Hindi channels and 'faltoo' movies

Being in Bangalore , I revel in the non-CAS system and try to watch as many Hindi channels as possible. My daily diet consists of Channel V , Zee Muzic , Zoom , Star Gold , Sahara One to name a few. And recently I tuned into Mtv , the most hyped channel.
Mtv is certainly different from other channels. One of my favourite programs is ‘Piddhu the Great’ where a Punjabi displays his slapstick comedy throughout the song played at that time. Some time it is stale , but mostly it is good. Yeah , not bad!

The second is ‘Rendezvous with Semi Girebaal’ , a take on Simi Garewal and her chat show. The host VJ Cyrus is perfect for this role and this program is actually good , much better than what I expected!

And the third is a MTV Fully Faltoo Production’s ‘Ghoom’ on ‘Dhoom’. Well timed , Ghoom will release just before Dhoom 2. With Cococola as sponsor , this movie ridicules the original one . Like Abhishek Bachchan becomes Abhishek Bachao (hmph…they actually made fun of Abhishek! ) and John Abraham becomes Kaun Abraham. Nice trailer , not bad version of the song ‘Dhoom Machale’. Ofcourse the best is Himesh Reshammiya’s substitute! :) and click here for more on the movie - http://www.ghoomthemovie.com

The worst program I would have watched would probably be ‘The great Indian laughter Challenge 2’ on Star One (trivia – the tamil version is Kalakka Povadu Yaaru on Star Vijay and Hutch sponsors both) today. Sameera Reddy was a judge , the participants spoke/acted/sang/danced badly and the judges acted uncouthly by laughing out aloud too many times. And Uma Riyaz Khan was better than this Hindi comperer…
Wonder what other Hindi stuff is in store for me!

(PS: Does anyone know any good bookstore in Bangalore? Have moved there , that’s why…)

Of 'risk reading' and pleasant surprises

I did something quite recently , which i don't do very often. And this is called 'risk reading' , which means just picking up some book , without knowing what the story is all about , who the writer is and all that. Sometimes it is pure fun and sometimes you can have a heart attack by either a) the book is unimaginably bad
b) the unimaginably bad book is written by your favourite author (like how an rgv fan like me was sorely disappointed after seeing 'Naach' , but i will keep that for later).

Anyway , the two books I read were 'The Cricket on the Hearth' and 'Up and down the Dales'.
The first was written by Charles Dickens (which i discovered pleasantly , yes pleasantly,later) and the second book was written by Gervase Phinn or someone like that.
'The cricket on the Hearth'. Part of Charles Dickens so-called 'Christmas' books. Read Christmas Carol , did not particularly enjoy it , 'accidentaly' came across this book and started reading it. Glad that i did. This book is simply wonderful , sweet and perhaps the best of Dickens . Yes , i know , Oliver Twist , Pickwick papers or David Copperfield would be better , but having read all four , 'The Cricket...' is my choice. This is a simple story without much complications and gives a feeling of enjoyment. Though , it may not be a master piece , the sweetness remains with you after reading the book.
The second book , 'Up and down in the Dales' (why do all the books i read have such loong titles?!) by Gervase Phinn a school inspector i think. This is not as good as 'The Cricket on the Hearth' , but still it is a good attempt. Phinn tries to make it highly complicated , the story has no plot or climax or anything , so it almost sounds like a diary entry. Well, this is a book of loose threads (like Phinn inspects a school , spends time with his pregnant wife , acts in a play and gets a baby). It might have been named the 'Adventures of Gervase Phinn' instead...
All things apart , not a bad book.
After being sufficiently encouraged that it is okay to read a book without knowing anything about it , i am going to risk it again , soon. Let's see the outcome...

