My Roommate

Taken from my roommate's diary. Word to word.

One month just flew past in a new country. Everything has kept me amazed, enchanted. The system, the place, the people, the food, and the University, of course. I wish I could have said the same about my roommate though. I'm not saying he is bad, but he is definitely not the my kind of a guy. We don't tick of together, so as to say, and I'm really having a difficult time adjusting with him. We have the same major and our most of the classes are same, but still I'm not being able to connect with him, and I'm certain is vice-versa also.

Firstly, I don't understand what kind of a guy he is. I also don't understand what does he wants to do with his life. He reads novels all the time, watches movies, writes( or blogs as he says) and I don't know what not. He is pretty entangled into the web of his own which he has so gleefully constructed. I don't know what joy he derives from that. He rarely studies and the sad part is, when the assignments are due, he just copies it from me. I mean what the heck. Bloody Irritating, I tell you. You literally work your backside off for the damn assignments and there he is at a distance, for the whole week enjoying himself and so conveniently copies from me a day before. As a result, we end up having the same marks. I don't have problems with him getting marks, but still, show some honesty.

And I seriously don't get, what he gets by doing all kinds of things. Haven't we come here to study, why the heck is he wasting his time? I asked him once, "Man, why are you wasting your time?"
He replied, "I'm not"
I asked again, "Don't you have to study?"
He said, "Yes. I have to. But, issme bada mazaa aa raha hai yaar!"
I asked again, "What are you doing?"
He replied, "Movie"
"Which one?"
"Mullholland Drive. David Lynch. Mind boggling man!"

Mull-what? And who Lynch? I left him at that. And I've asked him two more times, as to what he was doing, as I thought he should be studying at that time. To which he replied, "Blogging" once and "Reading(Novel)" the other time around. Seriously, this guy is difficult to understand. He is unnecessarily making life difficult for him.

What will he gain by blogging? By watching movies?( and that too by directors around the globe who have one kilometer long names and they make equally weird movies). He showed me once this movie, said its mind blowing and the sets of adjectives he has memorised to praise anything under the sun. The movie was 'Taxi Driver'. Such a boring and listless movie I haven't seen in my entire life. What crap man. What was there in the movie? Bullshit. I'm a big fan of Hollywood but not the kind of movies this guy sees. I like Adam Sandler and those kinds of movies. That is the point, our tastes don't match at all. Not at all. And also when it comes to movies, novel this guy is very, very opinionated. One day I got pissed off by his 'See-I-know-so-much-about-everything' that I asked him, "Dude, Hang on. Are you planning to direct a movie someday?"
"No," he said.
"Do you plan to become a movie critic?"
"No," he said.
"Will you become an author someday?"
"No," he said.
I wanted to shout, What the fuck man! Shut up and stop flaunting your supposedly great ideas in front of me. You know what he is a big hypocrite. The biggest that I've ever seen. A bundle of contradictions.
"Then?" I asked, more irritated than surprised.
"Passion yaar! I like doing these things. I really like it," He said.
That has to be the lamest reply of the century. Though I didn't reply anything to him, I simply kept quiet. Because the kind of hyper and short tempered the guy he is, we would have ended up fighting. Anyways. I will tell you about this guy's passion and his heights of hypocrisy. We had to take a Humanity course, and there were like 300-400 options to choose from. And before the orientation, our seniors had told us to take the 'Asian Mythology' because it was one subject in which it was easy to score an A, as the subject had stuff related to Ramayana and Mahabharata which we had already studied. So, once we were discussing about about to take as a Humanity course I said, " I will take Asian Mythology. The seniors have told us its easy to get an A in that. And getting a good GPA is of prime importance."

He replied," Give me a break man. Asian Mythology? The stuff which we have studied and known about it for ages? What will you 'learn' from taking Asian Mythology? Take something which excites you dude. You've come to States for learning something, this is the only place which gives you a chance to do what you are best at. Don't take an Asian Mythology and ridicule your likings."

