Chak de! India

Thanks to the five star juniors, Malaysians, exchange students and all the sucking up. The mess is going to be centrally airconditioned. Hammering and renovation everywhere. No TV since 6 weeks. So there was no hype, no expectation. The surprise only turned out to be bigger.

Too much attendance is harmful. The decision was made. It had to be first day first show. It is Shahrukh Khan after all.

What entertainment! Swell time. My only regret was that I watched it in Adlabs and not in Central or Jyothi or something. Packed cheap theatres intensify the thrill four folds.

The story line is nothing unpredictable. Full of cliches. Nobody thinks of the women's hockey team as more than a joke. With our hero's determination India wins the world cup. There isn't anything more to it. But it will make you feel good. Sugar syrup for the weak soul or whatever.

The girls hate each other, hate the coach. They bicker all the time. Coach gives them a hard time. They gang up against him and write to the association to fire him. He resigns himself because he feels terribly let down. On the last day he takes the whole team for lunch to Mc Donalds. A bunch of eve teasing idiots start acting nasty. Fight gets picked up. First time the girls show some team spirit. SRK watches quietly until this rowdy is about to pound someone's head with a cricket bat. He dramatically stops him and says something which goes like "Mardon ki tarah aage se waar karo. Woh kya hain ki hockey mein chakke nahin hote hain." What dialogue delivery! What expression. What charm. It was difficult to sit still. Then the patch up is cute. They all walk back to the stadium heads high and hearts full of challenge and aspirations and to especially show the chauvinistic pigs what stuff the team is made of. One big feeling stirs up in the chest. Quite a few times. Also a grin.

In the first half, the inter relationships of the team mates, how he tackles the haughty girls, the fights, the ego clashes have been nicely portrayed. Issues like the glamour, craze and media hype associated with cricket and its obvious absence with hockey have been touched well. Also all the criticism about Indian women only fit for handling chapathi dough, dosa batter and producing babies shamelessly running around in knickers. The background score is catchy. The second half is more or less foreseeable. But exciting and entertaining nevertheless. The last twenty minutes are great. You will want to get up and shout. I loved every bit. The whole of two hours and forty minutes actually. His looks august, aristocratic and classy. The thin beard and the serious face is adorable. Feast to the eyes. Drooly. He is back and how! The girls are enthralling too.

It is full of minute surprises and tiny details which have been taken good care of. You will be pleasantly surprised. And if you like him, you will hopelessly, ruthlessly enjoy it. Like I did. Bombshell.

Assorted

Everytime a professor asks a question that nobody can answer, I think that next time I am asked the same, things will be different. Such occasions have never come. Each time it is different. No repitition. Probably this is what people meant about the vastness.

All through the year you will develop skin rash here. Because of all the perspiration in the harsh, pitiless summer. And by wearing all those damp clothes in the unending rains which never dry. There are no other seasons.

There are some people whom I would really prefer to ignore. But I am obliged to smile, make small conversation when going in the same elevator or walking across a narrow corridor. When that someone pretends to not notice or fidget with the cell phone, I get greatly relieved.

Coastal Karnataka is beautiful. Especially during monsoons. Like God has spilled shimmer everywhere. There are so many of these lost paradise kind of places around Mangalore.

Kannada lyrics have been worded for A.R.Rehman's Airtel theme song. My latest pick. The female voice is all sugar coated, smooth, shrill and sissy. Likeable-sissy. Like Chitra's, Shreya Goshal's. My current ring tone. Quite nice.

When there is strong wind and rain, when I wear my hair loose and when the car I'm driving in plays songs which have lyrics full of the kind of sentimental crap I thrive on, I get high.

On the dinner table I will hate everybody who will get the cell phone out and play snake or text or open the gallery.

Friends who don't keep account of the money you borrow rock.

I admire the remaining teeth much more after my incisor has been plucked.

Couldn't believe it was Shekhar Suman. The same guy who picks on everybody under the sun. Plus manages to be witty quite a few times. He has come up with a music video where he is sporting the just out of high school look with body hugging clothes, first love antics and is romancing a bikini and shells clad female three fourth his age.