Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Power of the Supernatural

This is in extension to the earlier post of "The Era of fantasy". Guess I never overcame the fixation with the paranormal, the supernatural. Why does it interest me so much?

I decided to ponder over it a bit and came up with recent supernatural stuff I have seen/read which kind of brought Goosebumps. Not that I loved it but I was fascinated by it. On the top of the list is the most recent one, so here we go:

1. The Twilight saga: A 4 book vampire series by Stephanie Meyer, followed by a movie of the same name staring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. The reason of my fixation? A nicely written first book that makes you go back to the romanticism of the teens and the movie which had some good looking characters to ogle upon. It actually triggered a series of Google/ wiki searches. So I ended up watching and reading 'interview with a vampire' which was okay, because it did not romanticize the gothic vampire character the way Twilight did. Then I read the short story "The Vampyre" by John Polidori, which was okay too. I remember having sleepless nights after watching Van Helsing, while atleast Twilight cured me of that.
Before I'm seen as a vampire-addicted fan girl, I will move on.

2. The Butterfly Effect: The Ashton Kutcher starrer movie, the idea was cool (I need to improve my vocabulary; I usually come up with "cool" when I need to describe something.) The subsequent sequels (sequels are subsequent rgt? ) were boring but the first movie was for a want of better word cool. The time travel and the ability to change the past and land up in alternate future lines was interesting. What the movie lacked was the typical Indian climax. But who's complaining?

3. Deja vu: Again, the movie. The whole set-up was outstanding. My favorite scene is when Washington points a light at the screen and the heroine in past time reacts. The idea was fascinating. Makes me remember another old movie based on time travel 'Back to future'. I thoroughly enjoyed all parts of the movie.

4. The Horror shows of yester year’s television: The 9.30 pm slot of Zee Horror show, the title music of the show which even today brings a sense of unease. Looking back, the show was gross. I did enjoy the ‘Aahat’ show on Sony though. The stories were a bit eerie but they were unbelievably believable, whatever that means. I still remember one episode where an unbelieving character is told by a fortune teller that he is going to die in a month after witnessing some signs which would guarantee his death, the signs were: 1. Blue roses, a man with three hands, Number seven and a Tiger which emits fire from his mouth. Well we all know that such things don’t exist, the plot progressed with the character seeing blue painted roses on a curtain, a man holding a sitting mannequin which looked like he had three hands (1 of the mannequin) and Navratra celebration where a performer is dressed in a tiger’s costume and giving out fire from his mouth. That sure was scary!

The fact that I still remember all of it proves that we get attracted to the unnatural. But the twist is that I have never come across a nice Indian movie based on supernatural like Butterfly Effect or Déjà vu or even Final Destination series(Not that I liked it). What we got in name of time travel was the unmentionable Love story 2050. Ditto with literature, Gothic literature is famous all over the world, but in India we still read how certain group of boys cleared their IIT exams or the usual emotional stuff. Where’s the element of fun? Is it because we are too practical or do we not believe in it enough when India is seen as a land of ghosts, ghost stories and mystic. I just don’t know.

Thinking of it, I am planning to pen a novella based on supernatural. I don’t know how much its going to be sneered at but I need the escape to fantasy to be able to deal with the mundane reality of my life where I spend nine hours analyzing material properties, MS, GCI, etc.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Mediocrity Vs Perfection

