LOHRI CELEBRATIONS

SHORT STORY

LOHRI CELEBRATIONS

It was 13 January, the day was quite sunny and perfect for sun bathe during winters. Most of the people know that in northern part of the India the day is celebrated as Lohri festival. During the day, children go from door to door singing folk songs. These children are given sweets etc. and occasionally, money. The collections gathered by the children are known as Lohri and consist of til, gachchak, moongphali (peanuts), popcorn etc. Lohri is then distributed at night during the festival. Till, peanuts, popcorn and other food items are also thrown into the bonfire. In houses that recently had a marriage (preferably boy) or childbirth (preferably boy), Lohri celebrations are made with more excitements, Bhangra and the Peanuts, popcorns, gachchak, crystal sugar and fruits etc. are distributed among all the nears and dears.

Coming back on the topic, I alongwith my wife was invited that day for Lohri celebrations by my cousin at his place in view of his son’s birth. His name is Raman, works in some paramilitary force as Havaldar and resides in a village. He is celebrating Lohri with great zeal and happiness because his wife Asha (a housewife) has given birth to a son after the birth of two girls (one 06 years old Aradhana and other 02 years old Ekta) and his wait for a son has finally completed.

My wife was calling from me from kitchen: take your breakfast yourself from kitchen, I have also to get ready or else we will be late to reach there. Then I ate my breakfast, put the utensils in the sink and I changed my clothes and get ready for going to my cousin’s house.

We left our house at about 11:00 a.m. and it was about 1 hour journey from my house. On the way, we stopped at fuel station, refilling petrol in my vehicle. While sitting in the car at the fuel station, I recalled that we forget to buy some gifts for kids so we bought toys for Aradhana, Ekta and newly born baby boy. At around 1:00 p.m. we were at my cousin’s place.

It was celebrations atmosphere there and many of the relatives and family friends were already reached. Raman Bhaiya welcomed us and we congratulated him and Asha Bhabhi and after their son. We had a small chit-chat with them and their daughters and particularly Aradhana and Ekta were very happy on receiving toys and Lohri gifts.

There was a little conversation with Raman Bhaiya and innocent Aradhana to which I was keenly listening. Aradhana while little confused asked her father, ‘Papa, is there any function or party in our home?

Raman Bhaiya: No beta, today we are celebrating Lohri in view of birth of your little bhaiya.

Aradhana: Why we are celeberate Lohri for Bhaiya?

Raman Bhaiya: Beta, this is custom beta, whenever is there any Marriage or child birth, Lohri is celebrated.

Aradhana: Papa, it means when I was born there was also Lohri celebrations.

After hearing this conversation, I was remind of my last visit to Raman Bhaiya an year ago when I had a little chat with him when he was telling me that he was planning for third baby after two girls. 

I said to him: You have already two children, what is the need of third one?

He: I wish to have son, that’s why

Me: In which time you live Bhaiya, girl or boy, how does it matters. Give your daughters love and quality education they will reciprocate more than boys.

He: I love my daughters, but I need son who could take care of us in our old age.

Me: Don’t you think, in such a times of inflation it would be difficult to manage quality education for three children for a middle class person. You note down my one thing that whenever there would a situation of option between girl and boy for giving better opportunity, your girl will have to manage.

He: I will manage, but son is son, you know.....

I came out of my thoughts when Aradhana was continuely saying to her father, Papa tell me, had you celebrated Lohri on my birth? Tell me, please tell me.

Raman Bhaiya was looking at his wife, towards me, but he had no answer and Aradhana was continuing asking the same question.

But the question is still there, when we talk only of equal opportunities for Girls or Boys, still we are not able to come out of ages old mindsets.....

                                                                                           - SD BOGAL

THEIR MORNING

 Short Story 

Their Morning

My younger brother is working with a private company in Delhi and stays with his family there and often visit to home at Jammu when he is free.  He usually comes through train as it is convenient to board the train in the evening in the weekend at reach home early in the morning next day.

That day also he had plan to come home alongwith his wife and daughter. It was January part of the year and cold was very severe that night and I was thinking that it would be very difficult for me to go to railway station early in the morning in such a cold day though I had to go by car. I set alarm on my phone for 6:00 a.m. in the morning so that I could reach station after freshen up at 7:00 a.m; the scheduled time of the train to reach station.

The alarm rang at 6:00 a.m. in the morning and it was very cold and foggy out there and moreover it’s very difficult to come out of cozy quilts in such chilling weather. I lazily snoozed the alarm for 10 minutes for two times and get inside the cozy quilt every time and my wife from inside the quilt kept telling me to get up or else I will be late to reach the station.

