Band Baaja Barat: Gabroon jawaan and soni kudi dance, make out, entertain!

Having viewed the promos, I had made up my mind to watch this one – be it a hit or otherwise. There was a certain high energy about the promos and the lead characters in the movie. It appeared everyone was dancing at the peak of their consumed dope.

From the very beginning this movie is a breath of fresh air without pretense, or attempts to make a style statement or a modified import from Hollywood to appeal to India’s aam janata; this movie is an original innovative entertainer that caters a “wedding planning” service to India’s growing super rich class. It introduces the new age designations (read wedding planner) to the aam janata and identifies the entrepreneurial mind of the youth through Shruti. As a significant by-product, it attempts to teach the values of integrity and team while starting a business venture and possibly sets the right example on ethics and morals.

One is very engaged in the story throughout and it fails to bore you. The ubersexual masculine Bittoo supersedes the metro sexual who is in touch with his feminine side – I mean for a change, it’s good to see someone play a non-Ranbir and non-Imran role who are smitten by their lady loves in APKGK and BKB respectively. It’s a refreshing change.

In short, the movie brings Bittoo and Shruti together who start a partnership business to plan and conduct weddings. They perform outrageously well as a team leveraging their business relationship with a few vendors. However, one drunken night, after a lot of crazy dancing - we all can imagine what happens. The story then succeeds into fall out of the entrepreneurial venture ‘Shaadi Mubarak’ with one last opportunity for the duo to come back together and plan a hot shot wedding. Well, though moral of the story can be easily read between the lines, the idea is to go and see this in lively colors - the story is very well featured on the big screen without being dreamy or overhyped. It also subtly handles premarital sex and a variant gender response to the same state of affairs (a one night stand). It is inarguably more complicated when the ONS is a friend you don’t wish to lose, worse yet a business partner. Of course, reel life could be more than lagging in truth from the real (given the idea of friends with benefits in prevalent in today’s world), however the responses are also very representative to a large section of male and female population. I was also very impressed with Shruti's practical stance of seeking happiness through an alternative marriage rather than being an incorrigible cry baby over broken hearted.

I have never been to Delhi so I am unsure of the real life there. All I am aware is Delhi wallas have significant amount of money and love spending it on weddings. The movie is an excellent leverage and modern tale told based on this limited information known to me. It depicts a kissing scene that takes its own time to begin and end and there is no hoo-ha or marketing gimmicks associated with it (Mallika can possibly learn something from this today!). It’s probably one of the good ones you will get to see in Bollywood. The gabroo jawan is hot and raw, while soni kudi, well – she looks very soni throughout and sizzling in the end scene (draped in saree, no ornaments – good one Mr. Stylist)! Of all the 3 starrers that did a good job of a movie and flaws that the audiences are more than happy to overlook, this story is one, that deserves an absolute 3 starrer for no mistakes to overlook and an original story line. It entertains you to the core but fails to delight hence missing a 4 starrer.

Guzarish: The “in sickness” philosophy

I am not a Harry Potter fan. I realize its a confession that would raise a million eyebrows and “what are you saying?” shocked expressions, however in all honesty I am not. The last movie ‘half prince something’ is the first one I have seen and then the release this 19th. I was speaking to my colleague Moi last week and she spoke about Friday the 19th and I said “Yeah, Guzarish is going to be out then” and she responded in ecstasy the latter part of this sentence “What Guzarish, Harry Potter is releasing”. So that’s me and Harry Potter and someday I know I will get the spectacular phenomenon that he, J K Rowling, his movies and all the other characters are. For now, I was only very happy with the poster of ‘Guzarish’ - it had a soothing appeal that said to me “Jeev boy, you are surely going to watch this one”. And over the past two days of friday and saturday pleasing reviews came in.

