Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Me, Kash & Cruise
A play from & about Bombay came to Singapore; so obviously we had to go watch it. Directed by Rahul Dacunha, "Me, Kash & Cruise" is a story of 3 friends who meet at St. Xaviers college - one is a brooding arty-type guy, there's a pretty, perky & rich South-Mumbai girl, and there's a simple-minded Delhi-walla who's recently moved to Mumbai; and the 20-odd years they spend together in Mumbai.
And then there's Rajit Kapur who appears in the play as different but all typically Mumbai characters - as a police hawaldar turned moral police; as an ardent Ganpati procession dancer; as a marketing guy with an American accent and incorrect grammar; as a roadside hawker selling sex solutions; as a angry sword-bearing man during the riots; all are small but impactful & entertaining appearances on stage.
This Mumbai girl who is narrating the story - equally enjoys the company of intellectual and brooding Kash as she does the classless but fun Cruise with his simple fundas in life. The background score as well ranges from the "Beedi" Song to "Take my breath away". It's all very Mumbai. Loved going back to that city for 2 hours in that small theatre hall in Singapore! :)
Some of the lines were hilarious too ( "Kash, you wore an ear-ring, never played cricket and then did a B.A.; obviously my dad assumed you were gay!")
And then there's Rajit Kapur who appears in the play as different but all typically Mumbai characters - as a police hawaldar turned moral police; as an ardent Ganpati procession dancer; as a marketing guy with an American accent and incorrect grammar; as a roadside hawker selling sex solutions; as a angry sword-bearing man during the riots; all are small but impactful & entertaining appearances on stage.
This Mumbai girl who is narrating the story - equally enjoys the company of intellectual and brooding Kash as she does the classless but fun Cruise with his simple fundas in life. The background score as well ranges from the "Beedi" Song to "Take my breath away". It's all very Mumbai. Loved going back to that city for 2 hours in that small theatre hall in Singapore! :)
Some of the lines were hilarious too ( "Kash, you wore an ear-ring, never played cricket and then did a B.A.; obviously my dad assumed you were gay!")
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
The Hurt Locker
I've been out of touch with Hollywood lately, but following all the awards, we finally watched "The Hurt Locker" last week. I thought it was a movie with a few weaknesses and a few strengths, but on the whole, it moved me.
The movie is about heroism in war, and about the adrenalin-rush of being in an intense war situation. I won't say I relate to a soldier who craves the adrenalin of being in a bomb squad in Iraq; but I thought him to be believable. And the movie put me in this soldier's shoes and read his diary of time spent in Iraq where nobody can be trusted and no place is safe. Of course, it was not a regular war movie - it was horrifying (without being gory), it was edge-of-the-seat stuff and it was a new "American-soldier's-unapologetic-point-of-view" on the war in Iraq.
But having said that, a war movie is a war movie is a war movie. Wars are always ugly; and they're uglier when fought in the middle of civilians; by soldiers from a culture & place so alien to the people they'r meant to be defending. In a way, a war movie set in Iraq might have well been set in Vietnam 50 years ago and it would've been almost the same; only the communists are now called terrorists and landmines are now suicide-bombers.
The movie is about heroism in war, and about the adrenalin-rush of being in an intense war situation. I won't say I relate to a soldier who craves the adrenalin of being in a bomb squad in Iraq; but I thought him to be believable. And the movie put me in this soldier's shoes and read his diary of time spent in Iraq where nobody can be trusted and no place is safe. Of course, it was not a regular war movie - it was horrifying (without being gory), it was edge-of-the-seat stuff and it was a new "American-soldier's-unapologetic-point-of-view" on the war in Iraq.
But having said that, a war movie is a war movie is a war movie. Wars are always ugly; and they're uglier when fought in the middle of civilians; by soldiers from a culture & place so alien to the people they'r meant to be defending. In a way, a war movie set in Iraq might have well been set in Vietnam 50 years ago and it would've been almost the same; only the communists are now called terrorists and landmines are now suicide-bombers.
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