Andaz Apna Apna

There's something about madcap comedies that gets you. Their innocence, probably. Or the enjoyable stupidity of it all.

Andaz Apna Apna, a Hindi movie made in 1994 was one such movie, that became a cult classic. It came from a director, who had just given a mega hit in form of the intense social drama, Ghayal, where an all-shouting, iron-thumping Sunny Deol gave the performance of his life, and won a national award. So it was quite a 180 deg turn for Raj Kumar Santoshi, to come up with a comedy like AAA even as he was riding on success of Ghayal.

To get it straight, AAA, did not hit it right at the start. In fact, it was tauted as a flop, by what is called as Industry Trade Circle (whatever that is). I remember I saw the movie with my friends in Alankar theater in Nagpur. The theater was half full (or half empty) and lot of people started leaving the movie before it ended. I din't like it myself for first time.

But somehow, I ended up seeing it's re-runs and somehow that movie started growing on me. It was a strange thing really. It took a while for that movie to take off.

Before we knew, the scenes, the dialogues, those idiotic characters, the small nuggets of that movie started making way into our college life lingo. Someone would recount a funny scene ("Kiske Mama kee bandook hai") and the remaining crowd would go in splits. Of course the last scene is the cherry on this AAA cake. Where "crime master" Gogo, goes the whole nine yards in trying to prove his criminal credentials and the Ram Gopal Bajaj duplicates create havoc while in his 'Den'.

The legendary "mark", a cross made by charcoal on Paresh Rawal's cheek, to indicate the "real" Teja still makes me go bonkers; "Teja maii hoo, mark idhar hai" and the stupendous Goga response to that - "Yeh Teja Teja kya hai, Yeh Teja Teja" (mocking that irritating Subash Ghai song from 90s). Not to mention, the awesome duo of Bhalla and Raabut, who almost had me fall off my chair each time they showed up; specially in that scene where Aamir Khan's character Tillu ("Iska naam hamne Tillu rakha kyunki, woh hame tilay pe mila") uses juice glasses to demonstrate a soccer game, and the look on Bhalla and Raabut's face after the 'game is over'.. is real ROTFL. It's shown that Bhalla and Raabut have a tremendous appetite for fiascos and Bhalla is ever so cool about it everytime, making Teja's blood pressure go past the charts.

I haven't seen the movie again in a while now, but some of it's scenes have stuck to me, like, for ever..

"Sir chai mein shakkar dalne ka time ho gaya"

"Lagta hai uncle bigad gaye; doh char din woh gunde mawalio kay saath rahe aur bigad gaye"..

"Amar Prem, Amar Prem, lagta hai koi Hindi film kay mawali hai"

" Sir, aap ne bataya nahi mera birthday hai"; "Happy Birthday Raabut"

I am not sure, if I would find this movie funny again, or at least as funny again, but at some point, in our lives, this was quite a cult to follow. This was probably one of the last innocent comedies of Bollywood, that I know of. It probably hit the 'kiddie spot' in each of us and how!

***

Post Script : I remember reading somewhere that SRK liked this movie so much, he bought rights of it's DVD, i think.

Whoa!

As the country bid farewell to goddess Durga, the demon-slayer, on Dashami and witnessed the evil king Ravana being vanquished on
Dussehra, a humble Muslim woman in a remote Jammu village slew a dreaded Lashkar terrorist single-handedly.

Exhibiting astonishing, raw courage, Rashida Begum took on the two terrorists who had barged into her home late Sunday night in Thana Mandi village in Rajouri district. The woman, in her early forties, grabbed an axe and swung it wildly, killing one of the armed terrorists and injuring the other. Seeing his partner meet a bloody end, the other terrorist fled in sheer dread.

Link

Happy Dussera

Happy Dussera to everyone!

Missing all the food and festivities already :/

Old Post redux

Weekend Levity

Found this moderately funny. So posted it.

It's Friday again

5 Year Celebration : Was chatting with a friend yesterday and he told me he completed 5 years in the same company. I congratulated him but at the same time it struck me, how is that a cause for celebration. I mean the previous generation folks would stick to same job (often to same desk and same chair) for 30 years and carry that as a badge of honor. Not anymore I guess; we now have 5 year anniversary, and that's a big deal. If you stick around 5 years, you are already loyal. Except may be in Japan where they still join and retire from same company (or otherwise commit suicide, which ever comes first)

Leno : Had some guts calling Rush Limbaugh on the show few days back. What a freaking jerk that Rush guy is. Wonder why NBC even allowed Leno to go with it?

Hmmm I see : So "The US Senate on Thursday voted unanimously to triple non-military aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion per annum till 2014". OK, so lets get this straight. They are tripling the aid AND moving out of Afghanistan? Whoa! Talk of unleashing some Pak on us ..

