An Extraordinary Man who influenced millions and one (Me!)

Belgium…Brussels it was “to be precise” my destination.  When I told my mom that I will be off to Belgium for a week, she had a “Now where in the world is it”..kind of expression and immediately connected it to glass and recounted memories of how her ancestral home had windows made of Belgian glass whereas I mapped it to Georges Remi aka Herge and his inimitable characters, the best amongst them the “Thousands of Blue Blistering barnacles, pithecanthropus, Ectoplasms, Zapotecs…” fella, the most adorable, cutie, cutie, occasionally drunk fox terrier and the lovable Belgian reporter..Ring a bell??  Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock of course.

So I stole a couple of hours from my work and rode a 38 kms journey from Brussels Nord station into the heart of the Herge Museum.  Being overwhelmed would be an understatement, by what I learned of the man behind the characters and the comic.  Born in 1907 in what those days would have been a nondescript village outside Brussels, with humble middle class beginnings, he rose to put a cheer on millions across the world.  From his universe of this small place and his little exposure, he dreamed of characters, of situations, of plots to pen down and draw some of the most diverse and unique images that one felt that they were living the stories.  I got to know that he created the comic twins Thompson and Thomson based on his own relatives.  His father and his brother.  The term “To be precise” was used by his uncle and this found way into his books.

Let me not get into the technicalities of his works, but what struck me most was his imagination into the future.  Would you believe that “Destination Moon” and “Explorers on the Moon” were published 2 decades before Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon!!  You will notice that the space ships built and the equipment donned by Tintin and others were almost close to the actual used in 1969!!!  Wow, I thought.  Come the 2nd World War, Herge was pushed into exile, fearing an arrest by the Gestapo.  He and his small company ran out of ink, but yet, he put the pencil to use and sketched.  And this is where his greatness comes to light.  While Belgium and the world was reeling under the German onslaught, the concentration camps, he took a different route of providing comic relief by casting Tintin as an explorer rather than an adventurer.  He took the readers into China, into Egypt created several other characters diverting thoughts from the tragic events that were being faced.  Yes, I learnt several other aspects of this man and his thoughts.  The net is a good provider of such information, I am sure.

For me, this was a dream trip.  A trip back into my childhood.  Images of me all of 10 years, dodging some sparse traffic making my way to the dinghy comic book rental store, on the Station Road, besides the Madras Café in Baroda every Saturday to pick up the next one and the next and the one after that came fore.  Those were the days of Tintin, those were the days of the Asterix and Obelix of Commando, those were the days of Hardy Boys (Frank and Joe), and Alfred Hitchcocks’ Three Investigators.  I am sure you will connect with evidence posted in the form of pictures taken at the Museum.  The broad grin on my face gives it up.  The usual reticent me, spent, 10 minutes speaking to the lady at the Museum relic shop, taking her through my journey with Tintin.  Oh another diehard fan she thought a bit amused and bewildered.  Did I bring something back?  Yes, Snowy it was and a couple of folders.  I am planning to carry these folders to official meetings J………

Movie Review: Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014, English)

Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014, English)

Simply put, it’s the story of Ramses and Moses.  And if you have seen “The Ten Commandments” already, then Exodus has nothing new to offer except that it is a paler version of the original.  Shot in 3D, in a much larger scale, Exodus flatters to deceive.  Watching the trailers led me to believe that I was about to witness a magnum opus with quite a bit of pulsating battle scenes where metal meets metal amidst thundering horse hooves and an absorbing background score.  I was looking forward to intense exchanges between the protagonists.  Alas, the movie meandered into many a silence moments and appeared to drag in places.  And since it was the story of Moses, predictability of what’s going to happen next became a given.  As with respect to SFX, except for the parting of the Red sea there is nothing much to write home about.  Having said this, the last 10 minutes of the movie beholds the spectacle that is uniquely created and is certainly worth a mention.  Christian Bale (Moses) and Joel Edgerton (Ramses) are no comparison to the intensity that Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner (of the 1956, “Ten Commandments” fame) brought in.  No screen presence at all.  I would like to compare this with the electrifying performance of Russell Crowe in Gladiator.  The reference in here, since, the Director, Ridley Scott is a common denominator.

