Mother's Day

The concept of Mother's Day is in its infancy stage in India, but is catching up with the other major festivities celebrated in the culturally diversified country. Indians celebrate a lot of festivals as it is and the kind of success this western conception has received is surely commendable. Though Mother's Day is not an entirely a novel concept in India, as people have been celebrating Durga Puja - honoring the divine Mother Durga and the Great Mother - Kali Ma, a day dedicated to a person's own mother was something new.

Thanks to globalization, this western festival of Mother's Day has found its place in India as well. Commercialization has given its celebration the much needed awareness. While the concept has found a respectable position in the metropolitan cities, it is fast spreading in the smaller cities as well. Similar to the western countries, the celebrations in India are held with great pomp and show. Indians also realize the importance of this day and dedicate it to the efforts undertaken by their mother in their upbringing.

There are various programs held in India, with respect to the day, and an assortment of women oriented products are also launched. Children of all ages celebrate the festival with zeal and gusto. Cards and flowers top the gift list on Mother's Day. Kids also make special meals and let their mother have a day off from kitchen. Mothers are pampered on this day. Just like westerners, Indians too reflect and express appreciation for the contributions made by their mother throughout their lives.

Sources:

Be Sincere Not Serious

Don't just have career or academic goals. Set goals to give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before successful, balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, and mental peace are all in good order.

There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your break-up. There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not enjoyable if your mind is full of tension.

Life is one of those races in nursery school where you have to run with a marble in a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point coming first.. Same is with life where health and relationships are the marble.

Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One thing about nurturing the spark - don't take life seriously. Life is not meant to be taken seriously, as we are really temporary here. We are like a prepaid card with limited validity. If we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500 weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up?

It's ok, bunk a few classes, scoring low in couple of papers, goof up a few interviews, take leave from work, fall in love, little fights with your spouse. We are people, not programmed devices.

"Don't be serious, be sincere."

God gave me nothing I wanted; He gave me everything I needed.

Source:

Housefull Movie Review

Director: Sajid Khan

Star Cast: Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Ritesh Deshmukh, Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta, Jiah Khan, Boman Irani and Randhir Kapoor

After a chain release of mundane, boring movies for quite some time which neither made room in the box office nor in people’s hearts it’s time for something different and entertaining with Sajid Khan’s Housefull. Though, it might not be a block buster entertainer of the year however, it has enough stuff to make people laugh and laugh. After all what people want on weekends is a good entertaining movie to freshen up the moods. And moreover, when the movie is made by a great comedian turned director himself it’s bound to tickle the bones with its comedy. After 'Heyy Baby' Shajid is back again to make theatres houseful with his flick ‘Housefull’.

Housefull is the story of Aarush (Akshay) who is a total loser with whom everything in life goes wrong. He lands in his friend’s house who is also a loser, Bob (Ritesh). Bob lives with his wife Hetal (Lara). Somehow, Aarush starts believing that his luck would change if he gets true love in his life. But, it’s not that simple for him because not one but two beauties come along his way who is none other than Sandy (Deepika) and Devika (Jiah). But, along with the girls enters Major Krishna Rao (Arjun Rampal) who is Sandy’s furious big brother and also Batuk Patel (Boman Irani), Hetal’s dad. It is then the movie takes pace. Aarush and Bob try to deceive Krishna Rao and Batuk in a hilarious way which makes stomach ache with laugh. They tell one lie on top of another and it continues.

Though the script is nothing special but it’s filled with the all essential ‘laugh’ factor as it is a comedy. Akshay and Ritesh successfully hold the attention of the viewers and their excellent onscreen chemistry is worth mentioning. The climax of the movie has extreme comedy sequences filled with mirth. And of course, Ritesh, Boman Irani, Akshay teamed together with Shajid means assured entertainment. The movie is also high on its enchanting factor as it has casted three hot cheeks together - Deepika, Lara and Jiah.

