chakravyuha

When I was a young I had quite a few of these Hasbro Transformer toys, so I am really interested in seeing how the movie based on the comics (accompanying the toys) turns out. The latest trailer for Transformers has come out and it looks fantastic. Check it out here. There’s also a brief glimpse of what looks like the Optimus Prime transformer in it. He is the blue, white and red one in the trailer and is the leader of the good transformers, the Autobots, from the comics. So really, he is not red, white and blue for no reason. The movie promises to be exciting as its directed by the blow-em-up specialist Michael Bay and has Steven Speilberg attached to the project as an executive producer.

One annoying thing about watching a movie in a group, is that burden of expectation on everyone to lay a verdict on the movie right after you walk out of the theater. This is especially true when the movie is not a pure entertainment piece. I am sure you can picture the scene. The end credits roll and the throngs start the silent shuffle out of the theater. The quiet is only punctuated here and there by an expressive few who might outright say that they loved or hated the movie. Most of them from among the younger lot. As soon as you are out, however, there’s a brief moment of uneasy silence. A silence where everyone expects the other to start passing judgment. Most movies – and I am talking about the ones that can easily be determined to be well made and have a story to tell – are easy to like or dislike, or even dismiss.

Babel, however is not one of those movies. Many of the reviewers and others who have watched it seem to have one major complaint with the movie. The problem, it seems, is the lack of a purpose. That seems to bother a lot of people and I have read and heard people ask “What was the point of the movie?”. Which to me brings up the question of why should we expect every movie to have a point, a moral or an implied conclusion? I am sure a gazillion pointless movies are churned out every year. Movies that neither end up neither entertaining, nor educating, nor even telling a compelling story, and people do not complain about them. Movies like Babel, however, can be seen to merit different treatment. A mainstream feature with a high profile director (Alejandro González Iñárritu) and an equally high profile star cast (Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael García Bernal are the major leads) naturally attracts more attention and is therefore reviewed more critically. If it’s a drama then it is also expected to have an ending that is a neat conclusion to whatever came before.

To me, a movie like Babel is a rare treat because it does one thing very well that not many movies do. It tells a compelling story. In this case not one, but three different stories. Consider this a three story version of Canterbury Tales, with Alejandro Iñárritu as the narrator of all the tales and with all the tales sharing a common subject, the many roles of the spoken word. The confusion sown by different languages in the world is the theme here. Hence the title Babel, referring to the Biblical Tower of Babel. The absence of language, the understanding, misunderstanding and lack of understanding resulting from the spoke word, all of these aspects underly these stories. The pleasure of the movie is in the stories themselves, not in trying to fish out a moral from it or looking for a satisfying conclusion. It’s beautifully made and acted and there are so many subtle observation and moments that make it a very rich movie-going experience.

The latest program on In Our Time, the BBC Radio 4 series, has a discussion on the role and contribution of India to the history of mathematics. The program can be got here.

While on the topics of Mathematics, check out these links (Photos: Maths in Nature, NatureMaths and Fibonacci and finally Golden Section) which illustrate how some mathematical constructs appear in nature. Everything in nature is supported by some mathematical order. These constructs, among other, always seem to appear in nature underneath anything that we perceive to be beautiful. Beauty too, seems to be mathematical in nature!

All of these songs are instrumental. Most might be filed under any one of the downtempo/ambient/trip-hop label. However you classify them, it’s great music. Alphabetically arranged, if I might add.

Bonobo – Days To Come (feat. Bajka) from Days To Come

Bajka sounds like a better version of Macy Gray.

Bonobo – Recurring from Days To Come

Boards of Canada – Skyliner from Trans Canada Highway

Calexico – Pepito from Feast of Wire

If I decide to make a Top 10 album list, Feasts of Wire would be a surefire contender.

Cantoma – Pandajero from Cantoma

Gustavo Santaolalla – Iguazu from Ronrocco

This track also appears on the soundtrack to the movie Babel, released this year.

LCD Soundsystem – Great Release from LCD Soundsystem

There might not be anything exceptional happening here but I love the way it builds up.

Peter Gabriel – In Doubt and A Different Drum from Passion

One of my favorite artists. These two pieces appear on the album in sequence and have to be heard that way.

Porcupine Tree – .3 from In Absentia

Great band, great song, terrible album art. Some perfunctory lyrics are peppered here and there so it’s not strictly instrumental but who cares. Porcupine Tree might be one of the very few *rock* bands around who are doing something interesting and genuine.

Sigur Ros – Glósóli from Takk

I love songs that rise to a cacophonous climax the way this one does. You won’t understand word of what they say – not because it would be a foreign tongue to you, but because it’s in a wholly invented language. You can find the accompanying video here. The video is a thing in itself.

Thievery Corporation – Warning Shots (feat. Sleepy Wonder And Gunjan)

Half of the charity donations in the US happen in the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Americans are expected to donate more than a 100 billion dollars to charity this holiday season, bless their souls.