3 Idiots, A Single Man, Bank Charges Fightback Part 2, Talk To Your Computer and Short Web Addresses

Aamir Khan plays Rancho, the delightfully elliptical thinker, who breaks the rules to outsmart allegedly stronger, cleverer opponents. The film starts with 2 of the boys now grown up and meeting a fourth who tells them he can find their friend Rancho, and who wants to do so to show that he has made more of his life than all of the others.

The film is ticklish because it hints at the spiritual being greater than the material, whilst simultaneously celebrating material achievement. India was dominated by a caste system that told people to accept their lot. Now they have a meritocracy where a poor but clever child can transform its life, but the message of the film is that they now have to accept other inevitable truths e.g. we’re not all meant to be engineers, no matter how good your parents might think engineers are.

It’s a hilarious ride to get to these messages, with a gob-smacking Bollywood film intermission cliff-hanger moment, and some stylised story telling that we could probably see coming. But it’s extremely entertainingly executed. The songs weren’t as good as those in my last Bollywood foray ‘Dosti’, but they didn’t tire me. I still found myself uncomfortable with seeing Kareena Kapoor again in a staring role. In real life we’re only supposed to marry once, but I’ve seen her marry once in every Bollywood film I’ve seen so far.

Also fun was what looked like the appearance of the Red Fort in Delhi in some sequences. I think this is where my Mum and I stumbled into on a walk one December morning, and only realised where we were when we were suddenly confronted with Indian solders asking us what we were doing there. It was a little like stumbling into Staples Corner Cineworld and only realising at the last minute that you were the only non-Asians there…
Overall Review: Thumbs firmly up. Uplifting and romantic inspiration for all us sentimental-Grandmother-types.

Film Review : A Single Man
I remember there was a guy called Tom Ford at my old work who was a wizz with PCs when they first came out. Anyway, the more well known Tom Ford was a fashion bigwig, but now he’s directing films and this is his first effort, although don’t expect to notice.

Colin Firth stars as George, an English teacher in Los Angeles in 1962. He’s gay, and it’s not fashionable. He also has some habits, e.g. arranging things neatly, that may be associated with gay stereotypes. The story traces his upset when his lover is killed in a car crash, slipping effortlessly into explanatory flashbacks. It’s all done in a rather low-key un-sensational way, and there’s a regular edge of humour to the storytelling.

I found my mind racing to interpret actions in a ‘murder-mystery-suspense’ way, only to find that the actual events were more mundane, thoughtful&poetic. Being set in the early sixties I was expecting the denouement to concern an unwelcome unpleasant discovery of homosexuality, but it was much more thoughtful, in an  ‘American Beauty’ way, than that. Nicholas Hoult as Kenny was particularly hypnotic, as a student trying to find himself and finding George instead.
Overall Review: thumbs up. Worthy, interesting film without sensationalism or apocalypse.

Financial News The Bank Charges fight back starts here - Part 2
Apologies because I forgot to mention that when you do prod your bank into a well deserved refund, any monies that they have been unhelpfully delaying repaying should apparently be automatically increased by an 8% per annum interest rate by default. Not bad, now that interest rates are actually much lower. Don’t forget to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service if they query the need for that (as it will automatically cost them as described in my last blog).

Retail News : Talk To Your Computer
I’ve long since had a dream that I would be dictating this blog into a machine while I was out, and I’d plug into my computer and find a type-written document. In the late nineties I bought a PC with speech recognition, but you had to teach it, and it became a different kind of tedium. I felt the test of ‘critical mass’ for new inventions is if they are robust enough to be sold at John Lewis or Argos, as they have a reputation for after sales service, and a generous ‘returns’ policy respectively. Well, now the Olympus voice recorder has arrived at Argos bundled with Dragon Naturally Speaking speech recognition software for £89.99. However, I’m not yet in a position to recommend it, and indeed the one detailed review I read again implied there was a fair old learning curve. Still, it’s nice to think of it as a possibility, and if the software works from files, we might get to write our blogs on our smartphones…

Technology Tip: Shorten web addresses at bit.ly
Got a text from The Stabilisers advertising a gig with a very short web link. Turns out these are available free at bit.ly. Simply paste in your long one on their site and they’ll give you a 6-character alternative address hanging off of bit.ly. Very helpful, ta.

parsley.L at virgin.net [http://freespace.virgin.net/alpha.moonbase/garden.records]