NAAM SHABANA - The Review

April 04, 2017

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Manoj Bajpayee, Taapsee Pannu, Prithviraj Sukumaran

Direction: Shivam Nair

Genre: Action

Duration: 2 hours 28 minute


Naam Shabana Story : Shabana Khan (Taapsee) is the special agent who is entrusted the task of assassinating a deadly arms dealer(Prithviraj) by the Indian Intelligence Agencies.

Naam Shabana Review : Blame this prequel on the media. Most critics who saw Neeraj Pandey’s action-drama, Baby (2015) praised agent, Shabana’s cameo in it. Her brisk action-sequence in a Kathmandu hotel room, when accompanying Ajay Singh (Akshay Kumar) on a mission, provided the required adrenaline-rush. Taking the praise to their heart, this time around, the makers dedicated 148 mins, (really?) to the spunky agent. Sorry, but the running time is the film’s first inherent flaw. Frankly, Shabana shone in Baby because she was in a cameo.

Straight away it reminds you how women are no longer helpless when teased by a bunch of drunken louts; or when brushed against accidentally in crowded spaces. They have enough and more in their DNA to give back as good as they get.
Also a quick look at Shabana’s back-story. Growing up she was scarred by an alcoholic father, who abused her mother. And she has spent time in a juvenile correction facility for accidentally killing her father. Instead of allowing this to mar her future, Shabana moulds herself differently from your average Seeta, Salma or Suzy.

The first half indulges the protagonist and her love interest, Jai too much. It is only post-intermission, especially the last 35 minutes in which proceedings pick up. Sticking to a typical-action drama narrative that jumps from Mumbai to Goa, Vienna to Kuala Lumpur, with the arms dealer and the ISI agents playing a cat-and-mouse game, the film, is more an escapist fare than a realistic one.

Taapsee delivers some knockout punches and is sincere enough. Manoj is brilliant, though he has just dialogue-baazi and no action to support him. As for Akshay, he is happy to lend his superstar-presence and bask in the girl power. So go ahead and salute his spirit. 

Phillauri-The review

March 25, 2017

Cast: Anushka Sharma, Suraj Sharma, Diljit Dosanjh, Mehreen Pirzada

Direction: Anshai Lal

Genre: Drama

Duration: 2 hours 18 minutes

Phillauri Story : Kanan accidentally marries a ghost, Shashi, while conducting pre-wedding rituals to get rid of bad luck. But as luck would have it, Shashi sticks around and turns into his agony aunt.
Kanan marries a tree to ward off back luck before his wedding, and the tree turns out to be the resting place of Shashi (Anushka Sharma), who lived and loved there almost a hundred years ago. As a result of this marriage, Shashi is bound to Kanan, who must figure out a way to take care of the unfinished business that’s causing her to linger around.

Phillauri Review :Phillauri is a winner and that much was evident from the trailer. The idea is superbly original, culturally on point and has great potential. The problem is, you only get what you see in the trailer. Nothing more (and thankfully nothing less). The hilarious, exciting one-line plot develops into a two-and-a-half hour film that is full of romantic-movie tropes.
The invisibility of the ghost can only get so many laughs; the narrative shifts between Shashi’s past and Kanan’s present seem abrupt; the soulful songs are easy on the ears but strain your eyes by adding to the runtime, and most importantly, Shashi’s story (the emotional core of the film) is largely formulaic.
The actors sweep in and carry the film, though. With his body language and voice modulation, Suraj Sharma nails the confused-aimless millennial and lightens the mood. Mehreen Pirzada’s helpless and hopelessly-in-love Anu is endearing. Diljit Dosanjh brings his trademark goodness to a rather bland role. And as the translucent ghost (kudos to the VFX team), Anushka delivers a solid performance with a weird mix of sadness and humour.
It seems as though Phillauri could have gone in a lot of directions, but it took the road usually travelled.

Meditation

Taking a bit of time out to focus your mind can seem an indulgence in today's fast-paced ever-connected world. But there's a growing body of evidence suggesting regular meditation has potent health benefits. Meditation is a discipline that involves turning the mind and attention inward and focusing on a single thought, image, object or feeling. While it's been practised in different cultures for thousands of years – usually as a way of finding inner peace and becoming closer to God – these days, it's definitely not just for the spiritual. Meditation is increasingly used by stressed out students, overwhelmed parents, overloaded employees or anyone who wants a greater sense of feeling focused and calm (or increasingly, help with managing a health condition). If you want to get the full benefits of meditation, then you'll need to practice regularly.

Here are 6 ways research suggests meditation may benefit health.

1. Meditation slows age-related brain loss - long-time meditators experienced markedly smaller reductions in grey matter volume than those who did not meditate.

2. Meditation can improve sleep quality - People over 55 with moderate sleep disturbances reported greater improvements in their sleep quality using mindfulness meditation compared with those who used a more structured program that focused on changing poor sleep habits and setting a bedtime routine

3. It can help relieve pain - The effect of meditation on pain found that advanced meditators report feeling less pain than non-meditators, yet show more activity in brain areas associated with pain.

4. It improves concentration - A group who had received mindfulness training two hours a day for eight weeks were much more efficient at completing discrete tasks in a multitasking challenge than groups who hadn't been trained or who had been trained only in body relaxation. This fits in with other research showing mindfulness helps concentration on a physical level by helping our attention networks communicate better and with fewer interruptions than they otherwise would.

