Let's do something...

I always refrain from writing any film reviews even though I eat, drink and sleep movies; feel so strongly about the theme, script, execution, actors, performances, cinematography etc etc. One reason is I have seen such passionate film reviews that it belittles my understanding of movies. Also, the range of movies I watch may not be as broad in spectrum as others. It's like sending a bathroom singer to judge performances of wannabe singers. And among various reasons also lists the fact that in spite of best of my intentions I don't get to see most of the movies, which hit screens in their very first week. With gap comes the unavoidable exposure to reviews, opinions and box office verdict of the movie. So, the charm of doing it first goes away lest you find your ideas resonating with others and then it seems just a copy of what other think. Anyways, with time I realize that I am not claiming myself of to be a film critic nor the blog site is exclusively dedicated to film reviews. And everyone who goes to watch a movie does not stop at just watching a movie to pass his/her time; it explains movies are just not a “time pass”, nobody can help having an opinion about a movie. After all we are not known as among the craziest nations for movies for nothing. So, I thought if the movie is what I have in my mind to write about as a blog, why not? Why carry the baggage of self-expectation of doing it fully and justifiably. Let me just scribble the way I would scribble any other blog. So, here I am.
Nothing went right for this movie. Les concierge booked tickets of a wrong audi in a far off place and we were good 20 minutes late for the show which made me realize how much I have got used to watching movies alone (for that matter, doing all things alone like shopping, checking out food joints…) I surprise myself (and certainly, scandalize others too) with the ease with which I can do these things alone without craving for a company and actually enjoy doing that. So when I was running late for the show, it made me all the more determined to do things alone as it works for me and (for others too) just too well. I found Wake up Sid refreshingly fresh. It had already generated huge curiosity factor due to odd pairing of Ranbir and Konkona. I must confess I was equally unsure of the chemistry this pair could generate onscreen but hold your breath. As you start watching the movie, it takes you over leaving your apprehensions behind. And you would end up asking yourself; if not Konkona who else could do justice to the role? As for Ranbir, did we even question who could better Sid than him? Both are born actors, unquestionably and can carry off there clearly etched out roles with great élan. Konkona does not have to prove herself to anyone. Just that I found her little plastic at moments in initials shots, which were close ups. It might me a bit of Karan Johar effect too who's known for giving her heroines a makeover and Konkona being slightly conscious of it for her comfort. Second thing which I found overdone was Ranbir's T-shirts with all those cartoon characters to highlight his 'bachpana' that refuses to go away vis-a-vis very subtle transformation to check shirts to show streaks of maturity in him. I mean simple Tees with some messages or sporty numbers etc. could have done the trick either. Those cartoon tees irritated me to no end by being such a huge distraction and shouting and overemphasizing the point. To me, Sid was meant to be immature but not a kiddo/spoilt brat in the brutest of sense. The storyline was not entirely path breaking but that's where vision and treatment makes the difference. Aimlessness of Sid can't help you reminding Hrithik's essaying the same in Lakshya but nostalgia ends there and Ranbir lends a fresh perspective to his character. The movie has far and a few characters but everyone does justice to their onscreen presence. Surprising was Sonia. Supriya Pathak was perfect with her level of emotions (just right, not melodramatic for god’s sake). Anupam Kher has been doing such a thing nth time now, no complaints, though high time he moves beyond such typical father roles and high time industry finds some fresh faces to replace him. Music is nothing too much to write about but you won’t miss it either. Coming to some of the best moments of the movie, Sid taking Konkona to Marine Drive on their first meeting and the movie culminating there. why and how Mumbai sucks people into its system could not be done better, especially from a “new girl in the city’s” perspective. When Aisha asked Sid which is the one thing that he would show her in Mumbai, if he could…Marine Drive was impromptu the response in my mind and yes, it tallies… When in Mumbai, I would exactly go to the same spot and look out to the sea, turning my back to the madness and rush and savor those lonely moments that could infuse sanity into me. It’s the sense of freedom for women to dream and to run after them...this city allows them to do so. A simple platonic live in relationship planned by destiny and not the couple, how beautifully has been captured and so is the friendship between Aisha and Sid...so perfect and so real life like. All thumps up. Aisha's outbursts, who's so levelheaded, are done to perfection by Konkona...and Sid's “what you see is what you get” attitude wins you many times over. And I am glad that there was no greatly earth shattering event that turned his life around. I savored gradual transformation...emotions are Karan's forte, and it did not let me down to give apt dose of subtle emotions of anxiety of a father, helplessness of a mom, frustrations of a happy go lucky chappy, nervousness, confidence, shades of jealousy etc. of a new girl in the down and undertones of love...go and get refreshed with wake up sid.

