movies of the week

this week brings mainly 2 hindi movies, daddy cool and quick gun murugun to the theatres.
about daddy cool .. DONT WATCH IT
its a bloddy copy of the most fantastic comedies ever .. The british comedy .. Death at a funeral .. i just wonder why people copy masterpieces just for the sake of profit. i know it would have a different feel showcased in hindi and probably some reviewers love the movie because of the laughter riot it promises, but its a copy !! go watch the original .... i mean suni(e)l shetty's career is almost in its final stage (it started its downward descent when he added the extra 'e' in his name, talk about numerology or whatever they call it). why would you want to watch him ?? DEATH AT A FUNERAL >> go download it, buy a DVD or ask for a special screening of it ..

now comes quick gun murugan .. o .. i found the movie interesting, novel / bullshit and predicable both. its a confused feeling after seeing quick gun.. its that B grade .. neither its an A grade (great rajnikant flick kinda) movie and nor the C grade ones like 'Gunda' (though its one movie whose glory no movie can achieve again).

While you love with the 'vegetarian' cowboy of the movie in the start, relishing the subtle 'linguistic' comedy (as i'd like to classify it as).. the movie has this 'spoof' humor similar to english spoofs. as the movie starts developing a storyline, it becomes very predictable and with the kind of 'superhero' murugan stunts, it starts getting on your nerve soon.. you want it to end somehow, as you already know the story that the bad guy would get killed and his master plan to 'destroy' the world will be overcame by the hero. you lose your tolerance and then realise somehow its not a movie worth watching .. its that youtube-movie .. seeing its funny scenes on youtube would've been more interesting rather than watching the whole thing .. my final take, if u wish to experiment, test your tolerance levels, that is you have liked 'welcome' and 'bheja fry' both in the past .. (if u only liked 1 of em, u wont like quick gun) , then go watch quick gun ....


btw, i found the theatre of daddy cool half full and that of quick gun murugan, empty ..

its my life

ya ya .. i've heard this BS for a long time. its your life .. you control it, you do what you want to .. do you ? o ya.. u know u dont ..

lets start with the beginning...
you're an infant, you get all the attention and all the koochy-koo's. aunties love pulling your cheeks, young girls love to cuddle you and close you close to their breasts... you're the man, the hero and the limelight. you get what you want and you (unknowingly) relish the love spawning from everywhere. this time will never come back so enjoy, flirt and live the best part of your life cause its gonna get worse from here (but you dont even know this fact.. uu too bad)

you become a toddler, you've just realised younger koochy-koo's around you and smaller kids getting the attention. before you know it, you're a brat, your whims increase and you just get know how to win .. you can go to any lengths (that you know of) to get your things done. hit objects, kick people, throw their mobile phones or even try to strangle them. you still rule this small world of yours..

you've started teenag'ing', you start loving bon jovi's "its my life", "summer of 69" without having a faintest idea what it means. Being a pet has just started. your whims have increased to the amount that your parents have stopped agreeing to them, your bashing up has stopped because u've found out you're not the best in business and most importantly, you need money ...
your pocket money finishes out before the next one would arrive. for the sake of becoming a decent person (and more sociable) you just have compromised your want of winning. earlier u were just born to get things done your way...but society (read chicks) have just caused you to agree to people, let them dominate you, cry out loud with petty things and dont know what you really want in life now ..

o yes, you want money. your pocket money is too small for the fabulous eating joints you visit, the petrol required for your car and even your music system. you are being ruled by your parents whims now.. (note the anti climax starting). you need something, you start with the same koochy-koo's they used to do and still they dont agreee to you. finally, with lots of coercion, you get your car, your mobile and lots of things to again be in mercy of them to give you more amount of things.... this suddenly leads you to decide to stand up on your own (your girlfriend reminds you aobut that often). get a good education and a good way to earn money on yourself..

you just try to free yourself from the hands of your nemesis (read parents) . you get a job and now you're started to remember again .. its your life now .. you rule the world. you want anything, you get it (in your budget). you dominate peoples life, your girlfriend has suddenly been more expressive in love and she gives you what you want ... she's 'abnormally' more in love with you now that you can support her lunches, dinners and visits to 5 star hotels.
but (not the pessimistic but here) your u living your life ? ok .. your gf is sometimes a snob and her whims apart, you guess you are.

but what about those 'special' places you go? what is exactly your lifestyle? you just prefer places which have 'special' discounts on your new credit card. you choose places which give you some bullshit points for your purchases. you eat in those restros whose food coupons you get from your company. (they're tax saving on your salary, so why not finish them?) your laptop(or worse, iphone3G) rules you. this is the best part of life after being an infant .. you are just ruled by debit cards, imaginary things and more non living tangible objects. later you know, its gonna get worse ..

