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Yesterday this stand-up comedy “Make Chai Not War” show happened in Egmore Museum Theatre, Chennai. It was organized by U.S.Consulate General in Chennai in association with Evam Entertainment and Times of India. The stand-up comedy was by 3 Indian Americans – comedian Hari Kondabolu (www.harikondabolu.com), comic Rajiv Satyal (www.funnyindian.com) and Azhar Usman (http://www.azhar.com). The show was brilliant, over two hours of non-stop laughter and a bit to think over. I don’t remember the last time I laughed so much in my life on some clean comedy. A fantastic effort by U.S. Home Department to foster friendship with India and its people through some multi-religious, multi-ethnic jokes and not through handouts or military aid. There is so much for all of us to laugh about our diversity in this world than to fight for.
Rajiv who is from Ohio, a Hindu (he stresses it often for effect & to poke good fun at), born to Punjabi parents who immigrated to USA. He covered everything in his show – from Indians refilling with water the almost empty Soap bottles to how Gujaritis save money. He touched nicely on the diversity of Indians and India – saying unlike USA in India the smart people are put up in South.
Hari who is from Queens New York, born to parents from Andhra Pradesh is a performer in Comedy Central & HBO Comedy Arts Festival. He seems to have a stated dislike towards British and Colonization that he made fun of at every turn. Yesterday he appeared a little sombre but still funny enough to make you laugh.
Azhar who is from Chicago, hailing from immigrants from Bihar and a title ‘America’s funniest Muslim”. He was the super-star yesterday firing all cylinders. He started by how to spell his name – Azhar like in Buzzer with a B, it gets pronounced as Uzzer. His experience of Auto-drivers in Chennai hailing him first for Sight-seeing, then for Girls and finally for Marijuana. He closed his show with a profound thought – we are all birds in a cage, each of us can see all the 7 billion people in the world but not ourselves (for which we have to look inside us). His story of scaring a British Gentleman in a flight was hilarious.
Overall a superb, brilliant, hilarious show you shouldn’t miss if they come to your city.
When a friend suggested I see this movie “Bad Teacher” I was not sure I will like it. From the web comments I expected the comedy to dull & boring and the sexy visuals of Cameron Diaz especially as a teacher will be making it unpleasant to watch. But the movie turned out to be better than that. It is by no means a great movie or anything but just different, certainly watchable & at places I even laughed while watching it.
The movie is about a seventh grade teacher Elizabeth Halsey (played by Cameron Diaz) who is an exact opposite of an ideal teacher. She does everything that is wrong about a teacher, she sleeps in classes, secretly drinks alcohol in class, doesn’t even know her students names or what’s in the syllabus and she even uses Marijuana in the school parking lot. To fund her breast implant (which is to attract a wealthy spouse) she is shown stealing items from a student’s house, dresses provocatively in a student car wash to pocket the collection and even accepts grafts from parents for better grades and drugs the state examiner. Then there is the usual love story with Elizabeth trying to impress a wealthy substitute teacher while the gym teacher likes her.
What makes the movie watchable is the simplicity and the frankness of the portrayal. It doesn’t sugar coat anything. The Director breaks the typical mould of a teacher character in movies – someone who is normally inspirational and above criticism. And at the end too, Elizabeth doesn’t get caught, instead the good teacher gets punished and Elizabeth gets away, she stops being sloppy and becomes a guidance counsellor.
My son is avid reader of Tintin comics, because of him after so many years I too read again many of the books recently. Both of us have been planning to see this movie “The Adventures of Tintin” and we went for it today at Escape (Express Mall), Chennai. My interest was increased due to the film being directed by Steven Spielberg.
The adaptation of the comics to movie has been done quite nicely, without disturbing the original author’s (Herge) magic. The original Tintin stories had a way of impressing boys with its action packed scenes, simple storyline & wordings, a trip around many parts of the world showing its culture & people. The movie to a good extend has retained it, the animated characters too look quite faithful to the impression I had from the comics. You can even have laugh at many of the scenes, just like I had. Overall, a fun movie to watch with your whole family.
One thing I don’t understand is the need to pay for the 3D glasses Rs.20 separately in the food counter at Escape, why can’t they add it to the Online transaction itself?. I guess it might be due to some archaic Entertainment tax issue, but Satyam can collect additional Rs.10 or so to cover it and make it convenient for audience.
