Category Archives: opinions

Personal opinion about culture, movies, books.

So I recently watched TVF’s ‘Yeh Meri Family’ and I regret it immensely

Because it is so good that I shouldn’t have watched it alone away from my family.

Sigh.

TVF has already created multiple shows which have made a huge impact in the Indian Web Series Scene, I don’t need to mention that anyway.

“Yeh Meri Family’s” trailer appeared nice but it also was aiming to the touch the familiar overused and now a slacking string of nostalgia. We have already discussed how easy it is to trap people by feeding them fake bits of nostalgia by rehashing the then popular stuff, adding some spice to it and then presenting it in a new remix packet of today’s times. But, this show was not rehashing anything. Rather, it was based in the 90s and genuinely they didn’t attempt any remixing. So, I gave it a go.

And I immensely regret it.

Sigh, this show feels like they took a chapter out of my life or the life of people like me or like you or like everyone who was truly a 90s child. Based in the year 1998, the main protagonist/narrator of the show ‘Harshu’ is the same age as I was then. But I am also an elder brother so I could see this as both a story of my own life and my younger brother’s life. Each and every episode felt so genuine and honest that nothing felt contrived. There was no attempt to unnecessary use the 90s to make the ends meet. Rather, the innocence of the time when families talked to each other face to face and not on Whatsapp was rather very refreshing and felt real. There is a charm in the shows or movies about kids of 12-13 that they always make you want to see them again and again. Movies like Stand by me, shows like Stranger Things are examples of that. For sure, they have to be good. And ‘Yeh Meri Family’ is surely a good one.

I regret watching it because of so many moments sprinkled throughout the show, it had me traveling back in the time and reliving them again and feeling a shower of sweet and sour punches in the guts. Each and every episode had humor in the right quantity, nostalgia in the right proportion and heartfelt writing in every scene. I am mostly a very solid individual when it comes to emotions (coughs). But maybe the timing of this series is peculiar that I couldn’t hold back myself from being watery in the eyes multiple times. Sigh. Getting older is turning out very weird in fact, weirder than turning a teenager, probably. I have been living alone for 2-3 months and this family or lack of it feeling has shown me a new side of myself. THANK YOU to the idiot geniuses of TVF.

Moreover, I was hit a bit more by the fact that the show was based in Jaipur, had black number plates with White letters, had plenty of glimpses of Saint Xavier’s School (which was not my school but right next to my school so I had seen those corridors) and of course the attention to detail treatment of all the things of the 90s.

Each and every cast member does top notch work. I could see myself in both Harshu (the younger brother) and Dabbu (the elder brother). I could relate to the parents. I could understand the innocence of Chitthi. And I was totally bowled over by one of the best child characters of all time, Shanky. Shanky to me does equally brilliant role in this series as Dustin does in Stranger Things.

Highly recommended to those who feel that there is no honesty and naivety left in today’s TV/Web shows. If you search for it, you will definitely find it.

I am sure many of the folks who have seen this would be recommending this to their family. And probably missing them a lot too. Bloody Kota and JEE nonsense ruined us all.

Featured Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash

So I recently watched: Mukkabaaz and Hidden Figures

If someone asks, although no one would ask, that why am I writing reviews of these 2 movies together, then the answer would be: I am doing so because:

  1. I watched them back to back.
  2. Both tell exactly the same story of underdogs defeating the system and excelling. Although, both movies are kind of filmy. I will explain this below.

Since the movies were both released in 2017 and a lot of time has passed since l will try to summarize their stories below.

In Mukkabaaz, a bright talent, Shravan Singh played by Vineet Kumar Singh, in boxing is at the center stage. He is fighting the system, the federation, the society, his own family and a ‘red-eyed’ District Federation Chief Bhagwan Das Mishra Jimmy Shergill. Shravan messes with the boss of the federation that leads to an all-out war of egos that follows Shravan with his slow but steady rise in the boxing career. Although, it still is a love story at its heart amidst a political-social-sports drama.

