Movie Review: IT

IT

A typical horror movie is supposed to haunt, scare the bejesus out of us. We all have different horrors to fight against in life. This is not limited to us adults it starts from being a sperm through to the childhood, teenage, adulthood. We need to keep rising from the ashes all the time so that we turn into the best victorious ash at the end of our life. The movie is all about overcoming our worst fear, fight with all the courage, wisdom and never ever give up. IT is never over in life, there are endless battles to be won.

The makers have taken the most loved and funniest character for children a Clown and turned it into this scary shape shifting demon that can take shape of anything or anyone the child is most afraid of. If the child gets scared the child is dead. IT is definitely a bit overstretched new adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 horror novel about a gang of kids trying to fight this Demon Clown. IT will try to petrify us with all its scariness to freak us out completely. Each kid will keep facing creepy, horrifying things happening. The children are these bunch of teenagers with equal fear of growing up, fear of sex, fear of failing in the society, fear of menstruation. The bunch wants to look like a loser club hanging out all summer long, dealing with loneliness, intense feeling of love and yearning, and are also in fear of their lives from satanic clown that wants to imprison them all forever in his horrendous den somewhere in the town’s sewage system. Each kid struggles to overcome its fear and deflate the demonic clown. They do succeed to an extant but IT doesn’t go away completely. That’s how they end this movie clearly indicating a second chapter. The children promise to return and unite every time IT comes back.

IT is definitely a movie to watch, be thrilled on the edge of your seat, and marvel at the message  to keep fighting your demons in life. I hope we keep successfully deflating our demons various shapes, forms and size whether mental physical or just superficially made up. Promise to fight and rise. Hope you enjoy the movie as much as I did.

Movie Review: Newton

Newton

This looks like to be the era of good acting for Bollywood.  Not only cricket but we have great talent when it comes to acting in India. The movie Newton is completely attributed to Rajkumar Rao. I don’t really know whose Idea it was to give him curls but that really made the whole look. He is acting the character of a government employee who is annoyingly stickler for rules, a text book follower. Most of his acting is through his expressions. There is no big-time dialogue delivery like Mr Big B, but the way he speaks with eye expressions is the key to his good acting.

I am sincerely surprised by the decision to send the movie for foreign film to Oscars. Newton could have been an excellent short film. I wonder why it had to be stretched to 2hrs movie? I should also mention the lead female actor in the movie Anjali Patil has acted phenomenally. She should really be praised for the role she has played. The simple roles are the most complex to portray she is good with it. The director has done a good job with the narration of the story. There wasn’t much of a story to tell and yet the director tells it with subtle style of normal story telling. The camera effect was the big mistake in the movie, since the movie had to be shot in jungle or shabby background there was way too much of bokeh or blurr effect, which was not seamless. One doesn’t remain gripped to the movie. It doesn’t ever deliver its messages precisely, one has to really look for them. I keep expecting the story to really turn and become something bigger or interesting but it doesn’t. Maybe that is the purpose of the movie, nothing great to say but just normal uninteresting story. Well it succeeds to keep me uninterested.

These days off beat movies do carry element of entertainment and humor, so does Newton. Yet I do not recommend this movie as a good watch simply that there isn’t a remarkable story to tell with no visual appeal to it. A short film is what it should have been.

Movie Review: Simran

Simran

Kangna proves once again that she is a Queen. Queen of Acting. If someone really puts their mind and soul to something it definitely shows. No amount of twist of faith or turn of events could have taken this away from her. She is definitely an actor. I know no male actor who can ever pull this off and in this style. The Movie is all about her and only her. It doesn’t matter what the story is what the script is. She Just goes out there and rules it. For a pahadi girl to play this gujju girl so convincingly was a shock to me. Never ever she lets any of the flows of the movie to dwindle any scene. She plays all the nonsense and eccentricity like its in her blood. I credit this movie solely to her. The director, writers and the production has only to gain from her strength and not the other way around.

