livin-on-the-cactus: 12 Angry Men

livin-on-the-cactus: 12 Angry Men

livin-on-the-cactus: Casablanca

livin-on-the-cactus: Casablanca

12 Angry Men

It is one movie that stands out with its amazing Screenplay, gripping Narration, magnificent Direction and some amazing performances.

Set in a a small room where twelve jurors sit to decide the fate of an 18 yr old boy accused of killing his father with a knife. All witnesses are against him including an eye-witness who saw him do it, and another who saw him run away just 15 seconds after the killing took place. To complicate things , the boy pleads not guilty as he claims to be at a movie the whole time. But, it sounds like a hollow alibi since he cannot recollect the movie he saw nor who starred in it.

The judge has a order that the jury should be unanimous and if the boy is guilty as charged then he has to be sent to the chair without any questions asked.

The movie starts with the jury pretty convinced that the boy is guilty and only one jury (Henry Fonda) stands for not guilty. He says he really doesnot know if the boy is guilty or not , he is unsure but he doesnot want to sent him to chair without a fair discussion.

He doesnot even have a single valid point and with all the evidence and witnesses acting against the bot , it seems he has a tough job at hand.

but slowly as the film advances he starts tearing all evidences into peices and succeds at convincing half of the jury. The other half is still unmoved and it looks as if it is leading to a hung jury.

This is when the movie gets really captivating . They take the two eye-witness's testimony and gradually prove it to be under reasonable doubtAt the end of the movie all jurors remove their personal preferences and prejudices aside to give a unanimous "not guilty" verdict.

the movie is set in asinle room and a small rest room for all but three minutes and has twelve faces. Most of them not so known except ofcourse Henry fonda and to an extent Martin Balsam and Lee J Cobb. But i can Promise you it is as good a movie as it can get.

Casablanca

If you wanna see how love hurts , you have to see this movie, specially the sequence where a Drunk Humphrey Bogart pleads Sam(Dooley wilson) to sing " as time goes by".

The movie is considered one of the greatest all time and one of the best tragic love stories. Starring Humphrey Bogart , Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid in major roles and directed by Michael Curtiz, is a must watch for it's story , amazing performance and some really good punch lines like " Heres looking at you kid" , "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" , "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." " we will always have Paris" and "Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life."

The story is set in Casablanca (a city in western Morocco, located on the Atlantic Ocean, which is a gateway to America from Europe.) Rick BLaine(Humphrey Bogart) runs a posh nightclub in a city populated by people who illegally want to go to US. His place not only attracts them but also the stern cops( on lookout for such people, as well as people who want to cash-in on this oppertunity.

Rick somehow gets a "letter of transit" from a petty criminal that allows the bearer to travel freely around German-controlled Europe and to neutral Portugal, and from there to the United States. Though rick claims a neutral positon with regards to worldly affairs, he has a grey past which he soen't want to haunt him.

Twist in the tale , enters pretty Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), with her husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) to purchase the letters. Laszlo is a renowned Czech Resistance leader on the run from the Nazis. The couple need the letters in order to be able to leave Casablanca for America, where Laszlo can continue his work. German Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt) arrives to ensure that Laszlo does not escape.

Rick refuses to hand over the letter to them without giving them a reason. Upon being asked repeatedlt he says lazlo to "ask his wife". Ilsa comes back in the night gives her reasons for deserting him and begs for the letter. But, she finds herself totally in love with him again and swears never to leave him. They then decide that Rick would let Lazlo have the Letter of transit while Ilsa will stay back with him.

The climax is amazing where Rick sacrifices his love and lets them both go.

Amazing movie , Gracious and a little grey at times.

I know most of you must have watched it alre3ady and those of who , who haven't got the chance get the DVD from your nearest shop, you won,t repent it , thats my word.

P.S I personally like the way Humphrey Bogart drags heavilly on his cigettes and the song " as time goes by" …. my rating 9.5/10

To Kill a Mockingbird

I remember Tom Criuse opening the Oscar night some years ago( i guess it was 2002) , and he tried to justify why we need movies in such turbulent times. There he mentioned "To Kill a Mockingbird" as after the movie he wanted to be an attorney.

This movie is rated the 25th all time best at AFI and and it's hero Atticus Fich (Gregory Peck as an white attorney defending a black guy accused of raping a white woman) is rated the #1 American Film Hero of all times by the same .

