[Movie] Bangalore Days- Malayalam

Movie: Bangalore Days
Language: Malayalam
Director: Anjali menon
Cast: Dulquer Salmaan, Nazriya Nazim, Nivin Pauly, Fahadh Faasil, Parvathy menon....
Rating: 6/5

The colors as morning breaks come shining through a glass painting.... you have three best buddies.... An RJ who is always chirpy and positive on air every single day...A girl tries a ciggie, takes a puff for the first time just before her marriage because she is tensed about the whole shindig.... And then there are these good looking actors strutting about on the big screen.. Am sure this has got you feeling high enough.. So how can a movie with all these flavours be anything but amazing?! Well, that is Bangalore Days for you.

Das (Fahaad) prefers his little private space, Ajju (Dulquer) is a rebel, Kuttan (Nivin who doubles as a narrator) is  quite shy, Divya (Nazriya) is a simple fickle minded girl while Sarah(Parvathy) is quite independent with an attitude to boot. So, what is it they all have in common? Well, there are strings that connect them all beautifully. 
 

We have  Divya who learns about Das’s past which has her reaching out to help him... On the other hand we have Sarah who slowly but surely is attracted to Ajju, but her mom just kicks him to the curb with a few sharp questions.  And then you have Kuttan who realises his girlfriend is not too serious about their relationship, all he does is walks away. Each of these form such beautiful moments in the movie!

Sprinkle in some phenomenal music, choreography and editing, and you have a movie that has you engaged every single minute. None of the actors do over the top drama or have you tearing your hair out..  The nuances of relationships, human beings, personalities and life has been showcased so perfectly by Director Anjali menon.. Just pray this movie doesnt catch the eye of a director from another state and they get the urge to remake it... 

The wedding song...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS4Mev_vRAc

Get your Tamil right...

I havent been this hopping mad ever. Actually, wait, the 1st time was when I endured Chennai Express. I could NOT sit through the movie, no matter how skimpy Deepiga's outfits where.. Yes, I know I have misspelt her name but I have done that intentionally!! Why cant I? When you can happily go about walking all over our beautiful Tamizh, I shall mess up your names! Gah.. 

How dare you show Dudhsagar lake and pass it off as a Village in Tamil Nadu? Call me next time you lose your way towards Tamil Nadu.

How dare you create a fake village in God knows where and make it look all cute and prim and proper and get people to assume that is how people lived..

How dare you mix up religions and create a temple with a God from a different sub case and a priest from another and assume my thatha would let that slide 

How dare you show a tradition that does not even exist - guy carrying a girl up the temple and make it seem like they are the most LOVING couple!! blah.. 

How dare the Deepiga keep saying "Bokwas" and make it look like that is how we talk!! Hullo, come have a conversation with me- i shall dazzle you with my tamil, hindi and english.. 

Phew!! Just when I thought I was done picking out all the bones from this torture of a movie, there came another one... 2 States.

I am not a fan of Chetan Bhagat, he should have stopped after five point someone!! No, did he listen to us? No, he went on to do few more things with pages inbetween [ I refuse to call them books] and am sure he scribbled knowing some director somewhere will lap em up and he would go on to become the next Shakepeare!! Bleddy Hell... 

So, there is this thing with pages in it called 2 states that got lapped up and made into a movie-- starring the dead pan Arjun kapoor and the pretty yet dumb Alia bhatt. He is a north indian boy and she  is a south indian girl. That is all.. There is nothing south indian about her or the entire set in " so called Chennai"

What surprised me was that Ananya [ Aalia] speaks beautiful Hindi while her tamizh is very fudged up.. And she is said to have grown up in Chennai all her life.. Next time call me, I shall come tutor actors in Tamil.. Hindi too if required! 

The boy lands in Chennai, they show the airport and he gets into an auto- FYI there are no autos inside the airport [get your facts straight], he then goes down the city, crossed the Chennai central [ almost telling the viewers - see how correct we are in details] and then suddenly next turn is into Pondicherry lanes [ the yellow wall and tall grey windows and narrow lanes that are so unique to Pondicherry]

The roads are filled with kolams, really? Not in the middle of the day!!  And not all of us put elaborate kolams outside our home daily... 

