Friday, November 2, 2007

Some Recommendations

Getting back to work has been difficult. I've managed to catch up on some movies through this time. Here are some I'd recommend (and to those who have an open-mind & heart only) -
  1. The Mighty - A story with a heart, I'd say
  2. The Shadow Dancer a.k.a Shadows in the Sun- There's more to life than working in the U. S of A, you know
  3. Annie Hall - The person who recommended this would want to take credit for introducing me to such humor. So here goes - "Thank You! If you ever come across this page, please know, I'm grateful."

Shall keep updating this list. Share yours, if you'd like to.

(November 5th 2007) Update:

  1. Before Sunrise & Before Sunset - Don't analyze. If you've got the patience, do watch these.

11 comments:

Samba said...

I've only watched Annie Hall in this list. Look to watch the others

Pranjal said...

I'd strongly suggest Before Sunrise & Before Sunset. Having read the list you've put up, I'd say try High Fidelity as well.

Samba said...

Do me a favor.

Is there a place in India (Bangalore to be specific) where I manage to get these movies? Coz most local libraries don't seem to have them.

Do you watch 40s movies? If so, do check out The Defiant ones. Well, only if racial themes impress you.

Pranjal said...

Hmm... I've never had trouble finding these in Indiranagar. There's a CD shop on 9th main. Try that if it's close-by. Else ofcourse, Bit-Torrent or Ares rules :)...

Will check The Defiant out. Should themes rule-out movies?! What's the fun in being selective everywhere?

Samba said...

Thanks so much for the pointer! I shall check out this shop even though it's far from my place and workplace.

Do we have a netflic kinda thing in India? If not, it might make sense to start one. I really hate the commercial unavailability of movies on demand over the net. But this time, it doesn't make sense to start a video on demand venture. Blame it oin the bandwidth!

Are you a member of any film society like Suchitra? If you are lemme know how they are.

Now comes the question, should themes discourage us from watching a movie? Surely not. But they can sure encourage. I'm a big fan of racial themes. I have taken the way the white man has treat my black and brown brothers, too personally!

Pranjal said...

Nope, not a member of any club.

I'm not sure why Black-White racism alone should be of such interest? There's racism everywhere afterall. When we talk Hindu-Muslim that's racism. Christians against rest-of-the-world is racism. NorthIndian-SouthIndian is racism. Hell! Men against rest-of-the-species-on-this-planet is racism!

Do you stand for all? Do you take all that too personally?

I think we choose to overlook our contribution in racism & condemn others vehementely for the same!

We are a bunch of hypocrites - you & me, no?

Samba said...

I don't disagree with you. North vs South, Man vs other animals, Hindu vs Muslim vs X'ian, all these are forms of racism. But the important question I would like to ask here is, can we "afford" to take them all personal. If we manage to, we will either be universal men or loners. The former is impractical and the latter is not worth being! The problem is being universal men is that there are too many non-intellectuals in the world and they cannot be expected to be universal men. They will continue to favor their own demographic groups. If we don't do the same, it's equivalent to our discriminating against the demographic groups we belng to. So we choose the battles we want to fight! We zero in on one (or max a couple) of the identities of ours we strongly connect with and take any offense to these one or two identities personally.

I do understand that a lot of us Indians are communal, racist and narrow minded. There are times when an average or even a below average white manages to elicit more respect from Indians than he does from fellow whites! But nonetheless, we, the browns have never committed such crimes against other races and such excesses of narcissism as the white man has done.

Races aside, was your apology directed at me? I assume not. Coz I wasn't offended. I'm pretty thick-skinned to get offended about comments against my comments. I'm myself a species that thrives on and appreciates freedom of expression! If it was an apology to me, I'm sorry, I failed to recognize! Email after all is such an ambiguous medium of communication! For a possibly better mode of communication, I'm reachable on +91 99027 06060.

Samba said...

By the way, check out Dances with Wolves, for another brilliant movie with racial overtones.

Pranjal said...

Yes Samba. The apology was directed towards you. I over-reacted there. Wasn't sure why you picked Black-White over others. Now I know :).

Yet, I think one can always try to be universal. I disagree with the statement - 'discriminating against the demographic groups we belong to'. Bridging gaps is not new-wave. People have always tried reaching out; and they were not necessarily loners or universal men. They were contributing their little bit.

So while we can pick our own battles, keeping an open-mind to others around might just help broaden our perspective on the choices we've made.

P.S: I think my charts this week say, 'I can get philosophical'! (hehe...)

Samba said...

I'm delighted to see this spirit of universal human being in someone at least. That also makes me proud to have you a fellow blogger. In all honesty, you may not change the world with your views. But if you inspire a couple of people and if the inspiration spreads virally, the world does have a chance to change, regardless of its liking!

For instance, you remind me of the spirit of protagonist of Hotel Rwanda and he is an inspiring character on screen and in reality as well.

As far as the apology goes, it just tells me of the gentle lady you are. I however, am not entitled to forgive as I refused to take offense in the first place.

Pranjal said...

I did what I thought was right on my part (in apologizing that is). I'm glad you didn't take offence though :). That settles it then!

True, the chap in Hotel Rwanda is an inspiring being. That was one helluva movie!

Thanks for your kind words. I'm humbled.