Delhi 6 - the movie

Myth - Delhi grows on you
Reality - So does every city (ask Rachit and Chetna - two hardcore Delhiites who have moved to Mumbai and now swear by the city)
Disclaimer - The above and the following is my personal opinion and no one needs to agree with it. I am open to argument though ;)

In his second full length feature film Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra handpicks 2-3 themes (read ingredients) and makes a chaat of everything. He picks issues that are available easily in India as main ingredients – superstitions, exaggeration and intolerance and of course the spice of communal politics. He places them carefully on a serving dish; throws in a pair of good looking actors in the lead, sprinkles some actors who are known for their acting prowess and garnishes the film with music by the most sought after music director in the country (A R Rehman) and serves in a grand platter called promotional hype. I like chaat, I really like chaat. But this one tasted too sweet…no I think too salty…no tangy...no...forget it…I just know I did not like the taste.

The story began with a lot of promise. Waheeda Rehman as an aging grandmother wanting to die in her hometown was great and she made me want to grow old gracefully. But Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor gets lost in the milieu and a host of characters. Supporting actors (Om Puri, Pavan Malhotra, Rishi Kapoor, Supriya Pathak, Divya Dutta, ) have given such powerful performances that the protagonists grope to find some clear space for themselves. Sonam Kapoor’s wardrobe and jewellery are exquisite. But that's it. The story woven around the 'Kala Bandar' menace in Delhi gets dragged unnecessarily. In the second half, the Hindu-Muslim riot scenes could have been edited better. Clichés such as “Dilli dilwalon ka sahar hai” hangs heavy throughout the movie.

But there are moments that touch you. Especially in the scene, when the hero Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) wakes up one morning in his grandmother’s house in Chandni Chowk and is caught in a reverie - the warmth of the people of India and the plush of New York. He imagines all the people he has come to like in India (oops...Mehra means Delhi I'm sure), to be in New York and voila – now that’s the perfect chaat.

Watch it, if you are a die-hard Abhishek fan and want to learn about Chandni Chowk through a film instead of exploring it on foot.

Bunch of jokers

My husband has been receiving calls every evening for the past few weeks. Sometimes the calls carry on for hours. I was curious after a few days. Ever since he had joined a multilateral institution, phone calls in the evenings from office had reduced drastically. Then? I confronted him. Who is this he is speaking to? Has the seven year itch set in!! Nahh...this post is not so juicy.
What I got to know is that, some friends of friends of friends and acquaintances has been calling him for some dope on the current market situation in India - business and otherwise, to find out if they can make a beginning again (in their late thirties and early forties?!!!).
All these friends of friends of... are from the US and we have known them to do 'well'. Well was defined as follows - one of the callers had three cars (in the Peugeot and Audi bracket), had a house on a cliff in Vancouver, vacationed in the Carribean every year (other places too) and splurged money as if they were feeding seeds to pigeons, while the rest of us were open mouthed.
That sounds like a fairytale. But it was true till only a year back. After the Wallstreet debacle most of these people we know distantly has lost 80-90 per cent of their wealth. Some have lost their jobs and do not know what to do, while some are here in India looking for new ideas to carry back to the US to save their jobs.
My point is not to ridicule them. The reason I am mad is because those so called 'smart' guys of investment banking and the 'best talents' have failed the financial system. I can call them a bunch of jokers with a clear conscience now. They JUST had no clue and yet went on building castles in the air. And for THEM, some idiots like me and many more invested their hard earned money to see a notional rise in their wealth. Personally, the fall from the first floor doesn't hurt so much (though broken bones will take a while to heal), but for those guys sitting on the 20th floor - the fall is killing.
I am not an expert in finance issues except that I spend money. But I strongly feel that the so called 'brilliant brains' behind the current crisis world over, need some lessons in probity. Wonder where the hell they are hiding now? The world is more than the sophisticated tools and software they worked on. It is good to be on a ‘high’ by achieving numbers. But remember you bunch of morons - zero is also a number.

The Tall And Short Of The Story

Saw a photo of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes in the newspapers yesterday. The lady is at least two inches taller than her beau. To top it she was wearing heels. I don't know their domestic scenario, but Cruise did not look insecure at all.
Of late, many Hindi movies are casting heroines who visibly taller than the hero. SRK leads the group. His first 'taller-than-him' heroine was Shilpa Shetty (Baazigar) then came Sushmita Sen (Main Hoon Na). There are scenes where Deepika Padukone towers over SRK in Om Shanti Om, even though Farah Khan has tried intelligent camera angles. More recently, Anushka Sharma in Rab Ne. I guess SRK has some lofty schemes in mind!!
Salman Khan is just half an inch shorter than Katrina Kaif, but with six inches stilettos, Sallu Mamu looks stunted. Aamir has not been so lucky, and he makes sure he looks down upon his leading ladies. The only hero who still towers over heriones is Abhishek Bachchan.
Are tall men getting extinct? Or are women getting taller. Given my experience, I have seen tall men mostly in the North of India.
That brings me to the second part - are short men insecure about taller women? And would tall women like to be associated with short men? Or are women still guided by Mills & Boon fantasies?!!
I remember noticing an acquaintance never dancing with his wife in a party etc. Not that his wife was taller than him, they are of the same height, but the lady would be wearing heels mostly.
Movies and actors set trends for clothes, make-up etc. I wonder if the trend of ‘tall women and short men’ will also catch up in India. Though I cannot imagine a short Big B and a tall Jaya Bachchan!!!

Sale Sale Sale

It is all over the place. The Spring-Summer season fashion clothes are expected to hit the market. So the winter clothes are up on sale. Guess, Aldo, Tommy Hilfiger, Marks and Spencer, the local brands, the footpath brands – every store is offering ‘Sale’ – upto 50% and even more.
I am a ‘Sale’ buyer; otherwise I how can I afford to wear big brands with my salary!! If the question is – why I need big brands – then I’d assign some of it to snob value and some because I think I can be a little surer of the product. (I know most of them are probably being made in the same factory in China!! A single owner most likely has separate verticals and accounting books for each brand)
On Sunday, I went to a posh South Delhi Mall – the biggest in Delhi as they claim – Select City Walk. My first mistake was that I went in the evening. The most important tip for a ‘Sale’ buyer is – always hit the mall around 11 in the morning. You can keep the trial room occupies as long as you want.
I tried Tommy Hilfiger first. The 3000 sq ft shop was flooded with people of all ages. Women with babies as old as 4-5 months (sometimes the husband, sometimes the pa or ma in law lugging the baby), teenagers with goading mothers, fashion conscious men and of course, young couples not married or just married trying to buy the best for their partners.
That’s my point – what were they looking for? I couldn’t find anything that suited the weather or my budget. For instance – I picked a thicker material T Shirt for my husband. The discount amount showed as 30%. But when I checked original price, the tag read Rs. 7995!! It was obscene!! Only a month back I bought another branded cashmere sweater for Dhruv for 5k, which was new, and looked far better.
Now for women’s wear. When I go to these kinds of shops, I become more conscious about my size. I always have to pick L!!! If I am L, then I wonder what sizes Jasminder Parminderji auntijis or Paromita Boudis wear!! Under the circumstances, I think they can only wrap around bed sheets!!
It was the same with all these branded shops. I jostled around in at least five of them, resulting in no luck and leaving me exasperated.
My hard work paid off – but only in Shoppers Stop! I bought a locally branded, affordable new jacket which had no discount and a size M. It was sheer ecstasy I tell you.
Have I learnt a lesson? Of course not!! I am already planning my puja shopping in the Spring Summer Sale season.

Sanjay Dutt - the politician?

