Wednesday, August 18, 2004
If anybody in India would have switched on their TV sets yesterday, there was a 99% chance that they might have come across the name of “Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore” or “double-trap shooting”. What this major of the Indian Army did was something phenomenal.
And I guess, after hearing this news the Indian hockey team decided to show its true colors. It was a fascinating fight back from India against South Africa, coming from 2 goals down to score 4 goals, pumping in 2 goals in the last 2 minutes....the last one being a superb field goal. And for the first time, I loved DD Sports, because there was live coverage of this match. :-)
This innocuous news item came in the Hindu on Monday. It was about a lady, 48 year old A.Amala Mary of Kanyakumari district who in a tremendous display of concern for fellow human beings, presence of mind and extraordinary bravery prevented a major train accident that would have endangered nearly 500 lives. She was given the Kalpana Chawla award for bravery by the Tamil Nadu Chief minister Jayalalithaa at the 57th Independence Day celebrations.
With my heart brimming with pride, I salute these two great Indians.
Friday, August 06, 2004
Munnabhai MBBS - a cult classic ?
This hilarious movie hit the theaters sometime in December 2003. It took some time for the movie to gain momentum and then by the sheer power of word of mouth, became a blockbuster hit. You can read the review of the movie here.
To state it simply, this movie was a heartwarming comedy with the right emotional touches. The makers of the movie initially thought of SRK in the title role! Whatever be the merits or demerits of the idea, Sanjay Dutt gave an unforgettable performance, a performance that he will rank as one of his finest in his long career ( I personally believe that his best performance to date was in “Naam” ). Also, Boman Irani a.ka. Mamu and Arshad Warsi a.k.a. Circuit stole the show with their performances.
This movie is in the news again with remakes being made in the three southern languages, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. The top actors down south, Upendra, Kamal Hassan and Chiranjeevi are doing the honors by donning the title role in the respective languages. It also hogged attention for the fact that The British Medical Journal reviewed it! All this made The Hindu wonder as to whether this movie can be called a cult classic. And according to this article, the answer is in the affirmative.
However, I do have my reservations about this. No doubt, its a wonderful feel good movie, a hugely successful movie, but is it a classic? For a movie to be called a classic, the basic requirement it should satisfy is a timeless repeat value. You should be able to watch the movie some n number of times without getting bored at all. I don’t quite think that Munnabhai MBBS measures up to it. Anyway, the jury is still out on it and for the time being the cinegoers down south can get ready for a rich feast that will be served to them very soon!
