A-walking, a-humming, The road stretches on, Your twenty-dollar bill, Crumbling in your fingers, Whistling a concerto, You heard long ago, Playing in a dream, Or playing in your head, How does it matter When you won’t ever be dead? Down to your last penny, And you throw it away On a man who says He […]
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Month: February 2012
Close Your Eyes
One of the most important lessons I learnt in life happened when I was least expecting it to spring itself upon me. I sat as part of a large audience, listening to the speaker, who was a charming young man, and speaking a lot of sense. He spoke about drugs, he spoke about sex, he […]
Alone But Never Lonely
Surprisingly, a lot of writing happens when the senses skid into a realisation that sinks into the innermost layers of the self. And a bit of writing also happens when the self stretches itself and brushes accidentally or intentionally, into a truth it always knew but seemed to have forgotten. You, who told me suddenly, […]
The Birth Of Pather Panchali-4
Ray devised an innovative way to work around Apu’s stiffness and awkward gait. Like much of his journey into making the film, this also is a lesson for wannabe filmmakers: “I had learnt a lesson. All my preparations over the years… had finally produced this one shot and it was difficult to imagine anything more […]
The Birth Of Pather Panchali-3
It’s a well known fact that Ray was a master film maker who was revered, practically worshipped, in the West – especially Hollywood (list of his admirers include Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, James Ivory, Elia Kazan, Danny Boyle, Wes Anderson…). What’s little known is the fact that this man (arguably) had a hand in the making […]
The Birth Of Pather Panchali-2
Satyajit Ray, as a rule, visited the movies every Saturday afternoon. In this he was accompanied by a handful of like-minded ‘film-buffs’ he met and befriended. One of them was Bansi Chandragupta, who was destined to be Ray’s Art Director [a relationship that went on to collaborate on the most remarkable of Ray’s works upto Pratidwandi/The Adversary […]
The Birth Of Pather Panchali-1
Like all great endeavours, the timeless Pather Panchali by the legendary Satyajit Ray faced many obstacles on the way to immortality.Well, how this excellent story by Bibhutibhushan Bannerjee made its way onto the celluloid is an engrossing, fascinating tale in itself. Here goes…. As most of us know, Ray started off as an advertising professional. In June, 1943, he joined D.J. Keymer & Co. as a Junior […]
My First Drive
This is something many of you will identify with– the day you actually took a car out on your first drive. I must add, though, that the motor training experiments do not exactly qualify as “first drives” for obvious reasons. The genesis of this piece can be traced back to about quarter of a century […]
Angelina, Interrupted
Enter the crime scene: Oscars 2012. The sleuths: the audience. The perp unmasked: Angelina Jolie. After years of wondering whether the lady’s People’s Champion banner was just a tad exaggerated, with one out-thrust leg, a husky laugh and speaking dialogue as though instead of presenting an award she was in a soft porn movie, Ms […]
Abiding Memory
I did not want to write about Whitney Houston’s death because like Amy Winehouse, she too has been turned into a cautionary tale about the failure to deal with success, wealth, adulation and fulfilled dreams. When a glistening firefly crashes and burns..it is the done thing to perform an autopsy upon a life story. Oh, […]
For The Artists
Before I plunge headlong in this piece..a few questions.. What was Angelina Jolie’s leg doing on the Oscar stage? What? What? What ? Did it mistake the podium for the set of a Mr and Mrs Smith sequel ? Was it trying to distract attention from her emaciated arms? And that husk? Inexplicable. I almost […]
Thank You Again…
For knowing that I needed to be left alone instead of being comforted For traveling miles to see me when you were the only one who could brighten up my day For knowing I could accomplish anything, instead of just congratulating me when I did For telling me that I needed to improve, instead of […]