Reflections of Passions

In India, everyone is ready to offer advice. Giving advice even when it is not required is something that comes naturally to most Indians. I was returning back from Guruvayur, Kerala on Sunday by train. Since I was travelling alone at the age of 16, one lady passenger offered me advice on how I should avoid travelling in Indian trains alone. Soon a man pitched in with his invaluable tips about how I should live my life. Their advice was focussed more on how my parents should have accompanied me, instead of encouraging me to travel alone and live freely. I was beginning to feel very uncomfortable. I knew what they meant but I was reading a very bulky book 'Shantaram'. Prior to leaving Kerala, I had set a target for myself that I would finish it before I reached Bombay. Unfortunately, I missed the target and just started reading Part Four of the book. I intend to see myself as a crime beat journalist and they were like, engineering would be better. I asked them if they were into ...

I am so tired, even after twenty four hours after landing in Mumbai. I was in Guruvayur, Kerala cut off completely from technology living life for a week like an ascetic. Now that I am back, I found myself in a strange position for a writer; I have nothing to write (writer's block). I finished writing my tour diary last week. I haven't started writing anything new (except a script for an RJ in All India Radio), so I have nothing else to do. I have spent the last one year studying non-stop, complaining about not having any free time to pursue my creative interests and suddenly, it is all over. I am free and at the same time, nervousness is building within me as I think of my results. Being a victim of academic attyachaar, I pray that I don't have to study Physics and Chemistry and don't have to wake up at 6:30 a.m. to go to school. I hate it. As it turns out, free time doesn't seem to agree with me. I need to be more occupied and need to be doing more stuff. So, I ha...

The story of Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Fashion' begins in Chandigarh when Meghna Mathur (Priyanka Chopra) decides to come to Mumbai for becoming a supermodel. She happens to the suave Abhijit Sarin (Arbaaz Khan), who gets her to the fashion industry in Mumbai. He favours her with plenty of praises and flirts with her, despite of being married to Avantika Sarin (Suchithra Pillai). He even makes her the showstopper for the gay designer Vinay Khosla (Harsh Chhaya). In a few scene, we end up meeting the psychotic Kangana Ranaut as the falling model Sonali Gujral who tells Meghna that there'll be no one to pick her up when she falls. Kangana deserves a special mention for her confidence specially while enacting the scene of the infamous Carol Gracias wardrobe malfunction. Due to the falling nature of Sonali and the complaints, Meghna replaces Sonali as the new face of PANACHE, a company owned by Abhijit Sarin. The parallel lead role of top model Janet Stevens (Mugdha Godse) blend...

The Hindi word, "Aandhi" has always enamoured me. The mania for the word is the same, as it was two years ago for "Manthan". In hindsight, both the words have two distinct meanings but in a way, both are Hindi words and are films. Both the films are coming-of-age movies, although they were nearly thirty years ago. The film "Aandhi" is a fine example of an Indian woman who is career-driven and tries to balance her professional political life and personal life. Suchithra Sen, as the political leader, Aarti Devi, does full justice to the part assigned to her. It is undoubtedly one of the best milestone performances in Hindi Cinema. Despite the heavy Bengali intonation in her voice, she manages to deliver her dialogues convincingly. Katrina Kaif certainly needs to take a few lessons from Suchithraji before playing Sonia Gandhi. Looking at the finer points of the movie, the movie draws parallels to the life of Tarakeshwari Sinha and partially, Indira Gandhi. Sa...

My first crush was on Ms. Sushmita Sen in Biwi No. 1. Do you think it is disgusting and absurd? I admit it is a bit. She still remains my first crush though never mind her age. But then, I didn't see too many movies when I was a kid growing up in the 1990s. So she was the first one whom I saw. I must have been about seven, but I watched the movie with my mother, so I guess my crush wasn't really age-appropriate. I like her looks, her tall height and most importantly, her acting mainly because she doesn't look plastic on screen. I still fantasize about being her husband and fathering her daughter. My second crush was on Smita Patil--the face of the parallel cinema movement in which I am a firm believer of. Although she isn't alive today, I guess I've carried on the liking the same kind of sari-clad girls all my life. It must have set-off some kind of weird pattern I may still be unaware of. I am known to have the most weird choices that keep alternating every second ...

In my childhood, it was almost a cliche listening to the fact that I must have been a motorman in my last birth. Hopefully, that explains my childhood obsession for trains. I don't remember how many evenings I must have spent seeing each train and waving goodbye to every motorman in the rear compartment of a local train. The long metal caterpillars with their crown like pantographs and their fluorescent lights, the grinding noise of the wheels--all appealed to me so much that it continued all through the 1990s and today, the thought seems so stupid waiting at the railway stations to see trains passing by. I remember making the diagrams of trains with soap boxes, drawing them with pencils and I have even played with them in the form of toys. In my childhood, there were only two things that I was really obsessed about: double decker buses that used to operate in and around Chembur back then in the 1990s and trains. On a particular Sunday in the late. 1990s, I got my ultimate thrill b...

The films made in Iran are magnificient. These films are made by exceptionally talented filmmakers with each story, the editing, the cinematography tell so much about the lifestyles of people living in Iran. Recently, I had the opportunity to watch two back-to-back Iranian films on UTV World Movies. These films largely stand out because of their artistic superiority yet commercial viability. Razieh wants a fat goldfish for the Iranian New Year celebrations instead of the skinny ones in her family's pond at home, because the fat fish looks like it's dancing when it swims. After several attempts, she and her brother convince their mother to give them her last bit of money. Between their home and the fish store, Razieh loses the money. She finds it, but it is temptingly just out of her reach. The money has fallen through the grate of the entrance to a store which has been closed for the New Year celebration. Razeih and her brother make several attempts to retrieve the money and re...