VIVAH(the journey from torture to entertainment)

VIVAH, the journey from engagement to marriage. At first anyone would think that this movie like all before it, is a typical Suraj Barjatya movie with unlimited song & dance sequences and melo-drama. Well they are not wrong. Before I went to see the movie, one of my colleagues told me that the first half is good, but the 2nd half is too slow with too many emotional scenes. I believed her then. But after the first 30 minutes of the movie, I was fed up with the overflowing emotional scenes. I asked her, if this is good, then what can be more boring. I was contemplating with the idea of leaving the theater after the first half, so as not to subject myself to any more torture.

I would have done that only. But then I wouldn't have been sitting here writing about the movie. After the first 30 minutes I found some interesting sequences in the movie that kept me glued to my seat. The first 30 minutes of the movie is a combination of situation from Maine pyar kiya, Hum aapke hain kaun & Hum saath saath hain. It looked like a bad remake of those movies. But later on as the movie progresses, you will find some situations in the movie, which will touch your heart somewhere & make you, laugh too. Like - when they are playing tug-of-war, where amrita tries to hold saheed. Saheed in turn lets go the rope due to this shock and all the others fall down. That was hilarious & the favorite scenes of the movie according to me.

I agree that this movie belongs to the bygone era. I think if this movie had been released in 1990, it would have been a super duper hit movie, may be even bigger than HAHK. Definitely Suraj Barjatya has not changed with time & still believes that movies which portray family values & tradition will still click on the box office. But he will have to realize that since 2000, when the maa of all daily soaps (Kyun ki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi) got started, people are no longer interested in these sorts of movies. In this context, one name which should be mentioned is that of Yash Chopra. He has changed with time & has always tried to make great money-earners.

There are flaws in direction & art direction too. I think a canvas was used as a background (like a flowing river & mountain as a view from the balcony) in Hum Saath saath hain last. The same has been used in VIVAH & they look outdated. Those days are gone. Suraj should learn to live in the present era.

Still with all these flaws, there is something in the Barjatya movie making style, which I find in no other director. His attention to details of the script & special way of showing love blossoming between two young hearts on screen is amazing. I can’t say that I liked every scene of the movie (like that of a DDLJ or HAHK), but still the movie had enough treasure in itself to satisfy me. Overall I can say that I liked the movie.

The southern H assault

Got it as a forward n liked it....Please take it on a lighter note:)

This article is not written to offend anyone. It’s just what I have as my personal view about how things work differently in different regions. Hope everyone takes this article on a lighter note.

The southern H assault

Disclaimer: All characters in this article are fictitious. Please do not try to identify yourself with any of them. By no means they’re you.

H. Don't you think H looks like PETRONAS....the two towers separated by a bridge. PETRONAS has a huge reputation, and it symbolizes the era it exits in. So has H. After all there would be no eart-H and H-umanity without H. But since last few years, I've had a huge sympathy for H. Since joining this co., I had been in south for all the time. It’s been 16 months of south flavor in my life. Mysore, then Bangalore and now in Hyderabad. Regions changed, so did the dialects. But one thing did not change. Slaughtering 'H'.

You loose your identity if you are dependant on other. Also, you loose your dignity if people call you with different names...or say they don't know your name at all. Feels worst, I know . Even if you remind them like thousand times, they're gonna call you what they have named you. In such a situation, I'd rather kill that guy or frustrated, will change my name. But poor H can't do so either.

Do you read boards, name-plates and billboards in soutH? I guess everyone does that. Now either painters painting them are too careless or it’s the ad designers who take things for granted. But it's H who has to suffer every time. I'll tell you how.

1. FirstH and tHe foremostH tHing (I guess, itHs already stHartHed), H has been made T's slave. Everywhere, H has comes free along with T. Don’t believe me? Ask all the SatHis, AmitHs and SwatHis. I see it as H sitting on floor next to T’s throne. I don’t understand what sense does it make to make an alphabet, follow the other every time. A big solution to this would be to combine T n’ H and derive a new alphabet that will by default serve the purpose of TH. But that will screw up the general English as it would be really difficult for others to understand this alien language.

