Hope

Simple Scribble # 12

Sau baatein karta ye buddhu sa mann hai :)

With this review, I hope to reverse the sequence reviews usually follow. So, here is my verdict about easily the best, most sensible, most beautifully put together family drama in recent times- it is a mast must watch. (four stars, okay?)

‘Kapoor and Sons’ impressed me, and no, it wasn’t solely because of a cute-and- droolworthy-as-ever Fawad Khan or an equally adorable Siddharth Malhotra. The movie made me laugh (a lot, lot, lot) and cry (just a little, but oh, it was for real!)

So, here is the movie summed up for you. You can read if you haven’t watched it yet, (no spoilers, I promise) so I can motivate you to spend your hard earned money without any regrets! J

And if you have watched it already, congratulations on a wise decision :P

1.      The plot

An atypical (or is it?) Indian family is brought together by the news of dear granddad’s heart attack. You have a father struggling to overcome financial concerns, a mother fed up of all the drama and two warring/loving brothers, Rahul and Arjun, in Fawad and Siddharth, respectively.  ( A Karan-Arjun equation, by all means, but the trailer told you so!) There is the extended family with chachu and chachi and two sweet sisters, too.

And yes, the quintessential pet dog completes the ‘happy’ family!

So when they all assemble under one roof in Coonoor, you have to expect more than just colourful fireworks. Explosions, perhaps?

2.      The characters

A granddad who practices dying and makes funny faces while calling the nurse names from his hospital bed; who watches porn and takes selfies using his iPad; who brings the family together and as a death wish, orders the whole bunch to pose for that perfect family portrait bearing the caption ‘Kapoor and Sons, since 1921.’

A father who provides, but has a lot to hide.

A mother who thinks, over thinks, reacts and over reacts; who makes mistakes, but who tries to hold the family together and breaks when it breaks apart.

Rahul, the elder brother, the perfect baccha, the successful novelist who hopes to replicate the impact of his previous master stroke. However, he isn’t the only one crafting stories. And his life story is a well kept secret.

Arjun, the younger brother, who tries to find himself, running away from his loved ones only to realize they are all he has, at the end. Tia, the love of his life, the effervescent sweetheart who is everyone’s sunshine despite battling her internal storms.

Watch the movie for the layers and nuances that the characters are enriched with. The world was never black and white. Grey is a common colour that runs through us all.

3.      The actors

Rajat Kapoor is a natural in the role of the exasperated father, while Ratna Pathak Shah dons the mother’s place perfectly. Rishi Kapoor keeps you entertained throughout with his antics as the silly, jovial grandpa and his comic timing is perfect, though a little crass at times! :P

Alia is her delightful pretty self. The girl next door thing suits her well, though I am getting a little bored of her doing similar roles. And the fact that she can muster up a Highway makes me expect a lot more.

Siddharth is charming. And you do end up feeling sorry for him while he is trying to make stuff work. A good performance. Aaaaannnnnd, the less I say about Fawad, the more you will enjoy the movie. We could very well be heading for a fifth super Khan in Bollywood- the guy steals the show even in a multi starrer. And I may be biased, but for me, he was the best thing about the 2.5 hours I spent in the cinema hall.   

4.      The music

The inimitable blend of catchy, peppy, upbeat, and soul stirring.  While Chull has already achieved cult status and a dedicated fan following, the  foot tapping Buddhu sa Mann won me over with its festive picturisation and cheerful vibe. Bolna can be heard in the backdrop of Arjun and Tia’s romance, but I would have preferred a more prominent place for the song. Towards the end, Saathi Rey gives you the feels and it is one of the tracks that grow on you, slowly and steadily.

5.      The setting

Beautiful cinematography with the locales of Coonoor displayed at their most brilliant.

6.      Best scene

The family breaks into a fight at a time when the plumber is at his wit’s end, fixing a leak and listening to their raised voices, and shattering glasses. Once he’s done and asked to quote his charges, he replies, “Ab is bure samay mein jo  sahi lage, de dijiye.”

And, at the very beginning of this fight (there are lots in the movie) Siddharth exclaims, “Kya baat hai, aaj sab mere bina hi shuru ho gaye?”

