A very long comeback

I haven't posted in such a long while
What I want to say might take a mile
But I am a bit bored
And whatever I may hoard
Long post, you know, just ain't my style!

Now you'll think, is he going to write
This whole damn post in limericks trite
You are fooling yourself
For I might need help
If I can keep yapping like this all night!

Besides, I just don't have the patience
To form rhymes and word-relations
So Instead of the poetic
I'll settle for the pathetic:
A prosiac description of my vacations...

Vacations

My memory is muddy...
Did I, or did I not, study?

Well, in 20 days, I enter the third year of college, which is the last year here in India. So, in one year, I'll be a bachelor of science, majoring in physics. Well, hopefully ;).

This vacations, I tried to study physics, and failed. Partly. I am on schedule with mathematical physics, and quantum mech can be covered too, but I am lagging behind in mechanics and electrodynamics. I also found out that I cant study at home. Maybe I'm just giving excuses.

In short, I need the vacations to end. Or maybe not. We finished shooting for our movie this week, absconding soul and me. Now we have to edit it, and we'll put it on youtube. This vacation is giving me a final chance to live life freely before I grind my brains in TY (that's third year).

But I shouldn't get used to this, otherwise I wont be able to study when college starts. I am addicted to the PC and to the TV somewhat, and to fun in general. I need to stop that. I should be making sacrifices, not posting on my blog. And not procrastinating.

Just goes to show that you can know what to do and still not do it. I think it's called Lethargy.

After that pathetically silly rant above
What crap am I gonna serve NOW?
It's just a movie review
A movie you should view
Instead of mentally cursing me.. ow!

Life in a... Metro

An ensemble story. A star cast that reads like the who's who of promising independent actors. An entertaining movie that also manages to be mature. And, most of all, a lean movie that clocks in at 2.2 hours. What more can I ask for?

Well, in more detail, Metro is 3 stories in parallel: That of Shilpa Shetty and Kay Kay's marriage, and their respective affairs with Shiney and Kangana; Sharman's love of Kangana; and of Konkana Sen's 20 yr old virgin who's meeting men for marriage, among them Irrfan Khan's silly, weird (mild) voyeur. The performances all range from Good to Great, the best being Shilpa Shetty, Irrfan Khan and Kay Kay. Kay Kay shows is one of the best actors in bollywood by following an enjoyable turn in Honeymoon Travels with this portrayal of an unfaithful husband. Watch him in the scene where he confesses his affair to his wife, and learns of her affair too. Shilpa Shetty gives her best performance ever as his wife, and the distressing sacrifices she makes.

The cinematography is beautiful, capturing the city as well as the individuals. Anurag Basu's direction is top-notch. He handles highly emotional scenes effectively. The editing is simply superb: it never bores, and the transitions from one story to another are smooth.

The few problems I had were: The Dharmendra-Nafisa Ali story is simply too over-the-top. It should've been edited out, perhaps giving more screen time to Shiney and Kangana. And the ending is not at all satisfactory. I wonder why, after writing such a mature and realistic movie, the director chose such a "bollywood ending". And the Metro band which surfaces in every song, sometimes takes essential screen space away from the actors.

But Metro is still a great deal better
Than the usual masala in the theatre
I recommend it highly
While noting wryly
That it could have been a lot better!

Freedom, where art thou?

Freedom of speech. Case in point: Vandalising by Bajrag Dal of certain " religiously hurtful" painting in M S University. What happened was that an student at an arts college painted stuff that was “derogatory” to Vishnu, Durga and Jesus Christ, for an internal evaluation. A Bajrang Dal (a conservative Hindu group) broke into the college, beat him up, vandalised his paintings, and had the police arrest him.

Unless it's escaped you, note the irony: His paintings, which were not public, were exposed to the media by a person who broke into an educational institution, damages private property, beat a student. The paintings, in private, could just not hurt anyone, because they were, er, not public. And who was arrested? Not person who vandalised his paintings, but the artist!

MSU's vice-chancellor refused to help the poor artist, who was stuck in jail for 4 days. The Dean of the Arts faculty protested, refused to apologise to the religious zealots. As a result, he was suspended. The political angle is apparent here. Bajrang Dal has support of the BJP, which is the ruling party in Gujarat. It is sad when educational institutions are made subject to such religious politics.

The main issue here, however, is of freedom of speech. Does an artist have a right to draw paintings which could go against religious sentiment? In most European countries, the answer would be an unambiguous "yes". In India, however, one cannot go too far with work that hurts religious sentiments intentionally. And that is essential, because India is a multi-cultural country if there ever was one, and it is necessary for communal harmony. But sometimes people go overboard with the application of this law, mainly backed by extremists and political parties. Where is the essential human right, freedom of speech, in all this? Well, it is certainly there, but the law protects it against it's tremendous potential for misuse, in a society like India's.

I won't say much, more, will let other, more knowledgeable people do the talking. (The first two for the law, the last for the art).

Art, free-minded, pleads to thee,
"Religion, please don't hurt me!"

Odds and Ends

Don't be bored too early, mates
This has just begun, Avast!
You are now entering the gates
I save the best, for last!

But, you should note, I make no such claim. The Odds and Ends in this section's title simply means that I am tired of creating more sections. Too long an article, this has been.

Well, absconding soul and I finished shooting for the trains movie. The editing is all that remains, but it'll be hard to create a coherent movie out of the tens of clips we have. (Yes, tens was once a big number.) And we have to search for music. But, I assure you, we have some fantastic footage. We will put the video up on Youtube once we finish editing.

Keep an eye on French Fries and Videotape, it'll have a post on Superhero movies soon.
Absconding soul posted an article recently on intolerance in Indian society.
Anne has a post on the experience of reading a book.
Laevanesce posted a very weird poem some days ago.

A final limerick to relieve you, at last
The final draft has now been cast
Lets raise a toast
To a very long post
Which began sometime in the distant past!