Audrey Tautou rose to fame with her charming performance in Amelie which won the Best Foreign Film in 2000. I have always found her to be a charming, compelling actor and this comes through clearly in He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, a quaint romantic film set in the beautiful town of Bordeaux.

Audrey plays an upcoming artist called Angelique who is in love with a doctor who is already married. On the face of it, a rather single- dimension storyline, until director Laetitia Colombani takes a U-turn and moves the film into a different gear.

That’s when you realise that Tautou’s perspectives on her relationship are entirely her own. Films like these make for smart cinema for me. They cause disruption in the audience’s mind and leave an indelible impression. A fine film to watch. One of those rare gems that start off being a romantic film and end up being a pulsating thriller. Interestingly, the under-30 Laetitia wrote the script for this film as part of her film school thesis. You’ll love it. You’ll hate it not.

Steve Jobs once said that “if you live each day of your life as it were your last, someday, it may come true”. All of us are so caught up with our silly lives that we forget that life is what happens to you while you are busy making clients calls.

Eugene ’Kelley was the CEO of the accounting behemoth, KPMG. He led life in the fast lane. Jumped in and out of planes. Rarely managed to meet his wife. Then suddenly at 53, he was diagnosed with brain cancer and was told that he had just about three months to live.

Ironic, but Eugene began to live the moment he heard he was about to die. So he stitched up the loose ends: connecting with family, conversations with friends. The little things that all of us brush under the carpet. His staggering book, Chasing Daylight is a masterpiece. It is all about creating “perfect moments” in one’s life. It’s about adding soul into each relationship. Go out and get your copy of this book and then try and create your perfect moments. Once one reads this book one realises that one’s days may be full but one’s life is rather empty.

Andrea Bocelli’s Under the Desert Sky has been described as his first live “pop concert”. I think that’s a tad uncharitable for a man blessed with a voice that perhaps God would have had. In this album, which incidentally, comes with a freebie DVD, Bocelli excels both individually as well in collaboration.

The album kicks off with an ethereal rendition of Besame Mucho. Cant Help Falling in Love with Katherine McPhee is soul- stirring. Canzoni Stonate with Stevie Wonder is nice. Cuando Me Ennamoro has a lovely lilt to it. Indeed, each of the numbers on this album is magical. It is yet another triumph by unarguably the greatest voice on this planet. Five thumbs up, if one had them.

Photographs by Jagan Negi