farooq – Page 18 – Revering Thoughts

Childhood diaries: Tantrums

On January 28, 2017

Growing up, I was a spoiled kid. The kind of kid who can roll around in the mud until his demands are met. The kind of kid who would cry-out-loud for the sake of it.

Being the first-born, you’re by default the favorite of your entire clan. You’re basically a superstar and most popular among neighbours and relatives. And I used to be this fat little kid who was crazy about Frooty and everything Cadbury. Everyday, while returning from school, Abbu would buy me that from small Indian Bakery outlet next to our shop. Everyday. While my dada would warn me of how this will harm my teeth, everyday.

I used to love throwing tantrums around and would go hide in the godown just to scare my Dadi, who will then shout at my parents and ensure that I get what I wanted in the first place.

One of my other regular tantrum was, “Aaj main khaana nahi khaunga” when there was some random vegetable cooked. I would be okay if they had a dessert at the end of it, otherwise my Raag Allap would begin.

You remember that kid from the Dhaara Ad, who runs away and his Dada would bring him back, with the promise of Jalebi ? Oh, he was my inspiration back then.

As of now, even I don’t remember most of those things I did and got away with. People from my family, colony and relatives, often remember it when they meet me now with, “Kitna badmaash tha ye pehle..”.

Raees Review: It’s worth a few whistles

By farooq

On January 27, 2017

In Movies & Entertainment

There’s a scene in Raees where Shahrukh Khan beats up a “Saeth” while he was watching an Angry-young-man-avatar of Amitabh on screen, where Amitabh is seen beating the “always-evil” Prem Chopra!

Raees’ storyline also reminds you of those Masala entertainers from the 80’s with multiple sub-plots infused in it. The bad guy isn’t actually “bad” but is a Robinhood at heart.

Raees is entertaining, no doubt. But it relies heavily on the performances of Shahrukh and Nawazuddin, without which the movie fails to take-off in the second half. It just doesn’t hit the levels you’d expect it to. The build-up in the first half for the ultimate clash between Raees (played by Shahrukh) and Majmudar (played by Nawazuddin) is exciting and laced with amazing dialogues. But as the film develops it just tries to fit-in a little too much and strays away.

Watching Shahrukh in one of his best performances is definitely a treat. He essays the role of a bootlegger businessman delivering catch-phrase dialogues with a sense of charm that only he could have. It’s hard to find a frame where he misses the beat. Be it in the over-the-top action sequences where he’s bad ass and just cannot tolerate anyone calling him a “battery” or his “jugalbandi” of sorts in confronting Majumdaar Saaheb. Or being romantic with the leading lady, Mahira Khan, Shahrukh nails it with perfection.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui, as always, delivers in his character as the Cop whose mission is to stop Raees. He’s a no-nonsense cop who belts one-liners and knows how to be funny. Scenes with Nawaz and Shahrukh are the highlight of the film. While Shahrukh adds in the masala, Nawaz keeps it grounded.

Background score and the Music of the film has and old charm like the cinematography. The eye for periodic detail by Rahul Dholakia (director) is visible but the screenplay falters as the story develops. Dholakia struggles to find the balance between fast-paced drama and touching character subtleness.

The movie is largely about Raees and Majmudar, and Dholakia ensures that it remains so. However, in an attempted push for commercialization, the beauty of numerous nuances get lost. The conflict which Raees undergoes after a gunaah ,he commits or how Mahira (his wife) consoles him post that or even the relationship between his partner-in-crime Siddique (played by the talented Mohd. Zeeshan Ayub) are the mis-hits. And these are the details that make you feel, something is amiss.

Another problem which the film faces is the “need to make” Raees the good guy, especially towards the second half.

Raees is a good movie which suffers the curse of the second-half but still survives thanks to Shahrukh and Nawazuddin. Watch it for the performances and the dialogues which are worth a whistle.

I’m going with 3/5 for Raees. Go entertain yourself.

Ye Taara, Wo Taara

By farooq

On January 27, 2017

In Movies & Entertainment

One of the inspiring examples of cultural assimilation is this song from Swades.

“Ye taara wo taara.. har taara..
dekho jise bhi lage pyaara”

This song is a pivotal point and a concluding suggestion to the problem the lead character is trying to solve. The problem of convincing families in villages to send their kids to school. The lead character visits 4 different families with varied issues/excuses for not sending their kid to school.

