Ghajini

Ghajini.... is a remake of a Tamil film! Now while imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery.... it also does set a high bar. To begin with it being an Aamir Khan flick...the expectations were already exorbitant which turned out to be disastrous!
FYI South Indian action films {Tamil ones atleast} generally draw their inspiration from their very own revered “Rajnikanth” whose action sequences are not regulated nor influenced by laws of physics {mainly gravity}! To be honest... I enjoy those action scenes wherein the director portrays the hero like a supernatural being! I am a little embarrassed to admit that it does impress me.... for reasons unknown!
(.... PS: I love Tamil movies and after a tedious search have discovered them on YouTube!)

So having seen the Tamil version of Ghajini {with English subtitles ofcourse } I go to the theatre expecting some gross, unchecked violence. I am prepared for Aamir Khan’s version of Ghajini which I am sure has his influence and his personal touch to it even though he is not the director! Consecutively I WILL that he has the vision to glorify it more in order to cater to the needs of bollywood cinema and its viewers!

Overall I would give the movie 60 percent all of which.... solely due to Aamir Khan’s performance. While I fail to understand his rage which was fueled by frustration and inconceivable loss, I admire Aamir Khan’s performance and the intensity with which he has played that role. However that’s it.... that’s the only thing which was worth appreciating! There are some parts of the movie which I found endearing but those moments were lost as soon as the songs came along! There was no place for songs in the movie and it seems as though the director has searched the movie long and hard in an attempt to strategically place the songs.... but sadly his attempts are futile! The songs only worsen the movie’s standard even though some of them are good on their own. It’s their placement that I do not like! The only exception to the above is “Kaise muze tu milgayi”..... aamir’s performace in this section of the movie was B.E.A.U.tiful.

The female actors are wonderful actually! I believe “Kalpana” who plays Aamir’s love interest is a veteran actor (south Indian actor)...and plays her role expertly with a dash overdone. The other female actor.... well she didn’t have much part to begin with.... so no harm done.

What actually kills the movie are the fight scenes which were the crux of the story. Somehow those Rajnikanth specialty moves look good only on Rajnikanth and his peers of the south Indian film industry! To begin with.....the movie was not supposed to fall in the entertainment quota of films and obviously banked on wooing the audience with nerve racking thrills, spectacular action sequences and heart wrenching drama. Ghajini established the latter but failed miserably in the action department. The concept “I am so angry that my desire to revenge my fiancé’s death has deranged me” is a little too intense to fathom and needed delicate handling to make the right impact however this failed as it was a little overdone. Some scenes were ingeniously shot and will save the movie from being marked as a “Flop”. All in all Aamir Khan’s part as expected is fabulously done with drive and energy that scintillates on the big screen. Aamir Khan has also painstakingly worked on his body to obtain the chiseled look which makes him look like a 25 year old.... yet I can’t help but wonder if this was Aamir Khan's answer to ShahRukh Khan’s “six packs” {in Om Shanti Om} since the two appear to have locked horns with each other!

Overall the movie is a letdown! But then that’s what happens when someone does a “remake “or makes a movie based on a book! The movie cannot compare to the original one or to the book. I guess in my books, the Tamil movie was well made making the Hindi remake of Ghajini a colossal challenge!


PS.1. The movie has a rather large probability of being branded as one of Aamir Khan’s blunders {in line with Mangal Pande and Mela... my opinion of bigtime flops and waste of time!}!

P.S.2. This was the first Hindi movie I watched in a movie theater without an intermission and I have NEWS... without the break... my mind craves for popcorn/samosa/tea/bathroom break.....that makes the movie seem to be abnormally and painfully long!

A Verrrry White X-mas!

