Musings of an Idiot

I'm not there

It has been a nice weekend and it can be easily summed up in 2 words - biryani and tennis. I cooked Sindhi Chicken Biryani on Saturday and that basically took up a big chunk of the day - shopping for ingredients and the cooking. The result was delicious and now I have enough for 3 days. :-)

And today was tennis - Dan Grade and Fraser Ross, ex-classmates from South Seas days came over and we had a doubles tennis match. Lance & Me v/s Fraser& Dan - and we won the match 7-5; 3-6 ; 6-2. It was a hard fought victory especially considering that we were down 5-1 in the first set. All bones are still in place and nothing is broken or pulled at the end of the game, so I am happy. After the game all of us went and saw 'I'm Not There' and it was a good movie- fantastic acting and fantastic everything but it was half an hour too long.

So that was my weekend - pretty much. I did some other small stuff but those 2 things sum up my 2 recent days of life.

Thats me for now.
Amit

Labels: Food, Movies, Tennis

posted by Amit @ 9:49 PM 0 Comments

Back

It has been a week and a bit since I last posted. The last week flew away in various things and I wasn't in the best frame of mind and body to write an update. I put my upper back out while sneezing and that took me a good 4 days to recover from that (it looks like I am 30 going on 80). And how do you manage to do such a thing like that? I don't know - I just somehow managed to do it. And now I am back to the usual story of having to check my backlog of unanswered emails and things to do.

Last week was also eventful in terms of tax returns. I thought I had paid all my taxes but my accountant thought differently as he clubbed together my earnings as a freelancer and my earnings after I joined my current job, together - which meant that I ended up in a situation of having to pay more taxes, which I wasn't happy about at all. The logic didn't make any sense to me and I followed it up with IRD and they advised me the opposite, so hoping to sort this stuff out with the accountant soon.

My new favorite dish is Keema Curry that I have been cooking for the past 2 weeks now. I am using Shan Spice mix which takes care of all the spices for the dish and the result is mouth-wateringly good. I cooked the same for the pot luck dinner that happened at Rachel's new place, where I went for the house warming party. It was very well received by those who could tolerate the hotness of it {read: green chilli tolerance levels :-) } . Talking of food - I went to Kathryn's {well known screen writer and also ex-colleague from South Seas teaching days} birthday dinner at Papa's Pizza yesterday and their 'New Zealand Venison Ravioli' was divine. If you get a chance do check out that joint - it is a cozy little place and well worth the visit for that dish alone - I wasn't sold on their pizzas though.

I watched a couple of movies on DVD and they were alright - 'Justice League: Final Frontier' {nice tone} and 'Alpha Dog' {brilliant acting}.What I am really waiting for is the Hollywood summer season to kick off - the movie that I am really waiting for is 'The Dark Knight' - the latest poster has some real balls.

That's me for now.
Till later,
Amit

Labels: Food, Movies, Party

posted by Amit @ 11:20 PM 0 Comments

Further developments

The past 2 days have been super busy and I desperately waiting for the weekend. I was supposed to go for an audition on monday evening right after my acting lessons and because the character I was auditioning for was supposed to speak in an american accent I scurried around for an accent coach and I got in touch with John Dybvig, after recommendation from Mike [my acting teacher]. The time was fixed for Monday late afternoon -straight after work and I was excited. Then early on Monday morning the audition got cancelled but I still decided to go through with the accent coaching as it is something that I had been meaning to do for a long time. So I went over to John's place for my lesson straight after work. The class was extremely helpful and I intend to keep at it, so that I have an additional skill set if need be. After the lessons I drove over to my acting lessons in the evening and then came back home and cooked some Keema Curry to wind down after a long day. By the time I hit bed I was dead tired. A 16 hour day in total.

Yesterday was no less busy as I went home straight after work and started working on To'ona'i. I started implementing the changes that I had discussed with David and I got into the flow of things pretty quick. Editing is not about cutting - it is about intuition and working from the heart rather than from the mind. Anyone can cut but not everyone can make a story flow - it is a craft (like writing or acting or any other creative art form), which you just develop as you gain more and more experience. I made some interesting discoveries about length and the time of a cut, that I am pretty pleased about.

Funnily enough I lost track of time and missed my physio appointment and ran really close to the line with my salsa lessons. The lesson was interesting in the sense that there were more girls than guys at the class - which was a problem as you can only dance salsa in pairs and the steps for girls is different from that for the guys and the fact that guys are the ones who have to lead the dance. It was a good workout, especially after the 2 private classes I took before this group class. A lot of what the salsa teacher taught in the private lesson started to make sense including the observation that kiwi girls are really hard to dance salsa with [not all of them obviously but most of them] and the guy has to work extra hard to make them work to the signals. Kiwi girls forget that in the dance it is the guy who leads and they just have to follow the signals and they try and control the dance. Typical!

Anyway after the salsa lesson, I came back home and went about authoring a DVD for Mr. Mamea and I didn't finish it till 12.30 at night. And by the time the DVD authoring was done and I had tested the DVD on a couple of machines I was on auto-pilot mode and was glad when I finally hit the bed. With post production schedules I hate running close to the line and I always like to keep aside contingency days just incase shit hits the fan - luckily in this case it did not and everything went to plan. So I did have a good sleep knowing that I had done my bit even though it was a 17 hour day and it was my 4th day of doing 15+ hours a day. So yeah I am eagerly looking forward to the weekend but that's not before I hand over the DVD to Mr. Mamea tonight and discuss further post production action on the short film.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Acting, Food, Post Production, Short film

posted by Amit @ 12:46 PM 0 Comments

Marvels

I cooked myself some Lahori Fish and it was really really yummy. The fish I used was Orange Roughy - which is delicious in itself and it was the perfect choice for the dish. It has been ages since I have tasted proper fish kebabs and the instant batter that I used to cook the fish was so good that my mouth is still watering thinking about the dish. Next on my 'to try' list is Tikiya Kebab. I have the batter mix packet - just have to try it out sometime this week. Yummmmmm......

I finished reading 'Marvels' and 'Kingdom Come' illustrated by Alex Ross and they were both alright. The artwork in both the books is stunning but the story on the other hand has similar themes in both the comics - even though they belong to different comic book universes. Both of them were critically acclaimed graphic novels when they were released but I don't think they hold up today as the stories didn't really tell anything unique.

