Are you THE MAN....?

Sometimes watching movies on flights can be advantageous .. u end up watching watchable movies that you would normally give miss on your local theatre just because you did not hear much in the media. And then these movies fade way into oblivion....
Was fortunate to get onto 'The Man' on a flight earlier this year.... and kinda liked it, coz it was funny and i was not expecting much from the movie anyways. But since flight movies are cut left right and center to fit in with their movie schedules, decided to watch it up on the big screen and solve some missing links. The basic premise of the movie revolves around Eugene Levy (some may recollect him as the father of Jason Biggs- the fatso- in American Pie) landing up in Wisconsin for some sales conference, and gets unwittingly involved in helping up in the bustup of a gun-stealing mob by a very truant cop, Samuel L Jackson (in a new hairdo). The movie is fast paced and funny, and keeps you reasonable interested...no great movie this, but entirely watchable once (ok..ok.. i have watched it twice already) There are some hilarious moments between eugene levy and samuel jackson , and some loud humour too (especially the farting bit).. all in all the humour is just about passable, and as i said watchable too.
So watch it is the verdict, before it fades away into oblivion.

Slowly , slowly

Have u ever wondered that you have seen great movies but never been able to relate the title back to the theme of the movie. Such instances would be few , because all producers would be more keen to ensure that the title reflects the summary of the movie as far as possible. After all, the title is the brand ambassador for the movie...A "Rang De Basanti" would instantly
give a summary of a film set against a patriotic background. "Yuva" signifies the film is about youth and their movements, "Lakshya" speaks about the goal set ."Darr" signifies the fear element created by the anti-hero and so on.
"Ahista , Ahista " tries to follow the lead of these good if not great films. The movie really lives upto its name.....it moves as slow as a tortoise.... (on second thoughts , this seems like a personal affront to the speed of the tortoise , and i apologise to maneka Gandhi or any animal activist reading this blog.) What the director/producer failed to provided (post their stupendous achievement of matching the pace of the movie with the title) is something like a credible and interesting storyline. Even if you forgive them for not coming up with a storyline, the director could have compensated the lack of the same by infusing some real chemistry between the lead pair. And that seems non-existent. Though Abhay deol does come up with
an earnest performance with the limited flexibility he has , Soha Ali Khan looks lost in the movie. And Shyaan Munshi looks as if he has still the Jesicca Lal case on his mind.... he looks all out in the sea. Dialogues are dull and uninspired, and at some point of times non-existent...and even if they come ahista ahista.Supporting actors are dull and dreary. To add to
the slow pace, is Himesh Chammiyas music......that was just about the last straw i needed to walk out ahista ahista out of the multiplex. But I held onto the end, and lived to see that happen.

P.S. I convinced a friend to watch Ahista AHista, when the person was thinking of KANK. But couldnt help think, that KANK couldnt be much more worse than this movie... suddenly i feel i have it in me to watch KANK.. just to compare which one of the torture is more bearable. Dont rule out a review of KANK soon i.e if i dont become shaheed in this process of comparison.

Hail Vishal

I normally catch up movies the week they are released ..but been extremely lazy past couple of weeks, and probably too lazy to go flat out to book tickets. Rather, I prefer to wait till the clamour for the movie has died down... and then i can book aaraam se.
Omkara was a much awaited movie for me, especially since I had seen Vishal's Makdee as well as Maqbool, and was pretty much in admiration for Vishal direction in getting out good performances from his actors as well as involving the audience spellbound with his narration and depiction of events.If Makdee and Maqbool were good movies, then Omkara goes even several rungs highers. I have not read Othello nor have i seen screen adaptations of the same...but I am pretty much sure that if Shakespeare was alive and kicking , and he knew a little bit of Hindi , then he might be definitely impressed with what Vishal has to offer to the world. For starters, the casting is superb ..with actors like Ajay Devgan, Saif, Naseruddin Shah,Kareena Kapoor, Konkona Sen and others...you can rest be assured about performances, with Vishal wielding the megaphone. Secondly, the story might be an adaptation of Shakespeare, and in essence revolves around the basic plot of jealousy and deceit. But , to depict it on the screen is a different skillset, and to involve the audience in the process requires a fine balancing act between doing it right and overdoing it. Magically, Vishal manages to do just that. The characters of most esp Langda Tyagi(Saif) and Omkara (Devgan) is well sketched out...but characters like that of Keshu(Oberoi) and Tiwari (Naseeruddin Shah) are not much focussed on.. but then the great Shah's role is not central to the basic premise of the plot. Ajay devgan is the usual brooding self, and is shown to be a man of great control and restraint, but
then his insecurities are exploited by Saif ali khan, who does justice to the great character provided to him.Konkona sen is the surprise package, and does good even with the comparitively teeny role given to her. Kareena kapoor is good, and Vivek oberoi just passes muster. Overall , everybody seem to be doing their bit to make the movie look realistic. Dialogues written by the great all rounder Vishal Bharadwaj, smack of a distinctive UP-ish rural
dialect, and though some of the dialogues are offensive and brutal, you cant but help but chuckle. Music by again Vishal is restricted to 2-3 songs , but they do pass the muster.
Building up the jealousy factor was key to the storyline, and the director does it well (though Saifs evil strategies seem to be all going suspiciously all too well fo you to be entirely convinced), and ends it up well.
All in all, a movie that i will watch again....but a movie to avoid if you hate violence and abusive talk.

