Really cool movie!

Socha na tha’ is like a breath of fresh air. It’s funny because most of the people who walk in to watch the movie don’t have too many expectations. By the end of the movie though the audience is delighted with the outcome. Most of the Indian films tend to go over the top with loud characters, hamming actors and so on. So it feels great to watch something that’s zara hatke. The director has wonderfully narrated a simple story and managed to catch the viewer’s attention from the very first frame.

We are introduced to the 20something, urban characters of Viren, Aditi, Karen and their respective families. Viren is hiding from his family about the love of his life: Karen. Somehow he manages to convince his family about accepting the Christian girl when things go for a toss as Aditi enters their lives. Viren and Aditi meet up several times and end up being very candid about their respective lives to each other. Somewhere along the line they realize that they have fallen in love and therein lies the problem. The pair now has the daunting task of convincing their respective families who are at a war of words with each other over a non-issue.

The surprise of the film is definitely the latest Deol on the block, Abhay who has hit the bull’s eye with this movie. His endearing mannerisms and dialogues are a treat. His portrayal of the character is sweet enough to convince you to like him, inspite of his wavering nature regarding the affairs of the heart. He has tried his best and it shows. Ayesha Takia is a total natural and completely at ease with the camera. She has as a good flair for acting, which makes us really care for her character. Sandya Mridul is wasted in a good for nothing role and makes you wonder if her role was chopped off on the editing table or what. Other actors like Suresh Oberoi, Ayesha Jhulka and Rati Agnihotri ably support the newcomers.

Sandesh Shandilya’ s compositions border on the average to the pleasant. Love stories need a good superhit score, which is sorely lacking here. If nothing the songs are a good means of generating interest about the movie amongst the public. Over here the songs are good but are not hummable enough to create an impression. ‘Abhi Abhi mere dil main khayal aaya hai’ is picturised rather well. However once you are out of the theatre, the tunes are out of your mind. I guess the director could pay a little more attention to that department next time around.

The movie could have done with better marketing and promos so that people don’t miss out on good clean family entertainment. One thing that could have been done without was the hero’s atrocious hairstyle that resembled his brother Bobby’s long locks. I hope he does not follow his brother’s footsteps and end up doing the “dishumdishum” roles. I guess his strength lies in playing characters like these.

The story has been greatly appreciated by the young college going crowd but I am sure that this is something that anyone will enjoy. The likeability quotient of the youth towards the movie can be attributed to the college situations depicted like the group picnics, parties, bahanas etc.

I read somewhere that Subhash Ghai, was so impressed after the screening of ‘Socha na tha’, that he personally congratulated the director (Imtiaz Ali) and has supposedly offered him a Mukta productions venture to direct. The storyline is very simple but it’s the treatment of the plot by the first time director that has made all the difference.

Although the film was long in the making, thankfully it does not have a dated look. There is an air of joie de vivre throughout the story. In fact after watching the film, I agree with what another MS reviewer has commented that socha na tha movie itni achi hogi. Using MTV parlance, the one thing that you should do now is see ‘Socha na tha’ and ENJOY!

Stories of love, loneliness and longing

I am reading a short stories collection after a really long time. So forgive me if I wax lyrical about this book but believe me this is good reading. The Interpreter of Maladies is a short stories collection by Jhumpa Lahiri. The book had won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for best fiction and a host of other awards. All the stories have the underlying theme of ‘yearning’ , the deep desire to go back to your roots, in this case, India. The cultural displacement of the Indians and their adjustments in the new land of opportunity (America) brings out different reactions from the myriad characters.

Here is a short synopsis of some of the stories.
A Temporary Matter is about this couple who are individually grieving over the loss of their dead infant and have completely not overcome the sadness. Instead of talking it out, both of them keep silent about it, while the wounds of loneliness and pain fester beneath their hurt bodies. The power cuts in their area force them to spend time together by candlelight. They end up slowly and unsurely, having conversations about their past. This one is highly recommended and my favorite of the whole lot.

This Blessed House A young couple finds sacred objects of Christianity, hidden in extremely ingenious ways in their newly acquired house.

The curing of Bibi Haldar tells the tale of a emotionally disturbed, young girl who has to endure a lot of pain before finally getting her deliverance. It reveals the huge expectations of the traditional Indian culture on single women who have to marry someone within an appropriate time and the resultant implications of that.
When Mr Pirzada came to dine is the story of Mr Pirzada(a Pakistani) who is separated from his wife and kids at the time of the Dacca war. He spends time with a friendly Indian family across the seven seas. The food shared by the protagonist with the Indian family is the strongest bond of love that also expels the collective feeling of homesickness.

The Third and Final continent is about a shy Bengali immigrant who recollects how he had to get accustomed to a new culture and a new land (having traveled from India to Britain and finally to the US). He finds a mother figure in his 103 yr old landlady who has her own quirky ways. The story ends with the protagonist’s wistful lines, ’’Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept.’’

