My thoughts on Saawariya

I know I am not famous enough to be on Koffee with Karan, but if I was asked by the honorable host as to which movie I would choose to watch between Om Shanti Om and Saawariya, I would have answered without blinking, "Saawariya, of course." True to my answer, I went and watched Saawariya this weekend.

The movie is based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's short story 'White Nights'. How far can you stretch a short story to make into a 3 hour movie? Owing to this, the story is not the best part of the movie and some people might even find it boring. What makes the movie come alive is the direction, music and Ranbir - in that order.

To create a dream world so beautiful and take your audience to this world and make them forget that they have left a real world behind is not easy. Sanjay Leela Bhansali does this and he is a genius. For as long as the screen was lit up, I was mesmerized. The whole movie is shot in a set which mimics a small town around a lake. By interval time, you feel you are a part of that town. There is one shot where Sonam is reading from a book and her aunt and her governess (??) are with her. The three women are shown in three mirrors and in between the focus shifts to Sonam and you can see the other women in two mirror. It's mind boggling to even think how SLB shot this!

If you are not fond of melodious music, do not watch this movie. It's like a Chitrahaar sometimes, with songs back to back and these songs add flavour to the movie. The first song 'Pari', so beautifully sung by Kunal Ganjawala is equally well crafted by SLB. I particularly liked the shots involving glass panes. Ranbir and the women are separated by a glass pane. The shot begins with Ranbir's reflection on the glass pane and the women slightly out-of-focus and as the shot proceeds, Ranbir fades out and you see the women. This technique repeats a couple of times all through the song.

Considering that it is Ranbir's first movie, he has done well. The whole movie stands on his shoulders and he carries it well. He comes across as this lovable, vivacious, naughty, lover boy who lives life to the fullest. His acting seems like overacting at times, but it is forgivable. He is exceptionally brilliant in his towel-clad act in 'Jabse tere naina'. He proves his dancing skills in the title song. It's the innocence on his face that takes your heart away. Sonam doesn't really have much scope to act. Moreover, with Ranbir hogging the screen, she failed to impress me.

There are certain places where the movie goes too far away from reality. Like the song 'Dekho chaand aaya'. The song is shot in a mosque and all the men are in white, except our Ranbir who is dressed in black. After the song, the men and women mingle and exchange greetings - which is sacrilegious in Muslim community. If this scene couldn't have been shot in any other way, SLB could have based this story in some other, more liberal community.

While the movie does have these far-from-reality pieces, it is closer to real life than most of our Bollywood movies. We are so used to seeing the male lead sacrificing his love for his friend and the female lead agreeing to marry her lover's friend for the sake of her love. In Saawariya, we actually get to see some real emotions, where the male lead places his own love above someone else's and asserts that man, after all, is selfish. I can't say much without marking it as a spoiler. People who have watched the movie will understand what I am talking about.

Even though it is not SLB's best, he definitely shines in this movie. If you are a romantic and sometimes let your heart overtake your head, then you will enjoy Saawariya.

Jane Eyre: Charlotte Brontë


I already had an overdose of classic this month with The Great Gatsby and The Picture of Dorian Gray and that was a good reason not to pick any other classic for the next six months. Even then, I picked up Jane Eyre and th only reason being I want to read Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair and I was told that I will appreciate the latter book better if I read the former one.

The book is noted for its strong main character. Some even compare her to Lizzy of Pride and Prejudice, but I prefer Lizzy any day to Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre, as the title suggests, traces Jane's life and gives us a glimpse of her childhood, her thoughts and opinions. The book is written in autobiographic style where Jane Eyre is directly addressing her audience. They say the book is actually an autobiography, because the author Charlotte Brontë led a similar life.

The language, description, dialogues, setting, characters - all are typical classic style. What probably is different is the main character. She is not the typical English lady - born rich, well brought up, polished and lady like. On the contrary, Jane is made orphan early in life and sees a bad childhood at a relative's house. She is then sent to a charity school where homeless girls are expected to live an colorless life mostly spent in praying. She turns out to be skillful and well educated. She works as a teacher for a few years and moves on to become a governess. There she falls in love with a man much elder to her. I cannot proceed further without being a spoilsport, so I shall stop.

