Goodbye 2009 - Welcome 2010

It had been a busy last few weeks of 2009. So many things happened that I totally lost track of time, events, and everything. In fact, there were many days when I did not feel like blogging (gasp!!)! I felt we were racing towards 2010 and I really wanted to be in 2009 for some more time... not that December 2009 was a gr8 month b'cos:

Disaster 1:

The Arien had been driving me nuts with his Avatar comments and so I finally said "Yes - Lets go!" on Friday evening. We booked tickets for the late evening show on saturday. I asked the senior Arien if we would like to accompany us. Surprisingly, the senior Arien agreed. Watching it on 2-D was def. a factor in our not enjoying the movie but hey effects are not everything. Plus, I recieved this very funny fwd regarding Pocahontas and Avatar tht totally killed my "Oh my" feeling.

It was a surreal experience but smwhere in the middle - I actually got bored and wanted to know if others were equally bored (first time ever), the senior Arien yawned, and the Arien was a bit surprised tht the hyped movie was not meeting his expectations :(

Disaster 2:

I had my first puncture on my bike. It happened on a Friday at work. Sunday was spent pushing the damn bike up the ramp tht leads to the entrance and the Arien dropped it off at the only place that was willing to fix it - a cycle shop. Since it was my first puncture and had hpnd after 5 looong years.. they had a hard time getting the tube out. I spent a "watthehell" twenty minutes watching the cycle shop owner's assistant do sm weird moves on my tyre as he tried to change the tube... AAhhhh!!

Disaster 3:

A bug(not the multi-legged variety) landed on my desk which required that I use all the diplomacy I had (included heavily borrowing on my reserve) as well as all my time and effort (which fyi were already on reserve). The actual fixing jes took one single day but the entire process was an absolute killjoy - Aiyooo!!

Disaster 4:

Based on the enthu showed by one of my Arien frends who had jes been to Hampi, I jumped into "Lets go to Hampi" mode till the Arien had no go but to agree. Beegest trip disaster in recent times. The Arien got bored and told me he was tired of seeing temples when in actuality we had not visited even a single temple. I got pretty depressed after visiting the ruins and was actually ready to go home. So, it was yet another disastrous turn of events.

While I spent the last few days waiting for a miracle - Nothing hpnd. I finally decided to be happy b'cos Disaster 5 did not land on my desk. For all you folks waiting for my X-mas updates - the Arien decided to get a new crib on 24th December at 8 pm. I was ready to freak out b'cos it was really too late to go shopping for the crib. Why it does not feature under a disaster is that we were suprisingly lucky in our search and the Arien had this huge smile when we placed all the statues in the crib. It was a nice X-mas with the Star attraction being shared by the new crib and the zooming in Star.

Pink Panther 2

After the very boring De Dana Dan, we returned home feeling cheated. I wanted to watch a comedy so I cud laugh at the jokes in the movie instead of at the movie or at myself for actually sitting through tht nonsense. The Arien was glued to his comp and I was reading "a girl like me" by Swati Kaushal. I was not sure why I picked it up... it was 'bout a teen who has moved frm Minnesota to Delhi, and though I continued reading it - I did not like it much. I wanted to get started on "Plum Island".

The Arien looks up from his comp and says "Lets watch Pink Panther 2 after dinner." This is the movie where Ash makes her hollywood debut... and it stars Steve Martin, whom I luvv. I tell the Arien "Lets order Chinese and we can watch the movie now". The Arien does not want to eat chinese. We spent a few minutes in silence. I am trying to figure out where we can order food frm while the Arien is planning wht he wud like me to cook for him :D A compromise saved the day - we can make chappthi and aloo subji at home.

Pink Panther 2 is quite funny in some parts, Ash is Sonia Solandress (hehehehe!!), there is romance in the air for Steve and Emily (Nicole), and quite a few new characters. While Steve Martin was simbly hilarious in Pink Panther - the sequel did not match up. The Arien, for once agreed with me. Ash does not have a blink and miss role but she has almost nothing to do but b there - which she is good at. The ending is tame and very predictable... as I have mentioned in most of my reviews, I like a twist in the story. Well, apart from the scene where Steve Martin dresses up as the Pope and stands at the Balcony, all the others scenes kinda fall short. I got over De Dana Dan inspite of the fact that Pink Panther 2 did not meet my expectations - thanks to Steve Martin.

De Dana Dan

Inspite of having watched Hera Pheri, and really enjoyed it, laughing - the deep down belly laugh - not the obligatory giggle or the short bark laugh - for some portions of the movie, I opted for Ajab Prem Ki Ajab Kahani for the weekend outing over De Dana Dan for our wknd movie watching. Ranbir is watchable and the Arien can drool 0ver Katz :D

We left home around 11:15 and reached the theatre at 12:45 ( 15 mts too late for the show). While the Arien insisted we catch the movie anyway, I opted for De Dana Dan at 2:15. After booking the tickets, we had a long-drawn discussion on where we wud have lunch - a lot of time was spent in shooting down the other's choice - we can b such babies smtms - we finally settled on Millers 46. When we left Millers 46, after totally stuffing our faces, we realized that it was 2. If we did not walk in a fast and furious manner, we wud b late.. yet again. After all the hulaboo, one wud expect that it was a not-so-bad movie, right?? WRONG!!

