Mausam - Flavour of Seasons

Alright first things first, for those of you who don't know Hindi/हिंदी Mausam (मौसम) means Season(s) and in an immediate sense means weather, but, we Indians love things that occur over long periods of time, so in the broader and wider sense it means Season(s). Following this, this also happens to be the title of 2 movies, one that came out back in the 70's, which the 2011 version has nothing to do with, just so we're clear about that...I'm sure the word Mausam has been used in a variety of other movie titles, and it has most definitely been a part of many song lyrics. C'mon people, seasons play an integral part in our love stories, our dramatic scenes as well as fight scenes, how else can you sit there and mock us for running around trees and singing songs? Khair koi baat nahin. Now, I would like to toss in a disclaimer here, just 'cuz I love doing so, and also because, this one I feel is important that you readers are entitled to. I'm not great at reviews, they aren't exactly my forte unlike my supremely talented creative twin, who writes amazing reviews. Check out his link, it should be listed on the right side of my blog page :)...Blank Page Beatdown, check it out, it'll be the best read of your life EVER!

Since I just finished watching this movie, I guess you're being served up with a tawa fresh review. So...when I first watched the theatrical trailer for Mausam it definitely did pique my curiosity. One of the main things that the trailer and the film's tag line emphasized was the classical, eternal, timeless love story between the main protagonists in the movie, portrayed by Shahid Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor. When I first saw the 'First Look', that's where they unveil the poster of the movie, I half groaned at the timeless love story aspect...yes my generation is a lost cause, our concept of love is defined by it's own set of categories, so when you say timeless and classic and all this other schnazz it actually makes the eyebrows get all quirked up and...well you get the point. This movie had it's fair share of troubles to finally be released to the general public, and, throughout the making of the movie shots on set were posted and you see a very dashing Shahid Kapoor in a military Uniform, and then in subsequent snippets it was revealed that he's an Officer with the Indian Air Force. So it got me thinking, wait what? Oh no a military love story? Oye vey...I hope he didn't fall in love with the General's daughter leading to a court martial 'cuz that would not be cool at all. 

With the theatrical trailer you catch a glimpse of quite a lot of things that gets your mind spinning and reeling at the possibilities of just what the plot of the movie could be. You see this young carefree dude and chick (Shahid Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor) and suddenly the next shot of her, is in some dance studio and him all dressed up in his wrinkle & crinkle free uniform watching her dance and fun things of the sort. Oh and there's also the music accompanying it that absolutely adds on to the curiosity piquing factor. The first bit, that shows them as young, carefree individuals has the beautiful and lilting beginning of "Rabba Main Toh Mar Gaya Oye" playing in the background, and as you see the shift towards I guess adulthood and a not so naive time the music picks up the pace with the intro bit of the beat worthy, heart pounding, emotionally charged "Aag Lage Us Aag Ko". Initially, I wasn't too stoked to watch this flick, but then once I saw the theatrical trailer I definitely wanted to watch it, it looked attention and performance worthy, and most importantly the movie was directed by Pankaj Kapur...well some people may know him as Shahid Kapoor's father, but, most people know him for his sensational acting skills, he's one of the most renowned actors in India, he's a very distinguished actor in the theatre and film circuits and add the fact that he's one of India's most prolific TV stars. I remember when I was younger, I used to watch this show of his on Zee TV where he used to play a detective/PI on this show called Mohandas B.A.L.L.B. and he was quite a quirky P.I haha...my Mom and I still recall a few lines from that show.

So with these expectations I waited until the movie was released, and all those movie reviews came out to see what the verdict on the movie was. Unfortunately the news and reviews weren't all that great, and while I do take the word of a bonafide film critic for whatever salt the critic might be worth, I still like being able to formulate my own opinion 'bout the flicks I watch. So after probably a month or two? I finally watched the movie, well actually I started watching the movie a while back, but life had more pressing matters that needed to be taken care of as opposed to watching Mausam. Now as some of you might not know, I'm not a huge fan of divulging plot lines, but if you really want to know what the story is and then decide if the movie is worth your time, then hey definitely hit Wikipedia up, it will most definitely give you everything you're looking for. 

