A great weekend.........

Wow!! What a satisfying weekend. After a run of mediocre movies, had a fantastic weekend this time around. T0 start off, was Pride and prejudice. A great show, with the dynamics between Mr Darcy and Elizabeth being portrayed beautifully. fantastic camerawork to boot.
If P&P was the appetizer, Crash was the excellent main course. A movie about intertwined relationships and reactions, based on stereotypical characters that make for one of the best contemporary movies I have seen. After years, a movie that actually gave meaning and credibility to the oscars. The movie starts with a crash, literally. It takes us through the eyes of a rascist white cop and a tolerant one, a submissive black studio writer and his wife, two black robbers, a mexican store owner, a hispanic lock repairer, a white DA and his bigot of a wife. The reactions of these people to common situations have been portrayed so realistically. The movie takes you through a gamut of emotions - laughter, sorrow, raw anger.......When the cop asks the black couple to put their hands up and searches the lady all over.......you can see tears of rage in their eyes.........Was literally crying with rage during that scene. The first half ends with an accident and the same cop going over to rescue a woman.........to find it was the same he molested......The cry of the woman...."Oh! Not you" shakes you. The cops behaviour this time around is examplary (P.S On a side note, why is it that we reserve our best for a crisis?) The first and second half are thesis and anti-thesis. One of the scenes where the black robber tries to rob the car of the script writer and both are held up by the police......good cop this time is FANTASTIC. And when the segment ends with the writer telling the robber that he disgraces the entire black community.......WOW!! If you havent seen this......get out and head to the theatre. This is one of those rare jewels......a must watch. (On another side note, irrelevant to the main theme, the robbers having a go on dumb rednecks had me applauding......Hope George W gets to see it.)
Desert was a play called Rural Phantasy (Kalki novel), enacted by Madras Players. Madras Players are one of Chennai's oldest troupes and for the first time, they have staged a musical, which was a fantastic first attempt. The script was English and the music Tamil / Hindi. More than the story itself, it was the music and choreo that was haunting. Got to hear Vijayi Vishwathi.....after a gap of almost 6 years. Can remember sitting in school on republic / independence days, gossiping in the back row and letting out a collective groan when this was played. To hear this today.........my god.........took me painfully back to school, as did Rara Venu, which I remember was performed at one of my annual days. Hated Carnatic music then (Still do), but these were someting else. And of course, Ragupathi Raghav and Vande Mataram had to be played. Remember as a kid, used to wait for the AIR to play these songs. Memories....Memories!!
Spent the ride back home chatting with my friend Diwakar, both of us reminiscing about our school days........A glorious end to a glorrious Sunday.

- Hari