After lots of efforts I made my mind and get out of bed at 6:20 a.m. and hurriedly freshened up put on my shoes, cap, jacket etc. started the car. Even the steering wheel was also cold and I turned on the heater of the vehicle and moved towards my destination.

At reach at the Railway Station at around 7:00 a.m. and made a call to my brother to know his whereabouts and as always the train was late. I usually prefer to park my vehicle outside the Railway Station and my brother also knows about the place. As always, I park the vehicle at same place, stayed inside and started listening music as it was very cold and foggy out there.

At roadside, there was a large dumping area for garbage nearby where there was very bad and unbearable smell. While listening to music I accidently looked towards the dumping area and to my shock I noticed three kids of 10-12 years age group roaming there. They were putting on shabby clothes with big plastic bags on their backs.

I swiftly come out of my vehicle walked towards them. They were collecting broken plastic material, metallic containers, glass bottles etc. from the dumping area and putting them into their bags on their backs with full swing with no sign of winter, cold etc. I go nearly them and casually asked them, ‘BETA ITNI SUBAH SUBAH APKO THAND NAHI LAGTI KYA’ and the reply given to by one among them was like this may be, ‘BABU JI THAND HUMEIN NAHIN LAGTI, BAS ISS SAB KO BECH KE KUCH PAISE AA JAYEN TAAKI KUCH KHAANE KO MILE’

I was wordless and shocked and had no reply for these rag picker kids, who are the future of our country, in their tender age in place of carrying school bags on their backs, they are collecting garbage. I was lost in my thoughts then I realized that my phone is ringing. When I checked, it was my brother who was calling from the platform of the railway station to come as he has lots of baggage.

I was returning home from the station with my brother, his wife and my cute little niece but I was still thinking that how much cold I was feeling to come out of my bed and those tender kids were picking up rags in such cold conditions for sake of food and cold is not in their consideration even. Vehicle was moving on and on towards my home and question was still there????     

      -          SD BOGAL

A Girl

Short Story 

A Girl

I work in a Govt. Department and generally travel to office on my bike or by car. It was raining profusely overnight and was not possible for me to travel by bike and my car was also at service station, so I was left with only option  of going office through public transport i.e. Bus. Carrying an umbrella in one hand and Tiffin in other, I was thinking of my past when I use to travel by Public transport during my college days, my struggling days as I had no other means of transport.

Travelling after in Bus after so many years, I felt that not many things have changed. Drivers still stop their vehicles here and there without proper bus stop, use to overload their vehicles and use other illegal means etc. Anyways, till the closing of office , rain had stopped and for going back home the bus I had boarded was full to its capacity except one seat where one middle-aged person was sitting. I adjusted myself there and taken that seat beside that man. Till the next stop the bus was so crowded that even day light couldn’t pass through. Then only I saw a confident young modern girl in western attire standing near my seat with pile of books in her hands and a bag on her shoulder. As a courtesy call, I offered my seat to her and after my request she while thanking me with a smile on her face for this generosity sat over there.

Due to very heavy rush in the Bus I was not able to see outside and then only when I was looking at her books, I noticed that the middle-aged man was touching her with his elbow and she in order to save herself and avoid the situation separated herself from him or may be she was thinking that it was accidental due to heavy rush in the bus. But the man shamelessly again came closer to her and again started to molest her and then only she raised an alarm that he is trying to misbehaving with her.

The said middle-aged man smartly in order to save himself from the public wrath said: “You are mistaken young lady, you are like my daughter.” Passengers sitting in the bus have different opinions over the incident. Some were saying; “How mean or cheap this girls is, who is trying to tarnish the image of a respectable person by accusing him of molesting her” and some were talking about her western attire that such girls attract innocent male with such clothes and then create scenes.

Then only I thought that I am living in a country where our Ministers are issuing advisories to female foreign tourists for avoiding short clothes and skirts during evenings then such state of mind of the common masses towards female folks is acceptable.  

After coming out of my thoughts I realized that the girl is feeling alone and then only I intervened in the matter and asked; “I had seen him teasing her.” On hearing the man had heating exchange of words with me and which ended in a scuffle and me and the girl didn’t gave any respect to his middle-age and gave him a thrash. Later, we were joined by several other co-passengers and he asked the driver to hand him over to the Police. On his repeated requests only, the girl forgiven him.

