Why do you ride?

Shopping for a motorcycle was fun, however I was aware that riding a geared bike – especially a sports one – was no child’s play. Unlike in a car where you have a tonne of metal and plastic around you to protect you, there is only bone shattering skin shearing tarmac around a motorcycle. So while I had initiated this discussion on Team BHP, an online forum for auto enthusiast which I am a part of, I also read whatever I could lay my hands on, which had anything remotely to do with riding. Much of the theoretical knowledge has come from reading the works of two world class riders, Keith Code and Nick Ienatsch and I acknowledge that I would be quoting them liberally. The following posts thus, is an effort to capture what I have learnt in the past 8 months of riding a motorcycle which also happens to be my first 8 months of riding a geared motorcycle, and riding one heard. I still love taking the wife’s Activa out for a spin often :) 

WHY DO YOU RIDE?

An important question that you must answer as it would lead you to all subsequent answers. Commuting on a motorcycle is a common answer many would discover about themselves, and that could be good enough. If that is the sole purpose please do not bother wracking your head over whether it’s a single downtube or a perimeter frame, or whether it makes enough horses to beat most mid sized cars hands down. Go to the nearest Hero/Honda/Yamaha showroom, see if they are kind enough to give you a test ride from any of their 125-150 cc selection and pick the one you connect with. These machines will take tons of abuse and still run forever with just the periodical oil change. No sense in getting a Japanese or worse, Italian torture machine where the rider is stretched across from low slung clip ons to foot pegs which are placed so far back that your wife/GF may mistake those for the pillion, if she is able to perch herself there on the first place. If you know you are going to be hitting the highways often and for long distances, do a bit of research before you find yourself in a Royal Enfield showroom (which you will) as not everything which is branded as a ‘cruiser’ makes for comfortable cruising over hundreds of kilometres. If its to impress the girl in your neighborhood you have been eyeing, well open an auto mag or youtube channel and you will find mean looking machines; just ensure you have enough pain relievers handy for your wrists and lower back, you will need em.

While its difficult to predict just where and how much you would end up using your motorcycle – you may connect with the machine so much that you ride the crap out of it, or leave it under the cover in one corner of the garage – it’s a good idea to spend some time chewing over the purchase decision unless of course one is needed immediately, to commute for example. Try and borrow rides from your friends, different kinds if possible – cruisers like Royal enfields/Bajaj Avengers, street naked like the ubiquitous Pulsars or the manic KTM Dukes or supersports with torture inducing postures like the Yamaha R15. Quite likely, your heart will whisper the answer to you.

No room for regrets

Its amazing how we are limited by what we think is possible. Truth is, playing safe and amazing feats do not go hand in hand. While we fret about minor niggles and workshop incompetence, this petrolhead rode a relic on two wheels across two continents. Definitely picking up a copy of this

https://t.co/WExCI8xV3s

Ready to ride?

So you are all set to ride off on that long anticipated trip, bike all serviced complete with a spot of polish (never mind that it will be caked with muck in hours!) But is that all? After all, at some point, you will have to get off the bike too

Putting together a basic list for starters, game for additions, but a light cargo helps when you're licking those yummy corners at blazing speeds!

Drivers licence and vehicle papers
Spare visor - plain and tinted
Puncture kit and tyre inflator
Spare key - safely tucked away in tank or saddle bag
Chain cleaner and lube
Couple of spare bungee cords to hold the bags down
Rain wear
Any prescription medicines / diamox for altitude sickness if riding to Ladakh
Phone charger and batteries
Chocolate and energy bars
Wipes for your ride (a plain white vest which has been retired from active duty works great!) and at least one microfiber cloth for visor
Clothes and casual footwear - key is to pack light here
and of course tank and saddle bags to pack all the gear!

Driver's licence? Its on the cloud baby!

The government wants you to upload a soft copy of your licence and vehicle papers online, which means no more carrying copies of your RC book and DL card and verification would be done real-time by cops flashing gizmos, here's hoping we are not left twiddling our thumbs while the cops fiddle around with their new found gadgets!

The day of the elephant god

What better way to invoke divinity than some fine twisty roads, weather which puts you in two minds over whether to nurse a cup of coffee over a book indoors or hop onto the saddle and an eager terrier of a motorcycle which wants nothing more than to be let loose on curvy tarmac. With that in mind, the day devoted to the remover of all obstacles – Ganesh Chaturthi, saw me on my corner carving R15 and a biker buddy on his big bad HD 750 set off for BR Hills. For those who are unfamiliar, pls see 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biligiriranga_Hills

We took the straightforward Kanakpura road via Kanakpura-Malavalli-Kollegala-Yellandur-BR Hills route and those who are familiar with this route would know that while the traffic between the city and Kanakpura could be a pain (today it wasn’t thanks to the festival) the route onwards is just sublime, especially for riders. It took us just about 4 hours to get to the destination, take some quick pictures and dash back for a late lunch. One of those rides where everything just fell into place!

