Believe

I am fascinated by red dresses. When ever I see a girl in a red dress, I get kinda lost. The reason being, it's part of the perfect date which I envisage. I would drive up to her place to pick her up. She would be waiting. She would then come out of her house sensing my presence.I would then get out of the car and open the door for her.She would be wearing that red dress and I would be dressed in Black. With the red tie of course. It would be sometime in the spring with the lovely breeze playing with her hair. We would then go to our favorite place with dim lights & with her playlist on. It would be just the two of us. And of course the red wine.

I would then look into her eyes and would let the eyes do the talking. She would then sense the moment. We both had been waiting for this moment. For long, really long. She would smile with tears coming off her eyes. I will take out the ring. And get down on my knees. The moment would then become real.

That's pretty much it. But sometime even the smallest of things become huge in the sense that you get caught up in other things which need to dealt with first and you just loose track of these small things which you have always wanted. And out of the blue someday it occurs to you that for that other bigger thing you seemed to have kept too much on hold.  The stack of these small things might reach unprecedented height one day. And might even collapse.

But you need to believe in yourself and that you made the right choice and all these things are going to come true one day. You need to be strong, patient and positive. You need to believe. Come what may.

Ek main aur Ekk tu _|_

If you think this will go well with this season of love, you are wrong. If you think that Kareena will recreate the magic of 'Jab We Met', wrong again. If you think, they look super cute together and that's enough, wrong again. And if you still think that the music will be the saving grace, bloody wrong again!

This so called rom-com has apparently no element of rom or com. Nothing new and striking about the story either. A rich boring guy suddenly transforms into this cool dude after some tequila shots and accidentally marries a stranger. Although the director claimed that the whole stuff is her own creation, but c'mon whom are you kidding, we all have seen 'What happens in Vegas' and we all have seen Ross and Rachel. What's more embarrassing is this stupid originality claim crap, plagiarism is apparently an accepted cliche when it comes to Bollywood.

The thing(cannot call it a story/plot) goes on at an miserable pace and in the course, our male protagonist learns to be a man so that eventually he can gather all his energy and guts to tell his parents that they suck! & that he sucks because of them. There are some new innovations though. Kareena's hip-hop parents who feel comfortable making the ball jokes and to share a fag with their daughter in the bathroom. And an unusual ending which can claim to be a bold one too. But these don't have any effect at the sucking prevails and dominated most part of it.

So, with no story, fewer dialogues, bad music and terrible acting, this is not even an option you should consider. Unless you are just looking for an isolated place to make out with your mate as there will be very few people in screens showing this disaster!

Days of our lives

Time is so dynamic, unbiased and unprejudiced.
It's this flow that keeps us going.
It's these possibilities that keeps us moving.
For everyone, there are days,
some good, some bad and some ugly.

But some of them, stand out,
you want to relive them,
again, and then yet again.
These are the days when we are happy,
and there are no pretensions.
These are the days when we want time to freeze,
the moments to stand still,
so that we can hold on to them, a little longer.
These are the days when we feel, life is beautiful!
These are the days which stay forever.
These are 'the days' of our lives.

Although, irony breaks in here as well,
we often are saddened, even in these good times,
at the thought of vulnerability, at the risk of loosing them.
Such cowards we are, sometimes.
Live the moment, to the fullest.
So that if ever we loose them,
these memories would keep us going,
the memories of 'those days' of our lives.

War horse * * *

One might wonder that how can a story which has a horse as a protagonist work? Well, Steven Spielberg not only makes it work but the outcome is a cinematographic beauty which will definitely find a special place in people's hearts. His work convinces you beyond doubt that story telling is an art and he is the best artist in town.

It all starts in a small village of England before the first World War when an old farmer decides to buy a horse or rather is tricked into it by his own landlord. The farmer's wife scolds him over his stupidity but his son(Albert), who had seen this horse grow, is overwhelmed with joy and decides to train him and use him as a plough-horse. The magic of the movie starts right here when you begin to see Joey(the horse) as a person and the chemistry he has with his master is lovingly cute. It all makes you wonder, are we really a superior species and what gives us the right to rule the other ones.

Joey does wonders in their fields and gives them the hope of a good harvest but the rains spoil the show and the farmer sells him to a military general who plans to take  him to war. Albert is crushed deeply and you feel his pain through his eyes. Joey then takes on a long journey through the battle fields, touches numerous hearts and then somehow comes back alive from the no mans land to meet his very own Albert. But before that, Joey befriends many and proves to be much more than a horse. The way all these little stories have been portrayed, makes you fall in love with Joey. Makes you feel that it's just not humans who have hearts.

The symbolism throughout is just amazingly befitting. Joey comes out as a rainbow of human emotions comprising the agonies of destitution, brutalities of wars, atrocities on animals, heartbreak of an orphan girl and above all the absolute feeling of love defying all artificial boundaries. The scene where Joey desperately runs away from the battle fields is brilliantly shot and the subsequent collaboration among enemies to save a horse barbed in no mans land, stands out loud. The scripting is equally good and some of the dialogues are here to stay. Overall, yet another Spielberg master piece with a creative confluence of war, love and destiny. And of course, Joey, the horse, who btw is more deserving a candidate for a golden globe for best actor, more so than George Clooney in The Descendants!

Agneepath *

Are we out of new stories? Are all the good directors and script-writers on a sabbatical lately? Have we already exhausted all the creativity in our cinema ? Apparently, yes. Here comes yet another attempt to recreate a legend. And again, it will just be an attempt. Nothing more than that. Time and again we have seen this happening. The newbies seem to prefer replication over innovation. But soon, they will have to accept the truth that legends cannot be recreated.

This remake of the original Agneepath is not even comparable to the magic which was created by Amitabh Bachchan & Danny Denzongpa. Hrithik fails to convince you that he is the angry young man of this age. The only saving grace of the movie is the overpowering performance of Sanju (as Kancha) and his extracts from Gita & Ramayana.

As in the original, it starts with the brutal execution of an honest and Gandhian teacher who comes in the way of a local goon and stands up for the sake of his village people. He is ambushed and falsely accused of an heinous act. His son Vijay, the protagonist, is imprinted with the image of his father being hanged over the Banyan tree. And he resolves to take revenge at any cost. And rest are all colors with the shades of vengeance. Sheer vengeance. To power up for the battle, Vijay plans to team up with a rival goon so as to rise to a level where he can negotiate with Kancha. There are some scenes where you feel your heart beat on a rise with the intense build-ups and all you want to do is to grab a dagger and hop in. Specially the scene, where Vijay gallops to save his sister along with his Hijra- Army. But all this build-up is screwed big time by the unwanted sentiyapa between brother-sister.

PC has been wasted in the movie and the filler family dramas retard the pace and take away the ephemeral thrills created. Even towards the dying moments, Vijay lacks the charisma and his eyes fail to convince you of the anger that powers you to unprecedented levels of insanity. In spite, Kancha seems to be more assertive than the protagonist. We all knew that there wasn't any story here. We just wanted to see madness, vengeance, insanity and revenge painted in the colors of heroism. We wanted to see a man driven only by vengeance. We wanted the angry young man. We wanted an eye for an eye. But sadly, we don't get all this. Those who haven't seen the original, may like it, and for rest i would say..

तू नहीं देखेगा इसे,
तू नहीं चाहेगा इसे,
कर शपथ! कर शपथ! कर शपथ! 
ये मामूली दृश्य है, घोर समय व्यर्थ है,
अश्रु श्वेत् रक्त से,

लथ पथ, लथ पथ, लथ पथ !
अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ!