General Musings..

Hmm, lots to write about and not much time to do it in.. so here goes..

 

Saw the movie “Machete” – a clearly crazy Robert Rodriguez venture as B Grade as Grindhouse was, especially Planet Terror was. This one again has all the A stars in it.. the hero though is eternal B Grade – Danny Trejo, doing what he does best, playing a rather grouchy looking Mexican ex-Federale on a rampage after being double crossed. The storyline is but a clotheshorse to hang all the action on. The man, though is luckier than most other heroes even in Rodriguez movies, as he gets to bed Michelle Rodrigues, Jessica Alba and Lindsay Lohan – as a friend put it, if Lohan was the worst of that trio, it must be some trio indeed. The cast is completed by Steven Seagal, looking fatter than ever as the main villain, Robert Deniro in one of those roles where you wonder whether he did for the money or that he owes Rodriguez something, Cheech Marin as a shotgun toting priest and Don Johnson playing against the rub as a rascist frontier vigilante. Awesome action, all snazzy and gory fights which you would be used to if you have been a follower of the Rodriguez- Tarantino range of movies, the funky editing and of course, the screenplay, which in the hands of someone else would have been reduced to cliché. Danny Trejo makes a  very good Machete, as the role only demands that he look grouchy and grumpy and then chop up everyone who comes his way with the Machete. The women are all uniformly hot and seriously underclad, especially Lohan as it looks like Rodriguez did not have a wardrobe budget for her, that she spend 90% of the screen time without anything on. Alba and the other Rodrigues are clad but well, you know how that goes. DeNiro as the corrupt and rascist senator is well as slimy as we know he can be, Johnson is vile, Cheech Marin is Cheech Marin and Seagal well for once is not thumping everyone while not moving and looking like one of the fat hippos. And he may have actually acted a bit in this movie. In all, watch it if you like the Rodriguez version of movies, if you don’t avoid at all counts, this aint a classic.

 

Moving on, another movie which I saw parts of was Kick Ass – which is well part hilarious, part hideous – the former because of the funky action and dialogues. There is a scene where the main bodyguard of the villain enters the room where the villain and his son are cowering and says, everything is okay and then goes for the bazooka in the room. Especially since the person wrecking the place up is a 11 year old girl – named Hit Girl. Which brings us to the hideous part, while the role of a child assassin sounds good when you have it in Japanese Anime, translating it into live action is not well, what one can approve of. Nevertheless, the Hit Girl kicks royal ass of pretty much everyone in the movie, including the bazooka handling bodyguard. Nicholas Cage does one of his usual mind bending roles and makes it seem like he was born to do it and seriously at it too – the only equal I can see to him is Dr Rajendra Prasad in QGM. The kid (the girl) is very cute and from her antics very capable of eliminating roomfuls of well armed and very bad men. Other things in the movie, including the titular superhero Kick Ass as superfluous as story holders and nothing much more. The last scene promises a sequel, which hopefully will have a slightly older Hit Girl taking out people in innovative ways. Likeable movie, but only if you are willing to overlook the fact that a 11 year old kills more men than Liam  Neeson did in all of Taken.

 

Moving over to books – read the Blaft Tamil Pulp Fiction Anthology Part II – unlike part I which had quite a few short stories and 1 or 2 novellas, this has only 7 stories but almost all of them are novella length. Interesting stuff, especially since if I knew how to read Tam it is unlikely that these would have formed any part of my reading material. L and Well translated, and with that bit of a typical Madras inglis twang in it, comes across very earnest and as you would expect the stories to have been written if the authors wrote them in English. The turn of the phrase may be compromised a bit in the translation – tamil after all is a fairly lyrical language, even at the pulp fiction level and it would be difficult for any translator to capture not just the essence of the words but also the lyricism. Atleast, one assumes (having not read the originals) that there wasn’t too much of the written beauty lost. An excellent read, especially if you a tam out of the tamland or you are a tam and don’t know enough tam to reach the originals (I am both).

 

Also started to read William Dalrymple’s Last Mughal – didn’t have the patience for it though. Dalrymple shows once again why he is amongst the best in the game – bringing into the English language a beauty that usually is difficult to get other than with poetry. He actually does manage to translate a couple of Urdu couplets and make them sound good in English (which I am sure takes some skill). But didn’t get past the first chapter – shall revisit it again when I have a wee bit more time to enjoy the writing.

 

Rereading John Keegan’s mega opus on the Second World War – alongwith Andrew Roberts “Storm of War” – this provides the most comprehensive written material on the WWII across all four theatres – Western Europe, Russia, Atlantic and Pacific. An extremely well written and researched book, it is the closest we have to a complete WWII history and factbook – atleast one that I know off. Have lost a copy of this book in the past and given that a rather erratic friend has asked for it, am worried that I will lose it again..

 

Moving from books to libraries – we have become members at Just Books – which is a pretty neat concept. Check it out if you are in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune or Bangalore. Dont think they are in Chennai yet. Good collection and new books, and well maintained too. Not too expensive – missus loves it, the brat and seal pup dig it, thats what counts.