I like Bruce Willis movies and I had been wanting to watch this movie but did it only today. The movie’s premise was very interesting, humans are living safe inside their houses and come out/do all their activities using a Robot which acts as their surrogates. Kind of like Avatar but this is all humans and in earth. So I had good expectation for this movie “Surrogates”.
It turns out the movie has wasted a great plot with poor imagination & execution, Bruce Willis is wasted too. First there is not much a suspense or rather it is not told correctly. Second lots of loopholes in the story, why should surrogates be doing sane things as humans & limited by Human capabilities – when they can jump as high as they want, why should they use a cell-phone to communicate, why use a computer monitor and mouse, why use the same cars as humans and the list goes on. The surrogates are supposed to be used worldwide including in China, Russia – how on earth will they let an American Private Corporation (VSI) control their lives, how the poor in the world who can’t even be reached to get safe water by their governments get a surrogate. How could all this have happened in just 14 years.
Overall, you can certainly live it through the movie.
என் பையன் இப்போதெல்லாம் சினிமா பார்க்கிறான், விஜய் படங்கள் பார்க்கப் பிடிக்கிறது, பள்ளியிலும் அதைப் பற்றிப் பேசுகிறார்கள் போல். இந்த வாரம் அவனை தீபாவளி வெளியீடான விஜய்யின் வேலாயுதம் படத்திற்கு அழைத்துச் சென்றேன்.
சத்தியம், ஐ-நாக்ஸில் சீட்டு இல்லாததால் விருகம்பாக்கத்தில் புதிதாக வந்துள்ள “சந்திரா மால்” ஃபேம் திரையரங்கிற்கு சென்றோம், இணையத்தில் பதிவு செய்திருந்தாலும் வரிசையில் நின்று டிக்கேட்டை மாற்றிக் கொண்டு தான் செல்ல வேண்டும். ஆற்காட் சாலையில் வழக்கத்திற்கும் அதிகமான நெரிசல், அதனால் பதினைந்து நிமிடம் தாமதமாகத்தான் செல்ல முடிந்தது. எனக்கு ஒரே எரிச்சல், தியேட்டரில் பார்த்தால் எனக்கு நீயுஸ் ரீலும், விளம்பரங்களும் தொடங்கி, வணக்கம் வரைப் பார்க்க வேண்டும். சந்திரா மாலில் ஒரேயிடத்தில் நான்கு கார்கள் (ஒன்றன் மேல் ஒன்றாக) நிறுத்த நவீன வசதி செய்துள்ளார்கள், அதனால் சுலபமாக காருக்கு இடம் கிடைத்தது. ஃபேம் திரையரங்கு நன்றாகவும், வசதியாகவும் (Screen 1) பெரிதாகவும் உள்ளது, இதை நான் எதிர்ப்பார்க்கவில்லை தான். இந்தப் பக்கம் இருக்கும் சென்னைவாசிகள் நவீன திரையரங்கிற்காக இனி மைலாப்பூர், அண்ணா சாலை செல்ல வேண்டாம் – இப்படியே பராமரிப்பார்கலாப் பார்க்கலாம்.
சரி படத்திற்கு வருவோம். காவலன் எனக்கு பிடித்திருந்தது, நல்ல காமெடி, அதனால் இதுவும் அப்படியிருக்கும் எனப் பார்த்தால் இது முழுக்க முழுக்க கமர்ஷியல் விஜய் படம். சந்தானம் தன் வேலையை இயல்பாக செய்து ரசிக்க வைக்கிறார் (மனுஷன் இன்னும் கொஞ்சம் அடக்கிவாசித்தால் அவருக்கு நல்லது) – கடைசியில் ஓட்டைப் பிரித்துக் குதிக்கும் இடம் நல்ல சிரிப்பு. ஆக்ஷனிற்கு விஜய்யும், கிளு கிளுப்பிற்கு ஹன்சிகாவும், இரண்டு குத்துப் பாட்டும் கிடைத்துவிட்டதால் இயக்குனர் ராஜா கதைக்கு ரொம்ப யோசிக்கவில்லை போல – விஜய்யின் முந்தைய சிவகாசியையும், விக்ரமின் கந்தசாமியையும், காஷ்மீர் திவரவாதிகளையும், ஒரு ரசாயன வெடிப்பையும், மகாநதி சீட்டு கம்பெனி போண்டியையும் சேர்த்து கலக்கி நல்ல சுத்தமான மசாலாப் பொடியைத்தூவி கதையை முடித்துவிட்டார். ஜெனிலியாவிற்கு படத்தில் அவ்வளவாக வேலையென்று ஒன்றுமில்லை, அவ்வப்பொது வந்துப் போகிறார். மொலச்சு மூணு இலையவிடலப் பாடல் தனியாகக் கேட்க அருமையாகயிருந்தாலும் படத்தில் வரும் காட்சிகளுக்கு ஒட்டவேயில்லை – வீண் செய்துவிட்டார் ராஜா; ஜில்லாக்ஸ் பாட்டு ஹன்சிகாவாலும், விஜய்யின் துள்ளலாலும் நம்மை கொஞ்சம் இருக்கையிலேயே ஆடவைக்ககிறது.
