Vivah

3 out of 4 of us found it ok. It was actually was. It's Sooraj Barjatya's capability that he can make an absorbing movie out of a non-topic.

From the promos I felt it's going to be a bore. The first 15 minutes did feel that way. But with the boy-girl meeting & 'Do anjane ajnabi' song, it turned out well.

We hoped for some drama, which came in the form of an unaffectionate Aunt. But that was nothing by other movie standards.

And just when we resigned to absence of drama, and prepared yourself for a grand wedding, things go horribly wrong. And this part was really weepy. The pain Monish Bhel stingingly describes, goes right through. That is why they say in real life, there should be no sulky member during a wedding. Really something can go wrong.

But this tragic part was to reinforce the fact that marriage is a 2-way street. Contribution is to be made by both parties.

I went to this movie hoping to get a glimpse of 'Maine Pyar Kiya' and 'Hum Aapke Hain Kaun'. Some patterns did occur here. Prem gifted a dress for the late night birthday party in MPK. Here it's a diamond necklace. That way 'Mujhe Haqh Hain...', was the boldest part in the movie.

What was different from SB's other movies, is that music was not very note-worthy. I still have a cassette & CD of MPK & HAHK and listen to then all the time. Can't say the same about Vivah songs.

And there was a reduction in unnecessary granduer, which was almost a SB invention. Here, we are treated to a small-town big house located in a narrow gully. And no separate comedy element.

Good thing SB made a smaller movie, when compared to his past 3. This gave him a chance to break his formula and try something new, even though its within his self-made confines. Now I can definitely expect a great movie from him.

Chores

Rakhi Sawant is our house favourite contestant in "Bigg Boss". She is simply super ! It was a relevation to see her uninhibitedly wash clothes, mop floor & prepare upma. All her mercurical dialogs are entertaining. She should definitely win.

And why I connected with her, was when in yesterday's episode, she screams this, while rinsing clothes -
"Moushi, tujhe to dus hazar pagar dena chahiye. Apun ki toh watt laga di !"

So very much agree with her. When my Laxmibai was away for a month, and I mopped floor, washed dishes & clothes, I would call my hubby everytime and sob, "We pay her so less, so so less. I have to buy a washing machine - just for her."

Seriously washing clothes is one hell of an exercise. Especially the rinsing part. The soap sods just never seem to end !

That reminds me of the anecdote I read in Reader Digest

Rama took immense pride in personally maintaining a great house.
Rama: I wash all curtains with my hands. I want them to last long.
Shama: Oh I let the ashing machine do it. I want to live long.

Bless the lady who pushed the guy to invent washing-machine.

World's Best Crab Curry

By my Mom, of course. The curry is coconut based, grinded fine with chilly, turmeric, tamarind, cummin, coriander, pepper etc etc. Standard Costal recipe. But Ah the delicious, soft, almost salty meat to be sucked out of the bulky long shell. Or to be scooped out. Or gently coaked out cm by cm by teeth.

There are some bad side-effects as well. Any pointed edge might hurt the tongue; gotto be careful there. And then those heat burnings in the mouth, after few hours. But the worst is - so less output for so much mehnat (hardwork). Nevertheless, I am waiting our next session.

After 12 years of vegetarianism, when I decided to cross-over, it was only to seafood. I tried chicken. My Mom's chicken curry is another delicious aromatic dish everyone swears by. But I didn't get much from the taste. Nah. It's only Fishdom for me.

Crab also reminds me of the Scallops I had in 'Vicky's Palace' in Montreal. Both in color & taste. Yumm. I don't think we get them here. Sigh. So I will stick Crabs for now.

Update: Here is the Recipe, my Mom finally managed to explain to me. Here is whatever little I understood. I hope it turns out just like hers. All the best.

Ingredients:
1 kg Crabs
Half coconut
10 whole dry Red chillies
3 tsp whole Coriander seeds (Dhaniya)
1 tsp Cummin (Jeera)
1/4 Mustard seeds (Rai/Sarson)
1 pinch Fenugreek seed (Methi)
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder (Haldi)
1 lemon-sized ball of Tamarind
4 cloves of Garlic

Method:
Heat a little oil on a Tava, and roast the above stuff (except Crabs) lightly. Maybe 5 minutes.
Then grind it all to fine paste. Not very liquidy.
Slice 1/2 Onion and sprinkle on this paste.
salt to taste.
Boil this paste in a deep bowl. Maybe 15 minutes.
Add Crabs one by one.
Continue to boil till crab color changes to red. Maybe 10 minutes

Now it's ready to serve 6 people ! Enjoy !

