The Story So far

'ye duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai' revisited

2010-05-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

Piyush Mishra has carried forward from where Sahir had left-off. In his mesmerizing words he reminds what a worthless life it is and what worthless causes we are chasing at our own expense. He also makes a reference to Iqbal's sitaron ke aage jahan aur bhi hai beautifully.

O ri Duniya…
Surmayi aankhon ke pyaalo ki duniya
Satrangi rangon, gulaalo ki duniya
Alsaayi sejon ke phoolon ki duniya
Angdayi todey kabootar ki duniya
Karvat le soyi hakeekat ki duniya
Deevani hoti tabiyat ki duniya
Khwahish me lipti zaroorat ki duniya
Insaan ke sapno ki, niyat ki duniya

Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai

Mamta ki bikhri kahani ki duniya
Behno ki siski, jawani ki duniya
Aadam ke Havva se rishte ki duniya
Shayar ke pheeke lafzon ki duniya

Ghalib ke, Momin ke khwabon ki duniya
Mijaazon ke, un inquilabon ki duniya
Faiz, Firaq-O-Sahil-O-Makhdoom, Mir ki, Zauk ki, Daagon ki duniya

Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai…

Palchhin me baatein chali jati hain
Palchhin me raatein chali jati hain
Reh jata hai jo savera vo dhoonde
Jalte makaan me basera vo dhoonde
Jaisi bachi hai, vaisi ki vaisi bacha lo ye duniya
Apna samajhke, apno ke jaisi utha lo ye duniya
Chhut-put si baaton mein jalne lagegi, sambhalo ye duniya
Kat-pit ke raaton mein palne lagegi, sambhalo ye duniya

O ri duniya…

Vo kahey hai ki duniya ye itni nahi hai
Sitaron se aage jahan aur bhi hai
Yeh hum hi nahi hai, vahan aur bhi hai
Hamari har ek baat hoti vahin hai
Humey aitraaz nahi hai kahin bhi
Vo Aalim hai, Faazil hai, honge sahi hi
Magar falsafa ye bigad jata hai jo vo kehte hain
Aalim ye kehta vahan Eeshwar hai
Fazil ye kehta vahan Allah hai
Qatil ye kehta vahan Eesa hai
Manzil ye kehti tab insaan se ki
Tumhari hai tum hi sambhalo ye duniya
Yeh bujhte huay chand basi chiraagon
Tumhare ye kaale iraado ki duniya…

Raavan : Maoist Connection & Music Review

2010-05-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

Have been listening to the music of Raavan non-stop. I had tweeted quite sometime back that rahman+gulzar = magic; and that's coming true again. The album has been an overwhelming experience with some fantastic and fresh sounds that haven't been heard before. Rahman's musical notes and Gulzar's thoughtful lyrics make for a great listening experience.

Let me start with the controversial topic of maoism/naxalism. Like Dil Se, Bombay and Roja, Mani Ratnam has picked up another socially relevant theme for the silverscreen. I loved his terror ravaged trilogy and this time around I am hoping that he has got it right again. The theme of naxalism is sprayed around by Gulzar in a strong yet poetic charm in two of the songs.

I shall first discuss the comical song Kata kata bechara bakra which is fun to begin with, but has the references to naxalites. The theme of the song is age-old, of a man getting married and hence being called 'bechara bakra' ready for the chopping block.

kata kata bechaara bakra kata kata bechaara
mana mana le khair maanale aakhari raat kuwaara

But soon after that follows these words :

dulhe miya dulhe miya dand-vand pelo
dulhe miya chhodo joru jhaarkhand le lo

The village folks ask the guy to do some body-building [dand-vand pelo]; forget about his wife and chase the cause of 'jharkhand'. Gulzar slips in the message with such subtlety. The song has a beautiful earthy feel with Sapna Avasthi and Ila Arun bringing the folk flavor. This is only the second time that Sapna Avasthi has sung for Rahman, 10 years after Chaiyya Chaiyya, and she still sounds as energetic as she was back then.

Since we all know that the movie is titled Raavan for a reason. And where there is Raavan, there has to be a Ram and Sita too. This melancholic song Behne De sounds like Ram's heart bleeding for Sita after she has been kidnapped by Raavan.

Umeed ko aag laga zara
Sehra ki pyaas bujha zara
Ghan itna baras ke galne lagoon
Mei paani ke upar tarne lagoon

A man missing his sweetheart very badly, that's what the song is about. It also speaks about the deep bonding and love between two inseparable beings. It has the feel of emptiness and is expressed beautifully in words.

Shart lagi hai mar jaane ki
Jeena hai toh pyaar mei
Dil kahin bhi ho mera
Jaan rakhi hai yaar mei
Behja behja hai saagar ka kehna
Behja behja hai nadiya ko behna

Coming back to the theme of naxalism, there is another song Thok De Killiwhich has been powerfully sung by Sukhwinder Singh. Its a scorn against the caste/class barrier, about the have's and have-nots. It first describes the condescending look that the upper caste/class people give to the downward trodden:

Sabko ghoore aankh dikhaye
Tanashahi kare daraye
Oh baakad billi hey

And then, the song goes on to say that no one has ever discussed the problems of people below poverty line.

Aaja milke baithe
Haal sunaave dil ka
Kela woh khaate hain
Humko phenke chilka chilka

The despair of being teased as 'backward' is brilliantly penned in the song. The instrumentation is fabulous and the drum beats are that of an uprising against this class/caste barrier.

Pichde pichde keh ke humko
Khoob udaye khilli dilli
Sehte sehte ab toh
Gardan ghar rakh kar jaate hai
Choti ho gayi kabren
Bin mundi hi mar jaate hain

The gross violence inflicted against the backward castes by the upper-caste is very well described in the last 3 lines of the above stanza. It speaks of the gruesome acts of terror where people are beheaded callously and the body being buried while heads are being tossed out. Such a painful act of violence has been put down so effectively. I am sure the movie will capture the essence of the song well.

sadiyon se chalata aaya hai
unch ninch ka lamba kissa
abb ki baar hisaab chuka le
chir ke le le apna hisaa
apna khun bhi laal hi hoga
khol ke dekh le gaal ki jhilli

And finally, the vengeful act of the maoist is spoken about. How they have decided to take law in their own hands and settle the score. The song will remain with you for long, that's for sure. This is one of the best songs of the movie, but unfortunately people will soon forget all the stanzas and only the start will be hummed.

Another song which will remain with you for long is Ranjha Ranjha Kardi Vey. A perfect song tailor-made for Rekha Bharadwaj to lend her vocals melodiously. Originally written and sung by Bulle Shah, we have had many versions of this including Abida Parveen's. Its a part of folk legends and this time Gulzar picks up this one.

Ranjha ranjha kardi vey mai
Aape ranjha hoyi

The song has a rustic rhythm and folksy feel to it. Rekha does complete justice to the song. Its a sad romantic song that describes the woes of love and the look out for that elusive lover who is nowhere to be seen.

Waqt katata bhi nahi
Waqt rukta bhi nahi
Dil hai sajde mei magar
Ishq jhukta bhi nahi

The pangs of separation is evident in the musical notes. And the soft singing adds to the sadness. Although I believe that Sonu could have done a better job because Khan has a hollow voice which does not emote much. There is no expression in his voice and that is one reason I have never been able to like Jashn-e-bahara song for Jodha-Akbar.

There is another romantic number Khili Re rendered by Renee Bharadwaj. That's the weakest song for me. Haven't liked it much until now.

Finally, I come to the new-age Raavan named Beera this time around. A naxalite out to fight against the system.

Beera ke dus maathe
Beera ke sau naam
Chhede jo beera ko
Dhama dham dham dham

The reference of dus-maathe could be about having a brilliant mind that does organizing, planning, plotting, communicating, executing the plan; all in one go. And the sau-naam would well be the many aliases that he is known by, just my guess of the interesting lyrics. The song has a lot of African drum-beats which gives it the much needed energy and aggression. At around 3 mins length, I felt it was short. I wished it was long 7-8 minute piece, but nope.

The album is a sure-shot success with great sounds, superb lyrics, fine instrumentation and some inspired singing. A great album indeed.

By the way, I got some clues on the storyline of the movie. If you can recall Khalnayak, its on those lines is what I can make of it. Madhuri Dixit aka Ganga is chsing Sanjay Dutt aka Ballu, while Ram is on the lookout for both. And when Ganga finally returns, she has to give her testimony in court to prove her innocence, much like Sita had to do after returning to Ayodhya. The difference is that, in Khalnayak , Ganga did not get kidnapped. In this movie, the leading lady gets nabbed by Beera. Another new addition is the presence of an emissary in the form of Govinda. This angle was not there in Khalnayak.

But I am sure it will not be this simple, Mani Ratnam definitely has some other plans; maybe a few twists in the storyline will make it interesting. Whatever it is, I am waiting for the movie to release. Desperate to watch it. Till then, let me immerse myself in the soundtrack of the movie.

Raavan Lyrics : Beera

2010-05-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

Annkhon mei jaan
O ho ho o ho hohooo
Beera

Beera ke dus maathe
Beera ke sau naam
Chhede jo beera ko
Dhama dham dham dham

Beera Beera Beera Beera Beera

Arre beera uthti aandhi
Beera ek Toofan
Saanson mei ugli agni
Beera jalti jaan
Jalti jaan jalti jaan jalti jaan

Janam na pooche
Jaat na pooche
Poocho jo pehchan
Beera ka abhimaan hai
Abhimaan hai abhimaan hai Beera
Beera Beera Beera Beera Beera

Dhana dhan dhan dhana dhan dhan

Beera

Beera ke dus maathe
Beera ke sau naam
Chhede jo beera ko
Dhama dham dham dham

Beera Beera Beera Beera

Raavan Lyrics : Kata Kata Bechara Bakra

2010-05-01T02:16:00.001-07:00

kata kata bechaara bakra
kata kata bechaara
mana mana le khair maanale
aakhari raat kuwaara
dhik dhik thaak dhin, jaaye na joru bin
joru abhi kamsin, kanya ko bulaao
dulhe miya dulhe miya dand vand pelo
dulhe miya chhodo joru jhaarkhand le lo
gaya gaya ek aur gaya re gaya gaya bechaara
mana mana le khair maanale, aakhari raat kuwaara

hawa pe chalti hai yeh chhori
paro se bhi halki hai re
dahi se bhi khatti hai suna hai
dahi bhi woh kal ki hai re
gaya gaya ek aur gaya re gaya gaya bechaara

dhik dhik thak dhin jaaye na be joru bin
joru abhi kamsin, kanya ko bulaao
dulhe miya dulhe miya dand vand pelo
dulhe miya chhodo joru jhaarkhand le lo

rang thaaro kaashani uthe rang chadhaave na
tu na kaalo na tu kaaga, kankar maare kaun abhaaga
une koyi daraave na...
gaya gaya ek aur gaya re gaya gaya bechaara
mana mana le khair maanale, aakhari raat kuwaara

woh na gori na anguri bohaari lagaaiyo na
jijo kyun banaave chaakar, jiji ganga bhari si gaagar
unke ke raani banaiyo haan...
kata kata bechaara bakara, kata kata bechaara
mana mana le khair maanale, aakhari raat kuwaara

chhoto koi devar hoye toh, chhaati laagiye
aur saas sasur ke aadar kije paye laagiye
jeth jethaani samjhaave toh maathe raakhijo re
aur nand sakhi saheli jaisi saath raakhije re
o chhori sun saath raakhije re....

dhik dhik thaak dhin, jaaye na joru bin
joru abhi kamsin, kanya ko bulaao
dulhe miya dulhe miya dand vand pelo
dulhe miya chhodo joru jhaarkhand le lo

hawa pe chalati hai yeh chhori, paro se bhi halaki hai re
dahi se bhi khatti hai suna hai, dahi bhi woh kal ki hai re
gaya gaya ek aur gaya re gaya gaya bechaara
mana mana le khair maanale, aakhari raat kuwaara
dhik dhik thaak dhin, jaaye na joru bin
joru abhi kamsin, kanya ko bulaao
badi beere badi beere shaadi jaldi karna
dulhe miya dulhe miya, godhi jaldi bharna
gaya gaya ek aur gaya re gaya gaya bechaara
mana mana le khair maanale, aakhari raat kuwaara

yeh gaya re gaya ek aur gaya
gaya gaya gaya gaya bechaara
ek aur ek aur ek aur gaya bechaara
ek aur gaya,  ek aur gaya, ek aur gaya bechaara
dhin tanak dhin...
dhol nagaade bajaake le gaya, dhun suna shahnaai
re dhole baja ke

Raavan Lyrics : Khili Re

2010-05-01T02:16:00.000-07:00

khili re khili re
khili re khili re
raat ki raani
chumo sawariya phir se basuriya
bheeni baasuriya
honto se phuko re bheena badan mora
bheena bheena hai badan mora

aaja piya aaja
haathon se chhuna re surila badan mora
surila surila badan mora
aaja piya aaja

piya re piya re piya more aa
raat ki daari kab se jhur rahi hai re
daariyon ki godi bhar ja
saari raat mehki hai
saari raat behkegi
sej suhaani kar ja

hothon pe rakh ke phoonk basuriya
tan bar tan bhar ja
aaja re aaja samay abhi hai
kohare mei thehara hu

Raavan Lyrics : Behne De

2010-04-30T20:38:00.000-07:00

Arre aankh se boond gira koi
Chingari ka tukda jala koi
Umeed ko aag laga zara
Sehra ki pyaas bujha zara

Umeed ko aag laga zara
Sehra ki pyaas bujha zara
Ghan itna baras ke galne lagoon
Mein paani ke upar tarne lagoon

Behne de mujhe behne de mujhe
Behne de mujhe behne de

Behne de ghangor ghata
Behne de paani ki tarah
Saagar mein jaa girna hai
Behne de nadiya ki tarah

Shart lagi hai mar jaane ki
Jeena hai toh pyaar mei
Dil kahin bhi ho mera
Jaan rakhi hai yaar mei
Behja behja hai saagar ka kehna
Behja behja hai nadiya ko behna

Patte se tapakti boond ki awaaz sunai di thi
Nadiya mein tapak aur gum ho ja
Beh gaya beh gaya jo reh gaya reh gaya
Beh gaya beh gaya jo reh gaya reh gaya
Behne de mujhe behene de mujhe
Behne de mujhe behene de

Mera pal-pal ang-ang bhar diya
Tuney jaan pe junoon saa kar diya
Mera hai kya jo main haar doon
Jaan teri hai tujh pe vaar doon
Doob gaye jo suna hai saare
Tere dere aate hain
Dil ko chulu mein bechare
Doobkiyan gotey khaate hain

Beh ja behja chal todh kinaare ko
Behja behja dhar le majhdhaare ko

Chingari udha ke raakh se
Ek boond gira ke aankh se
Chalne ka ishaara kar gaya

Kar gaya kar gaya sab bhar gaya bhar gaya
Kar gaya kar gaya sab bhar gaya bhar gaya
Behne de mujhe behene de mujhe
Behne de mujhe behene de

Raavan Lyrics : Ranjha Ranjha Kardi Vey

2010-04-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

Ranjha ranjha kardi vey mai
Aape ranjha hoyi
Ranjha ranjha saddoni mainu
Heer na aakho koi

Ohh raanjha ranjha na kare heere
Jag badnami hoye
Patti patti jhar jawey
Par khusboo chup na hoye

Begunah pakda gaya yaaron
Ishq mein jakada gaya yaaron
Aankh ke dosh mein dil
Bewajah pakada gaya yaaron

Aankh se hatthi nahi
Are hatthi nahi are hatthi nahi

Sote sote bolta hoon
Kabhi bolte boltey sota hoon
Kya jaane kya hota hai
Kabhi jalti aag dadolta hoon
Ek baar toh aake dekhe wo
Bhi

Ranjha ranjha kardi vey mai
Aape ranjha hoyi
Ranjha ranjha saddoni mainu
Heer na aakhe koi

Ohhh raanjha ranjha na kare heere
Jag badnami hoey
Patti patti jhar jawey
Par khusboo chup na hoey

Jal ja jal ja ishq mei jal ja
Jale so kundan hoye
Jalti raakh lagaa le maathe
Lage toh chandan hoye
Ranjha ranjha kardi vey mai
Ranjha ranjha kardi vey mai
Aape ranjha hoyi
Ranjha ranjha saddoni mainu
Heer na aakhe koi

Waqt katata bhi nahi
Waqt rukta bhi nahi
Dil hai sajde mei magar
Ishq jhukta bhi nahi

Bina tere raatein... Arre raatein
Kyun lambi lagti hain
Kabhi tera gussa, teri baatein
Kyun achchi lagti hain
Yeh jalte koyele arre koyele
Ab rakhna mushkil hai

Heyy ranjha ranjha kardi vey mai
Aape ranjha hoyi
Ranjha ranjha saddoni mainu
Heer na aakhe koie

Ohhh raanjha ranjha na kare heere
Jag badnami hoey
Patti patti jhar jawey
Par khusboo chup na hoey

Jal ja jal ja ishq mein jal ja
Jale so kundan hoye
Jalti raakh lagaa le maathe
Lage toh chandan hoye

Chal... Chal junoon chalte rahe
Tu kahin thahre nahi
Dil agar aa bhi gaya
Woh tera sheher nahin

Bina tere saansein, arre saansein
Kahin khatam na ho jaye
Sabhi teri yaadein
Sabhi yaadein kahin bhasm na ho jaye

Sulagte koyele, arre koyele
Ab bujhna mushkil hai...
Ranjha ranjha kardi vey mai
Ranjha ranjha kardi vey mai
Aape ranjha hoyi
Ranjha ranjha saddoni mainu
Heer na aakhe koi

Raavan Lyrics : Thok Di Killi

2010-04-30T19:32:00.000-07:00

Thok di killi
O thok di killi
Ki door nahi hai
Chalega dilli
Sabko ghoore aankh dikhaye
Tanashahi kare daraye
Oh baakad billi hey
Oh thok di killi

Ghuma de danda
Uda de gilli
Itraye vithraayee jab bhi
Hadh se aage zad mein aaye

Aankh mei kaala kajal
Oye naak mei natthii
Kaan mein jhumka
Paanv pehne bhijua or
Daaye baaye maare thumka

Aase paase sab ko ghoore
Dekhe or dikhaye tevar
Mujre ka nazrana maange
Heere panne naqdi jevar
Pichde pichde keh ke humko
Khoob udaye khilli dilli

Jhooti sacchi sehli
Thumri kajri jo bhi kehli
Humne ek tihayee li
Ghungroo chod kar chhat par
Tehli
Jhooti hai makkaar nachaiyya
Na koi mayi na koi maiyya
Koot koot ke kapat bhara hai
Be-taala tha tha tha thaiyya
Pichde pichde keh ke humko
Khoob udaye khilli dilli

Oh thok di killi
Oh thok di killi
Ki door nahin hai
Chalega dilli

Hey..hey

Raat ka maal, raaton ne loota
Chaand taaron ke guchche
Churaaye
Din nikalna tha, apna bhi nikla
Kis mein dum hai ki suraj bujhaye

Aaja milke baithe
Haal sunaave dil ka
Kela woh khaate hain
Humko phenke chilka chilka

Pichde pichde keh ke humko
Khoob udaye khilli dilli
Sehte sehte ab toh
Gardan ghar rakh kar jaate hai
Choti ho gayi kabren
Bin mundi hi mar jaate hain

sadiyon se chalata aaya hai
unch ninch ka lamba kissa
abb ki baar hisaab chuka le
chir ke le le apna hisaa
apna khun bhi laal hi hoga
khol ke dekh le gaal ki jhilli

Aishwarya Rai : Wardrobe Malfunction During 'Raavan' Audio Release

2010-04-27T20:20:00.000-07:00

Date Night : Couple In Trouble

2010-04-26T03:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a rather lazy day, waiting for the impending IPL finals between CSK and MI. RCB was already out, and they ended up at No.3; thank God for that. So, I wasn't cheering for anyone. And we decided to go for a movie.

The traffic on road was sparse, and the drive to Fun Cinemas was pretty easy. We reached by 5.20pm and got the Gold tickets. The show was at 7.30pm, and that meant we had to spend 2 hrs meandering about the place.

We moved around the mall and got back just in time only to see that people were standing upright near the steps which led to the auditorium. Oh! the national anthem was being played. I was startled. So much respect for the anthem that people did not even deem it necessary to find their seats first, they just became a statue the moment they heard the anthem. In a way its good, but its also fake! The very same people spit on the roads, throw trash out of the car, drive haphazardly and make a mockery of the system; but here they were standing upright as the most respected citizens of the country. I am still surprised!

Ok, we took our seats and the movie began. It took a slow start with a boring american couple who are busy with work and kids and they don't find time for themselves. Hence, they come up with the concept of date-night whereby they go on a date once a week to re-ignite the old flames and add some enthusiasm to their lives.

On one such evening, they decide to try a new sea-food joint in Manhattan. The restaurant is full and with no advance bookings made, the Fosters are disappointed. Just when they think of going to another place, the staff announces a table for two for the TRIPLEHORNS.

Now, if the couple hadn't faked to be the TRIPLEHORNS, they would have been happier; I guess. But no, Mr.Foster claims to be Triplehorn and occupies the table. The Fosters had no idea that the Triplehorns are being hunted by the underworld don for having stolen a flash drive. From here onwards the movie is one hell of a fantastic ride. From being mistaken to be the Triplehorns to impersonating the Triplehorns, from not knowing what a flash-drive is, to boat-ride in Central Park at night to driving a swanky Audi and beating the $hit out of the car with high-speed police chases and car crashes and finally a pole dance in a shady club, the movie has it all.

The couple gets chased by police, by the detectives and by the underworld; while the real triplehorns have already taken a back-pack and disappeared. The laughter and joy is sustained throughout the movie. The couple finally come up with a plan which is a do-or-die.

Steve Carrel and Tina Fey are superb in the role of the Fosters. The chemistry and the physics is awesome between them. The funny lines don't end and neither does the action. Mark Wahlberg, as detective Holbroke, is pleasant in a shirtless friendly appearance. The movie had the jokes and the gags and what starts as a silly rom-com ends with hilarious dialogues and superb comedy. Don't miss this one.

Mai Zindagi Ka Saath Nibhata Chala Gaya

2010-04-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

Mai Zindagi Ka Saath Nibhata Chala Gaya
Har Fikr Ko Dhuyen Mei Udata Chala Gaya

Barbaadiyon Ka Shok Manana Fazul Tha
Barbaadiyon Ka Jashn Manata Chala Gaya

Jo Mil Gaya Ussi Ko Muqaddar Samajh Liya
Jo Kho Gaya Mai Usko Bhulata Chala Gaya

Gham Aur Khushi Mein Farq Na Mehsoos Ho Jahan
Mai Dil Ko Uss Muqaam Pe Laata Chala Gaya

raavan : first teasers are out

2010-04-17T09:19:00.000-07:00

great news upfront. here's the first poster of mani ratnam's new movie 'raavan'. abhishek is looking ominous with the turmeric smeared look. i just tweeted him about how this reminds about bigB in 'agneepath' when he enters the slum in a white suite and has 'kichad' on his face.

the audio release is on 24th april, another fantastic news. the music is by ar rahman and lyrics by gulzar. the track list is as follows:

Behene De – Karthik
Beera Beera – Vijay Prakash
Kata Kata – Ila Arun, Sapna Awasthi & Kunal Ganjawala
Khilli Re – Reena Bhardwaj
Ranjha Ranjha – Rekha Bhardwaj & Javed Ali
Thok De Killi – Sukhwinder Singh

and finally, here's the trailer posted on youtube:

rare article on madhubala

2010-04-16T12:52:00.000-07:00

'appam' is now 'nano-idly'

2010-04-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

I was at a cafe-coffee-day outlet on NH4, sometime last week. Spotted a new menu card which was made especially for breakfast items. Yeah, CCD has newly introduced breakfast too.

