11:29 pm, Dec 31, 2010

Recapitulating the fine moments of this wonderful year now... Thanks to all who have made this year really memorable...
Wishing all my readers a very very Happy New Year 2011... May this year bring all goodness and happiness to all...

Good Wishes,
Uthara

"Bell has no sound
till someone rings it,

Song has no tune
until someone sings it,

Never hide your feelings
because it has no value till someone feels it!!!"

A touching SMS I received today :)

Life In A Metro

Yes it seems I have successfully completed 365 (and still counting) days since I first got down at Chennai Central railway station, my ‘Buland Darwaza’ to a world outside the skeptical alleys of Kerala.

The knick knack shopping, bingeing on pongal and chutney, traveling by metro railway (with and without ticket), commuting to work in Chennai MTC buses, walking in the December rain, loading pirated DVDs into my bag, the 24x7 local FM channels, clicking away pics of happy kids (as a respite to my boring desk job), thanking cordial strangers for showing direction and speaking broken Tamil and being happy at the end of the day... life in Chennai and a metro city for the very first time has been nothing short of pure adventure, happiness and little boredom strewn in between.

And oh yea, did I miss out my eat-out experiences in Velachery? I used to stroll around the suburb after my work hours and go on a gourmet therapy. Chennai is one of the finest places to find great food joints, local and international. It's pure fun to experiment a food joint a day and savour on the local delicacy. Also, it's fun to get into an ice cream parlour, look around and ask "Is this a new shop? I just came in to check what is out here, Thank You". C'mon, you needa have a count on your calories right?!

Ever attended an interview for a private detective post? That is so beautiful and so crazy, well, I have had. I was hailed as a detective in the embryo by the famous private detective, doing detective jobs on Sundays in Velachery area! The master detective told me, "I can see a bright detective in you, Ms. Uthara." Thrilled at my potential designation, I came back home singing some famous detective numbers, apparently excited about my new role and also the scope to earn a few extra bucks.

A month and half passes by, but no intimation from the man in black suit from Scotland, the dandy Mr. Cholan. No regrets here since the meet up was fun, adventurous and a perfect staple for discussion with my friends back home in college. (at the time of writing I was still in college).

Life is riding on high since my coming to Chennai. I feel the place lets you take some fresh lessons on the value of independence, culture, politics, add to all, the importance to shed inhibitions in one's life. Of course, I wouldn’t dare to experience this had I been in Kerala, since women rarely do feel safe after twilight.

Till date, I have explored very little in Chennai and most of the things to be done still hog around my wish list. Movie reviews take the lion’s share of the blog posts here, ironically the reviewer have never had the chance to go out with her friends to a multiplex and catch the new movie watching experience!

I still await the opportunity to bask in the sun in Besant Nagar beach, visit lot more temples and churches, explore the nightlife in a discotheque on a New Year eve, go to Mahabalipuram (my new Telgu friends have promised that they’d accompany me one day), do high-end shopping in a department store, attend movie and art fests, and so on and on and on.

If you feel to share some free tips on sight-seeing in Chennai, please do it right away. Extending the discussion to the comments board...

PS: Some of my visual testimonials.

                                                   The Little Florist In West Mambalam 

 Crowd Across Ranganathan Theru On A Diwali Day

Chennai's IT Highway on OMR, my new neighbourhood (courtesy: Wikipedia)

