Hello to all the fellow internet crawlers, to all my friends connected to me by zeroes and ones. Now now! Don’t jump from your seats and to conclusions. I am not back. It’s one of those three-months itch. Yes, I was missing my affair with my blog.
Like all other bloggers who go on a sabbatical, I am supposed to dive into an egotistic and pompous rant about the happenings in my life in the past few months, which I will dutifully indulge into, to satisfy all the masala hungry people here.
So, this is my first winter in Manchester and what a dull and gloomy place it has turned into. It gets dark at 4 in the afternoon and by the time I get up from my desk at 6, I feel like I have been working since eternity. There are cold winds bellowing all the time making those spooky horror movie sounds and turning my umbrella inside out. One thing that I really hate is wearing caps, which I have to do now because otherwise, I will not be able to feel my nose and ears by the time I reach home. It rains all the bloody (Yeah! Bloody and Bollocks are the two latest additions to my dictionary) day and the bell of my house gets short circuited in the rain and starts ringing continuously at 2 in the night. So, I have to get up from my bed and go to the door in freezing cold to throw out the batteries to make it stop hollering. Bollocks!
And do you think that an Indian landlord in Manchester would do you good? Well, think again. I shifted my house three months back and fell upon a smiling, obese Punjabi Uncle who acted like Mother India before I said Yes to the house. After I shifted, I literally had to rub my nose on the ground in front of him to get a few minuscule things to be fitted. He gives miserliness a new definition.
The reason I went on a break (and I am still on a break) was that I wanted to write a book. Now don’t hit me with a cliché by asking me the bloody story. As if I am going to tell you! Buy it and make some dough land in my wallet if it gets published. Ever! And it’s going on fine. Thank you very much. Some wise man said once – The first draft of anything is shit! Got the picture?
And then in between all this mayhem to which my life was subjected to…
I GOT ENGAGED!!!! YAY!!!
Well, long story short, it was through a matrimonial site. My parents had put my advertisement (I like imagining myself as a commodity. It’s quite aphrodisiacal) on a matrimonial site and had almost given up hope. It’s not because there were no takers. 
Far from it! It’s just that my parents had set some very high standards. You see, they think I am Hrithik Roshan and the rejection rate was as high as 50 girls/week. No kidding! Then along came Polly (Yeah, that’s what I’ll call her on the blog), and we started talking over phone. Our parents matched the horror-scopes and Voila! 33/36! They almost jumped out of their skin! So, we talked, talked on phone, talked on webcam and talked each other into saying yes without meeting. Kind of romantic, I think. So, I went back to India and there was a small ceremony called Roka. Done! Amit is sold! He is now Polly’s slave (this is such a turn on! 
).
What else have I done in the previous months that was exciting….Ummm…
I saw a play for the first time in my life in the Palace Theatre here. It was a musical called Chicago (you might have seen the movie). Before the play started, I thought that live performances can never match the ‘razzle dazzle’ of the movies, but I was wrong. It was splendid (another word that I have picked up here. Everything is either splendid or wonderful or excellent). The downside? I went alone and missed Polly and thought that it would have been great if she was sitting next to me instead of the wonderfully fat lady who could barely fit in her seat and was brimming all over me.
Autumn was beautiful. I went around the city with my camera and took some photographs. I visited Style Mill with MB, a British friend and was literally transported a 100 years back, specially in the apprentice house. I’ll put the photographs soon. And now I think I am rambling.
Anyways, the reason I actually started writing this post was because Visceral Observations had recently announced the Avant Garde Bloggies Awards, which is wonderful! Since this is a kind of beat-my-own-drum post, I must jog your memory cells and remind you that I won 8 awards last year and again thank all of you who voted for me. So, the nominations have started and are open till 20 December. Nominate your posts and the posts which you think are worthy of recognition. It’s fun, believe me!
And here are a few details to kick start the process (which I am shamefully copying from Oxy’s blog).
Here is once again the link to everything you need to know about the Awards as well as how to nominate your and other’s posts. CLICK HERE.
Conceived by Visceral Observations
Badges Designed by Chirag. Have a look at the Badges by CLICKING HERE.
Volunteers Vimal, Vee and Magik
Publicist Nikhil
The Categories CLICK HERE.
Official Video CLICK HERE.
So, go ahead and have fun and I’ll see you around.
This month I complete two years of blogging. No I am not bored yet but I need a break from it just because I am completely ignoring other hobbies of mine, specially reading.
So I am taking a break from blogging for the time being. Don’t know when I will come back to write another post but I will be reading your posts for sure. I might pop up in between if something really really interesting happens in my life or if I feel strongly about some topic.
Don’t be shocked. Its not a sudden decision. 
See you around!
I don’t know if it was because I was Bollywood starved from the last six months or if it was because the movie was really good, the fact remains that I immensely enjoyed the movie.
