Hind Mahasagar ki sair (A trip to Indian Ocean)

Hyderabad has been a city of firsts for me.
My first job, The first promotion, First exposure to corporate culture, The first brush with death and loss, My first monetary independence, my first professional theater attendance, etc etc etc.

Today, there was another first added to this list.

Today I attended my first music show.
And it was a great one.
I went to see Indian Ocean Play in front of a packed house at the Hard Rock Cafe at GVK1, Hyderabad.
The band had a look I would have never imagined, 5 people! But well, life moves on. It has to, right?
So, when I walked in, I was a little confused about what to expect.
I saw a lot of people, outside and inside, cramming up every bit of space inside the cafe.
Then, as a moment passed, I saw Amit Kilam walk right past me, murmuring his Excuse me-s and Sorry-s as he waded through the crowd.
Then came Rahul, who walked right into the smoking box as people stared, shook hands, and said Hi-s n Hello-s.
Susmit was nowhere to be seen(well, he is the lonely serious types, right?).

So as the crowd started getting impatient, the band members took their place on stage.
From the left, Drums(Amit), Bass(Rahul), Acoustic(Susmit), Tuhin(Tabla/percussion) and Himanshu(vocals).

They started out with their (probably) the least known song, Kya Maloom(Kandisa).
And after that, I had no IDEA what happened for the next couple of hours. They played from all the albums, the cart toppers Kandisa, Hille Le and Ma rewa, along with the instrumentals from the first album, and new tracks from the new album(16/330 Khajoor Road - available for free download for another month on their website).

I recorded audio and video, and clicked photos, but what I was doing the most was getting lost, sometimes in the Serenity of tones emerging from Susmits guitar, sometimes in the madness emerging from Rahul. Amit the shy star came out a couple of times from behind his bunker, to play the gub gubi and the clarinet. Also the new guys are worth a mention. Himanshu has picked up the songs well ,and brings his own persona into the songs. Tuhin is good, and a tad bit younger than the rest. The jugalbandi-s on stage that Rahul, Amit, Susmit and Tuhin did were unbelievable.

Amit at his starry best, Rahul at his wittiest, and Susmit calm, composed and lost in thoughts as usual held our attention. Tuhin and Himanshu matched the passion with their performances, making it a night to remember.



!!Aseemda, you were missed!!

Ghosts

Like shadows they circle,
Like panthers they pounce,
If you are hit, don't fall, stay up!
Because if you fall, thats the end of it all.

You get down on your knees,
Beg to them to go,
They retreat a little,
You sigh!
They pounce again!
You are the mouse,
They are the cats!

Do you want them to go?
What will you do then?
What will be your purpose?
Becase you are the mouse,
They are the cats!

Sometimes, when you have a drying wound, we can't stop ourself from volantarily scratching at its sides. Some would say, "I'm just checking if it has dried". Are you really? Or do you like the controlled quota of pain that you are calling upon yourself? Sometimes we do like pain, don't we? But is it really an intelligent move to live on the edge, and to put oneself in a position to experience pain?
Well, I have been a good boy all my life. Don't get me wrong, and no offence to people who chose different paths, but my path in life was always kinda simple. Eat, Sleep, Study, Read, Play games, Chat with friends. Thats all.
Then one day, the list expanded. Came in "Fall in love, Be in love". It was still nice, actually better than the rest of my life before that day. And one fine day, the list got a little short, as the new items were dropped. Added "Feel the pain".
And that item still remains. But slowly when the pain starts receding, the inner conciousness forces a response, to bring back the pain. And the cycle continues.
Till when? How many iterations?

do i=1 to EndOfLife;
pain=infinity;
do j=1 to (infinity-10);
pain=pain-j;
end;
if i eq EndOfLife then DIE;
end;

When Tanuji wedded Sharmaji

What does a righteous man do when the girl he loves is getting married to another guy(one you know, and are friends with with) and you are the facilitator in that marriage(more like, a witness)? hmm? hmmm? Well, you take pride in small victories, like having a pen and yet not handing it over the the marriage registrar, when his pen stops working. Kinda silly, right? But also kinda tells you how helpless you are right at that moment, right? Well, this sums up the movie pretty well. A helpless, righteous man, who can't decide should he do the right thing, or get married.

In its sometimes silly and mostly vulnerable moments, the movie succeeds in touching you, may it be through the puppy-love-stricken looks by Madhavan, or the laughters of Kangana(Mostly silenced behind some decent music). [SPECULATION ALERT: Due to some reason, I think she had more dialogs, but the director decided that the music is much better to convey the emotions, at least better than Kangana's dialog delivery.]

As was unanimously decided by our 2 member panel, Priyanka would have been a far more convincing choice, but well, if you don't try, how will you know that this is not Kangana's part to play. She does seem to fit into the movie during her moments of anger and rebellion, but otherwise, not really.

But forget all of that, and meet Sharmaji, alias, Manuji. A Doctor(well, he makes pacemakers. What kind of doctor does that? I donno for sure.) settled in London, who comes to India because his parents insist that he gets married.
And, straight from Delhi Airport, he is shipped off to Kanpur to meet a drunk girl, who he falls hopelessly in love with, and is rejected by the girl on the grounds that she already has a boyfriend. But as luck would have it, they meet again, and get a chance to know each other. And, of course, he's a righteous man, so he does the right thing all along till the end of the film.

Good performances by the supporting cast, special mentions to be reserved for Deepak Dobrial as 'Pappi'(Bolke batau ya deke) and Swara Bhaskar as Payal, and of course Jimmy Shergil as Raja(who was too under used! but proves he still can give the angry young man looks!) make this movie quite watchable. At some moments, you might feel the plot to be little too convoluted and contrived, but well, its a Hindi flick after all.

Forget everything, and go watch it for Madhavan, who delivers a good performance.
And thats how, TANU WEDDED MANU!