I also finished watching season-9 of Seinfeld as I had never ever seen it and I still think it is one of the best TV shows ever. It is still as irrelevant and as funny as it was when it first screened. Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David are comic geniuses unlike any others.

Signing off for now,
Amit

Labels: Books, Food, TV Series

posted by Amit @ 8:17 PM 0 Comments

Malaysian Cuisine

I had dinner at KK Restaurant in Epsom yesterday evening and the food was divine. The place was super busy and it stayed that way through out the stay there. I ordered KK Chicken and the dish was awesome. The restaurant has displaced Sri Pinang as my favorite malaysian eating joint in Auckland. I would highly recommend that you get a reservation before going and also the place is not flash or anything - but don't let the looks disappoint you. The food is gorgeous.

I am a bit peeved because the domestic air fares fell recently and because of a 1 day difference I have spent 120 bucks more for the same flights. Oh well - you win some, you loose some. What are the flight tickets for? That's for attending Rachel's marriage that's happening in March, in Alexandra. Plan is to go to Queenstown and from there go to Alexandra. I can't wait for the trip because it will be the first time ever that I am going to the south island.

Juno was a really cute movie and I think the best part of it was that it achieves that without over playing emotions and events. Ellen Page is fantastic as always and the rest of the supporting cast do a really nice job doing subtle stuff which makes everything that much more credible.

I am feeling restless and pensive at the same time for some strange reason.

That's me for now.
Amit

Labels: Food, Movies, New Zealand

posted by Amit @ 9:22 PM 0 Comments

Crumbled Kebabs

I tried cooking some Shammi Kebabs with a reciepe downloaded from the internet and the effort did not go down very well - the kebabs crumbled. :-) It is not the reciepe's fault though - it is entirely my mistake - I should have heated the original mixture for another 10 minutes or so, so that the moisture was completely gone from the mixture.I also should have added only 1 tablespoon of beaten egg instead of adding 1 whole egg - which is probably a reason why there was so much moisture in the kebabs...Lessons learnt for next time I suppose.

But incase you wanna have a crack at cooking some shammi kebab here is the reciepe:

Ingredients:
750 g (1 1/2 lb) finely minced lamb
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 tablespoons yellow split peas (mattar dhal)
Spices
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1¹/2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
salt to taste
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1 tablespoon yoghurt or thick cream
1 small egg, beaten
ghee or oil for shallow frying
Filling:
1 fresh green chilli, seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro
I spring onion, including green leaves
1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger

Preparation:
Put lamb, onion, dhal, ginger, garlic, salt and water into a heavy saucepan and bring to the boil. Stirring occcassionally. Cover and mok over low heat until meat. lentils and onions are soft, about 45 minutes. Then uncover and cook, stirring now and then, until all the liquid has been absorbed. This may take at least I hour. Leave to cool, then mix in the garam masala and yoghurt or cream. Add 1 tablespoon of beaten egg and mix well. If mixture is not too moist add more of the beaten egg. Knead very well for 10 minutes or until mixture is completely smooth.

Divide into 8 portions and form each into a flat circle. Put 14 teaspoonful of filling in the middle. close the meat mixture around it, pinching edges together. Flatten gently to form a small round patty. Shallow fry on a heavy griddle or frying pan lightly greased with ghee or oil. Serve hot.

For more recipes you can check out this website.

Tried different things to try and save the kebabs but with no luck. Still managed to salvage some of it and it tasted yummy - the taste was just right even though it was all crumbled and you had to eat the kebab with a spoon. :-)..Sigh - the joy of cooking.

Anyway the sabbatical from 'Five' continues and will get back to working on it from this week sometime. Still have to shoot the opening of the movie as well as a couple of pickup scenes - so currently scheduling for that. Also - a random note: a great resource for sounds to use on short films or movies is located HERE. The sounds are under Creative Commons Licence - which means you are free to use it on any project as long as you credit the creators of any sound you use in the credits. Not a bad deal at all, especially if you are an independent film maker.

Till later
Amit

Labels: Food

posted by Amit @ 12:53 PM 0 Comments

Experiments

I have experimented cooking different type of dishes in the past couple of days. The weirdest one I don't even know to call because it was so random - some of the ingredients - chicken, red capsicum, garlic, ginger, a shot of vanilla flavoured vodka, peppercorn, hot chili sauce, red beans, blackcurrant juice to name a few. I still haven't tried eating the dish yet - that I am leaving till tomorrow. :-)

I also experimented and came up with a quick snack - cheese pepperoni mushroom toast. It takes all of 10 minutes to make and it is yummy. The key is pan frying the mushrooms with cracked pepper to give it a nice flavor and use mozzarella cheese as topping as it adds a distinct flavor to the dish.

The current rough cut stands at 77.5 minutes and it will go down a further 3 minutes odd before other elements are added in and the movie is starting to feel tight, which is always good. I now have the aerial footage and will probably add it after we do the pickup shots on Saturday (weather permitting).

Managed to watch a french movie, 'The Housekeeper' - which was funny, gentle and a good slice of life. The ending was pretty wide open and is anyone's guess. I think the French like their open endings to their movies as they feel that cinema is a continuation of life and a story can never end. I could be totally wrong but I am still scratching my head for any French movie that I have seen which has a closed ending.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Five, Food

posted by Amit @ 9:26 PM 0 Comments

Gengy's

I finally managed to get around to eating out at the Mongolian BBQ restaurant I was wanting to try for ages. Originally I had planned to eat out there on my birthday but since that turned out to be a non event, I postponed it till the next opportunity - which was today. No special reason - just was able to save up enough money for the treat and thought it would be a great opportunity to catch up with Anita for 'Five'.

