Showing posts with label Entertainment. Show all posts

My 400th Blog post - Romance with the world


The mile stone posts always make me tongue tied, rather pen tied.. No! keyboard shy.  Whatever! I started to write the post and so I hope I would finish this in exactly 10 minutes.

Such posts always has special mentions; a thanksgiving post.  My 100th post was a poetry recital from a friend and 200th post was all about me posing for office calendar and this and that.  300th post in gangnam style celebrating my blog.

400th post is for promises? dreams?

Promises is for new year eve - so, No!

Dreams: Everyone knows about my dreams now, more than me - so, No!

What else?

This time it I want to talk how small I am in this universe.

A feeble particle that starts its day early or late and wind up early or late and do nondescript things and feels useless and looks at the remaining part of the bigger world buzzing around doing important things like:

Sun starting the day early or wind up late, rolling on the sky, dating with clouds.
Moon staying all evening and romancing all through nights with fallen stars.
Seas staying up day and nights making wild love with waves and sands and fishes and octopus and giant blue waves.
Mountains with covered blanket of snow, yet feeling cold and feels an occasional stirring when the sun lights up the sky.
Planets that revolves round the sun usually fiddle but a wayward flirt with asteroids falling on their lap ending on an out of the world climax.
Earth opening up to swallow the world with in, when it is hungry for human skin.
Flowers blooming at the touch of the sun or the moon and fades as their beloved sets.
Animals roaming around at their will, no barriers, no restrictions, living their life as they wish and dying young and energetic.

How colourful and important the world is and how insignificant and grey Viji is when compared to the bigger world that comprises of bigger/smaller things.

With a sigh, I flitted though these lines.  Why am I cribbing instead of rejoicing?  Not that I do not have a caring family.  Not that I do not have good friends around me.  Not that I do not have a challenging wonderful vocation. Not that I do not have enough challenges. Not that I do not have passions that is not beyond reach.  Not that I do not have a set of dreams to follow through.

It is only that I look at the world and think they are doing wonderful things that I can't.

I now tried to look how they might envy me.

Sun: Sigh! I can't sleep late or afford to be lazy.
Moon: Sigh! I am not a Lothario and I want some peace and some time alone too.
Seas:  I wish I can stay away for a while, tucked inside the sky and feel the sky and clouds on me instead of waves and sands and fishes and octopus and giant blue waves.
Mountains: I want to shirk the snow during winters and gather snow during summers.  I want to lie down for a while and in bad need to rest my legs.
Planets:  Feeling guidy spinning round the sun.  Wish I could stop and rest my shoulders and what the hell! why these freaking asteroids choose me as their target. It hurts.. Ouch!
Earth: Now! listen you abuse me and anger me and I am forced to open up and gobble you all and do I enjoy it? No! I feel already heavy, please don't make me more heavier inside out too.
Flowers: Hypocrites! the sun's ray and moon's ray? you think that's enough?  The wind lover passing on pollen grains as though they do a favour and rushes away and expect me to get pregnant?
Animals:  Living in a constant fear, we survive and have to fight to live everyday. Where's the security?

Moral:  I am not going to say, be content! be greedy for things that might actually make you happy, yet at the same time not pressure you and weigh you down with greed that might drain the energy in you.  In other words be happy!

With love,
#youragonyaunt


Vishwaroopam - The road not taken




Having waited for a week to watch Vishwaroopam made me restless, curious and eager and I was at Sathyam Escape Cinemas one hour before the show time on 14th february. Though a weekday, the mall was crowded being St. Valentine's day.  All the men walking behind, beside their women, with foolish smiles, scary smiles (especially when they stretched their arm and point out to a shop). Everywhere valentine day posters, special programs, hearts seen from toffees to stuffed toys to cakes. Shopkeepers busy uttering a silent thanks to our saint.


I grabbed my cold coffee, popcorn with extra butter, a piece of creamy cake and potato wedges.  Mind it was for two people and not one. And this boy had a hearty appetite unlike me.

We entered the theatre 10 minutes before show time and settled in our seat to watch the film.

After all the hiatus and hiccups,  finally I started to watch the Vishwaroopam.

It was a new experience.  If not for the Tamil dialogues, it moved with the same pace, style like a nicely shot Hollywood action thriller. I might be naive, when I refer to English films as Hollywood films. From the land of Bollywood, Gollywood, Tollywood, I am quite religious about the woods.

I expected a strong storyline, but I got nicely made sequences of shots.
The kathak song and dance by now older Kamalhassan (tried to identify him with the elder kamal of salangai oli. Man! ageing is beyond our imagination) is good. But, somehow the expressions are lost behind those wrinkles on his face. I think the hardship of shooting such a spectacular film shows the strain.

The movie shifts between flashback and present just like Hey Ram and  there are places if you are not attentive might miss the shift.

There are loads of action perfectly shot. At one place when the Jeep fall on a man, you can't help but gasp. There's this other place when the remains of a body land before Kamal Hassan after a bomb blast. For us, who never used to grumble but watch, when they show cardboard boxes for computers in Doordarshan Tuesday dramas, this is sheer luxury.

Humour laced through out the film, not jarring but makes us smile. Thank god! Err.. rather Kamal for not having seperate track for humour.

Andrea, shekar kapoor had very less role to perform,  almost non existent. Hope to see their performance in the part 2. Pooja Kumar and Rahul Bose stood out and whoever lent the voice to Pooja is amazing, for once the Brahmin slang is perfect and not exaggerated.

I loved the scene when Pooja climbs the stair and lie down on her bed, Kamal snoring with his eyes open. The expression on his face is priceless. The expression on Pooja's face after she witnesses her husband's valor is priceless too.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy a joy through out. BGM definitely needs a special mention. Doesn't go overboard.

Lots of characters are shown, to imply the depth of other characters and for us to determine the nature of other character. The lady doctor, Rahul's wife, his son, even the Horse that's shot by Kamal Hassan. Not sure if this would reach all audiences.

The film shot in the US and Afganistan, the location and scenes are well framed and neatly arrayed.

I still am quizzing for the reason why the film was banned. Only bad was shown as bad makes me quiz even more.

But, why is that when the film ended, I sat for few more minutes... Did I expect more? Hoping the second part happens and even if it does, hope it doesn't get chopped off for reasons that cannot be explained.

One has to agree Kamal is an entertainer and near perfect in what he does. It was worth the wait. But, mera dil maangae more kamal sahab... :)

Let God bless his atheist son!




wisdom comes with experience

At one, I learnt crawling was fun. At forty one, I still feel crawling is fun #blamemykneesnotme