Gone Girl,,,

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

stunning concept of the book,,,loved the first 60% book,,,,i think the author lost some grip for the latter part,,,should have been more concrete,,,,looked like the author finished it in a rush,,,

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Andala Rakshasi,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Have been longing to see the movie from the moment i saw the trailer of it - so poetic - so beautiful - so romantic - so so so adorable character of Midhuna,,,,

Finally, after watching the movie with fullest involvement and eagerness, trying to catch my thoughts over here. Let me see how far i can,,,,

The movie was definitely a half satisfying meal. Too many awesome items served,,,some greatly cooked, some half cooked, some very badly cooked. Though the list of items were great, the meal finally was not the same.

Story wise:
Really loved the way the two characters LOVE the girl,,,just GREAT,,,,
The concept taken by the director is a brave attempt. I really appreciate him for that. But, would have loved it more in the form of a novel.

Movie wise:
Some of the scenes were little too complex like the one the girl talks to the village ladies.
Gautam's acting was little okay compared to his voice. Some professional dubbing would have done a great difference.
Even surya's character probably was a little bit more for the actor. He cannot express completely.
Midhuna is just awesome. 100% justified the role,,,really really lived in the character.

Many times, the scenes were just jumping in. Especially in first half, the scenes just look like many tapes attached with some missing links. Lesser scenes and more continuity would have been really great.

Some of the scenes would have looked great on the paper, but did not really get the involvement needed on the screen, like the projector scene, the heroine accident and many other scenes,,,

Some of the dialogues were really great,,,

Really loved the music of the movie,,,,,

Overall,,,should really appreciate the attempt, but something was definitely missing.

Pather Panchali(1955) - Satyajit Ray movie

After watching so many gr8, nice, worst movies from different parts of world, I have been thinking to watch some movies made by gr8 path breaking and critically acclaimed indian directors as well. But, for some reason it was always getting delayed for unknown reasons,,,,

Today, after watching the nice "Well done abba" movie from netflix and finding that it was made by THE Shyam Benegal, I was really happily surprised. Because, there was always some feeling in me that, I will get bored watching the movies made by the likes of Satyajit Ray/Shyam Benegal,,etc . This movie anyways proved me wrong.

So, through some googling finally decided to watch the first movie of Satyajit Ray "Pather Panchali". Luckily found a subtitled version of the bengali movie in the youtube itself.

Pather Panchali

I was able to watch the two hour movie without dragging a single minute from it.

It was a great experience to see the India from the year 1955. How much ever you read or see the timeframe recreated in later movies, watching a movie filmed in 1955 was a complete different experience.

The movie is about a 5 member bengali family and their struggle to live. I don't want to write anything about the story and spoil the fun of watching the movie :).

The acting by all the actors was just natural. It felt more like watching their real lives rather than someones acting.

I really really liked the way each and every character is created in the movie. Everything just taken from our day to day lives. And, with all these the Director was able to create a gripping movie and make me sit for two hours watching  it.

So, I would surely try to watch more movies from such great Indian directors. 

First long drive,,,,

After becoming An Officially Licensed Driver, I finally decided to go on a much waited long drive in my car to explore The Lone Star State,  Texas (And, yes I bought a car in March and got a driving license on May 23rd, 2012 :)). 

Apart from driving and freedom, the other most important thing i have been enjoying the maximum in the car is music. After coming out of the college hostel in 2005, the only place where I am really enjoying the LOUD LOUD LOUD music is in the car while driving alone,,,its really such an awesome fun listening to all the songs we like in the way we like :),,,and luckily the car i bought has got some nice speakers. My apartment being very near to the office, so many times I just drive further and come back just to continue and finish listening to those songs :)

Then, felt to just go alone on this drive as I was not interested in planning this trip much and wanted to just go on the flow :) 

Destination point decided as "San Antonio" as it was around 200 miles: not too long and not too short :).

Started from Houston, TX on Saturday(May 26th) morning 7:00 AM. All the roads were empty and the Houston I saw with those early sun rays was much better. Getting on to the I-10 was easier due to the recent repeated trips to Bollywood 6 theatres :)

Drove for around 60 miles listening to some 15 mass-masala/classic telugu songs and took an exit from I-10 to some town called Sealy, TX. 