On a lighter note, amusingly, I was drawn into a comparison of my daily work life.  There is a General (read “Project Manager”) leading a bunch of slaves (read “Team Members”) extracting every ounce of flesh and blood at a far location (read “client site”) and the Kings rep (read “Delivery Excellence Auditor”) is sent to inspect how the Project is coming up.  The Kings rep (the auditor) demands, documents, project plans, authorizations on excess money spent, approvals from the King on deviations conducts a few slave interviews and threatens to report the project as an abject failure.  The General meanwhile pleads and counters, “I do not have skilled manpower, the resources are scarce, there are no tools to automate, the environs are harsh and hence the delays on Project Delivery....”  Sounds familiar ??? -J.

On the rating part now, would give it a 3 out of 5 and would not put it on a “Must Watch” list on the big screen.

Movie Review – Loukyam (Telugu, 2014) Starring: GopiChand, Rakul Preet, Pragathi Mahavadi

Movie Review – Loukyam (Telugu, 2014) Starring: GopiChand, Rakul Preet, Pragathi Mahavadi

An out and out entertainer with Brahmi as one of the central characters.  And when Brahmi is in…will others matter much?  Yes, they do in this flick.  The central theme is not much to write home about as it gives a sense of déjà vu…been there seen that.  No twists, no turns, a little bit of flash back…2 Reddy families battling it out for something that is passe....Reddy 1s  sister wants to marry Reddy 2…but you Reddy 2 does not want because of abc and def.  Reddy 1 takes objection and unleashes his side kicks on Reddy 2, Reddy 2 has another sister…enter Reddy 2s brother Reddy 3 and somewhere in this plot are thrown Brahmi and other comics.   A few fights, some tricky situations, some passable but not worth home to write about songs and lots of comedy mark this film.   Rakul Preet offers lots of eye candy moments…which may not go too very well with protective parents who would take their children along.   All in all a good refreshing movie…A 3.5 out of 5.  

Movie Review – Transformers 4 – Age of Extinction

Movie Review – Transformers 4 – Age of Extinction

Pre-scriptum – You will find this to be a rather long review…had to kill some time on this 2 hour flight from Kolkata to Hyderabad. So please be as patient as I have been while typing this out with lots of angst…

Expecting the expected, we trooped into the movie hall anticipating a good bit of metal rub metal, we have come here to help you humans, autobots…this bot…that bot, kind of imagery and audio-phonics. Was not one bit disappointed as the familiar magic began to unfold.  Pleasantly taken in on a slow but yet, entertaining story build up.  Presenting, a young barbie doll faced teenager and her over protective dad…No boy friends, no late night parties, no this no that, while our expression less doll goes around in her micros educating her dad about her being good and yada yada yada.....and you guessed it…with this familiar build up comes, surprise surprise…an existential boy friend J….surprise surprise…there will be dialogues later…with the Dad screaming a few words…thou shalt not touch my daughter…she is too very young…and surprise surprise…the boy wins over the Dad by saving him and his daughter from surprise surprise…the vagaries of some bang bangs and Governmental Agencies and the bad bad bots.  Hokay,  so far so good, the movie is moving the way you thought it would go…now this will happen and that is bound to happen..deja vu…I’ve seen this earlier…I can write this script and so very predictable…but where the heck are the bots ??? I need some action now…and lo…there you go…our good old Optimus Prime comes back to life.  The very very battered Prime (remember Transformers 3..almost beaten to pulp, sorry to metal sheets !!!) 40 minutes into the story, pop the bots and some more bots and many more bots and soon the screen is filled with some tall, some short, some new looking, some oldies..a bot here a bot there and a bot there and another bot to the left and they are everywhere !!!  Hokay, I’ve now gotten used to watching gigantic human looking metals in Transformer 1, 2, 3 (the degree goes up), Pacific Rim, a bit of Iron Man 1, 2, 3…and a host of others..High time, I stopped going to one of these kinds any more…Alright, I was waiting for a surprise element to make the story a tad more interesting.  Was looking for an estranged “Mom” to appear. You see, the dad and the barbie and the boyfriend…but where is the Mom??  Then I reckoned and thankfully felt…good No Mom lest I would have to make do with some more clichéd exchanges of “Honey”…”Sweetheart”….”I will be right back…” et al.  Anyways, back to the story or the lack of one…the bots are fighting with each other, rather mindlessly, some more bang bang, some more clunk, thunk, ding, doong, dhunks and while the screen lights up with some mega explosions, and the dolby system is put to sound test…courtesy the bad bots, our father dear, daughter dear and boy friend dear go unscathed..tut tut…they cannot die, fire cannot burn them, bullets cannot pierce them, bombs cannot blow them, smart and super duper senses laden dog-teligent creatures cannot find them ???  Come on give me a break…ZZzzzzzzzz…I slipped into a slumber…What the suddenly awakened by a bizarre sound…only to find some new bad bots beating the heroic Optimus Prime and his friends to mittens..Zzzzzzz…nudge nudge from my Son a while later exclaiming…Dad, when can we go home…while I  look over to my right only to find my spouse and daughter blissfully and oblivious to the madness and cacophonic eruption unfolding on the screen, asleep.  I felt sad, pity, remorseful for dragging them to this movie…The pain ended thankfully a long time later.  It was only 10 pm in the night and it was as if we had slept the entire night…I wondered why spoke aloud the question: “Where the heck are the bots?”

