Recent Movies - Kapoor & Sons

Watched Kapoor & Sons over the Easter weekend.

What do I say? BW is coming of age ... the last three movies I have seen in the theatre have been great to watch ... Airlift, Neerja and now Kapoor & Sons. While the first two were biopics, lifted from real life events, K&S is fiction ... but is so close to life that when we came out of the theatre, all three of us had the same reaction ... 'this movie was so real.'

A slice of life ... the story of a dysfunctional family ... yet is it really dysfunctional? True, most of us don't have a gay son hiding his sexuality, many of us don't have a parent indulging in an extra marital affair ... at least, one hopes not. But all families have their inner conflicts, their tugs, their push and pulls, a child feeling less loved, less worthy, a child feeling the pressure of being the favorite, pressure to be 'perfect'. Most middle class couple go through financial tension and the arguments that ensue from that tension. Many families have an idiosyncratic elder member ... whose idiosyncrasies hide wisdom gained over the years ... wisdom to understand what is important, and what is not.

I think that's the beauty of this movie. Everyone can relate to some character ... at times, to more than one character ... because the characters are all real. They squabble, they bicker, they fight, they hide secrets ... yet they all pull together in the end. When Rahul's truth comes out, his mother says she never wants to see him again. Yet she misses him terribly, and when he returns, they fumble back towards their old equation without any grand apologies, any tearful reunions ... she struggles to accept his truth, but she cannot do anything but accept HIM. They are family, and that's what families do. You fight, you yell ... and the next moment you get together to celebrate a family event.

There should have been more focus on Arjun, the younger son, and his acceptance of his mother's betrayal ... that was glossed over in just one scene ... the scene where Siddharth was the weakest ... especially in front of a powerhouse performer like Ratna Pathak Shah. He was the wronged son ... his story stolen, his accomplishments always compared and found wanting as compared to his 'perfect' older brother ... his redressal wasn't addressed. Siddharth's acting was good though ... he just faltered in that one scene, otherwise he was very good right through. Must be his best performance till date.

Alia was very good in the scene where she speaks about her parents' death ... brought a lump to my throat, and a vow to never end a conversation with a fight.

Rishi Kapoor brought a smile to the face whenever he was on screen ... rowdy jovial old man, full of life, loving grandfather, non-interfering father and FIL ... he disapproved strongly of his son's affair, and of Rahul inviting the other woman ... but he let his son and DIL alone to handle their problems.

Rajat Kapoor was very good ... as he always is. Hiding his own secrets, struggling with the acceptance of his own failure, a weaker person than his wife ... he tried to make amends, but too late.

The two strongest performers were Ratna Pathak Shah and Fawad Khan.

Ratna PS ... what an actress! She was Sunita ... harried, hassled, betrayed and bitter, struggling with finances ... struggling to keep things going ... but not with a saintly all-forgiving demeanor ... she was bitter and angry, and she showed it. Yet she kept things going ... she was the glue of the family ... she made her own mistakes, she favored one son over the other, but she always tried to do her best by both and by her family.

Fawad Khan ... I thought the guy was over-rated ... I stand corrected. He was bloody brilliant. My new crush on the silver screen. A man struggling under the pressure of being the 'perfect' son, responsible, caring, mature ... yet hiding a secret which he wanted to tell his family, but was scared to. He did ask his mother to visit him, to see 'who he lived with' ... he did try to tell his brother, but Arjun fell asleep ... He was a wonderful son, ticked all the boxes, except one ... he couldn't get married and provide his mother with the grandchildren she wanted. And for a few short months, that one truth seemed to negate all his other wonderful qualities ... till his mother managed to accept the truth, and reach out to him again. A beautiful way of dealing with the issue ... understated and matter of fact ... showed both how difficult it is for a parent to accept the issue, and yet how irrelevant it can be in the larger scheme of things.

Special mention to the plumber scene ... it was hilarious, yet the underlying truth ... family secrets, family tensions, all festering inside, everyone trying to hide the cracks from the outsider, yet the cracks show ...

One of those movies I would love to watch again. 

Shows I'm watching

Watching the two new Sony shows, keeping up with Tamanna off and on, and tried Dehleez.

Kuch Rang Pyaar Ke ... shaping up quite well, a mix of characters. The mother is very grey, she plays on Dev's guilt, and wants him tied to her pallu all the time, her insurance against her dark past, which seems to hide more than just poverty-ridden days. The son is obsessed with their past, and with trying to make it up to her. The eldest sister Neha is bitter and angry, that she too sacrificed her childhood, her education, but her sacrifices are never appreciated. The younger two sisters are more balanced and normal ... but the three older members of the family are still struggling to come to terms with their past.
On the girl's side, the family is more normal, a typical warm Bengali family, with a lazy obese son, who can never manage to hold down a job for long, his nutritionist sister, who is very dedicated to her work and her patients, a warm loving mother (I like the actress!), and an indulgent father. All three acknowledge that the house runs on Sona's earnings.

