Ghajini

Twice I went to watch Ghajini but the tickets were sold even before the window opened.
"Let's get the tickets in black?" coaxed hubby.
"No way! I will not even pay Rs 5 extra for a ticket bought in black, it is against my principles"
I didn't want to be third time unlucky so I booked the tickets well in advance.
The movie is going houseful. It is all in all an Aamir Khan movie. Only Aamir Khan could have carried this movie well on his shoulders alone. The script is great; there is not a single boring moment. The plot is gripping, till the end you don't know what the end would be. Aamir Khan looks awesome; you would drool over his looks. Music is also cool.
The first half has shades of a movie from 70's starring Asha Parekh and Shashi Kapoor, (can't remember the name). Asha Parekh teaches dance in a prestigious dance school. Like our Ghajani heroine, she pretends to be in love with a business tycoon but she mistakes the business tycoon to be the driver of the tycoon and falls in love with the driver. It is a jackpot for her when she comes to know the true identity of the driver. Well, that was love story, this one is not.
"But what is the theme of the movie?" asked Lata whom I was convincing to watch the movie just once.
Theme! Ghajani is about violence and revenge. It is the story of revenge. It is brutal violence, something that you won't like to even imagine. The scene where Kalpana is hiding in her room and goondas are looking for her everywhere to kill her, she doesn't know if she will survive, she knows they will trace her ultimately, praying hard for some miracle to happen, reminded me of real people trapped in their rooms in Taj and Oberoi hotels when they knew the gun trotting terrorists will break open their doors and come inside any moment to kill them. They must have prayed really hard for some miracle to happen.
Though I took my children along but it is advisable not to take them for this movie. Are we teaching the new generation that it is cool to be revengeful? Living in a world where hardly a day passes without any news of violence in one or the other part of the world - bomb blasts, terror attacks , murders , rapes, scams , people killing each other for gain, revenge … these are part of our daily doze. Should there be movies which propagate violence and revenge? Is it okay to be revenge the only motive of your life?
Don't know whether cinema imitates real life or vice versa.
More dreadful than the actual violence in the movie is the fact that Ghajini is a super hit movie. What have people find irresistible in the movie? Aamir Khan's charming looks, his powerful acting, direction, script, songs or are we becoming immune to violence?

Why walk on moon when you can't walk safely on earth

As the TV channels show the wild dance of terror playing out on the streets of Bombay, I am reminded of this verse by Rabindranath Tagore.
Today neither our mind is without fear nor the head is held high. Read More

My heart weeps ...

My heart weeps for those who have lost their loved ones in Mumbai terror attack. The children who lost their parents in the attack. The child who lost his mother in the attack. The image of terrorists shooting his mother will haunt him for entire life. How will a small child live without his mother? What will happen to his ambitions, his dreams… each moment.. each breath that he will take will remind him of his mother. He will long for the coziness of sleeping with mother, mother’s touch, her smile, fragrance of her clothes and even her scolding … what had he done to deserve this punishment? There is no substitute for a mother. I am depressed, angry and disappointed that I am living in a country where anyone can shoot at will and there is no security of life. Where 10 young men barely out of their teens can hold an entire nation to ransom. Is it Jungle raj? I have no reason to be hopeful in future. This is the price we have to pay for electing and tolerating corrupt, incapable and inefficient politicians.
If I have escaped this time, I may not be lucky next time. With no hope for future that things will be better off in India, who knows when my time will come. Today I want to sit with my children and tell them stories that they have been asking for days and cook their favorite dish. Who knows tomorrow I may be killed by the bullet of an insane terrorist.
….a mother