There she goes again....
I am a closet romantic. I enjoy reading, watching, experiencing romance. But then, I can’t write or articulate romance like others can. Anything remotely romantic sounds super sarcastic when I try saying it. So, Duh!
My tryst with romance started with DDLJ (1995) and no it’s not a movie that anyone hated; rather it’s a cult classic which has been running here (Maratha mandir, Mumbai) for 20 years. It was a story of a guy wooing the entire family just to marry the girl of his dreams (Awwwww…)
And with that, I became a Fanof Mr. Shah Rukh Khan aka SRKalias Badshah of Bollywood. A guy from a humble middle class background making it big only through sheer hard work and enthusiasm became my idol. And as I grew vertically, horizontally and intellectually, my notion of romance changed. “Love is Friendship” is an adage that SRK taught me and I still believe in it (Even after 16 odd years).
We both went through phases of “unrequited love” and I too cried when Devdas died without meeting Paro right at her doorstep. (Psst…it’s a secret! The sooner you forget the better it is. And dare not tease me about it…)
All Most of SRK’s movies were a hit and everyone loved them. Except, for Ra.One . People slammed that movie right, left and centre. I obviously loved it. The movie was a breakthrough for Bollywood in terms of VFX.
The storyline involved a stereotypical Tamil gaming programmer who in order to fit into his son’s cool world, develops a video game wherein the villain is more powerful than the hero. The problem starts when the virtual villain gains enough power to come out of the game to kill his son (Lucifer) who left the game halfway.
The video game had a lot of Ramayan references and that was one of the things that impressed me. Secondly, the Father-son relationship was very beautifully captured through various instances like - A father giving away his wallet and valuables to a robber just because his son is accompanying him.Which results in his son calling him ‘coward’. The same guy doesn’t blink an eye while standing in front of Ra.One and admitting he himself is “Lucifer” to save his son from the wrath.
The female protagonist had a feminist streak and her rant about why all the cuss words start with mother/sister instead of father/brother made me chuckle. Though most of the jokes in the movie are pretty lame with loads of double entendre; the parallel story of virtual becoming real kept me hooked. The train sequence closer to climax is a must watch and is pretty decently done.
And the message that, “Good always wins over evil, no matter how indestructible evil may look” makes it a movie which is worth watching. While most people in India watched it for Superstar Rajinikanth..B)
(And by the time I submit in this entry, there has already been a terror attack in Pathankot on 2/01/2016. Have I become numb?..Nope. Am I angry with the situation?..Absolutely! But I feel more and more helpless about this situation than anything else. What would stop Terrorism ? I have no clue. And it kind of makes me sad, that there is no existing solution to this worldwide problem. - My 1 cent on terrorism, which I avoided taking up as a topic this week because I have no answers.)