Movie: Fargo (1996, English, US)

Review of the classic 1996 Hollywood movie – Fargo

Fargo, a 1996 crime thriller with black humor, is based in Fargo (Minesotta, USA) and a nearby town – Brainerd. The events in the movie take place around 1987.

Here is a quote from the movie:

“So that was Mrs. Lundegaard on the floor in there. And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper. And those three people in Brainerd. And for what? For a little bit of money. There’s more to life than a little money, you know. Don’t you know that? And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day. Well, I just don’t understand it”.

– Police Chief Marge Gunderson, talking to a kidnapper, after apprehending him

Fargo Movie DVD Cover Image

Directed byJoel Coen
Released in1996
GenreCrime, Black Humor
Cast
  • Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson (the Police Chief)
  • William H. Macy as Jerry Lundegaard (the Car Dealership Manager)
  • Steve Buscemi as Carl Showalter (a kidnapper)
  • Peter Stormare as Gaear Grimsrud (another kidnapper)
  • Harve Presnell as Wade Gustafson (Jerry’s father-in-law)
  • Kristin Rudrüd as Jean Lundegaard (Jerry’s wife)
  • Tony Denman as Scotty Lundegaard (Jerry’s son)
Music byCarter Burwell
Produced byEthan Coen
LanguageEnglish
Length1 hour 38 minutes

The Plot

Fargo, a crime thriller with black humor, is based in Fargo (Minesotta, USA) and a nearby town – Brainerd. The events are placed  somewhere around 1987.

Jerry Lundegaard (played by William Macy), is the manager of a car dealership belonging to his rich businessman father-in-law, Wade Gustafson. Jerry has low capability and high ambitions.

He is also in money trouble, and is desperate to get a large amount. Jerry plans out an harebrained,  criminal scheme to get some money out of his father-in-law. He hires two goons to kidnap his wife, so that he can extract the ransom money from his father-in-law. He promises to share the ransom with the thugs.
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Book: Finding Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Finding Flow - CoverOne of the books I read (re-read, actually) in the last two weeks was Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Finding Flow is part psychology study material and part self-help guide. It proposes to help us reclaim ownership of our lives. Based on research of over thousands of individuals, Finding Flow contends that we often walk through our days unaware and out of touch with our emotional lives. People are happiest when they are most absorbed in their actions, a state the author terms as ‘flow.’ We experience ‘flow’ when we work towards clear goals that provide a slight stretch to our existing skills. Constant feedback on our progress also enables flow. So, to be happy we need to constantly be absorbed in such situations.

TitleFinding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life
Author(s)Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Initially Published In1997
PublisherBasic Books
Formats AvailableHardcover, Paperback, Kindle

Csikszentmihalyi eloquently argues that living fully in the here and now requires that one heed the lessons of the past.

— The New York Times Book Review

Flow is defined as the sense of effortless action people feel in moments that stand out as the best in their lives.  Like athletes ‘in the zone’, or musicians in ‘aesthetic rapture’, or religious mystics in ‘ecstasy’.

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Cartoon: The ‘Missed-Call’ Mode of Communication

Missed-Call Cartoon

Increasingly, ‘missed-call’, or ‘miss-call’, or ‘miskol’ (Philippine lingo) is being used as a means of communication, not just by individuals, but also by organizations, who openly ask their customers to ‘give a missed-call.’

I did find it difficult to explain the concept of ‘missed-call’ to a friend from a Western country. His question was “How can I give you a missed call? If you don’t pick it up, you miss the call. The caller cannot control whether it is a missed call or not – only the receiver can make it a missed call or picked call.”

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CIA-OSS Manual for Workplace Sabotage

Recently, the CIA declassified a document titled ‘Simple Sabotage Field Manual’. This manual was created by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the World War II–era precursor to the CIA. It is dated 1944, for use by CIA operatives in Europe who were trying to recruit civilians living in countries occupied by the Axis Alliance (Germany, Italy and Japan).

A scanned version of the document is available in the pdf form at the CIA’s website, here.

OSS-CIA Manual Cover

The documents has around 32 pages. The most interesting parts for me were in the last few pages in a section titled ‘General Interference with Organizations and Production.’

