Sneha's World
A work in progress, really.
Sunday 2 February 2020
Jojo Rabbit - The Lessons it can teach Us
Tuesday 24 July 2018
Rape and other associated realities
Wednesday 4 July 2018
Budapest, na it's Buda-best!
Something I clicked from the Geller Hill. |
Saturday 5 March 2016
The Revenant, Mr.DiCaprio and one Academy Award.
So when he finally won the Academy Award on Monday I resolved to go watch the Revenant and come home and write out a post dedicated to Leo. However, after the movie, I realised that writing about Leo and not writing about the movie would leave this post incomplete. The Revenant is a gripping tale of revenge, it is a tale of what happens when one man decides to brave all that nature has to throw at him and almost come back from the dead to avenge his son's death. It's intriguing, its primal, and it shows man at one with nature, and the lengths one man would go to just survive. The movie is not for everyone. It's one of those movies where you'll either love or completely hate.
Friday 12 February 2016
Fitoor : Movie Review
I am actually happy that they warn you before the movie itself begins. Yes, for the unaware, this movie is an "adaptation of Great Expectations". For the uninitiated, this is that very same book you were made to read in Class 7, chapter by chapter, with a hope that in a class of 25 at least 5 will actually begin to "appreciate Classics". There's Pip, there's Estella and my all time favorite jilted bride turned manipulative bitch, Miss Havisham and there's Miss Havisham's wedding dress! For me atleast, after class 7 and this book, I learnt a fancy new word - bildungsroman, and discovered the magic of "To Kill a Mocking Bird", and as cliched as it may seem, became a Lawyer.
Fast forward 14 years, and in 2016, the first thing I hear about Fitoor, is the great "55 Lakh Rupees Hair" Controversy, when I was listening to the radio in a friends car. Wait what! 55 lakhs? really? for hair dye? woah! Isse acha Godrej le ata! Well done, Kat. That's why I guess my friends and I found a bit too much of red in the movie, her red hair, red clothes, his red paint. The promos included Pashmina choreographed in a style akin to a very famous Ed Sheeran song, really? Come on, man.
Set in a picturesque Kashmir, a weirdly artsy Delhi full of emotional, sentimental and kind people (Where, bro?) and a cliched London with black town cars and red phone booths, this movie is a visual treat. Obviously it is a visual treat, I mean when you take two pretty faces and put them in a movie with a lot of pretty scenery, that's all you will get. It's almost as if the locales were chosen hoping to take the attention away from Katrina's blank face, Kapoor's dull acting and the zero chemistry between them. Even the kissing scenes looked boring.
Tabu, is, inevitably the saving grace of the movie. It's almost as if she has perfected the art of playing the Kashmiri begum. For the Dickens loyalists, there is no Havisham in her, nope and definitely, no unchanged wedding dress. All this and the heavy Kashmiri clothing, and bad eye makeup do not effect the sheer brilliance of her acting. Lara Dutta and Aditi Rao Hydari try to do justice to their limited roles.
The narrative is dull and boring. The final act of the movie, as opposed to the novel, only falls flat on the audience's faces. It's almost as if everyone were looking forward to pack up and leave. The dialogues are uselessly heavy, almost as if words were used just for the sake of using fancy words. The music is sublime and suits the stunning visuals. Another example where its clearly been proven that visual aesthetics and pretty main pairing, aand Aditya Roy Kapoor's abs cannot cover a limp storyline and uselessly heavy dialogues.
Watch this movie for Tabu, the locations and the sets, and maybe the music. I give it a 3 on 5.
Sunday 31 January 2016
Where do they shoot these videos in India?
What do Major Lazer's Lean On, Iggy Azalea's Bounce and Coldplay's Hymn for the Weekend have in common? Well they all have videos that are shot in India. But honestly speaking, what India were they shot in? No, really. Tell me which one of us has seen Sadhus with long Orange sashes flying behind them? or which one of us rides an Elephant to work everyday? Sorry Iggy.
Everyone one of these videos has been shot in this country, yes, but do they really have to crank up the colours so much? It hurts my eyes, really. For all the Non Indians out there reading my post, no we do not wear only bright colours, clothing choices in pastel are a thing here, do not be fooled by these videos. Another thing, we don't have Sadhus (those bearded holy men) sitting in every street corner, just staring at people passing by, nor do you find elephants on the road, well, mostly.
