Digging Through the riddle of "Shasti" !!

Since my childhood days I have always loved making two two’s a four; and this attribute of joining pieces together to make a complete picture came to me just because of my extensive reading of detective stories. A good example could be Ranga pishima (Played by Rakhi Gulzar) in Rituporno Ghosh’s murder mystery flick “Subha Mahurat”, where she solves an entire murder case all by her honed skill that she gained by reading detective stories in lazy afternoons.

I love reading fossils songs more than singing them as I am not a good singer. I found most of the songs written by Rupam for his band “fossils”, as one case study for me, and as soon as I hear them, I pounce on them to solve the puzzle behind it. Whatever I have listened of Fossils in these years, one thing that I have always felt is this - Rupam always consoles something behind his words, which demands tremendous attention from the listener.

Till date the song that troubled me most is “Shasti”. a song from Fossils’ second album “Fossils2”.

On the first go you feel like the author demands punishments for many culprits in the song, and he clarifies their sin one by one. But it’s so tricky to understand, actually who those culprits are?

I will go one by one. The first two sentences are the biggest and toughest riddles to pass.

“Tar Bikkhipto Baje Bakwas majhe majhe Jazz hoye jaay// Utkhipto Kono Upogroher Fere prem hoye fer radha ke Kaday”

The person who is referred in this sentence is Maqsood Haque, more popular by the name of Mac. Mac was the quintessential and talismanic front man of the Bangladesh based band “Dhaka”. In 1999 Mac’s album “RobindroNath – 2010” created a political pandemonium in Bangladesh. Political leaders accused Mac for intentionally tampering Tagore’s song, and gave it a name of “regret to the world famous poet” as the album contained a Tagore’s song “Na Chahile Jare pawa jaay” in the form of Jazz.

In a show telecasted in “BTV”, Mac sung the song “Na Chahile Jare pawa jaay”, and after that BTV banned Mac. The issue even went far to knock the doors of BBC too.





After a few days Mac was taken in to the police custody. The allegation against Mac was that he had beaten his wife Niboo Haque badly. His wife herself strongly protested against the allegation, but no one listened. Mac was tortured and beaten badly in Police custody for days.





Rupam has always told the world about how Mac inspired him as a figure to look up to.
So there’s obviously a bridge that we can draw between Mac and Rupam. I believe its also written somewhere in ROTR, a book written by Rupam himself.


Now we can get hold of the “Jazz” part here, but the question arises from where the references of a launched satellite and Radha are coming in this context? Now think again.


The show was telecasted on BTV and only after that the protesting majority became aware of the song. Now that’s the connection of launched satellite here and how the up rise of technology stepped it up to make it a hot cake as it was.

Now here comes the Radha’s part. I must say it’s really tricky and interesting too. Mac’s wife Niboo Haque was the cousin of Mac only. Niboo’s protest against the false allegation of arrest of his husband is reffered as “Radha’s cry”. But why? in Mythology Krishna is told as Radha’s maternal cousin and Mac too shared a same relationship of blood with his wife .In fact Mac himself recorded a song “Kandey krishno Mon”, which seems to be replicating his forced split from his wife.



Then “Sei Jehadi’s” Terrorist is obviously Mac. Now, remember the initial naming of “Fossils 2” was “Jihad” and it only got converted in to “Fossils 2”, because with the name of “Jihad” it was virtually impossible to master it in post 9/11 US. Mac’s songs in many ways can be called Jihad, as they directly attacked the society, the corruption that goes in it in the name of religion and politics. Some song lyrics even consisted of the name’s of Bangladesh’s political leaders too.

What ever we have read up to now are riddles basically. Thus comes these lines

“Raji Hoye path nite nite heyalir, Baji hoye ami fete gechi dewalir”

Now the song takes a new path, from the second next line.

“Cheye Dher soja Salvador Dalir chhobi Bojha”

Tell me, who is a better love in this world than Jesus Christ? I guess no one.
“St. John of the Cross” by Salvador Dali is the skeleton of love reffered as “Kono Premik er Konkal Pujo hoy kono museum e “, which is still there in a museum in New York. The next line also belongs to Jesus in the form of “Kono Nihoter naam e Khoma cheye Chithi Ashe roj Neel kham e”. In Jerusalem’s post office many letters till date are thrown away in the bin only because they have no valid address to be delivered. Why? Because they are all written to Jesus.


Just one verse ago, the author had put Maqsood (a Muslim by religion) and Krishna (The Hindu God) in the same zone. And now he is keeping Mac in the same place with Jesus (The god of Christian community) as he says “Crusade e Krooshey dey Nyay Bichar hok Nastik er”. Rupam calls him self as an “atheist” by religion too. In fact in many songs of Mac too you will find this similarity between Rupam and Mac, as Mac himself wrote many songs against organized religion.

The solving of the riddle behind “Shasti” still puts a smile of little pride in my face and a bit of relief too. I regard it as the last and the 3rd best song of “Fossils”.

Kaat Ke Rakh Dunga Joh Tune Chhune se Roka !

The intrinsic attribute of every animal is to dominate its counterpart; dominate by sounds (we speak words), dominate by muscle power or dominate by its utter charisma. Animal hates to loose, that’s not in its blood. It will take anyone by the scruff of the neck; bring out its nails and teeth to stamp its triumph and authority over the opponent. Dog does not want to loose against another; it will make sure that it barks louder in response. Human, being an animal; “a civilized animal” underneath alluring shirt and shoes; smelling branded perfume, does not want to loose either. Though we have no hassles to be tagged as “Party animal”, but we will not like to borrow the later part for us so easily. We confess or not, but still our hair grows, we cut our nails with nail cutter, we brush our teeth that took the chunk out a chicken’s leg yesterday night, we stink in hot weather, we love to get on top on bed.

Beauty regimes, Hair Dressing, nail cutting, brushing the teeth, taking bath; these are not luxuries; we the “species of Human” call them as our daily needs, things that we should do. But are they truths? I think they are pretentions of tampering and hiding our reality, our animalistic nature. We gave good name to it by the way. We call it Humanity. But often our truth comes out that; we are not only animals, we are BEASTS to be precise!

The most pompous thing that ever happened to our Humanity is politics. How would you like to define politics? Let me give my definition. Politics is nothing but the utilizations of our Human brain or brilliance over the weaker people to gain its dominance over the other. It’s as simple as that, since the day it was born and there again the cue “Dominance” comes out.

We gain the dominance by many ways and steps. We start it by words and speeches and posters and festoons. And if these things are not working properly we believe in Muscle power. The bottom line is we should rule. But there again the question arises, the person who voted, what’s his weakness?? Why he/she should elect, can’t we all contribute to the nation’s prosperity. What’s the need of a politician, a party or a ruler? Why we should follow, democracy or monarchy?? That’s the beauty of triumph. Once you convince others in the battle of dominance, that I am the BOSS, you will be the king for a time, until some one else convinces better than you to the lost out. The Reign changes, Chapters get added to the History.

Now read the bold lettered lines again please. It’s so amazing that you will find a striking similarity between politics and love. Wow! Even beasts fall in love. So should I call Love as the politics of two hearts?? Is women weakness for men? What’s love, if there exists Casanovas and libido? Love is trickier and complex than Politics! Even the best of the best “love gurus” will fall part to define it properly. I raised a concern few lines ago about the weakness of the person who votes or elects? Ironically in Love who votes and elects holds the upper hand in most of the cases, trick is you don’t make it loud and clear. And don’t forget to keep your dominance going over your partner parallely. The trick of the “Ustaad” does not lie in singing a song in studio, but in its “final touch” of mastering. The balance in dominance and care and keeping a fake identity of giving space to the partner will fetch you more “loves” in future. Why I say so, because it’s the person who accepted the proposal shares the best of libido, in most cases. He/she though categorized as the one who elected, rather than the one who got elected, has the tenacity of getting convinced. So more opposite gender in his/her life is always on the cards. Quite opposite of Politics I must say.

Don’t predict in love, don’t come to a conclusion on who should love whom. I often take instances from movies as I think they are mirror of what we are. Remember that scene in DCH near the beach where Akshay Khanna’s character (Sid) belts out gyan to that lovely girl Deepa who was desperate to the Aamir’s Character (Akash) in her life. Sid says “We should not expect some thing in life that is vague and unrealistic”. But, how ironically he commits the same mistake in his own life, when he falls in love for Tara Jaiswal (Dimple Kapadia); a lady who is much older than him. I also like to say that line from "Notting hill" where Julia Roberts playing, The quintessential actress of Hollywood says to Hugh Grant, a common man “I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her”.

