I saw Provoked the day before and Raincoat on TV yesterday.
It was interesting to compare Aishwarya in these two “arty” movies.

I was really impressed with Raincoat. Provoked, however, was a little disappointing.
Of course the seating at the theater, your state of mind and other factors do affect the way you perceive a movie (it’s a very powerful or a totally mindless movie that can cut through all those layers and suck you in!).

Raincoat scores high because of a tight script and Aishwarya’s acting - she makes you believe she really is Neeru and even her voice seems different. It’s her best performance ever. The story is engaging from the very first frame - it’s inspired by O Henry’s short story, The Gift of the Magi. (Some reviewers have said its boring, there’s too much conversation etc. Those guys should just go watch Dhoom.)

Provoked was not as intense as I’d expected. Ash was the perfect tragic heroine; she gives a sensitive and restrained performance, but she still doesn’t seem as natural as she did in Raincoat. The movie does touch upon the important topic of domestic violence, but looking at it as a movie it could have been better. The film’s back and forth narrative could have taken away some of the intensity. Still, you should watch it - it has some special moments: the way she finds peace in prison, the comraderie of the cell-mate and the triumph of the underdog…

Shopping in Bangalore can be quite daunting if you don’t know where to look. So if you want alternatives to mall clothes, here is my basic guide for women’s clothing:

Chic Casuals

Skirts, cotton trousers, capris, interesting t-shirts (not the regular boring ones but short ones with sequins and little design elements). Also casual party wear. Price Range: Rs.200 – Rs.1000.

1) MAX – end of Commercial Street, opposite the police station. Cheerful, well-designed casuals in all sizes.

2) Showoff – Brigade Rd., opp. Brigade Towers near All Saints. Only for small framed people as they stock stuff from Malaysia!

3) HUM India – Church Street. Next to Bheema & also at Commercial St., opp. Woody’s. Various sizes, good selection of party wear and branded t –shirts. You get GAP, VonHutch, Morgan etc. (Sometimes you get one free if you buy three. Prices start at Rs.300)

4) Tibetan Market at the Indo – Dubai Shopping Complex, Rest House Rd – it’s a lane off Brigade road. Take the 1st left after Nilgiris and Fifth Avenue when you are walking towards M G Road.
Once you reach the complex, get into the basement and you could stroll through nearly 20 shops that have unique casuals – you get great polka dots and skirts here.

5) Dirty Fashions – this one is a favorite with college kids. It’s on the lane opposite Woody’s on Commercial St. and has interesting party wear – chiffon tops, sequined tops. You also get sleek formal skirts and trousers.

6) Arihant Plaza & Mahavir Plaza – next to Metro Shoes, on the right-hand side when you drive straight into Commercial St. from Cauvery Emporium on M G Road (you have to cross two traffic signals).

Here you get more than just formal and casual clothes – you have various little stores selling shoes, bags, glares, watches, jewelry and cosmetics (don’t buy important stuff like sunscreen here though – may not be fresh).

7) Gypsy Casuals – Koramangala, near Lazeez and Jyothi Nivas college.
Again, a college favorite.

Bargains and Summer Clothes

Disposable clothes for summer and branded factory outlets. Price Range: Rs.100 – Rs.350.

1) Fashion Factory – factory outlet of Bangalore’s biggest export house, Gokuldas Images. Nothing fancy here, but functional, good quality casuals.

2) Safina Plaza, Infantry Rd. – go to the 1st floor and walk around. You’ll find 2 -3 factory outlets which have cute designs. Great for linens in all sizes.

3) In the narrow lane opposite Woody’s on Commercial St, next to Dirty Fashions, you’ll see a mannequin on the ground floor that leads to a store on the first floor. Great for disposable, but interesting clothes. MUST Bargain like crazy if you look like a foreigner!

4) Commercial St. - opposite Metro shoes and Arihant Plaza there’s a crockery store in the basement. Next to that you’ll see a stairway with clothes hung on either side. Go upstairs. They have linens and can even tailor for you if you choose their fabric.

Affordable Designer Wear

Boutiques which stock young designers and prêt lines of established designers. Price range: Rs.1000 onwards for a blouse. Rs.3000 to Rs.5000 for skirts.

1) Marmalade, Next to Spratt hair salon, Magrath Rd, walk down from Garuda Mall towards Eva Mall and you’ll find Spratt in between – great sequined skirts and kitschy stuff

2) Be: - Forum Mall and Commercial St – they have Wendel Rodricks to Priyadarshini Rao. Great if you want to buy a “label”, but not so hot otherwise.

