Hawa Hawai

Imagine
Laaka chik laaka chik
Chiki laaka chiki choom.

Imagine that in reggae.

Now replace Kavita Krishnamurthy with the unmelodious scratchy voice of Suman Shridhar without any of the sound engineer's polishings.

Doesn't seem good, no?

But then listen to the remastered version of Hawa Hawai from the OST Shaitan. I am not sure if it is available on the music CD. I first heard the song playing in a promo for the movie and got an mp3 from Cooltoad and have been stuck with the song since then. The scratchiness of the voice adds to the fun. How it makes the song feel like anyone can sing it!

The vocal twang in the lines -
Soorat hi maine aisi paayee
Kehte hai mujhkooooo
- is fun.

The rest of the album itself is a DJs playground. It has a variety of places for those who can play with the tempo and can get the dance floor moving. I liked the Nasha number a lot. It reminds me of Naach from Karthik Calling Karthik.

Repeat view-worthy: Khakee

Toofaan ab karegaa roshni ka faislaa,

Diyaa woh jalegaa jis mein dam ho.

Only Amitabh could say these lines with the charisma with which he does.

Rajkumar Santoshi directs this fast paced thriller with his usual touch of comedy and songs. His intention was to bring together all actors with names starting from the latter 'A'. However, Akshaye Khanna turned down the role which eventually went to Tushar Kapoor.

The movie caught my attention when I first saw the poster at New Excelsior theatre in South Bombay. During those days Amitabh was sporting a french beard and it was a refreshing change to see him in this avatar. Check out the similarities with the Deewar poster... signifying the arrival of a Big B movie. (wasn't Amitabh supposed to be in blue shirt, instead of red?)

Ikes

Kites

Starring: Hrithik, Barbara, Kangana
Director: Anurag Basu
Music: Rajesh Roshan

Plot:
This is a love story of Linda and J. Linda speaks only Spanish and the 2 do not understand each other's languages. They manage to win the wrath of a powerful and rich casino owner. Guns and chases follow.

Pros:

• Stunning cinematography
• Hrithik Roshan
• Unseen locales
• A truly international look due to the expansive processing and re-processing

Cons:

• Jarring background music
• Too many scenes seem to have been edited out (e.g. Robin warning J that some day he would fall in love and face the consequences)
• Minor continuity jerks (e.g. Linda throwing away her shoes in the rain and is seen wearing them again in the next scene)

Things I remember:

• Nothing really happens through out the film. There is not a genuine wow-moment. Not even where one normally expects it; i.e. during Hrithik's dance. Perhaps, there was this one visually stunning bit of choreography for Fire, where Kangana jumps up in the air in a perfect arc from behind Hrithik... together with audio track, this was as close as it get to the wow-moment for me.
• Hrithik crooning the title track of the movie; the track sounded very similar to Enrique's Hero.
• Unlike the hindi films, the hero heroine do not break into an abrupt song-dance routines, rather, the songs are played in the background.
  

Trivia:
The song 'Tum bhi ho wahi' and 'Humko aajkal hai intezaar' (Sailaab) have one thing in common that the main singer repeats the few lines while the chorus get to sing rest of the song. Really, check them out.

Conversations

There was an unnatural calm in the cubicle as RK, KB and me were punching through the keyboard. And like little red riding hood, a girl jaunted past us in red track-suit-like garb. Needless to mention here that the big bad wolves in the cubicle got distracted from their work.

Me: lagtaa hai gym se aayi hai seedha.
KB: Gym, hmm. (sigh!)
Me: Hey RK, tu gym gaya tha aaj?
RK: Nahi. 1 week se nahi gaya.
Me: Gym join karke 10 din hi toh huay hai!
RK: (with an unconvincing smirk) Kal jaaunga.
Me: and you, KB?
KB: (amidst roaring laughter) méré toh chaar hazaar hee barbaad huay hai, iské toh gyaarah hazaar doob gayé.

The process

I have been a couch potato today. My TV remote has been praying for a break from the constant punching and the plastic crunching. (Yes, like a true Indian, my remote has not come out of the plastic bag it was packed in.) I watched cartoons, reality shows, movies, news, music videos, cricket highlights and lots of advertisements.

I watched Amar Akbar Anthony and Taken for the I-don't-know-how-many-th time. I have always known what their ends would be. I mean, a family who separates at the beginning of the film has to re-unite before the film ends. The point to be noted my lord is that it is more about the process of reaching the end. In the same vein, I don't care if cricket matches are fixed or not. I am going to still keep watching the game and enjoy the process.

So, COME ONNN SAACHINNNN ... COME ON DHONIiiiii... lights, camera, roll sound, ACTION.

Vaanar sena

... and then there is a group of jokers who add on to the proofs that they have nothing better to do than go on causing destruction because some movie calls their city Bombay instead of Mumbai. Where were they and where was their love for the city when it was attacked by terrorists or when it was flooded with water. The hooliganism shows even in their annual Ganesh festival mandaps where they block roads in the evenings for putting up a stage where crowd assemble waiting for the speech to finish and the cacophonous musical orchestra to start. I have not heard of even one constructive activity that the Shiv Sena has done in the past 5 years.

Mumbai calling

Ahh Mumbai. My place. My people.

The people in Mumbai are an emotional lot. Bollywood and TV ads plays a vital role in everyone's life in Mumbai. There has not been one day when I have not heard someone quote a Bollywood hero/ heroine or an advert slogan.

An uncle pulling out a chocolate from his pocket for a kid would inadvertently back it up with a dhan-ta-dhan (a la Kameeney) while handing it over.

Occassionally at a lunch table in the office, someone would come up with 'tere paas burger hai, tere paas lunch thaali hai. Mere paas kya hai? Mere paas maa hai.' and then opens his home made lunch box.