Okay, so I confess

All right everyone, thanks for bearing the brunt of the last post --- I was just a little pissed off and therefore found the best place to rant: i.e. here! :) Like many of you pointed out, I was reading too much into too little: and I trust my roomies very much. Just sudden outpours --- I hope you know.

Anyway, coming to this post. There are a few movies and actors, music directors etc. who I've come to like, but not necessarily everyone else has. I'd try to be specific about why I liked these actors/directors, but at the end of the day it is a personal choice.

First, Abhay Deol and the two movies he has featured in. The first one was "Socha Na Tha". It is both an uncommon and a common love story. I call it uncommon, because we don't usually find such a storyline in other Hindi movies. Usually the hero fights it out, kills a dozen bad guys and rescues the damsel. This movie was common, however, because it was so closely based on reality. There is something called a parental pressure, and we have to accept and reason with them. The movie's storyline played out beautifully, and for me it appeared as if it was a real story happening somewhere, where people bend to pressure, then again negotiate, maybe work it up again... and it ends like a happy romantic movie. But the hero is not someone who can beat up 10 henchmen, neither is the heroine someone who can dance like a goddess and also swap guns, etc. from the villians. It is a story that has perhaps happened next door: something that perhaps can happen in reality. The other movie again featuring Abhay Deol which I liked was "Ek Chalis ki Last Local". Sanjay Kanduri's writing and directorial debut also had a nice storyline, something that might be a bit far-fetched, but still something that could have happened. A thousand twists and turns, dramatic unveiling of personlities and their import in the movie --- it was all part of the story fabric. The actors do a good job, and even Neha Dhupia is tolerably okay! Therefore, I don't know what is working for Abhay Deol, but I will probably go and watch is next movie as well: at least for the storyline if nothing else.

Next, brace yourself... Himesh Reshammiya!! Yeah, I do like some of his music. Right from "Aashiqui mein teri" to "Gum hua hosh hai". Some songs are good, and there is no use denying the fact. But does that mean all the songs he musically directs are good? No. Does that mean I love his nasal inflections in all songs? No. Does it mean that I might go and see "Aap ka suroor"? Hell No! Unless I hear recommendations from people I trust about it being good, that is. Therefore, all ye people who dismiss anything from Himesh Reshammiya as crap --- sorry, I disagree. Also, for all ye people who wage wars on his behalf in the Orkut community portals: sorry, I don't sign up there as well. I just like (make that really like) some of his songs!

Finally, I wish people had liked "Tango Charlie". The story of this soldier who fights insurgents on the borders in the North-East and in Kashmir. Why did I like the movie? Good acting? Nope--- acting was okayish. What I liked was again the narrative. Like this one time when he confronts a 'militant' in the North-East, and chases him down the Brahmaputra. He reminisces that for the first time he saw the face of his 'enemy' from up close. And it wasn't that of a soldier hardened by war who just wanted to kill, but it was that of a 15-year old boy shaking from head to foot, who had even trouble carrying the gun that he held. The movie somehow broke the romantic ideals of being a soldier and brought home the ugly truths of what one is fighting, and for who. How life doesn't remain rosy in a battle, how the chivalrous gentleman has to stab someone half his age in order to live and come back to tell the story. I was reminded of this quote from G.B. Shaw's Arms and the Man: "You can always tell an old soldier by the inside of his holsters and cartridge boxes. The young ones carry pistols and cartridges; the old ones, grub".