Magic of Books

It is said 'Books are your best friend' and I do second that quote because for me books has always been a friend whom I could depend on anytime anywhere. Some people have their 2 am friends and 4 a.m. friend for me it has been one or the other book who has given me company during such times. I always have a book ready for every situation or every mood of mine. I was not an avid reader but the day I got introduced to the magic of friendship with books I promised myself to stick to them forever.

It all started at a very early age in my case, maybe when I was in fifth standard by my brother. The first book I laid my hands was on Enid Blyton's 'Famous Five' series. Then I explored other teen detective series like 'The Secret Seven', 'The Hardy Boys' and 'Nancy Drew'. I still remember how along with my friends from our society I started snooping around houses and lonely buildings to catch hold of some mystery or case and become detectives like the Famous Five kids. When I think about those days I still sit and laugh. I still remember we got a bottle of white pills lying outside the window of a lonely house and I wore gloves to pick up that bottle suspecting it to be drugs and assuming that this place might be used by drug peddlers or drug addicts to conduct their criminal activities. I along with my friends used to take turns to keep a watch on that house only to be bitten by a stray dog.

 

When I grew older I preferred more fun based books like Ruskin Bond series, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn Adventures, Malgudi Days and Swami. The easy flow of words always caught my attention and always transported me to a different world where I could actually visualize these characters and situations. My growing up days was full of Fairies, Ogres, Goblins, Detectives, and Mysteries etc. I often wondered if I could write something similar to those stories which I loved reading. Maybe the germ of becoming a writer took roots in those growing up days and I can say that with confidence after seeing those innumerous diaries that I wrote during those days.

Then came a phase in my life when I preferred only English Classics like Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austin series, Shakespeare etc and I always wondered how the era would be when these books were written. I explored more about the era from history books and encyclopaedia.

As I started going to college more mature stuff started attracting my eyes and I started stocking more and more books which were ultimately sold off by my mother one day to a 'raddiwala' because she never knew the importance of those books in my life. Today I do have a small library of my own which has been plundered several times by my so called friends who always fail to return the books they borrow from me. I don't blame them because books definitely have a magic of its own which prompts you to do so.

Every stage of my life was influenced by some book or the other. Like when I read 'The Pastor's Wife' I was drawn towards the protagonist's trauma and pain in a socialist country like Russia. I could imagine the pain felt by the Pastor and his wife who were kept captive in Jail for smuggling a 'Bible' to Russia. I could feel the torture they went through for sticking to Jesus and for worshiping the Almighty.

Apart from 'The Pastor's Wife' the book that really shook me out was Khalid Hosseni's 'The Kite Runner' a very emotional personal saga of the author. His growing up days in Afghanistan and how he betrayed his best friend who for him got brutally raped and abused by other bully's in their locality. The story still brings goose bumps to me whenever I read it. Same was the case with 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by the same author. The emotional drama of two women connected by one man married to them and their struggle to keep eachother happy under difficult situations was something that really touched my heart. Books like these are rare and so they are special.

Every book has a story to tell and every reader has a story to remember, like me. Hope the saga continues till I lie down to rest forever.

Review: Ramaa: The Saviour

After the busy Diwali holidays I was looking forward to watch Ramaa: The Saviour as I was very impressed by the publicity material especially the 3D posters of the movie, something that was never attempted in India before.  Another reason for me to look forward to Ramaa: The Saviour was because it is a movie made for children and it has been noticed more often that there are not many films made for children, unlike the West. In the West this genre has been explored many a times and apart from the kids it is also equally enjoyed and favoured by teens and adults.

Ramaa: The Saviour enters a zone where no Hindi film has visited in the past i.e. Video gaming. However every concept that looks good on papers might not always look good on screen. Few of the recent releases prove this point eg: Action Replay.

Ramaa: The Saviour tells the story of six kids - Rohan, Riddhi, Kunal, Komal, Sameer and Saanjh. The kids play a newly launched video game - The Last Battle - and while playing the game, they suddenly find themselves on an isolated island. The children, while exploring the island, run into trouble. Riddhi is attacked by a giant, Vali [Khali], but is rescued by Ramaa [Sahil Khan], who lives in this jungle all alone. Danger arrives in the form of a boat commanded by Kali with a small army of mercenaries and a scientist-assistant Samara [Tanushree Dutta]. The rest of the tale depicts the fight between the good and the evil.

