Brief Review of Death Magnetic

Here is a short review of DEATH MAGNETIC…the latest album released last Friday (12th Sept) by METALLICA.
Music wise it is only decent, there are parts where you really feel pumped up but more often than not its nothing more than just mediocre riffs. Maybe I have to let the songs grow on me. From an arrangement point of view it is a total back to roots album for metallica what with all the songs being long with changing riffs and solos. This might be great news to the I-hate-Metallica-after-Justice fans but I am not one of them. I think as awesome as their first four albums were, the radically different direction they took after Justice added an entirely new dimension to their music which paid off very well. I believe they tried to pull off a similar stunt with St.Anger which of course failed. However I personally give them the credit (that they deserve and normally don’t get) for having the balls to experiment rather than stick to just one proven formula.
Coming back to Death Magnetic, all the songs follow the template established by Kill Em All. The lyrics though suck balls. Hetfield was lyrically at his best during their softer years. Almost all songs from black album/load/reload have better lyrics than first 4 albums with a few exceptions of course. Most of the songs on death magnetic have to do with...(wait...can u guess?...) death...all seems very pretentious to me!
And one thing that has been a source of misery for me is Unforgiven 3, one of the songs on Death Magnetic. It is so crappy it makes me want to cry. Unforgiven 1 and 2 are masterpieces in every right of their own. Unforgiven 3 sounds like the result of a bad jam session from a third rate band or a song that I would come up at 2 am in the morning after coming back from the bar on a friday night completely drunk (the important difference being that I always have the good sense to realize it sucks...but not before a period of about 15minutes during which I am convinced that I have created a masterpiece!!)

Overall, I would rank the album maybe above reload and st.anger but still worse than rest of their stuff. I have listened to the album only a couple of times and will definitely be doing more listening in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully I will grow to like it even more (cuz all fancy critiques and opinions notwithstanding, wouldn’t you rather enjoy something than hate it?)

Another good thing is because of death magnetic I listened to most of MetallicA’s repertoire again and was reminded why they are one of the best bands to have made music!

In conclusion...obey your master...MASTER!

DARK KNIGHT

Thoughts on the Red Hot Chili Peppers and ‘Stadium Arcadium’

For those who have never even heard of or don’t know much about RHCP, as a decent fan of the Chili Peppers I feel it is my responsibility to briefly educate the masses about this great band. Since these are my thoughts on RHCP I will let this post comprise of precisely those and won’t bother with statistical data like year of formation of the band and their albums and their order of releases and things like that. I don’t think such information holds any true interest to most people and moreover it is easily available for those who care.

To begin with, RHCP stands for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Now before we go on please take a moment and note that the word ‘Chili’ is spelt with only one l and not two. So it’s ‘Chili’ and not ‘Chilli’...ok? Good. In case you do make that mistake anywhere please don’t tell anyone that you learnt about RHCP from my blog :P
The Chili peppers are (were?) essentially a funk-rock band. In more than one interview that I’ve seen of them I’ve heard ‘George Clinton’ being mentioned as one of their major influences. So if you’ve heard George Clinton’s music and not RHCP’s my educated guess is you’ll find them to be similar.
The current line up consists of...
-->Anthony Kiedis: He is the lead vocals of RHCP and has been with the band since its inception. I don’t really have anything to say about his singing except that I think it’s pretty good. :)
-->Michael Balzary, better known as Flea: In my opinion he is the best bassist in the world. The bass is most bands’ music is mostly drowned out and doesn’t really add to the feel of the song. On the other hand almost every Chili Peppers song has Flea’s unmistakable, distinctly noticeable trademark sound and many a time Flea does his own bass leads and standalone grooves during concerts. I also think he is the craziest of all the band members. He is always jumping around the most and he performed Woodstock’99 completely naked for the entire show!!!!
-->John Frusciante: The greatest guitarist in the world. Yes I really think he is the greatest guitarist in action today. (Again yes...I think he is better than Hetfield too...but then again they have different styles and this discussion as always will be open-ended). Frusciante is a genius of a musician who can play the most melodious of tunes with as little notes as possible and also the funkiest of riffs. However, I am convinced that his melody prowess is greater than his funk-maestro! RHCP originally had a guitarist called Hillel Slovak and during that time John Frusciante was a very very big fan of RHCP and followed them everywhere while learning all their songs. When Slovak died of a drug overdose, Frusciante was asked to fill his shoes and was more than delighted to do so.
-->Chad Smith: RHCP’s drummer and one of my favourites. He is one of the few drummers who I feel can make very good music with as simple a kit as possible. His drumming style has a distinctive sound and style to it and definitely adds to the RHCP sound.

