Remembering Harsh

A year ago on this day I lost a very dear friend of mine! Harsh Pande, one of the most liveliest persons I have ever come across succumbed to cardiac arrest. All of us were totally shocked to hear the news! He was one guy who just couldn't leave like that; he was destined to achieve a lot more. Perhaps that's why they say, the god acts in mysterious ways!

For those who do not know him, the video below might tell you a little about him (mostly related to academic and professional achievements). But he was a lot more than that. No video/movie could do total justice to describing him! You had to know him!



Few weeks before his untimely demise, he had finished writing his first book, Hiccups, which is now being published by Jaico Books! Reading the book will surely ignite memories and remind of some good times; but will always miss him!

One hell of a guy!



Links:
Harsh's Website
Hiccups on Flipkart
Harsh's Blog
Jaico Books
Infibeam

11th Pune International Film Festival

I always look forward to film festivals. Every January we have the Pune International Film Festival here. I know it's a bit late to post about it; but it has been lying as a draft for a long time, and I thought I should hit the 'Publish' button.

I had gone for the film festival couple of years back, and for some reason wasn't able to make it last year. I like to go for film festivals for many reasons:
 - They introduce you to wide variety of movies
 - As mentioned in a post earlier (random is good), I like watching movies in Foreign languages
 - You get to watch a lot of movies for just Rs.700. ;-) 700 is not a very small amount; but when you watch 12 movies using the pass, it comes to less than 60 per movie, which is very cheap. Many festivals at the NFAI are free of charge too.
 - Most of the movies are critically acclaimed ones

This year I caught the following movies:

11th, Friday
Asmaa
After finishing our work at the office quickly, we went to PVR Cinemas where Asmaa was supposed to be played. The IMDB rating of the movie was pretty good, and would have been an ideal start to the movie spree for the film festival. At PVR Nivedita, Ashok, Vriddhi, Amit, Karthik and I had reached on time, but after getting there we came to know that the movie screening had been cancelled! We didn't have enough time to get to another theater which was screening the PIFF movies.
IMDB Rating: 8.0         My Rating: NA

12th Jan, Saturday
L'avventura (The Adventure) - Italy
I had reserved the weekend for PIFF. Reached RDeccan City Pride early by 9AM to catch the first movie. The movie, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, started a bit late because they were facing few technical problems. The movie was playing very slow and the subtitles weren't showing too. After sometime they could fix the subtitles, but not the speed at which it was playing. Due to this, they had to stop the screening of the movie halfway as it was eating up the screening time of the following movies. Not a good start at the PIFF this year for us; a cancelled movie last night and an incomplete screening today!
IMDB Rating: 7.9         My Rating: NA

Inspecteur Lavardin - France
A comedy/drama involving a murder investigation. Inspector Lavardin is left in a tricky situation stuck between his duty and his values.
IMDB Rating: 6.6         My Rating: 7

Byeolbit Soguro (For Eternal Hearts) - South Korea
One of those movies which leaves most of the people thinking after the movie "What just happened?!" :-) This was just after the lunch. Some people perhaps were sleepy too. An experimental movie.
IMDB Rating: 5.8         My Rating: 5

Material - South Africa
A refreshing movie about a guy in his 20s who works with his father in their textile store, but wishes to be a stand-up comedian. The best movie of the day for me and for many others who watched the movie with me.
IMDB Rating: 8.8         My Rating: 9

Blow up - Italy
Another famous movie by Michelangelo Antonioni, also receiving Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.  It is about a photographer who clicks few pictures in a park, which accidentally turns out to be clues to a murder.
IMDB Rating: 7.6         My Rating: 7

13th Jan, Sunday
Pele Akhir (The Last Step) - Iran
Another movie about afterlife, where a husband looks for answers after his death. A much better movie than 'For Eternal Hearts' which is also deals with afterlife.
IMDB Rating: 7.8         My Rating: 7


Asmaa - Egypt
Asmaa, the movie we missed on the opening day, was playing again at ESquare. After the Pele Akhir we headed there to catch the movie. The movie is about Asmaa who is suffering from AIDS; and how more than the disease the society is killing her! She is given some hope when a TV channel approaches her asking her to tell her story to the world, but it isn't easy to declare on television, especially in the Middle East, about a disease like AIDS.
IMDB Rating: 8.0         My Rating: 8


Noor - Pakistan
Noor, a Khusra(transgender) in Pakistan who wants to be treated as a man, is in love with a girl but her family doesn't approve of it. The movie is about the difficulties he faces in the society because of his gender and his quest for a girl in his life.
IMDB Rating: 7.1         My Rating: 6

I.D. - India
A guy who comes to paint Charu's house faints and dies the next day. Charu doesn't know any detail about the person, but tries to find out who the guy was. Academy award winner Resul Pookutty, producer of the film, was present at the theatre and spoke for a couple of minutes before the movie.
IMDB Rating: 8.0         My Rating: 6

15th Jan, Tuesday
My Father's Bike -
Got to PVR Cinemas in the morning at 9 to watch the movie with Karthik and Nivedita. It was an 88minute movie, so I thought I could get back in time for the 11.30 meeting I had on my calendar. A Polish movie about differences between men of three generations: a grandad, dad and the son. The movie was nicely made and I feel it is a bit underrated on IMDB.
IMDB Rating: 6.8         My Rating: 8

16th Jan, Wednesday
B.P. (Balak Palak) - India
I think BP was the movie with the best IMDB rating screened at PIFF. I went for the movie with KM. We reached just in time, at 7.15 but had to sit on the steps as all the seats were already occupied. I was  very much satisfied with that, as I feared not getting to watch it. Anyways, the movie is about a group of 4 kids in the age group of 10-13, who have lot of questions regarding sex popping up in their mind.When they do not get the answers from their parents or the other elders, they set out to find the answers on their own.
IMDB Rating: 9.4         My Rating: 8

This edition of the Pune International Film Festival wasn't organized in the best manner possible. There were power cuts, movie being cancelled, technical issues like subtitles not playing, movie having no audio or playing at a slow speed etc. But if when it gets back with the 12th edition of PIFF, if I am in town, I will definitely catch it! Why? Did I not mention all the reasons in the beginning? :-P