Hey critics - you owe me $30

Yes - For the movie tickets, popcorn, and the emergency coffee that we desperately needed after watching "There will be blood".

On sunday, K announced for the millionth time that we HAD to watch "There will be blood". Daniel Day Lewis is K's favorite actor. Selfless wife(??) that I am, I kept my premonitions to myself (my general rule of thumb - the higher the tomatometer rating for a movie, the more boring the movie gets, with only a few worthy exceptions). 30 wasted bucks and a lot of stifled yawns later, I realized to my dismay that my gut feel was right. The movie was B-O-R-I-N-G. Even K (who has really good movie taste) agreed.

The only intriguing and interesting thing about There will be blood is its title. I thought it would be a Godfather like saga, especially after the trailers offered tantalizing glimpses into Daniel's character - an oilman who is also a homicidal megalomaniac. However, there was very little happening after the brilliantly shot first twenty minutes of the movie. Daniel Day Lewis plays a cranky middle aged/old man who wants to drill for oil and has a complicated relationship with a little boy (I couldnt tell if he was really Daniel's son). There is also a supposed power tussle with an evangelist. Thats about it.

Daniel's Oscar winning performance is the biggest headscratcher of all. It was not bad - but just mind-numbingly monochromatic. There was one emotion that he portrayed; And sure, he portrayed that emotion well, but I cannot understand why a performance which was so low on nuance, made worse by monotonous dialoge delivery should be blessed with an Oscar. Ironically, the truly brilliant thing about the movie - the sound recording and background musical score - did not receive a single nod from the Academy.

The critics applauded the violent ending of the movie, calling it blood-chilling psycho-drama. All I saw was an old drunk clubbing an incredibly annoying character with a bowling pin. Its almost like all the critics who reviewed the movie had heard some buzz about it's supposed greatness, and then were too embarassed to admit that they simply didnt get it; and then they overcompensated by heaping way more praise than the movie really deserved.

Well, I'll say it for them - The emperor has no clothes. The movie sucked. And yes, we have seen far better performances from Daniel Day Lewis than this. And yes; George Clooney's Michael Clayton was way more brilliant and award worthy.

Some more quick notes on the Oscar -

* Jon Stewart was not too bad, but you would appreciate him only if you are a rabid fan of his daily show

* Americans now join Indians in complaining that the Oscars never go to them (all four acting awards went to Europeans)

* Loved Marion Cotillard's speech ("Thank you life, thank you love")

* Helen Mirren is fabulous - if i looked even a little like her at that age, i would consider it a life well lived

* Move over Cartier diamonds and Prada accessories - Baby bumps have become the must-have fashion accessory of the season. Yea great, so now actresses in addition to being incredibly beautiful and making millions, ALSO HAVE PERFECT PERSONAL LIVES. And yea, George Clooney showed up with his new girlfriend. I guess I should just throw myself off a cliff.

Ahh.....Clooney....

"Why are you mooning over Clooney?" asked Mom in a very disapproving tone. You see, she obviously did not like me wandering into what she firmly considers her turf. Well, what can I say? George Clooney's appeal transcends generations!

I would rate even a 30 minute video of Clooney sitting and reading a newspaper as award winning cinema. So, when I finally got around to watching Michael Clayton today, I think the movie buff in me died and went straight to heaven. The storyline was thought provoking, the screenplay was intense, the dialogues were cutting, the performances (especially that of Clooney) were awesome, and hey, did I mention Georgy Clooney is hot?

Tomorrow is the big Oscar night. Even though Clooney faces really tough competition from Daniel Day Lewis (who is such a spectacular actor that he can win an Oscar even if he, well, just sat in front of the camera and read a newspaper), I will be rooting for him. And Mom, we'll have to fight baby J someday over Clooney. Sigh......

Book Review - French women don't get fat

I usually try not to judge a book by it's cover. However, "French women don't get fat" leaves me with little choice; it sometimes does get as pretentious and elitist as it's title sounds.

Agreed, America is the land of plenty...of not so good food choices (avoiding them is not rocket science either). And many restaurants do not serve the healthiest portion sizes. However, the author Mireille Guiliano overdoes the berating of American women, especially with lofty language suggesting that only french women are aware of certain healthy living facts. I started reading the book with great expectations, and soon realized that in reality, women from almost all cultures in the world have practised the author's suggestions, for many centuries. To suggest that only French women have a monoploy on sensible eating, fine living, and other core human emotions like love and laughter is rather preposterous.

The author shares "secrets only known to french women" such as -
1) Drink lots of water
2) Eat lots of fruits and vegetables
3) Include lots of soup in your diet
4) Walk as much as possible
5) Eat lots of low fat yoghurt
6) Dramatically reduce your portion sizes
7) If you eat one heavy meal, compensate with another light meal
8) Enjoy food, don't make a big deal out of dieting

Uh...duh....i thought ALL of us knew that?????!!!!!

