Main Aur Mrs Khanna

From the three Diwali releases saw neither in the theatre this year. Tatasky was playing Main Aur Mrs Khanna this week in their Showcase section so immediately subscribed for it.

Was prepared for what was to come since the critics had done a good job of it. Any and every paper you picked up this past week had given a negative review. So when I actually saw this two hour movie it was bearable on the TV monitor. Have to add though it was easy for me to get up and about every time a song started. The songs are a huge disappointment, not a single one was watchable. The performances were lack luster and not a single scene stood out.

One could have worked on the basic plot but there is no hard work at the script level itself so naturally from there itself every department after that will fall flat. Why do we not take scripts more seriously? Why does the director have to be a writer? Writing is a specialized craft and when will some or rather most of our film makers realize this.

Such movies however can make money in the Pay per view and it will not be a losing proposition. More so since as a viewer I had the opportunity to see the movie in the first week of release without going to the theatre. Though one thing I would like to add I believe Pirates have managed to crack the code here and have copied videos from the Tatasky Showcase and are selling as well as renting out the same.

There are total seven actors in the entire movie. This could easily have been a stage play. The movie is a definite miss in the big screen and the movie deserves if we stretch it, half a star.

Socha Na Tha

Saw Love Aaj Kal recently I liked it. Socha Na Tha was coming on one of the channels and I just had to see more of this directors work.

Imtiaz Ali is coming out with his own pattern and style. He works on his love stories like it is happening next door. First Socha Na Tha, then Jab We Met and now Love Aaj Kal. Having viewed all three movies one can see his progression with each film.

Socha Na Tha has Abhay Deol and Ayesha Takia. Abhay Deol plays his part of the “Now what exactly do I want???” well. He is flamboyant and fun loving. Ayesha is lively and yet restrained. Together they are meant to be. Other actors playing the lead pairs respective families give able support. The director works on each relationship, the father son, the dewar bhabhi, the two brothers, the boy and his fiance, the boy and his fiance’s father, the girl and her benefactors, the girl and her cousins.

When he wants to run away, she does not want to, when she wants to run away, he has doubts. That bit is handled very well in the climax. And the entire scene makes you want to smile and believe in the madness of love.

Catch this film when you can.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Saw this on Sony this week. A delightful movie. Shahrukh Khan has done a fabulous job in essaying both Suri and Raj. What is refreshing is that when he changes from Suri to Raj he does not transform completely but only changes the look, his persona is the same from within. The audience can sense that. It is not a complete change like Hrithik’s character in Koi Mil Gaya.

Debutant Anushka Sharma does well. She fits the role of Taani. Her climax scene when she tells Raj that she sees Rab in Suri is very good. That one scene shows the potential this young actress has.

Writer director Aditya Chopra comes with a very simple heartwarming script. He brings his characters to life in a very identifiable manner. He should direct more often. His edit pattern in the climax dance is noteworthy.

The only thing Adi needs to work on are his sets and locales. Sets look like sets and the locales are the same, the very Yash Chopra look of, ‘Sarson ke khet’.

A must see film. Gets a 3 and half out of 5.

What’s your Rashee

Caught this on Tata Sky this week. It was quite like Mr. Yogi a television series that I had viewed years back. The television version was better.

The good thing about the movie is actor Priyanka Chopra she does her part with sincerity and you recognize her different characters even when one of them re enters while Harman Baweja ‘the hero’ is with another of the Rashee’s. This is definitely her year, first Kaminey and now Rashee. Irrespective of the fate of her films I expect her to walk away with yet another Best Actress Award this year.

For certain Rashee’s some characterizations are too far fetched and the viewer ends up with a ” What was that?”.

Another downer are the unnecessary songs. I was watching this in the comfort of my home and would keep getting up when a song started to catch up with odds and ends around the house. But someone who had to view this in the big screen would be forced to sit in one place and watch the same.

The end does not have any twist or drama. You expect him to marry the one who he ends up with. As she is the only one who is shown to be like one of us. Normal.

