Other things

Maybe because I felt very reluctant to write, I had imposed an unwritten rule that blogging will be about books. I am breaking it because I feel like scribbling more here. Hopefully there will only still be more books here, I cannot guarantee anything.

The other day my roommate dragged me into a film festival called Films on Films. He made me buy a Rs 400/- annual membership. But unfortunately the first movie that we saw bored the worst hell out of me. The movie called "Five Obstructions" managed to do everything wrong in its 2 hours for me. Lets say, firstly everything in it was based on a dumb short film called The Perfect Man. It freaked me out, with insanely white backgrounds and some man shaving, eating and making funny noises with fingers and pretty much a lot of other dumb things. Then the movie somehow managed to insult India(for me) by mentioning Bombay's Red light areas as the most miserable place on Earth. I was all for killing my roommate after the movie. He survived because I chose to try out one more movie and try to realize the worth of those 400 bucks.

The second movie was Close up. This was a rocker of a movie. I am very new to unconventional cinema, and this one totally surprised me. The movie, which very closely resembled a documentary, talks of a simple man who pretends to be a famous movie director (because of physical resemblence). You are very much forced to get involved in the movie because of the way of the presentation and the way the actors fared. Infact, during the movie, you will hardly realize they are acting. I still have my doubts as this is mentioned to be inspired from a real story ;)

Nothing much to say, things turned around much the opposite way. I was so much drawn in that, I -being the laziest guy on sundays- dragged myself out, sacrificing a thrilling F1 race, for a brilliant Rashomon directed by the great Akira Kurosova. I had only heard of the guy, was expecting very much. He just turned out to be the best. The movie speaks of 3 people gathering below the ruined Rashomon Gate, a wood cutter, priest and a commoner. They talk about a murder which had happened earlier, and we go through four different point of views or versions of the same story. Sounds very much like Hero, doesn't it? I cannot compare the both, but can tell you that this strategy (of telling same stories from different angles) is put to much more good use in Rashomon. You will have to watch it to know what I mean.

Well, the credit goes to Smilebringer( aforementioned roommate) for dragging me out of the local pandi sinima shaalas into the high temples of modern motion picture art.

(The above sentence and terms are copyrighted ;) )

But I haven't let the poor fellow brag about it, always rolling my eyes, punching, biting , and doing generally annoying things whenever he starts bragging. Thank you, my brother, this post is as much a tribute to your patience as it is to these great films, their actors and directors..