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Having heard that it is a free-flow like the director’s previous attempt - Bunty aur Bubli, I was all the more keen to watch it. I had a very good time watching BaurB, only grouse was the money spent watching in a multiplex. This time, I was wise. Watched on computer screen. Am surprised by thrashing reviews - this movie did not take it seriously, nor did expect you to. Also it did not pretend to be something other than what it set out to be - a light heart fun and free-flow movie, that rests mostly on the shoulders of the lead artists more than anything else - and the lead pair does not disappoint.

All - Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol, Priety Zinta, Lara Dutta - are perfect at their roles. I wish Zinta and Abi do more movies like this. Zinta is lovely to watch - scenes like  - the happiness and content that suddenly erupts of her face ( when she is running down the stairs and the lady asks what happened to the proposal, Zinta had rejected it)  are a treat to watch, wonder if anyone else would have done it so well ! (Oh yeah, lets leave aside Kajol and Madhuri Dixit). Abi’s flow is so effortless that, till that one bit of sad song, you will forget to notice that this guy is acting. Nail biting Bobby cracked me up with his innocent looks and nail biting. Lara, actually in two different roles is surprising.

There are various tributes/references to movies - from the number 786 (number plate on a car) - AB’s badge number in a famous movie, to the one I loved - Bobby and Abi going in the similar vehicle as Dharam and Big B singing song - Yeh Dosti hum nahin chodenge.

Finally loved the song. Yes did not mind the never ending song in between in what was a competition. The song just goes on and on but no complaints ! I loved the song so much that I thought that there was only one song in the entire movie (other than the sad song). At the end of the movie, when the song is again played I was practically swaying myself in the chair - at 2 AM in the night

What an apt title ! When you feel something is less, that means you want more of it. That is what the characters feel here - they want more in life. Thats what everyone wants but here is a difference - the characters are counting days. Totally loved the small kid - though some feel this is an un-necessary sub-plot I liked it. The kid was somewhat very similar to AB, both are counting the days and but want to enjoy life just before that, there is a hurry and they want to break the societal restrictions - kid wanting to watch movies he is not allowed to and AB wanting to marry a girl whose father is younger than him. Kid’s comradeship/rapport with Amitabh is the best thing. Next only to Tabu-Amitabh interactions. If there was one lady who could not only hold her head - as the character does - but also shine - even more than AB, then it is Tabu. Totally loved her. I had always felt, if there was a better actress who would effortlessly fit in both - art and commercial genre and if there was a better contemporary actress almost as good as Kajol, it was Tabu. Unfortunately, she hasn’t been ‘contemporary’ for last few years.

AB is fine, perhaps quite good considering other weekly fare he churns out. Paresh Rawal’s bit extended more than required and instead of AB’s speech, I’d wished his mother came and delivered a punch.

And this Cheeni Kum has succeeded in removing the bitterness of “Nishabd”. And it is interesting to note the contrasts and the treatment in both - in Nishabd it was all about lust, but it was masked behind some insanity or the intent was justified partly as seeking a joyful companionship. And audience saw through it. Here it is quite opposite - the actual love grows, the need for companionship and compatibility is clearly shown. But, without shying away from the subject, sex is explicitly hinted at. And audience sees through it.

Quite enjoyed - despite on monitor.

# Ramesh’s direction. Cast includes - Ramesh, Jennifer Kotwal, Daisy Bopanna, Anirudha, Mohan, Netra.

# Jaggesh’s brother Komal has, unknown to me, good fan following. Crowd cheered, clapped, whistled when he came on screen. There is a sub-plot for him which is not in the original.

# Its a remake of “Maine Pyar Kyoun Kiya”. Knew this before going to the hall, but last time we had gone to the remake of Biwi No 1 - Rama Bhama Shama and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Comparitively, Maine Pyar Kyon Kiya itself is quite funny and improvising it little difficult.

# Its good, ok, but due to this I-wanna-be-director-of-remake-movies mindset of Ramesh, I somehow feel we have lost a terrific actor to an average director. I mean this movie could have been directed by anyone. But remember Ramesh, the actor of Amruthavarshini ?

# There are few scenes which are different from the original. And these are specifically good. I liked the club scene very much.