During my Bus visit I realized that how our mothers, sisters, friends, co-worker girls or ladies feel humiliated everyday because eve-teasing and sexual abuse is common in our society but only few of them are reported to the authorities due to many other social obligations. We are living in a society where on one hand female is given the status of goddess and on the other hand they are looked as a commodity.  

                                                                                 -         Swarn Deep

#MOVIEREVIEW – #RAEES – (2016)

Today we are here with review of a much delayed movie released this week by the name RAEES (2016) directed by Rahul Dholakia. Raees is starred by Shah Rukh Khan, Mahira Khan & Nawazuddin Sidiqui in lead roles. The movie is allegedly based on the story of Gujarat based Gangster and bootlegger of 1980s & 90s.

PLOT:

Raees (Shah Rukh Khan), a child of a ragpicker widow, early in his school days learns the trade of illegal alcohol in a dry state of Gujrat. After working under a popular liquor smuggler Jai Raj Seth (Atul Kulkarni) in his teenage, he decided to start is own illegal liquor smuggling business.

He was truely inspired by his mother’s quote ‘Koi dhanda chota nahi hota, aur dhande se bada koi dharma nahi hota, jisse kisika bura na ho.’

Due to his ‘Baniye ka dimaag aur Mian Bhai ki daring’ he soon manages to become a big liquor smuggler with the help of corrupt political network and due to his success in his illegal business, he was attracted towards the honest Cop Jaideep Majumdar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). The cat and mouse chase between two continued till the end.

ANALYSIS:

Like numerous other bollywood movies, Raees is also glorifying the smuggler and a criminal who does the Robinhood types of deeds for the poors and downtrodden by the money made from the illicit means. Raees is also shown helping the kids by providing them books etc., helping ladies to providing them sewing machines and also wants to build housing colony, a hospital and an English medium school for his locality. He also provide food and assistance during the curfew days for his localities irrespective of religion of the locals.

Raees impresses by its great dialogues such as ‘Battery Nai Bolneka’, ‘Dhande mein koi Hindu-Muslim nahi hota’ and ‘Main Dharam ka dhanda nai karta’.

Script wise, the film starts with good pace and become dull in the second half when there is too much of heroism portrayed by Raees. Overall the movie is a good entertainer, involving romance, politics and action and justifies in the end that dhanda tab tak bura nahi hota jab tak isse kisi ka bura na ho.

Background music and songs are nice and complimenting the movie. Laila song of Sunny Leone is far interesting and better than ‘Haseeno ka Deewana’ played by Urvashi Rautela.

WHAT’S GOOD:

Raees is a complete package of action, romance and drama, an entertainer with nothing to take away home.

UNINTERESTING:

As already said the movie has nothing to take away home, as it glorifies the  gangster and negative shade character.

STAR PERFORMANCES:-

Shah Rukh played Raees quite efficiently and his fans will love his recent outing.

Mahira Khan has not nothing special in the movie for which she was assigned.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is in his golden times. He has once again played the role of Cop with full energy and enthusiasm. I love it.

Mahira Khan’s casting has been the talk of the town. Unfortunately, she does nothing special here and for all we care, any Bollywood actress could have pulled off that role. She even fails to emote appropriately in a few scenes.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is a star. Every scene with this man is loaded with entertainment and he is the true key to why this film is a fun watch. Loved him all through!

Zeeshan Ayyub, also played is role as Sadiq quite efficiently.

FINAL WORDS:

An entertainer with Shah Rukh effect and Nawaz is also a treat to watch. But nothing to take home.

My ratings for this movie is 3.2 out of 5 stars.

So keep following the page, good day till the next review

Bogal | R E V I E W S

#MOVIEREVIEW – #KAABIL – (2016)

Today we are here with review of one of the movie by the name KAABIL (2016) released this extended weekend in view of the Republic Day. The movie is produced by Rakesh Roshan and directed by Sanjay Gupta. KAABIL is starred by Hrithik Roshan, Yami Gautam, Rohit Roy & Ronit Roy in lead roles. The movie is inspired by a Hollywood movie by the name Blind Fury.

PLOT:

Rohan Bhatnagar (Hrithik Roshan), a visually impaired voice over artist and Supriya Sharma (Yami Gautam), a visually impaired piano player met over an arranged date, fall in love for each other and after brief courtship, got married as they both are of the opinion that ‘two negatives are becoming positive’.

