Kick!

And I want to write something down. I am tired. Babs is sick again. I have a dentist appointment and life goes on.

I made breakfast this morning for work. It was my turn for the breakfast club at work. I made a frittata and a huge fruit bowl. I will put the recipe for the frittata on the girlsgonecookin.wordpress.com website soon. I made one mid-size tray and two mini ones. I sent one with G for his work, kept one for safety and the mid-size one and fruit bowl came to work with me. All is well.

I almost took the day off this morning because Babs had a fever the whole night but both her baby sitter and G told me not to worry about it unless the temperature runs high. AG, my colleague picked up the breakfast for me from home while I dropped Babs and came to work.

Like everyone wants to know how sucky my day was.

Anyways, I am watching the Telugu movie Kick, finally. I say finally because there is a funny story.

I do not know to read or write Telugu. I can only speak the language and I love the language but cannot write it. Dad tried three times to teach me and all three times I did not go past A and Aa. Learning to write Tamil was a necessity because I lived in Chennai but Telugu was just a luxury which I could live without happily.

Anyway, coming back to my story. I went to the store, asked for Kick, the guy handed me a DVD that said Kick written on it. Came home, saw the movie, it was decent, time pass and I was happy that I had seen the very popular movie.

Next day, I am talking to another Telugu friend to whom I proudly mentioned that I saw Kick and it was decent. He asked me, "so you like Ravi Teja?"

"No, I think he is ugly and old. But how does that matter, Kick has Allu Arjun in it."

He laughed and said, "nope, Kick has RT in it and Illeana."

I argued saying that he saw the wrong movie, "I should know, I saw the movie."

"What is the story."

I told him the synopsis.

"That movie is Parugu."

I was stunned. I had seen an entire movie thinking it was another movie. Had only I known to read Telugu, this mistake could have been averted, although I always fast forward the first 10 minutes. I was super embarrassed. I went to the store and demanded a return.

So, I am half way through watching Kick. I still cannot stand Ravi Teja. He is way too ugly, and old and Illeana is cute and such a mismatch for him. So when I finish it off, I will write more on the movie.

I have few other movies to watch over the weekend and hopefully I will have enough time. This is the first weekend in many when I have absolutely no plans and hopefully I will make the best use of it. Also, I pray and hope that Babs will get better soon and that I can take her out tomorrow if the weather permits.

With all that said.

I am signing off

ART

Love it or Kick it

We have seen uber-romantic movies from the past in black and white. In all Indian languages...be it Devdas in Hindi or in Tamil or Telugu or be it Missiamma in any of the languages. But the director could not show scenes of love making or even lip locking for that matter. Yet we knew exactly what emotions were springing up between the actors. The actors were good and the directors were even better. No kissing of skin show was necessary to show that someone was in love or going through lusty love feelings. It was obvious.

But with the onset of Western influence each and every Indian director in his own way has been trying to push the envelope. In the very recent past on-screen romance in Hindi and Tamil movies has taken a sharp leap. the past few years we have seen the so called "item numbers" increase very rapidly. It became mandatory for every commercial and sometimes even non-commercial movie to incorporate an item number into the script. In most cases they were just interjected to appeal to the front benchers and the mass in general.

A lot of item numbers of course are very raunchy and do get very explicit in the lyrics as well as bodily gyrations. Most of us ignored the video and hummed the songs like "beedi Jalai..." (Omkara 2007) just because the tune is catchy. Of course Sunidhi Chauhan has made a fortune on these very songs and a few actress gained popularity off these things.

But now the directors want to incorporate lip locking and love making scenes in every movie so that they can get the attention of the mass and use it as a lure instead of using the story or the script or other movie-making talents to attract audience.

If you were to ask a director or an actor why there is a love making in the scene, the director will say, the script demands it and the actor or actress will say, "I only did it because the script demanded it."

I am writing this because I saw the hindi movie "New York" (2009) last night and there is a scene showing John A and Katrina K love making in a song sequence. Now I want to ask the director, please sir, elucidate me, how on earth did that scene do any good to the movie?

How did that scene help the story? Is this a heist story where the actor sleeps with the leading lady, steals the secret code while she is snoozing away? Or is he going to kill her afterward? Why do we need to see them making love? So that we understand how they land up with a kid afterward? Would'nt her saying excitedly, "I am pregnant" not give us the watchers clue that they had to have had sex to have a kid? We are certainly not stupid you know and as far as I am concerned about kids, that peice of information is unecessary to them.

I was so mad. I can understand a movie titled "Kama Sutra" showing love making scenes. I am not going to take my kid to that movie period, but a movie on terrorism? why? If he was trying to attarct girls by showing John half naked and the men with Katrina then director failed on more counts than just bad direction and casting. If a movie sucks, no matter how many love making scenes you include it is going to flop. But if a movie is good then you cannot stop it now, can you? I do not remember seeing any love making scene in Rang De Basanti...hmm...wonder how the people saw it!

In a hurry to attract the masses directors seem to be forgeting to make the script and story the leader instead they are trying out short cuts and short cuts only last for a short time...so go on and make GOOD movie and not shoddy B graders.

Love

ART