Lost in a magic world

Good work of art needs to be effortless. Garnished by a certain degree of serendipity they appeal to heart as they ooze of grace. Dreamy streak comes so naturally to them. A thing of beauty can not be made up. Laden with artificiality it turns you off. Natural charisma weaves a magic world, a world you want to end up wandering in. To me Khoya Khoya Chand signifies same natural, beautiful, innocent and enchanting world.

Retro look is the modern mantra today. Those belly bottoms which were adored by our moms and aunts are back into fashion, doted on by svelte lasses supposedly expert in haute culture. Even in a world which seemingly swears by metro sexual male, his ruggedness is lapped up with alacrity. So it was not great surprise to see rushes of a movie some times back which created aura of 50’s. of course this seems to be best time encash on retrospection , my heart told me. To top it all, those who watched it weren’t really enthused by the show. They rather trashed it , deeming it a beautiful looking movie with nothing in it. Well they almost dampened an already sagging spirit. Well movie could have been a damp squib and throwing all these friendly reviews to winds we dared to venture out to watch it. Reasons? No, I wasn’t too sure of Sudhir Mishra’s exploits though he won over all of us through “Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi”. But he was the man behind a loud bombed one called “Chameli” too. Shiney Ahuja is a marvelous actor but he has been wasted before. But I still preferred to take on perennially inclement December nights of Delhi as ticket came cheap and frankly I had little work at hand .Killing time can be so tough sometimes. And yeah against all negative publicity there was a lovely friend of mine who egged me on and said “Go , watch it” .

First half was nice spell cast on me. A beautiful combination of exquisite background, creditable acting and some real innovative direction took my breath away. Shiney Ahuja was simply brilliant as suffering son, looking for identity and dignity. Many actors have come and gone, but to see a non UP/Bihari actor excel in garb of a young man from Lucknow , who is confident yet somewhat insecure, was refreshing and don’t expect many to outshine his effort soon. He was caring yet egoist, he was loving yet abusive, he had tender heart yet managed to hurt, did not have a secured future but had pluck in those eyes I simply could not help but falling all over this character. To be honest somewhere down there felt traces of it were too well known.

Second half was not as charming as the first one. It was difficult to match those soared expectations after the first half. Still it was not a damp squib. At some point felt it being far fetched at others weird and at some other hopelessly romantic. Characters had different hues and shades unlike those eternally loved and abhorred ones. End was sudden but not completely unanticipated.

Watch this movie it you have human feeling deep in side this human drawer called heart. If there is a dreamy streak in your eyes, if you can imagine beautiful things, if you love being lost sometimes, if you are a wandering soul and can appreciate feelings and things of beauty, better shell out some buck you may rue missing an opportunity lost. Storyline is nothing great to rave about, it’s less about content and more about presentation, Style with certain substance would be best way to sum up this tinsel magic.

For all those hearts immersed in eternal romance

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;

I have found gulping typical mushy movies down a Herculean task. Not that I have something against feelings they try to imbibe but execution betrays the novel idea they undertake .which was the last romantic movie which moved me? Which made me wail? Which had an awe inspiring couple in lead and had each single frame of it frozen in my mind? I may not be the most demonstrative person on the earth nor a maudlin who needs excuses to moisten his eyes. Tears may well up there, but with a probability which is waning anyways.

“Eternal sunshine of spotless mind” came as a pleasant surprise which defied typical remorse I used to have after choosing another romantic movie sans strong undercurrents of love. Somewhere down the line I could see a line blurring between wannabes and true lovers. After a longtime I felt I was gliding in a wonderland, was careening off to world of magic and mysticism leaving the much hated reality road.

Novel concept leads to exhilarating cinema. A hopeful and loving heart may win over all odds even the odds stacked in a mind ,ready to refuse reality, ready to forget a true love . Sometimes it is confusing, othertimes perplexing and few moments of despair too, but glimmer of hope may wan, but is always there to beat goliaths of despair and amnesia.

To accept and cling to true love is something only courageous can do. To repel a feeling of vengeance which may so easily creep into human mind and not to forget a true love even when your mind implores you to do is the true love for me. Not to suffocate in maze of myths and hypocrisies of your mind , rather let it know that all tortuous mazes can be made simple because true love has to come out trumps.

Hats off to unpredictably tender and unapologetically twisted romance. In a mind stuffed with few set toxic Hollywood formulae , there is at least a movie which may leave hard nosed persons smile and say “Love is a beautiful feeling”

All speed and no thrill, a sleepfest in all senses

Well before letting the world know what I think of this movie; let the clock be turned back umm for few months. It was month of June (year 2006), world cup soccer was very much in air, I had already put in my papers and was going to Delhi to pursue higher studies. And what a fun it was to be relaxed and catch every single minute of soccer. I inflicted this soccer fever on couple of girls in my office as well (well that was a real credit to let em glued to a manly game). Yeah did I mention the only thing that Idiot box had to offer (accepted by me) was a spoof on a speed rage called ‘Dhoom’. That was pure fun, looked idiotic at times but it was fun alright when you awaited your heroes in sky blue and white stripes to announce the beginning of real show.


