The romantic in me...

...wants to keep looking at Jordan and Heer’s moments together and listen to Rahman’s music in the background – ofcourse it helps that Nargis Fakhri and Ranbhir Kapoor are both eye candy – but the real credit goes to Imtiaz Ali for great writing, creating a strong chemistry between the two characters and Ranbhir’s above par acting. 

Some movies have a few great scenes or shots which linger on, others have great performances but in Rockstar what lingered with me was the romance, the love, Ranbhir’s expressive eyes and the music. I am always a big fan of movies where music is weaved into the story and a song can move the story forward. Imtiaz weaves in Rahman’s music very well in the movie especially where songs break and pick up again at the right moment and there are necessary scenes in-between. And since Rahman has also given the background score not a single note in the movie feels out of tune. Needless to say Rahman creates some great ‘rock’ songs (hope Shankar Loy Ehsaan are reading this whose Rock On soundtrack did no justice to the rock band) like Saada Haq, Nadaan Parindey and also blends in some psychedelic guitar and chorus in Jo Bhi Main, a qawaali, melodious Tum ho and my favorite track Phir Se Ud Chala – love the change in tempo towards the end of the song. One other obvious but not always followed part in the music is that Mohit Chouhan is Jordan’s voice – throughout the movie. And Mohit does more than justice to every song he sings. 

Ofcourse one cannot review Rockstar without a special mention to Irshad Kamil for the beautifully written songs. Even the lyrics have romance filled in them. Although all songs are very well written, my favorite lines – from Nadaan Parindey being

Kaaga re kaaga re mori itni araj tose,

Chun chun khaaiyo maans

Arajiya re khaaiyo na tu naina more

Khaaiyon na tu naina mohe

Piya ke milan ki aas

Coming to acting, Nargis Fakhri leaves a lot to be desired and there a couple of scenes where she is ‘hamming’ but thankfully she doesn’t have those many dialogues as the movie is focused on Ranbhir. And she provides the necessary eye candy as the gorgeous Heer. The supporting cast including Kumud Mishra as Khatana, Piyush Mishra as Dhingra and the likes play the roles with conviction. Now on to Ranbhir – He does a fabulous job playing the Hindu College music aspirant Janardhan and plays the role of rockstar Jordan with equal conviction. You can see the attitude in Ranbhir’s walk when he walks on the stage in the first few minutes of the movie playing the rockstar Jordan as compared to the naïve Janardran saying ‘tu hot aur cool hai’ when he proposes Heer. Similarly, the transformation, right from clothes, language, hair do is also very well done and adds to the character.

The story telling in the movie is one other aspect which sets the movie apart and I enjoyed the way the narrative moves from present to past and back. There are scenes which may not seem extremely relevant at the time but fall in place in another part of the movie. In my opinion, this builds the story very well and also helps builds Jordan’s character.

I must say I don’t think Imtiaz is a top notch director and he doesn’t make perfect firms. There are other directors who make great movies but Imtiaz makes great love stories – be it Socha na Tha, Jab we Met, Love Aaj Kal or Highway… and he has definitely improved with every movie he made. But my favorite from him is still Rockstar – because it lingers on… for a long time after the movie ends.

I saw PK first day last show. I stood in line for an hour at a Houston theatre like many other fellow Indians who came with very high expectations of the movie. And why not? A Raju Hirani film was releasing after almost 5 years and that too a movie with Aamir Khan. We had all heard of PK for many years and it was definitely one of the most awaited movies of 2014. After a long wait we finally entered a packed theatre, everyone around very eager to watch the movie. When I walked out of the theatre 3 hours later it were 3 hours well spent but probably not the prior 3 hours that day buying the tickets, waiting in line and prior 3 years waiting for this movie to release. I don’t mean that I was waiting for 19 December 2014 for the past 3 years but because of the hype created I kept hearing about the movie for a long time. I left the theatre thinking that it was a good movie but below my expectations. And what had created these expectations, not only the hype and long wait for this movie but the fact that Raju Hirani had directed 3 movies in the past, all 3 super hits and the last one (3 Idiots) was one of the my favorite movies. But I won’t rate the movie average only because it was below my expectations, read on..