Appended is some useful information on the place and of course, pictures!

http://www.karnataka.com/mysore/br-hills/

http://kgudiwildernesscamp.com/

https://www.google.co.in/maps/dir/Shell+Rimula,+Kanakapura+Main+Road,+Yelachenahallli,+JP+Nagar,+Bengaluru,+Karnataka+560078/B+R+Hills,+Karnataka/@12.4488031,77.0194045,10z/data=!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x3bae155d59406c79:0x1a1c1a8db1f7678a!2m2!1d77.5724133!2d12.8980728!1m5!1m1!1s0x3baf265242887f3f:0x74b32de1c8940438!2m2!1d77.142764!2d11.9956324

By the river, in Goa

Decided to ride down to Goa to 1) celebrate my 36th birthday, 2) check how worried should I be given that am creeping steadily towards the forties. As it turned out, did 1200+ kms over 3 days with most of it being covered on the straight dash to Goa from Bangalore and again on the way back on the third day. Wanted to try a different route from the Tumkur-Chitradurga-Haveri-Hubli bypass-Yellapur-Ankola-Karwar-South Goa which I usually take and had initially decided the Anmod Ghat route, known to be a bikers wet dream on a wet monsoon day. But given the rains and that my destination was south by south Goa, stuck to the beaten track. The route was the usual lip smacking tarmac with frequent sharp drizzles adding to the fun.

I had stumbled upon a place called Talpona while researching where to go. This is in the Canacona district of south Goa better known for beaches line Palolem and Patnem. As it happened, I had discovered a hidden gem; nothing more than a sleepy fishing hamlet by the confluence of a river meeting the sea. There are a couple of small beaches here including a turtle nesting site. Stayed in a modest homestay by the river with a village pub down the road. Lazed two days away nursing a few beers with the sound of the rain pelting down on the shack!

Life takes off on two wheels

Good way to bring this blog out of dormancy is to announce a major life event – I got my first motorcycle! Yayyy!

This has been in the works for a while, almost a year anyway and the multitude of options combined with whether I would merely end up splurging on just a passing fancy reduced me to a waffling juvenile. Some of that has been captured online in the following thread - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorbikes/159634-yamaha-r15-v2-vs-ktm-rc-200-a.html

The wife finally decided she had had enough with the questions directed to her about the pros and ons of each (these were monologues really and she doesn’t have too much of a clue anyway on 2 wheelers beyond gearless scooters) and forced me to bite the bullet. I ended up booking the legendary Yamaha R15 S (yes they brought back the single seat)

I have reviewed my bike here http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motorbikes/172645-flies-like-butterfly-stings-like-bee-my-yamaha-r15s-now-single-seat.html and have already clocked more than 6k kms in less than 6 months. Nearby destinations like the much abused Nandi hills, the Bangalore biker’s loop (Kanakpura – Anchetty – Hosur – Bangalore) Yelagiri and even overnighters to Chikmagalur have all been dispatched on this little gem with barely a sweat broken (ok maybe I did sweat a bit, at least in the recent rides in the brutal heat).

More updates on some of those rides later J

The great Indian card trick

I am at my desk, hard at work or at least pretending to be. The cellphone comes alive with its infernal trilling. The caller claims to represent the bank who thought I was solvent enough to receive a credit card. It’s a male voice with a sloppy accent fumbling with my name. The image in my head of a cute telecaller seated in a sterile bank cubicle goes poof in a cloud of smoke. The caller stumbles through the pleasantries, mutilates my name and announces that he bears glad tidings. The bank wants to reward my ‘loyalty’ with some ‘exciting’ gift. Of course, before that, there is this minor formality which requires me to confirm sensitive personal financial information over the phone to this complete stranger who sounds funny to boot. Just at the point where I am coaxed to reveal the CVV number on ‘the backside of the card’, I start digressing and distracting this fine young man from his important business. My gratitude gushes out as I become chatty and ask him if I can come see him personally. Put a face to a name and to enthusiastically pump his hand in a heartfelt handshake dripping with appreciation.

By this time the caller is impatient and itching to dump the receiver and send his index finger probing inside his nostril. After that he has people to call and joy to spread. At some point, when my pointless but polite badgering gets to the caller’s nerve, he spits out some expletives in Punjabi containing unflattering references to my mother-sister and disconnects the call. I gape at my phone; having lost the chance to discover what ‘surprise’ would I have been at the receiving end of. In the meanwhile, somewhere else, another lucky customer must doubtlessly be on his way to having his fortune made.

NH 10 - A malicious review

A romantic trip for a city based yuppie couple turns into their worst nightmare. Throw in an honor killing along with a social commentary on how India treats her daughters and you have a recipe for a gritty thriller…or not quite. NH 10 opens well enough. Rowdy bikers in the initial scenes trying to waylay a solo female motorist is more than enough for the audience to pounce on Delhi and scream blue murder. Other snippets like the tollbooth exchange about a recent shootout leave nothing to the imagination about the NCRs badlands credentials. I liked how a parallel was drawn between men, their ego and how thin the line is for them to be driven over it and commit violence, regardless of their social class. The husband’s reckless driving of the Fortuner after he is slapped around by a murderous posse drives home this point. The film overall makes a scathing indictment of how in India, an excuse for violence is found in our primal belief around women being less of human beings and more of objects over which clan honor is earned and lost.

The narrative leading halfway into the film is taut, tense and keeps you on tenterhooks. It is the latter half with Anushka hogging most of the screen time is when the film’s Bollywood credentials come to the fore. The cheap thrills are unnecessary, Anushkha’s sporadic limping interspersed with some spirited running keep the audience guessing about how injured she really is and finally, her transformation into Kill Bill, hacking her tormentors to bits, takes the proverbial cake, icing and all. That’s when the film stopped being an edge of the seat thriller and became something straight out of the Milla Jovovich school of acting.

