Angels with arrows, large hearts, large chocolates shaped as hearts, red roses, orange roses (welcome to the genetic world), white roses, panicky boyfriends, perspiring husbands et al. The day is here. I saw the rise of the Valentine in India. The neighbourhood Archie's went from having a bunch of cards to putting huge cut-outs and tons of extra racks of cards outside their shop. You were bombarded with songs like 'Valentines day ke din main keh doon ankahi'. Corny with a capital K. Puppy love, yuppy love, mismashed into this consumerist exposition of affection. In fact, this whole 'imported' concept of 'days' is funny. Our outpouring of patriotic feelings seems to be limited to two days a year. Does the same concept apply here? Can you get romantic and flowery and chocolaty one day a year and be your normal grumpy, remote-turning, chip-munching self for the remainder? Apparently not. Then, why single out this day and make it harder for the poor souls. It gets worse with the other 'days'. With a day associated with each member of the family, it seems to be a scam purported by Hallmark to increase it sales, and stuffed down the throats of gullible Indians who'd be more than happy to adopt any Western traditions, given we don't have any of our own!
Rants aside, let me announce that we have got Lucky. Literally, the best music of the year so far has come through. Adnan Sami has scored the music for this Sallu movie called 'Lucky' with an Ash-lookalike 19 year old National College Bandra student. Five songs to absolutely check out if you like melody and have enjoyed his solos thus far.
1. Jaan Meri Ja Rahi Sanam (Anuradha Paudwal, Udit Narayan)
Refreshing melody, reminds me of some songs from Sahibaan.
2. Sun Zara (Sonu Nigam)
Composed by Adnan for himself, sung by Sonu. Good rendition.
3. Shayed Yahi To Pyar Hai (Lata Mangeshkar, Adnan Sami)
Class all over. Lata shines in this beautiful composition.
4. Chori Chori(Alka Yagnik, Sonu Nigam)
Not exceptional, but I like the beats
5. Lucky Lips(Asha Bhosle)
Very 80's rhythm. Asha rescues this from being a corny song to a terrific foot-tapper
While on the topic of Bollywood (my blog seems to be receding into becoming a blog exclusively dealing with Hindi movies), I saw the nominations from Filmfare this year. Wonder what set of dimwits work over there. Here's the list and here are the goof-ups. I read the nomination list before I read the other article and I thought I was looking at misprints till I read the analysis. These awards used to be an institution (not without their share of controversies, yet they did ok most of the times), but they are turning out to be a joke. I don't think we have even a single set of awards that are genuinely good in India. You might say National awards, but when Shobhana shares the award for her work in 'Mitr' with Tabu from 'Chandani Bar', you have to wonder.
Currently watching: House of sand and fog, Cold Mountain, Mystic River, Good Will Hunting
Currently reading : Digital Fortress, Namesake
An attempt to capture the essence of my thoughts and put them in bearable prose, or worse (as the unimaginative pun indicates). Not too different from my scribbles on paper, only a lot more legible.
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- Parth
- Father. Writer. Quizzer. Movie geek. Software guy. Music lover. Cricket follower. Dessert consumer.... You get the drift. The whole is the sum of all Parths. Author of 'r2i dreams'. Join the conversation at https://www.facebook.com/r2idreams
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8 comments:
1. Ditto for the Valentine rant
2. Don't worry about turning your blog into a Bollywood special, I have come to count on your reviews. However, fate conspires against me sometimes, like yesterday when we reached the theater showing "Black" 40 minutes late because we got lost :(
3. I found a DVD in Bangalore that had Mystic River, Cold Mountain, Big Fish and something else..of course, it wouldn't open..don't you know my luck by now?!
4. House of sand and fog was pretty depressing, as was Mystic River. I love Good Will Hunting more each time I see it. Don't miss the monologue about why he won't work for the government..it's a classic!
5. The Filmfare nominations goof-ups page was so funny. I also loved the Best Lyrics category!
Why the rant Parth? We all know all those 'days' are just a marketing gimmick. Infact if u post a rant like this the general reaction wud be u are bitter bcos u dont have anyone to celebrate with, which ofcourse is not true. I do share ur anger at this blatant attempt to manipulate us tho.
BTW the filmfare awards goof-ups are hilarious. Maybe it's bcos from this year they will no longer be sponsored by Manikchand so they are short of funds to make statuettes. :-)
1. Valentine's day sux
2. You do know that all the Indian awards are open to public voting right? Which is exactly why they suck. We should 'ape the West' and limit the awarding to a jury of peers. They all hate each other so much, that it will be pretty balanced voting if u ask me!
Mystic River was very depressing - well the book was, ain't seen the movie. Try and catch Roger Dodger, if you haven't already seen it. Great movie!
Hehe - my friend calls Valentine's day "Love-themed Merchandising Day" :-) Apt na? Personally I think the concept sucks - could never get why one must necessarily gift one's loved one something in order to express love and why on one day of the year? What to do with the rest of the year? Forget him/her and his/her needs?
Read Namesake myself some time back - I found it better than her Interpreter of Maladies and also one of the better Diasporic works...do let me know what you thought of it!
Hey Parth,
Yet another good post. Do you like Namesake? I had blogged about it sometime last week, though I must say that I liked The Interpreter of Maladies much more. Her prose is very lucid, it just flows..
Valentine day is for the college n teenage crowd. And for Hallmark n Archies!! I am too old for all that fluff :)
The awards ceremony is something which I think even the actors wish to change. Got that from a talk show on TV recently.
I liked your review of Black, and I loved the movie quite much.
Hi, first time here..
a) Never got to understand what the big deal about Valentines day in India is...its commercialised! Let alone celebrating Independence or Republic day with such muse!
c) Will listen to Lucky immediately....
b) One such national award which should be of importance is the JNANPITH award....its also called "A dead man's award"!
"Jaan Meri Ja Rahi Sanam..."
spot on dude, tune is generously lifted from that Sahibaan song..sung by Jolly Mukherjee..
"Kaise jeeonga main...agar tu naa banii..meri sahibaan"..
:-)
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