One of the delights is the appam which they have titled 'nano-idly'. That was really interesting.

wedding pics : sania and shoaib

2010-04-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

half a dozen movie releases of this weekend

2010-04-10T03:30:00.000-07:00

this weekend saw nearly 6 movies being released, and to be frank, i am interested in just a couple of them. lets start with aparna sen's movie 'the japanese wife'. the movie is based on a book written by kunal basu, which did not sell that many copies. the book was slow, melancholic but romantic; the romance builds on as we continue reading it and see the characters unfold. when i heard of the book, i never thought anybody would make a movie on it.

but somewhere it must've touched aparna sen that she decided to turn the book into a movie. rahul bose and aparna sen were really good in 'antaheen' and even her previous directorial venture 'mr and mrs iyer'. having seen previous movies of this duo, i am waiting to watch this movie. here's what rajeev masand had to say about the movie

It's the charming love story of Snehamoy, a mild-mannered schoolteacher in the Sunderbans (played by Rahul Bose), and Miyage, a chatty girl in a faraway Japanese village (played by Chigasu Takuku), who start out as pen-pals, fall in love, then get married and stay committed for 17 years without ever meeting face-to-face. Their romance unfolds through a series of letters and occasional phone calls.

rajeev masand is all praise for the director aparna sen. sample this

Aparna Sen's assured touches come through in scenes like the lively kite competition between Snehamoy and the villagers, which escalates into something of an Indo-Jap tussle. Or the scene in which Snehamoy accompanies Sandhya to the market where the ease between them reminds you of a long-married couple.

you can read the entire review here

even anupama chopra's review speaks well of the movie

This isn’t a love story with grand sweep and passion. It’s a minimalist rendering of a chaste, almost surreal love. But Sen makes us believe in it because she tells the story with great empathy and affection.

the other movie that i am really interested in watching is 'date night'. tina fey is a fine actress and her comic timing is superb. so, i am hoping this movie will make me laugh and enjoy. even masand promises the same in his review

In the end it's up to the two leads, who strike up a comfortable chemistry, to make the most of this tired premise. And to be fair, they succeed to some extent. Entirely convincing as a pair of Regular Joes who're just as surprised as we are to find themselves at the centre of this mess, Carell and Fey turn Date Night into an easy enough evening out at the movies.

this weekend also saw two war-related movies, one of them being the oscar winner 'the hurt locker' and the other being matt damon starrer 'green zone'. THL has already been in the news for winning a handful of oscars and it does not require any kind of recco to be watched, so please go ahead and do so.

we all know of the legends of WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and bush's rhetoric on it. 'green zone' deals with this, where-in matt damon is on a mission to iraq to find WMD's. masand calls this an average war drama in his review

Relying on his trademark hyperkinetic camerawork to shoot the film's breathless chases and non-stop combat scenes, Greengrass lends a sense of visceral immediacy to the action that makes Green Zone more engaging than your average war drama.

having spoken about bengali cinema and hollywood movies, let me finally bring up the bollywood releases of the weekend. two movies released, both duds in my opinion. nevertheless, 'prince' has taken a good opening thanks to the skimpily clad women and fantastic action sequences by alan-amin. masand calls it marvellously moronic and this is why

The actors struggle to pull off cool, but given those CGI-enhanced action scenes, the ill-fitting leather costumes, and the puerile dialogue, cool is impossible to achieve. Even the obvious inspiration from Mission Impossible, Matrix and the Bourne movies doesn't seem to help director Kookie Gulati in constructing a half-convincing tale.

even anupama chopra echoes the same thoughts about the movie in her review

It's hard to say what's most ridiculous - the plot which has everyone chasing a coin which has the chip or the amount of posturing these actors are indulging in.

we all saw jadoo come down to our planet in a spaceship, and it wasn't that good looking to be paired opposite to hrithik roshan. but jacqueline fernandez in 'jaane kahan se ayi hai' is just the kinda material that we need from outer space, charming and graceful. so, when transcends to earth and into ritesh's mundane life, he is more than trilled to escprt her like a tour guide. but this tour isn't all that fun, as said by our reviewers. anupama chopra says

The laughs deflate at an alarming rate. Instead we are made to suffer feeble match-making efforts, the clichéd journey from friendship to love, the usual misunderstandings and even a last minute chase to Tara’s spaceship so that the soul-mates, Tara and Rakesh are united.

you may read her review here

masand too is not so thrilled about this alien drama. the movie has special appearances by akshay kumar and farah khan, in a bid to spice it up. but even that works only upto a point. masand points out the flaws in his review

There's so much mushy dialogue that even the guys who write those Hallmark cards would feel uncontrollably sick; and just the basic plotting of the romantic track is too corny and juvenile to inspire any real sympathy for the characters involved. It doesn't help that Ritesh and Jacqueline lack the spark to keep you hooked to their romance.

jab harry met sally

2010-04-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

.. ek ladka-ladki kabhi dost nahi hote… said Jeevan to Prem in
Maine Pyar Kiya. It was the year 1989 when MPK had released. I wished
to watch the movie in a cinema hall, but alas! I had no one to go
with. Anyhow, I finally got to see the movie on VCR some 3-4 months
later. There was very little action in the movie, one of them was
Salman Khan [Prem] doing a do-do haath with Mohnish Behl [Jeevan] .
Before Prem and Jeevan jumped into the duel, they had a small war of
words. Jeevan was spewing venom with his incisive words while
insinuating that something was definitely on between Prem and Suman
[Bhagyashree] and he uttered the historic dialogue: ek ladka-ladki
kabhi dost nahi hote.

Innocent that I was, I did not get the meaning of it back then. I
assumed that since they were eventually going to fall in love, where
was the need for being friends and even if they were friends why did
Prem feel so hurt. Anyways, I saw the movie quite a few times and was
thoroughly entertained everytime.

In the mid 90’s cable-tv was a rage and even we got it installed.
Movies were beaming 24×7 and on one such day I caught the movie ‘When
Harry Met Sally’ on Star Movies. Just 10 minutes into the movie and
Billy Crystal spoke those ominous words:You realize of course that we
could never be friends.

I went into a tizzy, what was Harry saying! Was he out of his mind.
Harry went onto explain:

Harry: You realize of course that we could never be friends.

Sally: Why not?

Harry: What I’m saying is â€” and this is not a come-on in any way,
shape or form â€” is that men and women can’t be friends because the sex
part always gets in the way.

Sally: That’s not true. I have a number of men friends and there is no
sex involved.

Harry: No you don’t.

Sally: Yes I do.

Harry: No you don’t.

Sally: Yes I do.

Harry: You only think you do.

Sally: You say I’m having sex with these men without my knowledge?

Harry: No, what I’m saying is they all want to have sex with you.

Sally: They do not.

Harry: Do too.

Sally: They do not.

Harry: Do too.

Sally: How do you know?

Harry: Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds
attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.

Sally: So you’re saying that a man can be friends with a woman he
finds unattractive?

Harry: No, you pretty much want to nail ‘em too.

Sally: What if they don’t want to have sex with you?

Harry: Doesn’t matter because the sex thing is already out there so
the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story.

Sally: Well, I guess we’re not going to be friends then.

And then it all came back to me. I understood why Prem and Suman could
not be friends. And I understood what Jeevan had implied.

I did a bit of research about the release of these two movies and much
to my surprise I found that both the movies released in 1989. While
WHMS had released in July, MPK had released in December. But howcome
two people in two different parts of the globe struck the same
concept. I am still perplexed how this happened, similar thought
pattern running in two different minds from two different cultures. Of
course, the Indian version was more subtle and needed some
deciphering.

Later on in the movie, after another 10 minutes of the previous
sequence Harry makes an ammendment to his earlier proposition. The
conversation between them goes like this:

Harry: Staying over?

Sally: Yes.

Harry: Would you like to have dinner?

Harry: Just friends.

Sally: I thought you didn’t believe men and women could be friends.

Harry: When did I say that?

Sally: On the ride to New York.

Harry: No no no no, I never said that. Yes, that’s right, they can’t
be friends. Unless both of them are involved with other people then
they can. This is an amendment to the earlier rule, if the two
people are in relationships, the pressure of possibilty of involvement
is lifted. That doesn’t work either because what happens then is the
person you’re involved with can’t understand why you need to be
friends with the person you’re just friends with. Like it means
something is missing from their relationship and “why do you have to
go outside to get it?”. Then when you say, “no no no no, it’s not
true nothing’s missing from the relationship”, the person you’re
involved with then accuses you of being secretly attracted to the
person you’re just friends with, which we probably are, I mean, come
on, who the hell are we kidding, let’s face it, which brings us back
to the earlier rule before the amendment which is men and
women can’t be friends, so where does that leave us?

Sally: Harry.

Harry: What?

Sally: Goodbye.

Harry: Oh, OK.

The thought that trigerred off this post was a sequence in the movie
‘Rab Ne…’ where we had a drunk Raj/Suri rambling to himself after
Bobby had passed-out, he said ‘ladka-ladki kabhi dost nahi hote’;
implying that sooner or later Taani would fall in love with Raj. And
so, the legend of Harry-Sally lives on.

This post was first published on PFC

have mercy ... nauheed cyrusi

2010-04-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Before Sunset … brilliance of Richard Linklater

2010-04-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

The movie Before Sunrise had ended in an uncertainty and left us wondering if Jesse and Celine ever met again. The question in our mind remained unanswered for 9 years. Nine years is a very long time; and lots of things happened in those nine years. In 9 years time, Richard Linklater made 6 more movies, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy acted in a dozen other movies. And after 9 years the three finally sat down together to write a screenplay which would be a sequel to Before Sunrise.

The trio kept in mind, the growth of the characters Jesse and Celine, the age and the maturity factor, and they came up with a beautiful screenplay. The movie was titled Before Sunset and it released in 2004. This movie was again shot with a steadicam, just like the prequel; and had those long shots, only this time the venue was Paris.

The movie starts in a bookstore in Paris called Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore where Jesse is addressing a small gathering of journalists who have come to interview him on the promotion tour of his newly written book This Time. When asked if the book is autobiographical, Jesse cleverly quotes Thomas Wolfe and begins “…he says that we are the sum of all the moments of our lives, and that, uh, anybody who sits down to write is gonna use the clay of their own life, that you can’t avoid that“. But when the journalist is adamant on knowing if he actually met a French woman, about which the book is, he says …Yes. Just when he is answering those queries he spots Celine and he wants to be done with the questions soon so he can catch-up with her after 9 long years.

I recalled that Kunal Kohli’s movie Hum-Tum had the same opening sequence. I cross-checked the release dates of the two movies and it turns out that Hum-Tum released just 3 weeks before this movie. Is this ‘book launch interview’ sequence a mere coincidence or what?Anyways, after the interview Jesse has a flight to catch and he has time only until 7.30pm to spend with Celine. Celine clearly has lost weight, while Jesse looks a lot mature with his moustache and goaty. They start walking to a coffee shop and Celine tells Jesse that the bookstore was her favourite one and she frequents it, thats how she was aware of his visit. When Jesse asks if she has read the book; Celine says that she has read it twice and she found it really very romantic and compliments him on his wonderful writing.

Now comes the awkward moment, Celine asks Jesse if he had come to Vienna after 6 months, as promised before parting. This was just like An Affair To Remember … though I will not reveal anything more, all I can say is things don’t remain the same hereafter.

The two move on to talk about other things as they have a lot to catch-up with…like how is life and how things have changed in the past 9 years. Celine informs Jesse that she works for Green Cross which is an environmental organization and they work on issues like clean water, disarmament of chemical weapons and that she had been to India a year ago working on a water treatment plant and she mentions how the cotton industry is a major source of pollution. That felt good, India being referenced in an American movie set in Paris, albeit not a good picture. She goes onto say “we’re moving all our industry to developing nations. We can get cheap labor free of any environmental laws. OK, the weapon industry is booming. Five million people die every year from preventable water disease. So, how is the world getting any better?“

I love such conversations, I mean, why do they show in every other movie how boys and girls discuss only relationships, sunsigns, horoscopes, looks and make-up. Grow up, show some real conversation as above.

Jesse and Celine reach a coffee-shop and make themselves comfortable. Thats when Celine reveals that she was in New York University from ‘96 to ‘99. And Jesse is just shocked to hear that because he has been in NY since ‘98 and was wondering how they never crossed paths. That’s destiny for you. Two lovers who were supposed to meet in Vienna after 6 months of their first meeting, they don’t meet even in NY[though Jesse mentions that a few days before his wedding he did feel that he had spotted Celine in a Deli] and finally they see each other again in Paris.

In the coffeshop they discuss about how their personal appearance has changed, about Celine’s life and studies in US and how Jesse was a drummer in a rock-band. Jesse mentions about how he doubts the Buddhist viewpoint on desire … “its what all those Buddhist guys say, right? You know, liberate yourself from desire and you’ll find that you already have everything you need“. While still on topic of religion and Buddhism, Celine talks about one of her boyfriends who visited monasteries of Asia because “each time he went to one of those monasteries, a monk offered to suck his cock. True story!“. This had me in splits.

They pay the coffee bill and are back on the streets, in a garden. Jesse reminsces about the night that they had spent in Vienna, and they just mess with each other on the question of whether or not they had made love that night; because they both recall the night differently. Celine then speaks about her complicated relationship with her mom and granny and how its been difficult for her to cope-up with her granny’s death. She says “Memory is a wonderful thing, if you don’t have to, uh, deal with the past“.

They finally come down to discussing about their personal lives. Jesse tells her about his wife who teaches and a 4 yr old son named Henry. Celine tells him that she is seeing a photo-journalist who covers wars and that keeps him out-of-town most of the times. They realize how they have not just grown apart, but also grown old…mature and responsible.

Celine and Jesse take a small boatride and she tells him things about Eiffel tower and cathedrals. He confesses that he wrote the book so that he could record every detail of their meeting and the wonderful time they spent together. Celine is happy to hear this because she herself is not the kind of person who can move-on with the snap of a finger; she lingers around old memories. Towards the end of this chat they exchange phone numbers so that they can keep in touch and they wonder why they did not do this nine years ago.

Time is running out, Jesse calls for his car and since he wants to make maximum use of time, he suggests that they go to her apartment. While they are in the car Celine gets emotional talking about all her ex-boyfriends who walked away from her life …”But what does it mean the right man? The love of your life? The concept is absurd; the idea that we can only be complete with another person is…EVIL! RIGHT?“. To pacify her, Jesse says “You can’t do that, you can’t live your life trying to avoid pain“. The car halts at her apartment.

What I truely love about the movie is the fact that the characters remained true-to-life; Richard Linklater did not try to make it a happy-ending. He has shown a real-life situation about how people meet, drift apart and how things between them change; how they handle the change. The conversation is crisp and the dialogues are excellent, worth quoting from. As usual, each shot blends into the next one without any jitters; and the camera focus is excellent. Since its shot in real-time, it gives us the feeling of moving along with the character, always attached; it’s to the credit of writer/director Richard Linklater.

In the last few scenes, in Celine’s apartment, she seats him and sings him a waltz and Jesse wonders if she has written those lines for him. Later they put on some music and she dances to the song; she reminds him about his flight. The movie again ends in ambiguity because we don’t really know what happens next, whether Jesse takes the flight or not!

This post was first published on PFC

breaking news : sania calls off wedding with pak cricketer shoaib

2010-03-31T20:30:00.000-07:00

Owing to enormous pressure from fans and other eminent personalities, Sania Mirza has decided to call off her wedding with Pak cricketer Shoaib Malik. In fact, reports also say that right-wing activists who protested outside her residence, on the day her marriage news broke-out, have issued a threat and called her anti-national. Not just right-wingers, but Islamic fundamentalists who had earlier issued a fatwa on her for playing tennis in skimpy skirts, have renewed the threat on her for breaking an arranged marriage with her previous fiance Sohrab and finding love elsewhere in Shoaib Malik. Sania was depressed by such fierce reaction from all quarters, and she made this decision. And I hope I have been successful in fooling you because its 1st April today. Happy Fool's Day.

Now that I have got the fool's day out of my bag and drawn your interest, let me discuss the issue in a more serious manner. Sania's announcement came as a surprise/shock to many of us. And I find it rather unfortunate that she has decided to tie a knot with a Pakistani. No, its not like cross-country marriages don't happen. Reena Roy married Pak cricketer Mohsin Khan, Neena Gupta bore Viv Richards' daughter, Jemima married Imran Khan, Rajiv Gandhi brought home Sonia; but this marriage is different.

I have always believed that although all of us are patriots, the true patriots are the ones who represent India elsewhere. So, a true patriot for me would be the defence guys, the armed forces, the navy men and air-force people who guard our country. Next come the sport-stars who represent the country, like Leander Paes, Sachin Tendulkar, Geet Sethi and then of course the gifted people from arts and crafts like Meenakshi Sheshadri and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan etc. Coming from this viewpoint, Sania's decision to marry a Pak player is disappointing. She has represented India and played for the country, and all of a sudden she compromises on her patriotism to find love in a terror-stricken land of Pakistan. We must not forget that Kasab is still under trial for waging a war against India.

Then how could she consider marrying a Pakistani, I am surprised! I think she and Shoaib realize what they are getting into, and have already decided to shift base to Dubai because Pak is not a safe country to live in; this in itself is such an irony.

Coming to their sporting career, neither Sania nor Shoaib are relevant in their sports. Shoaib was a copy-cat of Saqlain Mushtaq to begin with and he seemed to have no prospects until his bat started doing the talking; but that was a thing of the past. As of today, he has been issued a ban for a year, lost his captaincy and will be seen playing inconsequential matches to keep the kitchen stove burning. But this is the least of my grouses. What I detest about Shoaib is his unabashed Islamic behavior at the presentation ceremony of T20 World Cup final when Pak lost to India. Shoaib went on to apologize to all "muslims of the world" for not having won the cup. How dare this unholy b@$tard try to make Pak the whole-and-sole representative of "all muslims". He does not even know that India has more muslim population than Pakistan. He does not know that muslims in India have achieved greatness in all fields, be it science & technology [APJ Kalam], be it business[Azim Premji], be it movies [all Khans], be it music [Zakir Hussain, AR Rahman], be it sports [Azhar, Sania herself], be it politics or any other field. I was actually amazed that not many people took exception to this statement from Shoaib. This reflects not only Pak's insecurities but also their narrow-mindedness.

Coming to Sania, she is a spent-force in Indian tennis and has done nothing after reaching top-30 ranking which was 5 or more years ago; she has not made it to QF or SF of any Grand Slam Singles title. Her many injuries have only reduced her career longevity.

By the way, I just forgot to bring up their past which is again mired in controversy. Shoaib is supposed to have been married to a Hyderabadi girl Ayesha Siddiqui. There is still a case pending against Shoaib and he has not been cleared off the charges yet. In fact, Sania was invited by Siddiquis and she was there in Ayesha's house and so were the entire Pak cricket team when Shoaib was hosted by his then in-laws in 2005. And yet, now we see her in engagement with Shoaib, such are the works of destiny. Sania too was engaged to her childhood friend Sohrab for more than 6 months, but the engagement was broken. So, we have two people with a thorny past trying to make a rosy future. I wish them all the very best, god bless.

DH Lawrence Poem : Snake

2010-03-29T17:30:00.000-07:00

A snake came to my water-trough
On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,
To drink there.
In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-tree
I came down the steps with my pitcher
And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before
me.

He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom
And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of
the stone trough
And rested his throat upon the stone bottom,
And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness,
He sipped with his straight mouth,
Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body,
Silently.

Someone was before me at my water-trough,
And I, like a second comer, waiting.

He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do,
And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do,
And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused a moment,
And stooped and drank a little more,
Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels of the earth
On the day of Sicilian July, with Etna smoking.
The voice of my education said to me
He must be killed,
For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous.

And voices in me said, If you were a man
You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.

But must I confess how I liked him,
How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough
And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
Into the burning bowels of this earth?

Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him? Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him? Was it humility, to feel so honoured?
I felt so honoured.

And yet those voices:
If you were not afraid, you would kill him!

And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid, But even so, honoured still more
That he should seek my hospitality
From out the dark door of the secret earth.

He drank enough
And lifted his head, dreamily, as one who has drunken,
And flickered his tongue like a forked night on the air, so black,
Seeming to lick his lips,
And looked around like a god, unseeing, into the air,
And slowly turned his head,
And slowly, very slowly, as if thrice adream,
Proceeded to draw his slow length curving round
And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.

And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,
And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered farther,
A sort of horror, a sort of protest against his withdrawing into that horrid black hole,
Deliberately going into the blackness, and slowly drawing himself after,
Overcame me now his back was turned.

I looked round, I put down my pitcher,
I picked up a clumsy log
And threw it at the water-trough with a clatter.

I think it did not hit him,
But suddenly that part of him that was left behind convulsed in undignified haste.
Writhed like lightning, and was gone
Into the black hole, the earth-lipped fissure in the wall-front,
At which, in the intense still noon, I stared with fascination.

And immediately I regretted it.
I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!
I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education.

And I thought of the albatross
And I wished he would come back, my snake.

For he seemed to me again like a king,
Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,
Now due to be crowned again.

And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords
Of life.
And I have something to expiate:
A pettiness.

don't indulge in duties that don't concern you

2010-03-28T01:52:00.000-07:00

There was once a washerman who had a donkey and a dog. One night when the whole world was sleeping, a thief broke into the house. The washer man was fast asleep too but the donkey and the dog were awake. The dog decided not to bark since the master did not take good care of him and wanted to teach him a lesson.

The donkey got worried and said to the dog that if he doesn't bark, the donkey will have to do something himself. The dog did not change his mind and the donkey started braying loudly.

Hearing the donkey bray, the thief ran away. The master woke up and started beating the donkey for braying in the middle of the night for no reason.

Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se : 'Love Story' By Erich Segal

2010-03-26T05:30:00.000-07:00

Its been exactly 40 years and 40 days since 'Love Story' was first published. The publication of this novel was more of an afterthought than a piece of original literary work. The movie 'Love Story' whose screenplay was written by Erich Segal, was later adapted it into a novel which would serve as a pre-cursor to the movie and help in promoting the film. Hence, the novel came out on 14th Feb, 1970 while the movie released later, in December of the same year.

The book went on to become a best-seller and the movie too was a huge hit, and some lines from the movie have achieved so much popularity that they are oft repeated in quotes and romantic write-ups, one of them being 'Love means never having to say sorry'. Although Erich Segal went on to write quite a few novels like 'Oliver's Story' [which was a sequel to 'Love Story'], 'Class' and 'Doctors' ; but none of them could match upto the success and fame of 'Love Story'. This is a book for keeps, the romance is so beautifully portrayed and with so much innocence and honesty.

As most of us have read the book or know the story, I shall not delve much into it. I would just like to pay a small tribute to writer, Erich Segal, who passed away earlier this year, on 17th Jan. It was a huge loss to the literary world. And people who have been affected by the book, directly or indirectly, must have sent a small wish up there; may his soul rest in peace.

Coming back to the post, when Rajshri Films decided to adapt the book into movie, Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se was born. Keeping the tradition of family entertainers, this movie too matched the innocence and honest depiction of love. Sachin and Ranjeeta in lead roles excelled. And so did Madan Puri in a small cameo as Arun's dad. But the movie truly belonged to Sachin and Ravindra Jain; Sachin for his mature performance and Ravindra Jain for his wonderful music and lyrics.

With the backdrop of a college, the movie starts with a tiff/competition between Arun and Lily. This went on to become a formula for a whole lot of movies, where the guy-gal are up in arms against each other in first half hour and then coyly in love soon after they get to know each other well. Even to this day, movies have this formulaic approach.

Anyways, Arun is an extrovert guy with playful nature, and he is smart and intelligent. He happens to be rich and that also brings in a bit of arrogance. While Lily is a girl from a modest family, and they live with limited resources. When Lily tops the class, it hurts Arun's ego as he was the previous topper and now stands second in class; and this ego leads to the boy-gang ragging Lily with reference to her Christian background and lack of knowledge in Hindi literature.

