The Dawat-e-ishq Review

This is a story you can appreciate more if you happen to be from Hyderabad or Lucknow. I have lived in both places, so maybe there's a soft corner for it. I liked the movie in spite of an illogical twist which prolongs the story to fit into a 2 hour-plus format. Nevertheless, it sustains your interest because of the lead players aided superbly by veteran Anupam Kher.

There is a message in it too, that of the evils of dowry, and treating female thieves differently from the highway robbers who shamelessly indulge in dowry-taking (assumed to be male here, though they aren't always male).

Parineeti and the Kapoor (don't ask me which, I am confused with so many of their clan around) do their parts well, a couple of songs are good, the sights of Hyderabad and Lucknow are captured well. The characters being Muslim, it's nice to learn a bit more about their lifestyles and customs.

A 3 on 5 from me.

Reservashuns

There are Indian reservations in the US. No, it's not seats on a plane, or a job, that I am talking about. These are places where native Indians (pre-Columbus) can have their own lifestyle, a sort of autonomous region within the states.

In India, we have different kinds of reservations. For jobs. Imagine having reservations, in the following-

1. Cricket team (The Wall may have crumbled even before being built)
2. Docs in hospitals (population may reduce unintentionally)
3. Pilots (MH 370 would be just a blip on the radar of incidents)
4. Film acting (all Kapoors rendered jobless in one stroke- they may have to turn to agriculture, so that they still influence our culture)
5. Music- The Mangeshkar sisters would not have got an opportunity? Kishore Kumar would have been a stand-up artist.
6. Politics ( Mayawati might have been PM for 10 years instead of Manmohan Singh)
7. Car mechanics- you would have lots of fun driving a car, not knowing what would snap.
8. Builders- we can have a building collapse a day, easily beating world records.
9. Movie directors- "frankly, my dear," this would not change anything!
10. Blog writers. You know what, I might just hang up my boots.

Unemployment and Solutions

There seems to be major unemployment threatening lots of people in India. Some of these unemployed (even ex- BIG BOSSES) and underemployed guys land up fixing matches. If ever the following find themselves in such a situation, here is what they could do.

Kapoors can start a school for putting on weight. With pics of all the male members of their clan, you don't need a hard-sell.

Khans can start their own version of the Cannes film festival. Pronunciation is almost the same, anyways. This can be held at the Kandivali fair grounds, to match with the name of the fest.

Madhuri can start a primary school to teach arithmetic, as in "Ek do teen.."

All bit role actresses of yesteryear can have an eatery called Bits and Pieces, which will serve variety of chats, or a cybercafe that is titled Bits and Bytes.

Nana Patekar could start a school for wannabe actors who will learn how to deliver fiery dialogue in a ghati style.

All other game-players can start a welfare league for themselves right now, as their earnings probably will not be able to support them even at the peak of their careers.

Finally, the commentators of cricket can set up the next edition of comedy circus, as they fit the requirements to a 'T'.

How about it?