Mumbai Matinee...

This one is on movies - to start with, picked up the VCD of Samson and Delilah - the 1949 classic by Paramount and produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille - the same legendary director behind such epics as Ten Commandments. Based on an episode from the Book of Judges in the Bible, the movie tells the story of Samson - a strongman - who delivers the Israelites from the Philistines. Samson is endowed with superhuman strength: he kills a lion with his bare hands and slays an army of thousands using the jawbone of an ass as a weapon.. The highlight of the movie is the climactic scene in which Samson topples a pagan temple - very well shot, considering that this was half a century ago, and long before the advent of computer graphics. Had been looking for the CD for many years and was thrilled to find it today! The best part - found it in a mall! Better still - its a Moser Baer CD! Kudos to Moser Baer!

Have also been watching lots of movies these days... call it being vela, or the absence of cable, but I have been enjoying this every bit. First on the list is Om Shanti Om - a Karz like movie, only, this one is a comedy and far more enjoyable. Add to it a controlled performance by SRK (if you've seen his movies from the 90's, you will realise what I mean!) and a gorgeous Deepika Padukone who looks pretty in a over-the-top imitation (I'd rather not use the word recreation) of the 70's look and it was full paisa vasool. Here are my favourite scenes from the movie - though spoofs, they are all done in good taste:

At the top of the list is the shooting of a Rajnikanth-like movie. Its hilarious and we laughed our guts out. The "enna rascola!" and "mind it!" were really well delivered to the accompaniment of background music that heightened the effect.

Following closely is the Filmfare awards sequence showing the nominations for best actor. Akshay Kumar's macho Matrix-cum-Mithunda-style action sequence had us rolling.

Several others, like the one in which SRK plays an extra in an action sequence, the premiere of Deepika Padukone's movie with the now famous Manoj Kumar incident... overall, a fun package.

We also watched Dus Kahaniyaan. Its a package of ten separate and unrelated stories of 10 - 15 minutes duration each. Loved the format: diversify and derisk, as they teach in Finance 101! Each story is an incident - a slice of life. Some were lousy - High on the highway and Sex on the beach, for instance. Loved Matrimony (had the best plot), Rice Plate (Naseeruddin Shah with just one dialogue was awesome, as always and Shabana Azmi was disappointing in the role of a bumbling Maami, again, as always. But she tried; she tried REALLY HARD - you can see it), Gubbare, in that order. Puran Mashi written by Gulzar and directed by his daughter is tragic, as most Gulzar short stories are, though M liked it. Rise and Fall and Zahir were, well, also there. Manoj Bajpai did not impress in Zahir and the background score in Rise and Fall was good. Overall, another good package. Hope they make more movies in this format.

Have lined up more movies for the weekend - watch this space for more.