Is Death Divine ?

Reader Alert - If you feel queasy about the notion of discussing death please do not proceed beyond this point ! 

The fear of Divine Death

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

-       John Donne

Termination of all biological functions. That is how Death is defined. It is not the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that you look forward to. Instead you are hurtling towards it on the train of time. A train that cannot stop. Stop so that you may admire life but learn to savor it as it passes you by. And in that treatment it is uniform to all. Everyone is aboard the same vehicle. All perceived superiority helping as differentiators come to a grinding halt when you meet death. It looks at everyone with the same cold impassioned vision and your wealth; educational indexes are rendered to the dustbins of life.

Death is the climax of our life. It is the endgame that no one is keen to reach. We are scared of the nothingness beyond. It was a lazy Sunday when I began thinking about what frightens us about this nothingness and why our life revolves around preventing ourselves from derailing in life and meeting it too early. And what does happen after you meet it.

Robin Sharma elucidated on life before death and talked about how to do your best before you die in his book on “Who will cry when you die “. So that you are remembered for it .He tells you about a life that ends before you know if you while away and reach a point of looking back with regret over a lifetime wasted. So he recommends you to realize your potential to the fullest, to seize the opportunity to do well unto yourself and those around you. What is the legacy that you leave behind?

I thought it could be interesting to reach beyond this barrier of end of your time, turnaround from beyond life and see what it is that you were so scared of was. But for that one had to know what one looked like dead. To be not scared of it. To look at it as the culmination of all events like any other in your life. What then bothers us about dying? What, like John Donne, makes us want to live on and not face the dreadful and mighty death. It is the thought of terminating those bonds of affection which we built around us. Those who we learnt to love and protect and perhaps for whom we lived to provide best that a life on earth could offer. Protecting them from miseries brought on by ill-health and social life. And then one day it’s kaput. You just don’t exist for them anymore. You cannot reach back and tell them how much you felt for them. You cannot undo the mistakes. It is too late. You are beyond the terminus of life and from the yonder if you can indeed look back there is nary a thing you can do about it.

I came across a snap taken when I was in a post-surgery sleep. The hospital’s white covers seemed to provide an eerie feel to the snap like a lifeless person with a shroud. Almost like one could look at the climatic station of life. Is this how one looks when one is dead? I wondered!  I stared at the picture for a long time mulling over the calmness that seemed to pervade the motionless face. The superstitious advisories of all elders on how to not speak about death as it waits in a station near you should you think of it, vanished. Instead there was serious introspection.  I felt lie it was indeed some escape. No professional challenges to think of, no meaningless competitive work wars to fight over, no fears of financial security to worry about, no worries on how to protect a future that seemed to revolve only around preventing oneself from becoming poor or not having enough to eat and on a more practical note having enough to be proud in a peer group, live in a place at the end of your life in a house that seemed appropriate to your status, move around with friends as high up on the social ladder as possible and be rich enough to have the personal banker greet you with delight every time you visit the bank.

And then I cringed. How shallow! Looked at the picture again. Who will cry when I die? Not the companies you work for. Not the folks in the neighborhood you lived in. Because in the society today they will probably have to go to the Facebook page to know how the guy who died, looked like. Not the friends who will hurry up with their RIPs just in case they are seen as insensitive. Immediate family members will be affected of course. It is the impact of, bonds of habit, breaking. The comfort zone is disturbed. The fallacies of the person seem to recede in the background and a gloom filled arena of regret takes over. How things could have been better! It is the salutary effect of mourning with guilt where one hopes to want to undo sometimes genuinely and sometimes more as a societal compulsion.

But remember the train is moving on for the rest. The body has been dumped in the eternal journey of life. The memory of the dead person becomes a distant diminishing vision as the train chugs farther away. When you look over the wall do you get offended that people do not miss you or remember you as much as you would love them to do? But you cannot get offended. Regret is an emotion is on this part of the life terminus. One must remember that everyone gets eased out of the train at some point. Life goes on and it must go on for those who stay on and have to continue to worry about the miserable competitive living. Your photo hung on the wall is not going to help them. Your bank balance left behind to some extent will. But a physical presence till the end of their life could have.