# Sweet & eye-candy cast - Jennifer, Daisy and Netra !

# There are very many scenes where the audience cracks up. And despite being remake, I enjoyed very much.

# Full marks to Daisy. That is one performance which is notches above the original of Sushmita Sen’s. Anirudh is slightly better than Sohail Khan. Ramesh and Salman are equally good.

# Picturisation is good. Hotte chitte song is good

# Verdict: Not as much a laugh riot as RBS but still a very good comedy movie. Hang out with entire family - a nice outing. Even better if you have not seen the original.

In this post you will find my thoughts/opinions or just the things that cross my mind when I recall about the books I have read last few weeks. If you have read any of these, you could share your thoughts !

Kaadina Kathegalu:

#Read 3 parts of Kaadina Kathegalu, translated series by K P Poorna Chandra Tejaswi. It is about the experiences of hunting of man-eater tiger/cheetah by South Indian Jim Corbett - “Kenneth Anderson“

# Bellandoorina Narabhakshaka (1), Peddacheruvina Rakshasa (2), Jaalahaliyya Kurka (3).

# Quite thrilling stories. Totally enjoyed reading during the travel in office-cab. Did not feel like keeping down the book but unfortunately had to break several times as I had to get down to go to office or to home.

# Each experience is different but the basic philosophy is same and I think I can lay a successful trap to a man-eater now :). But unfortunately, now, let alone man-eaters, there are hardly any tigers in South Indian forests - as the author mentions. Instead of hunting them down, we are even struggling to preserve them.

#I wonder how the author did not get confused between various stories/incidents as there were so many of them and were somewhat similar !

# The ‘intelligence’ of tigers, the conditions in which they become man-eaters, their behaviour after killing a man etc are descriptively explained.

# The endurance required to hunt down is demonstrated well. The reasons of certain decisions that were taken get proved or the reason for backfiring is noted.

# Accounts are not exaggerated. The author treats the horror stories as impersonal as his own victories.  

# Downloaded a pdf of another set of experiences by Kenneth Anderson.

Chidambara Rahasya by K P Poorna Chandra Tejaswi:

# This is a famous novel in Kannada almost a classic and one of the best by Tejaswi, according to pundits.

# There are many faces to the novel - one is on slightly intellectual/philosophical level. The one where some characters are experimenting - they let a story-writer to extra-polate the natural incidents and test whether that is the truth. And they keep getting evidences in the way they search. The incident they have taken up is what I thought was actually the “rahasya”, but I am not sure that it is. Anyways the incident is quite serious and hence the experiment gets serious too.

# From one point of view, it is a quite simple but short love story - and this briefness and simplicity was what I enjoyed. There are, at many places, description of what goes in boys’ mind about girls, and their fear for losing respect in front of girls are all small bits I enjoyed separately.

# It also includes a revolt - there is the above mentioned group of students who want to change something, they want to revolt - for the sake of revolt.

# In other faces, there are more serious issues like religion, corruption, cheating, exploitation and even devils. It is a pot boiler in the actual sense - boiling too many ingredients. But it never loses track, nor it becomes more than necessary.

# I was waiting for the “rahasya” to be something and was expecting some questions to be answered. But it looks like it ended with open question. I have to read some reviews or probably my mind set to seek some answer, to seek some surprise ending was at fault. I thought this was an investigative novel, was not completely right.

# The best part about the narrative is that it just flows - fearlessly, thoughtfully with a mix of very light humour.

The Google Story:

# Has details about the pre-start, and initial phases the company went through. Covers in detail the growth pangs of one of the most important companies today.

# Was completely unaware about some facts about the company which is covered in initial chapters. But after a few chapters, it felt like reading the current affairs in news paper - I knew most of the things and it was connecting the dots in between.

# Digital library will be my most favorite project - mail and all is ok, great but not that couldn’t have been done without google. Whatever Google does, which it can only do, for the public good, will be the ones that will reflect on the good-will of the super rich and super talented founders.

Wings of Fire:

# Famous auto-biographical account by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

# Inspirational. He achieved extra-ordinary results not by being a gifted genius but by hard work, dedication, constant learning and vision. Just did the best to what came his way. Was somewhat lucky that good things came his way, though.

