Cities-Chicago, NY

Sometimes, just sometimes, I feel a trip is just perfect. And for sometime this has not been the case. But just last week I visited NY and Chicago and its been just wonderful. For the first time since I came to the US I felt I really was in a truly great place.

NY did not cut it for me. Too frantic with items walkin all around and just too crowded. The food was good. The food was very good. Magnolia's (http://www.magnoliabakery.com/) banana pudding was just mindblowingly good. One of the best desserts I have ever eaten. So was the rice pudding place (http://www.ricetoriches.com/index.2.php). The subway stations were a wee bit too hot, though a nice way to get around and the crowd was great. Way too many tourists.

Chicago on the other hand I just loved. What a city. An amazing place. I guess its because of the weather, the fact that I'm staying in a pretty decent location and dont have much to worry about relatively, but the place is exactly how I had imagined the US to be. People walking around smoking pipes, bikers riding without helmets, nice people and not too many tourists. The weather is not too cold nor warm and there is a river running through the city and a lake. Man. What more does one want from a city! Definitely my fav city in the US as of now.

Love My Life

Not the kind of movie that I would have watched but somehow chanced upon it. This is such an easy, level headed, warm hearted confident movie which does not resort to histrionics and coincidental miscommunication etc etc.

Not that I am an expert in same sex relationships but I had the feeling this movie really hit the spot in depicting it in a warm way. The two lead actresses play perfect foil to each other, one a little dumb and impetuous and the other a brooding serious type. There are traces of its original manga source that creep through the movie but that was perfectly fine with me. All in all a really great find. In fact IF i ever attempt to make a movie I might end up making one like this in the first attempt.

I was however a little curious as to how I would have reacted if the same movie was made with two male leads. I do not know. Maybe I might have liked it too.

The Chaser - Korean Thriller Movie

Some of the better thriller movies that I have watched recently are definitely Asian. Maybe it is that I am missing all the American good ones but the packaged products of America and India stand no match to these.



The Chaser is an amazing movie where the whole plot is structured with such great fine detail that you absolutely do not have leeway to poke holes in the movie. Strong performances, very realistic brutal violence and unsympathetic character extermination (unlike most movies where the good guys are just injured to be resurrected at the end of the movie) make the Chaser an amazing movie.

Shankarabharanam

Please do not miss it. Watch it. I dont care if you dont understand telugu. I dont care if there are no subtitles. I don't care what excuse you give, just go watch it. It stands a clear shoulder above the random crap being served to us these days by spineless directors and packaged fare. And the music is divine even to a retard like me.

This is one movie which could easily have hit "the indian movie melodrama" target circle right in the bull's eye, but has been handled with so much finesse that it comes across as sensitive, passionate and great art. The lead actors Somayajulu and Manju Bhargavi are superlative in their depictions of the characters.

Ek Chalis Ki Last Local

Definitely watchable compared to the other stale stuff that our movie industry is churning out. Of course it grates to accept that this is all it takes to stand out in a mediocre industry, but you see, Karan Johar has successfully driven Indian movie standards to such extend that even this seems way too good.

Cons: Too many whacky characters.

Seher

A pretty good movie. I was bored and started watching it and it was pretty good. I thought i might as well list all watchable (according to me :-)) movies for posterity. Now that these are pretty rare occurances.

Arshad Warsi plays a straight serious role. Mahima Choudhury is sufficiently good looking and the characters not ridiculous. Go ahead. Watch it. You wont curse me.

Sunny Winter

The start of the trudge from home to this spot is always dreary. Because I assume I know what to expect. And every day I am surprised.

Hampi

Dusty Hospet is the perfect entry point for the much hyped Hampi. The most run down town which nudges my mood to one of sadness. This is just another town that has been neglected by the Indian government. Chaotic traffic, errant auto rickshaws and shabby hotels. At the bus station I climb into one of the rusty state buses and buy a 10 Re ticket to Hampi. As I settle down at 6 a.m in the morning I had no clue what to expect of Hampi. And stared unseeingly out playing random images in my mind. Never one to give in to too much contemplation that day uncharacteristically I was completely oblivious to the route till I saw a pile of rocks. Not just a pile I realized. Piles of rocks. Everywhere I could see. Piles and piles of rocks heaped onto each other. As if a giant baby has scattered its pebbly playthings around the landscape.

2 days into the trip and I still was soaking in the atmosphere. Ruins stretching out everwhere. The sun shining remorselessly on the rocks, the rocks resolutely standing their ground. I did not even know when my hired death trap of a kinetic Honda ran out of fuel or where I had discarded it. I just walked, chanced upon a smiling villager with a bottle filled with red petrol. Money changed hands, I reversed direction. Soon back on the bike I travelled.

It got better. Tungabhadra winding its way through this landscape. Too good to resist. I clambered onto the corakal. Rishyamukha mountains, the matanga hill, Kishkindha empire. All coasted past under the pointing fingers of Umapathi, the oarsman. If there was something that registered in my mind it was the vastness and desolate and magnificent scale of the whole place. A week more alone there and I would have dissolved there I think. Good that I could pull myself away from that vortex. If I go there again, I wont go alone. I might not make it back.