Saturday, November 17, 2007

Om Shanti Om: And why you should see it!

Om Shanti Om, SRK and Farah Khan's magnum opus, which saw marketing gimmicks unprecedented in movie history has generated mixed reviews. A true Bollywood lover that I am I lapped up the entire show off from the guest stars, the SFX, the rebirth et all. Fellow OSO fan club member, Piyush has agreed for a guest post...so here we go...

There are movies that make absolute sense and then there are those that dont make any sense. Well, this one is neither. A different approach to seeing this movie will definitely get you
to appreciate it. And why not. I myself have mostly been a very selective, "sensible movie" watcher, easily downplaying the clutter of hindi films that are churned out every Friday.

But to think of it, we are so damn used to measuring, analysing & judging everything around us that we deny those poor filmmakers all the freedom that they so rightly deserve. People, Actions, Situations and everything else you can think of is subject to our ever-analysing minds. You probably have been going to the movies either based on those sidey reviews, or some friends whom you cant deny, or many just to enjoy the crowd at the so many mushrooming chic
multiplexes. For once, maybe its time to discount everything around you that tells you what to and go out and explore it yourself. And dont forget to book two tickets: one to seat your brains (yeah, you heard me right, get them off now!) and the other to slide your *ss into (make yourself at home!).

Sample these:
"SRK astonished at DP, DP waves and walks, DP dress tassle entangled, DP realises and sorts, SRK cant still believe, DP walks and looks back, SRK feels the aah!!"There is a beautiful background score while this is on. The score and these feelingsreturn with new look DP (aka Sandy) meets new look SRK (aka Om Kapoor). And thats where an immediate connection is created!

"Or consider the super duper celebrity packed "Deewangi" number, where each actor performs
his/her dance step and entices the audience to again connect that to some earlier movie song.
The satisfaction you get from sucessfully tracing that is probably what the director was aiming for. Its a simple but innovative way of keeping the audience in the wonder-think-find-enjoy loop."

The magic of OSO, more than anything else, is in those small things these guys have tinkered with. Things that probably appear miniscule against the huge canvas. But things that actually build up stuff and literally drive the movie. Sometimes explicitly, sometimes subconsciously. And all that coupled with good music (they ve covered every genre under the sun), some super art direction (with nicely done sets and novel lighting effects) and comedy that appears cheap upfront (but you laugh all your way back home) is sure to make it a true entertainer.

Unless ofcourse you still cant stop asking the Hows and the Whys. Hello! We arent at a quizzing
contest, are we? Puhleez! No questions, No answers! Just sit back & enjoy!

Post dedicated to DK - for giving a dolt like me all this free webspace - costs a lot these days you know!!
# SRK = Shahrukh, DP = Deepika

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Yup. its a post!

My cell phone jinx continues and my year old Sony Ericsson began having display problems. By problems I mean there was no display. For close to a month the phone worked on high end voice recognition software ( my ears) in the absence of not knowing who was calling..

..gela gela dil gela gela..(yes that was my ring tone-not out of choice believe me)

me (is it the man of my dreams or ICICI credit card wala...the two are not overlapping categories): hey bhagwan pata nahi kaun hai..

..flips it open...

me(deep, sexy voice): hello

guy-i-dont-know: abbe sun woh jo kal bola tha tune kar diya?

me(back to shrill, screechy self , recognizing it to be Mr.X, who did not belong to either of the afore mentioned categories but happened to be a fellow fest cordinator) : haan yaar kar diya hain and I passed it to Mr.R yaar..usse pooch lena ...chal laters..

guy-i-have-recognized: achcha thikh hain..aur tujhe jo woh doc chahye tha woh mere room pe padha hai le jaana ..bye..

Happily I skip over to X's room where he is busy pulling his hair(literally) over the latest demand by the music band we have called.

me: oye , woh doc dikha

X: kaunsa?

me: abhi jo bola tha

X: kaunsa?

me: yaar tu bhi na...

..gela gela dil gela....
..flip open...

me : hello

guy-i-thought-was-X: yaar R ke paas nahi hai..tu kya bol rahi thi?

me(this is not X, X is in front of me, Oh God...I have no clue who you are and what you want): tujhe write up chahye tha na..

guy-i-thought-was-X(exasperated ): yaar mujhe woh numbers chahye the...

me( small war dance...oh i know..this is Mr.M who had asked for this yesterday..): arre M, woh shaam tak de dungi..mujhe laga you wanted the write up...

guy-who-is actually-M: why would I need that, D tu bhi na...


Slowly people learnt to identify themselves when I picked up, and my guesses also improved.
But there were people who still SMSed and expected replies.
Soon the inbox was full and the warning beeps were a headache.

How I called up jury members, fellow participants, friends, family without the display can make a small ha-ha-look-i-fell-on-my-head book by itself, but that's for some other day.

Like Hindi movies of 70's picture abhi baaki hai, because this Diwali a harassed Dad was forced to buy Nokia 5310 .

Well its only super sleek, plays awesome music, 2 megapixel camera, 4GB RAM..vagera vagera..
And yes my family is going to starve for the next 1 year paying off the loan taken at 18% to pay off the Nokia dealer..

PS: Placement fever has gripped the campus
My computer is back to doing what it does best-not work
I promise to be more regular in my trash talk here once it works again