The restuarant we went to was Gengy's Restaurant in Newmarket (at the corner of khyber pass road and crowhurst street) and it proved to be an awesome experience. It was great value for money and the customer service was really nice as well. There was a special offer on where lunch was NZ$ 14.90 per head for all you can eat and it was great because I took 3 servings of food besides the dessert. There are different sections where you have a selection of different meats, vegetables, oils, spices, grounded ingredients - all you have to do is create your own combination of meats and vegetables and oils etc. and take the bowl to the chef, who then cooks it in front of you over a round flat hot plate which has a constant heat temprature of 600 centigrade. You eat your food and then go back for more servings (and possibly experiement with different combinations of meats and cooking oils - I did). It is definitely a great way to have a relaxed lunch which is also fun. I will definitely go back there sometime soon. [a tip - you can easily skip the salads and the soup in order to enjoy the main meal better]

I finished watching a really interesting documentary called 'The Oil Factor' and it was an eye opener. It just made me really angry at the state of the world we live in. Did you know that - At current rate of production, North America and Western Europe will run out of oil in 2010 and almost 1/2 a million U.S military personnel are deployed overseas near oil fields and oil routes. For those people who argue that the current conflicts around the world are not related to oil but for making the world a peaceful place all I can say to that is - Stop eating bullshit which the mainstream media keeps feeding you without questioning the legitamacy of the reports. As a documentary the first 10-15 minutes were kind of mendearing as it sets up the factual basis for the arguments but once the images start streaming in from Iraq and Afghanistan, all you can do is watch in horror over whats happening.

For the past few days there has been something that has really been bothering me - I keep looking out of my window and keep pondering about the meaning of love. What is it? What does it mean? Why is it? I wish Monty Python had made a movie called 'The Meaning of Love' as a sequel to their classic 'The Meaning of Life'.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Acting, Five, Food, Introspection, Movies

posted by Amit @ 9:25 PM 0 Comments

Match Point

Today was supposed to be a really long day for me as there was supposed to be a guest workshop in the evening but it got postponed because of unavoidable circumstances and that meant I came back from work early. I decided to do some shopping for groceries, so that I could cook some Chicken Quorma and I was really surprised to see the number of school kids hanging out at the mall after their school. I felt sad for them - it is almost like they don't have anywhere else to hang out or go to after their school was done.

I am proud of myself because I managed to do a parallel park with my first attempt today. Usually I avoid parallel parking and drive till I find an easy parking spot. This is because of my irrational fear that I might damage the other cars which are already parked but today I found a free spot in front of the house which asked for a parallel park and I decided to give it a go (especially after the clear instructions from Benji on Sunday about how to do it). And yeah...did it the first time, so am pretty happy about it.

Since I was feeling so happy - I decided to take a walk across the neighbouring reserve {which is right next to our house}. I was a bit uneasy when we first moved into this new place because the photograph I took at night of the reserve looked kind of spooky, so taking advantage of my good mood I went to have a look at what was there and it turned out to be a nice and pleasent walk. So that's another fear that I managed to overcome today.


So I came back after the walk and cooked some Chicken Quorma and as soon as I finished it, I got distracted by the beautiful colours in the sky and off I went for a walk again. Here are some of the pics from that trip.

So yeah - it turned out to be a really pleasent evening. Ate the Chicken Quorma, which turned out to be really delicious - not hot but not completely bland either- just right. Watched 'Match Point' afterwards. It was a slow burn movie but in the end strangely satisfying. It had such a leisurely pace to it that you are kept wondering as to where they would take the movie but then half way through the movie it changes genres and turns into a thriller of sorts. My only complaint is that they should have made the main guy {played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers} more likeable, so that the audience could atleast be rooting for his character but nothing that he does or says really does that and you are left with a sense of bitterness about life really.

And I just had a massive deja vu - I always get thrown haywire when that feeling is so strong.
Anyway thats me for tonight.

Cya,
Amit

Labels: Food, Movies, Random

posted by Amit @ 9:25 PM 0 Comments

Commercial Art

Sunday shaped up to be a dreary day - it was pouring down the whole day and I caught a cold (possibly from yesterday's running around in rain doing lighting tweaks) and was sneezing the whole day. I did get most of the stuff cleaned up in my room as well as in the drawing room - I am currently testing and keeping/discarding the innumberable CDs/DVDs that I seem to have accumulated.

I did find an Indian takeaway place which has some really nice indian dishes. On Sunday, I tried Chicken Saagwala - which is Chicken cooked with spinach and onions and it was really yummy...and yesterday evening I tried Butter Chicken, which turned out to be one of the better butter chicken i have eaten in NZ. So I was thinking of trying a few more dishes over this week to authenticate that it truly is a good indian eating joint.(:-)

I thought it would be a good idea to share some of the points from the workshop I attended, incase it helps anyone in their moviemaking endeavors. I misplaced the notes I made on that day and I am basically writing this off my memory - so please feel free to ignore bits and pieces that don't seem right to you and yeah it also means I am putting in my interpretation of the workshop, so don't start taking it as a word of law.

The basic things which were covered during the day (besides the one on one workshops with the scripts) were - Working with story/treatments: how long and short documents can help analyse your story and how to use treatments as part of a structured approach to building or rebuilding a script.

Development Strategy: How producers work best with writers and script editors during the development process? When to listen and when to demand. The producer's rights and the writer's responsibilities. A structural approach to writing useful and constructive script notes.

One of the things that usually happens is that the writers and producers are so much on different planets that it is virtually impossible to make a movie. A producer is looking for a product, which they can market and sell to make money while the writer is only looking to create a story which seems true to them. In such a scenario making a movie without understanding each other's point of views is hard. Different markets have different working relationship between writers and producers. America has a more hardlined and tested approach(remeber there are always exception to the rules) where the writer is writing for the producers and makes whatever changes are asked for by the producer with only a limited say in those decision making processes. There is already an industry in place where there is money to make movies and they can afford to spend money on spec scripts and develop one of those into a movie which they think would get audiences into the theatre and make them money.

While smaller film markets like NZ, UK - where there are limited number of movies being made because of the limited finances available - go through a different process where the script is originated mostly at the writer level and evolves over a period of time with the producers working closely with the writer to find a movie which could be marketable. In such a reality it becomes essential to make sure that the writer is given creative freedom to explore ideas and also as a producer not to start dictating what the script should be from the point of view of marketing.

With each draft and revision - the temptation is always to give a huge set of notes to the writer and expect them to make the changes. Instead of doing that it is good to discuss things with the writer and then follow it up with suggesting 3-4 key story points you both have agreed needs changing. Then let the writer work out how they are going to make those key changes and not interfere in the actual creative processes.