Contributing : Coming days we intend to make some heavy duty contribution to the economy. Our visit to Ashley and Sears and Costco may just be the beginning of a long winter of shopping. It's exciting and tiring at the same time to think of it.

Punjabiyat : An overdose of that in the new Yash Raj Hadippa movie was what got me. Although the theater was full (what a surprise!) and I noticed there were lot of Pakistanis in it. The underlying theme of movie is Indo-Pak cricket matches. On a side note, the stupid pop-corn cost more than the ticket.

Was Wondering : If things have come to such a stage that I have more online friends than offline. I need to write something about this social networking thing in a new post (as if I don't BS enuf). My father still beats me hands down with his friend circle and social network, and he doesn't have to login in Facebook/Linked etc. How he manages such an awesome network at this age, is amazing.

Bizarre

North Indian farmers are selling their wives to survive, it has been revealed.
The more beautiful the woman, the higher the price she fetches, it was claimed.
The deals are allegedly being settled on a legal stamp paper under the heading "Vivaha Anubandh" meaning marriage contract. Once the new "husband" is tired of the woman, she is allegedly sold to another man.

What can be more insane than this - "The deals are allegedly being settled on a legal stamp paper" Who makes these 'stamp papers'? What century are we living in?

New Mantra

Team India coach Gary Kirsten has asked men in blue to eat, play and love to avoid fatigue and give better performances. The new 'sex mantra' by the coach is for boosting up team’s competitiveness wherein sex is a must, even if it means going solo.

If I had a coach like him, I wouldn't complain :D

On a side note, Yuvi's absence is going to kill the Indians. He is the backbone. He and Sehwag not being in and Dravid (The Wall) being out in the jungle playing his "technically correct" innings, I don't see how we can go too far.

Today's Monday

..and I thought why do I have to start with a morning blue. Instead, embedding this awesome soundtrack from one of my fav movies..

The Difference...

between the two...

This almost made me throw up..

"He was able to kidnap an injured Indian officer whose throat he later slit, the report said. Kashmiri came back to Pakistan with the head of the Indian officer and presented it to top army officials, including then army chief Gen Musharraf, who gave him a cash award of Rs 1 lakh," the report said.

Pictures of Kashmiri with the head of the dead Indian officer in his hands were published in some Pakistani newspapers and he became very important among militants, the report said.

So much for common thread running between us..

Fridaynama

Hadippa : My wife is pushing me to watch new Yash Chopra movie - 'Dil Bole Hadippa'. I am not sure how to bail myself out. The theatre is right next door. She's incentivizing me saying, 'Rani wears a bikini in the movie..'; how shallow am I, she thinks? Well can't blame her.. but only if I was a Rani fan.

Foosball : I thought I had lost that art. But I beat 2 or 3 good players last week. Looks like I found my Mojo. I will be shooting from all cylinders today..

Pani Puri : The Bombay Chat House guyz don't know what Pani Puri is. They kill it. My mom makes the best Pani Puris in the world. Period.

Fall : Looks like Chicago skipped a few weeks of Summer and has entered Fall pretty soon. The air feels wintry already. :/

House Inspection : I got a feeling, thats just a formality. If your seller has decided to screw you up, nothing can stop it. It's not possible to check each and everything. But I want to trust Humanity for once.

Patriots : What an ass-**** Brady is. He made possible two touch downs in last 2 mins of game against Buffalos. Made an ass out of them.

Festive Season : It's right around the corner (in India). We miss it here. We'll be visiting some temples to get in the grove. Specially since I like Dosa at Aurora Temple and Samosa chat at Swaminarayan.

Race factor

I was scanning some news channels yesterday of all hue and found Larry King..(ye, that guy who was born in ice age and wears suspenders..) discussing the 'race factor'...

I find it interesting..(stupid, actually) for people to assume that just because O is the new President, racism will vanish from America!

That's naivety. It's like saying, since the most powerful politician in India is woman , and we have a woman President and several female Chief Ministers, and Indira Gandhi ruled India for good part of 2 decades, the discrimination against Women was over...

It will take 100 Os to change this, if at all. Point being, certain discriminations like race, gender, sexual orientation have nothing to do with leader of the day. It's ingrained through decades if not more.

And racism does exist (not that I have personally experienced it yet), and I may add, in both directions (yes please..), and it has taken centuries to come to this point..lest we forget.


**


Good post in NYTimes

'Men lie and women cry'

Men lie and women cry, they say. And, now a new study has claimed that blokes lie six times a day and twice as often as the fair sex.

Researchers have carried out the study and found that men tell six fibs a day on average to their partner, boss and work colleagues, while women come out with just three, leading British newspaper the 'Daily Mail' reported.

