K L Saigal - The play.

9th October evening as the rains lashed the city, I was busy trying to get to the place that has become synonymous with plays in Bangalore, RangaShankara.

I was more than relieved to get there in time as they are extremely strict on the timings and there are even buzzers and alarms that remind people of the time! Late comers are punished too !

As my friends and I walked in, I almost had a feeling that we were in for a treat and treat it indeed was !

K L Saigal - the renowned singer who was an inspiration to legends like Kishore Kumar was the name of this hindi play and hence,it had to be a musical.The play was to be a biography of sorts on this great singer.

As the lights went out,into the spotlight came ,dressed in Black Sherwani, the eternal Britisher in almost every Indian patriotic movie, the stage actor par excellence , Tom Alter.As the play started ,one was amazed at the fluency in both hindi and urdu( you dont have to question his English speaking skills!). He was the narrator and it was so beautifully done, that one never felt the discontinuity between the scenes which might have cropped up as an issue if someone less talented did this.

Coming to the primary character of the play, there was the super talented Uday Chandra ,who even sang exactly like K L Saigal,and he portrayed the character beautifully.The ghazals he sang were so really meaningful and the poetry was exquisite.

The play highlighted lot of important details in his life that included his creativity,his struggle to the top,his eagerness to learn new things,his relationship with the great singers and music directors of his generation like Pankaj Mullick,Anil Biswas and his addiction to alcohol which finally led to his downfall. Some of the scenes were really touching and will remain etched in most of our minds.

The scene where he is teaching a young Bengali girl how to sing a ghazal is simply brilliant.She sings well,but Saigal saab is not impressed.He then tells her ,"Gao math.Apnao. Zikr aur riyaz karo" . I would have paid the entire entry fee just to hear this being said.

Another event which was equally scincillating was one of the last scenes of the play where they show the Allahabad conference taking place with all the top music stars of that era like Ustad Faiyaz Khan, who K L Saigal considered to be absolutely god level.The conference had janta shouting out for more and more of Saigal saab which ended up in him performing for the 1st 2 hours and the others were left open mouthed at his brilliance.At the end of the conference,Saigal saab asks Ustadji whether he can become one of his students to which Ustadji
replies , "Mein tumhe bahut dher sunaa. Mujhe behethereen ko aur behether banaana nahin aata ! " Subhan Allah ! I can't believe that this kind of humility ever existed!

Apart from that,the rib tickling comedy in the 2nd half added to the beauty of the play.The Bengali perspective of North India and vice versa was brought out to roaring applause from the audience.

The play ended with the eternal haunting melody composed by the great Naushad,"jab dil hi toot gaya,hum jeeke kya karen" playing in the background.A splendid play it was and the people incharge of the play deservedly got a standing ovation.

All in all, a most entertaining play with excellent acting,simple settings and a solid script.The play dazzled in all its beauty and left an indelible impression on many of our minds.

3 days,3 songs! They have driven me mad !

I have had the honour of listening to 3 super songs composed by 3 different music directors in the last 3 days and each one is so beautiful in its own way that they have been ingrained in my head !

