Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Movie Review - Queen!! Probably the 1000th review or so! ;)

How long has it been since I wrote a film review on this space?

I think the last one has to be somewhere in the month of May last year around my birthday.

So why the gap all these months? Not because there were no good movies that I watched... On the contrary, there were so many good and awesome movies that I have watched over the last few months. But none that I really felt like writing a review about!! Okie! Let me rephrase that, I did feel like writing about a few of them, some really good ones, but then lost the interest somewhere between the time the thought struck and the time it took me to get to a system! :) :)

But now, there’s this movie that I want to review here. Ok! Not so much a review, as much as an appreciation for the feel-good factor that the movie spread.

We went and watched QUEEN a couple of days back. Yes! This in all probability is the 1082438923587th article that you’re going read about QUEEN.

But seriously how good was the movie? :) :)

I am a very big supporter of these films where the women walk away with the film in the end, no surprises there yes! But also very few of those movies around! :) English Vinglish was one; but much as I loved the whole way the subject was dealt with, it did not leave an imprint on me.

The tagline of QUEEN should have been - ;-)

 “I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.” – Maya Angelou

QUEEN was so so good. I had a smile throughout. Kangana owned the movie. And I thought she was good only in those Fashion / Gangster kind of movies. But with this one, I have to say, she has come into her own! And what a way to take the world by storm! :) Most of the time, it’s those little things / nuances in movies like these that give weight to the entire film and carries it forward. There were a lot of those in this gem of a movie.

Before you second guess it, yep! Spoilers ahead! :) These are in no specific order… just moments that I really liked from the movie!  

The instance where Rani’s younger brother Chintu shakes his fist at the hero for making his sister cry! He doesn’t really know why she is crying, she doesn’t tell him of the marriage being called off. All that mattered to him was that his sister was crying. Oh, that fist-shaking was a very good touch! :)

Lisa Haydon as a perfectly cast Vijaylaxmi. :) She even got the accent down pat. Such a carefree attitude to life! Would love to emulate that!

The last scene in the restaurant where Rani meets Vijay, and she addresses the waiter as Roche. Simple yet subtle to show how much she has evolved from being a wallflower to the person she has now become. Actually the look of surprise on Vijay’s face said it all! Some other glimpses, like when he asks her in a previous scene if she had had alcohol and she corrects him saying that it was champagne and not ‘sharaab’, where she drives the car for the first time, navigating the roads with a map, and she thinks about the time where her then fiancĂ© gets impatient with her for not driving properly. She is so engrossed in the driving that she ignores the phone ringing incessantly (call from Vijay!) obviously.

There is this one other scene that I thought was usual but not so much. She goes on to try a dress that is a little revealing, clicks a selfie and then I am not sure if accidently or not, the pic gets sent to Vijay. He sees it, he is stunned of course. However, she suddenly realizes that it has been sent to him, and then thinks about it for a second and completely puts it out of her mind. This can be seen of course in two ways. One, she wanted to make him jealous and see what he was losing out on (all pun intended), two she doesn’t care anymore, what he thinks or what he doesn’t. I prefer to think it was the second one! :P :P

The beginning scene – the marriage preps -  the thoughts flowing through Rani’s mind, about her mom still not wearing the new saree, that her friend was not yet there dancing at her sangeet, where her brother had disappeared to when she had entrusted him with her phone to take pics to upload to Facebook, and then an affectionate recollection that her fiancĂ© is back from London and how he had put on some weight but in the right places :) – and all through these, the expressions on her face, the fleeting glances, the involuntary smile that lights up her face… I thought that the scene was very nicely done. :)

Kangana devoid of makeup is one beautiful girl. An untouched innocence that is so compelling that you just want to shield her from the big bad world.

And the best of all (this has been done to death in all reviews I am sure!)… That she said NO to Vijay. Yes! Glad. Very glad about that. There’s a whole world of learning in there! Also, the fact that she thanks him in the end for calling the marriage of. Very nicely done. The guy was dumbfounded to say the least! ;-)

Oh! And I am so so glad that she kisses the Italian chef. :) I was so hoping that she would – the guy was striking ;-)! Very heartening to see that! I would have been a wee bit disappointed if she hadn’t done that. The moment called for it and thankfully she delivered. Yay for that! :)

Bonus points for the FB timeline track at the end credits. And also for calling the hero a ‘kuttaaa’ ;-)  :P
Vikas Bahl, way to go!!!

