Lady In The Water

Manoj (M). Night Shyamalan's latest movie The Lady In The Water has released.

The critics have already written it off. Its performing badly at box-office. It could probably become the most badly criticized Shyamalan's movie.

But then after the initial criticism, there is a new crop of audience who have started liking the movie and its concept. Every Shyamalan movie is different. But people always tend to expect The Sixth Sense and that is where they get disappointed. Lady In The Water is no exception. Worse is, it has no trademark surprise ending, no spine chilling moments. A story which will appeal to just 5% of the audience.

But still, its so original! You hardly get to see such movies. Some guys also appreciated the amazing camera work which I couldn't distinguish as I saw a camera print downloaded on my computer hehehe. I will definitely see it on the bigger screen.

Things I liked about Lady In The Water :-

- Original concept

- Humor(which was rare in Shyamalan movies till now)

- Very effective background music score by James Newton Howard (I am already on the hunt for its mp3)

- Shyamalan's acting - Its quite a pleasant surprise. We were used to Subhash Ghai - style cameo appearances by Shyamalan in each of his movies. But in this movie he has quite a significant role as Vick Ran. He doesn't ham and sticks to the basics and original self, which I think is a significant enough achievement for a director as an actor.

To sum it up, I won't dare to request you all to see this movie as I always do with most of the movies I write about. But somehow I want you to watch and appreciate it.

PS - If you don't like it, kindly remember its Shyamalan's work, not mine :D

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Unlucky World Champs

I somehow feel for the Italians. Just one infamous headbutt incident and whole world is after them. Italy did play good throughout the tournament. They were the only team which played as a team rather than relying on individual performances, that too with positive results. Probably the only world champions who didn't get their share of praises and media coverage even after winning the world cup!

Materrazi, even after scoring 2 goals in the final is a villain. How ironic! Ofcourse, his act is not justifiable at all.

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Bollywood comedies

Recently while reading a movie review, I read some lines which said something like -

Why does every time a bollywood director makes a comedy, he expects us to leave our brains at home and watch it? Why can't we watch an intelligent comedy with our in brains in proper place?

So true! Most of the Bollywood comedies are physical comedies rather than intelligent ones. So audience are expected to digest every exaggerated action or a gesture as a comedy. Not that leave brains aside movies ain't fun. Andaz Apna Apna and Hera Pheri were good. But still....

When you see a movie, its impression on you is influenced by many factors.

- Whether you are tired / in a good mood.
- Whether you fought with your gf, wife,boss etc before watching the movie.
- How much you spent on movie, travel to the theatre?
- Type of person accompanying you while watching the movie.
- Was it in the theatre or on TV, VCD, DVD, pirated/original.

...and I am sure there are more factors. So the taste of humor(movies) is subjective.

Leave brain aside movies - Eg. Andaz Apna Apna, Hera Pheri take the icing. I was once a huge fan of David Dhawan but not any more.

There is one very unusual set of movies - Very serious movies (mostly Art movies) with a slight touch of humor. I tend to like these kind of movies. A classic example would be Matrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women directed by Manish Jha. It certainly need guts to use humor in such a sensitive subject.

Govinda era - I did enjoy No.1 series with Coolie no 1 topping the list. I was young then.

Priyadarshan - I do enjoy the PJs in his movies. Haven't seen his recent ones but did like Hulchul. Some say Chup Chup Ke too is good. And then there was Hera Pheri.

Chachi 420 - This too is one of my all time favorites. All the characters and pjs were awesome.

Badshah - I belong to a club in where members can't stand Shahrukh for long. But Badshah was a nice surprise.

Jane bhi do yaroon - I haven't seen many classics but JBDY remains my favorite from this section. I am yet to see Chupke Chupke.

Movies that never came into limelight - Something like Chupke Se. I am sure many of you must not even have heard its name. Om Puri and the team were awesome. Its sad to see movies like these don't get the attention they deserve.

Unintentional Humor - Movies with unintentional humor have a greatest impact on me. And this is why I am probably one of the biggest Mithunda fans. The list is never ending. But if you are willing to leave aside/ignore some vulgur stuff, Gunda is a must watch! Though as an exception, the movie belong to the Gundas in the movie rather than to Mithunda which is quite unusual. Let me avoid getting into the details as I have already praised Gunda thousands of times. Then there is Puru Raajkumar starrer Balbramhachari. Trust me, if you realize the tact of enjoying this genre of movies, life is great fun!

Unintentional vs Intentional - Many people think movies of Govinda and Mithunda belong to the same category. They are so wrong. What Govinda does is an intentional comedy whereas Mithunda prefers to concentrate on his serious acting. The comedy happen by itself. This is why Mithunda movies always tend to produce phenomenal results. This is also the reason why Govinda cannot attain a level which Mithunda has set. Forget the comparison.

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ps - As somebody asked When it comes to picking the Best Hindi Comedy movie ever made, can there be a unanimous choice ?

Can't be. Its subjective. But then there is always a chance of Andaz Apna Apna topping the polls. What say people?

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more ennui

I have managed to come of out TV addiction. Our cablewala doesn't pay tax

so half of the channels are off the air. Also there is this weird problem with our dumb TV. Half of the channels are locked. And no one is bothered to fix that problem. Maybe that helped me come out of TV addiction. Its hard to guarantee though that I wont get back to the idiot box. But as of now I am happy. Life is beautiful. These days I am addicted to internet. Thats altogether a different story but lets not get into that.

Today on star news (yes, I was watching TV) there was this coverage... 'Irfan - Teri Diwani'

One girl with a Gujju accent is deeply in love with Irfan Pathan. She was live on tv in one half. The other half was occupied by a psychiatrist who was trying her best to counsel her and at the same time was herself confused as to how to do it live on a television. The show went on and the effect was hilarious if you look at it that way. I immediately called my friend and he informed me that the other day there was this story of a teacher (some 50-60 yr old) who was having an affair with his student (female). His wife came to know and she beat her up (live on tv ... now i don't know how, some of you must have watched it too)..Then few people stripped him, applied some blackish stuff to his face and then hamare channel ke correspondent interviewed him.

The names are funny too. Irfan - Teri Diwani (with Teri Diwani song playing in background), Kashmakash, Umar pachpan ki dil bachpan ka, etc etc..

Not to forget the royal coverage given to Mika-Rakhi Sawant chumma contest.

Its sad to see this face of Indian media. Especially the news channels. These days they are probably on the peak of their insanity. Or maybe the worst is still to come!

Some documentaries are commendable but you cant deny the fact that majority are junk. Hopefully in future we could scan and select the stuff we watch so that it will save us a lot of unnecessary intellectual flatus.

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