Shutter Island: Review

"I was wondering Chuck, which is worse? To live as a monster or to die like a good man?" Martin Scorsese never fails to impress even with his chilling new thriller. Known for blockbusters like The Departed, Scorsese ventures into the thriller section with his favourite man, Leonardo DiCaprio.
The story is of Edward aka Teddy Daniels who is a U.S Marshal and is called in for investigating the escape of a female inmate from the highly secure penitentiary for the criminally insane, Shutter Island along with his partner Chuck. They soon discover that everything is not what it seems to be while Daniels is continuously haunted by the horrors of his murky past when he investigates on the island. The story rattles ahead with leisurely pace as Daniels is on the verge of uncovering an unsettling government operation being run behind the closed walls of Shutter Island. Then, everything goes topsy turvy.
Shutter Island is a gripping, enthralling piece of cinema by the master storyteller Scorsese which in addition to living up to its genre also delivers some food for thought. Brilliantly cinematographed, splendidly acted and unbelievably unpredictable (not for those who are careful scrutinizers of thrillers), Shutter Island scores on all fronts.
I would have been a bit more happy if the running time was a tad bit shorter and also the unnervingly long climax. But in the end as they say all is well that ends well.

Curls fall Down

I can’t look where I am going,

Into the twilight my shadow’s growing.

Darkness creeps and crawls by,

Ghosts of the past scream and cry.

A glint of metal shines on her cheek,

Like hope in the dark giving a peek.

But looking further I can’t see,

The curls fall down, are they of grief or glee?

Silence ahead, not a sound,

Sure and swish the curls fall down.

And I am happy, I feel no pain,

December it was still felt like rain.

The tears have gone but the cloud’s still there,

I can’t see the sun but the light is there.

A music flows that never once was,

They say it’s love but can I make a pass?

So do you now see?

Groping further but I can’t feel,

The curls fall down, with numbness I deal.

There’s something ahead yet to be found,

But then thick and fast the curls fall down.

Suddenly all the light has come,

The music’s gone and a noise has sprung.

Mercy O Lord! I have fallen again,

The curls are gone and a horror has gained.

For the metal I saw glinting on the cheek,

Was no fucking hope but a killing machine.

And you stabbed it in my eyes,

The loser within me he cries.

Ghosts of the past they are alive today,

They cry no more they just bleed away.

I am numb no more I only reek,

Now I know what your silence speaks.

Looking ahead now I have seen,

There’s a cross that shines with sheen.

Groping further I can feel,

Wreath of thorns and stones on the green.

But yeah there’s something ahead yet to be found,

It’s not the end but the curls fall down.

The Grass, the Beer, the Music

I was poring over the pages of the insanely monotonous Amit-Ashish book reading an even insaner subject called Preventive and Social Medicine. My mind was rattled by "epidemiology, statistics, sensitivity, specificity..blah blah blah". I gave in finally to my continuously rising urge to put on the earphones of my newly bought phone. I hit the play button of the playlist I made just yesterday.
First song: November Rain! I had named this playlist as "Ethereal", full of those songs which really make my hair stand up. Slash's piercing solo just does it all and the lines - "I know it's hard to keep an open heart, when even friends seem out to harm you. But if you could heal the broken heart, wouldn't time be out to charm you!" Oh they simply made me travel back in time. The endless "daaru parties", the roadtrips, the Amberro, the Grass and this kind of music! What a time it was! I remember one of the first times we were having this kind of a party in the bedbug ridden room on 1 mid floor in the AFMC hostel. There we were, in our first year, drinking White Mischief in the dimmest of lights with Akshat Vyas' music CDs playing on an All in One player (yes, laptops ka craze nahi aya tha). And how we boozed out on Pink Floyd and Judas Priest. I clearly remember that Beyond the Realms of Death was definitely played that night. And after that, we put in lit matchsticks into the empty Vodka bottles to trip out on the ghostly glow they gave! Next day, there was some inspection and the officers who came wondered if we smoked!
The feeling I always got after going high is so difficult to put in words. Obviously as the feeling is really felt at the time one is high! There was this one time, after our 5th term Prelim exams, we were partying in my small single room, all of us, the Ganjedis and the Chitedis and the Kukkus. We decided to play the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack and to get stoned by the time it ended, some 45 odd minutes. I put the I-tunes on the visualizer mode, shut off the light and just twirled in the dazzling array of colors it brought forth! So fucking trippy! And then as people told me later I was sitting in a meditational pose! Another time, me and Prabhu smoked up weed and hogged the costliest dinner we had in the Insti Canteen ever! For those of you who don't know, Cannabis makes you really hungry!
Then I left weed for good, deciding I will smoke up once more before I left college. I came down to alcohol. And though it wasn't bad but it is no way better than weed. Reasons:
1. No hangover with weed.
2. No liver damage, nor any lung damage(if you smoke it pure)
3. No addiction(medically this is a fact)
4. Makes you really hungry.
5. Hits fast, fades fast.
6. Most importantly, DIRT CHEAP!
For the next 3 years I was to survive on all kinds of alcohol. Went from Vodka to Rum to Whiskey to Beer and then Rum again. Then came the day, the last time I smoked up, with Sutta Vyas. Silhouettes, our college fest was going on and we decided to hog on the Burger Barn burgers after our weed session. He played this song called Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley and though the song is some 6 odd minutes long I felt like it was playing for 20 minutes! He has clicked some stoned pictures of mine which I haven't got to see as yet. Then we went to the Burger stall floating in the air as we glided over the ground. Yes, I actually felt like flying. The stall was closed! After giving do chaar maa behen ki gaali we headed off to the AFMC adda Snehal. What a day!
And as I write this, I am listening to Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah! The twirling colors, the smell of grass, the taste of beer and the Chicken Manchurian of Insti is all engraved in my mind. And it wouldn't be wrong if I said - "Every breath we drew was Hallelujah!" Truly, college was heaven!