Definitely a must-watch. Don’t miss this one!

Friday, March 7, 2014

Mango Sorbets, Rock Festivals and Celebrating Women Power at Work Fultoo Ishtyle!! ;) :P - Days 32,33 and 34 of the 100 Happy Days Challenge!!

So February’s been done with and March is here in full swing… Also, just saying, the days are flying by so fast. It’s already a week down in March… Days until now have been filled with lazy weekends, mango sorbets, rock music and some mighty good fun times at work! So far, you’re doing a pretty good job, dear March!! Please keep this up and I shall be one happy person!! Touch wood!!

The first weekend of March was one of the laziest I have ever had in a long long time. Rested so well, and did not step out of the house at all, except late Sunday evening for some minor shopping, one of which was this absolutely friggin’ delicious MANGO SORBET. Happiness in a cup! No doubts at all! Pure heaven!!


The highlight in March (so far that is) is that I attended my first ever ROCK Concert!! Thanks to this friend of mine! Singapore had its ROCK FESTIVAL over at Fort Canning Park and there were a few bands that came to play – Alter Bridge being one of them! While it was all nice and good fun and lots of energy around, the standing and the wait for it to start was a bit of a drag! But once they started; wowweee!! Pure Magic I tell you! May I please tell you that I had a lovely time!! You could actually feel the beats thrumming through the ground, to your feet all the way up to the eardrums and inside your head. I am not kidding!! Nope, Sir no! So fun was had and all that followed by a nice dinner, some good catch-up time and the pleasant feeling of having had a good time, which frankly speaking, is not that easy to come by these days!!


Women’s day is also here in all its glory and we have been having multiple celebrations at work… reason primarily being you have a team full of ONLY GIRLS (Is my mom reading this!!? :P) and therefore Women’s day HAS TO be celebrated. Even better is, you don’t leave your boss any choice but to treat you because you know he does have the additional task of dealing with mood-swings, ups and downs and all the attached frenzy of working with a team full of girls! ;) :P Hobson’s choice really! :P  But on a more serious note, it’s really heartening to see that he took the effort to treat us! :) :) Things like this make you feel special you know.. ;)  


We also channeled the Oscar Selfie pic that crashed twitter and had a mini-version of our own! Super-duper fun!!  :) And also found out this new coffee place here called Joe and Dough which serves some amazing coffee and super-awesome traditional cheesecake! :D :D 


So that’s March so far for you…

Live the short life to the fullest. Be Happy and Stay Happy. Peace out dearies!! 

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Donkey Dies.. Father Cries.. Inky Pinky Ponky!! :) :)

Guess who is going to sneak back into the city!!


Yeah! They are back again!

Karthik Kumar, S Aravind, Aswin Rao and Naveen Richard….

Oh!! You’re asking me what they are going to be doing this time around!!!

This time around it’s all gonna be R.A.N.D.O.M.  

And when I say random, I am not kidding!

They are going to prove that funny stories can go beyond a chat among friends; they are going to spin tall tales ranging school life, Indian film motifs, social media fads and they are going to talk a tonne on the urban myth that babies are fun.

Their show is called – “Donkey Dies, Father Cries”… do you remember that rhyme!

The one that used to be the go-to rhyme to choose a person as the den.. The one that goes like this…

Inky Pinky Ponky,
Father had a Donkey..
Donkey died,
Father cried,
Inky Pinky Ponky!! :D :D

Also can I tell you, that this show is a HUGE HUGE HIT in India and was very very well-received all over!!

You don’t believe me? Check out these accolades…

"Laugh Riot" - The Hindu"

"Goofy fun" - NDTV

"Hilarious ... Simply Superb" - The Kentridge Common

"Fresh new content .... " Fuchsia

So yeah! What say we welcome them to Singapore with an even bigger bang! :-)

Do I hear a yes??!!??!?! :)

If so, the dates are April 4th, 5th and 6th, folks!!


Some admission rules up there as well!! :)

Read up, buy them tickets and see you at the show! :)

Update: This post also appeared at Pravasi Express and at The Guru Project

Grahanam - A review!

It has been quite some time since I penned something on this blog, and even longer, since I wrote a movie review. But there is no good time ...