Boredom

Phillip Seymour Hoffman was one of the modern acting greats. You can always identify and isolate him in an ensemble cast. Give him just two-three lines in a 150-180 minutes long feature film and still he would enthrall the audience with his magic and aura and come out on top. People and critics alike bestowed countless superlatives upon him in a career spanning over more than two decades but whether any one of those adjectives ever managed to justify his cinematic craft, I seriously doubted. He was unprecedented and unsurpassed in the practice of cinematic artistry and thus emerged as America’s greatest character actor ever, period. Paul Giamatti is his worthy successor and hopefully he would calm and soothe our nerves with his finest performances in times to come in Phillip’s absence. Phillip ultimately was a show-stealer, a rabble-rouser, an aloof but a sympathizing marvelous human being who marveled in Hollywood though always residing at its sidelines. I first saw him playing a y...

Robin Williams died on 17th August, 2014. It was a suicide, apparently. An actor primarily known for his comic abilities died a tragic death. Depression caused it, some assessed. No one disagreed but for the people who saw him on celluloid only. His fraternity, the people from Hollywood, moaned incessantly and this time, everyone agreed. It was a massive loss. Those who were close to him always knew that Robin was having a deadly feud with the demon known as depression. He succumbed to it, however, is something people will always rue over in times to come for he resembled the bravest in this mortal world. Robin was a genius, one of a kind and no other actor of his generation had the ability to transform himself/herself so effortlessly like him between camera takes. I saw many obituaries of Robin in the days to follow and noticed one startling fact which was hard to stomach. I would call it a faux pas determinately. They all labeled Robin as a great comedian….even Obama couldn’t a...

By no means it is an obituary. Roger is playing just fine and last Sunday, at the famed Centre Court of Wimbledon, he put on again one of the most fascinating grand slam finals in Open era history. In a grueling five set finals, it all went to the wire. Federer bowed down eventually but wearing an all-conquering smile. Everyone except the staunchest of Djoker’s supports present at the court prayed for a Federer’s win. Heaven didn’t respond. Federer Lost. First set, Federer won, Second set, Djoker, Third set, again Djoker. After the third, Federer was down 2 sets to one and for a 32-year old tennis player, howsoever great he might be, it was a depressing sight. It adds more to the gloom when the every stat is stacked against you. Pundits are claiming your end and your body too isn’t responding to the call. Fourth set is in the motion now. Federer, 5-2 down. Djoker has his sight set on championship points, his eyes almost glittering and then the game’s lost. Then another one and th...

Friendship is an aspect of life that’s not controlled by its beholders. Ideal friendships, well they are the things of past now. Many a times we have seen our parents or their parents talking about their old great friends and how amusingly they tell us about their bonding, the moments they spent together and we see a ‘priceless’ twinkle in their eyes…..that’s something which is missing from modern friendships. There are terms & phrases like ‘yaar tu to apna bhai hai’, ‘yaar tu to ghar ka aadmi hai’ which even today invoke something very beautiful inside our hearts but we all know that the feelings underneath them are ‘hollow’, they are just mere words, ‘emotionless’ and ‘impassive’. Well who am I to comment on such an indefinable ‘qualitative’ perspective? I’m one of you, those wretched creatures that are still in need of true, great friendships. Well I certainly can’t say that I haven’t got friends. I’ve got friends, plenty of them in fact, and some of them are real great. I s...

Today I'm bemoaning the death of one of the true champions of the movies, 'Roger Ebert', an iconic movie critic whose movie reviews have amused us and kept us at the edge of our seats with their 'reserved' sense of humor and tenacity to this day for the last 40 odd years. He was certainly my mentor as whenever I had to decide on a movie, I would simply go to his site and look out for his opinion. Though it may seem a very inappropriate and unethical decision for a young movie enthusiast (and a possible movie critic in future, who knows?) but I have believed in a theory that a man does need a opening somewhere. In my case, It was Roger. I learned a great deal from him. All my knowledge about the movies I owe to him for he was just brilliant, uncompromising in his movie reviews. His movie-reviews were for everyone and certainly not an intellectual bomb-thrower like that of an equally iconic 'Pauline Kael'. A champion of overlooked , indie movies who was equal...

My infatuation with the movies is well known but my involvement with the actors and their characters is even more heartwarming. There are innumerable movies that I saw simply because they featured my favorite actors, however they themselves were not great. Examples could be infinite, however for the sake of this article I'll have to produce something here. Anger Management for Jack Nicholson (boy, isn't he a legend?), Swing Vote for Kevin Costner, Snatch for Brad Pitt, Legends of the Fall (Brad Pitt), Leon: The Professional, Immortal Beloved, Bram Stroker's Dracula, State of Grace & Prick up your ears; all for Gary Oldman (mind you, he is a chameleon). Meanwhile, I started accumulating some of the finest performances by some of the legendary actors of all time. Very recently, as anyone who follows me regularly knows, I grew very much fond of the craft and artistry of Daniel Day-Lewis. He is a fine, fine actor whose study and impersonation of a character is often pictur...

Finally the Australians were comprehensively beaten by India 3-0 with one more test to be played in Delhi. Being an ardent supporter of Indian cricket team, I'm as happy as they come. However, I'm more surprised and taken aback by the fall of Australian cricket from its grace than the rise of the Indians as a Phoenix. India are a pretty fragile competitor which on a given do can perform both its best and worse. It's only our expectations that always amp up the tempo for them. Michael Clarke knows he has got an inhuman task in his hand ahead of the Ashes and once again, he will have to assume the identity of the great 'Allan Border', a trobleshooter. So international cricket is ready for a huge turnaround, watch out for the exciting times ahead.