Tag Archives: Alia Bhatt

AIB Knockout – A Toast to the Roast

Image January 30, 2015 jcisnowjs Leave a comment

AIB’s Knockout Roast!!! What a Roast and what a bold new step in Indian Comedy.

If you have still not seen the AIB’s Knockout Roast of Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor, then….. I guess, you must be lying. You don’t have to tell me or anyone else, okay. Don’t come out of the closet. It’s okay, like they said in the Roast, “Why are they talking in public, what we talk in parties”. 😛

AIB is a comedy group of Indian comedians, co founded by Gursimran Khamba and Tanmay Bhatt, along with Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya. The event that has generated a lot of interest in them, and their group, is a Comedy Roasting event where AIB, along with Aditi Mittal, Abish Mathews, Raghuram and Rajeev Masand; roasted Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh.

It was special, because it was the first time that a no bounds roasting is done in an Indian comedy group, and that too with Roastee being a celebrity present there.

Roasting is like an insult comedy, where you trash your guest verbally by making fun of him/her in a best satirical way possible and the guest along with his well wishers present there, take all these insults in a good humor. If you want a more desi explanation – it’s more like in ladies sangeet of Indian Marriage where in some special songs, other party of marriage, is trashed in an abusive language.

Karan Johar was the perfect Roast Master and I would like to say, that he was at his best in the show. He was witty, with a perfect timing and, boy! He was sporty. Infact some of the best jokes were told on Karan’s expense. A big thumbs up for you, Karan.

What was interesting in all this was to see our female celebrities, like Deepika, Alia and Sonakshi, not only present there but also taking a lot of roast on themselves, in a very good way. Specially Deepika, seriously, thanks for taking one for the team. Alia baby, baby baby baby…. what were you doing there? Poor you! My bachcha…. beta, stay at home, these type of shows are for adults only.

Roasting was great, it was all in good fun, sometimes too offensive but when you compare it to Roasting comedy shows done internationally, it was not up to par with them. Where they lack was – content, few members trying too hard and off-course poor editing of the show.

Comedy Central’s Roasting shows are always a great fun to watch for. My favorite among them were those of Charlie Sheen and Joan Rivers. What made these shows fun was not the use of offensive language but the satire and witty one liners.

Content is the king. Some members like Tanmay, Khamba and Aditi were fresh in selecting their jokes and creative too. The best out of all the panel was Tanmay, who clearly is abundant in his talent too. Other comedians too were good but they became too much repetitive after some time. Most of the jokes look stale. Raghuram and Rajeev Masand were seriously not a good choice as the member of Roasting panel.

Specially Raghu was still on his Roadies set, and looked like he is trying too hard. He was stiff and abusive unnecessarily. Best rule of roast comedy is to roast someone in a way that as if you are toasting them. You don’t need to shout, as Raghu and Masand did, but infact you have to be satirical; which both lacked.

What did the most damage to the whole show, was its editing. It was like scrap of pieces joined together to make a comedy show. There was no continuity and flow. It was edited so much that it looked like the Roast of roasting panel than of the Roastees. Poor Rajeev Masand was highly edited, I don’t why, but it was like he said hi, and bye in a single shot.

To be honest, the Roastees, Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh did a far better roast than the roasting panel. Arjun too, looked like he is trying hard to look cool with the whole idea, but he can’t look cool, not when he is in company of Ranveer Singh.

Ranveer stole the show. He was the best. Let it be his mimicry of Rajeev masand, or his take on Raghu’s abusive private life, he was The Best. Karan scored just next to him. For the rest, you need to up your game.

It was not the best, but it is big step for Indian Comedy indeed. Kudos to the whole AIB team for tackling this Elephant in the Room. 😛

Tuesday Talkies – Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania(jcisnowjs.wordpress.com)
It Takes Courage To Be Preity Zinta(jcisnowjs.wordpress.com)
#AIBKnockout Goes Viral: A Million Hits In 12 Hours(lighthouseinsights.in)
Does it make me a ‘bad person’ if I liked AIB Knockout? And other such existential questions.(itwofs.com)

Food, Health

Mouthwatering Monday – Oven Baked Mathri

Image January 12, 2015 jcisnowjs Leave a comment

Oven Baked Mathri by Jyoti Singh — Oven Baked Mathri

Mathri and Namakpaare are the most eaten snacks in India. My husband love these salty snacks; only problem – It’s not a healthy snack. 😦

To overcome this problem I tried the oven baked method instead of frying them in oil.

