waiting for 5th September as Kashmir meets Mumbai onscreen

Am not sure how great will the next Friday be but I think it is going to be a different Friday. 2 unusual movies are going to get released on next Friday and the story they have to tell us looks simply amazing.

A Wednesday is a thriller centered around happening on a Wednesday in the city of Mumbai. It is about how a police commissioner confronts a difficult situation. It brings the two greats Anupam kher and Naseeruddin Shah together along with Jimmy Shergill. I doubt how good the movie would have been executed, but after a Mumbai meri Jaan I do expect decent stuff from UTV.

Tahaan on the other hand has a different hero. The hero is a young boy and the story is about his love for his donkey. Unusual story telling by all standards but that is not what we would be waiting for in this movie. The movie will give us a view of beautiful Kashmir valley from the best eye of camera in the present day Indian Cinema – Santosh Sivan. Starcast for this movie too is impressive – Rahul Bose, Anupam Kher, Victor Banerjee, Sarika and Rahul Khanna. To know more check this out : http://passionforcinema.com/tahaan-exclusive-look-and-theatrical-promo/

Mumbai Meri Jaan : Ek Cheez Ke Hai kai Naam yaha...

Imagine, What happens when your loved one gets a cut on her hand, what are you reactions? What happens if in place of a cut on finger it’s the finger or worse still the hand that gets chopped? It would hurt you, wouldn’t it? Now imagine if you knew you could do something to save this, if you knew that it is your carelessness and indifference that has lead to this? Wouldn’t you feel guilty? You surely will and post facto you feel that you would go to any extent to save your loved ones. But the hard reality is its post facto. A major event like aa 11th sept. or 11th July changes the lives of the people who are affected but for everyone else it is just a gruesome news. Would it require hundreds of blasts killing atleast someone loved for everyone to get us together? I think that is the core of the message that “Mumbai Meri Jaan” wants to pose. It’s a movie that makes an appeal. As the title credits passes on with the videos of our political history being played on the screen, I thought that the movie is going to be a docudrama on what happened during the serial Mumbai blasts in the train and how people tackled it and I almost believed that by intermission. But a movie that starts off with its cast, acting the crowd that we see every day in trains, in buses, on roads, in malls, in colleges, in offices, takes a sharp turn midway and goes on making many comments on the social consequences of an insensitive individualism that we are breeding.

We are the characters :

Mumbai Meri Jaan is about us. It is about things that drive us. Fear, Hatred, Necessities, fame, power, ambition, love and frustration at times. It focuses in the first 5 with its 5 characters Nikhil Agarwal (Madhvan), Suresh (Kay Kay), Tukaram Patil (Paresh Rawal), Rupali (Soha Ali Khan) and Thomas (Irrfan). There is a beautiful small role played by Vijay Maurya (as constable Kadam), who builds in a frustration of not doing what he must do. That small role shows the other aspect of these drives, frustration for not being able to do what one is supposed to do. The story is about how one event and its aftermath changes lives of these 5 characters.

Nikhil’s wife is expecting a child, he travels by train, he wants to do keep Mumbai safe and clean in his own small way. He is a believer that small efforts from everyone will count. He represents an Ideology that a small part of our young, literate, upwardly mobile young people likes. His life changes as he sees that anything could happen to anyone. He is scared for his family and for the society. He has an option of moving out of the country and but he chooses not to run away from the problems that his society is facing. The blast induces in him the fear of the thing happening again during his travels.

Suresh on the other hand builds hatred towards Muslims. He is an educated person, with work not coming his way. The blast builds up this hatred as he tries chasing Yousuf, whom he suspects has some connections with the Blast

Rupali represent that part of the society which is the source of information for everyone around. She represents the press that sensationalizes every issue and gets a story out of pain for their viewership. The blast gets her fiancé killed and the tables turn as she becomes the story herself.

Thomas, is the ignored, unimportant, underprivileged and suppressed part of our society. He is nothing to any body, and so is his family. The world he lives in has nothing for him apart from suffering, all pleasures are for the rich. The blast gives him a chance to become important. His stray phone call makes him feel important as he could see people panicking and police moving around with his one phone call.

