One the greatest film makers is no more!

Ingmar Bergman died today. It is a huge loss to the entire film industry all over the world. And to all of us cinephiles.

He is a master film maker who made excellent films about human relationships and complex factors of thought process. The first film I saw of Bergman was Seventh Seal. It was mind blowing to say the least. Next film of his I watched was Saraband in a film festival. His wild strawberries along with seventh seal ranks among my all time favorites. I also have a few films of his in my netflix queue.

I hope there will be a tribute film festival around bay area soon. I will not miss it.

Ghatak - Broken Dreams??????

Ritwik Ghatak made 8 feature films. None of them were hits. Heck! Not many people have even heard of him. Is he a failure?

A film is a form of artistic expression. If you have any doubts, watch Ghatak's films. His protogonists go through a lot of toughtimes in their life. Most of the times are failures. I usually dislike that kind of films. But not in Ghatak's. His movies seem like reflection of his soul. He wanted to all his anguish in them.

I was watching Subarnarekha lastnight. In that you see 2 characters who love to cry(That's a crude way of putting it. One likes to sing sad songs/raagas and the other writes sad stories). Another character asks the girl why she sings sad songs all the time. She replies that's what she sees around her all the time. That's what ghatak has seen. He wanted you to see it.

Now coming to the question whether he's a failure. You may say he is. He was an alcoholic and died at 51. Made 8 films none were hits. But hey, his films are a relection of his soul. How many artists can really do that? Now he's considered by many as one of the best film makers from India. His dreams probably were broken, but his work will live on forever. Thanks to British Film Institute trying to restore them.

And Finally He Wins!!!

Few months back there was an article in the headlines of the onion "Martin Scorsese's Next Film To Be Three Hours Of Begging For Oscar". I thought it was hilarious for 2 reasons.
A. It talks about how pointless Oscars are and
B. How Scorsese detiorated as film maker over a period of time.

Somehow my 2 of my other favorite directors never won Oscars either. Stanely Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock. 2 Visionary directors. One who can send chills down ur spine without being gory and another a visionary who was way ahead of his times. Kubrick was nominated 4 times for best direction and Hitchcock 5. (Kubrick won it for best visual effects for 2001:The space Oddessy though).

When the departed won other oscars I thought it wasnt going to be scorsese's night. Though departed wasnt as bad as "Gangs of New york" and "The Aviator", it lacked the magic of his earlier films. It's noway close to Raging Bull, Taxi driver, or Mean Streets. If you see a scene of those films, they just glue u to the screen. Departed clearly lacked that. Another downside was the sound track. Where was the haunting sound track a trademark of Scorsese's films! Also, I couldnt take the soulless rendition of "Comfortably numb" in the background.

But at the end of the day I'm happy for Scorsese. He had to make a sub-standard film to win and the award was presented by 3 of the most overrated directors. But, nevertheless and award is an award.

David Gilmour Vs Roger Waters

What is more important for a musician? Heart or voice? OK! Heart is just a blood pumping machine. Brain or voice? This was precisely my question tonight. Is there an answer to it? Probably not.

Waters is a GREAT composer, Gilmour is a GREAT singer & guitarist. When Waters sang "Shine On" as a tribute to Syd Barrett(I'll rave about Syd Barrett some other time, meanwhile check him out on youtube), I missed Gilmour. But, I dont think Gilmour can ever compose a "Another Brick on The Wall" which happens to be my alltime favorite rock song.

When waters and Gilmour split up Waters took animations & flying pigs, and Gilmour took lasers. Waters took the brain and Gilmour took the voice. I cannot help but feel sad like many other Pink Floyd fans.

Concert ROCKED. Started off with "In the Flesh" just as I expected and ended with "Comfortably Numb". For the penultimate song, I could've paid any money(Yes it was "Brick on the wall Part-II"). But I missed David Gilmour.

Resisting Temptations

Last wednesday after eating dinner, I was sitting on the couch watching tv, opened a box of candies and started eating 1. Awesome truffle, I thought.

I got a few boxes of candies for christmas as a gifts. I also buy another love of mine dark chocolate covered raisins from trader joes, which I religiously eat everyday. There was a story on NPR a couple of weeks back about how chocolate can help in reducing the risk of heart attack. What else can make a chocolate lover happy? It might 've been a reserach sponsored by chocolate industry & results might 've been skewed. But who cares.(I'm considering only chocolate lovers here.)

There's one more thing about chocolate, it is very addicting. I used to eat a lot of chocolate when I was in college. To fight the additcion, I used to buy chocolate & keep it on the table in my room, but not eat it for a week. I felt it was the ultimate test of self control. I always won.

I have been eating chocolate almost everyday for last 5 months now. Now that could mean one hell of an addiction. So I had to do it again, have chocolate in front of me and not eat it. I left a candy box and chocolate raisins on the coffee table and decided not to eat it for a week. Well, I did it again. Yesterday was the eight day. Fellas! nothing in this world is addicting.

God, The Savior

Yesterday I was watching "The last temptation of Christ"

They show that Jesus is rescued & he's not a messiah. There's an interesting scene which goes on like this.(I changed the dialogues as I dont remember them word by word)

He sees a preacher talking about Jesus & resurrection. Jesus goes to the priest asks

"Did u see Jesus after resurrection?"

"No I did not. But his disciples did."

"They couldnt have. I'm jesus. Neither did I die nor was I ressurrected."

"Y do I care? People want a savior and god. So I give them that. It doesnt matter whether you are dead or not. I dont care."

"I'm going to tell people."

"They will kill you. " While leaving the preacher says "Oh! BTW it was nice meeting you."

This got me thinking. ISnt that what people want? A security that there's some1 to look after me. Some1 to redeem me from my sins. Some place nice to go after death.

People love the idea of the savior, would love to believe in one. Whether he exists or not, doesnt really matter.

The person I dont want to be

It is Terri Schiavo. Poor woman has been kicked around so much. Neither her parents nor her husband want her to live or die in peace.

I really feel sorry for her. She has been in a vegetative state for 15 years now. Doctors say chances for her recovery are almost nil. I'm a supporter of euthanasia. I totally support her decision to die, if that is what she wanted.

At the sametime, I understand the fact that her parents have a problem with accepting that her daughter may not recover. It is tough on any parents. Now these conservative groups jump in for thier own political gains, adding another angle to it.

Whatever the decision might be it's not fair to either parents or husband. But the way she's being treated now(remove the tube today, feed her tomorrow) is not fair for Terri.

Let her live, let her die. But whatever it is, leave her alone. Dont torture the poor woman anymore.

Introduction

My blogs are about irrationalities, ironies, musings , views, etc about any random thing & experience life throws in. Most of blogs are my thoughts penned in & unedited.