My tid bits

A lot of questions ran through my head before entering the movie hall.. will it be good? will it be better than black friday? what story would it be, the treatment etc etc.. I felt very close to this film maybe because i have been reading a lotta stuff about it in Anurag Kashyaps blog. From day 1 when he started to cast people for this movie till the post production, i had read everything that he had to say. So it was like this special connection that i had with this movie..

So there i enter, Cinemax Bandra, my first time there.. A small but a good theatre.. So wanted to sit in one of those Red Lounge seats.. But anyways the movie starts, 1st half i felt was very crisp. The movie basically being a story of guy whos addicted to smoking. His wife is about to divorce him, his friends also urging him to quit. They suggest he go to a Rehab centre.. John Abraham the main lead is called K in the movie..K's character is that of a Rich Narcissist, a guy with a huge ego who has done it all.. So he goes to this centre where this Baba Bengali played by Paresh Rawal. The place itself was a sight to watch.. From the moment he enters you feel as if reality has been left out.. And thats where the logic to the movie goes outta the window.. Caz the way these people would make John quit smoking would be by hurting him or his loved ones..

This is a movie wherein the AK has gone crazy with his imagination, his earlier two movies were both on true life incidents.. This one is totally fictional and to the point that its not logical..
AK has taken a lot of references from Hollywood that ranges from Oliver Stone (Natural Born Killers), David Fincher, Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch.

All in all a truly different hindi movie which will keep the audience thinking as to what, why, how etc. If you are going with an expectation of it being realistic, meaningful or so, then am sorry you would be disappointed. I know a few of my friends like that open endedness in movies but am not so sure if the Indian audience esp the hindi ones are ready for such a take on a movie..

This is something I have been wanting to write for a long time now. From the time I have started working in an ad agency, many of my non ad friends keep asking me if theres some kind of a mass orgy that happens in the office. OK I kinda exaggerated it but what they wanna know is since people in ad industry are creative and blah blah blah, theres a lotta sleeping around happening..

Well lemme clarify some things, yes out here u do find people who are from varied backgrounds, yes many of them are those open minded types and yea they don’t shy away from topics such as sex, lesbianism, live in relationships etc.. But that really doesn’t mean that you enter your office and it suddenly turns out to be Hugh hefner’s mansion. And they wont just randomly pounce on u and start making out. And believe me its not just my friends who think this, my ex boss long time back was at an event. He was introduced to a popular film star at that time and he asked my boss what he did for a living. He replied advertising and the first thing he asked him was “Advertising, ladki wadki bahut milti hogi na (You would be getting a lotta women right)”.

I mean it just seems like as if we are in some really perverse kinda industry which to the outside world is doing advertising but on the inside its some sexual mass orgy that’s going on. But ya the ad industry is different than the others in some ways. We don’t call our seniors Sir or Boss, we call them by their names, we have lazy bags in our offices, music is played throughout, Our fav holiday spot is GOA with lotsa booz, ciggs and pot.

Many of them live for the moment so usually end of the month u end up bankrupt. After retirement many of them want to go open up a bar in goa and settle down.

Fav topics of discussion – Music, Movies, Sports, Food, where to drink, etc.

So yeah we are a little different i guess.

You might have seen endless chase scenes in movies between cops nd heroes.. Well have u ever experienced it. Well I just did a while back..

Was in Vertigo, a nice pub in Bandra. On our way back, my friend hit this cart which a guy was pushing. It was by mistake but instead of stopping the car he just drove off . A few minutes later near the signal we see that cop was chasing us.. Oh man this guy drove like crazy after that, drove on the wrong side of the road, took some sharp turns, all fast n all… hahahhaha it was such a rush..

He felt really bad about what happened but I just sat there thinking what the heck I loved every minute of it.. Luckily we didn’t end up getting caught..

Had gone out with some friends tonight for dinner.. So when i was coming back home, i was alone, usually am listening to some songs but my battery conked off in my cell phone. And then Pradeep (Rickshaw driver) turned around and asked me:

P: Sir aaj kya din hai?

Me: Wednesday

P: Achhaa wednesday. Sir Sunday ko main Sukh Sagar padh raha tha. aur usme ek kahaani thi.

And then this guy went on to narrate this story (with a moral) for about 20 min which seemed more like a story from ur champaks or twinkle mags. And he ended it with a quote n all.. I mean usually i really wont bother about such things, but i ended up listening to whatever he said and in the end i just sat back and a lot of thoughts ran through my head.
Maybe in the whole day he mite not be getting enough time for any kind of a conversation with anyone so he keeps chatting along. Secondly hes just trying to create some kind of a good impression with his customers (dont see the reason though) or thirdly it could be that what he read in that book sukh sagar has moved him in some manner that he wants to spread the good word. ( Something that i do when i see some good movies).

It was great fun and to think of it this kind of things will only happen in Mumbai. For me this city can never bore me. There is so much happening in this city. I can just sit and observe people for hours together and theres always something or the other happening.