I have a stupid postulate to love. Love is like meandering with a brochure that we can’t see; an invisible brochure. It’s a brochure that will hold every statistics that we have lived and gained till date, It will carry how long our hair is, do we use specs, do we have chest hair, our height, our body structure, our vital statistics on our assets, our final exam results, what job we are doing, do we have a bike, at speed we drive, am I a rash driver or not, how many breaks we push while driving etc etc. Girls will also carry one, but obviously with different data. Now when both clashes head on in chat window or in a coffee shop, they share their brochures, both checks each others data. If both parties are happy with what they are getting at the cost of “love”, they will sanction a deal. Now while signing, some how some one between the two takes the onus of the dominator, and other one readily agrees. There are many signs of this agreement. One very obvious is that the one who agrees will response to a missed call by a full fledged call. The data sharing session is fun; it’s like the 3rd day of a test match that often decides which way the match is going. Data sharing may start from chat. Chat I must say is a very vulnerable data sharing session. One is circumspect and other one is desperate. Desperation can reach many levels. A guy who looks like Tinu Anand in reality can claim he looks like Hrittik Roshan! Girls can double up their vital statistics for counted assets in no time. Eventually who has the better knowledge of humor and wit and fastest skill of telling calculated lies will win the race. Chat often decides the dominator. Just somehow gain a kiss, on the chat window, you are through. Say what ever you want, ask what ever you like, ask what ever when you meet. Cross examine what ever statistics you want to check.

The last lair is obviously “Modhureno Somapoyet” marriage. Behind “Jodidong Hridoyong Tobo, Todidong Hridoyong Momo” Marriage is the politics of two families, where the winner is pre decided, and the one where the boy belongs, if not he is not henpecked. Come to a marriage, Son’s father and uncle will never find the meats dished out by girl’s family are boiled properly. The curry will taste too sweet or cooked with too much chili powder. The rule continues until the girl spins out yet out trick of dominance, and breaks the family in parts. Politics shouts its triumph of domestic dominance by generating thousands of nuclear families.

Nuclear families are settled until some one arrives as new comer. Nuclear fears of turning into join family again. Rattled by the arrival, it fights against impurity with whatever it has. The Hypocrisy of Nuclear Family comes out. Sudhindra Bose can’t take Moni Mohan Mitra lightly. He brings his relatives and friends to his home to check Mr.Mitra’s identity. In “Joy Baba FeluNath” The Master of the House makes it loud and clear who is the boss to Feluda even, an investigator who will come to his house for few days only for his job on hand. The battle of politics begins. Someone is desperate to prove, and other one is reluctant to believe. Nayak’s friend wants to have him saying something to his rebellious union members of the closed mill, in reply Nayak approaches money. Again Brochure’s are not shared. Brochures can’t be shared if it’s already shared. In love or friendship or whatever relationships we named, we don’t restructure our deals, or I should say we are reluctant to do so. Gandhi could not give Sardar Patel the nodd of first prime minister, could not keep Subhas Bose in party, because it was too late to refine faith, too tough to come out of Nehru’s threat to break congress in parts. INC meant Gandhi. Gandhi Meant INC. Neither Father of the nation could destroy himself nor could Nehru come out of Mrs. Mountbatten’s lust.
In the battle of politics, the only thing that matters is Me, Myself and I only. There’s no Irene, no tom, dick and harry, No trust and no previous promises. And we still see some female Indian delegate sharing important data of the country to Pakistani agencies, foxed by the conviction of “Love”. We still fall in Love.

Guzaarish : A Theatrical Lively Saga of Death

What makes an average actor different from a great actor? A third eye!! An eye which sees things that other earthly couple can’t see. Why?? Because they are as good as of an average actor. Then what makes a director different from the regulars? Just a third eye??

No, it’s not good enough. A great director needs hundreds like those to compel magic on sixteen reels. It’s unfortunate that over the years directors of that species have come few and far in between in bollywood, as most were eluded by the formula that was once famously declared to be honed by the king of Masala Movies Man Mohan Deshai.
Movies are no x plus y whole square equals to x’s square plus two x y plus y’s square. Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who has always been a very pretentious director over the years with his extraordinarily extravagant sets and plagiarized storylines, finally proves with his latest offering “Guzaarish” that there might be a formula to a hit movie, but there’s nothing of such for a good movie.

Guzaarish’s storyline is pretty demoralizing and shockingly different from the rest of recent movies which dealt with rare diseases of human being. Why I say different, because from the very beginning of “Guzaarish”, life is at scarcity, the protagonist Ethan Macarena’s (Hrittik Roshan) is pleading for euthanasia, a process of mercy killing that Indian pinal code does not support. A man, who was once anointed as the best magician, called as Merlin, is no more interested in living, because there’s hardly any magic left in his life. A magician who is left to live a life of a radio jockey after being sabotaged to commit a terrible accident, has changed the life of many listeners through his show “radio Zindegi”, is now asking for their support in his mercy killing. Ethan can’t move, can’t scratch his nose, and cant even a remove a fly of his nose.

Do you remember that famous dialogue in the movie “Jerry Maguire” where Jerry says to Dorothy “I love you, you complete me”. Whatever Ethan lacks, Sophie (Aishwariya???), the nurse of his master, completes him. On hindsight a love story is developing between master and his servant, though no one is daring to break the shackle. Ethan, loves to tease Sophie, Sophie dedicates her all for her master’s well being, though she herself knows death will soon knock the doors, she will loose. She is no nonsense lady, she is a true fighter. So when Divyani Dutt (Shernaz Patel), Ethan’s lawyer friend supports Ethan is his plead for mercy killing, Sophie comes down like a house on fire, though she does not forget to prepare a cup of coffee for Divyani too.

Sophie becomes a model of restrained love, who is as wild as it gets. A person who is ready to take on any one for her love, even the judge. A person who in spite of being so beautiful cleans stools and urine of a handicap, a person a who has not taken a single day break in last 12 long years of duty, a person who is so wild in her love that she petitioned a file for her divorce, a person who always cared, when everybody sleeps.

Guzaarish has one more unique character in it; Ethan’s huge bungalow. Though it’s huge, though it’s artistically and atheistically decorated, but it’s crumbling down day after day, same as it is happening to its master who lives in it. Among many photographs of Ethan of his hay days, the center stage is taken by his helpless present.

On a rainy day, raindrops trickle down on Ethan’s forehead; Ethan fights like a child. Against Chinese torture, often called as “third degree” in Indian police terminology, Ethan shouts to give it back to the opponent water drops, but soon succumbs down to asking help. No boby listens as there’s no Sophia. SLB brilliantly differentiates between a love of Sophia and respect of a disciple Omar (Aditya Kapoor) who came here to learn magic from Ethan.

Then there’s this scene where Ethan tries desperately to remove a fly of his nose. The more he tries the more fly disturbs him. Ultimately he stops, so does the fly. Ethan learns in helplessness only one thing he can do, he can only give back love to his enemies.

Before leaving this world, Ethan gives away all his tricks to Omar, though he knew Omar is actually the son of Yaseer, who betrayed with him, and the reason behind his accident. The scene where he gives the final present to Omar as a magic, Omar drags the white bed cover; and keeps on dragging for ever, symbolizes the ocean of knowledge Ethan had about magic, and how he is passing it to his disciple. The magic will continue.

Collage of love, love of different shades and emotions, where friend supports her best friends death appeal, mother agrees to kill her son, Sophia desperate to save her master, “Guzaarish” is a magnum Opus of life as it hugs death. What can I say about Hrittik as a performer. I have lost words and am afraid too whether I would do injustice in doing so. It was a movie of the blue eyed boy only and he did it. I have always said before that till date his best was the “Masculity over love” phone call to Preity Zinta in “Lakshya”, but what ever he has pulled off in the last 30 minutes of “Guzaarish” it surpasses all of his big moments. When he speaks, his eyes, the face all seems to be a landscape of emotions.

I have never been a great fan of Aishwariya. In fact I hated her from the day one because of her stereotypical acting. She has done a pretty good job here. She has spoken it straight and loud, devoid any melodrama. Shernaz Patel as Divyani Dutt was brilliant. Aditya kapoor is not up to mark for me. He needs to sharpen his acting skill more to stay here.

Guzaarish is the best that I have seen from SLB, yes better than “HDCS”. You may say it’s a yawn fest for you, but who cares, as it’s hardly a movie, it’s a theatrical performance to be true and I know how many loves theatre. I have got no hassles if you disagree with me, because I liked “Sob choritro kalponik” also, which might feel even more boring than “Guzaarish”.

If you think its boring, just one tip for you, put you in Ethan’s shoe, you will feel it pretty well.

Fossils 3 and Pyaasa !!

Before I start this article I want to bullet point some discrete elements together and I am not claiming at all that my article is the absolute truth.

1. “Maa” is a cover song, originally written by RajniKanta Sen; the first cover to be added in a fossils album.
2. If I talk music, “Guru” is a very very poor song. In fact you can use the phrase “musically challenged” against it. “Guru” came into F3 at the cost of “Bari Esho”, which is way ahead of “Guru” not only in terms of music but also in mass acceptance criteria.

