Moommmy...

Senyum hilai tawa tak pernah lekang daripada bibir manisnya. Walau apa jua masalah, dia duduk tenang bersimpuh memohon petunjuk dari Tuhan yang Esa, Pencipta segala apa yang ada di dunia dan semesta. Setiap bait yang terpancul daripada lidahnya merupakan kata-kalimat indah puitis yang mampu melehkan jiwa yang panas membara. Cukup satu kata, yang mendengar terhipnotis seketika tak terkata apa.

Senyumnya yang menyegarkan tak berarti jiwanya tenang senantiasa. Banyak perkara yang difikirkan dalam suatu ketika. Terkadang ada saja yang tak kena di matanya, tapi dia diam pendam saja. Mencari dalam senyap kelam jalan penyelesaiannya. Dalam diam semua siap.

Temannya ramai-ke mana saja dia berjalan-ada saja yang mengenali sosok tubuh munggil itu. Keramahan membuatkan yang lain turut merasa tenang dan aman dalam pelukan hangatnya. Logika pemikirannya terkadang membuatkannya tampak lebih matang daripada usia.

Di matanya tercermin kan rindu. Di matanya adalah kenyataan. Dan aku tenggelam dalam lautan kasih sayangmu. Tak mungkin akan ku lepaskan ikatan ini.

Syukur ku kepadaNya dikurniakan Mama seperti dia. Tutur katanya yang berselirat - dalam arti maksudnya - membuatkan hati yang melihat terasa hilang beban dipundak - pabila diungkap sarikatanya. Ringkas saja kalimatnya – namun penuh dengan restu berkah kasih sayang daripada Sang Ibu – doa senantiasa dipanjat kebahagiaan perimeternya menjadi keutamaan.

Hari ini ulang tahun kelahiran Mama. Maafkan Abang tak dapat di samping Mama hari ini. Menyambut mengenang hari-hari bahagia kita bersama. Atau meraikan detik-detik akhir kita berdua. Hanya Dia yang tahu masa hayat detik kita.

Mungkin ketika ini Abang sedang bergembira bersama teman-teman, atau mungkin abang sedang terlena panjang diulit mimpi indah kiriman Tuhan - maqbulan panjatan harapan Mama. Atau mungkin dalam perjalanan yang panjang yang kelam destinasinya. Tapi hakikatnya tetap cuma satu – Abang tetap sayang cintakan Mama seperti dulu – mungkin lebih kuat lagi ikatan maksud kalimat itu daripada dulu.

Setiap kata yang terucap Mama. Setiap nada yang Mama cipta. Satu pun tak terpisah. Seribu tahun takkan mungkin bisa menghuraikan sebuah Cinta yang Mama beri. Untuk diriku yang pilu.

Terima kasih untuk semua keindahnya. Wajah yang tak pernah berartikan keputusasaaan – kekecewaan – kesedihan - tapi warna warni pelangi semata. Abang tak tahu daricelahmana datangnya semua kekuatan maha hebat itu – tapi berharap di hati kecil ini untuk memilikinya menjadi segagah Mama satu hari nanti.
SRi: Moga mendung hitam semalam cumalah semalam

Dayus Israel!!

1. Jika Anda pernah belajar Humanitarian Law sewaktu sekolah dulu mesti Anda tahu siapa yang boleh diserang dan siapa yang teramat sangat TAK boleh diserang.

2. Pendek kata- jika masih ingat peristiwa Perang Pembukaan Kota Mekkah - Perang terakhir Baginda SAW - itulah aturan yang diterapkan dalam Humanitarian Law - hanya cuma insan yang benar-benar menyerang konvoy ketenteraan sahaja yang boleh diperangi-yang lain-yang tidak berniat apatah lagi rakyat jelata yang tidak bermaya - jangankan darah mereka menyembah bumi-dihunuskan jelingan mata tajam amarah pun tidak diperbolehkan.

3. Israel tak pernah menghormati aturan ini. Dan yang terbaru konvoy bantuan kemanusiaan ke Gaza pula yang diserang. Kapal-kapal konvoy ini penuh bertempelkan mesej keamanan - menunjukkan yang hadir cuma rakyat biasa - membawa bantuan perubatan dan makanan. Bahkan konvoy ini telah diperiksa dengan ketat oleh sebelum berlepas menjamah laut 

p/s: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, says the flotilla was carefully inspected before departure:

"I want to say to the world, to the heads of state and the governments, that these boats that left from Turkey and other countries were checked in a strict way under the framework of the rules of international navigation and were only loaded with humanitarian aid."

"There was no one on board "other than civilian volunteers" he said.

