Perception.....

Right from the moment I had seen a glimpse of this movie, I wanted to see it. Finally yesterday we planned for today as it won’t be in the theatres from this Friday. I read no reviews even after two weeks of its release and avoided the expert opinion of almost everyone around me, they had hated the movie and tagged it as "Crap". Seriously some of them are so much into there negativity shell that now I am deaf when they open their mouth. In their words "all movies can be either of these types - irritating, frustrating, ok or time pass. Somehow I can never be satisfied with this categorization and perhaps don’t even want to :)

So I start my day to finish off the work by 4:30pm to head for the 5:15 show. Outlook opens and here comes a meeting invite to lead a requirement elicitation session scheduled from 4-5pm today!! Still hopeful I plan the runaway to the theatre straight from the meeting room. Packed my stuff... gave to a friend in advance...asked them to start from their desks when I give them a missed call and pick me up from right outside the office building ( in order to save 10 mins of the parking lot walk). With everything set I enter the conference room to find no one there!! Oops everyone is late, why today??? We finally start and continue till 5:15pm :(. Last 20 mins for me were like oh god please stop stop stop !!! But we went on and on........ So change of plan again, we will go for a later show today itself.

Finally in the theatre but directed to a wrong room..... sat and a few mins later realized that we are not watching any trailer, its altogether a different movie :) . I peeped into each screen to find the correct one at last. With zero expectations and just the three of us in the theatre we started watching the movie.

Disclaimer: Before I explain my perspective I would state this is totally as per my perception and not any expert verdict, so everyone is free to disagree.
By intermission my colleagues were all fed up and they started complaining , of these the best one was "Is this a movie or a daily sequence of events, what is this story all about??” Being asked again and again I opened my mouth - "I am not judging the whole movie but just enjoying the bits & pieces of these everyday activities". Yes a realistic movie which I could relate to in a lot of things - the red chili pickle which mom makes (in US you don’t even get to see these fresh red chilies), the neighbors getting overjoyed when a kid returns hometown, the namaz when everyone bows in gratitude to Allah, the saffron milk served in Jagran. In my granny's place, there are a few temples and a mosque near our house. We all used to sleep on terrace, hearing prayer jingles all night, counting stars and enjoying pillow fights till a final scream from Dad. Early morning the mosque prayer used to wake us. I miss the ash smell of wood coming from the mud stove and my granny sitting besides it. We all kids, along with my Dad used to sit in a semicircle around her and have breakfast. She always had a content smile while serving us. The background music used to be peacocks, pigeons and koel hummings.

Oops I am getting off track so right back to the movie – I liked the prayer that was sung, the good old Indian bargaining style (my mom does it this way with the shopkeeper– neither yours nor mine, lets settle in between :) ), the hot & crisp jalebis, the beautiful Taj (I’ll go here again on my next trip to India), the crazy kite flying sessions when the whole neighborhood gets together on terrace, the yummy pani puris and the cycle rickshaw ride - till date I enjoy this a lot in the walled city market of my hometown. Moreover the liveliness, crowds, congested streets and some or the other activity going on in each and every corner made me nostalgic.

Each time the Ram Leela session came on screen I could sense the crap feeling of my colleagues around but here also I liked the special effects and the way director had linked the screenplay dialogues to real life. Last but not the least was the 'black monkey saga'. This was actually a moral science lesson which we all had crammed theoretically but don’t realize when we are doing the same - Save oneself first, demean the weak, the person not available/invisible is always the culprit, follow the rat race blindly etc etc…

When the hero dies, I was cursing you Shanks and literally intended to come over at your place & hit you because this was what you had told me. Somehow I need a happy ending in the movie :) and yes the heroine looked good.

Here and there were some good dialogues too and my favorite is:

Zarre Zarre Mein Usi Ka Noor Hai
Jhak Khud Mein Woh Na Tujhse Door Hai
Ishq Hai Usse To Sab Se Ishq Kar
Is Ibadat Ka Yehi Dastoor Hai
Is Mein Us Mein Aur Us Mein Hai Wohi
Yaar Mera Har Taraf Bharpur Hai…..

And the best song was Rehna tu. I heard this song many times before and visualized it to be a romantic song but it was a patriotic sentimental number pictured in a beautiful way –a hustling bustling city, sleeping quietly in the night to take a break,rest and gather energy to stand back again the next day.

By now everyone might have thought that I can go on and on like this with more praises so I’ll pen down for now and categorize it as a "Feel Good Movie” in my list :) and hats off to the director for beautifully presenting these bits & pieces . Just to add – Thank you Dad for giving me this perception to find the best in everything, appreciate the good stuff and ignore the crap !!