While I did not feel like putting the book down, neither did I feel good after finishing it. I finished it only yesterday and there is nothing significant about the book I remember. I never felt like pausing at a paragraph and re-reading it. Neither did I feel that a quote was so profound that I had to mark it. In short, I didn't take back anything from the book. It was like a story - which I read with some indifference. I do not feel anything towards Jane Eyre - no sympathy, no love, no hatred - nothing. I did feel she was childish and was irritated with her in the pages that describe her courtship days.

This book goes on to strengthen my opinion that I don't really enjoy reading a classic. Well, I am glad I am done with Jane Eyre. I can at last start with The Eyre Affair.

Remembering Geeta Dutt

November 23rd is Geeta Dutt's birth anniversary


Geeta Dutt was vivacity personified. If one listened to her songs with eyes closed and tried to imagine the face behind the voice, one would see an innocent face with shining eyes full of life.

While one can dance to her tunes in Mera naam chun chun chu from Howrah Bridge, Tadbeer se bigdi huyi from Baazi dance songs, one can peacefully go to sleep listening to her Nanhi kali sone chali hawa dheera aana from Sujata. This particular lullaby is a particular favorite of mine. The wording are beautiful, the inclusion of the sound of baby's anklets, the wonderful singing - the song is just great.

Her playful, nuaghty songs like Jaane kahan mera jigar gaya ji from Mr&Mrs.55 and Hum aapki aankhon mein from Pyaasa, Ae Dil Mujhe Bata De from Bhai Bhai is what she is most famous for. These songs lift your spirits in no time.

Her sad songs are probably not that well known. Songs like Chand Hai Wohi Sitare Wohi Hain from Parineeta, Mera sundar sapna beet gaya from Do bhai makes one can be filled with grief. The last song, especially, is so melancholic. Geeta Dutt is literally crying in the song.

How can one forget the drunken, sensual singing of Na Jao Saiyan from Sahib biwi aur ghulam? The minimal background music, the intermittent pause singing and music, her slurred pronunciation makes one wonder if Geeta Dutt was really drunk when she sang this song.

Another favorite of mine, Piya Aiso Jiya Mein from Sahib Biwi Ghulam has Geetaji dreaming about her beloved. The lady sounds like she is actually in love and you blush and turn pink listening to the song. Look out for the subtle harkatein - no one could do it except for Geetaji. She is playful, complaining, mischievous - all at the same time!

She is the inspiration for many singers. It's no secret that Asha Bhosle used to imitate Geetaji in her initial days. The song Jaanu Jaanu Ri from Insaan Jaag Utha is such a pleasure to listen to. Two of the best female singers of the Hindi film industry, Geetaji and Ashaji, create magic in this song.

With Geeta Dutt's demise, Hindi industry has incurred a big loss, which is impossible to fill. Asha Bhosle gracefully stepped into her place and has done all the justice to it. If anyone can be compared with Geetaji, it has to be Ashaji. Nevertheless, if Geetaji had survived for a few more years, we would have had more gems from her.

The Bridge Across Forever: Richard Bach

This book is a favorite of, or at least has impressed, many people I know. When I first picked up this book, I thought I was too young and I postponed reading it. The second attempt was when I was in college. For some reason, I had to put it down. Now, in the third and final attempt, I finally succeeded in finishing this book. Now that it is over, I wish I had read it in my younger days, when I used to fantasize about my soul mate, my Mr.Right, where he was and whether he too was wondering about where his soul mate is. After nearly 3 years of marriage, all notions of Mr.Right and Prince Charming are out of the window and this book sounds like a big joke. Just to clarify, I don't mean to say I am not happy with my husband, I just want to say that nobody is perfect, there is no Mr.Right. We all have to make some compromise no matter who we choose as our life partner.

Let's come back to the book. As the preface says, "it's about a knight who was dying, and the princess who saved his life." In general, it's about a guy who almost always day dreams about his soul mate and fantasizes about making a perfect couple. It would have sounded credible if the guy in question hadn't had a failed marriage. The book is the author day dreaming aloud.

