Criticize all you want, I won’t be perfect
talk all you need, I won’t change
laugh at me and I’ll laugh back,
there’s no shame in being myself
I’ll show who I am
and you’ll wear all your masks,
your backed into the corner
from all your insecurities
one day you’ll fall,
along with all,
your whispers of cruel words
and that’s all they are…
whispers; hardly heard.
Cover of Disappearances
No one here,
and the body says: whatever is said
is not to be said. But no one
is a body as well, and what the body says
is heard by no one
but you.
Snowfall and night. The repetition
of a murder
among the trees. The pen
moves across the earth: it no longer knows
what will happen, and the hand that holds it
has disappeared.
Nevertheless, it writes.
It writes: in the beginning,
among the trees, a body came walking
from the night. It writes:
the body’s whiteness
is the color of earth. It is earth,
and the earth writes: everything
is the color of silence.
I am no longer here. I have never said
what you say
I have said. And yet, the body is a place
where nothing dies. And each night,
from the silence of the trees, you know
that my voice
comes walking toward you.
Image by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center via Flickr
A moment of happiness,
you and I sitting on the verandah,
apparently two, but one in soul, you and I.
We feel the flowing water of life here,
you and I, with the garden’s beauty
and the birds singing.
The stars will be watching us,
and we will show them
what it is to be a thin crescent moon.
You and I unselfed, will be together,
indifferent to idle speculation, you and I.
The parrots of heaven will be cracking sugar
as we laugh together, you and I.
In one form upon this earth,
and in another form in a timeless sweet land.
Meaning: Dabang – someone who cannot be suppressed.
The story:
Dabang, set in Lal Gunj, UP, tells the story of two step-brothers Chulbul (Robin Hood) Pandey (Salman Khan) and Makhan Singh (Makki) Pandey (Arbaaz Khan). Unhappy about the treatment meted out to him by his step-father, Prajapati Pandey (Vinod Khanna), Chulbul vows to overturn things once he’s on his feet. Fast forward 21 years, and Chulbul is a corrupt UP cop with a heart of gold, his father has fallen on hard times and Chulbul has no respect for him whatsoever.
Following a bank robbery, Chulbul traces the robbers to their hideout, only to pocket the loot and let the robbers get away. Thus begins his rivalry with youth politician Chhedi Singh (Sonu Sood). In the meantime, there are two love stories to drive the plot forward. Makkhi wants to marry Nirmala (Mahi Gill), the masterji’s daughter, but his father opposes the match as he wants dowry, which her father cannot afford. Chulbul falls in love with Rajo (Sonakshi Sinha), who refuses to marry until her drunkard father is alive.
What follows are the twists and turns of the rivalry between Chulbul and Chhedi, and the simultaneous development of the love stories.
My take:
I loved the movie! Part of it was due to the crowd, which whistled and clapped at Salman’s entry, before all of the songs, and during some of the fight sequences. It just adds to the overall mood and excitement, what say?
Dabangg is a total masala movie. It works because of Salman Khan and Salman Khan and, did I say it already? Salman Khan! And no, I am not a huge Salman fan. It works because of its raw machoness. No wimpy lover boys or feeble attempts at fights. The director, Abhinav Kashyap, has copied a couple of fight stunts from such English movies and Transporter, Matrix and The Hulk, and has also given some of the sequences a humorous touch, by throwing in a little impromptu dance to a caller tune, no less!
The cinematography is excellent, capturing Uttar Pradesh in all its notoriety – dirty old shops, winding lanes. There were flashes of directorial brilliance as well, with attention paid to costumes (Dimple Kapadia’s anklets and toe rings) and mannerisms. The many songs are interspersed effectively in the plot, and each song, from Hun Hun Dabangg to the romantic Tere Mast Mast Do Nain , the drunkard’s anthem Humka Peeni Hain and the hugely popular Munni Badnaam Hui have excellent recall value.
There’s something for everyone in the movie – action, romance, comedy, drama. All in all, fultoo paisa vasool. Go watch it!
Have you seen the movie? What’s your take on it? If you have a review on your blog, feel free to leave a link to it in the comments!
(Images via http://www.dabanggthefilm.com)
It’s been raining in Pune, light drizzles that leave the trees looking fresh and green.
When I woke up this morning and looked out the window, I noticed a parrot perched on the custard apple tree, hanging upside down from a branch, pecking away at the fruit. It looked so adorable!
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a better angle, but this was a moment that was just begging to be captured!
Have you woken up to such pleasant surprises? I’d love to hear!
(Click here to view older Friday Frames)
If you have any artwork or photography to share, please leave a comment, a link back to your blog and your e-mail address, and I’ll feature it on an upcoming Friday Frame!
