Candid, not Candied

Saturday 31 January 2009

Who wants to see SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE?

I do, I did and other's will too. With the media wearing out their pens till the last drop of the ink to highlight every aspect of SM, it came as no surprise that the theatres ran full house in the week that it released. Big B's unfavorable comments for the movie (or so it is said) just won SM some brownie points and the indecisive lot will go for it. :D The cast being very much indian, the location 'amchi mumbai', the Golden Globe Award, the 10 Oscars and many other nominations just sent the whole nation into an orgasmic pleasure. But the reins of SM lies in the hands of Danny Boyle, not so much of an Indian, eh?

Well the movie wasn't bad... rather I would say that SM has every right to be a blockbuster. Technically speaking, movie rendered me speechless, be it the background score, the child actors, and the way the story is weaved without tangles. What fails to sink in me is "Is Mumbai the only city in this whole world where there's filth, beggars, slums, mafia, human/ drug trafficking, bomb blasts and communal riots?" Here, I am NOT disagreeing to the ugly side of Mumbai, but is this the only way can films be made? As it is other countries still have misconceptions about India and don't think twice before asking if we've heard of Mc Donalds!! One shouldn't forget that Slumdog has a world appeal... and Mumbai for them is Mumbai shown in movies made therein. I think this is the movie made by firang for the firangs.

Having said that, let me move on to what I saw and appreciated. Dev Patel, with his unconventional looks and off beat demeanour puts up a performance thats commendable. Freida Pinto hasn't got much of a screen space, but whatever she did, she did right. If the movie gets an Oscar, the major reason for it will be the child artistes, who have done excrutiatingly well. The raw truths of Mumbai have been laid bare by these spec of actors, which is unbearable to accept.

Character-wise, it is Jamal's (the protagonist) elder brother Salim who is a mixed bag of being fiercely protective, selfish, street-smart. What one would call a true grey character. Next comes Anil Kapoor, the quizmaster, who during the course of the movie will confuse you whether he's good or a baddie. Nonetheless, Anil Kapoor will keep you entertained even during the shockiest part of the movie. Finally there's Irrfan Khan and Saurabh Shukla, as policemen. They are as much of an extras as much are they a part of the movie. All in all, there wasn't a loose thread, no place where you can say this isn't explained or wonder what this character is doing.

Movie-wise, I recommend it as one time watch.

Wednesday 28 January 2009

Ooops, I did it again!

Yeesh, my blog's got a makeover yet again. And be assured that this isn't the last one either. Check Rayshma's, Jinu's and Rachana's blogs. Mine had to follow. :) Do let me know how you find it.

Thursday 22 January 2009

Ek daav... Dhobhi Pacchad!

Now that's what I call a movie, "Ek daav... dhobhi pacchad"!! And marathi movie at that! Beats many Bollywood movies that claim to be humorous. Confusing and hilarious seems to be the right masala to make a good paisa-vasool movie. And this was it! Boasting of a cast that underlines comedy, this was one film that concentrated on making the audience laugh and how!

With a rare mix of humour, a not-so-believable-yet-so-nice plot and some ingenious thinking on the part of the producer, this movie is a nice experience that sets all other intricacies that I always look for, into oblivion. The language, the comic timing and a blast of real good actors who know their acting, gripped me so hard that I didn't want to find faults with this movie. (not that it lacked any)

I very much recommend this movie to those who 1. enjoy good, decent humour, 2. love Ashok Saraf and 3. understand marathi, like properly, to get the undertones of many dialogues. That's about the movie, I give all thumbs-up!

Though I wasn't happy with three things at E2. The caramel popcorn regular costs Rs. 40(!!!!) with the box getting smaller and smaller and the caramel evaporating at the rate of petrol! And parking rates have gone up by Rs. 10. So now car parking will cost you 40 instead of 30 with no account for the increase of 10! And finally, they have become so chikkat that they have stopped showing trailers before the movie. Therefore, you have some stupid song playing and no ads! I sulk, positively!

Things I was happy at E2. They play our National Anthem before every movie. :D The periodic air freshner smells deeeeevine, as always! And it is still the closest multiplex to my house. heee!

