Not so old music

Unable to catch sleep, I swap channel to settle to B4U music. Got reminded on some old songs.

Khiladi _ wada raha sanam. 1993. Abhijeet and alka giving voice to jatin lalit compositions. Shot at table top matheran and mahabaleshwar which I visited in 2007

Chamtakar_ is pyaar se meri taraf na dekho. Anu's melody voiced by alka and kuamr sanu. This song was constantly on when I did my joint study with my room mate back in rec days

Maan_nasha. Udit narayan singing to tune of sanjeev darshan the then protege son of shravan. Some how they got lost in
the crowd. Inder kumar first flop. He was delivering huge hits till then like dil,beta. Success is shortlived if you don't innovate. Saw it in my engineering days

Deewana Mastana_ mummy mummy. Udit singing to this one of last laxmikant Pyarelal compositions. David dhawan then was a man with golden hand. This song features nitin desai, son of the great manmohan desai dancing with Juhi.

Show finished. Now to the new songs which I am sure must have been plagerised.

I used a mobile phone to post this blog through email.

Cloud computing_ saas and haas reading stuff on it and wish to write on them soon.

3 movies to choose from

It seems lethargy is creeping in. The vigour for writings blog is waning down. So mustering up all the energies to write this one. Recently watched 3 movies - Love Aaj kal, Black Friday and Sardar. Three different genre and three different approaches of film making. To be honest, each one was a good watch.

Love Aaj kal - Good Watch. Feel good movies are always a good watch but may not be good movies. I had more expectation from Imitiaz Ali. It was a hard effort but the repeatability spoiled the essence of the movie. You can find all the traces of his last 2 movies - Jab We Met and Socha nahin Tha - the first one being three worded movie title with reference to past tense - 'tha', 'met' and 'kal'. Coming to the stories, you ll find same peppy "metrosexual" dialogues which are also borrowed from Saif's Hum Tum and similar laundry list. It seems they wanted a tried and tested approach as it's Saif's maiden approach. The film USP is the double track where undoubted the older love story was much more clearer and easier to understand. The newer one a pot pouri of Hum Tum, "jaane tu ya Jaane Na" where Saif's makes himself to cry to tread in the tested waters, is a utter confusion. The repeatability also also has the worst effect on Rahul Khanna who has to nurse his battered ego in this movie (yes the same "main yahan kya gaane ka khet dekhne aya hoon" in Jab we met). Overall , it can be a good watch for all but for me it was a big disappointment. Imitiaz - Look forward to your next one.

Black Friday - Again a imitiaz connection. We have a 2 minute role played by imtiaz smoking and couple of dialogues as Yakub Menon, Brother of Tiger Menon. A very well directed movie by Anurag Kashyap. The devil lies in the details and he has captured it succinctly. The details of the Mumbai Blast and all the epilogue, prologues and aftermath of the event are well depicted.

Sardar - A biopic watched after a long time. It was a commendable job bringing the life of " Iron Man of India" in the silver screen. The good part of the movie was the humane side of sardar as shown in the movie. You catch the story of Sardar by internet searches or wiki study but the mvie is must watch to depict the thought process of the leader as we went through the partition of the country. One of the memorable screen is the one where he is discussing the waving off of loan component to Pakistan during partition. He right fully says that his intentions are honest but if something goes wrong the future generations might not understand the real intent behind his decision and may not at all appreciate the circumstances in which he is performing those decision. The conviction with which Paresh rawal has played the part is awesome. Another memorable scene is the one where he mentions to Lord Mountbatten that he would not rest till he has his fruit basket completely full with all the fruits in reference to annexation of princely states in India. So anyone keen on the political situation of India during the partition time, this movie can be a good watch.

