Udta Punjab!! Fly....Flew......Flown......... :)

Udta Punjab!! fly…flew……flown……. :)

Hydaa ppl,

How ready are you for the hydro-cution [as in like electrocution ;)] policy of Bhagwanji?

Confused? Hmm??

Arre baba, mai baarish ki baat kar rahi hu….Mumbaikars will understand wat I mean, being used to experiencing the wrong side of it. :)

Khair, aap sab ka nai pataa but I for one experienced a big short circuit in these rains….on the verge of a huge fire breaking out. Yu ki, Paani me aag lagaane jaisi baat thi.

Again marm ko samjho, don’t go by the literal meanings. :)

Here I am referring to “Udta Punjab”!!

I know each one of you have something to say about it. So do I.

It was a brave dare. Abhishek Chaubey was crystal clear in what he wanted to say and he dished it out exactly the way he wanted…undeterred….unadulterated….RAW!!!

I saw that movie not because I wanted to, no it wasn’t in my list of movies to watch. Why? Simply because I am a family person and what I had in my mind about it was that it was some movie made by Anurag Kashyap…..a complex movie which will be something like parallel cinema, unacceptable language, that I used to think was put in, in the name of reality, but which only fetched dislike from ordinary people like me; dare without much sensibility etc etc. All in all a movie strictly a no no if you want family entertainment. Obviously I had given not a second thought to it.

But as luck would have it, the other choices that I was left with in the then time frame were The Conjuring 2 and Dead Pool!! :(((

Sigh!! We could easily have returned, and I promised myself to book tickets online in future so as not to get in such a dead lock situation. I surrendered and left the decision to my family. They decided to take the tickets for Udta Punjab and I complied. I was sure we would come out after not more than a few minutes with what I had made up my mind about the film’s content.

So there we were, with our popcorn buckets, nachos, cokes etc….at least some entertainment in these I thought…..if not in the movie. :)

And true to my anticipation the beginning hit me with a berserk Shahid in the matrix of sorely horrible and horrifying language. I was jolted by the shock culminating into helplessness that I was enduring it all. Shock tends to put you into momentary stony inactivity when you can’t bring yourself to move….or run away stat. I thought it was sick. I mean was there no civilized conversation possible?

The next few minutes were spent in the storming of my “little grey cells” in the words of Hercule Poirot :), to just imbibe and relate to wat was going on onscreen.

Gradually, I got into the Zone………

……..and I swallowed it, hook, line and sinker.

People talked about online piracy…….you just cant get into the zone if you are not watching it in theatres and if you are not watching it in theatres, any other option whatsoever for spending that time of yours would be better.

You are taken there…..whether you like it or not, you Are there, you witness that….all that. You are forced on to the revelations and realizations. You face what they face, you feel what they feel….the pain, the helplessness, the reverse metamorphosis from a human to the lowliest of living creatures…..

You get scared….you panic…..

You are thankful it’s a movie……..and not the reality…..

You are thankful you are not one of them….

You are thankful, you can come out clean and unscathed………..

This is what Udta Punjab does to you…..For good.

The controversies, the negativities, the blame games, the political connections, the reference to a particular state……..all seem so ridiculous!!

I can do but pity those who cannot imbibe what is being writ large all over it for their own good, for the good of their kids, their families.

It is one movie that reached the hearts and heads of its own cast and crew even.

Aliya!!! My God, that little girl went all out for that movie……not for the movie per se, but for the sheer strength of purpose it held. The appearance that she clad, the peculiar tan of a sun beat labourer, her superlative acting…..she didn’t even have a name!!

Because she was The Character that she portrayed….above any thing else. She didn’t care what petty people might say, she didn’t care what image she would beget, all she cared was, even if this would prevent one person from landing into this hell of drug deadlock, her purpose will be solved. Salutes to her.

Shahid did his best.

Diljit n Kareena did well too.

Each character was tailored to perfection. One thing again noteworthy and worth appreciating is that Aliya, Shahid and Kareena reduced their remunerations for this movie….Hats off guys!!

How we loath and pity Balli [Prabjyot Singh] at the same time   

The message was so crystal clear….whoever you are, whatever you do…no matter what class ,caste, state, creed, sect you belong…..stay away…..stay as far away as possible from this gruesome, unforgiving, worse than hell vice……or be doomed in eternal peril…..

I was amazed, in all this dare act, Abhishek Chaubey had the cheek of putting in perfect comic moments too. :)

When Balli opens the door in his intro….the very characteristic teenage into drug abuse….you can make it all out instantly….the disheveled expressionless blank stare with the fluorescent gogs set tilted on his nose :))))

While running to trace Aliya, Tommy bravely climbs up the compound wall and jumps down landing straight on to gunpoint of the goons…..you laugh despite the heaviness of the moment when you haven’t yet gotten over Kareena’s shock.

