Shutter Island - Disturbing, Yet Gripping

The film is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lahane. It is a psychological thriller, directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead. Shutter Island is a place where dangerous criminals are sent for treatment which are led by Dr Cawley, played by Ben Kingsley. Two U.S. Marshall (DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) are sent here to search for a missing patient, Rachel Solando. While investigating, DiCaprio gets flashbacks of World War II in Dachau, where he was posted, and he starts relating those scenes to some of the incidents which are happening in Shutter Island. Some scenes are disturbing, like the pile of dead bodies, lying frozen during the World War II and a girl waking up from them, and telling DiCaprio that he could have saved them. The films locations are beautifully shot, especially the light house scene. Scorsese has brilliantly crafted the film, and the editing is awesome. DeCaprio delivers an awe-inspiring permormance; Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo perform equally good. It deserves a multiple viewing, not just to know the plot, but how the build-up takes place. I'd give it a 4/5.

Well Done Abba - A 'Well' Made Satire on Indian Politics

Shyam Benegal is known for his feel-good films. After Sajjanpur, he comes up with another rural India story, but a satire this time on the Indian Politics and corruption. This time its based in a small AP village of Chikatpally. Boman Irani plays Armaan Ali and Rahman Ali, who are twin brothers, but are totally unlike each other. Armaan Ali is a God-fearing honest chauffeur who works in Mumbai, whereas Rahman Ali keeps stealing and doing other unsocial things in the village, along with his wife Salma, played by Ila Arun. They both take care of the daughter of Armaan Ali - Muskaan (Minisha Lamba). Armaan returns to village to find a suitable groom for Muskaan, only to find that the water situation in village is really bad. So, he decides to make a 'Bawdi' (a well), so that it would help him suffice the needs of water and also irrigate his fields. But, only later does he come to know that it is not as simple as he had thought it to be. The corrupt government officials, the pending works - all sum up his agitation and he finally decides to give up. But, Muskaan, being educated, shows him a way to mend the government officials. The performances by each and every cast member is really good. Boman Irani in his Hyderabadi accent brought back some old memories of Mehmood, he was outstanding in both of his roles. Minishha Lamba was a surprise - after Yahaan and Shaurya, she comes up with an equally good performance in this one. Ila Arun, Sameer Dattani, Ravi Kishen and Sonali Kulkarni live up to their roles. If only the script was well paced and some of the scenes were not repetitive, it would have been more entertaining. That is the only difference between Sajjanpur and this one, the former was far more entertaining and had some really interesting characters, unlike few selected characters here. I'd still give it a 3.5/5 for the feel-good factor.

Paathshaala Music - Admirable Debut by Hanif Shaikh

After seeing the trailers of Paathshaala, I was pretty keen on getting the music as early as possible, as I really liked the track Aye Khuda from it. The album has 5 original tracks, 1 theme and 4 remixes. The music and lyrics are given by singer-turned-composer-cum-lyricist Hanif Shaikh. The last time I heard him was in the song 'Ye Dooriyan' from Fool n' Final, which I guess not many have heard. It was a dance number, which I pretty much liked. He comes up with a brilliant soundtrack this time as a composer. The soundtrack starts off with Aye Khuda sung by Salim Merchant. This song is a pleasant number, which you'll start liking from the first time onwards. But after hearing a few times, you might not like it that much. But its still a track worthy mentioning. Then, there is a peppy number by Vishal Dadlani, called Paathshaala (Khushnuma), which is again pretty decent; Vishal is pretty much capable of carrying out these kind of tracks. Then comes Bekarar by Lucky Ali, which again is a nice track, he sings it in high scale to perfection, just like his other tracks (Ahista Ahista from BAH and Khudahafiz from Yuva). The soundtrack then goes into romantic mood with a number by Tulsi Kumar, Akansha Lama and Hanif Shaikh himself. Its a pretty good track, with nice vocals by the female leads. For some reason, Hanif Shaikh sounds a little like Himesh to me in this track. But, the voice is still not as nasal as Himesh, so its still within the listening limits (at least for me). Then, comes my favorite track from album. Its another version of Aye Khuda, called Teri Marzi, sung by Kailash Kher. It has beautiful lyrics penned by the composer himself. They go something like this:

aye khuda teri marzi ke aage kya hoga,
hai pata tu jo chahe waisa sama hoga,
teri raza tu jo chahe tapti dhoop mein,
ay khuda khilta hua gulistaan hoga!
tune banayi raahein, tune banaayi manzil, 
hum le chale apna karwaan!


tehni tehni se dekhoon toota hai har patta, 
bikhra hua pada hai aaj ye gulistaan, 
jhilmilata yahan, muskuraata yahan, 
tha khushi se kabhi ye aashiyaan!


reh-bar ho tum hamare, phir kaisa diya farmaan, 
farishte bhi ruswa honge, dekh ke ye anjaam, 
ye na chahe koi, ab bata de tu hi, 
keh kar apna tu kyun banta anjaan!

