'Che' Guevara

Che Guevera (more on him here) was the foremost revolutionary of the 20th century, who lived and died by his ideals. His picture, with his flowing beard is the most reproduced picture in the world, appearing on t-shirts, posters and wherever free spirit is celebrated and respected. Well, I have liked and admired Che now for a long time. So, it was with great anticipation i approached two subjects in the recent days - one, a biography of Che by Jorge G. Castaneda (Amazon link here)and two, the movie "Motorcycle Diaries" based on Che's bike trip when he was 24 years old (IMDB link here). The book is good, and readable, especially if you are young and fired up with revolutionary ideas. Just one word of caution. There are many biographies of Che, and I am sure this is not the best one. The writer, who is an accomplished academician, tends to go off on tangents and at the heart of the matter; he is not a good story-teller, which is what one has to be when writing a biography as opposed to research thesis. Motorcycle Diaries on the other hand is a must watch, even if one lives and swears by capitalist ideals. The movie sets out to unravel the formative stages of Che, and to uncover the making of the legend. The movie is all about youth, about exploring your native land before setting off to foreign soils (maybe a subtle lesson for the Indian IT pros here) and most of all, the story is summed up in its tagline - Let the world change you... and you can change the world So mark this movie in you "To be watched" list, I am sure you will enjoy it more in a DVD with all those nice extra features, as much as I did.