Monday, November 26, 2007
Happy Birthday, Rajat!
Rajat's surprise party yesterday was a great moment, though today's his actual birthday... Below are some photo highlights, followed by a review of 'A Mighty Heart' and Angelina Jolie's award-worthy performance therein... Here are Rajat & Norberto, looking particularly adorable together - they just moved into a new house out in Clifton, NJ over the past week...
The surprise was a dinner at Bona Fides, a lovely, spacious, inexpensive Italian place in the East Village on 2nd Ave. Here's a group table photo, left to right: Rajat, Varun, Norberto, Fernando, Ed (behind Fernando), and Sunil...
On the way home, I heard Christmas music blaring from inside a car. I turned to look, and this lady had a multi-screen work station, inside her front seat, going full blast. Now that, I said, deserves a picture...
It's Out There
Meaning Karachi, Pakistan and hundreds of place like it. Meaning millions and millions of Muslim people, exotically garbed and speaking many tongues, strong of heart, fatalistic of outlook, eeking out a living. A different world, often merciless, harsh, unrelenting.
This hotbed of simmering discontent is not only the backdrop of 'A Mighty Heart,' but arguably deserves star billing.
This film concerns the tragic fate of kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl, as seen and felt by his widow, Marianne Pearl, his colleagues, and stalwart Pakistani police on a desperate race against time to find him.
Should this film have been made at all? My answer is a resounding 'yes.' It's compelling personally and an important reality check in a world Americans largely don't understand. Most impressive of all - the complete transformation of actress and tabloid sensation Angelina Jolie (above center) into Marianne Pearl (above right)- you totally forget about Angelina or anything Hollywood. Her acting is at times astonishing....
Bring on the 5 Parameters of Criticism,,,,
1. Four Words That Encapsule: 'Courage stretched too far '
2. Haiku (5/7/5):
"Do we realize how
others risk their very lives,
so that we can know..."
3. Oblique Comment: a) I feel guilty for the linguistic pleasure I felt watching this film. Urdu, Pakistan's language, is spoken and subtitled at several points in the film - it is about 95% identical to Hindi, and I found myself understanding Urdu fragments from my 2001 Hindi crash course before I went to India. b) it is jolting when Musharraf is referred to, it is a reminder that the landscape hasn't changed an iota for the better since March 2002 when this film took place.
4. Insight: 'A Mighty Heart' very effectively blends the 'police procedural' technique of investigation with Marianne's ordeal, and with flashbacks of both Daniel Pearl's last day of freedom and his better days with Marianne. This elicits two reactions from us and juxtaposes them: a) identification and sympathy with the Pearls and the desire to save Daniel; and b) fear and shock as we see hundreds of Pakistanis harshly grilled and/or arrested, even tortured, by the authorities as they investigate.
5. Metacritic link:
Cartoons du Jour:
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