While the village heads outrightly reject the idea of “hamare bachchan aur unke bachchan ke saath?!” quite rhetorically. The other families have child marriage, poverty, child labour to carry on the family occupation and “ladkiyan kya karengi itna padh likh ke?”.

The film was made in 2004 and there’s hardly a doubt that things have drastically changed since then. A visit to any village will introduce you to girls being married off before 18. And the ones who aren’t, are made to “learn household chores”. I mean, do they have to learn some form of martial arts? Otherwise this doesn’t make sense at all.

The whole idea of “ladki ki shaadi karwani hai” has been made into a Mount Everest to climb in our societies! But then why wouldn’t it be ? When even educated folks demand for dowry for marriage. Some of them might even be reading this post as well.

The nuances that Swades touched and brilliantly depicted deserves some introspection. Has anything changed ? Or will it ever be ?

The song ends with kids playing together. Each from different caste and sensibilities. Together. Is that a ray of hope? Or these kids also be moulded by the “tradition”?

..not looking back..

By farooq

On January 26, 2017

In Random Philosophy

For a large part of my life, I’ve remained the guy who has tried maintain a healthy relationship with everyone. It has always been tough to outrightly hate anyone whom I know.

And even if I find people irritating and difficult to hangout or even work with, it isn’t easy to show that openly.

I believe this is something that I’ve picked up from my parents, who have always tried to maintain a “high-approval” rating among their relatives, neighbors, and friends.

Cutting off ties with people who have only given us trouble has never been easy for my parents. And I guess, I had followed the same.

Over the last year, I realized this needed to change. It is essential to clean out the weed from your crops to have healthy produce. Cannot say, I’ve been very successful in that either.

And it isn’t only the people who irritate you or are just not worth the trouble, this also includes the people with whom you’ve once shared a good rapport. Things change over time. And so do people. And we should too.

People who intend on making things work will definitely put an effort. And those who don’t, why get stuck with them?

There’s no point in looking back at things in the hopes of reliving something that is not present now.

Selling Patriotism

By farooq

On January 25, 2017

In Random Philosophy

It so happens that I’ve ended up deleting all the songs on my phone. So when I am trying to avoid talking at work or trying to not let the traffic irritate me too much, I’m mostly switching between Radio channels.

Apart from the songs, the jingle-filled ads, there’s one interesting pattern I noticed. The pattern of using nationalism in the ads! And no, I’m not just talking about Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali which is sort of a torch-bearer for this.

There are many ads which try to somehow connect the dots of patriotism and commercialization. And believe ve me, it’s tempting.

Even when we “aspire” for everything foreign and even our definition of “development” is based on the parameters of those very foreign nations, a sales strategy of patriotism, seems to be working.

Even movie choices are decided based on these parameter now. Going to watch a movie in itself is a statement!

But aren’t we all suckers for patriotism? I mean, even the instrumental tune of the national anthem gives us goosebumps! Damn!

And our very proactive government is also in the process of even making the disabled people respect the national anthem. Equality, right?

So, all you marketers out there, find the dotted line and connect your product with patriotism, it’s a recipe for success.

The What-ifs

By farooq

On January 24, 2017

In Random Philosophy

I just watched “Baar Baar Dekho”. And yes, it is not a good movie. And no, this is not a movie review.

The story is about mending mistakes from our pasts and is a play on “what-ifs”. A thought that is so central to our entire living process. We love to glorify the past and regularly utter, “Kaash.. maine aisa kiya hota”.

“Only if I had done this…” “or a that..” “then this would have happened”, “or not happened”. And lines we like to use on loop.

We all wish things to happen in a certain way. According to our plan.

When we realize things are not happening according to the plan in our head, we try to find reasons. We blame that reason and then move on using those, “Ifs”, yet again.

There’s nothing wrong in analyzing our own lives and looking back in time. And it is even amazing when we can learn our lessons from those past happenings.

But what’s more important here is the acceptance of the time gone by. Acceptance that it all happens for the better. Even when it doesn’t go according to our plan, it is still fine. It is all a zero-sum game, anyway.

