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. 

Numb

When I saw Facebook asking me "How are you feeling, Indu?" in its Update Status box today, I felt like screaming to the loudest I can that I feel depressed, angry, frustrated and a lot more. And, this is just a wee bit of what I want to vent.

"It took a death for the nation to awaken, for people to think about change in society, for the Legislation to amend laws and for everything else that needed to change in this country. All this because of the death of a woman we have never met in our lives. The whole nation took this tragedy personally so much so that everybody across the country stood united as brothers and sisters for that one woman we don't even know the name of. But, I thank God for taking her into his arms to protect her for eternity. There is nothing left to be given to her now. There is no point in living half paralyzed and crumpled for the rest of her life. Before you try to judge my morals, I want to admit that I feel the loss too. I feel like I have lost somebody I admire. I feel like I have lost myself, in this country of injustice, inequality, corruption, casteism and now RAPE. Yes, this is the country I live in and this is my country. Sadly, there ain't any pride left now to make this statement.

It is not about this one incident. I was shocked to read statistics which say that a woman is raped every 22 minutes in India. Out of which, most of them go unnoticed, unreported. In most of the cases, women hesitate to approach police for fear of further harassment or most of them drop out in the middle for the same reason. All of this happening in the same country and the same society which proclaims worship of women as its culture.

Disparity, insensitivity and a thousand more adjectives to name. Yes, this is my country and this is the country I live in. And these are the people I breathe along with."

Numb out of no suffering. Period.

Beat the Blues

I wrote the first stanza and the interlude sometime last year and then I didn't know what else to write and how to complete it, because I never experienced physical violence - not a bit of it. I also did not care to step into someone else's shoes to witness it like I usually do for some of my other writings. But, when I read about what a certain girl was put through, 1500 KM away from here, I did not have to think. The words just came by. I experienced trauma. I experienced violence for the first time in my life. I felt like I was in a state of agitation; I still am. I cried. I cried because I felt helpless. I cried because I am a woman too. And, I cried because there was nothing I could do.

This is how this writing was born and done to death, thereupon.

You manipulated me, exerted me

Constructed your alter ego
You construed my silence
And projected me as helpless

Beat me, Beat me
Beat the blues out of me
Beat me, Beat me
Beat the blues out of me

You depressed my spirit
Unleashed wrath against my wit
You turned my pain into pleasure
Shook me up and left me to wither

Beat me, Beat me
Beat the blues out of me
Again…
Beat me, Beat me
Beat the blues out of me

The anger, the madness
Is all gone now
There is some quietness
With the ripples I feel now
There’s no dread no more
I scream no more
The whispers too
Will die down with time

Beat me, Beat me
Beat the blues out of me
Again…
Beat me, Beat me
Beat the blues out of me
I say…
One more time
Beat me, Beat me
Beat the blues out of me