The Wolf of Wall Street: Movie Review

As I told in my first movie review last year, I normally refrain from writing review of any movie that I watch. I clearly believe, movies are made for entertainment and not for -entertainment, entertainment, entertainment. And this movie, The Wolf of Wall Street, directed by Martin Scorsese, had everything in it, that would constantly hurt my belief!

In this age of twitter, where people put their comments/feelings in 140 chars, do we require 140 page report to narrate a incident?- There was really no plot, no story, no action, no beauty, no breath-taking visuals- basically anyone could put the screenplay in less than an hour. But this movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill & Margot Robbie, goes on and on and on- for 3 full hours leaving in you the disgust sorrow feeling of brutal killing of your precious time!

Glorification of smuggling, mockery of security, excessive "smoking-up" of drugs, constant unnecessary "making-out" sequences- list of my complaints will never end! Positives to look for is initial 10 mins of Jordan Belfort(played by Leonardo) setting up his company and his marvellous speeches when the situation calls for!

As it is based on true story of Jordan Belfort, from his rise to a wealthy stockbroker living the high life to his fall involving crime, corruption and the federal government, it will be wrong from my part if I complain about the story. But I take liberty in criticising director's "extraordinary" story-telling skills- in portraying, maybe, one of Leonardo's best performances.   

If it would have not been for Leonardo, I would have gone with 0 out of 5! My review- this movie has dared to pollute cinema as a medium. This movie clearly inclines towards cheap B-grade movies. I term it as utter disaster. Unfortunate hole in your pocket. It's indeed a wolf! I go with 0.5 out of 5. Don't waste your time, take a walk in the garden instead!

Pot of Purple Flowers...

Man is structured with complex thoughts. More you simplify, more you make your life easy. I took out a leaf from my heart and the complete house(mind) was filled with joy. I saw the flower smile, the aircraft appear as an angel and the mirror transform to a pair of beautiful eyes. Drawing up a constellation, star gazing and looking at half-moon earrings- we live our life for these small moments of happiness, right?

Rays of mid day Sun sneaking in,
My room had lit up...

With the pot of purple flowers,
With the memories of your smile,
With the tears on moments we laughed,
With the blessings of Gods you gifted...

My heart took a deep long breath,
Ripples of my reflection in your eyes...
I could see you fly with the white angel,
And you smile in my Soul, my Soul...

Trip to Lepakshi: Place where Jatayu fought Ravan

After living through serious back aches and period of illness, caused mainly due to my massive two week north India trip, I was back to what I insanely love doing, travelling! And what a way to start, the experience just couldn't get better. Here is my travelogue- visit to beautiful Lepakshi.

“Ley Pakshi” translates to “Rise bird” and is believed to be uttered by Lord Rama to the bird Jatayu, who had fought Ravan in order to release Seetha, in the process incurring life threatening injuries, losing his wings, counting his final moments at this very particular place and waiting for Lord to arrive. Jatayu was cremated here and Lord Ram established a “Shiva linga” on top of it, one among atleast 4 of Shiva linga’s I saw here(I recall- some of them are established by Hanuman, Sage Agastya and Constructor Virupanna). This place has a massive footstep of Seetha (Locals believe that Seetha was 25 feet tall) on a rock and is filled with water all-round the year!

Lepakshi is located at a distance of 120kms from Bangalore and driving becomes pleasure in this AH 47 once you cross new Bangalore Airport at Devanhalli. We started at 8am and stopped for breakfast at “Kamath Upachar”, 4 kms away from Chikballapur, at 9.45am. Route was pretty simple after that- cross Bagepalli, enter AP (it is till AP!), you’ll see a signboard to Lepakshi soon after Konikonda, and then, 15kms of drive in a state highway (that goes to Hindupur, which houses thousands of weavers and you get silk sari’s for half price!) to the destination.

The Veerabadhra Temple is built on a rocky hill called Kurmasailam and today is spread over 2 acres. India’s biggest monolithic “Nandi” is the prime attraction (2nd biggest is in Tanjore and 4th is in Basavangudi of Bengaluru). The temple has over 4000 designs, many sculptural illusions and 80 pillars, out of which one is the mysterious hanging pillar that actually balances the complete stone structure. Hire a guide and you’ll enjoy the architecture and no doubt, you will end up praising our 8 feet tall (again a local belief!) ancestors! You get a feeling of entering a cave and the calm and cool weather inside is very enjoyable.

