Wednesday, August 30, 2006

A Beautiful Mind & A Living Legend


Part 1 : The movie - A Beautiful Mind
Yes..Yes...The movie has been out for more than 5 years and the whole world has watched it and I am probably the last person to watch the movie...But I finally did watch it.

I loved the movie. I thought Ron Howard has done a great job with respect to "fictionalizing" the John Nash biography and transformed it into a fantastic movie. Not all great biographies or stories for that matter can be made as good movies.Good cinema requires a lot more than just a good storyline.Russel Crowe was just amazing in his portrayal of John Nash.I only hope , our film makers in India can come up with a movie like this.

Im a big believer that Indian and particularly Tamil Cinema has some of the best actors/directors/technicians and I hope they can rise up to the occasion to create a movie like this.

Part 2 : A living Legend - TIGER on Prowl again !
I have been following golf recently. Just my two cents for people who don't follow golf. "Yeah...This guy Tiger ...Yeahhh...He is pretty good "....(Read in Office Space style)

Tiger has 52 tour wins...12 majors championships and he is 31. This kind of domination is unheard of in sports let alone golf.Some people might argue well..Federer is dominant in tennis. Yes..True..but tennis has had many dominating players like Federer in the past and the same can be said for all sports.But Golf has never had a player dominate a decade like Tiger.His last win came at the PGA Championship that took place in Akron,Ohio.

A person who does not know golf or cannot appreciate golf will love watching Tiger play.Watch Golf...if not for anything else...Just for TIGER !

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

hhhmmm.....a nice movie indeed...feel like watching the movie again....tamil cinema & a movie like this??? wishful thinking... :-)....

Sayee said...

Wishful Thinking...Maybe.
But the talent is definitely there..whether a market exists for such a movie is questionable !

dinesh said...

Yes. Tremendous portrayal !

And for tiger woods, he's got me hooked to the game now. And I think you and girish started watching it only to watch tiger I suppose. He's a phenomenon ! Just an unbelievable winner. I hope we get to see a lot more of this champion. We should go to a Chamionship once. What say ?

Sayee said...

Sure...would love to catch Tiger at the golf course.

This guy is something unbelievable !

JUS LIKE DAT said...

In tamil most of the biographies are 'dada' subjects, like Velu Nayakar, Kokki Kumar etc.

You and me will not have patience watching a biography of the 'dada' community.

As u rightly say there is no market but ofcourse the talent hub exists in Kodambakkam

Sayee said...

Well..Velu Nayakar was real.Im not sure if Kokki Kumar was a real story.

What we need is an uplifting story of a comman man.A rags to riches story that gives hope to the common man hope.

Sriram said...

Hey Sayee, Good post.

Beautiful mind.. indeed, a classic.

I agree Tamil movie industry has the talent, i.e, technically, but substance? Come on, now! Most of the "different" movies are direct rip off's from western subjects. I doubt if the story-tellers in India have the talent to write interesting concepts like in Hollywood. Don't blame the market for it. You can't blame movie goers. Period. Just figure out a way to present it. Yeah, it involves risk, sure. But which business initiative doesn't?

Reg Tiger, Yeah he's great, but you completely forgot about Jack Nicklaus. Tiger is NOT EVEN the best all time golfer yet. Jack is. Talk about someone who has won 18 majors and came second 19 times. He didn't dominate for 1 decade. He went TWO.

Tiger is awesome, no doubt. But let him beat Jack before we crown him. And FYI, Tiger was very human, and beatable from 2003-2005. Vijay Singh took over #1 from Tiger not very long ago before giving it back. Just mentioning that it is not easy to sustain brilliance over a long period of time, even in Golf.

Sayee said...

Sriram - "I doubt if the story-tellers in India have the talent to write interesting concepts like in Hollywood"... This statement of yours.. I am sorry..is BS.

Writers are not like athletes ..and Indian writers are in no way inferior to their Hollywood counterparts. A lot of brilliant writing does happen..and lot of them are made into movies but not mainstream cinema. Coz people are not ready to take the financial risk.

Agreed Tiger is not the best all time golfer yet...but the he is the best now and if he stays healthy for the next decade ..he will smash every record.

Also before people start sucking up to Jack..they should remember the level of competition then and now.Im not saying that what Jack did was easy....but it was definitely easier then than now.

Sriram said...

Hey Sayee, When I talked about story tellers, my intent was to merely criticize the ones writing scripts for movies. Not all writers. So, please lets not take that out of context. Given that scenario, I still haven't seen enough "original" material to consider indian story writers on par with Hollywood. And lets not get excited and get confused between entertaining and originality. They might all be entertaining, but the story lines are just good old masala with a twist or 2. Very rarely, are there non-slapstick comedies, or full length spoofs, or detective stories, science fictions or real thrillers. 90% of them still revolve around love/family drama ala Soap Opera's.

Reg Tiger, I agree he will probably smash every record. What I didn't agree about your post was this : "But Golf has never had a player dominate a decade like Tiger". That is so wrong. And come on, man. Don't throw the competition factor around so easily. Golf is 90% mental. Its a game of skill. Doesn't require much of power, stamina or pure athleticism like other sports. What I mean is, it would be impossible for you to prove that the competition then and now is a huge differentiating factor in a non physical sport like Golf.