Dilllllll….Dhadakne do !! :)

Dil Dhadakne Do….lab-dup, lab-dup, lab-dup… :)

Hi me darlings'!!! :),

Dil Chahta Hai- Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, 2001, Benchmark in Indian Cinema

Zindagi na milegi dobara- Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani, Zoya akhtar, Reema Kagti, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, 2011, National and International blockbuster

And now we have…

Dil Dhadakne Do-  Zoya Akhtar, Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani, Reema Kagti, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, 2015……….decide for yourself… :)

Lets talk about it then. Like the previous flicks of the Akhtar Bro-sis Combo, one very strong point in the movie is the consummate star-cast that doesn’t waver a single bit throughout the 170 mins that the movie runs.

The reason why they made this movie as also why I wanted to see it, was obviously the expectation to engender and witness respectively, the magic created in the aforementioned flicks.

But yaar, magic doesn’t happen as a rule. It definitely didn’t happen here. Even the music was utterly unimpressionable and the songs [except the title track which comes only in the end when we are in the process of leaving the hall moving cautiously towards the radiant “Exit” signs…..all our senses alert, directed towards preventing ourselves from stumbling in the darkness n falling flat on our faces. :)))] were nothing but a painful impediment in the flow of the story.

I for one would have shelved it as an okay one time watch, but contrary to that here I am, writing about it.

Why? I ask myself…

There was something, which intrigued me, and I was at the risk of getting my intractable pain abdomen back if I didn’t come here and talk to you about it. :)))

Lets start with the good things first. As I said the movie rested on the strong shoulders of its awesome cast, especially Ranveer. PC babe, Shefali, Farhan all were par excellence. Priyanka and Ranveer as brother-sister too came on as pro. For Shefali to play Priyanka’s mom and for Priyanka to play Ranveer’s sister were gutsy decisions which the ladies pulled off flawlessly.  

Anil Kapoor was also very endearing. I am sure he was having difficulty stopping himself from dancing and jumping with a shove of his hair, screaming ‘Jhakkaas’or managing so very little body movement all through the movie. :)))

Zoya had to manage a Celeb Cast of 25 people, crew of 150, all of the heavy duty equipment with THE Bull Mastiff on board the cruise where in they spent a month and a half to complete the shoot. The idea of cruise and the narration of the story with Aamir Khan’s voice-over, was refreshing. Yu ki Mediteranian me tairte tairte movie banaa daali :)))

Ranveer surpassed himself with his subtle and accurate performance. He and Anil Kapoor were in a mutual admiration club, sticking together so much during the shoot so as to make the women folk jealous. :) Ranveer says he wanted to become a ‘Hero’ as a child, and for him the definition of Hero was Anil Kapoor. :)

What actually hit me was the picture of the modern age human behaviour and mentality that stared at me blatantly through the screen. Is it what we have in store for us? Is the society going to be this way? And believe me, though the reviews call it the story of a dysfunctional Punjabi family, I found it completely contrary. They were a very normal-for-the-present-times family.

You’d be shocked and may probably even laugh if you see Ranveer touching the feet of his parents in the movie. In the garb of modernization, open-ness, ‘individual space’, are we sadly enough walking back towards the stone age? Is it not prudent to have a certain degree of mutual respect rather than speaking out your mind all the time? I don’t know…..

I felt proud for a moment, of Indian culture and human values that have been inculcated into us since ages, and felt sad in anticipation and fear of it all getting lost eventually. We are probably the last generation following those social and family norms. I hope I am wrong. :( The movie clearly projects the confusion, chaos and clashes between the old and the new school of these norms.

Achchha lemme give u a simile. Lemme take you back in time….

Remember Bapu’s 1983 movie “Wo Saat Din”? It is such a relief when Padmini decides to carry on with her marriage. Aur door kyu jaanaa, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 1999 super-flick, ‘Hum dil de chuke sanam’?? I am sure most of the women audiences would’ve come out of the halls with tears of relief and ‘Awww’ seeing Aishwarya back with Ajay Devgan. 

Here we see Priyanka wanting a divorce on grounds of ‘incompatibility’ and we are convinced she should get the divorce asap. And why not? Everyone has a right to decide who he/she wants to spend his/her life with.

Par baba is sab me bahut locha ho raha hai. Tu nahi aur sahi…aur nahi aur sahi…is this ok? :)

Fir what is right what is wrong? Bheri bheri dipphicult to decide you see…. :/

In the process, one thing is clear though, that relationships are becoming flimsy, our tolerance is decreasing….we are less ready to work hard on keeping the relationships alive and run for easier options like freeing ourselves out of it. But we forget what this will lead to as regards the social framework in the long run.

