“Don’t let your parents or school system try to force you into a future that you have no interest in… Find your passion and you will be on the road to being just as relevant to society as any other ‘professional’. Sure, we need doctors, engineers and scientists. But we also need movies, games, clothes, fine-art, music and cool looking buildings, websites and cars,” he writes. “Simple but true.”
How many times have we thought about the futility of the education we have received? I don’t know how many times the information I learnt in School or in college turned out to be useless. Because the industry I got into (and the one I’m currently in) didn’t have set rules in stones. They didn’t have the factory mindset that most people have been preparing for since the started of the 19th century. More insights are in this talk by Sir Ken Robinson.
For now, Ars Technica has an article about the Gnomon School of Visual Arts. I’m thinking I should apply.
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I saw this sometime back and I was impressed with the consistency and timelessness of a logo. I believe when you stand for something, you define your character. I have had the moral debate of flexibility vs rigidity. Flexibility in direction, rigidity in morals end up building character.
Here’s the original picture.
Now apparently that picture doesn’t represent the full story. Coca cola has changed their logo but not the font. That has stayed consistent through out. Check out the change in 1985 on the introduction of Coke.
Micheal did not know what he was going to do for Billie Jean and everything we saw him do, he made it on the spot. And it was just unbelievable, I was backstage and all the stuff he did just blew me away – Jermaine Jackson, MJ’s brother.
Normally, I wouldn’t jump in a book review into the blog. I have decided after a long time the focus of this blog to be gaming, startups and life (everything that falls under curious observation). So permit me to start that new focus of this blog with the Life part.
The Concept of Shiva
I saw the preview of the book at Landmark about 3 weeks back in a small flyer and was immediately captivated by the book cover. This had Shiva with the trishul on the background. To most foreign readers, Shiva or Lord Shiva is considered to be one of the Gods in the Holy Trinity. The Creator, Brahma, The sustainer, Lord Vishnu, and the destroyer, Lord Shiva.
But what if Shiva wasn’t a God. What if this person we revere today as a destroyer of evil was actually a man who rose up to his challenges and acquired the title of Mahadev?
These are the questions that set the tone of Amish’s book, The Immortals of Meluha. I picked the book the moment it was released and spent the next few days reading it. I wasn’t reading it with a religious fervor by any means. I was curious to see how someone would interpret this treatise of thought.
In many lines of thought, Meluha which we know as the Indus valley civilisation is considered to be the original birthplace of these “Super men”. They did things that weren’t done by normal residents. They were thus exalted as Gods. Curiously Shiva here is considerd a cattle herder who actually was at the foothills of the Himalayas, that doesn’t even make him truly Indian but half Tibetan! A blasphemy you would say? There seems to be rich documentation to negate that.
The Immortals of Meluha the book
This book is a treatise on a concept that has not been explored. Amish, the author, is actually an IIM graduate (what’s with all these IIM graduates and writing books?) who takes the concept of Shiva as a Tibetian Tribal man who decides to cross borders to a city called Meluha which is ruled by the descendants of Lord Ram, called the Suryavanshis.
They have their counterpart the Chandravanshis that fight them (kinda like the Devas and Asuras) and Shiva is given their nectar, the Somras. He drinks it and is beheld as the Neelkanth (blue throat). The actual legend is that while the Asuras and Devas were fighting, Lord Rudra (as shiva was then known) drank the poison churned out of the seas and thus his neck turned blue.
But that’s not the case here and that’s all not the case in many of his treatments to the popular characters. Nandi is a close colleague in battle, not the original cow that we know them as, and Dashya, Veerabhadra etc are people who interact with him and remain part of his life, just not in the way we are used to.
There are many other subtle depictions of Lord Ram and other characters and overall its very well written. I wrote to Amish to express one small observation, the script writing is not that sharp. You have words like “Goddamnit”, “bloody hell”, In the name of God what is this nonsense etc, which I guess would be great for an Indian audience but after you just finish a Steven Erikson novel you find it falling a little flat.
But I wouldn’t want to tarnish your read on the book. Here’s the first chapter, indulge yourself. And watch the video following it. Well done Amish, I look forward to the next book. And I am very happy someones taking the Indian folklore to fiction and doing it well.
I know it’s been a long time since I posted. I’m working on visual changes for the blog. And I have been cartooning a lot. Mostly trying to get some form and learn it. It’s a great release and a lot of fun.
