Déjà vu, of the worst kind

It happened in November 2008 once and now the story is repeating itself all over again.

Both instances involved two brilliant & delightful UTV movies –Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye, then and now, Kaminey. As Dibakar Banerjee said in an interview post OLLO’s release, “har picture ka ek bhagwaan hota hai” – guess these two movies share their deity.

The 26/11 terror weekend brought the entire city down to its knees for almost 3-4 days. Everyone was glued, watching the most horrific reality show unfold itself on national TV. Going to watch a movie in the theatres was the last thing on anyone’s mind. Oye Lucky opened to single digit % bookings over its first weekend and though it recovered with word of mouth, the damage had pretty much been done. Dibakar Banerjee most wonderful second offing, for all the cult status it has gathered since, wasn’t able to rake in the box-office moolah and get the eyeballs it so richly deserved.

And now, swine flu happens. The government hits the panic button and shuts down all schools and colleges for a week and all cinema halls for 3 days. I was just about to get online on Wednesday evening and book my tickets for the Friday evening show for Kaminey, when I heard the dreadful news on TV. I almost sunk. Aug 14 wasn’t gonna turn out the day I was so lipsmackingly looking forward to. Kaminey was going to enthrall everyone through its opening weekend, except for us flu-mania-stuck denizens of Bombay and Pune. I mean, yes, the swine flu scare is pretty real, but still. I am still not able to explain it to myself.

I don’t remember the last time I wished for the weekend to just zip by in a flash and so eagerly waited for Sunday to arrive.

The reviews for Kaminey have started flowing in and I am not one bit surprised by the unanimously positive reactions. I have yet resisted reading any review in detail, have skimmed through the titles and the ratings at the end. Don’t want to pollute my mind with any kind of details that will dampen the Nirvana.

The promos and the kick-ass soundtrack had set the benchmarks way too high anyways. The movie was definitely gonna be all that and much more. And am so glad it is. After all, it’s a Vishal Bhardwaj product.

Yes, having such unreal expectations from anyone is pretty insane, but then you watch any 10 minutes of The Blue Umbrella and you know that the man is sheer genius and that your heart won’t settle for anything mediocre. For all of you who haven’t watched this absolute gem of a movie, please do yourselves a favor and rent a DVD this weekend.

Meanwhile, the Kaminey experience is still two agonizing days away. The weekend has never seemed so long before.

Adieu, PDX

What a moment to be writing this. Sitting @ the PDX airport, 5.40 in the morning, another 45 minutes to go for my flight to take off. 

Dunno when I will be back. Dunno if I will be back. But then as life has been over the last 3-4 years, one lesson I've learnt is to not discount out anything. 

13 eventful months. 13 months, in a city, that everyone down in sunny California raised their eyebrows to. "Portland, you leaving the Bay Area for Portland! Do you know the kinda weather that's up there? Blah, blah, blah"

To be honest, I was a lil skeptical to begin with. And it wasn't love-at-first-sight either. But theng gradually, as the city began to seep into my veins, I flipped. Completely. By the old-school charm, the green and most importantly, the calm & peace that Portland had to offer. 

And the wonderfully warm people I met, only added to the charm. Some absolute gems, really. I hope the friendships last a lifetime.

After Bombay, Portland is the closest to where I've felt like being @ home. How I'm feeling @ the moment is how I feel everytime I take a flight outta Bombay. Its difficult to believe that another city evokes the same emotions. But it does.

Anyways, life is all about whole-heartedly embracing the change. So here we are. Goodbye, my dear city. And thank you for being such a wonderful host. I really couldn't have asked for more. 

Wherever life takes me, I shall always cherish the memories you've given me. Always.

jab we met

I've been terribly delayed in writing this piece. Actually an entire month, to be precise.

Guys may be supposed to be bad with dates and all, but I for sure cannot forget the day my life changed for the better, forever. When everything I was hoping & praying for just magically fell in place, in a manner much better than I had ever envisaged. The day when coffee @ the Cafe Coffee Day tasted better than it ever has.