Tukaram and Kadam are the mute spectators. Tukaram representing the major part of us who have adjusted to whatever is happening and though he knows what is right and what is not, he has no intentions even trying to correct the wrong, as he knows there are powers bigger than him which would not let him do that. Kadam on the other hand feels he is avoiding his duty by not doing what is right. Some of the most beautiful dialogues in the movie come through their interactions. Blasts changes their lives as they realize that they need to do their duty, however difficult it may be, they need to try getting out of the usual and do things differently. They represent the unequipped saviors that we have in our policemen.

One day...

The movie in place of showing a dark saddening consequence, which real life has, turns to a very optimist ending. Nikhil overcomes his fear, Suresh his hatred, Rupali her hypocrisy, Thomas his need for attention and power and Tukaram, his corrupt life. The movie has a lot to say as the lives of its characters move on. The movie ends with a note of hope for everyone.

Due Credits

I would absolutely and loudly like to appreciate the director Nishikant Kamath for not sticking to the real life situations that we face in the second half of the movie and giving a critical statement on society through his work. The second half of the movie moves the normal people he shows in the first part to their edge. It was a kind of storytelling post interval that I enjoy the most. I would have loved it even more if the director would have featured the why part of the movie well. There was no mention on the motives of the people who do this. They too are as much a part of us as the other characters are.

Another person who I think should be given as much credit as Nishikant for the movie is Yogesh Vinayak Joshi. He is the one behind the screenplay, story, dialogues and lyrics. Screenplay is very tight and leaves you spell bound. I thought there were few artistic masterpieces that he brought in as the story moved. Few of the scenes will leave a long impact. A few of my favourites were :

• One where Irrfan as he gets down from his cycle, buys a 2 rs. Parle-G biscuit to have as food with a cup of tea looks over a rich brat, smoking a 100rs. Cigarette and throwing his mobile worth a few thousands on road in anger, crushing it. Beautiful.
• Other scenes were the ones like Madhvan watching the potholes thinking of the taxes he pays and the government, a small sequence where the reporters making story out of Rupali, walks over the reflection of hers on the tiles of her house, also the one where Irrfan Khan spreads his arm and feels powerful after the phone calls, One where Kadam tries to kill himself and the one where Madhvan watches India and then America in the google earth depicting the difference. All these without a single dialogue will leave you with a lot of food for thought and few tears in your eyes.
• Surprisingly the person who wrote these beautiful scenes also wrote the beautiful dialogues in the movie, with most of the Kadam – Tukaram dialogues written with great panache. “Dil ke theatre mein picture ko chalne dene ka, par act nahi karna” , “ hum kab se yahi kar rahe hai… kisi ko to kuch alag karna padega, agar tu mujhe dhakka mare aur mein tujhe nahi maru to ?” “Sir insaan ko hevaan banne mein sirf 2 minute lagti hai” “ Ye Log Piyenge nahi to Mumbai mein Spirit Kaha se ayega” … and so on.

Cinematography by Sanjay Jadhav captures the life of mumbaikars in the office, in the trains, in the chawl and in the small shoddy hotels very well. Editing by Amit Pawar fits the narration best. A special mention I think should be given to the visual effects by Rajiv Raghunathan as the blast scenes are absolutely moving. They jolt you in your seat and make you feel the pain of the victims.

Irrfan Khan and KayKay I thought were the real winners amongst the actors. Beautiful expressions, bringing life to even those scenes that hardly had any dialogues. Paresh Rawal shines as was expected from him and so does Vijay Maurya. Soha Ali Khan apart from a few jittery dialogues does very well in a few of the scenes. Madhavan I thought was a perfect casting in the role he played.

One department that I thought could have been better was music and the back ground score (Sameer Phaterpekar). Barring this and the fact the movie left a stone or two untouched, not getting in to a territory that could lead in to a cluttered story line or the fact the movie gets into the preaching mode at times, the movie has a little to get criticized about. Ofcourse, the technical parts of the movie making have been far better in many other movies, but storytelling, which is the most important of it, has been beautiful in the movie.

With a bias for the fact that the second part of the story telling was more towards my liking I would like to go with a 4* for this movie.

Vonamor Quizzing : Started On the Rocks

You know not what a kick of alcohol could mean unless you taste it. Same it seems is true for most of the feeling of elation in life. I never used to understand why would Abha feel too happy on giving an answer on stage, I knew it must be thrilling, but “Thrill” cannot be defined but can be felt. It was Tata Crucibles Corporate Quiz Pune Round Yesterday.

