The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

Posted: 07 Dec 2012 03:14 PM PST

DEC 8 — It's been a bit of a strange season so far in the English Premier League — strange in that none of the teams have looked particularly good.

Manchester United are leading the table by three points despite losing three games, rarely playing particularly well and seemingly having signed a secret contract to concede the first goal every time they step onto the pitch.

Nevertheless, the Red Devils have managed to score goals with even more regularity than they've conceded them, and Sir Alex Ferguson's team are deserved league leaders at this stage despite all their obvious faults.

Reigning champions Manchester City are nowhere near as impressive as they were last season, with Roberto Mancini's tinkering and the loss of form of several players combining to create a disjointed and defence-first side that has somehow managed to stay unbeaten thanks to a plethora of late goals.

Then there's the curious case of Chelsea, who started the season like a house on fire. Although most people suspected that was never going to last, we could never have foreseen that their "dip" in form would prove to be such a sudden and spectacular implosion to leave us with the tragicomic mess of Rafa Benitez's surely ill-fated reign.

Arsenal are just the same old Arsenal that we've become accustomed to in the last few years: fast, flowing and free-scoring on some occasions; limp, lifeless and lost on others.

Considering the gradual but significant decline that Arsene Wenger has overseen for the last seven or eight years, it's time to stop regarding the Gunners as serious title contenders — they are now nothing more than inconsistent also-rans for whom a place in the top four is a major success.

Meanwhile, their North London neighbours Tottenham are still evolving under the unusual management style of Andre Villas-Boas, and Spurs fit quite nicely into the overriding theme of the current EPL season by veering erratically from terrible to wonderful on an almost weekly basis.

All this inconsistency has allowed some unlikely candidates to challenge for the all-important top four: the rugged solidity of Everton; the pace and power of West Brom; the silky passing of Swansea... all of them (plus Stoke and West Ham) have outperformed Arsenal in the battle for Champions League places so far.

Amidst all that uncertainty, it's impossible to predict with any confidence what might happen when the biggest game of the season takes place tomorrow: Manchester City against Manchester United.

How will the game unfold? No idea; beats me. City's strong home form suggests that they should prevail but they've hardly been in scintillating form at the Etihad Stadium, requiring penalties to come from behind and claim a draw in their last two home games (against Real Madrid and Everton).

It's nearly two years since City lost a Premier League game at home, but their faltering form in recent weeks suggests that United have every chance of breaking that sequence if they perform well.

But will United do that? Even Ferguson can't know the answer to that question considering the inconsistencies that have plagued his team so far this season.

Last weekend's bizarre game at Reading was a mini-encapsulation of United's good and bad. Defensively, they started the game in dreadful fashion, allowing a far-from-prolific Reading side to score three goals in the opening half of the first half, with two of them coming from right-wing corners.

Going forward, however, United were at their dangerous and incisive best, scoring four in little more than half an hour to cancel out their defensive frailties and take a 4-3 lead that stayed intact throughout a relatively incident-free second period.

The key to tomorrow's game could be whether United's midfield is able to compete with City's powerful central players — especially Yaya Toure, who was a dominant force when his side defeated United 1-0 at the Etihad towards the end of last season.

Most United fans regard the midfield area as their team's biggest weakness, especially their lack of dynamism and energy due to the ageing legs of Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. And although Michael Carrick has performed very well in a deep-lying distributive role, he is another player whose mobility is far from his greatest strength.

To provide greater energy levels in the middle of the pitch, Ferguson could be pinning his hopes on fellow Scot Darren Fletcher, who is making a good recovery from the unpleasant ulcer problems that kept him on the sidelines for nearly a year until his recent comeback.

Injuries to inconsistent Brazilian Anderson and rising star Tom Cleverley, along with the ongoing absence of summer recruit Shinji Kagawa, have hardly helped United's cause in this area. Wingers Antonio Valencia and Nani are also missing, so United are significantly below full strength as they approach their derby date.

Considering those injury problems, it seems unlikely that United will be able to contain Toure's menacing forward bursts, so perhaps they'll have to once again rely on the approach of simply trying to score one more goal than their opponent. It could be another high-scoring thriller — let's hope so.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Barfi’s new Bollywood magic

Posted: 07 Dec 2012 03:07 PM PST

DEC 8 — I think it was only a few weeks ago that I wrote about fresh new voices finally getting recognition from the Indian cinema mainstream, particularly highlighting the outstanding two-part film "Gangs Of Wasseypur", directed by Anurag Kashyap, one of India's leading advocates of indie filmmaking.

