IRIS Episodes IV-V-VI-VII-VIII-IX

Ok IRIS lost a bit of its initial lustre as the episodes flew by. It is still very interesting and engaging but there are so many intrigues and a quick fast forward (to first 6 months and then another 3 months) that it is not that fun anymore. Still it is a decent show and I hope that it will pick up a bit in the next episodes.

So far our hero and heroine both think the other dead and feel miserable. Our hero has lost another loved one (Yuki, the cute Japanese school girl) due to his unwilling part in one of the intrigues (I hope that they will all unite at some point) And now he and the North Korean assassin decided to join N.Korean intelligence to get his revenge on NSS. I'm hoping that this is a trick to uncover IRIS -which we have found out is a top secret organisation that benefits from selling weapons to countries that have tension between them, IRIS readily provides tension when there is none- otherwise it is too stupid a plan. At the end of episode IX we are treated a scene where NSS is busting a N.Korean terrorist cell (which is actually a group of North Korean spies on a mission in Seoul) which our hero is a part of.

Meanwhile The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is amazingly going great. I like the prose so much that even though this is not a book I'm eager to read without every stopping, I grew more fond of it than I probably should have.

IRIS Episodes I-II-III

Yesterday my IRIS shipment arrived and of course I started to watch last night and I'm loving it. Lee Byung Hun is a fave actor of mine (despite the eating style kissing and obvious lipstick) and he is so good here. The other male lead is the one in My Boss My Hero and I like him too (but I suspect he will turn into a bad guy) The leading lady is Kim Tae Hee and what do you know? I like her too.

The firs three episodes kind of breezed by with good introductions to the characters and their interactions. We get the cute vacation scenes (which were so cute and loving) and the actions scenes. There is the mystery cool assasin after the IRIS list and the dubious boss. Lost nuclear technology and a President who is very interested in it.

It is a bit 24 meets Alias but better than both of them (not that I have watched 24, never really interested in it and Alias turned boring after UST between the leads was over) there is amnesia, our lead doesn't really remember anything that happened before he was 7 (but memories start to come back).
In the introduction we get to see the hero completing a mission (all of these guys are secret agents btw) only to get wounded and when he requested help to get out, was refused by the boss (that's why I thought he was dubious right from the start).
At the end of Episode 3 we found out that hero's past is kept secret on purpose (the priest in the orphanage talked to some unknown people that he came and asked). Hero and heroine had sex and are head over heels in love. The secondary guy (potential baddie) loves the girl but was not able to say anything since both of them (separately) assured him that they love eachother.
They are now in Prague to assess and protect (she is a profiler apart being a field agent when she chooses to) a North Korean nuclear scientist (oh yeah) who wanted asylum in South Korea. President ordered them to receive him after the assessment of his motives. And they delivered him to S.Korean agents but he and our hero had a little chat in the church and he gave the hero a necklace with a cross as pendant. I suspect the IRIS list - we are not told anything about this list yet, other than the name - is in it since when the mysterious cool assassin killed all these nameless agents and asked where the list is, nuclear scientist feined ignorance before the died.

I love the romance scenes and how real they look. The kisses are so natural the chemistry so warm and sexy. Wow, this show had great ratings and I agree with the Korean population. So far it rocks!

Meanwhile I'm still reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and liking it better and better. Anne B has a sly style which makes gentle fun of the protagonist (who is currently falling for the eponymous tenant) without being mean towards him. And I love reading about English at Victorian times.

Various films, 3 Mistakes of My Life - End, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

This weekend was a good one filmwise
Mystic Pizza (1988) Directed by Donald Petrie, written by Amy Holden Jones, Parry Howze, Randy Howze and Alfred Uhry.
I liked it very much. No suprise given my love of romantic films + Julia Roberts (who was wonderful in it)
Devdas (2002) Directed by Sanjay Leela Bansali, written by Sanjay Leela Bansali and Prakash Kapadia from the book written by Saratchandra Chatterjee.

I loved it. Lush, exquiste decors, costumes - art direction, beautiful cinematography, great dances and attractive leads who can act. Loved it better the second time.

I watched The Proposal a second time when I came across it on TV and liked it just as much.

Maqbool (2003) Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, written by Abbas Tyrewalla and Vishal Bhardwaj, from Macbeth by William Shakespeare.
It is a good film but not a good Shakespeare adaptation. Still I was captivated till the end.

3 Mistakes of My Life ended the usual Chatan Bhagat way (and I'm not complaining) and now I started another book I got from the book fair. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brönte. I like it well enough so far but it doesn't have the same energy as Austen or Hardy.

