Perspectives and perceptions

First things first, I have read and re-read all the Harry Potter books ever since they were written and almost know them by-heart! :P I have seen only the first movie of the series and after being terribly disappointed didn't feel the need/urge to go for any other after... There. Now having said this, this movie was really good. So for starters, I had issues with the book. The 7th book was the most disappointing in which I felt like there was no reason or purpose behind all the killing. Yes, she did tie most (or actually all) loose ends, but it seemed like she did it because she didn't know what else to do. I read that book in about 3 hours and for me the book really needs to grip you, like you shouldn't want to put it down, it should engulf you... but the fact that the book didn't manage to grip me till the last chapter or so when the story actually begins to unravel is pathetic... anyways. The movie is based on the book (duh!) So I pretty much knew the story well so ...

Last night I was in a movie-watching mood. Having got many movies on my laptop which I've never seen before, I decided to take the plunge and watch this movie. My friend had titled it 'If Only - Revoltingly Romantic', obviously instead of that being a deterrent, it became a reason for me to see the movie. In the beginning I felt like the movie was going nowhere. But in the second half, as expected, I got terribly emotional and there was this huge void inside me, almost as though I'd lost someone I loved... The movie speaks about the million things that we experience in our lives everyday. Things we take for granted at times, and people whose love we don't appreciate. I know I'm being overtly simplistic in my perspective and biased because I liked the movie, but to me a movie is a message and that movie definitely conveyed a strong message to me. That of appreciation, acceptance and love. Throughout the movie in the first half, the girl is doing so many things to...

Yes a lot of people told me not to go for this movie, but I decided to go anyways! :) So. The movie. The plot is basically laid out within the first five minutes. Two strangers coincidentally meet at the G.Washington bridge in NY because both of them are about to commit suicide. However, fate has something else in mind. So their repeated attempts to suicide keep failing. They then make a pact to die some 20 days later and during that time they want to fulfill their 'Do before I die list'. I'd say they could've done a LOT more even with this concept in mind. It didn't have to be so superficial and simplistic. He has severed ties with his family, friends and become business-minded. When he loses it all in the stock market crash, he has nothing left to live for and hence decides to die. She was in love with this person for years together, and when she finds out that he cheated on her, she's shattered and hence doesn't want to live. This was too silly for a plo...

So the last time I blogged about finding those key, small but your people in establishments, I'd written about this person at my regular printers near Andheri station and this guy who'd helped me out at the Vodafone store. :) Something similar happened to me recently. In a new city. I shifted to Hyderabad because I got a job with Google! And it felt different to roam around in a city that I didn't know anything about. To meet new people everywhere I went after having gotten used to going to 'usual' places for just about everything, right from your parlour appointments, to your haircuts, to getting xerox, to buying medicines, to buying groceries, to clothes, to drinks, to food, everything... Just made me realize how much of patronising we do in our lives because it just makes our lives simpler and easier to get by... In this new city, I didn't know anyone, and the first people who get to know me and give me some level of preferential treatment because of the loy...

Huge amount of expectations from this movie after the amazing success from Step Up 1 and Step Up 2. Personally I enjoyed Step Up 2 more than anything because that whole emotional tension, and the discovering of so many underdogs, that journey was magical and meaningful. I say this because that's what's missing from this movie. A quick overview would be that even though the dancing is amazing (literally some of the moves are out of this world), the movie has no storyline so to speak off, the acting isn't there, the leads aren't strong enough, the movie lacked the punch that the first two movies delivered. It didn't have a soul. In the first two movies dancing was something that brought out a new character within the people which gave them respect, here, it was very superficial. The plot is quite simple. Two friends who're the core part of a crew, part ways because one of them throws the battle to pay off his gambling debt (kind of like match fixing!). That becom...

of random things and conversations, I sit and think and smile, of close friends, loved ones and relatives, I miss and muse and write, i wake up each morning with the rising sun, I go to sleep with the wind in my hair, I plan and think and dream about, loads of things in places in my head, random words, random thoughts, have they any meaning? how does one know what's it about? if one doesn't have any feelings? am I a fool I think? just because i love smiles, just because I love love, and just because my love is mine? these words have no structure, they have no rhyme... but they make a weird sort of a sense in my head and even if they didn't, I really wouldn't worry a dime! it's been long since I wrote random things, it's been a while since I just let go, every now and then I come around, only to realize that this is who I'm happiest being! these thoughts do have a source, a conversation with friends about a place, a place that has stripped away my inhibitions...

