Review: Neerja: Beautiful, silent yet POWERFUL!!! ***½

1409th BLOG POST -->>

NEERJA: 3.5/5

        Neerja Bhanot is one of the most-discussed personality whenever youngsters' contribution towards nation and patriotism is discussed. But not many of us know the real reason why she is been remembered time and again in debates etc. The film, Neerja, which is said to be inspired from the story of this girl but is not a biography tells us about her contribution on how she saved almost 350 people in a flight which was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. She showed her common sense by informing pilots as soon as she saw men with guns entering the plane which made the pilot and co-pilot flee from the spot. This failed terrorists' planning of taking the plane off to some other country. And later on, after that, for all the time that the plane was under terrorist's gun, her sensible movements helped save many of the passengers.

 

            The film is very well-directed as the director didn't try to make it an over-enthusiastic tale of heroism. He kept the narration and screenplay simple rather than adding useless self-created incidents, twists and turns. Most of the film is shot indoors which is again a challenging job for the director to make it interesting for audience to sit for 2 hours. Ram Madhvani excels in this department too. The work of cameramen and cinematographer is also commendable. The background score is also a great contribution to the beauty of the movie. The plane designed in 1980-90's style and the whole set-up also looks perfect and demands excellence from rest of the departments. And everyone invests equally to make this movie what it is.

            Coming to the performances, this movie will always be remembered in the career of Sonam Kapoor as she is not been considered as an actress who can carry such a movie wholly on her shoulders. But she have proved to be flawless in this 2 hours long movie. She neither over-acts or under-acts any scene. The best is when she is shown as a victim in a marriage where her husband doesn't consider her worthy enough of anything. Another great scene is when she reads her boyfriend's letter and realizes that she may not meet him again. That's another great moment in the movie. Similarly, the actors playing her parents have also contributed greatly and many emotional moments have come across because of their flawless performances. Overall, Neerja is a very beautiful and silent movie yet speaks aggressively about the feeling of patriotism. I give it 3.5 stars out of 5. 

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!! 

The Prince of Patliputra by Shreyas Bhave (Book Review- 4*/5) !!!

1408th BLOG POST -->>

        Reading historical fictions have become a new habit for me considering the number of books releasing in this genre these days. Greatest fact to know is that almost all the writers in this genre are of younger generation who are either in college or just passed out of it. Shreyas Bhave is the newest one to release his book in this genre with his first book in the Asoka Trilogy named "The Prince of Patliputra". He is just 21 years old and studying in an Engineering college. The book is almost 400 pages thick and this young debutante should be applauded for his work. Not even once did I feel that an experienced hand was needed to write this book. He has given his 100% which is quite reflective in each and every chapter that you'll read in this thrilling story based on the history of Asoka.  

             Shreyas Bhave's command on the language is great which makes the reader in you very happy about it. Trilogy is the new cool in Indian publishing market since the emergence of Amish Tripathi. But not all authors are doing justice to it. I am glad to find Shreyas understanding the concept and choosing a perfect plot for each of his book. The sequence at which the first part has ended gives you enough impatience to read the next one. Not many trilogies are making you feel like that. The way the author have carved each of the characters tells you how creative he is. Though the history has been read by us during school time, yet you do not feel it boring when you read it through Shreyas's eyes. 

            Coming to the book, the initial chapters are little confusing and you find yourself trapped in it. You want to finish the book earliest so that you can move out of the jail. But as the purpose of the book starts becoming clear about 50-70 pages or so, you start getting addicted to it. The political strategies, wars, military experiences, battles and everything that is discussed adds charm to the story. The way Chandragupta Maurya and Asoka's story runs parallel makes it easy for you to understand why Asoka is considered to be the perfect successor to his grandfather. Also Chanakya's character win you over with its own charm and wit. Radhagupta's character is also well-justified. The mention of Alexander in the flashbacks also comes like a fresh air to us. Overall, the book is a clear winner except few spelling errors. I give it 4 stars out of 5. Hats off, Shreyas.

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!! 

Why we insist to learn from our OWN MISTAKES??

1407th BLOG POST -->>

     There used to be a time when I gave free advise to few of my friends whom I found doing something which I had already done in life and suffered because of it. I wanted to protect them from the upcoming unfortunate result of their activities which might affect their future. But with time, I found them ignoring me and doing the things they wanted to do. I realized that it is my mistake to interfere in their life and ask them to change their way of living just because I feel that doing certain things aren't moralistic or simply, right. For me the result might be a shock and regret in life but may be for someone else, it would be something he must be desiring for. I might not like finding my medical report claiming failure in one of my kidney due to heavy drinking habits but for someone, it might be something he wished due to poverty he's facing daily. With time, I saw many of them realizing their mistake only after they got the result which affected their life so badly that it took them months to revamp and return to their normal schedule.     