A good possibility let down by multiplex compulsions.

IIM from IIN

Commercials have come some distance in the last few decades. In the seventies, the defining moment of Indian commercials were provided by Lalitaji, a no nonsense homemaker who almost talked down to the target audience about the virtues of a popular brand of detergent. Celebrities like Kapil Dev, had only to be their untutored selves, sporting a clean shaven, shiny cheek, made possible by a popular brand of shaving cream. Kapil da jawab nahin! Many of them survive in popular consciousness even today, made by admen who earned their chops through these. Being witty was never the forte of Indian advertising, though some confectionery and adhesive companies are bucking this trend (the Ramesh-Vivek duo from 5 star always has me in splits) Despite that, many examples like the Lalitaji, Gold Spot etc efforts were memorable, before the cola majors unleashed their ballistic budgets and glitz replaced substance. 

In recent times however, a certain righteous discourse has trickled into the ad scene and when seen in the context of the product it promotes, things appear downright ridiculous. Lets take the Idea ad as a test case. The target audience here is a broad one, retail users of the internet which is accessed by smartphones to consume data, most of which is burnt on social networks and instant messengers. Not too much evidence out these which suggests that users are spending hours on Wikipedia and About.com. Yet this commercial turns the usage pattern on its head. The punk next door, the jaded mom, even the sex worker are not spared, all of them united in their celebration of the IIN or the Idea Internet network, for the uninitiated. The IIN has singlehandedly demolished social barriers, torpedoed through taboos and even made merit based selection meaningless. Such miracles have been achieved by making education accessible to all via its data connection, or so the ad claims. As noted previously, the assumption is the average Salman wannabe on the street burns his megabytes trawling through Wikipedia or perhaps even racks up virtual degrees on Coursera. One wonders if he also multitasks by sharing videos via Whatsapp between analyzing Pythagoras and memorizing Wordsworth.

I have found ads which set creativity benchmarks without perhaps doing anything substantial for the company topline. The iconic Amul girl by Da Cunha has been tickling our imagination for decades, if not making you clog your arteries with more of the spread. These make for pleasant television viewing. The IIN school of advertising however, leaves you counting the grey cells remaining after the last ad break

The mufflerman returns

The Aam aadmi party has titillated the imagination of the Indian public. Clean politics in India has been an oxymoron. Politicians will make hay, a semblance of governance is a happy byproduct. Two years back, the AAP juggernaut pulled into Delhi and traditional parties were caught with their pants down. Who would have thought that the common man was actually serious about clean politics? The reality of governance however, soon dawned on Kejriwal and his band of crusaders. Pre election promises came home to roost, spelling a quick retreat for AAP to the fringes with a bloody nose. With this as the backdrop, nobody would have given them a second chance, much less the landslide which swept everything in sight. Still, the crusader tag can prove to be a heavy millstone around their neck, such are the compulsions of parliamentary democracy in India.

For starters, they should focus on the economics of running a government. Slashing electricity tariffs may be music to the common man’s ears, but does nothing for improving the creaking infrastructure, if not sustainable. AK presents an interesting caricature, perhaps not entirely unintended. A man of slight built with a scarf a permanent fixture around his neck. A coughing crusader willing to take on a well entrenched machinery but unable to shake off a nagging cough, betraying his common man with common problems credentials. He would have to go beyond the rhetoric now, in order to deliver. Electorates have been known to be notoriously fickle; their memories don’t go beyond the last price cut.

The new Deal

Do you have a startup? A single digit team with a cute business model? All bolstered by an idea whose time has come? Maybe you are waiting for a generous uncle to stump up the dough. In a country where middlemen have exploited our pockmarked infrastructure and thrived, spotting a business idea is akin to locating an elephant in a swimming pool. How do the gigs work though? E-tailers hawking garments at anemic prices with multiple prices stacked one above the other on the tag. You spot all but the bottom figure scratched out. You realize this is your once in a lifetime opportunity to pick that spaghetti top up for a steal, or at a 80% discount. Kitted out in the latest in fashion, you spot another round of discounting mania on another portal, all in the same week.

Sample this popular furniture portal, whose name is more appropriate for a culinary vendor. They promise to spare you the pain of having to put your own cupboard together (when was the last time you had to pick out your own wood for the dresser?) and delivering it to your doorstep by a friendly handyman who offers a Namaste to your proferred tip. In one commercial, a yuppie couple debate their planned purchases, where the wife is all smug, secure in the knowledge that even her husband can’t cock up with his ideas on interior decoration, the smart portal is idiot proof you see!

All of this is music to the ears of harassed urban dwellers who would rather knock back pints than make the trip to brick and mortal stores. The start up ninjas, corporate misfits some, are all gung ho with angel investors handing out cash faster than it can be burned. Many of these fledgling ventures would fold or be swallowed up by biggies in an eventual round of consolidation. In the meanwhile, customized push up bras anyone?

She devil

The Clintons are at it again, atleast one of them or TIME magazine tends to think so. The former President used to smile like an assassin at the height of the Lewinsky scandal. Can the former first lady be left too far behind? Right on cue, the 'M' in TIME looms over the lady's cover spread like a pair of horns.

