A fun weekend it has been. Saturday included a drive to the Red Top Mountain State Park. The movie for the evening was the Bollywood blockbuster of 2001, KABHI KHUSHI KABHIE GHAM. A slick visually pleasant piece of filmmaking packed with more songs than required, the film has a deplorably weak and sapid screenplay. Some of the dialogue (which won a Filmfare Award on Saturday IST) sparkles, but most of it is prolix that aspires to be pithy and epigrammatic. There are a few very brief scenes that deserve credit (Rahul's confrontation with Yashwardhan Raichand before he leaves home has some good moments, Rahul feeding his brother Rohan the lines that open the film on the park bench, Rahul asking the now grown-up Rohan about his parents (again on a bench). The winners of the Escapist Hyperboles Award include the Raichand mansion and the helicopters. The Chandni Chowk set deserves mention, as do the photography and the costumes. Karan Johar smartly and slyly includes songs from the Chopra collection of movies, revisits MAINE PYAR KIYA (Wah wah Ramji among other motifs), HUM AAPKE HAIN KOUN (spoken ever so blithely by Rohan to Poo) and his previous success, the candy floss box office smash KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI. The Big B is dependable and his screen presence is undeniable. Wonder when he will begin to choose sensible roles instead of just the moolah that he receives from these baritone-dominated half-baked if-you've-seen-one-you've-seen-them-all characters (the authoritarian Narayan Shanker in MOHABBATEIN, the patriarch of principles in K3G). AKS saw him in a different light, but left him stranded playing an ill-defined individual backed by an ambitious yet weak script. Hrithik Roshan should capitalize on his looks, acting and dancing skills to grab roles of meat and substance instead of playing the cynosure of female teenage hearts (of course, he gets paid to do that, so who can blame him?). Shah Rukh Khan is mercifully more under control here than in his other films, but there is little else that can be said. I guess the same would go for Kajol, although I know nothing about the residents of Chandni Chowk to comment on the quality of her interpretation. However there are serious lapses in her character and speech that prevent her performance from being completely convincing. Kareena Kapoor is riding high on the wave of hype and publicity. I expect a crash soon, but find it unlikely considering she is a star kid. She cannot act and frankly doesn't qualify as beautiful (Rani Mukherji scores there although she really needs a tonsillectomy). She and Jaya Bachchan (wasted in an insipid conventional role that could have been essayed by a junior artiste had Karan Johar decided to focus on story instead of the appeal of nostalgia and slick looks) compete for the next release of the Ramsay Brothers. Honestly. Karan Johar is laughing all the way to the bank right now. Who can blame him? Inspite of negative word-of-mouth, everyone watched the film at least once. Long live hype and publicity. Who needs good stories anyway? Years ago they accused Satyajit Ray of selling poverty to the USA. Are they ready to own up for the stereotyped image of Hindi cinema that has found its place in the minds of people today? Money talks.

Readings for Lent (Saturday)
Isaiah 58:9-14
Luke 5:27-32

Spent most of today (Sunday) listening to my R. D. Burman CDs before a trip for groceries and some food from the Atlanta Underground Food Court.
Some great news off comp.lang.python. Guido van Rossum was awarded the Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software for inventing and implementing Python. Click here to read the press release.

Mass Readings
Genesis 2:7-9 - 3:1-7
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11

2122 EST Just discovered an uneasy mudslinging fest (well a couple actually) on RMIM about R. D. Burman. Here are the relevant threads.
About the Pancham Yahoo! Group
Who takes the credit ? (Re: RDB fans are pathetic)
RDB fans are pathetic losers
Website for Plagiarism/ Copying in Indian Film Music...