1. The first song in this list was the very soft and beautiful no "Mujhe Hak Hain" composed by the blind genius Ravindra Jain for the upcoming Sooraj Barjatya movie "Vivah" ,which incidentally has a hilarious subtitle - "A journey from engagement to marriage " !!!! Wonder why he always comes up with 3 hour killers with the same shaadi setup and same supporting actors !! But,I am not bothered about the movie.All I know is that the song has touched me coz' of the really beautiful singing of Udit Narayan and my favorite Shreya Ghosal. Its obviously a romantic no and the movie also ends the hiatus of this great genius composer whose tunes I guess aren't in the greatest of demands by the current generation directors.Guess this song will reaffirm his status amongst the greats of Hindi Film industry. A bit more about the song - the lyrics are really good and express the eagerness of the bride and bridegroom to enter the "pavitra bandhan" !
2. I dont know why I did not pay too much attention to this song till recently.The song is "Luka Chuppi" from Rang de basanti composed by A R Rahman and sung by Rahman and Lata Mangeshkar. Though critics might point out saying that Lata Mangeshkar's voice sounds too old, I felt that for this kind of song,where in she is urging her son to return back home as it is late in the evening , she is the best fit. Rahman sings out absolutely wonderfully.There is so much passion in his singing and the picturisation of this song ,am sure brought tears to most of the viewers ,as it is picturised immediately after Madhavan dies in the movie. Super composition .Inspite of other hits like "Lose Control" and the title track itself ,this song has got that haunting kind of feeling and it will slowly grow on you.Supporting this great song, are such splendid lyrics.
3.Last but not the least,is this song "Yeh Honsla" from the latest movie Dor . Composed by Salim-Sulaiman ,its a Rajasthani folk no which talks about not giving up and having hope till the end. Yet again ,awesome lyrics. The rustiness of Rajasthan is captured with its slow beautiful background score.Sung by the Pakistani singer Shafkat Amanat Ali Khan ,who previously sang "Mitwaa" from KANK,this presents the range of this singer and it fits him like a T ! Yet another super song that I strongly recommend.

Parween Sultana - Goddess in Disguise !

When I read on friday in Deccan Herald that there would be Begum Parveen Sultana's concert on 2nd oct , I decided that I would surely try to make it .The difficult part this time was in locating the place where the concert was being held - "Mangala Mantapa" ! Finally googled for it online and then found that it is an auditorium in the NMKRV college premises .

So this evening I had been to this truly wonderful,once in a lifetime concert of the great Begum Parveen Sultana.By far, the best classical concert that I have attended ! As I write I am sure I will run out of superlatives to describe the wonderful singing and experience.

For those who did not know,her voice spans 3 octaves easily and covers a bit of 4th octave!!Its divine listening to her.coz' she is so flawless.She mixes the complicated "tans" with such mellifluous notes that it is absolutely divine !

Her stage manners are impeccable and the way she treats her accompanying artists and the audience is worth appreciating.Extremely courteous is she !

Dressed in a rich "jartaari" saree and bespectacled ,she started off the evening with a rendition of 2 bandishes(compositions) in Rag Yaman ( known in Carnatic music as Rag Kalyani). The Vilambit composition(this is slow and steady!) was so peaceful where she explored the nuances of the rag and also she herself played one of the 3 tanpuras on display. As the pace picked up and the Drut(the faster piece) started, it was evident that there would be some fireworks as she handed the tanpura to one of the other janta on stage and man ,there were fireworks !! The tans and the chougun laya(4 times the normal pace) was simply astounding and mind boggling ! Brilliant stuff ! Even the heavens seemed to agree,with the rains coming down pretty heavily !

Followed by this wonderful rendition was a splendid tarana (equivalent to tillana ) in Rag Hamsadhvani. It was stupendous! Never have the "dherena","dheem ta nana"s sounded better.The rag itself is so melodious and her additions to it made it as I would want to call it, "Kick ass" !! Traditionally , the taranas are sung at the end of the concert to mark the end of the concert,but this was surprising and yet, you could sense that something more special was to follow !

And follow it did ! 3 beautiful bhajans - a Meera bhajan which brought tears to my eyes ,a Surdas bhajan in Rag Mishra Kedar and a Sai bhajan in Rag Mishra Bhairavi were out of the world ! ( to me : improve on your adjectives!)

I had gone to the concert hoping that she would sing the all popular "Bhavani Dayani" and I almost thought of writing the name of the song in a chit and placing it near her during the concert. Before I could do this , someone actually went straight upto her and requested her to sing a particular song.She said that she would sing it at the end . I was almost sure that this person also had requested the same song !!

