GRE DIWALI!!!

I gave my GRE test recently. Glad that after prolonging it for almost a year, I could finish it and be satisfied with my performance.. :) Its fall season here.. The most beautiful time of the year.. Its as though God got even more creative with a painting brush and bright colors! They make such amazing pictures. Every time I go out I go equipped with a camera to capture yet another tree that has changed its color or one I missed out on the last time!! ;)

Because I was studying( this is an approximate statement. I was probably wasting the time away and feeling guilty!) I haven't been watching many movies. I am happy to say that it is actually good to spend time doing other things even its cleaning or browsing net than watching movies. Movies are a good pass time but excess of it denies you the pleasure of enjoying more worth while things in life.

We had two important festivals last month. Navaratri and Diwali.. :) Enjoyed both of them.. My GRE test was on Diwali! ;)

MYSTIC RIVER

I watched 'mystic river' yesterday. It has a rating of 8 in IMDB. The movie is about the life of three friends who grow together in the same neighborhood. They live in this neighborhood all their lives and how each of their lives turn out differently in the end. One boy named Dave is abused in his childhood. He is kidnapped by two men and held in a secret location for 4 days before he escapes captivity somehow. Another boy named Jimmie is the bravest in the group. He later becomes the head of underworld of the area. He changes after his return from jail when he finds himself responsible for his daughter who is left motherless. He fears that he may not be protecting and taking care of his beloved daughter well and chooses a more peaceful life for her sake.

The third one named Sean who later becomes a cop. He is successful and does well in service. Dave is always a bit fearful and acts paranoid. The story takes a turn, with the death of the Jimmie's daughter. He is destroyed by her death. He wants to find the killer of her daughter and punish the killer in his own way. He unleashes his gang who investigate for him. Sean, the cop is assigned to the job of finding the killer of the girl. He and his partner go around investigating.

The storyline of the movie is built around the anonymous criminal who committed the crime and how the crime spoils the friendship between three friends. Dave's character is always a little less confident and droopy. He was in the bar the night she was found murdered. He returns home that night with blood on his hands and his wife is shocked to see him like this. He explains that he had been mugged on his way home and he had attacked the mugger and sustained injuries. She believes him but in the paper finds no mention of death of any man.

All the local news channels are covering the murder of jimmie's daughter. Dave's wife suspects that her husband might have murdered the girl. She hides this little secret within herself even as she helps out as a support to Jimmie and his wife. The inspector also does his routine work questioning everyone who was in the bar that night and interviews Dave as well.. He doesnt really suspect Dave of doing anything. But slowly when they find the presence in the back of his car of someone's blood. The blood type from the sample matchs that of Jimmie's daughter, he becomes a suspect.

Meanwhile Dave's wife tells Jimmie of her fears that she fears Dave might have committed the crime. Jimmie takes this to his heart and asks his men to bring Dave to a bar where he would question him personally. Dave is drunk and Jimmie questions him. Dave tells him everything that happened that night. He had been returning home after staying in the bar when he saw a man molesting a boy in the car. He lost control and killed the man by repeatedly beating him.

This was the reason why he was blood stained when he returned home that night. But Jimmie wouldn't believe him. He kept pestering dave and promised to let him live if he told that he was the person who killed his daughter. In the end Dave tells him that he killed Jimmie's daughter even though he hadn't. Jimmie stabs and shoots Dave to death. Sean the cop on the other hand finds a breakthrough in the case. he finds an ambiguity in the 911 call made about the murder. he discovers that there was someone entirely different who had committed the murder. the girl was in love with a boy and his brother had killed the girl. as they were planning to leave for las vegas where they would get married. This boy was very possessive of his brother. So he and his friend had killed the girl.

Dave was a person who lacked confidence and loved his only son very much. He was destroyed by an incident in his past. That came to haunt him, making him murder a man abusing someone else. He was abondaned by his wife, who feared that he had killed Jimmie's daughter. It is unfortunate for Dave's son who lost his father at a young age and his wife who not knowing what all Dave went through, thought him to be the murderer. Jimmie who lost his daughter took law into his hands and unnecessarily killed his friend. It is a complex and well woven story about the relationships between friends and how it all changed when there was suspicion. You can argue that what happened in childhood to dave was the reason for everything that happened. This is an incident that affected not just Dave but all of them for they were never normal again. There is a reference to it in the end when Jimmie mentions how he felt that the three boys were trapped in the secret place, still unable to escape from it. It is a movie well worth watching. It is suspense filled. You feel sorry for Dave and his family.

