A few $$$ none the richer

Just discovered a store in this country where they keep DVD’s of Bong movies. Some of them are quite recent, only a year old I’d say. This is certainly encouraging. Better spend $3 on a movie which you can choose not to watch after a point rather than spend $8 not including taxes to watch ‘De Taali’ - where you are one amongst the only six people who made it to the hall. Well, we make mistakes. I was elated to hear about a hall here where they screened only Indian movies and went to watch whatever movie was showing. I came out two hours later with a throbbing pain in my head which happened because I accidentally bumped against the wall in the darkness so that the remaining persons in the hall would not know that I was one of the six who ignored all warnings and watched the movie.

So, this movie has Ayesha Takia, Aftab Shivdasani and the brilliantly under utilized Ritiesh Deshmukh. Aftab (Abhi) plays Ayesha’s (Amu) love interest and I say this because the movie is about Ritiesh (Paglu) and Ayesha trying to get Aftab interested in Ayesha while the bloke clearly likes every other girl in town. Three of them, best friends since school have now grown up and while Aftab gets written about in magazines for his business acumen, he does not even know the address of his office. Ayesha conveniently works in Abhi’s Dad’s (Anupam Kher) office while Paglu is a venture capitalist whose ventures have never made capital. That does not stop Mr. Deshmukh from wiling away his time helping friend Amu win Abhi‘s heart, while his landlord resigns to writing off three months rent in despair.

Enter Kartika (Rimi Sen), the femme fatale who is the thirty second girl to steal Abhi’s heart, the thirty first being the sultry Neha Dhupia who practices necromancy. Former girl friends include drug addicts and kleptomaniacs, so when Rimi is the social worker who courts the disco by the night, Aftab could not have it any better. The two fall in love while escaping the eyes of Amu and Paglu who by the way, are shown to be constantly at Abhi’s side and things come to a state that Abhi decides to marry Kartika much to the dismay of his friends.Paglu tries his best to stop the marriage and when Amu and he learn that Kartika is not really in love with Abhi but only after his money, Amu also joins the struggle. It is literally a struggle because Kartika is always a step ahead of them until they take desperate measures and kidnap her. From here, the movie gets from bad to worse because they try to make a comedy out of the situation while finding out her true identity. Turns out that she is Anjali who comes from a troubled family and has a troubled past and is now bent on marrying an extremely rich person to make amends for all the things that she has been deprived off in life. Too bad, before Paglu can inform Abhi about Kartika’s antics, the hostage has escaped and framed her sad story in such a way that Abhi is more determined than ever to marry her. A last minute change of mind by Kartika saves the day for Amu who has not been much of a hit with Abhi and our lover boy gets a girl (never mind which one).

Well, I have loads and loads of loose strings to tie after watching this movie. The first one is my purse. There come questions like, shouldn’t Paglu be more concerned about finding means of making money rather than spending all his energy uniting his friends? Is it worth kidnapping his best friend’s fiancé just to stop the marriage? Why is Amu in love with Abhi who is clearly interested in every other girl in town and not falling in love with Paglu who is so devoted? Ritiesh Deshmukh clearly has all the screen time. He is a brilliant actor and its time bigger directors took notice. He has been proving his acting prowess for much too long now to be ignored by serious film makers and has definitely grown beyond the slap stick comedies that we are so used to see him do. Personally, I think he would be brilliant in a negative role in some chilling suspense thriller. Ayesha Takia acts well. She is sweet, dances well and manages to hold her own. I only wish she had a better script. Aftab is dead pan as always, thank God he’s not doing a sleazy role in this movie.

There wasn’t much to watch here, but the songs are good. And as one friend put it, we should have spent those two and half hours in the empty theatre playing “kumir danga” - for those who don’t know Bong, I cannot explain this game except that we played it everyday as kids and it needed lots of empty stairs.

The truth about pencil heels and leasing office agents

Pencil heels are no good when you are walking on soggy grasslands or in a sand volleyball court. For one, they tend to sink into the mud or sand whichever maybe the ground beneath your feet and refuse to rise unless you expend a whole lot of energy in pulling them out. With every step that you take, they sink deeper and deeper and with that their resistance grows more stubborn. While you are doing your best to disassociate them from the surface, they make fast friends with the mud or sand and you suddenly find your precious pair of shoes keeping company with wet sand and muck. Try cleaning them while the mud is fresh and you could leave a permanent mark. If you wait for it to dry and pray that it peels off on its own, chances are that your prayers will never be answered.

Therefore, tread carefully. Never use your pencil heels on well polished floors because your centre of gravity make shift places while you were carelessly admiring the latest iPhone 3G. Never try to step into a car located in an uneven concrete parking lot because they make get chiseled. Never step on a soft carpet wearing them, because they may leave marks. Beware on surfaces covered with muslin like cloth, your heels may drag the yarn along with it. Do not step into a flooded bathroom wearing them because while they might protect you heels from getting wet, there is no knowing what may befall your toes.

However, use your pencil heels to express frustration over the agent in the leasing office who does not understand that when the AC in your new apartment does not work from day #1 it’s a result of his negligence and not your ignorance. Put your heels to good effect by raising your feet to the level of your knees and bringing them down on his toes when he thinks you understand everything about capacitors and resistors in centralized air conditions with digital user interfaces. Being dumb has never been easy, but when people take you seriously, don’t just cool your heels, put your action points in service!

I am on my own now and yet I am no longer my own now.

And it feels so good!!!