The book begins on a good note. It starts with the author realizing that it is high time he looked out for his soul mate. He wonders the whereabouts of his soul mate and these few pages sound like they are straight out of a teenager's personal diary. Mine would have been similar too, if I had kept a diary. On one hand he is searching frantically for his soul mate, while on the other he loves his freedom over anything else and does not want be to tied to one woman. These are contradictory, I know, and I kept asking myself how much sense that makes.

He finally meets a woman and he is completely mesmerized by her. He decides to have a platonic relationship with her and starts calling her his 'sister'. When I read this, I just cringed. It brought back memories of all those incidents in my college, where every other guy and girl became brother-sister because they wanted a license to go out with each other. And most of these bro-sis pairs are married now, happily or otherwise. No guesses here, the sister doesn't remain a sister forever and he finds himself in bed with her. I knew I should have stopped reading the book at this time, but I pushed myself to carry on.

The couple spend time doing nothing but exchanging mushy-mushy words and general gyan on life and love. They are supposed to be learning and growing up. A book cannot have just a few romantic scenes and fights. You need a story, right? So, throw in a few incidents like the protest against cutting trees and author going bankrupt. No where in the book does the author come across as someone who is about to lose every penny he owns.

"What's written here happened in fact very nearly the way it's turned out in print" says the author in the preface. I have my own suspicions because certain incidents are quite unlikely to happen. The out-of-body experiences, the author's dreams in which he meets his past and future, the couple dreaming together, the deja-vu's - I mean, how can one believe all that? They say, a book needs a problem which the readers want to see solved. The problem about this book is it doesn't have a problem. Everything is sugar sweet, the author never takes off his pink glasses and uses his heart more often than his head.

If mushy-mushy, lovey-dovey, melodramatic Karan Johar movie is your taste, you will love this book. If you are too burdened with practicality of life, want to be lost in a world where there is no problem, pick this up and escape into the author's world.

Edit: I just now read that the so-called perfect couple of this book are no longer a couple; they have separated. I hope Bach does not end up writing another book to justify this act.

Music Review: Khoya Khoya Chand

Album: Khoya Khoya Chand
Music Composer: Shantanu Moitra
Lyrics: Swanand Kirkire

Album Rating

Khoya Khoya Chand reminds one of the 70's Hindi film music, when melody was of the essence. With some new singers and some established ones, this album is a treat to the ears. The music composer being the same, this album has resemblance to Parineeta.

Chale Aao Saiyan
Singer: Shreya Goshal

A classical based song, beautifully sung by Shreya Goshal. The presense of sarod, ghungroo, tabla make it a thumree. A beautiful number which changes paces in between. Shreya sounds different - her voice is more shrill than nasal. It reminded me of Chalte Chalte from Pakeezah.

Khushboo Sa
Singer: Hamsika Iyer

A new singer on the block who has worked wonders in this song. This has a vague resemblance to 'Kaise Paheli' from Parineeta. The mellow tune, the piano and the singer's sensual's voice make this song worth listening to.

O Re Paakhi
Singers: Sonu Nigam

I can't help it, this song reminds me Parineeta's Soona man ka aangan. Sonu Nigam is brilliant as ever. The opening is beautiful - only piano is playing intermittently in the background and Sonu's voice is even more enjoyable. Mid-way, the background music stops and Sonu is just singing. A song which you should enjoy with closed eyes and with lights off.

Sakhi Piya
Singers: Shreya Goshal, Pranav Biswas

A beautiful, melodious number. Pranav Biswas has a base voice which sounds great with Shreya's melodious voice. Background music is minimal with intermittent piano and santoor (is it santoor?) and violin. A slow, relaxed song which is thoroughly enjoyable.

Thirak Thirak
Singers: Shreya Goshal, Sonu Nigam

Relatively fast paced, this song is full of masti. Just like in Piya bole from Parineeta, Sonu outshines Shreya. His voice is so expressive, Shreya sounds weaker. This song borrows a stanza from the mukhda of the next song, but you don't realize it until you listen to the next song.

Khoya Khoya Chand
Singer: Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Swanand Kirkire

The best song of the album. Khan saab is wonderful and his voice is charming. Swanand adds some reciting in between. A very passionate and energetic song.

