Drum Beats!

I am writing this after 16 shows of Magic Drum, including a 3 show Sunday! There were those in the team that actually did all the 16 shows! Can you believe that? I managed to do 9 I think!

Here is an anwer to the question I had earlier...yes there is a GOD! Oh Yeah! What was a disaster of a rehearsal metamorphosised and grew into an amazing show. As the days went the performance levels went up and up. Towards the end we actually were confident that we could pull it off. 

There were several crowd favorite moments. But there were some total cast favorite moments which the whole cast was rooting for. My favorites were a few. One was the barber in Good Luck Gopal. It was one scene that always had me in splits. The other one that I loved were the Old Lady in the white crow. It was a guy doing the role of a Grand Ma and it was just too funny! I loved the Gujju accented postman in a village in Karnataka in the Last Laddoo! We had a blast with some wardrobe malfunctions where for a brief moment (pun uninteded) we saw what no audience ever wanted to see :-).

I think the coolest part is that an organization was able to generate funds for their noble cause and it was not inspite of us putting a bad show! People did walk away happy that they saw something worth their time and we were happy that the money that they paid went to something worth our time!

The Fear of God

After an absolutely nightmarish rehearsal yesterday, possibly the worst that I have had so far EVER in doing plays, I believe in GOD.

Seriously, this play has been one of the toughest. I started doing this play only to find out that I may not be able to do it. I had an important (?) wedding to attend right in the middle of the play dates. So I pulled out. Then as luck would have it they postponed the play performance dates. And yours truly was back in. And even then I had only a teeny role as I was doing back-up to another dude. His work got the better of him and he dropped out. There I was right in the thick of it without even realizing it. At about the same time, my work caught up with me with travels ever so often. If it was not work then there is always Bangalore traffic. What would have taken a crow 35 mins to travel, takes me 2 hours. Being in Bangalore traffic is akin to constipation. You want to go, but it is just not going!! I can literally let loose on the road for the last 30 sec of my travel to rehearsal.

After all this we found ourselves doing rehearsal yesterday with the knowledge sinking in that next week is the performance. We are doing it in partnership with Dream a Dream. There are 2 more days and our performance is no where near where it should be. I have begun my prayers...

Rock On - A Ballad?

You know the end of the movie in the beginning. So there is no edge of the seat suspense.
You know all the turns and twists...there were some interesting twists. But nothing out of the ordinary. So no shocks there
You have heard the music, nothing new there.
In some sense you do know the people! I guess that is what makes this work.

The movie was really unhurried in its pace. It kind of took its time to move towards the end. The end was naive but you really could not have had any other end. The strength of the movie was really the performance of all the actors and how they appeared believable! While I lack the depth to comment on the technicalities etc or argue with the story teller on how well he could have made it, I judge my liking of a movie by whether I had a good feeling when I left the theatre. The answer is I did!

Once in a while you do need these kind of movies. Something to take you back to those days, put up your feet and smile!!

What defines decent?

I was watching this program on Vijay TV. One of the many reality dance shows. The judges got carried away and asked the daughter of one of the participants to dance.

This was an enthusiastic 7 year old who danced her heart out for Mukabala song from Kadalan. The kid danced with a lot of gusto. But then in the middle she went into a lot of gyrating suggestive movements. Agreed it was just a dance. But is it okay for a 7 year old to go into a lot of these poses. I felt that I will be uncomfortable to see my kid do the same. Of course, no one in show really minded all these movements and this was a family show.

But there was this little niggle...Are these the new boundaries for decency? Has the age of innocence dropped from the teens to the single digit ages? Or am I being prude?

Screw the Conductor - Cut the Barber

How to talk about a movie that you did not like,
Write in bad verse and rhyme like with hike!

Kuselan was a remake they said of a mallu classic in recent time,
P Vasu laid his hands on a story and made it like a worthless dime.

Instead of friendship with a barber, they focused on the super star
Even the 'real' scenes looked fake, not worth a retake!

Crass Comedy of Vaigai Puyal, and close up shots of Nayantara's navel
Titillate the audience with a lot of show and not much tell!

Needless computer graphics to boot,
A waterfall in a dry cliff was a hoot
they have dolphins jumping out in this mythical bay
Making night from an obvious day.

I am thankful I spent on only Rs 70,
Instead of the usual 250
The remaining 180 on something better,
May be dosa with a real buddy and a lot of butter!!!

Kung Fu - I want that - Panda!

It is not often that you can catch me cursing and hurrying people up on a Sunday Morning. Had breakfast with the parents and the kids at Janata Hotel. 30 minutes to go! I come home and find out that we are not ready yet. Debate on whether I should shower or not. Figured out that a deodorant will cause the illusion. Hence decide to move on. Since no one gets up in Bangalore on a Sunday morning except to go for breakfast at CTR, Janata Hotel, Veena stores or MTR, we made it to the theater in good time. I actually parked on Cunningham road!!! I looked at my watch, 2 more minutes to Kung Fu. This is the movie that my four year old and I had conspired together to go. I let her do all the convincing and she did make papa proud! Can you believe it that she and her sis were up at 7 AM and the first thing she said was Kung Fu Panda!

Anywayz, here we were, to watch a cartoon movie (I guess we should call these animation movies, coz they are soooo not cartoons anymore!). The tale is rather simple, that of a Panda believing inspite of its weight and craving for food, if it believes in itself it can achieve its dreams. Without a doubt the visuals were amazing and believable. I was actually telling my 6 year old that the villian was a tiger (0r a snow leopard as pointed out by a friend of mine) !!! I was quite shocked when I said that but realized that I was sucked in as well. The next 90 minutes was a riot. It was just hilarious!! I honestly did not feel I was in a kid flick. The picture completely engulfed me. Here I was empathazing with the Panda and actually saying you go Po! The best thing that these animation pictures do is that they most probably tape the lines before they animate. Consequently the expressions are spot on. I hope the Desis do something like this.

Kung Fu Panda Rockz...Must see!!

Equs Maximus - Jaane Tu, a tale of two

Watched Jaane Tu today. Saw it without the pressure of being a reviewer or a critic. The best thing about the movie was that it did not take itself too seriously. Never! You do leave the theater with a spring in your step, even if you can't dance sala!

Almost everyone in the movie has a done a terrific job. The best thing about the movie is that it is a director's movie and not someone's launch vehicle. It just happens to be that. Not only was every role wisely chosen, but the cameos clinched it for me. Be it Naseer and Ratna Shah, Kitu Gidwani and Rajat Kapoor, Jayant Kriplani and Anuradha Patel (she is still SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO gorgeous!), Paresh Rawal or the Khan brothers. Carefully chosen and well executed. Much has been talked about in the papers on Imran and Genelia. They along with their believable friends do a cracker of a job. So I will not talk about them.

The director did a neat job to execute a simple story. I guess the story is as old as it gets but it is the story telling. Any successful movie or play is always about the story telling. Most of us are craving for something smart and something that we can associate with. This movie did that for me. It had to communicate all things about youth and it did it so well. It really did also remind me of those care-free days and that is probably where I was sold. I loved the directors love affair with the horse. It was there in the dreams and in critical episodes, there will always be a horse running around! He has used that element so well. He has a smart script, great music and controlled the pace of the story very well. The icing on the cake was the last shot. An Intelligent Homage!! May you always be treaded well, Mr Tyrewalla. May you have many more movies in your kitty! God Speed!