you've fought, you've F'd and youve felt for her. you just decide to marry your partner since a long time. . .. you know you're just about to throw yourself into a circular abyss of unending pain. you still do it. you know who rules your life.. now 60% of your income is used up in her kitty parties, saris, jewellery etc while the rest 40% your'e too scared to spend because "She-wants-a-kid" has just started whizzing your head all these nights you try for blissful slumber.

anyways, you've now grown into your 40's .. you have 2 kids and you definately know whats wrong with your life. your wish was to do what you want. you know it comes with money. you have lots of money .. wats the problem ?? your job sucks, your wife sucks more and your kids have just sucked up their thumbs so much that it hurts.. ahh .. the money.. yes. . but then lets see the expenditure .. your 60% goes for food-rent and so-called lifestyle that you live. you visit clubs in the weekends and go for some odd holidays (making an effort to think life is getting better). the 40% you try to save for your kids because you just dont want them to crib about pocket money the way you had to. (but u just have that inkling feeling all that is just going to repeat.. your kid has replaced you, you have replaced your parents .. you just miss them now and always think what would they have done if they were you .. gosh .. have you become wiser ? no .. u just want not to)

you're about to die and know you perfectly know wats right about life. its just that you were wrong everytime. you've found out how not to live a life .. or no ? you've taken your chances.. you've done everything right... have you ?? o yes .. you've just lived your life ...

and the adventure of patrolis

We'll august 15th has been a high alert day for the whole of india. no one wants any kind of unsocial activity on that day. the liquour shops are supposedly closed, and the holiday is meant to be a relaxing one. The middle age people either meet out people or spend the day catching up their sleep. The young ones have a reason to party while for some, thinking about India, freedom and democracy for 1-2 minutes gives a high which they boast on their twitter feeds or facebook status'es. Well, there's nothing special about the day and that no-nonsense feeling of patriotism which kindles minds of people (for a minute or so) is just bullshit, anyways, later on that.

My august, has been a lazy one. This wouldnt have been any different. even the holiday was reduced to a No-Holiday because it came on a saturday. My sleep was disturbed innumerable times, marking it a special day compared to the rest of august, with phones, people coming for meeting etc. anyways, i was rebellious to the signals and decided to wake up at 2PM only. i had to catch up with friends over a friend's birthday party (i missed calling him on his birthday and i felt so guilty for that, i didnt call him up even then). Mom had brute-force persuaded me to have a 'mini' lunch before i went to meet them and i had to eat 2 rotis up to leave home. We were meeting because of the holidays of the 'luckier' friends which were on job in gurgaon, noida etc.

Thankfully, we catched up in 17 and my friends werent interested in eating at 3. we went for 'jean' hunting for my 'birthday' friend. as usual, it happened the other way around, with me shopping some random sweatshirt and he was still in the deciding frame of mind. but then happened the main lunch, at 5. i had a 3 course meal, with the first two at hot millions salad bar, the last one at oven fresh. soup followed by fajita and chocolate fantasy, my stomach felt filled and the taste buds joyously happy. sector 17 seemed strangefully filled up with a mob of people and more importantly, a semi- mob of police, roaming around the region to be on toes in case something fishy happens. with swine flu and bomb scare, i wondered why do people come in large quantities to public places ?? the end of season sale, i guess..... came 6 and i had decided to get some work done, so i went to panchkula only to find the roads jam packed with traffic. august 15th ! yes .. another reason to stay at home.

while returning home, i was called up again to find another party (this time a dinner) in 17. it was 8 now, and after returning home and dropping mom, i was again on my way to 17, for a friend's 1st salary party, at taj. the day was definately out of the world, for my routine of august. Home, home and home with activities like sleep food sleep continuing in a cyclic manner. anyways, taj was an okay experience for the culinary me, with average food and some better than average desserts. comparing the price listing of the buffet and the quality of food + service of the staff, my friends seemed utterly disappointed, though.

