The journey: Highway

The lone bird seems to have finally found it's way through the darkness. It has found a way home. High above the hills...a small mud hut... warm hearth... and a place to call it's own.
The darkness has been dispersed by the first rays of the morning sun.

That is Highway!
The journey of a Princess who has forever been locked away in the highest tower of the Castle.
She had spent hours by her window. She would gaze with longing at the world outside. She could see the mountains rise high...watch the birds fly...see the streams flow...but never feel them. She could only imagine how it would be to be at one with nature. She had a dream...a hut atop a hill...a warm hearth...a place to call her own...a home. And then, she found it.

Her Prince did come and he did rescued her from the high tower. There was no horse. No shinning armour. No quality that she could see, judge and quantify. No hopes of a happily ever after.

Dragged away from the tower. Kidnapped. Terror was what she felt. The joy of freedom crept in much later. Beneath a star lit sky...the celestial diamonds glistened in her eyes. She realised her existence. Her life suddenly had more meaning.
She felt the joy that was there in her present state of captivity. She could run. She could go back and hide in the high tower, forever protected. But she felt a certain charm in the recklessness that freedom brought with it. She did not desire the security of the high tower. She was bewitched by the way life had unpredictably unfolded before her eyes. She was charmed by the dangers, they teased her. She welcomed the possibilities that life had to offer, they seemed to flirt with her.

A highway with cross-roads. Heart ruling over the mind. Reasons being overshadowed by longings and dreams.
The choices were made.

She loved the thrill. She was living out her dream. She did not desire the destination. Her longings were for the road...it was the journey of life...she craved the highway to never end. She did not want to stop. A little while longer...just a little bit more... and the road never ends...
Like a child, she was at play.

Dreams are not forever. The slumber has to end.
Choices are to be made.
Wakefulness is painful. The dream is so serene.

If we can dream, we can live it. We can run away from the high tower. We can be at peace.
We can feel the streams rushing down the mountains...feel the cool breeze...
We can touch the green grass...feel the dew drops on them...
We can be who we want to be.
We can be fearless. We are all we have for ourselves. We have nothing to lose.
It takes courage.

The highway is to be traveled till we reach ourselves. Till we learn to Live.

A beautiful painting by Imtiaz Ali. No beauty is flawless, as the moon can never be without its craters...
A poetry in motion...a musical journey through the hills, rivers and planes of Life...
The Highway is a modern day Fairytale of sorts.

Rockstar: My Take

"Ting linga linga lina...
ting linga linga ling...."

"Rockstar"....is much more than what meets the eye. It is the story of Jordan, the Rockstar \m/ .....yet it is more than the rags to riches story of a simple Delhi boy who had always had the dream of being a music sensation.
It is the story of a boy who used to audition relentlessly and face rejection every single time for not having the "zing" or the persona of a Star. It is the story of a boy who was told that the only thing that could make him stand out...make him a true Rockstar...is PAIN. Intense pain. And so...off goes the boy...in search of the same.
And then...one day, the Rockstar breaks down...

This fame, this success...i don't want any of it. Just don't let my heart break...please... he pleads.

"...Katiya karoon Katiya karoon
Tera roo katiya karoon
 Tera roo tera roo tera roo roo roo..."

Rockstar is a love story...enveloped in the tale of the meteoric rise of a music sensation.
This movie explores love in a different way altogether.
Janardhan Jakhar, a simple Delhi boy, fishing for a heartbreak...which according to his mentor is the only way to become a true-blue Rockstar like his idol Jim Morrison...is drawn towards the beautiful sophisticated and curious Heer.

Friendship takes a deep plunge and transforms companionship into love.
Circumstances drift them apart...and it is again these circumstances that bring them together...only to part them yet again...
Eventually his love for Heer breaks him apart...completely.

Jordan evolves... "The unshaven, troubled, defiant, long-haired music sensation with a peculiar, rustic wardrobe, the making of Janardhan Jakhar to Jordan is an offshoot of his fickle equation with the woman he loves."

He had once expressed his amazement as to why an entire crowd applauded Morrison when he raised his middle finger in public.... and then one day, he, himself, raises his finger and proclaims....

