Rarity in Synergies

I respect people who always try to beat the odds and there is one such lady who never failed to grab my attention with her strikingly unconventional voice. I always had a liking for her - for the way she carries herself, for the way she takes pride in her voice. A rarity to witness conventional looks and unconventional attitude in absolute synergy. And now, this one video has made me fall in love with her and admire her even more. A hundred cheers to this lady, Usha Uthup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO3oILb1vSY

Chennayi Yekpress

An old looking actor who goes very loud and over dramatic. A heroine who goes wrong with her accent all through the film. Unforgettable music. Chennai Express is a bumpy ride . A very average film with silly jokes. Half of India may hate me for making this statement, but Shahrukh Khan is very annoying in this film. His so called energy has started getting very annoying in the recent times and this Rahul of Chennai Express is no exception. In fact, I found Deepika Padukone better in this film, barring her unreal and fake accent. All in all, an attempt poorly gone wrong by Rohit Shetty and team. The 100-crore club sounds like a taboo.

 My rating for this film - **
(* You will shoot me
** Waste of time
*** Can sit through
**** Worth watching once
***** Must watch)

Too realistic? I can't help it.

It really amuses me when I see or come across people who love reading too much between the lines, try to understand more than what there is and become judgemental. Check! How can your personality be judged based on a thing or two that you write? If I sympathize and write poetry on a beggar, does that mean that I would have begged at some point in my life just because it looks realistic and touching? Or, if I pen down thoughts imagining myself as a soldier fighting at the Siachen glacier, will it make me one? How hilarious does that sound? Is it too realistic? I can't help it. My only two cents for such people is to have a positive outlook towards things and people in general and to at least ignore creativity in others, if not appreciate it. Ugh! Does that sound too heavy for two cents? :D

I suggest such people to get back to reading the few inspiring liners written in my profile on to the right - that no matter what, I am ready to take on. Here, I am. (wink) :)

Heal with time

People come, people go
Someone sticks to the fore
You feel you have found a friend for life
Someone always on your side
Until you realize you were wrong

No matter how hard you try
What you try for never works
It's all destiny; part of the game
Hard to believe, but nothing insane
It heals with time
As you get used to the time
Spent away, spent alone
Spent in a clutter of darkness galore

Swami Rara Review

A fresh wave of change.
A sincere attempt at bringing a new style of film making into Telugu cinema.
An apt inspiration from the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Ram Gopal Verma with a sleek implementation.

Swami Rara is definitely all of the above. There was only one question that people preferred to ask me when I told them that I had watched Swami Rara over the last weekend. Why Swami Rara? Nikhil can never be a reason to watch a movie. Swathi is a natural but may not be a reason that big to drive me to the theatre. But, one of my acquaintance's close association with the film and the teaser and songs that he had been promoting all along on Facebook one month prior to its release definitely made me make up my mind that I was going to go watch it anytime before it's taken out. 

Now coming to the quintessential question. 
Why Swami Rara?
Gun violence and the famous Quentin Tarantino branded slow motion shots were beautifully captured. The climax scene reminded me of the chaotic fun that Ram Gopal Verma happened to create once with his Money series. Engaging plot. Subtle comedy that is never forced on to you. Music that sounds different from the usual Thaman, Mani Sharma etc. crop.

It is a pity and concern that a natural and spontaneous actress like Swathi has never been given a proper foothold in the industry. And, I still doubt if it is going to change with this film. Nobody else could have played her character the way she did. I hope she gets her due at least now.

 My rating for this film - ****
(* You will shoot me
** Waste of time
*** Can sit through
**** Worth watching once
***** Must watch)

Aatma - Feel the fun around you

Aatma, to put simply, is about a single parent (Bipasha as Maya) who lives with her five year old daughter (Niya) after getting separated from her violent and abusive husband (Nawazuddin as Abhay). A quick flashback reveals Abhay's accident and the reason why Niya  never gets to see her father. Abhay, the possessive father that he used to be, returns from death only to take revenge on Maya and take their daughter away with him to the world of dead.

Aatma is a mediocre film with hardly any scary scenes that it promised for its genre except for a couple of sound effects here and there. In fact, you might actually end up laughing over a few scenes like the one where Abhay comes to possess Niya, or the climax scene where Maya's mother comes to see her off etc..

Music is probably the only thing that could haunt you for a while after coming out of the theatre. All in all, an effort not worth it. I would have pinched myself thrice at the least after reading a statement from the director that he foresees Bipasha winning a National award for this movie. Hence, a more apt tagline for the movie - Feel the fun around you. :)

 My rating for this film - **
(* You will shoot me
** Waste of time
*** Can sit through
**** Worth watching once
***** Must watch)

Pitching against Stars

It's quite amusing to come across articles which describe sun signs and decide how best you can make friends with other sun signs. If zodiac X and zodiac Y can ever be friends. If X would ever be able to put up with Y and vice-versa. What such articles and their writers probably fail to understand is that you do not calculate odds before getting into a relation. I make friends with someone if I like their (his/her) company, if I like them the way they are, but not because they belong to a certain zodiac which supposedly suits mine. These are the factors that strike a chord initially. And then, over a period of time, you gain each other's trust, get emotionally bonded and nurture a relation that lasts for a lifetime. You may dislike tens of things in that person but your strong liking for them makes you ignore all of it. It's as good as pitching against stars and winning hands down. May be that's the reason why people say that friendship is the only relation where you look beyond and probably do not even consider a person's social, economic, religious and cultural upbringing or views.

Plausible Power Politics?

Our politicians are never tired of getting despised for all the reasons they know. Point in case, the justification given by Union Minister Vayalar Ravi and Ghulam Nabi Azad to some Congress ministers hailing from Seemandhra. The reason behind the firm support by Congress High command (as they call it) for separation of Telangana is the high probability of Congress getting close to 16 seats from Telangana state in future. They feel that the Seemandhra ministers have failed to lobby enough to keep the state together and more importantly failed miserably in ensuring seats in the next state elections. Looks like YSR Congress will have the last laugh amidst all this. Plausible Power Politics, eh? Definitely not. Fingers crossed. I wouldn't appreciate this geographical division for sure.

Happy New Year

I know it is coming a tad too late. But, to be frank there was no reason for me to feel happy about or celebrate a new year when so many others were fighting for a cause to bring about change. I am writing this post and wishing everybody a new year now because I feel we need something to change about ourselves and something positive to give back to ourselves. And, this is the reason for it.

"Humanity has died in the society we bred among us. It sends shivers down my heart when I hear that nobody even bothered to help or at least cover the victims of that night in Delhi and that they were left to suffer naked in the cold in pain both by the Common man and the Police. I hope all of them are sulking in one corner of their houses by now out of shame & guilt.

If there is one RESOLUTION we all need to take ahead of many more years to come, it is 'To keep the Lamp of Humanity burning'."

Numbness Continues

I don't think amending laws will make much difference to any of this. Law comes into picture only when an incident of deserving proportion takes place and there is no practical way in which we can stop incidents, small or big, from occurring. It is not easy to keep track of every woman and every lane she passes by. I don't even think it's easy to change what has been instilled for ages in this society. It is not easy to change the mindset of people, men and women alike. Why talk about society as a separate entity, when I hear similar thoughts expressed by people around me - people I have known for decades - and there is nothing I can do to convince them into accepting the fact that there is a need to change the way people think and behave. It is because we, the people, make the society and the system. Nothing else.