Arun pushes her into a contest of sorts, in Hindi; that's when Lily matches wits with him in a doha duel where she chants dohas of Kabir and Rahim. The war of words, or should I say dohas is perfectly pitched where Lily makes Arun realise that arrogance is not a good quality and Arun ends the contest by saying that she should accept his friendship in all humility.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVNgOAS2M00&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

But this is just the beginning of the love story. Everything runs smoothly until the couple decide to marry. Arun informs his rich dad about his love interest, which has to now surmount cultural and religious differences. When Madan Puri visits Lily's house, I was scared it would be a repeat of the 'Bobby' scene of Pran embarrassing Premnath by talking of his riches, social status and cultural barriers. But this movie being a Rajshri Films, no such drama happens.

This is one of the most crucial and differentiating turning point in the novel 'Love Story'. While In the novel, Oliver's dad does not approve of the marriage ; Arun's dad is more than happy to go with his son's choice. This juncture also marks the difference between the book and the movie. In the book, Oliver's dad disowns him. Oliver and Jennifer get married and settle down. But their days of hardship have just begun. When they decide to start a family and are unable to, they visit a doc who diagnoses Jennifer's condition.

But in the movie, when all things are running smoothly Lily suddenly takes to bed. She had fallen ill before too, but no one knew the severity of her suffering. She is finally diagnosed of blood cancer and she has very less time left. This concept was later picked up in many a movie, with variations in screenplay. Most memorable being Hrishi da's Mili and Mani Ratnam's Gitanjali. And Erich Segal should be credited with this sensitive love progression in which one of the partners is terminally ill. The true test of love is when we can accept someone for who they are and stay with them despite their inadequacies; take them 'in illness and in health'; and be with them till the end of their lives. The movie epitomises the sacrificial nature of love and shows what selfless love is all about.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqpIIaCJggY&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Arun's dad is very supportive of him, but Lily does not wish Arun to go through the trauma when she learns of her own illness. This is where the movie was a welcome change from the novel. In the novel, Oliver and Jennifer are strapped for cash and so he requests financial assisstance from his dad for her treatment; he still does not mention to his dad about her illness.

How Arun and Oliver deal with this situation forms rest of the story. How they unselfishly decide to show happy and fulfilling days to their loved-ones, despite knowing their condition and how they cope-up with life is not just romantic but tear-jerkingly sweet.

While the book explores the heartlessness of a person, Oliver's dad; it also shows to what extent a person in love can go, Oliver. Its a beautiful story of love and difficult times that it can make us go through. But its all worth it, if love is all a person seeks. Its better to live a short life filled with love, than a long one without it.

katrina kaif : latest brand ambassador of 'lux'

2010-03-24T17:21:00.001-07:00

Kieslowski’s genius : Tracing back ‘12B’ to ‘Sliding doors’ to ‘Przypadek’

2010-03-22T17:53:00.001-07:00

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both.
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

Its a grave irony that I want to discuss a movie about chance, but I start with a poem which is about choice. The above poem, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, is one which all of us face in our everyday life. Choices that are left to us and what considerations we take in making the right decision. The poem is not just about a road, thats just metaphorical for life. At every step we have a difficult decision to make; be it home, be it workplace. And we always leave behind an untreaded path, hoping that someday we would comeby it again. Somehow I believe that even if we get a chance to revisit the path, 99 out of 100 times, we would end up making the same choices that we made the last time around. Because man is a born free but bound everywhere by chains, we are slaves of the situation we are put in.

Kaminey too had this angle where Shahid mutters about how life is made/unmade not by what path we take, but by what we leave behind. That may or may not be true, but that’s how life is; always giving us choices.

But, what happens when life does not give us that choice? What happens when destiny takes its own course? When we are left with ‘no choice’ but to go with whats offered to us. That’s the tricky situation that Witek is stuck in Przypadek[Blind Chance]. When God makes the decision, we only have to bear the brunt of it or fightback the situation which was not of our making to begin with. Witek fights the battle, goes against odds and does what best he can do. Does it all turn out good for him? Does he come out unscathed and bitterless? Thats for you to watch.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

In 2001, Jeeva directed a movie 12B starring Sham and Jyothika. The movie starts with Shakti preparing to attend a job interview. While Shakti is at the bus stop, waiting for the bus number 12B, destiny has other plans for him. He spots a charming girl, forgets all about the interview and starts pursuing her. Its obvious that he misses the bus. Is this going to be a life altering turn? Well, the director takes us through parallel series of events which shows us how Shakti’s life turns out having missed the bus; and having taken the bus and attended the interview.

The guy who attends the interview, gets the job and an affable co-worker who ends up liking him. But Shakti is miffed with life because he could not get close to the girl whom he had spotted in the bus-stop. And the guy who misses the bus arrives late to the interview and finally lands up in a small time job at a garage. But he gets the girl of his dream, she loves him too. Will either of the turn of events change his life? A very interesting premise indeed.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

But it comes undone when we realise that the movie was plagiarized. Just 3 years prior to this movie, came Sliding Doors in 1998. Gwyneth Paltrow’s character Helen is caught in a dichotomy. The movie begins with her being fired from a job. And here’s where the movie separates into two parallel worlds. One in which she misses the train in the tube station on her way home and other in which is makes it to the train.

Both scenarios have different outcomes and with their own set of complications. In the situation where she misses the train, she calls for a cab and while boarding in her purse gets snatched. She gets injured in her struggle to get back the purse and she finally lands in a hospital. This entire string of events gives her boyfriend enough time to fool around with another woman.

Had she not missed the train, she would have reached home in time and would’ve caught her boyfriend with his pants down, literally. This is shown in another sequence of events. And this is how the movie unfolds. Drawing parallels between the two lives separated by chance, where voluntary actions find no meaning as the characters are situation-driven. The bitter/sweet experiences of Helen is shown in both scenarios, the laughter and tears, romance and separation.

The movie was nominated in quite a few awards category, but many were unaware of the fact that the concept of the movie has actually been lifted from a Polish movie. In early 80’s, Kieslowski made a fantastic movie titled Przypadek.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Kieslowski handled a complex socio-political environment under the times of a totalitarian regime. He had the guts and gumption to fight the system and talk about it through his films. And another masterstroke was the fact that this movie had a 3-way sequence unlike Sliding Doors and 12B which handled just two. The very fact that he placed his hero, Witek, right in the center of a melting-pot situation speaks volumes about his conviction.

The movie actually tells the story of a strict communist regime through Witek. By taking Witek, played superbly by Boguslaw Linda, through three different paths, Kieslowski gives out the message that no one could’ve escaped brushing against the system. This political message is handled with subtlety where Witek, a medical student who is supposed to be apolitical, still gets embroiled in the affairs of the state and in different capacities.

Witek is made to face the system, first as a political activist who joins the communist party. This happens when he catches the train and meets an old war-horse of the commies. He sympathises with the ruling party and feels that as a youth its his responsibility to join the party and spread the message of communists. His girlfriend isn’t happy with this, but he has applied already.

In another scenario, Witek bumps into a beer-drinking guy and is unable to catch his train. He gets into a fight with the police and is sentenced to community service. This drives him against the system and now he joins the anti-Communist party. So, now he faces the brunt while fighting against the system.

In the third and final scenario, Witek misses the train and goes back home with his girlfriend. He is happily married, settled and teaching medicine. He is truly unpolitical until a situation comes up in the college where he is forced to take sides. But does he?

The fantastic part of the movie is the climax. The build-up is superb, and in all three scenarios Kieslowski shows the hand of God in the end. Although the three situations were poles apart, the end is however the same. Whether Witek catches/misses the train, destiny follows him nevertheless. His final outcome, irrespective of the situation he is put in, is the same. What is that outcome? What is does destinty hold for Witek? Do watch the movie to know more.

Kieslowski’s genius lies in the fact that he made a movie on the concept of parallel worlds when all of Poland was gripped in the non-republic regime. And his movie speaks of those times, tackling the very issues through a visual medium. His protagonist gets a chance, not a choice though, to revisit the same point from where his life takes a crucial turn; thereby partially fulfilling Robert Frost’s words of taking the untreaded path. While other movies like Run Lola Run, Sliding Doors etc have been made on this concept, they fail to deliver a punch. The movies have either become a rom-com or a thriller or candyfloss, none of the writer/director explored the opporunity to go beyond the obvious. This is where Kieslowski’s efforts are to be appreciated, for having thought of this concept in 1980’s, while the next movie based on this concept came a good decade and a half later, taking wholesome inspiration from Kieslowski.

This post was first published on PFC

Funny Quotes From 'Side Effects' by Woody Allen

2010-03-19T03:26:00.000-07:00

# The good people sleep better, while the bad ones seemed to enjoy the waking hours much more.

# The night was windy and dark, and Cloquet had a split second to decide if he would risk his life to save a stranger. Unwilling to make such a momentous decision on an empty stomach, he went to a restaurant and dined.

# It is impossible to travel faster than light, and certainly not desirable, as one's hat keeps blowing off.

# Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought - particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things.

# It should be recalled that when we talk of "life" on other planets we are frequently referring to amino acids, which are never very gregarious, even at parties.

# More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

# True, science has conquered many diseases, broken the genetic code, and even placed human beings on the moon, and yet when a man of eighty is left in a room with two eighteen-year-old cocktail waitresses nothing happens.

# Can the human soul be glimpsed through a microscope? Maybe - but you'd definitely need one of those very good ones with two eyepieces.

# We know that the most advanced computer in the world does not have a brain as sophisticated as that of an ant. True, we could say that of many of our relatives but we only have to put up with them at weddings or special occasions.

# True, science has taught us how to pasteurize cheese. And true, this can be fun in mixed company - but what of the H-bomb? Have you ever seen what happens when one of those things falls off a desk accidentally?

# I often think how comforting life must have been for early man because he believed in a powerful, benevolent Creator who looked after all things. Imagine his disappointment when he saw his wife putting on weight.

# He believed everything in existence occurred by pure chance with the possible exception of his breakfast, which he felt certain was made by his housekeeper.

# Unfortunately our politicians are either incompetent or corrupt. Sometimes both on the same day.

# Figures tell us that there are already more people on earth than we need to move even the heaviest piano.

# I made a list of my faults, but could not get past : 1) Sometimes forgets his hat.

# Suddenly, and with a clarity one usually associates with LSD, my course of action became apparent.

# "In order to be a writer," Maugham continues, "one must take chances and not be afraid to look foolish. I wrote The Razor's Edge while wearing a paper hat...."

# She possesses a speech impediment so audibly juicy that to be near her when she pronounces a word like "sequestered" is equivalent to standing at the center of a monsoon.

# Connie Chasen and I had taken to each other in a way that would not be denied and one brief hour later were thrashing balletically through the percales, executing with total emotional commitment the absurd choreography of human passion.

# How does anyone ever stay married for forty years? This, it seems, is more of a miracle than the parting of the Red Sea, though my father, in his naiveté, holds the latter to be a greater achievement.

shamita shetty ... looking pretty in pink

2010-03-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

aamir khan aur remakes ki daastaan – part 1 of 2

2010-03-13T15:07:00.000-08:00

Today, 14th March, is Aamir Khan's birthday. I wish him a very Happy Birthday.

I have wanted to write this article from a long time, to be precise after the release of Mann. Eventually, after the release and the super-success of Ghajini I have got down to writing it. There is something with Aamir and movie remakes, he has consistently been a part of movies which are remakes. Its definitely not his fault that he has featured in them, its the writer-director who were looking for a quick and readymade storylines and of course the producer for easy money. And let me also say that he is not the only star to feature in remakes, as we all know, but the quality of the remakes is what differentiates him from the rest. Why I have analysed him is because, out of the 40 odd movies that he has made, nearly 10 of them have been remakes which is like 25%. Let me go ahead and write down about these movies in a chronological manner of their release wrt Aamir’s filmography.

1. It Happened One Night – 1934 : Clark Gable played the male lead Peter, he even went on to win the Oscar for the Best Actor. It was a
heart-warming movie with a smiple storyline. A small time reporter Peter is looking for a big story and he meets a high-browed lady Ellie
[Claudette Colbert] who has escaped from the clutches of her dad and is on the run to meet her beau. How they both make the journey from
Florida to NY, the small squabbles that they have and how they eventually fall in love with each other is what the movie is about.The
movie went on to win 5 Oscars; apart from Clark Gable, Claudette won the Best Actress, Frank Capra won the Best Director, it was awarded
the Best Movie and Best Writing/Adaptation.

The formula was a sure-shot success, and so in 1956 a movie named ‘Chori Chori’ starring Raj Kapoor and Nargis was released. Raj Kapoor
played the struggling reporter named Sagar while Nargis was Kammo. The highlight of this movie was the songs and especially the puppet-act of
Raj and Nargis. The movie had some brilliant compositions from Shankar-Jaikishan like ‘Panchhi Banoo Udti Phiroon’, ‘Aaja Sanam Madhur Chandni Mei Hum’, ‘Jahan Mai Jaati Hoon Wahin Chale Aate Ho’ and ‘Rasik Balma’. SJ won the Filmfare for Best Music Director.

If you watch Mehmood’s Bombay To Goa, you can see the same theme where Aruna Irani is trying to escape to meet her lover Shatrughan Sinha and is guided all the way by Amitabh Bachchan. But it was dished out in a different way, they changed the screenplay totally and added the
comedy angle to it. This occured to me just now, wonder why I did not think of it earlier.

Anyways, the person who did not deviate from the original screenplay was the Robin Bhat-Mahesh Bhat duo. They stayed faithful to IHON and
in 1991 came Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin starring Aamir Khan as Raghu Jaitley and Pooja Bhatt as Pooja. Aamir exuded the same kind of charm
as Clark Gable. In fact, he went a few notches up in the emotional sequences where he could neither stop Pooja from meeting her lover nor
could he tell her that he has fallen for her. Aamir played the role with gusto beginning with the telephone-booth sequence, then the
request-for-lift scene and ending it with the elopement. The entire journey was fantastic, but the magical moment has to be the one where
he starts humming ‘Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke’ with a cigarette between his lips and Pooja in his arms. Only after this does he realise that he
has started liking Pooja. The movie received 4 Filmfare nominations, for Best Actor, Best Director, Best Comedian [Anupam Kher playing
Pooja's father] and Best Female Singer. Anuradha Paudwal took home the award for the title track, while the rest just remained nominated.

2. Breaking Away – 1979 : This was a really nice movie about a good-for-nothing dude Dave Stoller [Dennis Christopher] who has no aim
or ambition and leads a non-chalant life. His parents keep reminding him about his responsibilities but he just loves spending time with
his friends and riding the bicycle. He has a chance meeting with a beautiful girl Katherine [Robyn Douglass] and to make friends with her he fakes his identity to be a guitar playing Italian exchange student. While he is dating Katherine an entourage of Italian bikers happen to come to his town for a Little500 race. He loves watching them pratcise and shows his talent with the bicycle. He hopes to get close to them by showing that he can keep up to their pace, but he beats them in a friendly dash; but instead of lauding his effort they just push him into a ditch. That really breaks Dave’s herat and he loses all respect for the Italian cyclists. He decides to take part in the Little500 race wearing the ‘Cutters’ jersey; referring to the lesser privileged people who are not able to complete their education but take pride in hardwork. He ofcourse goes on to win the race and create history. The movie won the Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay; but it lost in the 4 other categories Best Director, Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Music.

In 1992, Mansoor Khan took a lot of inspiration from this movie and made Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. I have used the word ‘inspiration’ because the movie was not a scene-to-scene remake. Lots of new things were introduced, but the plot, storyline and the spirit of the original was kept intact. Mansoor wrote a brilliant screenplay and dialogues by Nasir Hussain were really good, they breathed a life into the Sanjaylal character played by Aamir Khan. They retained the sub-plot of Aamir faking his identity and calling himself a Xavier student so he can go around with Devika[Pooja Bedi] and ultimately she gets to know the truth. The friendship of Sanjaylal and Anjali[Ayesha Jhulka] was handled with maturity and utmost honesty. Mansoor Khan introduced an emotional quotient attaching a prestige to the Annual Cycle Race and added the nostalgia of Sanjaylal’s dad[Kulbhushan Kharbanda] having won the race once upon a time. And the burden of bringing home the cup rested on Ratanlal [Mamik], Sanjay’s elder brother. But when Ratanlal is severely injured from an accident inflicted upon by the Rajput College boys, Sanjaylal takes it upon himself to bring home the coveted honor and take revenge against the Rajput College boys. The movie won the Filmfare for Best Film. Aamir was excellent in the movie, to say the least.

3. Houseboat – 1958 : This movie starred Carry Grant as Tom Winters, who works in the state department of Washington and Sophia Loren as
Cinzia who is the daughter of an Italian conductor. The movie is about Tom whose estranged wife dies in a car crash and he decides to raise the 3 kids, but the kids despise him. In his effort to befriend the kids he takes them to a concert, but the youngest kids get bored and goes out to have some fresh air and play his harmonica. The kid runs into Cinzia who has runaway from home after a small squabble with her dad. Cinzia is able to strike a chord with the kids and since she has nowhere to go, she accepts Tom’s offer of being their housemaid/nanny. After some wandering around and having seen their travelling house [home on wheels] getting destroyed due to a speeding train; they finally move into a houseboat. Tom’s sister-in-law who has a crush on him tries to woo, but slowly and surely Tom finds himself falling for Cinzia. How they get married and how the kids finally accept their dad and new mom is what the rest of the movie is about.

In 1993 a movie titled after a popular Dev Anand song released, the movie was Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke. It was again the combination of Robin Bhat-Mahesh Bhat who systematically copied the movie scene-by-scene. The only thing that they changed was that, the kids were Aamir Khan’s nephews and nieces and not his own. And Aamir becomes the caretaker of the kids after the sad demise of his sister and brother-in-law in a car crash. They also introduced the character Mishraji [Mushtaq Khan] who had returned from Japan after getting trained in assembly-line production; and they made use of this by adding the twist of having to deliver the bulk order of 1 lakh shirts. Apart from this, rest of the movie remained faithful to the original. It was so faithful that the Cinzia character’s Italian dialogues were translated to suit Juhi Chawla’s tamil character Vyjayanthi. The concert, mouth-organ playing kid, taking the kids to visit the museum, Vyjayanthi’s advise of treating the kids with maturity were all the same as in the original. All the kids did a great job, especially Kunal Khemu who went onto become an actor. Aamir was also the Assisstant Director of this movie, in fact this was the phase when Mahesh Bhat was considered to be the most busy director, so busy that he was supposedly giving instructions over the phone; that was the reason for Aamir to step-in as Assisstant Director. This did not stop the movie from winning the Filmfare for Best Actress, Best Film and Best Lyricist[Sameer].

4. Kramer Vs Kramer – 1979 : It was a movie about a marriage gone wrong and a divorce case ending up in a courtroom. Dustin Hoffman as
Ted Kramer, a workaholic from advertising industry marries Joanna Kramer, played by Merly Streep. One day when he returns home after being given a big assignment with a new client, he finds his wife walking away. She wishes to walk-out on him, leaving behind her son Billy. Now, its upto Ted to look after Billy. He does so with some help from Margaret, his neighbour. One day, as they sit around the park while the kid is playing, Billy has a minor accident and is bleeding profusely. Ted makes a mad rush to a hospital amidst the traffic and speeding cars. A year and half later, Joanna returns to seek custody of Billy and this is where a bitter court battle ensues. There is a lot of bad blood and lot of vicious remarks being made about Ted’s carelessness in taking care of the baby. Finally, Joanna being a mom, wins the battle on emotional grounds and Ted is left alone. The movie won 5 Oscars, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay.

Mansoor Khan could not resist this movie as well. In 1995 he remade this movie and titled it ‘Akele Hum Akele Tum’. He just changed the fields of interest, i.e., Aamir Khan as Rohit is a promising singer who sings for a club and awaiting his opportunity to sing in a movie. His love interest Kiran, played by Manisha Koirala, is learning classical music. She is a fan of Rohit and she makes it to one of his New Year shows where they meet and falling in love seems inevitable. Soon after the breezy romance they get married and realise that life is not easy. Kiran is ambitious and she is not willing to sacrifice her singing so she walks out on him, leaving Rohit with his son Sunil, played by Aadil. How Rohit and Sunil manage together and how Kiran comes back into their lives to reclaim Sunil forms rest of the courtroom drama. Aamir gave a very well restrained performance but the same cannot be said of Manisha. The movie had some good songs but was marred by plagiarism where Anu Malik lifted the famous Last Christmas song of George Michael. Also, there was a rubbish spoofing of Nadeem-Shravan duo; Shafi Inamdar and Harish Patel played the crook music directors Amar-Kaushal, who are after Rohit’s composition. I am not sure whose idea it was, TIPS guys or Anu Malik but it was in bad taste. Anyways, the movie bombed at the box-office. Only Aamir and Adil’s performance added some value to the otherwise dull movie.

5. Godfather – 1972 : How does one even start-off talking about a movie like ‘Godfather’. I shall not go into the plot and drama because its totally unnecssary. And I will not be able to say anything that has not already been said.

In 1975 Feroz Khan paid tribute to Godfather with his version named Dharmatma. But he twisted the plot towards the second half, where instead of allying with his father and their forces Feroz plays against them. Feroz Khan repeated the same concept in Jaanbaaz and Yalgaar without much success. In 1992 a movie named Zulm Ki Hukumat was released. The movie starred Dharamendra as Pitamber Kohli and Govinda played Pratap Kohli aka Michael of Godfather. This was one of the first proper remakes of Godfather. The movie fared pretty well and I liked Govinda’s perfromance.

Even after all this, we still had Aamir in line to pay tribute to Godfather. So, he acted his part in Atank Hi Atank which released in 1995. He played the role of Michael, which Al Pacino had played. In fact, it was quite fascinating to see Aamir with a moustache and his wet-hair all combed back, he looked like he meant business. This movie had Rajnikanth playing Sonny, I think the only time that Aamir and Rajni have ever worked together. But none of this could save the movie at the box-office.

to be continued …

This post was first published on PFC

The Gamechangers : 'Fake IPL Player' Writes A Book

2010-03-12T13:30:00.000-08:00

The 2nd ecition of IPL [ipl-2] saw the emergence of a blog that go very famous for its scandalous content. A person called himself Fake IPL Player, and he kept revealing details of their team meetings, strategies and late-night parties. He kept everyone guessing as to which IPL team he belonged to, and no one was sure who it was till the very end.

Now, this player is back with a book that contains all the blogs of IPL-2 and other juicy stories. So, rush to get a copy of his new book The Gamechangers

Top blog lines that did not make the book:

From reader's choice awards - Little John to Bookha Naan where Little John barges into his room and says “You say new pitch, but it’s old pitch. How you say how to do balling when you don’t know pitch”. Amidst FIP's fans, the fiery dialogue is as famous as the Big B's lines from Zanjeer!

Top Chapters :

The Legend of Appam Chutiya:

Excerpt:

“ 'Appam Chutiya! Appam Chutiya!' they chanted as a bemused Prasanth stood in the middle of the room. People were rolling on the floor, clutching their stomachs, tears streaming down their faces.................. The blogger's special focus on him and the response to his nickname reinforced his belief that he was rich,famous and absolutely irresistible to women.”
Missing Pieces

Excerpt:

“They made him jog, which he did willingly. Then they made him sprint, which was in execution at best a fast jog. They made him stretch and i was happy to see that he could actually touch his toes. They made him do crunches, during which he came dangerously close to falling asleep everytime he lay back.................... The coaches screamed and shouted at him to go for it, but he said, 'Too far' and waited for the next ball”

The Moment of Truth

Excerpt:

“I looked up and saw Ashok staring at me. 'Yaar,' I said, 'Woh hum sabko Appam Chutiya bana raha hai' ”

Oscar Winners' Acceptance Speeches

2010-03-11T00:36:00.000-08:00

The most interesting aspect of any award ceremony is the acceptance speech. Sometimes the acceptance speech becomes far too political, like what Sean Penn did when he went left-liberal and included the communists along with gays in hisÂ speech, sometimes the winners become far too emotional like Gwyneth Paltrow and Halle Berry, sometimes it brings out the gymnast in them like Roberto Benini, sometimes they are humorous; but thankfully most of the times the winners remain calm and composed. I am compiling a small list of some of the most memorable and best winning acceptance speeches.

