Rains, Age and Perceptions

Age 4-12: Dehradun, Col Brown School
Loved Rains
•Coz, I didn’t have to wake up early for Physical Training sessions, that meant another 1 hr of early morning sleep
• Enjoyed hot steaming Tea (sugar water in hostels) for breakfast, Hot rajma-chawal for dinner…slrrp!!
•Coz played football in the wet fields while it was drizzling
•Didn’t have to waste time on bathing ritual
•The fields were flooded with hail, the greens turned white looked picturesque
•Didn’t pay attention to anything in class, either gazed outside or simply snuggled and dozed off
Hated Rains
•Coz I had to wear those heavy gum boots for the whole day
•Coz I had to sit in the lobby all through the 1.5 hrs of evening sports sessions hoping that it stops raining and instructor allows us to play
•Coz I misplaced my raincoat couple of times amongst the heap outside the mess and had to run to the hostel
•Coz I couldn’t tolerate the sight of hundreds of slimy creatures (earthworms) wriggling in the field
Age 13-18, Delhi, KHRMS
Loved rains
•Played basketball
•No assembly
•Made sure to get punished so that we three (mausam, pari and me) get to stand out of the class
•Watching the z-black eyes on the other side of the corridor in class
Hated rains
•The uniform was all white, even the trousers and definitely not the best body
•Home was not to far so had to walk back and cars splashed all the water on pedestrians, delhites don’t have basic road manners I say
Age 19-28 Delhi, Assam,hydbd, Mumbai…nsit, job, isb, job
Loved rains
•NSIT is the most beautiful of the places I have been in delhi and it is simply AWESOME during the monsoons
•Soccer, basketball and volleyball….loved it all
•Bird-watching while getting drenched in the rain
•Never ever gave a thought that umbrellas or raincoats existed, trusted a couple of things depending on the situation
oMy ability to run if I wanted to reach almost dry which I never did
oThe rationale that it is just water what differnce does it make when I wanted to walk
•Loved passing comments on love birds in college, simplllllllllly loved it and lot of them were coochicooing in the rain sitting on the pavements or some remote corners. Sadistic it might seem but our gang actually did that.
•The life in job was wonderful I enjoyed the adventure of getting stuck and stranded on the road for hours waiting for rescue
•Looking back it was fun going to the site on a rainy day, working in the beaaaaautiful tea gardens, driving in the assam valley during the rain, taking pictures simply awesome
•Mumbai if I keep aside the water logging everything else is simply awesome during the rains, the city comes to life.
Never hated rains after that, just that my expenses increased by a couple of times. I had to invest in a lot of spare “clothes” … 

Raavan: Mani try making a Mime

Cinematographic brilliance

 The media puts it as a version of Ramayana, I would just say well thought out script on the lines of Ramayana but somewhere the script wasn’t crisp hence the execution was a little weak. Expectations from Mani ratnam were high with abhi-aish duo on the cast, probably that is one reason where people failed to see some of the good aspects of the movie

Characters were well chosen, the introduction on screen of the characters was good especially if we look at how best they could have related the characters to the Ramayana. Govinda’s character as hanuman was probably most acceptable if not the best.

A couple of things that I think were brilliant, not sure if the director also thinks the same

•  Ram/Dev: Ram has always been the “maryada purushottam” but here he was more like Krishna where he would do the righteous task without much concern of the means.
• Sita is still the vulnerable one, Ram or Raavan she will be a means to an end for either of them. She fears death over the loss of her sanctity but not more than the life of her man. For the sita it is the trust of a man than the vice or virtues that maketh the man.
• Raavan: I liked the character. The love not lust for sita, the denouncing of force to overpower her and finally letting go of her. This was different from actual Ramayana where it started with revenge switched to lust and then in the end it was the ego of being the indomitable.

Given an option of how the movie probably could have been better? A few recommendations;

1)      With sheer cinematographic brilliance and amazingly thought out shots I think the dialogues weren’t given too much emphasis moreover the delivery was weak. I would rather keep the dialogues to a minimum especially for Beera, somewhat like Amitabh in Sarkaar. His get up, his eyes, his expressions should do the talking.

Aish is not the right choice of the character, secondly too many dialogues for her, with that kind of irritating voice she continuously brays “bachao bachao” in the highest pitch ..it was a torture. Don’t give her dialogues if it is mandatory to keep her. 
Given a choice I would pick Isha shravani for this role; Rustic, southern beauty with a face where expressions are very prominent and a good amalgamation of innocence, vulnerability and warrior streak.