"...Sadda Haq Aithe Rakh..."

This is a story of transformation through the experience of pain. Pain may not be a welcome emotion. Yet it is a part of our existence. Some perceive it to the extent of making it their life...while some live though it all and try to look at the sunshine rather than the clouds in the sky.
Jordan looks at the clouds. Perhaps he is too emotional...perhaps he is too sensitive. From a boy who had never had the chance to worry about his basic necessities...had a family...a life... Janardhan seeks out pain and lives it to be successful. In the end his success eats him up...his pain gnaws him from inside...and he says..
am not happy inside...ander ek jalan si hai...

It is neither a standalone story about the rise-of-an-underdog who goes on to become one of the  biggest rockstars ever nor is it merely a love story with a rockstar backdrop. The director somewhere attempts to correlate the rockstar's rise with his romance. There is a constant play in the narrative which moves backwards then forwards then again backward and finally stops in the present. The first half opens on a very high note... and the film ends with the same sequence. But this time its a different note...there is an overtone of sadness, of pain...of loss...

There is a sense of a desire for reconciliation with one's true identity. There is a sense of the desire for true happiness. There is a sense of a desire for love that is slipping away with every heartbeat.
Jordan sings...
"O Nadaan Parindey ghar aaja
O Nadaan Parindey ghar aaja"

The director, Imtiaz Ali, tells a story of love, loss, pain and treacherous success in an intricate way. The storytelling is crisp. Anil Mehta's cinematography is brilliant. And, needless to say, A.R. Rahman's music gives the movie its life. The storytelling could have been a little less intricate. It does add to the brisk movement of the movie in the first half but somewhat makes the second half stretch a bit. But the overall effect is impressive.
Ranbir has done complete justice to Jordan...he has performed brilliantly. A true Rockstar! New-comer  Nargis Fakhri has great screen presence and Shammi Kapoor is the surprise element of the film.

The end comes just as you start wondering as to how the director plans to end it. The end is completely justified. It has a sense of incompleteness...just the way Jordan's life is...incomplete...

The movie is a simple tale of success...which is rendered useless in the absence of love...in the absence of true happiness....
...andar ek jalan si hai...


"Jo bhi main...
kehna chahu...
bardaad kare...alfaz mere.... alfaz mere......."

Iti Mrinalini

All movies do not make me feel like writing about them...very few do. And Iti Mrinalini makes me want to....i dont know if my words can ever do this piece of art justice... but still...i wish to talk about it and so i will.
Should i write a review or should i just write about what i felt when i saw the movie?

so...i'll just combine the two, the review and my feelings on watching Iti Mrinalini.

The letter remained unfinished. The recapitulation of one's life with just hours left to live...leading to the ultimate realisation that in spite of how the life had been, it is your life. You may have not had the things you had wanted so dearly but you do have someone or something to live for... and the very realisation infuses in you the love for Life and makes you embrace Life...even at the darkest hour you know that you are very close to the dawn. BUT...you never know when Life may take away your chance to live. Uninvited, untimely...maybe just when you have grasped the true worth of your Life...you may have to stop living... you may have to leave...leaving the Letter...your Life, unfinished. ....Iti Mrinalini.

Iti Mrinalini is a riot of colours. The colours of human emotions. The beautiful cinematography gives Life to Mrinalini's reminiscence. Somak Mukherjee has brought the 60s and 70s era alive with his brilliant cinematography. His work deserves special mention...Mrinalini's life is incomplete without his cinematography. Somak gives Mrinalini's mind's eye it's sight.

The music gives the movie its Soul. Debajyoti Mishra's music has played along the lines of Mrinalini's life...recreating the phases that she went through. Sunil Gangopadhyay's poem Smritir Shohor has been beautifully used as the theme. The closer we come to Mrinalini the more relevant the lyrics become.

The strong story and powerful performances override the fact that the movie is slightly lengthy. Konkona plays the younger Mrinalini while her mother Aparna Sen plays the older Mrinalini. Young Mrinalini wants to live life. She has dreams...she has hope...and she has love. The older Mrinalini is broken. She is lost in the darkness of the Night. The pain, hurt and loss...the experiences of life is seen clearly in her eyes. That one night of insufferable anguish that ended in a dawn is the story of Mrinalini. Her life through her own eyes...hours from her death. A death that she had not planned...a death that stopped her midway...and as she fell...she was perhaps trying to embrace life in those early hours of dawn.

