Random Walk of Life

Opening Mood: Good Morning Bangalore!
Opening Song: Lakshya - Title track

Saw Subhash Ghai’s movie Black and White yesterday. If not anything, I must say it is a th0ught provoking and a brave attempt by the man who has been known to make only potboiler commercial cinema.

WARNING!: Possible spoiler ahead!

The movie is about a young Fidayeen who comes to Delhi with a mission to blow up the Red fort on the occasion of Independence day. And how is plans his attack, the people he encounters, the clash of ideologies and finally the decision that he makes. Anil Kapoor portrays Rajan Mathur, a resident of Chandni Chowk, and a professor of Urdu at Zakir Hussain college. New comer Anurag Sinha portrays Numair Qazi, the Fidayeen.

The movie begins with a slow pace, introducing the characters, and setting up the premise. It is in the second half that we see the real characteristics coming out. The ruthlessness with which Numair is ready to execute people whom he believes do not follow Islam is really shocking. One wonders what could have made a young man like that to become a fanatic, who knows nothing in life but upholding his interpretation of Quran.

There were a couple of really hard hitting sequences in the movie. The scene where Numair goes to an MLA to ask for a Independence day Pass and finds that Hindu and Muslim youth leaders offering bribe to the MLA to get some private favors and making it clear that the rivalry is purely political. This was followed by a scene where Numair’s cousin, who owns a travel agency, trying to sell a Hindu Pilgrimage package to a customer with pthe passion that Numair simply couldn’t identify with. He concludes that the Muslims in this country have sold out. When his cousin tries to explain him the concept of “customer is the king”, he tries to attack the cousin, asking him “What right do you have to call yourself a mussalman? And if you cannot be a mussalman, what right do you have to live?” This sequence where he openly displayed his fundamental nature, did shock me for a second.

It takes the murder of Rajan Mathur’s wife, Roma Mathur played by Shefali Shah, by Numair’s accomplices, and Rajan’s mature reaction to it, that forces Numair to rethink his ideologies. Inside the Red Fort, just before he plans to execute the attack, he senses the first speck of doubt about his actions and decides to abort the mission. And subsequently asks the question, “What is the right way of Jehaad? What’s greater in Jihaad? Killing and Dying? Destroying or Saving? If it is saving, what is it that we are saving ?”

Throughout the movie, Numair’s ideology was that of a single minded Fidayeen, who would not deviate from his mission, and never question his ideologies. He was a man, for whom following the Quran was the only way of life. So the abrupt change of heart inside the Red Fort does come as a bit of surprise. That in my opinion is the only problem with the movie. However, one could argue, that these thoughts were taking birth in his mind right from the moment he encountered the different types of Muslims than the ones he was used to in his native country, and Rajan’s reaction and comments inside the Red Fort only triggered the freeing of these thoughts. If this was the case, I feel it could have been portrayed a bit better.

Nevertheless, it is an honest attempt. I would suggest you go watch it

Closing Song: Main Jahaan Rahoon - Namaste London.
Closing Mood: Hungry for breakfast!

Opening Mood: I’m full after the dinner.
Opening Song: Saawariya (Reprise) Saawariya.

I watched two bollywood movies today afternoon. Dus Kahaniyan and Om Shanti Om. And I liked them both.

While Dus Kahaniyan reminded me of Jeffery Archer’s short stories: Short, crisp and a nice li’l twist in the end. OTOH, Om Shanti Om was a real tribute to the 70’s Bollywood and it did so by being deliberately pretentious!

Okay, the details - In Dus Kahaniyan I liked all the stories except the first two. Matrimony and High on Highway had nothing new to offer. Both were based on the concepts I have grown up seeing in regional movies. But the other stories were very well written. Be it the dilemma that the mother faces in Pooranmasi, the dilemma of hunger over religion that the “shudh brahmin” lady faces in Rice Plate, the sweet story about destiny over decisiveness ,i.e Lovedale, the importance of living every moment in Gubbare, or the cool editing to make up for the lack of a story in Rise and Fall. Zahir was okay okay and Sex on the beach was definitely scary in parts! But I like the concept very much. It’s like buying a full day’s ticket to watch a bunch of twenty20 cricket matches. It’s highly unlikely that you will be disappointed in all parts

