Quick Gun Murugun (Dr. Rajendra Prasad),  what do I say about this daring South Indian Cowbhai movie?

It has everything.. action.. camedy.. sangs..and lats and lats of balls.. sorry bullets I say!

Antoni Gaudi

This is the third part in the series Visions of Space that I saw. This is a look at how the works of three remarkable architects of the 20th century shaped our modern world. It examines how each one of them use space to express our response to the power of the corporation (Meiss van der Rohe), the power of the State (Albert Speer), and religion (Antoni Gaudi).

The third part is called God’s Architect.

Scarface (1932)

The mention of Scarface brings to mind the iconic images of  Tony Montana, the character played by Al Pacino in the 1983 movie made by Brian De Palma. However, it was only recently that I came to know from my friend that this was  a remake of a movie made more than 75 years ago!

This version is considered by many as one of the best gangster noire movies.

A McGuffin

The master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock built some his most suspense filled movies around a key concept called a McGuffin. Many famous films of his like Notorious, North by Northwest and Psycho were triumphs of this aspect of story telling. What exactly is a McGuffin?

Albert Speer

This is the second part in the series Visions of Space that I saw. This is a look at how the works of three remarkable architects of the 20th century shaped our modern world. It examines how each one of them used space to express our response, respectively, to the power of the corporation (Meiss van der Rohe), the power of the State (Albert Speer), and religion (Antoni Gaudi).

The second part is about Albert Speer and is called Size Matters.

Meiss van der Rohe

Visions of Space is a riveting BBC documentary series exploring the life and works of three remarkable architects whose vision and work has reshaped the modern world. The powerful, direct, and provocative presentation by the eloquent Robert Hughes makes this a gripping and informative watch. He hobbles around with his walking stick slowly, thoughtfully, majestically and suddenly bursts out into an eloquence which is energetic, passionate, and opinionated.

The first part of this series is called Mies van der Rohe: Less is more

There are moments when we are glad to have be in the audience of a riveting performance provided by an artist who has nurtured his art for a lifetime. The sadhane (devoted practice?) is very poignantly visible, and the performance is so enchanting, we stop our activities and barely move for fear of the spell being broken. Music usually produces these moments. Acting, Books, Architecture, Design also produce them, but the spell binding capacity of Music is extraordinary.

Vijay Prakash

Vijay Prakash is one of the few singers who have the capacity to provide these spell binding moments again and again. Almost  ten years ago, as a youngster, his performances in the famous TVS SaReGaMa music competition on TV were superb. The program set very high standards and managed to bring out and showcase the top class music talent in the country. Among the performers Vijay Prakash enthralled listeners with his singing. He did not win the contest. I was not aware of his presence for a long time after those scintillating moments in the program.

That was 1999.

Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru Na Haka), is a 1988 animated film written and directed by Isao Takahata. It is often hailed as the most powerful anti war movie ever made.

I was lucky to run into this very good discussion about the movie by Roger Ebert. It about nine minutes long and discusses a unique aspect of the story telling technique used in the movie called a pillow shot.

The Spectacular Sport of Parkour

The French have pioneered this martial art and sport combination which is built on the premise that any obstacle can be surmounted, physical or mental. This inspirational attitude, philosophy and lifestyle has had an impact on their films.

A delightful short movie from Pixar.

Partly Cloudy is a delightful interpretation of the clouds and storks story of where do babies come from…