DEV.D, a much awaited movie... got to see it last night... it was really amazing.... liked the much famed trippy shots that Anurag had used (thanks to Danny Boyle)... the disclaimer (I want to call it disclaimer rather than front credits...as it warns us this is not the classic adapted for cinema) says that it is loosely inspired by the book devdas by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay...
However, No smoking had kind od raised the bar for me and I was waiting to be blown away...which didnt happen...although Abhay Deol did get blown away quite a few times in the movie!
It is not a movie which one can go expecting to be entertained, but it is a movie which raises questions and self doubt, a hallmark of all Anurag Kashyap films. The music was great, even the background score --- it was apt for the situation and not for a moment did it feel out of place or unnecessary... the acting was superb by all three... Abhay Deol shone and has left all other actors fighting for the King status long behind...
The story was interpreted in the modern day setting...with all the highs and lows that come with binging, drugs and sex. The characters were very real and the dialogues very apt for the story line. However, I am not very amused by the audience which came to the theatre to be titialated....it shows that even though Devdas as a character had adapted to the modern scenario, the audience still needs to grow up.
Well, I want to write more, but I have a shoot to finish (was writing this review inbetween costume changes) and besides I am too tired... havent slept in the last 48 hours...
... will continue in the next break ....hopefully
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
To the Revolution
Here's a poem that a very good friend and writer wrote, on India's 57th Republic Day, on 26th January 2006, trying to capture and criticize the new world order of terror and war; a scenario our generation was hitherto unaware of...
I think 3 years down the line, this poem is even more relevant today ... Thanks Varun for letting me use it...
Hey…did you kill me…
in the name of the revolution?
Did you tell me,
The name of the revolution..?
I was a boy, growing up easy,
It was a world, simple and rosy…
"Rosy?", you said, "rosy my foot,"
"Nothing's rosy anymore, life's a brute
"Yeah, life's a brute, 'cos I was dead,
in the name of the revolution.
But….did you tell me,
The name of the revolution..?
And did you tell them,
I am a martyr…?
Did you tell them,
What's a martyr?
Did you tell them,
How I am one?
Did you tell them,
Their own son….…
picked up the gun, and killed two,
In the name of the revolution..?
And did they ask,
The name of the revolution?
To heaven, I would go…
I heard it once,
Yeah, I could hear,
Amid the firing guns,
That heaven is for those,
Who have the gun,
(And a 'resolution')
Then why did I feel,
Five bullets inside my head,
'To hell with the revolution?'
And please, What's the name of the revolution?
I think 3 years down the line, this poem is even more relevant today ... Thanks Varun for letting me use it...
Hey…did you kill me…
in the name of the revolution?
Did you tell me,
The name of the revolution..?
I was a boy, growing up easy,
It was a world, simple and rosy…
"Rosy?", you said, "rosy my foot,"
"Nothing's rosy anymore, life's a brute
"Yeah, life's a brute, 'cos I was dead,
in the name of the revolution.
But….did you tell me,
The name of the revolution..?
And did you tell them,
I am a martyr…?
Did you tell them,
What's a martyr?
Did you tell them,
How I am one?
Did you tell them,
Their own son….…
picked up the gun, and killed two,
In the name of the revolution..?
And did they ask,
The name of the revolution?
To heaven, I would go…
I heard it once,
Yeah, I could hear,
Amid the firing guns,
That heaven is for those,
Who have the gun,
(And a 'resolution')
Then why did I feel,
Five bullets inside my head,
'To hell with the revolution?'
And please, What's the name of the revolution?
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Moms shouldn’t fall ill
They shouldn’t…they have no right to…who will deal with the milkman, vegetable boy, maid, etc
But being bought up in the Indian society where Mom’s rule the heartstrings of every child born…with countless bollywood productions having the mater play the pivotal role (a Botoxed rakhi urging her Karan & Arjun to finish off the evil thakur, a cuddly Reema Lagoo giving her gold bangles to her son’s sweetheart just to indulge her son Salman Khan in Maine Pyar Kiya…to Kiron Kher not being able to decide what to call her son’s partner in Dostana).
