Saturday in Toronto – CN Tower
Yesterday I went to the CN tower with my uncle. It is 553.33 metres (more than half a kilometre!) tall and can be seen from the looking boulevard or the skypod.
The skypod is right on top, while the looking boulevard is below the skypod. The world has changed and we have modern wonders. In India, we visit forts and temples and here in Canada, the attraction is an antenna! Ok, so it’s the tallest antenna in the world.
(Image taken from www.cntower.ca)
The best part was the glass (or plastic?) floor on the top on which you could walk and on looking below you could see Toronto far away right under your feet. It does give a feeling that you are going to fall through.
Reena Mohan and Bharatanatyam
After vsiting the CN Tower in Toronto, my Uncle and I went to an arangetram. Whats an arangetram? I didn’t know. Never attended one in India but did get introduced to one here in Toronto. I wondered if I would see any interesting Indian guys in the crowd.
An arangetram is the first formal performance of a Bharatanatyam trainee. It was the arangetram of Reena Mohan, the daughter of my uncle's friend. Well, ok.. I sat down in my seat wondering what was in store for me. As the performance went on, I swayed my head side to side with the taal and music occasionally. After all, I was the true blue Indian in the crowd, just 20 days old in Toronto, and was supposed to be knowledgeable and appreciative of Indian arts more than others! In an interval between performances, some Canadians were doing a good job of understanding the mudras or hand gestures in the row behind me. They identified the ones for suffering, removal of sorrows, crown but got stuck after that. "What this?" the guy wondered. I felt very good educating him and saying that it was the mudra for a flute, the symbol of Lord Krishna. You know, the way you explain saying Krishna, RamA, karmA, niravanA.
Chak De
Ahaa! Now that was a good movie.
When I went to watch Chak De I kind of knew what to expect - rivalry in the team, one killing loss in the game, injury of a good player which gave a lesser player an opportunity to prove herself, an inspiring coach speech. I must say the movie went far beyond my expectations and there was a special tadka in it since it was Indian. No hamming with patriotosm, just the correct pinch of it. Indian languages, practising with facilities that are sub standard on the international scale, the India Gate circle as a running track, the lack of faith in "women running around in knickers" - it made the movie very different from any other sports team movie from Hollywood.
The movie pushes women and their self esteem ahead, the girls even beat up eve-teasing men. Yet the movie is not a feminist's delight and there is a good dose of sportsmanship from both men and women. The excitement builds up, the penalty shoot outs are moments of silence and anticipation and quick heartbeats. I found myself cheering and clapping and having to remind myself that it was only a movie with takes and retakes.
Must watch movie. Paisa Vasool.
Review of OSIANs cinefest and the films screened
Picture taken from www.Osians.com
Attended half of OSIANs film festival, from the 20th to 25th of July. I would wake up and really get cranky about procuring food. I had nothing to do and no will to work, having just finished my internship. The only highlight in the day was the time spent in Audi 1, 2, 3 or 4 at Siri fort in the darkness catching movies. Soon I was craving for AC, fridge and Mummy and I hit home in Chandigarh after half the film festival was over.
It was good to watch the thin Neville Tully around the festival with his light cotton, well ironed clothes and the characteristic loop in his posture.
I caught the following films-
Curiosity killed the Cat
Dor
Fourteen
Tender is the Wolf
Driving to ZigZigland
Where to
Vanaja
Frozen
Mr and Mrs 55
Cafe Lumiere
If you watched any of these films do give your opinion on it as a comment on this blog.
Some films had a very strong plot that kept the viewer glued to his seat while others seemed like drifters with a surrealistic touch. I am a fan of strong plots and films that are too abstract lose my attention.
Vanaja (Telegu), Frozen (Shot in Ladakh), Dor and Mr and Mrs.55 (Guru Dutt) were the Indian movies I watched.
Vanaja is the story of a fisherman's 15 year old daughter and how she tries to climb up in life. She works at an influential woman's house as domestic help and wins a bet against her mistress to learn classical dance from her. Vanaja is at the verge of womanhood. Its crazy how certain scenes titillate you without any skin show. Its mind twisting. A simple story otherwise, very interesting to watch with lots of Andhra Pradesh landscape and lifestyle to observe.
