I am watching Dil Chahta Hai again these days and as always there is something new..something which I did not think about earlier. It surprises me every single time as to how did I miss this. I have two snippets to share, which I was bowled over.
The first time we see Tara, she is being dropped off by a truck and she is trying to carry her heavy baggage inside her new house. I think it was not only her physical baggage but a reference to the emotional baggage that she is carrying within her heart as well. She has been divorced and is not allowed to meet her daughter. She is unable to carry her baggage inside as it is too heavy for her. When she tries to do that, it breaks. Similarly, she is unable to carry the emotional heft of her tragic life and for that she embraces alcoholism, which will eventually break her. She is emotionally very weak. She needs help. And I love this part. When they both are sitting together in her house, there is a box labelled fragile. The fragile box is Tara. Sid is the one who offers her help, not only to physically carry the luggage inside but to deal with the emotional baggage as well. He is the one who takes care of her, like the time when he celebrates her birthday. Tara initially refused to take Sid's help, when he wanted to carry her bags inside but realizing she will not be able to carry it herself, she relents later. Similarly, at first she is aghast when Sid tells her that he loves her. Eventually, she again realized that she has become dependent on Sid and perhaps that explains why Sid is the one who takes her to the hospital. Finally, she says to Sid as if relenting to her initial hesitation to ask for Sid's help, tumne bahut saath diya mera..kuch rishton hote hai jinka koi naam nahi hota.
Physical Baggage or Emotional Baggage?
The box is labelled fragile. Tara?
Earlier in the film, Sid makes a portrait of a lady who is sitting backwards and her face is not shown. It was as if Sid was trying to find the perfect face to draw. Interestingly, he also drew a portrait of Shalini on a napkin in their graduation party, but perhaps he did not find her worthy of a portrait. Also, when he is speaking with Deepa at the beach, he sees her longingly for a moment as if trying to imagine if Deepa is that face. In that song, kaisi hai rut, he is shown dreaming about that face. Later, when Tara asks him which is his favorite painting, he says he has not drawn one yet, again reaffirming his quest for the face of his dreams. When he draws his favorite portrait, it is of Tara's as if he finally found the face he was looking for. Imagine his happiness when he runs to get his painting things when Tara agrees for a portrait as if the face will finally be drawn. And if we look closely enough, the similarity of the face in the two portraits is uncanny.
Women of his dreams
Shalini? No..not worth a portrait..
Deepa? For a minute maybe..
Yes, Tara..finally :)
I have found many other observations. I am working on a long piece on this film, which will take a lot of time to write. I love this movie. It has taught me so much :) More later.
Fatima slipped into a coma. Her body started shutting down. When the doctors suggested that her family members come to meet her immediately, Shah Rukh understood that it was only a matter of few hours. Until then, few people had been allowed into the intensive care unit. Shah Rukh refused to let his mother go without a fight. Numbed by grief, he prayed alone in the hospital parking lot. He was convinced that if he repeated his favorite prayer 869 times, Fatima would live. Nasrun minal lahi wah fatahun kareeb, he mumbled over again and again. It was a sportsman's prayer that means, God give me the strength to win. His uncle came to the parking lot several times to fetch him, but Shah Rukh spent half an hour praying amidst cars. By the time, he got to his mother's bedside, she was barely breathing.
Shah Rukh believed that death comes only when a person is completely content. So he tried to hold on to Fatima by making her feel unhappy. Sitting by her bed, he narrated to her the litany of all the bad things he would do if she left him. He would not take care of Shahnaz, his sister. He would fail as an actor, he would do everything to ensure that their lives were a mess. A tear fell from one eye. Fatima was clinically dead and the tear was perhaps an involuntary spasm of the body. But Shah Rukh took it to mean that she had heard him but was by then so close to God that she knew that her son was lying. For a fleeting moment, Fatima looked as attractive as she had before sickness sapped her. Her glazed eyes and cracked lips seemed to regain their lost vitality. Shah Rukh combed her hair and kissed her. Then there was a flurry of movement to shift the body. In an overpopulated country, beds in the intensive care unit are always at a premium.
At the burial ground, Shah Rukh sat by Fatima's side. When the maulvi interrupted his meditation, insisting that he join in the last prayers, Shah Rukh swore at the priest and nearly got into a fight with him. "I just wanted to look at her face that I would never see again," he said. "I wanted to touch her skin. I wanted to take away some memory, something tangible that I could retain." When they buried Fatima, he finally wept.
Shah Rukh sank into a fog of despair and anger. For the first few days, he refused to eat. Getting him to take a sip of water was a task. He was dry-eyed and shattered. When Divya Seth suggested going to the cemetry he refused, saying there was only earth there, not his mother. Every inch of his home and the city reminded him of his loss. Shahnaz retreated further into an inaccessible silence and aggression. Ten years ago, much of Fatima's jewellery had been sold to pay his father's hospital bills. Fatima's own sickness had plunged the family further into debt. Shah Rukh began to feel suffocated in Delhi. Two weeks after his mother's death, he packed his bags, took his usual after-midnight Air India flight to Mumbai, and landed at Viveck Vaswani's house at 5 A.M. "Let's make films", he said.
- Life After Death, King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema
It breaks my heart to write this letter. I've known since you were a young man that you've been a keeping a secret. But I know there was a reason. At first, you probably didn't want it to admit it to yourself. And I never thought I could be the one to ask you. So now I can only hope that you've had a beautiful life and someone to share it with even if you didn't share that part of it with me. You deserve all the happiness in the world my Saul, I trust you found it.
Love,
Mother
You have to give up the life you have planned to find the life that is waiting for you. All our lives we grow by giving up things by loss and moving on. Big things. Little ones. How we handle those losses really defines who we are.
The episode where Nora's and Saul's mom dies is emotionally devastating. As devastating as Shah Rukh's loss of his mother. How do we deal the loneliness of loss?
I have started sending post cards to all friends whose address I have. Who sends letters these days, right? There is still an old world charm associated with sending a handwritten letter/post card. If you want, I would be very happy to send you a letter/post card. Please fill in your address in the form below, where ever in the world you are. The details would be kept strictly confidential.
I am still debating in my mind about how much I liked Aashiqui 2. I liked it a lot but did not love it. I will not watch it again I think. There was an air of predictability and been-there-done-that kind of feeling but what surprised me was some hidden subtexts and some subtleties in the writing. I have not seen the original Aashiqui starring Rahul Roy and Anu Kapoor. I do not know much about that film except the famous song ‘bas ik sanam chahiye aashiqui le liye’. In Aashiqui 2, the lead actors are: Aditya Roy Kapur - playing Rahul, a singer, who once had reached the pinnacle of success but is now on the path to self-destruction due to his addiction to alcohol – and Shradha Kapoor - playing Aarohi, a talented singer who is noticed by Rahul in a beer bar and wants to help her become famous. I have to say there is terrific chemistry between the lead pair. They both are hot and light up the screen with their scenes. They do not engage in much physical intimacy in the film and yet they are able to effectively portray their love for each other.
The scene of the first meeting between the two of them gave an indication of the sign of the things to come. Rahul is driving drunk and sees Aarohi walking on the road. In order to save her, he rams the car into the sidewalk, and in the moment, the vegetables that Aarohi is carrying are all scattered on the road. She scolds him, not realizing that he is the famous Rahul and asks him to collect the vegetables and put them back. She asks him to pick up the vegetables even the ones under his car, making him bend down. Rahul tries a lot but is unable to reach them. She then says to him to leave them as “vo khane ke layak nahi rahe ab”. From that scene, the director tells us that Aarohi will make Rahul collect the remaining pieces of his life and she doesn’t let go of things till the point there is no hope that they can be salvaged back.
