Thursday, September 13, 2007

Golden Jubilee!

50 blog entries finally and I already feel like a Sachin Tendulkar talking about his long and illustrious career ;) If you really knew me, you would understand that commiting to a blog for over a year and a half is really some sort of an achievement for me.

Before I start sounding philosophical, lemme list some of my personal favorite entries that I wrote in this VERY LONG journey!

One of the better film reviews - Rang De Basanti

Learning an Art - Aao Sikhayein Tumhe Cheat-Plead Ka Funda

Thought Provoking - 'S' For Sex

EmotionFULL - Things That Remain Unsaid

Excuses Galore - Adam, Eve and the Apple!

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Films that drew me closer to Bollywood

Disco Dancer - Indian Elvis is Here

Mithunda rocked the nation with this rags to riches story of a street singer. He also popularised the 'scooter kick start' and 'pulling an imaginary rope' dance steps that earned fame in India as Disco Dance. Mithunda became the poor man's Amitabh Bachchan after featuring in this literally electrifying film (an electric guitar held a central role in the script)

"He's got guitar phobia. A guitar killed his mother." - P.N. Oberoi (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

The novel thing about the film's story was that it was not about making music or dance but using music as a source to seek revenge from the oppresive world - original! To quote Jimmy, the protagonist in the film:

"Mother, I have my music. I will sharpen this music like a sword and stab the city's heart with it."
(Courtesy: Wikipedia)


Aye saala..kasam paida karne wale ki, aisa jhakaas jacket

Tarzan - Oooo..ooo..eee…eeeeee

Not many of you might be knowing who Hemant Birje is but you must be knowing about his hit film Tarzan. Such was the impact of the film that it led to a flurry of rehashes like Jungle Love, among others. As a kid I was not allowed to watch this film which to me seemed like a children's film with all those wild animals having fun, the singing and dancing. What was worse that I was not even given a reason. That made me all the more inquisitive to watch this film. My first memories of the film are that of a skimpily clad Tarzan carrying the sultry Kimi Katkar in his arms. It was done so aesthetically that it left an indelible mark on me.

A very emotional story about a boy who has been losing on the better things in life due to his upbringing in the Jungles. It is left to Kimi Katkar, the Rakhi Sawant of the yore, to come and teach him how to appreciate things in the correct light. To quote her in the film - “I shall teach him love and the meaning of it”

I heard that NatGeo has taken this film to be a part of its archive as it gives a good understanding of Indian Wild Life.

“The guy who played Tarzan was good but the elephants were more facially expressive” – A Fan


Awwal Number - First Superhero

Cricket is a religion in India and Dev Anand played the God in this film. As an actor/writer/producer/director he delivered a knock out punch that left the audience awe struck.

Dev Anand plays Vicky - the Police chief, cricket control board president, selector and the former Indian cricket team captain who scouts a new talent Sunny (Aamir Khan) who is all set to replace Vicky's younger brother Ronny (Aditya Pancholi).
Ronny cannot take this lying down and plots to bomb the stadium just as the prolific Sunny goes on a rampage in the cricket field, hitting sixers at will and on special requests from his beloved sitting in the crowd.

While the action takes place in the ground, the superhero Vicky aka Dev Anand surfaces and makes a poignant request to his errant brother:

"Ronny, every one has his day (meaning to say that Ronny's role in the film was over). Tum ye mat karo mere bhai"

Ronny does not relent and DIG Vicky has to kill his dear brother in this breathtaking tale of devotion to a game, a nation and the call of duty.


“Awwal number hum hain..baaki sab paani kam hain” – Dev Anand when asked who the hero was.

Gunda – Transcending norms, a classic!

The hysteria surrounding Kanti Shah’s magnum opus Gunda remains unparalleled. You visit the interiors in Bihar, UP and MP and you will get to understand what I mean. The high points of the film are its dialogues. They stay with you long after you leave the theatre.

