BOTOX OR NOT....???

Actors should age gracefully & naturally, yes! But once in a while the face-lifts & botox are so damn essential! You don't need to play the pretty damsel from college,stick to your age & just be confident about it! Now here's something to learn from Kareena Kapoor who was bang on in the recently released Ki & Ka!As always her stylists have done a great job.If u observe keenly, nowhere the make up artist has tried hiding her dark circles or the wrinkles from the contours of her eyes.In most of the scenes, Kareena is sporting minimal makeup, thanks to her healthy looking skin.No smokey eyes,no eyeliner or kajal! Just a tinge of brown eye shadow on the lids as well on lower lash line, some facial bleach, some mascara and its done!

Now...Once upon a time, way back during 1997 when i was actually besotted with Madhuri Dixit, i was eagerly waiting for Mohabbat where she was cast with Akshaye Khanna, 10 yrs younger to her! Now that didn't deter me at all, in fact the hugely popular song 'Don't break my heart' was actually good, they looked good together, but the day i saw the film,gosh! i cried! the chemistry was so pale,they were terribly bad together & for the first time i felt Madhuri looked so old & so odd! From her makeup to the ill fitting clothes, the unnecessary jewelries, her rear profile....everything about her was so so bad & for some reason she looked so lethargic throughout the film! Given the production house of this film i am sure they couldn't hire the legend Mickey Contractor to work his magic on her skin & tone (which thankfully he did so in Madhuri's very next release Dil to Pagal Hai).

That rainy night scene where she meets Akshaye Khanna for the first time, where, thanks to the 90's, probably when we had less number of water proof make up & accessories, her pancake had all come off with the splashed water & you can't stop cringing while looking at her wrinkles & lines! Now am not blaming her, aging is a natural phenomenon & women's skin loses its firmness more sooner than men! Madhuri at present has aged gracefully but what our actresses had lacked during those times, the present Gen X newbies have got it. A little bit of nip & tuck , some lifts, some cover ups here & there probably doesn't harm after all specially when you are a part of the glamour business !

THE DANISH GIRL - (review)

Now that's an unconditional love story!

It just isn't easy enacting a role like this, there's a scene where Einar Wegener struggling with his inner conflicts & identity, visits a brothel & instead of being aroused by the nude sex worker's moves, starts imitating her gestures,understanding his self-perception. It takes lot of conviction for an actor to portray not just a character but to completely submerge himself into it. The tenderness, the touch, the swift movement of his hands across his face & body, the postures, the shy downward glances & the innocence is more than just perfect! One of the most amazing & delicate love stories i have seen in a long time, one must praise both Eddie Redmayne & Alicia Vikander for the sheer dedication to their craft. And what an extraordinary job by Alicia Vikander (a worthy academy award for this role). Her performance reconstructs an open-minded artist who has an unconditional love for her husband,her muse, which is not easy, no matter what. She forsook the obscure love she had for Hans, to be protected and caressed as a wife, every women rightfully deserve from their husbands.
For that love, she lost almost everything, just for the sake of the man she loved unconditionally, Gerda is class apart!

PUNASCHA (bengali) - review

How i wish it was a Rituparno Ghosh film!

From the drawing room conversation between the two lead players (which covers up the entire first half of the film) with frequent references to Tagore's verses / Shantiniketan, to the subtle use of color & tone in every frame to the detailed use of props & art design, Punascha is a decent ode to film maker Rituparno Ghosh & his keen eye for detailing which was trademark in most of his classic films.
It was good to see Rupa Ganguly in a wonderful role after a long time, with her controlled poise & grace & a powerful screen presence,which of course she always had, she infuses life into the character Mohona as well the author's (played by Soumitra Chatterjee) muse as Deepa, Keya or Mohini . But the film dips & slows down terribly post the author's sudden death until it is salvaged in the last 15 minutes when the deceased author's wife makes an appearance. The sudden appearance & outburst of Mohona's daughter also doesn't make much of an impact because their again you'd had expected a finely written confrontation scene between the mother & daughter, even the conversation between the 'wife' & 'muse' though decent enough, could have been much better & probably that's where you truly miss Rituparno Ghosh who was more than capable of handling women onscreen with his finely structured narrative.

