Shayarana Andaaz...

Watched 'Zindagi na Milegi Dobara' today.Didn't feel it was any great creation...okay dokay I''d say, yet one should give credit where due.
The locations of Spain were breathtaking while some scenes were genuinely funny and some brutally witty one liners. The movie reminds me of 'Dil Chahta Hai' and 'Hangover' both of which I liked better than this one.
Somehow I just cant digest men who are almost forty giggling like school boys. ZNMD had men who were more caricatures...men who are ubber rich, ubber kool and each of them carries some emotional baggage which were extremely cliched and boring. They can afford a fortnight holiday in Spain, rent the dream villas, buy bags worth 12000 euros...and more shit. They seem far from real.
Jealous I am of their wealth...you might say. May be I am, and yet I reserve the right to not like a movie for the above mentioned reasons.

And what were actors like Nasseruddin Shah and Deepti Naval doing in their teeny-weeny roles. What did they charge for that little much presence in the film...two way taxi fare!!!
And the most surprising part...for the first time I liked Katrina Kaif, Dhan Tan Nan!!! I am surprised at myself too.

Well..there were a few amazing shayaris in the movie written by Javed Akhtar. I am not a great poetry lover...yet the poems in the movie did catch a nerve. Here is one of them :

जब जब दर्द का बादल छाया

जब ग़म का साया लहराया

जब जब आंसूं पलकों तक आया

जब यह तनहा दिल घबराया

हमने दिल को यह समझाया

आखिर दिल तू क्यूँ रोता है

दुनिया मैं यूँ ही होता है

यह जो गहरे सन्नाटे हैं

वक़्त ने सबको ही बाटें हैं

थोडा ग़म है सबका किस्सा

थोड़ी धुप है सबका हिस्सा

आँख तेरी बेकार ही नम है

हर पल एक नया मौसम है

क्यूँ तू ऐसे पल खोता है

आखिर दिल तू क्यूँ रोता है

Patiala House

Given the fact that most of the last movies of Akshay Kumar were sheer headaches, yet I had the patience and risk appetite of watching 'Patiala House' today. The SIL waarned me well before hand, yet it was my undying love for AK since the 'Mohra' days, when I was a dreamy eyed teenager who fell for his charms when he would fight away the goons double his size to save his lady love or the 'Kanoon' in most cases.

And I am so glad i have good things to say about an Akshay Kumar movie after a long time.

While '3 Idiots' subtlety pointed out on parents trying to mould their children to their expectations and aspirations, the concept is pretty in the face with 'Patiala House'. I loved the beginning of the movie which shows a subdued AK leading a life chosen by his father. And surprisingly played well by a usually over-the-top Akshay.
For a change, this film seems to have a story and a tight screenplay with most of the loose ends tied up.
I do vehemently criticize migrants who go abroad to earn dollars or pounds yet refuse to accept the culture of the place. This ideology, I believe is very wrong be it Simran's dad in DDLJ, Jasmeets's dad in 'Namastey London' or Rishi Kapoor in 'Patiala House'. Yet Rishi Kapoor being Rishi Kapoor manages to add a certain honesty to his character. Many of the scenes given to Anuska Sharma looked forced, the movie could have done without them. And how I wish the songs were chopped off. Why do most filmmakers seem to believe that half of India is Punjabi and the other half are dying to know how Punjabis speak, dance, dress or live. I am going to boycott the next movie which showcases a Punjabi wedding song, had enough of them already.

I like the climax which had huge possibilities of going excessively dramatic, but is surprisingly kept more subdued and practical, and hence had more impact.

I understand the fact that people have lost faith on Akshay Kumar movies, given his last few releases. No wonder the theater was almost empty. Yet, it was worth the risk, and 'Patiala House' indeed was a pleasant watch.

Rajneeti...the kyuns???

I have a few questions to the Rajneeti makers.

1. What was the significance of having Ajay Devgan to play the illegitimate son. He could as well have been the Master Deenanath who had nothing to do with the politically influencial family, and the story would yet have the same. And the Kunti-meets-Karna scene...' tum mere jyestha putra ho' (still cringing). This could surely have been a modern take on Mahabharata, but the actress must have been possessed by the Kunti atma to speak those saskrit words...so lame.

2. The significance of women in the movie is just to say 'Mein Maa banein waali hoon'. How come all the women get pregnant by just making out just once?...so convinient !!!

3. Why did we need a accented Katrina to play the character Indu who aspires to be a part of politics. She seems to be very much been in India to have an accent, while the America returned Ranbir speaks pure hindi as well as Sanskrit words at times with ease. So much to create the hype of being a Sonia Gandhi inspired character !!!

4. Katrina plays a sports car driving, chewing gum munching girl who needs no license to kiss (license gaadi chalanein ke liye ya tumhe kiss karnein ke liye? cringing again!!!). Yet she agrees to get married to the elder brother of the love of her life and being thrown around like a commodity.

