Mayank's Blog

Nothing can be a better example of "India Shining" than the fact that today I was on an airplane for the first time in my life - flying from Pune to Delhi. Low-cost airlines have made it really affordable for poor people like me to have enough moolah in the pocket to buy an air-ticket. Like first love, first job and various other firsts (which are left to the reader's fertile imagination), this was a special occassion for me. The event was made even more special by the admiring looks that people gave me when I told them I was flying to Delhi. It was like having a mobile phone in  1995. The first reaction of people when they hear about someone's flight details is like "Oh! You are flying X airline. Y airline is much better. You know when I flew,.... blah.. blah.. blah". You just want to scream out, "Look I get it. You probably own an airline. Just let me enjoy my moment." So let's get on with my story.

The only horror movie which scared me to my shits and left me disturbed for a week was " The Blair Witch Project ". The use of scenes shot through handycam throughout the movie gave it a very real feel and was its major USP for me. Then " Paranormal Activity " came along. It was a very good movie but failed to impress. But one thing that stood out again was the use of camera. When will we see such camera work in Bollywood, I wondered. Well, my wait was about to be over.

Interviews, particularly job interviews, are periods full of tension for the people facing it; much like taking a competitive exam. Till now I have only been an interviewee, cursing the interviewer for asking irrelevant questions, for showing his arrogance and stuff. Never before have I been an interviewer and had no idea what it is to interview a candidate. All that was about to change in the last ten days.

Two persons go for a job interview. One is a normal, average Joe-looking man, who is very good at this work. The other is a smoking hot blonde who barely knows what she is doing. No prizes for guessing who gets the job. The Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, popularly known as the Women's Reservation Bill, seeks to provide thirty three per cent reservation of seats in the Lower house of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and state legislative assemblies for women. If after reading the above story, you jump to the conclusion that I am in the same league as Lalu Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav in opposition to this bill, please hear me out.

Abhay Deol, with movies like Dev D , Manorama Six Feet Under and Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! to his credit, was a champion in bridging the divide between the so-called "art movies" (the ones characterised by likes of Smita Patil)  and the mainstream hindi cinema. Little did we know that he would come up with a movie like Road, Movie which will pull apart the two genres to eternity. Road, Movie is a perfect example of why we don't like art movies and why they are just meant for being displayed at film festivals and nothing more. Road, Movie , directed by Dev Benegal, starts with a sluggish pace, slows down in the middle, and finally sputters and huffs and puffs to reach its end - just like the vintage monster truck that Vishnu (Abhay Deol) drives throughout the movie. Vishnu does not want to sell the hair-oil that his father makes, so offers to drive the truck, together with the heavy-duty movie projectors that it carries to the museum. He journeys through the heat a...

A lot of water has flowed down the Thames since I last blogged. In the last two weeks, India-Pakistan "peace talks" began, Sachin broke the world records by scoring an ODI double century, Pranab Da presented the budget and Karthik Calling Karthik got released. Against better judgement and the reviews of critics, I decided to take the plunge and watch it. Q. If the producers of Karthik Calling Karthik ran out of money, what will be the movie called? A. Karthik Missed Calling Karthik. Pathetic joke, I know. But it seems the producers ran out of the ingredient which is so less used in Hindi movies - Story . If I would dare say, the movie was reduced to Karthik Blank Calling Karthik for the writer-director Vijay Lalwani seems to have lost the script half-way through the movie.

Forget sacrificng one's life fighting the enemy at a height of 13000 feet to defend one's country. watching My Name Is Khan  has become the ultimate test of patriotism. This test has been devised by an actor, Shah Rukh Khan and a regional political party, Shiv Sena. While Shiv Sena has been spewing vitriol, SRK has been claiming the moral high ground. SRK, the man who turned hostile witness in the Bharat Shah case, has been claiming that his stardom is transient but his integrity non-negotiable . Going further, he asks people who criticise him to 'SHUT UP' . Why do people still see watching MNIK as a good thing to do baffles me. Can't you see why is this all done? While Maharashtra Home Minister, the infamous Mr. R.R. Patil, and other self-serving politicians waved their ticket to the MNIK show, another show was put up by a bunch of crazy people in the education capital of India, Pune. Bomb blasts ripped through German Bakery yesterday killing at least 9 people. Th...