And it wasn’t just Udta Punjab giving me the shocks…even the Interval did….

Kaise?

Just before the post interval resumption of the movie, came the grossly grisly ghastly disgusting trailer of Great Grand Masti!! And I literally felt like slapping all those in it……khair the lesser said about that the better….

Just a piece of info…Ekta Kapoor is a co producer in Udta Punjab as well as Great Grand Masti…. :/

Generally, actors directors and the others involved give their skills and talents to a movie….but Udta Punjab wrenched out each bit of their souls too…..something like the dementors of Harry Potter…only to make Us realize, only to help Our youth survive….Only to make the World a better place to be….

Udta Punjab has shown us the power of inner strength and determination. So good people join in the fight, join in the campaign…..together we shall triumph.

Start by watching it in the theatres, leaving behind the prejudices, negativities, and celebrate the bravado, the dare, making it a huge leap forward…

Share your experiences with me and enjoy the rains… :)

Till then its tata, bye bye, cheerio from me here at Page-3!!

Paisa feko Tamasha dekho...

Paisa feko, Tamasha dekho…

Howdy my tiddly-om-pom-poms out there,

Paisa feko, Tamasha dekho…

Well, there’s much more to it than that. :)

Yes I am talking about Imtiaz Ali’s Tamasha released this Friday. 

Why I saw the movie so early on?

Again, well…firstly, like most of us, when I heard it was a Ranbir-Deepika starrer, I decided at least it was worth giving a try. Maybe I too like most of us wanted to see the one time steady lovers who looked so good together, as the main leads, even if it was just for the movie.

That’s it, that’s all. I never thought of making any conscious efforts to try and view it proactively. After all there’s a lot to a movie than just a Hero and a Heroine, isn’t it?! :)

Then I chanced upon a promotional video of Tamasha in Facebook. No, it wasn’t the official trailor….[I saw the official trailor much later, even after I actually saw the full movie. :) ]

Then what was there in that video, where they were not even taking about the movie per se J. It was a short video having the three of them…yes, the three of them….Imtiaz, Deepika and Ranbir playing a game, some variant of dumb charades…..

It was then that I decided….decided to watch the movie positively. Sounds strange isn’t it? Not if you understand the perspective, and I admire the person who gave this idea of a promotional video which is not promoting the movie left right and centre :)

It was what I saw of the trio that made my decision…usually we talk about chemistry between the male and female protagonists only, hai naa? which was supposed to be all the more pronounced between Ranbir n Deeps darling…but what caught me unawares was the way the three of them vibed…..together….nothing to do with any past affair etc etc etc….no awkwardness….complimenting each other completely….no pretences……..I loved it…I had to now see what they had done in the three hour show....without fail.

Alright…..then I got to listen to the songs of the film…all five of them. I was disappointed. Only Matargashti showed some promise…with the catchy theme tune……

“daang daang da dang dang dyao…dang dang dang  dang dang dyao……daang daang da dang dang dayo……chirkut zindagi, you know!!!” haan yaar yahi words the… "chirkut zindagi":)))) but in Mohit Chauhan’s polished voice it didn’t appear as much "chirkut":))))))

Anyways so moving ahead in my quest, I researched….in fact searched for reviews that were there……and what I found, saddened me. The reviews were mixed, everyone had different points to disagree to…….of course with one common factor in all, the great performances of the actors :(….that I knew already didn’t I?)  but the movie getting mixed reactions was against what my brain had inferred in the face of my home work till now :(

Siiigh…….

All the more reason to go and see for myself, what went wrong, and where, hampering an open out n out 5 stars.

And the coming Sunday….I was there….with my popcorn and coke :)

The movie began…and ended…. :)

I felt like standing up and clapping….standing ovation….as in like the end of a brilliant theatrical show. Yes, that’s exactly what it was, a brilliant theatrical show….accessible and available everywhere, not just in colossal theatres.  :)

It was better than my expectations….Had Imtiaz been present there then, I would have shaken his hands and thanked him…thanked him for proving me right….thanked him for giving us….Tamasha…The Theatrical Spectacle….. :)

I was happy I had read the reviews, I knew exactly why it was written, what was written in there.

I was reminded of the story of The Six Wise Men!

They were all opining, inferring, judging depending on the part of elephant that they were touching….

Even I don’t claim I saw it all. Yet, I saw enough to savour it, relish it for all that it was worth :).

