Here I shall write something on random topics and random thoughts.
From social, political, economic viewpoints, to technology, music, movies, books, literature, blogs, religion, mythology, any possible random topic, whatever I shall feel.
If the readers think that I am a lazy man watching movies and ranting about them, they are almost correct. There are so many serious topics in one's life that when I think of writing about the lighter side of life, I feel safe in writing about the movies.
RAAAN - "Ranjana Ami Aar Asbo Na" is a far far better movie than the King Khan's latest venture "RA One". If anyone disagree, please make sure that you know the reality behind these two movies. RAAAN is the story of a Bengali rock singer and his relationship with a budding rock singer, who is a "Bengali" girl. "RA One" is somewhat a mixture of terminator II + terminator III + Bollywood masalas (spices).
For a very good review of RAAAN, please visit this link.
Why RAAAN made me to write this post? RAAAN shows Ranjana, the girl, who is a budding "Bengali" rock star. RAAAN shows Abani, our Anjan Dutta, the real Bengali rock star surrounded by Lew Hilt, Amyt Dutta and Nondon Bagchi.
Just think of Bengali rock star, a term that only emerged in the late nineties. A girl as a Bengali Rock Star? A new term that comes up in 2011 with the movie RAAAN. The voice of Ranjana, Somlata simply rocks.
I loved the way Anjan portrayed the inevitable frustrations of the creative people of loosing or fearing to loose their creativity in this movie. And in a short but strong role Suman was splendid. Both Parno (Ranjana) and Ushasie are amazing. And Kanchan Mullick, no doubt is good. A five star movie in my opinion.
I can still recall that every Friday there is the "Haat" (special market) at our small suberb and because of Dipawali, the haat used to be full of local made crackers on those days. There were fantasies among the young people like me to purchase the best quality crackers available in the small town and most of them being high-decible fireworks, now completely banned.The evening was excellent as only lights available being candle lights and there used to be a long (around 2 to 3 hrs.) load-shading on those days (even in the eve of Dipawali / Kalipujo - the worship of goddess Kali). The candle lit houses of the neighbourhood, which are actually very same old simple houses we used to view everyday, got turned into very mystic, romantic, thrilling unknown places in their half lit, half darkened appearance.
We used to keep running around our houses to keep an eye on the sky for rockets, which produced either sound only or sometimes a parachute/garlands of red-green-white combinations. There were huge sound producing "chacolate bomb", "gach bomb" (this one used to be hanged from a tree - gach in Bengali) and "dodomas" (two sounds, one cracking sound and the other after the cracker gets lifted to a height of ten twelve feet by an internal rocket). The sound crackers I really loved to enjoy was "jal bomb" (jal - water). This one, after being lit on hand, were to be thrown in a pond and they kept rolling for a certain time as long as the fuge is burning. And then, there were huge sounds from the cracker followed by the sound of the falling water, lifted up by the explosion.
Now that we are using electric lights of hundred types on the eve of Dipawali and Kalipujo, we are really missing the old days of candle lit mysticism we used to enjoy. And of course the new generation fire crackers are much more astonishingly beautiful in their fireworks, still I miss something inevitably in them, may be because I am getting old. I have so many beautiful memories of this very day that this is the best festival for me from my childhood till date.
Wish you all a great Dipawali and Kalipujo followed by Bhai Phota (a special day for sisters putting mark on their brother's forehead praying for the brother's long life).
Watching Se7en. The "V" representing the seven deadly sins. The movie is about the two cops one veteran (Morgan Freeman) and one rookie (Brad Pitt) who search for a serial killer (Kevin Spacey). The same Hollywood crime thriller kind, but with several interesting twists. I am not going to write a review here but two things about the movie is, it has lots of cruel and sick scenes, which are very relevant. An excellent movie for those with strong hearts. After watching this movie, I tried to analyze myself with all the deadly sins I possess.
Wrath - I loose my mind frequently in anger when in despair. Lust - Should not dare to reveal the truths about me, but I strongly believe in forty plus phenomenon and I am going to be forty very soon. Greed - Money doesn't make me greedy but sometimes I think of having a much better bank balance than I am currently having. Envy - I never get envious to others for their fortune or success. But sometimes I feel that most of the people around me is much smarter than I am, and that leads to... Pride - I don't feel proud all the time, but my neighbor's envy sometimes fill me with pride. Sloth - I am very hard working sometimes, but most of the times, I feel, I can do much better. Gluttony - I am not foodie and I never over eat. That's good, but you know, it turns out sometimes that I am too hungry to resist food... and then...
