Nishkromon : The departure of Rupam

More than an album of Organic sound, Nishkromon is an album of an ever changing Rupam in lyrical aspect. Ironically it’s a departure of Regular Rupam who used to speak in riddles and different dimensions to a Rupam who loves to draw picture in lyric. The album brings out a new Rupam who loves to write big in angst and craves to make some points clear. The album is my only companion now, while I walk down the lanes of Cardiff.

Free zone: How often does it happen that you strive too much to express in a song, the lyric spills out before you could understand it is actually happening. The first song Free zone is a good example of uncontrolled lyrical angst.
“Eshobe taai britha jorai
Jhankiye kaandh beriye jaai
Theke ki laabh shroddhar obhab
Jure jure osobhyotaai “ To express these 4 core lines of the song Rupam not only wrote big in first and third verse, he actually put too much pressure on himself while singing. See this album is introduced to mass as an organic live sound filled album. Now when you listen the first or third verse of the song, honestly do you feel its live sound? I don’t. When composition runs faster than the speed of lyric, it is extremely tough to tackle. And when it’s tough to tackle, it no more remains organic sound. Nishkromon as an album loses its honesty and faith on the first song. Though keeping these nuances aside, I would say the even numbered verses pull off the Rupam of old. How nicely Rupam controls the slurs in between “songi” and “amar”, which goes wanting in “doinik songbad”. I would say Free zone is a birth of new Rupam as a lyricist as well. I have hardly seen Rupam writing songs that’s picturesque rather than multidimensional. The pictures drawn through “akashe megh baateel abeg” and “Kono kono bhore Anti-Christ-er janalay boshe chokh mochhe Moriyom” speak a lot about Rupam’s so called fantasized “songjom” which keeps him within the “dehatito free zone” safely away from the naughty ill-behaved people. Perhaps it’s better to kill the Judas as remedy 

Chador: I put my bank balance down and scream to the top of my voice that Chador is a classic. Since the day I heard Chador I knew what potential this song has. Chador goes beyond the barrier of regular compositions and stands tall on the podium of world music. The composition is exceptionally well crafted; the singing by Rupam is just brilliant. Hats off to the drums work and bass slamming too! And again Rupam’s lyric is picturesque rather than multidimensional. The frustrations lying as a dead soul waiting for the success of heaven – Chris de burgh must be happy like hell! Chador is an accumulation of many genres in a single song and I hope mass will give importance to this song in coming years as they did for fossils 1 songs.

Taake chini: Again a song of angst and perhaps recently written. The main difference between Free zone and Taake chini is the length of lyric and shorter lyrical length does help. Taake chini is poppy in sound and brings out the Music director Rupam, who wants to make music for Bollywood 

Ghor sajai: sorry, it is not a song!

Kisher Aaral: Punk could be an obsession for a musician, but it does not mean you would force something again and again without any reason. Kisher Aaral is very nicely written but it lacks creativity in musical section. As a punk number it’s too stereotype.

Aalo: superb track indeed. “Lennon amar Lennon, amar moner moddhe Jeh john(jon noy)” ; very few can actually describe Moner manush, the movie so brilliantly. The bass lines are sex! and Rupam did his best until he screams! Aalo is surely the second best track of the album after Chador.

The WO WO song: It’s tough to get ahead from where you had started. Garage rock sound prevailed among the pioneer rock bands of late 90’s Kolkata and still it does. The WO WO song is just the perfect example of it. Then it suddenly slides down to jazz from garage sound in whisker. I liked the ayub bachhu’ish “ami asholey jaa chai” part. I hope Rupam could do a moon walk on stage while singing this part live. Lyrically the song brings out a Rupam in many shades. The contradiction of “amar ichhe kore toder moto dhonger kotha koi, amar ichhe kore palte dite nyaka projonmoi” is so alternatively delicious. And Rupam’s new age fans should pay an attention. But then comes the ugly religionist attack in “shaitan ke di laal golap porajito jehadir beshe” and the ambience is shattered.

AtmoBishleson: Typical Greenday sound! Awesome lyric! I don’t know why do I see an Apu of Apu’s trilogy in atmobishleson’s first verse. May be the statement of negligence and arrogance remain the same for all Apus’ accross this world. How often Rupam’s cross cultural and cross religion life comes in his lyric. From Hollywoodish intimate and bestial ambience of second verse Atmobishleson slides into a mimic ride of humiliating stinky Hinduism. Only Rupam can jam in Lord Shiva’s wife and “Sotidaha protha” together so easily. The long solo of Atmobishleson is boring and pretty monotonous though 

Thanks to Nishkromon for Chador , Aalo and The Wo Wo song, how impotent it may be for rest of the songs.

Aarakshan : Is not about Reservation !

1. Madhur Bhandarkar, Mani Ratnam and Prakash Jha movies are basically sub types of a certain genre of Hindi movies which doesn’t have an umbrella term to be specific. While Madhur’s movies are based on certain urban lifestyle, where upper class exists, so that they can be stripped naked and whiplashed in front of the world, and his one screen theater ticket buyers can feel the boost of a psychological and ethical victory, Mani sir’s movies have never dealt with any subject that’s not today’s and hardly holds any strong connection with the youth. Looking by the core of ‘Raavan’, which was basically an epical misguided adventure of finding the roots of Naxalism in ‘Ramayana’, Prakash Jha is steadily heading the Mani Ratnam’s style. I doubted in ‘Rajneeti’; ‘Arakshan’ makes my belief stronger that Prakash Jha is long way away from his ‘Mrityudand’,’ Apaharan’ and ‘Gangajal’ root.

2. Arakshan’s naming is poor. Yes the movie is not about reservation. I can feel for the director, as I know except Mr.Kashyap there is not a single soul out there in that industry who has the guts to speak about such sensitive issues freely, which could cause riot in streets, chaos among the apes of parliament and more over your film might not release. This movie is about Prabhakar Anand [Amitabh Bachhan], a principal of an eminent educational institute. He is a good-hearted and intelligent soul who lives his life by certain principles and dangerously naïve about the rules of outside world. His face has several by-lanes of years and hair is dyed in sliver color, but he is still the Bachhan of seventies. He lives in a bubble that kept this crude world at bay. But then there are other clone bubbles like Deepak [Saif] who has harnessed his skills and studied under Prabhakar, but did not keep the world as a neglected chapter. When these bubbles collide for the first time, you know some things gotta give. That’s why, Prabhakar need not be a person from educational system; he could be a good hearted banker, a good hearted lawyer or a good hearted cricket coach. The movie is all about living a life of truth and honesty. But that’s not what we expected from the title? Did we?