Just when their happily married life was started, a disturbing event shakes their lives as Supriya got raped by Corporator Madhavrao Shelar’s (Ronit Roy) younger brother Amit Shelar (Rohit Roy) and his friend. As expected, even after filing FIR, police turned a blind eye to the case in the influence of the Corporator. Rohan was even more broken when Su committed suicide and then he plans to take law into his own hands.

ANALYSIS:

Kaabil is a challenging film which portrays a visually impaired protagonist seeking revenge against powerful villain. It sounds impressive as a plot but seems lacking during the film.

The first half of the movie takes off quite hurriedly with meeting of the lead actors and fast forward love story and lesser happy moments for them. We feel the filmmaker wants to rush towards the thrilling zone. The post rape scene is not well handled between the couple. Rohan leave his shocked wife alone to finish off his dubbing deadline is also unbelievable.

One of the scenes that has been shot in a mall had a chance to be extremely impactful but is executed in an immature manner.

Dance sequence between Hrithik and Yami is good but the action sequences are the best directed portions in the film and hence the second half is a much better watch. The climax is well executed and makes a good enough ending to the film. The music is not that good.

WHAT’S GOOD:

Hrithik Roshan’s toiling effort and Ronit Roy’s Marathi accent as a villain are the two best things in Kaabil.

UNINTERESTING:

The movie had a good plot, good acting but looks unrealistic at times. The music is not that good

STAR PERFORMANCES:-

After his terrible outing in Mohenjo Daro, Hrithik has worked hard to reinstate the faith of his fans. He has performed the role of a physically impaired person quite confidently. Particularly in the action scenes, he is near perfect and performed excellently.

Yami Gautam has looked pretty as Supriya. She also performed her role good.

Rohit Roy in a negative shade is also looked good but its Ronit Roy who stealed the show as a baddie as Madhavrao. He has picked up Maharashtriyan accent quite efficiently.

FINAL WORDS:

Revenge film with unrealistic sequences plus typical bollywood masala. Hrithik fans must watch this movie as he has worked very hard to perform such a challenging role.

My ratings for this movie is 3.0 out of 5 stars.

So keep following the page, good day till the next review

Bogal | R E V I E W S

#MOVIEREVIEW – #OK #Jaanu – (2016)

Today we are here with the review of the romance genre movie released this week i.e. OK Jaanu – 2016 starring Aditya Roy Kapur and Shradha Kapoor in the lead roles after their superb love chemistry in Aashiqui 2. The movie is a remake of Mani Ratnam’s Tamil Hit movie ‘OK Kanmani’ and directorial venture of Shaad Ali after his last disastrous venture ‘Kill Dil’.

PLOT:

Adi (Aditya Roy Kapur), a video game developer & Tara (Shraddha Kapoor), an architect first met rather encountered from distance when she was about to jump in front of a local train in Mumbai after fighting with her boyfriend. Few days later, both met again in a friend’s marriage and started to develop chemistry and within no time, they become more than just friends, in their words, JAANU.

Adi followed Tara on her official trip to Ahmedabad and they spend quality time together and after their return, Tara shifts to Adi’s rented room at retired High Court Justice G Shrivastava’s (Naseeruddin Shah) house. His wife Charu is a renowned classical singer and Alzheimer’s patient who often leaves the house on her own and loses her way.

Charu’s bond with her extremely caring husband, whom she calls Poplu, inspired the young lovebirds inspite of their unconditional relationship to respect each other’s privacy. But that does not happen in reality and they end up behaving like every other couple caring about each other thanks to the older couple living with them.

Six months pass like a dream and then comes the time to separate. Adi creates a video game called Mumbai 2.0, for which he has to move to Los Angeles and Tara gets admission to study architecture in Paris. What next???

ANALYSIS:

There is absolutely nothing new in movie and the story is so predictable. Bollywood has witnessed a number of movies with a similar theme when a couple with no commitment ends up with marriage.

But Naseer’s character is good. He is strict but affectionate person, who treats his tenants as his children and takes care of his ill wife singlehandedly, with no household help without any complaints. Chaaru, his wife is also very kind lady who unfortunately fails to remember people due to her disease.

Taara’s relationship with her mother depicts how children get affected when their parents part ways. All the characters in the film are nicely created. Adi and Tara fall in love a bit too fast. We wonder if people do fall in love that fast in reality!

There are some funny moments in the film too. The music of the movie is good but not the best.

What’s Good:

Aditya and Shraddha’s love chemistry. Naseeruddin Shah’s love and care for her ailing wife Leela Samson.

Uninteresting:

The music in the movie is not as great as original Tamil venture. Repetitive bollywood love story theme with nothing new.

