EXPERIENCE .. LIFE OF PI..

 IS Cinema meant for entertainment or message? If it’s both or either of them, then how many movies are produced to give either or both in good terms and fashion? For me, cinema is a story telling and in the format of entertainment. There could inherently be a message or an incident or autobiography or  an imaginative story. Well, there are indeed several genres of movies, call it comedy, action, romance, classic, “mass”, “class” etc. All of them loosely coined and there is always a never ending discussion on what is art movie and what is commercial movie. Few film makers like Aamir khan, Ashutosh, Sanjay leela bhansali have already blurred the distinction between them by making good cinema, which appeals to all sections, ages and groups.

Essentially the strength of the medium is seldom exploited and in Indian context it is one more business model, with huge amount of glamour, mafia, and paparazzi associated. The success rate of Indian movies in general and telugu in particular speaks volumes about this fact. Who cares? No , we have to bother,  as we all discuss, breathe, live, sit , talk, walk, movies all the time in some form or the other. But unfortunately we can’t demand good movies as we are always at the receiving end. Few good creative people do not succeed in the business, as movies is now a primarily business venture and most good creative people fail there. 

The above 2 paragraphs is important to understand the life of pi, as much as first 30 minutes of the movie is very important to get the sketch of the character, the sweety pi. The cuteness of the movie is there to see in the very first frame. Hence this movie is not just an entertaining piece with abundant subtle messages of life, but an experience by itself. We can’t give any other name to the movie except calling it an EXPERIENCE.. Such feelings are hardly got in any movie. This movie doesn’t make u cry or laugh or doesn’t equally match any known human emotion but surely makes you introspect, think and look inwards. And all this without one bit boring, no clichés, or gyan of any kind and absolutely no cheapish humour, no melodrama also. 

What can we say about the movie? Everyone has to experience, right from the conception in the novel, to the adaptation, to the casting, treatment, screenplay, use of technology, cinematography, life drama, ooops, just about everything is perfect. This is a bible, gita, kuran, and all scriptures for film making. It keeps everyone engrossed for 135 minutes without a blink, albeit for different reasons to each one.

Among everything, i even loved the dialogues and my favourite is pi saying that, fear of the tiger kept him alive. Obviously can’t recollect exact lines but there are several of them and one should not miss them. IT brings the smile and laughter in the soul. The boy who played the protagonist deserves an Oscar. The background music should get the highest award of the land and so should be to the director, screenplay writer and everyone associated with the movie. 

There can be no better end to the movie than what is shown and no one can be displeased about this. What normally seems like an exaggeration in the adjectives used for any praise will seem under statement for this movie. Like for all movies, please do not get into minute details of logic, as movies are never meant to be logical. What’s in logic anyways? 

For people who haven’t seen, it’s the story of an Indian boy (who gets his name very humorously and finds it hard to get everyone convinced) who is in search of meaning of religion and god and several tough situations in life takes him into a journey to discover and experience all that. This is what the movie is all about. See i failed miserably in narrating the story and so will  everyone be, who attempts to tell the story or scenes or dialogues or anything about the movie. Got to see it and EXPERIENCE IT.. Yes, once in a life time, we get to watch such GOOD movie.... 

SHREYA GHOSAL.. CELESTIAL VOICE

 

I am sure no one will arrest me or even threaten me of anything or bash me or abuse me, if i openly eulogize the great singing queen Shreya ghosal. People will disagree, or rubbish me but won’t deny most of what i am expressing here as i am just reflecting the most music lovers feelings and thoughts. 

It was year 2002 , i think and the month was July/ August and i heard the song , Bairi Piya from Devdas for the first time after i bought the cassette. I just could not believe what was happening to me. The song, more so the deep innocence divine voice was taking me somewhere and i kept listening again and again and again. I knew for sure that a voice has arrived in Indian music. That was Shreya Ghosal. Those days, Aish was literally the queen (for me she will be forever that) and here was someone who matched such angelic looks of aish with her voice. Each time i listen to song, i just travel to some unknown serene place and come back. I won’t take back anything from Ismail Darbar , the composer of that song, but only keep wondering as to why didn’t he last long.

After Lata and during lata several singers appealed to me immensely and each time, i would think,  that this is the replacement for LATA.. Started with Anuradha podwal, then alkayagnik, then Kavitha Krishna Murthy, Then Mahalakshmi iyer, much later Madhusree etc..  I salute and respect each of them as astounding singers as they are so fantastic as singers. But this lady shreya is a gift to the Indian music. She has all the characteristic and nuances of being the proper Indian singer, cutting across languages, traditions and culture.  She is fabulous in her way; she gets into the nativity of the song in each language. 

There is no song and genre that she has not sung and made a mark. How does one appreciate her histrionics in songs like Dochey in Puli ( telugu), or Mahabooba in Ek tha tiger or that famous song from dirty picture. Honestly i would want to believe that, all these numbers are sung by a different singer.  Today when hardly, the singers voice can be differentiated and identified for uniqueness, shreya’s stands out and she gives a stamp on every song she sings.

In telugu, Varsham, 7 G brindavan colony ( talachi), Okkadu( nuvvemaya) , Chali ( Mr perfect) are some of them which are so typical shreya that, you will always remember those songs for her voice, rendition, style and presentation. But one song which i listen almost every day is Sreeramalera from Sriramarajyam. I can never get over the divine effect it has on me each time i listen to the song. Not even once it seems that a human can sing that song. I will fail completely if i try to put that magic in words and every word, is uttered in a celestial fashion.