A fast paced film that can truly be called an entertainer. Another specialty of the film was the way sub texts were interwoven into the plot. There are several film connoisseurs and intellectuals who discuss each dialogue and scene of the film to understand the mind behind the film – Kanti Shah, the Stanley Kubrick of Bollywood.

The story doesn’t matter as the film transcends all general norms that define a film. It is an experience of a life time and I am grateful to the deadly duo of Kanti Shah and Mithun for providing us with a classic.

Some crispy and poetic dialogues:

“Ae kafanchor neta, mere naam ki qawali gaana chhod ,kaam ki baat bata, jis kaam ke liye tu billi ka dudh peeke dilli se aaya!”

“Bheegi hui cigaret kabhi jalegi nahi aur yeh tay hain ke teri maut ki tareekh kabhi talegi nahi”

“Bulla toone khullam khulla lambu aata ko maut ke tave par senk diya, Uski laash ko worli ke gutter mein phenk diya!”

“Baap pe Poot, Pita pey Ghoda, kuch nahi toh,THODA THODA” (let me know if anyone understood this)
“Do, char, chhe, aath, dus.. bus..”


Darna Mana Hai/Darna Zaroori Hai

If Fountainhead had its Howard Roark, Bollywood has its Ram Gopal Verma. At times he acts human and makes films that ‘humans’ understand and at times he takes us into a world totally unexplored which makes us feel so shallow and apologetic about our IQ levels for not being able to comprehend his sensibilities that we end up calling him names to hide our inadequacies.

Darna Mana Hai and Darna Zaroori Hai leave you awestruck. An ensemble star cast and pool of directors exercise their creative freedom to the hilt and unleash one story after another to ensure that you sweat like a pig in an air conditioned theatre by the end of it all and there lies Ramu’s victory. While the ghosts in Ramsay’s films were typecast as ugly looking, trapped in a coffin and predictable, Ramu changed the face of the ghosts by bringing them in a more congenial environment in the cities where they chose to live inside the bodies of sexy sultry sirens like Urmila Matondkar and Mallika Sherawat rather than those nailed coffins.


Mummy: So ja beta warna Darna Mana Hai ki chudaail aa jayegi
Beta: Accha, fir tum kamre se baahar jao. Mujhe usse akele mein milna hai


Ghosts in earlier films – The ugh! factor

Friday, September 07, 2007

Walking Down the Memory Lane, Sometime in Future

I just happened to find this piece that I wrote a couple of years back. I had mailed it on my wing's yahoogroup ID. It had that nostalgia element associated with it, something that the odd 20 of us who shared it all would cherish. But it does make good reading I feel. Here's my attempt to capture where I saw my wing mates in the year 2029

On April 03, 2005 Anurag Wrote:

Was going thru the yrbook entries today..and couldn’t help imagining wht I wud write abt the others if again given a chance 25 years down the line during the reunion.

Abhijeet: I wonder how this guy has so much of hair on his head still..maybe God compensated for its scarcity on his face. He looks smarter..I remember there were many people(read sushil kumar) who felt he had a beautiful body..wonder wht that meant. This guy loves playing phatta with his kids and he still wears those red shirts and white pants... 'Khusboo' bhabhi cudn’t change everything abt him after all!

Birla: Finally he has decided to call it quits as far as eating chicken is concerned. Thanks to his better half who is a PETA activist. We tried finding our way to anaichas for having reshmi kabab one last time tonight but cudn’t locate the restaurant..its no more there..well some things do change! I remember writing something abt his hair in the yrbook back in 2004..i can’t now becoz there’s no visible sign of it left. he likes to watch the XXX dvd’s tht his kids hide in their closets. Wouldn’t it make good reading that the head of Morgan Stanley likes watching porn secretly?

Toshka(I forget his real name):Blame it on memory but I vaguely remember calling him by some other name when we studied at IITK. He tried to do a SRK aka Mohan Bhargav’s Swades type of comeback to India..he bought a trailer van ..moved around villages near patna and sang ye taara wo taara…but then his van got stolen and after he received extortion calls from a local musallahpur goon, he decided to return. So until Ashutosh Gowariker makes another poignant nationalistic call like “ye jo desh hai tera..” its au revoir for Sabya..aha! that was his name..

