King of Spades

So there it was. Much awaited post the success of Skyfall, the next 007 movie starring Daniel Craig yet again as the british intelligence agent- James Bond. The expectations were quite high. With M (Judi Dench) dying in the previous installment and the intelligence establishment under uncertainity , much was dependant on how things would lay out next. Hence the script had to be equally good if not better than Skyfall and tighter too. Well this is where exactly, Spectre let’s you down. What starts off superbly, filming a death parade in Mexico (day of the dead), followed by an amazingly shot hand to hand combat in a revolving chopper,  loses its steam midway. Bond, this time around, is after an organization called the Spectre .An organization, which from a long time, has been wanting to rule the world through an intelligence gathering system created by it. And to make the world leaders fall in line, it uses terror and its moles/contacts in high offices. Franz Oberhauser (Christopher W

The present Sakshi called up the last couple of drivers from their database.  Most of them were already on duty and few not in town. There was no way Sakshi could let that last call/ request go unattended. For her this was not just a business, it was a mission. The past That day in court Sakshi had not pressed charges or demanded an enquiry. No it was not because her boyfriend was at fault , it was because the incident prior to the court had made her realise the bigger issue. To Drink and Drive was a crime . But people still did it. Even the ones who were supposedly educated and holding a decent job. While there were many laws to punish and even reform, no one had a hands –on solution to curb the menance . That day if chachu had been drunk, the kid would not have escaped ,simply because he would not have been in that much control of their vehicle. That realization had never left her. Karan had run over her father on his way back. He dad had stepped out  to get milk. While rushing

The past It must have been some time post 4pm in the evening, when she woke up in her hall on the sofa. Looked like she had somehow managed to crawl into her home safely. The headache was splitting her head apart. She washed her face and popped a pill to get rid of the headache. Post freshening up ,she went upstairs to her fathers’s room. Shit yaar, he must be upset with me for getting sloshed and  sleeping all day long , was the constant thought plying on her mind, as she opened his door. He was not in his room . She looked in the kitchen and the balcony. He was nowhere to be seen. Must have gone out for his walk. Well let me call him. As she reached out for her phone, she saw a lot of missed calls. There were a couple of unknown numbers,  her neighbor and her paternal uncle(chachu) were also there in the list. There was also one missed call from Karan. Looks like the entire world was trying to reach her when she was sloshed.  Out of the list, she called her chachu. He was someone

Fourth day and still no signs of movement. The flicker on the screen was proof that the heart was alive but then the body just didn’t seem to realise it. The present  It was 2:30 am. Sakshi had just got her last cup of coffee for the night. Usually she used to get late. But today work was at its peak. It was a night of celebration.  Mumbai Indians, the local cricket team had won the cricket IPL (Indian premiere league)  T20 trophy for the first time.  Party was in the air and thus being the founder of a successful start up, that dealt with driver service for party animals , their phone had not stopped ringing since late evening .  While business was  on the rise , she was still maintaining a  tight back office workforce to curtail expenses. This eventually led Sakshi herself routing/answering calls for assistance during hi-traffic days. Water drops had slightly begun to trickle down the glass façade of her cabin as a ping popped on their assistance app.  Another driver request by

Whenever you think of some of the best action and thrilling sequences that Hollywood has produced, the Mission Impossible (MI) series ranks right on top of your mind. Yes we do have the Bond, Bourne and Arnie movies, but the sheer consistency of MI when it comes to showcasing death defying concepts/stunts is something admirable. The 5th part of the installment just takes this to the next level. Within the first few minutes of the movie, when you see Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt) hanging on to dear life outside an airplane- a massive A 400, you know you are in take-off mode for a pure adrenaline rush. The plot is more or less what MI fans would usually expect. As it is, most logic goes for a toss because the fans of this franchisee are more pleased by death defying stunts than logic. IMF (Impossible Mission Force) is virtually disbanded as a unit and their main agent Ethan Hunt is on the run. His ex- colleagues are now a part of the CIA.  Ethan’s objective is to disband a syndicate that on

“Dost, chaar small dena”! In any other situation this would have sounded like an order at a bar counter but here we were finally, after braving the horrible traffic of a typical Mumbai evening, at the booking window of Prithvi Theater,Juhu. Chaar Small by T-Pot productions was playing that evening. A collection of 4 short stories centered around a bar is what one could guess, from the poster displayed outside the venue. The humour was served right on toast by the cast, with an introductory aarti asking the viewers to put their phones on silent!  Pretty innovative I thought. The lighting, set, innovative posters (one to back the above aarti), a superb live band etc just created the perfect ambience for the spirits to soar further! Once the stories/acts start spanning out one after the other, you realize that the common link in all of these is not the bar but it is the city of Mumbai. The city of aspirations and thus migrations, underlying issues and yes humanity or what is famously c

Girish Karnad’s Wedding Album was playing in Prithvi Theater the other night. There was a lot of buzz surrounding it, considering the cast and the writer in question. Hence decided to give it a shot and that too on a Saturday night, when a shot usually means getting something that lifts your spirits! The play started off promising to be something different, especially with the treatment of the typical pixilated video call by Vidu (Ira Dubey) to her prospective husband Ashwin, who is settled in US and yet wants an Indian bride. The storyline centers around the incidents that happen within the Konkani family, around the impending wedding of their daughter. Vidu’s family consists of her retired father, mom, her elder sister Hema (married and settled in Australia, flown down for the wedding leaving her husband and two kids behind), her brother Rohit (the breadwinner and also a prospective bridegroom) and their maid Radhabai. So the stage looked set for some fun, drama and other things

Am writing this article with a premise that all of us know Ramayana- the story of prince Ram. If not, kindly buy a book or rent the entire DVD collection of Ramanand Sagar’s epic serial –Ramayan, which is how most of India learnt about it! The Ramayana play is staged during the Navratri festival leading upto Vijayadashmi, the day when Lord Ram killed Ravan and avenged the abduction of his wife Sita. Ramleela is the name given to the play format that is staged during the festival every year, more so in North India. It’s become more like a tradition that has to be followed come what may. However what makes it interesting is the drama that is usually associated with its casting and the eventual screening. Today people have lost the interest in it, given mythology is uncool for the youth. Most stage actors, given the pittance of the sum they receive as remuneration for their performances don’t really care. Also women do not participate in such plays given the stigma associated with femal

The main difference between humans and animals is the presence of brain or rather our ability to use it. And what governs our brain or headquarters are emotions. They play a very major role in how we feel, what we do, how we respond to situations/people etc.  Any significant experience in our daily lives, triggered by these emotions, usually gets registered in us as a long term memory. These could be related to something that’s happened around a place or a person. And whenever one gets into a similar zone, these memories resurface and with them the emotions too. Which is precisely the reason why we gel with certain people or like certain kind of food/cuisine or places . And when it comes to a different kind, we just cannot stand them .They leave us with emotions like disgust, anger, sorrow and sometimes even fear . The other kind makes us feel wanted, happy. They bring in the everlasting emotion of joy into our lives thereby creating a strong mutual bond. This bond is what we identi