Once $ere was $is $ug in $ailand who could $ug you and rob you of ever$ing you had in no time.

[Ok...was just testing you. My bad, won’t do it again.]

2. This is not all. Then comes the next insult to H. This time...they rob H of its dignity, as if H has no identity of its own.

SatHis (on a call): Take down my name. Its “Es-Ay-Ti”.
AmritHa: Ok, “Es-Ay-Ti”.
SatHis: “Hetch[]-Ayi-Es”
AmritHa: “Hutch[couldn’t find reaction]-Ayi-Yes”.

H, buddy, sympathy for you is ever growing.

(wait....I guess I just decoded the encrypted message in HUTCH add of dog following the boy...Still was wondering why they named their co. HUTCH)

3. And then comes in the biggest of ‘em all. We all know its worst to be asked to relocate anytime and every time you try to settle somewhere. But humans still can complain. H seems to be the worst affected of this syndrome. Again don’t believe me? I had a bunch of friends in college who joined different co.s in south (different cities off course). They were Swetha (formerly Shweta), Sathis (formerly Satish) and Santhi (formerly Shanti) [No, you don’t know any of them for sure]. I am damn sure there is some kind of magnetism here that makes H jump from its place and relocate.

But after all, this is what we call life. Strange things do happen to people at strange times and places and now even alphabets are no exceptions. H is getting it’s share of bitter taste of life. But hope it will soon see its sweet days when H will be everywhere. [Thish whill haphphen...jusht whait n’ whathch].

Apna Sapna Money Money

‘SriGanesh’ or ‘Bismillah’, whichever is the medium, the function of these words remains the same & i.e. to start any work by taking lord’s name. In India, Cricket is a religion & Cricketers are the gods. So what better way to start the blog than to discuss about cricket?

Tomorrow these so called gods have a do or die match & that too against Australia. But does it really matter to them? Last month in a similar do or die situation, they lost to Australia & I don’t think they are going to fair any better this time. Indian cricket board has hired a psychologist from time to time for the team. The psychologist worked wonders in the 2003 world cup & came up with the famous ‘huddle’ concept. It helped the team a lot then. They have another psychologist now with the team. But can he really help? I don’t think so.

The difference between 2003 & now in my view is that the then promising youngsters have matured in a negative way. The transformation is like that of a normal police officer (not the filmy heroes, they do not exist). When a guy joins the police force, he is apprehensive of what he is doing & eager to show others that he is capable enough. But as time passes by, he learns the tricks of the trade, forgets everything about the ethics he had vowed to follow & learn how he can bend the rules. Similarly the youngsters in the team seem to have forgotten everything about the fighting spirit they used to show previously. While practicing they resemble a bunch of kids who are playing gully cricket. They still enjoy the game as they used to do previously (because it has given them money, position, everything), but the dedication seems to be missing. The sight of Greg Chappell giving a piece of his mind to the cricketers few days back(talking about their level of dedication) clearly shows that the team is not in a right mood to play.

I hope that they lose tomorrow’s match, so that it might work as a wake up call & the teams prepares itself to battle it out in the world cup in a manner it did last time.

3rd Time Lucky...

3^rd time lucky, may be or may not be? This has been the question that I have been asking myself since the last few months. I have attempted this twice before. The results have been so dismal that except me the whole world is oblivious to the fact that I have tried my hands at blogging before. I used to think ‘should I give this a try just once more or should I accept the fact that I am no good at this’.

But that was until today morning, when I was going through a friend’s blog & it was so fabulous that I thought lets try this once more. I can do this. All I need is loads of patience& I always had that.

So here it starts. I think before I start, I should mention something about me first. I don’t know about others, but for me the life has always been a roller-coaster ride. At some phases in my life, I used to think why the hell I am alive & the next moment life has given me reasons that I had never thought of. Those reasons give me the strengths to believe that everything will be alright in the end like it happens in traditional Hindi movies (unlike new DON).

One more facet of my character is that when I start something, I am always in doubt. The doubts are about whether I can continue that thing on a long term basis or not. But if I like something(u can read someone), then I end up doing so. I just hope that this time, that thing will be ‘blogging’.