3. The contradiction of the characters in this movie holds a strong ground. Poorbi [Deepika] does not know whom to support; her boy friend Deepak or her Dad in crisis? Prabhakar does not know where to head, be resolute to his principles or to move on with his Job, which gives him financial security. Deepak does not know what to choose his Job or his life? The best of the contradiction comes when Prabhakar’s wife says to her husband “Main ek maa hoon, Bharat maa to nahin”. But all these dilemmas are kept in private. To Outside world Prabhakar’s wife is like a rock and will never take any one granted against her husband, may it be her own child.


4. Deepak enters into an interview and looks surprisingly young. Perhaps not young enough to suggest he is a pass out from college (Bhopal, 2008) and seeking a Job. But then in the trade off you get what you like the most; the old strong Saif Ali khan of Omkara, who knows how to bring power into performance. When constantly questioned about his mother and asked how he could match in with people from higher classes of society, he retorts back that his good breeding is prominent in the fact that he has not yet smashed the paper-weight on the jury board’s head.

5. Its would really rude to say from Deepika’s point of view, but I had to salute Prakash Jha for finding an unbelievable way of hiding her, which her earlier directors never thought of. Whenever the dialogue is long for Deepika, the camera pans at the listeners rather the teller. A lady who has by-hearted her lines like a school child and fearing to belt them out in front of the camera, should inevitably struggle in putting proper facial expressions. Prakash Jha invented a different way to tackle mediocrity.


6. There are at least five or six mini climaxes in the movies which are funny and illogical to say the least. There’s no detailing about Sushant’s character played by Prateek Babbar. All we know is that he is a rich man’s child, comes from a higher class family and drives a Pajero. His return to righteousness is hardly detailed, and what ridicules more is the sudden change of heart of the widow and her sons. I want to see that police officer of DSP, who can be ready to shoot on a mob of students on one call of a minister. If its students, it does not work like that way in India. ‘Arakshan’ is not based on China! Prakash Jha’s inability to flesh out these characters in hurry of dragging the curtain down and creating enough space to put Hema Malini in front of Big B before that, makes the movie a painful watch in last 30 minutes.

7. I don’t need to type a single word about Mr.Bachhan and Manoj Bajpai. They can play these roles in sleep.

8. The path of honesty, many a times darts back at you. What an awesome scene that was when Prabhakar Anand was paused by the banker guy who is no more eligible to answer Mr.Anand’s questions, because it is that recommendation of Mondal commission which has let the banker down, and that’s what Mr.Anand endorsed naively on paper. Backed by a mute pause and realizing his cocooned existence Mr.Anand returns to what he does best and dives into the world of Bernoulli’s Principle.


9. The school students looked too keen to study. I am not sure about their large existence in India.

10. Prakash Jha is following a Woody Allen, Quentin Tarantino, Subhas Ghai legacy of coming in to the picture for one scene. Do you remember that person in sunglass sitting on the backdrop, when Deepika in blue Sareers meets Saif in a Park? Oh! There was a good metaphor also. The bank that was awaiting others to give the loan for so long has a name as ‘Apex’ bank on top and Hindi naming of ‘Apeksh’ at front. ‘Apeksh’,’Apeksha’; I think you got it! And did you see Deepika reciveing Saif’s call from US and the number that comes on Deepika’s mobile starts with +91. Did not know he was using international roaming 

Arakshan is a movie that reminds of late 70’s style to uplift the values and principles. But as the title suggests something else, audience will feel disgusted and too many flaws in the screen play will make it all the more worse.

ZNMD : a poetical road trip

1. Like all other countries Indian families too are economically divided in to three bands - rich, poor and middle class. But what differentiates India from most other countries in this aspect is that poor and middle class families though convinced about their financial state and limits, will always have an urge to scratch the rich and their aristocracy or dream of being so. Zoya Akhtar after her magnificent debut in Luck By chance, where she told a subtle story of a middle class guy breaking through as a face of bollywood, comes up with zindegi na milegi dobara [ZNMD] as her second venture, that cashes on that dream of poor and middle class indian.

2. Like all other Road movies, ZNMD too uses Road the word as a metaphor. Road of life as they say, and how a single trip abroad changes every thing as life meets fear of death, the flaws of past and the compromises the life has made.

3. Tell me how many Indian families could choose three tier sandwiches in engagement party, afford pre marriage bachelor party in Spain and toast from the husband? I guess most cant. Still life of ZNMD will not be too alien to you even you are not coming from a rich family. Its all feel good factor of ZNMD's life style that keeps you going and the screen will be screaming its lungs out "Guys, have fun in you life, its only one you get". Who does not want a life of that scale and economy? But the thing that bothers you in ZNMD, is the language these extremely rich characters speak. Its like talking in English and sounding like Hindi. Arjun [Hrittik] a Broker, who deals with crores day in day out, says 'Bara Hazar euro' instead of saying 'Tweleve Grands'. The worst comes from Laila, character played by Katrina, "Its like Holi, par waha Tomatoes ke sath khelte hai". I mean why not make a movie like 'Delhi belly' or 'Dhobi Ghat' so that life style of the character could complement the lingo he/she is speaking; why this 'Let loose' kind of attitude for the one screen theaters.

4. ZNMD is actually a collage of many beautiful moments rather then a full fledged movie. What I want to say is that, five years down the line when you would again talk about ZNMD, you would not be saying about the movie as a whole, which you could associate with a 'Dil Chahta hai'; rather you would be memorizing these little moments in bits and pieces like the 'maantally the sick' scene, 'The doordarshan logo montage music' spoof, Kabir's [Abhay] Paitra to pretend as if he knows some secret of the friend and the later spills all by himself, or that word association game. Screaming at people to scare the hell out of them is kind of odd when you consider Farhan, Hrittik and Abhay's personal age, but then thats star cast for you !
One little moment I would like to mention here, which may not be topping charts of most. The scene of galloping Horses.