5. It can help addiction - Whether it's cravings for cigarettes, binge eating, alcohol or other drugs, there's evidence mindfulness can help. The technique works on multiple levels – by strengthening self-control, helping us detach from the craving sensation, and being less stressed in the first place

6. Meditation can stop the 'monkey mind' - Mindfulness meditation can decrease activity in brain regions responsible for our mind's tendency to drift from topic to topic ('monkey mind') – a habit that when poorly controlled has been linked with poor mental (and physical) health. Mind-wandering is a common activity present in roughly 50 per cent of our awake life, but is also associated with lower levels of happiness, say the authors of a recent study at Yale University. This is presumed to be because our thoughts often tend towards rumination or stress.

Health In Busy Schedule

We’re all so busy these days, who has time for exercising and thinking about healthy eating? Here are ten tips to help you out with that dilemma!

1. Short workouts – You don’t have to fit in an hour-plus workout four times a week, try shorter, more intense workouts.       

2. Find what you like! Some people adore zumba, others choose yoga. Whatever makes you feel good, that’s the workout for you because you’ll keep coming back.

3. Look online for super-quick recipes. Then make sure the fridge has the elements you’ll need, giving you more time for the things you love. Or, fill the freezer with healthy meals, and life gets even easier!

4. Work out with your kids or friends: Running around with your energetic kids or friends is one of the best workouts ever.

5. If you absolutely don’t have time for a workout, then fit fitness into your lifestyle; take stairs instead of elevators. Walk or bike to work.  Garden or do yard work. If you have a lunch date with a friend, offer to go for a walk rather than sitting down at a restaurant.

6. On a weekend, if you’re making a pasta, stew, soup or healthy curry, make enough for more days. Then have it waiting in the fridge or freezer for those busy nights when you don’t feel like cooking. Much better than ordering a pizza!

7. Work out in the morning- it’s better than coffee for waking you up, gets that endorphins rolling, and gets your day started right! There are various health benefits to working out in the morning, including boosting your energy.

8. Check your surfing time. If you actually clock how much time you spend surfing the internet, you may be surprised. Put a timer on your internet time and you’ll gain a few more minutes every day.

9. You need to relax, meditation can help.

10. Exercise while watching TV: If you set up your exercise bike in front of the TV, you can jump on and pedal away as you watch.

Book Review- Revolution 2020

Revolution 2020: Love, Corruption, Ambition by Chetan Bhagat

Pages- 296

Publisher- Rupa & co.

Date of publication- 2011

Chetan Bhagat- He has stated that the novel is based on the "uncontrolled corruption"  in the Indian youth educational system, with the choice of Varanasi as a setting emerging through "a special connection to the city" following his visit. He further said "it is one of our oldest cities, and people there now have modern aspirations. I thought the contrast would be interesting. The city also has a lot of character. The story’s narrator is Gopal.

Chetan Bhagat visits GangaTech College in Varanasi to deliver a speech. There, he meets Gopal, the 26-year-old protagonist who has achieved great success in life surrounding himself with lots of money and yet has an unhappy life .The same day, Gopal invites Bhagat for a drink which Bhagat agrees. After an overdose of alcohol Gopal is been admitted in the hospital and this is where he shares his own past with Bhagat.

Revolution 2020 is the story of three childhood friends: Gopal, Raghav, and Aarti. The story is setup in the holy-city of Varanasi. Gopal and Raghav are schoolmates from the childhood and share the same bench in school. Aarti is also from the same class. Gopal loves Aarti from the school days. Gopal comes from a filmy-Indian-middle-class background. Raghav is from an almost well to do family, where as Aarti comes from a kind of bureaucratic and political family. Three of them have their own ambitions in life. Gopal wants to be a rich man, Raghav wants to change the world, Aarti wants to become an air hostess.

After the failure in getting through JEE and AIEEE exams, Gopal is forced by his father to repeat the exams next year. But Raghav secures a good rank and joins the top college in Varanasi. Aarti falls in love with Raghav.

What happens when Gopal returns to Varanasi after his one year stint at cracking the entrance exams is the main part of the story. Apart from losing his love, he couldn’t find a seat in engineering to fulfil his father’s dream. Then Gopal proceeds to set up his own business, GangaTech college in Varanasi with the help of an MLA Shukla using his Power .He pay bribes to everyone he comes across to keep the Engineering college running, from government officials to the faculties in the college. He finally achieved his dream to becoming rich.

On the other side, Raghav succeeds in his exams becomes a journalist and starts his own newsletter called Revolution 2020 in which he publishes an article about the Ganga Treatment Scam and proves that Shukla is a corrupt man. Aarti is caught between the loves of both her friends, switches from one to another due to the twists that arises in the story. The three friends then resolve the ending where in Aarti gets married to Raghav whereas Gopal paves way for their happy future life.

How Gopal chooses corruption as an aid to become a successful person while Raghav tries to change the world with his revolutionary ideals is what the middle pages of the book are all about.

Few of my favourite sentences:

>I am reproducing few of the sentences I have underlined while I was reading the book.

>People come to my city to feel the presence of god, but I could feel her presence everywhere.

>Ease of cremation is one solid advantage of being in Varanasi. The death industry drives the city.

>Stupid people go to colleges. Smart people own them.

>We don’t fix cases; we fix the people in the cases.

What I didn’t like?

>The story becomes too predictive in few places and you might as well skip through paragraphs at times.

It’s a really good read if someone like reading light fiction.