# Was disheartened by failure but did not let it affect his future. Instead took future projects as challenges.

# At times, the book gets little dragging, but overall it is fine.

Ignited Minds by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam:

# Illustrates real-life examples (not necessarily his own life’s) and inspires young minds to involve in achieving greater things for self and thus for the nation.

# I am old. He he!

# This is a play of classic story of mistaken identities. There are two pairs of twins and they mix up.

# Good name of the play!

# In brief - 1.1 (one set’s one of the twins) and 2.1 are initially friends. They come to a city which also had was inhabited by 1.2 and 2.2 who had run away from their houses many years ago. In the event they mix up and 1.1 confuses 2.2 to be 2.1. And so on.

# It is sometimes surprising to note how many plays pay a remote tribute to Shakespeare. This too is one of them “Comedy of Errors”  and a tribute to Shakespeare was announced before the start.

# The title and the poster - which lists the cast like this Sihi Kahi Chandru, Sihi Kahi Chandru, Srinivas Prabhu, Srinivas Prabhu - is a small give-away which I noted randomly while standing in the queue outside.

# Few minutes into play, it’s too evident - Ulta pulta the famous Kannada feature film starring Ramesh and terrific Kashi. And Ulta pulta itself was inspired by an old Hindi movie.

# This Ulta-pulta kept coming back to mind, and the mind compares - even if I tell it not to! And as usual, comparison spoils it, sometimes. I am convinced, seen independently, this play is quite good.

# Comedy play it was and had good moments. Like

• 1.1 is a novel-worm - that too a fan of investigative novels. He cooked up various imaginative names of the novels and I almost cracked up every time.
• There is a sub-plot which explains these two guys running away from home. Since this was relatively new, was quite funny !
• Sihi Kahi Chandru whom I have become a good fan after his terrific performance in Sankramana. His role is not as full-fledged as it is in Sankramana but he is as good as possible. [ However Kashi was superlative ]. Also Chandru impresses in timing and delivery of dialogues.
• Srinivas Prabhu’s facial expressions were note worthy.
• Last mad run of mayhem seemed a bit longer - it continued even after we stopped laughing !

# Verdict: If you have not seen Ulta-Pulta, watch and enjoy. If you have, check out some other play from the same team - for eg Sankramana.

# My previous reviews of plays seen in RS could be found here.

Since the twitter daily update isn’t happening, some random bursts of thoughts and activities over a last few days:

# Feedburner’s link splicer does not have support to Google reader shared items ??!! It has for bloglines, yahoo..but despite Feedburner is now Google’s, there is no support for Google ?! Wake up !!

# While at it, a daily twitter digest splicing would be great, and of course the option to use more than one splicing !

# While at it, ok, check out next post.

# We agree to disagree & We disagree to agree - both sentences mean same, no ?

# Me having pownce invites…anyone wants ?

# Number of chars supported by twitter should have been longer or customizable ..140 is too less for my random bursts of thoughts !

# For real-time random bursts of thoughts (and fortunately for you and unfortunately for me - restricted to 140 letters) follow me on twitter

# Paapa HR ->http://tinyurl.com/26n6bm

# Life is the continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations. Herbert Spencer

# A wounded deer leaps the highest. Emily Dickinson

# Last weekend was super failure weekend - wanted to attend bloggers’ meet, lost the way, searched and went an hour or more late. Twas at Brewhaha, nice ambience. Wanted to watch a play, FPS, went few hours early and returned. Twas at Chowdiah Memorial Hall, first time there, the audi looks HUGE, should be great fun to watch a play.

# ”We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them because we hate them.” Charles Caleb Colton

# Suffered from terrible cold and bunked office 1 day - and I think this the first leave I have taken for being sick since I started working !

# It is not what we learn in conversation that enriches us. It is the elation that comes of swift contact with tingling currents of thought.

# Do not, on a rainy day, ask your child what he feels like doing, because I assure you that what he feels like doing, you won’t feel like watching - Fran Lebowitz.

# Could not fill IT returns online. ( Submitting the acknowledgement physically can not be considered as online filling). The digital signature was not accepted for being zombie (not finding parent authentication). Anyone filled successfully ?

