Blessed Curse

Another one in the offing

2011-05-02T02:10:00.001+05:30

There is no provision of legal strike in India (unlike America;both being a democratic).

Supreme Court says, "the right to strike or right to declare lock out may be controlled or restricted by appropriate industrial legislation and the validity of such legislation would have to be tested not with reference to the criteria laid down in clause (4) of article 19 but by totally different considerations."

which in general term means "there is a guaranteed fundamental right to form association or Labour unions but there is no fundamental right to go on strike."

Air India is on strike. NDTV terms it 'From Maharaja to Royal Mess", after reading numerous articles spread, having heard the debates and having understood what I could decipher, I support the strike by Air India Employees.

A strike which has been called a 'blackmail'. Salary hike is not their prime concern (statement for those who are judgmental).

Expose of the mismanagement of State owned, largest and the oldest airline is on the cards. After 2G, CWG, Sukna land scam, Adarsh scam another one is on offing.

Captain Rishabh Kapoor (General Secretary of ICPA) could not have done it better. I support him.

P.S. If this is called a blackmail then Anna Hazare's strike was one too. (I am not demeaning Anna's call for justice a blackmail; Hello, it's a metaphor)

My Rants

2010-10-30T00:50:00.005+05:30

1) Arundhati made a fool of herself

So Arundhati is in a soup, a big soup; she might face arrest or might not. Whoa! And what a fool she made of herself. I feel there was no need for what she said, no matter if it directly conveyed what the people of Kashmir have been voicing amongst themselves and to the world (read India) for ages. That’s her defense; huh! Everyone has something to say about her speech. Guha is taking his revenge; Pagal Patrakar of Faking News is not behind too. But why I find her comments are unnecessary is because there is no need; there is no need to repeat. Who are you? A voice of Kashmir? Since when? You cite Shopian episode; that happened more than a year ago. Why not then? You cite recent stone throwing; what about ancient bomb throwing by our own Indian Army?

I liked her booker winning book. I still feel she rightly deserved the booker but that would not make me bias. This is what I have for her: You are sham Ms. Roy, a hypocrite of definitely the uppermost order and you must have been now in jail had you made the same speech in some other country. Democracy calls for freedom of speech but not for untimely of it. Go rot.

2) Abhishek Bachchan gets beatings (twice) within a week

Ad maker Prahlad Kakkar at recently held MAMI, Mumbai Film Festival took potshot at Small B; he said in as many words, “He has 17 flops to his name and still going strong, should enter Guinness Book of World Records.” Haha. That was not we all did not know but mentioning it at a film festival was quite something. Abhishek recapped the episode by stating Prahlad should instead be a standup comedian.

Prahlad did make a point there. Abhishek, Shahid, Sonam, Neil, Asin, Imran, Ranbir, they are all bad actors in my opinion. Yet, there they are; at top, making crores for nothing. What atypical did Kakkar speak. He quoted figures. 17 flops. I can quote gazillion similar figures wherein an aspiring actor gave one flop and he was written off just because he/she was noone’s someone. Take Randeep Hooda for instance.

Then the Bollywood’s maverick filmmaker Anurag Kashyap unleashed his venoms.I would not have known this had not my good blog friend Varun shared this article with me. I had missed it. But I guess Varun knows I am always ears for such gossips and controversies. To continue, in as many words Anurag Kashyap said, “if John is bad actor, so is Abhishek.” LMAO. Abhishek must have buried his head in the lap of Aishwarya hearing this. How could he be compared to John (despite Dostana between them)? “Who is John, I’m Big B’s Small B; how can they put me in same bracket with John, he doesn’t even have a B in his name? Boo Hoo, Why Aish Why?” he must have howled that in her already wet lap.

3) Dolly, Go Lightly

Dolly entered Bigg Boss and all hell broke loose. Target: All female contestants of the house. Shwetha – Butchered; Sara – Defeated. Come on Veena and Aanchal. Here I am. Who is Seema Parihar? She might have been the bandit outside I’m the one here.

However, though scripted it is few things can surely be not. Shwetha and Sara were like sugar-coated-acid from beginning. It was all there to see except for the boys of the house who are as dumb as Rakhi’s not-sub-conscious-mind. There comes Dolly and puts everything straight. Khali’s heart melts. Rahul Bhatt takes her side and voila you have two asli mard on your side what else you need. Take on the sissy’s one by one.

Hail Dolly and though I had objections to outside house hostility being discussed in the house, I know you are right; the reason people do not believe you is that your tone is high. It is generally presumed that people with high tone are often wrong but you are not. So, continue the good work (reduce the tone a bit please) and clean the house of scumbags and for hell’s sake my dolly, go lightly on them.

3 Salman Bhakts Aur Ek Jung

2010-09-13T15:48:00.006+05:30

Disclaimer: This is not a review of Dabangg. These are mere my remarks and observations on Salman Khan and Dabangg and a story before that.

Tom and Jerry of Blogosphere (Vimmuuu and Smita); now I don’t know who is Tom and who is Jerry. But that’s what they are. Anyways, to continue, Tom and Jerry of Blogosphere; Vimmuuu and Smita have often expressed their love, devotion and fondness of Salman Khan. I instead have been a silent fan. Until last year; Wanted happened and I was all over praising him and also criticizing others. London Dreams came and it was same story. I was all over. Despite flaws I enjoyed it. However, Veer disappointed me. Smita then said ‘it’s not that bad’ and Vimmuuu lovvved it. And by that comment the only point they wanted to make was that they are true Salman fan and a loyalist unlike me. Deep down we all knew how horrible Veer was. They will not accept it though; nope not even today.

So, the war started amongst us. And it took a bizarre and wacky turn before the release of Dabangg.

All happened over the text messages we exchanged. No talks, only SMS-es. Read on.

Smita: Are you guys watching Dabangg first day first show (FDFS)?

Vee: Of course, what silly question? And not just that. I am watching again in the afternoon and then on Saturday; 3 times in 2 days.

Vimmuuu: I won’t be able to catch FDFS. Probably will go for the evening show.

Smita: I am helpless. I cannot go (sad smiley). Lucky you Vee and Vimmuuu Poor you.
Vee is watching FDFS and the show after that and you call yourself Salman fan. Haha.

Vee: Is that right Vimmuuu? Buhahahaha. Poor you.

A day after that:

Vimmuuu: All work aside, I am watching 10 o Clock show. I am a fan and can’t let any stupid work symbolize that I am not the truest fan. Buhahaha to you too Vee.

Vee: I hope your alarm doesn’t go off. Your bike gets punctured and you break your knee while entering cinema hall.

Vimmuuu: I will still watch with broken knee. Nothing now will NOT make me see it FDFS.

A day after that

Vee: Let me see if there is a premiere show on Thursday. Muhahahaha.

Vimmuuu: As if that did not strike me. HeeHaw HeeHaw, I already checked.

There weren’t any Premiere show in Bangalore (Vee) or Chennai (Vimmuuu) and even if there was one in Mumbai (Smita), she anyways could not watch the movie as her baby is small. Poor she.

A Day before the release.

Vimmuuu: I am not watching the 10 o Clock show.

Vee (overjoyed): HeeHaw. HeeHaw. Poor you. My condolences.

Vimmuuu’s immediate reply: Instead, I am going for 9:30 Show. Bhaand me jaaye 300 Rs. I booked for 9:30 and now I will get to see Salman 30 mins before you Vee. HeeHaw HeeHaw.

Vee (disappointed now): Poda. Get lost !

Meanwhile Smita sends text to me.

Smita: That bugger is watching 9:30 show, 30 mins before your show. Bugger he is. He wasted 300 Rs.

Vee: Yeah, he did text me that. He was of course dying to tell me that. I don’t have any 9:30 show here. Let him watch. That doesn’t prove he is bigger fan.

Smita sends sms to Vimmuuu.

Smita: Some people are plain jobless.

Vimmuuus reply: and some are plain jealous.

Smita: Some are real buggers !

Vimmuuu didn’t bother to reply. He was busy hee hawing for the whole day !!!

The D-day; as in Dabangg Day :

Smita curses Vimmuuu through her sms at 9.05 :

It will be pouring heavily. Your bike will run out of gas. There will be no power in the theatre.

Vimmuuu after reaching the theatre retaliate:

Made it to the theatre even though it was drizzling. Hee Haww !! The bang; Da-bangg !!!

So, he did watch the show half an hour before me. But I watched shows back to back. And Smita all this while have been trying to make her presence felt in the battle by texting us the reviews. Her point was that despite having a month old baby she was doing all things possible to keep herself updated. Lol. Reading reviews on your mobile, reading Salman’s crazy tweets won’t make her a true blue fan which she thinks she is. And just because Vimmuuu watched the show before me doesn’t make him too a real bhakt of Salman. I know it’s me and the case rested. But that bugger still watched it half an hour before me! Hmmppphh !!!

Story apart, it’s quite impossible to quantify the loyalty of anyone to other person, be it someone from real life or a celebrity. The story above doesn’t make any sense but it makes me if not the biggest ever fan, it does make me one at least amongst we three. Muhahaha, Buhahaha, HeeHaw HeeHaw to both of you.

Coming to movie, it was an awesome entertainer. Salman for sure has silenced his critics. As Vimmuuu rightly pointed out, Salman has now fan following not just in B and C centers as often said by the critics but in A centers as well. Multiplex Junta is no more shy of whistling and hooting.

For a surprise to Smita, Vimmuuu recorded Salman’s entry and his first dialogue in his mobile. There are cheers, whistles, hoots when Salman appears on screen. Mind it, it was a cinema hall in Chennai where you cannot see this thing happening for any Hindi movie forget any Bollywood actor. When it comes to Tamilians they are very passionate in their choices. Be it films or politics; it’s hard to please them but once done, you can be rest assured of their devotion.

Salman's Entry in Dabangg | Musicians Available

Times have changed. People have embraced him. He did not go out there to make a point. He and his fan knew it. Now, rest all know it too. As Pritish Nandy wrote in a blog before the release: Common man doesn’t like Sanjay Singhania or Surinder Sahni. He wants Chulbul Pandey to entertain him. He doesn’t want to see a business man on screen. He wants a hero and that hero is Chulbul Pandey aka Salman Khan. Hudd Hudd Dabangg, Dabangg.

5 Must Watch Biographical Films

2010-09-08T17:39:00.004+05:30

Disclaimer: These are not my all time 5 must watch biographies. Out of the movies which I saw last month, almost half of them were based on true stories and these are the 5 that I rate high. Interestingly, if I choose my all time 5 favorites in Biographical Film category, only one from this would make it. Wanna guess which one? Come on, guess.

Modigliani – Rating 4.5/5

Amedeo Modigliani (called Modi by friends) was an unconventional painter. He was an Italian artist and rival of famous Pablo Picasso. Modi was not the conformist which was looked down by all, yet Picasso admitted him as the greatest ever and in a scene he refers to him as god. Modi had poverty stricken adult life and the movie mostly showcases last few years of his life before he died of tubercular meningitis at the age of 36.

Anyone who is admirer of Howard Roark of The Fountainhead would be able to correlate Modi’s life and artistic mind with that of Rand’s unconventional protagonist. So, Picasso was Peter Keating. Modi believed that the true creativity comes from disorder and was a follower of Nietzsche’s philosophy. An alcoholic and drug addict Modi had an illegitimate child from Jeanne. He was jew and she, a catholic. She gave up on him when he could not get his acts straight and went and posed for Picasso. Down in poverty and trying to win his wife back he entered the Paris’s annual art competition. Picasso followed suit. The movie thus takes an emotional and poignant turn.

Modi’s role is played by Andy Garcia (of Ocean’s series fame).

In the Name of the Father – Rating 4.5/5

Gerry (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a petty thief and troublemaker in Belfast (Ireland). His father Giuseppe (Pete Postlethwaite) sends him off to London where his aunt lives. Gerry along with his friend instead land up in jail. After visiting his aunt, Gerry and his friend Paul get to meet some local druggists and after a romp with them they find themselves on street with no place to spend night. They go to park outside the Guildford Pub and there is a blast that very moment in the pub wherein 5 people got killed and several injured. British Police implicates Gerry and Paul in the Bombing which was purportedly done by IRA (Irish Republic Army). The duo claim innocence; however British are hell bent on calling them members of IRA. Two other friends of the duo are arrested and are made to sign confession under severe threat. All four accused named ‘Guildford Four’ by the media are given life imprisonment. The ordeal doesn’t end there. Gerry’s father and his aunt are arrested as well in false case of helping the supposed murderers.

Gerry inside the prison has given up all hopes of clearing his and his father’s name. But his father continues to fight for their innocence with the help of Lawyer Gareth (Emma Thompson); but to no avail. He falls sick and eventually dies. Gerry now joins hands with Gareth and picks up from where his father had left. 15 years of captivity based on falsehood sees light of hope when the actual IRA bomber confesses to the crime and British Police is shamed for charging the Guildford Four purely on flimsy grounds.

Initially not so in good terms with his father, Gerry fought hard to clear his father’s name. The father-son relationship angle is sure to touch hearts.

Flash of Genius – Rating 4.5/5

Bob Kearns life came to a beating halt when his invention ‘windshield wiper’ that he had presented to Ford Motor Company was termed as “the invention by Ford’s Engineers and Bob was just imagining it”. What followed was a lawsuit by Bob against the giant motor maker Ford.

Bob was an engineering professor, married to another teacher Phyllis and had 6 children to support. Once on an outing with the family in his ford car, he realized how bad the visibility goes due to badly manufactured windshield wipers those days. Bob came up with the idea of making wipers that could blink like an eye so that once they wipe the shield; the visibility would not be affected. Ford loved the idea and asked him to make one piece which could be sent to Washington DC for approval. Excitedly, Bob along with his young sons worked on the piece for three months and presented it to Ford and waited. 18 months later, he was told that Ford doesn’t want his ‘windshield wiper’ any more. Bob was heartbroken but what made him lose his cool when he saw his own wiper being used in the cars made by Ford on the opening night of famous ‘Mustang’.

He filed the lawsuit. He was offered 1 Million by Ford to take case back. He did not budge. Ford offered him 4 Millions. He still did not budge and continued his research. Meanwhile, he suffered nervous breakdown, his wife divorced him taking all 6 children with her. His friend of 25 years and colleague too fringed one of his patents. He had lost everything.

Ford increased the offer. He agreed on one condition that Ford releases statement accepting the fact ‘wiper’ was his invention. Ford did not do so. He continued the case. His children were grown by the time the case came up for hearing. His elder son and elder daughter started assisting him in the fight. After a bitter fight and some name calling, Jury did find that Ford had infringed his patent and asked Ford to give him 10 Million Dollars. Chrysler followed and offered another 18 Millions. Ford did accept they had infringed but it was not deliberate.

China Cry – Rating 4/5

China Cry is a true story of a Chinese woman Nora Lam who was abandoned at birth and later adopted by a rich family. Family had to leave their home in Shanghai during war with Japan. After the war ended, she was enrolled in a Missionary where she got inclined to Christianity which became her menace that forced her to flee from China and take refuge in Hong Kong for a while before making United States her permanent home.

The movie is about how she miraculously survived execution when taken as prisoner for following Christianity by the China’s communist party and how she was made to write each and every detail of her childhood; any incident which could have led her to Christianity. She was tortured and kicked in stomach when pregnant. Her determination to fight back and give her child a free environment covers the later part of the movie.

Invincible – Rating 3.5/5

Vince Papale was a part time teacher and a die-hard Eagles fan. Philadelphia Eagles play American Football. Vince had season tickets for all Eagles game. He dreamt of playing for the team. But he felt he was too old for it after turning 30. Luck runs out of his life after his wife leaves him not before naming him ‘good for nothing’. He is fired from job because of pay cut. He becomes bartender and occasionally plays football with friend.

Eagles are losing all the matches, yet Vince is firm in his belief for his favorite tem that they will come back to top. When Eagles announce that they will have walk-in sort of arrangement to get new blood in the team Vince too decides to give it a short after much coaxing by friends. He is not only the fastest given his age, he is better equipped with knowhow of the game. He makes in to the team which came as a moment of bafflement but also happiness for his friends and colleagues at bar.
Invincible is a neat, simple story of a man who rose from poverty to enjoy three year stint in the Eagles team and also as captain for special team.

These biographical films are not just usual true stories which are made into film. They all have something in common. The element of injustice they suffered and their fight for their rights and freedom.

Just couple of things I would like to add in the end. Go watch Hindi Film ‘Udaan’ if you have not yet seen. And Dabangg is going to be Salman’s one of the biggest hits. Haha… Adios. So Long.

What Next, Big B?

2010-06-24T03:08:00.004+05:30

I would not blame myself for it. It’s the times and the way things are being picked out nowadays. My last post ‘Who Cares’ was misconstrued by majority. I wasn’t whining about the receding readership by itself. I was talking more on how the essence of reviews on movies, music and books (or whatever) has been flattened by the likes of few micro-blogging sites. That’s it.

Coming to that, it really amazes me how desperate are these celebrities and how more desperate are commoners to chase them and read about their equally desperate, cooked up-hunky dory tales. I was one of them. For a week. Followed 6-7 of them and removed when nothing substantial was in offing. Better sense prevailed and I am out.

Heard Aamir Khan is joining on 1st July. He would surely be keeping an eye on Sachin and SRK. After all he is Mr. Perfectionist. Doesn’t want anything in a smaller amount. Sorry, but can’t forget him for feeding me bull craps like Ghajini and 3 Idiots. Behati Hawa Sa my foot.

Reminds me of how our Hindi Film Industry is crammed with such deception and pretense. Mr. Perfectionist got in a spat over ‘who-makes-song-famous’ with Javed Akhtar. I totally laughed when he raised the point it’s the Hero (or Heroine) in the song. It’s not even arguable. Someone said who knew Rahul Roy and Anu Agarwal, yet songs of Aashiqui were like anthem in early 90s. Point. Javed reiterated "No one knew you Mr. Khan, You got famous with Papa Kehate Hain and not other way". Well said. Khan walked off. Good for him. Shall I go into works of certain Mr. Rehman and present my case.

He is the biggest manipulator of all. Why? Because he is big? Because every Christmas is a tomfooling-money making period of the year for him? How can anyone forget the ‘Fanna’ release fiasco in Gujarat? Wasn’t he present everywhere out crying democracy-democracy? Where the hell was he when Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Black Friday’ was banned and not released in theater? Hrithik too mouthed the democracy shenanigans that time, but where were they when Rahul Dholakia’s ‘Parzania’ was banned (again in Gujarat)? Does democracy hold good only for these powerful, money-spinning people?

Hrithik in an interview used the old Bollywood trick of holding someone else responsible for the debacle of their product. According to him Kites was way ahead for Indian audiences. Whoa? Hello? Even if I agree to your point; didn’t you father-son duo make two versions? One specifically for Indians and other for Firangs? So, going by that you knew what would cater to us? Well, sorry Roshans, you suck.

Who the hell are these people who can decide for us what would suit or cater to us? It is blasphemy to start with. I remember how he spoke of Barbara Mori being the chosen one out of 70 or 80 odd females auditioned and how he was awe-struck when he saw her pictures. Can I tell him how blind he is? Ms. Mori doesn’t look a bit sexy from any angle. Our TV Actresses would fare better in sexiness. Why Barbara? Doesn’t his wife look like a malnourished mule from certain angles? So shall I blame his senses for that? So who are they to blame our sense of judging a film? This is not 90s Roshan. Wake Up.

Continuing the blame is the patriarch of the so-referred First Family of industry. Big B himself. He blamed the editor for poor portrayal of Abhishek. What was he thinking? We all know his son is Nalayak, Nikamma. Barring Couple of roles in decade old career, he has not achieved much. So, why blame editor? Big B is known for his even bigger mouth and for retracting words now and then through his infamous blog. But this was not needed. Not at all. How many times have we seen Dharmendra holding anyone responsible for the failure of his children and he has lot of failures at home. That is class. Did Hema Malini or Rajesh Khanna or Vinod Khanna or Shatrughan Sinha ever choiced to such stuff? And they are equally big like Big B. The whole family is one big nautanki.

What next Big B? Blaming climate for Bahurani’s poor dress at next Cannes?

Who Cares

2010-03-19T02:39:00.006+05:30

Love shuts the world they say. I agree, not entirely though. My negligible presence on Blog and other internet sites by my friend were attributed to I being in relationship. I do not agree to this by any means.

I enjoy writing and love doing it elaborately. The moment I watch a cinema I would be penning it down already in mind only to reproduce it later on paper. Whilst reading a book, I am by then giving it shape of coverage to present it later in form of writing for my friends or readers either recommending or refuting it. I hear music and I want to describe it in its purest essence.

No More.

No one reads you completely and moreover no one has time for you. Micro-Blogging and one line reviews (Twitter and Buzz) are in fashion. Why just a review, if you had a black shit instead of natural one it’s there for the whole world to acknowledge or deny on your favorite site. So, who cares what you really felt about a movie or a book or a nice rendition or for that matter a restaurant or any service.

Celebrities are voicing whatever they can cyclically. And competing for the maximum number of followers with their PSEUDO take on anything. So, who cares what I felt. I hope you got the gist or the whole of it.

Attention seeking celebs are now clicks away who are vehemently expressing their innate thoughts; which I can for sure say has changed the way things were taken upon.

The sad spot is people have been blinded with all of it. So, who cares what I have to say of anyone or anything. Weren’t us, critics of them heard err read with interest so that better things prevailed.

Products were detailed, analyzed, discussed and dissected in much more constructive and practical way than in these times and age. So, it doesn’t matter for anyone what I voice as that won’t be taken as critically as it used to (thanks to creators of the products).

This above rambling might be taken as a cribbing. Beware, it is not. Few of us still yearn to say much more than our daily breakfast and evening mishaps but where are the audiences?

Few would still listen but that would not give a kick. As I earlier said, No one reads you completely and moreover no one has time for you.

So, there won’t be any movie or book or music reviews from my end; As to be fucking brutally honest, No one cares.

And by the way, there won’t be any MovieManiax Awards this year. Sorry to all (actually couple of them) who were indeed looking forward to it. I did last year for inner-satisfaction but no more. It doesn't matter whether deserving ones got award or not. I will award them in my mind (by myself); I already did actually.

P.S. I would still like (Though doubt totally) to come back here once in a while to blabber on personal stuff but sadly not on any product or service; no matter how much I enjoyed or was reluctant upon trying. No more.

An Attitude

2010-02-09T05:12:00.004+05:30

As I write this, I am at a stage in life where I find myself in love again.

I believe different people have different take on love and for me it is an attitude. I call love an attitude as I have been into it once earlier, out of it, now all over it again.

Now that would not be palatable to few. I have always been truthful to myself when it comes to love. Having said it, I have also made the person aware of it from the onset of the same. What probably was not justifiable was that I expected them to love me back from the moment I confronted it myself. Not justifiable because I never tried to put me into their shoes. I love you so please you better love me too. Now when I think of it, I realize how irrational I had been in prior comparable circumstances.

Candidly, I do not intend to delve into it as it is at a juncture where nothing can be said or analyzed. Yet, I am more than glad all those contemplations are past now. Right now I am in love. And it has not been confronted with any of aforementioned communicable vernaculars. I hope not in future as well.

P.S. Few calls and SMSes from friends and reader made me come up with this Post Script. There is nothing wrong between the lovers and definitely both are happy about being in love. Above could be taken as rambling of an observant mind basicaly skewing at the past. Present is beautiful.

Me & You

2010-02-01T02:19:00.003+05:30

I became single all over again; not recently, 5 and half years ago. I thanked my stars then. I got into a relationship at an impressionable age (I was 17) which went for 5 years and ended amicably without any bad blood (I am still friends with the person). Now, that entire math gives away my age; yeah I am 28 but that’s not important. The significant stuff is after all these years of shying away from it I am back to square one. Yes, I am in love and I am happy like never before. Heard it right, more than I was in my last. Of course Ex is one of my readers and I have already conveyed the same. Ex is happy for me as well.

Things were different then. We both were at the epoch wherein career played a role and won hands down. Career demanded us to be in long distance and none of us budged from our stance. Career prevailed and we parted harmoniously.

So, I was saying I was single all over again and I was on a hunt after one year of mourning the death of prior relation. I took it a lot better than my peers and friends but hormones did drive me crazy at times. And needless to say, I was ruthless in my quest. Now, ruthless doesn’t mean I was engaging in mindless fuck. Ruthless means I was getting prepositioned the way a 23 years would had. Smart, good looking, gift of gab, intelligent, someone who could hold a conversation with a sculpture and was available enticed whomever I met. My friends were hell bent on hooking me up with random obtainable opportunities. But I was in a different state of mind. I shunned them all. I politely and sometime not so civilly turned away and that construed them to believe I was not just ruthless but I was deeming myself as the next big thing after David Beckham. None of which was true.

I unlike another people of my age started my pursuit with a relationship and not some good fun filled fucks and relation later. So, one night stands and random kissing & feeling did not appeal much. I did not discourage those who were all for it. It is all situational but I was not cut out for it. That made me a snob of some decree. I was ok with that.

They say it is easy to impress a man than to the fairer sex, I beg to differ. They say all men need is an opening and rest is immaterial. I beg to differ again. Few of us are looking for more than an opening. So, now I am going to say what clicked this time. We met in a party.

My friend who is also colleague fancied the most gorgeous person walking into the party. I was busy ordering drink so could not set my eyes on this supposedly most gorgeous person walking in. When I returned, my this friend (also single) was all praises for this creature who had supposedly increased the hotness factor of the ambience. I asked him to show me this hotness but his attempt to locate the person was futile. So we all ignored it and indulged ourselves in another round of drinks and dance only to realize my friends whining once again about this hottest factor. I lost it, shouted at him to go and speak to the hotness right away. This made him a bheegi-billi of the elevated order and that made me to dare him to do so more. He wasn’t up for it so I took a bet which he agreed to.

I brushed my hair whilst walking towards the so-called hottest zone of the club. Upon spotting, I Smiled, introduced myself and asked for a dance. I was all ears for a polite or impolite no. I of course in a ‘NO’ would have said that I approached you for a friend of mine. But my offer was accepted and the rest is history. That dance and the conversation which followed swept me away off my feet. A clichéd one but that’s what happened. I had not touched or danced with a more beautiful person before. It was all bliss. I did convey my approach was for a friend of mine and not me. That was received with the cutest smile and was answered, “I knew, I have been following all of you and your gang’s moves. My eyes were set on you and glad you came along.” My heart surely skipped a beat or two then. For sure.

It is three months now since I set my eyes upon this gorgeous person. I find it absurd when someone can actually have this sight of how sexy they are and held that against. And this is the case of my partner. Being so incredibly sexy and unassuming about it at the same time is something not everyone is good at. My incessant overtures on the same are received by even more flattering remarks on me which I in turn receive with unassuming nature.

I often wonder would lover be a bashful repartee to my overtures. Or will let loose so that I can take a good care and communicate how much I love without quantifying it.

P.S. The write up is for you babe and so the title.

The Avant Garde Bloggies Awards 2009 – Kick Off

2009-12-03T17:16:00.004+05:30

Avant Garde Bloggies Awards was conceived in 2008 by Visceral Observations. Duly supported in organizing and conducting by fellow Bloggers, the awards last year was huge success. Especially for me it was double treat as I was nominated in 2 categories and I won both hands down (Modesty Sucks... Haha). However, this year I am not nominating any of my posts as I am part of the organizing committee and in all probability a Judge too; hopefully.

For uninitiated as well as those who are aware of it, I request you to read the post on this year’s Avant Garde Bloggies Awards by Visceral Observations. PLEASE CLICK HERE. Avant Garde Bloggies Awards aim to recognize the best posts from your blog. It is an award competition where your entries are voted and judged by fellow, expert bloggers. It is a competition to recognize your blog. And as always, it’s meant to be fun and healthy.

Here is once again the link to everything you need to know about the Awards as well as how to nominate your and other’s posts. CLICK HERE.

Conceived by Visceral Observations

Badges Designed by Chirag. Have a look at the Badges by CLICKING HERE.

Volunteers Vimal, Vee and Magik

Publicist Nikhil

The Categories CLICK HERE.

Official Video CLICK HERE.

I would appreciate if you too could spread the word to have worthy nominations pouring in for each category. Please join the Avant Garde Bloggies Awards Group on Facebook. CLICK HERE TO JOIN US ON FACEBOOK.

P.S. Go through the categories and start nominating posts now.
P.P.S. Revert back in comments section for any queries.

By the first look of it and Reviews

2009-11-10T00:44:00.004+05:30

By the first look of it and sincerely by the first of it;

Paa looks foolhardy. With all the feasible offense to the makers and the performers, Paa comes across as an intended attempt of lifting in the name of novelty (Ya, I too dreamt eons ago I will revisit Cinema Paradiso). With Small B playing father of Big B on screen (hard to digest) and Vidya Balan as mother (that was perfectly chosen; she looks that), Paa is the story of Auro who is suffering from some disease which is tough to pronounce (no, I will not google).

Blame Aamir for it. His dyslexia ridden TZP hit right chords, his 15 minutes of memory in Ghajini melted many hearts and since then, everyone wants to suffer from one or the other unpronounceable disease. Watch out for Hrithik in Sanjay Leela’s Guzaarish. By the way, Imran had his heart on his right side of the chest in forgettable LUCK.

3 Idiots is an idiotic one. 3 mushtandaas (no built, vast paunches and huge upper frame) pose as 20-something college goers while in real they are double the age. Who cares they say? Audience is an idiot any which ways.

Just started listening to the songs of it and trust me on this, nothing great about it. All Izz Well is idiocy at its prime, by the lyrics of it and more importantly the shot. Once again, no built, vast paunches and huge ugly upper frame.

De Dana Dan is amalgamation of Singh is King and Hera Pheri. All the casts of this movie along with the director should be banned with immediate effect.

Aao Wish Karein to me is like ‘Aao Piss Karein’. And I am in no mood to be pissed more, especially this year. Thank you Aftab (producer and actor in this) but truthfully No Thanks.

Kurban seems dull in its portrayal. Saifeena (Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor for uninitiated) look couple in some kind of mourning and grief. Maybe the film is about that. Whatever. Vivek in his new style is not shown much in promos. And he is not complaining. After all, no one apart from RGV cares for him.

Songs are nice (I have already spoken about it…HERE).

Tum Mile will be a sleeper average if not sleeper hit; mark my words. No box office records breaking but a decent opening and even more respectable following will make it recover the money. By the way, did I tell I have always enjoyed watching Emran (nothing to do with his kisses; I can do better and bitter). I always find him in character (haha) and totally into it whatever he does. His Awarapan took me by surprise. Way to go Emu.

