Shawshank Redemption - What we need... the most!

 How late to a party can one get?

In my case 25 years plus.  I am watching one of the best most acclaimed movies 26 years after it was released and nominated for the best picture Oscar. 

But I am not the only one – the movie didn’t become a hit and collected less than half its budget at the box office.  Instead it became a success when people saw it through the VHS rentals.

MAD Magazines (and Moghul Library, Hyderabad)

Comics were an important part of my childhood like my first blogpost which was dedicated to ACK comics showed.

MAD called itself a ‘magazine’ and was fairly popular both in the US and India and this success in itself was a surprise.

The second helping…

One of my social acquaintances - a voracious consumer of books, movies, TV serials, newspapers etc  mentioned he’d seen only one TV series again as in twice.  No, He wasnt showing off - but it was purely a mindset that a lot of folks have including my better half - my wife.

“Why are you watching this again, havent we seen this before?” if I am watching a movie on TV - one that we have seen before. I sigh and move on.

Maa Retire Hoti Hai

I had the fortune of watching the premiere of the play “Maa Retire Hoti hai” starring Jaya Bachchan.

This was in Dubai, and there was no chance in the world that i could even dream of attending this, and not just because I couldn’t afford it.

The Telugu Cinema Industry - “Muthyala Muggu”

Most of my exposure to Telugu films was thanks to the India’s national TV channel DoorDarshan. When I was a kid there was only the local TV station which was in Hyderabad and used to broadcast only a few hours everyday. 

While the programming was mostly terrible, the good part used to be the movies they showed. There used to be a Hindi film and a Telugu film shown during the weekends, and they were mostly from the B&W era, and very rarely a few recent films.

From Dusk till Dawn- the movie

I recently completed viewing The hateful eight by Quentin Tarantino (recommended viewing, will surprise you).  And it reminded me to complete this post about 'From Dusk till Dawn' (FDTD) which is one of the most ‘wild’est movies I had seen, which was written and directed by Tarantino’s friend, and featured Tarantino as one of the lead roles.

Munich, Fauda and The Bridge of Spies (& Badlapur)

There’s a common thread to these (& Badlapur too).

The movies Munich & The bridge of Spies come from Steven Spielberg, while the TV series Fauda comes from Israel.

Satyajit Ray Presents 1 & 2

Doordarshan is India’s legacy national TV channel, owned and managed by the Government.  This was the only TV station available for my generation in our childhood and we therefore had mostly limited choice and terrible stuff to watch.

Yet, sometimes they’d get it right.

One such was when the almighty Satyajit Ray, possibly India’s greatest film director, collaborated with his Son Sandip Ray, to produce a TV series aptly named… “Satyajit Ray Presents” (SPR)  They produced another sequel a few years later named SPR2.

The Guru-Shishya parampara in Hindi film songs

A common recurring theme employed  in Indian film music is the Guru (teacher) singing with his Shishya (pupil) and gently urging him/her to follow the lines s/he’s singing and then take wing...

Jana Aranya (The Middleman / Agent) by Satyajit Ray

How time makes a difference - the same movie which I disliked as a teenager was something I absolutely relished when I saw it decades later.  

When I first saw Jana Aranya (JA) - I was in college and my mind was fully occupied about future employment prospects, what I need to be doing, what options lay ahead of me, etc. etc. And when I saw the movie I was doubly depressed and I don't think I saw it fully.

THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY

For me the book makes it to my favorites more because of who recommended it rather than the actual story or movie based on it.

Its been nearly over a decade since I read the book for a third time & finally handed over the book to my social circle. The movie was frankly terrible and Clint Eastwood was quite choppy and still getting his grip as a director with most dramatic scenes handled terribly.

Lata Mangeshkar - the soul of India

As a kid I strongly believed that If God had to speak she’d sound just like Lata Mangeshkar.

In the Western coastal belt - Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka - most of my generation grew up listening to bhajans of Bhimsen Joshi and Lata Mangeshkar.  The great Bhimsen Joshi renowned for classical music was at stratospheric levels that seemed beyond reach. Even singing his Bhajans was impossible.  Lata Mangeshkar on the other hand seemed part of everyone’s family and a voice that soothed everyone.

Aparna Sen and her ’15 Park Avenue’

Ever got envious of mind-bending films like inception or shutter island and wonder if Bollywood can produce such films?

There was one such film I can think of, which I thought was better and an even bigger mind-bender but not as much celebrated. This is ’15 Park Avenue’ from Aparna Sen.  

Musical Great - Vanraj Bhatia

Vanraj Bhatia is one of the most prolific music director of the Indian film & advertising industry and chances, are very few know or have heard of him.

But in terms of music he, IMHO would be there among the top, and I loved his music and found it superlative and on par with the best in the world.

Wake Up Sid - the cult movie

Wake Up Sid to me was a nice wake up call of the kind of great movies being made in India that were more edgy and closer to urban reality, but done in an engaging commercial format without being arthouse.

In the case of Wake Up Sid (WUS), I can safely say that I am not the only one but nearly everyone I know saw the movie much much later after it was released, and all of them had the same reaction. They absolutely loved it - pretty much like everyone & I did. Pity it wasn't a superhit when it was released, as it rightfully should have been.

BAD EDUCATION by Pedro Almodovar

Bad Education by Pedro Almodovar is such a fine masterpiece, it needs a few fully dedicated sessions to fully absorb and appreciate the various textures, layers and sheer efforts that have gone into it.

But first the important disclaimer.  This movie is suitable for mature audiences and strictly not for those uncomfortable with LGTBQ or queasy discussing issues related to the Catholic church etc.

RIVER – BBC TV Series, possibly the best cop drama

I have just completed watching the entire six episodes of the BBC  TV series River and was just blown by how superlative this series was.

TV series are the new addiction replacing books and cinema (and also given that for me, good or actually any theatre is not easy to access right now). TV series are easily accessible and every episode not just one as the earlier appointment viewing format did. Thus binge watching is more the norm and can be satiating too.  

The craze nowadays is to find out a TV series that’s good - Kind of like waiting for the next book from a renowned author.  You are on the lookout for a series that one can watch over the weekend or savour over a few days, say, while travelling. So one is following opinion leaders for ‘leads’ – mine include folks like Poonam Saxena, Vir Sanghvi, and of course Twitter where the new young  millennials initiate the trend on the latest TV series craze.

The reason for this ambling is to highlight the fact that despite this being a past time for the last few years, I have missed the RIVER TV series, and a search in my social media also suggests most haven’t seen it.

Which is a pity, because RIVER  beats them all and IMHO one of the best well produced series that I have had the pleasure of viewing.

Sai Paranjpye and her “Jaadu ka Shankh”

If you belong to my generation or the prevous, there’s a good chance that you have seen and enjoyed the works of Sai Paranjpye but an equally good chance that you barely knew who she was. Since DoorDarshan was the only channel available those days, and Sai Paranjpye somehow had cracked how to deal with bureaucrats from both the films division departments as well as the Doordarshan, she did a lot of work with them which we got to see on television and boy was it good!.

Not judging a book by its cover – Ronin and Narcos

Two of my favourites Ronin the movie and the TV series NARCO Swere ones I had a chance to see early but missed, because the posters and communication didn’t appeal to me.

But finally when I did see them, each one was a superior pearl that was not to be missed.

Pedro Almodovar’s TALK TO HER

Pedro Almodovar ‘s one of the best film makers of modern times, and put Spain and its films and industry right in the spotlight.    

The first film of his that I saw was TALK TO HER, and one viewing of this (of several many times) and I fell in love.