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Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - Sound of a Vacation

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(This post was originally an assignment for my Sound Design class. I found it to fit my blog, so I decided to post it publicly. Find it here also.)  Vacation movies do well because they do more than weaving in good plot and characters- they let the viewer take a trip with them. Films like Eat, Pray Love , When In Rome or Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants have us drooling at their exotic location. Zoya Akhter’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD) uses the vacation vibe. An escape, an adventure. Mise en scene - playing with the sound Sparking the wanderlust with Spain’s beautiful long-winded roads among sunlit hills, the sound should sing with the visuals. To me, that is what ZNMD does. What is Spain without Spanish interludes? The most pleasant parts of the movies, Kabir’s Pethras (pranks), are covered by a signature interlude that captures the mischievousness of the characters and the liveliness of the location.  The vacation is the broader context of the film that ties i
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Young Frankenstein: where the actress and the monster have some consensual sex (and it was made in the 70’s!)

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Like all good things, I came across this film on a Cracked article . It was included in a list of best comedic moments in cinema. If you are a lover of goofiness and one-liners, you must watch it. A story about a third generation Frankenstein, it has little or nothing to do with the original. Frederick Frankenstein (he likes it to be pronounced as Fra-nk-en-steen) wants to erase his “cookoo” grandfathers legacy while making his own mark in the world of medicine. However, he learns that he has inherited grand-daddy's property and can’t help but follow his footsteps. Here are the things I learnt from this movie: Boob jokes: they enjoyed female body part jokes then as much as they do now. Maybe it can’t give Grand Masti a run for its money (thank god for that) but it still has some cringe worthy heavy-petting sequences. Puns:  There is one perfectly timed pun in this movie. Don't read, watch the clip.  Walk this way as in walk in this direction as opposed to w
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An open letter to the new graduates

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If you just finished your final year of college and have your life figured out – Congratulations! Hope the universe makes happiness fall onto your lap! You can stop reading now.   For the others – buddies, friends, dost, amigos; welcome to this side of the world. This is for the unsure and the skeptical. If you're feeling lost, I have more incomplete road maps to throw your way. This isn't a story about how the future is actually burning bright. It's a whole lot worse than you can imagine. The good news is, you will be able to suck it up for most part, and some times it might feel nice and enjoyable. If you can stay away from the dark vortex of nostalgia, you can be sort- of-almost content. These are just my findings and observation that might help you not freak out (too much). You've Graduated.  An estimated 9 million people graduated in India last year. Unless you have a very different definition of special, it really isn't. There are a lot
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What India did on World AIDS Day

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In a country where kissing in public causes so much uproar that people have to put up protests against the uproar, but then the protest doesn't happen because the police don't grant permission....Okay, let me start again. In a country where kissing in public gets so much attention, because all taboos ultimately get attention, it is worth paying attention to how we deal with a worldwide touchy subject like AIDS. This year on World AIDS Day, this is what happened in India: 1. Condom companies had a field day: Practicing safe sex is one of the prevention measures for AIDS. Condom companies in India put out full page ads to show their solidarity with World Aids Day. All in all, all anyone will remember about World Aids Day is the fact that Ranveer Singh is the brand ambassador of Durex. And as cute as he is, that is not the way it should be. 2. Boring AIDS related statistics is given in the news:   People don't care about this disease because all the informati
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I wrote this at 3 a.m.

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Think about your name. Think of its letters being formed. In english. In your mother-tongue. In a fancy foreign language you learnt. Say your name out loud.  It's an identifier, of course. But it doesn't stop at being just that. Oh, the dimensions it takes, the feelings it induces.  Your name, rolling on the tongues of your family when you were just born . They feel the name.. judge it.. call it out loud to get used to it. Your name, from your toddler mouth. Probably pronounced wrong because you haven't mastered the sound of the words that make them up yet. Your name, you know it means different things. And that's why it makes you feel different things. It depends, right? It depends is calling it out. it depends on tone and context.  You can differentiate between when your mother calls it. You know if she's calling you for lunch or to yell at you for something you did wrong just by the way she calls your name.  Your name called in an anesthesised
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Changes in social media that made us go whyyyyy

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Change is inevitable, but I think social media makers take this saying too seriously. Whatsapp’s blue ticks for when a message is ‘seen‘  has been widely criticized and meme'd, except by Lumia users because apparently they don’t have the feature if they don’t update. This is not the first time social media has decided to change things . For better or for worse, here are 7 times the social media cartel has decided to ruin lives: 1. Facebook Messenger for Mobile Yeah, okay I live in India yeah? My 3G pack gets over in half a day, and in 2G I can barely view the Google homepage. In such a plight, when you keep pestering me to download messenger for my phone, it annoys the crap out of me! (especially when you toy with my curiosity by showing that I have one message notification- but when i press it--oops, you can’t view this cos you don’t have messenger.) -_- 2. YouTube pre-roll ads: There were the good old days when Youtube didn’t have any ads. After that came the
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The Secret Of Food Coma

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Life is a mystery filled with desires that people desire. But there is one desire, that beats all others. So many people yearn for it. They spend their life in search of it, but they never find it. Today, I will show you the path. The ancient secret shall be revealed in this blogpost. Today, I will tell you the secret to the perfect food coma. All you have to do to attain this state of semi-nirvana, is follow these steps. Step 1: Time Time is of the essence . The best time for a food coma is between 12p.m. to 3p.m., also called the time of 'important' meetings and important lectures. The sleep in this period is dangerously comforting. An average of 15 minutes should be your ideal food coma time. Try to have nothing on your mind during this time period.  Step 2: Work This is a pre-requisite for the perfect food coma. If you are dog tired, your body will sleep better. Do some physical labor related work. Let your body ache. Let your unused muscles tighten. This pa
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