But can one ever imagine a mom to be gone from the house that she builds … I frankly didn’t. I did imagine a life on my own where I would cook my own meals, do my own washing and nurse myself back from the occasional fever (all the while suppressing thoughts of moms calming touch on my hot forehead)…but I had never bargained for a role reversal… where I had to look after my mom…can this species called ‘Mother’ afford to fall ill??
My answer is no…they do not have the luxury or should I say they should not have the luxury of calling in sick one day…as my mom recently did… I came running to take charge …eager to follow in my mom’s footsteps and managing both home and hearth…little did I know the challenges that lay in front of me! Forget taking care of both home and mom… it was a wonder that I could find the salt and sugar in the kitchen… do moms have an internal catalog of all bottles and a flowchart of all jobs to be done in a day…from jhaadu-poocha, dusting, laundry, cooking 3 different meals making sure there is something special for each individual …according to their taste and medical history…phew… that’s a lot of work…and I have not even listed the Aarti and Pooja and the numerous telephone calls …making people listen to you… I ended up bossing everyone and cooking bad meals at the cost of either the laundry or the Aarti, or something or the other… I was not able to complete all the tasks… I did not get the MOM ISO certificate…sob sob… I still have a long way to go.
Isn’t this the reason that before gender equality became a hep word, the male species used to subjugate the female species to home only…they were afraid that the same efficiency would render them incompetent…as is proved nowadays?
Well enough beating around the bush…all I want to say is that…mom plz get well soon and come back home and manage it like clockwork…give me the relief so that I can concentrate on my work and do what I am good at…nothing!
But being bought up in the Indian society where Mom’s rule the heartstrings of every child born…with countless bollywood productions having the mater play the pivotal role (a Botoxed rakhi urging her Karan & Arjun to finish off the evil thakur, a cuddly Reema Lagoo giving her gold bangles to her son’s sweetheart just to indulge her son Salman Khan in Maine Pyar Kiya…to Kiron Kher not being able to decide what to call her son’s partner in Dostana).
But can one ever imagine a mom to be gone from the house that she builds … I frankly didn’t. I did imagine a life on my own where I would cook my own meals, do my own washing and nurse myself back from the occasional fever (all the while suppressing thoughts of moms calming touch on my hot forehead)…but I had never bargained for a role reversal… where I had to look after my mom…can this species called ‘Mother’ afford to fall ill??
My answer is no…they do not have the luxury or should I say they should not have the luxury of calling in sick one day…as my mom recently did… I came running to take charge …eager to follow in my mom’s footsteps and managing both home and hearth…little did I know the challenges that lay in front of me! Forget taking care of both home and mom… it was a wonder that I could find the salt and sugar in the kitchen… do moms have an internal catalog of all bottles and a flowchart of all jobs to be done in a day…from jhaadu-poocha, dusting, laundry, cooking 3 different meals making sure there is something special for each individual …according to their taste and medical history…phew… that’s a lot of work…and I have not even listed the Aarti and Pooja and the numerous telephone calls …making people listen to you… I ended up bossing everyone and cooking bad meals at the cost of either the laundry or the Aarti, or something or the other… I was not able to complete all the tasks… I did not get the MOM ISO certificate…sob sob… I still have a long way to go.
Isn’t this the reason that before gender equality became a hep word, the male species used to subjugate the female species to home only…they were afraid that the same efficiency would render them incompetent…as is proved nowadays?
Well enough beating around the bush…all I want to say is that…mom plz get well soon and come back home and manage it like clockwork…give me the relief so that I can concentrate on my work and do what I am good at…nothing!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Is it a Bird, a Plane...Superman??
No, it’s me paragliding ...in tandem...since I still have to learn how to fly on my own...but hey I atleast did it...for the 2nd time!!
It so happened that my producer who was supposed to shoot paragliding for his show fell ill, so I had to go in his place...and boy was I glad that he fell ill (sorry Neeraj) but this was one shoot that I am really glad of.
The whole trip was quite adventurous by itself even the non-flying part. We started at 1800 hrs from Mumbai...but got lost somewhere in Thane where we had to pick up Reema (my asst. Producer) but neither the driver, nor Sunil (cameraperson) nor Reema knew how to reach the expressway ...we went around in circles and wasted around 2 hours trying to figure it out.