This is not me, not you, not anybody specific, but consider any living human being, who is not a real saint, is struck by the "Se7en".
I was still awake at night. I got up from bed and entered into the drawing room. In the half lit drawing room my mobile phone was lying on the refrigerator. I took it and it's screen shown me the current time. It was 15 minutes past 3 AM. Pretty late for me, as I generally sleep at 11 PM at night. Something is striking in my mind time and again, making my throat dry. I took out a bottle of cold water, pour some in a glass and gulped the whole water at a time, to relive the unwanted dryness in my throat. It still remained dry. In my left eye, I started feeling a burning sensation. May be because of the restlessness tonight after a very hard day at my workplace.
I became restless the day I received the mail from BlogAdda, informing me about the "My First Crush story writing contest". I decided not to write, not for a competition about my very personal life. Sweet memories of the first crush was the subject line, a very personal feeling to be toyed with. I just ignored the mail.
The fifth day of the competition is the day I am speaking about. It was pretty late at night and I had office the next day, yet, astonishingly I cannot think of anything precisely but some odd dreams were haunting me, the dreams cannot be called as nightmares, yet they were very fuzzy and dusky. I understood that the competition, the excellent entries already written by my fellow bloggers are compelling me to think. Compelling me to travel in the past, and that mental state of dilemma is the reason for the peculiar dreams of mine.
Finally, I decided to write at my story telling blog, as an entry to the competition, just to honor the organizers, just to thank them, for once again they have put a bait in front of me, which actually compelling me to write a new story.
It's an innovative way to push your mind to the wall of thorns to fight back with your pen (keyboard) as sword and try to win over the demon that actually eats up all your time mercilessly. I couldn't sleep that night, worked hard in my workplace all the day, then came back home with a rock hard determination to fight back the time killer demon and fought back.
The word controversy is a very scaring word for me. Though I pretend that I am least bothered about a controversy, I generally keep away from such discussions which lead to controversy. A discussion, which may become a total fruitless one, can reveal a lot about you in a point when you, like most, will also try to establish your own point of view.
Now, let's take up any latest topic or news for our discussion, be it IPL, Dada's (Saurav Ganguly) performance, the Maoist movement, the new political steps of Ms. Mamata Banerjee, a new movie like Pathsala / Houseful, the man / woman who is your boss, the concern you work for, literally everything you can have in your mind. Start a discussion, face the controversy and you have made yourself clear to others. You are rigid, hypocrite, selfish, moron, and whatever else the other party think you are, at that moment. And the result will be a "mental separation" between friends / colleagues / partners. So, these ultimately fruitless discussion in controversial topics will lead to nothing but pain.
In my opinion, let's first be in a place where there is no "we" or "they". Let's talk about some thing that will not lead to any controversy. The belief and disbelief of people will not confront each other in such topics, where both are ready to discuss without taking in a particular side. Let's talk about the golden era of something or about some people all of us respect. Say, "Kabiguru" (Preceptor) Rabindranath Tagore or Late. Mr. Satyajit Ray. We all respect them not only for their works alone but also their lives as human beings. Let's avoid controversial topics like Maoist movement or political matters, rather, the performance of an actor like Rudranil Ghosh, where he acted as a chimpanzee, in a movie "Love Circus" may be discussed.
I can still recall an incidence of my childhood, rather adolescence when Diego Maradona's controversial goal with his hand became a hot topic to discuss. I had a discussion with the father of one of my friends and I was against this goal because for a player it is unethical to score a goal which he knew was a handball. My friend's father argued that winning matters, how do you win doesn't. My friend has won the battle of life, much more than that I have, please don't ask me how, but I have lost the respect for his father for ever.
Enough of my demented rants, at last, I would like to mention that, this is a particular fortnight when two of the Bengal's pride came on earth. On 7 th May, "Kabiguru" (Preceptor) Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel laureate, who left no stone unturned in the field of arts (his scientific articles were as good though!) but one, cinema. On 2nd May, Late Mr. Satyajit Ray was born, the Oscar winner film director, who mainly wrote for children and worked on the celluloid to turn the last stone, left unturned.
I am a great fan of Late Mr. Satyajit Roy, for his films, mostly the ones created by him on his own writings like the "Joy Baba Felunath", "Sonar Kella" and "Hirak Rajar Deshe". All of them being movies for the young people, the most beloved one for me is of course "Joy Baba Felunath" for the dream appearance of Late Mr. Utpal Dutta and Late Mr. Santosh Dutta together, as I have already mentioned in my previous post.
