Why no one but Bachchan could have done 'Paa'

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The child is father of the Man. After watching two-and-half-hours of the Amitabh Bachchan-starrer 'Paa', William Wordsworth's lines from 'The Rainbow' never felt more true. Or correct. Or contextual. Or more Bachchan. (Not necessarily in that order though!) Cause these, after all, were simple lines that had inspired many literary, cinematic and musical offerings over the years. And in one moment, the lines symbolised the perfect takeaway from director R Balakrishnan's 'Paa', a tale that dealt with premature ageing disorder, progeria. And a story that only Bachchan could have done and, beautifully did, justice to. 'Paa', in many ways, is an ode to modern India and the relationships that it nurtures. It deals with new-age love. It reiterates that parental love is probably the most unconditional, non-transactional relationship available in today's complex emotional marketplace. It shows that love often is sacrificed at....

Season of kiss and make up: Ambanis to Jaswant

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Forgiveness is in the air. Or so it seems. First it was the multi-millionaire Ambani brothers who kind of declared an end to their cold war without doing the kissing act. Literally, thankfully! The warring brothers, estranged for eight years after their father's death, have had a bitter public partnership, marked by animosities and legal disputes. Even as the country's apex court ruled that the public-private partnership between the brothers was not greater than the country's good (as the brothers-in-arms fought over the distribution of gas in the KG basin), family watchers and Dalal St watchers alike, were looking with renewed hope toward an amicable rapprochement. So, while the Vimal Family bonded in the wilderness of the Kruger National Park in South Africa, stakeholders finally heaved a sigh of relief. And thanked the matriarch for her role as the peacekeeper. Last week, the peacemaking, rather forget all-animosity-and-let's-be-friends....

Bhopal, 1984: Agony and my grand-aunt

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December 1984 was supposed to be happy family time. A wedding in the family meant relatives from all over would be congregating in Calcutta. Joy, mirth and unlimited fun - life couldn't have been better. School became a distant memory as winter vacations were advanced for me! With just a week to go for the December 9 wedding, the household was in a state of organised chaos as is wont to be in most Indian weddings with everybody running around the house to set the motion. I still recall my grandmother being a bundle of nerves - excitement, tension, joy, sadness, angst - predictable emotions when the youngest daughter in the family is tying the knot. And remember these were times when the now omni-present mobile phone hadn't yet appeared - Sam Pitroda was yet to convince Rajiv Gandhi to unleash the telecom idea - most event coordination....

Why Mamata Banerjee should stay put in Calcutta

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As a child growing up in the Calcutta of 90's, I so so (as they say it in 2010!) liked Mamata Banerjee. And I had my reasons. My child-like, pre-liberalised faculties followed simple reasoning before arriving at the conclusion: She was, after all, a source of unlimited joy for kids like me as her hectic political work would ensure that we would be blessed with at least 2, if not more, unaccounted holidays in the school monthly almanac. Many intimidating physics/chemistry class tests would get caught in a time warp, thanks to her sudden mood swings which included calling at-the-drop-of-a-hat bandhs, disrupting road and rail traffic, making sure her cronies tried to bring life to a standstill. Unfinished homework would get a breather of a day (at least!) before they saw completion. Beat that! In pre-Internet days, a Friday bandh call was all that was required to make....

RIP Nirupama: Love is a lonely song

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Twenty-two is no age to die. Not when you are young, vivacious and ready to take on the world as you follow your dreams, which before you can even blink, go on to assume monstrous hues. And twenty-two is certainly no age to die when you are in love. When you see the world through rose-tinted glasses and know you can change it. When you are content holding hands and staring endlessly into each other's eyes, thinking that the power of your (combined) love can put God's best-laid plans to rest. When having the object of your affection by your side is strength enough to take on all adversities in your stride. For Nirupama Pathak that was not to be. Love turned fatal for this young journalist, found hanging in her Koderma home on April 29. Her family alleged that she'd committed suicide, their....

Hyderabadi biryani for Shoaib Malik

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Ok. Takeaway for the week going by: All's well that ends well. In love. In impending marriages. In televised romance-turned-betrayal-dramas which transcend borders. And otherwise. If you happen to have been watching the idiot-box during the past week, you will know what I am referring to. For the uninitiated, it's of course the Shoaib-Sania-Ayesha saga - more like the pati, patni and woe - that had captured popular imagination. One man's ecstasy is often another man's agony. In this case, both men are the same - Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik. The former Pakistani skipper vascillated from outright denial to prove-me-I'm-lying to finally admitting that yes he'd married Ayesha Siddiqui, confined to popular imagination only through photographs, in 2005. While millions of heart-broken men wondered what the Indian version of Anna Kournikova saw in Malik, whose credentials came under question after the match-fixing scandal broke....

Women's Bill: Equally Unequal

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Yesterday was International Women's Day. A day when almost all communication across print, visual and social media screamed that Woman Power needed to be feted. That the female ego needed to be massaged. And that the second sex needed to feel good about themselves - at least this is what most retail brands also felt. Hence they all rushed in to offer huge discounts, happy buys and other feel-good thing-a-me. Yesterday was also supposed to be a historic Monday in the making with the Women's Reservation Bill being passed in Parliament. But what ensued was high drama, histrionics and (display of) horrible behaviour in the misnomer of House of Elders. Action in the Rajya Sabha was anything but what is deemed fit of elderly citizens. And in this case, elderly nominated citizens. But it's yesterday no more. The day after, retail brands have gone....

Don't let your CEO watch Up In The Air

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If you are a salaried professional, go and watch Up In The Air. But while you are at it, make sure that the CEO of your company doesn't watch it. Cause he is sure to get ideas... For regular folks, George Clooney in Up In The Air has a nightmare of a role. Seriously. For here is a guy who goes around firing people from their cushy jobs. And he is hired to do just THAT. And our man does it with a lot of (cinematic) ease. Cause supposedly it's his (professional) calling. And that's what he's getting paid big bucks for. (Well, if you ask me, I think he gets paid zillions to just look the way he does!!!) To ask professionals to look for options even as he himself is flown to different parts of the continent, helping cut costs for the....

Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin...

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It was 1999. The month was mid-August or September, I can't remember clearly. And I was still in college. PVR Cinemas still hadn't become the huge corporate blockbuster of 21st-century India. The Bijli brothers had spared a thought for college-going folks like us, living away from home on a shoestring budget. And were kind enough to price the front two rows of their cinemas (Vasant Vihar and Saket only) at Rs 5. A friend and I had trooped to PVR Saket, our usual Friday hangout. We'd bunked class and queued up for over 2 hours to buy the tickets to watch the star-studded premiere (yes!) of Jahan Tum Le Chalo. While the other girls lined up drooled over co-star Jimmy Shergill who'd already debuted with Gulzar's Maachis, my friend and I discussed at length the "unconventional" other guy. And so were ready to wait. To....

Oh Terry toh!

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By now, John Terry is no longer relegated to innocuous headlines. The man, after all, has lost his job. Terry, over the past week, has kept the rumour mills agog. Cause after Tiger Woods, here came another potential Baba in the woods! And oh boy, what a baba John Terry turned out to be! If Woods had his numerous attachment files popping out one after the other in true kiss-and-tell style, the good ol' Brit boy had settled for only one too-hot-to-handle lingerie model. Who in fact, turned out to be his wife's ex-best friend. Who'd also happened to have had a close encounter with one of his team mates at some time. Life, you said. Six degrees of separation or less, I'd say! So, what's the big deal about? That John Terry happened to be the England team football captain? That he'd had a million....