You feel humbled when you imagine yourself dead. The acceptance of mortality has that effect. All that superiority buffing you up through the various perceived materialistic successes in life are futile unless they are spiritual. Spiritual that comes from an elevated soul. An elevation that emanates from doing well to society. To those around you. No success propelled by impaling those around you and making them lesser human beings will aid that elevation. Perhaps extending an emotional support system to living beings within the boundaries of a region, those within your physical and spiritual impact may perhaps rise above the framework of the physical universe and pervade the soul network if it exists.

What does this mean for us now when we can physically read this and how do we actualize its potential. I look at the snap again. Was it worth building up all that futile ego like carbon inside the engine of life reducing its efficiency and power? Anger that we perpetuate within ourselves to help fuel our negative emotions. Manipulate strategies with vile next steps in the world outside to step to the next level of perceived professional success and beam in the peer group of winners.  Should I stop nurturing the little animal of revenge against people who have wronged me in life and use that energy elsewhere? Should I stop worrying about how to get that next big physical and materialistic asset, to be less ashamed of not conforming on time with similar winners from peer groups! Is my victory at being able to garner sufficient acknowledgement of everything I do in life or just use this magic of life that exists for now within me for a larger purpose.

I am not interested in finding greater spiritual meaning to life nor achieving super stardom in wealth and position on the ladder of success as those we work will hope to see in us. But I think the answer lies somewhere in between. But most importantly in not being afraid of death. You can be afraid of the pain that brings death. But not death itself. Death is only a culmination of a role that you were playing in a magical life.

Did you make the best of it or did you succumb to emotions controlled by the powerful chemicals in our brain. Did you reach a status where you looked from beyond the wall of life and in the parallel universe and smile (if you still can) and feel

“Hey that was not bad?” ‘It is good being DEAD. Divine Death. Understand it and you will perhaps embrace better life today’

Important to be human first citizen next – Bajrangi Bhaijaan

Wondering when was the last time I ventured into a theatre and did not get blasted with over the top dialogue, colours, background sound and over the top acting. If it had something to do with patriotism it had to be even more vocally violent. Loud shrieks and the power of the lungs equated love for the country. And if it had to be about people across borders the caricaturing of burlesque characters had to abound in the chase for authenticity. Luckily Bajrangi Bhaijaan succumbs to none of those temptations as its Bajrangi devotee – Pavan Kumar Chaturvedi Salman Khan makes no bones about his eternal quest to be a conformist and generally be a nice truthful human being. Colours run riot as his devotional character is established and culminates with his coming across a little mute girl who has wandered off into Indian territory from the Pakistan side across Wagah.  While Pawan makes genuine attempts to shake off his responsibility towards the little girl, she finds familial comfort in him. After rescuing her from harrowing incidents with unsocial elements he takes upon himself the arduous task of returning the little girl to her parents across the border

How does one get a girl across the border without passports, visa and acceptance of the fact that the mute girl is indeed a Pakistani citizen? Kabir Khan known for his entertainers like Ek Tha Tiger, New York and Kabul express all of which attempted new screenplay territories and weaving a gentle social message into it, does not disappoint. His prima facie victory is his casting.  It is doubtful if anyone other than the muscular but baby faced Salman could have fit the bill, Nawazuddin as a Pakistani Journalist does not even need any opinion on and the cute surprise package Harshali Malhotra who plays Shahida the little lost girl with such subdued panache that one finds it difficult to believe that she is actually not from Pakistan.  The best part of the story telling is that the director feels no compulsion to find excuses to get back to the heroine Kareena Kapoor playing Rasika – the hero’s family friend’s daughter despite a very clear love angle being developed. That one thought was the sincerity to the conviction of the story that needed to cross borders.

