Thought Overflow

Pick the top 3 superhero movies of recent times. Spiderman, Batman and Iron Man. All 3 were wildly successful blockbusters, and all 3 brought something new to the table. Spiderman, for the first time, took us to the man behind the mask of the superhero. We were exposed to Peter Parker, the kid, the loser, the little boy with his insecurities and fallibilities. In Batman Begins, the show was stolen not by Batman, but, in my opinion, by Bruce Wayne. Batman Begins is the story of Bruce Wayne’s battles with his own demons and the journey from Bruce to Batman. The Dark Knight could only have come about as it did due to the solid foundation laid down by Batman Begins. Next, we come to Iron Man, which surprised many people by its success. Yet, there was a reason. We’ve already been exposed to an emo superhero alter-ego (Peter Parker/Spiderman) and a damaged, driven superhero haunted by his own problems (Bruce Wayne/Batman). Iron Man introduced us to a completely different kind of superhero. Tony Stark is everything Parker and Wayne cannot be—cocky, funny and over the top. And hell yes, it was a refreshing change.

The Dark Knight epitomised superhero movies for months after it was released, eclipsing the effect of the emotional, colourful Spiderman world with its black flair, seriousness and a truly psychotic villain (Joker/Heath Ledger). Enter Iron Man—an escape from the drudgery and gritty melancholy of The Dark Knight. It was fun, it was colourful and it was enjoyably over the top.

And that’s where Iron Man 2 has a great fall, going from “over the top” to “just plain ridiculous” most of the time. Suffering from the effects of using his Iron Man suit too much (a plotline that’s just thrown at you inexplicably a short while after film starts), Tony Stark starts doing things that one would think were too crazy even for Stark. Then he also goes down a path of self-destruction, which makes you roll your eyes in disbelief at what the director throws at you. Robert Downey Jr is probably the best choice to play Stark, but even he has trouble carrying off his new personality. Where has the wit gone? Where has the fun gone? In the first movie, Stark was irresistible, threw one-liners like a pro and his cockiness was enjoyable. In the second movie, he goes from one extreme to the next. When he attempts to be the Stark from the first movie, he gets highly annoying, something you don’t want your protagonist to become. And when he attempts to draw the audience’s sympathy, well, he fails miserably. But maybe that’s just because Tony Stark’s character isn’t meant to draw sympathy at all. Also, while we’re on the topic of Stark/Iron Man, I would have liked to have seen a few more Iron Man sequences than Tony Stark sequences.

Moving on to other characters then. Mickey Rourke deserves a mention for trying to do a good job. I couldn’t find much fault with his acting, which was limited, I felt, by the role he was offered. Scarlett Johansson is flawless…in appearance. Thank you, God, for creating her. Of course, it’s another story that she comes across as robotic as possible, and her action sequences reminded me painfully of Daredevil, one of the worst superhero movies I’ve ever seen. Gwyneth Paltrow was also much more likeable in the first movie, and somehow, the chemistry between Potts (Paltrow) and Stark (Downey Jr) is unfortunately colder than the first movie, despite them finally kissing. However, hers was the character that I most enjoyed, as Potts remains true to her devotion for Stark. The rest of the cast are ok too, but I cannot help questioning the casting of Don Cheadle as Lt. Colonel James Rhodes, a role played well by Terence Howard in the first movie. Don’s eyes are far too expressive and his face is far too serious to play Rhodes. Also, I’d like to make a special mention of actor Sam Rockwell, who plays arguably the most annoying character in the film, Justin Hammer.

All in all, too many things about this movie are annoying and so far away from reality that one really needs to leave one’s brains at home. I don’t mind explosions and special effects (which are generally not bad), but I like them when they’re at least remotely believable. The quality of the action sequences places this movie just a notch above crap like Charlie’s Angels and Daredevil, which is far from a compliment.

All in all, if you are going to watch this movie expecting it to pick up where the original left off, please lower your expectations. It does not. But you will want to watch it just to follow the storyline and be in touch with the inevitable sequel. And though I hate saying this about movies, if you want to “enjoy” this one, leave your brains at home.

Rating: 6/10

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One of my favourite games of all time, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, has recently had its film adaptation made. Normally, I would treat such news with despair, because it’s very rare that a good game or a good book give birth to a good movie. However, I have comparatively higher hopes from this one because Jordan Mechner, the creator and director of the original Prince of Persia games (the ones you played when you were a kid, irrespective of whatever your current age is) as well as the POP: The Sands of Time game, has co-written the story for the movie. Now, I respect Jordan Mechner for the way he approaches his games. He has an amazing sense of what will work and what won’t, and what needs to go in and what needs to stay out.

