The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

I have not read much of Tintin, and didn't go to watch the movie directed by Steven Spielberg when it released over five years ago. Last night, while surfing channels, we landed on this movie and watched it for a bit.

Despite the circumstances one finds oneself in, movie lines can be motivating.

Captain Haddock: I thought you were an optimist.
Tintin: Well, you were wrong, weren't you? I'm a realist.
Captain Haddock: That's just another name for a quitter.
Tintin: You can call me what you like. Don't you get it? We failed.
Captain Haddock: "Failed", there are plenty of others willing to call you a failure. A fool. A loser. A hopeless souse! Don't you ever say it of yourself. You send the wrong signal, that is what people pick up. Do you understand? You care about something, you fight for it. You hit a wall, you push through it. There's something you need to know about failure, Tintin. You can never let it defeat you.

I have read elsewhere that people pick up the vibes we send, and yet I have often been able to place the "real" vibe underneath. I expect this to be the case with other people too.

Edited to add: I put this up on facebook, and got to know that the character of Captain Haddock is portrayed differently in the books. The wiki entry informs me that he grew to be a courageous character.

Dil Se (1998)

When I was flipping TV channels today, I saw that the entire Star suite was missing – this left me surprised. I didn’t notice the channel in which this song came up.




In 1998, when I was in 12th Std., ‘Dil Se’ (or rather its Tamil version ‘Uyire’) was one among two (or perhaps two among three) films that I watched in the theatre. I later watched the Hindi version and I absolutely love the music from this film. While other songs became more popular, the above song captures the relationship between the lead pair rather well.

Today also brought memories of how Preity Zinta’s character (in her film debut) responded to Shahrukh Khan’s character in their first meeting in this movie, and All India Radio. I have earlier written about one scene from this movie – read it here. The post was written almost 8 years earlier, and the movie was released 18 years earlier. Time goes past with no way of slowing it down.

Kapoor & Sons (since 1921) (2016)

The sibling recommended the movie to me, and I watched it along with my parents in Chennai. I have almost given up watching Hindi movies and went for this movie because my mother still enjoys watching them. I was also curious to see what ‘hits’ in Bollywood now look like.

The story-writing is quite interesting, and I like how homosexuality has been addressed in a dignified manner. This story about a dysfunctional family doesn’t hesitate in its portrayal of shades of grey, and even as the rest of India seems to be going gaga over Fawad Khan, it is Sidharth Malhotra who I enjoyed watching the most. The scene where tears roll down silently from one of his eyes is beautifully done, and yes, it wouldn’t have been possible without Fawad’s presence in it. Coonoor looks beautiful, and I liked how the evidently North Indian family seems happily settled in the South.

Rajat Kapoor looked quite young to be do-beton-ka-baap, and the brothers were well-cast. Sidharth's real year of birth is referred to in the movie, and perhaps actors today are trying their best to keep things real on screen whenever there is a chance to do so. Given his character's fondness for Boris Becker, I wonder if he is a fan of Boris Becker in real life too.

At a time when Bollywood romances are going kaput one after the other, I am hoping Sidharth and Alia go from strength to strength in real life as well.