Bollywood wed-locks

"Marriages are made in heaven and broken on earth"-MG,April 21,2008,A.D.

Bollywood ambassadors this and media promotes it all for a price! B-town marriages have always bewildered the common man.Normally, an average Indian gets married and finds the likes of Madhubala to Matondkar and from Dilip Kumar to SRK in the spouse one is with till end of retirement of one's life.Commoner finds a soulmate in the respective spouse and even the utterance of the D word shatters one's conviction;though society is changing it shall require some time to break the conservative cultural ties.

However,glamour world has different concepts and definitions of marriage.The bigger the wedding,more the pompousness and higher the extravagance amazonic is the likelihood of the relationship not going a long way unlike the beliefs and ideologies of an average midlle class educated and cultured adult.We do have many legendary couples in the industry who have been together through thick and thin.Dilip saahab and Sairaji,Anil Kapoor and Sunita,Sunil Dutt and Nargis,Kumar Gaurav and Namrata Dutt,Rajendra Kumar and his wife,SRK and Gauri...but all these couples either have a non-filmi counterpart or have been out of the limelight for a while.Amitji and Jaya ji have had their share of swings in a married life of more than 35 years (Abhishek is 30+ guys).

Had it not been for the patience and perseverence of the two of them we would have seen Big B and Jayaji attending and exiting via seperate doors their only son'e wedding.But,media made their share to drift them apart which wasn't very successful.Malaika-Arbaaz,Amir-Reena,Saif-Amrita,Saif-Rosa(since they were in live in)...so may of them have gotten into the brigade of b-town failed marriages.

The press usually projects the very spicy side of the relationships gone sour,but hardly researches on the root cause.Have been observing and reading these articles since I was 16.Thoughts have run almost in all vague directions tangential to logic most of the times. All the credit goes to my middle class upbringing."Most of these weddings are either to attract public glare and media attention so that a worn out career gets revitalized while others fall prey to the professional hazards arising out of affairs,link-ups,lack of trust,degrading moralities and darkening conscience " said a journalist friend once. Could it be true?, quickly questioned myself and statistics subsided all my querries at once.

Just recollect Shweta Tiwari-Raja Choudhary (the same couple who showed a lot of sobbing and melodramae on Nach Baliye) split and "tamasha" that did print rounds a couple of weeks ago,where are they anyway? May be on their so called rejevenation trip to Seychelles.About a year and a half ago Karisma(that's the way she likes to be known) and her Apollo guy wanting to split up over his ex and disowning their daughter samaira...blah blah!Well,all of these celebs were spotted together at various times romancing and swinging in each others arms!

Not all the break-ups are projected immaturedly.Years ago Kaka and Dimple separated but still remain friends.Dimple even campaigned for kaka when he was fighting an election.Javed Akhtar (the one of Salim-Javed jodi) also remains friends with Ms .Irani and penned lyrics for her first directorial venture Armaan.Interestingly,media never writes about Shabana's relationship with Farhan or Joya nither her friendship with Javed's ex. May be there is nothing to create a spoof out of it.Dharam Paaji and Hemaji got married several years ago.His first legal wife still remains to be with him.The support that she has extended to keep the Deol family integrated is phenomenal.Everyone talks about Esha-Ahana-Hema and Dharamji but never about Prakash aunty and Dharamji.

Media is supposed to present to people the good out of everything unconventional,isn't it?Suniel and Mana Shetty continue to be together,but no one ever documents the secret of their forever romance.Would it not be much interesting to know how celebs conquer the pressures and refrain seperation?Sanjay Dutt and Rhea potrayed the perfect couple for the last so many years (even during Sanjay's trial).Sanjay's first marriage to Richa had failed but his daughter Trishala survived to see her 50+ father getting married third time to a girl a little older than herself! Sanjay Dutt,the actor is terrific but has a very bad personal record that links him to narcotics,illegal businesses and criminal sins leading to traitorship.Media made Sanjay the criminal who was more known to wear a blue shirt for trials than any of his records!

On the other hand,Abhi-Ash who got married exactly a year ago had an extremely high profile wedding (hoping they are still together).Though the media often potrays a vexing image of Ash and Big B together wearing almost matching outfits and the bahu and sasur jodi hand-cuffed,still wishing the newly couple togetherness for always (media must learnt to be a bit patient than merely observant)

Anyway,let bollywood enjoy and entertain themselves with their on and off relationships.Don't bother the straighforward common man! A simple fruit seller on streets would be more concerned about his sales than knowing about any celebrity break-up or link ups.Having rifts in marriages is normal,but the media hype is maddening! Dear media-ns,please don't create a mystic hype around these page three biggies,let them have their own way! Don't rotten the morales of the society with excess scandalization of their first,second or third marriages or affairs.Every couple goes through a phase of struggle in their relationship.

The reasons could be internal or external,but one needs to accept that they exist though in different exponential forms.Those relationships which stand the test of time are eternal.Public disclosure of love is easy,to endure it through every phase in life is difficult.