Coincidentally, I saw Lage Raho Munnabhai and 3 Idiots within one week of watching PK. A disclaimer that I have never been a fan of Munna bhai MBBS and I consider it to be an average movie. Now, I have always believed that when the director of the movie is also the writer and the intellect behind the concept of the movie, the movies are always well thought through, characters well developed and story well lined. With every movie that Raju Hirani made he kept increasing the bar because the movie was better than the earlier one(s). And in my humble opinion 3 Idiots was definitely a master piece.

All this background to say that Raju Hirani is a very good writer and has been able to convert his scripts into good and great (in case of 3 Idiots) films. We all know that his movies come with a social message, be it Gandhirigi in Lage Raho or the sarcasm on our education system in 3 Idiots. In both these movies, he had very strong base line messages and parallel stories substantiating them. In addition he weaved in instances / incidents into the broader social message. With such strong scripts, I also want to give him credit for the delivery, the Director’s touch, where he delivered the message through sarcasm and light hearted humor and kept us entertained through out.

In case of PK, the subject Raju Hirani chose was definitely very bold. Although it was already tried in Paresh Rawal’s Oh My God, he has a different delivery method – through the eyes of an alien, PK. But in my mind the script itself was a little weak. The first half is strong but he fails to capitalize on the well laid out stage and falters in capturing the depth of the subject. Similarly, the movie is always focused on two characters PK and Jaggu and towards the end I got a bit bored seeing them on screen. An occasional break into a side story or some more characters could have helped. There are clever scenes and funny dialogues but a subject like this could have more details behind the hypocrisy  and double standards in the society. Besides in the second half a lot of time is spent on PK’s love for Jaggu which seemed unnecessary in the movie. Similarly, the climax of the movie was novice for a director like Raju Hirani and the end seemed misplaced in the story line – I think he realized that he had spent a lot of reel time prior to that and the movie had started becoming too long.

I heard someone say that this was an ordinary film by an extra ordinary film maker. I have not yet categorized Raju Hirani as an extra ordinary film maker. He is definitely a fabulous writer (I enjoyed his Ferrari ki Sawari too) and a good director. 3 Idiots was a fabulous film but he needs to deliver another strong film for me to consider him as an extraordinary film maker.

One of my favorite movies - Wake up Sid!

As you all know I am a movie buff... And Wake up Sid falls in one of my Top 5 Bollywood movies (or maybe in every category of cinema)... Its actually very difficult for me to chose my Top movies because for me every movie fits a mood, a situation, a state of mind. But if someone asks me my top choice, usually it is a movie which I can watch many times and still love it the same way I did when I saw it the first or second time. I include the second time because movies grow on me... Sometimes after watching the movie on DVD (with my headphones) I get closer to a movie!

Wake up Sid is one movie which I totally love everytime I watch it. There are other movies (Andaz Apna Apna and JJWS) which I have probably watched way more than Wake up Sid but Wake up Sid is special for multiple reasons: Bombay, being one of them and my love for every character in the movie. For me 'Dramas' are right up there in the genres I enjoy watching and obviously for a Drama, the characters have to be well written. I am not the best at articulating my thoughts (and I don't have that much time on hand) but I could write every little detail on every character of this movie. I also believe the supporting cast which play these characters have to be good and that's another important reason why Wake up Sid is high on my list.

I started writing this blog to list some of my favorite scenes of the movie... Thankfully either UTV movies or somebody else has taken the pain to put these on youtube - God bless them!

Perfect ending!  - When the movie ends well you leave the theatre with a good feeling. The last six to seven minutes of the movie are something which make the movie very very special for me... its difficult to explain how this scene and the article 'New Girl in the city' are so special for me - I echo Ayan's thought that the feeling you have for a place is always defined by the people you have with you in that place! Needless to say the song boondon ke moti, the start of monsoon, the drive through Bombay in the rains, all complete the scene... Ayan Mukerjee has written this scene very well and coming from a 24-25 year old is impressive. Honestly there are many many such very well written scenes in the movie!

Tumhe bura nahin lagta?... Ofcourse bura lagta hai!  - In this scene, this one line is what makes the scene extraordinary... the fact that good friends are forever. They may feel bad that you don't spend time with them, but they are truly happy for you!!

Tumhare friends ki tarah mein bhi English mein baat karu, to kya pata hum bhi friends ban jaye - This line and the sitar playing in the background are the high points of this scene!! Sid saying 'I miss you Ma' without looking at her - this is what indian boys do.. and usually we take moms for granted! The mom's first reaction 'Siddy, shirt mein you are looking so handsome'! 'Aur kabhi kabhi aap aam bhej deti ho - its kinda obvious'

Loved the narration of this scene! - this is what I say about characters in the movie... Debbie and the boy who says 'sabse expensive gaadi tere paas hi hogi na'!! And ofcourse Lakshmi and Rishi!

For Wake up Sid fans like me - definitely check out these deleted scenes!!

Music plays a critical role in my life, and always has…

Every song, every album has a memory attached to it – it may be the first time I heard the song, it could be the song I sang to my loved one, or it could just be a song I heard with friends over a drink. Given my really bad memory, I don’t remember a lot of things, especially my past. But these songs take me back – take me back to that time and usually I have an emotion attached and sometimes, miraculously I even feel that emotion… I made a playlist for a party and I included Let’s Enjoy, The Namesake and the Night Song in this playlist. I have NO idea who stars in this Bollywood movie Let’s Enjoy, but for those who don’t know, it has a fabulous soundtrack. Some of you may have heard Dhol Wajda; and trust me that’s the most mediocre song in that album – there are some good fusion numbers by Midival Punditz and a couple of good numbers by Ankush Tewari. You would have guessed that these three albums have a fusion influence – and it was supposed to be a Indian fusion playlist.

The playlist being on shuffle I heard Let’s Enjoy first, then Namesake followed by Night song, these albums have a slightly different chronology in my life (ofcourse relevant to their releases). Night song reminds me of Namu’s apartment in Colaba – a bunch of 18 year olds architecture students (me being the only Accountant amongst them) listening to Nusrat Fateh Ali. This was one of the early exposure to fusion music. The Night song reminds me of days and nights spent in ‘town’, J.J. school of Architecture, trains to VT, rain dance party’s at US club, and a teenager life – something which I thoroughly enjoyed… every bit of it. Let’s Enjoy takes me to a 24 yr old boy, driving home every night from a dream job in investment banking in a brand new car his father bought him for becoming a Chartered Accountant; and every night trying to beat his own time of driving from Churchgate to Prabhadevi. The Namesake happened only 3 years later, but this time it was a 27 yr old man. And one thing which The Namesake’s soundtrack reminds me of something I blogged about 5 years ago - about how we try to live our 'lives' in this foreign land (and shown in the bengali parties in the movie), celebrating festivals in complete fanfare (to the extent of playing holi with colors & water), having elaborate weddings, having the cricket or bollywood gup over booze or chai, only to realize that once its time to go home, we have to take our large coats, drive out in left hand drive cars and eventually sleep on spring mattresses!

And while I type this another of my FAVORITE song plays in the background…

Waqt ki qaid mein zindagi hai magar

Chand ghariyaan yehi hain jo aazaad hain

Inko kho kar meri jaan-e-jaan

Umr bhar na taraste raho

Amazing TED video (s)

Being a billionaire is sort of passe...

... says Khan Academy's Sal Khan. “It’s ironic. When I used to try and describe what the Khan Academy was, I would tell people that if it were a for-profit, I would be on the cover of Forbes.”

Sal Khan's fascinating story

Sal Khan's TED video

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2 posts in 2012!! That is such a bad track record... Made me realize that I made blogging my venting website! Hoping for some change going forward.

There is so much to write about - but life has just taken over all. Nothing to complain about and so so many changes. I was trying to write a movie review a few days back and realized that I have lost my writing ability too. I am obviously not a born writer and its an acquired skill. And I need to keep in touch with it and keep brushing up on it!