Treading dangerous terrain of potential offended feelings Kabir carefully treads the emotion mines and portrays both nationalities with polite and genuine justice. He defuses religion and geography sensitive bombs with the ease of a specialist and makes the audience comfortable with discussion of otherwise regularly volatile topics like the hesitation to visit the others religious sites or mouth religious salutations. There is a clear attempt to indicate that it is ok for both the religious communities not to ostracize the other’s approach to their religion or its practices. Tolerance towards communities at home is one aspect but reaching across communities across the borders requires even a wider chest and Kabir and Salman exploit that need to the fullest by scripting the bottom line – Being human is more important than being a citizen of a country

The movie is not in the face and does not have loud head banging music which usually hurts you even after you exit from a hall and goes at a steady pace sometimes even slowing down without  making you shift in your seat. The scenes supposedly across the border are captured with a lot of authenticity though on and off one does not notice shortfall in the ethno linguistic area as the people speaking  across the border still sound like at home. There are certain heart rending scenes that connect very well thanks to the artiste’s complete conviction towards their roles.  With its dose of comic interludes, tear jerking scenes and a lush photography it is a good watch for the entire family.

Songs do not really complement the strength in the story line but provide support. The leads are all into their roles with grand conviction and it is a treat to watch Harshali , Nawazuddin and the handsome Salman live up to the director’s expectation. Kabir true to his name strives to live up to his name of the saint who is revered by all. He seems to want to bring that thread of affection  with this attempt

The Indians and Pakistanis will not run into each other’s arms with this movie releasing in both the countries but it is guaranteed to make them want to look at each other with a different more accepting lens

It will be good to know what the gods make of it . Jay Shri Ram as Salman could have said.

Housekeep ! It's a Sunday

Very Busy sunday ! House keeping !

Deleted 2000 spam mails in my gmail and 4000 in my almost defunct Hotmail account.

Spent 1 hour unfriending 35 ghosts on my FB. They must have given up on me and life on FB long back. Nothing on their pages else they must have blocked me wink emoticon

Had a video chat on skype with my friends abroad for 1 hour. Fifty five minutes was spent on whether they could see and hear me clearly. By the time we could , we were exhausted so greeted each other for five minutes and closed shop.

Collected the weeks mail from the post box and destroyed 200 advertising mailers.

And finally for my dead What's App account where I am part of 267 groups, spent four hours deleting inspiring messages, breathtaking attachments of performances and good mornings, evenings and nights of the last 254 days. All this because my phone refused to allow me to do anything more unless I freed up the memory.

Whoosh ! Sweating. And my wife has the gall to say I spent the day whiling away without doing any work 

Shruti ..Maybe you want to hear me out ?

Dear Shruti,

Hello and Good sunday morning !

Always believed you were the most cute lady on TV. Your persona is very endearing. I actually saw Comedy circus only for you. You are like a little sister one would love to have.

However the other day I was a tad disappointed by your Tweet on the PMs action of asking people to take selfies with their daughter. Disappointed not because you opinionated on the popular PMs request  but because I see in his request a genuine possibility to explode awareness in one single action.

It is absolutely not a question of whether you have a right to share your opinion or not but by questioning a very valuable game changing request you are doing it disservice.

Please allow me to explain. The people of this country are very simple. I am not talking about your or me. It is the vast majority of simple humble people who unfortunately are given into crass way of looking at their daughters in a differentiated manner. These people are also imitators of who they follow. They do everything that a leader does. If the leader tells them to take a selfie and show respect for their daughter they will. Is this in itself not a simple win for women folk of India and elevating respect ?

You are yourself very popular. And elements of doubt on this sneaking into the people's mind only does disservice which I am sure is not your intent.

Should the people have hurt you with their reactions to your tweet? Absolutely not. Can it be avoided? Possibly not. Because it is these very crass people that the PM hopes to change with his request.

Please do not get hurt by the dozens that are abusive and vulgar. But please do not give a chance to the thousands like me who find you endearing but start suspecting the intent of your opinion. Simply because yes it matters

Hope you find merit in my view.