After the bhajans, she announced that she would sing the song that "people had been asking for" in rag Mishra Bhairavi and there were no doubts left in anyone's mind that this had to be the song dedicated to Goddess Durga !

As she sang this song, she fluently sang across 3 octaves and it pretty much filled me up with goosebumps ! SIMPLY BRILLIANT ! It was as if Goddess Durga was herself singing it ! She herself had tears in her eyes while she was singing . Such was the passion and involvement that the 300 odd crowd were left absolutely intoxicated with her superb rendition of "Bhavani Dayani" ! And as she held out her hands at the end of song, janta in the auditorium gave her a completely deserving standing ovation !

Was really sad the concert had to get over. She paid rich tributes to the city that she loves coming to and the audience which was really supportive ! Am sure I will buy a few more cassettes/cds of her's in the near future but even if I listen to her singing , I think the electric atmosphere that she creates while she performs live will be missing , but atleast will listen to the goddess herself sing ! This concert will linger on in my memory for a very long time and I am sure the massive respect that I have had for her all these years will increase some X fold where X is a pretty big no !

All in all , a superb evening ! And now,I am feeling enlightened !

Dont know what to title this !

Well, as I begin to write this entry, myriad thoughts have struck me.Let me see where this post ends up!
Sunday morning is something that I adore coz' I get to get up at whatever time I want.But today ,got up pretty early by normal standards and by 10.15 ,I was in Urvashi theater with my mother and my cousin and her family for what was a "different" movie by the most popular director in India arguably,Karan Johar.

As the credits rolled on,the impressive first scenes with the dream star cast(in Hindi movies) gave me lot of hopes about this.But if only the credits alone determined how the entire movie was.
The story(was there a story ?) was "different" surely according to Karan Johar's standards. All that I can say at the end of the movie I was wondering what he was thinking.Let me come to why I think this was the case.

The positives first(not too many anyways) : Super sceneries(which you could have got in New York postcards too!),Amitabh Bacchhan - he is THE actor out there,his Casanova act was wonderful I thought,the junior Bacchhan who was brilliant at times,some thought provoking scenes (far and few in between) and a ballet show that you know you can witness if you go visit New York!

Well ,one of the first things that I realized after the movie was that the length of the movie was terribly irritating.3 hours and 10 mins .GOD!! He could have cut out atleast 30 mins !! I was like I dont want to watch any more hindi movies.Total frustration coz' the movie goes on and on and on.....

The movie revolves around 2 couples (did you say happy ? NO WAY !) , Shahrukh and Preity, Rani and Abhishek and how their failed marriages "inspires" if I may say infidelity. I shall not write too much about the story coz' you might all have read about it somewhere else.

Shahrukh Khan disappoints completely . I just couldn't tolerate his performance in most of the scenes.What happened to King Khan? Rani looks good but somehow not good enough. Preity looks and acts but her role ain't that big.

Some of the really good scenes that I spoke earlier about :

a.( am putting letters here ,coz' I can count them !!!) Shahrukh waiting with a bouquet of flowers and both the leading women walking across the road towards him.
b. The party organised by Big B for the 2 couples and Kirron kher.
c. The scene where Preity shows that she is a really strong woman .(shall not give out more)
d. Small B's reaction when he comes to know about Shahrukh and Rani's affair.
e. Big B in hospital .

That is it !! Well, I was wondering as to why this was my reaction.Was I thinking that this kinda thing can never happen in Indian society where we talk of values and tradition? When I dug deeper,I realised that this was infact true,but the movie could have been slick and faster and the actors could have performed much better
and more importantly, the script could have been much better. Apart from that,the gaudy sets and trendy designer clothes could have been done without.

I realize that the way I have written this is not very orderly .Please forgive me for that .It just shows my state of mind after watching the movie !

A couple of other things that I thought about : If people who are about to get married watch this, then they will get depressed. If newly weds watch this ,they will be very careful with what they do .If old people watch it ,they surely won't like it ,coz' Infidelity is something that they cannot dream of or atleast in most places,
this concept is totally taboo.

