Rock On! and Jaane Tu...

I know when I write about Rock On!, I would not be the first one (or the last) to write about it. At this coming at the time when I should be writing about the Bomb blasts in Delhi and Pakistan or the Bajranj dal hud-dang in the name of protecting Hinduism. May be, I am writing this because a friend's wife told me that she thought of me when she saw Farhan Akthar (I wonder why no unmarried women is telling me this!!!). Or maybe because of the wide eyed, sugary sweet Prachi Desai.

But really, I just had to write about it. So obviously, it seems that I liked the movie.

I think people have written peans about the movie. How they liked the characterization and the plot and the script. Some people felt that the movie was long.

I am writing this because this movie brought back the memories of all those live performances that I have been to. Rock and non-rock. I think there is something about being in presence of music that you can connect to. The sound track of the movie is great. Farhan is no great singer but Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy do a great job of making him pass off as a rocker! And the soundtrack, it just keeps coming back to you. Also, because I believe that there is a huge market for Hindi Rock. I am secretly hoping that some good Hindi rock bands will take the cue and dish out some nice music. And someday, the Hindi rock scene would rival the Japanese rock scene as well (Am telling you some of the Jap songs are just awesome!!)

I also saw Jaane Tu... [I am running a huge backlog on Movies, so please bear!] Again, since this movie has been written about to death, I won't even try to write anything about the movie. I just wanted to mention that this movie has a great music as well. The classics from this album for me are Tu Bole, Main Boloon and Kahin to Hogi woh. I especially love the Rahman's rendition of Tu Bole. I think the last two songs that he has sung were just about ok (Khwaja mere -Jodhaa Akbar and Tere Bina - Guru) - as far as his singing is concerned. But with Tu bole, its pure Magik!

Recommending

Would really like to recommend the Faking News blog. Really loved its coverage of the contemporary news items.

Actually wished that I were writing all that. But guess, I have been taking myself too seriously for sometime now.

Reading Two Books in Seven Days

I have started reading again. I mean I am always reading something or the other but lately I have felt have my attention span has been waning. Over the years my concentration has deteriorated and my interest levels have dwindled. At times, I have blamed it on my context and at times on the lack of familiarity with the context of the book and its characters. At times, I think, it might have been sheer fatigue with the written word.

May be I read too much of the dark/sad stuff and the poison slowly seeped into me from the pages. At times, I fear that I am becoming (have become?) one of those lamenting, numb characters from one of those books that I just love. I think therein lies the appeal of those profoundly sad books. They touch something somewhere inside you. And you are startled by it - and if you are lucky, you discover something about yourself. Anyway, as I said, I might have been reading too much of this stuff. So on purpose, I have been laying off such books.

I have changed the kind of books I read. And I think I like this change.

I read the Maltese Falcon and then the City of Djinns. Nice books both of them. I think the vagabond in me liked the city of Djinns. And the Falcon was ok. Then, I started the Moviegoer. It is a book that I have wanted to read for a long time. But as I started it, I realized that it is another of those self-discovery books. Nothing wrong with it. As a matter of fact, it is one of the Time's top 100 books from the last century. But just that these days, I am not in the frame of mind where I can ingest, digest and love such books. So I gave it up mid-way. Maybe, i will pick it up again. Someday!

Then, I started 'The Day of The Jackal'. I told you that I am loving the inane these days. But Forsyth tires me easily. Not with this book but he has done that with aplomb in the past. So for no reason, I gave up reading this book midway. Certainly, no reflection of how interesting the book is. Am clarifying here as I do not want any hate mails from the ardent lovers of this book. Like the one who loaned me this book. May be, I will also turn into those who swear by the Jackal sometime down the line!

But last week has been phenomenal. I read two books. And to the readers of this page, I would like to recommend them. Its Not About The Bike by Lance Armstrong and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Murakami.

The former has a significant amount of American showmanship. But even if you normalize it for that, it is a wonderfully inspiring story. And what delights you is the fact that most of what is being said in that book happened. I never knew that Lance came back from death (His Doctors had pegged his chances of survival at lower than 3%!!). You feel the climb up the col du la madone and the chaos from The Tour de France lands right into your room. It sure did fire my imagination in a way that no book has done in a long time.


Then there is the Murakami book. This is a usual Murakami book if you have been reading him for some time. But as a runner ( :-) I think I have earned it!), this book is just delicious. There are things in that book that only runners will understand. And like me, he is also a re-creational runner (Though it seems that he trains harder). So at times, it seems like an intimate conversation. How often do you get that in a sheaf of papers bunched between two hard boards?