Best wishes

warm regards
Navindutt
Singapore

DDD - Sincere Ensemble cast,witty one liners, joyous colours and an impassionate dog

Crackling wit sprinkled along the entire length of the leisurely storyline. Classily subdued humor that takes potshots at the hypocritically pretentious rich families who are all a hoax and monetarily hollow beneath their branded exterior. 

Charitably bandied together in a sponsored cruise on the hopes of rescuing failing businesses, the various families with their expertly etched out roles crisscross each other’s lives. The audience and the friendly dog get a ringside seat to watch the ceramic outer of the pseudo rich crumble to reveal as ordinary as can be humans that dwell within with their fair share of one upmanship, envy, love, hatred and apathy for relationships gone sour over time. 

With Zoya we discover or rather rediscover life family and relationships on journeys to exotic lands. If it was Goa or Spain previously on road trips, this time the terrain shifts from land to water. And startling blue it is. Richness needs to be defined in as sumptuous colors as money can buy and a cruise ship provides that. A smart Zoya also smartly keeps the hoi polloi out by moving turning a cruise ship in the sea into her studio though surprisingly overawed by the territorial privacy and efficiency in shooting that it provided her she does not exploit its facilities too much tending to instead do some PR for Turkey 

A gorgeous family of a apparently successful businessman on the brink of bankruptcy, a disinterested son who makes sad business presentations without his heart in it, a married but business savvy daughter and disowned with typical arrogance that rich old school Indians reserve for their female offsprings and a wife quietly resigned to her husband’s secret affairs and lack of sincerity in their marriage. He sponsors a cruise across exotic lands to friendly and unfriendly business partners in the keen hope to buy deals to seal his financial security. 

With an assemblage of family, friends and adversaries who could be potential family businessman Mehra ( Anil Kapoor) and his sulking no nonsense wife (Shefali Shah) set off with fun loving son Kabir(Ranveer), a miffed married daughter Ayesha ( Priyanka ) who has been ignored on the invite to the cruise ,her control freak hubby Manav (Rahul Bose), potential future bail out hope (Parmeet Sethi ) and the sutradhaar dog Pluto ( voice- Aamir Khan) meeting on board with dancer Farah(ANushka) and Farhan as Sunny Gill – good friend of Ayesha 

With a large cast, well etched characters, numerous endless conflicts, dramatic face offs the possibilities of an entertaining ride is endless and Zoya does not disappoint at all. It requires astute presence of mind, freaking control of the script, tough captaincy and an ability to not get overwhelmed by all the characters in the story crying for attention and a proper happy closure. Zoya makes it look effortless. 

It is unfair to start dwelling and describing the story any further without impairing the fun element for fresh viewers because it is all about the surprise element in the sophisticated witty dialogues. There is a constant tongue in cheek refrain through the script. The sarcastic takes on the rich Delhites are never offensive or hurtful but chuckle inducing. 

It is a dysfunctional family with each of the characters at crossroads with each other’s expectation. No one is perfect but every character somewhere succumbs to the exhibition of the emotional power that another loved one has on him or her. Can they break out of their own threshold of personal security to discover lost love, make new friends or reconnect in failed marriages. Does love finally conquer the all-powerful language of money. Zoya explores this intelligently and with a lot of entertainment bringing all of this together in a controlled explosion of classy colors, an ensemble of characters each of who acts from the lead to the person who has just one line, scorching beautiful photography. 

Most discerning quality of the movie is the way it treats its characters who dot the heavily populated storyline. Not a single actor overacts or hams. Mark out Vikrant Massey as the handsome dude who falls for new comer Riddhima Sud in the scene where they are cornered, Lalit and Vinod as the business men who are always at crossroads and come together to work on a life boat, whistles for Farhan Akhtar making a limited presence as Priyanka’s ex love interest, a slightly out of sorts but impressive Anushka as the dancer, Zarina Wahab as Priyanka’s mother in law and Rahul Bose playing the annoying husband to the hilt. Watch out his reactions during a tennis match. 

Even a gaggle of Delhi housewives comprising among them Divya Seth ( an actress of good caliber missing for a long time), Preeti Mamgain ( who impressed us since the Banegi apni baat days) ,Debanshi Shah are absolutely impressive and not forgettable. Even Manoj Pahwa seen so often in movies actually finds his mettle here. 