When i first read the book, i just loved it. "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee always will figure in my list of top ten books ever. It was with this notion and a little doubt in my mind, on whether anyone can really justify a book that is so minutely written, that i saw the movie.

Though as everyone would agree that comparing a movie with it's film adaptationis not exactly being just to the moviemaker as in all classical movie adaptation( Gone with the wind, The Godfather, Wuthering Heights to name a few) you sometimes feel something missing as compared to the book. I guess that is very much due to the lack of creative independence in case of a movie. But, having said that let me tell you this movie is one which sometimes matches the book narration.

The story is told through the eyes of two kids Scout and Jem,(especially "Scout", Mary Badham in her best known role) as they go about they go about they normal life(like school ,teachers and summer holidays) during difficult times. As their father represents a black(Tom Robinson) accused of raping a white woman ( though it was a not the case) in a white dominant neighbourhood at times where blacks were considered as secondary citizen.

The movie starts with a parallel story of a mysterious house and a mysterious character by the name of Boo Radley (Robert Duvall in his big screen debut) that captivates the minds of these young people. The rising temper of the city ( as atticus being a white defending a black , is referred to as "Nigger Lover") is very evident even for the innocent kids as they face trouble in school and all around.

There are a few memorable scenes like the time when Atticus tells Jem that there were so many bad things in the world and he cannot keep them all away from his kids. The helplessness and the anguish that the character(Gregory Peck) displays is amazing.

Atticus loses the case , and Tom Robinson is killed while trying to flee from the police, but he wins so much respect among the black community that is uncomparable . It is best summed up in the lines where the priest asks Scout to stand up in salutation " Your Father is Passing" and that particular scene where he walks away(lost in courtroom) amidst standing ovation from the black community.

Film ends When jem and Scout are attacked while coming back from school and mysterious Boo RAdley saving there lives.

One of the greatest films ever made and a must watch for all who like classics.

Wanna be a Lawyer

Lawyers should never ask a witness a question if they aren't prepared for the answer.

In a trial, a Southern small town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grand motherly, elderly woman to the stand. He approached her and asked, "Mrs. Jones, do you know me?"
She responded, "Why, yes I do know you, Mr. Williams. I've known you since you were a young boy, and frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you."

The Lawyer was stunned! Not knowing what else to do, he Pointed across the room and asked, "Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?"

She again replied, "Why yes, I do. I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster too. He's lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. He can't build a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes, I know him.

The defense attorney almost died.

The judge asked both counselors to approach the bench and in a very quiet voice, said, "If either of you bastards asks her if she knows me, I'll jail you for the contempt of court…

P.S Amazing joke one of the best i have heard ………………got it in the mail

cheers enjoy

My ordeal with names

I have a distinction. Everyone i meet and subsequently impress (i don't know with what?) award me a name albiet a very weird one.It so happens that i move on but these guys somehow can't and call me by the same name their whole life.So, here i am being called by a thousand names and by thousand different people and i have a difficult time remembering them all . Being a gentleman that i am, i wanted to respond to all those names whenever called .

My ordeal with names started when i was a kid and had absolutely no idea that people around me were conspiring by giving me names more than alphabets in chinese script. My mom named me "Mithoo" ( you got it right , all gals used to tease me by "aaja aaja mere mithoo miyaan ,tujhe pinjare mein band karloon" , but i don't know where they all disappeared when i was old enough to appreciate them,they sure got me angry then) .

My dad apparently wanted a girl and dissapointed at getting a raw deal named me "Bobby", i don't if it was revenge of sorts or his infatuation with Dimple kapadia or he simply ran out of names( and decided to stick with the one he had thought for his would be daughter). To add to injuries my mom used to dress me like a girl, they say i looked really hot( to the dissapointment of many kiddos who used to lick their milk bottles hungarily after looking at me , i grew upto be a man)

It was just a beginning, they also gave me a good name as "Sudhanshu Shekhar" . Not that i don't like that name but it had a few technical difficulties.