Along the way I mentioned other highlights of recent years like "Delhi Belly", "Peepli Live", "Ishqiya", "Paan Singh Tomar" and "Rowdy Rathore", but nothing prepared me for the magic I experienced with the film "Barfi", which I didn't manage to catch in the cinemas but was very recently released on DVD.

What I've been expecting for a few years now, ever since I got excited by Hindi films again with "3 Idiots", is now official. This is the year I fell in love with Bollywood all over again. And by falling in love, I mean the way I was crazily head over heels with Hindi films that any Malaysian kid born in the 1970s like me would've loved, like "Haathi Mere Saathi" and all those Amitabh Bachchan classics.

My parents' generation had "Sangam" and "Bobby", and the generation after mine had "Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham" (although I prefer the films by Sanjay Leela Banshali during this era, especially "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam"). With the influence of Hollywood and American indie films steadily taking hold of Bollywood in recent years, recent Bollywood megahits like "Endhiran" and "Don 2" have often lacked some of the elements that made all of us love Bollywood films in the first place, namely pure and honest sentimentality, wonderful songs and a simple big heart that's purely of the people.

And this is exactly why I'm getting unreasonably excited with "Barfi", and its heartwarming success both in India and worldwide. Superficially it's sort of an Indian answer to "Amelie", that huge worldwide French hit from almost 10 years ago, combined with a little bit of that vogue for silent films that "The Artist" brought back last year. In style, it's almost a spot-on combination of those two films (with all the annoyances that come with those two films, to those films detractors at least), though the content is something else.

Telling the story of "Barfi" (real name Murphy, but mispronounced as such because he's a deaf-mute and played by Ranbir Kapoor, grandson of the legendary Raj Kapoor) and his love for Shruti (played by the beautiful Telugu actress Ileana D'Cruz) and later on his even truer love for Jhilmil (former Miss World Priyanka Chopra), an autistic girl and his longtime childhood friend, the film is simply as beautiful a story about true love as can be told.

Told with a refreshing (and shocking) love for the aesthetics of silent film slapstick comedy, the movie is filled with chases and purely physical comedy set pieces that references and even steals from silent era staples like the Keystone Kops, Buster Keaton and most of all Charlie Chaplin. Though not lacking in dialogue, the film is mostly told through sign language, physical gestures and glances, with a little help from the wonderful music by Pritam Chakraborty, and of course the absolutely dreamy and magical songs that pepper the film, particularly "Main Kya Karoon" and "Kyon".

The cosmetics maybe foreign, but the film's heart is unmistakably Bollywood, selling us the dream of true love with total confidence and conviction, using the aforementioned classic Bollywood elements of pure and honest sentimentality, wonderful songs, and an unashamedly simple and big heart that's purely of the people and for the people.

I haven't cried like this at a Bollywood movie in a long time. I may have shed a few tears when I watched "3 Idiots" a few years back, but it was nothing compared to the way my heart swelled and my cheeks became wet with tears of bittersweet joy watching this movie, especially when it arrived at the moment where the love triangle between Barfi, Shruti and Jhilmil reached the inevitable point of making the choice between your own happiness or your loved one's happiness.

Being a hopeless romantic, I always knew which choice I would make should I ever be presented with such a choice, but certain events in my life that happened in the last year or so almost made me forget that, and I feel thankful that this movie has managed to make me a total believer in selfless true love again.

So I'd just like to say well done to everyone involved in the making of this magical film, from director Anurag Basu (I've no idea he had it in him to make something this good) to lead actor Ranbir Kapoor (wonderfully channelling both Chaplin and his grandfather Raj Kapoor's own tramp persona made famous in "Awara" and "Shree 420") and lead actresses D'Cruz and Chopra, both doing outstandingly touching and never overstated work. Getting nominated by India as its representative for Best Foreign Language Film at next year's Oscars ahead of the more fancied "Gangs Of Wasseypur", I'd have to say that I have no complaints at all.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Sabtu, 8 Disember 2012

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

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