Swades

Swades.. An Ashutosh Gowarikar film.. Full marks to him for choosing a topic which wont really appeal to the masses and goin ahead and making a heart felt film... n he surely felt sooooooo much for it that our man goes overboard n makes a four hour film… and as per what I heard this is what happened to the film post editing.. the casting falls in place with Shahrukh for the first time not doing his “ overacting” bit… u know every time there is an emotional scene u can actually feel as thou the director is pulling back SRK so that he remains as “ Mohan Bhargav- the character” and not “Shahraukh Khan” the person… Gayatri Joshi… my senior from school... well u can easily tell its her first film.. To the extent that she seems nervous at places with Shahrukh’s presence in the scene. The movie builds up well in the beginning … grips u till the first bit at NASA… shahrukh’s entry into India... till the first song and till the time there are few instances of the rural India and its issues.. and then…. There is just toooo much of the emotional crap.. too much of the mush.. too many songs… this is when I found it really hard to keep my eyes open I SLEPT THROUGH PART OF THE MOVIE… and woah when I wake up.. mr. Shahrukh has successfully generated electricity in the village.. I even forgot the name already!!!! Well that bit reminded me of the treatment given to lagaan... the plot revolves around a similar concept till then.. a heroic act… with one single individual standing out to achieve that bit.. Among several.. literally several other individuals… standing there waiting to taste the success of that heroic act… n then the story turns when mr. Shahrukh has to go back to NASA… to me the movie got back its grip and sensibility at that point (or probably I was done with my nap) .. His dilemma of returning back to his own country. .with a sensible plan of action and not just settling into the village.. the snapshots of India running thru his mind… his moments of success at NASA.. his urge to do his bit for his homeland.. All justified in that last bit!!!

All in all the message is simple, valid, sensible and true: n it comes across the best in a dialogue by the charater called “ melaram.. or did I get that wrong” … is when he says: “why use our own prowess to the benefit of some neighbors land?”
I was wondering as to why this movie didn’t generate that bit of a patriotic feeling like its contemporaries with the same mission.. The reason probably being its very difficult to generate a patriotic feeling from a current problem.. a crisis situation which as no two sides…but the enemy lies in the problem itself!!! That’s where inspite of the film being long with unnecessary songs I believe its successful in its attempt to sensitize!!
Ashutosh Gowarikar’s treatment is very similar to Lagaan.. Reflects absolute class and surely loads of talent on part of the Director way superior to his contemporaries.. But one more film with the same treatment and am sure no takers for the film.

Surely worth a watch… but remember I slept through bits of the film.. So probably the length seemed shorter to me

uhhhh

jsut wrote a bigg blog on mumbai and the damn net connection goofed up..
not in a mood to write it al over agn.. hope will soooooon

my disappearing act

ON my flight to India… my mind is this mad rush of thoughts. all piling on a the same time.. leading me to this dying urge to write.. n what when I have been away from my blog for over two weeks now.. I guess my lil blog does deserve a nice big post as a recap to whts happening with my life and where the hell had I disappeared since my last post….
After the thanskigving break this is how life has been split up into:

1. Beginning December and al the final reviews and assignment and submissions and presentations began to surface leaving me almost underground drowned into the act of completing my work….

2.However when I mention the beginning of this month it ll be really really unfair if I don’t speak about “ the December 4th party” a lot happened over this weekend… the party rocked to the core.. and people soaring away to glory with some awesome music and the icing on the cake being the two lady cops who walked in “supposedly” at 4 m…where was I at this time? Hmmm…. I really don’t remember!!!!