After an incredibly eventful year, I decided to spend the year end doing something entertaining. I had accumulated enough miles and earned a free round trip anywhere in the country! Yippeee...! Actually two of them! I used the first ticket to go to Chicago for the career fair... no luck so far about the fair... but the trip itself was exactly what I needed! I feel in love with Chi-town and learned something new about myself! I love to travel... regardless of whether I have company or not! {Reference: http://pn-world.blogspot.com/2008/10/travel-to-chi-town.html}
So... armed with a free air ticket... I suddenly have an achievable budget for a wonderful holiday! The first thing that pops in my mind is “Oswego”. It’s a tiny town on the edge of Lake Ontario adjacent to Canada! My maternal uncle, aunty and two really cute cousins aged 7 and 9 live there. I have been meaning to visit them for the past two years and cannot think of a more opportune time than this {I had planned twice before but couldn’t make it due to time concerns.... thanks to my very demanding masters degree. So now that I am done with that... I could sure plan the much awaited trip.}
I flew to Buffalo which is a 3 hours drive from Oswego. Previously I did not appreciate small towns and they depressed me! But after staying in Lubbock for 2 + years I have developed a soft corner for them! So I loved Oswego. Nirvani had once told me... “You will notice that people in smaller towns are friendlier.... even the ones working in restaurants and grocery stores... “. I cannot agree more with her. Things are much more personal and people have time to halt and inquire about each other’s life. Oswego too appears to be another university town packed with college students who were all moving out for the holidays. Owing to the proximity of the lake, Oswego is not as arid as Lubbock and hence it snows a lottt too! Ever since the day I arrived, it has been snowing. Everything is white as though the almighty accidently spilled some white chocolate over! The trees look like giant cotton plants all growing cotton. The snowflakes all of different sizes make my bedroom view soo much prettier!
We drove around the city to marvel at the white scenery! Lake Ontario had just begun to freeze at its edge which looked like large glass crystals bobbing up and down.
The temperatures were not in the extreme and oscillate between 20s to the early 30s! The day after I landed there was a blizzard which covered everything in sight with snow making me feel as though I had gone to Antarctica! The wind was blowing soo bad that the snow on the ground was forming a mist..... made it look like a giant freezer!

Nostalgia

I have been experiencing bouts of nostalgia for the past few weeks now! I think my recent graduation has something to do with it.... with every new beginning... I often find myself reminiscing about the past... from my engineering college days... to the wonderful times I spent in Mumbai as a teenager... the careless attitude with not a single justifiable worry in the world! Mercifully my brain is recollecting all the happy moments alone... which allow me to be blissfully drunk on my happy memories! I find this remarkable as (also I apparently am returning to my optimistic self) the human brain is trained to remember all the agonizing, poignant ‘happenings’ of the past to prevent their reoccurrence...a subtle attempt at self defense! But fortunately I am (atleast at this point) reliving some of the best days of my life through some very powerful memories!

The Big Day!!

After couple of years of relentless work, several sleepless nights (many of them due to submissions or final exams) and countless moments of anxiety the odyssey of my masters degree was complete.....and on December 12^th 2008 I became a part of Graduating Class of 2008!

When daunted by my inexhaustible thesis.... I would envisage my graduation day hoping that it would motivate me to go on! {Those of you who have read my “lonely to home(ly)” post would know how eagerly I was awaiting this day! } As the “big day” approached that anticipation continued to intensify and I imagined that day to be spectacular with me floating somewhere around cloud 9!!

But history stands witness to the fact.... any such eagerly awaited event.... anything with oodles of expectations is bound to be.... for lack of a better word.... a “flop”! That would explain why it took me 5 whole days to construct (notice my use of “civil engineering” vocabulary... just a testament to the fact that I now have masters degree in it!) this post!

I just wanted to be sure that I did feel that it was “no big deal” and reflect on its reasons.....“Why so??” Most probably because I messed up in the middle... almost quit and unwillingly completed it! But just so that my I myself hear it too.... it was a “BIG DAMN DEAL”!!!! J

None the less.... walking down the slope of the spirits arena (in the oversized black coat) to the backstage.... I did feel a sense of euphoria! After a very longgggggg hour’s wait we were escorted to the main arena with cameras pointing at our faces (awkward awkward) as all the graduates walked in!! McCain was there. He was introduced to the crowd preceded by an impressive speech (by our chancellor) to a standing ovation!... McCain I believe was called because our rival school (TAMU!) had “The President of the United States” as their chief guest! However I must add.... McCain gave a real nice speech.....most of which I did not sleep through (no pun intended... I was very tired for some reason and kept dosing off even in the backstage area... so if I was awake through a speech.... it must be good!)

