My First Movie Review! ...Inception the neverending psychological thriller :D

There are movies you like and then there are movies you like. So how does one judge a movie? What are the defining characteristics of a good movie, whatever the genre? Of course it should be emotionally engaging; we should feel for the characters and have an empathetic attachment to what s going on on the screen but it should be cerebrally stimulating as well. It is very rarely that a flick is so effective in the second department that it messes with your brain and alters your entire mode of thinking. True to its imdb review “Christopher Nolan's mind-bending, intelligent, exciting and disturbing sci-fi extravaganza, blends the best of traditional and modern filmmaking.”

I watched the movie on the day of its release, and again today with a few other friends, and I found it extremely intriguing. I found myself mulling over the different plot points of the movie and arguing with my friend DJ over our theories about the ending, and different details of the story in general .We were so obsessed with the whole notion conveyed by the movie and all its complexities,and constructed elaborate theories for some of those bothering questions we’ve been having since 16 July. However I don’t expect even a third viewing will be sufficient to nail things down. Besides,its so baffling and ambiguous that different people may have conflicting and contradicting opinions, just like we interpret our dreams.

Leonardo de Caprio plays Dom Cobb an extractor specialized navigating people’s minds, and stealing information from deep within their subconscious. He is assisted by his point man Arthur, who does background research on his subjects .They offer freelance espionage (well it is implied) to any client wealthy enough to pay for it, for which, he is wanted by most of the law enforcement agencies on the planet and he’s constantly on the run. When his most recent job turns out to be a failure, he’s offered a chance at redemption, if he s able to perform the perhaps impossible act of "inception”. He assembles a team and starts working on an exceptionally complex, multilayered dreamscape where they plan to place their subject and plant an initial seed of a subconscious thought that will eventually grow to a major, conscious decision that he would not otherwise make. What follows is a wild head trip, through this visually spectacular, labyrinthian world embellished with such ravishing detail all painfully constructed by Nolan. When things go wrong,the team has to deal with several issues, not the least of which is Cobb’s own disturbed subconscious.I cannot risk revealing more of the plot without spoiling it for those who haven’t watched the movie yet.

Though conceptually similar to an earlier movie “Shutter Island” which also starred De Caprio, however “Inception” is much more complex, exploring the idea of “dream within a dream”. The plot is so intensely composite but the director expertly gets the characters to stand around explaining the complexities of the plot at regular intervals,so that each and any unanswered question the audience may think of is answered. For such a complex plot the movie is coherent, and paced to perfection that we are always there right in the middle of everything. It is also very visually outstanding, without resorting to 3d or too much CGI. At one point when an entire cityscape folded in on itself the audience was left dumbfounded with awe. The movie also boasts of a stellar cast, but they do little to progress the plot, and there are moments when they are just standing around occupying screen space. The camera work is impeccable as the movie moves on to its latter half and we delve much deeper into the characters’ subconscious, with action occurring at multiple levels simultaneously. The score isn’t Zimmer’s best work, yet it gives us a sense of anticipation.

Bottom line? With “Inception” Nolan establishes himself as the foremost mainstream moviemaker of Hollywood. Despite it being an impossibly audacious concept, Nolan manages to pull it off with ease. Yet there is one thing he fails to provide us, and that is closure. Like most other Nolan movies the audience is kept guessing. As the ending credits roll no one knows for sure whether he’s still dreaming or not. Give us closure, Christopher Nolan , our subconscious yearns for it !!

Rating: 9.5/10..

Of ancient motorcycles and psycho doctors!

I’ve always been into doing things the “extreme” way and “living on the edge” and all that shit. Even as a little kid, while others my age were engrossed in wrestling and nascar and all that girly crap I used to watch roller jam…for the uninitiated roller jam is this totally awesome sport where beefy hunks and busty chicks, on roller blades, race against each other in a circular rink, quite frequently ramming into one another in an attempt to shove them off the playing area (Apparently you get points for doing so). Whatever it may be, it used to get pretty darn violent and I remember I enjoyed watching it. As a matter of fact I used to enjoy being a part of any thing that had the potential to be obscenely violent. My obsession with television violence bordering on insanity, my parents deemed it inordinately stupid to let me too close to anything that if used creatively could cause a lot of pain.

Now, let me tell you some thing about my uncle’s motorcycle. It is ANCIENT .The artifact has been passed on for so many generations that the original owner had long since been forgotten. The machine had been manufactured in some primeval era when the human skull was large enough to accommodate only so many brain cells that the thought of “braking” or “stopping” never occurred. Good for them, their cranial capacities were inadequate. They never thought of taking these contraptions out for a test-drive either. Lets just say, the human race would have become extinct that much earlier. Well so about the bike…my uncle was trying to get rid of it, and I was pretty certain that he knew that I knew that he wouldn’t be able to get shit for it if he tried selling it. I guess that’s why he let me have it for free. All I had to do in return was keep it in proper running condition. Well what did I have to lose? It sounded like a good bargain so I took it…. only to regret it later.

