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Movies are the next best thing to dreaming.
Nope, that’s not a famous quote by some one consequential. Well, it could turn out to be one soon enough when my charm reaches its much deserved peak of fame.
Till then, I guess we’ll just live with quoting these words of acquired wisdom in the trusted anonymity of conversations on these pages.
And speaking of more ‘wisdom under the pretext of an indulgent one sided monologue’, how ever bad the latest spate of blockbusters must be doing at the box office, One never needs to pay up huge monies for one’s taste of fantasy. Simply cozy up with cushions, dim the lights a bit, get yourself a warm cup of coffee with something to nibble and catch one of these movies to spend the most amazing weekend, home alone!
Priceless(2006)
This is one Priceless movie watching experience!
Aptly, name this gem is a French film and whoever said French movies are all about deep reflection and layered meanings, too tedious and too dry, well watch this!
Irene meets Jean; they fall in love and live happily ever after. Not quite, I must say.
The pretty lady in question is actually a manipulative escort, who lives off at the expense of rich older men and uses mercilessly the poor head over heels in love bartender to get what she wants. Only of course to eventually realize, that what she wants is to be loved and that’s when they drive off into the horizon on a scooterette! Shot at exotic locale (which refreshed memories of Monaco and Monte Carlo) this movie is as delightful as a French puff pastry – a truly priceless 2 hours of heartfelt smiles and sighs!
Watch the effervescent Audrey Tautou, trample over hearts and teach the tricks of the trade to the shy Gad Elmaleh only to run to him when she’s just about to lose it all & catch the most amazing on screen adventure of a kiss (I am told won the best kiss award that year at a lot of international fests – catch it here).
Tip of the day: A regular on World Movies!
Before Sunrise( 1995)
Soulmates for a night - Before Sunrise
One of those very rare movies , which keep you wondering what happened after the titles began to role? Jesse and Celine meet up on the Euro-rail. He is an american tourist dealing with a recent heart break travelling to Vienna on his last day in Europe , and is flying out the next morning.She is a young student , on her way to Paris where she studies. They hit it off and on an impulse he persuades her to get off at Vienna for a night that turns out to be the most romantic journey of their lives. They talk and explore the city and connect in a way that they never did with any one before . Fighting the urge to not commit to a long distance relationship that both of them feel would kill what they shared and an attraction that they just cant deny , they eventually part ways with a promise to meet exactly 6 months from the day they met , this time at Paris.
Watch this and you’ll know what it means when you ‘really connect’ with a person. You talk with out inhibitions , share ideas and dreams and open up in the most endearing ways. No mush , no melodrama , pure conversations – This is definitely my idea of romance.
Tip : Watch Before Sunset (2005) that was made exactly 9 yrs after the first movie that captures their meeting again. nope , they dont meet after 6 months(aww…) but they do meet .. after 9 yrs. Heart wrenching , isnt it? Catch my favourite scene when they have a ‘fake phone conversation with friends’ here
Clueless(1995)
When you have everything , what really are you looking for?
Who says classics are boring? You can take an Emma and spin it on its head and here you have the most contemporary adaptation placed right here in your high school. Cher , is rich , pretty and popular. There’s nothing really she can’t talk herself out of . Other than staying at the top of the social ‘high-school’ who’s who list , her immediate worries in life are playing matchmaker , indulging in the retail therapy and rescuing the down-trodden in terms of trends!
Josh , her step brother calls her selfish & superficial. She tries to prove otherwise by evangelising the social life of Tai , the new kid on the block in a purely unselfish act. But soon all hell breaks loose , she flunks her driving test , is losing out on popularity charts to her latest ‘project’ and is confused about her feeling for her Mr Right , Josh! All ends well , when she gains back her popularity , friends and love and giving us the cutest poor little rich girl of the screen ever. Lots of fizz and attitude , this movie’s like soda pop – lifts up your spirit and leaves a sweet after taste. Watch it for Alicia Silverstone , and you ‘ll know where the movie gets its sparkle from.
Amelie (2001)
Meet your neighbourhood Robin Hood - Amelie !
