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?

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.

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.