It is difficult not to mention each and every character that dots the landscape and does tremendous justice to their role. I would say a first time in history

Which brings us to the awesome foursome in this story mainly the lead characters who give it all they have. Anil Kapoor and Shefali know their craft but are so wonderfully subdued only erupting briefly when required. Shefali constantly reminds you of Jaya Bhaduri with her brilliant range. Never thought however that  we will talk of Priyanka and Ranveer as great actors. But they indeed are just that, stupendous. Priyanka hammed a lot in Barfi but it is a huge relief and a delight to watch a subdued Priyanka speak more with her eyes and soft facial expressions. Ranveer is the real find. He has found himself with his perfected sense of comic timing and there are many times that you laugh because of the silence. Each of the 200 plus characters dotting the landscape of the movie are brilliant and Zoya deserves kudos for that. 

Shankar Ehsaan Loy craft some songs with lot of joie de vivre. The nonstop one take shot of Gallan Goodiyan is delightful. Watch out as far as you can into the screen and you can see the most nondescript side actors doing their bit sincerely. 

So why does half the crowd come out compare it to TWMR. Because there is no slapstick comedy here and the script unfolds at a leisurely pace. The well-spaced out emotions is what actually helps you to believe that the Mehras are who they are , a dysfunctional but loving family with equally good friends. Beneath the surface dwell good people is the message. They just need to find themselves. 

DEspite  the crackling one liners through the script the pace slackens at times making you feel the director stepped out to think where to take the movie next. The humour at places is a bit forced or just too sophisticated to make impact. But it does not hurt. You keep smiling through the 31/2 starrer. DDD. Well Done Zoya ! 

(Alert - I have a strange feeling, people who liked TWMR will hate this movie :-) )

The curious case of Manu meeting Dhatto!

You shift excitedly in your chair as other patrons breeze in chattering loudly as the credits roll by. No I won’t get into how a large behind blocks my view for a full 2 minutes while the owner of the behind figures out with the companion how to switch on the torch in the mobile to find  their mysteriously hidden seats. Finally they decide they decide the direction of their trajectory while of course munching loudly on their popcorns

I am not at all irked with that. I am beside myself with excitement. Watching a Kangana Ranaut Movie. When was the last we said that .Wow first one that after the Big B. The pure lure for the movies. The teaser was a real tease. The Haryanvi avatar of Tanu with the structurally challenged teeth and rapid fire Haryanvi was an absolute draw. You settle with excitement in the seat and wait for the fun to begin.

A large building with dimly lit rooms and three characters in whites act real bad, ask horrendous questions to a well-dressed couple who for some strange reason look fazed but not troubled. Hold it. The punch has to come yet. You tell yourself. Don’t be impatient. The wife calls the husband a piece of ginger. You chuckle and then quickly repress it as you realize you look like one too. The husband then tries weakly to explain something nonsensical to the men in whites. By now I am distracted. I am trying to reason the logic. Who are these men? A mental institution. These people are talking about their marital discord or something like that. The wife looks more erratic akin to a disturbed person than a hassled wife. The man is unsure why he is there in the first place. And then without warning the husband is led away to be locked away in a mental institution. Uh!

The wife takes the next flight out of the country back home. She calls up husband’s acquaintance  and asks him to fly to London ( visas be damned ) and get the husband released from the mental institution because he is not carrying his credit cards.  Uh!

Sorry but I am fuming by this time. What in the heavens is this? We are almost 20 minutes into the movie! The heroine is back home to a set  reminiscent of small town India and mirroring yes Queen. Queen had a matchmaking session so we have one here. For absolutely no reason whatsoever the psychotic wife comes out semi-nude in a bathrobe and shocks the bridegroom's family. And half the people in the theatre fall down their seats with raucous laughter. I look around. Hello did I miss some subtitles. This has to be one of the crassest unrelated and unnecessary sequence simply added to establish perhaps that the near psychotic protagonist is a daring feminist.