            We, human beings, have become so self-dependent that we think we shouldn't take any kind of advise from anyone just because we have reached so far on the basis of the decisions we have taken all by ourselves. We do not try to learn from the experiences of few who have gone through worst and best than us. We do not want to even ask them to save our life from getting ruined before getting diverted to a path which only has darkness in the future. Self-realization is the best phenomenon which prepares you for the rest of your life but some times reaching this phase takes almost your whole lifetime and you regret not listening to your family and friends when they were out to help you even at oddly hours. 

           I tend to take my own decision in the end but it's definitely influenced from all the advises I get from the people who have walked the same path more efficiently than anyone in my knowledge. I try to evoke all their wisdom through many questions that I have in mind before executing the same act myself and changing my life for something good or bad which isn't in our hands. You ask someone to ride bike at a respectable speed of 50-65 km/hr. You ask someone to quit smoking and drinking. You ask someone to stay away from having random sex with different partners. You ask someone to stop spending too much money in celebrating weekends. You ask someone to take care of their health rather than indulging themselves in bad eating habits. And just wait to hear their response. You will get to hear such an ultimate life-gyaan that you will either hit yourself hard for even trying to pacify the person to change his habits for a better lifestyle or well, hit yourself. 

           Considering these people as an example, we should come to the conclusion that we should not wait from taking precaution until the same unfortunate event happens with our life. We should learn to learn from someone else's mistake rather than testing our life with weird experiments which somewhere in our heart even we believe is not totally right. I have suffered a lot in life as I was busy in massaging my ego and over-confidence but the experiences have taught me that trying everything in life and learning through its experiences is not always an optimum way of self-improvement. Hence, reading biographies and autobiographies, watching biopics, talking with wise people improves our vision towards what exactly living a simple yet delighting life is. Talking with idiots will only lead you towards destruction. Period.

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!! 

Happy Women's Day!!!

1406th BLOG POST -->>

         It's International Women's Day and I would like to grab this opportunity to wish all the women an independent and successful life. Those days are gone back when women used to be slaves of another gender who is still considered to be superior. In the city that I live in and in the field that I work in, I see many women leading the world currently and in some areas, they excel far better than the men around them. There is no one who has the ability to ask women what they are doing and why. The men of this era knows that a woman is able to carve her own path and reach the destination before them if they are challenged. The life of women is a thankless job. They are not only performing professionally in a 9 to 5 job but also making sure that everything is fine back at home. And they are still not messing both of their worlds. On the other hand, most men get frustrated after finding themselves trapped between a stressful professional life and ever-demanding family life. 

            My mother asks me to help her at home sometimes and I find myself tired within 10 minutes of doing a household chore where as I find my mother doing more difficult and physically exerting tasks throughout the day yet not forgetting to give me breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner at the right time. I always believe that men are considered to be physically stronger just because women are still not taking this job seriously. The day they'll decide to show what physical power is, men are going to lose even that spot too. In my first job itself, I was interviewed by 3 different persons and all of them were women. It speaks a lot about the kind of hold women have acquired in corporate and professional world. Once, they were stopped from displaying their intellectual and logical skills by not letting them have education but since a great revolution that India have gone through, the knowledge and skills of women is helping the nation reaching heights which it could not have accomplished without their contribution. 

             Many women know what the real empowerment is and their focus is on the right jackpot. I am seeing girls working on their careers but still thinking of getting married and raising kids. I am seeing girls studying, hanging-out but still making it sure that they are concentrating on their health and physical strength so that they can fight for themselves. I am seeing women who are newly married balancing their work life and still being able to prepare lunch for their husband. But it's unfortunate to see few women taking this whole empowerment thing in a different league itself and giving a totally different meaning to the word- INDEPENDENCE. 

          This set of women feel that only smoking, drinking, driving car, wearing exposing clothes, abusing, tattooing, flirting, sleeping around with guys is what their empowerment is. They should understand that no one stops a notorious kid. He is left to take decisions and fall badly some day so that he learns his lesson himself. This does not mean the kid has become independent and do whatever he feels is right according to his own idea of life. Independence is when you decide it yourself when to study, what to study, when to marry, whom to marry, how to marry, where to work, what to work, whether you want to work etc. Independence does not mean divorcing your husband for a silly argument that took place last night and proving the world that you are not here to take anyone's shit. In fact, it proves that you are still immature, dependent and need a sensible person around to guide you. 

             On this Women's Day, I wish that such women who have got directionless and deciphered some other meaning for some very important work learn the right way of doing things and moving ahead in life so that they don't regret in future. I hope our nation will keep getting great contribution by the pretty gender so that we, men, can rely on them and have some fun and chilling times. Haha! 

           A very HAPPY WOMEN's DAY once again. 

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!!