The songs that I had heard before, that seemed inconsequential without watching the movie, now made sense….all of them. Mohit Chauhan, Sukhwinder Singh, Mika, Arijit Singh and doing complete justice to their numbers that were selected very aptly according to their genre and areas of excellence. Aur toh aur Alka Yagnik ka toh jeernoddhaar ho gaya bhai :)))))...with the chorus paving way straight to the listener’s heart :).

Saying that the performances were superlative would sound as hollow and stupid as stating the universally known truth that the Sun rises in the East. Still I would say Ranbir surpassed himself. He had so so many shades to do justice to as Ved, nowhere was any allowance of chance overdoing or under for that matter. Yet he brought out Ved for us perfectly.

Some sharply hilarious instances worth mention being Ranbir’s second intro in Tokyo as Don-“2”!!, the auto driver’s tongue hitting his teeth hard as he lip sang lagaawat-wat-wat-wat, etc :)))

Another point that couldn’t be missed was how effortless was Ranbir’s perfect rendition of looooooooong sentences in his dialogues, whether English, Hindi, or even French for that matter……hindi slangs and chalu bhasha ke half sentences in the middle of hard core technical English jargon…. My God!! Simply amazing….

When his mom asks, “tu toh jaane wala tha naa aaj?” the answer, “nahi gaya, baap ka ghar hai” with a smile, makes you relax instantly.

Before this happens, it starts appearing there could be no positive end to this complex situation that Ved is in and that the movie is heading for a depressing, frustrating, saddening end….maybe like Rockstar…………but when Ved starts telling the story to his father……tears well the eyes…..

Ending achchhi naa ho toh koi baat nahi…….

Kahani apni hai…….ending badal deinge………:)

Kahani apni hai doston……ending Happy honi chahiye…..toh utho jaago aur lag jao…..build a happy ending for yourself…..like Ved…..:)

This is what Tamasha wants to tell us….:)

So darlings…….go watch the movie if you haven’t already…..with my eyes….and be positive….be happy always…..:)

Now I leave with this note and very Merry Christmas Wishes…

Take good care of yourselves…love you all….

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

Titli :)

Titli

Hello ppl!

Winter knocking at the door and Diwali round the corner…

Bahut busy hoge aap sab, nai?

Pata hai aaj toh mere saath badi durghatna si ho gayi…..

No no, don’t worry, no bodily injuries baba J

Actually kya hua ki today was Sunday, and as a rare occurrence we found ourselves having time, heading towards the movie theatre. Now we had the decision of -which movie to watch- in our hands…and fast. So for once I googled for reviews of the Friday releases and the movies running in the theatre before going to the ticket window.

The one sentence that made us decide upon Titli was – the best hindi movie made this year in one of the reviews!!!

That’s quite a strong statement and whatever the repercussions, at least this was a seeable movie, I decided. Thus we took the tickets available then and that was none other than the Magnum Class of Fun Cinemas J This was the first encounter with the super luxurious Magnum class couch seats and we were still exploring n enjoying them by the time the movie already started.

After I settled and directed my attention to what was going on on the screen I was shocked….progressively scared, frustrated……PANICKY !!!

I wanted to get up and run away…………..…stat.

No less….

What was going on in front of me was harrowing. The violence, the language, the whole set up….

I looked to both my sides for help….pleaded with my hubbs to exit…

My daughter a teen, was all for it but my young sonny boy was adamant. He had found his new toy in the dynamic Magnum seat which made him nearly supine and he was in no mood to comply. He said ‘I don’t care about the movie but I am not leaving this seat’. So there. We decided to sit on till he had his fill. We even tried to persuade the waiter who came to take the order for snacks, to kindly get us the tickets for some other benign movie running in the adjacent screens. But unfortunately…..or fortunately he returned pleading non availability of tickets.

Siiigh….

So there I was…stuck….

The movie meanwhile went on…..

Eventually, I found myself getting engrossed, besides myself…….against my voluntary mental protests……

The three brothers, the marginalized community….Titli….the need to break free….oh how I identified with that, having felt exactly the same a few minutes ago…

The idea of getting Titli married off so that a female comes to aid into the business…the business of car jacking, seemed criminal. The raw truth that females are used to make all kinds of things done, all kinds of products sold hinted by Bawla [Amit Sial], from daily utility things se ‘hawaijahaaz tak’ , hit hard.

The dump that was their home….the way they cleared their throat while brushing their teeth….[and mind u, they did that quite many times during the film :(], spit, vomited relentlessly…..impossible to tolerate.