Rashee deserves a 2 and half out of five and viewable only at home.

Time with our baby

Risha is almost 11 months. She is crawling and is having crawling matches with her father. She is walking holding furniture, getting out of bed gently one leg at a time without diving like super girl. She is also trying to stand holding herself for a moment before she takes help again.

We are enjoying our mother toddler class at Windchimes where we play with blocks, dance on music, go under the tunnel, take on the slide, sing our rolly polly song. Another thing is what we are doing is babbling it is ko ko, pa pa, ma ma, ta ta , ba ba whole day long.

Rahul my otherwise workaholic husband is totally hands on with Risha. The mornings while I make our first cup of tea and heat her milk and doing all the odd things around the house her father gets her complete attention. It actually bonds us so much more. Complete family time with no third person in the house. Soon the rest of the world will have each one of our attention and so will we be distracted. But this time is just for us. I completely recommend it for all new parents. Have your help enter your homes an hour or two after you get up.

It is heart warming to see father and daughter play. They play ball, attempt to read to her, play hide and seek, look for crows outside our balcony. And we do another precious thing that we hadn’t like this for years and that is laugh just for the joy of it. Just because she does. And you feel that if is there is heaven on earth then it is this moment when your child is laughing and that is just it.

What a wonder it is to re discover a simple life through your children.

On Television this month

Watching Promos of this film Kissan. Those people should be giving a public apology to Manoj Kumar for using his song from his classic Purab Paschim so badly.

Another channel and a very agitated person was Ram Dev baba who was appalled by a Sach ka Samna and then at Sambhavana Seth’s cheeky comments when they both appeared on a show together. Not sure though that the outburst about the Sach ka Samna was an after effect about the Seth episode instead.

‘Iss Jungle se mujhe bachchao’ is just that even for me. I saw an episode where these contestants have to have all sort of creatures released into them while they are in a glass case. I mean what is the ‘thrill’ there? Couldn’t bear to go back to seeing more of that.

Eventually after these reality shows nothing like being curled up with a good movie. The other day saw a French film, ‘The Visitors’ in world movies about time travel and a French noble man who is transported to today’s world by a wizard. He discovers to his dismay that his property is being owned by ‘peasants’ in this century and descendants of the family that actually served him. Isn’t that what life is, time can change anytime. Enjoyed that one.

In the soap operas Balika Vadhu with all its controversies yet holds for me. My mom in law is hooked to Hamari Antara and though I am not a regular am impressed by the content whenever I do catch it with her.

Rakhi ka Swayamwar I would see it on and off. That drama queen is unbeatable. She can single handedly hold her own in Prime time.

At Nine and a half months

My daughter Risha is nine months now. She has started standing, walking while holding furniture and crawling. We are all amazed at all the new things and discoveries that she makes. Suddenly her world is also being discovered by us. She has three new teeth coming up on her upper gums. She already has two down. She is biting into anything she can get her teeth into which is keys, plastic, cardboard, she even attacks shoes.

With all this there is also a flip side and that is while we just blink our eyes she will dive from her cot. She will lose her balance in a fraction of a second and fall off the bed. We are right there and I do not know what we adults keep doing. Moments after her fall we have taken turns in feeling those guilt pangs that we were not alert enough . This past week she has fallen on her head at least once while she has been in care with each member of the family. No we are not in competition here. God knows we do not want to be. It just happens. Immediately after a fall the adult who is with her invariably puts in a pray that may God protect her.

We had a new cycle today where she just sits and you have to push it from the back. The entire day I have only pushed her at home and down in our building. She knows which room it is in and she is all the time going to that room so that we get the hint that she wants a ride again. Till 10 minutes before she finally slept tonight she wanted that one last ride on this new toy. She loves it that she can sit on this thing on her own and not on anyones lap. It gives her that sense of control.

Besides her cousins she also bonds with the crows, dog and the kitten of the building. My husbands brother keeps a bowl of milk for the crows everyday. She loves to stand by the balcony and has her own conversation with them. Sometimes she screams so loudly in her excitement that the crows get scared and they fly away. She of course cannot fathom that they are scared of her as she is only trying to bond with them.