3. I doubt whether “Danober Uthhan” is actually “Adventures of Satan”, which was written along with “Nemesis”.

4. I heard “Phire Cholo”, “Bhut ar Tilottoma”, “Haspatale” and “Dhongsho Romonthon” when I was still staying in Kolkata.

5. I got some lines of “Bidroher Pandulipi” as an autograph from Rupam in a live gig in early 2000.

6. The line “Local train er track e KataKuti National Laash” in “Rail Line e Mrittu” was originally “Raastar Mukhe pore ache Loktar Laash”.

7. “Schizophrenic Bra” is also a striking revolution in F series. A poem which was never sung before and WHICH IS NOT WRITTEN BY RUPAM, added in to a fossils album.

Now, look at the wrapped cover of the album. The animated strip is extremely difficult to get hold of and if any body says he has understood it by the scruff of the neck, I am sure he is a genius or he is Rupam himself. As an average listener like me, I am sure you start to scratch your head, when you try to put the tracks and story in to sync.

Here I would like to ask some questions. Why Fossils 3 is a movie of one hour? Who is this “Sada Jama lok”? Is he a socialist?

Then comes my next set of Questions. If he was murdered in “Swabhabik Khoon”, then how come he departs again in “Bhut ar Tilottoma 2”? Was he still alive then?

I know your favorite answer to all of these Questions. The Sada Jama Lok is none but Rizwanur Rehman for you. If you think so, then read my second set of Questions again and think again! I left West Bengal when he died!

If you are done with your thinking, then you go back to my 7 bullet points again. You will find, not a single song in the whole album is written after Riz’s death(some are tampered after his death though) and some songs are strikingly different from the characteristic of regular fossils albums and some songs are pushed in to although they are real push overs.

If you are baffled and don’t have an answer, I will try to help you out. I will start with “Guru”.

“Who is this Guru”? Is he God? Is he Christ? I believe he is Christ! I believe he is Christ because of “Danober Uthhan”, which is nothing but a Bengali translation of a Bible verse. Now why I would call Christ as Guru? The word itself does not go well with Christ. Now look at this snap taken from the movie “Pyaasa”. Do you find any resemblance between his posture and Jesus’ stretched hands when he was nailed? I think you do.





DO YOU KNOW, WHO IS THIS ACTOR STANDING LIKE JESUS IN THIS MOVIE?? ANS: GURU DUTT.
Those who have seen “Pyaasa” already will know what I am actually trying to say, others please watch this master piece movie, I am sure you will feel the same.

Vijay (Guru Dutt) is the protagonist of “Pyaasa”, who through out the movie wears an overcoat thrown over a white shirt. Vijay is a poet who is a socialist by nature and his creations speak volume about the society than going verbose about feminine beauty. No printing media is interested in printing his poems as pinkish lines seemed to be the order of the day for the editors. No one understood the power of his poetry except Gulabo, a prostitute based in Kolkata. Gulabo falls for Vijay. But Vijay does not; as he had a girl friend called Meena (Mala Sinha) who deserted him in greed of money and status and married some other man.

The link between F3 and Pyaasa does not shoot off directly from the scratch of the movie, but when Vijay finds that his mother is no more in this world. Vijay was thrown away from his family by his elder brothers because he did not contribute any thing financially. When Vijay gets the news from his brothers that his mother has passed away, he gets disintegrated in sheer emotion and feels he has got nothing to live for.

He leaves to attempt suicide with a final letter written to Meena in his overcoat pocket. On the way, near the rail station, he finds a poor man shivering in cold. He gives away his overcoat to him and again starts walking, wearing that white shirt. Poor man understanding his suicidal intensions follows Vijay, but he himself gets stuck in between the railway tracks. Vijay tries to save him but fails to do so. The poor man gets killed in the train accident wearing that over coat and the letter. The world knew Vijay is no more living in this world. However Vijay gets hospitalized in Coma.

The story takes a turn through Gulabo’s hands. Purely because of her urge to see Vijay’s poetry getting printed, Meena and her husband Mr.Ghosh agrees to print them finally. Poems become best seller and household topic over night. Vijay comes to know about his poems success, but no one agrees to take him as the original Vijay; as for them, Vijay has already breathed his last on a railway track. Vijay is sent to a MENTAL ASYLUM.

As No one, even his brothers do not agree to recognize him as Vijay and take him out, he escapes from the asylum. He reaches the theater where people gathered to remember him as a dead poet. He stands like Christ, sings a song of a socialist and announces his return.

Finally pissed of by this system he leaves Meena and this system.

Now let’s introspect the songs again from the end:

1. In BAT 2 Vijay leaves the city and this society, he goes in to oblivion.

2. Many a time it’s shown in the movie that Vijay is waiting beside Ganges to see the ship to depart. That links Pyaasa and F3 through Schizophrenic Bra. Vijay is a socialist, so is the man in SB. He is forcefully stuck in to a mental asylum. Being in the society he is not quite the man of this democratic system. He is alone, he has no relatives, and he has a River to fix his eyes. This society is a by product of Vijay’s head and the heads of this democratic world. These two pieces of head makes the shape of Bra. That’s why probably the song is titled like that.

3. Vijay is hospital (haspatale) ized in Coma.
4. The poor man dies on Railway track (Rail Line e Mrityu)
5. Dhongso Romonthon is when Vijay remembers the destructions that happened in his life, in discrete scenes after his mothers’ death.
6. Vijay says that we worship gods, but living does not get the basic needs from this society. We are living the life of dead mummies. Mummy depicts his thoughts and a bit of communism in him.
7. Phire Cholo and BAT 1 are signatures of Vijay’s love for Meena.
8. Bidroher Pandulipi shows the rebellion in Vijay.
9. Guru is Guru Dutt.
10. Danober Utthan is the evil of this corrupted society.
11. Maa depicts the helplessness of Vijay after his mother’s death.

You will ask what about the firing of bullets. Yeah it’s obviously Riz. Riz came in to the contention only after Rupam took interest in Riz case in ROTR. That’s it. Following songs do not fit into Riz story at all, rather there’s an uncanny similarity between Pyaasa and F3. I have thrown all my dices, what ever I think. Kindly see Pyaasa and feel free to object or support my vision. :)

And Then I saw Pyaasa !!

Life has this beautiful attribute of keeping things in a chain of events that makes the music all the more rocking and lively. What better life than a Guru Dutt movie!

Pyaasa arrived at my hard drive in that diabolic situation of my own life, when I was seeing a lot of D.Mukherjee's around and needed something to get inspired to follow Christ than following a Pathetic Devdas. Ok! How many Devdas I have seen apart from the original Devdas Mukherjee, who only loves himself and no one else in this world? I think I have seen quite a few in Indian cinemas. “Sikander” in “Muqaddar Ka Sikander”, “Mishter Appu” In “Udaan” (In the making of yet another Devdas, watch the movie you will know!) or a new age “DEV D”. Though I don’t like Mukherjee babu a lot, but what attracts me about the Saratchandra Classic is its base. The base of a Devdas story is very strong, probably one of the strongest base among any Indian Novel. The timeless triangular structure of a self descrtructive man, a promiscuous lady and a girl who choose another man, is sure to carry a lot of wait, a good enough chunk of life. Quintessentially Guru Dutt added one more side to it, the side of Jesus Christ and Pyaasa happened!!

The true magic of Pyaasa does not lie in its story telling, but in how it’s shown on screen. Take example of the first scene.


A poet named Vijay (Guru Dutt) lying on a grassy field watches the silver lining on sky, the birds meander around, some how lost in the unbound infinity in dilemma of where to fly. The wind blows and flowers sway. For a moment, nothing seems better than a life in this beautiful nature. Poet utters a song of his own in happiness, and a bumble bee attached with a string sits on a flower to suck in to the honey. Suddenly bee sits on the floor of the grassy ground and a passerby tramples over it. The bee dies. Life as it is, duration, with momentary happiness put here and there, cuts the scene to its obvious majority. Poet’s mood breaks. He leaves the place.

Vijay has abdicated romance from his poetry, where pinkish poetic lines seem to be the order of the day for the editors of printing media. Vijay’s poetry gets tagged as “Dus aane ki shayari”, finds its place in editors office “Dustbin”. Vijay’s thoughts are far from depicting a feminine beauty, more engrossed in showing what this world is all about, where the problem hides in this corrupted system. Vijay is not a Devdas, though his college mate and ex girl friend Meena (Mala Sinha) has left him in search of wealth, and status in society. Though Vijay has not forgotten Meena, but he disagrees to start a new affair with her when Meena asks him to do so, when they meet again in Meena’s husbands (Rehman) Office. Mr. Ghosh. Husband of Meena offers a job to Vijay in his office, but it’s was just in the fantasy to keep Vijay down as a slave of him, who used to be his wife’s ex boy friend. For the same reason he does not print Vijay’s poetry in his magazine. The evolution of Humanity in a three layered shape gets portrayed beautifully when Mr.Ghosh, Vijay Meets for the first time in Vijay’s college alumni.