I Hate Luv Storys: Review

Unlike the twisted spelling of the main title, this latest Bollywood romantic flick is pretty straight forward. A guy and a girl, with completely different belief systems fall in love and everything is funny and happy. Popcorn?
Dharma Productions aka KJo pulls off a valiant effort in making a mockery of his own films in this film, the interesting part being that it doesn't bore you too much. The film is the story of Jay (pronounced as J)Dhingra played by Imran Khan, a reckless, charming young man trying to make his name in the film industry under the most popular romance films' director of his age, Veer Kapoor. He is flirty, funny, carefree guy who can't accept the fact that something like love exists. Dil Chahta Hai? Anyone?
On the other hand is Simran (oh get over that name!), played by Sonam Kapoor who is a total girly girly girl, who loves fairy tale romance, the colour pink, red roses and soft toys, not to mention the movies people like Veer Kapoor make. To add to her romantic repertoire is her unfailingly faithful boyfriend Raj (oh yes you guessed it right!) who makes her life nearly perfect.
These two total opposites meet through their shared interests in film making. At first, Simran is annoyed and repulsed by Jay's reckless attitude and his denial that love exists, but then small, funny but interesting things happen between them that makes her fall for him.
But then as predictable Bollywood is, Jay refuses her proposal only to realise later that he too actually harbored love for her. And so we have a candyfloss romance on our hands punctuated by occasional sentimental dialogues, lots of humor and a happy ending.
Frankly speaking, IHLS has nothing great to offer, but I found the chemistry and the freshness of Sonam and Imran heartwarming. The story is very predictable but it has its funny moments and high points. The music is catchy and I couldn't help tapping my feet to the title song. I think New Zealand should have been left in peace, after LOTR nothing seems better.
I would say that this is a perfect popcorn flick, no brains to be taken along to the theater if I may advise. Just sit back and enjoy. For KJo's fresh effort I'd say a 6 on 10? Purely for its time pass!Like Jay says, it ain't so Fugly!

Here I am on the road again!

The car screeches to a halt on the dusty road. The passenger's door opens and I am thrown out of it ruthlessly with my personals out on the road. I taste earth as I have tasted so many times before. Without a pause, the car steamrolls ahead. I get up and crane my neck to look as the road meets the horizon, does the car get a new passenger?
I am weary, tired and sickened by the monotone of the eventful life I have had. This latest car has given me a gash on my left cheek. It is bleeding. I don't feel like staunching it. Oddly, I have a similar looking scar, a remnant of a similar gash on my right cheek. Bemused, I roll up my sleeves, open my shirt, draw up my jeans and I can see what life has done to me. My whole body is a patchwork of scars. Some given by love, some by friendship, some by the so called "professional life" and some which I have inflicted upon myself. I pick up my belongings and walk ahead.
The road as I said is dusty. It is windy throughout the year on this road. I have been going around on this one as long as I can remember. It appears to me like one big circle, though strangely I can never find anything which I left behind or lost. The wind blows it away. Time heals the wounds.
Often however it has happened that I do find lost memories on the road. No, not trampled beneath innumerable feet which tread this path but it's the memories and people that come from behind and open like a new journey on the same road. I have been haunted by these memories and people. How can I go on with something which has given me these scars pretending to forget what happened? Yes time does heal the wounds, but the scars remain. It is so pathetic of my human nature that I tend to accept these unforgettable thorns that once were roses. And it is so much more sissy of me to feel that they actually are roses after I spend some time on this road with them. Then they speed away, they are there like a pseudo image in front of my eyes, but actually they are far away, pretending not to hear, ensnaring some new victim, despite the fact that they themselves are also the travellers of this road.
But I ain't too big a fool you know. They gave me the pain, the scars, the thorns and all they could do to hurt me. Did I just collapse and bleed to death? I have thorns to give myself, gashes to be bled, scars to be carved, smiles to be stolen, pain to be inflicted. I am not just the dust on the road to be blown away by a speeding car, no. I am a car myself, I am the wind.
I hear it, the sound of an approaching car, I wave my hand and the car stops. A beautiful young girl's driving it. I look at her wrist, scarred. I smile to myself, I have a heart to bleed!