Masoom

There are quite a few movies made world over, there are pathetic movies, then we also have the good and the average movies, a limited number are given the standing ovation but then there a few movies which you can count on your fingers which make it to the list of your favourite”st” movies ever and recently I found another movie which took that no from 5 to 6 and the movie is “Masoom”, a classic from 1983 by none other than Shekhar Kapoor. I have one little problem, I generally don’t fancy very highly rated movies that much, that’s why if somebody swears by “Shawshank Redemption”, I start comparing it with “God sees the Truth but waits” (a story in our class X English book by none other than Leo Tolstoy) and get disappointed. Somebody talks about Forrest Gump, I can only remember the TT scene in the movie and a guy who keeps running and running and then comes the big daddy Godfather, thinking of which I can just think of a guy whose voice no normal human can make out. Agree that these are all good (or great) movies but unfortunately they didn’t touch me. That’s why I was quite pleased to enjoy a movie which is highly rated in bollywood.

Basically a senti movie about the dilemma of a guy & his family who has to take his illegitimate son into his well established family when the mother of the boy dies while already having two daughters from his wife. The picture shows the emotional turmoil which the family and the kid goes through just because of a mistake committed by the father. The story is not much to tell of, not a new innovation must have been told quite a few times, I remember seeing another Hindi movie with almost the same theme but it is, the way the story is told which makes THE Difference.

We have two of the most seasoned actors in bollywood, namely Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi playing the lead roles so the acting had to be good and there is no doubt it is good and very real, not at one time in the movie would you feel that this is not a couple which you will encounter in real life as your neighbours. Full credit to these two actors but the surprise package of the movie is the acting by the two kids, Urmila Matondkar and Jugal Hansraj, using the term wonderful for the kids would be just an understatement, Urmila’s facial expressions made me wonder at times if kids this young understood emotions as much as we do and ofcourse Jugal Hansraj with his beautiful eyes which are almost always filled with sadness, except when playing with the girls also does a commendable job.

But, Shabani Azmi easily steals the show with a power packed performance of a woman torn between the hatred for the offspring of the “other woman” and the love and sympathy for a kid who needed her love and support. The best scenes of the movie are also the ones featuring her, whether it be her displaying her anger against her husband in a typical Indian wife manner, having to adapt to her husband’s infidelity. The best scene in the movie for me in the movie is the one when the kid Rahul says “Sorry Aunty” after he ran away from home and the one where she learns that the boy knows about his father.

When you talk of this movie, you can’t forget the music, Lakdi ki Kathi is still one of the most popular kid songs, even after 25 years and you would be hard pressed to find a soul who hasn’t heard the song “Huzoor is kadar bhi na itra ke chaliye” but the song of the movie is ofcourse “Tujhse Naraz nahin hoon zindagi“, one of the most haunting music ever made, the female version of the song can bring tears to your eyes if you (which reminds me, I don’t have the female version of the song, if you have it then please email me at himanksharma[at]gmail[dot]com)

One of the most memorable line of the movie (copied from imdb)

Rahul: [Rahul has accidentaly smashed his finger with the hammer and has run to Indu for a bandage]
[whimpering]
Rahul: Mummy!
Indu: [completely shocked and dropping the knife she had in her hand] MAIN TUMHARI MUMMY NAHIN HOON!

You just have to see the movie once to savour the magic of one of the best bollywod movie.

I was very disheartened to note that Shabana Azmi didn’t get the Filmfare award for this movie (though she won it for Arth that year). And I have to admit, I found Shabani Azmi very very attractive in the movie(pagare should be pleased to hear this 🙂 ), there is some charm in the sheer Indianness of her appearance which appeals more than some hot bod sporting a bikini.

Song of the Day:- Tujhse naraz nahin Zindagi

PS1:- 2 posts in a day, though will publish it tomorrow may be 🙂
PS2:- Will try to return back to regular blogging, have a huge backlog!! 😦
PS3:- Obama wins in US, Test match starting tomorrow, pretty interesting stuff this.
PS4:- I know I am gonna be flamed for naming three of the biggest movies ever… 😐

Another chapter closes, Goodbye Jumbo

Anil Kumble also known as Jumbo to millions of Indian cricket fans all over the world finally decides to retire after a successful international career spanning 18 years and >950 international wickets and again , praises have been sung, dedications have been made and the whole world went ga-ga over him but just for two or at the max three days and then everything is back to business, no tears being shed, no poetic eloquence to grieve his departure which is so typically Kumble, always the one to stay away from media glare and glamour, even his departure was the same, quite and subdued. The news of the retirement just came in a flash, we were all struck by the magnitude, discussed about the news, got nostalgic but now everyone is back to business.

A Look at that left hand says it all

Kumble was never the star of the team, not one who couldn’t be dispensed with, there was always a substitute ready for Kumble, one who was “really” a spinner, unlike Sachin, Dravid and Ganguly, though at this juncture most people would agree with the fact that he is the most important character of Indian cricket of 90s and 2000s after Sachin. You couldn’t find a more potent bowler than this tall guy on Indian pitches where he won many a matches just by the might of his non-spinning spin bowling. Every time the openers of opposing team stormed off to a rollicking start in a one day game thanks to not so special pace attack of India all through the 90s, you would see this man bouncing the ball in his hands and coming on as early as even the 6^th over at times and rarely did he disappoint you, even if the wickets were a hard thing to come by, atleast the run flow was controlled so that normal services could be retained.

