Last night, I watched Dhobi Ghat, a film by Kiran Rao starring Aamir Khan,Prateik Babbar, Monica Dogra and Kriti Malhotra.

You know what? I’m not going to even try and be objective. I LOVED IT. I don’t care if I sound like a squealing tween. That’s the truth. The movie hit every chord so perfectly that it took my breath away. Throughout most of the film, I watched Aamir Khan act. For the very first time, I didn’t think of AK from QSQT, Lagaan, Dil Chahta Hai etc. I watched Aamir act in a situation where he was not all that I was seeing – you know what I mean?

Then there’s Prateik Babbar. Oh man. There were so many nuances to his character, and he just kind of encapsulated all of them and looked so amazingly drool-worthy the entire time!

But most of all, I think the best part of the movie was Kiran Rao. The story was simple, so beautiful and so concisely edited. There wasn’t a frame that was a waste, not an emotion that was overdramatic, and not a second that stretched unbearably. Everything seemed to fit in like pieces of a puzzle, nothing jarred and that’s what I love. There was a smoothness, a finesse to the entire film that spoke of experience, of thought, of careful construction.

There’s no two ways about it – she may be Aamir Khan’s wife but that definitely isn’t the whole definition of who she is!

However, the short time we spent in Trivandrum was awesome fun! It really is a lovely little place. The weather was quite pleasant during that time of the year. I didn’t do any sight seeing, but we did manage to visit the Shanghumugham beach for a little while which was nice. I also didn’t get to eat as much sea food as I wanted since meals were eaten at the nearest restaurant to the theatre(s), and there wasn’t much time to linger since most of the places we ate in were crowded and always had people waiting to grab our table before we had even finished our food :p

A lot of people were quite thrilled when they found out at that 13 girls had travelled all the way from Bangalore to attend the festival! The best part of the trip for me was when the waiter at a restaurant I was at recognized me from my picture in the paper (that had been taken the day before by photographers and television reporters who INSISTED on interviewing us ‘to find out about how we felt attending the festival’ before we had even gotten a copy of the schedule!). He excitedly said something to me in Malayalam (I thought he was just being polite – the hospitality we saw was really heartwarming), ran off and came back with the paper, pointing me out in the photo and then pointed at me! Here is a TwitPic of the picture in the paper

So on the whole, had tonnes of fun. The festival was really, really well organized. Right from the ID cards, to the online/sms balcony reservation system, to the beautifully detailed festival handbook. The theaters were really quite magnificent!

Here is the list of movies I managed to see at IFFK/2010 :

• Tutto a posto e niente in ordine (1974) (Italy)
• Angst essen Seele auf (1974) (Germany)
• Carmen (1983) (Spain)
• Kelin (The Daughter-In-Law)(2009) (Kazakhstan) – This one was one of my favourites
• Dia Naranja (2010) {Competition Film} (Venezuela/Colombia/Argentina)
• Metropolis @ Kolkata (2010) (India)
• Lotfan Mozahem Nashavid (2010) (Iran) [Opening Film] – Another one of my favourites
• T.D Dasan Std VI (India)
• Was du nicht siehst (2009) (Germany)
• Vino (2010) {Competition Film} (Argentina)
• Somewhere (2010) (USA)

I’d been meaning to watch ‘The Duchess’ for a while now, and I finally watched it today and I loved it! I think Keira Knightley is a very, very talented actress – she’s put up a stellar performance in all the movies I’ve seen of hers right from ‘Bend It Like Beckham’, the POTC series, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ to this one.

The movie is based on the life of 18th-century English aristocrat Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. There’s actually a book about this lady, written by Amanda Foreman, which I must get my hands on now. I love the costumes, I love the music, I love the actors ( Ralph Fiennes in a totally detestable role but very well enacted!).

I seem to have a fascination for these eighteenth century type things..

Also this afternoon I watched ‘Virgin Territory’ starring Mischa Barton and (drool) Hayden Christensen, which caused me to fall in love with him all over again after Star Wars. This one’s a romantic comedy, a bit on the American Pie side but in a more medieval setting, I guess. It was funny, Hayden was hot as usual, so I had fun.

Next on the my list is ‘Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist’ which I am solely watching because it has Paulie Bleeker (Micheal Cera) from Juno!