However, there’s an inherent flaw when you convert books (a medium based on imagination) or games (a medium that thrives on interactivity) into movies (a medium that is based entirely on visuals alone). The characters that one can play around with in books and games have an edge over the characters that we see in movies.

Game heroes don’t have to be good-looking or desirable across any social strata. In fact, if you look carefully, Altair, the protagonist of the wildly popular game Assassin’s Creed, appears to have a bit of a pot-belly, and has absolutely terrible posture and gait. Hermione (from Harry Potter, as if you needed to be told that) is far from pretty in the books. However, look how stunning they make her look in the movies (you can do your own Google Image search for Emma Watson). And so, we come to the point. Movies sell based on the stars that appear in them. It’s a sad fact of life that when most people go to watch a movie, they wouldn’t care much about seeing realistic characters, real men with pot-bellies or crooked noses. They want to see a hero that is desirable, perfect in appearance and attractive beyond what is common.

The Prince from The Sands of Time game is a young man, probably barely in his early twenties, immature and brash, passionate with a desire to impress his father, the king. He does not have a thick, gravelly, manly voice. In fact, his voice is fairly light and pleasant to the ear, and he comes across, as he rightly should, as a boy turning into a man, facing the consequences of his actions. I have seen nothing more than a trailer of The Sands of Time movie, but already I can see the differences I dislike. Prince Dastan (who was unnamed in the game series) has a body seemingly chiselled by God’s favourite sculptor, whereas the Prince from the videogames is more of a lean, athletic build. The voice of Dastan (from the movies) is grainier too.

Well, these minor compromises were to be expected, I guess. I’m happy that at least Prince Dastan doesn’t appear to have an annoyingly American accent!

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In the last 6 weeks or so (since the summer ‘break’ began), I have read more novels (3) than I have read during the preceding few months at XLRI.

And just FYI, the books I’ve read:

1. 1984 – George Orwell
2. My Life as a Fake – Peter Carey
3. A Prisoner of Birth – Jeffrey Archer

And lined up:

• The Life of Pi – Yann Martel
• Greek Tragedy – A collection of plays (Greek mythology).

I would say that this is one of my major accomplishments from my Summer Internship.

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I’ve been in Mumbai for about a month, roughly, and I’ve already been to two plays here, both at the Tata Auditorium at NCPA, Nariman Point. The first one, attended a couple of weeks ago, was the Lillette Dybey-directed Love on the Brink, a comedy about romance and the circle of life. It was roughly 100 minutes long, divided into 2 acts of 60 and 40 minutes each. My honest opinion was that it was good fun, but not outstanding. The play featured 3 actors only, and all 3 of them were very good. What let me down, I think, was the script itself. There was also some kind of inconsistency in the characters, and a comical implausibility of plot, though that may have been on purpose.

Today, we attended a play called “Me Kash and Cruise”, a play that panned various genres including drama and comedy. Directed by Rahul da Cunha, it featured the extremely versatile Rajit Kapoor in a bunch of cameo roles. The play is narrated by one of the characters, a female of bubbly demeanour and a voice full of inflection and emotion, which somehow I felt doesn’t lend itself well  to narration, particularly when the narration involves a dark undertone which should have resonated with the audience by virtue of the voice rather than melodramatic emotional appeal. The first half of the play was mediocre, but the second half was simply brilliant. Rajit Kapoor, underutilised in the first half, took the play to a completely different level in the second half, playing all his various sub-roles to perfection and beyond. The best parts of the play were the lighter moments, the jokes that evoked much laughter and tongue-in-cheek remarks that regularly brought forth applause from the audience. Where it seemed to fall flat, I felt, was when they tried to become dramatic, serious, raise issues. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against using theatre to promote issues that plague our society, but I think it has to be done just right. The right atmosphere has to be created and the actors have to get it spot on. The end of the play, however, did manage to raise the audience to its feet for a standing ovation. For portions of the play, it was fully deserved.

At this point, if I had to compare the two plays, I’d say that Love on the Brink featured fantastic actors who played their roles to perfection. What let the play down, in my opinion, was the play itself. On the other hand, here in Me Kash and Cruise, we had a good enough story and a good enough play, but the actors (apart from Rajit Kapoor, who was simply brilliant, and Amit Mistry, who played the affable character of Cruise) were not the kind that you could praise for carrying the play on their shoulders alone. Maybe the characterisation was a little flawed and one-dimensional, though. I’m only a 2-play old theatre critic, so I should be cut some slack while writing these reviews, methinks.  Also, Love on the Brink gave us the programme beforehand, which introduced us to the cast and storyline and duration of the play, so that we were at least somewhat prepared what to expect. Today, the programme was missing, and there was no way of knowing that the play would feature strong language, such that a family or two was forced to walk out in the middle of the play. As one of my friends later remarked, there was no rating on the play posters either. Something that future theatre producers should bear in mind, I think.