This comes close on the heels of a recent controversy where she used a personal email account while serving as Secretary of State. Sensitive emails, potentially embarrassing, were apparently deleted. Tantalizing is the prospect to have picked her mind when Monicagate was in full swing. Did she suffer in silence? Or did she cut a deal? There is no denying her ambition. Whether that translates into a coup in the next elections remains to be seen. In the meanwhile, she may consider an image makeover.

The adversary within

Have been bitten by the nostalgia bug lately which drove me to comb the labyrinthine passages of Youtube; the results were absolutely worth the MBs invested.

Rays Calcutta trilogy: Jana Aranya (The Middleman), Seemabaddha (Company Limited) and the first of the series Pratidwandi (The Adversary) were the results when the Master decided to train his ingenious gaze on the Mahanagari Calcutta. I had seen the first two mentioned here (which are actually the last two of the series as I mention them in a reverse chronological order) earlier, however I was completely unprepared for The Adversary; the opening scenes had me swept up in a vortex of memories of my own hometown Kolkata, with her vintage public buses and myriad businesses, her denizens a study in contrast. I could almost feel the hot summer afternoon sun drilling through the shirt on my back as Dhritiman Chatterjee becomes my eyes and ears on the urban battlegrounds that was 70’s Calcutta. The initial scenes see the protagonist Siddhartha (Dhritiman) latched precariously from public buses, shunted from one failed job interview to the other, resignation and annoyance jostling for space in his expression. The exchange with one particular interviewer, where Siddhartha cites the Vietnam War as the most significant event of recent times, eclipsing mankind’s conquest of the moon, is telling, underscoring the strong political undertones of the film. The dilemma of the intelligent and educated youth is well conveyed: sell out, bag the job and look away when faced with a mirror or wear your ideology on your sleeve and survive on ideals and little else.

Siddhartha’s character is well contrasted by his younger sister, an attractive office worker whose contempt for traditional values is brilliantly depicted in her nonchalance. Her disdain at the family’s outrage upon her being accused of having a dalliance with her boss is used as a metaphor for a girl losing her innocence and coming of age. These are juxtaposed with flashbacks of brother and sister communing with nature as children, epitomized by the lilting call of a songbird which constantly teases the adult Siddhartha’s memory, unable as he is to recall which bird it was. The mores of a changing social order clash, with Siddhartha’s widowed mother and his uncle despairing at what they perceive as their offspring’s blithe and reckless behavior but powerless in the face of a youth unfettered by feudal mores. Siddhartha’s younger brother Tunu is the face of a brave new world, whose conviction and spirit seem to unnerve him. Siddhartha’s ego is left scampering for cover at Tunu’s brutal ripostes at his concern over the latter’s radical leanings and the possible repercussions, in an era when the regime was brutally putting down subversive elements. Tunu has grown into a self possession which Siddhartha secretly desire, but cannot, as his close friend sums up aptly: when the time to act comes, all his talk of a bloody revolution will evaporate as empty bravado.

This film is nothing if not about the Kolkata. Her spirit pervades all the characters and their unease reflects the social churn the city was witness to in the 70’s. The incendiary smell in the air stands in contrast to the stream of hippies into the city with their other worldy air. She manages to embrace all, be it the ambitious, the licentious or the hopeless starry eyed revolutionary. The manner in which Siddhartha disrupts an interview in progress, unable to live with his passive existence any longer, is symbolic of the city’s ability to inspire defiance from even those who seemingly have reconciled to fate. There is a hint of melancholy as he leaves Calcutta in the end, accepting in no small measure the death of his idealism as much as the reality of having to eke out a living.

Perhaps one of his best works, for once Ray eschews his lyricism to delve deeper into the existential questions. He doesn’t provide easy answers here; a number of metaphors remain ambiguous. Dhritiman is brilliant in his portrayal of Siddhartha, conveying the conflict of ideals with elan. A possible sequel to this could have been one with the protagonist in his middle years, perhaps even more battle hardened and cynical. Wonder what treatment the master would have imparted!

An unabashed review of Besharam

There are occasions when you decide to trust your instincts and go against your better judgment. Neurons are firing in your brain, willing you to turn back. You pause, take a deep breath and tell your heart, ‘there, there, its going to be alright’. You walk into the theatre, settle into the cramped seats, the movie opens, the script unfolds and you whisper to your heart, ‘bravo!’ Well, this was exactly what I did NOT experience last evening as overwhelmed by an attack of masochism, I found myself staring emptily at the opening credits, with its proud announcements of the many media partners that Besharam had wangled, an agony that you are subjected to before the real pain…oops movie begins.

From the very beginning the makers of Besharam – to their credit – warn you to what lies in store. Javed Jaffrey serves up a montage of his past caricatures in his depiction of a Hawaladar or a money launderer. ‘Bheem Singh Chandel’, he announces with his worst scowl to a hapless cop who had dared to halt his booty laden convoy, as you glance askance at the nearest exit, in case a quick evacuation is needed. A couple of Scorpios leap into the air in flaming infernos as if on cue; a stunt favored by the current brat pack  - read Rohit Shetty – to warm things up. It pretty much is downhill from here and you would do well to save yourself a few grey cells by realizing straight up one key fact – there is no plot. Besharam was meant to have no plot, for it is a vehicle for the latest progeny of the Kapoor clan (and his doting parents) to indulge themselves with both father and son outdoing themselves in letting the audience having a peek at err, well, their ‘crack’ and I’m not referring to jokes here, not the verbal kinds anyway.