As a writer - don't spend too much time setting things up and engage the audience by keeping them guessing the story. It is good to make a 90 minute movie - as it is more commercial and for that the script would be in the vicinity of 80-90 pages depending on what kind of story it is. While constructing a story the idea is to first have the story structure sorted and write the dialogue afterwards - as story structure is more important than dialogue when you are trying to create a good script. Identify your target market early on and write with them at the back of your mind - there is no point in writing a script which makes sense only to you and can not be realized onto the big screen. Drama is a genre which is the hardest to sell or make, so a script just can't be drama - it would need to have other elements in place - which play an equally important role in the story. Also when you start writing a story the internal logic within the script needs to be rock solid and the environment has to have some kind of an impact on the story. Anyway I think that is quite enough because my sense of that day has just got mixed up and even if you find atleast 1 good thing in all the stuff I have written about the workshop - the effort gone into this post is worth it.

I will take leave for now...btw - do check out the trailer for BORAT - which is absolutely hilarious.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Food, Script

posted by Amit @ 4:40 PM 2 Comments

Transition

In the process of shifting houses at the moment - and most of my stuff is across in the new place. I think the whole process will be complete by this evening. You must be wondering as to why I am typing all this now. Well, I suddenly realized that I will be without internet connection at home - I would say for atleast a month or more. The problem is that to get normal internet you need a phone line - over which Telecom has a monopoly and costs close to 50 bucks a month to have a landline combined with another 50 bucks for internet - on top of the initial 250 bucks odd installation. While if we go wireless internet it costs about 300 bucks to setup {router + activation} and a 1 year contract at 50 bucks a month - which is a pain as you have to pay for it even if you end up not using it at all. And don't want to end up spending that kind of money at this stage. So yeah no internet at home - means less replying to emails and smaller blog postings with no photos; let's see how this shapes up.

I will try and put up photos of the new place as and when I get access to internet but in the meantime enjoy a bird's view of the place we are moving into.


Yesterday evening, had another funny experience with dinner. I saw a new indonesian eating joint at the local food court and it looked really authentic, so decided to give it a go. I ordered a chicken dish which looked yummy in the photograph - i can't remember the name of the dish but the description was grilled chicken cooked with hot chilli, roasted onions, garlic and sun dried tomatos. To my amusement and surprise - the cook was trying to dissuade me from ordering the dish saying that it was extremely hot and I would be better off ordering something less spicy. I looked around and didn't find any dish I wanted to try and insisted on eating the same dish. So the cook reluctantly took my order and it kind of caused a minor event amongst that places staff - where they were all pointing fingers at the picture of the dish I ordered and discussing it amongst themselves. It was really amusing seeing that. Anyway the dish turned out to be hot but extremely yummy!!! And when I told the cook while eating that I really enjoyed the dish, she sent me out some more hot gravy since I had eaten most of the gravy. So all in all it was an interesting experience.

Anyway I better get back to doing some more work and will probably write an update when I next get the chance.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Food

posted by Amit @ 11:20 AM 0 Comments

Back of the Y

There is this completely anarchistic NZ TV show which I found titled, 'Back of the Y' and it is hilarious and outrageous while being gross, ultra-violent and sick. This show was made in 2001 and I recently discovered it on DVD at the local video store and glad that I did. Definitely not for the faint hearted or politically correct people. If you don't laugh at any of the episodes then I would say that you have lost all hope in life.

I have been slowly shifting stuff to the new place and I am amazed at how much stuff I have accumulated in just 3 years time. Hopefully the shifting will be complete this weekend; which is when we move into this new place. I managed to score a second hand drawer for storing clothes for five dollars - which is a bloody good bargain.

On a completely different note - yesterday evening was painfully hilarious experience for me. Benji and me went out to the nearby shopping centre to grab some dinner. Northcote has a good asian population and that reflects in the diversity of the shops in the shopping complex and eating joints. But the one thing that I usually complain about is that the cuisines are kind of modified to suite the local taste buds - which means that anything that says 'Hot' is not really that spicy and if it says 'Medium' that means it is most probably bland. So instead of going for the main stretch of eating joints we decided to try this chinese restaurent that was hidden away amongst other shops. I looked at the menu and decided to try one of the chef's special - which had 3 chillis drawn next to it. You can see where I am going with this...

The majority of the patrons of the restaurent were chinese and only 3 people besides us weren't chinese. Well, when the dish came it was a complete shock to me - all I could see was this massive plate with small pieces of chicken hidden away amongst lots and lots of red chilli. The dish was dry and 'HOT'. It was a great struggle finishing off the dish despite my well developed taste for eating hot spices. Benji tried a couple of chicken pieces from that and it was way too hot for his liking but I managed to somehow hunt down all the chicken pieces from the chillies and eat them. In the end the plate was still full of red chillies glowing in their full bodied redness- on closer look, it almost felt like they were laughing at me. So the lesson learnt from the experience is not to order anything which says 'Super Hot' when ordering from a place which cooks authentic regional cuisine. Anyway - visualizing the dish still makes me sweat, so will leave that thought alone.

On a more somber note - we are living in a world which is inching towards a full blown war threatning to spread across countries and continents. And the repurcussions to the world economy and societies are huge. There is a saying, that I saw on a sign outside someone's office, which said 'Don't underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.' And I think that holds true when it comes to governments and countries. The middle-east conflict is just threatning to be that breaking straw. Let's hope that this doesn't escalate into a repeating pattern of violence for the human civilization.

Good night for now,
Amit

Labels: Food, Random, TV Series

posted by Amit @ 8:41 PM 0 Comments

FIVE

My blog postings seem to have become kinda irregular but it is nothing that I am doing consciously. It just happens that times become so hectic that it is virtually impossible to muster up enough energy put my thoughts into words.

We are re-submitting 'Nowhere to Love' for Screen Innovation Production Fund, since we have postponed the movie and that makes us eligible to apply for fund without breaking any rules. A big chunk of the Sunday went into writing the director's notes for the application, which is critical to the application. So here is keeping fingers crossed for this round- will get to know about the grants by the end of October.

On the other hand - I have started picking up the pace for 'Five' since that is now closer to production. The first draft of the script in a couple of days away but we now have four of the five main characters cast and most of the crew is on board, so this is definitely gonna be an ultra low budget outing. And the idea with this one is to work with a really small team - 5 cast and 5 crew to make the movie happen in a short period of time - it would be a tough shot but also an awesome experience and heaps of fun. So now - I am working on the workflow in order to make this movie happen. Hopefully I should have something nailed down in a couple of weeks. I also need to put my head down and come with a concept and design for the website for 'Five' and create it soon...and that's not counting the updates and modifications I have to do for 'Nowhere' website. Hmmmm.....might have to wait till the shifting to the new place is complete.