P.S. I hope I eat my own words as I do not wish to see the efforts they have put go in vain. :):)

Reviews of;

Ajab Prem Ki Ghajab Kahani – 3/5 Santoshi’s 2nd attempt at comedy after immortal Andaz Apna Apna is just about ok. A huge hangover of AAA is what APKGK gives the impression of sans Paresh and co. However, I won’t write this off so effortlessly. The movie works for its characters and their witty one liners that comes in offing. I have never enjoyed watching Ranbir so far. All his previous offerings made me think ‘what’s the fuss’ and finally he delivered. Whether it was his tribute to his famous grand-pa at few places in comic scenes or an attempt to shake and move head n booty like his uncle; he was extremely fine at it. Supporting casts remind you of Hrishikesh’s era. Smita Jaykar and Darshan Zariwala as parents of loser-in-life Ranbir are charming what with few scenes written just for them. Songs play quite an important part and are well placed. The only grieving factor for me was utterly delicious but equally putdownable Katrina.

Katrina no matter what all good things people say about her is an extremely annoying to me. No doubt she looks good and her pairing with Ranbir is like ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’. Two supremely good looking ones together of course will raise eyebrows and many other things. But, I am very disappointed with her. She fucking cannot speak good Hindi despite some 3 odd years here. It is of utmost important to me someone who works in Hindi movies should speak, if not good a decent Hindi and it’s been far too long she learnt it. I do not understand why directors cover that by making her a Christian or some of that sort so that she doesn’t need to utter more Hindi. Bull Crap.

Jail – 1/5 Madhur’s tryst with reality falls flat this time. We have seen and enjoyed his rendezvous with Bar girls, Social butterflies, Corporate honchos, but his take on Jail is far from impressing. Falsely accused in a drug case Neil, a sales guy goes to Jail and doesn’t get bail in all repeated hearings. Few scenes and nonsense later, case is reopened and with same evidences & same witnesses the case is solved. Wow. What’s with the agenda here, Madhur? Tell us beforehand it is just one off a story and not fucking reality and we will give you some credit but not in the name of your shouting ‘Jail shown never before’ shit. As a friend told, Ek Haseena Thi was healthier.

Round And About by Behram Contractor

2009-11-03T19:07:00.003+05:30

A man is known by the company he keeps is now an overused clichéd and peeping at it from the same height would be a man is also known by the city he belongs to. Now it's all mixed up. You are born in one city/town/village, grow up somewhere else, get license to vote/drink/drive in some other place, date/marry someone from other planet altogether. There are more friends virtually than in blood and flesh, your neighbor thinks you are moving in when in actual fact you are moving out after staying in that house for gazillion years. Pheew!!!

But this is not the case with Behram Contractor aka Busybee who lived in Mumbai all his life. He was Parsi, and like an average Parsi in Mumbai he too believed till his last breath in 2001 that Parsis belong to Mumbai in a way that no other Indian race belongs to any other Indian city. This is not the narrative of this book. This is the story of the author of this book. Busybee technically never wrote this book. He worked as a columnist for various newspapers of Mumbai 365 days of the year for 30 plus years. He wrote about everything in his daily column and this is an attempt to bring out all his columns in a single book. Round and About is the first of the series covering year 1996-97. His style of writing is snappish and to the point, but it has a rhythm in it which creates an impression of straight-faced humor.

The city Mumbai has always fascinated me for various reasons. My being a big movie buff has nothing to do with that. I know more of Mumbai as a city than of her association with Bollywood. And I bet I am as good or bad as any average Mumbaikar in knowing this intriguing city in spite of not living for more than 10 days at stretch in my numerous visits to this city (Another one week of stay is in offing soon).

To be witty is not a big deal but to be humorous at the same time is. Busybee excelled at witty humor in all his columns, always. A man who lived with a wife, two sons and a dog left a mark on the psyche of every Mumbaikar capable of reading and comprehending so much that his columns became part of their lives and people bought copies of the newspaper plainly to read his columns. This first series is just an appetizer; the full feast is still to be consumed.

Mayanagri (Bombay): I say so as it was Bombay and not Mumbai those days. Busybee called it home and in one of his columns he mentioned not living anywhere else in the world even if he was paid five months salary in lump sum. On January 1, 1996, he honored aam aadmi of Mumbai in his columns as the "man of the year". Why? Because he felt people of Mumbai had never been given due. For surviving and coming out smiling from every adverse situation, for never been consulted in anyway by any from the authority, for his/her city being getting crowded day by day and dirty hour by hour and he/her has been welcoming always. For he had been fed empty promises, for he had been lived through bad monsoon, hot summer and constant threat from people wearing orange and yet in good spirits.

Mayanagri ke log (Her People): This second section of the book has some true, funny, interesting anecdotes of some truly famous, some austerely infamous, known, seen, read people of Bombay. Whats with that Michael Jackson-Raj Thackeray deal in the event of MJ's show in Mumbai back in 1996. The part stands out as the one of the most hilarious sections of the book. Indeed some of his best were people.

Rajniti (Politics): I sometimes feel politicians are not only the source of all the chaos in the country but also the fountainhead of all the humor. Busybee is at his best when it comes to scrutinizing the politicians of our country and especially those from Bombay. He wrote on everyone from Bal to Raj to one time MP Big B to Munde to Joshi. A section talks of the meeting Bal had with Deve Gowda (Ex-PM) at Big B's residence and boy, did Busybee come up with the authentic version of the meeting in his column. Yes, he did. You may take it or leave it.

Gol guttam lakad battam de dana dan khel (Cricket): Nation's favorite pastime. When it comes to cricket, I guess we all Indians tend to treat it as a war and not game and a Mumbaikar is no different. And if it is Mumbai it has to be Wankhede. The infamous hooting at the world famous local boy at his own home ground proves it more than ever. Yes we are fanatics. Period.

Chalo Chaupati (Eating Out): There are puri people and chapatti people. There are rice people and bread people. I am chapatti person. Busybee was rice person. He fed on rice twice a day and in this section he has discussed the eating habits of Mumbaikar. Mumbai is also known for the kind of food and eateries she provides. From Mexican to the vada pav, from German frankfurters to Italian sausages, his column on places for eat-outs is bible for the strangers in the city.

Samajik Titaliyaan (Cocktail Circuit): The most envious circle in whole India. The invitees who eat caviar (or is it chew they do) and drink champagne. Guests who come to outdo the others or to outdo themselves. The wannabes who have their freshly printed visiting card outstretched in their hand along with a shake from the other which straightly meant I-want-to-be-part-of-it.

Gol Chakkar (Round And About): What could not be covered into any aforementioned defined categories, Busybee put it in this section. It's all about what-goes-around-comes-around.

I have been visiting and interacting with all kinds of people from this absorbing city, and it never ceases to amuse me, every time. After having been befriended few elitist, few not so well off and few hanging in between; from the guy who sells beeda at the intersection of Churchgate station and Dalal Street to the service provider of all kinds. From not so famous singer who is a clandestine queer to the famous performer who cruises around the Gateway in her merc. From this much aged, highly obnoxious scribe to the middling commuter of local. These are the people who form the Mumbai and put in some way or the other a remarkable demonstration in the lives of the regulars or the unexpected. Behram knew them all and knew them too well. And let me end it by using another worn out clichéd: They do not make like him anymore.

I preferred reading his compliation as a book, but for lazy bums, here is the link to his work: http://www.busybeeforever.com/round.asp.

This review I had earlier published here and here.

London Dreams – The Real Khan Stood Up

2009-10-31T03:06:00.012+05:30

So Namastey London is long gone and Vipul Shah throws up another one at us. I didn’t care much about Namastey London, and there he comes up with another one based on/in London; London Dreams. London Dreams is a story of two best friends. While one (Ajay Devgn) is passionate about music but has no support from his father and uncle owing to the fact music devastated their family; the other (Salman Khan) has talent and support but gives a hoot about it despite his father chasing him to learn music. Circumstances take Ajay to London and he gets on the job to live his dream some day (that of performing in packed Wembley Stadium). While Salman remains in Punjab (chases girls, sleeps with married women, and whiles away his time on ISD with his best bud), and who in the name of music is running a Raja-Rani Band for local marriages. He is happy and wishes all the luck and success for his friend overseas.

On a trip to Punjab, Ajay discovers that Salman is a good singer too and makes him join his band. Salman starts off as a chorus singer in the band moving onto complete the song as solo when out of the blue Ajay goes through an unfortunate accident that renders him voiceless on stage. The song was Barson Yaaron. The song is huge success and Salman is a sudden star. Hence starts the jealousy, betrayal, sacrifice, backstabbing and blackmailing. The movie takes a turn and gets interesting during the second half but ends on a very disappointing note. The climax is a huge let down.

Music is the real hero of the movie followed by Salman and Ajay. Asin is totally wasted in the movie (as I had earlier predicted without seeing the movie; damn, I was bang on). The other two band members (who hail from Pakistan) are playing reel brothers Rannvijay (of MTV Roadies fame) and Aditya Roy Kapoor (Channel [V] VJ) who hail from Pakistan.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s terrific composition with soulful lyrics by Prasoon Joshi makes it
one of the best albums this year. Only Prasoon can come up with ‘Chehron pe dhoop malo’ , ‘Saagaron pe jhoom chalo’, ‘Gham ko peeslo, Khushi chaat lo’ subsequent to Gulzar Saheb. And supporting his words is Shankar Mahadevan’s poignant vocals. Superb. All songs are well composed/sung/filmed. Couples of them do go off track nevertheless.

Ajay has donned the role of intense and brooding one in past as well and quite good always I must say including this time. But the problem I found in his portrayal this was that there wasn’t a bit of struggle shown, there was desperation in his eyes to reach the pinnacle of music but only in words. Just words. There weren’t any fight back in literal sense. All the fight back he ever showed was to keep Salman away from achieving it, by hook or crook.

Salman’s one of the finest work. Nothing like this he has ever portrayed. His charm is same but the andaaz is different. Watch him and you will make out what is the deal about all those reviews on net which talk lowly of the movie but end up recommending it just for him. A good at heart soul who prays for his friend’s success, keeps no evil and gets manipulated eventually whilst mouthing witty one liners complimented with straight from the heart talk will win many hearts for sure. After Wanted, another good work from him. This will enlighten the world who is the real Baadshah, Ace or King of Bollywood. SRK and Aamir can continue their ‘I-am-the-best’ fuck off-screen but it’s Salman who is ruling now and he is back in circuit with bang. No denying. Salman haters can go bite dust; the reality is on your face.

Asin is just wasted as I earlier mentioned. I am not going to say someone else could have done this role because there was nothing to do. Asin for sure accepted it just for the names associated and nothing else. There was no need for a female lead in this. Poor Asin.

The two supporting characters Rannvijay and Aditya are just about ok. This is Rannvijay’s second movie after forgettable Toss and Aditya’s first. Rann and Adi have lot of screen ‘being-there’ sans much to say. Aditya however will go places in assured track if he chooses his projects sensibly. Btw, his next is Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaaarish wherein he plays Aishwarya Rai’s husband.

Barring the prolonged penultimate and ultimate scenes which somewhat killed the spirit, the movie is a definitely a good watch especially if you like the music and wan to see Salman doing evitable.

Ithought of 3/5, but an extra 0.5 for music and Salman combined; 3.5/5

Quickie Reviews: Movies and OSTs (Upcoming movies)

2009-10-27T03:20:00.006+05:30

A quick take on few movies I watched last week and the music I have been listening to:

MOVIEs:

Blue – 1/5 – I saw some people literally molesting few fishes and embracing few others. Then I saw few others in minimal possible clothing with super duper gadgets trying to find some Khazana (loosely wealth), and rest of them were showing off their sticker piercing( which means not original) and stunts on all kinds of wheelers. A dud.

All The Best – 1/5 – And then few others were seen roaming in rainbow dresses cracking jokes (supposedly) and guess what, one of them had walked in straight out of the sets of Blue mixing everything with everyone; including the script.

Mr. and Mrs. Khanna – 1/5 – Those who were left out of Diwali celebrations were chucked on the airport. To be brutally honest, I caught this one on downloaded version (much to my dismay), but felt ‘serves you right.’

Pithamagan (Tamil) – 4/5 – Came this superbly executed piece that quenched the thirst of the weeks. Vikram (National Award Winner for this) could be more riveting than Sethu I never had imagined. Suriya, Sangeeta and Laila held their waters likewise. An exceptionally well made movie. Heard Hindi one is in offing with Sanjay Dutt doing Vikram’s role. Bakwaas. Sanju can’t (for sure) do that saala.

Arundhati (Telugu) – 4/5 – Sonu Sood can be so engaging, kabhi socha na tha. He burns the screen with his dual portrayal of rich-rapist turned ruthless-aghori (saints who practice dark arts). Giving fuel to it is Anushka Shetty in the title role. She is beautiful, appealing yet strong and hard enough to take on the hardships. A well done job graphically, I wonder how this one will turn out to be in Hindi with Deepika doing Arundhati and Amitabh in Sonu Sood’s role. Trust me, an absolute misfit. Hindi makers, please retain Anushka and Sonu. A gem of a movie.

OSTs:

Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani – 3.5/5 – Main Tera Dhadkan Teri by KK, Sunidhi and Hard Kaur is already a hit and is being highlighted as the main song. But Aa Jao Meri Tamanna by Javed Ali, Tera Hone Laga Hun By Atif and Alisha and Tu Jaane Na by Atif are the songs that will be surely loved by all. Prem Ki Naiyya by Neeraj Shridhar is a peppy one, but it reminds me of his earlier songs from Bhul Bhulaiya and Love Aaj Kal. Neeraj gets the same style of songs and he sings in the same monotonous style. Overall, a nice one. Cannot be ignored.

Kurbaan – 3/5 – Dua, Shukran Allah, Ali Maula, Rasiya and Kurbaan Hua are the 5 songs that make up this album. All seem situational. Would be liked more after seeing them in movie. Wonder why Sonu doesn’t sing much for the movies these days. His Shukran Allah with Shreya and Salim is the best of the lot.

London Dream – 4/5 – An album which reminds me of Rock On. Though songs have the feel of Rock On, they are (if not more) equally good. Barso Yaaron got into controversy for its Hanuman Chalisa lines; that is sorted and the lines remain. Abhijeet Ghosal’s Jashn Hai Jeet Ka is on the lines of Sindbad The Sailor from Rock On (per me). Title song Khaanbadosh is an upbeat number which talks of dreams. Lovely composition. Shankar’s Mann Ko Ati Bhavey and Feroz’s Tapkey Masti have been composed keeping Salman in mind I believe. Overall, a marvelous one.

Radio – 2.5/5 – Like it or chuck it as per your interest lies. 12 songs, I would go with 5 (less than half), but overall, not so bad.

Tum Mile – 2.5/5 – Bhatt (Vishesh Films) ka hai toh achha hi hoga is the believe. By that trend, slightly disappointing.

Wake Up Sid

2009-10-06T03:28:00.005+05:30

Ranbir Kapoor walked out straight from the sets of Bachna Aae Haseeno and landed at the shoot of WUS and yeah, wearing the same boxer shorts. He made toast there and did his best to crack the egg in this one and yeah, wearing the same boxer shorts. Even the designs were same. Ekdum ditto.

As the yaawwny, done-to-death-gazillion-times story goes, Siddhart Mehra (Ranbir Kapoor) is a rich-spoilt-brat surviving on his father’s credit card and friend’s nonsensical advices. Son insults everyone, respects no one. Father asks him to get lost. Son lands up at few-days-old friend (of all people) Aisha Bannerjee (Konkona Sen Sharma). Friend treats him as bachcha. Develops a liking-turned-love to him only after she realizes her ever disheveled but dishy boss Kabir (Rahul Khanna) is more interested in Jazz than her unpublished/unread article ‘New Girl in The City’ which she keeps adding to his ‘attention’ list. Boss likes it one fine day and publishes it. Bachcha who by now has gone back to his father reads the article and gets enlightened that its him she is talking of in that article. Comes running, finds her exactly at the place he guessed (of course the monsoon had to hit that very day as he had promised he would show her how good mumbai rains can be). Hugs and lived ‘possibly’ ever after.

And there are flaws written all over it.

Wake Up Sid by its subject and its portrayal convey an awakening of some sort but I do not see any awakening of any sort in entirety. As someone told, you leave home uttering I-do-not-want-your-money and you land up at your girl-friend’s place. Wow! And girl-friend who is possibly earning nothing astronomical deck up her house like she suddenly inherited a lot of wealth. The boy meets girl at a party where he is shooting stuff around. Clue that he will do something possibly related with the camera later. He finds her sitting all alone, writing a diary in a party full of loud music and chaos. Clicks some snaps of her and she shies away. How enchanting. Now where I have seen similar stuff already. Of course, they start talking and go out for a walk. It is absolutely unconvincing that he would walk out of the place just because it’s her first day in Mumbai and there is lot to be seen. He also did not get the idea of sleeping around as she cheekily clears her stand. Not done. Nahi hota aisa yaar.

Dad bribes him with a Porsche for a month of work. Last day of the month he chucks it and goes house hunting with her just-a-friend. So, he spends all his time with new found friend on mail/phone/terrace. And by the way, all this while all his other friends whom director showcased so brilliantly in the beginning as close-knit are ignored. They will be found later in the 2nd half for nothing great but to make him realize few more things which his new found friend was already at it.

Results. Fail. Fight with a friend. Leaving home. Moving with new found friend. Self-respect. Ego. But no, Sid boy cannot make egg and is usually hungry, so goes to a nice café to have a nice lunch and doles out his papa’s credit card. Still? Whatever happened to Nahi-chahiye-aapka-paisa. What an awakening?

Comes roomie for the rescue. ‘Why don’t you click?’ 'No, not me, click other stuff. I will still shy away.' Boom goes the boy and clicks n clocks. Gets internship followed by featured photo. First pay cheque. Shows dad. Father is proud. Aah, like I did not see all this coming all this while. What an idea!

Father calls back home. Bachcha decides to go. But alas, the roomie is already in likings with him, if not love yet. But sooner than later. She doesn’t enjoy brooding boss’s jazz outings and prefer bread-chai-beach with the bachcha. Of course, it is love. Too late. Boy reads her article. That’s me, that’s me she is in love with. Like I did not see this happening as well. What the hell. She tore off all her work till date and he helps her re-writing it. So, of course he had read it. But is feigning surprise reading the dame darn article at the end.

The problem with Wake Up Sid is, it is way too much predictable and tries to bring in lot of things at one go. Why are people accepting it’s ok if it’s predictable. Why? Why not with other mindless craps then? Girls find Ranbir way too much hot and is ready to compromise with his immature act. Boys find Konkona naturally beautiful and her acting skills are praised upon. That’s farce. Ranbir is young and just 3 films old. Arrey, how does the number of films matter. I won’t actually blame him for this. He was actually very natural. Seems he was living his real life. Son of Stars Rishi and Neetu had everything on platter and that’s what Sid’s character is all about. But what about Konkona? Why is she getting trapped into these roles. She is gifted, no doubt about it. But, Dil Kabaddi, Luck by Chance and now WUS. All has her playing characters of the same kind (almost). Rahul Khanna, ditto. Dil Kabaddi, Love Aaj Kal and now WUS. Pathetic loser. And this one goes one step beyond. He is not even looking good; something which goes in his favor. Sleepwalking as someone told.

Anupam and Supriya are just about ok. Anyone could have filled in and not got equally noticed. Friends appear and disappear only to reappear again in a lousy script. Script looks borrowed-from and some scenes intentionally are forced into. Like the one when he goes to click the neighbor’s son. That was done to make him realize that he is missing his mom and should go and meet her. Konkona blatantly says no family and friends to him in first meet but is calling her mom back in Kolkota when heartbroken.

Things do seem dazzling and hopeful in moments here and there especially a few between Sid and Aisha. But that’s all. Music was an average one to listen to which gets a point less when heard along the storyline. Too many references, way too many cliched stuff and predictability beyond imagination. 2/5.

8 Things

2009-10-01T18:14:00.003+05:30

Ava tagged me in this, some gazillion years ago. Here it goes:

8 TV shows I like

- The Big Bang Theory
- That 70’s Show
- F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
- So you think you can dance
- Roadies
- Bigg Boss
- Cut
- The Big Fat Indian Wedding

8 Favorite Places to Eat

Not a big fan of food but one has to eat to survive. Any place will do, Still:

- Coconut Grove (Bangalore)
- MTR (Bangalore)
- 13th Floor (Bangalore)
- TGIF (Bangalore)
- Molly Malones (Goa)
- Vie Lounge (Mumbai)
- Bengali Market (Delhi)
- Forgot name, a very fine restaurant in Jaipur.

8 Things That Happened Yesterday

- Got up early, which rarely happens (10:10 AM)
- Had breakfast (once again something which rarely happens)
- Had work like ‘there’s no tomorrow’ in office, so skipped lunch
- Also, did not smoke whole day
- Had a pint at home after work with cousin
- Played agony aunt to a friend
- Saw 2 movies: ‘The Murder of Princess Diana’ and ‘The Purple Rose of Cairo’
- Slept at 5 in morning

8 Things I Look Forward To

- A day off from work. As it is quarter end, I am asked to work 12 days at stretch. Its been 11 days now, 1 more day to go. My next off is 3rd October
- Trip to a resort on outskirts of Bangalore in 1st week (a much needed)
- My Brother’s return from US in 2nd week of October
- Start of Klueless during Diwali. It’s an online game organized by students of IIM every year since 2005. It’s open to whoever has access to net. Last year me and mystiquedew were in Hall of Fame.
- Trip to Alleepey in 4th week of October
- Trip to Mumbai and Indore in 3rd week of November
- My niece’s 1st b’day in 2nd week of December
- Trip to Bangkok in last week of December

8 Things I Love About Winter

- X’mas holidays
- New year’s eve
- No sweat
- Long rides on bike
- Jackets
- Sweaters (like wearing sweaters)
- A walk (anywhere)
- An outing for sure

8 Things on My Wish List

- Longines or Audemars Piguet Watch
- Car for myself
- Brown/Blue contact lenses (current ones are damn plain)
- Home Gym
- Treadmill
- Write a Book
- Make a Movie
- Fly a Plane

8 Things I am Passionate About

- Cinema
- Travel (alone, all by myself)
- Good reads (Books, Mags, anything)
- Cricket
- Conversation on Cinema/Politics/Cricket
- Watching people (can spend hours just watching)
- Writing
- Partying/Clubbing/Socializing

8 Words or Phrases I use Often

- Fuck
- Ainvayee
- Yeah, right!
- Seriously
- Kuchh bhi haan?
- Shucks
- Shuru Tera? (When someone starts bragging, I say ‘Shuru Tera?’ or ‘Started?’)
- Hows the yous, takes the cares

8 Things I have Learnt From My Past

- Fuck, learnt from past? Seriously? Kuchh bhi haan?

8 Places I would Love to Go or See or Visit

- Istanbul
- Jerusalem
- Bhutan
- Moscow
- Rishikesh
- Kashmir
- Amsterdam
- Mecca

8 Things I currently Need or Want

- Same as Wish list above

8 People to Tag

None in particular, Pick it up if you want to.

Dil Bole....Iski Maa Ki.....

2009-09-24T02:42:00.006+05:30

The Quirky Indian summed up the review of Dil Bole Hadippa in just three awesome words. READ HERE. I am summing up with a chat I had with Vimmuuu on the same along with some random movie talks. The title which I had in my mind for the review of DBH is somewhere there in the chat.

me: are u hiding like always?

Vimmuuu: lol..
i jus logged in..

me: hehe, me too hiding

Vimmuuu: lol..u call him hormone baweja..
hehehehehehe
thats gud..
btw what do u think...will Whats Your Rashee click ?

me: hardly....

Vimmuuu: hmm.....utv is the only good name wid it...i dont have faith in ashutosh anyway..

me: but if it does i wudnt be surprised either... cuz many will write it off for obvious reasons but many will praise it for being different..

Vimmuuu: hmmm
the first user review in indiafm is not great..

me: yes u r correct.. UTV is d only credibility they got n then priyanka (not even Ashu)

Vimmuuu: oh ya...but again, y hurman!
thats what i dont get..

me: give him a chance.. even Rakhi comes on big screen once a while so why cant hormone?

Vimmuuu: lol..
hehehe
did u watch DBH ?

me: YES
Haahahhahhahaha
hohohohoho

Vimmuuu: one of the worst things that can happen to mankind!

me: I was ROFLing

Vimmuuu: lol
i know..
me too..

me: I lovvvveeeeeee such movies

Vimmuuu: the whole movie i kept commenting..
hehehehe
lol..

me: they make u laugh so much that u feel like puking

Vimmuuu: its a combination of chak de and rab ne bana
hehehe
crap of a movie..
at the end, the pakistan team gets enlightened by her speech...
cant believe i sat thru all that.

me: I wanted to fucking go hold that sherlyn, give one tight slap to Rani n say
shuudddup u fucking ugly girl.. u n bikini?

Vimmuuu: lol
lol.
hehehhe

me: Speech ka toh mat puchhh... I mean STILL???? still that works...??? how how how

Vimmuuu: rani looks idiotic in the movie...she shud stop doing such movies...act her own age or somethng..
lol..

me: They took Rani cuz they jus had to put mustache.. baaki voice n all tho mard ka hi hai uska

Vimmuuu: but think...if this was supposed to release like 5 years ago, it wudve been a SRK movie...for sure IMO
it had SRK written all over it..
NRI returning to india..
father anupam..
rani heroine..
cricket..
i missed kiron kher as a punjabi mother though :D :D :D

me: It had SRK sucking Yash Raj written all over

Vimmuuu: lol

me: Adi opened his fucking zip, asked SRK to come n suck.. he went sucking but got throat cancer so they postponed the release n asked shahid to fill in .. thass it..

Vimmuuu: lol
ROFLMAO !!!!!
hhehehehehhee
that was toooo good

me: Mother fuckers I don know when they will come to their senses

Vimmuuu: i know..same shit over and over again..
im sick of watching punjabis on screen
lol

me: lemme write this in my blog..

Vimmuuu:u shud..
pls..
heheheh

me: I can be very abusive u know.. like u can guess by the chat.. i stop myself in blog
i was like thinking.. Dil Bole Gaand Mara

Vimmuuu: lol
hehehhehe
good one..

me: but... shucks I have some children reading me... and they don wanna see papa writing such stuff.....

Vimmuuu: ya...u cant write all those stuffs there

me: Children like U, Chintu, and others... hahahahhaah... all goody goody souls

Vimal: lol
hehehehhehehehe
i dont mind reading a post of urs that way..
but there are 'others'...like ur girl friend...does she read ur blog?

me: hardly
she gives a hoot to blogs...

Vimmuuu: lol..
but u shud..and another thing i dont understand is...he came to train..and looks like he trained only the sardar kid...the rest of the team played as usual...
:D

me: this goes in the review as well

Vimmuuu: lol..
did u finish it?

me: yups... like it was meant to be written

Wanted - Dead or Alive (A)

2009-09-19T03:46:00.006+05:30

An ‘A’ rated movie because of lot of gore and blood with Salman in lead was a good watch.

As Taran in his review said, it’s an absolute treat for Salman’s hard core fans and a factor of jealousy for his foes as this movie is surely a hit for Salman after a long time. I give a hoot to Taran and many reviewers like him who are biased; but I also acknowledge and appreciate few sane things they utter.

It doesn’t work only because of Salman but because of many powerful actors who are part of this movie about whom later in the post.

Now people will call me biased too if they read my last post. Let me for once clarify I am Salman’s fan and I love him to the heart but when it comes to judging him in a movie or reviewing a movie of his, I (like always was) am unbiased and put forth all the aspects. Why? If you remember I thrashed ‘Wanted’ songs sometime back stating not worth one listen except one. I am fair when I got to judge a product as whole.

Wanted per story is nothing new, no rocket science and no path breaking. Clichéd to the guesses by promo and pretentious at places. Especially at the places when our Salman boy is shown way too much than necessary. He is all-pervading, with different attire, different hair, different expressions. Probably too much Vodka flowed whilst the shoot (nothing new, pun intended). You see him all debonair in one scene and the very next one shows his swollen face and unkempt hair; the attire being same. But did that stop the pageant? Nopes. None at all. He was everywhere, entertaining at his best. I remembered his Judwaa and Hello Brother days whenever I found him spooky, unreasonable but lovable; a lot more sobered in histrionics though than Judwaa and Hello Brother days.

I have not seen the earlier two versions of it (Pokiri-Telugu with Mahesh Babu and Pokiri-Tamil with Vijay), but I had been fed with all the details of those two when they were released. I am a follower of all language cinema; I might not watch all other language movies but I do follow them someway. When Pokiri was released in Telugu, it ran for 365 days (1 year) in 200 theaters and Mahesh Babu (who married our effervescent Namrata Shirodkar) became an established star. When Vijay in Tamil donned the same role he was booed even by his fans I hear. Tamil Cinema has much more presence and audience than a Telugu one so people in conclusion called Tamil one a dud.

But, those Tamilians who had not watched Telugu version loved Vijay and Pokiri-Tamil. And the same goes for me. I haven’t seen either and I loved ‘Wanted’. There might be people who hated/loved both the earlier versions and either of them in vice versa ways; the point I am making is ‘Wanted’ is unashamedly a reprieve from craps churning out last few months (post the strike especially).

Original (Telugu) was directed by Jagannath. Prabhudeva directed Tamil version which was a disaster in unison contrary to the box-office (Why? Eevn Kambakht Ishq, RNBDJ and for god sake GHAJINI are called hits) results. Raja Sen, reviewer on rediff (who for last one year seem to be transformed from a biased bhenchod to now not-mincing) accepted the fact that ‘Wanted’ is a much better watch than ‘Ghajini’.

It also works because of Prakash Raj (Winner of this year’s National Award for Best Actor) as a hate-to-love Villain (yeah, not love-to-hate). HE IS AWESOME. He played the villain in all the 3 versions and is one of the best things that happened to Pokiri and Wanted. Govind Namdeo as honest Commissioner is like always; restrained and giving. Mahesh Manjrekar (who nowadays believes in showcasing his acting skills than his direction) as a corrupt cop is what you call love-to-hate types. His one of the best. Manoj Pahwa who enthralled in his ‘Aaloo Chaat’ movie brought us few laughs (if not more than Aaloo Chaat) in this as well. Vinod Khanaa was visible from the beginning but hardly with any feel till I realized his importance in the end and his ultimate dialogue towards the climax. Cameos by Anil Kapoor, Govinda and director Prabhudeva himself make this one an eventful.

I kept Ayesha Takia for the last as I have been reading some really bad reviews on her. Come on, this is not done. As far as I remember, I do not remember even a single bad performance of hers since her debut in Socha Na Tha. Officially crowned as the most natural one after Kajol, Ayesha was like always. Is that a problem she is beautiful unlike Kajol; in the sense a beautiful one cannot act? Huh! And if the grouse is on the lead and the director for showing her as nothing but caricature; then let me say once for all even if that was a caricaturist she came out flying.

