And the Oscar goes to....

"May all praise be to the almighty"....
Collecting that absolutely gorgeous golden man, when Rahman said those words, we were all there in that moment with him sharing that glory.

A glory that took a long time coming. But its here now and how proud we all are.
It was almost like a beautifully scripted film....hitting just the right notes at all the right times.

But like with every film we all have that one special moment that we always remember.
For me that moment came....when a calm, composed and almost unruffled with such a huge success....Rahman in a dramatic way declared "mere pass maa hai"!!

When Salim-Javed had written those lines for the then angry young man of the 70s...Vijay...who in a passionate monologue declares that he has nothing in life except his mother;s wishes...cinama halls had echoed the applause for a long time.

Trishul had gone on to be a huge hit...and that dialogue resurfacing each time in either a stage show or in ads to demonstrate the angst of that angry young man. So even the writer duo in their wildest dreams would not have imagined this dialogue making it onto the biggest stage of cinema....the oscars. Only to be spoken.....in a complete contrast....by a humble, composed and as far from that angry young man like rahman...as they could possibly imagine!

For me it was truly the moment when bollywood had made it on that big stage in all its glory :)

Now while im happy like everyone else that Rahman and Resul Pookutty rocked at the oscars....im still not convinced that slumdog was the better film of the day. Sometimes we are at the right place at the right time and then small budgets and great work don't matter.

Some say the timing for the film was right....coming at the height of recession the story of an underdog gives everyone hope. Some argue that its India;s poverty at its gloriest best, shining so brightly amongst the glittering diamonds and glamourous vaentinos and armani;s at the oscars.

But I think sometimes its just your day and then nothing else matters. Slumdog by any stretch of imagination can't be called Rahman;s or for that matter even Danny Boyle;s best work.
Rahman is a genius who has done some absolutely sensational work and this recognition for him was just long overdue. But S always says...nature never keeps anyone;s due. And if its a long time coming then even better...cos then u get your due with interest. Rahman got two oscars!!

Whether or not its true....one will never know. But what we DO know is that its made each and every Indian....no matter how cynical and critical of Slumdog;s journey right upto that moment when they all came on stage...a believer.

And isn't that what we celebrated at the 81st Academy awards this year? Hope winning over everything and every hardship .... and victory for the underdog...in this case...the slumdog. So here;s to the best picture according to me...the oscars!

m

Bollywood ke naam...

"Kitne aadmi they..." or "mat ro pushpa...i hate tears re!" or the more recent "rahul...naam to suna hoga". Over the years so many of these dialogues are now practically part of everyone's memory.

But there are some bollywood fans like me...who alongwith all these mega blockbuster films also have as part of their growing up memories some films/songs/dialogues that most of you would not even have heard of. Well...unless ur a crazy fan like me...in which case we may have loads to reminisce about.

Now....ive dug out a few gems for those who are not fans...yet.

For example...
- how many of you know that once there was a hot debate in the industry in early 90s on whether rahul roy should be shown in the buff in a film called "Junoon". From the mahesh bhatt camp....this film had roy turning into a tiger everytime there was a full moon night because he had killed a tiger on one such night. So dutifully he lures women on full moon nights with songs picturised in discos .."prem prem o' meri dilruba tu dil ke kareen hai...tera pyaar mera naseeb hai..." and then eats them up in the disco loo!! (after such an exciting plot would you even THINK about rahul roy in the buff?)

- Now Rangoli on sunday mornings and chitrahaar on wed and friday nights at 8pm were nector for starving souls like me. I still remember at 7.15 my sunday morning made...when I caught the song from Meera ka Mohan....an Avinash Wadhawan (who couldnt dance to save his life!) with a flute in his hand..singing..."O Krishna...you are the greatest musician of this world.." in Bappi Da's inimitable voice!

- In late 80's and even till mid 90's....when cable hadn't invaded homes and hearts the way it has now...small publishing houses used to take out booklets for newly released films...almost like a comic book...full with dialogues and songs etc! My sister will tell you...all my pocket money went towards buying those books. I remember "reading" Tehelka...and even though it was a true classic...cos id heard it on the radio many a times...it was only much later that i SAW the songs...main hoon naram garam....arre kaisi sharam! or aditya panscholi ...naseer and javed jaffery dressed in bikinis singing...meri chhatri ke neeche aaja...kyun bheege re kamla khadi khadi!!

- "where is the time to hate...when there is so little time to love...come on lets sing sing sing...come on lets dance dance dance....come on have fun fun fun...meri jaan"...from saatwan aasman. Do I really need to elaborate this?!