Resul Pookutty, Best Sound Mixing-Slumdog Millionaire,2009
I come from a country and a civilization that given the universal word. That word is preceded by silence, followed by more silence. That word is Om. So I dedicate this award to my country.
Thank you, Academy, this is not just a sound award, this is history being handed over to me.

Woody Allen
Thank you very much. That makes up for the strip-search.

Julia Roberts, Best Actress, 2000
[with reference to 45 sec time limit]Â I’m so happy, thank you. A girl’s got to have her moment. Everybody tries to get me to shut up. It didn’t work with my parents and it didn’t work now.

Cameron Crowe, Best Original Screenplay, Almost Famous
If they say, ‘I don’t like your movie,’ it’s kind of like saying, ‘I didn’t like your life.’ And then they say, ‘By the way, it was a little too long.’

Kate Winslet, Best Actress, 2009
I’d be lying if I haven’t made a version of this speech before I was 8 years old and staring into the bathroom mirror. And this would have been a shampoo bottle. Well, it’s not a shampoo bottle now.

Valli O’Reilly, Best Make-up, Lemony Snickets
I’d like to formally apologize to all the actors for making them look so unfortunate. But it was worth it, wasn’t it?

Cate Blanchett, Best Supporting Actress, The Aviator
I don’t have a sense of entitlement or that I deserve this. You’d be surprised at the lack of competition between nominees – I think a lot of it’s imposed from the outside. Can I have my champagne now?

Pedro Almodovar, Best Foreign Film, All About My Mother
Right now I don’t know if I have dreamt about this or not. But when you are in the ocean you must swim. Being on the race for the Oscars, logically I want to win.

Ben Affleck
Losing would suck and winning would be really scary. And it’s really, really scary.

Hilary Swank, Best Actress, Million Dollar Baby
The truth is, after Boys Don’t Cry, I realized how few and far between the great roles are. I am beyond thankful for finding Million Dollar Baby.

Morgan Freeman, Best Supporting Actor, Million Dollar Baby
Getting a standing ovation was kind of humbling that so many people are so happy that I have been named for this award. A lot of people say you’re due – maybe you are, maybe you aren’t – it’s an accolade.

Kim Basinger, 1998
I just want to thank everybody I’ve ever met in my entire life.

Steven Spielberg, Best Director, Saving Private Ryan
Am I allowed to say I really wanted this? This is fantastic.

Angelina Jolie, Best Supporting Actress, Girl, Interrupted
I’m in shock. And I’m so in love with my brother right now, he just held me and said he loved me.

Sean Connery
You know, the Oscar I was awarded for The Untouchables is a wonderful thing, but I haven’t changed and I can honestly say that I’d rather have won the US Open Golf Tournament

Jack Nicholson
I guess this proves there are as many nuts in the Academy as anywhere else.

Grace Kelly, 1954
This is one night I wish I smoked and drank.

Robin Williams, Good Will Hunting
It’s like winning the golden dude. A great honor. Before I didnâ€™t have the chance of the Jamaican Bobsled team of winning now I do. [After thanking everyone else]Most of all, I want to thank my father, up there, the man who when I said I wanted to be an actor, he said, ‘Wonderful. Just have a back-up profession like welding‘

James Cameron, Best Director, Titanic
I am the king of the world!

Penelope Cruz, Best Supporting Actress,2009
Has anybody ever fainted here? Because I might be the first one. Thank you so much to the Academy.

Tan Dun, Best Original Score Oscar for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
My music is to dream without boundaries. Tonight, with you, I see boundaries being crossed. As a classic musical composer, I am thrilled to be honored here.

Brad Bird, Best Animated Feature, The Incredibles
Animation is about creating the illusion of life. And you can’t create it if you don’t have one.

George Clooney, Best Supporting Actor,Â 2006
I didn’t really work on anything, because I thought there were four others who were going to win, so… strange.

Hilary Swank, Best Actress, Million Dollar Baby

I don’t know what I did in this life to deserve all of this. I’m just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream.

Louise Fletcher, 1976
I’d like to thank Jack Nicholson for making being in a mental institution like being in a mental institution. I loved being hated by you.

Bob Dylan, Best Original Song for Things Have Changed, Wonder Boys
I want to thank the members of the Academy who were bold enough to give me this award for this song which, obviously, is a song that doesn’t pussyfoot around or turn a blind eye to human nature. God bless you all with peace, tranquility and good will. Thanks.

Steven Soderbergh, Best Director Academy Award, Traffic
Suddenly, going to work tomorrow doesn’t seem like such a good idea.

Maurice Jarre, Best Score, Passage to India, 1985
I was lucky Mozart was not eligible this year.

Jessica Yu, Best Short Subject Documentary, 1997 Academy Awards
What a thrill. You know you’ve entered new territory when you realize that your outfit cost more than your film.

Michael Caine, Best Supporting Actor, The Cider House Rules
I was watching all the others [nominees] and thinking back when I saw all the performancesâ€¦ thinking how the Academy has changed the phrase from, ‘And the winner is’ to ‘the Oscar goes to.’

Daniel Day-Lewis
My deepest thanks to the members of the Academy for whacking me with the hansomest bludgeon in town

Rick Baker, Best make-up artist, How the Grinch Stole the Christmas
I learned on my own face, that’s why I look like this.

Steve Box, Best Animated Feature Film,Â 2006
Somebody once said if you make a bad film, you make it alone. If you make a great film, everybody made it with you.

Richard Attenborough, Gandhi, 1983
Gandhi simply asked that we should examine the criteria by which we judge the manner of solving our problems. That surely in the 20th century, we human beings, searching for our human dignity, could find other ways of ultimately solving our problems than blowing the other man’s head off. He begged us to reexamine that criterion.

Cate Blanchett, Best Supporting Actress, The Aviator
Thank you to Martin Scorsese. I hope my son will marry your daughter.

John Dykstra, Best Visual Effects, Spider-Man 2
Boy, am I glad there wasn’t a fourth episode of Lord of the Rings.

Jack Lemmon
I’d rather make the cut in the Crosby than win another Oscar.

Cate Blanchett, Best Supporting Actress
Thank you to the Academy, who know Katharine Hepburn so well and are so intimately acquainted with her work. This is an indescribable surprise.

Chris Rock
[while referring to black actors] It’s always good to see some color in the room that doesn’t have mops.

Reese Witherspoon, Best Actress, 2006
Oh my goodness! I never thought I would be up here in my whole life.

Dianne West,Â Best Supporting Actress,Â Hannah and Her Sisters
Gee!, this isn’t like I imagined it would be in the bathtub.

Sally Field, 1985
I haven’t had an orthodox career, and I’ve wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn’t feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can’t deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!

Denise Robert,Â Best Foreign Language Film
We’re so thankful that The Lord of The Rings did not qualify in this category

Dustin Hoffman, 1980
[while looking at the statue] He has no genitalia and he’s holding a sword. I’d like to thank my parents for not practicing birth control.Â I’m up here with mixed feelings. I’ve been critical of the Academy … and for reason. I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to be able to work. I’m greatly honored for being chosen by the producer Stanley Joffe and the director Bob Benton, and to have worked in a family with them. And with Meryl, and with Justin, who if he loses again, we’ll have to give him a lifetime achievement award. And to Jane Alexander, and to Jerry Greenberg, and to Nestor, and to the crew on the film, who was part of that family. And to the crews, and to the directors, like Bob Fosse, and Mike Nichols, and John Schlesinger, that I have worked with before. We are laughed at when we are up here sometimes, for thanking, but when you work on a film, you discover that there are people who are giving that artistic part of themself that goes beyond a paycheck. And they are never up here, and many of them are not members of the Academy, and we never hear of them. But this Oscar is a symbol, I think. And it is given for appreciation from those people who we never see. They are a part of our life. I refuse to believe that I beat Jack Lemmon, that I beat Al Pacino, that I beat Peter Sellers. I refuse to believe that Robert Duvall lost. We are a part of an artistic family. There are 60,000 actors in this Academy, pardon me, in the Screen Actors Guild, and probably 100,000 in Equity. And most actors don’t work, and a few of us are so lucky to have a chance to work with writing and to work with directing. Because when you’re a broke actor, you can’t write, you can’t paint … you have to practice accents while you’re driving a taxi cab. And to that artistic family that strives for excellence, none of you have ever lost. And I am proud to share this with you, and I thank you.

AR Rahman, Best Original Score – Slumdog Millionaire, 2009 Before coming I was excited and terrified. The last I felt like that was doing my marriage… uummm… there is this dialogue from a Hindi film called mere pass ma hai …which means I have nothing but I have my mother…so motherâ€™s here… her blessings are there with me.

By the way, I had done aÂ small write-up on the Oscar winners from India, just in case you are interested.

This post was first published on PFC

dimpy ganguly : rahul mahajan's sweetheart

2010-03-09T06:30:00.000-08:00

Academy Awards : Oscar Winners For 2010

2010-03-07T16:20:00.000-08:00

Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Best Foreign Language Film: El Secreto de Sus Ojos, Argentina

Best Film Editing: Bob Murawski and Chris Innis, The Hurt Locker

Best Documentary Feature: The Cove

Best Visual Effects: Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Beneham and Andrew R. Jones, Avatar

Best Original Score: Michael Giacchino, Up

Best Cinematography: Mauro Fiore, Avatar

Best Sound Mixing: Paul N. J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett, The Hurt Locker

Best Sound Editing: Paul N. J. Ottosson, The Hurt Locker

Best Costume Design: Sandy Powell, The Young Victoria

Best Art Direction: Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg and Kim Sinclair, Avatar

Best Supporting Actress: Mo’nique, Precious

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Adapted Screenplay: Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious

Best Makeup: Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow, Star Trek

Best Live Action Short Film: Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson, The New Tenants

Best Short Subject Documentary: Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett, Music by Prudence

Best Animated Short Film: Nicolas Schmerkin, Logorama

Best Original Screenplay: Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker

Best Original Song: Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett, ‘The Weary Kind’, Crazy Heart

Best Animated Feature Film: Up

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

Click here for the nominations

DH Lawrence Poem : Bei Hennef

2010-03-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

The little river twittering in the twilight,
The wan, wondering look of the pale sky,
This is almost bliss.

And everything shut up and gone to sleep,
All the troubles and anxieties and pain
Gone under the twilight.

Only the twilight now, and the soft "Sh!" of the river
That will last for ever.

And at last I know my love for you is here;
I can see it all, it is whole like the twilight,
It is large, so large, I could not see it before,
Because of the little lights and flickers and interruptions,
Troubles, anxieties and pains.

You are the call and I am the answer,
You are the wish, and I the fulfilment,
You are the night, and I the day.
What else - it is perfect enough.
It is perfectly complete,
You and I,
What more-?

Strange, how we suffer in spite of this.

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara

2010-03-05T03:00:00.000-08:00

Part 1:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq31OjsQ124&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Part 2:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nytoo6jFfNg&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

This video was out on 26th Jan, but I never could catch it on TV that day. Then I heard quite a few people criticize the video and that increased my curiosity and I rushed into youtube to watch the video. And guess what? I was disappointed, disgusted and totally dismayed. What should have been anthem for the country just ended up being Bollywood showcase. I mean, what was Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra doing in the video? What was the need for all 3 Khans to appear, and Ranbir Kapoor and KJo? Why were the great artists of last generation just revamped to include their sons in the video, i.e., Pandit Shivkumar Sharma with his son Rahul Sharma, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan with his two sons. Why? And why were some people totally not represented. No cartoonists or painters, no classical dancers, no local flavour. All bollywood-ised!

Even the sportstars were there for a brief 5 seconds. The guys who have won medals for India at Olympics had been reduced to 5sec of airtime! No cricketers, no chess players, no tennis stars. I am totally disappointed. If this is what they came up with, after 22 years, then its just not good enough. I would rather watch the old version which has a wider appeal and gives a more earthy feeling, the sense of unity and belongingness.

Original:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Udqb14nQN0&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

rahul bose : all FIRED up

2010-03-03T00:27:00.000-08:00

Holi And The Unholy

2010-02-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

Wish you all a very happy and prosperous Holi. This is one of the most important festivals for us as it marks the victory of good over evil. Yes, Dussehra/Diwali are not the only festivals celebrating the end of sin/sinners; but Holi also is celebrated for the same reason. If we go back to mythology, Prahlad sat on the lap of Holika, the evil sister of Hiranyakashyap, on the pyre and she was burnt to death while Prahlad was unharmed due to his devotion to Lord Vishnu. We still re-play this in the form of Holika Dehan.

Hiranyakashyap had been granted a wish that he would neither be killed by man nor creature, neither in the day nor night, neither inside the palace nor out, neither on sky nor on earth and neither by knowledge/debate nor by weapons. Vishnu then appeared as Narsimha, and killed Hiranyakashyap at dusk with his clawed hands, laying him on his lap with each leg on either side of the mukhya-dwar.

Ok, now that we are through with mythology lets get down to films. Although the festival is marked with wonderful colors, its usage in our cinema has always been as a dark plot or as a turning point. The cheerfulness around is lost due to some gruesome incident, its probably the air which does it. People are so high on emotions that they end-up being a part of some life-changing events.

The most disturbing Holi sequence I have seen was in Damini, where a bunch of rich-spoilt-brats rape the maid-servant of the house. And although Damini[Meenakshi Sheshadri] is a witness to this horrific incident, they try to shut her up to maintain the dignity of the family, khandan ki izzat ka sawaal. What an irony, if they did have some dignity to begin with, such an incident would not have occured. From hereon, the whole movie revolves around this event and Damini’s fight for justice. Some of the sequences in the movie are repulsive, like the court-room sequence where the opposition lawyer Chadha[Amrish Puri] asks awkward questions to Damini.

Silsila was another movie which had a brilliant Holi sequence. The song Rang Barse is legendary, and any Holi is incomplete without this song. The song is a part of the narrative and brings out beautifully the relationship that Amit[Amitabh Bachchan] and Chandni[Rekha] share, which otherwise would have been difficult to disclose. The song penned by Harivansh Rai Bachchan, is so suggestive:

Bela chameli ka sej bichhaya
Soye gori ka yaar, balam tarse, rang barse
Rang barse bheege chunar wali, rang barse

It might have taken lots of scenes and dialogues, but this one song did the trick. The body language of all the characters involved in this song is marvellous; Jaya Bhaduri and Sanjeev Kumar as the helpless spouse, Amitabh as a poet lost in their celebration of love, and Rekha caught in-between the reality of the situation and the fantasy world of endless love.

Another Amitabh Bachchan movie Baghban had a lovely Holi song holi khele raghubeera awadh mei holi khele raghubeera. The song was sung with great gusto by Amitabh himself, but what followed the celebrations was heart-breaking. Amitabh’s children decide that the aged couple must live separately with each of the brothers for a period of 6 months, thereby helping them reduce the financial burden. The happiness of the moment is marred by the heartless call taken by the very kids he brought-up with such love and affection. This culminated in him writing a book, and changing the course of their lives.

Of course nobody can forget Gabbar Singh roaring Holi Kab Hai? Kab Hai Holi? He plans an attack on the Ramgarh village on that day, spoil the festive mood, and to teach the villagers a lesson that Gabbar se tumhe ek hi admi bacha sakta hai, khud Gabbar! His plan is thwarted, but not before some action, some gunshots, some cleverness by Amitabhsome cleverness by Amitabh and some blood to add more colors to the already colorful day.

In stark contrast with the many hues of the festival is the presence of a widow in a white saree. This has been captured many-a-times in movies like Kati Patang, Mohabbatein and Sholay. Holi is the symbol of free spirit and boundless joys, and film-makers have juxtaposed this with the colorless world of a widow who is constrained by society and she has no freedom whatsoever. In Sholay, this festival is showcased twice; both with a marked difference. While the first Holi was shot with Jaya Bhaduri making merry on the occasion and sparing nobody; the second Holi was a colorless bland affair as she was a widow then. These contrasting images stay with us for a long time.

Holi marks the breaking of shackles in the song Aaj Na Chhodenge Bas Humjoli where a gushing Rajesh Khanna sings to Asha Parekh in Kati Patang. The sorrow and loneliness of a widow is brought out well in the simple words of Anand Bakshi as Lata Mangeshkar sings the following lines:

Apni apni kismat hai
koi hase koi roye
rang se koi ang bhigoye
koi Asuan se nain bhigoye

Holi brings the winds of change in Gurukul of Mohabbatein where it was never celebrated before. SRK adorns Amitabh Bachchan’s forehead with a tilak and its followed by a Holi song Soni soni aankhiyon wali. Here, the widow played by Preeti Jhanghiani is caught-up in the persuasion of playing Holi :

Jimmy Shergill:
Gam ho ya koi khushi, Purva ka jhonka hai.
Ek aaye ek jaayega, Kyon dil ko roka hai.
Preeti Jhanghiani:
Is dil ko humne nahin, Hame dil ne roka hai.
Koi bata de zara, Kya sach kya dhoka hai?
SRK:
Ye duniya saari, Badi hai pyari,
Yahi ek sach hai, Ye sab rang bade suhaane hain.

The movie Darr also has a famed sequence involving Holi where an obsessed lover is trying to get a glimpse of his beloved, wants to share the happiness and joy of Holi with his object of affection. Rahul, played by SRK, takes up the challenge of showing himself up at Kiran’s door and smearing gulaal on her face. Juhi Chawla, playing Kiran, is totally engrossed in the festivity; while paying money to the bandwala guys, Rahul applies gulaal on Kiran’s cheeks and wishes her in his menacing words KKKKKiran. There begins a chase where a furious Sunil, played by Sunny Deol, is after Rahul. The scene which starts with gulaal, ends in blood with Sunil smashing a bottle on SRK’s head.

Holi ke din dil khil jaate hain, rangon mein rang mil jaate hain
Gile shikwe bhul ke doston, dushman bhi gale mil jaate hain

Although the above lyrics were from Sholay, it was totally justified in the case of Saudagar. The two friends-turned-enemies, Veer Singh played by Dilip Kumar and Rajeshwar Singh played by Rajkumar, get back together on Holi festival. Rajeshwar declares that nobody dare throw color on him, thats when Veeru takes a handful of gulaal and hurls it at him, thereby ending ages of hatred between them and brings them together once again.

The above sequence is what I wish for everybody around, heal the world. Lets take this opportunity to make love, not war; win friends and not create enemies; that’s the true spirit of Holi.

This post was first published on PFC

55th Filmfare Awards : Winners List For 2009-2010

2010-02-27T19:54:00.000-08:00

Best Actor In A Leading Role - Male
Amitabh Bachchan - Paa

Best Actor In A Leading Role (Female)
Vidya Balan - Paa

Best Film (Popular)
3 Idiots

Best Director
Rajkumar Hirani - 3 Idiots

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male)
Boman Irani - 3 Idiots

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female)
Kalki Koechlin - Dev D

Best Actor (Male) Critics
Ranbir Kapoor

Best Actor (Female) Critics
Mahie Gill - Dev D

Best Film (Critics)
Firaaq

Best Debut Director (Male)
Ayan Mukherjee - Wake Up Sid

Best Debut Director (Female)
Zoya Akhtar - Luck By Chance

Best Music
A R Rahman - Delhi-6

Best Playback Singer (Male)
Mohit Chauhan - Masakalli - Delhi-6

Best Playback Singer (Female)
Rekha Bharadwaj - Genda Phool - Delhi-6
Kavita Seth - Iktara - Wake Up Sid

Best Lyrics
Irshad Kamil - Aaj Din Chadiya - Love Aaj Kal

Best Story
Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani - 3 Idiots

Best Screenplay
Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Abhijat Joshi - 3 Idiots

Best Dialogue
Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra - 3 idiots

Best Editing
Sreekar Prasad - Firaaq

Best Choreography
Bosco - Caesar - Chor Bazaari - Love Aaj Kal

Best Visual Effect Award
Kaminey

Best Sound Design
Manas Chaudhury - Firaaq

Best Production Design
Helen & Sukant - Dev D

Best Cinematography
Rajeev Rai - Dev D

Best Action
Vijayan Master - Wanted

Best Costume
Vaishali Menon - Firaaq

Best Background Score
Amit Trivedi - Dev D

Special Award
Nandita Das - Firaaq

Lifetime Achievement Award
Shashi Kapoor - Khayyam

R D Burman Music Award
Amit Tivedi

Click here for the nominations

Liz Hurley : Dare To Bare

2010-02-26T15:41:00.000-08:00

tell the truth, but tell it right !

2010-02-26T02:08:00.000-08:00

A despotic sultan who was blind in one eye invited three artists to paint his picture. “If you do a bad portrait, I will punish you,” he warned, “ but if you do a good one I will reward you. Now start!”

The first artist produced a picture that showed the sultan as he was: blind in one eye. The sultan had him executed for showing disrespect to his monarch.

The second artist showed him with both eyes intact. The sultan had him flogged for trying to flatter him.

The third artist drew him in profile view, showing only his good eye. The sultan, pleased, rewarded him with gold and honors.

Knife In The Water : Polanski’s Best In B/W

2010-02-24T04:49:00.000-08:00

I rarely ever hitch-hike, rarely give or take a lift. I always plan my trip/journey and give myself enough buffer time, be it public transport or my own vehicle. The only time I have given a ride was to a hawaldar who wanted to get home after his duty hours. And the only time I have asked for a lift was at the behest of my friend, while in Houston standing outside Randalls with 4 polybags filled with groceries. We actually lived very close to Randalls and always walked home, but on that day my roomie was feeling really lazy and a fellow countryman pitied our state and obliged.

Anyways, this youngman in Knife In The Water, never believed in planning a trip and he never ever saw either a weather report or a compass for directions and ofcourse he never shied from asking for a ride. He came right in front of a speeding car, totally overconfident that he would not be run-over, and he actually got a ride to a destination nowhere. His arrival onto the screen was so abrupt that even Polanski did not find time enough to give him a name. Andrzej, a much older man with all wisdom and a beautiful wife Krystyna, not-so-gladly offered the youngman a ride. The couple were on their way to their boat, to enjoy a relaxed time by the lake. But this young intruder probably spoiled their plans. I use the word probably because Andrzej was not a bit hesitant when he invited the youngman to sail with them. He did not even take consent or discuss this with his wife before asking the youngman to join them and make him a party to their private moments.

Now, what is it with men that they do anything to seek a woman’s attention and/or to display their oneupmanship over the other! Yes, the same old pseudo-machismo came into play where Andrzej showed off his sailing experience and know-how and commanded the youngman to do all kinds of jobs with the sail, mast and tying-untying knots. But the youngman was not a bit embarassed about these trivialities, instead he showed his skills with his small penknife when he ran it between the fingers of his outstretched palms. Yes, that requires some talent and lot of guts too. So, while both men were occupied in their ego clash, Krystyna was busy cavorting in a two piece bikini, preparing soup and sunbathing in the boat. All this right infront of the youngman, without even doubting his nature or intention.

By the time the movie reached the half-way mark, I was still as confused then as I was when the movie began; never really understanding what the movie was about. There had to be a twist to the tale or some unforseen incident which would make the movie a little more interesting. But nothing was happening, the 3 of them had supper and drinks, played a few silly games and then hit the sack after setting an alarm for 5am as Andrzej had a meeting to attend at 9am, the next day.

Krystyna woke up much before the alarm went off, and to her surprise the youngman was already up. They were chatting when Andrzej opened his eyes and found his wife and the youngman to be out of his sight. He pocketed the youngman’s knife and then climbed to the deck. He was quite relieved to find the youngman on top of the mast and his wife sitting by the deck. There was a minor altercation between the two in which, first his knife went down the lake and then he did. But alas! he knew no swimming, or so he had confided earlier. The couple took chances to dive into the lake to find the youngman, but they couldn’t. They got back to the deck. Krystyna accused Andrzej of provoking the youngman and she even belittled his cheap antics which were just meant to scare the guy and boost his own ego. Being unable to take this insult, Andrzej made another attempt in a bid to find the youngman.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMI-iQdHJkE&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

Does the youngman drown? If he does, would Andrzej forgive himself? Will Krystyna forgive him for the silly duel and will Andrzej forgive her if he gets to know that she cheated on him. How the movie ends is for you to find out, all I can say is that the couple return much wiser and with better understanding of each oher. While Andrzej is guilt-ridden with the thought of having killed the youngman, Krystyna is guilt-ridden with the thought of having having shared passionate moments with the youngman. How they face each other and handle life from here onwards, is the last and defining moment of the movie.