I wish to say more but I will stop it now. I have given my reasoning and I am done. I might prefer someone than other but his/her product will be put on the same pedestal. Do watch it if you feel like and enjoy if your mind agrees to.

P.S. And like my earlier reviews I have not spoken of the story at all. That kills any review. I talk of instances and performances and the entertainment and I spoke the same.

Yada Yada Yada... ... ...

2009-09-17T02:28:00.006+05:30

Shah Rukh Khan (Hypocrite Hyena), Aamir Khan (Cunning Chutiya). Salman is the only KHAN who rocks. ALWAYS. Rest all shud shove their ass up each other including Dutts, Roshans, Akshay Kumars, Imrans n Shahids. Salman is the BEST. Matter Over. Khallas. Period.

Though I loved SRK all my life, his attitude SUCKS now. Though I loved Aamir all my life, he sucks as whole now. Though I loved Akshay Kumar last 7 years, he is a confused asshole sandwiched in his thinking between SRK n Aamir all of sudden which I cannot fathom. Though I loved Sanjay Dutt more than any other actor, I strongly believe, he wasn't worth it. Though I loved Hrithik and Shahid last few years, I firmly feel they do not deserve it. I mentioned Ranbir n Imran for others as they seem to be popular. I personally never liked them an iota.

P.S. I am extremely busy at work front so wrote this random article. However, I am writing an Iconic Series on Bollywood which is surely gonna be covered in at least 10 posts. Meanwhile, I thought of reminding my leftover (bachhe khuche) readers that I am alive and I shall be soon reading you all.

I will surely write a short one like this on Female-Actors soon.

Yada (the title of this post) is the word used by my friend when nothing substantial is being conversed. So chosen. Was it Emotional Atyachaar at its best?

P.P.S. And the Bachchans... I won't even consider them in this post. They in whole deserve a separate post.

Quick Gun Murugun, India's Got Talent and Kaminey

2009-08-21T02:10:00.004+05:30

This is a Quickie on Musics, TV Shows and Movies I have been engaged into.

Music:

I have been listening to songs of Daddy Cool, Fox, Quick Gun Murugun, Toss, Wake Up Sid and Wanted since Monday and have come to conclusion that only Quick Gun Murugun (QGM) is worth investing time and money.

The QGM album is mischievous, slapstick, hilarious and hummable. Composed by Sagar, Raghu Dixit and Vijay Prakash, the album has 13 songs. Lyrics are by Ankur Tewari and Shellee. The music has huge doses of Tamil, Telugu and Kannada songs with unusual lyrics affixed. Sample this: “Kyon Keeda Hai Aapko”, “Naam Mera Mango Dolly”, “Chat Mangni Lover”, “Kuchi Kuchi Twist” et al. The whole album is a laughter bomb to say the least. 4 On 5 easily. Go for it.

Daddy Cool is utter crap and borrows lot from earlier Bollywood movies. I cannot even make out from which movies these songs have been copied, but copied for sure. 0 On 5.

Toss and Fox are ignorable too. Wake Up Sid is fresh and simple. With 6 songs, the album can easily be forgotten though. 3 On 5 for Wake Up Sid. Wanted is a typical Masala album. With 7 Original tracks and 5 of them remixed, it is just about ok. Nothing to rave about. 2 On 5.

As I started writing this, played songs of Whats Your Rashee. Album seems to be ok so with title song stealing the show. Sohail Sen (do not know if he has any earlier songs to his credit) has a catchy voice. 12 Original tracks with just one repeated is a great deal.

Television:

I have been quite busy last 3 weeks and have been missing out on reality shows I spoke about in my earlier post. However, I am catching India’s Got Talent on its website http://www.indias-got-talent.com/ and enjoying the show. The finalists have been chosen and now everyone is waiting for the finals to begin. If you still have not watched it, please do start now. The show which is based on Britain’s Got Talent has brought out the talent in open from unknown/unheard parts of our country. It has lived to its name so far. Yes, I have my own favorites but I believe in let best talent win.

Movies:

Saw Kaminey and was bowled. Something of this stature from India is definitely commendable. I have been reading at many places that what’s the fuss? Let me explain the fuss. Many people liked it and many did not. Those who liked probably can be put into two categories. There are those who judge performances, dialogues, setting and the whole treat given to the film (I fall in this category). They just do not look for entertainment. They do not have any favorites per se. They weigh the film in its totality and pass judgment. And then there are those who want a good entertainer (be it coming out of their favs or not). They are not interested in knowing what all bars movie has outshined. They believe in good returns of their money invested.

Those who did not like can be classified in 2 categories too. The first ones are just plain cynical. "If world liked, let me say I did not like." (Shobhaa De comes here). They have no valid reason for not liking. Shobhaa in her review says “How can a Marathi girl be called Sweety. I haven’t met any Maharashtrian girl who is called Sweety?” Can you believe, that is one of the reasons she cited for not liking the movie. I always knew she was cynic but this cynic. Wow. Isn’t she the one who praised New York to heavens and adorned it with 4 stars? Poor she, can’t even understand a knowledgeable cinema. The second types in this category are those who are honest to themselves and people around. If they do not like any movie, they have their own valid reasons for that.

What I feel about Kaminey is that you might not agree with it at few places or it might exasperate you but no way can you say it is bad cinema. Those who say so are lying from their teeth.

Kaminey has been touted as the one on the lines of Tarantino work. And I agree completely. The movie is heavily influenced by Tarantino’s line of work. Those who have seen Pulp Fiction will understand what I am saying. Even the enormously famous Dhan Te Nan song has a Pulp Fiction touch in it. Yes, Vishal is inspired. He has always been honest about it. This is his tribute to Indian Audiences and I personally feel owed about it. I never thought I will ever see such a cinema made in our country in my lifetime. This is not the end. I might say something akin to something new altogether. It’s just a beginning. Bravo Vishal and Team.

Jhatpat Tag

2009-08-14T00:17:00.004+05:30

Ava tagged me in another one.

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4.

'Sorry to ask again, but a cricket shop in a temple complex? Who will buy?'

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can & catch air?

Office Guidelines sheet stuck in my cubicle.

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?

Sleepy Hollow (7 days ago). Haven’t watched TV since then. Missing those reality shows I love.

4. Without looking, guess what time it is?

23.45

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?

23.57

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?

Girl in next bay talking on her cell phone (Damn, can’t hear what exactly she is yakking)

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?

I came to work. At work, I stepped outside cubicle to bring water.

8. Before you started this Q&As, what did you look at?

Browsed through various News websites (a routine)

9. What are you wearing?

T-Shirt and Jeans (Shawl kept aside in case it gets cold)

10. When did you last laugh?

This morning at a PJ. I love PJs. PJ was: Teacher: Sam, What is skin of tree called? Sam: No idea Sir. Teacher: Bark, Sam Bark. Sam: Bow, Wow, Wow!!!

11. What is on the walls of the room you are in?

In Cubicle I have many sheets pinned. At home in my room, nothing except a huge mirror.

12. Seen anything weird lately?

An IDOL with a mask (A Swine Flu Joke)

13. What do you think of this quiz?

Total fun. I love Quizzes.

14. What is the last film you saw?

Gran Torino

15. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?

A Private Jet and a Home in Istanbul.

16. Tell me something about you that I dunno!

U r one of my Close and Best friends. Yes, U did not know this yet.

17. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?

Poverty and chauvinism.

18. Do you like to Dance?

Absolutely

19. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?

Vivein or Ava

20. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call her?

Agastya

21. Would you ever consider living abroad?

Yes, Istanbul, Israel or Russia.

22. What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?

I want you to go back.

I Tag Mystique, Bhargav and Poonam.

AB...Z's

2009-08-13T00:05:00.005+05:30

I was busy. Very busy. I am back. Have many posts to read (if possible comment). I have no enthu to write on anything. Have decided to do the tags for sometime... So, please tag me wherever you feel like... Bring it on.

Ava tagged me in this:

A – Available/Single?
Available for one night sit/stands…Single forever.

B – Best friend?
Close - 4 friends, Best - Don’t know, Keeps changing per situation amongst those 4 close ones.

C – Cake or Pie?
None.

D – Drink of choice?
In order of preference: Water, Bacardi, Chivas, Vodka, All Beers, Red Wines.

E – Essential item you use every day?
Cell Phone.

F – Favorite colour?
Black.

G – Gummy Bears or Worms?
Gummy Worms...Heehaw.

H – Hometown
Bangalore, Patna, Delhi, and Varanasi.

I – Indulgence?
Movies, Books, Drinks while doing any of them.

J – Jealous or Benign?
Benign.

K – Kids & their names?
No Kids.

L – Life is incomplete without?
Me of course…. My life is incomplete without me (Ava said same).

M – Marriage date?
Not married and won’t happen.

N – Name? Your real name!
Vivek.

O – Oranges or Apples?
Neither. I like only Guavas in fruits.

P – Phobias/Fears?
Getting Paunch, Losing limbs/eyes, oh there are many.

Q – Quote for today?
I am alive, I am happy.

R – Reason to smile?
Depends.

S – Season?
Winter.

T – Tag 3 People?
Rakesh Bhai, Rakesh V, and Abhishek

U – Unknown fact about me?
I walk in sleep (sometimes)

V – Vegetable you don’t like?
All except Potato and Brinjal

W – Worst habit?
Lazy and Restless. How’s that for oxymoronic

X – X-rays?
Yes. Both Hands, Backbone.

Y – Your favorite food?
None in particular. Eating is waste of time.

Z – Zodiac sign?
Aquarius.

Indian Television Post Ekta Era

2009-07-29T19:35:00.006+05:30

Ekta ruled Indian Television for good 10 years or so and made fortune by making monkey-ass out of us viewers. I do not know if she has totally lost the touch but I can say for sure that number of shows coming out of her production house is negligible. Currently, reality shows have taken a whole new look and are intimating some or the other. Many have found Star Plus’s Sach Ka Saamna a nerve-racking one, whereas Sony’s Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao is touted as a skin show if not just freakish and scary. NDTV Imagine’s Rakhi Ka Swayamvar is still not digestible to many and is looked down. How can she do that? It is just a gimmick of making money out of a marriage. Rakhi is cheap and her show is cheapness personified. And many such comments have been made. I find all this a tad too irrational and a lot more hypocritical. Time and again it has been established that we Indians are the hypocritical ones and when it comes to Television, nothing and absolutely nothing which is made/re-produced in our country goes without a hostile response.

I find nothing wrong with the above three reality shows. I have never been an Idiot Box fanatic but a good entertainment at the end of day doesn’t do any harm. I have enjoyed just one show (MTV Roadies) in last 6-7 years post Buniyaad/Nukkad/Fauji/Swabhimaan days. And unlike many others, I have always admitted of catching few episodes of Saas-Bahu saga from Ekta factory. How can I demean them if I do not see them and critic myself? Also, upon finding them utterly uninteresting I have stopped but never made a judgment on those who continue to watch, again, unlike many others.

As I said, these reality shows might be scripted but I do not find them obscene and vulgar. What I find disturbing is that plethora of women/girl-centric television serials have found a foothold after Ekta K-Series. If Ekta promoted debauchery, infidelity, multiple marriages, multiple re-incarnations, these newbies are flaunting ‘How women/girl should be treated as in our society?’ I saw one such show called Ghar Ki Laadli Betiyaan whilst surfing between Iss Jungle and Sach Ka. This was being aired on Zee TV. I thought of stopping for a minute or two but ended up seeing till the end because I could not believe what I was seeing. I was quite bothered after seeing that show for 20 mins or so.

Father-in-law along with his two sons is standing knee-deep in a small river and is about to do his own Shraddh. Both his daughter-in-laws are standing on the shore and are crying. He is furious and angry with his younger son’s wife. He says, “ Tum sab apni marzi ke maalik ho gaye ho. Mera marr jaana hi achha hai.” No where it shows he is sad and being ill-treated. Incidentally, he comes across as an egoist, stubborn and conceited. The elder son then starts shouting and blames the younger one for not keeping his wife under control and blames him and his wife for the on goings. All this while, younger one doesn’t speak or defends himself or his wife. Father continues to pour the ashes in the water.

How a person who is alive could throw his own ashes and conducts his own shradhh is a different thing to laugh about. Anyways, so finally the youngest daughter-in-law, who is supposedly the culprit breaks in, takes small quantity of water in both her hands and says, “Thik hai. Mai is nirmal jal ko sakshi maanke kasam khaati hun ki aaj se mai koi bhi nirnay akele nahi lungi. Mera koi bhi nirnay aapse bina puchhe nahi hoga. Agar kabhi aapko laga ki maine aapki marzi ke khilaaf kuchh bhi kiya toh mera mara muh dekhenge.” Her husband still says nothing. Father-in-law content after hearing this comes out of water. I was quite appalled at this. Women still are being shown as home bound, children raising sex objects. They cannot have opinions and decisions of their own. Still? Ekta had not done enough damage I guess; now these people have taken it on them to finish it off.

I spoke to my mother and sister after this and they filled me in with many such serials being screened these days. Majority of them are showing women in contemptible and low-priced fashion (Agale Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo, Uttaran et al) and if not that they are shouting from roof top child marriage can work out if the family is well off (Balika Vadhu). What the hell. I find all these disturbing and alarming and not the reality show which are most often scripted but still enjoyable. I can surely switch off or move to next channel and I suggest those who find reality shows offending to do the same but in my case I am not taking back anything from the show after it’s over. However, the ones I mentioned above are clearly throwing wrong signals and many people are indeed catching them and implementing them. These shows must be banned or must be toned down.

Coming back to the aforementioned reality shows, Sach Ka Saamna (Copy of American show Moment of Truth which in turn was based on Columbian Show) has created a furor everywhere. Parliamentarians want it go off air citing various reasons which I cannot fathom and find juvenile. Can I not then rationalize my standing by stating watching someone revealing his/her secrets on national television is much more interesting than watching the same very politicians throwing chappals and shoes at each other right under the nose of the speaker. And that did not happen long ago. Two days ago in J&K assembly, similar story was repeated. Isn’t that sending wrong signals everywhere? Why target TV? People who are participating are adults and aware of what are they getting into. Their family and friends accompany them most of the times and even they take this in their stride (at least on screen). So, what’s the big deal if two or more people in mutual consent decide to rip off their innermost details to the world. The world can watch, enjoy and ignore or go to sleep; but no ways banning it is the way out.

Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao is a copy of Popular British show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here wherein celebrities live in jungle for a period of two months with basic human necessities and have to go through horrendous tasks to earn the good hearty meal else they will be fed just rice and soup. Once again, moralists are up against it. The show is obscene and vulgar as female contestants are being shown taking the shower in open wrapped in minimal clothing. This is their argument. It is jungle and things are supposed to be the way it is in jungle. You cannot have four walled wrap for a shower in jungle. When basic necessities are provided in smallest quantity and contestants are bothered about their next meal, which animal is going to fuck their brain in the next task, how they will survive another day in jungle with no amenities after living a life of a celeb, moralists are complaining about the skin show and the shower in jungle sitting in their comfy home.

A lot has been said about Rakhi Ka Swayamvar. I found the show or tamasha as few called it a total time pass. The show seemed a dud in the first two episodes, probably because the Rakhi we saw was not the Rakhi we knew. She came across as a coy and quiet unlike her blatant self. I will not go into the details of the show and the 16 prospects that came from different parts of country (world) to woo the item girl. But surely I will cite out few scenarios/dialogues and stuff like that. To state the facts, the show is a super hit. No matter what people say, Rakhi and the channel have raked moolah like there is no tomorrow. Rakhi and her mannerisms were nothing less than hysterical at times. But then that’s Rakhi. Sab chalta hai. I find it very irritating when people voice their opinions in complete off-putting mode. Isn’t it a very basic thing to understand and implement that what she is doing is her decision and how she does that is her choice. What is the need of character assassination? If you do not like the content of the show or whatever that is shown, criticize that but generalizing a person’s character based on it is a big put off for me. She is not very fluent in English and sometimes her grammar and pronunciations are off-mark, but she has voluntarily accepted the fact eons ago and prefers to talk in Hindi. Still, I see people making fun of her. The same people, seeing an interview/performance of a non-english speaking actor with subtitles below go gaga about the person’s intelligence or beauty and find no flaw. Even in corporate world I have seen most of the European executives signing off in their local language. Why single out Rakhi? Another case put forth often is she is cheap-slut and a drama queen. So? What harm her drama is doing to you or your life or your character? She is flamboyant, just the way Nandita Das is not or Sherlyn Chopra is. Big deal. So what if she keeps harping on how sad her childhood was or how she doesn’t get along with her parents and how much she had to struggle to come up in life? She says she has not compromised a bit and has done no wrong to survive so far. I will believe that on face value. I am not supposed to do anything beyond that. Did not Salman’s fans forgive him on his face value when he said he has not committed any crime? I did not forgive him or accused him. For me, it doesn’t matter whether he committed crime or not. It’s his 3 hrs presence for which I can judge him. Same goes for Rakhi and whoever. People should just stop being judgmental and mind their own personal life than murdering the disposition of others.

Which brings me to the conclusion, all those moralists/parliamentarians/public should stop deciding on my behalf what to watch and what not to. I would also say, if they feel those women-demeaning serials are giving them a kick, please carry on. I did say those should be banned instead of reality shows, but each to his own I say. You enjoy your drama; I will dance on my routine.

Something To Say

2009-07-22T18:47:00.005+05:30

Thanks for the little mercies, I have something to post. Ava presented me with this award. I have 6-7 topics at any point of time running through my mind which goes up to 12-13 when I am high under influence of alcohol; but I am super duper lazy to put them in words. I always have something to say. If I talk of last couple of weeks or so, I had so many things to write on. I wanted to write on decriminalization of Homosexuality and the reverse of it that followed; the ongoing Ashes Test Series; Rakhi ka Swayamvar; Rita-Maya feud; and more such blahs. Sometimes I have started but stopped after 2 or 3 sentences and that has prepared the posts in my draft to 43 as of today (almost close to the number of posts I wrote in last one year). Also, I have realized that nothing gives me more pleasure than watching World Cinema and writing on Cinema which constitutes 95% of my posts.

Anyways, here I go and flaunt my award which Ava gave me. This also comes with few rules and set ups:

The rules that follow are as follows:

* Link the person who tagged you
* The display of award on your blog with these rules
* Reply to the questions
* Tag 7 people deserving the award according to you
* Come back to BLoGGiSTa iNFo CoRNeR (PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THIS LINK) at http://bloggistame.blogspot.com/ and leave the URL of your Post in order for you/your Blog to be added to the Master List

My Answers to the questions:

* The Person who tagged you : Ava
* His/her site’s url http://thepinkbee.blogspot.com/
* Date when you were tagged: 18th July 09
* My top 7 fav blogs….in alphabetical order

Ava – She has three (or may be 4) blogs but I like ‘The Pink Bee’ the best. She changed the template recently making it more apposite to the name given to the blog. Never to mince words, she has been inspiration to me as a writer since Mouth Shut days for saying things the way they are without being impolite (impolite part I am still trying to overcome)

Bhargav – A fellow movie enthusiast whose reviews are unbiased and succinct. He is quite young to be that knowledgeable about the yesteryears of Hindi Cinema. I sometimes see my adolescent days in his writings.

Garbles (Mystique Dew) – When it comes to being funny and sardonic, she is the best. She writes once in a blue moon but the wait is absolutely worth it.

Rakesh – The versatile writer. A fellow movie fanatic as well. He can write on anything and everything. Of late we have started sharing our bachpan ke days of watching movies on DD National/VCR/Theater. Now, he can say he saw his adolescent in mine.

Sam – Straight friendly gay blogger. A very honest, down to earth and talented blogger. He has got the nicest template and amazing header done for his blog. And whether he shares his unhappiness for movie ‘Dostana’ or talks of 377, he comes out thoroughly genuine.

Smita – Be it Books/Life in general/Movies/Music or Salman, words come easily to her and her posts are utterly engaging. Also, she is the one who pulled me into Blogosphere with her constant nagging which actually was nothing but harassment.

Vimmuuu – When we started interacting on each other’s posts, we realized we for sure are twins on Blogosphere. We now have stopped sharing the likes and dislikes as almost everything came out alike; yes including our love for certain Rakhi Sawant.

OST - Kaminey

2009-07-07T03:00:00.005+05:30

Vishal Bhardwaj who shot to fame as a composer of Maachis in 1996 has come a long way. Since then he has established himself as a composer, lyricist, singer, director, and writer. Kaminey is his 6th movie as director nevertheless he has composed music for more than 30 movies so far. He composed the music of all the movies he directed except Blood Brothers which was one of the four short films for Mira Nair’s AIDS Jaago Films.

Review of OST – Kaminey:

Dhan Te Nan:

Singer(s): Sukhwinder Singh, Vishal Dadlani and Robert Bob Omulo – Ranting and Raving already all over. It is the promotional song of Kaminey. The song was out on youtube with still pictures of Shahid and Priyanka to compensate for but listening in to OST is another experience altogether. Sukhwinder and Vishal in duet (first time I guess) harmonize perfectly. Throw RAP by Robert and you have song of the album. 5 on 5.

Pehli Baar Mohabbat:

Singer: Mohit Chauhan – He is every composer’s choice for the soft number post Khoon Chala (RDB) and Tum Se Hi (Jab We Met). If these two gave him recognition, Kuchh Khaas (Fashion) gave him absolute credibility. The guy doesn’t go wrong. This song is not in league of his earlier ones mentioned above including my absolute favorite of his Gunchaa Koi (Main, Meri Patni aur Woh) and Gulon Mein (Sikandar); he is perfect though for the beautiful lyrics of Pehli Baar Mohabbat penned by eminent Gulzar. 3.5 on 5.

Fatak:

Singer(s): Sukhwinder Singh and Kailash Kher – This song will remind you of the title track of Omkara. The commencement with the repeated use of word Fatak is direct musing of Omkara. Only when Kailash joins the song starts to find its own holding, although unsuccessfully. Sorry, Omkara’s title is too strong a remembrance; still. 2.5 on 5.

Kaminey:

Singer: Vishal Bhardwaj – The next best track after Dhan Te Nan is the title which Vishal kept for himself. After singing in Omkara, No Smoking and U, Me Aur Hum, he is once again at his best with title song. He never fails to impress. 5 on 5.

Go Charlie Go:

Singer: None - It’s the theme music of the movie on the lines of Dhan Te Nan. On first hear you can visualize it as a dark night/a chase/a con in progress/anything. 4 on 5.

Raat Ke Dhai Baje:

Singer(s): Rekha Bhardwaj, Suresh Wadkar, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kunal Ganjawala – Vishal’s wife Rekha [last heard in Genda Phool (Dilli-6) and Ranaji (Gulaal)] along with missing in action for sometime Kunal and Suresh render a different version of Pehli Baar Mohabbat. This will strike a chord of Beedi Jalaile (Omkara) but only if you mull over the lyrics. The composition is singular. 4 on 5.

The next two tracks are remixes of Dhan Te Nan and Raat Ke Dhai Baje.
Vishal is known for incorporating some distinctive Hindi words while working with Gulzar and Kaminey is no different. Not much proficient with Hindi might find it difficult to comprehend few words. Overall, the album is creative and worth a collection. On the whole 4 on 5.

Me and Cinema - Part 2

2009-06-30T03:38:00.010+05:30

Continued from Part 1

The seeds of frenzy for cinema were sown.

My father held that position for a good 4 years till he was transferred to Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh. In those 4 years, I watched close to 250 movies. I had a small notebook maintained of the movies I watched beside other details like cast, director, date of watching et al.

Eventually, new releases started hitting the defense theater as well. The first movie ever which I saw on the first day of release was Govinda’s Ilzaam and incidentally it was his debut movie as well. I do not remember much of that but same year Govinda had another release, Love 86http://blessed-curse.blogspot.com/2009/04/me-and-cinema-part-1.html and I saw that movie 3 times. Govinda instantly took over from Mithun as my favorite. Mithun and his Disco Dancer had left a massive impression on me and those days I could be found fighting with my brother for his stance that Amitabh Bachchan can kill Mithun with one punch. There were no arguments on who is better actor; that did not matter to us then as I recall now. There used to be just fights between us for who can defeat whom if they get in a brawl. Another point I used to put forward was Mithun is a good dancer and Amitabh cannot dance at all. For which my brother retorted with this: Mithun is Nachaniya (slang for cross dressers who dance in weddings up north) and Amitabh is real MARD.

All the time he said this, I did something horrible to him (apart from the ongoing punches and kicks we exchanged). Once, while playing in school during interval, I pronto jumped at him, snatched his glasses and threw far away and ran like hell. Or like pulling his knicker down during the assembly, stuffing his lunchbox with sand, emptying his water bottle.

And all this because of he had bad mouthed Mithun.

Govinda after that movie was my favorite for sometime till I saw a movie released much earlier than Love 86. It was Vinod Khann’s Hera Pheri. Well, it was Amitabh’s too but I was never Amitabh's fan. I had seen other movies of Vinod but Hera Pheri transformed me into a bona fide fan of his. And I knew I was his only fan. No one and I say as a matter of fact, no one in my vicinity ever said that Vinod is their favorite. If few did vouch for Mithun or Govinda, no one mentioned Vinod. I now know I was yet to meet some people who were sensible enough to appreciate what an actor he was and thankfully I do now know many such people and particularly few ladies who appreciate a lot more in him than his persona. I know one such who still gets weak-kneed speaking of him.

When it came to heroines, I was absolutely besotted with Sri Devi from then till now. I need a whole different post to talk of her. So, I am going to talk of other few who enormously caught my interest. There was Neetu Singh and her gleaming smile. Dekh Ke Tumko Dil Dola Hai song had three couples; Vinod and Neetu amongst them but not paired opposite. I was not so happy with that information. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoy that song (if not the movie) even now when I see it on some channel.

Bollywood then always came up with movies which were like mind puzzles. Whose son/daughter was born where, raised by whom, finally ending where to avenge whatever crime that was committed by whomever gazillion years ago? And I enjoyed all of them. One such was Dharamveer starring Dharamendra, Zeenat, Jeetendra and Neetu. Chuck all, Neetu was the one for me.

Amrita Singh was another who caught my fancy. I was upset with Mayapuri for calling her ‘Mard Singh’ and I was overtly glad few years later when Jackie Shroff called her the ‘Real Princess’. I am not sure if it was Jackie or someone else. I remember reading that though. Whoever it was knew the real her like I always knew.

As I grew older, I also criticized these very favorites of mine (Mithun, Vinod, Neetu, Amrita) for their idiotic roles and bizarre performances. I knew then, I cannot be anyone’s fan just for the sake of it. I found myself to be blatant in my opinion by the age of 10.

The seeds of unprejudiced position for performances were sown.

P.S. A little diversion here: I am not liking the posts/blogs written on MJ's death and how sad people who are writing these are after hearing he is finished.

When he was alive, none of these people wrote post/blog on 'how good an artiste he was' but post his death everyone seems to be mourning his death out of no where. Be it Shekhar Kapoor, Ram Gopal Varma, Adnan Sami or my fellow blog mates; everyone seems to get up from sleep to say something about him. I like anyone else grew up on his music but I never captured him in my writings all this while; so I see no reason to imprison him in my words post his demise.

I commiserate the sentiment of those who spoke of him. In fact, I did go and comment on few of the blogs which spoke of MJ’s death; but I did that out of friendship with the blogger friend who wrote the piece. I do not wish to offend anyone here by saying this; nonetheless I am finding it very uncanny to read plethora of piece upon his death.

Pakistan All The Way

2009-06-22T01:46:00.009+05:30

Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka to win the ICC Twenty20 World Cup Trophy in it’s second season. Pakistan who lost the inaugural final to India in 2007 demonstrated how good they are the team in a match which they almost lost at the end of 15th Over. Cricbuzz reporters after that over wrote: Only Pakistan is capable of losing at this point and only Sri Lanka is capable of not winning from this point. What an ironical statement but I guessed that summed up how Asian teams ultimately choke at the Nth moment. India leads at that is my theory and I stand by it. However, at the end of 17th over it could have been anyone’s game. Many lost faith in Afridi, who by now had just managed to gather 1 or 2 runs if not notorious boundaries and high-flying ones for which he is better known as.

I have been Pakistan Cricket fan since they were defeated by India in 1996 World Cup quarter finals at Chinnaswamy in Bangalore. It was the first ever live match I had seen, despite the fact I was in mid of my Class X board exams and ‘Science’ was 2 days after that unforgettable match. I was over the moon for India’s triumph but I had my heartfelt sympathy for the losing team. I was just 15 then to settle on a favorite. Back then, I had always gone by the fact I am Indian and I need to show my hold up for them. How naïve that was I sense now. As I grew up, I prepared myself for the predictable; wherein, I will be questioned for my beliefs. However, when I still see people holding up to any one for sheer emotional stance, I cringe if their reasoning is not strong enough but I have stopped confronting them.

When Pakistan reached the final of 1999 world cup and were brutally assaulted by the formidable Australian team I was disappointed as a fan. Nevertheless, I also knew they lost to the best side of that time. It was Lord’s and today at the same ground they defeated Sri Lanka and winning by the same number of wickets Australia had won against them 10 years ago, ghosts are finally laid to the rest after that ghastly loss.

Younis Khan in his most emotional statement ever said before the finals that this win is very important for them and their trouble torn country. Winning is all that is in our mind, he said. And I second that. A momentary happiness but they have something to exult on. And the man who achieved this, of course with the helping hands of other team members is Shahid Afridi. He was the part of the loss in 1999 and he is part of the win in 2009. I cannot see any other sportsman at this moment more joyous than him. He was in his best form throughout and keeping his calm (which is unlikely of him) was appreciable in the close fought match at Lord’s today. The team owes it to him or maybe he was paying back. I remember watching India vs Pakistan Test Match at Chinnaswamy Stadium in 2005 and that’s the only one test match I ever saw live on all the five days. Once, Afridi was fielding at the boundary and I could see him very clearly. Indian crowd booed him endlessly and also threw mouthful of maa-behen ki gaalis at him. I was aghast. Why? Why were my countrymen doing that? Afridi reacted to it by raising his water bottle in the gesture that suggested “Shove it up”. Indians went berserk and gave another round of mouthful. Finally, he was moved to different position; much inside the boundary.

