THINGS TURN AROUND

THINGS TURN AROUND

Just a few years ago, I thought that the place where I reside is almost ideal. It takes 5 mins and minimum fare in an auto to go to the station, one end of the lane is a dead end, so no traffic no honking horns..basically a peaceful life. In an apartment having just 6 flats, water would never be a problem at all. But year by year slowly but surely the things have turned around. Today the same peaceful place is nightmare..so much so that the old or the disabled cannot even think of attempting to cross the road….the horns are a constant nuisance…in the speed of life people are forgetting the basics that when you are passing a residential area you should control the urge to honk…Both sides of the road have been declared no parking zones….and there is no parking lot in our apartment…so now, while the Government is making money fining the car owners, we are at the mercy of neighboring society to allow us to park our cars. The water cut is so much that now there is no enough water for all together not more than 20 people. The irony is that the 5 star hotels , I have seen, waste so much of water and they don’t face a cut. What is the priority, basics or luxury, I can’t fathom!

Just a few years ago, I thought that the place where I reside is almost ideal. It takes 5 mins and minimum fare in an auto to go to the station, one end of the lane is a dead end, so no traffic no honking horns..basically a peaceful life. In an apartment having just 6 flats, water would never be a problem at all. But year by year slowly but surely the things have turned around. Today the same peaceful place is nightmare..so much so that the old or the disabled cannot even think of attempting to cross the road….the horns are a constant nuisance…in the speed of life people are forgetting the basics that when you are passing a residential area you should control the urge to honk…Both sides of the road have been declared no parking zones….and there is no parking lot in our apartment…so now, while the Government is making money fining the car owners, we are at the mercy of neighboring society to allow us to park our cars. The water cut is so much that now there is no enough water for all together not more than 20 people. The irony is that the 5 star hotels , I have seen, waste so much of water and they don’t face a cut. What is the priority, basics or luxury, I can’t fathom!

POV

2 Bollywood movies have released in recent times. Both of them big banner, good (well known) starcast, good ‘stories’, well executed films. What is one more common thing between them? Both very disappointing at the box office. The two films I am reffering to are Saif and Kareena starrer ‘Kurbaan’ and Ranbir Kapoor starrer ‘Rocket Singh- Salesman of the year’.

I think the biggest drawback of the two films is that they are high on story but low on so called ‘entertainment’. Why does every another hit in Indian cinema have to be a story of he meets her, she meets him bla bla bla, or judwaas one good one bad or reincarnation. Nothing against those films at all. They were good films in their own way and got success that they deserved. But what is hard to digest is the receptivity to something unexplored. In the west, films like ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ have been path breakers. So why does a Rocket Singh, a film which has so much to say and is yet so simple doesn’t see the light of success? What went wrong with Kurbaan is beyond my understanding, it is one of the better executed films of the year, superb performances, great direction, formidable script and is high on drama and tension. It has good music too..yet the trade pundits have to put it down as a losing proposition. Strange are the ways of the world!

Coming back to ‘Rocket Singh…’, the film simply makes me feel proud of Indian Cinema. Here we have a director who has so much range that he gives you ‘Ab tak Chappan’, then ‘Chak De India’ and then ‘Rocket Singh’. Though none are formula films the first two were hugely successful but the third one is no bad either. Another positive from the film is Ranbir. He can pull off Ajab Prem and then superbly portray Harpeet Singh!!! Kudos !! Success or not, it is heart warming to see that such films and stories are being made!!!

P'l'AY and PARK

A decade ago, when I was in ‘teens’
There was a ground with barren scenes.

Sunday was the day, we children would play
Cricket and football made up the day.

April, May, June was the season prime
No time for lunch, no time to dine.

Out of our teens, we friends were thrown out of the ground
The space was now used for parking the wheels round

Once a park, now it has an ‘ing’
The thought to me is very disturbing.

My childhood is gone, my childhood is done
But what about the generations next to come?

Where will they fall!, where will they rise!,
Where will they fight!, where will they play!
The space once meant for this now has status to display!

The worst poem ever!

Guessing...
The rhythm of today is ever so stange
For a city like Mumbai it is completely out of range.

Autos,buses,cars are less to be seen
I guess to Braboune the people have been

Yes, it's a Friday,but empty roads here are anyday strange
I guess, Mumbai has halted to see 'Sehwag carnage'

Carnage was not to be, Sehwag was dismissed early,
The city was back and it looked like daily, the hustle and bustle you could see clearly.

In the evening I went out to shop,
to a market so crowded it is difficult to hop.
Today, for a change, I could see empty ground
Autos and pedestrains were seen turning around.

I got down the auto and walked down the lane
A cop hushed me away using his cane

How strange it feels, how strange it looks
A market always crowded bearing an empty look

"May be there was accident"
"No there was firing"
Thats what I heard other passers murmuring.

I rushed back home and put the TV on
"It must be on news" I was wondering
But that case was not to be
What had happned I keep guessing!


