60 Days more………

A few days back as I was traveling home from office, a random thought came to my mind.  What if we all had 60 days left to do all that we wanted to do…how would we spend this time? How would our perception of life change?  What would matter and what would not?  How would we make a difference to the world?

It’s at times like this, when encountered with such thoughts that we should reflect on what we really want to do.

So I decided to create a 60-day-wish-list, and this is it:

1)      To spend more time with my family, and tell them how much I love them.

2)      To travel as much as I can, and see as many places as I can.  To learn the culture of the place I’m visiting, try out the local cuisine and click lot of photographs.

3)      To realize that it’s ok to not be perfect.  No one is good at everything.  Those who appear to be are just faking it.  None of us were created to be perfect, because being perfect is unreal and boring.  It is our imperfection and being able to accept the fact that we are imperfect that makes us truly unique.

4)      To write about what I feel and touch people’s lives with my words.

5)      To visit Singapore and get lost with my friend Rukmani.

6)      To visit a wine-yard, try out the various kinds of wines and see if I can find any difference among them

7)      To sleep at the beach, watch the stars and the moon. To feel the wind through my hair; and to wake up at sun rise; see the first rays of sunlight and hear the sound of the sea gulls in the morning.

8)      To walk along some colorful unknown street aimlessly.

9)      To take a break from work

10)   To listen to someone who wants to talk, without judging them.

11)   To free a bird from a cage and share its joy of being free.

12)   To get angry without feeling guilty about it.

13)   To learn a new language

14)   To fall in love

May be there are many more things that would be added to my list.  All of us have lists….so if I had to ask you to make a list for yourself, what would be included in it?

Piku - The story of Piku-Land :-)

This is the first movie review I am writing.  I am not sure how well it would turn out but then why not give it a try. . I won’t be making this review a spoiler, since there still might be people who haven’t watched the movie. 
So, this weekend I watched Piku, a movie directed by Shoojit Sircar. On watching the trailer, my heart had told me that this would be a nice flick.  My heart wasn’t wrong....

The movie is based on the day to day life of a Bengali family, comprising of the father Bhashkor Banerjee played by Amitabh Bachan and his daughter Piku played by Dipika Padukone. 

The most beautiful thing about this movie is its simplicity, and the way it manages to touch our hearts without any Bollywood Masala, item numbers, etc;  There is no big plot or story as such, but we don't get bored. That is what is refreshing about it.  It’s as real as life!  Juhi Chaturvedi deserves an applause for creating such awesome characters who make us laugh, cry and think, all in the same movie.

The movie has a great sense of humour, but at the same time it isn’t the rude and loud kind.  There are no explicit jokes as such, but laugher comes without much effort.  Every actor in the movie has contributed to making it a success.  The lead characters, the servant, the relatives, the drivers, the doctor, and all the others are just perfect.

The movie depicts the fact that we love our family unconditionally, even though it’s not always perfect.  We can see anger and irritation and love and affection all at the same time in the story.

Apart from the funny side of the movie, the way Shoojit Sircar has brought out the emotion of romance is remarkable.  In real life, you sometimes feel a connection with another person, and you don’t need to verbalize it. It just happens. He has focused on this ‘connection’ between the characters.  Neither of them try hide anything about themselves.  They are both open about how screwed up certain parts of their lives are.  Again, there is no drama, or fancy dialogues in the movie about love. Not once do we hear anything like ‘I love you’, or ‘I miss you’. No sad and over-dramatic background music.  Yet, the love story between the characters of Dipika and Irrfan is cute, innocent and natural. There is a level of understanding that is beautifully portrayed between them. On a personal note, this pair is nice together!

Juhi Chaturvedi and Shoojit Sircar also bring certain deep messages to the audiences.  For example, the fact that it’s important for a girl to not lose her sense of independence and individuality even after her marriage.  Or that love can happen anytime and anywhere with someone totally unexpected. The importance of the parent-child relationship is also depicted well.

For those of us who wouldn’t mind a movie that doesn’t come as a complete Bollywood package, Piku would be a nice watch.  But for those who expect a movie to have dances, villains, loud jokes, over-dramatic emotions, action, and intense dialogues, Piku might not be your kind of thing.  My personal opinion is that it’s worth a watch anyways.

Piku is added to my list of personal favorites after Queen, which tops the list.   These are movies that came, made a tiny difference to my life, touched my heart and left me with a smile!!