Yeah - in the process of shifting to the new place and most of the major stuff is now there, just got the smaller things left at the current place. I have also been frequenting 'trademe' - a nz based online auction site quite a bit, bidding on items which i would be needing at the new place like a refrigerator (managed to get a second hand one for real cheap) etc...Moving houses is always a bit of a pain because of the costs involved but for this new place- it is worth it.

I cooked an experimental chicken dish and it turned out really good - it has a sweeteness to it when you put it in your mouth but then has a slight bite to it as you eat it further. Benji was a little apprehensive when he saw me cooking because he was unsure of the ingredients I was using. He reluctantly took a small tasting sample and after tasting it he said "This is definitely one of the better dishes you have made. You can definitely sell it for money and people would be willing to buy it." - which I guess is a compliment. How did I cook it? I took a teaspoon of olive oil in a wok and heated it up and added 400 gm of diced chicken to it. Then I added about 3-4 table spoons of honey to the pot and cooked the chicken in it. Once the chicken turned light brown {after about 12-15 minutes on high heat} I ground some fresh pepper onto it and cooked it some more and then added a sprinkling of south african salt called 'Marina Braai Salt'. After it is turned brown I added a can of wattie's tomato chunks with garlic and olive oil. I also added a couple of dashes of Nando's Hot Peri-Peri Sauce to the mixture and added half a glass of water and let the chicken cook till it was done. The total dish took about 30 minutes to prepare and I had it on white rice and it was a real treat.

Anyway my eyes are shutting themselves down. Time to go to bed.
Till later,
Amit

[P.S - NZ is the 4th most dangerous country to drive your motor vehicle in, coming behind Thailand, South Africa and India.....this is hilarious.....considering that everyone here considers driving practices and conditions in India outrageous. Here is the News Link if you wanna read further.]

Labels: Five, Food, Nowhere to Love

posted by Amit @ 9:07 PM 0 Comments

Pirates Ahoy!!!

Just back from a screening of 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest' - it was an enjoyable movie. Way above and beyond Superman Returns. It is definitely a holiday movie and is a fun ride even though the second act gets bogged down by overdrawn scenes. Johnny Depp is lots of fun again and the CGI is awesome - especially the Kraken and Davey Jones. And yes, the movie does leave you on a cliffhanger - a nice one at that.

The past few weeks have been busy times with school and movie projects, so time has been sparse. Benji discovered a chinese eating joint which stays open late and we checked it out yesterday night. Both of us were surprised to find that it stays open till 2.00 AM - yep...2.00 in the morning and the best part - it is only 5 minutes walk from the house. The reason it is so surprising is that all shops on the shore {except for the supermarkets} closes by 6.30-7.00 PM odd and only the restaurents stay open till 8.30-9.00 PM on a weeknight {with most fast food places closing around 10.00 PM}; so to find any place for your midnight snacks is a huge challenge and the only option is to go into the city - which isn't that exciting an idea. So yeah - really thrilled to find a late night eating joint close to our house.

I got a text message recently which has been bugging me - it says "Philosophy: Small things in life hurt a lot". I think I will have to ponder over it.

And till later,
Amit

Labels: Food, Introspection, Movies

posted by Amit @ 10:53 PM 0 Comments

Beautiful weekend

It has shaped up to be a beautiful weekend with no rain whatsoever on these 2 days and some really lovely sun. I haven't gone indoor rock climbing as one needs a climbing partner and at this point I don't have anyone. I put the idea forward to Benji and both of us have agreed that maybe it is not such a good idea to try that together, considering the weight difference between the two of us, so I will wait for a climbing partner and then give it a go.

The Auckland International Film Festival is just around the corner and in the past 3 years I have never been to see anything at the festival because I never found a movie that I wanted to desperately watch. But this time around there are a fair few movies which interest me, so went over and bought tickets to a couple of them - 'Tristam Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story' and 'Road to Guatanamo' - interestingly both movies by Michael Winterbottom. Not related to the film festival - 'Superman Returns' is being released this Thursday and they are re-launching the IMAX 3D screen again at Village Cinemas on Queen Street, so will be watching the movie there.

Watched a couple of movies over the weekend - 'Thumbsucker' and 'Wolf Creek'. Thumbsucker was a coming-of-age comedy and it wasn't too funny. It has a lot of missed moments and the editing rhythm is off synch with the performances, which were pretty solid (even from the teenagers). It downplays the humor so much that it almost kills the movie. And because the editing is out of synch, the movie just felt way too long even though it was normal movie length ( I came close to dozing off around the 50 minute mark).

Wolf Creek on the other hand was a much better movie than I expected - it takes a long time for the movie to start off. It has a 45 minute setup time and then all hell break's loose. There is no suspense to really speak of but it is brutal and unrelenting in nervous tension when it gets going. In a way the direct comparision would be to 'Hostel' which kind of follows the same story telling pattern with huge build up time before breaking into brutality from which the horror comes from. It almost feels like the storytelling technique in horror is going through a change. Hopefully someone finds a balance between traditional horror and new age horror.

I cooked something new today and learnt an extremely valuable lesson - a meal has to be balanced out between dry items and wet items otherwise it is hard to enjoy the meal to the full extent. I cooked some chicken skewers marinated in indian spices and curds (unsweetened yoghurt) and served them on rice along with chargrilled red peppers, sliced olives and peppered omlette. I undercooked the rice a bit and then did not prepare any wet dishes, so it was a tough lunch to have even though it tasted good. So a lesson learnt for the future.


There is a third movie project which is now under development and it is as exciting as 'Nowhere'. At this point all I can say is the movie is tentatively titled 'FIVE' and the reason I am excited is that I would like to make this as a 'zero-budget' movie with the focus on telling a good story within huge resource constraints. David M. is writing the story and it is going to be a great collaborative effort. The plan is to shoot the movie in Feb'2007 with the aim for sharing it with everyone by July'2007. More details will follow soon...all in the due course of time.