Before I get all snarky about things I didn't like with regards to the movie, I'd like to laud the Director's efforts into attempting a story of this sort. I definitely liked the incorporation of some of the darker moments from India's recent past that served as the backdrop or rather the springboard for this story to grow and progress on. However, the folly with doing so is that you open up too many story angles, and too many areas of interest that you'd like to focus your energies on and in the process the main plot-line seems to lose it's momentum. The moment you find out the girl is Kashmiri Muslim, and the boy is a Punjabi Sikh fella who prefers the anglicized version of his name, 'Harry', the first thought that pops up is 'Oh crap this is gonna be a religion face-off and it's gonna be a never ending drama between both sides, where either the girl's family hates the boy for his religion and it's all a no-no or it's the other way around, and you have their relatives piling on to the street with an assortment of weapons ranging from pipes to hockey sticks. Thankfully, we've progressed in that area as far as our movies are concerned, and the movie thankfully doesn't waste a whole bunch of time on going through the religious backgrounds and all complications associated with it. Shahid Kapoor's character Harry sums it up very nicely in one of the scenes, when his lady love tells him that her father doesn't think it's the right thing for either of them to be in this relationship, to which Harry says he's right and wrong and ends up telling her how we're all human and in essence the same and follows it up with a very simple yet deep question 'What were we before we were born?' It's the simplicity of such moments that makes the movie almost endearing in far too few sequences. I wish the Director was able to flesh out a more concentrated storyline, the parallels he used were beautiful, and it would have been absolutely poetic, unfortunately instead of a balance there was a lot of displacement that tends to throw the viewer back and forth and wondering about a lot of things. In addition, there was something absolutely beautiful that I learned from the film as well, the meaning of the name "Aayat", it's a very pretty name, and for those of you who like me have no idea what the name means, it means 'Holy couplet'. 

So where shall we start with the flaws? For one I'd say the running time of this flick. It definitely could've been shortened by sooooo much more. There were some scenes that were plain unnecessary and just worked to hinder the storyline rather than enhance or establish it. Also, this whole reunion and separation problem between the main protagonists gets really frustrating. The part that got me all frustrated was this whole affair of how one is searching for the other but they just don't know how to get a hold of them and never seem to find a way to know where the hell the other person is. Yeah I understand the internet wasn't the greatest thing in the mid 90's but honestly by the late 90's pretty much anyone and everyone had a freaking e-mail address and everybody and their uncle found their way into your address book even if it was an old classmate of yours from kindergarten. Their lack of communication and their inability to keep in touch had me absolutely frustrated, I was yelling at my laptop 'What the HELL DUDE?!? Call X, Y and Z and you will know!!! It's India ve, especially the village, anybody and everybody living around your house and a few houses down from your house know where you, your immediate family and your distant relative are at and also know what each one of you does for a living and what you do as extracurricular activities!'....yes clearly I put a lot more thought and yelling into it than necessary, as my advice just didn't help *sigh*. Isn't it frustrating when people NEVER listen to you? 