After the play, we went and had dinner in this overpriced restaurant called Ruby Tuesdays. I ordered a Caesar Salad with chicken, which turned out to be much heavier than I wanted it to be, and it didn’t really go along too well with my Foster’s, but it was ok nonetheless. No review on the restaurant, though, sorry.

After dinner, we spent a few minutes on Marine Drive, discussing plays and other things, before heading home.

And now, bed-time.

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I’m spending my summer in a not very well maintained room at one of the boys’ hostels at Wilson College, South Bombay. There is no mess where we get dinner, so all of us go out for dinner to restaurants close by, balancing between expensive and budget places. The former are generally characterised by being air-conditioned, having a nice ambience with good music and well-dressed patrons; the latter, by being moderately crowded, served by waiters who are dressed either in somewhat shabby or no uniforms at all. Occasionally, there are places where the price of the food is not too high, but the taste is good.

There is a restaurant on the road adjacent to the beach which always seems to have a huge line of people waiting to get in, and the clientele appear to be well-off, arriving in big, expensive cars and dressed well. This particular restaurant (called New Yorkers), which we had all assumed to be the expensive kind, has been on our list for quite some time, the crowd of eagerly awaiting customers outside adding to its appeal. There’s a small paan-dabba right outside it which also seems to do brisk business, selling to the diners that emerge from the restaurant after having had their meals. Some distance away, there’s another small place called Bachelor’s, which serves milk-shakes, cream with fruit and ice-cream a short distance away. I don’t know what it is about this place, which is basically a shack on the footpath, but it attracts clients from the highest strata of society. I’ve seen the most expensive cars pull up to have dessert here. The curiosity has had the better of me for quite some time, which put this one also on the aforementioned list.

So, 3 places I had to try out before leaving Mumbai, irrespective of how expensive they are. Yesterday, we tried them all, and here’s the outcome.

New Yorkers turned out to be not that expensive after all, which took me a bit by surprise. We ordered nachos, lasagne and some other Italian dish that I cannot spell to save my life. The nachos arrived first along with a wonderful drink. I was impressed, but the good impression didn’t last too long. The lasagne was terrible. As Hari said, it tasted more like pav-bhaji with some cheese on it. Big let-down. The other Italian dish was ok too, nothing to write home about.

Next, we had the paan. It was, to be perfectly honest, strictly ok. There’s another paan-wallah just up the road that serves a better (and bigger) paan for 2 rupees less. Yes, I know that 2 bucks is not really a big deal, but after all the hype inadvertently generated by the crowd, this was another let-down.

Finally, we had dessert at Bachelor’s—135 rupees for whipped cream with pieces of chocolate in it. Was it good? It was ok. Was it worth the money it cost? Are you freakin’ kidding me! 135 bucks! No freakin’ way! Luckily, Hari switched his mango-cream with me (which, by the way, cost just about the same, give or take 10 bucks). Again, this wasn’t too bad, but I couldn’t understand why people would drive here in their expensive cars to eat this.

What have I learnt from this?

The people of Mumbai have no taste. I mean, seriously. I’ve been hearing a lot about a “budget” restaurant called Crystal, which we haven’t been able to have dinner at because of the lengthy waiting line every day, but I managed to have lunch there the other day, and it was, unsurprisingly, shitty. What’s up, Mumbai? Why are you flocking to places that are strictly mediocre?

Anyway, so that was about that. I know how what gyaan to give juniors who have their summer internship in Mumbai next year: Stay away from all the places that have a big crowd.

Afterword:
Actually, come to think of it…in Mumbai, with its over-population and willingness of people to spend, there are barely any places that do NOT have a crowd. It can get on your nerves sometimes.

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I was out with friends a couple of nights ago, and I had a great time. Normally, I like to live in the moment, preferring to dwell in the ‘here and now’ and leave the thinking and reliving to be done later. The more I pondered about it later, the more I realised that there’s something I am missing, and missing quite a bit – a confidante.

At almost any point in time in the last few years, I’ve had a ‘best friend’, someone special with whom I talked to about my day and everything else that was on my mind, without thinking twice, without worrying about whether what I was saying was right or wrong, politically or otherwise.

