1.
Spelling bee: Never understood why this creates such a big buzz. Is it just another demonstration of intellectual superiority of the indian diaspora in the US, or is it a real competition? Why is everyone so obsessed with it?
As an aside, the girl who came second stumbled on the word
weltschmerz. Wait, did I spell it wrong?
2. Fanaa: Yes, its maudlin and full of improbable conicidences. Yes, the plot is full of craters. Yes, the shayari gets a little too much to bear. Yes, Kajol still looks thin and young. Yes, Aamir Khan still looks fat and old. Yes, we differ on the yakkity-yakking Bobo female. Yes, to have Lara Dutta in a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo is bad. Yes, to have Lara Dutta and not have an item-number is worse.
But then all said and done, we have to remember the premise: "
Its a Yash Raj movie", and that would explain it all. We are talking about the same factory which mass-produced tearjerkers like
Veer Zaara,
Mohabbatein and
Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. They do this for a living. What else did you expect?
3. Vinci da Code: Err, the lesser said the better. The controversy and the sensationalization of it, in my opinion, is way past its sell out date. Read it, haven't watched the movie yet. But I wonder how they will manage to implement the
trivia-in-the-storyline, a format patented and perfected by Dan Brown. Heaven forbid, if there are any car chases, I would hate for Sophie(?) to exclaim "Jesus Christ" and the Langdon fellow to give us a "crash"-course in what I call reinterpreted history in response.
(Thanks AA for the
Vinci da Code bit. Apparently, thats what they would call the movie in Sadda Punjab. Sorry, I killed the joke.)
4. Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt: I pity her that despite her parents' honest effort to find the remotest corner in the world for her, that's perhaps the last bit of privacy she will ever get. They also made an honest effort to find her a name as "remote". Frankly, I pity her more for her name, for everytime she will have to stand in front of a desk and spell it out, oooof. But then, maybe she never will have to. With those set of genes, I don't think so.
5. And whats with Oriyas these days: First there was the winner
Budhia Singh and his "also-ran" counterpart
Dilip Rana. Then the
NASA awardees and the
tea-stall owner's son who made it to the IAS made us proud. Now there is a woman
getting married to a snake. Suddenly Oriyas are ubercool and are commanding their own space on the news paper. I wonder if I am missing the publicity bandwagon.
I am getting mo' and mo' cynical by the minute.
*Update*: Few days after this was posted:
Desipundit led me to this piece:
On Being Oriya
Owen Wilson? Yeah, kinda. Thats if you stare hard enough for long enough. Flattering? Perhaps!