Well ,all in all, I think I could have spent my Sunday better probably catching up with more sleep or even going to office !!!!And one more thing,its not the greatest thing sitting next to your mother while watching a movie like this !!One last point,Karan Johar's movies are all hits ,so you never know ,this might STILL turn out to be a hit !!!

Birthday,Party and induction !

If the title hints at the presence of magnetic induction , then NO! WOOF! Don't get scared ! Well, as the title indicates , I want to put down my wonderful experiences I have had over the past few days ,starting with my birthday and going right up till what happened today ! 2nd July, 22 years ago ,I entered this big,wide world.This year,this day, 10 mins before my birthday,one of my several rakhi sisters,Lakshmi Menon(Nonem) called me up to wish and I being the not-so-proud-to-be-of brother,TOLD(not even asked!) her to call up 10 mins later ! And 10 mins later,i heard a tring-tring and there was her call ! Soon,some more friends called up to make me feel special!!
I had already decided that I would watch the much anticipated football semifinal match between Champions Brazil and the "oldies" France.So, sat at half past 12, thinking on one side about why some of my friends hadn't wished me as yet and on the other hand,looking out for a splendid football match!! As people always say, "Too many expectations aren't good !!" and that is what exactly happened.The match was a damp squib as France dominated the over confident and listless Brazil from start to finish.With thoughts of "Why the hell did i have to stay up for this CRAP on my birthday???", I went to sleep!
Well,birthdays are always nice coz' you get to speak to many friends of yours as they wish you. The morning was spent talking to many of my friends while, in the afternoon,Narayan of the "Rebel Narayan joined Ittiam" fame came home and made me feel special.Also, I would want to mention Lalitha here,coz' she wrote a small poem for me!! As the day went on, the Cisco party which was being organised in the posh Le Meridien had got me excited.Before that got started,I paid a visit to my cousins and grand parents that was overdue .Something even more than overdue !
When 5pm finally came,many of us were already there and the party kicked off at 6 ! And what a party it was ! With a few exciting games,performance by the Cisco band and rock-your-body-while-the-DJ-plays music, it was a really cool party ! I suck at dancing but we(some of us who don't have that dancing bone in us) used the opportunity to jump awkwardly around on the dance floor !! But WHO CARES ???!!! It was a great experience !!! Tired and exhausted, I came back home and simply "crashed" after thanking zillion people on Orkut for their wishes!
July 3 - 1st day of work !!!!!!!!!!! New day, new life, new challenges !!! Was a bit nervous,coz' it was the 1st time i was working !! I am aware of the repititions,but you see, I was excited !! The 1st 2 days were what they called the Induction program .
The venue was Hotel Chancery on Residency road. As I travelled on the same roads that I used to take to travel to my schools(for 14 years !!),lot of sweet memories came rushing to my memory !!
The ground rules were laid down for the induction program - No one is supposed to come late for any lecture , Cell phones must be either switched off or must be on silent and there was supposed to be a dialogue and not a monologue - failing which, the guilty would sing! (of all things ! ) Well , as major "gyaan" was given to us by "total level" speakers, whose speeches ranged from the absolutely fantastic to just about "ok", I became aware of the fact that I had joined a SUPER Company - CISCO SYSTEMS !!!
Speeches apart, there were many funny incidents which I shall jot down,coz' I dont want people who will risk reading my blog to sleep in between, like I did during some of the speeches!
1. There was this "funda" that people had to mingle(as all people from the same college,obviously sat together) and this turned to be a fun event as we had to sit with different people and each table had to come up with a name and one person from the team was supposed to introduce others in the team, with a leading adjective starting with the same letter as the beginning of the name.This was hilarious, as there was Silent Sundaresh, Noble Nikhil , Marauding Madhu ,Passionate Piyush and what not!!
2. There was this incident when the whole concept of "working-from-home" became a joke !! This presenter asked, "What will you do if there is violence near your place?" The text book answer which someone said being ,"We will work from home",incited a "You have already been spoilt" response from the speaker.But the better part was yet to come . Super Soumik( that was the adjective associated with his name) said , "We will take part in the violence" ! The audience was in splits. The speaker then said to Aruna , "You look like a I-work-hard girl,what will you do if there is fire ?" (he meant fire at the work place) . She religiously said , " Fire at work place or ...." (People are already laughing non stop) when the HR herself added, looking at the confusion that prevailed, "Ya,she was working from home!!"
3.Well,I would want to add one of my worst pjs ever to this great list. We had a tea break,and Siddharth from Pesit comes to me and says ,"Are you having coffee or tea". I respond : " I am not having 'coffee or tea',I am having coffee" !! YUCK !
4. Well, I almost forgot.On the 1st day of induction, 4 people got caught for coming late and then they sang ! I was like -COME ON !!! I couldn't believe what was happening ! But the trick worked, coz' people were before time for the next lecture. Since, everyone was there, the HR,seemingly thrilled that her trick had worked, asked if anyone sings in the group. Someone shouted my name and I ended up singing the old Kishore Kumar classic , "Aane waala Pal" . This was on the 1st day. The 2nd day was better. Some guys knew they were coming late .Hence, they came ready with a song of their own ! The lyrics were really funny and everyone ended up having a good laugh !
Jokes apart, the 2 day induction program was nice and gave us a good introduction of what CISCO is and what we can expect. As I conclude this, I am just thinking of how tomorrow's training in the main Cisco building (Divyashree Chambers) is going to be ! Adieu .

