That's how you're supposed to make movies!

Studing for midterms is really annoying, so fuck econ, I'd rather do this post. Five movies that changed the way I look at movies, stories, people, events and beyond anything the whole freakin idea of life.

So here you go (in no particular order) -

1. Mean Streets - Martin Scorsese 

"You dont make up for your sins in the Church, you do it in the streets, you do it at home. The rest is all bullshit and you know it."

This is as raw as Scorsese gets. The movie that put Scorsese, De Niro and Harvey Keitel on the map. A gangster drama from the perspective of Harvey, a staunch Catholic who goes through a constant moral conflict. I've yet to come across a movie with stronger written characters. What atmosphere! Brilliant use of music. The scenes in Harvey's bar are pure cinematic orgasms. The beauty of the movies lies in its amazingly sketched characters. It was only after seeing the rough cut of Mean Streets, the producers agreed to back Scorsese on Taxi Driver. And you can't get away without crediting the writer, Mardik Martin. Who later went on to co-write Raging Bull with the Scorsese.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ7UwnfQ2nA

2. Fa Yeung Nin Wa (In the Mood for Love) - Wong Kar Wai

"Feelings can creep up just like that. I thought I was in control." 

Wong, the chinese grandmaster. His movies are not about plots. They're about urban life, isolation, idleness and those moments, those little moments that change your life forever. Nobody shoots movies better than this Honk Kong auteur does. I saw it twice back to back, just for its cinematography. The movie in itself is a 101 to cinematography. There's a sequence involving the two leads in a hotel room, shot entirely using mirror refections. Just fucking WOW. Story revolves around two people who realize their spouses are having an affair. What do they do? They decide to replicate the affair by role playing. I'm not a fan of love stories, but this along with Jeux d'enfants (Love Me If You Dare) blew me off. This movie is about longing, the reluctance, the hitch in love. Real stuff. Stuff that no one talks about now. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfZbh4cteqI&feature=youtu.be

3. Amores Perros - Alejandro González Iñárritu

"Because we are also what we have lost." 

You thought Tarantino is the master of fractured screenplays? Give this a watch. Mexican director, Inarritu's debut feature. The first part of his death trilogy. I've never seen a movie quite like this before. Three stories, linked together by a car accident. Draws massive metaphors on purpose of life and death. Just the first story, involving street mobsters betting on dog fights is more gruesome than any other movie made in the past decade. Violence never got more raw, yes more than City of God or Gomorrah. It's defintely one of the craziest movies I've ever seen, yet it talks in heaps and bounds. Written by Guillermo Arriaga. I wish someday in future, Inarritu and Arriaga reunite to do make another movie.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qHOkEvrznM

4. Dev. D - Anurag Kashyap

"Tum kisi se bhi pyaar nahi kar sakte, sivaye khud ke. Tumhe na, iss sheeshe se shaadi kar leni chahiye, iss bathroom vale se"

I strongly belive every Indian man is a devdas(love struck sort of loser) by default. We love to sink in sorrow. We relish wasting our lives brooding over that girl, that kicked our arse. Frankly, nowhere else in the world, people are so confused and fucked up when it comes to the idea of love. Kshyap adapts the old awful begali novel, to give us this delight of a trippy movie. Story of a modern day cocaine sniffing (a lot of other shit too) Dev. D set in Paharganj, Delhi, who battles his feeling for his lost love while mating with a 18 year old turned prostitue. Brilliant camera work, and some nuts music by Amit Trivedi. If nothing, then watch it for Kashyap's sly quirck. The first conversation between Dev and Chanda. It doesn't get better!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCXV6fDKTz4

5. There Will Be Bood - Paul Thomas Anderson

 "I hate most people. I look at people and I don't see one thing worth liking." 

Story of a nasty oilman's quest for wealth, his struggles with his son and rising religious dogma. Set in the period of Southern Califronia's oil boom. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and the lead played by Daniel Day Lewis, do I need to say more? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hp-4pkCfg0

Some other ones-

Blue Velvet - David Lynch 

The master of absurdism at his absurd best. Probably the best movie from 80s. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0PbwLTLKA4

Casablanca - Michael Curtiz 

All I've to say is - "Here's looking at you, kid" 

And if somebody calls it a plain love story, I'm gonna shoot you bitch! 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=5kiNJcDG4E0

Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen

Love, nostalgia and Paris. My favorite Woody Allen movie. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwuqNUC3VPw

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi - Sudhir Mishra

Idealism, politics, love, realities of life, circumstances and growing up. All in the backdrop of  emergency. The best Indian movie of past decade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-gC9HrUWAE

P.S. I'm still getting into the groove of watching movies. Just a kiddo! And these aren't the best movies I've seen, they just struck me and never left.

Just some people - some I know, some I don't

Understanding the epic Indian gangster drama!

For the longest of time I wanted to write a review, tried too, but always failed. I love movies but when it comes to writing, I have no clue how to proceed. Yes, I got the movie and maybe loved it too but how do I write about it? anyway here's giving it another shot, not sure if I'll make it through. 