Dancing in front of tree temples or any temples, especially with Sadhus is strictly frowned upon, especially if you are a foreigner, the people there will either complain to the Police or just take justice into their hands and beat the shit out of you, and next thing you know there will be a mob of BJP/VHP people, and that video you shot here, and all of your music will be BANNED in India. Yeah, banning is a thing here. Our Government can ban anything. Trust me, you dont want to face our Courts, nor do you want to face one Mr.Goswami. I promise you, he'll get to you, before any authorities.
Queen Bee's cleavage would have never even made it to the screen here in India cause our friends in the Censor Board would have cut it off, definitely. Yes, the same Censor Board who are now letting Mastizaade release. Forget all of that, Mr.Martin, whatever gave you the idea that we Indians watch movies in old fashioned Cinemas anymore? Oh no, we only go to multiplexes over the weekend. I promise. And also, no Holi and Diwali are not the only festivals we celebrate here, but I guess malnourished children running around throwing colors at each other has more appeal than just random kites flying in the sky. But hey, what do I know? However, the kids in the new Coldplay video are locking and popping away to glory so I guess, they have access to some kind of TV.
Lastly, our public transport does not have colourful interiors, how much ever I want it to. I love the bus in Lean On, and the taxis in the new Coldplay video. I really wish we had public transport with colourful interiors.
Don't get me wrong, I love the songs, and to a great extent I even love the videos, but isn't it time for the Western world to actually see that India is much more than, Orange clad holy men, gold clad elephants, and dancing kids. This "partying in poverty" (nope, not my term I read it off the Internet) thing is getting boring. It could possibly be also creating a wrong motive for people to come travel to India. No, we are really not as interesting as the videos and the movies make us out to be, we travel in Uber, we drink Coffee every morning, and we most certainly do not ride elephants to work everyday! I like that the entire world's attention is on India and all, but I only hope that the world will finally know India is more than, puppets, vibrant colours and white peacocks!
Ps : Kids in my country do not know about periscope. You can ask a few people.
P.P.S - I also LOVE Chris Martin!!
Sunday 14 September 2014
Adulthood
Friday 11 July 2014
Aditi's KKHH rant
Tuesday 24 June 2014
Malaria and the so called death of tiki-taka(?)
Monday 15 April 2013
The sun did not want to rise. The clouds felt too comfortable and nice. He wanted to sleep longer. He also knew that most of the world also wanted to spend the day in bed, monday morning blues he called them. Blues, he thought to himself, why not reds or blacks or yellows.
He could hear the birds chirping, he wondered how they can possibly be so happy so early in the day. So then he slowly and slowly willed himself out of his feathery light bed. As he rose he saw the sparrows and the blue robins fly out hurriedly to find food to feed their little ones. Look at that squirrel, he thought, scurrying out of his little hole. And theres that little boy whose mother always drags him out of bed at half past seven.
He could hear music play from a house, he saw a bunch of excited little munchkins hurry off to school in clean green uniforms. He saw this little girl jump out of bed screaming, yay! I am finally 10! Then he smiled to himself and thought this is why I must get up everyday, so that the birds can chirp and fly and little girls can turn 10 everyday! And he continued to shine happily.
(There you go, Chinuku, yes baby, I heard you read a bit of my blog the other day. This ones all for you and how much you hate having to wake up. Have a great time turning 11 next week, but for me you ll always be my five year old baby cousin. Love you, always)
Friday 29 March 2013
One moment. That one moment.
As I write those post I am sitting in a rickety old bus going from Ajmer to Jaipur. My friend is sleeping next to me and I see the desert vegetation outside the window. It's like the world is calling me. I want to go and explore, poke and prod to see what all the world has to offer. I have this innate need or maybe it's a want but I want to travel. I suddenly realised that thanks to my crazy family I have travelled quite a bit. I want to go to new places and learn new things and try out new food. Whether it was looking out for Portuguese food in Diu or relishing Israeli Fatut in Pushkar I realised these things make me feel at home. I felt like I can forget all my problems and just let go. Give my brain that little break which it needs.
