Most Anticipated 2012 - Part1

Ok ...... so 2 months of 2012 are already past. Most of January and February however has been really really busy for me so (a) I did not get to watch as many movies as I would have liked and (b) Most of those that I watched were either 2011 releases and oscar contenders or some old movies. The good thing is there weren't any "most anticipated" releases of this year in these months though I would not have minded seeing The Grey or Haywire.

March onward we see release of some movies that promise to be great. So will live up to their expectations, some may not. I am posting trailers of some movies that I am anticipating with high hopes (some much higher than others). But, then again, these are my choices which may very well be different from your. Take a look anyway :o)

JOHN CARTER

THE HUNGER GAMES

CHIMPANZEE

THE AVENGERS

PROMETHEUS

BRAVE

THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

THE HOBBIT

THE BOURNE LEGACY

SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN

ICE AGE CONTINENTAL DRIFT

Ok, so 12 trailers for you to watch and think about and look forward to :o)
Many others are announced to be released this year but the trailers are not out yet. Will put them up as soon as they are available. Meanwhile here's a list of them....you may send in your own suggestions if you wish.

Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (probably Dec)
Steven Spielberg's  Lincoln
Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby (Dec again)
Sam Mendes' Skyfall ...the next Bond movie (Nov release)
Woody Allen's Nero Fiddled (June maybe)
Ang Lee's Life of Pi (Dec again)
Ben Affleck's Argo (probably Sept)
Andrew Domink's Cogan's Trade (Sept release)
Tom Tykwer and The Wachowskis' Cloud Atlas (probably Oct)
David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis
Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master
Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity (Nov release)

Wow....promises to be a good year!!!
Maybe there'll be a few more surprises and something unexpectedly exciting will come up and join the list!

Keep an eye out for the next part in the series (trailers). Till then...happy watching!!

Oscars 2011

The blog is new, and I am lazy......very lazy.....and so this post comes 2 days after the Oscars have been announced!
So instead of predicting winners, scrutinizing nominees and talking about what was IMO sorely left out of the race, let this be just a mandatory Oscar post. I promise to follow it up with other posts about the great, wonderful movies of 2011 which I watched and why I would recommend them to you.

A list of all nominees can be seen here. The Oscars go to ......

BEST PICTURE and BEST DIRECTOR: The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
Any other nominee that would have made me happy too: Hugo or The Descendants

ACTOR in Leading Role: Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
Any other nominee that would have made me happy too: Frankly speaking...all were great!

ACTRESS in Leading Role: Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
Any other nominee that would have made me happy too: As is the case with actors.....I think every person nominated has done a great job. Problem is, I would have had perhaps 3 more nominees!!! A very very strong year for female performances. More of that coming up in the subsequent posts.

ACTOR and ACTRESS in Supporting Role: Christopher Plummer (Beginners) and Octavia Spencer (The Help)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Rango

Loved this win. Though have not seen all nominees, I loved this movie so much when I saw it that I instantly wanted it to win. Have heard great things about the other nominee Chico and Rita too. Need to catch them asap.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: A Separation

This was the only film that I have seen in this category and loved it so much that I was totally thrilled by the win and would have been heartbroken to see it lose out to any other. Left to me, I would probably have nominated it in all categories including best picture, best director, best actor, actress etc. Was glad to see a nomination in the screenplay, but lost out on it :( Read a blogpost on it here and here. 

BEST SHORT FILM (Live action and Animated): The Shore, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore repectively.

BEST SCREENPLAY (Original and Adapted): Midnight in Paris, The Descendants

Though A separation was a strong competitor, I am quite happy the Midnight in Paris won. Its an adorable movie (will talk about it soon in an upcoming post).

Others were technical awards, am glad Hugo bagged five of them, but also unhappy for many great movies that missed out.

So let the movie post marathon begin......

Gattu

The recently concluded Berlin Film festival had a section for films meant for children. It gave the "Special mention" award to India's entry GATTU.

Thanks to the new emerging Indian film making from low-key directors we do occasionally get to see brilliance on screen. Sadly, not a lot of it is well publicized and widely distributed because a) the audience is selected and b) it means high cost and low revenue. What a shame!

Let up hope that it does have a wide release in the near future and I hope to catch it then, or maybe in some film festival nearby.

"The sky is full of kites and none flies as high or fast as Kali. In order to beat the black kite, Gattu has to reach for the sky."