That evening, she was someone was I so eagerly looking forward to meet. We had spoken for hours at end on the phone, typed away relentlessly on gtalk, twiddled our thumbs composing SMS smileys almost every single day, and in the process, traversed an emotional journey that perhaps neither of us thought we would undertake in such fashion. But then life had other ideas.

Sure there were flashes of logical realization along the way - was this the right this to do?Without even having met each other once? What about practicality?

But somehow, the questions didn't last for too long. Before we knew it, we were back on the phone. Day by day, one conversation after another, we were comfortably seeping into each others' lives.

As time passed, the questions got more serious - what IF this is not it? How much baggage have we accumulated over four months for us to be able to shed that and move on, as we are supposed to? Are there any "wise" answers to such questions? Isn't this what is called behaving immaturely? Again, there was something that was keeping us both in it. Something that kept us hooked on. What, we really didn't know.

And then finally, as they say, the right time came. We met. And it was as if we had known each other forever. There was no apprehension, the body language was super comfortable. It was like two long lost friends catching up. Could totally relate to each other. Meeting each other in person had turned out to be more wonderful than we could have ever thought.

Today, we are such indispensable parts of each others' lives that it seems weird to think of a life without each other, whenever it existed.

It was evening of the 9th of March when Renu and I first met. When the glint in our eyes and the smile on our lips just said it all. To think of it, neither of us really popped the big question. Both of us just knew that we were always meant to be together.

Someone up there has hand-held us all the way through and here we were are, so eagerly looking forward to share our the rest of our lives with each other. Thank you sooo very much - it really couldn't have been scripted better.

Serendipity now has a new meaning.

the bells are ringing...

all lines on this route are engaged!
please try after some time :)

virtual reality

just five more days to a Monday I am so looking forward to...

keep the faith!!

fuper!

One of the highlights of the drive to Seattle over the weekend was getting to see the trailer of Vishal Bhardwaj's Kaminey.

And if the trailer (and the soundtrack) are anything to go by, we have a cracker of a movie on our hands! Am lipsmackingly looking forward to this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1HcanzUqf0

Releases June 5 - dhan-tan-naa!!

you missed the salt, Rakeysh

Imagine standing at a roadside chaat thela in puraani Dilli, all set to savor gol-gappas, or paani-puri as they call it in my home town. Your taste buds are waiting to explode in a trance, you can hardly control the slurpp dripping from your mouth.

The bhaiya-ji carefully prepares each puri, deftly breaking its center crust, adding smashes potatoes & chana, dipping it thru various chutneys, garnishing it with a lil dahi, sev and what-have-you and serves the first morsel, which you eagerly bite into. Your eyes roll up with the anticipation of the taste, but then reality strikes - somethings amiss. There's no salt. And the entire taste just comes undone.

The optimist in you waits for the next puri, expecting things to be perfect the second time around. But then again, no salt. The wait begins again and before you know, you've gulped down the entire serving, waiting for that pinch of namak which would bring it all together. Alas, your wish just remains that - a wish. An outing that should have been a lip-smackingly chatpata experience, leaves you with that utterly disappointing feeling of yaar, maza nahin aaya. So near, yet so far.

That, is exactly how I felt as I walked out of Delhi 6. A wonderful opportunity lost.

I am perfectly fine with the movie not having a very strong "story" per se. Even if it were a collection of fleeting moments of great cinema, I wouldn't have been so disappointed. What bugged me was that suddenly in the last 30-40 minutes, Mehra hurriedly tries to force a story, a preachy and overly simplified one at that, into the narrative and even more hurriedly drives the movie to a very disappointing and unfathomable climax. Not done, just not done.

Rang De Basanti, despite the implausibility of the climax, worked because the story was leading up to its finale all through the second-half. The purpose was defined the moment Madhavan's character dies in the plane crash - not way towards the end, like is the case with Delhi 6.

As much as I don't want to compare D6 with RDB, I can't help but notice the thematic similarity of the plot points - the protagonist being a foreigner visiting India with a purpose that is somewhere related to his previous generation, an array of interesting and diverese characters, discovering India through the eyes of the protagonist, the central fulcrum of the story hinged on one of India's many problems and ultimately, the sacrifice of one or more lives for the particular cause -- the two movies are structured pretty much the same.

