Akhiyon se goli maare!

1,2,3,4 Get your garba on and get onto the dance floor~

After watching Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 2013 magnum-opus, Ram Leela on Saturday evening, I still find myself unconsciously tapping my feet and shaking my shoulders to the infectious garba that dominated the movie's soundtrack. The movie ought to have been released pre-Navratri so everyone could have had a truly disco dandiyaa party. 

Set in the heart of kitschy Kutch village (I cannot believe that such a village truly exists!); the Shakespeare-inspired tale of star-crossed lovers is a heady, hearty mix of colour, fashion and music. Deepika Padukone is mesmerising and tantalising as the lovely Leela. Leela is definitely not your average demure, "gaon ki chore" - quite the contrary in fact and she plays the part faultlessly. Her eyes twinkle with mischief when she is happy, and look hopeless and despairing when she is sad. Her reel-to-real life romance with Ranveer Singh playing Ram, is palpable. The both of them share amazing screen chemistry and given that the script has a number of sizzling scenes, this is great for the audience to watch.

Ranveer is sincere for the most part, although I found him hamming it a little too hard in some scenes. Maybe I am a bit old fashioned, but I was not left oohing and aahing at the site of his plastick-y, ultra fit body. Perhaps this physique makes him a lean-mean-woman-machine, but I found his sinewy look a bit too amphibian-esque look to handle. Clearly, Deepika doesn't mind, seeing as it is that Leela makes the first move onto Ram and goes for him, all the way. 

As soon as the movie begins, you should know that it is essential to park your logical mind aside and allow your visual senses to take control as the movie continuously moves from the absurd to the fantastical. In true SLB style, all the elements of the movie are extremely rich and opulent. Leela's family home is an ornate palace. Her baloconied room, comes with its private plunge pool, gorgeous foliage and a family of active peacocks. Her fabulous wardrobe is  designed by Anju Modi, and it won't be a surprise if this talented designer will become the next Big Thing in the fashion world. Soon, we might see a lot more mirror work blouses combined with colourful leheriyas, replacing the current fad of gotta patti, zardozi and net.
Since I am on the subject, Ram's wardrobe or the lack there of is worth a quick mention. The trendy village stud is dressed in mostly topless and wearing highly-distressed jeans with snazzy sneakers. When he is is wearing  his stylised gujju garb of jabla tops with colourful pagdis - he looks pretty alright.

The biggest style statement was made by Supriya Pathak who played the role of a Mother of all mothers - Ba.
Ba who is interestingly draped in rich textiles, combined with heavy ethnic jewelry and voodoo eye makeup. is the crafty controller of the family business and all of their lives. Her shrewd ways are not to be mitigated by her worldly wisdom and maternal pyaar, particularly for the apple of her eye - Leela. All the scenes with Ba in it are highly entertaining especially since her dialogues and timing are so clever.
The rest of the cast, hold their own and both the sisters-in-law played by Richa Chaddha and Barkha Bisht (a popular tv actor, I believe) deliver compelling performances as women who have been wronged.

The first half of the movie is definitely better developed than the second half which drags in and out of different tempos, wavering my attention towards the end. Priyanka Chopra's item song could have entirely been avoided as there were plenty of amazing dance sequences by Deepika.

If you are in the mood for an emotional and visual treat - the movie is a must watch!

InstaLife

As if our lives weren't fast enough, now they have to be slick enough. Because now, we need to take a photo of our every move.

It is said, that every picture tells a thousand tales, but if you are living life in 3G times, you can even count the number of stories your picture tells, by counting the likes and comments it reacts!

Over the past year or so,I have been living life through instagram-tinted filters...It seems that every moment in our lives has the potential of being captured and filtered, hash tagged and made "oh-so-cool". Even the most mundane activity, like brushing your teeth, has become an #instamoment. Cool photo-effects, frames and other clever stuff, can make any daily activity/chore/process, appear "interesting". Add a clever caption or two and combine it with some creative "hashtags" to finish up and post the picture successfully. 

Personally, I have always enjoyed taking photographs and I suppose I have my mother to thank (?) for this habit. Her passion for capturing an important moment, a celebration, a vacation, a birthday….from the time me and all my siblings were born, have made each of us fairly immune to the camera.  I used to greatly resent being made to pose for pictures , especially when it would be amidst other kids my age, who would look at me rather curiously whilst I would be correcting my posture or body language for my enthusiastic and loving mom, trying to get a perfect frame. We have cupboards filled with photo albums (the real kind!) of black and white and color photographs dating back to the very beginning of all our lives. Nothing hits the spot better than spending a random Sunday, going through these heavy albums with all the wonderful memories.

When I got my very first camera, my friends would cringe as I would make them do what my mother did to me – get a perfectly art-directed photograph, even if it meant moving people and things around to achieve the right composition! It is no surprise however, how much they would then enjoy seeing their pictures later after they got developed! When we moved from roll to digital, it got a lot easier to take a semi-decent photograph. In the worst case, a bad picture could be deleted and re-shot….

Now, as we have moved from a digital camera to a smart phone, or shall I say, the iPhone (era); every one of us is a photographer. And a superb photographer at that. It is truly as easy as aim-and-shoot, baby! The phone does all the work for you - just make sure to have your #instapose on.