The best thing about Ramaa: The Saviour is that the casting is perfect. Every character suits his / her role and the surprise element is Tanushree Dutta doing action sequences like a pro. Sahil Khan's role is similar to Tarzan or George of the Jungle and he looks apt for the role with his kind of physique and body language. All the six children are fantastic and so are the villians. However the screenplay needed a lot of polishing and explanations eg: I was not able to understand Vali's connection with Ramaa and the reason for them to fight with eachother. Moreover it is not explained properly if Vali is a demon or human or a ghost. Also Tanushree is shown as one of the members of the evil clan however she surprisingly joins hands with Ramaa without much justifications.

Debutant Director Haadi Abrar should be applauded for opting for an innovative plot, however the writing lets him down. The action scenes by Peter Hein superb especially the fight scene on the river which is purely fantastic. Sejal Shah's cinematography captures the forests with expertise.  Music is a huge let down by debutant music directors Siddharth-Suhas.

On the whole, Ramaa: The Saviour is not a promising effort although the concept was good and unique.

Big Career Swaps or Flops

The recent news to do the rounds is of Adnan Sami turning hero with Bela Sehgal's new movie. This is not the first time that a singer or a music director or a cricketer has turned towards acting. However, a deep study of the career swaps done by celebrities from different fields to acting has always proved to be a huge 'flop' or blunder for the concerned person.

It all started with wrestler Dara Singh who turned hero with 'Ud Chala Jatayu' in 1949. Dara Singh is the only sportsperson to hold his own among Bollywood Superstars all these years and has had a successful movie career not only in Hindi but also in Punjabi movies. He also played the role of Lord Hanuman in the television series Ramayan telecasted on Doordarshan in the mid eighties. However other sportsperson who followed his footsteps like Sunil Gavaskar, Sandeep Patil, Vinod Kambli, Ajay Jadeja etc were hooted out by the general public as they were not able to visualize or digest their favourite sportsman running around trees behind the heroines. These cricketers are worshipped on the cricket pitch however the moment they donned greasepaint public showed them a thumbs down.

Similarly we also saw singers like Shailendra Singh, Shaan, Sonu Nigam, Palash Sen and Himesh Reshammiya turning into actors with limited or no success. Himesh Reshammiya after the fluke hit 'Aap Ka Suroor' risked his singing and music composing career for acting but all his other subsequent movies like Karzzz, Radio and Kajrare turned out to be box office turkeys. The only exception to the rule was the Late Kishore Kumar who was a successful actor and singer.

The same was with models who deserted the ramp shows for movies only to fall flat. It was always believed by the industry people that models are wooden and they cannot act untill Juhi Chawla, Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen, John Abraham and Arjun Rampal proved them wrong with their acting and box office successes. Right now modelling is considered as the first step towards stardom and Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta, Dia Mirza, Upen Patel etc are proof to the same.

Now the latest entrants to Bollywood are boxer Vijendra Singh and Tennis player Leander Paes who are working in couple of movies. Now lets see if history repeats itself or if these guys can break the jinx which will lead more players to enter Tinseltown.

Movie Review: Action Replay

Mindless comedies are the flavour of the season and this Diwali we have not one but two such movies hitting the theatres. After 'Golmaal 3' I went to watch 'Action Replay' as I have always liked Vipul Shah movies especially 'Aankhen','Waqt' and 'Namaste London'.

'Action Replay' like Vipul's first movie 'Aankhen' is also adapted from a Gujrati play with the same name and it is nowhere closely identical or remotely inspired by Brad Pitt starrer 'Curious Case of Benjamin Button'. It is definitely a Sci-fi movie where one of the principal character travels back in time to set his parents love life in place so that their present crisis can be resolved. It does sound like the english movie 'Back to the Future' but the similarity just ends there.

