I’ve been thinking of setting up a Bangalore centric blog, when I stumbled upon Metblogs. Check out the Mumbai metro section – it’s bustling!

I think it’s high time we have a Bangalore representation too. This is after all a great city where many people are heading to nowadays (whether it is for work or pleasure).

The adminstrators of Metblogs have okayed a Bangalore blog, all we need now are a few people to join in the team. The blog will need to be updated at least 3-4 times a week and with about 10 authors, I think this is very feasible. If you want to come on board, please email me at the earliest.

Please make sure that you will be able to take out some time every week to make at least one-two posts. The topic needs to be anything related to the city – you can have a look at some of the other cities to find out what others are writing about.

There’s a lot happening in Bangalore, and loads of issues we can highlight, so please let me know if you’re interested. Preferably, you should be Bangalore based and have some feeling (hopefully positive) towards the city… drop in a mail to: anitabora5 at rediffmail dot com.

Had some amazing fish last week at Chennai, when I was there for a one day trip. Caught up with Kiruba, who as always was nice enough to take out some time from his busy schedule.

Looking for a place to grab a bite, he spotted a signboard saying Coconut Lagoon with the illustration of a karimeen fish. That was enough to get me enthused and we spied the restaurant, a few metres away. It promised the ‘Delicacies of Mangalore, Goa and Kerala’ and we weren’t disappointed.

I, of course, went straight for karimeen, since the last time I had it was during my 2004 Kerala visit. It came steamed and packed in banana leaf and tasted really delightful. Since Kribs is not much of a fish person (as per his own admission), I landed up polishing most of it. The place is on Radhakrishna Road, just beside Amravathi - worth trying if you’re in that part of the town!

I’ve been wanting to set up a photoblog for a while. Since I mass upload most of my pictures on Flickr.com (without much stress on quality), this one will be especially for the ones I like or think are worth showcasing. Hopefully, I should be able to update it with a picture every second day or so.

Presenting:

(PS: Thanks, as usual, to Madman who helped with setting it up and doing all the dirty work that needs to be done behind the scenes!)

It’s not often that you see a movie and want to write about it. But recently, I watched 2 that are worth mentioning…

There’s magic in the air

The first one was Chronicles of Narnia, a really well crafted fairy tale by CS Lewis and equally well rendered onto the silver screen by director Andrew Adamson. I’d say it’s a must-watch inspite of its ‘Hindi moviesh’ length. The acting overall, was especially good and the one character that I particularly loved was young Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley).

It also brought to mind an important question. What do these young people eat while growing up? They’re definitely feeding them things we never ate. She’s 5 and acts like a total pro! And she has the most beautiful eyes. What a darling. Apparently Adamson gave all of them i-Pods once they had finished filming and she thanked him profusely before turning and asking: “What is it?”!

CS Lewis’s magical tale is brought to life in true technicolor glory by Adamson who recreates a world where animals talk and where the landscapes are overwhelmingly stark but beautiful (the ice castle looks overwhelming!). The war scenes with mythical creatures like the half men-half horses and those huge birds all seem to come to life on screen drawing us into a world, where you can’t help but believe for a while that there is magic everywhere!

And the lion – voiced by Liam Neeson… Wow, what can I say? Being a lover of cats, I have a soft spot for all animals in this particular family, including the lion. What a majestic creature. One forgets after a while that it’s “talking” lion and actually begins to believe it is really talking!

This is only one of CS Lewis’s novels in the series. There are quite a few more (perhaps enough to keep Adamson occupied for the rest of his career!), and since this one has been brought to the screen successfully, we will no doubt see the sequels…

Publication Order:
1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
2. Prince Caspian
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4. The Silver Chair
5. The Horse and His Boy
6. The Magician’s Nephew
7. The Last Battle

Chronological Order:

1. The Magician’s Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle

(Source: Wikipedia)

Adamson is now working on the sequel, Prince Caspian slated for release in December 2007.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also, caught up with the much talked about Rang de Basanti.

