The Gravest Injustice by the Academy!

No, I'm not talking about Martin what's-his-name yet again failing to win the Best Director's Oscar. Nor am I unduly concerned about all the criticisms and judgements passed on the Academy about its selection of the awardees.

But what I'm going to talk about is the gravest injustice that the Academy has ever done! And that is (as some of you might have already guesses correctly!) is its awarding the best male supporting actor Oscar to Morgan Freeman.

Why do I say this?

Come on, you know the answer! One does not have to be a rocket scientist (though actually, being a rocket scientist is not the most prestigious job for a scientist, perhaps!) to know that this fella, Morgan Freeman, does not know how to act. In fact, he never acts!! He does not possess the intensity of Brando, nor does he jump like Pacino, nor he goes stiff to do "method acting" like Dustin Hoffman or Denzel Washington. Then what does he do? Just stand there and deliver his lines in a detached, allof manner? Is that acting? I say, NO!!

In my opinion, he does not even deserve a single penny as salary for his work in the movies. One can never feel that he's acting when one watches him in a film. And in spite of that, you give him an Oscar!!!!!!

And look, what he did to you! While receiving the award, he did not act charged with emotion, he didn't kiss everyone around, he didn't thank his dead cat, he didn't cry, even his voice didn't choke for a moment. What the hell? Is that not an insult to the Academy? Is it not the norm for the Oscar winners to tremble, sob, talk about world peace, and what have you, and act as if (s)he even remotedly didn't have the faintest idea that (s)he may be awarded!!!!

But let me tell it on your face, Academy: you deserve it. You deserve it for choosing a non-actor for such an honor!

Of Cats, Casablanca, Love and Marriage! (The Gypsies Strike Back!)

The other day, I watched this movie entitled "Crna Macka, Beli Macor" (Black Cat, White Cat) by Emir Kusturica. I didn't intend to watch this movie; what I was interested was in a DVD set of the "Trois Couleurs" (Three Colours) by Krzysztof Kieslowski, because for almost a decade now I know that he was a great moviemaker. But since my colleague, who promised me the movies, could not locate the DVDs, she lent me "Dom za vesanje" (Time of the Gypsies) and "Black Cat, White Cat" by Kusturica instead. To be honest, I never even heard of Emir Kusturica until then, and I was bit apprehensive about his movies. But due to the general belief that Eastern European movies are in general good, I first watched "Time of the Gypsies", and (since I liked it) and then went for "Black Cat, White Cat".

I must now confess that it was a hillarious and vibrant movie. Though there was no English subtitle for the movie, and I could not even guess most of the things they said, I could just enjoy the visual, and that was enough for good laugh. Now, this is not a serious movie, or even believable, but a really colourful depiction of the Gypsy life by the river Danube.

In addition to a pair of omnipresent cats, a naive conman whom some Russian smugglers sell water instead of fuel, a war criminal-and-mafia boss who snorts cocaine that's hidden in his crucifix, a patriarch Don who watches only the last 10 seconds of "Casablanca" again and again (and then repeats the last dialogue from the movie) seated in a chair that can roll and is equipped with a fan and a TV set, and a pig that eats away a car.

In addition to a sub-plot that revolves around a failed train hijack, this movie also contains a tall, lanky Mafioso who waits for his "true love", a young couple in love, two arranged marriages, couple of killings and some shootings. It also covers a sex scene betwen the two cats, the most natural of all actors, and ends in the wedding of the lovelorn couple in a boat, where the priest holds the two cats behind their ears to make them immobile, so that they could act as the witnesses.

What more can one ask for?

A Tale of Hope in 3 Parts!

The first time I had heard the name Krzysztof Kieslowski was sometime in the early 90's. However, I came to know more about him only after his death in 1996.If I'm not mistaken, I think I read two articles about him by his earstwhile cinematographer: one an obituary, and another as to how the stubbornness of European moviemakers make their movies never get an international market, because they don't want to make any changes, as opposed to movies by people like Spielberg, who treat their movies as consumer product, and thus make changes following suggestions/criticisms of viewers during preview shows.

I never got a chance to watch any of Kieslowski's movies, though I read a bit about him now and then during the last few years. Recently, however, I could lay my hands on his colour trilogy: "Trois couleurs: Rouge" (Three Colours: Red), "Trois couleurs: Blanc" (Three Colors: White), and "Trois couleurs: Bleu" (Three Colours: Blue).

