Sa-Ro-Ja

Jaganna (Jagapathy Babu played by the likeable SPB Charan) could not believe it. He stopped in shock and tried to think hard while the train pulled away. Chinni, Ganesh Kumar and Ajay yelled madly, egging him on to run towards the train. Jaganna stopped dead in his tracks and started searching furiously for his wallet. He remembered hiding in the store room when the goon was looking for them. And as he realized that he probably lost his wallet somewhere there, he cursed his luck and the fact thathe had to go back in to that abandoned building. Reluctantly, one by one, Chinni, Ajay and Ganesh Kumar got down from the moving train and ran back towards Jaganna not realizing what could be some important to stop him from running for his life.

What started out as a simple road trip of fun, to watch a cricket match in Hyderabad, had now gone sour. After they witnessed the killing of a policeman by Sampath, they had only one intention - to flee the place. After a great lot of difficulty, they managed to run to the tracks where they barely got on to the moving train. Almost. Jaganna realized that with this wallet lying around, the goons could always track him. It had pictures of his family, his driver's license and pretty much everything needed to locate him.

The four of them argued over who would go in. Jaganna pleaded with all of them to back while he went in alone to search for the wallet, but they did not agree. After a lot of deliberation, Ganesh Kumar (played fantastically by my now-favorite Prem G Amaran) is volunteered for the task. After scoping out the area as best as they could, the two of them finally reach the store room where they had been earlier, tip-toeing out! Just as Jaganna heaved a sign of relief at having spotted the wallet, he turned around and realized that Ganesh Kumar was no longer around. Yet another time in the day, Jaganna could not believe it. They had everything that they needed to get away, but were now missing a dear friend. He went back to Ajay and Chinni, who were waiting outside the building. No, Ganesh had not returned there.

In a dilapidated room, Saroja sat in the chair, against her will. Her heart was pounding and her throat was parched. She did not know where she was, she had little time to inspect her surroundings when her blindfold was removed momentarily. She barely got a glimpse of the pervert who was touching her inappropriately - one of Sampath's men, who had kidnapped her and were holding her hostage in this god-forsaken place! Thankfully, it looked like someone was coming that way, so he put back the blindfold on her and moved away. She sat in darkness knowing not what to expect next. As she heard footsteps, she cried out

"Please, don't do anything. Please let me go". What she heard next, caught her by surprise. A frail voice of Ganesh Kumar "Ille ille..naan avanga ille. " He explained briefly how they had come here by mistake, lost during their road trip. She asked a few questions and convinced herself that he was genuinely trying to help her. Just as they were preparing to leave, Ganesh Kumar turns to her and says "Seri, vaanga. Naan ungale kaapaathirein...Adhukku munnaadi, inge purse edhaavadhu vittengalaana parthhukonga. Yena..inge tirimbi vara mudiyaadhu!" (loosely translated - "Ok, I will help you. But, before we leave, please check if you have dropped your purse here. It will be very difficult to come back once we leave")

The movie has many such moments that I loved. I cant understand why there is so much hatred on the net for the music and the fact that it was copied off Judgement Night. I loved the characters in the movie who I thought acted well within their limits. I applaud Premji and Charan for doing something beyond music. And I loved Yuvan's music. With so many things to like, I could overlook the lack of a original story or "seasoned" actors.

Stages of music appreciation

Stages that I go through when I like a new song

1. Instant appreciation.

2. Listen repeatedly till I scare myself into hating the song.

3. Stop listening to the song and desparately try to get hooked to something else.

4. Forget what the song's tune was and recreate the wrong tune in my mind.

5. Give in to the song and listen to it again.

6. Get blown away a second time and realize that I did not observe the nuances during my first hearing.

7. Try to sing the song whenever/wherever and do a horrible job.

8. Hate the song because it is not easy to sing.

9. Praise all artists involved in the song and accept that singing is not for everyone.

Omkara: The power of a song

(image courtesy: www.xkcd.com)

I watched Omkara over the weeked. At first, I did not like the movie and was prepared to do an autopsy of what was wrong with the movie) and may well end up doing that. However, I can't do any justice to this review if I don't mention this song from the movie which has capitivated me more than any song has, in the past few years. The lyrics of the song go

Ooo...Saathi re

Din doobe na

Aa chal din ko roke

Dhoop ke peeche daude..