Last day of college ! :(

Well I seriously have not yet realized that the last day is over .But the sad part is that it is over !! Had my breakdown during the AT night when I couldn't come in terms with these realizations !

After tomo(tomo - till college is there), I wont have the urgency in the morning to somehow go to college before the bell rings and most importantly RUN from the parking lot to the class, I will not be giving that old man 3 rupees nor will I fight with him for the sake of fun.

I will not be going to any of the classrooms in our dear dear block , none of the labs :( (not that this sem i went to 1 !! but the others did religiously !) ,there will not be any lab where last minute you try to seek for printouts (atleast in my case ! obviously exceptions like Garg are there !) or try to fudge some programs .

There won't be any bugging from the DC team to any of our mascots(specially nonem for the word) . There won't be any drawing on the board during the lunch breaks. There won't be anymore doubts asked by someone in class or there won't be any lecturer blasting our class or there won't be any jokes cracked in class(like it happened in Sommerville's class).

There will not be any more rushing around the corridoors for anything .There will not be the very very rare visits to the OAT :( .
In the morning if you visit after some days after you pass out ,while taking the normal route, you will see so many numerous gangs in the OAT where till now you have had so many known people to go and say a "hi" to !

Its all coming to an end and how fast have these 4 years gone by ! The very first day when neo's episode in VK's class was hilarious , those November rain days , the walk to GAT , the innumerable hilarious and crib moments in class , the exams(man !!! there is still one more set left ! ) , the Badminton days ,trying to look for chicks and not finding any , the Placements, me almost losing it in the test(that too ETM !!) when she sat next to me and i was "hazaar" shocked,all ATs - right from carrying chairs to participating and winning to waiting for food coupons to hog , the IIT trips, all meetings at dodo's place, all the after exam outings , all saturdays and sundays when we visited college - each special for different reasons , the celebrations and the dejections , the agony and the ecstacy , they were all there ! and This is what made this entire college stay soooooooooooo memorable.
Have forgotten zillions of other things - Please forgive.

Thanks to all amazing JANTA ,I have had a most memorable set of 4 years

All the best

Atmatrisha DC ! wow ! what an experience !

