Hotel Rwanda vs Schindler's List

I know I shouldn't compare these two movies but the strikigly similar and unique plot of the two movies are crying out for comparison. And I am gonna attempt to compare these movies.
First of all, both movies are splendid, excellent, hard-hitting, all in all, on a different pedestral, high above most other films.
Now, I saw Hotel Rwanda just today, so it is more fresh in my mind.
The thing is HR showed lots of raw things tho the same things existed in SL, the entire Nazi effect changed things a bit. The African environment made HR more raw and brutal. SL talked about Nazis, something that we kinda know about. We have heard things about them. But most of us never knew about the Hutus and the Tutsis.
Also, the guy's family was involved in HR, making it a huge factor for him to DO SOMETHING.

Comparing these two movies isn't right, but in my opinion, SL takes it away. It's black and white effect was too good, Liam was a class act ( I didn't see that class in the guy who played the lead in HR), SL showed the CHANGE in Liam's character as the war proceeded and as he saw things, the ending part of SL remains timeless, I don't think HR was able to achieve that.
Maybe just coz I saw SL first, I am more prone to liking it, but I can't help it. I see a clear line between the two movies.

HR had the advantage that it showed how bad things cud get, with refugees continually popping in and that Gregorie guy doing his stuff, but there were scenes in HR that cud have been better done, like the one where the lead guy abandons his family to stay back (more drama cud be added and the scene made better). There were so many instances where I felt the guy shud just kneel down on the floor and break into tears and pray to God bcoz of the brutalities and the helplessness, but he didn't. Anyway, these ver my thoughts.

Both stand far beyond the normal flicks and the gap between them is too less compared to the gap between them and other movies. Brilliant stuff, wish bolly cud do smthg like this soon :)

"Joblessness" - The VACATION Effect

Yeah, nothing to do. Still waiting for the prof to review my work before going ahead.
In the meanwhile, I am doing almost everything I should do in holidays. The good news is that the weather has improved, but then now there are insects and frogs all around :

Have watched almost 6-7 movies in the past week.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Funny, but I felt the plot was too crappy. A good vacation watch though.
Requiem For A Dream: A movie on why not to do drugs. Very highly rated movie but personally, I didn't enjoy it a lot. It wasn't exactly meant for the Indian audiences. But the movie had raw power in it. Lotsa gutsy scenes.
The Hot Chick: OK comedy. Could have been better but will do. Rachel McAdams, man she's beautiful !!
Haasil: A friend of mine couldn't stop praising the movie so I thought I'll give it a try. Nice movie, but not as good as he was claiming. Couldn't identify with the violent characters but the villain was the one who carries the entire movie on his shoulders. Brilliant performance by this guy.
The Girl Next Door: Again, OK movie. Seen quite a few like it, so wasn't a new experience. It was all mixed up actually. Decent though.
In America: The best of the lot by a huge margin. Classy script, brilliant characters and brilliant performances. The kids in the movie just act so very brilliantly. The movie was more like the struggle of a family against emotional odds, but it was just splendid. A must watch, though with the right frame of mind. This ain't an entertainer. More of a drama-reality.
One Fine Day: Naah, not worth it. Cliche plot, cliche acting. All seen, nothing new, except the kiddo's acting. Awesome kid, real fun guy. Clooney was his usual self, but couldn't pull it off. This was one romantic movie I would rather have missed, but then, OK. Anyway I am jobless :-p

Gonna read The Prodigal Daughter soon. Just got it from the book club here.
Went to Domino's the other day and realized there is so much beauty in this world :)) I am still talking about food :-p (Don't remember the movie in which the dialogue was there).
No cricket for some days now :( The weather and crowds ain't allowing it.
Lots more going on, but I rather end now.
Adios.

!! NEW POEMS !!

Chk out if interested:
http://home.iitk.ac.in/student/ganshul/writings/poems/Foreverness(L).htm
http://home.iitk.ac.in/student/ganshul/writings/poems/Foreverness(S).htm

Comments welcome :)

Common Sense vs IQ

What actually matters ? CS (common sense) or IQ. I was having this discussion with a friend of mine and we didn't seem to come to any solid conclusion.

Studies reveal that the average IQ of human beings has been on the rise. Well, I would say that's a fact but what about CS ?
Well, CS is supposed to be something that every human being MUST know. It is supposed to be common. I remember a prof of mine saying this "CS is the most uncommon thing". Well, I do agree with him.
Things as stupid as cigarettes, drinks, drugs etc find their way into the homes of almost every neighborhood. Is it that dangerous ?? Of course it is.

Crime and crap have been on the rise in the recent years on a very exponential state. With all terrorists and anti-social elements invading Mother Earth, there is hardly a place u can call safe anymore.
Am I exaggerating ?? I know I am. But then, don't we all need to civilize up a bit.

