Every gang has that one guy. Someone who is, by nature, forgetful. That one person who always leaves behind his wallet or keys and has to be reminded constantly by his friends.
This is the anecdote of one such friend... my batchmate, Dr A.

Now A was going through a particularly bad week, memory wise.
Monday, he had forgotten his keys at the college.
Wednesday, it was his wallet that stayed behind after work hours in the class.
Friday was no better as  he left behind his bone set ( we all have one in 1st year to study anatomy ) in the nearby restaurant... sufficed to say, the waiter never came to serve him again there, though the cook did try to seek his guidance on black magic potion making a few months later.

Anyway, after an eventful week, it was with a sigh of relief that he went for a movie on Saturday. Having watched the film, as he got on his bike, A did a mental check of all the things he'd brought to the cinema hall.
Keys ? Wallet ? Mobile ? Comb ? All there. He smiled, started his bike and headed back to his flat.

As he entered his room, his friends were waiting for him as they were yet to go out for dinner. After the usual "How was the movie ? How was the actor ? How was the action ?" bits, the usual ragging started.
"Did you leave your mobile in the cinema hall this time or was it the bike ?"
"Did you bring back your wallet ?"
"After taking your shoes off in the theatre, did you leave them there and drive back in your socks ?"

Dr A replied haughtily "Aye ! Chup Kar. Ek bar hua to sab mera mazaak udaa rahe he.. saale.  ( Shut up. Just because it happened once. everyone is making fun of me. ) I've checked everything before I came, okay. I haven't missed anything. Ab chal... dinner ke liye chalte hai. Bhook lagi hai re. ( Come on, let's go. I'm feeling really hungry. )"

After a few more moments of teasing, everyone slowly got up from their beds and headed towards the door. One of them nonchalantly asked A as he passed by him "Dr G is waiting downstairs or what ? "

Dr A stared at him dumbstruck for a few seconds. ".....Oh S**t !!"

You see, Dr A didn't forget his wallet, his keys, his watch or his shoes this time.
He did , however, forget our friend Dr G, who had accompanied him to the movie hall in the bike, sat beside him laughing and joking throughout the movie and was at that moment, still standing outside the movie hall in the rain, wondering where Dr A was !!

What if you could enter into someone's mind while they dream, watch as they fill the dream with their subconscious memories and then access any information you desire from that ?





That is the starting point for the concept of the movie that is gonna feature predominantly , come Oscar night 2011. Because have no doubt of it, this is where the movie belongs. I'm not particularly worried about giving away "spoilers" for the movie, simply because I couldn't even if I wanted to.
I say "starting point" because if the above concept seems hard to imagine, you're in for a rough ride...that's just the first minute of the movie. The plot carries on and thickens palpably as the movie progresses.

Cobb ( Leonardo DiCaprio ) is a thief who enters peoples minds to steal vital information for money. Early on, you are aware that there has been a tragedy in his life, one he has not fully recovered from yet. But this time around, he is offered a different job... not to steal from the dream, but to add an idea into a person's subconscious for another's personal benefit. In return he is offered a chance at personal salvation.

Unable to resist, Cobb takes up the offer and assembles his team, which include a forger, a pharmacist ( to speeden up the sleep state ) and a young architect ( to build the world in the dream through which they must walk ). The plan in itself is a complicated one - to enter a dream within a dream within a dream to plant the idea subconsciously without the person suspecting someone's tampering with his mind.

However, as in all of director Christopher Nolan's earlier films ( Memento, Prestige, The Dark Knight ), nothing is as it seems. And that's where the problem begins for the team.
Will they be successful in adding the idea into the young man's mind ?
What is the relationship between each layer of dreams to the next and how do the changes in one affect the other ?
What exactly is the tragedy behind the relationship between Cobb and his wife ?

