**From & To Satish **( New Pictures Pl see pg 163) - Page 154

The saddest songs are written when a person is happy.

Merle Travis

We look before and after, And pine for what is not; Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught; Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

A man was sick and tired of going to work every day while his wife stayed at home. He wanted her to see what he went through each day, so he prayed :-

"Dear Lord, I go to work every day and put in 8 hours of hard work, while my wife merely stays at home. I want her to know what I go through, so please create a trade in our bodies". God, in His infinite wisdom, granted the man's wish.

The next morning, sure enough, the man awoke as a woman. He arose, cooked breakfast for his mate, awakened the kids, set out their school clothes, fed them breakfast, packed their lunches, drove them to school, came home ... picked up the dry cleaning, took it to the cleaners and stopped at the bank to draw money to pay the electricity and telephone bills.

He drove to the electricity company and the phone company and paid the bills, went grocery shopping, came home and put away the groceries. He cleaned the cat's litter box and bathed the dog. By then it was already 1:00 pm, so he hurried to make the beds, do
the laundry, vacuum, dust, and sweep and mop the kitchen floor.

He rushed to the school to pick up the kids and got into an argument with them on the way home which he had to sort out in a gentle 'motherly' fashion. He set out cookies and milk and got the kids organized to do their homework, then set up the ironing board and was
able to watch a bit of TV while he did the ironing. By then it was 4:30 pm, so he began peeling potatoes and washed greens for salads. He prepared the chops and fresh vegetables and got everything ready in time for an early dinner.

After supper, he cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, folded laundry, bathed the kids, and put them to bed. At 9:00 pm he was exhausted and although his chores weren't finished for the day, he went to bed where he was expected to make love, which he managed to get through without complaining. The next morning he awoke and immediately knelt by the bed and said :-

"Lord, I don't know what I was thinking. I was so wrong to envy my wife's being able to stay home all day. Please, O please, let us trade back!" The Lord, in his infinite wisdom, replied, "My son, I feel you have learned your lesson and I will be happy to change things back to the way they were. You'll just have to wait 9 months though, because you got pregnant last night!!!"

Overdue reviews of pizza,jab tak hai jaan and thuppaki



Pizza


Amid huge cries of admiration and encouragement to go see this new and awesome film i finally succumbed to the din and saw pizza.Well,i have no clue as to what the huge outcry of admiration and all those great reviews were for.It is just about an okay film with mediocre perfomances on a small budget.The only thing going for the film was the thirty minutes of scenes where the hero is stuck in the ghost house and that in the end is revealed as just a twist in the
tail for the audience.I don't know about twist for it felt more like someone had passed a real bad one in a crowded elevator.See here lies the sad thing for we audiences have been beaten down to accept average things from movies,to politicians and generally everything in everday life that when something different comes along we scream our heads out.In the end it is an okay and time-pass film with average perfomances and bit of skilful direction.Some of you will take it as
an insult that i wrote this review but there it is for it is just my opinion and more over the film has made tons of money at the box-office.



Thuppaki


The only other film i saw of vijay was ghilly and that was back in 2005 with two of my little patrners adhitya and athanu.well that film was good and fast paced commercial cinema and with that i went and caught thuppaki.HMMM,well vijay looks good and carries the film on his strong shoulders and the direction was okay but that
is it.I dont understand this obsession about heroines who can't talk tamil or emote even an iota.That about sums up my thoughts on kajal agarwaal's perfomances in this film and all her other films.All that hype about the villain ended up in loud screams and blood curdling yells from the speakers when he comes on the screen and finally i wanted to scream at the top of my voice on what the hype was all about.He looks tough,walks funny and fights vijay like the stunt master told him too.he is never made to show his body or those martial arts skills he has and in the end no one will remember him but for vijay.from the start to the end it is vijay and only vijay and you should hear the scream which young kids,teenage girls yell out each time he comes on screen.

I like vijay for the maya he brings on screen.he promises great dancing which he has stopped delivering and he promises great stunts which he sometimes delivers and he dosen't promise anything more and we are happy with that.I wish he could use the same dance director that surya has been using for the past few movies.well in a nut shell it is a decent film,time pass and delivers what it promised and am happy that there is no twist in the tale.




Jab tak hai jaan

Wow,my eyes were glued to katrina kaif and literally popped out at the ishq shava dance scene.wow she looks like a goddess,dances like a goddess and sadly acts like a goddess but that which has been carved of stone.

Yash chopra's films are a visual treat and jab tak hai jaan does not dissapoint you.I liked the scenes with the himalayan mountains as the back drop and was totally screwed up about those bomb defusing scenes stolen from the hurt locker.sad,really sad.The film was a mixture of a mega serial,melo drama,mtv visuals and some documentary feel thrown into it.well it works and has worked at the box-office.thats it for i dont know what else to write about this film.

shah rukh kahn can do these roles in his sleep and all he has to do is to have that lop sided grin which he has been sporting from his first film and me thinks that the expression is permanently stuck or has he suffered a stroke.But soemtimes one gets a glimpse of his acting skills in those army scenes with ths chak de look and we want more but sadly the lop sided grin comes back with those loving intense eyes or maybe he just needs new lenses or a new direction towards acting.where is that risk taker of baazigar,where is that psycho from darr.Am i right in wanting more from actors and directors,you bet i do,we all do.Otherwise this whole country is going to sink into average this and average that.

