All hail !!!! the Moor of Venice

The Moor of venice .... Othello , brilliant movie ... Ajay Devgan as Othello is the silent presence in the movie and Saif Ali Khan ( Langda Thyagi ) as Iago is too brilliant for words... he carries the role so well that at sometimes you feel like throttling him but then thats what he is supposed to do. Kudos to Saif .. Vivek Oberoi has a passing presence in the film and Konkona Sen Sharma as Langda...'s wife portrays the village belle wedded to an outlaw perfectly. Bipasha is a passing presence and Kareena Kapoor has played desdemona well....

Naseeruddin Shah is the typical politician running things from Jail and one who works his caste votes and can get elected anytime...
My only lament was that some of the movie was in Bhojpuri and took some time for the average Tamil Brahmin to understand , but then there was Virdee and some repetitions of dialogues required....
The climax is heart rending and the movie is brilliant and the songs are just too good... a must watch for any shakespearean and movie critic... Langda... is what acting should be ...

My 0.02

Chennaizombie

How do you price a book?

A great paradox .... how do you price a book ? while you have some books which quote at something like 95/- and some paperbacks which quote at 400 plus rupees.
I don't get it , a paperback is meant to make the book reachable to more people and more so from the fact that the hardbound edition has made some money and the paperback is either meant to recover whatever money is required and or increase subscription.

Some of the major contributors to this are ;
1. Author's royalty ( or sometimes a flat fee for the same )
2. Publisher's brand / premium
3. hardbound / paperback...

Here the noble thought of making the book accessible to a wider population is lost ... you have books by a few authors which are way to expensive to the average man and in some cases the academic population - the student is left out of the equation. I do agree libraries are there for this but there too with regard to works of fiction / non fiction become unreacheable to many.

I just saw some paperbacks of thomas friedman and krugman etc which have about 500 pages quoting at somewhere in the range of 400 rupees , I would rather call it a glorified hardbound rather than a paperback. This in turn leads many ( including me ) to either look for the book online or scrounge the various back streets of bangalore for the same at a fraction of the cost.
Books which are supposedly good but by an author not well known are allso priced similarly ... especially management books ( maybe I too should write a book!!! ) and then after investing a considerable sum on the same , find the book below standards leading more to the street sellers.
I do release that book publishers also have to cut trees and pay a lot of people starting from the typesetter to the copywriter... but then it becomes a question of who should sacrifice for the sake of literacy... the author ? the publisher ? the book seller ?....

Chennaizombie

Books and Life

Getting pretty bored with life.... nothing to do other than stare at girls and feel bad later... but what the heck , thats me. I felt that I was the one feeling like that but seems like my friends are not pretty far either.
I have a friend in Singapore who does some research in Analog Electronics etc and is waiting for a chance to get out of Singapore.
Same could be said about my dear friend Kini who has got tired of the sand and the camels in Oman ( cause there's nothing ellse there!!!)
Virdee.... no idea , looks like he is trying to become a surd after so long and before he forgot what a surd was....
Mike... he too is settling down...
Arun Subs... as usual ... nothing new...
and me ... sinking deepped and deeper into books. A llong list of books to kill time...
Arundhati Roy - Algebra of Infinite Justice... anyone who is following the Narmada Bachao Andolan and the book which essentially is a collection of political essays by her please do read it and then you will know the politics behind dams , people rehabilitiation and greed. Beautifully written book and would almost convert you into a socialist / non capitalist. The writing is very similar to Amartya Sen and is lucid and very well written.
Another book is called "Born Confused" by a first time writer called "Tanuja Desai hidier" nice one , only thing is that the first 150 to 200 pages are boring and the book picks up after that.
now its back to Ernest hemmingway and "Farewell to Arms" - beautifully written as usually and yet to complete it.
If you are into non fiction - go through - "Midnight in the garden of good and evil" and "Bridges of Madison County" the latter would make anyone wish they were photographers as well.

And till I get something new to do ... like work should revive the blog and continue what I do now - stare at girls and read books!!!