My name is…

After a long time, I finally managed to leave a theatre smiling, after watching a Hindi movie. (Usually, my reactions range between frustration, irritation, despair, or plain old rage.) But, after watching SRK’s histrionics on the silver screen at a rather decrepit hall in Jamshedpur, I was nothing but numb – numbed by mediocrity, and the typical Karan Johar – SRK type movie.

One of the Bollywood wannabes had once commented, “Only sex and Shahrukh sell’. I’d like to correct her and say that, “Only sex, Shahrukh and controversy sell.” There was much hullabaloo about the movie after the Shiv Sainiks (once again) ran riot, screaming their guts out. Ironically enough, the movie released on the day of ‘MahaSHIVaratri’ – SRK must’ve been thumbing his nose at Messrs. Thackeray and Co. at that.

Today, an impromptu brainwave by a friend led 30 of us poor, unsuspecting souls to cram into autos and rush to the nearby shady hall – Payal, in the hope of catching a good movie for once. (Ah, how I wish I’d not nurtured that naive notion!)

Ok, so in a nutshell, Mr. Khan suffers from autism aka Asperger’s syndrome – he fears crowds, loud noises, and the colour yellow. His mom seems to alienate her younger son (played by Jimmy Shergill) through her over-caring attitude for the elder Khan. (Our dear Mr. Khan is inventive, as he shows by draining the front yard of his tutor’s flooded house, using a bicycle-run pump. Inspired by Aamir’s 3 Idiots? :| )

So, the intelligent younger son flies off to the US, and gets married to a Muslim girl there. After the demise of the mother, Mr. Khan goes to the US too, in the hope of fulfilling his mother’s wish of a happy life. He picks up a job at his brother’s firm, selling beauty products to beauticians and hair saloons.

(In an apparent dig at his Lux commercial, the Khan is seen trying out the products he sells, in a scene where he has a green facepack on himself.)

He meets Kajol (aka Mandira), who works at a saloon and the two hit it off. Kajol has a young son, Sam, who hits it off with Khan too. Like in a typical story, a whirlwind romance later, the two are happily married. (Btw, the name is Khan, with the ‘kh’ being pronounced ‘from the epiglottis’ – does this remind you of Achmed, anyone? Or was it just me? :| )

Since this takes only about one hour, the director now decides to take us on a rougher ride, to give us our money’s worth. 9/11 happens, and the world changes for the Khans. In a school brawl with racist undertones, the young Sam is beaten up and succumbs to his injuries.

A bawling, screaming Kajol throws out Khan and asks him to return only when he tells the US President, “Mr. President, my name is Khan and I’m not a terrorist.” (This is the turning point. This is where you ought to turn and flee the hall, lest you lose your sanity through the rest of the movie.)

Well, on the way our man has many adventures, the most notable one being wading through flood waters with ease to reach the state of Georgia – devastated by Hurricane Katrina. (I wish George Bush had called Khan over to help, instead of calling in the US Army for help, when the actual hurricane happened. Gah! We always knew Bush was no good, didn’t we?)

So, whether Khan gets to meet the President or not is something you ought to watch and find out. (Honestly, it doesn’t even matter.)

Some of the salient points from this movie:

• Kajol – grow up! You’re past the age when you could essay screaming, yelling teen girl characters with aplomb. (Maybe, my 29-year old eardrums have just become more sensitive.)
• I have never been so irritated on listening to ‘We shall overcome’ or ‘Hum honge kaamyaab’. AARRGGHHH!!
• SRK is a pale shadow of Forrest Gump. Yes, he attempts to maintain the simplicity of the character and try to display the wit and sarcasm, but largely fails. (Not his fault, it’s just that the director wanted to have too many subplots.)
• The film is SLOW. I could play it at 1.5 times the normal rate and still find it slow.
• There are good moments – ones that make you laugh or ones that just leave you with tears. But too few and far between.
• Jimmy Shergill and the others were overpaid for this movie. They didn’t have to do much except twiddling their thumbs and watching SRK hog the screen.
• I don’t understand movies. I didn’t get why SRK went off into a group mourning those who perished in the attacks, wearing a white ‘chikankari’ cap and chanted verses from the Koran, even though he did neither of these on a daily basis. (Maybe, the director was just trying to find a convenient reason to add an extra twist.)

Overall, I thought the number of films giving social messages is increasing a little too fast. Come on guys, I’d rather watch Crash or Forrest Grump instead.

P.S. I think the poor Shiv Sainiks were doing us a huge favour by stopping us from seeing the movie. I almost wish they had succeeded.Go, Sena! Go, Thackeray!

Testimonial time

At the end of their two years at XLRI, as our seniors leave, to ply their respective trades, we wish them luck and happiness... here's the testimonial I wrote for my committee seniors, for publication in the yearbook...

I wonder… how does one compress a year of fun, learning, hours/days spent in work, minutes of madness, and what not, into one tiny, miniscule page? Thoughts gather in my mind, like leaves in an autumn wind, as I set out to complete this task of writing a note about you folks.

Where shall we begin? When we juniors were a bunch of greenhorns appearing for interviews for the committee? Or shall we jump forward to the post-selection phase, when we were invited to a ‘formal’ dinner with two senior profs from some American university? Of course, decked in our best formals, we reached The Regent, only to find out that our serious, no-nonsense secy, Vaibhav, had master-minded a prank!

We could also describe all those late night meetings, where we were encouraged to give voice to all our ideas, which threatened to gush forth and cause a deluge! But thankfully, Shradha, the voice of pragmatism, always detected a potential pitfall or challenge, allowing us to make things better.

Since Ankit decided to make use of the committee’s expertise and knowledge, to go abroad for a term, we didn’t get to know him too much, except for becoming aware of his brand name – Ghissu J and the fact that he, even when abroad, did his best to help us out.

Ambira, the consultant, who packs a powerful, intelligent brain, behind her beauty, was always at hand to bail us out of tough situations with a smile, and some nice ideas. And Arpan, the silent worker, always spot-on with work, and always game for some fun helped us integrate well into the team, and keep going!

You know, the next year will be tough for us. We’ll have some really large shoes to fill, and it’s a scary thought for us. Without Vaibhav’s focus and direction, and without the rest of you to guide us, we might feel a little lost, on occasion. But then, kudos to you, for setting such an awesome example, that we must live up to.

Of course, we wish we had more of a chance to know you better, work with you, and spend some more fun-filled moments too. We’ll miss you folks, but then, we’ll have with us many memories of the happy times we spent, and hope you do the same.

For all of you, we have nothing but good wishes and smiles, as you embark on your respective journeys through life.

Forrest Gump said, "I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental - like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both." I can’t help but agree with him, as I write this note.

So, till the time, another such breeze blows us back into each other’s lives, we wish you farewell. Godspeed, seniors!