A Thousand word Film review

Thousand words is a movie which got billed as an Eddie Murphy comedy .
Directed by Brian Robbins I would label this a comedy that makes you think .
It is all about a machine gun talking literary agent who achieves sucess with his gab ,he shoots his vocabulary in the speed of a bullet train and is full of words and more words .
He is in the top in his filed and prides himself as somebody who would get anything done with his skills in talking ! he even promises himself a sceptre and a crown to be the emperor of publishers .
Eddie has a juvenile  bespectacled bookworm as his male secretary who loves to confess his perverse doings into his ears !
It all happens when Eddie meets Dr Singja ( shades of Dr Deepak Chopra ) the well know life style Guru from the land of spirituality India ,and wins him over to get a contract for publishing his thoughts which would be a surefire best seller but is shocked to know that the book is actually only a pamphlet of five pages !
As he approaches Sinja  angrily for this betrayal Sinja calms him down saying he should actually find himself in silence than by living in the world of words and talking !
Sinja describes a mythical tree ( Bodhi ..of enlightment ) which has a thousand leaves and for each word that Eddy utters one would slowly fall to the grownd ,he tells him when the tree sheds all its leaves it would wither and so would Eddy !
Strangely Eddy sees a tree sprout in his backyard and as he talks finds it shedding its leaves .
this makes our Eddy go into a coccoon of silence as he measures his words and slips into miming to convey his thoughts
amusing situations arise where Eddie uses his excellent theatrics  to convey his emotions his facial contortions show his superb acting capabilities
His interactions with his wife who feels ignored by a busy Eddy or his small infant child or with his alzheimers stricken mother in a home for the aged becomes strengthened with silence as he slowly understands himself in silence better than in the world of sounds and words .
the film comes to a close in the graveyard where he stands before his fathers grave and sublimates his resentment to a father who left him as a child and later died by mouthing the words
" I forgive you "
and with that the last three leaves of the symbolic tree falls and he too does to the grownd only to be wakened  ressurected as  a new man admidst a flowering blooming tree .

The inner message of the film  is we can search our soul and look into  ourselves better in silence and as we discover our selves our resentments and hatred melt awaty and we become like a new born .
beutifully said by the director so subtly and aptly
The Indian guru wanted just this moment when Eddy would realise himself .

one qoute in the film says
"be good to all becuase one never knows that  seeing someone at that moment  may be seeing that person for the last time  "
so true in several situsations to all of us who have lost someone in thier lives

lovely movie do see it

KAHANI Movie Review

The essence of  any film lies in its script and the way it is directed .
Kahani the Hindi movie does well on both these criterions and to add to it is the brilliant portrayal of the central character by the very talented and beutiful Vidya Balan .
there is no moment wasted in the movie
one is absorbed  by the Kolkata that comes live on the screen ,the photography is world class with most of it close up shots ,
imagine Kolkata in close up during Puja times the cacophony and colour of the city is recorded faithfully and intrestingly .
The crowds part and meld with the actors as the situation demands
the Durga motifs form the backdrop of the action the rundown lodges runny streets old rikshaws rickety trams and a booming metro where the real story begins is so enlivening .
Director Sujoy Ghosh drops subtle hints  of the possible end during the movie ( I was unable to recognise any clues  though my daughter vocuhed on it  ! )
A fully pregnant and tired jet traveller from London comes to Kalighat police station in search of her missing husband........ you guessed it ,it is Vidya Balan nay Bidya Bagchi as they say it in Bongali .
Bidya is assisted by a junior police officer of Kalighat plice station and thier mission runs through myraid convoluted pathways which enmeshes them with shady gangsters contract killers seedy lodges and finaly the Intelligence Brueau with a couple of  moles in thier backyard .
Very rarely do Indian films enter  into the  shadowy parallel world of the  intelligence  ,though the underworld has been  reasonably well covered .thanks to Ramgopal Verma
To make a long story  short the gripping movie comes to a brilliant ending which is totally unexpected but all the loose ends are ably tied by the director and the movie appears reasonable and plausible .
If you see this movie and I feel you should dont even breath about its suspense to anyone who wants to see it

please .......