Solar Eclipse and DDLJ

The second last solar eclipse was in October 24th, 1995. No, i am not a penchant follower of astronomy but the solar eclipse helped me book tickets for DDLJ which released on October 20th. Yes, DDLJ released in the same week as the last exclipse. Contrary to the eclipse, movie contributed in removing the eclipse that the western world had on our "BOLLYWOOD". For the first time, the NRI market was tapped and hindi movie was showcased to the outerworld. Earlier to DDLJ, there were only handfuls of "santranj ke khilari",'Reshma Shera" etc which jostled some western attention.With DLLJ , India loudly proclaimed its liberalised status and "arrived" in the world film and economy scenario.

Still vividly remember the week, i took money from my parents to buy photo chromatic lens to see Eclipse. No Wonder, i did not see the eclipse.

Missing the october week of 1995, and hopeful to catch the eclipse tomorrow morning.

Take a Shorter Kut from ShortKut

Review - ShortKut ..The Con is On...Conning the audience

The myopic attitude of people narrows their creativity. ShortKut is a fine example of that. The film has one masterstroke built on the not so brilliant story. But the time you reach that "different" Eureka moment of the film, you have lost your patience and are testing your patience. There the movie looses its steam.

Arshad Warsi's acting has gone for a toss. After his Munna Bhai heroics, he s somehow gone into a shell. He's become repetetive..Compare this act to Golmaal Returns and you ll observe no difference. He needs to do something different in his characterizations. Fear we loose another great talent doing histrionics.

Amrita Rao charater is half baked and the film script would have been crisper without her presence. May be the songs needed her can be a strong justification. But do we needed the songs.

Its a pity that this movie could have been much crisper, witty and short sans the songs, arshad histrionics and crazy "Bon Homi" scenes of chawlwalas.

Akshaye is the only good thing in this movie. The maturity with which he handles his character is only the saving grace in the movie.

Overall a avoidable film unless you want to be conned. Its better to be conned in it rather than be "kambakht" enough.

Neeraj Vora, you are not Priyan. I still long to see good work from you. The expectation comes from the great stories you have adapted/ written.

Ode to MJ - RIP

I grew up watching hindi movies and listening to hindi songs. My taste for music was shaped in a era where the effervescent Laxmi Pyarelalmusic was waning and we were introduced to the techo jazz of Viju shah & Co. The dance education forte was handled by Evergreen Govinda - yes he is an Dinosaur. Our only window to outside world except my oriya newspaper Sambad and English Telegraph was hourly long programme called "World this week" hosted by Black bearded Pranoy Roy. It was in the later part of 1990 when there was a segment on the launching of MJ's new album - Black Or white. For the first time, i saw a frail looking guy whom the world considered the best dancer of the world. I watched the entire song. In that song, he danced with a Odissi dancer- which again filled a sense of pride within me - He chose Odissi over other - Bharat natyam, Kuchipudi and the log laundry list...Yes....

And it was in mid 1990's where i had to sleep hungry one full night to pester my Dad to get our cable connection ,, which consisted of only 2 channels - strange isnt it .......One was Zee and the other MTV. With the limited time i had watching TV......no points guessing on the choice i had to make to watch the TV. I did an statistic research - 60% of the time , it was MJ only. He had just released remised version to his new Album- "History" - " Blood on the Dance Floor". Man the song was a craze. Simulataneously, i was exposed for the first time to all his all time hits. I just realised that person who was in late thirties had an music career spanning 3 decades- he was already a celebrity at the age of 5!!. He was the first black artist to feature in MTV. MTV changed their logo to "MJ TV". He had unprecendented world following - Raj Thakerey was the person who escorted him when we came to India!!!! I was truly amazed by the caliber of the person. Even the beatles couldnt survive 2 decades of glory and here was a person who was danced and sang his way to glory till date.

he had to undergo a lot of tribulations on personal and proffessional front, but his greatness is still pristine. MJ , you still dance in our hearts.