Anyways, back to Delhi 6 - Another issue I had was the forced romance. As a viewer, I just didn't see Roshan falling for Bittu, or any situation that justified him uttering the shocking "I am incomplete with you" line at the end. Pretty unconvincing, at least as far as I was concerned. It would have been so much better if there was no romantic track at all. At least the movie would've stayed consistent.

Another let down was how Mehra failed to effectively use a massively brilliant Rahman soundtrack. He has not done enough justice to the two best songs of the lot by not giving them the kinda visuals and treatment they so thoroughly deserved - rehna tu & maula mere maula. Cardinal, absolutely cardinal. However, he does make up for it to some extent with the way he has conceptulized dil gira dafaatan against a juxtaposed backdrop of Times Square and Chandni Chowk- if ever there was a real dream sequence, this is it. Brilliantly done. genda phool is also pretty neatly picturized, impromptu jig, et al.

But to give credit where its due, Delhi 6 will always be remember for its stellar, absolutely stellar ensemble cast - Waheeda Rehman, Rishi Kapoor (good to see him spout Urdu couplets), Om Puri, Atul Kulkarni (my pick of the lot - simply outstanding), Pawan Malhotra (wonderful to see him in a meaty role after ages), Deepak Dobriyal (in crackling form), Vijay Raaz (brilliant!), Supriya Pathak, Prem Chopra, Sheeba, Cyrus Sahukar, Divya Dutta, Aditi Rao, KK Raina, Raghubir Yadav - the acting by almost everyone is top-notch. They infuse such believability into their characters, that for once you really don't complain about the lack of a cohesive story as such. You are more than content seeing this motley bunch live out one day of their lives after another in their dilli che mohalla. Only if Mehra had let it remain that way.

And who really was the bespectacled fakir who holds up the mirror to one and all? For some reason, every time he came on screen, my mind kept telling me that he looked like Prasoon Joshi - was it really him?

Some of the scenes are pretty well done - brothers living in neighbouring houses separated by a brick-wall, each pouring a glass of whisky, one with soda, one paani, each lamenting over their life's kahaani, pakoras being exchanged across the household, Atul Kulkarni being fooled by Pawan Malhotra with a Rs. 1o note v/s two Re 1 coins and then his killer, absolutely killer line at the end, the two little kids walking up to Divya Dutta, asking her to convert them from boyz to men, the sequences between Rishi Kapoor and Abhishek, the MLA speech between a RamLeela sequence - they all bring a smile to your face. This is the India we all know.

The slice of life is pretty well depicted too. The movie evokes a certain warmth inside the cockles of your heart, taking your back to the neighbourhoods you grew in, amidst the bunch of people you perhaps didn't really like at one point of time, but without whom your life was strangely incomplete. And You can almost smell the jalebis!

Another big positive is Binod Pradhan's astounding camera work. From capturing the dusty by lanes of the walled city, to the lazy afternoons perched on the rooftops, to the dimly lit jaagran sequence, the tight maneuvers in closed confines, the shadow-play of the Ram Leela characters, the inventively picturised "dil gira dafaatan", the bursting montages of delightful visuals depicting the mood and character of the city, Pradhan deftly does it all. Its a sheer joy to watch one frame after another.

However, even with all its ingredients, how much can you really relish a chaat minus the namak?

Sameer's Stars - 2.5/5

ps: This one's for you, Anonymous :)

there's always a first time..

Feb 21 is finally here.

And I am just about set for my 3 hour drive up to Seattle to watch Delhi 6 @ the 1 pm show.

The reviews are mixed, as expected. Not everyone can be satiated by a particular type of cinema.

I shall know my answer in a few hours from now.

Mehra, here I come.

the chosen one

Someone up there really has a massive sense of humor. To say that the road ahead seems eventful would really be an understatement.

How, I mean how does one inexplicable situation arise after another with such amazing regularity?

