Parineeta - A classic

Watched Parineeta over the weekend. A very sweet yet powerful movie.

The movie is the adaptation of Saratchandra Chatterjee's Bengali novel - Parineeta (means Married Women). Hey..it is the same guy who wrote Devadas. The director is Pradeep Sarkar, he has done a good job of adapting the novel on celluloid.

It is a period movie set in the Calcutta of 60s . That itself lends an old world charm to the movie. The story goes like this: Sekar & Lolita are childhood friends, Sekar being the 'rich' boy and Lolita - the orphaned girl-living in uncle's house. There is an unconditional strong emotional bond between the two. Problem sets in ..in the form of Heritage Hotel. Lolita's house has been pledged to Sekar's father, Navin Rai (an unscrupulous - business man). Navin Rai, dreams of building Heritage Hotel knowing very well that the house cannot be redeemed. But the twist comes in the form of Girish, a suave n gentle London steel tycoon (in those days..itself). He falls for Lolita & gradually becomes close to her family. He gives the required money to redeem the house. And this makes Navin Rai very angry. The son is also very angry..for he thinks, Lolita has taken a liking to Girish. Jealousy rears its ugly head. Soon things are sorted out with a spur-of-the-moment marriage between Sekar & Lolita. Due to quirk turn of events, relationship sours between Lolita's family n Sekar's. Lolita's uncle gets a heart attack, and the ever helping Girish steps in and takes them to London. Navin Rai poison's his son's mind and makes him believe that Lolita had married Girish and in a moment of fury, Sekar agrees to his marriage with the girl, his father had chosen. But, on the day of marriage he gets to know the truth (Girish had actually married Lolita's sis) and everything is subham.

Vidya Balan lives as Lolita - the Parineeta. Did somebody say that she was making her debut. It didnt look so. What a powerhouse of a performance! Everything looks so good on her - anger, sadness, love, passion, indignation, happiness... She definitely has a longggg innings in the film world. Watch her eyes when she taunts Saif 'Shaadi shudha hoon..Isliye tho Yisi'

Saif performance was so realistic that u felt like pulling his collar and say Lolita really loves you and not Girish. A very difficult role to essay for a mainstream actor who until recently was not a great actor to be looked upon. He handles the grey shades with aplomb- brings out his insecurity with a rage never seen before. The sizzling chemistry between Vidya and Saif is a treat to watch.

Sanjay Dutt gives a mature performance as Girish. You have to give it to him for carrying of his role with such dignity.

The film's only eyesore was the climax. such a beautiful poetry should have had a subtle and poignant ending. On the contrary, Saif becomes the typical bollywood hero of the 80s and 90s - he literally breaks the wall between the two houses (with thod do..sekar..thod do chants from his friends n mother) and claims his wife. The wife simply hugs him choosing to forget all the insults that were heaped on her. Damn it.

I am going to watch Parineeta again.. just to see Vidhya & Saif Ali Khan enjoying themselves with Piyu bole piya bole ..jaanu na.....Jiya dole hole hole ..kyon yeh dole jaanu na ;-))

Chennai - Marooned

Rains have come back with a vengeance...and it is definitely creating havoc. There was some respite yesterday but 'today' seems like a replay of the day before yesterday :-(

What a day that was.... I cheered the rains initially..
everything seems so nice when u r sitting in the cool comfort of ur office & working along with the music of the rains falling on the rooftop. But reality struck, when I had to get back home. Decided to take the office cab at 9.00 p.m (very smart of me to skip the peak hours ..atleast that is what I thought so ..sob..sob)..the cabbie came in at 10.00 p.m (thankfully..had a book to browse thro..didnt mind waiting).

And then The Journey started.

The scene outside was straight out of a hollywood disaster epic...water ..water everywhere...and ofcourse serpentine queues of vehicles. The usual 20 min travel from velachery to kotturpuram took a cool 1 - 1/2 hrs. Mind you..it was not peak hour traffic, but at 10 p.m in the night. I thought, I was better off..there were scores of people on two wheelers, who had to keep their cool and wade thro knee deep water, pouring chill rain and horrible traffic.

Bless these guys who sit at the FM stations ..n.. keep churning out soft melodies to smoothen the frayed nerves. 'Illan kaathu veezuthu', 'ooru sanam' kept me going ..rather sitting.. at the halda junction for over 30 min.

Dunno..whatz in store for today.

Happy Hols

After a long time, we have a five day - holiday. Planning to have a blast.
OK. Guys..Chill out..Have fun..Play safe ;-)

Let me leave you with a link to the classics in English Literature - Good One..
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/

DesiPundit - Curtains Down?

The folks at DesiPundit have decided to shut down their shop. It is a rather a sudden and sad move...Whatever..DesiPundit will definitely be missed.

kannadasan - movie songs lyrics

There is an ongoing discussion in my office blogs abt kannadasan. Came across this site from there

Selected Kannadasan Lyrics

U just have to sit back and njoy the lyrics! And say a silent thanks to the good souls who have compiled the list and made it available to us.

Bad Choice

If you are wedded into a god-fearing-family, you need to take occasional pilgrimages to seek the blessings of the almighty. Hence..I had been on a rather long trip to two places in Karnataka - Narasimharajapur (N R Pura), Chickmagalur District; Humbuja - Shimoga District.

Now coming to the point..Humbuja (Humcha) is famous for Padmavathy Amman Jain temple. After a thrilling journey via forests, we were welcomed by a shrill voice - blaring prayers via the big speakers (I think, people know that gods are faraway and more the speakers you have, the more easier it is to connect with it/him/she ;-)

The temple presented a picture of utter negligence inspite of being able to pull good crowd. It was actually not a temple in the real sense..it looked like a big old fashioned bangalow. Even that was not maintained properly. After the customary pooja, we decided to venture out to the 1300 yr old pond/lake nearby. On the way, there was this splendid temple left to the ruins. It seems the original temple has been built centuries ago, later there is an addition of the roof structure. Lot of strikingly beautiful statues were lying around with no one to care for. It seems the temple is under the perview of ASI. I could not gather any information abt the history of the temple (some info was given in Kannada .though)The net says ..built between 8th - 11th century in the Chalukyan style.

But what a bad choice these devotees had made, they leave a beautiful temple to rot away and instead build a house-like temple and continue their worship.

Inspite of being a self-confessed atheist, I felt sorry for god!

Makkal TV

Happened to catch glimpses of Makkal TV in the mornings. They seem to have good content for a startup. Daring to do away with filmi stuff, they present prog. on tamilnadu & tamil culture. I have watched 'Sandror Veedhi' (Intellectuals Road)..on the lines of 'Walk the talk'. The anchor is doing a decent job of asking probing questions and making it easier for the audience to 'walk' along. Then comes writer Prabanjan's show where he introduces latest books in tamil literature. Today, there was an interesting discussion between Prabanjan & Munaivar Nirmala on the 'Thali' sentiment. Prabanjan says, the tamil custom of marriage originally did not involve the 'Thali'. He cites 'Aandal Paasuram' for proof, here u have Aandal vividly describing her dream marriage with god. No where 'Thali' comes in..This custom should have cropped up during chola's period ..it seems. And interestingly, in those days, the bridegroom had to wear a ring as an identity of marriage..but that custom seems to have waned away with time (Prabanjan chips in .."for the convenience of men")

Whatever..kalaiyil Nalla Thamizh Kaekka Nalla Iruukku ;-)
p.s: I'm yet to watch the political progs..for record, Makkal TV was started by the PMK.