There are more characters populating the scene than can be assimilated in the time that they are on the scene though there is serious effort to replicate a small town realistically.

Things seem to settle down when the dazed hero ( Madhavan with a perennially shocked and loser look) gets back to homeland and conveniently meets a look alike of his wife – Kangana at least doubling up in a much better enacted role of a Haryanvi young athlete 'Dhatto'. He is taken in obviously by the fact that her looks mirror that of his wife. Over a period of time with expressly forgettable sequences he gets to a situation where he is to marry her. So what are the complications that arise?

Convenient coincidences and  social messages are forced into the script without any commitment or emotion - a token nod to waving sociial causes at the audience while trying to be desperately funny.

There are lame attempts at slapstick comedy and the main laughs are drawn because of the small town lingo used and the audience is tickled pink probably to hear some nostalgic phrases like Mumbai audiences feel with “ maazi satakli”.There is something inherently wrong in a film that is forever trying to force laughter into scenes all leading to a very lame climax

Deepak Dobriyal as the hero’s relative and side kick is the best of the lot picking up the energy and helping a few chuckles coming along. Watch out for Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub. He is a ticking bomb and is destined to go far.An equally lost but extremely talented Jimmy Shergil walks around in a daze!

Madhavan – seriously what are you doing in this movie? Bad brief or just plain uninterested. The script is also not too kind to him showing him as bumbling weak man who has no mind of his own. I do not believe that Madhavan was being a gentleman and trying to take the backseat to allow Kangana to shine. 

And then to the Star K. You just cannot fault her. Especially when she is doing the Haryanvi athlete part. She certainly looks bored whenever she is asked to reprise her Queen role and repeat the dance with gay abandon. But she jumps into character for the Haryanvi role making the character completely loveable. But even with her gigantic effort she cannot make the plot appear sensible. All the stars just for her effort.

There are many characters in the sub plots who put in their best - just could not understand the references to IVF, wife hiding it from her husband, one character trying to get a married woman to agree to elope with him - something about some kidnapping when I took a quick five minute snooze and the art director just tries too hard with the result you are completely distracted by the excellent background sets than focusing on the main artists. You get tired of the Haryanvi dialect after some time as it distracting though it is not too difficult to follow.

To be fair to the director many in the audience were in splits in the first half probably due to the gimmick of including the Haryanvi dialect and Tomboy but post interval the audience was like a zombie and that should tell you about the movie.

Watch it if you liked the idea of a illogical but slapstick first part and are a fan of the Star K.The question remains why Manu meets Dhatto. Just a ploy to make a sequel with a nonsensical script.

But way to go Kangana! You are impressive. Sadly cannot say the same for the movie.

**1/2

PIKU - Life and Constipation - The startling link !

The two looked at each other.

“ For long ‘, they said , ‘we have been relegated to the hidden crevices in regular conversation constructs, mentioned only in brackets, whispered about or referred to with numbers 1 and 2”

“We feel emancipated now. Freed from centuries of being the discriminated but important part of the daily household conversation”

Fresh from their new found celebrity status the Western and Indian commodes glittered. Not far in a fertility lab microscopic living organisms smiled knowingly. They too owed their new found status of being referred to in casual banter without any cringe to a skilled Bengali story teller.

Shoojit Sircar( Vicky Donor) is clearly on a mission. Messiah of the hidden performances of the human body. The neglected and yet the most important. The shunned and yet the emancipators of human burden.

Imagine using a unique theme of constipation as a fiber to hold the err…stool of the story together. Shoojit with his unique tales somehow brings out the embarrassment in you, beats it till it cries out that it is ok to shit or sperm. See for instance the uncaring ease with which we use the word shit now which otherwise could have been relegated to alternate use of medical terminology of stools, excreta and the like. You find the description a little too disgusting? You have not heard anything yet!

Please walk into the dining room of Bhaskor Banerjee with an ‘O’ mind you and his not so virgin daughter PIKU who gets more ruffled with the slight at being referred to as sexually independent not because it is embarrassing but because as she describes, it is a need.  You sit up straight and think hello this is interesting! Where is this heading? Never seen a movie like this before.