Two 'plagiarisers' and their books

This week , i successfully completed two important books between eating , sleeping and stern looks from my mother. The first one is something called 'chick-lit' types (whatever that means), yeah , how 'Opal Mehta got kissed , got wild and got a life'. And the second was Dan Brown's 'The Davinci Code'. I will not say - which was worser , because that is not proper English , but the truth is , both were bad. Yes , they were , inspite the plagiarism charges for both and church rebellion for one.
First - Kaavya Vishwanathan's 'How Opal Mehta...and so on'. Bad attempt. This Harvard sophomore and 'a-cannot-be-compared-to' genius is under the impression that her readers would appreciate her ranting on Lindsay Lohan , stilletos and boy friends. I do not know if you were impressed , but i certainly wasn't. This book was such a bore , so unrealistic , that i pity those 'scanners' who read this book again and again to find out 'similar sentences'. Yeah , the fun of the job , dissolves when you read the book
Rating : 3.25/5
Second - Dan Brown's DaVinci Code. Again the reader is expected to be enthralled by Robert Langdon , Christianity , anti-Christianity , Holy Grail , the climax , the anti-climax...Unfortunately , the only thing i enjoyed was when i came to the last page and discovered that i did not need to bear with the torture anymore , to say the least. And i sincerely hope that there is no Da Vinci Code-2. I'll die , unless a movie is made on that and Johnny Depp acts as Langdon ;)
Rating : 2.75/5

And as i write this , my honourable sister (yeah , the one who is crazy about emraan hashmi , yes , the same one!) is blasting my ear on 'How-can-you-say-that stuff ', so i will stop now. It is always better to blast and be blasted in the comments box...

Chokher Bali and my first Tagore post

Some time back , i read rabindranath tagore's Chokher Bali. I must say that i was totally bowled over by the simple , yet artistic narration of the storyand the well-constructed plot. Hats off to Tagore!
So , having read the book and immensely satisfied , i decided to watch the movie 'Chokher Bali' which was lurking in some corner of the DVD shop.The fact that this Rituparno Ghosh movie was in Bengali did not spur me , as anyway , there are the subtititles ( which is the greatest invention in the entertainment world , about which i will talk about...later!).Rather , i cheered up since this was an Aishwarya Rai movie and whether she knew how to act or not , she is beautiful. And so , i invested something like thirty rupees on the DVD.Yeah , and at that time i was blissfully unaware of the worth of the movie and proudly told to everyone on what a great movie it was...
And so that night , we watched the movie.And the rest is history. This is an absolutely great movie which is intent on making you die, either of boredom or disbelief.
When you make a movie like Chokher Bali , you either say that it was your own creation or say that it was 'based' on Tagore's novel (which gives you the right to change the story)But you cannot say that it was "adapted" from the book , which means that you have no right to change the complete story. Hey , this is worser than plagiarism! If you would have seen the movie , i bet you wouldn't have liked to read the book. Atleast most people wouldn't have liked to.This genius of a film maker makes Tagore's novels look like soap operas. Literally. And yes ,Parineeta and Devdas were much better than this.
The only advantages of watching this movie are : i) Bengali is very similar to Hindi and you don't really need English subtititles.ii)to learn that Aishwarya Rai is not the best actor in the world iii) An actress called Rimii Sen is extremely beautiful and is a passable actress.iv) to never trust a Rituparno Ghosh movie.

Writing Indian...

Hi all!

Have been away for a long long time , and i am happy to be back again , blogging!
First , thanks VK for that wonderful election jokes ! And about DMK winning , better luck next time!
Anyway last week I read four books , written by different Indian writers. One was "The Inscrutable Americans" by Anurag Mathur , the second , "Sisters" by Shoba De and the third and fourth were "Five Point Someone" and "One night at the call center" both by Chetan Bhagat.
( Guess these books are not strikingly new!). Anyways , I don't intend to talk about Shoba De as however good her books may be , she is not exactly a new writer unlike the others.
So , to begin with , Anurag Mathur's "Inscrutable Americans". Hmmm...interesting title , not so interesting book.Just a platform for Mathur to express his views on society and sex. Which , my friends , is not interesting at all!
VERDICT : Read it once , if you expect a desi-American novel and no logic at all , absolutely.

Second Book : Chetan Bhagat's two novels trying to capture the 'essence of youth' and other nonsense. Hmm... a pity. Handsome guy , but not so hansome a book. Yeah , another method to voice out Bhagat in matters of girl friends and sex. Oh No , not again!!
VERDICT : Don't try both ( even though "One Night..." is better than the IIT book.

(Trivia - A movie based on the novel "One Night..." is going too be made by Rohan Sippy with...guess who...ABHISHEK BACHCHAN! I bet , the movie will be better than the book!)

And...not to forget our desi chick-lit writer Kaavya Viswanathan and her famous Opal Mehta. Unfortunately I couldn't read her book :( Is there any way i can get it ??

-
jvpoirot