This Weekend….

Firstly, thank you for reading my previous post. A bigger thank you to my pals who told me I sucked at being verbose:) I appreciate it, no, I seriously do:).

This weekend was fun. I watched a movie I was anticipating for a while, had dinner at an amazing restaurant, the following night was spent at an Irish pub in San Francisco, dinner at 3AM and a brunch get together with a dear friend, the following morning, whom I had not seen in a long time. This will hence forth be pretty much a review of the places I was at this weekend with some thoughts sprinkled in for meatiness.

Friday night, I got to watch Jodhaa-Akbar. Good movie. Screenplay- very good, script- good, acting- well, one guy simply stood out from the rest, Hrithik Roshan was very, very good. Music- one song stands out, Kwhaja…stupendous music. Art- Nitin Desai-very, very good. Support cast- Average. Duration- about 45 minutes too long. Compliance with history- who cares. Thats my beef, actually, with anyone who expects a documentary from artists who tell stories. Why can’t we just grow up as a nation and understand that many a time, other Indians can dream and, some, like the director Ashutosh G, are gifted enough to get it across to you and me(I have a beef with the director as well, but I will get back to it later). Whats the point in preventing a movie from getting screened? Why, are we as a country, moving towards becoming a place where Hussein can’t paint, Taslima can’t write, Rushdie can’t live, Deepa Mehta can’t screen a movie. I just want to know, what makes us that sensitive to almost any sort of social debate…Whats even more appalling is a collective sentivity of a mob, I mean, how can you explain ten thousand mobsters(all, by definition are seeking an identity) all sharing the same grouse with a work of fiction. To me, that seems quite irrational. Not surprisingly, their acts are irrational. All these manifestations, just reinforce my belief that compulsory education for everyone in the country is the way ahead, otherwise I fear, we as a nation may become unsustainable. My other beef is with the director, and not only him, a vast majority of people who make movies is that they try to humor you all the time. I think a majority of Indians are smart enough to get a point made with subtlety. There are instances in the movie where you feel he is trying to slam a point across your face!! dude, we get it. The additional hour of screenplay wasn’t worth it. I wish I could go on with a critique of the movie, am just not good enough at that.

Moving on to some good stuff, I was at Salang Pass, an Afghan restaurant in the bay area, CA. I simply blindly recommend the place to anyone who wants to give a shot at different cuisines. They serve a large percentage of vegetarian dishes, which might be quite against perception, I was pleasantly surprised. Great food, good ambiance, option of sitting on the floor, good service, quite and peaceful. Good part, generally don’t need reservations. Oh yes, not very expensive;).

Saturday night…dropped a friend off at SFO, lucky ass was going to India:(. Went to Sally Tully, an Irish pub at downtown SFO. They always have good live music there, yesterday was even better cuz they were playing floyd, cream and some dream theater. At about 2AM hunger kicked in and we just landed at some random pancake and omelette’s place, not before an eventful pit stop at a 24hr Starbuck’s. I’m just happy that I got home, whenever I did:)