Monday, November 17, 2008

Shanghai Trip Day 22 - Reconciliation

Mandi is a satirical comedy about sex workers, politics and society. Shabana Aazmi, Om puri, Smita Patil, Sayeed Zafri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Nasiruddin Shah. Awesome movie. The movie moved me. I just did not want to sleep now. Switched to another movie. Fire by deepa mehta. Another thought intriguing movie with Nandita Das, Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan and Javed Zafri. I don't what was I trying to do by watching all these movies. Movies which talked about sex but did not give pleasure to the viewer while talking about it. The movies showed the dark side of the secual life and how it could transform so many things in a man's life.

I kept thinking and downloaded another movie - Ardhasatya. By now it was already morning. Before I could start the movie, I felt asleep. Woke up around 1 pm and without even getting up started watching Ardhsatya. A line just hit me.

एक पलडे में पौरुष, दूसरे में नपुंसकता
और बीच में ठीक कांटे पर रखा हुआ अर्धसत्य...

The movie, with brilliant performances by Om Puri, Smita Patil, Amrish Puri, Sadashiv Amraopurkar talks about the little details about police life and the way it gets affected by the nexus of criminals, politicans and police itself. The movie leaves you thinking. And then I downloaded another one. Gardish.

Acted by Jackie Shroff, Amrish Puri, Dimple Kapadia and Mukesh Rishi, this one talks about a simple man who is force to resort to violence and then just can't get out of it. Not an art movie, but provokes a few thoughts, definitely. I remember watching this movie years ago with my dad. He has been, despite hi sage, a young rebel at heart and that reflects in the movies he watches and the books he read.

Having watched four movies, I had already reached dinner time. It was 9 in the night. Made dinner with the penultimate pack of ready-to-eat and rice. Watched some light comedy while cooking and dining on Star Movies. I think that should have made me lighter by now. The last week of stay in Shanghai starts tomorrow. Time to wrap up stuff and get going.

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