Half Nelson

As I begin to write about this movie, images of the vulnerable Prof. Dan Dunne flashes across my eyes over and over again. Some movies are brilliant. Not because they deal with serious matters about life, death and the human race but more because they are simple stories which we can relate to our everyday life and feel good about the fact that, "hey... this is me... & now I know I am not the only one...!"
I had not paid much attention to this movie or Ryan Gosling until the day I saw clippings of it on Sony Pix. I don't know if it happens to you, but the movie freak I am, my instincts told me that this is one movie I should watch it without fail. And so I did... in the weekend.
For the first few minutes all I could do was size up Mr. Gosling. No! I am wrong. Its not him but the character he portrayed - Dan Dunne.

An inner city Brooklyn High School teacher teaching dialectics, he snorts cocaine when he spends time outside. Though he is much in control when he is in class, yet there are instances when we get to see a puffy eyed, with medicated adhesive tape (depicting the National Flag with stars & stripe) over his hurt lips and a very much hung over Dunne totally wrecked in the class and the basketball court where he is a coach too.
Drey (Shareeka Epps), a 13 year old and his student once catches him passing out in the locker room. In order to do a cover-up about his snorting activity, Dunne offers Drey a ride back home and this continues for a few more instances. But Drey, much more matured than an average 13 year old sees the vulnerability and demureness in her teacher and slowly forms a close bond with her self destructive teacher. 

Drey has seen drug deals from an early age in the confines of her home. Unaware about Drey's brother being in the prison for selling drugs, Dunne tries to keep her away from the peddler Frank who is trying to use Drey to sell drugs.
The high point of the movie comes when both Drey & Dunne trying to help each other gets caught in the same web where it had all begun - Dunne locked up in a dingy apartment with some more junkies calls up Frank for some more substance and on the other hand it's Drey  who goes to that apartment to deliver him the cocaine.
Such intense and gripping the movie is that I watched the repeat show the very next day while I was having my lunch. And I would not mind to watch it yet one more time. 

The character of Dunne is so real. I would not like to mention names here but I've come across people - okay now let me be honest; I have friends on a similar self destructive mode and Dunne and these friends (whose name I won't mention) seemed like Siamese twins!

 

 

Mausam

The best thing about being home alone is having the TV all for myself. This I say after completing nine years of marriage. The Idiot box is mostly dominated by my three year old and her Chota Bheem, Krishna & Balram; Ceebeebies, Tom & Jerry, The Pink Panther, Takeshi's Castle & the very uncanny Mr. Bean - in both forms - animated and regular.  

And when the living room is not filled with nosies made by Mr. Bean or Tom & Jerry running helter-skleter, I hear sounds of mean machines, scientists experimenting with food, air crash investigation. And if these were not enough to drive me up the wall there's the commentary of cricket.

At times I set reminders for a movie or a show on the TV but both my daughter and hubby never passes on that message to me. So mostly I am only listening to what is going on like a radio while I am doing some other work - be it busy social networking, blogging, cooking.

A few weeks ago, like I mentioned in my first line I was home alone and I was happy to have the remote at my disposal. Once Nior finished her dinner and was in her bed, I had all the time for myself. As I was surfing channels, you see I was quite at loss and confused for choices - what to watch and what could be given a miss. 

Zee Classics is the channel where my surfing activity stopped. Mausam  was the movie being screened. As I pressed the info, button the story seemed interesting and I realized the movie had just begun. 

I don't know how I gave such a nice movie a miss. It's not the regular Bollywood film full of spices and predictable twists and turns. Starring Sanjeev Kumar as Dr. Amarnath Gill and the very pretty and petite Sharmila Tagore (in a double role) as Chanda and Kajli, its all about relationships. 

Dr. Gill falls in love with Chanda when he goes to Darjeeling for his medical exams. Chanda's father a local naturopath assures Dr. Gill that he'd allow him to marry his daughter once he becomes a doctor. 

In the mean time a patient dies int he hands of Dr. Gill on the operating table and he has to serve  a few years behind the bars, (This is shown much later in the film though) and he never comes back to Darjeeling. Meanwhile Chanda is married to a crippled man and has a daughter. But Chanda soon loses her sanity and subsequently her husband. Taking advantage of her insanity, her brother-in-law sexually assaults Kaji and she ends up in a brothel. 

Years later Dr. Gill goes to Darjeeling (this is the opening scene of the movie). We get to see an old Dr. Gill with strands of grey and maturity in his walk and speech. He tries to track Chanda and to his surprise he realizes that she is no more and makes up his mind to find Kajli to make amends for his own misdeeds. He feels he is partly responsible for Chanda's loss of sanity and death. 

Dr. Amarnath tracks a foul mouthed, beedi smoking Kajli in a brothel. He is shocked to see she resembles Chanda. He approaches her and talk to her and she almost shoos him away. He tries one more time and yet fails again. With a never give up attitude, he approaches her as a client and asks the "hench-woman" if he could keep Kajli at his home.

Dr. Gill tries to make Kajli get rid of her smoking habits, buys her proper clothes and also asks her not to use foul language. Kajli at first resents but soon she realizes that he is not that "type" but belongs to that category of men who loves being with women for more romantic causes - like poetry, music and finer things. 

Dr. Gill also tires to sort the relation between Kajli and her beau but that never sees the light of the day. As Kajli changes from within she starts falling in love with the Doctor not realizing that he is the one she feels is responsible for her mother's death. 

The best thing about the film is that here we have a hero who does not possess a six pack abs. yet he is so captivating. The humor is subtle and the pace of the movie keeps you hooked wondering what would  happen next. 

As I finished watching this classic I did a search on the web and found out the movie was made in the year 1975. Directed by Gulzar, I am sure this movie must have raised many eyebrows. A remarkable love story ... worth a watch... more than once ...