All was well for a couple of days, until I decided to take my recently inherited 17th century motorcycle out for a spin. As was wont to happen, despite all of my uncle’s warnings I forgot to get the brakes repaired. After a good 15 minutes and several wasted kicks later, I manage to get the infernal thing started. Deciding that brakes aren’t all that important for a motorcycle, I set out, throwing caution to the winds. As I entered the highway, I became ambitious. Wanting to see how fast she’d go, I opened her up. I managed to get the thing all the way up to 90,which was a great thing considering all those years of neglect the machine had been subjected to. The road was quite slippery owing to recent rains, but that did not matter. Feeling sublime and at peace, I closed my eyes. As most of you probably know, doing 90 on an ancient motorcycle with zero brakes, on wet road, with your eyes closed is suicidal. But all that TV violence had gone to my head rendered me completely brain dead and I was thoroughly enjoying it. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, something darted onto the middle of the road.

Some people say that the mongoose is an extremely elusive creature, very difficult to spot and capture. Hit him full on the face, going 90 kph with the headlights on and the horn blowing! OH YEAH! There’s your elusive creature! He must’ve been quite a mongoose, because upon impact I lost all semblance of control and instinctively tugged at the brakes. Nothing whatsoever happened. I could only watch helplessly as the bike careened off the road and raced toward a nearby thicket. I lost balance and fell off, as the bike caught in all the shrubbery, came to a standstill. But for a bruised toe, I was unhurt, thanks to all that protective blubber.

Well, a bruised toe wasn’t much so I didn’t worry about it a lot. Weeks passed, and my wound showed no sign of healing. It developed into a really painful blister that bled constantly. Unable to stand the pain any longer, I finally decided to pay the neighbourhood clinic a visit. Always, consult a specialist if you have the means. Because these so called “doctors”, who run these cheap dilapidated clinics, are completely psycho. I walked into the place only to see this guy in a very colorful ‘lungi’, smoking a beedi. He looked more like a rickshaw-puller than anything else. Naturally I assumed him to be the guy who cleaned the place to earn a little extra something.I asked him where the doctor was. With a totally homosexual simile, he gestured towards the seat next to him. With a sense of foreboding I sat down. I let him take a look at the wound. I swear to god, this guy was high on some local stuff because on seeing my swollen bloody toe he got all excited. “Ippo sheriakkitharam!”, he said and ran inside .He returned with an 8-inch long steel nail and started heating it over a spirit lamp. I was scared shit. No way, I was letting him stick that thing into me.. If he poked me with that, I’d sue him for attempted manslaughter! The thing was larger than a normal average human dick! (Well, not if you lived in Jamaica…). I opened my mouth to voice my thoughts but all I could manage was, “ Doctoreee…vedanikyoo???…”. “Oru urumbu kadikunna pole”, he responded with a particularly murderous grin. “Ready?”, he asked. I closed my eyes hoping I’d pass out before the worst of it.

It was pain beyond everything I had experienced before. I tried not to think of the words ‘searing’ and ‘flesh’ but try as I might, I could not blot out the bizarre image of an 8-inch nail sticking out of my toe. I craved for an analgesic, but my doctor had probably never heard of those. An agonizing 10 minutes later, I dragged my mutilated foot out of the clinic and hobbled home feeling very sorry for myself.

As I lay here in bed, with my leg even worse than before, I swear upon the graves of my ancestors, as soon as I get better I’m gonna shoot that son of a bitch…. well until then all i can do is, recount my story to everybody who’ll listen. : (

Old School's still the coolest!!!