That was before Starcraft 2 beta was announced or released. I hope you saw the trailer. I have been restricted to just watching replays and I am DYING to test the game to it’s limit. DYING.
So it was a welcome relief that a great WOW blog called Paladin Schmaladin posted a contest giving away a free SC2 Beta key. You had to write a nice comment there or draw something. I decided to write a poem in a comic. I’m fairly certain that’s ground breaking right there. No man but me has attempted that before.
Seriously though, here’s the comic, if you are a war3 fan or a SC2 fan, this might bring a chuckle. And what do you think of my cartooning skills?
This just in folks. Starcraft 2 beta is coming out this month. As a gamer I am super excited (I would write other words symbolising extreme pleasure but there are readers under 18 here).
Starcraft is the best RTS game on the planet. It has been 10 years. Starcraft 2 is being released 12 years after the original game and WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Here’s the intro to the game. Listen to it like I did (5 times).
Every year there is a goal we set out to do. There is a way to go about achieving such goals and sometimes you just need a kick in the back to guide you right.
That way begins with a first step. That first step is laying out the plan. Then the next step is actually following the plan.
So here’s one of my plans.
I plan to read a book a week. There are 52 weeks in a year (one just whizzed by) and thus I hope to read 52 books at the minimum this year. The reason I don’t find this daunting is because I LOVE reading books. I spend most of my income on purchasing books and thus sharing/reading/comparing notes with other book lovers is almost always welcome. There are 2 things that I’ll do at the start and end of the week, religiously.
a) List out a book before the week starts, so you know what book I am on and if you have comments, additional views, I’ll collate them together so that we can share views about the books like a really cool guy, Derek Sivers, does right here.
b) Review the book with notes, inspirational lessons drawn and if it’s just fiction then put up interesting quotes, author approaches etc.
To me, reading a book - besides the pure enjoyment of knowledge, is also about dissecting what the book has to offer. What the style of the author who writes it is, how do they approach the “idea” offered in the book.
I used to flood my reads with self help, inspirational, passion driven books. I found them largely overrated and almost any book that has no “real experience” is something I tend to avoid. It’s easy for people to give advice and talk about an ideal world. There’s no real learning unless there’s experience talking.
How to go about this
Julien Smith, of the popular book Trust Agents, has an interesting way of doing this. He managed to read a book a week for the whole of 2009. He gives some solid advice on how you can read a book a week for 2010. I’d recommend the read. Here are the salient points.
– Average book he read was about 250-300 pages. That’s less for me, I plan to not worry about the number of pages and just concentrate on finishing the book.
– 40 pages a day. His logic is this is not as daunting as thinking to yourself that you have 52 books to read. 40 pages in 24 hours, that shouldn’t be a big deal. So is 1 hour exercise in 24 hours but..
– Reads it first thing in the day: That’s easy for him because he’s not got a 9-7 job so I’m not sure if I can implement this, but definitely crunch in time. He calls this Stacking Habits. Where you put all daily routines together, brushing your teeth, taking a shower, drinking coffee and reading 40 pages.
– Use Every moment: I commute almost 2 hours daily. That is such a collosal waste of time. I plan to rectify that or pray that the damn metro actually gets built. However in the time that I have I usually get back home around 9 pm, and sit up till about 12 to finish reading the daily quota.
There are 2 other great links that I came across to help me in this quest.
It takes a hell of a lot of nerve for a man to stand up at the Oscarcast and proclaim himself King of the World. James Cameron just got re-elected – Roger Egbert, Movie Critic.
There are times when you come out of the cinema hall wondering at what just happened in your life in the last 3 hours. Sometimes it’s a powerful riveting story, sometimes its a great laugh fest, and sometimes it’s just magic.
This movie, Avatar, is the last of the category. Magic. As entertainment it is brilliant. For riveting depth of script, it could have done better.
The quick review – I’ll keep spoilers to the minimum. Unless you watched it in 2d….
This is a movie about the US Army forces entering a new land to plunder the precious mineral resources needed back on earth to survive. But every planet doesn’t spread its legs freely. There is resistance. In the form of a race 10 feet tall with blue skin on the planet Pandora called Na’vi. The story then follows the battle of one conquering army and the others refusing to be whores, to their murderous plunder. Sound familiar? Exiled British conquering the Native Indians perhaps?
What this movie made me think was about the extent to which we have plundered nature. To make everything our own. To seek to control resources that don’t belong to us. Instead of a diplomatic solution we exhibit that which requires no brains, Brawns.