In Hidden Figures, the story revolves around 3 genius ladies working at NASA in the early 1960s. Although the movie is based on real people, they fictionalize their stories to an extent to make it more feel-good underdogs story. The underdogs here are brilliant minded American African women who are trying to break many society and stereotypical shackles and helping NASA put men into space before the Soviets do it.

Basically, both the movies feature underdogs who overcome the environment around them and succeed. The hardships they face are pretty realistic like getting into caste debate overlooking the talent when it comes to Mukkabaaz or segregation from coffee mugs to toilets for African American and to top that women African Americans. Despite all the bad happening around the lives of the protagonists, eventually, they succeed, sometimes by fate and sometimes by their sheer hard work and relentlessness in getting what they want.

Although I liked both of these movies, in the end, I was left slightly underwhelmed by their filmy treatment. I mean, they tend to end happily and some things feel contrived. For example, Jimmy Shergill’s character has got nothing else to do but just to satisfy his ego he keeps on pestering Shravan Singh. In Hidden Figures, there are times when some of the white men and women still appear the good guys / and girls just bound by the society. But they still make you entertained and ponder for a while about the times there were and the times there still are. Human society has always been champions of classifying people based on some criteria or the other, all the time. South Park once captured it brilliantly when they said when all religion systems are done and dusted in future, people will still be fighting over the names of their atheistic organizations.

Will there be a time when we will move beyond a person’s background, ethnicity, color, gender and just see everyone on their merit? Well, I am pretty sure it won’t happen in my lifetime. Till then you will have to keep punching the system until you can fly your rockets.

Featured Pic Credits:

  1. Photo by Ryan Tang on Unsplash
  2. Photo by Bill Jelen on Unsplash

2018, the year Hindi Music Industry died or how selling nostalgia is easy

Since I travel to and fro from work to home on a 2-wheeler, I don’t often listen to music while driving. (Those who do put earphones while riding a 2-wheeler deserve a small-non-fatal pat on their back by a more-wheeler). So, nowadays I mostly listen to music on weekends (or while doing dishes). I am not the only one but it has been observed since last 1 to 2 years that top 10 Hindi music hits comprise of at least 5-6 songs which are a rehashed version of some 80s or 90s songs. And this trend has been on a rise more so in 2018.

If you notice top songs on this list https://www.saavn.com/s/featured/hindi/Weekly_Top_Songs/8MT-LQlP35c_ or even the 2017’s top numbers on this list https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/photo-features/best-hindi-songs-top-10-hindi-songs-of-2017/5-baarish/photostory/59470017.cms you will find the same stat.

Have we finished our quota of original music and lyrics in Hindi music industry? Or this fashion of remixing 90s hits as official songs of the movie has become such a thing that if some movie presents original songs, they are looked down upon?

Remixing has been there since forever. But when I was growing up, most of the remixes came out only as private pop albums. They had a very limited audience of monkey-wash-jeans-wearing teens and this genre deservedly died down in a couple of years. However, movie music is the very crux of Indian Cinema. More and more of old is being served to us and I feel our appetite is now being crushed. I don’t really remember listening to any song in last 2 years which has had a really long-lasting impact on me. Rarely any song from past couple of years has hit the right note and only a handful of songs have deserved repeated listening.

I would be wrong to say that only Hindi music industry has died, of course, it has stooped to a very low level. But Hollywood has been doing the same lately. The number of franchises which should have gone done and dusted is still continuing by putting out same content in a different wrapper year after year.

Check out this video by NerdWriter about Intertextuality in Hollywood:

I understand that it is easy to sell Nostalgia. All 90s kids will remember this and that. It is pretty easy to dole out stuff repeatedly to keep generations after generations harping on the same stuff. Star Wars released in the 1970s. Star Wars is still releasing in 2018s. The core audience is still the same. Also, our innate desire to tell our friends or spouses or offsprings about the life we live or lived or the pop culture we followed will keep fueling the fire.