This is as far as I'll go... the rest is for you to watch and opine. There are just too many layers to this breathtaking movie. For the last 45 minutes as the dreams start playing side by side, I wouldn't recommend blinking even by mistake, for fear you'd miss a point that maybe vital to this storyline. You may breathe, but not too loudly, that you miss a dialogue, because this is not a movie that's going to spoon feed you details - you have to be alert to the implications of the scenes unfolding before your eyes, while also considering their impact on the next layer of dreams. Whew !!
Visually, the movie is breathtaking, with scenes of whole landscapes turning 360 degrees in the air and gravity becoming optional as per the architect's whims. A decade ago, if Matrix floored you , this will blow your mind all over again. Like Matrix, you will be forced to revisit this movie just to make sure you haven't missed a thing.
Acting wise too, all do their job well, be it Watanabe as the boss, Marion Cotillard as the wife that Cobb is haunted by and Gordon Lewitt as Cobb's friend and ally. But full credit where it's due, this is DiCaprio's movie and he rocks it... in recent years, his acting has risen manifold ( Catch me if you can, Blood Diamond, Body of Lies, Departed ) and this film firmly places him back on top of the roost after the disappointing Shutter Island.

If there were any lingering doubts about the genius of director Christopher Nolan, they can be dispelled forever with this. He has taken story telling to a new level with this. Everything comes together - his script, the visual effects, the cast, the background score. It all works.

And the result is a masterpiece of a movie. A true blockbuster for the mind.

Well, Dhanya had tagged me with the "Sins against stereotypes" tag awhile back and I really felt it's one worth doing. The basic premise being "Have you ever done/wanted something that your gender is not typically supposed to ?"

Before going into the tag per se, I'd like to comment on a point she and many other females apparently raised - why many men are not taking up this tag. Well, I don't find it surprising really. Don't you think guys would be more embarrassed to admit their non-manly ( girly ? ) traits like getting a manicure or waxing their chest as compared to women speaking up on things like riding a Pulsar or wearing blue ?

Anyway, here's my "Sins against Stereotype" list.

1. My younger cousin sister pointed out the irony of this one.
I'm a doctor who deals on a daily basis with blood, broken bones and shattered skulls. I yawn through most of them. But turn on a horror flick in a dark room and I'll probably never sleep that night. I ain't talking horror like 'RING' or 'EXORCIST' level... I'm talking 'Ramsay brothers cheap '80s Hindi horror films'. I swear to God I used to be so scared as a kid I could only watch it from behind a pillow. Damn those scary monsters with their weird slow walk and pizza-makeup faces.
Have things changed 2 decades later ? Ya right. I was watching the trailor of "Paranormal Activity 2" late at night while at home. After that, I was too scared to go get a glass of water in the dark. What if the creepy lady was out there ? ( It makes total sense to me that she'd come all the way from America to a house in North Kerala ! )

2. Like every guy, I too yearned for the super cool nickname which would define me. You know, something like  - Tiger, R Man, Killer, Stud, Rambo, Rocky. Well, thanks to an unfortunate set of coincidences, I ended up with a slightly lesser version of Rocky and Rambo.. RADHA !!
Before you picture me in a sari carrying a pot on my head, let me clarify - we had three Roshans in our batch. The natural thing to do seemed to be to use our surnames ( I was not consulted when this came about !! ) and since my surname was too long for many, it was shortened to Radha.
Am I embarrassed by it ? Frankly, no. My dad was known as Radha all his life at his workplace. I'm proud to be taking up his name ( though I don't have even 1/10th of his work ethics ! )

I'm back in the land of loons and bore.. sorry, I meant 'looms and lores' as my hometown is famously known. And in between the weekly hartals ( since bandhs are illegal... ), there's been more of the usual... and some unusual stuff too.

Chapter 1 - Job hunting
This was pretty much along expected lines, really. One of Kerala's most prestigious hospitals put it this way.
"You will have to work 118 hours with two 18 hour straight shifts a week. The work you will have to do is worth Rs 1.5 lakh a month. We will pay you Rs 40,000. Take it or leave it. Remember, it's a great thing to work for us."
Amazing. Guy tells us he's buying us for 1/3rd the price, promises to use us for ridiculous hours and still makes it sound as if he's doing us a favour. Even more ridiculous - a good chance we'll be taking up the job.

Sigh.. I swear, if my kids do drugs - I'll admonish them. They have a 100 boyfriends - I'll pretend to be a modern dad. They become Las Vegas burlesque dancers - I'll be proud of them ( and take down their galpals' numbers ). But if they try to join the medical field - by God, there'll be a honour killing, I tell ya !!

Chapter 2 - Fortune Hunting
No trip home ( atleast not my home ) is without the usual trip to the astrologers. It seems like since I was a kid, I've been walking around Godmen and astrologers and temples ( and when taking a break from the above, el God woman )