Haider - not a review

I've read a lot of reviews of the movie Haider - more than I normally read for any movie. The thread is the same. It showcases the Indian Army as a villian, is totally anti-Indian in its sentiment, not a true depiction of the Kashmir problem at all, completely ignores the Kashmiri Pundits extermination from Kashmir and so on and so forth. Yet, in one or two reviews, folks have mentioned, that all that said, they would not call for a ban of the movie since it works against freedom of expression and/or the era of censorship is so outdated.

What most people seem to have missed (especially chest-thumping anti-BJP folks) is that this movie was let release and run in halls without any kind of state intervention and censorship from the government of any sort. And that, when a man hailed as the devil himself is at the helm of affairs in the country. Either we are too pathetic and don't care about any kind of nationalistic spirit or we are a tolerable species inherently. (It is no secret, Hinduism has time and again proven to be the most tolerant of all religions) More importantly, here is a state which is not into stifling freedom of speech/expression unlike what most people predicted and proclaimed it would be!

Sadly, most missed this point.

Indian Toilet

Today at a mall - in the restroom - the lady waiting in line after me was about to go in - checked that it was an Indian toilet and stepped back and chose to wait for a western one instead! And still we call them Indian toilets! What an irony!

Personally, I prefer the Indian version in public toilets like malls etc. They are definitely better since it is zero body contact with any soiled surface.

Kahaani is a must watch movie. Please, I urge you all to see it :)

US and movies

A sudden thought hit me today. In our movies somehow the protaonists always go on a vacation to Pacific Asian countries, or even Europe. But never to the US. Why is that?

I mean a lot of movies are made where the protagonists are based in the US or go there for long term assignments (Hum Tum, Kal Ho Na Ho etc) but they never visit for vacation as part of the storyline :)

As always maybe there are exceptions but in general this is true of both Hindi and Telugu movies.

Movies do take a lot of inspiration from real life maybe after-all? :)

I can confirm a Tolly/Kolly rumour

I was waiting in the ladies line at the security in BIAL yesterday on our way to Hyd. I saw this female who looked very much like Nayantara, but not quite all her though. And she was extremely thin to boot. So I kept looking at her and wondered what a striking resemblance it was. How two people can be so alike etc.

Since I was with a baby they let me in first and cleared the stroller etc. I was collecting everything at the other end when I saw Prabhu Deva. Subhash had not yet come so I had to wait for a few minutes. Prabhu Deva was looking good. I was thinking to myself, "If I go and ask him whether or not he is seeing Nayantara, how would he react?" I was lost in such thoughts and humming a Gentleman tune "chikubuku chikubuku raile" when I saw this Nayantara look-alike after she finished clearing the security. She waited for her bags (meanwhile an elderly guy who was with PD till then, came and spoke to her). Then they walked off together being careful as to how closely they walk ;) I thought "Aiyaiayaiayaiiiiii". So they are "together".

But I still can't believe that was Nayantara. She was almost there but not quite all her (did I say that already?). Guys, so do you know if she has a sister or something?

Chirutha

Yes. I own to it. I watched it the first day (thanks to the gang again). And for my base expectations I was not disappointed at all. Chiranjeevi's son can dance, act and all the rest of the things he needs to do. He was not at all deplorable and I think with time he will improve. Well, at least he is much better than Bunny (Allu Arjun) and I think he has a good road ahead of him. Subhash liked him too which is kind of rare. I know Deepu disagrees (the Bunny vs Cherry debate, jeez I am talking like idlebrain.com) but I think he is good enough for today's industry standards if not better:)

Way to go!

English lo yenneno padalaloo...

As is typical when I have a lot of work to do and do not want to be disturbed, I spent yet another Friday down in the lab. I used to hate the place because of all the noise when I was new here. But now this is my escape haven when I need some quiet!!

So anyway, as is customary when I am in the lab, I was listening to stuff on my iPod accompanied with occasional bouts of loud singing;) I was at "Aadi" (Blush! Yeah I listen to Aadi songs) The songs in the movie are good, although the hero is debate-able. (Ohh, come on, you don't know who played hero in "Aadi"? Junior NTR of course;) ) There was this time in 2001 just before I left for the US to test my wings, when his first movie was released.. And I used to wonder why the people of Tollywood were hell bent on traumatizing unsuspecting Hyderabad citizens. Huh! He looked attrocious to say the least. And the posters- giant-sized always. It was nauseating! Anywhere I drove to in the city, there it was, another repulsive poster, yuck!

Well, that is that. Some trauma that was. As if that was not enough, one of my Junior-NTR-loving friends (yeah, he has fans too! Gosh!) insisted that I watch Aadi and left the DVD at my place back in Madison. I took 11 iterations watching it in 10-15 minute intervals as I could not take anymore of him than 15 minutes at a stretch.