There's No Magic In Guzaarish

,

Reviewing Guzaarish, it's a catch-22 situation (at least for me). If I say the movie is ‘Perfect… So Close’, I fool myself and if I tell the movie did not satiate my senses (or any one), it could send wrong signals to the lovers of art house films, since very few films like this are produced under big banners in India (Especially, the Bollywood). Hence, the director must be applauded for his courage to consider yet another off-beat plot after the Saawariya debacle.
The plot unfurls in a grand bungalow in the silent outskirts of Goa city, inside lives Mr.Ethan Mascarenhas (Hrithik Roshan), a former great magician, now quadriplegic for 14 long years. Since then he has been looked after by his nurse Sophiya (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan). An author of his own league, a RJ who teaches values of life and infuses inspiration in the minds of people who have nearly lose faith (and of course plays great songs on radio) Ethan still is not happy with his life, so urges his lawyer friend Devyani (Shernaz Patel) to get him the right to die in dignity from court.
Eventually, his plea gets rejected by court whilst Sophiya wins her case in legal separation from her casanova husband. The protagonists confess their love for each other and decide to marry on the penultimate day of Ethan’s life.
Now to the question hour, how is Ethan going to end his life? It highly rivets me. What if he made a U-turn on the next day? The probability is far too less, but its still there. Maybe, Sanjay Leela Bhansali has a sequel in his mind. :P
The acting department did a fine job and it is Aishwarya who shines all the way in the movie, thanks to a perfectly written role. Hrithik is equally good but his role is marred by a shoddily-written script with holes as big the size of craters. I could not see an extreme urge in Ethan to fight his case out, some screen time is simply wasted by the director showing Ethan taking radio votes to crystallise his opinion. The plot is banal as it doesn’t convincingly answer as to why Ethan wishes for death other than his lawyer parroting an argument that can even be said by a 10 year old. Given the serious subject of euthanasia, the treatment of script must be serious enough to drive home the point of the issue to the audience. Guzaarish lacks punch dialogues, neither it has memorable quotes on life by any of the characters present (since, that forms the plot).

A word about music and melody in Guzaarish, SLB has got a decent start as debut music director (also not to forget his “Yoon Shabnami” from Saawariya). The song ‘Udi’ rendered by Sunidhi Chauhan rocks with some Spanish flavour blend with however, run-of-the-mill Bollywood tune. The soundtrack by KK is a flop, interestingly it is Shail Hada who brings life into the melody "Tera Zikr" with his totally rocking vocal, let alone the stunning choreography perfected by Hrithik, the magician and Monikangana Dutta.

Whatever be it, I can’t stop myself from saying that the lose script of Guzaarish is almost a perfect lift of Mar Adentro, a 2004-Academy award winning Spanish movie that I had always loved to review some day. Watch Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside) instead; jam-packed with stunning visuals, perfect cast (though this paraplegic hero is not a hunk like Hrithik) and most importantly powerful dialogues on values of life, this movie just doesn’t get off your head so soon. Oops, this post is supposed to be a review on Guzaarish!

From Chennai To LA: It’s Robo Da, Robo Da

You must be thinking why in the hell would one need a review to catch a Rajini flick. Well, it’s a common question to which there is a pretty easy answer. I too like to associate with the whole brouhaha surrounding the release of this sci-fi extravaganza on planet Earth.

So finally I did catch up Enthiran after long wait (Gasps). So in fond remembrance of those who still nurse a disappointed heart for not able to watch the film until, I unwrap my findings.

The story is about this scientist (Dr. Vaseegaran) who has given his life and blood in the creation of his masterpiece, a humanoid robot which he intends to use for humanitarian purposes. Meanwhile, Dr Vasee’s efforts bore fruits and a humanoid is ‘born’ and they call him ‘Chitti’. A replica of Vasee, the robot only lacks human emotion but the scientist after much deliberation succumbs to the pressure of his senior scientists and upgrades him to produce human emotions. The story takes off from here when the robot falls in love none other than Dr. Vasee’s girl friend creating a love triangle.
Will Chitti fall into the hands of the evil? How audacious will it be like if robots are subjected to misuse? All this is answered as the movie climaxes to the end.

First off, though Robot is a movie Of Rajini, For Rajini and By Rajini (of course it’s Shankar’s from a screenplay by his own), every other character have willingly given their full support for the movie and is very evident. Each frame seems effortlessly perfect which indicates the amount of work gone behind-the-scenes. The film set outclasses and puts into shame every other sci-fi film produced in India, if not the Hollywood. Did you notice Vasi’s robotics lab looks like a mini BARC!

Aishwarya has equally been a saving grace in Enthiran. Her character Sana fits so perfect like a flash drive on a PC port. The song sequences are fully or mostly reliant on her dream moves. Tell me any other Indian actress who can rule both the classical and western genres of dances as natural as this 50 kg Tajmahal (guess I am gushing, but can’t help it).

