Salaam Bombay

On April 3,  I wrote this.... But could not post it... hence posting it now...

 

Saw <i>Salaam Bombay</i> yesterday. The film deals with the issue of street children and their lives.It was moving.

Even though entirely shot in Bombay in 1986 it is sad that even today one can easliy find such children in huge numbers in Indian cities. In the DVD there were a few documentries about how the film brought awareness in general public and how some NGOs have been started for the betterment of street children .

Here is one.There were video footage of some of such centres as well. Their effort is really commendable but I must say that much more needs to be done on a massive scale.

In India all these issues of poverty- corruption-Infrustructure-Growth are inter-related and we as a nation are struck in visious circle.Some way has to be found to come out of it.

The Da Vinci Code - The movie v The Book

Wrote this entry on the day after I saw the Da Vinci Code but forgot to post it---

The most awaited movie of the year has finally been released!!

Being a big fan of "The Da Vinci code" (TDVC) I went on the first day (but not the first show) of opening. Me and another TDVC fan were eagerly waiting for May 19th and had virtually read every news/bit/info about the movie.

First the logistics: The movie was marketed well and here in Ann Arbor it was released in a 20 screen multiplex called Showcase Cinemas, to be sure, we had booked tickets on the net but later found out at the theatre that there was no shortage of them on the spot. The reason being that TDVC was being shown on 6-7 screens parallely!!! we were amazed and praised America yet another time...:-)

The movie as such as good or even great! but paled in comparison to the Novel. I somehow felt that the production team had a tough job on hand, trying to make a movie on such a complex subject/story is not easy. There was just too much information in the book to which justice can't be done in a 3 hrs movie, hence we saw all the historical facts mentioned in the books being shown as some kind of background images which moved quickly. I really wondered if people who had not read the book would have really made out the story!

Probably a TV mini series of a total of 6 hrs would have been better but then it won't have made as much money for the producers.

The cast was just Perfect. Tom Hanks was superb and so was Audrey Tautou.

In India the movie was banned in some states, its really funny because all the christian countries are showing it. Why our Indian christians alone are so conservative I don't understand. There were news reports that in some states even the muslims objected to the movie!!! I fail to understand why...

Of BHollywood and Hotel Rwanda

The movie season continues. First it was Hollywood-Bollywood and then Hotel Rwanda.

Hollywood-Bollywood is a light movie based on the "Immigrant-theme" and the ABCD generation.
Lisa Ray was charming as usual. Rahul Khanna is a good actor but has done very limited number of films till now. One dialogue which I liked from the Movie was when Rahul Khanna start thinking that Lisa ray was a prostitute, he tells her this:

"Sue, As such it doesn't matter but those middle class values are too deeply ingrained in me". (Not the exact words but something similar)

I found it to be so true, those "Indian middle class values" and the fact that they are imbibed deeply in such families.

Hotel Rwanda was a vastly different movie. That was not an accident pick, I wanted to see that for some time. I had heard and seen on TV about the Rwanda genocide of 1994, I did some searches on the internet out of my interest and came to know that about a million people were killed by the hut militia.

The movie though was a far more detailed account of what happened there. The story is a real life story of a Hotel Manager Paul Rusesabagina and his heroic handling of the situation which led to the saving of 1200 innocent lives.

There were two main ethnic groups in Rwanda: the Hutus and the Tutsis. Their mutual hatred was a result of the colonial past, The Belgian rulers gave the Tutsis privileges in the power structure so the Hutus started feeling alienated. It reminds me of the "Divide and Rule" policy of the British in Indian subcontinent.

The movie is a brave attempt at shaming the international community to not to forget Africa and not let such a shameful thing happen again.

In the features section of the DVD there was a video clip of real life Paul Rusesabagina visiting Rwanda for the first time after the genocide. There were clips of tens of human skeletons (Including those of small babies) lying in the rooms of the "Genocide Memorial" in Rwanda. Its unimaginable that such a thing really happened.

Of "Notting Hill" and our resistance to change

Notting hill remains one of my favorite movies. Having seen it on star movies umpteen times I remember a lot of its dialogues too.
The most touching scene is when Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) tells Hugh Grant:

Let me tell you, this fame thing is not real, and don't forget that I am also just a girl, standing in front of a boy asking him to love her.

Gosh! the dialogues are so good...

I equally like the soundtrack too, particularly:

It's amazing how you can speak right to my heart

and She

In the DVD which I borrowed from the library there were other features too. There were a 3-4 scenes which were shot but later deleted from the movie, looking at them I felt that it was a good decision, but then had they been part of the movie originally I don't think I would have mind.

Its amazing how we get used to things as they are and can't imagine them to be something else.

Talking in the context of movies, "Swades" was supposed to have Amir Khan as the lead actor but since he refused Shahrukh Khan was chosen. Having seen the movie I can't imagine anybody else playing that role other than Shahrukh! Perhaps in this case it is his excellent acting and screen charisma which is responsible for it.

I am able to relate this to a number of other things in life and I feel that things which we (if I may take the liberty to generalize for everybody) like or which are considered good by us, we are not willing to change anything in them. I guess this is what is called "Resistence to change" and the book "Who moved my Cheese" was all about it.