When I see you

When I see you,
My love for life rekindles,

When I see you,

Everything suddenly makes sense,

When I see you,

My heart skips a beat

and beats at your rhythm,

When I see you,

I wish if I were rain 
and you were earth,

For I can shower my 
entire existence on you,

When I see you,

I dream to make you mine

and never ever let you go,

When I see you,

I see meaning in my life,

I think I am in love,

In love with you darling!

For you have made me fall in love

with myself and my life. 

Why I love you

I love you not only for what you say,

But for you say what I need to hear,

I love you not only for your smile,

But for the smile that you bring on my face,

I love you not only for what you feel about me,

But for what I feel about everything in your propinquity,

Most of all,

I love you not only for what you are

But what I am- when I am with you,

You have done it,

without a touch, without a word,

You have done it by being yourself,

and helping me - being myself,

Perhaps that is what keeps my love

For you, unharmed all these years.

It may not be there:

Don’t be late, life is short & uncertain,

You have today, tomorrow it may not be there,

Live this moment no matter full of grief, sorrow or joy

Once passed, it may not be there,

Sigh! My honesty, never understood by this cruel world,

I may lose it, tomorrow it may not be there,

Condemning is the world and will remain,

Foolish to ask sympathy, it may not be there,

Come my friend and embrace my body close to you,

Life is in me, soon it may not be there.

Does she know?

Does she know?

That even now I feel her very own fragrance

in every breath I take

Does she know?

That even now I close my eyes

and pray for her when I see a falling star

Does she know?

That even now I stare at the moon

in a lonely midnight and see her face in it

Does she know?

That even now I yearn for a glimpse of her

when I need a reason to smile,

Does she know?

That even now I warm my body

with her tender memories every night

Does she know?

That even now I lover her,

remember her, need her

If she doesn’t know

How does it matter?

It’s my happiness that I love her

No matter even if she loves me or not.

Ram Leela: **1/2

Just like its forcefully imposed title “Goliyon ki Rasleela Ramleela”, the recent release and 7^th directorial venture of Bollywood's self-confessed rangrezz (colorful man) Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the movie is a forceful Indian adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (But wait a minute, Romeo and Juliet was a love story and not a lust story, right? May be SLB just got too carried away by hormonal (testosterone) imbalance).

Set in a village named Ranjaar (with its own newspaper Ranjaar Times!!), a world as bizarre as Hogwarts or the Mountain home of the Lords of the Rings (though the other two seems more believable) where gang wars, murders, rape, smuggling and all those dreadful crimes that you can think of are days job, where guns go blazing at the snap of a finger, where weapons are sold like vegetables and where two communities Sanedo and Rajadi live on the edge of their 500 years old enmity (actually from Shakepeare’s time. What a coincidence!). Our two protagonists Ram (Ranveer Singh) and Leela (Deepika Padukone) are two young lads of their respective families. Ram, younger brother of Rajadi clan’s don Megji (Anhimanyu Sigh) is a flamboyant, sexy, carefree and kind hearted playboy who loves wooing women and stays away from guns and fights. Leela on the other hand is a protected and pampered daughter of Sanedo clan’s chief Dhankor Baa (Supriya Pathak). They meet at a Holi celebration when Ram sneaks into rival clan’s house and the two scorches up the heat almost instantaneously (even in reel time. No meaningful exchange of words or feelings, no gradual progress of affection, straight into the action.  In few minutes they are all over each-other in Leela’s bedroom. LUST story! Wish it was possible in real life, Huh!).

Problem starts when Ram’s brother Megji gets accidently killed in a fire exchange by Leela’s brother Kaanji who in turn gets killed by Ram. Ram confronts Leela over it and the two decides to run away from their families to live a peaceful life (the two argues over killing each other’s brothers and in the next moment falls into each other’s arm passionately. Everything thing is forgiven. I am banging my head!). They go to a place few kilometers away from their village and stays in a lodge where Leela forces Ram for marriage in order to stay under one roof together (Huh. The girl showers kisses on a guy she met just before 5 mins, goes to his video parlor to have fun and just can’t stay under one roof because they are not married. What a chastity show!). However, Ram’s friends finds them the next day and tricks him over a party which ends in Leela getting picked up by her brother Bhavani (Gulshan Devaiah). From here on meaningfulness, logic, common sense and all such jargons goes for a complete toss and the movie which was descending gradually so far, nose dives! On return to their homes, Ram and Leela are made the head of their respective clans (as against the plan devised by Bhavani). Despite of knowing the fact that both were tricked by their respective families (and being in touch through mobile phones) Ram and Leela gets dragged in the rage of their family rivalry and the situation gets worst when jealous Bhavani tricks Leela to sign an agreement they entered into with Rajadi clan (of business and territory division) which actually starts blood thirsty war. Ram and Leela confront each other in the end and lovingly end their lives to bring an end to this enmity.