KITW was the first full length movie of Polanski. Shot in black and white, the movie captures the minute details of sailing and boats very well. Although the setup is a lake, we never really feel the absence of the blue waters mainly because the screenplay is so engaging. The tension between the 3 people on board is pretty palpable, and the ego clash is well handled. The movie was brilliantly shot and the jazz music makes for fantastic background score. This movie, made in 1962, was the first Polish movie to receive Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language movie. A special mention should be made of the performances of the 3 main leads, who showed a lot of restraint.

This is part of a post that was first published on PFC

agar tum mil jao

2010-02-22T00:49:00.000-08:00

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9WO6VueJZo&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjkUy4cEx3c&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SKjklIEzy8&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LniksVr4VZs&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

mariah : brazilian hottie from 'teen patti'

2010-02-20T03:11:00.000-08:00

Ind-SA 2nd Test : India Wins, Series Is Drawn

2010-02-18T02:45:00.000-08:00

It took some great batting from Sehwag, Tendulkar, Laxman and Dhoni to post the imposing total which finally got us the innings win. But Amla, the one man whose committment almost thwarted India's chances of victory, almost achieved the impossible. Winning a test match in the last two overs was nothing short of a one-day experience. Harbhajan held his nerves to bowl that delivery.

India won the match, drew the test-series and retained the No.1 ranking in tests with that last wicket of Morkel. Great win!

My name is Khan, and I am not a perfectionist

2010-02-15T19:31:00.000-08:00

I had no plans of watching this movie. So, all of Friday evening and Saturday morning I kept looking for tickets of Ishqiya and Valentine's Day; so I could celebrate love on that day. But thanks to the 'n' number of prints of MNIK, other movies hardly had any good show-timings. I left it at that and just shutdown the laptop.

Come Sunday morning and something had to be done, we drove round the city from Koramangala to Marathalli, heading for Forum Value Mall. But soemthing inside made me take a right at this junction and stop at Innovative. I wanted to quickly run-in and check if Ishqiya was still available but no, I was a bit late for that. With no choice left, I picked up 2 tickets for MNIK for 3pm.

2.50pm, and we were outside the auditorium. We walked in quitely and sat in our seat. In a few moments I was beaming with pride. Fox-Searchlights presents... wow! Fox presenting an Indian movie, that really felt nice. The movie had hardly begun and SRK had already mouthed the lines 'MNIK, and I am not a terrorist'. Quite a few people turned up late for the show, but they did not miss a thing. The movie was far too slow for that.

Within 50 minutes I was yawning and did not know where to rest my head, on my shoulder or in my palms covering my eyes. The movie was nauseatically manipulative. When a director makes the audience feel for the character, it works well. But when he tries to force something down the throat, all we can do is puke. Here, I did not feel anything for the character because there was no build-up. We could easily see-through the motive, and how contrived it was; just to get the audience to react emotionally. The message was nice, there are just good and bad people. But they went on and on with it; not sparing a sinlge opportunity to use this line to effect.

Lot of things were loud, as expected in Karan Johar movie. But I would not like to blame him entirely. SRK was the co-producer and he must take blame for the bad product too. Let me shed light on some of the glaring and obvious over-statements of the movie. All through the movie SRK is in blazer and trouser and other essential casuals. But during the 9/11 homage, he turns up in a blistering white pathan-suit and with a skull-cap. WTF! Why did he suddenly go out of character? And if that was not enough, he suddenly starts chanting verses from Quran, only to exaggerate the Islamic-phobia. That was a dis-service to the the community, more harm than good was achieved and Karan stereotyped the faith. All through Rizvan's childhood, they neither showed him offering namaz; nor did he ever witness his ammi offering one. But conveniently they slip him into namaz mode only because they happened to write a golden line 'namaz neeyat se padhi jaati hai'. Intentions are good, no doubt; but over-exaggerated, trying hard to pull every string of human emotions.

Another point of contention is Kajol's addressing of SRK. Pre-marital mode, she called him Rizwan; but suddenly after marriage she starts calling him Khan. Who calls their hubby by their surname or last-name? But no, Karan Johar cannot cinematically drive home a point; so he has to drill it down by way of dialogs. So, we know that Khan caused the problems and not Rizvan. And last of my complains is with meeting-the-Prez scene. It was shown that SRK did not like shaking hands and he just says a 'Hi'. But when he meets the Prez, he shakes his hands. No problem with that at all, special situations call for special greeting. But, he says 'Salaam Walekkum' to the Prez and not a 'Hi'. Why? Why in the name of Lord would he do that, if not to show an Islamic pride. I would not have minded this, if he had greeted everyone in the movie with 'Salaam Walekkum', but he chooses that moment to say it. How suggestive is that?

As already mentioned before, the movie was long drawn and boring. Kajol's wailing scene was overdone, reminded me of Karishma's screech in Fiza; but Fiza at least deserved that scene. Here its done only to make sure that Kajol walks away with all the awards. I am quite sure SRK will also win awards and accolades for it, and not just Indian felicitation but international awards too. Karan will have some more trophies to adorn his showcase. But, do they deserve it! That's the question they should ask themselves.

Rizvan Khan could have been a simple man with simple needs and how he reacts to post-9/11. But they chose to make him autistic because it suited the purpose of trying to show the inherent innocence of the character and his lack of knowledge of the way this world works; thereby seeing people in black or white with no shades of gray. I felt Jimmy Shergill's character should have had a better progression than SRK's, simply because he has done all the hardwork and obtained a scholarship, he has been loyal to the country and still his wife comes under fire. So, his charcater should have grown more and some substanial points should have been made through him. But Karan used Jimmy as a prop, that was a wrong move.

I have one last issue to bring up. Instead of first tackling and speaking about how muslims are discriminated in US, shouldn't SRK see that back-home in India, in fact in western part of Inida, there were 2 major riots; Gujarat riots and Bombay riots. So, first let us solve our issues and douse the fire at home, then talk about the problems that muslims, not just Indian muslims, face in US. But they don't have the balls to do that. Firstly, the movie may have got stuck with censors and if not, then the people on other side of the fence would have opposed the release of the movie. So, they took the more convenient path of blaming all ills on the general intelligensia and taking liberty in showing FBI's iron-fist and tough security measures at airports; thereby generating more sympathy for the character. I would rather watch a stark portrayal of the after-effects of riots in movies like Parzania, Firaaq, Aamir than watch a glossed up and emotionally manipulative movie like this. These guys should just stick to candyfloss stuff rather than take such serious issue and make a mockery of it. By the way, can anyone tell me what was khan's SSN number and what kind of visa was issued to him?

aishwarya on my bonnet

2010-02-14T12:20:00.000-08:00

Before Sunrise … brilliance of Richard Linklater

2010-02-13T11:53:00.000-08:00

It’s Valentine’s Day so I thought I would write about one of the most romantic movies that I’ve seen – Before Sunrise, released in 1995. The best part of the romance is that, its not candyfloss, its not filmy, there are hardly any lovey-dovey scenes, no external agents helping them realize that its love, no one advising what they should do next, in fact … there are no characters except the two main leads. All we have is two characters who are very much relatable, believable and earthy, a fantastic situation, beautiful locales and most importantly…wonderful conversations.

The first time I saw the movie, I was blown away. Most parts of the movie were shot with a steadicam and there are lots of long-takes because the entire movie is in real time, which looks so natural and gives it a new dimension and meaning. The writer/director of the movie Richard Linklater has done a brilliant job, and the two leads Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are marvellous. The acting is so effortless that it goes unnoticed. The wonderful thing about the movie is the spontaneous reaction of the two main leads and how they feed-of-each-other. They make you believe that they are having a real-time conversation. The long-shots are just incredible and the continuous chat, the plethora of topics that they cover is amazing. It must have taken so much effort to learn those lines and do it in a single take. And this brings in the honesty of the characters, how they interact, take cues from each other and they don’t let the locales or the situation disturb them a wee bit. Full credit for this should go to the creator Richard Linklater.

Jesse[Ethan Hawke] lands up in Europe[Madrid, to be precise] to meet his girlfriend only to learn that she does not like him anymore. So, its 16th June, and Jesse is on a Eurorail travelling to Vienna to take a flight back to US, the next morning. Celine[Julie Delpy] is in the same train and she is on her way to Paris, returning to her university after paying a short visit to her granny in Budapest. Amidst all the bickerings going on in the train they strike a conversation starting with something as simple as where they come from. While describing himself, Jesse adds “I’m the crude, dumb, vulgar American… who doesn’t speak other languages, who has no culture. But I tried”.

They go on to share their life and ideas. Jesse talks about this reality tv show that he would like to broadcast where people are just doing their routine stuff and they relay it live. And Celine speaks about how her parents have always asked her to focus on career. When she desired to ‘write’ as a career option, they would say ‘journalist’; and when she mentioned opening a shelter for cats they would say ‘veterinarian’. They would turn all her fantasy ideas into salaried occupation. Anyways, when Vienna arrives and Jesse is about to get-off the train he suggests Celine that she accompany him. Basically, he feels a strong connect with her and he wishes to continue the interesting conversation that they were having, so he suggests that they roam the streets of Vienna together. He says “Jump ahead 10, 20 years, okay? And you’re married. Only your marriage doesn’t have that same energy it used to have. You start to blame your husband. You think about all those guys you’ve met in your life…and what might’ve happened if you’d picked up with one of them. I’m one of those guys. That’s me”.

You wont believe that the above line was translated in Hindi and Saif spoke the exact same words while trying to convince Preity Zinta in Salaam Namaste about giving the live-in relationship a try. What a shame, I cringed in my seat when I heard those very same words.

Anyways, getting back to Celine, she decides that she must take a chance and she gets off the train. And after more than 15 minutes of having met each other they finally exchange greetings and ask each other’s names. This is so real, such things happen all the time. We get into a conversation with people, the conversation ends and only if we find the conversation/person interesting do we ask their names. Fantastic observation, scripting and direction.

The storyline is really thin, but the screenplay is tight. The way one scene flows into the next, the transition is almost unnoticeable because the conversation that they have is really engaging. The dialogues are very well written and shows what a keen observer and a clear thinker Richard Linklater is. The talks between Jesse and Celine don’t bore you for a moment, in fact it does the opposite – it makes you wait for the next sequence, the next topic of chat, what opinions/ideas are they going to exchange next!

After getting off the Eurorail, they wander around Vienna asking each other weird questions like their first sexual feelings, about love, about what pisses them off. They have some really meaningful conversations about how they hate war mongerig people and how media is controlling the thought-process of a so many people and thats its a new form of fascism. Jesse speaks of reincarnation … “this was my thought: 50,000 years ago, there are not even a million people on the planet. 10,000 years ago, there’s, like, two million people on the planet. Now there’s between five and six billion people on the planet, right? Now, if we all have our own, like, individual, unique soul, right, where do they all come from? You know, are modern souls only a fraction of the original souls? ‘Cause if they are, that represents a 5,000 to 1 split of each soul in the last 50,000 years, which is, like, a blip in the Earth’s time. You know, so at best we’re like these tiny fractions of people, you know, walking…I mean, is that why we’re so scattered? You know, is that why we’re all so specialized?”

This was spooky, because my brother and I had a similar discussion on Bhagvad Gita. We were talking about the body-soul concept and how a soul moves from one body to another, but when the bodies suddenly multiplied…how did the souls cope-up, they disintegrated! Phew! That was one metaphysical thought and I could never have imagined such an idea creeping into a movie dialogue. Just amazing!

Later they visit a No-Name-Cemetery where all the people who had flowed down the river Danube were buried ; and because in most cases they were anonymous the cemetery came to be called so. Jesse and Celine go onto discuss relationships, couples, divorce and how kids live with it. Celine says “I know happy couples. But I think they lie to each other”; I too believe that if we become totally honest about everything, a relationship may not last.

They enter an old church where they talk about religion and atheism. Jesse tells how he feels like a 13 yr old boy inside, still waiting to grow up while Celine says that she has the burden of an old woman waiting to die. Two diametrically opposite views and the natural spontaneous reaction to the same situation and place, brilliant!

Apart from the wonderful conversations, they also meet quite a few interesting people while they are moving around like a vagabond. One of them being an enigmatic palm reader who just says nice pleasing stuff. They meet 2 guys trying to promote a play and then a street-poet who writes poems on-the-spot based on their choice of words. What a noble thought, creativity…he does not beg for money but comes up with exotic idea for occupation. Jesse and Celine choose the word milkshake[although Jesse wanted to give the word rooster-prick] and the street-poet comes up with a delusion angel poem.

I can’t start describing every conversation; the movie is filled with them. Just quoted a few of the interesting ones. In one such conversation Celine says how feminism is a concept invented by men who say ‘free your mind, free your body’ … so more men could sleep/fool around with women. They discuss male chauvinism and position of women in society. They even spoof a telephone conversation, that was really cute. At the strike of dawn, they settle down in a park and wonder why people think that relationships should last forever. They resign to the fact that they will not be able to meet again and Celine suggests that they should not sleep together because she does not want to end-up as a male fantasy of an American having met a French girl, fucked her and never seen her again. While Jesse does not want to get laid he does say that “If somebody gave me the choice right now… of to never see you again or to marry you…I would marry you”.

Without revealing what happens next, let me just say that when they split the next morning, they decide to meet at the same platform [track 9] in exactly 6 months time on 16th December [a la An Affair To Remember]. And in-between they would neither call nor write to each other.

Although the movie is about just one night, probably 15-20 hrs, it gives the warmth and feel of a really long lovestory. The success of the movie lies in the fact that it does not take an eternity to unfold, just two characters seem more than enough to make us re-live all the basic human emotions like love, hate, sorrow, happiness, tears, anguish, fear, anxiety, excitement etc; and the fact that you start relating to the characters and feel their pain and joy and you start hoping and wishing for the best future that they possibly can have. That’s the triumph of true love; but we are left with a shot of the train leaving the station with Jesse in it, Celine on the platform waving ‘adios’ and the viewers wondering if Jesse and Celine will ever meet again.

This post was first published on PFC

55th Filmfare Awards : Nominations For 2009-2010

2010-02-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

BEST FILM

3 Idiots
Dev D
Kaminey
Love Aaj Kal
Paa
Wake Up Sid

BEST DIRECTOR

Anurag Kashyap	Dev D
Ayan Mukerji	Wake up Sid
Imtiaz Ali	Love Aaj Kal
R Balki	Paa
Rajkumar Hirani	3 Idiots
Vishal Bhardwaj	Kaminey

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE (MALE)

Aamir Khan	3 Idiots
Amitabh Bachchan	Paa
Ranbir Kapoor	Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
Ranbir Kapoor	Wake up Sid
Saif Ali Khan	Love Aaj Kal
Shahid Kapoor	Kaminey

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE (FEMALE)

Deepika Padukone	Love Aaj Kal
Kareena Kapoor	3 Idiots
Kareena Kapoor	Kurbaan
Katrina Kaif	New York
Priyanka Chopra	Kaminey
Vidya Balan	Paa

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE (MALE)

Amole Gupte	Kaminey
Boman Irani	3 Idiots
Neil Nitin Mukesh	New York
R Madhavan	3 Idiots
Rishi Kapoor	Luck by Chance
Sharman Joshi	3 Idiots

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE (FEMALE)

Arundhati Nag	Paa
Dimple Kapadia	Luck By Chance
Divya Dutta	Delhi-6
Kalki Koechlin	Dev D
Supriya Pathak	Wake Up Sid
Shahana Goswami	Firaaq

BEST MUSIC

AR Rahman	Delhi-6
Amit Trivedi	Dev D
Pritam	Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
Pritam	Love Aaj Kal
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy	Wake Up Sid
Vishal Bhardwaj	Kaminey

BEST LYRICS [Lyricist, Song, Movie]

Gulzar	Kaminey	Kaminey
Gulzar	Dhan te nan	Kaminey
Irshad Kamil	Aaj din chadya	Love Aaj Kal
Javed Akhtar	Iktara	Wake Up Sid
Prasoon Joshi	Masakali	Delhi 6
Prasoon Joshi	Rehna tu	Delhi 6

BEST PLAYBACK SINGER (MALE) [Singer, Song, Movie]

Atif Aslam	Tu jaane na	Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
Javed Ali - Kailash Kher	Arziyan	Delhi-6
Mohit Chauhan	Masakali	Delhi-6
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan	Aaj din chadya	Love Aaj Kal
Sukhwinder Singh - Vishal Dadlani	Dhan te nan	Kaminey
Sonu Niigaam - Salim Merchant	Shukran allah	Kurbaan

BEST PLAYBACK SINGER (FEMALE) [Singer, Song, Movie]

Alisha Chinoy	Tera hone laga	Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
Kavita Seth	Iktara	Wake Up Sid
Rekha Bhardwaj	Genda phool	Delhi-6
Shilpa Rao	Mudi mudi	Paa
Shreya Ghoshal	Zoobi doobi	3 idiots
Sunidhi Chauhan	Chor bazaari	Love Aaj Kal

Click here for the winners

Why MNIK Should Not Be Watched By Mumbaikars!

2010-02-11T14:13:00.000-08:00

Let me say in the very beginning that I am not a follower or a sympathiser of Shiv-Sena. I hate their brand of divisive politics and this post has nothing to do with Shiv-Sena's tirade against SRK.

While the entire media and section of Bollywood rallied behind the star, SRK, in support of his statements; he was amiss. When all fans and film fraternity is trying to get the movie to release in Mumbai, SRK is busy with its premiere in Abu Dhabi. That's one of the biggest reasons why Mumbaikars should not watch the movie. While the fans are standing by the star, he is not to be seen. I expected SRK to be in Mumbai and urge the crowd to come, watch the movie with him and thumb-down Shiv-Sena etc. But instead, he has chosen the easy path of twittering and making statements. This is general apathy shown towards his genuine fan and I would hate to watch the movie for this very reason.

Another fact is the kind of publicity stunts he is pulling to get maximum eyeballs. Since most of us know the theme of the movie, he is swaying towards Dubai, Pak and Mid-East so his movie is well received in those places; thereby taking Indian audience for granted, WTF!

His chest-thumping statements after IPL auction was ridiculous, to say the least. He said that he would have picked up Pak cricketers in the auction, had he been there. What??? In this day and age of communication, and with SRK being brand ambassador of Airtel and Nokia, could he not have been in-touch with his co-owners during the bidding! Could he not have sent a word to the KKR representatives that so-and-so Pak player is worth his salt and should be picked. But NO. He chooses the easy path of crying foul after the entire event is over. Thereby keeping his fan-base in Dubai and Pak happy and satisfied. He does not want to lose the fan-base there, for obvious reasons. How else is he gonna dance in lavish weddings in Dubai? The irony is that, these very guys will be circulating pirated cd/dvd of the movie.

Coming to the part of his false claims and statements, another publicity for his movie. He recently made a mention of full-body scan in an airport in Uk and autographing the print-out of the scans! The airport authorities came out strongly against this vicious lie stating that they 'only scan' and 'do not have printers' in the scan area. Hence, his scans could not have been printed at all.

A few months back, he cried hoarse about security measures in US, when he was detained for questioning. The Prez of India did not make an issue when he was cross-checked, Kamal Hasan and Mammooty did not cry foul; then why was our King Khan pissed. Simply becasue he saw an opportunity of bringing his movie into limelight and drawing maximum mileage and cheap publicity; to keep the movie alive in people's minds and of course to drive home the theme of the movie.

This movie is very important to SRK. Firstly because he has co-produced it and so a lot is at stake. He knows that by angering the Shiv-Sena he can gather maximum publicity from it. Secondly because his numero-uno position is being challenged, Akshay's and Aamir's movie have earned more than his movies in the last 5 years. And lastly, his IPL venture and his tv-show have been a mega-flop and he needs to prove himself again.

Anyways, I just wish that his blind-fans can see through this facade and trash his movie. So, Indians in general, and Mumbaikars in particular, please don't watch the movie for SRK.

mandira bedi tanned

2010-02-10T16:45:00.000-08:00

Ind-SA 1st Test : Tendulkar's Century In Vain

2010-02-09T03:10:00.000-08:00

As India lost the first test to SA, that too on home soil in Nagpur, the only thing to cheer about was Sachin's century. Sachin has scored 34 centuries in 1st innings and 12 in the 2nd innings. Of these 12, India have drawn 5 matches, lost 4 and won only 3 of them. Which means, more often than not, his century has been in a losing cause.

Tendulkar's 2nd Innings 100s in Indian wins

Score	Match Innings	Opposition	Venue	Date
104*	3	Sri Lanka	Colombo (SSC)	27-Jul-93
155*	3	Australia	Chennai	06-Mar-98
103*	4	England	Chennai	11-Dec-08

Tendulkar's 2nd Innings 100s in Indian defeats

Score	Match Innings	Opposition	Venue	Date
122	3	England	Birmingham	06-Jun-96
113	3	New Zealand	Wellington	26-Dec-98
136	4	Pakistan	Chennai	28-Jan-99
100	3	South Africa	Nagpur	06-Feb-10

Tendulkar's 2nd Innings 100s in drawn matches

Score	Match Innings	Opposition	Venue	Date
119*	4	England	Manchester	09-Aug-90
124*	3	Sri Lanka	Colombo (SSC)	24-Feb-99
126*	3	New Zealand	Mohali	10-Oct-99
176	3	West Indies	Kolkata	30-Oct-02
100*	3	Sri Lanka	Ahmedabad	16-Nov-09

But Sachin is not to blame for the loss because we have always been defeated due to a weak bowling attack. To win a test match, its imperative that you get the opposition out in both innings, 20 wickets to be claimed. We could not even get 10, hence proving that the bowlers were neither effective in taking wickets nor in curtailing the runs. Even Sachin had stayed long enough he would have run out of partners because we had one more day of play left; too much to ask.

Hopefully we will do better in other matches and at least try to draw the series.

Fun Mode : Kishore-da's Unbridled Enthusiasm

2010-02-06T20:53:00.000-08:00

Just the other day I was listening to Kishore songs, not the sad depressing numbers which can make even a normal person melancholic, but some fun songs for a change. One thing that came out loud and clear was the fact that he enjoyed singing those songs, however silly the lyrics was or however absurd the tunes were; he gave it his all.

If a singer himself does not seem kicked about a song, how will he ever enthuse others? That's the feeling I get when I hear those inane new talents on the numerous talent hunt shows. They come, they sing, they don't even bother to work on the comments given by the judges [some of the judges are not even worth their salt, better not hear their comments at all] and mechanically appear again in some other show.