A few of us friends were just talking and discussing about the ways in which we all go about our trips! It's funny, I'm a control freak of a person most of the times, (lying), actually all the time, but thanks to my friends, I've grown to like the unexpectedness and the unplanned mode of all our trips! I've literally reached a point where I don't want to go on a planned trip because that'll be just too boring and too decided... that element of surprise which brings with it the happiness, the joy and the exposure is just too beautiful and as a friend rightly put it, it's liberating! Megha and I tend to plan our days so much, that those few days of just being and just existing and just doing things based on what we feel and what we want feel like we've broken out of some sort of chains and it just automatically calms us down. Like when we had gone to Goa for the first time. We didn't know what to expect, where to go, nothing. We just got off at an earl...

The weekend's here and I'm turning a year old. Hmm.. Wrong tense. I have turned a year older. Doesn't feel any different though. Feels better in some way. Though last night seemed a bit odd. :P Sitting at home, watching movies, and yapping away to glory with friends at 12 in the night! I remember how the entire idea of celebrating a birthday used to seem fruitless and pointless to me some years ago, but now I guess I understand and even cherish this idea of celebrating oneself and celebrating time with friends. What I love is that it gives us an opportunity to talk and catch up with friends and that's precisely what happened! I had a great conversation with a friend of mine, Riddhi from Delhi and we spoke about so many things!! For nearly 2 hours and I was like, wow, that's something! It feels great to be loved, appreciated, and wished by so many friends, relatives and people! I'm super thrilled! In celebration plans, party at home with friends for 2 nights! :)...

I had downloaded this movie from a friend of mine, thinking it's the movie which I now is called 'A Lot Like Love'!! :) Anyways, I watched it... Very basic plot, lots of couples all over the place, primarily in England, but also in France and America. Hugh Grant is the Prime Minister of Britain, and weirdly has no backbone until someone tries to get fresh with one of his personal aides seemingly unaware of his presence! Liam Neeson is a step-dad grieving for the loss of his wife, but manages to strike a great rapport with his step-son, helping him to win over the love of his life (even though he's just 11!) And the other stories are just way too boring. The thing is, a movie should be an experience, it must take you through a journey... It cannot narrate something that you didn't want to watch, or didn't like watching, and expect you to come out of it smiling. Especially for something as romantic as a holiday love movie. It's precisely because of movies lik...

Yes I finally did go and see the much talked about movie. And I didn't say a word. Not a single word during the entire movie, in spite of the fact that I had gone with three good friends of mine. I cringed, I moved, I expressed emotions on my face, but I didn't bat an eyelid! What a movie! What an idea, and what a depiction! Simply superb! I have never come out of a movie with a hangover of thoughts, I have never had a headache because I've thought and concentrated so much... There is imagination, and there's science. This was the actual depiction of scientific imagination. It was sculpted and timed to perfection and everything was in the perfect measures. Without divulging into details, I'm going to try and simplify the story to what it was. So you have a central character, Cobb played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is an extractor. Employed by huge corporates for the ultimate espionage, to steal ideas from the subconscious minds of people. He's given a chance to ...

It's soon going to be 2 months of me working in a new job, with a new company, in a new city... Everything's new and yet a lot of things are the same... My relationship, my friendships, and my being. I was scared. Petrified almost at the thought of having to meet new people everyday and finding those select few people with whom I can be myself again! For nearly a week or two I was floundering in the sea of people... trying hard to keep myself afloat amidst all the chaos, silence and the ironies. Funnily, this is what happens every time! When I started a course last year in a new college, I went through this same phase and ended up finding my own circle, my own space. I know that I have been through this time and again, and yet it never fails to daunt me at first. Working with Google, staying in Hyderabad was a scary prospect too... I didn't find my circle immediately. I managed to make acquaintances whom I could pass time with... but not share, converse and love... :) And t...

So yesterday I went for the movie and my oh my was I surprised! :) To finally see a Hindi movie that's been directed so well, it was amazing! Ranbir Kapoor has done such a fantastic job that there are markings of Michael Corleone in his mannerisms. Similar to him, he's back from US for some time and has the innate ability and the acute mind to play the political games... The movie shocks you at times, and manages to make the entire story believable, to a point where I was praying that I never come across a cold-blooded strategist like him in my life! His expressions, his acting is so subtle and is bang on. Katrina wasn't bad herself, except her diction needs to be worked on, especially if she's going to deliver a speech! Unlike the hype, she's not the central character, rather Ranbir, Nana Patekar, Arjun Rampal and Manoj Bajpai form the main characters of the movie. Manoj Bajpai however disappointed me with his performance, I was expecting a lot from him, especially...