Frozen has very very very beautiful shots. Its all in black and white. The snow, the glare of the sun in frozen Ladakh, the wolf like dogs make it a beautiful calender. No story. No fun.
Mr and Mrs 55. Fat and happy and beautiful Madhubala. Guru Dutt in a lighter mood and Johnny Walker flirting with Ms Julie by singing songs with her while crawling under office desks. Loved the movie.
Dor - a Nagesh Kukunoor movie with Ayesha Takia, Gul PAnag and Shreyas Talpade. Strong story. Beautiful shots. Great film in too many aspects to point out.
Fourteen was about crazy adolescents in Japan. It was also about adults coming to terms with the craziness of their own childhoods. Didn't identify with it as we Indians are still a sane lot in our teenage lives except for the occasional young guy who features on reality shows like Deewanagi.
Cafe Lumiere - another Japanese movie. Boring. Japanese movies are non-noisy non-pushy like Japanese people themselves. They pause. One scene was shot with a girl bending and putting on her shoe, stopping to think and finally does up her laces to sit up straight and thinking and then finally going and pulling out her cycle from the stand to pedal away. The way they make films, the way Japanese people shoot scenes and the way they give the viewer lots of room for thought is a breath of fresh air for people accustomed to racy Hollywood. Sounds are like water dripping, the sound of putting down a tea cup on the table or the short answer "Hai (yes)" to a question.
The Chinese movie Curiosity Killed the Cat is one of the movies I enjoyed the most. It is the story of betrayal and revenge. Main characters - a man, his wife and his mistress. It is all about she knows and she knows that she knows but she doesn't let him know that she knows, he doesn't want to let her know. The same scenes are shown again and again but each time a new angle in the story has been revealed to you so that you see it in a new light each time. Its a whodunit. Very well made film that grabs you by your eyeballs.
Tender is the wolf (Tunisian) had me cringing with its rape scene. Its about weird characters, a girl who takes revenge and even makes up with one of the men after rape, a girl with no fear and lots of spunk, a mentally sick albino, a coward who is beaten to pulp and rushed to hospital by strangers in a trash wagon. The story of the movie is made up of the happenings of one night. It is a very involving movie.
Where to - strikes a chord in the heart of anyone who longs for home. Its a 12 minute film on an immigrant taxi cab driver.
Drivingto Zigzigland is a movie made in USA but the theme is not USA. Its inclusion in OSIANs is justified by the fact that the main protagonist belongs to Jerusalem and this affects the thought-base of the movie. This man too is a taxi cab driver. Each time he tells his passengers he is from Palestine it strikes up a political debate or calls for a history lesson. So he prefers to say he is from Zigzigland and even gets away from it. The passengers are often racists - not the extreme types, but the everyday types - you and me. The film has comedy, sadness and damn! kick-the-object-closest-to-you, bang-your-fist moments. It was the best film I watched at the film festival. It was introduced by the director and cast of the movie which was an honour.
Waiting for a movie to start- Looking around - silver haired flowing tresses women with silver jewelery and exclamation mark bindis on the forehead - the gaggle of students- a woman from some country left for you to guess with a scary spice hairdo sitting in the seat in front of a short man - the old man who sang along lustily with all the songs in the Guru Dutt's movie - the people sitting around that old man who did not have the heart to ask him to stop although they are very sensitive to the backseat chatter in a movie usually - the security guards at the door who were very sincere in their duty but a little scared lest they be stopping some high and mighty dignitary who is a chief guest for the movie screening and not to be disallowed anything - the aunty sitting in the food court handing out coupons to soggy bhelpuri - the sound of the projector running just before the video appeared on the screen - the gol gappa fellow outside making hay while the sun shone by doubling the price of his aloo tikki and papri chaat and chutney burger - the art student studying the posters and understanding the development of painting to printing techniques over the years - fearless Nadia - Lawrence of Arabia - toilets that don't lock from inside- beautiful signage, direction pointers.