I think I can personally beat that average any day. But what kind of 'research' is this anyway? Get a life, will ya!

Oh! The High Moral Ground

The United States fears recent weapons purchases by Venezuela could fuel an arms race in South America, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also said his nation will purchase an anti-aircraft weapons system with a range of 185 miles (300 kilometers).

The khujli king Chavez, is up and poking yet again. But what basis does US have for complaining? It's like the cat calling the kettle black, no?

The arms race in Sub-Continent is a US baby. And US profits most from it. Now to think that other countries (however notorious their intentions are) cannot do the same is simply lame.

All the "help" provided by the US to Pakistan is currently being directed towards India. What about that Madam Secretary?

Sau Chuhe Khake...

So the Congress Party is now giving us lessons in austerity it seems. Right from the 'Top'.

The Congress' austerity drive received a giant push on Monday. Sonia Gandhi flew on an economy-class ticket from Delhi to Mumbai to inaugurate a new party office.

On Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi will travel by train to Ludhiana for an official function. So clearly, the Gandhis want to lead the austerity drive by example.

I understand this symbolism; specially when people in India are reeling under extreme price rise (thanks to inept handling of essential goods inflation by these "austerity drivers" by the way)

This drama does not surprise me one bit though. This same family claims 'not to own a Car' in it's declaration to Election authorities.

Sau Chuhe Khake...

Bingo!

For someone who's always complained that I never get a good parking spot, this is a sweet deal. Owning a Prius, finally paid off ;)

Information and Mis-Information

The Internet age has exploded into massive information overload. But this also means a very real potential to be misinformed too!

The Democrats are only now learning how easily a ton of misinformation can be transmitted within seconds to a vast majority of people. (Point in case , the death-panel misinfo by conservatives).

But let's not get holier-than-thou here! I am only pointing this out because the foot is now on the other toe. The huffington post kinda elites should remember that the same internet was used for last 8 years to pass a lot of (mis) information too!

The fact of the matter is, no side is above board. As a political agnostic (at least in this country), I find it amusing that people are now waking up to this mininformation ogre.

You did it for last 8 years with little circumspection. Now handle it. Don't be cry babies. Take the bull by the horn.

Good one

Obama's speech on health care tonight was good. It was measured, and my fear that he is being pushed towards extreme left by his own base was unfounded.

Which is cool. I have argued that you have to rule from center as far as possible. Some of the most popular Presidents have been centrists. Right from Kennedy to Clinton.

He found his voice tonight. He was assertive but not aggressive. He came out as the 'good guy'. Anyhow, the real trouble for Obama is not from Republicans. They are a lost cause for a few years atleast. It's really from his own base. If he can handle them smartly he is in for a long haul.

Reminds me of a famous quote I read about Winston Churchill.

Faced with hostile parliament once, the invincible Churchill stood up to deliver his speech. He said, if you want to look at my enemies, don't look on that side (pointing to the opposition benches), look behind me. They are my real enemies.

Only Churchill could have said that. O, a person of history can take a cue.

Lo and Behold!

If I am right, the next financial crisis, when it comes, stands to make the last two years look like a 'warm up'

bummer! So we are still not out of the woods and there's already talk of the next crisis? What more, that would be even bigger!!!

"They [financial crises] are all different, but they have one fundamental source," he said.

"That is the unquenchable capability of human beings when confronted with long periods of prosperity to presume that it will continue."

That's wisdom overflowing from the cupeth Mr.Greenspan!

Moi thinks, Mr Green, you are just providing more fodder for Mr. Michael Moore's new movie "Capitalism: A Love Story"; which is most likely to be lapped up by a huge audience. (Trivia : 70% of Moore's 300 Million earnings /year come from non-US nations. Get the drift? )

Weekend Tweets

Nut Jobs : The conservative idiots are now opposing Obama's speech to students. They fear 'indoctrination' of their kids. Freaking morons; If O is asking your dude to stay in school and study hard, that indoctrination is WELCOME, no? Idiots.

Woohooo : Brazil beat Argentina to qualify for WC next year. This is swell. Brazil is my favorite team in Soccer and Argentina is one of my least favourites. What more, Argentines are gasping for breath. They are close to being eliminated..

American Dream : Or something like that. Chasing that and finding a home in suburbs is a painful process. Specially when one of your innate traits is - impatience.

Fantasy Football : I have no clue why I joined it.

Cross Training : C is teaching me Italian, L is teaching me Spanish and I am teaching them Hindi. "Are you Happy" is 'Estas Feliz' in spanish as it is 'Lei Felechi' in Italinos. And quite frankly 'I am' or 'Si' :)

Bollywood Hollywood : C and his wife are hooked to Bollywood movies, and we are running out of giving him more Cheesy recommendations on netflix. Coz Bollywood is slowly turning.. non-Bollywood. And those guyz are smitten by colors and song and dance and..everything that till date, defined quintessential Bollywoodness..

