Saturday, September 29, 2018

Once Again—Pehli Baar Phir Se


Kanwal Sethi's atmospheric Once Again is a story of two middle-aged people, Tara (Shefali Shah) and Amar (Neeraj Kabi), who fall in love once again. Tara is a businesswoman who runs a restaurant and supplies people with tiffins. Amar, a famous actor, is one of her clients. Tara and Amar develop a relationship over food and notes they exchange with the tiffins. Tara is a widow who lost her husband years ago and has two children—a son and a daughter. Amar is a divorced man and has a daughter. After the news of their relationship comes out, they face some challenges with each other and their children. The film is an Indo-German production and had a digital-only release on Netflix. 
Once Again portrays an old-school romance between Amar and Tara. They have mobiles but prefer to communicate through the landlines. They can send texts to each other but prefer handwritten letters. The kitchen in Tara's restaurant consists only of traditional types of equipment. Tara uses a mortar and pestle (a silvatta) when she has to grind chillis. When she has to mix something, she uses a hand mixer. When cooking fish, she uses a furnace where she puts the raw fish wrapped in banana leaves and covers them with sand. She uses a Mangalorean-style brass tiffin box when she sends food to Amar. All these elements give a different old-school feeling to the relationship between Amar and Tara. 
In addition, Amar and Tara keep talking about first times—Pehli Baar. Amar's first film that gave him his identity as a star was titled Pehli Baar, meaning the first time. After Tara meets Amar for the first time, she writes a letter to him, mentioning that in her culture, when someone visits them for the first time, it is customary to make a special dish. Later, Amar takes Tara to his favorite spot, where he tells her that it is the first time he has come with someone. When Tara takes him on a drive to the streets of Mumbai, she reminisces about the first time she came to that place as a kid. They both might be doing some things again, but it is the first time they are doing those things with each other. They fall in love once again, but it feels like it was the first time. No wonder Tara likes to sing the lovely song from Barfi!Phir le aaya dil majboor, kya keeje. Once again, the helpless heart has brought me here. 
Amar is working on a film in which he is playing the character of a ghost. It is as if elements of this ghost's story mirror those of real-life Amar's. When Tara and Amar go on a drive, he tells her that while playing the role of a ghost, he has turned into one himself. At another point, Tara thinks that she saw someone watching her, and her daughter replies that it might be a ghost. During a filmmaking session, Amar says he is unhappy with his dance performance. He feels the ghost is not dancing freely and looks like a puppet. He had seen a group of men dancing on the road during a religious procession and wanted to dance like them. The actress in his film tells him that he does not understand her role. The filmmaker adds that a ghost will turn into a human only after he falls in love, and the woman brings about the ghost's transformation. During the same scene, Tara visits Amar, and he introduces her to his friends as someone who makes food for him. He insults her by reducing her role to that of someone whose only purpose in his life is making food for him. Like Amar does not understand the woman's character in his film, he does not understand Tara's importance in real life. At an early point, Tara and Amar had a conversation where he said, "Khud ko hi dhoond ke kisi ko paya ka sakta hai." Only when you find yourself, you can find someone else. Tara replies, "Shayad kisi aur ko paakar khud ko dhoonda ja sakta hai." Maybe one can also oneself by loving someone else. It is this learning that Amar has to realize, both in his film and in his life, that only he can transform himself from a ghost to a human. When he finally understands this, Amar dances uninhibitedly with the same boys he had seen earlier during a religious celebration and turns into a human. He realizes his folly and goes to apologize to Tara. He says that he does not want to hide his own self anymore. He has understood what Tara is to him. In this sense, Amar's character is the middle-aged version of the lost protagonists created in the films of Imtiaz Ali and Ranbir Kapoor. What is a curious coincidence is that the woman who helps Amar find himself here is also named Tara (like Tara from Imtiaz Ali's Tamasha). 