I think I will go offline for now. Might watch another movie or so.
Till later,
Amit

Labels: Five, Food, Movies, Nowhere to Love

posted by Amit @ 5:28 PM 0 Comments

French Toast

'French Toast' has been the magic word for the past 2 days now. I haven't had french toast for 3 and half years now - mainly because I have been lazy at breakfasts; never found clean dishes when i felt like having breakfast and I never feel like staying at home for long in the morning - so I ended up skipping breakfast for the past 3 years. My breakfast has been a glass of choclate milk - yes I do start off my day with choclate. So to my surprise i found some clean dishes and cooked some toast and omlette on sunday - and I was thrilled with that, so decided to go one step further and decided to cook myself some french toast - which is one of my favorite breakfast dishes after 'alloo ka parantha' {which i had for a good part of my life}. The outcome - yummmmmm.......having french toast in the morning has been simply fantastic and I am a happy-chappy.

Sunday has been relatively relaxed with me doing cooking and later on in the evening having a game of badminton with Dean, Becks, Craig and Marrisa. It was great. It always feels good working up a sweat. Monday had a major meeting with regards to the movie and it shaped up to be really productive. Now I am just trying to workout when I can start doing the acting workshops from - definitely excited about that. I think I am close to finalizing another couple of smaller parts for the movie, which should give us a well rounded cast.

My laptop has now got a new motherboard. Some bits and bobs had stopped functioning properly and since my laptop is still under warranty Dell guys came across and fixed it by replacing the motherboard.

So yeah that is the update from my side...
Till later,
Amit

Labels: Badminton, Computers, Food

posted by Amit @ 6:26 PM 0 Comments

Snatch

Doesn't this look like the dog from 'SNATCH'???? Now where was the diamond again??? This was hilarious because the dog was standing outside the door of the shop and from a distance it looked as if he was window shopping.


These photos were taken on my trip into the city, when I went to have my meeting with Richard regarding the movie. Unfortunately Sri Pinang was closed, so could not get my fix of roti-cury, so we ended up at Rasoi eating some masala dosas - not as satisfying a lunch, especially when I was after that malaysian dish. On the way back I found a couple of pics - the first was a proverb written on the footpath and what an appropriate one too - not many people seemed to notice it but what a brilliant idea.


This following pic was me trying to capture the multi-layered motorway but instead drifted to this shot which I found fascinating because of the composition. Two people walking across a bridge but what looked like a walk across a concrete platform suspended in air.


I finally got around to watching, 'The Matador' - it was classic. Hilarious to the bone. Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear are spot on in their acting and the movie is perfectly paced and it achieves everything it sets out to do. The cinematography is beautiful and captures some moments so nicely. Ultimately the movie is about friendship above everything else and it has a satisfying end. A really good watch.

On the movie front - it is official - we have postponed the production of the movie by 3 months and we now plan to film in mid-september. This gives us enough time to fine tune the script and also raise more money for the movie. The task of raising money is a tad hard in NZ, especially since private sources of funding are far and few inbetween plus I don't get to know the results of this round of Screen Innovation Production Fund for another week and half (not really hopeful about it though). We have had awesome response from production companies who want to be part of the movie and we are currently negotiating deals with them. Irrespective of what happens with further funding, we are definitely going to make the movie this year. We passed the 'point of no-return' about three months back.

I took my car to get its Warrant of Fitness and it is going to cost me a few hundred bucks before it get's that. A sucker but there is no avoiding it. I will take leave for now.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Food, Movies, Nowhere to Love

posted by Amit @ 5:23 PM 0 Comments

Malaysian

I had the most satisfying lunch in a long long time. It was yummy and finger looking good. Where was it??? It is a malaysian restaurant on K'Road called Sri Pinang {356 Karangahape Rd, Auckland || phone: 09 358 3886 - incase you want to try it out}. I had gone into the city for a meeting along with Richard and after the meeting Richard said that he knew an excellent eating joint and stopped over. Man - words can't describe the taste plus the place was really reasonably priced. By the time we finished our lunch, the restaurant was packed to the brim. I had a Roti Curry and even ordered an extra roti - it was that yummy. I had a huge grin on my face for the rest of the day. Highly recommended eating joint.

I just formatted my laptop and installing everything fresh. So it should be another day or so before I have all my softwares loaded up. This time I decided that instead of using MS-Office I would use Open Office which is free to use and thought as a goodwill gesture I would put up a link so that you can download it incase you feel like saving yourself some money and use something which is as good as MS-Office (if not better).

Labels: Computers, Food

posted by Amit @ 8:39 PM 0 Comments

Holiday!!!!

It finally felt like a holiday today - did nothing major. We did watch 'King Kong' yesterday night and it still felt a tad long towards the end. Even then it is such a major achievement creating 'Kong' who is definitely the highlight of the movie and the movie also made a lot more sense after seeing the behind the scene feature on 'Skull Island'.

I thought I would try and do something random, so I decided that I will try and capture something which was definitely not part of my culture in India. A tough task considering that it was a holiday but I got lucky and found some kids skateboarding and biking. Skateboarding is definitely not common in India and neither is BMX/city biking (atleast it wasn't 3 years back). I took a few pics - will share a couple of them. So that was my mission accomplished for the day.



I also got out 'Xmen Legends' - a video game for PS2 since I couldn't find any really good new releases at the video store. Gaming kind of makes sense and the future will most probably be a hybrid of sorts between video games and normal movies. Interactive is the key word and at this point live action interactive ventures seem cost prohibitive but it will happen soon. I played 'Xmen' for a good 3 hours odd before I got up to try and do some more experimentative cooking.

I think today's dish was the most experiemental I got and I had no idea what I was going to make (as usual). I can't even try and write a reciepe for it as I added the ingredients in different order and at different cooking times. To give a normal name to the dish I would choose 'Coriander Pepper Chicken' as the 2 major ingredients were chopped coriander and freshly crushed pepper. The result - yummmm... i think I put in a little extra salt as the dish definitely has a slighlty salty taste combined with a nice hot tang to the chicken. But I am not worried because it would go really nice with some white rice.

Hope everyone had a good holiday break. I am off to eat some dinner.
Ta,
Amit

Labels: Food, New Zealand

posted by Amit @ 7:50 PM 0 Comments

Asian Delight

It has been an incredibly productive saturday. Caught up with Jordan (the script writer for 'Nowhere to Love'), over the phone regarding the script - along with Richard. It is definitely an exciting phase of the storytelling process, especially when everyone is tuned into the story and working to make it even better than what it is right now. I still have to clean my room but the good thing is that I cleared up my study table, so I can actually sit and work without having to worry about other flatmates in the lounge. But it now means that all the stuff on the desk is now on the floor but that's a task for tomorrow.(:-)

I have uploaded the travel photos when Lance and me stopped over at Hong Kong - you can view them HERE. It truly was an amazing place and I think to enjoy it one needs atleast a week there to view all the major attractions without rushing through them.

