Zindagi decoded

Dear Zindagi,

It was nice meeting you on celluloid. You were undoubtedly a fine piece of art presenting a slice of life with its accompanying zits and zests. Your protagonist, a young professional girl Kaira -- Alia Bhatt in a stellar performance -- who has umpteen number of issues in her life was winsome and real. Behind her facade of a confident, modern and talented cinematographer laid a scared little girl with abandonment issues. It was her movie and she owned it beautifully, her fragile frame belying the tenacity and resoluteness in her personality.

SRK had lesser screen space but left a thumping impact with minimal words, the kind of role where his energy levels were contained and he hypnotised with his eyes. The doc-patient relationship was apparently easy-going and effortless although there were stray moments of underlying tension and vague anxiety.

The 5 major lessons we could glean from watching you are:

1. Visiting a psychiatrist doesn't make you a "psycho."
It's perfectly alright to have a plethora of issues in personal & professional life. Seeking an expert's help no longer has a stigma attached to it. (On a lighter note, maybe handsome shrinks help drive the blues away. Deep intense stares and pearls of wisdom spouted by them make life's complications seem as easy as solving nursery grade puzzles.)

2. Make peace with your past.
There is a line by SRK in the movie: 'Don't let your past blackmail your present to ruin a beautiful present.' Now don't we all know that, understand and agree with it. But, we rarely ever practice it. Some of us remain consumed by past grievances, letting it overpower our present. Acceptance of one's past, slaying the demons therein, and burying the emotional hatchets is what nudges us towards equanimity. And rightly so!

3. It's ok to have a failed relationship or two.
It's no big deal if things don't work out between you and your partner. The 'kursi' example given by SRK to prove his point isn't really to sanction promiscuity but to stop a girl from labelling herself according to society's double standards. Everyone deserves a second chance (or a third or fourth), to scour for that one person who walks the same path as him/her.

4.Our parents are earthly beings and not Santa Claus
They are real people with tangible fears and failures and are doing the best they can. Let's not judge them or crucify them for their failings. Holding grudges against parents is a recipe guaranteed for a lifetime of despair and misery.

5. Carpe-diem
Seize the moments! Live life as it comes, quirky and unexpected; put your best foot forward, falling isn't a big deal, it's not recouping after the fall to get up again and be ready for another bout which is our undoing. Our fears are our Achilles heel.

That's a lot of food for thought in 150 minutes to mull over. It was great meeting you Zindagi from another person's perspective.

Yours truly,
Mr. Imperfect & Ms. High Hopes.

CHISELED MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD

Chiseled memories. ...

Of laughter and merry making,

Of family bonding and discussions,

Of eating together and gorging,

Of devouring delicacies and burping,

Of playing cards, ludo and carom, 

Of reading comics and amar chitra katha,

Of being glued to radio and singing loud,

Of festival gaiety n elaborate ceremonies,

Of fun with friends and neighbourhood shenanigans.

Chiseled memories of childhood; 

Of enjoying the simplicity of life,

Of being shielded from the hardships,

Of sibling affection and bonding,

Of parental love and cocoon,

Of pampering without being spoilt,

Of indulgence without arrogance, 

Of loving life and dreaming big,

Of self confidence and starry eyes,

Of academic high and accompanying accolades,

Of optimism and reverie.

Chiseled memories of childhood ;

Of crazy antics and wierd dress sense....

Of occasional tempers and frequent tantrums,

Of bantering, arguing and sulking,

Of making up, forgiving, and moving on,

Chiseled memories of childhood;.

Stick to the mind and warm the heart,

Glow the vacant corners and illuminate the soul,

Create harmony and tune your senses,

Chiseled memories of childhood;

Remain forever etched and eternally craved,

When you were little but your dreams were big,

When hope was your best buddy and skepticism still a stranger.

Chiseled memories of childhood;

Are locked inside and ingrained deeply, 

Completing you and blooming you, 

And keeping you forever young !

ADHM- Ae relationship hai complicated!

Ae relationship hai complicated! 

Not your regular love triangle as anticipated by eager fans, ADHM is a roller coaster ride of emotions: deep, profound, complicated and intense. 

The flimsy, slick gloss we see on screen in the overtly breezy, bindaas friendship cum budding romance between the lead pair Ranbir and Anushka, is pixie and cuteness overloaded. You start watching the movie with a goofy grin relishing the foot tapping numbers, funny one-liners, liberal sprinkling of hit dialogues and songs from cult romantic movies. There's a reference to throwback 80's kind kitschy music- peppy, popular but pedestrian. Nostalgia and novelty shake hands. The audience is hooked with the tender, classic familiarity, and the neoteric, badass brazenness which has typically become the alter ego of youngsters.

An hour into the movie, the easy-cheesy banters vanish and the 'mushkil' part unfolds elaborately. One starts feeling sorry for people who love the ones who aren't on the same wavelength as them. The second half is precariously handled with the director eager to stretch beyond his cushion zone and venture into the unchartered territory of knotty, tangled web of emotional turbulence. The conflict between love and friendship and whether they are mutually exclusive or prone to overlapping is depicted well enough but quite laboriously. The sense of déjà vu strikes one throughout the 150 odd minutes of the movie. So what's so different about it, what's the twist, you keep asking and the latter when it does arrive, fizzles out with a whimper. The ending lacks spontaneity and conviction and appears conveniently contrived, a negative for a melodrama. The high notes should be struck right at the end.

Ranbir and Anushka outshine each other performance wise. They rise spectacularly above the script and impart a pathos desperately needed for a movie which is otherwise an expression of celebration of love in its multifaceted forms.

Ranbir is the finest actor of this generation and has a barrage of emoting techniques in his repertoire. For those drawing parallels with his other flicks on unrequited love, I see this one on a totally different tangent. He isn't his regular confused guy unsure about his feelings for his lady love. In ADHM, his character is pretty certain about his 'dil' and where it goes, ie. to Anushka. The ensuing 'mushkilein' ( Fawad as Anushka's chosen one and Aish as Ranbir's consolation prize) which arise due to this are what lead the story forward.

Anushka has to be the bravest female actor to let go of her crowning glory and shoot uninhibited in scenes which made the audience gasp out loud due to shock, sympathy, and an embarrassed applause later on.

Aishwarya Rai's gorgeous appearance lends no value addition to the movie. She with her pancaked beauty, and fabricated, studied expressions, falls flat in front of natural born lead actors. Oozing glamour and good looks, Aish does break the cougar taboo (younger man and older woman) in India without batting an eyelid (heavily eyelined as it may be).

The 'fassad ki jad', Fawad khan is eye candy in a grizzly kind of way. Apart from him, there is a spate of guest appearances by the director's good friends and wannabee good friends.

An assorted Diwali hamper, ADHM has some exotic sweets, some desi savouries, a few firecrackers and a customised greeting card bellowing "It's complicated!"
But hey, where's my coffee, Karan?

Verdict- Watch it for Ranbir and the songs! Both outstanding.