When you ask people directions... it becomes a compulsion for them to show us the way even if they don’t know... Indian Hospitality at its best! Why is it so difficult to say “Sorry Boss, don’t know the way...ask somebody else” instead to sending hapless people like us on a wild goose chase. By the time we found the expressway and were happily enjoying the drive (it’s an amazing drive on the expressway...there are numerous tunnels and the minimum speed limit is 80km/hr... so it’s a Vrrroom experience). I was quite content with the fact that Sunil knows the way, having been there before...but then I noticed that he was dozing; forget telling the driver the way... it was on my frail shoulders that the responsibility of reaching Kamshet fell... and I like always rose to the occasion. By the time we reached Kamshet it was 2300 hrs (it actually takes 2 hours to reach Lonavla from Mumbai and Kamshet is around 20 Kms away from Lonavla...so you do the math). Not only that we got lost while coming back to Mumbai as well... I reached home at 0500 hrs in the morning the next day ... I saw all the places that I had always heard about...Bhiwandi, Gorbunder, Khopoli, etc . It was fun....plz plz plz don’t miss the sarcasm here... you wouldn’t if you have spent almost 48 hours awake...getting lost, shooting, getting lost... it was flying that gave me some hope... I knew that I can’t die ...I knew that I had to return to civilization to tell the story...if not to my grandkids then to all netizens .
Since Kamshet is a village and the nightlife is not as vibrant as Mumbai...we did not even meet a stray dog there...so quite predictably we got lost again...despite numerous calls to the guy (Sanjay Rao) whose resort (Flying Nirvana) we were going to ...we did however saw a guy standing in the middle of the road in the middle of the night in the chill of the mountains smoking ...we dare not ask him directions... but as luck would have it... all the other people that we managed to bump into were all dead drunk...so Kamshet was not that dead a place...it must have a hep bar to have so many people drunk!
Against all odds, bad roads, equally bad driving and endless phone calls later we reached Nirvana...were shown into a cottage which was really beautiful. That kind of made up for all the time wasted in commuting. Then we realized that flying was supposed to start early morning at 0600 hrs and it was already 0100 hrs...the rest of the people at Nirvana were all sleeping ...so we decided to call it a day and turned in as well. But the sleep god had some other plans... Reema complained that she can’t sleep in strange places...and if she talks to a boring person, she can sleep... again I rose to the occasion...but she was so drawn into my conversation that she could not sleep!
Anyways, we did manage to get some shut eye for a couple of hours and were ready to fly ...post our introduction to Sanjay and his crew we ready with our camera and watched wide eyed many homo- sapiens in the air...it was a sight to see... wish we didn’t have to work/shoot...wish we could fly . There were few rookies who were learning the tricks of the trade and some high-flyers who were honing their skills...but all were a treat to watch...or thats what I thought. Sanjay told us that there will be another group who will fly post lunch at a different place at a much higher altitude and we could go there.
The place was beautiful... there were no rookies here... everybody had been flying for couple of years and the heights that they could soar upto was literally out of the world... I saw an eagle do a vertical spin ...maybe it was just jealous, maybe it committed suicide. After finishing our work, we also went on a tandem ride.
This was really one of the best experiences of my life... I was up in the air without any mechanised motor...strapped onto a harness which in turn was attached to a piece of cloth shaped like a wing...but the feeling was awesome... I would be lying if I said that I was not scared ...I was... a teeny weeny bit...but initially when the harness was being double checked ... but that was because I wanted to shoot the flight and my handycam didn’t have a safety strap...I was scared that I might drop it ...besides I had a battery life of only 5 min (my battery adapter was stolen from my last trip to Sindhudurg and I still haven’t had the time to get a replacement)...but once I was up in the air... the view was so breathtaking and the moment so precious...that I didn’t need any Handycam to store those memories in digital format... I have them permanently etched in my mind.
I will put up my videos as soon as I find the time to digitise them...watch this space...
It so happened that my producer who was supposed to shoot paragliding for his show fell ill, so I had to go in his place...and boy was I glad that he fell ill (sorry Neeraj) but this was one shoot that I am really glad of.
The whole trip was quite adventurous by itself even the non-flying part. We started at 1800 hrs from Mumbai...but got lost somewhere in Thane where we had to pick up Reema (my asst. Producer) but neither the driver, nor Sunil (cameraperson) nor Reema knew how to reach the expressway ...we went around in circles and wasted around 2 hours trying to figure it out.