That was when I first heard the songs. They are actually good. The music I mean. A good listen anyday. But the lyrics are downright humorous. Especially from a song that goes "Pattu Okato Sari" (Catch the first time) Yeah, NOW you can guess how the rest of it goes ;)

Here are some excerpts from this classic song (Boy! This is so funny, I can spend the rest of my blogging time simply translating some of the modern day lyrics from Tollywood and still wouldn't run out of humour)


Pattu Okato Sari (Catch the First Time)
Nasa Pettu Rendo Sari (Nag the second time)

Bla bla bla..never mind with the rest of the the things they say about third fourth and fifth times..

Gundelu GuNinchu O Sari (Add hearts once) (Me: Ok?)
Siggulu Bhaginchu O Sari (Divide shyness once) (Me: Hmm...ok..)
Lovvulu Lekhkinchu O Sari (Count love once) (Me: Huh? ...ok......)
Aa Pai Andistha Oo Pattu Saree (After that I will present you a Silk Saree (Me: What the hell?!?!)


Next come the verses:
=================


Ammayee nee andam samudrame (Girl, your beauty is the sea) (Me: :-?)
Andulo na manase aNige maNige muNige (In that my heart succumbed and drowned) (Me: More :-?:-?:-?)

Abbayee nee vegam vimaaname (Boy, your speed is the airplane) (Me: What??? Junior NTR??!?)
Anduke na sogase vaNike JhaNike beNike (Me: That is why my beauty shivered and got sprained) (What??????)

Never mind with the translation of the rest of the first CharaNam (Verse). I cannot do it, beyond me!


Here comes the second charaNam:

English lo yennenno padaalalo (In the many words in English)
Ee moode nachinavi: Riveru Floweru Loveru (Just these three pleased me: River, Flower, Lover) (My God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Lokam lo yennenno bandhaalalo (In all the relations in the world)
Ee moode telisinavi: Motheru, Fatheru, Tamaru ( Just these three are known to me: Mother, Father, Respected You) (WTH!?!?!?!?!?!?)

Nenu ippudu Brahmacharini (I am now a Brahma-follower = bachelor (single guy) ) (Me: Ok, decent)
Nuvvu korinappudu ayipotha BhamaCharini (When you desire I shall become lady-follower) (Me: Whatever!)

Nenu ippudu andagathe ni (I am now a beauty)
Nuvvu takinappudu ayipotha Agarubathini (With your touch, I shall become an Agarbathi (Incense stick) ) (Me: Tearing my brains out!!)

So anyway, now you can guess it. If you know Telugu, you can listen to the song here;)

Pattu Okato Sari

I think translations it is for me ;) There is another song from "Boys" that I would love to translate, but I've already laughed too much for a day. I will do it very soon though.

Rahman ARARARARAR AAAAA..

I realized while scrubbing my posts (yeah I have to do that;) ) that I never wrote about the Rahman concert in Oakland at the top of the month (I like to say it like CNN yeah;) )

Needless to say it was crazy, frenzied and we all loved it very much. I will not describe the concert in full, you can read it here. But the highlights were

1) Oakland named June 2 (the day of the concert) as "AR Rahman Day". If you see Oakland, you will understand what an extra-ordinary thing this is. If it was Sunnyvale, maybe not, but Oakland yes. (I am actually surprised Sunnyvale doesn't have Indian street names already, but that is too forthcoming;) )

2) I was thoroughly disappointed in his concert for one thing. His claim-to-fame songs were not part of it at all, except Bombay's Humma Humma. I would have loved to see (hear, duh!) him starting with "Chinna Chinna Aasai" going to Donga Donga, & to Bombay & to Gentleman & to Rangeela's tunes to so many more. It was a huge disappointment for me! Sigh!

3) The display of torches (cell phone back lights, ingeniously converted) to his "Vande Mataram", by the audience, was impressive and the Arena folk had enough sense to turn off stadium lights so we could watch how well we were doing;) Thank God for common sense!

4) We met with Sivamani and took pictures with him and he actually said "Whaaat is this?" when I offered him my cheque-book to give me an autograph (Really now, I didn't have anything else handy, what was I to do?)

5) We saw Chitra and Sadhana Sargam while they were walking out. Chitra was feeling the Oakland chills @ 12 am ;)

6) We met Naresh Iyer and spoke with him briefly. He is really just a kid, I was so surprised to see him and just haven't been able to match his voice to his face ever since;)

Last but definitely not the least we saw the GOD! Rahman was out last and we were able to catch a brief glimpse up-close. What was sad was that everyone else was shuttled away in Mercs and Cadillacs and Hummer Limos (can you believe it? Desis are minting money here;) ) , the GOD was shuttled out in some stupid GMC truck (I have to start with my cars thingy even here??!?)

But anyway it was all worth it. Even listening to Hariharan badly damage some songs with his own personal touches to it, so typical of singers when they think they have done it all and get on stage. I personally never liked this man. Or enduring Sukhwinder Singh's badly timed show of excessive knowledge in Hindi lyrics and their background-slash-meanings. (Yuck! Yuck!)