With their investment secured by shamelessly plugging for an iconic car marquee and a popular candy maker – if you walk in a little late you can be forgiven for mistaking the movie for an elaborate Mercedes ad – Abhinav Kashyap sets about what could have been a comic caper and ends up dishing out sheer nonsense and toilet humor of the cheapest kind. Appalling one liners with references to flatulence to actually having to witness the elder Kapoor’s morning exertions on the throne, with its attendant ghastly acoustics, leaves you wondering if you can survive till intermission. This may well have been an attempt to recreate Ranbir in his illustrious grandpa’s avatar of a tramp in the cult Mera Naam Joker. I hope that is a figment of my imagination alone as Raj’s rendition of the forlorn clown and the timeless soundtrack exuded a fragrant whiff, best left unsullied by the fetid odor from Besharam’s armpits.

The characters are paper thin and silly; Pallavi Sharda’s character careens through the streets of Delhi in her freshly acquired Merc A class in the initial scenes (perhaps Merc wanted to show off the A class’ handling too, not content with branding alone) with a lunatic glint in her eyes, this impression of a vacuous belle quickly gives way to a self-possessed corporate climber who would rather putter around in an ALTO than hitch her ride to a sadakchap mechanic. As you try and reconcile these disconcertingly contradictory traits, the caricatures pop up thick and fast, threatening to nudge you over the edge. Warning: long forgotten twitches and tics may resurface, do carry medication for pre existing conditions. Neetu Singh looks ancient and gnarled; perhaps it would have been wise to let memories of Amar Akbar Anthony and Deewar reign in the hearts of admirers. Rishi Kapoor looks content playing a goofy cop but fails to evoke either humor or sympathy, in that order. There is an art to playing such slapstick roles where your gestures and sense of timing often complements and sometimes transcends the inane storyline to leave the audience in splits: Anupam Kher and Kader Khan in Haseena Maan Jayegi comes to mind, a movie which was hugely entertaining purely for the histrionic skills on display without having to resort to toilet humor. But perhaps the intent with Besharam is different.

If you are still reading this, it can mean only one thing, that you are hoping for a reason to still watch this effort. And the answer should be obvious: Ranbir Kapoor. You can’t help but think that someone with such screen presence is wasted here, but then that is stating the obvious; Ranbir follows in the long line of the Kapoor clan with Greek god looks and charisma and the female fan following with comes with it, but with little else. They have made Bollywood (sharing the turf uneasily with the Khans) and Bollywood is because of them. Every once in a while the audience is subjected to a grim reminder that they loom larger than trivial considerations like a good script and storylines and it will be easier for us to live with ourselves if we see Besharam as great family entertainer: not your family but the Kapoor’s. Pallavi Sharda has potential and we see glimpses of that here, with some luck and a few more mega budget releases, we should see her exchanging cold stares with the leading ladies of tinsel town. The rest are as forgettable as, well the gas that passes from the nether regions as so eloquently described by one of Ranbir’s flunkies in the movie.

Review: Prisoners

The camera pans into a dusty stairwell leading down from the trapdoor into the dark basement. A musty smell pushes him back momentarily, like a palm thrust against his face. The scene cuts to change the shot, now focusing at him from the bottom of the stairwell, as if something is watching him from down below. He chooses his steps carefully down the flight of stairs, cutting the darkness with the sharp beam of his flashlight. Camera angle changes once again, now over his shoulder staring into the darkness below ahead of him. You see a callused hand placing itself on his shoulder. That’s your cue to shriek, squirm, an opportunity to grab your boyfriend’s biceps perhaps. A familiar setting for a thriller/slasher flick? Maybe. But then again, not quite if the flick in question is Prisoners.

Folks who have seen Zodiac may get a sense of déjà vu with its intricate storyline and cerebral treatment. Same is the case here right down to the obsessive detective with his funny eccentricities, but more on that later. The flick opens with the brusque and brooding lead, Keller Dover – played by Hugh Jackman – uttering a prayer as his son shoots a deer in the woods; a symbol for the deep religious theme that underscores the movie. You see this surface throughout the movie – snakes which evoke the serpent in the Garden of Eden, the inner turmoil of a father driven to brutality in a desperate bid to locate his daughter. It reminds you of Se7en with a deep sense of melancholy pervading the length of the film. Unlike the former which skirts the thin line between mind numbing boredom and psychosis, this takes you back to the days of the frontiersmen when the American wild was yet to be won and men like Jackman’s character survived under the shadow of their hunting rifle.

The narrative is very verry deliberate but that’s what it takes to plumb the depths of the characters. And that’s also what it takes to convey the despair of two sets of parents dealing with the disappearance of their daughters. This is very much a good vs evil story and the descent of god-fearing men into violence and bloodshed. The movie’s greatest success is to depict that struggle; the scene where Jackman is barely able to restrain himself from rearranging the suspected abductor’s jaws with a hammer and brings it down crashing into a sink instead is stirring. This isn’t one for the faint hearted; you can’t help but cringe as you watch Paul Dano’s – playing the main suspect – character being pummeled into a bloody pulp by Jackman who brooks no resistance in tracking his daughter down. You hold your breath as you follow an intruder into the Birch – the family of the other missing child – home, clueless about the motive but with a clear sense of foreboding. You can’t bear to watch as you expect the worst and yet the scene culminates in a way which leaves you heaving a sigh like never before. Whether it’s one of relief you gotta watch the movie to find out!