UDTA PUNJAB (review)

A good film, yes..but a product which is either filled with too much ludicrous audacity (thanks to Tommy, not the Kutta, ''abbe be****hod wo fuddu wala!'') or being consistently grim & deeply disturbing ! To watch a girl being drugged into sexual capitulation, while her captors assure the policeman/rapist that “she is well trained” & hence will not attack him, to see the extremes to which drug-addled teenage brains falls in their desperation for a fix is chilling yet heart rending beyond description.
If not for the laudable performances by Alia Bhatt & Diljit Dosanjh, trust me, this film would have completely fallen flat, that too with a thud! It's not a bad film & for once the director deserves some credit because it's a well-researched, keenly observed, no-holds-barred account of the extent to which cities (let's not point out only one!) are mired in drugs & drug-related corruption. Shahid's Tommy is very ill written role specially in the first half where all he does is scream to the top of his voice & all you get to hear from him is cock, balls, nuts, holes & fuckers of all kinds. Tommy does get a new lease of life post his pee-ing on his fans incident when he is chased by an enraged crowd & he lands up at a deserted place with Kumari Pinky played remarkably by Alia Bhatt, watch her change her body language completely sinking into the character. The conversations that follows between the two is probably one of the best written scenes in the film while the other being the scene where an injured & delirious Diljit (stabbed on his neck with a drugged needle) is brought home by Kareena, the former's cuteness in the entire conversation on the way will steal your heart. And then suddenly killing a major character leaves you stunned & glum!
Alas i quite didn't enjoy the film. I'd be more than happy if the lead players get numerous awards for their acts, but i don't think i'd dare watch this film again.

THE CONJURING 2 (review)

The demonic veiled nun will haunt me for some days! :O

Scary, terrifying & a fitting follow up to the first one,it succeeds in frightening you with its lingering creepiness but fails to bring anything new to the plot or the proceedings. It's wonderful to see the relationship between Ed and Lorraine. Vera Farmiga as Lorraine is superb.She has such a charming screen presence.Her character is strong, powerful & she manages to pull the viewer through all kind of emotions.Patrick Wilson as Ed is also an apt foil to Lorraine.

Few scenes really make you jump back & shudder with it eerie-ness like when Lorraine decides to check in the painting room and a demonic nun comes out from nowhere from the painting and a scene when Janet watches TV and figures out a person sitting on a chair behind her and the remote control falls by itself.

But i am bit perplexed with the character of the infernal nun, which is so appropriately nightmarish, reminiscent of the veiled "Bride In Black" from 'Insidious'. What was the motto behind the nun's portrait that Ed had drawn and how was it connected to this particular case is never fully explained! Also what's less compelling is the inclusion of the "Crooked Man," a storybook scarecrow monster spreading Babadook-esque chaos about halfway through and is explained as the demon assuming a form that's familiar to the Hodgsons. Nevertheless, its worth a dekko for all the thrill that it provides!

UDTA PUNJAB - So much hullabaloo for this!!

Shahid Kapoor's Tommy Singh could have been so so much better, there's so much slackness in the character, tch tch! As the grimy, abusive rapper he is excellent in swearing though, with almost all his sentences finishing with a be****hod! Throughout the first half his character has been reduced into just a buffon! Yes agreed, he wasn't goofy just for humor, it was the drugs talking. The frequent swanking, excessive flouncing, thrusting on stage, the tangled hair & the constant flashing of the V sign, literally living on a high is all very fine & aptly done by him but too much of it starts getting on your nerves after a point, until he meets Alia Bhatt & thankfully his character takes a dramatic turn(& for good!) From the moment he opens up to Alia till the finale when he goes out in search of her to free her from the goons, we get to see the Shahid we have been waiting for all along the glum first half of the film.
It's such a disappointment that we don't get to see enough of what really goes inside of him though there are flashes of it ,like his conversation with Alia or his self realization for some seconds inside the jail where he is praised by his teenage drug addict fans! This could have been Shahid Kapoor's yet another riveting performance post Kaminey & Haider, but alas! it's not.

HEARTBURN (1986)

All about Love,marriage,babies, infidelities!