Parth:Still gives an impression tht he is on cocaine or some such drug. Everyone had a hard time explaining their better halves that he did not take drugs. We had thought of GPLising him today but then dropped the idea..its such a happy occasion and we won’t like to be booked for murdering a foreign national(chinese). His chinki looking son came running and asked us why we called his dad Choduram…it means The loved one in hindi we explained.

Jaish-e:He has lied to his family that he was the best batsman for the wing’s team in his IIT days. And is making us sing false praises in his name. Jaish-e fell in love several times before finally deciding to marry. He is also not bald..thats because of the ‘cool-it’ attitude that he has I guess. We played 29 last night and lost. Jaishe, partnering me set the trump in the deciding game..needless to say he didn’t have any!

Guptaji:Shakespeare said once while describing the various stages of life..that a round belly symbolizes maturity and wisdom. Going by that guptaji is the wisest of us all. Though he has lived most of his life abroad..he still behaves like the purab aur paschim ka manoj kumar. He was searching for abida parween’s CDs in the shopping mall yesterday and was bragging that he still has the greatest music collection on the planet.

Dhibree:U won’t believe this..this guy has toured around in the world more than anyone else. He still likes to be called dhibree rather than champu as guptaji loves to call him. During the whole trip here at kanpur this time, dhibree never parted with his digi cam wherever he went..shooting whatever he could..in fact he shot meena peeing in the urinal as well. We hope that he wud upload the pics soon at imagestation.com.

Suman:The first one from the wing to get married..he’s going to celebrate its silver jubilee next year. Marriage changes you..and so it has as the customary moustache that he sported has given way and I saw him wearing a jeans!His kids complain that he makes them go to school everyday..No bunking classes..poor they!

Anila:While we were having dinner yesterday.. “anila ne apni biwi se kaha ki neebu chaat lo”. Anila wanted parth and my friendship to be like keke and kallu’s..(i wonder why)..we hope we haven’t disappointed him. Anila also read a few of his couplets for all of us. He doesn’t seem to lose his touch.

Sam Baba:I never knew that he still ‘toongs’. He says he toonged outside the house of his sweetheart for several hours before she finally relented and agreed to his proposal. They now toong together.

Omji Baba:Frail then..Frail now..Frail forever! Omji was offered a job somewhere in US. Baba refused to join the job..the reason being, the place frequently had winds blowing at high speeds. He didn’t want to leave home for office and end up in another city by the time the wind stopped blowing.

Mondal:He had named his kid ‘Shishn upasak’ because he did not know hindi well and when someone suggested this name..he thought it was hep. After we convinced him abt wht it really meant he has decided to change it with a trendier and mondal-like ‘Oane’ . He was happy “ki hum sab reunion par AAYI aur khoob masti KIYA.

Meena:Life comes a full cirle..as u sow..so u reap..all these apply to him. He had worked on some signature recognizing stuff in his BTP which was later used by banks to fight forgeries and then one fine day he himself was caught while trying to dupe a bank. He was let-off after he came out proving that there was something wrong with his software and all that… “Oont buddhi” they say.

Myself:

They kept asking me what happened to my sense of humor..after three divorces and two lawsuits to brag about do they really expect me to be humorous? We all went to the Campus restaurant for dinner and I paid the bill once again. I have noted each one’s name and the money he owes me after the lunch in my personal notebook. I will make sure that they shell it out this time around for sure.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Things That Keep Me Busy

LAZINESS!!

I have been busy all this while editing stuff for people and writing a whole load of crap myself that cannot be put for general exhibit. I know the world has changed quite a bit during all this while and I need to get back before this blog becomes extinct and a once upon a time affair to the few people who actually read it!

Watch Chak De if you haven't. I was moved by it. The fact that I was under the influence of spirits when I watched it is a totally different matter altogether.

So till I get back, here's the update from me - I am alive and kicking!

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