{mosimage}Parineeta is a timeless tale written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, better known as the author of Devdas. This novel has been remade as movie already two times with legendary Meena Kumari and Moushmi Chatterjee reprising the lead roles in those versions. Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Pradeep Sarkar had adapted this novel for the third time, shifting the mileu to early sixties against the original in the beginning of last century. Parineeta happens to be one of the under-rated novels of Sarat Chandra and when it comes to the capable hands like of Pradeep Sarkar, it ends up becoming a classic. Debutante Vidya Balan who happens to be the Pradeep Sarkar's beloved protegee takes up the center stage in the latest version.

Had you ever felt that you are watching a timeless creation, which makes you look at with awe, when you see the movie that you had run down initially? I felt it when I was seeing Maniratnam's "Dil Se…." this Thursday night on a cable network here. I still remember the way I saw it on the release date filled with loads of excitement and expectations, when I was doing my Engineering in Salem. I was really disappointed and I 'advised' lots of my friends not to go for it. A couple of years later, I watched it from halfway in Zee Cinema, but found it still better this time.

Once while I was talking to my friend about the love stories, I said we Indians are more voyeuristic than any other race in the world. That’s why we have so much of love stories churned out in every form of literature either it be books or sculptures or even movies. He said voyeuristic is something else. Yeah I admit, voyeuristic means " getting pleasure by watching two individuals indulging in pleasure activities like sex", but it is not widely different from our romantic offerings. I think most of those who enjoy love stories somewhere put themselves in the lead characters and derive happiness. I don’t deny that sometimes while seeing some romantic scenes I connect myself to the protagonists, and I am putting the favourite romantic scenes that touched me all these days.

Ismail Durbar & A.R Rahman are not only immensely talented but always at musical chairs. A decade back when Ram Gopal Varma signed Ismail Durbar for "Rangeela", he dropped him unceremoniously in favour of a established "newcomer" A.R Rahman under the pressure of music label. After a struggle, Ismail Durbar striked back with style and panache with a phenomenon called "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam". Unfortunately Ismail Durbar lost to A.R Rahman (Taal) in all awards. Ismail Durbar in an interview said that he didn't feel bad because he was losing to a superior score only. After a couple of years when "Devdas" happened, when everyone expected Ismail Durbar to sweep the awards for grand score, he lost again this time to a simple score called "Saathiya'" to A.R Rahman again. Don't know how Ismail durbar felt this time….

"Yuva" & "Ayutha Ezhutthu" hits the screens exactly the day I left India. I couldn't explain in words how much I have been anticipating and followng this movie since thae day it was conceived. You people might remember in my earlier mails that I mentioned about Srikanth, Nitin, Simran playing the roles which they hadn't in the final product. But it was sheer mistime that I couldn't watch it with my friends. I always wanted to watch Maniratnam's movies in halls as he is someone having a flair for new techniques. Thats why I didn't care for VCD prints here.

I was so lonely this Sunday Evening as I hadn't gone outside anywhere and to have some fun I wanted to go to a movie. My first choice was Kamal Hassan's "Virumandi", but couldn't manage to get the ticket. Second choice was Mamooty's "Sethuramayyar CBI" 3rd part of Malayalam Superhit "Oru CBI Dairy Kurippu", alas! I couldn't get a ticket for it even in Coimbatore. Then came sultry Bipasha Basu's "Aetbaar" but I came to know the movie was taken off from the theatres. I had only one choice left - i.e "Khakee".