Thank god for naan-e,thank god for barfi,thank god for oh my god cos the maya is still there and great directors and great cinemas are still coming althought it is a trickle.well until those rare moments let me go download and watch,HEOMLAND SEASON 2.Let me loose myself in GRIMM 2,let me enjoy silly and scary moments from supernatural and laugh my guts out with ashton and jon cryer in Two and a half men.long live illusion,long live maya.

Female Relationships - Interesting Read

They Teach It at Stanford

In an evening class at Stanford the last lecture was on the mind-body connection - the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends. At first everyone laughed, but he was serious. Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality "girlfriend time" helps us to create more serotonin - a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings? Rarely.
>
> Women do it all of the time. We share from our souls with our sisters/mothers, and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym. There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged-not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking! So every time you hang out with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We are indeed very, very lucky.

> Sooo... let's toast to our friendship with our girlfriends.
> Evidently it's very good for our health. Forward this to all your girlfriends - and stay in touch!

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.'

Khalil Gibran

A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?

Khalil Gibran

Friends can help each other. A true friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself - and especially to feel. Or, not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at the moment is fine with them. That's what real love amounts to - letting a person be what he really is.
Jim Morrison

Talaash review


I am an unabashed fan of aamir khan and have been in love with his movies from qayamat se qayamat tak and now after watching talaash yesterday evening at inox,i have actually become a bigger fan of his acting and production skills.There were huge expectations from movie goers for talaash and now that it is nearly ten days since the film has released,the reviews have been great but not so great compared to three idiots and ghajini.Well intelligence dictates that
we should not expect too much of the same from our film people and the exceptions to these are rajini,vijay and salman khans movies.That said i am really curious to know as to why people have not whole heartedly embraced talaash the latest offering from aamir khan the actor and producer.Methinks the majority of people want either the same zany comedies or five fights and five songs formula films for maybe they just want to be entertained and made to forget their daily hum drums for life.


Well,i was hooked from the first scene and left the theater immensely satisfied with the film and most importantly the director reema kagti.There are so many things happening in the film at various levels and yet reema has managed to cook and serve us the perfect meal with all the ingredients.Aamir holds up the film on his
broad shoulders for he is mostly there in every frame and yet a few other actors like rani,Nawazuddin Siddiqui and kareena match his pace and stride and deliver equally stunning perfomances.Rani even without makeup looks really hot and sexy with those sarees showing a little bit of mid-riff.wow,i have got to admit east or west,north or south indian women in sarees are simply a stunning sight and a force of nature.The scenes where she confronts her husband aamir about their son and most importantly the scenes where she expresses her turmoil with just expressions,rani steals the show with her subtlety and intelligence.The director in these scenes of intense emotions has let the camera and mood do the talking instead of making the actors spew lines.It works great for i really believe that a look can really convey a thousand words.


Kareena looks hot and sexy and really transforms herself into a creature from the redlight area.Sadly her character does not have much to act although the whole film hinges on her character.The scenes where she flirts and seduces aamir were really arousing and that was what which was intended and it hit home.


Nawazuddin Siddiqui got etched in our minds with his foul mouthed character of deputy khan in kahaani and has rose to greater heights in talaash and really showcases his talents in portraying a pimp and a man friday for the sex workers.I am going to follow his career closely and watch all the films he acts in even if the film sucks just to see him act.

Aamir turns in a subtle perfomance and reveals something different in this film.As we watch his character in the film we get the sense that he is a volcano just about to erupt and yet holds it all tight check and makes sure his role of surjan will be remembered for a long time.Like wine aamir is getting better and better.Many thanks and kudos to him for his perfomance in the film and also delivering this film to us as a producer.In a era where a cop is shown as a larger than life figure,aamir's role as a cop is stunning for its realistic perfomance.

And yes,in the end all credit must go to the director reema kagti for she has done a fantastic job and i wish her greater success.She has not wasted one character and has given life and made every actor memorable for the roles they have portrayed.She has not wasted one scene and every scene links and falls into place as in a puzzle.She brings into sharp focus on how parents suffer when thier child dies and how such a tragedy can break marraiges.And in the background of the film,blurred and out of focus the darkness of mumbai is disturbingly painted out and what people do everyday to get by.It is sad and touching to see the plight of women used and discarded like a tissue paper and all this is sharply in the foreground although it is visually in the back ground.

Films are in the end illusions of reality and when the titles start scrolling on the screen it is with a sigh we raise ourselves up from the seat and get back to reality when in reality the scenes we see everyday are much worse that in films.

Alone

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

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