Inglourious

It's strange how Quentin Tarantino has succeeded in making people say "bastards" more often than usual.

At the cinema:
Me : Can I have, er, 2 tickets to, er, Inglourious Basterds at 6.30pm?
Ticketing Guy: (professional voice) Two tickets to Inglorious Basterds coming up!

At my father-in-law's:
Father-in-law: What movie did you watch today?
Me: Er... English movie. Nice.
Father-in-law: What movie did you watch today?
My wife: (without flinching an eyelid) Inglourious Basterds.
Father-in-law: ...

Anyway -

The movie's fantastic. It works on the premise that you needn't belabour telling every frame of a revenge story set in Nazi era France - just pick 5 suitable "plots" within the whole revenge universe, delve deeply into each plot, make good connections between plots and you have a masterpiece.

The black humour is darker than usual, as the very serious topic of anti-semitism is given a sarcastic twist. Tarantino's mastered the art of carefully building up a scene from its initial premise, and adding in all the right elements of suspense which makes for some very uncomfortable and unforgettable anxiety-building scenes. Awesome!

It's not a Brad vehicle - although he did a wonderful job as what one might call a "hardcore yankee". Melanie Laurent is stunning and her acting's brilliant. Christoph Waltz is the star of the show, completely into the skin of the character he plays.

The movie might be considered a tad too long, but I see it as being worth my $8.

Congratulations to a brother

A very dear friend became a father last night. May his journey into fatherhood be as blessed and fulfilling as it has been for me...

Someone Like You

"Unnaipol Oruvan", when translated to English, sounds like a Hollywood romanticomedy. But this remake of Neeraj Pandey's "A Wednesday!" in Hindi last year is anything but a romanticomedy. Kamal once again proves that he is more than just about making good movies - he is into making exceptional movies.

No need to go into the technicalities of the show- it was a superb movie, tightly shot, excellent acting by most cast members, especially Kamal and Mohanlal, and a nice background score to go with the whole "rebel" mood of the show.

What I want to ask, without giving away too much of the plot, is how much the Muslim world has acted to condemn terrorist attacks committed in the name of Islam. Frankly, it hasn't done as much as it should.

If we believe that Muslims are a people of peace, non-violence and submission to the One God, then why are we not more vocal against those who slaughter people in His name? The refusal of Indian Muslims in India to give a Muslim burial to the 9 terrorists who killed 183 people (including a Singaporean) last year in Mumbai was one of the most open condemnations against terror. (To not give a Muslim his proper burial is tantamount to labelling him a non-Muslim)

I thought "Unnaipol Oruvan" came close to doing this, but the filmmakers had other ideas - more on a nationalistic scale than anything else.

The beginning of break

Tomorrow I begin a long vacation, when most folks will be summoning up the last remaining bit of their strength to prepare for work tomorrow after the long weekend.

This vacation has been long in the making. I'm between jobs now, so it's a perfect "intermission" to take stock of my life, my values, my priorities, my everything. (I was on a 2-week, all-expense paid capacity-building course before this, that was really another eye-opener.)

There are so many things to do, people to meet, food to eat, things to play, books to read. Hope each day is spent... well :)

Grand(parents)

How good are grandparents as parents? Quite frankly, they can suck. They tend to spoil the living daylights out of your kids, teach them all kinds of rubbish habits, undo weeks of careful disciplining and training, and don't give a crap about the "holistic upbringing framework" that parents brainstorm and try to implement on their kids.

Basically, grandparents try to correct all their cock-ups when they tried bringing up their own kids when they babysit their grandkids. In doing so, they make worse cock-ups.

But what will we do without grandparents? They are the force of love and goodness in a world that can be quite restrictive with parents' ridiculous and elaborate "holistic upbringing frameworks". They are the perpetual "good cops" and angels. Grandparents are meant to spoil, and that's how most of us remember our grandparents to be.

You can bet I will pamper my own grandkids if I have a chance to see them :)