Shakespearewalla

Last weekend I saw Omkara. I liked the movie. It is an adoption of Shakespeare's Othello. The movie is directed by Vishal Bharadwaj, who ealier had adopted Shakespeare's Macbeth as Maqbool, which was released in 2003. Two earlier pictures directed by Vishal are Chatri Chor which was based on Ruskin Bond's The Blue Umbrella, and Makdee. Vishal had started his career as music composer of Gulzar's Maachis. He had said in an interview, in a lighter vein, that he became film director so that he could compose music for the films. Music composing remains his first love.

Coming to the movie Omkara, the story is based in a small town in Western Uttar Pradesh. It is story of Omkara Shukla (Othello) played by Ajay Devgan, Langda Tyagi (Iago) played by Saif Ali Khan, Kesu Firangi (Cassio) played by Vivek Oberoi, who are part of a political mafia gang, which is headed by Bhaisaab (Duke of Venice) played by Naseeruddin Shah. Kareena Kapoor playes Dolly Mishra (Desdemona), Konkona Sen Sharma plays Indu (Emilia), and Bipasha Basu plays Billo Chamanbahar (Bianca). Omkara alias Omi has been chosen by Bhaisaab to run for the Assembly elections, due to which vacancy of gang-leader arises. Omi selected Kesu over Langda Tyagi, which displeases the latter. Langda sows the seeds of jealousy and infidelity in the mind of Omkara against his would be wife, Dolly. The rest of the story is quite faithful to what happens in the play of which it is an adoption.

The strength of the film are performances by all lead actors. All of them have performed very well, especially Ajay Devgan and Saif Ali Khan. Ajay in the title of Omkara is effortless and conveys much with his eyes and minimal movement. I try not to miss any of his movies. Saif Ali Khan had to shave the hair of his head for the role of Langda. I had read the reports in the media that he was reluctant to do so, but in the end had agreed to the Director's wishes. He has performed quite well in this picture. I won't be surprised if he wins an award or two for this performance.

The director is quite successful in creating the milieu of the film. The langauge of the film, is of dialect spoken in the western U.P., and quite a few foul words are spoken by the characters. In fact, the film begins with one such foul word. I was amused to read the reports in the paper that due to bad language used in the film, many people are keeping away from the film, and the movie is not doing well at many places. Well, one do hear these words spoken in life and the characters of the movie are of such types that one expects them to mouth such words. Maybe some people have difficult in digesting the reality in the movies.

Personally, I liked the movie. Though, I had some problem in following some of the dialogues because of the dialect. But it was worth seeing. I loved the scene when Langda poisens mind of Omi about Dolly once again and Omi arrives home unexpectedely, and Dolly, who has been learning `I just called to say I love you' (which is a wonderful Stevie Wonder song) from Kesu, sings this song while strumming a guiter and a big smile. The scene was worth the price of the ticket. The movie had an unintentional funny scene, when Billo Chamanbahan sings `Bedi Jaalae Lee, Jigar Main Aag Lagi Hai', and when a person ignites a cigarette at the end of song, Billo starts coughing. I found that scene quite hilarious.

I also like the movie as it shows fallibility of a supposedly strong person.

I have never read Shakespear's plays before, now I am tempted to read them.

Links:

Official Website,

Reviews of the movies: here and here.

Cross posted to my other blog Raju's World.

Quotes for the Weekend

When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional
cheese dip. -- Ignatius Reilly

---

Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other. -- Ann Landers

---

Don't worry about avoiding temptation -- as you grow older, it starts
avoiding you. -- The Old Farmer's Almanac

Remembeing July 26, 2005

It had rained 944 mm in the suburbs of Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra last year on July 26, 2005. Today is the unhappy anniversary of that day, which is commonly referred to as Terrible Tuesday. More than 500 people had died and 53 are still missing, due to landslides, drowning in gutters and suffocation in the cars in which they were stuck. Lakhs of people were stranded in various parts of Mumbai city, who commute every day from their home to place of work. I was one of those who got stranded.

On the left is a picture taken at Kalyan station, which shows how terrible, the rain and the flooding that followed, was on that day. You can see the train is half merged in the water. [Click on the picture to enlarge it.] More such pictures are here.

Today, many NGOs have appealed to citizen to wear white in memory of those who have died. I am wearing white shirt today.

I have some memories of Terrible Tuesday. I had come to office as my usual train, which departs at 7:20 a.m. was right on time, insptite of heavy rain at that time and I had reached office at my normal time. Afterwards sometime in the afternoon I came to know that it is raining very heavily in suburbs and trains had stopped. And quite strangely in Colaba, where my office is situated, there was light to mderate rain. By evening it was confirmed that all the trains have stopped due to water logging on the tracks and it is also impossible to use roads due to flodding. Well, I and my office colleagues spent overnight at our dear friend's home, who live near our office. We had good time at his home. My dear friend, who is an excellent cook, had made corn and mushroom soup, which was just excllent. We had nothing to do but watch the news on the telly and to hope that rains will stop. Except for Airtel, all moible connections and landline connections were either erratic or down. As I use Airtel, I was able to contact my wife and children through neighour's mobile, who uses the similar service provider. Next day our office had arranged a bus from Colaba to Thane for the stranded persons in our office. Our bus had started off at around 4:00 p.m. and had reached Sion Circle at about 6:30 p.m. and got stuck for two and half hours, due to flodding and heavy traffic on the road. We had to come back from Sion to our office as there was no chance of going further for next few hours. So, I had spent another night at my dear friend's place. Next day, that is Thursday, train services had been restored from V.T. to Thane as rains had stopped. I took a train, along with few friends, upto Thane. After reaching Thane, there was abolute choas on the roads, as no trains were going beyond Thane. We had walked upto next station, that is Kalwa, on the railway track and luckily from there we had got an autorickshaw to Kalayan. Once reaching Kalyan, it was quite easy to reach Ulhasnagar, the city were I live. So I was able to see my wife and children at last on Thursday at 4:00 p.m., after leaving for office in the early morning of Tuesday. I felt happy to to be alive. My children had insisted that I should not go to office for next few days. It tooks few weeks for the trains services to be back on normal.

The full coverage of July 25, 2005, immortalized now as Terrible Tuessday is here.

A Majhi Song

Below is video of a Majhi (boatman) song sung by great S.D. Burman in his own voice, from the movie Bandini, released in 1963. The plot summary of the movie is here .

According to folklore of Bengal, bhatiyali are the songs sung by East Bengal boatmen on river so broad that one loses sight of the shore. When sung in less isolated surroundings, Bhatiyali changes its musical character by adding accompaniment and meter. This song is a good example of a bhatiyali song. It has been sung with such a feelings by Burman Dada, and it is an eternal favourite of mine.

Goal Mall

Last Sunday saw the movie Golmall. The film has similar title as Gol Maal, which was relased in 1979 and is a classic comedy. Thankfully the makers of Golmall (2006) have only borrowed the title, and not the plot. Gol Mall (1979) was very very funny movie. I have seen it when I was quite young and had enjoyed the movie. Its humour was Wodehousian, clean and good. And yes, it had music by great R.D. Burman and had one immortal song by Kishore Kumar `Aane Waala Paal Jaane Waala Hai'.

I wanted to see Golmall because it was Ajay Devgan's movie, and Ajay happens to be my favourite actor. This is his first movie of 2006, Aapaharan was released way back in December 2005. So I was eagerly awaiting to see this movie. I had decided to see it in the night show on last Saturday. Just as I announced to my wife and children, after dinner, that I was leaving to watch Golmall, my daughter, who is 9 years old, said I will also come with you as I too want to see this movie. I was surprised and said do you know who is in this movie, she said yes, it has your favourite Ajay Devgan and it is a comedy. How much children know nowadyas. I said okay, if you also want to see it, we will go tomorrow, which is Sunday, in the evening show, as it is not good to take children for the night show. So, next day we went to a cinema, which is quite close to our home, where it was being shown. We have started half an hour earlier, but on reaching at the theatre we saw House Full board at the ticket counter. It seems there were many Ajay Devgan's fans, who had come with their families or with their daughters. So we were wondering what to do. I and my daughter were obviously disappointed. My daughter said oh you can see the movie today in the night show, but mummy will not permit me to see it in that show. Suddenly I saw a man with some tickets in hand and he wishepered to me `DC sau ruppiah'. Oh, he was selling tickets in black. I was pleasantly surprised. It had been ages since I saw a person selling cinema tickets in black. I approached him and ask him in which row the seats are. He said `oh they are in row A, seat number 1 and 2, but are for family or ladies. I pointed out to him I had a young lady with me so give me two tickets. He did so similingly. In a way it was not a bad bargain, as normal balcony ticket was 100 rupees and Dress Circle ticket was 60. So I and my daughter were quite happy to obtain tickets for th movie. The smile on my daughter's face was worth the extra money. It was quite funny how these funny things happen in real life. It was our little golmall beore the movie.