I will cease to watch more Jurassic Park movies after this summer when I am done with next sequel. 🙂

So I recently watched: Tumhari Sulu, Lipstick Under My Burkha and Padmavat

Hello, it’s me!

The guy who promised to post on this blog daily and if not, at least regularly. But I have failed to deliver on my promises, like the Governments. Well, my life in the past few weeks has been really interesting which would actually make me in write so much more content than I would have done as usual. But mostly, it would be grim stuff. I would still write it, just to get it out of my system but not today. Today, I am going to post some movie reviews, which should have been posted 2 months ago. Nevertheless, assume that Women’s Day is around the corner and take the post below with a pinch of salt.

Women’s Day is around the corner. The day when skies will be pink again. The day when women can walk with pride, wearing their favorite sarees. The day when they will be given rose and chocolate, as a consolation to make them feel happy or as a guilt to just make them forget about rest of the days. The day when there will be talks, seminars, panel discussions, all chaired by men as to how can we improve lives of womenfolk. TL, DR; the day when women will be one more time fooled into being happy for a day.

I am pretty sure, I must have mentioned on this blog previously, that International Men’s Day and World Toilet Day occur on the same date. And when I tried to check this site, http://www.internationalmensday.com, I ended up on an error page. So, basically, there’s no International Men’s Day in the first place. Ironic, isn’t it.

Anyways my rant is futile. I saw 3 movies which are usually called as Women Oriented Movies. As if the movies in which an angry male beats everyone single-handedly is called a Man Oriented Movie.

So I watched Vidya Balan’s Tumhari Sulu, ensemble cast Lipstick Under My Burkha and recently Karni Sena’s Padmavat.

All the above 3 are ordered in the manner I liked them. From most to least.

Tumhari Sulu

Tumhari Sulu Poster
Tumhari Sulu Poster

In a yet another display of pure acting and versatility, Vidya Balan hits it out of the ground. Tumhari Sulu is a very simple story of a housewife who is not very bright academically as her sisters but has a knack for doing silly mimicry and voice modulations just for keeping her family cheerful. She plays a generally happy person who believes in herself. Being at home all day, she listens to Radio every time and duly participates and even wins in the contests they offer. By chance, she then gets a chance to be an RJ for a night show which she accepts happily. Although, this decision has left her husband (who is struggling to keep his job intact due to his new boss) with mixed reactions and her family clearly irked. Think about it, who will ‘allow’ their house-wife wives to host a radio show at night? The movie keeps the tone realistic and shows how this unusual attempt of a woman to just have a job she could do leaves her with her family in shatters when their kid elopes and husband. Rest of the movie deals with the reality check that how difficult it becomes for a woman to keep a job she likes and can do but faces so many hurdles because what she does is ‘unusual’.

Overall, I liked this movie and I will give it a thumping thumbs up.

‘Ban Ja Tu Meri Rani’ by Guru Randhawa has become one of my favorite songs of time when everything is a remix.

Lipstick…

LUMB
LUMB

Although this movie is technically a well made dark comedy, it makes you feel slightly weird in your mouth when it ends, as if, you have applied bright red Lipstick on your lips and you are not able to handle it. Initially you flaunt it, later you cannot stop licking it, and eventually, you are not able to take it away from your tongue.

This is one of those movies in which there are 3-4 movies in itself. All of them deal with the pressure womenfolk deal with on an ongoing basis. Some of the pressure is pretty obvious like husband not allowing her wife to work and deliberately impregnating her regularly because… well because he can. Or pressure like not able to wear what one likes. But also the unspoken but very much there, the societal pressure of not being able to just be, for example, a woman in her 50s to not have a fantasy about a character she is reading in a pulp fiction book or in simpler words not able to love again.