5. Talking about DCH, ZNMD is quite similar to the former's structure. Two friends with an issue [Akshay - Aamir, Hrittik - Farhan] , a pacemaker [Saif , Abhay] and a disturbing character [Ayub Khan , Kalki]

6. When Kalki comes to spain thinking her hubby Abhay is fooling around her, she welcomes Farhan first in the hotel but later tells Abhay that she does want others to be thinking that she is a Chudail [ Though she wanted to say Bitch, but as you know Zoya wants her to speak certain words in Hindi]. Thats a good insight of a particular woman nature who smiles at the world, but keeps lack of trust for the boy friend. But where goes the detailing between Hrittik and Farhan's relationship. How could Hrittik agree to spend a vacation with this 'good friend' of him who once had stolen his girl friend? There had to a story to be told, which should have eased off the bitterness. But Zoya tossed it off.

7. In spite of all these, I quite liked the Farhan Hrittik Track. In the earlier part of the movie we are pushed to believe that Its Farhan who holds the upper hand between the two. But as the movie grows old we come to know that Its two palms that make a clap. It was Poor of Hrittik to reply Farhan's abbu's death via a mere mail and even his ever expanding pride over his ransome income, but when the girl friend thing comes, you know why Hrittik was looking at Farhan with merciful eyes.

8. Hrittik's second girl friend track did baffle me. Well Hrittik says to Farhan that Farhan should be saying sorry to him untill sonali does not go from his heart. If sonali is that special for him, then why is this second girl friend coming to picture?

9. Saare Jahan se achha Rock instrumental just reminded me of a 'Top Gun' scene.

10. Hrittik has been shown as a meticulous packer [ He even rolls his ties into a tight bundle], whereas Farhan's packing is just the opposite. At the very beginning Zoya gives a good picture of who abides by the rules and who sticks his middle finger out.

11. Again the best scene is a tough tussle between Farhan and Hrittik. I would go for Farhan's emotional meet up with his Wanna be famous painter father Salman Habib played by Naseeruddin Shah. We know a thing or two about Farhan's sense of humor, and that 'bagwati' piece was so hilarious to watch, but hardly did we know how he could handle a scene of such emotional scale so beautifully. "Sorry Kahiye toh dil se Kehna" and that departure and then the way he says sorry "really from the heart" to Hrittik, speaks a volume of Farhan's acting skills and Zoya's superb capability of handling a melodrama.

12. Hrittik does not go too far when he comes up on the boat after scuba diving challenge and breaks into tears backed up by an awesome poetry recited by Farhan and written by Javed Akhtar. Its that Kind of feeling when a Man meets up his biggest fear of life and comes up head held high. Success of livelihood in the scarcity of life does bring tears to the eyes.

13. After Hrittik beating water and Farhan beating the air, you guess ah! its time for Abhay to beat Fire. It would not only be fire but also his impending fear of marriage where he would circumnavigate the flames. It does not go that far by the way. There was bit of bull in the end.

14. The real star of the movie is Javed Akhtar - the genius. Sir wherever you are take a salute from this naachiz. Poetry or Dash of 'Dil nichodna' sir !!

All in all ZNMD is like an absolutely adorable first look and first love kind of T shirt, that comes with dry clean alarms too. After the first watch of ZNMD its so easy to be on high, but as the time goes you will feel a chunk of that magic is missing.

Delhi Belly - Dotted as anything

1. It’s an evolution in bollywood that has constantly been building up movie after movie. The evolution is about “rejecting the dialogues” and catching up the lines that we speak in real life, But do we speak what Delhi Belly guys do ??. Does anyone disagree? Delhi belly uses expletives in canter, such is the abundance that every second sentence deals with an F word, and even F words are used in different tones, conjugated with different other abusive words to show different emotions. You see, “a fucking chut” is a way of calling a room mate, “fucking rent” is way of expressing rage, “a naked woman lying on a naked man, is called fucking” is a way of taking potshots at friend’s silly queries.

2. There’s this “Hindi going of the boil” and “English coming to fore”, and then its “Hindi back into the thick of things”, brings me to another evolution in current bollywood, which you could label as a brand new garment of new Amir Khan Production mill. Since “Dhobi Ghat” we could see how these two languages are used as if someone is taking trial of Kurta and T-shirts and not at all happy in either way. You see, three roommates talking in English to each other as they come from different parts of India, their Times of India Pal Maneka speaks in English generally but in Hindi with the Hotel maid, the local goons in all mixed up mode, the down-the-ladder-in society Jain family prefers in Hindi, but inspires their child to speak English, though has enough knowledge to pick the fault in a construction of an English sentence, and shows an article is missing.

3. As the title of the movie and the popular tag “s#!t happens” suggest, the movie has a lot of shit and toilet comedy. The obsession to the private areas of the body is so strong that it comes too frequently. Unhygienic Tandoori chicken seller scratches his private, the person who buys it develops a loose motion and washes his ass with Orange juice, the land lord reads blackmail letter sitting on commode, gangster is threatened with a fire cracker in his butt, the police is shot in his butt. Then there are lot of fluids going around- Loose motion, Orange juice, Crows shit, Green chutney. And lot of sounds to back it off – Bullets, Farts, cracked up roofs, and the foot tapping Bharat Natyam [Oops Katthak]. Even the Sky does not let the chance to go off the hands. He pees on Aroop [Vir das] on his break up. Another frequent framing I forgot to mention. The tangled up electric wires over the poles.

4. The sound guys who devised the variety of fart noises – a Bow down from me with no wrong intentions.

5. Speaking of the shit, just go back few years and remember the great “Pushpak” again. Forget slangs, keep in the mind they did not even need any dialogues, to keep it edged in your memory till date and still so much happened over a packed shit.

6. It’s all what you see, is what you get kind of movie. The knocking down of rear view mirror of the car has got nothing to do “no looking back”. Or you could say, if you do think so.

7. The crossing of the t’s and the dotting of the i’s, is so prominent in Delhi belly. Every little detailing of the previous cut is kept in mind. See Maneka says she is lesbian, so she smooches when the partner is in Burqas, the land lord gets the roll of the films, because we were shown that the photographer prefers films over digital. The banana that irks Vir Das so much is actually split over by Shehnaz over the plate. Then Imran getting the idea of Burqas, from a sting of a Burqa clad women passing them.

