Thursday, July 30, 2009

of remebering pyaasi ....

If National integration wanted a showcase , then it would have to look no further than the pyaasi haveli ..... a house haunted by 13 ghosts .. each a unique personality ... though most of us had been interviewed in Pune but in reality we belonged to different parts of the country .....

The story of pyaasi haveli had close linkage to Hotel we all stayed in ..... just as fate had it .... Infy by some random program had put about 30 people together in hotel Mayura (or Ashoka) i dont recall now ..... and of these 30 people there were 5 girls who obvioulsy had a seperate house hunting prgram but in the rest of the people there were 4 people who were highly active ..... Me aka deven, Lade aka Ninad, gandhi aka Prajyot and gajjan aka aditya ..... it so happened that each and every one of other 20 odd guys had attached himself to one the four and so in short we four were searching for about 20 odd people..... during the first week of house hunt we used to regularly get down at BTM and scout for houses, and exchange information on the way back to the hotel .. soon few guys got a cheap house for rent at some obscure place, away from BTM and koramangla and so we were left with about 16 odd guys ... .Gajjan found a house for 3 k in electronics city and took 3 guys with him ... that left us with 12 guys and 3 people ..... me, lade and gandi all 3 of us had ganged together and had decided to look for 2 big houses to accomodate the 12 guys ..as luck had it we got an adverstisement about 4 flats (2 BHK each ) in BTM newly made for rent .... on seeing the place we three just fell inlove with it ... it had four small flats , 2 on ground and 2 on first floor, each one had two small room perfect for one person and a hall ...(the personl living in hall did have little privacy but had huge room for himself) the whole bleck when rented together was a bot cheaper and in 17 k we got all the four flats ....

so now all 12 of us could stay together and we named the place pyassi haveli (because we did not have drinking water there and for the first 3 days till we could arrange for drinking water can, pots etc we all used to be thirsty at home )...... so there it was 12 of us in one haveli .. .four flats ....

the lower ground floor, was occupied by Jhawar, guru and ATJ

Jhawar - the shy, demure marwari guy with charming boyish looks ...also called as VVS JHAWAR ... for his stylish batting in front of the infy feb 03 girls... there was hardly any girl in the batch who did not swear by his charms


ATJ - the gujju bhai ... his fetish for his receding hairline and body building was necesaary .. the unique style hiss and the commands of his on language were legendary ...... like all gujju bhais he is very very particular about financial detailsGuru - the guy from nagpur .... his oneliners and his ability to end any everlasting debate with 3 words were talking town of whole bangalore ..... The other flat on ground floor had 3 people ...

Rahul aka thapa - the guy from pune had love for cars and hindustan times.. he tried his best to bat well in front of gals but always beaten by jhawru ....Krishna aka daddu .... The tall, handsome and quiet guy from yavatmal ... he had outgrown his height as well as age and would always talk as mature as a 70 year old guy

Binoy aka captain ... the mallu whose song neele neele ambar par titilated mallu as well as tamil babes (his targets ) but alas he ended up as a brotherly figure for all

they were later joined by Karun gajaria - aka gajar .... the snart ... naughty and stylish guy form delhi ..... he would smell of cigarettes from top and his socks always stinked even if they were fresh ... he slowly was relegated to remove his shoes outside the haveli and stay there for one hour till smell fades away

The first flat on first floor was occupied by Mallya, Kg and gandhi

Mallya - the tullu speaking , god fearing konkani guy from mumbai would crack jokes, immitate people and was the live wire of the group ... but he was also the one who would wake up the earliest , pray , study and be clean and fresh every day
KG - kaustubh the typical puneri brahmin was the quietest and most sincere of the lot .... he was hardly noticed in the house as eother he would be sleeping or working at office

Gandhi - the playboy , had the uncanny ability to hide his mischevious tendencies under sweet smile and mature talks ... but a level deeper he was pure mischeif


The last of the fourth floor had again three guys -anand kumaran aka anna - he had only 3 obsessions in his life
1. His girlfirnd manju and getting to marry her
2. chennai his hometown where he went every weekend (also to meet manju)
3. Shakira - the big babe .....
every friday he wouldnt return home but monday morning he would present himself with fish gravy and rice for all of us

Lade the ninad .... the hyderabadi - mumbai mix guy with pink nipples was known for his husky voice and swearing tenedency ... his abuses were innovative, hillarious and enever ending ... he was the only one with camera and was always in lime light for kinky snaps taken by others and published in his name

me aka chandu aka deven ... i was the lazy, money guy who handled the finances, adeplans for outing and was always the last one to leave the haveli in morning and firstone to eneter in evening .... having stayed in north and central india i was the food guide for the whole pyaasi ....

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

of Harry Potter and HBP Review

If order of phoenix was a dark , war movie ... half blood prince is teenage Chiclets set in fantasy land ..... All the harry potter fans had expected this edition to be full of dark magic as well as dark secrets being revealed...... the movie sadly lacks in fulfilling either of the two .....

