Pappu Can't Dance Saala; But Pappu Can Act Saala...

Is love being able to spend most of the time together, happy times; be opposites but still feel complete without the other because they complete each other; want to keep each other happy and smiling.

And is it possible that despite having all these things the two concerned people don’t know it? Then again if love were so easy, it couldn’t be love. Or could it?I don’t know what it is with this movie; script ok ok, newcomers, the best performance is by a dead man in a portrait played by Naseerruddin Shah; music ok ok, (little disappointing for a Rahman movie); script ok ok, nothing too great. But still there is something which makes you not want to get up from your seat; I guess it’s like what Abbas Tyrewala said “it’s a movie with clichés, but in a very non cliché manner”.

The first half way better than the second, it has the gripping affect, to a certain extend. The flashback trail starts at the airport; and then the journey starts: a funeral, Juhu beach, fight in the college canteen, home to a talking portrait, farewell party, the pub, a painter’s room, the police station fights at parties, on a horse to the airport; with short glimpses of a black stallion in the middle of a desert in search of justice. The second half is where all the clichés add up and get caught on to each other.

Imran Khan (Jai) gives justice to the character, and proves to become a true Ranjhor ka Rathore after all. Genelia D’Souza is the pampered brat whom you just want to kill at times, but looks as cute and fragile as need be. Prateik Babbar’s acting deserves a mention; small role but played to the T: a useless, not-to-do-well nothing. As I’ve said before, the best performance is still the dead man in a portrait hanging on the wall. Overall, decent movie, worth the ticket’s movie. Just don’t go in with too many expectations.

Jaana, dil, jaana kaise maine na jaana,
Ke pyaar yehi hai, yeh jaane tu ya jaane na…

Taare Zameen Par: Kya Hai Problem, Kyun Tera Bheja Kum?

Idiot, Duffer, Lazy, Crazy; Kyun Karte Nahi Try, Why, Why Why,Why Can’t YOU???…Akshar Jo Nache, Kya Khayi Hai Bhaang?

Not all fingers are the same length,but how we sometimes wish them to be. Then again, its God’s creation, and there’s a reason for it. What a thumb is capable of doing, other fingers can’t do. Just like that, TZP is about opening our minds to things other than academia and its pressure. Your destiny is where your true happiness lies.

Following the steps of an elder brother who is perfect in studies, as well as a tennis champ, can sometimes be hard to fall in the same footsteps. Top that with failing 3rd Standard once. As the teacher asks Ishaan (Darsheel Safary) to read a paragraph from the text, all that comes out are the dancing letters in a language that really isn’t. But the importance of staying in a classroom and learning is all forgotten as more and more time is spent outside the class in punishment; faking burps and moon dancing in the cooridors. The world is perfect as long as there is day dreaming, cathcing fishes and lots of painting to be done even with failing tests and getting into fights with the other guys. As his parents send him to boarding school to bring in ‘discipline’ and fix the boy up, something inside him closes up. A substitute teacher Ram Shankar Nikhumb (Aamir Khan) sees Ishaan and wants to help him help himself.

If Aamir Khan the actor is labelled as a perfectionist, then I don’t know what to label Aamir Khan the director. I’ll leave the labelling to others. The first half is a little slow, but it lays a foundation that ensures that Ishaan is thoroughly understood by the viewers. Of what he is and what he is not.

The music need not hold the film together, but it does. Prasing Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy and lycrisist Prasoon Joshi would be adding salt to the wound. Duniya ka naara, jame raho.
Imagine if life were really all of academics and getting good grades, where would Sachin R. Tendulkar be today, for that, where would the Indian Cricket Team come from, most of them, barring a few, don’t hold degrees, probably don’t even have great handwriting, but see where they are today. Where would Shah Rukh Khan, Big B, and the endless list of brilliant actors be? Musicians, artists, businessmen, where would they be, if all that mattered was written in books just to be regurgitated?

…Bhej na itna door mujhko tu, yaad bhi tujhko aa na pao Maa;
Bhed mein yun choodo mujhe, ghar laut ke bhi aa na pao Maa;
Kya itna bura hoon mein Maa?
Tujhe sab hai pata, hai na Maa?

If we believe in God, must we believe in the Devil too?

PHYSICS 101 (Rule # 1):

Each force has its equal and opposite.

Right!?! So that means that if the Bible is true then Satan must be real; agar bhagwan hai toh shaitaan bhi hoga!?!

What might happen if a few bad things outside of our daily reckoning were actually possible?

You find yourself taking extra precautions, or leaving on a few more lights, because some rumors/thoughts/ facts(?) put that little whisper in your ear that maybe there are things - bad things - out there that you never really thought possible.

But who can be sure?

Which brings me to a movie I watched recently: The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

Here is the background of the movie:

Anneliese Michel (Emily Rose) (September 21, 1952 - July 1, 1976) was a German college student who died during an exorcism. Her parents and the priests who carried out the exorcism were later convicted of manslaughter.

