Mayank's Blog

The other day I was at my friend's house discussing the flavor of the season - The Commonwealth Games mess. My friend was getting animated and brought on the topic of falling of the false ceiling. His grandfather, a typical Haryanavi tau , who was listening intently to our discussion suddenly spoke, "What's a false ceiling?" On hearing our  explanation , he was shocked, "Why would anyone use such flimsy materials to construct ceilings! They ought to fall down. In our days, houses built with solid stones would last for centuries unlike the apartments you live in."  His comments made my memories flood back to the days when my grandfather would proudly show us his decades old Usha ceiling fan. "Not once has it been to a mechanic's shop and still working fine as new." As if to support him, the fan would merrily continue on its slow-motion journey. Another thing that my grandfather was very proud of was his Godrej almirah. It was so heavy that it

I am not a Salman Khan fan because of his excessive theatrics and silliness. So when the lights inside the theater dimmed , I just prayed to be able to sit through the movie. Boy, was I surprised and how!! Dabangg makes its intention pretty clear with the first scene itself - its not an "intellectual" movie. Its sole intention is to entertain and that it does through  large doses of Chulbul Pandey (played by Salman Khan). Chulbul, a corrupt cop with a golden heart, rules the badlands of Lalganj, Uttar Pradesh. He does so by fighting off tens of armed men through his sheer muscle power while dancing to a caller tune. It doesn't make any sense, and that's the beauty of it. Rajjo (played by débutante Sonakshi Sinha) is the love interest of Chulbul. He manages to romance her even while fighting off Cheddi Singh (played by Sonu Sood) and waiting for her drunkard father to die so that he could marry her. When her father finally commits suicide, Chulbul doesn't waste a