Wednesday, October 31, 2007

brideshead revisited / swann's way / the marriage of cadmus and harmony : n / evan almighty / jab we met

and now for the books and the movies of the past week

first the books. evelyn waugh's ‘brideshead revisited’ was about a young mans obsession over his schoolmate transforms his life forever. very clever writing. but so much more insight in marcel prousts ‘swann's way’- the first in a set of six novels that i intend to finish reading one day. here the reminiscing of youth and the telling of an obsessive love become vehicles to dissect human frailties into precisely defined aspects. frighteningly close analysis. roberto calasso’s ‘the marriage of cadmus and harmony’ was a meditation on greek mythology and its intersections with society. part a retelling of myth, part philosophical observations- a great book.

as for the films- the in flight movies on the way back. ‘n’- an italian piece of fluff where a young man takes on the job of being napoleons biographer only so that he might have a chance of killing him. pretty awful really. and then ‘evan almighty’ where god in the form of morgan freeman asks a us congressman to build an ark to save some animals from being washed away in a flood. a perfect in flight movie. which means brainless, silly and left me with a silly smile.

but then there is ‘jab we met’. not really either a kareena kapoor or shahid kapoor fan i was shocked to find both of them adorable and the film very good after we saw it yesterday. the first half was breezy road movie with great music and though in the second half the pace seemed like it was about to slacken it was not for long. very nice film and both shahid and kareena were charming. and the boy dances like a dream.

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