Raaz – a secret worth keeping - Forever!!

Why? Oh why do I get myself convinced to watch yet another Hindi flick?? Especially one with a name as Raaz…?? Well the movie was… umm was… some kind of a horror movie. Though there were a couple of times (only a couple though!) when it gave me a start – like when a bus simply takes the heroine along with it or when a hand comes out of an ATM machine!

Though one scene that I really liked was when Kangana Ranaut writes the magic phrase of the movie “Tum ashudh ho, sadh chuke ho” with her blood on the wall and she acted well when she turned on Emraan Hashmi like a woman possessed!! The fact that Emraan painted things of the future reminded me of the painter in “Heroes” but a very poor imitation of him! Am not a fan of any of the actors in the movie and thought that they could have acted better… and what was Jackie Shroff doing in this movie??? I mean did you actually need him there??? Couldn’t any other actor do?? Don’t get me wrong – I like Jackie, but isn’t he a bit too old (and too fat!) to act now???

Now to the story… as I said it was a secret that should have been kept!! Why let it out!! The reason why the weird things were happening was so trivial… that I totally lost my interest (whatever little there was!) in the movie! I did expect something more in the end but then true to our Bollywood istyle, the movie ended it the predictable Hindi movie istyle!!

So check out the secret at your own risk only!! :-)

Party on the 8.46 local!

Have you ever celebrated the beginning of the New Year in a train with friends? I don’t mean the bringing in of the New Year but just celebrating it? No? Well, I did just that on Monday morning with my morning train friends in the 8.46 Goregaon local from Churchgate! We all met up before the train pulled into the station with bags full of goodies and huge grinning faces! After wishing each other a Very Happy New Year we saw our train and jumped in.

A few of us had undertaken to bring along some treats and we immediately got around to making my seat (yeah – they found only my seat!!) the table for the goodies!! As the bags opened, our mouths started to water as chocolate brownies, assorted chocolates, kachori samosas, a cute heart-shaped cream cake and mango juice packets were laid out… it looked like a feast fit for a king!! :-)

We jumped right into the food and juices and ate to our heart’s (and stomach’s) content till we approached Dadar station, where the crowds would jump in and push our food away to occupy the seats… As we snacked we exchanged stories of how we had spent our 31^st nights. After that our topics varied from New Year resolutions to what we were wearing that day to when we should plan a day picnic for all of us! As Dadar approached we put away our left over goodies and settled down into our respective seats for the journey ahead. As we got down at Goregaon, all of us had smiles on our faces and we all walked with a spring in our step, all pumped up to take in the world in our stride after our wonderful morning!

So my advice to you, if you haven’t done anything as bizarre as this – go ahead and have a party with your train friends in your regular local train or join us as we celebrate another reason to smile!! :-)

Slumdog Millionaire - A Must Watch!!

The movie has been highly rated and there is a lot of buzz about this new movie that has taken the movie world by storm.. So why should I be left behind? I got onto the bandwagon and watched the movie. It was everything everyone said it was and more!


With a superb music score by Rehman and awesome direction by Danny Boyle, the movie drove you through the slums of Mumbai to the wretched "business" of children beggars to the desperation of finding the love of one's life.. At times the scenes were quite disturbing and I cringed with apprehension at the stark reality which stared out at me through the TV screen. My eyes filled with tears while my lips slowly smiled at the innocently delivered dialogues which held more meaning than ever like “I don’t know the name of the third musketeer!”

The direction and the camera angles were a treat to watch especially a shot taken from behind a dog lying down on the road showing children running through the streets to escape from rioters. Newcomer British actor Dev Patel gave a good performance all through though Freida Pinto’s performance left little more to be desired..

A movie that takes you through the stark realities of life on the streets and how if one keeps their eyes and ears open one will learn so much! All in all a movie definitely worth watching and owning!