In some scenes of the film, there is a kind of similarity in the actions of Tara and Amar. Early in the film, Tara takes some face cream and applies it to her face while standing in front of the mirror before she goes to sleep. In the next scene, Amar is doing something similar where, after a night shoot, he sits in front of the mirror, and his make-up man cleans his face. In another scene later, it is seen that Amar washes his hands after having dinner and cleans himself. Moments later, Tara does the same after she finishes making the food, mirroring Amar's actions. Further, at another stage in the film, Tara is seen playing with a glass of water, and a few scenes later, Amar is playing with water while sitting near a swimming pool. Additionally, the film shows some similar character traits in Tara and Amar. Both Tara and Amar like ghazals. While cooking food, Tara sings a few lines from the poem Dard Se Mera Daman Bhar De by Qateel Shifai. When Amar is driving, he listens to the poem Main Khayal Hoon Kisi Aur Ka by Saleem Kausar. Tara is afraid of the sea, and Amar is afraid of the mountains. 
After the death of her husband, Tara gave up everything she liked. She never married again. She runs the restaurant on her own. She never danced again. She tells her daughter that she has often thought of running away but did not do so for the sake of her children. Tara suppressed all her desires for all these years. Middle-aged people also have desires, but society believes in suppressing them. Her son's mother-in-law sarcastically remarks that, for them, the happiness of their kids is more important than their own. Tara's son did not like her mother's relationship with Amar. The daughters, on the other hand, were more open and happy for their parents. Tara was lonely. She found companionship in Amar and liked to talk to him. Being with Amar makes her feel beautiful again. After he gives her flowers in their first meeting and tells her she is beautiful, she comes to the restaurant and adjusts her hair as, perhaps after years, someone notices her. All through the film, she is often found near mirrors and looking at herself in the mirror as if wondering something. After Tara and Amar get physically intimate, she comes home and looks at her naked body in the mirror. Someone touched her after years, and that brought out her old self once again. She brings out her ghungroos. She is afraid of the sea, but in the end, she goes to the sea as she is no longer afraid of it. Like Amar, Tara undergoes a rediscovery of herself. 
In terms of plot, not much happens in the film, which causes its pace to drop. Some long shots, such as characters looking out of the window or driving on the road, make the film drag at places. It is largely an atmospheric film. The other characters also are not as well developed. However, the performances of Shefali Shah and Neeraj Kabi hold the film. Shefali Shah has always been such a terrific performer, and here, as well, she is the best thing about the film. She looks lovely in the film. The sarees, the pencil in her bun, the flowers, the smile—she carries everything with a lot of elegance. 
In the opening lines of the film, Amar says that Mumbai is a strange city. The sea seems so close, yet so far. Tara said she was afraid of the sea. The film ends with Amar and Tara on a boat in the sea. They have finally reached the sea that seemed distant or fearful to them. It is not clear where they are going; perhaps it is Manori. But the important thing is that they are together on this journey, much like on the journey of life itself. And, navigating the uncertain waters of the unknown future becomes less challenging with a decent companion alongside. 
Trivia:
1. Tara's restaurant is named Neelam. The name of Shefali Shah's character in Dil Dhadakne Do was also Neelam.
2. The titles of Amar' Kumar's (fictional) films—Pehli Baar, Pyar Vyar, Pyaar Ka Saayaa, and Talaash.
3. Navtej Johar makes an appearance in the film. 
4. Ashok, Amar's driver, is played by Bhagwan Tiwari who was also the cop in Masaan.
5. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's version of Kiven Mukhre 
Talvin Singh's Kiven Mukhre
Dialogue of the Day:
"Shayad kisi aur ko paakar khud ko dhoonda ja sakta hai."
Tara, Once Again

