Saturday, April 12, 2008

Shaurya - A Tribute To Friendship

Sensible movies have become a rarity these days. Movies like Om Shanti Om, Partner etc have been flooding the market. First, let me clear the air. I felt the above mentioned movies were entertaining though they dont provide food for thought. But when you always come across a Rahul Bose movie, you need to look at it from a different viewpoint.

I am talking about his latest movie Shaurya. Set against an army backdrop, this movie revolves around a court martial case where Rahul Bose defends the suspect and is against his best friend Javed Jaffery. Both of them are under-rated actors and rank very high in my favourites list. First, I need to give credit to director Samar Khan (whose first film Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye was a dud) for handling this sensitive subject brilliantly. The film was perfectly handled thought the second half could be trimmed by 15-20 minutes. All the actors performed brilliantly within their scope. Kay Kay Menon was amazing as the corrupt and dogmatic Brigadier. Nothing much for the ladies Minisha Lamba and Amrita Rao(a glorified special appearance) but they did well.
The film focusses on the court martial case where the two best friends try to upstage each other in the case. The director has paid attention even to the finer points here. I am not going to rant and rave about the army plot as every single review focusses on that.
The best thing I liked about this movie is despite the two best friends are pitted against each other in the case and they come out all guns blazing against each other, their friendship is not affected at all. Once they are out of the courtroom, things are totally normal despite their bitter arguments in the courtroom. The scene where Rahul Bose brought a Kashmiri Pundit just to get Javed Jaffery married in the middle of the night was touching. This movie reminded me of my close friends who would do anything for me and I would sacrifice everything just to be there for them. Despite the high profile case, despite the tension surrounding them, they have come out with their friendship intact which in the real world is tough.

I have seen many friendships destroyed in a single second and that too because of a small misunderstanding. Friendships built over a period of time (from childhood too) have disintegrated in todays world and are losing their importance. Friendship is the most beautiful relation we can get. As it is known, we dont get to choose our family or life partner(if it is an arranged match - mostly the case in India) but we definitely get to choose our friends and the greatest joy is keeping the friendship intact till the last breath. I have had interesting rivalries with some of my good friends and experienced keeping the friendship intact despite the intense debates we've had.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my friends from the bottom of my heart for being there with me, putting up with my idiosyncracies and for loving me for what I am. This is to let you all know that I value all your contributions in shaping me up and making me the achiever I am today. You are God's gift to me and I am always there for you all whether you need me or not ;) (why do I hear voices which say OH NO?? :D)
The below video is a song very close to my heart. I had sung this as a farewell gift for a close friend when he left to pursue his MBA in IIM - Calcutta. I would like to dedicate this song to all my friends without whom, my life would be incomplete.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

My Storied Life - 1

Okies.....My next post after a looooong time :-) The credit goes to my good friend Shiladitya for pulling me out of the writers block here :-) It all started when I had to mail a package to his friend which reached my own house much to my amazement. I didnt realise that I had interchanged the from and to addresses and mailed it to myself :-) WHen I sheepishly admitted this to him, he said this has to be a blog story...well, my life is full of incidents like this so I thought this could bring a smile to your face....am mentioning some of them down(just to mention a few)...I would like to add a disclaimer that they all are true..believe it or not!!!

Meeting a close friend's boyfriend

Now how simple this looks but rest assured, this story is not. Lets go back to my school days in Chattisgarh when I was a lanky boy with long hair and a beard (in short I looked like a terrorist). I was a leading fast bowler for my school team and was pretty aggressive by nature. In one of my matches, I came across a batsman who was continuously taunting me and hurling expletives at me. I tried to be very patient but he didnt stop. I decided that enough is enough and greeted him with a superfast bouncer(for school standards) which missed his mouth but took his nose :-). I walked upto the fallen guy and dished out words o my own in typical Rajinikanth's style. We won the match and the incident was forgotten.

Now fast forward 6 years after. I had completed my post graduation and returned to Chattisgarh to visit my old school and friends. And not to mention my trimmmed locks and clean shaven face. Most of the people whom i knew back then couldnt even recognize me.....as long as the change is for the better, I dont mind at all ;). I was staying in Aditi's place for 3 days and was having a great time till the minute she thought of introducing me to her boyfriend (then boyfriend, now husband :D). We were supposed to have lunch together in one of our adda's (hangouts during school days) and I was eagerly looking forward for that. Aditi and I reached the place 5 minutes early and saw the other guy waiting for us. I thought the guy looked familiar. It was when I saw the mark on his nose I realised who he was :( .

Well, thanks to the drastic change in my appearance he couldnt recognize me. Aditi was the one who did most of the talking. We spoke about everything except cricket (I had consciously avoided the topic till then for reasons known only to me)...but with two cricket players there, who can stop this from coming?

The discussion started with his nose(ahaaaaaaa.....). The very mention of the mark on his nose prompted Aditi to curse the bowler and his future generations....I was listening to Aditi cursing my children (the ones yet to be born - I am still single and if any beautiful single girl is reading this, do contact me ;) ) that their noses will be worse than Shah Rukh Khan's nose. Till then she had no clue that the offender was sitting right there. I couldnt say anything or stop her from saying anything. Suddenly, Aditi asked me..."Vicky, tum bhi cricket team mein the na...tum aur gaurav(her boyfriend) to ek do match mein meet kiye hoge")....and I pleaded ignorance :D...easy way to escape. Nothing more was said and we were enjoying our lunch.

Suddenly Gaurav shouted "Yehi Hai Woh!!"....Poor Gaurav...Aditi who was drinking water literally spit it on his face out of shock :D...it was a sight to behold...I almost fell out of my chair laughing which contributed to his anger. he continued..."yehi tha woh lambe baalwala now I remember....I knew I had seen you somewhere but man...you have totally changed..."

In the end we had a good laugh and Gaurav was an addition to my friends circle. Its been a year since Aditi and Gaurav are married and we do laugh about this whenever we get together....

Such a simple thing....meeting a friends boyfriend...but look at how this happened...my life is full of anectodes like this. I will be presenting them one by one as and when I find time...hope you people are smiling reading this......