Apna and the future generations for that matter, ka toh toh ab Bhagwan hi maalik hai bhau, nai kya? :) yu ki Global Warming jitna vadda issue hai ye toh :/

Khair mai bhi kahaa ki kahaa pahuch jaati hu, by God ki kasam!! :)

Its safer to just take everything as it comes.

And ofcourse,

Har dil dhadakna chahta hai,

Toh

Har Dil Dhadakne Do…… :)

So people, go watch the movie and enjoy!!

Lots of luv from me here at Page-3!! Cheerio….byebye….and ‘Take gud care of yourself’- Amitabh ishtyle :)

'Pk'….err...'Piku'… :)

PK…..err….Piku… ‘light’ ‘comedy’ ‘family-drama’?!!

Hi wonderful people,

Howz mid summer treating you? Hotly of course :)))

Abhi kya hua naa, ki after ‘Pk’, now Bollywood decided to ‘treat’ us Indian audiences with ‘Piku’ by the Director of ‘Vicky donor’, Shoojit Sirkar.

When I first heard that a movie was coming on floors with a name like this and starring all my favourites, Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika and Irrfan…it obviously got me awaiting in earnest. I happily started researching more about what its going to be.

I came to know, it would be a ‘light-hearted’ ‘comedy’ ‘family-drama’, wherein Amitji and Deepika are playing a Bong father-daughter duo and Irrfan her love interest. It was supposed to be a flick much like the Hrishikesh Mukherjee movies in the past. Wow, so far so good. Chupke Chupke was already running in my mind. I readied myself for a feast, completely appeasing my emotional thirst and tickling the laughter-centre in my brain, leaving me ROFL [Roll Over the Floor Laughing] all through the movie. After all, all three of them are perfectly capable of that, nai kya? :)

Aur uspe the Bangla backdrop was a welcome atmosphere for me where I expected the girl to be very well educated and liberated in tune with the present times. Ab imagine two Bong women in conversation…..in….err….cordial conversation I mean, :), it sounds so musical nai? ‘Hain, kee holo…?’ ‘Bolbe naa kee?’ ‘Kamon ashen?’ ‘kaino…?’ ‘Jol khobe kee…?’ [pardon my mistakes]

oh I just luv it. :)

Aur uske bhi upar se, Amitabh, jinki ‘Biwi’ khaalis Bong ho, he must toh relish the tone and slangs in Bangla having lived all his life with his wifey and sasural wale!!  :))))

Toh bhaiya, I was in eager anticipation and 8^th of May seemed so far away it was very discomforting for me.

Aur maloom? Just for the records, when Bachchan saab cycles through Kolkata streets the cute little girl that we see from the window playing harmonium is Shoojit Sirkar’s daughter…..her debut in bollywood movies :)

In the process of killing the time lapse, I even saw the 1980 short film by Satyajit Ray himself, called Pikoo starring Aparna Sen and Victor Bannerjee. It was a very intense story, true to the maestro Ray himself. It had so much to say, if I start, it would take a whole book to speak about it…so I would leave it at that saying, ‘its beyond the scope of this write-up’ as of now. The only thing I would mention here is that it was very saddening…..seeing the lonely old grandpa dying of heart attack when he couldn’t reach the bed switch of his alarm bell put up to call his aide in case he required something. I sighed in relief that at least this modern Piku would be a comedy, leaving me fresh and light headed when I am done watching it.

Finally the D-day arrived… ‘Piku’ was released….and I did watch it….from begininning to The End…..

Then? Fir kya?

Did it not give the best ever performances by the three main leads?- It did….they were in their acting best.

Did it not have instances of making you ROFL?- It did….the comic timing, superb expressions and spontaneous dialogues of Amitabh , the flawless performances of Deepika, Irrfan and Maushmi were very much there.   

Did it not grab a whopping 25 Crore in the opening weekend? – It did,

Was the music not up to the mark? – It was…

Then again I asked myself,

‘Fir tujhe problem kya hai Devi?’ :)))

Why was I not happy?

Why was I not satisfied, neither emotionally nor psychologically?

Why did I feel disappointed?

I pondered…..

I had read, it was a ‘light’ movie…I felt it was far from it, it was a strong satire and very heavy on my head.

I had read it was a ‘family drama’ showing the realistic status of a family. Oh c’mon, give me a break….is this the way the family members communicate in a family? Piku’s daily conversations with her father, with the taxi drivers, with Irrfan…even daily behaviour and interactions of Irrfan with his mother and abandoned sister, when its clearly specified in the movie that both Bhaskor and Rana are feminists and respect women….can we call it all normal? Just imagine what kind of place would the world be if such is the scenario in each and every family?