One thing that I really like about the band is their concerts. They are always jumping around, having fun, improvising their music all the time and jamming around quite often. It’s always fun to watch an RHCP concert. I can only imagine how will I feel when I am in one!

So anyway that’s the band in brief for you.

After being successful for a while they had taken some time out and have now released a 2 disc album called ‘Stadium Arcadium’. It has a total of 28 songs. 14 on one CD called ‘Jupiter’ and 14 on another called ‘Mars’ (some astrology funda behind it). I bought it and listened to the whole album. I am still in the process of digesting all the songs but as of now I have a pretty solid first impression.

I have mixed feelings towards Stadium Arcadium.
I absolutely love most of the songs on the album. But at the same time I couldn’t avoid feeling a little disappointed. Let me try and explain why!

As I have mentioned in a couple of posts about RHCP before, the band has two distinct styles of music. One ‘Funky’ style with songs like ‘Give it away’, ‘Walkabout’, ‘If u have to ask’ etc. and one (for ease of reference, lets call this) ‘Ballad’ (a word I've seen someone else use) style with songs like ‘Under the bridge’, ‘My friends’, ‘Soul to squeeze’ etc. When you listen to these songs, it is almost unbelievable that the same band is making these different styles of music because everything from the vocals to the guitar playing is different.

The first few albums of RHCP were hard-core funk.
Then gradually the albums started incorporating the slow, nice melodious style of songs. It worked perfectly. A perfect balance of funky songs that you could get up and jump to when u felt like it OR relax, lay back and enjoy the other beautiful melodious sounds. I think ‘Californication’ was the best in this category.
Ballads were slowly becoming a big part of RHCP’s music.

And now we have Stadium Arcadium. A double disc album with some of the best songs Ive heard.
Except there's just not enough funk!
It turned out to be a ballad overdose!
That’s where I was disappointed.

I look at the back of the CD at the song listing and I can’t think one funky song which can hold water. Make no mistake...the songs that are there are very good. The music is perfect. The songs are perfect. But they are all...NICE. Turns out RHCP being just nice leaves me unhappy!
Flea’s funky bass sound is missing in most of the songs.
The few songs that start off with funky riffs and vocals immediately mellow down when they reach the bridge or the chorus!
Anthony’s funky voice is conspicuously missing!
Almost as if, they came up with the funky sound only cuz they were expected to and had to but at the slightest opportunity they jump right back into being mellow!


As I was listening to the album I progressively went from thinking...
“Wow...that was such nice melodious lead...that’s a good song.”
.......to......
"Another awesome song...RHCP rocks...but its been a while since something’s come up that makes me want to jump...maybe it'll come in the 2nd CD”
.......to.....
“Sonofagun...enough of this melody already...I want to shout something like GIVEITAWAY GIVEITAWAY GIVEITAWAY NOW...when will that happen?”


Ultimately, I ended up a little disappointed.

But of course this means nothing...like I said I do like the album anyway and will keep listening to it.
If I come up with anything more OR if I find that I missed something I will let you all know.
I don’t want to point out some of the good songs cuz then itll only raise your expectations and we all know what happens then! :)
All I am saying is do buy the album and listen. Who knows...if you don’t care about things like blood, sugar, sex and magik you might have no difficulty in loving this! :P

Until later...

(Music of ‘Suck my Kiss’ in the background fading away)

Play that funky music, brown boy!

