While in BGLR I would go often to my hometown, sometimes every weekend. It was easy. Catch a bus on Fri eve, reach Sat morning. Leave on Sun eve and come back on Mon morning.
The buses were decently comfortable, much more comfortable than the flights with economy seating. If you are like me who can fall asleep anywhere easily, it makes it easier to get through the hours. The bus would start, and I would drift off ... doze ... wake ... doze ... calm and peaceful, except for the roar of traffic outside until...
... they play a movie. And then my torture begins. I cant watch the movie and I cant turn away ... because of the reflection of the movie in the windows. The sound - what can anyone do about it? They just play it loud, real loud.
Movies are a ritual on these overnight buses that ply between major towns and cities. A ritual that needs to be kept come what may. It does not matter whether you have good movies or not. For that matter, how can you define what is a "good" movie? Everyone has their own definition and preferences.
I dont know how many horrible movies I must have watched or heard on these journeys. Tons. 95% crap movies, per my definition. All the Grade B and C movies from gultland. All the movies that I would have consciously avoided. Three hours of torture, meaningless violence, crappy and silly dialogues. Sometimes I would wish I did not know the language.
That's how I saw the Telugu version of the Tamil movie Ghajjini. The one that Aamir Khan is acting in Hindi and due to be released shortly. It was a big hit at that time. One of its songs was in every cell phone as a ringtone. I did not care much for the song though everyone was raving about it. I was on one these overnight journeys and they played GHajjini. Teh only part I liked was the romance between the guy and girl - it was light and sweet. And then there is a 180 shift.
Meaningless murders. Violence. Pyschothrillers.
Honestly, I did not understand the whole purpose of the movie. It was a hit, such a major hit that Aamir Khan wanted to act in a remake. All the e-papers are about this movie now and how it will do at the box office!
I cant watch violence or psycho stuff for the thrill of it. Like the "I know what you did last summer" and the sequel "I still know what ...". Saw the first one, had no idea what the story was all about and who killed who for what reason...some of my colleagues loved it for the simple reason that it made them sit on the edge of their seats for nearly two hours!
I prefer simple, nice, cute movies. If that does not make them or me realistic, I am ok with that. Gimme Shrek. Madagascar. Ratatouille. Home Alone. Hrishi da's or Basu Chatterjee's movies. I can even tolerate a Govinda-David Dhawan maybe.
Then there is Rab De... I dont like Shah rukh with moustache though...think he should retire.
In which we re-read "1984"
4 years ago
6 comments:
PG those movies are sheer torture. I agree with you. Spanning experience in both countries.
Ghajini you cannot switch on the TV (begs the question, why should you??) without Aamir going on and on about this one.
i am not liking this monstrous looking AK in the hindi gajini. But i just loved Surya. So much that I voluntarily towed myself,kids and inlaws (not: no spouse mentioned here) to a theater and watched his latest called Vaaranam Aayiram.
PG, i notice one thing of late...that BGLR is slowly replacing your DGP as 'that fond place in far away where things were almost perfect...to snuggle up to Bhoole Bisre Geeth' :-)
airspy-
what a remarkable observation! for the longest time if someone uttered the name of that place in WB where the rain was rainier and vividh bharathi was vividh-er and green was greener, i had visions of PG in the corner room glaring at us out of her glasses. and to think that has been transferred to smelly old BGLR. things change so much with time (and look at you GUNG HO about a movie and all. who would have thought?)
bglr has been a favorite since i moved there from delhi. delhi i never liked. dgp still remains - a very distant memory...
bglr is still a favorite but i disapprove of the growing traffic, the increasing number of Infy and Wipro buses hogging the roads, the cutting down of trees, building and apartments all over the place, increasingly hot summers, and pollution.
that charm of good ol' bglr i knew ten years back is disappearing...that is sad.
but now bglr has four of us!
i like your list of like-able movies. mine owuld be similar. except RNBDJ.
i have not see rab de. dont want to see it either unless it is really really good
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