All the cast do justice to their roles but stand out performances are clearly by Ratna Pathak Shah and Konkana Sharma Sen (excuse me if I forgot to add another surname).

This movie makes anyone (but mostly a man like me) feel helpless. I am sensitive to all of these issues but I cannot really change it. Maybe I can change it locally to people around me but it would take a mammoth effort to actually make it work. It would mean me sacrificing a lot of things which I take granted for. Time shall tell!

Padmavat

Karni Sena protesting against the release of Padmavati
Karni Sena protesting against the release of Padmavati

Well, the protests against this movie were more interesting than the movie itself. Me even saying that protests were totally uncalled for would be trying to douse a fire with kerosene. I have anyways said this.

Yes, valence electron Ranveer Singh did a fab job as Khilji but what was the intention of the movie, is totally beyond me. Maybe they should have shot a really good scene between him and his slave played by Jim Sarbh. Honestly, that would have made a much more interesting love story than the highly glamorized usual palatial location royal slow-motion romantic drama between the queen and the king who have laughable Rajasthani accents. This movie is totally avoidable and we should have listened to Karni Sena. They knew that it was a time waste and an assault on our sentiments! Having said that, I really liked the filmy climax. I mean I was actually moved by the fire in Deepika’s eyes because that was the only instance she got something to do in the movie.

To conclude, I would say that till we stop using the term “women-centric” or “women-oriented” movies, we would never be able to do justice to half of the world population. Having a female lead just to sing and dance and show sympathy to the Hero should have ended decades ago. Sadly it is still on. Despite having loads of common sense, there is still a women’s day. Maybe someday, if not today.

As Prabhu Deva rightly said,

“Bhalai kabhi aurton ki, kranti ke bina nahi hogi…”

Breaking the habit

To those who can blog every day, kudos to you. I know I thought and proudly announced that I was going to blog every day here, I have failed. Miserably!

Last post here was on February 19th, 2018. And today is April 8th, 2018. I am using an app to track habits and my blogging streak looks like this.

Blog Habit
Blog Habit

I am certainly not proud of this. But, I have an excuse. I have been busy doing work in the office and then I had to carry it along to my home and then had to continue doing that till I had no energy left but to sleep. I have been working for just a few months shy of 10 years and hours-wise, this is the most I have worked at a stretch. Of course, it doesn’t mean I have done the most productive work of my life. But I have enjoyed the struggle to give it as much as possible. And funnily, it isn’t over yet. But I needn’t keep awake till late nights. So, quantitatively work-wise, I have been proud of myself. My shoulders and lower back has pained because of work for the first time. This might sound totally non-sense but whatever. Enjoying work till you start snatching your hair out is also enjoyment.

So, will I be back to regular blogging? Not sure. Will I try? Of course yes.

Also, few updates: I also didn’t blog because I had gone back to home for Holi. Also, I think I am not going to publicize my blog on Twitter and Facebook anymore. I am done with those sites. Those who want to follow my blog, they can either subscribe to this in their feed readers. Or maybe, I don’t know for sure, I will start a fortnightly newsletter thingy which might have abridged posts which anyone can subscribe via email. I have watched many movies, TV shows, read some books, etc, so just to come back to the habit, my next few posts would be their reviews. So, till then, keep smiling till you have teeth.

Also, Casey Neistat is back with his regular vlogging, so why not I take inspiration and keep this thing going.

So I recently watched: Black Panther

Wakanda Forever

Generally, I absolutely love the movies where Villains beats the hell out of the Hero. Villains which question the Hero to think a lot about hero’s own existence. Villains who are so good that they make Hero look like a lucky chump. In a nutshell, I personally like movies where the Villain is a character on which writers have paid a good amount of attention, almost as much as they have paid on the Hero.

So I recently watched: Black Panther. And I liked it!

