Nina P.’s “Sita Sings the Blues”

I love Nina’s animated film “Sita Sings the Blues.” It’s an entertaining, informative and musical interpretation of the ancient Hindu myth “The Ramayana.”A few days ago I spoke with Nina P. whose movie is a hit on YouTube (where you can see it for free!) and among Indian Americans. I asked her why she’s posted her creative content for free to which she responded that she believes in the free exchange of ideas and information and that consumers should instead pay for the packaging rather than for the content itself. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the concept of “free” – whether it’s free information, free entertainment, free access to ideas, etc. TED does a fabulous job of providing access to the world’s greatest thinkers for free, a service from which I have enormously benefited. Check out Nina’s movie on YouTube and visit her on her website: http://blog.ninapaley.com/

Woody A.’s “Match Point”

Completely incidentally I guided myself through a self-stylized Woody A.’s “Match Point” tour. “Match Point” is Woody A.’s most recent movie, and it is his first one to take place outside of New York. However, whereas New York is a character in his previous movies, London only serves as the backdrop for his current film. We saw “MP” three weeks before moving to London. I think it’s Woody A.’s best film since “Celebrity” and similar to “Crimes and Misdemeanors”, one of my favorite of his films. We enjoyed the simplicity of the suspenseful murder mystery. The film did not feature any big screen special effects; the plot was all in the screenplay’s dialogue and the caste’s body language. The whole story pivots around the notion of luck and goes so far to propose that much of life’s happenings, our comings and goings, are consequences of kismet that does or doesn’t befall us. Ironically, “MP” is my husband’s first Woody A. movie despite having lived in NYC for almost a decade.

I passed by the Palace Theatre, where Andrew Lloyd W.’s “The Woman in White” is playing. Woody A.’s main character uses watching “The Woman in White” with his wealthy yet hopelessly boring wife as his alibi in the night that he murders his pregnant mistress, played by Scarlett J. Later I walked along Victoria Embankment where the main character uses the River Thames as a trash repository to dump proof of his connection to the robbery/double homicide he committed. Finally, I made my way through the Tate Modern, the museum in which Woody A.’s anti-hero decides to commit adultery upon seeing Scarlett J.’s character for the first time since his marriage. While I don’t think it’s necessary that you watch Woody A.’s “Match Point” to get a better idea of London’s geography, I do recommend it as an unusually simple yet suspenseful thriller.