And Thereby Hangs a Tale ...

Apart from the enchanting and thrilling novels that he writes, Jeffery Archer has never failed to mesmerize his readers with his short stories as well.
Out of his 6 collections of short stories, "And Thereby Hangs a Tale" - (ISBN 0230531451) is the sixth feather in his short-stories' hat.

What makes this collection of stories different from his previous books is a very interesting fact.
10 out of the published 15 stories are true incidents, which the author picked up during his travels abroad.
Well, this definitely makes him an avid traveler and the stories are travel tales to be precise.

As I started with the first story and slowly negotiated my way across pages and pages of intrigue, espionage, mistrust, stealth and deceit,
I realized this book to be more of a financial thriller involving cons.
Atleast I can tell this about most of the stories this book presented.

Looking back at the previous short stories like "A quiver full of arrows", or the last one - "Cat O'nine tales" and the like, I must say that I am a bit disappointed with the stories in this book.

If asked to review, I would rate this as an average book...say a 2.5 on a scale of 5.

Chicken 65 - Home Style ...

~ Recipe - courtesy of Suruchi who got this from her Mother in Law ... thanks to both ladies ...

ingredient 1 - While it marinates, chop ginger, garlic, coriander leaves, mint leaves into small small pieces. Very small. And keep aside.

ingredient 2 - Mix 2 cups of curd, salt little bit, 2-3 tbsp of ketchup in a bowl and keep aside.

Mix 1 kg of chicken, 3-4 cups of cornflour, salt to taste, haldi, chilli powder, ginger garlic paste (1 cup), red color (optional) and 2 eggs.

Give it a good mix and store for 2 hours (or 1 hour in fridge)

Once chicken is marinated, heat oil in a frying pan. Oil should be sufficient for the chicken pieces to dip in.

Once oil is hot start frying the chicken. keep medium flame so that chicken gets cooked properly else if oil is too hot then only outside gets cooked and interior remains raw.

Once all chicken fried, put a wok on medium heat.

Take the chicken fried wala oil - 4-5 tbsps ... once heated, add the Ingredient 1 ... once fried to 70%, add curry leaves...

put the chicken pieces.... stir well for 1-2 mins. 

leave it on medium heat for 2 mins ... pour ingredient 2 ... stir stir stir .... 1-2 mins ... 

switch off ... We are DONE !!!

Happy Ending ... All is in the well ... when the end is in the well ...

Happy Ending ... All is in the well ... when the end is in the well ... 

Happy Ending? You do not get many of those in life, do you? Maybe you do and you don't know? Possibly ...

Happy Ending the movie is all about Saif (Yudi), the male protagonist and his ways around life. This writer going through a writer's block ( or mental block) , one book wonder to be precise, wants just three things in life, money, fame and girls. And he gets it too !!!

7, 8 or 9 and a half girlfriends later, realisation strikes.
Movie starts with our hero losing out on Kareena (special appearance), x, y, z, Preity Zeinta (with triplets from an American husband) and other GFs.
Commitment phobic and love phobic, our hero goes from one girl to another. Last one is a Dentist, Visakha (Kalki Koechlin) who is so obsessive of our hero (Yudi) that she goes ahead and installs a GPS app on his phone to track him.
But then, the one book wonder is broke now, money gone, girls are rare and his book (written 5 1/2 years ago) going off the shelves. Awakening? Well, maybe, possibly ... oops ... NO.

But one man's failure is another man's success. In this case a woman's success. In comes Aanchal (Illeana), budding writer, current best seller, and loads of oomph.

Then there is Montu ( Ranvir Shorey). Married and scared, loving yet irritating. Ranvir reminds us of the old Ranvir of Khosla ka Ghosla. Witty, cunning, scared, indulging and humorous.

Meanwhile ... a Bollywood single screen superstar, Armaan ( well..Armaan Ji), Govinda, arrives. He needs the best story. A story that will captivate the masses and the classes. He even goes to the length of suggesting Hollywood hits to copy.

Chaos follows but love happens. The commitment phobic writer falls for another commitment phobic writer, Illeana's Aanchal who's happy with a romp rather than a relationship, and things change.

Amongst all this is self realization, Yudi's inner self Yogi ( Saif again). An unkempt, unhealthy and always feeding inner self, who keeps on throwing life lessons.