Anyways, back to Kishore da. He totally gets into the mood, full-on, unplugged. There are legends about Kishore and the manner in which he rendered the Khaike Paan Banaraswala number. It goes like this: Kishore actually asked for a bunch of pans which come in those cases [as seen in Padosan] and a peek-daan to spit out the paan. He sat on the floor or some kinda bed and literally rambled the words Bhang Ka Rang Jama Ho Chaka-chak. I go back to my previous para where I mentioned that unless the singer does not enjoy the song, there is very less chance that others will. And Kishore was a master of that. The kind of energy that he would blow into the song and the infectious jovial nature is unparalleled.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv8t6zal8to&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Since his Padosan songs have been talked about no end, I shall refrain from doing so. Let me talk about his other songs, especially from the black & white era. In the same genre as Mere Bhole Balam from Padosan was a song called Gaana Na Aya Bajana Na Aya, Dilbar Ko Apna Bana Na Aya. Its a hilarious song that blows your top-off. Kishore is seen trying to create a new song and the result is pure comedy. The lyrics were again by Rajendra Krishen and music by Hemant da. There is a small Brit accent piece, Kishore trying an imitation, really funny. Who could imagine the ever-serious Hemant Kumar composing such a number, but such was the exuberance of Kishore that everyone was affected by it. Also seen in the video clip is Gemini Ganesan along with Meena Kumari who are baffled by Kishore's antics. Probably the only time that the south matinee was seen with Kishore in the same frame.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dtgef9cxtw&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

How funny can Kishore da get? Well, turns out very funny. So funny that in the movie Aansoo Aur Muskaan, there is a song picturised on Kishore in a ashram which is called Swami Kishore-aanandam Kirtan Ashram. And the song itself is Guni Jano Bhakt Jano, which sees Kishore in the garb of a sadhu. The lyrics of the song even goes on to list all the stars of bollywood in a fine spin of words sounding like bhajan

brahmaande he koti sitaram prithvi par bhi anek sitaram
arre aashirvadam ashok-kumaram
prithvi-putram raja-kapuram shammi-kapuram shashi-kapuram
ramam shyamam dilip-kumaram purab-pashchim manoj-kumaram
arre premapujari dev-anandam, roopa-pujari IS-joharam
arre nilam-kamalam raj-kumaram, yade yadam sunil-dattam
are ittefaqam rajesh-khannam jai jaani rajendra-natham
uchhalamakudam jai mahamudam

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etx0Y5YmACs&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Two of the wackiest Kishore songs feature Pran, and Kishore himself in motley attire, thats pure coincidence. In Cheel Cheel Chillake, he is dressed in a school uniform, probably on some tour in scouts jamboree. The movie was Half Ticket, I haven't been able to see the movie yet. But if the movie is even half as good as the song, then it shall be a treat to watch.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaEfs46zXRU&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
No one can forget a pre-supposed duet song being sung by the same singer. Kishore achieved that feat in Aake Seedhi Lagi where he not only cross-dressed but also cross-voiced. He sang as Kishore for Pran and then as squeaky/screechy and rustic village-belle-Kishore for himself. I am not even finding words to describe Kishore's ludicrous yet fantastic act. No one could have pulled it off, but him.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BQhtqWAhrY&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

'Kahani Kismat Ki' had an unprecedented song picturisation. And much before Dharamendra had climbed atop a tank in Sholay, he was seen in a crane elevated carrier singing Rafta Rafta Dekho Aankh Meri Ladi Hai; which he does after gathering a small crowd. Towards the end, he even starts singing ghati lyrics which is hilarious, and an embarassed Rekha looks around for some kind of sanity.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el5OGtd_aV8&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Then, there is the Eena Meena Deeka number. The mukhda of the song is a string of garbled words that make no sense but have been sung with great conviction as though it were the commandments. Kishore totally believed in the song and executed it with perfection, just watch his choreography; amazing. And the lyrics of the song has some insensible wisdom. Check this

Mat socho ki sasta hai sauda
Phal paayega lagayega jo paudha
Dil ki ye kyaari banegi phulwaari
Ye duniya jalegi, jalan ki hai maari
Hasegi hasegi hasegi meri pyaari

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxJH9kXo_3o&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

If you thought Kishore had sung only romantic and sad songs for Rajesh Khanna, then you are wrong. Rajesh Khanna too had a fair share of Kishore's masti songs. One of them being the Saasu Tirath, Sasura Tirath from the movie Souten. The lyrics literally mean that in-laws are are to be worshipped and visited regularly as a duty and a pilgrimage.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS3J2ZofAGw&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Another lesser spoken about song from the movie 'Chalti Ka Naam Gadi' was Hum The Wo Thi Aur Samaa Rangeen Samajh Gaye Na. The two brothers, Anup and Kishore, discussing the forbidden topic of an encounter with a woman which Anup hasn't had and Kishore teases him with lyrics which go like this:

Khoya Mai Kaise Uski Baton Mei
Kehta Hoon Dam To Lene Do Ahhaha
Khoyi Woh Kaise Meri Baaton Mei
Kehta Hoon Dam To Lene Do Ahhaha
Kya Kya Keh Dala Aankho Aankho Mei
Kehta Hoon Dam To Lene Do Ahhha

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBkhmPdP08s&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Another song from the same movie, worth mentioning, is the Panch Rupaiya Barah Aana song. It so happens that Kishore repairs Madhubala's car and she still owes him Rs.5.75. And Kishore is out to get that money, even if it means earning it by entertaining her.Watch Kishore dressed in leather pants, jacket and a feathered cap. And watch him each time he says Chahe Namoona Dekh Le and tunrs up in a different costume. This song later became an inspiration for a song in movie 'Jeevan Ek Sanghursh', where Amit Kumar crooned Dede Mera Dede Tu Bees Rupaiya, Twenty Rupees My Twenty Rupees.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5pLuR2wqDM&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

Vinod Khanna has rarely been seen in comical acts, except for the movie Hera Pheri with BigB. But in this song Priye Praneshwari from movie 'Hum Tum Aur Woh' is a song which sees Vinod Khanna in never-seen-before getup. The only other funny getup Vinod Khanna ever did was in Hera Pheri. In this song, Vinod is singing to his lady love in chaste hindi and even I did not know the meaning of a few of those words. The lyrics of the song and Kishore's rendition is just awesome.

priye praaneshwari, hridayeshwari
yadi aap hamey aadesh karey to
prem ka hum shri ganesh karey

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kgBh5ParqY&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

If anyone is depressed, thinking about love and missing their loved ones, should listen to Hum To Mohabbat Karega from 'Dilli Ka Thug'. Its another comical song which describes the extent to which a person can go, to prove his love and to stay with loved ones. After hearing words like Joota Polish Karega Tel Maalish Karega, they are bound to smile at their own stupidity and limitless affection for their loved one, what with thoughts like ... joota paalish karega lekin tum par marega, laila laila karega thandi aahen bharega and doobegaa nahin tairega pyaar se ham nahin darega
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BcxfjVIE_E&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
A song which encapsulates the qualities that a man looks for in a woman is very humorously penned in Zaroorat Hai Zaroorat Hai Zaroorat Hai, Ek Shirimati Ki, Kalavati Ki, Seva Karey Jo Pati Ki. It may sound a bit regressive, but its to be taken with a pinch of salt; because the song is really a romantic one at heart. Sample this:

haseen hazaaro bhi ho khadey, magar usi par nazar padey
ho zulf gaalo se khelti, ke jaise din raat se ladey
adaaon mei bahaar ho, nigaahon mei khumaar ho
qabool mera pyaar ho to kya baat hai 

itar mein saanse basi basi, vo mastiyo mei rasi rasi
zara si palkein jhuki jhuki, bhavey ghaneri kasi kasi
phoolon mei gulaab ho khud apna jawaab ho
vo pyar ki kitab ho to kya baat hai

And with Kishore enacting it, his facial expressions and the naugtiness in the voice was great.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz-Z7mgyDu8&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

This is just the beginning of a long list of Kishore-da's songs which continue to enthrall us. The man was a complete maverick and no one entertained us, the way he did; whether it was infront of the camera or behind it, be it in the recording studios or shooting a movie. Whereever there was a fun moment, he was there; or may I put it like this - wherever he was there, there were fun moments. So, please go ahead and list your fave Kishore songs which tickled your funny bone, I am sure that won't be a tough task!

This post was first published on PFC

shriya saran : moods & moments

2010-02-04T05:22:00.000-08:00

Academy Awards : Oscar Nominations For 2010

2010-02-02T23:17:00.000-08:00

Actor in a Leading Role

Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Colin Firth in A Single Man
Morgan Freeman in Invictus
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

Actor in a Supporting Role

Matt Damon in Invictus
Woody Harrelson in The Messenger
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

Actress in a Leading Role

Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Carey Mulligan in An Education
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia

Actress in a Supporting Role

Penélope Cruz in Nine
Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
Mo'Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

Animated Feature Film

Coraline: Henry Selick
Fantastic Mr Fox: Wes Anderson
The Princess and the Frog: John Musker and Ron Clements
The Secret of Kells: Tomm Moore
Up: Pete Docter

Art Direction

Avatar
Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith

Nine
Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim

Sherlock Holmes
Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer

The Young Victoria
Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Cinematography

Avatar: Mauro Fiore
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Bruno Delbonnel
The Hurt Locker: Barry Ackroyd
Inglourious Basterds: Robert Richardson
The White Ribbon: Christian Berger

Costume Design

Bright Star: Janet Patterson
Coco before Chanel: Catherine Leterrier
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus: Monique Prudhomme
Nine: Colleen Atwood
The Young Victoria Sandy Powell

Best Director

Avatar: James Cameron
The Hurt Locker: Kathryn Bigelow
Inglourious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire: Lee Daniels
Up in the Air: Jason Reitman

Documentary (Feature)

Burma VJ: Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
The Cove: Nominees to be determined
Food, Inc. Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers" Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
Which Way Home: Rebecca Cammisa

Documentary (Short Subject)

China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province: Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner: Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant: Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
Music by Prudence: Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
Rabbit à la Berlin: Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

Film Editing

Avatar: Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
District 9: Julian Clarke
The Hurt Locker: Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
Inglourious Basterds: Sally Menke
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire: Joe Klotz

Foreign Language Film

Ajami: Israel
El Secreto de Sus Ojos: Argentina
The Milk of Sorrow: Peru
Un Prophète: France
The White Ribbon: Germany

Makeup

Il Divo: Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
Star Trek: Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
The Young Victoria: Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Music (Original Score)

Avatar: James Horner
Fantastic Mr Fox: Alexandre Desplat
The Hurt Locker: Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
Sherlock Holmes: Hans Zimmer
Up: Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song)

Almost There from The Princess and the Frog: Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
Down in New Orleans from The Princess and the Frog: Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
Loin de Paname from Paris 36: Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
Take It All from Nine: Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart) from Crazy Heart: Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Best Picture

Avatar: James Cameron and Jon Landau
The Blind Side: Nominees to be determined
District 9: Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham
An Education: Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey
The Hurt Locker: Nominees to be determined
Inglourious Basterds: Lawrence Bender
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire: Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness
A Serious Man: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Up: Jonas Rivera
Up in the Air: Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman

Short Film (Animated)

French Roast: Fabrice O Joubert
Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty: Nicky Phelan and Darragh O'Connell
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte): Javier Recio Gracia
Logorama: Nicolas Schmerkin
A Matter of Loaf and Death: Nick Park

Short Film (Live Action)

The Door: Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
Instead of Abracadabra: Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
Kavi: Gregg Helvey
Miracle Fish: Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
The New Tenants: Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing

Avatar: Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
The Hurt Locker: Paul N J Ottosson
Inglourious Basterds: Wylie Stateman
Star Trek: Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
Up: Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Sound Mixing

Avatar: Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
The Hurt Locker: Paul N J Ottosson and Ray Beckett
Inglourious Basterds: Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
Star Trek: Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J Devlin
Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen: Greg P Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Visual Effects

Avatar: Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R Jones
District 9: Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
Star Trek: Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

District 9: Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
An Education: Screenplay by Nick Hornby
In the Loop: Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire: Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
Up in the Air: Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay)

The Hurt Locker: Mark Boal
Inglourious Basterds: Quentin Tarantino
The Messenger: Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman
A Serious Man: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Up: Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

Click here for the winners

Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se : Bade Badai Na Karey

2010-02-01T15:39:00.000-08:00

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVNgOAS2M00&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

badey badaai na karey badey na boley bol
rahiman heera kab kahey laakh taka mero mol

jo baden ko laghu kahey nahi rahim ghat jaaye
giridhar murlidhar kahey kachhu dukh maanat naaye

gyaani se kahiye kahan kehat kabir lajaaye
andhey aagey naachtey kalaa akaarat jaaye

aisi vaani boliye mann ka aapa khoye
auran ko sheetal karey aap usi sang hoye

aawat hi harse nahi nainan nahi sneh
tulsi wahan na jaaye chahe kanchan barse megh

bura jo dekhan mai chala bura na mileya koi
jo dil khoja apna mujhse bura na koi

bigdi baat baney nahi laakh karo kin koi
rahiman bigdey doodh toh mathey naa maakhan hoi

rahiman dhaga prem ka mat todo chatkaye
toote se phir na judey, judey gaanth pad jaye

slumdog millionaire – a true story

2010-02-01T01:30:00.000-08:00

AR Rahman picked up 2 Grammy awards today for Slumdog Millionaire

This is an astounding achievement. Slumdog Millionaire sweeping the Oscars, just as it had done at the GG and Baftas. Its a true story of survival, of destiny and of dreaming big.

I am not talking about Jamaal and Saleem, I am talking about Rahman and Resul and all other Indians involved with this movie. These guys, from a humble background, on the dint of their hardwork, committment and dedication to the art, grit and determination, went on to win international awards and accolades. And unlike Jamaal, who took a wild guess at the last answer to become a millionaire, they have come up the hard way.

AR Rahman – We all know of Rahman’s struggling days, how after death of his father his family had to put musical instruments on hire to make ends meet. Here’s your true story of a boy who starts playing those very instruments to make a living, who converts to another faith to make peace with himself and find solace, who starts off as a musician creating jingles, then gets a big break in Mani Ratnam movie, moves to Hindi film music, then conquers the imagination of west with his Bombay Dreams and finally wins the GG, Bafta and Oscar … there’s your movie. A man with love in his heart, music in his soul, dreams on his mind and destiny on his forehead. AR Rahman, the flagbearer of Indian film music, winning two Oscars, one for Original Score and the other for Original Song, this is a dream come true.

Resul Pookutty- an FTII product, who moved to Mumbai to work in sound-mixing and did some great work in Black, Bluffmaster, Saawariya, Gandhi My Father[his self-confessed best work until now] and finally SDM. From anonymity to stardom, but it has not changed him a wee bit. He won the Oscar for Sound Mixing, shared the honors with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke.

Gulzar - a poet, a wordsmith, a man with some brilliant thoughts and the conviction with which he pens his thoughts, is one of the best writers that Inida has produced. He started his career way back in 1960’s, assissting Bimal Roy, writing dialogues, penning lyrics, then went onto write some fantatsic stories which he directed and brought to light with his wonderful screenplay. His volume of work speaks for itself, ranging from social issues to political battleground to soft and sensitive children’s movie to the subtle romantic moments which we remember long after time has faded all other memories. His command of urdu, phaarsi and hindi is just amazing. From winning a dozen awards back home to winning an Oscar for Original Song, he shared the honors with AR Rahman, he come a long way.

Anil Kapoor – born in a chawl in Tilak Nagar, Bombay in 1958. He was educated in Chembur. His father was a film producer and so was his brother, but they always seemed to be unlucky with their production house becasue they bandked on the wrong movies. After tasting success with Mr.India and other works like Lamhe, Tezaab etc they produced RKRCKR which was a disaster. To make-up for the financial losses he made some really crappy movies like Andaz and Mr.Azad. But he came out of that bad patch with some really good movies like 1942ALS, Virasat, Taal etc. He has seen the ups and downs of the film industry, the dust behind the stars. Though he was neither nominated nor won any award, he danced and celebrated the most whenever SDM picked an award. His enthusiasm was rubbing off on everybody and created really good vibes.

Irfan Khan, Saurabh Shukla – fantastic actors in their own rights. Irfan said in some interview that his role in SDM was chopped for the benefit of the movie, that’s how non-interfering and unselfish he is, just lets his work do the talking. A brilliant actor who has made his mark in the west as well, with movies like The Warrior and Namesake. Saurabh is a terrific writer himself, and his effortless acting is wonderful. Whether he is playing kallu mama of Satya or the chomping-glory boss in Dasvidaniya, he does it with such ease and finesse. Their contribution in the movie might have been small, but was noticeable.

Dev Patel, Freida Pinto – they have just started out and this comes as a shot in the arm for them. From hereon, they can choose their career and movies, as well as their bf’s and gf’s.

And finally, Danny Boyle, the man who made all this possible. Though I have my own issues with the movie, nevertheless, he deserves every bit of the success that has come his way. He made it possible to bring together these talents under one cinematic vision. Although I do believe that, had the movie been from an Indian production house, it would not have been noticed so much, but yet, its the content that matters too. He took his chance, shot the movie in India with total conviction, over-played a few things, but still the end-product was endearing. Its a proof that hardwork always pays off, albeit a little late. The moment his name was associated with the movie, it started going places. His credibility drove the movie, brought-in the audiences, entralled the masses and the critics and made history.

Smile Pinki was another entrant which won the Best Documentary/Short Subject award. They made it to the red carpet all the way from UP, fairytale stuff. Awesome stuff !

Its a red-letter-day for us, we should mark this day in the annals of film history and otherwise…3 oscar winners bring glory to India, make us proud. Jai Ho !!!

This post was first published on PFC

all khans' under fire

2010-01-31T02:34:00.000-08:00

In a strange turn of events, all 4 Khans' of bollywood have come under fire from different quarters. While Shiv Sena took on 2 khans', Aamir and Shahrukh over the IPL issue, the other two were lambasted by different communities of Rajasthan for their irresponsible behavior.

Shiv Sena, in their mouthpiece 'Saamna', is outraged by SRK and Aamir statements over IPL. While Aamir bore the brunt because all he said was that merit should have taken precedence over nationality while selecting players for IPL, SRK went overboard in sympathising with Pakistan and said that he felt "humiliated" that no talent from Pak was picked. SRK made ridiculous excuses that he couldn't attend the auction of players. What an excuse! He is the brand ambassador of Nokia and Airtel, all he needed was to be in touch with his represntatives, but he chose not to. And now that his movie 'My Name Is Khan' is ready for release, he wants to win back his fans in Pak and Dubai. He is only serving his self-interest, as he is the co-producer of the movie and he wants to protect his fan-base in middle-east. That also serves the purpose of him dancing in lavish Dubai weddings. SRK's stand was purely a business-minded decision, and not an emotional one. The irony is that, these very people are gonna circulate the pirated cd/dvd of his movie. SRK was calling for trouble, when he went out of his way in support to Pak. Shiv Sena has called him a 'traitor' and torn down posters of his movie. I am sure they will cause problems during release of the movie too.

Now, coming to Saif Ali Khan, his involvement on 'black buck' hunting case has caused some discontent among sections of Rajasthanis who felt that he should not have been awarded the Padma Shri. Since he has not been proven innocent in the case yet, and he isn't the most deserving candidate for the award, his effigy was burnt.

Lastly, theatre screens acorss cities in Rajasthan were ransacked duty to wrong portrayal of the 'rajputana' clan in the movie 'Veer'. Hence, the mischief mongers smashed glass windows and tore down posters of Salman Khan.

south spice : 2010 calendar

2010-01-30T04:30:00.000-08:00

Schedule : IPL-3

2010-01-27T16:05:00.000-08:00

Date	Match Details	Time			Venue
Date	Match Details	GMT	IST	Your Time	Ground	City
Mar 12 - Fri	Deccan Chargers v Kolkata Knight Riders, 1st match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Brabourne Stadium	Mumbai
Mar 13 - Sat	Mumbai Indians v Rajasthan Royals, 2nd match	9:30	15:00	15:00	Brabourne Stadium	Mumbai
Mar 13 - Sat	Kings XI Punjab v Delhi Daredevils, 3rd match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium	Chandigarh
Mar 14 - Sun	Kolkata Knight Riders v Bangalore Royal Challengers, 4th match	10:30	16:00	16:00	Eden Gardens	Kolkata
Mar 14 - Sun	Chennai Super Kings v Deccan Chargers, 5th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	MA Chidambaram Stadium	Chennai
Mar 15 - Mon	Rajasthan Royals v Delhi Daredevils, 6th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Sawai Mansingh Stadium	Jaipur
Mar 16 - Tue	Bangalore Royal Challengers v Kings XI Punjab, 7th match	10:30	16:00	16:00	M.Chinnaswamy Stadium	Bengaluru
Mar 16 - Tue	Kolkata Knight Riders v Chennai Super Kings, 8th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Eden Gardens	Kolkata
Mar 17 - Wed	Delhi Daredevils v Mumbai Indians, 9th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Feroz Shah Kotla	Delhi
Mar 18 - Thu	Bangalore Royal Challengers v Rajasthan Royals, 10th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	M.Chinnaswamy Stadium	Bengaluru
Mar 19 - Fri	Delhi Daredevils v Chennai Super Kings, 11th match	10:30	16:00	16:00	Feroz Shah Kotla	Delhi
Mar 19 - Fri	Deccan Chargers v Kings XI Punjab, 12th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	ACA-VDCA Stadium	Visakhapatnam
Mar 20 - Sat	Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders, 13th match	10:30	16:00	16:00	Sardar Vallabhai Patel Stadium	Ahmedabad
Mar 20 - Sat	Mumbai Indians v Bangalore Royal Challengers, 14th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Brabourne Stadium	Mumbai
Mar 21 - Sun	Deccan Chargers v Delhi Daredevils, 15th match	10:30	16:00	16:00	ACA-VDCA Stadium	Visakhapatnam
Mar 21 - Sun	Chennai Super Kings v Kings XI Punjab, 16th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	MA Chidambaram Stadium	Chennai
Mar 22 - Mon	Mumbai Indians v Kolkata Knight Riders, 17th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Brabourne Stadium	Mumbai
Mar 23 - Tue	Bangalore Royal Challengers v Chennai Super Kings, 18th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	M.Chinnaswamy Stadium	Bengaluru
Mar 24 - Wed	Kings XI Punjab v Rajasthan Royals, 19th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium	Chandigarh
Mar 25 - Thu	Mumbai Indians v Chennai Super Kings, 20th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Brabourne Stadium	Mumbai
Mar 26 - Fri	Rajasthan Royals v Deccan Chargers, 21st match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Sardar Patel Stadium	Ahmedabad
Mar 27 - Sat	Kings XI Punjab v Kolkata Knight Riders, 22nd match	10:30	16:00	16:00	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium	Chandigarh
Mar 27 - Sat	Bangalore Royal Challengers v Delhi Daredevils, 23rd match	14:30	20:00	20:00	M.Chinnaswamy Stadium	Bengaluru
Mar 28 - Sun	Rajasthan Royals v Chennai Super Kings, 24th match	10:30	16:00	16:00	Sardar Patel Stadium	Ahmedabad
Mar 28 - Sun	Deccan Chargers v Mumbai Indians, 25th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium	Hyderabad
Mar 29 - Mon	Delhi Daredevils v Kolkata Knight Riders, 26th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Feroz Shah Kotla	Delhi
Mar 30 - Tue	Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab, 27th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Brabourne Stadium	Mumbai
Mar 31 - Wed	Chennai Super Kings v Bangalore Royal Challengers, 28th match	10:30	16:00	16:00	MA Chidambaram Stadium	Chennai
Mar 31 - Wed	Delhi Daredevils v Rajasthan Royals, 29th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Feroz Shah Kotla	Delhi
Apr 01 - Thu	Kolkata Knight Riders v Deccan Chargers, 30th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Eden Gardens	Kolkata
Apr 02 - Fri	Kings XI Punjab v Bangalore Royal Challengers, 31st match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium	Chandigarh
Apr 03 - Sat	Chennai Super Kings v Rajasthan Royals, 32nd match	10:30	16:00	16:00	MA Chidambaram Stadium	Chennai
Apr 03 - Sat	Mumbai Indians v Deccan Chargers, 33rd match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground	Nagpur
Apr 04 - Sun	Kolkata Knight Riders v Kings XI Punjab, 34th match	10:30	16:00	16:00	Eden Gardens	Kolkata
Apr 04 - Sun	Delhi Daredevils v Bangalore Royal Challengers, 35th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Feroz Shah Kotla	Delhi
Apr 05 - Mon	Deccan Chargers v Rajasthan Royals, 36th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium	Hyderabad
Apr 06 - Tue	Chennai Super Kings v Mumbai Indians, 37th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	MA Chidambaram Stadium	Chennai
Apr 07 - Wed	Rajasthan Royals v Kings XI Punjab, 38th match	10:30	16:00	16:00	Sardar Patel Stadium	Ahmedabad
Apr 07 - Wed	Kolkata Knight Riders v Delhi Daredevils, 39th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Eden Gardens	Kolkata
Apr 08 - Thu	Bangalore Royal Challengers v Deccan Chargers, 40th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	M.Chinnaswamy Stadium	Bengaluru
Apr 09 - Fri	Kings XI Punjab v Mumbai Indians, 41st match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium	Chandigarh
Apr 10 - Sat	Deccan Chargers v Chennai Super Kings, 42nd match	10:30	16:00	16:00	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium	Hyderabad
Apr 10 - Sat	Bangalore Royal Challengers v Kolkata Knight Riders, 43rd match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium	Hyderabad
Apr 11 - Sun	Delhi Daredevils v Kings XI Punjab, 44th match	10:30	16:00	16:00	Feroz Shah Kotla	Delhi
Apr 11 - Sun	Rajasthan Royals v Mumbai Indians, 45th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Feroz Shah Kotla	Delhi
Apr 12 - Mon	Deccan Chargers v Bangalore Royal Challengers, 46th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium	Hyderabad
Apr 13 - Tue	Mumbai Indians v Delhi Daredevils, 47th match	10:30	16:00	16:00	Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground	Nagpur
Apr 13 - Tue	Chennai Super Kings v Kolkata Knight Riders, 48th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	MA Chidambaram Stadium	Chennai
Apr 14 - Wed	Rajasthan Royals v Bangalore Royal Challengers, 49th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Sardar Vallabhai Patel Stadium	Ahmedabad
Apr 15 - Thu	Chennai Super Kings v Delhi Daredevils, 50th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	MA Chidambaram Stadium	Chennai
Apr 16 - Fri	Kings XI Punjab v Deccan Chargers, 51st match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium	Dharamsala
Apr 17 - Sat	Bangalore Royal Challengers v Mumbai Indians, 52nd match	10:30	16:00	16:00	M.Chinnaswamy Stadium	Bengaluru
Apr 17 - Sat	Kolkata Knight Riders v Rajasthan Royals, 53rd match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Eden Gardens	Kolkata
Apr 18 - Sun	Kings XI Punjab v Chennai Super Kings, 54th match	10:30	16:00	16:00	Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium	Dharamsala
Apr 18 - Sun	Delhi Daredevils v Deccan Chargers, 55th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Feroz Shah Kotla	Delhi
Apr 19 - Mon	Kolkata Knight Riders v Mumbai Indians, 56th match	14:30	20:00	20:00	Eden Gardens	Kolkata
Apr 21 - Wed	1st Semi-Final	14:30	20:00	20:00	M.Chinnaswamy Stadium	Bengaluru
Apr 22 - Thu	2nd Semi-Final	14:30	20:00	20:00	M.Chinnaswamy Stadium	Bengaluru
Apr 24 - Sat	3rd Place Play-off	14:30	20:00	20:00	Dr DY Patil Sports Academy	Mumbai
Apr 25 - Sun	Final	14:30	20:00	20:00	Dr DY Patil Sports Academy	Mumbai

chatur ramalingam : chamatkar ka balatkar

2010-01-25T19:21:00.000-08:00

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km0Ogc1tMnM&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

The last time I came across such a hilarious piece formulated by word-swap was when a grade-5 kid had prepared an essay on 'My Best Friend', but the topic turned out to be 'My Father'. Well, the kid just replaced the word 'friend' with 'father' and this is what the essay looked like:

I have many fathers...but Nik is my best father...I have other fathers too...but they don't play with me or come home ...Nik comes home everyday and plays with me.....Mom loves Nik....Nik helps me with homwork....A father in need is a father in deed.

