Where has the creativity gone?

Can one force oneself to be creative? I have not written anything for a few days. Why is that? Am I having a writer’s block? Or is it just I have nothing to say at present? Or is it that I am under the weather right now and so my head is having a break? Well it could be a bit of everything I guess as well as a little laziness. 

I have not done any book reviews recently as I have been revisiting Enid Blyton books from my childhood. Now there is not much to say as I perceive the stories from an adult view. The life of young children in UK a few decades back seems to be idyllic. All kids went to boarding school and went home for holidays. There were loads of picnics and various meat sandwiches, cakes and ginger beer / lemonade to drink. Going swimming / sailing and camping / caravanning seem to be usual activities for the kids and of course they were smarter than the adults and solved major mysteries involving espionage or robbery or fraud every holiday. No wonder when I arrived in UK I was shocked to find none of this was really true. Well while I knew these were stories I thought some things maybe based on reality. For one the weather in summer is mostly wet and so I never went for any picnic and I did not know anyone who sent their kids to boarding school. As for ginger beer, well I first tasted it when I came to Australia after 25 years in UK! Lemonade was so full of sugar and fizz that I could not develop a liking for it. So revisiting these books allows me to reflect about how as a child I was influenced by these stories to develop an idyllic but strange view of the world. Was it so bad that it was not realistic? It allowed me to develop my imagination. Some of the views, I can now see, are not even politically correct in the books. However the life shown in the books was radically different form that of my childhood in India. I did manage to be good at English language even though some of the expressions were never heard of in real life. Did anyone ever speak like the Famous Five, or the kids in the Adventure series or the Five Find-Outers and a Dog? I guess not.

I have not spent time watching any movies either during the last couple of weeks. Then a few days ago I had a dizzy spell and decided to just sit quiet and relax. I thought I needed cheering up to forget the stress of a new symptom. So I looked up an old film ‘Dulhe Raja’. It has my favourite funny guys Govinda and Kader Khan. The movie is crazy and occasionally farfetched but hey I had a real laugh. The convoluted plot also kept me grinning though out. Now that stopped me from thinking about being dizzy and I thought the spell had passed. I occasionally get short bursts of dizziness which have been side effect of some of my drugs and so a little rest gets rid of them. 

However, next morning I woke up as I was severely dizzy in my sleep. Never happened to me before and nor have I heard it happening to anyone. Lying flat on my back without even moving my eyeballs made me so dizzy that I felt I was falling. The stomach clenched with sever nausea and I got worried as to how would I get to the sink if I really did need to throw up. After a bit I struggled and sat up so that I could fix my eyes on the tree and the flowers on it outside. Almost like when you are on a boat and seasick you focus on the distant horizon to stop the movement affecting you. After a couple of hours the level of dizziness reduced and I managed to doze for a few hours so exhausted was I from the experience. Afternoon visit to the GP threw up a possible diagnosis of viral infection though not sure where I got it from! So have spent the last 3 days with more drugs… paracetamol and Prochlorperazine…. Wonderful as if I was not already rattling with other 15 pills in the day!!

But does all this take away your creativity? Your thinking ability? Maybe it does as the drugs form a potent cocktail. Also I find that the urge to write comes on sometimes and then fades away. This morning the urge returned and I lay there in bed thinking what can I write on? How can I get my creative juices flowing? Should I write about why I cannot write? Or should I write about what all I could write? Does my perspective of the world becomes different when the earth trembles and moves all around me? Can creativity be forced on oneself? Can I tell myself that I will be creative about such and such? Writing seems to ebb and flow and I still need to find that same ebb and flow with drawing and painting. Maybe then the two can ebb and flow in turns and I can continually be productive. I also need to find my poetic muse which has been missing for a few months. Now what else has gone missing recently?