If you feel romantic movies are sweet, this one’s a French Patisserie. Amelie’s been a lonely girl since childhood and as a young woman she’s shy and introvert. After a sudden realisation one fine day that she’s perhaps wasting her life , she takes upon herself the task of bringing joy and happiness to everyone around her. As she goes about on her secret mission of fulfilling dreams of her father , neighbours , co-workers at the cafe where she works and this lonesome stranger she comes across – she makes the biggest mistake which blows off her cover- She falls in love. Watch this fairytale that give every spy movie a run for its money as you watch the impossibly pretty Audrey Tautou plan the most amazing set ups playing match maker ,wish fulfiller and revenge seeker for all those around her. As reality meets fantasy , you cant help thinking to your self , if only we could come across some one like her . Sigh!
Vicky Cristina Barcelona(2008)
Alrite , this one’s quite a twisted affair. But what makes this movie , so damn neat is its non adherence to norms. Vicky and Cristina are as different as chalk and cheese. Vicky is practical and traditionalist , knows what she wants and has planned her entire life around . Christina , on the other hand is free spirited and bohemian , and perhaps knows what she doesnt want , and is okay with trying to finding the answer to this question all her life.
On their trip to Barcelona , they chance upon Juan a painter with quite an eccentric view of love. What starts off as a casual meeting becomes a complex tale of unfulfilled love & deep passion that both of them share with not only Juan but also his ex wife Maria Elena with whom he has an off and on relationship. At the end of it all , both the women , end up where they started . Each more assured than ever of their belief in life – their view of love and the way they wish to live.
Tip : Watch this one , for the most amazing views of barcelona , rediscover the beauty of the spanish language and a fresh take on love , if you’ve ever been confused , this one makes you feel – its all right!
Okay so whats the big deal About Jane Tu?
There’s this nice boy , who meets a pretty girl . They like each other . Sing happy songs . Croon mushy lines . Laugh , hug , smile , cry together . But you know “unhone kabhi ek doosre to us nazar se nahi dekha ” So you see , they are confused if they really L-O-V-E each other . And then Jealousy strikes . Lo and behold . Everything sorts out to the makings of a happy ever after !
Dreamy ? ya right!
No i mean honestly . Whats the deal here. I thought of all the stuff that so typically cliche with the movie that i wonder why is everyone raving abt it being all fresh and all!
1. He dumps the perfect girl – All sweetness and Sunshine . Who cares . Who smiles all the time. Loves to walk into the moonlit night . Whose full time occupation is keeping you entertained - goe where you go , do what you like , NO friends of her own by the way all coz YOU are her world!
And you go ahead and realise you love this brat who screams at everything that moves . beats up everything that moves. whoever said Love is blind surely was looking for the word ”dumb!!”. Duh!
2. She meets the proverbial perfect “knight in the armour” to discover the kink in it , coz he’s the fiance who needs to pop in and out of the story quite conveniently.
I mean how vague can you get . He’s a karate black belt like you ve always wanted , soaked in monies , wear flashy labels , drives around in fancy cars . Parties ALL the time while his folks try to put together an empire for him to run. I mean WOW! and then when you oscillate between the now and the would have been , we see him turning the shade of grey from the sqeaky white . And when true love twinkles in her eyes , the poor fiance goes out of the window for good. coz you know what “hes the bad guy in the story!!!” weep weep!
3. You are all a bunch of kids whose immidiate worry is finding true love! i mean whatever happened to planning for a future? like career wise?
The relevance of the college is – its your groups hangout . plus it makes up for a nice background for all your happy songs when every one joins in so that ‘aditi has de zara’. Hmmm… i have always been fascinated by the way the youth of this nation knows their priorities , the burning issues and the solutions to all the worlds problems so well. Movies are such a heart warming reflection of the real life i must say .
We have no dreams . No short term / long term goals. no sense of direction as such. you know our biggest worry after the farewell party is .. boo hoo we wont be able to see our friends every day ! oh , how heart breaking is that!