The Aaj and Kal of it (no spoilers)
Jai(Saif Ali Khan) and Meera(Deepika Padukone) are a modern day couple living in London who believe in the philosophy of take-life-as-it-comes and do not believe in tying each other down just because they are in a relationship. They know that their real preference is their careers and thus end up breaking their relationship with a break-up party when Meera decides to move to India to work.
Veer Singh(Saif Ali Khan) falls for Harleen(Simran) the moment he sets his eyes on her. It was love at first sight. Harleen liked Veer but was too shy to respond. That does not defer Veer from following her on his bicycle while she travels to college on a rikshaw and let Harleen know that he was madly in love with her. One day, Harleen shifts to Calcutta with her family.
The story of Jai and Meera is set in the present time while that of Veer and Harleen is set in 1965. There is a connection between the two stories but you better watch the movie to know that.
The differences or no differences
The underlying theme of the movie is that no matter how much the times must have changed and how differently we might look at love, the feeling is still the same. You will still end up in a whirlpool when it happens. It will still turn your world upside down. The story of Jai and Meera is completely different from Veer and Harleen. Jai and Meera are in love with each other without realizing it. Meera knows that if she asks, Jai won’t say no but then one day he will feel guilty that he let go his dreams and career. Jai is completely confused. Veer on the other hand had made up his mind that he is going to marry Harleen. The only question is how?
As the movie proceeds, the scenes shift from the past to the present and vice versa and you can see the stark
differences and the similarities. The switch between the two stories is done brilliantly. You realize that how different and then how similar the two stories are.
The Performances and the Wasted Role
Saif Ali Khan and Deepika are good in their respective roles. Saif has played the confused modern day man in many movies earlier(Dil Chahta hai, Hum Tum, Salaam Namaste), so this was nothing new for him except for the role of Veer Singh. Although his Punjabi was not perfect but he did the role of a madly in love Sikh man, who starts working in a ‘phactory’ so that he can marry Harleen and who travels to Calcutta just to look at her once, quite well. Simran(Harleen) was also good in her role of a meek Punjabi girl. She left an impression even though she hardly had any dialogues in the movie. Rishi Kapoor had a very good role(can’t reveal more about his role right now. ). Rahul Khanna was wasted. I am not sure why he took the role.
Music and everything else
‘Chor Bazaari’ is already up on the charts. I personally liked ‘Ye dooriyaan’ a lot. The songs are a nice mix of soft romantic and dhinchak dhinchak songs. Thankfully, most of the songs blended well in the movie and were not like a su su break song. Even the ‘Main kya hoon’ which started off as one ended up being quite well done. You will know why when you see the movie.
Dialogues are the plus point of the movie. Some very well written scenes like the one in which Saif asks Rishi Kapoor about how couples did not had sex before marriage in the past and Rishi Kapoor retorts back – ‘Jaanwar nahi the hum!’.
And, yes, thankfully, the movie had a story!
Finally and Eventually
Imtiaz Ali surely does not disappoint. I am in two minds and I know I should not compare, but was the movie was good as Jab We Met? I think yes it was. It had its moments.
Rating – 4/5
Director – Imtiaz Ali
Official Website – http://loveaajkal-illuminatifilms.erosentertainment.com/
While I was exchanging the latest gossips of our same-old-same-old life with a friend in U.S. over a Skype call, we steered over to the topic of how the movie ‘Slumdog Millionare‘ and the book ‘The White Tiger‘ have changed the Western mindset towards India. Suddenly from the country of Elephants, yoga, Kamasutra and snake charmers, India is now a nation where ‘all’ the poor kids are blinded and turned into beggars. Where poor drivers from Bihar fantasise to ‘dip their beaks’ in a women with golden white hair.
There is no point in denying the fact that both the movie and the book are spot on. Yes, Jamal can be any of the thousands of slum kids in India who lost his mother during the riots and cheated tourists in Taj Mahal. Yes, Balram Halwai can be any of the numerous drivers on the roads of Delhi who have broken away from the ‘darkness’ and come to the ‘light’. But, the problem is in the generalization. Needless to say that a work of fiction is incomplete without a tinge of tragedy, a question which my friend S asked me and which set me thinking was -
“Have you ever done any of the things shown in the movie or the book? If no, then where is your story? Why doesn’t anyone write about you? Just because that won’t sell?”
Yes, maybe that won’t sell. The most tragic thing that has happened to me is when a friend of mine lied to me. This is hardly something comparable to what happened to Ammu in ‘The God of Small Things‘ or to Krishna in ‘Salaam Bombay‘ or to Biju in ‘The Inheritance of Loss‘.