And Shoojit does not let you down as he allows you to immerse headlong into not a story but a splice of events from the life of the forthcoming but constipated father and his professional independent but caring daughter. The stage is set for a false highlight every few minutes as you hope that Mr.Bhaskar , otherwise an hypochondriac, is able to relieve himself of his fibrous deteriorating burden within the rotund belly that he sports but there is disappointment and you start mentally working out what you could have probably done in his position. Hot green tea? Lots of warm water? Butter milk? Fasting for a few days?  Wow this is actually heading to be a medical thriller. The Bengalis in the movie are really cute. They can discuss it unflinchingly while you quietly put down the packet of chips that you brought along and refuse to slurp on the cold beverage containing apparently 24 packets of sugar.

Into the continuous banter of daily activities of laundry, lunch, pills, failed extermination of the stools enters the owner of the taxi service which services PIKUs office and always has a negative fallout. But then the owner Rana Chowdhury has a soft corner for the indifferent PIKU struggling to catch her attention by flashing his owner status as well as being a friend of the partner of PIKUs firm.

As all Bengalis do Bhaskor has an ancestral home that PIKU hopes to sell off to tick off one of the burdens in her unmanageable list of activities but Bhaskor is only too horrified at the thought.  He also does not want his daughter settled down pushing away suitors in a Sholay style by describing her unflatteringly.

Bhaskor decides to travel to Kolkatta giving a road movie status to the movie from thereon. Failing to find a driver to accompany PIKU who the drivers find annoying, Rana decides to accompany the duo himself driving their car from Delhi to Kolkatta. The journey is a filamentous threading of various facets of human nature cleverly strewn across the length of it with constipation being a clever ploy to hold the comic attention.

It is not a tale to be revealed in miniscule detail but a string of incidents to be enjoyed as excellently written characters populate the journey from Delhi to Kolkatta till Bhaskor reaches his ancestral home and decides the fate of his ancestral home while new relationships flesh out.

The script is boss here. Dialogues are freshly baked from a creative oven. Nothing too casual or clichéd. Direction is totally unobtrusive almost as if the director was invisible and the robotic cameras weaves in and out as ordinary people go about their routines. There is not one false bat of an eyelid of any character to reveal they are not living out their roles. All the characters from the aunt (Moushmi Chatterji) the man servant Budhan (Balendra singh), Pikus partner Syed Afroz – (Jishu Sengupta)           are brilliantly cast. It is a treat to watch them go about their activities with uncharacteristic ease. Even a small exchange between Bhaskor and their house maid are utterly realistic.

It only reinforces the superiority of cinema does not emanate from the budget but from superior writing, superior character development who lend additional reinforcements to a story line and keep viewers gripped with simplicity.

What is absolutely outstanding is the act by the three main leads. Exceptionally brilliant Deepika manages to hold her own with the towering Amitabh Bachhan reliving his Hrishikesh Mukherjee days of film making with some truly realistic moments and a casual unflappable Irfan who steals scenes whenever the camera pans to him with a simple smirk, shocked questioning eyes or a silly smile. None of them act. They seem to have been living the roles while the cameras invisibly shot them. Moushmi Chatterji seemed to hold herself back and yet nevertheless impressed

Some of the scenes like the ones where Deepika struggles with her internal desires and her softening approach to her suitors reflects on her face as a unanswered puzzle, the scenes by the Banaras riverside, the tense standoff on the highway, some chuckle worthy depictions of the digestive system, Deepika conveying so many messages with just a flicker of her eyes, silent stares between the protagonists open for interpretation, all stand out.  The list is endless. In short Deepika has crowned herself the best on the scene today, Mr.Bachchan tells us why he is still no 1 to 10 and Irfan shows us why Hollywood reaches out to him repeatedly.

In short a 4 starrer that deserves 5 stars thanks to these actors

Suffice it to say that you will sit with a silly smile permanently etched on your face till the end.

*****