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But multiplexes have slowly killed off the movie experience that I love and cherish so much. The feeling of being in a theater with 350 other people, the screams and the whistles, the hooting and the jeering… You know the whole feeling of “going to a movie”.

Thats why I cherish the few theaters that still have that magic. Rex, Urvashi and (to some extent) Fame Shankarnag (all in Bangalore) still have that feeling in them. All the other beautiful theaters are now malls with Multiplexes in them. I understand the competition is hard to keep up with and the population exploding movie going is a very popular thing… In a way, I am still happy that despite the rat race there are still a few real theaters out there.

Last evening when I went to watch Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, that feeling came back and boy did it come back with a revenge. The crowd was the most awesome crowd I have watched a movie with. They were screaming for every joke and actually singing along with a few songs. The cheering when a guest star came was amazing and the laughter was addictive. Forget the movie, the crowd made my day

All that brought back memories of a long time back, before all the black tie multiplexes took over. I know its futile to live in the past but for one evening it felt nice to be back there

What can you expect from a movie that within the first 10 seconds of starting has a statue telling a story. The word you are searching for is “silliness”.

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is director Rajkumar Santoshi’s attempt to bring back the Andaz Apna Apna experience and boy is it hilarious(the lame but still good kind). The movie is packed with slapstick, physical and sometimes the humor of the highest quality. In all the silliness and clichéd storyline involving very funny characters, the movie is a true entertainer but only if you enjoy this sort of entertainment

What I liked most about the movie is that at no point does it expect the viewer to take it seriously. Even in its most serious moments, like the scene where Prem is speaking to Jesus asking him to speak to Bolenath for him so that he can be forgiven for eating meat, leaves the audience in splits.

The movie has its bad moments too. The first 15 minutes of the second half is a real bore and the misplaced song “Tu Jaane Na”, whose picturization is beautiful but totally out of context with the style of the movie. There are moments where jokes are taken totally overboard and that works against the movie.

Acting wise I was highly impressed with Ranbir and the chemistry with Katrina worked well in the movie. The casting was great and I personally loved the performance of Darshan Jariwala who played Prem’s dad in the movie.

I went to the movie with 5 of my friends and by the end of the movie only only was still there. By contrast almost the whole theater loved the movie and I echoed their opinion. So I cant guarantee that you will love or hate the movie, but if you like the first 15 min of the movie rest assured you will like the movie.

As I lay there in bed an odd thought occurred to me. What if I wake up tomorrow and cant remember the story at all. What if I forget it like a dream? The next moment I was up with a pencil and a piece of paper jotting down points about the idea.

Approximately an hour later I had the entire play written What was amazing was that I had struggled to write for such a long time that this idea truly came as my Saviour. It felt really awesome to connect with my thoughts creatively after such a long time. Now hopefully others will like it as much as I do.

A motion picture, or music, or television, they have to maintain a certain decorum in order to be broadcast to a vast audience. Other forms of mass media cost too much to product to risk reaching only a limited audience. Only one person. But a book… A book is cheap to print and bind. A book is as private and consensual as sex. A book takes time and effort to consume – something that gives a reader every chance to walk away. Actually, so few people make the effort to read that it’s difficult to call books a ‘mass medium’. No one really gives a damn about books. No one has bothered to ban a book in decades.

….

These are the places that only books can go.

This is the advantage that books still have. This is why I write.

- The Guts Effect by Chuck Palahniuk

Found this amazing Essay by the author of Fight Club. The essay had me hooked as it explained a phenomenon that happened at the readings of a certain short story by Chuck Palahniuk. The phenomenon is covered in the Wikipedia article of the author:

While on his 2003 tour to promote his novel Diary, Palahniuk read to his audiences a short story titled “Guts”, a tale of accidents involving masturbation, which appears in his book Haunted. It was reported that to that point, 40 people had fainted while listening to the readings. Playboy magazine would later publish the story in their March 2004 issue; Palahniuk offered to let them publish another story along with it, but the publishers found the second work too disturbing. On his tour to promote Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories in the summer of 2004, he read the story to audiences again, bringing the total number of fainters up to 53, and later up to 60, while on tour to promote the softcover edition of Diary. In the fall of that year, he began promoting “Haunted”, and continued to read “Guts”. At his October 4, 2004 reading in Boulder, Colorado, Palahniuk noted that, after that day, his number of fainters was up to 68. The last fainting occurred on May 28, 2007, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, where 5 people fainted, one of which occurred when a man was trying to leave the auditorium, which resulted in him falling and hitting his head on the door. Palahniuk is apparently not bothered by these incidents, which have not stopped fans from reading “Guts” or his other works. Audio recordings of his readings of the story have since circulated on the Internet. In the afterword of the latest edition of “Haunted”, Palahniuk reports that “Guts” is now responsible for 73 faintings.

After reading the essay and the article I was drawn to read the short story. Nothing in the world could have prepared me for the experience that was this story. The story is hardy any length yet I had to pause twice while reading it just so that I dont throw up. After a short walk I finished reading the story.

This story aint for the faint of heart. If you cant handle gore I suggest you simply skip reading it but if you can then you simply must read it.

Guts by Chuck Palahniuk

Kaise bataye kyun tujhko chahe
Yaara bata na paaye
Baatein dilon ki zuban aankhon ki tujhe samjhayen
Tu jaane na
Tu jaane na

- Tu Jane Na – Atif Aslam – Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani

Am totally in love with this song… Cant get the tune out of my head

A lonely cart stands soaked after the rain…

Took this picture in my most recent trip to Honey Valley. Ironic how dirty the cart looked when it was not in use…

This Diwali was made special by two awesome celebrations. One at midnight on the eve of Diwali and the another on the last day.