The film screams Sanjay Leela Bhansali (SLB) even if a blind man sees it. The larger than life sets are replaced with a larger than life master bedroom and a villa that depicts a style of civilization, probably Portuguese more than Goan. The movie is a great one time watch on the big screen, however I believe it does not hold a “re watch” appeal. SLB has done what he does best - narrate the most simplistic of love stories that touch an emotional chord. Ethan (Hrithik) and Sofia (Aish) have done a good and great job respectively. There were times where I thought Ethan has a slightly fake laughter which could be undone, however Aish emerges as the dominant actor. 

SLB or an equivalent entity marketing the movie captioned “Aish as never seen before”. Now obviously if she is playing a Sofia, she isn’t going to look like Paro - the Thakurayan or Nandini - the Rajput (was that Rajput - I forget!). However, what I believe SLB meant to say is, “I am going to cover up Aish in beautiful clothes and bring her beauty alive like I did in my two other movies with her. However, this time I am going to add a little sex appeal to her beyond passion." And he does a credible job adding subtle sexuality to the Sofia character. Aish looks gorgeous, as she always does. What I find even more intriguing is her versatility in the looks department; drape her up in any Indian attire she pulls it off as elegantly as her Loreal poster girl image. And I know she acted well, but after watching the movie I probably expected the perfect 10 of her. Now, lets imagine Madhuri in her Dhak Dhak or choli ke peeche number; I cannot she anyone else or even Mads herself do it any better. I guess, that is yet to come from Aish and someday lets hope she delivers a perfect 10 as an actor; like she has in the god-given looks department. 

The most beautiful part of the movie is you can feel the love between Ethan and Sofia through the mundane acts of serving soup, cleansing, touch or care. The chemistry between the two oozes onscreen and one can almost feel the underlying current of attraction. I guess, this love is my favorite kinds; the one that says “I am attracted to you in ways and reasons, even I do not know and having you around is the most beautiful part of my life”. Of course their love wouldn’t have started on a romantic note or candle light date, however on chemistry both of them score almost a perfect ten. They seem like a couple who like to “kiss slowly” and even after a million kisses, every kiss feels like the first one! (Ok, that must have come out extravagantly dramatic but I hope I have driven the ‘chemistry of love’ philosophy home, loud and clear).

The movie is original in script unless there’s one already made in Hollywood or in some part of the world that I am not aware of. Its a story that deliberates on love and courtship during the “sickness” part of life and is exemplary of companionship during that phase. Its the story of love sticking through the “thin” and “lows”. In my secondary school, I took English lessons from Professor Kulkarni who taught at Subodh classes. He would have possibly been in his sixties or seventies and a gentleman with impeccable knowledge of English. Among many stories that he discussed as part of his teaching, I distinctly remember the one he told on Hamlet and second was the mention of Dana Reeves who stuck by her paralyzed Superman husband. This movie inspires me to read more about the Superman real life love and family. Looking back, I do believe that Professor Kulkarni was quite a romantic :). 

Though, I do think Mr. SLB has abused a little creative freedom to bring a courtroom into the Portuguese villa? I mean, that’s way too much freedom and stupidity. And what’s with the lawyer (Ethan’s friend)? Is she arguing in a courtroom or playing a teenager debating with an opposing team on her views over MTV grind? Use the word “objection” woman and just do not interrupt the opposing lawyer with your theories! That was one funny courtroom drama! Monikangana Dutta comes out as a very obedient girlfriend. Ethan asks her to leave, she does; he asks her to get married, she does; he is taking a vote of death, her's is the first vote he bags and she apparently understands all his pain for the past 14 years. Like seriously, dude - please! Its ok for girlfriends to dump boyfriends and vice versa. We know the world can be cruel! 

The movie has some beautiful moments that you can catch but I wont come back for any of them. Though there was one scene that did catch my attention. In a courtroom that’s full of people wearing black and navy blue, the stylist has done an absolute brilliant job with the color red as Ethan’s tie and Sofia’s scarf. That scene absolutely stands out with this red effect on gorgeous faces and very dull black and navy blue people. Another thought that crossed my mind - why hasn’t Hrithik made it to the list of hundred most beautiful people in the world as yet? If the editors of the ‘People’ magazine are going to miss an actor like this, I am sorry to say they are really failing in credibility to populate the hundred most beautiful people in the world!