I may have attended not so many classes of marketing, but I understand the basics. Good advertising and marketing can only take you far, if you have a good product / service to begin with. Kites failed to understand that. The basic error that they made was, they thought the uncommon language barrier was worth the story whereas it was only the fringe benefit of the story, not the salary itself! The story revolves around the life of Jay (Hrithik Roshan), who does odd jobs to earn his living and if they're not enough, he 'marries' women who want to get a green card for money on a regular basis. His counterpart is Linda, (Barbara Mori) who's come from a poor background herself to make money for her family back home. Coincidentally, he pretends to be in love with Kangana Ranaut, who's Kabir Bedi's daughter. Kabir Bedi by the way is this huge tycoon in Las Vegas and practically controls most of the casinos and the jazz there. Obviously, Linda pretends to be in love wi...

I’ve been born and brought up in Bombay, and I’ve celebrated a lot of birthdays... but the funny thing is that I only remember the gala celebrations from the last few years of my school! When i was 5 – 6, it was so simple, we just brought a cake from the local bakery shop, bought some back presents for all the kids, ate some good home-made snacks along with some local potato wafers in thin paper plates, played musical chairs, and then went home in time for dinner! How different from the scene today! It’s not just the spending that has gone up, the influence of brands, and products, on our day-to-day lives and on our occasional spending has changed drastically too. Today, even if we think of buying a cake from a local bakery, that bakery invariably turns out to be a Monginis, a Croissants or Ribbons & Balloons, the potato wafers are either Lays, or Uncle Chips, or whichever the latest entrant in the market is, the back presents have assumed enormous proportions and somewhere somehow...

This whole mystical word, that forever teases you, surrounds you with warmth, and yet you yearn for the cold, just so that you feel, those arms hold you strong... In moments of joy, in times of agony, why does that one person, become your only solace, and why can't you ever forgive, that absence momentarily... Through the journey of many years, you feel, you touch, and you know, but still every time after some time, the first glance, the first touch, still makes you shiver... How is it that most people, have to prod you so many times, almost always manage to bug you some times, fail to evoke those emotions at times, but you always smile for him at all times... :)

Okay, so i was out on this awesome day + evening + night this sunday... and we had to catch a movie. Wanted to watch 'Date Night' but the timings just didn't work out, so there we were watching 'Bounty Hunter'... :) Jennifer Aniston in yet another movie proves that she's just not cut out for acting in movies, she was great in Friends, but has not been like that in anything else! Clearly, the director needs to be able to get her to act like the one in Friends did. I think what was missing was, her expressions, she's just too controlled, too straight-faced, and too just 'tight' in everything and you just can't feel for her. Gerard Butler is okay. Nothing great. He's not even half as good as he was in P.S. - I love you! The movie's nice. I mean it's not great. You wouldn't miss out on anything if you didn't see it, but it's not like you'll be terribly bored watching it either! There were some really funny moments, especia...

Well... This movie was one of the most forgettable movies I've seen in the recent past! To begin with, the movie starts off like 300, with a narration that's supposed to set the pace and the base to the entire story. But they forget to use things like voice modulation, and most importantly a script?! The narrator mumbles something about the creation of the earth by the Gods, and talks about their love for man... and you just don't get the drift. Then you see a woman who places a kid inside a basket (kind of like Moses) into the sea along with a woman in the same basket. A family adopts the kid and he's raised. Cut to 18-20 years hence, the kid's grown, the family of four are sailing, trying to catch fish for their livelihood. Suddenly you hear the talk of an uprising, and men fighting with the Gods! It's so far-fetched that you just never understand or believe what's happening. So lightning strikes, the family's boat sinks, and as expected, everyone exce...

It's been three years almost since I first sat on a Bullet... and I can still feel the thrill. It's funny how some associations just stick with you for your lifetime, my affair with the Enfield has been exactly that. I first sat on the Bullet Electra 350 cc, red colour... and I knew this was special. I had never felt like that on a bike before, and the moment I sat I was comfortable. That instinctual connection was fuelled by the connection I shared with the rider! :) And it was magical. To the point where, within a span of a few days, I could only by its sound (from far away) distinguish an Electra, from a Machismo, to a Thunderbird! And to think I had no idea about what bikes were! I only knew what they felt like! Years later, my fascination continued, I began to judge the rider by the bike he rides, and automatically one who owned / rode an Enfield rose in my expectation and in my eyes... To the point where given a choice I would most certainly place trust in an Enfield ride...

