Tuesday, July 26, 2011

स्मृतीभंश

एकदा एक कोल्हा म्हणे झालंय ऊदास जंगल
खेळ घेऊन सगळ्यांचे ऊडवून देऊ दंगल

सिंह झाला खूष म्हणे मस्त ऊपाय काढला
ताबडतोब सगळ्या जंगलांना निरोप त्याने धाडला

जंगल लागले कामाला साफसूफ झाली सुरू
रहायला नवीन गुहा आणि नवीन ग्राऊंड करू

कोल्हा होता नायक त्याची सगळीकडे देखरेख
सगळ्या खर्चाचा भार ऊरी, रोज फाडू लागे चेक

बघता बघता दिवस ऊजाडला आले सगळे चमू
क्रीडानगरीत धमाल ऊडवायला खेळिये लागले जमू

गुहा होत्या गळक्या आणि स्टेडियम फुटके
आईस हॉकी खेळतानाही बसू लागले चटके

प्राणी सर्व चिडले म्हणती व्यवस्था ही कसली?
एवढा खर्च करूनही स्पर्धा का ही पिचली?

घेतलं कोपर्‍यात कोल्ह्याला आणि विचारला जाब
अशी कशी परतफेड जेव्हा केली राब राब?

कोल्हा म्हणे कोणती स्पर्धा? कसले पैसे कसले चेक?
पाच वर्षे झाली, मला आठवत नाही काही एक.

प्राणी म्हणती असं कसं, खात होतास तेव्हा?
शाबूत होती स्मॄती तूझी, टेडर्स काढली जेव्हा

कोल्हा झाला निराश म्हणे ऊफराटी तुमची तर्‍हा
भूकेचा नियम नैसर्गिक लागेल तेव्हा चरा

बाकी सगळा खेळ नियतीचा मी काय करू?
स्मृतीभंशात चूक झाली दंड कसा भरू?

माकड होता वैद्य त्याला आणलं लगेच तिथे
म्हणती तपास कर रोगाचा स्मृती गेली कुठे

माकडानेही थोडं लोणी कोल्ह्याघरी चाखलं होतं
खाल्ल्या मीठाचं ईमान त्यानेही नीट राखलं होतं

तो म्हणाला बाबांनो असाच विचित्र रोग हा
शिक्षा काय करता ज्याला आधीच आहे भोग हा

नशीब समजा फक्त पैशाच्याच गोष्टी हा विसरला
तुम्ही सहानुभूती दाखवा जर लंगड्याचा पाय घसरला

हताश झाले प्राणी काही, गुमान परत घरी गेले
त्यांचीही स्मृती धूसर झाली कोल्ह्याला ते विसरून गेले

जंगल तसंच ऊदास आहे, रोज वणवा रोज फायरिंग
राजा प्रधान मात्र म्हणती "अवर जंगल इज शायनिंग"

~ मुकुल जोशी

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Harry Potter Movie 8 : A few disappointments

This weekend was dedicated to Harry Potter and JKR. I watched all the movies from the morning till the night and finally went to the cinema hall to mark the day by completing the marathon after watching HP 8.

The movie is good. For any fan of Harry Potter its needless to say that the movie is a must watch. That applies to any HP movie for that matter, whether they are excellent or they suck.

However, being a member of the clan that lives in the Harry Potter era, there are few things that disturbed me. And these are not great mistakes. Those of you who are into parenting will know how it feels to see your kid making a mistake at basic addition, when you know she is good at math. You are okay to accept that she fails to grasp a tricky problem. But somehow you don't like to it when there isn't a good reason to commit that kind of mistake in the first place.

Here are some such points about the movie and before you rant me about them please read the "Disclaimer" under the title of this blog.

1. 3D effects
The movie is 3D. Cool. That helps the film industry saving losses from piracy. (25% I guess, not sure) But it didn't give a feel that there is any reason beyond this to have the movie in 3D. Seriously, it has only handful of them. They could have made it a great 3D experience.

Some of the scenes are so dark that couple of times I felt like removing my 3D glasses. (I know the recent study asks you to get your eyesight checked if this happens.)

2. Not showing important aspects of the story

I would have liked to see Teddy Lupin. But that's fine. My biggest problem is not showing the story of Albus Dumbledore, Aberforth, Ariana and Grindelwald. It explains the weaker side of Dumbledore and tells that there were times when he committed mistakes for gaining power. Those who haven't read the books and have only seen the movies are now going to take Dumbledore as perfect.

3. Showing things that were un-necessary (of course IMO)

In this department there is just too much of liberty taken to add extra spice which was just not required. Sometimes it made the characters appear weaker/funny.

These things are

a. Olivander telling harry that he is f-word ed if Voldemort has got the wand.
b. Showing that Neville has crush on Luna!
c. Harry telling Hermione that their fears are indeed true, he has to die etc. etc.
d. McGongall saying she always wanted to use that spell. Yeah, that naughty-ness created a few laughs, but McGongall's character won't perhaps need that.
e. Malfoys running away like cowards ???
f. Showing too much of army. We know that the death eaters escaped from Azkaban, but this was a battle and not a war. It was mostly at personal level. Why think that big and grand means best always?
g. Harry falling down with Voldemort saying "Tom, lets end it together the way it started".. or something of that sort. Seems like Parvati Patil has taken the crew to a few Hindi movies and they are super impressed with the climax dialogues.

4. Showing Voldemort's character as weaker

I love Voldemort. He is a no-nonsense villain. He means his business and he excels at it.

Remember the previous movie when he takes the wand from Lucious Malfoy? Malfoy has this nice silver handle to his wand, which Voldemort throws away. He wants just the wand and no useless decoration.

If any of you are programmers, try to recall how you feel when you see the laptops with accessories to give it different feminine looks to match the rest of the dress. The country has been on intellectual decline since the VAIOs & Dells started to manufacture these. The typical customers of these must be sending texts to their flock like "Dad got me a new lappy, its baby pink.. scho schweet"! (Very likely that the shade I mentioned is wrong, but my vocabulary doesn't go beyond basic colors and baby pink)

The way we loathe the concept and love our bare bone machine, Voldemort means his business. I was maha-impressed with this scene. We know when its a computer you talk about its processor and cores! Even if its a wand the core is what matters! You, me and Voldemort know this.

Now come to movie 8. He laughs like a comic character. I felt pain. The moment any horcrux gets destroyed Voldemort may be losing power, but lose all horcruxes on any day he is still ass-kicking powerful guy. The movie portrays him to get too weak (mentally) as if he has started losing heart in the whole business. He is trying to hide Nagini as if he knows hell will break lose on him soon. At least I felt so, and hence didn't like it.

5. 19 years later

If you don't know it, let me tell you that Prof. Flitwick and Griphook were played by the same actor. This means that the make up artists team kicks butts. No doubts.

But then, was this team serving its punishment in Azkaban when the "19 years later" scene was shot? If not they should be sent there.

Who looks of 36/37 amongst all of them? Maybe Ginny. Harry looks a bit old than usual, Ron looks like the same Ron (only clean shaven) and Hermione - are you telling us that Emma Watson will look exactly same 19 years down the line? Seriously, such a poor job at makeup!!

I am going to watch it once again for sure, and I am hoping that I don't notice anything more.