THE ULTIMATUM

Crunch....
Munch....
Dig deep....
Slurp....

Cruuunch again....
Slurrrp again....
Top it with a noisy burp....
Hello, Hello....

Yes, yes, kiss coming up.....
Close, very close....

You know that connection....
It happened in Goa....
He's going....

I tell ya when ya flip the page that's what happens next....

Yak, yak, yakkity yak....

Oh well.....
welcome to the movies, where scenes like these are all too common, the Simpson warning notwithstanding. Can you really blame the DVDs?

Agreed part of the joy of being at the movies lies in crunching the corn, spinning the yarn, revealing some endings, but must we choose to unlock our jaws with such ease?


It won't be that annoying if it were one of the ha, ha, hee, hee kinda movies. Here we are at the sneak preview of the Bourne Ultimatum and the guy behind us is armed with his copy of the Ludlum saga. The extent of showing off, the copy in hand, the desperate flipping of pages proof he doesn't quite know his book yet.

He tells his pals what happens in this part, then the next. I'm reminded of reviews that give the ending away, that tear hair over the text, sub-text and everything else in between.

You reach a point when you want to scream shhh quiet. Quiet it is, when our neighbour reaches that threshold of pain - of knowing the story before its even begun - and tells the guys behind us to discuss it later. To add mirch to the masala, he reminds them that the novel is only loosely based on the Ludlum novel.

It works, the shhh quietens down the noisy three-some as it does a couple of noisy munchers.

Then we settle down to enjoy what we really should - The Bourne Ultimatum.


Matt Damon is back as assassin Jason Bourne.

He's intelligent, he's smart, he addresses our worst fears and shows us his brains at work in the raging battle of the bullets. It could easily have been a bang, bang movie shot in various locales - some exotic, others not quite. It effortlessly lifts itself above all of that leaping into the realms of an intelligent thriller.

Having contributed a wee bit, to the Ultimatum's ringing revenues of US $33.6 million in the second weekend, I can safely say the ones who made for its record-breaking opening weren't wrong. For the record, that was a swell US$69.3 million.

I loved it and I'm sure you will too - the corn, chips n slurpees notwithstanding.

PS: And to see how Desh, the hitman is transformed in a Dash, look no further than TIME.

MEET THE TIMEX

Sometimes, in that rarest of rare moments it helps to be that Timex in the digital age.

Technology has its limits, we know that already. When evil strikes, its always at the heart. The stabbing must hurt. And it does.

You are pushed to the edge of your seat as Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) takes one hi-tech blow after the other. He fights, his good old fashioned fight.

As you bite your nails dying to know the finish, you know you are watching one of July's finest movies.

CRASH

Graham: It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.

There are no good guys or bad ones. Those can only be defined by the moments in our lives.

That's one of the many lessons you take back from the 2005 Oscar winner Crash.

Multiple characters and story lines come together to weave the complex stories that define life.

View the clip here and make the time to watch the movie - it's never too late.

LOOK OUT FOR....

Immense anticipation in the days ahead.....
Several exciting books by some of my favourite authors are about to hit your shelves.

Starting with none other than Booker Prize winner Michael Ondaatje's, first novel in six years - Divisadero.

Jhumpa Lahiri dubs it Ondaatje's "finest novel to date" though Publishers Weekly has mixed feelings about it - "Ondaatje's first fiction in six years lacks the gut punch of Anil's Ghost and the harrowing meditation on brutality that marked The English Patient, but delivers his trademark seductive prose, quixotic characters and psychological intricacy."

My fellow blogger and friend Sharon Bakar picks an interesting fragment of a story as does Zafar. It's enough to set me book hunting.


David Davidar has given several deserving writers their first break. He turned around Penguin India, then went on to make a superb debut with The House of Blue Mangoes. Now, get ready to flip the pages of The Solitude of Emperors. Shobhaa De gave it a resounding stamp of approval, Farokh of Pansing told me the proofs have arrived, all I've got to do now is to go a-flipping.


If you liked The Kite Runner, your wait is over. Khaled Hosseini is back with A Thousand Splendid Suns no less. Publishers Weekly has dished out its coveted starred review saying "his tale is a powerful, harrowing depiction of Afghanistan, but also a lyrical evocation of the lives and enduring hopes of its resilient characters." Two women and two cities dominate the narrative which has been earning just the kind of praise, I think it deserves.


He's got the presence of an actor, complete with the voice. Those of you who have heard Kunal Basu speak, you know what I mean. He also has an unpublished story, which will be out soon. I'm not talking about the book alone. Basu's The Japanese Wife had film maker Aparna Sen excited. A school teacher in Sunderbans in love with his Japanese pen pal. Can their relationship survive? The film, which has been shot in three places, including Japan and the soon to be released book promise to tell all.


The film stars Rahul Bose, who is planning to go on a directorial venture of his own. And guess what he's picked? Mohsin Hamid's Moth Smoke. So get ready for more novels to sizzle on the big screen.