English Vinglish !

This film's title mistakenly makes the viewers feel that it is about english. It's not. It is about the self esteem of a women, who is stuck in rather uncelebrated job, doing relatively 'less highly ' thought of roles. English, was just a medium of bringing forth her hurt and subsequent defiance. It could as well have been say , computers. Above all , It was about Shridevi. The amazing , age defying shri, with eyes deeper than oceans. Umm.. a little nasty nose and teeth job, but every bit as beautiful as ever.

 So we had this unassuming homemaker, who is not good at english, and derided by her family rather callously for that . She accumulates this grief till the last straw , And given a break ,she takes on a journey to rid herself of her most riling deficiency, in process of ridding her family of what was their most riling one. And need I say it was done brilliantly ! A film with a modest story and such a puerile background as 'mind your language' could have sunk into mediocrity. But Gauri Shinde painted the film with such subtle and precise strokes that the viewer just wows. Nevermind rather shrill daughter, or a lame romance in the classroom. Or overly sweet sister or that lallu looking husband. The film just flows like Sri's lissome dance moves. I am glad i watched it with my mother. Its just the kind of film one should take one's mom to !

Tiger spotting !

      When you watch a Salman Khan film, you go to theater with different set of expectations. Lately, south style action repackaged in a bollywood box has been his forte. And for some reason .  salman's fan following and nature of affections that he gets borders on south style hero idolizing. Fans have got conditioned to 'like' him irrespective of anything. For instance, nothing can explain the success of 'ready'. 'Bhai' film has become a buzzword. And Even high brow production houses like YRF, could not ignore this phenomenon. And so we had this film, based on a ridiculously flimsy plot. I mean Roshan Seth as a scientist was like aloknath playing a terrorist. Fishes on trees only look fine in abstract painting. And we had these two spies trying to steal his data, but getting struck by cupid in between. And with a pathetic supporting cast consisting of largely unknown faces, we are told a labored tale of love .Too easy, too unidiementional. I mean for a film of 6o crores, you expect at least some twist and turns and double crossings.  You get none. The hero can indulge only in 'saccha pyar' the true love.  The comic quotient of the film is poor as well. The only place where the film scores is excellent locales and good action sequences. But then you dont  order burgers in an oriental restaurant. For that you have MacDonald. A bollywood masala film should deliver, well bollywood fare. Which was minimal in the film. Acting wise, salman khan plays himself in all his films. Call it acting or whatever you may. And ditto for kat. A beutiful mannequin. Dressed and placed hither tither. To her credit, she looked great and danced with aplomb.  Overall it was a not a 'bhai' film at all. Though its brisk and dosn't bore.  It was rather a typical modern day YRF film. Lot of gloss , color and investment. Little connect. Also it was a typical kabir khan film. Good locales , nice action. Nothing else.  Finally a song and dance sequence sums the film up. On a belly dancing tune rip, katreena does an intricate effort. Crowd barely takes note. Then Salman comes and does a hand wave and school boyish jig. And the house errupts.  Thats all he has to do in terms of quality and quantity to rake in 250 crores. Stardom and cults. Both live on fanaticism. Logic has place only in drabber milieus. 

Journey !

Reflecting about journey, friends ,goals. This couplet makes me think .

Manzil ke karib pahauch kar ehsaas hua ,
Saath saath chalne ka lutf kuch aur tha.

Though have been a believer of
Lajjat a sehra navardi ,doori-e-manjil mein hai

:)

Fati Patange

Watched kites . Would have liked to write a review, but it has left my mind in an incoherent state. Just as a ping pong spin serve, goes haywire on receiving unless given the right kind of counter spin , this spectacularly invented incoherent spin, is yet to be favorably returned by mankind. Most people, who are watching are either fan boys (rather girls) or those who had already made their mind to play ball thanks to the hype surrounding the film , or its their absolute deprivation of better things to do . No wonder they are having their balls go all over the place (figurative usage, for the naive, or those who's senses are numbed by something like , well kites). So, I would list some observations that come to my mind as sediments settle.

1) This film is magical. I remember as a young boy I used to see magic tricks in village fairs . There would be a magician, who would put lot of things like cards and flowers and pigeons in a magic hat. And still the hat remained empty. Vacuousness , despite having an assortment of contents, is still magic for me!

2) This film is high art.Its all Dadaism , and cubism with magic realism and existential agnst. To the lay eye that is. An expert eye can understand. Those things. Some things are pure surreal. Like how pushed to the wall, the hero suddenly pulls out a machinegun from his front pocket and shoots the entire goon clan. It was ethereal blend of Tarantino and Jim Carrey.

3) The starting lines give certain high funda's about kites flying in the sky and some gibberish that if two kites fly close by , then one has to get cut. Wonder what relevance all that had in the film. As if there was any relevance elsewhere ! Why was the film named Kites remains a mystery. may be there aren't many nouns in english which start with the letter K.

4) This film introduces 'saccha pyar' to the west. A disease more virulent than AIDS, and hitherto unknown to western world. AIDS would trouble only the afflicted person and his partner (we are not talking about broad minded people here ). A man is screwed when he gets this 'saccha' affliction. Everyone and his uncle, who is remotely close to such a person dies. So if you know someone with symptoms of this, please prefer some one with bird flue over him. Your chances will only improve.

5) In the starting scenes , our hero J chooses bboying and breakdance . In a couple dance competition! The female partner was reduced to mere prop , tossed all over the place! The same unfortunately is true about the film.

