Hey Ram : Revisited

One thing leads to another. I have been reading the Great Indian Novel, by Shashi Tharoor. A fantastic "must recommend" type book. But this also lead me to suddenly have the craving to watch Hey Ram again.

I had watched Hey Ram as a teenager. Although I saw the entire movie, I just thought of it as another one of Kamal Haasan's rebellious additions to Tamil Cinema. I respect the man immensely, even to the extent that I sometimes quarrel with Rajnikanth fans over his supremacy of the Tamil Film Kingdom.

But this 1 - 4 am late night show, was a pleasant surprise. As the movie moved from scene to scene, it moved with such fluency that it was as simple as different chapters in a book. The acting is stellar, everyone is the parallel cinema world is present - Hema Malini,Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Girish Karnad, Saurabh Shukla, Atul Kulkarni, Vikram Gokhale to name a few. It has an unusual mix of Tamil actors including Raghavan, Delhi Ganesh, Sowcar Janaki, Vaali(a poet by profession) Y.G.Mahedra and a superb debut by Vasundhara Das, even Govardhan Rao from Telugu cinema makes an appearance. Yes it has those Bollywood folks also, Rani and Shah Rukh. A cameo by Tushar Gandhi is a nice finishing touch.

There are just so many layers that one needs to digest through the movie. It is intense as it is intelligent. The anti Gandhian who realises the folly of his way. The man in love. The educated middle class Iyengar. The man who resists falling in love with his wife by devoting himself to a cause.

The setting is superb, recreating everything, from Calcutta to Delhi. Every fine detail is taken care of. And the realism of it, is quite surreal. There is Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, British English and Hindi. All languages that I now easily understand due to variety of people I met at business school. So makes me appreciate the movie even more, but the part I found funny was that, most of the main characters including the Mahatma himself, spoke Tamil. Playing to the gallery I guess. But a fine movie. 4 star I should say.

Day 3 - Penn Masala

What an end to the 3 day fun fair that I managed to find and be a part of.

Penn Masala, a capella group from the states came down to Hyderabad to perform. I had heard of them earlier, and sampled some of their stuff thanks to Soumya. It was thrilling to have them in Hyderabad.

Shifting gears easily between English renditions of U2, Coldplay and Timbaland coupled with popular numbers from Bollywood they had the crowd in awe. And everytime one of them started doing a swara, was a sight to behold.

To couple with the fabulous performance, the psychedelic laser show created a truly electric atmosphere. A huge thanks to the French Embassy and Alliance Francaise for bringing them down. Also, these guys are highly recommended, do attend their performances if you get a chance, otherwise there is always their website and youtube.

Day 2 - Girish Karnad's Nagamandala

This was my first tryst with serious folk theatre and I was not disappointed. After being used to the gripping plays at Prithvi, Ravindra Bharati seemed a little different. Ravindra Bharati has so many memories associated with it, so many performances of my own and quizzes also.

Nishumbita Ballet & Theatre group has done a fantastic job in putting it across. Hats off to Veena who played the main protagonist and Ram Holagundi, the director.

One complaint was about the irritating crowd though. The theatre scene is plagued with the problem of Cellphones ringing and I don't know if we will ever deal with this. Also some folks in the crowd were talking and didn't seem interested. Why do they even come, when they are not interested ? Answer : To disturb easily irritable people like me.

But I'm mighty glad, the Hyderabad theatre scene is alive and kicking.

Day 1 : China Moses & the Raphael Lemonnier Quartet

As soon as we entered, there were finger foods and drinks. A damn good setting for a jazz concert I thought.

The concert itself was fantastic. China Moses was nothing short of spectacular shifting modulations and tones reminiscent of Tina Turner. The whole show was dedicated to Dinah Washington, A famous R&B singer of the 50's. So there were a lot of interwoven stories to each song, which gave the show a real feel good factor.

Now allow me to tell you the story of about a boy from the South of France who grew upto be a pianist - Raphael Lemonnier, his french dimple and the magic that his fingers do when they touch the piano were easily the show stealers.

Then there was Fabien Marcoz on the cello with his brilliant solos and the drummer Jean Pierre Eroauard and his sense of humour.

A fabulous experience of listening to Jazz live in Hyderabad. Now how many people can boast of that.

PS: Random fact. Apparently the Jazz singer always makes best friends with the Cellist.

Home Sweet Hyd

Its only fair that my 100th post had to be from Hyderabad. I still remember, the first time I decided to write, before my Electrical Engineering exam in my 2nd year at MGIT.

Its been a long time from then to now. But some things haven't changed. I'm back at home, thanks to NITIE, I have a messed up sleep pattern. So my day usually starts at around noon and goes upto 2-3 am.

News from Hyderabad. Well it is still awesome, despite the bloody T protests and all that nonsense. The roads were empty on the morning of Jan 1, so I had fun driving around. The biryani is still spicy, the mirchi bajjis still induce tears, the air in December is still chilly and not stopping for signals is still a trend that continues.

Friends still turn up late, Pavan's room is still a favourite place to hangout. loads of them are here in town in this period. So I'm doing a lot of catching up, turns out, I have classmates who are in places like Russia. Interesting.

A ticket for 3 IDIOTS cost me Rs.40, yes yes yes ! And whats more, I walked to the theater. In Bombay, even getting to the multiplex would have cost me more. I like the Economics here.

So wherever I may go, Hyderabad will always be home.