Watch the adorable trailer here:

For the love of Books and Movies

My hubby and I are huge movie buffs. By huge I mean HUUUGEEE! :)  We love watching movies, discussing them, reading trivia about them and also spreading the word about what we enjoyed.

With Oscars 2012 just around the corner we were lucky that this week in St.Louis they were showing all the nominated Short films in both the animated category as well as in live-action. For me, it was the first time that I had an opportunity to watch these movies on big-screen. Back in India, you have to rely either on the pirated discs sold or watch them illegally online. The charm of the big screen and the enthusiasm of watching the first screenings of these shorts made me doubly excited.

Short films are a different experience than a full fledged movie. Ranging from 5 minutes to 30 minutes, they represent a whole story or an idea and need to be convincing and touching within the short time span. All of them were awesome, some were simply great!

I found one of them online and am putting a link here for you to see. The title of this animated short film is "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore".
According to the writer and director William Joyce, it is a story " inspired in equal measures by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books". It is a "poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story". And I totally agree with it.

I hope you get to see the short films somewhere. If they are playing somewhere near you, or will play in the near future, don't miss the opportunity to watch them.

Update 26th Feb 2012: TFFBoMML won the best animated short Oscar.... yayy!!

Somewhere over the rainbow...........

                Beautiful voice, beautiful words, beautiful song

Happy Valentine's :)

Hello everyone :)
Wishing you all a very very Happy Valentine's Day!

People may love it, enjoy it, go all starry-eyed over it, or hate it, crib about it, be nonchalant about the whole thing, wait eagerly for it or dread it......... but you sure can't ignore it.

I choose the middle path. Something to do with hearts and a nice evening together, but not necessarily all pink and red and mushy mushy :o) What I love about the day that its just another reason, another day in the year where you do make an effort to do special things together with your special someone in the middle of your busy life.

So here's a teeny wee valentine for my dearest hubby.

In addition to these two mini-heart cakes I went ahead and made a whole big one to share with friends.
Its a vanilla-walnut cake and it turned out quite yummy.

Here's the recipe for anyone who wants to try it out......

You'll need :

Maida(or all purpose flour) - 1.5cups
Cornflour - 1.5cups
Sugar - 1.5cups
Oil - 1cup
Eggs - 4no.s
Baking powder - 3tsp
Vanilla bean powder - 2tsp (optional)
Salt - 1tsp
Vanilla Essence - 1tsp
Chopped walnuts (can be replaced by mixed nuts, raisins, fruits etc.)

Method:

Preheat oven at 180C or 350F
Sift the flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt 3-4 times and keep aside.
Beat eggs till fluffy and keep aside.
Mix the sugar with the oil and beat till smooth.
Blend in the eggs, vanilla bean powder and vanilla essence.
Gently fold in the flour mix to this and finally add the chopped walnuts (leave some for final garnishing).
Grease baking dish with oil and dust with flour, pour in the cake batter.
Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 mins. (toothpick test to see if its done).
After baking for about 5-7 mins, sprinkle the rest of the chopped nuts on top of the cake for a nutty appearance.

Here's a pic of the nutty cake

Enjoy your day!

Live your life...

Life....A beautiful journey.....

We are each but a small part of this world       

We together make up the entire world 

Can you tell the difference between the two sentences? The first one is a more pessimistic point of view, leading one to the opinion that each of us is a tiny, insignificant part of the huge universe. The second sentence makes one feel that the universe is not complete without all of us put together, that each of us has a unique space, a unique niche that we alone can fill. That the world will be a teeny weeny bit imbalanced if we were not there....

Everyone has dreams and aspirations, everyone has passions and hopes....How many of us are actually able to live them? Life is full of choices, whether we are ready to acknowledge that or not. When we want something with our heart, we can ALWAYS find a way to achieve it. As they say, the entire universe conspires to help us get what we want, when we really want it with all our heart. So powerful is the nature of our thought, that we can create our own life the way we want it to be....

So..... be strong, take risks, try new things, be positive, be happy, make others happy, give others the strength to achieve their goals, take a moment to think what you really want in life, what will give you inner satisfaction, what will give you the motivation to wake up early every morning, eager for the new day to begin and eager to give life your best shot, what brings meaning to your life....You will know when you find it.............         

Nature Prakriti Iyarkai

My inner source of Happiness.......