Grandeur, Opulence, Colors and beauty in excess is quintessentially SLB style and Ram Leela is no short of this. Beautiful sceneries, larger than life sets (Leela’s balcony can even make Juliet jealous of her), splendid colors, and some awesome cinematography are in abundance in Ram Leela but problem is everything in excess is poison. Too much of fabric and too little substance makes Ram Leela overwhelmingly intolerable especially in the second half. Over the top drama, absolutely ridiculous dialogues (I felt like banging my head in the scene where Leela being convinced by Rasila (Richa Chadda) to forget Ram and she replies in shayaris. Way too ridiculous!), loose screenplay, unwanted and forceful accent by characters and poor editing are some of the spoilers for Ram Leela. After Sawariya this is probably the weakest directorial project of SLB. The poetic and vivid sense which SLB displayed in HDDCS and Devdaas were completely missing in Ram Leela. He has tried to put similar sequences in Ram Leela (Ram talking to his friends about Leela, crying over separation at the temple in the desert, Leela getting her finger chopped off and many others) and surprisingly fails totally to bring the emotions out. At no point of time he is able convince us that it’s a love story. It’s Guns and lust all over and the intensity, pain, passion of love is nowhere to be seen. The sequences reduce to a mockery wherever he has tried to imbibe those emotions due to over the top acting, unwanted drama and poor dialogues.

Deepika looks stunningly beautiful as Leela and carries the charm, boldness, arrogance, pride, intensity, confidence and elegance with such an ease. Ranveer Singh as Ram looks convincing in the first half as a harmless, happy go lucky lad but doesn't look effective in intense scenes. The chemistry between Ranveer and Deepika is sensuous for sure and they look very good on the screen. Two most noteworthy characters are Dhankor Baa (Supriya Pathak) and Rasila (Richa Chadda). Supirya looks menacing as ruthless clan leader and does complete justice to her role. Richa Chadda looks beautiful and convincing as Rasila and gives some fine performance. Gulshan Devaiah as Bhavani gets some good screen space but his character is not shaped as effectively. Shard Kelkar and Abhimanyu Singh have done well in their limited roles.

Music is not of the level of earlier SLB movies and absence of Ismail Darbar is clearly visible. However, Lahu Muh Lag Gaya and Tattad Tattad are good numbers. Choreography is excellent. Technically the movie is spectacular with some breathtaking shots and crisp cinematography but poor editing (so many unwanted scenes and songs could have been avoided to reduce good 20 odd mins of running time) and loose direction (poor handling of some very intense sequences) are spoilers.

Ram Leela is a beautiful body without soul. One advice for SLB – Leave few things to Anurag Kashyap and Vishal Bhardwaj (Fantastic screenplay and direction in Gangs of Wasseypur, Omkara, Maqbool) and focus more on stories instead of sets, dresses, colors and all other extravaganza! Else it may happen that – “Aila, hum ne to tragedy banayi thi, ye comedy kaise ban gayi???”

Bhai Bhai, Bhai Bhai!!

Krrish 3: **1/2

The festive season, long weekend (as this Monday being holiday in many cities in India) and no major release for 2 weeks (Ramleela being released on 15^th Nov), there could not have been a better time to release Krrish 3, which is 3rd installment of India’s most adorable superhero franchise from the stable of Rakesh Roshan.

The movie is set 7 years post Krrish’s climax where the protagonist reunites with his father Rohit Mehra (Hrithik Roshan) and now lives peacefully as Krishna Mehra with his TV journalist wife Priya Mehra (Priyanka Chopra) and continue to save the city from occasional anomalies as Krrish, albeit in a concealed identity.

Kaal (Vivek Oberoi), the wheelchair bound antagonist posses the power to move objects with is mind (Wait a minute, Professor X was wheelchair bound and his arch rival Magneto had power to move objects, right? ye to easy hai boss) and is busy experimenting on DNA of men and animals for bone marrow that can revive his paralyzed body in a high tech laboratory stationed at some unspecified location atop snowy mountains. He has created his own species of mutants called Maanvar (Maanav+Jaanvar, sandhi of grammar solved, 1 mark pocketed!!).