4. Mereka diserang oleh komando Israel - atas laut antarabangsa 65km daripada pantai Palestin - dengan alasan mereka membawa senjata tajam dan berkaitan dengan teroris [Al-Qaeda]. Hebat sungguh benda tajam itu sampai mampu menyebabkan serangan yang menghasilkan 19 terkorban manakala 26 lagi cedera. Dan jumlah ini mungkin lebih jauh sediki daripada jumlah asalnya.

p/s:Terdapat beberapa rakyat Israel, dua ahli parlimen Israel turut serta dalam konvoy. Dan teramat sangat tak logik sangatah jika mereka-mereka ini pun dituduh termasuk dalam komplot teroris juga.

5. Adalah sangat pengecut tidak logik norma manusia-Israel yang sangat gah dengan senjata-senjata pemusnahnya - sangat terancam pisau yang dibawa mereka. Sungguh - Israel adalah satu kelompok negara bangsa yang sangat pengecut terencat akalnya.

6. Zaman Jahiliyyah pun jauh lebih bertamadun daripada mereka.

7. Semoga anak-anak tempatan-wakil media negara-yang menaiki kapal Turki-'Mavi Marmara'- dan semua serta bantuannya-selamat sahaja alhamdulillah. Dengar khabar-tentera Turki pun sudah dalam perjalanan ke sana. Apakah hanya negara yang satu ini sahaja yang berani untuk menghadapi memerangi laknatullah ni?

8.  Rasanya kita yang masih belum memboikot - banyak mengunakan produk yang sah-sah menyumbang kepada Israel - turut wajib rasa bersalah dengan apa yang terjadi hari ini.

SRi: What kind of world are we living in when it allows a rogue state to use violence and killings against unarmed people on a mission of charity. Really ruined my happy day!*urgh!!!!*

KiTES

At the movies, those hungry for the quantity side of that equation should consider seeing Kites, a film that can honestly bill itself as having absolutely everything: Romance, fantastic action, singing, dancing, vengeance, car chases, intrigue, betrayal, poverty, fabulous wealth, destiny, immigration and bank robbery. And dance contests. And bikers. And subtitles. There’s so much going on in Kites that one lifetime isn’t nearly enough to cover it — the movie has to go into the afterlife to wrap it all up.

Kites is, essentially, a love story. With exploding cars. The movie stars Hrithik Roshan as Jay, a street-wise dance instructor living in Las Vegas. Jay narrates his own story at the start, talking about how he gambled and lost at many things in life. Then one of his dance students falls in love with him. Gina [Kangana Ranaut] is a beautiful young woman and obsessed with Jay. At first, he’s not interested, but the discovery that Gina is fabulously rich gets Jay’s attention. He begins a calculated courtship.

Jay and Natasha are star-crossed lovers, torn between their passion for each other and the marriages that will bring them the wealth they desire. Sorting it all out takes a very long time, some near-death experiences, a police chase, hot air balloons and singing and dancing in the pouring rain.

You can only sit there in the dark and marvel at the thing.

Kites has pockets of lovely comedy and deep troughs of lugubrious tragedy and a lot of dialogue like this: “Tony has power and money, but we have love!!!”

And it’s all presented in visually extravagant and emotionally operatic style. That’s typical of the hyperbolic Bollywood approach, which in many respects mimics the attitude of silent movies from a century ago rather than contemporary western cinematic practice. Audiences not habituated to it are likely to find “Kites” a weird fusion of romantic excess, overwrought violence and crudely-staged action, all played to the rafters, filmed in garish colors and accompanied by a bombastic background score. [The “tragic” ending goes so completely off the rails that it’s positively risible.]

The movie does, to be sure, showcase two photogenic stars in Roshan and Mori, but neither emerges very positively, not only because their physical attractiveness doesn’t entirely compensate for the greedy, grasping characters they’re playing, but because they overemote so strenuously. Still, the supporting cast go even further overboard, with the first prize for scenery-chewing undoubtedly going to Brown, who offers a combination of sleaziness and overripe menace that must be seen to be disbelieved.

As a conclusion, now, you reimagine all these doomed romantics on the same plate, add a dollop of Showgirls, a side of Dirty Dancing, a Scarface chaser and many, many, many Dukes of Hazzard car chases, and you have Kites, a Bollywood musical/gangster/melodrama romance in Hindi, Spanish and English.

Preposterous? Oh, yeah. Preposterously entertaining? You bet cha!daaa~

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

I know I was at the movie... Was I kidnapped by aliens who left me with one of Fox Mulder’s missing-time blanks in my head? That would be kinda cool. That must be why I can’t remember a damn thing about whatever movie it was. But wait... I have the ticket stub. Ah, yes! It was Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

I saw Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time? Why can’t I remember anything about it?

...