Just when I was about to overlook the author's penchant for adding unnecessary french twists to well meaning commonsense, the book got a little too elitist for my taste. I'm not being sarcastic; the author really offers gems like -

1) Do not eat fruits and veggies UNLESS you have procured them directly from a fancy farmer's market (sure, such sources are incredibly nice. but what do I do during winter, or if I cannot travel to or live near such markets?)

2) Only eat expensive hand crafted artisan bread

3) Always splurge on expensive chocolate

4) Do not eat oranges purchased from grocery stores, try and fly them in from Florida

5) Regularly drink and cook with premium champagne (recommended brand: Veuve Clicquot; CEO of Clicquot company: The author of this book Mireille Guiliano herself!!!gawwwdddd!!!)

6) When dining out with friends, order a full dessert, but then pretend to talk and discretely signal the waiter to clear away your barely touched plate!

7) Eat only fresh nuts and blueberries directly picked off the orchard trees from your back yard. Wait, you dont have a backyard orchard? (See, this is why you are probably not french and why you are probably fat)

8) Eat only one thin slice of bread with dinner

9) If you dont have bread, just eat cake

(ok, i made the last one up, but the author just barely stopped short of saying that!)

Movie Review - Pirivom Sandhipom

Pirivom Sandhipom is different and watchable, with lush cinematography, sincere performances, a different storyline, and simple dialogues. The movie is especially bolstered by Sneha, Cheran, and Jayaram's impressive performances. The attention to Sneha's look in the movie is commendable. She starts out looking fresh faced and pretty, and as the movie progresses, her face reflects her inner state of mind more and more.

(SPOILER ALERT*** plot details and movie ending revealed below)

Story in short -

In the movie, Sneha being a people person thrives in her newly married status as the daughter in law of a massive joint family. Then, she accompanies her husband when his job takes him to a remote hill station. Incredibly lonely, she mopes around, spiraling further into depression. Her husband finally awakens to her plight, and following the doctor’s advice, takes her back home to his family and they live happily ever after.

And I did not agree with the movie....

Sneha’s troubles are not imagined. Depression caused by such isolation is a condition that millions of us are sadly all too familiar with. It is prevalent, not just with young women, but also with elderly empty-nesters. I can especially identify with this, living in America. Despite having a highly demanding full time career and an incredible supportive husband, even I am familiar with the void that isolation and protracted periods of silence creates in you – this is something which no number of phone calls, emails or nice paychecks can fill.

After the entire movie sincerely attempted to mirror reality, the climax, to me, was annoyingly simplistic. I totally agree with Jayaram’s take on the importance of relationships. But, how easy is it for people to just pack up and go back home? Upon first glance, it appears as though this movie does a great job at empathizing with women, and giving a voice to their broken hearts. But in reality – I see the movie as doing a greater disservice to such women. "Oh you are lonely? Oh well, just go back then!" seems to be the message.

In addition to oversimplifying an often intractable issue, the movie only reinforces two immensely troubling stereotypes -

1) A woman's life begins and ends with her family and relationships at home, there is no outside world, there are no social causes that she could dedicate some of her time to - Despite Sneha being portrayed as intelligent, well educated, enthusiastic, and friendly, she shows zero interest in developing herself as person after her marriage. Sure, when she lives with her in-laws, it makes sense that all her time is taken up caring for them. But, she does absolutely nothing when she is alone – except cooking, and recording sound clips. Agreed that it is a small town with few job opportunities. But how about teaching? Volunteering in the doc’s clinic? Nope. The script writers do not even make this effort.

2) A good wife is the one who keeps all her troubles to herself and puts everyone's happiness ahead of her own desires: This pathetic stereotype has been propagated from the early days of quasi-misogynistic Visu movies. In defense of this movie, there is a scene when all the elders sensibly tell Sneha that it is important for her to communicate her feelings. Sneha’s character blissfully ignores this, and the screenplay glorifies and justifies this attitude of hers. She continues to indulge in her self destructive behavior, with little regard to what her husband would do if something bad happened to her.
I am tired of such needless martyrdom. Taking care of your physical and emotional health is not a selfish thing to do – by me taking care of myself, my loved ones have one less thing to worry about.

This is just a movie - why are you getting so worked up you may ask? To me, it is not just a movie. It deals with a situation that is immensely personal. Almost every family has moms and daughters living continents away, and increasing career pressures keeps husbands and wives away from home for 13 -14 hours at a time, or even all week.

The movie would have been infinitely better if they had shown the couple eventually striking a happy medium – with Sneha spending more time with her family, and also dedicating her time, knowledge and intellectual capabilities to volunteering and/or educating herself. Sure, family is important, but can we all simply focus on cooking for our families and taking care of our kids, when there is an outside world that desperately needs us?