Beats me, hollow.

But on a more positive note, things have always turned out good in the long run, so I should perhaps take cue and not crib too much. Just keep the faith & hang in there. I sure will try to.

Life, here I come.

Shampoo turns ONE!

Feb 10, 2008 - Project Shampoo completed successfully.

Feb 10, 2009 - A year has flown by...And how!!

Mr. & Mrs. Bilgi, wishing you a super-duper fun-filled 'blushing-red' first anniversary!

;)

do, do se bhale teen :)

Feb 7:: birthdays = birthdays + 1;

A very very Happy Birthday to Rahul, Paggy and Shashi's Dad...

The Feburary festivities just continue to pile on - touchwood! :)

Have fun folks & have a piece of the cake from my end too.

God bless! Cheers.

ek, ek se bhale do...

Feb 6 - one of the most special days of the year -

Happy Birthday, Maa & Kanchu - wish you both the best of everything!!

Lots of love & god bless! :)

caught me unawares..

zara tasveer se tu, nikal ke saamne aa..

meri mehbooba..

Heard this song from Pardes today after ages. And it has never ever made more sense :)

..magar kab na jaane, ye barsaat hogi,

mera dil hai pyaasa, mera dil akela..
zara tasveer se tu, nikal ke saamne aa..
meri mehbooba..

As they say, be positive ;)

rehna tu, hai jaisa tu..

Sublime trance.

That's the state I've been in ever since I loaded my iPod with the music of AR Rehman's latest offering, Dilli 6 (yeah, I refuse to call it Delhi 6, Dilli sounds soo much more in character).

Over the years, waiting for a Rehman soundtrack has become an event in itself. Forget the movie, the stars, the directors, the banner - nothing else matters. It is only about the man and his music. Just like it has always been. Simple, unassuming, pure and genius.

With Dilli 6, the expectations are a plenty too. Teaming up once again with Prasoon Joshi, the man who's becoming synonmous with understated and uncomplicated poetry (not lyrics) and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, the man whose cinematic vision and sensibilities provide scope for an enchanting musical score, ARR does a splendid job one more time. Here's a low down of what I think of each offering

tumhre bhavan mein - think a late summer evening in an old semi-dilapidated, dusty, cramped up temple, the only light being the amber glow of the flickering diyas. Add about 12-15 middle aged women, sitting on the ground, huddled together, heads covered with their dupattas or the pallu of their sarees, hands joined and eyes closed in prayer, humming this one in chorus, revering one of the incarnations of maata raani. tumre bhavan mein conjures up these images everytime I listen to it. Marvellous. Especially, the way there is no rhythm used in the song, not even clapping of the hands - there's only strains of the taanpura and a constant "ting" of the mandir ghanti. Very very nice.

bhor bhaye - can't remember the last time when a classical song of such nature was included in a mainstream OST. Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khaan saab wields his magic, but the massive surprise package in this song is the way Shreya Ghosal holds her own against the big wig. She is fantastic! This one's for the connoisseurs.

dilli 6 - the title track - funk personified. madness personified. Here's Delhi's anthem for the 2010 Commonwealth games. A brilliant ode to the capital city, the title track has everything going for it. From the husky singing, to the foot-tapping rhythm that changes tempo just when you don't expect it to, to Blaaze's fantastic rap, to the words that bring a smile on your lips - "ye shehar nahin mehfil hai.." - I mean, could you better encapsulate the spirit of the city in a single sentence? I think not :)

basti hai mastaano ki dilli, dilli...

gali hai deewano ki dilli, (six)

ye dilli hai mere yaar,

bas ishq mohabbat pyaar..

masakalli - What the hell does this word mean? Literal meaning aside, in the context of this song, it just means masti! Full on masti! I mean, when was the last time you heard a singer have sooooo much fun with a song? Mohit Chahuan goes absolutely all out with his singing, backed by ARR himself on the chorus, a wicked tune, brilliant orchestrization and the result is a phataka of a song. Just can't help smiling to this one. Get ready for a few Best Male Playback awards next year for sure. This one's a sure shot winner. And from the promos, if Sonam Kapoor's latka jhatkas are anything to go by, the video is gonna be kick-ass too.

