Media


Autogenerated list of latest documentaries in Google Videos available online totally free Google video also has many category that are available only in advanced search. Using it, I have autogenerated a list of documentaries available. Please note that this is automatically generated using a search strategy, so some of the videos are not relevant, and many have views that are quite contrary to mine. This list will contain the latest videos that are categorized as “documentary” by the person uploading it. The descriptions are also given by the person uploading it. The list is given below, and for more click […]

List of latest documentaries in Google Videos & You Tube ...


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Here is your window to some of the best movies in the world, in my perspective. The following ratings are not by a trained movie critic, but by as passionate movie buff. So, if the ratings reflect anything, it reflects my taste. In general, I tend to like movies with good stories, powerful but subtle dialog, good music that’s not conspicuous, acting that’s not overly dramatic and stories that “could have been true”.  I thought of putting it together both as record for my own sake and to share a list of movies with those who may share my taste. […]

List of great movies: India and international (brief reviews)


Pride and prejudice IMDB Year: 1940 Writer: Jane Austen Director: Robert Z. Leonard Length: 117 Category: Drama Rating: 3 out of 5 Many movies have been taken on this brilliant book by Jane Austen. The best in my opinion is the version produced by BBC (click here for review). Being a television serial, it has the advantage of time – and so is better able to do justice to the novel. I feel that Leotard managed quite a bit in 117 minutes. The trouble though was not with time, but with Hollywood. Rarely can a Hollywood movie escape the pressures […]

Pride & Prejudice by Leonard: Reasonable



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Colour of Paradise IMDB Year: 1999 Writer: Majid Majidi Director: Majid Majidi Category: Drama Rating: 5 out of 5 Another great product of Iran’s movie revolution. A master piece on the struggle between a bright blind boy and a father who is ashamed of his disability Mohammad is a curious young boy who is constantly discovering the nature around him. He is bright and has picked a remarkable ability to read using braille. He is loved by his young sisters and nurtured by his grandmother. The local school is proud of the boys academic abilities. His father though is ashamed […]

Colour of paradise: Majid Majidi’s Masterpiece


Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I have specially enjoyed. To see the rest, click here Desmond Tutu, the Archbishop from South Africa is one of the towering figures of the world today. His role in removing Apartheid from South Africa is well acknowledged. He also received a Nobel peace prize for his role in 1984.  Bishop Tutu is a very powerful speaker, story teller, and a jovial person. But between his stories and jokes he gets serious and makes touching appeals. His sense of hope […]

Touching talk by Desmond Tutu: Nobel Laureate from South Africa


Is the language of rights useful in discussing poverty? Economists seem to claim these days that the rights approach may undermine the cause I encountered many economists writing tentatively about human rights these days. Perhaps there is an extensive literature about it already. The main premise of arguments seems to be while the ideals of human rights are good, the approach will only impair the reduction of poverty by advocating unsound policies. Amartya Sen responds to these issues in a debate with Jeffry Frankel at Harvard University. Webcast of debate is available. The programme runs for an hour and fifteen […]

“Consequentialist perspective” of economists and Human Rights



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Inspiring talk by Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman on intuitive thinking Vs. reasoning and its application to choice theory The introductory lecture to the class of 2008 in Princeton was done by Prof. Daniel Kahneman on the wonders and flaws of intuitive thinking. The webcast of the lecture is available in the Pricneton media website. Kahneman distinguishes between two modes of thinking – Reasoning and intuition. While intuition is powerful and accounts for most of our thinking, it is suceptible to illusions. These illusions can result in wrong choices in a variety of situations. He discusses the topic and its relevance […]

Wonders and the Flaws of Intuitive Thinking – Webcast of ...


More choice is equated with greater welfare, is this tenable? Too much choice can paradoxically make us be better but feel worse argues the psychologist In many societies today welfare is associated with freedom, and freedom with choice. It is commonly argued that people are better off with more choice. Psycologist Barry Schwarts discusses various experiments by psychologists and behavioural economists that test this claim. The talk lasts about one hour, and is worth every minute of it. Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I have […]

Paradox of Choice – Why more is less by Barry ...


Manhattan IMDB Year: 1979 Writer: Woody Allen Director: Woody Allen Rating: 2 out of 5 The movie starts with a forty something Woody Allan and his seventeen year old date at a dinner with his friend Yale (played by Michael Davis) and his wife. Yale confides to Woody that he is having an extra marrital affaire with a bright Journalist played by Diane Keaton. The movie then takes us through a tangled web of relationships, betrayals, insecurities and a dash of humour now and then. I decided to watch Manhattan after seeing the fantastic rating it had in Rotten Tomatoes. […]

Woody Allan’s Manhattan disappoints me



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Children of heaven Year: 1997 Writer: Majid Majidi Director: Majid Majidi Category: Foreign Rating: 5 out of 5 Children of Heaven is a product of Iran’s movie revolution. Ali goes to get his sister’s shoe cobbled and looses it on the way back. He’s too scared to tell this to his parents since they are too poor to buy another pair immediately. He convinces his sister to keep it from the parents and shares his sneakers with her. But this is not easy since his school starts immediately after her school ends and the children run to and from school […]

Majidi’s Children of Heaven: A child’s lost shoe becomes a ...