The flick is nothing if not for its powerhouse performances. Jake Gyllenhaal playing Detective Loki is almost talismanic in his presence. His chronic blinking injects an almost farcical element in the otherwise grim proceedings. The portrayal of at times kooky and always obsessed cop is pitted against the other titan in the movie, the often maniacal portrayal of a possessed father by Hugh Jackman. Best known for his superhuman feats in X-Men, this dapper auteur turns in a delicious performance which surely must also go down as a lesson on Machismo 101. Styling himself on the intrepid patriarch from back in the bad old days when you stood guard with a gun as your family slept, the viewer can almost see a sleeping giant being roused by the sequence of events. He is taciturn but spits out words like gunshots, is moved to tears with grief but willing to scald and maim in an effort to locate his daughter. Wannabe tough guys, this is one playbook from which you could fish out a leaf or two. The supporting cast does their job well which is to reach deep into their souls to make sense of the sudden and inexplicable loss. Themes of alienation and isolation in small town America come to the fore. Things always aren’t what they seem and that’s what keeps the narrative chugging along, even if the plot unravels too early in my opinion for a classic whodunit.

This is a must watch if you are hooked to David Fincher movies although this one is by Denis Villeneuve. Don’t expect for all the pieces of the jigsaw to fall into place however, that would do disservice to such a nuanced film

A 'Rush' of blood to the head - Review of the movie Rush

There are films which touch you with their tenderness and leave you with a song in your hearts. And then there are flicks which shock and jolt you out of stupor, sparking thoughts of picking up cudgels against all that ail humanity and lasting all the way up to the multiplex parking lot. ‘Rush’ belongs to neither of these categories. It does not need to. It is one of those genre busting films which blows you out of the theatre with its scale and sweep. It’s reminiscent of Chariots of Fire in that it depicts the intense rivalry between two athletes which consumes themRon Howard,. But that was about running, which is arguably the purest of athletic pursuits with its numerous references to myths and legends. This however is F1 racing, the debauched adolescent of the sporting world with its hedonistic and reckless ways. It bewitches you in the way delinquent kids with bikes and leather jackets always get their girls: with a promise of danger and death staring in the face.

The opening scene from that fateful day at Nurburgring sets the tone of the intense rivalry which runs as the central theme. Moving the clock several years back to the past, it chronicles the different paths to racing glory that James Hunt, the flamboyant British driver with dashing good looks and cavalier ways and Nicky Lauda, the obsessive and neurotic Austrian, whose methodical and dispassionate approach to motorsports made him a polar opposite of Hunt, took; the latter’s somewhat comical looks and abrasive personality not the least of the differences with Hunt’s charisma and spontaneity.  Lauda’s approach to racing was perhaps ahead of its times; in an era (and maybe even now) when racing was synonymous with machismo and the tantalizing prospect of ‘cheating death ‘, as Hunt once describes, Lauda was into it by his own admission and I quote, ‘God gave me an okay mind, but an ass which can feel everything in the car’. This clash of personalities defines the tone and the differences are brought out poignantly in scene after scene. My favorite is the one where Lauda and his girl (Alexandra Maria Lara) hitch hike a ride from a couple of besotted Lauda fans when their ride breaks down. The two having met only hours before at a party, the lady is incredulous when the fans wax eloquent about his heroics on the racetrack, with Lauda himself pottering along behind the steering wheel during the scene. The ruthless exposition of Lauda’s racing philosophy that follows and how he succumbs to the lady’s taunts to abandon his reserve will surely go down in folklore as one of the more memorable sports movie scenes.

Ron Howard takes the first half to masterfully flesh out the characters. The rivalry is allowed to build up as you almost rejoice and despair along with the characters. Chris Hemsworth, who essays James Hunt, lets us peek into the inner turmoil of a man liable to be easily dismissed as a dilettante. His ritual of retching his stomach out before every race and his fortitude in bouncing back from personal setbacks, including winning newshounds over with his disarming one-liners when quizzed over his failed marriage, underlines this performance. When you consider that Hunt’s character is overshadowed by Lauda’s for the latter’s sheer grit and raw emotions, Hemsworth manages to hold his own as a playboy racer who found it in himself to turn in one intense season. Hell, he even sounds philosophical as he paints the irony of zipping around in a ‘bomb on wheels’ chasing juvenile glory in a playful yet seductive scene with his eventually estranged wife played by Olivia Wilde.

Gears are shifted in the post intermission with the chilling race on that fateful day in Nurburgring gluing you to your seats. The cinematography is explosive as the mean machines trace the contours of the legendary track which has extracted its pound of flesh over the years. The visual of the spider crawling down a beam on the foreground while the racetrack’s lethal reputation is narrated – as a metaphor for its grim harvest -  is another personal favorite of mine. The final race of that year – the Japanese Grand Prix with Mount Fuji as the stunning backdrop - provides the final unraveling of the characters personalities. No prim endings here ala Days of Thunder with the hero burning rubber into the sunset with lady love riding shotgun, only a brutal expose of a sport where percentages are played not to triumph, but just to stay in one piece.