Indians were about to be defeated by then. I tried to reason my mind by thinking the inevitable loss which was about to happen could be the reason for people to behave in such contemptible manner. I was wrong. The public was not bothered about our defeat. I found out; We just love to hate Pakistan Cricket team. I did not like that idea. I was speaking to my classmates after the match and they did not find anything wrong with how few Indians had behaved that day. It was all unsettling for me. I kept my mouth shut. But today I won’t. I have always found them a better team than us. Why I emphasize on 'us' is because all this while I had supported them in mind but this is first time ever I supported them so blatantly and I went into countless arguments for this. For me, It doesn’t matter what Pakistan as a country comes across as to the world and India in particular. When I inadvertently blurted ‘Bhai Log Achha Khel Rahe Hain’ in Pakistan’s favor against their semi-final match against South Africa, a friend in point of fact got hurt by that statement of mine and asked me how could I use term ‘Bhai Log’ for Pakis. For me it was irrelevant, I said it as I would have said ‘buddy’ or ‘yaar’; but he by then had got really upset. I find that stupid. They are my favorites and I have followed their game enigmatically all these years. How can anyone take that away from me? Supporting Pakistan cricket team is not a crime for heaven’s sake. They deserved to win and they did win. End of Story.

Britain's Got Talent, DVD Rental and Bangalore's Night Life

2009-06-02T04:33:00.008+05:30

Street dancers Diversity won this year’s Britain’s Got Talent. IMO, they deserved to win after that scintillating dance act in the finals. 48-year old Hairy Angel Susan Boyle for the finals sang “I Dreamed A Dream”, same song which made her an instant star after the first round. Initially ridiculed for her appearance and later for Everything-is-planned ploy which also included the planned shock reaction of audiences and judges alike, she decided to quit the show mid-way. However, she stayed on and came second in the third season of Britain’s Got Talent. I loved her singing but I guess she was hyped way too much. That apart, she has got impressive voice.

My personal favorites Shaheen Jafargholi and Stavros Flatley did enter final but could not reach the final three. In particular twelve year old Shaheen was an absolute delight to hear. Like Susan, he too chose the song he sang in the first round; Michael Jackson’s “Who’s Loving You” and boy was he good? He was enormously attention-grabbing. Greek Irish father-son duo of Stavros Flatley completely entertained with their uncanny dance manner.

Other findings which I enjoyed were: 10-year old Natalie Okri and 11-year old Aidan Davis. Natalie rocked with Jamelia’s Superstar song and Aidan wowed everyone with his delightful dance.

Thanks to talent.itv.com and live commentary by Sujoy on his blog, I was able to watch all these great acts on internet. There were many more amazing performances; I have listed only my favorites.

In my last post, many people asked me the source of those movies. Pirated? Downloaded? Well, nopes. I do not download them from net. I am way too impatient for that. And forget finding those movies in your local dvd library. I am member of DVD rental sites Seventymm and Bigflix. And that’s where I get the movies from. This doesn’t work out cheaper but ultimately I it’s worth it. I had been member of 70mm for over two years now. I am not too demanding, in the sense I do not look out for latest blockbusters or famous ones. I look out for movies which are hard to get otherwise and which we hardly get to hear of. There are so many movies being made all over the world and we get to hear of just 15-20%. Where else could I have seen Iranian/Korean/Mandarin/French/German/Persian/Spanish/Japanese et al language movies? In the name of foreign language films, all that gets released in India are the blockbusters of Hollywood, half of which I found absolute crap. Yes, I am talking of Superman/Spiderman, ye-man, wo-man, Harry Potter and many such. They might be having huge followings but I do not like such movies. Of late, the scene has changed and we do get to see some lesser known good ones releasing in India too, ‘The Revolutionary Road’ for example. Yet, the scene is pathetic when it comes to the release of Non-English movies in India.

Am I happy with them? I have heard from few friends from north that 70mm service sucks. Well, I haven’t found any reasons whatsoever so far to discontinue my membership. And definition of suck varies from one to another. My look-outs are usually the Non-English foreign language films and 70mm comes with a good collection of them. For English, I am trying to watch as many old classics as possible. I am going by the decade and I am still on 50s/60s/70s. I half-way through watching the movies of Marlon Brando, Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, Montgomery Clift, Paul Newman, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor et al. I do not see any other way to watch their movies as I yet cannot afford to buy DVDs of all these movies.

Serviceability too is an important factor, and my experience says these providers have improved a lot in last couple of years. Initially I did face few hiccups but I was patient. Bigflix I joined recently because I wasn’t getting few movies on 70mm. Though, 70mm remains my primary provider. Cinema Paradiso is another DVD rental site, but I haven’t checked out them. My queue in the former 2 is more than 100+ which will take some time to get exhausted. However, Cinema Paradiso is another good one if words of few of my friends are anything to go by.

I do not go by the fact which site provides maximum number of titles. What is the point if you have more number of titles but what you want to see is not there? These are web based, you can check out the kind of movies you wish to watch and decide whether you want to take the membership or not. Makes sense?

Btw, did I tell how Bangalore is progressing backwards? The deadline for pubs/clubs to remain open is 11.30 PM, killing the nightlife. And, not many know that dancing here in pubs/clubs is banned. This wasn't enough that the show timings of the movies have been revised and the last show of the day will be screened at 8 PM. Can anyone beat that? The last show here till now started by 10 PM and in order to reduce the crime (words of Shankar Bidari, Bangalore Police Commissioner), they have decided to end the show at the most by 11 PM for which the show must be at 8. Now, is that rational? I do not even wish to get into the pros and cons of this as I feel there are many people (working ones usually) who would prefer to go for late night show after day’s work. And if not just that, there could be hazaar other reasons. And why any reasons? Do not we have any say in anything? Ending up show 2 hours early than usual will reduce crime. Mashallah.

Quickie

2009-05-25T01:45:00.003+05:30

Facebook and Blogging took backseat, thanks to work. Phone calls and SMSes reduced but Books and Movies never lost their priority. Surprisingly, the number of movies I watched in last one month is almost double of what I watched in 2 months before that. And same goes for the books. I finished 4 books and started the 5th one 4 days back. IPL too was something which kept me away from the world. My favorites since the first edition of IPL (Delhi Daredevils) lost in semi-final, so I wasn't actually rooting for any particular team in finals. No, I am not amongst those who decide their favs based on the place they belong to or feel closer to. Bangalore played good cricket (in the later half of IPL-2) but they were(are) never in my top 3 list. However, I appreciate their game and the rise from nowhere to runner-ups and same goes for Deccans for showing the best of cricket and clinching the IPL-2 trophy.

Anyways, here goes short reviews of the movies I saw in last one month.

World Cinema: (English title in bracket)

Kurdish/Persian:

Niwemang (Half Moon) - *** - Mamo, a musician after seven months of hard labor to get approval to perform in Iraqi Kurdistan leaves for the final concert of his life along with his sons (9 or 10 they were). Along the way, he picks up a female singer Hesho. As women are not allowed to sing in public, they all get in to trouble with the police. Niwemang (Half-Moon), a girl who is a huge fan of Mamo suddenly appears out of nowhere and helps them in reaching the concert place on time.

Portuguese:

Cidade de Deus (City of God) - ****1/2 - If you run you're dead...if you stay, you're dead again. Period. That’s the tag line of the movie. It sums up the movie. One of the finest movies based on Mafia/Crime/Thriller, Cidade de Deus tells the story of a boy (Rocket from his point of view) as he gets entangled in the drugs, crime, and an ultimate rush to get away from it. A true story based in 60s and 70s of Brazil is a real cinema that would leave you with a lump in your throat.

German:

Gegen die Wand (Head-On) - ***1/2 – Part German and part Turkish movie Gegen die Wand is a romantic drama. Cahit is not so happy with his life and after getting drunk at a club, rams his car purportedly into the wall. He survives but has a support around neck. At the hospital he sees a girl (Sibel) staring at her. As soon as he walks out, the girl approaches him and asks him to marry her. He is shocked at the proposal. Sibel explains her reasoning and they get married. Quite strange eh? Watch the movie to realize how amazingly psychedelic it gets. Directed by celebrated director Fatih Akin, Head-On or Gegen die Wand is a fresh story.

Im Juli (In July) - ****1/2 – After Gegen die Wand I wanted to watch other movies of Fatih Akin and got hold of Im Juli. The story is spanned across the first 8 days of the month of July.

Daniel is a school teacher in Hamburg. He is not planning to go out of city for summer vacation. Juli (a vendor) has crush on him but she is too shy to tell him that. She finds a way out. She sells him a ring with a Sun on it. She tells him that he soon will meet a girl who will carry a sun too and that girl will understand him the most. Daniel sees a girl (Melek) wearing a t-shirt with sun imprinted on it. He befriends her. Melek, its soon revealed is from Turkey and is heading to Istanbul to meet her boyfriend. Juli sees them both and is dejected and decides to leave city for vacation. Coincidentally Daniel who by now has decided to follow Melek to the Istanbul gives her a ride when he sees Juli at the road which goes out of city. A marvelous and unexpected journey filled with unusual circumstances begin and things go out of hand. They get separated only to meet at Istanbul by when Daniel has already met Melek and in a surprising way her boyfriend before meeting her. It is a lovely story and was released in 2000. The emphasis on year is because after watching this, I have no doubts that Imtiaz Ali was totally inspired by it to make his ‘Jab We Met’. I was of a mind that JWM was an original story but I do not think so now. Our makers, mashallah.

Vals Im Bashir (Waltz with Bashir) - **** - Nominated this year for Oscars in the Best Foreign Film category, Vals Im Bashir is the first animated movie to achieve that honor. Ari, a director once is reminded by his friend about the Lebanon War they both were part of. Ari has long forgotten the war and do not have a single memory of that war. He is not suffering from Amnesia, he knows. Yet, there is no memory of that war. He starts looking for friends who were with him then and gives a picture to what he is told. The movie is a poignant drain. An absolute moving film.

French:

Les Quatre Cents Coups (400 Blows) - **** - Spoilt boy Antoine is a trouble maker and pain in ass for his parents and school teachers. Majorly misunderstood boy soon gets into minor crimes in the neighborhood. He spreads his wings of trivial crimes to the city (Paris). Paris is captured magnificently through the eyes of Antoine in this passionate drama.

Spanish:

Amores Perros (Love’s a Bitch) - ****1/2 – Three stories. Interconnected through a ghastly car accident. Motorcycle star Gael Garcia is in love with his brother’s wife and persuades her to run away with him. He gets his pet dog in a dog-fighting competition to make money so that he can run away with his beloved. A middle aged publisher abandons his family for the love of Spanish Supermodel. The model gets injured in the car accident which is caused by Gael Garcia. A homeless-moneyless ex-teacher who has a junk cart carrying stray dogs is the witness of this accident. There is much more to all this than said. I was absolutely overwhelmed with the great direction and brilliant performances by all.

Korean:

Bin-Jip (3-Iron) - ***1/2 – The protagonist has a peculiar way of living. He looks out for the houses which are empty (probably on vacation et al) and gets into the house secretly to live till the family is back. While staying, he takes care of the house like his own, washing clothes etc. Once, he gets into house absolutely unaware of the fact that the abused and assaulted wife is still there. He goes on living and she secretly watches him. Once he realizes that their life changes. The movie has minimal dialogues and is majorly conveyed through actions and emotions.

Hollywood:

Judgment at Nuremberg - **** - 3 years after World War – II, an American Court puts 4 Nazi Judges on trial for ill-doings during the Hitler’s regime. Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift come once again after ‘From Here To Eternity’ in this highly powerful movie. Clift has a cameo; however he goes onto win Nominations for the Best Supporting Actor at Oscars that year. The best part of the movie was the Actor Maximilian Schell (Won Best Actor-Oscar). A movie loaded with dominant performances and emotion.

In Bruges - *** - Nominated for the Best Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) at Golden Globes, In Bruges is a story of two hit men (Colin and Brendan) hired by Ralph to go to Bruges. Colin has a disturbing past of killing a young boy. The story thereafter follows their time spent in Bruges. Colin who got nominated for Best Actor at GG and ultimately won has moved from his eye-candy image and grown as an actor a la Di Caprio.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona - **1/2 - Woody Allen, The Moghul of sex-inclined movies comes with another tale of sexually-driven story of two female friends (Scarlett and Rebecca) who are on tour to Spain and their encounter with artiste couple (Penelope and Javier). Javier propositions Scarlett-Rebecca to accompany him for weekend to a distant city. Rebecca hesitates but Scarlett is totally smitten by him. They both eventually accompany and the trip and the return thereafter change everyone’s life including Javier’s wife Penelope.

Dot the I - ***1/2 - Another Gael Garcia’s movie. Natalia is engaged to James and on her Hen’s night (similar to Bachelor’s party), she is asked to participate in a tradition wherein she has to kiss a complete stranger. She kisses Gael who is sitting at the same restaurant. Soon, they fall in love and what ensues thereafter is an absolute treat for people who like thrillers with a pinch of drama and romance added.

Milk - **** - Everyone knows about Milk. Oscar winning movie about America’s first openly gay activist Harvey Milk (played by Sean Penn who got Best Actor Oscar for this role) who gets elected to California office and his fight for gay rights is an intense and emotional film. The film captures Milk’s life from the day he turned 40 till the time he was killed by his colleague Dan White, who was a conservative.

All The King’s Men - ***1/2 – Sean Penn plays smart and cunning Willie Stark, elected governor who is up against the riches and upper classes. When upper classes (including an influential judge) get together to impeach him, he gets one of his subordinates, Jude Law (who is related to judge but rebelled to support Willie) to trace the life of the judge. Things get ugly during the course and it ends with a dreadful finale.

Left Luggage - ***1/2 – There have been umpteen movies based on Holocaust. Left Luggage is one of them. It tells the story of a holocaust survivor who had hidden the suitcases during WW-II and after the war is over he starts looking for his suitcases (luggage). His daughter Chaya is a party time baby-sitter-cum-nanny at a Jewish family. The head of the family is a conservative Jewish while Chaya is a free-spirited and liberal Jewish. Chaya is well accepted by the other family members (wife and 4 children) especially the youngest boy. The boy cannot speak though he is four years old. Chaya often takes him to the park near the lake and teaches him to speak. Everybody’s life turns upside down one fine morning. A heart-touching drama.

Platoon - **** - The infamous NAM war has been the favorites of many American directors. Platoon, the first in trilogy (followed by Born on the Fourth of July and Heaven & Earth) covering the Vietnam War by JFK director Oliver Stone is not just about men fighting the war. It is an emotional portrayal of a young recruit (Charlie Sheen) who is caught between the fight with enemies and the fight within his regiment.

Henry and June - *** - A true story. Acclaimed authors Henry Miller and Anais Nin had more than just mutual admiration for each other. June (Uma Thurman) who was married to Henry and supposedly had same-sex relation with Anais was an inspiration to both Henry and Anais. Henry and June literally lived off Anais and her husband Hugo’s money when in Paris. Anais gets into sexual relation with Henry while he is working on his novel (Tropic of Cancer; title suggested by Anais). Anais is intimated by June and shares a moment or two of intimacy with her.

Movies of Audrey Hepburn:

When it comes to Audrey, the only word that comes to my mind is enchanting. She is an absolute delight to watch. The first movie of hers that I saw was Breakfast at Tiffany’s and I was blown. Roman Holiday confirmed my confidence in her and I realized there can never be anyone like Audrey. That was last year. I wasn’t able to get hold of her other movies as my search continued. And this month I got to see three of her finest works.

Wait Until Dark - ***1/2 has her playing a blind girl who is left alone at apartment by her husband who has some work to attend to. Three men take advantage of the situation and enter the apartment in search of a doll who they believe her husband has hidden. Only these three men know that the doll has heroine stuffed inside it which her husband was given at the airport by a young woman who wanted to avoid giving it to one of these men present then at the airport. Woman puts it in Audrey’s husband’s hand and vanishes amongst the crowd. A crime thriller well directed.

Charade - ***1/2 – A startling chemistry between legends Cary Grant and Audrey in Charade will be remembered for ever. Audrey while in Paris discovers that her husband (never shown) is killed and has left a fortune which is missing. Many men enter her life suddenly to lay claim to the missing cash, including Cary Grant. She trusts only Cary but later finds out even he is fake and is behind the cash. The movie is full with some very interesting and witty dialogues between Cary and Audrey.

My Fair Lady - ***** - The best of the lot (these 3). Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) is an upper class snob, who thinks that he can make a flower girl (Audrey) who is crude, tom-boyish and unrefined into a proper lady and can pass her as one from roal family with hew teachings on phonetics, language and mannerisms. The musical has many fine moments. This is how a musical should be made I feel. Watch it for a totally different pleasure.

Me and Cinema - Part 1

2009-04-14T04:35:00.006+05:30

When I first watched Cinema Paradiso, I could not believe it. I saw initial days of my life there. For uninitiated Cinema Paradiso in essence would be a story of an eight or nine year old boy who is fascinated with behind the screen happenings at a theater. Loading the reels, focusing, aligning and projecting enthralled him.

The first ever movie (that I remember) I watched in a theater was Silsila (Amitabh-Rekha-Jaya) from the projector room. I remember standing on the stool and peeping through a hole to see a big screen of an open theater. Soon, I came out and stood in the lobby next to the projector room. I was mesmerized. I wish I knew the word love then.

My father worked for Indian Air Force. Those days almost every defense unit (Army, Air Force or Navy) had a mini-theater or an open theater. When he was transferred to Air Force Station Rajokri (Delhi) from Air Force Station Jodhpur (Rajasthan) I was three years old. He was given the charge of an open theater. My mother tells me that technically my first movie was Rocky (Sanjay Dutt) when she carried me along with my twin brother for the first ever screening under my father’s supervision. Of course, I do not remember. However, I saw Rocky much later, bought the DVD and see it once in a while out of ‘missed’ nostalgia. So, Silsila it was, and the coincidence is both these movies were released the year I was born (1981).

I entertained my father’s colleague with an enthusiastic dance whenever ‘Rang Barse’ came on the screen. I saw the last two shows back to back daily for three days, making it six viewing of Silsila in three days. Thereafter, almost all movies had at least three viewings by me.

There were no Fridays release decrees in the Air Force. It was two different movies in a week regulation. Every Tuesday a movie would release which will run for three days and Friday another movie was screened that went till Monday. I was hooked to it. Most of the times the movie would get screened six months after their India release (this I got to know much later) as prints were not directly available to the defense units in those days. Elders knew but no one cared. Defense people were by and large known to be cut off from the world then. There were no updates on new releases anywhere whatsoever which a child could get hand on. I got into a mild depression thinking how I was cheated with the fact that I am the privileged one to see a movie the moment it is made is a different story. I was thinking people who made movies knew my father and are sending those reels directly to him to screen it.

Nevertheless, I also realized I have had an experience of a lifetime. I could touch those reels, feel them, could pause the various stages of the movie right in my hand. I wasn’t allow to load the reel or fiddle with the projector as per my father’s strict orders to his employees but I did start the projector, positioned the focusing light through the hole and adjusted it accordingly on the screen whenever father was away with the help of his subordinate. I spent my time after school drifting around in theater than playing with my friends. I did play few sports but I was a better spectator of them.

The seeds of frenzy for cinema were sown.

The Winners of The MovieManiax Awards '08

2009-04-09T15:49:00.006+05:30

The moment you all have been waiting for is here. You have decided the winners of The MovieManiax Awards’08.

Before declaring the winners, some interesting ins and outs of the awards:

Category that received Highest votes: Best Film – 394

Category that received Lowest votes: Best Child Artiste – 301

Individual who received Highest votes: Manjot Singh (Best Child Artiste for Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye – 204 out of 301)

Individual who received Lowest votes: Adhvik Mahajan (Best Debut for Contract – 7 out of 311) and song Aae Paapi (Song of the Year – 7 out of 307)

Maximum margin to the 2nd; (Absolute No Competition): Manjot Singh got 204 votes in total of 301 votes in Best Child Artiste category. Purav Bhandare for Tahaan who came second received 43 votes.

Minimum margin to the 2nd; (Cut-Throat Competition): Abhay Deol lost to Naseeruddin Shah in the Best Actor (Male) category. Abhay received 113 to Naseer’s 114 in total of 360.

The winners are listed on The MovieManiax Blog.

Now, coming to the Guessing The Winner Contest.

NO ONE got all 6 guesses correct. As promised, we must declare 5 winners. So, those who got 5 guesses correct will compete for the first three spots and people with 4 correct guesses will fight for the fourth and fifth position. We will soon come up with a way to decide the deserving winners. Here are the results:

Fenil – 5
Rakesh – 5
MystiqueDew – 5

Sahaja – 4
AlphabetWorld – 4
Bhargav – 4
Vikas – 4
Perx – 4
Amit – 4

007(V) – 3
Praveen - 3
Shayari – 3
Kanagu – 3
Oorja – 3

UH – 2
Kanupriya – 2

Finally, I thank all of you for the support.

Making It Easier...

2009-04-08T00:58:00.003+05:30

Many people visited the Contest Post which all MM members have published in their respective blogs, but not many guessed. The response to the Awards have been tremendous, so the only reason people are not guessing the winners before the results are announced could be that they are finding it too tiresome to check the MovieManiax Blog to see the nominees unless they are not interested in the gifts. So, here goes the nominees for your convenience.

1) Best Film:

* Aamir
* Mithya
* Rock On!!!
* A Wednesday
* Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye

2) Best Director:

* Raj Kumar Gupta (Aamir)
* Rajat Kapoor (Mithya)
* Abhishek Kapoor (Rock On!!!)
* Neeraj Pandey (A Wednesday)
* Dibakar Banerjee (Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye)

3) Best Actor (Male):

* Rajeev Khandelwal (Aamir)
* Ranvir Shorey (Mithya)
* Naseeruddin Shah (A Wednesday)
* Abhay Deol (Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye)
* Vinay Pathak (Dasvidaniya)

4) Best Actor (Female):

* Neha Dhupiya (Mithya)
* Genelia D’Souza (Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na)
* Preity Zinta (The Last Lear)
* Amrita Rao (Welcome to Sajjanpur)
* Priyanka Chopra (Fashion)

5) Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male):

* Ravi Jhankal (Welcome to Sajjanpur)
* Paresh Rawal (Mumbai Meri Jaan)
* Anupam Kher (A Wednesday)
* Jimmy Shergill (A Wednesday)
* Manu Rishi (Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye)

6) Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female):

* Ratna Pathak Shah (Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na)
* Ila Arun (Welcome to Sajjanpur)
* Sahana Goswami (Rock On!!!)
* Kangana Ranaut( Fashion)
* Richa Chadda (Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye)

You have got another day and a half to guess the winners in the above mentioned categories.

Comments are in moderation. Please leave your guesses in the comments section.

As we BEGIN the END

2009-04-06T15:12:00.004+05:30

The MovieManiax Awards'08 is coming to a close.

We thank everyone who has helped us make this endeavor a success. To give back to our readers, we have come up with another contest. All you have to do is to guess who will be the winner in the following six categories. Only one guess per category is allowed :-)

The Categories

1. Best Film

2. Best Director

3. Best Actor (Male)

4. Best Actor (Female)

5. Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male)

6. Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female)

You can CLICK HERE to see the nominees.

The first two winners will get DVDs of a Hollywood Classic along with a classic from Hindi Cinema. The 3rd prize is a signed copy of the recently launched – “Happionaire's Cash The Crash” by Yogesh Chabria.

The goodies don't end here. We have 4th & 5th prizes as well yay!!!. These winners will gets copies of Invest The Happionaire Way (ITHW). If requested the Hindi version of ITHW is also available.
A few rules:

1. Members of MM team can not participate.

2. In case, no one gets all guesses right, the prize belongs to the one who gets most of the guesses correct.

3. In case of a tie, a tie- breaker will be arranged as per the discretion of MM team :-)

4. The contest is open till 8th April midnight.

The results for The MovieManiax Awards '08 initially were to be be declared on 7th April but it has been postponed to 9th April, giving you two more days to loot the prizes. :)

Go on guess the winner and take away your prize.

P.S. A very Special thanks to Yogesh Chabria for sponsoring the books. The DVDs will be sponsored by me.

30 Hours To Go

2009-04-03T18:47:00.003+05:30

The voting for the MovieManiax awards which we started in hope of recognizing the best of Hindi Cinema is nearing close. In 30 more hours the voting will be closed and results will be declared on April 7th 2009. If you have not voted yet, jump here to choose your favorites.

Upon closing, Smita will be coming up with a contest. The winners can win Books and DVDs sponsored by us. Keep an eye on her blog for the announcement of contest.

Meanwhile, please be informed of two other blogs I have become member of. The first one is a tribute to the movie Dev.D. Ava came with this idea and I was more than willing to be part of it. Ava has just written the introductory post. 007(V) is another member who would be contributing too. If any of you wish to be the part of this, you are more than welcome. We need total fanatics of Dev.D, the film. Check out the site.

The other blog is started by 007(V) and Mayz called ‘Emotional Atyachaar’. I was their third member, though I yet have to post something there. Do check out the site.

The Week It Is Turning Out To Be

2009-03-28T05:46:00.006+05:30

March 20th was the day of small budgeted releases. Five such movies were released. Firaaq, Barah Aana, Straight, Lottery, Aloo Chaat. Lottery was absolutely out of question. Abhijeet Sawant had always been unbearable. Despite being Nandita’s debut Firaaq was not priority. Of course, I would watch but not soon. And same goes for Straight and Aloo Chaat. Barah Aana was on top of mind and it is still there. I haven’t watched it yet. So, I saw Gulaal once again. However, as the week progressed I saw Aloo Chaat and Straight (by chance) and circumstances yet dodged me to watch Barah Aana. This week three Hindi movies got released and I had seen Videsh (Heaven on Earth) before its release in India. So, one more Friday went without First Day First Show. I am planning to catch Barah Aana and Aa Dekhen Zara this weekend.

Aloo Chaat: 2.5 Stars

Aftab returns to India from USA to find his family looking out for a girl for him. He is already in love with a Muslim girl (Aamna) in USA. The conservative family can accept a videshi-bahu but not a musalman. He along with his father’s friend Hakeem Tarachand (Manoj Pahwa at his usual best) plots a story. The movie works only when Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Manoj Pahwa and Sanjay Mishra are on screen. Whenever this trio appear, it is a treat. Also Aftab’s granny (Dolly Ahluwalia) in few scenes. Rest of them were below average. Aamna Sharief cannot act and dance AT ALL. Not an impressive debut. The best part was the witty dialogues here and there. 2.5 just for some of the wittiest lines and Manoj Pahwa.

Videsh: 2 stars

Well-educated Punjabi Kudi (Preity Zinta) marries a Canadian-Indian. She suffers at the hand of obnoxious mother-in-law and irate husband (Vansh Bhardawaj). Deepa has a way of showing the intricacies, the minutest details get covered when she comes on board. I thoroughly enjoyed her Fire, 1947 Earth and Water. But I did not enjoy Videsh as much. In fact, I was disappointed with the way it progresses towards the second half.

It's all about belief in the shesh-naag theory. Few will, and few will not. I do not. But, that doesn't hinder me from appreciating a good cinema. Shesh-Naag theory will not go down with many people for sure. It did not go down with me and I am not taking that as a bias. It's fictional. But, as a whole, it lacked soul.

Preity and Vansh are the only people worth watching. It is delight when they are on screen (quite often) but the side happenings deter the pace and in the end it just turns out to be another story of Wife-Married-To-NRI-Suffers. Nonetheless, I rate this as Preity’s finest work. I give 2 to the movie and 4 to Preity.

Straight: 2 stars

Pinu Patel (Vinay Pathak), hotelier in London runs to India with his uncle-aunt-cousin to marry an Indian girl. The girl runs away. He comes back. He is dejected. He is virgin for long now. He cries at his state. Things get worse for him when his employee Kamlesh in the state of jubilation kisses him on lips. Pinu is now confused about his sexuality. The movie could have been a well-brought-up-all-the-way-through if story post interval did not become clichéd. Direction, performances apart, movie is outlandish. Parvati’s debut Rules, Pyaar Ka Superhit Formula was better than this. She loses her touch this time. To add to it, I would say I am getting tired of Vinay now. I am sure if he keeps going this way, few years down the line it would be very hard for me to differentiate Dasvidaniya from Oh! My God and Bheja Fry from Straight. And he will be remembered more as SRK’s sidekick (Rab Ne.. ) or Madhuri’s actor (Aaja Nach Le). This is scary. He is a genius but getting repetitive.

This week also saw me meeting Oz (of PassionForCinema). For uninitiated, he along with Anurag started the website for Cine Maniacs called Passion For Cinema. He lives in USA and is currently on a tour here. I recommend his torture series on the site for every filmi enthusiast. I started writing on PFC last October and after 3 in a row articles I got bored (typical of me) and confided myself just as regular reader and commenter there. My procrastination did not make me author there, still I made some filmi friends there and thanks to them I got to meet Oz. A second chance meet and planned third before he scooted off made me his bhakt for life. The guy is a living encyclopedia of movies. Without sounding immodest he was impressed with my knowledge of Bollywood of 60s, 70s and 80s which is hardly observed these days in new-age-bloggers (as he calls those born in 80s) and left me his personal contact number. Anyways, I got to hear some of the amazing untold stories of Bollywood first hand. The stories that cannot be accommodated any where in writing. What else a filmi wants?

If these things were not an adequate amount to make me contented, my twin brother whose first brush with Abhay Deol was Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye and then Dev.D asked me for DVDs of Abhay’s movies. He was having a long weekend and he wanted to watch other movies of Abhay. I handed him the movies of Abhay in the chronological order of their release. He loved Socha Na Tha. He found Manorama – 6FU his best (after Dev.D, exactly the way I feel) and we just finished watching Ek Chaalis Ki Last Local. He enjoyed the movie. I was watching his expression now and then. Aahista-Aahista and Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. are in offing this weekend. My bro doesn’t easily appreciate any actor/director/performance/story. He is equally enthusiast of a movie but of a different sort. He doesn’t read any reviews (not even mine), he doesn’t crave for a movie the way I do. He watches them at his own pace. He might take years to watch even a gem of a movie but he will never rush himself (unlike me). He can talk of the intricacies like a pro. He doesn’t just watch movies. He absorbs them when he wants to. I won’t say he is a convert as of now when it comes to Abhay but he did say one thing: Abhay is natural. The last time he said same was for Irrfan Khan in Maqbool and Ajay Devgan in Company and Omkara. His favorite now is Ransa (Abhimanyu Singh) from Gulaal.

Some good small-budgeted movies, a meet with a fellow filmi, and re-runs of Abhay’s movies. I am having an amazing week.

Review of Gulaal

2009-03-23T18:15:00.005+05:30

Prior to Gulaal, if debate over any movie ever heated-up, I appeased the situation by saying, “Chill, it’s just a movie.” I did it for Slumdog and Dev.D. However, I will not do the same for Gulaal. It’s not just a movie for me. Gulaal is what India is currently. Gulaal is what we all are. We all are somehow part of this system. Gulaal has taken Indian cinema many notches higher and Anurag has established himself as a farsighted filmmaker.

There can be many disclaimers for Gulaal. Do not watch it with Anurag-DevD impinged on your mind; watch it with intact brain. The older the wine, the better it tastes. And so it is with Gulaal that was in making for 7 years since 2001.Censor ate it the way they did Anurag’s debut Paanch that never got released. Gulaal, in Anurag’s own words, is his angriest film.

