Tamasha-Film Review

Could have been a lot better, is my first reaction on watching this movie.

Notwithstanding beautiful location shooting in Corsica (this is in France, not Italy), and some fun moments few and far between, like the take on Don and Ajit (Mona Darling is his moll)  the film is unnecessarily melancholic, and too long. The brooding of the hero is unconvincing (he does not behave like a grownup) and Ranbir looks unconvincing in those moments too. He is at his best in the humorous and upbeat segments. The scene where he gives up his job is in poor taste and looks like forced comedy of the worst kind.

If the idea was to show something different, it's not entirely achieved, as I could have predicted the story. The ending is regressive and cliched in a way, because it seems to suggest that a man has to have the final word in a relationship.

The film has some good music and photography, but too much of rambling makes it lose focus on the storyline. Deepika does a good job within her restricted scope. The technique of storytelling reminded me of Moulin Rouge, but that was far more effective. In summary, could have been better.

Dune Tunes

Dune Tunes

A dune has a life of its own
Wind gives it energy.
Here now, gone soon after,
Reappearing in a form anew

You can't create or destroy energy,
a wise man had said,
But when you have a dune around,
the same could be said of it

Seemingly destroyed, momentarily,
It rebuilds itself,
Somewhat like a soul..
Formless, timeless, eternal

If dunes were to sing,
what tunes would emerge?
What songs would be heard?
Of heroes, villains, or ordinary folk?

A dune can actually give
more than it receives,
and tune itself to play
the music you wish it to.

Jaisalmer in Pictures

Barring the victory tower from Chittaurgarh, the rest are from Jaisalmer area, the sand dunes being about 30 kilometres away from town, and the lake right in the town. The place I am posing in front of is called Vyas Chhatree.

Of Jaisalmer and Rajasthan

We drove, a group of six, to Jaisalmer to visit the sand dunes. So now, we can claim to have "dune" it! Or, the dudes who dune it, in Americanese.

We stuck to the highways, except where it was inevitable. Advice from  faculty colleague from Rajasthan helped us select the best routes (via close to Ajmer, Pali, Jodhpur, and back via Jodhpur, Udaipur) and some of the highways were fantastic. Reminded me of the long circular drives where we went to around 20 US states each time (we did that twice)-Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon and South Dakota's Mount Rushmore remain etched in memory. Roads have a spinoff effect, and can take the country ahead. So does the metro railway, and Mumbai has developed due to its famed local trains more than anything else. Commuters like a predictable journey time.

Anyway, back to Jaisalmer. Dunes are fun, and every park should have a sand dune in my view. Camel rides are fun too, though some camels look starved. They should be fed well. We also did the dune thing, that is, stayed in a tent for the night, and listened to Rajasthani folk sing their thing and dance their tunes out in the dunes. Ok, I am almost dun with the dunes. For now. More later, with pics.

Books That Need to Be Written

This is inspired by a book review of a book titled "Let's Be Less Stupid" that I chanced upon somewhere. There are lots of books that should be written, and I am not sure they have been. So here's a call to writers if they are inspired by the suggestions-

1. Colonial Powers Say Sorry for Terrorising Half the World
2. Tolerance? What is That? When was it Ever There?
3. A Guide to Ethnic Riots, Worldwide. 2015th edition
4. Awards-A Who's Who and Why's That and What's What
5. If Russia does it, It's Wrong..
6. Bihar - A State Gone Wrong After Nalanda
7. Maharashtra, ditto after the Cows came Home
8. Telangana, ditto, after KCR/NTR/ANR/IT Boom
9.  Bangalore, a history-from Narayanamurthy to Sikka (film rights titled Khotey Sikkey)
10. IIM A, B, C, ..X, Y, Z. Particularly, Y?
11. All the Answers to Malala's Question- If you can spend on Guns, why not on Books?

I Was Around When...

I was around when-

We did not have Facebook, Google, Orkut, Yahoo, Hotmail, Windows.

We did not have Mobile Phones.

We had only two models of cars and one major model of scooter in India.

We had to wait in line for Sugar, and Dalda (brand of hydrogenated cooking oil).

LPG was introduced as a cooking fuel, and had no takers.

Indian Airlines was the only domestic airline, unaffordable for most.

Hema Malini, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Tina Munim were yet to make their debuts in Hindi films. Aamir Khan and Sreedevi were child stars.

Film Duets were a personal thing between the hero and heroine running around trees, and not with two hundred guys and gals straining their muscles in unimaginable contortions around them.

"Kutte, main tera khoon pee jaoonga" was a violent dialogue.

Kissing on-screen was taboo.

There were three IIMs, known as A, B, C.

Things I was (Am) Scared of

As a kid, I was scared of a few things, like the dark corners, snakes, and exams. And boredom. But managed to read everything I could lay my hands on, watched films (any I could) and spent time with friends (any who were ready to tolerate me) to keep the latter away. I was also scared of the mythical Count Dracula, though I saw only a film about him a lot later in life. The Hindi horror films I saw were actually funny-and the whole Ramsay family seemed to work in the horror genre films.

In the present times, I am scared of fanatics (maybe it comes from being in Delhi during the anti-Sikh riots in 1984), bores and hypocrites, in that order. Not wild boar, as in Asterix and Obelix, but Bores. Since my mega theory of Life revolves around the idea that every one of us is trying at all times to avoid boredom, I like to avoid the Bores like the plague- actually the Plague must be a lot more interesting.

Hypocrites are the people who take the Hypocritic Oath like the doctors do theirs. They say one thing, and do the other. But you can get used to them, after a while, and discount their statements by around 100%.

The other category that I am scared of is people who are Clueless. I will give you two examples-

They speak in a language not understood by all the people in the conversing group.

They like speaking on the cell phone at all waking hours (haven't checked about their sleeping behaviour) as if the Earth will stop rotating if they don't do that.

QED.