Now, Rahul goes to a beer bar where he is mesmerized by Aarohi’s singing of one of his own songs. I felt a Taal moment. Remember that scene when Mansi and her dad, Tara Babu, for the first time see Vikrant doing a rendition of one of Tara Babu’s own song – Taal Se Taal Mila. Anyways, in that scene, Aarohi is longingly looking towards the portrait of Lata Mangeshkar. The portrait is directly behind Rahul’s seat. At first I thought she is looking at him but I think it was very intentional on the part of the director to place the portrait just behind Rahul, giving us another indication that for Aarohi to reach that path of success, she will first have to cross Rahul. There is technique that we all have noticed that once the thing in the front is in focus, the one behind isn’t and vice-versa. Was it intentional on the part of director as he wanted to show she will have to choose either of Rahul or her career, given that only one could be in her zone of focus?
Lata ji or Rahul?
What I also really liked was the scene when they both confessed their love for each other. The first time when Rahul says, they both are standing separated by a glass door as if there is some sort of a barrier between the two of them. The first time when Aarohi says, they both are sitting on the opposite sides of a big door where they cannot see each other and are crying. The transparent door, where at least the light could pass through, turned into something opaque. And again, in the final scene when they are bidding good byes, the window is transparent but the distance between Rahul and the window is much more, whereas Aarohi is still standing very close to the window - symbolic of the distance that Rahul had moved further and further away while Aarohi still wanted to salvage the relationship.
You remember in DevD, how Paro came to Dev’s house and she cleaned his house, she gives him a bath and cleans him? Similarly, Aarohi acts like a mother to him. Rahul is a spoilt child, lost in his world. I personally felt that her love for Rahul was like a mother for her son’s. She cleans him, she shaves his face, and she takes care of him, trying to remove all the dirt that he has landed himself into. At the risk of sounding incestuous, in their pre-coital embrace, she is the one who stretches her hand, calling him into her arms. In fact, in one of the scenes, Rahul is shown sleeping (when he is pretending), slouched just like a kid and she puts a blanket over him. Maybe he was looking for the closeness as from a family. Never once we are shown his dad, who is working in New York. All we see in the film are two phone calls he makes. The physical distance between his parents (no idea about mother) was as huge as the emotional distance, even though his father could identify that his son is in love, just by listening to his voice.
In one scene, Aarohi says that she will herself embrace alcoholism because she wants to travel with Rahul wherever he goes. He will take her. This was so reminiscent of Choti Bahu in Sahib, Biwi aur Ghulam. To get her husband to love her, Choti Bahu (Meena Kumari) started drinking herself so that the two of them could at least share a drink together.
Aarohi was madly in love with Rahul and as they say, you never leave the people whom you love. She was a testament to that. In that scene, when she is enacting that they both are in a stadium and she is taking Rahul’s name to cheer him up, she eventually gets tired and starts panting but never stops it till the point Rahul sees her tired. He then starts singing. Later, Rahul would see her taking off her jewelry in the police station. Rahul, perhaps, realized that she is going to lose all the things that make her pretty because of him and maybe that is why he starts to make his plans to move further away from her.
I do not know maybe I am thinking too much but one common characteristic that Aarohi was shown to have was that she was very risk averse in her life and it actually quite fits her given her economic hardships. Earlier in the film, when Rahul comes to clear the misunderstanding they had, she says to him, main dobara risk nahi lungi. At one later point in the film, when they both had run away, she says to Rahul that main tumhe chhodne ka risk nahi le sakti. Also, in that scene, when she explains to Rahul’s uncle that main bada zaroor banna chahti thi lekin itni badi keemat de kar nahi. Finally, during the climax, she is shown to be bubble wrapping her things, giving us yet another indication that she just doesn’t take risks in life. Perhaps that might explain her decision to leave everything, because she was scared that she will lose everything if Rahul is not with her. If I was in her place, I would never do that. Wasn’t it her dream to be where she was? But as they say it is lonely at the top. She was scared that she will not be able to survive. Maybe she was hoping that by staying together she will cure him and then they can come back again. Or as she said, when she was going through a difficult time, Rahul was with her and when he is going through the same, she should be there for him too. Or as SRK brilliantly puts it in Luck By Chance, unhe mat bhoolo jo tumhe tab jaante the, jab tum kuch nahi the.