விஜய் பிடிக்கும் என்றால் பார்க்கலாம். மற்றப்படி சொல்ல எதுவுமில்லை.
This movie “The Lincoln Lawyer” is about a Criminal Defence Lawyer (Mickey Haller) who is street smart in helping his clients like Drug-Dealers & others released from law. He runs his office from his Lincoln car (hence the name), certainly not creative and was not elaborated much in the movie as well. Mickey lands a big wealthy client arrested in an assault case, but then comes the twist. With his co-worker on the case killed, he realizes his client is a serial predator but can’t turn him to law due to client confidentiality.
The movie starts rather dull and usual, but after the twist makes you sit on your seat’s edge. Nicely taken and acted by Matthew McConaughey.
On my return from Seattle to India in British Airways I watched this movie “Source Code”. The movie is starred by Jake Gyllenhaal who starred in Prince of Persia and did all the fabulous stunts, Jake has done a fine performance on the action sequences in this movie as well. Source Code is about a US Military secret mission of using last 8 minutes of memory stored in a dead man’s brain and travelling to multiple timelines in that. In the movie this is used to find the bomber in a Chicago commuter train. Jake comes in as a US Army Pilot in a mission in Afghanistan last remembered to have been attacked in a fighting, when he wakes up he finds in the body of another man travelling in a train. The idea that he can replay the same sequences as many times as the number of passengers till he finds the culprit is an interesting (impossible) idea. Nice movie, can be watched.
Just Go with it is a regular comedy movie starring Jennifer Aniston, Adam Sandler and Brooklyn Decker. Adam Sandler is a successful plastic surgeon (unmarried) and Jennifer Aniston is his assistant. Adam pretends to Brooklyn Decker (math teacher) he is in a bad marriage, has two kids. All of them go on a vacation to Hawaii. How Adam handle one lie after another with Brooklyn and finally marries Jennifer Aniston is the story. A light movie, can watch on a plane like I did – no complaints that way.
Since I heard about this movie early this year I have been wanting to see this “Midnight in Paris” directed by Woody Allen. Today I watched it in the flight to London.
The movie is about Gil (played by Owen Wilson), who is a successful Hollywood screenwriter and his fiancée, Inez (played by Rachel McAdams) who are visiting Paris. Gil is obsessed with Paris and finishing his first novel which is about what he thinks are the magical times in 1920 Paris. One of the night he is magically transported to 1920 era in Paris where he gets to meet and mix with all legendary writers of that time including Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. 1920 Paris was a melting pot for many of the legendary American Artists and writers to come down (kind of a reverse travel from Americas to Europe). Gil is obsessed with that era and falls in love with a girl of that era but then returns to present, breaks with his fiancée and lives in Paris.
A nicely scripted and directed movie by Woody Allen. A must watch.
Having watched him in “Friends” and then in short lived “Joey” I will say I enjoy seeing Matt LeBlanc on screen. On learning in iTunes about his new show “Episodes”, I wanted to see it and did that this long weekend.
The show’s plot was quite interesting, it is about a British writer-producer couple who have a wonderful marriage and a hit TV series in UK. They get an offer from a Hollywood big network producer to do a remake of the show for American audience. After a lucrative offer, the couple pack up and ship out to LA. Next few weeks they learn that Hollywood is a place where deals are made and broken in the same breath. The cultural difference between the two countries and their celebrities are all shown very nicely. Tamsin Greig who acts as Beverly Lincoln, has done a good performance of enacting a Writer who is forced by Hollywood to include changes in her story, and who is personally going through a tough time of being a simple wife surrounded by Hollywood’s glamor all around. A must watch for a good laugh.
Unfortunate the series won’t be having a sequel or a next season to it.
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