Plot: The opening sequence of Gulal has Dukey Bana, an aspirant of ‘Rajputana’ (separate state for Rajputs of Rajasthan) addressing a huge gathering where everyone has their faces smeared with red Gulaal. His impassioned words supposedly leave a mark on all attendants except one man.

Flashback

Dileep Singh, a 28-year-old bespectacled, oil-combed hair, docile young man accompanied with his caretaker Bhanwar Singh comes to Rajpur to study law. His roommate Rananjay is stark opposite. Called ‘Ransa’, Rananjay lives a lavish life of self-indulgence in wine, women and weed. Ransa, who is son of His-Highness, has defied his father, wealth and has a vision of his own. Ransa readily takes Dileep under his fold and tags him along.

Dileep is ragged and thrown naked in a dark room where young lady teacher Anuja (Jesse Randhawa) was already ragged and thrown in. Ransa gets furious at this and instills courage in Dileep and together they go to take revenge. They both fall prey. Bhaati, the right-hand of Dukey Bana approaches the duo and takes them to Dukey Bana for help. Dukey asks Ransa to contest the college elections for the post of General Secretary. But fate had something else written.

Enter bastard duo of brother-sister (Karan-Kiran). They are illegitimate children of His Highness and Ransa is their half-brother. Kiran is Ransa’s competitor for GS post. Karan kidnaps Ransa, kills him and hangs him at the chauraha. Dukey now makes Dileep stand-in for election against Kiran. Dileep wins the election, aided by Dukey’s maneuvers.

Dileep is then enticed by Kiran who asks him for the post of Cultural Secretary. Their affair changes the lives of each and every character where people get killed, dumped and the bastards survive.

Characters:

Dileep (Raj Singh Choudhary, also co-writer of the film) is a soft-spoken and humble Rajput. His passive behavior is often made fun of; ‘Kaye ka Rajput be’. Teetotaler Dileep, who when refuses the drink offered by his room-mate Ransa (‘Legaa?’), is snapped with ‘Toh kya meri Legaa’.

Kiran, comes to him after he wins; and allures him into an affair with her charm. Soon she is seen looking straight into him with passion-filled eyes after an adoring sex. The innocent boy he was, he takes it to be true love. He goes onto a killing spree when confronted with the fact that she was just using him. Is he a loser? I do not see him as a loser. What was his mistake? He had just come to study. He acknowledges that he is ‘Darpok’ and ‘Fattoo’. Was he a loser for believing in love? Who would not? She blames him for making her pregnant. And this after she clearly tells him in beginning she doesn’t ever want to. Then what the hell she was thinking? Is only a man to be blamed?

Ransa (Abhimanyu Singh), a Rajput by blood and legacy, Ransa has everything but he defies everything and lives life at his own terms. Most honest and the blunt of lot. He is man with several questions. Just as a common man who has questions that never get answered in our country. He might not be a puritan but he is not a hypocrite either. He gets the best lines. When his bastard half-brother kidnaps him and asks him to withdraw from the election, he retorts, “Agar tere baap ne sahi time pe withdraw kar liya hota toh tu najayaz nahi hota”. He is rough but he is sensitive enough to take on anyone who insults his gentle room-mate. A His-Highness in making, he has no qualms in throwing everything and rebelling against the corruption. He is a man of his words and action.

Dukey Bana (Kay Kay Menon) is a rebel who hopes for a separate state for Rajputs. Kay Kay in one of his most restrained act ignites the whole movie. He is unethical and his stand is not much justifiable. Yet his blood-boiling performance as impulsive Rajput scripts his finest performance ever. We have many fanatics like him who are hell bent on a separate state for whimsical reasons they themselves make up.

Rest of the cast can be termed more than the supporting; Deepak Dobriyal (Bhaati) who won critical acclaim for his Omkara act comes with another stellar performance. He is not just another right hand to Dukey Bana. He has his own ways with him, ridicules him when at fault. He conveys more through his body than the words. The scene at the paanwaala, where Bhati just nods his head, raises eyebrows, makes other facial expressions to answer questions while chewing paan. A restrained yet powerful performance without uttering a single word.

Karan (Aditya Srivastava) manipulates everyone (including his own sister Kiran). He is ruthless beyond thoughts and has just one purpose; to become the senapati, which will automatically get him the surname of His Highness.

Prithvi Bana (Piyush Mishra) is foreign studied, Lennon-Bhakt elder brother of Dukey Bana and has an escort (Ardh-Nari). The duo leaves no chance to make fun of the happenings around including Dukey’s irrational demand of Rajputana. Piyush excels in all the four roles (Actor, Lyricist, Composer and Singer) with his soulful lyrics and mind-fuck compositions.

The Ladies: Anuja (Jesse Randhwa) who we all knew as a Bikini Model is the real surprise. Anuja leaves an impact while playing the role of a teacher who gets ragged by the students, though she doesn’t have much dialogue. Her close-ups with grim-stricken eyes camouflaged with the cigarette smoke tell us more than the few words she spoke throughout. Madhuri (Mahie Gill) whose actual debut is Gulaal (and not Dev.D) is a patakha. On one hand, her thoomkas will make you mad and on the other, you feel sorry for her portrayal as a dejected lover (of Dukey Bana). Mahie has a striking resemblance to Tabu and same is emphasized quite repeatedly. Kiran (Ayesha Mohan), a bastard-turned-bitch is director’s delight. How well a man can be fooled by a woman’s innocent face has never been shown better. She jumps from one man to other to get her work done; hardly realizing her own brother was using her. The last scene, where Karan takes over as Senapati, has Kiran standing in the army below with silent tears rolling down her cheek. Even that doesn’t fill my heart with any sympathy for her.

Amidst all this is Mishra’s compelling lyrics and affecting music. From an anthem like ‘Aarambh’ to political ‘Ranaji’, Mishra creates a setting parallel to the plot.
Sample these:

“Jis kavi ki kalpana mein
Zindagi ho prem geet
Us kavi ko aaj tum nakaar do”

“Sunsaan gali ke nukkad par jo koi kutta cheeckh cheekh kar rota hai
Jab lamp post ki gandli peeli ghupp roshni mein kuch kuch sa hota hai
Jab koi saaya khud ko thoda bacha bachakar ghum saayon mein khota hai
Jab pul ke khambo ko gaadi ka garam ujaala dheeme dheeme dhota hai
Tab sheher hamaara sota hai”

"Surmayi aankhon ke pyaalon ki duniya
Satrangi rangon gulaalon ki duniya..o duniya
Alsaayi sezon ke phoolon ki duniya
Angdaai tode kabootar ki duniya
Karwat le soyi haqueeqat ki duniya
Deewaani hoti tabeeyat ki duniya
Khwahish mein lipti zaroorat ki duniya
Insaan ke sapno ki neeyat ki duniya..O Duniya
Ye duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai"

Anurag says this is his best piece. On the other hand, I feel his movies are exceptional and each one is a cinema par excellence. The year so far has been a delight for cine-maniacs and the craving has just started. Bring them on. Next such could be Vishal's KAMINEY.

Gazillion Things About Me

2009-03-17T03:35:00.005+05:30

My posts in recent past have been about the MovieManiax Awards. The response has been tremendous. Close to 250 people have voted so far and coming to think of it, it’s just been 7 days since the voting went live. I thank each one of you for the support and spreading the word. Those who still have not voted, please click here to choose the Best in Hindi Cinema for 2008.

Now, below are the gazillion things you really would not be interested in knowing about me. However, I have been tagged to do so by friends and I myself am quite eager to do it. Somewhere, some kind soul I hope would be really interested in knowing about me. What you see below are the two tags; 25 Random Things and 100 Things About Me. And I thought of doing both at one go.

25 Random Things

1) I eat very less. I eat twice a day with no in-between snacks/juices.

2) I sleep even lesser. I sleep 5-6 hours on an average basis.

3) I sleep with six pillows to be exact; all positioned tactically at right places.

4) I suffer from mild OCD when it comes to CDs, books, shoes and in particular pillows. They have to be arranged in a particular manner. That’s why I find it hard to sleep at others place if I am not given the room to myself.

5) When I get drunk:

• I dance till I am lifted and taken away or the music is stopped OR
• I start giving a sheepish smile to everyone I come across OR
• I start singing aloud

6) I do not like gifting or receiving flowers/chocolates, candle-light dinner or any such fad. I am romantic person in my own way. All my ex-lovers will vouch for that.

7) I made my first buck when I was 10. The amount was 150 Rupees.

8) When I was 10 or 11, I used to hit kids younger than me for no reasons. I was sent back home more than dozen times for this crime.

9) I once watched movies nonstop for 72 Hours plus with just 15-16 hours of sleep in-between. (Of course on DVDs)

10) I watch 90% of the new releases First Day First Show and for the rest I have no qualms in knowing the story/climax; in fact I ask for it. For me, it doesn’t ruin the fun. Similarly, I have no uneasiness in knowing the bottom line of any book.

11) I have seen Dev.D 5 times in theater since its release for the reason that I loved the movie and I believe if you love the movie, you should watch it as many times as possible in theater. Once, it’s gone from theaters you will never experience the same anywhere. You buy home theater, or whatever, a theater experience is unique. The last such movie was Company that I saw 7 times in theater.

12) I absolutely love Abhay Deol, Kareena Kapoor and Rakhi Sawant (in that order).

13) My brother and I made 1000 plus bucks by selling the tickets of Titanic in black.

14) I was voted ‘The Best Junior’ by seniors in my first year of Engineering. For my birthday that year, I received gifts every hour. I did not sleep a wink that day.

15) Knowingly or unknowingly I have played match-maker amongst my friends (Mind it, not a pimp) with a success-to-failure ratio of 5-to-2.

16) I am University Gold Medalist in B.E. (Instrumentation Technology). (This I told as this is one thing every one gets freaked out at whenever I tell; my own family laughed it off when I called and told them. So, there is something for you to LOL too… hehe)

17) I was addicted to Dope and Popeye in my last year of Engineering.

18) I once walked 12 KMs in monstrous rain with no rain coat or umbrella at 4 in morning.

19) I am a live wire, Party Ki Jaan (as friends say).

20) I quit my first job at a whim and traveled across India for three months.

21) I am extremely good with numbers. I see number plate of the vehicle in front of me and I start fiddling with them in mind. I am completely obsessed with numbers 3 and 7.

22) I have to listen to any song just twice and I can sing-along from third time even after a gap of a decade or more of listening to them.

23) I get impatient when I am doing anything apart from watching movies or any human. I can watch people anywhere continuously for hours without doing anything else. Even if it is one person I am watching I can do it for hours together.

24) I have been hit-on by both the sexes.

25) I got indulged in orgy (more than once).

100 Things

1. Last beverage → Vodka with Sprite & Ice.
2. Last phone call--> 30 minutes ago
3. Last text message→ An hour ago
4. Last song you listened to→ Dhoop Ke Sikke from Sikandar
5. Last time you cried→ 2 months ago

SIX HAVE YOU EVER:

1. Dated someone twice → Yes, I never had sad-break up ever.
2. Been cheated on? → Yes
3. Kissed someone & regretted it? → Yes, my lips touched a dog's (or was it bitch) lips and I almost puked.
4. Lost someone special? → Yes
5. Been depressed?→ Yes
6. Been drunk and threw up? → Yes, twice and out of that once was on my brother's lap.

HAVE YOU:

1. Made new friends → Yes. And currently I have new ones only
2. Fallen out of love → Yes.
3. Laughed until you cried → No
4. Met someone who changed you → No. Initially I feel I am changed but I am back to my normal self and eventually they all get changed.
5. Found out who your true friends were → Yes
6. Found out someone was talking about you → Yes, Very often I get update on that. I have my loyalists spread over
7. Kissed anyone on your friend's list → Yes, so many of them. And I stopped using Orkut much cuz of the confusion n chaos I was getting into.
8. Made the first Move → Yes
10. Do you have any pets → Nopes, and will never have and I hate other's pets as well. Don't ever ask me to mollycoddle your pet please.
11. Do you want to change your name → No
12. What did you do for your last birthday → Had all-night party with friends, Danced, Got drunk, danced more and did a strip show on request.
13. What time did you wake up today – 12:30 PM
14. What were you doing at midnight last night→ Watching ‘Milk’.
15. Name something you CANNOT wait for → Friday
16. Last time you saw your father → Yesterday
17. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life → Be more patient and forgiving
18. Most visited webpage → News Sites, Facebook and PassionForCinema apart from personal ones

ABOUT U:

1. What's your name→ Vivek
2. Nicknames→ Veekey, Vee and Monu.
4. Zodiac sign → Aquarius
5. Male or female or transgendered → Male
6. Elementary→ Kendriya Vidyalaya Gurgaon
7. Schools → Kendriya Vidyalaya Kasauli (Himachal) and KV ASC (S) Bangalore
8. Colleges → UBDT College of Engineering, Davangere, Karnataka
10. Hair color → Originally Black, now Copper Brown
11. Long or short → Keeps changing. Now long
16. Height → 5'8”
17. Do you have a crush on someone? → Yes, The current count is 2.
18: Ever been in love? Yes, twice
19. Piercings → Left Ear
20. Tattoos → Yes, Dragon on left arm
21. Righty or lefty → Righty

FIRSTS :

23. First piercing → Left Ear
24. First best friends → Sanjay
26. First sport you joined: Cricket and Kabaddi (either one of them)
27. First pet → Never had
28. First vacation → Don’t remember exactly, my ancestral home in Patna I guess.
29. First concert → Don’t remember exactly, Either Parikrama or Indian Ocean. Loads after that
30. First crush --> Sarita
49. Eating → ? What can I say for first eating?
50. Drinking → ? again….??? Same as above.
52. I'm about to → watch a movie
53. Listening to--> First would be songs of Aashiqui, currently Gulaal and Sikandar

YOUR FUTURE :

58. Want kids? --> No
59. Want to get married ? --> No
60. Careers in mind? --> Writing, Actor, Gigolo
68. Lips or eyes → Lips
69. Hugs or kisses→ Kisses
70. Shorter or taller → Any
71. Older or Younger → Any
72. Romantic or spontaneous → Whichever as long as good in bed
73. Nice stomach or nice arms → Any
74. Sensitive or loud → BOTH
75. Hook-up or relationship → Hook-Ups
77. Trouble maker or hesitant → Trouble maker

HAVE YOU EVER:

78. Kissed a stranger → Yes, Bus and Train journeys used to be so awesome.
79. Lost glasses/contacts → Yes both Glasses and contacts, many times.
81. Sex on first date → Yes, if mutual.
82. Broken someone's heart → Yes, Why do you think I dated someone twice.
83. Had your own heart broken → Yes, Someone else dated me twice for that very reason
85. Been arrested → No
86. Turned someone down → Yes
87. Cried when someone died → Yes
88. Liked a friend that is a girl/boy? → Made friends with both the sexes

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

89. Yourself → Of course, Yes
90. Miracles → Never experienced. So, No
91. Love at first sight → No
92. Heaven → No.
93. Santa Clause → No
94. Peace in this lifetime→ No
95. Kissing on the first date? → Why not, if date is too mouth-watering
96. Angels → No
97. Is there one person you want to be with right now? --> No.
98. Had more than one boyfriend/girlfriend at one time in the past? --> Yes
99. You will die Young→ Yes, I have that fear.
100. You will end with the one you love and learn to love the one you are with – What? So confusing.

P.S. This one was actually more than 100.
P.S. 2 - 25 Random Things I guess most have finished, so for the 100 Things one (129 actually), I tag Vimal, Poonam, Varun, Rakesh, V and Reema.
P.S. 3 - I watched Gulaal twice already and I guess I will go for at least one more viewing before I write on it.

Voting Open for The MovieManiax Awards

2009-03-11T03:14:00.005+05:30

The MovieManiax Awards went live few hours back.

The voting lines will be open for 25 days and will close on Sunday 5th April’09 at 00:00 IST. The winners will be declared thereafter.

We have made a slight change in the nominees before the polls went live. There had been no deletion of any nominee, however we added an extra option ‘Other’ wherein you can select that option and enter your choice in the box provided below if you do not agree to the 5 nominees already listed. This option was brought in after a lot of debate (and examining the pros and cons of doing so) which ensued upon the release of our Nominees. Please note that this would not be applicable to all categories, but only the popular 6 will come with ‘Other’ option.

The voting is now open for the much-awaited MovieManiax Awards. Do cast you vote at this link: http://moviemaniax.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/voting-open-for-the-moviemaniax-awards-2008/

Also, you can see the Badges on the rightmost side of my page here. Those badges have been made by Chirag and you can take them and flaunt on your blog. Please spread the word amongst your friends and colleagues. Together, we can make the difference. So long.

'Spanish Man', 'Fuck', 'Russia', 'Search Engine' and 'Slumdog'

2009-03-07T04:57:00.010+05:30

Search Engines be it Google, Yahoo et al are like a Bible, Quran, Geeta, Guru Granth Sahib and so and such for us these days. Do not we type whatever pops up first in our mind whilst looking for a specific thing? Yes, we do. We all do. To cite a recent example, I in my half-asleep approach read the news of Spanish PM fucking up big time and when online, I had forgotten whether that Spanish guy who made a sexual gaffe was whether PM or President or whatever of that country so I typed Spanish Man+Prime Minister+President+Fuck+Russia (as Russia was another word apart from Spanish and Fuck that got registered noticeably in my mind) in Google search. The first search itself cleared things. See how Google bails us out.

So, this write-up is to make you acquaint with what kind of words/phrases people across the globe have used to search anything remotely connected to the movie Slumdog Millionaire and ultimately ended at my ‘Slumdog Milllionaire’ review, Thanks to FEEDJIT.

Sample my five favorites:

"does salim sleep with latika".

"asshole amitabh blog on slumdog"

"the man with the colt 45 says leave slumdog"

"slumdog jaya ho american review".

"slumdog's euphoria in india-- how much justified".

I am still ROFLing and LMAOing at the keywords used by people for Slumdog Millionaire. Jaya ho? Salim Sleep with Latika?? Justified? Asshole Amitabh?? hahahahaha

Ain’t those keywords funny!!!???

I found "asshole amitabh blog on Slumdog" one quite funny… Which one you think is the funniest?

Out of context, Nominations for the MovieManiax Awards – 2008 are out. Do check out. The voting will start next week.

To know more about the MovieManiax Awards, CLICK HERE.

And the Sabse Bada Filmi Keeda is...

2009-03-06T17:09:00.004+05:30

Perx!

Perx got all right except No. 19. Congratulations! :D

Others who came close are:
Chittaranjan (16 correct),
~uh~ (15 correct) and
Fenil (13 correct).

Rakesh (7 correct) was the next best.

Ish (6 correct) did well too.

CLICK Here to see the answers and the awesome poster which winner can flaunt on his page.

Update on MovieManiax Awards: The nominees will be announced today in a short while. Keep an eye on the MovieManiax Awards site.

“Tauba Apna Jalwa, Tauba Apna Pyaar” AND Movie Quiz 2008

2009-03-05T03:11:00.004+05:30

Does this make you believe Abhay Deol is nominated? Well, to start with it yes, he is and so is Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye in 9 other categories in total of 20. No, no we are not trying to influence you here. This is just a teaser to something big, real and rational happening.

For every Shaurya there is a Sarkar Raj. On every Sunday, a Dostana happens. A Tashan complements A Wednesday and Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye gives frozen fight to Rock On!!!

Box Office status is not considered. Nominations under few categories end at 3 or 4 if no deserving one pops up. Filmfare might have scrapped negative role but we do not overlook things. As we are the ones who make or break a film, the onus is on us to choose the best of the best.

Now, participate in Quiz below to test out how much you know your films?

Do you think you are a big movie fan? Do you think you know your movies well? Take the Movie Quiz 2008 and find out! Check out our MovieManiax Blog or CLICK HERE to participate.

The MovieManiax Awards - 2008

2009-03-03T17:40:00.006+05:30

In continuation of my previous post which talked of upcoming awards, I hereby announce The MovieManiax Awards – 2008.

The MovieManiax Awards is an initiative to honor the best of Hindi Cinema. Being the first year of it’s running, the categories are limited and we have not ventured into the technical awards. The nominations under the categories have been discussed, scrutinized and finally arrived on conclusion by a team of Bloggers. The rationale behind the nominations was to bring in the best irrespective of Box-Office status. And now it’s up to you fellow Bloggers to have your voice counted to decide the deserving one. Please participate in this endeavor and spread the word amongst the fellow Bloggers and non-bloggers; basically anyone who has access to internet.

Endeavor by: Vee with able support from Poonam, Reema, Smita, Varun and Vimmuuu.

Creative Consultant: Magik

Awards Badge Designer: Dev

Publicist: Nikhil

Judges: You Bloggers, Aam-Junta

The Nominations are finalized and polls will be live shortly. Meanwhile, we are looking for support from all of you in making this a success. Do spread the word. And before you forget, please bookmark the Award Site, Click here.

P.S. Join 'The MovieManiax Awards' group on Facebook and pledge a vote. Click Here.

Cine Freaks Bloggers

2009-02-26T03:23:00.002+05:30

It was nothing less than a Nonsensical Attyachaar seeing the Star Screen Awards. Ashutosh-Sajid feud, Akshay’s sacrifice reeked of two-facedness and in due course the secret which almost everyone knew was out in open. That year after year the awards go to a good number of unworthy ones, that they are already decided in the closed bed-rooms of people with power, money and high libido, long before the premiere show sometimes. Few deserving ones do get nominated (percentage would be negligible) to bring about a balance (all pretense) but the deserving ones never win. Filmfare Awards are the Oscars of India they say, (much above the National Awards) that I guess has reached a ludicrous stage.

It was after the Star Screen Awards and getting acquainted with the nominations of upcoming Filmfare Awards that I decided to come up with my own version of Awards. Why not? I might be a small fly and my appreciation might not be acknowledged in open by people whose movies, performances and contribution to the cinema I enjoyed in the year gone by. But that doesn’t dissuade me. Is it worth? For me, yes, it is. Do not we talk of changing the structure when we see the immoral events around us and do not few of us stand up and indeed bring in the change? So, that’s what I am doing.

The idea was put off by few in all possible ways, in a roundabout way to right on my face calling it useless. What is the purpose? I would be lying if I say not for a moment I was discouraged. However, after initial hiccups, here I am to announce the launch of Bloggers edition of awards.

Yes, it is by us and it will be for the best. Let’s welcome and honor the best. I would need support from fellow Bloggers in making this a success.

I approached few of the fellow Bloggers. To my surprise, they all readily agreed. Well, not exactly :). Reema, Poonam and Vimmuuu are helping finalize the categories and nominations. Nikhil is roped in for anything and everything related to promotion. Smita is supervising the overall job and is strictly kept out of ‘Categories and Nominations’ decisions for obvious reasons. After all who wants to see Salman being nominated in all the categories? And finally, this would not have been possible without a friend who pushed me to go for it, a friend who requests to be anonymous. I wish I could say ‘as of now’. I hope he changes his mind. He is the brains behind the name given to the awards (with our feedback) and he designed the poster for the awards. And soon he will be done with the award badge.

Work on Poster, Badge, Categories, Nominations is in progress and will be released soon. Keep watching this space for more.

Review of Delhi-6 and The Rant

2009-02-20T17:20:00.008+05:30

This is almost a review. Definitely not elaborate and spoiler-full like my earlier ones but a quick one as I do not have much time on hand.

Rakeysh ‘RDB’ Om Prakash Mehra. What an ensemble cast. Delhi. Chandni Chowk. Mysterious script. Sonam Kapoor (Oooohh). A.R. Rehman. 20th Feb. First Day First Show. Intermission. Bantadhaar. End. Sab Satyanaash.

ROPM is back to (aks)quare one. IMDB says Genre is Comedy/Drama. They couldn’t have said it better. It’s a comedy. Almost whole junta was laughing by the end. The last time was when Junta hooted for poor Drona, his ghodi, his dushman (KayKay), his angrakshak (Priyanka). Trust me, even CC2C was saved of hooting. Probably no one was expecting anything out of it unlike D-6.

Not going deep inside the story and plot because till end I could not find a single rational storyline, not even parallel one, not eve an askew one. NRI returns to Chandni Chowk from Amrika with his ailing grand-ma (her last wish). The boy definitely like any firang desi is amused at everything. The traffic jams, cows giving birth in middle of the road, padosi behaving, interfering and yak-yakking like family members, the narrow lanes adorned with gazillion shops. Almost everything. His NRI mind is looking for an identity in the chaotic assembly. He is confused soul. So much so that by the middle of the movie he imagines one whole song where Amrika and Delhi are mixed. Watch it to believe how grossly that was shot.

The infamous ‘Monkey-Man’ that created a menace in Delhi few years back is the central character. Others are just supporting cast. Great performers but sadly irritating after some point of time. There are so many characters that director is busy introducing them right till the end. Zoya recently showed truck loads of them but you can identify them and remember them in LBC. In this case, you get assaulted. There is nothing that you carry when you walk out. Music? Yes, to an extent. The music no doubt is outstanding one, this truth is already established. But, the songs are placed so absurdly you almost feel sorry for A.R. Rehman. ‘Rehna tu’ in particular (which is a soft romantic number) will disappoint you the most.

ROPM tried to preach us the lesson of unity in diversity but he failed. Abhishek and Sonam’s much talked of chemistry is invisible. Bilkul thanda, barf jaisa. It is sad to watch artists like Sheeba, Supriya, Om Puri, Pavan Malhotra, Rishi Kapoor being wasted. Mass assassination. And the preaching that every human has monkey inside along with the god doesn’t go down well. I did not feel for any character or situation. Waheeda’s stubbornness of not returning to Amrika gets a jolt when her grand-son yells at her and she gets teary-eyed. I did not feel sympathetic towards her. Abhishek gets shot. I did not care whether he lives or die. Sonam who looks gorgeous in any outfit is totally wasted. She gets to howl again like Saawariya in the end and this time it’s for real yet I did not feel anything for her. Few scenes here and there brings in some moments but then that’s long forgotten by the time you try to finally listen to Mr. Director and look for monkey inside you. But it’s too late by then and the show is over.

I have nothing more to add to this. I will probably discuss or say more if someone writes a review. This was just ‘almost-a-review.’ I give Delhi-6 1.5/5.

I am done with my nom de plume ‘Oxy’ and back with my actual one, ‘Vee.’ Those who wish to call me Oxy are welcome to do so. However, I prefer Vee.

Btw, Baba Sehgal is back to what he does best. ‘Oh, Sexy Mama’ a hip hop number by him for Madhavan starred ‘13B’ is my current fav. Listen to it. Awesome. Sushmita’s ‘Karma Aur Holi’ is ready for release. Click her to watch the song ‘Holi Aayee’. And click here for Gulaal's Rana Ji song. Funny lyrics. “Jaise Durr Desh Me Tower Me Ghuss Jaye Re Aero Plane, Jaise Har Ek Baat Pe Democracy Mein Lagne Lag Gayo Ban, Jaise Sare-Aam Iraq Me Jaake Jam Gaye Uncle Sam, Jaise Bina Baat Afghansistan Ka Baj Gaya Bhaiya Band." Haha.. too good.. Mahie Gill doing mujra after Paro act.

Lastly, watch my space for the upcoming ‘Bloggers Awards to the Best in Hindi Cinema – 2008’

And The Winner Is...

2009-02-16T02:03:00.005+05:30

Reema. Wooyay. Applause, Claps, Trumpets, Gun-Shots, Red Carpet.

The answer is: It's the flower of Guava (or Amrood in Hindi) tree.

So, the floor is now yours Reema for the next 'Riddle Me This'.

P.S. After Dev.D, Anurag is ready with his next offering 'Gulaal'. Click here to watch the trailer. Oh Gosh!!! What A Trailer. Jack and Jill went up the hill, To fetch a pail of BHOSADI-KA! (I will clarify later that I am not saying 'what a trailer' for that phrase in particular). Watch it to believe what Anurag is made of. 13th March, there I wait for you.

P.S.1 - Read Shobhaa's this entry and my comment there (4th comment). Don't I make sense there? Isn't she losing it completely these days, Brains I mean!!!

P.S.2 - My 'twin brother' is celebrating his 28th Birth-Day today. And I am damn excited about it. So, no more rant and it's fucking party time.

Riddle Me This?

2009-02-13T17:40:00.006+05:30

One day I was reading Chammak Challo and she had uploaded an image and asked the readers to guess what it is. I cracked it and as per the rule I am supposed to post something that others have to guess.

Here is the Riddle:

You have to find something stranger than strange and, post it on their blog within the next two weeks.

The quiz remains open for at least 1 day and at the most 2 days.

The person who guesses it correctly gets the torch and is the next host for Riddle Me This.

If the person who guesses correctly is the previous host, then that person will get to pick someone to pass the buck to from all those who made a guess.

And so on.

Please use the fabulous logo, also designed by Manisha, and link back to the host who passed the baton on to you.

Please do your best to keep this alive. Just think of how much fun it will be!

Here is the image for you guys:

Tell me what it is. Now don't just say flower :). Photograph Courtesy: Dev and Dev, No, you cannot participate.

The countdown begins.

Review of Dev.D

2009-02-08T13:57:00.009+05:30

Those who have followed the lives and works of makers like Sriram Raghavan, Sudhir Mishra, Shimit Amin, Hansal Mehta, Onir, Anurag Kashyap will know that these makers have always taken risk. Few succeeded, few did not and others were labeled self-centered psychopaths (read just Anurag). Isn’t every artist/actor/director/producer? Didn’t we just see that in LBC? But Anurag has been subjected to all kinds of brickbats since he made ‘No Smoking’. I loved his ‘Black Friday’ immensely and was excited about NS like hell. I did not understand it first time. I spoke to few filmi friends, discussed and went for repeat watch. This time I liked it. I became fan of Anurag.

Dev.D unlike his NS is not a self-indulgent cinema but yes, it definitely shows the pain and anguish the man has gone through in this industry. He vents out his fury through Dev; A man in search of salvation after screwing up his love life. The movie in all departments takes Indian Cinema a few notches higher. Watch it to believe that it is nothing less than a Nolan or Fellini or Scorsese. We have our answer to west, east, middle, left, right, up, down. And the answer is Anurag Kashyap.

I usually do not go with the disclaimers. However, here I would wish to say that if you are an escapist, ignorant, and fragile then skip the movie and this review as well. Others read on.

As we all are aware by now that Dev.D is a contemporary take on Sarat’s celebrated novel Devdas. Bimal Roy (sticking to the book) and SLB (a bit twist by arranging a full fledged meeting between Paro and Chandramukhi) have given their versions. Anurag’s version in actuality is a convincing mockery of SLB’s version. There are four to five direct and countless indirect references to SLB’s version. From a Sonapur and Kolkota, the movie shifts to picturesque sarson-ke-khet of Punjab via 'London' to neon-lit Pahar Ganj in Delhi. A rich father who threw Devdas out of house in earlier spoils him rotten in this by justifying to mother, “Tumne bachpan me bigada, Mai jawaani me bigad raha hun.” The two ladies who had a cheesy confrontation of ‘Devdas loves you more’ exchange just a strange ‘Hi’ here and both proclaim ‘Dev doesn’t love anyone.’