It's all there, yet not there. Directors Raj and DK have definitely moved ahead of Go Goa Gone, thank God, but still end up serving us a Saif of Salaam Namaste, Hum Tum and Cocktail fame. A role which he plays comfortably, but then c'mon. Grow up.

The ending is predictable, story meets life meets judgement meets guesses meets everything else. Cliche Cliche ....

Performance wise;
Saif - same character as the commitment phobic metro-sexual dude ... he nails it.
Kalki - adorable yet irritable girlfriend.
Govinda - awesome ... give him a good story Bollywood ... C'mon !!!
Ranvir - Finally the Ranvir of Khosla ka Ghosla arises. Loved him. Brilliant !!!
Illeana - Grown up finally. No more the south Indian movie bimbo. She has aged and has aged beautifully and meanwhile and somewhere picked up acting lessons. Fresh Breeze throughout the movie. Way to to go girl.

Rating - 2 for the movie... + 0.5 each for Ranvir and Illeana ... so, 3 stars ...  3/5

Verdict - Not unwatchable. Go, have a good laugh, a good 2 hours and 15 mins and forget it ...

Kill Dil review ...

Kill Dil ... somewhat watchable ...

Two friends ... orphans/brothers ... Godfather ... criminal ... grow up to be sharpshooters ... killers ... one guy falls for a girl ... other guy opposes ... but keeps friendship intact ... Godfather gets angry ... all hell breaks loose ...
Well, been there ... seen that have you ... I know you have !!!

Kill Dil gets us back to those 90s' stories ... same old ... we have seen it ...  C'Mon ...

How Bad a story of 2 orphans who grow up to be killers with heart of gold and one of them changes heart can get? Not too bad ... its a tried and tested formula... then why now? Well Shaad Ali the director has to answer that.

The Director, Shaad Ali has some goodies to his name ... He was the director who made Vivek Oberoi act in Saathiya ... he made sure Abhishek Bachan did not go overboard in Bunty aur Babli ... then whay does he pitch Govinda, Ali Zafar, Ranveer Singh and Parineeta Chopra in a hate turns love gone wrong movie and does not do justice? Well ... time will tell ...

Ala 90s, Kill Dil starts of with a benefactor saving two discarded infants ... who turn out to be mind boggling sharp shooters for the benefactor.
Days, weeks, years pass by and the duo become sharper ... and sharper.

Camaraderie is evident. Jokes are prominent and hilarious ... and then comes the girl ... love happens... story loses steam.
Bad ... good ... evil ... noble ... ideas keep on coming and going ... but at the end of the day for obvious reasons, good prevails over evil ... miya biwi raazi to kya karega kaazi ...

Action, love, romance, hatred, double cross, love again, sentiments, tears and the like, we have all that. What makes this movie different from a Akshay Kumar Saif Ali Keemat type movie is nothing ... its the same. Welcome to the 90s. Adi Chopra needs to rethink, what's happening, Gunday earlier and now this.

The songs are plenty. A few of them actually good but then they crop up unexpected and lose sheen. Lyrics is nice and the background voice gives you the creeps.

Story - Could have been better.
Screenplay - not too bad
Performance - Parineeti packs a punch, as always, but could have been happier with some more scenes. Ali Zafar - c'mon man, you deserve better, under rated yet effective. Could have done even more had some more screen time was thrown to him. Govinda - ohh what an absolute waste here. Got a few good lines and scenes but could have been used much more meatily.
Pick of the pack is Ranveer Singh ... brilliant, awesome and lively. He brings in freshness to a vagabond lover n shooter character. He's the only reason why the second half works. Kudos !!!

Climax is abrupt and really needed a lot more work but it was evident that the director actually wanted to cut short the playing time by cutting off the main important scenes.

Not a feather in the hat for the actors or the director but then not unwatchable either. A one time watch is definitely suggested.

Rating wise ... a plus for Ali, Pari and Govinda ... but a minus for story. Taking everything else into consideration its a 2 overall plus a star for Ranveer Singh ... so a 3 out of 5.

And Thereby Hangs a Tale ...

And Thereby Hangs a Tale ...

