IKEA

There is something about an IKEA that reminds me of the airport.

First of all, there is this massively multinational crowd. There are few places in the world where so many languages are crammed into so small a place. There are curious eastern tongues, interspersed with the lilting sounds of Nordic languages, punctuated by clipped Germanic sounds. The only English sounds one can hear, seem to be warning kids to behave themselves.

Secondly, everyone is spaced out - as if they were trying to see beyond what was directly in front of them. Airports, understandably, make folks want to be at their destination already. And at the IKEA, no one sees the products. Instead everyone is busy imagining everything they see, in their own places. Sometimes this brings on such ecstasy, that one has to jump out the way if one has the misfortune of being stranded between said ecstatic shoppers and their target.

Then there is the world-in-a-world nature of the IKEA itself. Just like the airport, everything you need to survive an entire day is available in the store itself. Food, rest and a purpose - available on every floor. But that is not the only similarity. Just like the airport, once you are in an IKEA, it is going to be a while before you are back in the parking lot again.

That said, there is one key difference between an IKEA and an airport. You can always find lone travelers that need to be in the airport on business. But in an IKEA, you always go in pairs. And never on business.

Movie: Karthik calling Karthik

The movie, Karthik Calling Karthik, turned out to be an unexpectedly well made movie - with strong acting, good cinematography and a well-paced narrative, marred by relatively light characters and a weak ending. Directed by Vijay Lalwani, the movie is a departure from standard Bollywood fare of song-saturated extravaganzas, instead focusing on a story line that raises interesting questions about the role and impact of technology in today's changing world. Supporting a brooding Farhaan Akhtar in the lead role as the movie's namesake, Deepika Padukone delivers a peppy performance as his love interest.

SPOILER ALERT! Ending not given away, but discussed

The movie is about Karthik (Farhaan) a brilliant yet deeply flawed character who is altogether invisible in his own life. He dreams of wooing a successful architect Shonali (Deepika), who works in his office, while utterly failing to keep his home or job. When all seems lost he begins receiving phone calls that seem to hold the key to reversing his luck - from none other than himself.

Buoyed by the unexpected source of support, Karthik is not only able to get his job back, but turns up his confidence to win over Shonali. Everything turns around on a dime. Admittedly such a transformation is difficult to portray during the course of a movie, but the original portrayal of the character was so starkly incompetent that the reversal wasn't quite believable.

This all, however, comes crashing down quickly once Karthik does the one thing disallowed by the voice on the phone - reveal its existence to anyone. Annoyed by the betrayal, the voice on the phone turns rogue destroying everything it helped create, forcing Karthik to flee everything to a place without a telephone. As he tries to piece together a new life, circumstances conspire to make Karthik confront the voice on the phone one last time.

The movie uses a series of subtle clues throughout that help tie it together, but are a dead giveaway of the ending. The unsolved rubik's cube acts as a portent of Karthik's state of mind. There is a good use of color and saturation, cleverly reflecting the mood of the scene. And the pace of narrative is consistent through out, flitting easily between humorous, scary and tense.

All in all, if you like psychological thrillers this movie is a must watch. Even if you don't - Karthik Calling Karthik is a great option to keep you up and interested for two and a half hours.

Haiku #3

Yesterday was a particularly unfortunate start to an otherwise respectable mid-western summer day. That let to this...

gloomy morning haze
unexpected break in clouds
day comes back to life