# added odiogo plugin to blog - another listen to me button for posts ! has male voice and sounded better than talkr

# ”I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there.” Herb Caen

# Played 28 in office for many rounds !

# Ppl always use “busy” to mean they are doing something they didn’t wish to do.what is the word for the being busy with what one likes to do.

# In my todo list, the first and last items are : Read and Finish things in todo list.

# It goes without mentioning that I don’t even start with the to do list - first point itself is a huge put-off !

# Play: Work that you enjoy doing for nothing. Evan Esar // Work: Game you hate playing even if you are rewarded at the end - Rk

# Gossiping and lying go hand in hand. Proverb

# Like facebook. Though I had a login few eras ago, I had not bothered to check it out. With apps and all, it looks cool now. I will repeat again - I hate orkut.

# Seeing all these facebook apps, I think facebook is moving to become first adress and one stop for most normal chaps. Facebook = Internet!

# Office guys blocked the sites I use one by one - *.blogspot, wp.com are the latest entries. Thankfully Reader is not blocked so far.

# ”A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

# A classic is a book that doesn’t have to be written again. Carl Van Doren

# RGV’s Sholay is renamed to RGV ki Aag after fight in high court..can’t use names of Basanti and Gabbar Singh ..Super . I know it does not make big difference with the last minute name change but then, a small relief!

# Pownce is blocked in office..it wasn’t blocked last week..now that I have an account it is blocked 09:56 AM July 16, 2007

# Yesterday saw Satyavan savitri..remake of maine pyar kyon kiya..review later 09:55 AM July 16, 2007

# GM:I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. Abraham Lincoln

# Wrote few (2 in particular) private-post of event/get-together targeted towards the relevant group of friends, and not to mention - they were super hits. More importantly the writing flow was super smooth after a long time And I think my such write-ups - covering events - are way better than the other ones I do. 

# played badminton after a looooooong time .. 09:55 AM July 15, 2007

# Osome day : picnic to shivanasamudra and talakaadu 09:03 PM July 14, 2007

# Becoming a star may not be your destiny, but being the best that you can be is a goal that you can set for yourselves.Bryan Lindsey

# http://tinyurl.com/2co5fx 12:04 PM July 12, 2007

# Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it. Tom Lehrer 09:31 AM July 12, 2007

# To prev Gm quote, Skv replied “Life is like a trumpet. Why care what others think? Blow it to your heart’s content” My email signature changed.

# ”to kill a mocking bird” is not taking off…will try few more times, if it does not it will join the group of catch22 & pride&prejudice 07:59 PM July 11, 2007

# My feed subscribers’ count was 31 but it now looks like its only 14 (probably a correct figure as I had guessed earlier too). Now after this long a post, I think it will decrease even further !

# I love micro-blogging.

• Reading “iphone hacked” articles #
• Advertising Age - Digital - 23-Year-Old Mark Zuckerberg Has Google Sweating: What’s the only company that..http://tinyurl.com/38jtkb#
• “to kill a mocking bird” is not taking off…will try few more times, if it does not it will join the group of catch22 & pride&prejudice #
• Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it. Tom Lehrer #
• To prev Gm quote, Skv replied “Life is like a trumpet. Why care what others think?Blow it to your heart’content” My email sig changd to it #
• iPhone hacking as summer project & as a toy Link #
• Fake e-mail about Bangalore techie transfering traffic fine through laptop Link #
• Becoming a star may not be your destiny, but being the best that you can be is a goal that you can set for yourselves.Bryan Lindsey #

• twitter tools plugin is repeating the posts and that too without all the tweets of the day… disabled it for now #
• can’t believe i did a full length post on HR & his topi ! looks like i rediscovered that touch for few minutes. post will be up 2nite #
• good weekend:saw hr’s topi, went to amoeba (didnt bowl) and hung out with old pals, cleaned up the cds, saw tv shows&wimbledon, wrote posts #
• … if we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin. Ivan Turgenev #
• Damn,topi is avlbl on moviewalah I should stick to my decision to avoid hindi&english films on bigscreen!Only plays&kannada movies now on #

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Sometimes you never know what hits you. Himesh Reshamiya (HR), yesterday in Saregamapa show, when asked what he feels about the feedback for his movie Aap Ka Suroor (AKS) which has got the biggest opening collection of this year, he said he is thankful for the audience and God for encouraging him. He also said, as usual the 1% of critics is unhappy about my product and has trashed it and ridiculed it heavily - but I will work harder and win them over next time. It could convey many things - is it his honesty or a doubt if this is just a masked sentence in the place of actual anger and arrogance, or is it just a sincere self-feedback that he has to work hard and he is ready to work hard, or is it a plain treat that the sequel is in the making ? But it hits - the honesty and hard work part hits.