The so called perfect, liberated, modern daughter is cribbing all the time, shown like a martyr sacrificing her life for her own father, while she works, boozes, moves about in a taxi [no hassles of public transport] has a full time maid and a male aide for the old father….and still they share a single solitary smile in the entire movie when they sing a bangali song!! 

 I was forced to ponder, is it some favour that the children do, when they look after their old eccentric parents? And if this is the justified status then how can we blame a daughter in law or son in law, who have to look after their ailing saas ans sasur [fathers and mothers in law] for anything that they do or do not do. What to talk of those old parents and parents in law who cant go to the proper washrooms for their basic needs.....

India is still a country where parents respected and loved. Being liberated doesn’t justify any change from this.

The way Irrfan falls for her, the way her colleague Jisshu waits on her….all this is illogical in practicality. Irrfan, the cab owner, going out of the way to drive them to Kolkata just doesn’t happen in reality. 

The relation between the old man and his male-maid is much better in comparison. He stands outside the washroom making the verbal atmosphere with ‘Sssssssssssss’…….. while his master pisses. He wakes up first when his master nearly dies the morning after he gets filthy drunk, calls for Piku since 4 am in the morning but she doesn’t wake up. When she reaches her father’s bedside, the Doctor has already seen and treated him being called by the nauker. I am disappointed :/

I am again forced to ponder, when the real daughter is so uncomfortable what Is the motivation behind that servant loving and behaving well with the master? I am disappointed :/

Amitabh is at his acting best no doubt but his Bangla words and slangs are loud and overdone. I am disappointed :/

The music is good I agree, but apart from the peppy Sunidhi number, rest all four songs seem to be just a continuation of a single one….found it hard to differentiate one from the other. They are very soulful with nice voice of Anupam Roy who has done the composing, writing and voicing in this film, first Hindi movie for him….but somehow they seem inconsequential……the contexts could easily go without a song interspersed. They did not get their due worth. I am disappointed :/

I am sad, that I am disappointed. I wanted to love the movie. But again I ask myself, isn’t it getting rave reviews? Mera thoda alag hai toh kya hua? :)

Toh sau baat ki ek baat….. “Afwaho pe mat jao, apni akal lagao”

Go watch it for yourself and decide what its worth. I did. You do too. :)

Aur fir apan fir mileinge…..ek aur Bollywood movie ke saath Chai pe charcha karte huye…

Tab tak khush rahiye, muskurate rahiye….

Love, Laugh and Live to the fullest….till we meet again…

Bye, Tata, cheerio from me here at Page-3 :)

Badla-pur?!! :)

“The axe forgets…

But the tree remembers………”

Hi my tiddlee-om-pom-poms…

Sunday’s here again and Rajni sar’s testing his pichkari….rains all over the place on the first day of March…lo kallo baat!! Hain jee!! Kuchh bhi!! :)

Asal me kya hua, ki kuchh din pehle again a couple of songs caught my attention like, ‘jee karda’ and ‘jeena jeena’ featuring Varun Dawan. Then as usual my curious dimaag got me to research about wat the movie was and when was it expected to release.

But all my expectations dashed and crashed when I came to know of the name….It was “BADLAPUR” !!

“Badla-pur”??!! what kind of a name was that? I mean, so very “Mayapuri-ish” nai?!! :)))

No baba, I am not going to waste my time on such a seemingly mediocre movie…I said to myself. But again listening to and viewing those songs, I realized that apart from the high energy and melodious music there was an intensity and a peculiar mystery that came along. Alright, these things set the movie apart for me and I decided to see it afterall, despite the qualms about the name that lingered on, but I would take the risk I thought…at least I’ll be treated with good music, if not anything else. :)

And finally I made it…..

It commenced….and….and….OMG!! Had it not been for dear life I would have stopped breathing altogether…..for fear of distraction from the ongoing high momentum saga….the thrill, the speed, the screenplay…..

The beauty was….generally in movies the suspense about the murderer is revealed only in the climax, but here, we know it all very very clearly right from the beginning….who killed, how n why he killed!! Aur maze ki baat, Only the audience knows!! Not even the characters in the story!! Imagine!! and the title too very clearly tells us it’s a revenge saga. Still….despite all this, the thrill isn’t lost!! “ab kya hoga!!”….all the while we are kept asking this question!!

I was Not allowed to make up my mind about anything baba!! Who is the Hero? Who is the Villian? Whats gonna happen? Whats this all about? :)

Good isn’t good enough and Bad can be fairly good…..!!

