Passing thought...

BTW dont u thnk tht, just lik the main protagonists in Ghajini/Memento, we all also suffer frm anterograde amnesia? I mean...aftr every terrorist activity, we also tend to forget it within 15 minutes and dont seem to remember anything at al aftr tht...so do v also need notes and photographs to remind us of wt hs transpired and wt needs to b done??

Round off (Bollywood)

Here's a round-up of wat clicked for me and wat didnt ths yr in Bollywood...

5 movies tht deserved more thn they got-
1. Oye Lucky Lucky Oye! - refreshing
2. Dasvidaniya - moving
3. Mumbai Meri Jaan - poignant
4. Sorry Bhai! - interesting
5. Heroes - well-meaning concept lost in wayward direction

5 movies tht got more thn they deserved-
1. Singh Is Kinng - deplorably hideous
2. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi - pretentious
3. Fashion - mediocre
4. Golmaal Returns - puerile
5. Race - mindless mockery of the audience's intelligence

5 movies that simply ROCKED-
1. A Wednesday - brilliant
2. Rock On - awesome!
3. Bachana Ae Haseeno - delightful
4. Ghajini - style!
5. Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na - breezy

5 movies that made ppl contemplate suicide-
1. Tashan - utter crap
2. Drona - ughhhh!
3. God Tussi Great H0 - WTF!
4. Love Story 2050 - OMG!
5. Kidnap - juvenile crap

Music albums of the year-
1. Rock On!
2. Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
3. Jodha Akbar
4. Jannat
5. Dostana
6. Yuvvraaj
7. Bachana Ae Haseeno
8. Race
9. Ghajini
10. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Here' s hoping for a good enough, if not better, 2009...thrs AK in Three Idiots, Hrithik in Kites, Salman in 3-4 movies (again!), Farhan Akhtar in Luck By Chance, Akki in CC2C, Aby's baby in Delhi 6 and SRK in My Name Is Khan and Billu Barber to look fwd to...plus a no. of smaller, more intelligent movies tht r sure to knock us off the floor!

AK shows how it otta be done!

Have u seen the Nagarjuna-starrer Mass? Don No. 1? Chiranjeevi's Indra-The Tiger? Nope?? Well then the new AK starrer may not be ur cup of tea...or is it? well frankly i dunno....

AK continues to surprise the audience with a new turn as a loverboy-turned-maniacal killer in this south-ishtyle entertainer...The movie isnt wat u wud expect frm the perfectionist, since we are accustomed to being made to think aftr watching most of hs movies...and with hs habit of raising the bar a few notches high wit every movie, m not surprised tht most of us expect the moon frm hs next venture every tim...so its pretty much an anti-climax whn AK returns to the big screen wit a film as hardcore-devoid of logic-commercial as any and catches the viewers on the wrong foot...m not gonna get into any of the loopholes/cliches, which r plenty in number as wel as severity....simply bcz for the entire running tim of 3 hr 5 min (yep its tht long!), i dint look at my watch even once...and tht is a mark of hw engrossing/gripping ths movie is! its not a masterpiece, its not a landmark, it may not even b anothr feather in Aamir's gloriusly over-crowded cap, but entertaining it sure is! and hugely at tht!

The direction hs a distinct south-indian flavor and it works big tim bcz of the conviction wit which AK plays hs character...its lik he believes ths guy exists and it is him! ur willing to suspend disbelief during the corniest of action scenes....simply bcz they dont seem corny with AK getting into the skin of the character....any othr actor in ths role and i wud hv laughed my way thru the 3 hrs...hats off to Aamir for having the guts to try out a mainstream, commercial role and doing more than full justice to it...Asin is gorgeous and does a fab job...Jiah Khan is miscast! and i especially hated the guy aftr whom the movie is named...he and hs band of goons is so nauseatingly cliche tht they seem to belong to a completely diffrnt movie...the screenplay hs a couple of gaping holes...and the background music can get on ur nerves at times...but its all in keeping wit the mood of the movie...the action scenes r raw and stylishly shot and executed...music is a (not really necessary) filler...but every song wit AK in it is brilliantly shot and presented...unfair to othrs but true!

At the core however, wat keeps the movie togethr othr than AK, is the delightfully penned back-story, which is breezy and interesting, primarily bcz of the lead actors...and the clinching aspect for me ws tht the movie wsnt pretentious or preachy at al...it didnt pretend to b intelligent or sermonizing or morally correct...all it did ws entertain! and thts not saying less...bcz i dont remember a recent movie tht made me sit thru the entire 2.5-3 hrs without giving a single yawn or fidgeting uncomfortably or looking at my watch even once...

Finally, Ghajini is no Memento...its not even close in terms of class...but in terms of style and performance, it sure does pack a powerful knock-out punch!

