The Magik of Rock On!
3.5/5
I’m glad i saw this movie on Friday, before anybody could slam it or hail it. In my opinion, it is another one in the series of movies that act as benchmarks of the great change bollywood is witnessing, the others being Chak De and Taare Zameen Par. Rock On has its heart in its right place.
The revelation here is Farhan Akhtar. So now he’s an actor and a singer besides being a successful director and producer. He acts well, but i personally hate S-E-L’s choice to make him do the vocals. His vocal chords need massaging.
Music is different and above average. The lyricist tries to be over ambitious and ends up delivering nonsense lines(check Zehriley). The direction and script are great, which especially stand out in the emotional scenes. And yes, the hair do’s, costumes and interiors are godly. Prachi Desai looks gorgeous and Arjun rocks too.
But still, slow pace and repetitive flashbacks prevent it from becoming a masterpiece… a Dil Chahta Hai.
Off late…
There’s been a lot of things happeneing since the time a came here… There’s this usual humdrum of a new session. Our hostel has been shifted to a place which is a bad 1km distance away from college. New home. And freshers! A little bit of ragging here and there is great. Studies haven’t kicked off yet, and not even showing signs of taking off soon. The lectures are SUPER boring, but posting in obstetrics ward is great; roaming around with a stetho hanging around you neck is what, afterall, all mbbs is about!
Books : read Harry Potter 7 again. Gripping and spontaneous. I particularly enjoy the non-action days in the story, when the protagonists are idle and the story seems stagnant. That’s when the true JKR is revealed. One just keeps reading, enslaved to JKR’s enchantments. But, even after a second reading it can’t replace HP5 from my all time fav HP.
Right now i’m reading The Final Diagnosis.
Movies : Bachna Ae Haseeno is 2.5/5 type. Music is great, storyline not too strong. Minnisha sucks and Ranbir and Bips rock. As is true for every YRF, it’s a sweet little boring movie.
Honeymoon begins!
2nd year in MBBS is called the honeymoon of medicine. It comes right after a busy and tough year, like a breath of fresh air. I’m looking forward to it! Leaving home tomorrow morning…
For Saumyata…
A rather shameless first attempt at poetry by me, for Saumyata’s orkut testimonial…
caution : reading the following paras may permanently damage your language skills –
I always wondered where to start a testimonial…
About a girl who’s so sweet, pure and jovial,
A girl who’s been with me since we were tiny tots,
With whom i share a bond, that hardly ever rots.
I have been wondering, what would i write…
About this would-be-doctor who’s always, always right,
In school she was named Hitler, ‘cus she was so bold,
But i can swear on one thing, she’s got a heart of gold.
She has her priorities right, her goals set…
even though her love-life is rocking, on that i bet!
Mistress of Pagalpanti, she makes you shudder
when she calls her nasty pet doggie her brother.
How will i write about the times so gala
which i’ve spent with her, the Queen of Ambala?
I just hope our bondage gets strong like cement,
and – whoa – i didn’t realise, i’ve reached the end !!
To India, with (not so much) love…
Hi India,
Happy Birthday, in advance! You turn 61 soon. Forgive me for thinking about you only when 1. i’m very free 2. i get bored 3. i want to do something which looks serious but is very easy to do. But, o dear, at least i’m thinking. Thank me, you jumping birthday nation.
Even before i acquired a mind of my own, i had always wondered who you are, India. Are you the mountains, the rivers, the deserts? Or, are you The Great Indian Independence Struggle? Sone ki chidiya? Or, are you the people? Are you us? Are you me? Whatever you are, you were supposed to be glorious, you had suffered so many blows but still emerged victorious. I was supposed to be proud of you.
And then i acquired a mind of my own….
I started thinking not from the view of Tagore, Manoj Kumar, my Hindi textbook or Doordarshan but from my view. From the eyes of a teenager in a little known town in northern india. And the situation appeares quite grim. Politicians and babus are plundering you with corruption, religious fanatics are tearing you apart with their tridents, regional netas have no respect for the spirit of India, inflation has reached 13%, farmers hardly want to live, students hardly want to study – in india, there are hartals as if it’s our national hobby. The only thing thriving out here is – vote bank politics. Be it Sethu Samudram, or Amarnath Shrine Board, or Gujarat riots, or Gujjar voilence, or Nandigram, or the heinous Sons of Soil theory, or Reservations, or Fodder Scam… anything and everything is dominated by the vote-bank politics. Indians murdered Gandhi.
You may say that we, the common men, are as much responsible. Oh really? It’s we who elect the politicains, na? How much choice we have if in one party we have Narendra Modi and in the other Arjun Singh! I myself will never vote. Call me a bad citizen.
You may also say that why don’t we stand up and fight? RDB was a good movie, especially the ending. The malice is so widespread that a one man fight is no more than a feeble flame amidst a storm. May be, the most i can do is that i won’t be a corrupt man myself.