The Rebound: I would say “Love Bound"

I saw this one a while back, probably at a time where a REBOUND for me would have done good. May be, just for experiences’ sake. Google would probably throw up a few theories on “Rebound”, but this movie by far is my most favorite rendition of the concept.

Sandy moves to New York with her two kids, after having stumbled upon a cheating husband, and is casually introduced to Aram in a coffee shop while finding an address. I wouldn’t call this a very distinctive plot, however wait for the story to unveil and you would have probably been introduced to one of the kindest man in the world, Aram.

Now Sandy is doing her piece of life - handling her divorce, raising kids and beyond all her current state of emotions (anguish of deceit). She’s smart and also has a sense of the general course that life will take, that is, continue raising kids, find a reasonable job and get started with the dating life. To the contrary, Aram is 24 with a world of opportunities open to him. He has the freedom to choose anything in the world that he pleases to do, however for now, he has decided to work at a coffee shop, pick up a few odd jobs at a woman’s center and babysit Sandy’s two kids. All these are his life’s choices inspite of holding a management degree from Stanford (I may have missed that important detail while watching the movie). Both have a past that significantly influence their current state of mind-affairs.

Well, the reason you love Sandy is because she looks like Catherine Zeta Jones :). I mean tell me how many women manage to look that gorgeous in a simple black dress?

I tried to get a picture of only her's however didn't get it :(

However, Aram is a work of art in this movie. I have tried to ponder over this character for the past two days and this is the best I have come up with my limiting power of thought: “If you had a unisex checklist of someone to marry; he probably would make 90% of the right ticks in that checklist”.

Hypothetically, lets say, today was your last day to live, who, what or where would you spend it? I wonder how many people would want to spend it investing in their job or shopping the most exquisite merchandise on earth? Most of the people I know probably would pick their loved ones and spend the last day with them. This “last-day-of-philosophy-on-earth” is how Aram approached his real life. In the quest of his wishes and wants, all that mattered to him were the people in his life and that included his parents and the two kids that he played the baby sitter to. He has this spiritual thought process at 25. Now world around would sit in judgement on whether it is worthwhile working at an investment bank, or babysitting kids and being a part of their growth process! What is nobler? Quiet often, its an implied assumption that women shall do the latter and men are better off doing the prior and these gender based roles are respected in line with gender orientation. The movie dispels this myth of conditioned parenting where father makes bread and butter and mother nurtures kids with care. The attachment between Sadie (Sandy’s daughter) and Frank (Sandy’s son), and Aram is evident where they spring alive on seeing him home one night. 

The kids will tickle your humor nerves in this movie. The threesome of Aram, Sadie and Frank quite enjoy their time together with video games or orchestrated American Idol shows at home. The movie infuses laugher in bits and pieces such as where Frank tries to write his name with pee along with a roadside vellah in NY or Sadie has an ‘unscheduled surgery’ where she opens up a mouse and harvests its organs. Both the kids are sensational with their witty intrusions, frolic plays and their relationship with Aram. During their first meeting Sadie also tells Aram that by the time she is Aram’s age, she would have a real job. Its probably easier for Aram to be what he is since he comes from the upper east side of Manhattan and his mother works at Ralph Lauren. But again, watch the movie and tell me, in the event Aram came from a different socio economic background - would he have taken the job at ‘Rockwell Mathers’ ( I hope I have spelt this right)?

The movie is made of simple outstanding moments if you have a sense to capture the depth of those few seconds that will last with some forever in their lives - like the photograph-frame gift on Aram’s 25th birthday captioned as ‘the human totem pole’ or the seductive smoke-blow by Sandy in Aram’s face where she says “Surfing board, in the middle of an ocean - definitely” when quizzed on the craziest place where she’s “done it” thus unraveling a little wilder youth.

The movie then takes its course of relationship between a younger man and older woman. My first response was “People will need a spiritual streak in them to get this one”. Five years of life are covered in five minutes and you wish there was more to see. Cleveland, Africa, India are covered in five blinks - not rushed but you just want to watch a little more.

