Hips don't lie

The library books have only just arrived, so I've been continuing my vegetative state in front of the TV.

I've never seen any of Dave Chappelle's standup routines, and everybody raves about his Block Party, so I bumped it up in my Netflix queue. Turns out, it's not a comedy routine, it's a documentary about, well, a block party he organized in Bed-Stuy. Oops. It's basically just interviews with residents, participants, and all the performers (everyone from Mos Def to Lauryn Hill), and isn't exactly the best "first" exposure to Chappelle. Still, as a portrait of a neighborhood and an event it's a good film. Just not what I was expecting!

In a similarly disappointing film, this week's Hrithik Roshan viewing with Ms. Tungsten was Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon. The premise was the typical case of mistaken identity: a rich guy is interested in a girl whose family mistakes his employee for him. She falls in love with the employee, but then the boss arrives to meet his potential bride and Bollywood drama ensues.

The film had some good twists (turns out the boss likes the same poetry as she does, and the employee has nothing in common with her but other than that he's really sweet and outgoing, so the girl gets all confused), but once again the ending wrapped everything up too neatly. And, bizarrely, the family pets were half-cartoon, for no apparent reason. It was a little jarring. And Kareen Kapoor, the lead actress, had really annoying, ditzy friends.

However, there is also a very, very, very excellent music sequence where Hrithik is all oiled down by an outdoor fire, then rolling on a beach à la From Here to Eternity, then half shirtless in the back of a car ... all in what we thought was supposed to be a metaphor for sex, but in a future scene it's established that Hrithik and the daughter were merely out until 4am half naked on the beach, in the rain and in the car, doing nothing but singing their love for each other. Still, after all that, by cultural standards you could kind of tell who she'd end up with in the end!

I'm also very excited to read the Connie Willis books I requested from the library.

Yay summer!