Category: Reviews

Reviews of books, music and movies

Khuda ke liye

Khuda ke liye  – I finally purchased this DVD and saw it yesterday night. The director Shoaib Mansoor has been extremely succesful in presenting a subject that is as close to reality as it gets . So much so that at places it is outright scary!!  In recent past, there hasn´t been a movie that has affected me as much as this one.

Every film site has reviewed this movie but none of reviews do justice to the movie so I will refrain from writing another one. This movie is beyond it.

All I can say is, watch this one!!

On a high

So it has happened, I am on anti lipid drugs. After 5 years of fighting to keep my triglyceride levels in check with diet and exercises alone, my endocrinologist told me they are going over the roof now and I should be put on medication. During the annual health check up in March 06, the levels were 229 (normal is 200), a repeat lipid profile on 15th June 2006 shows that triglyceride level have happily glided up to 568 and VLDL from 46 to 113 -enough for the alarm bells to ring. I don’t like to live on medicines, but there is no escaping reality. I am glad though that I don’t have diabetes currently.

Sunday was spent lazing around watching “Antarmahal” a Bengali movie directed by Rituparna Ghosh. To repeat myself, I love the way this man handles characters and their relationship. Playing with the light and dark shades of people he makes them all so real that it gives goose pimples. Bongs indeed are sensitive and creative people.

Utsab

Durga Puja, the most important festival of Bengali’s is the worship of ‘Shakti’ or the divine power and Maa Shakti’s four children, Ganesh, Kartikeya, Laxmi and Saraswati. Its an Utsab, festival season, a time to celebrate when families come together to worship, eat, laugh and enjoy the togetherness.

This also happens in the movie Utsab, a tale beautifully woven by Rituparno Ghosh. A director I have come to admire so much, I want to see all his movies.

The matriarch has four children, the eldest, Asit, trying to solve everyones problem is much like lord Ganesha, The second son, Nishit has work related problems that he wants to keep secret, but his wife knows -how she knows it, even he does not know The eldest daughter ,Parul, is married to a rich family, it was an arranged marriage against her wishes, for, she loved her poor cousin (Shishir – he too is a rich builder now ) her past haunts her, her husband taunts her and she thinks her grown up son, who is kind of repeating the history by being attracted to Asit’s beautiful daughter, is unaware of her turbulent past. The youngest daughter, Keya, an artist by heart, loves music, married against the families wishes, to a painter and a passionate politician who unfortunately lost out in the politics game and took to drinking. They have immense love simmering for each other which the viewer sees but somehow they fail to – entangled into the web of petty quarrel, they even talk of separation and perhaps seriously so.

The play of emotions of each of these family members, who become your family members as you sit and watch the movie strike many familiar cords. Suppressed emotions hide in shadows and happy ones play with bursts of light. There is always a talk of rain clouds, it even rains, but one does not see it -just feel its aftereffects.

Amidst all this is celebrated a festival. The festival of togetherness, the festival of family bonding, the festival of lights, festival of joy and festival of victory of good over evil -Durga Pooja and Vijayadashmi. While you sit and watch the movie it unfolds like a family reunion, just like the video Joy, Parul’s son shoots.

The movie is in Bengali with english subtitles. Knowledge of elementary bengali helped, but I wish I could understand the finer nuances of the rich language to completely understand it -specially the beautiful song which Shompa, Asit’s daughter sings.

Shiok!!

One thing I had decided even before I reached Bangalore for Linux-Bangalore/2004 – that I will manage atleast one dinner at Shiok.

So, three of us, that is I, and Aasim accompanied by and reached Shiok on 2nd December.

We sat in the lounge, had a round of drinks -Tarique, Mona and Khader relished their cocktails while I and aasim sipped our non alcoholic drinks.

The food we ate was out of the world and this is what we had and each dish is better than the other. One thing I am sure, no trip to Bangalore will be complete for us without visiting Shiok atleast once.
Recipe descriptions from htp://www.shiokfood.com

Garlic-peppered prawns: Juicy, succulent prawns marinated in a wonderful mix of garlic and white pepper, deep-fried.

Crispy chicken in ginger-garlic sauce: Chicken chunks, crispy outside, soft inside are served with a mild, flavourful sauce of ginger, garlic, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Sichuan potsticker dumplings: Boiled, steamed, or fried? How about all three in the same dish? These “potstickers” dumplings are first pan-fried, then cooked in hot stock. They then get a crispy base and a tender top. Pop them into your mouth in one shot and enjoy the taste explosion.

