3 Idiots, Kites Ellery Queen Mystery and Suspense Stories - End, Witness The Night

3 Idiots (2009) Directed by Rajkumar Hirani, written by Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Abhijit Joshi, inspired by -semi adapted- from the novel 5 Points Someone written by Chetan Bhagat.

I liked very very much. Over 40 Aamir was convincing as a university student - to my suprise.

Kites (2010) Directed by Anurag Basu, written by Anurag Basu, Robin Bhatt, Sanjeev Dutta, Akarsh Khurana, Rakesh Roshan.

This film was a mess, unintentionally hillarious.

I liked Ellery's mystery stories much better towards the end. It turned out to be a happy purchase. Started Witness The Night written by Kishwar Desai. It started nicely and I like the 45 years old protagonist and NGO social worker trying to solve the mystery of a gruesome murder of a family. This writer also wrote a book called Darlingji: True Love Story of Nargis and Sunil Dutt. I want to read that book very much.

Magnolia, Danny The Dog, The Reader, Woman on Top

This weekend was very fruitful as far film viewing is concerned. The thing is that I have stopped wanting to go to a film theater and watch the films on big screen. I have no explanation to why. But Inception is a film that should be appreciated on big screen so I think I'll try and watch it there.

Magnolia (1999) Directed and written by P.T Anderson.
I liked this one better in second viewing. Cried less but appreciated it more. It is a good film.

Danny The Dog (a.k.a Unleashed) 2005 Directed by Louis Letterie, written by Luc Besson
I think this film suffers mostly from its title. I hesitated to view it for such a long time despite loving Jet Li and action films. The title is so unappealing. The film is good though. It is flawed but works where it matters. Jet is amazing both in the fights and in acting.

The Reader (2008) Directed by Stephen Daldry, written by David Hare, adapted from the book by Bernhard Schlink.
I loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it, loved it. Great story and great story telling. Acting was perfect and Kate Winslet would be my ideal woman if I was a man. She is perfect. Anyway my only complaint about this is that everyone spoke English (with German accents too!) even though all the characters are German and the film is in Germany. Other than that it is a perfect film.

Woman on Top (2000) Directed by Fina Torres, written by Vera Blasi.
This one is not a good film but I was too lazy to change the channel. Only recommended to Penelope Cruz fans since she looks great in this one but I have seen her act much much better in almost every other film I have seen her in.

Ellery Mystery stories got better and better towards the end. I still have some to read though and I hope that they will continue to be good.

Various Films

It has been hectic for the last few days and I took two days off from work last week so the blog is not updated but I have been watching films and here is a few that stayed with me.

Tenderness (2009) Directed by John Polson, written by Emil Stern adopted from a book by Robert Cormier

I just looked at it for a few minutes and suddenly I was hooked. It got me not only with its pristine uncluttered cinematography but a well chosen cast who did everything just right.

Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960) Directed by M.Sadiq, written by Tabish Sultanpuri, Saghir Usmani

I loved it. Guru Dutt was not only a good actor but also owned a certain on screen charisma too. Waheeda Rehman and Johhny Walker were also great. I loved the song J.Walker sang. I couldn’t identify with any of the characters but liked the story all the same.


Pyaasa (1957) Directed by Guru Dutt, written by Abrar Alvi.

This is my second film with Guru Dutt in it and this time he directs and I like him even better. I fell for the title character who was soo good, a bit on the preachy side but no harm. The leading ladies were both nice but I definitely prefer Waheeda Rehman to Mala Sinha.

The Blue Umbrella (2005) Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, written by Vishal Bhardwaj, Abhishek Chaubey and Minty Kunwar Tejpal, adapted from a novella written by Ruskin Bond.

It is a sweet sweet story and one that is told beautifully. I love Vishal Bhardwaj.

Notting Hill (1999) Directed by Roger Mitchell, written by Richard Curtis.
I love this no matter how many times I have seen.


I’m still reading Ellery Mysteries (but I have finished Jackie Collins’ Poor Little Bitch Girl and I enjoyed it, Jackie is nice to read)

You Got Mail

You Got Mail (1998) Directed by Nora Ephron, written by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron, adapted from a play written by Miklos Laszlo.

This is one of the films I keep returning to. I love the interactions and how NYC is filmed. The characters are not really “real” but the actors are so good and everthing is so proper in it. This film gives me a strange sort of comfort.

Ellery's Mysteries is a strange mix. Just when I thought I'd give it a break there is story written by John Steinbeck (who happens to be one of my favorite writers) so on it goes - for now.

Raincoat

Raincoat (2004) Directed and written by Rituparno Ghosh, adapted from a short story written by O'Henry.

I liked this very much. Aishwarya and Ajay Devgan were very good and the art direction and dialogues were great (the dialogues kind of have to be since the film is very very very talky).

Ellery Mysteries are getting better, now I'm reading a Somerset Maugham story and I think I'll seek his novels out. I like the man's style :)

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice (1995) Directed by Simon Langton, written by Sue Birtwhistle and Andrew Davies from Jane Austen's novel of the same title (my all time favorite novel).
For 2 nights I was watching this delightful TV serial and enjoying every moment of it. Colin Firth is excellent as Mr.Darcy and Jennifer Ehle is great as Elizabeth. I have never seen a better Darcy than Mr.Firth. Especially the way he looks at Elizabeth when they were in Pemberly....

I'm reading another story from Ellery Queen's mysteries this one is written by Pearl Buck, I loved her when I was a teenager and her prose is not really that bad. At least it is better than the first story.

New Moon, Burn After Reading, Ellery Queen's Book of Mystery Stories by 25 Famous Writers, Beautiful People - End

New Moon (2009) Directed by Chris Weitz, written by Melissa Rosenberg, adapted from Stephanie Meyer's book of the same title.
This second film of the Twilight Saga was very entertaining. It was actually just like reading the books.

Burn After Reading (2008) Directed and written by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen.
I loved it. Coen brothers are directors to my own heart and this film was a small gem. I especially liked Brad Pitt and not because he is handsome, that was such a juicy part and he did it justice. Of course every part was acted to perfection :)

I have started to read one of the anthologies I have got at a second hand book fair. The mystery stories are written by famous writers who didn't normally write in the genre. The first one is written by Sinclair Lewis, someone I have never heard of and even though it is an interesting story, I'll probably not seek this author out.

Beautiful People was entertaining and not much else. Ended nicely, enjoyed it but glad that I haven't paid for it. (Work place library FTW)

Brilliant Legacy - End

Yes, last night I stayed up until 04:45 a:m and finished Brilliant Legacy. It ended very very nicely and even though I'll probably be like a zombie today, it was worth it. This drama is one of my faves now.

Still reading Beautiful People and it is very entertaining as well.