Ek Duje Ke Vaaste ... the guy is a looker!!! One of the most good looking guys I've seen on Indian telly, and very tall with it!!! Not a great actor, though ... he is new, and in his first show as lead ... needs much more improvement. The girl is still overacting a lot in the chirpy scenes, and her dialogue delivery needs work. But worth watching for the guy ... hope he improves. And the storyline is good as of now ... his back story, as to why he wanted revenge, has emerged ... now we wait for her side. But it's good to see a well groomed, good looking guy on TV. :)
Girl seems to be aping Khushi ... not successfully. Both leads need to emote much better.

Tamanna ... Mihir's true colors are emerging slowly and steadily. Sudhanshu Pandey has entered. Not watched regularly last week ... need to catch up.

Dehleez ... I thought Harshad Arora was a decent actor ... now I realise he was good as compared to plastic Pree! With better actors, he is strictly adequate only. The girl is not bad. The guy's mother is doing a decent job ... she is less loud here than in the last show I watched her in. The rest of the characters are farily stereotyped. May not keep up with this show for too long.

Planning to watch Kapoor and Sons this weekend ... have been hearing very good reviews. 

Sanaya at Golden Petal Awards

Sanaya made an unexpected appearance at the GPA ... so good to see her again. Her first public appearance after marriage ... she is looking even more gorgeous than before!!!

My absolute favourite pic from the bunch first - she looks simply gorgeous here. She could give all BW actresses and a few HW ones too, a run for their money.

Another segment - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DFG0ctXKsWw

http://www.pinkvilla.com/tv/photos/350878/sanaya-irani-looks-beautiful-pink-colors-golden-petal-awards

Colors tweet

https://twitter.com/ColorsTV/status/706757368831315968

Sanaya will be performing, and hosting a segment as well. Looking forward to both! So far she hasn't found anything she likes ... hope she finds something interesting soon, so that we can see her back on screen. 

http://www.tellychakkar.com/tv/watch-video/women-are-born-powerful-sanaya-irani-160308
For once I disagree with Sanaya ... women still have a long way to go to reach gender equality ... she is in a privileged position because of her family and her upbringing, hence has never faced that level of inequality. However, agree that celebrating one day as Women's Day is unnecessary ... so are we implying that all the other days of the year are Men's days? And also agree that women are inherently strong ... much stronger than men ... it is the social conditioning and patriarchal society that thrusts the role of the weaker partner on women.

A very cute segment with Arjun Bijlani, her friend since LRL days

More videos ... duplicates of the first one

Adding random article on Women's Day here, since it mentions Sanaya 

http://www.tellytadka.net/womens-day-actors-who-can-portray-women-who-changed-the-history/

Coco Chanel - Sanaya Irani
French fashion designer Coco Chanel is still regarded as one of the most innovative fashion designers. She was instrumental in defining feminine style and dress during the 20th century. Her ideas were revolutionary; in particular she often took traditionally male clothes and redesigned them for the benefit of women. The cute and bubbly fashionista Sanaya Irani is our choice for portraying this smart lady because she has it all. She is indeed beauty with brains and her acting is one commendable job as every time she plays a character, she owns it.

One last segment where Sanaya expresses her views on the important women in her life - her mom and sister ... sweet!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEfY8fa7Oy4&feature=youtu.be

Movies and Shows

Neerja - An extraordinary movie about an ordinary girl caught in extraordinary circumstances, and her courage and grace under fire. An ordinary girl, 23 years old, thrust into a position of leadership and command, under the worst possible circumstances. Beautiful movie, with stellar acting from Shabana Azmi as the mother, and even Sonam delivered a decent performance ... she actually acted. All the cast was fabulous, including the hijackers, who were hateful.

The beauty and the pathos of the movie was in the fact that it was a true story, and the makers did their research and stuck to the facts as much as possible. No gun blaring, arm toting larger than life heroes to the rescue, as in most American hijack movies ... no fairy tale ending with extraordinary rescue ... the true heroes were the unlikely ones ... the cabin crew, under the stewardship of a young purser on her first flight as purser, the passengers who stayed calm and cooperative under the horrific, terrifying circumstances, they thought of their fellow passengers even in the face of immediate and certain death ...
How people  react when faced with the most terrifying circumstances ... danger brings out the best, and sometimes the worst in all of us. In Neerja, it brought out the best ... and in doing so, saved the lives of 359 of the almost 400 passengers on board that fateful flight.

