More movies!!

                                         With exams fast approaching, I've still managed to watch some movies that I really liked, in this past month. Cannot really suppress from doing what I truly love, can I? :) I'll try being more specific this time around, cannot do a full blog post on a movie, unless it is really special eheh. All these movies fit perfectly into my favorite genre of 'Feel-good movies' :) Listing them in the order I watched:

*Warning - NO spoilers ahead :)*

Life of Pi - Big budget, big-name director, 3-D and surprisingly, it delivers too. Had got my expectations low after movies like Avatar and Avengers had failed to fully satisfy me. Having not read the book worked. A great story of survival and the bond between living beings. Old favorite Irrfan Khan and new face Suraj Sharma were exceptional. The best 3-D movie I've watched. Pleasing to the eyes, mind and soul, altogether. Taiwanese director Ang Lee has made us Asians proud :)

English Vinglish - Watched this by co-incidence. Just seemed to be another phony bollywood flick trying to draw masses at first glance. Proved me wrong, totally. Just shows how difficult it is to pick the good stuff among all the rubbish in bollywood these days. Spectacular tale of a less educated Indian house-wife, standing up for herself, in her family and in a foreign land. The first-time director does a good job. Its music too  has been on my playlist lately, have become a fan of Amit Trivedi already :) What a comeback by yesteryear's screen icon Sridevi. Didn't seem she's past 40, really.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - Just watched it yesterday. Was still thinking about it this morning. I've always liked British accent, and this movie was full of it eheh. Based on a book once again, wonder how many movies are made every year based on adapted screenplay. Story of a group of British old-timers, who are having difficulty coming to terms with old age, how they end up in a 'exotic hotel' in Rajasthan, India and finally feel good about themselves. Didn't know much about the director but he surely has done well. Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire is in a similar role but the stand-out performance was by Judi Dench, that old lady who's always seen bossing James Bond around :)

                                         

Leaving Microsoft to change the world

                                          This is by far, the best book I have ever read. I know I may sound impulsive claiming this, as I just finished reading it yesterday. It took me a whole 1 month to complete it and it was not boring or anything but because I got dragged into plenty of other things along the way. In retrospect, there's no doubt in me, the 1 month spent with the book were really fruitful :)

                                          It is the story of John Wood and how he quit his job at Microsoft, to establish an award-winning non-profit organisation called 'Room to read', narrated by himself. When I first bought this book, around 2 months back, I was kind of disappointed. The reason being that I saw the word 'entrepreneur' mentioned on the cover page and thought perhaps this book focused more on his entrepreneurship skills than say, his travels and adventures. But, after finally reading it, I can proudly say, the age-old dictum 'Don't judge a book by its cover' was proven right, once again.

                                          The stimulus to finally start reading it came, after I returned from my recent trek on the Manaslu circuit. I had heard about this book for a long time and also knew about its Nepali version, which was known as 'Microsoftdekhi Bahundandasamma'. While returning from the trek on the last day, we passed a sign-board on the way in Lamjung district (Between Dharapani and Besisahar) that read - 'Way to Bahundanda'. This was the sole reason why I started reading this book and I'm so glad that I did.

                                          Talking about the book itself, it is a wonderful tale of John Wood, who like most of us was not happy with his job (Though high-paying and luxurious in his case) and wanted to do something meaningful with his life. It is divided into 3 parts - 

1) Discovering Nepal, leaving Microsoft - It tells us about his first trek into the Annapurna region of Nepal, in the late nineties and how it led to the idea, for the birth of 'Room to read'. (I myself trekked into the Annapurna region, 2 years back and believe me, it is indeed, a life changing experience!! :))

2) Starting over - Deals with the early days in the life of 'Room to read' and how John Wood and his team utilized the tricks, that Wood learnt during his Microsoft days, to run a non-profit organisation. 

3) Hitting our stride - The last part is about the team expanding the organisation from Nepal to five other developing countries in Asia - (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, India and Sri Lanka) and how they secure funding from wealthy people, who are eager to help.  