Now about the movie. The movie was very very good. It was better than I had expected. The movie is an adoption of a Gujarati play `Aflatoon'. It is story of four friends Gopal (Ajay Devgan), Madhav (Arshad Warsi), Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor) and Laxman (Shriman Joshi). All four of them live in the hostel room of Laxman, who is still studying, but every year his friends see to it that either he dos not sit for exam or fails in the exam. The other three have been expelled from college 10 years ago and have no place to stay so they live with Laxman, without knowledge of college principal. The principal finds all four of them together in Laxman's room and after lots of shouting and screming throws all four of them out of the college hostel.

The foursome then land in a bunglow, which belong to blind couple (Paresh Rawal and Shushmita Mukherjee), and they overhear the blind couple that they are waiting for arrival of their grandson, Sameer, from America. So one of them, Laxman (against his wishes) impersonates as their grandson, Gopal is his voice and other two acts as Chinese cats. There are some funny some not verry funny episodes in the movie. And yes, there is a girl, how can any movie be complete without a heroine, called Niralee (Rimi Sen), who lives nearby and all four of them try to get her attention. Also the movie has bad men, which also act funny like the rest of characters. One bad man is called Vasooli and he is a big fan of Sanjay Dutt and tries to act like him. And there is a don who is hard of hearing and has several goofy sidekicks. All in all, it is great time-pass movie and has some good one liners.

The film is directed by Rohit Shetty who is son of Shetty who used to be villian of hindi movie and always appered completely bald in the movies. The performance are good, I particularly liked Ajay and Arshad Warsi's performance. Warsi's mimicking of Rani Mukherjee, from Black, is very hillarious. If you get a chance to see this movie, grab that chance. It will make you laugh. And maybe happy.

Block Lifted

The block on blogspot.com seeme to have lifted. I just now checked and I was able to view mine and other blogs on blogspot.com the normal way. Viva Indian Bloggers.

The following post was written earlier in the day.

I have not been able to view my blog last Tuesday (July 11). Initially I thought blogspot may be down for some maintenance or there may be some technical problem. Through a blogging friend I came to now that all the blogs on blogspot.com have been blocked. My initial reaction was of absolute dismay. How could that be, and why.

It seem that the Indian Government had instructed Internet Service Providers in India to block 17 websites, including 4 blogspot.com blogs on July 13, on the grounds of national security. The ISP provides in India seems to have blocked the blogspot.com from viewing from India, instead of blocking 4 blogs hosted on blogspot. According to some report it is likely that this block on blogs in India may be lifted soon. There are various ways to circumvent this ban to view the banned sites, more on how to bypass the ban is here.

I have been using www.pkblogs.com to access my blog. I have also been using Bloglines to view and read my favourite blogspot.com blogs.

What the this silly block of blogs seems to achieve? Absolutely nothing in my opinion. It only gives some free publicity to the blocked sites. No one may have bothered to visit these sites, now thanks to this stupid block, many people may. When will our government learn that all bans or blocks are counterproductive. They acheive nothing. The blocks seems to have been prompted by the recent terrorists attacks in Mumbai.

The ISP provides have goofed up the government's order, by putting blanket block on blogspot.com, instead of blocking 4 blogs which government wanted to block from viewing. This shows their incompetence.

Posts about block or ban are here and here, here, and here.

Blogspot blocked by Indian Government

Indian Government have blocked blogspot.com for from Indian ISP sites. More about this is here. This is outlandlishly silly ban. Hope the good sense prevails and the ban is lifted.

Use www.pkblogs.com to view any any blogs on blogspot, if you happen to view them from India, until the ban is lifted.