The movie could have been a great progressive source of inspiration - galvanizing such young, intelligent, loving, compassionate, and well educated women like Sneha to actually leverage their immense potential to change the world. When a movie is pure fantasy, sure, the writers can take a lot of artistic liberty. But when a movie attempts to deal with realism, it also then has some social obligations.

The movie sure does offer a lot of sympathy, which is not a bad thing. But it really should have also offered some socially conscious tough love. And that would have been so much better.

The Lean Veggie - Simple Lentil Soup

There is nothing more wonderful than a saturday at home away from work, and a bowl of lentil soup to warm you up at the end of winter's day. This recipe is incredibly simple to prepare - really, the only effort needed is towards chopping. It is a one pot meal, but you can definitely indulge with some toasted bread on the side. The spices in this recipe are muted - enough to tingle your taste buds, but perfectly mild, especially when you feel overdosed from too many sambar-curry meals.

I chop the carrots a little larger than usual. I do not want them to completely disintegrate during the cooking process. The leeks can be subsituted with finely chopped onions. I used leeks, and did not add cumin seeds, as I wanted to make this dish taste a little different from the usual dhals I make. I used brown lentils - you can find these in some indian stores, and definitely in the international foods aisle of any major grocery store. These lentils cook up quickly, and have a delicate nutty flavor.

(Serves 2 with leftovers)

Ingredients -
Brown lentils - 1 cup
Finely chopped red onions - 1/4 cup (use 1/2 cup if omitting leeks)
Chopped leeks - 1 cup loosely packed (make sure you clean the leeks very well)
Grated ginger - 1 tsp
Crushed chopped garlic cloves - 2
Canned diced tomatoes - 3/4 cup
Peeled and diced carrots - 2 (about half cup)
Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
Black pepper powder - 1/4 tsp (or 3 turns of the pepper mill)
Coriander-cumin powder - 1 tbsp
Finely chopped cilantro - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste

Method -

1) Take the lentils in a bowl. Heat 2 cups of water till almost boiling and pour over the lentils
2) In a large heavy bottom pan, or pressure pan, heat 1 tsp canola oil and 1 tsp olive oil. Use a little butter if olive oil is not available
3) Add the onions, leeks, ginger and garlic, a pinch of salt, and stir fry on low heat for about 5 minutes . Use this time to peel and chop the carrots
4) Add the carrots and tomatoes and stir fry for another 5 minutes
5) Drain the lentils, wash with plain water and add. Then, add salt, red chilli powder, pepper powder, coriander-cumin powder, and 1 cup of water
6) Stir well, close the pan with a lid and simmer till the lentils are done. Add a little more water if needed. The lentils need not get fully mushy, they just need to become tender while retaining their shape. Serve garnished with chopped cilantro.

If using a pressure pan, close the lid at the end of step 5, and pressure cook for a couple of whistles. When you open the pressure pan after sometime, you may find that the lentils have absorbed all the water. Just stir in another 1/3 cup of water before serving, and correct seasoning if needed.

The Lean Veggie - Besan bajra rotis

It has been a while since I made phulkas the traditional way – quick toasting on a tawa and then holding them over a flame, where they puff up into a big puri-like balloon and then collapse into a pillow of perfection. Making phulkas on an electrical stovetop was always a big challenge. Now, I’ve found the perfect kitchen implement at the Indian grocery store. This rectangular “net” has a heat proof handle and little projections which support it nicely over the coils of the electrical stove top.

Making rotis is fun. You can mix and match different flours, and you just have to season and knead the dough well. Besan Bajra rotis are incredibly tasty even by themselves. When eaten fresh, they are crispy and flaky. After cooling, they are still softer than typical wheat rotis.

Ingredients –

Besan – ½ cup
Bajra flour – ½ cup
Whole wheat flour (atta) – 1 cup
Salt – 1 tsp
Black pepper – 1 tsp
Finely chopped mint or cilantro – ¼ cup
Oil – 1 tsp
Buttermilk – ¼ cup
Warm water – as needed
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

1) Combine all the ingredients. Then, adding a little water at a time, knead the dough well into a pliable mass
2) Cover with a damp kitchen towel for atleast 20 minutes
3) Divide and roll the dough into lemon size balls
4) Follow the steps below for each phulka –
a. Roll the dough into a neat circular shape, keep dusting with wheat flour so that this does not stick

b. Place the phulka onto a heated tawa and toast each side for a few seconds till light brown dots appear

c. Transfer the phulka to the “net” and place directly on the stovetop. When one side puffs up, flip to the other side and let it puff up. Be very careful as the phulka could split at the seams releasing steam. Use a pair of tongs for flipping. Even if the phulka does not entirely puff up, flip to the other side. The taste will not get affected. Do not let it develop dark brown spots or get too stiff.

d. Transfer the phulka to an air tight container and spread a little ghee/melted butter spread on both sides. Serve with any vegetable curry and/or raita