56th National Awards : Complete List

2010-01-22T23:49:00.000-08:00

1. BEST FEATURE FILM - Antaheen (Bengali)

2. INDIRA GANDHI AWARD FOR BEST FIRST FILM OF A DIRECTOR - A Wednesday (Director : Neeraj Pandey)

3. BEST POPULAR FILM PROVIDING WHOLESOME ENTERTAINMENT - Oye Lucky ! Lucky Oye (Hindi)

4. NARGIS DUTT AWARD FILM ON NATIONAL INTEGRATION - Aai Kot Nai (Assamese)

5. BEST FILM ON FAMILY VALUES - Little Zizou (English,Gujarati)

6. BEST FILM ON SOCIAL ISSUES- Jogva (Marathi)

7. BEST FILM ON ENVIRONMENT CONSERVATION/PRESERVATION - Jianta Bhoota (Oriya)

8. BEST CHILDREN’S FILM - Gubbachigalu (Kannada)

9. BEST ANIMATION FILM Roadside Romeo (Hindi)

10. BEST DIRECTION - Bala (Naan Kaduval - Tamil)

11. BEST ACTOR- Upendra Limaye (Jogva, Marathi)

12. BEST ACTRESS - Priyanka Chopra (Fashion, Hindi)

13. BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR - Arjun Rampal (Rock On !!, Hindi)

14. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - Kangana (Fashion, Hindi)

15. BEST CHILD ARTIST - Shams Patel (Thanks Maa, Hindi)

16. BEST MALE PLAYBACK SINGER - Hariharan (Jogva, Marathi)

17. BEST FEMALE PLAYBACK SINGER - Shreya Ghoshal(Antaheen, Bengali)

18. BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY - Avik Mukhopadhyay (Antaheen, Bengali)

19. BEST SCREENPLAY- Sachin Kundalkar (Gandha, Marathi)

20. BEST AUDIOGRAPHY- Pramod J. Thomas( Gandha, Marathi)

21. BEST EDITING- A. Sreekar Prasad (Firaaq, Hindi)

22. BEST ART DIRECTION- Gautam Sen (Firaaq, Hindi)

23. BEST COSTUME DESIGNER - Neeta Lulla (Jodha Akbar, Hindi)

24. BEST MAKE-UP ARTIST - Moorthy V. (Naan Kadauul, Tamil)

25. BEST MUSIC DIRECTION - Ajay and Atul (Jogva, Marathi)

26. BEST LYRICS - Anindya Bannerjee and Chandranil Bhattacharya (Antaheen, Bengali)

27. SPECIAL JURY AWARD - Bioscope (Malayalam)

28. BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS - Govardhan (Mumbai Meri Jaan, Hindi)

29 BEST CHOREOGRAPHY - Chinni Prakash & Rekha Prakash (Jodha Akbar, Hindi)

30. BEST FEATURE FILM IN EACH OF THE LANGUAGE SPECIFIED

a) Mon Jai - Assamese
b) Shob Charitro Kalponik - Bengali
c) Rock On - Hindi
D) Vimukthi - Kannada
E) Thirakkada - Malayalam
F) Harishcnadrachi Factory - Marathi
G) Vaarnam Aiyiram - Tamil
H) 1940 LO Oka Gramam - Telugu
I) Yarwng - Kokborok
J) Gaggara - Tulu

31. BEST BOOK ON CINEMA - Bollywood Melodies (English) Author: Ganesh Anantharaman

32. SPECIAL JURY MENTION - The Director’s Mind (English) Ujjal Chakraborty

33. BEST FILM CRITIC - Altaf Mazid and R.K. Bidur Singh

source : http://pib.nic.in/archieve/others/2010/jan/r2010012302.pdf

Chance Pe Dance : A Wasted Opportunity

2010-01-20T02:17:00.000-08:00

Lots of times a one line story idea sounds great, but when stretched into a movie format, it just doesn’t work. This movie turned out as one of those nice concepts which could not be put well on screen. And most of the blame for it must go to the screenplay and shoddy dialogues. The writer/director just knew where they wanted to go, but had no idea of how to get there. They had the start and finish lines ready, but the roadmap of the journey was clearly amiss.

I worked late till Friday evening and was really tired, hence movie viewing on Saturday was out of question. And why I wanted to watch the movie? Simply because I liked Shahid’s previous works, ‘Kaminey’ being the best of them. And also due to Shahid-Ken Ghosh association, this is the tird time they were coming together. The first time they worked together was in Ishq-Vishq, a nice breezy college romance. Their next movie was Fida, ripped-off from Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Following’. The movie was well made, but the love-angle was over-emphasised and that killed the drama. What started off as a romantic thriller, ended neither on a love note nor a action thrill drama. It was a bit of a let-down to kill Nolan’s storyline with so much suffocation of a love-story. It should have remained a thriller.

Anyways, this time I hoped that they would make an entertaining movie, given that dance was the theme. And with this hope I was standing at the counter window for tickets. I was at the theatre on Sunday by 4.30pm for a 7.45pm show, hoping that the tickets were not sold out. When I was handed the tickets I felt lucky. I mean, for a Shahid Kapoor movie that released two days back, to get balcony tickets on the first weekend without advance booking, was being plain lucky.

I returned to the theatre at 7.30pm for the show. Entered the auditorium and was pretty pleased to see quite a few rows of occupied seats. Yeah! more people like me, I thought! But my smile soon vanished when the movie started with a song that was forced into it. The credits were not rolling while the song was on. The song was pinned there for the heck of it. An unintroduced and over-enthusiastic Shahid and Genelia were tapping their foot to glory and there was no hint of beginning credits. After 3 full minutes the song ended and then the movie credits began which took another 7 minutes. That itself gave me a hint that the movie would turn out bad and I should have listened to the reviews.

Coming to the movie, the intent was there. There was a thought in process, of showing a middle-class guy who moves to Mumbai from Delhi much against his dad’s wish, to become an actor….NO… a dancer… NO… a star …. NO …. a hero. What??? I mean, what did Sameer want to become? Neither the director was clear on it, nor the screenwriters. I think the guy, Sameer, had a great sense of music, could shake his feet to rhythmic beats, and so he was labelled a good dancer. But in actuality, he wanted to achieve stardom and that would be possible only if he became a hero, not an actor but a hero. This is exactly where the movie messed up. If the guy wanted to become a hero, the director should have shown him accepting side characters or smaller roles of some kind. If the guy wanted to become a dancer, the director should have shown him as a support dancer in some dance troupe. But I think he wanted to become a star. So, why movie? Sameer even prays to Michael Jackson at the start of the movie. But MJ was no actor or hero, yet he was a star…superstar!

Moving on, I dropped the question and watched further in utter dismay. The non-existent romance between Genelia and Shahid, much as the director tried to convince us of the blossoming love, it was painful to watch. When Shahid uttered the three magical words to Genelia, in slow breath I uttered my own three magical words – WTF! There was no warmth, no magic, no feelings and definitely no chemistry.

If you thought that Shahid-Genelia romance was incredible, just wait to see the school boys lift the dance trophy. After being out-of-job and out-of-pay, Shahid takes up a job of being a dance teacher in Model High School. But the inane sequences that follow makes you sympathise with Shahid and how he was stuck in a film that had no script, just a few scenes stitched together in a rag-tag movie. The manner in which he encourages the students and teaches them to dance was another teeth-grinding experience.

The only believable bits of the movie was his interaction with Mohnish Behl as Rajiv Sharma, a director of repute who decides to launch Shahid after watching him dance in a club. But his verbal contract with Shahid was as beguiling as was his reality show for a talent hunt. The script was so half baked that the director did not even show a few genuine contenders in the reality show, it was Shahid all the way. Had this movie been a YRF production with UC as lead or Rakesh Roshan movie with Hrithik in the lead, everyone would have termed it as self-promotion. But since it was a Ken Ghosh movie, people will forgive and forget easily. The entire movie was laid out to portray Shahid and his dancing skills, nothing else. All scenes were built around to showcase Shahid. And frankly, he is no Amitabh Bachchan or Akshay Kumar or either of the Khans to carry a movie entirely on his shoulders. Shahid’s antics neither make you laugh nor excite you.

But the biggest letdown of the movie was its music. Some un-inspired music with some more un-inspired lyrics was a recipe for disaster. Adnan Sami should stick to melody, please ask him to compose few more tunes like ‘Tera Chehra’ and ‘Lucky’, and leave the hip-hop stuff to others like Pritam and SEL.Coming to the acting department, Shahid was good in bits. Genelia has a long way to go in acting. To start with, she must first improve on her accent and pronunciations; and then the tone of her voice. Her dialogue delivery was quite irritating, I had disliked her in JTYJN; but the screenplay of JTYJN was able to hide all her flaws. Mohnish Behl was clealry in a haste, I think being-busy could have been shown better. And his character was uni-dimensional, that could have been altered to the movie’s advantage. But then, as I earlier said, no thought has gone into the writing.

I call it a wasted opportunity because the movie could have been so much more. There was a perfect platform set for an expose of reality shows and talent hunts, but the writers did not explore that. The struggle could have been a little more realistic than living out of a suitcase or making a home out of a car or showering in a school washroom. And re-gaining lost glory by making the school students win the trophy could have been handled with more humanity and spirit than some cheeky comments like ‘girls love guys who dance’. The falling apart and coming together of father-son was again forced into the movie to show some bonding where it was not required. And the choregrapher and a struggler falling in love could have been handled with some subtlety and believable romance than a chance meetings time and again. Everything was cliched and predictable, from Shahid not getting to debut in the movie to him winning the contest. It was neither interesting nor entertaining. Another failed attempt by Ken Ghosh.

After getting out of the theatre, the only thing I recalled was Shahid’s lungi ad. That was the only genuinely funny moment when they show a small memory-capsule, Shahid’s shooting for AirTime lungi with the tagline ‘easy flow’. How I wished the movie too had adopted the tagline of the ad, instead of making it such an excruciating watch!

This post was first published on PFC

aishwarya rai calendar for 2010

2010-01-13T03:44:00.000-08:00

Aishwarya Rai Desktop Calendar December 2010

Winners Of Screen Awards 2010

2010-01-11T11:36:00.000-08:00

Best Actor (Male)
Amitabh Bachchan - Paa

Best Actor (Female)
Vidya Balan - Paa

Best Actor in popular category (Male)
Shahid Kapoor - Kaminey

Best Actor in popular category (Female)
Kareena Kapoor - 3 Idiots

Best Film
3 Idiots

Best Director
Rajkumar Hirani - 3 Idiots

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male)
Rishi Kapoor - Love Aaj Kal

Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female)
Arundhati Naag - Paa

Best Actor in a Negative Role
Boman Irani - 3 Idiots

Best Actor in a Comic Role
Omi Vaidya - 3 Idiots

Best Music
A R Rahman - Delhi-6

Best Playback Singer (Male)
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan - Aaj Din Chadya - Love Aaj Kal

Best Playback Singer (Female)
Kavita Seth - Iktara - Wake Up Sid

Best Lyrics
Irshad Kamil - Chor Bazari - Love Aaj Kal

Best Story
Imtiaz Ali - Love Aaj Kal

Best Screenplay
Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra - 3 Idiots

Best Dialogue
Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani - 3 Idiots

Best Editing
Rajkumar Hirani - 3 Idiots

Best Special Effects
Charles Darby - Aladin

Best Cinematography
Rajeev Ravi - Dev D

Best Choreography
Bosco- Caesar - Zoobi Doobi - 3 Idiots

Best Action
Vijayan Master - Wanted

Most Promising Newcomer (Male)
Omi Vaidya - 3 Idiots

Most Promising Newcomer (Female)
Mahie Gill - Dev D

Most Promising Debut Director
Nandita Das - Firaaq

Entertainer of the year
Katrina Kaif

Star Plus Jodi Award
Amitabh Bachchan - Abhishek Bachchan

Lifetime Achievement Award
Javed Akhtar

Best Child Artiste
Pratik Katare - Paa

Best Ensemble Cast
Luck By Chance

stills from rgv's new movie 'rann'

2010-01-10T09:47:00.000-08:00

Move On, Raat Gayi Baat Gayi

2010-01-07T12:23:00.000-08:00

Raat Gayi Baat Gayi - and that's one of the things that none of the characters in the movie are able to do. All of them have memories of the small little incidents that happened at the party that they attended last night. A gala party hosted by the big-hearted Jolly, played superbly by Navnit Nishan and her book-writer hubby 'Jags' played by Dalip Tahil. While some of the attendees just can't forget what happened in the party, Rahul [Rajat Kapoor] just can't recall what happened after he gulped down 8 drinks.

The first promos of the movie sounded interesting and the movie even picked up the Best Film Award at SAIFF. The starcast was nice with proven performers like Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Dalip Tahil etc and the movie being directed by Saurabh Shukla; I had already made up my mind that I would definitely watch this movie. With great enthusiasm I booked the tickets online for 1st Jan in Innovative Multiplex. But as soon as I stepped into Gold Class of Innovative Multiplex, I was in for a shock. The movie was about to start in 5 mins, and there were just 4 of us in the auditorium. First day, second show at 7.45pm and just 4 people. Why? I was unable to understand. Was it bad publicity/promotion? Didn't people know of the movie being released on 1st Jan? Who was to blame, PNC or the distributors or the film-crew who did not go tom-toming about the movie.

On one hand you had '3 Idiots' hogging all the limelight on big-screen as well as the news channels of small-screen all through the weekend and on the other hand people were skipping a movie like this one. '3 Idiots' made 9 crores on paid-previews [100 crores in a week] and here you had no takers for this one. All shows of '3 Idiots' were sold-out although each ticket was priced at Rs.350/- in most multiplexes in Bangalore, and here the movie was devoid of audience although ticket prices started at Rs.150/- for Silver Class and Rs.180/- for Gold Class. I was left wondering when movie makers will realize the need for publicity and promotions. When will they learn how to create a buzz about certain movie releasing on so-and-so date? Movies cannot be sold hoping audience will come and watch it. They have to be more aggressive, pull in the crowd. All these thoughts were running in my mind, when few more people entered the auditorium. Finally we were 15 people in a gallery that can seat 200. Rather disappointing!

Anyways, I opened my eyes to reality, as did Rajat. After a drunken stupor, waking up with a hang-over and with his wife storming out of the house with the child, Rajat is left feeling guilty. He does remember going into the room with Neha Dhupia, sharing a drink; and then there is a memory fade-out. He can't even recall the hot-bod's name and he desperately wants to find out if anything happened between them. He rushes to Vinay Pathak who is busy handling a crisis himself as his wife Anu Menon throws him out of the house for surfing porn. So, now its upto the old couple Dalip and Navnit to try to unknot the various strands, and try to bring about a compromise/resolution. Can Dalip and Navnit help? Who was Neha Dhupia, from where did she come, when did she leave the party and with whom? How the pieces come together to solve the jigsaw and the various comical situations that the characters go through is very well done.

Dalip's guiding principles on marital bliss, Iravati's frustration of being an under-achiever, Rajat's desperation of reclaiming lost moral grounds and Jolly's good nature are some of the highlights of the movie. Especially funny, yet silly, is Vinay's fight for righteousness when he knows he is wrong; Jolly's tarot card reading and belief in vastu and the interaction in the club, the confusion at Neha's apartment were just hilarious.

Saurabh Shukla has done a great job with the direction. He has captured the essence of the urban class well, which includes things like "arrangements" as Dalip calls it, the daft book-writing abilities of his, and gyaan session from this pseudo-intellectual, Rajat's escapist fantasy of one-night-stand and final understanding that family support is what matters, and Vinay's understanding of what "hurt" means. Saurabh has extracted good performances from everyone.

Among the performances, apart from Navnit Nishan, Neha Dhupia was very well cast. She played the role of a silent seductress very well. After her initial failure in the industry, she is making all the correct moves to be counted as a good performer. Her brief cameos and small but significant roles in movies like Dasvidaniya, SiK, 1:40 Last Local etc is really building a nice body of work. Vinay Pathak was under-utilised. Although he was there in lot of scenes, he was just not able to leave a mark because of some mediocre writing and lack of a meaty role. I was pleasantly surprised to see Anu Menon [Lola Kutty of Channel V] as Vinay Pathak's wife. Theirs was the weakest sub-plot in the movie, humorous nevertheless. Iravati Harshe, the last time I recall seeing her was in daily soap Shanti, was a revelation. She played the complex character very well. No words for Dalip Tahil and Rajat, they were excellent.

I felt that the script had a lot of scope for some great comedy, but somehow the writers failed to capitalize on it. Some of the moments were very under-stated and the humor was wry and under-played. I think that worked against the movie since in Bheja Fry we had seen the same combo of Rajat-Vinay deliver a punch in every scene. Also, while previous movies in this genre had the middle-class as the center-piece; here the portrayal is of the urban and upper middle-class. Trying to make a comedy based on marital complications, fidelity issues and declining moral values may not appeal to the viewers. I wish there were more funny lines and the pace had been a little faster. Anyways, it was a nice watch. Let me get it out of my head now, raat gayi baat gayi !

This post was first published on PFC

rare childhood pics of deepika padukone

2010-01-07T02:43:00.000-08:00

A.R.Rehman!!! Jai Ho!!

2010-01-06T07:31:00.000-08:00

Today, 6th Jan, is AR Rahman's birthday!

I shall pick from where Ratnakar left off, in his fantastic tribute to AR Rahman. I had actually started writing this post much earlier, the day after the Oscar ceremony, but when I found that such a beautiful tribute was already adorned to the Mozart from Madras, I changed track and decided to write a sequel starting from post-2001 phase.

So, Lagaan was out and Rahman won the National Award for his mesmerizing music. He had rasied the bar for himself and he was no more competing with any body but himself. The year 2002 was a great mix of fantastic contemporary music as well as classical stuff from the master. For the younger generation there was Saathiya which had the wonderful vocals of Sonu Nigam in the title track, we had Adnan Sami crooning Aye Udi Udi, Sadhna Sargam sang the melodious haunting Chupke Se, while Rahman himself lent his voice to the Mera Yaar Mila De song; all songs written from the magical pen of Gulzar. Rahman was being played all over the place, songs like Humdum Suniyo Re and Chori Pe Chori were being aired repeatedely on radio. Then, there was The Legend Of Bhagat Singh which brought back old memories of freedom struggle. Its always tough to re-create music for songs that have been in public memory for ages, but Rahman was able to carve a niche of his own with his version of Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna and Mera Rang De Basanti Chola. Apart from the patriotic songs like Des Mere Des Mere and Pagdi Sambhal Jatta, there was the romantic touch with smooth numbers like Mahive Mahive and Jogiya Jogiya. While his songs were played with gusto in up-North, down-South was no different where he created a consternation with the music of Baba which sold a million copies off the shelf within a week due to the combo of Rajnikanth and music of Rahman; and his sensitive and touching music in Mani Ratnam’s heart-warming Kannathil Muthamittal for which he won another National Award was excellent.

Rahman was not quite himself in 2003, not many of his albums did well. Although he gave some very good music in movies like Boys and Tehzeeb, it did not live upto the expectations. Meherbaan was one of the songs from Tehzeeb that actually stayed on people’s mind for sometime, but rest of the songs were as forgetable as the movie itself. Even the movie Boys was quite a let down, not many people connected with the movie, the songs were scattered genius, but could not really take-off. The year also saw the release of Rahman’s first international album which was the soundtrack for a Chinese movie called Tian Di Ying Xiong, named Warriors Of Heaven And Earth. The movie had 16 tracks, in which the theme song Mirage was recorded in 3 languages…Mandarin, English and Hindi. After the release of the movie, the soundtrack was released in a separate album titled Between Heaven And Earth.

After 1994 wherein Rahman had 10 music releases, 2004 was his next busiest year with release of another 10 albums, the best one being Swades. The movie was brilliant and the soundtrack was an amazing mix of patriotism, romance, lullaby, dramatic stuff in the form of ram-leela. Ye Jo Des Hai Tera, wonderfully sung by Rahman, is one of the best songs that I have heard; it has pain, patriotism, emotions and the pangs of separation from motherland. The lorie Ahista Ahista starts off softly and beautifully and ends in a crescendo with Udit Narayan doing total justice to the lullaby. The ram-leela song Pal Pal Hai Bhari gives the feeling of a live drama and the lyrics complement it very well. Both the romantic songs, Saawariya and Dekho Na, had its heart in the right place. And Yuhi Chala Chal is a typical road-song which moves from preachy to passionate lyrics. All the songs were penned by Javed Akhtar who did a terrific job with the lyrics and the thought process behind them.