Now, being a fan of Mr. Ray and his works, I am never satisfied with the new "Felu Mittir" (Prodosh Mitra) his detective character that has become a legend now for we Bengali people. I don't want to say that I don't like the works of Mr. Sandip Ray, he is too good and the biggest follower of his father Late. Mr. Satyajit Ray on earth, in film making.
Still, frankly speaking I haven't liked his earlier works on Felu Mittir. Now, apart from everything I would like to mention my difficulty in viewing Mr. Bibhu Bhattacharya, in place of late Mr. Santosh Dutta, as the renowned thriller writer "Jatayu". This particular character was created, keeping Mr. Santosh Dutta, in mind. So, it's not for the acting style of Bivhu Bhattacharya, but for the eyes of us, viewers, this character has become the biggest mismatch to the Feluda works on the silver screen.
Jatayu, the character was played by Late Mr. Anup Kumar and Late. Mr. Rabi Ghosh, two more famous comedians of Bengali silver screen. Still, Mr. Bivhu Bhattacharya is doing justice to Jatayu much more than they did.
Finally, in the latest thriller of Felu Mittir, "Tintoretto-r Jishu", he has done his best till now. May be my eyes are now all set to accept him, in place of Late Mr. Santosh Dutta now, but I would say, he is also getting better slowly in portraying my beloved Jatayu. Thanks a lot Mr. Sandip Ray, please make as many Felu Mittir as you can with our beloved actor Mr. Sabyasachi Chakraborty as the main character Felu Mittir is really looking great in this movie.
I have watched this movie this Sunday (25th April 2010) only. If, by any chance you have missed this movie, go for it. It may be considered the best work of Mr. Sandip Ray, till date.
Have you ever used hi5 as your social networking application? If yes, you must be knowing that there is a new unique feature in hi5 (not so unique though), flirting. You can flirt with the man / woman you like. Send him/her a gift, make friendship, start chatting, and more, and more.
Out of inquisitiveness, I started to use the application. Being a man, I viewed a lot of different ladies from all around the world, starting from India, United States of America, United Kingdom, to Japan, Korea, Philippines, and of course, less but not the least Bangladesh. Let me show you what you may find out in the application and searching a lady from Bangladesh to flirt with.
Doe's he look like a lady in your eyes? OK, it may be a fault from the user's side. Then you may click on "No" as the answer to "Interested", and view an image as follows.
Another mistake from another user? May be, but you may be shown in the next attempt a photo (this one will be your "final" try) like below.
You try, try and try. Most of the time you will find photos and profiles like this. Amazing. Nice application for Bangladesh indeed! Question is, is it the "mistake" of the users, or the application itself?
Please try the search yourself to know if I am wrong, and my opinion is, please don't try this application all together. This is a hazard.
***** I am sorry if I have done anything wrong in publishing the photos of people "unknown" to me and will remove this post, if you complain in your comment! Feel free to comment. Thanks. *****
If you haven't watched the movie, watch it. Highly recommended. The rating out of 10 would be 10 as a commercial movie. Criticism kept aside, if you are entering into the cinema hall for a commercial Hindi movie, you are searching for throughout entertainment. Entertainment in every aspect, the known "masalas" (spices), like comedy, suspense, music, happiness and a great ending, you are right to choose this movie.
3-idiots, is obviously one of the greatest commercial Hindi movie I have ever seen till date. It is so much enriched with the inner story by Mr. Chetan Bhagat and so amazingly told on silver screen by Mr. Rajkumar Hirani that you always feel this as a dream ride.
From my college years, till date, I have remained a good fan of Mr. Aamir Khan. He has disappointed me many times but has acted in some blockbuster movies like " Qayamat se Qayamat Tak (1988)" , "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992)" , "Dil Chahata Hai (2001) ", and in all the cases he has been working as a "College Student". Here in this movie too, he has worked as a college student and he is simply "superb".
Rest of the crew needs everyone to be mentioned individually. But, in one word, they are all excellent. All of them have kept themselves in their limits. Too beautiful to believe.
Won't say a word about the storyline here, please visit your nearest movie-house to enjoy 3-idiots. I bet, you will feel that your time is not wasted.
