Sunday, July 23, 2006

Movies in Dubai…

Since moving to Dubai there is not much I’ve been upto. The house was set up in fifteen odd days. It was an absolutely enjoyable and satisfying experience. Seriously it’s indeed a great joy to do the little things and set up your house from scratch. For me it was also hassle free. Like it take it, that’s my husband’s attitude while I prefer to hunt down a dozen stores before being satisfied that I picked up the best deal!

After the house was done I decided to take the much needed break and relax in my new house. The cooking is also turning out decent and fortunately I feel I’ve inherited my granny and mom’s genes in cooking! I never imagined I would be doing this in my entire life but a couple of months of a drastic change in your life sure does seem helpful!

Books, music and TV keep me good company the whole day and weekends are the best what with outings to new places with friends and yes movies! Life back home had got hectic with my workload and husband’s constant travel that I could not recollect the last time we caught movies so often. And here it’s completely opposite; if not the theatre we catch some good movies in TV or DVDs.

A few ones I caught up with

Crash:
I was dying to see this Oscar winning movie and we got the DVD home. It’s a fine picture and full credit to the Academy for giving it the best film Oscar. Crash is a story of day-to-day life in America, about different people from different backgrounds: Racial, financial and professional, it’s about prejudices and fears. The stories are inter-mingled where the people cross each other’s path.

It concentrates on LA, USA but every one of us will identify with the characters. It’s a movie that makes us think. The Whites have their own prejudices against the Blacks and vice-versa. Asian Muslims are looked with suspicion post the 9/11 attacks, the Persians try hard to convince they are not the same as Arabs. Everyone seeking to prove a point and protect their identities.

Crash raises a lot of questions through the stories and tries to tell us that there is a good and a bad side to every person.
  • What do you do when the person who molested you is the one to risk his life to save yours?
  • What do you do when the same person watches injustice done to you quietly is the same person who stands up for you another time?
  • What do you do when the person whom you constantly ill-treated based on his/her nationality is the first to be there for you when you need help the most?
  • What do you do when you kill a person thinking he was going to kill you only to discover he was innocent?
  • What do you do when your mother blames you for your brother going astray the wrong way?
  • What do you do when all your life you have been stealing and this time life offers you the chance to save a few lives?
  • What do you do when you are robbed of everything you own and end up blaming the one person who had tried to warn and help you?
  • What do you do when the little daughter runs in to protect her father who you are about to shoot down?

What would you do? That’s what Crash tries to answer and in some cases leaves it for us to find the answers.
As Graham, the cop puts it, ''It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."

It’s a must see movie. I suggest you do the same if you have not seen it yet.

The Ron Clark Story:

This is a movie that I caught umpteen times on Star movies here. The story is of a School Teacher Ron Clark and how he turns around a class of rowdy, ill-mannered kids to bring them to the top honors in their exams. The way he established a trust with the kids, the way he gets them to love studies, the way he builds their confidence, the way he makes them believe that they are winners and not losers as proclaimed by one and all. How he helps them fight the odds at home and simply become winners and discover their hidden talents on the way. A lovely film and Mathew Perry is surprisingly lovable in the role of Ron Clark. He is easy-going and goes through his act effortlessly. I was real glad to see him in a different role other than his Chandler Bing acts.
Another must watch movie.

Fanaa:

Caught this in the first week of its release here. Two of my favorite actors in it and I was surely not going to miss it. Kajol was her old self and Aamir a pleasure to watch. But the storyline was simply ok, there was nothing great in it and had it not been for the lead duo I’m not sure it would’ve been as successful. The songs were decent and I’m pretty sure Kajol’s kurtis and skirts are going to be rage in India soon. At the end of the movie I felt that I could have easily waited for the VCD to hit the video library or the movie to be shown on a TV channel.

And one more thing I can't keep watching Aamir die in back-to-back releases this year!

The Da Vinci Code:

In one sentence it’s never easy to make a movie from a book. Read the book and stick to your own imagination.

Phir Hera Pheri:

The sole reason to watch this movie: Paresh Rawal. It’s not as good as the first one but this man has you in splits with his dialogues and antics. Catch it on the VCD/DVD. This man rocks!

Yet to watch:
Golmaal
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Dead Man’s Chest
Corporate
Superman Returns.


So that’s it folks, with laptop on board now, looks like blogging will be fairly regular! Cricket will be the next, longtime since I wrote about it!

2 comments:

Tugga said...

Hmm..
Phir Hera Pheri, while being alright, is a shameless rip off Lock Stock and 2 smoking barrels, undoubtedly one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.

Superman Returns is alright, not that great, but pretty nice

I'd suggest you watch Munich, as also Oldboy. Awesome movies both of them

Minal said...

@Tugga: Then I think I''ll catch the original Englsih movies you mentioned! Munich is definitely on the cards, plan to catch Superman this weekend and have you seen Paradise now?