Conversely and quite disappointing to the fans of Santhanam, the script does little justice to his role and is mostly given a Cntl+Alt+Del in the movie. But nobody complains as long as we get good doses of Robo Da and his antics. Danny Denzongpa as Dr. Bohra did a good job too. Even Kalabhavan Mani in his cameo as Pachaimuthu, a tribal who Sana tries to flirt with to avenge her boyfriend, Dr Vasee was engaging.

The music composition by AR Rahman is a massive enabler of Enthiran. After the super star Rajini’s credit and the movie title, most of the wolf whistles inside the cinema house was reserved for AR. But did you think he must have listened to Black Eyed Peas’ Boom Boom Pow from the album The E.N.D more than once and got inspired by it? Well, I obviously got a dejavu whilst listening to Irumbile Oru Idaiyam. On the whole, I felt the tunes are fresh, convulsed with melody and sophistication albeit any mention of it here to reiterate his genius as a music composer.

So Bollywood watch out, Rajini is back with a bang in Enthiran. What a movie! Go, see it and tell me what you think about it!

Diary Excerpts

“Aum Namah Shivaya…
Oh, Lord Jesus…
Ya Allah…
Hare Krishna…
Bless Me, Bless All…
- Yours Chosen One, Uthara”

I was excited to start using my new pen, so I gave it a ceremonial inauguration. I said some sweet and flattering things to it, hoping to impress it and win its good will. I know it's silly, but it's just something I do every time I start using a new pen.

Dabangg proves why Salman is the greatest human entertainer in B-Town

Dabangg has unleashed a terror of fan frenzy and wolf whistles and continues to reverberate the cinemas dotting the Indian subcontinent. The effect has only reinforced the unpredictable yet so dominant, Salman Theory of Entertainment on BO.

When its all Salman affair, you never wish to know if the stuff comes reheated or refried. Forget that goes around the film, story, cinematography, whatever. Time and again this man proves why he’s still Bollywood’s baap of kitsch, a loner who is enough to boot out the top movie reigning the BO (forget his London Dreams or Main Aurr Mrs Khanna).

The movie opens up to reveal a bit about the dysfunctional childhood of Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan, thanks to his father's demise and subsequent remarriage of his mother (Dimple Kapadia) to Pandeyji (Vinod Khanna). Makhanchand or Makki (Arbaaz Khan) becomes his half brother and sows seeds of separatism at home. After 21 years, Robin hood Pandey is born. Meet this corrupt and ‘dabangg’ police officer from Lal Gunj, a small town in UP.
Whilst seen chasing some local goons, Chulbul stops at glimpse of beautiful Rajo (Sonakshi Sinha). Song follows. Rajo doesn’t wish to marry until the death of her father and Salman says he wish her dad hit Parlok at the earliest. Golly, he does. Due to some indifference with his half brother Makki, Chulbul vows that his marriage will be held before his younger brother. For this, he brings his khaki colleagues on Makki’s wedding day and easily hijacks the mandap and other accompaniment meant for the couple and weds Rajo. The USP in the film are the insane, larger-than-life and seriously comic dialogue of Chulbul. Watch him ask pundit ji whilst seated in the mandap, "Kshma ke jiye pandit ji, thodi si walking kar le?"
Cheddi Singh (Sonu Sood) is the spoilt antagonist in the film and home-breaker of Chulbul’s family. Its about at the end Makki realizes he has been used, he apologizes and teams up with Chulbul.

Watch Dabangg For –
The charm of a reckless Salman Khan that has apparently reappeared after a long break. Well guys, here is it. Salman Khan is back with a bang. Dabangg is a serious Chulbul Pandey affair. Watch him shake his pelvis, spurt out craziest dialogues ever in his signature carefully careless manner and the starry charisma he has whilst emoting drama on screen, its lovely. We loved this man’s fake moustache and his Ray Ban glasses pushed on to the back collar to let us await his next dialogue "taki mujhe aage aur peeche ka dikhe". The fight scenes offer you a heady potion of the Matrix sequence in Main Hoon Na, the quintessential southern influence (Rajni), Jackie Chan and The Hulk.
The beautiful Sonakshi Sinha truly deserves a mention here and does her part so well as a rustic belle and later as Mrs. Pandey.

