Ratatouille (Rat-a-too-eee) C’est Magnifique

‘Ratatouille’ – the movie is a surprise treat not only for food connoisseurs but for the entire bourgeoisie, the aristocrats, and the critics clan of the cinema world, but most importantly for my type of movie goers – Insanely-tired-from-work-need-break-on-a-Friday-night-and-what-have-you.

This movie offers superlative graphics, unmatched comic timing and an entertainingly uncanny plot about a rat who wants to become a famous chef in Paris despite familial pressures and an obvious problem of genetics - of being a rodent in the human world.

All of Brad Bird’s movies advocate the underlying counsel that 'everyone is special', and as the great chef Gusteau in the movie rightly says, “Anyone can cook”. This is quite appealing as it relates to clichés we have been hearing since our childhood– “believe in yourself’, “passion and hard work lights the way”, “trust your instincts”, and “bla-bla-bla”. Even if one doesn’t get teary-eyed and nostalgic on the times they have given up on themselves, the comic flow of this movie ensures that you are having a good time laughing at the gestures and consistently amusing misfortunes of the human character of Linguini.

Pixar does it again – and better. It is safe to proclaim that this movie outdoes their last vennture 'Cars' just as how Iphone is outpasssing every mobile mp3 player techonology available – by offering a complete package of visual delight of insane proportion.

If one gets past beyond the funny pronunciation of the name of the movie, I think this movie on significance on believing in one's self and cooking 'gourmet' food did what no movie has me feel before – Hungry for more!!!

My Existence as it relates to, ' The Danish Poet'

This is a short film on how the narrator is born from a young poet’s quest for inspiration. Quiet literally so. The woman narrates a simplistic story about Kasper’s journey to Norway and back, where he meets the love of his life and through their long-drawn-out love story somehow leads to two people meeting on a train and falling in love themselves and so on… The questions posed are very simple - Can we trace the chain of events that leads to our own birth? Is our existence just coincidence? Whether they are worth pondering is something left to each individual's discretion a.k.a whether they have time to kill.

For example, I have always found hard to believe that my father somehow found the nerve to sign up for an Indian folk dance show and then voluntarily danced with a lady he was being set up with in the first place – all this a coincidence? While I say his dancing skills are well intentioned but fiercely limited, all in all, nothing nightmarish, I know that he knows where he stands when it comes to the skill of the feet. How my mother ended up admiring him for his efforts is something definitely worth pondering. “Do little things matter?” the narrator asks. I say they don’t when it comes to assessing someone for their hip-shaking abilities, but hell, they do when it comes to marrying them and spending the rest of your life with.

While I categorically avoid watching stretched-out Hindi love stories centered on love as a result of destiny, I think I enjoyed the narrator’s banter on existentialism and how she herself might not have come into being had it not been for the Danish poet's love quest. I guess I should thank the organizers of the Indian folk dance … without which I wouldn’t be writing this long overdue blog..aah?!? Hah! I guess it is the way it is.