Ingredients–

1 cup All Purpose Flour
1 tbsp Carom seeds
½ tbsp Cumin Powder
¼ tbsp Baking Powder
2 tbsp Ghee/Butter
Salt as per taste
Water as required for kneading

Method –

Preheat your Oven to 350 F.
Mix Flour, cumin seeds, cumin powder, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
Add melted butter/ghee to it and with the help of water knead into a dough.
To make Mathri, make small balls of dough and place them on baking sheet; just like you do with cookies.
To make Namakpaare, flatten the dough and then cut it into elongated rectangular shape with the use of a knife.
Spray some oil and put Mathri and Namakpaare on baking sheet.
Bake them in Oven for 20 minutes, turn them over and again bake for 15 minutes.
Oven temperature varies so just make sure that your Mathris are light golden brown and are crisp.

Mathris and Namakpaare are ready to serve. You can team them up with coriander or mint chutney, or ketchup. Best served along with a hot cup of tea or coffee.

Enjoy!!!

P.S. My cooking is experimental. You will find many similar and different recipes, but the idea is to explore your food and do experiments with it. Enjoy Cooking Experiments and Experiences 🙂

Chocolate Chip Cookies(thedawnofinspiration.com)
Buttermilk Scones Recipe(averagebetty.com)
Thursday Treats – Crocheted Bangle(jcisnowjs.wordpress.com)
Frolic Friday – Sachin Tendulkar Knows You, Maria Sharapova(jcisnowjs.wordpress.com)
What I Miss About India The Most(jcisnowjs.wordpress.com)

Movies

Tuesday Talkies – Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania

Image July 22, 2014 jcisnowjs 2 Comments

This weekend, I attended a wedding…. and what a wedding it was. 🙂

Cutting short the drama – I watched “Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania”, movie starring Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Ashutosh Rana and newbie Siddharth Shukla. Produced by Karan Johar and directed by Shashank Khaitan, this should be titled “A Tribute to DDLJ”. When you watch the movie, from start till the very end, this movie has every scene reminding you of the Bollywood classic – “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge”.

Story revolves around Kavya aka Alia Bhatt, who is getting married to Siddharth Shukla, a NRI doctor, who is chosen by her father as the perfect groom(btw, he is Perfect…. Just too good to be true). She is all happy and content about the marriage, except that she wants to wear a designer Lehnga, just like Kareena’s, in her marriage. Chirpy girl from Ambala, heads out to Delhi, to buy the Lehnga of her dream. Poor girl didn’t knew that she may or may not get the lehnga of her dreams, but she will fall in Love for sure.

Kavya meets Humpty; Alia meets Varun; and sparks fly. They do some naach gaana, and then the bride to be, returns back to her reality, her home. But, love knows no boundaries. So, our Humpty Sharma aka Varun too runs to Ambala along with his two best friends; to woo not only Kavya but also her parents, specially her Father, Ashutosh Rana.

I am not going to spoil the suspense more for you, but if you know Bollywood movies, and have watched DDLJ, then you know there is n suspense here. 😛

I really liked the movie. Even though it has the same tried and tested, boy meets girl, they fall in love, someone in family opposes, they try to convince…. kind of repeated theme, but the treatment given to this story is very refreshing and modern.

It is a tribute to DDLJ, but if you put this movie in today’s context, then “Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania”, is a better version of DDLJ, atleast more practical.

What works for the movie?

Chemistry…….. Alia and Varun being the super catalyst of this Awesome Chemistry. They look so perfect, fresh and electrifying together, that you can not take your eyes off them. Both of them are just a few movies old, but still they don’t look novice when it comes to their acting capabilities.