I think a lot of criticism was given to Rahul that he is an addict. But somehow, and they say it many times in the film as well, Aarohi too had an addiction. Her addiction for Rahul. Rahul lost everything due to his own follies and in a way, Aarohi was doing the same. So, should we not judge Aarohi as heartlessly as Rahul? We do not because we see her reasons for doing so. Actually, the thing that frustrated me was they never showed any background story of Rahul. Why did he turn out this way? In Rockstar, Jordan had angst against Heer. But what happened here? Any indication would have tried to fit the pieces as to how did he get on the path to self-destruction? Why did he say, jinhe kuch nahi chahiye hota, vo apna kaam bahut zimmedari
se karte hain? At one point he says, main is shor se door jana jata hun. Why? He loved music. Did stardom fail him? Was his loneliness? I do not know.
I loved this scene – when he opens her wallet and sees a picture of them together. Do people still keep pictures of their significant ones?
At one point, Aarohi’s mom keeps her mangalsutra as a mortgage but later we see she is wearing the same one. Goof-up? :-) Perhaps they shot that scene earlier and placed it later in the film.
In fact, her mom’s character was very good. It made me sad where they show she buys lottery tickets, just in case her luck might run.
One thing that I completely disliked was the conversation the two men were having about Aarohi when she wins the award and Rahul is sitting next to them. They actually told what is going to happen next in the film. It was irritating. All the while I was hoping that maybe it won’t be true. But those guys spoiled the film for me. It was a big letdown. Why give your film’s story at interval?
Music is excellent. I do not remember the lyrics of the songs. Sun Raha Hai Na Tu is beautiful. They are brilliantly staged and executed. And the voice is perfect – filled with anger conveying the right emotions. But Shreya Goshal’s voice is just mind blowing. Her voice has a very charming quality, like a river flowing smoothly.
Somehow, when the songs were playing, I was thrilled. I was imagining that how great would that feeling be when all in the audience are screaming your name. No doubt, as SRK again says in Luck By Chance, stardom ek cocktail hai.
Love love love it :)
Aashiqui 2 is not perfect but there are enough things about it that one can admire. Or just simply look at the hot people on the screen and listen to the music.
Diaologue (s) of the Day:
Aksar chiraag vahi bujhaate hain jo use roshan karte hai
- Aashiqui 2
Beemar ke saath koi beemar nahi ho jata.
- Saigal Uncle, Aashiqui 2
Aarohi: Chaand ki taraf to sabhi dekhte hain, usse kya hota hai?
At the risk of being labelled a social pariah, I have to say I finally watched Tashan after five yearsand I kind of liked it. I did not find it as bad as I heard it to be. Rather, I found it entertaining in some ways. Tashan is primarily the story of four characters - Jimmy (Saif), Pooja (Kareena), Bachchan Pandey (Akshay Kumar) and Bhaiyyaji (Anil Kapoor). Jimmy is the urbane, suave, speaking-English-with-an-accent and working in a call center guy while Bachchan Pandey is a ganga kinare rustic, small-time Kanpuriya goon who wishes to become like his idol, the gangster Bhaiyyaji. Pooja is on her own mission of revenge and has some links to these three guys. Tashan as the name suggests means style and Vijay Krishna Acharya, who also wrote the script for Dhoom series, has directed this film. I felt the film had enough style and much better than the Dabangg, Singham, Himmatwala crap that goes onto make 100 crores at the box office these days. There are some sequences which I found really cool, like Bachchan's Rajnikanth-type fights during the shooting scene in Rajasthan. There is also a very unique shaolin fighters sequence on an electricity pole. What did not work was probably the execution.
Rajnikanth moment
I was confused as to what exactly the purpose of the film is. So, Bhaiyyaji speaks in pathetic English-cum-Hindi pidgin that is supposed to be funny. At the same time, he is such a violent man that he kills his victims using a cricket bat. He doesn't flinch for a second before shooting someone. Are we supposed to laugh at him or cringe at his violent streak? The makers somehow got too engrossed in making it a stylish film in what could have been an excellent crime thriller. Like the sequence where Pooja hides the cash she stole from Bhaiyyaji in seven different places all over India. How did she do that? And when she is asked to give back the money to Bhaiyyaji, they simply go to each of the seven places and collect the cash - all done during one song Falak Tak. It could have been an intriguing heist sequence. Why not explore it further? I am prepared to accept any amount of WTFness that you are showing like the one where Jimmy comes in a sea-doo during the climax from a stream of a tiny river and overturns it at a very crucial moment. But it could have been executed so much better. The climax was particularly disappointing. The place was a dirt ridden compound of Bhaiyyaji - why not make the place sleek like a cool villain's? At least save the flying dirt! If you want to give us masala, then give it to us properly. And again, I was confused as to what I will call this film - a revenge saga, a love story, a road trip, an gangster movie? There were so many things happening that it all seemed too messy.