If you are a petrolhead, watching it once will not satiate your thirst for octane, if you are not, the disarming honesty of the two rivals will still make you fall in love with their pursuits for glory. The roar of the V12 engines were still ringing in my head even hours after I had left the theatre; you feel sorry for the other releases, who can stand up to a 450 horsepower beast screaming down the tarmac scattering dust and blades of grass in its wake?! Even then, this is less about the machines and more about the human endeavor to pursue glory. The exchange between Hunt and Lauda in the closing scenes sums up the conflict between the head and the heart in sports; what is often seen as heroism in the arena may just be foolhardiness. Can athletes regard their craft dispassionately and could winning just be a function of playing the percentages? Are the Hunts of the world modern day gladiators or was Lauda the forebearer of the modern day pro athlete, who is in it only because he can’t be better at anything else?

Rush is a movie which inspires faith in the magnificence of sports and yet questions the legend of the Achillean athlete who is eventually shown up to have feet of clay. What is evident is its ability to spur mortals to superhuman heights; that’s why the Sennas of the world live on in our hearts.

Soulfood - A review of The Lunchbox

What do you do if lunch cooked by a stranger arrives on your desk? Simple, you tuck into the fare laden with expectancy and savor the inviting flavor, only to have pangs of curiosity disguised as hunger haunt you the next day. Thus starts ‘The lunchbox’ with an innocuous event of misplaced meals bringing together two disparate lives with a promise to alter their courses forever.

The movie is rooted into the mundane; routine events with the potential to change forever lives which have long settled into a dreary rhythm. The overwhelming shadow of Mumbai the metropolis looms large over the characters, her invisible hands pulling strings for hope to peek, only to dash them cruelly. This mood of despondency is however regularly punctuated with optimism; Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s character is glib and opportunist, a byproduct of a lifetime of deprivation, yet he retains an affection for an old widower ambushed by an unlikely fantasy. Nimrat Kaur plays the spurned bride with aplomb, displaying numerous nuances of a life lived in constant disappointment. Culinary skills are her only forte with which she attempts to reignite her marriage with a disembodied voice of an elderly neighbor as her confidant and who herself has a woeful story to tell. Human tragedy in The Lunchbox does not pervade the storyline with baleful melancholy; wit is used adroitly to convey the message that hope springs eternal. Sample the story of Nimrat’s neighbor who the audience never sees: her comatose husband, seemingly lost to the world, nevertheless ignites hope, at least in his wife’s mind by his catatonic fixation with the ceiling fan. An appliance thus provides sustenance and purpose to lives which otherwise would have drowned in hopelessness.

The cinematography employs muted tones, transporting the audience back to a different era where love still had romance and the forgotten art of writing letters a means to bring two divergent lives together. The narrative depends heavily on moods and emotions conveyed by gestures and expressions; Irrfan Khan glancing around covertly before pocketing the amorous missive depicts the dilemma of one who is torn between societal norms and his yearning to rekindle his life. The tenderness between the two protagonists is deliciously understated; it transports you back in time where love was beholden to a union of minds with one drawing strength from the other. Sample the scene where Nimrat is troubled by a suicide which has a disturbing semblance to her own life, plagued by a straying husband. Her sense of foreboding is assuaged by the deadpan humor of Irrfan who relates a somewhat bawdy account of his privates being violated in Mumbai’s stuffy local trains; a case of comedy of errors with which he conveys that things are not always what they seem.

The movie is a celebration of your senses as evidently conveyed by using food as a device with which the protagonists connect. Nimrat tries to win back her husband by pouring out her passion in her cuisine and unwittingly ends up firing the will of a much older man’s desire to salvage a life rendered cold by loss and tedium. Irrfan is expectedly consummate in his portrayal of an ageing and cantankerous accountant wary of displaying any affection which threatens to derail his selfish existence. I cannot recall any other Indian movie which uses something as basic yet powerful a tool as food to trigger a chain of events which transforms lives. The earthy visuals of an Indian kitchen and the archetypal images of a stodgy day in a dull Indian ‘daftar’ being livened up at lunch hours by overworked clerks smacking their lips over a sumptuous meal defines this movie. I hope this is a watershed in Indian cinema where basic indulgences are deftly used to create a connect with the audience.

The lunchbox is in a way an evocative throwback to the Ray era and his Calcutta trilogy where the ‘everyman’ is the subject in the backdrop of the all-encompassing metropolis. Director Ritesh Batra’s treatment of such quintessential urban topics displays promise even though the conclusion is somewhat drawn out and lacks the tautness of the first half. Irrfan’s holds the film together with his powerhouse performance; his dry wit flashing like a samurai’s sword. Watch this one for its celebration of life and hope as much for its pathos of life in a big city

India's Vietnam - A review of Madras Cafe

If you have been weaned on a diet of a certain genre of cinema immortalizing ideology fuelled conflict played out in the jungles of Vietnam, this may look like the pee wee leagues after having savored some superbowl action. ‘Madras café’ however dares to go where most Bollywood fare would dare not venture, namely geopolitical conflict and gunboat diplomacy, themes which come as naturally to Indian mainstream cinema as do soulful ballads to Daler Mehndi. The flick is not without its limitations; John Abraham seemed to have his facial tissues kneaded into a tight dough allowing very little emotional flexing and Ms Fakhri needing to work on a number of things, minor ones among them being histrionic skills. After all, those fabulous cheekbones can only take you so far. The dialogues sound contrived (especially John’s voiceover narration), punctuated as it is with liberal doses on English which appears jarring in an essentially Hindi movie. The plot fails to capitalize on the enormous possibilities at a grand sweep and scale that a subject like civil war provides and settles for a more sensational topic like the assassination of a former head of state as the central theme. One could feel the minefield that the director was navigating through in the treatment of such a controversial subject; too many sensibilities one couldn’t afford to offend. Nothing illustrates this better than John Abraham stumbling out of a church drunk and disheveled, lamenting at the state not having done enough to save the ex-PM. One wonders how this takes precedence over him losing his wife to the plotters, but then maybe I’m cynical and macho John did always put queen and country ahead of personal grief!