There are other things that might say that CS is on its way down.
But, what has this got to do with IQ ??
Well, here's ver a theory of mine comes in.
The EQUILIBRIUM theory. Very easily extendable to all spheres of life.

If we begin vth the assumption that IQ has been steadily increasing, lets try to reason out the causes. Simple actually. The world is becoming more and more comples and competitive and in this race for survival, the Evolution theory says that we will develop our intellect (I know I shudn't be using the Evolution concepts here, but they seem to fit in well, infact, all too well) and hence our IQ is rising. But at what cost. There has to be a cost somewhere.
This is ver CS comes in. How does Evolution allow CS to die down. Well, just because ppl no more care that much about values and the little things that make up life. Its only money and fame. We don't seem to be needing CS anymore. As though we are beyond it.
So, what my theory says is that at the cost of CS, we are gaining IQ.
So, what happens next ?
Well, either this continues till CS bcomes extinct OR we realize that its CS that matters and hence force the evolutionary cycle back to up CS at the cost of IQ.
Does that make any sense ? I dunno, but it seems plausible. Outrageous, but plausible.
Think abt it.

Life .... Reloaded !!

Alright, I am back !!
IITK is life !! Its been just 3 days since I have been here and I feel like I never went home.
Within an hour of my arrival here, I was playing cricket and after 3-4 hrs of cricket I finally went back to unpacking my stuff :D

The weather sure is horrible but it rained on the first two days and that did provide some respite for heat.
I was busy doing my homepage today in the morning and then it was cricket again.

Work is gonna begin soon, so I better gear-up for that too (like what do you expect me to do ;) ).

I saw "D" the first day. Nicely made RGV movie. Some nice situations and real-life closeness made it quite a nice and enjoyable flick.

Yestereday, apart from cricket, we were all busy gossiping bout the days that went by in these 2 years of IITK life.

I finally feel reunited with myself :D

"Here I am - this is me. There's no where else on earth I'd rather be."
- from Bryan Adams' "Here I am".

The Bonesetter's Daughters

Yes, this is another book review !!
Actually, for one, I have been a lot into books for the past one month and two, I discovered that its really tough to do a book review. I mean, there's so much u wanna say but its tough to put it down into words without making sure u don't boil down the essence of the book.

This book by Amy Tan is a very unique one. Its theme was the relationship that existed between three generations of women, all belonging to the family of a Bonestter.
I must say that tho I haven't read a lot of books but a book totally devoted to a relationship was something very unique and offbeat.
The book totally focusses on the relationship between a mother and her daughter (the relation that u think exists and the one, that was underlying and which slowly gets revealed) and between the mother and the grandmother (told very well through the mother's diary). Some very strange techniques like using a diary to tell half the story etc were employed quite successfully in the book.
It took me around 7 hrs (that must b my personal best, considering that I haven't done more that 7 novels yet) to finish this one off for the simple reason that it was so elegantly and simply written. Very well chosen words and some real neat descriptions make this one a very easy read.
The beauty and grace with which the author carries off the tender situations and the revealing of the relations is awesome. Very neat indeed. Its more like u wud really like to meet the characters in the story and wanna talk vth them.

A superb book, very very well written.

The Da Vinci Code

Do I need say more ??
First up, I gotta say that tho I am not an ardent thriller/suspense types book fan but there were many places where the book just became un-put-downable. True this is quite a controversial novel, but that just adds to its publicity.

Well, this was a very very well connected book. The secrets, were NOT AT ALL predictable and tho the story only starts to unravel most of the mysteries at the end, I was pretty shocked as to how the author managed to reveal everything so gracefully and it didn't sound made-up types one bit.
I don't know if it stands out as one of the best, but yes, you have got to give it to Dan Brown that this person sure knows how to keep the readers hooked to the book. The story was very intriguing and very simple to follow, tho most of the times I was dying to keep track of all the secrets and when he would finally reveal the mysteries.

Now, the controversial part. Sure, with all the things that he had written and claiming the findings to be true, this had to create a controversy. But it makes you think at the end "Do we need to bother whether religion is based on a sound fact or not ?". I mean as long as religion serves the purpose of faith and does put hope into you, I think it is good enuf.
Quoting from the movie The Shawshank Redemption "“. . . . Hope is a good thing. .
. . . . maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies." These are strong words and they do mean a lot of truth.
The way in which Dan Brown used the controversy or as many call "conspiracy theory" of claiming Lord Jesus to be a mere mortal, tho at no time trying to say anything less about His great deeds and how great He is. The claim seemed quite much to have a fraction of truth in it.
In the later part of the story, u tend to be torn apart between the religios aspect that the author is referring to and the actual story that's going on in the book.

All the time of reading the book, I could imagone myself seeing a movie with various twists and turns and infact, it was so much beyond a movie.
In the end, I will still say that I am quite surprised with the way all suspenses were bought to justice and how the author managed to give all secrets a proper burial.

Two thumbs up for this one.