8. It’s tough to pick a wrong foot in between a laugh riot. Parents meeting girlfriends parents and Vir das boss asking the Banana to be seven percent sad are few scenes that don’t go well. But then there are dialogues which bring you back to what Delhi belly is. “When a donkey f**ks a Rickshaw you get a santro Xing “[SRK not happy?? Oh he is into i10 these days], “Did they shave your head before hangings” are some of that collection. [Nitin Recollecting the “Mill on the floss” reference in the Car, to refer a tonsured head makes it all the more funnier]

9. Vijay Raaz- a Genius. Remember the scene, where he sees shit instead of diamond over his well placed, clean red piece. No angst, No outburst of rage, No Disgust- just a face of a philosopher. He is so experienced in this goon business that nothing bothers him, totally unfazed even in the shittiest situation. Imran is a disaster. Maneka speaks your heart out, when she asks Tashi, “You should loosen up”. The role of Kunaal is the best of lot, just the way he shows how much he gets annoyed when the stomach aches again.

10. Can some one give me one “cha se Chinese noodle” T shirt? Or did they console "chutiya" ?

11. It’s a first try of a bold Adam Sandler-ish comedy in bollywood. But is this what Youth is today in India? The point I want to make is that this brand will take you to no where, which a “Wake up Sid” or “Dil Chahta hai” or “Yuva” could do.

Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam : A Salam !

These days when I read those forwarded mails subjected as “50 reasons not to marry a Bengali girl”, I do a chuckle and feel pity for the lack of imagination of post 60’s bollywood that has mainly been the reason of curving the niche of Bengali men as anything but henpecked. But the thing is, that’s not been the case over the years. When I started watching all those Hindi movies that showcased Bengali lifestyle in celluloid, I not only experienced some avant grade directorial brilliance but also discovered some striking research work of “Babu culture and its machismo”, that had gone in to produce those films. One of those films should be “Shahib Biwi aur Gulaam” directed by Abrar Ali, produced by the legend Guru Dutt [Many feels the movie is actually Ghost directed by Guru Dutt only].

Like most of the Guru Dutt movies SBAG too is a chiaroscuro meditation on time, memory, and social and personal injustice, all falling on the same string of classical tradition of Pyaasa and Kagaz ke phool. But there’s an exception here. For a change SBAG pivots around a female character played by Meena Kumari as Chhoti Bahu. Chhoti Bahu’s character is somewhat ambiguous. The shade of the character is sketched so neatly that you could take both sides of the coin. She is perceived differently in the film too. While the voluptuous sister in law of her thinks she is foolish woman who has not learned to enjoy her new status and wealth; her husband [Chhote Babu] thinks, as she is born and brought in a poor Bengali family, all she needs to do is to care for him and regard him as god. While Bhoothnath, the character played by Guru Dutt sees her as an ethereal being who is beyond any imagination or comparison.

Well, SBAG holds a large array of feminine nature across its span. While the Badi Bahu is half mad and deranged so much in her moral sense that she washes her hand 63 times to be auspicious, Majli Bahu has succumbed to the hands of brothel-prone masculinity of this chowdhury family, that teaches her to be happy in breaking and recreating jewelries.
Chhoti Bahu rejects to be typecast. She is ready to cross any mile to get her husband back in home. She is ready to try her hands in “Mohini sindoor”, a vermillion that claims to keep the “suhaag” in tact; and when that attempt falls apart she is even ready to sing and drink wine with her husband like a courtesan does. Going farther down the line of jeopardy, we see a character played by Waheeda Rehman as Jabba, who is young, likes Bhoothnath from the word go and flirts openly with him continuously. Her words and action both show extreme freedom throughout the movie. She will not take the fact that her father has fixed her marriage with a guy whom she does not love, so she squelches the marriage after her father’s death. A striking maturity of Jabba is exposed by this denial as she was shown as an adoring daughter, but she knows her mind well.

Cut back to the narrative of male dominance we see the commentary on Bengal's decaying feudalism. Its presiding males, two Chowdhury brothers who occupy themselves with such traditional aristocratic pursuits as pigeon-keeping, elaborate “marriages” of pet cats, and drunken nights in high-class brothels, regularly abuse their tenants, servants, and wives. On the other hand, Mr.Suvinay, the owner of “Mohini Sindur” factory is the face of Bengal’s rising “Brahmo-samaj” [which was influenced by Protestant ideology and which sought to “purify” Hinduism of “superstition,” “idolatry,” and customs such as sati or widow immolation]. Suvinay’s house is designed with its upright piano, lace curtains, and mythical figurines in European porcelain, shows the conceivable encapsulation of bourgeois Brahmo syncretism. Then there’s a character of a lunatic Timekeeper in Zamindar’s house who thinks all these aristocracy of the Haveli will end one day. Probably a poetic justice of the fact, that he knows it all and world thinks he is insane.

The whole plot is unfold by Bhoothnath and Servant Bansi, who chronicle the history of the family and witness the ravages of time and changes that took place in haveli

Like all other Guru Dutt movies too, the cinematography and work of light and darkness is to be seen in SBAG too. Even some subplots of the story are so deep that it leaves you spellbound. Though Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman were in full throttle of affair in their personal life, the movie repeatedly and significantly defers their union to unfold other more important parts of the movie. The song “Meri baat rahi mere man men — “My unspoken words lie sealed in my heart” on the lips of Jabba tells thousand words of her helplessness as impeccable pictirization repeatedly plays a game of daylight and darkness on Jabba’s face. Even the brothel song Saqiyaa, aaj mujhe nind nahin aaegi — “Friend, tonight I shall not sleep” is brilliantly choreographed and consoled with verbatim expressions. You just got to see how its picturized; as the patron moves from the ceiling the shadows of the co dancers move, yet they all are in perpetual darkness; a striking portrayal of concealed and revealed feminity.

I will not ponder too much on “Na Jaon saiyan” as the world knows all about the masterpiece number, but surely about “Piya aise Jiya me”. You Just got to see Meena Kumari’s acting prowess in the number. Just by her facial expressions and tricks of eyes she portrays the female desire so amazingly.

Then there is a scene where the Majli Babu is shown sitting in the room alone and a triangular shade of light falls on him and rest of the room is darkened. It is again a sharp [triangular] visual that denotes the fast decaying aristocracy; which is soon on the verge of finish.

In a short span of time, the movie shows so many facets of life, that it deserves multiple viewing to grab all. I would regard SBAG as a Hindi substitute of Mr.Ray’s epic work in “Jalsaghar” and recommend all to see this classic if they haven’t seen it yet. Its a movie that Rocked me BIG TIME !!

Taxi driver : A loner's view on Urban culture

“I don't mind this empty room, and I like it when I'm alone,
I'm trying not to think about you, I'm
Not waiting by the telephone,
I'm watching a late-night movie, where the lovers say goodbye,
And it's really getting to me, and tears are in my eyes,
But I'm not crying, I'm not crying,
I'm not crying over you, I'm over you;” – I am not crying over you by Chris de Burgh


“Ei ekla Ghor amar desh, amar ekla thakar Obbhesh
Vabi Kichutei vabbona tomar kotha
Boba Telephone er pashe boshe
Tobu Gobhir Raat er Ogovir cinema e
Jodi Prem chay natuke Biday
Ami achhonno hoye porechi abar
Dekhi chokh bhije jay kannay” - Ekla Ghor by Fossils

The reason I have started this article with these two different songs coming from two different ends of earth with absolute identical meanings, is because I believe loneliness is an universal term and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi driver is only made to project what loneliness does to a human being than to expose alienation in urban society of New York City or anything else, as it comes directly from the screen play. I have never been to New York City, and I am hardly accustomed to what a Yankee does to live his/her life. But like me any one could connect to this master piece across the glob, is because there are no different types to loneliness. But with friendliness, yes, it comes in all shapes and sizes. As different sex you indulge more, you could impure it with love, which can drive you to a kiss, and a kiss could drive you to bed. Or on the other way around you don’t indulge more, keep it simple, meet twice or thrice a week, check with each other about, how life is going on , if possible play in grounds together, chat if both comes online simultaneously; you still may refer yourselves as friends. But at the end of the day, no one knows what exactly a friendship is. The bottom line is friendship comes as disease to extrovert nature, while an introvert believes, either he is too naive to meet with others, or he is too superior to loose his piousness,time and value with jerks all around.

It explores the psychological madness within an obsessed, twisted, inarticulate, lonely, anti-hero cab driver and a Vietnam War Veteran (De Niro as Travis), who misdirectedly lashes out with frustrated anger and power like an exploding time bomb at the world that has alienated him. To prove my point about an introvert, here comes the tagline of the movie as Martin say’s “On every street in every city, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.”

Well, loneliness is something like water. Its pure, its tasteless, its life and beyond everything you put it in any bowl, it will take the bowls size. Loneliness gives you satisfaction that you are different and no one is like you, you can also grief and repent on it as everyone has someone to look for, I have none!! You can add value to loneliness at whatever way you can, negative or positive, which friendship can never pull off. That’s what Travis is. He is an insomniac; he does not know what to do at night, so he drives a taxi, roams around the city. He goes to see porn movies at night, and that’s the only type of movie he knows. Interestingly chir de burgh’s song some how speaks the same shade of loneliness. About his loneliness, Travis ponders “Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man”

Travis has a very definite mindset to what’s right and what’s wrong. He does not follow daily news, but he takes no back gear to shoot his answer to the next probable minister Senator Charles Palantine; and I quote “Whatever it is, you should clean up this city here, because this city here is like an open sewer you know. It's full of filth and scum. And sometimes I can hardly take it. Whatever-whoever becomes the President should just [Travis honks the horn] really clean it up. You know what I mean? Sometimes I go out and I smell it, I get headaches it's so bad, you know...They just never go away you know...It's like...I think that the President should just clean up this whole mess here. You should just flush it right down the fuckin' toilet.”

There’s two or three ways of looking into this movie. One, the definite decay of urban culture across New York. Two, what a fun loving guy does at night, which is of course the majority or three, seeing this society through the eyes of Travis a loner.

Being an extrovert you may question, why I should see through his eyes. Sometimes it sparks from Travis’s comments that he is jealous about people meeting up, having sex. Travis can work on Jewish holidays but that does not mean that every one should be like that. He can not even cope with actors making love on television, he breaks it. In every scene, it comes out that loneliness brings you to that level of fidelity, that your thought process becomes darker; you feel the whole living around you is sheet.

People say and it is widely believed that Love brings the rebel out of you. Taxi Driver shows the real side of Love, when love rubbles you. A break off is a more productive industry or factory than Love is. A break off makes you more attacking, more rebellious than ever you were. You feel like what ever you could have, is no more with you, and no more will ever be. So the game sums up like you have nothing to loose. You just don’t care. Same happens with Travis too. Travis felt there’s some kind of resonance between him and the blond beauty Betsy, who works in Palantine’s vote campaign. He meets her in a coffee shop and expresses his feelings about her. Betsy says that she feels, Travis is like Kris Kristofferson's song “Pilgrim chapter 33” where the lyric goes something like this "he's a prophet and a pusher, partly truth, partly fiction. A walking contradiction". So loyal he is, Travis readily rejects the compliment and says pusher part was not for him. On the contrary few minutes ago he had cracked a joke to Betsy that he needs to be more ORGAN-EZIEZD. He believes Betsy and his thinking is of same lines, because according to him Betsy is also a loner and looking for some fun, which he could only belt out. Not that he wants to sleep, but he takes her to a porn movie. Betsy comes out of the theater and regrets Travis after that.

Love was never pink for Travis. It always came in whites and red in dark of late night New York, as he writes on his diary “Each night when I return the cab to the garage, I have to clean the cum off the back seat. Some nights, I clean off the blood.” He has seen a frustrated husband as his customer, who sits in his taxi only to see his wife making love with another guy’s apartment and like a hopeless expresses his anger to him by saying, he wants to shoot his wife by a magnum .44 gun. He feels he is not the only loner in the city.

He sees whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal all come out night animals and he prays that one day rain will come and remove all these dirt away from the city. Betsy’s going away, was a turn around. Travis lost his faith and hope on Rain.

Its enough to be sitting around and seeing all these happen around you. Now its time to do something. Its time to get every muscle to be perfect, its time to be the strongest. He chooses to save beautiful little Iris from her promiscuous career and the pimp named Sport. To see what he does next and what happens to him, you got to see the movie.