Bunty [Aditya Roy Kapur] loves his girlfriend Tanya, but runs a mile whenever she mentions marriage. His phobia with matrimony stems from his parents Kishen [Akshay Kumar] and Mala's [Aishwarya Rai Bachchan] acrimonious marriage. But now Bunty is in a fix. Tanya's grandfather, Professor Anthony Gonsalves [Randhir Kapoor], has given him an ultimatum -- get married to Tanya or stop seeing her. Bunty knows that unless he does something fast, his dreams of living happily ever after with Tanya will bite the dust.

As Bunty's surprise party for his parent's 35th wedding anniversary deteriorates into yet another explosive fight between Kishen and Mala, he decides to turn back the clock and rewrite Kishen and Mala's destiny and alter their disastrous marriage into a romantic affair of the hearts.

And how does he do that? By using the professor's time machine to travel back in time. To a time when Kishen and Mala were not married... To a time when Kishen's father Rai Bahadur [Om Puri] and Mala's mother Bholi Devi [Kirron Kher] were sworn enemies... To a time when Kishen was a certified nerd, bullied merciless by Kundan [Rannvijay]... To a time when Mala couldn't stand the sight of Kishen and took great pleasure in ragging him silly.

Bunty has to transform his father from a wimp into an eligible bachelor and his mother from a tomboy into the epitome of feminine grace. Then he has to attempt an impossible task -- make them fall in love with each other. And finally he has to make his grandparents agree to their love marriage.

When a movie with concept like time travel is attempted then it's imperative that the writing should be so persuasive that the viewer is influenced into believing that people can travel into the past or future. Here if the director had used few scenes to give some more information on time travel then it would have enhanced the impact of the story, but whatever minimal is said about time travel in the film doesn't register effectively. The time machine looks tacky and tawdry and does very little in convincing you that this piece of scrap can really transport you into a departed era, 1975 in this case.

In the acting department Akshay, Aishwarya, Aditya Roy Kapoor and Rannvijay did a very good job. Rajpal Yadav, Om Puri and Kiron Kher are good in their respective roles while Neha Dhupia and Randhir Kapoor are totally wasted. Sudeepa who acts as Aditya's girlfriend doesnt have much to do apart from looking good a bad role to debut with.

Full marks to Nitin Desai for creating the 70's era come alive in the form of sets. The dress designing department has done a good job alongwith Pritam who has given a very 70'ish music to the movie.
Vipul Shah does a good job but compared to his previous directorial ventures Action Replay is a bit of a let down. However on a whole Action Replay is a very good time pass movie for a weekend at the box office you have to wait and watch.

Highly Recommended :)

Movie Review : Golmaal 3

After the dull last two weeks at the box office, the diwali week has opened to two big budget movies 'Golmaal 3' and 'Action Replay'. Golmaal 3 like its previous two parts is another mindless comedy and to tell you frankly its a good attempt and raises the bar for Golmaal 4.

Golmaal 3 although looks inspired by Ashok Kumar, Pearl Padamsee starer 'Khatta Meetha' and 'Hamare Tumhare' which in turn were inspired by the English Classic 'Yours, Mine and Ours'. The writers have done a very good job by taking few elements from the above mentioned movies and then blending with the Rohit Shetty type of humor.

Golmaal 3 highlights the story of hatred between two bunch of siblings. Ajay Devgn [Gopal] lives with his brother Shreyas Talpade [Laxman], mother Ratna Pathak Shah [Geeta aka Guddi] and best friend Kareena Kapoor [Daboo]. Their world collides with another trio, Arshad Warsi [Madhav], Tusshar Kapoor [Lucky] and Kunal Khemu [Laxman].

Arshad, Tusshar and Kunal's father Mithun Chakraborty [Pritam] and Ajay and Shreyas' mother Ratna Pathak Shah decide to rekindle their relationship and with Kareena's persuasion even get married. But there's a problem: The kids detest each other. To complicate matters further, there's a thief Johnny Lever [Puppy] and his henchmen [Vrajesh Hirjee and Sanjay Mishra] and a necklace that's hidden somewhere.

One thing I would like to add here. Any movie with eight main characters would have led to a huge confusion and chaos however after watching the movie i felt that each character was well etched out and by the time the movie concludes, you don't feel that the show belongs to any particular actor. The movie belongs to everyone!