May I Help You, Sir

May I Help You, Sir. This is what the Salesgirl said, as I was looking at watches on display at a Titan World showroom.

I was at the showroom to buy the gift of a watch for my wife, whose Birthday was on Fri, July 7. I have been giving a gift of her choice evey year to her, of her choice. This year she wanted a good watch, for everyday use. A few years ago I had gifted her a watch, which she had chosen herself, but that did not turned out to be a good watch. Since she wanted a watch, I suggested that it should be a Tittan watch, which are supposed to be the Indian's best watches. So I had gone to the Titan World Shorrom which is near my office to hunt for a good everyday watch for my wife. There were any many good watches and I was puzzled which one to get for her. I had a certain budget in mind and was wondering which one to choose. Suddenly a salesgirl appeared out of nowhere and said May I Hepl You, Sir. The following is the interesting bit of conversation between her (salesgirl) and Me. What she said is in italics and what I said is in the regular text.

May I help you, sir.

Oh sure. I am looking at a watch, I mean I am looking for watch.

For whom, sir.

Oh, for my wife. It happens to be her birthday today.

(grinning) Oh, I see. I will be glad to help you, sir.

I have certain budget in mind I ...

(still grinning) You had come at the right time and at the right place, sir.

Oh, have I.

(still grinning) Yes, we have a scheme under which you will get fabulous discsount [blah blah], free csometics, but the price of the watch has to be above Rs. 1,500/-. And today is the last day of the scheme.

Well, my budget is just about that.

Let me show you some watches.

[Shows me some, but I like none of them]

How is your wife, I mean is she tall?

No, medium height.

Is she fair?

Yes, quite. She is somewhat like Rani Mukherjee over there.

[The showroom had a big poster of Rani Mukherjee with Titan Raga Watches]

Oh, then I will show the perfect watch for your wife.

[disappears for few seconds and appears with two watches]

Is it not beautiful [shows me the watch (Titan Raga) pictured left].

Yes, yes, it is quite beautiful, but how much is the price?

Today is her birthday, so you should give her something for which she will remember you always.

But this gold plated thing always wear away after few months.

Then takes this platinuium plated, but take either of them. You said you wife looks like Rani, than it is the perfect gift for her on her birthday.

But the price ...

Well Sir, the watch is beautiful, your wife will love it.

Well, I was happy that she has taken the decision for me. Being a typical Libran, I find it very difficult to make a choice if presented with two options. This time I took about 3 minutes and 45 seconds to arrive at a decision! As by that time, I had selected another watch (with leather strip) which was within my budget. But the watch suggested by her (gold plated, the plantenium coated was even costlier) was really beautiful. So I purchased the watch and she got it packed nicely and give all sorts of discoutnts, free cosmetics etc.

I presented the watch to my wife later in the day after reaching home. Well, the expression on her face on seeing the watch was really well wroth the price of the watch. She said she really loved the watch and I got a big hug from her. She now wears the watch everyday to her work. Now, my childdren also want Titan watch for their birthday. My daughter, Namrata, has threatened that she wants the similar watch and also the similar cosmetics!

BTW, this is my 250th post.

Last Weekend

This should have been written last Monday, but due to lack of time could not do so. Here is what happened in my life last weekend (July 8 & 9).

Last Weekend promised to be good weekend for me. Last Friday, July 7, was my wife's birthday, and on Sunday there was Wimbledon Men's Final, World Cup Football 2006 Final between France and Italy. The weekend looked exciting. Last Saturday I also saw movie Corporate. I will write my review of the movie, if I get some time. Bipasha Basu looked lovely in the film. The movie was so so, but I won't be surprised if Bips gets an award for it. She deserves it. The review of the movie as it appear in media is here.

Last Sunday also saw an ugly incident in Mumbai, which was condemnable and unfortunate, but what Shiv Saniks did after that was equally, if not more, sad and unfortunate.

Last Friday (July 7) was my wife's birthday. We celebrate every year by giving her a gift of her choice and then we have dinner at our children's favourite restaurant. This year, she wanted a watch for herself and I presented her a Titan watch which she liked very much.

Link to a humours article by Cyrus Broacha on his wife's birthday.

