Sarkar Raj

RGV shares a trait with Dan Brown, of riveting story telling. They are able to amalgamate bits of facts with lot of masala fiction. He has done it skillfully in Company, Ab tak chappan and Sarkar. Sarkar Raj is an encore.

The mercurial Nagre household portrayal based on the Thackeray family is carried over from the earlier episode. Additionally this one has an analogy of Subhash Nagre’s mentor to how Gandhiji used to lead the Indian freedom movement from the remote Sevagram ashram. It seems for special effects RGV picked Dilip Prabhavalkar who is fresh in junta’s mind as Gandhiji from Munnabhai movie.

For reasons unknown, this movie has received more than its fair share of flak. I guess we can clearly see how people like SRK churn up farcical stuff while the media sings paeans to his 6-pack. This one is definitely worth a multiplex watch for following reasons:

1. Crisp editing: Not even once did I get bored.

2. No dancing around the trees/ swimming pools/shaadi-baraat/foreign location songs.

3. Suppressed melodrama: Especially the scene where Ash cries in anguish.

4. The final twist in the tale

Rating: 3/5

Joggers Park Musings

I have just moved back to Thane and my parents are tired of seeing me dozing away in the bed at 9 AM. To show that their son is a “aadnyadhaari putra” , I started frequenting the joggers park in thane. Here are my observations on some special species found there. Kindly note, such parks abound in Mumbai suburbs and you are will find similar species everywhere.

1. Television Yoga fans: They will practice 5 different Pranayam exercises and each one accompanied by 10 different sounds you have never heard before. You will wonder what part of their body these are sounds coming from. Some pros look like they are all set to win the “I-am-a-cycle-pump” championship.

2. Get Slim fast types: Very likely to be fresh members at the park. They have been “advised” to take up brisk walking in order to (briskly) lose weight. They want to transform from Rambha-ish to Kareena-ish figure in 20 days flat. Favorite exercise is stomping off for 10 rounds in the park. Once they start marching you are best advised to stay off their course. Anything and everything that comes across them will be crushed. P.S: I am still recovering from my last week’s encounter.

3. HA-HA-HO-HO types: Will generally be made up of uncles. Thankfully aunties are more decorum prone. Laughter is definitely a nice medicine but the following problems occur:

1. The sight of sober people inflicted by reasonless laughter bouts is absolutely amusing.

2. As all non-laughter club members see this sight and knowingly smirk at each other, our laughing dudes are encouraged to spread the cheer even more loudly.

3. Competing clubs! You will be subjected to a Jugal-Bandi between the laughing gharanas.

4. We-Love-Vada-Pav: These people will spend 10 minutes strolling across the park before they queue up to gobble down Vada-Pav(s), trebling their calorie intake. I guess their guilt is easily stifled unlike others sweating it out for hours.

5. The jogger dudes and babes: They too are fresh entrants to the circus. Easily spotted with new Nike/Adidas/Reebok shoes, Nike/Adidas/Reebok hair-band, Nike/Adidas/Reebok sweat bands, and I-pod clipped to the T-Shirt sleeve, they are straight out of some Sports magazine cover. 5 minutes into their jog and they realist the futility of spending up on all this attire, coz the parks in mumbai are just not wide enuf for people to jog. If they are lucky they can jog a round by chanting "excuse me" every 2 steps as they wriggle through the maze of junta. If they are not lucky, they WILL bump into some senior lady and be driven away by choicest expletives.

Top 10 myth busters for Go-Goa Tourists!

1.The natives in Goa are “G.O.A.N”s!!! not “goanese”. Yeh Japan nahi ha baba!

2. There are more Hindus in Goa than Christians. It is NOT a "Maaka-Pav" state.

3. The booze is cheaper than in Mumbai, but your stomach has a capacity of less than 1 liter!

4. All beaches are NOT connected. If you continue walking along the beach, you will NOT reach the other end of goa, as you plan to brag about later. All that would happen is you would have reached 3 km away from your favorite shack where your pals are busy getting sloshed.

5. The foreigners have come on a vacation; they have not traveled this far just to pose with you in your photos, you want to show off back home.

6. Just because you are in Goa,the definition of bewda doesn’t change. If you are sloshed, you are a bewda!

7. It’s Goa, Not your cow belt! So don’t crib “Yahan paneer ki dish achi nahi banti”

8. Beware of clicking snaps of skimply clad angez females. They are generally accompanied by tagada boyfriends!

9. Putting temporary black tattoos is by no means Goan culture, so don’t stop your daily bath, just to show off that tattoo back home as proof of your visit to Goa.


10. The flea markets near Anjuna are there to fleece the foreign tourists. As an Indian, you are advised to be fleeced in Fashion Street or Connaught Place.