its 10 and theres just mention of food food and food in this post.. where's the adventure ?? here it comes patient readers.. we decide to go at sukhna lake for some 'digestion' and passing time together after a long time of passing out of college, where we were enjoying all those 'stupid' discussions which dont have an answer, yet has intrigued us in our 4 years of college . the same things with the same endings, nothing can change minds of people, not even the sophistication of job and the matarial possession of money. anyways, while going back came the biggest suprize of the day.. while we were in logical fight over whose point of view is correct, waiting for us were a couple of policemen, seeing our car parked in a not-so-legal parking with specially 15th august as a backdrop. They say they were patrolling the region and found out 3 cars parked here, of which 1 was of a family, this one of 4 guys (talking in a loud manner) and the last car remained a mystery whose it was. we were in for a shock after the 'haryana' guy had taken up the car documents and written a report about 'his' discovery. he asked us is everyone feeling healthy ? our answers of yes were followed by, ok , you have to stay up in jail til 11AM tomorrow, so you better be feeling it. lots of more hard-talk, followed by our coercion followed. the details are not worth explaining, but gladly,we were saved after 45 minutes of listening to him . ... and all the while, i just remembered the innumerable experiences i had with police, everyone being so different and yet so same..

kaminey.... 8/10

We've seen so much of the RGV stuff about " jai maharashtra" and the style. plus, talk about 'judwa' movies .. There are things which might make you feel there's something familiar what kaminey offers. NOT.

Well, attempting a dark comedy is difficult, especially about mafia (that too in the settings of maharashtra). The movie is a dark comedy, with an adventurous plot and an action setting. The movie almost achieves what it wants to. its brilliant in execution, with some freelance direction and good screenplay. the story revolves around parallel tracks of brothers wanting to live their own lives, but they're bound to collide. The storytelling warps in the movie where we witness a normal movie and then suddenly so much happens that you fee like rewinding back. The pace is varying and there is something to keep you edged on your seat. And the final scene comes similar to "lock, stock and 2 smoking barrels", in an indian environment, really perfect, spotless direction.

The direction just in-phase with the contemporary age of experimental cinema. we see perfect lighting for the scenes and low shots in the movies. the songs are nice, too. the movie in whole is a great watch for people who have the taste of seeing action or adventure scripts. A nice movie, watch it.

Shahid's acting is good, limited in his roles but very methodical. priyanka tries a kareena of JWM (or the asin of ghajini, for that matter) and plays it smoothly. However, editing the viewer with a lost feeling sometimes. There are certain potholes scattered throughout the movie, which could have either explained or avoided, atleast. and yes, the movie seems a little predictable sometimes, but its maximum criticism it deserves. go on experimenting bollywood !

o ya, n i really wonder why it got A certificate .. there is nothing A about it..

The battle of algiers

Long time since i've been watching a movie. I didnt understand why i chose to watch this movie, a true story about a war, the Revolution of algiers (happened in the late 1950's-1962. ). The storyline is supposed to be a documentary (i guess) about the uprising, but is beautifully unfolded with sense of justice given to the 'terrorists'. Its shown in a neutral setting, where the director has not tried defending any of the sides, but vividly described the events in a timeline manner. The screenplay is not lacking, in any respect, with the feeling of anxiety, nervousness, empathy and most importantly, the sad eventuality of war, suffering sprinkled throughout the movie. If watching non-fiction is your piece of cake, go for it. (remember its a black and white + french/arabic, so english subtitles are a must)

More deeply the movie also tries to capture with the reason of 'terrorism'. Ali, a culprit, thief and petty criminal joins the revolution for no particular reasons, but since he's already against the french police, he might as well join some organisation. The revolution starts kicking off, with young women, children shown to have a major role in it. It shows that the muslims were the people to revolt against the french and their tactics, pretty much guerrila, like the contemporary times. While discussing about their cause"Revolutions never won by terrorist activities, its just provides a start."This just makes you wonder the harsh reality of south asia, the same tactics repeated with the 'different' mentality (as we may say, but never actually know who is right).

And then you realise, probably, as the time ticks on, more events unfold, the present becomes history, we may actually find out all the answers about what actually happens in south asia and why should we be bothered ? because its our home and sooner or later, we may be directly affected/involved. fatalism?? NO. ("hopefully never we'd have to deal with that situation ")

sample chain of thoughts

its been a week since i've been jogging in a park (suprised ?). Whenever i reach the play area (where there are lots of kids and their rides), i have, strangely, witnessed the same scene all the 7 days..

It takes me about 30 seconds to cross that place. There's a tin-house on the right of the jogging track, the place where groups of kids are seen playing hide-and-seek. The scene goes like this. The seeker is face towards the tin house and counting and one or two other brats are just standing beside him, waiting for his count to end and do touch them as soon as he faces the world. This same anxious scene awaits me when i reach the place, though with different people. Today it fast forwarded, when i saw a young lass cribbing about her 'den' (what do you call that in english ? ). she was apparently telling a younger girl to go away and not stand here again while she counts 20.