A column followed by Mr.Ghosh and Vijay standing in a linear structure, shows how evolution of feelings has occurred from dead to a half life-less and then to a man full of life. There’s another brilliantly picturised scene when Meena says “Mujhe toh Upar jana tha” to Vijay and moves towards the lift, the shutter closes, she goes upwards, depicting her need and greed for wealth.

The angel of ChandraMukhi bangs on the screen, scorching it by sheer beauty, as Gulabo (Waheeda) arrives. Here I would like to ask one thing, why ChandraMukhis have always been far better than Parbotis in all Devdas classic? May be it’s an eternal truth also on celluloid too. Gulabo, a prostitute by her job, finds interest in Vijay’s poetry which was sold by Vijay’s Brothers as scrap papers in market. She takes those papers to her home. Vijay comes into Gulabo’s site through his own poetry, when he listens to his own song in Gulabo’s voice while passing a night in a park alone. Quite ironically Gulabo, a prostitute, understands the power and necessity of Vijay’s poetry for the first time in the world as she says; she does not need to know Vijay, because his lines speak for him. Like any Devdas movie, Vijay does not fall for Gulabo, though Gulabo could help herself but to feel the same for Vijay. The best part of a Gulabo-Vijay chemistry is shown in the brilliantly picturised “Kirtan” song called “Aaj Sajan Mohe Ang Lagalo”. When the song shoots of, Gulabo, Deprived in Love looks at the singers in suspicion and wariness. As the mridanga beats rise to crescendo she moves slowly upwards the stair, tears fall down from her eyes; she raises her hand and steps backward and moves to her room. I found “Meera Bai” in Gulabo in that scene; who is ready to sacrifice her all in the name of god and divine when the world rejects and points thumbs down.

Vijay looses his job, even his mother. Vijay comes to know about his mother’s death as he watches his brothers near Hooghly ghat, doing post crematory rituals. Again a brilliantly picturised scene! When Vijay watches his brothers the ghat is submerged in the water of Ganges in high tide. As he comes down, we can see the mud, as if the water too (life in other words) leaving Vijay. Vijay drinks alcohol heavily on that night, even comes to a prostitutes’ house. He sees a prostitute who is also a mother, is not allowed to take her ill child on her laps as she is dancing in front of the customers. Tears trickle down Vijay’s chick. He leaves the place. Gulabo again discovers him and takes her to her house. Vijay asks Gulabo why he is still living a life, as he has nothing to do in this world, he has lost his job and mother too. Rest of the life seems to an absurd duration for him now.

Passing that night at Gulabo’s place he leaves again only to suicide. On the way he finds a poor man shivering in cold. He gives away his overcoat, in which he had kept his last letter to Meena. The poor man understanding his intension follows Vijay, but his leg gets stuck in the railway track. Vijay understanding the death on the cards tries to save the poor man, but fails. The world knows Vijay died by the evidence of the overcoat and that letter. But Vijay himself gets hospitalized in coma. Mr.Ghosh reads out the death story from the newspaper so that Meena listens to it. Meena is shown holding a magazine called Life , where “Jesus Christ” is on the covers.

In the mean the Gulabo comes to Meena, and offers Vijay’s poetry to her asks her to print them. Meena, who epitomizes materialism asks price for those eternal masterpieces. Gulabo denies taking a single penny. In fact she offers all her jewellery to Mr.Ghosh to meet her urge. Vijays poetry gets printed at last and soon becomes best seller. Mr.Ghosh declares Vijay’s death to the world.

Now Pyaasa takes a new turn in the story as it now clearly focuses on the disease of this society, called materialism, a disease that makes poetry more important than the poet, creation more popular than the creator. Everybody takes a share of Vijay’s success, even who hardly knew Vijay. In the memorial show of his own death Vijay arrives at the theater, stands like Jesus Christ, light falls on his back like hello, and he croons those memorable lines “Yeh Duniya agar mil bhi jaye toh kya hai”, which still holds a value in this world of terrorism. What if terrorist achieve the world they are looking for??

Announcing his return, Vijay denies agreeing that he is the Vijay who everybody wants to see. Meena asks the reason, whether he is upset with anyone. Vijay replies No he is upset with the system only as the system has made those people to behave like that. He does not want to live here, so he is leaving. He takes Gulabo with him and leaves.

If someone says Pyaasa is a love story, then I will say he is brutally regretting the classic. Pyaasa is about Life, about its absurdness and against everything that is materialistic. A person is what he has done, No one is good, and No one is bad. Vijay epitomizes that Life, which is duration between a birth and death, is so absurd if it has nothing to do. When he had lost his mother, he felt the urge of suicide, but Gulabo has made him think about life again. Devdas going for a ChandraMukhi is a big step for me, and it is kind of signature of a so called clichéd word “Move on” in life. It’s so good to see a Vijay, Sikander, Mishter Appu or a DEV moving on in their Life. Vijay does claim his feat, as we often do in this corporate world. He has nothing to take from his life as he knows death will come one day. Nothing is "Na-hanyate" in this world.

Pyaasa, Is what life is. It takes a full circle back to the first scene which was so beautiful in the midst of the nature; as I felt the same when Vijay chose Gulabo, than to end his life.

Pahar Churo !!!

koto elo gelo aastin gotalo maaplo pahar churo
chena ochena sobai chollo abal bonita buro
punnatta kham-kheyali pretatta,
kechhabadi uposthapok
sobai chollo pahar churo te
holo sunsan poro lok !

churoy kichu nei sudhu pochha balti ar boi
taate pakhi niye lekha lekhi
jhuke niche dekhe tumi voy peyona
gola chhere gaan gao dekhi

jokhon mochha muchhi shes,
tokhon lagbe besh
dekho churo r moyla dhuye saaf
noroke pobitro r chamra gotalo
paapi pahare chharlo haaf

ebar onno pahar , sobai chollo abar
kothay Horeb na horiddar
keu keu bollo bawa dher hoyeche
amader ekhanei thaka dorkar!

This Lyric is inspired from "Meat Puppets'" memorable song Plateau.

Na-hanyate Review

So I am back to where I work, thus I am back to my System; therefore I am back to my good old blog. Last two articles entirely belonged to Rupam’s work, and October seems to be the month of a short term affair with the man; I guess so! I went to music world (Kolkata) and Rupam again made his place on the list of shopping that I did there. Yes I bought Rupam’s solo project “Na-Hanyate”, comprised of 8 songs; some I heard before, and rest are fresh debutants!

Kishori: I have a story of my own related to this song. There is this deep water encapsulated fort called Janjhira in Maharastra, where I visited one day. You need to take a boat to get in the fort, and it’s a journey of about 20-25 minutes to reach the entry point from the lands, I mean from where the boats leave. Historical constructions, especially forts have this amazing attribute to mesmerize you, give you Goosebumps, that you kind of loose yourself in time. So when we returned via that boat, everyone was in some sort of a trance mode. A song does fit in, but there was no one willing to crack. I was there alone crooning slowly the karaoke of Kishori (which I obviously heard in ROTR) and suddenly some one heard that. There’s no Bengali on the boat, and I was kind of hesitating when they pushed me to sing the song. After a certain amount of “No-No”, I had to start and so I did.
There’s something very very uncanny and fishy about this song. Though No one on that boat could understand what words I was singing due to language barrier, but the song did hit them. Every one clapped at the end. Ok, that’s formality or cajoling or whatever it is. But what about some one giving a pen and paper to write down the song in English letters along with its meaning!

Kishori was simple in its inaugural ROTR version and it became even “more” simpler in “N-H”. I will not be too taken aback if it’s an after effect of the criticism that fossils faced after experimenting with “Maa” in F3. I have only one allegation against Kishori in “N-H”. I feel Rupam kind of overdid the simplicity of Kishori. Otherwise it’s a timeless track and all time Rupam classic.

Laal Golap: Rupam always keeps the Fresh “head turners” at No 2 and “N-H” is an exception. “Laal Golap” is not at 2! Gosh, what a Track!! Just blew me off. The intro part sounds like “The Reason” by “Hoobustank” and it does threaten you with alarms off a rip off, but it’s a completely different composition from there on. I liked the little work that Rupam does at “DoroJay” part and it is kind of a darling track for me from this album because of its simplicity like “Hashnuhana”. It has its own pace and space, and the song goes with in itself, not trying to break free or show too much like the pretentious moves of “Phire Cholo”. I love songs where music compromises the lyric, Not Utter bullshits like “Phiriye Dao” by Miles where the lyric goes one way (Girl Friend Cheated) and music follows the other(Lindsay Lohan and Angelina Jolie have called me and asked for a joint threesome date) . “Laal Golap” is the best track of “N-H”, if you are thinking in live performance perspective, otherwise its “Bhyapsha Blues”.

Na-Hanyate:
Four years ago, in a TV show during Puja I heard this song from Rupam for the first time. It’s an average track though it will sound best when you hear it on the first go.
Rupam is selling this album in the name of “World Music”. The real story is something else; actually he had no time to do justice to these tracks which where written so many years ago. This song demands bass lines, an absolute necessity to cranck up those breaks appearing at continous intervals, but where are those?? There’s a void, and he precisely tried to feel up by taming down his voice and making it mechanically generated. Cunning Calculated techniques can only make it the love of few weeks for the average listeners, but it can never be “Na-Hanyate”.

