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?

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.

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.

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.