Everything seems fine until Kaal sends one of his mutants Kaya (Kangana Ranaut, who has ability to assume the form of any humans she touches) to kill a scientist who has found antidote for the deadly virus developed by pharmaceutical company of Kaal, which he uses to spread the killer disease in countries and then sends his antidotes to make the mullah. One other mutant (frog man) gets caught by Krrish (as the poor fellow indulged in stealing ice-cream, thank heavens, he did not say “Him-cream”, phew! job pe focus kar na yaar), and the father son duo traces the cure of the virus in their own blood and saves the city. This alerts Kaal and he sends his team to destroy Krrish and his family. And what follows is how Krrish destroys Kaal and saves his family and the city.

Plagiarism is not new in Bollywood and Krrish-3 is no exception to it. Koi Mil Gaya was inspired from ET, whereas Krrish-3 has taken almost entire theme from X-men series (Kaal’s power of Professor X, and Magneto, other mutant’s abilities are taken straight from X-Men with some patches of Spider-man, Superman here and there. I wish it also had the screenplay of these movies!). The screenplay is very weak and Roshan Sr. fails to develop the plot to a level which could have made the movie an edge-of- the seat thriller. (I mean, come on, after all why did he spend 3 long years in writing and developing this script? For this script, he could have done it in 3 months). There are some serious flaws in story which fails to establish any logic viz., Kaal’s motive to destroy human race with viruses and at the same time making money by selling antidote (Dude, who will buy your medicine when there won’t be any human), and were the Maanvars created only for that bone marrow? I mean, what is the connection of bone marrow and animal like characteristics?) The weak screenplay does not allow any character to evolve except Krrish and other than Kaya most of the mutants are wasted.

HR is the best choice of any superhero flick with his suave style, Greek-god looks and enviable body. Roshan Jr. is spot in Krrish-3 both as a mentally challenged father Rohit and his gifted son Krishna. His carries the mannerism of a superhero with such an ease that at times only his style saves some tacky graphics scenes from mockery. Priyanka has not much to do and she plays her part nicely. Kangana surprisingly gets decent length of role and does it almost satisfactorily. Vivek Oberoi as Kaal seems effective but becomes a victim of terribly tacky suit and weak dialogues.

Dialogues of the movie are painfully mundane. Vansh ka Ansh, Kaal ki Kayanaat, Baba ka ashirwad, I mean come man, its a sci-fi thriller and not a TV serial of Doordarshan! Music of the movie is below average and does not create any impact. Salim- Sulaiman’s background score is not impressive and do not live up to the expectations. Visual effects are decent as per Bollywood standards and Redchillies team has done a good job (However, there are some very tacky sequences which should have been avoided).

Krrish-3 is victim of a weak screenplay, weak dialogues, weak characterization, and mediocre music but deserves an appreciation for Rakesh Roshan’s courage of breaking the current norm of masala movies trend and doing something different. Krrish 3 is our own super hero and the audience especially kids are going to like it! 

I wonder

I wonder,

when I think of you in your domestic life,

no contrivance, no image, no perception,

when you are you, in your purest self,

I wonder how you look in the morning,

when you wake up from the bed, smile over that naughty dream,

your scattered curls, your sleepy eyes, your chubby chicks,

I want to wake up with you,

I wonder how you look after a fresh shower,

when you cover your wet body in towel,

spread the scent in the room to make it feel like a garden,

I want to feel your very own fragrance

I wonder how you look, sitting in front of the mirror,

brushing your hair, rolling your fingers on your flicks,

feeling shy of your own bare body – untouched, unseen,

I want to feel your soft, tender beauty

I wonder how you look, in the kitchen,

cooking a meal & eating from your plate,

wiping the gravy from your rosy lips,

I want lick your fingers full of gravy

I wonder how you look, sitting in the balcony,

gazing at the twilight sky, completely unaware of yourself,

yearning in the thoughts your man over a lonely evening,

I want to sit beside you and hold your hand

I wonder how you look, in the bedroom,

in your silky nightgown, ready to sleep,

waking up in the midnight suddenly of a scary dream,

and hugging the pillow tightly

I want to be with you

to see you, hiding your existence,

under me in a fit of wild love making,

with me in my arms, unfolding your forest of hair,

on my wide chest & caressing it,

I am dying to see one day,

how your body thrills,

when my fingers touch it.

I want so much to be a man once,

the man of your dreams, your ultimate one!!