Birthdays and Rockstar

A couple of days ago I took another step deeper into middle age. 44 years old. Yayyyy (use an ironic tone on this one while reading please)

Used to be, birthdays meant cake, sandwiches, wafers and soft drinks. Shared among friends and in our case, my sister and I. We share a birthday a few years apart. Pretty much one of a handful of things we have in common. She's fiery, I'm laconic;  she's extrovert, I well...; you get the picture.

She wasn't here. Bummer. Missed her. Damn I must learn to stay en pointe...

Well, my birthday this year was a quiet affair. A nice quiet lunch with my parents and a close friend. A movie and a chance to catch my breath, reflect on the year gone by and a look ahead to the years ahead. So much left to do....a general seeping realization that the time to rest maybe a bit further away than I'd hoped, until....

The cake!!...specially ordered by ze wife...true bliss is a chocolate hazelnut mousse cake using virgin chocolate, a nutty wafer base and little scrunches of hazelnut in every morsel. Hot damn! So much to live for!!!! Life's worth living again, heppee budde!!!

It's funny isn't it? There are times I've been feeling  totally bleahh about everything and it's all crap and you know what I'm talking about. And suddenly, a little gesture, a small piece of magic makes it all better. There's this wonderful line in an other wise decrepit film called "How do you know" where Paul Ruud's character says - 'We're one small adjustment away from making ourselves happy'. I realized that day what he was saying.

Eat cake. That's it.

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Saw 'Rockstar' yesterday. Really wanted to like it. Loved Ranbir Kapoor, the first half, the visuals and the scenery.

Hated Nargis Fakhri. How did she get into the movies? We should get the Razzie guys to start one for India. She'd be a shoo in. What a waste of space. 

Really disappointed with Imtiaz Ali's writing. This is a guy who's work I really like and man did I feel let down in the second half. What a cop out. Instead of focusing on the travails of the rock star lifestyle (it's not easy you know), we have our protagonist traipsing through Europe with a mannequin in some absurdly boring version of tragic romance. Everything I saw in the trailers which made me think there was a point to the whole exercise...well turned out to be meaningless pap. From that standpoint I guess it stands to reason...today's performers are all about image in any case so why should this movie be different. But did it have to be so bloody boring? And who fed the editor sleeping pills?

Shame really, because Ranbir Kapoor's performance is sincere, searing and in places downright genius. This guy has some serious acting chops and for his sake I hope he continues to do good cinema. Good luck to him.

Finally, why are our producers approaching A R Rahman to score music? He doesn't care anymore. There are 14 songs in the film. The punchline of Sadda Haq is the only one I can remember. How many can you remember after you exit the cinema hall? How many can you hum in the bath? 

It's rock music buddy, it's supposed to be simple, an opiate for the masses something that everything can sing along. Not some disjointed pretentious and unstructured pap that you're subjecting your loyal audience. This movie was a tribute to Shammi Kapoor (title credits). Does anyone recall Teesri Manzil? Now that was ground breaking stuff. Changed Bollywod music forever right? Rockstar's music does not. Sad. 

Give me Shankar - Ehsaan - Loy or Vishal - Shekhar anyday.