Movie Reviews - Udaan

Once in a way you stumble onto a movie, start watching it without any expectations, with hardly any known actors in it and in the end get totally blown away by it. I'm sure everyone of us has experienced this atleast once. I was talking to silent the other day and she happened to mention to me about this non commercial movie called Udaan winning lots of awards.

Like always, I downloaded the movie for free and started watching it on a late evening with a drink in one hand and a bowl with some good ol homemade peanut masala in the other. I promise you that the story will not be revealed here. So this post is rated PG with no spoiler alerts.

The movie starts with four guys in a residential school trying to sneak out in the night to watch a late night screening of a  desi soft-core movie. Yeah yeah I know, all of us have been there and done that. The boys get caught by their teacher in the same theatre who would have come there with some company to get some action. As a result of this, they get expelled and so is the laughter from the rest of the movie. The movie then concentrates on one of the guys who is an aspiring writer and his relationship with his father, whom he hasn't seen for the past 8 years.

The boy named Rohan is forced to call his father 'Sir' and is stripped of all forms of freedom. While he has no say infront of his father, he is also strictly ordered to put his pen down and start working in a factory. Amidst all this, he also has a 6 year old step brother as well whose acting is one of the cutest. While the boy Rohan gets abused by his father both verbally and physically, he secretly tries to pursue his passion and indulge in drinking and smoking. For all we know, he is a typical teenager with more things to hide than show.

The movie becomes even more gripping when the father's anger becomes responsible for a tragic event in the family and Rohan finds out about the actual truth. If you really want to know as to what happens next, go and buy a DVD and watch the movie or just download it, like I did. Ronit Roy delivers the performance of a lifetime as the father (totally unexpected from his 'K' series nonsense) and the debutant youngster Rajat Barmecha is absolutely brilliant. The story isn't the greatest but the new director Vikramaditya Motwane has brought some real spark and life into the art of film making. 

The movie's name 'Udaan' translates to 'Flight'  and does it take off or what. There are subtitles if you cannot understand Hindi and I really recommend everyone to watch this underrated movie. If you still don't believe me, IMDb has rated it 8.7. It had been quite sometime since I had enjoyed the brilliance of a Bollywood movie to this extent. It kind of reminded me of the time when I watched Khuda Ke Liye which is another must watch.

I give it a 10/10 rating without any second thoughts. Do watch it and let me know, if you haven't yet.

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Here Comes The Brain

Its about time, I wrote something about this wonder organ called the brain. I have always had an interest in medical science but decided not to go down that road for numerous reasons. More on that some other time. Being a regular "House" watcher, I really love the way in which some of the cases develop and pose really strange scenarios. I would request all my medical friends to criticize this post blissfully if they spot any mistakes and inturn educate me on this topic.

First a simple class on the anatomy of the brain. The brain is made up of two halves, namely the left brain and the right brain. These are two are connected to each other by a thick cable of nerves at the base called as corpus collosum (Yeah yeah..I still remember the II PUC Biology class and Skimba). I simple terms, it is like an Ethernet cable connecting the two giant processors. The right side of our body is wired to the left side of the brain and vice versa and I really have no idea why it is so. There are numerous other parts as well, but for the time being lets stick with just these.

Both these halves carry out special functions. Among the numerous other tasks assigned to them, the left brain deals with the analytical and logical side of things. The right brain is more into the artistic and creative side. So if at all you are writing a GMAT or CAT, you have almost put the right brain to snooze, only to wake it up when you need to scratch your privates with your left hand.

I was reading about an interesting case, in which a guy's corpus collosum was totally removed in order to treat him for uncontrollable seizures(short circuits). The end result was that there was no coordination between the left brain and the right. As a result of this, the right hand and right eye could actually name an object such as pen but couldn't explain what is was used for. The left eye and hand were able to explain the use of the object, but unable to name it. Cool ha. 

If at all a similar thing happened to you, can you imagine the situation? Infact imagine a situation in which you are on a highway in your car and your driver just eloped as he couldn't take more of you and your peculiar situation. You identify your iPhone but have no idea what to do with it, a BMW in which you are seated but cant drive, you see your Barclays credit card but don't know how it use it, you are feeling hungry and you even recognize a McD outlet just across the road but cant process that fact that it serves food. Cool or Koole now?