RockBaaj: Sounds like those good old Avril Lavigne songs of “Holdete” school days; the perfect combo of Punk Pop sound and Funky lyrics. The school goers will like it. But alas! Bass lines are coming from Keys. Actually I am listening to this trend in Bangla band scenario from this album called “Tuchho” by “cactus”; that if you don’t have it find an alternative and flaunt it!

One more thing, Rupam has this typical non-Bengali-non Hindi and definitely non-English accent which gets exposed time and again. Listen to “khuje peyeche ekhane” part, specially “peyeche”, it does not sound like a Bengali pronunciation. Trust me!



Kokhono E pothey: There are few songs in this world which are beyond time, beyond billboard rating and beyond everything; because they are eternal. “Come as you are” by Nirvana is one of those songs. This Nirvana classic defines the fine lines between your ownself and your friend and will continue to do so for ages. Rupam has crashed, damaged and brutally murdered that image of friendship by manipulating this song as a song of lost love. How could he do that to Kurt? This is not expected from him.

Bedwetter: Not interested! "Jolsha Ghore Khudito Kukur" !!

Bhyapsha Blues: Superb Track! Now one tip: Have 5-6 pegs of whisky in you body, soul will feel “Bhyapsha Blues” better! I am speechless about this track. Every word, every line, Rupam’s amazing modulations of voice through out this “Mountain” song, the whole composition; B-B is Just an “Out of this world” collage of music and lyric and off course the life that has gone beyond.

Why??

Ans:
1. “Krimi”
2. “Ulongo bass Guitar Badok”
3. “Daari Katbe ki Katbena ei dondhe je Mohapurush”
4. “Biye Bari”

Baaki ta bujhe nao !!

Joan of arc: A song dedicated to bangla rock and all those hick-ups, criticism and debacles it faced since it happened here. “Juboti o oshoti” bangla rock’s favorite soldier Rupam Islam has done a commendable job to pay tribute to its princess, who is yet to die.
The intro sounds superb, the fingering is just damn good, and who ever did it kudos to him. The song has every quality to be a pick of RJ’s because of its simplicity. The song is very hum-able and good to ears.


The album sounds superb when simple and very untidy when there’s something pushed rather than thought about. But who cares as long its bagging another “Best Pujo album” award from ABP platform.

Answer to the Question

It’s far better to rub your ass (Or preferably some better other) than rubbing a same old topic, on which you have already expressed your views. But recently the attack of words were so relentless and provoking that I could not help my self but to put my fingers on the keyboard again, to write an answer rather than writing an article. I have said in my previous article that Rupam deserved a lot more during his hay days, which does not seem to be going well with some Rupam or more integrally Fossils fans. Hence here comes my answer.

I am neither a fan of Fossils nor of Rupam, I was and am still now and will always be his follower. I have imbibed a lot from him in past one decade though I never met the man. You don’t need to meet and constantly chat with a person to understand what he/she was thinking or what he or she was trying to say. A very good audience can even judge a batsman, just by looking at his eyes, when he will come down the track, if he is really following his moves. Its not psychology, it’s a remote connection beyond science. A good audience and follower can even become a good batsman if he follows one closely, which is not possible being a fan.

Rupam is a master of words, and I can put my bucks down and say that there are very few writers at least in Bengal , who can mix and match vulgarity, pain, emotion and still be classically audible (not being cheap) in their words so beautifully like Rupam. That’s why I said love for Rupam and Fossils is of a different kind, because it hits you or did hit you some where in your subconscious mind and you will never be out of the “Byuha”. In one word Love for fossils is “Na-Hanyate”, i.e. it does not die.

Well I have also mentioned about the honesty of the writer and the composer. Rupam misuses his mastery on words heavily. “Harano Padak” is a brilliant lyric if you look at its concept. However, the way it takes the Mickey out of “Materialism” is not important for me, but how it creates “Jhaal muri” of characters and events across the glob and cultures, keeping Rabindranath Tagore as its pivot surely is. But at the end of the day its basic composition is a shameless copy of “Don’t marry her, fuck me” by beautiful south. Now that hurts me, I don’t know about others. I know, Rupam does get inspired by Beautiful south too often but, there has to be a limit to everything. A track from an album can’t be compared with a “Mone kore Nao”, which is again a copy of “Rotterdam” by the same band, Even the lyrics is some how inspired.

I don’t care whether “Ekla Ghar” is a line to line copy of Chris-de-burgh’s “I’m-not-crying-over-you” lyrically, because its words and there’s something called “poetic license” , but music is surely not the part to plagiarize. The same goes with the intro riff of “barracuda” by a girl band "Heart" and “acid” by fossils.

I was over the moon when I heard F3 would contain “Haspatale”, but when I heard it on disc again after so many years it did hurt. I went back to the covers and found there’s input by deep. I doubt whether taking the intro part of “Arials” by "System Of A Down" came from his “Urbor mostisko”. I always carried so many fond memories of this particular track, but they all got shattered after I heard it recorded. Don’t know when “Bari esho” will get released in an album, but there’s every chance I see, it plagiarizing the intro from “Killing in the name of” by “Rage Against The Machine”.

Now tell me, singing a song like “Dil Kahe” in a cheap Hindi movie, does it go well with Rupam? I don’t want to waste any more words on a song like “Dil Kahe”, because it does not even deserve criticism.

Rupam’s voice is poor now. Yes it’s not up to the mark; and he does too many mistakes now days while recording too. I hear too many “haw” (Bengali alphabet) in his singing. Wherever there’s a tough note, he pushes one “haw” in. EXAMPLE - “Subatash” in “Koto Seetol Subatash” does not sound like a “Subatash”, Rupam cunningly pushes one “Haw” in between instead of breaking it into 3 notes. It’s not just one instance, it happens too often. Every trailing word of each line from “Phire Cholo” deserved a lot more “Harkat”, what Rupam could not pull off. A song which could have been a master piece in Rupam’s Neel rong days was killed badly.

People wave mobiles in live concert of the band, pictures get uploaded on social networking site, with even funnier comments like “Rupam da ke darun lagche” , “deep da chul ta kete nile kyano” and etc. A very calculated strategy of words goes in live concerts whenever there’s lack of strength to be felt. Rupam speaks thousand lines during live concerts and sings a few, people claps; he is happy and so is the new breed. Fossils some how gets lost in the big- jam of funky black shirts and heavy duty accessories. There’s no feelings, no understanding, just mad head banging! Morons feel raunchiness over the title of "Schizophrenic Bra", but they don't understand its actually two parts of our scull, epitomizing our split personality and the tug of war between individualism or "Ekok tontro" and democracy or "Gono-tontro".

When I see now, I think there are very few followers of the man and his group. Its too many fans of fossils now days. It may sound ironical and berserk in the context of basic concept of time and evolution, but these fans are actually giving wings to fly an old dinosaur, which is crooning and churning out some very bad noises, very different from what it used to be doing during its quoted “Fossils” days.

A National award- late or right time?

After couple of Anandalok and Shananda awards, now it’s time for a National award to move into the shelves. Is it a calamity, is it a shock, is it news or is it a hard fought dream? No it’s a sheer truth. No chance of ABP backing the results, so you can’t say it’s an “I am looking after you, you better look after me” kind of scenario. But there’s something really weird about Rupam bagging the National award because these days neither his voice is at any close of being at its best self nor songs of mahanagar@kolkata for which he got the award are out of this world kind. Though it’s weird but its ok for you as Rupam got it. You feel like you won the long lost battle against your mom and dad and all the other haters who had been asking you not to play any of his numbers in your room during those hay days and you kept on saying its rock, a different genre!

But don’t you think Rupam deserved a lot more few years ago, when he didn’t host a single show in radio station, he didn’t write a single article for any big newspaper group, he didn’t took interest in solving anybody’s love problem? Didn't he deserve it when no body knew how Rupam looks, nobody knew who is Mou (even many thought it as Mon), whats the surname of Rupam?

Yes Rupam deserved something big during those days when a Layman crooned “Bessabritti kukurer bichhanay” (instead of “Dupurer”) and never felt like he had been singing something quite bizarre, as he had wanted to see the prostitute that he still sketches in mind, on bed with a dog! Rupam deserved it when a school student enhanced the volume of his transistor a few notches higher when RJ had played a rare “Ekla Ghar” or a “Hashnuhana”, Rupam deserved it when a guy cried in a live concert while listening to “ManobBoma”.

Rupam made your anger worth of its value. Rupam gave words on your mouth as he interpreted your reactions to a failure. Every college going youth had once synchronized his life with his songs. There's been so much of life in his lyrics.

