AITRAAZ- No real objections here !!

Aitraaz (objection) stars Mr. Akshay Kumar, Ms. Kareena Kapoor, former Miss World 2000 Ms. Priyanka Chopra and Mr. Amrish Puri and Mr. Annu Kapoor, with Mr. Paresh Rawal making an impressionable special appearance.

The film parallels the years aback Hollywood release, Barry Levinson’s Disclosure, tackling the subject of a male being sexually harassed at work. The subject is bold and probably new to the Bollywood schemata, hence accounting for the film doing fairly well at the box-office.

I actually didn’t know anything about the movie, or the story, the cast, etc before I watched it and I must admit though I wasn’t swept off my feet, I was entertained and actually pleasantly surprised by the film.

Aitraaz was made by the director duo of Mr. Abbas Alibhai Burmawalla and Mr. Mustan Alibhai Burmawalla popularly known as Abbas-Mustan, who are famous for their suspense thrillers and have earned a name for themselves by making crisp, clear, intelligent and slick movies that will never have you yawning. Recall Khiladi, Baazigar, Daraar, Soldier, Ajnabee, and Humraaz to name a few. One thing common to the aforementioned movies and other Abbas-Mustan movies is their wonderful and very film-appropriate music; though this time I think they may have come up short as Mr. Himesh Reshammiya’s score leaves little to enchant and more to grope for the ffwd button on the remote. That being said the directors have once again succeeded in making a very entertaining and fast-paced movie.

The first half may have dragged on a tad bit as the initial scenes between Mr. Kumar and Ms. Kapoor are a bit drawn out and the first half of the movie also suffers from a common affliction of Hindi movies where there are too many songs crammed in between. All of that changes the minute Ms. Chopra’s character is introduced! Once that euphoria dies down the film threatens to re-enter the mire of mediocrity but then the climatic, albeit predictable, court-room scene saves the film again, this time Mr. Rawal coming to the rescue, as the attorney for the temptress that Ms. Chopra portrays. I have Abbas-Mustan do better, maybe Baazigar and Humraaz are their better works but Aitraaz was well handled. Many Indian directors copy successful Hollywood films and re-make them in a style only the “desi” can enjoy, but as is evidenced by some of the flicks, not all succeed at that understood piracy/ flattery. Abbas-Mustan are probably the best in the dubious category of ‘Indian-ising” an English movie. The editing is good and the flashbacks scenes are nicely done. The locales of South Africa are pictured beautifully. A few things in the technical department that can become a bother include the length of the film, at 150 minutes, and the ill-advised use of some of the songs.

Performance-wise this is totally Ms. Chopra’s show. Mr. Kumar and Ms. Kapoor and their interaction serve as the appetizer to the main dish that Ms. Chopra serves. She is evil, seductive, driven, and heartless. She gets what she wants and she sure knows how. Had Ms. Chopra been a better actress though, she could have made her character of Sonia Roy do so much more and that immaturity in the acting department will make this despite all that she does do, a forgettable performance. Mrs. Kajol Devgan, Ms. Urmila Matondkar, and Mrs. Shabana Azmi have set the bar for vamp performances in Gupt, Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya and Godmother respectively and unfortunately Ms. Chopra never reaches that height, but this is still a much better performance than her other movies like Andaaz, Asambhav and Plan.

Mr. Kumar, a favorite of Abbas-Mustan, gives a subtle and restrained performance and he was very believable as the “taken advantage of” man. Mr. Kumar’s acting has improved leaps and bounds over the past years, maybe there is a benefit in being Mr. Rajesh Khanna’s son-in-law after all? Once Mr. Kumar can improve his voice delivery a little more he will continue to get great roles and together with his height, personality and flare for comedy he should be a sure shot draw at the box-office. I am told his upcoming performance in Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo is one to look out for as well.

Ms. Kapoor also plays her part to perfection in a rather mature role for her standards. As the dutiful wife, and later lawyer for her maligned husband, Ms. Kapoor explodes on-screen at the end and the transformation will win her many a fan. It’s a very “hatke” role for Ms. Kapoor as for once she doesn’t rely on her curvaceous hips and rounded lips to carry her through the flick.