Thought of having some coffee and breakfast there. The roads were smaller, simpler and older. It was nice driving there. And, the place was having older model street lights like the ones we have in India :).

With just some 10 mins of driving, reached the downtown of the place. The downtown area was again a small place but was really awesome. There was a clock tower in the center and a set of all varieties of shops and banks on both sides of the roads. It was just like one of those city centers they show in hundreds of american movies which I was finding in Houston.

Being weekend and just 8'O clock in the morning, none of the shops were open. I just got down and walked around. Anyway, couldn't find any open local cafe to have my breakfast. And, I had already decided not to eat in any of those Franchises which are already available in Houston.

Got back to I-10 and continued driving. After driving for 20 miles, found another exit to a town called Columbus.

Immediately took an exit and entered the town. This also looked like a small place and I was just slowly driving around. Luckily, saw a board called Becky's Cafe. 

It looked like the exact place I was looking for. Even though, it was looking simpler outside, it was quite spacious inside. Looked like run by a group of ladies, it was nicely decorated. There was a small pastry hut in the middle of the place and 

it added to the beauty of the place. 

They were really very friendly. Being a vegetarian, I did not have much of a choice and so ordered scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, Chocolate cream pastry with lots of coffee :). 

Everything tasted really good. May be because of the weekend, lots of families visited the restaurant for their morning breakfasts. Many of the american families, really enjoy their family breakfasts in weekends. I have seen many times. The complete family from grand parents to parents to kids will be present and will have good time. Some kid's simple birthday celebration was also going on in one corner. Had a really long breakfast for some 45 minutes covering some news and gossips from the iphone :)

Started from Columbus at around 10:00 AM and this did not join the I-10. And, instead stayed on US-90 which goes in parallel to I-10 but will have provide better view of surrounding farms and villages than from I-10. 

Even though there was no breathtakingly beautiful scenery around, there were some really nice things I saw:

some huge huge farms-agricultural equipment-old cars just lying around-beautiful isolated small houses in the farms-rugged people driving their trucks with their cowboy hats-lot of cattle roaming around in the fields,,etc. I couldn't stop and take many pictures and being a photographer I am, the ones I took were also pretty awful :)

After driving for around 70 miles, my next stop was at BUC-EEE'S in Luling. 

It is really a great place to stop. Even though there are lots of good things there, they are most famous for their Restrooms :D. Apart from maintaining them very clean, they have a very good old texas cow boy kind of theme they follow which makes them a must place to visit. The whole place is very nicely designed full of old cow boy movie style boards and decorative items. They have amazing collection of food items too.

Had some junk food and nice coffee there and did some shopping too.

It was around 12:30 PM by the time I had started back from Buc-ee's.

Now I was just 60 miles away from San Antonio. So I needed the GPS to guide me into the city. Also, as I had no idea what I was going to do there, did some searching to spend some nice places to spend the afternoon and evening. Found that all of the places are nearby to downtown. Selected some very old Majestic theater as a destination GPS and started to San Antonio.

It was around 1:30 by the time I reached the downtown of San Antonio and found some parking.

It took around SIX and HALF HOURS to travel 200 miles :). I had really enjoyed every moment of the driving and music and all the intermediately stops.

The downtown was old and good. Was able to spend next four hours walking around all those beautiful places and parks around. The must see of San Antonio is the River walk. Its like the city of Venice. We should see the River walk in morning as well as in the night. 

 

Had a nice leisurely Italian lunch at 6:00 PM in a restaurant on River Walk. Spent the evening watching a good music concert(piano competition), which I thought I may not enjoy much. But, I ended up spending three and half hours there. The singers and musicians were really great(At least to my standard :)) and never bored with such a variety of songs. It was also fun. Some new things I saw were:

people requesting the songs and they playing them dynamically-piano competition-the participation from the crowd and enthusiasm they have-continuous auction of space on the mirror there which people can buy and write messages on.

Someone even proposed through that space :)

Finally started back to Houston at around 10:30 PM with a single break only at BUC-EE's for a 24 ounce of coffee :) and reached home by 2:00 PM.