Adding to the original post on 27/12:
Here's wat Mr. Masand hs to say...pretty much wat i hd in mind :)
"
Ghajini works despite its shortcomings because it's a reliably dumb film that is unpretentious in its intentions. Unlike many dumb films that take themselves way too seriously, Ghajini is a dumb film that celebrates its dumbness......
Ghajini isn't a particularly good film, but entertainment it delivers by the bucketful. At a running time of 3 hours, the film seldom drags and therein lies its victory.......
this is Aamir Khan's way of telling us, 'Anything that Shah Rukh or Akshay can do, I can do just as well.'
"
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/masands-verdict-ghajini-is-dumb-and-celebrates-it/81344-8.html
Spoiler: Sanglichi Mulgi Sai Tamhankar plays an "important" part in the movie- tht of the second female lead's close frnd who appears on screen almost everytim she does...thts two in a row for Sai after Black and White...hope to c her in a lead role in a Bollywood flick soon :)

Rab needs to retire.Now.

As i cringed helplessly in my seat for the better part of 2.45 hrs, i cudnt believe the horror unfolding in front of me on the screen...Thr i was watching possibly THE most awaited movie frm YRF since long, and thr they were-the prime architects of the mega-project - Mr. 'I-am-the-greatest-ever' SRK and Mr. 'I-have-made-the-longest-running-film-ever-and-hence-I-rock' Aditya Chopra - botching up the film unforgivably! Day before, I had seen SRK harping in an interview abt how hs beloved "Adi" hd written the entire script in 12 days....now i kno how!

Rab Ne...is possibly one of the most gimmicky, illogical, irrational, chauvinistic and boring movies ever made...The plot is plain stupid/unbelievable, and while i can make my peace with tht, having likd a no. of David Dhawan films, the screenplay is, to put it mildly, pathetic, and the dialogues make u go "WTF" every now and then, and not for a good reason...SRK hams it up uncontrollably as Raj and makes u wanna eat ur own brains, surpassing his hamster-job in OSO by miles....to giv credit whr its due, he does try honestly and sincerely to portray a common-man character, and does succeed in a few moments...however, SRK being SRK, cant really change the way he emotes, and thts wt brings both the characters down...The new girl hs a single expression for the entire movie and u just cant undstnd wt the problem is wit her character...why does she agree to the marriage in the first place, why does she begin to lik Raj, why does she begin to like Suri, why, why, why....In fact the entire movie overflows with such why's...the girl does kno how to dance tho and she hs 'maintained' herself wel...so no complaints on tht count ;) Vinay Pathak does hs job wel altho hs character is so over-the-top u cant believ y HE hd to do the role...

but lets turn our attention now to the most crucial player in this entire melange...Mr. Rab...now, Sir, if ur reading ths frm somewhr, i urge u frm the bottom of my heart to retire....pronto...its high tim u let the humans in Adi Chopra's movies fend for themselves rathr thn banao-fying thr jodis...believ me...they dont need it....and neithr do we-the poor, hapless audience...

Turning our attention to the main culprit-Mr. Moneybanks....Aditya Chopra...i kno u lik to believe tht YOU are Rab...and the truth is, u need to retire before the original Rab (the 'uparwala pappe' as u ridiculously refer to Him in the movie!)... ur clueless as a director and very clearly stuck in a time-warp, much like Mr. Subhash Ghai, who gave us the 80s drama Yuvvraaj, and Mr. Harry Baweja, who ensured hs son wont get anothr movie by tryin to break the time-space continuum...and please-oh-please, kick ur dialogue writer for all he is worth...i wanted to kill myself whenevr i heard SRK saying in tht inimitably annoying style of hs 'Hum hain rahi pyaar ke....phir milenge chalte chalte' umpteen times in the movie...and the word Rab may soon enter the hall of fame of most used words in a worthless attempt at convenience and show-off...ditto for the ppl responsibl for the background music score...it gets so repetitive tht u start to feel somthngs wrong wit the audio...the no. of times they hv used the 'Haule haule' hook and the tune of 'Tujhme rab dikhta hai'....it drives u insane and makes u want to kill every1 responsibl for ths movie wit slow poison...

Thr r a couple of intelligent moments in the movie...especially the end credits, which r novel and interesting....and mayb the bollywood flashback song, which wud hv been a rage, hd v not seen somthng similar so recently in OSO, which btw ws light yrs ahead of Rab Ne.. in terms of intelligent humor (and sadly, stil dint manage to b path-breaking cinema, courtesy, once again, ham-star SRK!)...the placement of the song however, clearly shows the IQ level of the director...the songs r pretty good but fail to salvage the sinking ship...also, a couple of scenes r heart-warming and well-written, u thnk, but thn as soon as u begin to say to urself 'hey tht wsnt so bad....it ws pretty nice actually', the scene is stretched so much, it snaps into two, leading to the ugliest piece of acting and dialogue-delivery u cn imagine...and to make up for any sanity in the movie, u hv an array of ridiculously insane scenes, including the sumo-wrestler fight, the ILU light-up scene and the bike chase, which more thn manage to make u hang urself....