I finally got to see this one & even with all the shortcomings i loved it coz it's such a wonderful feeling to see my favorites Meryl Streep & Jack Nicholson coming together in this dryly wrought comedy drama about a writer Rachel marrying a columnist cum womanizer Mark who is unable to change his wandering ways even after marriage. The movie based on Nora Ephron's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, which was inspired by her tempestuous second marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein & his affair with Margaret Jay, unfolds quite hastily with one sequence after the other almost with an Woody Allen approach to it.

Streep as the clinging, smothering spouse is endearing to watch although a bit more of humor to her character would have added more to the charm. Jack Nicholson does what he is best in doing , with his usual smirk, devilish, eyebrow-twitching, grinning charm he is like-able as the philanderer. I liked the scene when Rachel finds out about Mark's affair & confronts, minutes later she packs up, leaves and we hear Carly Simon's song "Coming Around Again" in the background. The lyrics perfectly fits the scenario in sync with Rachel's despair. Her idea of the perfect marriage has been shattered.

FAN (review)

Superstar Aryan Khanna sits stigmatized in a detention cell while a local goon pisses a few inches away & right after a humiliating police interrogation, instantly agrees to pose for a selfie with a female officer, while few scenes later he performs like a monkey for a rich NRI’s daughter’s wedding even after he is spoken curtly by the man who thinks the star is his personal toy he just acquired the rights for. Ah! stuffs that our stars are made of! As Aryan Khanna it was interesting to watch Shahrukh as a non apologetic narcissist, self deprecating himself & being extremely critical about his own stardom in the film, from being insecure about his fading age & the rise of younger actors to playing safely for the gallery over the years, the actor took a huge leap from his romantic hero image.

No, i haven't seen Misery or The king of Comedy, so i m not sure of the references, but 10 mins into the film and you are introduced into the intriguing world of Gaurav Chanana, a lookalike to the superstar Aryan Khanna, whose craziness, love & almost platonic relationship with the star is even celebrated by his doting parents, lovingly indulging him in impersonating his antics on stage. With his lovable child like exuberance, he creates a space for himself in your hearts, but post his meeting with the star & being reprimanded & dejected by the star's rudeness, his hero worship turns into hatred, so much so that he almost turns into a psychopath. The scenes where the star & the fan or rather the master & his puppet comes face to face are brilliantly executed with much credit to Shahrukh's Gaurav emoting entirely with his innocence in the first half while with vengeance in the pre climactic scenes. So far so good with the reality, but post intermission the film falls terribly into the same conventional pattern with some illogical hide & seek game of the star and his doting fan! From selling his cyber cafe to reaching london & dubrovnik all of a sudden in his rage & revenge, to slyly getting inside the star's personal space, Gaurav's sudden transformation from a child like buffon to a smart 'man on a mission' image doesn't quite fit into the narrative,

But even with all its commercial loopholes, the film is watchable mostly because of Shahrukh's returning back to his Darr, Baazigar, Anjaam days with sweetness of Duplicate's Babloo thrown into the character. Wish the script had stayed a little bit more 'realistic' post interval.

MYSTIC PIZZA

It terribly annoys me when a director loses out steam after building such a beautiful premise. In this 1988 released film directed by Donald Petrie, there's a scene where teenager Charles (Adam Storke) on a date, brings his girlfriend Daisy (Julia Roberts) to his father's vacant palatial mansion located near the shore of the ocean with the soothing sound of seagulls, it's almost dusk & there's no electricity coz his father turns of the power when nobody's home ,he takes Daisy inside the living room, she makes herself comfortable while he lights up the candles next to a giant mirror & sets up the fireplace. While they engage in conversation, Daisy suddenly turns around without him noticing & goes upstairs leaving behind all her clothes, shoes & accessories in the hallway & en-route towards his father's bedroom. She calls him from upstairs & Charles unable to locate her in the darkness, holds a candle & goes upstairs collecting each one of her stuffs (shoes, jacket, skirt, undergarments) that she left behind in the hallway. There's a beautiful saxophonic piece that plays in the background. He enters the rooms, notices that she is wearing his father's shirt , 'This is my parent's room, is that my father's shirt that you r wearing?'! he asks. She says ' You think he will miss it?' with a mischievous smile. She comes closer towards the bed while he is sitting at the other end 'Hey junior' says she, & kisses him on the lips. Cut to the next shot - they have already made love & are lying in bed embraced to each other underneath the white satin sheets. There was so much the writer / director could have done with this scene, bringing in the passion play, no! not the love making act, but the seduction part! Bit of playfulness, eagerness, a hesitation evident with teenage first timers, exploring more into each other would have made it a fantastic scene! A little bit more time with some beautifully written lines eventually (romantic per say!) could have sparked the magic in the lovely set up

KI & KA (my review) : Bread-earner v/s House-maker!

