MJ-LOTD: A New Genre Of Dance

[For new readers, MJ-LOTD stands for Mundane Journey - Link of the Day]

Society and culture are not disjoint from people. Rather, by definition, they are connected to people. There was a time when people found it difficult to take off for five days to watch a cricket match and so was born 'One day' version of the game. And then came the T20 version which addressed to people's impatience and busyness. From the participant's perspective - we have 'galli' cricket, terrace cricket and parking area cricket - where we have innovative rules like - bat-touch-run, single-hand-single-drop-catch-out, no-drop-crossing-compound-out, etc. We need not know how to play as well as the Tendulkars and the Gangulys.

A similar thing is now coming up in the field of dance. There was a time when people had to dance in the conventional style regardless of whether or not they knew it. Remember Sunny Deol, Dharmendra, Kishan Kumar and the umpteen others who, because of not having a famous second name, couldn't make it to the screen?

For such 'dancingly challenged' people - below is the new genre of dance.




Though the whole sequence is to behold, check the following milestones:

1:50 - Clever usage of homophone, 'do' which, in Hindi, means "two" and "give".

3:38 - Clever usage of another homophone, "hi" which means "greetings" in English and refers to an expression of grief (or of relief) in Hindi.


5:09 - The only girl in the video (on the right-hand side) couldn't stand the 'Govida dance' of the men and fell down.

I wouldn't be surprised if we have dances in the above format in corporate, college and school fests. And when this would be happening, the Reality TV wouldn't be far behind in making a 'Boogie Woogie' for this dance form.

BTW, for those intrigued by the above video, here's the forefather "film version" of it. [Caveat: Watch it at your own risk.]

Cheers!


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MJ-LOTD: Hush a Bye Baby

Wondering what all things your computer can do? Look at the below video:



A simple shell script which opens and closes the CD drive tray is used to rock the baby! Add a smooth lullaby to your media player for more effect.

BTW, from almost a year now, i am using Ubuntu (used above). And I must say - 'I am loving it'. Its User Interface is awesome. And the best part is - it is virus proof. I would recommend it to anyone who is fed up of formatting his/her computer due to virus attacks.

Source - Amit Agarwal

MJ-LOTD: Party, eh?

If you want to attend a party you are not invited to, the below link would be helpful.

Matthew's Party

In case you are planning to host a party and want to inform your neighbours about the possible increase in decibel level, do make it 'sober' so the David Thorne in them is not too excited to mess your party.

BTW, David Thorne, the writer of the above website, is an amazing humorist. I browsed the entire website and found real humour there - something which wouldn't command you to laugh but would compel you. This one, on debt recovery, is also amazing

MJ-LOTD: Waheeda Rehman and the Snake Dance

To quote from Wiki - Dance (from French danser, perhaps from Frankish) is a sport and art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting.

Seeing at a lot of dance sequence in contemporary bollywood movies, if feel that dance has become more about costumes and uncalled-for body parts movements than about expressions. The 'expression' part in dance is lost. Recently, i watched Guide and came across this not-so-popular dance sequence by Waheeda Rehman:




Now this is what i call expression! In the movie, Waheeda Rehman is crazy about dancing. She get married to a person who thinks dancing is not something a wife of a 'decent family' should do. Waheeda Rehman and her husband are on a trip to a village. Waheeda Rehman asks the guide to take her to a place where snake charmers perform the snake dance while her husband goes on his errand. While in the snake charmers' place, she couldn't control herself from indulging into her passion. Her gestures and her movements expresses the above story - through dance. Each and every beat in the song is utilized to the fullest to express the emotions. Amazing. I think this is one of the best dance sequences in Bollywood.

MJ-LOTD: Toilet Paper Wedding Gowns

From paper cups to paper bags. Paper seems to be the 'in' thing. It is so much in vogue that there are wedding gowns being made out of toilet paper! Isn't that amazing? You can use it in case you get an 'unscheduled' nature's call. After the marriage, you can fold and cut parts of it to make it your reception gown. And when you get bored wearing it, you can use it for what it was 'originally' made for. Now, that is what i call creativity! Just beware of one thing - rain and champagne pops. You surely wouldn't want to look like Eve!

