Shaayari from ZNMD

1 – After the deep sea dive

पिघले नीलम सा बहता हुआ यह समा, नीली नीली सी खामोशियाँ
न कहीं है ज़मीन, न कहीं आसमान
सरसराती हुई टहनियां … पत्तियाँ
कह रही है की बस एक तुम हो यहाँ
सिर्फ मैं हूँ, मेरी सांसें है और मेरी धडकनें
ऐसी गहराईयां, ऐसी तनहाईयाँ और में , सिर्फ मैं
अपने होने पे मुझे यकीन आगया

Pighlae neelam sa behtaa hua yeh sama
Neeli neeli si khaamoshiyaan
Na kahiin hai zameen
Na kahiin aasmaan
Sar saraati hui tehniyaan… pattiyaan
Keh rahi hai ki bas ek tum ho yahaan
Sirf main hoon
Meri saansen hai aur meri dhadkanen
Aisi gehraayiyaan
Aisi tanhaayiyaan
Aur main… Sirf main
Apne honae pae mujhko yakeen aa gaya

2 – After meeting Imran’s biological dad

जब जब दर्द का बादल छाया
जब घम का साया लहराया
जब आसूं पलकों तक आया
जब यह तन्हा दिल घबराया
हमने दिल को यह समझाया
दिल आखिर क्यों रोता है
दुनिया में यूं ही होता है
यह जो गहरे सन्नाटे है
वक़्त ने सब को ही बांटे हैं
थोडा ग़म है सबका किस्सा
थोड़ी धुप है सबका हिस्सा
आँख तेरी बेकार ही नम है
हर पल एक मौसम है
क्यूँ तू ऐसे पल खोता है
दिल आखिर तू क्यूँ रोता है?

Jab jab dard ka baadal chaaya
Jab hum ka saayaan lehraaya
Jab aansoon palkon tak aayaa
Jab yeh tanha dil ghabraaya
Humne dil ko yeh samjhaaya
Dil aakhir tu kyuun rota hai
Duniya mein yuun hi hota hai
Yeh jo gehren sannaatae hain
Waqt ne sab ko hi baantae hain
Thoda gham hai sabka kissa
Thodi dhoop hai sabka hissa
Aankh teri bekaar hi nam hai
Har pal ek nayaa mausam hai
Kyun tu aisae pal khota hai
Dil aakhir tu kyuun rota hai

3 – Bull run

दिलों में तुम अपनी बेताबियाँ लेके चल रहे हो,
तो जिंदा हो तुम
नज़र में ख्वाबों की बिजिलियाँ लेके चल रहे हो,
तो जिंदा हो तुम
हवा के झोंकों के जैसे आजाद रहना सीखों
तुम एक दरियां की जैसे लहरों में बहना सीखों
हर एक लम्हे से तुम मिलो खोलें अपनी बाहें
हर एक पल एक नया समा देखे यह निगाहें
जो अपनी आँखों में हैरानियाँ लेके चल रहे हो
तो जिंदा हो तुम
दिलों में तुम अपनी बेताबियाँ लेके चल रहे हो
तो जिंदा हो तुम

Dilon mein tum apni betaabiyaan laekae chal rahe ho
toh zinda ho tum
Nazar mein khwaabon ke bijliyaan laekae chal rahe ho
toh zinda ho tum
Hawa kae jhonkon ke jaise aazaad rehnaa seekho
Tum ek dariyaa ke jaise lehron mein behna seekho
Har ek lamhe se tum milo kholae apni baahein
Har ek pal ek naya sama dekhe yeh nigaahen
Jo apni aankhon mein hairaaniyaan laekae chal rahe ho
toh zinda ho tum
Dilon mein tum apni betaabiyaan laekae chal rahe ho
toh zinda ho tum

By Javed Akhtar Saab

The Dark Knight

Scary. Very very scary. Every time the Joker appeared on the screen I was just shit scared about what he would do next. Joker is so believable, it almost makes me believe he would do anything and the director would not even take a step back to reconsider if he would not want to show the scene. Unbelievably good action sequences – I just lost count of how many times I muttered the F word under my breath.

A tad dense storyline – too much content here… but that just means I would watch the movie at least a couple of times more to let the movie sink in completely. Its a shame Two Face got so less a screen space. I was just hoping that Joker would end here and the third part would be setup for the entry of Two Face. Anyways so, now I am really looking forward to the Riddler. And hoping there is going to be a Batman III.

The weakest link still is Rachel. Maggie is worse off than Katie Holmes. Sorry.

Heath Ledger is posthumously headed for a best actor in a negative role nomination. We will have to wait longer to predict for the Oscar. Overall, as IIITians would say TDK is ‘Okhaaa Raaaaange’.

Sarkar Raj – my view

Verdict: Blown Away.