I wasnt exactly prepared for the first celebration and that meant that I dont have any photos from that day. But that evening we were far away from the city at a friends place on his birthday. My friends and I went nuts with hardly another soul awake for miles

The next celebration was more planned but loads of fun. Diwali as always was a spectacular fun

After we exhausted the simple fireworks, we turned our attention to the Rockets. First it was straightforward and then we went crazy firing up rockets in pairs

I managed to capture some scenes of celebration around my place later in the evening. I wish I had taken a lot more photos but am happy that I could continue the custom I had started Four Years ago…

Photos from the Past:
2005
2006
2007
2008

MISF!T is revealing its brand new play “Pancake Helen” to the public this weekend. The Satirical whodunit will truly leave you in splits…

This is one of the plays I have been looking forward to watch for a while now. Ever since I first read the play I have wanted to be a part of it but unforeseen circumstances kept me away from the play… But now the play is here! I am thrilled that it is going to be performed this weekend and the fact that a very dear friend of mine, Venky is directing it, is truly a bonus. The ensemble is some of the best actors I have seen and shared the stage with.

Trust me this is one play you wouldn’t want to miss…

Dates and Time
SATURDAY 24th OCTOBER – 7.30 PM
SUNDAY 25th OCTOBER – 4 PM & 7.30 PM

For details about how to get the tickets and Directions to the Venue Click Here.

This setup initially had me worried but after the first few days, it feels good to be out of reach of anyone for a while…

A Quiet & Serene Road at Coonoor

I walked this road twice, once in pitch darkness at around midnight and once the next day just around day break… When was it more beautiful? Honestly I cant say…

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About a month or so ago my colleagues and I did a fun filled three day trip to Honey Valley Resort near Madikere. The trip was one of the most surprisingly fun trips of my life. Almost nothing that I expected to happen happened and whatever did happen left this amazing sense of adrenaline that is somehow still clinging on.

We traveled from Bangalore via the Mysore road and the Hunsur road towards our destination. The recent rains had made the landscape lush green and the drive was an absolute pleasure. We were a large group about 23 people(colleagues had brought their families along too) and that meant a train of 6 cars headed together.

As we reached Honey Valley the rain made its appearance. The slight drizzle gave way to heavy showers as we reached Kabbinakad Junction, from this point on we need to ride the 4×4’s to the resort that was about 4 kms away on top of the mountain. The heavy rain meant that the boys of the group were more than happy to get a ride on an open top jeep.

With rain lashing at us we clung onto our dear lives enjoying what was easily one of the best experiences of our lives. By the time we reached to the top we were soaking wet but our spirits were on top of the world. That was when I had a feeling that this trip is going to be something very different… This was my second visit to HV in almost three months and that meant that it felt very much like home. We relaxed the first day simply talking and walking around the place.

Day two started out like a perfect day. We set out after breakfast to trek to a nearby spot called the “dry pond”. From that place multiple trekking routes branched out and we decided to pick one and continue the trek.

The Dry Pond wasn’t exactly dry thanks to the recent rains. The beautiful hills behind Honey Valley were clearly visible. We made a decision to trek along a path that was called the Ridge Walk. We hadn’t planned for anything so decided to simply go along and see what came about.

The trek was really fun. It went deep into the estate and suddenly came out to a path that skirted the mountain. The view was to simply die for… Then we reached a narrow stretch that was a very steep climb. Along the way we noticed a few footprints of an animal and could not figure out what it was. It was concerning as the print was fresh and it didnt seem like a domesticated animal. The print wasnt clear and we feared it was a hyena.

After a short discussion we decided to carry on with the lead person(which was me) had been given a nice stick in case something approached. I can swear that my only concern was that if something did show up, I was hoping someone behind me to get a good photo of it in front of me Ofcourse I knew it couldn’t be a very dangerous animal

Unsurprisingly nothing showed up and we reached a point from which we could see a beautiful waterfall. We spent a few minutes there and then decided to head back. We were worried on two accounts, we had no water or food and this was meant to be a day long trek. We had really enjoyed ourselves and this seemed like the right thing to do.

As we headed back we saw a small stretch of fine grass a little distance from the Dry Pond. A friend and I decided to sit down and meditate for a while. The soothing sounds of nature and the cool breeze seemed like the perfect setup for relaxing the mind. After making fun of us for a few minutes the rest of my colleagues headed back to the Dry Lake.

So there we were, sitting calmly and enjoying nature. We meditated for a few minutes… I had kept my shoes on fearing leeches and my friend suggested that I take them off and sit down more comfortably. I thought it was a good idea and took them off. As I sat down, there was this huge roar behind us. We both just jolted out of the place we were sitting on.

We turned around to find a wild buffalo. I was clearly startled and all I kept thinking was if I had my shoes on it would be easier to run. Fortunately the animal simply looked at us and turned away. We laughed for a bit and then headed back to the Resort.

The rest of the evening was spent talking and playing a few games. The next morning we spent a little while talking over breakfast and then packed our bags and headed back.

The rain had made the surrounding a perfect muse and I wasnt going to miss the opportunity   I got some really good macro shots and some rare animal photos too.

The fun thing about the trip was that in its narration here, I had to skip about 60% of the events that happened. You can imagine how crazy it had been.

Anyway it was a really fun trip and I totally loved it.