The supporting cast is almost perfect in their compact roles. Mr. Puri spoils the “bench” by his portrayal of Ranjit Roy, husband to Ms. Chopra’s character. Mr. Puri makes a few appearances and you better have your earplugs ready or be in position to lower the volume on the television. Mr. Puri, it has been a great run but I do think its time to call it a day. Mr. Rawal on the other hand will win the “sixth man” award with his powerful performance. He fits in well, and doesn’t try too hard to overshadow the rest of the cast with his “special appearance”, as they bill it in the cast and credits.

Overall I still have my reservations about Aitraaz but no objections! I think it’s a well-crafted and intelligently made film. If it wasn’t a tad bit too long and the songs weren’t yawn-worthy I may have insisted upon it, but as of now it’s really up to you, if you miss it you may not miss much, but if you watch it you will also have no Aitraaz!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is upon us. I am already so behind on my projected writings and readings. I thought I get in one more piece, something for everyone to ponder about and digest over the long holiday weekend.

Before I do dive into that, here is a teaser of what I still have to catch up on, or looked at differently, what you guys have to smack your lips and look forward to! (Aren’t I modest?)

Among the movie reviews that I am working on, Hollywood category includes the much hyped Alexander, lesser known The Clearing, Matrix’s so-called 'mai-baap' Equilibrium, the brilliant Mystic River as well as Collateral. Bollywood fans can read takes on the amazing and brilliant Chokher Bali, based on Tagore's play, as well as Krishna Cottage, Paap, Musafir and a really good friend asked me to review Lakshya. For a change I will also do an audio review of the Swades CD.

Trying to maintain a broadness and to show some range I will also be sharing my quirky and somewhat bizarre and adult poem, The Plight of Someone Bored. For "select theatre" release, if you know what I mean. Other than that I plan to reveal 'my hero' or who/ what I have recently decided to try to be more like, emulate and as impossible as it is, even eclipse. It will be a 'mammoth' task, and that my family and friends was a 'huge' clue as to the subject of my idolization. I can bet anything only someone intuitive can figure that one out.

For now I do wish each and everyone a very happy and successful weekend, and though I am not a Christian and don't really get 'into' Christmas, I do hope the spirit of Christmas does touch each one of us. I think the proximity of Christmas to the end of the year is a great jump for those among us who like to introspect the past year and set some goals and aspirations for the upcoming one. I love this time of year because it is for me personally a time of great reflection. What helps me more is to see other human beings crawling and crowding the malls, streets, shopping areas and literally anywhere else trying to immerse themselves more and more into 'the world'. I see Maya (sense of illusion) pulling them deeper into its web and the gullible among us gladly being reeled in, happy to become a meal for the spider of attachment, desire, anger, greed and hypocrisy. There have been years when I was also on the menu, maybe in the future might find myself back on the table, hopefully not though. I have come to realize I am better off not being delectable and an uneaten me should be a more successful me, a more balanced me, a more aware me and just a further traveled me.

Having said all that, its not about me really, I am but a small, no very small, no in fact extremely insignificant and minute fragment of the bigger picture here. What it really is about is the ones whose company we share. To us we are who we are, but what is a life lived if we can’t make others around us smile and make them even a little happier, better and peaceful. All things start and begin with the me, but I think the 'me' in us all is here for a reason and as travelers on the path, apart from finding that inner utopia, the onus is upon us to learn from the more enlightened among us, to love the ones dear to us and to leave the ones erosive to us. It is something that can take lifetimes to achieve but with the right attitude, right company, and a healthy dose of solitude, introspection and humility each day lived can be as fulfilling as a lifetime.

All that said and done, a little Maya interspersed in the holiday season is inevitable and I too shall indulge on Christmas Day as I will be glued to the television trying to be part of the basketball sporting soap opera when Detroit (or maybe I should call them Det'riot') plays Indiana and then Kobe faces off with Shaq, or as Shaq put it in his own indomitable style, Corvette running into a brick wall. So the mall crawler and myself are both in the web and inexorably we have become part of the cuisine, well so be it for now, remember the year end review doesn't begin till after Christmas and isn't due until the new year!
Happy holidays and may you have a wonderful weekend.