The story telling is extremely weak. It looks like there wasn’t much to say and the story was ridiculously twisted and stretched. Kangna’s potential is not being completely utilized. Dialogues don’t match to the story. There isn’t anything interesting going on. The robbery scenes made to bring humor fail miserably. The NRI gujju dysfunctional family in US isn’t convincing enough. The side characters change their personalities too frequently for one to actually get the real sense of it. Her boss trying to gain her attention to later a monster who attacks her and molests her is so plain unconvincing. All this would have still made sense with proper story telling and good direction. The story line has been changed quite a bit from the real life story and still it lacks luster, has nothing amusing to offer. The movie fails to grip you for its entire run. After about half an hour I wanted to just stop watching it any further. The only fun thing was her name character name Praful Patel and that is never explained.

The only thing that this movie has is a fantastic, realistic acting by Kangna. Everthing else is just  a haze. I would avoid to watch this movie, yet if you are a real Kangna fan like my hubby don't miss it as it is one of her best work.

Movie Review Shubh Mangal Savdhan

When you have a title like this to a movie you know it should be all about romance and wedding. Well it is definitely all about that and much more. Who could guess that our movie will have a core subject matter about erectile disfunction? This one does and about time in our society to deal with such subjects out in the open. The matter is brought about in the same manner as is in our society, the characters are from a typical middle class metro city like delhi where the guy is so happy to get to actually marry the girl that he falls in love with at first sight, without resistance from either side of the family. However, in one of those first kiss and excitement scenes which is shot so well they stumble upon a state they call “gents problem”. Now is when like any other guy in our society  Mudit Played by Ayushman keeps getting nervous about erectile disfunction and begins to lose his confidence. The twist however is this that the girl Shugndha played by Bhumi from the average middle class family is bold and intelligent enough to not give up on the Mudit and rather loves him for the person that he is and becomes his strength with which he starts to stand tall and fights all odds. There are various other notions and society misconceptions talked and brought out in the most hilarious and quirky way one will never be bored through out the movie. The subject is so wisely dealt with, that no where in the movie one feels it being out of line or even something that ought not to be watched with the family. This is the strength of the story telling by the director R. S Prassana.

There are though few times in the movie where one feels some of the characters are made to behave extra funny, which may not be required. Still on the whole every character in their unique way creates obstacles for this couple to overcome. Both Bhumi and Ayushman Khurana have played the character of “Mudit” and “Shugandha”  fabulously well. Their acting is natural and flawless. There could have been no one else to have played this couple and made it look so easy. The ending could have been better, nevertheless it’s a wonderful movie to go watch, have a laugh about and also be happy that finally such topics are not pushed under the rug anymore.

Reviewing the movie Megan Leavey

                                                     " I learnt to love from Rex"- Megan Leavey

The Movie : Megan Leavey

Her true story of having a K-9 companion with excellent instincts that saves lives of US soldiers in Iraq is amazingly heartwarming. The acceptance by Megan and Rex (the dog) of each other and their unshakeable bond, her struggle to adopt him is what this movie is all about. I am not so impressed with the first part of the movie though. They show a US military combat dog named Rex a German shepherd in training which is extremely aggressive and insubordinate. Megan Leavey happens to come from a broken family with separated parents. She has been living with her mother who is unwelcoming of her situation. She has been doing boring odd jobs to just fill her life. A tragedy of losing a friend to put behind her she feels herself to be just drifting without purpose not knowing how to cope. So to break free, she joins US military to only find herself in a situation where she has to wash and scrub for the US military K9 training Unit. This is how she chances upon meeting this “aggressive” dog Rex as determined by his earlier handlers, other soldiers and the manner in which Rex builds his image by growling and biting. (I understand completely as to how the dog is shown here because that’s how dogs are when they are not understood properly). She goes off to be in charge of this dog and train along with him for missions. This is where I don’t understand this movie. They abruptly show her doing couple of right things that makes her miraculously bond with Rex and then the training starts to go well. I feel disconnected here as there is a part of the story gone missing. No dog becomes obedient overnight. There has to be a time and manner in which a so called aggressive dog is approached. I was actually rooting to see how this bond is created. Nevertheless, this is the first half of the movie. The second half becomes interesting as the story progresses to show how wonderfully bonded they are, how Rex is highly intelligent in sniffing out IEDs from deep underground on Iraq dessert. Now I am getting excited and things are turning really interesting. Even if you are not a sucker for animals or pets, Rex will actually impress you in this particular scene, here he intelligently and deliberately saves a soldier’s life by dragging him off his ass that makes him nearly miss a bullet aimed at him. Mind you this is no unrealistic exaggeration as this can truly happen with animals their level of instincts, dedication and heroism are extraordinary.

