Monika’s Pensieve

Reviewing every single film I watch is a bit impractical time-wise (and this has been on my mind for a long time now despite appearances ;-P). The reason I keep doing it is that I like having a record of what I watched and how I felt about it.
I’ve finally decided that while I want [...]

I felt this was quite a strange, but fascinating story. Google has included some historical Japanese maps in their Google Earth service and there are calls for these maps to be taken down:
The maps date back to the country’s feudal era, when shoguns ruled and a strict caste system was in place. At the bottom [...]

{FILM DIARY}
Slumdog Millionaire (UK/France, 2008)
Seen: Saturday, 21st February 2009 (cinema, special screening)
Runtime: 120′
Polish Distributor: Monolith Plus (27th February 2009)
Release Date (worldwide): 30th August 2008
Director: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan (co-director)
Cast: Dev Patel, Anil Kapoor, Freida Pinto, Irrfan Khan
Production House: Celador Films, Film4, Pathé Pictures International
Plot: (from imdb)
A Mumbai teen who grew up in the slums, becomes [...]

I’m getting more and more excited about the film - can’t wait until it finally makes it into cinemas here!
I’ve been trying to follow the response in India and it’s quite peculiar. On the one hand there’s a lot of praise for Danny Boyle and a lot of excitement about A. R. Rahman’s Golden Globe [...]

…they’re in demand at the Golden Globe Awards *grin*
A.R. Rahman became the first Indian ever to win a Golden Globe yesterday :) Rahman is responsible for some of Bollywood’s most famous music and is a bit of a legend. He won the award for his work on Slumdog Millionaire (a film I “spotted” quite a [...]

This is a debate with young, middle class people living in Mumbai. It was recorded before 26/11. They touch upon a lot of things - religion, politics, economy and generally India’s future.

Indian Muslims say the values of the terrorists are not Islamic and therefore they have no right to be buried at a Muslim cemetery.

Since the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai a lot has been said in Bollywood about it. People want and need to talk about it and I guess that understandably the media wants to cover celebrities’ reactions to it.
Some of the reactions have been extremely emotional (people cancelling their film shoots and/or any trips outside the city), [...]