Mrs.Sen’s is about this Bengali lady who takes up a job as a caretaker of little Elliot. Though the boy’s eyes, we understand how she is sick of leading a false life and pretending to be well off and happy in the alien place. In reality, she is bored and miserable and the trips to the fish market are her only solace. The fish market is so vividly described that you actually experience the sights and sounds of that place. In a way, the food is her link to her homeland that she sorely misses.

The characters in Jhumpa’s story are very ordinary people who lead mediocre lives. Though they look somewhat happy and okay with their lives, but beneath the surface, they have lots of desires, fears and wants, which are unexpressed. These hidden needs manifest in different ways in their day-to-day lives and everyone continues to exist mundanely, ignoring what they really want from life.

Jhumpa does not go too deep into the characterization of the people involved but she mentions small personal details about them, which more or less tell the reader everything about the character. The writer has captured the nuances so well, that you actually feel the pathos of the characters.

Somehow the narrative does touch a chord in your heart. You know these people because they could be anyone of the persons that coexist with you in your locality. The silent workaholic couple, the lonely bachelor, the disloyal wife and so on. The point that the writer makes is that none of us are completely black or white but we have loads of gray shades to our personas.

Finally it’s befitting that none of the stories have an ending per se. The ending of each story leaves the readers to draw their own conclusions and ponder about the vagaries of life. Successful stories are those that make the reader go through the entire gamut of emotions that the characters experience. With her stories, Jhumpa Lahiri has succeeded in doing just that and much more.

Are you a desperate somebody?

Many or rather most of us have a darker side that is never really acknowledged by us. But what if circumstances in life expose our hidden nature? Should we be then branded as evil persons or is it fair that we come to terms that none of us are all good or all bad. This is just the dilemma facing the characters of the hit drama series- Desperate Housewives.

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”. That sentence aptly sums up the premise of Star World’s latest offering- “Desperate Housewives” ; the zany drama series that’s making viewers go “Aha”. It’s the story of four housewives desperately trying to make most out of what life has to offer them. All of them are crazy, smart, beautiful and most importantly very, very desperate. These saucy ladies slowly realize that they must do, whatever pleases them to break out of the shackles of their situations, that had forced them to lead their mundane(read ordinary) lives.

Each of the housewives makes us realize that being a ‘housewife’ is no joke. Still waters run deep ‘coz although the women look happy on the outside, below the surface there is deep loneliness and insecurity. If that’s not all they also have quite a bit of dirty laundry which comes to the forefront as time goes by.

The first episode started in a mind-blowing manner (no pun intended) with the fifth housewife (Mary Alice) of this group ending her life all of a sudden. The remaining four housewives don’t have the faintest clue, as to what could prompt a perfectly happy woman to just end her life. Through the extremely stylish voiceover of the dead woman (!), the audience is introduced to each of the quirky inhabitants of Wisteria lane, an upper middleclass American neighborhood.

For those who came in late, here’s a short bio of each of the ‘desperados’ of the show.
=| Susan Myers (Teri Hatcher) is a softhearted, shy divorcee living with her teenaged daughter, who is still looking for that one perfect guy. In a coming of age manner, it’s her daughter who encourages her mom to get back to the dating scene.

=| Bree (Marcia Cross) is a terrible perfectionist who has made the life of her family a living hell, with her constant attention to details.

=| Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) is a former model who is caught in a loveless marriage with her husband, whose work has taken centre stage in his life. She has a casual, no frills relationship with a person who works for her husband and does not feel guilty about that at all. She is the hottest amongst all the ladies and the most stylish too.

=| Lynette Stavo (Felicity Huffman) was a successful business woman but had to give up her flourishing career when the kids came along. Her life has been reduced to a hapless condition because of her four hyperactive kids who are as mischievous as they can be.

The four women are unconsciously like a support group for each other. Their friend’s death makes them realize that she had a deep, dark secret that could have been the reason for her death. The suspense track is further enhanced in the weeks to come with both Mary Alice’s husband and son acting very suspiciously. In the ensuing episodes there has been further drama with a couple of accidents, arrests and new character developments of the seemingly innocuous people of Wisteria Lane.

The series has a lot of situations that shows human behavior with all its folly, superficiality and craziness. Like when a housewife poisons her husband knowingly/unknowingly when he wants a divorce from her. Another situation has a woman trying her best to invite her handsome neighbor for dinner but has a lot of issues doing that.

I have just seen a couple of episodes but I can safely say that the show just rocks. Most of new series that start, do take some time in getting a fan following but this drama is an exception to that rule. Many people including yours truly are addicted to the show and the progressive episodes have only gotten better. The show has all the ‘masala’ with weekly episodes on topics as diverse as dating issues, family problems, teen angst, obsessions, adultery-you get the drift.

Someone rightly said, “People are a lot like icebergs; there is so much more to them than what’s visible on the surface”. As the voiceover of the dead woman tells us, things are all around us; it’s just that we really need to ‘see’. So the big question is are you seeing the show, the world is talking about?