The real protagonist of Dev.D is Amit Trivedi’s music and background score. His 18 songs aptly placed throughout recite the story. You can almost call it a musical. I have never experienced something like this before where you can almost feel that you do not need dialogues, the songs says it all. Anurag himself confessed sometime back that Amit’s music was so impressive that he changed his script to rationalize and credit Amit’s work. Welcome to new-age Bollywood. Times are changing. Those who understand and believe in lucid and rational cinema know that SLB’s Devdas was a ridiculous movie with idiocy written all over it’s frames and the essence lost in its grandeur. Chuck it. Embrace brand new Paro, Chanda and Dev.

Dev (Abhay Deol) is sent to London for studies. The only motivation for him to return is the nude pics of Paro (Mahie Gill) which she diligently scans and sends after having a steamy internet chat with Dev. ‘Dhol yaara dhol’ begins and Paro is cheerful with dreams of a good life ahead. Dev is back. His elder brother is getting married. ‘Hikknaal’ and ‘Maahi Mennu’ (the two Punjabi numbers of the lot) steps forward the story along with Dev’s and Paro’s failed attempt to sleep with each other. Misunderstanding follows and Dev insults her, tells her to stop dreaming that she can get married in his family (aukaat nahi hai teri) almost calling her a slut. Dev’s father in fact is keen on making Paro his bahu. What an irony!!! Anyways Paro’s father gets her married to much elder Bhuvan and just before her marriage Dev realizes he was at mistake and not her. But it’s too late, gulps down full bottle of Vodka, vomits and falls with a huge thud in front of the baraat. What an ‘Emosanal Attyachaar’!!!

Enter Lenny (Kalki Koechlin), a class XII student in Delhi. She is a cheerful and smiling girl who is dating a visibly very old to her boy. She does stuff to him, goes on bike rides with him, and is not apologetic about it. ‘Yahi Meri Zindagi Hai’ background score tells her story. The boy makes MMS. The girl is made fun of. The family is shattered. They leave country but the ghosts do not. Lenny gets into argument with her father when he says that he indeed has seen the clippings of her doing the stuff to boy and asserts she knew what she was doing. “How could you watch, fucking coward? I am your daughter.” Father kills himself, mother abandons her. She is left alone to be picked by a pimp and later gets into prostitution. Yahi Meri Zindagi gives way to ‘Ye Kaisi Kaisi Aankh Micholi Khele Zindagi.’ Lenny makes course for Chanda (Chandramukhi). Chunni (Dibyendu Bhattacharya) gets her client but also makes sure she finishes her education. She is taught the nuances of the profession (master-slave, phone erotica et al) in the mid of passing the board exams. ‘Paayaliya’ takes her into the new world; she has killed her ghosts. She has moved on. Dev enters her life. Dev, who by now in the guilt of losing his love is an alcohol chaser, pills popping, self-centered wreck mocks at Chanda’s show of compassion. “When in pain, it’s good to talk” she says. “What do you know about pain?” he replies. He leaves her place and goes back to his earlier histrionics. The ‘rock version of Attyachaar’ shows Dev wandering on streets, hiking between Delhi Metro and buses. When legal bars close, he ends up elsewhere. The dancing trio mocks at him, ‘Meetha Sa Chadha Hai Bukhar’ becomes his state of mind, he is ‘Pardesi’ in his own mind. He tries to find out ‘Saali Khushi’ which is lost. He calls Paro. Re-enters Paro. Content with marriage Paro to whom he desperately wants to make love to and requests to be loved back mocks at him too, “Tum kisi se pyaar nahi kar sakte. Tum sheeshe se shaadi kar lo.” What a scene it was when she makes him see the reality, “Itni mat peeya karo. Kisi se itna bhi pyaar na karo ki baaki cheeze nazar hi naa aaye.” She is clear, she doesn’t need him anymore. She shows him his aukaat, leaves him infuriated more than before. Welcome to new-age women. What a rip-off to Aishwarya’s self pity in earlier version.

He is lost again. ‘Nayan Tarse' does the same. He is having a trip. He drinks more. Chunni follows him, wants him to come back to Chanda (after all Dev is loaded). Dev gives in, back to Chanda. Chanda with her new ‘Dil Me Jaagi’ beat goes out with him; they share steaming Momos, jump into swimming pool, talks about her pain. “Half of the country downloaded the clipping, had fun out of it and they turned back and called me slut.” Dev shares his pain. Chanda agrees to Paro’s stand. “You can not love anyone.” I have moved, she has moved. You move on ending with calling him a slut. Dev leaves her again, gets into drunk-driving-killed-seven-people fiasco. His father dies. He goes to the funeral; brother ignores his presence, gives money to settle the court case. Dev doesn’t return to Delhi. ‘Duniya Gol Hai’. He blows away the money too. He is completely broke, sleeping on the road next to dog, sees a speeding car hitting the wall. The man dies. ‘Abhi bhi wakt hai’. He traces Chanda, finds her at steaming Momos joint. She takes him in. He confesses that he never loved Paro in true sense as he never saw her carefully actually and accepts he indeed is a slut. ‘Ek Hulchul Si’ marks the happy ending with duo having a bike ride.

The movie has Anurag’s style of film-making stamped all over it. The first half is radiant, full of life as we slowly gets introduced to the characters. It’s the second half that would blow your mind off. Each and every person can comprehend the happenings. The third plus after Amit’s exceptional music and Anurag’s characterization of the trio is Rajeev Rai’s photography. The movie gets dark in the second half with almost the whole second half shown in neon-lit streets and bars. The concept is by Abhay Deol which Anurag wrote along with Vikramaditya Motwane to give it a position of a formal script. Nikhat Azmi of TOI who surprisingly gave it a 5 star rating (surprising not because it doesn’t deserve but cuz Nikhat finally acknowledged good cinema) says for Abhay: Manorama-6FU and OLLO were just trailer, Dev.D is the class act from Deol. Not that the movie/Abhay needs her approval. Anurag had limited audience so far, but now the audience will multiply. Anurag has given Bollywood which is decomposing day by day a boost. And Abhay is the real star-baadhsah-king-ace or whatever those titles are called that few stars keep calling themselves with. One says 'I am King', then other replies, 'So what? I am Ace' for which third smiles mockingly at both of them. But it's Abhay for me and for many fans who find him the torch bearer of coming-of-age cinema in this country.

P.S. It is A rated but it is not porn as the belief of few goes. It’s not even soft-porn as the belief of many goes. It's a contemporary, on-your-face, blunt, straightforward and extremely engaging cinema.

P.S. 1 – I have seen it twice so far and will go for few more dekko. That’s what an excellent piece does; every time it throws up something marvelous.

Take A Bow Anurag

2009-02-06T20:19:00.003+05:30

The wait was over this morning. If we address the prior versions of Devdas as classics, then Dev.D is no lesser. In fact, I would call it a modern classic. I am yet to recover and put my thoughts coherently to write a detailed review. As of now, I would just say it’s an excellent cinema, with exceptional music and first class performances by all three leads. It’s a mind fuck journey with no cliché, anonymity and self indulgence. Ten on ten to this or in our terms 5 stars.

‘Paanch’ never saw the daylight. ‘Black Friday’ which is a cult classic in DVD circuit was out on DVDs long before its theatrical release. ‘Gulaal’ has been in making for 7 years now. And we all know what happened to ‘No Smoking’; the movie was brutally raped. I and many of my friends loved the movie though and have had countless mindless discussions on it. Anyways, a flop is a flop. Anurag Kashyap was given unimaginable names after No Smoking. He was jinxed as director. He was asked to stick to screenplay and dialogue writing. The man in his own words took chance with Dev.D and he made the movie that will go down in history as a classic. Take A Bow Anurag.

P.S. The review will soon follow.

Review of Luck By Chance

2009-02-05T02:10:00.003+05:30

It’s in the blood. That ‘creative bug’ with which we are often arranged a meeting in all promising ways gives the impression to belong only to the Akhtars and just them. Father kept us amused all these years; Son led the way with his ingenious intelligence and now daughter rounding it off ‘The Three Musketeers’ with her brave, brutally honest and matter-of-fact cinema. Zoya Akhtar, who was being cast as 'Extra' in few movies before including Kama Sutra (cuz she chose that), writer of 'Migration', a 20-Minutes movie based on AIDS awareness produced and directed by Mira Nair, and elder sister of producer-director-actor-singer-anchor Farhan Akhtar captures the quintessence and obscurity of Hindi Film Industry (HFI) like never before. There were many pieces which imprisoned the good old HFI and there will be many more (Inshallah); nonetheless Zoya’s mental picture will be the one to surmise for. The two recent illustrations ‘Om Shanti Om’ and ‘Fashion’ gave the broad feel of industry to the lay viewer whilst ‘Luck By Chance’ (LBC) not only gives the imminent sense to it but also portrays it in the most unapologetic mode.

The beginning credits of ‘Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’ with yesteryears ‘Pyaar Pyaar Pyaar, Chahiye Thoda Pyaar’ giving out the details of people involved with the film was my current favorite till I saw LBC’s ‘Ye Zindagi Bhi’ doing the same. Oh, I fell in love with the movie that very moment. Seeing the straight, dismal faces of all those unnamed and unaccredited people; chai-wala, khaana-wala, security guys, spots, extras, poster-wala et al along with getting notified with the cast and crew was just the right element to set the temper up for close to three hours of beautiful cinema awaiting ahead. Farah Khan did something like that in the end credits of ‘Main Hoon Na’ but I was so disappointed by the end already that I did not care.

But of course the story was already few minutes in presenting struggling female protagonist Sona (Konkona Sensharma) sucking up to Chaudhary, producer of Pinki Productions (Alyy Khan; ex of Pooja Bhatt in real life for the uninitiated) when the beginning credits started to sway me. Credits end and you see Aamir Khan in first frame and some 20-odd other biggies (playing themselves) of industry all the way till the end when same struggling female protagonist now fairly better off and unambiguous of the goings around sums up one of the elating endings ever.

Another struggling actor Vikram Jai Singh (Farhan Akhtar) befriends Sona, sleeps with her, and gets ‘lucky’ by chance to get the lead role opposite Niki Walia (Isha Sharvani), daughter of former time’s superstar Neena Walia (Dimple Kapadia) in Romy’s (Rishi Kapoor) home production ‘Dil Ki Aag’ directed by younger brother Ranjit (Sanjay Kapoor). The said lead role refused by the iconic Zaffar Khan (Hrithik Roshan) lands up in Vikram’s lap after Zaffar gets ‘lucky’ by chance to bag the two-hero role in Karan Johar’s movie despite having shot song (Baawre) and few scenes for ‘Dil Ki Aag’. And not to forget the altercation between Sona and Chaudhary which inadvertently turns blessed for Vikram.

Vikram’s egocentricity, Zaffar’s bashfulness, Sona’s fate of ‘being deprived of’, Neena’s manipulations, Nikki’s murkiness confrontations with mother, Romy’s overriding craze, Ranjit’s inane filmmaking and equally cynical approach of many others form the basis of this star-studded film. Be it the opportunist attitude of Maasi or struggling friends of Vikram, or the writer friend of Sona, everyone is doing whatever they are doing for a price. ‘Nothing comes free’ is conveyed or rather shouted from the rooftop.

Each and every character here can be put on pedestal and dissected. Zoya’s story and screenplay is of top class and hardly is she seen making a gaffe of the status the characters are in. On one side you have Saurabh Shukla’s ramblings on how to act complimented with visiting actor Mac Mohan’s deliverance of his famous ‘poore pachchas hazaar’ dialogue from Sholay and Vikram’s shaking the hips on ‘Bachna aae Haseeno’ that keeps your mood radiant about all that coming ahead, and on the other you see Karan Johar’s proverbial observation on ‘how-an-outsider-becomes-a-star’, SRK’s profound advice on ‘not-to-forget-those-who-remembered-you-when-you-were-no-one’ to Vikram after latter embracing stardom, Neena comparing her initial days to that of her daughter’s & subsequent outburst to the editor flooded with colorful language will smack you on your face.

But the one who steals the show on screen (outside of it, it’s Zoya) is the man who should be seen more and more as long as he can be. That’s Rishi Kapoor. The only word I can think of for his performance is ‘divine’. The man is in complete control of what he is delivering. Forget his ‘Hum Tum’ and ‘Fanaa’. LBC is the one he will be remembered for years to come. I somewhat felt uncomfortable seeing Farhan in emotional scenes. I mean the guy has an image (more so after his ‘Oye, It’s Friday’) of someone who is naughty, cool and at-ease. And seeing him act out gloomy ones makes me sore. It’s futile to say how Konkona was as she has gone beyond scrutiny of her performance long time back. Her close-up shot of walk on the busy street with hair flowing before catching a taxi in the end reminded me that of Natalie’s in ‘Closer’ though a lot superior closing. Yet, Rishi Kapoor was the best thing that could happen to LBC by god.

Review of Slumdog Millionaire

2009-01-20T16:57:00.008+05:30

A lot of people will try to pull you down once you attain the ultimate triumph. There will surely be detractors along with the appreciators. That’s exactly is something happening to Slumdog Millionaire. Not surprisingly the most of those detractors are our fellow-countrymen/women whereas West has embraced Danny Boyle’s version of India like never before. Even Mira Nair could not create the hysteria with her Salaam Bombay back in late 80s what Slumdog Millionaire has done in last couple of months since it’s release in select theaters of Northern America.

I remember getting in argument with a friend on Facebook when he commented robustly on my status message (‘Speechless after watching Slumdog Millionaire’) stating Slumdog Millionaire is bad remake of Mira’s cult classic ‘Salaam Bombay’. I leave it to the people who have seen both the movies to make their own opinion. For me the similarity ends with the fact that both are set in Mumbai and slums of Mumbai have been captured quite viciously by both the directors. Mira’s movie was and will be one of the best to come out from Indian Film Industry. But show some maturity by not comparing it to Slumdog Millionaire.

Amitabh Bachchan cannot fathom what the fuss all about Slumdog Millionaire is and mentions in his blog that Mumbai was shown in disgraceful manner. Few of our own makers here have shown their anger by saying that Slumdog Millionaire is a "generic western movie about India". I say what the fuck? First of all treat a movie as a movie. If Danny decides to make a movie based on a book written by an Indian (Q & A by Vikas Swarup; who himself says that he has his approval stamp) then I do not see any reason to malign him and the hard work of those associated with the movie. If it’s badly scripted/directed, if editing and actors suck then open your big mouth and rant as much as you can. But no way demean any movie based on how real/unreal it is. Is that the basis to judge a fictional piece anyways?

Mr. Bachchan played a character (Sexy Sam) well in his mid-fifties or something romancing and shaking his booty with girls half his age. K-Jo and Ekta promote infidelity at the drop of the hat and RGV doesn’t go beyond underworld stories where murder and rapes are child’s play? So, all that is acceptable and slums of Mumbai aren’t. A film-maker has all the liberty to make what he wants to and how does he/she wants to.

Bhandarkar made Page 3, Corporate, Traffic Signal and we acknowledged him by giving National Award every time. I am not saying adorn Danny with National Award, but give him and his movie a fair chance. Some of the French/Iranian/Korean movies which I see are upsetting to the core you feel disgusted later; not because they are badly written or shot but because they fucking tell the story in such a moving way you cannot but be in awe. No one complains. Most of them go to win the awards. So, why is there so much of fuss in India? Is it because a foreigner made it? Oh come on, I know we have few makers here who are better than Danny by leaps and bounds. Nonetheless Danny has made this movie and we better accept it the way it is. After all, it’s just a movie.

Everyone is saying that it is a rags-to-riches story of a slum boy from Mumbai. I would not say that. Rags-to-riches stories are those where the sheer hard work or the plain luck (by chance) get you the moolah. No doubt Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is playing ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ but he is not playing to win the money. He is playing hoping his beloved Latika (Freida Pinto) would be watching the show. And indeed she was. The movie in actuality is a love story than a rags-to-riches story by participating in a reality game show.

Youngest Jamal (Ayush Khedekar) and youngest Salim (Azharuddin Ismail) are brothers who pull off petty mischief every now and then. Always late for the school duo or musketeers take the youngest Latika (Rubiana Ali) as their third musketeer after their mother gets killed in the riots. Orphanage doesn’t go well and they all run away in the middle of the night only to be chased by the owner Maman (Ankur Vikal) and Co. Salim and Jamal manage to get on to the moving train while Latika is running along with the train whilst holding Salim’s hand. Despite the desperate cries of Jamal to pull Latika in, Salim intentionally leaves her hand.

The fate takes the brothers to Agra and back to Mumbai (it was Bombay when they had left). It had been seven or eight years since the last time Jamal had last seen Latika. They finally trace her. She is being taught classical dance to be later sold of course when Jamal sees her through a key-hole. Salim exclaims she is hot and opens the door. All three are united but life changes for all of them thereafter. Salim ditches his own brother at gun-point after throwing him out of house only to be left alone with Latika. Latika too agrees to sleep with the brother for the sake of Jamal’s life.

Few years down the line Jamal working as a chaiwalla in a call center chances upon Salim’s contact number and meets him. In one of the most poignant scene I have seen in recent times, the meeting of the two brothers is well executed (technically, watch the scene where Jamal imagines he jumped off the building with Salim) and well acted upon; Jamal’s continuous outburst of “There was no message” shows 18-year old Dev Patel is a name to reckon in years to come. He is simply brilliant in that scene and the one after when he looks wrathfully in Salim’s eyes and says, “I will never forgive you.”

Jamal inquires about Latika. Salim chooses to ignore the question. Only when he follows Salim one day that he realizes that Latika is now a mistress (or wife probably) of gangster Javed (Mahesh Manjrekar) for whom Salim in fact works. He enters the well guarded house on the pretext of being a dishwasher. He requests Latika to run off with him which she refuses while putting forth question “what for?” “Love” Jamal says. It never happens as Javed is home then and Jamal loses Latika for third time now. The next is climax which I would not reveal.

I never felt so elated even when Bhuvan in Lagaan hit the last ball six in the climax. I still remember the whole theater just erupted with a feat (one experiences when one achieves that himself) when Bhuvan hit that six. I found myself hugging a complete stranger standing on left to me in the theater that summer morning of 2001 when Lagaan was released. Slumdog Millionaire, almost same experience but more euphoria than what Aamir & Co provided me with then in the climax; nothing taking away from the glorious climax of Lagaan though.

Coming to the performances, all three Jamal will steal your heart. The second Jamal (Tanay Chheda) who was also seen in TZP (Ishaan’s crippled friend) is convincing as a guide of Taj Mahal when he tells the Firang couple that Mumtaz died in a road accident while giving birth to child and Taj Mahal was actually built up by Emperor Khurram. Haha. Hilarious. Dev Patel is a fine actor and he will go places. He says it all through his eyes and that is what I guess Danny and other technicians would have felt to concentrate mostly on his close ups. His boyish innocent face with popped-out-bear eyes said more than the words could ever. But it’s Ayush as youngest Jamal who is the soul of this movie. That five or six something boy is absolutely incredible and the fact that he in reality is a slum boy makes it even more unbelievable. Where the fuck he learnt to act? All the three versions of Salim and Latika could not be better and special mention should go to youngest Salim and Latika along with the Villain Ankur Vikal. Frieda has been hogging all the limelight at the moment at all the right places and she deserves it. She is breath-taking in climax.

Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, and Saurabh Shukla in their miniscule roles are apt. It was quite surprising and implausible to see such a host of a reality based game show. But as rightly justified later by Anil that it’s his game show and he can do whatever he wants puts all cases to rest.

Coming to technicalities, everything from editing to screenplay, cinematography to background will mesmerize you. Within few minutes into movie and you get to feel the A.R. Rahman’s magic when cops chase the slum boys in the dirty lanes and pipes. The background score adds to the narrative and is evenly played depending on the situation with an utmost ease along with the songs ‘Ringa Ringa, ‘Paper Plane’, ‘O..Saaya’. However it’s ‘Jai Ho’ (comes with the end credits) which will make you shake your hip too along with Dev’s and Freida’s. Shot at CST, Jai Ho is a lively number by Sukhwinder Singh, Tanvi Shah and Mahalaxmi Iyer. Loveleen Tandan who co-directed the movie with Danny is also the Casting Director. What an ensemble cast she chose. Bravo!!! She played a very crucial part in the making of this movie. She has been previously associated with Monsoon Wedding, Earth and The Namesake to name a few.

It has its own flaws. Manjrekar changes the channel and the music comes on TV. The song is ‘Aaj ki Raat’ from Don but TV shows ‘Fanna’ song from movie ‘Yuva’ (Kareena moving his hands). As the movie progresses, all the leads speak English (I accepted that though many haven’t) but it’s the accent of Dev Patel which seems quite unrealistic. It is not tough to pick English but it is quite tough for somewhat literate boy to pick accented English. Was that because he worked as guide to foreigners at Taj? Or just because Dev happens to be British in real life, the angle of call center chaiwalla was added to give a leeway that he might have picked up the accent at call center? Whatever, I call it cinematic liberty which according to me if done in a lenient way shouldn’t harm the flow. And it did not.

Slumdog Millionaire is an excellent cinema in all terms. Three people who deserve all the applause are Danny Boyle (Director), A.R. Rahman (Music and Background Score) and Simon Beaufoy (Screenplay). These very three people won the Golden Globe along with Best Movie-Drama. The movie has got 11 BAFTA nominations along with the very gripping “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Oh, another masterpiece; Brad Pitt is marvelous and Cate Blanchett is alluring) and hopefully Slumdog will continue its success rate at Oscars nominations as well and eventual win thereafter. Hopefully.

A friend who has watched the movie and appreciated the direction and music cannot seem to digest all the adulation the movie is receiving. His complain is ‘Oh, you glorify the poverty of India and you win the awards’. I sneered at him and said almost what I wrote in the beginning while adding that ‘Why are you so negative about it. A film-maker made a nice movie and he is getting appreciated for it. Why the fuck we need to nit-pick in this very case and ignore many such incidences just because he happens to be a firang?’ I hope people start appreciating/ridiculing cinema the way cinema should be.

The movie is having it's theatrical release on Jan 23rd in both English and Hindi (Slumdog Crorepati). Go ahead, book your tickets and enjoy. Each to his own, though its better you watch the English version.

Taare Zameen Par - Out of Race

2009-01-14T04:39:00.005+05:30

I knew it and many like me knew it too that Taare Zameen Par was too feeble an entry for Oscars like Paheli (miserable), Eklavya (hopeless), RDB (many like that already made; we made it late), Devdas (Hazam nahi hua) in last few years. TZP was too long like Lagaan and very foreseeable like Lagaan; yet Lagaan was prevailing but TZP from beginning was no match to Majidi’s The Song of Sparrows (Iranian), Takita’s Departures (Japanese), Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir (Hebrew; Israel) and Garrone’s Gomorra (Italian); these which I have seen amongst the 67 entries and surprisingly Majidi’s movie is out of the nine selected so far for the third round and unsurprisingly Aamir’s TZP too doesn’t feature in top nine. Majidi who made 1998’s Best Foreign Language Film Children of Heaven about which I have talked in my earlier post might be disappointed as his was one of the best entries amongst the 67 this year for 81st Academy Awards.

I am not sad for Aamir, I am not. His was not enough to be recognized globally as a good cinema so it did not make. Fair enough. I am sad for Majidi though.

Slumdog Millionaire has left me speechless. It’s a mind-boggling movie for which I hope Boyle, Beaufoy, Mantle and our own ARR win Oscars on 22nd Feb. I am yet fostering the aftereffects of watching a mind fucking movie which is Slumdog Millionaire currently for me. I feel like crying.

With all due respect to makers of Lagaan; I feel Jamal’s last question worth 2 Million Rupees overshadows Bhuvan’s last ball six. (A Premise to my review later; COPYRIGHTED)

Excerpts from review which I hope to write soon:

I wish Slumdog Millionaire had never ended. I felt 120 minutes passed too soon; I hoped for it to run forever. I never felt so elated even when Bhuvan in Lagaan hit the last ball six in the climax. I still remember the whole theater just erupted with a feat (one experiences when one achieves something akin himself) when Bhuvan hit that six. I found myself hugging a complete stranger standing on left to me that morning in theater. That was 2001…. 2009; Slumdog Millionaire; almost similar climax (penultimate?) but more euphoria than what Aamir & Co provided me with then.

P.S. Slumdog Millionaire is extremely different to Lagaan. The reference was only to the climax.

Emosanal Attyachaar

2009-01-08T17:43:00.004+05:30

Today after a long absence from it, I am at it. There are times when you just should not write. I am not talking of the block, chunk or the equivalent of it; I mean you just should not. Because what you write in state of experiential anguish termed Emosanal Attyachaar these days could be hurtful to anyone; the way every TDH of our country gets hurt at the drop of hat, ‘Our sentiments are hurt’ they shout from the top of their lungs. It pisses me beyond means to fathom what sentiments in first place they brag of? Political/Religious/Physical/Biological? What kind of sentiments they carry that they get hurt so effortlessly. Nonetheless, one thing I am possibly sure of is that when called upon these same TDHs will turn out to be pansies pissing from their pants and petticoats.

By the way my sentiments are hurt too. They are not political, religious or biological and may be not even worth for those who inflicted them on me to ponder and respond but they are mine and they are immensely hurt. And more than once in last few weeks. It all started with RNBDJ. My sentiments were hurt when heroine mentions parathe waali gali to the hero. Wasn’t it Amritsar? I know of Delhi one though. How can she blatantly lie? My heart went through a series of moans every time heroine failed to recognize her own hubby in new avtaar. As a human my sentiments are hurt. I have become laughing stock for aliens and animals; because they can distinguish their partners from rest despite all of them looking same but our heroine cannot. Sigh!

Shobhaa De did not help either. I spent last week of last year in Mumbai and hoped of bumping into her somewhere, anywhere blowing kisses in air or tasting wine on the pretext of raising money, conscience for whatever reasons. Alas, she was in Goa. And I find her as livid this year as last in her writings for the same reasons. She is still holding onto the same schema, same positions have been revisited. She is tired of the analysts, politicians, tired of India showing evidence and Pakistan rejecting it out-and-out. She doesn’t realize she is doing the same through her articles.

Madam De talks of how the New Year has brought a New Beginning in the lives of the people of Mumbai. I was there for a good one week and I do not see much difference in the attitude of people this time compared to my visits before the attack, before the blasts and after that. Wonder what upbeat thing she is referring to? The only disparity (amongst few) was when few of my friends unlike me refused to celebrate and decided to spend the eve at home. Apart from that nothing visibly singular or buoyant about this whole upbeat business. Or possibly the rich ones are flashing it on their sleeves or the wrists which holds the champagne glass. Or may be she is so happy about the whole damn getting together of ultra rich Ambani brothers to celebrate sister’s wedding anniversary in Goa that she mistook it for the new beginning and sane attitude.

I wonder in what way that conveys the message of solidarity and of new beginning. These industry stalwarts, actors and celebs like her passed comments, wrote articles and more articles and welcomed the New Year in the safe cocoon of their plush abode by stating ‘It’s a new beginning as we are almost burying our differences’. Like heck I care if Ambanis come together. A commoner like me who traveled through the locals still feel unsafe; moreover I was appalled to find not even a single scanning machine at the major stations (Andheri, Kurla, Bandra et al) for I was carrying two huge bags. The other day TV actor Nikhil Arya entered the station with rifle and no one questioned him. Is that a new beginning?

How good these actors and industrialists have turned out politically? We do not have to be rocket scientist to know what transpires between the trios of Big B-Anil-Amar. We know how Govinda almost had to forego his seat when he was caught in a video footage along with Dawood. Amitabh’s exit from politics when the heat rose and Dharmendra’s discomfort as he found himself incompetent is no secret either. However now I wonder how Madam De is going to respond to the Comments by Big B in response to the comments initially made by her considering he is chaddi-buddy with the same Ambani she has been singing praises of. I hope you remember how she had lambasted everyone from SRK to Hrithik to Aamir to Big B after the attacks as these stars chose to keep quiet unlike her. SRK responded to her by calling her a ‘Cynic in designer Saree’ which I feel was quite an apt description of her but only second to the ultimate one by Sonam Kapoor who called De a ‘Porn Writer’. All said and done, isn’t that an Emosanal Attyachaar on all of us? We can blissfully ignore all this and move on but someone has to show you guys how trifling it all sounds and looks to us. You guys always fail to get the bigger picture, general understanding of us commoner.

If these were not enough, Aamir did his part of Attyachaar by doing what Mithun, Sunny and Akshay have done gazillion times in past. Unlike Attyachaar of De and gang, his Attyachaar deeply hurt my sentiments too. My sentiments for Aamir always have been that of a great thinker, a creative brain and a one stop dukaan of cinema. By Ghajini he has hurt my sentiments a great deal and my faith in him is defunct now.

The only good Emosanal Attyachaar is the one composed by Amit Trivedi (of Aamir fame) for Dev.D. The song is too good for the words and the rock version by Bony Chakravarthy indeed rocks. In fact all 18 songs of the movie rock. Not many know that Abhay Deol is also a good writer and it was his idea to make a modern Devdas which Anurag wrote and directed. It’s going to be one mind-fucking movie for sure. Critic Joginder Tuteja said, "Chuck the very thought around whether this album will do well commercially or not; it is an exemplary piece of work and that's what that matters most". Yes, that’s what matters most and for me as a fan of Abhay, Amit and Anurag that’s what matters most. What else a fan needs if his favorites act, compose, and direct top class stuff. So what if it’s Emosanal Attyachaar of multiple kinds listening to the songs continuously, in-loop the whole fucking time I am awake. I let the songs grew inside me and trust me it gets even better after 3 pegs down. Three cheers to Emosanal Attyachaar. The link to the Video

Time To Show Off

2008-12-13T02:52:00.004+05:30

I am often told that my posts are by and large very long read. I am not going to ask which any writer rarely dares to ask, “Did you read it till the end?” or “Did you yawn while reading it?” Alright I asked already. Anyway, do not worry this time as this post is just to show off.

Vimmuuu and Smita presented me with Butterfly Award and a Trophy.

Vimmuuu and WIAN presented me with ‘Este Blog Investe e Acredita Na… PROXIMIDADE!’ (Portuguese) award which made no sense till I read the translation in English.

This award is given to a blog that invests and believes in PROXIMITY – nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Thereby I present this to the following bloggers: (I am not presenting it to those who already received it.)

