SOME MORE OF THE SAME !

As the blog entries appear on the blog , the latest posts being on the top , the title of this post will confuse you unless you have read the blog in a chronological order . so go back to the dates when I started writing about movies.

Generally , in India and now almost all over the world , new film releases take place on a Friday . Thinking being , the week end will make it possible to find free time for those people who are inclined to see the movie . Of course those not inclined to see them will not see them in spite of free time . Life of a film in Nagpur , particularly of an English movie is stretched to about 5-6 days. Because by the fourth day , even when news paper adverts keep screaming " house Full " , the Full House is almost empty !! So , every Friday there is invariably a new English movie . It so happened that " Die Hard 4 " was also released when Anuj was around . Need less to say Anuj and Puja took us to see that movie . Human imagination is some thing tremendous , it is amazing the ideas people can come out with . Thank God for that , because we are where we are because of this unique human quality !!
Try to think of ways one would like to neutralize the threat posed by an assaulting helicopter . Guns of any amount of verities , anti aircraft missiles , sling shot , any thing to jam the rotors etc etc . No ! none of these !! Now take the case of John MacLane , our die hard hero, he destroys the terrorist helicopter by catapulting / launching an automobile at the helicopter . Needless to say the idea works to perfection . Helicopter proves no match for the car and is destroyed in the collision and so is the car , but loss of car is of no consequence !!!!. No matter what the odds , with such ideas and their successful implementation there is no way John Mac lane , our hero can loose, For die hard "Die Hard " fans it was at par film .
That was also the time when advt campaigns in news papers , TV etc were already launched for "The Transformers " which was to be released on 17 Jul 07 . That was the time when Anuj had already planned to leave the terra firma for the high seas . He felt bad that he would miss it as the write up was too fantastic and also particularly as the name of "Stephen Speilberg " , a name which creates magic so far as the art of cinematography is concerned was associated with the film !!!

So Priti and I went to see the "Transformers " . Incidentally we saw Hindi version . Even though , I wrote a glowing synopsis to Anuj , I could not understand the reasoning for comic bent given to the scenes and the dialogues by our young hero !!!! Other than that of course the ideas , photography and the rest of the filmy paraphernalia was awe some . Most impressive !!!

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Gandhi My Father .

On its release , The Hitvada , our news paper had published a review of the film , Gandhi my Father . The paper has maximum grading of FIVE stars and the reviewer had given this movie five stars !!! The only negative point the reviewer had to say about the movie was that it was "slow paced " .So we were quite curious to see the movie , so when Anuj and Puja suggested we readily agreed . This was our second movie in the INOX .
Here I must confess my considerable ignorance about the off springs produced by Gandhi & Kasturba . I vaguely knew that they had four children . Had read about his experiments with truth and his agony and the desire to control his libido and the desire for sex . His sleeping with teenage girls to prove to himself the amount of control he had achieved on his sexual desires . But alas did not really know or had little knowledge about his son Harilal .After couple of historical movies and the trouble created by self appointed guardians of Indian history and morality it must have taken considerable courage on the part of the producer ot produce this film . Knowing this ,
Anil Kapoor and the director of the movie must have thoroughly researched the subject before committing it to the film . So what was shown came as a surprise . It was shocking to hear a person who himself had studied in England in those days , to propound the theory that formal and school education did not build "character" and was not necessary for their children , consequently the Gandhi children , in Africa , were not attending any school !!!!! Harilal's keenness to study law and become a Barrister was well known to Gandhi and Kasturba , how ever he was never recommended by Gandhi and those whom he recommended never completed the course and let Gandhi down !!!!!! The film is very well directed , acted and was good in all the film making depertments . By the time film is over your heart goes out to Harilal . It must have been tremendous burden to live under the shadow of Gandhi . Harilal , not being made of sterner stuff could not bear that burden and caved in to suchan extent that the end was extremely tragic and unsung , unknown !!! In spite of this one does not think little of Harilal but comes out in total sympathy and empathy with him and here in lies the goodness and worth of the film to earn it 5 stars . I agree with the star rating but do not think that the film was slow paced , I think the pace was just right and as the requirement of the film . Over all a film worth a dekho , even if it exposed ones ignorence about " the mahatma "

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INOX and movie viewing .

So far as the "MALLS" go , we had Big Bazar and Pyramid in Nagpur for quite a number of years . The first MALL with multiple screens by INOX opened in Nagpur only Last year . Anuj and Puja had managed to attend the inaugration as they had managed to get couple of "passes" from Puja's dad . The place is located 15.75 K Ms from our house .

In 1994 when we had settled in Nagpur after having been posted to places Like Shillong , Sulur , AirHeadquarters ( staying in Noida) etc, we were amazed when we heard the Nagpurians saying that any thing beyond couple of K Ms was very far !!! I am afraid after 13 long (?) years in Nagpur we still don't consider couple of K Ms as too far but have reached a stage where 15.75 K Ms IS far !!! That was the reason we had not seen a single movie in the INOX . On its all India release latest Harry Potter film was released in Inox and Smruti . In Inox it was in English and in Smruti it was in Hindi . Generally English films released in nagpur are in Hindi . Not that people in Nagpur don't understand English but it is still true that English films released in Nagpur are in Hindi .However in Inox English Harry Potter was IN English !Anuj and Puja offered to give us a treat and show us the film . So Priti and I went to the Inox for the first time after it had been in operation for more than a year and a few months . We have a DVD player at home and bring home the CDs of the movies we want to see . The TV has three speakers and there are two speakers with the DVD . Anuj has positioned the speakers in such a way that it gives effect of surround sound - home theatre . Still the sound effects in the theatre came as a revelations . I also feel that the theatre owners have kept it slightly louder that what is required ! Enjoyed the film . Having already seen earlier four movies and grown to an age where the belief in magic is on the wane , it did not thrill as had done the first Harry film . Still it was good and as we say " paisa wasul " . The sound effects were really terrific , at times one could even feel vibrations in the seat !!!! Our "home theatre" is no match for the real thing !!!!! There after Anuj and Puja took us to see " Gandhi my father ". More of that later . Call it day now .

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