Derailed

Saw Derailed last night. Thight thriller with Aniston and Clive Owen. However, it was like watching a contrived noirish version of Birthday Girl with this film being a much more belabored and trafic than the more realistic Birthday Girl. Owen suddenly becomes the savior and that ruins the film.

Saptakshara by Vikku Vinayakram

The new Time Warner building overlooking the south central park, the Columbus circle and the 58th street has an amazing little theatre with an all-glass wall which the audience face and a little stage has been set just by the wall so that the artists face the audience with their back toward an amazing nigh-view.

This small theatre (Allen Ball room at Lincoln Center) seemed the perfect setting for some amazing music by Vikku and his septet of south-Indian percussionists. The sound quality and the performances were so good it was hard to believe your ears. The instruments (Ghatam, Mridangam, Morsing, Gith and Kanjeera) were unbelievably versatile and melodic. Even the classical vocals were very impressive. Vikku was going crazy on the ghatam and his 3 sons on ghatam, kanjeera and vocals were routinely getting blessed by an obviously proud father.

This was one of the finest concerts we could have attended at that hour specially (10.-11.30 pm) and we were glad we bought the tickets at the last minute on the box office.

Ma

Akram Khan's dance show at Lincoln Center's Rose Theatre yesterday was a bit of a drag. I think the fantastic performers were let down by a poor script and some sort of lack of rhythm. I don't know exactly it was that was missing but something seemed to be wrong. The music was excellent and the dances were good in the "Cirque-du-soleil" way but there was no fluidity. The movements seemed to stop midway and were often too fast to register fully. The play of bright lights or haze was a bit too jarring and hurt the eyes without really providing the kind of effect one probably hopes to achieve.

The Yards (2000)

Decent film this. Too dark (I mean visually) at times and generally a drag, this film is nonetheless interesting and does bring to light the corruption that engulfs the New York subway contracts and government in general. Mark Wahlberg is pretty good in this -- his usual wooden self but seems to fit right in. Apart from some needless plot extensions this film is on track.

More here