A couple of days ago I was minding my business when a friend of mine came up to me and gave me a flash drive filled with songs of his liking and asked me to check them out. As I eagerly dug into them hoping to find some obscure Sabbath or Zeppelin masterpiece that I probably forgot about I realized that he was in fact a closeted pop-lover who never came out :P. His entire collection was filled with Avril Lavignes, Celine Dions, Kelly Clarksons, Elton Johns and the like.
Nevertheless I kept the collection and in the next few days discovered quite a few songs that I had once listened to passionately but until then had completely forgotten about. As I dug up more and more pop/techno/non-rock songs from everywhere I realized there are a few songs that have a very very high repeat value for me. These are the songs that I could listen to over and over again and probably never get bored. And then I thought to myself, “You know what...there are people out there who would love to read a list of your favourite non-rock songs”. Then reality hit me hard, just like the way the truck hits the kid’s bed in “Enter Sandman” video. I realized I was kidding myself. Still to re-quote one of my favourite quotes “To inflict such misfortune upon mankind isn’t my style”...so whether you like it or not and just because you are here and also because I like writing useless stuff about music, you are doomed to read...

“Ro’s amazing top 10 list of non-rock songs (with very high repeat value)”
in no particular order
except that the numbers are ascending :P

1) I want you - Savage Garden:
From what I know this was the song that put Savage Garden on the map. The melodious chorus is excellently complemented by the almost rappish way Darren Hayes sings the verses. Their next album was also quite good and I remember liking all the songs. But somehow “I want you” remains up there. The lyrics are fun to sing along to...but one thing that always puzzled me was as to why he sings “shaggy yeah” right in the middle for no reason! This song's got a cool video too.

2) Kiss from a rose - Seal:
I don’t know of any other song by Seal except this one. But I think I can safely say this is his best song. Seal’s melodious voice, excellent lyrics and captivating music gives this song a very ballad sort of feel. All in all one amazing song...and very well complemented by Nicole Kidman in the video! :)

3) Jam - Michael Jackson:
Michael Jackson was the first artist whose albums I collected, back in the pre-mp3 cassettes and cds days. I would love to listen to any MJ song any day but ‘Jam’ has to be my fav and one of his best. I could never understand what he sang without reading his lyrics and singing his songs phonetically was good fun (“...aint yet, too much, it aint too amuchforme to JAM”). Michael Jackson was called the king of pop...but I would say he (or whoever wrote his music) also pioneered a lot of unconventional (techo-ish) sounds too. And the video of Jam has Michael Jackson dancing and Michael Jordan dribbling in it. Was enough for me to get hooked onto it for life!

4) Come undone - Duran Duran:
What a song! This is only one of the couple of Duran Duran songs that I’ve heard of but nevertheless I’m convinced of their musical prowess. With absolutely awesome lyrics, I feel the song gets its charm mainly from the way it’s sung. The mix of the “Can I forgive u for falling apart” part and the “Who do you need, who do you love, when you come undone” makes this song a masterpiece. Heck I feel like listening to it while I am typing this!

5) That thing you do - Fountains of Wayne:
As I found out from the very friend I was talking about at the beginning, I learnt that this is actually a Fountains of Wayne (remember Stacy’s Mom) song and in fact launched their career. FoW had made this song for the movie for a contest and they sure did a good job. The most captivating thing about this song is the casual way it’s sung and its simple yet rhythmic drum pattern. I might even add, at one point of time I even knew all its lyrics!!!

6) The Mission Impossible theme – Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton:
This has to be the mother of all themes. I don’t know how to describe it. If you haven’t listened to it there’s something you are missing. I haven’t seen the original TV series so I have no opinion about it but the music perfectly captures everything the movie is about. Even Limp Bizkit’s rendition is quite addictive! :)

7) Breathe - Prodigy:
Scary guys with heavy makeup + alligators + some very cool techno music = awesome song with awesome video. Prodigy has made some very good techno music and ‘breathe’ is one of their best. I know many people who’ve been repulsed at the thought of listening to techno music when I suggest Prodigy. Agreed its not conventional music which can be played live on instruments but what the heck! Whatever prodigy does, it does good. They have quite a large range of sounds and they do a good job of putting everything together. So yeah...don’t shy away from techno. Just breathe with them.