There are some movies where you should just choose to leave your head behind and see only the movie. This movie, Hum Tum aur Ghost, is somewhat similar. The plot is fairly simple, you have Arshad Warsi, playing Armaan, a fashion photographer who's a heavy drinker, assisted by a gorgeous Sandhya Mridul, playing Mini, in love with Dia Mirza, playing Ghehna, who's supposed to be the editor of Cosmopolitan (and is not seen under pressure, is not hyper fashion conscious, or busy at all!). That said, you have an entire entourage of "ghosts" who are following Armaan, because he has the "gift" to see, and hear them. Similar to the Sixth Sense, each of them have died having something unfinished and need help from him to complete that deed so that they can move on to heaven... It's interspersed with some comic dialogues, and some great acting esp. by Boman Irani, and Sandhya Mridul. Arshad Warsi fails to evoke the right sentiment of pity, warmth, and affection in ...

I just saw "Dead Poets Society" yesterday. And I fell in love with Ulysses - the poem written by Lord Alfred Tennyson. Reproducing the entire text here! :) Ulysses It little profits that an idle king, By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard and sleep, and feed, and know not me. I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea: I am become a name; For always roaming with a hungry heart Much have I seen and known; cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments, Myself not least, but honor'd of them all; And drunk delight of battle with my peers, Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethro...

Well, I reached late for this movie and did regret it because it took me the better part of 20 mins to figure out why the movie looked like it did. It's shocking, gruesome even at some points, daringly different, and just managed to make me squirm in my seat at points. Technically this film is very different because it's shot completely using weird camera angles... it's made primarily on a handycam, a CCTV camera footage, sting camera videos. It's actually uncomfortable to see the movie because of these angles, jerky hand movements, and brisk cuts. The film is basically an integration of 3 stories, one each on love, sex and betrayal (dhokha)... the characters are very real, very ordinary, daily life people whom you would meet anywhere. The dialogues are what you would actually hear people talking. The ease with which they abuse, they call names, everything is very realistic. If you're the types who leads a sheltered life in your comfort zone, this is a movie that do...

After having been completely enamored and in love with the song "Uff Teri Adaa" I couldn't wait to watch the movie finally. The end emotion being, a decent watch, but could've been much better. The movie begins with a very stereotypical life of a guy (Farhaan) who's just not got anything going for him, from a landlord who's hounding him for money, to a boss who's blaming him for everything that goes wrong, to the hot co-worker (Deepika) who just doesn't know of his existence at all! The change that comes into his life, is a call, at 5 am each day, by a man who claims to be "Karthik" himself who guides him to becoming the man that he is. And voila, suddenly, the real "Karthik" begins to stand up for himself, asserts himself in front of his boss, and manages to strike conversation (a rather witty one) with Deepika too! Sitting in the audience, you literally feel like whistling and hooting when you see him walk down the corridor of his...

For all these months, while i was studying, the natural progression of the course is such that you expect to end the course with a clear idea of what you want to do next. After a lot of confusion and back and forth of ideas, visions, etc. i now think that i do know what i want. while i was writing my resume, i realised that these were the kind of roles that i'd like to be doing... i remembered my friend rakshit, who told me, the best way to think about all this, is to imagine yourself years down the line and imagine what would you like your visiting card to look like, what designation are you seeing yourself in... and it does work actually... :) well, the resume's ready. the cover letter's just getting ready. and then zoooom! off it goes to the company and hopefully pat comes the invitation! keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that it all falls into place!

For days i've been thinking about what i should blog on... and then my friend took me and some of my college friends for this movie at sterling (yes we paid rs. 150 per ticket, which reminds me i need to pay her back...) so anyways we go. after the awesome reviews given by ALL the people, expectations are running high... the story is quite simple, srk is autistic and was raised by a very sensible, level-headed mother, whose acting is amazing btw... being autistic did not in any way hamper his intelligence and thus, he grew up to be quite an intelligent guy, just different. in her efforts to appreciate his smaller victories, she ends up neglecting the younger son, (essayed by jimmy shergill) and he ends up feeling left out and resented. he grows up and goes to the US and then starts the process to invite her and srk to the US. just when they're weeks away from immigrating, she dies. thus srk flies alone to the US. joins his brother's company and starts working there. during ...