Cheeni Kum

Cheeni kum marks a non-conventional Bollywood cinema.

The element of comedy and the chemistry between a 64 year old ‘young’ chef, played by Amithabh Bachchan and a 34 year old Indian tourist, portrayed by Tabbu, bridge the age gap of 30 years between the two.

Amitabh Bachchan’s vigor style and overall appeal which makes him irresistibly sexy justifies his candidature for a lead role at the age of 64 while his contemporaries are battling it out in politics. His overcoat and muffler, glasses, ponytail, jeans and even the tracksuit add heat to his aura.

With London as backdrop, Tabbu’s criticism of the Zafarani Biryani marks the onset of the romance between her and Big B which gets intense by Tabbu’s regular visit to his restaurant, long walks and spending time together for London sightseeing.

Tabbu fits in the role of a matured and daring single woman who consciously falls in love with a guy six years elder to her father!

Under the direction of R Balakrishnan the title track of the movie, Zohra Sehgal as Big B’s amusing mother and Big B’s affection for the 7 year old girl, ‘Sexy’ who is suffering from blood cancer are the elements apart from the age-gap afflicted love story that keep the viewers in high sprits during the first half of the film.

Paresh Rawal, who plays a Gandhian father, fails to live up to the expiations set by the viewers.

In the second half Delhi is canvassed as the backdrop and viewers can afford to go out of the hall to grab cold drink and pop corn or even attend the not so important calls because the film goes off-track and becomes stretched at times.

The climax is chaotic as Paresh Rawal goes on fast to stop his daughter from marrying a man almost twice her age; this act amuses his neighbors but not the viewers.

The film also acts as an advertisement film since stuff like spices, artificial sugar, glasses and motorcycles are marketed effectively through surrogate advertising.

The editor of the film must have been on a holiday as the latter part of the movie goes offbeat. The first half is unquestionably entertaining and hilarious but after the second half you will feel “movie me Cheeni Kum hai.”

Die Hard 4

It’s Willis all the way!

Bruce Willis hits the silver screen in his most famous portrayal as Detective John McClane in Live Free Or Die Hard a.k.a. Die Hard 4.0, the third installment of the famous film Die Hard which grossed over $100million worldwide and made Bruce Willis a household name.

If vintage action is what you crave for in the contemporary films then Die Hard 4 is the right liquor for you. Well past his prime, buried in debts, divorced and facing aloofness from his children; Detective John McClane safeguards a local hacker Matt Farrell (Justin Long) who is threatened and fights cyber terrorists who plan to halt the cyber and electric operations in the entire country and toy with it. Pistols, automatic Guns, crashing cars, bomb blasts, helicopters, jets; John plays with all of them and still without a broken bone!

It hardly takes time for the electrifying action in the film to bedazzle the viewers; saving Matt from a terrorist attack gives the viewers an idea of what’s in store for the next couple of hours.

Under the direction of Len Wiseman, the film differs in direction from the first three films as there is rap music playing in the backdrop instead of the original “let it snow” used in the first three films. After some encounters with the bad guys and blowing up a couple of cars and a helicopter; which marks action and special effects at its thrilling best; the viewers get a chance to come back to their senses in intermission.

When the local police, the intelligence agency and the F.B.I. fail to teach a lesson to the notorious terrorists, John McClane takes the task himself and escapes some near-death encounters while fighting with his bare hands. Action continues in the second half of the film and the action lovers of the 80’s get old wine in a new bottle.

The morphed President(s) speech and the breakdown of The White House are the two things apart from Bruce Willis which are remarkable on screen.

When the terrorists abduct John’s grouchy daughter things get personal and can only become more Action packed. The encounter between John’s truck and a fighter jet in the climax is the crown jewel of the movie and when all the dust and smoke is cleared the bruised Bruce saves his daughter and saves America yet gain; but this time its not Christmas, its 4^th of July, the American Independence Day. In the end it may appear to be an Amitabh Bachchan Bollywood action film in which the police arrives once the hero has floored the villain.

Bruce’s patent white west is replaced by green body hugging shirt to cover his age but even at 52 Willis looks fit enough to give complex to a 20 year old in a gym and it goes without saying that he was born to do the role of Detective John McClane.

The overpowering action in the film veils your eye to find a technical flaw in the film (if there is any) but over all its well directed, edited and action is used in profusion at the right time

(You can say all the time).