AUR BHI GAM HAIN ZAMAANE MEIN MUHABBAT KE SIWA

Star Peformance:-

Aditya’s performance as an actor is outstanding in the movie. He is a grown up actor for now.

Shraddha also puts up a good performance.

Naseeruddin Shah as always is love to watch and Leela Samson’s portrayal of An Alzheimer’s patient performs good enough.

Final words:

Ok Jaanu is a today’s generation love story with no commitments who are inspired by the love bond of oldies. Full entertainment movie nothing as such to come home.

My ratings for this movie is 2.2 out of 5 stars.

So keep following the page, good day till the next review

Bogal | R E V I E W S

DANGAL MOVIE REVIEW

#MOVIEREVIEW – #DANGAL – (2016)

The two years long wait for Mr. Perfectionist, the Aamir Khan has come to an end and he is there with his most anticipated movie DANGAL (2016) featuring himself, Sakshi Tanwar, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanya Malhotra, Aparshakti Khurrana & young Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar in lead roles. DANGAL, is a sports biopic, co-produced by Aamir Khan himself, Kiran Rao & Siddhart Roy Kapur and directed, screenplay by Nitesh Tiwari.

DANGAL is based on true story of Mahavir Singh Phogat (played by Aamir), who taught wrestling to his daughters Geeta & Babita, who both brought laurels for India in international wrestling by winning gold/silver medal/s in Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games. The filmmaker has taken a challenging subject of making movie on Mahavir Singh Phogat and his two wrestler daughters but has passed with flying colours.

Mahavir Singh Phoghat (Aamir Khan) is a National level wrestler who was forced to give up his dream to won a medal for his country in wrestling to earn livelihood for his family. As such, his only dream is to see his son fulfill his wish of winning a Gold medal for India but the destiny has something else planned for him as his wife (Sakshi Tanwar) gives birth to four daughters. A heartbroken Mahavir, gives up his dream with no son in the picture.

After a fight with local boys, Mahavir’s elder daughters, Geeta (Zaira Wasim) and Babita (Suhani Bhatnager) beat the boys profusely and after receiving complaint from their family, Mahavir realizes that his daughters are no less than boys and starts to train them for wrestling.

The young girls are unhappy with their new way of life and even try to get out of it but later they are trained enough to take on the boys at a local Dangal where Geeta starts to win against the best of trained male wrestlers. From there on Geeta and Babita started winning sub-junior, junior, state, national and finally Commonwealth Games.

It is a good story of a father in 80s in Haryana, who trained her daughters for wrestling against the wills of the prevalent society of the time but the most important and impacting thing is the way of execution. Everything in the movie is perfect, be it the Aamir Khan playing the character of Mahavir Phogat, Sakshi Tanwar’s class acting, Aparshakti Khurrana’s comic timing or roles of wrestlers of Phogat sisters played by Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanya Malhotra and young Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar.

The movie also took the issue of government not funding the budding players to grow and win medals for states and country.  The father-daughter relationship between Geeta and Mahavir & Babita and Mahavir are explored well emotionally.  

The music by Pritam is good and complimenting the story. Dangal title track is an energy booster and Haanikaarak Bapu is simply superb.

Loop holes in the movie:

A cinematic twist in the climax seemed unnecessary. Babita’s wrestling should also been given some screen space may be by curtailing some fights of Geeta.

Star Peformance:-

The Best Ever performance of Aamir Khan. He performed the role of Mahavir  Phogat so perfectly, that’s why he is called Mr. Perfectionist.

Sakshi Tanwar also played her role of Mahavir Phogat with perfection and ease.

Young Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar as young Geeta and Babita are absolutely stunning. Especially Zaira acted like a real life wrestler.

Fatima Sana Sheikh as grown-up Geeta is marvelous. She clearly has undergone immense training for this role and hence pulls off the wrestling extremely well.

Sanya Malhotra as Babita does not get a big chunk since the story focuses on Geeta’s journey more, yet she puts up a great performance. Also, Ritwik Sahore as Mahavir’s young nephew is a delight.

Aparshakti Khurrana (Ayushmann Khurrana’s brother), does a great job as Mahavir’s grown-up nephew. His comic timing is spot on.

Also, Ritwik Sahore as Mahavir’s young nephew is a delight to watch.

Final words:

DANGAL is an inspiring, emotional and perfect movie in all departments. Its a treat to watch.

My ratings for this movie is 4.3 out of 5 stars.

So keep following the page, good day till the next review

Bogal | R E V I E W S