AT -06 and our event - DC !!!
Well ,a bit of history - our team Janta had been thru almost every other position in DC at AT - 1st yr,no qualification ,2nd yr, came 3rd,
3rd year, our dream of winning home DC came true and this year we organised it !

The organising team comprised of Aravind,Neo, Lakshmi menon(not part of team , but our DC mascot !) and yours truly. We spent quite a few
hours and weeks before the event cooking up the rounds ,the timing of these and what we are looking at in these rounds and what the
entire aim of this DC was . As the days came closer, we got a bit tense coz' all of us were busy with our internship/project and we hardly had
time to dedicate to this. But we did make some time (finally) and through the unbelievably helpful Yahoo messenger ,we had online conferences and
managed to get the contents together. The prelims chits were set in class yesterday(27th) !!! (tho, we had the list of movies ,personalities and words the
challenge was to actually put them together so that the right amount of toughness was incorporated in all of them . And after the prelims were over
today, only 2 teams cracked all 3 and the fundae which we put with respect to giving stars to the contents worked in our favour.)
Well , about the prelims itself. After finding out that the venue allocated to us does not exist (Can u believe that !!!) , we found ourselves an alternative
venue and set up whatever was required . The MCA seminar hall was an ideal place as the capacity was around 100. the hall was full !!
We started pretty promptly and the prelims went on for a solid 2 hours ! the 1st 5 teams did not get ANYTHING ! and that sent shivers down the
spines of many of us .We were left wondering as to what to do ,if we were stuck with ties on 0 !!! (Nightmare ! ). But as it proceeded ,both
the popularity and the team quality improved and we were more than happy when there were loud cheers from the audiences for every movie/personality/word
that the teams cracked !!! I was incharge of calling up the teams and announcing the rules and interacting with the teams which led to me losing my voice :( :( , neo did the observing and clarifying work(+ the job of timing ) and Aravind(co-hosted in finals) and lakshmi
did the really tough and arduos task of timing and scoring. The prelims ended with 6 teams - 2 each from PESIT , RV and MSRIT going thru to the finals !

The finals was an absolute roller coaster !!! everything went pretty smoothly till the 4th round .5th and 6th,when the ugly head of controversies - something that not many people like -
popped up and it was an "iffy" situation.

The rounds were really crazy and people had to go thru hazaaaaaaaaar pain to finally win it !

"Reverse Swing" was about acting with your back turned towards your team mates, whereas "Dream Theme" was enacting entities related to a particular theme(eg : Mahabharata)
with the hitch being that some other team picks the theme for current team. "Juke and box" was a corny mix of single and group songs and artists , through a
mirror and max of 3 guessses. "Bread and butter" was all about rigorous hard core DC ,"crazy sentences" were as crazy as they could get !!!! Finally, we had the
round 3rd degree where people from different teams were put together. A few teams suffered coz' of this and they came back with strong words after that.

We had to apologise to the teams as Christian was allowed to be acted separately as part of Christian Kleen !!! the furore came to an end with an apology from our side.
One of the rare mistakes in a final which was well and truly memorable . The final round was a bit unfair and we could have probably had the round earlier ,but what we had planned it this way and this way
it had to be ! So apart from a few controversies , everything went on fine . As one of the participants aptly put it - " Dude, i lost atleast half a kg by
the end of this DC !"Some other teams told us that the range that we covered was commendable and they flicked our chits ! It was a wonderful event with full of interesting,hilarious, desperate,ecstatic ,controversial and enthu moments and it was a joy ! We got
compliments from many people for this and JANTA is indeed proud of conducting this event. It was a great farewell to our pet event.Maybe,just maybe we should have participated ! but then the standard wouldn't have been as good as it was !!! Well ,everything
has a positive and a negative ! ain't it ?

Long live Janta.

What a concert !