There are many scenes involving Johnny Lever that raises huge laughters. Johnny Lever has delievered a fantastic job and is a pleasure to watch him act as a scatterbrained and absentminded theif. Ajay Devgn does a good job while Kareena definitely walks and talks like a tom boy. Rest of the cast that includes Arshad, Shreyas, Tushar, Kunal Khemu, Mithunda and Ratna Shah are very good, especially Tushaar who does an entire emotional outburst in his typical dumb way and he has definitely delivered another award worthy role.

The only thing that stands out as a sore point is the climax which has become very typical with Rohit Shetty movies where he uses the entire starcast like Priyadarshan. Even the music by Pritam is a big let down not even one song is worth humming apart from the signature 'Golmaal' song.

All in all this movie is a must watch for people who love Rohit Shetty's brand of movies and doesn't like to question the story. At the box office this movie will definitely do good business like the previous Golmaal outings.

Making 'Hissss'tory

Hello Friends,
Its been a long time that I wrote anything on my blog. There has been multiple reasons for not updating my blog on a regular basis. 1) Too many events and writing work that is taking a lot of my time. and 2) Travelling - yes travelling ... I have been travelling extensively these days from Pune to Trivandrum, from Trivandrum to Bangalore, from Bangalore to Coorg and then back to Bangalore only to go back to Trivandrum and later move on to Pune and Mumbai uffff....

In between all these travelling and busy schedules I got some time to see few movies that released in the last few weeks. Being an avid movie lover I have been watching all the major releases every week untill the last few weeks.

I started with Anjaana Anjaani which I wanted to watch for 3 reasons, one it was written by a fellow writer and friend Advaita Kala, second it was Siddharth Anand and Sajid Nadiadwala's movie and finally because of Ranbir, Priyanka and the music (Soul stirring music by Vishal-Shekhar - especially Tu na Jaane Aas Pass hai Khuda). To begin with many of my friends didn't like the movie and adviced me against watching it but I went ahead and watched it. Although certain parts of the movie were slow and boring, overall I loved the movie and the concept (may be many of the critics and my friends would like to strangulate me for liking it....however I never go on other people's word)

Then I moved onto watch 'HISSS' the Mallika Sherawat movie to hit the town directed by another director friend of my Jennifer Lynch. I went with a lot of expectations eventhough Jen had told me that the movie was taken away from her mid-way by the production team. However I wanted to see how it  had into and also I wanted to see the interpretation of a British Director about the much explored snake theme in the Hindi movies. I was surprised to see my friend and I sitting alone in the theater with few movie ushers trying to gape at the skin show dished out by Mallika. The movie was one of the most 'shittiest' movie I have ever seen (sorry to use that word but thats what came into my mind). I vent out my feelings to my dear friend Jen who was upset with my criticism but she hadn't watched the entire movie after it had made it to the theatres. I would say to her 'BEWARE' dont watch the movie or you yourself will be 'HISSSSS'tory.

'Cry Cry itna Cry' John sang out to the director's wife and co-star Pakhi in the movie, but it was us the audience who needed the consolation for watching a bore fare from Abbas Tyrewala and AR Rahman who had earlier made the immensely popular youth centric movie 'Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na'. We cannot deny the fact that JTYJN was from the stables of the highly talented Aamir Khan. After watching 'Jhoota Hi Saahi' even I want to believe  that Aamir would have personally supervised or 'ghost directed' it as most of the Bollywood dignitaries always belived. I took AR Rahman's name above because there was not even a good song that would stay in our mind for long. Off late ARR has been churning out mediocre songs which doesnt justify his great talent eg: Raavan, JHS and yes Robot too. After watching the movie I felt like calling up Abbas Tyrewala and telling him to go back to his lyric and dialogue writing than making any more blunders like 'Jhoota Hi Sahi'.