I‘ve been putting off this post for quite a while, But I don’t think ill be able to any more seeing that all of my friends’ blogs have a post about Loyola and mine does not. Having studied in Loyola for 13 years it seems only proper for me to have one in my blog as well.
Where do I start? Words fail me … I realize how difficult it is to put in words what Loyola means to me. It’s hardly been a year and half since ive passed out but have I moved on??…I guess not… Everybody knows how passionate we are about school. In fact even after passing out most of us spend our free time at school, hanging out… a rarity in most other institutions, and that is precisely what makes Loyola different. To us it is more that just a school. It has become part of our soul.
13 of the most glorious years of my life I’ve spent here and I am proud to say that I cherish each and every moment of it too, thanks to 48 very special people, with whom ive spent more than three quarters of my life. Well, Ive had conflicts with quite a few of them, but over the years, ive come to realize that, you quarrel the most with people you truly care about. Every time I return to school warm memories swarm my mind. Heck, right now I’d give anything in the world to be a 16 yr old again and return to Loyola as a twelfth grader.
`Boy do I miss those lunch breaks…. Observing Darwins theory of evolution in action, in our own Joseph uncles watery beef curry…what used to be beef evolved into single celled and later even into multi cellular organisms… more recently sightings of humanoid creatures with opposable thumbs have been reported….
Then came a certain Mr. Fijo Funny’s computer classes…Mr Fijo Funny (alias) was none other than our dearest computer professor, who was roughly as intelligent as the guy who invented the wheel… This poor unsuspecting soul believed that every living hour we spent in the computer lab was devoted to cpp…. He also has the dubious distinction of being the only computer professor in the world who was unware of what a small group of computers connected over LAN is capable of. There was also a group of students whose sole purpose in life was to annoy the living shit out of poor Mr. Fijo….
Then there was dear old Edassery achan who threatened to expel me for not repaying a hugeeeeeee loan of 10 bucks. Syam still owes him a couple thousand bucks.
Oh yea, DP s classes were a treat too. DP …….who was able to see beyond the extreme sexual euphemism of a poem (kubla khan) while less confused perversion obsessed mortals like us were unable to. To quote a black immigrant dude from her class “Ithonnum kubla khan swapnathil polum vicharichu kaanilla!!!” Once in a while she’d take us out to the multimedia room to catch a good flick and we’d have the time of our lives “alambing”…that’s where some of us actually learnt to wolf whistle.
I even remember our biology classes way back in the sixth standard and someone asking Thomaskutty sir where a flowering plants testicles were??
Then there was joy sir…. our friendly neighbourhood genius who would have gone on to become the winner of the popular TV reality show ”Americas Next Big MAD SCIENTIST! Muhuhahaha*cough*” if he hadn’t become a teacher!! Some say he’s messy but I beg to deffer… he’s just obsessed with the 70 s style…ya know…the “sodakuppi” glass, the hippie hairstyle sans head band…and its common knowledge that in the 70’s people used to wear the same shirt atleast 4 times a week and shave once a year, so its okay.
Our batch plans to present him with a comb on our 10th anniversary reunion. (If he doesn’t have a wig by then that is!).
Being a K.U. sophomore is no fun at all. Heck, you don’t even get time to take a comfortable dump. Only now do I realize how much I truly miss Loyola. The happiest moments of my life were spent walking down that narrow lane from sreekariyam to Loyola. The Loyola, which gave me a thousand memories that ill hold close to my heart till my dying day; the Loyola that gave us the freedom to be whatever we wanted to be; the Loyola that moulded each and every one of us 49,into proper men of substance…


WE WERE THE 49- THE BOTS!!!!- BROTHERS……AND WILL ALWAYS BE TILL DEATH DO US PART!!!

Thommus Tag!!!!!!!!(my very first)

1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER?
National treasure: Book of secrets, it was a pretty okay flick-nothing spectacular. A lil’sillier and stupider than the original yet surprisingly enjoyable. You get your moneys worth, nothing more

2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?
The Fourth Estate - Jeffery Archer. Extremely similar to Kane and Abel, but not even half as good. This one’s also about two individuals from starkly contrasting backgrounds who by an unforeseen turn of events are pitted against each other. Sound familiar? :D

3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
Uhm lets c…monopoly I guess

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE?
Naah, not very much into magazines …luuuv comics though, lol, read anything I can get my hands on, faav being Calvin and Hobbes :D

5. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Ahh, yes ze smell of cigarette smoke and alcohol, yea I love the smell of petrol too:D

6. FAVORITE SOUND?
Bruce Dickinson \m/ :D

7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
U dream that you re having sex with hayden panettiere and then suddenly u wake up!!!

8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?
I wonder what’s for breakfast :D

9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE?
The kaithamukku thattukada

10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME?
Eric Cartman ………….

11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I’D...?
Las Vegas heeereeee I cooomeee!!!!!!!!

12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST?
Dad wont let me go above 60 :(

13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
EWWWW!!!! I’M WAAAY TOO OLD TO BE SLEEPING WITH ANIMALS (STUFFED OR NOT)!!!My teddy bear and I were inseparable till I was about 3……speaking of which ..a couple of days back I found my old teddy bear with its head bitten off : (

14. STORMS - COOL OR SCARY?
MUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!

15. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
a Mercedes

16. FAVORITE DRINK?
COLD COFFEEEEEEEE…YUMMMMMMMM!!!!!

17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD"
…Have wasted it away


18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
:-??

19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?
PURPLE…..THEN ID PIERCE MY EYEBROWS TOO!!!!!!

20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN.
Trivandrum (1990-??),

21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
soccer,

22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU
oru panja paavam :p

23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?
Piles and piles of dirty laundry, smelly socks, radioactive monkeys & The Boogeyman!!!!!

24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?
No :|

25. MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT OWL?
a bit of both

26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP?
Over easy. Sunny side up eggs are way too runny, eating them can be a very messy affair.

27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX?
A bar mebbe

28. FAVORITE PIE?
American pie(s)….all 6 of em: D .

29. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
chocolate.

30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?
no idea
syam
sid
AD
Bambu