Twenty- five Seven

Argo -Unbelievably True!

November 1, 2012

It never rains but pours! Of course it was not raining in Mumbai which was thankfully dry as a bone. With hurricane winds playing havoc in the US and down south, I was glad that we were enjoying our hot Mumbai weather. These days there is just a slight nip in the air, a barely discernible difference in temperatures in the early hours of the morning well before sun up. So early in fact, that it is perhaps only the newspaper vendors and milkmen who notice that Winter is here.

After a serious drought of good movies there suddenly seemed to be a surfeit of quality cinema which is why Jo and I saw two movies in a week! Yesterday we went to see Argo which was playing at Metro as a matinee show. We had a few errands to run at Crawford Market and just about made it while the opening scenes played out on screen. We didn’t miss much and were soon caught up in the wonderful thrilling story of a dramatic rescue of six America Foreign Service personnel who had manage to escape from the American Embassy which was seized by the Iranian Revolutionaries.

Tony Mendez comes up with this simply wild idea of bringing out the fugitives as a Canadian movie crew which had gone to Iran to scout for locations! Brilliantly executed with a nail biting finish, the several tense moments were lightened by a dark humour so subtle that you could almost miss it. For a change Ben Affleck‘s impassive face stood him in good stead as the enigmatic CIA operative Tony Mendez. As for the rest, the inimitable Alan Arkin as the movie mogul , John Goodman as the makeup artist to whom this movie is dedicated and the rest of the cast are totally credible. In fact the plot was reminiscent of the old Arthur Hailey movies with a archetypical characters – the good Diplomat, the sceptic, the scaredy cat, the shady housekeeper and ultimately the success of the mission , that I actually felt it was not a true story at all but a pure figment of imagination! Having heard of so many CIA gaffes and rescue bids that went wrong, I was astonished that this covert CIA operation did really happen !

Verdict – Go see this one! And fast.
Halloween all year round

October 31, 2012

I remember those childhood days when our parents used to entertain almost every other night. In those days it was very fashionable to socialise and a person’s career often depended on his social skills and those of his wife. I remember it was almost mandatory to get your Boss’ approval before getting married and many a young man had to introduce his wife-to-be to the Boss! What a change from today when children don’t even introduce their spouse to be to their parents but just present them with no option but to acquiesce.

So with all these parties going on, we children too had our own parties because we were dragged too to various homes especially when the parties they were held in homes of friends and were unofficial. But in those days children were not meant to be seen or heard so after wishing the elders we were all bundled into a room where we were supposed to spend the rest of the evening. In retrospect, I think it was quite a ridiculous thought since we often had to spend four hours without so much as food and drink (our parents used to feed us at home) and we were all expected to flop on the beds and go to sleep. We possibly did do this as babies but as we grew older, it was harder to fall asleep in a strange bed with ten other children!

We did the next best thing which was to have our own party. And since the parents were so busy drinking themselves silly outside (there were no drunk driving laws in force) we could do whatever we wanted inside without fear of being disturbed. Most of the games were harmless enough starting out with Ludo or Snakes & Ladders or even Bluff. Then as the numbers increased we played other games like Name,Place,Animal, Thing, Chinese Whispers . But then as the din outside increased and the numbers inside increased we played DARK ROOM when we put out all the lights and played hide and seek. It was all perfectly harmless with shrieks and laughter and pillow fights adding to the merriment. The oldest would normally wear a sheet and spook us with ghost stories , sometimes he/she would only reveal the whites of the eye by turning up the upper eyelids and shining a torch from below, thereby producing a really terrifying effect………..

We didn’t have to wait for Halloween to get spooked . We could do it almost all year long!
English Vinglish – a breath of fresh air.

October 30, 2012

I must be among the last people in Mumbai to see “English Vinglish” a delightful Hindi movie which I could very well identify with! This was largely because my regular movie pal was traveling abroad and then caught up with the film festival in Mumbai which just got over last week. Since this movie is already into its fourth week, we could only get an afternoon show at Metro and for Rs. 380 a piece, the ticket was quite a rip off ( she paid Rs. 1000 for a week’s pass at the Movie festival!!!) but luckily it was worth every penny.

Sridevi as Shashi Godbole is a typical shy housewife who is taken for granted by her supercilious husband and actually laughed at by her twit of her daughter. But this is something all Indian mothers are used to – being the butt of their daughter’s jokes. I could very well understand how Shashi’s daughter was embarrassed by her uncool mother at the PTA – and the fun her family made of her lack of confidence in speaking English.

Shashi is sent off to the US to help with her sister’s daughter’s wedding and like most Indian visitors lands up being a glorified maid and cook. But Shashi doesn’t cook all day long, she does manage to get time to get around and one day finds herself making a fool of herself at a coffee shop. Running out in sheer embarrassment, she finds the courage to join up a four week English speaking class. Thus begins the transformation of a conservative, diffident housewife into a confident lady with a sense of self. With all the students bringing their own angst of living in an alien land Shashi displays an empathy that endears her to her fellow students and a charming French cook in particular. This brief interlude away from her family makes Shashi discover her own self worth and self esteem.

When her family comes to New York for the wedding, her husband senses a change in his wife but can’t quite put a finger to it. Shashi meanwhile automatically reverts to being a doormat and is ready to abandon the last few classes . Her young niece however encourages her to take the final exam but a plate of ladoos brought to the ground by her pesky son puts paid to her plans of sneaking out for an hour! Stoically Shashi re-does all the ladoos rather than taking the easy way out by purchasing them from the Indian store . But to Shashi’s surprise, the entire class is invited to the wedding and when Shashi is asked to make a speech she delivers a touching speech in English much to the shock of her entire family !

Sridevi was a treat to watch and Amitabh Bacchan as a cameo was a special bonus. Jo and I truly hated her husband (Satish Godbole played by Adil Hussain) who came across as a real creep.

I loved this Indian chick flick which for a change had a Maharashtrian style wedding – a departure from the done to death Punjabi and Marwari weddings in Indian Cinema. Snappy diaolgues, sharp editing and a delightful sound track, this movie is definitely worth seeing. Thank you Gauri Shinde for proving that Indian cinema can be funny without being crude and can be sensitive without being dramatic .

Argo -Unbelievably True!

Halloween all year round

English Vinglish – a breath of fresh air.