Thanks to the vocals of Kailash Kher, the lyrics give a much deeper meaning to the track. Paathshaala Theme is pleasant and passable. Nothing extra-ordinary from the remix section, just plain up-beat and techno mixes.
Overall, Hanif Shaikh comes with a pleasant soundtrack and he's definitely a talent to watch out for, given his capability to pen down decent lyrics too. Another thing to notice is that - every track has a composer singing.

The Awesomest Driving Experience

 
This was a pretty random plan that we came up with, just within a period of 2-3 hours. We rented a Santro, which was in a really good condition (which rented cars are rarely in one). On Friday night, after coming back from watching LSD, we thought of going somewhere long, since the car didn't have any distance limit. We thought of Gokarna (which most of us had visited), Kemmangundi (Chikmaglore dist.) and Kodachadri (Shimoga dist.). After searching for all these places on net, and working on the feasibility of driving conditions, we selected Kemmangundi, since only one guy amongst us had been there. I'd been to Baba Budangiri Range, which is pretty close to Kemmangundi, but that was 2 years back with family relatives, and I badly wanted to drive to a place like this. Kodachadri was ruled out, because we didn't want to drive at night, and the best part about Kodachadri is night-trek and sun-rise. So, Kemmangundi it was then. Along with me were - Puppy, Preetam, Pranam and Basu. We found the shortest route to take, from college to Kemmangundi (with the help of Google Maps). It went through Moodbidri, Belthangady and Chikmagalore, along the Charmadi ghat. We left at around 6.30 in the morning, filled petrol and checked tyres on the way.

We stopped at Moodbidri for breakfast, and then continued our journey, taking turns to drive. Then started the Charmadi ghat, which was pretty fine on the lower HP (hair pin) bends, and they weren't really sharp HP curves, so even long buses could take turns over there, unlike the Agumbe Ghat which had pretty acute curves for long buses. We reached Chikmaglore at around 12 noon. Just while entering Chikmaglore, we saw a CCD, where we stopped and had a pretty sumptuous lunch. Just for the record - CCD actually has most of its estates in Chikmaglore and its headquarters is also located here. Hence, that makes it special to have in a CCD where its roots lie. Chikmaglore is actually home to India's best coffee. So, we chilled out in CCD for sometime, freshen ourselves up, and then left to Kemmangundi. At a T-junction, when enquired, we were told to take a left, since that was a shorter route compared to the straight route which also led to Kemmangundi.

Now, coming to the route. The route that we took was real bad, comparing even to Indian Standards. It was supposedly a State Highway, but it didn't look like one, in any manner. Although the road was bad, we never stopped enjoying on the way. We came up with random lyrics in some Tulu words, for some trance music, which Preetam was playing, since he was driving the car, and we were just irritating him. As we reached higher and higher, our ears started closing and opening (if that is how I should put), and the road condition also became worse. At one place where we were supposed to take a lower right which led to Kemmangundi, we took the upper right, since it was directed properly. This other route led us to Baba Budangiri Range (Dada Pahad/ Datta Peeta) and a waterfall called Manikyadhara. This road was very narrow, and was really freaky since the level was very high and there was no fencing on any of the sides. So it was just like driving on the Grand Canyon of NFS Carbon game (only difference being the condition of the road).

Since Manakyadhara was just 3 kms away, we thought we'll just stop over there for 10 minutes or so. Manikyadhara was nothing great, it is basically a pilgrimage place and the falls was just little water flowing from the top of a cliff. We took some photos over there and hurried there withing 15 mins.

