Taare Zamin Par

Taare Zamin Par - its a beautiful tender dream anybody would love to pick from dream and give a hug. The movie can be best described as "NATURAL", no overly done emotions, no high drama. Everything and everyone seems so much a part of this visual & intellectual extravaganza.

Ishaan, a dyslexic child who is the Indian version of our Calvin. Always in the world of weird imagination. Alphabets dance if he tries to read them!!! This bunny teethed pretty boy dives into your mind with all the innocence and pranks. Who doesn't remember his own childhood after seeing Ishaan. The movie out-an-out belongs to Ishaan, played by Darsheel Safary. What can be a maximum surprise is when you see credits rolling during the beginning of the movie, its Darsheel Safary, Aamir Khan & rest.... You really feel good at Aamir's maturity. When all other heroes are fighting for their name to be displayed first, this comes as a mature gesture.

Aamir deserves a STANDING OVATION for this movie. For the belief he had in this kind of story and for not going over board on emotions just to lure the audiance to theatres. Its a right mix of laughter, joy, sorrow, pain, disgust, helplessness... Just like a perfectly made coffee. To get such wonderful performances from the cast, especially from a small boy is no easy job. Everyone breathes life into the role. Be it Rohan Awasti (Ishaan's brother), be it his mother or Raju, who plays his boarding schoolmate. Choice of characters are so neatly done that no one would help but feel irritated towards Ishaan's father's indifference and sad towards his mother's love and helplessness. Darsheel is the best choice and find. Loads of love to this little magician. Aamir excels in acting department too. He becomes even more dearer for his selfless genuine effort to convince Ishaan's parents about Ishaan's dyslexia. The movie is made with so much conviction, so much passion.

Songs when heard after the music launch seemed childish & average. But with the movie going on, songs just pump emotions slowly into the viewer, who silently watches the proceedings with a lump in the throat. "Tumhe sab hain pata, haina maa" would be my pick. The silent shiver of the boy to the start of engine which would take his mom away is nicely combined with this song. How much you feel to hug Ishaan and comfort the little thing :o| "Kholo Kholo" would make your spirits fly high.

Animations is another department which is taken with extreme care. It looks absolutely from a boy's imagination. Just beautiful. The entire crew of TZP must be applauded for the terrific job done. Every little detail is attended with passion.

This is one movie which would be a hit, more by word of mouth publicity. Its the best movie of the year 2007. What a way to end the year, WOW!!! It would have been a big loss if I were to miss this movie. Aamir every time sets the expectations high and he manages to exceed too!!! After Lagaan and TZP, what can be his next movie??? Thought itself gives goose bumps.

Lead India - Tum Chalo To Hindustan Chale

I simply love this video!!!

One night @ Kitchen

Well, this has nothing to do with Chethan Bhagat's One Night @ Call Centre, but certainly, it was an inspiration for me to write my experience in Kitchen, one night!!!

All through out my student days, I never even peeped into the kitchen. I used to study as if I would be extinct, if I weren't. During holidays, my mom used to pamper me, saying "anyways you won't get any free time during school, so take rest atleast now". So the big word kitchen always remained alien to me. It never bothered, until one day, oops night.

Those were the days when I had to stay alone. Most of the times, the dinner used to be at office only. But one night at 11PM, I felt like eating Aloo Parota. The urge was so much, that I could hardly resist. I felt as if aloo parota of my imagination getting a physical realization & is calling me "Ba Ba..." I had seen Laddoo's people preparing parotas, that looked so very easy, big deal!!!

I geared up to make some home made (self made, to be very precise ;o)) aloo parotas. The first hurdle was the dough. Thank God, I knew its the wheat flour which is used. I took some flour, some water and salt. Only after trying my hands at it, I realised water was too much. I put some flour, now what, dough is so hard, again put some water. In this trial & error in a typical software engineer style, my dough was ready. Not to mention, leaving me ghost like with all the flour on my face, on my hair. Thank God, I didn't see the mirror else I wouldn't have slept the whole night ;o)

Now comes the stuffing. That was a kinda easy. Cooked aloo, put some seasoning and mirchie, it was all set. The 'not so bad taste' of the stuffing gave me amazing confidence (or over confidence??!!!). "Ha ha, adige enoo Brahma vidyena??? Anybody can cook". Some stuffing, some rolling and my delicious aloo parota is ready.

Round 1: Took some dough, rolled it into a fine circular pattern with some 5cm dia (atleast the graphic design should help somewhere for a electronics gal right?). Kept some aloo stuffing made as balls, here too tried to make it a perfect sphere. Now, took all the edges of the dough and make them meet at the centre. Somehow, the stuffing was properly circumscribed by dough (or I was too early to decide). Started rolling it, loudly singing a song at the same time, as if the 'thing' is going to fall flat for my singing, and become flat automatically. But what the heck!!! A little of stuffing started peeping from the centre as if a mouse from its "bil". Before I could repair it, there were more mice sorry stuffing peeping outside, sticking to the rolling pin. All my enthu burst like tuss pataki of Deepawali. :o( Put it on the tawa as is. Once it was done, I tasted it, not so bad, but need some mechanism to bind the stuffing inside the dough.

Round 2: Brilliant idea!!! I almost kissed myself for having such wonderful brain. Created a similar circular pattern as before. Kept some stuffing exactly as I had done in Round 1. Now comes the twist in the tale. I created one chota circular pattern with almost 2 cm dia. For what!!! Swalpa wait madi!!! I tried to bring all the edges of papa circular pattern to the centre and then immediately applied the chota circular pattern on it. Fevicol ka jodd hain, tootega nahin ;o) The thrill was so much that I felt as if I sealed a Jin inside the Lamp. Now I rolled the 'thing'. Not even a single piece of stuffing dared to peep. The parota was perfectly sealed and well rolled. Patting my own back, I put it on the tawa. Only then I realised there was only dough at the centre of parota, as if it had ruthlessly pushed all the stuffing aside. Disclimer: I don't take any blame if the stuffing reminds you of BSY and dough about KS. On second thoughts, dough was quite sticky, refusing to leave my hand in a same way KS refused to leave his "Gaddi".

Round 3: With the determination of the project manager to meet his last and latest deadline after several postponements I said to myself, now this has to be perfect, aakhir ijjat ka sawal hain!!! :o Ground plan simple, make two quite big circular patterns of the same size. Keep one down, spread the stuffing uniformly across the entire pattern, keep the other circular pattern exactly on top. Seal the edges, all around. Came out quite well, but the edges were :o( By the time I finished all these innovations, it was around 1:30AM. The equation being ME + 3 solid aloo parotas - hunger - urge to eat + lots of vessels to wash + huge mess.

Though the outcome was disastrous, the experience was hilarious!!! Had to switch off the gas several times to allow my laughing sessions. Even today I can't forget the sight of those 3 aloo parotas & the preparation. I think, it is but obvious for you to believe me, if I tell you that I never had any urge to eat aloo parota till now. I might have eaten aloo parota when the caterer had nothing else to offer but every bite of it made sure I had a hearty grin, for the experience which my mom calls nothing short than "Yakshagaana"

:o)