MJ-LOTD: Zakhm

This weekend i caught up with 'Zakhm'- a movie which was in my to-watch list. And what a movie it was! Amazing. It was made at a time when Mahesh Bhatt was still making movies sans Emraan Hashmi and sans the skin show. The story is amazing. The movie holds your attention from the starting till the end. Moving back and forth in time,the story reveals itself in small installments. The acting of all the actors was apt. The music (by M M Kreem) is very unconventional though it used the conventional singers like Kumar Sanu and Alka Yagnik. I had heard (and liked) 'Tum aaye toh aaya mujhe yaad' before. But song, 'Hum yahaa', is very good as well. The lyrics of all songs are very contextual and helps in taking the story forward.

MJ-LOTD is the mellifluous song, hum yahaan, composed by M M Kreem. M M Kreem, i guess, is one of the most under-rated music directors in the Bollywood. Probably, because he doesn't do too many 'main-stream' movie.

MJ-LOTD: Rakhi Ka Swayamvar - Hazaaron Mein Ek

A lot has been blogged about Rakhi, the host and the contenders. Has anyone even gotten a chance to look at the 'others'?

Imagine, if the potential groom's friends 'bhi hazaaron mein ek ho' [Translation: one in thousands]. To give you an idea, the two friends are 'unique' in 24038!

Refer to this video

Go to time around 1:10. And follow the sequence:

Rakhi: I want to ask you a question. But, before that, put your hand on your heart.
[The friends put their hands on the left side of their chest]
Rakhi: Don't put your hands on the microphone, put it on your heart
[and gestures them to put the hand on the other side]

Bingo. Rakhi has an eye. Now, i am not referring to her vigorous flapping of false eyelashes. What i mean is that she had some divine intervention and found that her suitor's friends were 'Dextrocardians'. So, she being what she is, caught the crime and asked 'the friends' to put their hands on their "heart" which, as hinted by her fingers, is on the right side!

If you are wondering, how are the cute friends unique in thousands (24038), refer to Wiki link on dextrocardia. As per Wiki, Dextrocardia is believed to occur in approximately 1 in 12,019 people.

If the friends of the groom are 'hazaaron mein ek' then wonder how the groom would be? And more so, how the bride would be?

Cheers!

MJ-LOTD: Best Actor 2009

Fashion seems to be a milestone in Priyanka Chopra's career. Why not? After all the awards she won!

In this clip from the movie Fashion - go to time around 9:00 minutes.

Observe that even before Janet completes her flattery, flowery "You were fabulous" - our best actor jumps up - "really!"

This is called knowing what other person wants to say. I wouldn't call it bad timing. I'd call it prediction. Meghna Mathur (played by Priyanka) seemed to be just waiting for Janet to complete 'Fabulous' so that she can say "Really!"

Check out my review of 'Fashion' in case you haven't

Enjoy!

MJ-LOTD: The Rajanikanths

It's not that only Rajanikanth can do it. The Papaji is no less. Check papaji in action here.

MJ-LOTD: Can you 'Beat It'?

Those frequenting blogs would have known him. But for those who don't - let me take the honor of introducing Dr. K. Chaudhry as 'The Unbeatable'. Check out the Hindi version of Michael Jackson's Beat-It in Dr. K. Chaudhry's voice at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrVEa356SQM

MJ-LOTD

Why did people so religiously watched Super Hit Mukabala? Why did people feel nostalgic when a reference to Chitrahar is made? Why is Archana Puran Singh still known as the lady who hosted Lux Kya Scene Hai? Why is Philips Top 10 still remembered? Despite having tens of Gbs of music in your music player, why do you still tune in to FM while driving back home?

The answer to the above question is “unexpectedness”. In all the above programmes, the songs or the scenes which were to come next were unexpected. Not only that, they were ,supposedly, hand picked. I am starting a similar thing on Mundane Journey: MJ-LOTD

Mundane Journey Link of the Day (MJ-LOTD) – would be one link which i would recommend to my readers. It could be a song, a scene, a gag, a news article or anything on the Internet. It would be the most interesting or 'touchy' thing i stumble upon on the Net that day. However, it may not be everyday as there are days i don't get a chance to browse the web or on the weekends when i just don't want to see the computer screen.

I must acknowledge Sagar for this. Everyday, he shares a link to a different song on his Gtalk status. He call it 'Aaj Ka Gana'. I really liked the 'long-lost' songs he shared. So, i thought it would be useful to my other readers as well. I just extended it to scenes, new articles, etc.

I would also be tweeting a lot more often from now on. I'll share the MJ-LOTD on twitter as well. However, I'd be sharing a lot of other unorganized thoughts (and of course, links). To join me on twitter click here.

As always, do let me know your views on MJ-LOTD.

Cheers!