The film explores Love, in all its different forms. One that is lively, happy, carefree... one that's more domestic... the love of a mother...and then a kind of love that falls somewhere between friendship and love, and then...one resulting out of loneliness and seclusion.
It is the Love that has no expectations...no bondages...the love that frees you...it is that Love that we must look for and live for... it was this Love that ushered the dawn after the gloomy Night... two simple words that spoke of assurance, care and love "Ami aschi" ("I'm coming")...it were these words that made Minnie smile...a smile that was real, not a result of sad recollections but a genuine smile of hope and love.

The other actors, namely, Rajat Kapoor, Priyanshu Chatterjee, Koushik Sen, have all done a brilliant job by supporting Aparna Sen to create Mrinalini's world.

Mrinalini is more than a character...she is perhaps Life itself...
...and this movie "Iti Mrinalini" is about the unfinished story of Life...

Dhobi Ghaat: My take on it.

firstly, this is the first movie review that am writing.

secondly, this happens to be the most discussed and debated movie of 2011 till date. varied opinions...contradicting views and reason of innumerable arguments!!

lets just get to the point.

i will not be discussing the technicalities of the movie. i do not think i should comment on aspects that i am not very proficient in. i shall focus on the style of story telling, performances, background score and other such aspects only.

when i sat down to watch the movie...i decided that i would do so unbiased.

the opening was not captivating enough. the movie carried on...into some unknown territory. my attention was else where. and then it happened...all of a sudden. i was captivated.

not just captivated... i lost myself into the splendid web that Rao has weaved around Arun and Yasmin. for me this part of the movie stood out above the rest. Shai and the Dhobi somehow didnt have that kind of an effect on me. i was lost in that one beautiful story. the story of a simple girl who's come far away from home to be with her husband. she is a naive devoted wife...oblivious to the treachery that Fate has in store for her. Arun is a mystery. his art is his expression...his only emotional outlet.

Arun's story is recounted by those who knew him...failed marriage and a son. we are never really taken down his memory lane. we never get to know his thoughts. Arun is a flowing river...he flows with the tide of time...with life. ever searching for that one thing that doesnt seem to comes to him...peace. Peace is his sea. his ultimate destination.

yasmin told her own story. bit by bit...word by word...slowly taking us into her world, her life. she makes us a part of her existence. and gradually she became a part of Arun...his muse.

the silent lady next door...she is Time. a dumb witness.

the performances were brilliant. Aamir's eyes did all the work here, at times aided by his bodily gestures. kriti was you...she was me...a simple girl with the simplest of dreams. and opposite aamir she did manage to hold up her own.

this part of the movie was pure poetry. the background score complimented the visuals brilliantly. at times the music seemed to be playing a part in the movie...like the city. the timelessness of the city...the same city through different eyes. the window is the same...but the audience has changed.

Shai and Munna did not really have this huge an impact on me. it was stale compared to the beauty of the Yasmin-Arun plot. the same poverty...the same NRI...the same struggle...we've seen all that before.
if you consider the unconventional love story between the Dhobi and the NRI girl...lemme give you my take on it.
there was no real "love story" between the two. Munna was attracted to Shai...and Shai is attracted to Arun! Shai likes Munna..as an interesting subject..gradually he becomes more of a friend that a subject of observation...he becomes a friend to Shai. Shai respects Munna as a person and does not judge him by his profession. Munna is a bit insecure about his profession...especially the night job that he had...it was his dark secret. Munna is taken with Shai... very much taken with her. and Shai is busy pursuing Arun...oblivious to Munna's feelings. this part of the story carries on at its own pace... till Shai finally understands Munna's feelings for her...and a silent tear drop falls.

performance wise...yes, both were good. very good. but for me this part somehow lacked the "punch".

the beauty of the Yasmin-Arun plot had me spell-bound.

the movie as a whole is not a master piece...at least for me...but in parts it definitely is.