Sarkar Raj

I’ve been holding myself back from writing about the movie. I want you to go and see it before you get clouded with my opinion. But what the hell, here goes nothing…

Sarkar Raj follows in the footsteps of a well directed film – Sarkar. When Sarkar came out, I exclaimed in glee to all who would listen that Abhishek Bachchan had finally stolen the show from his father. Alas, he couldn’t keep at it. The movie is not as bad as Ram Gopal Verma’s attempt at remaking Sholay (A movie titled Aag which literally went up in flames like it was named). But that doesn’t say much. So in my attempt to give my analysis without spoiling the movie for you (not that they need my help on that), I will divide my thoughts into what I did not like and what I did.

The background score is obviously second grade when you compare it to the former. The main track ‘Govinda’ is the only bit that works. The rest (including the one odd song) could just as well be left out. The performances are bland. The crux of Sarkar’s success was that there were hardly any dialogues. The ones that were there, made an impact. All else was done with expressions. The sequel shies to follow suit. All the actors are given unnecessary dialogues including a 10 minute scene where Amitabh Bachchan literally seems to be tutoring Aishwarya on the political game that has been played. Give the audience some credit Ramu – we can figure things out!

The most disappointing thing about the movie is the direction. You have a terrific story, great actors and what do you do with it? Waste it completely. The scenes are hardly ever riveting and the play of shadows often seems unnecessary. In my opinion, time for Ram Gopal Verma to retire…seriously!

The saving grace is the story. I believe that if it would have been written in the form of a book and sold, it would have made millions. It’s the kind of story that one can get completely engaged in with ample twists to pique the interest. Alas, the movie failed to capture the same.

So go and watch the movie – after all, everyone should have their opinion. But don’t say later that I didn’t warn you…

The legacy of a great man....or two...

I’m sitting in a train, looking out my window as the lush landscape of Punjab (the agricultural state of India and home to my ancestors) rolls by. They’re great, train journeys. In my fast paced life with flights up and down the same day, I had forgotten the good old charm of sitting in a train and doing absolutely nothing.

The cacophony of people’s chatter fills my ears. There is an extended group playing Tambola (a game played in India where you have to tick off numbers on your ticket and win prizes). Another group chats away like there is no tomorrow. The pantry boy walks by giving us soup and bread to start with. And I have the urge to write. If Rowling’s genius found its form in a train, should I miss the opportunity?

I’m reading this book – Dare to dream, A life of M.S.Oberoi by Bachi J. Kakaria. Not usually taken by biographies, this one has caught my fancy like few books do. Written in story-telling form, it’s a riveting story of how a village boy left his village in what now is Pakistan and made his way to become one of the richest and greatest hoteliers of the country if not the world. As I read more and more, my admiration for his guts increases. All was not pure and innocent. He made his crooked deals, courted many a women and had enough faults. But for a man to single handedly do what he did and sit in his farm, 91 years old and tell the tale, it is indeed commendable.

The story also takes me back to my ancestors. My maternal grand father whom we fondly remember as ‘Daarji’ followed a similar but modest path. Born in Shahid Village in Punjab, he would walk kilometers altogether to go to school in the next town. Such was his determination to get out of the village and make a life for his family, that he went on to study engineering in Roorkie (now called IIT Roorkie) – one of the premium institutions in the country and served as a high official with the engineering department that built dams. He was even associated with the famed Bhakra Nangal Dam. He and my grand mother had 7 children, 4 sons and 3 daughters. He passed away one night at a very early age, I think my mother was not even 8 leaving my grand mother to raise 7 children all by herself. And she did – but that’s another blog, would not do her justice to force fit her into this one.

Oberoi may have left behind a legacy…and a chain of hotels. My grand father left a legacy in his own way. Of his children, 3 would eventually go and settle abroad. The eldest ran a successful factory generating employment for many. Another son joined the army. All married into well educated families and blossomed into a big, warm and successful group.

I wonder how he would feel if he saw us today. Me tapping away on my laptop, my brothers driving to work in a BMW, a sister buying houses left right and centre in Canada, another sister roaming the world in style. I never knew the man, but I feel proud to be his grand-daughter. We are his legacy and he is why we are where we are today…

And we're back....

.
And I missed you too…..I’m back and I promise to write everyday…or almost everyday :)!! Well, the book is done and I’m quite proud of myself. I have had 2 great realizations in these 2 weeks:

1)Firstly, I LOVE to write…. It’s probably the one thing I can do even when I am old and withered in my bed. So, I need to find a way to make it lucrative enough to do it full time.
2)Secondly, I grudgingly admit that the Husband is way better in photography than I am. I would fight like mad when he said that and have taken some decent shots of him on our travels like the ones below but he is way better.