It hits even further when the movie is watched because he makes fun at himself - the nasal singing becomes a part of the joke, the cap thing is a part of another. It is known that he has accepted that he is a nasal singer but to make it a part of joke and throw at himself takes some courage.

This movie was expected to open a can of worms, to answer few curious questions one has ever since the day we have seen him on TV - why does he not laugh, why is he in pain in all songs, why are his most songs about lost-love or something like that, why does he wear that bloody cap all the time, where was he before he started coming out of every channel and every speaker in the autos, what was he before and so on and so forth. The promos and speculations touted that the movie would answer everything.

Unfortunately the movie begins with him in the cap and instead of being a semi-biographical is instantly in a commercial story telling framework. That he is an already established singer - India’s rockstar at that - and the best performer in the world (whatever that means). That he is a very good man at heart. For the first time in his life he falls for a girl who also falls for him. Her father opposes their marriage strictly, as he is from a different lifestyle. HR is determined to win over him. Throw in between a denial of a singing contract , a third-angle Mallika who wants to seduce HR. And throw in a murder accusation and classic proving oneself innocent.

Performance wise, it would not have hurt if HR had shed his weepy image and looked somewhat cheerful. Giving any point to his acting would be major insult to him - he is acting himself ie he is HR in the movie and there is no way he should be any different than he is in his actual life - a painful face which he has mistaken to be the face filled with emotions. The teenager Hansika Motwani is not bad - her previous experience in movies makes it easy for her. But she does not have much to do in this HR worshipping movie, sorry movieee. Mallika chips in and does her part. The much publicized Mehbooba song is not a part of the movie, but it is just shown at the end, totally out of context, for which my explanation is this - producer had signed on Mallika for an amount for the movie but they also wanted a video song done by her. By making it a part of the movie, they saved on the extra expense on her! And I feel equal pity for the person who takes 3.5 pheres with Hansika but his face is not even shown!

It moves at Ok pace and sometimes it picks up more than enough - like one second he is bashing up villian, second his herione started her marriage third he gets the confession from villian, fourth the saath-pehre is stopped after 4 pehre in between after the heroine sees the live telecast of the confession. Wah, thanks to technology!

When one is not seeing Hansika Motwani or Mallika Sherawat but does not want to see HR, there is enough scenery to look at in the background which has beautiful locales of Germany.

There are no dearth for some cheesy dialogues. Like the one where his friend suggests “if i cut your nose …. how can you sing”, or Mallika suggests “if you want something, feel free to call me..any time in the day ….or night”

Given that it is a music artist’s film, there had to be enough number of songs, yet it just saved itself from being a story hastily thrown in between the video songs. It does better than that, for there is, however cliched and not-done, a story unlike many others that succeed despite the absence of any logic.

But I really wouldn’t have minded if the movie contained his old hit songs. They keep humming in the background music though.

Not sure what happened to the girl with heart problem. It was the most bizzare stuff that looks like a scene fallen from some other movie on to the editing table of this one. Don’t know what happened to Rajbabbar.

Though I drew for myself some parallel between Sivaji and AKS ( small things like both the stories start with the hero in jail and in the flashback and they escape after an attempt to kill them inside jail, so on and so forth, small things) I do not compare between the two. But let me just say, if you liked Sivaji and dislike AKS - there is some bias&difference in taste in your viewing, for both follow the traditional film making to the core.

And how can the talk about HR be complete without a mention of his caps. He wore around 13 different caps, yes I counted - but lost the count because even though he changed cap for every next scene, but he repeated his caps.

