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.

RICKY & THE FLASH ....Alas!! Without much Flash!!

As the film opens with the band performing "American Girl" in a dive bar Salt Well in Tarzana, in an almost 142 mins running time, you expect an amalgamation of dramatic comedy and a concert film,with some 'punch on your face' dialogues, but sadly enough, the only line that made me laugh out loud was during the finale where, at her son's wedding, someone asks Streep, 'So,how do you know the groom?', promptly comes her reply 'Through cesarean!!'.

The film features quite an honest premise but suffers terribly due to mediocre writing, direction & not so well etched out scenes between the principal characters specially the tension between Streep's character and her kids, comes off pretty weak.The initial chemistry between Streep and Grummer (her real life daughter) is unsettling. Their is too much fierceness but not enough nuanced anger (we can never get anything better than Unishe april & Autumn Sonata, can we?). Grummer holds her own with her Mom—fiercely vulnerable. One really decent line comes across when Rick Springfield comments: "It's not the kids' job to love you, it's your job to love them!"

Meryl Streep is bang on! Check her out in one scene when she nervously twitches her hands at the thought of becoming reacquainted with her two sons, an example of the attention to detail and the angst she can draw from her character, much much better than her loudness in August Osage County (one film where i hated her to the core!). Well, Streep might lose out her Oscar nomination this year!!