Something’s coming back... Oh, yeah: Jake Gyllenhaal. He’s cute. He’s really cute. [erg.so gay] But how could he be a Persian prince? That’s just silly. And why did he -- yes, yes, this I remember -- why did he have an English accent? He’s not English. Ancient Persians didn’t speak English. Jake’s accent is surprisingly good, in fact. Could I have been so blinded by Jake’s supercuteness and the fact that his accent actually pushed my Anglophile button -- instead of making me groan in sympathetic embarrassment for him -- which I blanked on the rest of the movie?

No, that can’t be. He’s not that cute.

Wait: I took notes...

Oh, right! Now I’m remembering. Not that there’s much to remember. Generic Videogame Action Movie, Exotic Ethnic Locale Type. It’s about a dagger, sand, time, brothers, snakes, blah, blah, blah. And the characters are merely archetypes: Prince, Princess, King, Brothers, Villain, Comic Relief. Not exactly offensive, as such, just sort of rote and tired before it even gets started. Hard to write about, in fact, because there’s hardly to be there.

For a while, as I sat there being bored out of my skull, I tried to find a videogame angle to latch on to for my review: You know, “In the Valley of the Slaves level, watch out for thrown knives” and “During the Hassansin attack at the Sanctuary, don’t stop to kiss the Princess unless you want to get killed.” That got old really fast, and stopped being fun about half an hour in. [But, seriously, though: If you play the game in Banter Mode, trade quips with the Princess will build up your Parkour Power. Then try hit the B button while jumping to get extra power in your leaps.] *game review said* 

None of the characters ever connect with the audience. I’m tempted to say that the film is like Pirates of the Caribbean with no Jack Sparrow but that actually sounds more entertaining than this mess. So, bring a joystick to this big budget adventure. It’ll give your hands something to do when you’re restless.

Back-Up Plan - to - see another movie

J-Lo is back after a four-year screen absence. On the evidence of The Back-up Plan  she needs another sabbatical. As witty as Gigli, as Shakespearean as The Wedding Planner, this limp rom-com bumps from one piece of comic furniture to another.

When the heroine’s test-tube pregnancy collides with her belated discovery of Mr Right [Alex O’Laughlin], conflict and hilarity ensue in subatomic quantities. The worst moment is a scene of new-age underwater birth, the moviemakers eager to midwife mirth but causing it to miscarry on every count. 

Just say cheese: Jennifer Lopez and Alex O'Loughlin fail to sizzle in The Back-up Plan

When a woman's waters break, she would head straight for the hospital right?! But no, J-Lo stops off at a farmer's market to play yet another interminable, tearful love scene with Stan, who's just broken up with her again. It turns out that, while they've been apart, he's named a cheese after her. It's the one sensible thing he does. Romantic comedies don't come cheesier than this. *blwek*

 Lopez's star baggage combined with her bland, inexpressive face does her no favours, while a cardboard cut-out with a tape-recorder glued to the back would've made a better fist of things than O'Loughlin.

This is his first leading-man role and, with any luck, it may be his last.

SRi:Next Station-Lagenda Budak Setan!

The Bounty Hunter

Before we begin our reviews, allow me a mini-rant. Too many movies these days have crappy dialogue, bad photography and stories that have little connection to the way real people act and talk. In addition, product placement is so up front, it can overwhelm whatever story has been cobbled together from spare parts stolen from the other cookie-cutter flicks that came before the latest “wait-for-the-video” extravaganza.

Yes, The Bounty Hunter falls smack dab into the middle of my rant. While damning with very faint praise, I will concede that it is better than Gerard Butler’s previous rom-com, last summer’s horrible The Ugly Truth. 

*It's becoming increasingly clear that Gerard Butler should probably stay as far away from the romcom genre as possible, as the actor has thus far shown a lamentable penchant for selecting material of an exceedingly [and disappointingly] run-of-the-mill nature.*

The Bounty Hunter is supposed to be a romantic comedy-action movie hybrid - Hepburn and Tracy in Midnight Run - but it fails all genre requirements. Aniston and Butler's bickering is tedious from the start and fuels neither romance nor comedy. And someone should tell director Andy Tennant that an action movie should contain more than a 60-second comic rooftop chase in the beginning, a 40-second car chase in the middle and a 10-second shootout at the end. The car chase is nicely edited, though, and doesn't use CGI. So for 40 seconds, The Bounty Hunter isn't that bad.

Nothing connects in "Bounty Hunter" because nothing is real. Butler is convincing enough as a bounty hunter - all he needs is the stubble and the convertible - but Aniston is dull and unbelievable as a hard-bitten reporter [the same job Mendes played in Hitch]. The script is more to blame than the actress, but Aniston's personality is too relaxed for screwball comedy.

The location photography in Queens and Atlantic City is a highlight that adds some color, but "The Bounty Hunter" is a dull, inert lump. The premise fails to become a story, the characters fail to become people and the script stalls far more often than it runs.

SRi: Seriously NO Megan Fox on Transformers 3??Its look like Ayesha Takia without.... *urgh!!*