I guess you would have arrived at the verdict and the numbers by now.  Plusses, the first 30 mins of the movie 3.5 out of 5 and 1 out of 5 for the rest 4 hours.  Yes, the balance 1.x odd hours seemed to be like 4.  And the average 2 out of 5.  Go watch it if you want to catch up on sleep.  Thankfully, I did not get tickets in Prasadz Imax and the Atmos digital sound theaters, else,  I would have ended up with a megatronic ache in the head.  Extinction was the name of the movie…ha ha the Director has the last as he leaves behind a couple of transformers on mother earth for a Transformers 5. I can hazard a name.  Transformers 5 – Obliteration.  That is, was and will be the last of the Transformer movies for me.  I can tolerate no more lest I become extinct….Sigh !!!!

Movie Review : NON STOP (2014, English, Liam Neeson)

Rather frivolous and hackneyed it seemed as the action drama unfolded 40k feet over the MSL.  Liam Neeson with his “I’ve lost everything in the world” look tries to rev up things of what I thought ok, now there will be something good I will get to watch, but alas the ending was too trivial for the palate.  I give this movie full marks because the Hero, is not the one who lands the plane and saves lives...else, there will be like....the control tower howling terse and tense directions, “Do you see the switch that is next to the...turn it on, get to 8000 ft level and ....” and so on for a Hero who would have  flown many a smaller thingy.  Unfortunately, the build up to the movie where the Hero observes co-passengers with earnest intent, giving a feeling that ah here  is a thinker and he will use these observations to solve the mystery...but alas..nothing of this is played back later and the film degenerates into some engaging action with the end giving a feeling more of a shrug than a “Oh wow” or a gasp.  Watch it if there is nothing better to do with an pre-notion of 2 out of 5 rating and you will finally settle at 3 by 5.

On a side note: (This has got nothing to do with NON STOP). I am glad that Liam Neeson had only one Wife and One daughter.  TAKEN 1 was getting his daughter back....TAKEN 2 was getting his Wifey and daughter back...One more in his family and we would have been TAKEN again for the third time :-).

Race Gurram [Telugu, 2014, Allu A, Shruti H]

Laugh Laugh Song Laugh Cry Laugh Laugh song Twist Dishum Dishum Laugh Song Twist Dishum Song Laugh Cry Twist Dishum Song Laugh Laugh Laugh Song Dishum Twist Laugh THE END

That is how the movie went, a perfect masala entertainer with liberal doses of clean comedy that did not appear for once as a put on or on a parallel track....and no this was not Brahmi type comedy..but nicely interwoven into the plot with some of the main characters providing the comic relief. A couple of nice songs.  Was not too impressed with the choreography bit, but the lavish sets keep you involved.  The theme appeared a bit new and natural...was not abrupt especially the transformation part.  Brahmi I felt was wasted, for once I guess his magic did not work.  Allu holds your attention signs of coming of age, Prakash Raj was brilliant as usual,  Shruti H ofcourse provides the glam quotient, the villain appeared to be a mish mash of lots of villain characters across several movies...nothing original here.   Just as you start wondering that the hero could have killed the villain or vice versa but why did he leave him...you are provided with an honest answer..and several such answers....Overall, a good decent entertainer, can go with kids and your family. A 3.5/5.

Movie Review - Rio 2 (April 2014)

Foot tapping music, Colourful screen, Good 3D animation, some good dialogue exchanges, not too much of violence (to scare lil children) but a run of the mill story summarizes Rio 2.  Do not expect too much out of this sequel, but a feeling of pleasantness, a happy childs' face and probably an urge to get up and dance at times.  If you have seen EPIC (read my review...elsewhere on this site), there is not too much that you would see differentiating the caricaturisation and. the look n feel.  All in all a good dekho with the kids this summer and a 3 on 5 from me....