It never has been better.....

In the past two weeks, I have seen over 10 movies. So, I don't have the patience to upload the poster for each one of those. Being Cyrus was the most bizarre film I saw last week. The same goes for the Herzog-Klinski nexus as seen in Aguirre, the wrath of God. Others include a documentary called Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky(On the sets of Offret) which gave profound insight into the direction style of the cinematic poet.

Haasil was the most horrible movie among the ones seen. Apart from a strong(yet cliched) performance by Irrfan Khan, there wasn't much substance in it. By the end, I was completely pissed off. Stupid songs, a silly good old love story and 2 hrs 40 min of pure nonsense. That's what it was! Actually someone had suggested me this movie. May be I do better by myself than listening to others(at least some of them) in matters as grave as cinema.

The others don't merit attention because they were kind of inconsequential. La vita è bella didn't meet my expectations. At least as compared to Schindler's List(which I saw four years back), the director didn't consider Holocaust as serious an event as it should have been. At only some instances, the movie appealed to my taste. But considering the insipid performance delivered by Roberto Benigni(who surprisingly won an Academy Award for it) and others, it failed considerably to satisfy me. Some may argue that the Holocaust was presented from a different perspective, but I believe that in the light of the most degenerate event in history of mankind, there is no scope of laughter and a cock and bull story of people playing game to win a tank.

I like the bizarre. I generally like pitting my wits and senses against something eerily unusual. I can't explain that different sense of satisfaction which is reached after doing this.

But I definitely need to cut down on my movie-watching time. Majors are just round the corner and am already in deep water in a couple of courses.

Very strangely, I haven't been able to read a book since I finished the great odyssey. Though I have started On the Road by Jack Kerouac and The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, yet I find them boring after reading a few pages. I suppose it is just that cycle which goes on time after time. After a few days, I may regain my tempo.

Of aliens and odysseys

2001:A Space Odyssey is a beautiful book. It is the best science-fiction novel I have read. The name may divert your attention and will probably fill you with wonder about the antiquity of the book and its relevance in present context. But that is where the delusive charm of the book lies.

Written before the man had landed on Moon, the book breathtakingly answers some of the most poignant questions that have mystified mankind. The author makes several assumptions regarding the future and most of them seem to be correct to a large extent. For instance, Moon has been conquered by humans but with an exception. A self-sustaining colony is yet to be built. Moreover, there hasn't been any manned mission beyond Moon and won't likely be possible before the end of next decade. Another interesting innovation of that of a computer as capable as HAL900 is still lacking.

Wherever the author focuses on the progress made my mankind he is clever enough to leave a cautionary note. He doesn't want us to live in any fool's paradise and let the sense of complacency overwhelm our thoughts. After the monolith T.M.A.-1 is discovered and its unique scientific proportions noted by humans, it is some sort of a reminder of what to expect and what not to expect. He always pits the human race against the mysterious aliens who created the monolith millions of years ago, when we were still sub-human, lived in caves, were afraid of fire and foraged almost daily.

There is always an attempt to trivialize the efforts of humanity when he explains our actual relevance in the infintely large universe. What makes us think that we are the only living creatures and there is no from of any intelligent existence on any other planet, in any other galaxy? This is the result of our sheer narrow-mindedness which mars our thinking and doesn't allow us to think beyond certain perceptions and beliefs.

The author doesn't leave us over here. The end is as mind-boggling as David Bowman's journey through Star Gate. Bertrond explains Yaan about the impounding perils and urges him to exercise great caution and wisdom , which ultimately may change the course of the humans yet-to-come. This is the author's assessment of the problems concerning humanity. It was in those early deformed stages that some wrong path was chosen and it is here they we have landed today. He doesn't explicitly state that we are in some danger, but he is able to dive the point home that we are constantly in the danger of imperilling ourselves and the more we develop, the lesser the time we have to enjoy those developments.

It is these questions which haven't lost their significance in age of globalization and nuclear power. They still loom large over our heads, and in our constant endeavour of escaping them we are only endangering our positions. Be it 2001 or 3001, the author's vision still holds goods. It is our perception which ultimately matters and as he said "The truth is as always, far stranger than our perception".

Hatred.....

I don't feel like blogging these days. Not due to the minors. Nor due to a lack of topics. I don't know. But I often think about blogging. While reading a book, while watching a movie or while completing daily chores, my thoughts wander onto blogging.

The problem is that as soon as I face the blog, a deep sense of loathing engulfs me. Everything about this blog is so superficial and ephemeral. It is just like any ordinary blog, and so unlike me. I want it to reflect my persona. Just like a piece of art. A stupid list of movies, books read, a few goddamn links and last of all that stupid 'movie-meter' thing which hangs at the bottom. I hate it all. And if someone discusses anything related to blog, I hate it more so.

Sometimes I feel like deleting all the entries. They are all phoney and useless. There is very little sense in them. Pieces of shit... But logic overpowers impulse and somehow they are all safe(for how long???).

Why can't I write something more meaningful? Why can't I write something which truly reflects my very own way of writing, however meaningless it may be?

I have been working on this problem for quite some time now. But no solution is in sight. But I'll definitely bring about a sea change to this godforsaken thing... That's certain......

Auto-psychoanalysis....