Though the durga puja is widely celebrated all over West Bengal, all over India and all over the world where Bengali reside, it is Kolkata where one can enjoy the excellence of Bengali in conducting this Puja.
This single sentence will raise a lot of eyebrows towards this post, the writer of this post as well. Non-Bengali indians celebrate the Durga Puja according to the real mythological calander, as they start this puja from the first day of "Devi-Paksha", "Mahalaya", the first day of these 15 days of goddess Durga at her home place. The non-bengali Duga Puja is according to the rituals started by "Sri-Ram" while he was in war with "Ravana", the king of Lanka who stole "Sita". The non-bengali Durga idol has 8 hands in contrast to the idol with 10 hands worshiped by Bengali. Gujrati people stats "Garwa", a dance form around fire, each night from "Mahalaya" to "Maha-Nabami", the nine days festival, named as "Nava-Ratri", followed by the symbolic killing of "Ravana", on the 10th day, the "Duserra", "Bijoya-Dashami" for Bengali. Thus, the Durga puja, started by "Sri-Ram", turns into a Puja of "Sri Ram" or "Lord Krishna" for non-bengali people.
Many of the readers will agree that Bengali are considered to be the most emotional of all the inhabitants of India. The emotion during the time of Durga Puja remains so high that, be it outside of West Bengal (Delhi, Mumbai, etc.), outside of India (as in Bangladesh, USA, UK, everywhere), they worship goddess Durga like they do at Kolkata, West Bengal. The memories of Durga Puja in West Bengal the minds of the older generations are still very alive in most of the Bengalis around the world. The changes from "normal" puja to "theme" puja, which orginated from Kolkata, is now being widely followed all over the world whereever possible. Let me explain the "theme" concept in a few words. The theme can be any concept that will be depicted in the external and internal decoration of the "Pandal", the place where the Durga Idol will stay, along with the Durga Idol itself. The theme can be a very rural picture of a almost unknown culture of West-Bengal, say, the "Swantal" village (a renowned tribe of West Bengal). So, entering into the "Puja", you suddenly will feel that you are at a Swantal village. The goddess idol may be created with blakish wood as the other idols of gods and godesses worshiped by the tribes. The theme may be "Tom & Jerry", where, other than the actual idols of the Goddess and her family members, everything is to be with a touch of "Tom & Jerry". In the attached photo, you can visualize, the idols are even designed as the idols of "Radha - Krishna" as depicted in paintings found at "Rajasthan". Nowadays the "Theme Puja" is almost everywhere, even at Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur, etc. The Durga-Puja, has been being changed into "Theme-Puja" in most of the cases.
Only except the Puja conducted by "Ram-Krishna-Mission"s all over the world, much emphasis towards the correctness of the "Durga-Puja" according to the perfect schedule and perfection of the recitations of the "Mantra"s are avoided in most of the "Puja"s. Signifying, Puja is more for relaxation, rejuvenation, recharging of energy for the Bengali people, more than a ritual. My point is, be it Bengali Puja or not, we are moving away from the concept of "Puja" in general as a ritual of Bengali hindus and enjoying that very much. It's the enjoyment, the reunions, the freedom, the relaxation, the rejuvenation of vitality, that matters.
Are you a responsible daughter? Yes. Yeah jawab such hai. The answer is true. Is your boyfriend 13 years younger than you? Yes. Yeah jawab such hai. The answer is true. You feel guilty in saying "no" to his marriage proposal? Yes. Yeah jawab such hai. The answer is true. Do you regret in compromising your carrier twice for your family? No. Yeah jawab such hai. The answer is true. Do you still love your ex-husband? Yes. Yeah jawab such hai. The answer is true. ... Do you really love your boyfriend? Yes. Yeah jawab such nehi hai. The answer is not true.
These questions were asked to "Rupa Ganguly", the renowned actress of Kolkata, in the renowned reality show "Such Ka Samna" (Facing the truth.) in star plus. The game show had it's final episode of this season. As we already know that this reality / game show has become such a controversial one that many of the renowned journalists in different news media has written against it and wanted this show to be banned. It seemed that knowing the truth about ones life, many near ones of the person facing "Such ka samna" had to change their attitude, their lifestyles, their views to the concerned person. Some even tried to commit suicide knowing about the past life of their beloved ones and feeling betrayed especially in commitment like marriage,love and sex lives.
