Coconut Cruncher

We landed in Hanoi at around 11am by flight. We quickly withdrew some local currency and bought a local SIM card with data, costing only 200 VND. Having travelled all night we decided to head to the hotel and rest for a bit before exploring. While we walked out looking for Bus 86, a guy tried to redirect us to another bus stop. Once there, he told us that we'd have to go to Terminal 1 for Bus 86, and that terminal 1 was 4km away and we had to walk. Soon after he suggested he would drop us to our hotel by taxi, which would cost 450 VND/roughly 1350 INR. We politely declined and asked another staff for Bus 86. He said it was right outside the airport. We saw the bus and quickly hopped on. The ride cost us only 70 VND and took us right till the homestay we had booked. The buses here looked so efficient and clean and the average speed was 80! Noi Bai Airport Airport Shuttle Bus 86 The road to city was wide and clean, with lots of trees lining it. We walked from the...

17th July 2018 What motivates us? To answer the first, it's easy to think of the generic statements: Art, culture, other artists, music, people, life experiences, nature etc. But honestly, it seems like a real task to stay motivated. To stay focused. To achieve 'flow' i.e: being in the zone. Today I felt a slight tingling warmth, a small burst of excitement. I couldn't point out to what it was, but I felt a vague sense of motivation.       I haven't done anything differently today. Why was I feeling motivated? Last night I watched Anurag Kashyap and Kalki's interview on TapeCast. He mentioned how he has stopped evaluating himself and comparing himself to other film makers. Whether he's great, or mediocre; instead he is focusing on just doing. Expressing, creating, failing and succeeding. It's not something I haven't heard before - me and Polo discussed the other day how it's the age of doers and not thinkers . Everyone has ideas today, bu...

Tonight after a weeks of slogging, I made some time off to watch a documentary I’d been meaning to watch since I first saw the trailer. The film ‘An Insignificant Man’ has been released on ‘Vice’ – a film directed by two young independent film makers – Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla. The film was largely crowdfunded, and was shot during the period of 2012 - 2015. The film covers the establishment of the AAP right until its massive victory in the 2014 Delhi Elections. 
 
 
 The thing I liked the most about the film is how neutral it is in its political stand, how it focuses on Kejriwal’s journey, and provokes discussion on idealism VS politics. In India we are always surrounded by politics, but one doesn’t get to see it first hand in its entirety and truth. It is always seen through the lens of the media – which comes from mostly unreliable and biased sources. It was amazing to be able to see it presented as what it was. During the course of the film I learnt the many iss...

7th Dec 2017 I have been thinking of making video essays for a while now, but hadn’t thought of it through fully because of work. Today I found out that ‘Every Frame a Painting’, one of my favourite channels on youtube that does video essays on Cinema - is officially dead. It was extremely saddening to hear that they have decided that this was the end for them, and that they had to move on to other endeavours. EFAP taught me a lot about film, about art, and about making video essays as well. Their article covers their journey so far, along with their learnings, challenges and rewards. I thought to myself - if they couldn’t do it, who can? But I’m so glad that something so great has been put out there that will be available to anyone anywhere - forever. I wish them good fortune and all the best the world has to offer, and a big thank-you for all the learning and inspiration. :) You can read their overwhelming article here > https://medium.com/@tonyszhou/postmortem-1b338...

27th July 2017 When I saw the trailer for Circle something like a year ago, it seemed pretty interesting, something similar on the lines of Black Mirror. As the film progressed I only noticed how bad the writing, direction and acting was (despite the renowned cast). There was an obvious, in your face message of the dangers of a world surrounded by surveillance and a lack of ‘privacy’ in a futuristic digital world. The main character Mae’s decisions are so contradictory to her established personality, she feels very superficial and unrelatable. Her actions seem to be without motive or any prior driving force.   The very apparent difference between a series like Black Mirror and a film like Circle, is that the former allows room for question of ethics and basic human rights. It provokes deep thought and discussion. I guess they intended to present a larger-than-life social commentary on the ‘dangers of technology’ but instead leave you absolutely disappointed with...

23rd Jan 2016 I watched La La Land today.  I’m not really one for musicals, but the story completely overpowered the ‘genre’ of the film. The trailer didn’t excite me much, but I was curious to know why it won SO many Golden Globes, and besides – it was directed and written by Damien Chazelle, the same man who made ‘Whiplash’; another film I was awed by.  I still have first-screening frenzy, but I’ll try to look at this as clearly as I can. This was not just a musical. It is an honest and heartfelt film about dreamers; a subject which is very relatable to us all. Emma and Ryan are so cute and charismatic, and it’s lovely to see how their ambitions unfold and how one makes the other push forward and become someone more. I don’t think it’s a love story, but a story about the honesty and drive with which the characters dream. However you do root for the two of them, and the love story is beautiful to watch at parallel. I was left speechless choked up by the end....

Hey guys! Some quick TV and Film Reviews of this week: Arrival, Moana, Westworld Arrival I went into this movie blind. Akshay was super excited for it since he was anticipating it for a long time, and I was advised to go without watching any trailers! I was pleasantly surprised to watch such a kickass film. The direction is so good, so subtle and smooth. I watched this last week and since then have been trying to figure what the story of the film is – I’m still not sure, but I like how it showed the concept of time in such a beautiful unconventional way. Most films involving time definitely have some loopholes – it is indeed a difficult subject to tackle in film; but Arrival conveys it smoothly with the help of SciFi devices fitting well in the world of the film. I especially loved the colour key of and pace of the film. It made it look so simple, effortless and void of distraction. Amy Adams as always was brilliant, and all the supporting cast did great too. The writing I im...