The Pizzazzy

Initially I wasn’t very keen on watching this movie. I wasn’t even waiting for this movie to release although I loved all the songs of this movie especially ‘Dard-e-Disco’ mainly because of my favorite Sa Re Ga Ma contestant, Raja. The first time I heard the song was when Raja performed it in the contest and till date I find that better than the original.

Yesterday we simply had an idea about watching a movie. And to my great surprise I found that Golden Village was showing ‘Om Shanti Om’ so off we went for the afternoon show. All movies release on the Thursday of the week it is releasing in India. And I get to give a review to all my friends and cousins back home.

‘Om Shanti Om’ is like ‘Main Hoon Na’ the earlier venture by Farah Khan, a feel good and happy ending movie. Infact one of the dialogs of the movie also says that ‘if it’s not happy it’s not the end’ Good one I must say.

The other repetitive thing that you would get to hear in the movie is ‘If you really want something very badly, the whole universe conspires to make it possible’. Are you wondering where you heard that before, and then let me tell you this is the very theme of Paulo Coelho’s Alchemist, the best seller novel written in simple English and simple sentences, but giving great meanings and teachings of life.

Then the second half of the movie was quite predictable. Ya, the very twist of the movie was predictable Farah. That’s all about the movie bashing that I can do for ‘Om Shanti Om’. Just like the name of the movie first there is Om and Shanti then again Om. Righto! OM’s reincarnation. No not Shanti. But since we cannot leave our Hindi movie hero without a heroine there’s a look alike of her as Sandy. Howzzat?

On a positive note, the movie is worth-watching-once. All the songs are really good and infact in one song you can see many bollywood actors. It’s a visual treat to see all of them dancing in this one long song ‘Om Shanti Om’. Yes Treat, it is! There are cameo roles by Abhishek, Rani, Pretty, Karan Johar, Farah Khan etc etc…

The story line is same as Karz with some twists. But Deepika Padukone really looks great in both the roles of superstar of 70s and normal girl 30 years later and what more she can act as well. Shahrukh’s six packs look really cool, and the item number with Shahrukh and none other than his six packs is again a visual treat. Ladies watchout. Shreyas Talpade rocks again.

Now the must see in the movie is the rich editing which shows Deepika dancing with Jeetendra, Sunil Dutt and the likes. The yester years looks is portrayed beautifully by the set, clothes, hairstyle and acting. And some intelligent bashing of bollywood stars makes good comic sequence.

Om Shanti Om is really a Diwali treat and tough one for Sawariya. Enjoy the movie with family and friends.

I did what I had planned to do and also managed to not do everything that I planned to do. I made besan ke laddoo as planned but due to lack of enthusiasm from hubby dear I couldn’t make nariyal ki barfi. Why I blame him? Well he simply refused to visit the wet market for grated coconut.

The wet markets in Singapore sell freshly grated coconut, infact one can chose white or black. White meaning only the white part of the coconut flesh without the brown layer. Otherwise the brown is also grated with the white. This was one of the conveniences out of so many in Singapore for me. I am really bad with grating coconut and usually end up cutting it and running the pieces in a grinder. Lotza hard work there. Here I just go to the nice lady at wet market and say 250 grams. And it takes her only a minute to grate and give it to me.

After taking a look at the laddoo, Anand was like ‘Why do you want to make Nariyal Barfi also? This is enough! Who will finish this?’ And he gave an assaulted look as if having the laddoos was an absolute torture. I also held my fort and gave him a hurt look enough to make him realize what he just said was not fair. After all I had taken around 2 hours for preparing it and at one point patiently waited for the laddoo paste to cool off and attain a consistency so that I could easily roll them into small balls. All that effort and not even a word of praise.

Even though I had used what I did last year and tried to replicate the taste, color and look with the exact quantity used last time, the paste was too soft and pulpy for some unknown reasons. The ghee proportion turned out to be more than desired. So, I had to finally keep it overnight to be able to roll them into laddoos. In the end I got the look and the taste but now I have to keep it in the fridge so that it does not melt back into the paste.

Take a look and if this is not worth taking a bite my Diwali is not happy enough. But the thing is I can only serve this to friends who will be visiting us. Yesterday when I carried the laddoos in a nice little dabba for my friends who had invited us for dinner, the tragedy struck right when in an effort to offer them sweets while I wished them a happy Diwali I opened the dabba and phew.. The perfectly round besan ke laddoos had turned into equally perfect besan ka halwa.

And with this attempt once again my foray into sweets begins. So best of luck to friends around me. Happy Diwali.