After what seemed like forever.... we were handed our degrees after we shook hands with atleast 10 people who were on the graduation committee.... and there I had a revelation... if I am congratulated 10 times in a row I do feel like saying “Enough already”!! .... B.O.R.I.N.G!

The only person I was glad to see was my professor Dr. Morse... she was there too and her congratulations meant more than all other people put together!

Inspite of all this day was “Purrrfect”! I wore my graduation dress (which I had bought last month and had hoped it wouldn’t be too cold so that I could wear it) and we dined at the Maharaja- the only Indian restaurant in Lubbock। Also we had the legendary ‘photo session’ as we paraded around the campus in our ridiculously oversized gowns! We also threw our caps but did not manage to catch it.... all owing to my appalling hand-eye co-ordination... I am dreadful in all games requiring a good hand-eye co-ordination॥ eg। Basketball, gold and billiards!

Also...spent lotta time catching up with old friends before saying final adios to Lubbock!

Diwali at Lubbock

Carol of lights is a festival at Texas Tech University that marks the beginning of the holiday season. Ever since the tradition began in 1959, hundreds of students gather all around the memorial circle to celebrate this festival and marvel at the 25000 light bulbs illuminating the engineering key, the seal entrance and the science quadrangle all the way to the Student Union Building. The sight is simply delightful. The only thing contrary to the lights is the bitter cold which you have to endure if you are bold enough to participate in the actual festival. Carol of lights is like having diwali in Lubbock!

No lights are allowed after dark until 9 pm in all the buildings facing the areas listed above. The gallant gather at the science quadrangle to brave the cold as they patiently wait for the singing to start. The carols are preceded by marching of all Tech mascots (Red raider and the masked raider- was a girl again this time!) who parade to the lit arena with their “guns up” (bordering on pretentious). The singing finally starts and the area is filled with wonderful music.... its sheer pleasure to see professionals at work. After the last carol is sung, some important person (couldn’t care less to know who he was... by that time I was frozen and almost ready to go home without seeing the legendary lights) switched on the lights.... suddenly the entire arena was filled with thousands of lights (had Googled earlier to find the exact number!) which were greeted by a series of “Wooooooooooooooooooows”!

Amazing......... the X-mas spirit starts real early at Tech। The colossal X-mas tree standing tall behind the university seal is all lit up too.

Carol of Lights is celebrated on the first Friday of December each year so that all the students have a chance to take part in the fun. A week later... the campus looks desolate and if it wasn’t for the B-E-A-UTIFUL constructions, it sure would have looked like a ghost town! Besides all the dried grass makes it look so very morose. The only thing to beautify it is the snow.... then our campus looks pretty again!!!

Romeo and Juliet with the happily ever after tag!

I believe that the best thing anyone can offer is “love”...... that is unadulterated, unchecked and immeasurable! Someone wise once said (Rather quoted in some cheesy book that I had read) that it was the only way to love someone completely.... you might get hurt but it was worth the risk! A hindi movie quoted on similar lines that.... every person should fall in love atleast once in their lifetime... as love makes one a truly wonderful being! I find it Funny... that books and movies still stick to their Neanderthal teachings inspite of tragic episodes of “Romeo and Juliet”! One might think that even the authors and script writers learn from the past and try to evolve.... but guess there always are exceptions.

Do not get me wrong I DO believe in the unconditionality clause of love but also wonder.... isn’t it high time we as human beings do something for our evolution? Is it enough that we can know walk erect and have learned to use our “opposable thumbs”?

Yes... such ancient thought processes annoy me.... I mean I still am a romantic person who adores gifts and the other things that come with the package.. but my brain craves for some things other than rotting in a relationship and losing your identity in that process!