Epic dialogue delivery :P

7.      The impact

Do we ever know our families? Do we care enough to know about their jobs, their passion, their struggles, their loneliness, their wishes, their dreams, their hopes? Or are we so busy crafting a charade of perfection that we are swept away by the currents of our own deceptions?

The movie teaches you to never take your loved ones for granted, no matter what flaws they might suffer from. Because, in the end, as they always say, love conquers all.

Done reading? Now go, go, go, watch it J

Longing

Fractions crave completion.

There is something about a 0.99 that implicitly longs for another 0.01 to make it whole.

Reciprocals crave reciprocals.

The universe craves unity.

Heavy, drooping eyelids crave sleep.

There is something about tiredness that longs for rest and quiet.

Each malady longs for its cure.

Entrapment craves freedom.

There is something about a butterfly struggling to break away from the death grip of a mischievous child.

Restraint longs for liberation.

Night skies crave constellations.

There is something about the needle-points of light from millions of years ago which still shows lost humans the way.

The lost long for direction.

You are my fitting reciprocal, my last 0.01.

You are dreamless sleep, my inimitable peace.

You are the Pole Star, helping me find my way at a tumultuous, treacherous sea.

In my aloneness, I long for you.

I crave you the way craving craves to be craved.

Trust Issues

I grew up with a stereotypical dose of measured warnings not to be friendly with strangers and not to place my faith in anybody unless and until I was well acquainted with them. Leading a sheltered, protected life till date, I have often wondered why the world does not deserve my unquestioning acceptance, my total trust.

I have often wondered why, when we meet someone new, the instinct is to fence ourselves and erect a wall of opposition rather than pour out love and honesty into our cursory, pretentious handshakes.

I used to think that people are scared of people, of letting them in, of opening up, of confessing things to them and broadly, of having to deal with pain later on in life. I was wrong. An absence of trust does not come from fearing others. It stems from fearing our own selves.

The world, basically, hinges on trust. 

You show up at school. The territory is strange and frightening. A grown up lady smiles and offers her hand. You have no option but to take it, so you do. For all the years you learn to count and spell, she ensures you develop to the best of your potential. She does this for you, not just for herself. Today, you make a point to thank her, every Teachers’ Day.

You apply for jobs; blurt out details after details about yourself, your passion, your ideas and your dreams before hostile interviewers. You get tired. Then, one day, you get placed. When you are promoted, your recruiter throws you a party. You learn every friend was once a stranger.

You see a first timer trying to figure out an escalator. You extend your hand; they clasp it firmly without second thoughts. They are aboard. You rise up together, and they leave with a grateful smile.

You board an auto-rickshaw, knowing nothing of the driver’s past, present or future. You speak out the unfamiliar address you have to reach.  He turns the meter down and off you go, trusting him to deliver you safely to your destination. You arrive, hand over the money and sometimes, bother to say thanks.

You ask the solitary jogger on the street for directions to a friend’s house you haven’t visited in a long time. He points you to the house, simplifying the route so you don’t get lost in the darkness of the dawn. You are glad he was passing by.  

You call up the ambulance and have no idea who picks up the phone. Within minutes, the siren is blazing at your doorstep. The doctors at the hospital manage to defeat the heart attack that almost killed your dad. They tell you timely action can save lives in most cases. You breathe a long held sigh of relief.

You make a pen-pal who lives 6000 kilometers away. You picture her going about her daily life as you bitch to her about your boss. You invite her to your wedding. You don’t really expect her to come. She shows up beforehand, to help you get prepared.

The world hinges on trust.

Yes, there are people who will abuse your faith only to bring you down and make selfish gains. Yes, there are people who will be sugarcoated pills. Yes, there will be people who can be dangerous to get close to.

Nonetheless, distrust can close windows which are actually letting light in.

That said, I am not asking you to blindly make the best of friends with strangers. I am only advising not to keep yourself locked in and label others before getting to know them.

Kindness is an inherent human virtue. Nobody is cruel by birth. Infants smile at you when you smile at them. Grown-ups aren’t that different. And, each person on the planet has their demons plaguing them, knocking the daylights out of them, plunging them into whirlpools of sorrow and despair.

