GAMUT
Part of Speech:noun
- A complete range or extent: a face that expressed a gamut of emotions, from rage to peaceful contentment.
- Music. The entire series of recognized notes.
Abhay Deol and Anurag Kashyap's take on Devdas works wonders.
If Dilip Kumar's Devdas was classical music this is the rock version, both great in their own ways, the acting is fantastic. Abhay Deol as usual impresses with his attitude and ability to carry a movie off single handed, though this time he is supported by some brilliant acting by Kalki(Chanda) and Mahi Gill (Paro).
This is Devdas on dope, vodka and ecstasy. The story line remains more or less the same but at the same time it is different in its treatment and in how each character handles the situation.
The music is great! especially the 'Patiala Ke Presleys' and Paradesi.
Anurag Kashyap, the director, excels ! Hoping for more such movies from him ('Gulaal' looks promising!)
If this movie was batting it would hit a sixer of each delivery!
I read in a newspaper that it had not snowed this much in 18 years and it was the first time that anyone can remember that all the buses were taken off the road...
Getting hung up all day on smiles Walking down portobello road for miles Greeting strangers in indian boots, Yellow ties and old brown suits Growing old is my only danger
Cuckoo clocks, and plastic socks Lampshades of old antique leather Nothing looks weird, not even a beard Or the boots made out of feathers
- Cat Stevens
I love open markets, and when in London I make sure to visit the many many open markets that are here.
Camden and Greenwich have been my favourite so far, but today I happened to visit the very famous Portobello road market :)
Its a fantastic place. From what I had heard of it, I was expecting it to be great, yet, I was not prepared for what I found there. 2-3 miles of open market, selling anything and everything under the sun.
Just the most fantastic of books, maps, gas masks from the II WW, food, London souvenirs, binoculars, telescopes, old cameras, masks, miniature musical instruments, scarves, cricket bats signed by Len Hutton, old style footballs, boxing gloves...
Phew! the list is never ending.
The market itself is right in Notting Hill (yes, same place as the movie), The best thing I liked about this place was this store that sold metal plates of old advertisements, street signs etc
Portobello road, as I saw it, was divided into 3 sections, the fashion market, where clothes and accessories were being sold, the antiques market, where all kinds of antiques were on offer and the food market, where one could buy fruits or fresh bread, hot dogs, sausages, corn pasties or the good 'ol hot chocolate.
Here are some pictures that I managed to get :)
Typical London Street Sign
Quaint buildings
Just before it got crowded
err the crowd pours in...
Boxing equipment for sale !
Jugs, Mugs, Pots and Pans
Satchels, Uniforms and Gas Masks!
I got a beautiful bus from this store, last piece they had :)
Yes you did! Scrabble tiles painted on a wall :)
The store I liked best !! brilliant
That's all folks!
p.s: Its going to snow tomorrow apparently *rubs hands in anticipation*
Ah this is how I have always imagined London to be. Dark Cold and Wet :) I like 'Dark Cold and Wet' even if it means heading to work in 1 degree Celsius and constant rain!
The best part I like about gloomy weather is the fact that colours become so vibrant, every now and then amongst the people scurrying about in their black or charcoal gray business suits/raincoats, one sees a lady in a red overcoat or a guy with a bright green scarf, and these colours take a life of their own against the dark gray skies.
Wish I could take a picture to express better what I am trying to help visualise in words, who knows I just might!
On Christmas day, I watched Evam's staging of the Oscar Wilde play "The importance of being earnest". Now this play has a plot right out of a Wodehousian novel, full of romance, confused identities and witty one liners, great scope for a wonderful play.
But Evam's take on this play was a huge disappointment :(
I expect much more from a well known (and IMHO over rated) company such as Evam, the acting was quite decent, but the overall set up was bad.
The stage hands took an eternity to set the stage between scenes, one could see them fumbling with torches in their hands on a dark stage to place a table and a couple of chairs that were the only things gracing an otherwise empty stage.
The backdrops were just about ok and the over all look and feel was very amateurish. I know this is not the 'Mosuetrap', 'The Phantom of the Opera' or "The lion king' but one does expect something better from a professional theatre group.
A great plot and a decently executed movie :) Loved the freshness that this brings through. I loved how the story darts back and forth,to fit in together quite nicely. The characterisation is great as well, we find ourselves rooting for Jamal Malik, the protagonist, from the first story itself.
What I did not like (read, HATED) was this scene:
Jamal the kid is playing a tourist guide to a couple of firangs, and his 'friends' rob and vandalise the American's taxi, as the taxi driver comes back and beats Jamal up, Jamal says "You want to see the REAL India, this is the real India!" and hte American saves the boy from the beating hands him a 100 Dollar note and says "and this is the real America son" Yuck! Pathetic!
Other than that I had not many issues with the movie, though I think Danny Boyle is just a below average director.
Cinema Paradiso Wonderful! watching this movie had been long pending, it was worth the wait :) I loved the movie. I am sure I am one of the very few who has NOT watched it yet, but if you have not done so either, watch it today!!
other movies that I watched and a one word/phrase review for each (because I do not have the patience today to write about them) follow,
Transporter 3 - I could have done without watching it
Ghajini - one of the worst movies of the year. Don't want to waste time reviewing it
Before the devil knows you are dead - Drams, okayish.