The movie has subtle class like “Shall we dance”. Masala movie watchers shall trash this white-orchid film (wait does the real world have white orchids?). Jeev recommends this to all his romantic friends. Zeta and Bartha share super screen chemistry and arouse you with their simplicity. The kids infuse some laughing gas moments. The last impression I am left with is “if you are bound by love, it becomes the hardest of things to let go”.

You know why some of your super fabulous friends are single? That's because they just haven't found a love that is super hard to let go. 

Eat Pray Love: Live Live Live

I began to write this today morning but my thoughts denied the expressive power of an opening paragraph. Then as I tucked myself in bed post midnight, something struck me like lightening. I couldn't sleep after that, so made myself some coffee and here I am with a piece of philosophy - The world is predominantly made up with two kinds of people: the wise and the bohemian. This was that lightening moment.

The wise: I have been given an orientation on the science of living a few years ago. Get married by 26-27, have your first kid by 29, the second by 32. By the time you retire, your kids are grown up and settled. There in a nutshell, wisdom was parted to me. In summary, the moral suggested that all the "agenda-items" expected of you during your lifetime, should be executed at the right times. And I do believe, that to a great extent this works for a lot of people. Some are lucky to find love, get married and live this science very successfully. More often, parents make the match, the love may or may not happen but the entities conform to the science of living through very healthy companionship. Some may not be very happy after a while, but accept it as fate and work harder to be happy in the given situation. Its a very well established proven path for years and this has become the living prophecy. Truth is, it works with defined roleplays and the society on a larger scale appreciates it.

Then there are the species of the bohemians: These people are aware of the wisdom shared over the years; they understand and can comprehend the wise science of living. However their instincts are often guided with the adventure of unknown. The unknown in life or the unrealized of them. And this journey of self-realization supercedes the comfort, security or compromise of wisdom. Liz Gilbert's is the latter story. You will have to walk in her shoes for a while to empathize and relate to its serenity.

Liz is a writer who has potentially made the most of her material success but somewhere in her relationships she has lost touch with her personal self - partly making choices to make a marriage successful and then being a girlfriend soon after the marriage is over. Quite often when some part of your life hits rocky mountains, you take a step back and assess! What the F is possibly wrong? And so on her quest, she decides to take an year off to travel to Italy, India and Bali.

Well, as I walked through the movie with Liz, I was left with a very serene, sensitive and spiritual impression. In very small bits the real Julia shines on the screen, however for majority of the part we are getting to know Liz Gilbert who in my opinion is a very kind and sensitive person. She is consciously working to put the love and lust behind, to understand the person she is without it; probably establishing the balance of her life. The movie does not have any larger than life moments that Julia has delivered in many past performances, however, it delivers a deeper and sublime peace. The message is very profound in its three word simplicity: When you 'eat pray love', you have learnt to 'live live live'. If you are already doing it, then this movie gives you another soul-friend Liz Gilbert and if you are not, this movie may inspire you to find something more about yourself.

The Eat part: The other day, Kirit, a friend of mine posted a status message on FB saying he was relishing rich cashews, something that he is prohibited to do. During the same time, I was munching on two yummy 'besan' laddoos being very well aware that I haven't seen the face of my gym in the past one month. When the irresistible craving for food takes over, you simply want to enjoy the relishing moment without worrying how the calories impact your physical anatomy. The simple plain ecstasy of 'bingeing'. Liz lives this eating joy in Italy coupled with learning the Italian language of provocative gestures. As she leaves Italy, she is served a grand thanksgiving dinner by a local family that she befriends during her stay. As they say their thank you (s) over the dinner table that is devoid of turkey, Liz tells them how happy she is to see the happiness wrapped around her in other people's lives. Even if your life has hit the rocks, on some occasions one can be happy relating to the happiness of others. 