Rocket Singh and 3 Mistakes of My Life, Greek Tycoon Inexperienced Mistress-End

Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year (2009) Directed by Shimit Amin, written by Jaidep Sahni.
I loved this film. How clean the cinematography was and the sweetness and good intentions (not realistic but so much fun). Ranbir Kapoor was very good as the eponymous salesman.

Mills&Boon is finished but I didn't get the same pleasure from it, it wasn't like the times I was a teenager and didn't know men in M&B novels are not very realistic.
I have started the only novel of Chetan Bhagat I have not read yet called 3 Mistakes of My Life. It is no suprise that I like it. The prose is light and easygoing but also effective. These are great airport books but they also work at non airport locations since I stayed reading it last night. But didn't finish it and now there are only a few pages left and I'm delaying the pleasure of knowing what happened to the two remaing lead characters.

Striker

Striker (2010) Directed by Chandan Arora, written by Sunita Rajwar, Iqbal Merchant, Chandan Arora, Sagar Kapoor, Vijay Maurya and Pankaj Saraswat.

This was not a good film. I love Siddarth but he was not good as the lead character.

Films, The Piano Tuner - End, Greek Tycoon, Inexperienced Mistress

Films I have seen this weekend:
Race to Witch Mountain (2009) Directed by Andy Fickman, written by Mark Lopez, Matt Bomback from the book of the same name by Alexander Key
This is not a good film, I saw the trailers and wanted to see it but in the end it was dissapointing. I like Dwayne Johnson though.

Gran Torino (2008) Directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Nick Schenk
Now this is a good film. Eastwoon never dissapointed me and this film is no exception. Great story telling with a gimmick and Eastwood perfectly cast himself in the lead role. Loved it.

The Piano Tuner ended as I expected and turned out to be good buy from the second hand book fair.

Now I'm reading a Mills and Boon novel appropriately titled
Greek Tycoon, Inexperienced Mistress by Lynne Graham which is typical M&B despite being the "modern" version. These books warped my teen years and most probably are among the reasons why I seek a "perfect" man. But I haven't read one for years and forgot how enjoyable they were.

Chellata

Yet another blind buy in India that turned out to be good. Perhaps it is not entirely a blind buy since I have read about the lead actor and some of his film on internet and when I saw his face on the cover I just went ahead and purchased it.

Chellata (2006) Directed and written by M.D Sindhar. I'm not 100% sure about the writing part since I cannot really find information about who wrote it on net.
I liked it very much. It is a rom com heavy on the com and the people looked really real. It is a bit sad that most of the actors around now has mixtures of plastic that one feels better when watching real looking people on screen.
The lead actor Ganesha is really cute like a stuffed animal. Despite not being a very good dancer nor really acting that well I enjoyed watching him on screen and was firmly rooting for him to find happiness. My first Kannada film ended being really nice.

Meanwhile The Piano Tuner is just as good towards the end but I feel that the ending will not be happy one. Not that this is a book that completely relies on the plot but as I remember the the beginning of the book describing a scene I presume towards the end, I feel that our protagonist the titular piano tuner will not be able to return to England from Burma. Let's see what will happen...

Aalavandhan

Aalavandhan (2001) Directed by Suresh Krisha, written by Kamal Hassan
This blind purchase from a shop in Mumbai turned out to be good one. Interesting story supported by decent visuals, especially in the hallucination scenes. The action was typical South Indian; fun, energetic but not really conscientous. I loved the story of two twins who turned out very different as they aged. After their mother committed suicide due to their father's infidelity, the father married his lover just after three months of their mother's death and this lover was not a nice woman. The father turned to drink and drugs with the encouragement of the new wife who is a woman who only married him to get his money. The boys tried to out her but dad never listened and he was prone to hitting them with his belt. Their maternal uncle wanted to take them and put them in an army boarding school (and the fact that both boys were very eager to go shows how much they suffered in their own home, their only real friend is a mentally challenged guy from one of the tribes that lives nearby) but dad only allowed one to leave. The boys tossed a coin and Vijay went with the uncle, Nandu had to remain at home. Already more affected with the suicide and treated badly by the stepmom he started to lose his mind. After his dad had a heart attack and stepmom refusing to call any medical assistance leaving his dad to die, he killed her. Then put into a mental asylum suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Vijay on the other hand did well in the army and turned out to an able commando engaged to a news reporter/anchorwoman. When she became pregnant they decided to marry immediately and visit Nandu at the mental hospital to announce the happy news. Nandu is not happy with this development since he hates women and thinks that Teju (the fiancee) will ruin Vijay and he feels that he should protect Vijay by killing Teju. Despite being a freakishly strong and a very smart man, Nandu's threats were not really taken seriously as he is locked up and under guard at the hospital. But he manages to escape with his sole purpose being killing Teju. He goes on a rampage killing people and he takes drugs which messed his mind even more. After his escape Vijay finally awakens to the threat and they decide to leave town and go their childhood home to sell it (it is a lovely home and Teju wonders whether they should keep it but Vijay replies "too many bad memories") Nandu of course is in hot pursuit supported by lucky coincidences that allows him to follow them closely but his attempts to kill Teju fail one after the other. Finally he manages to get close but Teju inadvertendly awakens those bad memories when the only thing she could do to defend herself and her child is a leather belt which she hits Nandu with.
In the end Nandu sort of commits suicide prompted by his hallucinations (finally understanding Teju is not a threat).
This film made an impact on me and made me think about nature vs.nurture. Nandu was the daredevil and the aggressive one of the twins but I wonder whetehr he'd turn out like that if he was the one who went with their uncle...