It was fun. Will surely have to plan one more such unplanned trip again :)

Jogging listening to DevaRaagam on Hyd Radio Mirchi,,,,

Coming to the pleasant Matzke park on these late evenings where kids are all playing around and adults walking & jogging, when the sun is about to disperse, running around with the pleasant wind touching you, listening to some of the wonderful devotional songs by the likes of balamurali Krishna and m.s.subbalakshmi gasru on the morning DevaRaagam program of hyderabad Radio Mirchi are really some of those moments when U R AT COMPLETE PEACE :)

Rockstar,,,,,a honest attempt,,,

        

        While ARR and Imtiaz Ali have added one more feather to their cap, Ranbir is the one who just shows what he is really capable of. 

        Imtiaz ali has created such a wonderful character, Ranbir lives through it:

as a simple normal town boy who is dreaming big,,

as a BAD BOY for media,,,the outbursts,,,

as a lover boy having found the true love in one girl,,,

as a true rockstar on stage performing with broken heart and with amazing expressions and body language,,,

the innocence or frank clean water like acting he sometimes does with the music companies or girls parents,,

The acting was just mind blowing,,,

        Hearing the songs separately, i liked them but expected some more from ARR. But, the background score in the movie and the songs with picturization showed his class. He is THE MAN to bring life to such directors movies. Without such quality music, movie will look rubbish,,,

        Imtiaz should be really appreciated for such a honest attempt without any compromises. I guess "if he had stuck to not so complex second half and the complex love story, and made a much simpler Rockstar with rags-to-riches kind of story, there are chances it would have been a massive hit.". But, he did not compromise and just went by the way his characters had taken him,,,he is just an amazing story writer and story teller,,,

Rockstar is surely a must watch movie and going to be a classic as time goes by,,

Wishing to see more such attempts by our film makers,,,

Gone with the wind,,,

 A movie about a lady named Scarlett O'Hara, set in southern states of USA(Atlanta,,etc), during the American Civil War.

It was a 3 hours 50 minutes movie. But, I never got bored except for the 5 longs minutes title and intermission screens with some music :)
You see such an amount of *Passion* in some of the movies that, you can just feel it while watching the movie. 


Scarlett O'Hara:
Seventy to Eighty percent of the screen time would have been occupied by the Film's main character Scarlett. The artist has acted so nicely during all the kind of scenes involving *blushing, flirting, jealous, sobbing, caring, stubborn, hatred, anger, innocence, love to family, love for land, love for a man, love to a friend, selfish, fear, funny, shame, sympathy and may be some more*. I had come up with above words just by recollecting the scenes from the movie without much trouble.
The character is not a great one or wicked one. It's too complex to put in some bucket. At times you hate her for some things and at times, you will love her. And that is how all(atleast most of) human beings can be. You can't just be perfect in eyes of everyone. She gets scared seeing a problem, but immediately recovers and faces it with bravery instead of running away. I just loved her character through out the movie.


Rhett Butler:
A man who knows how to live the life to the fullest. Understands the people deeply. He is *The Problem Solver*. Knows how to handle people n situations. Many at times, he is very selfish, not caring about anything more than himself. But, at time of need surely goes to any extent to help the friends.
He is in deep love for Scarlett knowing from the beginning that she loves some one else. Tries to woo her and ignore her when it does not work. But, finally gives up and marries her.
What ever he does, he gives his 100% fighting for the nation, helping the friends, having FUN(drinks n girls), loving a woman, loving his daughter. We will just feel, that is how we should be :)


Melanie Hamilton:
A perfect humanitarian. A loving wife, caring friend, caring human. 
A very simple n straight character in the movie.


Ashley Wilkes:
Starts off a great character, but doesn't end a great one. Hates war completely but joins it as it was more bad to ignore it. Little confused one in case of *love* [Probably, his confusion is the reason for the whole movie :)]. But still greatly *cares* his wife and by the end looks like completely loves her too,,,


These are the four characters the movie is all about. There are many other things that go on in the movie but all of them around the above four.


The movie is made at leisure. Never you will see any hurry. Also, never you see a scene just for the heck of it.


It feels good to see such movies made or books written with such great love n passion.