Quote
"I cannot live without books: but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object." -- Thomas Jefferson
Bollywood Movie Review
Fanaa
In Fanaa, Kajol returns to the screen playing Zooni, a young blind girl on her first venture away from her home in Kashmir. In the story, Zooni’s blindness illustrates that sometimes we see things with our hearts but are blind to dangers and deceit.
Zooni travels with a troupe of dancers to Delhi to perform in the Independence Day celebrations. Several days of tours of the historic sites in Delhi are included in the trip. The group has arranged for a bus and guide. The guide is an attractive rogue, Rehan, played by Aamir Khan. Rehan is both charming and cruel. He admits he only wants to satisfy his own desires and does not believe in love as he flirts with the girls.
A Bollywood movie does not cut to the chase as quickly as a Hollywood movie. At the heart of many Bollywood movies are human relationships and family values. Various aspects of the characters and subplots are given time to develop before the central conflict unfolds.
In Fanaa, the cinematography is stunning. Delhi is shown in a rainbow of colors, shining and majestic. Kashmir is pictured like a winter wonderland with endless vistas of beautiful snow capped mountains. The camera captures the silence and wonder of snow.
While one musical interlude is choreographed with a large number of dancers, director, Kunal Kohli lets the rest of the music simply touch the characters as the story moves forward which I think represents Indians’ love of music and poetry as part of their daily lives.
After intermission, the movie changes from a story about love to one about suspense. India’s counter-terrorism organization is tracking a group that has bombed various cultural and political sites over the years. Tabu, the organization’s profiler, works to build a psychological picture of the terrorist group’s mastermind in order to capture the mastermind before the group’s final plan is carried out. The group’s premise is if they are sufficiently armed and perceived as a threat of massive proportion then they could affect the balance of power and achieve independence for Kashmir.
Zooni is a meaty role for Kajol. As a young blind girl, Zooni is gentle, loving and hopeful. Later, Zooni is a single mother. She is older, wiser, and fiercely protective of her family. Aamir Khan’s character, Rehan, is a man torn between loyalties. At first, he is seen as a self-centered charmer who preys on young women. He has cut himself off from his emotions. Then he falls in love with Zooni and battles his emotions in a struggle over his loyalties. Is he loyal to his love for Zooni, or is he loyal to his former life? Khan’s character believes that loyalty to a belief carries more weight than loyalty to love, even familial love.
(image source: http://blog.chosun.com/web_file/blog/25/25/1/Fanaa.jpg)
In Aamir Khan’s previous movies such as Laagan, Mangal Pandey, Rang de Basanti, and now Fanaa, he seems to be selecting stories that portray a gritty realism. He does not want to be the lover; he wants to be a man of action. When Aamir must play the lover, he does so reluctantly. He wants to be unaffected by emotion, and loyal to his vision. But loyalty is a strong emotion. Khan wants to play to a male audience who feels it is manlier to be pragmatic than to a female audience who feels love is central to life. Yet, when his character, Rehan, must choose love or loyalty, the war between his competing desires plays across his face.
Zooni’s struggle is not choosing between two loyalties, for her, love is part of life, just as is loyalty. She thought love could heal and love could make a prince out of a ruffian. Her struggle is in loving a flawed human being and learning that loyalty can be shattered by deceit.
Director: Kunal Kohli; Producers: Yash and Aditya Chopra; Cast: Kajol, Aamir Khan, Tabu, Rishi Kapoor, Kiron Kher
A lot of changes are coming to the RiaStoneBlog.
More interviews with authors and artists.
Bollywood Movie Reviews
and more....
Update 2/11/2020
I added a choice, garlic or anchovy butter.
At times, I get lost in recipe research. I enjoy looking for cookbooks online, in particular, old ones.
I use Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive, often.
Found this little gem, The Cook-Book of Left-Overs, on the Internet Archive.
I was amused to find several Toast Topping recipes in this 1911 cookbook.
While this is a similar recipe to other Sardine on Toast recipes I have blogged about, in this recipe I used a different brand of sardines, Yavaros. The sardines are larger and in a tomato sauce. Surprisingly, the sardines were meaty and less fishy than the smaller tins of sardines, I use.
I could not remove the sardines whole, they fell apart. I made several adjustments to this wee recipe. For example, the original recipe called for broiling the sardines. I choose to use a skillet and simmer the sardine in a garlic butter base.
Hotplate: Simmered Sardine on Toast
(Adapted from: the Cook Book of Left-Overs, Broiled Sardines on Toast, p101 [p95].)
Makes one serving or more.
Ingredients:
1 Tin of large sardines, drained
1 TBspn of garlic or anchovy butter
A bit of water
Ground black pepper, to taste (Optional)
Lime juice
1 Slice of multi-grain bread
A dab of olive oil
Garnish: Parsley, dry, crushed between palms
Process:
In a skillet, add garlic or anchovy butter.
Cook on medium heat.
Add 1 or more sardines (save any remaining sardines for later use.)
Mix the sardine with the butter as it melts.
Add a bit of water.
Add black pepper.
Stir mixture.
Cover the skillet.
Simmer mixture several minutes to heat thoroughly.
Make toast.
Add a bit of olive oil to toast.
Spread sardine mixture over toast.
Top with parsley.
Sprinkle a little lime juice over the topping.
Ok, here’s how it often goes with me. I wanted a pasta recipe that used anchovies. I found this recipe (Broccoli Rabe (Rapini) and Pasta with White Bean and Anchovy Sauce) on Recipeland and thought I’d use it as a guide. I wanted to make a singe serving among other things.
I made a small bag of ribbon pasta. I’ll use the rest of the pasta elsewhere.