And if by some strange twist of fate , we do realise we can look at ‘higher studies at amreeka’ as an alternative to ‘kill some more time coz you arent ready for all the shaadi business’ … all it takes is ahh some off-key singing , some last minute confessions , some melodrama ( yes , i ll totally ignore the fact that breaking laws on screen is as easy as breaking into a song and dance routine) to hold you back to apna bharat desh . Its tata to the higher studies as you hop onto the marriage band wagon with the ‘boy of your dreams’
this achy love – shove i tell you can be quite a life changing experience!
Hmm so after watching this typical hindi fillum . with all its happiness and glee and youthfulness and generally being lost and confused and yet taking it all in its stride attitude to life – why am smiling ear to ear and feeling all light headed and delirious in life.
Hmm.. so why am i doing that ? And if i am doing that , then why am i writing this whimsical soaked in satire (read sounding like an uptight stuck up in life 80 yr old out-to-change-the world idealistic critic?) Post… jane tu? Jane tu ya jane na? …:)
just wanted to see life from the other side. I guess i prefer mine anyday !
PS : Ah! am humming non-stop ‘kahin toh hogi woh’ & also that am bigtime crushing over someone who solely exists on the bigscreen AND am way past the ‘i have a big crush’ stage/age in life.. but ofcourse thats better unsaid…. and dreaming of atleast one melodramatic moment ‘just like they show in movies’ in my life too. hmmm… dream on .. dream on..
Another gem .. that i rediscovered in the movie “In Her Shoes” , that i wrote about in my Post “The art of losing”
Maggy (Cameron Diaz ) gifts this to Rose (Toni – her elder sister) on her wedding day. As she reads it out to her , everything that binds the two sisters together , through a troubled childhood and fighting the people that they were and taking pride in what they ‘ ve become – starts to make so much sense.
They stay together . Two people . Very different. Very complete in their own worlds. Together . As one heart.
Would this be the elusive perfection in a relationship?
When two people seem so complete on their own.
But without each other they have no meaning.
———–
I Carry your heart with me…
I carry your heart with me(I carry it in my heart)
I am never without it
(anywhere I go you go ,my dear ;and whatever is doneby only me is your doing ,my darling)
I fear no fate(for you are my fate ,my sweet)
I want no world(for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and
whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
I carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
- E. E. Cummings
I don’t suppose I can quite get over ‘love actually’ :)
There are movies. And then there are movies that you can watch a zillion times.
The opening lines can make any cynical a little weak in the knees.
And which ever story you might end up liking the best, every character seems so real –
she could be the person who just walked by or he could be the person you went to college with. You know what I mean?
Who would think the homely petite house keeper aureliea (incidentally that’s my favorite track of the movie) and the healing-a – broken – heart lonesome author are caricatures out of a larger than life screen play. Aren’t they like you or me? Wishing not for anything more than companionship?
And who hasn’t been like the quiet-brooding boy next door hopelessly in love with your best buddy’s girl (the breath-taking Keira knightly) and totally clueless about the fact that your distance isn’t your way of saying “I don’t like you much “on the contrary its “a self preservation thing”!
That surely competes for the top – slot on my favourite track.
One talks about learning to express yourself and that too in a new language. Another talks about living on each day, silently, relving the fact that love even though it was never returned, the big L did touch you … and go once.
Who hasn’t felt taken for granted? Or felt a harmless attraction at the cost of a straining a ‘perfect relationship’ and survived only to feel a heavy – on – the – heart guilt.
Don’t we all ‘think’ we can do anything -learning how to play…ahem ahem drums to catch the attention of the coolest-girl in the school or knock on every possible door to look for ‘fatty’ your endearing house-help , quite forgetting that you happen to be the president!
I watch the movie, whenever I am a little lonely and my spirits are running out of steam. The opening titles are all that I need to hear and see to start believing in all good things in life.
“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at any airport or railway station ….General opinion makes out that we live in a world of hatred and greed … but I don’t see that .seems to me that love is everywhere … Often its not particularly dignified or newsworthy but its always there..
Fathers & sons, mothers & daughters, husbands & wives boyfriends, girlfriends… old friends…
If you look for it, I have a sneaky feeling you will find that love actually is all around”