Oye Lucky Lucky Oye - My respect for Abhay Deol, grows in leaps and bounds, nice movie! Wings of the dove - Romance, Indian style set in Victorian(?) England. Not too good
American Gangster - ok Exorcism of Emily Rose - umm hmm Rear Window - Wonderful classic :) Charlie and the chocolate factory - Johnny Depp! like it! The Kingdom - decent thriler/action movie about terrorism Tropic Thunder - Pathetic! Angel Heart - Mickey Rourke take a bow :) I like the movie!
Here is wishing all you people a fantastic year ahead! I typically enjoy celebrating new year at home, with the inner circle :)
Not for me the garish, loud and crowded parties/bashes to usher in a new year. This year was no different, the inner circle was home and after quiet dinner and exchanging gifts, we got down to unraveling the mysteries of the Transformer we bought(read previous post... droool). Having figured that out, we decided to try our hands at monopoly, and what a game that turned out to be.
We had planned to play for a couple of hours and call it quits, but once we got hooked, we just went on and on... first time I have played a board game all through the night!
here are the highlights of our game
- Dilip got to go to Jail a record 6 times
- Raj ended up paying rent or picking up chance/community cards that made him have to shell out loads of money either to the bank or the other players eg. " You are celebrating becoming the chairman of an Electric company, pay 50$ to all players" rotfl
- I managed to play a decent game (for once!), and reaped quite a few benefits of most investments I had made
- Amu ended up being the only person to have built a house on one of her properties and eventually won the game when we decided to call it quits at 6:30 am in the morning.
This movie is supposed to be one of the best movies made in 2008 :|
Sorry, but as far as I am concerned, this is just an average movie. Daniel Day Lewis does a good job, but other than that err whats the excitement about?
Avergae acting by the others, baaaad editing and a lame ending.
Wow, sometimes the things you do NOT know surprise you, they sure surprise me :)
for example of the top of my head here is a list of stuff that I discovered recently...
Brazil is bigger in size than India
Well, I knew Brazil was big, but I did not know it was as big as 8,514,877 sq. miles to India's 3,287,263 sq. miles! Its more than twice the size of India! A lot of it is rain forest apparently
Its a myth that Eskimos have a lot of words for 'snow'
I had always believed the popular 'did you know..." that Eskimos had hundreds of words for 'snow' but I read this somewhere while trawling the world wide web, (Unrelated trivia: If you notice, there are more syllables in WWW than in World Wide Web!)
ahem... his is all I could think of, off the top of my head, but I assure you the list shall increase
Yes, I am sure we have been here before, I love talking about my favourite word!
it's ASSORTED.
Why? Because, it feels nice to say it! go ahead, give it a try, and it brings up pictures of assorted biscuits, assorted breads and assorted chocolates in my head.
I have even uploaded this as my favourite word on this site, if you have a favourite word, go ahead put it up there.
Pan's Labyrinth Oh lovely lovely lovely, this movie is a definite must watch! The cinematography, the music, the interlacing between real-life and fantasy, Pan, the fairies, the rebels, the sadist captain and most of all the pale-man sequence. watch it I say!
Quantum of solace Well, have we not seen it all in the Bourne series? yes we have. Mr. Bond we don't watch you for rooftop chase scenes, Bourne does that better. We don't watch you for the 'I shall have my revenge' bit, Maximus Decimus Meridius does that better, why. closer home, Monty does it better (the older version of Monty that is). We watch you for the gadgets, for the martinis, for the fast cars, for the femme fatale's and for such things that make you stand out.
But well, I guess since you are being potrayed by a caveman(read Daniel Craig), we cannot expect much can we now?
Burn after reading The Coen brothers are well known for their movie making style, they acheive the same with this. John Malkovich carries the movie with some wonderful acting as usual. Other than the ending that like all Coen Movie's seemed quite abrupt, this mental storyline about crazy people doing crazy stuff is quite good. A decent weekend watch.
Free Jimmy This animated movie aimed at a very adult audience, left a bad after taste. A dark 'comedy' about a group of animal activists who have a mission to free Jimmy a battered and bruised circus elephant, forms one of the plots of this story. The bad animation and not so great plot lets us down.
Atonement Awesome! This Romance/drama is a wonderful movie. Kiera Knightley does a great job. Slow moving but with some of the best cinematography I have seen, as the viewer is taken from the green calm English countryside to London in time of war to the Warzone itself. Watch this!
Kung Fu Panda
"Legend tells of a legendary warrior whose kung fu skills were the stuff of legend. ", this and many more hilarious one liners make up this great movie about a fat panda Po(Jack Black), who gets a chance to live his dream of becoming the greates Kung Fu warrior, after accidently becoming the Chosen one to fight Tai Lung an evil snow leopard who threatens the peace in the valley. Along with the Furious Five: Viper(Lucy Liu), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Monkey (Jackie Chan). Po gains skill and wisdom under his master Shifu(Dustin Hoffman), who is err a red panda.