I was reminded of Raju Hirani’s movies like Munna bhai and 3-idiots where he was so fond of showing men in washrooms…… :(

Is it some kind of OCD or superstition of directors to show filth? Beats me… :/

The very sight of a young vulnerable bride in that madhouse was unimaginable. A rabbit in the midst of jackals. The only feeling rampant being…… ‘oh poor dear, how will she survive?’

But all my misgivings were allayed to see the assertive girl she turned out to be….the way she successfully barred Titli’s advances and the brave front she projected in front of the brothers made me almost smile. Her interaction with the salesman in the Ford showroom made me relax. And I laughed at the “Prince hamare ‘Love’ hain!!!” backlash. :))

The movie finally ended.

It shook me. Didn’t leave me even after exiting the hall.

I researched……

I was pondering why it was called “Titli” over anything else. Though I did not get the real reason but I did chance upon a Bangla 2002 flick with the same name starring Aparna Sen, Mithun da and Konkona Sen Sharma – Aparna Sen’s daughter and incidentally Ranvir Shorey’s wifie. J There real life mom-daughter duo play the same role onscreen and both root over Mithun da :)))

Khair, coming back to ours, a thought crossed my mind what if Suraj Barjatya is made to see this movie? He would have the fright of his life :))))

Let us talk about the people making this whole web called Titli which grips you and leaves you scathed in the end.

Its made under the famous YRF Banner-the Yas Raj Films. Haan naa, sach mey!! :) Now it’s a movie entirely opposite to the genre YRF is renowned for. The family, its values, love, etc etc all have distorted definitions in this movie. Its as if the people, for want of basic needs to be fulfilled, for bare survival, move down the line of evolution that man had climbed and attained the designation of being the most evolved and “civilized” creatures. These words sound hollow when survival is at risk.

The debutante director Kanu Behl who was assistant director to Dibakar Banerjee in films like Love Sex n Dhokha LSD, has been writing this story even before the completion of the aforesaid movie. He came up with this flick under the patronage of Dibakar Banerjee who produced it for Kanu.

Kanu claims he actually wrote the character of the eldest brother Vikram specifically with Ranvir in his mind. Ranvir Shorey was an acting ace, a complete contrast to the dabbu black horse that we saw of him in Chandni chawk to China….oh so loathsome…. The language, the bloody stark violence and casual indifference to it was shocking and Shorey gets full credit for it.

The beauty of the flick was [no, not in the literal sense, nothing was butiful that way here :( ] that no one, absolutely no one appeared to be acting in the flick. All were completely natural. But it wasn’t easy.

One of the major ‘qualification’ for the role of all the brothers and the patriarch father was that they all had similar “Noses” that made them look like that of same family !! hadd hai naa? :)))))

Titli alias Shashank Arora fitted the role with the lean body of his. You’ll be surprised to know what all the production house did to him to finally make him fit in. He was actually beaten by the production assistant by a hawai chappal at least 35 times to make him feel the humiliation that Titli felt daily….the more yukkkk exercise that he was made to do for the purpose was to actually go and shit in the open in Varsova beach in the mornings. All this to remove the urban-ness from him!!! siiigh….

Likewise Shivani Raghuwanshi who played Titli’s wife, Neelu had no acting experience at all. She was selected because on the audition she chatted on n on n on when asked to introduce herself :)))) she too got lot many thappads for real to make her cry with conviction. :)

Pata hai kya us bechari ko toh pehle story ke bare me kuchh bh nahi maaloom tha. All she knew was that she was the heroine and had a boy for a hero plus some luv interest too…that was enuf to make her excitedly happy :)))))))

She was given the script very late into the making of the movie.

It was so preposterous how her wrist was broken by a hammer and the hero was as competent as an expert anaesthesiologist giving superb intraveinous regional anaesthesia for the forearm perfectly, painlessly breaking her wrist. :(

In the end there is mention of the need of putting in a rod in the fracture of wrist. Gazab bhai!!! Hain jee?! :)))))

Pata hai kya, the patriarchal father was Kanu’s real father Lalit Behl the theatre actor director.

Aur maze ki baat Kanu’s wifie Namrata Rao is the third and final editor of the movie [yes there are a lot of editors in it]….and quite a family thingy haan!! :)))))

The whole production team of the movie is a young brigade which is daring enterprising, tireless, uncompromising, ready to take risks, full of energy and thirsty for perfection. Its good to find youth taking over…and in style!! Bollywood!!-way to go!!!:)

Achchha ab having said all this the movie becomes a “Love Story” in the end…..

Vishwas nai hota naa?? :)

Koi baat nai…you go watch the movie and decide for yourself :)

Aur fir mujhe batana how you feel…theek hai?

Till then tata bye bye…Happy n Safe Diwali to all you wonderful people!!!

From me, here at Page-3 :)

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!! :)