It was surely worth the hype. As it has been said several times, the best part about all Marvel Heroes is their own imperfections. T’Challa, the king of Wakanda, the Superhero Black Panther is ideal in his own right but might not be the best fit in the evil world. How he deals with his fate and the world around him is the crux of the story.

Without going into any spoiler-y detail, I will list the parts I liked the movie:

  • Super Strong Villain

I had loved the scenes where Bane breaks Batman’s back. I had loved the scenes where Joker makes Batman feel helpless, several times, in several movies. You get it right? Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger here is a villain with a purpose, which you almost relate to pretty well. Although, the means he uses to achieve the purpose makes him the villain. But his performance and all his screen time made me want to see more of him.

  • Super Strong Female Characters

A movie where the Superhero, the Avenger is saved on multiple occasions by genuinely amazing female warriors is a feat in itself. Not only saved but also supported technologically by female scientists. Not only supported but encouraged from time to time by females. This made me wonder, why Black Panther is not a woman in first place. (We shall wait for Captain Marvel for this)

  • Politics

One important point about this movie is the politics in it. This politics about the treatment of Blacks at the hands of the Imperialistic powers has not only been relevant when the comics originated but even now, will make this movie even more memorable. One of the funniest scenes involves a comic treatment to one side-character-white-guy (good old Martin Freeman) had me in splits. Time and again, the words, the era, and the politics of hatred/superiority is mentioned which never seems over the top but very much relatable. This also makes the Villain Killmonger a grey area bad-guy instead of a genuinely evil person. Wakanda is something which could have been of any country which wouldn’t have been conquered and looted for centuries.

  • Music & Costumes & Backdrop

Africa’s best was showcased with proper detailing. I don’t have much to say about it apart from it being very impressive.

Some parts which could have been much better:

  • Forgettable Action Scenes

Technically, we all go to Superhero movies for seeing action. This had lots of action but none of the scenes stood out.

  • Less Screen Time for Killmonger

I seriously felt that there could have been more of Killmonger beating Black Panther for more number of instances.

To summarize, Black Panther movie was a movie which left me wanting for more. I might not be the biggest fan of the character himself, but I liked the movie and the background behind Wakanda as a whole. I hope we get to more of this in coming movies.

 

Getting Viral is Good/Bad?

Don’t worry. I am not going to post the latest (as on date you read this) meme here which just went viral on social media. You might have already got fed up with it and 10000s of versions of it. It might have been done and dusted by now. Or you might not have encountered that yet. It will hit you soon then. With this Viral popularity, someone would get a huge exponential surge in their follower’s list. Some viral people would get economic benefits too. Some will try to be viral explicitly by sharing explicit content, or dead bodies in a Japanese forest, or just by playing with one eyebrow, they will get unexpected fame. Even my content had gone mildly viral once. I felt generally happy out of it for some time surely. But that also leaves me with a question.

Something else will get viral tomorrow and the older viral thing would be less viral. Once the hoopla goes down, once people are done with you, once your stardom has seen the end of the curve, how do you deal with it?

I have a concern about the younger people (as well as the older people) regarding this subject. If you don’t know about the most recent viral thing, have you missed out badly? FOMO and all. How does that work out on campuses nowadays? How are you treated if you are not on all the hip-social-media-sites? Or maybe if you are not on anything, maybe that’s hip. Such a difficult time to be a student nowadays.

Concern about older generation is that they were slightly late to jump on the bandwagon but they are finally everywhere. So, when some new viral thing comes, or a new tech comes, how do they deal with this? Is it just cynicism and general contempt about the new generation or do they also feel that they have missed the bus already so at least now they should feel updated?

A few days back I saw a tweet from Amitabh Bachchan worrying about his Twitter follower count.

Or maybe, when one gets older, they become more childish.

I am now neither old nor young and I have not even hit the mid-life crisis yet. And my viral days are already over. What do I do now to stay relevant? Heh.

Photo by Alice Donovan Rouse on Unsplash