The Pray part: The message she gives herself in this phase is to 'forgive' herself for letting go of her marriage and the hurt she has caused. The other day, Vikram asked me "Do you think I am a good person, a good son?". I zapped out a bit and told him "Well, I think you are a decent friend. However, I cannot justify or deny the good son part. You have to decide that for yourself. If you can be at peace with the son that you have been, then you are a good son. Period." That is the core of every individual. The review you give yourself of the role plays you play in life. The lover, the father, the spouse, the mother and the friend. You have to be happy with who you have been and if you are not, you have to strive to arrive at that happiness quotient. The world may look upon you as selfish or failing or any such multiple dimensions, however you are the sculptor of your own destiny. You hit and hammer yourself the way you deem fit to produce a piece of art that you are going to be content with.

The love part: "If you want to love, love. If you miss someone, miss". Hold not the emotion, feel and live it. I believe, the larger part of the problem is not to love, but to expect the love in return. Are we in some sort of a way programmed to expect this as humans? And is it really worthwhile to unlearn this programmed philosophy and learn it the other way? Truth is one cannot dictate how and who to love, one may only have a temporary capacity to manipulate someone into loving. If you find someone who arouses the feeling, the greater good is to act on it and love. It will find a way to transform and evolve, probably into the greatest love at one extreme or a faded and forgotten story at the other end.

Now, time for another theory. If the world is probably divided into the wise and the bohemians, they probably end up on the 'compromise' and 'loneliness' scales respectively. Count out the people who have found the perfect world of love, passion and happily ever after. However, people on both scales are probably a happier lot with the choices they make. The wise are happy because they make the most of their circumstances while the bohemians try to make the most of new experiences that come to them. If I was not to find my perfect world, I most likely see myself on the 'loneliness' scale. Not either scales are bad, they are meant for people with two very distinguished philosophies. 

Throughout the movie, Liz has been told to find herself a man. The wise did that because they are so ingrained with this philosophy and believe it works. Majority of the times it does, may be. However, may be sometimes we like to try out the new, the unexperienced when the joy of the proven doesn't excite us. The greatest part of the movie to me is the fact that Liz could leverage her friends and use her power to finance permanent housing for a lesser fortunate divorced woman in Bali. That is the legacy of being a great human being; extending your support to make life better for somebody else. That one gigantic deed is probably as worthwhile as making a marriage successful. May be it cannot be equated, but in my world, it is as significant a success story as anyone else would probably credit you for a good working marriage.

While she took an year off to eat, pray and love, the moral may be to try and inculcate that in our daily lives. Pick a sunday and feast on some of the finest foods. I had pick one in two months and binge on belgian beer or wines with some exotic foods that I probably wouldn't do on a working day. Not for the reason of calories, but more to avoid the frog-like-sluggishness in the post lunch period. Make way for God in your daily lives. Love. Be happy. I would probably add exercise, running and swimming. And one day, if you cant make a sense of everything that's going around, you give yourself a break. Introspect. You will probably find some answers and some you wont. And for the ones you don't, live live live because life is quite often your quest to seek something that you believe is missing. 

I hear the book is better so I shall read it. I am not sure whether everyone is going to like this one, but I was happy watching it. Its probably because I like to sit across a table, grab a beer and share someone's life story.

p.s. I think the movie was cut partially, sad sad people !

Going the distance: In love, one travels all the possible extra miles

This Valentine's day of 2010, I decided to watch 'Valentine's day'. Swiped my card online for two, without a date in mind and to my very pleasant surprise PVR decided to make me that privileged credit card holder who got a ticket free. I smiled ear to ear. I was very pleasantly surprised. I thought the stars were working in my favor so I decided to call on someone random and hook up for a date. Date-disaster would be an extreme and mean description; however I wish I could be more diplomatic about it. Another day would have been fine, but on Valentine's day, c'mon, St. Valentine's would be so ashamed of me! Although, another very pleasant surprise was the movie itself. Multiple stories woven into one seamless beautiful fabric. I loved the movie. Great one time watch. However, I said to myself "This cant be the my valentine's day. Its one story to be alone, but another to inflict a wrong date onto yourself". So there, I swiped the card again for a late night show; ticket for two, and this time I decided to take a friend along. And you guessed it right, I got the second ticket free, this time too. Honestly! So, in summary, in spite of an ok date, and a great-one-time-movie watch what made me happy for that day were the two free tickets. I felt special about being chosen by the cosmos for two free tickets. Simple things like these that pleasantly surprise us quite often come as infringement benefits in our day to day agenda activities.