Hats off Mr Sriram Raghavan for this brilliant cinematic megafeast!! :) He knows exactly what he is doing and like the Pied Piper, we play with our heads and hearts to his tune in totality. :)

I was loving it. I thanked God giving me the soundness of mind to understand this phenomenon, running in front of my eyes. I was shocked, surprised, amazed…I cried, I laughed, I smiled…. :)

I mean, it was too good to be true. The performances were perfect…whether it was Kanchan[Arpita Apte], Yami, Divya Datta or the private detective [Ashwini Kalsekar] or may be Laik’s mom [Kumud Mishra]

…..just observe the subtle perfection in Vinay Pathak’s movements, his body language, his expressions!!! 

Huma Qureshi was more of a looker than any consequence in acting….she did well in whatever capacity her character let her to.

The Stars all along were Nawazuddin Siddiqui n Varun Dhawan. Nawaz takes away the limelight from Varun so many times yet varun surpasses himself with his acting prowess. The sheer transformation from a chocolaty “oh so cute” boy to a hard hitting man who could be brutal to the hilt, hell bent on revenge at any cost, something a bit like what we witnessed with Ranbir in Rockstar.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui!! My God…what can I say about him in this film….it was totally his movie…..He is ruthless, He is sly, He is disgusting and despicable….and then he luvs, his bond with his mom and girlfriend, and then he tries to do good in the end…in that utterly unexpected climax…superlative!!

Yes, for Raghavan to work without restrains, and to push a few boundaries, this movie had to be ‘A’ rated. 

And yes, this movie did actually get me to the edge of the seat most of the time…in literal sense…. :)

So people….do take out time, see the movie and experience it in your own individual way because each of us are bound to have an impact distinct and discrete to ourselves, very different from the rest!! :)

Would love to know your views….

Till then, its bye bye…tata…."Happy Holi" from me here at Page-3!! :)

"Piddly si baatein…!!" :)

Piddly si baatein……

The Television was on….I was walking by….when something hit me…..

 The words, The song….The voice…and…ahem…The Location!! :)

….The Words….catchy, uncommon, evoking curiosity….

….The Song….softly foot tapping music, one that you can sing along with, better than raw rap, soothing to senses I must say :)…

….The Voice…that is one in a billion and can be recognized by any Indian anywhere on the globe. Of course, of course, belonging to who other than the Bollywud Yugpurush, Amitabh Bacchchan. :)

….The Location- ye sabse khatarnaak ha bhailog…Amitji is sitting on The Seat [aasaan bhaasha me…err..Commode!!!]….yes that’s exactly where he is…singing this song, using the Hand-shower as Mike!!! :))))

Lo bolo…hai naa khatarnaak!!!! :)

Amitji says, its this very auspicious seat, ye wo mahaan singhasan hai, that when we sit on, we get all the goodh-gyaaan ki baatein and all sorts of introspections, retrospections etc etc etc coming clearly to our heads………..oh dear!!! :) fir kya bol sakte hain :))))

Bas fir kyat tha, meri restless page-3 aatma se nikal aaya ye [P]review….:)

[P]review, because the movie is yet to be released…on the 6^th of Feb ie…but, yu ki,  sochne wali baat ye hai ki, tab tak rukti toh pet me dard naa hone lagta bhalaa? :))))

Ab aap poochhoge, ki ye Piddly Piddly kya hai, ye Piddly Piddly?

Haan haan poochho poochho…bindaas!! :)

See there are two schools of thought going for the meaning of this slang ;)-

-According to our Amit ji, it means ‘susu jaane ka urge’, haan bhai, he himself said it!! :)

-According to the writer-director R Balki it means trivial, common-place, aiwayi…. :)….maslan, “Piddly see baatein manje, chhoti-moti baatein…”

Chaliye ab zaraa song se hat kar Movie per se pe concentrate karte hain!!

This song belongs to the upcoming R Balki’s,

AMITABH Bacchan-REKHA,

Southie superstar and RAJANI SAAR’s Damaad, DHANUSH,

Kamaal Haasan’s daughter, AKSHARA [who is debuting with this high voltage movie] starrer… “Shamitabh”!!

Ab bolo bhalaa…. Amitabh Bachchan, REKHA!! Rajanikanth, Kamaal Haasan, Dhanush [of Kolaveri fame hereabouts]….Soooo many biggies…associated with one movie!!! Gazzab naa?!! :)

Ab ek aur mazedaar baat batau?...the music in this movie is given by none other than the legendary Ilayaraja saar!!! See I don’t blame you Bollywoodies, if you do not know the greatness of this great person….I’ll let you into the league…he is revered down south as a maestro…

Recently, at the trailer launch the team celebrated and felicitated him for completing no less than…100 aur ek aur zero….ie 1000 movies down south!!!!!