Apart from the enchanting and thrilling novels that he writes, Jeffery Archer has never failed to mesmerize his readers with his short stories as well.
Out of his 6 collections of short stories, "And Thereby Hangs a Tale" - (ISBN 0230531451) is his sixth feather in his short-stories' hat.

What makes this collection of stories different from all of his previous books is the fact that 10 out of the published 15 stories are true incidents which the author picked up during his travels abroad.
Well, this makes him an avid traveller especially when we see that he has travelled across England, the states and India.
The stories are travel tales to be precise.

As I started with the first story and slowly negotiated my across pages and pages of intrigue, espionage, mistrust, stealth and robbery, I did realize that it's more of a financial thriller involving cons.
Atleast I can tell this about most of the stories this book presented.

Looking back at the previous short stories like "A quiver full of arrows", or the last one - "Cat O'nine tales" and the like, I must say that I am a bit disappoited with the stories in this book.

If asked to review, I would rate this as an average book...say a 2.5 on a scale of 5.

Jagte Raho ...

Jagte Raho (1956)

~ Stay awake or Stay Alert

Jagte Raho, is a 1956 black & white classic directed by the legendary Sombhu Mitra along with Amit Maitra and was produced by Raj Kapoor starring himself.

It's a brilliant comedy with a satirical take on the middle class life. The film revolves around the experience of a poor villager post his arrival to a city in search of a job.

Emotions flow aplenty in the movie with laughter, tears, entertainment, educative messages and at last but not the least a strong message for the society.
Not to forget the songs by Salil Chaudhary, the satirical yet rejuvenating Jaago rey, the superb Jaago Mohan Pyare Jaago and the powerful Bhangra number Main Koi Jhoot Boleya, still remain famous, classy and soothing. Especially the song/bhajan/hymn Jaago Mohan Pyare, where it was the last time people saw the legendary pair of Raj Kapoor and Nargis together on screen.

Having a struggle for a glass of water to drink as the central plot, the movie tries, and is very successful in that, to depict the struggles we face in day to day life. It's more of a fight of ideals between a simple villager and the complicated city/town dwellers. One comes in with an open mind while the other looks at everything with suspicion.

It's a clash of two worlds, a clash of two thought processes, a clash of simplicity and complexity, all beautifully portrayed by Raj Kapoor in a Chaplin-like way where he speaks very less and the movie gets on with pantomime most of the time.

Feeling thirsty and upon seeing a water tap in a compound of a large apartment complex, the innocent villager (Raj Kapoor) climbs over the wall and is mistaken for a thief. All the confusion and the chase that follow next form the crust of the movie.

As the movie progresses we come across many characters and the shady lives they live in terms of being 'Shareef'.
An abusing alcoholic husband, a wife's-jewellery-thieving man, counterfeit notes printing press, a doctor who's has no legitimate education and many more such inhabitants of the upscale neighbourhood are introduced in the film.

The innocent and naive villager is perplexed throughout the movie as to how come a simpleton like him is being victimised while there are so many grievous crimes going on. It's how you dress up the good to hide the evil. The mask that the town/city dwellers wear is disturbs him throughout.

I would humbly say, this is one of Raj Kapoor's best performances in many of his Charlie Chaplin inspired roles. Having said that, each and every member of the ensemble cast plays a memorable role as well.

Towards the end of the story there is a warm moment of interaction between the so-called thief and a child, into whose house the protagonist enters while trying to escape. Viewers get a lesson soon after that life must go on and we need to do a fresh start every dawn, every morning and every day.

The film ends as the dawn breaks, yes, it's a story of one night only, and as they always say, the way good prevails above the evil. If not anything, the film has all kinds of irony which provokes thought and realization as we watch it.
The character of Nargis, who plays a cameo and features in the ‘Jaago Mohan Pyare Jaago’ song, in apparently the last screen sharing with Raj Kapoor, finally quenches the thirst of the protagonist as the film takes us away from a lot of greed and corruption to a serene environment. She had never looked so beautiful and no scene has ever shown so much of romantic humanity.

This film proves, if not anything else, that Raj Kapoor was a thinker and used to make movies lot advanced than the times he used to live in. And adding the fine touch from Sombhu Mitra, it just leaves you spell bound.
Long live Raj Kapoor and Jaagte Raho!!!