Last saturday on 2/10, Gandhi Jayanti, I experienced the same thing after having watched Drew Barrymore and Justin Long in "Going the distance". And if you haven't experienced the "pleasant surprises" of life and are a movie buff, I recommend this movie one-100%. It will give you that pleasant-surprise-joy. I had no POA and had already watched Anjaana Anjaani the day before. So V, a dear friend of mine, and I decided to catch up at Phoenix mills, browse around and catch this movie. My mum liked Drew Barrymore, when I took her to see Charlie's Angels part II. She didn't care about hot Madison Lee or anybody else, however after the movie she told me ....."Ae mala ti hi awadli, chaan diste" translates into - "I liked Drew Barrymore, she is beautiful". However, though I like Drew, I wouldn't go for a movie just to watch her. Justin Long would be extremely far-fetched; the only place I remember him from is from the movie"*something* Creepers". So without expectations, we got seated in the movie stalls to spend time with the movies. 

Do yourself a favor and dont miss this brilliant piece of work. A very realistic, simple, well crafted, very well directed heartwarming story of love-in-today's-date. This is one of those movies where script does the wonders, and the start cast brings the story to life. You don't go here to appreciate a Julia's or Leonardo's performance, however, you end up loving the chemistry of Erin and Garret played by Drew and Justin respectively. It may not come equipped with the marketing gimmicks to entice you into a ticket purchase, and is very simple and ordinary at face value; but it is going to make you feel so damn good at the end of it. Its a four starrer all the way, and there is not one instance you can pick and criticize. Very recently, I believe UDAAN was another such nice piece of work.

So this a story about Erin (ERL) and Garret. Erin is a writer and completing her graduation from Stanford, however possibly running a decade behind where career is concerned. Garret is much younger and the last time he cried over breakup with a girl was as a child. Obviously none of the girls stuck around, because he was lesser involved in each of them. Then as cosmic connection would have it, both of them meet over a Centipede game. Now, trust me on one thing, when it comes to love stories of real or reel life, cosmos sometimes has a major role to play. Its inevitable destiny and I believe in it. The aim is to bring two people together.

So the not-so-involved Garret meets the charming and carefree Erin (soon going to be journalist) over a Centipede game followed by beer. This is followed by "Erin, welcome to my bedroom" and Erin appears pseudo-shocked when Garret's roommate plays a romantic background score to spice up the late evening. There's then a 3-way. I mean, conversation followed by a you-know-what-follows in the late-evening now, don't you? Then the story begins and you will experience the warmth and love of a fine picturization. This will last for those couple of hours followed by rest of that day. I shall attempt to give you a brief.

Instead of an ugly quite exit the next morning, E and G decide to catch up on breakfast. G expresses his interest to see more of her and she obliges with her phone number; making it perfectly clear that she was going to be around for six months after which she is headed back to school in Stanford. Six months fling by in a perfect honeymoon period as they find themselves in awkwardly parting ways at the New York airport. They believe that wasn't a good ending and decide to give long distance relationship a try. Erin moves back to west coast with her sister and Garret stays in New York where his work is with the music industry. Then, the surrounding people of friends and family intrude on the long-distance relationship status. "Is it exclusive?" This surrounding friends and family are some of the funniest people you will know in the movie. They are awesome and fun. Remember Amy, who plays Rachel's sister in friends; well she plays Erin's sister here. You will encounter these individual conversations lead to random blowjobs and pussy-licking, however, if you keep speech etiquette out; you are going to be on one roller coaster laughter. 