Firstly, for everyone I have not been a full time quizzer and quizzing came to me in my dowry. Thanks to my wife, she has introduced me to quizzing, which I find enjoyable.

Sunday evening event I am sure anywhere with the right ingredients could be a real good crowd puller and in this city of college students, quizzing it seems is a very famous sport. The crowd yesterday at the Taj Blue Diamond Hotel in Pune was huge and amazing. People poured in slowly but by the time the quiz started it was a packed house.

Tata Crucibles event is divided in to 2 tracks : A tata track for tata companies and a non tata track for all the others “who could yet not make it to tata” (as Giri Balasubramanian, pick brain says).

In Tata Track My wife Abha was representing TCS along with Soumya , who came down all the way from Mumbai for the quiz. Along came very cute Antara, her daughter. Soumya’s husband Arnab and his partner Arka represented the TIFR team. In non Tata Track, I had participated with Sandeep Singh.

Prelim I thought was tough. But it was absolutely wonderful. Unlike the quizzes where you answer the crammed questions this was more of working out the answers / Knowing current affairs. There were in total 25 questions and cutoff for both tata and non tata track, I assume would have been around 11. (Questions at the end of the Blog)

Then came the Tata finals with 6 teams on the stage. Abha and Soumya, Arnab and Arka, all made it to the stage with other teams from (pardon me if I get the names wrong , TACO, TAL, Tata Motors, TIFR, TCS and CRL). The first round was a direct question round and it looked like a warm up round for the teams. The teams got pumped up with the next buzzer rounds. TAL had been leading confidently with the rounds and were playing safe. TIFR and TCS were close enough to get them in any round. The questions at times were absolutely very difficult and at times it felt that yes this can be done. Last round was a buzzer round with possibility of scoring 10 points on each question, TAL leaded TCS with 10 points. In came a question, “ whom have Ranbaxy tied up with for distributing the free samples of their drug at a public place?” I knew Abha knows this answer and was sure with this answer they will tie with TAL. Tata Motors (who had by then given many wrong answers and had scored good negative scores) were in a hurry to score and come back, they went for the buzzer and gave a wrong answer again (they said Daiichi Sankyo, whereas the answer was PVR cinema for the drug Revital), Abha lost it on that question and they came second. But the improvement in quizzing that I have seen in Abha over last 2 years is simply fantastic. I could have never imagined my wife cracking a question on Football. She stumped me with an answer to a question “Which Football club has Tata Tea tied up with for …? “ … bang ! came her answer “Arsenal”. Amazing quizzing and amazing fight for a seat to the national finals. Congratulations TAL. Beautiful Effort Abha and Saumya.

Post the Tata track final came the non Tata Track round, I was hopeful and could get through on to the stage with Sandeep Singh. We were all pumped up with first question of the quiz directed to us “which company, incorporated in 1950 produces Trademark brands Zebra, Eastern Star and Army at their Sonepat Factory?” And I knew how difficult it would be for us to perform well :), (the answer was Atlas cycle which none of us got correctly). The first round passed on with BMC software team of Harish and Subhadip and Kotak’s team of Asit and Samrat being the 2 teams that scored. Then was a round on Tata, we gave a wrong answer and a right one(Sandeep Singh Cracked one on Tata Communications), which brought us again to zero. Third round was of connect and we had to guess the connect form the multiple clues. This was a difficult one. We cracked a passed question in this round. It had a song played “Chura ke dil mera”, “had a colourful ad as a second clue” “A flag with black yellow and white horizontal stripes” and a “Mascot with Mcdowells logo” … Shilpa Shetty features in Romanov Ads for Vonamor, I see her in newspapers all the time , how could we go wrong … First 10 points.

The penultimate round was of code busters identifying logos and guessing the answer. 3 questions passed, I knew answers for most of it, people were fast on buzzer could not get a single one on my plate. Sandeep was not ok with it, he wanted me to be aggressive, the last 2 questions he pressed the buzzer even before we could see the logos :), and thanks to my training from Abha I could crack both. We were the underdogs with just 5 points away from the second position. I think we were tense and we messed up with a wrong answer in the last round. But still ours was a performance that was absolutely unexpected.