In terms of acting, well Shahid Kapoor was brilliant, that guy just keeps moving from strength to strength with each of his films, I guess he's one of the most underrated actors in the Indian movie Industry, and I sincerely hope he has an absolutely bloody brilliant  mind blasting mega super-duper blockbuster. I felt bad for the guy, you can tell he's put a lotta effort into the movie, from playing the carefree young punk to the polished and smart Army man, and then some. You can see the transition in his body language, and his facial expressions and you wish for his sake that the movie had been a hit just for his efforts. Sonam Kapoor...now there's someone interesting. She's an a'ite actress for most part, I mean I don't find her mind numbings amazing or anything of the sort. Sometimes she ends up being a tad bit annoying on screen but that is to be expected, I think most actors go through that, but I think she needs to work a little more on her emoting abilities, especially during highly emotionally charged scenes. She either tends to overdo them or underdo them, I'm sure with time she'll figure it out. Her delivery in the emotional scenes was a mixed bag throughout this movie, in some scenes she actually pulled off quite a convincing performance but then of course those scenes were overshadowed by the under or over performance. I must admit that she does have a beautiful smile, and she's one helluva tall chick, but she definitely needs to work on the emotional aspects of her acting and needs to loosen up just a bit with her delivery of such scenes. Oh and she needs to stop giggling unnecessarily 'cuz that really does seem fake and put on lol. In terms of the lead pair chemistry, there was something poetic about it, it is one of those jodis/pairs that has immense potential, but if the narrative hadn't kept hitting so much turbulence I'm sure the director would've been able to fully tap into said chemistry and exploit that potential. However, that being said, I think other directors should try giving this lead pair a shot in the future, there definitely is something there that the audiences will be able to connect to and resonate with.

Oh yes another beautiful aspect of the film, besides a few of the locales and a few camera shots, is the music of the film. There are some absolutely beautiful songs in this movie...yeah no guesses for which one my fav song from the soundtrack is...that's right 'Rabba Main Toh Mar Gaya Oye' and to pep up my mornings quite a bit there's the other groovy shoovy number 'Sajh Dhaj Ke' which just has a remarkable effect on your neurons and your feet, they start tapping to a beat of their own. It's true, I have 2 left feet and they go off on their own tangents when this songs comes on....it's almost insane. I also loved the way that despite having controversial and violent religious upheavals, that unfortunately India has weathered, never is there any finger pointing nor is there a blame game that holds one faith more responsible than the other. When asked who were the ones responsible for the death or loss of a loved one, I found the response to be quite poignant. Aayat asks Harry who those people were who were responsible for all those who died, and his response to her question was, (mind you I'm translating the lines here,) 'Fearsome/scary shadows, who have no names nor faces.' These scenes have been handled with such maturity and finesse and have been painted into the backdrop to the central theme/plot, namely the epic love story, without spending more time than necessary on analyzing the hows, who's or whys to the situations. Topics like the communal riots India has faced and been subjected to, are very sensitive issues, and need to be treated with the utmost care, and all I want to say is hats off Mr. Pankaj Kapur, thank you for not making this movie a religious propaganda.

In conclusion, I wouldn't recommend Mausam as the first movie to go rent out on DVD, it's one of those movies you watch just to kill time or like the popular usage goes, it's just a timepass movie yaar. Of course you would have the advantage of fast forwarding things as well, which will make the proceedings move along just a tad bit faster. If anything watch it for that poor lad Shahid Kapoor, bechara, but only if you've exhausted all other movie and entertainment options, or if you're having a random insomnia episode. Well...that's it for now folks and I'll catchya on here soon, there are a few minor updates that I have to confound y'all with! Cheers, and I hope all is going sensationally and exceptionally well with each and every one of y'all.

No One Killed Jessica….Truth, Justice, Bureaucracy and the People.

Welcome to a world that has more democracies than dictatorships, I mean I’d like to believe we live in a world where there’s a very slim chance of having dictatorships coming to the fore-front. But then again, politics is pretty much like sports where the results are always unexpected and unanticipated, unless you’re freaking Australia and you know you’re a sure fire bet for the Finals and heck even the World Cup, and that would be the ICC World Cup. To those unaware of such an event and what the ICC is, well Google it and I’m sure you’ll see what I’m talking about. Well okay it has a lot to do with the amazing game of Cricket. This post however, is highly inappropriate for a full discourse on cricket, because, I can actually go on and on about it for hours. None the less, getting back to the topic at hand…before we get any further let me just make one thing very clear, I am not a political analyst and I have nothing to say with regards to political parties and ridiculous bureaucracy.