When you ask people directions... it becomes a compulsion for them to show us the way even if they don’t know... Indian Hospitality at its best! Why is it so difficult to say “Sorry Boss, don’t know the way...ask somebody else” instead to sending hapless people like us on a wild goose chase. By the time we found the expressway and were happily enjoying the drive (it’s an amazing drive on the expressway...there are numerous tunnels and the minimum speed limit is 80km/hr... so it’s a Vrrroom experience). I was quite content with the fact that Sunil knows the way, having been there before...but then I noticed that he was dozing; forget telling the driver the way... it was on my frail shoulders that the responsibility of reaching Kamshet fell... and I like always rose to the occasion. By the time we reached Kamshet it was 2300 hrs (it actually takes 2 hours to reach Lonavla from Mumbai and Kamshet is around 20 Kms away from Lonavla...so you do the math). Not only that we got lost while coming back to Mumbai as well... I reached home at 0500 hrs in the morning the next day ... I saw all the places that I had always heard about...Bhiwandi, Gorbunder, Khopoli, etc . It was fun....plz plz plz don’t miss the sarcasm here... you wouldn’t if you have spent almost 48 hours awake...getting lost, shooting, getting lost... it was flying that gave me some hope... I knew that I can’t die ...I knew that I had to return to civilization to tell the story...if not to my grandkids then to all netizens .
Since Kamshet is a village and the nightlife is not as vibrant as Mumbai...we did not even meet a stray dog there...so quite predictably we got lost again...despite numerous calls to the guy (Sanjay Rao) whose resort (Flying Nirvana) we were going to ...we did however saw a guy standing in the middle of the road in the middle of the night in the chill of the mountains smoking ...we dare not ask him directions... but as luck would have it... all the other people that we managed to bump into were all dead drunk...so Kamshet was not that dead a place...it must have a hep bar to have so many people drunk!
Against all odds, bad roads, equally bad driving and endless phone calls later we reached Nirvana...were shown into a cottage which was really beautiful. That kind of made up for all the time wasted in commuting. Then we realized that flying was supposed to start early morning at 0600 hrs and it was already 0100 hrs...the rest of the people at Nirvana were all sleeping ...so we decided to call it a day and turned in as well. But the sleep god had some other plans... Reema complained that she can’t sleep in strange places...and if she talks to a boring person, she can sleep... again I rose to the occasion...but she was so drawn into my conversation that she could not sleep!
Anyways, we did manage to get some shut eye for a couple of hours and were ready to fly ...post our introduction to Sanjay and his crew we ready with our camera and watched wide eyed many homo- sapiens in the air...it was a sight to see... wish we didn’t have to work/shoot...wish we could fly . There were few rookies who were learning the tricks of the trade and some high-flyers who were honing their skills...but all were a treat to watch...or thats what I thought. Sanjay told us that there will be another group who will fly post lunch at a different place at a much higher altitude and we could go there.
The place was beautiful... there were no rookies here... everybody had been flying for couple of years and the heights that they could soar upto was literally out of the world... I saw an eagle do a vertical spin ...maybe it was just jealous, maybe it committed suicide. After finishing our work, we also went on a tandem ride.
This was really one of the best experiences of my life... I was up in the air without any mechanised motor...strapped onto a harness which in turn was attached to a piece of cloth shaped like a wing...but the feeling was awesome... I would be lying if I said that I was not scared ...I was... a teeny weeny bit...but initially when the harness was being double checked ... but that was because I wanted to shoot the flight and my handycam didn’t have a safety strap...I was scared that I might drop it ...besides I had a battery life of only 5 min (my battery adapter was stolen from my last trip to Sindhudurg and I still haven’t had the time to get a replacement)...but once I was up in the air... the view was so breathtaking and the moment so precious...that I didn’t need any Handycam to store those memories in digital format... I have them permanently etched in my mind.
I will put up my videos as soon as I find the time to digitise them...watch this space...
Friday, December 5, 2008
Working Stills
I had the oppurtunity to shoot from the top of Air India Building (a chance that few people can avail of) and I managed to click some stills (sadly I had only my camera phone... the rest of the footage is work related hence cant share it here)... even if the quality is not so good... its rare for me!!!
Enjoy!
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