Killer Silver

Our maid asked us yesterday; what I felt was out of sheer ignorance and full of superstition; "Abhi chaandi pehna toh marte hai kya? humare gaon main ye sab (pointing to the ringlet on her feet) nikal dete hai. Bolte hain chaandi jaan mangta hai." This was something new to us; and me, the educated, washed off all her doubts in no time by saying (and shaking my little finger in front of her) "Uma, main ab tak zinda hoon, mari nahi." and we all laughed. My right hand little finger adorns a cute little pearl embedded in silver. And yes, it indeed was true, I was alive despite the silver. :P

Come evening, 4 pm, I realise my ring has disappeared. Gone, poofed, gayabed!! And I definitely do not fall into the "careless" category. I never lose anything valuable. So here I was looking frantically for my ring, under the bed, in my purse and every place where I could have "lost" it. No luck for me. We figured out that since it was a bit loose, it must have slipped out of my finger while handling those plastic bags when we'd gone out. *I still do not buy this reasoning.*

Other than feeling miserable for losing my ring to which I was sentimentally attached, I was also wondering if there was any truth in what our maid said in the morning! I do realise (and I still do not see any reason) that a small piece of silver isn't capable of murder. It was a co-incidence yet, I cannot cease to think if in anyway it was "planned"? Of course, I'm not asking people to shed every bit of silver jewellery that they are wearing, but since yesterday, my mind is debating over whether it was just a co-incidence or something more uncanny?

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Happy Makar Sankranth to all!

Wishing all my readers and everyone beyond them A Very Happy Makar Sankranth!!

And not just wishes, here's something for you:
Til Gul Ghya, Goad Goad Bola.
Home made til guls, by my mum with my only contribution of popping one til gul after another to confirm the taste. There's ample of them for each one of you, so please no fighting. :D
Vinanna, pick a handful of them for you, Whani and Baby J.
The breeze has already turned into a noisy wind which brings in with itself the smell of dried yellow leaves, dust and the sun which in turn paints a vivid picture of my school days, unit tests, fights with anna, playtime with friends and the countdown to Dhulivandan. AAh! The New Year, for me, has just begun!

Thursday 8 January 2009

Never Meant to be Practical!

Mithun's latest post gave my memory a kick and Voila! I have a post ready.

When I say "practical", I mean my school and college practicals, that I have consistently screwed up, mostly to my benefit.

Archimedes Principal : Class V, Practical exam (finals). *Please go to the site, not to read but to see Archimedes where he'd had this lightbulb-in-the-brain moment. He gives complex to SRK.*

I measured the volume of the cube and then suspended it into the water. Naturally, the water was displaced and I collected it into the beaker. Since "the volume of the immersed object will be exactly equal to the volume of the displaced fluid", it should have been equal. But this was MY experiment and the water displaced was more than the cube's volume. APPLAUSE!

For the fear of flunking my practs, I was pouring the water back into the vessel when the teacher came and stood near me to test my exp. To cut the long story short, she measured the cube *my calculations were correct* and she measured the water in the beaker *after I had managed to pour back a little bit of it in order to redo*, that surprisingly, equalled the volume as the cube. She said "good, very good" and till date I'm speechless.

Reflection of light experiment : Class VII

It was definitely a task to look into the mirror to and place pins in such a way that when you look at it from an angle, it looks like one single straight line.

I was *and am continually so* terribly lazy that I marked both the sides by taking proper angles on the protractor and drew a faint line. Later pinned the pins onto the line, not without forgetting to rub my drawn line and not without making stray pin marks here and there to make believe the teacher my efforts. *Mukta, go do chugli =))*

I thought 10th class was the end of all practicals. I thought wrong. They followed me till the end of my college.

Business Communication Viva : S.Y.B.com, Finals

My dad had gifted me my first ever cell in S.Y B.Com and I was proud to show it off. Mine was the only colour phone among friends. My pride didn't stop me from taking cell with me during the viva.