• I didnot know how to pronounce and spell my name correctly till i was in 4th and i had to go back home with a red bum every alternate day.
• Most of the guys i have met take special pleasure in voilating the sanctity of my name "Sudarshan" is the closest i get most of the times.
• People, who know that such a name does exist , always confuse me to be a Bengali or oriya( my speaking bengali does help them in their conclusion), ignoring my very proud Bihari roots.
• It takes awfully lot of time to spell it phonetically over phone if you are talking to some call center agents or the bank( i remember once it took me all the way from Royapettah to Thuraipakkam to give my name to ICICI).
• In my school they miscontrued "Sudhanshu" in every possible way , the one closest to my heart is shit-on-your-shoe.

This was just the beginning. I had a teacher who in a moment of ecstacy named me "Machchar" (Mosquito) which i later realized was due to my squeaky voice and ultra thin frame.This name stuck with me like no other though it was it 2nd satandard i still have frfiends who call me that though i have inproved fairly on my thin frame now.

My Father is a Sanskrit Professor so i was naturally bound to be good at it (though its a terror to all high school kids i know). So came the name "Kalidas" . Though the origin of this name had nothing to with my father . The Teacher who named me thus , thought that i closely reminded him of someone who could cut the same branch he was sitiing on.

During the last days of my school life, i still had the baby face i was endowed with,while my friends started looking like uncles and aunties , so they named me " Butroo" ( a kid in bihari) , this was the name i hated the most but it was the named i was called the most with.

P.S Yesterday a friend told me that i write long blogs so ill cut this short here and write the Part II starting from the college days , do commemt .

Indecent proposals..........

Life ain't fun unless you explore every bit of it. Some of the life's biggest joy are the times you fall in love and even more hilarious are times when you really find that courage to ask that special someone out. And you goof up…….
Here are some of such proposals from my real life encounters ( though not necessarily involving me).
Scenario one:
A girl ,say X introduces a guy ,say Y to her boyfriend ,say Z. All three chat for a time ,suddenly Y gets excited and says " This guy sure is your boyfriend but i don't care about him and i still can't get you outta my head. I love just as i did always". The look on her and her boyfriends face just can't be explained but it kinda looked like that of Hillary Clinton when she heard of the Monicka case.
Scenario 2:
A guy secretly loves a girl, who has no clue what so ever of his existence. Finally, he gathers all the courage in the world and walks upto her and says
" I know i love you ,just came here to know if you can love me back."
Scenario 3:
A guy has a bet(a paltry 5 star) with his friends that he can win a girl heart ,he goes over and proposes .The girl considering that , the guy was not only good in studies but was kinda cute too)accepts. ANTICLIMAX that foolish guy shouts right there to his friends some 50 meters away " you guys owe me somethings."
Not to mention it ended right then and there.
Scenario 4 :
Guy proposing to his elder sister's friend " Didi, I love you".
Scenario 5:
Guy walk up to a girl asks " Do you wanna #@&*ing go around with me?" Unfortunatelly the gal accepted.
Scenario 6:
Guy proposes a girl, she rejects, he turns towards her friend and says " she ain't interested and she is not half as beautiful as you are, what do you say".


P.S Its some scenario's i encountered . intended for fun ,not to hurt anyone and please add your experiences too … to make it more colorful

Who the hell says i am fine

Four walls , one door , a window if opened can fill your room with the saddest smell you know , an a/c that makes one hell of a noise and a computer that lacks any brain what so ever, what else can you expect from your life?

People like me expect so much from life. Mental peace,Financial wellbeing ,good health and not too forget a wonderful chick that can spice up your life (as they say health,wealth,prosperity and sex).

All my life people have been telling me to do things (that i never really liked) so that i can have a wonderful career. Now that i have one, it doesn't look so appealing, the reason ,why do i expect so much from my life?

Heath Ledger died,but boy what a job did he do in The Dark Knight, but why am i talking about him, because i m looking forward for that movie .

Chennai is so damn boring .......... all you can do is to jump in the see as the heat will drive you at that.

I just finished reading the last mughal its a terrific book , highly recommended. Buy it when you get a chance.

I sometimes wonder whats the best software available?

My vote is torn between Outlook , Power Point and Excel we Techies would be in uter strait without them.

when i decided to quit…….

“To quit smoking is the easiest thing in the world; I have already done that a thousand times”

One fine day, I got up and thought I had enough of this poison killing my lungs and I decided to quit. Not to add, it was obviously not first of such thoughts for I had been smoking close to two packets a day for the last 9 years and had made every effort to make true the above quoted statement.