Very few directors ever have understood the essence of The Godfather as has RGV (If you don’t know what/who RGV is, don’t bother even reading any further). Only a RGV could have understood the madness thats part of The FountainHead and made a Naach with it and only he could have made sense of The Godfather and made the Sarkar with it.

The driving line of The Godfather has always been “Its not personal. Its business“. But when Don Vito gets shot, its Michael that tells the consigliori that its all personal

For the second time he saw Michael Corleone’s face freeze into a mask that resembled uncannily the Don’s. “Tom, don’t let anybody kid you. It’s all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of shit every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. They call it business. OK. But it’s personal as hell. You know where I learned that from? The Don. My old man. The Godfather. If a bolt of lightening hit a friend of his the old man would take it personal. He took my going into the Marines personal. That’s what makes him great. The Great Don. He takes everything personal. Like God….”

These line were according to me the real essence of The Godfather, and made the novel what it is. That, in spite of all the power and the mafia it was all family, all personal.

Sarkar was according to me a defining tribute to The Godfather. But Sarkar Raj definitely took the series to a new high. To the story if you are a RGV guy you will just about make sense of almost all of it by interval [Tssk, tssk, just try making comparisons of Sarkar and Sarkar Raj - you will know].

RGV understands the subtlety of film making – every shadow, every angle, the light, the effort it takes to build that minimalism. Frankly, I haven’t seen closeup shots being used as effectively as in this movie, nor have I seen any movie that has used so many of them. RGV never made any movie that had a great story to build up on but where he shines, where he is the real master of the skill is his screenplay – his ability to build that momentum, drag the audience through his storyboard, and all through the shots. This one too has flaws, no doubt – a weaker ending – too simple – and too many power packed dialogues and performers – but then, no complaints.

And what fine one this has been – amazing use of shadows & light – and no small credit to Amit Roy. I don’t remember a movie recently that had as much play of shadows & light as this – full marks to the cinematography. The sepia orange (or brown, is it?) tint of course adds weight to the proceedings.

Ramu is back with a bang (I’m yet to see Aag) – a resounding answer to all his detractors. Afterall, even a genius is allowed one mistake, ManiRatnam has his ‘Thiruda Thiruda’, RGV his ‘Aag’.

khona jaaye yeh taare zameen par…

what a year this has been for the indian film industry. we got to see pure entertainers like OSO, Bheja Fry, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Johnny Gaddar and offbeat movies like Chak De India, Manorama 6 Feet Under. and now inarguably one of the best child centric movies in almost a decade – taare zameen par.

TZP is a very rare exception of a children’s movie made with rare sense of poignancy about a child and his vivid and limitless world with a rare glimpse of Calvinesque approach to mathematics [ 9 x 3 thing ... if you know what i mean]. brilliantly executed, this movie once again proves that nothing can make wonders as a well executed script driven story.

much misunderstood and almost always maligned it is very heartening to see a mainstream effort to create awareness about this problem.

team effort

what an effort by the team! story and screenplay by amole gupte, lyrics by prasoon joshi, music by shankar ehsaan loy, picture perfect casting [special mention: darsheel zafary is a find, tisca chopra is amazing], direction by aamir. salute to aamir for having the conviction to produce this movie.

who was the one that did the animations for this movie? esp the titles. take a bow, amazing work!

spoilers

there are a hazaar scenes in the movie that really made it worthwhile but the ones that stand out for me personally

1. the scenes of the special needs children’s stageshow. the joy and the happiness on the faces of their parents … priceless.

2. when ishan discovers that ram has made his potrait on the canvas.

3. aamir’s confrontation scene with his parents and especially his father.

bridges of madison county

go watch ‘the bridges of madison county’. if this recommendation is alone not enough you might want to follow this review by PonC – the one that first got me interested in this masterpiece. at last i watched it – feeling a little too lovely to be able to speak anything; cant yet get rid of this lovely lingering feeling.

i wish i could have put it in better words for you. not now but maybe someday i will…

The Fountain is spellbinding!

Im impressed.

Not with the story per se. Not with its questions and pokes at the eternal cycles of birth death and everything of intangible beauty. Its been done to death in our Indian schools of thought – dvaitha, advaitha, samkhya, carvaka and such and there is no point dwelling on those points dealt with in the movie. The strong impression of oriental philosophy cannot be missed. And that is an angle better not touched; because thats where you begin to rub my ego the right way and I magically transform from a boring drone to an eloquent wise man and trust me thats not completely not boring either.

What is arresting about the movie though is the gorgeous visuals and the story thats completely open to interpretation. Bright infinite vistas of golden hue drenched in pulsating life. Its not something I have come to experience very frequently. Most of the space movies have been this infinite hopeless vacuum that can easily suck out the enthusiasm out of even me [! replace that with the most optimistic guy/gal you've ever met! ]… But this, this was absolutely easy on the eyes and the mind. Never has creation of matter felt so full of life and stars pulsating in golden balls of fire.

