Latest & Greatest from Kamal

This is amazing. A website of the 'most recent' from kamal's world. The content is awesome. They actually have an article written by Sujatha in 1976, when the writer visited him during the shooting of a Tier 2 malayalam film. One of the posts actually apologizes for being a few days late on a 'dasavatharam' update...wow....and I thought I was the lone crazy fan in this world!

http://www.allthingskamal.info/blog/

and by the way.....these are the 'official' stills of the film!!!!!!

Today show

My 3.73 seconds of fame ;)

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=0EA63BB2-9FF0-4115-B7F8-728BEC5B9DE4&f=00&fg=copy

Matagorda Island

'Thick Brush' is the literal translation from spanish. I am not entirely sure why they called it so! Matagorda island is a good 180 miles south west of Houston, by the Gulf of Mexico. It was my pick for a 'less picnic-sy' and more 'solitud-ish'camp site for the June weekend. That is precisely was the websites told me.


















So after days of scheduling and re-scheduling and re-scheduling, Vikrant Gandhi, Kiran Unni and yours truly finally picked up our brand new camp equipment and hit the road on a super warm saturday morning. The idea was to hit the port by early afternoon, take the ferry to the island and spend the night there, in the company of mother nature and fellow campers. At least, that was the idea on paper!

2:00 PM - We arrive at port-o-connor after a thankfully uneventful drive, except for the weird, dark restrooms of that lonely gas station!

2:30 PM - we hit the water on Ron's fishing boat cum ferry. Easily the best part of the trip.











2:59 PM - I realize we forgot the beer. Thankfully Ron has backup in his ice box!



3:30 PM - kiran's home made pav bhaji ka jawab nahin!

(photo removed)

4:00 PM - After a furious battle with the user's manual, we finish setting up the tent - at least in our opinion!











5:30 PM - We begin the walk to the other side to say hello to the Gulf of Mexico. Little did we know at that time that it will be our longest and most terrifying hello ever!

7:15 PM - After losing our way 5 times and not spotting a single rattle snake (it was supposed to be the rattler's country), we are still a mile from the gulf....but at an interesting cross road and sign!

(photo removed)
















8:00 PM - After surprisingly not waking up any alligators on our way, here we are at the gulf. Hello!













8:45 PM - The sun is still out and surprise surprise, we are still alive...what better time for relief!












9:30 PM

after an entire day's vigil for rattle snakes and alligators, mother nature uses her alternate weapon of mass destruction on us....fire ants!!! shock & awe! as we tried to sneek in....
camping lesson 1A : Never pitch a tent on grass, if you have an option.

9:45 PM

Thats not all....surprise surprise, the other campers have called it a day. That means that we were the only homosapiens on that island for the night. Not exactly the saturday night plan we had....and with the ant revolution, it was time for a frantic call to ron the ferry guy!

10:15 PM

No sign of Ron's boat....but we had company....distant sound of Coyotes......(very) ugly! With Vikrant and a kitchen knife standing between us and a potential argument with a pack of wild coyotes.....we wait for the boat...which eventually docks in pitch darkness....with the help of a fancy gps system.

1:00 AM

Back home at the apartment. Red wine and fast food. Not the ideal camping night we had in mind, but hey....I am not complaining!

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom

I have never left a theatre 12 minutes into a film, especially after paying $8 for the ticket. I did, last saturday - dumped JBJ after it barely began and sneeked up in time for Cheeni Kum. Probably the swiftest and the bestest decision I would make in my time.

If you have not watched it already, lemme give you an idea. 80s porn. The idea pretty much is that there will be a frame, two actors will walk into it and mouth their lines, a music track will be playing in the background, it need not necessarily have anything to do with the situation on screen (kenny G works best), and then there will be wild sex.

Now, replace the sex with a song and dance routine, make the frame look good (shoot abroad, use a brilliant cameraman, etc) and voila! - you have a Yash Raj Production.

The Downfall (Der Untergang, 2005)

If you are one of those people who have had enough of the monochromatic holocaustish World War II movies and are desperately looking for another angle, then "The Downfall" is the film for you. It is not anti-semitic nor is it a 'hail hitler' film...that way, it would not have reached the academy in 2005. I think it is an attempt to recount the tale of the last few days of the fuhrer and his team-the way it actually it happened. and boy, does it work!

I missed the opening credits and a good part of the beginning as I tuned in late...but read later that the film is actually an account of the last ten days in the sub-terrain headquarters. Also, it is based on books and accounts of people who were pretty much there. Like Frau Trudl Junge for example, who was Hitler's secretary (and an extremely pretty one!). I was shocked to see her interview just before the credits - recorded in 2002....she was apparently alive until 2003!!!

Bruno Ganz is extremely believable as a tired, old and a still ruthlessly focussed Hitler. What strikes you about the film is the completely different character sketch of this man and for that matter, the Nazi junta itself. Doctors, friends, drinking buddies, lovers, kids...normal people. I love the way this scene has been written:

the end is near. the alco hol is out. some choose to end it in their own terms. So people leave the drinking table on by one with a mild good bye and enter the toilet where a doctor explains to them the science of shooting yourself and the tricks to keep it painless...no violin orchestras playing in the background, no close-ups to 'enhance the emotion', nothing. The scene just rocks you by itself.