My Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

- Marianne Williamson

Heard this quote on the excellently acted and inspiring movie Akeelah and the Bee, that I saw over the weekend. I am not usually moved by a movie but this one did and if you can, watch it. The quote is spot on on how I feel about most of things that I try/wanna try/would like to try.

Movie Review: Taare Zameen Par

I wasn't really sure what to expect about Taare Zameen Par, Aamir Khan's directorial debut. I knew it was about kids and I liked it's songs, again an excellent job by the trio of Shankar, Ehsaan & Loy.

But the movie was really good. I mean, really, really good. He has taken on a topic that's taboo in India and that too head on - the topic of a child's education in India. I grew up in a family of teachers. My dad, my mom, aunts, uncles & even my cousins are teachers. So I know what parental and competitive pressure mean :).

Taare is about a kid named Ishaan (fantastically portrayed by Darsheel Safary) who's always distracted and never good at his academics. He gets bullied by his classmates and his playmates. He is both forgetful and absent minded. Excellent camera work shows how his mind wanders around while in class. I wasn't too sure why the 'dyslexia' angle was needed as I thought it could deflect the real issue of parental and peer competitive pressure that's so rampant in India. Anyways, the kid gets himself ejected from the 'regular' school and angers his dad who promptly puts him in a boarding school.

Oh yeah, the kid has got a brother who's like super-brilliant. I know that feeling, too. My younger sister was super-brilliant herself and she learnt (riding a bicycle, hindi, typewriting etc) extra curricular things before I did and every one around me used to tell me 'Your elder sister knows how to do X, how come you don't know?' I was furious because (a) she's my younger sister and (b) why do I have to learn things that she does?. But in this movie, the elder brother is shown to be caring and genuinely loving. But I thought they could have explored more on how Ishaan felt about his 'dada'.

Then, Aamir comes in - not a forceful entry but a very fluent one. He's the "temporary" teacher who believes as the movie's tag line says 'every child is special'. He also happens to spot the dyslexic behavior in Ishaan right away as he himself had experienced it as a child growing up. Sometimes that's all it takes for a kid to have a bright future. That one teacher could make the difference between success and failure in life. I liked how they showed Ram Shankar Nikumbh took personal interest in Ishaan and pled his case with the principal and was able to treat him special. I've had a few such teachers myself in my student life who've been crucial in making who I'm.

The rest of the movie is about how Ram makes Ishaan realize his true potential and makes the parents realize the mistakes they have been making. Some of the dialogue exchanges between Ram and Ishaan's dad were powerful and touching. I hope parents in India watch this movie and realize that not every child can be first in their class and give them time to figure out what they're good at and let them pursue it. Although, in middle class indian families, it's going to be near impossible for that to happen. I know first hand, in a lot of families I know, parents want their son/daughter to become a doctor or a professional. Self development requires financial backing a lotta patience which are hard to find in middle class families.

Back to the movie, brilliant acting by the child actor Darsheel Safary, very effortless acting and non-intrusive directing by Aamir. Very efficient use of colors and location. And those kids - and there are a lot of them - are charmers.

An absolute must-see movie and probably the best movie I have seen in a while. I was able to relate to a lot of things that happened in the movie and reminisce. I'm sure you will too.

History of Saudi Arabia

Opening scenes from the movie, The Kingdom, shows in four minutes a concise but on-the-point review of how Saudi Arabia came about.



via BoingBoing

What the Fish?

That's what Shah Rukh Khan keeps saying in Om Shanti Om. I caught two-third of the movie this past weekend (why'd I catch only the two-thirds of the movie is left to your imagination).

The movie definitely has its 'What the Fish?' moments like when our star suddenly becomes "reincarnated" and "reborn" into another 'Om'. How he pulls that off is beyond me. But the movie shines on occasions.

Vishal-Shekhar has done an amazing job with the Music. I love the songs - Ajab Si, sung by K. K. and Jag Soona Soona Lage by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Richa Sharma. They both are probably the best melodies I have heard all year from Bollywood. Very well sung and very well scored. I love them and cant stop listening to them. Girls would go ga-ga over Dard-E-Disco and that six-pack abs of SRK. But the most visually appealing song has gotta be Deewangi Deewangi where you have something like 30 Bollywood stars dancing - somehow it feels rich and nostalgic watching Kajol, Karishma & Rekha with SRK.

The movie also has great sets by Sabu Cyril and nice camera work by V. Manikandan. Of course, SRK overacts and Deepika is just there to provide 'color' and Farah Khan is obviously, Farah Khan.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie (or what I saw of it) and love the songs and the music.

Wanted: Decent Tamil Movie Directors

Now, I know Kollywood has been going through a rough patch lately but after watching Azhagiya Tamil Magan over the weekend, I think it is in desperate need of decent directors. Now, I didn't say "good" directors because that's asking too much. We'd just take "decent" directors who can provide good movies that dont suck so bad.

Whenever I go watch a Tamil movie, I "switch" to a very low expectation mode - with a limited budget and a star such as Vijay, there's bound to be some masala value in the movie. But ATM was unbearable. I literally predicted what the next scene was gonna to be before it happened. There was no logic to the movie. Both Vijay and Shreya acted poorly to say the least. Rediff review was right on.

I went to the Movie for two reasons -- first of all, I liked the songs by AR Rahman and was hoping to see them in action - they were butchered. My favorite song of the movie - Nee Marilyn Monroe - had some item girl who was overweight - not Shreya who was the second reason I went to the movie for. And, I was thoroughly disappointed on both fronts. And what's with overt references to Shakeela and her movies? The movie was so bad that I was happy that I could leave before the climax for other reasons.

With Mani Ratnam and Priyadarshan fully dedicating themselves to Bollywood, Shankar who's expected to make the move to Bollywood with Robot, Jeeva who unfortunately passed away and with 3B's (K. Balachander, Bharathiraja and Balu Mahendra) in retirement, we are left to only look forward to movies by a select few - Gautham Menon, Vasanth and that's it. Don't tell me S.J. Suriya and Silambarasan are also directors. I meant "decent" directors.

Kollywood is in desperate need of decent directors.

Dasavatharam

It's a still from the upcoming Tamil movie, Dasavatharam, starring Kamal Hassan. While the movie looks promising, I have just one question: How'd he lose all that weight?

Internal Affairs

Martin Scorsese has finally won an Oscar after losing out five times before. Although I think they gave him the award out of sympathy and not for his film The Departed. It is ironic that a legendary director such as Marty doesn't win an Oscar for films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York and The Aviator but wins for a re-make of a Hong Kong film - Infernal Affairs (with an "f"), which I thought was a far better movie than The Departed. It's astonishing that a film which would be forgotten in the next few years is what has gotten him the statue. Hollywood is indeed a strange world and their internal affairs are not understood by many.

Babel should have been the Best Picture.