Music. Needless to say, if you guys had enough of Salman, savour some great melodies by Sajid-Wajid. Munni Badnam Hui/Zandu Baam by Lalit Pandey may top the charts and get good press, but seriously there is nothing earth shattering than to watch Malaika Arora khan hopelessly ape Bipasha Basu in the song Namak Isque Ka from Omkaara.

Though it is not worth two thumbs, watching the 'Dabangg' Robin hood Pandey from UP was largely paisa-vasool for me. "Complete entertainment...."

Movie Review

Alice In Wonderland(2010) Is Straight Like Pasta, Minus The Taste

I wouldn’t call Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland a disappointment. But this one has a script that is straight like pasta, not in taste, however.

A composite of Lewis Carroll's Victorian fantasy novels, 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking-Glass', the movie opens with the engagement party of Alice (Mia Wasikowska)and Hamish (Geraldine James), a dandy and fastidious young gentleman. I must confess watching his perennial scowling face had given me a hope of some real grinning moment, which, however did not realize.

Alice gets strayed from Hamish and people who surrounded her and follows a rabbit. She falls down to a hole to find herself in the Wonderland aka Underland. While she feels she is still under delusion, nothing helps the old anthropomorphic friends to cure the air of distrust about Alice. The good inhabitants, save Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp, doubt whether it is the same Alice they had met years before.

The magical Underland has a futurist scroll which details the historical timeline of land. It hails Alice as the saver of the kingdom of Underland from the clutches of evil Red Queen. To this, she has to slay the Jabberwocky, a gigantic dragon-like creature and restore the kingdom to the banished White Queen (Anne Hathaway) the blood-sister of the reigning queen.

Can the day-dreaming Alice slay the gigantic Jabberwocky and set the kingdom free? Will she return to her own world and answer some the questions about her own life? And, this forms the later half of the story.
To sum up, the memories of this mediocrity hardly lingers as you step out of the movie hall.

A word about performances.
Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is charming and makes a statement with her expressionless expression like Bella in the Twilight series, minus attitude. Blame it on the script, Hatter doesn't seem to amuse you with his crazy antics and embarrassingly falls flat in displaying emotion. Whoever told the Hatter was a visual treat was lying to you. In fact, it is the Red Queen, Tweedledum and Tweedledee and even Hamish who rock you with some laughter every time they pop on the screen.
Did I miss out someone? Oh yes, the White Queen (Anne Hathaway). Though the character may lack the punch still provides a shot of laughter, thanks to her expressions and that secret recipe to make Alice short.

Music
Danny Elfman infuses life into a movie otherwise forgotten with his marvelous piece of music. However the background melody is heavily underutilized throughout the film. The music track “Tripping out, spinning around” by Avril Lavingne is a wonderful gift from this movie to all the pop music buffs and for wannabe singers, try this song for some music audition. :)

Be Proud!!!

Hey readers, just call me genius, I don’t mind. And ‘Be Proud’ as you have just entered a blog that has been featured in the ‘Blog Watch’ column in the New Indian Express (Kerala Edition) on some Sunday in December, 2009. As late as late can be, I am still flashing the ‘exciting news’ here.

Obviously, I missed it out to mention then, but trust me it really happened. Ask my ex-classmate in Calicut University, now a journalist with the New Indian Express, Kochi, who was the master brain behind this operation. This is a classical case study of free publicity gone underutilized!

The moral of the story: news should be served as hot dog with image or video support as the least authenticity you can provide. Apologies for letting slip this norm. The image of the newspaper column featuring my blog will be updated in case I find it whilst eating groundnuts in some food joint. (Situation may vary)

Cya around, friends!
Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6" Display, Graphite - Latest Generation

Movie Review - Milenge Milenge

Expectations would naturally be up on a Kareena-Shahid starrer post Jab We Met, but Satish Kaushik’s Milenge Milenge doesn’t have much to offer.

