Archive for March, 2008
Jodha Akbar
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We first went to book the tickets in advance but returned after hearing negative opinions about movie. The reaction was like “Is this the same person who used to watch almost all movies and used to write reviews.” Wow..I had a reputation to keep!! Yes, among other things like this blog had not been updated for 4 months or so, my tastes, thoughts, activities had all taken a detour for last few months. Oh, the details, the world will never know. Or it may. Anyways, for now I think I will restart blogging..will slowly re-invent myself. Or the resolve might long as long as I take to write this post only!
Coming back to movie, read few more reviews (esp of Bharadwaj Rangan’s ..which seemed to suggest it is watchable for certain factors and romance.) and decided to give it a try. Contrary to general conception about me that I like romantic movies, I actually am not particular - and especially am almost fed up of love stories unless there is breath taking newness or freshness in them - like Jab We met.
In Summary, movie did not work for me. If you either wish to see it or wish to like it, do not read further !
Jodha Akbar:
So this period romance starts with some history lessons. How Jalal grows up and builds empire etc, how he gets trapped in an intercaste marriage. Now, come on, I did not think he sacrificed a big deal or he took any major earth shattering decision -it was so simple..he could get the whole Rajput land, plus a beautiful Aishwarya all for allowing her to do a pooja in her corner and not to ask her to convert her religion. That simple decision!
Now I am not that interested in history but if I went to a historical movie I obviously wanted to know more about it..so that I could make up for my ignorance caused by showing no interest to history in high school. But I guess there is not much in this story. Since there was so much romance, instead of actual war and politics, I wonder why love story was not present in history text books. At least that would have made it little interesting - the history lessons!
But what a love story it turns out to be too…it never really took off for me…except for few great moments here and there. But surely it did not need a periodic backdrop if all there was to tell was this. The major reason people would visit halls for this movie is for the stars -Hrithik and Aishwarya, but unfortunately I am not a big fan of neither of them. Ok, they look good (oh! Ash’s costumes nd colour !! ), but I can not go to a theater for fashion parade! So I almost felt it was like Dhoom2 - esp when Hrithik displays his curves, sword swirls and glances at Ash, I almost heard “Are you ‘like’ checking me out?” dialogue from Dhoom2.
The one compelling reason that took me to hall was Ashutosh Gowariker’s name. In Swades and Lagaan, the romance was on backdrop, the central theme holds the pulses of audience and touches heart. Here,sugar candy was central theme-and it for some reason never really takes off-and the backdrop of politics is there as if it is a compulsion. For eg, after taking one decision about exempting piligrimage-tax (or some such thing), Jalal is hailed as a great king. The respect is never built up. Or at least I expected a major war sequence with all gory and glory but all that was shown was elephant crushing heads and a boring duel.
When it is a movie based on history, I am very concerned about how many things shown were for real - if you are taking cinematic liberties to an extent to change what exactly was - I would be disappointed. But here, since my history is weak, I don’t even know what is right - for eg, did they do the duel in the end instead of actual war ? Did Jodha know to use sword ?
There are few funny moments and I doubt if it was intended.Left to myself I would have mocked this movie like anything! My biggest grouse about the movie remains - there was no sign of Birbal.
Calling spirits…
Among my regrets in life, not staying in hostel will find its place in the top of the list. I know it comes with its set of disadvantages, could be utterly boring for some, but still I envy those who had the privilege to stay in hostel. My cousins are in hostel and I enjoy listening to their hostel stories. (There used to be a coloumn in Vijay Karnataka that included some hostel stories and I used to enjoy them!)
Here is one prank by my cousin:
I don’t know that whether spirit exists or not but I believe that what the students call spirit in hostel is just cock and bull story. One day our neighbors (next roommates) planed to call spirit. some how my friend came to know about it and we decided to have some fun with them so we wore white shirts and white pants with white masks, just like spirits.
At 1 am our neighbors were calling spirits, I and my friend went there with white dress, we stood near the window and suddenly we pushed the window which made big sound and the people inside were in perspiration.
We suddenly went inside the room, by seeing our horrifying dress the people inside the room became terrified and they ran to there rooms.
At the same time we spilled some red ink mixed with kunkuma on the window keeping a red lemon beside window which was more horrifying .Next day our neighbors decided to not to call spirit in there life time. Still our neighbors don’t know that we are the spirits!!!!!!!!
Lamentine Day
I propose we celebrate today, March 5th every year as Lamentine day. Lets celebrate the joys of lamenting by allocating a special day for it. Why today, why not 15th of March? Don’t ask me. From the divine powers that be, it suddenly dawned upon me, through an body-less sound’s sound suggestion(ashareeravani- similar to the ones that came from clouds in Mahabharata) that this day is as auspicious as any other and I should immediately announce to the world - I am merrely carrying out the order. Actually the initial name I thought was Lamenter’s Day or Ranter’s Day or Cribber’s day..but since Lamentine rhymes with its another cousin day, I have zeroed in on this name.
So, what do we do on this day. We lament. Like valentine’s day, on L day we will show our talent by cribbing about anything and everything. At anything bad (as usual) and also at anything good. For example, you hear phone ringing and you start saying “This phone was one of the very annoying inventions ever made. It rings loud..it rings when not required. It invades the peace and privacy. It is more of a luxury to owner than a necessity….” You see Tv and start saying”This is one of the most dangerous inventions ever made..it deprives children of their physical activity, it wastes time, it is rightly an idiot box….”.
We lament/rant/crib about work (as usual), money, politicians, nature of people, imperfect and imbalanced society, infrastructure, partners,..you get the point. We will even lament about lamenting.
Unlike some other days which particularly target specific people (women/fathers/mothers/lovers), we dont discriminate anyone and our day is open to celebration by all people who are capable of cribbing given any situation.
I can even envision the future for this day - as usual the card companies will come up with some funny cards that could be exchanged with fellow lamenters. There would be contests on Fm radio to identify who the best cribber is. “I will give you a situation and all you have to do is tell me how many minutes you can rant on this topic..message me your expected duration and I will give you a call to the lucky person..”
What are the advantages, you ask ?
Plenty. First of all you will feel proud that you have the basic necessity to be called a lamenter - a mouth and the knowledge of a language. You will be so proud that it will increase your confidence at tackling the same. You will perhaps be able to laugh at yourself going by how illogically you could rant, or laugh at others. When you realize that there are so many who are willing to complain, you will feel not to be left alone. And most importantly, once you speak out what sits in your mind, you will be happy to take on next step (probably search for topic for next cribbing).
Why, you ask, should we have a reserved day for lamenting, when we (can) do that all days in the year. The answer is same as why we have Valentine’s day. 
Ok, got to go now. Need to create orkut community, design badges, hold press conferences and processions to spread the awareness.
Long live lamenting.
Ps: This post should be categorized under its own category - Rant, for this is not completely satire/humour.
Pps: Did I “take” a break from blogging ? No. Do I resume to post as earlier ? Don’t know.