Regards
Pratik

BRAVO!!!

At the end of day one of the third test match between India and Sri Lanka, being played at (CCI) Mumbai, Sri Lanka was 366/8. Just discussing the match with a friend on G Talk I remember mentioning that too many runs were given away by India in the day though they did well to pick up 8 wickets. What was etched in my mind was a game played in Mumbai, though it was at Wankhede Stadium, between India and Australia. Australia failed to chase down 100 odd runs. The villain was the pitch where the ball turned square. Why I was reminded of that match because yesterday too the ball was turning a lot. Imagine that too on the 1st day of a match. The thought of India chasing down a total batting 4th and opposition having a spinner of the caliber of Murlitharan, I thought the damage was already done.

Come day 2. What happened was something unimaginable. A man called Virender Sehwag went berserk and smashed 280 odd runs in a day alone. Gambhir’s replacement Murli Vijay and Dravid gave him good company and India piled on 440 runs in a day where the full quota of 90 overs wasn’t bowled and good 5 overs were used up by Sri Lankan batsmen. Just imagine a plight of opposition which has put on close to 400 runs in their innings. The same day the total is wiped off and they have already conceded 50 run lead to the opposition and what’s worse they still have 9 wickets to take which includes the highest run getter in the history of world cricket who is still waiting for his turn to bat. The bowler, or magician should I say, who has close to 800 test wickets in his kitty, went for more than hundred runs in just 20 overs without bowling a maiden over.

It was not the amount of runs that gladdened me. It was the authority in which Mr Sehwag got these runs that was striking. Its quite surprising that a batsman who was almost written off by the experts as a test opener because of ‘lack of technique’ has already had 2 triple centuries (next to Sir Bradman and Brain Lara) and has 6 double hundreds which is highest by an Indian (a team which boasts of players like Gavaskar, Tendulkar, Dravid and the list goes on). And out of 17 centuries that he has amassed in 72 tests he has 12 scores which are more than 150! And all this at a career strike rate of more than 80.

Sehwag has had a very refreshing approach to his batting and has won us tests out of nowhere. The kind of starts he has given along with Gambhir in the last 18 months or so has been just outstanding. Remember the match against England last year in Chennai where India was chasing 387 to win with nearly 110 overs to bat. The safe bet would have been a draw. India would have scrapped through without conceding a match to the opposition. What did Sehwag do? He cleaned up 100 of those runs by the end of 4th day so India remaining with 287 to get on the last day with all wickets in hand and thus having a realistic chance of winning the match. He has done that again, this time in Mumbai. Match has 3 days to go. Anything is possible. But from yesterday to today there is one big difference. Sri Lanka was in front yesterday but from now on India look the favourites. Looks like Sri Lanka would have to wait few more years to get a test win in India and looks like India is all set to be the Rank 1 team in ICC Test rankings for the first time. Kudos! Team India! Kudos! Sehwag!

POINT OF VIEW 2

With a person of Aamir Khan's stature being involved in a film you expect the cinema to be something totally refreshing. TZP and Jaane Tu..were two movies he offered in the past 6 months. Though not producing this time hes seen in much awaited and much hyped GHAJANI. But sadly, this one according to me, cannot be named in the same league as TZP. Both the films are as different as chalk and cheese but still TZP was almost flawless. But Ghajani comes with its share of detterents as well. Firstly the plusses of the film would definately be Aamir. He uses his eyes brilliantly. His physique is sure to impress all. His acting phenomenal. See him in the scene where he breaks down in the hospital in front of Jiah Khan. Asin is another winner in the film. Her performance is commendable. Music is classy as you expect with AR Rehman. Now for the minusses- the main pillars on which you develop a great cinema i.e the story/screenplay and the editing are let down on occassions.There are portions where the writing is fantastic but there are more places where it is a letdown. Certain parts of the screenplay look too unbelievable and illogical. There was a scope to cut down the length of the film from 3 hrs to more efficient 2 hour plus. The Aamir- Asin track goes on for much too longer than necessary. Coming back to the screenplay the character of Jiah Khan is the weakest link of the story.

In all an all the film is good for a watch neither worth 4.5 rating as given by some critcs neither deserves just a 2. The rating would be somewhere around 3.

POINT OF VIEW

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is the latest offering by YRF. And I feel the effort is not too bad. It is certainly not DDLJ, but a DDLJ comes once in a lifetime. What was missing in the film was a concinving plotline. Plus the screenplay is filled with all the tried and tested bollywood tricks most of the key points in the story do not spring out any surprise. But at the same time what is striking is the chemistry between SRK and Anushka. There are certain scenes that you just cannot help but enjoy. Note the paani puri sequence, the climax sequence to list a few. The music of the film is ok apart from the special appearence combo package song that drags! Performance wise Viany Pathak is a name you cannot miss mentioning. He lands beautiful support.

What I think eventually is that even if its not DDLJ its not JBJ or Neal and Nikki either. This one is a much comfortable and deserves to be watched once!