5. If Nana Patekar drops his idea of killing Ajay Devgan after knowing that he is the Kunti's Karna, how come he encourages Ranbir to kill him.

6. I am yet to find a politician who looks remotely half as good looking as Arjun Rampal??? Even while he is doing the Maa-Behen of the poilice commisioner, he looks hardly believable.

7. Can you really get away with killing your Chacha and cousins so easily, not as much as setting up an inquiry commission on it.

8. After the scene on the airport where Katrina tells Ranbir that she would get him back from New York, I was waiting for the twist when it would be revealed that the deaths were actually planned by her. But instead when Ranbir finds out the murderer, he turns out to be the oh-so-predictable Ajay Devgan. A very amazing twist missied to the story.

9. Why exaggerate so much ??? Do political families really go around on a killing spree, targeting their own family???

10. Why make the mokery of a veteran actor like Nasseruddin Shah? All he does is donate his sperm to the script .

HOME ALONE…BACK TO MY SINGLE DAYS FOR SOMETIME-I

Db is out of country for a fortnight. He started today morning around 5, I have been awake since then. First, it was the anxiety till his flight takes off and I am awake till now, for a similar anxiety for his flight to land…TEN TEN TENNEN…I have turned a wife…humph!!!

But it's comes with a good puff of my good old spinsterhood days. My TV hasn’t been off since 5 in the morning, I watched GHAJINI online (a full paragraph on that is coming next), had a conference call with Mom Dad and my Brother ( and his fiancée…huh!!!) online, finished a bottle of Thumps up, cooked for myself a couple of GOBI DA PARATHAS, planning to watch a few more movies(Oye Lucky Lucky Oye is in the queue) , in days to come after returning from office(late night, that is…), catch up with some old friends...quite sums up my life when I was single. The only difference is, I am missing Db a little too much…sigh!!!

Well coming to Ghajini…
I don’t say it’s a great movie…I saw a few scenes of the Telgu(or was it Tamil???) version and seems like it was a scene to scene copy of the original. But what makes this film special is one person called AMIR KHAN. I mean each word when I say I have no words to describe his acting. All bullshit that the media does about who is the King of bollywood…no SRK, no Salman, no Akshay can anywhere come anywhere close to Aamir. What an Amazing(with a capital A) performance…man you rock. You outdo yourself each time. He has very few dialogues in the movie, I have hardly seen a film where the main protagonist has such less words for himself…but man he still speaks louder than any of his costars, through this face and eyes. My favorite scene is the one when Jiah Khan reminds Aamir of his past at the hospital…the opening of the scene when Aamir is sitting on his bead totally blank, to the confused look on meeting Jiah, to his expression of ‘please tell me more’ all conveyed by his eyes and then his explosion in rage when he remembers his past…all these expressions come in a matter of some 10-15 seconds…left me spellbound. Asin is good , in fact quite good for a start in a peppy lovable character, while I wish Jiah Khan would have played a character who was dumb. The movie isn’t a very sleek one and the background score was irritating.

Well…more to come on my blog in the next two weeks, since I haven’t got too much to do after office…

SCARED...WHO ME???

As a teenager I loved horror shows like QUILA, AAHAT and ZEE HORROR SHOW, all of which were telacasted late in the night. My Dad was strictly against watching horror, particularly in the night. He believed, it had some harmful impact on your brains, since some of our brain nerves would be tired and not actively functioning by late in the night. So I would wait for my parents to sleep and then sneak into the drawing room to watch the horror shows.
I remember watching RAAZ with my friends during my hostel days. When we entered the theater, we were 9 people and by the time the movie ended we were only two left in the theater.
We watched BHOOT at the middle of the night, I remember half the hostel slept in the same room with the lights on. I had a hearty laugh on them before I retired to my room. I slept with the lights off.

But last night I watched this movie 1920. When I saw the promos, I passed it off as a B grade horror movie that came from Bollywood in recent times. By word from mouth, I decided to give it a try, horror being one of my favorite genre. I got a DVD, and watched it last night soon after dinner.
This film is certainly not for the faint hearted. Man!!! There were a few breath taking scenes, which sent a chill down my spine. I could have never watched it in the theater.

More than just the horror, each frame in the movie looked like a painting. The movie is set during the year 1920. The locations in Yorkshire are captured very well. The first half is used only to build the platform for the second. Merely, the best part is where Lisa (Adah Sharma) is pulled into a Dark black hole of a room just before interval.
And the roller coaster begins when the girl is possessed by the spirit.
The scene where she is caught by her husband eating a dead cat was disgusting(more so since I am quite incapable of seeing blood).
The scene when she (rather the spirit) talks to the doctor when he is about to inject her.
The exorcism scene, when Lisa breaks loose and runs away.
The climax of the movie is just apt. Normally the horror movies in bollywood have rather funny climax(e.g. BHOOT).
The main protagonist Lisa, she looks like a entirely different person when posses. Brilliant debut. Normally girls look for a debutant film where they can showcase their beauty, dancing skills and sexuality. Its nice to find a debutant who can act.

