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'Jazbaa' runs the risk of falling into a overcooked and loud thriller

Aishwarya Rai's comeback movie 'Jazbaa', which is an official remake of a 2007 South Korean crime thriller film 'Seven Days', comes across as loud and slightly melodramatic as far as the first look is concerned. The trailer shows that the film has a yellow and brown Tint, which gives it a slightly different look but the way junior Mrs Bachchan is shown teary-eyed and all panicky, it remains to be seen if it can actually touch the emotional chord of the audience.  

I have full faith on the Korean film as it has won multiple nominations and awards at Grand Bell Awards, Blue Dragon Film Awards and Korean Film Awards in 2008 but how well Sanjay Gupta will rework the script and screenplay and importantly implement it remains a questions.

Gupta has films such as the shootout movies, Kaante, Musafir and Zinda to his credentials and if he can keep the script tight without making it loud or turning Aishwarya into a super mom, the film may go on to be a hit. Of course, needless to say, Irrfan is a big positive. Hope Gupta's 'jazbaa' is reflected on the screen on October 9th. I personally have low expectations but I want the movie to prove me wrong.

A forgotten hero basks in the hard-earned glory

Sports is cruel. It involves spending days and nights working harder, training like obsessed zombies with one dream of winning that coveted title that one might have dreamt since childhood.

Often in a country where parents are always worried about securing their children’s life and a career in studies seems to be the first option, to say it takes courage to tread a path in sport is an understatement. But still few souls walk that path, carrying the dreams of their parents and baggage of future on their shoulders.

The journey starts with a win here and there in some sub-junior and junior India ranking tournaments. But most voyage ends even before reaching the senior level. Those who make it to the next level too find themselves lost in the crowd of aspirants, all dreaming the same dream, waiting to write that illustrious chapter in their life that will not get lost in the pages of history.

So right from the first moment at the academy starts the battle to be the best. To first become good enough to wear the national colour and compete with the best in the world. What comes next is long hours at training and then playing the international challengers and the fight to move up the ranking ladder, which initially seems like a lift but with time, becomes a snake-and-ladder game, you go up and down every now and then. A win is not enough, no matter how hard you played. You have to weave a series of wins, you have to be consistent. From international challengers, you graduate to Grand Prix and Grand Prix Gold and then one day you reach the Super Series tournaments. Needless to say only a few reaches that upper echelons of players.

When you reach that privileged group, you turn another page in your life. But then comes the main cruel face of sports when one day who tweak a muscle, tear a ligament, twist an ankle or wrongly turn your knee and your world comes crashing down. Suddenly you find yourself sitting at a corner, watching your peers and juniors surpassing ahead. You sit at the corner of your room starting at an uncertain future.

Each day you tell yourself to stay upbeat, each moment you push yourself harder to feel a bit better, sometimes you would shadow practice in front of mirror, you would speak to you coach and family and they would tell you all the right words, trying to inspire you and motivate, even as inside you will worry about the dwindling ranking. Sometimes you would look at a match and tell your pals how you had beaten him on that tournament.   

Seconds will feel like days, minutes like months and hours like years and when you recover and return to the court, it will seem like an age has passed. There would be that iota of doubt in your mind in that first hit of the shuttle in your racquet when you face that opponent in your first tournament. Every loss will remind you of the time lost to injury and every win a balm on the scars that don't seem to heal. 

Many wait for that balm to heal the scars, passing through days, breezing through tournaments after tournaments waiting for that one stroke of luck that will bring you back to your rightful place. But sometimes that wait becomes eternal and slowly and slowly the resolve gives in and one fine day, you decide enough is enough and you quit. But there is another breed who hope a little longer, pray a little more and most importantly persevere harder.

Ajay jayaram is one such player who has lived those uncertain nights. For seven months he was left on the sidelines, nursing his shoulder injury, making multiple visits to the doctor, going under the knife and then going through the unforgiving rehabilitation process which involves rigorous physiotherapy.

For a player who had come into touching distance of qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics, only to lose the berth at the last moment after P Kashyap toppled him in ranking following a walkover in India open, Jayaram has shown what perseverance can earn you.

Not giving up is the antidote of failure and Jayaram's reaching the finals of the Korea super series proves that if one is determined nothing can stop you. Tomorrow this forgotten hero will take court against world No 1. Chen Long. No matter what the final holds for this Bangalore-based player, he has already inspired many like chief coach Pullela Gopichand once did when he won the All England championship in 2001 after recovering from knee injury. 