Last Sunday was the 25th marriage anniversary of my wife's sister, and she gave us a good party. But due to some reasons, the party started quite late and I missed the chance to see the World Cup Football Final.

Firefox is wonderful

According to this article in The Guardian, , Firefox is wonderful. It's up there with chocolate and sex on the grand scale of great things about being alive. As a user of Firfox for few years, I agree with this. Firefox is really really good. And this blog is best viewed in Firefox :).

Don't Look

Don't Look as they are changing. But look anway. It is amazing and amusing video. The costume change entertainers, David & Dania, change their dresses in the blink of an eye.

Their official website is here.

The Day After

The day after another Terrible Tuesday was normal. In the morning I noticed there was a slight drop of commuters which were in the train, but in the evening the train was crowded as usual. I keep thinking, when I travel in the local train about why this had to happen, who was hehind this and what they are trying to achieve by this ghastly act. Death be on them.

I will lying if I say that I am not scared to travel on the trains. Yes, I am, but I think it will go away after some time.

Media Links about day after are here and here.

Just for my amusement, I took a quiz on a website, www.nerdtests.com, which after asking crazy question, says I will live upto 74 years. Yes, I may do, if there is no other Terror Tuesday again.

Terror in Mumbai

Seven major explosions rocked Mumbai on Tuesday. The serial blasts occurred at Borivili, Khar, Meera Road, Matunga, Jogeshwari, Bhayander railway stations and a seventh on the Khar-Santacruz subway.

About 174 people are feared killed and over 403 people injured in the serial blasts.

Media Links:

CNN-IBN and BBC , and Map: where the blasts happened

Nothing could be more heinous and shamless than this. Local trains, lifeline of Mumbai city, are jampacked during the evening peak hours when people return home. I travel in the Central Railway, which was not affected by this ghastly act, and was running on time. Well, the life should go on, otherwise they will win. My heart goes out to those people who were travelling in those compartement where the blasts occurred.

This post at DesiPundit has collection of links related to Mumbai 7/11 blasts.

Following two pictures are of yesterday's local train blasts:

It Is Italy

Last weekend I could not watch much of the Final of the World Cup 2006 between France and Itlay, as I had to attend a function in the family. But I was able to watch last few minutes, after Zidane was shown red card, and the penalty shootouts. Italy won on the penalty shoot outs (5-3) after match being 1-1 after extra time. Well, the team that played better throughout have won.

Links:

Minute by minute match report

Lip-reader reveals what riled Zidane

Guardian writers and columnists pick their best and worst of the World Cup

Video of Zidane being shown red card:



Italian players celebrating after the win:



And Highlights of the match:

Quote for the Weekend

Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you. -- Aldous Huxley

---

EXPERIENCE, n.
The wisdom that enables us to recognize as an undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already embraced.

To one who, journeying through night and fog,
Is mired neck-deep in an unwholesome bog,
Experience, like the rising of the dawn,
Reveals the path that he should not have gone.
-- Joel Frad Bink

The Devil's Dictionary

France in Final

Watched the France - Portugal Semi Final World Cup Football match. It was a good match. Portugal werre unlucky to miss out many chances. Eventually France won 1-0. All the best to France in the Final. The Final will be a cracker of a match.

After the match, I was moved when great players, Zidane and Figo, embraced each other and exchanged the jersey. Football is really a beautiful game.

Minute by minute match report

Link to the match report.

Italy it is

Watched the Germany - Italy S/F match yesterday night. It was amazing match. When everyone thought it will be one more match with pentalty shootouts, Italy scored two amazing goals in the dying moments of extra time (in the 119th minute of the match). Italy deserved to win, as they played better than Germany. All the best to them for the final. Let us see who they will play with in the Finals.

Minute by minute match report

Link to match report .

Video of two goals scored by Itlay in the final minutes:




I and my friends, who had stayed overnight at our dear friend's home, had good time yesterday. We had good drinks, dinner (fantastic chicken) and yummy ice cream. And, of course, we watched the Germany - Itlay match from start to finish. The Mumbai city, though it is still raining, but not so hard, is slowly moving back to normal and local trains services seems to be back to normal.

Link to some pictures of yesterday's rains in Mumbai.