Saturday, September 22, 2018

Random Trivia Post (Again)

I have not been feeling well due to some reasons, so, I took a few days off from work. I have not been able to write much as well. Hopefully, I will get better soon. 

Ayushmann Khurana and the law of gravity in Dum Laga Ke Haisha and Meri Pyaari Bindu.
There is a lot to love in Band Baaja Baaraat. It shows the Delhi middle-class culture with so much authenticity. Like this broken dressing mirror with old stickers. My home had something like this for a long time.

Mard references in two films of 2018—Stree and Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota
In the song Khul Kabhi from Haider, the person calls himself the sky and calls his lover the earth. Usually, it is the other way where the lover is on a higher pedestal (as often compared with the moon).
In Wake Up Sid, Sid (Ranbir Kapoor) is an Arsenal fan, while in Band Baaja Baaraat, Bittoo (Ranveer Singh) is a Liverpool fan.
The same phrase Imaandari ka ghamand in Newton and Raid
In Talaash, Roshni is reading Pride and Prejudice. 
Mood board: Rani Mukerji reading in the movies. 
In Ishqiya, the cylinders play an important part in the climax. Vidya Balan's character Krishna is also dressed in the colors of the cylinder (red and green) as if she is also waiting to explode. She can be seen near the cylinders. 
In Dil Chahta Hai, Akash makes fun of Shalini as she is too invested in romantic films. He ridicules the premise of romantic movies and says, “Bhai, in love stories ke liye to bahut dimaag chahiye, vo yahan baithi aasun bahan rahi hai, vo vahan baitha aahen bhar raha hai.” Ironically, it is Aakash who scoffed at the predicament of lovelorn characters undergoes the exact same state later in the film. And, funnily, he would be the one crying for his love and Shalini is the one who is sighing as seen in the song Tanhayee.
Finally, I tried to make a video. Here is a tiny mash-up of Safar from Jab Harry met Sejal and Tanhayee from Dil Chahta Hai.  
Dialogue of the Day:
"Aur aaj, is baat ka bhi yakeen ho gaya, ki hamari filmon ki tarah humari zindagi mein bhi end mein sab theek ho jaata hai.Happys  Endings. Aur agar, aur agar theek na ho to woh the end nahin hai dosto, picture abhi baaki hai."
—Om, Om Shanti Om

Monday, September 17, 2018

Of Grieving Fathers in Manchester By The Sea and Talaash

In her memoir Epilogue, writer Anne Roiphe narrates her experience of rebuilding her life after being a widow. She writes, "Grief is in two parts. The first is the loss. The second is the remaking of life." But what if you cannot move past the first stage and remain stuck there? Kenneth Lonergan's melancholic Manchester By The Sea explores this concept of not being able to beat the grief of loss. Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is a lonely and a morose janitor working in Quincy, Massachusetts. He receives the news that his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) has passed away. Lee travels to his hometown Manchester-By-The-Sea, Massachusetts, and learns that his brother has deputed him to be the guardian of his seventeen-year-old son Patrick (Lucas Hedges). Lee is taken aback as he feels that he is not capable of being a parent. Later, it is shown that Lee lost three of his children in a fire due to his inadvertent mistake which explains Lee's refusal to become Patrick's guardian and his hesitation to move back to Manchester-By-The-Sea as he has painful memories associated with his hometown. 
The film uses a set of flashbacks to make sense of the past events associated with Lee's life. Unlike the usual way as seen in other films, the flashbacks in this film are presented in a disjointed and a non-chronological way—much like the way how the mind remembers the past events. We know something terrible has happened to Lee but it is only around the midpoint of the film that we understand the reasons for his sadness. 

