Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade

Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade is a short film directed by George Hickenlooper, starring Billy Bob Thornton. Really great short movie. Its about a killer being released from an asylum after 25 years. He is interviewed by a reporter on the day of his release. He delivers a monologue in which he says how he murdered his mother and his lover. Fantastic performance by Billy Bob. His performance as a mentally disturbed person who has not talked to a woman for 25 years, someone who hates people looking at him, some one who believes he is the ugliest person in the word; is very impacting without going overboard.

Really makes you ponder about fundamentalist values and their effects on young minds, and how insane criminals are to be treated by the society. At the end of the monologue, the reporter woman blurts out a chilling question, "Will you kill again?", to which he responds, "I ain't got anything against anybody to kill." Must watch!

This short film formed the basis of Billy Bob Thornton's ground breaking movie Sling Blade. Will have to get it soon.

I watched it on Jaman, which is fast becoming a big part of my movie watching life. :-)

Effervescent Elephant

I took this pic while commuting to office. It came out pretty well considering the crappy phone camera and the fact that our van was moving.

If only the Pachyderm held his trunk closer, it would have been perfect! :-)



An effervescing elephant
with tiny eyes, and great big trunk
once whispered to the tiny ears
the ears of one inferior
that by next june he'd die, oh yeah!
because the tiger would roam
and the little one said oh my goodness I must stay at home
and everytime I hear a growl
I'll know the tiger's on the prowl
and I'll be really safe you know
The elephant he told me so
And everyone was nervvy, oh yeah!
and the message was spread
to zebra, mongoose, and the dirty hippopotamus
who wollowed in the mud and chewed
his spicy hippoplancton food
and tended to ignore the word
prefering to survey a herd
of stupid water bison, oh yeah!
and the jungle took fright
and ran around for all the day and the night
but all in vain because you see
the tiger came and said to me,
"You know I wouldn't hurt not one of you
I much prefer something to chew
you're all too scant, oh yeah!"
He ate the elephant...

Effervescing Elephant, a song By Syd Barrett

AIDS Jaago

Came across a set of short films by four of the celebrated Indian film makers on AIDS. Conceptualized by Mira Nair, this venture is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to increase awareness of AIDS. The four short films are by Mira Nair, Vishal Bharadwaj, Santosh Sivan, and Farhan Akhtar. These are available from the movie download service Jaman (more on the site on my tech blog.) as part of their AIDS Jaago section. They are available for download, or as streaming video (pretty nice quality).

Just finished the first one, Migration by Mira Nair. Pretty nice short, focusing on how AIDS is a disease beyond the societal class. Decent acting by all the actors. Shiney Ahuja is a little bit too urban looking to pull off a villager though. Still its a very decent performance from him. Mira Nair's craft is very much evident albeit this being a short film.

Will update the rest after watching each of the movies.

Update:
Finished watching Blood Brothers by Vishal Bharadwaj. An absolutely fabulous short film. Gripping. Great performances from Sidharth and Pankaj Kapoor, and an outstanding performance from Pawan Malhotra. This ones about how lives are altered with the onset of HIV.

Onto the next movie. Blood Brothers is highly recommended.

Update:
Prarambha, the Kannada short by Santosh Sivan deals with the subject of the impact ofHIV on children. A really moving film, reminded me of the plight of two HIV positive children who were outcasted in their school sometime back in Kerala. The child actor has done a great job and Prabhudeva has excelled as the smart truck driver.

One more left now. This time by Farhan Akhtar. Lets see if he hold his own with the others.

Update:
Farhan Akhtar does hold his own against others with Positive. The movie starts of a little peppy and settles in nicely.Yet another good short. Its about how a family copes with AIDS. Awesome performance from Boman Irani and Shabana Azmi. Easily the best acting in this series.

Seems there is an issue with showing more than one film at a time in the same post/page. Go to the site to watch the movies. The one I liked the most will be displayed here.

All the four shorts are extremely good. Must Watch!

Ranking according to me

4. Migration: Mira Nair has been eclipsed by the others here.

3. Positive: Farhan Akhtar does have a lot of talent. Hope that he will put it to good use.

2. Prarambha: I was hard pressed whether to give this the 1st place. A very strong contender. Santosh Sivan has done a brilliant job here. Boy in the movie is simply wonderful. If you are too lazy to watch it by registering in Jaman, just go here.

1. Blood Brothers: Gritty and good. May not rank that high in others lists, but this was the one which impacted me mostly. Vishal Bharadwaj takes the first spot. Watch the movie below!

Blood Brothers

Status Updates

I hate updating status every now and then. Period. Now, I don't have to update my work status every 3 hour or every day like some unfortunate souls. I am supposed to sent a weekly report every week and update while doing some project.

The last time sent a weekly report update was...*drum rolls* last June! Even then, I sent a report which was pending for around 6 months. Hmmm...I have been working for say 20 months now...which would mean atleast 80 weeks. 80 weekly status reports due and I have sent around 3! Fucking unbelievable! Hope I won't get caught for this! :-D

Anyhoo, why do we need to update? After all, life is full of surprises! I want my lead to get his fair share of good and bad surprises. Good, when I actually do complete work on schedule and bad, when I don't! Bloody bureaucracy is hindering my strive for human touch in a corporate house!

