Movie Review: The Darjeeling Limited

"I love the way this country smells. I'll never forget it. It's kind of spicy."

Adrien Brody on India, as Peter Whitman in The Darjeeling Limited

Three brothers meet up a year after the demise of their father to make a journey that starts aboard a train named The Darjeeling Limited. The movie starts off looking like it's going to be a spiritual journey - but it's something else. It's not about emotions running high. Not about the typical epiphanies shown where brothers realize at the end of the movie that they are meant to be with each other.
This movie is of humor and wit. Of brotherhood and friendship. Of life, love and responsibilities. Made with style, fantastic cinematography and finesse. How seemingly meaningless events in ones life changes perspectives or strengthens them.

And a whole lot of India.

The use of humor is both a mix of fortunate accidents and witty lines. The movie is splashed with a lot of Hindi, so much that it feels like Wes Anderson targeted an Indian audience for this movie. My favorite scene in the movie is when the train they are going in stops for a long time in the middle of nowhere.

Francis: What's going on?
Brendan: I don't know, I guess the train's lost.
Jack: What did he say?
Peter: He said the train is lost
Jack: How can a train be lost? It's on rails.

Movie Trailer: The Darjeeling Limited (2:22 min)

The movie scenes are witty, and camera sequences are brilliant in terms of creativity and execution. While most of my friends said that there was no plot really and see that as a bad point in the film - I differ slightly on that aspect. While I agree that the film is slightly episodic in nature, with no moral to take home, the direction and treatment of various aspects of strained human emotions are tastefully done. On a sublime level, it deals with life, living life and death as well in a way that makes you be a part of the movie in the very same steps as the characters.

Natalie Portman, Bill Murray, Irrfan Khan and several others make cameo appearances. Bill Murray does not even talk in the movie! Some rural concepts and behavioral patterns in India have been beautifully portrayed. But what was not clear from the movie was which era of post-independence it was set in. While the iPod was shown to exist, India seemed to be in the 60s-70s in terms of technological and railways development. Though on a bus used in the movie, the symbol of "50 years of Independence" was painted (could have been a goof). The movie is shown to be shot in Jodhpur and nearby places, apart from Darjeeling. Several pristine locations in India have been used for shooting several scenes - the temples, the deserts and the tiny cities. The trains (The Darjeeling Limited, The Bengal Lancer) give the impression of today's Palace on Wheels. Used primarily by tourists and foreigners, the "stewards and stewardesses" applied kukkum to the passengers and offered lemon juice to them when they boarded. Like I said, great attention has been paid to the tiniest of details. There was a mix of local Indians who knew English and who didn't. The plot also accounted for emotions being lost between the characters because of the language barrier. A lot of the Hindi splashed in had humor, which were not shown in subtitles - which is OK for the Indian public - but the Americans would have benefited from subtitles. There were several occasions when the Indians in the cinema hall burst out laughing because the humor was in the local dialect, but the Americans didn't quite get it :-).

The soundtrack is excellent, with music borrowed from some of Satyajit Ray's movies (eg. Apur Sansar and Charulata) and several classical Indian composers. Among the other songs borrowed, The Kinks' (Strangers and This Time Tomorrow [in trailer]) and Peter Sarstedt's (Where do you go to my lovely) songs were the best.

On a whole, a wonderful treat from Wes Anderson, makes you think of his earlier movie - The Royal Tenenbaums.

The Darjeeling Limited: A must watch for appreciators of good cinema.
Rating: 9.5/10

Movie Preview: The Kite Runner (2007)

I had read Khaled Hosseini's best seller - The Kite Runner a couple of weeks back. What struck me most about the book was the author's style. It was not about the flair of fine literature. The sentences were simple, and they hit you hard. It was raw prose - that depicted every emotion in a crude way at face value. About the turmoil when one lives through with a horrible truth of cowardice all his life. About the frustration of trying to live up to another's expectations. About love. Lies. Destruction of one's land of birth. War. Humans treating other humans as animals.

About betrayal. About redemption.

From the director of Finding Neverland and Monster's Ball, comes this movie releasing next month. Looking forward to watching it.

Preview: The Kite Runner (1:54 min)

Kokipedia

KOKIPEDIA finally launched!!
by Gaurav Bhardwaj

STATE COLLEGE, PA. The much awaited “Kokipedia” was finally launched in early hours of morning today at a function organized at this knowledge capital of Central Pennsylvania. The new ‘know it all interactive knowledgebase’ derives its name from Latin word ‘Kokos’ meaning Kokonad Sinha and ‘Pedious’ meaning knowledge. The crowd went berserk when the name of knowledgebase was released. People think it could not have come at a much better time.

The crowd was upbeat and believes that it may be answer to all the confusion in the world due to Wikipedia and all and this knew knowledgebase may hold answers to all the people’s problems. It’s just a matter of meeting or calling Koke now. As D said, “Koke knows it all” and frankly this has been the general perception for a decade or so now. When questioned about his huge knowledgebase, Kokonad Sinha modestly said, “It's all due to instruction manuals!!” Koke’s affection towards instruction manuals is a well known fact. He holds the record for reading most number of instruction manuals in a year. Another related record that Koke holds is for assembling maximum number of furniture items in a year. Earlier this year, Koke also raised the issue of making the instruction manuals of APOLLO 11 public. The issue generated lot of public attention and had caused quite a storm in senate.

