When a Stranger Calls

It was a boring thursday evening... I had the house all to myself. I wanted to finish reading Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones Diary - hilarious - but I was too hungry. Decided to fix smthng for myself so I could multi-task as in eat n read (Wht did you think?). TV can be a beeg bore what with seeing SRK on almost every channel courtesy - IPL, Kya Aap Paanchvi.., the Krazzy 4 item number, i10 ads, dish tv ads, airtel ads - Oh gawd! Lotsa ppl told me that SRK looked like MJ in OSO item number Darde Disco.. I really cud not make the connection but with the red shirt, holster type weird shoulder accessories and a teeny pony tail - he does look like Michael Jackson - all bones and very un-guy like... Hmmm I almost got distracted from my movie review!

So it was a boring thursday evening... oh you already know that... So I start channel surfing - why? - to see wht movies are playing and ended up seeing a lot of SRK (I told ya) - and suddenly I am looking at the beginning of a scary movie... decide to forget all n make myself comfy... Fridays are when they screen scary movies but I am not complaining. Once in a way the Gods can be Krazzy 4 me. There is something known as the Gore Instinct, which actually has nothing to do with Al Gore, that indicates one's abilities in accurately identifying type of movie (thriller, horror, gory, et al) I think I have it and have honed it to sooper levels and so even though I don't know the name of the movie, I know it is scary.

It starts like a normal teenage movie with a cute looking gal, Jill Johnson (Camilla Bell), who has been grounded (no phone, no car) because she ran up an amazingly huge cellphone bill. She also has to take up baby-sitting to repay her folks. The baby-sitting assignment is at a fantastically architected house which looks like a perfect place to shoot a scary movie. The couple, whose kids Jill is baby-sitting, are on their way to a dinner and are planning to follow it up with a movie. They plan on coming back only by midnight. They show her around the house before they leave and tell her not to disturb the kids who are asleep. They also provide her with a list of phone numbers that she could call, which includes funnily enough - 911. The house has motion sensor lighting which adds to the thrill and a black cat a la Salem from Sabrina the Witch series. The only other person in the house is the maid who will leave in a while.

The best part of this movie was that it did not proceed as expected. The total number of dialogues that the man on the phone utters are 3. There is very little blood and gore in the movie - probably b'cos it is PG-13. In most thriller, scary movies, one tries to jump ahead of the situation and come up with some amazing guesses on who the killer is. For instance the killer maybe:

• Her dad, who wants to kill her so the insurance would pay for the cell phone bill,
• The father of the children, who wants to kill the children as he is one of those serial killers who kill kids
• Jill's boyfriend, who wants to scare her because he wants her to feel bad but the plan turns bad and he ends up killing people,
• Tiffany, who kissed Jill's boyfriend, who wants to kill her because she wants the boyfriend for herself,
• The maid, who wants to kill the children because she wants to marry the father of the children or maybe wants to kill Jill so she can marry Jill's father ,
• The son in the guest house whom no one sees, who wants to kill the kids because his father no longer cares for him and spends a lot of time with his new wife and kids.
• Etc etc...

Only in this movie - that whole guessing game does not work... the killer is some other guy whom we do not meet until the last 20 mts. And just so the guy who played the role does not feel too bad, they have almost a 5mt close-up shot of him and his scar, near the end of the movie. You spend the entire 5 mts wondering if you know the guy, did he have a blink-miss role which you missed but it wasn't. I think the scar was added to his left cheek, in the last minute, to differentiate the murderer from the other male characters who are also seen only for 5 mts.

I enjoyed the movie for exactly these reasons. Also, the ending was very apt... I have grown tired of seeing the villain, bruised, broken, almost dead, but ready to scare you one last time... the ending was handled quite differently and well. Catch it for a non-bloody, scary movie that is maybe not the scariest you have seen but definitely a must-see.