I was in mood for some cooking - and I did not want to make the usual dishes, so I tried something new with no prior idea of what it will be. The dish turned out to be yummy and got a compliment from my flatmate who could smell the aroma, coming up the driveway. I think I will name the dish- Asian Delight chicken. Here is the recipe below if you wanna try it out.

Ingredients

• 500 gm diced (skinless) chicken
• 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoon crushed garlic
• 2 teaspoon crushed coriander paste
• 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon soya sauce
• 2 generous scoops of butter (normal one which we use on bread)

Preperation

• Heat 2 table spoons of extra virgin olive oil in a non stick wok, on high.
• Add 2 teaspoons of crushed garlic and stir till all of it is evenly spread out across the base and is slightly brownish in colour.
• Add 1 teaspoon of red chilli powder and stir nicely into the oil and crushed garlic in the wok.
• Add the diced chicken to the wok and stir nicely till it starts getting a little brown (after 4-5 minutes).
• Add 2 teaspoons of crushed coriander paste and stir chicken well for another 3-4 minutes.
• Add 1 teaspoon garam masala and 2 teaspoons of salt and stir chicken for another 4-5 minutes.
• Keep cooking the chicken, stirring it occasionally. The chicken will leave water but keep cooking on high till the water dries out.
• Add 1 tablespoon of soya sauce to the chicken and stir fry for another 2-3 minutes.
• The chicken should now be dry and giving a nice aroma. Add 2 generous scoops of butter to the wok and stir fry the chicken till it is nicely fried in the butter. This should take another 2 minutes.
• Remove from the wok and serve hot with rice.
  

[Tip - At any point if you think the chicken is getting stuck to the bottom reduce the heat to low for sometime while carrying on the cooking (I didn't have to do it).]

It is yummy and my flatmate and two of his mates who have come over for a BBQ can vouch for that because they were interested in knowing what I was cooking and really liked the taste of the finished product - when I got them to taste a little bit of it (I always tend to do it because you loose your sense of smell after a time while cooking). So I am happy that this time the cooking experiment worked.

Loads of paperwork to go through over the next couple of days, so I better get back into it.
Till later,
Amit

Labels: Food, Holiday, Nowhere to Love

posted by Amit @ 6:24 PM 0 Comments

March end

Labels: Food, Memories of Tomorrow, New Zealand, TVNZ

posted by Amit @ 6:56 PM 0 Comments

Punisher

I have cleared 5 rounds in 'The Punisher' - a playstation game. That has been my achivement for the day. My flatmate bought himself a second hand PS2 and I must say that video games are addictive - especially first person shooter games. I can see now how kids can sit in internet cafes playing games the whole day plus their swearing and shouting is just an outlet for their hyperactive energy levels. I had to forcefully shut myself out of the game otherwise I could easily have gone on for another 3-4 hours.

After my unsuccessful stint at cooking 'Schezuan Ginger Chilli Chicken' - a chinese dish, I went and bought myself a pizza (my fav - pepperoni on a thin crust..yummm). The chicken dish would have been cool if it was cooked in a non-stick wok as with the current preparation it just did not work out. Maybe someother time.

The rest of the weekend - I have done a lot of sleeping and reading. Somehow reading anything technical takes a lot of my energy and thus my tendency to sleep to recover my energy. And yeah - watched another episode of 'Interpid Journeys' -Myannmar with Jon Gadsby and it was interesting in a very different way. I don't know if I have said this before but Intrepid Journeys is a fascinating and a kiwi look at the world. You should definitely check out this great adventure. Here is an interview with one of the producers of the show - will give you an idea of the spirit of the show.

Good night,
Amit

Labels: Food, TV Series

posted by Amit @ 10:20 PM 0 Comments

Sleepy Sunday

I have been a bad boy today..I was supposed to reply to my huge backload of emails but what do I do: I sleep - for most of the day. I have think I will start answering the mails straight away and maybe I will cover some ground.

I have uploaded some more photos from the trip to India- this time specifically the short trip through to Amaravati and Guntur. Amaravati is considered a holy place and four days after we went there - there was this massive buddhist event happening there: Kalchakra, so the security was no doubt really heavy and there were a lot of buddhist monks roaming around. After Amaravati - I somehow managed to convince everyone to do a brief stopover at Loyola Public School in Naalapadu (a township near Guntur}, since I wanted to check out the school which had a huge impact on my personality. So here are some pics from that day.

I found a place where they cook some nice won-tons which have meat filling in them.. The reason I liked those are because they tasted like Momos - one of my favorite dishes. Momos are a north east indian delicacy and here they are called Dumplings (I think) at the chinese restaurents. I should check out one of those soon and then make a comparision between them.

Off to answer some mails now.
Amit

Labels: Food, Holiday, India

posted by Amit @ 6:42 PM 0 Comments

Intrepid Journey

The time passed so quickly over the past 3 days that I might breifly touch on a couple of things which happened over the period.

Saturday and Sunday have been days of going to random parties - saturday evening went to a house warming party of one of flatmate's colleague. I still find it disconcerting walking into a room full of complete strangers and trying to strike a conversation. Those of who know me - know that I am not a party person at all, even though I see the point that it is a good way to catch up with old friends and make new friends. I somehow feel like a fish out of water. So the weekend was bizarre in that way. Most of the sunday was domestic stuff - washing clothes, ironing them (yeah i seem to be doing it often now), cooking, cleaning room, sleeping but later in the evening - I caught up with Lance over a pot of Mussells and a belgian beer at the Belgian Beer Cafe. After that we went to a farewell party of one of Lance's friends at some Jazz bar on High Street.The music was cool and so was the ambience but I was still a fish out of water.

Monday has been busy at school, then a major pre-production meeting with Rich about 'Nowhere' and auditions for the role of 'Roger' later in the evening. By the time I got home yesterday night I was shattered beyond belief and I slipped into deep sleep straight away. The pre-prod meeting was fantastic though - we broke new ground and the momentum is now building up nicely. Richard's magic is at play and Coromandel council seems to be responding and I will be going down there again - this time with Richard to do the finer location reccees and also possibly meet the council people.