Magic Jack : Is one helluva cool thing. My parents and in-laws are having a ball. Talking back home was never so easy...

YSR Shock : My friend told me that the pilot Satish Reddy who died in chopper crash was his uncle. He had recently retired from Armed Forces on insistence of his family to stay back with them in Hyderabad. In Kargil war he survived a plane crash a few times and had close call with death. The irony is he died in a civilian role. Fate has a strange sense of ...

'More dangerous than Swine Flu'

I couldn't help but ROTFL by this awesome comment..

'YSR is dengerous than SWINE FLUE'.. Link

On a more sombre note.. Slimes Times of India reported that..

[..]Telugu television channels estimated that 67 people died of shock on hearing the news of their leader's death in a horrific air crash Thursday or committed suicide, unable to bear the loss.

YSR, as the late leader was popularly known, has surpassed in death the popularity of actor and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder N.T. Rama Rao who died in 1996.

"Surpassed in death the popularity.."???????? Am I reading this right? In other words, since 67 people died hearing the news, which is probably more than NTR's score, YSR was a bigger killer hero?

My God people!!

I am speechless really.

I am posting this under..'It happens only in India'. The reason being, in India, people, specially the poor ones, are conditioned to believe Government and their leaders are their Mai-Baaps. These leaders are demi-gods who can sway these folks the way they want. Part of the reason being, Government has such awesome authority and hold over ordinary people's lives, they have no choice but to beg,crawl and genuflect. No wonder Socialistic mindset rules the roost even today. Government control is complete and unchallenged.

And since, these Mai-Baaps decide the fate of people, who better to worship than these Gods.

And as regards to YSR's sudden death, quite frankly, I find the deaths of those 5 people accompanying him more tragic. I mean the deaths of the pilot and the secretary who were forced to go in a Chopper in bad weather, ostensibly because 'God' YSR, wanted to visit some village in his personal Pushpak...

Exactly

Yep, this is as close as you can get to put the finger on the pulse. This commentator has done exactly that. He has spelt out what's ailing the country right now. The 'ideologues'. And mind you, on both sides. (The word 'both' is significant)

[..], we tend to listen only to like-minded opinions as media fragmentation encourages us to filter out varying perspectives. If you're a liberal, you avoid FOX News. If you're a conservative you revile MSNBC. The dynamic is even more pronounced online, where a niche media source can be found for any outlook.

The fringe extremes on both ends has taken over the debate thus rendering any reasonable, moderate, centrist approach, impotent.

I like his second point in explanation.

Second, our lifestyles favor knee-jerk reactions. The way we think, work and live in the Digital Age demands we quickly categorize information without investing time into rich interaction, research and understanding.

Yep, perfect.

America is not a monolithic society like say Sweden or Switzerland. Moreover it is huge in size and population compared to other western puny little nation-states. Most of them having at most one big metropolis to 'brag' about. It's racially and socially diverse nation. To compare it with other puny ones is apple and oranges. Can't apply a readymade template and go for cut-copy-paste.

Hence it is all the more imperative for a ruling formation to tread a centrist path so as to accommodate maximum views. (Clinton was popular for a reason. He chose to become a centrist, reconciling figure) If one administration tries to push something down a vast majority people's throat, it risks loosing the goodwill of independents (and political agnostics)

When you are driving at full speed, it's dangerous to take a sharp left (or for that matter right) turn. Omaba's 'advisers' should have known better.

So many roles

We do play many roles in a lifetime, don't we?

Apart from being son,brother,husband (may be boyfriend in case of lucky ones)etc, we play citizen, friend, co-worker, student, employee, father, uncle, etc.. in different stages of our lives. Often these roles inter mingle and run parallel, even as we try to fit in each "character". It's like signing a bunch of movies and working in multi star cast movies at the same time. And we keep adding roles even as we hold on to the old ones..

We either perform the roles good,bad, better or worse than other roles. I wonder if there's a role we are meant to fit to T. As in, is a good employee necessarily a good friend? Or a good student necessarily a good citizen?

If I had to take stock of all of my roles would it be possible to rank them in ascending order. Can I say at some point, I was a bad husband but a good friend? I was a better citizen than an employee? I don't know. It's all relative and all world's a stage.

I don't know what role I have enjoyed the most so far or what role I fit most. It is quite possible I haven't been good in any roles, or may be good in all roles in parts. Who knows? The truth may be somewhere in between those two extremes!

I feel like not being too hard on my self sometimes. It's hard enough that I have to keep up with all characters.

As Woody Allen said - "90% of life is showing up"... Of course, I think I would like to do more than just show up.

And of course this post is..ultra random!