A story of an individual cannot be superimposed on a whole nation. I had a very normal childhood. I belong to an average middle class family where we were taught about the thin line between necessity and luxury. I never dropped out of the school but passed out with top grades. I went to the best University in the country and had a blast during my college life. I did my post graduation from another top University in India and immensely enjoyed my hostel life with a great set of friends. I have been working with the best IT firm in India from the last 4 years and everything in my life is very very smooth. I have not done anything which Jamal did or Balram Halwai did.
There is a whole generation of millions of Indians who have grown up like me. We never had an imperative need to rob someone for money or bribe someone to cover up a murder. We don’t live in slums and never carried guns. We work in air conditioned offices and travel by our cars. I am not undermining the fact that people like Balram and Jalam exist, but India right now is like two colliding galaxies. There are two entirely different worlds which coexist. My British colleague who came to India last year asked me -
‘How do you cope up with all that? How does your mind grapple the fact that on one side of the road, there is a high rise with swanky offices and on the other side there is a beggar sleeping on the road?’
I had no answer. All I could tell him was that not very far in the distant past, there were no high rise. So, we have taken a leap. We are in fact in the middle of a leap, suspended in mid air, with one leg forward and one backward. We may fail badly or with an extra push, we may make a world record. There is no nation in this world which has not coped up with poverty and corruption at one point of time. Right now its our turn.
We have a very tenacious tendency of adhering to our prejudiced mindsets and to believe in what suits us. When someone shows us half a painting and asks us to believe that what he is showing is the full painting, we do, as long us that ’suits’ us. As long as it makes us feel better about our own life.
They were important stories. Stories which need to be told. But they are not the only stories. They are not the only truth. Generalizing something and being partial or biased can be very easy but as every White man is not a racist, as every Muslim is not a terrorist, as every leader is not as brainless as Bush and as ruthless as Hitler, as every Maharashtrian does not support Bal Thackeray, as every Hindu is not a vegetarian, as every American is not money minded, as every Britisher is not a snob, as every Australian is not a criminal, similarly, every Indian is not a Balram Halwai.
[The image is that of a Metro Station in New Delhi with an enormous statue of Hanuman in the backdrop]
I was quite adamant to see this movie on IMAX and in 3D and not in some ordinary theatre. What surprised me was that the booking of the movie opened last month on the 15th. Yes, you read it right! That is when the enormity of the mania hit me. And to make things worse, the seats of the first week’s shows were filled within seven days! Yeah! Harry Potter is Britain’s Rajnikant.
*I don’t know why but I just imagined Harry wearing his glasses in Rajni’s style. Uff! That’s dizzying!*
Anyways, back to topic. So, how did I manage to get the tickets, you may ask. Well, none of my flatmates are remotely interested in Harry Potter series. Yeah! I know! Just don’t get me started on this. Its as if they have just been freshly transported from Mars. And, then I decided to go alone. Believe me searching for a single ticket is much simpler because there are always one or two single seats left here and there. And, so, I booked my sole ticket on the 1st of July.
I haven’t read the books. Now wait a second before you raise your eyebrows and widen your eyes. Its always better this way. A movie can rarely compete with a book. So its always good to watch the movie and then read the books. That way the movie won’t disappoint you. And that is why this movie was not at all disappointing.
The first 15-20 minutes of the movie are in 3D. So, if you have a 3D theatre near your house, its worth watching the movie there. Its amazing! Although frankly speaking, I don’t understand why the whole movie was not in 3D? Atleast the climax should have been.
Now, coming to how the movie was.
The trailer of the movie might have given you an impression that its a very fast paced and dark movie. Apparently, its
not. Infact, this might be the only movie of the series which was devoid of an over-doze of wizardry and action. It was more like a prelude of the sharp twists and turns which are about to come in the last two movies. I had a feeling that the director deliberately played it down. The climax was subtle, not rising to the chilling crescendo it reached in the previous installments. It was like the lull before the actual storm begins.
There was more romance in the movie. The kids acted well! The sets were beautiful. I loved the scene where Ron is kissed by Lavender Brown, much to Hermione’s distress. She walks away and sits in a stairway and Harry comes and sit with her. She had birds fluttering over her head whom she throw towards Ron as darts. Then, there was this scene where Harry gets a smack on the head for saying – “But I am the chosen one!”. There was definitely a substantial amount of humor, love potions and weird coloured glasses.
No. The movie was not boring. It had its own pace and you start enjoying it after some time. The story dwells into Voldemort’s past when he was a student at Hogwarts, the creation of the Horcruxes, Draco’s secret plans and Ginny’s and Harry’s love story(which started sooner than that in the book, they say) and the death of you-know-who. And yes, the tussle between Ron and Hermione continues with Lavender playing the third angle.
Not the most brilliant of them all, but worth watching none the less. And, oh yes, I missed the animated creatures. There were none except for a huge dead spider!
Rating – 3.5/5
Directed by – David Yates
Official Website – http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthehalf-bloodprince/
Torch against Terrorism
The White Tiger
Aravind Adiga(3/5)