Golden baskets: Finely chopped chicken and soft sweet corn are stir-fried with a fragrant mixture of garlic, coriander roots, white pepper and soy sauce. Served in golden-crisp rice flour baskets. Perfect finger food.

Crispy fish in red curry sauce: First we take a whole fish, season it, and fry it. Then we smother it in our special red curry sauce. The fish remains crispy and the sauce plays with it nicely.

Drunken beef: Perfect to accompany your drinks, tender beef is quickly stir-fried with a spicy mixture of pounded chillies, garlic and basil. Get ready to order more

Nonya chicken: A classic example of mixed cuisine, the very Malay chilli is combined with the very Chinese dark soy sauce, star anise, and spring onions, and braised in this aromatic mixture. The resulting dish is surprisingly mild with just a hint of chilli.

Orange-lemon chicken: If you think only spicy dishes are tasty, you have to try our orange-lemon chicken. It’s different from the gooey lemon chicken found elsewhere and it’s yummy. That’s all we’re saying.

Singapore rice noodles :While no such dish exists in Singapore, this is the closest we know to what passes for it. Thin rice stick noodles are cooked with chicken, garlic, a touch of chillies and soy sauce.

Nasi goreng : Literally meaning “fried rice”, this Indonesian everyday dish is usually made by combining leftover rice with leftover anything else. We make it by frying a spice paste first, adding meat, rice, and sweet soy sauce, garnished with a fried egg.

While I loved every dish, my fav (and the taste still lingers when i think of it) remains Orange lemon chicken.

While we were just finishing, Madhu gave us a taste of his famous cocktail – Illusions – absolutely lovely and yes, I am sure it hits without warning -its smooth!

Kalildas Festival – Girija Devi

It was absolutely divine listening to this 76 year old lady sing and make audience crave for more. “I am learning for the past seventy years, I can sing at least for 70 hours” (sattar saal ka riaz hai, sattar ghante to ga hi sakti hoon) she replies to the shouts of “aur sunaiye” “aur sunaiye” from audience.

Ably accompanied by Anuradha pal, the lady tabla player who accompanied Ustad Shahid Parvez, Gaan-tapswini Girija Devi ji started the concert with Rag Jog, going into aalap’s that floored the audience. In between the performance she shared her knowledge and belief’s with the audience – Laya maya hai jo har kalakar ko uksati hai aur main bhee is se baach nahi paati hoon, main bhee taan leti hoon aur tab main solah saal ki bacchi ban jaati hoon“.

She enthralled the audience by rendition of tappa ”miyan nazar nahi aanda way“ followed by a thumri set in mishra Desh ”more saiyan bulawe aadhi raat.

Girija Devi has spent many years in researching Thumri and it shows every time she performs one. Coupled with good lyrics Thumari sounds more interesting and it is like a dream come true when swar gets suitable words she told the eager audience.

Thumri followed kajri which discribed purush birah in sawan instead of the traditional stree birah – Ghir aaye kaari badriya, radhe bin laage na mora jiya“

On audience requests she sung a chaiti , a jhoola and a hori and ended her performance with a thumari bhajan composed in Bhairwi

Earlier back stage, when i took her photo, she said, ”kheench rahi ho to bhejna zaroor“ and she autographed on one of her CDs which I was carrying. One of her deciples gave me her calcutta address to which I am sending the prints of the concert photographs.

Kalidas Festival – Amjad Ali Khan and his two sons

How often does one get a chance to listen to Sarod Mastero Ustad Amjad Ali Khan playing “vaishnav Jan” and “Raghupati Raghav” on Sarod – once and if very lucky more than once in a life time.

Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s two sons, the good looking Aman and handsome Ayan came on stage first and played Rag puria Kalyan and were given accompaniment by two tabla players.

Ustadji came next and elevated the level of performance to a different height by explaining how different and difficult it is to play “meend” on sarod -unlike instruments like sitar, sarod does not have parda. “ agar aapne galti ki to aap beparda ho jaate hain”

The two tabla players Sandip Das from Banares Gharana and Satyajit Talwalkar from Farrukhabad gharana added colour to the performance by their jugalbandi and the competition between the gharana’s was very evident.

Experimentation is must fro every learner, said Ustad Amjad Ali khan while giving the last solo performance of the evening, ever performer has to keep thinking about newer ideas so does he. The Mastero presented his own composition set in Maru Bihag originally set in 25 matras. Paucity of time made him play in 12.5 matra’s making it enthralling for the audience and challenging for the two young tabla players and both of them excelled making everyone present ecstatic.

