Monday, October 23, 2006

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.

Friday, October 6, 2006

Fresh Bangalore

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.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Roses Pozes



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


Friday, September 8, 2006

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.
Fanaa
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.

Monday, September 4, 2006

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 !

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Rang De Basanti

RDBFinally 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.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

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.
  • Wednesday, August 9, 2006

    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.

    GolmaalThe 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.

    Wednesday, August 2, 2006

    Omkara

    Omkara is a good watch. 5 out of 7 of us liked it.

    OmkaraInspite of knowing what it is about and how it might end (Othello), the movie has a lot more to offer. Power dynamics, which can apply anywhere in the world. Dangers of naivety and being openly vulnerable. And when bad luck piche padtha hain, toh koi nahin bacha sakta. That happens to Ajay Devgan because of his misjudgement. And to Vivek for no reason at all.

    The setting is supposed to be the Wild West of Uttar Pradesh. It definitely looked like one. The grand old lady and all wedding ritual songs were from UP. But the dialogues definitely sounded like Haryanvi. That was the only jarring note. For a violent setting, there was immense amount of menace around. And lot of seething anger. But never rage, only cold blooded stuff.

    There was a lot of Humor though. For the 'way to mans heart' part, the whole theatre was in splits. Kareena even gave a pause for the audience to settle down - pretty much like it happens on a sitcom. And mobiles phones and "SM". And Rajjo, the comic-villian partner for Iago.

    Music was great. Like gemstones on that cummerband. Title track 'Omkara' played to an apt scene to establish the power of Omkara/Othello. 'Beedi' was onscreen crowd-rousing. 'Namak Ishq ka' was beautiful redention, very foot-tapping. Background music was efficient – came up as and when required. And so didn’t give the mandatory headache after the show.

    Exceptional perfomances by Saif Ali Khan, Konkona Sensharma and Ajay Devgan.

    Ajay Devgan was menancing in a underlying way. And offside, this movie is also a chance to see him shirtless.

    Thank God for Konkona Sensharma. What would we have done without her brand of humor in this movie.

    Saif Ali Khan/Iago was ultimate ofcourse. All hype about him was well-deserved. Not even a bit of his refined self was in the movie. He was menancing in a very overt way. Much more from 'Ek haseena thi'. And then, the subtlety with which he bites his disappointment - that was a classic display of both his & director’s skill. Subtlety is the key in all power struggles. Inspite of all the guns & violence & freedom for lawlessness around, he cannot announce his conflict openly. Now if he were to receive National Award for this movie, that would be undisputed.

    Kareena/Desdemona looked beautiful against the stark surroundings. Detailing was also perfect. She had polished long nails in left-hand and right hand ones with short nail and nail-polish bits. She carried her part well – that of a perky naïve beauty through-out, ending with clueless disillusionment at her most awaited occasion.

    Vivek Oberoi, well that role could have been played by a voice-over or nobody at all, and no one would have missed anything.

    All other characters were well-etched. The only odd one out would have to be Bipasha. She could barely mouth those heavy gaalis. Nahin hota hain, toh nahin bolna chahiye. Simple bolna chahiye. But she was definitely needed. For the two riveting numbers - 'Beedi' and 'Namak Ishq ka'.

    Friday, July 28, 2006

    Friday Night Playlist

  • Bijuriya (Remix) - Shaadi se pehle
  • Au au Ashiqui mein teri (Remix) - 36 Chinatown
  • Zara Jhoom Jhoom (Remix) - Tom Dick & Harry
  • Afsana Banake Bhool Na Jaana - Dil Diya Hai
  • Ek nazar mein bhi - Taxi 9 2 11
  • Zehale muskin - Gulami
  • Khalbali - Range De Basanti
  • Dil Na Diya - Krrish
  • Kajra re - Bunty aur Babli
  • Aisa jadoo dala re - Khakee
  • Naam hain tera tera (Remix) - Aap ka Suroor

    .