Jaan-E-Mann

Watched Jaan-E-Mann and 5 out of 5 of us loved it.


Initially from promos it felt like a sad serious triangle movie. But actualy it is a lot of comedy, with a equal measure of emotions and a dash of tragedy. And good songs. Perfect well balanced mix.

Definitely different movie. Format is nothing we had seen before out here in Hindi movies. Of showing same incident from all 3 point of views. That was for revealing new layer in the story. Of flashback in a more physical way. That was entertaining. Special Effects here, were purely to entertain, not to dazzle alone. Director has done lot of background work. Detailing & continuity are perfect. The telescope, laptop & projector remain throughout the movie, without giving us a lecture on technology. It's amazing how a movie with only good characters can grip you throughout. No villians, except one, ok not the usual baddie.

Songs were all great. My favourite is Ajnabi shehar hain.... Love the way Sonu pulls every ...ainnnnnnn just to test how breathless we can remain :) And Humko maloom hain... was very masaledaar, but so tasty that I can try it out again. Jane ke jaane na is playful and picturised well, bringing everything & what not, in one room. Sau dard hain.... was really sad. Picturization wise, its a worthy beta of Tanhayi from 'Dil Chahta Hain'.



Salman begins with his usual dead-pan faced. But soon he gets to show some subtlety - in Ajnabi shehar hain.... What he feels for Piya, appears so flitting, it's easy to miss out that on TV. And later he gets to bawl his eyes out - something missing from his movies in the last 5-10 years. So that was good.

Ashkay's laugh was really catchy. Lot of people were infected - laughing like him on their way out of the theatre.

And such a lovely cute baby, such expressive eyes & smile :) They captured her in different moods and used them at the right dialoge in the movie.

Preity Zinta acts well as usual. We are always on her side. And she looks pretty throughout. I think she is the one bringing usable skirts back in fashion in India. But she should stop wearing those hideous wavy wings. They make her face look puffy. It happened in KANK & in Scooty & Tea ads. And same here in the first part. Thankfully she swicthes to straight hair and looks youthful & energetic. Though in real-life, I think wavy is beautiful and ironed hair is hay-like, I would prefer PZ not to go for it.

Farah Khan & Shirish Kunder have established their style of filmmaking with Main Hoon Na and Jaan-E-Mann. And I hope they will take it forward and make of lot of good & digestible entertaining movies. Hindi film-making mantra in 2005-6 has been good script & innovation in cast, characters & detailing. Its definitely working. Cause it's been raining good movies these 2-3 years.

Men & Cricket

Our TV has conked out and in repair shop. So yesternight we followed the India vs West Indies match on Radio.

Raj: Neighbours sunenge toh hasenge

Last 10 overs were very interesting, very tight. '13 runs for 13 balls'. But wickets were going off pretty quick. Then Lara came ... it was all quite here. Commentators paint quite a picture - hyped up Lara's entry & "how everyone shakes with fear". But then he left soon too. Then in was '5 runs in 5 balls'. Victory seemed very pausible. But something went wrong and there was a sixer. Total gloom out here.

Raj: But its ok. TV hota to aur pain hota.

What with all the visual images & post analysis.

Raj: Yeh log kya khelenge Australia ke saath.

Tini: They will squash our team like mosquitoes [completely depicting the whole thing with his right palm flying through like a air-bomb landing on his left palm]

Raj: Those bulky Aussies will enter the field and hold a "Good Night" each. All India team dead.

:))

Happy Diwali !

Hope you had a Great one !

We spent the Diwali weekend with my parents. And that meant lot of sweets & namkeens. I reprised my traditonal role of assitant, while Mom churned out the good stuff. So while I crushed elaichi, cut karanji and shaped chaklis, Mom rolled out besan laddoo's off the hot ghee-dripping dough.

Evening was spent unravelling the rolled fairy lights and decorating it on grills. Diya's & candles dont stay long in balcony. Its too windy. Lit diya's only at the doorstep.

And the grand finale were the fire-crackers. Hydrogen/atom bombs were at their loudest best. New bullet bombs were no more than a fizzle. And Laxmi bombs were reliable as usual. Mom had to sit out specially to pat Blackie, Brownie, Tammy (dogs) and Bablu & Babli (sheep), who were shocked hear bombs for the first time. Twinklers, flower-pots & chakra's are almost a tradition now. And yet a joy year after year.

Fresh Bangalore

Vidhan Soudha

This week has been truely amazing. Bangalore looked like the same city, but in a parallel universe. Less crowds everywhere.

