Mumbai: 26/11

The only thing i have been doing over the past two days is to follow the events in Mumbai, either over T.V or the internet, the rescue operations and stories of courage in this terrible tragedy. The sheer audacity, barbarism and magnitude of these attacks was overwhelming. This was not just an attack on life, property but on the collective confidence of a nation, a psychological warfare so to say. The image of those terrorists; with their AK-47s, of the fire at the Taj, and the Oberoi and NSG commandos carrying out their operations flashing across T.V. channels is going to dominate our collective conscious for a while now. The sheer shock value of these attacks was a bit overwhelming.

The stories of courage shown by people, not just elite commandos, but the hotel staff who risked their lives for the guests showed us what true heroism is. And even as we mourn, we must ask, where does India go from here? This is not just some attack happening to someone else. It happened in India's backyard, and it can happen to anyone, anywhere. Do we forget it after a week with the quintessential Indian reponse chalta hai/hota hai? Or do we ask questions and seek answers? This is big.

I don't know what solution this problem entails. But from the face of it, we atleast need better and dedicated disaster management, and a federal body focussing on terror. And have political will to take military action, if necessary. This is India's 9/11. How our country goes from here depends on whether we learn from it this time or not.

Disaster Movie

For cinema lovers, one of the hotly debated and followed lists is the IMDb top 250 movies, its like the holy grail of lists about movies. From checking how many movies one has finished off in the list, to debating on the Godfather vs. The Dark Knight positions, i can fairly admit that its an integral part of our lives (however lame). But an equally (if not more) entertaining and largely overlooked list is the IMDB bottom 100 movies; the so-bad-that-its-good list of movies. Outrageous titles, obnoxious plots and well an allround lameness that indeed is so bad that it can be termed creative, to say the least. Sample this: Die Hard Dracula, The Tony Blair Witch project, Santa with muscles, 3 Ninjas: High tea at Mega mountain; yes these movies have actually been made and named so!


Funnier yet are the plots of some other movies:

The Maize: The Movie - "A father's psychic abilities are put to the test when his two daughters are trapped inside of a corn maze haunted by the spirits of two young girls who disappeared a year earlier." Ah, look at the clever pun, corn-maze -maize ?! Woh.

Super Babies: Baby geniuses 2 - "A group of smart-talking toddlers find themselves at the center of a media mogul's experiment to crack the code to baby talk. The toddlers must race against time for the sake of babies everywhere." The baby talk code??! that must be a national priority.

Aztec Mummy vs. the Human Robot - "A mad doctor builds a robot in order to steal a valuable Aztec treasure from a tomb guarded by a centuries old living mummy." This is like a The Mummy meets the terminator. True convergence of past and the future!

Barney's Great adventure - "Mom and dad dump son Cody, daughter Abby, her best friend Marcella and a baby on the farm with Grandpa and Grandma. Purple dinosaur Barney soon appears to entertain kids, and when a large colorful egg deposited on a farm by a shooting star is accidentally carted off, Barney and kids start their chase for it." Purple dinosaur?! shooting star?! did a very stupid person do LSD to write the script?

Chairman of the Board - "A surfer becomes the head of a major company" Ah, clever pun again. True creativity, i say.

And my personal favourite -
It's Pat - "Pat Riley, an obnoxious busybody of undeterminable sex, meets and falls in love with Chris, a sensitive, caring person also of undeterminable sex. Their relationship suffers because Pat's a lout, and cannot decide on a direction for its life. Meanwhile, Pat's neighbor Kyle falls further and further into obsession with Pat, fascinated by its indeterminate sexuality." Fascinating. With its layers of uncertainty and obbsessions with indeterminate sexuality, this movie would have explored a hitherto unknown kind of ..umm.. indeterminate relationships!


And not to be left very far behind is our very own desi Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag. Legendary movie must say. Only Indian movie in any IMDb list!

As Ed Wood would articulate about such a movie:
"This story's gonna grab people. It's about this guy, he's crazy about this girl, but he likes to wear dresses. Should he tell her? Should he not tell her? He's torn, Georgie. This is drama."