incomplete..

not everything in life needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end. in reality, there is always a story before the actual story. and a story after it. what any writer or script writer or director or musician tries - is to tell us what happened in the interim. between one page and the next, one scene and the next, one note and the next. if i were to tell you the story of my life, i may begin by tellin you where i was born. but the truth is the real story was set in motion when my parents were born, or their parents or in fact, the real story would have started millions and millions of years back. my story would then be just a piece cut out from the fabric of time. and this is what dhobhi ghat was to me. it did not begin coz there was a story even before the characters came to life on screen. and neither did it end with the last scene. coz the characters continue to live even after the movie ends. it was just a slice of life. of four different people - bound together by the fifth and the strongest element of the movie - mumbai.

the name of the movie should give one an idea about what it has to offer. coz doesn't it blatantly say "(mumbai diaries)" right in its name? and a diary it is. there were stellar performances and even lack lustre scenes. most characters seemed intensely real. each character a study in itself and worthy of review. and even when Arun couldn't quite pull it off, i thought it was the actor and not the character itself that was to blame. each character evoked memories of people i know and emotions i have felt. i went for the movie with friends who bemoaned the lack of story, the lack of a purpose behind the story even. but to me the purpose was the story telling itself. and i loved the story, incomplete, as it might seem. so would i have preferred to know if Shai did get to meet Arun again and maybe realize her infatuation with him? would it be better knowing if Munna did become a famous actor or not? would it be better if i knew whether Yasmin did kill herself or if she survived the attempt to end her woes? well, if you were to ask me, i would rather not know any of this. for it is not always that one knows all answers. i dont know what became of people i knew, things i had treasured. i dont know the motives that drive people to act the way they do or the result of their actions. for the most part i live on in spite of not knowing. and that is what life is. like someone rightly said - 'maybe life does not give one all the answers. maybe life itself is the answer'. i'm not much o a film critic , but i know i like a movie when i come out o the theater thinkin - 'i want to go right back and watch it all over again'.

disclaimer : love for the movie may be also be induced by love for the city. didn't help that i went with this hard core mumbaikaar whose face definitely lit up when Arun says - "to my muse, to my whore, to my beloved". and this one was definitely for mumbai!!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..

"Looks like we are the first to walk this way."
"But soon our footsteps will be covered with snow,
and it will be like no one has walked here before."

it's white! :) all thru. all the dirt and wreck is now covered in a smooth layer of white. at night when i walked this way everything looked dingy and old. but by tomorrow mornin everythin will have a new sheen. last night in this snow storm, we trudged on from the train station to our home. singing - "excuse me, kya re??" we could ve taken a cab. but once in a while craziness is its own reward. i remember a time when it used to be rain instead of snow, girls instead o this guy. but craziness was the same. it may seem to have mellowed with age. but on a snowy day, when everyone seems to be running for cover, craziness rears its sleepy head and whispers in ur ears. go out in the snow, coz u never know. kal snow ho na ho. :D

lost n found...

i remember the last time i walked out of a movie hall after a hindi movie and was glad. about d movie and d changing phase of indian commercial cinema. and today it happened once again. i went in to watch no one killed jessica with very high expectations - having heard it was great. and it surpasses all of it. in spite of the fact that the story is a bollywood version of fact (hybrid of fact and fiction, says the disclaimer), the movie has its own strength of character that can be believed.

it made me wonder if in the past 25 or 26 years there has ever been anything that has made an activist out of me. that would make me take to the roads and crusade. it reminded me o that scene in rdb in which someone asks - "mujhe laga kisi ke liye mar matne ka jasba humme ho hi nahi sakta". and the truth is - "mujhe bhi aisa hi laga". and i've not been proven wrong until date. the only ever time we literally took to the roads was in college first year. as freshers had who to follow everythin that was told blindly, i remember going to secretariat and joining an impassioned march. the cause. i really can't remember. maybe it was against declaring CET as a deemed university. who knows. and i'm not really sure anyone knew the truth of it to care. but march we did.. a far call from the "justice for jessica" march. and a sad memory when seen in this light. :)

something else that touched my heart is the fact that there is power. there is power in being the biggest democracy. when ridden with derision and disbelief that we the people can make a difference, it takes reminders to show that we really can. from the candle vigils to the pink chaddi campaign.. it reminds me that after all we are all NOT in our own insulated universes.

so while the critics may complain that the movie has cliched characters and is melodramatic at best, it did touch a few notes in my heart and for that alone i really like the movie.