Mumbai Meri Jaaaayaawn...

Whoever has seen "Dombivli Fast" will agree with me that Nishikant Kamat is a very promising director. And consequently, we all were looking forward to his next venture, "Mumbai Meri Jaan". As expected, he again elected a Mumbai leaning subject with, obviously, pragmatism in it... The milieu of the film is the dreadful local train blasts in 11/07... Every single Mumbaikar has some story or the other to tell after the blasts so has Nishikant Kamat.

Film deals with concerns and that's where exactly lies the problem!!! Film has enormous amount of issues and hence no one gets the even share of attention, not from the writer, neither from director and indubitably nor from the audience...Terrorism, status discrimination, bomb blasts, brain-drain, regionalism, Hindu-Muslim conflict, over animated media and its role in the society, corruption in Police department and few honest & goaded policemen in the system, conflicted personal dogma etc.etc...huh? How much audience can take in three hours (2 hours 21 minutes to be more precise)? Every single subject (except sensational-news-crazy media) has been done to death by some of our best directors in the past...Your heart doesn't go out for the characters because of this hodge-podge...

All said and done, film has some really astonishing & heart wrenching jiffies...there're moments in the film where you don't regret your decision to come and watch this film with HIGH expectations...
Few scenes in the film make you think, few make you pay attention, few make you laugh and few make you cry as well...

But THIS is the most miserable ingredient!!! Just few scenes & moments and that's about it...It doesn't stay with you and to worsen the case, film has those trite incidents and characters...

I'm NOT saying it's a bad film, but it certainly not live up to your anticipations...

And as far as acting is concern, every one is dazzling in the film, right from Soha Ali Khan to Irrfan Khan to Madhavan to Kay Kay to Paresh Rawal...In fact if you've such an array of alluring actors, you expect nothing but extraordinary performances...

The first half of the film is decent enough to hold your attention but later, it just fizzles like a bubble...In the second half, there are loooooooooong monologues of Paresh Rawal giving words about his entire life in a polluted department like Police and then to irritate you more, he goes onto "society", "corruption", "honest people in corrupted deptt." so on & so forth...Sometimes you gets the illusion of sitting in a really dreary conference where everyone has A LOT to say!!! And if you think these are the trite topics which we're watching on big screen for last 40 years then wait!!! There is much more to come!!! There is an old man giving Geeta-Gyan to kids and trying to make them better human beings... Oh c'mon... The Gen-Next kids generally loose their innocence when they're 6-7 yrs old!!! They don't have the time to listen to a random old man giving Geeta-Gyan...And to top it all, climax is way too melodramatic & idealistic... I can't remember a single day when I've seen people standing up or just stopped in the middle of the road to pay homage to the blast victims on the anniversary of Bomb Blasts!!! Bur I really wish I could've seen it...

Anyways, coming back to Mumbai Meri Jaan, since the film talks about the spirit of Mumbai and it's undying attitude towards challenges, you just want to bond with the film...Also the film has few really salient moments which makes it single-watch and if I need to rate the films as most of our critics do, I'll definitely give it two-and-a-half stars for the performances and half star for the unadulterated attempt by Nishikant Kamat...

Thumbs up to him and please keep making films on such subject with much more efforts & involvement...

ARE YOU HAPPY???

Can it be so easy to be happy? Absolutely...

Happiness is nothing more than a way of thinking and doing and that beliefs lead to actions, which in turn lead to happiness.
We can all achieve happiness if we're committed to being happier, believe we can be happier, think about things differently and do things differently...

I completely dismiss the notion that our happiness is dependent on other people, No one can make us happy but ourselves...

At the happiness institute, we very much believe that once you're no longer in "debt", it is vitally important to clarify a vision and then determine a plan which will not just take you out of debt but will guide you towards "wealth"...

Obviously I'm not talking about financial or material wealth in this situation but about psychological, emotional and possibly even spiritual wealth...

Achieving this will require knowledge how much and what type of wealth, among other things, you want to create...

Look until you find the things which bring you joy and then begin doing them. You may not find your truth entirely the next moment. It usually takes years for one to open fully to one-self, after years of self-denial. But you can begin to discover the things, which have always brought you joy and allow yourself to begin doing them...

Allow yourself to experience your reality as fully as possible. As you become more aligned with your truth, you become happier with your life. Your life comes more into balance; you become the being you came here to be...

We...The People

We're standing at a juncture that's most treacherous like a U-turn parallel to steep hill side, most prone to accidents, liable to pitfalls. Whenever we talk about the change in the society, the liberals support it and our orthodoxies condemn it. I believe we ought to develop a perspicuity into the things. We can never progress until we seize to play peeper Tom's role. Nobody is concerned with you, rather I would say, content with matins related only with Him. You need to be nosy and equipped with those spontaneous satires which can force the culprit dumbfounded & flabbergasted...The essence of civilization is being eaten away. Singing hosannas of our culture seems Deja Vu ..Such points should be discussed ad nauseam at the debating table but I don't think it's going to be worthy. It's vain thinking of ourselves in rather grandiose terms. We've propelled ourselves to a frenetic rat race where we chase our own tail in mistaken concept of making progress. Every individual should be awarded with the right to decide his future. From the day a kid takes birth, everything including his/her alma-mater, his/her profession etc. lay in the hands of his/her parents who being afraid of the society, feed him/her to abide by the rules and fear the society!!! It propels him to a world where he/she fulfills his desire in a clandestine veil of culture.
Everybody trying to make a fool out of the other to show himself or portraying his identity as the one who falls safely in the regime being decided by the Godfathers of the society.
Why do we need to do or get into deeds that need gravel against people. It adds to a hell and a world where people deal in lies.
I remember Rabindranath Tagore's lines where he wishes to drive his countrymen to a world where the wind is without fear. To add, I'll say what you need to fear most is fear itself...