Friday, November 4, 2011

And life just slips away....

It must mean something
to pick up where you left,
hold the hands of the clock,
Freeze time to the very sec.

Precious moments pass by,
Without a reflective look;
Cares thrown to the wind
And trudge along in the crowd.

Who cares what happened to Sunita,
Or which damned varsity Tina stepped into,
If no one looks back to ask
Where you stand in life and hell!

It is very reassuring
To know you matter as much as dirt,
But still no one is around,
To even ask, kiss or yell.

RA.One – An Afterthought


For once, a palatable Bollywood sci-fi film. Ra.One has definitely raised the standards of Hindi films regarding special effects and graphics. Of course, this would not have been possible without SRK's production house aka his brand backing. However, the movie is fraught with lift-offs. From the Terminator to Spider-Man, from Enthiran to Iron Man. The list just goes on.

I guess I just wanted to see the film because I love the song – Chamak Challo. The song just caught on. From the moment the first beats fell on my ears, I just tuned to it like anything. Weird huh? I know, nevertheless I submitted to my whim and fancy.

The film starts with SRK on a bike, traversing the barren land of a video game. With his feminine strands flirting with the wind, 'Desi Girl' hanging in mid-air strapped to pillars, Sanjay Dutt puffing away away on his extra large cigar....everything seemed fine, tolerable till the terrific trio of femme fatale dropped from the sky. 'Yeh Lee, Voh Lee and Uska Lee'. That just did it.

I heaved a sigh of relief when the tormentous video game-playing-in-dream- sleeping-in-class sequence got over. Boy, it felt good to be back in real life without those awful 'punch lines' and forceful humour. But my relief was short lived as the Tamilian Shekar Subramaniam was no less. From aiming keys at boobs, to eating noodles with curd.....cmon......this is just not done. Agreed, it is a science fiction film and a lot of details are not acceptable, but slipping to Mr Bean's level to appear as a bumbling curly head. Never! And the abuse inspired wife did not fit. The couple, Sonia and Shekhar, are really too perfect to be true. The main focus of the movie may have been Ra.One and G.One, but it is essential to get a little realistic when it comes to the family. The only one who did a commendable job was Armaan Verma.

This complicated father-son relationship reminded me a little of a movie I had seen when I was a kid. 'Jingle all the way'. The name may not ring any bells, but Arnold Schwarzenegger's character who utlimately becomes a super hero to win his son's favour, was only too familiar to me. And the entire Terminator feel that throbbed throughout the movie was impossible to latch on to. Saving 'John Connor' aka Verma's character, with Sonia playing Sarah Connor's role....it was too much to bear.

And just when one thought that the video game Mr Subramaniam was designing was pretty cool and not so bad...they had to ADD THE HART! Why? These guys are no match for Iron Man....zilch...zero...none whatsoever.

Anyway, moving on, the fight scene was fair enough compared to other Bolly films but the ridiculous Hindi track during certain sections of the scene was such a killjoy. There was no consistency at all. The level of the slickness, music, tempo, pace of the film kept dipping up and down like the waves of sea in The Perfect Storm.

The movie would have certainly fared better with me if I had not seen the other Hollywood films first. RA.One is certainly a khichdi.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

To err is human

I am at fault. Entirely. I feel terrible for not updating the blog. For not giving a proper vent to my feelings, thoughts and emotions. However, I will try to rectify this. To the best of my ability. Amen.