Then I saw 'Robot' wow what a movie...seriously I am not saying it sarcastically but truly. The special effects and the direction was par with any Hollywood production although the story was not that great shakes but there was novelty. Rajni Sir was awesome...no wonder he is called the 'Super Star' of the Centuary. He was wonderful although Aishwarya has nothing much to do apart from looking beautiful and she definitely scores high points for her looks and clothing in the movie. AR Rahman as usual was mediocre with his music (God knows when we can hear the original ARR). I am not surprised that Robot has made more than 350 crores on the box office worldwide. A super thrilling movie and I quite enjoyed it and would look forward to more Rajni movies....

Hope the Diwali brings in more good movies at the box office that will put back my regular smile while watching them...Heres looking forward to Golmaal 3, Action Replay and Guzaarish....



Till then Chao...

Book to Movie...A different view point

These days I get a lot of inquiry about converting 'Knocked Up' into a movie. I do understand that most of the books have always found a special place in a readers heart and mind and they want to see the same being translated onto the silver screen. However, after watching 'Eat Love Pray' I have a different view point altogether.

'Eat Love Pray' - The book written by Elizabeth Gilbert found a special place in the readers heart which in turn made the book one of the bestsellers of this decade. The book connected with the readers because everyone at one point of time in life has faced similar situations or dilemmas like trouble in finding what we actually want in life and difficulty in understanding who we really are. Our quest for deeper meanings in life keeps us going but there comes a stage when nothing seems satiable. We identified with Liz's character.

The movie although adapted from the book looses the heart and falls flat on the face. The story that germinated in Elizabeth Gilberts brain and the story that Ryan Murphy interpreted in his own style and understanding doesn't match at all.

Eat Pray Love the film, on the contrary, fails miserably at conveying the emotional turmoil of Liz, the turmoil that forces her to leave everything behind and romance loneliness instead. The cause of her mental upheaval that forces her to disconnect from her familiar world stays mysterious and so do her woes.

Liz (Julia Roberts) in her mid 30's is unhappy. She is unhappy with a husband who loves her deeply. She is unhappy with her successful career as a travel writer. She is unhappy in the company of good friends who've always supported her. She is unhappy in her post-marital relationship with a younger David (James Franco) who's crazy about her. Liz is basically unhappy with herself as she longs to find 'balance' in her life. She thus sets for Italy-India-Bali voyage to find herself.

You fail to understand what Liz lacks in life in the first place. As said before, Murphy's poor script only makes Liz's woes look pointless. Her 12 month voyage to three different countries in order to find her 'balance' thus seems futile. The horrid script also fails to establish the other characters, let alone the central character. Most of the back stories have been chopped off. The scenes have no connect with each other, story struggles when it shuttles between past-present and absurd is what this makes the film look like in the end. You feel nothing for the protagonist or anybody you see onscreen.

Loads of stereotypes further disappoint you. Italians are always happy and love to indulge in animated conversations, Buffaloes, cows and elephants need to be in every frame of the film's picturisation in India (wonder how they forgot snakes) and love has to happen with the man who rammed you off the road.

Italy chapter seems clichéd, India further clichéd and the only chapter of the film that works to a certain extent is Bali, thanks to a gorgeous Javier Bardem and the beautiful green locales of Bali. Perhaps Murphy should have chosen just the 'love' section of the book for his film!

Julia Roberts apparently chose to play Elizabeth Gilbert without meeting the author as she didn't want to imitate her. Somehow the actor's experiment doesn't work as she seems disconnected from the character she portrays. The 43 year old superstar also looks a tad too old to play Liz who is in her early 30's. Javier Bardem does his job well as Liz's Bali lover and seems to have established an expertise at wooing American women abroad. He did the same in Woody Allen's Vicky Christina Barcelona, the later being a hugely superior film. Richard Jenkins as Liz's spiritual advisor in India, impresses too.

Considering, a film based on 'Soul searching' and 'self discovery', Eat Pray Love is extremely shallow and absurd. You rack your brain throughout the never-ending film wondering whys and hows of Liz's life, answers for which you never get. Pizza, Javier, Bali are the only things that make a drag like Eat Pray Love bearable.

So if ever my book gets converted into a movie I would see to it that I am totally involved with the creative process to keep a check on the understanding part between the director and the author; in this case 'I'. So that the fans and readers who have liked my book shouldn't feel cheated or disappointed....