Movie Review: Aarakshan

Ok, for the record, they took up a serious issue, well actually i think many serious issues, or maybe two serious issues.... so by now I guess you know that by the end of this movie you will be so confused as to what they're talking about that you'll doubt whether your name is really your name. So anyway back to this serious issue(s?) dealing movie, so basically it starts off in this really great college called STM- the full form of which is such a mouthfull that we'll just let that one slide- and then the news breaks that supreme court has just passed a law requiring every government college to have a 27% reservation for the OBCs now, and because of this the evil coaching institute place owner dude played by manoj bajpai goes- muahahahaha *evil laugh* I'm gonna go take over STM cuz of the corrupt morons who are on the trustee board who want a principal who isn't a shehensha and promote my evil coaching corporation! *more evil laugh*. The principal with the strong moral code in question is Amitabh Bachchan ( I mean cummon who else will Bollywood get to play the upright buddha roles?) who somehow loses his house to his friend's nitwit sons who give the house to the evil coaching people and wants to get his house back with the help of Saif Ali Khan who -get this!- plays a dalit! I mean seriously people Saif Ali Khan is the most blue blooded star out there. He's a Tagore on one side (a powerful BRAHMIN family) and the son of a nawab on the other. When will Bollywood get serious??? So then he starts devising how to get back at them and get his house back. I'll let the rest be cuz I think some people out there will actually wanna go and watch this movie and won't appreciate it if i spoil everything for them but you've been warned!

What I took back from this movie:

Ok to be honest if you go and watch it as a comedy flick then go ahead, I was laughing so hard by the end of it- they had Black Cat Commandos come in to break down a cow shed, ssly the US gets their top guns to get Osama and we break down cow sheds!- and you can go watch it for laughs cuz they make a joke out of the whole issue(s?).

Now dealing with the issue of quotas for the Sc/STs and OBCs, I will always support admission on merit. One message that stuck out to me from the movie and this was spoken by the lady who played Mr.Shehensha's wife was- if you really want to help them then build them schools, give them scholarships, prepare them for the competition ahead, don't shield them from it, not at the cost of our own children's futures. I was just entering 12th grade when they passed the 27% reservation for the OBCs bill, and I swear at that moment when the quota was driven up to 50% and over, I felt dread. For a lot of us we felt like we were being rejected by our own country and that sense of panic gave rise to a lot of clashes that happened right outside the gates of my home at India Gate in Delhi. I'm not saying that we shouldn't try to uplift the disadvantaged, I'm saying to do it the right way not by screwing over the rest of us who work our asses off to score seemingly unattainable cut-offs. By doing that the government just widens the gap between 'us' and 'them'.

Has anyone seen the state of public schools in this country? This is where our quota students study, and I've seen them first hand thanks to the social involvement program at my college. There are no proper teachers, no set syllabus, no proper books... everything is in this complete state of disarray, it makes me want to scream knowing that this is what kids who deserve better get at the end of the day. And believe me these kids are not dumb, they're as smart as us if given the right tools. So I'd only like to request our great scam tainted government out there, instead of pushing one Indian against the other and stealing our money behind our backs and siphoning them back to your swiss bank accounts, get some shame and build the children of India the schools they deserve!

Movie Review: The Help

This will be my first film review ever and I hope you all like it. So the movie in question is the 'The Help' that chronicles the lives of black maids working in white households in Jackson Miss. during the 1960s. For all the people out there who see this movie as another 'white person comes along to save the oppressed blacks' type of movie- it isn't. The young college graduate, a white woman by the name of Skeeter played brilliantly by Emma Stone (<3) simply acts as the means to the end. It is the black housemaids of Jackson that make the movie their own.

The movie portrays rather accurately the rich high society housewives who are the antagonists and for those of you who might get offended by this- don't watch the movie! go home, do whatever but this is how it was and no matter how much certain people out there will deny it, this is the gut wrenching truth. One story that particularly stuck out (this is just one spoiler I'll give out) was the death of Aibeleen's (played by Viola Davis!) son, how he was badly injured on the job and the white foreman simply dumped him on the back of his truck drove him to the black hospital and blew one honk and left him there, I was almost in tears after seeing that and felt sick. But what really gets to you, is the courage these women require to write a book that tell their side of the story because it was never written before. I want to tell everyone to go watch it, go back to the South of the 1960s, and relive what we put our fellow human beings through.