OLD MOVIES

Why do I like old movies? Well let me tell you what kind of movies I like in general. I like movies that have a great story to tell, like stories of courage, determination and inspiration. Also I like movies that have a lovable character. I have seen a few old movies to see that most of the ones that I have seen seem to have a central lovable or strong character. Sometimes it seems to be just about the emotions and relationships than any real story.
They seem to concentrate on how this one or more characters was in his or her life. And the movie may or may not have a great story to it. For example, one movie i watched recently was hush hush sweet Charlotte. The movie was about a woman. how she had grown up being blamed for her lover;s murder. In the end we find out that she hadn't killed her lover. But even though we can argue that there was a murder mystery. the movie in fact revolved around this one character mostly. Not on the story. This is one thing that gets highlighted.
I also like adventure movies. With some suspense and action. Most of the old movies are good. some of them have ended abruptly but they are good because of the great characters they have projected.

MADAME CURIE (MOVIE REVIEW)

I watched this wonderful movie the other day. It was a such a sweet, inspiring tale of Madame curie's life. How she met Dr Curie who later married her and how they both did amazing things. In the beginning she is portrayed as a poor student who has an amazing love for science. She is doing her major in physics and mathematics from the university of Paris. She is handpicked by her teacher to be the one who would do an internship with a company. She accidentally faints in class of that teacher and he is very kind to take her to a restaurant and buy her food. As even though she denies not having lunch he knows that she hasn't had anything to eat.. And then he tells her that he has picked her out of the entire class to do the work. She is elated. But needs some lab to work.

The prof solves that problem by telling her that he would ask Dr curie if he can lend her the extra work room he has. When the prof asks him he replies that he could share his lab as it is large not knowing that the person the professor is sending is in fact a young lady!! But when he finds out its too late. She arrives the next day to work in the lab. And he fumbles about. So the doctor who didn't like any woman because they were a stumbling block to his work now found that he couldn't work without her around. So a happy year passing. She then informs Dr Curie that she is leaving the univ to go back to Poland to stay with her father.

Now he cant stop himself from asking to stay there and study further but she is adamant. Later after attending the convocation ceremony which he said he wouldn't attend because he didn't like crowds. he comes to her house and agitatedly asks her to if she would please come and stay with his family in the outskirts of Paris for a week. She agrees to his astonishment! and they spend a good time there.. And right at the start of it, Dr Curie rather poetically explains to her how much he loves her and how beneficial such an alliance would be for both of them. this scene is so touching. It is not just I love you marry me. Its more of: since we both are such great scientists and I cant work without your presence, lets wed and be together and help each other out. Though it seems rather formal. In fact their marriage was a heart warming event. They stayed true to each other till the end and they achieved marvels together.

After marriage Madame curie as she was now called starts researching for her doctoral degree. she works on radioactivity. For this she needs a bigger lab, where she could work on isolating a new element. Her husband Dr Curie supports her cause from start to finish. They are allotted an unused shed as lab room and she accepts. They both work and clean the place. They manually melt the ore pitchblende and from it isolate the elusive radium after four years of hard labor and work.

After this they were awarded the Nobel prize and a brand new laboratory. Mean while Dr Curie asks his wife to continue the work, they have been doing even if one of them were to pass away. One day while he is returning from a jewelery store carrying a pair of golden earrings, thinking how beautiful Madame looked in the first evening gown she ever wore in her life, that day for the felicitation ceremony, he dies when he accidentally comes under the wheel of a carriage. Madame curie is devastated. But later she finds courage in Dr Curie's words and continues researching. She is only one to win two Nobel prizes in Physics and Chemistry. It was an awesome feel good movie. It talks of their mutual love, admiration and all the hard work they put together for their accomplishments. Their legacy will live on. And Madame Curie will live on to inspire thousands of women who are now researching and following her lead in various disciplines.

Rema

WONDERS OF THE EYE

The human eye is one of the most expressive element of the human being. It is also very beautiful. There are some things that cannot be expressed in words, but they find expression in the eye. Sometimes, the eye expresses the deepest thoughts in the heart of a person which they were probably blocking from being seen by someone.

I once heard a story where a young girl asks a saint where is god? he says child go and look in your eye in the mirror. You will see the soul and hence god. The child does the same. And is bewildered to see that there is so much hidden behind the small eye! There was beautiful sparkle and she couldn't take her attention away from the deep things that seemed hidden behind this beautiful organ.

On a scientific note, the human eye is the reason we can see this world. If the eye was similar to watching through a lenses or glasses at the world. which would put a tinge of some color say blue or green in everything, we are probably looking at the world the particular way that it would look if I wore a stained pair of glasses before them. Its amazing that even though we perceive that the eye is made of the same kind of flesh and blood as the rest of the body we are seeing through it!! on the other hand we cannot do the same with ordinary skin!! this is how amazing life is!

It is true that the eye is one of the most expressive organs. Even animals that don't speak find expressions for some of their deepest desires and thoughts in the eye. But I also sometimes feel sad that this very expression can be surpassed or used to advantage by certain people in certain professions. Like the acting profession. I feel amazed to see how convincingly people can act in movies and probably in real life!! They use this very almost divine expression to their advantage. So it leads me to think that expression of the eye is beautiful when it is combined with the child like innocence. I find a child's eye to be the most beautiful and most expressive one. As a child is innocent and open to different things as it has not formed the so called personality (ego!!)