Bande mein tha dum

Today's 2nd October - Gandhi's birthday. While I wouldn't have normally cared about Gandhi Jayanti enough to write about it because of various reasons, I do care enough about it now that I felt the need to write. After knowing about Indian Independence in detail, I learned about Gandhi, Nehru, Bhagat Singh etc. I really liked the efforts of Bhagat Singh, and after realizing how many people died in India's independence struggle, I didn't understand why Gandhi wanted to go the peaceful way for India's independence. Little bit of compromise is always ok, right? I guess, I never learned about Gandhi as a person and his teaching well enough to understand him and his teachings. You watch movies like Gandhi, and it's essentially the same thing they teach you in India's Independence thing. I always had respect for him and his teachings, but never understood how to apply it in real life and if it was practical. And this is not just me, this is how the young generation feels about him these days.

Lage Raho Munnabhai, the part 2 of Munnabhai MBBS brings the duo of Munna and Circuit back, but this time with Munna's strange encounter with Gandhi. I heard about it before the movie was released, and I thought, must be the same kinda stuff and boring movie. Then one fine day, finally got to watch the movie.

The movie is all about Gandhi's principles and how they can be applied in the real life. In the first few scenes of the movie, you see Circuit's "social work" by helping Lucky Singh, using of force, of course. You also see how they make professors answer quiz questions. So, this movie starts with their lies etc. Later in movie, Munna "meets" Gandhi. He learns about it, he applies the principles and you understand the application.

You see Munna slapping Circuit - which was probably the most shocking part of the movie. Then Munna remembers Gandhi and apologizes from Circuit. Though it sounds easy, but probably not easy thing to do. Munna and Circuit's reunion also happened to be one of the best scenes of the movie. Also, you realize after watching Victor D'Souza, the retired teacher's case, and the panwalla problem, that Gandhigiri worked very well. You realize that Gandhi's philosophy wasn't only for the independence, but for every aspect of life. Mahatma Gandhi is back thanks to this movie. What really helped is the timely release of this movie. It brings Gandhi back, and I, along with other people, realize that Gandhigiri really worked.

I think it's time we remember Gandhi and try following his philosophy. Lage Raho Munnabhai really made us more knowledgeable about Gandhi. This movie's and Gandhi's point was that even though you might get a result using violence, but that might not be the best solution. If you follow peace and justice, the end result will be good, but that might take some time. Even though you would think what can satyagraha do to that powerful Lucky Singh. But you soon realize what a pain it becomes for Lucky Singh. We see Gandhi everyday hopefully (where??? think think... think... think... well, on Indian currency :P). But as Gandhi-ji says, rather than having his statues all over the place and pictures on all currency notes, it's better to keep him in our heart and remember him like that.

As circuit said, Gandhi didn't have a body, but a lot of daring... it takes a lot to follow the path of peace and justice even after going to jail and other problems in life. Doesn't mean that Bhagat Singh and others did wrong by not following, but this was one important part too. Let's be united and stand together... that's what we need today.

Hindi movies to watch this year

Oz wrote about movies coming up this year and listed them by month. While not all movies are worth watching, here's the list of movies that I will watch for sure:

• Shiva (Sept. 15 '06) : A Ram Gopal Verma about corrupt law and order and how a person wants to change all this himself and defeat the criminals. "When the police itself is infested with criminals / The very purpose of it is defeated / Is it right to be wrong? Or is it Wrong to be Right?"
  
• Pyar ke Side Effects : Reason to watch - Rahul Bose and Mallika Sherawat!!! What a combination... Beauty & brain combo - definitely watching this one
• Khosla ka Ghosla : Saw the trailer and looks good one - Boman Irani and Anupam Kher
• DON : Shahrukh Khan will be the Don in this remake by Farhan 'DCH' Akhtar of 1976 Don movie. Though I am not expecting great acting by Shahrukh Khan, but I really want to see how the remake is. Also the movie's starring Priyanka Chopra and Isha Koppikar :)
• Umrao Jaan : Again a remake, but this one won't be as exciting and there aren't a lot of reason to watch this movie except for Aishwarya Rai ;)
• Kabul Express : Another movie that looks really good in trailers - John Abraham and Arshad Warsi going to Kabul and Pakistan - should be good
• Eklavya : Earlier named Yagna, this movie's teaser really looks good and the story sounds interesting. It's starring Amitabh Bachhan, Sanjay Dutt and Saif Ali Khan and directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra (maker of Munnabhai movies)
• Dhoom 2 : Definitely watching this one : Sequel to movie Dhoom which was a decent Action/Thriller movie, and this one just continues from therewith Abhishek Bachhan and now there's Aishwarya Rai (that too with a Bikini scene!), Bipasha Basu and Hrithik Roshan. Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai are the thief/villains now and Abhishek Bachhan and Bipasha are the cops.

So, 8 movies that I am definitely going to watch. Definitely a good year for Bollywood.

Rang De Basanti

Watched Rang De Basanti (Paint it saffron or Paint it yellow) on 12th February 2006, because a lot of people recommended it to me, This movie took a lot of time to release due to the concerns raised by Censor Board of India about criticism of politics and ministers in the movie. But it was finally released last month and made a record in Bollywood's (Bollywood: Indian version of Hollywood lol) history in terms of first weekend collections.
How did I like this movie? Fantabulous movie... just great... I don't watch many Bollywood Hindi movies, and don't like all Hindi movies that I watch, but this one just touched me. After Swades this was the other movie that made me feel more Indian. However, I loved this movie more than Swades because of the "Generation awakening". It was a true reflection of Indian society and state of the nation. The first part of movie was also great which was the college life of the guys in India, starts out really well specially the "Tumhari Maa ki Aankh" part.


Things I loved from the movie:

• Sue kar mere mann ko kiya tune kya ishara
• Talli hoke girne se sikhi hamne gravity, Ishq ka practical kiya tab aayi hamein clarity (from song Paathshala)
• Ek paav past mein, ek paav future mein, isi liye hum apne present par moot rahe hai
• Tumhari Maa ki Aankh
• Aamir Khan's punjabi
• Starting lines - "Ab bhi jiska khoon na khola, khoon nahin voh pani hai; Jo desh ke kaam na aaye, voh bekaar jawani hai"
• Funny scenes like Maut ki ungli, rehearsals of documentary, Introducing Sue to Mitro - teri nu hai, teri bahu - thinking Sue doesn't understand hindi, and shocked about that
• Last but not the least, the parallelism between Indian Independence story and the present state of India and problems facing India

MUSIC:
This is a great hit music album. All the songs are great, and some being exceptional. Great music by A.R Rehman, and Prasoon Joshi has done a great job with lyrics. Great music and great lyrics. My favorites include Khalbali, Roobaroo, Rang de basanti, Lalkaar, Khoon Chala, Paathshala and Paatshala - Be a Rebel. I like the other ones also. Also the background music was good, specially when they show Aamir Khan and others as freedom fighters, and him on the bike etc

At last:
Hai liye dushman hathiyar taak pe baitha udhar
Aur ham taiyyar hai seena liye apna idhar
Khoon se khelengo holi gar watan mushkil mein hai
Sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai

- From Lalkaar