OUR OOLTAH CHASHMAHS






Pic.: Uttam Ghosh

I love movies with good stories… with tight editing, great music and cinematography… I love them even more when there is great drama, emotional hold and spectacular performances.

Sanjay Leela Bansali’s movies have most of these elements… He creates extra-ordinary drama and grandeur out of very ordinary stories… I loved ‘Black’ so much that I watched it three times! Not because I have been a huge fan of Amitabh Bachchan, but, I found the movie emotionally very gripping, dramatized extremely well, performances top-class… and, above all, the music - just spell-binding. But, I wasn’t moved to watch his other movies the way I was by ‘Black’. Yet, ‘Bhajirao-Mastani’ appealed to me a lot. I loved the story-telling… the drama, the grandeur, the costume, the editing, the music and the cinematography… the performances… and, above all, the passion of the movie-maker, Bansali… It was oozing out in every frame! So, I watched the movie twice… Once, all alone, and, again, with my wife…

Last night, during our casual discussion, I told in a group that I had watched ‘Bhajirao…’ twice…

“What?” reacted one of the men in the group, “What is so great in that movie that made you watch it twice?”

Before I could come out with an answer, another man had joined, “Even I don’t think it is worth a second watch.”

Well, I decided, not to justify my two-time watching!

I let my friends have the last laugh!

“In fact, ‘Wazir’ is worth watching twice,” the man who had reacted ‘What?” stated, “It is an outstanding movie.”

Now, I had watched ‘Wazir’ too and found it good. But, somewhere in the story-telling, I had found something had gone wrong, and I hadn’t come out of the movie-hall convinced. Yes, despite the fact that I am a die-hard fan of Amitabh Bachchan!

I wouldn’t watch ‘Wazir’ twice, with due respect to my idol and the movie-makers, who, too, are outstanding in their spheres.

The same way when it comes to TV shows. TV at our place is shut down for close to two years now… But, I know what is happening around… who watches what most. Arnab is loved and Arnab is hated. Barkha is loved and Barkha is hated… Many of my nephews and nieces, uncles and autns, right across the length and breadth of our country and even abroad, swear by ‘Taarak Mehta Ka Oltah Chashmah’…

Now, whenever the ‘Oltah Chashmah’ was on in someone’s hall-room and I happened to be there… I have failed to understand the reason behind the craze…

But, I would be a greater fool if I called those who adore the ‘Oltah Chashmah’ fools…

Nobody knows why I like Coke more than Pepsi. Ditto about fish-curry over dal-bhat…

Hello, it is nobody’s business, right?


“Opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth.” I was a young struggler in Mumbai when I read this in Napoleon Hill’s famous classic, ‘Think and Grow Rich.’…

I am still struggling to deal with this ‘cheap’ commodity called – ‘OPINIONS’…

I swear!

GERALD D’CUNHA

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