Soulfully, yours.

A lazy, breezy and soothing soundtrack with a heart of gold. I am sure they will rekindle strings untouched, and will breathe hope in our lives.

The title solo is a typical ARR, loaded with Rahman’s silky voice and peppy beats. Mohit Chauhan sizzles in ‘Taare Ginn’, Arijit Singh swoons with ‘Khulke Jeene Ka’, ‘Maskhari’ is fun all the way and ‘Afreeda’ is a semi-Sufi number with some great vocals. ‘Friendzone’ is more of a prelude to the titular ‘Dil Bechara’.

If something else doesn’t come up, ‘Dil Bechara’ is on it’s way to become the most talked about soundtrack of 2020. And, yes. It talks about life, hope and survival. Musically!

ReWork and ReBuild

If you can’t change something, then the new norms are to reimagine and improvise.

Let’s not forget, 2020 will exist, will be remembered and will go down in history as an extraordinary event that reshaped the world. 360 degrees, with perhaps the most fatal twist.

War and Immortality

If you are in the edge and you run the show using your instincts and an indomitable spirit to protect your country, then the equation becomes binary. ‘Greyhound’ is a war film and precisely shot, a gripping and pulsating event comes live on screen with the enigmatic Tom Hanks. Tom is also credited with the screenplay for the film and he doesn’t disappoint. Lasting for a little over 92 minutes, ‘Greyhound’ is a stealer that doesn’t stop despite withering waters and devouring enemy lines. Without inevitable comparisons to classics, I will round this off as a watchable delight. Streaming on Apple TV+.

If immortality exists and we could live for years or centuries, then this world will become the epitome of a dysfunctional world. ‘The Old Guard’ is a robust take on this perilous concept and what follows is a roller coaster ride, adept with thrills and frills. I don’t miss Charlize Theron, hence this was an obvious selection. Rest, I want to say very little about anything else. Was I guarded..? Yes, I was. Streaming on Netflix.

Word Play

Words don’t have a pattern, just like life. But as we start building them, they can end up with unique designs. Sometimes, you know what you are building. At times, you don’t. And, that’s where it gets interesting.

I like toying with words, they are full of surprises and intrigue. Ditto, life.

Word of the World

It is apparently, everything in our lives.

The source of sustenance, the reason to make excuses and live your life for those moments that remain etched forever. Hope..

When we are born, we don’t know it yet. We don’t understand the meaning of birth or life, we don’t even know that we exist. In fact, we co exist. People around us give us the feeling of life around us, to see people talking, breathing, hugging each other, saying that we mean something to each other. Till we understand or rather try to understand that this is life. We never know if we will live enough to see what life is. That, for me, is ‘Hope’.

We grow up, get educated, get civilised, meet people, understand people. Then, we fall in love. Yes, the greatest ally and the most destructive exponent of all times is, ‘Love’. Yet, we dare. We want to explore, we want to experiment, we want to toy with the options in our life, little do we know that it’s vice versa. But, we still end up doing the inevitable. And, we want everything we touch to turn in to gold. We want spectacles in life, we want success stories that laud us in every sphere of our life. And, we want it to continue, forever. Undoubtedly, it is ‘Hope’.

Failures strike like venom, disasters don’t knock before they come in. And we, look like puppets in the swaying storm. Life succumbs to tragedies, ruthlessness and adversity. We end up seeing the worst. But, still, we want to live. We want the good days to come back. We want goodness to shine on us like the eternal rays from Jesus. And, we want time to tell us that this ain’t staying for eternity. This is, ‘Hope’.

There is always ‘Hope’, we just have to see it coming.

Unexpected Finish

Death is inevitable, an unsaid truth. But to leave like this is painful and shocking. I am not sure what was going on inside you, but this was certainly not the way to go.

The Auteur – Remembering you..

Your films were not just films, they were emotions transcending borders and cultures. A master in portraying human relationships and political drama, you were adept in bringing the best out of stars and actors to deliver the content in a way that could live and breathe for generations to come. One of the finest story tellers in the world of cinema, your films inspire me, every day.

Sir, you are not dead. You are just silent, not making movies anymore but inspiring others to deliver what you did.

Thank you! And, Happy Birthday.