The acting: Unlike what was expected, Aamir didn’t hog all the attention. It was well divided between all the friends. I especially liked Siddharth & Kunal Kapoor. The whole first half exuded such vibrancy that you couldn’t help but be affected by this group of friends and especially their humour, which was so relatable.

The story: The historical parts interspersed with the present integrated well into the storyline. The end yes, it has been much debated. Despite its extremity, in its defense, I have to say that it makes one think and that’s more than what many movies these days do. After having watched and reviewed many crappy movies I must say this one definitely stood out in all aspects – whether it was cinematography, music, editing, acting etc.

On the downside, it is hard to digest what they do in the end as a feasible solution and I’m not sure why Rakeysh Mehra decided to go with this particular ending. Was it optimistic? Was it pessimistic? What was it trying to say to the youth? I, for one, wasn’t really clear. Especially the whole cracking down scene on demonstrators, and the finale at the radio station seemed like taking things too far. I know the director has creative licence, but I did wonder since otherwise the movie unfolded so well.

Was such an extreme step necessary? Couldn’t there have been an alternative if Mehra’s point was to show that the youth are responsibility for making sure the country moves in the right direction and not just sit around and complain. Perhaps a more feasible story, to an otherwise really sane, interesting and youthful film would have gone down well.

And on an end note, the songs I think were quite brilliant. They not only wove themselves into the fabric of the film, but also conveyed a sense of vibrancy that nearly had me up and doing the bhangra along with the rest of them. All in all, I’d give it a 8/10 from my side. What’s your take?

Jethro Tull as expected rocked the IIM grounds last Friday (Jan 3). It was my first visit to the much hallowed campus and whatever little I saw looked good. There was hardly any space for parking with all the narrow roads choc-a-bloc with vehicles. I made a reasonably early entry arriving with my precious pass in hand (thanks a lot to Usha!). As soon as I entered the grounds, I made my way to the very front of the stage.

My last encounter with Tull was from the last row of a Mumbai auditorium so this time I made sure I was up front! TAAQ opened for Tull and played some of their numbers. It’s 10 years for this talented band and it was good to see them going strong with their new vocalist David Pascal.

Ian Anderson at 58 (thanks Suman for pointing out his correct age!) is wonderfully agile, I must say. The way he pranced around the stage, changing instruments, would put even a 25 year old to shame! He was amazing, to say the very least. I am not sure how he’s sustained his energy, but I’m filled with admiration and I had to pick up my jaws from IIMB’s dusty grounds on many an occasion that evening!

They played many not so old, old, and very old numbers. Some of my favourites – Life’s a Long Song, Thick as a Brick, Locomotive Breath and Hot Night in Budapest (what awesome acoustics!). The lesser heard Mozs Art (Tull’s tribute to Mozart) and Bach were simply brilliant.

After the show, we trooped to one of the canteens serving up hot bread omlettes, maggi and paratha chicken and whiled our time away till about midnight when most of the crowd had dissipated.

On Saturday evening, we went for a jazz and violin performance at Opus. The atmosphere at this place is really nice and they usually have interesting live music sessions or karaoke nights happening there as I’ve written before. But unfortunately, the service leaves us cold every time. I am not sure they are really up to handling the crowds they get for these events, but even the bill takes anywhere up to half and hour or more. I wish they’d pay a little more attention to the service. Even their drinks and food menu, IMHO, can do with a revival and some fresh blood (or fresh taste at least). It has all the makings of a perfect place for an evening out otherwise.

Uriah Heep performs tomorrow at the Bangalore Palace Ground. There’s a performance of Zakir Hussain and Birju Maharaj coming up and also a dance performance at Chowdiah tomorrow that promises to be interesting. Much to do and see as usual!

Day 1: It took us about 10 hours to reach Top Slip, but it was well worth the long journey.

A beautiful and verdant place, Top Slip is basically the place you need to head to if you want to explore the Annamalai forest range and Indira Gandhi wildlife sanctuary. It is about 40 kms from the town of Pollachi (which is another 40 kms from Coimbatore).

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