Everyday when her father goes to work she comes down in the building to say her bye to him. The kitten would initially ignore her. When we go down Papa, Mama, and Risha go up to the kitten who just Meows and she just smiles and laughs at that. Just seeing that animal gives her such pleasure.

Animals, we just tend to not notice them and now because of her I look for them to show her. Risha your meow or your Kaw kaw ( for crow ).

Incidently Kaw Kaw is the first word she said. She understood when we would keep pointing out to the crow and say Kaw Kaw and Crow. She just latched on to Kaw Kaw and now she calls them and speaks to them in that language. There is so much glee when she bonds with them. The other word she says is papa but I do not think she relates the two yet. She is just saying that as a sound as we keep telling her papa and mama. But she understands us by names if someone says call Rakita she knows they are calling her mother.

From the beginning she has a different cry for each of her requirements. If she is hungry, thirsty, needs to be changed or she has got hurt the cries are all different and that is how she communicates and I understand. The other day someone said she is such a peaceful child. I said that it is because the mothers today are more aware and understand a child cries only for a reason and they communicate the only way they can and not just for the sake of it. If you can understand what they want they will be peaceful. And if they cry or get agitated it is because you cannot understand what they are trying to communicate.

A child brings in so many emotions in you that you never thought possible. Just this morning my husband said to me, ” She is worth more that anything else in the world.”

May God be with her always.

Kate and Leopold : Time, Space and Yogis

The other day I viewed Kate and Leopold. This movie is one where the characters transcend time.

The film is a date flick. Leopold (Hugh Jackman) accidentally leaps in time from 1876 to the 21st Century here he meets Kate ably played by Meg Ryan. Due to the time incident they meet in the present days and they fall in love. But he must go back and he does. Will Kate follow him ???

Like all love stories the predictable happens and love transcends time and triumphs in the end. A feel good film.

In the movie, Leopold makes a comment that you just have to find a portal to go to another time.

In India we have heard of yogi’s transcending space . Yogi’s are known to have been at two places at the same time. When a ‘genuine’ master looks at you , your entire life past and present not just of this lifetime but several lifetimes is revealed to him like a film reel. We have a karmic theory where what you give back to the universe will be paid back to you in kind. Hence to even be in the presence of a master has to be a ‘good’ karma.

In the movie, Kate says, “I don’t have time for pious speeches from two hundred year old men who have not worked a day in their life”. The line seems fiction. But this is what the Indian yogis are known for. Our own guru Ram Baba was 156 years old when the family met him. Mahavatar Baba is known to be several 100 years old. I met a guru who was in his 90’s and could give a 30 year old a complex. He spoke of ‘Kalp Kaya’ where he would go into his cave after he turned 100 and do a certain strict discipline in Yoga and he would be a young man again and have cells in his body that would easily lead him another 100 years. This practice he explained is done by the Sages in the Himalayas.

Another incident in the movie, Stuart, who is Kate’s ex boyfriend and who is responsible for Leopold to be here in the present escapes from the mental hospital, and while Kate is accepting her promotion at a company banquet, he and Charlie (Kate’s brother) are racing to meet her. Moments before she goes on stage, they arrive and produce pictures from Stuart’s camera that show her in 1876. Stuart says that he had thought he disrupted the spacetime continuum, but actually “the whole thing is a beautiful 4-D pretzel of kismetic inevitability”.

What is 4-D pretzel of kismetic inevitability ?
Kismet is Destiny, a predetermined course of events. This the Hindu’s believe is as per your past karma’s or actions.
4-D is an additional dimension. We are only used to a familiar 3-dimensional space that we live in, there are three pairs of cardinal directions: up/down (altitude), north/south (latitude), and east/west (longitude).

