/ Before Sunset & DDLJ
• Fantasy - Lord of the Rings & Pan's Labyrinth
  
• Action - Matrix & Rocky
  
• Historical - Gladiator & Braveheart
  
• Comedy - Dumb & Dumber & Jaane Bhi do Yaaron
  
• Animation - Wall e & The Lion King
  
• Resurrection - Forrest Gump & Shawshank Redemption
  
• Drama - Godfather & The Pianist
  
• War - Saving Private Ryan & Full Metal Jacket
  
• Horror - Raat & Exorcist
• Business - Wall Street & Barbarians at the Gate
• Superheroes - The Dark Knight & The Iron Man
• Western - Once upon a time in the West & The good, The Bad and the Ugly
• Musical - Sound of Music & Singing in the Rain
• Biography - Gandhi & The Pursuit of Happyness
• Sci fi - Star Wars & Back to the Future
• Sport - Rocky & Remember the Titans
• Thriller - Psycho & The Usual Suspects

These are the movies that i will be writing more about in this blog and the blog Reality on 35mm, a blog where i talk about and review movies but do not update that often! :) (In my defense, i have to say that reviewing movies is hard work!)

These are the movies which have really shaped my viewing paradigms. Some of them might not be liked by many folks but that is understandable. According to me, movies are the world that we escape to when we are tired of the 'outside' world. And hence a lot of external attributes define & refine our tastes. Everyone has the right to create his/ her own world.....

However as i have said it earlier, this is my real world......Hope you Enjoy it!!

Bartimaeus Trilogy - A must read for every fantasy lover

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

It really made me cry. The end that is, just a lot of what ifs remained in my head. Frankly I hated Jonathan Stroud in these moments of my final reading. Why couldn’t he keep Nathaniel alive, kept him and Kitty together. It would have been a perfect ending. I guess there is a bit of Quentin Makepeace in Mr. Stroud too. They had started liking each other and would have been perfect for each other; sparring continuously, feeding off the energies of each other. It just would have been the right ending. At the end it was Nathaniel who was the hero and not Kitty or Bartimaeus. They were the guiding lights and really had the most important role in removing the coat of John Mandrake. However, Nathaniel had done no extraordinary wrong that he should have been killed. It just doesn’t feel right to have them separated, Kitty and Nathaniel that is. She will now be all alone in this world and doesn’t again deserve this ordeal. Seeing that she has always been so alone in this world till now and is in reality still only a teenager, she should have been finally free of the pain life has brought on her for no fault of her. Two souls who had been so alone throughout this time would have found each other. The death of Nathaniel is a jolt more for Kitty than anyone else which is why it is not fair. She had not deserved this ending. Please Jonathan; it will be great if you can come up with an alternate ending and put it up somewhere even if it does not make it to your book. Please…

Having said that, the Bartimaeus Trilogy is a masterful set of books which is a must read for anyone who has the least bit of interest in magic and fantasies that revolve around it. It is definitely not in the Tolkien class or rather ‘The lord of the Ring’ class; however it is definitely an 8 out of 10 if LOTR makes a perfect 10. It does do very well in intricately managing several mysteries that are thrown up at regular intervals and successfully integrating them all in the final book. There are actually no loose ends except for Ms Lutyens who should have been able to see Nathaniel in a better light at the end of the book. It would have mattered probably the most to him.

The real spirit of the first couple of books is literally Bartimaeus. It is actually more fun to read the footnotes than the actual pages. The wit is superb and keeps the reader going even when the story seems to slow down a little. The Amulet of Samarkhand is better than Golems Eye but the Ptolmey’s gate is what makes us gasp. The way in which the artifacts of the first two books are used in the final book and also the way Ptolemy is wound right across the storyline are masterstrokes. It tells you that the author has thought about the ending a lot before actually committing ink to paper. However I actually also got the feeling that a lot of time, the story became visually graphic possibly with one eye on a movie being made in due course. Kitty, Nathaniel, Bartimaeus, Quentin and the rest are really unique characters who keep up their own quite comfortably without taking more than the required space. Except for one bit as to why Kitty takes to magic and summons spirit herself (and if that is so, how come other commoners have not done so earlier and what then will be the difference between Magicians and Commoners) is not really explained properly. That somehow for me limits the ‘essence’ of the trilogy, even if a little bit. Maybe there is a 4^th book coming along which will explain this bit and how this magician-commoner difference helped Nathaniel escape at the end of the trilogy. Maybe….

Maybe he can be brought to life if we all promise to buy the books in huge quantities. We promise, it will be one of the biggest bestseller in recent memory. But Please…..