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Showing posts from June, 2015

BOOK REVIEW : THE MISTRESS OF HONOUR

For a common man like me, there isn’t much exposure to what goes on in the army, navy or the airforce. We are “Busy” people who don’t actually go out of the way and take the pains to understand what goes on in an army family. Now how many films or books till date have you read which depict what actually goes on in the military families? No I don’t take into account J.P Dutta’s over – the – top and Jingoistic films. We all are subjected to what goes on in the battlefield, but we are never shown what goes on behind the curtains. “ The Mistress of Honour ” is one such novel which says so much in the most subtle possible way. Without wasting any time, Bhaavna Arora introduces us to the main characters of the novel’s first part. Captain Deepak Potnis serves in the Indian army. While a part of the 1984 Operation Bluestar, he meets Parminder Kaur Sodhi “Pansy” in the Golden Temple in the most unusual of circumstances. She has just arrived from Britain & has lost her entire

MUSIC REVIEW : INDOSOUL

You can buy the album  HERE So for the first time I will be reviewing an instrumental album. For those who listen to carnatic music, they must be well aware of Karthick Iyer’s name. For those who don’t know, Karthick Iyer Live is a collaboration of musicians from diverse musical backgrounds. An electric violin, mridangam, guitar, bass and drums along with vocals form the core. The band breaks down superficial barri­ers between genres, cultures and languages, to bring out the deep commonalities that define IndoSoul. BOUNDLESS ‘Korappu’ is a compositional format in carnatic music where two musicians exchange questions and answers through their instruments. The sound of mridangam greets you as we are treated to a classic solo mridangam piece by Sumesh Narayanan for the first forty seconds of the song, before he concludes with a tihaai and makes way for Karthick on the violins. What follows is simply stunning. We witness a superb jugalbandi between the violin ( Raga

TANU WEDS MANU RETURNS : MY THOUGHTS

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS. IT IS TO BE READ ONLY IF YOU HAVE WATCHED THE MOVIE. IT IS NOT EXACTLY A REVIEW. IT CONTAINS THOUGHTS ABOUT HOW I LIKED THE MOVIE. IT IS LONG AND CONTAINS QUITE SOME IMAGES. Few facts we learnt from Tanu Weds Manu Returns – 1.      Southhall mein logon ke ghar ke baahar kacchhe sookhte hain. 2.      Tharki logon ki pasandeeda kitaab hain “LOLITA” 3.      “TILANDI” means “VANISHED” 4.      Tanu saves her husband Manu’s number in her phone under the contact name “HUSBAND” 5.      Delhi ka aadha pollution aashiqon ki wajah se hain. 6.      “JHAND” means “DESTROYED” 7.      “PEEPNI” means … “Bachpan mein buddha hota than a neeli aankhon waala, jisse pichkaao toh         aawaaz aati thi PEE PEE” 8.      Pappi ki colony ki do nikkar wali ladkiyon ne use propose kiya tha. 9.      Masoor ki dal mein ajinomoto nahin padta. 10.    Tanu and Manu last had sex in 2013, bhaiyya dooj ke din. 11.      Jab kahin jaana hi nahin, toh bus ke dha

MUSIC REVIEW : ABCD 2

Looking at their current form, Sachin and Jigar are one of the most successful composers in the last year. After the immensely well made “Happy Ending” and “Badlapur” and a top notch Gujarati album “Bey Yaar”, they gave us a brilliant episode of MTV unplugged and then finally Coke Studio and LAADKI. It remains to be seen how they fare with ABCD 2 as they team up the third time with Remo D’souza. The first movie had a highly successful run at the music charts. Let us see how the sequel fares. “BEZUBAAN PHIR SE” is aptly titled. The composers re utilize their most successful song from ABCD. This time however, the honey voiced Mohit Chauhan is replaced by a full throttled Vishal Dadlani. And he completely owns the song. The rap portions as well as the other parts are sung brilliantly by him. Joining him is Madhav Krishna who floors you with his rendition of the title loop. The contrast between Vishal and Madhav’s voices is superb. Then there is Anushka Manchanda who is as us