Trivia -
The plane hijack scenes were shot over 4 stretches of four hours each. During that time, no one was allowed to call 'cut'. Sonam recounts that after the last shoot of four hours, she broke down and howled, she was so exhausted. Yet when asked how she felt, she replied that she got to go off the set and go home ... the real Neerja never did. During one scene when the hijacker was forcing Neerja to sing, Sonam was so pent up that she was collapsing, the actor was physically holding her up from behind.
The director recounts that he made the four actors playing the hijackers stay separate from the actors playing the passengers and crew. They were not allowed to intermingle with their fellow actors till the final hijack scenes were shot.
Neerja's real family was consulted on the shoot, and the director also took accounts from passengers and crew of the flight, before making the movie. One of the children Neerja saved is now a pilot, and every day he remembers Neerja, and the fact that he owes his life to her.
Neerja's father died a few years ago. Neerja's mother died two days before the trailer was released. Neerja's two brothers were shown the movie before the release.

If anyone here has not seen this movie, do go see it.  It is highly recommended. You will not leave the theatre with dry eyes. yet it's not overtly emotional,  not melodramatic. A very well made movie ... deservingly a blockbuster hit. It looks like the Indian moviegoer audience is accepting good content wholeheartedly ... first Airlift, now Neerja. Content is indeed king.

TV Shows -

Started watching the two new Sony shows ... can't remember their long names! Both are okay, the promos were more promising.
Kuch Rang Ke Pyaar Ke ... Shaheer Sheikh has improved tremendously from his Navya days, and looks very good too. I have liked Supriya Pilgaonkar since SGP days, and even before, since Tu Tu Main Main days ... she plays a grey role here, will be interesting to see how she carries it off. So far so good ... the possessive nature of the doting mother has started surfacing, as has the blind love for her son. Is the daughter justifiably angry and bitter, or is she jealous? The FL is very average, and hasn't gotten much screen space yet to showcase her talent.

Ek Duje Ke Vaaste ... After much racking my brains, I remember where I saw the FL earlier ... she was on a Life OK show, where she was bad. Here too, she seemed okay the first couple of episodes, but now she is overacting and hamming big time. The guy seems decent though ... and the story so far is interesting. Wish the FL was better.

Tamanna ... so Dharaa is going in for a divorce after six years of marriage ... that was unexpected. The makers have roped in many good actors ... Sonali Kulkarni made her entry today as the ?social worker in charge of the women's cell. The FL looks too old for the role, and doesn't have the spark required for a FL, her acting too is average.
Wonder what Baa will have to say about her darling granddaughter's marriage breaking down. Cricketing is not exactly a stable profession to support a child ... wonder where and how they will take this ahead. Again following the show for the story ... and again, so far so good.

Siya Ke Ram - can Sita stop lecturing??!! She has been turned into  a typical SP bahu ... perfect in every which way ... and it's annoying!!! And Ram with that perpetual gentle benevolent smile on his face is equally so. The makers need to decide which way to go ... either make them human, with human frailties, or make them divine and get a move on with the story. The show is dragging unbearably and Sita Ram are too perfect and boring! Lakshman and Urmila are much more watchable.

Sanaya - news?

Another SBS segment, obviously part of the same segment as the V Day one ...

Sanaya clears the air that she has no idea about IPK continued ... so that was a figment of IF's over-active imagination. 

However, the same day, after this segment aired, the reporter Arti issued a series of tweets ... 

ARTI GUPTA@garti21

@radhikab512 @SBSABPNews guys talks r on , barun is ready , producer gul is tryng to convince sanaya .show tentatively named ishaqzade .

ARTI GUPTA @garti21  10h10 hours ago

@radhikab512 @SBSABPNews v alwys update wat is goin .so nthng cnfrmd .talks still goin on .v respect ur feeling so v keep updating .b positv

ARTI GUPTA @garti21  10h10 hours ago

@suzan_dusky @iuliana_h @niji_71 @sana_jad @radhikab512 @SBSABPNews v dont get nythng gvng u wrng info .

ARTI GUPTA @garti21  10h10 hours ago

@iuliana_h @suzan_dusky @niji_71 @sana_jad @radhikab512 @SBSABPNews v r vry much followng the story dont worry wat evr update cums vl infrm

According to these, SP is on, Gul is on, Barun is on ... Sanaya remains to be convinced. What a turnaround from 2011, when Gul had to convince SP to take Sanaya... now SP and Gul have to convince Sanaya to accept a show! All I need is for SP to insist on 'no Sanaya, no show' ... then the wheel will indeed have come full circle. God willing and fingers crossed.