And coming to Om Shanti Om, I had heard enough about the movie, and had even been narrated the whole story. So the first half was not very funny or exciting. That’s one bad thing about reading reviews (If you’ve not read the movie, don’t read further! you might get biased). However, as they say “imitation is the best form of flattery”, this movie truly imitated the various different mannerisms of the people in the film industry. If there was one single sequence I would want to single out as the funniest, it would have to be the Filmfare awards where Abhishek Bacchan is one of the nominees for the best actor award! And of course, Shah Rukh Khan ensured that his money doesn’t go waste, by adding an Item number (with himself!! Yuck!!) and the other song with half of the Bollywood in it. The ending I thought was brilliant! I mean it was like saying, “Impossible is nothing! We can better it!!” It’s a fun film. Watch it, but please don’t THINK

To a fun filled weekend!

Closing Song: Tum se Hi - Jab We Met
Closing Mood: In mood for another movie or a good book!

Opening Mood: Refreshingly Satisfied.
Opening Song: None.
Time : 2:30 A.M, 21st Jan 2007.

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies”

These immortal words of Andy Dufresne that are ringing in my ears right now after watching “Shawshank Redemption” for the umpteenth time.

I don’t think I am qualified to review this masterpiece. No, I don’t even wanna
think of the dissection knife . This movie is best left untouched in one piece.
Instead I would wanna talk about the reason why every time I watch this movie, love it more than ever before.

I have vivid memories of the January afternoon of my 6th Semester when I sat in Thamie’s room trying to choose between “Shawshank Redemption” and “Requeim for a dream” to kill the afternoon. Yes, kill is the word because, I was a day-scholar that year, and every lab cancelled was equivalent to a matinee show, courtesy the hostel LAN. I decided on “Shawshank Redemption” because it was locally available on Tuka’s comp.

To tell you frankly, I didn’t think much of Andy’s character from the way he behaved in the court. Silent, icy, slightly apathetic, despite the fact that he had not committed the crime. I felt he had no chance; Till the roof top encounter with Hadley, where he advises Hadley to gift the inherited money to his wife to escape taxation. The simple manner in which he went about the whole thing made me stand up and bow. He struck the deal like a man.

The other incident is when Andy play’s Mozart’s “Le Nozze de Figaro” to the whole prison. In Red’s words -

“I have no idea to this day what them two Italian ladies were singin’ about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I like to think they were singin’ about something so beautiful it can’t be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared. Higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away…and for the briefest of moments — every last man at Shawshank felt free.”

I guess, the same can be said about the movie too.
And boy, the relaxed and satisfied look on Andy’s face when he sits on that
warden’s chair with his legs propped on the table, cooly ignoring the warden’s
warnings can bring a smile on anybody’s face.

The movie always gives you the unexpected. I expected the Warden to change
after all the dirty work Andy does for him, but he remains stiff as ever. Well, he gets a fitting reply. When it all ends Red aptly voices over,

“…I like to think the last thing that went through his (Warden’s) head…other than that bullet…was to wonder how the hell Andy Dufresne ever got the best of him.”

No second thoughts there!

However, the part which I love the most is the part where Andy describes his
after-prison life plans to Red.

“Tell you where I’d go. Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Little place right on the Pacific. You know what the Mexicans say about the Pacific? They say it has no memory. That’s where I’d like to finish out my life, Red. A warm place with no memory. Open a little hotel right on the beach. Buy some worthless old boat and fix it up like new. Take my guests out charter fishing.”

Can you too see that ? The never dying flicker of hope. Two months in the hole would have killed the man in anybody. But Andy kept dreaming, kept hoping. While hope can be such a torture to those who have been betrayed by the very folks they loved, Andy never lost hope on hope. They may have broken every bone in his body, but they couldn’t touch his ability to hope.

We’ve all encountered people, both in fiction and in real life, who have charmed us with their thunderous speeches, aggressive actions, or their larger than life mannerisms. These men have come, shone in the limelight and gone. They all were great men. Men whom we admire and probably worship.

However Andy was different. He showed that silence ain’t cowardice, that
patience ain’t a waste of time and that revolting against the situation ain’t
gonna take you anywhere till the right time comes, and when that time comes, you don’t wait to do the right thing.

Andy Dufresne may not have been a great man in usual sense of the word.
Yet, I can’t help admiring this character, because he was something much more than a great man - Andy, was a good man.

Closing Song: None.
Closing Mood: It’s quite late in the night. Should sleep now.