After Cross­words last week­end, vis­ited Oxford Book Shop at the Leela Palace this Sun­day. Resisted from buy­ing any­more books till I get some moolah this month though.

Picked up a mag­a­zine instead. Met up with a pho­tog­ra­pher who will be con­duct­ing a three month basic course start­ing from June. Since I’m such an ama­teur, I think it’s high time I brush up on my basics. Had some lovely rose­mary tea at the Cha Bar at the store and real­ized that it was so much more refresh­ing than cof­fee. They serve the tea in these really cutely shaped pots, pans and saucers. Nice.

Met Aqua and Jil (again!), Rocky and a friend of theirs at Rex to watch Yuva. After the reviews (dis­ap­point­ing, not as good as Mani Ratnam’s usual films etc.) I was won­der­ing if I would be dis­ap­pointed as well.

But I loved the movie! Maybe it isn’t his best (but every movie the makes can’t be the best, can it?). I think he’s a mas­ter sto­ry­teller and direc­tor. Whether it’s the way he weaves the sto­ries. Or the per­for­mances he’s got out of the cast. Or just the lit­tle moments that the char­ac­ters share and make the movie so worth watching.

This is was prob­a­bly the first role of Kareena’s that I enjoyed. (She was pretty good in Chameli too). She looks fresh and pretty. Her unadorned face with­out make-up and the lovely clothes, makes her stand out like a fresh rose in Calcutta’s some­times dull back­ground (could have been the rains). Abhishek gives a great per­for­mance and one hopes he con­tin­ues to get a few good roles.

Rani Muk­er­jee fits into her role as Abhishek lov­ing but tor­mented wife pretty effort­lessly. She’s look­ing bet­ter every­day and I’m look­ing for­ward to watch­ing her with Saif in Hum Tum. Esha is pretty good too. All those small nuances and expres­sions she brings into her role. I loved the song pic­tur­i­sa­tion on Vivek and Kareena. It was… some­thing else! I’ve seen snatches of it on TV, but on the whole, the song makes you feel young and care­free… And wish you could expe­ri­ence that thrill of first love all over again :0)

The last fight sequence between the three guys at the very end on the Vidya Setu bridge was pretty amaz­ing. The attempt at weav­ing pol­i­tics into the story, was fine, but the way it was han­dled could per­haps have been more real­is­tic. I would agree with Swami’s review on the unre­al­is­tic por­trayal of some of the polit­i­cal sit­u­a­tions and char­ac­ters. But Om Puri did a good take on the Ben­gali accent!

My advice in four words. Go and watch it! Don’t expect a mas­ter­piece. But it’s def­i­nitely worth watch­ing for its visual style, cin­e­matog­ra­phy and performances.

Momos. I love them. And if they’re cooked well, I don’t need much else. If you’re won­der­ing where to go after a movie at Rex, try 93 Chi­nese on Res­i­dency Road. While it poured cats and dogs, we bliss­fully pol­ished off a few plates between us. Nice choice, Jil! A good movie, deli­cious momos and the rain. Ah, it was a per­fect way to spend Sunday!