The green thumb of gardening fortunately has not deserted me. The plants are growing happily and so are the caterpillars on the broccoli leaves. Have to keep evicting those fat worms of my plants and hoping that the broccoli will still grow well. The flowers are very delicate in the strawberries and the petals drop fairly fast. The chillies have been re potted into several different pots and am sure eventually I shall get a huge crop. Now what happens to the potatoes? The leaves get droopy and ready to die off and then suddenly they all perk back up! Now how can I harvest the potatoes if the leaves do not die back? So you see while things are moving along in the veggie patch there is not that much to write at the moment except that all the tomato plants have got a large number of tomatoes.

So I have spent some time looking for my creativity and feel pleased that I seem to have found some of it. If any of you out there know any tips to forcing your creativity out of hiding please let me know……

Mere Brother ki Dulhan

This is a fairly new Bollywood movie and was told by a couple of my friends that it is a funny film and I should try seeing it. Then I was listening to Sunrise radio online and heard some people give good reviews for this movie. So last week I thought let me find and watch it. Generally I watch movies online from one of the sites that streams them. Sometimes one can see them in parts on YouTube as well.

This is a movie where one brother asks the younger one to find a bride for him as he had broken up with his long term girlfriend and wished to settle down. Since his love affair had fallen through he wished to go for an arranged marriage. The plot works its way through the young man Kush looking over many girls and depicts the classic questions and pitfalls of such activity. But eventually he find a girl Dimple who is very different from the other girls and think she would be ideal for his brother. The wedding gets arranged and all things required are done by Kush and Dimple. Having spent so much time together and learning about each other the inevitable happens as they fall in love. Now in the movies of old this would be the time for the couple to elope and the family to take up arms and the hardships a couple married for love face. Indeed the girl is all for eloping but this is not the way Kush wants to do things. Oh yea the old ‘we should do this the right way. I wish to take blessing from your parents’ approach of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge is what Kush wants. One thing though irks me is that while definitely he chooses the ‘right’ even moral way of doing thing without unduly upsetting people, the way of getting there is extremely manipulative. Right up to the end the parents do not twig to the reality.

Now the dialogue is funny and there is lot of double entendre or is it I only thought that as public laughed (this was a camera copy by someone and so there was a side commentary from people around this person videoing). It was funny and reminded me of one of the best Bollywood screenplay writers Kader Khan. His dialogue always raised a laugh as they had comedic as well as philosophic value. It is nice to see a movie where there is just entertainment without the action, violence, and sadness that is seen in many movies. While I appreciate that serious films have to be made to make people aware of issues as well as to allow the screening of bitter reality, I mostly want to be entertained and want a laugh. There is enough sadness and cruelty, corruption and violence in the news and often shown TV series that I just want a laugh and fun when I see a film. This one allowed me to do just that. Light-hearted giggle and no pretentions of being a thought provoking movie. The acting is reasonable and Katrina looks pretty as does the girlfriend of the ‘brother’ Tara. The usual dance numbers and catchy tunes keep us entertained. Worth seeing and may be more than once after some time as I may have missed a few jokes.

Chatur Singh Two Star – A good laugh

Sanjay Dutt shows once again how well he can play the funny man. I just came across this movie by chance and decided to have a peek to see if I liked it. After all both the Munna Bhai films were a hoot so maybe this one would be too.

The first thought reading the synopsis of the movie I thought it to be Pink Pantheresque. The man is a bumbling policeman who just manages to get lucky. The film starts with similar situation as that in Pink Panther where Inspector Clouseau usually gets his side kick to attack him so that he can practice his art of self defence. Chatur Singh Two Star also has a side kick and ironically his name is Pappu Panther! However as the movie progresses and Chatur Singh is put on guard duty for a corrupt hospitalised minister the antics take on more of the Lesley Neilson’s characters in Airplane or indeed the detective in the Naked Gun movies.

Well the movie made me laugh at the sheer nuttiness and absurd situations. I am wondering why the songs were not popular as they are indeed very funny and the dancing is just as mad. If you have not seen the movie and are looking for a laugh then go for it. The slapstick nature of the jokes and even though you can see the punch line coming still it still makes you giggle. We have seen all the actors in this movie play good funny man roles and even though they do go over the top sometimes it is all part of the fun. Ameesha seems to play was is supposedly central role but hey am not so sure about it. She does look pretty and wears skimpy outfits, I guess she is first seducing Gulshan Grover and then Sunil Dutt so the limited clothes. Am sure the guys will enjoy her gyrating in the songs.