I started writing this, thinking i will list my top ten of shreya ghosal and this will be more criminal than most crimes and i do not want to take risk. But my all time greats are 1) Bairi piya from devdas 2) Jadoo from jism 3) Doobi from 3 idiots 4) teri orr from singh is king 5) piyu bole from parineetha  6) pal pal har pal from Munnabhai, 7) cheeni kum song and NO way i can keep typing the songs.

But one last time i want to make a special mention of Saans from Jab tak hain jaan....just to listen to that song, one has to go into silence and experience, especially the shreya sad version of the song. In the movie, that is so rich and intense that, it touches deeper layer of heart. Otherwise, the duet song the same is disappointing visually. If one listens carefully, the talent of shreya is there as a multi scan report. 

I want to take the risk and assert that, it’s surely shreya ghosal after LATA.... And this lady will rule for another decade easily.. Though it is tempting , i do not want to compare the 2 legends of so different eras for the fear of inviting wrath from the old timers. But Shreya is easily the best after lata. 

JAB TAK HAIN JAAN ..MOVIE REVIEW

..                             . GOOD BYE YASH JI....

 Watching Jab tak hai jaan was very special as , myself and grusha saw this movie with my mom and sister, both of whom stopped watching movies for more than a decade now barring couple of so called devotional movies..

Yash chopra just brought back the flavour of 60’s and 70’s in the movie , with the proper story narration and values relevant to my times like sacrifice, confessions , waiting , lamenting etc. Reminds one of golden era of Rajendra kumar , Shammi Kapoor movies of 60’s, but for the avoidable smooching scenes and skimpy clothes of heroines. The movie proved that, Katrina can actually act and even dance differently. Shahrukh can still wield his magic with reduced melodrama and the winner is Anuksha Sharma, whose acting, and  her presence is very refreshing and pleasant. 

The movie reminds us of all Yash chopra movies, including greater similarities to Dil to Pagal hai... Probably, like several aspects of life, even art and artists get stagnated with their image and talent stuff. Innovation wise, Jab tak  is not so great but surely a feel good movie and does not leave any stress on the mind. But one needs to tolerate the use of heart and mind dynamics in relation to amnesia, accident, etc and not question on the logic and all that. When do we Indians ever question on these accounts? We ought not to be doing that even for this movie  and instead enjoy the simple love story with no major surprises or shocks.

The movie has all the grandeur and riches that we often see in the Yash movies. Yes we get tempted to go to London for sure and also ladakh after watching this movie.  Life, death, love, sacrifice, permanency , immortality  are all dealt with some relative ease and light heartedness also. I personally would have preferred Ranbir for this role and surely Deepika in place of Katrina. Shah rukh should stop romancing now...though he did not look jarring , he seemed unconvincing in steamy scenes.

The flawless and the best aspect in the movie is Back ground score. Particularly disappointing is the manner in which Saans song was shot and the cinematography is of high quality.

Surely, a must watch for several reasons but do not expect great innovation in thought and presentation and please do not check for any logic.. If you have time and are a Hindi movie buff, do not think twice to watch this once

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Good bye Yash ji and feel touched that you made such a movie as your last movie.. You died young at heart and salute to you for that...

BIG B, SRK, KBC ... DIWALI SPECIAL

I love Big B and he has been the greatest influence on me , by virtue of his movies, talent, conduct, decorum, success and what not..  So what’s new and what’s the big deal that it is being said again? Millions of people for several decades said this and lived by it and this is the fact. So, so? Again and again and again, only he can touch the deeper layers of our heart, conscience and bring tears, laughter, joy and all the good, intense things happen. TO me he is what Rehman is for the music.  But why is this being highlighted now again? 

On diwali day, Grusha saw the KBC in the afternoon at my brothers place and rushed to my mom’s home one floor down in the same apartment  and took control of remote and came on to show us KBC... what happened after that?  All of us were in complete rapt attention and no changing of channels for next one hour and even during breaks we hung on to Sony. No comments and talks while watching this episode of Big B, Srk and Katrina. This was simple, clean, sheer entertainment of the highest class. The vibes and the rapport between SRK and BIG B is to be seen to be understood. I want to believe that most of it was spontaneous and impromptu and i wouldn’t also not discount the great Siddhartha basu as its quite likely that he would have also come up with value additions. But from audience point of view it just happened to be a great episode.

The dialogues scene between them, the interaction between them, the connections, the examples, the experiences , all put together gave 100% satisfaction to the viewer like me who grew up watching Amitabh and saw SRK growing into a big league. I am not a big fan of SRK but one has to give it to him for matching amitabh”s overall brilliance, sometimes.. The show got to the viewers what all entertainment should bring. A great story, a powerful narration, intense moments ( while talking about SRk’s dad and Yash chopra) , loads of fun ( coffee incident between SRK and Kaif) and just several inexplicable arresting elements.. 

Yes money brings grandeur, Grandeur brings stars and stars bring audiences but this deadly combination of SRK, Amitabh does not come with Just any of those.. They come with the belief and talent that they are showmen and they are here to entertain and hence they do it so wonderfully. What they get in return is valueless. Just watch Srk on stage every time he comes and he just spells magic and every time BIG B faces the camera, he makes a huge difference to the audience. Fundamentally both of them are happy souls, contented souls and they are THOROUGH professionals as they know what they should always keep doing to stay where ever they are, at the top.. It’s never easy and they have done it successfully for decades..

If you want to relax, have fun, feel good and remember and feel happy, don’t miss this episode... You will not only not regret but want to watch it again and again. For me, they motivate me to keep improvising in everything that we do. They define, enthusiasm, contentment, success, happy souls. Please watch, at least people born in 50’s, 60’s, 70’s.... even the rest will like but the connect of these 3 generations will also be emotional.