Lets watch a movie tonight

After the long strike with the multiplexes ended and the Indian movie industry has gone back to being prolific, husband and I have been lured back to the theatres. We are rather wary theater goers and generally wait for the verdict to be out not only in the media but also among our friends. This despite a Regal theatre right next door and it offers all the new Hindi releases promptly. Completely unlike Oregon where there was one dingy theater that played Indian movies and you had to wait for months for the "latest" Hindi movies to be released. But then Oregon is full of the outdoorsy people who head out to hike or camp at the drop of a hat. Of course, since it rains 5 months in a year it can be argued that they are just suffering from prolonged and delayed claustrophobia. But I am rambling.

Maybe I am soft critic, maybe I just reaallly enjoyed watching the movies with Dolby stereo again - whatever it was but I was rather happy with the past couple of movies I watched. I do seem to be alone in this since I heard a lot of criticism. The movies in question are of course the much discussed Love Aaj Kal and Kaminey. They held my attention; I enjoyed almost all of the performances and what’s more I was introduced to two rather nice soundtracks. Also I had some discussions bordering heated on how gorgeous Deepika is, how silly the climax was and so on and so forth. These two movies, I suspect resulted in lowering our guard.

So last night armed with homemade paneer kati rolls and on a whim a flask full of mandarin vodka and tonic water, we set off to watch “Dil Bole Hadippa" . The movie did not hold my attention, I did not enjoy any of the performances, it was crass, loud, disconnected and unbearable. Also I find Yash Chopra productions ludicrous as a champion of women's rights. Please spare me!!!!

But what surprised me is that my guard has dropped further.

Our careful scrutiny before heading to the movies has of course resulted in us missing a lot of the real lemons. Most of the movies we have watched in the past couple of years have been rather decent. Completely different from our bachelor days when we would watch every stinker on screen. And now I understand why we did it. I had forgotten how much fun it is sometimes to watch a bad movie.

Maybe it was the spicy yet tender paneer, maybe it was the Grey Goose but I think I have not had this much fun watching a movie in a very long time ( apart from Sivaji - but that’s a Rajni movie and so does not count). There was giggling, and prodding and snatching food and no we were not nuisances because the theatre was practically empty (that should have warned us huh?). We are normally polite and refrain from even whispering and so the chattering and laughing was nice change.

So I highly recommend it. Not "Dil Bole Haddipa" but the experience. I may not be able to do this very frequently what with the 20 bucks that we will need to shell out, but I am sure I will do it again.

Dev D - duniya yeh duniya badi gol hai

I finally saw Dev D. The movie had got some rave reviews and is on its way to become a cult classic. The hype however left me a little hesitant as all over-hyped things do. The other reason for not catching this movie when it first came out was that it never hit the theatres here and this was one movie I wanted to watch on the big screen

Anyways I finally saw the very, very R rated movie. Apart from the fact that I rejoice every time there a movie made especially for adults complete with grey areas, wearable/ affordable clothes, and realism that does not immediately transport us into a world of slums, poverty, and exploitation. After a point such depiction becomes a form of exploitation on its own (pointing fingers esp. at Madhur Bhandarkar).  

But I digress, what I loved about Dev D was the fact that despite characters in the movie that included - one sexually liberated girl and one prostitute all the women kept their clothes on. Abhay Deol on the other hand seemed to forever live in his underwear. 

And before you get ahead of yourself and accuse me of being a lech, let me explain myself. Yes, I am a lech but that was not the reason (OK OK not the sole reason) for my overwhelming approval. We are finally exploiting the male physique, after decades of unkempt men romancing beautiful women around trees. Finally the male bodies will be exposed to the cross hairs of all and sundry, something the female form has had to suffer forever. 

When John Abraham scratched his behind in Dostana, the first thoughts in my head were - “he takes off more clothes than the girl :)". Male body under female scrutiny gives me a sense of power however fake, short lived...

An era in which women wear what they want is already here but now we have an era where women are the target audience (the wielder of power) and men wear what women want :). We have come a full circle - ye duniya badi gol hai... (Though that’s not what the song was about).

Edited to add

My reaction may be a result of the little things in my everyday life. Like last Sunday, a particularly warm and balmy day. Husband and I were spending time with husband's - for lack of a better word say Friends whose birth preceded our own by high single digits/ low double digits ( oh all right they are old!!!). There was husband enjoying the sunshine in his shorts and there was me too self conscious to wear my pair of shorts - dressed in jeans and kurta and eyeing my husbands bare legs with growing irritation.

Recipe -

Methi Chole - this is a simple dish. The idea was to get some greens into my chole. The link also has a batura recipe but I have never tried that at home.