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Ganga Jal IMDB Link Year: 2003 Writer: Prakash Jha Director: Prakash Jha Length: 150 Category: Drama Rating: 4 out of 5 Though it is based on an age old plot of a police officer fighting against crime, Gangajal takes it to a new height in how it is executed I wish this move were not as violent as it is – baring that, it is close to a perfect movie. In this movie inspired by the Bhagalpur Blindings, Ajay Devgan plays an IPS officer who takes on the local gangster – Sadhu Baba, and expectedly, wins. In this he is […]

Gangajal Hindi Movie with Ajay Devagan:Old plot, new refinement


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Iran has produced some of the best world movies in the last decade or two. This is a short note on some great movies from Iran. I have listed below some of my favourite Iranian movies.  These movies deserve detailed review that I’ll try in the near future.  I’ll link them to good reviews when possible. For the moment, I’ll leave you with a list of movies, and a few links. List of movies Colour of Paradise:  A bright blind child who enjoys school is forced by his father to quit school and take up carpentry with a blind carpenter.  The story […]

Great movies from Iran – list and brief descriptions



Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I have specially enjoyed. To see the rest, click here I bumped into a page called the best of google videos at hub pages dot com. The list of videos is interesting and varied, and it’s growing. You may wish to check it out at hub by clicking here.

Best of Google Videos at Hub Pages


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This list consists of some formulaic movies and some that are innovative. I am working on the list and hope to build it over time. Some of my most cherished Indian movies require a contextual knowledge. The best of Tamil movies involves a play of words that cannot be captured by subtitles – and in any case the subtitles of most movies leaves us wanting. So, each time a friend asks me what’s a good movie to watch, I am left dumbstruck. I’ve finally decided to put together a list on which I can receive some help – and some […]

List of Indian movies for my non-Indian friends


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The last few years have seen some dazzling movies that have boldly departed from the mainstream. A movie historian in Tamil Nadu once said (perhaps Randor Guy) that most movies in the language (and I am sure in Hindi as well) revolved around 8 basic plots. These new movies have a bold new plot – but that’s not all. Many of these have given up a formulaic approach of making commercial movies in India (atleast in Hindi and Tamil): a little glamour, some songs, some dancing, some comedy (even if it’s totally unrelated), a macho hero, sexy heroine, fights (called […]

Moving beyond the formula: Bold new Indian movies



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Shwaas IMDB Year: 2004 Director: Sandeep Sawant Category: Drama Rating: 5 out of 5 This is a simple movie by a debutant director. An old man is confronted by the necessity to tell his 6 year old grand child that he will loose his vision after an operation. The director, who is a seasoned theatre person, made this every day drama in real life into a touching story. It is one of those rare movies without a villian. Every person in the story is positively represented – all brought together by a boy suffering from cancer. Sandeep Sawant, the director, […]

Shwaas: Dazzling Marathi movie of a grandfather’s dilemma


Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I have specially enjoyed. To see the rest, click here. This conference held at the Princeton has many interesting speakers including Amartya Sen and Douglass North. The session is called “From the Coffee House to the World Bank – Institutions and Development”. Like most conferences there are interesting moments and long dull moments as well. What I “enjoyed” most was listening to the questions in the conference. The webcast of the conference is available here. Other talks in Princeton are […]

Webcast of conference on institutions and development


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Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I have specially enjoyed. To see the rest, click here. The argument that Sen makes is complex and I will not attempt to recap them here. But as a pointer, I’ll just mention that this talk is based on his book “Identities and Violence”. Sen questions the notion of Clash of civilisation by Samuel Huntington from different dimensions. He questions if any group of people can be neatly identified as a “civilization”, if animosity has to be the basis of […]

Amartya Sen’s critique of Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of civilisations”



Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I have specially enjoyed. To see the rest, click here Justice Henderson started as a sports person and with some mentoring graduated in Law. As he was finishing school he had an interesting offer to work in the Kennedy administration on civil rights issues. The interview interlaces Justice Henderson’s biography with the tumultuous years of civil rights activism in USA. The path he took – African American sports person who finally went on to become a Judge in a US […]

Interesting interview on civil rights with African-American Judge – Justice ...


Many talks and interviews with well known people are now available online. I’ve put together a series of them that I have specially enjoyed. To see the rest, click here This is an interview by Harry Kreisler taken in 1983 with Linus Pauling who got two Nobel Prizes, once for chemistry and the second time for peace. The interview is a reflection of the context in which Linus Pauling got into peace activism in the United States. The opinions of Pauling were slightly uncommon to me, atleast from a peace activist. He for example would talk of the importance of […]

The peace movement in historical perspective with Linus Pauling – ...