Great movie! "It is said that his enemies would go blind from over-exposure to pure awesomeness! "
Back from Lanka... It is so like India that for some bits we never realised we were in a foreign land :)
Some highlights of the trip?
- The randomness of the trip, we just booked return tickets and left for Lanka, with no clue what we planned to do!
- The amazing wild life on display ! we saw, A peacock and a peahen, a giant squirrel, swam with huge green turtles and beautiful tiger fish in the ocean, watched a huge monitor lizard stroll by the swimming pool, small water snakes
- Hunnas Falls hotel in Kandy, do NOT miss that place when in Kandy, thanks to Mihiri for suggesting we stay there :D
Mohit Chauhan is a wonderful singer. This is one singer who does not have to scream at the top of his lungs to display his 'vocal range', Ã la KK or Atif Aslam (who, I admit do have their good songs).
Obviously it was the wonderful 'Dooba Dooba' by Silk Route, which introduced me to Mr. Chauhan's fantastic voice. Though 'Silk Route' was disbanded, it is lucky that Mohit Chauhan got an opportunity to showcase his voice in the movies. From the popular hits like 'Tum se hi' (Jab we met) to the lesser known(but equally good) 'Guncha' (Main meri Patni aur woh) or 'Sabse Peeche Hum Khade', each song stands out for its soothing quality and excellent vocals.
Here are a few, must listen to, songs to get one started on Mohit Chauhan's music and his mesmerising voice
Ek Meetha Marz dene - Welcome to Sajjanpur Guncha - a Ghazal from Main meri Patni aur woh Boondein - Silk Route Boondein Humsafar - Silk Route Boondein Ankhon hi Ankhon mein - EMI Kuchh Khas - Fashion Is this love - Kismat Konnection
- Sitaram Sitaram - Welcome to Sajjanpur - Ek Meetha Marz dene - Welcome to Sajjanpur (This movie seems like a good one. Will watch) - Aye Malik tere bande hum - Do Ankhein Bara Haath - Tere Sawalon ke - Manorama Six Feet Under
A Few Good Men "Did you order the code red!!?"... A great courtroom drama with some hard-hitting dialogues.
Hell Boy II - The Golden Army
Disappointing. The dialogues lack punch, just when one thought that super hero movies had figured out the importance of giving depth to a character...Hell Boy proves it all wrong. If i had never seen a movie with special FX and CGI before, this would have been a brilliant movie, but well I have seen movies with wonderful CGI, hence I now expect more than just CGI to make me go wow!. The movie is just one BIG anti-climax as far as I am concerned.
The Royal Tannenbaums erm, interesting star-studded movie about a dysfunctional family. decentish!
Whitnail and I A movie about two struggling actors, who decide to take a break from their unemployment and go to the Countryside for a 'holiday' with some funny results. A bitter sweet comedy with some wonderful script
Detroit Rock City Great movie! I wonder why this is not as popular as the cult classic "Napolean Dynamite", The plot follows 4 friends whose main aim in life is to watch the KISS concert. Some hilarious stuff ensues in this very attempt! I am no big KISS fan, but still enjoyed the movie, if you like the Band and their music, you will love this movie!
Amelie Wonderful, if you have not watched it yet, then please do watch it now!
Die Hard 4.0: Live free or die hard Not much I can write about this movie, it faithfully follows the (now) aging cop in his endless adventures. John Mclane seems very much to be a NYPD version of Sindbad the sailor in the sense that adventure, action and danger always seems to follow him around
We managed to visit two places in two days and yet managed to relax and enjoy the break. :)
How we did it -
Friday night: Train to Hubli Saturday Morning: Taxi to Palolem beach - Goa Sunday Morning: Taxi to Om Beach- Gokarna Sunday Evening: Taxi back to Hubli Sunday night: Train back to Bangalore :)
The next day after the post, a colleague struck up a conversation with me over lunch about my rant.
He was critical of the fact that I am errr critical.
I believe what he said was "Its very easy to criticise people, right Mr. Gawde?".
Well, absolutely. When I enquired why I wrong in my criticism, Pat came the answer "A lot of my relatives live there"
Well ALL my relatives live there, a wonderful set of people, who I love to meet. But that fact would not change my opinion of the city.
I must add that it is also very easy to praise people, and here is some praise for Chennai
I do not know a soul in Chennai. In no way am I connected to the city, and neither do I speak the language.
But every time I have visited the place, I am amazed by how nice and polite everyone there is. Everybody is willing to help you out irrespective of whether you know the language or not
Simi says "Hey, Mumbayya ANTAGONIST! Each to his own opinion, right? Through out the cycle of two seasons of terrible rains that I was in Bombay... except for one time when I got pushed off in a halting train (solely cos I really didnt know the trick!), Bombay's been such a cool city to me.
Its vibrant and rich with experiences stemming out of daily life esp the local trains which I refer to as 'Theatre in Motion'.
Tryst has it bad for you, with Bombay!"
Glad you had a good experience, I have known the city since I was a child, it definitely has changed as far as I am concerned :) and I wonder why there needs to be a 'Trick' to get off a train!