Best wishes,
Shobhit

Dangerous Driving

I was very impressed by a piece I read recently in one of our dailies highlighting the number of road fatalities that have occurred in Trinidad recently. The author went on to list every single headline that had heralded the tragedy. Man that list went on and on and on. I am not sure if she covered it but many of those carnage headlines are also on the interior pages so what was showed, as scary as it was, may actually be an under-representation.

What is sad though is that people now have become so immune to such headlines and stories that they really could care less. Imagine last week I was up and down from Mt. Hope 4 days out of 5 and every single day I got stuck in traffic secondary to an accident. Many of the mishaps probably don't even make it to the press. People are still driving like maniacs with no regard for life or loved ones or the law. The breathalyser isn't here in our country, the highway police is like a toothless pussy-cat and there is absolutely no respect for authority.

It is tragic when a young and upcoming singer dies in a vehicular accident and the country has forgotten the reason behind it was some sort of lawless driving. There is no way that sort of damage would have occurred had the speed limit been obeyed. But then oh, is there a speed limit here? She was right in pointing out the fallacy of a driving test that is administered here. Many people have fake drivers permits I am sure.

What I think is needed and probably won't happen is some sort of fear for the law. Stringent measures and strict to the point of unfair penalties. Why is it that lawless, reckless drivers here go to the US and UK and are angels on the road? FEAR ! If the authorities here become like road sharks while catching those that drive hazardous vehicles, often no brake-lights, malfunctioning headlights, illegal lights, overloaded passengers and uninsured vehicles then possibly change may begin. Having said that, why should anyone fear someone they can't respect? How can anyone respect someone in authority who probably has three O-Levels and done some sorry excuse of a entrance exam into the service? Its a two-way street fear, respect and the question of commanding as opposed to demanding either.

Until those changes come about, and the fundamentals of educating the arrogant and illiterate drivers, especially taxi-drivers and youths are instilled, there will be many more headlines, probably relegated to the interior pages and there will be many more life-years lost. But who has the time to read or think about them, because aren't we all preparing for "Christmas 2K4" and "Carnival 2K5" and then something else "K5,6,7 etc etc etc".

The things we take for granted and the dangers we face despite how well a life we may each individually live. I am sorry if I sound upset but whenever someone else's stupidity or disregard for the law jeopardises my or my loved one's health or well-being I find it disturbing to know that I still have to share the road, the streets even the oxygen and this earth with those immature and obviously aloof creatures.

Hopefully after reading this we can play our part by being more careful when we drive, myself included.
ayez une commande sûre,
tenga una impulsión segura,
haben Sie einen sicheren Antrieb,
have a safe drive,
Shobhit

THE TERMINAL- never took off !!

With a cast like Mr. Tom Hanks, Mrs. Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Mr. Stanley Tucci and the master Mr. Steven Spielberg behind the cameras I assumed The Terminal is going to jet away non-stop to destination heart. I fastened my seat belt and turned off my cell phone, pager and other electronic devices and waited, and waited, and waited. About 2 hours later I realized I had gained no frequent movie watcher miles as this one never took off.

While I took the DVD out I pretended to forget that Mr. Spielberg was even associated with this one, assumed that Mr. Tom Hanks’ Viktor Navorski was really a Bulgarian impersonator who did a really bad job of being Mr. Hanks, and wondered why Mrs. Zeta-Jones was even in it.

This one didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth, I wouldn’t go that far but there was a definite blandness associated with it.

The premise was fairly straightforward and yet somewhat intriguing. We are made to believe that in this day and age a diplomatic mishap has caused a man to be marooned at JFK Airport while the status of his country and hence himself is being sorted out by the US Department of Homeland Security. While there our protagonist makes friends, endures some interesting interactions, allegedly even finds love and then fulfills the one reason he was in the US in the first place. Of course we are not made aware of the 'reason' for his arrival in the US till very late and by then it dawns upon the viewer that he has been there for months, which in itself is a hard fact to swallow since we do know the efficiency of the Americans, especially when it comes to matters of Homeland Security.

One scene after the other the film spirals downward from being an intelligent situational comedy to a fantasy of feel-good moments, so fantastical that there should be no attempt at logic to even explain the events. The director does throw in one plot twist towards the end involving Mrs. Zeta-Jones, and that is not in synch with the fantasy genre I thought I could pin on this one. That somewhat sudden jolt tries hard to bring the viewer back to reality, maybe so that the viewer can remember to pick up his or her trash from the theatre, but in effect what it achieves is a rancid flavor to go with the sugar-coated ride we were being taken on.

Mr. Hanks is a brilliant actor and the ease with which he makes Viktor Navorski his is evidence of such. Having said that Mr. Hanks does look disenchanted with the performance. The Hanks-esque intensity to which we are accustomed to is clearly absent. It would appear as if he felt this would be a made-for-television movie. Even in Cast Away where Mr. Hanks didn’t have much dialogue, his silence itself generated a shadowing presence. Comparing The Terminal to Catch Me If You Can, Road to Perdition, Apollo 13, and Forrest Gump and you realize this was partly-interested Mr. Hanks at the best. Having said that, no one else but Mr. Hanks could have put heart in our Bulgarian lead’s character and his subtleties while acting will have you feeling for Viktor Navorski from the first scene to the very end. Not an unforgettable performance but definitely vintage nonetheless.

Mrs. Zeta-Jones looks absolutely stunning in every frame that she appears in. Her character though leaves a lot of unanswered questions, and that usually can be a good thing but in this case it’s mildly disconcerting. She portrays Amelia, an air-stewardess who works in first-class and happens to bump into Mr. Hanks’ character initially by mistake but then by the latter’s choosing. Amelia is a complex, intelligent and gorgeous woman and it’s not hard to see why Viktor falls for her. But then we are left wondering why she is having an affair with a married man. She answers that question for us by telling us it’s the sex. But that really doesn’t add up now does it. I mean on side she is portrayed as intelligent and intellectual person but then she continues to do something senseless. Viktor is able to have Amelia see her errant ways, even offers the perfect escape, but Amelia’s eventual course of action will leave you baffled. A character that leaves the viewer baffled till the very end doesn’t usually augur well in a feel-good flick like this one. What I assume Mr. Spielberg was trying to depict though was the helplessness and power of habit controlling a person, as intelligent as they may appear.

Mr. Tucci’s performance may have been one of the more impressionable one’s as the strict, ambitious and somewhat heartless Chief of Security. It was a predictable performance though and that may be a reason why his effort here will very easily be forgotten.

The other supporting cast does have a lot to do to keep The Terminal from sinking. Of note was Mr. Kumar Pallana, an 85 year old Indian actor, who portrayed a janitor at the airport. He did have a pivotal role in the movie and had many lines which he delivered with near perfection. His 'Indian-English' was very well spoken, and of the other immigrant workers he clearly stood out.

Mr. Spielberg is a director par excellence and someone who I personally idolize, but The Terminal does leave a lot to be desired. The warm, fuzzy feeling that I would have liked to have left with after watching the movie was only present with me during certain parts. The end seemed very rushed and rather abrupt, almost as if the cast and crew had to vacate JFK suddenly. Being a foreigner to American soil, I was able to relate to many aspects of the country’s policies and treatments of visitors, and upon hearing “un-acceptable”, there was an uprising of emotion, but there was little follow-up to that uprising, and that seemed to be the theme of The Terminal, in that it never sustained any one emotion for too long. Many starts and stops but this one just never seemed to have left the tarmac.

All in all I would say this one can be passed, but if you are an absolute fan of Mr. Hanks, Mrs. Zeta-Jones or have never been to JFK then wait for the DVD and oh no need to pack, this one isn’t going to take you very high off the ground.

Truly Incredible-s

Ever feel really nauseated and then take something that instantly makes you feel better?

I remember once I was in India in 1988 and we had a bout of food poisoning and man did I hurl! As gross as I felt my aunt still managed to make me take something called "Podeen Harra", a great syrup that bought my palate immense joy and almost instantaneously.

I love analogies and I ask of you to put my hurling and the Podeen Harra synonymously with the film Naach (whose review you would have hopefully read by now) and the movie The Incredibles.

The Incredibles features the voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter (hmmmmmmm), Jason Lee and Samuel L. Jackson. The premise is fairly straightforward. As the title suggests it’s about a family of superheroes and how they save America from impending danger from a maniacal genius.

Now you are probably wondering what’s so great about that. I guess some things sound pretty ordinary on paper, but watch the idea visualized on celluloid and you will see what I mean. I give you some examples.

There is a boat with over 1400 people, and there is a love story taking place on the boat between poor, good guy and rich, beautiful girl. The boat sinks, guy saves girl, dying in the process and the love story is immortalized. That was the colossal Titanic for you. There is a guy who is weak, lacks self confidence. Then he gets bitten by a spider and he puts a costume on and he is transformed. He saves Chicago/ New York (debatable point as the purists know that Marvel has Peter Parker working for the Chicago Tribune, yet in the movie Spidey is flying through New York) and he impresses a gal. Ladies and gentleman, that was Spiderman. Kid who can see dead people. The Sixth Sense in six words, ha ha ha. The list can go on and on, but you get my point.

So back to The Incredibles.

I was still reeling from the puke-evoking Naach when I once-bitten twice-shyly went to see The Incredibles. I am a loyalist I will admit it. And after Finding Nemo I am a huge Pixar fan, so yes there was a bias. But I was also skeptical since like many people I figured well, there isn't any suspense in this film. Superheroes fight evil, initially are in trouble then win. True, but then sometimes in life, especially as we get older (oh my God I am getting old aaaaagghhhhhh, excuse me......), okay I am back, yeah as we get older we sometimes can't deal with unpredictability, and every once in a while you just want to be reassured that eventually the good guys will win.

The Incredibles is one of those movies you will either totally fall in love with or just won't respond to. It is in cartoon format, though with the kind of animation these days even cartoons seem so realistic; just notice the facial expressions on the characters both in this and Finding Nemo, as well as Toy Story (another Pixar).

The film does have many surprises and a tinge of mystery so I won't get into that, but what was really impressive was the fact that the humor was so adult, yet so innocent at the same time. I sat in a row with a 5 year old girl and a 65 year old man. They both laughed heartily (initially at the film but towards the end at me since I was having a whale of a time myself, but let's not go there either). The Simpsons I think have revolutionized the fun for children and adults alike humor and The Incredibles will have all ages chuckling. The violent images might be a concern for some parents but its all cartoon and if children can watch the Road Runner and Tom and Jerry cartoons then this is nothing.

As with all Pixars, and something lacking in so many modern day films, the characters actually have depth!!!! Bob Parr's transformation from hero to zero to hero again will remind a lot of us of our daily lives, hero at home, treated like zero at work and then back to being your child's and wife's hero. Helen Parr as the no nonsense, in-charge woman, who does have a soft spot for her children personifies so many of us, who often time fail to realize we all have an Achilles.

The kids are a charm, Dashiell and Violet each have personalities. Even baby Jack Jack has a cuteness reminiscent of the baby dinosaur from the show Dinosaurs, remember "not the mama"!!!

The villain Syndrome is fairly run of the mill but then again if we start identifying with him then something is wrong anyway right? Lucius Best has a small part but the comic relief has great timing and doesn't distract from the general track of the film.

The action is fast paced and never do you feel bored. I like to gauge a movie by the feeling-meter! By this I mean if you are ever in a movie and you get the feeling "when will this end?", well that movie just lost a lot of points. The Incredibles never has you wondering when will it end, nor does it suffer from the affliction of many old men, in that it ahem ends too soon (wink) ;) {Nothing like a medical joke, huh}. When it did end I was neither "its done??" nor "finally, its done!!!". Great timing is a rare feat achieved by very few films. This was one of them.

The colors are amazing. Again a purist would notice the multitude of shades used in the animation. The reds, greens, teals, purples and colors that I can't even name. There is variety abound in the colorful scenes, compare the sunset to the drab, grey shade of the office where the protagonist works, to the neighborhood to the jungles where they are trapped. The artists must be given credit for this.

The cliché emotional roller-coaster might be apt for this one. At times your emotions are taken up and down and that was a little surprising for something coming out of Hollywood, but it certainly will strike a cord with many. I was most touched by the one scene between Violet and her mother at the villain's lair, almost bought a tear to my eye, okay it did actually, but if you are someone who has ever given your best shot at something and yet come up short and then felt miserable only to realize that your loved ones still love you immensely regardless of the failure, you too will eke out a tear. A mother is all forgiving and children are poor communicators sometimes but it feels really good when someone we love loves us back simply for who we are and not for what we have done or failed to do. I told you these characters had depth!

I meant to keep this short but such an "incredible" effort warrants justice in the court of verbosity. As I close I will surely recommend The Incredibles. If its an inconvenience to get to the cinema then surely wait for the DVD, but the movie will be more bought to life on the larger screen.

So in summary if you are willing to leave your inhibitions at home, ready for some action, spontaneity, color, loads of laughs and a feel good movie with the good kind of predictability then go forth bravely and be prepared to come out feeling truly entertained.

Life parallels the screen sometimes and movies like this just show that there is a superhero within us all. We sometimes by choice or by force mask the hero within us but remember that there is one hidden in our deepest corners, we just need to find him or her. And even if we feel we live our whole life without finding that said hero, those that truly love us see the hero in us because love isn't gauged by achievements, accolades or success but by simply being the best we can be and by journeying on a path of self-improvement, kindness and forgiveness, and most importantly by being able to love in return.

Enjoy,

Shobhit

With hopes and aspirations of being a good film director, producer, writer and story-teller I have taken a hard shot at being objective, yet critical of some of the pieces that I view.

Up until this time I have been lazy, talking out my thoughts while brushing my teeth and getting to those hard spots on the back during the daily shower, but 135 minutes can change things in a hurry.

Life is truly art. Everything we do is art in motion. Ever notice how you walk? How you talk? How you smile? Every (expletive omitted, lol) thing we do is simply art in motion. Ever wonder why certain friends, relatives, people appeal to us more than others? Simply because they are better art than the others, lol!! And as humans we inherently like seeing beautiful things, especially those with a well choreographed, natural "swagger", for lack of a better word, about them.

I can go down that route further delving into my theories about us being characters of a play of immense proportions with each of us here to fulfill a certain role, but this one isn't about that.

This one is about a 2 hour 15 minute film that will leave you turned on, turned off, then bored, then really bored, then challenging your intelligence and then finally making you wonder whether there was some deeper message that you simply didn't get. But then after much pondering you realize it was a comedy because the biggest joke was on you, the viewer, who can never get back that wasted time. How sad humor can be.

But let's stay fair and objective. Focus Shobhit, focus. So there is a movie out of Bollywood called Naach. It stars Abhishek Bachchan, Antara Mali, and Ritesh Deshmukh. The premise is simple. Struggling actor who wants to be a success at any cost, struggling dance choreographer who wants to stick to her ideals and values and wants to make it big only based on her talents (never mind that her talents are choreographing dancing best suited for some bachelor party) and then there is naive, goodly director who finally spots this "talent". The twists are that struggling actor and dance choreographer had struggled together and had fallen in love with each other, until they went their separate ways, with actor becoming big and well the other still struggling to pay her monthly rent. Then naive director comes into the film and makes "moralistic" dance choreographer a success, also falls in love with her and is too dufus to tell her. Now successful, the actor realizes all the wealth, fame and fortune are nothing since he is really in love with our dancer. One tearful monologue later she is convinced that the "man" she fell in love with is back and she spurns the poor good guy director to go back to her original love.

I will pause while you go to puke, take some Panadol/ Tylenol or have already clicked on reply to send me a hate mail for giving you a massive headache. Well spare a thought I had to sit through the debacle.

Alright I am going to be fair.
The movie was a treat to watch if you are really, really into dancing. But wait you have to be into a certain kind of dancing. More sensual than artistic I would say and that mildly was disturbing since the impression given is that this kind of dancing is "different" and "straight from the heart/ soul". The film did have a genuine artsy feel to it. Apart from about 50 minutes of songs and 37 minutes of dialogue-less scenes the general cinematography did make you feel as if you were at the periphery of a movie set. (The aforementioned times worked in my favor since I was able to hit the fwd on my DVD and not miss anything while progressing along).

The scarcity of too many characters makes the viewer focus on our 3 main characters and that worked in favor of the flick. The depiction of some of the dirt and some of the flooziness that pervades the film industry was also well shown. I will give the fact that the dialogue exchanges were very elementary and simple to the fact that the characters weren't very educated and hence their vocabulary was limited. If that was the reason the director kept the exchanges such then he did well. If it was because he had a really bad script-writer then I hope this email reaches him and he ahem ahem gets a new one, hint hint.