The idea of time being the fourth dimension of spacetime was the basis for Einstein’s theories of Special and General Relativity. This association of the fourth dimension with time rather than space has become the popular understanding of the term, even though it is applicable only to Einstein’s theories of relativity. Nevertheless, mathematicians today continue to study the rich geometry of four-dimensional space regarding the fourth dimension as a spatial, and not temporal, dimension. This dimension is spoken of at length in our scriptures. Our Yogis have followed it and stories of this are common in our country.

Movies like Mission Impossible 4 and Matrix have delved into the base of the Hindu philosophy and given it a scientific approach. Yogi’s in India since time immemorial have been the most scientific bent of mind possible.

My family had interacted with a Yogi who was the disciple of Sai Baba of Shirdi. He knew of every ailment and every conceivable medicine related to it. If he saw you he could diagnose what was the problem and would eventually prove doctors wrong in their analysis of treating a patient.

Alternate therapy is popular in India simply because of faith. I may not subscribe to a lot of these therapies but I cannot say much when it works for some people and the doctors themselves tell patients to continue what they are doing as their symptoms in Xray’s and Sonography’s have shown improved results.

When I see movies like Kate and Leopold it does not seem a fantasy subject to me as I have heard of them since I was little. One of the most celebrated books in this field is ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’. A must read book and filmmakers will get innumerable fantasy subjects from that one book to make fascinating movies on. After reading this book some have come to India to find a Master. One thing has to be remembered, ‘You cannot find a Master, the Master will find you.’ Only if you are worthy will they reveal themselves and take you under their fold. This does not have to be at an ashram level but in terms of you being a householder and they imparting knowledge. My family’s guru was their neighbor for a brief period and that is how they found him or rather he found them.

New York

New York is a film taking the repercussion of the 9/11 issue from the Muslim angle. I am proud of the fact that this has come from my country.

Not all Muslims are bad and not all Muslims are terrorists. What one can do by targeting them on the basis of their religion? This film is that. A simple, regular, non controversial person can be pushed into a corner and can become negative due to one defining experience.

After Kabul Express, Kabir Khan does a fine job of getting this film together. Amongst the actors, John Abraham lives the part. This is his best performance to date. Niel Nitin Mukesh is coming into his own as an actor. He does well. Katrina Kaif is as always pleasing to the eye and is much needed to balance a film of this genre. The theatre I saw the film in had a couple of young students in the age group of around 10-12 years and on enquiry they had unanimously come to see the film for Katrina’s sake. A film like this needs popular actors so that they get an audience and the message goes across.

Irrfan Khan’s character answers the questions that audiences across the world may have. The team has worked hard on the script. They have almost worked backwards in putting things in place. However the second half seems long as there is no relief in terms of comedy nor is there any endearing moment. But maybe this is how the makers intended it in the latter half.

Good show.

Risha’s first trip to London

If you think you are on holiday with an infant you can think again.

We finally took Risha for her first trip abroad. She is all of seven and half months. Bit easier on me as she had started a few top feeds. Yet a lot of work as I had to be more hands on. It helped that I was staying with family, someone to help with the food and just sterilizing her dishes goes a long way in giving that little respite.

What is different is that you are doing the same things you would in your home town but in a different environment . First two days she would get us up at 3 AM. She was yet in India time. By the time it was time for us to come back she had adapted to the London time.

I carried her in the baby kangaroo bag and she was quite happy to be in it. The stroller she absolutely hated. In India they are so used to being carried around. Yet the only time I used the stroller was when we were at the airport. We tried to get her adjusted to the stroller but taking the same in and out of shops and onto the trains and buses was an effort even for us. We were far more mobile and faster when I just carried her on the kangaroo bag. Of course you can carry this way only upto a certain weight.

She was quiet the first two days it was the exhaustion of the travel or the fact that she did not see more familiar faces and that made her very quiet. But children adapt soon enough and she was soon playing with her aunt and cousins.

She loved all the action especially since in our regular routine she only goes out to her park in the evening. But here we would be out and about by 11 am and be back by 7 pm. Something as simple as the escalators she was fascinated by. We have them in our malls but she never seemed to do it so much at one go.

Rahul and I found her a lot more alert by the end of the trip. Even at this age travel is a learning experience.