Lee is someone who is trying to hold onto the vestiges of his past. After the fire at his house in which his children die, Lee was seen holding the bag of groceries that he got from the shop. He picks it from the floor as if he is trying to hold onto something. Kenneth Lonergan explains that the reason of Lee holding this bag by saying, "He's looking for something to hold onto, just to get his bearings. And you can then later go and extrapolate how it has metaphorical value. But like a lot of moments in life—you can find yourself holding onto a table very hard when you're hearing a very difficult news. It's natural to want to hold onto something." In another instance, after Joe's death, Lee tells George that he needs to call his wife Randi. Everyone looks at him awkwardly and he realizes his mistake and corrects it to the ex-wife. It is as if in his mind, Randi is still his wife. When he learns about Randi's pregnancy, he is a little taken aback and does not want to hear more about her new life. There is a slight resentment that can be sensed in Lee when Randi's husband comes to the memorial service. When Lee comes to stay with Patrick, he brings the pictures of his three kids and delicately wraps them in a towel as they are still precious to him. Going back to the city of Manchester-By-The-Sea brings the flood of memories associated with his past. He is now forced to relive them again.
It is often said that there is no pain greater than losing a child. Lee lost not one but three of his young children. How does one get over this? In the film's most beautiful scene, Randi and Lee talk to each other. Randi apologizes for all the terrible things she told Lee earlier. She blamed him for the tragedy but realizes that she was wrong. It is a heartbreaking scene where both Randi and Lee are trying to say something but are not able to finish their sentences. Randi tells him, "My heart was broken. It's always gonna be broken. I know your heart is broken, too." She adds that he just cannot die, but Lee tells her that she should not feel like that because "there's nothing there." He just cannot "beat it."
Manchester By The Sea showcases the usual randomness and the daily unpredictability of life during events of grief. Life does not calm down and objects do not behave the way we want them to in those moments. All through the film, there are scenes where it is shown that things keep going on the way they usually do. At an early moment in the film, the nurse cannot find the belongings of Joe in the hospital when Lee comes to see him. After visiting the funeral home, Lee is not able to remember where he parked his car. At Joe's burial, Randi's son starts crying at the cemetery prompting her husband to take him away to maintain silence. But the one scene where this aspect is most visible is the one right after the fire at Lee's house. A few men are trying to put Randi in the ambulance; however, the gurney won't function properly and will not go inside. They have to repeatedly try to force it inside. It is the most tragic scene in the film and the filmmaker adds to the tragedy by introducing a slight chaos in those moments of grief to convey the idea that the gurney does not know it should behave properly because it is a sad moment. In an interview, Kenneth Lonergan elaborates on this scene and says, "I think it’s great because it’s so awful. It’s not a soap opera moment where the whole world stops and waits for [the characters] to suffer. They’re really suffering and they can’t get the thing in the ambulance. Anyway, it’s just my attempt to make it as excruciating as possible."
Everything in Manchester By The Sea is portrayed in a realistic manner. For a film full of sad moments, it still manages to add humor at the unlikeliest of places. The music in the film has an operatic feeling which makes grief feel more prolonged. I have not seen Kenneth Lonergan's prior work but reviewers have observed that there has been a theme of melancholy and grief in his other films as well. The performance by Casey Affleck who plays Lee won him an Oscar. Michelle Williams who plays Randi is terrific in a small role. 
I could not help but see the many parallels between Manchester By The Sea and Talaash. Reema Kagti's film is not only a supernatural thriller but also a study of grief. It narrates the story of inspector Surjan Singh Shekhawat (Aamir Khan), and his wife Roshni (Rani Mukerji), who are struggling to maintain their relationship after the death of their son. Surjan meets the mysterious prostitute Rosie (Kareena Kapoor) in connection with an accident case and in the process, he develops an emotional bond with her. Manchester By The Sea and Talaash are stories of unending grief of parents losing their young children to death. The tragic loss of their children changes Lee and Surjan into shadows of their former self. They become morose and sullen, almost reaching the point of self-destruction. The relationship that Lee and Surjan have with their respective spouses also takes a beating after their children's death. Lee is divorced from his wife Randi after the tragedy. Likewise, the spark in the marriage of Surjan and Roshni goes amiss. They are just existing together instead of living a life together. The remarkable thing is that in both the films the women, Randi and Roshni, seem to have moved on or at least are trying to, while the men, Lee and Surjan, are struggling to move past their grief. Randi gets married and becomes a mother again. Roshni uses supernatural powers to communicate with her son to heal herself. But Lee and Surjan remain drowned in grief. They both, as Lee says, "can't beat it."