Taxi Driver is schizophrenic, and it’s too dark and uncomfortable at times. But that's all you see in everyday's newspaper, you can never hide that truth.Take the lid out of the manhole, the dirt flows beneath. The Manhattans and the sky scrapers give a different story though of urban triumph. Having said that, it’s the story of an extrovert majority. When an Introvert loner pulls the lid off the face of the whole, his words no more sound “Square”, it’s a “Hole”. Take what ever way you want, Martin Scorsese has given the Loners view, how weird it may be.

Pune the way it is

When you shift your base from one city to another, the inherent tendency that comes out stronger first in most average human being [Like I am] is comparing between the past and present. After my long stay at Kolkata, as I had no other option, I had to move my ass to Pune, in search of some bucks. Frankly speaking when I got the offer letter from my college, neither I was too much excited of my migration, nor was I repenting like an average Bengali, because I had to leave my hometown.

Coming to Pune, the first thing that hit me is how it rains here. It has a very slow, sluggish pace, and it’s hardly cats and dogs here. The one adjective that you can never put ahead of a Pune rain is torrential. The color of sky, when it’s gloomy here, is extremely toxic. As if it has a platonic relationship with “Old Monk”; and the cheap, hard hitting, Rustic rum is only made to sleep with Pune when it rains here, asking you to “Gheun taak” three pegs and memorize those cunning lines of Emran Hashmi in Gangster; ”Barsaat ki Mahine mein Naag Naagin ke bina Nahi reh sakta…” . I am glad to have a room mate like Guha [Subhadip], who had the capacity to grab the shuttle change of nature and respond to it; and I always obliged. Load shedding is the best scenario, and even it was not there, we used to put off lights, dragged the bed near the large window, and sat with glass of Old Monk in our hands. Guha used to play best of his Rabindra sangeet’s collection one after one, and Pune’s rain just absorbed them in its every drop of water. As each rain drop trickled on the greenery, in shame of molestation the new grown leaves got greener, our conversation rocketed to childhood days. Frantic “KalBoishakhi”, like a “Cradle of filth” song, was already embedded in our memory; through Pune’s rain we knew what a “John Denver” number is. Truly, the creator of Byomkesh Bakshi had to live here. Truly, Pune deserves to be the backdrop of Anurag kashyap’s first movie “paanch”. Truly, the greater Maharashtra holds her head high in every scene of Vishal Bhardwaj’s “Kaminey”

In Most cases Bengali’s do have a tendency, to go in to deep of things; dig up angles even if it does not exist. What should be named as the derivative of “Rock-Thek-adda” of Kolkata, in most cases by mistake called as product of “Culture”. Dragging of the ear as pride in Culture, finds its head in Education and after coming to Pune, a Kolkatan quite astonishingly sees that there’s more college in a street of Pune, than it is there in whole Kolkata!!

More Colleges; more Students; more Outsiders and of course more outsider girls. Pune Girls are basically a perfect balance between a usual Delhi girl, who could really take a dig at you masculine confidence on going fetish in lingo you speak and a Mumbai girl, who has got the most perfect dressing sense. Girls here are deceptive. I guess, the fast dying species called typical “Marathi Mulgi” is still living its last breath in Pune. Don’t go by their simple salwars and an average priced bag hung up on the bag. Your usual cajoling “hi hallo” can take an all time down, if they start to shoot. Girls do fast here religiously, and I think it’s a conscious divine effort to touch Kareena Kapoor. I am saying this because; couple of thin Rotis and proportionate sabji and a glass of juice would be more than enough in lunch for them. Most of the girls don’t bother touching their money bags for food in weekends, because boys religiously take onus to do so.

Yes, probably in Pune the Girl-Boy ratio is the best. Almost every boy has one girl, and I have not heard or seen any clashes between two guys for a girl here. Even it is there, it is no where near compared to Kolkata. I stayed a long time near a Girl’s college in pune and the place is called Karve Nagar, named after the famous woman educationist of India, Maharshi Karve. I named it as “Curve-e-Nagar”. The place is full of girls’ hostels, and boy-girl ratio of that zone is astonishingly low on boys favor. On weekends you just got to be near the “Chauk” of that place, Its literally a “Penalty Corner” zone, where a string of hunks are waiting with Bikes to woo or get hold of girl and from three different roads torrent of girls in all shapes and sizes, wearing as less as they can afford, are flooding in, only to follow the last root to shoot off for a night out with a guy.

By the way, Bike is the most important pre-requisite to woo a girl here. It’s easier to hit a six than a boundary in Chinnaswami stadium in Bangalore and similarly it’s easier to get a girl in pune with Bike than with a car. A four wheeler man might be devoid of a girl friend here, but an enthusiastic bike man will never be.

0.3% of India’s GDP is contributed by the scarf of the girls in Pune. Yes it’s the second best industry after IT in Pune. Girls put on scarf’s of seven different colors on different days of a week ranging from baby pink to shocking blue, and you can never get hold of the fact that, is this the girl whom I had seen with this boy yesterday and now I am seeing some one different riding the bike today. Probably I could If was an Afghani.

Ok, to close the girl’s chapter, one last gyan. That is: For each city girl, the meaning of the phrase “fun” is different. “Do you wanna have fun” could mean nice couples pass in INOX for a Kolkata girl; same could be an brave Idli Dosa lunch on “Banana leaves” in Chennai. Be very careful, before you say the same here in Pune. If the listener obliges, “Beta teri toh Raat ban gayi”, but if she does not, get ready to touch you chick.

You just got to booze in Pune. Pune is made for Boozing and Boozing whole night. For proof, here, van of spared Bottle buyers carry more beer bottles than of any other type. Discover each and every Bar, make Bhai Bhai relationship with every waiter out there, or even you can go alone and get in to a nice conversation and exchange contacts with loner like you sitting on the opposite chair. The ideal situation could be to get on to the roof of an 8-9 storied flat at night, Booze whole night and see the beauty of this City as the gentle cool breeze caresses through the city at night and titillates the “Nasha”. You don’t need to be a Devdas to booze in Pune, though you have every chance of getting converted to a prototype, if you are the statue of fidelity here. And Guess what, people launch firecrackers here at night without any reason!! It adds to your entertainment without any VAT; you can enjoy your booze like a King.