10th feb evening will be etched in my memory , because of 3 people . Before I mention the names of these 3 people, I would like to say that this was a musical concert held at Koramangala indoor stadium .3 of us had been there along with hundreds of others . (well,3 seems to be the magical no !! ) Kaushik , Shamee and myself will remember this evening (i am really sure !!) for a really really lonnnng time !! The 3 people were

1. Pandit Birju Maharaj : Even at that age, he gave a performance that was brilliant .Damn the mike system ,coz' of which we couldn't hear him speak, but then his movements were still there in all graciousness !!! They were subtle and beautiful ,not too much power though(Obviously coz' of the age ) and janta had come to see him !!! You could say that from the kind of applause he got for each of his steps and movements .

2. Shaswati Sen : His student , and man ,was she good !!! Her grace and poise was there for all to see. The way she said the "bol" was also outstanding and ofcourse, her dancing was MIND BLOWING !!! it was powerful,yet subtle . Her movements were elegant and am sure Panditji is really really proud of his student. The 11 beat taal((5 beats resembling "Jhup taal" ) of it being which none of us had heard before ) was amazing and she took it up with great challenge and lived up to it with great maturity .

3.Well, when there is such outstanding dancing going on stage , well the entire atmosphere becomes more electric ,if the Percussionist is good . Well, in this case,the percussionist was not good, he was OUTSTANDING - the best of them all - the one and only Ustad Zakir Hussain . His fingers on the tabla are as if they are made for each other . Its sheer magic listening to the man playing the tabla. Zakir saab,with his traditional hair and kurta-pyjama came out to a roaring reception from the audience and his performance was unmatched .

Panditji's son sang and later on even danced . The rags which were either played beautifully on the sitar or sang melliflously by his son ,included rags like Basant , Allhaiya Bilawal and Bhairavi . They were soulful and pleasant and the mood was set for the performers and they did not disappoint .
Some of the most amazing aspects included the 10 min solo by Zakir saab ,which is kinda undescribable (if there is any word like that ) ,coz' I am sure I will run out of superlatives to describe them (by the way ,he got a continuous 2 min applause from the extremely appreciative audience ) , a meera bhajan dance rendition by Shaswati Sen ,every piece of explanation given by Panditji and last but not the least - the GRAND finale - Jugalbandi amongst all 4 - Panditji , his son(he also performed kathak ) ,Shaswati madam and the incomparable Zakir Hussain . It was an icing on the cake and I think it also took away the cherry .
At the end of it all , the audience was left asking for more(even after 3 hours of solid performances ! ).I think that is the kind of response they also look forward to and this is the kind of music that we also look forward to ! All in all a great night for Bangloreans !!!!

Rang de basanti : Good one !