One sub-section of this part is reproduced here:

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Cartoon: Keep Bangalore Clean

Keep Bangalore Clean

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Book: Mindless Eating by Brian Wansink

Last week, I re-read this really useful book on healthy eating.Mindless Eating - Cover

 

TitleMindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think
Author(s)Brian Wansink, PhD
Initially Published In2007
PublisherHay House
Formats AvailableHardcover, Paperback, Audiobook

10 calories a day equals one pound in the year

— That is, 100 calories a day means 10 pounds more/ less on your body in a year.

This is a book that will help you improve your eating habits (it is not a diet plan book). It provides insights into how we eat (mostly mindlessly) and how we are highly influenced in the quantities that we eat by our surroundings and other things on which we have no control.

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Cartoon: Buddha As Spa Brand Ambassador

Buddha As Spa Brand Ambassador

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Cartoon: Dynamic Surge Pricing Innovation (?!?)

Surge-Price-Cartoon

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Book: Sons of Sita by Ashok Banker (Ramayan series book-8)

“… he (Luv) let fly. The first arrow hit its mark and the second was flying even before the wagon had rolled fully into view. A man shouted with pain and tumbled off the wagon, with two arrows sprouting, one from each shoulder…”

— Chapter 4, Kaand 1, Sons of Sita

That was an attack by the twins, Luv-Kush on an Ayodhyan caravan (carrying funding for an Ashwamedha Yagna).

Sons of Sita

TitleSons of Sita
SeriesVolume-8 of the 8 volume Ramayana series
AuthorAshok Banker

NOTE: Please read the reviewer’s opinions on the whole series here.

The Story in Book-8 (last of the series)

Sita and her twins (Luv-Kush) live in a forest hermitage run by rishi Valmiki (credited as the original author of the Ramayana). While Luv-Kush are tutored along with other acolytes of the hermitage in the Vedas, Sita and her ex-bodyguard Nakhudi train the twins as warriors.

In the meanwhile, in Ayodhya, Rama now styles himself as an “emperor” (Samrat). He is manipulated by his new ministers, and justifies all his inconsiderate actions as an extremely distorted form of dharma (his ruthless soldiers are sarcastically called ‘dharmanators’). His mothers Kaushlya and Sumitra are unable to influence him. When his brothers (Bharat and Shatrughan) try to provide moderating advise, they are branded as traitors. Lakshmana and Hanuman continue to be unquestioning side-kicks.
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Book: Vengeance of Ravana by Ashok Banker (Ramayan series book-7)

“The rishi rose, spinning, as perfectly straight as a pillar – a few scant inches to any side would mean terrible wounds… He seemed to hover in mid-air for a brief fraction, like a hummingbird working at its nest, then….shot out like the yawning pincers of  stone crab Bharat had once seen at the moment it closed on its prey.”

— Chapter 3, Kaand 1, Vengeance of Ravana

That was rishi Valmiki on a visit to Ayodhya, showing his prowess when challenged by the gatekeepers/ security

Vengeance of Ravana

TitleVengeance of Ravana
SeriesVolume-7 of the 8 volume Ramayana series
AuthorAshok Banker

NOTE: Please read the reviewer’s opinions on the whole series here.

The Story in Book-7

The story is set in that period after decimation of Lanka and Rama’s return from his exile, but before Sita is banished. (I am not sure whether this part of the story is based on older versions of the Ramayana or it is a mainly a creation of Banker’s fertile imagination.)

In a dream/ nightmare Rama sees that Ravana is back. Rishi Valmiki (who is acknowledged as the original author of the Ramayana) visits Ayodhya with news of impending bad times. The city is attacked by rakshasa Kala-Nemi who was interned in the dungeons of the city. Soon after, Ayodhya is attacked by the armies and nobles of other Aryan kingdoms, led by Atikya (a son of Ravana) and Mandodari (Ravana’s wife).

At the gates of Ayodhya, there is a lot of drama, with many people getting into a ‘stasis’/ ‘freeze-frame’/ ‘statue’ mode so that a few others can take the centre-stage and show their moves, or make their speech. During one such exchange between Atikya/ Mandodari and Sita, Atikya puts a new spin to Sita’s parentage (you will have to read the book to know the new spin).
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