Don’t give me fake consolation about india’s grandeur by showing its diversity(the Marathis hardly want to see a Bihari’s face) or by comparing it with Pakistan(look who’s above you, not who’s below). Since i was born on Indian soil, it’s natural that i feel good when some Indian wins Olympic medal or is crowned Miss World. In the same way, i’m dejected when hundreds of Indians are incinerated in state-generated regional or religious infernos. What is so special about you then? Seriously, there are very less reasons to advocate why one should feel patriotic at all.
Anyways, have a bright future. I hope, somewhere down the line, you’ll be able to convince the confused and questioning Indians like me to love you.
Me
Shame, by Salman Rushdie
Fiction and non-fiction are two assumed faces of literary coin. But we’re talking about Rushdie, sir. His personal affairs with Padmalakshmi and Riya Sen(oh really? yes.) and his four marriages notwithstanding, he manages to blur the two-sided-coin into one, as if it is tossed up towards the heavens, never to return. He blends and mixes forbidden worlds, uses unthinkable language, and creates smoke… smoke that blurs reality with modern-day fairytale business shamelessly. And for me, prose and poetry too.
Hitherto bolted doors to far flung(or imagined) places in Pakistan are thrown open in Shame, which travels across realms of time and distance, punctuated by impossible characters but happenings which stink of reality. The lines just flow, fastforwarded all the time, as soon as the three mothers Chunni, Munni and Bunny give scandalous birth to fat, filthy Omar Khayyam Shakil in the Saawariya-esque haveli cum fortress called ‘Nishapur’. To think that one would choose protagonists even before they appear in your story, and then do a flip-flop to completely sidetrack them and write about two families which are as fictious as they’re real is insanity uninhibited, but Bookerite Rushdie actually writes such a story. Hyders and Harappas. Gen Zia Ul Haq and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
The book, my first Rushdie, for me, is beyond ink on paper. It outshines my ability of sorting its good and bad points, dazzles me and baffles the book geek in me. In the middle of the book, Sufia Zinobia Hyder develops a mysical habit of blushing and going steaming, red hot whenever she senses shame or love near her. I mean, isn’t that heights(of imagination, irrelevance, somato-nervous coordination etc)? It becomes infinitely hard and pointless, all the same, for me to say if such a book was entertaining. Let’s just say it was extremely interesting.
And interesting were the names, conjuring foggy and unyeilding atmosphere for whatever has been made of story in this book : Chunni, Munni, Bunny. Omar Khayyam Shakil(hero). Babar Shakil. Sufiya Zinobia aka Shame(herione). Good News Hyder. Bariamma. Raza and Bilquis Hyder. Iskandar Harappa. Rani Humayun(later Harappa). Arjumand Harappa(you may read Benazir Bhutto). Little Mir Harappa. Haroun Harappa.
Touched a raw nerve, a developing nerve….
Latest
Latest
Visited Chandiagarh yesterday….stayed overnight at Ankur’s hostel, had good fun. Met with friends at gmch-32 like Navni, Dixit, Itika and Ankur. We saw this movie called …
Singh Is Kinng
which is not a cinematic treat, but a treat nevertheless. I’ll give it 3/5. Akshay good, Katrina mind-blowing, music super-cool, story stupid, jokes stupid, but better than the repulsive, ironically-named Welcome. Hate it or love it, but see it. Sikhs are majestically shown, i was comparing them to my si(c)kh friends like
Harman
whom i couldn’t meet this time. Our patiala plan got cancelled, so my chances of meeting harman after a long time got freezed. In the mean time, i also caught up with
Saumyata, Shweta and Dishant
whom i met one evening at saumyata’s place. Friends from school… oldest friends…. with me since kindergarten, all of them.
Observations
Observations
- Pritam is making great music off late. Latest, Singh Is K I doubleN G is oh so good.
- The people in this part of the country are far more good looking than that part. They have better sartorial sense over and above better looks-controlling genes. (now keep guessing what ‘this part’, ‘that part’ means). But wasn’t external-beauty just skin deep?
- Most of the times the spellings of dawaiyan, when written in devnagri, on chemist shops is wrong.
- Is the number of sexual patients in north India too great? Down south, there are NO sign-paints on walls claiming ‘namard, sex rogi milen Dr Paul.(Samne minerva cinema)’.
- Balatkar is Aaj Tak’s/ India TV’s/ IBN7’s favorite word.
- World No.1 Roger Federer says that he’s going through a career slump. Can anybody from India reach even that slump? Ever?
- One hardly sees too much porn where/when he or she can see it frequently and easily.
- Upper Extremity is anyday easier and more interesting than the Lower Extremity.(Since it was taught in the beginning of mbbs-1, when we all were … still studious!!)
- Why is everybody else so lucky?
- Ball pen refills are great things to ‘pick’ your ears with, ofcourse from non-writing sides; more than ear-buds trust me.
- Emma Watson is the most magical thing in Harry Potter movies.
- Mayawati may actually be a man. (dalit ka beta)
- How could i forget ALL chemistry from class 12? And all history from classes 8, 9, 10? But, i have!
- Learning guitar is so not cool. I’ve got so far as Sa of SaReGaMaPaDhaNiSa in my 4 days of training(C chord major).