Manchester By The Sea and Talaash depict the crushing guilt that grief brings along. Lee's three children die in a fire that was caused due to his carelessness. After a party, he forgets to put a screen at the fireplace causing his house to burn down. At the police station, he is surprised that the inspectors let him go. He thought he would be incarcerated. The inspector tells him that it is not a crime to not put the screen at the fireplace. He made a mistake, like millions of other people do. As soon as Lee comes out, he grabs a pistol and tries to kill himself. He is consumed by the guilt that he could not be a good father and he tries to punish himself by living a life bereft of any joy. He moves to a dingy one-room apartment near Boston. He keeps entering into bar fights as he wants people to hit him as a punishment for his actions. He deliberately injures and inflicts pain on himself. In an emotional outburst, his wife Randi said terrible things to him blaming him for the tragedy. Later, she apologizes to him for the same and admits that she was wrong but Lee has internalized his guilt to the extent that he cannot let go. After Joe's death, the main reason that Lee did not want to take care of Patrick was that he thought he could never be a father again. Hence, he expresses surprise when he learns about his brother's last wish.
In a similar vein, Suri (Surjan) from Talaash is also consumed by the guilt of not being able to stop his son Karan who died due to drowning. He keeps imagining the scenarios in his head when he could have prevented Karan from entering into the boat. He blames himself for the death of Karan. At one point, he tells Roshni that it was his negligence that led to Karan's death and he should have been more careful. Roshni tells him it was only an accident. Suri replies that whenever he sees her eyes, he sees that she blames him. Roshni refutes that she never thought like that, but, like Lee, Suri has internalized his guilt to the extent that he takes the entire blame onto him. In a later scene, Roshni's friend advises her that she and Suri can become parents again. Roshni replies that she wants to but Suri did not agree to the idea. Perhaps, like Lee, he too started having doubts about his capability of being a parent again.
In Manchester By The Sea, Joe's body is kept in a freezer as the ground is too hard in the winter to bury him in the cemetery. He will be buried in the spring when the ground thaws out. The delayed burial is also a symbolic representation of the delay in the processing of grief of the characters in the film. The film is set in the brutal winter of New England mirroring the coldness and numbness in Lee. He is closed to any human interaction after the death of his children. He refuses to meet and talk to women who are interested in him. He has become emotionally hard like the winter ground. There are many scenes of the icy landscape in the film invoking a feeling of chilling claustrophobia. When the spring arrives, the ground thaws and so does Lee. He works out a plan for Patrick's future. He starts looking for a two-room apartment so that Patrick can stay with him when he comes to Boston. The turbulent tides pave the way to the calm waves. The film ends with Lee and Patrick going fishing as was seen in the film's first scene.
Some of the aforementioned instances and elements can be seen Talaash as well. There is a delayed cremation in Talaash, too. After Suri finds the truth of Rosie, he goes to 'her place' and finds her remains and cremates them. The subtext of this is similar to the delayed processing of grief in Manchester By The Sea. Like Lee, Suri also becomes an asocial person. When Roshni invites the parents of Karan's friend for dinner, Suri makes excuses so that they cannot come. He drives on the streets at night because he cannot sleep. In one of these night outings, he runs into Rosie with whom he develops an emotional bond. When Suri jumped into the lake to save his son, he never really got out of it. He remained immersed in the sea of grief. At an early stage in the film, Rosie had also told Suri, "Koi kab tak dooba rahega, Sahab. Kabhi na kabhi toh tair ke upar aana hi padega." How long can one stay submerged? Sooner or later, he will have to surface. In the end, she actually helps him swim to the top after his accident. He had reached the bottom of the sea, but now, he has come out of it. A drowning-in-grief father has come to sea level. The film ends with Suri and Roshni meeting at the same place where Karan dies. Thus, the sea plays its own small role in both the films. In Manchester By The Sea, the turbulent waves represent the emotional turbulence of grief. NPR writer Andrew Lapin summarizes that in Manchester By The Sea, 'submerged emotions bubble to the surface.' And, in Talaash, drowning in the sea is symbolic of Suri being drowning in the sea of grief. 
There are some small common elements in the two films. In Manchester By The Sea, Lee communicates with the spirits of his children in his dreams and tells them they are not burning. In Talaash, Suri communicates with his son using the inexplicable supernatural powers of his neighbor. In both the films, there are boats that make an appearance. Patrick wants to keep his father's boat even though he does not have the resources to maintain it. Karan went on a boat that accidentally started running causing him to drown.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross famously postulated the five stages of grief with the last stage being acceptance. However, not all people can reach the five stages and are stuck somewhere in between. Lee and Suri are those people who are unable to reach that stage of acceptance. It is not clear how they will survive in the future but they have taken some small steps towards their future. After all, no one can really get over grief completely because as they say grief is like the ocean. It comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.