genda phool - one word, hooked. Absolutely hooked. You really will be. Rekha Bhardwaj's vocals are sheer magic. And her first collaboration with Rehman turns out to be truly memorable. Though not a proper song-song per se, this one is more a musical narration of what a married lady goes through in her sasuraal - saas, devar, nanand, et al. The piece starts of with a very traditional sound to it, but the way a funky electric guitar bass & rhythm kicks in just at the right time, the song just takes an altogether different turn. I just keep nodding my head & smiling through the 2.50 minutes duration of the song. Endless loop material, this one.

kaala bandar - is a pretty unique experiment. With the tune, the rhythm, the words (especially), the pacing of the song, the styles and the singing too - an amalgamation of various Rehman songs and sounds we've heard in the past. As soon we start comparing it with a particular song from the past, the song changes gears and we are left scratching our brains all over again. I like the kaala bandar metaphor in the song being used for our material pursuits and sins- this should make for interesting viewing on screen. Looking forward to seeing how Mehra uses this in the narrative.

dil gira dafatan - well, this seems to be the quintessential Rehman number. One that grows on your after several multiple hearings. Hasn't grown on me as yet, but I sure will give it another trip. Maybe its too complex and nuanced for my musical sensibilities. Well, another hear won't do that much harm, will it? :)

arziyaan (maula, maula) - what can I really write about a song that says

daraarein daararein hain maathe pe maula,
marammat muqadar ki kar do maula...

This is sublime trance at its very best. Kailash Kher and Javed Ali team up to give us one of the best (and subdued) qawaallis of late. Just a simple harmonium based tune accompanied by clapping of hands and a tabla-dholak based rhythm, maula mere maula is enchantingly & mesmerizingly beautiful. The words are simple and very very profound too (Joshi, take a bow brother) -

jab teri gali aaya, sach tabhi nazar aaya,
mujhe mein hi wo khushbu thi, jis se tune milwaaya...

And the fact that ARR doesn't sing this one makes it completely different from piya haaji ali and khwaaja mere khwaaja...Brilliant stuff this from ARR. He really is blessed as they say.

rehna tu, hai jaisa tu - save the best for the last as they say. This one's perhaps the best of the lot. Prasoon Joshi outdoes himself with the words and Rehman's singing does perfect justice to the poetry. Off late, Rehman seems to be finding his long-lost jazz roots (like the title track in Jaane Tu) - though this one falls in the same overall genre, it is totally different from what we've heard before. Here, Rehman falls back upon what I think is one his biggest strengths as a composer - his very unique style of using chorus singers. Just listen to the song and you'll know what I mean. More than the tune, the singing or the composition, what touches you most is the soul of the song, the basic idea of accepting someone just the way they are. Nothing more. Nothing less.

rehna tu, hai jaisa tu..
thoda sa dard tu, thoda sukoon...
rehna tuuuuuu, hai jaisa tu..
dheema dheema jhonka, ya fir junoon....
thoda sa resham, tu humdum, thoda sa khurdura,
kabhi to ad jaa, ya lad jaa, ya khushbu se bhara..
tujhe badalna naa chaahon, ratti bhar bhi sanam,
bina sajaawat, milaawat, naa zyaada na hi kamm...
tujhe chaahon...jaisa hai tuuu..
mujhe teri baarish mein bheegna hai, ghul jaana hai..
tujhe chaahon, jaisa hai tu..
mujhe teri lapat mein jalna, raakh ho jaana hai...

Though the obvious reference is to a loved one, I couldn't help notice the way the basic idea applies to one's motherland as well. To India. How much ever we would want things in India to change, we still wouldn't want the basic nature of India to remain intact just the way it is - the warmth, the bigheartedness, the love, the spirit!!

Rehman - really, rehna tu, hai jaisa tu...

After being enchanted with the music the way I am and given Mehra's cinematic reputation after Rang De Basanti, Dilli 6 sure deserves a 3-hour drive up to Seattle to watch ARR's music gel with the brilliant visuals on the big screen.

