When the Building Came Alive

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Kasturi Dhama Apartments — the play area where many evenings came alive. The lights would go out without warning. For a brief second, the entire building would fall silent. Then, from somewhere in Kasturi Dhama Apartments, a chorus would erupt. “Yayyy!” It is difficult to imagine children celebrating a power failure today. But in the Bangalore of the nineties and early 2000s, a power cut did not always feel like an inconvenience. Especially in the late evenings, it felt like permission. Permission to stop whatever we were doing, leave the darkness inside our homes, and step into the building outside. Before Kasturi Dhama became home, we had moved through a few different parts of Bangalore. My family had begun in Srirampuram and Vyalikaval before gradually cementing ourselves in Malleswaram for the next few decades. My earliest memory is of living in a vatara —a Kannada word loosely used for a building or a cluster of homes—on 15th Cross, near Karur Vy...
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Partner - Mindless laugh riot


There are some movies to be watched, just leaving your gray matter behind. You should not question why some things are happening and take things on screen value. After a rather eventful day at Newport, RI, we caught up with the latest David Dhawan laugh riot, Partner, starring the old time favourite Govinda along with the current controversial macho man, the ever undressable ready Salman Khan. The duo along with the beauties Lara Dutta and Katrina Kaif just got us entangled in what can be called as a feel good movie, combining all elements of reel life to get us hooked to two and a half hours of absolutely mindless comedy.

I am sure it would make no sense for me to give a review of the movie with a structured baseline of the story. Come on guys, it is a Dhawan movie. You can't expect a strong storyline to fill the minutes. The scenes are churned faster than the speed of the light, with reel after reel of What the hell is happening on the screen. It was funny to see Govinda come back to spirits on 70mm with the same zeal and enthusiasm. He was wonderful to watch in the songs with his inimitable dance style. The dialogue delivery is still vintage Govinda style, and of course, the mannerism keep reminding you of his previous superhits churned out from the Dhawan factory. Salman Khan is either shirtless or wearing tweaky yellow T-Shirts and orange trousers. Sometimes, he tries to get overdressed to adorn it with a pink jacket. I just could not understand why such a colour combination has to be chosen to represent him. Katrina Kaif is absolutely jobless in the movie other than providing some good solace to the eyes. Lara Dutta is sleek (Ok I know she is not a car) and steals the show in the battle of the fairer sex by a comfortably big margin.

As is so common with Hindi movies, we just cannot get a product out without songs. This movie is no different with out of the blue songs making a sudden appearance in the middle of "no" story! The songs were real fun, and it was great to listen to the tracks in the hall. Ask the group for further details. It is very important to watch this movie with a good group, so that you can have fun all the way through. Come what may, it is a must watch movie. As I keep saying, don't go to the theater expecting an art movie. It is a David Dhawan-Govinda-Salman Khan movie and it is absolute fun to watch a movie without questioning the sensibilites. An out and out commercial movie with all the ingredients of a good show at the box office.

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