Happy for Spielberg
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Almost all his movies (combined gross collection higher than any other director in the history, barring none, including inflation) depicted the fight between big vs small, and the victory of the latter. Take Duel, Jaws, ET or Jurassic Park, they all had humans pitted against the impossible bigs.
While Indiana Jones Trilogy (soon to be Quadra) continued the trend of adventure like in his other movies, it also showed a humor angle to his story telling. Which took a backseat as he directed Schindler’s List or Saving private Ryan and finally winning the Oscars that he richly deserved.
Things changed after that: his movies became sort of medleys, not in a compartmental form, but conceptually. The big and small theme continued, but in a very subtle way. It was more of man versus man, or man versus system. The backdrop, instead of being the highlight became what it is supposed to be, the backdrop to the story. Be it the Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can or the latest, The Terminal.
Terminal also has the theme of man versus the state/situation. But here he doesnt take the fight, but lives through it. Critics may have termed the movie a no-go, but that happens when you have such a reputation and they expect you to make movie in the format they have set for you. But I am happy for Spielberg, the movie was light and touchy, and most of all, current.
Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Kya?
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The moment I saw “Item Girl - Maria Gorreti” in the opening titles, I had a hunch that this one would a interesting ride. Well, come to think of how I decided to rent this movie itself was an interesting one.
I was reading about Quentin on imdb.com and to my surprise saw a Hindi movie in his filmography. I was like, are you serious? It was part of the end credits (Thanks to: QT), but the movie had a few QT elements.
First the title - Waisa Bhi Hota Hai: Part II; It was first of its kind for a Hindi movie. The soundtrack was excellent as in all QT movies todate. Then the light, random (but yet connected) way of sub-stories threatening to merge at some point . Casual killings. Splashing limelight on unknown characters (remember The Bonnie Situation?). Director’s brief cameo and ofcourse, the natural acting. There were a few words about the Japanese mafia as well, just to make the viewer doubly sure 
Prashant Narayan, who played the killer in distress, is a find (and that is an under statement). I fail to understand how Arshad Warsi failed to make a big mark in Bollywood (notwithstanding Maria Goretti and Munnabhai). There may have been some disconnect or bad flow in scene times/ sequences towards the end, and some disappointment in the initial story build-up, but this one was one of the “real” hadke crossover movies. Excellent (4.5/5)
Not to miss: The song, “Allah ke bande”; Trivia: Director Shashanka Gosh was the creative director of MTV and [V]
Business of Education
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Carrying on a discussion over lunch table with Rama. He is a design student doing his thesis in our group. The point of discussion was about the quality of the design students that come out of institutes like NID which by legacy itself is seen as the face of design education in India.
The number of student intake has increased many a fold in the design institutes over the past few years. One reason for that is the “seeming” requirement from the industry, they seem to be appreciating design skills now (for a change?).
Many of the schools have tie up with industries. This, in a way is very helpful for the schools who are left to raise their own funds. But my point of debate was that the industry can influence the school management on the decision on the “character” of the design school, or in a rare case a design movement.
And the practical stand point of institutes like NID is to have more students in new and different streams but the same staff to teach them. Plain mathematics of profit as the fees are much hiked up now. Education sadly has become a business, just like the industries that are supporting it!
IMO, the character of the designer is built by teaching with the agenda of having no agenda. Business has no role to play here, but to support education, unselfishly.
My Rock
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Michelle made a post about her 100 favorite songs. But I guess with a list that long, you will end up including a few on ‘how-can-I-leave-that-out’ reasons. So I thought I will put down 10, and another 10 as close runs.
Exposure to music happened during college, the place where 70’s rock rules! The list may sound like a college party request list. But how many of the newer songs stay with you longer than 3-6 months? Drops of Jupiter? May be. But as for music in general in the new millennium, I doubt any.
- Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin
- Layla - Derek & The Dominos
- Dust In The Wind - Kansas
- Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
- Still Loving You - Scorpions
- Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits
- Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
- Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
- Nothing Else Matters - Metallica
- With Or Without You - U2
Quote
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While we are at it, one more quote. I was single, careless and in search of (meaning of) life when I first heard this. Tell me, it wont haunt you, liar.