From her birth on the 21st of September, 1952, Anneliese Michel enjoyed the life of a normal, religiously nurtured young girl. Without warning, her life changed on a day in 1968 when she began shaking and found she was unable to control her body. She could not call out for her parents or any of her 3 sisters. A neurologist at the Psychiatric Clinic Wurzburg diagnosed her with ‘Grand Mal’ epilepsy. Because of the strength of the epileptic fits, and the severity of the depression that followed, Anneliese was admitted for treatment at the hospital.

Soon after the attacks began, Anneliese started seeing devilish grimaces during her daily praying. It was the fall of 1970, and while the young people of the world were enjoying the liberal freedoms of the time, Anneliese was battling with the belief that she was possessed. It seemed there was no other explanation for the appearance of devilish visions during her prayers. Voices also began following her, saying Anneliese will "stew in hell." She mentioned the "demons" to the doctors only once, explaining that they have started to give her orders. The doctors seem unable to help, and Anneliese lost hope that medicine was going to be able to cure her.

In the summer of 1973, her parents visited different pastors to request an exorcism. Their requests were rejected and they were given recommendations that the now 20 year old Anneliese should continue with medication and treatment. It was explained that the process by which the Church proves a possession (Infestatio) is strictly defined, and until all the criteria are met, a bishop can not approve an exorcism. The requirements, to name a few, include an aversion to religious objects, speaking in a language the person has never learned, and supernatural powers.

In 1974, after supervising Anneliese for some time, Pastor Ernst Alt requested a permit to perform the exorcism from the Bishop of Wurzburg. The request was rejected, and a recommendation soon followed saying that Anneliese should live even more of a religious lifestyle in order to find peace. The attacks did not diminish, and her behavior become more erratic. At her parents house in Klingenberg, she insulted, beat, and began biting the other members of her family. She refused to eat because the demons would not allow it. Anneliese slept on the stone floor, ate spiders, flies, and coal, and even began drinking her own urine. She could be heard screaming throughout the house for hours while breaking crucifixes, destroying paintings of Jesus, and pulling apart rosaries. Anneliese began committing acts of self-mutilation at this time, and the act of tearing off her clothes and urinating on the floor became commonplace.

In September 1975, the Bishop of Wurzburg, assigned Father Arnold Renz and Pastor Ernst Alt with the order to perform "The Great Exorcism" on Anneliese Michel. It was determined that Anneliese must be saved from the possession by several demons, including Lucifer, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Cain, Hitler, and Fleischmann, a disgraced Frankish Priest from the 16th century, and some other damned souls which had manifested through her. From September '75 until July '76, one or two exorcism sessions were held each week. Anneliese's attacks were sometimes so strong that she would have to be held down by 3 men, or even chained up.

The attacks, however, did not stop. In fact, she would more often find herself paralyzed and falling unconscious than before. The exorcism continued over many months, always with the same prayers and incantations. Sometimes family members would be present during the rituals. For several weeks, Anneliese denied all food. Her knees ruptured due to the 600 genuflections she performed obsessively during the daily exorcism. The process was recorded on over 40 audio tapes, in order to preserve the details.

The last day of the Exorcism Rite was on June 30th, 1976, and Anneliese was suffering at this point from Pneumonia. She was also totally emaciated, and running a high fever. Exhausted and unable to physically perform the genuflections herself, her parents stood in and helped carry her through the motions. "Beg for Absolution" was the last statement Anneliese made to the exorcists. To her mother, she said, "Mother, I'm afraid." Anna Michel recorded the death of her daughter on the following day, July 1st, 1976, and at noon, Pastor Ernst Alt informed the authorities in Aschaffenburg. The senior prosecutor began investigating immediately.

A short time before these final events unfolded, William Friedkin's "The Exorcist" (1974) came to the cinemas in Germany, bringing with it a wave of paranormal hysteria that flooded the nation. Psychiatrists all over Europe reported an increase of obsessive ideas among their patients. Prosecutors took more than 2 years to to take Annaliese's case to court, using that time to sort through the bizarre facts. Anneliese's parents and the two exorcists were accused of negligent homocide. The "Klingenberg Case" would be decided upon two questions: What caused the death of Anneliese Michel, and who was responsible?

According the forensic evidence, Anneliese starved to death. Specialists claimed that if the accused would have begun with forced feeding one week before her death, Anneliese's life would have been saved. One sister told the court that Anneliese did not want to go to a mental home where she would be sedated and forced to eat. The exorcists tried to prove the presence of the demons, playing taped recordings of strange dialogues like that of two demons arguing about which one of them would have to leave Anneliese's body first. One of the demons called himself Hitler, and spoke with a Frankish accent (Hitler was born in Austria). Not one of those present during the exorcism ever had a doubt about the authenticity of the presence of these demons.

The psychiatrists, whom had been ordered to testify by the court, spoke about the "Doctrinaire Induction." They said that the priests had provided Anneliese with the contents of her psychotic behavior. Consequentially, they claimed, she later accepted her behavior as a form of demonic possession. They also offered that Anneliese's unsettled sexual development, along with her diagnosed Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, had influenced the psychosis.

The verdict was considered by many to be not as harsh as they expected. Anneliese's parents, as well as the exorcists, were found guilty of manslaughter resulting from negligence and omitting first aid. They were sentenced to 6 months in jail and probation.