Right now onto the good stuff.
First of all making a bad piece of work and then deglamorising it as if it was supposed to be ordinary in my opinion isn't art! Taking a story of a movie you yourself made about 8 years ago (Rangeela, which was a masterpiece might I add) and then playing musical chairs with the characters isn't really original either. Indian movies surprisingly still continue to challenge, somewhat mock the intelligence of the viewer and that is also not fair. I think one reason I was not pleased was simply because I at no point during the movie felt any activity in my brain. Well except to use my finger to press and unpress the fwd button on the remote.

Naach which means "dance" in English did have a lot of "naach-ing" in it but they were basically Power Yoga moves done a bit more intensely and with an air of sultriness about them. I like listening to stories, long ones too, and I think if you take 135 minutes to tell me something that could have been told in 10 minutes then that's a short-coming in either the narrative or the story itself.

Naach leaves nothing to mystery, nothing to think about and in reality nothing much to write about either, but I guess this is one way to save some other people's time. Anyone could have pulled of the male roles with ease, but giving credit where it is due, Antara Mali was great as a dancer and as the somewhat arrogant, moralistic, yet non-intellectual choreographer. She definitely has body suited for the role.

So in summary, if it isn't clear yet, I would stay far from this movie unless:
- you want to use it as a "colorful" Yoga video
- you really want to critique my opinions and prove me wrong
- you want to induce vomiting- you want to bore someone to sleep
- you want to choreograph a dance, in that sense you will get some nice moves for sure

My big tiffs with the flick were:
- at no point was I made to think
- the dialogues were ordinary
- the lack of depth of the characters was masked by a "naach" every so many minutes

Interestingly I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and I still haven't figured that one out, so help me if you can. More on that one soon, once I can digest it, lol.

Remember to send comments and be brutally honest, I love constructive criticism.
Regards,
Shobhit

American thoughts

Hi there,

I am still in Boston and will be here till at least late November as my research is gathering steam. Some very interesting findings are coming to light. With Bhaiya now in Vermont and Bhabhi on the other side of town I am living on my own in an apartment and the solitude has been immense for me in terms of character development and introspection. Solitude has once again proven to be a worthy companion and quite frankly put a very subservient observer to my waxing and waning tendencies of self aggrandization and self deprecation. I feel as though I have lived 42 lives in these past 42 days.

Since my arrival here I have seen Bhaiya and Bhabhi a grand total of zero times, such is how busy we all have been. We do converse on the phone occasionally. As part of data collection I am frequently out of town so that is a reason why as well.

Some final ramblings before I close.
Things that in summary I have realised about being alone and being in the US:
- Damn it is cold!!
- Darkness at 4 pm was never something I liked the last time I was here and let's just say some things never change.
- Having said that the above has made me appreciate the sunrise in a very different way. Probably the way a choking man seeks oxygen or the starved seeks a meal, perhaps?
- People always make a big deal about fall colors and rant and rave etc etc, well let me say, those people, articles and pictures are all immensely under-exaggerating!!! The beauty and tranquility that the oft taken for granted leaves offer is more valuable then a sale in the mall, a favorite TV show or a "lime"! I am beginning to see what kind of place heaven and "jannat" probably is.
- Damn it is cold!! (worth mentioning twice ha ha)-
I have discovered a great new diet. I have lost 12 pounds since I have been on it. Its called "Don't eat Mom's cooking"!! ;) It may also be called "Live alone, fat boy"!!! ;) ha ha ha ha!
- Long walks among rustling leaves and industrious and yet "chanchal" squirrels darting across sidewalks while the fresh air of opportunity, equality, imagination and non-bias caresses your face, coupled with street punks disfiguring some street sign and then the Dunkin' Donuts where behind the counter Gujurati Akhilesh makes my coffee, and culminating with my trek back to my lonely apartment where my Amitabh Hits CD is on continuous play, and that is what I call seeing the world in one walk around the 'hood!!

We go through life feeding everything from our stomachs, to our wallets, to our egos and our desires, but how often do we feed our soul with the food of a life truly lived?

Bonne appetit!
Love and regards,Shobhit