WTF..Hahaha
But there are some things I did like. Some of the plot sequences caught me unawares. Pooja's re-entry and a Don-moment slips in when you least think of it. And I thought I am never going to say it in my life but I loved Akshay in the film. He was terrific as Bachchan. Saif had a really short role in the film and Akshay stole the show from everyone. The way he adjusts his crotch to the way he narrates his story of Gudiya to the way he proposes Pooja calling himself a dick - he brought a charming vulnerability to Bachchan .
Akshay was very good..
Tashan also in its own ways refers to the movies of the '70s and the '80s. So there is a hilarious sequence of Deewar by Bhaiyyaji.
Deewar in the background
There is a Don-moment where only the police inspector knows about his mole.
Some secret planning..
There is an Anil Kapoor Lakhan moment.
Ewww..
An outrageous Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro type spoof on Ramayana.
Tulsidas ne likha hai original..humne to sirf screenplay likha hai hai..
The songs sung by Udit Narayan and Sukhwinder give a very '90s feel. The somewhat racist Dil Dance Maare is the best song in the film..best in terms of placement (white white face?!?!). It is the only song that fits the situation. I was laughing in splits when the Hollywood director thinks Bachchan is Amitabh Bachchan. And the song is outrageous. You just can't stop humming it. I feel ashamed to admit that.
Love it!
I also like Falak Tak a lot.
Alankar theater is also playing this movie - Falak Tak - meta movie..
What was jarring was the choreography of the songs. I know Vaibhavi Merchant is a fabulous choreographer but somehow the songs have been shot either in Ladakh or in Greece, and they do not match with the surroundings. In a place like Ladakh where the scenery is so majestic, it is hard to concentrate on the song especially when the actors do not blend with it. Film songs have always been shot at exotic locales but the song and the location should match the mood. How brilliantly Karan Johar films his songs - Kal Ho Na Ho at the bridge in New York or Suraj Hua Madham in Egypt. The place just doesn't suit in Tashan. I do not know whether it was the funny costumes that was the reason. Also, the surface where they shot the songs is very uneven limiting the choreography.
Beautiful place but very uneven limiting choreography..
Kareena, as always, looks beautiful in the film. And I maybe wrong but the song Chaliya is one of the very few songs in Hindi cinema that I guess has black women as support dancers in the background. Typically, it is always the white women. Chaliya is nicely done.
Black Women - A first for Hindi Cinema?
There are some really funny sequences like the one where the Bhaiyyaji's henchmen playing hopscotch using a revolver.
Hop-scotch
Or when when Bhaiyaji calls Jimmy as Prince Charlie as in Prince Charles. I also really enjoyed the noir elements and Pooja's Kill Bill desire for vengeance.
Tarantinoesque..more horror!
There was a very nice point by one of the reviewers. Given that Aditya Chopra always does research for his films, Tashan was in some ways an extension of Bunty Aur Babli. The contrast between two Indias - the call center English speaking and the inspirational rural hinterland. The divide is actually shown in the first scene of the film: a car accident due to fight between the two riders - one wants to listen to an AC/DC song and the other to a Kabhi Kabhi song.
There is also a silly goof up. So when Pooja calls Jimmy asking for details for a number he tells her one that only has nine digits.
Seriously? This is the most basic thing to correct..Nine digits?
Tashan is not perfect at all. But still I laughed at many places. It could have been better but nevertheless, there is always a next time. Once you go with zilch expectations, some fun can always be had. And of the hilarious scenes I found was during the climax, on the wall there is written Anil Atom Bomb.
