Dominic West

This guy is worth his salt, if u have seen Dominic West acting in any movie or play. When I first saw him in some crappy movie or soap that I don't remember anymore, I had the feeling that he must be from a theatre background. Not because he was dramatic, he was, probably for the sake of being on the same page as others, but because he was excellent even in that bit role. And then he started appearing in bigger roles, productions with bigger budget. Like in "300" (and I love this movie, its a cult classic and I don't care abt the political correctness of a movie based on a graphic novel), he played a villain in true-blue Bollywood style, and I liked his guts. Then, I guess real British actors can afford such blunders, as they have there back-up plans in the Queen's land even if Hollywood does not work for them.

See him in Mona Lisa Smile, he plays a "bad person" there too, but then you get to see Ms.Roberts too... and that's good.

And then came the series "Wired", and though he is not leading the show, you get to see a substantial amount of his work in this, and if you haven't seen it yet, I would surely recommend.

Anyway, here's a poster from the play called "Design for Living", with Alan Cumming and Jennifer Ehle. Cumming is the villain (again! too many villains for one post) in "Spy Kids", and rumored to be Matrix man's secret husband. So much for macho evil men!

Sharodiya (Bangla)

Writing this after awhile... a year precisely.... guess THIS is what they call Writers' block...:)

Was going thru the "Sharodiya"s.... seen an bizzare pattern... nothing new though. Its not even "Deja vu", just the boring "same-old same-old" feel.... am sure u all have gone thru it every pujo. Same old Shirshendu, same old Sunil... the pointlessness of the NRI life as he sees it, and of course one Mr.Majumdar who's plots start somewhere and end up in North Bengal. Sometimes I wonder why Ramanath Roy writes the stories every pujo, that same old narration with no style, and make no mistake, he is not being minimalist, just the lack of it that is never compensated by any substantial story.

Then there is Prachet Gupta. If the names of his characters were Muslim and the the location was Dhaka etc, it could be another Humayun Ahmed novel. Oh yes, he should have named it something like "Purano Sei Diner kotha" or "E Parabase Rabe Ke" or something, in the same line as Mr.Ahmed does, with almost no relation to the plot. "Taalika" is way too relevant for his story. Though the ending was more Satyajit Ray-like.

And I still love to explain my non-Indian friends (who visit my place and show their interest about our script) about what's a Sharodiya and how we are far better than any breed on the planet by having 10,000 annual issues of Literature journals and a book-fair and all other arty-farty stuff.

So much for now, have a class at 11, so let me rush.