Autowalas in Pune knows how to make fun. I doubt whether they got pissed off in Chambal and came all the way to Pune and but could not get rid of the inherent dacoit attribute. They simply negate all basic knowledge of mathematics and ready to challenge you on any multiplication even if you carry more than 80% is 10+2 math’s. But one thing I have seen common between the Taxi drivers near DumDum airport in Kolkata and Auto drivers here. Taxi drivers near airport in Kolkata will simply bash Subhash Chakraborty for introducing Special Buses, as it affects their business, same goes for auto drivers also here as they can’t withstand Girls roaming around Bikes after falling into a relationship and completely forgetting them. By any chance if you see a Girl getting into an argie bargie with an autowala here, you will find that the girl has to pay every word of her. Autowala’s have both sides to them. They are as abusive as one can get in anger and as polite and friendly when you are eager to communicate with them. Once an auto driver said he has an Orkut account with a DP of him standing beside his auto. H also said and all of his girls and boys are working in IT only,
If girls are scratched out straight from the pages of “Vogue” here, then Autowalas must be from PC games. They take pride in over taking Cars on over bridges and breaking dividers and lanes, whenever they get a chance to do so. Being an autowala here, If you don’t over take any vehicle after 3 minutes of kicking off, you are a Dud, and you should be thrown out of Pune autowala union.

If one thing I do hate about Maharashtra, is it Bus service. It sucks big time. PMT Buses are “Baaper sompotti” [Father’s treasure] for them in raw Bengali. I don’t know what would happen to these Bus conductors in Pune, if they are shifted to Kolkata. They won’t last for more than one week I guess. The behavior is extremely rude and in most cases they just hate to speak in any other language other than Marathi. I just cant take the fact in Mani Ratnam’s “Sathiya” that Vivek Oberoi and Rani Mukherjee rides a PMT bus after getting married in the movie, last thing I would do in my life after marriage.

Even if Pune had thousands of more attributes like this which could have oozed hatred, I won’t bother, because of my darling. That’s Pune’s weather. Uff, Pune’s weather is Madhubala's eyes, Kylie minogue’s buttocks, Rekha’s hair, Madhuri Dixit’s smile, Merlyn Monroe’s boobs, Angelina jolie’s lips and Sharon stone’s legs and Maria Sharapova’s moaning. You just can’t ignore and stay stubborn not to fall in love with it. Love of weather, brings love in the air. Loves in the air, brings hang outs where you can have fun. Pune has plenty to it.

No, Pune’s love is not like those marathon walks of Kolkata, where couples walk for ages holding each others hands as if they are participating in a procession only to end up underneath the streetlight pole whose blub is broken and end up in strictly followed romance or quarrels like “ami ekhon biye korte parchina” or “tumi ekta kichu koro, na holey amake chharo”. Here its rash driving, Girls bighting the ear out of BF, if not in scarf’s, or stretching the hands on loin of BF, which could be ended as “I love you too” on next day’s early morning near the gate of girls place. Here hardly any one bothers a break up, have fun as long as you are buying from my store. That’s it !!

I still remember my first day in this city, when standing on Deccan Bridge, I said in front my three room mates in the midst of dipping twilight that I would go back to Kolkata after 3 months. The reply that I got from Rakesh on that day still pokes me. He said you can’t; Pune will get in to you. Pune has got into every nerve of mine and under my skin. Probably I have experienced the most colorful and ever changing phase of my life, where I have seen tremendous up and downs in every aspect of life. I have understood where I stand nationally, or later internationally. I have experienced new attributes of mine, broken new windows which perhaps I could never do in Kolkata. One thing I can proudly say, that Pune was there beside me in every situation, which Kolkata could never pull off, in fact it bullied.

Dhobi Ghat : A Slammer

The subsequent tapping of fingers on the frets, floating from Majors to Minors, sets up the mood and suddenly santoor jams in. You could feel the inflation of words is unbuttoning her device, to give away her flesh and rage of hormone to the ever masculine build up of acoustics. And then suddenly the lunatic guitarist strums the six of them all. Mood breaks, all that you had guessed about the proceeding gets crushed, and cuts to a scene where you see your expectations, arrogance, self-pride and your Hippocratic sensualities are not matching the reel. You sense there was enough dirt in the sleeves wrapping up your kinky and suspect-prone heart. Dhobi Ghat has just slammed that on the concrete. Yes Dhobi Ghat is more of an uninterrupted documentary course of your own introspection, than a regular movie.

Mumbai, the city that proudly says the stroke of 10 P.M as the occurrence of its evening, has been a canvas of many film makers over the years. The economic capital has so much to it, that each time you discover something new about this place. A city, where a Dhobi (Munna-Prateik) in daylight could be a rat killer at night, a married female outsider (Yasmin- Kriti-Malhotra) who once came here to build a sweet married life like any one, but ends up being cheated and loosing hope in her life ultimately suicides. Contiguously an old lady who perhaps got the shock of her life, still resisted it and persisted to stay mum and moot to everything , reluctant to respond to any thing, whatever engaging that may be or a divorced man(Arun-Aamir) who changes his place here and there, cries with in himself, lives like an open book, urges water from the raindrops to make a peg of whisky in solitude, or an Newyork based investment banker(Shai-Monica Dogra) who may be named as shai, but ironically least shy among every one around her. Irony does not stop here, as Munna the “door to door” washed clothe servant wears a T-shirt portraying the English rock band “The doors”, and seeing that shai says him “so you like doors”


Dhobi Ghat is an introspection of a person, who lives a big city life. A big city demands a lot from you, can also return a lot too, or may take away everything from you that you extracted from here. Given you don’t change with the city like a Yasmin. Here bulk could mean nothing valuable or little could mean huge. Munna safely keeps all his income inside cassette place holder and drags his softest door cover before going to sleep. Just to differ, Kiran Rao shows that in between all the gigantic Ganesh idols, the smallest of them all, is not fated to immersion. Every time you guess something, about a certain scene recollecting from your other movie experience or from your personal experience, on the contrary it wraps up to something different. Kiran as a director continuously humiliates the experience of a pro-movie audience.

Take for an example, in that scene when Munna changes his clothes in his cagey room after taking the shower near railway tracks. He drags his short up and you feel like camera is going naughty here, but no. You end up seeing a blue inner already inside!