Up in the Clouds

Its always been a childhood fantasy for me to be among the clouds... I think that fantasy was more powered by the fact that somehow the clouds would remind me of the pinkish looking cotton candy that some vendor would sell outside of our school, and i never could get to taste them, and i always thought the clouds would be exactly like them.
However time goes by, and most people mature naturally...guess that process never happened with me. Of course, i matured enough to realise what the clouds were really made up of... (thanks to the mindless education i received from my science and geography teachers) ... but the feeling to be among the clouds still persisted. And that fantasy is what we all set to look to turn into reality.... and thats what probably led me to agree on Malshej being the place to go for the weekend, the place where clouds mingle with us mere mortals. Have been hearing that Malshej is the place to go during monsoons, and looks like people may not have been way off the mark.

Its a nice Saturday afternoon and as per our unplanned plans - we are 6 of us and 3 bikes(a CBZ(mine), a pulsar 180 and a splendor ) - yo it was to be a bike journey all the way- we were supposed to leave latest by 2 pm onto our destination with just a Outlook weekend traveller handbook for guidance and no reservations for accomodations. Inspite of the utter disarray of our travel iterinary, the guys were cool and landed up at the usual expected 3 pm. Rakesh Shetty, Arvind Shetty and Deepak Rao (fellow Tulu guys) and Tapan (gujju seth) were the partners in crime conspiring not be in time, and then we had to halt at Thane to pick up another guy I had never met...Hilary Lasrado. And Hilary is a guy...contrary to the name sounding like the wife of a famous ex-US president(who became known for his other life than his presidential actions).And Hilary, who turned out to be Tulu speaking as well turned out to be a saviour in disguise...coz he seemed to know the road to malshej from the back of his hand. Th outlook book was keen on sending us in a longer circuitous route.... and Hilary guided right all along way to the straigher route. Initial roads out of thane were bad with major traffic, but slowly the roads opened out, and so did the engines and their horsepower...and we were off flying.. but making the occassional stop to let Deepaks splendor catch up with us. I could see that my bike was enjoying it... it was purring so smoothly. Inspite of all that huffing and puffing, by the time, the ghats came up ...it was dark and wet and soggy and foggy...all thanks to my much fantasised clouds... u couldnt even see 5 meters ahead and with Deepaks splendor not having any headlight...biking then soon became a real challenge.
And just when things looked lost..out of the blue, came this guy in a maruti who thought we were being too sissy ,and overtook us to lead the way.And that turned out to be the best thing for us...coz his headlights were much brighter... and the guy pretty much realised his folly some seconds later. After a couple of near misses with the cliff edge, he had taken us across to the ghats safely.
As usual we didnt book our accomodation... as a result we still had the added chore of findinga place to stay. In the fog, we missed the MTDC resort(we realised it the next morning) which boasts of a great view but pathetic service, and instead landed up at Sushant resort, and fixed up a small cottage with attached toilet for 1200 bucks with additional mattresses thrown in. The toll of travelling 150 kms showed, and sleep was soon the preferred activity post dinner.

Next morning, after a lovely breakfast, we were out on the road again on the way back... and the fog was still at its peak with intermittent rain.We couldnt see anything for some metres and had to lumber down the road at not more than 20 km/hr, wit the headlights on as a warning for any incoming vehicles. And soon we came across the waterfalls, one of the prime reason for
visiting Malshej. And to tell the truth... i really dont think the waterfalls are any better than else where... so kind of disappointed with the hype surrounding the same. So a quick dip under the waterfall and we are back on the road again.... and down the ghats.
And this time we realised how much of stuff we had missed in the dark.... the ride and the view from the top was simply amazing....we switched the engine off and started our descent.... and the scenery down below in the valley is undescribable (if there is a word like that), so is the view of the clouds against the peaks. Simply supra....The ride down was easy, and better since
we could see and avoid the potholes now, and also could stop at vantage points where some Kodak moments could be captured.

Journey post climbing down the ghats was a pure bikers pleasure...reasonable roads, no vehicles in sight and a strong desire to crank the engine to the hilt. So off we went at 80-100 km/hr on those roads with the wind in our face.And need less to say journey time on the way back drastically reduced, and we were flying back. The funny part was that we must have encountered intermittent rain now and then..atleast 8 times. And everytime we got wet,
because of the speed we were travelling, we got dried up in 10 odd mins, only for another bout of rain to start again and get us wet. And the raindrops at that speed felt like needles poking at us...but it was fun neverthless.
A long lunch at one of the resorts, and then we were ready to head back and we were in Mumbai in good time.Surprisingly the strain of having travelled 300 km in 26 hrs didnt show on me....neither physically nor mentally...whereas my co-members seem drained out. Looks like finally my gym work is paying off.... :)
Next trip should also be pretty soon.... so keep watching this space.