                                          The book is full of interesting anecdotes, thorough description of the places and people like you would expect in a travelogue, some really insightful quotations, human drama, even some witty humor at times and of course lots of tips and tricks for aspiring entrepreneurs (which I so much detested in the beginning and regretted for it later :))

                                         On a personal level, this book has made me realize, how lucky I am to have got the opportunity to go to school and receive the life-long gift of education. In this busy world and our even busier lifestyle, it is true that we sometimes take this gift for granted. It also made me aware about the responsibility in each one of us, to contribute something from our side, which will bring a positive change in this world. Though it might not be practical for us to quit our job like Wood did, we can surely help in our own way, be it by donating a book to our local school library, encouraging girl children to go to school in our society and if possible, even giving money for charity. I would like to end this post with one of my favorite excerpts from the book:

'...Much of human advancement depends on overcoming setbacks and making progress despite obstacles and tragedy. My personal heroes are the doctors and journalists who throw themselves into war zones, famine-stricken  nations, and areas hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes. They are aware that they cannot control or change the past, but believe strongly that they can have an influence over the future. Rather than being paralyzed by tragedy, they are catalyzed into action.'

*Here's the link to the video, showing introduction of the book, by John Wood himself - http://youtu.be/qbcNuaatFRA

       

                                          

Paan Singh Tomar, the movie!!

                                                            Watching movies is one of my favorite pastimes. I have a particular liking for movies based on real events. Watched a hindi movie 'Paan Singh Tomar' (2012) yesterday. Had been hearing a lot of good things about this movie since its release, which I guess was a few months back. But was not able to watch it due to other commitments. And I knew a movie which had Irrfan Khan in the lead OUGHT to be good. He is one of those actors who excels in no matter whatever role he portrays on screen. He even is awesome in those Vodafone ads he's seen doing on TV.
                                                              I had kind of forgotten about this movie until few weeks back when I came across news stories about how India had sent another movie 'Barfi' (2012), as its entrant for the 'Best foreign language movie' at the Oscars, and this movie was one of the contenders. I downloaded a dvdrip, it was not hard to find, as is the case for recently released movies. Finally watched it yesterday. And all I was left after watching it was Woww!! A huge respect for Paan Singh Tomar, the army man, the athlete and the dacoit or 'baghi' as he calls himself in the movie. Irrfan Khan does a great job once again. Even Mahie Gill, one of my personal favorite actresss in bollywood since 'Dev D' days, performs well in the small role she has as Tomar's wife.
                                                         I was really surprised to know that Tigmanshu Dhulia, who was brilliant as 'Ramadhir Singh' in the movie 'Gangs of Wasseypur' (Another awesome movie that I watched this year), is such a brilliant director too. Really liked the way the director has brought up this movie as a tribute to 'Paan Singh Tomar' and other similar unsung sports heroes, in a cricket-obsessed nation like India. Tomar's journey from his tiny village in Madhya Pradesh to Indian Army, to national steeplechase champion, to a dacoit is really touching. The land feud among brothers that led to Tomar turning into a dacoit can be found even today in rural India as well as Nepal. The movie shows 2 sides of Indian police in Tomar's story - the first being a futile cop, who doesn't want to interfere until someone has 'died' in the fights due to land feuds and the other being a competent cop, who traps and kills Tomar and his gang at the end, following a tip off from one of the villagers, where they were taking refuge.
                                                              Like 'Gangs of Wasseypur', 'Paan Singh Tomar' can also be seen as a story of one man's revenge against those that destroyed what he had. These 2 movies, both released in 2012, quite easily make into my list of best movies of 2012. Though I would personally prefer 'GoW' over 'Paan Singh Tomar', quite simply because of Anurag Kashyap, the director of 'GoW', of whom I am a big fan and have watched almost all his movies. And partly also because it is a longer story that keeps you entertained and busy for a longer time :) 'Paan Singh Tomar', highly recommended!!