….Kamaal haasan n Rajani Saar declared to have done more than 100 movies with Ilayaraja sir!! Kamaal haasan went on to say how he snatched the event as an opportunity to ‘hug’ Ilayaraja sir, while felicitating him….and how Ilayaraja sir had converted all the songs of one of Kamaal Haasan’s movies that were very ordinary into sure shot hits just by changing the music of them all with absolutely no rerecording. ab samjhe? :)

Pataa hai kya, the gorgeous multitalented Shruti Haasan [kyu naa ho…akhir Shruti jo hai!! ;) ]has done the playback on a peppy, quirky, trendy song for the movie….is song ki ek khaasiyat ye bhi hai, ki it has a female voice playing at the back, Dhanush the Hero performing in it….and so very unlikely for Bollywood…he doesn’t lip-sing, sacchi!!!!! :)…..its really Stereophonic Sannata going all strong there. :)))

Ab wo baat, jiske liye you must all be waiting restlessly…I mentioned the name of none other than Rekha, twice earlier….YES, she IS in the movie!! Though not paired with Amitabh sadly, she’s in a cameo role there and that too with Dhanush!!....siiigh :((

Fir bhi hum toh isi me khush hain ki dono ek hi movie me hain toh kum se kum….ab dekhiye naa, if you ask either, “kya aap Shamitabh me kaam kar rahe ain?” toh dono kaa answer sau fee sadi “Haan”hi aayega, nai kya? ;)

Aur batau…..

Ek minute….kahi aap bore toh nahi ho rahe naa?....nahi hona pleeease….kyuki mai jab tak poori gaathaa bol nai lungi, mere pet me dard hota rahega….aur abhi toh picture release hogi….uske baad fir pet dukha toh? :)

Haan toh mai keh rahi thi ki, thoda newbie cutie pie Akshara ke bare me bhi…while the movie was being made, Balki says he chanced upon her he says he weaved a character around her and she became the Third ‘Hero’ of the movie!!!!!!

She is cute, a bit tomboyish and I get a fair impression why Balki took her for that particular role and I am very sure she’ll be exceptional in it….aur picture release hone ke baad mai pakka bolungi…“Dekkhaa, mai naa keti thi?!!” :)

Akshara says she’s a huge fan of Shahrukh!! Lo bolo Amitji ke saath picture kisi ko mile and she goes gaga over SRK!! Hey Prabhu, ajab teri duniya…gazab tere khel!! :) 

Waise pata hai kya, Akshara ke dil ki hote hote reh gayi!! The role of Dhanush was first offered to SRK himself, but he had qualms about the screen space that he would get in the [omni]presence of Amitabh himself. Sahi bhi hai…at least mai toh srk ki taraf dekhtitch bhi nahi!! :)))

When asked about Kolaveri D and him being a vocalist, Dhanush says he is no singer nor does he want to pursue it professionally. Kolaveri D was an accident and could happen to anyone. Luckily it happened to me. :)

He has copied his Sasurji Rajni Saar’s mannerisms in the movie though that he says we’ll understand after seeing it first hand. Aise vishaalkaay sasurji hone se toh mannerisms apne aap hi aa jaate honge, nai kya? ;)

Aur pata hai…even before the starting of its shooting, Balki and Amitabh did the sound recording of the entire movie….and then after the shooting was over, they did the whole recording all over again!!! Such is the consistence, dedication and resilience of great people!! :)

Talking about the story…the title itself tells it all…..

‘dhanuSHAMITABHbachchan’!!!! :)

Dhanush is Backed by Amitabh Bachchan!! :)

R Balki says he was on his way to Amitji’s house on his birthday when he got stuck in traffic, and in that one hour he conceived this story…so instead of a formal gift he whispered tis story to Big B’s ears and thus Shamitabh came into being!! Kaash sabko traffic me fase fase aise gazab ke khayaalaat aate!!:):)

In it, Dhanush plays a vocally-challenged guy, who is given the voice of Amitabh Bachchan making him a superstar. The stars shine till they are and work together and hell breaks loose when they get caught in ego clashes. Bole toh… “mai hi mai hu…mai hi mai hu…doosaraa koi nahi!” pulls them down.

This story goes on to prove, alone we are nothing…its with the help of many that we achieve what we do…hence we should always be grounded and never forget what others have done and are doing for us to help us stand where we are today!! Jai ho!! :)

Chalo bhai log, bol bol ke thak gayi….now toh I am waiting…haath maste huye…the release of Shamitabh…and what does it have to offer us Bollywood lovers!!

Aap sab bhi dekhna zaroor and then we’ll meet again…

Till then, bye-bye, tata, Ram-Ram, take care, cheerio….from me here at Page-3!!

Keep smiling :)

  

O M G!!

15th Oct 2014

.....exactly one month today....

One month, ie 4 weeks, ie 30 days.....

...From 15th Sept...the day, when God decided to click on the "Pause" icon....in our smoothly running life....and then to click the "slow motion" !!