From top, I drove back to Kemmangundi. On the way, we thought we might run out of fuel to go back till Chikmaglore, and since there were no other petrol pumps, we considered filling it there itself. When inquired, we were told one hotel keeps fuel. So we went over there, and he was selling it for 75 Rs/L. Since we had no other option we filled some 6L over there and carried on to Kemmangundi. The further road was even worse, it wasn't even a Pukka road, to make matters worse. To cover a distance of 25 kms, we took more than 2 hours. After reaching Kemmangundi, we asked about the jeeps which would take us to Hebbe Falls from there. It was at a distance of 11 km from there, but the road was totally messed! I haven't gone in a road more bumpier than this one. I mean there were huge rocks all over on the road, and the jeep was going on top of all of them. Plus, the condition of the jeep was pathetic, I wonder what it was holding up to. But, I'm pretty sure there was no other vehicle which would've gone there.


Finally, at around 6 pm just before sunset, we reached our destination. From there we had to trek for about 10-15 mins to reach to the waterfall. The waterfall was worth all the trouble that we went through. It falls in two stages - Dodda Hebbe (Big Falls) and Chikka Hebbe (Small Falls), totally from a height of 550 ft. The falls are properly isolated, and are surrounded by dense forests and coffee plantations, which makes them more beautiful. Since the time we went was pretty late, and it was already getting dark, the waterfall looked just like milk flowing, among the greenery. We just took a dip in freezing cold water, and since we had no time we couldn't go under falls, as it would be difficult for us to trek back after it would get dark. So we left when the left was just enough to take us till our jeep. The bumpy ride was back yet again, and thankfully the headlights of the jeep were working. Given the condition that it was in, we had serious doubts. We reached back Kemmangundi by 7.30 pm, and we reached we were shocked to see the whole place deserted. I mean the time when we left there was a shack and there were some jeep guys sitting over there; when we come back, we see only our car parked over there. After that, we paid the jeep guy and asked him the shortest route to Chikmaglore from there. He guided us to something which worked wonders for us. The route he told us was not just short, but it was good too. After a distance of 20 km, we joined the State Highway and smoothly reached Chikmaglore, with our safe driver Pupps, who drove all the way back at night.


After reaching Chikmaglore, we had our dinner at a decent restaurant, and inquired about a good place to stay there. After getting to know the accommodation rates, we had a discussion on whether to stay during night or drive back to college. We settled on staying back, since traveling on the ghats was a little risky. And given the fact that most of us were sleep-deprived for the past 2 or so days. We stayed at a place called Krishna Residency; the rooms were decent and we had a really good sleep, although the power kept coming and going. I came to know about the power cut only in the morning, that's how well I slept. Got up in the morning, had proper south-Indian breakfast at a decent restaurant and left to college. We took the same way back to college, by which we had come. Again all of us took turns in driving, and we reached college in around 4.5 hours from there.

This was, by far, the best road trip for me till date. I have got experience in driving Ghat sections now, and am more confident. It will, Inshaallah, serve me well in the future.

LSD - Dibakar Continues His Awesome Form

Dibakar Banerjee is known for making movies which are unconventional and yet, have pretty good content. But, with LSD, apart from being unconventional, he goes for something which has been rarely experimented in Bollywood. India's premiere digital film, which means its been shot completely in security cameras, hand-held cameras and hidden cams. The film has 3 stories, and as the title indicates - the first story deals with love, second with sex and last with dhokha. All the 3 stories are different in their own storyline, but the part which I loved was their connection with each other. Most of the cast is new, but the director has chosen them well. All the three stories were brilliantly handled, thanks to the cinematography. Among all the 3 stories, I loved the first one, which is titled 'Mehndi Laga Ke Rakhna'. I loved the female lead of this story, she is really pretty, and suited the role perfectly. The last story was pretty common, like the casting couch thing which generally goes on film industries. The second one dealt with MMS scandal and porn industry. Some scenes are disturbing, but the originality of the story and brilliant performances make up to it. Plus, these are some things which actually happen, so hats off to Dibakar for showing the truth behind the scandals. I'd give it a 3.5 stars.

Road To Sangam - A must-watch, at least for every Muslim

Finally, got time to catch up with this movie, had kept delaying it a lot. The movie basically deals with the last kept ashes of Gandhiji, which were forgotten and stored in a locker in Allahabad, and have to be thrown in the Sangam of River Ganga and Yamuna. Paresh Rawal plays the role of Hashmath, a mechanic, who has been assigned to repair a vintage Ford, in which the ashes are meant to be taken. The movie focuses on the internal issues amongst the Muslims, and it raises questions on their beliefs and faith. It portrays how Muslims, to some extent, even now support Pakistan in Cricket, Jinnah and many other similar matters. Paresh Rawal has done full justification to the character, he is been in great form this year, with powerful roles in Rann and Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?, apart from this. Om Puri plays the role of chief in the committee of Mosque. He just has few dialogues, otherwise there is nothing much in his role. Pavan Malhotra as the Maulana is also good and Jawed Shaikh as the doctor is also decent. There are some really good scenes in the film. I liked this one especially when Paresh Rawal goes to invite Om Puri for the visarjan, and points out the flaws of Jinnah, and why partition was made! Tushhar Gandhi, grandson of Gandhiji comes in a cameo in this at the darshan and visarjan scenes.If you get time, do catch up with this movie, although its a bit long, but its worth a watch. I'd give it 3.5/5.

Dear Shiv Sainik (an email I recieved)

I received this e-mail from a friend of mine. The original writer hasn't disclosed his name, but its brilliantly written and takes proper case of the Thackereys and the Shiv-Sainiks. Read it completely, believe me, you won't regret. Here it is:

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21st Feb 2010.

Dear Mr Shiv Sainik,

I trust you have read Rajdeep Sardesai’s open letter to Mr Uddhav Thakeray
doing the rounds on the internet. Frankly, for two reasons I won’t be
surprised if you haven’t. One, it is in English. And two, it is extremely
well-written and very thought–provoking. If you haven’t read it I suggest
you ask your children to translate it for you. Like the offspring of most
Shiv Sainiks I presume yours too are studying in the most elitist of convent
schools.

But first, let me introduce myself.

I am just a Stupid Common Man. Have you seen the film *‘A Wednesday’*? You
must, even though it is in Hindi. Nasiruddin Shah’s soliloquy at the end of
the film where he spits out his pent-up anger against the system and all
politicians will make your hair stand on end. He calls himself just a Stupid
Common Man. That’s what I am too, as are the faceless thousands and
thousands of us in this city. And like the Stupid Common Man, we are a very
angry lot today; angry at your silly and immature antics, and angry at the
city being held to ransom by your aging leader and his coterie of Yes Men.

I have tried to understand what your core values are, but I am stumped! Let
me spell out why.

Your agitation against Shah Rukh Khan, Rahul Gandhi, Mukesh Ambani and
Sachin Tendulkar turned out to be as riveting as a deflating balloon. Nobody
paid heed to your leader’s call, least of all we Bombay *manoos *who you
have turned into a kind of experimental guinea pigs in the political
laboratory. What kind of wishy-washy, spineless, sloppy fellows are you!
Sorry, Mr Shiv Sainik, the nation did not want an apology from SRK – far
from it. They just want good, edge-of-the-seat cricket. And the nation
showed what they think of your fading leader by making SRK’s film the
biggest grosser in Bollywood. What Rahul G gave you gentlemen was a
resounding slap-in-the-face by doing what your leader has never done – Rahul
mingled freely with the ordinary *manoos* in Bombay. Sachin endeared himself
to the whole country by proclaiming that he was an Indian first. As for
Mukesh Ambani, please await the next chapter.

Now let me tell you why we are an angry lot. Your creaky gramophone record
about Marathi pride being hurt has ceased to convince us any more. During
your current tenure at the BMC, 35 Marathi municipal schools were shut down.
Is this your idea of pride? Rahul Bose (I don’t think you gentlemen have
even heard of him) in a recent TV interview gave statistics to show that
Bombay has already lost out to Delhi in virtually every department of
administration. Forget Delhi, it is losing out to Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.
Is this your idea of pride?

And your flip-flop about allowing the Australians to play in Bombay has many
of us in splits. If you are against immigrants, surely you should be
supporting racism in Australia! And if you are protesting racism in Oz, does
it mean that you have had a change of heart about the North Indians? Is this
pride, or total Alzeimeric confusion? Yes, we are angry at your threats to
paralyse Bombay at the drop of a sparrow’s droppings. And, more important,
we are angry at your wanton destruction of public property. Your loss at
successive elections is enough proof of the adage *“You can fool some of the
people all the time, or all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool
all the people all of the time.”*

