Saturday, July 17, 2010

UDAAN

Very few times you come across a movie that takes you into its own world. Today I had that experience after watching the extremely beautiful piece of work called UDAAN. For the first time in years people around me in a theatre got blanked out and all i could see was the story of this young boy trying to break free. Presently my schedule is so tiring that all the movies I have gone to see in the past 2 months I have dozed off in between including INCEPTION(hush hush!!). But UDAAN connected at so many levels that it was impossible to take your eyes of this movie. I was feeling restless during the interval and I did not want to come back to the reality of my life at the end.
I would like to give a standing Ovation To Mr. Ronit Roy for coming up with a performance so real that you could actually touch him. A movie for me has always been an amalgamation of "moments" and UDAAN was just that, be it the 1st scene at the theatre or the one where Rohan (Rajat Barmecha) meets his younger brother for the first time. Be Ronit Roy`s steely indifference and yet his expression of love for his son just before the interval or the scene where the son smokes in front of his father, everything was so beautifully shot. Characters are etched in my mind from Manjot singh(oye lucky..) to the old man at the hospital.
When you see Rohan run away from his Dad you can feel the same freedom that he feels. When you see Ronit Roy reading the letter from his son in the climax you feel bad for a man trapped within his own demons.
This movie has made me want to write a blog post after so long, that speaks volumes about it. I so wanted to go back to that world that immediately after the movie i wanted to catch a train to jamshedpur (the location). I am an actor here in mumbai but tomorrow if I see Mr Anurag Kashyap or Mr Vikramaditya Motwane, I am not gonna ask them for work but I wanna freaking applaud them for making a beautifully brilliant movie like this.
I felt so angry when I saw empty seats at the theatre that I wanted to make it my personal ,mission to market this movie. Bloody you guys see so much crap but when it comes to a lovely movie like this you dont have any cash on you??? come on give me another one.
It is a movie straight from the heart and it deserves an audience. IT TRULY DOES

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Values!!

A hairstylist I knew needed someone to assist her in her new saloon. She asked me if I knew someone. Now I know this kid who is about 18 who used to work at my local barbershop. The boy is from some remote village in Andhra and had come to the city 3-4 years ago. I suggested this boy to her and made it clear that this boy most probably has minimal education and may not be able to cater to her foreign clientele, Also he needs to be trained in Hair styling, If she is willing to do all that I shall speak to him.
The Reason why I recommended him was because he was always well mannered, someone who is willing to lean and a fast learner at that. He is humble, and despite his poverty and other related issues, always has an optimistic smile on his face. Its a pleasure for a customer when he meets someone like this. But most of all this boy helps his colleague in the shop a lot, his colleague has lost both his legs to polio,yet that man strives to make a living on his own and this boy joined him to help. I always felt that he had something inherently good about him.
But money can change all that. Here the boy would be earning a maximum of 1000-2000 Rs a month. The stylist was more than willing to teach him and said he would be paid a handsome salary of 7-8 thousand( almost 4 times his present salary). In addition to the salary he would be also learning new age hair styling techniques that would put him on the path to a great future, From a barbershop earning meager salary to maybe a high end saloon with great salary and perks.
So I went ahead and gave him her number and asked him to call her, telling him all that i mentioned above. This was on my way to kerala. 2 weeks later when I got back I saw him still there, a month more later he is till there in his small barbershop. One day on my way back home I asked him what happened, and he said he lost the number because he lost his phone and sim. With my little experience in the field of acting I was able to realize that the kid is a very bad actor, maybe along with a course in hairstyling he should also go for an acting course(you know where to go ;) wink wink). anyway , not digressing, Today I went to his shop for a head massage ( yes!, Every time I feel angry or sad I go for one). The boy asked me about that job and slowly I realized that the reason why he did not call her was because he could not leave his colleague alone or his owner who gave him a job without finding a responsible and worthy replacement. In fact he was desperately looking for someone, he found a lot of people but no one was good enough. He asked me to tell the stylist that he is in a moral dilemma and would love to join as soon as he finds someone he can trust to replace him.
I was amazed! This Kid Ladies and gentlemen has fucking INTEGRITY, MORALITY and LOYALTY, traits I wouldnt expect in someone struggling everyday to live a life where he is the breadwinner of the family(did i forget to mention that? oh there is a reason for that), someone his age. These are traits I havent see in 97% people i have met. I respect him and I told him that he has done the right thing and I am proud that he took that decision and asked him to always do the same thing in the future.

PS: When i was on my way to tell him about the job I paused for some time thinking, will this boy in exchange for a good life ditch his colleague and his owner and leave them? Is it right on my part to put him in this dilemma? Then I thought- Every once in a while we will come across a situation wherein we have to make a choice, "the crossroads in life", Life takes a turn there and that decides the character of the person and these incidents define that person, no matter who you are or where you are, you will reach these "crossroads" and then the choice will be yours.
I thought god chose me to direct this boy to maybe the first crossroad in his life and thinking so I just did the job, God chose me for and I feel happy today I did it, I helped in the process of shaping someone`s personality and a great personality at that.