For some reason I have always been a sort of admirer of the man, even when Kumble bashing was the in thing is Indian cricket circle, Almost all through my life I have generally given him the second billing after Sachin (ofcourse). There is an incident which repeatedly comes to my mind these days with the news of his retirement. I don’t exactly remember which season it was but it must be quite a few years back, Kumble was having quite an ordinary season and not getting as many wickets as expected or required from him. I was quite young then but I remember my dad kept saying at times that Kumble must be dropped from the squad and to this day I remember that as the first instance when my opinion differed from my dad’s and I made it clear to him always supporting him and backing him with a silent prayer for him, so that I could prove my point to my father, and now at the helm of Indian bowling, 3^rd highest wicket taker in Test Cricket, he has proved me right.

Kumble has certainly given Indian fans the most proud moment in the history of Indian Test cricket by being the bowler to take 10 wickets, Indians may trounce players from other nations when it comes to records concerning durability whether it be most wickets in a career, most centuries, most runs, Indians have had it all but there are very rare innings the performances in which are considered to be the best in the world (specially in tests), with only the Laxman’s 281 being the only one recognized.

The famous broken jaw in Antigua

The nostalgia is overwhelming, we all will miss the angry stare at the fielder for misfielding a ball, the ct Dravid b Kumble entry in the scorecard and most of all we will miss incidents like Antigua and Delhi, when he comes back to claim a Lara while bowling with a broken jaw or when he cleans up the Australian tail with 3 fingers of left hand bandaged together and with 11 stitches in the hand. With him departing it is now only Sachin who remains of the first Indian team I saw playing, the team of 96 World Cup. It almost feels as if not only they are getting older but we are also having a transition where we can be regarded as the previous generation by the kids high on the cricket of the Dhonis, the Yuvrajs and the Ishants!! With this generation of players going out, we will also see the noble Indian cricketers going and replaced by the Harbhajans and Sreeshanths, ready to slap on slightest proclamation. Of all the 12 years of watching cricket, I can only remember one incident when Kumble was disturbed with the opposing batsman, the sole incident coming against Eddo Brandis of Zimbabwe and even that frustration was shown only after dismissing with a few words spoken in front of his team mates, no pointing to the pavilion and absolutely no circling the batsman to express his fury.

Perhaps one of the most fitting tribute for him came when Laxman said “you should look at him, even with a broken left hand he took the catch and we were dropping sitters” goes on to say a lot about Jumbo!!

Song of the Day:- Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly

PS1:- This is my second tribute to Kumble, first one coming when he retired from ODIs
PS2:- This is the third post I have written today will be publishing these 3 posts in 3 days 🙂 Nice return to blogging 🙂

Shuffle it up!!

I haven’t been posting a lot these days, and the sole reason for this being nothing other than Laziness, bitten by the laziness bug, I don’t do anything constructive these days except doing BC all day. No BTP work, no placement prep, no CAT preparation. Was just going through my google reader feed when I saw a blog post by Sayesha where I saw this tag. She didn’t tag me but I found this interesting so thought of doing it and then unfortunately I hit upon the idea of putting it on my blog, so here I am back with a post 😛

The rules are very simple

Here are the rules:
1. Put your music player on Shuffle mode.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. Write the song name no matter what it is.
4. After you’ve answered all of the questions, tag 5 other people and let them know they’ve been tagged. (Chose to omit this one, have been cursed by one and all for my prev tag posts though anybody reading this one is welcome to take up the tag)

The answers can be quite interesting and quite true in many cases

And the results are here

If someone says “Is this okay?”, you say:

Zara sa Jhoom loon main

What would best describe your personality?

I’d like to be under the sea in an Octopus’s Garden in the shade

What do you like in a guy/girl?

Dard-e-dil, Dard-e-Jigar dil mein jagaya aapne

How do you feel today?

Don’t think twice, its alright

What is your life’s purpose?

De taali, taali de… Life is just a holiday (Ha ha ha ha 🙂 )

What do your friends think of you?

Love struck Baby

(Quite true 😛 )

What do you think of your parents?

From the coast of Ipanema

to the Island of Capri

all the way to Kuala Lumpur

I will follow you wherever you may be

(:P Good boy)

What do you think about very often?

Baad muddat ke ye ghadi ayi

aap aye to zindagi ayi

What do you think of your best friend?

Lagi tumnse man ki lagan

What do you think of the person you like?

Bekhudi mein Sanam, Uth gaye jo Kadam

What is your life story?

Let it rain, let it rain

let your love rain down on me

(He he he, waiting for this rain for , like forever)

What do you want to be when you grow up?

One more weekend 😛

What do you think of when you see the person you like?

Tum paas aae, yun muskurae

What do your parents think of you?

Mere liye tum pareshan kyun ho

(Great if my parents think so 🙂 am a good son after all)

What will you dance to at your wedding?

Heartbreaker 😉

(Does this need explaining?? )

What will they play at your funeral?

I’m out here a thousand miles from my home

Walkin’ a road other men have gone down

What is your hobby/interest?

Bhool ja, jo hua use bhool ja

What is your biggest secret?

Teri bindiya re

What do you think of your friends?

Tere pyaar mein

What do you think about this tag?

Sau baar janam lenge, sau baar fana honge

ae jaanewafa phir bhi hum tum na juda honge

Some of these are quite suited for the question!! 🙂

Song of the Day:- Wouldn’t it be nice by The Beach Boys

PS1:- Seriously need to come back to blogging, think will continue after the BTP viva
PS2:- Amazingly, though count as well as play counts of English songs in my media player is quite high when compared to Hindi ones but the list displays maxm Hindi ones :O
PS3:- Though reading this might not sound interesting but I advise all of you to do it.. Its hell lot of fun! 🙂
PS4:- Have removed a few questions from Sayesha’s tag for the fear of making the post long, so Sayesha if by chance you happen to stumble upon this post, don’t curse me