I am guilty of being a dedicated instagrammer. It is a brilliant application and I think it is a lovely way of expressing oneself and sharing one’s life with others. The trouble is, I seem to have moved from dedication to obsession for I can spend time solo, provided I have my phone with me because it feels as good as being with rest of the world!

Not so good for my inter-personal skills however...........

But hey, isn't there that application, called Facebook to take care of that problem?

(So there you have it, humans shall become robots..............this is the #instatruth)

Cloudy Notions

Is it just me, or do the big billowing water-laden, monsoon clouds make everyone so very pensive?
I live right on the sea, my building stands tall at the edge of a small bay, filled with fishing boats that stay out of commission here this time of the year.

Whenever I get done with work on time, I try to make it back home in time for dusk to take a run  along my building track that is literally on the water. I find it very invigorating to exercise in an open space, with clean air and a brilliant view of my city! This is a space that many people enjoy; especially lovers, stealing a moment for private romance and harmless banter. But it is also a haven for other "pensers" like me, who seem to be lost in their thoughts, taking stock of their situations in life.

The Mumbai Monsoons are really quite something - the city does get hit very hard by the often relentless Rain Gods that seem to be trying to convey a divine message with the strong downpour. I think of it as them trying to clean up the dusty, dirty, over-populated city that its citizens take so much for granted - bathing the few trees and green patches that continue to exist, washing off all the grime the leaves are surving under. Trying to wash some of the city's sins away.

Up till my late teens, I used to play with my set gang of building friends every single evening. We loved the mushy terrain that the monsoon season provided. Quite creatively, we would make our own set of the then popular TV show, "The Crystal Maze". An adventure-centric show, hosted by the iconic  Richard O'Brien, set in 5 distinct zones (Aztec, Medieval, Futuristic, Industrial and Ocean), the show featured a group of 6 rough n tough adults, who would have to challenge themselves physically and mentally to finally make it to the Crystal Maze! We did our very own version of the above, using waterbodies, swings, slides, rocks, puddles, ropes....your very own Indiana Jones in the making...

This adventorous streak continues to burn in me. And I hope it never dies. Even though, I am pretty sure that I am not cut out to be your local Xenia Warrior Princess...And recent activities prove the same.

Last Sunday, I wanted to do "something different".

My family cringes every time I use this phrase, (and I use it rather often) because there is no saying what it could be that I want to do. And it is a given, that it is definitely not something any of them want to do! Hence, I will need to "recruit" people who want to join me! In any case, last Sunday, I wanted to do "something different" so I joined my truly super-trooper friend E and her gang, on a day trek to Karnala, on the outskirts of Mumbai. I was told it was going to be an easy, relaxed, misty trek up to the fort. Enjoy the view, eat some healthy snacks, and make our way down. Simple enough right? Told my parents this plan and they looked at each other and rolled their eyes. They knew I had "decided" that I was going to trek whether they would say anything to the contrary or not.

So at 6 am that Sunday morning, I groggily tried to get off the bed and into my trek gear and set off for an enchanted-walk-in-the-clouds kinda day....

Should've known!!!!!!

The Motley crew commenced the ascent at 8.30 am through a thick forest-like terrain. The rain was coming down, making the earth soft and squishy (keechad!!!), there was not a bird in sight (Karnala is a bird sanctuary.........apparently) and we had opted for the steeper, tougher route up, since we are such seasoned trekkers (not!).
2 hours later, we had made it to the top and I felt like I had done a 1000 lunges. The way down had already become a major concern in my mind!
Here are pictures from the venture:

All mist and clouds

Yep, we did this...

View with a view

Wardrobe Malfunction - Notice, the rubberband holding together the sole of his left shoe! What a brave soldier...!

Virtuous Vines

After spending an hour at the old fort and enjoying a bird's eye view over the entire Deccan plateau, we started our way back down. Slowly but surely. By this point, a lot of fellow nature enthusiasts had come too, causing a a fair amount of mountain traffic. I cant say I wasn't surprised seeing these people making their way up, inappropriately clad in flimsy rubber slippers and many even barefoot! I watched an entire family there, with their 3 year old girl dressed up in a shiny bejweled salwar-kameez...and I just couldn't understand how they would manage the trek. Here I was, in my sturdy sports shoes, wearing the "right" clothes and still finding it so challenging. Were they not worried about getting hurt, slipping or falling....There was no paramedic in sight, not even a good ol' first aid box available at the bottom...so the potential damage was great. I definitely felt quite ashamed at my lack of strength and need for material comforts.

Last year, same time, I had visited Aamby Valley and had done a 2 hour "nature walk". Now this was amazing!!! There was a lake, a boat ride on the lake, little bridges, amazing flaura and fauna, waterfalls, underwater caves et all..................only later was I told that this was indeed man-made!

So there you have it, I am a pseudo outdoor fan..........but it is is true, monsoons can be more than just mucky. It is a lovely time to get close to yourself, enjoy a nice cup of chai, watch the clouds coming in, move to the beat of the dramatic thunder and lightening and think of the rainbow on the other side.

Rainbow Picture taken by me over the Bombay Gym tennis court - 2012