slumdog

I started the year by watching "Slumdog Millionaire" .....which was a brilliant movie to start the year with.

Firstly the fact that it was a Danny Boyle movie; his last movie that i had seen was "Trainspotting" : choose a life, choose a job....watched it in one of our NID 'laserec'-middle-of-the-night screenings, i think.Though the movie was made in the latter part of the 90s i think...ancient in a way....then again there was "The Beach". 

Now, Slumdog was a great picturisation....of the Dharavi slums and how this boy/"chaiwala" from the slums 'rises up' and finally participates in the Who wants to be a millionaire show hosted by Anil Kapoor. Certain scenes...where the two young brothers (the young hero and his elder brother) escape in a train and the young girl is left behind....and slowly as the train chugs along, the silhouttes in black are outlined against the frame in a yellow amber hue....was amazing..and im obviously finding it difficult to express in words here; or the scene where this young boy, who is a crazy Amitabh Bacchan fan is locked inside the makeshift slum-loo while Amitabh Bacchan's helicopter lands close-by...what happens next is quite crazy, yikes and cute (!!)  at the same time...this guy, unable to step out, jumps into this pothole of shit...and scampers across the field, obviously covered with/in shit and goes straight to the Man and asks for his autograph....which his elder brother convieniently sells off for 3-4 bucks; There are lots more to add to the list of i-liked scenes, but words will not do justice i think. ..so lets leave it at this.

Oh and  btw, the soundtrack was great too; 

...and i sang along...

Has it ever happened to you: something mundane that has happened somewhere makes you connect it to life's bigger examples?

This time it was a mere Cd that prompted me to procrastinate...on greater significances...and i can see i am already gearing up towards complex reasoning!

.....This always happens to me whenever i keep any high expectations of anything...and this time round too, it wasnt any different.
The more i expect, the more dissappointed i become.

Well, sorry but its nothing serious as it sounds...case in point is just a 2 pack Cd called "Laya Project" based on the musical journey of folk communities along the coastal belts where the tsunami's path had crossed and cancelled lives and habitat; Now the point is, i am usually very particular about the music i buy, since most of the times, after a patient wait, one ends up getting hold of the Mp3..but this time, i had tried and tried in vain, and anyway this was "hatke music" not to be found in usual limewires and torrents hence i bought the cd yesterday...I wont say it was a disaster (nothing i do ever is!...leaving all modesty aside..its overrated!) but it certainly was nothing like the glimpses and clips i had heard in their website or perhaps the songs weren't organised effeciently...maane, the sequence of the songs in the cd was such that it doesnt hold your interest for long.But having said that, i will listen to it..if played at the right time and mood, i dont think it would sound that bad.

Now now...i don't mean to dissuade anybody from buying the Cd...go right ahead...the dvd is even better i think, it has some interesting videos during and while shooting.
This sort-of-banter was just to explain a simple point: do not have high expectations, you could end up being dissappointed. That's all!