Just to start off, Anurag Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur, completely blew me off. I was lost in the crazy gunda-world of waseypur for a good couple of hours. But as I looked back at the movie a day later I had a bit of an altered perspective..well I still loved it though. The amount of content that the director manages to show in 5 hours 20 mins, it is beyond amazing, and he does it bloody brilliantly. Even as a viewer you're completely taken aback by what all happens in these god damn 160 minutes!!! And I guess that is what makes the film really hard to analyze. But looking back there's a huge feeling of something unsettling in the entire movie. The narrative seems a bit broken, the writers somehow can't take that one plot and carry it all the way through. I have to say its a bit disturbing, It's like a lot of characters have pretty strong motives but by the time it ends, most of them are left without a conclusion.  But then again, this might be the beauty of the whole writing process. Because as they claim it to be a realistic take, well maybe it is, life ain't a movie, its rather a messy affair where most stories are without an ending. 

Kashyap's movies be it Gulaal or DevD and now even Wasseypur, have a very strong sense of being lost. The story, the characters don't have that one motive or that singular mindset. They just keep doing things, some make sense and well some don't. At a lot of times.. you'd go 'what the fuck are they doing?' This is pretty opposite to a lot of cinema where the grip is always there, the characters on screen are doing exactly what they are supposed to, but Kashyap rather takes and alternate part and decides to play with them, explore them, explore their surroundings. This can get a bit irritating, but the whole sense of being lost eventually gets you. It takes time, but you realize thats probably the most exciting part of a Kashyaps movie. The whole idea of a knowing not just the story but the entire freaking ecosystem is what Kashyap gifts his audience. All of it doesn't make sense, but the thing is it doesn't even need it. 

This leading to the most exciting part of Wasseypur, the kind of detail that the writers and director succeed is beyond amazing. These are not just details limited to a certain character, they are details that talk about ideas and beliefs and systems of northern india that have exited of years. Having been brought up in north, I could get most of it an have to say I enjoyed it to the core. Gives you a feeling of revisiting the way, cities were while I grew up.

The entire story has been adapted beautifully in an ultimate stylish way. The way the characters talk to their women or enemies or subordinates, it is, i have to say awesome. Never have actors in Indian cinema looked so cool, and cool not just by their glares or designer clothes.. cool in the real fucking indian sense. If you belong to this part of the world, you will definitely relate to this kind of dry humour. It is part of us, this is how we talk.. and getting your characters to do that on screen, deserves a huge applaud.

Anyway, I'll refrain from talking about the entire screenplay and the acting and the music and the editing and cinematography, because all of it fucking kickass stuff. I don't need to say it. It's delicious delicious food.

 The only word that I can assign to the movie is 'unique'.. the movie is beyond the whole idea of calling it good or bad. I'm not so sure I can call it a masterpiece or a real ambitious failed work, definitely not the latter. The reason being, we are not used to it. I haven't seen a movie of this kind, ever before. A socio-gangster drama with a LOT of fun. So yeah judging it on existing scales won't work. It is not an easy movie to appreciate, it takes time. You require time to make peace with the whole thing. Well, to say the least what Kashyap manages to do, is create an almost new genere of gangster cinema. Because if you know india, and the mafia at ground level isn't organized, my boy. They are bunch of wild animals, with guns just looking to have fun! 

P.S. It's not really a review.

Life's a parody

I've nothing to tell, nothing to share. It's just that I'm too irritated with.. I don't know maybe everything. I'm irritated with why is everything the way it is. I'm irritated with why my Econ professor sucks so much. I'm irritated with why smoking causes cancer. I'm irritated with why do they have such fucked up food here in west. I'm irritated with the fact that why do movies have happy endings. i'm irritated with this cold weather. And I'm writing this just because I want to rant the shit out of mind.

It's 4:59 in the morning. My restlessness levels almost peaked 10 mins back, and literally fucked my conscious, I pulled out a cigarette from an old forgotten pack and smoked it. Well, guess what it didn't help me a bit. It just surfaced my emotions more. It's one huge unfair world, and things will never be the way you want them to be, get used to it. I feel like a retard writing this. In these past days I've been having serious thoughts about ... what the fuck am I upto? What the fuck is everybody upto anyway? As much as you want to get something, the more impossible it gets for you to get it.

It's fucking hilarious how one particular event, person etc etc can be sole reason of your happiness sorrow and shit. i swear, by now I've lost track of what I want to write in this so called blog(that I'm sure no one except me will read). All this propaganda of hoping, and striving for want you want seems royally fucked to my sane mind now(Not sure about my sane mind). 

Seriously you spend an entire lifetime, doing things, working hard, trying to make stuff perfect and it bloody just gets down to one thing- Settle for what it is. Seriously, if it's not going to be the way I want ever why the fuck am I even bothering? I don't get it. I don't get people. Ya even i'm fickle, even I've seen myself changing over a long period of time. But seriously, how can we not decipher life even a fucking bit? I don't get it. I don't want to settle for things. Seriously, I can't accept things always and just move on. Why should I do that? Why can't I go out there and do what i want. Why can't things be exactly the way I want them to be. Maybe I'm not trying hard enough, maybe I don't know. 