Overall, its worth a watch.
And yes, after watching the movie, I did feel a little eerie when I entered the kitchen in the dark last night.

'A Wednesday' on a Sunday...

I got a chance to watch “A Wednesday” last night. I kinda loved this one for more reasons than one.

Firstly, it doesn’t waste a lot of your time, a riveting plot with duration of 100 minutes.

Secondly, it’s a no-nonsense movie. It’s an intelligent approach which made 100 minutes of complete sense.

Thirdly, the characters are all believable. The character of Naseeruddin Shah is someone with whom you can relate to. Not that you would do what he does, but sometime or the other you would have certainly fantasized something similar.

A common man who is tired of tolerating things going around him dares to make a difference.

He is a ‘common man’ who vents out his angst by taking on the system and trying to bring it down to its knees.

It somewhere echoes exactly we feel as common people…doesn’t it???

”Given a chance I could kill all the terrorists, given a chance I get a chance to meet the corrupt politicians and beat the shit out of them, given a chance I could make India a better place to live in”.

It’s something within us, the frustration, the fury, the anger for things which don’t go our way.

I have always been terribly irritated by the crowd that has no other job other than protesting on the street which leads to my office. This way has no parallels, no shortcuts, and one of the busiest roads of the city. And there are freaks who have nothing better in their life to do other than making a hue and cry for, God knows what, making life miserable for us. I get terribly frustrated each time I have to fight my way through the road when one of such protests is happening. I believe, Gandhi gave us this idea of protesting against injustice through mass gathering, but people today are misinterpreting and misusing this weapon. Gandhi, through his non-violent gatherings wanted to say it loud and clear that “You can’t make us do it your way, I am not willing to co-operate”. It did not mean “We are going to harm you”. But these days the protest means “We are going to cause inconvenience, we are going to harm and disrupt till our demands are met”.

The roads in Bangalore is also plays a big part in frustration. The road that leads to my house was dug up for the OFC work. Once they placed the pipes, they simply patched the road with mud, without caring about public inconvenience. Soon the rain came in, making life miserable for us. Every other day a car or an auto or a truck gets stuck in the road blocking the way altogether. And no municipality, no government bothers to give a damn.

So what else is expected out of a common man in such conditions???

Are we expected to be tolerant, and bear this all, since we are given to believe that we can’t make a difference, or do we take up the task of cleaning the mess on our own.

I wont be surprised, if some day I get down and pull out and beat the daylights out of the fellow driver honking at a red signal or a traffic jam.

That's exactly the message that the movie passes on.

Needless to say, a rare example of great cinema, coming from Bollywood.

U Me Aur Hum...

A long weekend is so welcome after such a hard week. Especially when Db has been working so hard, which also included most of his weekends too, a long weekend came as a welcome puff of fresh air. I somehow wanted a nice movie, may be the new flick “U Me aur Hum”, staring two of my all time favorite actors. But the price of tickets were so disheartening, I couldn’t spend a thousand bucks on a movie.

Early Saturday morning, while I was having a lazy sleep, Db (the more active of the two), suddenly woke me up, and whispered, tickets are available for seventy, shall I book two or three. I couldn’t believe my smile…I said THREEEEEEEEEE.

Well…my SIL thought it was a bad idea. Why do you want to take the KABAAB MEIN HADDI WITH YOU? She said. That reminds me of a little incident. My friend, who had just started off in her affair, was so excited about he first date with her boyfriend. This guy, her boyfriend was a football player by hobby. They went to the theater to watch a movie together. On reaching the theater, he asked her how much cash she had, she said she had enough to buy tickets, almost five hundred. On which he gave a disappointed look,
Oh that won’t be enough for thirteen people.

She got furious,
Who is coming???

He said…
My football team.

Still furious…
How could you do this? I thought it was our date, why did you get your friends???

To which he replied innocently…
Why? What’s wrong? What could we have possibly done in a public theater which we wouldn’t be able to do among my friends? Instead of sitting with some unknown people, we would sit with some known faces.

Bloody Moron!!! You bet!!!

I found it the appropriate time to answer the same to my SIL, and she laughed it off too.

And what a movie it was!!! Somehow I like these actors turning directors, they have a very fresh and positive approach, as if they get the creative independence, which they don’t get being actors and being directed otherwise. It started with Amir Khan with TARE ZAMEEN PAR, an awesome effort and now Ajay Devgan with U ME AUR HUM which is quite close to the same.