Until next time...!

Lime & Lemoni

"Lime & Lomoni" whoever hears these two words would easily complete the sentence by adding "Limca" to it. This is what we have heard for years now. 

But sadly this lemony fizzy drink has never made it to the list of my favourite drink anytime or as far as I can recall. But then when I think about TV commercials all the Limca advt.  are some of the finest pieces of work we get to see on television. And I am sure everyone would agree hand down!

The Dopal Taazgi is such a treat ... its a visual delight. Its perhaps one of the few commercial I never mind watching over and over again without bothering to fish for the TV remote. Other than this one I also enjoy the Cadbury's Dairy Milk one which I'll keep it for my next blog.

Here we have a couple - a young girl who looks she is still in college walking past guy who is equally good looking. He does not look as if he still attends college. He looks more like an apprentice or someone who's just got into the job. 

As she walks past him, the boy is smitten and bowled over by her. He kneels down to check on his shoe laces - in other words to catch a better glimpse of her. He without any warning starts trailing her. Every time she takes a sip of her drink her movement are accompanied by splashes as she walks from one side of the mall to the escalator and to the elevator till she leaves the mall and walks away to the other side of the road. The guy now takes a bottle of Limca and sips it and as he crosses the busy road he is about to be hit by a car (that's what we think when we see it for the first time) but instead it too bursts into a bigger splash.

The advertisement has a very summery feel to it. 

Another Limca Advt. which was very finely made was the "haseen lamho ko chura lo" commercial of  2008 feat. Sushma Reddy.  The advt. had a sensual feel to it and Sushma looked absolutely ravishing and invigorating in her rain dance.

Now having said so much about this lemony drink all I can now think of is grabbing a Limca myself!

Until next time'

Cheer!

Communiqué

Communiqué  by Dire Straits is one of the very first songs I liked when my dad used to play it on the gramophone... usually dad & I never enjoyed similar taste in music. But this one song I found it very foot tapping. Much later as a teenager I realized that perhaps this was a band without much fuss and noise. The sound, be it the guitar or the drums were of minimal distortion. Their themes were pragmatic with a certain amount of mysticism which always managed to calm down my soul and senses in one way or the other…

Lyrics:

They wanna get a statement for Jesus sake 
It's like talking to the wall 
He's incommunicado no comment to make 
He's saying nothing at all 
But in the communique you know he's gonna come clean 
Think what he say, say what he mean 
Maybe on Monday he got something to say 
Communication 
Communique 
Communique 
Maybe he could talk about the tricks of the trade 
Maybe he could talk about himself 
Maybe he could talk about the money that he made 
Maybe he'd be saying something else 
But in the communique you know he's gonna come clean 
Think what he say, say what he mean 
Maybe on Monday he got something to say 
Communication 
Communique 
Communique 
And now the rumors are flying 
Speculation rising 
Say that he's been trying someone else's wife 
Somebody at the airport 
Somebody on the phone 
Says he's at the station and he's coming on the noon 
Then we get the story a serious breeze 
And a photograph taken in the hall 
You don't have to worry with the previous release 
Right now, he's saying nothing at all 
But in the communique you know he's gonna come clean 
Think what he say, say what he mean 
Maybe on Monday he got something to say 
Communication 
Communique 
Communique 

http://www.lyrics007.com/Dire%20Straits%20Lyrics/Communique%20Lyrics.html

Listen:

or click on this link to listen...

http://grooveshark.com/#/s/Communiqu+/22mxVd?src=5

Karthik Calling Karthik

"Karthik Calling Karthik appears confused and half-baked, and it commits that deadly unforgivable cinematic sin -- it bores you!” This is what Rajeev Masand said in his blog www.rajeevmasand.com about the movie.

One fine Saturday, when hubby had a day off and my nanny was around too to take care of my two year old, I gobbled down my lunch in a jiffy and rushed to Fun Cinemas to watch this flick.

The high point for me wasFarhan Akhtar. Having loved his directorial debut Dil Chahta Hai and a few years later being delightfully pleased with his acting skills and vocal cords in Rock On!! and Luck by Chance, there was no way a comment like “half baked” movie could stop me watching it!

Karthik – the demure office goer and a total wasted character, slogging day in and day out without getting due credits and who isn’t even noticed by attractive women folks though he has been working for the past few years reminded me of some people I have come across in my professional and personal life!

And one phone call changes how he perceives himself and his life. I agree to all the critics for saying that it could have been better with more suspense.

The office romance between Karthik and Shona was refreshing. A teetotaller dating somebody who has no qualms about smoking or showing her disgust when asked if she’d have “juice”. “With Vodka”, she adds and completes the sentence! And then Shona realizes that he doesn’t drink to which Karthik very sportingly asks her would she take undue advantage of him if he’d drink!

Their coffee date was utterly romantic, a motorcycle ride complete with a hip flask, cups and saucers, sugar and even table mats. And as they sipped their coffees Shona almost cribs about the dearth of decent guys around and poor Karthik tries to tell her through facial gestures that there is one sitting just right next to her. In the process when he tries clearing his throat, she offers him some water!

About Karthik’s schizophrenia, I wish it was more intense and gripping.

The part where he leaves his job and Mumbai and shifts his base to some remote place in Kerala I feel made the movie lose it track.

Just a wish – hope it continued in the lines of movies like A beautiful mind (which is again one of the best movies I’ve seen till date) or maybe Johnny Depp’s The Secret Window.

But then we are a bunch of movie goers who are so much fed with masala ... running around trees... and lager than life stories that a simple Karthik who needs help would actually look silly and un-heroic... so there we are... 

But nevertheless the movie was an enjoyable one time watch....