The house has a courtyard in the center and the lady of the house loves to sing.. how typical, right? Except here she is turned down by all the bhagavathars... [no explanations offered] and suddenly one day Arjun organises her show at his office function and she sings like a Nightingale!! Really?? wtf.. 

Again, the generalisations that Amrita Singh spews on the "Madarasis" is just so steriotypical and so 1940s!!! And we Tamilians do speak beautiful English, in case you did not know!! 

Well, I can go on and on... But am tired and fed up.!! All I wanna say is = Next time you Bollywood folks decide to make a movie set in TN or if the character is a Tamilian, call me for some insights!! I promise you- the movie will fare better~ 

[Book review] Love, That Shit by Chandru Bhojwani

Title- Love, That shit

Author- Chandru Bhojwani

Pages- 143

Cost - Rs 195/-

One day, I received an email from Chandru asking if I would like to review his book. Since I enjoy reading and have no qualms about reading across genre, I replied with a confirmation. Within a few days an Amazon parcel arrived at home with the book in it. All of 143 pages, this is a light read indeed. 

The book opens with a note about how being in Romance is such a euphoria while breaking up is quite depressing, it is a book that goes on to explain why we feel what we feel. Every single person who has ever been in a relationship will be able to relate with this book with ease. 

Extract from the book: Like a rollercoaster, relationships have their nauseating ups, downs, twists and turns... Sure, like a rollercoaster, relationships are also fun and exciting but what happens when the ride isn’t as smooth as you thought it would be?..... 

Now those of us who have been in love know that it is no cat walk, far from it. We go through crazy range of emotions, feelings, mood swings and our entire life goes for a toss.. The pages take us through the journey called "being in love" " the aftermath of a broken relationship" and all that happens in between.  Spread across 23 chapters, each one starting with a witty quote, there are instances where the author has used anecdotes to explain the whole concept to us. The one thing that the author mentions every now and then is that we are not alone, there are quite a few others going through something similar.  

Unlike other self- help books, this book is not preachy, not does it judge you for doing what you do. He has stuck to being general, while making sure the readers connect with all that he says.  There were instances where I was left wondering if it is the author's lessons from being in love, but then shrug that thought away as I move on to the section about single men/women and their attitudes, the different circumstances and situations in a relationship and much more. Oh and he has also spoken in length about matrimony woes, arranged and love marriages, the In law factor and why marriages fail a lot more these days.  Going beyond just romance, he teaches us how to deal with LIFE... 

It was a breezy read, I think I was done with it in a few hours. Quite liked his simple style of writing. But if asked about how the book stood out or was it wow, I would have to say No. For all of us who has been thorugh atleast one relationship, we know what we went through and how we dealt with it. Apart from this, we do have friend/family circle from where we have learnt about different experiences as well.  Do give it a read if you are into the whole Men are from Mars -Women are from Venus or other such books.. 

At the movies...

I have written about how people can be annoying in the movie theater- especially those who get on their phones and just don’t hang up. Today, I had a different kind of experience. There was a mom with her son and a daughter and her mom in the row behind mine. The movie began, the little one kept asking the mom in tamil what was happening and then the lights came on to indicate interval. I felt a jolt on my seat and turned back to see the kid jumping up and down near her mom. And then suddenly the boy sitting on the other side, few seats away from mine [behind my row] started throwing up. He threw up nonstop for a while. Instead of giving him water or something to drink, the mom kept shouting at him. And then she decided to take him to the loo, before which he threw up again down the aisle..

The grandmother swished her saree for a few mins in the air knocking off any vomit on her saree and sat back with the girl. The mom and son came back, the son sitting next to the gramma and no sooner had he sat down did she begin scolding him – Enna sapta, enna panina.. ippadiya panradhu, konjam kooda eppadi nadanthukkanum therila, naaye shaniyan [ what did you eat? What did you do? Is this how you behave, no manners at all.. curse words]… I was quite appalled.. The gramma kept at it… The child looked about 6-7yrs of age and ready to cry. Poor thing! The gramma then gave him a plastic bag and said he was to quietly vomit in that and not trouble them.

What is wrong with people? The child’s eyes were red- he could have been running a temperature or had a bad stomach.. the Movie was more important than your child’s health? Amidst the children who scream and shout, this upset me the most~~