Then, the daughter of that servant who used to work in Yasmin’s house, denies displaying her English speaking skill, though she had said a while ago that she studies in an English medium school. As an educated audience you laugh on her, guessing the little black fat child’s inability in speaking English. And, then suddenly she smartly a belts out a chunk of Alfred lord Tennyson’s famous poem “The Brook”. At the very end of the movie, you feel like Munna is about to propose his love to shai when he runs past a heavy traffic road of Mumbai, and he does the exact opposite. Like a responsible lad who keeps his word by bringing back the original color of the customers clothing even if he had done the damage, gives away Arun’s new address to shai, thinking they are best fit for each other. You could feel a Dhobi like Munna, is stronger in his heart than you, and has a more advanced knowledge about reality of future.

literally every scene is connected to each other. for example, Arun making a peg of whiskey from rain water is compared with Munna's struggle to store the raindrops in a bowl, trickling down from the roof top of his house.

Arun, the lonely painter, could feel the loneliness of Yasmin, he cries for her ill fated life. A divorced man who says Mumbai is his muse, his wh*re too, suddenly finds a muse in Yasmin. Shai on the other hand, is keener on having Arun again on bed. Like a voyeur she fixes her camera on Arun’s doing, though Munna takes the other side of coin from shai. Munna builds up love for shai, but does not quite gather enough guts to say the three word sentence. Murder of his brother Salim in gang fight brings Munna back on ground of reality. He runs away from Shai’s company. Though Shai ultimately catches Munna, and hugs him to bid adieu.

Is shai still just a friend to Munna? Well you think so. But as Munna leaves shai, giving that piece of paper where Arun’s address is written, Shai breaks in tears.

A story which started with concentrating different molecule of characters in one single unit suddenly starts to break away in pieces. Dhobi Ghat is boring if you expect spice out of it, as it does not hurry up showing anything out of false reality. It’s what you get in real, but you don’t like to see it, are shown in reel. Dhobi Ghat lashed a bad stroke on each of them. I don’t know if I am getting too much excited and letting Mr. Ray down, but after watching DG I felt some one form India has scratched on his work, if not touched it.

Ka Ka ka Ka ...KKR

Every thing that happens in and out of KKR has a tinge of filmy touch to it. Call it the auction or the Cheer leader walk in :) or for that matter the notorious blog that stirred the cricket fanatics couple of years ago like nothing; KKR gives a tough comepetion to the likes of Parris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan each year in terms of controversies. And why not? If your frontline co-owner is the Badshah of bollytown and the skipper carries a ‘who the heck cares’ attitude on his shirts all the time, then you are bound to have symptoms like that. Filminess is not leaving KKR on the 4th version of IPL also, I doubt whether it has any chance of leaving.

Sourav is a peculiar kind of name, which has adhesiveness to it. I think Fevicol should brand Ganguly for their product. This man plays or does not play, speaks or decides to stay mum and moot; he will make his space on Page 10, 1 and sometimes on Page 3.

KKR kicked his butt this time around, so drama was on the cards, and it happened. Though Ganguly has officially spoken just one sentence in media, like ‘I am shocked’, but newspapers are not leaving him, neither Mr. Shahrukh Khan. To resurrect the outcome, SRK suddenly found a new brother in Ganguly. Ironically he has no idea what a Bengali phrase ‘Bhai hoyeche’ means. Is SRK getting sarcastically extravagant or was he taking a stringent course on Bengali urban dictionary to learn slangs or was there any high voltage “Locha” of Mr.Chandi Ganguly in the past years that we don’t know, are another string of questions, but the main Query lies in this one- ‘What is the source of this extreme energy of KKR, which encourages them to create such a havock in media all the time, but goes missing on the field?” And what would happen to this anti-SRK group (like me) when KKR starts to win like Mumbai did last year, but ultimately looses in Final. Who knows about the game played behind the game?

BCCI struggled a lot through the Modi exclusion process; they don’t want any more controversies around IPL this time I guess. If they can remove cheer leaders(i cen bet many go to ground to see these call girl turned dancers, but not cricket) and post match gala parties from the menu, then what so fuss in excluding an ageing cricketer?. They know, it’s a big fish to take out of the pond, but it also makes sure, that he will not eat up the smaller ones, at least when fish harvesting will start.

SRK is more like the character of Jahar Ray in the Bengali movie “Dhanni Meye”. Remember those dialogues “Graam er Baire shield ami Jete debona, Bole chilam na”. Other co-owners are like those pros sitting on both sides of Jahar Ray, who does not have any say or no one cares what they say. SRK is lunatic in terms of competition. He does not want to loose. It’s not in his blood. Remember how he gave his all for an Oscar entry after Aamir made it through ‘Lagan’. These three years must be very painful for him, loosing against his female counter parts who made debuts with him. That's humiliation for a character of his stature, he must be eating his nails, crecesndos must be longer and deeper on his face. Actually SRK is hardly beautiful, beauty lies on his contours of face, the carves and dips he creates on his face while talking. The super chain smoker, wanted to clear the picture in front of his eyes this time, it was getting hazy day by day. Let it be on 4th, if not in 1st, 2nd and 3rd.! But the mistake he made was he had never cared for the cushion. If he were seen declaring officially that KKR is not taking Ganguly this time, it would have surely worked like a shock absorber for many. He didn’t. Backlash was there to be taking, and he has to eat his doings now.

Ganguly on the other hand is like Neeta (Supriya) of Ritwick Ghatak’s masterpiece ‘Meghe Dhaka tara’. Finding his daughter suffering in tuberculosis, Neeta’s father asks Neeta to leave the house and says “Tui Choilla Jah Maa, Jaago Jonne tui eto Kichu korli sara Jibon, Jago Nijer paay e Dar korai li, aaj Tarai tore Koruna kore, Tui Choilla Jaa’. Sounds tragic, but only for those who see it on celluloid. There are people in this world, who does not mind getting regretted, because that’s pretty common to their living. They have seen and faced it all. I think Ganguly has seen it all too. I don’t think he is too perturbed about all that’s happening around his name. He knows no matter how many come backs he has made in his life in the past, he can’t repeat it any more. He knows the full stop has arrived in his cricketing career, so better to leave the place that he once built by his hands

Last character must be Indian public. World cup could be a spoiler for IPL. IPL4 is in a win win situation; I must say. If India looses will Indian public have enough patience to see another big tournament again? Questionable. I don’t know what would happen to the excitement of all those who are desperate(including me) to make a point against KKR and ban IPL, then :)