Yeh Nigahen
Singer: Antara Choudhary and Sonu Nigam

This song sounds so much like a 70's Rafi song. Sonu even tries to bring in the harkatein, which were Rafi's trademarks. Antara is good too, but she is pitted against Sonu and she will sound weaker.

A very beautiful album, with melody at its core. An album definitely worth listening to.

The Mystic Masseur: V S Naipual


A bad choice for a book to read after Oscar Wilde and Tom Robbins. The former has a rich language and the latter, a great sense of humour. I have heard from people that Naipual's books are humorous. May be my sense of humour is pathetic, I didn't see any humour in this book.

The book is the story of Ganesh, his failure as a primary teacher, his transformation into a mystic, a writer and finally an MBE. The story is set in Trinidad and concentrates on the small Indian community settled there. I am confused about the location and the people. They speak a weird dialect of English and it is weird to an extent that the dialgoues began to irritate me. Every sentence spoken in adorned with man or girl (and sometimes both) and no where grammatically correct. If the dialogues are getting on your nerves, the narration doesn't help much. It is bland and sometimes makes you skip it. And why do newspapers in Trinidad carry reviews of Hindi films?

Ganesh's metamorphosis is not totally belieavable. He appears to be a useless, good for nothing guy at one time, and the know-it-all mystic with a lot of self confidence at other times. There is nothing about Ganesh which the reader would remember. Behary, Ganesh's friend, is an interesting character. I enjoyed the conversations between Behary (Suruj Poopa, as in Suruj ke pappa) and his wife, Suruj Mooma (you know what that means). Ganesh's wife and his father-in-law add a bit of garnishing.

I appreciate the subtle, polished humour of P G Wodehouse and also in the face, wacky humour of Tom Robbins. Naipaul's humour lies somewhere in between, and, I think, is targetted at the Indian community settled overseas. I can imagine the migrated Indians reading and laughing at the Indian culture and practices. I might be wrong about who his target audience is, but I am sure I am not one of them. This was my first Naipaul book, and in all probability, this will be the last one too.

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Oscar Wilde




Oscar Wilde is arguably the most often quoted author. Today I realized why. I read The Picture of Dorian Gray and found marking almost every line of the book as a good quotation.

This was my first Wilde book and I loved every word it. The book was so engaging, I finished it little more than a day. That’s a record of sorts, because I am not a fast reader.

The plot is very interesting. It is about, as the title says, the picture of Dorian Gray. There are very only two main characters (three, if you consider the painter) and the story is fast paced and has quite a few twists. The book is so small, you wish it could go on for some more time.

The language is the first thing that gets you. The long, flowery sentences, words that are rarely used in today’s books, the poetic lines, the rare comparisons - reading this book is liking sailing in a lake on a moonlit night.

Wilde understands human psychology in and out. The whole book is about human mind, its actions and influences. Lord Henry’s words and thoughts are if he is dissecting a human mind. His opinions, some of which I disagree with, make you close the book for a while and think about them. The book is peppered with the author’s commentary on human nature and it reminded me of Maugham.

The book has a strong subtext. The interpretation can be varied, but one will understand that it’s not just a fairy tale that is told and forgotten. The book will remain with the readers long after reading it. I strongly recommend this to everyone.

Some quotes from the book which I liked:

Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, Basil. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all.

People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves. It is what I call the depth of generosity.

As for omens, there is no such thing as an omen. Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for that.

...one can survive everything nowadays except death.


Spoilers follow: Please do not read the next paragraph if you haven’t read or intend to read the book.

The transformation of Dorian Gray from an adorable lad to a loathsome devil is so well achieved. Never does the reader ‘feel’ that it is sudden or unexpected. His obsession with youth and his actions resulting out of that seem justified. Lord Henry’s character is a mystery to me. He influences Gray in a negative way and he knows it. His motive is not clear to me. I attribute his actions to his jealousy of Gray’s youth and beauty. All my sympathies go to the painter - he pays a price for something that is not his fault.

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde is arguably the most often quoted author. Today I realized why. I read The Picture of Dorian Gray and found marking almost every line of the book as a good quotation.

This was my first Wilde book and I loved every word it. The book was so engaging, I finished it little more than a day. That’s a record of sorts, because I am not a fast reader.

