Katheyondha Helidhe....

The new breed of directors/actors in Kannada movie industry are truly making a mark. Be it Lucia, RangiTaranga, U-Turn or for that matter, a college story like Kirik Party. The freshness and innovation that these guys brought to the table, is what makes them stand apart. There have been other good movies - GBSM, a few arty movies, but since I have not watched them, I am not talking about them.

 I read a review of Kirik Party by Rangan (link) and what he says is true! This movie indeed was a musical! Be it the slow waltz (while the fight happens), or breaking into a song when the guys are suspended. Brilliant take. I did like the background score of Ulidavaru Kandante too, but this movie takes the cake! (hey, I am turning into a rhyming expert!)

The tunes are so infectious (The trumpet in Kaagadada Doniyalli or the chorus in Belageddu, Katheyondha, for eg). Nice work by the music director - Anjaneesh Loknath.
I esp. loved the hat-tip to Ravichandran and Hamsaleka in "Hey, who are you" song! Took me back to the time of Prema-Loka, Ranadheera. :)
The lyrics of the songs are also lovely. The use of some of the bhaava geetes ( Toogu Mancha and Neecha Nalige(?)) is refreshing.
The singers have done a great job, some established and some new names, a good mix altogether.

 Wrt the movie, the last part was a tad long and the plot seemed lost. A tighter second half would have made it even more enjoyable!

Check out the album in Saavn, or better still, watch the movie in the theatre (It has English Subtitles!) and then listen to the songs. They grow on you that way.

In Dino..

After a terrible 2016, a new year has started. There might be many things that will go wrong and many that might just be perfect, but its another chance to change for the good! As usual, there are some goals and resolutions, but who knows how much can be accomplished. Give it your best though, will ya?

Some thoughts and happenings, that individually were too small for a post and too long for a tweet, had been housed in the back of my mind for some time, and now, I have listed it out here, as a collective, so that it doesn't slip away from the already cluttered, confused mind.

• Had high hopes on Prof.Bharadwaj's tryst with the present, but was throughly disappointed. I am speaking, of course, of 'Immortal' by Krishna Udayashankar. After the brilliant, excellent, amazing (and other such superlative adjectives) 'The Aryavarta Chronicles', I expected too much perhaps. It ends up like 'Indiana Jones', which in the Professor's word, was actually not supposed to be! I was reminded of 'The Emperor's Riddles', which I did not like either. Although, both gave a lot of materials, history, mythology, places to learn about, so can't complain much!?

• One more book that I read and was not impressed by was ' One Indian Girl' by Chethan Bhagat. There are some parts, that do portray a lady's plight, but there is nothing new that the book offers, and looks to be mostly a script ready to get some or the other Bollywood studio's nod!

• I did catch up on short stories though. Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Ah! What plots and twists. What words, what sentence formations. Brilliant!  Loved them to bits! I did try to read some aloud for Sid though, and he refused to listen. He is happy reading the books he likes. 

• Speaking of Sid, well, he has progressed to reading on his own now, and the bedtime and weekend afternoon readings has become a breeze! I have, sneakily, made a deal that I will read 1 story and he gets to pick and read whatever he wants. Those are the most peaceful minutes of the day! :-D Moreover, I get to read in that gap as well! 

• I did not watch as many movies as I wanted to in 2016! I flare up when I see the nominations, that have started for the Annual award ceremonies. Not because of the choices, but I must have watched probably only a couple of them, that's all! Oh, the horror!! I don't think I can get myself to watch any of the award ceremonies this year! 

• 2016 has also been a year of great highs and lows. I, who has claimed, never to have caught a fever, as far as I remember, finally caught one! The family too kept falling sick. Hope we fare better this year.

• Arijit Singh sounds constipated now-a-days - 'Channa mere ya' and a couple of more recent ones!  'Ae dil hain mushkil' title track sounds fine though. Compare some of the recent ones to a 'Phir le aaya Dil' or a 'Laal ishq' and you can notice the difference. Or is it deliberate, to sound sad, perhaps? 

• Speaking of Phir le aaya dil, it still sounds magical! I am not sure if I loved the song instantly (kiddo wanted the Barfi songs on loop) or loved it after I saw the video. I sometimes think it is, indeed, the latter. The silent emotions that are expressed in the eyes of the leads are just so beautiful! Well-directed and emoted!  

          Check it out here: