It's a sweep!

Slumdog Millionaire swept the Golden Globes tonight! I was so excited and a little proud (for the country of India and all that it meant for their culture.) while I was watching. I also loved that King Khan introduced the clip for Slumdog Millionaire. It was a lot of fun and I giggled like a school girl. They won each of their nominations, Best Motion Picture- Drama, Best Original Score, Best Director - Motion Picture, Best Screenplay. I think my favorite part was when Anil jumped up and cheered, it was funny. Congratulations!
Sorry I didn't have a better picture! I don't have a way to capture from my tv to my computer. :(

India Movie Review: Koi...Mil Gaya (I Found Someone)

Starring:
Hrithik Roshan: Rohit Mehra
Preity Zinta: Nisha
Rekha: Sonia Mehra

The basic story of Koi...Mil Gaya is the tale of Rohit Mehra, a young man who was born with a mind that would never progress past the age of a young boy. While in the process of trying to grow and overcome his disability he meets Nisha, who sees his naiive mischivetey as bad manners and ill-natured jokes. After correcting the mis-understanding Nisha and Rohit become friends and she agrees to teach him how to use a computer. Rohit digs out an old computer belonging to his late father and un-knowingly contacts extra-terrestrials. They land in the small town, but leave a one of their own behind. Eventually Rohit finds and befriends this strange creature and names him "Jadoo." Along with his 6 friends and Nisha, Rohit changes with the magic of Jadoo and becomes an adult, but can the magic last?

I originally rented this movie in order to see Preity Zinta in it. And through my viewing of it became enamored with Hrithik Roshan. He is a delightful actor and when he smiles, it's a genuine smile that makes me happier for simply having seen it. Don't even get me started about his eyes! They are stunning! Back to my impression of the movie. :) I thought at first that it was going to be awkward to watch someone act as a developmnetally disabled person and then switch to a "normal" person and then fall in love. I also was concerned with how well it would be handled in a Bollywood movie. I obviously have nothing against them, I just think that they are traditionally melodramatic and that this particular role is a hard one to act. (On a side note the best role of a mentally disabled person was played by Kang Hye-Jeong in Herb - her acting was superb and emotionally touching.) I was worrying over nothing though, Hrithik was believable and charming as Rohit, either way that he played him as an adult-minded or under-developed version. Preity was also lovely, and it was believable that her love for him was genuine as a friend and then again as a lover later on in the film. It was fresh change for a Bollywood film too, since it had a science fiction feel to it versus the simple love, love lost, love found combination that most of them tend to have. (I love them either way!) Sadly, during three of the picturizations the disc I rented was scratched so I missed out on a lot of the songs. (I had shoes just like Preity that were black back in my high school days!)

That's all right though, since I will probably buy this one as it is a full five star rating. It's one of the movies that right after I see it I'm not sure how much I liked it, then after a few days or even weeks I find myself thinking about it more and more. The longer I think about a movie, the more I enjoy it. In all, a lovely movie and I will gladly watch it again.

...

I couldn't think of a title for this entry. I am very saddened and humbled by the news of the attacks on Mumbai today. A group of militants have attacked locations all through out the major city of India, for unknown reasons (at this time.) They have specifically targeted places around Mumbai that are tourist favorites and purposefully gathered foreigners using their passports as identification. The group attacked a train station, two high-end hotels and a restaurant that is a well known tourist destination. They rounded up Americans and Britains and held them hostage in different areas of the city. News is still breaking about the situation so I don't know all the details. The number of people wounded and killed are still rising so I don't know what to say there, it's in the hundreds already. I find it disheartening that this is still going on, but I realize the nature of society and that this is a part of life. It is unfortunate, and sad, but there can only be peace if everyone in the world is willing, and that is a hard concept to get everyone to agree on. I am going to keep myself informed on the situation, and I will keep the people of India, and the visitors involved in my thoughts. I know they will never read this, but I would like to say that I respect the police officers and officials of Mumbai for dealing with this as best that they could. I hope that in the future they will have the ability to stop things like this from happening in the first place. For more up-to-the-minute coverage do what I do and check out msnbc.com.

Asia Fest 2008

I was in Nirvana yesterday. My community put together a celebration of Asian culture yesterday. I was surrounded by people of Chinese, Korean, Indian and Japanese decent. They had food from local Asian restaurants and also little booths with henna tattoos, Japanese candy art, and lovely Asian tchotchke's. I was there volunteering with my friend Yixuan since she is a part of the Chinese Association. The program involved Korean fan & drum dancing, Taiko drums as well as a few Indian dances too. My favorite one was an Indian dance by the Indian Association of Fort Myers. I was also excited to have two (I splurged!) pineapple bubble smoothies. I missed them so much, they used to be available to me when I was living on campus in Minneapolis I could just walk down to the cafe that served them. They were yummy, apparently not up to par with one's served in China, Yixuan said they were better there (she used to get one everyday for like 1 yuan.) I also ate some yummy pork skewers mmm. I didn't buy anything, I'm carefully watching my budget, but it was a fun day of entertainment. I loved watching the Korean drum dance. If you live in Southwest Florida, plan on checking this event out when they have it again next year. It's inexpensive culturally diverse fun for the whole family.