Movies, Novels etc watched of late

Had a great holiday this last week; was in home (yeah...since i m preparing for civils full time away from home) and it was a great relaxing experience. I have followed up with many good movies and novels in this time. Some of the novels I have followed on are:

1. Anne Tylor : Three novels
I got this fiction from American Library and found the stories real entertaining. 'A Ladder of Years', 'Saint Maybe' and 'A patchwork planet' all were great. Based in a place called Baltimore in US, all the three novels are based on day-to-day life of the protagonists. The three novels have been chosen from Anne Tyler's collection of 13 in such a manner that each story deals with the dilemma, trials and tribulations of protagonists of a different age group.

'A Ladder of years' which I liked most was on a woman of 40 who one day, frustrated with being ignored by her husband and children, leaves her house and lives a new life in a new place. We have seen in many Hollywood movies and TV series how some housewives just leave the house someday without explaining anything. We often wonder, what culture is this?! I am sure if u read this story u will get an understanding of what propels them to leave. Not only western housewives, even Indian housewives suffer from desperation in the face of being ignored. Think dude... we all have ignored our mothers at some point of time in spite of the incessant love mothers shower on us. The reason why Indian mothers don't leave, I believe, is that their only support is family and Indian women have never been taught to live without being dependant on a father or husband or son.

2. India Unbound
This is a book by Gurcharan Das on the economic reforms, the (mis) management of India prior to that and post-reform prospects. Good non-fiction to read but there are some setbacks that I will address later in a review I plan to write.

3.Crossing the Rubicon
by Prof. C. Raja Mohan. This book again is based on the 1991 policy watershed brought about by PV Narasimha Rao and team, just like India Unbound. Difference is this book discusses the change in India's foreign policy. Meticulously analyzed and very interesting to read, this book will also be discussed separately.

At home, I don't let the TV rest even for an hour. I set my timing such that the time I get to sleep is also the time when mom sees some saas-bahu drama or Dad watches news. Some of my fave shows are Dragon ball on Cartoon Network, Hannah Montana on Disney Channel, Office Office on Sab TV and Khichdi on Star As for the movies that I have seen, some of the good ones are:

1. The Quick and the Dead
A cool movie of wild west genre, it stars Sharon Stone in a role seen never before. If basic instinct makes her sooo erotic and all, I bet this movie also arouses you even though she is dressed from neck to hilt in a wild west dress and has a menancing cowboy hat on her. It also stars Russell Crowe and Gene Hackman...

2. Alex and Emma
A sweet feel good romance to see this season, that valentine's day is in the corner. Its about a writer who has to write a novel in 30 days sharp from scrap...if he doesn't, he doesn't get paid by the publisher, if he doesn't get paid, a mafia he loans from shall come after him. He hires a stenographer and dictates her a story. As he moves through the novel, weaving the plot and building characters, the pretty stenographer gets involved in the novel's intricasies. And then love happens...and then the stenographer meets a woman of the story...and then they fall apart...and then, you know, they patch up. Its a light comedy, no over-acting and not much complications and good pastime.

3. Deja Vu

4. Hoot
The story isn't very interesting. However I have included this here because I haven't seen many movies on environmental movements...it will be really good if someone captures the Chipko Movement or Narmada Bachao Andolan in celluloid. This movie, hoot, is based in a small town where some owls' nests are located on the fringes. Owls' nests, as you know (or don't know) are built on the ground. An entrepreneur wants to build a shop in that area. A few concerted kids try hard and make the citizens aware of the danger such a shop is to the town and the natural habitat on their fringes

5. A few good men (hadn't you seen this before? Yeah, yeah...had missed this out)