Anil Atom Bomb :D
Dialogue of the Day:
Kabhi kabhi jo sahi lagta hai, vo dusro ke liye galat hota hai.
Laptop's hard disk crashed and had to pay $300 for repair. I felt terrible. You know I get paid on an hourly basis because I am a temporary employee. So if any holiday is there like it was 04 July yesterday, I do not get paid for that day. I specially took permission from the manager that I want to make up 40 hours a week, so I have been going to office at 7 in the morning for the last two weeks. And lo! this stupid crash.. the more I try to save money, the more I have to pay. I cook own lunch everyday so that faltu spend na karna pade. I was saving money for a trip to New York. And I thought I will buy a tablet for my sister. Saare plans pe paani phir gaya. And upar se I am paying double rent for three months because I am in a different city and the house rent in Iowa City also has to be paid. Salary aati nahi pehle hi sari khatam ho jati hai. And second year ka fees bhi dena hai.. Earning money is really hard :( Anyways, jitna sochogo utna dukh hai isliye theek hai.. or as they say, if wealth is lost, nothing is lost. if health is lost, something is lost, but if character is lost, everything is lost.
For the past one month, I am addicted to Brothers and Sisters. I cannot stop watching it even though it makes me really really sad. Not that it is a sad show but some of the events they show are very true in my own family. I love Kitty and Kevin's relationship as a brother and sister. They pull each other's leg but cannot live without each other. Kevin got married.
All these crazy people in my family are in this insane free fall and completely incapable of being happy. And then I realize how lucky I am because I get to come home to someone who is kind and caring and changes the light bulbs. And marry me.. I mean it. I don’t want to wait. I want to make this official. I am completely, completely in love with you. I even love the things about you that I hate. Because you make me feel that I don’t have to be anyone other than who I am. And to me that feels like family. And that’s what I want us to be. I want us to be a family because that never ends. I am asking you, will you please marry me? - Kevin
And when Kitty has cancer, he goes to her and starts crying even though Kitty isn't :(
:(
You just have to let someone go..
I want to meet my soul mate..
But as Nora says, if you don't have faith that the world with turn in your direction, then it just simply never will :)
I have so much more to write about it but some other day.
And you know a few days ago, this story came out. How an air bubble helped this man survive underwater for 60 hours. This story sent a chill down my spine. I just could not stop thinking about it. How strange ways that our life works no? I was constantly thinking of Life of Pie. That was after all a fictional story but this is a real life story. Seriously an air bubble? I mean just think of yourself in his position. How much calmness he would have required! Does it come on its own or is there any supernatural force that helps us survive such terrifying experiences? I was actually quite surprised by the scant media attention the story got and how everyone missed the Life of Pie connection.
The last six weeks have been exploring some new things. Watched a play by Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Also, attended an etiquette workshop. There was this very interesting rule the lady taught, called as the twelve inch rule."The first twelve words you speak should include some form of thank you; the first twelve steps you take should exude confidence; the first twelve inches from the top of your head should be impeccably groomed; and the last twelve inches from the bottom up, should be very well maintained." I should start following it, given the lack of my personal grooming skills :{
And wherever I see, all around people are talking of loneliness. Even mom was talking to me about her loneliness yesterday.
"Loneliness is a strange sort of thing. It creeps on you, quiet and still, sits by your side in the dark, strokes by your hair as you sleep. It wraps itself around your bones, squeezing so tight you almost can't breathe. It leaves lies in your heart, lies next to you at night, leaches the light out of every corner. It's a constant companion, clasping your hand only to yank you down when you're struggling to stand up. You wake up in the morning and wonder who you are. You fail to fall asleep at night and tremble in your skin. You doubt you doubt you doubt.
do I?
don't I?
should I?
why won't I?
And even when you're ready to let go. When you're ready to break free. When you're ready to be brand-new. Loneliness is an old friend stand beside you in the mirror, looking you in the eye, challenging you to live your life without it. You can't find the words to fight yourself, to fight the words screaming that you're not enough never enough never ever enough.