I miss that. I miss having someone to just talk to, just like that.

I guess it’s one of the things that just happen as you grow older. It’s so much easier to make friends when you’re a kid, and you have the phone at your disposal. More importantly, you have time at your disposal, unlike now.

Now, life is all about classes and studies and careers, and when it’s not about that, it’s about partying and doing activities to “live life to the fullest”. We have gained maturity, money and experience, but we have lost that time that we would have spent with friends, just talking for hours, uninterrupted.

Isn’t that worth thinking about?

* * *

I apologise for my prolonged absence from the blog. I have been without internet access, and apart from that, majority of my time has been being taken up by my internship work (which is how it should be, shouldn’t it?)

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The following was written on April 7. I couldn’t post it before because I had no access to the internet.

I have now been in Mumbai for about 4 days. I write this post from the office, on my second day of work. These initial days, I expect, are going to be a bit light and easy while I wait for everything to get set up (I’d post a few more details about what that means but I don’t know how much of Citi’s policies I can write about in the public domain, no matter how not confidential they logically seem).

It’s about 3:20 PM.

<interrupted by work…2 meetings and a short break later…>

It’s now about 5:10 PM. I like how I’ve written that I had “meetings”—sounds like I’m all hard-working and important. On a serious note, though, I’ve been given 3 projects to do this summer (which is not very common—people normally get one or two), and it looks like I’m going to be working pretty hard this summer, contrary to what seniors told me to expect.

So far, my summer internship experience has been quite interesting. And the post I had begun to write a couple hours ago has now disappeared from my head. Therefore, I’m going to have to end this post here.

PS: I do not have access to the internet, neither in the office nor at the hostel I’m putting up at. I’ll probably have to send this mail through a cyber-cafe. Very shortly, I plan to buy a USB internet device, which I’ll be able to use at the hostel as well as at work. Yeah, that’ll be a challenge…to ensure that I’m not wasting any time online despite having access to the internet.

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In another 45 minutes, I’ll be writing the last exam of my first year of MBA. In a manner of speaking, this puts me at the halfway line. I can’t wait for the exam to end, for this nightmare of a term to end. Just 2 more hours to go.

Right now, I’m feeling a whole plethora of things. Tomorrow, I leave for Mumbai for my summer internship with Citi. My first taste of work life. It’s exciting and scary all at the same time. I am on the verge of getting overwhelmed, not just by the feeling of anxiety for the summer, but also by the impatience of finishing the last exam, coming back to the room for a long session of packing. I’m going to miss this room, I’m going to miss my room-mate, and for the next couple months, I’m going to miss my speakers…terribly.

I wish I had a device to make time move faster…

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It’s been about 9 days since I last posted something on my blog. The reason is that the last few days have seen me go to hell and back because of the INSANE* amount of workload and the piled up submissions. Starting tomorrow, I have my end-term exams. Basically, this means I’ll be busy. Which means I’ll probably not have much time to write posts.

No, this is not an excuse**. It’s just a heads-up as to why I’ve not been posting anything lately.

* Slight exaggeration possible
** Or maybe it is?

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Generally, here’s how it rains in Jamshedpur.

First, the sky goes all dark…like sinister dark. Then, out of nowhere, the thunder starts rolling in, seemingly soft at first, but gradually going on to become the roar that echoes throughout the corners of the world. The wind picks up like a tempest possessed by the devil. Everything’s blowing away, doors are banging and trees are swaying like someone kissed life into them, and they want to dance like they’ll never be alive again. You look up at the sky, expecting something to happen, expecting that it’s going to pour like hell is going to freeze over. And then, after a little while…poof! The world starts returning to normalcy!

And no, the paragraph above wasn’t an exaggeration. This has happened multiple times over the course of the last few months here. Of course, in the first term, it was an exception, when it rained almost every day or every second day. Today was an exception too. Not only did the weather get romantically awesome (or awesomely romantic, if you want), but the clouds actually did precipitate, quenching the thirst of the parched earth and bringing down the temperature.

I’ve got my windows open, and there’s a nice cool breeze gently blowing in (bringing with it some uninvited little insects, though). I like this. I like the change in weather.

Yes, this has been a very random post, thank you for reading. Oh, and by the way, I decided to just check whether I had written a post about the smell of rain before. Turns out I have (search for “smell of rain” in the search box in the sidebar if you’re reading this on my blog). So, I avoided mentioning it. But I think I should mention, because it totally deserves to be mentioned, that the smell of rain is awesome.

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