Post from January, 2006

Jan 19

Thamel, Nepal’s Night Life and The Curfew

Thursday, 19. January 2006 8:43

When I had taken up this house here, the landlady had forewarned, ‘Don’t be late in the nights.’ I was a bit apprehensive but didn’t want to let go off a good house in an upmarket locality for this small reason. Later, I realised she needn’t have warned. Kathmandu follows a different day-cycle to Delhi.

It believes in ‘Early to bed, early to rise’ dictum. By nine the roads are nearly empty, and by ten the dogs are howling. In addition, I didn’t really make any off-line friends here. So I never did break her rule except on a few occasions when I have colleagues from India visiting.

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Category:Restaurant and Bars, Travel | Comments (6) | Author:

Jan 15

Zinda

Sunday, 15. January 2006 7:33

From Mukesh’s soul-stirring (and melodious) Zinda hoon iss tarah to Shibani Kashyap’s guttural scream (and off key) Zinda hoon main, Hindi film music has come a long way; and so have its noir heroes. From Raj Kapoor’s humorously dark but essentially tracing roots in light, bumbling tramp to Sanjay Gupta’s nether-conceptualised Armani- wearing sinister baddies is another journey that Bollywood has taken. 

I would have given Zinda a complete miss had it not been the only film playing in nearly all top Kathmandu cinema-halls. Family, the other release, and my own choice, has not made its way here yet. To give Gupta his due credit, Zinda is perhaps his most cohesive and steadfast narrative to date. I wouldn’t go overboard as some critics have done in lauding about ‘realism’ because that is still truly not fully present here, though I can understand where they come from. But yes, there is a sense of starkness and throat-grabbing urgency that is, if not appealing, but certainly very attention-focussing. 

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Category:Film Reviews | Comments (21) | Author: