I EXIST !

I exist for a drop of soul,
Hidden beneath the barren smiles,
I exist for a comforting breeze,
While facing hot air for thousand miles.

What remains is not eternal,
In this world of joy and sorrow.
What remains is not fragile,
In this world of eternal tomorrow.

I pray for dust and sand,
To build a path on this never-ending pain.
I pray for a river of hope,
Flowing under my dusty lane.

So, I exist like a God,
Immortal among the mortal desires.
So, I exist like a man,
Mortal in this cosmic gyre.

Les Miserables: Misery if not watched.

Source: http://www.impawards.com

This movie is a call for ‘return of the musicals’. A perfect form of audio-visual art. From the opening scene to the very last scene, the movie is awesome.

The movie starts with patronizing song ‘Look Down’, which holds very strong and moving notes and beat (given the condition that you watch the movie with good acoustics). The opening scene with Hugh Jackman as Valjean, and his rebel attitude towards the state, represented by Inspector Jarvert (Russel Crowe), was perfectly pictured with magnanimous ship being pulled by jailed workers and slow shower rain drenching the workers, and beautifully conceptualized as the rebellion is casted by just a simple look towards the Inspector. The pulling of flag- log and his angry man looks, equally countered by Javert, made Valjean’s character synonymous to idea of revolution. This same idea was later magnified later in the movie by different situations into humanitarian, justice and equality. 

As, the story marched ahead, Valjean finds himself hiding from the state for the sins that were circumstantially not sins, but as per law, worth 19 winters in prison. He is being hunted by Javert, who is equally passionate about his duty. The life of Valjean changes suddenly when he comes in contact with Fantine, who fell victim to his un-deliberate sin. To fulfill his duty to correct his sin to Fantine, Valjean must now take care of a small girl. The small girl brings new spring in the life of fugitive, but things get complicated once again when French lower class revolts against the bourgeois, and Valjean faces Javert again. The story develops complex relations between the two and concludes on a sweet note, which was not anticipated throughout the story, and came as a sweet surprise.

Not only the movie is a visual treat but it carves out the best out of different characters, may be one of the best developed characters on-screen in recent times. Every character has his shades but the beauty of the movie lies in the fact that it doesn’t allow that to make prejudices against any characters. They are all lovable, imaginary yet very realistic.

The movie brings a story which develops on the foundation of concepts of justice and humanism. Everything else is shown developed as an offset of these two basic ideas, be it romance between Cosette and Marius, be it rivalry between Valjean and Javert, be it light weight comedy by Thenardeir and his wife. I can’t remember of any other story so beautifully developed around such basic ideas. One was ‘The Dark Knight’, but then it was not musical.

Hugh Jackman as Valjean is remarkable in the movie. His facial expressions and his body languages, gestures and even eye movements are so well defined and portrayed that they make Valjean more real than reel. Rossel Crowe as Javert is awesome, because he played the only character in the movie who exercised restrain in dialogue delivery, obviously because of the nature of police man he portrayed, but then he made Javert so special with his performance. Anne Hathaway, Fantine, acted completely inside-out, means she just exerted out the soul of Fantine from deep inside of her body to screen. She was the most special character in the movie, and was simply genius in this role. Hats off to her! Then, came Cosette- Amanda Seyfreid. She looks pretty in the movie and acted pretty too. The rest to the characters were also nicely played by respective actors, but Sacha Baron Cohen deserves a special mention, for his role of  Thenardier. He was a treat to watch , with all his witty looks and cunning comedy, just like Borat. No doubt he is a special actor. Even little Daniel Huttlestone was marvelous in his little role of Gavroche. He almost made us cry when he walked past the barricade challenging the police and was shot. 

Hats Off to Director Tom Hooper and his team. And special Hats Off to music team, they were marvelous, specially with their ‘Look Down’ theme, used in different situations in the movie. 

This is a must watch movie for all genuine art lovers, and for those who want to watch something that they haven’t watched before- a musical marvel. Surely it would be a misery if you miss this movie.

Beauty in my home.

Frames of Goa.

V day Retro- Reviews.

After the declaration of celebrating Valentine’s day with loved ones went viral on INTERNET, I too decided  to spend the auspicious day with my first love (First after my family, friends and my books). So, I borrowed hard disk from one of my friend who is an avid collector of movies, and scanned his huge compilation of movies. He compiled his collection as-

1. Indian
2. English
3. Other Languages
4. My Stuff

$1000 to guess what he keeps in ‘My Stuff’ folder. Hint- its not porn or any other adult content !

 

So, I opened the ‘Indian’ folder, and got my picks- Cocktail, English Vinglish. Then I browsed to English, I decided to go for Duma, and God must be crazy. I kept asking myself, “Dude! How could you miss Cocktail- Deepika fame and English Vinglish- Critics Fav. Its over one year since they released, and you haven’t even watched their pirated versions on youtube! Pathetic!”.

 

First one to go was Cocktail. I wouldn’t lie even a word. The movie was sheer torture. If this was the cost to watch Deepika, I would want to sue the Director Homi Adajania. And to my utter amazement , story was written was Imtiaz Ali (JWM fame). Dude! You almost got my adoration after Jab We Met and Rockstar, but now you have lost it.

 

The movie started with some man-slut guts of Saif’s character on flight and restaurants. I simply hated that, whatever that was. I can’t image even a weirdo doing those cheap stuffs, and he called himself- Software Engineer. This was disrespect to entire IT industry workforce of our country, we are indeed not that slutty. Why didn’t any Software guy sued him for such performance ? In one scene when he flirted with a Chinese client, it was like death coming to me being a software guy myself. How could a IT professional claim to make an entire system alone? How could one IT guy talk to a client like this? Which was his employer- I want to forward my resume to it.

 

And then came women with cute faces and “Model” physique, but no sense of acting. After seeing Deepika in this movie, I think she is turning into a male SRK- always so hyper. I was searching for moments when she could act naturally, like a normal girl, and couldn’t find one! Deepika, one suggestion for you, being your fan- You have nice height and body, but sweety learn how to act naturally, go attend Irffan Khan classes sometimes. Diana Penty was so cute in the movie that she should have never opened her mouth at-all. Her dialogue delivery was simply like Food delivery of my Biryani restaurant- pathetic!  And by the way, what a waste of good actors- Boman  Irani, Randeep Hooda and Dimple….simply awesome. 

 

 

The only nice point in the movie was that I made me feel sick and I had to drink 2 liters of water to neutralize it affects- That’s good for my health, thank you Cocktail!

 

 

Next in line was Sridevi’s English Vinglish, directed by Gauri Shinde. As the movie started, the first thing I observed was, “Oops! Sri is now old “. But it took a minute for me forget about her age, because she was kicking all critic asses all over the screen. What a performance that was! The movie was sweet and simple, but Sri’s performance made it so special. Contrary to traditional Indian heroines with hyper emotional acting, Sri delivered a rather natural and naive performance with some absolutely adorable facial expressions. She was like one of our real aunties, with small family. And then I realized why she looked older (yet beautiful) in the movie, because that was the real demand of the role. I noticed she didn’t wear make up in many scenes, hats off ! I mean, she could have also pulled a “Madhuri Dixit” (make up to cover age) if she wanted to hide her age, couldn’t she? But, then that is where real genius of the actor and director comes into play. And even at this age, Sri was kicking asses of likes of Deepika, Kareena and Anushka, which was amazing to watch.    

 

Rest of the cast was also good, specially Adil and Mehdi Nebbou. Then I found out that this French guy of English Vinglish also played Ali Hassan Salameh in Munich. It was like finding a diamond in a coal mine, real gem of a feeling , of recognizing the face of an actor from a previously watched movie. The same feeling I got when I recognized General V.K Singh in Prahaar. The boy kid delivered a performance better than expected, and the girl who played Sri’s daughter also played a real “Bitch” role very effectively.

 

Only loose point of the movie was the South Indian guy in the english classes. Ironically he too played a software Engineer, struggling in english- simply ridiculous! First, if you are weak in communication skills, IT companies wouldn’t even hire you. Second, even if they hire you, they wouldn’t send you to US – client side where you can’t communicate effectively with them. Third, why do film makers think that all Indians abroad are Software guys? Here I would like to streamline my thoughts with what Modi said. “Now India is a land of mouse charmers”. Yes sir, I also think so! But seems like no one knows what a Software Engineer really is.

 

 

Next in line was Duma. Duma was a sweet movie, a treat to watch and cinematically perfect. It started like a national geographic documentary, but soon touched the human aspects of the film art. The Cheetah shown in the movie was fun to watch and I wished if I could be in Africa (my dreamland), I would have also got a pet Cheetah like Duma. And I would have also run the car parallel to Duma at 60 km/ hr, and then I would have also went on to explore African barren lands with him. But Africa is still to get software projects, so there aren’t many prospects of me shifting to Africa. 

 

The kid who played Alex and the African guy acted the hell out of themselves. The different Cheetahs used for the role of Duma too ,were quite a sport with their acting skills (OK! I am kidding now, but Hats  Off to their trainers). The story was very nice and appealing to basic needs of humanity. The interaction between animals and humans, and the characters of these interactions were interwoven beautifully in this short story. This was the second best animal movie I have seen, first being – Teri Meherbaniya. 

 

Ok, I was kidding, it is Haathi Mere Saathi.

 

 

Haikus From Hell.

So, I have written my first set of Haikus, and asked my friend, who is pro in poetry, to review them. He said, “Only Demons could have written Haikus like this, these are from hell”. Hence I got the title of this post.

Why so serious?
Source: underthegiantpenny.blogspot.com

***********************************************************************************************************************

Winter winds are soft,
No geyser in my bathroom,
Cold, Cough and Fever.

***********************************************************************************************************************
Girl looked at me,
In awe, I opened my mouth,
Lollipop fell off.

************************************************************************************************************************
Kids making paintings,
Vivid colors and creative.
Grand papa is blind.

*************************************************************************************************************************
Is exam over ?
Agony, apathy and hardship.
I have to pee now.

**************************************************************************************************************************
Great were those players,
Ganguly, Dravid, Sachin.
Kicked out of team.

***************************************************************************************************************************
Hrithik, Amir, Irfan
Deepika ,Vidhya, Jolie
Jhony lever best.

***************************************************************************************************************************
Dad came in the room,
Books, Books and books here and there,
Me watching movie.

****************************************************************************************************************************
Mom in the kitchen,
Chicken, chapati and kheer,
I have loose motions.

*****************************************************************************************************************************
Haikus are so tough,
Imagination required.
Hippopotamus!

******************************************************************************************************************************

Aren’t You Beautiful !

Source: http://www.123rf.com

Me and my school friend were waiting for someone at bus stop near my home. She was his college mate and I knew nothing about her except of the fact that she won Institutes’s Beauty contests all four years, organized under different functions. For someone like me from Engineering background, it was kind of hard to believe that other institutes organize beauty contests. Our college used to organize only non-beauty contests only.

So, I was kind of excited about meeting her, and my friend was obviously all “gaga” about her. “So, what are we supposed to do, after we meet her?” I asked, while looking at a lovely lady passing by us, with her ugly dog. It is sort of universal phenomenon all around the world that beautiful girls have ugly dogs- sometimes real, sometimes human. “We shall go and catch some movie, she is having a flight back to Bangalore tonight” He said, looking at the ugly dog and squeezing his nostrils in disgust. 

 

About fifteen minutes later, an Indica cab arrived at the bus stop and both of us stood up as if we were paying tribute to arrival of a queen. She stepped outside, I observed her foot which touched the ground before rest of her body would be visible, just like they show in Bollywood flicks for police officers. “Woodland shoe!”, I thought looking at her brown colored shoes, ‘What kind of a girl carry Woodland?”. She was definitely pretty, not “Katrina Kaif ” pretty but definitely “Justin Beiber” pretty. Decent height, a white Lacoste high collar Tee-Shirt, and a decent pair of blue jeans which I didn’t stare too much to identify the company, because of the place where they put the label on pants, not a decent place to stare after-all.

 

“Dude! Meet Mini”, my friend introduced us, and we had a formal handshake. From a girl’s standards, she definitely had huge hands and fingers. “Definitely not Mini !”, I thought.”So, what you guys want to do? You had lunch?” She asked. “Lets go and catch some movie. We can have lunch in the mall”, said my friend. So, we jumped into the cab she hired, and went to a nearest mall. “Where is your ladies purse?”, I asked Mini. “I don’t carry a ladies purse, I carry Dell laptop bag with me usually.”,she said. “You carry that bag everywhere? What about money and credit cards?” I asked, this time I was really interested in knowing her explanation.”I carry I small handwoven bag in my pocket, thats where I keep my money.”,she said and pulled out a small “Gypsy style”, multicolored fabric knitted bag from her pocket.”What about your make up kit and all other female accessories?”,asked my friend.”I carry that in my Laptop bag, she said, with a cold grim this time”. “But what if you have to go for a party?, You wouldn’t carry a laptop bag in a party then?”, I asked. My friend looked at me like he was saying “Dude, Enough!”.”I usually use my car to go, so I keep the bag in my car. “, she replied, and not in a polite manner.Though me and my friend were not convinced entirely, we chose to drop all the questions we had in our mind. She must have got this opinion that we majored in “How to harass someone politely.”, after this question-answer session. 

 

So, we reached the Cineplex in 20 min. I collected the tickets of a movie that I intended not to watch, but since she insisted that Akshay Kumar was her favorite, we thought we could do a favor to very beautiful girl, harassed by us just a few minutes ago. “Atleast this one has Katrina, she can watch Akki, we have Katrina.”, said my friend, making the ugliest face on earth. We had half an hour before the movie could start, so we went to a nearby cafe to get some small meal. 

 

“A Cold Coffee, please make sure that its not too sweet.” She ordered the waiter at the cafe. We stared at her with a little amazement. If you don’t like sugar, you don’t drink coffee, simple standard rule. “Lemon Soda, sweet and salt, and Veg sandwich”, I said. “Hold on! Make it double, I order the same”, said my friend.

 

After five minutes, our meal was tabled. “Start!”, my friend yelled in a dumped voice, and started staring at Mini. As the rules say, ladies should go first. Also, since our lemon soda were not tabled. She took a sip from the big cylindrical shaped transparent glass, in which the choco colored coffee looked very tempting. I cursed myself for not ordering that. She took another sip and looked up at the roof of the cafe. We followed her, and took a glance at roof, and failed to catch why we did so, or what she was staring at.Then she stood up and called the waiter. My friend moved his shoulders up and lips slightly down. I got what he was asking me, but I didn’t know the answer. 

 

“What is this? If I had to drink sugarcane juice, I would have bought it from outside at Rs 10 only, why would I come here?” She yelled at the waiter, and almost created a scene for the nearby 3-4 tables. My friend again moved his shoulders up and lips down. I thought, “Dude! Stop doing that.”. Well, the waiter also didn’t get what she was saying, so he asked, “Maaa’m ?”. “Why is this so sweet, I asked you not to make it too sweet, didn’t I?”,she said. “Yes ma’m, let me get you another one!”, he took that glass, and she sat down once again. She looked at us, and we knew she was the man and we were the ladies. “Calm down Mini”, said my friend. “Yes, I also need to calm down”, I said, while making a “Excuse me” gesture, and left for washroom.

 

When I came back, Mini and Mr.Sissy were discussing something of my interest.”Hello! You were definitely more beautiful than that girl. “, said my friend. “Nah! You are just saying this, don’t you!”, she was not asking, she rather looked quite convinced by his statement. “I am telling you, you were more beautiful, plus you got more marks than her, you got a better placement, you got a better boyfriend and you have me. Now tell me, aren’t you beautiful?”, asked my friend, and they both laughed. I tried to figure out if he really asked that question or just told her something. 

 

Meanwhile, the waiter came with a new glass of coffee, placed it on the table and left quietly. I looked and coffee and prayed to god, “God!Why coffee has to be choco colored?”. She took a sip while still in laughing phase. Suddenly the smile was gone, and her eyes went to grim look mode. I knew something had gone bad. My friend was also aware of that, because he suddenly stopped doing “Surrp-surrp” of his lemon soda. I looked at him and telepathically told him,”Dude! Lag gya kaam! (It happened again!)”. He telepathically replied,”Yes, lets eat our lunch before something happens”, while moving his eyes to sandwich and again looking at me.So, she stood up once again, and this time screamed at manager who was looking at her from his counter. 

 

“What is this? Why don’t you serve me the damn water now?”, she yelled. Manager came to our table running like Mario (from video games). Manager, too like waiter, asked, “Ma’m?”. “This doesn’t have sugar at all”, she yelled and continued,”First you serve me sugar syrup and now this?, why can’t you people serve a nice coffee, what is wrong?”. The manager looked at the waiter and telepathically conveyed him,”Tu toh gya aaj! (You are dead now!)”. Meanwhile, me and my friend were speeding up the processes of chewing the large sandwiches that we got. “Ma’m , let me get you another one”, said the manager. “Are you kidding me? How many times you have to do this to get it correct? Please get me the complaint book and email id of branch owner”, she said and looked at us. We took a glance at her, winked and got back to our bussiness-sandwiches. “Ma’m ! Please let me handle this at my own, this time it will be fine.”, requested the manager, with a voice as soft as child’s. “No, are you mentally harassing me? I am here to taste your experiments?”, she said, this time soberly. Accordingly we relaxed our jaws, and went a bit slower on sandwiches now.”Ma’m Please?”, urged manager, leaning a bit forward.

 

She took a minute and looked at the damn roof again. That minute, we also stopped chewing, as we were also eager to listen to the final judgment from her court of inquiry.”Okay, Don’t pour any sugar this time, and get me the sugar separately, will add as per my convenience. And also, I will not pay for this coffee now, for all the inconvenience I had to bear”, said Mini, as if she was really explaining some court judgment.”Okay ma’m, no issues.” 

 

Mini sat down smiling, looking at two of us ladies. We didn’t smile, as our mouth was full of weird stuff, sandwich and lime-soda.”Well people, I have got myself a free coffee!”, she said smiling. My friend swallowed the entire chunk in one go, while I looked at her, puzzled.”So, you deserve it!”, said my friend. “No-no, the coffee was perfect the first time only. I made up the entire scene to get my self a free cold coffee, it is just for fun.”, she said, with her lips making a perfect crescent. My friend looked at her as if his eyes got doubled the original size and as far as I was concerned, I felt like being kicked on my balls. My friend turned to me,and made a long eye contact with me, along with his weird open mouthed face. He turned to Mini, smiled, and said, “Aren’t you beautiful !”. And I knew, at once, he was not asking, but telling.