Michael Caine on being an actor

Lovely quote by Sir Michael Caine (read here)

"I became a movie actor. The difference between a movie star and a movie actor is that a movie star looks at a script and says how can I change this to suit me and a movie actor says how can I change me to suit this."

Caliban's Sunrise

In Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, that whiskered pill Percy Gorringe recites a poem about a man who, while watching the sun go down, comments:

"I say,
Doesn't that sunset remind you
Of a slice
Of underdone roast beef?"
Caliban at Sunset

I'm sure if Stilton Cheesewright, 'soulless clod' extraordinaire and muse for the poem, was to see this image of the morning sky from a few months ago, it would doubtlessly remind him of some scrambled eggs.

woh to bahut hii mahaan aadmi hai.n

kuch din pahale samaachar patr me.n paDhaa avashya thaa...ki calcutta me.n tiis-chaalis hazaar paagal unkaa darshan karne aadhi raat #Dum Dum airport# pahunch gaye thé.
::R.P. Ramprasad Dasharathprasad Sharma

About 30 years later, nothing has changed.

The portable gymnasium

The portable gymnasium

In a (very long) article on intelligence testing, James Flynn writes:

The best chance of enjoying enhanced cognitive skills is to fall in love with ideas, or intelligent conversation, or intelligent books, or some intellectual pursuit. If I do that, I create within my own mind a stimulating mental environment that accompanies me wherever I go. Then I am relatively free of needing good luck to enjoy a rich cognitive environment. I have constant and instant access to a portable gymnasium that exercises the mind. Books and ideas and analyzing things are possessions easier to access than even the local gym.

If only we who teach could make more of our "subjects" fall in love with ideas. Then we would have truly effective interventions.

I thought this passage was one to think about and internalise.

Lovers of depression

Lovers of depression

"In addition to my other numerous acquaintances, I have one more intimate confidant. My depression is the most faithful mistress I have known -- no wonder, then, that I return the love."

:: Soren Kierkegaard

Previously on this blog by the same man.

It's all about loving your RGVisms

(Indian Express) What’s this on-going war with Karan Johar?

(Ram Gopal Varma) I was being sarcastic when I said that Karan’s films are my favourite horror films. I’m scared of their commercial success. It was meant as a back-handed compliment. Now I swear on my mother, sister and Siddhivinayak temple that I won’t say anything against Karan. I think he’s better than James Cameron and KANK is better than Titanic.

Even though RGV the director seems to have gone AWOL, the mouth remains behind to entertain. And how! As I indicated in a previous post quoting a similar sentiment, this is precisely why "we" like him. He's among the few who seem to voice "our" opinion.

For like Ajay says: "Irrespective of how annoying Mitwaa can get after half-a-dozen listenings and how smug and irritating K-Jo is, what really gets our goat about him (and Himesh Reshammiya, for that matter) is the fact that we are in the minority. The majority of the people out there like them. We can congratulate ourselves on being the intellectual, Omkara-loving, Indian Ocean-listening cognoscenti, but we count zilch when it comes to what works.".

Kabhi KANK Na Kehanaa

George pointed me to this post by Uma M-D who writes about Anupama Chopra's article on Karan Johar's upcoming film on modern Indian marriages (apology: a lot of pointers to pointers in that sentence). In a sense, the battle will soon shift from the current battleground of Omkara to KANK with the two sides swapping roles.

Instead of being exiled from multiplexes during the next few weeks, I wish I could support a movie with the following meta-KANK-outline:

EXT. Outside popular multiplex. A couple in intense conversation

W: Why can't we go? Didn't I go to your "How to curse in Hindi in 21 minutes" tutorial last week?
H: Oh c'mon, that was justified. If you don't understand the requirements of good cinema, you had better shut up. Stage whisper: Saali, bakar kartii rahatii hai
W: And this isn't good cinema? And what was that you said? I have noticed that whenever you go to such movies, for at least a week, you mutter in filthy language. At least, you will hear civilised things in a K-Jo movie.
H: What do you expect from a film in which no one knows whether to cry or dance?
W: That is the Indian ethos, ok? But then, how will a *blip* (deleted for regional reference) know all about dancing and crying? Remember how all your relatives stood in one corner and moped while my family enjoyed the wedding. You are a f***ing pig, that's what you are.
H (sensing danger): Ok, let's just go, ok? Stop shouting at me.

EXT. Four hours later. Outside same multiplex
H (laughing crazily): And what happens then? His limp miraculously goes away on the day of their 2nd marriage? Ha-ha-ha-ha...
W: Shut up, ok? Idiots who don't believe in true love will never get it. It is a beautiful fantasy which emotionally barren people like you will never get.
H: I'm emotionally barren? I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry in there - there was so much emotion coming out from me.
W: And how dare you shout "Limp properly, you fool - use the left foot" in the theatre. I have never been so insulted in my life.
H: My dear lady, if you weren't so busy sobbing, you'd notice something called continuity.
W: I'll give you continuity. I'm going to my mother's at this very moment. Wait a minute - Amitabhji said in the film that women have equal rights to their own emotion. You go to your mothers.

The breakdown in communications results eventually in an unfortunate divorce. The movie ends with the immortal lines "A love conflict for films that broke all relationships".

If you thought the above was lame (I'm undecided if the pun is intentional or not), wait for the real thing in a couple of weeks - coming soon to a theatre near you, so duck!

---

Disclaimer: I'm not a Karan Johar fan. I've seen parts of a few films of his, and have occasionally felt the need to have my blood sugar checked since. He's a smart operator, though. One could admit that like Vishal, even he makes films "from the heart", but then I could extend that to the times when I play with soap.

QWERTY and the octaves

And what about the accusations that he was more of a technician than a musician?
He (A.R.Rahman) laughs out loud. "It's like saying that a writer can write bestsellers b'coz he has mastered the keyboard."

A pretty neat answer from an increasingly media-savvy A.R.Rahman. The above was an excerpt from his interview to the Hindustan Times, which can be read here (courtesy the e-group).

The Worldspace ad has seen in its wake, quite a few media appearances for the man. Another interesting interview from a few days ago was in the Indian Express (link), where he mentions how "Baz Luhrman (Moulin Rouge) wanted me to compose the soundtrack for his next film, but they checked a website and found 30 projects lined up next to my name. I think that worked against me.". Well, that's the price he's paying for not having an official website that accurately describes his current commitments. "ARRahman.com" is a Sony site aimed at promoting the music he's done for them (and so the last notice is about Warriors of Heaven and Earth (2003)). IMDB's (the one likely to have been seen by Lurhmann's men) is usually no more than a fount of zealous fan speculation when it comes to Indian films and people.

7idane?

The (by now) historically dramatic Zinedine Zidane head-butt reminds me of the ending in the film Se7en, where Det. David Mills' (Brad Pitt) actions are unfortunate, perhaps even understandable under extreme provocation (?). Materazzi as John Doe - who knows? But we certainly are a lot like Det. William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) watching from the outside as a sullen and ultimately silent Mills sits in the car (and if we knew what was really said - what a mystery!) while the line "Ernest Hemingway once wrote,'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part." is spoken in the background.

(At the risk of romanticising...)

And elsewhere, Harish stands by the man and realises something about the others he supported.