Meanwhile The Piano Tuner really makes a wonderful read. Good prose Mr.Mason, good prose.

Blue

Blue (2009) Directed by Anthony D'Souza, written by Anthony D'Souza and Mayur Puri.
This film was totally stupid. It was a sad to see all that money go to waste.

Meanwhile The Piano Tuner turned out to be my kind of book. I'm enjoying it very very much.

Various Films, Socialite Evenings - End, The Piano Tuner

This weekend I have watched :-
Paa (2009) Directed and written by R Balki.
I liked it very very much despite some stupid things happening in it. The family drama felt very real and touching. Needed lots of tissues since I couldn't stop crying. Amitabh Bachchan, great actor.

The Emperor's Club (2002) Directed by Michael Hoffman, written by Ethan Colnin (short story), screenplay Neil Tolkin.
I was expecting a school melodrama a la Dead Poets Society but this one was more interesting. It told the story of a teacher who gave a wrong decision and failed (as far as ethics, morality etc. are concerned). I enjoyed it very much despite Kevin Kline whom I dislike very much for no particular reason. The man is a good actor but I can't like him. I liked the film though.

He's Just Not That Into You (2009) Directed by Ken Kwapis, written by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, adapted from the book by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tucillo.
It was not bad but it was not that good either. Just bland. But I watched it to the end and had the obligatory tears (just a couple) at some point.

Zoolander (2001) Directed by Ben Stiller, written by Derek Sather, Ben Stiller and John Hamburg
This is a fave of mine and I laugh out loud no matter how many times I have seen it before.

I have finally finished Socialite Evenings and started The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason. So far it is very good and I hope that it will continue to be so.

Wake Up Sid

Wake Up Sid (2009) Directed and written by Ayan Mukherjee, dialogues by Niranjan Iyengar.
I loved this film. I was after a light romantic film hoping that it will be semi decent but this was a good effort with a good cast and engaging storytelling.

Socialite Evenings is going on and it still is not something I love but I like it a bit better than when I started it.

Kannathil Muthamittal

Kannathil Muthamittal (2002) Directed and written by Mani Ratnam, dialogues by Sujata.
This is a gem. I think what makes stories interesting most of the time is they way they are told rather then the stories itself. And this little story is told so well that I felt for every single one of the characters and felt so close to them.

Socialite Evenings is going on but I don't feel the need to stop everything and read it (the way I felt with The Girl Who Played With Fire). It is not a total bore but not really that fine either.

Croupier, Chokher Bali - The Girl Who Played With Fire - End & Socialite Evenings

Croupier (1998) Directed by Mike Hodges, written by Paul Mayersberg
I liked it but it was too unnecessarily ambigious towards the end. Clive Owen is a delight in any case and I enjoyed watching him.

Chokher Bali (2003) Directed by Rituparno Gosh who also has written the screenplay adopting it from a novel by Rabindranath Tagore.
I liked this one too and Aishwarya Rai was really good in it. That woman is so beautiful, one can't help but feel good watching her.

I have finished The Girl Who Played With Fire and it was good to the last drop. Salander was my favorite character in The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo and it was good to read more about her.

I have started Socialite Evenings written by Shobha De and it not really bad but I'm not loving it, only liking it well. There is nothing special about this novel as far as I'm concerned although the story is interesting but doesn't really sizzle. I think maybe you have to be a rich Indian to really get it or something.