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Friday, April 7, 2006

Some badly outdated observations

 


A couple of days back I got to learn something that that went like a dart through my heart.


It would need another 15 days before I can reunite with my hard disk. I have already spent more than two weeks without it, now that I fail to realize how I actually managed all that. But the prospect of facing another fortnight without my best ‘friend’ seems grimmer than anything else. So, the last movie that I watched seemed an eternity ago when I desperately went to watch not one, but four movies in a row. This included a three-hour-plus docu/movie called ‘Munich’ and a two-hour plus (and what I can safely term, over-hyped) movie called ‘Leon’. Yes, they are pretty old flicks. But so is the length of the gap between my two posts, though I may be excused this time for the lack of a hard disk.


 


Getting back to where I intend to take this rant, ‘Munich’ has only helped affirm my faith in Speilberg as a cinematic giant when it comes to handling movies of as large a scale as this, or a sensitive, controversy ridden subject as explosive as either this or ‘Schindler’s List’ for that matter. While at the hands of lesser directors, Schindler’s List could have very easily sunk into oblivion, due to the monumental task one might be up against at the editing table, while Munich would have been no less intimidating. A task that is more about the direction and screenplay rather than the other relatively minor detail called editing. It could have so easily been reduced to a mere commercial revenge flick that could have made the majority cross-section of people remark: Wow! These Mossad guys rock! But we learn as Stevie reveals to us during the course of his magnum opus through the expressions of the Israeli-accented-ever-improving Eric Bana (though I had a feeling he let his American accent slip in from time to time.), that there are underlying elements far more important than just one-upmanship and revenge. After the aberration that was The War of the Worlds, he seems to have found his touch handling the subject of his heart - Jews and Israel. Leon, unfortunately does not deserve to be mentioned in the same breath of Munich so I’ll leave it at that. You could watch it for the cute face of Natalie Portman, who by the way is a 12 year old girl in the movie.


 


On to other affairs, one of the most unnecessary and self defeating feature of Orkut is that a user is allowed to edit his name field. Agreed, when you search for your friend XYZ without knowing his new name his profile will still show up, but my question is why on earth would someone want to change his name unless he has REALLY changed his name such as our very own SuniEl Shetty or RitEIsh Deshmukh. An example of what I am trying to drive at is that of a guy with a pretty good name of his own changing to something like “I m a Rebel (Loose Control)”. Yes that is his new name on Orkut. Not only does it look bad, it also displays his inability to differentiate between ‘Loose’ and ‘Lose’


 


The other irritating thing that came on view over the past month is Hindi commentary in football matches. It is the latest thing in ESPN-Star’s long line of products of idea droughts witnessed in recent years. The droughts it seems is increasing with every passing year. One of the early cases in point being the infamous Shaz and Waz shows and Waz Akram hosting fooball locker room. The least of the problems with the commentator is his uncanny ability to confuse one player (as little known as Raul of Real Madrid) with another. Pray the Hindi commentary does not haunt the World Cup.


 


That would be the end of what has been a progressively negative post. Would retire for now, to return with brighter things to say, some other day.

9 comments:

  1. Who's the rebel? :) And why, pray, is it so irritating?

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  2. Everybody gets mixed up with the loose and lose. a simple way of remembering is lose has lost an "o" and hence refers to losing. :D

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  3. hi,

    just wanted to point out that eric bana is an australian not an american. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0051509/ arbit DT fact, i know, but you wouldn't want to mislead your readers in this blog, would you??? and may i ask ,why this fascination with suniEl shetty??

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  4. [Keerthi]
    The Hindi commentary was irritating did NOT say that I found the names thingy irritating, if you would take the trouble of going thru it once more you would see the terms "most unnecessary" and "self-defeating". Yes. I did say the other irritating thing in the next para but the Orkut thing wasn't the first irritating thing.
    Phew! Why am I clarifying things so much anyway?

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  5. [The Priestess]
    Your gyaan is most welcome.

    [Mathew]
    Thank you. Your DT comes to the rescue and enlightens me once again. But in my defence I couldn't notice anything Australian about his accent. So wouldn't be much harm calling the accent American.
    Once again have to clarify: Did not call him American (though I do admit I didn't know he wasn't)

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  6. When you say that someone's American accent is slipping through, aren't you implying that the person is American?? Not that I want to pick a fight with you or something(. in which case I will thrash you)

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  7. Oh bloody nigh brilliant. pardon my irish, but is everyone else getting to watch movies and while away time?
    Question: is eric bana amerikaan?
    Lastly, the orkut naming thing has more to it. I think the naruto group is poised to hijack the baptism industry. (lord save the new? pope)

    YT

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  8. kalip is something that you would not understand. it's an abstract concept that is enshrined only in the brains of mallus.. it's something like azhu.. so stay away from it. you know it's going to be van kalip!!!!

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  9. first of all..sorry for posting a comment after so many days..tho had been browisng thru ur space. Good look & 'great observations'.
    I know that commnetary is REALLY irritating & definitely I also am pissed off with ppl using pseudo names on orkut.
    I agree to your view w.r.t both movies but felt Munich at some parts was too slow. Nevertheless a spielberg piece.

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