All in all the story is run of the mill, the acting is good and songs funny. A Bollywood makeover for Pink Panther and Naked Guns rolled into one!

Bodyguard – the Bollywood version.

I heard from some of my Facebook friends that the movie Bodyguard was good. Well actually they said Salman Khan was good in it. One opinion was also that the whole acting was OTT. Now I had enjoyed and got a good laugh from watching Dabaang and Ready. In both the movies Salman Khan actually delivers funny dialogues and the movies were entertaining. So thought I would give Bodyguard a go too. After all I like Kareena Kapoor the female lead in the movie too.

This is a very different character even though the role is that of the protector – be it policeman or private bodyguard. He serious young man who eats, sleeps and breaths DUTY (yes the caps are intentional) brought in to protect a rich man’s daughter. Yes you all guessed it right – the usual turn of events (where the man is stuffy and hindering the normal campus life) leads the girl to play a practical joke on him. She starts a phone romance and rapidly get the man enamoured – take note young lads and laddettes that one can fall in love with a voice and believe that a few conversations can identify someone as your soul mate!

The usual turn of events means that the girl also now falls head over heels in love. I guess the writer is trying to show that love knows no bounds of race, class, education etc etc… The follows the usual ‘should I tell him or should I not’ debate with herself and the college term comes to an end. Now the reason she was provided with a bodyguard, a bunch of hoons (see I have already caught the local lingo for hooligans) are out to get her for they want to get even with the father. So when the girl decides to run away with the bodyguard the hoons attack. Of course the man saves her and remains clueless as to her identity as his ‘girlfriend’ righty until the last minute of the film. I think the man is shown to be pretty dim – oh no they do say he is naïve and good hearted – to not notice the girl he is guarding has the same voice as his assignment. After all he has been singing songs in the rain with her…. Yes there are a few songs and actually I do like them. The tunes are catchy as usual… one of them could have been the continuation of ‘dhinka chikka’ from Ready. Mostly the songs allow the girl to wear miniscule blouses with her beautiful saris.

Am not sure I would want to go spend money to see this movie… agree with the guy who said the acting was OTT well a lot of things were OTT. In consideration The fights were so well choreographed that it was almost like smooth dancing! It is always astonishing to see how much a man can get beaten up and still manage to keep his hair immaculate – can get a black eye but the hair all remains in place! I had more laughs in Ready and Dabaang than in this movie so there you are make your own mind up if you wish to see the movie.

Budda Hoga Tera Baap – the lost time

I am a big Amitabh Bacchan fan and used to see every movie I could. Therefore I have seen all his great movies. So the name Budda Hoga Tera Baap sounded amusing. I have seen the classic like Chupke Chupke were he carries off the funny man role very well. So I got excited about finally being able to see this film.

The man plays the eternal good bad guy role! There is some attempt to refresh the audience with the old classic songs from his old hits like Don. The action is predictable with an equally predictable story. The son played by Sonu Sood is wooden and reminded me of a wooden Sly Stallone and I do not mean that as a compliment. Even when attempting to romance Sonal Chauhan one wants to shake him and say get an expression. The only things right about it is his father intervening to help his romance! Raveena Tandon as a lovesick older woman is amusing specially since it is OTT.

The ‘bad man’ and the whole gangster scenario is very cliché. There are some odd dialogues by the big man himself that raise a smile now and then. This is a shame and the only redeeming thing was Amitabh’s voice, song and dance. And did anyone doubt that Hema Malini would forgive the wayward gangster husband and all live happily ever after? I am glad I saw it at home and not wasted money going to the cinema. The lost hours of my life… have taught me that not every Amitabh movie is a classic. Both the veteran actors Amitabh Bacchan and Hema Malini are utterly wasted in this movie.