Chaanv chue na

(hence the connection with the xkcd pic)

If you are a reasonably insane movie watcher and occasionally read reviews to find out what has been going on in the Indian movie industry, you would have known that Vishal Bharadwaj too to movie direction from music direction and paid homage to Shakespeare with two movies - Omkara (adaptation of Othello) and Maqbool (adaptation of McBeth). However, if you are like me and do not know the story of Othello, please do not read the synopsis before watching the movie. Not because, it will ruin the movie for you, but because the movie deserves to be seen with an unbiased opinion. The following might contain spoilers so do not read further if you wish to keep an open mind and see the movie.

Omkara is a movie about a lot of things - there is the jealousy of Langda Tyagi (played well by Saif Ali Khan), there is the rise to power of Omkara (Ajay Devgan) and there is the innocence of Kesu Phirangi (Vivek Oberoi). You can forgive Vishal for trying to further milk the Ajay Devgan - Vivek Oberoi chemistry and setting up a scenario that viewers are familiar through RGV's Company. You can also forgive him for adding all the bells and whistles possible, by adding Naseeruddin Shah and Konkana Sen Sharma in roles that could have been done just as well by any other actor. However, what you cannot move past, is that the characters are easily manipulated in this movie. The heart of it all is Omkara himself who cannot see the ulterior motives behind Tyagi's claims or can't see his wife's loyality despite the fact that she chose to leave everything to be with him.

While I could go on and rant about this further, this post is mainly about this song which is holding my hand and preventing me from writing anything against this movie. You see, while the movie is about a lot of things, it is fundamentally about the love between Omkara and Dolly (Kareena Kapoor). When you see the movie a second time, you will see that these two have little time to be with each other and each moment is as important to them as the other. This song captures the beauty of this emotion, by Gulzaar's precise and deep lyrics. In these days, a lyricist rarely gets a chance to be heard above the layers of orchestrization and visuals that unfold on screen. However, thanks to Vishal's brilliant work in this song, the lyrics lead the way and set the mood of the song. Listening to this song, you feel that this movie was all about this love story and everything else just unfolds around the lead pair. The song felt so powerful that while I sat through predictable scenes and bad screenplay, I had this song running in the back of my head which set a mood for the film that no dialogue, camera angle, acting or prior review could do.

A week of firsts and something to think about...

It has been a week of firsts of all sorts. I had beetroot sambar for the first time in my life. Its amazing how I have had beetroot and sambar independently but this is the first time I had it together. You have to get past the different color but then it is a good taste.

Other than that I have had my first good dental experience. I have had a cavity bothering me for a little while now and with lot of hesitation, I took an appointment with this dentist that Uma had seen earlier. The doctor was very friendly and made me feel very comfortable. However, I cannot get past the idea of a dentist talking to me while I have a plumber's kit in my mouth. You see, the dentist was filling my cavity, so he stuck a device under my lips to keep my mouth pried open. Seeing that, this was not enough he wedged a bean shaped thing at my molars so that I could not bite down any more. Leaving me in this awkware position, he reclined my chair a little further than 180 degrees so that I felt a little bit upside down. He and the nurse then stare down my mouth while I try hard not to fog up his tiny mirror that he is using to see the underside of my tooth! While doing this, he told me some stories about his daughter and explained what he was doing with my teeth. I could not understand if he expected me to answer back or acknowledge that I heard him. At one point, he asked me if I was doing alright too!

At the end of the day as we were driving back after watching Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, I told U about my experience with the dentist. I told her that I found it awkward to listen to a one-sided conversation without being able to acknowledge it. Without missing a beat she remarked

"Vaadiki entha bore kodithe vachina prati addamaina vedhava tho vaadi inti sangatulu cheptaadu ??"