What I could conclude after viewing this series is: Hope.

Most serious movies (at least those made in India) are somehow gloomy and dark, and people often tend to associate pessimism with such movies. In constrast, the central theme of these movies is hope and optimism. They are not heavy with intellectual discourse, nor do they talk of lofty ideals; what they do instead is simply profile hope in moments of despair and grief through three simple stories.

I loved them!

The Mayor of Casterbridge

It often happens that a non-gay person, who's sympathetic towards the gay people, is often considered -- by and large-- to be gay by both the straight and gay community alike. This situation is very aptly depicted in the movie, "Philadelphia". In this movie,a straight lawyer, played by Denzel Washington, who defends the rights of a gay man with AIDS, who has recently been fired by his company, is approached by a gay law student in a pharmacy, who after applauding the lawyer for his stand asks him out on a date.

Many people face similar situations in real life, and thus it puts one in a delicate situation to be non-gay and yet be gay-friendly. I, for myself, have nothing against the gay people (or against people who dislike eggplant, or who drink Red Bull, or, for that matter, against E.T.s). I never felt threatened by the presence of a gay person, because in my opinion, gay people don't jump on the first person they see, just like a straight person does not.

However, I don't know many people, who inspite of being liberal, would be inclined to walk along in a gay pride parade. And that's what makes New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, different from many of us, who joins the gay rights parade in New York.

Now this does not mean that he's some kind of a saint. No; he's not! He's the same person, who in spite of being a lifelong democrat, ran the Mayoral election under a Republican ticket, because he thought in that way he could avoid the overcrowding of prospective candidates in the Democratic party.He's also a shrewd businessman, and among the World's richest people. And so, it could be that many of his moves are well-calculated.

Nevertheless, he dares to do what he plans! He dares to walk with the gays in the Gay pride parade. And that's what matters.

Roma (Not the Fellini Movie!)

I was watching this movie, which my colleague lent to me, the other day. She said that it was a very good movie, and probably it contained subtitles in English as well (which, in the final analysis, it didn't!). Now, though I don't know a thing about movie or art (or anything else for that matter), I like to pretend to be an intellectual, and hence I took the movie from her, and started watching it.

The name of the movie is Dom Za Vesanje (Time of the Gypsies); it's about the Gypsies in Yugoslavia (Now, my colleague dislikes the Gypsies, and she often mentions to me that an Indian Professor told her that there are Gypsies in India too; I guessed the professor meant the Banjaras. However, I never bothered much about any possible connection of the European Gypsies to India.), and it didn't have any subtitles in English. I was half and half watching it until I saw this drunkard talking to himself. He said, ek dui trin, and started hopping. Now, ek dui tini is how I count one two three in my mother tounge and that's what he was doing too (In Hindi, it's ek do tin)! That intrigued me, and I paid attention to what they say in the movie after that.

Interestingly, I kept hearing words such as dekh (look), paani (water), paach (five), chay (six), oth (eight), gav (village) etc., which are (more or less) the same words found in Hindi/Sanskrit too. More than that, the sense in which these words were used was also identical to that in Indian languages.

That intrigued me even further, and I went to do what I do best; I did Google. And there came many hits, telling me the link of the Gypsies with India. I never knew, for example, that the Gypsies migrated from India a thousand years or so ago, or that their language (Romany) is derived from Indian languages (a 2003 Nature paper, however, says that it's derived from the Sinhala language). I learnt more about the Gypsies in half an hour than I knew in 25 years (not that it makes any difference!)

As far as the movie goes, I just quote the review of a person, posted in imdb.com:

"This movie shines as an example of pure art in cinema. So powerful with symbolism and story telling, "Time of Gypsies" delivers amazing performances on acting, settings, musical scores, and overall directing.

In year 1988, this movie was one of the most awaited films in the Istanbul International Film Festival. I was one of the lucky ones who had a ticket for the film. When the show time arrived, it was obvious that there was a problem since the film did not started. A lady from the festival committee came to the stage announcing their appology and explaining what the problem was; they were expecting the copy of the film from the its distributor in USA. Unfortunately there was a logistics problem, so they had to get it directly from Yugoslavia. When the festival organisation put their Yugoslavian translators at work they did not understand which language it was! And a cleaning lady, who was an actual gypsy figured out that the movie was in Gypsy language. So it was not possible to translate it for the festival.