I am not a fan of Rupa Gangualy. I didn't know much about her lifestyle, though according to the local film magazines, her lifestyle is pretty controversial. I adored her way to live her own life with full of responsibilities both as an actress and a family woman, yet keeping a balance between the two. The way she justified her answers were really very logical and touching. Even the host Rajeev Khandelwal got very much impressed knowing the attitude of her towards life.
I am writing this just to agree with a viewpoint of her's. First, she loves someone who is younger than her. Then she denies to marry him, though she is staying with him. Then she admits that she is not very sure about having a marriage like institution with her present boy friend, she doesn't want to spoil his life. She wants him to wait another 10 years, to let him be of 40 and her 53. Good decision. Then she admits that she still loves her ex-husband and when explaining about the mistake (lie according to the polygraph test) the machine made about the truth about loving her boyfriend, she admits that, at the age of 42 the word "love" to a man/woman is very "flexible" a concept. Though she believes that she loves her boyfriend, she does that with a confusion, an indecision in her mind. That's why, it has been detected as a lie.
I think she is correct. "Love" is a feeling of a man/woman that changes with time. Leaving aside a "love" towards all other relations and all other living or non-living things, even if we stick to the meaning of love as loving a spouse, partner, beloved, boy or girlfriend, the meaning changes with time. A person who fall in love may fall in love many times and each time the feeling of insecurity increases or decreases depending upon the partner. And, in my opinion, it's nothing to do with responsibility. Most of the apparently responsible persons have the "other man" or "other woman" in their lives. It actually depends upon the lifestyle you are going to choose, your commitment to your partner or spouse. Many a people get habituated to live a special love life beyond their normal love life. The attraction to the "prohibited" is the "key" of such relationship, mostly ruining the base of the life and families of many individuals.
That justifies two things. Love is somewhat a chemical (hormonal) reaction in human body. It's a habit to fall in love, but love itself is not a habit. Though even Rabindranath Tegore has mentioned in many of his works that "love" can be divided into two or more "lover"s (in "Sesher Kabita"), and he is correct absolutely, one should avoid to grow the habit of falling in love. So no "Love Aaj Kal"(Love now and then), love Aaj, love Kal.
Creative work needs inspiration and motivation. The motivation generally comes from the inspiration. Motivation, followed by devotion, creates a really good work of creation.
Why am I writing this? Most of the time, people feel less motivated and that's because lack of inspiration for them. Very unlucky few get motivated from a peculiar inspiration that drive them to do wonders. That inspiration comes from their own nature. They have a pen they write, left with a paintbrushes and colors they will start painting, the insatiable desire to work, drives their whole life to remain creative.
Please have a look at the works of Vincent Van Gogh, the colors of his works came from a kind of devotion, the motivation and the inspiration that was astonishing. Most of his life, his works has not been recognized for some reason or other. Just like the great mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan who struggled his short lifespan to know the infinity. I dearly love the story of poet Sukanta Bhattachrya, who was inspired by the experience as an active communist worker.
The similarity in the lives of all these people of extraordinary quality and enormous mental strength died in their 20s or 30s.But, all of their lives are so inspiring to us, to be more productive, till we live.
I also feel a similarity of Poet Jibanananda Das with them, but will write some words about him, some other day.
And last but not the least, the inspiration to write about my likings, my opinions, my views, in a straight cut manner in this blog has come from the blog Agnitrisha, where the writer writes whatever she likes, not bothering about the readers.
They are rarely seen now. In our childhood, we have seen them flying high in the sky, showing a special white patch on the back of their wings. That was the identification of them from far away. They signify "death". Mostly we used to see them when there was a visible corpse of mammal, mostly cows. They used to keep a vigil for corpses, and like scavenger birds like "crows" they also used to clean up the dead body just by eating it.
I have used the past tense all around, as they cannot be seen regularly now. I have last seen them around 15 years back from a near distance. One can visit the zoos to find these extinct species of birds.
Fortunately, I have seen them once again today only. That too, in Kolkata. Believe it or not, three four vultures were sitting on a street light on the way to sector V, through Rajarhat.
Now the question is where did they come from? Where are the vultures nowadays?
In my opinion, the vultures have been extinct as a species in birds, but in species of mankind, they are increasing in number. They are everywhere, every nook and corner of your daily lives, in different camouflage, and waiting for you to be in real trouble. Once in trouble, they will surround you,nibble you, till death.
If the readers think that I am a lazy man watching movies and ranting about them, they are almost correct. There are so many serious topics in one's life that when I think of writing about the lighter side of life, I feel safe in writing about the movies.
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