Rishi Kapoor – The ‘Charm’ is no more

No, please don’t take me for a blogger who only pens down Obituaries. In fact, I hate them because I hate saying goodbye, I don’t believe in goodbyes. But apparently, these are tough times and every morning, I get this bad feeling that we are going to lose people – people who are admired, people we fall in love with, people we look up to when our personal lives looms large over intangible demons.

I was watching ‘Bobby’ yesterday, and the story of a heartthrob began. From the chubby, golu kid in ‘Mera Naam Joker’ to a young and handsome ‘Raj’ in ‘Bobby’, swaying girls across the country. And, it was just the beginning.

Rishi Kapoor has essayed many roles in the last 4 decades, particularly in the romance playground. Films like ‘Karz’, ‘Hum Kisise Kum Nahin’, ‘Khel Khel Mein’, ‘Kabhie Kabhie’ and ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ placed his status firmly with the romantic tag around his growing shoulders. Not to forget, big films like ‘Chandni’ and Damini, where he delivered emotionally charged diificult performances. Off late, it was such a delight to watch him in feel good films like ‘Do Dooni Chaar’, ‘Kapoor & Sons’, ‘Raajma Chawal’ and ‘102 Not Out’. A sheer natural, you will see that coming straight to you in his on screen characters. ‘D-Day’ was an exception but he was fun to watch as a bad guy.

A special mention for ‘Rauf Lala’, the epic gangster that Rishi Kapoor played in the modern adapation of the cult ‘Agneepath’. It was never his space or his genre, a kind of role that he has never done in his long running career. And, his performance was a revelation! I didn’t see Rishi Kapoor, I saw ‘Rauf Lala’ on screen and he became the most watchable character in the most talked about remake of the classic. It was truly a testimony to his acting capabilities. I am gonna watch it again, just for him.

Chintu Ji, we will miss you.

Irrfan Khan – An Actor of Substance

‘When death strikes, it’s not about the darkness. It’s about those indelible marks that are left behind’.

I really believed that he will fight this out and come back to do what he does best, acting. But somewhere, it was written otherwise. It’s a tragic loss to the world of Cinema, and we have lost brilliance and versatility in the same breath.

But, I have some fond memories of Irrfan Khan as an actor, as someone who gave us something new to cherish every time he dazzled on screen.

His ascending fortunes from a television star to the big screen giant was a leap that was inevitable at some point in his career. His nonchalance, his ability to pull off uncanny roles and his penchant for scripts with a soul were so distinctive of his personality and his films were a testimony to his impeccable on screen characters.

If he was gorgeously disturbed and menacing in ‘Maqbool’, he was painfully convincing in ‘Paan Singh Tomar’. His earlier stints in films like ‘Salaam Bombay’ was a teaser for what was coming ahead of us. He proved how equally subtle and submissive he can be in Mira Nair’s ‘Namesake’, and he refused ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ as he felt that the film challenged his ideologies on religion. That, speaks of a man who was so convinced and resolute about what he was doing.

Films like ‘Piku’, ‘Blackmail’, ‘Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster’, ‘Karwaan’ and ‘Qarib Qarib Singlle’ were meant to be his sidekicks, but he created his own territory in these commercial ventures, which is a tribute for someone whose genre is not mainstream. Yet, he was deceptively and unknowingly so mainstream that we never realised his impact on us as an actor. In ‘Haider’, he was hardly around but his scenes are some of the most revered ones in an iconic film. ‘Lunchbox’ was another gem in his fabulous body of work. His roles in Hollywood films were not very substantial but he did make his presence felt in the international arena with films like ‘Life of Pi’, ‘Jurassic World’, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. Not to forget, Asif Kapadia’s ‘The Warrior’, which catapulted him to fame and recognition early in his career.

Irrfan, I am not your greatest advocate. In fact, I don’t exist at all for you, in your life. But, why do I feel that today I have lost someone who, somewhere, at some point of time, in many ways, has touched my life and you belong to those moments in my life.

We have lost a genuine actor today, and I will miss your kind of Cinema. I am sure, I will.

Silence Imperious

I have been away but for a reason.

Not negligence, not disinterest. Perhaps, it is self introspection.

Back, for good. Not for someone, but for what I am.