Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Ghajini Ne Bana Di Jodi

Posted by Varun | Tuesday, November 25, 2008 | Category: , , , | 25 comments

Here we go again! Here are my first impressions on the music of Ghajini and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Two most anticipated movies of the year. I am carrying on from where I left.




Cast: Aamir Khan, Asin, Jiah Khan
Music: AR Rahman
Director: AR Muragadoss

Guzarish
Singer: Javed Ali
Guest Vocals: Sonu Nigam
First Impression: Wow! Sonu Nigam should have done more than just humming in this song. The track would have sounded amazing in his voice. This song is my new ring tone.

Aye Bachchoo
Singer: Suzanne
First Impression: Foot tapping. The track has all the ingredients to set any dance floor on fire.

Kaise Mujhe
Singer: Benny Dayal & Shreya Ghoshal
First Impression: Too slow to my liking. I changed the track even before it ended. The singers have obviously done a great job but the track did not impress me much.

Behka
Singer: Karthik
First Impression: Sounds like 'Main Aisa Kyun Hoon' from Lakshya but very good nevertheless. Apparently Aamir Khan has changed his costume six times in this song.

Lattoo Lattoo
Singer: Shreya Ghoshal
First Impression: Shreya Ghoshal has made this track her own. She has done an awesome job to say the least

I watched memento(Ghajini is apparently loosely based on this Hollywood movie) last week and see no place for these songs in that kind of action movie. It will be interesting to see where the director fits these songs into. I give the album four stars (****).


Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Vinay Pathak
Music: Salim Sulaiman
Director: Aditya Chopra

Tujh Mein Rab Dikhta Hai ( Two solo tracks)
Singer: Roop Kumar Rathod and Shreya Ghoshal
First Impression: Slow but beautifully sung by both the singers.

Haule Haule
Singer: Sukhwinder Singh
First Impression: Probably the best track of the album. Haule Haule Ho Jayega Pyar is very true for the album as well. Keep listening to fall in love with this album. I do not have the patience but in case anyone of you do, please go ahead.

Dance Pe Chance
Singer: Sunidhi Chauhan, Labh Jajua
First Impression: I have started liking this track after I saw the visuals. There are absolutely no second thoughts on the quality of the singer. She is one of the best we have today.

Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte
Singer: Sonu Nigam
First Impression: Innovative! The lyrics are at its innovative best. It's like this song 'Mere Jeevan Sathi' from the movie Ek Duje Ke Liye. The only difference is this song has mukhdas (in a different tune) of famous old songs as well. Sonu Nigam has done justice to the song.

I give the album three and a half stars (***.5). I have given the album an extra star only because it has SRK on its cover. :)

Conclusion: Given an option, I would listen to songs from Ghajini any day.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Sons of India

Posted by Varun | Tuesday, November 18, 2008 | Category: , | 33 comments

Why do we mourn for a day or two when our favourite cricketer fails to score a century or fails to take wickets? Why do we feel bad when a movie of our favourite star flops? One of the reasons being that we see these people as part of our own family. We feel the pain that they are going through. We feel the pain as though it is our own. But why don't we feel the same when a soldier breathes his last protecting our country. 

I was watching a kannada serial directed by Prakash Belawadi yesterday which touched upon this topic quite beautifully. The female protagonist in the serial is a war widow whose husband has died in Kashmir trying to protect our country. She brings this topic up and asks a simple question to her parents. "Why aren't the soldiers treated as part of everyone's family just like a cricketer or a movie star is treated? Are they any lesser to these people in importance?”

There have been instances of huge Puja being performed when the one and only Big B fell ill or just before Indian team left for West Indies for World Cup but I haven't seen or heard of any Puja being performed for the well being of the Indian soldiers. They are always taken for granted. 

Do you think the soldiers need to fight in a Colosseum in front of a large audience or fight in front of a camera to gain this place in people's heart or keep a count of the number of kills that they have made so that it can be put up in the list of never ending world records? 

I am not here to answer any of the questions that I have raised or the lady in the serial rose. I shamelessly confess that I don't have the answers. I just feel that it is high time that the martyrs of war get more than just the two minute mourning we give them. May their souls rest in peace. And in case any of you know the answer, please let me know. 

According to me, they are the true sons of India.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Rendezvous with Meetings, Movies, Memories, Masti and Magic

Posted by Varun | Thursday, November 13, 2008 | Category: , , , , , | 18 comments

One of the most anticipated trips came to an end sooner than I had anticipated. I am talking about my trip to Mumbai. It had a touch of everything in it. Right from lunching at 'Not just jazz by the bay' to shopping for leather jacket at 'Dharavi'. If you are not quite familiar with Mumbai, 'Not just jazz by the bay' is a high-end restaurant located just outside the Brabourne stadium in one of the posh areas of Mumbai and 'Dharavi' is one of the biggest slums in the world.

Going with the title of the post, I'll ramble upon every word that I have used in it;

Meetings: This was the first item in my agenda. Meeting cousins (My sisters, Brother-In-Law, Niece) meeting friends, meeting old colleagues, meeting old managers. It was a wonderful feeling to meet everyone after five months. Some people were surprised to know and looked at me as though I am an Idiot when I told them that I had come to Mumbai to meet people and not on any official work. But most of them were elated to meet me which was something very nice to see. 

Movies: I watched Fashion and Quantum of Solace. Fashion is a good movie but very slow. I had booked tickets for this movie from Bangalore itself. Talk about planning :). I give it two and a half stars. I would have given it one more had it not dragged on for three hours.  Quantum of Solace is a good movie but did somebody tell you that it is a bond movie? Bond should stick to his tuxedos, vodka martinis, expensive cars, gadgets and leave the action to Jason Bourne or Rambo. The action nevertheless is spectacular. It gets three stars. Now that revenge is off Bond's head, we can expect the true bond to be back in his next movie. The extra star is for this optimistic expectation. 

Memories: It is such a wonderful feeling to go back to the place where one once lived and worked. It brought back all my fond memories. It brought along with it memories of people who played a part in my life directly or indirectly, memories of late night movies, memories of late night parties, late night bike rides and many other things. The feeling is very hard to describe and it is something that one has to go through to understand it accurately.

Masti: Food Court at the In-Orbit Mall, Mantra Lounge (Hiranandani), Turner Road Chaat, Main Land China, Naturals, Utsav (Powai), Out of the Blue (Bandra) are some of the restaurants / ice cream parlours I visited. Shopping for export surplus clothes, shopping for leather jackets, Kailash Kher Concert (IIT Powai), Local Train travel, Double-Decker bus travel, time spent with my adorable niece, lovely friends and relatives, and not allowing a dear friend to study for CAT are some things that I enjoyed doing the most. The masti doesn't stop here. I fought with an auto rickshaw-driver and a taxi-driver over the extra fare they were charging :).

Magic: I am speaking about the magical feeling of nostalgia that grips one when he visits a place that once was so dear to him. I was lucky to be back in Mumbai. Not many people are lucky in this matter. Something truly magical about the trip was that the time kept vanishing in thin air every time I wanted more of it.

It was a wonderful, and a truly memorable trip that made me sick (I caught cold) but rejuvenated my senses. And if one asks me if I would like to visit Mumbai again, my answer would be a big YES.