Jodhaa Akbar and a broken door!

Tuesday, 26 February 2008

10:08:55 AM

A New book shelf and a grand table arrived from Karkala yesterday afternoon. I was quite happy to receive the same and was overwhelmed by the grand book shelf my will be in-laws have sent. I never in my dreams contemplated that it would be so solid and good looking. Arranged my books and CD’s in the shelf last night.

Last evening was fun. Swathi and I went to watch the movie Jodhaa Akbar at Movie Dome. The movie hall is a tiny DVD theatre as is the only other one at Manipal called the Movie Galaxy. Mostly cheap pirated versions of the newly released movies are shown at Manipal. Occasionally though we do get to watch a good quality screening.

This screening was of quite good quality, though not as good as the original print, I suppose. The movie though was very slow paced and too lengthy for my liking. The actors were not that well recognized except for the lead pair and some of the cast from Lagaan. Ashutosh Gowarikar the producer has done a good job with the costumes, though the sets leave a lot to be done. Computer graphics are not yet up to the mark when compared to the Hollywood movies that are freely available in the market. The scenes between the lead characters are filmed very beautifully and are the only captivating moments of the film. The songs are beautifully rendered though occasionally they carry on forever and could have been cut short. And I do not see any reason why the Governments are banning the movie. There is no way this movie will incite any communal incidents. In fact this movie shows why the various communities do need to get together. On the whole I would rate this movie a 2 ½ stars out of 5. Mainly it is so due to the length as well as the weak star cast.

Well that’s about the movie. We then went to have dinner at one of the small eateries here at Manipal. This one, called, ‘Hot and spicy’ is located on the end point road and they promise 24 hour delivery service to the residents of Manipal. We did not order a delivery but decided to Dine in. The food here is quite good, and we enjoyed it. Swathi though had consumed a lot of Peanuts and had lost her appetite at the movie.

The Mushroom soup we ordered was just about right for my taste buds and Swathi liked it too (which is quite a miracle in itself as she doesn’t like anything other than Sweet corn soups). Since Swathi did not want to have a heavy dinner, I ordered Ghee rice and Paneer Tikka Masala. The quantity supplied was quite huge and we couldn’t eat all of it. Taste wise hmmm… Let’s see… It was average stuff. The rice was good, but the Paneer was not as good. The bill was quite reasonable and at the end, I think I could give it a few more visits. Since I am a veggie, can’t say any thing about the other items.

As we were leaving the restaurant, Swathi tugged at the glass door at the entrance and the door of glass broke into two, right in the centre. She was shocked and so was I. Apparently the guys had not installed a door stopper or the stuff installed at the top which automatically slows down the door from violent movement. Swathi was very much worried that we would have to foot the bill for the door. Before she could say something, I paid the bill and gently shepherded her out the main door. She started bawling that she had only gently tugged at the door; I couldn’t help but laugh all the way back to her hostel. She was saying that she was Jodhaa (as strong as her) after the movie and so She was stuck with that name the rest of the way back from dinner.