This hide and seek always memories which were associated with you. your childhood was never complete without the game. Playing at home, in the rooms, with cousins. running here and there, being still and waiting for the seeker to come near you so that you can pounce on them and so on. then you grow up and played with your neighbours, running from one house to another and finding places to hide. The rule-breaking followed with you trying to be more adventurous and make it almost impossible for the seeker to find you. Then growing up, but not just that. you then played hide and seek with 'bachas' half your age and you just feel so superior that you just cant lose with them ... you're giving them a lesson to learn and, in the meantime, doing kiddish timepass, yourself.

Coming back, i realise i am still jogging and that i've left the tin hut and probably the girl has stopped counting.. This same common lame thing that kids do. why is it that kids try to attempt that same old joke everyday ? every time the kid does that he would have felt witty and thinks he thought out-of-the-box. only a passerby like me knows that everyday the same trick is being repeated and this so common a thing deserves no applause or a feeling of 'new'ness.

How witty can a common man get ? his wits are, on maximum potential, common. there is nothing called as 'new'. the same thing keeps on happening, but in different situations. Only these situations define the success of the thing attempted by you, because, there are so many people in this universe that even if 1% tries to attempt the same thing as you do, then also we're competing with a million people. The only difference (i hope) is that you're probably that your situation is better off than others. Relying on your individuality is passe now. All you can rely on is your environment around you and how it would favour to to perform better than others. But then, you say there are people which have individuality. Talk about inventors, fraudsters (even people who've indulged in a big scam). Did they do something different ? or was it just plain assessment of the situation in front of them ? i guess the latter. You're just common, like any other person. you dont think so ? you're even more common because every commoner thinks he's different.

o what have i reached upto ? why does a simple small incident end up in a philosophy that you think would change the world ? its just a sample chain of thoughts. you'd probably divert yourself from it, cut it before you realise its getting bullshit or probably end up making your own. ;)

meera

meera... its not just a mythical name, but a mystical one. there's something about meera. it gives a sense of calmness n smooth caressing feeling about it. Mythology was that she was the greatest devotee of lord krishna, a disciple who would go to the length of dancing in the streets of the city to proclaim her affection and devotion for a person. A character of immense overflowing love and equally divine feel about her.

No, this post is not about deepika padukone's role in Love aajkal, her name meera, and her expressions, her sense of acting, brilliant. She seems almost flawless doing scenes of flirtacious happy-go-lucky girl and equally marvellous making those impressive smiles to remove the ground beneath your legs.... she hooks onto your desires and just leaves that feeling of wanting more with her smile. Yes, Saif, you were right in the movie, her smile can knock the living senses out of a person.

Neither is it about the lovely meera-ji of office office, the smart, suave sweet lady whose like all other women near you, a little flabby, a little nervous but most importantly, a lady to be loved. She's the main role of the series (which ended, though i wished it never did). And its definately not about that new 'meera' serial on NDTV depicting the mythological character.

its about the memory of the person named meera. all i could manage was just a small picture of her, on http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020115/ldh.htm#com .. scroll down and you'll find a young girl, who has no substitute for hardwork. Its the only reason that explains i liked PECFest's for the 4 years, why i find valentines to be an interesting day and why i like girls in honda city. missin u meera and wishing you a happy life, wherever you are...

teachers ..

you hate them. more than that, you love to hate them.. you just dont want them to see you anywhere outside your coll/uni. you talk about them, gossip. you believe they're the dumbest and the most dull personalities on earth. you sometimes see people around you resembling them. you notice the eccentricities of their dialogue and try to imitate it. you try to copy their tone, their words and their expressions,too. Though you dont remember any informative talks with them, your memory is fresh with all the silly incidents and jocular observations you did about your teacher. you ARE obsessed about them. the more you hate them, the more they intrigue you.

You idolize them. o ya.. how many of you have actually had a crush on one of your teachers ? i know .... most of you ! someone which looked young, someone which had that style of speaking (for the girlies), someone which wore red's n blue sari's and looked out of the world (for the guy's). yes. you are just crazy about them. you just want a piece of them, know about them and try to imitate their style. you love them. you ARE again, sadly, obsessed.

there is no other feeling about any other teacher. you just love to hate them or just have an heartache. But what about the teacher ? the person is just a normal living being, with their own eccentricities, with an identity and more importantly, personality. probably they're no worse than you (or better than you) but u still idolise them. the reason, because he/she is you Teacher.
A relationship from which you expect to learn (the academic things) but you end up learning so much more, associating yourself and making them an important part of your life. As for the teacher, he/she is just his own self, unattached and he/she,sadly, doesnt love you or hate you (unless he/she wants to).

you expect so much from the teacher. you expect all the niceties, all the interest in you and all the knowledge. sadly, he's just another human being. He too has his own interests... which definately wont be you.