So, should we throw caution to the winds and start publishing books where I write and he does the photography as we travel the world?? Hmmm…perhaps not just yet. I tried doing that a while back and went quite broke in the process!! But an aspiration to hold on to don’t you think???

Some of The Husband's work...






And some of mine (not too far behind):

A short break...

I know I know….I’m lagging behind in my blogging and all you millions (!!) of readers are getting impatient. You will have to forgive me, my friends. One of the most exciting developments of my life have been responsible for this behavior. I have been contracted to write a guide book for expats living in or moving to Noida. My ambition in life, as some of you know, is to write for a living and specifically write on food, travel and lifestyle. Which brings this right up my alley. So chasing a crazy deadline of submitting this in 10 days, all my writing energies are currently being channeled there. I promise not to disappoint you and come back soon. Do not go away…

PS – You too can help actually. I need to interview a few expats (foreign nationals who have moved here on work) living in Noida. If you do know anyone, please let me know urgently. Thanks…

Ambition Quotient ??

There is a very interesting article I read in the Smithsonian Magazine about New Yorkers

Article - http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/mytown-newyork.html?c=y&page=1


This is how it starts:

"In my experience, many people believe that New Yorkers are smarter than other Americans, and this may actually be true. The majority of people who live in New York City were not born here. Indeed, more than a third were not born in the United States. New Yorkers, then, are people who left another place and came here, looking for something, which suggests that the population is preselected for higher energy and ambition..."


Though a very interesting read and a very entertaining viewpoint, I found one major flaw in this. The author supposes a direct correlation between intellegence and ambition. Which ofcourse brings me into the picture with all my swords drawn out. Intellegence in my opinion (and I am sure it has its basis in my study of psychology) is not correlated with ambition. This is also because ambition is a very subjective field whereas intellegence is objective. My intellegence can easily be measured (IQ) and compared with the likes of Einstein. On the other hand, my ambition is poles apart from that of The Husband. His ambition might be to be the youngest CEO in the media industry while mine is to have a content life with 2 children, a dog running in the garden in the backyard of a townhouse and writing for a couple of hours in the day. Now, who gets the task of measuring our ambition?

Of dates and celebration..

.
One and a half years…18 months…550 odd days….13,200 hours….7,92,000 minutes etc. etc. (I’m sure you get the drift of it). It’s been that long that I have stepped into this new world of married life. When the husband and I FINALLY decided that we’re not getting any younger (or richer) by staying single, we decided to tie the knot. Don’t get me wrong, its not that I’ve been counting every minute of it. Neither am I that obsessive nor has it been that trying a time!! But as I confessed before, I’m a sucker for celebration and what better excuse than a one and a half year anniversary!



The husband ofcourse is completely baffled at my excitement everytime one of these days pop up (ok ok I’ve stopped celebrating monthly anniversaries at least….and those of my engagement…and when we started dating …blah blah). The yearly one itself puts enough pressure on him to plan a day surpassing all others, so he can quite do without these silly ones!

My logic is simple (somehow my logic is always simple to me). In our daily mundane lives, if 1 day a month (or even in a week) gives us an opportunity to celebrate and do something to make each other happy, why not? I mean, what do we lose?

So am not sure if we will end up doing anything tomorrow to mark the occasion. Office hours and traffic can be quite a dampener. But anyhow, let me just be happy at the prospect of it for the time being…..cheers to us!!!

The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian

I am not going to pretend that I am an authority on the series. Harry Potter- yes….Enid Blyton- perhaps but Narnia – not really! So much so that I haven’t even seen the first movie – The lion, the witch and the wardrobe or more importantly, read any of the books written half a century back. And I feel like kicking myself for the same!

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series written by C.S.Lewis between 1949 and 1954. The first and second have been made into movies already by Walt Disney. The stories revolve around 4 children who magically get transported to a land called Narnia to help Aslan (a lion) fix some wrong-doing. Narnia is a land where animals talk and magic is a way of life.

This movie, the second in the series is about the children and Narnians trying to get back the kingdom to Prince Caspian from the hands of his very evil uncle.

It doesn’t take much to understand why I would have fallen for the movie as soon as I saw it. Mention anything to do with magic and I am your fan for life! But then, its not just that. Prince Caspian, the movie, has taken a great story and presented it in a way that is visually riveting. The locales are breathtaking, the costumes very pretty and each character has been given a certain attitude that is different from the others. Peter is the one who likes to be the undisputed leader and likes to do things alone. The centaurs (which remind me so much of Potter) are full of dignity and honour. Even the little mouse who refuses to be called cute enacts a certain role – one that somehow reminds me of puss in boots in Shrek.

I would recommend this movie to all age groups. It is not a children’s animation flick in my opinion. Ofcourse, the husband tends to disagree and thought it was just ok. But, I reminded him, if the animals were replaced with ugly looking men (a la 300), he would have been much happier!

Rating – 3.5 out of 5