If you haven’t seen the prequels to the film even then you can go for it as there is hardly any link established but once you see this, you will be raring to watch the first three action packed and equally exciting films, but be cautious to leave its after-effects in the multiplex rather than being John McClane yourself while you drive back and yell “Yippee-Ka-Yee!”

Demoncracy

I wonder at a wonderful word called DEMOCRACY. Assuming a total of 70 crore voters this election. It is an amusing calculation i was pondering upon. out of this 70 crore (all figures approx.) reduce atleast 15 crore haughty citizens who will not show up to vote, another 10 crore at least who belong to different political parties, have a relative/friend in a particular party/ whose grandparents have set out a family tradition to blindly vote for one political party because once upon a time.... or who just press the button on the party with the most fancy emblem; I will not be, by any means wrong to say that that a minimum of 25 crore votes will be influenced by the unholy trinity of liquor (the holy spirit), gun (the decisive son) and religion (the father of all man propelled catastrophe). Everything boils down to 50 crore biased votes out of 70 crores.

Its Good to Be a King... watch the Tudors on Fox History, every Friday 9 P.M.

ROULETTE

Prayers sound hollow

I seize poison but I am spineless to swallow

The noon of faith has climaxed into the twilight of agnosticism

Is the night of atheism true wisdom?

Annual cycles have completed a score

Consuming the zeal to live more

All the World’s a Stage

Through Death’s Trapdoor, We can flee from the torturous Cage

Darkness stimulates temporary redemption

An image of life reaching a rewarding junction

The thirst for Nirvana

Is quenched only by Marijuana

To Hell! I will rebel against my fate

Want to spin the helm of life like roulette.

The Krown of Thorns

The Question I ask is this… If one is diagnosed with brain cancer, should he/she get it cured or butcher the head of the body?
Under all circumstances, one must get it cured or give his/her best shot to cure it, this simple question related to the human body, in my opinion is the basis of the solution of an outsized brain cancer India is facing in the valley; If one will keep on moving with the swift breeze which is a hurricane under disguise, in the near future one will pay import duties on juicy apples and exotic saffron and require a visa to do an Amarnath pilgrimage. The valley is storming with anti India and Pro Pakistan rallies and this is fiercer than ever before its backbone is not gun power but a collective voice of the people who dwell there. I have strong reasons to refute with people who think that India must strip Kashmir from India’s geography and polity to have an ultimate solution to the problem, what can be done with this particular beautifully violent state? Should we just gift it to Pakistan and conclude the blunder called Simla Agreement? That will be hosting the flag our impotency and animalistic governance which was glorified in the Parliament by the humongous bundles of notes. Assuming that Kashmir becomes an official part of Pakistan, what comes as a guarantee that a Gujrat, Rajasthan or Punjab will not be flamed into another Kashmir?
When India was no longer under the British Crown, India’s crown was very much intact, when we look at the map of our nation we feel a sense of pride and glory to it with a crown like state honoring its head, so do we want our future generations to look at the map of our country and find it pointed at the top, a headless figure?
Going by the diplomatic humanitarian peace loving creatures, if Kashmir is granted the statues of a free state with its own self dependent governance and rights that any other nation has, will it not be forcefully captured by Pakistan? Or will not China make it a second Tibet? Under any of the two situations India will either have to got to War to save an ‘independent’ vulnerable Kashmir from the claws of Pakistan or provide refuge to the tens of thousands of people dislocated from their homeland due to Chinese invasion. One other thing we may suffer is worst than what India suffers now; terror camps mushroom and operate from POK, if India withdraws control from the valley, these undercover yet highly volatile terror camps will surface and start multiplying. In the long run, If Kashmir is butchered or surgically operated from India, it will inevitably result in a Khalistan, Naxal and Maoists control over the North East and LTT terror in Tamil Nadu, shrinking India's identity to mere Himachal, Delhi , Rajasthan and Gujrat, U.P, M.P, Maharashtra and Andhra. A nation which has a count over a billion and every sixth human on the planet is its representative cannot afford to be submissive. So what can be the solution to the problem?
What is the need to tamper with something which is going on peacefully for so many years? Let the Amarnath pilgrimage be carried out as it was in the past, the disputed 300 acres of the land shall be temporarily, for 3 months be used as a place for Shrine board Pilgrims and let it be uncontroversial for the rest of the year and as per the wider problem, hereon I may be thrashed by the majority for my Barberic views in this democratic ‘better’ world but a few centuries ago, I would have fetched myself Blue Knighthood for the same views. The fiercest of Wars are the strongest foundations of the longest lasting peace; Violence/War and religion have existed since infinity and will continue till infinity. India must have one border which serves as the international border for governance as well as the line of control, and it won’t come by bribes, neither by round table conferences… Haven’t we had enough of the patriarchal Sharafat and the hurricanes of Hurriyat, We need a dictator, a bold and courageous leader to implement at least 5 Blue Stars in the valley and either capture or lose what belongs to you by using your strategically planned physical force, A bold leader is vulnerable for criticism and downfall but his/her actions are never suppressed by force and words do no harm to him/her, World may criticize a powerful leader for waging a war on baseless grounds against a dictator but the end result led to the downfall of the dictator. When a big tree falls, the adjoining grass and small plants are uprooted, it’s the rule of nature, peace is delaying and maturing of a violence which comes with its interest, the more it’s delayed. Do or die is the need of the hour, We may claim to color the world with our progress and bright future ahead but one must be cautioned that is this brightness or a burning face? It is more plain to have a showdown once in for all and dictate by authority rather than suffer this stomach upset which constantly results in farts (bombasts), stinking the nation.
Is it not a more agreeable option to be at war and know that you go out to kill and get killed rather than being blasted at a marketplace?

