daag achche nahi hote!

come the navratri season, theatres get flooded with new releases-by-the-dozen… the latest to hit the silver screen were akki baby’s bhool bhulaiiya and rani’s laga chunari main daag…

like most ppl, i was more kicked abt the former… but lack of tickets and a “half-start” better rating that both the tabloids that come home gave Laga, pushed us into the wide comfy chairs at one of the plush cineplexes in bbay to watch…. hold ur breath — Laga Chunari Mein Daag —! {y? u ask… well.. to be frank.. i’m asking that question to myself too… }

but… coming back to the daag … in my personal opinion the movie in a few short words is “waste of time money effort” to watch on the big screen that is… rani’s superb performance would actually offset the DVD rental charge…

the cinematography though is excellent… and in that aspect, one can actually believe that it is a Pradeep Sarkar film… the same guy who gave us Parineeta..

the story however, and i must say this was a little expected, dragged at a lot of places… the first half of the film especially.. the second half does pick up for a while that kunal kapoor is on the screen.. (errrm.. u mite hv a call an impartial judge for that one..) but.. yeah.. the tempo falls back straight down..

i was actually amazed at the climax… i had expected quite a lot of drama shama… rona dhona was ther…but not tooo much drama… (i mean considering what extent is possible in the realm of the given topic) …

all in all.. an ok watch… maybe one time.. that too on DVD… though frankly, I’d rather have Ameya’s AJAD version of the film please…. any directors listening??

Goa-licious..!

so… what is a perfect day in goa?? everyone i know differs on this one.. for some it is the full-day drinking that symbolises perfection… for others it is the beaches and sand that cannot be denied the whole day.. for some the churches and temples are the places to hit.. while some prefer to sleep in most of the day and hit the nightclubs and pubs directly when the sun has finished his business about town.

the total goa fan that i am.. on some level subscribe to the second one.. just relaxing in a beach on one of the numerous shacks that line the baga beach (not calangute… too noisy and crowded for me) … sipping on something off and on.. nibling on french fries in between.. but basically doing nothing.. aaaah.. thats goa…

on a recent trip to goa however, i’ve done what i can now describe as the most perfect way to spend a day in goa….

its like i finally realised why hordes and hordes of foreigners spend months and months and then some more months in goa… … what am i going on about?? well.. to experience it, get to goa, rent out a bike (more a cruiser bike than the other types — yes i dont know too much technicalities about bikes.. can we move on pls…), get hold of a tourist guide (the book!!! ) of goa.. and get moving… away from the beaches.. away from the most popular tourist spots.. farther the better…

so what did we do that im rambling about aimlessly here?

the day started idly.. like a normal goa day… after a late brunch.. (well so what it was almost lunch time by the time we finally made it to infantaria… it was our first meal of the day… it still qualifies as brunch ) .. we took off on our bikes — destination – Kerim Beach … a tiny little beach almost at the northern tip of goa..

from the minute we left crowded calangute, we saw glimpses of how awesome the roadtrip was going to be… well-grown paddy fields lined both sides of the tiny road that would take us to Kerim… with the long palms waving in the distance  in the breeze was rushing to meet the sea..

the road meandered through fields, hills, valleys  leading to sights prettier than the prettiest you’ve seen till now. every turn of the road brought you to a lovelier view of the goa no one knows too much about.. tiny villages, with the backdrop of a river, or fishermen’s nets set up in the backwaters of some not yet named creek …

the beach itself was a treat…  situated at the delta of one of the numerous goan rivers (i forget the name of this one) and directly overlooking the teracola fort (the northernmost frontier of Portuguese controlled Goa) …

i wudnt say the beach was particularly clean (with the monsoons jsut drawing to a close.. no beach would be terribly clean!) but there were hardly any ppl ther.. and that is the best part about going to a beach…

when the sands roll out to welcome you and the sea rears its head to say hello… this is wat beaches should be all about…  not the tonnes of ppl crowding over one grain of sand and one wave…

this is the goa i love….