When I first saw the promos of this movie, the first thing that got my attention was the plot-line, the racy and gritty cinematography and the most important thing being 2 stellar actresses, in my humble opinion, sharing screen space. I mean come on!! What else can you expect me to say when you see promos featuring Vidya Balan and Rani Mukherjee? Both actresses have proved so much with movies like Parineeta and Black (for instance) and they have so much more to contribute to the world of Indian cinema. The moment the promo got done I had set some expectations as far as this movie was concerned, and this definitely would have been a movie I would’ve gone to a theatre to watch. Unfortunately, my current location doesn’t afford that luxury of being able to go watch a Hindi movie in a theatre, but, that being said, I was completely and absolutely psyched to watch this movie. The general plot-line got me to go Google the movie and of course the ever friendly Wikipedia gave me a gist on what the plot/movie was based on. That only got me further interested and waiting with bated breath for this movie.

Now before I literally nose-dive into this review, there are a few things one should NOT expect from this movie. This is not a movie about political parties and the complications that arise from messing with politicians and things of the sort. You will not see the standard thugs hired by cronies of powerful politicians to take care of business by resorting to vile things like rape and things of the sort. It’s not a Satya, so don’t expect that extent or degree of gritty-ness, neither is this a glamorous depiction of events. This story is basically about truth, justice, unity and the power of the people. I’ll try and summarize the story as much as I can, as much as I don’t really like giving away the plot or anything of the sort. I mean I’d rather tell you what I felt when I watched the movie as opposed to summarizing the entire story, that as all you smarties know are available on numerous websites that do reviews, so you don’t really need to read the story all over again. Here’s the bare minimum, the story is set in Delhi…it all starts with a girl being shot in a high profile bar by a high profile person, who has lots of political power/clout. There are 300 witnesses but by the time the report gets filed down at the police station everyone has a different story and only 7 people are witnesses. The entire case falls apart and the suspects are released, much to the chagrin of the family, and all of this happens in six years. Six years of trying to resolve this case leads to the perpetrator being declared innocent and released, due to the wonderful cons of democracy. Yeah I know you’re probably going to say that’s both ridiculous and impossible that it took six years to resolve this case, but it’s the truth. There’s a short version of the case and trials on Wikipedia…I mean wow it’s just ridiculous as to what that family had to go through. Once the verdict is out, enter enraged journalist who is pissed with the end result justice delivered to what the journalist pretty much declared was an open and shut case due to huge number of witnesses that were there when this incident occurred. This journalist then sets about with a team to do what journalists do, to seek out the truth and present facts to the masses as they are. Ultimately, the case gets a lot of national attention and people are outraged by the incompetence exhibited by many parties that were responsible and involved with this case, and due to much public pressure the case is re-opened and dealt with in the Supreme Court.

Personally the movie lived up to my expectations and then some, I thought the performances were just exemplary and I’m glad this issue was brought up. Another I liked too was the little homage/tribute the movie paid to 'Rang De Basanti' (the word AMAZING is an under-statement when it comes to describing RDB). Nobody should ever have to go through what Jessica and her family had to go through, it has definitely got to be one of the most difficult and frustrating things a family or an individual has to face. All that pain, sadness, frustration, anger, numbness and bitterness is way too much for anybody to carry and I sincerely and truly hope that mistakes of this caliber and crimes of this degree don’t happen in the future. But just as much as this world is filled with enlightened and wiser people, there’s always that fair share of idiots and douches who like to refresh our memories with such horrendous incidents.