Hence I am particularly happy when I come across a conceptually modern love story... like for example “Socha Na Tha”. I rediscovered this romantic comedy. It is fun and sweet and not to intense. That’s the recipe to not only a good movie but also to a healthy relationship! When I saw Abhay Deol and Ayesha Takia... I wished Romeo and Juliet had run away too... the scene on the balcony where she (A. Takia) waits for him is what prompted me to draw similarities between the two stories. That’s why I like to refer to Socha Na Tha as today’s Romeo and Juliet with a happily ever after tag! That’s how its supposed to be right??... that’s what our first books (fairy tales) told us to expect from life.... struggle to achieve whats most important in life such that you can live happily ever after... after that!!

From 'Lonely' to "Home"(ly)!

I came to Texas to pursue a master’s degree and spent two and half years achieving it! In December 2008, 2 + years of my hard work will be summed up in two letters at the end of my name =>

Poorva Narsapur M.S.!

I wonder what I will feel walking down the “United Spirits Arena” wearing the black robe and cap (that symbolize a judge...God forbid... I am the most biased human being ever who can be emotionally blackmailed easily.... that will end the concept of “aandha kannon”....giggles)!

Ironically the “hindi movies” (that almost never show anything remotely “real”) too depict the graduation ceremony in a similar fashion which predictably has always caught my fancy। Hence ever since I enrolled in the graduate school I have been awaiting the graduation day! To walk the walk and throw the cap high up in the air.... watch it as it swivels and jump up to catch it in mid air!

Sadly after my graduate date was extended by 6 months... I had almost lost interest in the commencement ceremony. Thankfully a surprise visit to the Spirits Arena reminded me of what I had been waiting for.... to get photographed in the over sized gown!!

Neither had I thought that I would be sad about leaving Lubbock! I had always imagined relief to be etched on my mind when I said my final goodbyes to flat, sunny, dusty, “hard watered” and lonely Lubbock!

On Monday the 17^th of November I visited all my professors and said goodbyes! Then I spent an hour touring Texas Tech trying to fix all the wonderful images of the campus on my mind! I have grown insanely proud of Texas Tech in these 2 years. It has a wonderful campus which is almost as large as a miniature city! The Tech football team too made us Red Raiders proud and we can actually mock longhorns (after 4 long years!)। The first American football game I saw was on campus. Our band was stunning and our players well prepared! I think my proudest moment was when the “masked raider” galloped across the stadium on her horse (yep it was a “she” this time... for those who are unfamiliar with this concept... a masked raider is another mascot of Tech who wears black and rides a horse at the beginning of each home game and some others as well... they alternately chose a girl and a boy to ride the horse!)

After spending 2 and half years in Lubbock..............I now call Lubbock home! Initially when I came here, I could not wrap my head around the deserted place which was seen as a group of circular farmlands from the airplane! I was afraid of walking on the desolate streets which were the opposite of the streets in Mumbai.

Not too different was the scorching heat that tanned all of us black (IT was August!)। To make matters worse, the dry weather peeled away our skin, the hard water messed with our hair and the cuisine made my life difficult as a vegetarian। But as time passed I started appreciating the peace and quiet and the wide expanse of nothingness! The hard water began to taste like bottled water and the heat toned down as winter approached! I began cooking better and discovered restaurants serving decent vegetarian food comprising of something other than fries and salad! All these things made Lubbock tolerable but I still called Bombay home. As the year passed I began to get used to the arid Lubbock and things started getting very familiar! I knew people and the shop keepers and made more friends! I learnt to optimize on the limited resources I had and the quality of living improved. This is where I learnt to be completely independent, learnt to trust no one while being amiable to all... this is where got my first job!

I started identifying with the slow paced life of Lubbock which was very different from where I grew up ! And then one day when it was time for me to move away.... I found there were tears in my eyes... just like when I was leaving Bombay! Bombay will always remain extremely special to me and no other place can take its place.... however I have now started calling Lubbock home because this is where I learnt some of the most difficult lessons in my life... thus this too is a place where I grew up!