1 year ago
Monday, December 8, 2008
Before you get into any sort of confusion or conclusion, this is neither a movie review nor a discussion about the size-zero girl Kareena Kapoor. I will be talking about my first ever blogger get together(Not exactly the first meet because the first blogger I ever met was Preeti during her book launch) with Oxy who is probably four or five sizes more than our very own size-zero girl :)
It was an email reply to a comment on my blog post 'India Bleeding' that made this meeting possible. Here goes the conversation;
Oxy: "Exactly, I too did not feel like writing anything on it but my reasons were not same as yours that they all had written it greatly. I disagree. I came across many blog posts, which were absolutely trash."
Varun: "I hope you didn't classify my post in the trash list :)"
Oxy: "o no no no no.. not at all.... else I wudn't have commented at all buddy..... chill... moreover u had clearly written many have already written on it.."
Even though I was just kidding, Oxy felt that I might have got offended by his comments and disclosed him to me by adding me to his Google-Talk list. I recognized him by his profile snap (Cowboy hat made it easy). We cleared all confusions we had and chatted for some time. While we were chatting on Thursday, he told me that he had an extra ticket for the movie (First-Day First-Show) 'Dil Kabaddi' and asked me if I could join him. I could not say NO for the following three reasons;
1. It was a movie invitation :)
2. It was going to be my first ever Blogger-Get-Together.
3. It was a First-day First-show.
I was so excited about the meet and movie that I reached PVR Cinemas fifteen minutes before time (The guards did not allow me to get inside the mall :)). Luckily for me, I had to withdraw some money from the ATM and that helped me kill time. By the time I withdrew money and came back to the mall, they had opened the gates. I parked my bike, came to the rendezvous point and waited. Oxy made it just in time for the movie and we rushed in after the initial Hi-Hellos. We got time to chat only during the interval as the movie was pretty interesting and we did not want to miss Irfan Khan's antics.
Both of us liked the movie and reached a common consensus that the movie deserved three and a half stars (***.5). The conversation during interval led to disclosure of few secrets about fellow bloggers and I also got to know more about a person I always knew only as Oxy. I had always read about blogger meets but it was fun to be part of one. The movie was entertaining and so was the meet. Thanks for the invitation Oxy. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you.
The movie and the meet kick started my weekend a little earlier than usual. How I wish every single day started with a movie :)
I received few lovely awards over the weekend. I would like to thank Vimmuuu for awarding me a trophy and a beautiful 'Butterfly Award'. I have proudly displayed it on the right panel of my blog and I hereby pass it to Ashwini, Archana,Arch-Fully, IHM, Valerine and Vivek. I have tried not to repeat awarding the bloggers who already have these awards.
Here are the awards;
Monday, December 1, 2008
I wanted to write a post on the Mumbai Terror Attacks but I was in a complete state of shock and could not express what I felt. Moreover I have nothing left to write because great writers and great bloggers have already written everything about it.
It is now the time of post-mortem of the entire episode when facts and secrets are dug out from the dead bodies of the terrorists. It is also the time when every secret agency claims that it had warned India about the attacks. Every citizen of India has lots of questions in his or her mind but I don't see any person who has the answers to all of them. So it is time to find our own answers. Why do we always wait? I think that is how we are taught in schools. We always ask questions and wait for the teacher to respond. It is that time of our lives when we have to change and act.
I came across a lovely poem (written by famous lyricist Prasoon Joshi) that more or less sums up what I wanted to convey;
Nahin aaney doonga zindagi ko aasani se patri par
Nahin utarney doonga usey keechad main,tedhey medhey raston pe
Nahin sookhney doonga deewaron par laga khoon
Halka Nahin padney doonga uska rang
Is baar Nahin banney doonga usey itna laachaar ki paan ki peek aur khoon ka fark hi khatm ho jaye
Is baar ghawon ko dekhna hai gaur se thoda lambe wakt tak
Kuch faisley aur uskey baad hausley kahin toh shuruat karni hi hogi
Is baar yahi tay kiya hai!
I would not like to put the entire blame on the politicians here because they became our leaders only because we voted (or not voted) for them. Please use your power, your vote judiciously and choose a worthy leader instead of moaning later.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Ghajini Ne Bana Di Jodi
Posted by Varun | Tuesday, November 25, 2008 | Category:
Ghajini,
Music,
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi,
Review
|
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.
Ghajini -
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.
Conclusion: Given an option, I would listen to songs from Ghajini any day.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
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:
Break,
Friends,
Memory,
Mumbai,
Review,
Travelogue
|
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.
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