Mumbai Meri Jaan

Right from childhood I was very curious of Bombay. I grew up watching Malayalam movies in which the hero goes to Bombay and struggles to make ends meet. I told Amma, one day I will go to Bombay and work there. But Amma hates Bombay and she has her explanations. But still I loved the concept of Bombay. I knew that many people, mainly businessmen/entrepreneurs have made it big in Bombay.
When I was a kid I read a magazine article about Bombay. I was very impressed. I read that on a day when the electric trains disobeyed to run, people walked 8-10 kilometers to their workplace. Their dedication and loyalty to their profession can’t be put down by an insane bandh declared by an insensible fanatic organization. I have always associated Bombay with enthusiastic energetic people. I am proud this city belongs to my country.
Achchan has been working in Santa Cruz (Mumbai) for the last three years now. I have never been to Bombay. While graduating I had a chance to go. But then I told Achchan that there are no tickets and other lame excuses. I preferred staying with my grandparents in Pattambi. I don’t know why, but that’s what I did and I was happy about it. Maybe be because I had this notion that I will go to Bombay only “after I stand on my own feet”. Thus in the summer of 2005 Amma and Ammu went to Mumbai to stay with Achchan while I had a great experience taking my Ammamma to her birth place.
Yesterday I watched Mumbai Meri Jaan along with two of my colleagues – N and H. N is a silent-smartie and H is a movie-addict-hunk. I have been to several movies at PVR, with H, all of them big flops.
MMJ was a different story altogether. There are quite a few things that I liked about the movie.
  1. All the characters have been well presented. The actors were just amazing and were at their best. I have always admired Kay Kay Menon and Soha Ali Khan. But I was never impressed by Irrfan Khan and Paresh Rawal before. I understand that its not they are incompetent actors, but it is lack of quality opportunities. They have done justice to their roles. Now, I love Hindi cinema.

  2. Madhavan’s character (Nikhil) is my role model. I have always stood for public transport. I don’t own a vehicle although I think I can afford one now. Achchan also doesn’t own one, but he asks me to buy one. I am not very fond of auto rickshaw as well. I have always tried to avoid them. I look down upon people who use their private vehicle unnecessarily. I love BMTC.

  3. Nikhil also preferred staying in India. When I go to Pattambi and meet a stranger this is what happens -
    Stranger: Hi
    Damn Good Guy: Hi
    S: Working?
    DGG: Yes
    S: Gulf?
    DGG: No, Bangalore
    S: Working for experience?
    DGG (totally confused): What? Experience...?
    S: For going to Gulf I mean.
    DGG: oh. I am not interested.
    S: you are not interested??!!
    S leaves with the expression of meeting the most stupid person in Pattambi. How I love Bangalore.

  4. The movie has ripped the News media naked. Asking unnecessary questions and unnecessarily sensationalizing otherwise minor issues is not just a business tactic but a way of life for these professionals. I remember a very bad instance of asking really stupid questions. The CBSE class 10 results were announced. The topper of the Delhi region was being interviewed.
    Press: What’s your favorite day of the week?
    Topper: Wednesday
    Press: What’s your favorite color?
    Topper: Yellow
    Wednesday and Yellow, my foot. What is a viewer of that News channel gaining from knowing the favorite day of a 10th CBSE topper? How many guys had planned of proposing her on a Wednesday with yellow flowers in their hand? I love raping the media.

  5. Coming from NITK to Bangalore has made me come face to face with the great economic divide in Indian cities. Any auto-rickshawalla\salesgirl in Bangalore will be able to relate with Thomas (Irrfan) the nomadic tea vendor. I remember the rubber-band theory in economics. The rich-poor divide widening is like a rubber-band expanding. It will stabilize in one of the two ways –
    • The rubber-band snaps back. That is the divide becomes narrow by the redistribution of wealth
    • The rubber-band breaks. This is equivalent to a revolution. The kind of thing that happened in USSR.

    I love a little bit of Socialism.

  6. Patil(Paresh Rawal)’s sudden realization that he has not done anything worthwhile as a constable and Paresh's performance is just great. It is an eye-opener not only for Patil but for all of us in different professions. Have we contributed anything worthwhile to the field we work in? Reminds me of Ayn Rand. I love Objectivism.

  7. I am a big fan of movies like Amores Perros, Crash etc. All the stories in MMJ were related using the electric train bomb blasts. The individual stories were smoothly brought together. A commendable show by Nishikant Kamat. I love Brilliance.

  8. Thus the movie has got all the things I love.

    Very few movies get applause from the lazy and sophisticated PVR audience.
    I made a good investment after a long time! I love being happy.

Loyal Me

Some day I should not feel guilty of spending my company's bandwidth for my personal blog. So hear comes a little bit of NI patriotism.
If you want to program the graphical way, check out VI Mantra.
If you are impressed and want to know the rationale behind this, visit Growing the Pie.