shocked and hurt!

The city I know as home has today seen the worst possible terrorist attack. I’m sure like me several Bombay-ites are shocked and very very angry!!! This is a city where I’ve grown up but it’s turning into a place I no longer recognise with the nightmarish events that have unfolded in the last 2 days. There has been a battle raging for the last 2 days in a manner only heard of in war zones like Kashmir. The security forces have come to the rescue and done a brilliant job at returning the situation to normalcy. The city will be eternally grateful to them for their efforts. They are truly Mumbai’s Heroes. Mumbai salutes the brave men who laid down their lives for our safety.

The government on the other hand has much to answer for! Mumbai is the largest tax contributor to the Central Government’s corpus. But we don’t see that being used in either improvement of infrastructure or development or even security for the city!!!

 

Mumbai doesn’t want to be termed as resilient, strong and whatever other empty words!! We are hurt and fed up of such attacks and want justice and action. The way the relatives of the victims have been treated and given hardly any shreds of information leaves much to be desired for! Whatever crisis management system is there in India is only on paper. The sad state of affairs makes us feel so disgusted and a complete sense of loss of faith in the government system. The solution would be when the government would take our security seriously and citizens take more active involvement in the affairs of their city and surroundings.

a tale of friendship

I had the chance to watch the preview of Dostana on Thursday & may i say that i think it's one of the funnier films I've seen in a long while. I thought the gay comedy between SRK & Saif in Kal Ho Na Ho was corny but this one's a real rib tickling flick! After a long while, I've seen an out n out laugh out loud comedy. The film is typically what you would expect from Karan Johar's stable - candy floss, very good looking people living in even better looking surroundings, excellent production values, affluent protagonists with a near perfect life in a story which promises to be an entertainer and has it's heart in the right place. In this one the maker lives up to the spirit of a Miami background - pink Cadillacs, sun kissed beaches, posh sea facing condo with an indoor pool, great looking people with no major care in the world other than where to find love!!

The film kicks off with AB & John (who has really bared all in this film) strangers at first, vying for the same apartment and then the same woman! too much serendipity!! They pretend to be gay to get the first and are very funny at their attempt. Keep your logic, support for gay rights and disdain for stereotypes at home when watching this one; else u'll miss the point! The film doesn't seek to give a message, it seeks to purely entertain! As time goes by the 3 turn into good friends. The friendship sequences remind u of FRIENDS. It's largely not overt until it turns into corny mushy love ( 2 scenes where the 2 guys surprise Priyanka).

It's slapstick in parts and witty in others. The dialogues are crisp and funny and also read ur mind! For instance in the second half when AB & John try to brainwash Bobby's son, u will say in ur mind that that's really sick and the director recognises this through his protagonists who acknowledge that on screen. The first half is quick paced and keeps the funny bone tickled. The second is slower and predictable except for a few moments. For instance, when Priyanka feels that the 3 of them are vying for the same man is a good one. The climax lip lock doesn't work. The film has some good moments like all Dharma movies but I do wish the second half was tighter.

Performance wise I thought AB carries the film all the way through. He is bold and funny and delivers a no holds barred performance. Priyanka looks fantastic.....very chic and does full justice to her role. John looks super & is decent. Bobby is suave but underutilised.

All in all a good paisa vasool flick. Will make u laugh and leave u feelin good n humming the songs which by the way are fantastic!

Reader's block

Don't judge me by the first post......I'm just emerging out of a Reader's & Writer's Block so I will take a while to warm up to writing again....

A writer's block is more common and in my case followed my reader's but a Reader's block (RB) feels strange.... when you start realizing that going past even 10 pages of a book is a challenge.....ur mind just tunes off. I didn't realise that i had one until i came across this article on the web - http://www.bookslut.com/slutlessons/2003_07_000150.php

I owe my RB to the oveload of information that i was subjected to while doing my MBA. It was like being in a hurricane of data, I got hit by articles, assignments, book reading, presentations, papers, etc from all sides and in all forms - text -print, audio visual - TV, web, u name it! at such a fast speed that after a while you just went with the whirlwind and didn't even realise when your mind shut itself off to the bombarding.

Initially i was worried coz i've always enjoyed reading and thought i was losing it ........it's such a helpless feeling! But let me not bore with more details now....i guess everyone has their own experiences. I'm just glad i'm finally coming out of it :)