- V (Small B)
- Gokul (The most honest one)
- Sam (He is crazy..:))
- Avionic (Missing since 2 months)
- E-I-S-I (Should write often)
- Mystique Dew (Missing since 1 month)
- Vinz aka Vinu (Missing since 5 weeks) And lastly
- Shobhaa De (Oh, I love her!)

Moving on, Poonam announced the results of ‘Avante Garde Bloggies Awards’ couple of days back. I was nominated in two categories and I won both i.e. Best Movie Review and Best Blog Design. I thank each and everyone who voted for me.

Well, I fooled you in beginning when I said this post is just to show off. I also wanted to say that:

2008 is one of the worst years for our Film Industry. Probably I will write a different post on that. Hopefully 2009 would be a better one as I am going to present you with the trailer of three upcoming movies which look very promising.

Dev.D (Pronounced Dev [dot] D)

What’s common between Bimal Roy, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Anurag Kashyap. Devdas: brooding and alcoholic loser. However, Kashyap will present Devdas in totally bizarre form. In his own words the characters in his new flick Dev.D are not based on Sarat Chandra’s classic book Devdas. Yea, the hero is called Dev, there is girl named Paro and there is a prostitute Chanda, but that’s where the similarity ends. Ah, that says all. I have a feeling this is a work of mockery. I cannot wait to watch the new age Devdas played by Abhay Deol. I love Abhay Deol. The first five movies of his short career have been well appreciated. Call it coincidence or his innate impulse that all five have been made by debutant directors. His sixth and seventh (OLLO and Dev.D) are the only ones not made by debutant directors. I am dying to see Abhay in the role of cocaine-snuffing alcoholic.

Check the trailer and poster here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRLjycn11Rw

Slumdog Millionaire

Now this is the movie which looks very very promising if trailers are to be believed. If the trailer can blow up your mind imagine what would movie do? ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is directed by Danny Boyle whose earlier works include Trainspotting and Sunshine. The movie has already won many awards at various film festivals and will be released in India next year. The movie is based on the book Q & A written by Vikas Swarup and runs on the line of famous reality show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’.

Check the trailer and poster here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIzbwV7on6Q

Luck By Chance

The third in list is Zoya Akhtar directed ‘Luck By Chance’ and has her brother Farhan in the lead along with Konkona. The star cast gets alluring with Rishi, Dimple and Juhi. Apart from them Zoya has roped in half of the Bollywood for cameo but the one that every one is excited about is that of Hrithik Roshan.

Check the trailer and poster here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doTBkTc8lXM

Barkha On Trial and Shobhaa To The Rescue. Wah, Kya Jodi Hai!!!

2008-12-09T20:56:00.005+05:30

This is getting bigger and bigger. When I wrote my last post, I wasn’t being picky and targeting Barkha Dutt in particular. I had put the whole media (especially English News Channel) on pedestal. Moreover, my article clearly hinted towards the histrionics of these self-acclaimed, pseudo-intellects in the repercussions of the terror attack. The interviews, talk shows, video conferencing with every possible neta-abhineta, raja-runk et al have been hackneyed to the core.

Most of us by now understand and realize what these journos have done are not excusable. So now I am really being picky and targeting the poor woman. In my last post I was directed twice to a place where the lady in question had defended herself. I read the article and I wasn’t a bit impressed as she clearly escaped the whole allegations put forth by simply generalizing the whole scenario. Can’t you get it? We (including me) are talking of the recent attacks that were dramatized by you and your tribe. I do not wish to repeat what I spoke in my last post.

Moving on I came across this article written by Shobhaa De. There is absolutely nothing wrong in backing up someone you believe in like De does in Barkha. I appreciate that. What pinches me is how can she be so blind not to realize the obscurity of her own write-up? It stinks of bias. It tastes of disproportion. And ultimately it ends up looking nothing more than a case of back-scratching (Remember her 'Enough is Enough')

Madam De backs her (and tribe) by saying they were doing their job like you and me. They risked their lives by reporting non-stop. Whoa!!! For your kind attention Madam De that whole damn non-stop coverage did pose more threat to the lives already in jeopardy. It has been accepted by the police and the commandos and the rescuers except these journos, of course. They will never accept it. Sam left a fine comment in her post stating, “To draw an analogy - do we get a min. by min. update on the progress of a life and death surgery of a loved one? Don't we let the surgeons do their job? The same restraint has to be shown during blasts at public places."

She says these reporters were in War-Zone whilst we sat in the safety of our homes. Madam, can you tell me who in first place decides whether the media should be present at such sites or not? They were there by their own choice. So, please stop this game of reverse psychology. And even if the producers wanted them to be there, are their brains peanut sized that they cannot fathom what to show and what not to?

Madam De continues to add, “This is not the time for professional rivalries - who got more air time, who was side- lined, who was 'better'?? This is not a film awards nite with actors vying for the top honours. Every single anchor, whether it was Arnab or Rajdeep ,was superb. If they did goof up on certain details, jumped the gun..... that's understandable."

At this point let me bring forth a point which has been floating in my mind. All the channels were trying to beat each other by reporting in their own exclusive way. TRPs were at stake after all. Alright. When we talk of situations like this, don’t we all talk of bringing about the change? When aam-junta complaints of political, judicial or any other system, the first thing that is thrown to us is, ‘Why are you cribbing? If you want change, start doing something of your own. You start and rest will follow suit.’ Aren’t we given that profound logic when any of us lesser mortals speak up? Similarly, it’s all up to them. One of them has to stand up and say, ‘Hey look, we are not taking the path others have taken. If they are showing it, doesn’t mean we should do that too.’ One stance and you will be acknowledged. Of course it’s not film awards night and we people are not saying it. They themselves made it Indian Oscar by outsmarting each other in the race of TRPs. And by the way Arnab and Rajdeep were also sitting in the safety of their respective studios like you and I were sitting at home.

Coming back to Barkha, none of us in our right minds were interested in knowing how many family members a particular guy lost when she interviewed him live on TV. None of us in our sane minds bothered whether yours was THE ONLY CHANNEL who got the news first as you repeatedly reminded us. What resistance plan you have now for the charges made by Navy Chief Admiral on you? He has put blame on you for the loss of three soldiers during Kargil War because of your irresponsible coverage. That was 1999. Nine years down the line and what have you learnt since then Barkha?

Madam De in one of her gazillion articles written during those 60 hours mentioned how we fucked up in as many words. I say Media fucked up and Barkha a bit more. De sums up her trial on Barkha by reserving an extra ‘taali’ for her. I would give an extra slap to her. Why not? Each to his own, you only say that na. And for heaven’s sake, please refrain yourself from showing empathy towards the aam-junta. Social butterflies like you do not get brownie points for that.

P.S. Please read some of the finest comments I ever read in De’s post especially by a certain Joy.

Oh! the drama, the drama!!!

2008-12-04T15:44:00.004+05:30

A week of actions, reactions, anger, shock, disgust, distress, debate, speculations after, not much has been achieved spot on. We talked about it in our bedrooms, pondered over it like never before, and conversed over coffee and beer. Do we have any concrete upshot to it? Nothing except the drama which we are all subjected to, thanks to our media. I am not going to add anything which is not been said or debated over since a week of Mumbai Terror. Neither am I going to blame media for what they showed in those sixty hours nor I am getting into another round of blame-game. Few channels have been sent notice for screening the footages that were uncalled for by I&B. I wonder whether that would do any good. For me that’s an open and shut case. My case is not that. The case here is what those few pseudo-intellect, highly acclaimed journo have been doing post-relief of the terrorists attack.

Our very brave Barkha Dutt who covered Kargil in 99 has turned the current episode into a soap-opera. She is melodramatic to the core. Her histrionics are over-the-top and pessimistic to say the least. With a heavily-choked tone of voice, she did nothing but the dramatization of the whole scenario. If you are so choked, ask your camera guy to switch off and cry your heart out. Come on, we all are choked beyond utterance. And if that doesn’t suffice her hysterical ego, she calls a bunch of morons for a debate and asks them equally moronic questions. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, politician from INC joined her show via video conferencing was praised not once but twice by her in one hour of the show. The public present there are for some purpose and not to listen to her tirade twice, “Sir, you are the only politician who turned up, rest all refused citing they might get beaten up. I appreciate you came over.” What the FUCK. People have some questions for him. Give them a chance to ask those instead of your ‘Oh-I-am-so-powerful-yakking’. A couple of questions did put him in dock, yet she was quick enough to bail him out of it with her repeated rants. And then she goes onto cut almost everyone present there with ‘how short of time she is’ in a show which was already reduced to forty minutes because of ‘we will take a short break’. Can’t these guys get done with the Advertisements at least now, at least for one show? I am sure they can. Who the hell is interested in watching those Ads at this time of crisis when we are so full of questions and we want some answer to them? How else we can ask those questions to an authority? How else other than you Barkha? What was the need of reciting 3 minutes of grief-stricken poem written by Prasoon Joshi in between the show? With all fucking respect to Prasoon, I know you are as devastated as any of us; and you poured your heart by writing a poem. But get your own platform to showcase your poetry skills. What irked me was she cut short (a very valid question a gentleman had put forth to the congressman at that very moment) stating, “We have a poem by Prasoon.” God Bless you Barkha.

What with the chosen guest list? I do not fathom what Simi, Kunal, Ness and Ratna were doing there? Bachi Karkaria’s presence made sense till she blabbered “We should not blame the present govt. as this would have happened if any other party was at the center.” Wow, that was some soothing statement. Barkha nods in agreement. How the hell a senior journo can make a statement like that despite knowing there were warnings given to this present govt. in advance. All were buffoons and the biggest was Barkha for choosing such an elite group of morons for her show.

If Barkha is Ekta Kapoor of Media, Arnab Goswami is Shahrukh Khan of Media. He hams, mumbles, gets short of words all the time and the biggest fuck up is he (like SRK) thinks he is the best. All channels do ‘how-this-news-was-first-reported-by-them’ thing but no one harps on it like Arnab. Sometimes I feel he would come out of the television, will held me by collar and say, “Did you get it? Times now brought this piece first to you.” Who cares who showed it first I ask?

Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN is no saint either. In fact, all of them have given themselves into building news as sensational as possible at the cost of anything and everything. Almost all of them devoted 3/4th of their news on Taj and Trident. How can they forget that it all started from VT (CST) where 50 plus lost their lives at the outset of this atrocious terror strike? Was it because first time elites of this nation were attacked? Were not the lives of those who travel through the locals worth covering more than the chiffon and tuxedo wearing socialites chatting over a sit-down dinner? Why was CST ignored just like that? With all due respect to those who died at Taj and Trident, I request media to act responsible and ask right questions to the right people.

Oh! Look at me, I am so perfect.

2008-11-13T17:47:00.004+05:30

Aamir is flaunting it too now. At least he doesn’t remind you of dying-lizard SRK looked like with his six-packs. Ghajini, a remake of Tamil Ghajini which in turn is the copy of Memento would be hitting the screen in the last week of December. The first look was out couple of weeks back and didn’t everyone just praise his bloated look. I found the pictures repealing. No way it passed for an ultra hot few claimed it to be. And then the promos came. Thank god, he looked better than the stills. However I am annoyed with ‘Oh!, Look at me, I am so perfect’ attitude of his. Alright, you are good, you have a knack of getting into all aspects of film-making (many call that ‘interfering’), you sweat and burn yourself out, and you do whatever you do with conviction but for heaven’s sake do not shove that on our face. We want to watch a good movie. Yes, indeed you presented us with many such gems, but how can you forget you have done Mela, Mann, Raja Hindustani too and there are many more.

We are not interested in knowing how deep you go into a project to make it work. We all know what transpired between you and Amol Gupte; the poor guy had to walk out of TZP as director so that you can soothe your ego. I do not have any vendetta against you. I like your work, I like seeing you act but all I expect is a little humility; in accepting that Ghajini is a copy of cult film Memento and accessibility; not only when you have a movie up your neck to promote, be it your or nephew’s. I feel you are no more the same Aamir after Lagaan. Of course you gave many hits after that but Aamir of pre-Lagaan days was some one else.

Btw, the current song from the movie reminds me of your Fanna look, those drapes, those close-ups are just that. So much for perfection.

So, tomorrow Dostana is getting released along with Dasvidaniya. I am watching Dostana in the morning and Dasvidaniya later in the night. Oh, I am tired of Priyanka Chopra. Dostana would be her sixth release this year; Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi would see her in a cameo and not to forget her countless advertisements on TV. Apart from fashion, she sucked in all the movies. Dostana will have her Chamku star Bobby Deol paired (supposedly) against her and trust me they make for an awful couple on screen. For that matter I do not see her making a great pair with any one particular actor. She gelled with Abhishek and Hrithik in Bluffmaster and Krrish respectively but those were one off incidence.

This would be after so long that all the three Khans will have their respective releases in the same year and in same month. Now, that Salman’s Yuvvraaj is postponed to December, the alternate weeks in December would see Yuvvraaj, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Ghajini hitting the screens. Ghajini would be a hit for sure but I am not so sure of other two. I feel Subhash Ghai has lost it after Taal. Yaadein, Kisna, Black & White; all failed miserably and people are expecting a lot from Yuvvraaj. Rab Ne.. is Aditya Chopra’s third movie as director after DDLJ and Mohabbatein. Rab Ne.. is that of an underdog who rises like a phoenix and wins his wife’s heart and mind. If the screenplay and editing is taut, the movie should work for sure.

Let’s hope for a good year end. I am eagerly waiting for Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye.

I end with the tag Vimmuuu had asked me to do some eons ago. I am supposed to put up my snap which should be taken 10 or more years ago. Haha, I have truck loads of hard copies of my snaps but I am too lazy to scan and put it up so I am just going with one which I managed to fish out from somewhere. The photo was taken when I was in Second Class (KV Gurgaon). I am the first person from left in the second row. And yes, my twin bro is somewhere there too in the photo. Vimmuuu, I will keep digging for more and will put up as and when I get them.

Oye Quickie, Quickie Oye

2008-11-12T03:56:00.007+05:30

Music:

Sneha Khanwalkar nailed it this time. The lady who gave not-at-all impressive music for RGV’s Go last year has done a commendable job with the compositions of upcoming movie, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye(OLLO). Dibakar Khosla ka Ghosla Banerjee is all set with his second movie (looks promising if I go by the promos). Title song is already a chartbuster a la KKG’s Chak-De-Phatte but the two other songs which hold your attention are Superchor and Tu Raja Ki Raj Dulari. Tu Raja Ki Raj Dulari has a touch of Rajasthani folk. This is the one I am particularly hooked to since couple of days. This is the kind of song either will make you a slave of it or would repel you and you won’t hear it again. If later be the case, please give it a shot again and listen. The song in high-flying words is superlative, awesome, and mind-blowing. And beware of few raised eyebrows whilst you listen to it. Trust me there would be few people who would say, ‘what the heck are you listening to?’ The song is such.

‘Superchor’ is a Punjabi number which can be termed rap as well. But, it’s unlike those high-pitched, loud; ear shattering ones which aam-junta usually associates the Punjabi songs with (remember Bhootni Ke). Sample this:

‘Jugni Rehti Sheeshe Paar’
‘Odi Kothi Sector Chaar’

‘Jugni Kehdi English Bol’
‘Hello How You Do You Bol’

Lyrics are penned by director himself along with Amitosh Nagpal and Mange Ram and few words here and there are difficult to understand but the music is so damn impressive that you can hardly call that a flaw.

So, that’s the music I am currently listening in to. A lot better than Tandoori Nights and Tu Saala Kaam Se Gaya of recent times.

Also good are these:

Muskura from Dasvidaniya sung by Sonu Nigam. I rate Sonu a lot higher than any other singer of last decade. I was disappointed with his Makhna from the movie Heroes. But with Muskura he made it up. Another singer whom I put high up there is Mohit Chauhan (of Silk Route). Mohit who has Khoon Chala, Guncha Koi, Tum Se Hi to his credit is back with two beautiful ones this year. Kuchh Khaas from Fashion and Aankhon hi aankhon me from EMI. Sukhwinder sings once again for SRK after last year’s Dard-E-Disco, a song that had constipated written all over it, be it Sukhwinder’s voice or SRK’s dance. This year he sings Haule Haule for Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, a pretty decent number.

Books:

Coming to books, I finished four of them (that I had got in the beginning of this year) in last two months. Local and Vertigo (recommended by Smita) are by Indian authors; Jaideep Varma and Ashok Banker respectively. Both have backdrop of Mumbai and both are told from point of view of young man. Protagonist in Local works in ad-agency and describes the Local trains of Mumbai as his home while that of Vertigo is caught between an alcoholic mother, demanding girlfriend, and not-so-good-paying job. Both the books are very readable. Btw, Jaideep Varma has now turned director with Hulla which was released in September this year.

Third book was Orhan Pamuk’s My Name Is Red, a story of multi-layered plot told from various POVs like the murderer, the dead, the dog, the satan, the red (color) and high chances reader will get confused and irritated to the point of leaving it in midst. However, it is a great piece and almost faultless. The last in the list of finished ones is Memoirs of my Melancholy Whores written by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The book is 100-odd pages that can be finished at one go of 2 hours or so. I had heard of Marquez and his Love in the time of Cholera is on my to-read list for over three years now and I haven’t bought it yet. Nonetheless when a friend strongly recommended MMMW, I bought the book and enjoyed reading the story of a journalist who decides to sleep with a young virgin girl on his ninetieth birthday; on the pretext of treating himself and eventually falls in love with the young virgin girl who was set up for him by his old friend; a lady who ran a brothel. The book is rich in literature and now I am eager to read his other books.

I have picked booker winner The White Tiger now and if not extremely enjoyable so far (as I have read just 50 pages), the book is at least readable considering the other booker winner (2006) ‘The Inheritance of Loss’ never saw the daylight after I packed it in a carton which consists of ‘started-reading-left-and-will-never-read-again’ books. TIOL was remarkably a gloomy book from the first page.

Movies:

Fashion was a decent watch but Madhur is now getting repetitive. Half the reels of fashion are influenced by his previous works. His next one Jail sounds interesting but I wonder what he will showcase. Sodomy? Probably. Golmaal Returns was an awfully sad movie. Quantum of Solace put me to sleep and so did Righteous Kill. I was expecting a lot from Righteous Kill especially. Nevertheless after watching it I decided to pick 3 random movies each of De Niro and Pacino from their young days. Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter and Raging Bull it was for De Niro; Dog Day Afternoon, Donnie Brasco and Scent of a Woman it was for Pacino. I love watching these movies again and again. Paul Newman’s Hud was another one which I caught in between. Hud is a great movie laced with one of the finest dialogues ever written.

World Cinema:

Irreversible (French) is a thriller/mystery that lasts over a night. The story is told in a reverse order. The movie has lot of violence, gore and sexual assaults. It can be disturbing for few. Rating – 4 Stars

400 Blows (French) is a powerful story of a young boy at the threshold of becoming an adolescent. The boy is neglected by all and is seen as troublemaker. Starting from trivial crimes to eventually getting into stealing things he finds himself arrested. He is sent to juvenile detention but soon sent to work camp. The film deals with sensitive issue of adolescent criminals and how they are dealt. Rating – 4 Stars

Grimm (Dutch) is a story of two adults; brother-sister duo who are left on their own in the forest by their father. The pair goes to Spain to their Uncle who now turns out is dead. They meet a Surgeon who falls for the sister, takes them to his mansion and marries the sister. Their lives turn upside down when they get to know the Surgeon in actual steals the Kidneys when brother one day wakes up to find himself in a dessert while Sister is confided in a cellar. Rating – 3 Stars

Happy Together (Mandarin) is a Hong Kong movie about two gay men who go to Argentina for work. One of them (Ho) is promiscuous and leaves the other (Lai) as he cannot keep a monogamous relation. Once when beaten up Ho returns only to find Lai is not so approachable intimately. Ho begs to Lai to give him another chance. Lai agrees and they are back together as couple. Once stable, Ho goes his usual promiscuous way and leaves Lai again. Rating – 4 Stars

Flashback.......

2008-11-07T03:48:00.004+05:30

Flashback…….

It’s the time of year when vacation, parties, celebrations, and many such activities take precedence. This is also the time of year when almost 30% of all the movies get released. Here in Bangalore its winter already and the evenings are enjoyable and nights call out for a warm squeeze from the lover. This is the best time to write as the creativity and imagination are at its best. But, the sad thing is I am suffering from all possible blocks. I do not feel like writing, I gave up on reading after having started 4 books, I do not feel like socializing and least partying after last Saturday’s heaviness. There is no lover to squeeze the coldness out and the final nail is I am not watching any movies. A movie a day person in me, a movie a day person like me who would any time prefer a good movie over the best possible fuck available is shying away and yes from both.

I called few friends to check if it’s just me. Affirmative responses made me call for a Sunday night brunch with these three SOS friends I got. A high class super-fucking rich and reasonably handsome guy of 26. I call him Ridgeet. He was skeptical after our high drama scene at the recent outing wherein I refused to lend him my spare boots. The asshole always forgot to bring something or the other on our bike trips. It wasn’t tough to convince him though as I agreed to lend him my latest DVDs. The other two godforsaken loonies are actually a couple. I had to check with Ridgeet first of their relationship status before calling on them as in last one year they broke-up and patched up more than Ridgeet had sex in his whole 7 years of active sex life. Thank god I fare better than Ridgeet at least in this case else the guy is always a mark ahead of me. So, these two loonies turned up too. Call them boy-loony and girl-loony.

Dressed in our best, we assembled at this newly opened suburb lounge suggested of course by the girl-loony. So there we were eating food which was priced exorbitantly.

“So, what’s up guys? Long time, eh?” I started as others did not show much interest in starting the conversation. Ridgeet was busy checking out the others, while the other two loonies were busy checking out each other; literally. Ridgeet looked at me, gave a firm look as he answered, “Yeah, well, fine. What’s with Ya?” and tuned away to continue his checking out.

This was not working. I had to say something else. So I slightly turned and faced the two loonies and asked them, “You guys going good? All well in relationship?” The girl loony picked up a slice of fish finger, popped it in her mouth and spoke, “We like each other. The sex is great. But I do not think either of us wants to be exclusive about sex. I mean, I like fish finger but I can not eat this daily. You see what I mean. It’s like the same daal-roti story being told over and over again. Many, I mean almost all aren’t vocal about it, but we both decided to give it a go.” I nodded my head, “You mean you guys want to go in for an open relation.” They both were quiet for sometime. “Only for two weeks” the boy-loony finally opened his mouth.

Ridgeet turned towards us, who wouldn’t get interested by now. He offered his two cents, “I guess that’s perfect. Go for it both of you. Open relations are the ultimate expression of truth, honesty and loyalty.”

I made incoherent question mark noises. “How is it truthful, loyal or honest to sleep with people when you are in love with somebody? I mean I ain’t saying this is wrong but when you are in love, a relation it’s wrong. Ok, if you want to sleep with another person, break off with the current and then go and sleep with other; not whilst claiming to be in love with the current.”

Boy-loony opened his mouth to say something but Ridgeet interrupted him, “Oh, look who is talking of it? Mister got lucky than any of us always and he talks like a puritan.”

I gasped and said, “I ain’t talking like a puritan and I ain’t preaching. I just want to understand how you can claim to be in love with someone and still go screw someone else. I had never been in love of late so you cannot count my endeavors.”

Ridgeet had to have a last say so he continued, "No, seriously. Think over it. We are not meant to be monogamous. We might love one person but we always fantasize over so many others. We always cruise. A pair of breasts, a nice ass, a huge bulge and no matter how good our intentions are, we secretly picture ourselves with them and go home and screw partners. Every relationship that ends because ‘one of the partners slept with somebody else’ always has the tag line attached with it: ‘Honey, it was just sex. Nothing more.’ I think it is high time we made ‘just sex’ a part of our relationship. That way we will all be as fucked as we want to be and less fucked in our heads." Ridgeet had apparently given this a whole lot of thought. The last time he had so passionately defended something was when we had questioned him dating three women at the same time – one for the conversation, one for what she did to him, and one for what he could do to her.

This happened two weeks ago. After that I had a small vacation in Goa. I am back. I am still suffering from few blocks as I overcame the movie-watching one and have watched some 10 good ones in last one week. I somehow managed to write this piece and I am still thinking about open relationships.

Continued…….

Karzz: Ek Chudail Thi Aur Ek Buffoon Tha

2008-10-19T15:22:00.005+05:30

There I go with my take on Karzz. The review which you see below is not exactly the same which I wrote for PFC here. I wrote the below piece and sent to PFC which was sent back to me stating I need to modify it as this looked more like an attack on Himesh than a balanced review. So, I modified it a bit which got published here.
Btw, if the below one doesn't look a balanced one then read it as my take on HIMESH and other buffoons who raped and pulverized the orignial Karz; a classic.

It is futile to analyze and dissect Karzz as it’s undisputed that when it comes to Himesh everything he does sucks including judging those mindless talent shows wherein all he does is ‘give roti’ to anyone who remotely howls and hams like him. His music to an extent was good till he assailed us with his much-known nasal crooning. Aashiq Banaya, Aashiq Banaya was bearable which was accepted as there was a new fresh voice in the market. He should have stopped there and then and made HISTORY; the word with which he is obsessed these days. Watch him in the current season of ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’ and you will know what I mean.

Anyways so he should have just stopped singing after that chartbuster and concentrated more on composing. But that was not the case. Sar pe chaddh ke baith gaya and bombarded us with his howls one after the other. We ignored. How could he put up with that and gave age-old cliché ‘love me or hate me, can’t ignore me’ a forceful win by deciding to act. We gave up. The guy is suffering of psychosis we convinced ourselves with as we saw him getting fused with the famous trio already suffering with that: Ekta Kapoor, Karan Johar and Rakhi Sawant.

After showcasing his shaved bare-chest in autobiographical Aap Ka Suroor, he goes a step further in Karzz and does a whole makeover by getting hair silkier, lips fuller and legs much slimmer than both the heroines while figure (not physique) somewhere in between the lasses. There is stiff competition amongst the trio as who got the better shade of lipstick.

I do not know whose idea was it to cast Himesh as Monty (a role made iconic by Rishi). Whoever it is but this could be the worst case reported of casting; even worst than AB as Gabbar. Rishi was an icon, heart-throb of million girls who had bitches named Neetu which were kicked daily. He made nation dance to his ‘Om Shanti Om’ and ‘Ek Haseena Thi’ and later now is pulverized beyond mend by Himesh. Even DJ Suketu’s remix sounds thousand times better. He confessed before the release that “Rishi is the best-looking Monty and I am the worst.” Oh yes, you buffoon. What took you so long to realize?

Satish Kaushik (Director) agrees that no one can match Rishi’s performance. So much confidence in the beginning it self. Whoa!!! Satish adds, “I can judge between good, bad and amateur performances and I have to admit, he has surprised me with his performance.” Alright Tere Naam was fluke. That’s all I can construe from this statement of yours Satish Ji.

And surprised were we to know Himesh as Monty. As if that was not enough, you have Urmila as Kamini. Simi got nominated for her role. I doubt if Urmila would be. No, I am sure. She won’t be.She looks frail and malnourished. That ghastly blood-soaked red lipstick gave Chudail-on-run feel to her wicked act. Chudail also goes onto give some hip-shaking moments with the buffoon. Falooda Nights.

Shweta Kumar is easily forgettable. She has nothing to do. I won’t add apart from this or that. She is nonentity. Her act doesn’t add to the story. And you wonder how that could be? In original, Tina Munim did carry the story forward and she is noticeable unlike Shweta. Watch out for few classic moments like once when she is singing Monty’s famous song and forgets the lines and soon you see Monty completing the lines. Classic? Because he is on a helicopter and she is on earth. How the hell he heard her singing and forgetting the lyrics? Mashallah.

I have been lately been intrigued by what not-so-nice-and-gentlemanly words are called and pronounced in various languages and have learnt quite a lot of them and today I want to hurl all those freaking-so-awful-they-are-actually-splendid-to-hear words on every one associated with the movie called Karzz, Ghai-Kaushik-T-Series-The Buffoon-and-The Chudail. As I exchanged SMSes late in the night with some one connected in the making of this film and has seen it, I informed him that I am going to catch Karzz first day first show. He replied, “Haha, All The Best.” Wow!!! That was comforting.

Something which I read somewhere today: ”Karzzzz belongs to a guy who has supreme confidence in his capabilities, and for the fans who agree. For the rest, there is always something on TV. Himesh is sure to stay.”

Alright, time for us to relocate to Somalia guys.

Marathi me kehte hain ki….. SHUT UP

2008-10-12T15:44:00.004+05:30

My second article to get published at PFC (on 11th Oct'08).

I thought I was done with Drona when I wrote its review here and later on I read the interview of Goldie Behl (Director of Drona) and I believe he needs to SHUT UP and yes, in Marathi. That’s up to him how he does that? At least one person (Raj Thackeray) would be eternally happy knowing people are not just speaking but shutting up too in Marathi.

So there goes the interview which he gave and my reaction fed in between it:

Director Goldie Bhel's recently released fantasy adventure Drona didn't get an overwhelming response at the box office, but the director is happy with the fact that superstar Shah Rukh Khan and his son Aryan loved the movie. "It's important for children to enjoy Drona. I'm glad Aryan enjoyed it. I made the film for children, not for those who like their cinema twisted and perverse," Behl told IANS. Behl is determined to make a sequel to Drona and says he will dedicate it to Shah Rukh's son and his son Ranvir.

I say: Alright, so you ought to make it clear from the beginning that you are making Drona exclusively for SRK and his puttar. Why this sudden revelation after the Drona’s disapproval from almost all the sections?

Isn’t it important for children to enjoy any movie that is made, why single out Drona? Don’t give its-my-baby crap now. And look who is talking of twisted and perverse cinema? "Bas Itna Sa Khwaab" is etched forever in mind for being one of the most abnormal cinema and Drona goes beyond the limits of absurdness.

Ok, why not dedicating the sequel to SRK’s dogs and bitches as well. They will for sure be missed in the credits else.

"And all the children of our country who have to watch crime thrillers and sex comedies because fantasies are not made in the country. No matter what the outcome of Drona is at the box office, the sequel will most certainly happen,” he said.

I say: What? Did you run out of your 2.5 grams of brain? Children are getting their share of entertainment. And last one year in particular from this day had been blissful for them. Toddlers or Tweens; everyone had their share of fun and entertainment. And wasn’t Hari Puttar released a week before your film?

Ok, go ahead make the sequel like a gentleman. No matter how much we criticize you won’t stop, so why so much of tom-tomming?

Commenting upon the criticism, Behl said, "As far as we're concerned we've made a film that dares to go into an unexplored genre. Critics are all the time complaining about our films being borrowed from foreign sources.
"When I've attempted something original, why shouldn't I carry the story forward?