- classic hollywood dialogues like "think and hit" from Ghost became "socho aur maaro..." in a straight lift Pyaar ka Saaya

- My personal fav is "if you want to shoot....shoot....don't talk" by ajay devgan...in phool aur kaante and "bolte bahut ho keshav.." by anupam kher from roop ki rani choron ka raja...just after he shoots "keshav"....for talking too much.
Interestingly..had it released much earlier Rakeysh Mehra's pigeon in Dilli 6;s....the much talked about...masakalli....would have been in direct competition with Anil Kapoor;s 'Jango' in the film...!!

Im not even sure if anyone is reading my ramblings....but if you are...and have some of those gems to share...do write in.

Love and think money!

m

For the 'love' of....

Im an avid facebooker. I take all the quizzes, predictions and applications quite seriously. So when my dear friend dubes sent me an invitation to share 25 random things about myself...it really got me thinking.
By the time the note was written and posted...i realised that 2 points got everyone's attention. So much so that all day today I just fielded calls about it.
1. I still read mills and boon.
2. I dont believe in romance...just great holidays.

When a very dear friend asked if i was reading romance novels to scout for holiday destinations......all i could say was that she'd clearly not read "Italian billionaire's virgin mistress"!...cos the description of tuscany in that is better than in any other book ive read..so yes it IS about great holidays :)

But it got me thinking....at a time when we;re all leading such heavy duty lives..whats wrong with a girl enjoying a bit of distraction?!

The first time I picked up one..(cant even remember when that was!) it was called "Greek tycoon's reluctant bride". Is there any other kind? Id said to myself at the time. Many years and several thousand books later....im hopelessly hooked.

For the uninitiated...welcome to the world of intrigue, silhoutte, historical and harlequin romances. These are categories under which writers pen down those thoughts and fantasies that never ever come true for average, middle class, hard working girls like me.

They;re glamourous, sarcastic, erotic and witty (ok im pushing it a bit) and loads of fun. Where else will you see the CEO of a multi billion empire falling first in lust with the office cleaner in pink overalls...that somehow manage to make him imagine the body underneath. And after that punishing kiss...miraculously fall in love...a state he;d managed to avoid till he met our girl...despite only dating super stunning models before that.

Or the boy from the wrong side of the tracks (these settings are only in greece, italy or downtown newyork!) who after a close brush with the law..despite being an orphan with no money and no prospects suddenly ends up as a billionaire. For revenge, dates some heiress whose family is now actually bankrupt but she hasnt lost her breeding!..and then while teaching her a lesson..he himself learns the most important lesson of all...that love conquers all.

This is the world where anything is possible. Men are always dashing with broad shoulders and impeccable manners, rough on the outside and mush on the inside and sexual atheletes to boot. Women are beautiful ...their hair always "cascading", some are even virgins at 26! always with pure hearts....who manage to find that happily-ever after.....that eludes so many of us.

So whats wrong i ask again...if we take refuge in a bit of fantasy every now and then. After all it does ease off some of that stress thats become a part of our left rib by now! And makes us look forward to that trip to tuscany...in hope that we may run into our italian billionaire there :)

Everyone;s allowed to borrow a lil fairy tale....its valentine;s day after all.

m

What's in a name?

A few hours that I've been a blogger, ive got questions on why my blog has such a strange name! Now ideally i would have just flicked my hair and said...cos i wanted one...! But just this one time im making an exception.


The thing is im addicted to that absolutely intelligently funny and addictive series called "Sex and the City". And even though I wish I was more like a cross between Carrie and Samantha...my biggest fear is that im actually like Miranda!!!!!!! Anyway....


Now of course this bit is only for the SATC fans. So when Big marries Natasha and Carrie wonders why it wasnt her...the girls come up with a parallel from that old classic fav of mine "the way we were"!


Big is like Hubbell who couldn't be with Katie cos she was too complicated and too independent and too passionate and just too too too everything. And thats when the 4 girls realise that the world is made up of two kinds of girls. The simple girls (the one that hubbell marries and the Big marries) and the Katie girls.


The girls who may SEEM like losers to the world but are actually living life on their own terms. After all how many of us can claim to have that privilege! I imediately realised too that im a katie girl. So when i was choosing a name for my blog and 99 other names got rejected...cos they'd all been taken by the simple girls...i tried this one. and voila!


So there....I AM A KATIE GIRL :)

m

A brand new slate!

Before we begin this extremely adventurous journey...there are a few things you all need to know about me!

- im bad at punctuation. no can do!
- i dont like or dislike things. i just LOVE and HATE!
- i love cinema with a passion thats blinding and often tend to get carried away with even the most random films ever!
- and my i-pod is my most treasured possession!

so whats new with you?

m