This ain't no Tom & Jerry !

Art Spiegelman has created MAGIC !! He has taken a Horrific story - a story of a Holocaust survivor - a survivor of the Auschwitz concetration camp - his own father, and given it a whole new DIMENSION.

Firstly, he made the story into a comic book. Then he has portrayed the Jews as MICE and the Germans as mean CATS. You relate to this story at a totally different level because of all this !

It is , not a Sob story though it is full of the horrors suffered by the Jews at the hands of the Nazi Germans during World War II. It is a story of Heroism - in its most relatable way - not heroism of all the spectacular War Movie type ! It is a story of Determination - the Determination to Survive which drives Art's father Vladek Spiegelman throughout the toughest of situations. It is a story of Love. This was one of the biggest motivations that pushed Vladek to survive - his love for his wife, Anja.

Another dimension which makes the story so special is the depiction of the strained relationship between Art and his father. Art just cannot relate to all that his father suffered and gone through. And he could not accept what his father had become as a result. Art even shows us how he goes to a shrink to deal with his GUILT of not habing gone through what his father when through !

In all, a masterpiece - a winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1992, this is a classic you MUST MUST experience !!!

Way to go - Chak de India !

After a long I watched a Hindi movie that really touched me !! And not in the conventional way ! It was a FEEL GOOD movie - from an INNER MOTIVATION point of view.

It is set in the context of Indian Hockey cleverly juxtaposed over the over hyped and extremely commercial game of Cricket. Hockey is definitely the underdog game in India - though it is supposed to be the national game !

It also pushes the underdog needle on the meter by showing WOMEN's hockey !

Other than that it is a story of Human Drive, Determination, Defeat, Bitterness, Ego, Redemption and the ultimate cure for a pot boiler of Egos - true team spirit !

Victory can be sweet but Defeat can be oh so bitter - and it shows a perspective of the emotions behind the scenes. Of the players of what they go through when subjected to extreme crowd expectations - from cheering for victory to jeering for defeat and going even further to maligning and ostracizing !

But ultimately clear intent and determination pays off - and redemption is found in the journey towards victory !

This reminded me of another movie ( 1999) - ANY GIVEN SUNDAY with a similar story construct. Al Pacino is a loser football player who becomes a coach of a loser team and pushes them to ignore their "inadequacies" and start focusing on their possibilities !

I have posted a clip of the very stirring locker room speech already on this blog ( please do have a look at it - its a classic !)

Shah Rukh Khan performs a similar one - just before the main game - and I felt it was equally stirring and quite original !

This brings me back to the most MAGICAL quality of Human spirit - Believe in it and belief becomes Reality ! Whether it is Nike's classic - JUST DO IT or the recent Addidas' Impossible is Nothing , Chak De India stirs the most basic of human emotions - and I just loved it !!!

Hope it does the same for you ! Chak de !!

Back to Basics - COMICS - and their new Avataar !

Comics are BACK !

Richie Rich, Archies, Tin Tin, Asterix suddenly don't seem a part of a memory left behind long back anymore !!

The last couple of years have seen a resurgence of the COMIC BOOK - especially now for ADULTS !!!

I picked this up a few years ago when I was watching SETH COHEN ( from the uber-hip TV series THE O C) wax eloquent about Comic Books ! It appealed to me inside - but something made it stay inside !

Dilbert did it many years ago. So did the Simpsons - change the way adults were consuming entertainment. It touched movies - I lOOVED the movie SIN CITY and suddenly discovered a huge new dark world of Frank Miller ! And who can forget the inflluence of Calvin & Hobbes ?!

Probably that kept me away - I found the comic books or GRAPHIC NOVELS to be DARK !

That changed when a couple of weeks I took the step and bought my first Graphic Novel !

People recommended I try out Joe Sacco's PALESTINE and I am so glad I did !

What a refreshing story teller ! And the best part was the story he told was al TRUE - a story told through the eyes of a COMIC BOOK story teller !

And the story was no less dark / serious - it was the story of the Palestine struggle - which Sacco picks up after visiting the land first hand.

And, the best thing I loved about his style was the way he got into the gory details but still managed not to get emotionally get sucked into it !

This prompted me to buy his second famous novel - GORAZDE - the story of the BOSNIAN war !

Wow ! Thank you Joe for your gift ! I love the way you portray yourself in the comics ! ( that's him on the left !)

So, Comic books are back - and with a BANG and a whole new DIMENSION ! I am so glad - I believe that we are VISUAL beings ( rather than Text driven !). The Playstation generation kids of today can suddenly connect with characters of yesteryear in a format that they relate to ! I saw Agatha Christie novels in graphic novels form the other day ! Made me suddenly want to read them - something which I have honestly ever done !

Lets dig out those Amar Chitra Kathas - and while we are at it - can we see some Graphic novels of Shakespeare as well ?!