The Times They Are a Changin’

On my way back from office to home, heard that there have been clashes on account of the prophet mohammed cartoon out here too.. so the problem finally comes to the Indian shores.. wonder how the “secular” politicians would react to this..it is funny how the danish publication tried to cock a snook at offending people’s sensibilities particulary knowing how the reaction would be given the target population.. and what has really fanned the flames has been the rather idiotic response of some of the european publications which under the name of freedom of speech have actually created an international incident which could end up having very real and traumatic reponses.. not that the so called religious leader of the religion are any less responsible, but given the background, one really has to say that they are expected to react that way.. if it had been a hindu god or the christ or the jewish background which had been lampooned one would have expected similar reactions from those religious leaders.. it is rightly the error of the media, which seems to have over estimated its own importance and powers in today’s world.. a simple apology by the offending publication and a censure from the danish authorities would have easily nipped this whole thing in the bud.. instead a few hundred or maybe thousand people would be injured, hurt or killed in various clashes around the world now and then maybe it would be forgotten..

Speaking of the Europeans, i wonder, as did someone else too in another article/blog, as to how so riven a populace could have the temerity to come and try and help India with integration.. Anyways, that is far too political a topic to be discussed in this blog.. this is more for the really insane – like mithunda movies, the greatbong blog – www.greatbong.net has a lovely series on mithunda movies.. or moin khan columns – both indiatimes and rediff.com carry our hero’s columns – please do read them to have loads of unintended comedy..

I had watched the supposed superhero movie “Fantastic Four” over the weekend and found that the only thing potentially fantastic about the movie was jessica alba’s body.. ioan grufford seems too wooden to be rubber man, Mr Fantastic; less said abt chris evans as human torch the better; michael bilkis as the thing brought some drama into the movie but a lot of stale jokes, inane touches and jessica alba do not make a good movie.. however, it is a particularly half way decent way of spending a night without having to apply your mind much, has the requisite mix of action, some drama, some old jokes to make for a timepass movie, as opposed some other movies which try too hard and fall flat on their face.. another movie which i nearly watched was “bride and prejudice” – thankfully i was allowed to slink away when ash rai and the assorted damsels were still cavorting around singing about the ideal hubby..

“Sin City” and “King Arthur” have been movies which i have liked off late – Sin City because i havent seen a movie like it in a long while – a really fantastic movie – bruce willis is cool, mickey rourke is like ultra cool, you actually like clive owen – the women are equally fantastic – the villians really villianous from yellow bastard to the elijah “frodo” wood who is really really scary, esp the way the specs are just white nothing else..

King arthur i liked because it was a timepass movie trying to pass itself off as a thinking man’s movie and succeeded a bit – i mean clive owen in skirts is not an interesting thing to watch, though keira knightely is kinda cute.. but overall the concept of the movie was good – stellan skarsgard as the saxon chief is particularly scary and good – he manages to be really scary through just those eyes of his.. of course, the story is a bit far fetched, but hey who cares, the whole hula hoop abt arthur and the round table is anyways a bit far fetched.. this atleast tries to make it sound historical.. was again one of those movies with those nice timepass statements – clive owen makes for a rugged presence, ioan grufford despite the beard looks more womanly than keira knightely does and does sir lancelot a huge disservice.. couple of scenes are really good – like the fight on the ice, the initial fight where the bishop is met, etc – but a lot of roman references, preachy scenes abt love and freedom of man, etc kinda try hard to make the movie a thinking movie, for which it doesnt have the material – in all another timepass movie, well worth a watch..

Shall stop this post here and continue with things later on..