Battle of Sexes & Guzaarish

Finally I got to watch a performance by long time blogger friend – Nautankey. Earlier when he used to write about his shows at different places, I remember asking him about his plans to come to Bangalore. And so when his team decided to perform in Bangalore, I was definitely excited. Went to watch his play “Battle of Sexes” last Sunday and must say that my excitement was totally worth it. As the name suggests, it’s based on the differences between the two sexes from Venus & Mars. Loved the characters, theme and performance by all the actors of the show. Great work Naut & you were just too good as “Mo”. Keep it up & look forward to your next play in Bangalore soon :-)

This was definitely a good weekend as far as entertainment was concerned, the same weekend I also got to watch the movie Guzaarish. I don’t think I can find suitable adjectives to express my reaction about Hrithik’s performance in this movie. It was a wonderful movie, made very beautifully. As much as I hated Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya or Hrithik’s Kites, more and more I loved both of them for Guzaarish. A lively movie on a very disturbing topic, Guzaarish is the story of an accomplished magician Ethan Mascarenhas (Hrithik Roshan) who has become quadriplegic after an unfortunate accident. The movie revolves around the story of his life on a wheel chair, his relationship with his married nurse (Aishwarya Rai) and his decisions about the future course of his life. Though I found Aish’s get up in the movie bit overboard for a nurse kind of character but then overall she was good and Hrithik was just outstanding.!All other actors like Aditya Roy Kapoor, Suhel Seth, Nafisa Ali, Shernaz Patel or even a small appearance like that of Monikangana Dutta did an excellent job for their characters. It’s a must-must watch movie and don’t go by the critics ratings or negative reviews of the media. No idea on what basis they decide to give four stars to a crap like “All the Best” and two to an excellence like “Guzaarish”! Watch it and if you’re ok with bit of emotional heaviness, then I’m sure you will enjoy this movie.

Details:
Directed by: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Screenplay By: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Actors: Hrithik Roshan as Ethan Mascarenhas, Aishwarya Rai as Sofia D'Souza, Shernaz Patel as Devyani Dutta, Nafisa Ali as Isabel Mascarenhas, Aditya Roy Kapoor as Omar Siddique, Monikangana Dutta as Estella Francis, Suhel Seth as Dr. Nayak, Rajit Kapoor as Prosecutor Vipin Patel, Ash Chandler as Yasser Siddique, Vijay Crishna as Judge Rajhans, Makarand Deshpande as Neville D'Souza
Duration: Approx 2 hours

And did I mention, how much I am in love with the songs of Guzaarish esp. “Sau gram zindagi”… 'Der tak ubaali hai, cup mein daali hai, kadvi hai naseeb si, yeh coffee gaadhi kaali hai, sau gram zindagi ye, sambhaal ke kharchi hai'… must have listened to this song 50th time since morning and million times since I first heard it…love it, love it, just love it!

The Social Network: An enthralling movie

Watched “The Social Network” last night and LOVED it totally. No, no its not because of my addiction to Facebook :), this movie is actually a very well made movie. Engrossing from the start, entertaining throughout & enthralling till the end. Now what else can you expect from a movie?

As we all know the movie is an adaptation of Ben Mezrich's non-fiction book 'The Accidental Billionaires' and the story is all about the social networking giant Facebook. Even though all the reel names of characters are exactly similar to the real ones, there have been numerous reports on Zuckerberg denying the factual authenticity of the movie. Zuckerberg has called it a “work of fiction” and the portrayal of the negativity around the success of Facebook in this movie is not a matter of concern for him. So, I won’t go into the debate of how much fact vs. fiction this movie was. I evaluated this movie as a standalone plot for a movie and I must say that the movie is thrilling to the core. What an excellent execution and what a plot; one really can make a thriller out of a nerdy topic like tech product development! Clever dialogues, funny quips, smart story-telling and a very smart end. The movie beautifully portrays the journey of an intelligent developer who takes the path of entrepreneurship and on his way goes through different lessons of friendships, jealousy, insecurities, trust, mistrust & betrayal. There was a time in the movie when Eduardo confronts Mark after he comes to know the game played on him for his share in the company. That particular scene really left me thinking about the cost of success which at times few people have to pay to make it to the top. Kudos to the screenplay, direction, music and acting delivered by the whole team. A must watch for those who want to see an intelligent yet dramatic movie.

Do check out these links in case you’re interested to know the reel vs. real characters and the fact vs. fiction of the movie.

Team Info:
Directed by: David Fincher
Screenplay by: Aaron Sorkin
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg (Mark Zuckerberg), Andrew Garfield (Eduardo Saverin), Justin Timberlake (Sean Parker), Brenda Song (Christy Lee), Rooney Mara (Erica Albright), Armie Hammer (Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss), Max Minghella (Divya Narendra)
Duration: 121 mins

This year’s Diwali

This Diwali was indeed special for me; I got to celebrate it with my Mom after 16 years! Yup, after sixteen years to be precise. Earlier it was education & hostel life, then job & then marriage… Mom used to so rightly say it earlier – ek baar beti ghar se nikal gayi toh phir nikal hi gayi, shayad wapas nahi hi aa paogi tum (though this is true for sons also these days as most of them have to stay away from their parents because of job & career demands). She was so right, I stepped out of my home when I was a child only, had to go for residential school & hostel life because of lack of good schools in my area, add to that the nature of job of my parents. Since then never got the chance to go back and stay there. Staying at home meant going there for few days during vacations. Then job and married life further reduced my home trip duration from “few days” to “very few days”. Now staying there has just become a distant memory. With Kishu & Amitesh Bhaiya gone, in fact now I feel scared to go back to my own home only. The memories of both of them attached with that place haunt me more when I see those rooms, garden, study racks, aangan and everything else where we had spent our childhood together. Suddenly their absences from our lives seem more real & more painful. Last two festive seasons consecutively were spent in mourning, 2008 Amitesh Bhaiya left us & 2009 it was Kishu. So, this year when we all (me, my husband, my mom & my youngest brother) got to spend this festive season together at Bangalore, it was really-really a different feeling for us. One it was some festival before which nothing bad had happened and second we all were together. Festivals will never be the same and celebrations will never be complete without Kishu & Bhaiya but at least I’m happy that we got to spend this day together and that too peacefully and nicely. Thank God for little mercies in life! After all that has happened continuously for last so many years with us, I at times get scared to feel happy over nice moments too.

Hope you all had a great Diwali too, best wishes to all my readers for the upcoming festivals of this year. Will be back with more posts very soon :-)