Paise lelo, Phaansi do.

A lone protestor climbs the first pole near the sidelane outside the Rashtrapati Bhawan, his one arm reaches his pockets as he dangles with the support of the other, and throws coins at the reporters and the police on the other side of the barricades. The crowd erupts with the slogan, "Paise le lo, Phaansi do"(Take money, but hang the culprits). Delhi was angry. Delhi was ashamed.

The weekend saw the biggest protest in India ever, that was not instigated by a political cause. Students, children, mothers, teachers, the working class had taken to the streets, to demand safety for women and speedy justice for a "fighter", a girl who has shown a spirit to the nation, I personally couldn't have dreamt of, no one could. The same spirit drives Delhi today, and I am proud of it, proud of the people. As I travel in the metro, as Mandi House station, Barakhamba and others pass by, I can't help but admire the strength the protest has gathered. And it should stay the same way, infact it should only grow stronger.

Yesterday was a bad day, but do not let it define what the protest stands for. Do not let images from the media, the lathicharge, the christmas holidays, the cold wave, the new year deter you from making an appearance. Yes, we belong to the working class now, we have just one weekend, or one holiday, the metros are closed, friends are meeting and blah blah blah.. If you really feel angry, if you feel the girl deserves justice, the culprits deserve to be subjected the most brutal punishment you can think of, the rape law needs to be changed (Do read about the Rape Law ), no girl should ever go through, what "she" did and if you believe that no uncle, no cop, no hooligan has the right to shove his sick idea of morality on to you, to teach you a lesson, just join the protests happening near you and show your support even for 1 hour. It will change you.

I am not from Delhi, I am from U.P., if the same had happened there(and yes they happen so often, but never has the media taken up a case so strongly), I can't say with conviction that the result would have been the same. But I believe in Delhi. I believe in this new wave in the nation. And so should you.

Talaash: Disappointed?

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Congratulations to all those, who watched Talaash on the first day, and dismantled an otherwise engaging thriller by giving away the suspense on statuses, messages and personal calls! When I went for the movie, I had three rumors to verify and judge, “Which one is the correct one, the ghost, the serial killer or the psychopath!”. Though I knew the suspense, I personally loved Talaash, and I was surprised to know that it wasn't the general perception.

I heard a lot of people that they were let down by Aamir Khan, a reviewer felt cheated by the end, and then there were the ridiculous notions, “Ye kya baat hui, end me bhoot nikal gyi!”. I have just one question, why such a closed response? Why couldn’t an Aamir Khan movie have a supernatural element? Just because, it wasn’t promoted like that (for obvious reasons)! Or because, you were expecting a “contemporary” murder mystery. And if it were the latter, you weren’t really expecting an Aamir Khan movie, were you? Talaash is just a movie, killed by high expectations, infact, the word is unrealistic.

A movie audience that has hailed “The Sixth Sense” or “The Others” as masterpieces, has lambasted a very genuine and honest effort on the part of the writer and director Reema Kagti, and it somewhat bothers me. “Mera Saaya”, “Wo Kaun Thi”, “Teesri Manzil” were all classics woven together around the supernatural, and I can’t seem to remember any movie in the recent past that I could even list with them, infact there is none. Its a genre long forgotten, where shock wasn’t used as a medium to scare, even a women singing on a cliff, sent chills down the spine. Its one of the few sensible movies made recently (if you are one of those, who can’t digest sensible and supernatural in the same sentence, please try and understand that I am writing about a piece of fiction.), and when I say sensible, I mean to discourage movies like Dabang, Dabang 2, Race 2, Agent Vinod, Student of the Year and the likes.

Yes, the movie is flawed, I don’t deny that. The Rani Mukherjee and her dead son saga is overstretched, just for the sake of the entire premise to make sense. There are clues at regular intervals for anyone to decipher, there are dialogues that seem forced and there was no need to show the helping-ghost-underwater sequence at the end. It’s not perfect, but Talaash does come so close and makes an earnest effort with touching characters(yes, I am talking about Kareena Kapoor and Nawazuddin). Its good to see, a Bollywood movie break the norm and attempt something different, so beautifully. To me, its a script, betrayed by the audience.