Minia's Mundane Musings

TRAFFIC JAMS AND SAVIOURS Driving home tonight from a dinner I took a by lane assuming that it shall reach me home faster. Alas I had discounted the famous “Pune Grid” that we Punekars are so adept at making, and at the point where the by lane met the main highway there was a grid so interlocked that it would put a mosquito net to shame. And then I knew that I had a long wait ahead of me…….. There was bumper to bumper traffic and I was almost 20 cars deep. I switched off my engine, increased the volume of my car stereo (even more than it already was ;-) ) and prepared myself for a long wait. And soon, as we are all wont to do I started peering around awaiting a miracle that would end this logjam. As I looked around I noticed an open jeep-(my favorite ride) filled with young boys. They appeared to be in high spirits, literally! And were playing music loud enough to rouse the dead. Well, I thought what else can you expect from youngsters, and then I saw a few of them getting off ...

UGLY A good director can tell a tale with such honesty that you are just swept away with the force of emotions that are aroused in you. This is in particular the forte of Anurag Kashyap, who doesn’t beat around the bush and states baldly the facts as they are. Needless to say “UGLY” is a dark, edgy and at times moody movie which, with a wave and a gesture beckons you in to a cesspool of deep, tumultuous relationships, of which selfishness is the core emotion. A little girl goes missing and the hunt for her starts in earnest. But this ain’t a ganster movie if that’s what you are expecting. It is instead a movie that explores relationships more than any other Anurag Kashyap has ever done. There is the mother of the girl who has remarried, but finds that happiness eludes her a second time too. In fact, the girl’s stepfather- played by Ronit Roy is a specialist in the art of silent torture and without raising his voice or even resorting to violence is sadistically controlling h...

P.K Although I saw this one on the first day itself, I deliberately didn't write anything in detail as saying anything would have just given away a lot of stuff and now that enough of you have seen this by now, I am less worried about giving away the so-called "Suspense" :-)  So an alien lands on earth and is soon separated from his device which shall be able to get him back to his planet. In an effort to get back his gadget, he applies for help from the highest authority on our planet- God! What follows is a delightful series of misadventures which leads us to examine how we perceive our religion. A parallel story track is that of a journalist who has been disappointed in love and is picking up the threads of her life. On hearing the alien’s story she takes it upon herself to help him get back home. Such a simple straight forward story! But how beautifully executed…… Thinking back to Hirani’s first ever venture- Munnabhai and seeing this one now tells how Hiran...