Sunday 13 February 2011

Yeh Saali Zindagi!

Nah...I havent seen this movie yet, but just love the sound of its title!! So could not resist using it as a title of this blog. Life is truly a strange thing. It takes you down, takes you up and shakes you all around...but thank God, one is soon back to normal and in one piece...well, mostly.

When we are down and out, we say 'this too shall pass' and when the going is good...do we say that ? nah! But this too shall pass one day. Life is full of ups and downs. However, most of what we see as everyday and routine is actually life in the up. Anything that is not normal is not happy. Abnormal sources of joy can only be murky, sordid or transitory. But imagine how many hours of one's life we waste chasing joy that is not normal or due to us? But how do you define normal? Highly relative and means different things to different people. We also have new normals which need adjusting.

One thing I have never discussed in this blog...is the impatience we develop with the people who really care for us. How many times do we brush off somebody's concern? How completely callous we become when people say a few caring words to us? Its strange, but I am guilty of it when it comes to my mother. She is constantly badgering me to eat well and take frequent check ups, which I never listen and follow and show my impatience in various ways. I have seen the same contempt magnified many times by other people who are supposed to matter to me when I express my concern...strange, but this is life.

I am now laid up....with mild numbness in half my back...the doctor says its a nerve injury. This has not affected my lifestyle, but I hope I get my sensations back. I cannot exercise because of this. I have a week long official visit to Bangalore. Look forward to meeting my sis and her family. But I will miss my smallie and my mum and my life back in Kolkata. Till then, ciao babes and dudes. I shall be back soon!

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Maximum city, with simplicity

I did two things on my return from the family vacation....get back into my fitness regimen..low oil, less carbs, crunches, squats and brisk walks..sometimes I am surprised at my amazing muscle memory. Second, I saw three good movies in a row. 'Band, Baaja, Baraat', supposedly a no-brainer but came out tops at the BO. Dilli da flavour took me back to my college days. 'Chippad, bhukkad, ainvayi, kya scene hai', all took me down memory lane and the despo Punju boys who used to follow us Delhi hosteller girls !! 'No One Killed Jessica' another Delhi-based movie was one of the best movies in recent times. Enjoyed Rani's gaalis, but give her 5/10 and Vidya gets full marks. This Tam Bram girl is something else. She takes restrained emoting to another level. Yaar is kudi mein baat hi kuch aur hai!

Now let me get to the film which the title of this blogpost talks about. 'Dhobi Ghat' a virgin offer from Kiran Rao's lenses, from Aamir's production house. The halls were empty. Janta mein shayad kuch jami nahin. Slices of four lives, strung together with a common thread in Mumbai. Simply told, in a bald, no-nonsense sort of a way. Raw at times, it punches you on the face! Each of the characters were very starkly portrayed. It had none of the masala which you would expect in a Mumbai movie...nor an overboard Danny Boyle style of portraying the filth and poverty of Mumbai's underbelly. This is where the crux of the blogpost lies....Kiran, spending substantial part of her childhood in Kolkata portrays Mumbai in a very Calcuttan-type of a way. I can relate to it..the pathos, the stoicism, the confusion and sarcasm...tinge it with hues I am so familiar with. Having been brought up in East India and with Calcutta as my home for the last 16 years, I know how it works. The devil is in the details, God is in small things.....No wonder the director found meaning in the bylanes haunted by a rat killer or the hook from the ceiling where the fan once hung...The movies ends cynically. Nothing changes in the lives of the protagonists. Its more a narrative, less a story. I would give the movie three stars.