Two Films and a Lecture

Saw two movies this past week. Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji by Madhur Bhandarkar and Yeh Saali Zindagi by Sudhir Mishra. Both are very good, in different ways. The first is a nicely flowing film with a surprise ending, about three guys and their love stories. Ajay Devgan has acted really well, and his love interest brings a freshness and vivacity to her role. Emraan Hashmi is competent, but funnyman Vaidya who debuted in Three Idiots is the one who makes a greater impact as the innocent poet-ardent lover.

The other, Yeh Saaali Zindagi, is a black comedy about a bunch of gangsters and two love stories connected with two of them. The scene-stealer is actually Saurabh Shukla, a third gangster. Very intricate plot, a tight script which brings the complexities to a very interesting climax, and good acting by Irrfan Khan, Chitrangada Singh, Aditi Rao (her debut) and Arunoday Singh, and most others makes this a treat to watch. It has shades of Johnny Gaddar in terms of pace and type of plot, but this is probably a tougher story to tell.

Also had a couple of directors of a company, golftripz, coming in for a guest lecture yesterday at IMT. Jogeswari, a former student at Kirloskar, and her co-director, Madhav Misra, were the two guests. They explained the genesis of the company in 2009 April, and what their plans are to take Indian golfers on golf tours outside the country. A very interesting concept, it elicited a lot of questions from students. We rounded it off with an interview recorded for a possible case study, and a round of golf at our institute's greens on the campus.