So they offered an apology and refund in case anybody did not want to watch it without subtitles.

Nobody left the theatre. We watched the movie without understanding a word. But, at the end there was a standing ovation at the theatre went on for a couple of minutes."

I'm happy that my colleague lent this movie to me, which gave me the chance to know a few things about the Gypsies.

By now, it has become almost my habit to provide links for the topic in my blog-posting. Here we go:

http://www.answers.com/topic/roma-people

http://www.herts.ac.uk/UHPress/Gypsies.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_and_Sinti

http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Romany-english/

http://imdb.com/title/tt0097223/

The Importance of Suing Earnest(ly)!

My friend, who is a big fan of Seinfeld's, often mentions an episode in which one of the guys sues a coffeeshop because some hot coffee prepared by the shop burned him, while he was driving and drinking coffee at the same time. Now, says my friend, according to Seinfeld, it's the most natural thing to know that hot coffee, if spilt, would burn, and it's the consumer's duty to be careful while drinking any hot beverage. However, in the episode, the guy finally settles for a out of court settlement (without consulting, or even informring, his attorney) according to which he would be entitled to as much free Mocha Latte as he could consume for as long as wished. And my friend informs me that finally our hero ends up having an uncontrollable shaking of his limbs due to excessive coffee intake.

Now, this was a sitcom, and my friend mentions this to me because of my coffee addiction. I however, enjoy this story because in America, one can sue almost anyone for anything. And thus one sees all kinds of whacko and weird warning messages on all kinds of items.

I love it. It's finny to read all these messages. And what comforts me more than that is the feeling that I can sue any company or product for anything. In fact the other day, my landlord told me that in California, every house must have a bath tub; unfortunately I hate bath-tubs, and fortunately for me, my apartment has a shower instead. So I asked my landlord if I could sue him, and if he knew any good lawyer. Sadly for me, he informed me that where I lived was an apartment and NOT a house. Sad indeed!

The conseuquent depression was removed when I read a news item in CNN about two teenage girls who made some panckaces and cookies for their lonely neighbor and went to leave it at her doorsteps silently. And what follows seems possible in only an absurd drama. To quote CNN...

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"DURANGO, Colorado (AP) -- Two teenage girls who surprised their neighbors with homemade cookies late one night were ordered to pay nearly $900 in medical bills for a woman who says she was so startled that she had to go to the hospital.

Judge Doug Walker declined Thursday to award punitive damages, saying he did not believe the girls acted maliciously.

Taylor Ostergaard, 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitti, 18, baked the chocolate chip and sugar cookies one night last July.

They made packages with a half-dozen cookies each and added large red or pink construction- paper hearts that carried the message, "Have a great night."

The notes were signed with their first initials: "Love, The T and L Club."
Then they set off to make their deliveries.

Wanita Renea Young, 49, said she was at her rural home south of Durango around 10:30 p.m. when she said saw "shadowy figures" outside the house banging repeatedly on her door.
She yelled, "Who's there?" but no one answered, and the figures ran away.

Frightened, she spent the night at her sister's home, then went to the hospital the next morning because she was still shaking and had an upset stomach.
The teenagers' families offered to pay Young's medical bills, but she declined and sued, saying their apologies were not sincere and were not offered in person.
The girls declined comment after the ruling. Taylor's mother said the girl "cried and cried."
"She felt she was being punished for doing something nice," Jill Ostergaard said.
Young said the teenagers showed "very poor judgment"
"The victory wasn't sweet," Young said. "I'm not gloating about it. I just hope the girls learned a lesson."
The teens said they did not answer when the woman called out because they wanted the treats to be a surprise."

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Believe me, this really comforts me. I hope that the girls will grow up to be totally cynical adults, who would never again think of doing anything good to anyone. That would be in line with what (if I remember correctly) Morgan Freeman mentions in Se7en: "In America, women are taught not to shout for 'help' when attacked by someone, because no one comes forward to help; they're instead taught to shout 'fire' because that helps.(sic)"

The CNN News item can be viewed at: http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/02/04/costly.cookies.ap/