Funny people can be serious too!!!

This video is hilariously funny, but what got me going was the advice given  by John C. Reily to both Jack black & Will Ferrell. Reily has always been an actor who has mixed things up, with movies like "Boogie Nights", " We need to talk about Kevin", "Carnage", etc along with most of his hilariously funny movies. But there are some other actors who do more work in a particular genre with very few or no movie in a different genre. This post is dedicated to actors who have done more movies in humor/comedy genre & are known for that. Most of the actors mentioned have come through either stand up comic acts or television performances in comic roles.

I have loved watching Rahul Dravid hit out at 20-20, or seeing Brain Lara try to defend out of a bad situation, or reading a humorless philosophical book by Scott Adams, etc. On the similar lines when actors who are known for their comic timing or slapstick & goofy movies, act in serious movies & kick-ass while they are at it, it just increase the amazing-ness of the viewing experience. Now all those movies may not be completely devoid of humor, but the role which these actor would play would be different from the characters they usually perform & hence much more challenging. And there are quite a few actors who have done this with ease & came out with flying colors as far as the end result is concerned.

One of the examples would Jack Black playing lead role in "Bernie", would not consider his small role in "Enemy of the states" here & would also not talk about the "King-kong" because its a shitty movie (its beyond me that the movie has a 7+ rating on IMDB). Rather his character in the movie 'Bernie' is what I would consider as an example of getting out of comfort zone. Movie revolves around the lead character Bernie, played by Jack Black, who is the Assistant Funeral Director (mortician) & a do-gooder with a multifaceted personality. He is someone who is involved in all the social activities of the town & everyone loves him. The real life based plot revolves around a rich widow who everyone in the town hates but bernie shows her sympathy. This leads to a point where the widow starts to take advantage of goodness shown by bernie & make his life hell. What measure bernie takes to get his life back on track is the main point of the movie around which the plot revolves. Though the movie has plenty of humor, but since it is based on a real life character JB had to give a much restrained performance, compared to his usual quirky roles filled with buffoonery, which I will be honest to accept is fun to watch. Have been a fan since watching "School of Rock" long back but it is movies like "Bernie" which shows viewers a versatile side of Jack black.

Another example would be Adam Sandler & his role in "Funny people". Now adam sandler is someone who strictly follow the rule of doing spoofy, slapstick comedies many of which I have enjoyed but at times his movies are a little too much to take. But once in a while he does a movie like "Funny People", okie I will change that to once in his lifetime he does a movie which makes you realise his potential as an actor. 'Funny People' has adam sandler in lead role supported by Seth rogen, who is another actor with great comic timing. The movie is about a Comic genius, portrayed by Adam Sandler, who comes to know that he is suffering from an acute version of Leukemia, starts to get insecure & realizes what his life lacks. From being a succesful movie actor, he decides to get back to his roots i.e. Stand up comedy & tries to get in touch with his ex-fiancee to apologies for his mistakes in the past. Its a beautiful movie with awesome performances from Seth rogen, Jonah Hill, Leslie Mann & other supporting cast, but Adam sandler takes the cake by giving a amazing performance as a star who knows that he his dying & is insecure about his existence. Another good watch with Adam Sandler in serious role is "Reign over me", where he plays a bereaved father & husband who lost his family in 9/11 twin tower attack. In this movie also Sandler rocks with his portrayal of a guy who does not want to accept the reality & ends up distancing himself from the world, movie also stars Jamie Foxx but Adam Sandler is the one in the limelight throughout.

Steve Carell is another actor who I find to be insanely funny, movies like "Dinner with shmucks" notwithstanding. He keeps trying out different types of roles, but in serious domain the right examples would be movies like "Dan in real life" & "Seeking a friend for the end of the world". Now both the movies are really nice & they work due to honest performance from Steve Carell. Even though "Dan in real life" is a light drama with shade of comedy, SAFFEOTW is more of a serious romantic movie with an apocalyptic plot. I liked later more as the story is better, performance from steve carell is awesome & some help from Keira Knightley in terms of her brilliant acting didn't hurt. Carell portrays a romantic guy who has received a bit of a raw deal when in face of an certain apocalyptic event his wife just leaves him & run away. How he tries & gather his life back & find his 'true love' is what this movie is all about.

Jim Carrey, the god of all over the top comedies & in your face humor, has done some superlative comedy & some movies which are so goofy that you just cannot tolerate them. He is someone who would have covered the entire spectrum in the comedy movies, right from pure-slapstick movies like "Dumb & Dumber" & the ace ventura series to awesomely funny movies like "Liar Liar", "Me, Myself & Irene", etc. But he cracked it with movies like "Truman Show", "Yes man" & "I Love you phillip morris", where he plays a not so goofy character & the movies are really more of drama rather than a full fledged comedy. And the performances are just amazing in all these movies & they would, according to me, amongst some of the best work from Jim Carrey. But the movies which takes away the cake would be "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" & "The number 23", it does sound amazing that Jim carrey has done a serious Sci-fi & a thriller in his career. Will not talk much about "Eternal..." because everyone would have seen it. "The number 23" is the movie which is showcases the amount of versatility which this legendary actor has. The movie revolves around the character played by Jim carrey who is gifted a book by his wife, which talks about significance of number 23 & has loads of similarity with his own life. He becomes obsessed with number 23 & tries to find the author. In the process he also comes across a murder mystery which he tries to solve. Now the movie would have been a decent one if not for Jim Carrey giving an excellent performance, making it a great movie to watch. 