Our culture is based on certain values,traditions and customs.Yes,there are rituals and traditions that personally many wont approve or appreciate.It's here in l'Inde that marriages are considered once and forever.They are not a repetitive syndrome.


Hoping very optimistically that we don't have more wed-rocks because of the media hype around the celebrities! Amen!

TFC.

You,Me Aur Hum..!

The last movie that was watched had been Taarein Zameen Par so,just wanted to watch a movie that was either better than or at par with it.

You,me Aur Hum was the most talked about movie in town ever since it's launch and even after release it did not fail to create waves. Its a good movie to watch but lacks the speed and gradual pace of progression of events.One more of the directorial debuts from B-Town hero.

The statistics of actors turning directors being successful has been a bit confusing.Sunny tried it with Dillagi and Bhagat Singh failed to get noticed,Rishi & Randhir din't generate the kind of raves with Heena and Aa Ab Laut Chalein as Raj Kapoor did,Kamal Hassan has always been successful at most of his attempts in most of the premises he has dabbled with.Aamir has proven with Lagaan & TZP that he is not just a good producer but a promising director too.King Khan chose to play safe and became a successful producer of all movies under Yashraj style but with different directors (or shall we say with KJo only?).

Anyway,let's talk about You,Me Aur Hum!
The movie begins with quotations on love and relationships,which create the perfect antidote for cynicists haunting reason for love!

Kajol potrays Piya the girl with memories of her father and liquor chocolates and a bitter youth because of her broken family.Ajay is a psychiatrist and has struggled to achieve the success and fame as a doctor.A series of scenes that tell a tale of the two falling in love and getting married in the first half while the second half is the most serious yet gripping one.Kajol & Ajay handle their roles with great maturity.Piya is an alzeimer's patient and Kajol potrays the helplessness of loss of identity,the trauma of being put through and putting her husband as well as their son Aman through tough times is nerve cracking.Ajay scores once again and proves that his acting prowess is strong enough to resist the Khans,Kumars and Roshans talents.He has successfully potrayed a sensible,modern yet emotional man of today well rooted and dedicated to his traumatized wife.

Kajol,your father must be a proud man sitting up there for you have proved your mantle once again as an actor of substance.You have left the audience seeking for more of you in such roles!

The movie lacks to catch up pace and the progression of events is very slow.Reminded me of Khamoshi-the musical which also had some wonderful performances,good music but lacked pace.The first half could have well been comprehensive or precise.Because,though both Mr & Mrs D are fine actors playing 20's romance does not quite gel with their ageing lines.

The rest of the cast that includes fine actors like Divya Dutta & Sumeet Raghvan don't have much to deliver but do their job well.Isha Sharvani ,the Kisna girl is unfortunately playing a dumb bimbette who only burns alive while needed for a dance (for obvious reasons),but she has been wasted.

Vishal Bharadwaj,had great expectations from him after Omkara,particularly "oh sathi re",but the title and the adnan sami number are the only saviours.The dance numbers are just about average and cannot really match with Chalia re of Tashhan.

The movie gives an office goer like me a trip to emotional ride.

Though,i was looking for something sensible ,You me aur hum does not get little close to Aamir's TZP! TZP is a million dollar movie made with sensitivity and connects with every child in every adult or a teenager or even a toddler.All of us have been through some awkward moments like these during our school days,haven't we?

Ajay you are one my favourite actors in B-town ,however this time Aamir's taken a platinum for his directorial debut! Best of luck AD for the future!

TFC

The hero

salman khan has been the centre of attention for all wrong reasons in the last 1.5 decades that he has been in bollywood!but,then is it not obious that when one is in a filed of such a glamour and gliteratti and blitz,its obvious effect of the celebrityhood one earns.

inspite of al his "bad boy" image bibg rendered on every tv show and gossip magazine i still would nominate him amongst the list of most under-rated actors.he has been more in speculation for his pot boiling tempers (who says that if u r short tempered u have to be bad!)

and his flings with Ms.S,Ms Aand very recently Ms K!

but how many of us bother to know the other side of him? Agreed SRK may be the self-proclaimed king of bollywood but he yet has to see the plight of him against the career graph of Mr.Bachhan Sr,who knows where he would stand in the memories of the audience.atleast salaman would be remembered for the brands that he carries so elegantly:) ,i m talking about red tape and thums-up blah blah.. anyways, sallu might be nobody to many but to me he shall remain my first choice as a 8 year old for a groom to be!

salman has been instrumental in running a wholesome campaign for aged in mumbai and aids awareness programmes too!
sallu, hats off to u!at 41, u can give hrithik roshan a run for some manly looks, and saif can be complexed with your oh so perfect features. (btw, saif is extremely paranoid about his nose and squeaky voice, he still manages to be cute though) but, must say that along with me rest of the sallu following too is awaiting the kind of performance sallu delivered in HDDCS and khamoshi.

he has all the makings of a richard gere on indain sand,but his faith in dispate holds him back!
honestly, now he needs to retire and chill! his charisma may be appreciated only when he retires at his peak (his films have been doin well)
infact, the khan regime is a passe.its the ab baby time now! but this space is too lean to talk about AB jr,,,more on it later!

TFC