No Reservations

The Almighty Constitution of our country grants caste based reservations for the so called underprivileged sections of the society, with a motive to bring them at par; if at all an inequality still exists. We are very much under the aftermath of our British Colonization, even after sixty years of semi-progressive independence. This particular debated right granted by our constitution was made when our country was a mushrooming democracy and the foundations of a secular state were obligatory. Sixty years down the line one must ask this question that is there a prolonged need to alter this so called right to curb 'inferiority' which has evolved into an advantage? Don’t you find it simply ridiculous that a particular section of the society has gone on roads and highways blocking transportation and creating violence to incorporate themselves in that sixty year old list of deprived communities? I am amused at this paradoxical situation where a self professed ‘backward’ section of the society is powerful enough to put a halt to the mobility between three major states of the country and yet they feel powerless enough to be granted a reservation?

How can the government help a financially challenged Brahmin student who wishes to pursue a course of his choice but is prevented to do so because apparently his caste keeps him at the topmost strata of the society and hence he deserves no financial rebate or merit based relaxation?
Does one get any academic relaxation or special favors in the pioneer institutes and universities for being a Brahmin or Kshatriya that it’s contrary is debated over time and again to provide reservation for the so called ‘backward’ sections of the society?
I might sound offensive and feudalist now but isn’t it a shamelessly foolish act to provide reserved seats in medical institutes to people because they belong to a particular caste acknowledged as ‘backward’? They get an admission on reservation and even pass the examinations on this birth right merit granted by the Constitution but what follows is beyond these prescribed acts providing reservation.
Can one keep the same confidence in a doctor if a person becomes a doctor on a caste based reservation ‘merit’? Can a patient be safe in a person’s hand who in all probability would have failed to make it to the cut-off for medical institutes, had his or her caste not come to his or her rescue?
The law forbids caste based discrimination as a punishable offence but what about this discrimination carried out by the state itself?
You say “they should not be treated as ‘backward’” but you yourself profess reservations for them advocating that they are backward?
Civil Services is no more the prized career as it used to be only because these reservations have untimely placed the caste beneficiaries on the positions to govern the policing and administrative system of the state which has evidently brought increased corruption and scams as an undeserving, unqualified person is bound to misuse the power given to him where he thinks that he gets relaxation from the responsibilities since he got a bundle of relaxations to clear the C.S. examination.
Abraham Lincoln needed no such reservations to become the President of the country where two hundred years after his birth, the Presidential elections are carried out not with a view of electing the superior between two deserving candidates, but between a ‘woman’ and a ‘black’, the so called powerless sections of their society.
I conclude by saying that I am a true believer in reservations, as long as they are done in hotels and restaurants, not in academic institutions!



DISCLAIMER: This post does not intend to harm the feelings of any particular caste, neither is it directed against a particular section of the society or the Constitution of any country. The above mentioned article is an expression of a personal viewpoint.