In spite of being hit by a bomb explosion the duo carry on to complete the mission and save many lives, which makes them war heroes. Both being physically hurt are separated from each other for a long time. The story now is about Megan’s struggle to adopt this heroic dog. Every soldier who has had and encounter with the enemy or been in the war knows how difficult it is to cope with the trauma. The same is true for the serving animal as well. This is seldom understood in our society where all others except humans are treated as assets and are there to fulfill a purpose. The vet feels that Rex is aggressive, Unable to recognize the fact that he has suffered a trauma of being blown up. This is why Megan struggles to adopt him. As per US law the dog will have to be eventually put down as he is termed aggressive. I love the message that the movie gives. How she overcomes every obstacle and never gives up on her companion. This is what the animals teach us the virtues of love, respect, dedication, and to never give up on any fight of any form in life.

We will only progress as a society when we start to learn from everything around us. Megan does say in the movie that Rex teaches her how to truly love. I experience this every day in my life, so I can say that that really is a fact. We humans attribute bad behavior and violence to the term called as behaving like animals. Hah! a Joke in my mind. I would feel superior to ever be called an animal. 

I am so happy and honored to have watched this story. I recommend everyone to watch this movie for REX, he will impress you with his heroism and love. 

The Real life Corporal Megan Leavey & Sargent Rex 

My Denim Nails

Some of my friends have been telling me to journal my nail mani process. So here I am putting out my thoughts. I have been on and off this hobby for a while now but sometimes motivations come from the wonderful gifts one receives.

I had Denim Nail polish from Nails inc. given by my very gifted and lovely Sis Nootan Mohan. I had so much fun doing this mani. Thanks Nootan for this experience. The paint has amazing Denim texture. It has this dark, shiny denim effect, which is good as one  can get creative around it.

I love ripped denims; hence it is obvious that I had to make my denim nails ripped as well. To go with it can be anything as all colours, textures, designs, shapes go well with denims. I took upon rosegold to go with my dark denims I felt it may give richness to the whole look. What is life without being inspired? During my current visit to the UK I fell in love with flowers especially roses and lavender that bloomed big and full in abundance. I had to put them on my mani, so here I am putting blue roses on my rosegold base. I wanted it to project rose + lavender effect so I took a little white base to the roses and painted the blue leaves and stem with acrylic paint. If not completely does display that lavender colour. I took a short cut this time and made a decal of the flora which made it easier to paint.

With Denims I used acetone to give the ripped effect. White nail polish with flat brush to show the shreds. I gave it a stitch effect by white lines around the nail and gold dots to make it look like buttons.

I have here two set of pictures one with the shreds and one without the shreds. I personally felt the paint itself gives that rich denim effect but the ripps and shreds makes it look like real Jeans.

Let me know which one looks the best according to you.

My Poem

The wind in my hair



















Make a choice, smile today. 

Let the wind blow away the past
Let the wind blow away the pain
Let the wind blow away the destitute  
Let the wind blow away the petty
Let the wind blow away the anger
Let the wind blow away the false
Let the wind blow away the fickle
Let the wind blow away the frown
Let the wind blow away the rotten
Let the wind blow away the despair

Make a choice, smile today
Love the light from within
Feel the warmth on the face

Let me come close to me
I am here, I am constant
I am the best I deserve 

The wind that blows on me now, is my wind 
I fly, I leap, I dazzle, I radiate from within
Come September, come October I am ready.
I am no longer anyone else
I am happy,  I am Me.

- Neha R