Since this is more of a personal interview than a movieee, there were few answers provided like why does he always keep a weeping face “why do you never laugh, HR?” - his dearest elder brother isn’t been around (I heard that right, no?) and he lost all interest towards life. ( But he sings even romantic songs with a weepy face which was why I always thought he was a singing Devdas ). Even in the movie he keeps his face as sorrowful and drunk as possible during all the times without any reason.

All said and done, this movieee is more about HR and his caps than anything else. Probably in the history of movies or history of anything for that matter, nothing has given as much importance to the cap as this does.

But the biggest question remains unanswered - why does he wear cap. And to know that, wait for the sequel.

Ps: As for myself, had ample amount of fun and laughter in the theater, no regrets at all ! We were more often laughing at it and not because of it. Low stakes and good company helps too !

• Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them. Stone W Clemen #

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• “It doesn’t matter how slow you go as long as you do not stop” - Confucius #

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• Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have. Marva Collins #

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• “The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.”
  Nicolas Butler #

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• Good Morning: We easily pardon an offense we had part in. Juoy #

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First this:

‘The all-India cycle, scooter and car parking collections at theatres screening Sivaji have exceeded the box office collections of Jhoom Barabar Jhoom’.

Then this:

Himesh Reshammiya’s Aap Kaa Surroor has got the biggest opening of the year at the box office.

The critics had panned the film and wrote it off, but the moviegoers had something else in mind. AKS beat down Awarapan and Apne at the box office by getting a bumper opening in the first 3 days.

Earth shattering opening. Box office will sing glorious tune in the final tally. Distributors will laugh all the way to the bank. Critics be damned. This one’s for the masses

The opening response is mindblowing. It has surpassed Dhoom-2 & Krrish! It is like the response to Rajnikant starrer Sivaji-The Boss, with the big difference that Rajnikant is the superstar of the South & Himesh is only a debutant actor
Vikas Mohan, Supercinema

And from a very insightful article that I liked instantly: Why we should pray for Himesh’s movieeeeeeeeeeeee, the article wants AKS to succeed, for the reasons to which I completely agree.

YR Films believe packaging is what our educated metropolitan youth and Indian Diaspora demand. So they shove the repetitive silliness down our throats, packing enough first-weekend shows to ensure some sort of profit

Dig dig dig!!

Because…

Because it’s been a mad year, awful for the box office. Two high-profile Yash Raj Films have bombed. Amitabh Bachchan’s [Images] had three of his career’s best performances — Eklavya, Nishabd and Cheeni Kum — and only one of the three (CK) has managed to salvage its budget. The biggest hit of the year so far is Bheja Fry, a film costing Rs 55 lakhs going on to make about 7 crores.

Imagine then, a film coming out from a new banner, starring a new actor — and trumping the industry.

There will be complete chaos. The star-system will be rattled, the producers will be shaken, distributors won’t know what hit them and there will be complete unpredictability in the industry, giving independent cinema a tremendous boost — for if no one knows what’ll work, anything could!

Himesh has the opportunity to upset the Bollywood apple-cart. And that’s a delicious thought.

And finally why Himesh has it to become Bollywood’s Rajini ( I know I am exaggerating to Mars ) :

It’s a film aiming at the auto-rickshawwallahs — with a whole promo going blissfully over the top declaring that intention — and at the janta theatres that burst into mad applause the minute the nasal voice screeches over the speakers. If you’ve never been there, it’s a riot. Forget the Amitabhs and Akshays and those ubiquitous Khans, the crowds respond insanely as soon as a Himesh promo comes on.

• http://tinyurl.com/27rzc8
  ROFL ! #
• Nature has given us two ears, two eyes, and but one tongue-to the end that we should hear and see more than we speak. Socrates #
• @sripathikamath : Signed up for pownce invite..looks good…from Kevin of Digg ! #

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• Google analytics finally working (different plugin though)#
• @Sudhakar: whats SN? #
• @sripathikamath: thats right, there is another person with username rk #
• “There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.” George Santayana #

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• Good Morning: “Winning may not be everything, but losing has little to recommend it.” Dianne Feinstein #
• Lunch with client. Burp! Sleepy now. #
• I *totally* appreciate the GD being a part of interviews. Some people can *never* listen to others nor shut-up but enjoy shouting in meeting #