Alia specially in that Gurudwara scene has enacted the whole scene with such emotions even though when she is not speaking a single word; and Varun in the scene at Railway Station, where he confronts Ashutosh Rana; Marvelous. Both of them have a very good screen presence and they complement each other.

I am seeing Ashutosh Rana after such along time in a good movie, with a well defined role, and he has used this opportunity to the best of his caliber. His role is such, that every girl would want him to be her father, and every boyfriend would have nightmares of having him as his father in law.

Varun’s friends Shonty and Poplu are fun to watch. Every scene they are in, they have made me laugh. Witty dialogues delivered by them effortlessly, just like a pro. There is one eye candy too…. no, I am not talking about Alia. It’s Siddharth Shukla, television actor, debuting first time on big screen. More of his six pack debut, as he do not have much dialogues. Not that I am complaining. I am pretty content with just a towel scene. 😛

overall it’s a fun movie which you should watch if you want to relive that love and romance long gone, since the time of DDLJ.

Go enjoy wedding of Humpty along with “Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania”.

Life, Movies

Lovelace on a Highway

Image March 3, 2014 jcisnowjs 5 Comments

Warning: Spoilers ahead, in case you haven’t watched the movies “Highway” and “Lovelace”.

A Sunday well spent is, a Sunday spent on a couch watching some random movies and instead of burying them somewhere in your mind, have something to write about them. This Sunday I watched Highway then Lovelace and then a show “Satyamev Jayate S2”. Surprisingly, all three of them were connected to a single theme – Abuse of Women. Here I am not writing about “Satyamev Jayate”, because I believe it would require a separately dedicated post.

So, here comes my review along with my thoughts on the two movies I watched this Sunday.

Highway:

Highway is a story of a posh and high class young girl, who somehow seems to be trapped in that high culture aristocracy of Delhi. But inside she is a child wanting to explore the world, to know what it feels like to be free for a single day. This feeling can be understood by her state of mind as she was getting married the very next day and she decides to have her last freedom drive with her fiancee That is when she got kidnapped by some haryanvi rustic kidnappers. She was taken through a bumpy ride across north India, where by the passing days of her ordeal she discovered that she is tasting freedom for the first time in her life. She is free to go but she is longing to go away further in her journey. She realized that she is actually falling for her kidnapper,(this transition is very badly represented though), a man who has a rough exterior but who respects her and treats her with realism. She is no longer living a fake life of etiquette and good manners. That’s when she breaks down and share her tormenting past of child abuse to her kidnapper. How she had to behave like nothing has ever happened just because they are living in a society where child abuse is not considered a good word to hear. How she was facing her rapist uncle everyday at her home, and still she was behaving normally in front of him, as if the whole thing was not real but some nightmare.

Lovelace:

Lovelace is based on a real life story of girl, Linda, who got famous as a porn star by doing a porn movie once. She was just a regular teenage girl who feel suffocated by her over controlling church going parents and decided to move away with her recently found love interest Chuck. Chuck, who seems to be true gentlemen, soon marries Linda. They hit a financial rough patch and that’s when Chuck decides that the most easy way to earn money would be to have Linda work in a porn movie. She was scared and felt devastated and runs back to her mother, who only sends her back saying that a woman should always obey her husband, and do whatever he desires. She obeys. But Chuck was no gentlemen, not anymore. Beatings started and soon to earn more money he sells her last dignity, her body. Not to a single man but to a group of monsters.

After watching these two movies I realized the condition of women is not different in any part of the world. They may seem progressive sometimes but still many of them are sacrificing their freedom and dignity for their loved once. Sometimes by them and sometimes for them. Only thing that makes a difference in a woman’s life is when she starts listening to herself. When she decides to live her life on her own terms. In both the movies, the protagonist finally stands for herself and that’s when she break this circle of abuse and move on to live a life of dignity and worth-fullness. In Highway, she decides to move away from her parents and live alone her life, working independently. In Lovelace, she decides to leave her abusing husband. She marries again, become a mother, and writes about her “Ordeal” so that she can help other girls who are going through marital abuse.

Reflecting point is that no matter who you are or where you belong to, until and unless you stand for yourself, no one is going to respect you for who you are.

Be yourself. Be strong.