Comments by as (last 300)
On August 21st, 2009 › Context
On July 7th, 2009 › Context
On July 3rd, 2009 › Context
On March 2nd, 2009 › Context
On March 2nd, 2009 › Context
On March 1st, 2009 › Context
I don't think Boyle caught the pulse of Bombay. It feels more like a tourist's first impression. Not that Rushdie was any better in Moor's Last Sigh. His sermon from Malabar Hill even managed to get its solitary marathi line completely wrong.
Sacred Games and Love and Longing in Bombay do (among other things) the pulse of Bombay biz much better than both.
On March 1st, 2009 › Context
Hmm. I thought it was the weakest moment. A kid jumping in pool of excrement to escape Nazi murderers is believable. This one feels like a stretch. Many real slum dwellers had similar WTF reaction to that scene (will find link if I get a chance).
On February 28th, 2009 › Context
On February 23rd, 2009 › Context
On February 23rd, 2009 › Context
I don't know man. I liked him in Sweet and Lowdown.
On February 21st, 2009 › Context
On February 19th, 2009 › Context
Maybe the numbers have gone down. But I actually know of one such case (a relative works at NGO for prisoner rehab). It's much more gruesome than Slumdog. The &%@# are behind the bars now.
On February 18th, 2009 › Context
On December 28th, 2008 › Context
Given our options this is true. But it is also equally true that it is our impotence that forces us to choose from these options. Options have to be created by years, if not decades of political and military effort, overt as well as covert. We have been too pacifist - which in our case, is just another word for lazy and corrupt. The snake that doesn't even hiss gets stepped on!
Also there is no point comparing us with Israel and pointing out US hypocrisy. As if there was ever something other than self-interest at play in international politics! The sooner we get our act together in actively protecting and promoting ours, the better.
On December 13th, 2008 › Context
Oh well - good to know that there are at least two other people who thought of it the same way. The fact that it can very much be interpreted as non-romantic male bonding is what makes it more interesting, I think.
On July 7th, 2009 › Context
Ros dude, chill! Let me bite your flame-bait a bit. Where did you detect the thrill? I can tell you for sure - 99.99999% Indians do not care if a firangi refers to India whether it is consequentially or inconsequentially! If the rest 11479 people do, well they are free to say so. After all it is a free country out here unlike our neighbor on the other side of Tibet :)
On July 3rd, 2009 › Context
It is the relaxed tone of the voice and the blatant playing to the media (for eg: the directions to set fire to the media-watched side of the Taj) that is most unsettling - almost unreal!
@RC: 'Proof' hardly matters in international relations. It is pretty much 'jiski laathi uski bhains'! We have to learn to wield a bigger stick. I do seriously doubt though whether we even have a stick big enough right now!
@RC: 'Proof' hardly matters in international relations. It is pretty much 'jiski laathi uski bhains'! We have to learn to wield a bigger stick. I do seriously doubt though whether we even have a stick big enough right now!
On March 2nd, 2009 › Context
"Plum" the depths. Some poor subeditor is going to pay.
On March 2nd, 2009 › Context
On March 1st, 2009 › Context
Danny Boyle caught the pulse of Bombay, the city that he feels territorial about because he believes it is his domain in the imagination.
I don't think Boyle caught the pulse of Bombay. It feels more like a tourist's first impression. Not that Rushdie was any better in Moor's Last Sigh. His sermon from Malabar Hill even managed to get its solitary marathi line completely wrong.
Sacred Games and Love and Longing in Bombay do (among other things) the pulse of Bombay biz much better than both.
On March 1st, 2009 › Context
and the Amitabh Bachchan moment nothing short of inspired
Hmm. I thought it was the weakest moment. A kid jumping in pool of excrement to escape Nazi murderers is believable. This one feels like a stretch. Many real slum dwellers had similar WTF reaction to that scene (will find link if I get a chance).
On February 28th, 2009 › Context
A well deserved zhapad. Much better than the typical thin-skinned desi response. Almost feels like part 2 of his essay on Attenborough's Gandhi. Salmanbhai is in top form here.
...an opulently photographed movie about extreme poverty...
I would suggest that Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films surpass Tolkien's originals, because, to be blunt, Jackson makes films better than Tolkien writes;...
With all that gyan, I wonder why he chose Deepa Mehta for his book. Hope it works out.
...an opulently photographed movie about extreme poverty...
I would suggest that Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films surpass Tolkien's originals, because, to be blunt, Jackson makes films better than Tolkien writes;...
With all that gyan, I wonder why he chose Deepa Mehta for his book. Hope it works out.
On February 23rd, 2009 › Context
Kunio Kato (La Maison en Petits Cubes) was really sweet w/ his Domo arigato Mr. Roboto.
On February 23rd, 2009 › Context
Is there a more over-rated actor than Sean Penn? Aside from Dead Man Walking (which owed more to Susan Sarandon’s performance), I can’t stand watching him in anything he does.
I don't know man. I liked him in Sweet and Lowdown.
On February 21st, 2009 › Context
I will be happy if In Bruges gets some love.
On February 19th, 2009 › Context
beggar kids are no longer purposely mutilated...
Maybe the numbers have gone down. But I actually know of one such case (a relative works at NGO for prisoner rehab). It's much more gruesome than Slumdog. The &%@# are behind the bars now.
On February 18th, 2009 › Context
And some western dresses are dowdy as fcuk.
On December 28th, 2008 › Context
It’s time that started getting discussed, instead of merely making it look like India is ‘impotent’, much as it seems that way.
Given our options this is true. But it is also equally true that it is our impotence that forces us to choose from these options. Options have to be created by years, if not decades of political and military effort, overt as well as covert. We have been too pacifist - which in our case, is just another word for lazy and corrupt. The snake that doesn't even hiss gets stepped on!
Also there is no point comparing us with Israel and pointing out US hypocrisy. As if there was ever something other than self-interest at play in international politics! The sooner we get our act together in actively protecting and promoting ours, the better.
On December 13th, 2008 › Context
The regulation probably would not happen anyway - I trust our legislators to be lazy and divided enough. The Indira era censorship was forced down from the very top. No politician in sight wields that kind of power anymore. With dozen MP regional political parties often holding the keys to power, the central govt itself is in no position today to force such things down the throats of the states. But all the talk about regulation could be, I think, good for it might force the news channels to self-regulate. The threats of regulation are, in this case, a part of trying to find the right balance. And no, we can't let market inefficiencies wreak havoc in matters of national security.