A warm reception for 'Inception'

Movies are a favorite pastime for one and all. I always considered myself extremely critical of movies. That is probably the reason why i always went for any movie with negligible expectations and came out reasonably satisfied or sane (FYI - the no expectations rule works wonders incase you have to endure some of the most ridiculous hindi movies). Nonetheless, I am quite a bit of a movie buff and love to go for movies with friends regardless of the ratings or the banners who make them. However, the one movie that really made me write a blog on it was none other than Christopher Nolan's conception, 'Inception'.

To be really honest, I hadn't heard much about the movie until a friend told me that there was this interesting english movie that was released recently. Nonetheless, I went for it with the same no expectations rule. The movie starts off with an intention to grab the interest of the viewer with the dramatic entry of the film's lead 'Leonardo Di Caprio' who plays the mysterious dreamer Cobb. After the initial sequence with Saito (Played by talented actor 'Ken Watanbe'), the movie jumps from sequence to sequence which you later realize are all dreams. This is where the concept of the inception becomes more clear.

After all, its all about Inception or the birth of an idea. It becomes apparent after a while that this movie is about dreams and how dream extractors like Cobb and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt of '3rd Rock from the Sun' TV series fame) use their technology to learn secrets that are virtually impossible to learn otherwise. The film's plot is quite simple and revolves around the fact that these dream surfers have to use their dream making technology to enter the subconscience of Robert Fisher (Son of Saito's rival) and learn the secrets needed to help Saito destroy the competition and claim the entire market. The movie also involves an 'architect' Ariadne (Ellen Page who shot to fame with critically acclaimed movie 'Juno') who has to design the dream land without letting the dreamer know about it. Along with everything else, Cobb has an interesting angle in the movie with his dead wife and that angle takes an interesting turn as the movie progresses.

This movie uses amazing special effects in the dream sequences and the photography and the scenes in the multi level dream sequence in the climax are also great. Overall, all the actors have done a fair job and Leonardo Di Caprio definitely has gotten lucky with movies like 'Shutter island' (I am still kicking myself for not reviewing it) and Inception. Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon have gotten meaty roles but Ken Watanbe has few dialogues. Veteran actor 'Micheal Caine' also has a cameo of sorts as Cobb's father. The concept of the Totem (A small heavy metallic object that makes you differentiate between reality and dreamland) in the movie is interesting and the spinning top totem of Cobb is the right level of mysterious.

I was able to connect with the story of this movie about dreams and how people can get to your secrets through a virtual safe is really interesting. Being in dreamland is also like being a god as you are in control and this sets off another thought process altogether. But the one aspect about the movie that I really loved was the delicate balance between reality and dreams that all characters seem to struggle with is very real and imaginable. This movie is a definite watch and if you are an imaginative person who loves to make stories in his head, go watch it now. This is one movie that has an impact strong enough to keep your mind swinging from the real to the reel long after the movie has ended!

To ape the wild wild west!

One of my regular late night coffee meets with a close friend got me thinking... He was just telling me how shocked he had been when he heard someone say 'XOXO' without even knowing what it's true meaning was. I reminded him that the person probably didn't know of it's origins since the olden times as an official (X) or an affectionate (O) signature written at the end of a letter and they could have picked it up from the television series 'Gossip Girl'. This got me thinking of India as an eastern country and how badly we were aping the west.

The 'west' as we call the developed countries like USA, canada and the european countries have had a strong influence on the mild and the shy east. There have been many areas like the culture and lifesyle of the western countries through which developing countries of the eastern hemisphere have been strongly influenced by the west. Though it has played an instrumental role in our development, on many occasions it also made me feel like we were acting like copy cats.

This is when I realised that I probably wasn't thinking this through. We as the fascinating east have had many intriguing things to teach the west and our cultural and industrial developments too were things that were worth boasting of. Thanks to our interesting way of life, the west was able to find something to add a little spice in their comparatively 'Vanila' existence, be it Indian festivals or Chinese food!

The tug of war between the east and the west and the question as to who has been able to influence the other in a more meaningful and a revolutionary way is always going to be there. Both have a unique and a strong quality about the way in which they have evolved and their importance just cannot be undermined if one tries to ape the other from time to time. Lets face it, the world has become a whole lot more fascinating with this fusion and this crossover of east meets west is going to occur. So, the next time you hear a clueless teenage girl say 'XOXO', share a little secret about this code. Finally.. XOXO! ;)

A new face of facebook

Technology sure is the one thing that doesnt cease to surprise us. Since decades we have been able to better our lives with the advent of the latest technological standards and the results have been remarkable. Of all the things that have been able to make an impact in our lives, the internet and the tools it has given us surely have made an incredible difference. Social networking sites are the one such gift of the internet that has gotten us addicted and they have changed our lives dramatically!

Websites like Facebook, orkut, twitter and the applications associated with them are some of the key areas of our discussions in day to day life. Much to the chagrin of the elders of our society, uploading pics, updating status lines and posting tweets is a part of regular life now. These social networking sites might find their popular uses as fun and entertainment activities but they have more professional uses too that dont claim the spotlight.

Thanks to these social networking websites, artists can showcase their talents to others in their industry in a more casual manner that initiates discussions that could lead to great projects. Also the aspect of social media monitoring has been able to help many organizations in understanding more about their brand image. After all there is nothing as good as direct feedback obtained from consumers thanks to heart to heart discussions on a website.

Whether you are checking out the latest pictures of your friends beach party or networking with someone whose work you are interested in, these social networking websites are a great platform to get connected. This is the one aspect of technology that is going to keep surprising us from time to time. With these new aspects of the online world taking giant leaps towards a brand new world, websites like facebook will give us more reasons to smile about.