I say: And there you blurted it yourself. Did you just say ‘something original’? Well, then you are not doing the reading or listening of the criticism by the book? More or less everyone has pointed out how Drona is muddled up product of many Hollywood movies. Yours truly himself has taken the names of Harry Potter, Fast-n-Furious in his review. And few that I forgot to mention then could be Troy (Brad Pitt meeting his mother), Matrix (The highway chase scene where Trinity and Keymaker are on motorcycle), and some part reminds of Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino starrer 'The Devil's advocate' where Al is a satan. I guess that's enough. You can excuse yourself in case after the debacle of BISKH you have been living in some remote island penning the script of Drona and not aware of who-the-heck is Potter and what-the-heck-those-movies-are which I mentioned? From beginning till end you have borrowed ideas from all possible fantasy stories. Accept it like a man.

Shah Rukh loved the film. He told me his son loved the film. My three-year-old son Ranvir saw the first film of his life at the premiere of Drona. And he couldn't take his eyes off the screen,” he said.

I say: So SRK is the one to love it, huh!!! He for one has not forgotten his Asoka and waits every moment for that to be declared a classic someday.

I do not hold your son guilty. What a three year old can make out of any happenings on big screen anyways? For a first film in theater even I as four-year-old tot could not take my eyes off the screen when I saw Silsila which was based on infidelity. Of course I could not have made anything out of it. And does that mean more movies on extra-marital affair should have been promoted that time just because a four-year-old tot could not take his eyes off the screen? But my dad was not SRK or you and I thank my stars for that.

Do you really think you are being rational here by bringing such analogy? If you are not then why would we? Many parents have already replaced ‘So jaa varna RGV Ki Aag dekhani padegi’ with ‘So jaa varna Drona dekhani padegi’ giving RGV’s film some kind of popularity for over an year only now till your movie took the coveted phrase.

Abhishek Bachchan, who played the title role in the movie, welcomes the idea of a sequel. "It a very interesting possibility. And taking the story forward is an idea that we've planted into the climax of the story. I don't see why we should change our minds," said Abhishek who was seen in sequels like Dhoom 2 and Sarkar Raj.

I say: He needs to save his face any which ways. From day one he has been getting offers without much sweat, so how does Drona being totally neglected would affect him? He has nothing to lose in both the cases of sequel being made or not; and the gain could be Drona-2 might hit the nail. So, he is just being the insightful businessman as expected of actors.

"It's a new genre. There're no reference points to Drona in the audiences' movie-viewing experience. Initially, they were bound to be a bit confused, as we always are by something new. We were prepared for that," said Abhishek.

I say: And so are we now to face your next classic.

"At the end of the movie Drona's son, played by producer Shristhi Arya's son Veer, is being shown tailed by the same supernatural powers as his father. The sequel, it is understood, will launch a new young actor as Abhishek's son and will carry the adventures of Drona into a new realm.”

I say: Hey, take Aryan (SRK’s son) for heavens sake. Why mere a dedication to him? Launch him straightaway.

"Goldie Behl may take a break to make another film. But most probably he'll go to the sequel as the very next one. The story of the Drona-in-waiting has to be told. In fact, Goldie has already written a major part of the script for the sequel and will be casting soon," said a source.

I say: All The Best. (How do I say that in Marathi?)

The CLASSIC Weekend

2008-10-08T17:10:00.006+05:30

Socha nahi tha Gandhi Jayanti day would turn out be a fun day. I happened to watch two amazing movies that I am sure will be termed 'Classic' in times to come.

I wrote the review of Drona for passionforcinema.com and as their policy suggests I cannot publish it anywhere until it's published with them. They take 5-7 days to decide if it's worth being published on their site. And today it got posted there. Click Here to read/rate it at passionforcinema [dot] com OR Read below.

Drona – A Groan (a)

All I wanted to do on my day off was catch Drona and Kidnap back to back. I saw few young girls coming out laughing and giggling after the noon show of Drona. Oh, girls usually do that whenever you bring in any super-hero. But, soon few middle aged people followed and they were all smiling and giggling too. Few to themselves and others in a loud growling fashion. I was confused. I had not read any review whatsoever of it anywhere. And people’s reaction intrigued me more. This usually is the case when the movie is supremely entertaining or devastatingly horrible or its RGV Ki Aag. I used to believe there is just good or bad cinema until I saw RGV Ki Aag. Yes, RGV Ki Aag is another category in itself.

I was getting restless by now and could not wait to unravel the mystery behind the laughs and guffaws.

Movie starts with a voiceover introduction of what you are about to see (go through). It gives a short synopsis of who-the-heck Dronas of history were in form of comic strips a la Chandamama or Amar Chitra Katha (remember?)

Cut to some European country. A young boy (Aditya played by Abhishek) is having frightening dream. He complains his Aunt about it who is sleeping with her husband and beloved son. Any resemblance so far to Harry Potter, Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and Dudley is purely intentional. Aunt ridicules Aditya and shoos him away. Aditya also called as Slow motion ki aulad by his foster mother is very disturbed and whiles his time by looking out of the window. Comes a flying object which is blue in color. The boy is too naïve to shout ‘UFO, UFO’ so gives a sheepish smile. The object lands on his stretched palm and voila it’s a petal.

Another scene. The most hideous scoundrel of all time Riz Raizada (Kay Kay Menon) with a Mohican-Cum-Tower-styled hair and 2 irritating puppets in tow makes his own clone and straight away kills the clone. I am still interpreting why? He wishes to get hold of the Amrit so that he can be Amar forever but not before destroying the world. And you were thinking Big Bang Theory will end the world. Sigh!!! Anyways, so this Amrit ka secret is only with Drona. Riz has killed the earlier Drona and is in a lookout for the heir.

Next scene. The morose Slow motion ki aulad is now a young man with unkempt, grumpy look and hands in pocket (always). The petal still floats around him. It’s his birthday and he goes to see the great magician Riz Raizada performing in neighborhood. One look at Aditya and Riz knows that this gloomy man is Drona. He sends his army (death-eaters) behind him. Death-Eaters? I told you, any resemblance to Harry Potter is intentional. Ok, so death-eaters chase Aditya.

Enters turban woman (Sonia played by Priyanka Chopra) who saves Aditya. He is baffled. She narrates the history, geography and biology of who-he-is and what-he-is ending the story with an orgasmic look on her face. He maintains same expression. Death-eaters reappear. This time she saves him by speeding up in a race car. Any resemblance of high-octane car chase to ‘Fast and Furious’ is intentional too. Soon the death-eaters catch the duo and each death-eater pulls out a sword. SWORD??? You got the best race car for the chase and you pull out sword to fight? Whatever happened to the guns…??? So, Sonia madam pulls out knives from every corner of her body and fights back. Abhishek (who is still baffled with happenings around) suddenly realizes he is supposed to be the man wearing pants and gets strength from nowhere and throws a big iron gate towards the villains killing them at instant. Sonia Madam is amused, smiles a Kodak moment. *Click* and that’s her second orgasmic look.

30 minutes into the movie and bingo; Drona is everything I mentioned above. It was turning out to be extremely entertaining and was giving a tough competition to RGV Ki Aag and not to forget the profound logic that went into everything so far in the movie. I eased myself in the seat beaming to myself, ‘Abhi toh shuruaat huii hai’.

Pronto, I was in for another surprise. The movie takes us to some rural India (I think it was Rajasthan) where a mother (Jaya marathi-nahi-aati Bachchan) suddenly feels some kind of air touching her that tells her in the language which now I know only she understands that her santaan has returned. She started this conversations-with-air in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham and is continuing the trend. She comes out, sees her santaan from terrace and soon breaks into a song (keeping up the KKKG trend, you see). Mother B explains to Son B why she abandoned him and the entire flashback happens in form of comic strips. Mr. Director seems to be very fascinated with that idea. After mother stops the boring kahaani Riz appears and turns the mother into a statue. THANK GOD. Her mumbles were getting too much to bear.

Drona has all the secrets unraveled now. All he needs to do is find the way to get hold of ‘Horse’, ‘Sword’ and finally ‘Amrit’. The horse is described as something untamed so far which only Drona can tame. And when you see that untamed horse you will know that even Rajpal Yadav could have easily tamed it. The trail to find the sword goes through series of illogical puzzles. One moment is worth mentioning where they (Aditya and Sonia) are stuck as the clue says ‘Drona ki parchhai (shadow)’ something. They take ages to decode that. Aditya then slowly turns and says, “Tum Sonia. Tum ho meri Prachhai’. At this, Sonia Madam looks at him and gives another orgasmic moment to us. What a scene!!!

And after many such profound and thoughtful scenes/moments/dialogues, Riz is closer to getting the ‘Amrit’ after stabbing knife in Drona’s stomach. The blood falls on the barren land and follows a path and soon the barren land is blessed with greenery and day becomes night. The door to the ‘Amrit’ is visible and Riz gallops his horse towards it. Drona is still unconscious (not dead, how can he still be? think profoundly). Riz is running away and is now very close to the ‘Amrit’. Drona wakes up at that very moment, gets up with head hanging down and stands in that pose for 2 minutes. He then raises his head and voila there is a fierce in his eyes. The eye color has changed. It’s no blacker. It’s not remotely human. It’s silver, no, it’s all white, whatever but it’s scary for sure. Super-heroes aren’t supposed to flaunt that eye color Mr. Director. That’s for Zombies or vampires for your information. Riz is getting closer to ‘Amrit’. Drona is furious. He raises his right hand up in the air, makes a fist and Dhadaam. There goes the feeblest punch on the face of earth but earth gets circular waves and the waves start spreading. Waves reach the running Riz and he falls. Yes, he falls. A ripple from earth caused because of Drona’s punch make a running horse and a man on top of it fall. Wow!!! Hail to Goldie Behl. He is genius. Riz dies Drona wins. But that’s not the end.

Not shown how many years later but Drona is seen along with his now lively mother, without-turban wife and a son. Son goes to sleep and there is a look-alike of death-eater outside his room. The movie ends, you know what it means? It means our intelligent director is coming up with sequel soon. A SEQUEL??? I am off to enter a line in my will warning my offspring to stay away from anything that sounds Drona.

The Tag and The Rant

2008-09-30T17:04:00.007+05:30

=========-
The Tag
=========-
I was tagged by Vicky. And I went for this without two thoughts as this was on movies. A pretty easy and neat.

1. Name five of your all time favorite movies.

Hindi Ones:
Arth
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron
Masoom (old)
Maqbool
Black Friday

English Ones:
Casablanca
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Motorcycle Diaries
Scent of a Woman
Schindler’s List

2. Name one movie which you recommend as a "must see".
Life Is Beautiful

3. One and only one movie that you have seen many times. [Watching on TV won’t count]
Rock On (The movie which I have seen more than 2 times in theater; for various reasons though)

4. Which movie comes to your mind when I say funniest?
Shoot the Piano Player (French)

5. Which movie(s) made you really emotional?
The Lives of Others (German) and How Green Was My Valley (English)

6. Which movie series was as interesting as the first part?
Godfather Series (Without any doubt)

7. Which movie didn’t, according to you, live up to your expectations?
The Da Vinci Code.

8. Which movie surprised you?
13 Tzameti (French)

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The Rant
=========-

A quick look at the movies I saw over the weekend.

The Wizard of Oz: (1939)
Supposedly second in the list of Top 5 Hollywood Movies (Classic) of all time, the movie is a musical and fantasy film. The story is about an Orphan Dorothy (Judy Garland). Her dog Toto once bit a certain Miss Gulch who gets an order from court to take the dog away. The dog any how runs back to Dorothy upon which she decides to run away from the village. And there starts a fun journey wherein a coward lion, a scarecrow, a tin man join her. I find the movie just about ok. I wanted to watch this as now only 1 movie is left to be seen out of that list. That it is in top 5 of all time classic is actually attributed to the fact that the movie was hugely loved when shown as TV series as it was not very commercially hit when released.

Rating – 3 n half

Gentleman’s Agreement: (1947)
Gregory Peck stars in this drama as a Journalist who wishes to unravel the Anti-Semitism (resentment against Jews) outlook by posing himself as a Jew. What he unearths upsets him a great deal. As a Jew, he realizes to what extent people actually go and the hostility doesn’t stop at the work. His fiancée too is in tight spot concerning all this hara-kiri.

Rating – 3 n half

Roman Holiday: (1953)
I have always ranted (whenever given prospect) of my love for Audrey Hepburn so much so that I started digging for all her movies after I watched Breakfast At Tiffany’s, but her debut movie (Roman Holiday) always eluded me. And the fact that it had my other favorite Gregory Peck made me restless beyond control. I got it through a friend finally. Audrey went on to win Academy Award in her debut film where she portrayed a role of Royal Princess. Rome is the last destination on her tour of European cities. Upon reaching there, she runs away from her palace and roams around the street of Rome as a commoner. She meets a Journalist (Gregory as a Journalist yet again) and falls in love. But beware; the climax is not what our Bollywood guys would have made out of such story.

Rating – 4

Chariots of Fire: (1981)
The story based in year 1924 talks of 5 athletes preparing for upcoming Olympics. Zero down and you have two protagonists who are aiming for the 100 meter Gold. One of them is Jewish who would go to any extent to prove his detractors wrong and other is Christian who would not run on Sunday as running on Sabbath (religious day of rest) is sacrilege.

Rating – 4

Slipsliding On The Continuum

2008-09-23T19:31:00.010+05:30

So, I had a very interesting fortnight.

So, I watched A Wednesday and The Last Lear. And I was disappointed with the later. ‘A Wednesday’ was a good attempt for a debutante, so I would ignore couple of flaws but ‘The Last Lear’ was a lot disappointing. Btw, an interesting article about ‘A Wednesday’ here.

Now coming to TLL, Why do our actors fake their accent whenever they act in an English language movie? By accent I don’t mean they put on Brit or Yankee or any other accent. It looks our actors are speaking forced English. They are very good at the language but there is something insanely foolish about the way they mouth the dialogues, it is a big put off. Watch Divya Dutta to know what I mean. And critics are going gaga over her. Shefali Shah suddenly takes a spin in her mind when she is asked to do an English film. She becomes a totally different person. Her whole body language suggests ‘I am the Queen’. Watch any of her English movies (including 15 Park Avenue) and you will know what I mean. She is a good actor but I prefer Shefali of Satya any day. Preity, Amitabh and Arjun were just about ok. There was nothing amazingly awesome about them and same goes for the script. Ghosh and Arindham created much hype and hoopla which Neeraj ‘Wednesday’ Pandey did not and ultimately grabbed all accolades and also got his movie short listed in top 5 contenders to be sent for Oscars. So, that made TZP a winner. Would Aamir nail it this time? I wonder. I doubt actually.

I do not fathom why but TZP always reminds me of ‘Bacheha-Ye-Aseman’ (Iranian) film which I saw once again this week. From BYA (later dubbed in English as ‘Children of Heaven’) which won the Best Foreign Language Film at Oscars in 1998 till ‘Leben Der Anderen, Das’ (German; dubbed in English as ‘The Lives of Others’) which won Best Foreign Language Film in 2007 each and every movie was class apart in their own way and TZP is no where closer to any of those. So, I question what likelihood TZP has got now?

So, I bumped into both current and previous ex-lovers (were we??) of mine. How interesting (of course, at different locations and occasions). Ok, before that, a suggestion. Unless you are sure of how things are going in relation, never ever take your date to you favorite hang-outs. NEVER. Once you guys have things talked and all going smooth, take wherever you want. But, before that strictly no. So, what was she (current ex) doing there with a random guy? I am not too uncomfortable in such situations to be honest and can handle it quite well. However, what pinched me was ‘I brought you here once and that was your first time here and it's my favorite you are aware. Go, somewhere else please'. But, It’s not my baap-ka-place in first place. Anyway, so I massaged my ego thinking, ‘Ah, probably she had inkling I would visit the place so she was just dying to have a look at me’. Whoo!!! Whoo!!! Worked.

The previous ex crossed my path at Multiplex. I was going for ‘Rock On!!' and she was coming out after watching it. “What’s with the hair”? She exclaimed. What right she has to make a cry of it? “Well nothing, it’s my new style and punk coloring I went for this time, something other than burgundy”. I said remembering she had always suggested burgundy for my hair in our togetherness days. “Eeewww, It’s not done”. She always reminded me of Janice of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and it had taken me some time to forget her ‘Eeewwws’. “And what’s that goatee thingy without mush”? She continued. “Its Ramadan days so I thought this would be appropriate look”. What was I thinking when I said that? She asked, “What”? "Nothing, catch you later. Tata. Ciao".

So, she was the one I referred in the tag when I said I was trying to kill but she escaped.

So, nowadays I don’t like crowds, I prefer to stay away. There were times when my presence was felt in a crowd. It’s the same now, just that more than speaking much, I am speaking sense now. And when I don’t think I can contribute, I prefer keeping my trap shut. They feel I am depressed these days. I feel I am beginning to realize things. Don’t take anything at face value anymore.

Then when someone asked me about the number of friends I had, I would quote a 3 digit figure! Now the number doesn’t go beyond 3 fingers. It’s not that I've lost them; I’ve realized what 'Being Friends' is all about. Though the people who matter have come down, the extent to which I can go for them has increased by infinite times.

They feel I've become more serious. I feel I've grown. Finally, I have started mattering to me. I am slip sliding on the continuum.

So, three wonderful ladies presented me with some random awards on blogger. Preeti gave me ‘Thoughtful Blog Reader’ award. Reema presented me with ‘Certified Honest Blogger’ award. And lastly, Avdi honored me with ‘Brillante Weblog’ award here and wrote some nice words for me. I am eternally appreciative to all three of you. And before I forget I need to pass on these.

So, here I go:

Thoughtful Blog Reader to Vimmuuu, Preeti and Reema.

Certified Honest Blogger to Mystique Dew and Avdi

Brillante Weblog to Vicky and Smita.

So, I rambled big time here. I cannot write daily so whenever I get time I prefer saying the most. And yes, I rambled on Bollywood here. So, that means I won’t be using my other blog for Bolly rant. Guess I am too lazy to maintain more than one. Peace.

Chalo Tag-Tag Khele

2008-09-18T18:06:00.005+05:30

Ain’t you guys tired of reading numerous posts on this tag? I am. If you too are, then stop reading right away and visit when I write my next. :) No offenses.

I remember, (few of you might too) I (along with my twin brother) was pulled in many times to play ghar-ghar by my sister. Sister’s saheli and my brother were always first selection for Maa-Papa; I was their child and Sister played teacher and I was to do all the tasks every time whilst they all sat and just ordered. Anyways, that was long time ago. After some gazillion years I feel the same. Vimmuuu and Anniyan sat and just ordered. I acted ignorant but I wasn’t to be spared. So here I go and play tag-tag this time.

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
Well, I almost killed one in past (last minute savior popped up from nowhere). Next time, I will be a lot faster.

2. If you can have a dream to come true, what would it be?
I wish to appear on any famous magazine along with Uma Thurman (of course, semi-nude).

3. Whose butt would you like to kick?
Raj Thackeray.

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
I will give a part to Rakhi Sawant so that this time at least she goes under the blade entirely and gets her assets and assortments in proportion. I don’t know what I will do with the rest.

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
Yeah, it happened once. And now, no. I will never. I can for sure say it’s good to fall in love and then become good friends (in my case at least).

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
???? If you ask the same question to my partner and suppose we both reply ‘loving someone’ then what would you call it? How would you reach any conclusion?

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you really love?
A week or two. Ok, 3 weeks max.

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
Ah, lovely situation. Well, no issues. Let her be attached. I will attach myself too.

9. If you like to act with someone, who will it be? Your gf/bf or an actress/actor?
Oh, I always act. I mean at least half of the times in the beginning of dating. Don’t we all? Oh, you mean in theater/movies and all that jazz. Well, anyone except Rakhi Sawant. I adore her too much to be seen in the same frame. She is my idol.

10. What takes you down the fastest?
Wrong mix in my Rum/Whiskey.

11. How would you see yourself in ten years time?
I had no answer to this when I was filling the slam books of my friends in school exactly ten years ago to this year and I do not have it now. Or may be I would be responding to this question somewhere once again ten years from now as the trend seems to suggest.

12. What’s your fear?
Rakhi Sawant proposing me. I mean who in right sense would say no to something as raunchy as her. Come on, she is my idol and let me be like Meera and do idol worship.

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
God only knows. Or maybe God too doesn’t. :)

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married but poor?
Single and ANYTHING (poor or rich doesn’t matter)

15. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
I thank my stars that I did not wake up next to my idol.

16. Would you give all in a relationship?
I would give just what is needed.

17. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?
Ah, another lovely situation. I like such situations. I would pick both if they are ready to live in harmony. We all can live like a nice family a la those in K serials or K-Jo movies.

18. Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing that special someone has done?
I will try to strangle them once. If I fail, I would forgive and forget..

19. Your favorite pick up line (Original Question: What are your three most important expectations in love?)
Nice dress, how about a fuck?

20. List 6 people to tag:
I guess by now almost everyone is either tagged or got bored of reading it. So I tag none in particular.

Osama

2008-09-06T05:26:00.004+05:30

‘We want work’, ‘We are widows’, and ‘We are not political’. Few burqa clad women chant this and display it on placard while taking out a rebellion on the Taliban ruled streets of Afghanistan one day. A young boy Espandi (Arif Herati) is shown smoldering away the curses and asking for a dollar from the firang journalist who is filming this procession. A woman, name not known (Khwaja Nader) accompanied by her daughter, name not known (Marina Golbahari) are on their way to hospital where the mother works as nurse. Suddenly Taliban strikes and procession goes violent. Woman, her daughter and Espandi take protection in a house. The girl unhurriedly peeps through the door ajar. Her misty eyes see the brutalities of Taliban and tears roll down her cheek.

Soon the mother-daughter duo get to know that they are rendered penniless as the Taliban has closed down the hospital. At home in night whilst cooking the meal mother breaks down and longs for a man in family who could support them as her husband and brother had died in Russian war. She then blights looking at her daughter, ’wish I had boy’. The third female in the family, the grandmother is arranging the young girl’s hair into neat braid and narrates a bed time story to her as how passing under ‘Rainbow’ can make boy a girl and girl a boy. Granny suggests the mother to cut the girl’s hair, make her don her father’s clothes so that she can be passed as a boy and can earn a living outside. The girl objects but this is the last resort left to the destitute family.

Upon being disposed to work in a tea shop, the ordeal starts for the girl. She is continually terrified at the thought that her secret will be out any moment and walks to work and back home in constant fear. The words spoken are less but those scenes are well shot as the fear shown on the face of girl is to feel sorry for. She emotes marvelously through her eyes. Espandi, the boy who had seen her before recognizes her in an instant but settles to keep it a secret in exchange of few dimes.

The tribulation for her is never ending, what with few doubting eyes following her once till her home and furthermore when the owner of tea shop takes her to a mosque full of men to pray. But the vital one is when she along with all the boys is taken confined by Taliban to religious school so that young boys can be trained for the war. There amidst all boys she tries hard to behave like a boy but in vain and is soon being called a nymph by all including the Mullah who teaches them the ablutions to be performed by male to conquer the wet dreams apart from Koran. Her feminine looks and behavior could not be hidden and all boys start teasing her. Espandi comes to her rescue when few ask her to drop her Pyajama so that they can be sure she indeed is a boy. Espandi chases the other boys away and when few ask for her name christens her ‘Osama’.

Espandi comes to her rescue other times too but even he could not do much when her true identity is revealed in one of the most disturbing scenes I have ever seen. Espandi sees her and cries helplessly whilst she is chased by all in the confined walls of school. She is taken captive and is sent for a trial.

Without disclosing what happens next, the film definitely doesn’t end on a happy note. It is a dark cinema where each frame of it can melt any heart. The protagonist Osama (Marina) and all other characters are real and picked from the streets of Kabul. Marina herself was a beggar when director spotted her and took her in his film (Source Wikipedia).

When I chanced upon this movie by sheer luck (no one had recommended me; my DVDs rental-wala told me to take it as many were hiring this from him), I had no idea that this movie was hugely acclaimed and had won many awards. I also had no clue that the actors were picked from real life. After watching the movie and doing some random search on web I saw it again and felt the same heaviness in the heart which I had experienced before. We all know how a particular scene or a sequence can bring a lump in the throat but what would you call a movie where you have bulge and the lump throughout. I would call it a masterpiece.

Director Siddiq Barmark can be without doubt termed a genius as it takes humongous guts and effort to make immature or call it amateur actors enact the psyche of people from a war-trodden places. The editing is top class and could not get better. The poor and tattered neighborhood is captured in a basic way and as the film is shot in real locations gives it an intact look. Screenplay at times looks cut to short as per expectation but you soon realize it is intentional.

The film not for once looks off track or displays any irrational angle to it in its 80-odd minutes of running. Few scenes that need special mention here are:

When the girl after her hair being chopped off plants one of the braids in the mud-pot and waters it in the night in hope it never ceases to grow.

Women are singing and dancing as there is a marriage in the neighborhood but soon Taliban barges in upon hearing the clatter. Women speedily assemble and start crying pretending there is mourning and not a celebration. Pheew. What a pity.

The first time when the girl steps out of her house as boy and walks the street, she is scared stiff and alarmed at every step. You can experience her misfortune.

Famous musician, philosopher and physician Albert Schweitzer said this, “Reverence for Life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, assisting, and enhancing life and that to destroy, harm, or to hinder life is evil.”

However people of Afghanistan and of other war-torn countries do not have any such fundamental principle or in my opinion are not even aware that ‘to-live’ is their fundamental right. These countries in Middle East face varied problems of either terrorism or of dominion or both but when it comes to women, they all stand alike. Women in these countries are nothing but an object of lust, fruit-bearer and not even that if they do not have a man in their lives.

How a woman supposed to earn a living if she cannot step out without a male companion related by blood and she doesn’t have any male left in family after losing them to war or terrorism?

P.S. And you probably thought this might have got to do with Osama Bin Laden. Sigh!!!

Celebrating Celibacy

2008-09-03T05:07:00.003+05:30

It was an unearthly hour, that hour which usually smells of flourishing flowers, twittering of early birds, when only few stars are left as they are busy closing the gossips on about-to-rise Sun. It was so freaking late that it was almost crack of dawn is what I mean when the phone rang. I was in wonderland or in all probability blunder land because I had just won the dare of gulping down seven large shots of tequila at a go. And I was raring to break my own record and wanted to equal Phelps. So what if I was trying to equal him in totally un-related stuff. He drowns himself in water and me in tequila, a record is a record and we both are getting drowned after all. But there was constant chime of some musical sound; no it was more of a song instead of the applauses and cheers from supporters. I felt naked. Alas, I was cushioned up under blanket but the ring instead of cheer made my hand go hold lover tighter but there wasn’t one. I was sweating by now. There were days when kiss from the lover on the sleepy eyes shooed away the sleepiness. It wasn’t supposed to be that day I memorized as we had just broken up and felt calm but the phone never stopped buzzing. I stretched my hand further far and grabbed that monster. The screen displayed PJ, good friend, listener of my agonies, helper (basically a pimp).

Can you get up? The voice on the other end said. And I sensed it wasn’t a question or request but an order.

What? I said.

I said, can you get up? Ok, it was an order indeed.

Who the hell do you think is talking to you then? I was being smarty-pants.

I mean get up as in get up get up. Ah, Open the door. I am outside. There was a change in the tone but still far from being a request.

What? All hell broke loose was the feeling exactly.

GET UP AND OPEN THE FREAKING DOOR. Loud enough that I could hear the shout from the other side of door as well.

I was at the door very next moment dreading uncalled for consequences of making my chum stand outside in that unearthly hour remembering last time I could not pick his sixteen continuous calls he had done uncalled for things for which he was never apologetic and I am still furious.

What the hell are you doing here at this time? Resisting every impulse to shut the door on his nose.

I got a date for you. He beamed his eminent contagious smile. I often wonder how people can change their moods/expressions at the drop of hat. The bugger was loud and up roaring a moment ago and now there he was smiling.

A what? I wasn’t getting into his trap I decided.

A date for you buddy. And again that beam.

Ah, there you go. I told you I am celebrating celibacy. I took pride in saying that to everyone these days.

You out of your mind or what? I am not listening to that ‘celebrating celibacy crap’ once more. Whatever that means, huh?

It very much means the same it sounds. Why, Can’t it be celebrated? I managed to give a civil reply.

He probably thought I am trying hard to drive out demons, battling ghouls, making my way around this time as well, but somehow, some strange wind had made the parting quite comforting this time. I did not depend on anything to make me going, I was doing usual things - movies, hanging out with friends, engaging in mindless debates, sitting in pubs & lounges and carrying out chores, but behind the facade of routines and normal activity, there was a sense of unrest I won’t deny; however I would not in my realization attribute that to anything but the pressure at work which my friend in most likelihood refused to accept.

No, never, What on earth makes you celebrate something like that? You are not Sri Sri Ravi Shankar or Baba Ramdev. And anyways I doubt even they remain celibate for more than two days, or probably a week. He tried to reason with me.

I am not them and I do not wish to comment on their lives. I said I am celebrating celibacy and I am quite happy at the moment. Gave back to him.

Then why the fuck you went on and on about ‘you being on a hunt’ and all that jazz. (Well, yes he had a point).

The jazz is that I do not wish to just hook-up for the sake of a fuck. I just am done with that kind of life. I wasn’t to be left speechless. I had to say something.

And when did I say I want you to jump onto anything. I have a date which you can explore as she herself is on a hunt after break up with her beau couple of months back.

Couple of months? Hmm and how long I have been single? Couple of days buddy and you want…eh forget it. This I was sure would render him quiet.

Yours is a different case. (I was wrong, he did speak up) You did not had a sad break up and people who do not endure sad break up should get to the task immediately I must say. He was beaming again at his profound logic.

This is ridiculous. I do not wish to continue this conversation further. I am not looking for a hook-up. I probably will meet someone but won’t make it look any way that would suggest I am desperate. That’s for either teenagers or oldies. I am of age that demands some mellowness. I threw my own profound (?) logic at him.

Fuck you. Ah, now that hurt. I mean not that F word; not using it would have. But just that. Nothing aage ya peeche. Just Fuck you. I wanted him to say something, anything. And then he was quiet first time for more than 10 seconds. And he was still quiet.

I am quite sure of your capabilities of setting people up. I won’t deny that? Anyways what the hell made you come all the way here instead of calling me up. We just met last night. Absolute silence. I wondered if he even heard what I just said. I put up with his blabbering all this while and now he wasn’t even reacting to what I had to say.

And this is why I recommend that people should blog. If they have a blog, they can be sure to have an appreciative (or ungrateful) audience who would be interested in your story of ‘What happened to me last night’ or any other blah-blah-ing stuff and would leave adequately pointless but viscous comments.

I am sure PJ you would be reading this and what I could not put in plain words then is this that I am not sadly singling as you might construe; in fact I am happily singling and in no feel of happily mingling.