Though its too personal to share on a public space but sometimes i wonder how much my mother was responsible for not letting my father climbing up the success ladder in his career! I have images of my parents arguing over this issue when i was growing up. Both of them being the bread earners of the family, day to day ego clashes & issues like 'who's gonna cook so much food at the end of the day', 'who's gonna pay the bills' 'who's work being more stressful on an everyday basis' did erupt every now & then. And given the fact that my dad has always been the lazy bone, he would have 'kab ka' happily retired from his job if not for smooth sailing of the family on a financial basis. So even though Ki & Ka did receive extreme mixed reviews form the public & critics alike, the film did connect with me on some level.

More than breaking the gender stereotypes, i saw it more as a clash between the bread earner v/s the house maker, at times when success & over commitment of one partner becomes indigestible for the other paving towards commencement of disputes between them leading towards more problems like in the beautifully written scene where Jaya Bachhan asks Amitabh (playing themselves) would it have made any different if she was working full fledged and him managing the kitchen ( evoking memories of their Abhimaan, one of the best films made about marriage and ego). It felt good to see finally the woman (who's been playing the boss all the while) jealous of his house-husband getting attention & more fame overnight. I particularly liked the scene towards the climax when she lashes out at him into a reason less rage for using her for his fame. Kareena is bang on as the heroine who finally slips into an egoistic, career obsessive man's role & acts like one, something which we have been used to seeing our 'larger than life' heroes in indian film and more so on indian tele-series'. Arjun Kapoor deserves some credit too for agreeing to play the part, he actually tends to be more like the child-man who's best in playing his submissive part, hence few scenes like the sudden dhishum dhishum dharmendra act with the goons at the middle of the night seems out of place.

What didn't work for me were the dialogues, at times cliched & too much stressful into proving a point & the camera angles were too bad with sudden zooming in & out of focus. A gem of a star Swaroop Sampat was rather too disappointing with her bad dialogue delivery & Rajit Kapoor was wasted. The film could have worked more if it hadn't tried too hard to lure the masses & sudden abruptness of the plot here & there.

Jack wins ....finally!

This one's for all us who were once upon a time (& maybe still) obsessively in love with Jack !!

For all of us who grew up in the 90's witnessing the massive hysteria called TITANIC (1997), developing a major love/crush/madness for Jack ,at the same time hatred for Rose, jealous every time when u might have read his name being linked to some or the other starlet, thinking 'Here's a bitch who gets to make out with him now while we're still kissing those paper cut-outs from 'Titanic'/'Romeo-Juliet' poster. The name 'Leonardo DiCaprio' without a blink on our slam books next to the 'Your crush' section. He who have lived closer to us for years, on the walls of our every single room in every single form possible. Movie posters,17 cut outs,Time articles about the success of Titanic that you ripped out and taped to the wall or scrap book.There was no mention of him too small or too insignificant for our wall of love. Crying your heart out everytime he drowned (Titanic) or got killed (Romeo-Juliet), those daydreams! For all of us, it really felt good when he finally made it & received his much deserved Academy award for The Revenant after several nominations.

P.S. : I recalled meeting an old friend last year & she said 'Gosh! Leonardo's such a wild, filthy f****r man!!' I realized she had just seen 'Wolf of the Wall Street' smile emoticon

Rangeela's significant contribution to bollywood cinema!

Urmila’s red & white crop-tops,floral bustier, knotted frilled top & hot pants, flourscent chiffon skirts rippling on the screen across the beach, grooving in bright twin sets, her white bustier with the matching frilly skirt in 'Tanha Tanha', not to forget her ankle boots & the floral mini skirt in 'Rangeela re', bringing in vogue the use of bright orange,pink & red colors (the matt effect red lipstick too??) with panache, far far cry from the flashy, over the top dressing style from Sridevi's 80s and Madhuri's 90s, finally giving way to some class and sophistication to the designer wardrobe!