The relationship gets the "exclusive" label on verbal phone agreement as has been in practice. It progresses to depict the hardships of long-distance, where you are not always equipped to meet the person you love for reasons of monetary limitations or move to either location on account of lack of job opportunities given the economic curses.

Love doesn't keep knocking at your door. Its not the daily vegetables that you pick up at some supermarket or vendor on the road. Getting someone to have sex with you is a lot easier than to meet the person who you would like to take out for a morning breakfast, share your most favorite movies, the bands you have loved and the future ones you would like to support. And in response, have someone who understands every bit of what you say or how you feel about things. That connect happens very once-in-a-while and cosmos plays a role in bringing them together the first time. The rest is for individual entities to work on. The chemistry of these two actors is so natural that you wouldn't imagine them finding somebody else in their latter lives with such synchronized rhythm. The two of them  probably understand this and therefore invest all their heart to make it work as far as they can. That's why you will love this movie.

Circumstances change, hard work sometimes becomes too hard and doesn't pay off. They make decisions that will keep them happy and satisfied in the long run and they convince us of that. They convince us of the love they have and that's good performance for a movie. 

Apart from the chemistry, the movie also educates you on something called as "dry-humping". It brings with it loads of laughter and brings the "statue" game back into fashion. "Maya, Statue!" is the funniest line you will hear in the movie. 

I was very pleasantly surprised with this one. I was happy at the end of it and left behind with an impression that "when it comes it to love, people travel all the possible extra miles."

Anjana Anjaani, Hello there GORGEOUS STRANGER!

For the first ten minutes, I was lost with the stock market debacle. Not that I get anything of the stock markets, however, I was sure that those ten minutes could have had some substance. It did have a moral though - that when people lose money in the stock market and you are the cause to it, you become suicidal. And so Ranbir goes to jump off a bridge where he meets Kiara; who is ready to jump down herself - however she gives us a good laugh for a couple of minutes before that. 

 There is another 10 minutes of forced comic disaster. Actually, you laugh because its really very stupid and funny to imagine how both of them end up in the same hospital, bump into one another, walk out in scrubs and how Kiara refuses not to walk ahead of Ranbir who in her opinion wants to peek-a-boo in her panties! And then Kiara goes mad and talks about "signs" and I am touching my forehead calling out "Oh, My God! Could this be any more lame?". However, this is the end of most of the movie disaster and fun begins. Though, please note, you do laugh a bit through this piece of time.

The comic timing which was 'w-t-f' then finds a new originality. Kiara and Ranbir keep you laughing for most times. This is when life happens. Two strangers meet, they bond, get to know each other and especially when they are "suicidal" - they want to live the days of their life before they kill themselves. Even when you have no money, you have time to do whatever in the world you wish to do. And the most important, you have absolutely gorgeous company to do it (only, they realize it much later).

The movie has very original lines that bring you laughter. Honestly, I cannot exemplify this humor in words - it has to be watched and enjoyed live. Onscreen, both are a gorgeous couple. In my personal view, I dont think either of them is beautiful; I kept thinking there's something wrong with Priyanka's nose all throughout the movie. However she oozes the oomph throughout the movie-hours and you love this sassy girl. Her humor makes her sexy, endearing and fun. Ranbir on the other hand brings the character "I am a good guy at heart" very alive. Every movie that has this earthyness about him, has give a hit. He becomes the almost perfect guy, one would want to spend their life with. *APKGK, WUS - absolute hits*. His Rocket Singh was equally touching. He plays his character very convincingly and is intense, making him brilliant at what he does. Both of them have star qualities, and this is one movie, where you wont complain if the stars are acting. The coupling grows on you engage in your movie time.

There is a scene, where Kiara is beautifying her eyes with a liner and the camera brings seminaked Ranbir in the background. With poise and passion, she walks upto him, rubs the foam off his lip and naughtily clarifies that she wouldnt mind going out with him without his shirt. This is the "moment" in the movie and one good reason to watch it on the big screen. One of the most silent, passionate scenes I have seen in a long time. Its speaks all "make-love"  without the actual "love-making". Ranbir's raunchy nipples and a quarter of Priyanka's visible breasts just adds to the sauna-steam effect. And this is the 'moment' why you will forgive director Siddharth Anand, for the first lame 20 minutes.