(Loosely translated: "How bored must this guy be to narrate his personal stories to every dumbass who visits him ?")

Fiction: The way home

He glanced at his watch nervously as he pedaled faster. His glasses were beginning to get misty from his perspiration but he did not stop to clean them. He could see the road as a blur and he was fine with it. He knew that not many people would be on this road this late in to the night. Not this road. Not this late.

Earlier in the evening, his supervisor asked him to stay late and finish the accounts for the month. Naresh noted that the supervisor did not really ask him if it was alright with him. He just told him to stay late and finish the work. He knew very well that Naresh did not really have a life after work. A poor engineer who chose to work for pittance, managing accounts of a rice mill had desperation written all over it. The supervisor never hesitated to take advantage of Naresh's situation. Naresh could not afford to lose the job but he could not really think of leaving late for his house. Sivayya, the old sweeper, stroke Naresh's hair as he sat down at the varendah.

"If I were you, I would get working soon and get home soon. I have told you this before too but that road is not safe in the night. It passes through the muncipal graveyard. Bodies are flung over there and barely buried or cremated. If you don't respect the dead..."

"I know Sivayya!" Naresh interrupted angrily. He was easily scared. He recollected the one time at school when he had forgotten his notebook in the biology lab and had to go back alone to pick it up. The room with the skeleton in it. How he felt that something was watching him..

"Don't forget to lock up before you leave. And I am going to look through it the first thing in the morning".

The supervsior left looking at the heavens and thanking God for yet another profitable day.

Naresh went over the evening in his mind, to keep it occupied. He kept pedalling faster, hoping that the next 30 minutes would pass by soon. As he approached the graveyard, he felt a sharp pain crawling up his calf muscle. He felt like he was about to cry from the pain. He shook his leg for a second and got back to pedaling. He tried to keep his eyes focused on the road while trying to stay aware of anything else. He tried to think happy thoughts, he did not want to show fear. However, he kept thinking about the graveyard and what Sivayya said. He considered ringing the bell, to block out other sounds. But he was afraid he would attract the dogs...or worse. The pain in his leg worsened. He kept reminding himself that he would soon be out of the graveyard. His eyes were moist. He could not tell if it was tears or sweat. Wincing from the pain in his leg, he kept pedalling on. The cycle seemed to inch forward slowly. It was not that he was going uphill but he was not moving as fast as he wanted. It felt like something was tugging at his cycle from behind but he did not want to turn back and look. He gave out a loud scream and pedalled away. As he neared the end of the graveyard he heard a dog yelping behind him. It sounded like he was in pain. Naresh did not turn back and look, he was glad that the worst was behind him. He heaved a sigh of relief and eased the pressure on his leg.

That was when the cycle jerked forward and stopped. He almost fell of the cycle but he put his leg down quickly and yelled out in pain. The sudden transfer of weight on to his leg made him let out his fear in terms of his screams. He got off the cycle and rubbed his leg quickly. Without glancing around, he tried to find out what happened. The cycle chain had eased off the wheel. He fumbled with the chain, hurting his fingers as he tried to fix it. His eye caught a white figure in a distance. He rubbed his eye thinking it was something in his eye. When he put his glasses back on, he realised that he was not alone. The lady in the white saree was staring at him fixatedly. She was not angry or sad. She seemed surprised to see him there. Something about her expression made him relax. She approached him as if she were in a hurry. He backed off and lost his balance.

"Excuse me, may I ask you for something ?"

"Um..yeah sure"

"I live about 5 minutes from here. My father dropped his money purse here on his way home. I came to look for it and it got late by the time I found it. Would you mind walking with me till my home ? It is quite late, and I am hesitant to walk by myself."

Naresh felt a smile creeping across his face. All his life he had been a coward. The easily scared Naresh. People got a kick out of planning out elaborate pranks for him. He could never walk alone in the dark. But, here was someone who was asking him to be with her, so that she could feel reassured. He felt himself taking a deep breath and a cool breeze blowing across his face.

"One minute. I heard a dog yelping in the back. Let me go see if it is in pain." he said, before walking back in to the graveyard.