Thanks to that one man Manish Malhotra with the leading lady Urmila & more specifically this song Tanha Tanha that transformed the way Bollywood dressed overnight.
Being in just VI th standard, i remember this movie & particularly the song Tanha Tanha which was quite a taboo, we ought to swift channel everytime it played on tv, why? because of 'oh-ma-go-isssh!-ki-obostha!' Urmila's skimpy outfits & seductive gyrations. Little did we know then that this will be a trendsetter in the years to come. Leading Heroines wearing bustier, swimwear, sports bra & shorts were a big no-no before this movie happened finally paving its way to more trendy outfits in future films like Dil To Pagal hai etc.

KAPOOR & SON'S (review) : Tale of two 'imperfect' brothers!

A reminiscent of the American tv series 'Brothers and Sisters, revolving around the lives, relationships and conflicts of the wealthy Walker family , Kapoor and Sons too showcases almost the same issues in a near-perfect nuanced manner. If Mira Nair’s 'Monsoon Wedding' had more complex characters to deal with within their far in-depth complexities, Shakun Batra’s protégés are quite easy to relate to, at least in today’s present scenario. Director Shakun Batra in his second outing Kapoor & Sons quite delicately breaks the year long ‘perfect son’/ ‘perfect brother’ Bollywood stereotype. One couldn’t have imagined one of the brothers (Sanjay dutt or Salman khan) in the 1991 blockbuster Saajan claiming his disinterest in women, or rather, the much celebrated, commercial potboiler Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham, I am sure wouldn’t have been a success if either of the brothers (Rahul or Rohit) had an unconventional lifestyle or sexual preference which is fry cry from the sentiments of the majority of the Indian mindsets. 

The brothers here In Kapoor & Sons do not bond with ease, neither they share a Jai-Veeru bonding, much at loggerheads with each other and that has been brought forth very conveniently into the narrative without seeming forced or melodramatic. Arjun (Sidharth Kapoor) the younger one whose career isn’t that bright and shining unlike his elder brother Rahul (Fawad Khan), whose career as a novelist got doomed long back when his mother handed his idea of a story plot to his brother without his knowledge, he isn’t too eager to receive his brother’s call or take his help financially because he has always been looked down upon as the ‘second best’ when compared to his ‘perfect’ elder brother. His constant trying to prove his mettle to his family has brewed the bitterness inside him against his brother. Neither he is emphasizing on his brother’s unconventional lifestyle when the latter finally discloses the same (‘I don’t know what to say’ is all Arjun has to answer).On the other hand the mother’s (Ratna Pathak Shah) favourite child, the perfect son Rahul, who comes as a savior during all family disputes, financial setbacks & is the one to take all the blame upon himself to avoid his family from dragging on to their conflicts, isn’t all that perfect anymore because of his inability or rather, unwillingness to bring home the ‘perfect indian bride’, but we know deep down, as we see their story unfold, that they are their for each other at the end of the day because as the plot unfolds we see the ‘imperfect-ness’ among all the characters, characters which are very real, very close to us, characters very ‘perfectly’ etched out by Shakun Batra & co-writer Ayesha Devitre.

'Gerua' song (DILWALE) : Kajol looks Oh! so fair & lovely..Olay!

Does anyone need some new windows wallpaper? Try this one out! Possibly the major stunning aspect of the song is the cinematography, although too much of VFX & special effects have ruined the overall impact. Credit should go to the cinematographer for using lot of overhead as well as wide angle frames, frames where SRK and Kajol’s outfits stand out against the icy plains of Iceland or the cloud covered sky, the actors standing against the backdrop of a massive waterfall with green meadows with a silhouette of a rainbow & the broken down aircraft with the sky glimmering with rich hues of neon and green against the vast sun setting horizon looks good. Along with that, the costume dept & of course the make-up man Mickey Contractor (thank you for hiding those lines!) deserves applause! Kajol looks etheral in those Manish Malhotra pastel chiffons & flowing skirts blowing in the wind (yellow, orange, and bit of red to make it Gerua!!) & oh so fair & lovely! (Thank you Olay!), Shahrukh looks..well, somebody said 'killer..', oh ok! never mind! kudos to his trainer Prashant Sawant, and the song? No, not another Suraj Huwa maddham for sure. Didn't work for me though, at least as off now! .