I know company matters a lot and in both my trips I had amazing friends who made all that worthwhile. Though at some point in my life I do want to travel alone.
But there comes a moment in Every holiday, every trip, which makes the whole trip worthwhile. It does not matter how many buses you were in or how much money you spent or how much dung you stepped on. That one moment is the one that makes you forget everything and just exist, and just lose yourself. That's the moment that makes the whole trip. In Diu I found peace while floating lying down on my back on the sea water and Pushkar I lost myself looking at the Ajmer skyline from a random spot in the night from the ajmer Pushkar hilly road! Full points to Vered for that Scooty ride suggestion.
I say travel when you can, not all of us are like my grandad who at the age of 75 still takes off with his friends. Geetay is still sleeping and the old bus stopped for breakfast. As if in line with my thoughts my phone starts playing the classic'I want to break free'. I don't know what Jaipur holds for me.
But right now, at this very moment, I feel free.
Saturday 23 March 2013
SDL Party!
Parties are an integral part of law school life, as much as moots or internships or even attendance problems. When it comes to our law school, most of our crazy drunk parties happen in this little highway side dhaba just walking distance away from the campus called Sweet Dream Land, fondly referred to as SDL.
Parties are a way to let out steam and believe me, us law students, always have a lot of steam to let out. People throw parties for every possible reason from birthdays to jobs to 'oh we have nothing better to do'. Now's the time to also say there's a Party Soc in our college and they specialize in throwing SDL parties. Keep up the good work guys!
These parties bring out different sides of people. You go, get drunk, and spill out your inner most secrets to other random drunk people who may or may not remember the same the next morning. You go and dance like there's no tomorrow to songs that you sometimes wish you don't even know. There is always a 90% chance that you made a fool out of yourself at a party but there is also a higher chance that you won't remember it or no one else also does.
A few hours into the party we always get to see drunk manifestations of people, drunk crying, drunk dancing, drunk talk. People will puke and people will pass out and that's usually when the hosts realise it's time to go back. Getting people to leave, well, that's another story. That's why the short distance between college and SDL is very important. I don't claim to have been completely sane on all of my walks back to college but I can claim to have oodles of fun in every party I went to in that dhaba. Yes, I am going to miss this. Maybe I should throw one just cause I am going to miss partying.
Tuesday 12 March 2013
Oh my smartphone, will you marry me?
Are phones becoming smarter or are people becoming dumber? Well, it certainly seems so. Smartphone reliance has been turning us into pseudo robots and in a few more years it might just turn us into real fleshy robots.
As an owner of one I must say that I am completely relying on my phone for everything. I only realised how much I need my phone when my phone was stolen in December. Really. Those two weeks were among the worst in my life.
I used to wake up in the mornings and did not know what to do with my time. There were times when I used to stare blankly into space. I did not have my 8 mega pixel camera to click pictures of anything from the rocking chair in my house to a bottle of coke in a restaurant. It felt like a pain to open my laptop to check my mails or use gtalk. My friends told me I was hallucinating and was displaying withdrawal symptoms. I think I was well on my way into depression.
Then ofcourse a little after Christmas a brand new phone entered my life. It wasnt really love at first sight because I was still missing my old phone but after a week I realised I am glued to this new phone as well. So much so that Ammamma had to give me phone timeouts.
So after the cold Delhi internship and the dull college fornight our little to Diu happenned. I should have seen the signs, the omens, but no my stupid thick head dint let me.
Diu was fun. Diu was awesome.Diu also killed my phone. I slipped and fell into a little water on the beach and water went in and my phone got fried. As a result I had to spend a week without a phone. After the money spending and the minor anxiety attack that followed and the earfuls I got from my loving friends and family, I realised something. I realised that I am in love with my smartphone.
I mean why not? It wakes me up every morning, it reminds me of things I have to do everyday, I can post pictures, download music, research on projects, talk to friend, oh oh and it has WhatsApp! ! I cant live without it. I can even have an intelligent conversation with my phone. I panic if I dont see my phone for more than a few minutes. Omg! I think I am addicted. Or maybe this is love.
So heres what it is,
Dear phone,
I have loved you like no one else, I want you to be a part of me, so phone, will you marry me?.
This post is dedicated to the one we call "phonewhore". Happy Birthday man!