Also, the story reeks of chauvinism, and i cannot relate wit SRK trying hard to make his wife fall in love wit hs othr persona, and thn get all serious-an-emotional abt whethr she loves him or the othr 'him'...WTF dude, u startd the game and watevr she feels, ur utterly responsibl for it! m not even gonna bring up the pt of how the dumb @$$ Taani (yah...thts wt her name is!) cant distinguish between Suri and Raj, jus bcz of the outer appearance, altho they both hv similar emoting prowess...the famous monkey-expression on SRK's face is a dead, dead give-away...

This is possibly one of the biggest failures of the year, in terms of converting a good concept into a good movie, according to me...tht may not be the case for many, i kno, for, SRK enjoys an unending following...but all i wud lik to say is, Mr. Khan and Mr. Chopra, the world hs moved on....For an audience habituated to sumptuous food comprising of Rock On, A Wednesday, and even your own Bachana Ae Haseeno, and some tasty tit-bits lik Oye Lucky and Dasvidaniya, Rab Ne is lik the stale Chyawanprash tht ppl stopped eating long long long ago!

P.S.: ths movie doesnt deserv such a big review and so much of my tim...but thr r bound to b accusations of being anti-SRK(not entirely true) and promoter of realistic cinema(not at al true!), hence the detailed review :)

P.S. 2: check out http://passionforcinema.com/rab-ne-bana-di-jodi-a-question-of-answers/ hilarious :)

Oye Lucky!

This one's a fab film by Dibakar Banerjee, after his immensely enjoyable debut with Khosla Ka Ghosla...The film treats its audiences intelligence as somethng tht needs to be valued unlik a lot of recent movies and the multiple layers tht exist almost throughout the movie, are just brilliant from the conception and writing point of view...

Similar in theme (a rare case of genuine inspiration here, probably unintended!) to Spielberg's cat-and-mouse game Catch Me If You Can, Oye Lucky...Lucky Oye is a warm, honest film tht succeeds on all the counts. Abhay Deol deserves special mention here. He seems to b the only one in thr elite family who actually hs the sense to spot good scripts and then the sensibility to protray the characters with an uncanny chutzpah. His more brawny and less brainy cousins surely need to tk a leaf or 2 out of hs book!

The movie isnt straightforward tho and tht cud b a deterrent for those who hv no appetite for the subtle...the othrs, jus get hold of ths one!

Slipping away....

Slowly but surely, i felt life slipping away frm my tighly closed fist...the feeling ws horrible...it ws lik, all i hd ever dreamt abt, wud remain a dream forever...i ws happy in my own world, but not necessarily in the real world...the conflicts hd become too gory to endure...the minutes were running away...the sand tht ws tim ws dripping away....my tighly closed fist ws found wanting...i ws on the verge of losing a battle i dint choose to fight....and thn....a ray of light shone on the insides of my cerebrum...and my fist opened...it ws tightly closed no more...wonder of wonders, time stopped in its tracks...an thr i ws, back on my feet...ready to face the world....ready to accept and move on...ready for anothr innings....just ready and game for life!

P.S. : This is jus a fictional account...and NOT my story! ;) m too cheerful to be drawn into such depths of depression :)

Been there...done that...

Year: 1992 Courtesy: www.xkcd.com

Recent reads...

Wanted to write abt ths books i finished in the last couple of weeks since sometim but cudnt overcome my inertia...

1. The Interpretation Of Murder - Jed Rubenfeld



An excellent detailed study in Freudian psychology with a taut thrilling fictional storyline tht never overshadows the psychological base underneath...do go for it if ur a fan of Freud/psychology/Hamlet/books tht giv more thn entertainment....one of the best books in recent times...


2. Of Course, I Love You - Durjoy Datta, Maanvi Ahuja


Of Course, I Love You - Till I Find Someone Better
A chic-lit novel tht rises frm ashes to end as a truly inspiring, realistic tk on Gen Y...Good read tho not fantabulous, jus bcz the authors indulge in too much unnecessary trash initially...


On the anvil: The White Tiger, The Dilbert Principle, Jurassic Park, You Are Here, False Impressions, Garfield's 21st bday...

Me, We, Country....

To be or not to be....
To see or not to see....
Should I just look nonchalantly and let the drama unfold...
Or should I blow more hot and a lil less cold...
Is whats happening really relevant to me...
Is it just a nightmare that will eventually flee...
Should I jus sit back and wait for things to change...
Or is it something thats within my own range....
Am I just a pawn in this dirty game...
Or have I lost the ability to stay true to my name...
Does my opinion, my point of view, really count...
Am I also of importance paramount....
Have I lost my inner voice that wants me to fight....
Have I forgotten the difference between wrong and right....
Is life really a complex series of equations....
Or is it just a facade to hide the real complications...
If I do not know, I am living why....
Do I have to worry if I'll live or die...
Tit for tat may seem like a human rights violation...
But how else do you react when someone indulges himself in your immolation...
Being resilient enough to bounce back is indeed commendable...
But does it give others a license to kill and make you unstable...
Am I too confused about my personal and social life...
Am I too confused about whether I need a gun or a knife...
Is staying indifferent the solution to this plea...
To be or not to be....To see or not to see....