O Lord Almighty!! 

I love You.... I know You are with me....near me....all the time!!

I am sorry for what I made you go through!! The dilemma that I put you in, because You luved me, because You hate to see me suffer!!

But my Karma had it all in store for me....How could you change that?!

Still You went out of Your rule-book and cushioned me....made sure that I suffered the least....

I pondered all these days as I shall continue in future too....thinking mode....introspecting....

One fine day,

we both lay there....in our fowler beds....the door lock of our room got stuck....it could be opened only from inside....oh how very easy it was a few days back...but now?!

We panicked !! Family and staff panicked outside our room!! There was commotion as the spare key bunch was frantically searched for.

It was strange...it was shocking...we both lying there...helpless...

I had kept a spare key securely, called up papa because it was impossible to let my voice heard sensibly in that chaos and discord. Thankfully i had my celfone with me. Tried calling up papa.....he didnt answer.....

probably in his hurry, he had left it in his room....

As a last ditch effort i called him as loud as i cud, to get his mobile....

He heard!! :) then i called and directed him step by step towards where the key was...

He got it....the door was opened...

Innumerable such experiences....making us think even harder....

We were gud ppl, weren't we?! Yet this happened to us. But are we complaining? Absolutely not!! 

Why? Simply bcoz we were left with so much more...to cherish....to use...in our new life....in being still better persons.

God saved us fr a reason. He had things in his mind for us to do....the rest of my new life is now gonna be this quest. The quest to decipher his biddings and act the way He has chosen for me to....

I am sure, we'll not let Him down....we'll triumph!! 

...amen.

Pk?!! :)

Pk ?!

Hiyaa my cuddly-om-pom-poms,

Christmas festivities full on, haan?!

Saw Pk, haven’t u?!

oh dear, why am I turned into a questionnaire?! :/

Chalo koi nai, toh mai kya ke rahi thi,

Have you seen Pk yet? Itni kadaake kit hand me bechara tape recorder pehen ke aaya, and u haven’t even taken the pains to see him?! :)

Well, unfortunately I have. Unfortunately I say because now that I have, I can’t stop myself from reflecting on it. U see, I am a genuine Raju Hirani fan after Munna bhai. So even though I know that humans have their limitations, I hate to see or admit any errs there.

Wo kya hai naa, round and round kitna bhi bole toh in the end, centre me baat toh woitcch hai ki Raju Hirani koi picture banaigaa, toh dekhna toh mandatory hai and I did just that. Hirani’s forte is Human nature and its weaknesses, with effortless audience-connect.

But, I was disappointed….

Arrr… wait wait….i am not…repeat, Not saying that Pk was in any way an insult to any religion nor did it mock any religion in the slightest. Its message was just misread and misinterpreted. In fact I pity those who are making a hulla baloo  on religious grounds.

I may add though that the message itself was portrayed in a ‘confused’ manner leading to all this chaos!! :))

But I don’t blame anyone, neither of them. They all put enormous and sincere efforts… may it be Aamir’s Bhojpuri or tight screenplay, the performances of all the actors Aamir, Anushka, The Boman Irani, Saurabh Shukla, Pareekshit Sahni, even Sushant or our Sanju baba….there were all the trademark Hirani tricks incorporated, to remind us of his previous movies, like Heroine on her scooty on the same India- Gate wale Rajpath of Delhi with helmet and Amir at the back, narration about Pk by Anushka, showing Boman’s katchha, showing Aamir peeing, Farhaan ke papa and Raju Rastogi ki mummy as lucky charms, etc etc etc. :)

Moreover its rocking at the box office and that’s what it was meant to do, right?! :)

Pataa hai kya, did you all notice, that as Aamir was portrayed as an alien, he had to be seen unblinking all the time. U can imagine how difficult that would have been.

He took lessons on Bhojpuri too.

Anushka was so very convincing yet all the while that she shown on the screen, my attention got diverted to her bad lip job done and I was reminded of Donald duck despite all my efforts to concentrate on her wonderful acting :)… wat to do…. :/

Again naa chahte huye bhi I was constantly reminded of Paresh Rawal and Akki’s “Omg, Oh My God!!”that I had quite liked. It was intense and convincing. Indian audiences could identify with it. This gave a definite negative blow to Pk.:/

I went on patiently, viewing the whole movie, enjoying the colorfulness and comedy waiting for the real theme, the real message to come, bang on….

But it didn’t happen…inspite of everything….

No songs that I remembered after the movie ended, no crisp dialogues either, no jadu ki jhappi or gandhigiri…even Sanju baba had nothing much to do…. I Got bored seeing that hyper Aamir in every screen of the movie :/

Mai bataati hu problem kahaa thi. 