Built in 1538, rooftop of which is painted with herbal colors- stories depicting Shiva’s marriage, Ganesh and Ravan’s “Athmalinga” encounter, pictures of nobles of Virupanna who built this temple is mesmerizing. There is incomplete portion of a “mantapam” dedicated to Shiva’s marriage to

Parvathi in Kailasa. Virupanna, constructor of this temple, was a cashier of this province ruled by Achyutaraya, brother of great Krishnadevaraya. Due to unstable government and dirty politics, Virupanna removed his eyes off before the King would order to do so, and our guide claimed/showed that there were blood stains in the wall (I still don’t digest this!).

“Mantapam” remained unfinished as great Vijayanagar empire fell off to Bahamani rulers, who also damaged some idols. The “Halagannada” (mother of modern Kannada) inscriptions are also notable. Here, every pillar tells a story, every idol is artistic, the way the stones are carved out is just astonishing, beautiful paintings are breath-taking (Painting of Veerabhadra on the ceiling before the main sanctum sanctorum is the largest in India of any single figure), architecture at it’s best, peace and serene, less

than 2 hours to tour entire place, beautiful folk tales those are associated, spiritual bells ringing in the heart, indeed, what a place to be!

Every truth becomes justice,
Before it’s not too late…
We turned them into morals,
Immortalized in our sculptures… 

Today, I am staring at them,
Waiting for a story to unfold…
Staring at the antic glory untold…
Before it’s not too late…

[Photo Credit: Sharath P R, Thanks to Chikkappa [Ramesh], Chikkamma[Ratna], Doddappa[Karunakar] and Munna[Sharath] for being the part of this trip!]

LUCIA dreams: My Movie Review

I had well spent Ganesh Chaturthi with artistic idols in display all over the temple town of Udupi and my favourite arshina kadubu’s, modaka’s, pathrode’s, unde’s and chakkuli’s in my plate. The food took the toll and I slept like a log. To wake up from this dream, I choose to watch a Kannada movie that night in Alankaar theatre Udupi, 7.30pm, hardly 15 people were in audience!

Best thing that can happen in this world is- knowing what you are doing and realizing where you are going! Director Pawan Kumar clearly seems to know both of them and has come up with the best-Lucia. Otherwise, who can motivate me to write my first movie review, seriously!

Disclaimer

• I am no Masand or any ac“claimed” critic. I watch movie for entertainment and if it goes beyond it, I love them. For instance- Ship of Theseus.
• Neither I have invested a single penny on this first ever Indian crowd funded movie, nor I am an online distributor for this movie.
• I have followed the making of this movie in social media and really felt it was all over-hyped till I watched it for myself. Today I agree, it is indeed a trendsetter.
• Let’s appreciate “Team Lucia” brave effort, their courage to rely on social media/blogging and congratulate for winning in London International Film Festival.

Lucia, starring Satish Neenasam and Shruthi Hariharan in lead, no doubt rides high on a strong script, catchy cinematography, ruthless editing and Director’s blessed story telling skills. Based on unique concept of “lucid dreaming”, movie starts off the following philosophical lines of Poet Kanakadasa, written way back in 16th century and still relevant, much more sensible with each passing day-->

Are you a creature of illusion? or illusion is your creation?
Are you a part of the body? Or is the body a part of you?
Is space within the house? Or the house within space? Or are both space and the house within the seeing eye? Is the eye within the mind? Or the mind within the eye? Or are both the eye and the mind within you?
Does sweetness lie in sugar, or sugar in sweetness? Or do both sweetness and sugar lie in the tongue?
Is the tongue within the mind? Or the mind within the tongue? Or are both the tongue and the mind within you?
Does fragrance lie in the flower? Or the flower in fragrance? Or do both the flower and fragrance lie in the nostrils? I cannot say, O Lord Adikeshava of Kaginele,
O! peerless one, are all things within you alone?

I would have gone with 5 out of 5, had there been better casting (For example- Director Pawan and Virendra in director role- both fail to do justice in their small cameos) and if the hero introduction song was cut (5 min of nonsense!). I would have gone with 3 out of 5, had there been no Sathish-Acchut chemistry. These two mind-blowing actors share brilliant moments and hold the movie together. Hence, I go with 4 out of 5, for the movie- LUCIA.

Climax is picture perfect with a strong message; clearly, movie can’t have a better ending than this. All Rajni and non- Rajni fans, go for it, there are English subtitles along and it is worth a watch!

Himalayan Trek in My First Trip to North India...

I think it had rained an hour ago. Chill in the air and stagnant water at the roadside were clearly indicating this fact. After acclimatizing to temperatures ranging from 2 to 40 centigrades for over 2 weeks, I was back to the city that boasts a constant weather of around 20 centigrade, Bengaluru. I was walking towards home with a bagful of stories to tell- some adventurous, some philosophical, some controversial. Here it is- the travelogue of my first trip to North India!