6) This film teaches us that the world , human beings etc are too vast to understand or predict. In so much , its a treatise on oriental philosophy. So all characters , turn more unpredictably than a noida cycle riksha. Only exception being the pure and unidimentional Tony . The message is that only evil is constant in the world. Rest all is ephemeral. Talking about time, this movie does deal with the illusory notion of time ! It moves back and forth, and back and forth, so much so that the viewers get an impression that time has stopped. You feel like you have spent ages, all in a matter of minutes. No wonder that in those particular frames the protagonist looks like a babaji.

7) The name 'Jamal' is perhaps the mascot for all crossover films or (botched) attempts thereof. Here too we have a poker faced Jamal who is in perpetual dilemma Johy Lever depicted in Dulhe Raja. Yar ye meri side hai ya uski !

8) In the final sequences, Kangna Ranaut shoots Jr Roshan. It was so natural acting ! She must have felt like shooting entire crew, for the royal neglect she got in the film. Every viewer in the theatre commiserated with the agony Hrithik had in those final frames. It was so their own !

9) The ending of this film was pretty much gangster like . Only difference, in gangster the two souls meet in sky. Here , they choose abyss. That alas, accentuated the difference between the two films. Atleast story/entertainment wise.

Final word. Despite criticism , the film might work. In fact work well. The huge release in india, will ensure that it would earn well just with openings. The west, will watch it with 'quaint' appeal. It perhaps is the first Indian film made for western audience and they may take note. It may also appeal to the hispanics, who dont know what to expect from a bollywood film. And it will serve as a good portfolio/dossier for Hrithik . Hollywood studios may ring him if they need a desi , arab or even hispanic in their side roles. To be fair to him, he tried hard, and looked great. Ekdum export class material.

The Guru

There was this wise sage who quietly lived on the hill top. Well, a penthouse to be precise. There ain't many hills available for modern day knowled ge seekers. And so, the learned one, continued his quest for knowled ge ,while being atop the princess. For the perverted wandering minds, this was the name of the apartment complex he lived in. And while most dwellers of princess carried on with their lives worrying about grades promotions et all being oblivious to the higher realities of life , our sage continued his enlightened existence. So mr Gupta grudged the promotion he dint got .Nay, the one that mr Pande GOT. His daughter remained ever so worried about the (imaginary) extra pounds, thereby starving her already frail frame further. The two love birds on second floor continued their cacophonous chirping , dreaming about 'and they lived happily ever after' tripe, while ignoring what the 'uttar kaand' may have in store for them. Say he got diabetes, she got arthritis , and life of both turned miserable in few years interval. And amidst this chaos, the wise man lived his phlegmatic life.

The wise man was not the only mention worthy character in the princess. There was this young brat on the last but one floor, who had this burning desire to know about arcane matters of life. He worked in the same office in which the wise man(didn't) worked , and need less to say, was impressed with his serenity and impregnability.The other day, he saw the chief furiously shouting at the wise man using transfer threats, anatomical curse words and what not. And yet the face of the wise man had no emotions ! It was as calm and serene as ever. The young man was impressed . He got hold of the wise man to enquire about the blastings. The wise man placidly replied . You know the last chief ? He threw a paper weight on me. He retired last year. This one , too would soon. Mirth,or misery, everything passes . The young man was not entirely satisfied . But the chief may shunt you to some insignificant job! To this the old man calmly said, tankhwah miltee rahegi, duniya chaltee rahegi. Would the earth bend its axis for whatever the chief does ! And what if he promotes your neighbour instead of you,quipped young man.To which the utterly serene wise men, with his fixated smile widening a notch or two, replied ,marna sabko hai ek din. Let him rise as much as he can. He too shall be grounded . Nay, intered .The datum is fixed . Your rise, is equal to your fall.When your beginning and end are fixed , is there a point in running in circles ? Speaking so, the wise man took the young man's leave. It was 3-30 and he was already late by about 15 minutes. For his afternoon tea that is. The young man stood there, perplexed , about the gyan that just befell his ears. It would take him some time to assimilate all this. His quest for knowled ge was aroused , and intensified . He made his mind he would seek the tutelage of the wise men. His dull nerd existence, now had a purpose.

India's showing in NZ

Its been a robust batting show by India in the ODI's, after getting some serious drubbing by NZ in the 20-20's. Tendulkar's remark about this batting line up being the strongest has also stirred a debate among crickets, former cricketers and former(non) cricketers. I think the 20-20 show by NZ and the India's reply in ODI's bears a clue to this debate. Consider this, 20-20 takes mindless battering from ball one. You can do with good arms and limited skills in those games. ODI, requires a bit more staying ability(read skill). That perhaps explains why we were snubbed by NZ in 20-20. Mcullum and Ryder,proving to be better 'right from go' hitters than our boys, who wasted balls before starting (Dhoni leading from the front in this regard). But in ODI's, it was a matter of 50 overs. NZ just couldn't last those (as proven to hilt in 3rd ODI). That was the difference between the two sides. And that, is the difference between India's current line up and the one with say Laxman and Dravid, manifest most clearly in Yuvraj's test record. So, while current line up is good in ODI's and is refreshingly brash in its style of playing, it perhaps needs time and test matches to be called the best ever.

PS: I cant fathom why Dhoni is batting ahead of Raina(on current form) . Reminds me of Dravid opening ODI innings during his captaincy days.

My modus operendi

I believe in doing my job well.This apart, I am indifferent on most issues and irreverent to most people. I normally do what I feel like doing, although on most occasions I know what would have been right for me.