The story occurs over a time period when India had just settled down from a huge war that had brought a nation together and was moving forward in the direction of growth, development and progress especially in the whole technology, communications and scientific fields. They don’t or at least I think are not supposed to be inclined to any particular side, as they are the instruments of the people and have a responsibility to those very people to give them the truth and the facts in the purest and most undiluted way possible. Sure it might be a little far fetched and naïve to expect people to not take sides, but if there’s anything one cannot deny, it’s their dedication to hunt and go the extra mile to get to the very bottom of a story. You have to realize though, that this is not a revenge oriented story or one filled with lectures and speeches about what the youth should do or what people should do. This movie is just a reminder that not everything is as simple as it looks, and that there definitely is a lot of hope in this world we live in, because it isn’t always as ignorant as it seems. People should never assume that their actions won’t have consequences and on that very same note they shouldn’t be taken for granted either. There is much power, fervor, passion and ferocity for justice and equality that can be evoked within the common man, because there’s only so much bull shit that anyone can put up with. So if you’re one of those people who think that you can keep screwing people over and none of this is going to get back to you, I’d like to give you the following warning…think before you do something stupid. It might seem like one or two people to you, but if you count all those people you’ve screwed over in the past that’s entirely something else to think about now isn’t it? They’re like the drops of water that over time collect and form an ocean, so watch your words and actions, there’s only so much oppression anyone will take.

The public/general populace is quite the force to contend with, and we must never forget that. We have…in fact; we are the power that is responsible for a lot of important and leading figures to be the people they are. We are what make them (yes I’m using the Us v/s them analogy), and we should never forget that, with that in mind we should never under-estimate all the change we’re capable of bringing about in the world and we should never psych ourselves to believe that there is nothing we can do when we’re shackled by the chains of suppression and oppression. Heck I don’t need to say that to you guys, that’s something History has highlighted time after time, but sometimes we just need someone to hit that ‘reset’ button to remind us of all that we are capable of.

Song of the Day:

Song: Dilli
OST: No One Killed Jessica
Release Date: December 1, Circa 2010

Ps: I love how uninhibited the script is, watch out for swearing, if you're someone who cannot tolerate swearing yet wanna watch the movie jus' ear muff it.

Thoughts a Million

Well I actually do have quite a bit on my mind today, I mean it's all jumbled up in terms of me wanting to present the few ten thoughts outta the gazillion. Well here's what's gonna go down, lots of thoughts churned out as a result of watching a movie...well okay usually when I watch a movie there's about two things that happen

1. The brain has the thought processes going in Overdrive where a lotta things that I think of or rather have shelved away come to the forefront and take a life of their own. Don't get me wrong I actually enjoy movies that make me go through those thoughts archived in the upper chamber.
2. Movies that just bore the crap outta me...and well these also can be further categorized into those movies whose scripts were novel and worth appreciating but failed to hold onto it's initial narrative and then there's the other kind that just plain sucks.