The recipe called for Broccoli Rabe. I assumed it was a type of greens. Because I did not have Rabe, I used spinach.
Recently, I had made a small batch of anchovy butter, so I used about a 1/3 of a cup of the anchovy butter.
I made a cup of vegetable stock with a vegetable bouillon cube and a cup of water. I only used about 1/3 a cup of the stock, I'll use the rest of the stock elsewhere.
Beans are plentiful here but there are not many choices of white beans are available. I had made a small batch of white beans previously and wanted to use them.
Because I had made several changes to the original recipe, I wasn’t sure it would turn out. One bite told me, it came out great.
I thank Jack Monroe for introducing me to the varied uses of anchovies.
Normally, when I use garlic powder, I have no ill effects i.e. acid reflux, but because I made several recipes with garlic powder, lately, my system was overwhelmed. So, now, I will reduce the garlic powder to a hint to none.
Pasta, White Beans, Spinach With an Anchovy Sauce
(Adapted from: Recipeland, Broccoli Rabe (Rapini) and Pasta with White Bean and Anchovy Sauce)
Makes a 1 bowl serving.
Pre-Preparations:
Make Anchovy butter:
Drain 1 tin of anchovies.
Add anchovies to a container with a lid.
Add 1/2 Cup butter.
Mix and smash the butter and anchovies until they are thoroughly combined and the anchovies are in tiny pieces.
Hold off on adding spices. Add them later when using the mixture as anchovy butter.
Make Vegetable Stock:
Add 1 vegetable bouillon cube to a cup of water.
Microwave on high for 2 minutes.
Remove and stir until the bouillon cube has dissolved.
Ingredients:
1 Small bag of pasta
1 dab of vegetable oil
1/3 Cup of Anchovy butter
1/3 cup of vegetable stock
2 Heaping TBspns of canned (rinsed in the can) or cooked white beans (any type)
1 Small dessert bowl of frozen spinach
a hint of garlic powder
Ground black pepper to taste
Garnish: Parmasan cheese
Process:
Pasta
In a medium pan, add enough water to cover the pasta.
Add a dab of oil.
Add pasta and cook according to package directions.
When pasta is done, drain and set aside.
Anchovy, Spinach and White Bean Sauce
Add anchovy butter to a small skillet.
Simmer and stir until anchovies have “melted.”
Add vegetable stock.
Add beans.
Add spinach.
Add garlic powder.
Add ground black pepper.
Stir to mix ingredients.
Simmer for 5 minutes.
Check and stir occasionally.
Use a spoon to mash the beans.
Simmer until beans are so soft they are easy to mash.
Continue to simmer. You want the mixture creamy and hot throughout.
To serve:
Fill a bowl about 2/3 full of cooked pasta.
Add the sauce.
Stir ingredients to mix them thoroughly.
Add garnish.
#GERD-friendly
Spruce Eats has become another of favorite go to recipe site.
For the present, the website is not full of popup boxes or moving videos which I like.
Lots of good info, written in an easy to understand manner.
Recipes include both fancy and simple recipes.
I always love a recipe website that offers tips.
For some reason, I was swimming in anchovy and sardine recipes and ended up on Spruce Eats and making garlic butter and anchovy butter for other recipes.
I know, I know, it's a simple recipe. But, it's all the other tips that make it fun.
Garlic Butter
(Adapted from: How to Make Simple Garlic Butter With Variations)
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Butter
1 Tspn Garlic Powder
Process:
Add butter to a container with a lid.
Add garlic powder.
Use a spoon to mix the ingredients thoroughly.
#GERD-friendly
Quick Post:
One of the takeaways from The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn is pay attention to the pennies, they add up.
Inflation is happening all the time and everywhere.
As an example, these are recent changes in size and price of four rolls of toilet paper:
Date / Price / Number of Sheets:
10/2019 24.53 / 350
5/2019 24.50 / 400
Note: It is a common practice for manufacturers to change the size / volume of products and to keep the price the same or to increase price.
You can take this dressed up Can of Cream of Portobello Mushroom soup anywhere.
Thanks to Jack Monroe (https://cookingonabootstrap.com/), I’ve made another great soup.
Sadly, I do not have a blender, so I used a can of Cream of Portobello mushroom soup instead of fresh mushrooms and also made other adjustments.
It turns out that Cream of Portobello mushroom soup is more of a broth whereas a different Cream of mushroom soup is creamy.
Also, I was pleasantly surprised, I had been saving a bit of leftover red wine in the frig for quite awhile. It was fine.
Hotplate/Microwave: Dressed Up Can of Portobello Mushroom Soup
(Adapted from A Girl Called Jack - Red Wine and Mushroom Soup p51)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cups water
1 Vegetable Bouillon cube
1/2-1 TBspns Onion powder
1/2 TBspn Garlic powder
1 15oz (420g) Can of cream of Portobello mushroom soup
2 oz (50ml) Leftover Red wine
1 Tspn Thyme, dry, crushed
Garnish: Thyme, dry, crushed
Process:
Add bouillon cube to water.
Microwave on high for 2 minutes.
Remove and stir until cube has dissolved.
Pour a small amount of the vegetable stock into a medium pan.
Add garlic and onion powders.
Stir.
With the liquid, the powders will become a paste.
Simmer for 1-2 minutes.
Add mushroom soup.
Stir and mix ingredients.
Add the rest of the stock.
Stir.
Add wine.
Stir.
Add thyme, crush between palms over liquid.
Stir.
Bring to a boil.
Stir.
Simmer 3-5 minutes to get soup thoroughly hot.
Add garnish when serving.
#GERD-friendly
