I’m not sure who the audience was for this film, but what a gorgeous, gorgeous movie.

Based on the much loved, but seven sentence long children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are is the story of a troubled kid Max who runs away from home and sails to the land of the wild things. Here, he declares himself king of the wild things. The wild things are like childish adults, or precocious kids. They need a leader, or a parent, and Max fills this need. This is the plot, but this is not the movie. Continue reading →

I am an unabashed Shahrukh Khan fan. Twenty-two years ago, my whole family would sit down to watch Fauji on Doordarshan for only one reason– this fresh-faced actor named Shahrukh Khan. With My Name is Khan on its way this month, I thought I’d run through my favorite SRK performances of all time.
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Dr. Green, how can you diagnose someone as an obsessive compulsive disorder, and then act like I have some choice about barging in here?

In my head, many characters provide live commentary to my life, one of whom is Melvin Udall (played by Jack Nicholson in As Good As it Gets)

At times, when I’m irritated, I can hear him say:

Never, never, interrupt me, okay? Not if there’s a fire, not even if you hear the sound of a thud from my home and one week later there’s a smell coming from there that can only be a decaying human body and you have to hold a hanky to your face because the stench is so thick that you think you’re going to faint. Even then, don’t come knocking. Or, if it’s election night, and you’re excited and you wanna celebrate because some fudgepacker that you date has been elected the first queer president of the United States and he’s going to have you down to Camp David, and you want someone to share the moment with. Even then, don’t knock. Not on this door. Not for ANY reason. Do you get me, sweetheart?

Or when somebody is being horribly optimistic about a terrible situation:

It’s not true. Some have great stories, pretty stories that take place at lakes with boats and friends and noodle salad. Just no one in this car. But, a lot of people, that’s their story. Good times, noodle salad. What makes it so hard is not that you had it bad, but that you’re that pissed that so many others had it good.

Or about the people I love:

I might be the only person on the face of the earth that knows you’re the greatest woman on earth. I might be the only one who appreciates how amazing you are in every single thing that you do, and how you are with Spencer, “Spence,” and in every single thought that you have, and how you say what you mean, and how you almost always mean something that’s all about being straight and good. I think most people miss that about you, and I watch them, wondering how they can watch you bring their food, and clear their tables and never get that they just met the greatest woman alive. And the fact that I get it makes me feel good, about me.

And I’ll leave you with this: Continue reading →

So I’ve given myself enough time to catch up with some of the movies of 2009, but not quite all of them. This was a lean year for me– I’ve seen fewer movies in 2009 than any year in the last ten. So, to name a few, I haven’t seen The Hurt Locker, Where the Wild Things Are, The Informant, An Education, Precious, Bad Lieutenant or Whip It. But I intend to. Of the ones I have seen, here is what stands out:

The Most Fun I Had At the Movies Award: Inglourious Basterds
Runner Up: Watchmen

Most Thought-Provoking Award: A Serious Man

Best For All Ages Award: Coraline
Runner Up: Up
Second Runner Up: Ponyo
Third Runner Up: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Best Sign-of-the-Times Award: Up in the Air

The One They’ll Be Talking About For Years Award: Avatar

On coming up with the title of my favorite Hindi movie, Ram Gopal Varma says:

I was thinking so many different titles for “Rangeela” and nothing was striking enough and one day as me and Aamir were walking in the lobby of Holiday Inn at Hyderabad discussing titles I suddenly blurted out the word Rangeela. Aamir stopped in his tracks and said, ‘say that again’, and I said ‘Rangeela’. He said “That’s it. No more thinking”. Incidentally “Rangeela” was registered for, of all the films a Mithun Chakraborthy action film and I had to use some influence to get it.

He goes on to demonstrate that he has a sense of humor about things:

Also sometimes a title can turn off people in the very beginning itself, case in point being my masterpiece “RGV Ki Aag”. It’s another matter that the title was a resultant outcome of legal battles but I am not talking of the cause here but of the effect on the viewer. The title sounds tacky, cheesy, arrogant, mad, to use just a few adjectives. I strongly feel that, for example if it had a title like “Contract” instead of “RGV Ki Aag” the film might remain the same but how one will look at it could have changed.

I recently saw RGV’s Rann. It’s an OK movie, with some good parts and no bad parts. Riteish Deshmukh is the best part of the movie, which is not what I had expected going in. If nothing else, it’s great to see RGV gradually regain control of his faculties. It’s been a long time.