When I was looking for the link above, I stumbled on the fact that Rahman is 41. He is 41?! Man!! He practically grew up in front of our eyes;)

Sahana..

Loved this song the first time around itself (others are slowly growing on me;) ) from Sivaji. Didn't want to risk plagiarizing charges by pasting them here, so here is the song with the meanings;) Also checked out the comments to this post and they explain the song a little better, for ones that the author missed:)

Sahana..lyrics and meaning

Thanks Badri!!

Oru Koodai Sunlight...Oru Koodai Moonlight...

Back to movie gossip..

We watched Sivaji on Friday, in Tamil, first day late night show. 11.15 show got pushed out to 12 am as the movie ran a whole 3 hr and 10 mins. The theater was jam-packed (Aaahh Rajni!!) and as is always when we go to a crowded place, I saw a couple people from my University and Cisco. Desi-filled area it was. But that is not the point. The cops on that street near Park theater were thoroughly confused as to what this racket was all about. But that is also not the point.

Rajni was typical in this movie, too much style and persona. As usual the movie in itself was not very great, but worth watching for this 57-year old guy s(t)aying "Cool" throughout the movie. I used to hate him when I was a kid, I thought he was ugly-looking. But now I actually like watching his movies, he just cake-walks through all his roles. Anything and everything. That panache at 57 years, I certainly wish I have it when I am 57;) And what style! Thalaivar....

Songs were good, as is typical with Rahman's numbers, I didn't particularly take to them when I heard them first, but I am sure they are going into my prized iPod collection pretty soon, in Tamil, at that;)

BTW, when I was listening to his songs last evening, I fell across this gossip on his daughter's wedding with a 10-standard-fail guy. It read, "When it comes to love, even superstar is just father" in typical, broken English. (Where is this typical you ask? Read Music India Online's Tamil gossip for some "typical" samples;) ) It was a fun read, and even though basically broken, in much better English that your usual MIO articles about Tamil stars and their pursuits. (Ohh yes, I am sometimes vela enough to read those, and plead guilty to all charges)

Check this out:

Dhanush-Aishwarya Marriage ... Confusions

I researched some more about his daughters and saw his daughter's wedding reception pictures (Vela, vela vela!). I was actually searching Google for Aishwarya and was surprised, you would be too, that in the three images that showed up in the search, the first was Aishwarya Rai and the other two were actually Rajni's daughter's reception pictures!!!!!!! My my, how could I have been so ignorant!!

From here, I also found out that he has another younger daughter called Soundarya (One website claimed that if I didn't know that fact already, Rajni's fans would abolish me from Tamil Nadu, sigh! Ignoramus.). And I thought his daughters look very pretty. The second one especially was quite gorgeous, I had not expected that. But then, I never thought this much about Rajni and his life;)

Like Rajni says "Cool!"

Jallantha Kavvintha...

I needed to desperately get-away from my Tcl scripting and all the *s, the ?s, the []+s and the \\s and what-the-heck-not, so I thought I'd write something.

I was thinking about this song (actually listening to this song) this morning on my way to work. I still remember when I was in school/college back in Hyderabad I would always play this song at the first hint of an oncoming rain. I just loved (with 10 o s between l and v) listening to this song while it was raining, it just has that spirit in it. AMAZING!!

Plus, if you read my other post about going to work in paradise, you probably know what its like on my way to work, so I almost felt like I was living in this song except that I was going to work, whereas she dances in this song;)

You can watch it HERE.

Why AR should be DIL to senior-AB

Too many acronyms? Well, its late and I am still at work, so what do you expect?:D

Anyway, I try to keep my blog strictly a-political but it doesn't exclude Bollywood, so I can write as much as I want about latest and greatest gossips et al. I just realized it, so here is a good one to start off with.

Why should Aishwarya Rai be Daughter-In-Law to Amitabh Bachchan. Forget Abhishek, he plays little role here other than that I prefer him any day to the other actors in Bollywood;)

To begin with, I like both Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek. I liked him in Refugee itself, see I have this talent to recognize other talents;) When everyone wrote him down, I said, I like him, he will shine someday:) He is too over-shadowed by his Dad's legacy right now. And he shone slowly but steadily:D

Then I like Aishwarya too. Not necessarily as an actress but in general for her drop-dead looks. Subhash hates her;) But I like her and I maintain it :D

But the topic here is not about Abhishek marrying Aishwarya (I am glad about it, believe me) but about Aishwarya being the right daughter-in-law for senior AB.

I have only two coincidences to think of. Audience can help add to these;)

1) Both have their wax models in Madame Tussuad's :D
2) AB senior's Dad was Harivansh Rai Bachchan, and now will have a daughter-in-law, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan:D

What excellent coincidences, enough reasons for them to marry any day;)