One more thing about human psychology that I learned was, Audience love underdogs till the time a winner emerges. We as audience wants to see a good fight, we want to see comeback stories, we want the unexpected. Being an underdog feels good those times, but winners are the one who deserves it the most . Kotak Mahindra Team was fantastic and they won the quiz with a good lead at the end. Harish and Subhaeep too, I thought, truly deserved the second prize. Congratulations to both the teams..

For me, I discovered another enjoyable hobby for myself which gave me that Kick:).

Vonamor Quizzing.

Questions for the Prelims :
1. Which fairly big international brand produces cricket bats under the brand names “Ballistic stealth, velocity, and Atomic”? Puma
2. Which arms company, recently in news which started as Volcanic Repeators by Tom Kins was in news in India recently? It thought of chaning its name to SW at some point in time ? Smith and Wessel
3. There was a print ad, with a man looking down on a small opening in the ground and “he had dropped something” what is it? Lenovo Slim Laptop
4. Mark twain is supposed to have used this word in 1871 for the first time in the his work “roughing it”, it later went on to become name of a magazine. They tried Trademarking it, but being a common English word, it could not be patented. What? Hello
5. Which Famous Novelist appears on the notes of Scotland? Sir James Walter Scott
6. Owned by Random house which publication house is famous for “Borzoi”? Options were Mcmillan / Penguin / Alfred Knoff : Answer Alfred Knoff(I guess I have got the spelling wrong)
7. Which beer brand is made in (a set of places were given, goa, shivalik in Rajasthan….)…. There is a book written on this beer brand ? Cobra
8. JSW + Terapin came up with a set of 6 books for environment consciousness targeted towards children. Who is behind it ? TERI
9. In the world of Online Search what did Yahoo named its technique recently ? Datamine / Gluepage/ undertaker …. The answer was Gluepage
10. Airtel is having a JV with IFFCO to change the face of agriculture, who has now joined them ? Kishan sangh
11. Photo of YC Deveshwar
12. Which Indian Cricketer (with a link being fast) is going to endorse the Fly Brand of Mobiles? Ishant Sharma
13. Which Fames Jeans maker is going to produce OYO (On your Own) brand of kids wear? Spykar Jeans
14. Who was the sponsor for Fairplay award for IPL? Kingfisher
15. A logo was shown. Which famous brand in Rural Area? Avon Cycles
16. Dabur has come up with its health and beauty store. It is a new concept for you consumers. What is its name? Nu u
17. Which famous beverage company has come up with an idea of getting in to a totally different luxury segment with hotels called “The Serai”? The places which makes their beverage are being turned in to holiday spots? CCD
18. Which company has test marketed its brand Probase entirely in Pune. It is known more for its brands “genesis” and “Basics”. Name comes across as a kids company? Hasbro
19. In 1956 Time Magazine called this publication “A short lived Plup”. They say “True to our name we are ________” who? MAD
20. Hearst Corporation , Daily Inc owned Syndication company, one of the largest distributer of comics and text features in newspaper? Kingfeatures / Reuters / Peanuts ? Ans. Was King features.
21. “Nightingale” brand of diaries are made by whom at the beginning of every year? Srinivas Fine Arts
22. N Rangarao, who started this company producing this house hold commodity . what brand. It was in troubles for its name during election time? Cycle Agarbatti
23. Which Hollywood Studio gets its name from a famous landmark in Vancover? Lions Gate Productions
24. Ad of Camlin Markers (one where the husband comes back to life after death when wife’s bindi could not be removed)
25. Ad of SBI life (one where all very old ladies are going for wishing their younger brother chhotu , another elderly gentleman for his birthday)

After long long time ....

Last I wrote a post on my blog was 30th April, 4 months have passed after that, 4 long month when I had many things to say and express. Bigflix membership, Cricket matches, My 2nd marriage anniversary and my wife's birthday, A promotion and a little frustration at work, pay hikes, a new season beggining for singing competitions, Ranbaxy is sold, Jane tu ya jane na, A quiz from sakaal times and another from landmark, a few visits from our parents, a broken leg for my brother in law, marriage of 2 of my best friends (with each other).... a lot went into these months which I had to write but could not. Finally, I am back. I really missed writing in my space for all these days. Hope I will be able to catch up with my backlog soon and well.