Thursday, January 26, 2006

The day we went gading

Republic day, 2006

The republic turned 56. The word republic comes from the Latin res publica: public matter, or the affairs of the people. A state governed by an assembly of citizens rather than by a king, queen or emperor. Another matter, His Royal Highness King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia lorded over the main celebrations at Rajpath. Filthy rich, regal and autocratic as ever! PM and Prez were relegated to the shadows.

Far from the maddening crowd, I decided to go hopping with my bunch of mad-caps. Five of us -- Sam {thats me}, Wasy { Did I hear someone say... Attitute}, Raj { Where do you end}, Salus { I too wanna drive} and Navvy { Sweeto}. We watched the latest Amir Khan starrer Rang De Basanti -- RDB. Frankly, I don't watch too much of Indian cinema because much of it is pretty pedestrian. Average, run-of-the-mill type. There are occassional flashes of brilliance. RDB, however, dazzles!

Stellar performances, superb direction and a subtle, strong message. They say a good movie must entertain. RDB, not only entertains, it amuses, mocks, jokes and makes you think hard. It is a courageous, different and coming-of-age flick. Ofcouse, I cried. I laughed my heart out. We all did. The entire cinema was whoopee-ing with roars of laughter. It was a joyride -- History beautifuly interwoven with the present. The stiches are not at all visible. Perfect connect. That is what film-making is all about. It lifts you and drops you back in the peanut crunching darkness.

We drove down to D-Haat through the express bridge. 127 kites soared in the Sky. All connected by one string. Hot Paranthas and sugary-tea in open air with pals. Calories can take a back-seat for the while. Dinner at 11-30 in the night over some sensible discussion. I battled with 6 fiesty souls. They threw a barrage of tough questions. I batted for the Republic, ofcourse.


Sameer

4 comments:

Pragnya said...

Hey
thanx a ton... was waiting for reviews of this movie... just to be sure... will take my family out for this treat...

glad to see some ppl who actually took the time out to step out of their homes on a holiday...

have fun!! coz it comes naturally to an Indian.. ;-)

Pragnya

Anonymous said...

Her Sam, I love to read you here. You r such a sweetheart and your prose is so effortless.
Can't wait to read more of you.

Anonymous said...

I enjoy the amazing analogies you keep making from time to time. You start with Republic and culminate with the same theme. That is how a sensible piece is written.

All that it takes to be a good writer.
Alec

Anonymous said...

Happy Republic day to you. I check your website because it gives me a pulse of what our young generation is thinking.