Black wind in the wings and the climax

I have been thinking and this time, there are good reasons for it. The summer project, after days of absolutely-nothing-to-do, is heading for a typical Hollywood climax. Although there aren't going to be exploding tube stations and car chases and that final kiss, but the last few days at this place are sure going to be one whirlwind. With the gap analysis being the mainstay of my project (or rather the project in its totality) and the system B (out of the systems A and B, between which the gap analysis is to be done) not being available yet, and lest I forget, with another four working days to the final presentation, things can be said to be growing into interesting, to say the least.

Be as it may, it does not stop me from having a good time in Cal and since these are the last few days of vacations before I get on to another sort of vacationing on the beautiful hill resort down south, I plan to do anything but let sleeping dogs lie. This weekend, it started with a bit of shopping at Pantaloons on Saturday (after the French class, of course). I and Sandipan got a great Tees bargain and before you start wishing that both of us will be dressed in the same tee some day on campus, let me tell you that we have already entered into the pact not to. Tanu (Sandipan's girl friend) and Rohit (in the E n Y office a few floors above the Pantaloons) were there as well and surprisingly, none of them cribbed about the quality time we were spending looking at and trying out one thing after the other.

However, not to take any chances, we moved on to Sheesha Bar next. I know that the name sounds pretty corny but the place is anything but corny. It is a pretty classy place, in fact, that does not allow people in slippers (not even the funky Yankee travellers, one of whom turned up that day in rugged tees and shorts and of course, slippers). After a few drinks and eats, Sandipan and Tanu made their way to some other Rendez-vous (without the bones in the meat) while Rohit and the poor old me went ahead to a filled-beyond-capacity Pizza Hut. This was the second time in a Kolkata Pizza Hut for me and not any different from the first one: good pizzas, good crowd, and of course, the typical birthday celebration complete with the song and dance and claps routine.

Compared to Saturday, Sunday was not all that exciting. A late Saturday night meant that I got up just in time for the French classes (which start at 3 in the afternoon, by the way). With Sandipan having another plan with Tanu, and Rohit enjoying the roller coasters at Nicco Park with his friends, I was left all alone but not for long as Rohit joined me a little later at City Centre for some coffee table conversation. I must say that the conversations with Rohit over the weekend have been pretty interesting and there have been occasions where both of us have been able to read beyond what the other has spoken. Apart from the conversation, the next best part of the evening was the Masala Cola that we had just before calling it a night. Amazing style, some solid taste and the earthen cups made for some good entertainment. The way the Masala Cola Dada was preparing the thing would have put any bar tender worth his salt to shame. Sprays and mixes and popping the caps and juggling the bottles were all there and more than the drink, the entertainment gave me the paisa-vasool.

Like any other weekend, this one would have been incomplete without the usual dosage of movies. Although Bunty and Babli had to be shelved for a later date because of non-availability of tickets, there were quite a few CDs available at the BJ Market shop. The first one was the screen adaptation of the immensely popular work of fiction, "Gone with the wind". After "The Sound of Music", I had been expecting a lot from this movie as well but for some reason, despite the ten Oscars that it had grabbed in its time, the movie really failed to excite me as much as the other one had.

Scarlett O'hara and Rhett Butler, Melanie Hamilton and Ashley Wilkes were the same, no doubt and the actors did do justice to the roles but still it did not feel the same as reading the book had done. The actors did settle into their characters gradually but their introductions in the movie were not impressive at all. Most of them, when they appeared for the first time in the narrative, looked like caricatures and the gravity of the story got reflected in their faces only when the second half of the movie had well and truly started. Personally, I missed the story of Eileen and Gerald O'hara and Scarlett's early youth that had formed such an enjoyable part of the novel. In fact, the entire good-old-South imagery has been done away with to accommodate the misery of battle and the greed of man that destroys the old order and sets in the new.

The movie is good effort, however, to bring the mammoth classic to everyone's doorsteps and I must say that it has satisfactorily brought the gist of the story up front. Ever since I read the book, I always used to wonder about possibly how the entire length and breadth of the story could be captured on reel but that, the movie has been successful in doing. Probably, if only for this, it deserved its ten oscars and perhaps even more.

The other movie this weekend was the first of the Batman series titled "Batman" (what else? :-)). The Batman series has got some big names to boast of, right through the four movies that have come so far. Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Bassinger, Danny De Vito, Jim Carrey, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nicole Kidman, and Drew Barrymore are just some of the people who have played some character or the other in one of the four Batman movies. The DC Comics character has always been fascinating read for me beacuse of his, amongst other things, roguish nature and the very absoluteness of his character as far as the nature of dealing with crime and criminals goes.

The movie "Batman" does miss this aspect of Batman's character and though the hooded hero scowls in his mask, Bruce Wayne is shown as the part-bumbling part-brooding character who seems to be as confused as Peter Parker of Spiderman about his convictions (which actually, is not the case if you read the DC comics a little more carefully). All said and done, the movie was some good time spent and I did relish the bringing alive of characters like The Joker, Alfred, Bruce Wayne, and of course, Batman complete with his Bat-mobile.

The last of the movies that I watched over the weekend (not last, literally as I watched it on Friday) but the one that had the greatest impact was "Black Friday". The censor board is not allowing the movie to get to the cinema halls in India but fortunately or unfortunately, the original print of the movie, complete with the candies ads has found its way to the neighboring CD shop, all the way from our beloved neighboring country. The movie, if you haven't heard about it already, is based on the Mumbai riots and specifically looks at the way Mumbai police cracked the entire operation open and how the actors in the crime were brought to book one by one.

The police officer in charge of the case is played by Kay Kay and he has done justice to his role. Confident and strict and determined to find the truth and nail the criminals, he is human enough to be disturbed over the torture that his men have to resort to in order to get the truth out. All the supposed villains (the movie does present a rather single side of the entire issue, proclaiming only the Muslims to be repressed and villainous), apart from Dawood Ibrahim, are handled well and despite the torture and the subsequent opening up, they manage to maintain their convictions and more importantly, the actors have been able to effectively portray this dimension of their characters.

The movie also brings to light one of the most effectively planned criminal activities and on top of that, one of the most successful crack polce campaigns ever. The way one little clue leads to another and the very tenacity with which Mumbai police is shown going after the suspects fills you with a kind of reluctant admiration (reluctant only because of the apparent unfeeling nature of all police men apart from the inspector played by Kay Kay).

In the midst of all these movies and the good time that I have been having in Kolkata, I have also been a little worried lately about the conclusion of it all. I just hope that all this fun is not at some unreasonable cost and that the project thing goes off properly enough. With much depending on how I and Sandipan perform here, I do not want to be a reason for my institute not getting the respect that it deserves...not if I can help it.