They say it’s a story based on the life of a rationalist Abraham Kovoor, who gained prominence by his criticism of God-men and religious frauds. Hirani says this movie is a satire on God and God-men.

Dear sir, this did not come out so cleanly as you mention. The movie became as confused as Aamir himself… In the dire and desperate attempt of recreating the magic, Hirani got everything haywire….thankfully the audiences did not put too much stress on their heads and took what they saw at the face value. Good for him naa!! :)

Now let me tell u the real thing. :)

Humans and even animals have the intrinsic tendency to form groups being gregarious in nature…and then, to increase the strength of their own individual groups, may it be political groups, religious groups and the most dreaded terrorist groups. Obviously each group tries to formulate its own discrete ways and trends. Bhagwanji toh sirf ek bahana hain. And yes this was somewhat a satire on that fact. But what is wrong in following a particular group, only if it is not a harm to its inmates. That is where it all got misfired.

Aur sabse mazedaar manifestation of this human tendency is our very own “facebook!!!!” Foto daalaa toh kitne likes, comment kiya toh kitne likes, page banaya toh kitne likes, group banaya toh kitne likes!!!! Hai naa!! ;)

Anyways all I wish is the efforts get paid off and the film does well…rare bhai, our Ranbir made such a jhakkas entry in the end, nai?! :)

toh bhailog, Merry Christmas to all of u and a very lovely n lively 2015!!!

Khoob khush rehna aur khoob maze karna!!

Bye for now frm me at Page-3 here!!

Cheerio!! 

Holiday ?! :)

Holiday?!! :)

Howdy darlings!!

Scorched in the Sun, are we?!! :/

Haa yaar Holiday-s coming to an end……. :(

But abhi toh I am talking about our new movie “Holiday!!”…though I think the name of such a movie could have been a bit bhaari bharkam like ‘Vishwatma” ‘Vinashak’ etc rather than such a docile, “Holiday!!”:))))

Anyways, it was a pleasant change for me that I got to see the newly released movie “Holiday” this Sunday. Wo kya hai naa, usually circumstances are not so merciful that I see each new Friday nite release stat. In fact its quite the contrary and I miss out watching the deserving movies….many even near expiry date !! sigh!! Well, wat to do, such is life !! :/

Khair wo sab chhodo, the point is, I found myself having a good close look at the large poster of ‘Holiday’ outside our favourite mall while the tickets were being purchased. I was pondering…now that I was about to see this movie, what prospects did it hold.

In it I saw two ppl, Akki Kumar in Army attire and Sonakshi Sinha…..the fonts on the title had a gun in place of the ‘I’….and before the software inside my head started to process this data feed, my returning glance saw 'June-6' at one corner…..again making me smile at my triumph to be able to view a movie just 3 days after its release!! :)))

Oye haso mat!! Release ke maheeno baad koi movie dekh pane ka dard tum kya jaano first-day-first-show dekhne walo!!!!! Haa nai toh!! :/

Ohh…toh mai kahaa thi?!

Haa….Holiday ka poster!! :) and my triumph at standing in front of it !! aur triumph ka aisa hai, ki I want to give an analogy here. Those who’ve been there will understand and enjoy.

Those of you who have seen Amir Khan and Darsheel Safari’s ‘Taare zameen par’ and I know most of you have, will remember when Ishaan is taking his maths exams, much before going to boarding school, he comes upon a fill-in-the-blank…3 x 9=_____ ?

 Reading this, he goes into his imaginary world where he is in outer space in a spacecraft number 3 and moving towards a ‘bad’ planet 9 in full vengeance !! on reaching it, he fights out, conquers and finally takes over the planet 9. With this victory he comes back to reality and again looks at the question….now with a valid answer.

He writes 3 ‘into’ 9 becomes ‘3’!!!! :)

Oh, he is so pleased with himself!! he turns around looking about him with triumph. When bell rings and his friend asks, ‘Ishan tera exam kaisa hua?’….he triumphantly replies with a bloated chest and ear to ear smile, “Bindaas”!!!!!

I felt exactly that then!!! :) :) :)

My Gawd, pardon me…how I rattle on and get derailed……!! :/

Okay, so on the poster, seeing this dynamic duo, the first impression I got was that it was a Rowdy Rathore kind of movie. Haan toh theek hai naa, kuchh nai toh entertainment toh hoga hi…. :) and I was reminded of a comment of a good friend of mine who had already seen it, ki dimaag ghar rakh ke jaana aur Indian Army ki khaatir dekh lena!!

Alright, I’ll do just that, I promised myself.

