Mistress of Spice

Munich has an international film festival on and it is screening many foreign/english movies including some of the classics like Rainman, Wag the Dog, Tinmen etc.. Of course the euphoria not is not as electric as the buzz with footall but certainly adds a touch to the city's cultural life. So when I told Priya that I will be back on saturday, she went ahead booked one more ticket for the screening of 'Mistress of Spices'. The screenplay of the movie is done by Gurinder Chadha (Bend it like Beckham fame), directed by Paul Bergess (married to Gurinder) and the lead roles are by Aishwarya and Dylan McDermmot. Not expecting much, the movie was pleasantly deep but sort lost its nerve towards the end. Perhaps my indian prejudice did me in but somehow became predictable towards the end. Anyway the highlight was not really the movie but the fact that the director was at hand for a discussion with the audience at the end of movie. Never been to one of these things so I was quite amused throughout the discourse. He did give some insights into the travesties of movie making and details about why they find it exciting to make movies about reactions of Indians when flung into western cultures, perhaps a confusion that rings true in their lives also. We went to Alps last Sunday, its about an hour by train from Munich. After a gluttunous lunch and apfelschorle to wash it down with, we started on our hiking expedition which lasted all of 3 hours!! . The best part was trudging through a gorge gushing with water, the deafening sound of the river was mellowed by the brilliance of nature. Very picturesque and certainly a good reason to visit the alps. I have started playing tennis again (twice), I can confirm that I still suck at playing tennis. I am back in Singapore, still jetlagged and blurry eyed. Will be catching up with some of the boys tonight.