The Guru of Ashes

HI All,

I guess you must have all heard about the engagement announcement of Ash & Abhi which even though real, was timed suspiciously like a publicity stunt for Guru which contrary to reports is doing just about OK and not great business. If a SRK film would have opened like this it would have been crucified. Indian media is not one to be fair and true except maybe for NDTV and CNN-IBN.

Anyway wish them a great life ahead or Whatever.

From this post onwards I will be ending each article with a section called ELSEWHERE: It will be a short 1-2 line report on news compiled from around the world and not necessarily written by me but which i feel you will enjoy. And hopefully it will be funny and witty too. Do comment!

About Guru, well i am sure many of you have watched it and if you have not then you should. Watch it for the camerawork (Rajiv Menon quite exemplary), music (A.R.Rehman as usual a genius) & Performances. When i say performances i presume you are all thinking of Abhishek. Well to be fair to him he does do a good job here, with the operative word being 'good'
People's opinions seem to be directly proportional to the length of the role and going by that they have been all raving about Abhi but if you watch it he is just about okay. The ageing second half is more makeup and caricature than subtelty and nuance. If you don't agree with me watch Kamal Hassan in Nayakan and you will see how hollow Abhi's performance is.
The 3 performances that actually stand out are
(i) Mithun who seems to have found his way back to acting after digressing all these years in disco.
(ii) Ash whose role is generally supporting but is so beautifully nuanced that it almost gets mistaken for "simple" and..
(iii) Vidya Balan in a thankless role but proving very effectively how there are only small actors not small roles. Just before the intermission, at the end of the confrontation between Abhi, Mithun & Madhavan watch Vidya's face display a variety of emotions in less than 30 seconds. All without speaking a single word. If you don't get it then you are probably one of those people who objected to Dame Judi Dench getting an Oscar for her 8 minute role in Shakespeare in Love.

I also managed to catch another movie on TV "Aahista Aahista" starring Soha Ali Khan & Abhay Deol. That's Saif's sister and Sunny's cousin to the uninitiated.
This movie did not do well at the box office (big surprise) but if you get a chance, do try and catch it on TV or DVD. A simple story. Simply told.
Everything in this small film is First Rate.
The acting (Soha & Abhay), ambience (old delhi) & the climax.
Watch the film and then ask yourself if any of the characters behaved in a way that they should not have. Every action is what any of us in that situation would have done.
Now honestly, how many movies can you say that about?
Just that makes it worth a watch doesn't it? If you have a lazy evening free sometime do watch it. You won't regret it.

By the way a bride is wanted for a guy settled in Mumbai but from Bangalore. Christian. Age 30ish. Works in a Bank. Making lots of moolah. Interested parties can forward their resumes to me and i will match make.

ELSEWHERE:- the world’s oldest person died at age 116 in Japan, while the world’s second-oldest person is starring in “Rocky Balboa.”