Like this movie I just watched (ironically called Baar Baar Dekho!), without bad movies like these, how can one appreciate the good ones? We should always be thankful to the bad movies.

Sunrises vs Sunsets

By farooq

On January 22, 2017

In Random Philosophy

I’ve always preferred Sunsets over sunrises on beaches. Of course, being lazy enough to not get off the bed early, is one reason.However, the bigger reason is “the sense of completion” that they bring along with them.

Sunrises bring-in a certain pseudo-optimism and they help you in envisioning aspects which you’d like to see a change in. A list of to-do things that you would want to better, a range of motivation-filled emotions and a will to achieve something. But everything is still a “plan” which is not always what we end up doing.

Sunsets are not about the goals or ticking off any to-do lists. It doesn’t believe in any evaluation process. It tells you, “It’s okay. Tu ab chill maar”. It is that friend of yours, who will say, “Abey theek hai.. Sab theek hojaega” even when you’re in deep trouble. Sunset knows your troubles but it just wants you to relax. If you achieve something, good. Good, even when you didn’t.

Of course, we need the sunrises as well as the Sunsets. But then, we always have a favorite. Don’t we?

… And the story goes on..

By farooq

On January 21, 2017

In Random Philosophy

There’s a lot of talk that goes on in our head on putting things to their “end”. All of us have tried to put a full stop to those sentences, hoping that’d be it.

But it never is.

There’s no full stop that we can add to those sentences ourselves. What happens post our futile attempts to add a full stop is just a temporary repreive. It’s very likely that the fullstop can be converted to a grammatically incorrect comma. Or another poorly framed sentence.

We assume we are the only writers of what happens in our life. Only we aren’t.

It’s collaborative work. The people we allow to be part of our lives or the people who inevitably end up becoming part of ours, on their own.

The story goes on.

Our Confirmation Bias

By farooq

On January 20, 2017

In Random Philosophy

Our confirmation bias is one of the biggest deterrent to being rational in our thinking.

In the age of PR-pushed media, it is inevitable and easier to leak any type of story. A viewpoint can not only be strengthened but can also be moulded.

I can cite historical examples of how a dictator started doing this by controlling all kinds of media. But your response for the comparison would be, “That’s too far fetched”.

Sure, you can counter this to cite my confirmation bias as well. And I do know even I’m vulnerable to this idea. But I accept the notion of its presence as well.

Our POVs are under immense pressure. We are surrounded by mediums which are shouting and repeating a narrative. Even when we reject it once, this repetition causes us to atleast lend an ear. After all, our K-12 education system is based on the concept of rotting down tonnes of textual content only to vomit it out on a particular day to become intelligent.

One can tell a lie 100 times until it becomes the truth. That’s how propaganda works. That’s how concepts of “fear” are forced to creep into mindsets and evolve into ideologies.

As educated individuals, it should be our duty to have layers of questions, to those shouts. It’s important to question everything! Even the things we already know for a Fact.

I’ll end this post with a dialogue in ZNMD by Naseerudin Shah when Farhan Akhtar, asks him to tell the truth: “Sach kya Hai? Har ek ka apna apna version”.

Let’s try to get rid of our confirmation bias! Shall we?

The Combo: Yuvi-Dhoni

By farooq

On January 19, 2017

In Sports

Oh, what a day it has been! From watching Morgan put up a brilliant show of batting and take England really close to the total and then replaying the Yuvi-Dhoni batting. Splendid.

But the favorite moment of the day was when Yuvi scored that Century. His emotion at the end of it, says it all. I mean, the guy made another comeback. To think that at one point this guy was diagnosed with cancer and then bat like this. Wow!

What are we doing with our lives, huh?!

Apart from the vintage Yuvi-Dhoni partnership, it was good to see Dhoni play those shots! A hint of the old Dhoni, which seems to be coming back? That Six to reach 99 sure looked like one. Meanwhile, he completed 200 Sixes. Highest for any Indian.

And doesn’t he look younger when not captaining the side?

Even though this happened to be a delightful game. Looking at the length of the ground and the flat pitches, this is akin to the masala film culture. It all comes down to entertainment and giving the audience something more to cheer about.

In the end, what was the difference between the two sides? What if Morgan was not run-out in that unlucky fashion?

Your Thoughts?

Author: farooq Page 18 of 45