So while we're on movies, my strong recommendation in the Hindi department for this current moment is My Name Is Khan...All said and done its a beautiful movie, besides the performances...the word outstanding is an under-statement...it was just beautiful, the cinematography was fantastic, a majority of the narrative was fantastic, the pace and the tone of the movie is pretty much consistent all the way through. Oh and here's some definite FYI, once you're done watching the movie make sure you check out the deleted scenes, just so you know its available on a facebook page lol, yes I had to google it to find it. A few of the snippets from the deleted scenes give the movie some more flavour and makes it a lil' more wholesome. The entire story and script idea while not necessarily novel in the age and times we live in, was unique in it's own way. The basic story line is conveyed or rather plainly stated in it's popular tagline/dialogue --> "My name is Khan and I'm not a terrorist." When you hear such a line you go hmmmm what's this all about? Is it going to be over the top dramatic-ness? Is it going to be Anti-American? Or is it gonna be one of those "Oh man woe is us" kinda movies. The first few things that grab your attention in that promo include things like hmmm okay the main protagonist has a disability of sorts, then as the promo progresses the background score seems to be keeping up with the scenes being aired in the promo, in addition to that you see who the main protagonists are, you're informed it's a love story that includes a journey to meet the President of USA, you also find the story based on the backdrop of 9/11 and that's when I guess one stops and wonders, wait what kinda love story could you possibly have with 9/11 as a backdrop? Oh wait, one where the main guy is a terrorist and falls in love with a civilian and is responsible for coordinating terrorist attacks or is in charge of a terrorist cell or wait turns himself in because he's fallen in love and wants to be the best person he can be? Oh wait...but that's already been done, do the titles New York and Kurbaan come to mind? Then there's the other possibility where the main protagonist is one of the victims of 9/11 who is directly affected and may have lost loved ones and so is fighting for justice and he also happens to have a disability..hmm..there's another possibility. AND THEN while the wheels in your head are spinning you're presented with the last scene of the promo which comes after all the building up of the background score and after the crescendo..."My name is Khan and I'm not a terrorist" and it ends there followed by an emphatic silence. My reaction to that was "DAMN! I need to watch this movie now!" Well I could be biased :P, considering I'm such a fan of the ultimate trifecta that's ever come to the forefront in Indian cinema, that's right folks...well to the newbies, they would be the trio of Karan Johar, Kajol and Shahrukh Khan. Now shoot me for being such a huge fan of all three of 'em. Karan Johar has grown leaps and bounds from when he started off, and it's funny to note after watching this movie I had a sudden urge to watch Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge just to see the transition of these three individuals. I mean besides going "Wow they were so young there." and stating the obvious, there's a certain maturity that's come along with the scripts and characterizations. K-Jo is now at the helm of a production company that has generated a wide variety of scripts ranging from Dostana to New York to Wake Up Sid and lets not forget his biggest blockbusters ranging from the evergreen Kucch Kucch Hota Hai to Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham to Kabhi Alvidaa Na Kehna - the movie where he started veering a lil' off the "Karan Johar candyfloss magnum opus flicks"...well at least script wise, costume and setting/set wise not really lol. Moving on to the actors, Kajol..I consider her to be one of the best in the movie bizz, one of my all time fav. movies of hers is Dushman...besides a brilliant soundtrack...her performance in that movie was spine chilling, volatile and bloody brilliant. There's just so much conviction and honesty that she puts into her role that for that moment you're enraptured and caught up in the movie you forget that it's only a fictional character, you actually believe that such a character exists which is really hard to find these days. And last but not the least there's SRK or Mr. Shahrukh Khan...I could write pages 'bout the reasons why I love this dude, but I'm gonna try and make this brief and short considering how this isn't a post 'bout him :P. Its not that he doesn't know how to act, each of his movies are different even though the characters he has played may seem to overlap each other there is an undertone of difference between those characters. Over the years I wouldn't say he has matured but every movie has nuances of him trying to break away from the standard set bars that a character can portray in said role in said story setting. Now while I do love watching his movies, my all time fav. SRK movies besides Kal Ho Naa Ho are; Swades and Chak De India...I guess now you can add MNIK to the list as well.

A'ite I'm gonna leave that at that or else it can get extremely tangential and the G-man knows where exactly that's gonna lead. Next on the agenda is this odd sense of not accomplishing anything thus far in life. I look around and I see friends of mine working, setting up RRSP's, accomplishing their dreams and getting close to presenting and projecting all those ideas their thought factories used to churn out during our younger years onto a much bigger platform....and it makes me proud to see how far they've come, but, at the same time it makes me take a step back and ask myself so what have you done lately? or, how far have you come kiddo? 'Cuz the last time I checked I feel like I'm in the exact same spot I've been for a while with the only difference being a change in my settings and a very marked physical difference in terms of growth in things around me. Heck even my rose bushes seem to have grown quite a bit. Anyway, I'm gonna sign off on this note just and re-address this topic some other time, for now I gotta go take care of a few things, today's a relatively big day as far as FIFA fever is concerned, so I just wanna go do some work before the play and fun starts :D. Take care peepz and I hope all is well with all of you!! Much love and best wishes, cheers!