Ajith Nair

Flatters to deceive. It’s a bit like Sachin getting out to a full toss after a lovely start. The bad part: The second half could have been another movie. In fact, I wish it were. Hangs like an orphan, poor cousin to a hilarious first half. It’s like sending Chanderpaul out to bat after Lara’s scored a quick fire 60, what a let down. The facts will read a bit like a lousy blood report, but some things have to be said. The ending is a rip off from Karz and Madhumati, wife tells me so. The rip off isn’t all that spectacular and seems a bit like a designer cut gone horribly wrong. Deepika is mostly silent and that’s the highlight, cos she can’t do too much with her face than flaunt her lovely eyes and omnipresent dimple. This part sees the re-birth sequence, a deja ‘woo’ of Arjun Ram-pall into confessing his crime and a chandelier climax. There also is the endless party number where the entire film fraternity is on screen, most being ones who aren’t doing too much work nowadays. Shahrukh h...

An FM channel which plays great Hindi classics was living up to its track record by playing melancholic Mukesh. The cab driver, instantly, switched to the latest Om Shanti Om number and let it stay. I tried to thinking about the last time I had heard a sad song in a new movie release, it was futile. Not that I am a Bollywood buff, but my First Day First Show friends struggled too. In fact, we struggled to name many recent tragedies, except ones like Himesh Reshammiya who are quite tragic, whether in movies or not. The age of melancholy and self pity is out. Looks like the age of celebration, fanfare, and ostentation is here to stay, not just in the movies. We seem to celebrate everything as if it were the last time we’d do it. T20 victory to kid’s birthday parties, Sensex booms to Shahrukh’s six pack. The event becomes irrelevant in the light of the celebration. Celebrity marriages are more about who’s attending, who’s performing, hardly about who’s wedding. The other day’s T20 match ...

A weekend is too short or long depending on whether you’re in office or not. A fortnight back, wife n I decided on a quick exile to the hilly confines of Yercaud (220 km from Bangalore). Hopes of simple living, high thinking led us to the TTDC resort (Tamilnadu Resort), more like last resort in retrospect. Our room supposedly a super deluxe cottage had heritage bathrooms and lots of fauna to boot. The ‘heritage bathroom’, we discovered, was heritage because it hadn’t been cleaned since Rajaraja Chola rode that way many a century ago. It was dimly lit; almost as if it wanted to go unnoticed, in shame. Hot water was confined to within the large sized geyser and didn’t quite manage to find its way out of the tap. Cold water was full of self doubt and made sporadic appearances, making bathing a dry and wet affair. The room had flowery curtains which made you wonder if someone in the vicinity had been relieved of their worn out clothes. Fauna included snails, spiders, grasshoppers and some...