Of good samaritans

Two issues to write and ruminate about. Went to watch the movie Aaja Nachle last night. Had been eagerly waiting to watch it.
Lotsa big banner movies are being made these days. Going the Hollywood way, what with SLB getting together with Sony Pictures for Saawariya and Yash Raj and Walt Disney coming up with Roadside Romeo, it looks like the audience is going to be bombarded with one mega-movie after another. The Diwali releases were certainly not worth the hype, wait or the watch. Saawariya was an 'art' film promoted as a commercial one and enjoyed only by the 'enlightened' few. Om Shanti Om was SRK on adrenaline made only for die-hard hedonistic SRK fans with no storyline or music. Hindi movies are now being promoted - and more importantly, watched - not for the story or anything, but for such things as amazing art design, 40+ year old superstar's new-found six-packs, 'it-has-close-to-5-F1-scenes', '31 movie stars in one movie', some star couple breaking up, blah blah blah. The audience used to use these excuses to watch movies but nowadays entire movies are promoted as the last movie in which two stars were a couple before they split up. I mean, come on! Yup, I watched both of them, unfortunately, what with being saddled with a hubby who considers it his moral responsibility to contribute in making sure every movie released, at least, breaks even. Ok, got sidetracked, more on these two movies and the craziness surrounding it in another post. It deserves its own post :)

Ok, so watched Madhuri sashay back into every body's hearts yesterday. Call me illogical, but this was the movie I was waiting for this 'festive season'. ('Festive season' as the trade pundits put it; as if watching movies is an integral part of any festive season or is it that as it is festive season, read bakshish season, we should consider tipping the movie industry by watching a movie as a bakshish??)

Concentrate, concentrate. Okay, Madhuri. Well, since I was a kid, I used to secretly love her for her vivacious smile and graceful dance moves - she could, and can still, dance Indian classical, fusion and western dance forms with equal aplomb and grace. I actually idolised her coz she was one of the few Indian actors ever who could carry off Indian and western looks, characters and act convincingly without any trademark simpering mannerisms.
Overall, the movie didn't leave behind a 'wow' feeling. But it wasn't bad either. Logical (which is saying a lot in Hindi film industry), great music, amazing choreography, great acting and endearing characters. I guess, one of the reasons it left me a tad cold was because I couldn't identify with any of the characters - on any level whatsoever. And the story of the town's favorite gossip-fodder turning into the good samaritan (yup, Madhuri does the good thing by rescuing a defunct dance theatre from demolition and thus manages to save the town from death by boredom) was a bit far-fetched. I am guessing this movie will be more appreciated in the smaller towns than by the multiplex crowd.
The performances are superb though. The ensemble cast of Konkana Sen Sharma, Irfan Khan, Raghuveer Yadav, Vinay Pathak, Kunal Kapoor do their job and how! But the belle of the ball truly is Madhuri. She emotes, smiles, dances her way into your heart and wows you throughout the movie. A must watch for all Madhuri fans and dance lovers as well. I heard someone saying that 'she is looking her age'. Methinks, if any woman could have Madhuri's figure, her skin, her joie de vivre and her dancing grace, she wouldn't mind a couple of comments about her age.

Our good samaritan: Our house sits on a major road which is currently being spruced up into a concrete eight-laner. Traffic jams are routine since work started about 10 months ago. Yesterday evening though, we were caught in the worst of it - when we were leaving to catch the movie, and were already late, and were the ones who had the tickets for our friends too. Didn't get past our housing complex main gate. Had to ditch the car and try and hail a rick, which considering that there was a traffic jam on the other side, there was a paucity of. A Maruti pulled alongside and asked if we wanted to hitch a ride. I was struck dumb. Seriously, was I hallucinating or was this an angel? When I was a kid, someone gave me the first three installments of the Chicken Soup for the Soul franchise and I was touched and had started saying and leaving I-love-you notes for my mom and sis. But to actually offer other people - nah, strangers- help? Especially when they don't ask it? Novelty! Oh, letting someone overtake me or easing up on the horn coz the guy up ahead is your grandfather's age is one thing, but this!! There we were in his car talking away and the 'i know's and 'exactly's were flying around. Icing on the cake, the guy was a treat to talk to for the next 10 minutes! When in the middle of the ride he found out that we were on our way to a movie, he took a 1km detour to drop us off at the theatre. A self-confessed movie buff and (from his talk) has an eclectic taste in books, Gautam catapulted me back to the Chicken-soup-for-the-soul-naive years. We decided that we liked the novel feeling and were getting pretty jaded if we considered the whole incident 'weird'. Plus, the sappy smiles and the surprised look he caused were infectious too. We have decided to pass the smile along, two or maybe three times over. So, yes, the next time when someone in front of you pays for your car parking ticket, just pass the smile along.