Ker lo duniya mutthi mein...

As I am writing with stylus on my mobile's notepad, I am truly feeling that the world is in my hands. Just the other day I was reading in one of the biographies of Agatha Christie how she would spend days writing pages of her genius creation manually; times have changed so drastically that we could have more of her masterpieces had she been equipped with these devices then. What would be considered an out-of-the-world gizmo in earlier Bond movies are reality now. I remember when 10 years back in college days, we, a bunch of friends visited the swankiest first of the real malls -- Shoppers' Stop in Ansal Plaza, it did not have a mobile counter, simply put mobiles were still not a big that time. Even, afternoon transmission started during my childhood days and metro channel, which would literally be telecast in 4 metros of the country, also started when I was in class IX (and gave us of one of the first VJs – Baba Sehgal, Kritika comparing Superhit Muqabala, the only show featuring the latest bollywood hits (in fact bollywood was not a bollywood that time. It’s a relatively recently coined term by Page 3 journos). I used and learned computer hands on when I joined Press Institute of India's PII''s crash course for journalists; there I got to know what email is and I remember I taught to send/recv mails through msn, yahoo accounts to others too. When I got my salary for the first time in Hindustan Times, it was transferred in the HDFC account and we all in the same route cab got down at one of the ATM machines in C-Scheme, Jaipur while on our way back from a night edition shift and we all explored and experimented how to use cards in ATM. Funnily enough, we were given pagers to stay in touch when the world was on the verge of seeing mobile revolution (Does anyone even remember pagers??? I can say proudly or rather embarrasingly? "I did"). And then, when did mobiles, ACs , mails, internet became as necessary as oxygen difficult to recall. Just a year or two back or so I read about how microblogging is the next big wave in technology and today we are talking about moving away and beyond from twitter, facebook and the likes. Changes would happen always but the pace at which they are happening is much faster and will be more so with time. But with this arises many questions in my mind that why cancer, flu, and other many more such basic things are still unanswerable...and I have yet to fathom such unanswered questions. May be when I write a blog or any such thing in vogue that time some years down the line (or may be writing becomes a thing of past and it’s something else), I would have many more such interesting memoirs to share with my grandchildren...

There's always next time...

“Have feet, will dance” read my status on facebook. Next day, I could see thumps up from my women friends, albeit for different reasons; to some it sounded fun, to some it sounded a way to stay in shape, to some a way to break monotony. I barely moved to a new city lock, stock and barrel two weeks ago, not even settled yet and here, I was thinking of joining dance classes after reading the ad in the newspaper, something I never did before. Timings were little odd and I had to ensure that I could find a babysitter that could sail me through those 1.5 hours 2 times a week. Luck helped, everything arranged, I found myself outside the classroom happy to find several last-minute enthusiasts like me. Jazz, the best dance form for beginners is what I would learn, we were informed. Great! After few minutes of introduction with the instructors and her assistant, when it was our turn to know each other, I realized I am the oldest member in the team, youngest being a 7th grade student. He and I are the unique ones, rest are all in teens or early Twenties. As they say, no pain no gain. Before dance comes fitness, which is attained through bit of warm up exercises, aerobics, yoga and then starts real dance movements, bit by bit. From numerics (1, 2,3 AND 4 to mathematical figures (circle), to verbs (throw, comb)..instructions hit you in all possible ways. Weeks flew by with a blink of eyes. Before the grand finale, we were asked to bring our parents. Even before I could taste how it feels to attend parents teacher meeting of my baby, here I was taking my daughter along as a guest of honor to meet my teacher and friends and see how I perform live. Yet-to-be-two, Navya, received standing ovation from everyone and was made to sit on a special chair with some cookies to munch on and let mama-student to learn through her next moves. While bidding adieu, teachers thanked me for bringing Navya along and making their day a special one. Before that class, I used to feel happy for the reason that I am doing something I always wanted to do but that moment on, I dance because I want to (no matter how imperfect it may be). I also learned when you want to do something, do it, so what if you missed the bus earlier, there’s always time to start afresh.