Dreams Die Hard

Tamanna - it's not only gender that can get in the way of your dreams. Sometimes it's circumstances - like Deepak, Dharaa's father, who gave up his passion because he wanted to provide for his mother. Sometimes it's injury - like Kantilal Gantra, who had to retire from the game when he lost a leg. Every passion, every dream, requires hard work, sacrifice, and more. It requires support from without and within. A successful person isn't successful in isolation. A lot of hard work and sacrifice goes into his success, his own and that of his family.
Deepak's mother didn't give him that support ... she tried for a long time, but apparently she didn't give him the support when he gave up his dreams for her ... she accepted his sacrifice. Kantilal Ganatra's stumbling block came from his own body ... his accident, where he lost a leg, and with it, all hopes of making it to the India team. He had no choice ... but Deepak did. If his mother had insisted he follow his dreams, who knows where he would have reached.

But then, Deepak made his choice himself. And instead of pursuing his dream in one direction, he kept his passion intact by giving it another direction - that of coaching youngsters in his small town. As did Kantilal. Both men turned failure into success of a different sort, both used their obstacles as stepping stones to success of a different kind. Both followed their dream, their passion, albeit in different ways from the one they intended, but they followed it nonetheless, and used it for the larger good - giving their gift to the next generation.
So there is no such thing as failure. It can be turned into success of a different kind. That's why all successful people agree that it is failure which helps mold success, not success alone. And a person can follow his or her dreams regardless of circumstances, if he has the determination and the perseverance.

The show has some excellent veteran actors ... and now Sudhanshu Pandey is going to enter. He does selective work on TV, so am looking forward to his entry.

Siya Ke Ram ... too much lecturing ... but some nice points made during the wedding ... chiefly that a wedding is the joining of two cultures, that of the groom's family and the bride's. So a bride is not expected to forget her culture, her traditions and her upbringing when she goes to her husband's home, and blend herself into his family ... instead she is supposed to enrich her husband's family with her own traditions, thus leading to a new joint tradition. That is how families and cultures evolve, that is how civilisations evolve.

19/02 - 
A hilarious article on the state of Indian television these days.
http://www.scoopwhoop.com/indian-tv-rant/


Sanaya 
Still waiting for news of Sanaya ... she seems to be enjoying her newly wed state, from the recent V Day segment. So nice to see her glowing and so happy!!! Mohit can't stop grinning about the fact that she's Mrs. Sehgal now ... he is one proud husband!






Adorable!!! Look at her face!!!


Love the dog!!


Posting because San is looking lovely here! Fresh and glowing and smiling.

Valentine Day's segment

Sanaya News ... and Random stuff

Sanaya news first ... barely been eight days since her wedding, and we get news about her return on SP, with a continuation of IPK for 25-30 episodes. However, this is news from IF,  who are not very reliable at all.
SBS also reported that Sanaya is doing a new show with Barun ... no talk about finite or one month ... that seems more believable. If at all this is true, and Barun is signed on for 25-30 episodes, I hope it is just the prelude to a leap, ASR and Khushi can die leaving behind a baby daughter, and we can have a new show with Sanaya as lead with a new ML. Barun can float in and out in flashbacks ... that will restrict his working hours on TV to what he finds manageable, and he can leave any time he signs a new movie. Everyone happy!!!

New show on Star Plus Tamanna, about a woman cricketer ... watched the first two episodes, and liked it. The ML is Vishal Gandhi, who played Paro's first husband in Rangrasiya, he is a good actor, if not spectacular. This may be another DABH, but the actress is definitely better than Sandhya beendni, although she looks a bit older than the ML, and seems to be trying to ape Khushi to some extent. But she is sweet and acts quite well ... and I'm always game to try a show which shows a woman following her dreams. The baa, played by Ketaki Dave is good ... nice to see her not negative for once!

Watched Airlift last weekend ... nice movie. They didn't give much time and space to the Indian side, the negotiations, which allowed India to use Jordan airspace to evacuate the Indians, nor the negotiations with Saddam when he allowed Indians to leave ... they concentrated more on the heroism of the protagonist in Kuwait, and mentioned at the end, that he was based on two real life heroes, who organised the evacuation of over 170,000 Indians from Kuwait.

Watched Dilwale over the holidays ... usual Rohit Shetty senseless brainless movie, randomly based on Hum and a mishmash of a couple of other movies ... watched it ONLY for SRK-Kajol, and enjoyed their scenes regardless of the story, or lack of it. And of course, the beautifully shot 'Gerua' in Iceland.

Also watched Bajirao Mastaani... again typical Sanjay Leela Bhansali, long on spectacular visuals and amazing cinematography, great music, with classical base ... and short on actual emotions. You know a love story has gone wrong when your audience is rooting for the wronged wife, rather than either of the two lovers. Ranveer Singh was brilliant as Bajirao, Deepika was good as Mastaani, but Priyanka stole the show as Kashibai. Worth seeing on the big screen for the amazing visuals of the war scenes, the fort scenes and the beautiful palaces of Bajirao, Mastaani and everyone else.