This entire trip was very very well planned in paper with all hotel and travel bookings already done.Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani”. A week after watching the movie, with official nod from parents we had booked the complete itinerary while having an icecream, sitting in the Corner House of Kasturi Nagar, Bengaluru. Our trip had a disastrous start as the main trip planner, Manu met with an accident a day before our departure. We were given a royal send off by Vijay and Yashu, after a tasty dinner (Thank you, Aunty!) at Yashu’s place. Did I feel that I won’t return forever? Nah!

Hadimba Temple

I’ll traverse through the states of India that I visited in this trip. I have provided links for complete story. Enjoy, as much as I did!

#1. Himachal Pradesh, a romantic state that shares it’s borders with Tibet. I visited two districts- Kullu and Shimla. The charming skin tone and excellent physique of the citizens deserves special mention. I got down in Shimla with a 20kg luggage, looked around to find no auto rickshaws, instead plenty of man labor. I and my friend decided to walk to Hotel Chaman Palace. 5 min after we started, we realized that it was a mistake! 70 degree slopes and stairs took out all the energy as we reached the hotel located close to Mall road. Mall road is the busiest and the most happening with lot of eateries and shopping outlets. Veg momo’s and burgers of Krishna Traders are the best I have had till date. Street food- channa kulcha and chatpati chat- I recommend. This city was incredibly disciplined with no smoking and

Toy Train

no plastic policies followed till the last dot!

Kullu, on the other hand is more ethnic with localities wearing the vibrant “Himachal ki Shaan” topi and apple sellers everywhere. Base camp for our trek was in Manali. We visited a Tibetan architecture influenced Hadimba and Ghatodgakch temple, built atleast 500 years ago. Beas River flowing along the canopy of Pine trees gives this city an artistic look. We got to visit Nicholas Roerich’s museum in Naggar, 25kms away from Manali. His breathtaking paintings of Himalayan inexpressible beauty and the peace flag (harmony of religion, art and science) that he designed for “League of Nations” (current UN) is the highlight.

Remember Kareena in “Ye Ishq” song of “Jab We Met”, we were at this serene place- the Naggar Castle, built in 16th century. We had delicious snacks in the hillside view balcony of the hotel there, Cutlets, yummm!! We made sure to visit the famous Johnson’s café, and of course, had a great

With Bishi and Gursagar

evening with 11 buddies!

I have deliberately put the best part of Himachal in another blogpost. Trek Hampta pass (Click here) yourselves!

#2. We entered Punjab, land of 5 rivers, through the UNESCO heritage narrow gauge toy train from Shimla. Toy train to Kalka, running since 1902, brought us best of landscapes. We made our way to beautifully planned Chandigarh from Kalka via couple of auto rickshaws which run like public buses here. We visited my friend, Bishas and Gursagar (Thanks a ton guys, you rock!) for dinner and they redefined hospitality, we set off to explore Punjab the next day (Click here, yeah, story is long enough for another blogpost)!

Golden Temple

#3. The Delhi Honeymoon was a dream come true. As we keep hearing the daily happenings of Delhi, I was excited to see how it really lived, the capital of “The India”. My experience that changed “Delhi” to “Dilli” (city of heart) is indeed heartening, I suppose, why wait, read here The Delhi Honeymoon!

The trip plan was executed almost near to perfection, all thanks to the 3 hours delay in “Hirakund Express” from Amritsar to Agra, because of which we had to skip Agra since there would be little time left to explore Agra that Thursday evening and Taj Mahal shuts down every Friday. Dear Taj, will see you soon!

Whenever I achieved some small feats,

Hampta Pass

People blessed me that I’ll go places…
I sit and contemplate on what it meant,
Realizing answers are sole aim of our life… 

May be a different perspective of new place,
In the thick thread of cobbler’s spool…
Showing the life that I never lived,
In the kaleidoscope of a roadside kid… 

Today, I really want to achieve more feats…
Today, I really want to visit more places…
Today, I really want to find more answers…

[Heartfelt gratitude to Manu, Akhilesh, Bishas and Archi for planning this out. Cheers to Thomas, Tanja, Parijat, Naaga, Harsha, Sowmini, Spurthi, Chandrashekar V, Neerav, Niladri, Akshat, Bharath, Shushanth, Saranbir, Thakur Saheb and IndiaHikes for making the trek super awesome. Photo Credits: Akhilesh, Parijat, Chandru and Harsha.]