how i learned to beat boredom and love the freedom

Getting stuck in the big city of Vallendar (population – couple of million if you count each person a gazillion times) over the last couple of days was not my idea of fun. But I discovered something which has enthralled, enticed and bewitched college students – torrents baby !! The following list is mainly borne out of that discovery.

1. Dr. Strangelove or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb
Peter Sellers, Peter Sellers, Peter Sellers – where else to start. I would be self serving if I said that I did recognize all the roles he portrayed. Man, was I taken for a ride. I had seen George Scott once before as the upcountry imported lawyer in Anatomy of a murder but boy was he good in this. Over the top, brash and instigator of a million laughs, the Air Force General was unbelievable. The world might have ended but it sure brought about 90 minutes of laughs and no my body fluids were not corrupted

2. The Verdict
I have often wondered what makes a good actor. Paul Newman makes you feel his pain, you sympathize with his state and somehow the lesson that life is not about taking the easy way out sticks to you. Had a great ending and no it was not a happy ending. Might be the hallmark of a good movie, you do not need the protagonist to feel like a million bucks.

3. M*A*S*H
I am pretty sure that a darker comedy can never be made. Irreverent, sarcastic and with the ability to turn gore into stomach splitting, rib tickling jokes, this film was and will be unique, I guess.

4. The Sleuth (1972)
If you had told me that one of the most rivetting films I would see would have all of 2 actors in it, I would have laughhhed at you. But with just 2 actors (they are kinda legendary but still) this film manages what a hundred could not do. You can guess the plot towards the end but that takes nothing away from this masterpiece.