sssith...

i wish someone has hissed that to george lucas...the fans would have been spared the 'revenge' which should have ideally been called 'the let down', and he would have rested upon his laurels as asked.

ssssith down! i wish someone had told me to do just that...the dinosaur exhibit was soooo huge, i felt my age. my arms ache from carrying the souvenirs. my two enthusiastic mates were busy touching fossils and feeling footprints...after my first scream (jurassic park, when the t.rex swallows the lawyer), i've never really been comfortable around dinosaurs (even if they are just a bunch of bones tied together with giant twisties. i realised that my stomach was twistd up in knots when we were walking back through the park and i wanted to upchuck in the Shakespeare park. (thank goodness i was spared that ignominy by the larkspurs and the last of the tulips).

i wonder if broadway plays are supposed to have so much over the top acting...i know 'The Producers' is supposed to be an exaggeration, but when the words are so clever, why exaggerate the body movements? but i seemed to be the only one in the audience who winced at some of them...and i apart from the 'adolf elizabeth hitler, descendant of many generations of english queens' the gay jokes in the play are stupid. i have way too many gay friends, some flamingly so, but none of them are so typecast as in the play. i wonder of the coffee and cheesecake have dulled everyone...

apple crumble at the europa cafe is incredible. ta!

the revenge of the sith

methinks John Abraham's 'Karam' was a far better film than Revenge of the Sith. Admitted, it steals swordfights and gunfights from all kinds of films, but at least it does so unashamedly, without pretenses. in 'Star Wars', george lucas simply uses fiery lava landscape to distract us from sad sabre fights. too many hands and legs get cut off... and it's not as fun as in Kill Bill. I was so disappointed (i have been a big big star wars fan) i wished i had seen the finale of CSI directed by Quentin Tarantino instead (i hate watching tv).

the review of the film in the new yorker magazine and the village voice is so good, i shall not say any more...shall find out if one may reproduce bits from it and post it here...

meanwhile i am off to see the dinosaur exhibit at the natural history museum...

unplanned

i planned the lace,
i planned the face,
hair and hands
and legs as well,
where and when,
were planned and how!
but your time and mine
somewhere, somehow,
could never really jell.

but just that day,
upon a whim,
when i was locked out
in the summer sun,
i called to hear your voice.

you asked me where i was,
and walked up to meet my sighs.

the dust, the heat,
had had their fill,
and my lips were
burning dry,
my clothes did smell
like a battered day,
and i know i looked like hell.

but then i kissed you,
and you kissed me,
i think it went quite well,
so danger be hanged,
and planning be damned,
i'll have it this way again!

california dreamin

it's strange. coming back to a country that once classified you as mere H4. i want to desperately feel that wide-eyed wonder tourists feel about a new place. i want to enjoy the wide open spaces and my anonymity and forget about overcrowded streets of mumbai, the claustrophobia inducing family i have left behind for a few weeks...

i am hoping something will snap me out of this weird 'untouched' mode i am in right now.

buy 'made in india' linen dresses from the petites section
calfornia chinese at 'pf changs'
new comp at fry's, the one i am using right now
starbucks coffee
new DS games
borders
seriously think of starting india's first 'public storage'
bought spongebob squarepants the movie on dvd and shall we dance (original japanese)

theres the new exploratorium to be seen, friends to be met, chocolate to be had. but why do my thoughts go back to an unfinished

stolen

was it a bad idea
on that humid
hot afternoon,
to turn
a crumpled shirt
with a brown button,
wince on a funny bone,
smudge on glasses,
arms everywhere,
undone hair,
funny moans
escaping locked lips,
taste and smell,
trembling hands,
a whispered promise
'some other time',
into a memory?

Wakt. comic timing, but little else.

as with most hindi films, one is supposed to leave the brains resting back home. when someone suggested Wakt, i thought it would be a welcome relief from the flood of the telegu movies i have been viewing lately (don't ask!).

if you are still waiting to see the film, here are a few dos and don'ts.

take your 'amitabh bachchan hai to film dekhnee hee hai' button. (remember to hide it in the wallet on way back home, then invest in 'boman irani is funny' button).

do not forget to take a calculator (or someone who can add for you). that's for counting the number of times akshay kumar breaks into tears. i'd rather see him beat up baddies in b-grade action flicks. one forgets to count simply because one gets sidetracked into debating whether the effort of squeezing out tears is actually acting or just a hidden camera thing of a constipated man.

amitabh bachchan hams it. but i am a big fan, so i could see only his impeccable comic timing. he should not be wearing abu jani sandeep khosla stuff. maybe just armani.

speaking of comic timing, i loved boman irani.

the deadpan servant thing got to be too much after a while and one began wondering what he chap is going to say that would be completely unrelated.

one could happily carry on a conversation with a pal on the cell phone (without tuning it to 'silent' mode) because the soundtrack is so loud, even the neighbor would not hear your conversation.

i think there are a few songs in the film but don't remember them, and i dont think anyone else will either.

the mom in the film wears very nice sarees.

if you have to see the film, take a few happily drunk friends along. fortify yourself with coffee or whatever (the last hour actually tests your 'stay put in the seat' skills).

the film actually uses the principle of 'suspension of disbelief' to the fullest. film schools may use it as an example in the future. am glad i do not have to study for credits any more.

*****

i saw a scene of the film being shot and was wowed by amitabh bachchan's skill. this is the scene where amitabh bachchan is at the hospital, and akshay comes to see him but then gets annoyed at his taunts, hands money over to the mom. one minute the big b was teasing me about how his fans have switched over to become fans of his son (i mentioned Dhoom a couple of times), and the next minute he had slipped into the role. absolutely effortless!

*****

I don't care what people think. Chiranjeevi decked up in a mythological costume drama. 'Manjunatha' looks heartstoppingly good! The man has legs!

Saundarya died too early. if one had to compare her to Priyanka Chopra, i'd choose Saundarya as she would look today, exhumed, any day. maybe we could offer Priyanka Chopra instead and throw in Neha Dhupia for a bargain with the devil and bring Saundarya back.

*****