TAMASHA (my review) : Loved the film!

Oh! such prepossessing moments ! There's a scene where Deepika Padukone afflicted by self reproach for rejecting Ranbir & consumed deeply by love, urges him (a man grappling with his own demons & frustrations) to forgive her while Alka Yagnik's 'Tum saath ho' track plays in the background, she holds him tight when he tries hard to set himself free from her clutches & then he gives up and breaks down! It's a scene filled with such strongemotion, & the way she places her hand on his head when he bends his head down on the table to weep silently, that i couldn't hold back my tears! Please do relate to the character's predicaments when you go watch the film!

Saw a wonderful film after a long time. A film which is filled with moments, moments where a girl go berserk searching or unable to erase the shorter span of memories she had of a boy she met on a chance encounter couple of years back. moments where a child is so obsessed with fairy tales & Story book sagas that his interpretation of the real world & the fictional world is juxtaposed, moment during the climax when Ranbir bows down in front of Deepika which is filled with so many affections intertwined together, moments where a man filled with limitations is often coerced to burst out his anger but while fighting with his inner demons puts up an act of sobriety in front of the public, moments where a boy has to prevent himself from unleashing his inner artistic self!
Deepika & Ranbir are just made for each other, they relate to each other so brilliantly on screen! Every nuance is such pitch perfect, never too high or too low, with every film these actors are going strong day by day with their performances! The film moves at a languid pace but that is required in a film like this & m glad Imtiaz ALi was in no hurry!

Priyanka Chopra in Bajirao Mastani

Those who have a keen eye for aesthetics, going for Bajirao Mastani, i want you guys to check this out, Priyanka Chopra's character Kashibai in the film has been modeled or rather inspired by Raja Ravi Verma's paintings, particularly the famous portrait called Damayanti Raj Hansa by the late artist. There are, not just one, but couple of shots where Kashibai's poise, grace, stature & body language would remind you of the painter's sketches. Like the scene where she breaks down after confronting with her husband with a picturesque lake in her background, or the below attached poster where Kashibai is seen striking a delicate pose, next to a swan, dressed in a traditional Maharashtrian attire, sporting a nath, chains and bangles on both her wrists.

The as always gorgeous Sridevi!!

WOWWWWW!! Sridevi looking...i am out of words (nirbaak!!) in Manish Malhotra Winter Festive collection 2015! From maroon to the midnight blue to a dash of lavender carefully and gracefully splurging into white (like a bottle of indigo carelessly splattered from the edges of a pale white drape!) with a pashmina shawl to go with it!! colors that make my heart melt like a bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough and sweet, gooey fudge 

kiki emoticon The combo's.literally killing me!! Orgasmic!!

CHANGING THE CURVY INDIAN HEROINE FOREVER!

Bollywood's fashion maverick Manish Malhotra's star studded 50th birthday bash with his leading ladies. His all time muse Sridevi & someone who follows him blindly Kareena Kapoor. Rangeela (1995) the turning point in his career with Urmila, bringing in vogue skin fit leggings, colorful hot pants and knotted tops. Karisma Kapoor wouldn;t have been the same if not for him and the image makeover she got post Raja Hindustani & Dil to pagal hai (remember those chiffon sheer kurtas & trendy red bell bottoms!) and for Raveena Tandon & Shilpa Shetty, well..we probably know them best for their scintillating avatars & those eye soothing fabrics on their chiseled bodies rather than their histrionics. Probably the only leading fashion designer in bollywood who knows which colour, texture and fabric looks good on screen. Happy wala Birthday !!

Colors of joy!!

RANG DE TU MOHE GERUA (red-ochre)..... 

After a 'worst day' at work, i went to this nearby Lakshmi Venkateshwara temple with a glum face & came out with a smiling one! the color just made my day!! More than so many other stuffs, probably that's one thing for sure...colors...i am so obsessed with colors! It can alter my spirit anytime!


P.S. : my mobile cam resolution sucks big time, so it didn't come clear, but ya, they all were wearing & looking splendid in Gerua....

Blame Stereotypes before blaming her!!

