My diary

Finally caught up with the latest offering of Aamir Khan, actually the first where he just produces and does not even show up with a guest appearance. My thoughts on the film:

Normally after watching any film, one spends a few hours thinking about it. These thoughts can range from awe to praise to disdain to absolute disgust. Taxi Driver drove me crazy for one full week and The Departed made me appreciate the work of cops good or bad. Thinking about Black was fun - for two days I was actually raving about it. Then on the third day, I started figuring out the absolute manipulation of one's emotion that was going on. From day 5 onwards I was one of the film's staunchest critics. Rang De Basanti was easy in contrast.... I did not like the film's message and the opinion has not changed (the film is very well made though). JTYJN is differant. It has been 12 hours since I have watched the film. And I am still thinking about whether it is a good film or a great film. For many, a good film is enough. However this is differant. We are talking about a film which has behind it such great forces as Aamir Khan, AR Rehman and Abbas Tyrewaala (note the A's).
The film's story need not be talked much about. The story is simple - boy and girl are freinds, boy and girl do not know they are in love, boy and girl hook up with other girl and boy, boy and girl realize they love each other, break ups occur and boy and girl finally hook up. What is not simple is the treatment. First it is told in a story narration format. The format though old is effective and the reaction of the story listener sets the mood up a little. The leading pair's characters are interestingly etched with Imran striving to become the next Mahatma and Genelia being the exact opposite. This is normal and is a featured in most films just because they are on the damn screen most of the time. Here, we get a set of quirky and interesting supporting characters who are very well defined and seem to have a strong backstory. We have Ratna Pathak Shah as the hero's mother who in my opinion is the best "hero's mother" ever seen in Hindi film. We have Naseeruddin Shah as her dead husband's spirit who irritates her from the confines of his photo (Abbas misses a trick somewhat by not garlanding the photo though but never mind) and is very keen on seeing his son show some violent tendencies which will make the Rathore family proud of him. We have Paresh Rawal  as the Inspector having a problem with Ratna Pathak Shah who by the way is a social activist hellbent on getting him suspended. We then have the two stetson hat wearing horse riding pubhopping duo played really surprisingly well by Arbaaz and Sohail Khan. Their character is very funny and their relevance to the plot kinda surprises you in the finale. The friends of the leading pair are pretty average characters though the Gujarati Jignesh is a little too stereotypical. Imran's temporary GF is a beutifully etched character with some really good touches. Genelia's temp BF is the stereotype jock character. The surprise of the pack is Prateik Babbar's character. It is so well written that one can actually make a film on him as a sequel to this film which is a real possibility considering the film's success. 
This set of characters is definitely the film's trump card. Normally side character scenes are obligatory with their use being just to move the story forward. Here the scenes with them are actually worth watching by themselves and make watching the film more enjoyable. The film's screenplay could have been tighter and the film drags a little in the second half before the climax. The climax has been criticized by a few of my friends as being filmy. Hello, but it is a film. The climax worked for me because it is well, very filmy and fun. The song placing is a little strange with all the fun songs getting over before the serious stuff in the second half starts. 
Regarding the performances, Imran Khan is very good and understated. This film is not a launch vehicle for him per se. A launch vehicle in Hindi films normally involves the hero making a flashy entrance strutting his stuff for the first half an hour and showing his "acting skill" for the remaining part while hogging the screen unneccessarily all the time. Here he is there only when required. His voice though is very similar to Hritik Roshan (Hrithik's ego must be on an all time high though with his lookalike and voicealike being lauched the same day). Genelia is lovely - both lookwise and actingwise. She has a great quality of expressing emotions through her eyes just like, dare I say a certain Ms. Nene. Jayant Kriplani and Anuradha Patel are good as Genelia's parents. Kitu Gidwani and Rajat Kapoor were very good and potrayed their mutual animosity perfectly in the couple of scenes they were in. Seeing Kitu Gidwani and Jayant Kriplani made me suddenly very nostalgic about the old DD days. Hope to see them often. Imran's girlfreind (forgot her name) is very good and does justice to her character. The freinds are also quite good and natural. 
Ratna Pathak Shah is awesome as the social activist who wants her son to be the embodiment of non violence. The way she puts emphasis on the word "mard" while yelling at her husband's spirit makes you lugh out loud. Such a great actor. Why the hell is she not given good roles. Naseeruddin Shah as the happily violent spirit caught in a picture complements his real life wife really well. A great performance from this acting powerhouse is a given. However one could see that he was having a ball. I have not seen him this cool since Tridev. And his jig in the limited confines of his picture during the climax is well worth the ticket price. Arbaaz and Sohail Khan are as said earlier surprisingly good. Prateik Babbar is a revelation as the misfit loner. The eyes speak a lot. So it should conidering he inherits his genes from the great Smita Patil and the not - so - great- but- good Raj Babbar. He should work a little on his voice though.
Direction by Abbas Tyrewala is good for a first timer. He has his limitations with the pacing of some of the scenes being a little problematic. But as a story writer he excels. 
All in all the film is definitely worth a watch. However the characters will make you buy a DVD just so that you can watch their scenes.