Yes, Sports is cruel but this cruelty makes your stronger, sometimes even giving birth to legends. As for Jayaram, greatness is still a far walk but then this has given him a moment to savour and no one can take away that moment from him ever. This is his time to bask in that glory and become an unforgettable part of history.

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Bombay Velvet runs the risk of not making enough profit

For a movie made at a cost close to a whopping 100 crores, Bombay Velvet runs the risk of not making enough profit, given the non-mainstream music of the film.

Amit Trivedi has produced the 1960s Jazz era of Bollywood but then apart from a couple of songs, I doubt how much people can relate to the songs of the film, which always makes a huge difference to the fortune of a Bollywood movie in India.

In India, films with soothing, melancholic and hip-hop (read Honey Singh) music make it to the 100-crore bracket. I can't remember a film earning 100 crores without music or with non mainstream music.

There is no doubt, Bombay Velvet will surely set new standard for film making in India. It will bring spectators to the theatres because of the fan following of Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Karan Johar but will it go on to be a big hit, remains to be seen.

When the Himalayas sung a melancholic tune

                                                        Photograph: Omar Havana/Getty Images

Debris pile up each day,
Bricks and bones, buried under the rubble,
thousands of lives wiped out from the surface of earth with one sudden shy of mother earth.

A mother looks for her child in the remnants, 
couples wrapped in an eternal embrace waits under the debris,
friends hold hands,
life has left them behind for long now,
their stony gaze waiting to melt into dust.

The livings,
mourn the dead,
scream to the heavens in betrayal,
blame the gods for its wrath,
and then sob into submission.

Survival brings souls close to humanity,
erasing the lines of religion, race, creed & language.

Under the streetlights, they fight cold now,
hunger breaking their resolve a bit more with each inch of time.

Who will light candles in their dark sadden hearts,
who will heal their bruises,
who will teach them to hope?

Perhaps, its time we need to understand the futility of life itself or else tomorrow when the mountains roar, heavens bled and the ocean comes to our homes, the blame will still lie with Mother Earth.

From Bomkesh Bakshi to Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!!!

Many Many summers ago, I remember giving my lessons to my mother to earn a meeting with a dhoti-kurta clad man who called himself Byomkesh Bakshi. He came on Tv, solving difficult and complicated cases with his wit and intelligence. He seemed to be a simple man with a nice and warm personality. In no time, we became his biggest fans and he the hero of our childhood fantasy. Though a lot of it we hardly understood then, we still fantasied to be a detective.

But then we grew up and got busy with our lives. Lost in the hustle and bustle of life, intertwined with the complications which has slipped into our own lives we somehow had forgotten that dhoti-clad man. Sometimes when Rajat Kapoor popped up in the screen, he reminded us of Bomkesh. We saw Mr Kapoor in many shades after that but nothing could replace the dhoti-kurta clad man.

Even in this commotion of life, Bomkesh Bakshi sometimes peeped at us through some websites or newspaper articles or jumped into our discussions with friends.

So when Detective Byomkesh Bakshy was set to be made into a hindi bollywood movie I had doubts but when I heard it was Dibakar Banerjee, who would be at the helm, i wanted to give him a shot. Someone, who has directed four completely different films on four different subjects and treatment, he was definitely worth a shot.

When Sushant Rajput was cast as Byomkesh, my heart sank. A 2 and a half old film actor for such a celebrated character? I again had doubts and once again I placed my faith on Banerjee. I am glad that Banerjee didn't disappoint me.

He completely reinvented Bomkesh Bakshi without compromising on its soul. He made him a little grey, he made him a part of the mystery which he was trying to solve. Rajput brought a cookiness, innocence and intrepidness to the character. He was nothing like the dhoti-kurta clad man of my childhood fantasy but still he made me to stay with him, always apprehensive to trust him completely, but eventually accepting him as a new-age young Bomkesh, who probably would be more relatable to the kids of this generation and has the potential to grow into a fantasy of the new age India.

Banerjee has stamped his authority on the screenplay and the way he has created a Kolkata of 1940s, getting down to the last details, and shot it so beautifully through a tram journey at the start of the film, its simply commendable. The trash metal background score, the colour and texture of the film gives it a touch of a stylish and edgy political thriller.

But despite the films numerous positives, still there would be people, both bengalies and non-bengalies, who might stay away from the theaters for their own contrasting reasons. So to them, I would like to say: Bongs don't go looking for Bongness as you won't find one and non-bongs don't rule out the film because it might have bongness. You need to trust Banerjee here and see it just as another political crime thriller and you might just like it.

Go with an open mind, give this 'Detective Byomkesh' a chance and if you

are following closely, you will surely go on amazing ride. I had my ride. For

now, I am staying with this Byomkesh!!!