I have always held a high opinion of myself attributed to my own vanity and a bit of childhood pampering. Many things dragged me down to earth too, but that did not stop me from soaring high.
There are many things which I can confidently claim to know (know not excel). But something made me do a reality check lately:
1. I'm a mechanical Engineer, but I dont know many things, even in the field where I invested three years post my graduation. The remedy perhaps is to go for masters, but then I have access to all the literature which may make me excel but something holds me back, something which I call 'laziness' or guess I am waiting for the time till its absolutely essential to know those details. Till that time, guess not knowing how to find the elastic center of the system can wait.
On second thoughts, I dont want to lie on my death-bed still thinking of how to find the elastic center of the system.
2. I had a fixation with Guitar since childhood. My twelfth birthday saw my birthday cake shaped in form of a guitar, my uncle gifted me a silver guitar. My mother gifted me a real guitar on my eighteenth birthday. I found a tutor and since past four years I am learning to play. I quitted for two years out of the four years, but then rejoined again. My tutor tells me, "I can only teach you, I cannot make you learn". Fair enough. He cannot battle my lack of dedication, I have to do that on my own. As a result, I can play a few songs on tabs and am struck on getting the basic C Major Chord right. Bottomline: I can play guitar but I am not perfect.
3. I have always enjoyed writing, its like giving vent to all those scrambled messages in my brain. I have toyed with poetry as a kid, moved on to short stories and currently am attempting to write a novel. But still I remember someone asking me what छंद in hindi poetry means and I did not know. So guess writing is just a hobby and I never cared to get the basics right. On second thoughts, is it so necessary to understand every aspect of everything before we attempt it?
The list is endless, be it dancing, singing, badminton, chess. I have taken up and quitted on many things and if I would have to name one thing I excel in I would come up with a blank. Its like the cliched 'Jack-of-all-trades' symptom. Is it too bad? Being a jack and not a king?
I have seen people devoutly following their dream, I envy and admire such people. I dont know which hormone I lack which prevents me from being that person who dreams and then gets it.OTOH, I am someone who dreams and then lets it go.
Wow... it all sounds depressing as I read it now. So I am going to concentrate on other things which I plan to be mediocre in...
1. Rap singing
2. Chess: I want to beat atleast one good player.
3. Dancing: Bharatnatyam? (Am I too old?) Salsa (Right...ha..ha..) Still to decide, will get back to it.
4. Badminton: Again want to beat atleast one good player.
5.Learn French, Spanish, Sanskrit and Urdu.
6. Surfing(not the internet)
There are many things, guess I will keep on adding to the list, for now I am complacent in knowing that mediocrity works most of the times. I am not an expert Mechanical Engineer, but go find me a person who knows everything from what he/she studied in, can make decent music, shake a leg, jot few words down lyrically, play chess, beat me in badminton, speak a foriegn language and basically be me. You wont suceed, but you may suceed in finding someone who has a different set of talents. So that makes me realise that it just does not matter, we may be good at somethings and suck at others but as I rightly discovered few days back, we are travelling towards perfection, the universe is expanding to be of the perfect size and the only thing worth doing is enjoying the journey while we strive to attain perfection.
PS: if someone finds the above mentioned qualites(highlighted in red) I expect an email id and phone number(only if its a guy!)

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Wake up sid

Wake up Sid…

It started with Dil Chahta hai… a group of three young, contemporary Indians, the face of modern India, after globalization. The ride was smooth, fun-filled with just the right amount of emotions. Goa was the new holiday destination. The friendship, the love, the arrogance of youth in balanced proportion.
It was a cult film which made everyone dance to its tunes. Then be it the music, the friendly title song which replaced yeh dosti from Sholay or Sonu Nigam crooning Tanhayee, a saviour and anthem which nursed many a breakups.
Then there were the dialogues which are etched in the mind, be it Aamir claiming “Perfection Ko improve karna mushkil hota hai” or Priety asking Aamir to close his eyes and trying to recall people for whom he can come back to life. I don’t need to put on the DVD player, the movie is still fresh in my mind. In my eyes, DCH was perfect except for the starcast which was too old to portray college kids.

Enter Ranbir Kapoor and his group of friends and we get Wake up Sid… What exactly was different in this film?
Nothing.
Sid is an overgrown child who spends his father’s hard earned money, mocks at his uneducated mother, ogles the sexy neighbour and depends on his live-in partner/companion/room-mate/friend for breakfast which he eventually learns to cook and for shelter. Then what was my take-away? Absolutely nothing.
I did enjoy the performace of Konkana sen Sharma who was as usual brilliant and convincing. It was nice to see Anupam Kher play a real role. I still hate him for doing substandard roles in Mohabattein, Beta, that Buddha movie, Apna sapna money money…
Apart from that I don’t remember a thing even when it’s just been hours since I saw it. I really wish when Anupam Kher had a dialogue with Sid after he insults his mother, he should have slapped his son, shook him hard and asked him to Wake up… would have saved the agony of the following hours.
Its true that we today follow off beat careers so Sid and Konkana are into photography and writing resp. But seriously how many people do that? There’s still a thick line between hobbies and career and both of it don’t mix.
So like I said if I have to remember one thing out of Wake up Sid… it would be Supriya Pathak’s eyes, she did not need dialogues to portray what she felt. Konkana’s expressions as she comprehends her feeling for Sid and her stage where she is seen as a child by her mature Jazz loving editor whereas she sees Sid as a child. And Rahul Khanna’s crooked smile… well that was worth the 120 bucks.. Esquare needs to lower the parking rates though.
And seriously, where was Bombay? Mumbai? I don’t remember. That’s whats called perspective.