Now let me tell you why some countries are great and the others are not.
This will perhaps appeal to you, if you have progressed beyond high school.
You have probably heard of a country called USA – it is the most powerful
nation in the world today. It is so because of the way it allows the human
potential to flower and flourish. Leaders – in politics and in business - in
the US come from all parts of the world. If you ever were an avid newspaper
reader (real newspapers, not the Saamna variety) you will recall that there
was a man called Henry Kissinger. He was a German refugee from the
Holocaust, and he became Secretary of State. That Mrs Indira Gandhi gave him
a bloody nose during the ’71 war is another story. But let me give you an
example that you would probably relate to better. You surely have seen
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s films. He flexes his biceps and can put Salman K to
shame – iconic and breath-taking stuff for your stone-throwing, public
property-destroying foot-soldiers. He migrated from Austria about 40 years
ago determined to make it big in the US. Arnold is presently Governor of
California. And there are several Indians in Obama’s (he happens to be the
President of the US) administration, including a few Marathi *manoos* (No,
Please, Al Gore is NOT a Marathi *manoos*). And their contribution to
American society and economy is just enormous.

The point I am making is simply this: you can throw out the ‘outsiders’ only
at your economic peril. All along you have been talking only about job
reservations. Have you ever given a thought to job creation? Have you ever
wondered why very, very few Marathi *manoos *make it to the IFS, IAS, IRS
and the higher echelons of the armed forces? It’s now high time you gave a
thought to that, AND DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!

Now try to picture this. Bombay accounts for about 35% of the income tax
collections of the country. This you probably know. What you probably do not
know is that companies pay income tax in the city where their registered
offices are situated. Now just imagine - and please try to do so seriously
because we are not talking *kaanda bhajiya* but real big mega stuff – what
would happen if the big 3 suddenly decided to shift their registered offices
to Baroda, or Bangalore, or Delhi? Do you recall the downfall of Calcutta
when Charu Mazumdar and his naxalite thugs ran amok there? And the ruins of
Uganda when Big Boy Idi Amin threw out the Indians? In economic terms it’s
called flight of capital. The Tatas called Mamta didi’s bluff and shifted
the Nano project lock, stock and barrel to Gujarat. That left Bengal gasping
for breath. Mukesh Ambani is already talking of shifting his registered
office to Jamnagar . . . I leave the rest to your imagination.

And have you ever thought what would happen to Bombay if the film industry,
what Bombay is really synonymous with, decided to move to Noida?

Sorry for being harsh on you, dear Mr SS, but I am just a Stupid Common Man
letting off steam against your apathy, utter lack of vision and foresight,
and utter lack of concern for us.

Now let’s see what you gentlemen CAN do. You are controlling the BMC for the
moment. And I say for the moment because I see the Rahul G tsunami in the
distant horizon fast approaching Matoshree. SO IT’S TIME YOU DID SOMETHING
FOR BOMBAY! You have until 2012. Merely changing names of cities and roads
and monuments, and creating an identity crisis for everybody, will not help.
I’ve never heard you gentlemen talk of

· Urban planning

· eliminating corruption, especially in the BMC that you presently
control,

· giving us good roads and footpaths,

· parks and gardens,

· upgraded municipal hospitals and schools,

· uninterrupted water and electricity.

All that I’ve heard is the tinkling of shattered glass panes of the IBN
Lokmat office, cinema theatres and of *bhaiyya*-owned taxis, and attacks on
Kumar Ketkar.

And you gentlemen have woken up to the existence of Vidarbha only when they
started demanding a separate state. It just boils down to plain neglect; so
much for your oft-touted Marathi pride. This polemics has ensured your
survival, but it has not taken you very far. You are fast approaching a
dead-end. In fact, when the obituary of the Shiv Sena is written what will
be remembered will not be the flyovers you built, but:

· Bashing up south Indians

· Bashing up north Indians

· Digging up cricket pitches

· Damaging the only world cup trophy brought by Kapil’s Devils

· Enron-Dabhol scandal

· Michael Jackson fund-raiser and the funds that disappeared

· Miandad-Supremo camaraderie

· Flight of capital and business (Hope you read ET. There must be a
Marathi version)

But there is hope for you yet. *Start talking economics* and you may just
survive the Rahul Gandhi tsunami. But above all, please read Rajdeep’s mail.
If you survive you will have Rajdeep Sardesai to thank.

Yours angrily,

Stupid Common Man

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I just hope somehow, by some means, they get this letter, and get try to get some sense in their heads. By now, I am pretty sure Uddhav Thackerey would have read Rajdeep Sardesai's letter, by now. Let's hope they change, or try to at least, before it gets too late.