Gumnaam - Movie

An old 1965 Manoj Kumar-Nanda classic. Murder mystery based on Agatha Christie's 'And then there were none'. Mehmood is brilliant and its the longest I saw Helen in a role. Good fun!

Column in the HANS - The Great Divide

We are divided by roads!
http://epaper.thehansindia.com/c/33112800

Anjali - We Take Things for Granted

We were driving back home when this old lady came to ask for alms. She looked pretty haggard and old and worn out. I gave Anjali some money to give her because she was on that side of the car.

While we were pulling out Anjali said 'She smiled when I gave her the money.'

I nodded.

'Must have been hungry,' she said. 'She looked happy.'

I nodded again.

'I feel we take so many things for granted in our lives,' she said after that. 'Look at her life and her hardships. She has no home, no money, no food. Instead of being grateful for what we have we keep saying we want more, bigger house, bigger car.'

I nodded again. Bang on. Be grateful for what you have. Good place to start.

Batti Gul Meter Chalu - Movie

Lovely Uttarakhand dialect with every sentence ending with a 'bal'. Sharp, witty dialogue which is sometimes too sharp and too witty and almost makes the characters one-dimensional caricatures. Nice theme about an apathetic electricity service provider. Promised much but went the familiar route. Shahid is brilliant, Shraddha is good. Good view of Tehri!

My Musical Notes 8 - PinkFloyd "The Wall"

The first version I heard of this iconic album was from a cassette that my good friend Dr. Satyanath Patnaik (or to all of us, simply Mani) gave me. This was early 80s. I was amazed that people could make music like this - such different sound, so radical and clearly political. This music was not just about entertaining, it had something to say. They said then that it was banned in India, but after checking the net I find that South Africa had banned the album and the song 'Another Brick in the Wall'.

For a novice just starting out, Pink Floyd breaks all conventions. 'Another Brick in the Wall', 'Thin Ice', 'Hey You', 'Mother', 'Empty Spaces' grab you. But what you can listen to again and again year on year, decade on decade, is 'Comfortably Numb'.

After 'The Wall' I listened to several of Pink Floyd's albums. 'Division Bell', 'Dark Side of the Moon' were certainly those that caught my imagination. But more on them when I come upon hem later.

20 years after I first heard 'The Wall' I attended a Roger Waters show at Bangalore with Kiran (we drove down and drove back) and was amazed at the professionalism, the care and passion that goes into their craft. How could anyone sing what they wrote and sang twenty years ago, when they were youngsters, with the same emotion, passion? I decided then that is what I would like to be like. The lasting memory of that concert - it winding down with 'Comfortably Numb' in an ethereal setting under the Bangalore skies and the image of a fan lying down and soaking it in, eyes closed, behind the screen right in front of the stage. He didn't want to see them, he just wanted to hear the music.

'Comfortably Numb', 'Another Brick in the Wall' and 'Hey You' are my favs from this album. There have been many many evenings spent on 'Comfortably Numb' which is an anthem song for all those high spirited evenings with the boys and will probably remain till the end of days. Usual suspects that I enjoyed it with are Kiran (as recently as last week), the irrepressible Anil Menon and several other victims of mine when I was handed the keys to the music.

Thought I heard it first from Mani's tapes, my first possession of this cassette came when I picked it up from a music shop in the shopping arcade outside World Trade Center in Bombay in 1994-95. The shopping centre had a bookstore and a music shop and I would walk in every payday and buy one cassette and one classic book to read. This cassette was one of those golden collections. 

Unishe April - Movie

Rituparno Ghosh's national award-winning film starring Aparna Sen and Debashree Roy. Family dynamics, misunderstandings and how they get cleared up by the end of the day - 19th April. A day in the life of a mother and daughter. Unhurried. Well crafted. Sensitive. Glad I saw it.

Pather Panchali - Movie

Finally off the list. Glad I watched it now when I can appreciate the depiction of the human condition, human emotions, limitations and frailties. Ravi Shankar composed the music. Can't forget the scene when the father returns home with gifts. And to prove my theory - another movie based on a shor novel - this one by the prolific Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay who wrote 16 novels and over 200 short stories. With the movie in the hands of such giants like Satyajit Ray, Ravi Shankar and based on Bibhutinath's story one wonders at the talent that abounded those days.