So, be gentle, instead of being accusatory. Try to look a little further than the exterior and appreciate the circumstances people come from. And, most importantly, stop fearing yourself, so that you can have the courage to keep your trust in humanity, when you meet someone new… the way you already do.  J

Sab Tamasha Hai! :) - Movie Review

Okay, okay! Accepted I am pretty late to be doing a review on Tamasha when the film has already spent more than one and half weeks at the box office and at the multiplex near you. And agreed, most of you would have watched it by now and reviewed it for your friends and family members who would also have watched it, some probably twice.

But, I am still going to do this review because this is what I am writing in a long time and Tamasha was my after-exams treat. My exams just got over on the 7^th, in case you were wondering, so, yes, I am late.

But, in case you haven’t been lucky enough to catch a screening, please feel free to take (or shun) my advice J as I bring to you reasons why you should absolutely go and watch this flick, just once!

Warning: Spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk! :P

1.      Ranbir and Deepika, together!

Bollywood hasn’t given us more crackling chemistry in recent times. If you are one of those who still mourn their break-up and hang your heads low every time you read about Ranbir and Katrina’s impending wedding, this movie is a treat for you! Admitted, they fall short of the magic they revved up with YJHD, but watching these two love, laugh, dance and cry on screen is a beautiful experience! :)

2.      Corsica

The sheer superior cinematography will blow your mind, as it did mine, and what happened in Corsica, didn’t (un)fortunately stay in Corsica. I carried the visuals all the way from the movie hall, imprinted on my mind. The sunsets, the seas, the sand, the streets, the cobbled pathways, the mountain roads and the French in all their elegant glory…the term picturesque acquires a new definition in the movie :)

3.      Simla and the bachpan in the hills

The queen of hills is a character to reckon with in itself. The grand old church, the magnificent mountains, the seemingly royal house where the protagonist spends his childhood, the complex, twisted family ties, an old storyteller and a gift of imagination…all blend in to give the melodramatic recipe the pinch of spice it needs! You almost feel like hugging the little boy who loves to weave stories of his own, and keeps questioning the old storyteller as to why we get the same old story every time! Cuteness quotient: one hundred per cent!

4.      The storytelling

Scenes from the life of Krishna, the Ramayana, Romeo and Juliet, Heer-Ranjha, Laila-Majnu,and countless old legends of cult status keep flashing in the middle of the main story, and keep the narrative flowing even when the pace of the main story falters a bit. Yes, there could have been sharper and crisper edits, but the constant switch between who one is and who one wishes to be, would perhaps have been lost, then!

5.      The storyteller- Imtiaz Ali

You cannot help but compare this movie to his past ventures, especially Rockstar. I came out with the feeling that all his films, including even Jab We Met, have that common theme of trying to find one’s true self and remain true to that self. It makes me more curious about the man himself, and perhaps, there are bits and pieces from his own life, reflected in the story!

6.      The story-identity crisis

Who is Ved? Is he Don? Who is Don? And how can someone be two people in one, at the same time? Do we ever figure out if we are the Rama of our story or the Ravana? Do we know if we are capable of love or only of hatred? Do we know we are someone else on the outside, and a whole different world on the inside? Do we ever get to know? 

7.      The angst (and the humour)

Sexual innuendo abounds. Apart from that, there is situational humour in some of the scenes, but it fails to impress, though you might end up laughing hard at some silly dialoguebaazi! The angst is another matter, altogether. If you like to have stuff to think about, watch the movie well and re-read point 6.

8.      The music

The best part of the movie, for me, was the song ‘Tum Saath Ho.’ I have always been the kind to love senti-songs in the middle of a senti-sequence, and ten on ten to Tamasha for achieving the brilliant placement of the song, and not just this one. ‘Safarnama’ and ‘Tu koi aur hai’ ring a bell, too J

For those who love flashy, dancing numbers, ‘Matargashti’ is the perfect number with the perfect locale, and perfect moves!

9.      The end

We know there has to be a happy ending! And that is also the correct ending! You can’t help but smile, when Don returns, and once upon a time turns to a happily ever after.  :)

Yes, it may still be the same old story, like every time, but, it made me smile J

And, I couldn’t ask for more. A word of caution, though! Don’t expect a YJHD and you might come home with a feel-good feeling! :)

Not a five-star worthy one, but three doesn’t seem too bad either ;)

Happy watching! Do let me know if you liked the movie!