Must have confused everyone eh!! What the few lines meant was that funny spoof was much more interesting, the sequel was a sleepfest, where an Adonis tried to revitalize things again and again and failed miserably at that.

We started in an African desert with our Adonis stealing the thunder (and a crown) under the nose of watertight security and exhibits a pompous walk and all of sudden breaks into a jig.

If that was not enough we had an Ice maiden who suddenly realizes she is still young, svelte, and umm may be sizzling. All her antics fall flat on the audience. A Mallika may have fitted in a bahu’s role in Ekta’s run of mills, but I couldn’t gobble the fact of an Aish trying to raise temperatures by few notches and explicably she failed at that.

Rest of cast was wasted on expected lines. A man whose only claim is to be famous director’s son and may be a Kapil Devish toothy grin ,did what he does best, boring audience to death and let them believe movie cant go any worse. Famous superstar’s(AB) baby looked lifeless and love interest of current sizzling macho (Bipasha)failed to crackle.


Our Adonis tried the very bandana sported by Johnny Depp in avatar of Pirate in a desperate effort to get some of charm rubbed off on him, desolately we expected the charm but it was conspicuous by its absence. Nor our so called svelte Ice maiden in new hot avatar looked anywhere close to Keira.

Actors were going through motion ahem with a slight spring in their steps (it was a movie about speed you see) and I started waltzing in dreamland (yeah I dozed off) by the time Brazil beckoned.

Finally the sentence was over and we were back roaming in the real world. Ouch I almost rubbished a movie, cant help when you are made to cough up a premium expecting champagne and what you get is cheap spirit sans fizz, anger and irritation is very much palpable

Ps: A Liplock generated a lot of controversy, may be a PR stunt by movie producers. The whole world was interested in intertwining of lips between Adonis and Ice maiden except the family of young angry man of yesteryears. His baby (AB’s baby) cried foul, take it in stride mate! As if you would have whined had you been in Adonis’s shoes. And did I mention Adonis’s real life wife gave pats to hubby dearest for a wonderful effort, she described it as the best his hubby could have ever performed. Ouch Rehaan(youngest one in Adonis’s family) are we suspecting your genes boy!!! Never mind it was tongue in cheek comment, I just wanted to take a sweet and below the belt revenge……

Hardly royal ---we would still lap you up Mr. Bond

“Name is Bond, James Bond”, we sat stupefied and forgot that this much prized line (umm yeah gadgets, babes and those seat edging fights were pretty much there) hadn’t been uttered even once. Ah finally he did , Bond kills the villain and line is uttered at fag end of movie and is muted by deafening roars of applause that follow it.

So we all felt Bond is wooden with Brosnan not around . Daniel who? Excuse me what did you say Pierce aint around any more. He was awesome, hmm he was..Rather he is.
But let’s not demean new Bond. Craig is no mean actor anyway. I had my own apprehensions before I entered the theatre. For my generation PB (Brosnan) was the only Bond , rest were also rans, kind of patches we keep if original masterpiece lies shattered and we still want our bare walls to be draped.

But then misconceptions are needed 2 be cleansed and so here it was me bidding goodbye to another bias, another misconception. What was that , well I believed if someone could take baton from PB it has to be CF(Collin Farrel, one who was impudent enough to be Angelina Jolie’s son in much celebrated but a damp squib of a movie going by name of ‘Alexander’ ). So when it was announced with much fanfare that DC (CRAIG) is the next reporting to ‘M’, I was hardly enthused. Ah now we’ll find even Judy Dench hot (see Bond has hardly anything which may cause to let temperature soaring, so may be M would step in to provide some warmth). Well jokes apart ‘Casino Royale’ was last thing on my mind.

But did I ever say magazines were all singing paeans of new bond and that raised the curiosity , so I finished the class and with bunch of usual suspects I was off to catch glimpse of latest 007 .

Hmm I liked the novelty the director brought in. How about a Bond replacing “License to Kill “ tag with another tag a capital ‘L’(still learning the ropes mate!!!). Hmm yeah this Bond is not one well versed in art of “Bondgiri”(feel ashamed to coin such a desi word for her majesty’s secret agent). He flounders along, learns the art hard way, gets swindled, gets humiliated but mark it looks very very human. So Bond tries his luck at two girls , one is dead while other cons him with street smart methods ., so what he doesn’t get a girl at the end. He is the bond of poor people, he is the bond you or me can don the mantle of . He is the bond who gets beaten and comes back with vengeance.
He is the bond who looks heartless, still has emotion oozing out of him. Haven’t you witnessed him showing age old chivalry to that con of a lady called Vesper. How martini is served doesn’t matter to him any more, but he is Bond, James Bond who gives you paisa wasool and utters the famous line at fag end of the movie when you least expect it, leaving you craving for more. Looking forward to some more exploits Mr Bond, this fan is willing to shell out some more for you!!!!