For the past 10 -12 years Manashi has been asked to come near the door for just once; I think even a living Manashi would get pissed off and say “Hang on Rupam, you know I won’t come”, but you, the listener don’t get bored. A “Dekho manashi” or a “Nishkraman” still charms you like the way they did when you had listened them for the first time in your life. You brought the Fossils 2 in your home and played it. On first listening you said what the hell is this, but still Rupam somehow accumulated your love for all the numbers of Fossils2. You didn’t buy it you brought it.Mission F arrived, end of piracy for you if its Fossils. You understood its worth buying because you are not only loving the man, you are respecting him in your subconcious mind. You understood Rupam's songs are like slow poisons and demands patience of 5-10 time listening, You saw Rupam on stage several times, you learned what is head banging, you went mad for his songs, and you quarreled with others when someone had said Rupam’s screws are loose. There was a period in your life when no song in this world sounded better than Rupam’s. The unplugged show on a FM station put the last nail on the coffin of your doubt. You understood your love for Rupam was absolutely right.

End of story, period. Rupam got married. Even ROTR stopped; really the show was getting boring, because Rupam was making it as boring as possible. By that time every session of those 2 hours at late night introduced yourself with the poet with in you though. You said hang on even I can write and speak like Rupam.

Rupam became an umbrella term. The English medium going school students even started talking Bengali the way Rupam used to and even gathered interest in the songs of Fossils. Suddenly there’s a new breed of fossils fans, who radically became fossils fan. Though they will never understand what these songs actually mean but they will never leave a single stone unturned to speak about some shithead implication of those songs. A sliver too generated in between the fans and the veterans kept on leaving the place and the glory of legacy, because they knew it’s not happening any more. Taking the burden of these wannabe Bengali’s would have been too much for them.

Suddenly there’s a rise of a business man whom you never knew, who is probably selling his songs not singing them. From solving love problems to dandruff on hair, Rupam started to show interest in many things those have no relation with music. Interaction with the Fans was just an excuse, it was just like a bollywood star promoting his/her film.You don’t feel the charm the way you used to. But the love never died; as it was a love of a different kind. Fossils 1 and “Neel rong” always help to bring back the lost love and you kept on crawling back down memory lane.

For a listener, a good listener, whats important an award or quality stuff from his Guru. Rupam killed his million doller voice emulating Mariah Carrey time and again, though it did give him the range but it lost the magic of giving you the pleasure when you were alone and you played an “Ekla ghar” in your lonely room. Tell me how many songs you got from him of that standard after the 1st album. You got nothing except one “Shasti”.

A song writer who has been writing songs on lost love for ages, there’s has to be honesty in him and among his co workers. Either it seams he is selling frustrations to the DEV D’s or he is no more the man we listened.

Rupam was best and the best when he was a man of Utopia, a voice who bounded others to see his face, but when every body looked at him, he said “well if you are looking at me, what to do with my voice”.

Udaan : All that T(or F)akes to be a Man !

I know there’s a very weird being inside me, who keeps on talking about something or someone it loves, and never stops though the normal side of me knows that others sitting around ,who are 100 times more normal than my normal being, are getting extremely bored and on the verge of stitching up my mouth. When I thought about writing this down on paper, my weird side was obviously on a very high note and at its wildest best. So there was hardly any chance that the normal side could have conquered his opposite down. So please forgive me or rather that weird side.

First thing first, I liked the movie “Udaan”, directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, and I was very disappointed on myself, for not being able to take out ample time to write something about it when it had released in theatres.

Most of the Hindi movies of recent times do not even bother about keeping the title of the movie reasonable, as Shakespeare ushers his hello on bollywood; “what’s in a name” you know. But we are neither talking about any Shakespeare nor about any Karan Johar, we are talking about Anurag Kashyap, the genius and his talented assistant and now the director of his very own film, Vikramaditya Motwane. Udaan’s title was a very puzzling one for me at the beginning when I just came out from the theaters. I mean, Udaan for what? Why Rohan needs to take off? Is it because he has been expelled from school for watching B-grade Hindi movie, jumping the walls of the hostels? Is it just like “Wake up side”? Is “taking off” synonymous to “waking up” like the way Sid (Ranbeer Kapoor) did?

The answer is big and loud “No”. There’s a huge gap, between a Rohan coming from an industrial town like Jamshedpur and a Sid, coming from the city of Mumbai. You see, Dil Chahta hai, you find a group of three friends, who cares about life partners, having fun in life. There’s no pressure of future, if nothing turns out properly then there’s a father to hold his shoulder. On every thing said and done, there’s a clear cut Farhan Akhtar stamped all Over DCH. The Farhan we all know the son of a renowned lyricist of India. For small town guys like Anurag himself, if you don’t do it all by yours, you are finished. You may a have a father, but he is not your Godfather you know!


For me Udaan is neither about the generation gap between a small town Father and his son nor about the fight of a son against his Hitler like dad, who wants to make a prototype of his wishes in the form of his son. Udaan is about men, and masculinity! And this movie defines the flight (Read Udaan) of a man, as he fights (not flight again!) the gravity of the perception rooted in this male dominated world of him being hailed like a hero, truly because of his masculinity. How clichéd that sounds for Rohan, the protagonist of Udaan, when he faces no female characters around him, to stand his authority that he deserved by his inheritance. Yes, Udaan does not deal with any female characters, and has a very definite reason behind it.

Udaan is a tight slap on the face of male chauvinism, when the boy is left alone in his growth and no girl is growing up side by side. Is it not true that when we present a doll to a girl, we are squeezing her down in choice of something different that may relate to independence or freedom? Similarly should not some one stand and say that presenting a computer game of gun fight to a boy, is making him incomplete from the beginning of his life; as he will continue to live like a hypocrite throughout his life, thinking oh I have brought so many down, I am at the peak of manliness, what he is not? Its like hitting a six by a tap of a key on a keyboard and not even holding the bat properly when balls are bowled over 80 miles per hour. We live in a very male dominant society, where valor is supposed to be men’s right and chastity is girl’s virtue. But when a boy grows up to a man, he genuinely feels that the results happening around him are extremely biased and that decays him from inside as he hardly complains.

A MAN CAN ONLY FEEL AND FIGHT, WHEN SOMEONE BREAKS THAT BARRIER OR THE FENCE OF INEQUALITY. YES, THE JUDGEMENT DAY ONLY COMES WHEN THERE’S ONLY MEN AROUND A MAN.

There are three male characters in the movie, which represents three different stages of manliness and you will be really thinking on the wrong side of it, if you judge their activities by their age. Each of the character has his own share of clash with the other in terms of manliness. Bhairav Singh (Ronit Roy) plays a very rude and disciplinarian father in Udaan, and you can easily think him as a psycho. Don’t do that I say, because you will be trapped. Now why I am saying that, let me explain.

Do you remember the initial battles between Rohan and Bhairav Singh? The two men trying desperately to knock the other down; if not by the muscle power, then by words I guess. EXAMPLE – Bhairav wants him to be called a Sir rather than Dad or Papa. You will see clearly a Bhairav grooming somewhere inside Rohan [“Ghumiye ache Sokol Pita sob sishur e Ontor e” There’s every father sleeping inside his child]. Though Rohan does not express himself strident, like the way Bhairav does, but he too claims his superiority over Arjun and reacts the same to Arjun as his father does to him. Remember Arjun getting stuck between His father and the big brother, and jumping the stairs up and down like a shuttle-cock. Udaan very quickly settles the priority queue of manliness.

Rohan makes his Father waiting in his car intentionally and eventually Bhairav leaves the place dejected, or should I say that was his punishment to Rohan. Instead of giving Arjun the company Rohan, just like his Father, leaves for his work. The poor little Arjun helpless by the battle of two superior masculine tries to hold the hand of Rohan. Rohan takes his hand away. Arjun understands the first lessons of masculinity. What it takes to be a man, when he is living with two out and out men, devoid of any feminism inside. Arjun walks alone.

Smoking, Driving, Big tattoos on Muscles, Drinking alcohol and committing sex; that define Masculinity for Bhairav. He checks with Rohan whether he has done all of them or not, and when he finds the last one is missing on the list, he jumps on Rohan and abuses him straight way “Aare tum toh ladki ho”. The pride of being a man is on forth and roaring.

Arjun smallest of the lot, who can’t stand on his rights does the same when there’s no one watching him. He takes his small toys and abuses the bigger one of Rohan. That’s his own battle you know, within himself. A rage of angst was building inside Arjun too, as he continues to call his elder brother “disgraceful” on loosing the sprint against his father on each and every morning. Eventually he lands his anger on a girl in school, bullied by the lot continuously.

Even if we talk about Appu, the home left Senior of Rohan; we will only see continuity across the families of Jamshedpur. Appu could not stand on the fact that his drunk father beats his mother day in and day out. So when he puts his father out of his house, his mother could not agree to the fact that Masculinity is loosing its stride against feminism. Appu leaves the room for ever.

Now a single incident turns it all around for Udaan, generating the fuels for Rohan to take off and fly past this rude, pathetic Bhairav-ish attitude by a long way.

