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Allenified!

Location : Meeting Room
Number of people : Twelve, may be thirteen

"So how are things going on?"
"Good, good"
"Are we on target for friday?"
"Yeah, we have a couple of difficulties, but we should be in a position to fix them up"
"So, no other hurdles other than that?"
"We fixed a few blocker bugs, so hopefully the testers will test those modules. But, we cannot rule out any other blocker bugs being detected since these features started working."
"That seems scary to me. What do you say?"
"No, lets see how it goes. We will monitor things closely and we only take a call after that. We should just prioritize and move forward"
"Okay, if you are confident, I am okay with it. So, how are the remaining modules looking up? Do we have enough clarity or is it blurred?"
"We are okay, just need answers to some questions thats all. So, I would say we have a clear vision"

At this point of time, I turn towards my left. I am wearing thick black-rimmed glasses and looking directly into the camera.
"Do we have vision? No, we are blind! Two hundred percent blind! Do you know why Hitler sent Jews to concentration camps? Because there were not enough meeting rooms in Europe!"

Cut! Stop day dreaming! I try hard to conceal my laugh, but a faint smile defeats my efforts. A few friends there catch the fact that I was thinking about something else. Uff, I should stop watching Woody Allen movies!

Do you believe in butterfly effect? I do! Once I had come across a really nice quote from Groucho Marx. I was researching on this guy and was reading all his quotes in some site. One of his quotes I still remember is - "This guy is so intelligent that he could be one of Marx brothers". He was talking about Woody Allen! This was how I got introduced to my latest trouble.

Then, the research turned to Woody Allen. I saw his most famous movie "Annie Hall" an year back. A thin, fair, short man walking all the time with a woman(Diane Keaton) two inches taller than him (oh they make such an amazing pair), talking endlessly through the movie about love, life, sex, drugs, psychology and what not. The next I watched was "Match Point" (The least typical of his movies, perhaps the only one he shot outside New York)

No more movies of his for some months. The lull before the storm. Then, I saw "Manhattan". Undoubtedly, the most brilliant among his movies I have seen till date. The whole movie is shot in black and white and lines are witty, intelligent, deep. Man, he loves his city so much!

It was soon followed by "Play it again Sam" (a really funny take on 'Casablanca' where Humphrey Bogart is his alter ego - crazy!), Deconstructing Harry (about a writer suffering from writer's block - hilarious!), Mighty Aphrodite (some funny lines, so-so), Husbands and Wives (real nice movie), Crimes and misdemeanors (Very similar, probably an inspiration to Match Point. Loved the intellectual's scenes in that!). The only movies I did not like too much were his serious ones like Interiors and Hannah & her sisters.

In most of the movies, he is the neurotic Jewish New Yorker. He is either a journalist, a writer, a movie buff, a television guy. He is generally under-confident, sulking, sarcastic, witty, talkative guy, who runs into problems with his career, his marriage, his relationships, his life in general. He talks about Groucho Marx, Ingmar Bergman, movies, books, museums, Freud - the same things. He even uses the same font for his movie credits. But, his characterizations are great and each of his movies are so subtly different.

I am very impressed, no, obsessed with Woody Allen movies at present. I identify so much with his brand of humor (throwing cakes at others' faces and fingers getting stuck in a drawer are not exactly my kind of humor!) and I always daydream about making a movie like him. I already have an idea - where Woody Allen and Diane Keaton are friends working in software industry in Bangalore (I know they are too old, but what the heck, its my imagination) and Juliette Lewis (who acted as Rain in 'Husbands and Wives') is a freelance UI designer who has newly joined Allen's team. Okay, I won't reveal the whole plot - I am scared of people looking for 'inspirations' for their movies! (If any of you know any rich financier with good taste, let me know. I will take two weeks off and finish the script! ;))

The day dreaming is getting worse. If you have not met me recently, consider yourself lucky - you just escaped listening to me talk non-stop about Woody. No more of his movies, I say to myself. And then I remember that there are 3 more Woody Allen movies waiting for me at my computer in Mysore!

P.S: Towards the end of this page, you can find some of his awesome quotes. He is a genius!

Comments

Vedu Joshi said…
Vasu,
was reading his statements on the biography link you have.

Very interesting!

See what you can become when you are old :)

Vedu
Anonymous said…
Hmmm..as I have told you time and time again..woody allen reminds me of you.So your love for him is just a manifestation of your narcissism.i liked the write up though.
Venu said…
Hmm I am wondering how I have missed this guys movies :)..

As of now I am "eastwooded" and I am making a list of movies starring/directed by Clint eastwood..

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