Review: Sanjay Dutt in his new blockbuster: Munnabhai ban gaya neta’man’
“I need jaadu ki jhappi from the people of Lucknow. I love the people here, and will do my best to work for them,” he said.
I only wish jhappis could win elections. Then Rahul Gandhi would get the highest number of jhappis from all eligible girls across the globe and voila! He would become the next prime minister. And whether or not I qualify to give him a jhappi, I definitely would not let go of the chance!!
Getting back to Dutt junior. The first paragraph statement was made by Sanjay Dutt’s when he landed in Lucknow today for a roadshow organised for his political debut. Wonder how many times Dutta has been to Lucknow other than his film shootings!! It is the ultimate gimmick unleashed by Amar Singh and his party. In an interview, Singh has said that Dutt had shown interest to contest elections, even though he did not know politics. Strangely, in an interview to TimesNow in Dec 2008, Dutt had said that he did not want to enter politics.
As a free citizen of a democratic country, I feel that both Dutt and Singh have made a joke of the democratic system.
Look at the man’s history –
1) He is an ex-drug addict
2) He married thrice – the first wife Richa Sharma’s family accused him of abandoning her when she was suffering from cancer.
3) His present wife has a dubious background
4) He was in jail for many months – first in 1993 and then again in 2006 for the Mumbai blast case
5) The most important being he’s still an accused in the 1993 Mumbai blast case and was sentenced to jail for six years in 2006. He has appealed in the Supreme Court and the case in sub-judis.
The “Representation of People's Act” in Sec 3 clearly states that people who have been accused under “offence of committing terrorist acts” do not qualify for contesting for any parliament seat. And Dutt has not been cleared of his charge yet.
Some people may ask, what about the criminals who already contest for elections? Well, that doesn’t give Dutt the right to do the wrong!! Or does it? After all he is a popular film actor and of course he knows Gandhigiri. So what if he has had a tumultuous past. We HAVE to give him a chance!! Right? I don’t even want to give a penny for the opinions of Dutts friends in the Mumbai film industry. All they moo about is “Baba is a great guy, very good at heart. He’s gone through bad times and he should be given a chance.”
Gimme a break!! There are scores of youth in the country who go astray. Does our society give THEM a chance? This Indian way of forgive and forget for film actors only just gets me so unnerved!!!
We are failing again as a country. During the terrible Mumbai terrorist attacks, the people stood up as one. Everyone protested against the terrorists from outside and the rot from inside. I guess everyone is back to their business of minding their own life. Sad and distressing!
http://www.ganeshaspeaks.com/blog_Sanjay_Dutts_political_debut__1662.jsp
Bejan Daruwalla has predicted that Dutt will lose the elections, but I think he will win. The reason – We voters are all lame-brained. I wonder how many attacks like the Mumbai one will wake us up and fight against these fraudulent, imbecile and crooked politicians and internal terrorists who will rule our nation tomorrow.
Kya mamu banaya by god!!

Australia - the movie

I watched Australia at last. And there are more than one reasons for recommending the movie.

It has all the ingredients of a Baz Lhurmann movie (if anyone has watched Moulin Rouge) - grand sets, high drama and panoramic beauty. And for those mushy moments - the protagonists of the movie kiss and make up in a downpour. There is machoism too - horse riding and fistcuffs. The actors are beautiful - Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. Most of all the movie showcases dramatic landscapes, a colourful cast of outback characters, abundant wartime heritage, rich aboriginal culture and mostly Darwin’s historic Stokes Hill Wharf.

The story line is quite simple - weaving of real history into fiction - seen before in movies such as Pearl Harbour and Gone With The Wind. The plot, however, has an interplot. The aborigines of the region and the 'stolen generation'.

As per Wikipedia - "The Stolen Generations (also Stolen generation and Stolen children) is a term used to describe those children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian and State government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments. The removals occurred in the period between approximately 1869 and 1969, although, in some places, children were still being taken in the 1970s.

I wonder if the movie was made as an apology to the indigenous people of Northern Australia. After all, Baz Luhrmann, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman - are all Australians - presumably of colonial descent. For more read http://www.dreamtime.net.au/indigenous/index.cfm

Watch it for soaking in the beauty of the outback and sheer filming genius of Luhrmann.

Things left behind

This image of little Moshe is haunting me. I do not know what images the little boy has in his mind, but I pray that they are not terrifying to plague him through his life. Probably he is too young to understand what has gone wrong, but he surely knows something terrible has happened.
That makes me wonder, what are the children in India thinking about terrorism?
Post attack, my husband's organisation got expert help to relieve stress amongst employees. Probably they do not know how adept the 'developing country' people are in handling 'stress'. Surprisingly, the attendees of the programme were all curious to know not about themselves but about their children. Some samples of what children are asking -
a) Why are these people killing so many? You said killing someone is bad. Are they bad people? Worried parentsa are asking - Are we supposed to say they are terrorists? Then comes the questions who are these terrorists? Should I say that they belong to a particular religion? Do I say they belong to our neighbouring country? How should be explain to our children what is terrorism?
Sadly, the expert at the programme said that you have tell the truth to children.
Is that what you should do? Does anyone have any answer? I'd like to know. Please respond.

P.S. A word or caution for my women friends - If you are going to light a candle to show your solidarity, don't wear powder or lipstick because some stuck up guy in the BJP thinks it makes you less of an Indian.