Lost in love

Betrayal - The biggest error human can ever do - not in love, but in friendship.

You add love, you add confidence, you add charm, and you add extra dollops of TRUST to brew what is called Friendship. But twice I have been fooled out of this magic mix, the other soul played around with the ingredients, only to come up with a relationship worthy to be shoveled away to the darkest corner of betrayal.

When I said "my best friend is the Me in the mirror" at a college impromptu speech, I did get curious stares from the lecturer, and from my friends. I still believe in that. It is not that friends cheat, it is that the world around, the varying thoughts around, the conflicting beliefs around that conspire to taint the relationship. Only the might can survive, and those who do will be true gems – Treasure them! I do have these gems, the precious of all, and I guard them away from the evil, from the tainted world, like the greatest fable of love ever told.


Those who manage to get the light of dark escaped, or at the least I let them go.

Once the person walked away from my life, believing the world around, ignoring my pleas, ignoring my tears. But she did come back, the joy was abound – the reunion – Ha! Trust me no other friends would have hugged and cried like that. It took long 5 years for her to realize what I did was for our friendship's sake. Thinking back, I now feel we shouldn’t have met again, been together again. She left the cheers behind, to a place we all know about and never been. The pain, not of the misunderstanding, but of the lost five years still remains.

The latter, I misinterpreted it for friendship and failed to see the opportunist in her. These are the kind who never change even if they have a trustworthy soul as a friend, these are the kind who never budge, even if they have thousands of "friends" around. Life has taught me to get going, and loosen the grip on these kinds. A friend is never made, it just happens.

May be you are deceptive, they say "a good friend is to accept a person as it is". But, I reiterate, try changing a person and he becomes a good soul from outside, but the darkness remains, only to raise its head later.

Trust it is what I infer. Friendships I have are entwined with the core of trust. It is not that you meet everyday, it is the thought that someone, somewhere cares about you that keeps the relation ticking.

Don’t wait for it, it comes knocking at your door, lingers around you for a while, and when it tries to retrace your heart misses a beat, and with all your love, with all your trust, with all your charm, with all your confidence you call it back, caress it, and treasure it – that is Friendship. The most precious gift one can ever get! 

Cocktail, with a twist

Cocktail is the kind of the movie that gives you the edge-of-the-seat experience, not for the thrills, but for the confusions it throws at you. Watching the film is more like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, how much ever you try, you will be left with one or two pieces. And that is where the debutant director Arun Kumar scores.

Everything is in apple pie order for successful architect Ravi Abraham (Anoop Menon) and Parvathy (Samvrutha Sunil) until a stranger Venkatesh (Jayasurya) hitchhikes a ride with them. We have seen the trailer; we know Venkatesh is brought to the plot not to croon 'Sholay' numbers with the hero, hence look forward to see him change colors. And he does it with such finesse that the audience muffles an 'OMG'. The story then takes us on a bumpy ride, revealing surprises and thrills in all its form.

A remake of Mike Barker's Butterfly on a Wheel, the movie's plot is well-knit. Though 95% of the movie plays tribute to its Canadian legacy in terms of the sequence, the Hollywood trace is hardly visible.

The winning deal of the movie is indeed the actors; only exception is the one-day-maid Beatrice. Her mannerisms and lifeless expressions manage to bring quite a few catcalls in the cinema.

Samvrutha Sunil looks great and acts great, and Cocktail is indeed one of her masterpieces. Her name has always spelled durability in the box-office, and the movie promises to carry on the tradition.

It is indeed Jayasurya who sneaks up on you and steals your heart with light-fingered skill. However, the theatre-like dialogues by the actor in the climax adds a minor crack to the character's image.

Anoop Menon gets a nod for his acting. For an audience who are more use to super-stars and chocolate heroes on the screen with young heroines, the Samvrutha-Anoop combination is a bit too much to accept. The best part is he faces this stereotype with a smile, when he admits he is a fatso, in the first half!

The movie runs smooth and interesting until five minutes before climax, the typical 'soap drama' that follows winds up the movie in an abrupt manner. The director could have omitted the last sequence and stopped the movie, when the thrill and surprises still linger.

Fahadh Faasil marks his presence as the suave, short tempered boss, while Innocent and Mamukkoya bring in their fair share of humor.  

If you love connecting dots, you will love Cocktail, and beware you will still be connecting dots even after its sequel. 

Someone killed Jessica!

In one of those rare instances, I knew the storyline, the climax, and the characters before I comforted myself into the not-so-comfortable seat at the Cinema.

Jessica, Sabrina, the murderer, the news channel, they were all there, but the inner conscience kept nagging "something is missing"! And this is the same question I had in mind when Jessica (Myra) decked in yellow smiled and waved in the climax.

Rajkumar Gupta has a plot very strong, but the awkward bulges hamper the otherwise fast-paced storyline. The movie begins with the voice-over narration by Rani Mukherjee, who plays the foul-mouthed journalist Meera. From Kargil, Gupta brings the attention to Delhi, to the high profile night club, and to the tainted dance-floor were Jessica lies dead. What follows is a fight for justice, leaving the storyline very much predictable.

The movie pokes a finger at the dirty side of the political and judiciary system of the country, so are the numerous other Indian movies. The only upside NOKJ has is that it revolves around a half-real, half-fiction plot!

Though Rani has a role very powerful, it is quite hard to ignore the hackneyed traits of her acting. In some of the scenes like Meera making rude remarks (surprisingly not been muted) at her fellow passenger, an intimate scene with God knows who, it is hard to ignore the artificiality, and the Director's attempt to squeeze in awkward situations to establish her character.

Glitch:

Meera insists her fellow journalist Aditi to be alert 24/7, yet she has to rely on newspapers to read the breaking news!

It is indeed Sabrina (played by Vidya Balan) who gets a day in the sun. She is not seen dressed up to the nines, and her beauty is often submerged in shabby attires. The murder, trial and verdict is a circus of 8 years, and all these years Sabrina is seen reusing the same t-shirts and jackets. We agree that Sabrina is least fashion conscious, but we wonder how does a broadway t-shirt last for over 8 years.

Yet Vidya Balan pays tribute to Sabrina. With her fierceness in the fight for justice to her numbness to the hard-realties of life, Sabrina pulls a chair and sits pretty as a member of the family. The character is so highly emphasized that she takes the audience by surprise and make them laugh with her at her unexpected giggle in an otherwise tensed courtroom scene.

The culprit's mother is a recipe gone wrong. She manages to bring in some laughter when she says "Kuch be karo, mere Monu ko kuch nahi hona chahiye" the first time, but also cooks up some frown when she makes this a routine. The director reveals his bad sense of humor with this desperate mother.

Rajesh Sharma, as the investigating officer, deserves some accolade for his natural performance. While rest of the characters fade away with their blank expressions…

Forget expectations, forget action-packed sequences, forget foot-tapping background scores, forget edge-of-the-seat moments, forget suspense, forget thrills, expect the expected and you are ready for the No One Killed Jessica party!

Post movie:

Only thing that lingers is the taste of shavarma, I wolfed down, and the dark-spots I spotted on Rani's face.