In Management, there is the stick and carrot tactic- employed with children too. You show a carrot lead the people away or you drive them out by using force with the stick. It does leave you with a sick feeling in the mouth to see how the latter is shown in the movie.
Man can co exist with nature. Man can live peacefully without showing his aggression. This doesn’t fly into the US corps philosophy who seek to bend the will. Seek, Crush and Destroy.
The Scientists of the bunch want to discover, learn and form an alliance. The soldiers (theres no “misunderestimated” me here) want to conquer the resources by brute force, as the Westerners have often proven adapt at doing. There are many battles subtly placed that keep ones attention.
And at the center of this is Jake Sully, paralysed below the waist, retired Marine of the U.S Army. His brother had taken part in a training where he was given a very expensive “Avatar”. This is akin to the matrix where you plug yourself “into the system” and you take on the smell, feel and emotions of a 10 foot blue Na’vi body. The “Avatar”. These are how the Night Elves would be like in Warcraft 3. There is a host of creatures that seek to still territorial ownership as well on the planet.
The story of Avatar is not entirely new. And to a large extent falls into the Hindi Movie formula of love, family, running around trees and good vs evil. This isn’t something you haven’t seen before.
What you haven’t seen before
What James Cameron excels himself at is innovation. This is what excites me. He has a fertile imagination. And has combined brilliant cinematics into a good storyline. The last time I felt the same rush of visual awe take over where during the Matrix Series. And the Lord of the Rings. I watched too much of Star Trek so Star Wars wasn’t appealing enough. I know.
This is why you MUST watch it in 3d. The flora and fauna, the trees, the chase scenes on the dragon-like birds and pandorian panthers. Here’s a shot.
This is 2d. Imagine that racing at you in 3D. Cameron in this movie has invented a new camera, said to revolutionise cinema going. Invented a new language, called Na’vi. Written a book on the biology of Pandora. So much so that the Pandorapedia, said to be released, is in itself a full compilation of authentic research translated. That is dedication to your movie. He wanted to make this in 1994. We weren’t ready then.
Unlike a lot of bullshit directors today who make up shit, James Cameron spent over 5 years researching this. An astrophysicist reviewed Avatar and gave it a thumbs up. Think about that someone who is deep in physics approves of the elements put together. And it is this reason James Cameron is a visionary.
I’ll do a detailed why James Cameron’s life inspires me post tomorrow, but I had to get this out of the way. This was a perfect way to spend New Years eve. Spend time being fascinated by riveting visuals and going back wondering what you’d give to be Jake’s Avatar. Flexibility, strength of spirit and more importantly, Neytiri.
Here’s wishing each and every one of you a Very happy new year.
May you get everything you seek, as long as it’s not unobtainable mineral on a planet in the year 2154, because I would then side with the Na’vi.
Who here hasn’t loved Pulp fiction? The dialogues and the movies were crazy
Crazy good.
What many people don’t know is that the genius behind this or the weirdness (whatever your take) worked many long hours to get to what he was today. He dropped out of school in 9th standard at the age of 15. He went into acting classes first. Not to become a director. It was in acting and learning to “write” down the scenes as they would best appear on screen that he honed his talent. It is also a singular reason why there’s no one who does what he does or can do what he does as well. Because he has carved out his niche, worked at it for many hours and put in honest hardwork for many many years.
But my point, but the thing that was interesting is it was the first time somebody had ever complimented me on this thing that I didn’t take seriously.
I was just writing stuff to do in class and just really filling in the blanks. And if I couldn’t come up, if I didn’t have a scene I wanted to do in class, then I’d come up with something and I’d write it. But it was literally just to do something in class.
On how he realised he wanted to be a director.
And at some point in that acting class I just realized that I need to be a director – for two reasons. One, directors were already my heroes at this point. I wanted to; when I wanted to be an actor I wanted to work with this director. Not work with this actor, I wanted to work for this director.
And so as the acting class is going on I just realized I just knew more about cinema than the other people in the class. I cared about cinema and they cared about themselves. But two, was actually at a certain point I just realized that I loved movies too much to simply appear in them. I wanted the movies to be my movies.
On being the first to move.
I’m basically like you know learned pretty quickly the guy who throws the first punch usually wins, so when people gave me a hard time I just punched them.