But why 9/10 moments in our lives are sad and shit, you know what I mean. Why is that we have to find happiness in only little things? Why can't it be the other way round. I'm growing to have serious issues with this 'be satisfied with what you have' concept. It kind of makes me feel like an epic loser. I can't. I won't. 

I'm amazed how god damn unstable this 'mind' is. How a perfectly fine day can destroyed by just 2 words from somebody? How the fuck can I let others control how I feel. I cannot. I cannot let anybody else decide how I will fell. I try, I try really hard to ignore the world. Do my shit. it just doesn't seem to happen.

I'm tired of reality conflicting with my dreams. You spend days, months thinking about it, trying to make it happen, and then it fucking does not. Hello? This is not acceptable. I can't live through accepting reality and altering my dreams, golas according to it. 

I don't know why do I use the 'f' word so much(I like how CB mentioned 'f word' in some of his book). Anyway I just realized ranting helps a lot. Fuckkk... Im completely out of words. What do I write now, because I want to write. It's giving me a sense of satisfaction. It's keeping me engaged. I hate how our minds can be stuck at somethings. It sucks why can't my mind have a bloody block option. Why can't I control it exactly the way I want. I want complete control. Control of myself, this world, its people.(Gashhh I'm getting so cynical. How does it matter anyway). You know what nobody gives a fuck. Nobody does. At the end it's just your life, that's it. You can do whatever you want. You can do exactly what you want to do. If people have a problem, if people tell you to not dream, if they tell you it's not going to be true. Ask them go fuck themselves in the back. I don't give a shit. I will not just accept any god damn shit you throw my way. I don't know how, I don't know in how much time.. I will go and get exactly what I want. Just because some freaking pot head someday said, 'it's not always going to be the way you want it to be', I won't sit back and let life run my life. I want to make sure everything fucking falls exactly into place. Be it work, love, friendship or anything else. I can't let fate run it for me. Having sobered a bit, I'll say you really need to know when to leave too. Sometimes it doesn't work out, but sometimes it's just not worth it to bother your head about. Guess, seems the only way to go about in this royally messed up world.
P.S. There might be tons of typos, but I'm too freaked out to even give a shit.

Bombay- no more, no less!

                                                                      (Shot from J J Flyover) 

You, Me & Words.

I'd known her forever. I used to loved our never ending conversations. Mostly she used to take the lead, and I used to be a mere follower. Well, I liked it that way. Those string of never ending words falling off your delicate lips. Those eyes, whose colour changed with every word she spoke. Those weren't just words to me, each word you spoke was a story to my senses. With every word you spoke to me, I fell a little more. It was magic. Those conversations seemed the world to me. I thought I knew her. I thought I knew myself too. I silently felt proud about how I felt, thinking can conversations be better? So full of words, that if there were no boundations, we'd never stop talking. 

Until that day, when she came and sat across the table with me. She seemed to be a bit upset, I was a bit off the hook too. Both of our minds were full of so many thoughts, but for some strange reason they couldn't suffice into words. On a usual day, we'd be half done telling each other about our days schedule by now. But today, somehow it just didn't seem to happen. After moments of silence, a tear fell off her eyes. I could feel the world crashing around me. I still couldn't speak a word. I just didn't know what to say. I gathered all the courage I had, and looked straight into her eyes. As soon as her eyes met mine, within seconds, she burst out. It was an endless stream of tears. I kept looking into those teary eyes. After seemingly never ending sadness, she calmed down. I looked backed at her, and smiled a little. I don't know why I did that. She looked at me for a second, eventually bursting into a laugh. She got up and hugged me as never before. We were exported to some other world. It all just seemed to come together in that moment. I felt I'd never known her before this moment. Those walls between us, just broke apart. Time just stood still. We'd never felt more complete. It all seemed to have a purpose.

And it struck me, during all our conversations about love, life, people, ideas, thoughts, I thought I'd never felt her essence. I had never met the real her before today. I felt, how futile words are. Real conversations don't even need them. How misleading, confusing and unfulfilling words are. Best things in life can't be spoken out and explained, they can just be felt and conveyed through silence. 

The Duality Of The Great Indian Life

Personally, I'm not a very big fan of highlighting poverty. I chose to believe it's just a temporary phase and we shall soon win over it. But a couple of months back when I was in Mumbai attending a photography class, our teacher gave us a topic to shoot on, "Fallout of Urbanization." I failed to shoot something worthwhile that I could show to my mentor. Days later, in an auto in Delhi I saw a little girl clinging to my pants, asking for money. Well, yes obviously she was a beggar. It struck me. I had to shoot her. Her eyes spoke of thousandths of unsaid words.As I was going to press my finger against the shutter, a line of cars freed from the Red light rushed in the background. Not wasting time, I took a picture of the girl with these fast moving cars in the background. This picture defined India for me. Fall out of urbanization. Yes I know it's cliched, and you've heard all this before. But that's the way it is. A part of us is static, and a part is running with light velocity. The Duality Of The Great Indian Life.