How many kids have you actually heard saying they want to be a musician or a painter or even a writer? The reason for this is that our education is tailored in such a way that a lot of emphasis is based on the skills of the left brain like maths and science rather than art or drawing. Invariably, even though you might be a very creative person inside, you end up flexing more of your left brain until you reach an age where you have the freedom to choose your career path. In my case, when I actually look back, I didn't take up blogging and designing as a hobby until I finished my studies. Infact, I realized this as I was writing this post. Totally in love with my brain at this moment :)

If you are in a state of emotional turmoil and unable to take a decision, don't be hard on yourself and don't blame yourself too much. It just means that the two halves of your master, the brain are just quarreling and disagreeing on the topic which has put you in this situation. Ever wondered why its so hard to propose to a girl? While the logical side is reminding you of a possible slap or a high heeled shoe in your face, the emotional side is pushing you to see the "happily ever after" side of it.

A very interesting brain fact is that the size of your brain is about 1400cc. Metaphorically speaking, its as powerful as a Hayabusa and more importantly as intelligent as the super computer of 2030.

P.S - I ended up making a lot of spelling mistakes in writing this post, before correcting them. Can any of doctors let me know the possible reason?

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#IndianParents

For some unknown reason, I had started tweeting a lot with the hashtag of #IndianParents. Just to freshen up the memory, the following are some of them.

"Its disgusting. How can you think of girls being just a teenager ?" #IndianParents

"Start studying for your exams. Only 3 more months left "#IndianParents

"With these marks, you can neither become an engineer nor a doctor. Your life is doomed nd u r better off committing suicide"#IndianParents

"I saw a porn CD on our 19 yr old son's table. He is spoilt and we have 2 take him 2 a #psychiatrist before its 2 late"#IndianParents

"Stop talking to the guys in your class. If the word goes out, none of the grooms will agree to marry you" #IndianParents

Even though few might beg to differ, I'm sure a majority would have faced these kind of dialogues in their lifetime. One actually feels that these days are gone with our generation but I have been looking at a lot of new kids in that awkward age and a new breed of parents torturing their kids with the same old medicine in a new improved pack.

Its actually quite amusing to see parents resorting to their "hand holding" behavior even when their kids have actually given birth to kids. Respect can always be overrated and many a times is misinterpreted as bad advice, which is a very dangerous scenario. Telling your parents that you are about to start a new firm and would like them only to inaugurate it shows respect. However, discussing your future as a web designer or a Java programmer with your old man who is a pensioner can lead to disastrous circumstances. I'm not undermining the suggestions of parents but more often than not, it is always advisable to keep them posted rather than get posted by them until and unless you decide to follow your parents' footprints.

The fact that one has to marry a person chosen by parents might make the westerners go #wtf but it is definitely something that will take generations to eradicate. The concept of arranged marriages is logically equivalent to you picking up a random girl walking on the road and marrying her while you are being sober. In most of the cases, the guy and the girl don't talk much before getting married and most of the unwanted talk is done by parents. The following questions have been lingering as I haven't been able to get my head around arranged marriages:

1> How can the parents possibly get to know the kind of person a girl is, by just "checking her out" once, when even a lifetime is not enough to understand your spouses completely.

2> Even if you end up talking to the girl, how comfortable would you be discussing your "positions" and latex/leather/lather fetishes and that your are more of a "doggie-style" lover, all this and more on your first official privacy deprived date in front of parents.

3> The concept of a girl moving to a guy's house and getting used to his parents is most complicated part. The worst case can be a lazy nagging mother-in-law, a disease ridden father-in-law and a husband blaming you for the above problems.

It really is a gamble actually getting married like this. You know the fact that the odds of winning are very low and you decide to go all in. Guess these people will do great at the poker table with a poker face naturally seasoned over the years.

The Indian Parents take a lot of time to realize that their son/daughter has actually chosen a partner with whom they are ready to go that extra mile. In most of the cases they don't actually realize how lucky they are as they stand a chance to become grandparents. They should be happy just for the fact that their son has chosen a girl and their daughter has chosen a guy. For all we know, the daughter could have ended up using a lot of toys while the son son might have ended up with more than a sausage in his mouth.

I guess the trend is going to change soon and very soon homosexual marriages will be treated as love marriages. Who knows, even incest might be on the cards. Only time will tell.

Would love to read your opinions/experiences on this topic.

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