Well , I caught this movie today in Rex ,with neo ,tonni and dodo . I was late by some 10 mins but anyways , that's fine. Well ,was sitting in between neo and dodo and actually had a nice time during the 1st half when neo and me were kinda critically analysing the movie.
Well,this is my take on this movie .Why is this in my blog ? Coz' its part of an unforgettable seive ! or the contents of one of the seives.
'Rang de basanti' : well the title kinda indicates that this might be a patriotic movie. but is it ? Well , NO it ain't ! well, RDB is a really cool story about these 4 young students , a girl who is about to get married to a stud maccha in the airforce and one party worker . An angrezi mem comes to namma bhaarath to make documentary abt freedom fighters .( did i hear u say ,"OH NO NOT AGAIN !" ).well ,just chill.She sees in these janta(dont know how tho !!) ,that these kinda resemble the actual cast of the 1920s and 1930s freedom fighters and offers them role (dont know how much they were offered for the movie,guess it was an internship !! or maybe even a project!!).Janta,put funda and accept off role . These guys joke around on the sets like crazy. some of those jokes are exceptional ! "Sue kar mere manko" was hilarious,so were the things which had aamir speaking almost chaste punjabi. I mean that's an amazing strategy ,to put in lot of punjabi coz' in places where there is lot of cash(UK for eg) ,the indians who watch it are mostly punjabis ! GUD LEVEL STRATEGY !!
Well ,the 1st half is kinda interspersed with the movie within movie ,so at the end of 1st half we were left wondering as to whether the director was confused...what on earth did he want to shoot ?? if it was a pure comedy ,THEN WOW !! awesome !! coz' the entire theatre was in splits . anything else ?? then the intention's not clear !! Neo told me that he was kinda losing the whole thing !! Well,I was also kinda abt to agree to him ,but then thought that it was swalpa early to judge and i waited to see what our internship boys wud do!
MAN !!!! the 2nd half was rocking !! BRILLIANT ,AWESOME STUFF !! Everything kinda fits in (or fitted in) !! I wont describe the 2nd half in detail,coz' the fun wud be lost for those who are going to watch it ! Well ,all I can say is that janta begin to feel extremely proud of our internship boys and ofcourse, the lady in distress.
Well, a rocking movie (dodo was putting hazaar cry sitting next to me in 2nd half ! neo's and my prediction came true !) coz' of its 2nd half i think, tho i came across many people who did not like the 2nd half but luved the 1st !! guess,we do things differently !!
Aamir khan did not hog the entire limelight for sure !! he was awesome but i think it was an abs team effort. The other 4 boys also did brilliantly ,Soha ali khan has matured unbelievably since her last movie and is very camera friendly . I almost forgot , angrezi mem is also level !! I mean she has acted really well and has portrayed her character well to a T !! Music ROCKS !! (RUBARUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU !! AR Rehman in form is different level altogether !) Direction is gud and credit to Mr Mehra for getting the message across....ITS ABOUT THE RIGHT KIND OF FREEDOM !! actually, what is freedom ,is freedom what we think it is ?? well, it kinda asks u such questions and you are supposed to dig in to find the answers !
Well, definitely a film for the YOUTH OF THE COUNTRY !!!! its really cool ,one of the better hindi movies I have watched in recent times !!! (1000 times better than Zinda ! )
Well, I must thank janta for getting me tickets and letting me experience a gud movie !!

My Debut .

hello janta,
This is my debut ! Well, Blogging is something that has become extremely popular nowadays. There are blogger communities ,which also have become pretty reputed . I used to Blog at Yahoo 360 , when today, I got motivated to start it after reading my friend's blog ! Feb 2 : written as 2/2 , a nice date to start off a blog ! Well , let me write something more than some stupid junk ! A bit more informal maybe .
Well , my college is reopening on monday and this sem is gonna be really hectic. So , as of now I am chilling totally !!! Saw "The Sound Of Music" today for the umpteenth time . "The hills are alive " is still going around in an infinite loop in my mind . I must admit that this movie is my favourite of all times as its an absolutely delightful movie filled with lot of masala (chilly masala if i may add !) . Well , actually the whole thing is authentic coz' it was a true story . Mind blowing acting and brilliant music by the incomparable Rodgers and lyrics by Hammerstein sets this movie apart from every other movie I have seen . The character "Maria" is beautifully portrayed by Julie Andrews and the strict yet sensitive captain is portrayed by Christopher Plummer .
The 7 kids are awesome ! Well ,some other memorable moments in the movie include "Adel Weiss" - a truly romantic number , the elegant Austrian Folk Dance , actually every song in the movie , the scene in the garden at night after the Baroness says , "Somewhere out there is a young woman ,who will never be a nun" , the scene immediately after Maria leaves the household , when the kids begin to sing "The hills are alive " and Briggitta shows her disappointment and the Captain notices it . Well , I would actually recommend this to any moviegoer as its an absolutely splendid movie and can be watched any number of times !!! Well ,as I end this, I'll put up another pic of this great movie ,which epitomises Maria . Also,the movie has made some hazaar people go to the city of Salzburg ,the place where this movie was picturised so beautifully . I would want to definitely visit the place !!