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!

Kal, Aaj aur Kal

We were at Sonakshi Sharma’s place. Her waiters conveniently ignoring us while we kept ourselves busy with some idle chatter. The conversation following the typical pattern: women, movies, sports and politics. As we chanced onto this animated discussion about agricultural expertise of Amitabh Bachan, the music system started playing ‘Main Jahan Rahoon’ from Namaste London. Just like that dog of Pavlov, we changed gears and started discussing Katrina. So who was the Katrinaisque leading lady of the 70s? Without doubt, Saira Bano! And B&W era? Sadhna? So it carried on. The discussion about finding the parallels across the years of bollywood history.

Am sure there would be many more. But no more time to kill – will stop here!

Happy New Year!

I know it is five days too late but what the heck! The gin-ke-do-char-log who read this blog know that I have a knack of defying all timelines. So I do it again! Have a wonderful 2007. Have fun and do not bother yourself with the vagaries of life. Hope you get to dance more often.

Someone somewhere sometime back told me that a blog is a responsibility. Did not realize that two months back but this sudden realization today (or was it yesterday - does not matter anyway) has left me with the guilt of a father who has not changed the diapers that were wet 5 hours back. So here's a senseless and totally inane post which is half done already.

Have watched nine movies over the last two weekends. Do watch Groundhog Day. Clean and an incredibly feel-good movie (even an incorrigible cynic like me could not avoid feeling good at the end of it, so I guess it is a heady concoction of uplifting emotions). Phil (Bill Murray) is a weatherman stuck in time. He lives the same day over and over again till he finds …. Strange parallels with the lives that we live. In one of the most ironical of conversations, Phil talks to a half-drunk guy at a pub:

Phil: Have you ever felt that you are living the same day over and over again?
Half Drunk Guy (HDG) (aghast like when you are when a complete stranger knows your secret): I feel like that all the time!

Alice McDowell adds the garnish that a mildly cute but not destructively attractive actress is supposed to add to a movie.

Two other movies that I would strongly recommend are Motorcycle Diaries and Syriana. Motorcycle Diaries is a movie on the bike ride that Ernesto Guevara de la Serna el Fuser (better known as Che Guevera) and Alberto Granados embarked on in the early 50s. In the words of Ernesto, “This isn't a tale of heroic feats. It's about two lives running parallel for a while, with common aspirations and similar dreams.” Nonetheless, what a fabulous tale!

Syriana is the movie that got George Clooney his Academy Award for his role as a supporting actor. I think most of you have already watched it but I will write about it regardless of that. I watched it without subtitles the first time. Something highly recommended for a few tamil movies but not for this one. A lot of dialogue is in Arabic/Persian and Hindi. Hindi I knew, Persian I do not. Hence, I had to watch it again. I would have watched it twice anyway. A powerful concept and a compelling execution would make you do that. A hard hitting movie on Oil imperialism.

Not that the diapers from the second paragraph have been changed. I think it would be safe to sign-off for today!