It was so unfunny that it produced a short laugh for tht reason. It was almost as if they shot a few songs - including the promo number "Paisa Paisa karthi hai.." and then wrote the script to bind the unconnected songs to each other. In fact, for the promo song, Akshay spoke 1 dialogue b4 the song to introduce the song which was one of the many unnecessary songs in the movie. It reminded me of the obligatory intro sentence before a procedure, "To configure blahdeblaah on blaah, do the following:" I am sure you all know wht I mean. Talking of unnecessary songs, there was this waterfall song with katz in a saree ( supposed to b the hot n sexy number) which had absolutley no ooomph quotient at all. I was reminded of Akshay's earlier hot number with Raveena in a yellow saree, "Tip Tip Barasa Paani" which I thot was a scandalous number. This was the absolute opposite of tht song - kats was absolutely robo-like in her precision to cmplt those moves which probably killed Akshay's enthu :D In fact, I felt he wud smhw burst out laughing in the middle of the song. The Arien did with "God!! She is so.. so.. unsexy. " I was surprised tht we had the same opinion :) There is also this titanic-like scene that is oh sooo bad... you are tempted to leave before the credits start rolling.

Rating: 1/5
Why is it that every hindi movie I have reviewed is kinda bad, worse, or worse than worse??

The General's Daughter

As I was browsing through the library yet again, I came across this book which I picked up for my weekend reading. I recall the Arien asking me to watch a movie by the same title with him, while I was busy doing the Sudoku and catching up on my sleep, so ob. I gave it a miss. Anyway, I have always liked the book more than the movie and so I decided to read the book.

You are introduced to the story from the perspective of Paul Brenner, a member of the military CID, who is called in to investigate the death of the daughter of a very famous General. He is assisted by a rape counsultant, who is also his ex-flame, Sarah. Investigation into the house of the general's daughter Elizabeth, reveals a number of skeletons in the closet. It is a case that could easily kill his career, growth, and reputation but Paul decides that he shall do his very best to solve the case. He talks to the various people that Elizabeth knew and finds that each person had a motive to kill her. Paul attempts to reconstruct the crime based on the the details shared by the various ppl involved and zooms in on first one person and then the actual killer.

However, while there is proof that the killer was in the vicinity - there is no proof that the killer actually committed the crime. There was motive but so many others also had motive. There was a lot of circumstantial evidence but that would not hold up in court. So it was actually "We know that he knows that we know" and Paul knew that until the killer breaks down and confesses - the killer cud not be convicted and he cud not solve the case. The story dragged at the end, you are feeling desperate and then it breaks. The ending was kinda expected but the book was fantastic.

Urged the Arien to download the movie, as I kept imagining Denzel Washington in Paul Brenner's role and found out that it was John Travolta instead. The movie does make a few changes. Paul (John Travolta) meets Elizabeth in the movie whereas in the book, he has never met her and is called in after the body is found. For folks, who prefer to watch the movie rather than read the book, it has some adult content and so I advice viewer discreetion. Others, read the book - I loved it :)

Gracie Lindsay

It had been a tiring week and I was looking forward to some serious light reading. Too many weekends had disappeared as part of arbid get-2gethers and I really wanted some time to laze, read, read, laze, and so on in an infinite loop. Naturally, the Arien does not get this and so it is a major tussle. So, I was very surprised wen the Arien was asked to report for OT over the weekend. Always in a mood for drama, I waved a sorrowful bye and a "I will miss you", as he left for work on a saturday. The Arien replied in his usual blunt manner "Uff - don't do all this natak - I know u are going to laze all day with tht book of urs. Jes b ready when I come home - we can go out for dinner." Wooohooo!

True to his comment, jes minutes after he left, I picked up Gracie Lindsay. First thing I noted was that the book had been published in 1978. The book was the size of a student notebook or probably the size of Enid Blyton's Secret Seven or Famous Five. The story was written in a simple, clear manner that is distinctly old style. The story is about Gracie, who is returning to her homeland after having been away for more than 7 years. She had left her hometown amidst scandalous rumours, bad gossip and left behind a broken-hearted boy-friend, a heart-broken uncle and a not-so-heart-broken aunt. In those 7 years, she married a man much older to her, and moved to Cawnpore (yes.. Kanpur), India. The husband dies and she decides to return to her hometown - with gifts frm Kashmir, Calcutta, and Mysore. (Yupp... lotsa Indian places.. fairly gave me a thrill!!)

Gracie is not made out to be the epitome of goodness, selfless lowe, etc., she is self-centered, selfish, wanting her chance of happiness with her old boyfriend, who is now engaged to be married. As the entire town watches, she goes out on secret trysts with her old boyfriend, behaves like a pampered niece to her uncle, neglects to find out more 'bout her child who was given away for adoption, goes out with a notorious womaniser to make her old boyfriend jealous, etc. In spite of the way she behaves, instead of contempt, you feel sorry for her.

I was very curious to know how the story wud end, but was very disappointed at the ending. Killing her off in a vague accident, where she somehow manages to save her son was very blaaah. It seemed more like an easy way out for the author. I was not expecting her to become a changed person but I was hoping for a lil happiness for her. This is the first book I have read of this author. When I mentioned the author's name to the senior Arien, he went "aaaah.. He was a gr8 writer - you must read the Citadel". Hmmm... shd remember tht name when I go to the library next time.