I go straight to my room from here. I will read Vernon God Little. ......I sat in my class thinking about what I will do after classes are over.... I may feel sleepy. It's just 6:00 pm. ........there was a nagging feeling which weighed me down........ So I shouldn't sleep. Then I may watch a movie. I will watch Alien today. It's a great Ridley Scott movie.........Oh my God...such a terrible feeling of loneliness..... What next? In between, I will have to take dinner. What if someone comes in between? What if a QC event is held? What if an EDLC event is there? You never know... Last moment the rep comes and says,"You have to come for the event! There's no one else."......don't have a good feeling about the events.......heart is heavy.......don't know.....why am I afraid.....rather...what is scaring me.....the person there was staring at me..........

(I reach my room and end up wasting half-an-hour staring out of my window. A friend drops in and we have a long conversation on arbitrary issues. Then I pay visit to another "intellectual" friend of mine. We share some wisdom and thus gain, a trifle, by it. It is dinner time by then. Next....)Shit! All time wasted....there is so much to be done......there I am with guilt etched upon very thought of mine.....what to do...how to control those desires.....shit.........*(^%$#()*&*

(Late at night......) Still haven't started Vernon God Little.....why do I indulge in trivial activities only to repent later....so much time wasted.......this never happened in school days......has the IIT system been responsible for all this.....or my own actions....my own deliberations.....shit.......where is all this leading me.......

As I write all this, balderdash it may seem, but it means hell to me. I have spent two months of this semester doing this. Those confused feelings, those states of utter bewilderment, they are all taking a toll on me. Movies cheer me up. Sometimes books too. I always go home, heavy-hearted and come back to hostel light-hearted. Home makes me feel better. But I am none the better at home. I succumb to all kinds of cravings over there.

I don't have a good feeling about it. It has started raining just now. Days of torturous heat, sweating and now rains will take that all away. It's so easy for the rains to ease the weather which starts getting on my nerves. May be a rain exists which will those bizzare desires of mine.....someday...perhaps..... I am waiting.........

Some thoughts......

The thoughts I will put forward have been held for long in my memory. I still don't know, what stopped me from wording them.

Lately much of my energies have been diverted to cinema. Having an enviable collection is not enough. Though it gives me great pleasure when I think of the great works which I possess, and what an honour it is.

And the story doesn't end here. The collection is still growing, though the pace has slackened considerably over the past couple of months. Yet the ones I get, are those which I have cherished for long or those which need to be added for the betterment of collection.

My pace of watching movies has also grown significantly. Lately, every alternate day I try to watch a movie. A small desire in the initial days has matured into an insatiable hunger for more and more and more...

Yesterday I saw Kal Ho Naa Ho. But for the songs, the movie was heart-rendering. Songs were good, no doubt, but they dampen the momentum of the movie, and in some cases just bring it to a stand-still. That's the major problem with Bollywood movies today. Another bone of contention was Saif Ali Khan's lack lustre performance. He is just not fit for emotional roles. Look at Parineeta, Hum Tum and the climactic scenes of Kal Ho Naa Ho. He has failed miserably and is only good at doing comical roles or the likes of Dil Chahta Hai.

Much to my dismay, I try to extricate thematic elements from every movie and that too while watching. It gets boring very often. For instance when Naina's mother was explaining the meaning of relationships to her, I was busy putting those moral values in a larger frame of reference. A thought occurred to me(and occurs very often after watching a Bollywood film) that most of the Hindi films deal with relationships, love and marriage. Although they may differ on certain aspects, but more or less they pertain to the general concept of relations.

This "Analyzing.." business may not be so boring for Western movies though. All the more, it makes sense to analyze them, and a good movie may require a certain level of intellect to deal with them. Rear Window was one such case. This Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece is pretty complicated as far as relation between the protagonist(played by Cary Grant) and his girl-friend Lisa are concerned. I was only able to acknowledge the theme of ethics of voyeurism and marriage in the movie. But Wikipedia told me that the movie had much more food for thought than I could possibly imagine. I was bewildered that people had done so much research on a not-so-interesting movie.

Anyway, my passion for cinema is still amateur and I have to travel many miles before I can confidently put forth my prowess in Cinema. The beauty of cinema is not an easy thing to admire. But I am prepared to devote unbounded time towards this beautiful art and wish to gain as much as I can.

I proposed, I don't know who disposed...

Circumstances demand that I should be a little more regular in the noble art of blogging.

I have been generous enough(to whom?) to update this blog with the latest movie or the book. But the main point of creating a blog seems to have lost its purpose.

For instance, just before doing the honours I was building up a chain of thoughts to be translated into words over here. But as I type, each link breaks open and this is what I am writing.

Just to give this entry a more important look, let me inform the respectable reader that I last saw Chak De! India and am currently reading The Story of My Experiments With Truth by M.K. Gandhi.

Gandhiji has brilliantly put forward his life's journey, and with inspirational candidness has succeeded in mentioning his short-comings as well as all his juvenile wrong-doings. It's very rare these days to find someone admitting his/her faults and weaknesses. Such display of honesty has touched my heart. Though the pace of the book has been a little sluggish till now, nonetheless I'm hoping that it'll turn out to be a great read.

That's the problem. As I write, a feeling of sleepiness creeps in. This problem has definitely played a major role in abstaining me from blogging. Bah....