Well, i did finally manage to go & watch the extremely badly made Dilwale, just because of Kajol. She is radiant, pretty & have lost tons of kilos,though she should seriously consider junking those awkward black strappy high stilettos in future. Her gait turns so bad!She looks lovely in those ethnic Manish Malhotra full length asymmetric skirts, slimmer frame and very glam look. Just wish the DOP had cut down on photoshop alterations, as it ended up reminding one of the Cherry Blossom shoe polish that brings so much glow and shine to the frame! Tch Tch. But her contagious smile and huge eyes are enough to light up the silver screen.There was a section of the media going bitter about her sudden glam doll look, but isn't that stereotypical & conventional for a girl who was always labelled as dusky bollywood heroine? How about the various skin whitening fairness creams??? Like Pammi ji says 'Beta, bahu la de, koi bhi chalegi, bas gori chitti honi chahiye!!' Why, even in one of Kajol's much celebrated flick Karan Johar's Kuch Kuch Hota hai, she ultimately gains Shahrukh Khan's attention post interval when she had transformed herself completely from her tomboy DKNY basketball player look to the gorgeous sari/bindi/liner/mascara/lipgloss clad 'gori chitti heroine waala' look! One film maker had even once mentioned that during her 90's films most of the DOP's time went into implanting mini-tube lights under her skin!!

But i loved her loud, devil-may-care attitude, and casual goofiness, loved her when she appeared at a Filmfare awards night in Feb 1998 (receiving her trophy fro Gupt) dressed in simple salwar, her unibrow, oil plaited hair & reading glasses. It also feels sad to see how much she has whitened her skin from what it was when she began her career (think of that 'Kaali kaali Aankhein' song from Baazigar) !!

Mohe Rang Do Laal (Bajirao Mastani)

I have been so obsessed with this song, 'Mohe rang do laal', based on one of Pandit Birju Maharaj’s own performance on Avadhi Brijwasi thumri, “Balma Re Chunaria Maiko Lal”, that every time i watch it i find something intriguing, like the symbolic use of the color RED & how it changes throughout the course of the song, the red here is never flamboyant or loud (unlike Madhuri's, the courtesan's 'kahe ched ched mohe' piece of Devdas), its subtle, soft, just smeared in holi's color (aabir as we say in bengali, not the aalta ) or like the gesture (kathak hastak!) where she sprinkles just a dash of the 'laal' coz the subsequent rhyming 'nand-laal' (krishna) in the beginning of the song is gestured with his 'makhan chor' childhood image. Check out how brilliantly Maharaj ji didn't let her stretch her fingers on the lips to denote the redness unlike Chandramukhi in Devdas, here..again, just a touch!

 She smears Peshwa with that redness with her hand in one slight let go of her hand & her eyes courses through passion, to request to flaming red in the madness of love! It's not a courtesan's number but an act in order to thank Bajirao for his help & the love that brews in her.Even the tinge of redness in the fringes of the pearl white costume with golden border stands out against the co-dancer's olive green costume, mirrors, extravagant fountains, opulent fort & the huge green canvas in the background. It is said that Mastani had albaster skin so that when she ate a paan, you could see the red through her skin. From elegantly holding her braid in the beginning to letting her hair go loose at the end, see her transformation from her coyness to her openly proposing the Peshwa her love and her hand for marriage.

In a recent interview Birju Maharaj ji said that Deepika's background in Bharatanatyam was a tad difficult to undo, but by the end of the song she had mastered the gestures so well that even in “Pinga” song she holds a perfect Kathak hastak, despite the fact that the song was essentially Maharashtraian folk, says Pandit ji ''Humne itna zyada use Kathak ke rang main rang diya hai!''. Birju Maharaj found Deepika one in the late Madhubala whom he had choreographed in a song for 'Jhumroo', 'Bhola bhola mann mera kahin re sajan'. The 1961 film had Kishore Kumar opposite Madhubala. He told Deepika to think of Ranveer as her Kishore and like Madhubala had danced to his tunes in Jhumroo, she should dance the same way for her Bajirao.

Shreya Ghoshal fantastic voice meanders around ragas like Purvi and Puriya Dhanashri, given the tune’s allegiance to older songs like 'Mohe panghat pe nandlal' from Mughal-e-azam, Pt. Ravi Shankar’s ‘Karuna suno shyam mori’ from Meera & Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s ‘Bandhan toote na’ from Mome Ki Gudiya.