“There was no need for a Beta version, we all agree about the soundness of our knowledgebase” replied the Kokipedia Team when asked about the need of releasing a beta version first.

None of us can actually fathom the depths of this knowledgebase as of now but one thing is sure that this day will be remembered as the day when attrition of Wikipedia started.

Disclaimer and fine print (MUST READ): The editor of this blog (Kokonad Sinha) has nothing, NOTHING to do with this post. Also, he has nothing to do with the picture of himself used in that obscure rubik's cube. It was solely the idea of everyone but himself. Gaurav Bhardwaj, the author of The Antisense Strand, is going to attend to all comments on this post.

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

This is what PhD does to people!

Frankly ridiculous science

Honoring achievements that first make people LAUGH, and then make them THINK. That's the tag line associated with the Ig Nobel Prizes. A welcome change from the daily grind in the lab - an intention to make us recognize and identify with incredibly relevant and important issues in our lives.

Sometimes they are mildly amusing.

Like the fact that the presence of humans tend to sexually arouse ostriches. Or the fact that you can have safe sex at zero kelvin. Did you know there is a concrete relationship between country music and suicide? There is a study on the nature of injuries caused by falling coconuts. Effects of ultrasound in cheddar cheese. Why the woodpecker gets no headaches. Does a swimmer move quicker in water or syrup? Invention of an aerosol for underwear that may help determine if a husband was faithful or not. Use of quantum physics for achievement personal happiness. Farting loud as a means of protection from excessive fear.

Some winners in 2007
Source: http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#ig2007
A penetrating medical report on sword swallowing and its side effects.
Invention of a method to extract vanilla fragrance from cow dung.
A study that shows that rats sometimes cannot tell the difference between a person speaking Japanese backwards and a person speaking Dutch backwards.
A spellbinding manuscript exploring the seemingly boundless appetites of human beings, by feeding them with a self-refilling, bottomless bowl of soup.
My favorite this year - The US Air force won the Ig Nobel Prize for PEACE for instigating research & development on a chemical weapon - the "gay bomb" - that will make enemy soldiers become sexually irresistible to each other and want to make love, not war.

Ceremony trivia:
The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October — a week before the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced. Organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), they are presented by a group that includes genuine Nobel Laureates at a ceremony at Harvard University's Sanders Theater. Nominees can come in any attire they like. A speech is made on receiving the award, but not longer than a minute. When the lime limit is broken a girl named Miss Sweetie Poo appears on the scene to say ‘Please, stop! I am bored’ in a high-pitched voice. The closing line of the ceremony is always "If you didn't win a prize — and especially if you did — better luck next year!" The first Ig Nobels were awarded in 1991, at that time for discoveries "that cannot, or should not, be reproduced." More of the same at The Journal of Irreproducible Results.

End note:
Gaurav has chosen his research topic so he has a chance to win the Nobel Prize in every field except Peace and Literature.
Other mock awards:
Golden Raspberry Awards for bad film work
Darwin Awards for fatally foolish behavior
Pigasus Award for paranormal fraud (U.S.)
Bent Spoon Award for paranormal fraud (Australia)
Stella Awards for "outrageous" lawsuits

______________________________________

Sources:
http://www.improbable.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize
http://newsfromrussia.com/science/tech/15-10-2007/98832-ig_nobel_prize-0

You there, Indian male! Marry me.

A month back, this hilarious piece Vladimir Radyuhin appeared in The Hindu: Import Indian bridegrooms for Russian brides. To shift the population curve upwards. No, not kidding.

It is the new Russian magic mantra to reverse the alarming fall in the country’s birth rate. Pretty bold, huh? Says Maria Arbatova, writer and TV moderator, who married an Indian businessman a few years ago “after 25 years of keeping marrying Russians”, thinks Indian men make ideal husbands. “They are crazy about their family and children,” she said presenting her new book, 'Tasting India’ in Moscow. “What is more, Indians, like Russians, are Indo-Europeans, and many Sanskrit and Russian words have the same roots.”

Russia has a population of 142 million spread across a territory five times the size of India. Its population is shrinking at one-third of a million a year. The government is trying lucrative methods to actually get couples to give birth to more babies - certificates worth $10,000 to second or subsequent children, monthly support payments etc. However, afraid that the Government measures are not enough, the Governor of Ulyanovsk suggested his own way. September 12th has been chosen as the new holiday, when Ulyanovsk residents will enjoy an extra day off work that the Governor decreed to give them more time to produce babies.

The holiday, officially called “Family Contact Day”, was quickly renamed by locals as “Day of Conception”. That day the people will be invited to join a festival, “I Love You”, while teams of gynaecologists, midwives and psychologists will fan out to all parts of the region to advise women on having babies.

Why September 12? So that babies conceived that day may be born on June 12, Russia’s National Day. Couples who hit the target date win prizes, including refrigerators, TV sets and washing machines. The main prize is an Ulyanovsk-built all-terrain vehicle called Patriot.

Taken without permission from The Hindu: Import Indian bridegrooms for Russian brides.
Also, my apartment mate has already taken Maria Sharapova.