What I'm taking back with me from the movie:

The incident that drives the movie into motion, is Hilly Hollybrook's suggestion to pass a law that requires every white home to have a separate toilet built for the help. Now this was seen as something that touched a nerve for a lot of people but when I thought about it, this movie reflected a lot the kind of lives upper middle class children experience here in India. I had a maid who brought me up, my father was in the Navy and he and my mom were out almost everyday, either attending cocktail morning or brunches or some other formal events. I honestly remember very little of them from that time but I do remember my 'aama'- its what I called the woman who helped around my house and played a big role in my childhood. She took me to the park, made sure I ate my meals, told me stories, watched TV with me and put me to bed. And yes we had a separate toilet for her. Her family occupied the servants quarters adjacent to our house and I saw her everyday from when I was 3 till I was six. Watching this movie, reminded me of her so much and I started missing this person whom I hadn't seen or thought about in the longest time and it killed me that I couldn't remember her face or that I didn't know where she was or how she was doing. But I remember fleeting moments from back then, moments that I'll keep with me, like when I insisted that I wanted a particular flower and she got it for me and got into trouble with the owner of the garden- I still feel guilty about that- or how she always bought me gumballs after picking me up from school.

I want people to watch this movie and realize the kind of important roles these women play in your childhood and someday in your children's childhood. I know I'm gonna try and make my whole family watch it.

Attention fashion bloggers! Get Real! Real Quick!

I know I'm posting after what seems like forever! But I've been busy and am only posting after having a rather horrific experience out there in the blogging world. Has anyone lately noticed the explosion of fashion blogs lately? I'm not talking about people who do this professionally, I'm talking about the amateurs, the self styled 'style queens' who could do with a little exercise and a little less blatant display of their cellulite so that I for one do not have to barf my lunch up to the ceiling. FYI- whenever people say Scarlett Jo has a healthy body and how oh-so fabulous she looks compared to lets say nicole kidman at that age I'll say to them- Oh cummon you jealous bitches! Have u seen Nicole? She looked like a freaking elf queen out of some irish fairytale, Scarlett Jo gets her photos redone so her cellulite ridden thighs do not make people like me scream like I'm watching JuOn with my eyes open , at least I'll thank her for that. I am all for loving your body but there is a big difference between a healthy body and an artery clogged fat one. And to all ye amateur fashion bloggers, I get you're all about 'expressing my own individualistic style' and blah blah but really people get a mirror. Valentino, Jean Paul Gaultier etc did not have you in mind when they designed their clothes, so please no parading around in mini skirts and short shorts and making the rest of the more grounded public here wanna rip their eyes from their sockets. It doesn't matter how 'oh so cute' the shorts are or how 'oh so delicious' (am I the only one who notices how their vocabulary is limited to oh-this and oh-that?) that skirt is in 'bright pastel' whatever color, hit a gym first! Like really I've heard of confidence in your body but this is getting slightly ridiculous.

And another question, in this time of running around for a REAL job, who in the world gets the free time to do all of this? It kinda looks to me like all these 'style queens' do is run into stores sporting the craziest prices and buy like half the store, then go around parading themselves like they're the next heidi klum or giselle bunchen (God save those good women!). I am all for expressing your own unique style ( or lack of it at times) but seriously get a reality check, nobody cares if your bag is from Zara or your shoes sport an FCUK label, except for equally daft people out there.

I have nothing against people doing it on their fb (everyone loves a cute pic now and then), that stuff is for you and your friends only, whatever you put up here, its all public, pretty much anyone has access to your photographs (I'm not just talking about those sane people out there who were simply looking for something thought provoking across the blog world). So after you all are done expressing your own 'unique' style ( most of which is rather adeptly copied from gossip girl cast members), let the phrase 'public portal' ring in your head awhile and get your noodle working!