Why would I review a Tamil movie to an audience that’s largely international? To show you the horrors depths to which Indian Cinema can go. It is a well known fact that creative juice among most indian filmmakers starts running 5 days after a Hollywood movie is termed blockbuster. After that in 7 different languages, you will find our own Indian versions of Batman, Spiderman and even the Incredible hulk. Why would I choose to write about this after a long hiatus? That I don’t know the answer to except I am so excited to spew my thoughts.
This review is about a remake of a director’s first movie that had a solid script (Anniyan) but was reworked with a Love Sex Magic (copyright Justin Timberlake/Ciara) formula. This director is Shankar. A guy I had respect for till today.Why do people think such shit works? I don’t know, I ended up paying 150 bucks to watch this shit. I wonder how many other fools like me left the theatre shaking their heads. Anyway on to the movie.
It was the most confounded money sucking totally worthless script-less shit.
Sorry that’s not the real review here it goes. There are spoilers ahead (if it’s possible to spoil a movie further just by writing it, I sincerely beg your pardon).
The story is that of a Rooster guy. This is a term I prefer to use rather than cock. Because that brings vivid images that a decent blog should not visit. Kanthaswamy (pronounced as Cun-Thaa Saa-Mee) is a rooster dressed superhero who can give batman a run for his costume (not.). He lives apparently in the heart of Chennai and frequently visits Mexico to romance his girlfriend (more about that later), but is the modern day over dressed Robin Hood that apparently can sift through 500,000 notes to pick up ones that he wishes to save. This is enabled by the worst parallel drawn to Bruce Wayne and other super heros. His unoriginal day time “name” is the same as the Cock he potrays – Kanthaswamy. The difference is he being in a hi tech – movie – only- outfit of the CBI (have you seen the real offices? I have and nothing was so cool) where he has audio and video surveillance in his office and fights good with a badge that gives him authority to do so. Some poor north indian guy plays his chief mentor and his tamil is worse than mine.
This then involves a plot that supposedly requires Vikram (another guy I lost respect for today) to cross dress and do unwanted stunts with an even more unwanted cock dance. Added to this horror is the task of enduring Vadivelu (A guy who still has my respect) shaking his booty while being watered. I’m sure his comedy is something that we can look forward to, not his ass. And definitely not watching him semi naked. Prabhu’s got the usual role most over the hill actors have, that of some cop trying to move his weight around the crowd to get information and getting the Ah-hah moment at the end of the movie.
I thought Mithun’s speeches in Luck was bad. Man oh man, wait till you see Vikrams “Save the Nation” dialogue at the end of the bus ride (which btw has a super addictive song which you must watch here). He gives this speech half to the crowd in front of him and half to the naked babe (Mumaith Khan yum) and the half naked businessman (whose name is insignificant here thus not reproduced).
All this does not bring us to the real reason why you should watch this movie, if at all. Shriya Saran. And since a picture speak a thousand words.
I know you don’t have to thank me. I enjoyed her attire in the movie as well as her infrequent appearances. All taken from google and copyrighted to the original people, I just patched them together. She has no role except that of a doll made to love some self righteous, row boating, no talking CBI officer. She has some terrible songs to dance to, but boy does she dance. If there’s one that that this movie does right it’s getting her to gyrate. Most of the movie has her in a terrible plot wherein she tries to woo the hero into falling for her but is later fooled into thinking that actually happened. There is only so much a cross dressing CBI officer can fall for and a hot babe that can gyrate is not in the agenda. I think the director wanted to put this as a cock tease to show the intricacies of the plot. My name is Kanthaswamy. RAWR.
My question is don’t these filmmakers and actors watch their own movie? Or was it the annoying 3 hour lapse (which btw in a bad movie is never effing ending) that prevented them from the task of re-editing the movie. What do you edit though when the script itself is that taken out of a 4 year old’s imagination? Not barring the item numbers, most 4 year olds are already way in it before you were ever. Why do you torture the indian audience (any audience for that matter) to such trivial meaningless bullshit. This is like a photoshop project gone bad, you take 10 pictures with no co-relation whatsoever and put them together because some producer has a lot of money to shell out and the actors picked Mexico as the outlet to spend money. Vikrams acting is sub par in this movie, but then again I don’t know if it’s the script and anyone else in this role would have failed just as badly. Maybe not Vijay, since most of his movies are like this anyway. If you must see Shriya and a stoned up hero with a terrible cock dance as his routine before taking out the baddies.. you must STILL NOT watch this movie. You have been warned.