His two sons joined him for the last performance of the evening to play Mishra Kirwani and a medly of dhuns set in Mishra kirwani itself making the picture absolutely perfect for everyone present. It was a concert that was not only a delight for the ears of connoisseurs but also for the eyes

Kalidas Festival Sitar- Ustad Shahid Parvez accompanied by Anuradha Pal on Tabla

I get goose pimples whenever i see Sitar being performed on stage by the maestro. This was my second time – fifteen years back I heard Pandit Ravi Shankar and yesterday it was Ustad Shahid Parvej.

Ustad ji can make a string instrument sing. My ears are still ringing with the musical notes of the aalap he played in Rag Bageshree teasing the second string with the nail of his little finger he made sitar sound more musical than itself.

The Jod and jhala was accompanied by the wondrous tabla player Anurdha Pal – India’s only woman performing tabla artist and disciple of Ustad Alla Rakha and Ustad Zakir Husain. Her playfulness with the accompanying sitarist was very reminiscent of Ustad Alla Rakha’s and Ustad Zakir husain’s, rising above the role of just an accompanying tabla player she struck balance between the accompaniment and showed her mastery with ease.

The surprise package of the concert was when Ustad ji took break from traditional rag playing and started striking the stings of sitar to “mohe panghat pe nandlal ched gayo re”. It took audience a while to realise it and then everyone gasped when he made the sitar sing the song.

Kalidas Festival – Bharatnatyam by Priyadarshini Govind


One of the most enthralling moments of my life was to see the noted Bharatnatyam danseuse Priyadarshini Govind perform so naturally to vatsalya rasa, playing mother kaushalya on Tulsidas’s “Thumak Chalt Ram Chandra”. This was one of the best rendition of the piece I have seen.

Her traditional varnam was based on Natraja Vandanam in which she performed portraying Goddess Parvati appeasing her lord and her love, Lord Shiva. She longs to meet him and unite with him in love. Shiv is Moksha for her. So beautiful was the performance that the danseuse herself was in a trance like state transporting the audience to a surreal state.

She is simply fabulous while perofming abhinaya. In another piece based on the marathi poetry “Rusli Radha Rusla Madhav Rusle Gokil sare” Her precision in footwork and poise in the first piece were as striking as her abhinaya, or dramatizations, in the Marathi composition, which was based on an encounter between Radha and Krishna. The piece shows Radha’s anger at finding her lover, Krishna, in the company of other women — and his attempts to reach out and pacify her. The opening, she said, in her introduction, is fixed but the end of the performance is always spontaneous, a surprise for the audience, musicians and the dancer herself as she decides at the last moment what the ending of the performance will be. The ending is different each evening the dance is performed. Accompanied by sour stirring vocals, voilin, natavangam and mridangam the audience reacted with her every bhav – the happiness of love, the sorrow of radha, the pain of gokul on seeing both the lovers angry with each other and finally the joyous union of the two love lorn.

She also performed on a piece from Kalidas’s Kumarsambhavam where manmath, the lord of love (Kamdev), enters forest with Rati and performs his duty, shoots his love arrow towards a meditating shiva fully knowing that will be his end.

Her last piece were traditional Tillana and the performance ended with Vande Mataram – a tribute not only to our beautiful and bountiful country but to the mother earth herself.

Fountainhead -the movie

In one line, its good but not good enough!!

The movie does not do justice to the book. The characters barring Roark and Wynand no where come close to what they have been described – specially the physical appearance of Dominique.

At some places the characters mouth dialogues as if they are just reciting them, without understanding, to anyone who has read the book and understands it, this is very apparent with one exception of Ellsworth Monkton Toohey – he was just as despicable in the movie as he is in the book.

A big disappointment, was not finding any mention the Stoddard Temple and Dominique’s statue carved by Steven Mallory. Also no where to be seen were Mike the construction worker Catherine, Toohey’s niece and Austen Heller the man who first gave work to Roark.

In the book, Gail Wynand lives. He lives on as an emotionally dead being a defeated man who gave in to second handers. In the movie, he is shown to have committed suicide. I wonder what prompted Ms. Rand (the screenplay of the movie is by Ayn Rand herself) who have this change. I surely did not like this diversion from the book. It kind of redeems Wynand. The man saved Banner over his soul. He did the act knowing its full consequences, he did not deserve to be redeemed.

Movie recommended only if you have read the book.