A totally filmi blog

I did all that I had said I would do during the weekend... put my feet up and relaxed... grew a stubble... looked like a bum. So, should I classify this weekend as a success because I did everything I thought I would do. Or do I consider it as a failure since I did nothing productive and wasted two days ...i.e. 48 hours of my life?! *LOL*

Friday evening, I saw Chocolat, the delightful movie about a little French town that is transformed when a woman and her daughter set up a chocolate shop there and promise to ignite the passions of the townspeople with their sinfully delicious chocolate concoctions. It is a simple movie with a heart-warming storyline... which was why I liked it. Hollywood should produce more movies like this rather than the trash it serves out under the guise of entertainment.

While on the subject of movies, I don't think it is possible, these last few days, to have been in India and not to have heard about the controversy that erupted over Ek Chotisi Love Story. First and foremost, the movie itself isn't an original piece of work. It is a verbatim copy from a Polish art film A Short Story About Love. Apart from the storyline that has been copied, even individual scenes have been plagiarized frame-to-frame (even the love-making scenes, right down to the positions that the lovers use while making love, are same!). To top this, the director, Shashilal Nair proudly claims that he thought that the Polish film was so perfectly picturized that he did not feel the need to tamper with the scenes... yeah, right!! :-|

Secondly, Manisha Koirala, the lead actress in the film, claims that her modesty was outraged because the director exposed more of her skin than was agreed upon. Fair enough complaint to make! ... But the basic flaw in this argument is that it is Manisha who has exposed herself on-screen. It was her body double, Jessica Choksi, a struggling model, who did the semi-nude scenes!! So... Manisha, why all the noise?!

A few days back I read an article in a newspaper which stated that, Manisha Koirala, the grand-daughter of a former prime minister of Nepal, has political ambitions and would like to enter politics in her home country of Nepal. If this indeed is true then, I guess, it explains why she is so hung up over the exposure that she hasn't actually done. *LOL*. So, what does she do next?... She goes to Bal Thackeray and asks him to ensure that the film is not screened. Thackeray and his Shiv Sena are only too eager to help Miss Koirala in her venture. They are experts at disrupting screenings of films or plays. And, I guess Amrita was witness to such a disruption. Must've been plenty exciting!! ;-)

Now, snce the screening of the movie was stopped, Shashilal Nair started shouting himself hoarse claiming that this was an attack on democracy and an attempt to stifle his creativity. PLEASE!!! ... where in this whole episode, does creativity figure, Mr. Nair?!... oh well!! ... thieves usually consider their handiwork as a work of art... maybe thats where the creativity comes in!! *LOL*... And the height of all things absurd was reached when Shashilal Nair announced that he would go on a hunger strike until his film was screened!!

Basically, the film itself is based on an infatuation that a 15 year old boy develops for a 26 year old lady who stays in a nearby appartment. The boy fantasizes about having a relationship with the female, voyeuristically spies on his object of infatuation through a pair of binocs and slashes his wrists to show his undying love for her. Pretty controversial theme as far as Indian movies are concerned. But then, since I haven't seen the movie (and I don't intend to!), I would not know how well or how badly the subject has been handled.

Well... well... while the main act was being played out in the press between Manisha and Nair, an interesting sidelight was added to the whole episode when, Manisha's double in the movie, Jessica, announced that Nair had extracted more exposure from her than was initially agreed upon (a fact that I am sure would have never seen the light of the day had this controversy about the film not erupted so publicly). And Jessica went on to say that she did the semi-nude scenes in the movie because she wanted money to support her ailing mother. As far as I am concerned, this was a classic filmi excuse for showing skin on-screen... nothing more... nothing less!

Whew!! ... such a complicated muddle!... I never read film magazines and I hate film gossip. But this entire drama has been played out on the first page of all the national dailies (and on headlines of all news channels) over the past few days and it was not possible to ignore it. Anyways, it has managed to make a mediocre film into a major attraction for the masses. And I believe, Shashilal Nair will go laffing all the way to the bank in the end... pathetic... really pathetic!!

Sheeesh! ... I don't believe I wrote so much about this foolish thing!!

Anyways, the final cricket Test between India and England provided some good entertainment over the weekend. The Indian team, (like they've done on numerous occaisons through this summer) confounded expectations and played extremely well to match England's 515 with 508. Rahul Dravid a.k.a Jammy, played a fantastic inning of 217 and helped India out of trouble. It was Dravid's third century in a row on the tour!! ... Well done Jammy!!

Hey... Abe's got a fantastic new layout. Go, check it our at Tristorm.org! ... I just love the classy graphic she has done at the top of her blog page. Keep it up Abe... may you continue doing great layouts!!

Nirav blogged about hs magic/tragic moments from Indian cricket. I loved that idea. Maybe I'll do that some time in my blogs. :-)

One of AMrita's friends, it seems, lost her cell phone recently, when it was stolen from her purse. Now, it seems such incidents are on the rise in Mumbai. And it also looks as though the mobile phone operators put up their hands when such a case is brought to their notice. I dug up in my inbox and found an old mail that was related to this topic. I dunno how authentic it is... but you might as well give it a try. (and don't blame me if it doesn't help!!) :-) ... Read the following instructions...

To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: * # 0 6 #

A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset.(not related to your service provider). Write it down and keep it somewhere safe.

Should your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the Sim card your phone will be totally useless to the thief

You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it other. If everybody did this, there would be no point in stealing mobile phones.

As I said... I dunno how authentic this is!!

Yeaaahhh!!! ... tomorrow's a holidayyyyy!!! ... Its Ganesh Chaturthi tomorrow and all of India (especially Mumbai and Pune) will welcome its darling deity, Ganapati into their homes tomorrow. But more about Ganesh festival will follow in the blogs this week. So, thats it for now... I'll leave you all with the punch-line from AMUL's latest ad. The ad refers to Ek Chotisi Love Story and has a cartoon showing Manisha, Nair and a movie projector... and calls for the film to be named Ek Motisi Love Story!!...

... and those who've seen Manisha lately will immediately agree with this assessment!! *ROTFL*

cheers!