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• jaiku - comments = twitter + twitterfeed #
• @nvnbk: now that you are on jaiku, check twitku.com ! #
• @Sudhakar: Bitte schoen :), u configured your mobile to recieve updates ? u following me ? #
• Good Morning: As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death. George Bernard Shaw #
• G’gle calendar now sends sms notifications (Bsnl worked even though not mentioned) Sigh! I had almost decided to stop using mobile … #

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• Good Morning: It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. Decouvertes #
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• Updated Wp to 2.2.1. Cheated by not deactivating plugins and repeated posts on main page is the punishment #

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This is a musical play using quite heavily the poems of “prema kavi” B R Lakshmana Rao to the music of C R Ashwath.

One part of the story is oft-repeated love story - the birth of the story, a third angle which was actually a misunderstanding, happy ending - in marriage. If there was any freshness it should be attributed to the natural performance of the lead pair. The story is intercepted with songs and dances - typical of a feature film - probably a reason story stretched with not much happening otherwise.

Second part is about the love leaving the couple after marriage and the minor fights that happen - probably due to lack of co-operation and the need to adjust. The fights lead to the point of separation but they realize and make up.

In between there are lots of digs about many social issues and many were cliched or already-heard-of.

C R Simha was quite jovial considering his age. He mimics a famous swamiji and his blessings is reserved for lovers Except for the lead pair - who gave natural good performance and a loud Ritwik Simha, others were passable. The other girls looked very happy and seemed to enjoy their role thoroughly. Sometimes it was little over-acting but better than average lazy acts by the boys. They looked out of place at times and looked inflexible.

Of course it is not possible to get Ashwath to sing for every show, but this recorded music was a huge put-off for me, given that I have enjoyed the plays for their direct interaction which includes the music playing at the side stage. Recorded music’s quality was also not good.

Overall, though touted as comical drama, did not make the audience laugh many times (unlike the ones where I really laughed till it ached). Probably also because it all looked either repetitive or cliched. But it did manage to make us smile few times - few dialogues and mannerisms by lead pair - and several messages were put across quite fine.

Its rare that I find myself agreeing to each and every point of a review by others. The review of Life in a Metro by B Rangan had me nod in agreement for almost everything (excluding perhaps Dharmendra part, which I did not think much about).
Excerpts to which I strongly agree:

[...] Go Bollywood!

There’s a lot about Metro that makes you want to get up and cheer. The story is a loose lattice of crisscrossing episodes about finding (and also losing) love – the film really should have been called Love in a Metro.

As with Shivani, there’s a refreshingly physical component to the love stories.

Shikha (Shilpa Shetty; [...] this is at least as good a performance, if not better – plus, she looks fantastic)

Kangana Ranaut, once again portraying a damaged-goods soul; she may be hitting the same notes in all her movies, but she does hit those notes extremely well

So you have adultery and betrayal and a lot of admittedly banal (in the sense that there’s not much you can’t predict) relationship drama, and it’s inevitable that Metro ends up resembling nothing more than a rather sophisticated soap – but no soap you’ve seen has had this kind of cast, these kinds of performances.

This is high-end ensemble acting, and I’d hate to single anyone out – but with a gun to my head, I’d probably admit to liking the story arc with Konkona Sen Sharma and Irrfan Khan the most. By now, it goes without saying that these two actors are terrific in whatever they do, but here they play that most heartwarming of rom-com staples: opposites who end up discovering that they may be destined for one another – and they’re just so good together. They’re funny and sad and confused and philosophical and they almost make you wish for an entire movie about their characters alone.

(There’s lot of rain in Metro, an indicator, perhaps, of the bad weather the relationships keep running into.)

Her umbrella is ruined in a gust of wind, and Akash uses a safety pin to fix it temporarily. And that’s the point, really. It – the fix with the safety pin, and the subsequent relationship with Akash – is only a temporary solution. The real issues still need to be tackled head-on. They won’t go away because you put a band-aid on them, and that’s as true of life in a metro as anywhere else.