Trivia:
1. The boat that Joe left for Patrick is named Claudia Marie. In the film, it is shown that this was the name of Joe and Lee's mother. However, in real life, it is named after the late thirteen-month-old daughter of the boat's owners Ed and Julie Smith. The filmmakers added a special tribute to her by naming Lee's mother after the ship.
2. At one point, Lee is seen reading Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler are considered as two of the finest writers of American noir fiction. The interesting thing to note is Lee's last name is Chandler, so, the film gives a nice touch by making Chandler read Hammett.
Other Reading:
1. The post on TalaashLink
2. The script of Manchester By The SeaLink

Dialogue of the Day:
"I can’t beat it. I can’t beat it. I’m sorry."
—Lee, Manchester By The Sea

"My heart was broken. It's always gonna be broken. I know your heart is broken, too."
—Randi, Manchester By The Sea

Sunday, September 2, 2018

Chaav Laaga from Sui Dhaaga

Sharat Kataria's next film Sui Dhaaga is about to be released soon. The film is a story of entrepreneurship and self-reliance set in small-town India. It stars Varun Dhawan and Anushka Sharma in the lead roles. Varun plays a tailor named Mauji who seems to be trying to start his own business venture after being fired from a job. Anushka plays Mauji's wife and partner named Mamta.

A few days ago, the song Chaav Laaga from the film was released. The song conveys the idea of marriage as a journey in which the two individuals are equal partners. It is a song that shows togetherness in a marriage. All through the song, there are scenes of the married couple where they are doing things together. Early in the song, Mauji and Mamta walk to the bus stop. Initially, Mamta is a few steps behind Mauji but she catches up with him soon and walks side by side with him. Moments later, they try to catch the bus but it is too crowded. They go inside the bus using different doors. Mamta enters from the front door, while Mauji tries to enter from back door but is left behind as the bus starts moving. However, he runs and manages to enter the bus. At different stages of life, one's spouse will be left behind but the other one waits as both of them are together on this journey. As marriage is compared to a journey, there will be bumps on the way, but the couple has to get pass through them together. This aspect of bumpy rides is visible in the synchronized movement of Mauji-Mamta, and the other passengers sitting inside as well those on the top of the bus. When the bus jerks, the people inside the bus move together in unison, again signifying a kind of togetherness.
Later, there are many other scenes that elaborate on the togetherness of Mamta and Mauji. Kaafi hai tera saath reYour presence is enough for me. Mamta brings food for Mauji and she tells him that it is the first time after their wedding that they are eating food together. They go to a clothing store together. They hide something from Mauji's father together. They work in the night together. When Mauji is stitching clothes using a paddle-style stitching machine, Mamta sits with him and puts her feet on the paddle as well. When the song ends, the poster asks the audience to join Mamta and Mauji's journey from life partners to business partners. They are partners in every respect. As the title of the film suggests, Mauji and Mamta are also like the sui and dhaaga (needle and thread) complementing the other. 
Sharat Kataria's previous film, Dum Laga Ke Haisha, was also based on the theme of marriage. The film's title was taken from a hurdle-style racing competition in which married couples were put through an obstacle course where the husband had to carry the wife on his back. Prem (Ayushmann Khurana) and Sandhya (Bhumi Pednekar) participated in the competition, which became a metaphor for marriage itself. Like the race, a marriage is also full of obstacles where the husband and the wife have to support each other to reach the finish line. Mauji and Mamta take the story of Prem and Sandhya forward. The look of Sui Dhaaga and Dum Laga Ke Haisha also seems to be quite similar. Both the films are set in small cities. Like Prem, Mauji is also living under the shadow of his authoritarian father. In another small but wonderful touch, there are people wearing similar type of sweaters in the two films.

In Chaav Laaga, the lover compares his lover to an addiction that stings like a wound. The song begins with the lines, "Kabhi seet laaga, kabhi taap laaga, tere saath ka hai jo shaap laaga." Your presence is sometimes like a cold chill, and sometimes like a hot fever. Being in your company is a curse which he adores. Love is compared to shaap (a curse). There have been songs where love has been compared to a prayer, to a blessing, and to a habit. What is noteworthy here that lover's presence is compared to a curse which usually has negative connotations attached to it. Dum Laga Ke Haisha's popular Moh Moh Ke Dhaage had a similar romantic song as well. In that song, the lover sings, "Yeh moh moh ke dhaage, teri ungliyon se ja uljhe. Koi toh toh na laage, kis tarah girah ye suljhe." These threads of endearment have got entangled in your fingers, I seem to get no clue how to solve open this knot. The underlying philosophy of both the songs essentially talks about the attachment to the lover. While Chaav Laga calls it an addiction that stings like a wound, Moh Moh Ke Dhaage calls it the threads of attachment.
Sui Dhaaga releases in a few weeks. Let's see how the final product turns out to be—an example of exquisite embroidery, or just another mundane design.
Song Credits:
Singers: Papon, Ronkini Gupta 
Music: Anu Malik 
Lyrics: Varun Grover

Other Reading:
1. On the force of gravity in Dum Laga Ke HaishaLink
2. On the similarities between Dum Laga Ke Haisha and Shubh Mangal SaavdhanLink

Dialogue of the Day:
"Kaafi hai tera saath re, saath re.
Tera chaav laga, jaise koi ghaav laga."
Chaav Laaga, Sui Dhaga