P.S: This is applicable to me! Only me! People who report to me/will be reporting to me *must* update daily to prevent me from snooping on you publicly! (I will be snooping privately anyway, if you were wondering Sherlock!)

May Day!

Lazy May Day...
Hope to make some Hay...
Feed it to my donkey Bray...
Yeah, for this stupid poem I shall Pay!

The One with the Disclaimer

Disclaimer: The following is post a compilation of some mad ideas that cropped up in my head after a very heavy dinner from Park Rajadhani. Any resemblance to any women living or dead is entirely coincidental and a fabric of the reader's imagination, even if it somehow became true!

What was God thinking when he made women? May be he thought, men needed to have an ultimate question for which when the answer is found, the question simply changed!

Some snippets I have observed over a long period of time. Nothing personal, some general observations. The 'She' does not in anyway encompass the entire female race!

She: He is too cute. I don't like cute guys.
She: If only he was cute...

She: He is so serious. I like guys who are playful.
She: Will he ever grow up? Always playful and childish.

She: He does not talk much. I like talkative guys.
She: God! Please! Will he ever shut up???

She: I don't like guys who constantly attend to me. Don't they have a life?
She: I like guys who think I am the world.

She: I like guys are who are organized and efficient.
She: Organized guys are too controlling. I hate them!

She: Guys need to be manly.
She: Why don't they like girly stuff?

I don't think I quite pulled this one off :-D

Case of the Missing Dot

A digg story on a tragedy that ensued due to the improper localization of cellphone software.The surreal mistake happened because Ramazan sent a message, and Emine's cellphone didn't have a specific character from the Turkish alphabet: the letter "ı" or closed i. While "i" is available in all phones in Turkey—where this happened—the closed i apparently doesn't exist in most of the terminals in that country.The use of "i" resulted in an SMS with a completely twisted meaning: instead of writing the word "sıkısınca" it looked like he wrote "sikisince." Ramazan wanted to write "You change the topic every time you run out of arguments" (sounds familiar enough) but what Emine read was, "You change the topic every time they are fucking you" (sounds familiar too.)Needless to say, the girls father was enraged and accused the guy for treating her daughter as a whore. Guy went to apologies only find his wife's family armed with knives. At the end of the commotion guy was heavily wounded and the girl died. The guy killed himself later on.Improper localisation and moronic behavious led to the end of a family. Improper localisation can be cured by implementing good communication practices. How about moronic behaviour?

read more | digg story

Digg tries to get a date

Something I haven't seen in my life yet. A dangerous way to ask for a date to be frank. With over 9000 people and counting waiting for the girl's reaction.To cut the story short:A guy wants this beautiful hot girl as a date for their prom. He asked her and she said no. He takes snaps of him with cards asking her out (although I haven't seen it yet due to websense in office). He wanted to show his conviction by landing this on the digg front page. A very difficult task mind you. Digg community steps in and just diggs away to glory. 9059 diggs as I am writing this, in just around 8 hours, with 1150 comments! This is massive! Still no word from the girl though. I really hope she doesn't let go of him. There is a comment about them which may be true:She is a really great girl with douchebag boyfriend who dumped her before the prom. This guy is her best friend and a nerd. She has said no to the date for the prom. I really wish she does say Yes to him. Yeah...I know its stupid. Sometimes its better to be stupid in matters of heart.

read more | digg story

Financial Express

The end of another financial year. Bank balance is back to where it belongs, double digits! Its been a fast year for me. Cannot believe the fact that it was the last march 31st that my mother retired from service. Also, the fact that I have completed over 18 months on my job and could be called a senior!

Time passes us like an express train. Most probably not run by Indian Railways!

What is it we gain as time passes?

A bigger paunch (read beer belly!)?
A fatter paypacket (recession looming!)?
A thinner hairline (*heaves a sigh of relief*)?
A thicker beard? (*checks 20 day old beard with pride*)?
A nothing post (with brackets in every line!)?

Its that and a lot more. Life provides us with lessons everyday. Its up to us to identify the lessons. Sieve the out the consequential from the inconsequential. Learn from them. Apply the learning. In school we were taught that technology is the application of science. Without application, science is pretty much about some crazy men talking shit. In the same manner, lessons identified from life are shit unless its applied.

There concludes my end of the financial year bullshitting.

Oh yeah! As part of my learning, I have decided to start my own technology-business blog.
*trumpets blowing* The Scribe.
Read. Comment. Spread the word.
Just like കിടിലം ഫിറോസ്‌ tells on BIG FM every morning, കേള്‍ക്കു കേള്പ്പിക്കു ലൈഫ് കൊണ്ടാടു.

P.S: If you see strange symbols as my last words either you are not a malayali or your browser sucks. If you saw the beautiful malayalam words and didn't get what its all about, you need to come down to Trivandrum and tune into the FM stations.

Enid Blyton Turns in Grave

Famous Five is coming back!
From the Times of India

According to published accounts, the villain is a phoney environmentalist running a pirate DVD racket. He has embedded bootleg DVDs with subliminal messages that brainwash children into craving Fudge Fries candy.

God! Phony environmentalist? DVD Pirate? I smell the work of Evil Corporations!