A guy told me one time, “Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.”
- Neil McCauley (Robert de Niro), Heat
Old Dreams
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“The old dreams were good dreams; they didn’t work out, but I am glad I had them”
- Robert Kincaid, The Bridges of Madison County
October Movies
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1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Excellent (not intimidating) concept, and very tricky to handle. Beautifully directed. Story about two lovers peeved off with each other, trying to erase their memories of each other. During the process, in their memories they realize that they are making a mistake. They try to run way and hide in unexplored memory and cheat the process. Needs patience, not for the casual movie goer for sure. Jim Carrey definitely would get nominated for this one. (5/5)
2. Man on Fire: I rented the movie because of Dakota Fanning (and, yes, Denzel). It could have been a John Woo movie, the plot is such, and Tony Scott’s swoosh visuals and overlays could have made it a Matrix genre. But the script spends time on the characters, even small ones, and gives a very indulging feel to the movie. Denzel should get a nomination (4.5/5)
3. In America: It is a story about how an Irish family migrated to the US is building a new life after the loss of their third child to brain tumor. The story is told from the first daughter’s perspective amongst poverty and hardship. The sisters (in real life too) are outstanding. Amazing story telling and very gripping style of direction. If you are interested in independent films, this one is a must watch. (5/5)
4. Collateral: Typical Michael Mann structure and storytelling. Not anywhere close to Heat, but if you liked its story and script, watch this one. I see a lot of similarities with the kind of roles that Tom Cruise is doing, with Indian actors Kamal Hasan and Aamir Khan. (Guess, great actors will always have something in common). Tom’s last line in the movie is just brilliant script writing in terms of closure (4/5)
Who remembers Holodeck73?
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I tried to, but couldnt remember the first URL that I ever typed into the Netscape 2.0’s location bar (No, not netscape; It must have opened home.netscape by default).
But I do remember my first search: “graphic design”. And though I dont recall the result page, that’s where I really discovered the power of hyperlink. And amongst others, Holodeck73.
h73.com was one of the best design portals while I was growing up with the Internet (read mid 90’s). There were others like Project Cool or IPPA, but h73 was different. It was truly the inspirational launchpad as it called itself. I discovered many other great sites like Shift or PrayStation from h73. But in 2001 or so, the site was shutdown to make way for newstoday.com
After years, yesterday I was going through an old note and remembered the guy who was running h73, googled his name - Mat Mejia - and reached his current site, droppod.com. And through the second scroll, saw this once familiar winged logo. Archived there, was the last homepage of h73. That was nostalgic. It even sounds nostalgic - the last homepage of h73!
I wrote to Mat and said Hello. He said Hello too, but probably didnt know the background of my mail. Anyways, it paved a way to rediscover those very hyperlinks that I had once chanced upon on a results page. The next post looks like: “Design Links Update”
Philadelphia
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I cant believe I never watched this movie in full, till today. Every time I caught it while surfing the channels, I always wished I could catch it from beginning. And after all these years, I watched the movie tonight.
It wasn’t about winning, thankfully. It was about love and life. Tom Hanks was outstanding in the scene when he walks out on to the street from Denzel’s office - he deserved the Oscar for that alone. Cannot forget the opera scene, especially Denzel’s reactions. Demme is one of the best director when it comes to telling an underlying story.
Rita Kempley of Washington Post said what I want to: “It’s less like a film by Demme than the best of Frank Capra. It is not just canny, corny and blatantly patriotic, but compassionate, compelling and emotionally devastating.”
The Plug
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Having seen Movable Type engine in action, I became a fan and chose to ignore my blogger account and set up my blog at mblog.com sometime ago. (That explains the silence here)
Guess what? Sighting some silly reasons they just one day pulled the plug to mblog.com. And are demanding $35 to retrieve the posts on the server! I have not done anything on my blog that is remotely a breakthrough in my writing, so I just let it pass. I am wondering about the serious writers. Poor souls! (Sigh)
Lessons learnt from this episode: (1) Always keep a back up, (2) Do not blog anything serious - LOL and most important (3) Be loyal.