Kottaram Barber ( Royal Barber )

Al Ain has been my home for the last five years .
though not as big and glamarous as its two cousins Dubai and Abu Dhabi I  would call it a cute and comfortable city to live in with all the neccesities and one   blessed with the bounties of nature
It is more relaxed and low profile here  .
the broad roads have roundabouts full of well designed flowerbeds ,the pavements are neat and a delight to walk , the uptown area with its malls and shops are colourful ,and the  bright the parks are plentiful there are   hot springs to wade in  and a mountain to climb if one felt to do so !
the one thing that struck me when I came here initially was the countless hair dressing places and saloons here .
Leave alone the multiple beauty parlours dotting the city with bright faces and  manicured eyebrows peering from the signboards there were a lot of specialist kids saloons and gents saloons all over the place !
I wondered at the multiplicity of these hair marts ,
Al Ain folk should be obsessed and fickle of thier crowning glories , shaved chins or trimmed beards

I never stuck to the same saloon and drifted most unfaithfuly from one hair stylist to another looking for the ultimate answer to my hairy solutions .

The last time my visit was remarkable and worth a blog post so here goes......

It was  just another saloon nothing remarkable in it  to give me  a clue of tis hidden talents which I would shortly discover .
I entered and found there was one artisan happily doing his craft on one chaired customer  while the other was vacant ,he asked me to sit and shortly another barber ( sorry for the deragatory label ,these days such adjectives are frowned upon by these professionals ) arrived and walked around me .
This man gazed at me intently or rather on my scalp and its adornings which was nothing much to write about ,I was nowhere near  an Amitabh Bachan when it came to this part of my anatomy but neither was  I a  Rajani kanth without his wig
I was just an  average joe with   some dry long unruly windblown  hair .
After a perfunctory survey the master condescended to comment with a long sigh which  should have had hidden meanings
if there were experts who could decipher barbers sighs they would have written long thesis on those sighs
( I remember  there were Russia watchers in those socialist days where a sneeze of a Brezhnev or a nod of a Kosygin would make them ruminate on the possiblities of the next nuclear catastrophy ! )

Our man was silent and declined to comment then on my hair but quitely and surely took his wares and frowned deeply as if he was ready for this most difficult job .
there was a sneer mixed with that frown if one watched with concentration .
and then the clipping of the scissors took over the silence  as  I peered into the mirror watching my grey black brown dyed hair falling all over my chest .
the comb bit into my scalp the knife knicked behind my ears and the razor whirred its motors as the great man worked on his piece of art
like a picaso on his painting he was all concentration
and then came the dunking of the head under a cold washbasin while he soaped my scalp and suds came out of my soddy ears he towelled me briskly envigorating my grey cells and blowdried my hair into shape .

once he had completed his task  he declared valiantly
 you know i am called the Royal Barber   , Kotaram Barber   in malayalam ( forgot to tell you he was a mallu from Amchi malabar ) ,you know why ?
 give me a kulu ( clue ) please .......me
this answer was not much appreciated as he felt i was a bit snooty !
kulu is in TV only !

 will tell you the hard facts Iam the offical barber of a local Shiekh and mostly I stick to him rarely do I take up other work
I was suffused with pride for this great artiste to have selected me  probably it was the blue in my blood from the mankavu kovilakam it should have been so telling in my countenance that he felt he had to do the honours

I took your case because it was a professional chaallenge ! oops

never have I  seen such an unruly mop
you call it hair do you?
and tell me who have been at it all this  while ?
 he made it sound as if to say which rat has been on it ,very humilating indeed .

well i never stuck to one many had left thier marks on my crowning glory what you see are  those efforts on my scalp it shows hard work and dedication of many artistes

well I dont agree it is bad hair ruined by badder barbers !
my challenge here was how to salvage this mess !
when I  saw you first I had to plan on how to go about it and once I took a decison my strategy was all ready
you are lucky you know
The  end result was not bad but nothing amazing it was just like any other previous haircuts

At least it wasnt like a Sreedevi nosejob !

well even with that sorry face your hair looks decent now said the great man !

one can make the craft of a master form a distance

I just nodded

the kotaram barber dusted me and made me get down from the high stool

the show ended with me parting a fat fee for the handicrafts  of his highness the Kottaram Barber

( well I have exaggerated for sarcasm he was only half as bad as narrated )