Kiara has a history too. Past childhood love affair gone bad, something that she cant get over. While this late evening, she stands stunning in red, the next morning you will find her weeping over her ex. In all honesty, that is how ex love-affairs are for some people and therefore I was sold with the next morning situation. People take their own time to get over ex(s). Some may be never do. But when you do, I believe, its a snap reaction - Like flipping a coin from tails to head. And you would never flip back to the same love-emotion again. For you, its over in one snap judgement. I recommend watching "CLOSER" to all the movie lovers and you will know what I mean. Towards the end of this movie, Natalie Portman tells Jude Law "I am not in love with you anymore". Jude: "Since when?". Natalie: "Since this moment". And that is the most powerful scene in that movie. For every person I may know or not, please feel free to comment on "Does getting over an ex happen in one snap judgement and that one judgement can take x days, months or years?"

Now, into AA, say after 3/4th amount of fun-time, there is some blah blah story that moves on and in the end, the lovers meet again. And then there is the drama of the "engagement ring" and "proposal". Honestly, I have never been impressed with the most of the proposals that happen in movies and "cheesy" is the right term for them. I mean, the airplane-smoke script, or ring in some fancy foods being served and then people around clapping and "awwwwing" - What is it? A circus or a proposal? Seriously, I wish to know who enjoys this and why? I am sure there are good reasons, so please do help me understand what is this joy? May be there is something I will learn. 

As I was talking about "moments" before, here's my best proposal one. From one of my top 3 favorites, Notting Hill. The guy, doesnt even propose to Anna (Julia Roberts). She asks her manager, to ask a reporter to repeat an already asked question again. And for me as an audience, the movie is only progressing. Nothing extra-ordinary happening. And then the reporter asks Anna "So Anna, how long do you stay in the UK then?" Anna takes a pause, looks at Hugh Grant and says "Indefinitely". And within the next 5 seconds, the entire British Press gets that she has fallen in love with the doe-y eyed Hugh Grant. And cameras go flash-flash-flash and Julia has the twinkle in her eye. She smiles, subtly and then broadly. And smiles some more. And there are only flashing cameras followed by a song which ends in a pregnant-bump. I mean how outstanding is that "commitment" or "proposal" that conforms to only one word "indefinitely" with some bright and shiny smiles and a lot of camera flashes. It says everything and that is the "magic" some brilliant directors showcase in their work. Its not about thegheesa-petta dialogues or the ring, its that one extra-ordinary moment of joy where you decide to commit your life to someone and what diamonds can really buy that?. Ofcourse, Julia is Julia, and may be she can pull off a scene in one word. However, if Roger Michael can give us such impressive powerful magic - I wonder why dont a lot of others atleast attempt to do something different? Or does the conventional ring/marry me/people applauding drama sell? Ofcourse, "Speak less, say more" is not everyone's gift. I hear, Warren Buffet, sent one letter an year to all the CEOs of his company and that was the business conversation he had with most of them. Wow!

Back to AA, towards the end you will notice when Kiara is kissing Ranbir, its almost like she is feasting on her yummiest dish. Cant blame her * You should see the size of both their lips * :). There was a 2-minute wisdom talk by Tanvi Azamee on suicides, which sent a strong profound message on the importance of life. I keep referring to Ranbir by his name, because I really do not remember what his name in the movie was! I enjoyed the movie, especially after a very long and active day at work. I caught up with the 11:20 p.m. show and I was happy to watch some eye-candy onscreen. Later in the wee hours of morning, I found myself singing to one the songs in the movie. And I dont sing, seriously. So obviously, songs are very peppy. I would give it a 3/5 and believe the movie will be a much above average hit. May potentially make more money through word of mouth!

p.s. There was this v annoying bunch of 5 women and 2 middle aged men who kept laughing more than required during the movie. I think there should be a code of conduct in movie-halls ;).