With a long weekend, and Wednesday off, half or rather more then half of the population was away.

Visually everything looked amazing. Less people everywhere. Definitely peaceful & quite mid-days.

I even got to cruise at 5th gear on BTM layout road. Those who haven't been there on weeknights, when it takes 40-50 minutes to cross the 4km stretch, they will never understand my joy. And disbelief.

This long holiday has really freshened my mind.

Roses Pozes

Showcasing some homegrown talent.
Photos by: My Hubby
Roses by: My Mom

Fanaa

Inspite of all the negative hype created by pretentious reviewers all over, Fanaa was a good movie. It had every thing you need in a movie. Comedy, tragedy, good locales, lovely songs and great cast. All in the right measures and none overdone. What else is there, come on.

2.5 out of 3 of us liked it. The 3rd person was tired of the 2nd half, as it was her 2nd & forceful viewing.

I loved it even though I am seeing it pretty late after the release. In theatre, may I add. Thankfully I did not know the ending. Though ofcourse it was as expected. For that matter, the whole plot when described will sound very mundane or expected. But the situations were very well-written. Unfolding of each new part was suspenseful. Dialogues were fresh, witty with a well-balanced mix of new pjs, wrenching emotions and more. Things were pretty tight, so it did not drag at all. Every scene had something to offer to the story as well as the character.

For that matter, compared to all the candy-floss movies now-a-days, this one was definitely darker. And the second half is enough to convince of that fact.

First half had Delhi, sunshine, witty repartes, pjs & profound shayari, jaspal bhatti & the balwant 'cartoon network' character, while second half had no such thing. Actaully, that job in the second half is done by the kid. He got all the non-sugary cute dialoges for a part of talkative, intrusive kid asking uncomfortable questions all the time. Knowledge sharing to dispose off the milk was innovative.

YashRaj films prop unit have achieved newer levels in India. Great detailing to good effect - 10:30 departure time for 10 O Clock. Electrical cable prominently featured in the Dekho na. No air-brushing.

Aamir was a pleasure to watch - you can't expect a different statement from a Aamir fan. But all impression vanish after the sequence of cold-blooded vicious murders for that trigger. His villany is unforgivable. The moment he reaches that lone house in all that snow, I was wishing it would be like Stephen King's 'Misery', from here on. Misery it was for him allright, but only in emotional way for him.

And Kajol, so nice to see her after a longtime. Her role was also a good one. It would have been a sober role, but for Kajol's characteristic spunk and boldness. Making fun of others inability to deal with her blindness. And as Mom constantly teaching her kid.

Apart from Kajol & Aamir, who are really the soul of this movie, and who really carry this movie, I liked the character played by Tabu. Each scene for her was well cutout. Whether it was her unobstructive pregnency in th e first scene, to show the start of timeline. Her handling home from office by phone, or her feminine strength, giving her the edge to see things her competative collegue could not. I am refering to the custard vs ice-cream scene.

The use of
Lag ja gale, ki phir yeh haseen raat ho na ho
shayad phir is janam mein mulakat ko na ho
...
humko mili hain aaj yeh gadiyan naseeb se
in the first half was really innovative.
It was difficult to imagine if the song was made for this movie or the moment was wound around this song.

Music was well balanced. 3 out of the five are ones I would definitely go for repeated hearing.
'Desh hain rangeela' was picturised well. And 'Chanda chamke' was a welcome break. Thankfully they were short ones. Delicious ones were
'Dekho Na' - really well pictured rain song after a long time. or was it Aamir after a longtime ? Beautiful electrical.
'Chand Sifarish' - for all the sunshine and delhi
'Mere haath mein' - for all the beautiful colors in the dark half.

Speaking of music, background score was also fantastic. Especially in the part where they both draw their guns out. Its a long pause, with both of them standing far apart, but in the same frame. Only the music guides us to look at them one by one. Good one.



Overall a satisfying movie.

NICE Road

What a NICE road indeed !



This one stretches from Kanakapura Road (near Talaghattapura Police station) to Mysore Road (Kengeri).



Distance-wise it is 9.6 km and takes 5-10 minutes max.

This is a surprising, coz to reach the same place via Kanakapura Rd, Ring Rd and Mysore Rd takes like 1.5 hours in daytime. (10 minutes ! That is too much shock, when its the first time).



I even got to cross 100 kmph. And that is unbelievable in Bangalore.






Now only thing to wait for is for the entire stretch to be completed. So this road will join Magadi Rd - Mysore Rd - Kanakapura Rd - Banneghatta Rd and finally Hosur Rd !