Yuva also released in the same year. The song Fanaa had a dizzying feel to it while Khuda Hafiz felt like a dip in the pool of music. Kabhi Neem Neem and Badal Jo Aye were soft and sweet numbers while Dhakka Laga Buka and Dol Dol were fast paced numbers. The beauty of Rahman’s albums is the mix that he comes up with, there is always something for everybody. While Yuva and Swades had some great songs, Meenaxi-A Tale of Three Cities and Lakeer-Forbidden Lines were just lack-lustre. Ye Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai and Chinnamma Chilakkamma was hummable but did not have the same Rahman feel to it. While the music of Lakeer and Dil Ne Kise Apna Kaha was indifferent. Rahman did a small guest number in Subhash Ghai’s Kisna and gave, the otherwise dull movie, one good song in the form of Hum Hain Iss Pal Yahan and a good theme music. Rahman also had a couple of Tamil releases, best of them being New. The film took a great opening, but ran into controvery in 2005, with the Madras High Court banning the movie on the grounds that it aroused sexual feelings in youngsters. Nevertheless, the music was a runaway success.

Then came the music of Mangal Pandey in 2005. I loved the music of the movie, I liked the movie too. Once again, there was a heady mix of patriotism, a ballad number, courtesan song and a Holi song. The title track sung by Kailash Kher had a nice ring to it and it went to the extent of becoming a trance, such was the magic of Rahman. Tumhari Adaon Pe Mai Vari Vari was too soft to be a courtesan number, but the way Rahman used the payal-jhankar worked for it. The Holi number Dekho Ayi Holi, which also featured Aamir Khan saying a few lines, is a much under estimated Holi song. It has all the touches of a Holi number, but could not quite get the recognition because of the movie’s short stay at theatres. The ballad number O Chhalia O Rasiya was nice too, a really good attempt in this genre.

The music of Water was also released the same year. The music did not work for a lot of people because it had a strong classical touch, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The sad and haunting tracks Naina Neer Bahaye and Piyo Ho are heart-wrenching and brings a lump in the throat. Vaishnavo Janto is beautifully re-created by Rahman; the only happy songs were Shyam Rang Bhar Do and Ayo Re Sakhi; but the movie had some great background instrumental tracks. It was a collector’s album and certainly not meant for the masses.

The music that the masses swoon for, came in 2006, in the form of Rang De Basanti. Another smashing hit from Rahman with a great title track sung by Daler Mehendi, and a fantastic collection of songs ranging from sufi based Khalbali to country music of Roobaroo, from the revolutionary Khoon Chala to the romantic Tu Bin Bataye, and from the melodic Luka Chhupi to rebellious Apni To Paathshala. It also had a bonus in the form of Aamir Khan mouthing Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna with the brilliant background chorus, really inspiring. The music took the movie to another level altogether, the lyrics by Prasoon Joshi reflected the mundane, preachy, patriotic and romance so well. Rahman’s touch was evident all through the album.

Rajnikanth’s much awaited Shankar directed movie Sivaji came with a bang in 2007. This was the third album for Rajni-Rahman combo, and the album was a huge hit. The song I am white, also called Style, was much appreciated by the masses for Rajnikanth’s make-up and the parrot colored hair dyes. Athiradee featured Rajni saving a girl from a gang-bang where he makes an appearance on a bike with a guitar, Rahman lent his own voice to this song. The song Vaaji had elaborate sets, a la Bhansali, where Rajni is treated like a king. The album also had a romantic song sung by Udit Narayan and Chinmayi called Sahana. Each and every song highlighted Rajni in a different manner and Rahman struck the right chords.

In the same year came Mani Ratnam’s movie Guru. The music of this movie was not a major hit unlike his other Mani Ratnam’s movies, but it was good nonetheless. Barso Re Megha showcased Shreya Ghosal’s learnings of classical music, and Aye Hairathe Aashiqui was soothing to the ears with the delicate voices of Hariharan and Alka Yagnik. But the toast of the album was Rahman’s vocals in Tere Bina, ably supported by Chinmayi. Maiyya Maiyya displayed Rahman’s talent with Persian music and the belly-dance rhythm and Jaage Hain was another masterpiece which had such inspirational lyrics, I only wished that it went on a little longer. In the same year came Rahman’s soundtrack and background score for Elizabeth-The Golden Age in association with Craig Armstrong.

But the most important year for Rahman’s career came in 2008, wherein he was heard in 5 different albums and each from a different genre. Jodha-Akbar was a periodical tale of the Mughal story, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na was for the youth of today who appreciate peppy numbers like Pappu Cant Dance Saala, then there was Ghajini which was a typical masala movie with songs like Guzarish and Behka Mai Behka. Subhash Ghai came out with his Yuvraaj, but the sound of this movie was a little off-track. The only songs that stayed with people was Tu Meri Dost Hai and Tu Muskura. People forgot the movie faster than they forgot the songs. And then came the music of Slumdog Millionaire which won him the BAFTA and Golden Globe. Although, he has given much better music than this, fate would have it otherwise. His soundtrack won him two Oscars as well, for Original Song and Original Score.

Rahman’s strength lies in his great understanding of music from different regions. The way he grasped the pahadi touch in Kariye Na in Taal, the punjabi flavour in title track of Rang De Basanti and Pagdi Sambhal Jatta, the Bengali influence in Kabhi Neem Neem, the Persian sounds in Maiyya Maiyya, its just incredible. Whether he is producing music for Water or for Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, whether its Guru or Provoked, whether its Yuva or Swades, which are movies of different genre and different themes, but one thing that stands out is his great sense of music, his wonderful sense of rhythm and understanding the context of the movie.

I want to mention two other particular things about his music. Just listen to his Quawallis/Sufi music in Piya Haji Ali, Khwaja Mere Khwaja, Arziyan and Satrangi Re, Chhaiyya Chhaiyya and you can actually breathe the music. His deep understanding of the music for the soul is unbeatable. At the same time pick up his bhajans like O Palanhare or Eshwar Ya Allah Ye Pukar Sunle or Ek Onkar or Eshwar Allah Tere Jahan Mei or Man Mohana, and its soul-stirring. Rahman’s music is divine, a gift of God. No wonder that when he won the Ocsar he said “All my life I’ve had a choice of hate and love. I chose love and I’m here. God bless"

This post was first published on PFC

4 idiots - hirani, vidhu chopra, aamir and chetan bhagat

2010-01-04T14:19:00.000-08:00

By now all of us know what a raucous these 4 guys have created in the press conferences and news channels. The entire weekend was filled with their images on tv screen, no respite for the viewers at all. Each party has spoken at great length, thrown accusations, made casual remarks and shown us how stupidly these celebrated people can behave. More or less, they have de-sensitized me and I am not able to feel anything for anybody at all. Seems like an attention-seeking attempt and for publicity.

Anyways, without taking sides let me just state that both parties are right in their own way. CB is right on moral and ethical grounds while hirani-chopra-aamir are right on legal grounds. CB has no reason to complain because he sold the rights of the book to chopra for 9lacs. Now, hirani-chopra can do anything with the book, i.e., use 5% of the material or 95% of the material; but CB cannot raise any exception. Secondly, CB signed all the contracts which clearly stated that his name would appear in 'rolling credit's, which did. After how many names, at what time etc cannot be dictated. So, legally Hirani-Chopra have done everything right.

Aamir should never have gotten into this. It was an argument between the owners who purchased the rights and the one who sold it. Aamir, being the medium, should have remained so. But, so enthused he was by the response of the movie that he just could not stop himself from commenting on it. He got caught in the cross-fire.

Back to CB, let me romanticize it a bit. I think CB was expecting a very hollywoodish approach to this from makers of the movie. In his dreams, the beginning titles would flash "Based On A Novel By Chetan Bhagat' etc; and that did not happen. Moreover, after having sold the rights for 9lacs, he probably didn't see the movie earning 100+ crores. He is probably feeling stupid that he did not bargain for a bigger amount. Another factor that CB must be thinking about is the various awards that the movie may receive. So, if the movie gets nominated for Best-Story or gets the award, will his name feature in the nominations/awardees or not! Legally I don't think so because screen-writing, working on screenplay and dialogs is one thing; and just writing the novel and selling the rights is another. Now that the milk is spilt, what can CB do? Of course, try to gain some sympathy and publicity out of it.

But I believe that CB has come out looking stupid. An IIM-A grad who worked for CitiBank in Singapore office did not read the offer-document carefully and signed it in a hurry. All legal processes have been followed and he has nothing to squabble about. I think he should forgive and forget. He should actually be happy since latest stats say that sale of his book 'Five Point Someone' has gone up by 30%. Moreover, the movie has turned out good unlike the way his previous novel 'One Night @ The Call Center' turned out to be a disaster in the movie format. Smile CB, and write many more. But sell the rights smartly, next time!

3 idiots : 2010 calendar

2010-01-02T03:48:00.000-08:00

Kannada Matinee Star 'Sahasa Simha' Vishnuvardhan No More

2009-12-30T03:13:00.000-08:00

Today's early morning news came as a big shock to most Kannadigas when they were rudely awoken by Vishnuvardhan's sudden demise.

Born as Sampath Kumar, he was given the screen name of Vishnuvardhan by Puttana. Vishnu was a veteran of more than 150 movies and has acted in lots of award winning movies, most memorable of them being Mutthina Hara with Suhasini.

He stormed the theatres in his debut movie Naagara Haavu by Puttana which was an instant hit. This regional language movie was later remade in Bollywood as Zahreela Insaan, where Rishi Kapoor played the role of rebel Ramachari.

He also acted in a few Hindi movies along side Akshay Kumar in Ashaant and Zaalim. Prior to this he was also seen in the movie Inspector Dhanush. Of these, Ramsays made Inspector Dhanush and Ashaant.

His association with Dwarkish was fruitful and they delivered a series of hits with Raja-KuLLa combo. He also starred in Nishkarsha which was heavily inspired from Die Hard. Vishnu excelled in movies of all genres - drama, action and comedy. He went on to gather 7 Filmfare Awards and many other state honours. So popular was his persona and stature that the state govt declared a holiday as mark of respect and mourning. May his soul rest peace. And may God give strength to his wife and two adopted daughters.

New Game Show : Abhishek Bachchan's Aaram Classes

2009-12-28T10:41:00.000-08:00

Now that Big Boss is over, Abhishek Bachchan will be seen on the same channel at the same time from 23rd Jan, hosting a new TV show. BigB will be replace by his son AB Jr. The show is called Satruday Night Bingo and will be played in great leisure. A regular game of "housie" will just become a little more fun with celebrities and of course the common men. Watch out!

You can catch up with AB on facebook

Checkout the website of colors channel to play this game.

Kishore Kumar Sings : Guni Jano Bhakt Jano

2009-12-27T02:48:00.000-08:00

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etx0Y5YmACs&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

guni jano re bhakt jano
hari nam se nata re jodo bhayi maya se munh modo re
jagat narayan ki jai jai bolo bolo
nagad narayan ko chhodo re, jagat narayan ki

are rajdhan, are gajdhan, gajdhan rajdhan
rajdhan gajdhan rajdhan anajdhan
lal ratan dhan khan re
aayo re jab santosh-dhan baba sab dhan dhul saman re
bolo re sab dhan dhool samaan re
dhan to hai deewar ret ki, dhan se priti todo re, jagat narayan ki

jai govindam jai gopalam

duniya karti rup ki bhakti kaisi maya-roop re
arre ham to uske bhakt hain bhakto jisne banaya roop re
sundar nari pritam pyari chhavi dikhalaye
jai govindam jai gopalam
suno suno chal chitram ki katha sunaye
katha sunaye bhakt kishoram, jai govindam

brahmaande he koti sitaram prithvi par bhi anek sitaram
arre aashirvadam ashokakumaram
prithvi-putram raja-kapuram shammi-kapuram shashi-kapuram
ramam shyamam dilip-kumaram purab-pashchim manoj-kumaram
arre premapujari dev-anandam, roopa-pujari IS-joharam
arre nilam-kamalam raj-kumaram, yade yadam sunil-dattam
are ittefaqam rajesh-khannam jai jaani rajendra-natham
uchhalamakudam jai mahamudam

are swarg lok mei ek hai indra, arre prithvi karey hain teen indra
arre jai jitendra jai dharmendra jai-jai-jai ho jai rajendra, jai govindam
jagat narayan ko chhod ke santo, nagad narayan ke hain sab yaram
nagad narayan ke

in sabake pichhe arre pad gaya income taxam
arre bam bam nache kishor-kumaram, bam bam nache

usa : united states of andhra

2009-12-25T13:29:00.000-08:00

the telengana issue has thrown up a new challenge in administration and law & order maintenance. will a new state really solve the problem? someone should try to base their argument on the current status of newly created states like jharkhand, uttarkhand, chhatisgarh etc. did the state creation solve the issues of poverty and unemployment? are the people living a much better life after partition? i dont think so.

before we hastily create telengana, we should ponder over the above questions. one of my concerns in this scenario is the location of hyderabad. which state would not want to get a piece of it? all of them want to grab the IT hub because thats the hand that feeds andhra, and not many have realized that. apart from the historical significance, hyderabad also provides a part of the ancient myth and old world charm of an ancient city dipped in history and architecture.

if hyderabad is split, it will lose the soul. if its wholly given to one state then that would be unfair. what about other jewels of andhra? who is claiming to keep sania mirza, saina nehwal, vvs laxman, pullela gopichand, chiranjeevi etc. the conceited politicians are only thinking of the land, but not the people.

this is the right time for NRI's to jump in and save andhra. we all know that andhraites form a big chunk of the population in USA and they have the clout. they need to step-in and say that they want 'united states of andhra'. they should come together on a forum and appeal to the people before its too late. wake up guys, don't let this happen.

'sarfaroshi ki tamanna' revisited

2009-12-24T01:45:00.000-08:00

piyush mishra re-wrote the legendary song for the movie 'gulaal' keeping in mind the current scenario. and he has done a wonderful job.

sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mei hai
dekhna hai zor kitna bazu-e-qaatil mei hai
waqt aane pe bataa denge tujhe aye aasmaan
hum abhi se kya bataye kya hamare dil mei hai

o re bismal kaash aate aaj tum hindustaan
dekhte ki mulk saara kya tashan kya chill mei hai
aaj ka launda yeh kehta 'hum to bismil thak gaye
apni aazaadi to bhaiyya laundiya ke til mei hai'

aaj ke jalso mei bismil ek goonga gaa raha
aur behron ka wo rela naachta mehfil mei hai
haath ki khaadi banaane ko zamaana lag gaya
aaj to chaddi bhi silti angrezo ki mill mei hai

dekhna hai zor kitna bazu-e-qaatil mei hai
waqt aane pe bataa denge tujhe aye asmaan
hum abhi se kya bataye kya hamare dil mei hai
sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mei hai

American Beauty : Where?

2009-12-19T00:09:00.000-08:00

The movie did not work for me at all, it was crass. I felt it was hyped because of the director-actor combination, but lacked substance. The acting was brilliant, no two ways about it. But what I hated was that, there was not a single sane character in the movie. I dont enjoy a movie thats filled with characters/caricatures but lack depth.

You have Kevin Spacey who is suffering from inferiority complex and the only thing he looks forward to is his daughter’s friend, that's a sick mind where sex becomes a goal to work for; not family, not wife or children but an object of lust tat too someone who is 20 years younger; I can still accept that becasue its not a moral issue. Meena Suvari, who actually reciprocates Spacey’s lust; does she have a mind of her own or what? Annette Bening is shallow too; she cheats on her hubby by sleeping arnd instead of confronting the truth, and continues to live selfishly in a bad marriage. Thora Birch who is low on confidence and the only thing that would cheer her up is a boob-job; and the sudden interest shown by her nerdy neighbour actually turns her on because no one has ever seen her in amorous way.

The drug peddler who tries to find beauty of life in shooting flying polythene bags and death, how demented. And his army-burdened dad who suspects that his son is gay.

While i do agree that America has lots of such families with such characters, but I would definitely not believe that all these characters would be found in the same family. Yes, you can find these characters but in different families, you dont bring in all fuckin nerdy characters in the same house. Come on .. gimme room to breathe. This is a potboiler situation where you bring in all the wacks/freaks you can think of and put them in the same frame and call it ‘american beauty’

movie poster : love sex aur dhokha

2009-12-17T10:41:00.000-08:00

This is the poster of Dibakar Bannerjee's latest movie. His previous successful movie was Oye Lucky Lucky Oye [OLLO] which starred Abhay Deol. Click PFC to know more

devaa aa gaya … DevD has arrived

2009-12-15T13:56:00.000-08:00

“devaa aa gaya”… announced Dharamdas[Tiku Talsaniya] in 2002’s version of Devdas. But my Dev hadn’t arrived yet. What SLB did was excellent, poetry on celluloid; but what AK has done is more like a sonnet. I would not like to compare the two becasue SLB had his version while AK has his own subversion [pun intended].

SLB took great pains to re-create the past, an old era near Hooghly while AK has done a whole lot of research to portray Dev for the present and future. He has set a benchmark for other writer/directors becasue this is a movie that respects the sensibility of a mature audience. AK has gone a few notches up in the story-telling department. Black Friday looked like a docu-drama and No Smoking went into a fantasy and looked like AK had lost control due to his over-indulgence; but DevD is a perfect blend between visual imagery and story-telling … like Coke with Vodka.

I have followed DevD diaries and have been reading about it from inception to conception to gestation and finally reproduction. And it was worth the time that it took, becasue he has got everything right; well almost. I thought the second half dragged a bit, lost a bit of momentum; but it ended well.

AK has moved Devdas to Punjab, from Kolkata, and rechristened him as DevD. That in itself is a huge shift and makes us realise that Dev belongs to Gen-X. He has pleasure trips, guilt-free sex, enjoys a good smoke and lots of liquor, has sex-chat with Paro; in fact his dad quips in that Dev has acquired new taste .. “chicken chhodke fish, whisky chhodke vodka aur asli ladki chhodke sookhi baas ki bamboo ke peeche bhagna”. Thats Dev, always running away; sometimes from Paro, sometimes from Chanda and most of the times from himself.

He loves Paro immensely but his arrogance gets the better of him. He loves her so much that he breaks a bottle on the head of one of the villagers who brags that he has had a nice fuck with Paro and that she is great in bed; but his chauvinism does not permit him to make love
to her. So great is his arrogance that he belittles Paro, breaks her heart and pushes her away to marry somebody else. The realisation dawns on him only when her ‘doli’ is about to leave with the blaring ‘Emotional Atyachar’ in the background. Perfect song that describes the feeling and captures the emotions of Dev.

Then enters Chanda in his life. A precocious girl who was wronged by her boyfriend, he shot a video of her giving a BJ and circulated it. The shame that her parents go through when media guys hound their house waiting to make a scoop, finally makes her run away. She has been disowned by her mom as well as her friends who refuse her calls and she finally lands up in a dingy brothel, or should we call ‘pleasure house’ where rich brats visit. Dev is also brought here by a pimp called Chunni.

Some people don’t find love all their lives, but Dev fortunately or unfortunately finds love twice; this time in the form of Chanda. But both the times he fails to recognize it. When he was with Paro he did not realize it was love till she left him, and now that he is with Chanda the thought of Paro keeps haunting him. He wants to meet her once, make love to her. Meet he finally does, but Paro has moved on in life. She has been mature enough to compromise and she accuses Dev of not being in love with anybody but himself. And thats the last we see of Paro, totally out of Dev’s life. While Dev is still not able to accept this fact he drowns himself in alcohol and in his drunk stupor
he over-runs 7 people o the footpath in his BMW.

In the final reels, after his dad’s death he has a near miss accident when a car crashes against a wall beside him. And that brings in a new consciousness and he decides that he has to move on. I shall not reveal the ending but all I can say is that this Dev is a guy of the new generation; and hence the ending had to be new and believable too. A special mention should be made of the fantastic music-lyrics duo, Amit and Amitabh have done an excellent job. All the songs are apt and they have been weaved into the movie; they are almost like a smooth narrative. Mahi Gill as Paro was brilliant in the movie. She has everything it takes to make an actress, an amazing range of expressions – from grief to grin, from anger to anxiety, from love to loathing…everything. Kalki as Chanda was good but she could not express herself through her voice and face; she needed lines.

The editing was slick and 360 deg camera rotation was used to great effect. Cinematography was fantastic, capturing the beauty of Punjab, the loneliness of Delhi streets, the filthy room of Dev, dingy brothel areas; everything was shot well. And finally, Abhay and AK…from concpet to conundrum…they created it. Abhay has rasied the bar for himself, he is no longer competing with anyone but himself. I am waiting for his next and of course AK’s next titled Gulaal. Until then
… dhol yaara dhol.

This post was first published on PFC

claudia ciesla from big boss 3

2009-12-12T10:38:00.000-08:00

Delusion Angel : David Jewell's Poem

2009-12-11T13:58:00.000-08:00

Daydream delusion,
limousine eyelash,
oh, baby with your pretty face,
drop a tear in my wineglass,
look at those big eyes,
see what you mean to me,
sweet cakes and milkshakes,
I am a delusioned angel,
I am a fantasy parade,
I want you to know what I think,
dont want you to guess anymore,
you have no idea where I came from,
we have no idea where we're going,
launched in life,
like branches in the river,
flowing downstream,
caught in the current,
I'll carry you, you'll carry me,
that's how it could be,
don't you know me?
don't you know me by now?

stills from 'rocket singh'

2009-12-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

Working on the look of Rocket Singh[Ranbir Kapoor with Jaideep Sahni]

Kishore Kumar Sings : Priye Praneshwari

2009-12-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

priye praaneshwari, hridayeshwari
yadi aap hamey aadesh karey to
prem ka hum shri ganesh karey
priye praaneshwari

ye chakshu tere chanchal chanchal
ye kuntal bhi shyaamal shyaamal
ye adhar dharey jeevan jwaala
ye roop chandra-sheetal sheetal
o kaamini
o kaamini prem vishesh karey
yadi aap hamey aadesh karey to
prem ka hum shri ganesh karey

ho sanchit punyon ki asha
sun vyathit hriday ki mridu bhasha
sarvasv samarpan karde hum
karo poorn hamaari abhilasha
gaj-gaamini
gaj-gaamini door klesh karey
yadi aap hamey aadesh karey to
prem ka hum shri ganesh karey

ham bhramar nahi is yovan ke
ham yaachak hain mann upvan ke
ham bhaav pushhp karde arpan
saakaar karo sapne mann ke
man-mohini
man-mohini, mann mein pravesh karey
yadi aap hamey aadesh karey to
prem ka hum shri ganesh karey

Bina 'Anarkali' Rai Passes Away

2009-12-08T19:28:00.000-08:00

A popular actress of yesteryears, Bina Rai, passed away in the morning hours of 6th Dec' 09. Not many people/channels reported about it.

She will be most remembered for her performance in and as 'Anarkali'. She also later went on to essay Mumtaz role in the movie 'Taj Mahal'. Pradeep Kumar had played the hero opposite her in both movies. She did a couple of more movies after 'Taj Mahal' and then quit the scene. May her soul rest in peace.

marketting strategies decoded ...

2009-12-07T14:03:00.000-08:00

1. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to
her and say: "I am very rich.
Marry me!" - That's Direct Marketing....

2. You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a
gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and
pointing at you says: "He's very rich.
Marry him." -That's Advertising...

3. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to
her and get her telephone number. The next day, you
call and say: "Hi, I'm very rich.
Marry me" - That's Telemarketing.....

4. You're at a party and see gorgeous girl. You get up
and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour
her a drink and say "Marry Me?" - That's Public
Relations...

5. You're at a party and see gorgeous girl. She walks
up to you and says:"You are very rich!
Can you marry me?" - That's Brand Recognition...

6. You see a gorgeous girl at a party.. You go up to
her and say: "I am very rich. Marry me!" She gives you
a nice hard slap on your face. - That's Customer Feedback...

7. You see a gorgeous girl at a party.. You go up to
her and say: "I am very rich. Marry me!" And she
introduces you to her husband. - That's demand and supply gap...

8. You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to
her and before you say anything, another person comes
and tells her: "I'm rich. Will you marry me?" and she
goes with him - That's competition eating into your market share...

9. You see a gorgeous girl at a party.. You go up to
her and before you say: "I'm rich, Marry me!" your
wife arrives. - That's restriction for entering new markets...