Needless to say, path breaking performances, a very fresh looking canvas, amazing chemistry among the actors. The characters look truly believable and genuine. The story resembles 51 FIRST DATES and THE NOTEBOOK in some ways, but to sum up all, it’s a nice touching love story, you relate to, more so since it showcases a real life couple.

And I loved the songs on screen, especially the SALSA song JEE LE and the title track. And KAJOL looks so pretty on screen, can’t believe she is the same dark, creepy girl who debuted with BAAZIGAR.

The only thing that goes haywire is the punch line. SOMETIMES THE GREATEST DISTANCE IS THE DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO PEOPLE. I didn’t find it quite relevant to the story.

GANDHI – MY FATHER

The other day, I got a chance to watch the movie called “Gandhi - My Father”. We have all heard plenty on Gandhi, his principles and his sacrifices (which at times is too overrated )…but Harilal Gandhi is a story untold. Watching this movie, I was really shocked, how such an integral part of Gandhi’s life, was never discussed before!? What touched me is…Gandhi…who transformed the soul of the entire nation, couldn’t save the soul of his own son. Director FIROZ ABBAS KHAN does a commendable job depicting the tragedy of the family and kudos to Anil Kapoor for having the guts and vision to make such a project which no Bollywood producer would have dared to touch.

The story depicts the biggest failure of Gandhi’s life, Gandhi…who was called the father of the nation, failed miserably when it comes to his eldest son…HARILAL MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI. Harilal was keen on going to England to pursue law to become a barrister like his father and being called CHOTA GANDHI. But Gandhi would not allow him to study law since he was against western education and he wanted to pull him in to the SATYAGRAHA movement that he had started in South Africa. So Harilal left his father to follow his dreams but eventually failed miserably. After his wife’s death, he was completely shattered and got misguided by some Muslim leaders and got converted to Islam and renamed himself as ABDULLAH GANDHI...but later he got reconverted to Hinduism.

Some power house performances by Darshan Jariwala as Gandhi, Akshaye Khanna as Harilal and Shefali Shah as KASTURBA GANDHI. Akshaye Khanna has proved yet again that he is the most underrated actor in Bollywood, and he has certainly been not given his due. But a few things about the movie were a little incomprehensible…firstly there was no reason for Gandhi to oppose Harilal’s decision to get married. Another inconsistency is is Mahatma advocates other Indian students to go to England for a scholarship, but when it comes to his son, he sticks to Satyagraha and Indian vlues. Moreover…Kastuba Gandhi , affectionately being called "Ba"…had always stood alongside her husband through out her freedom struggle. In 1913 she was jailed and sentenced to 3 months of rigorous imprisonment. On numerous occasions she took her husband’s place when he was under arrest. She was always closely associated to the freedom struggle and encouraged women volunteers. Despite of her share in the struggle, she has scarcely received the attention she deserved. Her struggle is very much ignored in the venture…Gandhi - My Father.

Overall…a must watch…since movies like Gandhi – My father don’t come every Friday. Also because, it unlike other movies on Gandhi, doesn’t show Gandhi as a god –like figure, rather talks about his failures and weaknesses. It’s the saga of a son who rebelled against his father’s idealistic principles and sought to live where he would not have to live with the burden of being the son of an exemplary figure, Mahatma Gandhi. The movie doesn’t show Gandhi in negative light. It just shows how a son – an ordinary man with his own desires and weaknesses – is crushed under the weight of the high principles of his father.

JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM

The other day I watched a very depressing movie. It’s called JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM. I really donno wats wrong with these young directors. While KARAN JOHAR ended up with a disastrous KABHIE ALVIDA NAA KEHNA which sure was a boost to the glycerin factories and I was sure disappointed when ADITYA CHOPRA ended up with a MOHABATTEIN after the wonderful flick called DDLJ. SHAAD ALI joins the queue after this movie…his previous venture SAATHIYA being one of the critics favorite.

He has worked as an assistant director in some of the most prestigious ventures of MANI RATNAM, namely GURU and DIL SE while his SAATHIYA is one of the most talked about films of the time. BUNTY AUR BUBLI wasn’t as good as his previous effort but JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM was the end of it. The first half of the movie goes extremely slow giving you an impression of going through some poetry while the second half is too loud to digest. PRIETY ZINTA seems to lose her charm and it’s high time she should think about experimenting with her looks and try to look younger. ABHISHEK BACHAN gets too loud at times. BOBBY DEOL looks wonderful with his blonde look and the smooch coming from a DEOL was actually a shock to the audience. The only saviour here seems to be LARA DUTTA who suits perfectly to her role of a Pakistani chick with a French accent in the first half and an Indian slut in the second. And not to be forgotten, Big B with all those features on his cap and the rock star looks, is a treat to the eyes, I wonder if there is anything under the sun that is beyond his versatility.