Aur eventually hum popcorn, samose aur cold drinks se lais ho ke theatre ke ander sthapit ho gaye!! :) arre bhai, movie dekhne aaye hain, culture toh follow karna hi chahiye, nai?! :)

aur fir the movie cordially started!! :)

This movie is the Bollywood remake of 2012 Tamil blockbuster ‘Thuppaki’ both crafted by Director AR Murugadoss. To suit the rest-of-India, some changes were made in the movie though. He is the one who returned to Bollywud after a whole six yrs and after the pioneering 100 crore club flick, Ghajini !!

In his interview he said all he did was to work hard!! Both then and now with Holiday. Creating a benchmark etc etc was not his aim, only a good movie made, he said. :) and he did do a lot of homework and research before taking up the project!! Grt  Muruga saar!! :)

After viewing the film, I can surely say, Bollywood and genuine people like Murugadoss plus the writers who author such stories deserve a bow. Its not that they don’t know how to give masala movie hits with easier topics but they choose to go for such hard hitting ones.

Movies on terrorists and terrorism have been made in the past and made beautifully too….one example that immediately comes to my mind is the 2008 Raj kumar Gupta’s ‘Aamir’!! starring Rajiv Khandelwal. Yes, it was made with complete sincerity but ironically, movies made in this way lack the commercial touch and cant reach out to the real audiences that they are meant for. Because when you show the stark realities in there nakedness, people who are already burdened by their struggles and troubles, don’t want to take these all the more.

They want to relax and get entertained when they sit in the movie theatres, without having the panic button on, with a strong Hero who makes sure of a happy ending for them !! :)))

This movie had the required commercial touch, with captivating crisp screenplay throughout, which tames your attention effortlessly. Akki baba has a knack of taking away these movies with a flair. :)

The whole sequence of 12 terrorist killings despite all flaws on credibility, took my heart away…the coordination, the trust, the intelligence, the smartness, the magnificent team work!! Clap clap!! :)

One more very important thing that Tollywud excels in and believes in, is the superhuman-ness of the Hero. A  Hero Is a Hero, let there be no doubts on that. :)

This feature is a bit mellowed down when a hindi remake is worked at….it did work well for Holiday and how!! :)

The way we teach complex and serious morals to kids with the help of small and sweet stories so that the message goes through yet they don’t get distraught by the complexity of the subjects.

The same way this movie mollycoddles the audience making them enjoy yet getting the information registered properly. For example, I for one, didn’t know anything about sleeper cells etc till I saw this movie, nor was I in any chance of doing any research on my own about such dreaded things had I not been educated about that in the film. :)

Now the very tazaa tazaa ardent fan of Times Now and Maroof Raza that I am, [the former Army Officer and currently Consultant and Strategic Affairs Expert in Times Now], my smile refused to leave my face at the whole sequence of him explaining the Sleeper Cells in the flick. :)

Still I laughed heartily, clapped loudly when the audience in the hall did and definitely would have whistled shrilly had I been able to !! :))))…not to say even my 6 yr old luved it. :)

I feel that if not anything this movie for the first time showed that Terrorists are Terrorists, abnormal diseased parasites and they DO NOT come with labels and tags. Such a bhari bharkam subject was made to be digested easily by the audience without having the panic, because the hero was shown to be an all knowing powerful savior, in command and in control of every situation. :)

The other thing that shook me and shocked me was the conversation between Akshay and his sister just rescued from hard core terrorists. Since ages we’ve seen in movies as such that however macho the hero is, the moment his family is endangered he becomes vulnerable and his attitude turns to something like, “kutte!!!!! mai tera khoon pee jaunga!!!”

As a complete contrast to that, here Akshay so very casually tells his own sister and to the audience as such that why cant we, each one of us too become commandos against the monster called terrorism, seeing the larger good of the society, instead of sitting in our sofas seeing the news channels, commenting and indulging into blame game. My God, did I feel guilty?! :/

My jargon wont be complete if I fail to mention Ms Sinha….haan baba, Sonakshi here. :) I personally felt she did a commendable job, just accepting to do this movie. I mean, it was so very clear it was an action thriller and the story had absolutely nothing for the heroine in it. And that at many places the songs etc came as an unnecessary and unwanted interruptions. Despite knowing all this she did the movie and with all her heart in it. Luv u for that Sona!! :)

And there are no two thoughts that if there had to be a role such as this one, then no one else could have been more suitable than Sonakshi for it.

In fact whenever she grimaced, got angry, I subconsciously heard a resounding “KHAMOSH!!” in Shatru sahab’s voice all over the hall!!! :)))

So friends, such was this mega movie called “Holiday”!!

Go watch it, forgive it for the technical flaws for the sake of commercial cinema, enjoy it and believe me…..u’ll luv it!! :)

I leave you here with your happy viewing,

till we meet again, take gud care of yourself as Bachchan saab always says….. :)

Jai Hind!!! :)