And the story so completely open to interpretation.. On one hand it looks like a story set in different time periods with the man trying desperately trying to save his loved one and seeing their imminent death. On the other hand though, the metaphors are hard to miss.

To me, it was a story about a doctor dealing with the death of his wife. The back story about the conquisdator is the character in the novel his wife is writing and the future zen astronaut is about the struggle of the man to deal with his wife’s imminent death. The withering tree and the marauding armies as metaphors to his dying wife and the engulfing cancer, the film is so chock full of idioms, Im sometimes forced to take the single route because it tires me while finding new interpretations and metaphors everytime…

Watch it if you can lay your hands on it. And me am waiting desperately to lay my hands on Pi and Requiem for a Dream.

chak de india: review

“I firmly believe that any mans finest hour – his great fulfilment to ll he holds dear – Is that moment, when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the battlefieldvictorious.”

Vince Lombardi
1913 – 1970

The best sports films of the world are the ones that let the viewers experience the pains, trials and tribulations the sportsperson goes through and of course the jubilation in the final hardearned victory. This movie is quite simply the story of a wronged Indian captain who comes back to redeem himself. Its an amazing movie to watch considering that the cast having the most time on-screen are fairly wooden actors barring a few.

Coming to ShahRukh, its hard not to feel the empathy with a wronged sportsperson. Frightful even looking at our faint reflections in the movie, the Indian populace with the memories of a goldfish and the tempers of a mad raging bull and the IQs of a flock of blind sheep. Its refresing to see ShahRukh rising from his cynical, selfoccupied self in KANK to a extremely restrained mature performance. Kabir Khan, the role that he essayed has to undergo all the following feelings all at once: fear of failure, self-doubt, anticipation, expectations, leadership, unwavering confidence… Its a far cry from his role of Swades where it was a leader showing a direction; here I was completely blown away by the multilayered interpretation of the character. I tip my hat to the maestro. He is a treat to watch.

Now to the heroes of this tale – the ladies. 16 of them and whatta fun! Its tough not falling in love with each of them. I had to scream hoarse and root for each of them in each of the matches. It was refreshing to see the sincerity in each of their performance. Seeing them on screen giving hockey to each of the folks, it was tough not to even think of the odds that each of them were playing against. The gutsiness in the performances. I cant but not betray my geeky roots but 80% of the screen time is hogged by 20% of the players… but then the others do get a very justified roles. And yes, to see each of them appearing in the sarees in the dinner before in the final playoff – just had to give it to them and the nine-yard garment, they looked beaaautiful, radiant almost to the point of making me awestruck.

And now to the real heroes of the movie – Jaideep Sahni (Story, Dialogues and Screenplay) and Shimit Amin (Direction). Sports films like these are always filled with unavoidable cliches – underdog taking a one and a million shot at glory and success, the fight against all odds and seeminly unsurmountable problems, fallen heroes seeking redemption. And in spite of all this Chak De works for me, much better than Lagaan. It would be a unforsaken sin to speak so, but then couldnt help it, Lagaan had so much going in favor of it – known faces of actors, cricket which every kid knows in India, plays and connects to it emotionally, and of course the eternal jaani dushmani with England. Chak De could have easily rotted into a mind numbingly drubbing film where the women could have easily been made unpolished diamonds heroes by themselves, discovered by the coach and made invincible. But the screenplay is just taut and the amount of work that has gone into individual characterization is extremely detailed. Just look at the dry wit in Kabir Khan’s character, as a result of 7 years of self-imposed exile (of which the user knows nothing about!), a result of a system that has completely let him down. The almost despotic need to redeem himself.

And the film is highly relevant socially too…

  • the subtle ways it highlights the gender roles played out by men and women and their dynamics
  • players that first define themselves by their own states instead of the country
  • the sorry treatment meted out to our national game! and in particular the women’s games in general
  • the flak that is taken by a captain who is a muslim. It is almost like the Muslims have to prove themselves as patriots to the nation every effing time.

Happyness

Startup life is not easy. Bootstrapping is doubly so. Just wanted to see a fighter film; Rocky Balboa is too simple and sugary to actually reflect the grittiness and pain; its a underdog story and everyone knows how it goes.

Have been long wanting to see Pursuit of Happyness. Finally saw it yesterday.

Verdict: Blown Away.

There are few films that speak to you for the right moment and with the right emotion; and this one is just so simply about my pursuit of my happyness. This definitely falls into my new category of Fighter Movies. Ive seen some of them already but this one takes the cake and for putting that truth out there: Its not about how hard you try, its about how hard you can keep trying it all.