8) Staying alive - Bee Gees:
“If you can tell by the way I use my walk
I’m a woman’s man, no time to talk”
Tell me how times you must have heard this song pop out of nowhere and immediately felt a need to sing along and groove with it. The typical Bee Gee’s falsetto in which it is sung makes it very appealing and the music taunts you to try and stop yourself from moving! Definitely one of the most popular songs in the world...and deservingly so.

9) How deep is your love - Take that:
They say first impressions last the longest. Applies very well in this case. I loved this song when I saw ‘Take that’ sing it on MTV but when I heard the Bee Gee’s original later it came nowhere close. I found the way ‘Take that’ sings the chorus much more appealing than the original. It has really nice lyrics and Take that’s video of this song (showing a girl torturing and ultimately drowning the four band members tied to chairs) is simply superb.
The above line makes me sound like a sadist! :D

10) She’s got the look – Roxette:
Again, maybe just one of the 2 or 3 songs of Roxette that I know. But I am pretty sure this is their best (and most popular) one. This probably is the first song that I’ve listened to amongst all the songs on this list and I remember liking it so much that I even wanted to sing to some girl I liked at that point of time. However I never could muster up the courage to do it (maybe it happened for my own good :)). Never mind the lyrics cuz they are sung very nicely. I remember having a discussion with Sidney about the different ways the line “Loving is the ocean, kissing is the wet sand” can be interpreted!(The things I used to do :() Nevertheless, a very catchy song that has stuck to be one of my all time favourites.

That’s the end of the list folks.
See how I managed to waste a precious 5 minutes of your life making you read about stuff that is not going to be useful in any conceivable way! Yeah...I have a knack for such things. So don’t be surprised if in the future you’ll be reading about “Ro’s amazing top 10 things to do while you are taking a dump”.
Until then...I suggest you put your time to good use.
Tata

FFF... 20 years down the line!

U might want to read this before going any further!

Rolling Stone
December, 2025

The return of five funkmen!

Ever since their first concert Fuel For Fantasy (more popularly known as FFF) had come a long way. 14 albums and over 50 hit singles (including the largely popular ‘Epiphany’) the band had reached success they had never known before. From their first album “Our first rock album” to their last one “FFF: The unsung songs” these guys reached dizzying heights of success. In many ways they seemed to be the perfect formula for the success of any aspiring rock band. Consisting of friends who met each other in college, the band was put together largely due to the efforts of their bassist Golu. They more or less shared the same inspiration of music, played together locally for a couple of years covering many bands in the process and acquiring a style of their own along the way. Briefly separated after college for about 4 years to pursue their own academic interests, the band realized that they were destined to play music together during this time and quickly got back before turning pro. All the while bonded together with a friendship that seemed to surely last forever, in 2008 the rockers of the world stood up and noticed as FFF had arrived. The band enjoyed a string of successful albums and fans eagerly lapped up everything thrown their way from the FFF headquarters (even the abysmal solo effort by Golu proved to be a creative success). Yet…nothing lasts for ever and FFF was no exception. A cliché that surfaces time and again in rock bands, their rhythm guitarist G was rocked with a severe case of heroin addiction and went into rehab for a long time. The band had sworn not to play with anyone else thus stalling all future projects and waiting for G’s return. The wait didn’t turn out to be as simple as they had expected. It was during this time that their drummer Viral would reveal having an affair with Golu’s grad school sweetheart turned wife. This severely cut off Golu’s rapport with Viral and his further involvement in the band. Golu was undoubtedly one of the creative forces of FFF and his distance was a serious impediment. There were other problems too. Sidney (the lead guitarist) proved to be a “dominating bastard” (words used by Golu himself in the December 2010 issue of the “Rolling Stone”) There was a difference in opinion regarding an opening act for rock legends ‘Metallica’. Golu wanted to do it and Sidney did not. To make matters worse their front man Zubin was struggling with a few personal problems of his own. G, after his return to FFF echoed every fan’s feelings when he said, “I never thought I would be returning to a band that would end up doing much worse than when one their guitarists turns out to be a drug-addict”. Somehow they managed one last tour with a replacement drummer as no one in the band was on amicable terms with Viral. FFF for the first time had performed with a lineup different from what it was 20 years ago. The tour was a failure drawing only the hardcore fans. The FFF that people knew and loved seemed lost forever. Their fans prayed for a miracle.

And it came...in the form of G’s relapse to heroin addiction. Depressed by the current state of the band G took to drugs once again and this time found himself dangerously close to death. Convinced he was not going to make it, his last wishes were to play with FFF once again. For this the band put all its differences aside (which included a public apology by Viral) and started jamming again. That was all G needed. He hooked himself back to life with a new found vigour and FFF was back. Their comeback concert was aptly held in Mumbai, India to a crowd of over 50,000, the same place where they were first formed and first performed. Put together in only 2 weeks, the concert was a mess…..G smashed a few guitars, Zubin forgot his lyrics, Viral managed to punch a hole into his snare drum, Golu was rocked with bouts of nervousness and Sidney was just being Sidney. But the fans didn’t mind. They knew that FFF was back and here to stay for a long time!


Sam Etaro
Kick-ass Rock Journalist,
Big fan of FFF,
And part time drummer too. ;)

Disclaimer yada yada: In the above post the only thing that is real is FFF. Everything else is made up and I wrote it for fun. This shud defly not be seen as my view of the way things are going to turn out in the future! Although I wudnt be too shocked if Viral pulls off something like how it is described above :P

And just so things make sense to others too...FFF stands for Fuel For Fantasy...a college band comprising of:

Zubin Jacob(T.A.V): Vocals
Gurzada Pawankumar (G): Rhythm guitar
Sidney David Rosario (Sidney): Lead guitar
Dheeraj Singaraju (Golu, T.A.B):Bass guitar
Aviral Saini (Viral): Drums

who no longer play together as the band members are on different parts of the earth.

Drink in from the Goblet!

Let me say what I should probably be saying at the end of this post. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is an excellent movie and I would highly recommend it for both fans of the series and those who haven’t seen or read any of the movies/books.

Now lets get into my artsy-fartsy review of this movie :)
Warning: Might or might not contain spoilers. Mostly...might not!

The most striking thing about this movie is the fact that despite the omission of a zillion things from the book the essentials have been faithfully stuck to and the result is an enjoyable movie that is appealing to everyone.
The movie begins with the Quidditch World Cup and the special effects are a treat to the eye and made me realize how poorly I had imagined the whole thing when I was reading the book. Unfortunately, the world cup isn’t a pivotal part of the story and even before you finish explaining what is going on to the chic next to you (who doesn’t care much abt Harry and his friends) the wonderful imagery ends. Things unravel at a very good pace and the bulk of the story revolves around the ‘tri-wizard tournament’, a competition amongst three wizarding schools (I couldn’t help notice that Hogwarts was the only co-ed one...the other two happen to be a complete girls and a complete boys schools) in which four competitors (two from Hogwarts and one from the each of the other two) compete for the much coveted tri-wizard cup. The many subplots in the book have been omitted and during the course of the tournament events unfold culminating at the end with the return of Voldemort and another not-seen-before-in-the-previous-movies shocker which will surprise you only if you are someone who follows the series through the movies alone.

Someone worth mentioning is the very pretty Emma Watson (who plays Hermione Granger). I feel there is a little bit of a mismatch between the books and the movies that concerns her. The books have always described her as a plain-Jane who isn’t exactly known for her killer looks. In this story there is a part where she gets a complete makeover for a dance (the Yule Ball) and everyone is just floored by her new look. However when you see this particular scene you don’t really get the same feeling. She looks just as pretty as before. Instead of going from plain-jane to stunning-beauty she turns from pretty-girl to pretty-girl-in-a-nice-dress. Not that I’m complaining :)...its something that occurred to me.

The movie does have its little negatives here and there. Somehow I felt the goofy-humour content is shown a little more than necessary, to the extent that it takes away a little bit of the seriousness. Dumbledore and the others act goofier than before doing silly things and it kind of bugged me a little. But then again I guess I’m just being a purist!