Loneliness is a bitter, wretched companion.
Sometimes it just won't let go."
— Tahereh Maf
Stephen Fry posted his experience with it a few days ago. It is beautifully sad. He writes about his utter loneliness. When he meets someone new, he wants to go back to his lonesome oneself and then after sometime he feels alone again. Only The Lonely
But the fact is I value my privacy too. It’s a lose-lose matter. I don’t want to be alone, but I want to be left alone. Perhaps this is just a form of narcissism, vanity, over demanding entitlement – give it whatever derogatory term you think it deserves. I don’t know the answer.
And someone posted this on Twitter
Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi posted this..
And that yeh aise hone chahiye, vaise to vo bhi hota hai wrote this :\
Kunal Pradhan wrote an excellent column on Ranbir Kapoor in India Today. Star next door. I loved this part.
Today Ranbir's star meter is at a point few actors have reached before. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is a rare, epochal moment that comes along perhaps once in a decade, when the audience starts believing that the person they're seeing on the screen is not the character, but the actor himself. It happened with Shah Rukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995) when viewers thought Raj was a physical embodiment of Shah Rukh. They thought he was a passionate lover who would go to any lengths to win the girl of his dreams, charming his way past any opposition. Shah Rukh emerged from that film as a funny, confident, upright, master-of-all-trades who women wanted to fall in love with and men wanted to be friends with.
The article finishes in such an excellent way.
It's past midnight now. Ranbir is back in his room. The gym session is long over, and so is dinner with friends at Bandra's new nightspot Nido. But he won't be going to bed anytime soon. "I am too insecure to crash early," says Ranbir. "I feel life will pass me by while I'm sleeping."
And if you recall Kabir also said something similar in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani that he doesn't want to miss anything. It is almost Ranbir is an embodiment of Kabir. Kunal says that the audience believed that Ranbir was like Kabir. As the last passage says, maybe Kabir is Ranbir.
Given the way we’re living healthier lives and have better access to medical care, chances are that we will live well past our retirements. So it only behooves us to develop interests, hobbies and passions outside work and home that we can fall back on. Running, cooking, writing, climbing or even cricket…whatever can keep the old circuits firing away till the battery finally runs out. Anything but sitting at home and waiting to flicker away without a fight.
Personally, I’m thinking of enrolling in some distance learning programme and catching up on all the humanities courses I never took. What are your plans?
I loved it when he said he is going to take up humanities courses which he never took. I am going to do the same. Take up humanities courses. In fact, for the last few weeks, I have been thinking of my own research project that I want to do it for my self..not for anybody but for my self. I have shortlisted a few topics. It is just I need to make up my mind and stop wasting time on useless things like sleeping. I want to achieve something :( Have to do it soon...
I have read so much of the terrific writings of the national award winning film critic, Baradwaj Rangan, that I just cannot get enough of it. He writes such detailed analysis of movies and he never ever gives a rating to any movie, leaving it to the viewer to decide on his own. I want to be like him.
About Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, he makes such an excellent point, calling it the meatiest love story since Lamhe, and I totally agree, given how much I love that movie. He says,
When Dev and Maya finally admit to their spouses that they are in love, Rishi flies into a rage and begins to break things around the house, while Ria remains calm and collected. Rishi wants to know if Maya enjoyed sleeping with Dev, but Ria asks Dev if he’s in love with Maya; the man is more concerned with the sexual aspect of the betrayal while Ria, all woman, tries to come to grips with the emotional implications.
Another beautiful point about Aishaa, he says,
Even the way Aisha sips from a spoon has a calculated daintiness, just this side of precious, and it ‘s only fitting that she reveals she’s in love by mumbling through a mouthful of gaajar halwa, as if alleviating the bitter onset of the grown-up emotion of love.
Wow! If anyone loves reading and analyzing films, check it out. Baradwaj Rangan. I make it a point to read comments as well as there is a lively discussion about the films. Such new insights. Like the comments on Talaash are outstanding.
More later.
Dialogue of the Day:
"Madam, ishq karna achchi baat hai, par uska sahi jagah istemaal karana seekho."
