Always remember to "DABBA"le check / Run DK, m'boy, run

Bollywood has certainly matured over time. The quality of movies being churned out of late has only improved and they've now begun to cover previously unthought of issues and scenarios. Of course, there still always is the occasional "Dabangg", that leaves the audience pondering - not over existential beliefs or societal stigmas, but more on the lines of, "Why did I spend 300 bucks on this film :( ???"

But Indian cinema has largely fermented into a cultured, thought-inducing arena. Even the music appears to have blossomed over the years. Although it's a prominent shift from the good ol' halcyon days of RD Burman and Kishore Kumar, nevertheless, the Bollywood tunes of today are fantabulously catchy and intricate with very insightful lyrics. Kailash Kher's "Alvida" from Dasvidaniya and Atif Aslam's "Le ja tu mujhe" from F.A.L.T.U. being a few exemplary tunes.

Since my last day at JD, I now find myself with phenomenal amounts of freetime, most of which is spent watching movies I've always put aside thinking "I'll watch 'em when I can afford to!" Well, I finally can =) ! And believe me when I say it's been a mindblowing adventure. I began with Kathik Calling Karthik - a gripping thriller of sorts. Then it was Dasvidaniya - a fantabulous story of a dying man and how he ties all loose ends (yes...a Bucket List inspired film).

And finally, I came across "Stanley ka Dabba" - a very low-budget and off-beat film - that many people appear to have written off as a Taare Zameen Par spin-off. The movie written & directed by Amole Gupte (the curly haired fellow on the right in the picture here) and starring his own son, Partho, as the protagonist Stanley, is about this extremely popular and affable kid, who's always the cynosure of all eyes and about his dabba that never makes an appearance till the near end of the film. A stellar storyteller and public speaker, Stanley has some wacky ideas and anecdotes to share that make him a hero amongst his classmates and English teacher, but largely despised by all other subject teachers, particularly by Babu Bhai "Khadus" Verma, the Hindi teacher, who much to his dismay finds himself contending with Stanley to get at the other kids' dabbas. It doesn't take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out whom the kids would rather share their lunch with, which ticks off ol' Khadus all the more. He banishes poor Stanley from school until he gets that elusive dabba. The remainder of the film takes us through Stanley's perseverence to get into an inter-school concert, his friends' loyalty and his true story and life. All in all, a well made, concise, pertinent and touching story.

Most of us will be able to relate to the teachers depicted in the film. Mom was hysterical throughout the film explaining amidst interspersed laughter, "That's exactly how my Hindi teacher was! HAHA! I actually know a lady who speaks like that! Hahaha! Typical science teacher! Bru-hahaha!" We've all had classmates and teachers like those shown in the movie

The soundtrack is fresh and lively and rife with some fairly big singers like Shaan, Shankar Mahadevan and Vishal Dadlani. The lyrics are all penned by Amole Gupte himself, so kudos to him! An amazing background score throughout the film makes it a fantastic 90 minute journey till the end! So go ahead unhindered and watch "Stanley ka Dabba" when you get a chance =) !

And now the music update \m/ ! This song's been in the news for all the wrong reasons, but you'll all have to admit it's one catchy tune and you can't help but jump and scream along with the chorus. The song I'm talking about of course is "Bhaag DK Bose" from the Aamir Khan produced Delhi Belly. There's a brilliant punk rock video for the song with the cast - Imran Khan, Vir Das and Kunal Kapoor. The video's obviously a colossal hit as well with several hits over the last couple of weeks. Sung by Ram Sampath and written by Amitabh Bhattacharya, this song shows a lot of promise of going down as the song of the year 2011. Finally, stereos the nation over will be able to play something other than "Sheila ki Jawani" or "Munni hui badnaam". Surely that's some respite for the poor boomboxes =) !

There's a large chunk of people who insist the song is a Green Day rip off and should be "disliked" (to use the Youtube term) and discarded as a cheap imitation. It's ironic that people get so stuck-up into believing that nothing original can come up in the country and anything different being tried out is always ridiculed as being pretentious and fake. If you try hard enough, you'll always find a song to be similar to another you've heard in the past. But that shouldn't make the song any less worthy. If it's good in it's entirety, I say, go ahead and listen to it with reckless abandon. Besides another way of looking at it is ol' Ram Sampath's getting Green Day to the masses in a form they'd understand and love. So turn up those speakers and have them blare out "Bhaag Bhaag DK Bose" (have a good explanation ready for your parents though ;) )!



Song of the Post:
Allstar Weekend - Not your Birthday
(Amazing dance/rock track! Makes you want to bounce =) !)