And finally...Ralph Fiennes is GOD!
I was thrilled when I heard that he was playing Voldemort and my expectations of him as being a chilling, cold, evil overlord were fantastically met! The guy is awesome when it comes to these evil roles. He was excellent in the red dragon (as the ‘tooth fairy’) and of course the nazi officer in Schindlers list. Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort is one of the many things to look forward to in the rest of the movies!

Like I said at the beginning...its worth your time and money! So watch it!
Tata

Lone Trivia Question

So I was wasting my time browsing when I came across some interesting stuff which I quickly put into a trivia question. Just take a look at the 3 pics and guess the theme. Obly proper fundaes are needed. This is not some dayaa question and I feel is quite nice too. So good luck!

Will post answer/fundaes when people stop responding!
And try and avoid googling. In case u need a hint then google the first pic...this shud hopefully lead somewhere, and if it does then fundaes for 2 and 3 are mandatory!

And to ensure that ur answers dont spoil someone elses fun, use this translatorto translate ur answers to chinese and post them. Ill cut paste them and re translate them back to english and see if they are right or wrong!

ALERT: Thanx to shrini you dont have to indulge in the aforementioned absurdity. Use rot13.com

RHCB...

...No this is not a typo...RHCB stands for 'Red Hot Chili Bastards'!!!!!
This is an European band (not sure where they are exactly from...I think Germany) and they claim to be the biggest RHCP tribute band...so much that they have a photograph imitating the RHCP album cover of "The Abbey Road EP" . I stumbled upon their link http://www.redhotchilibastards.com/index.html on RHCP's website.
These guys have a few cover versions of RHCP songs (like Under the bridge, If you have to ask...etc) which you can find in the music section of their homepage. I feel from a musical point of view they have done a good job in their covers, capturing the funkiness of the songs. The instruments are reasonably good and if you are willing to allow a margin of error in replicating the exact notes you might like their sound. The vocals however are slightly sad...you get the feeling that the vocalist suffers from constipation! I have no idea how they managed it but somehow the overall sound comes out to be quite decent.
BIG RHCP FAN? You have no reason not to check out this!

And while we are on the topic of chili peppers...this was something that occured to me a few days back. I have come to the conclusion that if I had to chose a song which I would rate 10/10 it has to be "Under the Bridge"!
If you think about the ingredients of the song...everything has been done to perfection.
The lyrics are gaawd (written as a tribute to Hillel Slovak...former guitarist who died due to drug overdose), sung to perfection by Anthony Keidis, the drumming is amazing and the intro by Frusciante is one of the most beautiful musical pieces created. And of course theres nothing much to say about the 2 things that are PERRRFECT in every RHCP song....Fleas bass and Frusciantes backing vocals. Everything fits in beautifully making "Under the Bridge" the best song I have ever heard. :)
And heres something funny: The first time I was exposed to this song was when I saw the video of a cover of 'Under the Bridge' by ALL SAINTS in my 9th! :D :D ...In case you dont know/remember All Saints was (I doubt they are still arnd) this all girl band of 4 chics...undoubtedly with corporate origins and one of the chics was very very cute. (I think her name was some Appleton :) I remember liking this song (and the video) a lot and of course in my childhood ignorance I didnt even know it was a cover! Once I got to listen to listen to the original I got hold of All Saints version and refreshed my memory and compared! All Saints had literally ruined the entire song by adding crappy techno beats and shadiest of shady vocals. Its sad that people think infusing techno into a song will make it better! Never worked as far as I know!

PS: RHCP Trivia--> Did you know that John Frusciante was pronounced dead 11 times before he decided he was ruining his life with drugs??
It took 11 times for him to learn his lesson!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Black Sabbath...

...absolutely ROCKS!
There now that we have established that beyond any tiny shred of doubt let me get to why I am making this blog.
I was listening to 'War Pigs' on yahoo after a long time and the song rocked me so much that out of enthu I mailed zubin saying the usual stuff like "BS rocks.....iommi is gaawd". Zubin then emailed me another song "Solitude" with a strong review and asking me to check it out. I was so blown away that I wrote him another mail with its 'review' and he liked it so much that I thought I might as well put it up here (after a lil refining and omission of bad words :D).

The song Solitude is so different from the usual Sabbath songs that I am used to. The entire song has a very melancholy feel to it. Normally when a band writes a senti song the vocals and the lyrics give out the sentiness much more than the other instruments. But in "solitude" you can feel every single sound dripping of emotion. Ozzy's vocals, the eerie bassline, the perfect use of cymbals, rhythm guitar and the flute are perfection put in a song. And just when you think you have reached the highest state that this song can possibly take you to, the genius of iommi comes in with his lick and takes you higher! Bliss!!

The Manchurian...

...Candidate!
-> Very Slow at the beginning!
-> Excellent acting by Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington and the other guy!
-> Made for lovers of Conspiracy Theories!
-> I liked it!
-> Last movie that I can watch for only 1$ until another 2 months!
-> Nothing to do with Chicken Manchurian Triple Rice which I so terribly miss now! :(

The Village...

...a movie that I was longing to see ever since I first heard about it. I am a hardcore M.N.S fan. Not cuz hes Indian. He makes the kind of movies that I love watching. I am not just blindly led by Sixth Sense...I loved each and every movie he has made after that. Sixth Sense no doubt is his most popular work...somehow ended up liking The Village more than Sixth Sense...In fact heres my ranking
1.The Village
2.Sixth Sense
3. Signs
4.Unbreakable

At the risk of sounding like an arti-farti ass...let me say that I have noticed that I enjoy even those movies which dont have a very good story line...all I need is some grr8 acting or excellent direction. For this reason I have admired and loved so many movies that my friends have hated and have blasted me about. Thinking right now...Id say movies like... 'Adaptation' and 'Signs'. I absolutely loved both. I never really thought of Nicholas Cage as a great actor....he seemed to be the kind who was very good at senti stupid roles...BUT Adaptation changed all that. His performance was mind-blowing and in my opinion he shud have been nominated for an Oscar (thats just an expression...I dont really believe all Oscar Winners are the best amongst their lot). His potrayal of two entirely opposite characters with such conviction is very very impressive. And the movie itself is very vague....but if u r like me...someone who prefers watching movies alone rather than in a big group...all u have to do is sit back, relax and just let the movie grip u and take u on its wonderful path. Adaptation I think is one of the best off-genre movies ever made.
Coming to Signs.....this is a work of pure genius. It scares the shit out of you yet 'grips' you and takes u along. I guess it all depends on the kind of movie watcher that u r. If u resist being 'gripped' by the movie I do admit it wont. But u you do fall in voluntarily then this movie (or infact ne other of this kind) fills u with emotions at everystage and atleast I consider it worth my money and time. I loved the unique concept and the excellent way it had been portrayed.
Everytime I try to make someone else see my POV...I fail miserably and become the butt of all jokes abt being the arti-farti kind. :(

So being such a weird ass lover of weird ass movies I was waay too excited about 'The Village'. Maybe I am too much of an MNS fan...maybe I think too much...but the same thing happened. My friends thought it was ok...and were shocked when I came out beaming with joy and pleasure and shouting "shit shit...that was something :)"...so I thought...what did i like so much about the movie...
--The Direction...if uve seen the movie,u know that u can tell someone else the story in one line.."Its about this group of people who..blah blah blah"...BUT it bloody goes on for more than 2 hrs without u realizing that the end had come. Absolutely Grippin! MNS has too much talent!
--The acting was reasonably good...every did a good job!
--I fell in love with the character of Bryce Howard (the blind girl) :( She was waaay too amazing ... Bryce portrayed her character very well and she looked so captivating...If I were to meet such a person in real life I wud get married to her for sure! Some scenes were too moving...like when when she finds Joaquin Phoenix stabbed. Have to admit I had to fight back tears!!! ...also when she holds her hand out amidst the commotion in the wedding ceremony and also when the creature comes and how both times Joaquin Phoenix grabs her and takes her to safety! I guess I am a hopeless romantic!

I have come to realize I delve too much into and think too much about a movie than the common movie-goer...good or bad I dont know! That is only way I feel one shud watch a movie. Maybe I am in denial...maybe I am an arti-farti ass...that wud be interesting ;)