Bandipur

Dreaming 'bout a fundoo holiday was a fav pastime of mine. Whether it was during the holidays when one had a lot of time to dream, or when I was supposed to be preparing for my exams, or when I was supposed to be working - I was forever dreaming of this wonderful vacation that I wud b taking. I believe now that it probably was some deep rooted escapism that I indulged in - 'cos whtever I was doing right then was too boring to hold onto my attention. Anyways, one of my favorite dream vacation trips was this Jungle Lodges thingie for 2 nights n 3 days. I spent a lot of time nagging, cajoling, begging, and even threatening family folks to plan a trip. Of course, I did my best booking for it and came away disappointed as it was also one of those always booked holidays... Grrr!
Finally, this year, after behaving like an unruly, pampered kid, I got my way - we were finally going to Bandipur and staying at Jungle Lodges. The trip was a last minute plan and we were on a shoe string budget but I was jes happy tht we were going. We set out in the morning from Bangalore... we were supposed to start at 6 but yours truly was finally ready only by 7.

The plan was to bike to Bandipur and I did not want to share this piece of info with my folks as they can immediately make my plan into a safe, unadventurous, blaah trip... sorry guys.. you are sweet and nice... but I like doing things my way too, at times. I am sure they are shaking their heads thinking: "Uff.. this gal never listens - Stubborn - All pisceans are stubborn - When has she not got things going her way - I want to know??" Anyways, So I did not tell them. We drove like the wind - I was in the pillion seat and I indulged in quite a bit of back seat driving - I do that a lot especially after my accident - but we made excellent time. We reached Kamat Lokaruchi arnd 9. I was totally zapped!!

We had a lazy and filling breaker and decided not to lose the amazing time we made by lingering at Kamat and started with a bang towards Mysore. I was tempted to buy some of their cute handicrafts but decided not to. We reached Mysore arnd 10:45 and purchased sm essentials and we were totally sore by then - a bike ride is only romantic for that long - after that all you really want to do is: get off - stretch ur legs - and choose another means of transport. We had to check in at the Jungle Lodges at 12 and so we really had to get going but I indulged in a chuntu crib fest.

And then to our surprise, we see coconuts stacked one on top of the other - forming rather looong lines to the sky and we stop. The creative nature of these coconut vendors which they exhibited by arranging their fruits in interestingly different ways was a sight for sore eyes - in our case - a break for our sore limbs. Man ko bhaa gaya. I lapse frequently into Hindi in an attempt to improve my faltering Hindi and also b'cos there are some things best expressed in a regional - ok.. in this case, national language :) I feel seeing those coconuts eased the crabbiness that we felt b'cos of the loong bike ride :P

Finally, we reached the Jungle Lodges resort, not-so-sore, glad at having finally found the place. We were escorted to our cute cottage called "Cheetah". Wondering why all the cottages were names after animals, we walked into a room that had a lovely mural of a cheetah on a branch. The Cheetah looked fantastically real and totally impressive. We were told that lunch would be ready shortly and tea would be served at 4 after which we will go for a safari. I think they were not used to enthusiatic nods as answers and we finally stopped and said Yes - we'll b ready!

The Safari was enjoyable though we did not really catch sight of the exotic animals. Did I hope to catch sight of a real cheetah, or tiger? Actually, No. I have not been to a Safari in a very loong time - probably since we went to the Banergatta National Park to view the lions and the tigers -so looooong ago - not even I know how long ago :D
After the Safari, a film clip which was created on Wild Life in India was shown - we were distracted by: the projector being archaic - too many mosquitos - the mouth-watering snacks-a naughty kid who was eating mud to irritate his mom - and the bonfire that was being built. The film as such was lengthy and we all got the message - I think :)
There was an option to go for a nature walk early in the morning but we opted for a second round of safari - in the vain belief that we may actually see some of the exotic animals. We saw the pug marks of a tiger which we cud not spot, we saw a lot of spotted deer, sambhar deer, elephants, and wild boars. We also saw several cute peacocks and peahens. We also went on an elephant ride and to a museum nearby.

Of course, the guide had to bug me with his "Kabini is fantastic - but you cannot get booking - you must go there" Grrrr.... Is there some law in the Universe that was created especially for me that goes something like this: When you think she is settling into happiness hit her with a statement that will make her go Grrrrr...oowwwwlll?? Anyways for the first time, I did not let it bother me as much.. and came away smiling :P