To start with let us discuss what makes HBP -the book as one of the best of the series..... the book though contains very less of war and magical duels .... it makes up for it by clever use of human emotions and sketching out of characters ...... The book essentially is about the relation between the trio of harry, Ron and Hermione with others, as well as sketching the character of Voldemort ...... by the 827th page, every reader is aware of what lord Voldemort was like as a child, what he grew up to be and what are the traits that make him the darkest wizard of all times.....

The movie sadly misses this vital part of the book ... no where Voldemorts character is sketched out in detail , as the book does.... there is a small mention of Voldemort wanting to be different and collecting tropihies but that is no where translated to his horocruxes or the hiding places he chooses .... sadly also the ring (one the three deathly hollows) is ignored in the movie ...... the average viewer is left guessing , as to how did Dumbledore knew about Vodermort's horocruxes, how he had figured about the cave and even what would the other horocruxes might be .....

Now coming to the part of emotions ...... in the book, Rowling has successfully sketched the characters of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Mrs weasly,weasly twins, Rupin, Snape, Bellatrix, narcissia, Dumbledore , Nevil etc etc .... each one of the characters is set up for the role they play in the seventh edition ... it also details out the love angels of harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione ..... the movie does its bit in sketching those details out ... but in trying to stay a fast paced movie, the editor has messed up the director's vision of the movie being a love story ......

One character that is sketched as per Rowling's vision, is Draco malfoy ... malfoy who was reduced to an extra's role gets his due in the movie. the movie captures his dilemma , his arrogance of being marked a death eater, his frustration and his fear of not being able to deliver his task. Sadly though this will be the last time he gets any decent screen space for he is almost absent in the seventh book.

The movie also has quite a few deviations from the book ..... for starters.... the coffee shop girl is an addition, so is Maclaggen's advances on Hermoine ...... Its Luna who saves harry in the train compartment when malfoy knocks him out, and points out Felix Felic's to Ron, as against Tonks and Hermione respectively who do so in the book... the attack on burrow is uncalled for so is the part about Harry and Ginny's kiss in the room of requirements .... these deviations neither add any spice in the movie nor are a visual treat ...... the worst part of the movie is that it changes the ending completely ...... Harry instead of being frozen by Dumbledore , is asked by him to move to the floor below, from where he watches the whole death sequence of Dumbledore ...... this is gross absurdity for harry would never stay quiet while dumbledore is being attacked ..... and even if he does, it was very easy for him to blast the whole place, after dumbledore was killed, and kill the death eaters which he does not ....... not quite the ending we expected ..... and even worse was Dumbledore's funeral which was marked by raising of wands.....


This is not to say that the movie has nothing to offer to the audience ... it is a visual delight.... sequences like breaking of millennium bridge, slughorn's conversion to an arm chair, or inferni attacks on Harry & Dumbledore are well shot and are the one that linger on in the memory long after the movie ... the value of the movie lies in its cinematography as well as the sets (usual part of HP movies) ..... The movie is fast paced to the extent that many important characters are reduced to passing mentions ...... but that perhaps also makes the movie interesting ..... for example ... Greyback is introduced in the movie through a 5 second shot of a wanted poster...... the viewer then has to link that shot with 3 subsequent instances when he is shown in the movie...... so anyone who missed that cue will not be able to realize who greyback is ... or the viewers see dumbledore playing with tom riddle's diary just before horocrux's are mentioned.... thus it is left for viewers to deduce that the diary was also one of the horocruxes.

the whole plot of half blood prince is lost somewhere in movie and as per me could have been eliminated completely to give some more details about voldemort.

The cast as usual delivers a good performance.... Ron, slughorn, Hermoine and Lavender brown being the top pick ...... Radcliffe now looks too mature to play a 15-16 year old boy and the production movie house now needs to shoot the 7th edition pretty soon before he starts to look manly .....
Speaking of production house, some one has to ensure consistency across all the seven parts in small things like props (the stone pensive changes to a steel one in the movie, Dumbledore's wand has changed , the slytherine locket does not have a S on it, the school brooms now have leg rests which were not there in the first movie and so on ..... character's dressings have also changed a fair bit .... Ron no where sports the red sweaters that are typical of weaselys or Snape hair is less greasy from previous version.

Overall, all that you missed in the fifth part - Quidditch, Ron's antics, love and crushes, you will find in the sixth part ...... do talk someone who has read the book , after the movie .... this will ensure you get to understand what actually has happened in the sixth edition of the book and what all you have missed.......

My advice - the movie is worth a dekho for its visual appeal but please don't expect a lot of story in it ...... those who know the book by heart look out for small cues that could be used in the next part (like RAB's photo on slug's desk)

Overall rating - 3 /5