Remakes Galore

Movie remakes and adaptations have been around since ages, although not all attempts have been justified or successful. At times, the original versions are lucky enough to get a mention in the newer adapted versions, but mostly, directors/writers play it safe and prefer to call the originals as “inspirations.”

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Le Dîner de Cons (The Dinner of Cretins), a 1998 French comedy film written and directed by Francis Veber, is one such original that has been remade 5 times to date. The movie itself is a cinematic adaptation of Veber’s play Le Dîner de Cons. It is a classic French comedy that makes your tummy hurt with laughter.
Its remakes have been both hits and misses at the box office. However, none compare to the original movie that won 3 awards at the 1999 César Awards.

Antakshari Time!

Source: passionforcinema.com

Antakshari is a popular parlour game in India, and is a great way to kill time especially during long train/ car/ bus journeys. Nowadays, it has slowly made its way into the Indian Wedding Sangeet ceremony, as well.

Although Antakshari is usually played with Bollywood songs, playing it with the names of Hollywood actors will give this game an interesting twist. (Sometimes, during boring lectures in school, we played it with movie names) 

Another Marvel of Movie Technology

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button evokes wonderment at the advancement in the visual-effects industry. Making a movie that requires the protagonist (Brad Pitt) to age backwards is by no means an easy task. Brad Pitt is born as a tiny, old man with a wrinkled baby face, who then develops into a handsome middle-aged man, finally becoming an infant at the end of the film. How director David Fincher – with the help of tons of make-up artists, visual effects experts and body doubles – achieved this, makes this movie even more fascinating.

Women – The Real Architects of Society

With the increasing popularity of the International Women’s Day, issues like feminism, gender equality, female infanticide and Women’s Reservation Bill have flooded the print media in India. And while it's nice to dedicate 1 day to the strong yet delicate descendant of Eve, I would be ecstatic when we begin to celebrate the uniqueness and specialness of women every day, for 365 days.

Romance – Bollywood ishtyle*

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Bollywood has an eternal relationship with romance, and the master of this magical love story is none other than Yash Chopra himself (founder of the famous Yash Raj Banner). In ‘Romance is in the Air!’ I had shared with you some of my favourite romantic Hindi movies. However, for those who are new to Bollywood or are still in the initiation phase, a list isn’t compelling enough to make you want to watch each one of those movies. Thus, I have decided to give you a sneak peak into those movies (as well as a few more), which, I hope, will make the task of choosing the first movie to watch easier!

The Big Fat Indian Wedding

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Koffee with Karan is amongst my favourite celebrity talk shows, and being the “fan girl” I am, one can see me smiling from the beginning to the end of the show. Episode 16 of Season 3 saw Anushka Sharma and Ranveer Singh (of the Band Baaja  Baaraat fame) grace the famous “couch,” and gave me the idea for my next movie review. Its been almost 3 months since the release of Band Baaja Baaraat, but its still fresh in our minds because of its numerous wins at all the popular Bollywood awards.

The Yash Raj banner has become famous for giving debutant directors and actors a chance to make movies with decent budgets. Although many of these attempts have turned out to be duds at the box office (read Tashan, Dil Bole Hadippa, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Lafangey Parindey), the worldwide success of Band Baaja  Baaraat (BBB) has erased all those bitter memories.

Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours.

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Sex and the City – the movie – isn’t even one of my favourite chick flicks, but to everyone’s surprise, I have seen it more than once as it is an afternoon favourite with the English Movie channels here, especially when they have nothing else to air. I don’t mind watching it (much to my husband’s horror) for various girly reasons (read loyalty to the SATC TV series, clothes, shoes and the little bits of wit). Although I watched the movie without taxing my brain or my heart, yet a particular line, “Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours.” from a particular scene (where Carrie read out a love letter by Beethoven from a book called Love Letters of Great Men) somehow got stuck in my head. This line was then later quoted again in the movie by Big when he finally married Carrie. The movie in itself isn’t a romantic’s dream, but there’s something so “foreverly” in this line that it prompted me to find out more about these letters and the book.

Romance is in the Air!

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A chance encounter with a nice Frenchman at the Mumbai airport provided the foundation for this post. While walking through a bookstore, this gentleman requested me to help him choose a typical Bollywood family entertainer. I was more than happy to oblige him, but found it extremely difficult to restrict my selection to only 1 movie. However, after much deliberation, I decided to give him a compilation of the 12 best Bollywood movies (by Yash Raj Films Pvt. Ltd.), which are the most appropriate examples for the Hindi movie song-and-dance routine.

From YouTube to Hollywood

I had received an e-mail sometime back that sent me this YouTube link. I thought that this video entitled Ataque de Panico! (Panic Attack), was a trailer for a soon-to-be released  movie. However, when I dug a little deeper, I found out that it was a five-minute short film by an Uruguayan filmmaker, Fede Alvarez.
This video, which was posted on YouTube in November 2009, is a stylized documentary about giant robots attacking and destroying Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. I was, to say the least, surprised when I read that Alvarez had made the film for less than $1000.

Rajini Saar...Superstar!

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Rajinikanth enjoys the status of a matinee idol in India and is literally worshipped by millions in the country and outside. "Thalaivar" (leader), as he is fondly called by his fans, was recently seen again on the silver screen in his sci-fi blockbuster ENDHIRAN (Tamil) and ROBOT (Hindi). Around the time these 2 movies hit the theatres, a number of Rajinikanth jokes became popular among people, especially the younger generation, via email and SMS. 

India's Michael Jackson

Check out this video of a Prabhu Deva song. Mike Sutton has edited it to include incorrect yet hilarious English subtitles that sound similar to the original Tamil lyrics.  

Happy Birthday Eddie!

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It is weirdly coincidental that the day I decide to write a post on Eddie Izzard (one of my favourite stand-up comedians), it happens to be his birthday. Thus, let me begin by wishing him a fantabulous birthday!

I particularly love his take on the Death Star of the Star Wars series, and often playfully use the "Do you know who I am?" line on my husband. 

To know more, watch Eddie Izzard's Death Star Canteen (a part of his performance from his stand-up tour called Circle), and like me, you might also get hooked on to his style of comedy!

Adversity...the greatest teacher

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In Bangalore there’s usually a dearth of English movies released in the theatres. However, some of the watch-worthy movies, which get nominated or win in the popular categories at the Golden Globes and the Oscars, are promptly released here in the following weeks.

Among such releases was Danny Boyle’s latest film 127 HOURS, which my husband and I saw yesterday with a few friends.

Danny Boyle is a hero of sorts to us Indians ever since he brought the Oscars closer to home with his highly acclaimed and successful film ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ He has cultivated his own cinematic style, which is evident yet again in this movie where he has transformed one man’s gut-wrenching tale of survival into a thrilling, life-affirming story that captures the power of the human spirit.

My first ever blog post...

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Movie reviews aren’t easy to do and I’m no professional critic who knows the ins-and-outs of the movie industry. However, I do enjoy watching movies and have often found myself giving an impromtu movie review to anyone who has lent an ear. Thus, without further ado, here it goes…

This weekend I ended up watching “THE OTHER GUYS” on DVD with some of my friends. It was our first choice among the 5 other DVDs we had rented as I had heard that it was a pretty good comedy. And it surely was! We laughed our guts out almost throughout the entire movie.