Drive

Ryan Gosling, 'the driver'
I had read a lot of good things about Drive so was excited as the movie started.
The opening scene is quite edgy, where the driver helps a couple of robbers get away from a score, avoiding police cars and helicopters! There are very few lines spoken on screen for the first 10 minutes. The driver is a quiet man, man of action.
From there on, the movie flattens out. I was expecting another score that the driver takes on, but instead he meets a young mother and her son who stay next doors. He seems to enjoy the company and starts caring for them. We learn that the driver works at a garage and and as a stuntman for movies, while moonlighting as a getaway driver by night. His boss at the garage borrows money from a mob boss to fund a race car which he thinks, with the driver behind the wheels, shall reap in the greens.
The driver decides to help out the woman's husband, who, while in jail, has gotten into some trouble with some Albanian gang over protection money. So they tell him to rob a pawn shop. But the score goes wrong, when the man is double crossed. It turns out the mob boss had planned the double cross from the beginning, hiring the Albanians for the job. From here on, the film turns violent. The driver is capable of killing with his bare hands, or with any accessories available. He wants to protect the woman and the kid at any cost. Eventually, he annihilates the mob boss and his gang and the Albanians and gets hurt pretty bad in the process. He leaves.

The film is stylish and colourful, with minimum dialogues but rich visuals. The lack of words, it seems, is compensated by the violent encounters and a few car chases.
The violence is quite in the face, real, 'you want to look away but also want to see how it looks' kind.

Its about a getaway driver, a character otherwise not given much focus in many plots. The camera doesn't follow the man who robs the store, but stays with the driver, getting a little anxious with every passing minute.

'Drive' reminded me of 'A History of Violence', mainly due to the violence and similarities between the lead characters - the hidden killing streak, an inclination to live better, simpler lives and a violent past (which is not shown in 'Drive', but implied in my opinion).

I was expecting a more complicated plot, but the movie 'stays' with the driver, his perspective. (Its also based on a novel and stays close to the original course I guess)

Summer is here!

It fascinates me how every season has its own 'sound'. The ceiling fan sounds very distinct in summer; it is afternoon and the fan's whooshing is the only sound against the hushed backdrop of the very quiet noon; the roads are deserted, may be a hawker selling early mangoes or a scrap vendor, but that's all. Now imagine the same ceiling fan on a December afternoon, well firstly, in all possibility it won't be on! But even if it were, it won't be the only thing making noise. The street would be more lively, for the Sun is as meek as it can be high in the sky. There would also be a certain liveliness in the air, the winter kind.
Then there is the cloudy monsoon afternoon, air bursting with a million possibilities, in the mind there is a longing for something romantic, but also a cup of coffee! This kind of afternoon also has birds going berserk over god knows what, but they are happy just to be flying around in the cool air I guess.
It's an amazing feeling when one day you notice these subtle differences and know that a season has 'arrived'. It changes the way a room feels in the house, it changes the coziness of the couch, and of the mind too!

The small picture

The units were all excited. It was for the first time that they were being placed individually. The arrangement ensured there was no mass transfer, which usually resulted in loss of billions of units. The Great Arm worked tirelessly, picking each unit carefully and placing it at the right spot.

The scientists waited patiently. The first shift in the new factory was in process. It could not be seen, for it was almost smaller than the light waves that otherwise would have reflected back. The factory was creating the first surgical battleship, a nano robotic device that was capable of destroying cancer cells. The factory itself was a result of high precision microscopic engineering, a giant leap at atomic scale, a beautiful creation to move and arrange the building blocks of the universe. At this scale, the only way to 'see' was through magnetic resonance, vibrating the tiny particles and converting the response into imagery output.

Each unit is a molecule. It is a whole new world, like a solar system. It is the genesis of all. Now the units were in place, ready to work magic, achieve huge feats at tiny scale, which would enormously impact the world we live in.

Right Write

Its been a while but here i am, in a train, using the mobile to write this stuff! A four hours train journey is a lot of time on hand, and who wants to look at the ppt again and again? No point in draining the lappy's battery. I really need to start writing again. Lately, there is that feeling of not having anything to write about, why, even at this moment i feel so. It was different in college, may be it was more stimulating than now. The somewhat mundane nature of the job kills the interesting ideas that used to flood the brain and rush up to the finger tips and on to the keyboard! So its more than ever necessary to keep writing now and then, just to avoid rusting the grey cells.

The journey

Higher is better. Nothing is promised when you aim low.

A creek so clear

It’s almost see thru

Thirst, the taste of dust

I forget what I came thru

The desert was a spell

Its sky a millions watts

The reasons not known

I, burning, without a hat

Hope alone weighed a ton

A burden not be undone

This weight, I egged on

Slow march, in to the dawn

The scenes changed slowly

Something new, a river valley

Moist, cool, green shine

I’m Here, its pretty, alpine!

I'm back!

I'm back, I'm back, ya ya ya!

Gone are those days when the keyboard was alive with the words that I wanted to type :(
The creativity has been sucked out, the keys are lifeless, burdened with too many RFPs and SOPs and TDDs and such obscure laundry...

Well I shall regain the control (or so I think!)

I will POST and with ease, and with eagerness ( i will not commit to the frequency right now!)

The wordsmith in me will create masterpieces again!

Watch this place!

They sent Avataar to the Hurt Locker!

First of all, enough has been said about The Hurt Locker - its reels reek with inaccuracies and every veteran has denounced it. But it is an entertaining movie.
The Oscars produced a much anticipated upset. A big one. Just to put it in perspective, The Hurt Locker hasn't been seen in India yet. Not released officially. I saw it unofficially ;) But very few have seen it at all. Avataar, on the other hand, was huge here. Liked by many. Many were sure it would sweep them golden boys clean

But the Academy chose a low budget film over a five-year in making masterpiece.

The last time I remember something remotely similar happened was when Private Ryan lost to Shakespeare!

I think The Hurt Locker is much more gripping and a lot unpredictable than Avataar. It does not have a definite story line. But its characters definitely develop over the course of the movie. The central character, SSG James, is like a cowboy, and I am almost certain they took some inspiration from some John Wayne movies! He is in his own world, even when he is among his team. He instills a fear in them , for he will do what they don't even think about doing.
The movie never comments on the war itself; it is essentially about one man's addiction to war, to action. It is as if the war is a prerequisite for his existence.
Avataar's storyline was quite well developed but became apparent very soon. I was honestly not that impressed with the movie. Taken individually, the visual effects and the new camera techniques introduced by Cameroon are pretty impressive. But I do not usually like a film for just one aspect and for the same reason, don't dislike it for any one either.
So after an hour and half through Avataar, I was pretty sure how it was going to end. I am not discrediting the filmmaker here. I was interested in the plot at that point, but I knew how it would broadly unfold. I was not on the "edge" of my seat , to put it in more tangible word
The Hurt Locker had me on the verge of my bed! I was pretty sure this crazy boy was going to be blown away in the end. Or be shot at by some unseen sniper. But that didn't happen...The script is one of the tightest I have experienced, and quite unpredictable.

The Hurt Locker is an action/thriller/war, while Avataar is a Drama/adventure/romance mix, and I like action/thriller/wars, that are well directed and well acted!
And I am guessing the Academy thought on similar lines too!