Friday 24 August 2012

All Ye Who Enter...


             Yup, the title is coming from the line you would see on hell's gate 'Abandon Hope, all ye who enter here'. But Hell is not what I mean here. I was talking about all the people who enter in your life. They might stay or they may leave. The experiences may be happy or may be sad. But they all enter you life and help you learn or help you grow. I had heard of the phrase that people enter your life for a reason or a season or lifetime. I kinda feel that no matter what their length of stay is, they all enter for a reason.

              In one of the movies they say, whenever you fall do not forget the reason. Same holds true for the people in our lives. One of my male friends, who is a good guy actually, had a girl who liked him alot.But he always ignored the girl. Would not accept her calls for a reason as simple as watching a movie which could be paused. A few years later, he started liking another girl who treated him the same way. Now like any other guy, he could have just cussed about it but as I mentioned he was a Good guy. He realized how he had been on the other side before. He learnt his lesson. The girl in his life might have given him some pain but she did teach him a valuable thing. He would be a better man now.

              This also leads me into what we Hindus believe. We believe that there is no heaven or hell after we die. Both are faced in this planet earth itself, when we live. We believe in Karma and that Karma is a bitch ofcourse. For every good deed you do, Every good Karma, you get good in return. May not be from the same person but you do get good things back. Same holds true for all the wrongs we do. I love this concept. This is how God maintains a balance. This also means that all those people who enter our life and do good/bad is actually coz of the good/bad we did before. Someone who enters your life and treats you like shit is not actually his fault. He was there just to give you a lesson for your Karma. And his time will come later. May not from you but it will.

               One should therefore never blame the people. And should always remember the reason they came in your life. I know a friend of mine who was an under confident shy teenager till he fell in love. He had one of those epic love stories but in the end they had to quit. Not coz they fell out of love but coz of other reasons. Whenever he feels sad or feels like cussing the girl who left him, I remind him that the super cool awesome and confident guy that he is, is just cause the girl came in your life at the right time and made you what you are. And he agrees.

             I always had this notion and could also be said as conclusion from observation that girls in USA are so unlike Indian women.They do not want to compromise. The concept of sacrifice is rare. But just when I am in my final few weeks of journey in this country, I became good friends with a good looking blonde in my office. She is recently engaged to a guy who does not reside in US. He is away from USA in his home country from last 1.5 years and the girl still patiently waits and loves him. A country where PDA or physical intimacy is of paramount importance, such example gives you a new vision. It opened my eyes and mind. She probably entered my life so that when I leave, I do not leave with my established notion.

          Maybe it is time for us to think of those reasons and thank all the people we have in our life or were a part of our life. Good or bad, they help us grow. They help us learn. All I wanted from the post is to help you guys think...

Cheers!

Monday 13 August 2012

'Cocktail' - Movie Review and more..


        The big Bollywood fan that I am, I thought maybe its time to break the lull in the blog by writing a movie review. Just got the opportunity to watch the movie Cocktail'. Before I start let me assure the audience that I will not be revealing the plot of the movie any more than what is already evident by the trailer of the movie.

         Since we mentioned the trailer, let us start with the trailer.I like the tag line of the movie. ' Friendship is confusing and Love is complicated'. So true. This line alone should get a lot of young audience inside the theaters.The movie trailer also mentions it is from the makers of 'Love Aaj Kal' which is of course for Imtiaz Ali. So what makes the movie different from all the love triangle movies we have seen so far. The movie has to be little different as the Bollywood audience is so used to watching Love triangles right from ' Sangam' to 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' .We have a  few recent releases also as Love Triangles but I stuck to mentioning the mega Hits only.

          The first half of the movie as it always is in such movies, fun. It moves at a good pace with some comedy. The second half as always adds more drama. The best part of the movie is that you will not be sad or upset for any one single character. Yes, it is equally distributed. I felt sad for Meera ( Diana Penty) , then for Veronica ( Deepika Padukone) and then for Gautam ( Saif Ali Khan). Later I was waiting in the end if I would feel sad for myself too for watching the movie but fortunately I did not.

          The movie plot is not only comic and dramatic but also helps us connect with the characters. I felt for Veronica where she realizes that it is so important for us to change for Love. The whole he should accept me the way I am shit never works in real life. Once you love it is always best to go through some changes so that our Loved one feels less hurt. As far as Meera goes, the way she mentioned, she was the kind of girl the guy's mother would like. I so accept. I thought of taking my mom for the movie to show her that this is what I need my girl to be. And ofcourse I felt for Gautam, cause as always, it is always the guy who suffers most when he really gets serious about a girl. Women keep complaining about Men being dogs but the fact is as soon as we turn human, we are prone to being hurt and most of the times we do end up being hurt.

        As far as acting goes, Deepika and Saif both have acted to their potential and both to me seem to be maturing and improving every time I see them. But kudos for the newbie Diana Penty. Not only is she truly simply beautiful but her acting skills is way above average. Specially after looking at some model turn actress like Nargis Fakhri and company, my expectations from Diana were very low. But she has the potential to be a what we say as ' Lambi race ka Ghoda'. Dimple Kapadia and Boman Irani in their short roles have done justice to their capabilities.

        The Direction is good. The Music could have been better. There was only one song that I really liked.  The 'Tumhi ho bandhu..' song. I would have preferred better music and that would have helped the movie more specially cause the story is something the audience has been exposed to from last 40 odd years. The end is predictable but it still manages to keep you on your seat.

         I would definitely rate the movie a one time watch. And would be looking for more from Diana Penty. So enjoy the movie guys.

Cheers!