The countdown to Feb 21 begins.

living upto my DNA

Of all the things passed down from one generation to another, food, I believe is the most ever-lasting of the lot. Each family kitchen has a peculiar taste to it, one that is acquired over years and years of preparing the same delicacies, recipes changing hands, everyone adding that a little bit of their individual touch to it, but none that over-rides or drastically changes the underlying taste. Now that would be considered sacrilege.

Being born into a family of food aficionados, over the years, food, I mean good food, holds a special place in our lives. The palate has been exceptionally lucky to have tasted the best of so many different cuisines and tastes. Food, is just not meant to satiate hunger. It is meant to enthrall the taste buds, the senses and eventually touch your soul. As the saying goes, pet bhi bhare, aur dil bhi.

Sunday lunches in most homes are when the special delicacies are brought to the table. And being born into a Sindhi family, amidst every other lip smacking delicacy Sindhi cuisine has to offer, that special place on the Sunday afternoon lunch table unarguably has to go to the absolutely one of its kind tamaate besan ji kadhi - the tomato besan kadhi. Add steaming white rice, crisp fried aalo took and sweet boondhi to the mix - and that is as close to culinary Nirvana as you can get. And I've been very fortunate to have attained such salvation almost every second Sunday at home. Home! Those really were the days :)

As I was picking my fortnightly groceries at the supermarket the other day, the red ripe tomatoes caught my fancy. Though they were not on my list, I still carefully started picking the best of the lot. And from absolutely no where, I uttered to my friend, "yaar is Sunday kadhi banaate hain" - to which he suspiciously arched his eyebrows, like he usually does and replied, "uske liye itne tamaatar kyon chahiye?"

Aah, the uninitiated, I thought. Thinks that kadhi is perhaps just of the besan or dahi kadhi variety.

"Tune Sindhi tamaatar kadhi nahin khaayi kabhi kya?"

"Tamaatar ki kadhi banti hai??"

And I knew it. The time had come. As if the Divine was almost hand-holding me to take the next step in my cooking escapades. The besan tamaatar ji kadhi was irresistibly calling out to me.

As much as I am a fan of experimental cooking, throwing in masalas which don't 'belong' to a particular dish, changing the consistency of the gravy and what have you, there are some things that you just don't tamper with. Especially if it is the most revered item from your cuisine and you're trying it for the first time :)

So after confirming the recipe from Maa thrice this morning over web chat and actually typing every little detail into a hurriedly put together text file on my desktop, I was ready.

And little did I know that Maa's blessing, tastes and jaado would actually fly all the way from Bombay and sneak into the kadhi steaming in my kitchen. When I scaringly lifted the lid after letting it simmer for 20-25 minutes, the fragrance and taste that hit my nostrils almost transported me back to Bombay. Its been almost a year since I've been home and here I was relishing the khusbhoo of tamaatar kadhi after such a long time. That too, in my kitchen!!! Wohoooooo. My joy knew no bounds. I was like a 5 year old kid, jumping around in the kitchen.



And when I hesitatingly took that first sip and bit into a moist piece of bhindi, I was almost in tears. It had turned out better than my wildest imagination.

A few years back, cooking by myself, for myself, was almost an unthinkable prospect. And here, I was making tamaatar kadhi of all things and it had turned out lipsmackingly fantastic. Life, I tell you, doesn't ever cease to surprise :)

And my friend who had come over to dinner and had helped me along the way, was spellbound too. Watching him relish every morsel only added to the fantastic experience.

I called Maa as I was at the dining table. I just had to share the moment with her. And her voice told me how proud she was, hearing me rave about my first kadhi experience.



The evening of Saturday, Jan 10, 2009 eventually turned out to be when my cooking came of age and my life in the kitchen turned another corner. It would never be the same again. And the fact that it was just the right time for Sunday lunch to be served back at home is just not a mere coincidence. Some things, as I said, are just not meant to be tampered with :)

Maa, I miss you all the more today :)