3) Aftershock, Eva Mall, Brigade Rd – prepare to be dazzled by the color and the sequins. Must-see even if you don’t buy anything here.

4) Boheme, 2nd left after India Garage, Victoria Rd – showcase for upcoming designers.
5) Collage, Wood Street, Ashoknagar – good selection by young designers.

6) Levitate at Sanctuary, Hospital Rd, behind Safina Plaza – Bohemian and Kitschy accessories and apparel. Sanctuary is a “lifestyle souk” with a café.

Hope that helped. Feel free to add or ask for more info.

Last night I watched “On the Waterfront”, the 1954 Academy Award winner starring Marlon Brando I must say that it’s one of the best black-and-white movies I’ve ever seen. I used to think I wouldn’t be able to relate to old movies, but this one was beautifully made and had enough drama, emotion and suspense to keep me hooked.
Brando gives one of his most electrifying performances and even won his first Best Actor Academy Award for playing ex-fighter Terry Malloy in this film about one man fighting a bunch of mobsters who suppress and exploit workers on the Waterfront.
Terry starts off by being a small-time “hand” to Johnny Friendly, the mobster he eventually turns against. Terry is guilt-stricken when he lures a rebellious worker to his death. But it takes the love of Edie Doyle, the dead man’s sister, to show Terry how low he has fallen. When his crooked brother Charley the Gent is brutally murdered for refusing to kill him, Terry battles to crush Friendly’s underworld empire.
Directed by Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire) this unforgettable drama about Terry’s redemption is amongst the most acclaimed of all films.

Watching this film got me thinking about other classic movies that we must all watch at least once. They may not give you the heady rush that popcorn movies like Mission Impossible or Casino Royale do, but they stay with you forever.
Here is my list of Must See movies from the 50s, 60s and 70s:

1) On the Waterfront

2) Streetcar Named Desire – based on the play by Tennesse Williams. The play inspired acclaimed director Francis Ford Coppola to become a filmmaker.

3) Dead Poets’ Society – young people, watch it at your own risk!
The movie, starring Robin Williams as a brilliant, unconventional English teacher at a boys’ prep school, is a sensitive study of the value - and the price - of nonconformity. Williams inspires the young men to revive a secret society of poetry readers to which he belonged when he was a student. He tells them, “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys - make your lives extraordinary!” His philosophy proves both liberating and dangerous, leading one of the students to a drastic decision.

4) The Godfather - the movie based on the blockbuster book by Mario Puzo tells the story of Don Corleone and his family. This movie inspired hundreds of copycats and wannabes in every genre - from comedy to drama to tragedy.

5) The Wild One – Brando plays the ultimate bike-riding, leather-wearing Rebel.

6) Mackena’s Gold – best treasure-hunt movie ever.

7) Ben Hur – Story from the biblical period. Has great action and is the saga of an aristocrat forced into slavery and his arduous journey towards eventual peace.

8. American Graffiti – George Lucas’ very endearing movie about a group of friends on their last night in town before they all go away to pursue higher education.

9) Dr. No – the first and the best James Bond movie of all time.

10) Citizen Kane - Orson Welles’ first and best, a film that broke all the rules and invented some new ones, with the fascinating story of a Hearst-like publisher’s rise to power. Welles was only 25 when he made it!

11) Vertigo - one of Hitchcock’s most discussed films. Retired police detective Stewart, who has a fear of heights, is hired by old school chum in San Francisco to keep an eye on his wife (Novak), eventually falls in love with his quarry…and that’s just the beginning. A haunting movie that demands multiple viewings.

12) Psycho - Hitchcock’s most notorious film is still terrifying after all these years. A young woman picks the wrong place to spend a night: The Bates Motel (12 cabins, 12 vacancies…and 12 showers), run by a peculiar young man and his crochety old “mother.” Has the famous murder-in-the-shower scene.

13) The Conversation - brilliant film about an obsessive surveillance expert (Hackman) who makes the professional mistake of becoming involved in a case, and finds himself entangled in murder and high-level power plays. Francis Ford Coppola’s film makes larger statements about privacy and personal responsibility. Considered one of the best films of the 1970s.

14) The Great Dictator – Charlie Chaplin at his best.

15) The Exorcist – scariest horror movie of all time. When The Exorcist was released in the early 70’s, the audience had been scared out of their wits. Something beyond comprehension happens to a little girl. A man is brought in as a last resort to try and save her. That man is The Exorcist.

16) Star Wars – needs no introduction (unless you’re from another galaxy far, far away!)

17) Fiddler on the Roof – poignant musical about a Jewish milk man (and father of five) living in a small town in the time before WWII.

