The lolz janta

I have never been able to understand that why some people write "da" instead of "the" its only one more letter, or why they type "dere" instead of "there". Probably I am too old to understand this, or is this the new fashion ? You have to write in the "lolz" language to be cool. But dont they find it difficult to decode ? Try reading this:

"betta dan dat why don u sit at home n chill. jus rin me whn home"

This statement was actually taken from a converstaion I saw on facebook, this was a comment on somebody's status message. Aaaarrrgggh I wanted to bang my head against the wall after reading this, it took me good 15-20 seconds to decode this message.....

Dev D

Anurag Kashyap has definitely taken Devdas to the next level. The original story by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was a brilliant one, but it doesnt look acceptable to me at some points in today's time. AK (Anurag Kashyap) has taken the flaws out of the story and what comes out is a refined product ,much more acceptable in the year 2009.

The key points to note here is that the story in Dev D is in a punjabi background unlike the Bengali background in the original Devdas. The lead character played by Abhay Deol is named Devraj Singh Dhillon, so its abbreviated at Dev D, son of the Sugar Baron in Punjab, Paro (Parminder) played by Mahie Gill, is the daughter of his father's manager. I really loved the way Punjab was picturised in the movie. When Dev lands in Chandigarh the movie begins with an awesome song " Dhol Yaara Dhol" showing Paro dancing, the event is Dev's brother's wedding. What follows after this cannot be exactly called love, its more of an infatuation which was triggered by Paro's "photograph" which Dev saw in London. The couple is always finding places to make out :-). Paro on the other hand has been shown as a girl who is madly in love with Dev, the point to note here is that Paro is madly in love with Dev, but Dev doesn't show any such signs.

AK has shown Dev's ego very well here, he always had this massive sized ego, right from his childhood. But the better part in the movie is Paro also has an ego. The scene to watch out for is when Dev insults Paro, she cries, observes her hairs, wipes her tears and decides to move on. I think this scene speaks a thousand words. Another thing that I lied in the movie was the way the characyters are introduced, infact the entire first half is used for the character buildup of Paro, Chanda and Dev. Showing their backgrounds, specially Chanda's character buildup. AK used one of the real life incident (The MMS Scandal) to build Chanda's character.

As soon as the movie starts after the interval, we find Dev in Delhi, and on the path of self destruction. in these sequences AK has done brilliant work with the camera, the scenes where they show Dev high are remarkable, they look so realistic, and Abhay Deol has done a fantastic job in the entire movie, I guess he is the only Deol child who can act! The soundtrack just compliments the movie at all the points, the best part is that the songs are playing in the background and the movie is moving on... this way you don't feel bored. I really loved the look and style of Dev D, I think this blog entry by AK on the look and style is worth a read

Look and Feel of Dev D

My favorite scenes:

1) When Paro cries and decides to move on
2) When Dev returns after his dad's death, he just stands infront of his mother and cries. This is probably the only incident when Dev cries in the entire movie. And believe me the scene is done brilliantly.
3) When Paro visits Dev in his hotel, Dev keeps telling her that he loves her. But she has moved on, and this is the point where you see that Paro also has a self respect and an Ego. The same scene when Paro is walking away, the song starts in the background, she starts crying and then just puts on the sunglasses and walks away from his room.

4) The scene where Dev hugs Chanda and says "Beta its ok"

Some good blogs on Dev D by Anurag Kashyap:

- Dev D look and Style
- Dev D -Genesis

Read other reviews of Dev D here

Must watch Asics Video

Bad Start

Hello all!! I am back, after about 1.5 months break. A lot of things happened in my life obviously for good. Most of you know about it, so not repeating it here.

So we have entered into 2009! But I would say not a very good start
1) Truckers on strike
2) Oil PSU employees on strike, petrol Pumps dry
3) Pkaistan still denying everything, I am not sure even if Pakistan agrees to all the allegations, what are we achieving ?
4) Satyam Chaos
5) 20,000 Satyam employees out in the market , searching new jobs
6) Noida Rape case, Shameful for us, we call ourselves civilized ? And above all the villagers are threatening to block the highways ? I think a shoot at sight order should be issued.

Not sure where we are heading towards

Anyways, a belated Happy New Year :-P

I salute

Karkare
Salaskar
Kamte
Unnikrshnan
Gajendra Singh
and all true sons of India

We weep for you.....
you stood for us while we slept in out cosy homes.
You died for somebody you never saw....

I salute your fathers, mothers, wives and children for being as brave as you were


*I didnt want to abuse the politicians in the same post where I give these Martyrs their honorary place, that is why a second post

Remebering BR Chopra

Today a legendary film maker BR Chopra passed away. He was 95 years old. He has made successful films like: Naya Daur, Gumrah, Waqt (which is one of my favorites) and Dhund (another favorite of mine). Most of his films showed the change that India was going throuh after independence. In Waqt the topic of Partition of India and Pakistan was very well depicted. And how can we forget one of the most successful TV Shows ever : Mahabharat. The streets were deserted at 9:00 am on Sundays. I still remember a small incident, I was a kid at that time. I was in Delhi with my eldest cousin for some work , and it was on a Sunday, we didn't want to miss Mahabharat like everybody. I guess it was Lajpat Nagar, my cousin knocked on one of the doors, and explained the person that we have come from Allahabad for some work and we don't want to miss Mahabharat. And guess what, in the next two minutes we were sitting in the living room with an unknown family and enjoying Mahabharat. Probably because that was the age when the Bomb scare, terror scares were not there, thats why he allowed us in. Such was TRP rating of Doordarshan when Mahabharat was being aired.

We will miss you BR sahab