The acting rarely reaches stunning heights and the only standout performance is delivered by the RAW Chennai station chief played by Kannada actor Prakash Belawadi with his gritty portrayal of a double agent compromised in a CIA honey trap. He lends depth and credence to the character with his brusque demeanor conveying a steely resolve which belies the deception which unravels later in the movie. The somewhat deranged air that he brings to his persona is apt to the overall theme of death and deception of the flick.  

Siddharth Basu is a total letdown. Zero screen presence, total lack of timing and dialogues mouthed as if his only preparation for the project was to have watched mass produced Hollywood disaster movies in an effort to ape the men in uniform bark out obvious orders reduces this role to a poor caricature. Some thespians were never meant to make the transition from the small to the silver screen and Basu proves why some shouldn’t even have attempted in the first place. What works for the movie however is the crisp pace at which the narrative moves and the cinematography which looks accomplished. Do not again expect the Napalm fuelled orange haze which envelops classics like Apocalypse Now, lending it a surreal look. Redemption is provided by the jump cuts using original stills, perhaps from the war ravaged locales. Most of the brilliant cast from Vicky Donor is however underutilized here as they sleepwalk through their lines. If you’re still at the theatre past the lemon break having suffered through Ms Fakhri holding forth on world affairs, the events in the second half of the movie leading up to the assassination is taut enough to keep you hooked till the climax.

Watch Madras Café if you retain nostalgia for spy thrillers like Spy Game and the impeccable Robert Redford in it. You will however be well advised to skip John’s lament at the end; somebody should have told him that failed intelligence officers don’t get to drown their sorrows in a liquor bottle, they are left to rot behind a desk.

Memories of Biafra - a review of 'Half of a yellow...

There are books and then there are books which grab you by the scruff of the neck and keep you hooked till you have journeyed from cover to cover. Reading ’ Half of a yellow sun’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was like sparring with a snub nosed super heavyweight; the prose is hard-hitting and keeps you ducking and weaving with the poignant questions it raises on subjects as diverse as race, class and human conflict. Her writing transports you into the early years of a newborn state, still grappling with a transitory phase from a colonial past to an uncertain future as the change of guard happens in a newly liberated Nigeria. The language, earthy and direct, brings out the ancient prejudices and contempt that the erstwhile white ruling elite retained for the blacks. The book traces the lives of diverse characters against the backdrop of the ethnic conflict shortly after Nigeria was liberated and the subsequent move for the breakaway state of Biafra. This secessionist move still evokes strong emotions in modern day Nigeria and you feel the stillborn nation’s shadow hanging heavy over the plot.

The prose is simple yet lyrical and begins with little Ugwu making his way from an obscure village to work as a houseboy for the young firebrand Mathematics professor Odenigbo, a product of the Western educated intellectual elite and a strident advocate of African nationalism. One experiences the discordant notes through Ugwu’s eyes as ancient tribal identities try and make peace with an urbanizing Africa, forever changed by the legacy of the empire. You sense the author’s masterful grasp of human relationships as she presents a contrast between the twin sisters Olanna, Odenigbo’s beautiful lover with a heart of gold and the cold and headstrong Kainene who is different from her twin sister in every way. Daughters of one of Nigeria’s wealthy aristocrats, the conflicting personalities of the twins - one affectionate and optimistic about the young nation’s future while the other aloof and viscerally cynical of the motives of the avaricious and ham handed kleptocrats who only seek to perpetuate exploitation – present a vivid commentary of the dilemma of the young state. The cast of characters is rounded off by Richard, the dreamy British expat who is equally enamored by Kainenene and Nigeria’s tribal heritage and harbors a fanciful if touching idea of writing a book on the ancient pottery art of Nigeria.

The characters are thrown into a maelstrom of both interpersonal and physical conflicts as interracial strife threatens to tear the country apart. You love the author’s nuanced treatment of how the characters’ lives intersect; the uneasy ferment resulting from ancient beliefs colliding with western ideas, hurling the protagonists headlong into conflict. Perhaps the most revealing aspect of this book is the depiction of the naked brutality of the Biafran conflict, where starvation – which would become a weapon of choice with African warlords – was used with lethal efficacy to cow the secessionists into submission.

Half of a yellow sun, the emblem of the stillborn Biafran nation, stands as a parable of a people who dreamt of an abode where they could be free. One gets the feeling that the yearning stemmed more from the rebellious air that the postcolonial era was redolent with as opposed to a well articulated need for self-determination. As is the case with most such utopian ambitions, the disillusioning end stood as a stark anticlimax to the initial heady emotions. The lyrical quality of the prose however makes you a believer and a convert and leaves you wistful as only such heretical fables can.