Everyone was drop dead silent. I asked, "What are you planning to take?"
He said, "ENGL 104. Introduction to World Cinema"

As usual, I went and registered myself for the Asian Mythology course after meeting my advisor the next day. I saw him getting out of the Engineering Hall and asked him, "What did you take?"
His face told me the whole story. With a voice as heavy as his guilt he replied, " Asian Mythology." I didn't demand anything. He explained me, "Yaar! I asked the seniors again, they said these literature types courses are damn difficult to get an A in. But, never mind I've met an American guy and he has taken the World Cinema course. I will keep in touch in with him and if at the end of the semester he says, an A is gettable then I would take the course" He siad and walked away.

That's him. He is nothing but just a common man, who wants good grades, good job, a decent lifestyle. Just like each one of us. So, all that talk about Passion and liking is bullshit. He is faking himself. At the surface he is this guy who is confident and knows what he is doing. But, I'll tell you what he is. He is just a pseudo-intellectual who is a coward. Had he not been a coward he would not have chosen World Cinema over Asian Mythology. You see, He has come to States for learning something, this is the only place which gives him a chance to do what he is best at. He shouldn't take an Asian Mythology and ridicule his likings. Yes, very right. He would swim with the tide, like each one of us. Just that he is too chicken to admit it.

I've a feeling, I won't like Ghajini.

Originally Written for Passionforcinema.com. The article with amazing scathing comments has been published here

Movies like Memento gets made once in a while. It has nothing to do with the story, it has nothing to do with the direction, it has nothing to do with the cinematography, it has everything to do with the execution(Now, I'm not saying that direction,editing,cinematography was not good. It was A-class. No second thoughts there for sure. But, the point here is the movie doesn't STAND out for me due to these factors.) I mean the whole movie was gnifkcuf backwards. How more innovative can you get? And not only it was innovativeness, Nolan did a damn cool job of changing one's thought process and the way one analyses each character. You side/sympathise/loathe with some characters in the beginning and after a point it is the other way around. How many movies have been able to achieve that? Not many. I'm sure. This is what makes Memento great. This is what makes Memento MEMENTO. This is film making raised to the power infinity.

And then comes Murugadoss, says he was inspired by Nolan and he wrote his own version of the film. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing. Although, I still feel Surya's body tattooing( just like Leonard's method of remembering things) is too much of a coincidence if not anything else. Now, the movie might be completely different from what Memento is, or what Memento showed. But, it would be very tough for me to watch the movie in isolation. I mean granted, the movie might not be a Memento, but hasn't it taken the central idea( and also the tattoo's part?) . And then what does the director do? He adds an Asin, subtracts some clothes, adds some songs again, shows us a love angle?

Why?

Why so accommodating all of a sudden Murugadoss? And then Aamir Khan steps in. The man who knows it all, have been there and done that kind of air with him. "Momento I couldn't understand," he writes with a nonchalance. Also, he didn't 'enjoy' it too. No problems there too. Movies are just like opinions. To each his own. Disliking 'Momento' doesn't make Aamir a bad actor/director. But, what does he do to make the movie talked out, is to get a new look for the movie. I mean how bloody convenient? You took one of the strongest ideas, played around with it. Walked with it upto a certain extent and then when you developed cold feet, added what the audience would like? I'm not against songs, romance in the movie( esp. Hindi movies) but, just for the heck of it? Build up an original idea, do what so ever you want to do with it. Make love to it, seduce, rape. Whatever. But the idea has to be yours.

But, please don't flinch someone else's idea, toy with it mercilessly, get someone to back you up by saying, I didn't 'enjoy' it. Though that 'someone' is the superstar is a different thing all together. I wouldn't have any problems had Ghajini been Murugadoss's and only Murugadoss's baby, I would have cared too hoots. Had he added a zillion songs, it wouldn't have mattered. Though all said and done, I'm yet to watch the movie( as is everyone). But, I would be very, very sad if Murugadoss kills one of my favourite movies of all time.