Vetayadu Vilayadu

Please forgive me for what I am about to do, for I cannot believe I am doing it.

Vetayadu Vilayadu is a crappy movie. Crappy story line. Crappy screenplay. Crappy dialogues. Crappy direction. Crappy acting. Very crappy acting. Crappy music. Everything about the movie is crappy.

This could be because I had very high expectations from the movie. Well, not really. From Kamalhassan, yes. From Gautham Menon, no. I am no fan of his direction. Minnale was a good movie because of Vivek and the music. Kakha Kakha was a very average movie. From what I call a “movie technique” it was a crappy movie. On the same grounds Vetayadu Vilayadu falls flat on its face.

It has a set of half baked characters in a less than half baked plot. Indian directors, except a very few, have no idea what character development means. If someone is a psychopath, they do weird things for no reason or rhyme. And they talk about “path breaking” research, when they hardly have any time for killing everyone who seems to come across their path. Kamal comes up with a performance worthy of a movie in the late 80’s. I am going to stop with that and not say anything more bad about his performance for old times sake. I have no inkling why Kamal accepted the movie. It was a Fanaa all over again. To Gautham Menon, using terms like “forensics”, “semen” and “state-wide alert” means making a hatke movie. The camera work is pretty nifty at places, but they have over done it.

The surprise package is Jothika. She comes up with a surprisingly controlled performance. Yes, I used the word surprise twice. Even though she has very little to do, she seems to be the only sane person in the movie. Her husband, or should I say ex-husband, is another story all together. And the two negative characters, the less said about them the better.

A comment at the end of the movie by a friend of mine sums up the movie adequately: “I can accept the fact that Gautham Menon couldn’t come up with a new story, the least he could have done is come up with new names for the characters.

It was a complete disappointment.

Ahista Ahista

The title is highly suggestive of the pace of the movie. The movie ambles along, but manages to sustain your interest

First, it is an Abhay Deol movie, from the first scene to the last and he has done a really good job for someone acting in his second film. Like B said, he seems to be the only Deol who knows how to act. Soha Ali Khan comes up with a very good performance herself. The director seems to have loved her expressions and focuses on her face on quite a few scenes in the movie, but very justifiably so – a solid performance. The bandwala, the little kid, the muslim friend and his mom all have come up with memorable performances. The only misfit and the most visible mistake by the director is casting Shayan Munshi. He is a total miscast and there is absolutely no chemistry between Soha and him. It might have been so because the director did not want any.

The direction was really good for a debutant. It was as if the director had decided that he would make a completely logical movie and he has managed to stick to it till the end. You can definitely find a few loop holes if you look just a little harder, but I have decided not to. The screenplay and the dialogues are even more impressive. The story though simplistic and oft seen before, stands apart because of the dialogues, or rather the lack of them. Watch out for that scene in the end where Abhay asks Soha if he really loves him. This is one of the simplest scenes ever taken in bollywood in the last two decades.

The music is very decent, if you can ignore Mr.Reshammiya’s voice in most of the songs. Overall, a very good watch.

The i-dont-know-what-to-call-it tag

I am thinking about -

what i should do to parody for tagging me…

I said -

i don’t agree with everything i say

I want to -

lay down under the sky and stare at the stars

I wish -

i was not so lazy

I miss -

mom
B
my college gang
(jus noticed, i seem to be missing too many people)

I hear -

”tere bina….”

I wonder -

how far does the rabbit hole go?

I need -

people
my thought process
music
did I say people?

I regret -

being an a*****e at times

I dance -

probably when i am dead, or when i am with B….well they r both the same (now I know for sure that they are both the same)
I cry -

like a baby

I am not always -

superman, but almost always…

I make with my hands -

the finger??

I write -

for fun
to see what i am made of
not to forget

I confuse -

simple things

I should try -

to find out what i am really good for
not to be an a*****e
to make a difference

I should finish -

parody off, for tagging me

I know -

that my can of mountain dew jus got over.

I am -

what I am. I will be what I will be.

And finally -

this is over.

I tag -
no one. let life start all over again.

Moving on …

It hit me first when I went to the travel center and asked for a one-way ticket to Chicago. I was done with Madison. (I had a dream last night in which I ended up needing a return ticket to Madison and I was cursing myself for not having bought one). I don’t know where the two years went. Two years of masters and did I learn something?

Actually, I learnt a lot. I found that logic design was something I really loved. I am using the term “loved” because I don’t think I am going to be doing it ever again in my life. True, that doesn’t mean I don’t love logic design anymore. But hey, you know what I mean. I found that my math was not good enough for DSP. I also learnt I am no techie. I learnt I was super lazy and that you needed to really work hard if you were to do well at a master’s level. I also learnt that I was smart enough to do fairly OK, still being super lazy. I also learnt that the rest of the world doesn’t agree with everything I say.

But, things weren’t bad at all. Madison is one of the most beautiful places I have lived. It comes a close second to K. And I have lived in two places all my life. That doesn’t take away how beautiful Madison is. Its just because I am a lil biased towards K. And just like from my school days and my college days, I made friends, really good ones. I mean for life. I know people say that all the time. But I have been lucky to keep the ones from my school and college days and I am sure as hell not gonna lose em now. But to be honest, I have always been lucky. I seem to end up in places where there are some really nice people. I hope my luck doesn’t end up on me till I am like 94 or so.

In a few days, its gonna be, adios Madison.

P.S: Like some one, more enlightened than me once said, “The sad thing about leaving a place is that cities, water bodies and places are immobile.”