Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn

We humans are an opinionated lot. We love arguing. We love proving a point.

Last week the husband, myself and 2 of our friends watched Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD). I loved it. I loved it so much that I want to watch it again. And that hasn’t happened to me in a long time. The husband liked it as well. As always there were loads of status updates on Facebook about the movie. Many of them compared it with Delhi Belly that had released a couple of weeks ago. There really isn’t any ground for comparison between the 2 movies but considering they released 2 weeks apart and both were largely hyped, comparisons were bound to follow.

The husband got into a debate with a few of his friends on why he enjoyed ZNMD more than Delhi Belly. His friends didn’t agree. Each of them (including him) typed out these massive, gigantic comments trying to prove their point. The reason this prompted a post from me is because I don’t think I would do the same. I really don’t think I would bother arguing. Let me explain with an example.

I love Karan Johar movies. The sets might be too grand and the clothes too expensive. So? I think his movies have humor, drama and they always manage to touch a chord. However there is a large population of people who love to trash his movies. ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham is absolute junk’, someone once told me. I am a huge fan of the 2^nd half of the movie. Hrithik living in Shahrukh’s house and not telling him he is his brother, Jaya being able to sense Shahrukh as soon as he comes near, Amitabh bringing up the fact that Shahrukh is adopted (that quite broke my heart), what’s not to like?  I have lived in the US for almost 2 years now and I still tear up regularly when I miss my parents. I watch something fun on TV and the first thought in my mind is that I need to talk to my brother because he is the only other person who will find it funny. So yes, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham appeals to emotional fools like me. Moving on to Kal Ho Na Ho. Every single person who trashed the movie rubbed in my face the scene where Shahrukh runs out of the hospital towards the end of the movie to meet Preeti Zinta. I totally agree that it was a stupid scene. But I loved the humor in the movie. I thought Shahrukh and Saif were awesome together. And the basic premise of the movie was handled brilliantly without turning it into a sob fest. Live your life and enjoy every moment because kya pata, kal ho na ho.

There probably was a time when I defended the songs I liked and the movies I loved. Somewhere along the line I stopped. I realized that there was no point fighting people who had logical arguments. Logic would always win. I guess when you like something, you just do. How do you make someone understand that you like it because it makes you feel a certain way?

So ‘To Each His Own’ I tell myself. And every time someone tries to talk logic about a movie I love, a tiny voice in my head says - (in the words of the great Rhett Butler) Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!

Delhi Belly

Was it funny? Yes. Have I seen funnier movies? Yes. I think because of all the hype that surrounded it I was a tad disappointed. It was funny and it made me laugh but it did not quite live up to my over-hyped expectations.

The movie has received a lot of flak for its offensive dialogues and obscenity. It (at least the English version) has clearly been targeted at a very specific audience (city bred folks in the 20-40 age groups). As a big fan of the Hangover franchise, obscenity in movies doesn’t particularly offend or bother me. If it’s funny and makes me laughs then I don’t really care. I just do my research in advance and make sure I watch the movie with the right company. No point squirming in your seat with a parent or aunt in the seat next to you. I can picture it in my head. Me sitting there trying not to laugh because Oh My God then they will know that I know what ‘that’ means!

In the case of Delhi Belly, I think there were a few dialogues that were put there solely for shock value. They didn’t really add much to the humor in the film. This makes me wonder why they put them there in the first place.  Maybe they wanted to give older generations a crash course on how the youth today talks. Situational obscenity I understand. It is required to make the scene funny. But random R-rated statements just end up sounding a little lame.

I think the highlight was the villain’s sidekick saying ‘Boss, yeh tho tatti hai’! They should have made a children’s version as well!! J So many kids are missing out on the tatti and fart jokes in this movie. By the way, the husband and I had an Orange juice vs. Paper debate after the movie. What would be a better option during a ‘no water to clean ass’ emergency? Well, tissue paper would definitely be better than orange juice but how many Indian households really have tissue paper? So I think if it is tissue paper vs. orange juice then definitely tissue paper. But if its newspaper vs. orange juice then it gets tricky. Hmmm. Maybe some old rags, t-shirts and towels should be kept aside.

Disclaimer: I watched the English version in the US and I hear that the Hindi version has been largely toned down and I won’t be surprised if scenes were censored as well.

Vegas Babbyyy!

Almost 4 months since my last post! My only excuse is that I have been incredibly busy while at work and incredibly tired/lazy while at home. Some immensely manoranjan filled events came and went and I missed the chance to write about them.

-          India won the world cup. We (the husband and I) actually drove all the way from LA to Phoenix (7 hours) immediately after work on Friday, reached after midnight, stayed up all night watching the match and finally got some sleep only on Saturday afternoon. All that excitement and I did not write a post about it! L

-          I turned 28 and the husband took me on a bi-plane ride. A bi-plane is a tiny little plane with an open cockpit. The one we flew in was built in 1929! The best part is that I had no idea where we were going until we got there J sigh! What a nice post that would have made.

During the past few months, while I did read several books and watched many movies, none really made me want to write. A couple of weeks ago we went to Vegas. It was the first time for both of us. Now if I don’t blog about a Vegas trip in a blog titled Manoranjan and More, I think I should just give up blogging for good. So after giving myself a good shake, I finally stepped out of the lazy inertia I have been stuck in.

Vegas was awesome! The highlight of the trip was winning 400 dollars on a slot machine. Woohoooo! Thankfully my sense of discipline did not let us gamble away the winnings and we returned with a good 300 dollar profit. I’m quite sure that if the husband had his way we would have been down to 100 or less by the time we left. Or maybe we would have won the 5000 dollar jackpot. Well, we will never know J

Vegas is the land of make believe. A Venetian canal, Parisian cafes and the busy streets of New York – all created indoors! Everything is right in your face – Women dancing on poles, huge screens advertising the best adult shows in town and something else that quite surprised me. Let me try to explain this in a non-crude manner. (Hey my mom reads this blog!) At every street corner there were at least 2 or 3 people handing out pictures of near naked women with phone numbers to call. So you just pick the girl you like, call the number and well you get the gist. Now this is not the part I found surprising. I had expected them to hand these out only to men, either alone or in groups. But they were thrusting these in front of men, women, couples, old people, young people and just about anybody passing by! After every few steps the husband and I had these pushed in front of our faces. What were they thinking? That we were an Indian couple looking to broaden our horizons?? For those who feel I’m being sexist and saying that I think they should hand these out only to men, I say by all means give them to women! Just make sure you replace the women with scantily clad, muscular men! J

Among other things we saw a show called Zumanity (highly recommended for non-prudes), had frozen hot chocolate in a place called Serendipity 3 outside Caesars Palace (was very good but similar to the chocolaty cold coffee with crushed ice that you get in Coffee Day in India) and walked a LOT! Ladies please put away your heels and bring out the flats.

Beyond this, well ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!’