The story is about Priya (played by Kareena Kapoor), a college-going woman who holds no career ambitions but all dreams about her soul mate who she thinks will meet her soon. Incidentally, that leads her to rendezvous with an illusionist (played by Khirron Kher) who tells her she would soon meet her life partner in some far away land.
To her disbelief, she gets the chance to lead a dance program in Thailand as part of international youth festival.
Whilst walking across the beach, she identifies Immy (played by Shahid Kapoor) as her life partner that the illusionist had mentioned in the cards. They bond together but soon part ways after Priya comes to know that he was fooling around. Immy begs her for a second chance. As redemption, she asks him to write his telephone number on a fifty rupee note and uses it to buy a book on which she jots down her number and sells it off to an old bookstore.
The essence is, if the destiny of their relation still holds true they will surely end up meeting again. Remember the not-so-old Hollywood flick, Serendipity? A thankless rip-off though.

Three years pass by and Priya laments her decision to put destiny to test. She decides to trace the where-about of Immy and sets off to Delhi. To her disbelief, she finds back the fifty rupee note and puts Immy’s telephone number on dial only to realize that it was his day of marriage. But a turn of incidents lead his marriage being called off. And the rest is Milenge Milenge.

This film is laughably absurd. In between all the drama, one is even forced to take lessons on anti-smoking and drinking that is far too uninspiring. I really hope a non-smoker does not start smoking after this.
A word about the music, Himesh Reshammiya does it again with his mass-produced songs which seem all alike.
Apparently, the film which tells about the power of destiny in life itself seems to have got destiny engraved way too sooner in just about a day from its release. Milenge Milenge is just a run-of-the-mill movie with a blast of retro-style romantic garbage. Watch it at your own risk.

Lucky!!! No Time For Love...

For me the aura about celebration of the most powerful emotion on earth was felt exactly a month ago while I was busy weaving verbal images for Le Royal Meridien's Valentine’s Day ads. I was forcing to drown myself in the ocean of love to come with some magical words(Gosh! Am I trying to convince I had never fallen in love?). That’s not true. (:-) / :-( )

Then I saw the day approaching. Shops were all stacked with valentine gifts, cakes, and curio on the eve of the ‘D-day’. After my retail therapy in T-Nagar and Pondy Bazar, like on all Saturdays, I was coming back to my den (yes! I am a Leo) with some cheese buns in my bag.
Well, I was thinking why people wear that lovelorn look on their faces in the eve of Feb 14. I really do. Why don't they divide the heavy emotions of rejections or not finding love, in little possible ways? (See the third person narrative I used just now. I am a typical Indian, which is why I pretend the feeling of love and rejection is alien to me and I am a good gal always, …Ghanta aall iz well…)
Ok follow these steps; as advice is always free at any time, any day. Take it or Phenk it.

Hey singles! You are blessed that your Feb 14 falls on a Sunday and have enough time for an extensive retail therapy. Get yourself a pair of lenses or a statement eyeglasses. Or if you find that lavishing attention on yourself couldn't work a magic, give out those cheese buns in your bag to the children of lesser fortune. You will be blessed, dear. Empty some of your wallet into alm trays. Or if you want to donate in other ways, visit a local NGO. Use the 75% discount chance and buy some clothes for brothers and sisters living on streets. I have seen children walking without footwear in the scorching heat of Chennai. 

Take the spiritual route. It helps too, if you're sure there's a canopy of some Super Power over humanity. 

And hey, THIS WORKS!!! Turn down friend requests on Orkut, FB, Tagged, whatever, just like the way you were rejected by your bae. Turn down all stupid requests, unless they're buddies - you don’t want to lose friends in the heat of the moment, am I right?

Nothing works than penning down pieces of your own life history and pretend you are some author.  You'll be amazed how tougher times in life indeed turn to be the most productive ones.


Spend time with your friends, family and people who think you are special to them, and still more, rely on the ubiquitous music, TV, Internet, books, food, what not, to get you sail through this special occasion of love. Why would anyone feel lonely when there's so much options to dive into? 

When we think about the people who are less fortunate than us, it can put our own problems into perspective and may leave us feel… Lucky!!!! No Time For Love…