The plot is very interesting. It is about, as the title says, the picture of Dorian Gray. There are very only two main characters (three, if you consider the painter) and the story is fast paced and has quite a few twists. The book is so small, you wish it could go on for some more time.

The language is the first thing that gets you. The long, flowery sentences, words that are rarely used in today’s books, the poetic lines, the rare comparisons - reading this book is liking sailing in a lake on a moonlit night.

Wilde understands human psychology in and out. The whole book is about human mind, its actions and influences. Lord Henry’s words and thoughts are if he is dissecting a human mind. His opinions, some of which I disagree with, make you close the book for a while and think about them. The book is peppered with the author’s commentary on human nature and it reminded me of Maugham.

The book has a strong subtext. The interpretation can be varied, but one will understand that it’s not just a fairy tale that is told and forgotten. The book will remain with the readers long after reading it. I strongly recommend this to everyone.

Some quotes from the book which I liked:

Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, Basil. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all.

People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves. It is what I call the depth of generosity.

As for omens, there is no such thing as an omen. Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for that.

...one can survive everything nowadays except death.


Spoilers follow: Please do not read the next paragraph if you haven’t read or intend to read the book.

The transformation of Dorian Gray from an adorable lad to a loathsome devil is so well achieved. Never does the reader ‘feel’ that it is sudden or unexpected. His obsession with youth and his actions resulting out of that seem justified. Lord Henry’s character is a mystery to me. He influences Gray in a negative way and he knows it. His motive is not clear to me. I attribute his actions to his jealousy of Gray’s youth and beauty. All my sympathies go to the painter - he pays a price for something that is not his fault.

Even cowgirls get the blues: Tom Robbins



After I was floored by Jitterbug Perfume, I picked up another Tom Robbins' book Even cowgirls get the blues with a lot of expectation and the book lived up to it.

As with any Robbins' book, it's pointless to discuss the plot. How would it sound if I said, 'this book is about a girl with abnormally huge thumbs, whose profession is hitchhiking and about a spiritual guru named Chink and a ranch run by a band of cowgirls'. Not interesting, right? Robbins' book is not about plots. It's about humor, the interesting use of words, the absurd-yet-funny way of bringing in two different disconnected topics and connecting them together. Oh, you should read his book to believe it.

This is probably Robbins' most acclaimed book. It's even made into a movie, which I came to know only after reading the back cover. Robbins creates extremely interesting characters for his books. Considering that this book was first published in 1976, it touches upon rather controversial subjects. The author generously puts in enough graphical scenes - I don't see the need, though. The book is interesting enough without those pages.

Though I liked this book, I still prefer Jitterbug Perfume to this, probably because it was my first Robbins book.

Wikipedia entry for Tom Robbins says
His novels are complex, often wild stories with strong social undercurrents, a satirical bent, and obscure details.

I agree with the complex, wild and obscure details part, but I fail to see the satirical bent. May be I don't have enough grey cells to understand it. All I know is Tom Robbins is a lot of fun.

If you read Scott Adams' blog and enjoy it, then it's highly likely that you will enjoy Tom Robbins' books.

Baavara Man Dekhne Chala Ek Sapna

Of all the numerous nasal songs and their even more nasal remixes coming out these days, there are very few songs that you want to go back and listen to. Evergreen songs so to say. One of these rare songs is one gem - Baavara Man Dekhne Chala Ek Sapna.

The first time I heard this song, I listened to it back to back for the whole day. I couldn't have enough of it. Thanks to my friend for introducing me to this song, otherwise my song collection would have had a big loss. It is from a movie Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, which I know nothing about.

The heavy classical touch, the hypnotizing voice, unique lyrics, beautiful orchestration - this song is as perfect as any song can be. The singer is in the right mood - he sounds aloof, yet passionate. The chorus adds a different charm to the song. The sitar (or sarod?), the peppering of violin, which sounds off-key at times and thus making the song even more beautiful. The best part of the song is arguably the lyrics. The deliberate repetition of the word 'Bavara' adds effect to the song.

Why waste time raving about it when one can actually relish it? You can listen to this song online on Music India Online. Music is by Shantanu Moitra. Lyricist and singer: Swanand Kirkire.