Great have been the humiliations afflicted on me, every time I have not kept my words (my not so willing a willpower always deserts me in such scenarios). Friends and foes,
lovers and haters, all alike in their undiluted dislike of not so harmless addiction that I took to in my late school years. Smoking was one physical pleasure and an economic extravagance that I gave into.

Though it was my lung and also my father’s hard earned money that going up in puffs, I never before had seen that in the light of the economic impact it has on one’s monthly last week outstanding, until it was both my lungs and my money.

Its not that I have not tried or I did not want to quit, for its all smokers ultimate desire to be a non-smoker one day. However all my earlier attempts came to abrupt halts in the wake of numerous out of the world, so stressing a situation too many, that it needed the immediate healing of what we than called “ the miracular herb” of the nicotine filled dose of a cigarette.

But the fight between the angel in my head and the fiend in my fingers (and my lungs too) had to end. And one fine day I started my ordeal and gave myself an ultimatum that end of year 2008 was my deadline for quitting or else I was seeking professional help. Thank the goodness in the world it did not have to stretch that long and I kicked the cancer stick and its butt (pun intended) for good on one jolly good of a Chennai day.

p.s: This is how my ordeal started and hope to keep you updated on how it goes.

Crushed in my Crushes........

Alicia Silverstone boy is she beautiful, but have you seen her in 'crush'?
However, this aint a blog where i narrate my ordeal with a girl like that as the life has been good to me so far
From what i remember my first crush was on my lovely keralite teacher with very Malaika Arora kinda build. I was in class four and fortunately was very active in everything but studies. So, everytime i brought a prize in Elocution the rerward apart from the cup was a warm hug( i certainly looked forward with great eagerness for the latter). everytime we won the 4 x 100 relay the reward was a cute smile and a gentle touch on my cheek with a bonus medal which i could share with the outside world ( i definately would not share the first).
She brought spring to my heart and sent chill shivers in the rest of my body.I know that was very innocent on her part but had she known the wonders it does to my mind,soul and body, she would have never done that. But with all gratitude i started writing poetry very early in my life.
I grew up, changed my school and memories faded.... phi ek din apne muhalle main Juhi aayee.... apna dil chakkar kha gaya ..... dimaaag phir takkar kha gaya ....boy was she an angel.... we were nieghbours and she was an year junior to me ( i was in class sixth then).
We had everything in common ..... and we spent many a unforgetfull evenings on our by bed hand-in-hand listening to Boney M and King Presley and reading sherlock holmes ......we had every intention of getting married and i still remember the name our kids that were never to be...... her father got a transfer after 6 months of innocent love.
Then there was a time every girl i saw was beatiful, and i estimate i have been in love atleast a thousand times in that period of three years .How can i forget the endless painful nights i spent thinking of Lisa Ray when i saw her in The Afreen video.All i dreamt about was her and i can tell you i slept a lot.
My brother married the most beautiful girl i have ever seen and my heart wept for the first time, being stabbed by a guy whom i thought my own. I remember writing a love letter to my bhabhi and she said yes but i guess she was more in love with my brother than me.
Then was a lull in my life so colourfull .Not that the girls seized being beautifull or i had switched sides, but just because someone did not like my being flirtious to others, especially girls. I had a numerous crushes and all were crushed beneath the burden of sacrifice called Love.
And then one fine day she got married and i was a free bird and could not be any happier.
The whole world changed dramatically in a day.Girls never had been this beautiful before and i was totally madly deeply in love with one of my senior's girlfriend but alas neither did she appreciate it nor that heartless senoir and not to mention i nursed a broken heart and i broken jaw at the same time.Life can be CRUEL and UNSYMPATHETIC at times.
I finished college was working happily in HP until i saw this incredibly gorgeous girl and i just felt like a kid again. I asked her out we went out for a couple of times and then she went to Timbaktu leaving me my feelings , my emotions and me .
To overcome that sorrow i quit HP joined Cognizant .I left bangalore and came to chennai.Things were so best described as normal with training and stuff . And one fine of a Chennai day we moved to another Facility and lo my life changed a girl so angelic and divine that my heart started pounding everytime i saw her( it used to pound earlier too but i never noticed).
Twist in the tail in a couple of days she completed her training and was shifted to some other location. I don't know her name ,her domain or anything about her..... but i can't just forget that face that made the world such a beatiful place to live in .
P.S This is a work of fiction and any resemblence to anyone dead or alive is purely coincidental.