Other must-see movies include:
(I haven’t seen them yet)

To Kill a Mockingbird
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest
Lolita
Doctor Zhivago
Alfie
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
All That Jazz
The Black Stallion

Do we need “miracles” to make us believe in God?
People travels miles to look at a statue shedding tears, an idol drinking milk or a well lighting up as if they were the answers to all our problems.
We say we believe in his omnipresence, yet we seek constant reassurances of his presence, of his very existence. Maybe our greatest fear is that we’d wake up one day and realize that it was Man who created the idea of God to deal with this emotional rollercoaster called Life!

Years ago, my father said to me, “There is no extra-terrestrial God sitting up there in the sky watching over all of us…” I didn’t believe him – I looked at him with a mixture of awe and pity thinking that he was having a rough day. “What has God got to do with aliens?” I said.

I’m more enlightened now. What he tried to explain to me was that there is no personification – just a universal Life Force that runs through all of us. The same Force that runs through you and me, also runs through a grain of sand, a block of stone, a fierce lion in the jungle and the clear waters of a stream – all things are one, as Paulo Ceolho says.
The only difference is that some of us harness this Force and are more aware of it than others. Also, the wise ones are able to harness the true spirit of the Force to become the guardians of other people who need help and support – with time, truth becomes entangled with myth and all we are left with is ambiguity.

It is sad that contemporary man is caught up in fanaticism and religious chaos.
There has always been a small group of people that manages to suppress a larger group of people by preying on their mortal insecurities. Plato suggested that Utopia’s men could be emotionally controlled by forming a strict moral code and then enforcing that code by instilling the fear of God’s wrath in these men and women.

Our ideas on morality have evolved over millennia. Don’t you think that the new millennium needs a new, more democratic, more global religion? You think it’s possible? Or are we too hung up on older religions that were formed centuries ago to cater to people of that day and age?

I work out for 60 to 120 mins at the gym 4-6 days a week. I do cardio and weight training. I’ve been doing this for 3 years and I still have miles to go before I can indulge in a 10 day break without gaining a couple of kilos. My ultimate dream is to be able to have risotto with rosé every weekend and a French toast (with honey) for breakfast every single morning without having to increase the intensity of my workout!
I was discussing this with a friend last weekend and she told me about an interesting experience she had
last year: “I went on a 3 week trip to the foothills of the Himalayas and I came back with a flat stomach!
Apparently, in cold places, the body uses up more calories than usual to keep itself warm - so your BMR goes up and you lose weight. And the best part was I was eating nothing but parathas with ghee the whole time!”

Well, I don’t know if any of this is scientifically true or not but I felt like I got a raw deal. I could
only console myself by saying that this was only a temporary state, similar to the one induced by fad diets like the “Ford” or “Cabbage”. I wouldn’t think twice about going away on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas if it meant getting the abs of my dreams, but I have to remind myself that with fitness, Regularity is the Key and BMR is the shrine at which I should worship!
If there are any fitness freaks out here at Burrp, let’s talk… is this “cold place-more calories” concept true?

Mom and I are prolific shoppers. We shop almost every week. During our shop-till-you-get-frazzled trips we often discover little unexpected facets of Bangalore.
The other day we were driving home through Jayanagar and saw an amateur commercial artist selling blue-tinted portraits of John Abraham and psychedelic abstracts on the footpath.

Maybe he was inspired by the “Art Bazaar” that is organized every December at Chitra Kala Parishat: the entire street is turned into a walk-in gallery displaying works of students, both current and former. It’s a great resource for someone looking for affordable artwork, for bargain hunters and first-time buyers.

My advice to someone who is interested in collecting Art but doesn’t know where to begin is this: look around and develop a visual vocabulary so that you could make an informed decision about what is available and what you like.
You need to visit exhibitions, art websites, and visit artist studios if you can, try and get a sense of the art scene here. Read up on basic art history; look up famous paintings on the net (Matisse’s Pink Nude, Picasso’s Guernica, Monet’s Waterlilies, Van Gogh’s Starry Nights, Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending Staircase etc.).

Slowly you will begin to realize which direction your interest lies in – modern, classical, minimal, radical , or maybe a colorful mix of everything. This is the proactive approach – don’t let other people develop your taste and don’t be overwhelmed by the academicians and critics. Art is anything that is original and inspirational at the same time.

A word of caution: There is a very thin line between Art and wannabe-art. Only instinct and exposure to varied art experiences will help you distinguish between good quality work and derivative work. Every once in a while though you will come across something truly original and inspiring that there is no room for ambiguity: even a novice can tell that it is the work of a master.