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 !

Rang De Basanti

Finally caught with Rang De Basanti, though on TV. I was always miserable I missed seeing it in theatre. Now even more so. It's great movie, good fun.

I am as mermerised as Aamir is after he finds out Alice knows Hindi. Too good.
The movie sets it's spunky but pleasent tone right from Alice's reply to her boss :) I was laughing throughout the ad-break that followed.

For once they don't lecture us about history (ok just a tiny bit), but they use the past story to move the present forward. Cinematically all those interlaps were neat ! Morphing Dyer to Defence Minister was scary to say the least. Only thing dissatisfying was the quick actions they take - revenge and their retribution. Fine they realise what they did wrong - when Siddarth goes on-air. But it all went too fast. I guess that's what they were trying to say - drastic actions are no good.

Am all over in love with RDB songs again. Each and every one of them.

Liked the way, the begining of the end was with Ay saala... and finally the actual end with Robaro roshni.

Happy Independence Day !

One of the things, from my last year's list have come true. And rest seem to be on the way.

For this year, I can only add more:

Better security intelligence framework to take pre-emptive actions,

No more floods or farmer suicide,

More road creation - all over India,

along with stricter RTO - for driving license and pollution certificates,

Continue the success rate and good quality in Indian cinema & music industry,

And more strength to RTI ! It's really bringing in positive results everywhere.

Golmaal

If this year did not have so many good movies, I would have declared this one The Best Movie of the year. Well atleast this is definitely the Best Comedy Movie of the year. Not to be missed. It falls in the same category as Garam Masala.

3 out of 3 of us loved it. And the whole theatre audience was with us. Laughing throughout.

It began with a tapping Golmaal song. Sleazy video definitely, but it ends. And then starts the non-stop clean Laughfest. The whole theatre was in splits. I was breathless by the end.

Then, there was another chanting Golmaal song, very infectious again. The flashback-time-travel song, Kyon aage piche, was totally unnecessary but extremely refreshing & well made.

The film hardly had a story. Ok, it did have a four-line story; but we were more concerned about the one-liners. All of them woven around innumerable pranks, along with car chase, heroine chase and finally treasure hunt.

All characters played their part well. The bully Ajay, thali-ka-baigan Arshad, dumb but smart alec Tusshar and his voice, the much bullied Sharmaan. These 4 along with the lovable and very endearing blind old couple - Paresh & Shusmita. And not to forget the Sanjay Dutt bhakt Garage owner, Mukesh Tiwari

Brilliant moments would have to be the one with Jaws track in background and the 'Black-Black khel rahen hain' scene :))

Definitely watch it.