Stuck, but happy

As I was leaving for home after hearing that everyone is leaving early due to rains, I got call from my friend, from VT station, who had started earlier than me. He said local trains have not yet started, and that he will call me as soon as they start. It is 6:40 p.m. now and still there is no news from him about local trains. I, along with my office friends have decided that we wil stay at our dear friend's home, who lives across the road near our office. We will party and enjoy ourselves and, of course, will see the Semi Final World Cup match Germany - Italy. Hope Germany wins.

At a railway station

A scene at a railway station yesterday in Mumbai, as published in a local newspaper DNA.

More pictures of waterworld Mumbai are here .

Newstory about today's rain is here. Is it another Terrible Tuesday in the making. I am rushing home now. Wish I will reach home.

Rains and the Trains

The monsoon has really arrived in Mumbai. Over the past weekend and yesterday, it rained quite consistently and heavily. Among the first thing the rains affects are the Mumbai's local trains. Yesterday morning as I was leaving for work in the early morning, it was raining quite heavily, I had half a mind to skip the work and stay at home. But I changed my mind and came for the work. My usual train reached V.T. station about 20 minutes late. As it was raining during the day, we were told to leave for home one hour early. When I reached V.T. station, it was very crowded as one of the section of local railway, harbour line, was completely shutdown temporarily due to rains. But the main section, which I use for commutation, was open. But since everyone was leaving early, the trains were very very crowded. I managed to get inside a train. Since I had left one hour early, I reached home at my usual time. It is during these times that I realize that my iPod is my most vaulable companion. Yesterday though the train was very crowded and people were worrying themselves sick as to when will they reach home. I was quite calm and composed listening to my favourite R.D. Burman songs on my iPod. I am happy that I have acquired an iPod.

I hope that in my lifetime I will see days when rains does not affect the local trains of Mumbai. Lakhs of people travel on these trains and nothing stops the trains, but rains does. All it needs is extra efforts from the concerned departments of Railways and Municipal Corporation of Mumbai to prevent the water logging of train tracks.

Today also, as I write this, it is being raining since morning. I heard from my friends that trains services have stopped completely due to water-logging on the tracks. Today being Tuesday, it brought back the memories of Terrible Tuesday (July 26, 2005) of last year.

I also just heard that people in our office are allowed to leave anytime now so that they are able to reach home sometime in the evening. I wonder how many days will go on like this. So I will again leave early as soon as we hear the rumour that the trains have started. One more adventure to reach home.

The best blog to check during monsoon is Cloudburst, Mumbai.

Link to the newsstory about yesterday's rains.

Weekend (July 1 & 2)

Last Weekend (July 1 & 2) was quite good for me. I got back my Sony Music System which I had given for repairs some time ago. I am now happy again. I got to listen all the CDs of Panchamda which I had purchased recently.

I also watched Germany v/s Argentina and England v/s Portugal World Cup 2006 Football Quarter Final matches. I have been following World Cup matches in the newspapers, but I had not seen any full match so far. Since the matches were over the weekend and at a convenient times (8:30 p.m. Indian time), I thought I will watch them. I was cheering for Germany and England in the respective matches. I had a feeling, before the Quarter Finals, that this time the winner will be an European team, and it might be England. But I was proved wrong, as England lost out to Portugal on pentalty shootouts. I wish Wayne Rooney had not lost his cool in the middle of the match, due to which he was shown red card and was out of the match. If he was around, England could have scored a goal and won the match. I did not watch the other quarter finals France v/s Brazil and Italy v/s Ukraine as they were well past midnight (Indian time). I was quite suprised to know that Brazil is out and France is in the Semis. Semi Final line up of Germany v/s Italy and Portugal v/s France seems quite interesting.

Video of Rooney shown red card in the England-Portugal QF match is below:




Video of England-Portugal QF match penalty shoot out is below:



I could not get to see Superman Returns movie. I hope to see it sometime in mid-week this week.

Unconscious Mutterings -- Week 178

Unconscious Mutterings -- Week 178

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. That :: This


2. Fishbowl :: Prison


3. Church :: Faith


4. All about :: Me


5. Fist :: Hand
   


6. Tagline :: Subtext


7. Agree :: Concur


8. Leak :: Drip


9. Jessica :: Girl


10. Superman :: Clark Kent