TRIP TO OLD DELHI

The three Musketeers: Bhabani (left), Swayam and Chitta (right)

The Bus stop near our car parking

"Chandi Chowk" the road perpendicular to "red fort"

Interesting shop at Chandni Chowk

The wired gullys on "chowri bazaar"

More Confusion :)

The first sight of majestic Jama Masjid


Red Fort

IN search SOME ACTIVITY IN my MUNDANE DAILY life, I ventured on SOME good FOOD HUNTING AT THE FAMOUS OLD Delhi chandni chowk and jama Masjid Area.
The plan was made on Friday. The venue was swayam's house at Noida. I started from Gurgaon and picked up bhabani on the way to swayam's house. Chitta joined us in Noida.
Day 1

The initial plan was to start on Saturday and have a rigorous 2 day visit to old Delhi. But the crucial juncture of the test match between India and Australia spoiled that. We were all glued to the TV till the evening and the freezing temperature ensured that we were sheltered in the warm abode of swayams house. So day 1 plan was squandered.

Day 2

The cold temperature ensured that we had an elongated sleep till noon the other day. In a panic to not to waste this day, we immediately made and ate breakfast courtesy the culinary skills of Bhabani and Swayam. The taxi arrived on time and we started our journey at 12 noon with exactly one and half days delay from our original plan.
On our way to "Purani Delhi”, we encountered the majestic "Akshardham" temple. The pristine Redstone interior gave a royal feel to this sight. The one expression it could derive out of me was "awe". I am sure 100-2000 years from now, people would be categorizing it in the same reverence as the "sun temple".
As we approached the old Delhi, we were welcomed by the grand site of "Red Fort". The first sight was enough to justify my long inquisitiveness about the importance of this monument. The sheer size and the aura exuded were awesome. Parallel to the red fort, we took the chandni Chowk bazaar. It’s an old market where you can find people selling everything on its footpath. And it also had a McDonalds.
Our main motive was to roam around the area. But the lunch time was taking its effect. With a need to find a good place to have "mutton”, we started our search for the Kari’s. I had seen a program on TV where noted journalist Vinod dua relished the rich delicacies of this motel and it was fabled that the chef’s ancestor also used to cater to mughols starting from Babur.
The hint we had was that Karin was near the Jama Masjid. It was a 100 meter walk where in we saw a small restaurant "Shamman" serving "jalebis" and "Samosas".Unable to keep our hunger in control, we decided to taste the delicacies before moving on. The taste didn’t disappoint us. I would suggest anyone going to old Delhi should have the jalebis served there.
We crossed the "chawri bazaar", a market which specialized in selling wedding cards before reaching the back of Jama Masjid. The dome was majestic, the architecture flawless and the view was serene.Karims Motel was just behind the gate no. 2 of jama Masjid. The place looked like an ordinary Dhaba. It promises to keep the same ambience since its inception in 1913. It had an interesting Vision statement of serving the ordinary people the palate of palatial kings...Interesting.

We ordered couple of mutton dishes. The taste was awesome and the feeling was royale.We spent around 1 hour ravishing the vintage royal food before moving on.
Our next stop was Darya ganj. Every Sunday was an occasion of a massive old book exhibition. Here you can find any book, if you are lucky, at cheap dirt prices. But I suggest, more than books, one should try the "rabri" and the "gajar ka halwa" at the road side stalls.
We ended our trip with a visit to the New Delhi which was in contrast more modern. We visited Palika bazaar and Cannought place before calling it a day to our journey. We returned back to Noida and came to Gurgaon by night.
The experience was awesome otherwise, I won’t be writing a blog this long. I have taken some snaps. Hope you see them and get motivated to visit "old delhi"

Godfather

I just wrote my first sentence in a blog. Quite a late entrant to this blogworld but as they say "better late than never".
I watched the umpteen rerun of Godfather 3 ( completely at last). I am not here to do a IMDB job but share some of my thoughts on this movie.
1.) Well made movie.
2.) Awesome dialogues
"A lawyer with a suitcase can steal more money than a hundred men with guns. (Haha. True.)
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
Money and friendship.......its like water and oil."
3.) Al pacino.