Some my additional points :
1.The sad ending of Shika’s story is sad. Infact, I was disagreeing when she apologises itself. If in KANK, the adultery is justified by any weird logic, for Shilpa’s character it should have been a “right”, not even justification ! It was so easy to change the end, just make Kaykay enter the house after she has left (along with the child), because his return is the only “event” shown as a reason for her to stay back – apart from perhaps the child hugging her father – and not any other moral reasoning, which is why I feel that event could have been avoided. Even logistically, that climax would have made 2 people happy vs 1. But it looks like “compromise” is the theme – even Konkana’s character, Sharman Joshi’s character compromise.
2.The songs were finely blended in the movie and the lyrics too complimented so well that, dialogues and lyrics felt like extensions of each other. And with musicians appearing in the same frame as actors and through out the movie, songs were never this well a part of the movie !
3.Sharman Joshi looked/acted quite mature.
4.Dialogues sounded new. I was taken by surprise and clueless when Shiney Ahuja, on asking whether he left her or she left him, quite normally quips “Love left us”.

This was, again, a collection of three short stories by Vaidehi. Given the inclination/theme her stories has, the play too was an attempt to dive into woman’s mind.

There were three protagonists, the first one was most interesting for me. She was Shakuntala, the famous character of Kalidasa’s play. The director/playwright here takes few wonderful deviations (was reminded of the deviations by Farhan Akthar in Don) from the original. The play suggests that temporary memory loss was infact a lie told to the world and that the king just did not keep up his word. This challenges the self-respect of Shakuntala and she takes revenge - if she had wanted she could have shown the ring as proof, but she instead lies that it was lost in the river. And finally, when king tries to apologise, she doesn’t give in.

I liked the deviations because they were convincing and more practical than the original. And of course they are so consistent with the theme - self-respect and independence of woman is at the core.

Second story was of a lady who longs for love and marriage. I would not go into details but I felt it was treated a little over the top. Or may be because, I could not accept those reactions/feelings coming from a girl - we are very much used to see that from a boy just like many dialogues that she mouthed.

Two credits to this second story - one it had varied dimensions and density in the character. And while the former story invoked heavy dose emotions and was serious by nature - despite a romantic backdrop - this one evoked few smiles, so what if it combined pity with it.

Third story was a complex one. That, coming from me is saying a lot ! This character is a wife of a rich man, a poet herself but suffering by some complex. Probably an inferiority complex, or an identity crisis –somewhat similar in theme to other two- or even lack-of-attention syndrome. She indirectly questions the patriarchal society and walks out of her marriage and settles with someone who she thinks would love her.

While one lady performed other two ladies played supporting and it was interesting to watch a supporting cast don the main role in the next part, well & differently. Music support was quite simple - by the same person traditional harmonium for Shakuntala and modern keyboard for other two.

The play overall was quite low on entertainment value, but I appreciate the effort that went into it. However I guess it was quite interesting to art lovers like Dr.URA whom I spotted in the audience.

Salaam-e-ishq:
Whole lot of parallel plots..was quite interesting as an experiment. I did not like the Priyanka-Salman story which was done in an artificial manner. John-Vidya story was on an extreme of senti-scale. The small comedy plot was also not very worth mentioning. I seemed to like the rest three. Perhaps a little more attention could have been given to that of AnilKapoor-Juhi. It was good to see Govinda after a long time! The way the different characters criss-cross reminded me of Crash.
Overall, this movie got lot of +ve and extremely –ve reviews. Those who identify with the emotion seemed to like it and those who didn’t, didn’t. But from a cinematic point of view, with stricter editing and more attention would have made it better.

Black Friday: Had heard about this film years ago. Finally got a chance to watch it. Its bold, to the point.

In pursuit of Happyness: Was very satisfied about this one. The fact that its based on a real person (Chris Gardner) motivates all the more. The real-life details were displayed on the screen after the show. Will Smith breathes life into character – notable scenes are – when he attends interview in soiled/painted clothes, father and son (Smith’s son – cute n firm) hallucinate in railway station and many more.
I returned with only one thought in my mind – just keep doing it. Persistence is sometimes more important than the hard work. And I give up too easily.

Ekalavya I liked this. The settings, the colour, a play like plot - poetry on screen.

Nishabd: It was too long. I disliked it for many reasons. Had a rant in draft, if I feel like editing it, it would be posted here.