Lastly, would like to mention Will Ferrell, who is insanely funny. I have lost count of the movies I have seen of him, but there is one movie which I love the most where Ferrell gives a serious performance in a role which has many shades & undertones, i.e. "Everything must go". He plays an alcoholic sales person, who loses his job & wife on the same day. He tries a lot to not let go of things, but harder he tries quicker they move away from him. He is getting sued by an associate & he is locked outside his house with his stuff thrown on the lawn. Finally the plot takes a turn for good when he decides to let everything go, as he plans a garage sale with the help of a local boy who he teaches the nuances of sales & life. There are couple of other interesting characters who delivers with their performances, making this an extremely enjoyable watch. Will ferrell delivers an amazing performance in a script backed role, where he tries something new & comes out kicking-ass. It is a highly recommended movie for everyone, irrespective of whether or not someone like Will Ferrell.

Walking through city of joy - 3

We struck gold on the third attempt. Our bad run hadn't deterred us from continuing on our journey & our patience paid off :)

We decided to stick to central kolkata for the day, starting from mission row & moving towards dalhousie & then ending at park street. It was a cold day & street were empty, as it is an official area & Sundays even most of the tea shops & eateries remain closed.

At the beginning we came across the first Chinese eatery of kolkata "Eau Chew Restaurant", if anything the picture did prove that, it did look old. We wanted to have food here, but it was closed. We went to mission cafe for their much famed Special chai, after waiting a decent bit what we got was not worth the wait. But just outside that an elderly man was sharpening knives, we started clicking his picture, he was happy with the attention. On requesting, he increased the sparks so that we can capture the same nicely.



Man who played with sparks :)



Old Buildings- We started moving towards Dalhousie, now I have been to the place a zillion times but never have I paid attention to buildings, their architecture, the windows, facade, etc as there is a very good reason for that. This is one of the most densely populated areas in the city during office hours. Its a hub for government offices to trading shops, from brokerage houses to electrical market & it is also a destination for many official/business centers. But on holidays/weekend the place is almost deserted, as found by us on a Sunday.

We came across a very interesting piece of construction, it was the official building for "Standard Life Assurance Company", the facade of the building had angels of death on it. Entire building was tastefully done, it looked nice even though there hasn't been much maintenance for it since Britishers left the country.

We also came across "Calcutta metropolitan water & sanitation authority" office, which was so dirty, spiders have been building cobwebs since ages, layer of dirt was so thick that actual color of the building was difficult to determine.

Waiting for the day's catch

Leisure activity- We saw quite a few groups fishing on the edge of the lake, on enquiring they said that every Sunday they would come in groups, they would bring their own cooking equipments & cook their catch there itself & enjoy with friends. After setting the lines, they would play cards with friends & drink local alcohol. It was pretty cold, so they also light fire so as to sit comfortably. The entire set-up was just awesome & made us want to spend some time with them, but then there were more things to be seen, hence we moved on.

We also encountered some other unlikely sights, like kids playing football on the busiest street of Calcutta, almost non-existent traffic, cops being fine with us standing on the middle of the road to click pictures, etc.



Malai toast & me!!



Malai Toast & tea-After completing a full circle of the area, we stopped for much needed tea-break, just that tea wasn't the main reason for the break. There is this place near tea-board where you get heavenly "Malai-toast" & a decent tea to go along with it. Even on Sunday the place was thronged with people coming in with families & one would find all kind of expensive cars waiting there for their owners to dig into awesome malai toast.

Cathedral- It was close to Christmas & cathedral was fully decked with lights, statues & stuff. It was all extremely beautiful, decorations were top notch & there were spaces which were trying to tell different stories related to different life stages of Jesus Christ.
It was looking even better inside, making me think how come I have not visited the place before.

Beth el synagogue

Synagogue- Post the church it was time for us to to explore, the only two Synagogues in Calcutta, Maghen david Synagogue & Beth El Synagogue. Even though it takes some approvals to get inside both of them, we decided we would take a view from outside. If it would look good, we would take the necessary approvals for our next walk. And we were impressed from what we saw from outside. Both the buildings had that deserted look, but they were beautiful nonetheless. Great structure, covering decent areas they were both looking nice from outside, hence we left with promises of coming back.



 Fire & Camera-Shy Chacha- When the mercury drop people find ways of making themselves comfortable, one of the simplest ways is to burn stuff so as to get a fire going. And these are great place to socialize, with no barriers all kind of people can come here get some much needed warmth & then get on with their life. Since it was a holiday & nobody had to be anywhere, it was almost like a carnival around one of the fireplace. And without waiting for an invitation we also joined in. After some random chit-chat, they all happily agreed for a photo session, but one of the elderly person, affectionately called chacha by all there, was too shy & wasn't comfortable with the idea of people clicking him. But the crowd ensured that we got some nice clicks of the shy-chacha :)

New market

Nahoum Bakery & New market- We decided to see if we can get the necessary approvals for the visit to both the synagogue as the approver is the owner for one of the old & famous bakeries of Calcutta, Nahoum Bakery in new market. Now new market is generally a crowded place, but we found a Christmas special crowd making our life extremely difficult. But somehow we managed to reach the bakery & we were told that the person who handles the permission for visit was not there, leading it to be a fruitless trip. But still the feeling of it being close to Christmas caught onto us, as the atmosphere was full of festivities. While getting out of the place an old song was playing in the head " I feel it in my finger, I feel it in my toes", version used in 'Love Actually' :)

Park street in festive mood

It was late & hence we decided we would call it a day, not before going to park street & just seeing the entire street celebrating "Kolkata Christmas Festival" for a period of 10 days, where both Christmas & New year would be celebrated. Entire place was covered with lights, extra security arrangements, families coming to admire the decoration, light & sound shows, etc. It was a satisfying day & we were looking forward to the next installment.