It has been 3 days since the men's singles final of Wimbledon. Till now I had not written about the match for a reason. When you like something a lot and you write about it immediately you tend to go overboard in praise. When South Africa chased 434, my first reaction was "Greatest cricket match ever". After two days, it turned to "great batting on a flat track". Same happens if something makes you angry. After the Sydney Test, I compared Ponting with Bill Clinton. After a month, I could see that he was desperate to break Waugh's test win record and actually empathized with him.

Hence I waited some time to post my view on this particular tennis match. My views about it at around 2 AM on Monday was, “The greatest sporting spectacle ever witnessed by me”, “Best example of how to play a game” and so on. Now even at 11.30 P.M. on Wednesday the view has not changed.

It started well enough. Some good long rallies, excellent shots, perfect placement, etc. Something you expect when the two best players of this decade meet in a Grand Slam final. Nadal broke Federer's second service game. First set to Nadal. Nadal has got momentum. He had beaten Federer black and blue in the French Open. Federer may be under a little pressure as he is aiming to surpass Borg's winning streak at Wimbledon. However he is Federer, this is Wimbledon and his serves are virtually zinging the grass court, something which does not happen on clay. See, Federer breaks in the second set. A four set victory for Federer is assumed but wait!! Nadal breaks! Twice!! Two sets for Nadal. Federer getting even more tense. It is at this moment that this match went one level up for me. If the second set had gone to Federer, Nadal would have found it really hard to come back. Also Federer's serve was getting deadlier as each game passed.

The third and fourth sets was when both got really desperate. Desperate in a good way that is. Federer was desperate to get back in the game. Nadal was desperate to close out the match knowing fully well Federer's ability to pull back. And in desperation the tennis quality reached awesome proportions. So awesome that my cricket loving father and reality TV loving mother actually stopped bickering over which channel to watch (Star Cricket or  Zee/Star Plus/Sony) and put on Star Sports where the epic match was being telecast. The shots played were so precise that the quote “there was some chalk flying” was repeated every second point (I am exaggerating, it must have been said every third point). Ashok Amritraj, the voice of Star Sports when tennis is on was so amazed by the play that most of the times he was just laughing with amazement. Alan Wilkins, the jack of all sports commentator was oohing and aahing all the time. However I became convinced that this was a once in a lifetime display when Mcenroe was shown on TV. Here was a man who played one of the greatest finals right here against Borg. And he looked stunned. To bring that expression out of a man who played some great tennis requires a stupendous performance. And he later officially declared the match as "This is the greatest match I've ever seen"

Federer took the third and the fourth via tie breaker. The serve was helping him and his superiority in tie breaks helped him. So did Nadal's nerves. A five set vistory for Federer was assumed. However no tie breaks in the fifth set. 

The fifth set started. The two must have been exhausted. At least now the intensity will come down. However the occasion demanded extra effort. For Federer this would have been his sixth straight Wimbledon. For Nadal this would have been his first Wimbledon and he would have become the first after that Borg (yes, him again!) to win both the French Open and the Wimbledon the same year. The extra effort was well justified and was made as well. It helped that there was a rain break in between the fifth set with the score being 2-2 and deuce. How appropriate for it to rain when it was even stevens. The heavens must have thought it unfair to have a rain break when one had some kind of advantage. Both resumed play refreshed. The shots were still perfect, the rallies long and hard fought. Did I forget to mention the quality of the rallies? How foolish of me. Normally a rally consists of a few good shots and one definite winning shot. Here the rallies consisted of many potential winners which were converted into just good shots by these two heavenly creatures. The angle of some shots was outrageous. Federer's backhand and Nadal's forehand were constantly doing battle carving out one outrageous angle after another with chalk flying everywhere.

Unfortunately I missed the game where Nadal broke for the final time. However I was able to watch the final game. Almost five hours of play had already been clocked. And here are these two playing as if this were the first game. It finally ended and Nadal fell on his back no doubt exhausted. Federer had his head in his hands. Then they both came up to shake hands. The camaraderie they showed in that moment made the match even more perfect. This is how you play. You play as hard as you can, use all your skills and tricks to get the edge but in the end you give your opponent the respect he deserves.

It was a great match and a great advertisement of tennis. And the lights went out minutes after it ended. Someone up there seems to have been watching and did not want it get interrupted.