3. Life seemed like a mess in the the coming week and all i wanted to do is run away… but I guess learnt my lesson the hard way, This month has been to me an absolute test of learning to hang in there.. Hang in and fight every situation to its minutest detail… be it work. Be it something else.. I already feel tougher

4 . Now it somehow seemed like all the party sharty for the semester was finally over as all of us were so immersed in meeting deadlines studying for exams and working on reviews… but the best part of the month… when the hard work pays off…

Decmber 17th : my first final review at the U of M… all my classmates had made it sound n rightly so as quite a big deal… wht with people workin day in n day out like maniacs on their desks in the studio.. n some great people being invited form all over the country for these reviews and the competition element floating around the studio… The review went really well… n I was myself shocked at the no of compliments and positive critique I got towards my work.. .especially form the profs… but the best part of the story .. being short listed for the competition …. 14 projects out of 90.. not a bad deal!!! The results r out n I didn’t win .. .but yes apparently my project got a special mention from the jurors.. guess have to suffice with that as of now…

4. So did I say that dec 4th was the last party? We all go into our party shoes once agn after my review thing happened n “ricks” time it was./.. prob the last time with single Sid… n of course I missed the party on the prev night at Nectos ..when everyone went leaving me alone to do my model for studio.. guess that payed off well thou.!!! But me n cribbing have to go hand in hand right?

5. Work however didn’t stop taking its toll on me .. infact all it did was made me panic all the more as I realised that I still had loads to finish even the day I left for India… All this never really let me realize that I was actually going to India….

In the middle of this packeddddddd Decemeber month … certain aspects of life have surfaced as answers n question marks… once of them would be “ friendship” Who is ur best friend? A childhood friend whom u speak to now once in 6 months? Or is the term relative to the circumstances? At this point of time I know my friends whom I left behind shall always be there and the good times shall roll forever but then there is new aspect of friendship which I had never experienced… it’s a beautiful pristine feeling… n am glad I felt it!!!

As I sit in this flight n think about wht alllllllllll I am gonna do in India the thoughts just don’t stop… there is so much I want to do n it has suddenly or rather I ll say finally sunk in that I am GOIN TO INDIAAAA….aah my laptop bat is lowwwww!!!!

When I came here 4 months ago the feeling I had in the flight was I am leaving my wholeeeeeee world behind n going to an alien nation that, I had assumed shall have nothing to offer me in terms of relationships and people.. I was so sure it was a disconnected act which I was to indulge into for two yrs.. devoid of emotions what so ever. N I have proved myself wrong .It has been a learning experience in terms of feeling towards people who mean in terms of a relationship just friends but I know shall always be there.. whenever the need be.
Today as I sit here the feeling is not of going back the only world I have that I left behind but it’s a feeling of going from one world of mine to another .. I know that this time I shall have something to come bk to and not feel on my journey bk home as thou am sinkin into the black hole.


Ok now my comp is draining out … gtg…

cant find a heading for this one

its almost a week since my last post i guess... have too much work on my mind n would probably want to write abt how bugged am about it right now... but as a continuation to my previous blog it wouldnt be fair to the second half of the boston trip if i dont write about it...well the second day meant a lazzy start and finally gettin out of the house to go shopping in wrentham village mall for the thanksgiving sale at around 2pm... well shopping makes me happy.. but i didnt shop much... n i am not lyingggg. the evening was walking around boston downtown.. what intriques me most though is walkin down the same streets by night and see an absolute morphosis of activity ;character ; people n mood ... a transformed realm with the lights taking over as th most powerful element in the landscape making it almost diffuclt to function with out them... ok the next step of the trip meant "goin to partyyy" .. what fun!!! ... i shall leave that part of the story to this much only...
finally saturday morning n we went on this walkin historic trail of the city.. that was fun... i mean the best way to grasp and absorb the city!!! so much of walking n what better way to compensate for it with some awesome food at cheesecake factory n even more sinful..yummm strawberry cheese cake to eat and two more to go for the drive back to ann arbor... greedy souls that we are!!!

finally we got ourselves to push our butts out of the city at 930 pm... for another fun drive back to ann arbor.. n the song of the trip officially " fana" ..that song is absolute energy!!! i feel its been a great come back from a.r.rehman when he was jsut abt gettin monotonous.... the whole of yuva album for tht matter... its grown on me oveer time n has a lot of "re-value"!!!

ok now back to work.. just had my pre final review yesterday... the largest dose of crtique for me uptill now for this semester.. hope i come out out good out of this though for the final one..today - a final submission of " chair" for representation class... a bubble wrap chair....was fun!!!

just two more weeks of this semster to go.. cant belive its actually gone by so fast n we are practically at the end...