To mention about the acting skills of the team, Akshay Kumar gave his outstanding performance of drollery. Ritesh Deshmukh entertained throughout the movie with his comic expressions and right timing. Arjun Rampal woos all hearts with his charm. And about the female stars, well, they just added the oomph factor to the movie with Deepika being just mesmerizing and a perfect glam doll. Lara gives her best comedy performance and Jiah is hot but her performance was just average. Chunky Pandey played the role of an Italian hotelier called Akhiri Pasta but, his performance is not worth mentioning. Randhir Kapoor was seen onscreen after a long time and he played Jiah’s dad. Boman Irani‘s performance needs no special comments as he gave his as usual best.

The music of the movie is nothing to mention about and it’s by Shankar Ehsaan Loy. Mika sang ‘Apni Toh Jaise’ which was quite entertaining. Vikas Sivaraman gave appreciable camera work.

Verdict: This flick is a must watch for all who want a relaxing weekend and laugh with a packet of popcorn in their hands after a hectic week of hard work. It’s worth the money.

Source

Kartik Calling Kartik Movie Story

Have you ever received a call from yourself? Is it possible in the first place? There are several theories doing the rounds about the two Karthiks in this movie. So what is it? Is Karthik hallucinating? Does he have a double role? Or a split personality? For most parts of the film, you actually buy the explanation that Karthik does receive calls from, well, Karthik.

Let's accept the fact that a concept like this instinctively generates curiosity in the film. But the real test is to make the story work in those 2 hours. Also - this is vital - the identity of the caller should come as a jolt when the film concludes. Karthik Calling Karthik works in parts, but during the penultimate part, when the story shifts from Mumbai to Kerala, the sand castle, so beautifully built by debutante director Vijay Lalwani, gets washed away.

One doesn't want to challenge the behavioural patterns of a person with a certain disorder, but when it comes to the big screen, when you are narrating a story on celluloid, you need to do a lot of spoon-feeding and make it look convincing. In this case, unfortunately, the finale is just not convincing and therefore, acts as a spoilsport.

Meet Karthik [Farhan Akhtar], an introvert by nature and shy by choice. Karthik suffers with huge confidence issues and is miserable at his average job that yields less than average results. His boss [Ram Kapoor] treats him like dirt. Shonali [Deepika Padukone], his colleague, who he secretly loves, doesn't even know that he exists. Karthik is a loser. He knows it. He accepts it.

Suddenly, one night, the phone rings. And Karthik speaks to someone he never thought he would. He speaks to a man who also claims to be Karthik. The man on the phone says he's here to change Karthik's life. Karthik accepts the phone in his life and soon it becomes his guide, his mentor, his friend, his guardian.

Karthik Calling Karthik is a love story as also a suspense fare that teases your mind. Any love story works if the chemistry and also the moments between the on-screen lovers looks real and the chemistry between Farhan and Deepika works well.

Correspondingly, a suspense film works if the viewer keeps guessing what the culmination to the story would be. The mystery only deepens when not only Karthik, but also his girlfriend and psychiatrist are engulfed in this storm. All hell breaks loose when Karthik's life goes upside down and Karthik is back to square one. But from this point onwards, the graph of the film only goes downwards.

Debutante director Vijay Lalwani knows his job well, but he's letdown by his own writing. The second hour not only looks stretched [two songs flow one after the other, with the story coming to a grinding halt], but the pace also gets excruciatingly slow at this juncture. The climax, as mentioned earlier, is a complete downer.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's musical score is an asset. The film has some lilting tunes. Cinematography [Sanu John Varughese] is perfect. Dialogues are simple mostly and at times, very witty.

This is Farhan Akhtar's third film as an actor and it must be said that he takes giant strides when it comes to acting. The story throws several challenges at him and fortunately, he emerges trumps in the most difficult moments. This is, by far, his best work.

Deepika Padukone looks bewitching and acts natural throughout. Ram Kapoor is fantastic. Why don't we see him so frequently on the big screen? Shifaali Shah is excellent. Vivan Bhatena is good. Tarana, Vipin Sharma and Yatin Karyekar are serviceable.

Source