I have been catching up with some episodes of 'Intrepid Journeys' on DVD {which I missed the first time around on TV}. It is without doubt one of my favorite adventure travel shows. The ones I watched recently were 'Borneo with Tim Shadbolt'; 'Vietnam with Robyn Malcolm' and 'Syria/Jordan with Danielle McCormack'. The one i enjoyed the most was the journey through Borneo - mainly because of Tim Shadbolt, who is a wonderful person. The one that was most entertaining was the journey through Vietnam with Robyn Malcolm. You should catch it on DVD if you missed the series on TV earlier. I think they have commissioned more series of the programme, which I am eagerly looking forward to watching.

I just got back from playing an hour and half of badminton with Lance. It feels refreshing playing after a long time. Becks and Dean had to cancel at the last moment, so Lance and me played singles all the way through - I didn't know that I could last that long since I haven't exercised for a while. It was real fun.

Off to bed as my eyelids keep closing on their own.
Amit

Labels: Badminton, Food, Nowhere to Love, Party, TV Series

posted by Amit @ 10:51 PM 0 Comments

Tacos

It has been a busy few days at school. Yesterday was really tiring for some reason and I was restless and could not go to bed till 3.30 today morning.

A new review for 'Memories' has come in at Pulp Movies and you can check it out HERE. Another good review. Phew...

Today - I finally went to the gym again after a gap of almost a month and it felt good. My back has improved and the physio-therapy sessions worked wonders {and ACC covered the cost of my treatment..wohooo}. And yeah - the best thing of all was that I cooked Tacos for the first time and they were yummy - I got so carried away that I took some photographs to tempt anyone reading this to get some mexican food :D


David M got me some new comic stock for my mind to graze on and I finished reading 'World's Finest' - which is a story involving Batman and Superman - nice artwork, bad story. Did not enjoy it but there are a lot more mini series to sink my teeth into.

The election campaigning is in full swing and that seems to be in the headlines day in and day out - which is irritating. Petrol prices have gone up again and now I am seriously considering getting myself a bike. The petrol price has hit NZ$ 1.55 per litre, which means that it has gone up by 55 cents in less than 6 months time.

The movie which I am eagerly looking forward to is 'The Constant Gardener' - don't know when it will get release here in NZ. Man sometimes it sucks when you have to wait ages to see a good movie get released here. Instead you get such crap as 'Stealth' getting a priority release to cover up for the US market debacle.

If the update sounds disconnected - then it probably is because thats how my mind is functioning right now. I need some sleep.

Bye,
Amit

Labels: Food, Memories of Tomorrow, Movies

posted by Amit @ 9:23 PM 0 Comments

Salads

It has been a beautiful weekend. Lovely weather and what do I do –sleep for most of the weekend. :-) I had planned to be more productive, which included designing Lance’s section of the website but I did nothing except enjoy reading Sandman {I have finished reading the entire series} . It is not often that a popular character gets their story to end in comic book series {how would you feel if there was only a limited story series of say ‘Batman’ or ‘Superman’ and the story for that character ends after that series??}. ‘Sandman’ is without doubt one of the notable exceptions – and I really love it for that. The series is enchanting, thrilling, awe inspiring and definitely makes you think. I am sure that the comic publisher would have started spin-offs from the series but there is no better satisfaction to see a story reach its conclusion. It is a must read, if you can get your hands on it.

Over the past week and half I was conducting my own set of ratings as far as chicken salad at different fast food joints is concerned. Since I tend to eat fast food often I decided that I will try and pick up only salads to improve the green content in my diet, so I picked up grilled chicken salad from all major fast food outlets I visited and here is my list in order of preference {as if that makes any difference to you}

Wendy’s: The best thought out salads and really yummy. I wasn’t expecting much and was pleasantly surprised with the variety of salads combined with the value for money.
Nandos: Yummy. The best grilled chicken salad I had but came second because it is costlier than the rest by about a dollar-dollar fifty cents but well worth the price.
McDonalds: Surprising it came third, considering that I have avoided McDonald’s ever since I came to NZ{I must have eaten at McD about 6 times in 2.5 years}. Good taste and value for money.
Subway: It is like eating a subway footlong minus the bread. Good choice of sauces.
KFC: It looks like an assortment of different things and the packaging hampers enjoying the salad. I ate the potato salad separate from the greens and ate the chicken separate from the greens.
Burger King: Surprisingly my least favorite salad was from BK. It is almost as if they offered salad as an after thought.

Earlier yesterday, I got to a meeting early and it was an interesting experience sitting at a café on K’road, watching the people walk by – almost every person had a story written all over them. Sitting there all I could see was how culture is what we make it to be – we, the people, make a culture of the society. Society is such a strange concept and everything almost seems like an illusion –an illusion that every individual holds on to because our very world view and sanity depends on it.

The netball game was exciting – it was a tie, the score read 16-16. A low scoring game and it was a real thriller because we were winning for the first 3 quarters and then one of our defender went down with a twisted ankle and after that we were struggling to keep the lead. The last shot in the dying minutes was by the opposition and that shot did not go in otherwise we would have lost the game. So it was a lucky shave and I think we were happy with the draw. The good thing, on the personal side, was that one of the small 'aiming' mechanisms in my head seemed to click into place and my shooting ratio improved vastly – I think the only way from here is up.

Watched ‘Wedding Crashers’ after the netball game and it was a funny movie. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson were really funny. Rachel McAdams and Isla Fisher were a perfect fit for their roles. The movie was beautifully shot but it had story strands which went nowhere and slowed the pace of the movie down. But it was still one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time – I think it was way better than ‘Meet the Fockers’.

On a completely opposite end - I finally managed to track down a copy of 'Rushmore' and watched it. This was the second movie by Wes Anderson and a definite improvement over 'Bottle Rocket'- which still stands head and shoulders above most of the stuff coming out nowadays. The movie is a really pleasent watch and a moving experience. This is well crafted cinema and a pleasure to spend time with. Obviously as with all of Wes Anderson's films - you either like them or you don't and I have to admit that I really like his style and humor and quirkiness. I think I prefer such movies over hollywood blockbusters - Wes Anderson's movies have their own niche audience and does not find the need to conform to the 'formula'.

Adios for now

Amit

Labels: Food, Graphic Novels, Movies

posted by Amit @ 8:19 PM 0 Comments