Mithya...moorings

i love cinema which is about eccentric guys - and which is about details - and the cinema that can be done and over in a month - get a small crew - shoot in Alibaug farm house - ek mahina, baat khatam - film release kar daalo.. no money to be wasted on huge sets and star tantrums - thats what Mithya is all about - a sleeper hit - as it was called of 2008 - as much as i loved the actors - i thought it was also an example of lazy writing. i dint get what did the writer want to prove by killing the main protagonist in the end? i mean thats the most literal thing to do - once the kind of situation he was in - i mean surprise us by ideas! surprise us by the street smartness of VK - of where he can realistically make a fool of the whole gang.. and please Harsh Chaaya as the underworld guy is a case of bad casting! Naseer wasn't given meaty lines - else i am the last one to tell what he is capable of given some good roles.

It was fun to watch Ranvir - who is quite a natural actor and can speak the lines with the right effect - he does excellent in that scene where he complains about the daal to Vinay Pathak and then the 3 of them break into a kind of arguement. thats what i called good actors are all about.


Mithya had some really good writing in the initial part - look at the details about VK in first half - brilliant - the lines - "yeh kya andheri local ka maafik idhar se udhar ho raha hai.." they speak so much about the character.

but hey the climax i still stand dint come as near to what i wanted it to be - its good to take the audience on a trip and then give them a jolt..but probably this wasn't the way. It was just too lazy writing in the end.

But i still prefer Mithya over a hundred hindi films - carry on the good work - give us at least 4 films from Rajat Kapoor's team every year.

U, Me aur Gam

ya the title says that the film is on the emotional side.

but what made ajay devgun and his team think of such a bad first half! its outrageous. u cannot sit through the film's first half - it is quite frivilous, the jokes are nothing short of disaster. although the big fat boy was occasionally funny.

but then wait for the second half - it will tell u why Ajay has got 2 national awards in his kitty. my throat choked when towards the end he gets frustrated and blurts "arrey yaar galti ho gai!".

its simple and straightforward. thats what happens when its a clash between husbands and wives. The film has its moments. But even when the script is getting tighter towards the end - what was the need of that "saiyaan" song! complete waste.

Ajay Devgun shows his true colors only towards the 2nd half of the film. but the colors are vibrant enough to sit through the dull first half.
With Aseem bajaj on the lens - there was enough scope for a few "wow" frames and he delivers them.

If it was not for the wonderful climax, the film was a disaster debut for Devgun - but somewhere he has pulled the right strings and lets hope like many directors who failed to deliver the 1st time - this too is a case in point for Ajay Devgun.

Brand New DTC experience!

today for the first time experienced the new DTC's (delhi transport corporation) low floor bus. needless to say its a wonderful experience after those bloody blueline buses and more bloodier their conductors!

had always thought that BEST in Bombay was always the best. how did bombay BEST drivers manage to drive in those narrow lanes that go up the hill and come down in midst of all the shanties. and even after all of this the conductor would always give you the remaining 25 paise back. (in Delhi if u get 1 ruppee back from the conductor - i will say u are lucky). Anyways, Delhi still has wide roads where the broad new DTC buses can travel. and i dont mind these broad roads getting divided into bus lanes. after all bus is a public transport. well - my politics for BRT lanes will be explained later.

But ya the new low floor buses has a smooth pick up and is completely noise-free. it only stops at the alloted bus stands (which i think is quite new for delhities to get adjust to). Also it features an automatic door close and open system - again unique for people in India - who are accustomed to hang outside the main door with their one foot managing a square inch on the steps. And the most wonderful part about this bus i experienced is that in an extremely interesting way it cuts through the traffic, even when the BRT lane is not there. I experienced this near the busy Nehru Place.

anyways me thinks that every car wallah should take these buses every week at least once. in a world of rising oil prices and conjusted traffic jams - this is a neat option - at least once a week - who 's asking those CEOs?. let those bloody idiots travel in their AC cocoons, but the ordinary upper middle class guy can surely experience the new low floor DTC once a week.!

wikipedia's interesting info

while going through the wikipedia's long list of "film genres" which included several such film genres that you may never have heard of. But interestingly...u may have seen those films but would have never known that this particular film belongs to say the Wuxia genre and so on.

But among these different genres they had named a genre - "cinematic style of Abbas Kiarostami" - Wow thats a different genre altogether. A film genre that is named after a director - who could have done that. so then that fact takes me back to my favourite line by Jean-Luc-Goddard - "cinema begins with DW Griffith and ends with Kiarostami"

what remains on my list to be seen is his first film "The Traveller". and the rest of this genre have been experienced!

bahut nikle mere ARMAAN

now the title is obviously misleading...

i have always thought that Honey Irani's film Armaan's music by Shankar,Ehsaan,Loy is the most under-estimated music of the trio. if u recollect it had some amazing numbers - "tu hi bata" - by roopkumar rathod- o how it causes ebb and tide in emotions when i hear it. the use of saxophone and violin in the jugalbandi between the father and son. The use of that spanish claps (i dont knnow what do they call them) in the Chitra song "mere dil ka tumse.." and then there is this arabian feel to that song...coupled with those claps...super...

and to top it all u had the use of beautiful strings in "mei gaoon tum gaaon..." and then the well-sung, multiple-singers - "aao milke gaien aisa gana..."... superb songs they were....

and then there were those 2 soft numbers -one where Sonu sings - "meri zindagi mei aayen ho..." and another "jaane yeh kya ho gaya..." with shankar himself

Armaan was a masterpeice missed by a lot of music enthusiasts i feel. download its music now to know what u missed. Its like the Andaz apna apna- when relaesed people dint care to see and when it was gone - it became a cult on video.

The Trio's bravo effort...