It was finally my turn for the oral and my cell sang just when I was about to sit! And I faced the music from the prof. "Don't you know you are not allowed to take cell phones with you during practical exams??" That shook my every bit of confidence that I'd had in me for the orals. Though it was soon restored. Prof asked me " what are the modern forms of communications? Give me examples"

Costing, Taxation & Law Practice : S.Y.B.Com, Finals

Bhonde Sir, the one who was considered the terror of B.M.C.C. and whose name alone made one tour the universe in 5 seconds flat, was my professor and also my viva internal prof. The first question he asked me was "Why did you take CTLP for specialization? Why not Busi. Admin.?
Me : *already so nervous that my body was even scared to tremble* Huh??!
Sir : What huh? Why did you take CTLP?
Me : uhhh... *not sure if he wanted an honest one, or the one that would please him* Sir, frankly because I did not want to do an entire theory subject...
(I blurted my honesty out and was quick to pray that I would not have offended him by not buttering him like others did)
Bhonde sir : *smiled and turned towards external prof* She's one of my regular students and very sincere.
.... and he let me off, not a single question about CTLP and I got 19/20 for that viva.

and there are 2-3 more where I misunderstood the profs' questions and provided goofy answers much to the examiners' surprise and amusement. But I stop here, fingers aching.

Thursday 1 January 2009

My Celebrations

Happy 2009, peeps!!!! Hope you have a great one with lotsa love, peace and may all your wishes come true!!!

Exactly 366 days ago, 3 mad girls decided to make the first day of each year special. (till atleast 2 out of 3 get married and move to inaccessible corners of the world). Hence the 3MGs, true to their word, did meet, caught up, teased, shut-ed-up, laughed at each other and redefined their friendship. Yes tis me and my 2 best friends, Pall and Sne; who have been the partners in crime with me during college and are the only ones who'll laugh at my rants and complaints. I'm so glad to have our friendship rejuvenating at the beginning of the year!! Love you loads, girls... though I know that you can't even spell b-l-o-g correctly!! :D
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Here we go with a small snippet when I and Pall wanted to ask Sne if she was free for RNBDJ :

An sms from me to Sne : Hey! what shift hav you tom?

Sne : Y re? wt hpnd?

Me : Me n pall getting married tom morn. She @ her plc, me at mine. Plz come. Gifts accepted.

Sne :oh WOW! Congratssss! Who r da lucky guys?? hav eve shift, so u ppl btr mak it fast. I hav to go!

hehehe smart girl!

And... that isn't all. If all goes according to our million dollar plan, I'll be meeting them again on Saturday and watch "Rock on"..i.e. if all goes acording to our million dollar plan.
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And again that's not all. I meet my 2 more best childhood friends, Tj and Shrads on Sunday for lunch!! Yay! That means they won't whack me and I can finally return Tj's book that been with me since ages. I'm soo very looking forward to meet you girls, that I almost fell off my terrace yesterday!
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Here's something more :

Tj : so we meet this sunday?! Final??

Me : haan baba..pukka!

Tj : see this time you cancel plans, main tujhe phone par se haath daalke maroongi.

Me : HA HA HA HAHAA.. waisa hai toh, I have already cancelled plans. Please do the needful!
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And that yet isn't all... Ji's coming this Feb. And we are gonna celebrate birthdays together!! I'm super excited since we'll be seeing each other after 3 years!!

Here's something that I shared with Ji and couldn't stop laughing : (psst... this copy+paste is w/o her permission, so if she's anywhere near planning to turn me black n blue in Feb; I'm keeping my passport handy :D)

Orkut scrap from me to Ji : Hey Happy new year, Ji!

Reply fm Ji to me : to you tooo!! oh btw since ur birthday is also in the beginning of the year.. i wanted to ask you does it giv u jitters to knw that you will be yet another year older?

Soo, it isn't just me who feels 24 yrs is like OLD!! that means.. I M NORMAL!!!
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And the last but not the least "and that's isn't all" is that I'm gonna meet my batchmate, Pra, after 8 long years!! Date not yet fixed, but I'm gonna make it happen in Jan.

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That means I have 2 month long dhaasu celebrations planned for this New Year! Do I still need to mention I love all of them?

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