Bhairav Singh beats Arjun badly and admits him in Hospital. Rohan stays there in the Hospital for taking care of Arjun. There’s still that barrier between Arjun and Rohan, you see. Arjun does not agree to get naked in front of his elder brother. That white screens drawn by Rohan was not just a mere cover, its pride curve of masculinity that was just on the scratch move from the nascent stage inside Arjun.

Do you know what turned Rohan around, what made him to put this barrier down? It’s the photos that he saw of his mother. For the first time he understood what love of a female means to a man, otherwise how incomplete he becomes as a personality. Do you remember him saying to Arjun, that there’s a different smell to mothers love. Arjun listens to his elder brother, as he does not know what its means, he never enjoyed it. Arjun does not even remember his mother’s face.

Rohan gives the love back to Arjun that was on priority not to make another Bhairav Singh in this world. Do you remember him writing on his last letter to Bhairav that one piece like him is enough for this world as he does not want another devil to come up in the form of Arjun. The DNAs that Rohan inherited from his mother seems to be working slowly. Suddenly, we see a different Rohan altogether, as if he is the mother of Arjun. He gives away his best toy, books and poems that he has been keeping with him like treasures till that date He reads out his poems and stories to Arjun, to make him feel good, to give him the motherly love at the best he can give.

In the end he does not leave Arjun alone in Bhairav Singh’s dome, he takes Arjun with him. But what he leaves is more important than what he takes with him. He leaves the wrist watch that his father gifted as the sign of his inheritance in this family. By the leaving the watch he not only denies his father's gift, but on the broader point of view he denies the tradition of extreme ugly masculinity that this family is imposing on a boy in the form of inheritance.We see a complete man, taking off, ready to face all the challenges of this world has to offer, with a feministic touch that he developed during his stint in his motherland, Jamshedpur.

P.S: Anurag’s last movie was on Devdas. Devdas is a frustrating idol of a void, a complete pathetic scenario of the highest order. If men start to believe in being a Devdas, living a life like that alcoholic lived, and then it will bring only extinction of masculinity, just like Appu, a Devdas in the making. Someone once said to me “Death is not the biggest tragedy of life; it’s what dies with in you”. Udaan hits the perfect balance between a Devdas and Bhairav Singh, in the form of Rohan and probably as Arjun in future who will aim at the eye of the fish rather being fishy of his own self as a gender and about life on single failure of love life, work or study or anything else.

Paanch - A High 5!

While the cricketing world goes high on spot fixing threesome, CNN-IBN asks the view of former Pakistan skipper Imran Khan on the match fixing issue. The Glam dog politician says a very interesting line in his interview which brings me to write this review of “Paanch”, a film by Anurag Kashyap that didn’t see the green signal from our pious-bias censor board [Saif Ali Khan, was that enough for Sharmila to show the green signal for Omkara!]. The line said by Immi was “Crime does not pay you”. It’s a very simple sentence. It may hold no value for a common man like you and me as we don’t get the time to commit a crime [:D], but for a person who commits crime or has been committing crimes, it means big.


Crime is toxic and cumulative if it enjoys success. Like telling lies one crime can derivate hundred more. Intoxication of crime is hard to get rid off, though it pays you nothing in the end.

There have been a number of movies made in Bollywood based on the crime world. Anurag himself wrote the script of “Satya”, one of the biggest blockbusters based on underworld. But “Paanch” is a different kettle of fish, because it tells you how the youth gets involved in crime business rather than showing how the business works in crime world.

The story of Paanch is based on a struggling rock band named “Parasite” made of five different personalities; Luke (Kay kay), Joy (Fernandez), Murgi (Aditya Srivastava), Shiuli (Tejaswini kolhapori) and PornD (Vijay Maurya). It’s a movie of many blasphemous dialogues and some very high end characters; each holding a reason behind his/her place in the movie. Let’s find how they are sketched:

Luke: Luke is the boss of the rest and an absolute canon. I have rarely seen a character sketched so dark and murky in a Hindi movie. He is evil, a true evil. You see the sketches on his walls, you will understand, how many pieces of personalities are fitted inside his single soul. Throughout the movie several change of events tugs and disturbs those pieces and you see the stitches going hay wire. Luke turns demonic when some body hits him. He himself confesses what he did to his father, when his father had beaten him once in childhood. The Graffiti on his wall tells –“Franz Kafka, Van Gogh, Michelangelo were unrecognized geniuses in their life. Recognize me”. Frustration, dreams, struggles and some delirious illusions; all boils down to a rage for money for Luke, and soon you find the guitar going missing from the front man’s hands.


Joy: A monster with a huge build, but a ‘chamcha’ inside. An extremely loyal friend of Luke, often called as “Genda” too, who can never find a fault in Luke’s doings. Again an alternative character, as people with that sort of bulk, hardly live like “yes man” in today’s world. But Luke gave him the shelter, so you got to understand why he comes in this package. He is the victim of friendship, which you discover later.

PornD: A boneless creep, target of every joke, who is bullied through out his life. You can see a character like him every where and any where you go. Being a typical “phattu” by default, PornD makes it worse for him as he develops a crush on Shiuli.

Shiuli: Ok! a single line can define Shiuli. Shiuli might have dated more guys in her life than the number of Handkerchiefs she has lost. She is promiscuous by nature and all done for money. I like Anurag’s definition of Shiuli’s character. No where in the movie do you find the reason behind Shiuli’s date-bed business. No sympathy, just the character she is; Straight and rough.


Murgi: The most level headed character in the movie; speaks less and sees all. Murgi understands Luke the most, but hardly goes against Luke’s decision to turn up as a cannon fodder. He quietly does what he is asked to and calmly expresses what he feels a few times. He is the perfect balance between the two, Joy and PornD.


These guys need money badly to record their first album and a rich guy's son who often comes to their live show and practice sessions, gives them the idea of kidnapping him only. Paanch agrees as Luke likes it and the heist follows into a series of ransom- rage killing, serial killing, ego clashes and mistrusts and self doubts.

What happened to them, what’s waiting for them in future, to know these answers you got to see Paanch.

And if that’s not enough for you then Kay Kay Menon can be a good reason for watching it. Brilliant actor. You see Manoj bajpai in Satya and Shool; He sweeps you off your feet. But that’s Manoj’s range. After watching Gulaal, Shaurya and Paanch I have no doubt that Kay Kay’s repertoire is far stronger than Manoj’s.


Music: Well, Anurag has a different taste of music than others; very alternative and ever changing. He does not stick to a single MD. Vishal Bhardwaj gave the music for Paanch. It’s easily one of the best albums from Vishal’s stable. Lyrics are “fadoo” though positioning of the songs are not. The last song is quite forced and not really needed.


If anything that lacks in Paanch; is the ending. Tarantino or Scorsese would kill it if they would have worked on Paanch. But as Vishal does to his movies many a times, Anurag too missed the plot for Paanch which could have been a thousand times more gripping and darker finish than what it is shown. I have always felt directors of this genre (Like Vishal and Anurag) coming from India have a weak link on finishing up with female characters, an urge to show the female character as the “bad-a**”, they often commit the mistake of making it melodramatic.


I liked that illogically logical part of the movie, where the gang goes inside a room to burgle and starts eating and playing music inside the master’s room. Though it sounds weird, you got to understand these characters are not quite the tom dick and harry we see in your daily life around you. They are impulsive by nature and that’s what makes them draw evil faces in their room and beat a bus conductor on the road.

Paanch was restricted and banned with reasons of extreme drug abuse and violence by censor board. It’s available in some file sharing websites (Like Torrent) as preview copy. If you think, it’s worth a watch; watch it for sure.

P.S :ROCK ON IS FOR KIDS , PAANCH IS FOR MEN ! YA I HAVE SAID IT !!

Chokher Bali - A LookBack !!

In Tapan Sinhas’s classic comedy “Golpo Holeo Sotti” [A story but a truth] there was a certain shocking dialogue by Rudraprasad, playing the role of an editor sort in an Advertisement agency, where he says “The present world business is run by shock therapy”; and then adds “The more you put shock elements in your products, the more people will bash you in public, but could never restrict them from having a taste of the same”.

I guess this good old shock business had started many years ago, well before “Golpo Holeo Sotti” hit the screen. Being a die heart fan of “Dark shade” movies, by the likes of “Omkara”, “Subha Maharat” or “Basic Instinct”, it was virtually impossible for me to miss Rituparno Ghosh‘s “Chokher Bali” [A sand grain that causes eyes to water] on theaters, a celluloid experiment on Rabindranath Tagore’s original novel, over which the writer once repented, even begged sorry after penning it down. CB was a Pujo release, and I was so desperate to watch it that I bought the ticket on the night of “Nabami” [the 3rd day of Durga Puja], and saw it all alone.

