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Kaamyaab movie review

Behind the brainteaser of a title ‘Har kisse ke hisse kamyaab’ lies a delightful little tale that is an ode to the oft forgotten, yet much loved supporting actor of yesteryear’s Bollywood. Roles that anyone born on the wrong side of the eighties would be intimately familiar with…the best friend, the girl next door, the perennial drunkard, the moustachioed potbellied (because, obviously, six packs weren’t a thing back then) henchman, the suave suited gangster…the list goes on. Characters that occupied a fraction of the screen time, playing stereotypical roles that were dished out unashamedly as a prop to the leading stars, or at best, to provide an interesting but brief diversion, and yet managed to carve out moments of cinematic magic that haven’t been dulled by the passage of time. Even if the quirky title didn’t hint at the atypical nature of the film, the mention of Sanjay Mishra as the protagonist surely does. In a typically effortless performance, essaying a role that could wel
Recent posts

Blast from the past

An unexpected conversation with an old friend earlier today took me down memory lane and had me dig up  this piece I wrote 7 years ago. We had set ourselves a challenge to depict, as vividly as possible, a common Indian scene straight from the imagination and capture as many details as we could. The topic - an Indian family on a scooter. Here's what I came up with...aided in no small part by memories of my own Bajaj 150...the scourge (and blessing, all combined) of my college days! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I was driving towards the traffic signal, my eyes caught a scene that was comical, incongruous, dangerous and yet commonplace, all at the same time. It was an old scooter, a sky-blue Bajaj 150, slowly working its way to the signal. By every appearance, it was a relic of the past, a scooter whose place was in some dusty garage rather than out on the road. The bulbous rear end sporting a gril

Confessions of a deprived runner

These past several days haven’t been kind to me.   Ok, confession, it’s actually several weeks. Or months, maybe. Or…gasp, shudder…maybe even a year or two. Before I get all carried away and bang my head on the table and wonder what the fuck I’m doing with my life, I just wanted to clarify that, well…these right here are unkind days. It’s been ages since I’ve answered nature’s call. You’d be frustrated, too, if, like me, you simply could not bring yourself to go.   Each time I make an attempt and get so close to the moment of cathartic release I could practically smell it, something crops up that makes me painfully withdraw.   Oh wait…I didn’t mean, you know, that nature’s call. I was being more literal. Like being out in real nature. Trees and stuff. And the smell, you know, of grass and hills. Not, umm, the smell of the release…if that’s what you were thinking. Well, anyways, leaving all that behind…aside, I mean…the point is I haven’t traveled for as long as I can

Making space for oneself...and one another!

The following post is written as part of Indiblogger's "Go further to get closer" contest. To find out more about the contest, go to this link http://bit.ly/1epU8Uj or check the following video: They stood side by side, doing the dishes. The silence between them was pained, the air laden with the weight of things unsaid.   The sharp clanging sounds of steel and hard sloshing of water were punctuated by labored breaths. Every breath was like an exclamation, seemingly letting out that which could not be said, and that which was said so often as to lose all meaning. His thoughts were like demons screaming inside his head, the fury exponentially increased by her inability to understand anything he said, his constant inability to make her see that which he knew was right. Her mind was resigned, tired out by these frequent fights, the bouts of yelling that got so intense that they always stopped out of sheer physical tiredness than out of any mutual understan

Travel - the 'mental' aspect

Close your eyes and think about travel, and chances are you’ve straightaway conjured up images of some exotic land. Coffee-table books, travel magazines, even vacation photos on Facebook, they talk about people, culture, landscapes, food and sights…essentially everything designed to get you to a particular destination. What tends to get hidden in this overabundance of information is one of the primary reasons you travel, which is the state of mind you go through while on the move. This mental journey within you is no less arduous and interesting than the physical journey to visit a place, and that is primarily what makes it addictive. For if travel was just about seeing a place, why bother going anywhere when you could see so much more, and packaged in a way you could seldom hope to achieve yourself, by simply switching on your favorite travel channel? The initial emotions are nearly always excitement and anticipation. Seeing beautiful images or reading about the trips of others

My fabulous five

The following blog post is written as part of Indiblogger’s ‘WeChat’ contest, which is a promotion for the WeChat mobile messaging app. To learn more about WeChat, check their youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/WeChatIndia?feature=chclk The idea of a common platform where anybody could connect – past, present or future, alive or dead, real or fictional – is, I think, brilliant, both as a brand promotion and a general concept. What messages would you leave to your as yet unborn children or grandchildren? Would Gandhi have been able to influence the views of Adolf Hitler? What musical masterpieces would have emerged had A.R. Rahman collaborated with Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar & Mohd. Rafi at the peak of their prowess? How many more Meiyappans & Vindoo Dara Singhs would Sherlock Holmes have unearthed, had he been part of the investigations in the sordid IPL scandal? The possibilities are endless. My own personal ensemble cast is an eclectic mishmash o