Image via Wikipedia
Like autumn leaves upon the river
and icebergs in the spring
I’m a captive of the current
carried by anothers whim
It seems I am adrift again
once more carried by the wind
with no anchor chains to hold me
nor ropes to bind me in
Will there ever be stability
within this soul of mine
will I ever find the one
that becomes the tie that binds
Read more: http://hellopoetry.com/poem/adrift-3/#ixzz0yaDA3k4g
While channel surfing today, I happened upon a program called The Great Indian Love Challenge on MTV. The program “tests” the measure of love on TV! Lovelorn contenders are given three tasks to complete to get something special for their special someone; it could be a romantic vacation, a diamond ring or a Longines watch!
In the episode that I watched, Harshvardhan Rane did three tasks to win a diamond ring for his girlfriend, Meenaxi Das.
Before the third task, Yuvi (the VJ hosting the show), got Meenaxi at the venue, told her what Harsh had done for her and why, and told her what his third and final task was. There was the usual crying and pleading for him to not do it, and he was all fired up (no pun intended) to go through with the task to get her the diamond ring and see her happy.
Image via Wikipedia
Like I said, interesting concept; I was hooked onto that particular episode, to see the tasks and if Harsh would be able to complete them. What really struck me as I watched was how much he loved Meenaxi – doing those three tasks wasn’t easy! The first opened him up to embarrassment, the second was the most dangerous – one of those wrestlers getting over-eager, and he could have ended up breaking some bones – the third looked dangerous but was done under very controlled conditions and with all safety aspects taken care of.
The sincerity with which Harsh did all the tasks made me feel all happy and fuzzy inside. During the second task he was tired, he was outmatched, but the thought of Meenaxi, of seeing a smile on her face, made him go through and manage to avoid one pindown right at the end, when he was most tired.
I have just four words to say: Three cheers to love!
Do you have any interesting love stories to share? Something special that a special someone did for you?
A quick read, with a profound message.
Image via Wikipedia
A Star Without a Name
When a baby is taken from the wet nurse,
it easily forgets her
and starts eating solid food.
Seeds feed awhile on ground,
then lift up into the sun.
So you should taste the filtered light
and work your way toward wisdom
with no personal covering.
That’s how you came here, like a star
without a name. Move across the night sky
with those anonymous lights.
North Korea team
North Korea couldn’t make it past the group stage, but the fact that they were competing was commendable.
Now that the team is back home, they have been subject to public humiliation. The team was lectured in public on their failure and “betrayal” of Kim Kong- un, son and heir of the great leader Kim Jong-il.
Coach Kim Jong-hun
The team fought hard against Brazil. Though the score line was 2-1 for Brazil, North Korea struck the first goal. They went on to lose 3-0 to Ivory Coast and 7-0 to Portugal. Remember, this young, untested team, was placed in the dreaded Group of Death.
The problem was that football hasn’t ever been broadcast live in North Korea, as the broadcast of live games had been banned to avoid national embarrassment. When the team played Brazil they were not under too much pressure, as they knew the game would not be telecast live and were able to play freely. After the spirited 2-1 defeat to Brazil, however, state television made the Portugal game its first live sports broadcast ever.
Dejected team members walk off the field
According to media in South Korea, though, players got off lightly by North Korean standards. Historically, it was straight to the prison camps for athletes and coaches who performed badly.
Shameful.
FIFA should ban the country from participating in football matches if defeat means that the coach could be executed and the team subject to public humiliation.
Sunday’s World Cup final was bound to create history — one way or another. But this clash of two two like-minded footballing cultures looked more like foulball than football. The Dutch set a new record for yellow cards in a World Cup final (12, compared to the previous record of 6), with Heitinga getting sent off with his second yellow card for the evening in the 110th minute of the game. The night, however, belonged to Spain, which prevailed despite the hounding and hammering they received from the Dutchmen.
“I simply made a small contribution in a match that was very tough, very rough,” said Andres Iniesta, the Spanish hero who sent his team to World Cup glory. “All sorts of things were happening on the pitch.”
The match was rough and tumble; the Spanish weren’t able to play their free-flowing football; and despite the number of scoring chances, there was very little of the quality football that these two teams are known for. The sport’s showpiece event was hardly a showcase for the beautiful game, and that was the Netherlands’ doing. Refree Howard Webb showed the first yellow card of the evening to Van Persie in the 15th minute when he brought down Joan Capdevila. Spain’s Carles Puyol reacted to a foul on a Spanish player a minute later and was shown a yellow card of his own, but the spoilers were definately the Dutch.
Though the tactics slowed down La Roja, they still maintained the upper hand in terms of possession (60/40), and delivered where it mattered most — in the goalkeepers net! As Iniesta took off his shirt and ran to the sidelines to celeberate on one end of the field, on the other end Iker Casillas, standing inside his 
goal post, had tears streaming down his face. That goal ended nearly 80 years of angst for a nation that has produced so many great players but has not once lifted the World Cup trophy.
With this win Spain enters the history books not only because this is the first time the nation has won the World Cup, but also because no country has ever lost its opening match and gone on to win the final! Spain is also only the second country to have won the Euro Cup and gone on to win the World Cup two years later.