Weekend Plans

It's Wednesday, but I've been busy. What an amazing weekend I had! It started with watching a late show of Eklavya, we woke up late, I went for a short ride from Andheri to Bandra to meet someone and then rounded it off with the superb Roger Waters concert. Amazing! The only thing missing are a few references to a heavenly brew made of barley and hops. Then, it'd go up from amazing to perfect.

Eklavya turned out to be a huge surprise. The Wife, a newly minted Saif Ali Khan fan decided more or less unilaterally that we must go and watch this flick. I grappled with the idea until I realised it was a 100 minute flick... that much I could stand, fuelled by copious quantities of coke and popcorn. The impression was not hampered by a superbly convex ride (didn't get that? click here) on the CBZ X-Treme.

As it turns out, the hall we went to, Fun Republic was the low point of the evening and not the film. I've never seen a mall this quiet before and that's including some of the ones I've seen abandoned. Everything was closed and McDonald's helped by serving a perfectly crappy cold coffee. My fault, though – I should have hopped into the Cafe Coffee Day next door and pulled out seven more bucks. A fool and his money are soon fed watery cold coffee apparently.

But enough cribbing. We finally entered the hall and it all went swimmingly from there on. The movie turned out super-crisp, very taut apart from only a couple of scenes. All the actors, especially Saif have done a super job and I enjoyed the Big B on the Big Screen after a Long Time. Sorry for the gratuitous capitalisation, couldn't help it. In short, I'm buying the DVD. Now, I'd like to clarify that the film is good, but not memorable-great. But so few no-singing-no-dancing-no-rain-sequence-no-slutty-vamp are being made toady that any 'different' film is a good thing. The Wife liked the film a hell of a lot more, I think. So it must have been good. She usually knows these things.

And while I'm on the subject (or not), let me also say that I saw Black Friday also. With similar results. Different. I liked it. Too graphic in some parts – I have no objections with ugly reality, but splicing that footage in just because it looks shockingly good is not art. That said, the only other criticism I can level at the film is the sequence when 'Badshah Khan' is shunted from Mumbai to Delhi to Rampur to Jaipur to Rampur to Calcutta to Rampur... you see? It's even difficult to read, let alone watch. There it drags just a little bit. The chase where the cops are after this indefatigable criminal is just hilarious. And I must say, Kay Kay Menon, Pawan Malhotra are both tremendous, and I think credit is also due to the whole cast of smaller players, who all do a commendable job of being in-character. Another DVD I probably would not mind buying. But I can't guarantee I'd watch it again, though.

Anyway, so we returned home and woke up late and I left for my meeting. This is where the crowning moment of the weekend happened. Passing the SNDT intersection, I coaxed the CBZX up on one wheel, and it was a perfect wheelie. As in perfect. It was controlled, without stress, required no physical effort on my part and it landed with a whisper. Even the hieght was exactly between 'wuss' and 'loon.' PERFECT. I haven't decided whether it was a sign of a great end to a great weekend (I was going to Waters, remember?) or just a happy moment. In either case, that sun-bathed slow-motion moment was special and so I thought I should let you know.

More weekends like that one please... ideally with Saturdays thrown in...