The information literally put my jaws off when I came to know that CB was written in the year of 1930. CB as a novel is a very mature, passionate, at the same time wicked in its progression and more in the league of the western novels in freedom. A widow belonging to a Bengali household, during 1930s, can be anything but thinking her in a desperate polygamic mould was a tough asking. Binodini, the protagonist female character, played by Aishwariya Rai in CB, was a woman exactly of that sort. Now I guess, you have no problem to understand what I meant few whiles ago when I had expressed my thoughts on the tradition of shock elements in business. The shock was so striking for me, that even I shocked some of my friends, when I went for a Ms. Rai starrer, missing the second last night celebration of Durga Puja. Actually Rai is a woman whom I always hated for her pathetic acting skills, and extreme haughtiness on her beauty, and showing it off time again though the world knows it already and acknowledged.

Some one said, only God can understand what’s going through a lady’s mind. Looking at Binodini, I doubt whether God is taking credits with out proofs. Binodini is a lady, who does not take her any less than a man or may be a bit more than the masculine group if i am not wrong. For every question asked by a man, for every Mickey taken out by a man on her, she has an answer, that too a very strong and logical one. This makes Binodini a different cup of tea than other females of that time, forget widows! I guess her attitude and arrogance, makes more impact on a readers or viewers mind, because she is a widow. But whats makes Binodini most special is that she is an out an out polygamic character. Mahendra and Bihari, both the men rejected her as their life partner. Probably that was like niggle to her ego. Binodini came down like a house of fire on them.

Rabindranath Tagore, might be sorry for the way he sketched out Binodini, long ahead of time, but for me Binodini’s vulnerability after getting rejected, and then getting deserted in between the fun of love and lust of married life (or any relationship that provides the two), is a timeless one, was yet to be touched. This is something that is embedded in most of the educated female’s mind, who can understand what game the opposite sex is playing or have played with her.
After a breakup (Here loosing husband) a Man can become a Devdas, or a traitor of a handful, but there hides the most important factor to be a Casanova: How many possibilities, permutations and combinations a man can manage while taking on many girls at the same time, absolutely killing his emotions, fundamental values and ethics. I guess it’s tough for a Man, because neither his thinking is so robust in fixing a problem which is far fetched from sports and study, nor his reflexes are so good to tell lies. For a girl, that’s a cake walk, because for a girl, she has been honing these skills through out her life. Just look at a girl and a boy of a primary school and compare their actions. Though in most cases [I said most cases] the boys are academically good and more skillful in solving a math problem than a girl, but he is the more vulnerable and non-trustable one when it comes to bringing all the materials back to his home that he carried to his school or managing and giving a whole new look to a mistake that he did. Girls are by their gender brilliant at that.

The best three scenes for me in CB are:

1. In between an oral sex and a bit of necking, which comes as shocker on screen, Binodini whispers at the ears of Mahendra that her husband died in Plague. Mahendra backs out and Binodini bursts with laughter. Though Aishwariya’s acting in this particular section is pathetic and an absolute show off as usual, but I want to clap for Rituparna. Binodini keeps on mentioning the word “spleen”, and abuses Mahendra for backing off being a doctor. I guess the first revenge for rejecting her as his wife. Binodini literally plays with emotions of both the men; she knows how to tackle Mahendra like a dog, what are the ways of keeping Ashalata and Bihari away when she is in the company of Mahendra. Even once she said that it wont be any bad to see Mahendra and Bihari figting with each other. She knew how to Tame fire with fire.

2. Ashalata is a simple girl, who didn’t have the privilege of primary education in her life. Her thinking is simple and mostly inspired from the society’s common notions. When Ashalata and Binodini both where hanging their washed clothes on the rope, the former suddenly discovered a red love mark on the upper bosom part of the later. Ashalata is so simple, and puppetish that she can not even think her hubby as a Traitor, though she knows Mahendra is the only male in the house that interacts frequently with her Bosom friend “Chokher Bali”. Though I contradict with Ashalata, but mind you she was yet to get the real pinch of reality.

3. The Last scene is when Binodini comes to Bihari’s house at night for a shelter, wearing a store of Jewelries. Bihari is reluctant to think Binodini as his life partner, as Binodini pleads to him to take her like that way. She is so much desperate to get a male in her life that she does not keep her away from abusing Bihari, “There is no credit being Swami Vivekananda Bihari babu, if that’s the case then live in Dakkhineswar”.

In spite of living such a tumultuous and chaotic life Binodini does not marry in the end. Wonder why Rituparna was reluctant to end it like that way, being so bold through out the story. Probably He went by the original novel, did not have the courage to tamper the novel so much, when Tagore copyright issue still prevailed.
Though CB did not do too well at the BO, but for me I went to see the movie only because of Binodini (not Ms.Rai) and I was given the exact dose as the doctor had ordered. By the way, Aishwariya might have looked like a diva, umpteen times in her career, but none comes before the scene in CB, when Aishwariya matches eyes with her husband Bipin in Benarasi. The jarring of her face, her tension, her wide eyes, still reminds me of another face, once I came across in my life. Well that’s another story.

Once upon a time- There were Characters

If you scrutinize the stretch of bollywood from 50’s to 2000, you will find that there is a constant degradation of literary sophistication. In 50’s and 60’s the Timeless Classics presented by the likes of Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor and Bimal Roys remained unmatched for ever, not only because of the contents that they dealt with but also due to their quintessential directorial supremacy on detailing a subject. Although that was a Golden era, but 50’s and 60’s imbibed too much of westernization in its styling that was far from being in grab of a common Indian. In 70’s bollywood gained its second independence, as for each Beatles song there was a “Dum maro dum”, and for each different Indian emotion there was one “Aapna-own” powerhouse dialogue, that would bring the roof of theatre down with claps of audiences. 70’s ruled with its retro looks, its uncanny twists in stories and high voltage dialogues, that still remains the base of bollywood. You can add value on it or you can make fun of it, you decide what ever you want with 70’s.

So where those flared pants, flower print shirts, handle bar moustaches, sideburns and Polka dots gone? Yes, they are back on big screen as Mr. Milan Lutharia; Director of movies like “Kachhe Dhage” and “Taxi No 9211” portrays the city of Mumbai of 70’s in his new movie “Once Upon a time in Mumbaai” , when Gangsterism was in its budding stage in the economic capital of India.

“Bujurgo ki Kahanio me doh raja hua karta tha” but in OUTIM, there’s two. And Here Milan comes out of its usual trend. “Taxi No 9211” and “Kachhe Dhage” both dealt with two leading men, but one used to hold the power and the other came in a rather satirical note. OUTIM details on that untouched part of a Gangster story, when power shifts between two men of same calibers; but one holds ethics and other remains reckless. Milan excels in showing how the Masculine ego’s, hunger for power of shackle free personalities never allows two moons to settle in a night’s sky and pat each others back in peace and mutual respect. The complexities between Emran Hashmi (shoaib) and Ajay Devgan (Sultan Mirza) look far more like a chemical reaction where respect acts like a catalyst. Like a catalyst the story breaker will not take a part directly in the reaction though it seems to be taking, but He will left back traces when reaction ends. Sultan fails to understand that Transition point of his relationship with shoaib; or rather it’s too late when he understands. The City of Mumbai that Sultan loved like his girl friend, where he was respected like RobinHood, the city that he kept clean by his ethics, succumbed to the dirty palm of Shoaib as he says “Muthhi khola toh Mehbooba Bahar”.

Built on the line “behind the myth is the city’s greatest betrayal story” OUTIM is verbose expressions of vendetta, where characters speak a language which is as cherubic as some lines of mirza Galib, and impish cute in dress sense. Rajat arora’s dialogues are awesome, and there’s so many in the movie that if you mention one you will regret hundred others of same stature. Sultan brings a Guava as his first gift for his Girl friend Kangana (Rehana), who is a superstar in film industry buying it, in 400 rupees, or Shoaib who brings a bottle of “jhony walker” and snacks for his Bobby Prachi (Mumtaz), there’s a constant weirdness that flows across the movie, but each of them converts into mischievous brilliance as the last dialogue comes out. Then there is irony too, Rehana presents a wrist watch to Sultan on her first date, which runs by the heart beat. When sultan was shot dead in front of Rehana, the watch stops and Sultan shows it to her.




OUTIM is high on performances, as apart from Mumtaz’s character each of the main roles is given to experienced campaigners of gangster scripts. Where there’s a need for leader in Hindi movies, there’s none better than Ajay Devgan; call it Yuva, company or Rajneeti, Ajay deals on leadership. The grimace in his contour, his dialogue delivery, his stairs, postures, holding his hand high, and every thing seems pitch perfect and tailor made for a leader’s role. Emran Hashmi knows his limitations and never seen him crossing the boundaries in any of his movies. Well here’s an exception, Emran has evolved as an actor, and if you don’t believe just watch OUTIM. The female characters Kangana and Prachi both did a pretty good job and looked extremely beautiful in retro looks.

All in all OUTIM is a movie which demands patience from an audience, as its basically a very simple and hundred time told story, but its main Sap lies in its characterization and dialogues. Dig it if you want to take a sip at the ascent.