Salaam-E-Ishq

Dear Diary,

Last night I went to see the latest blockbuster Salaam-E-Ishq with a few friends. Then I came home and watched Snakes On A Plane. And before that I went to rehearsals for this stage show that I am in.

Dear Diary, here are some things I learnt from Salaam-E-Ishq:

To get the pretty lady on the subway to fall madly in love with you, stare down her dress at her cleavage. Apparently this works in London.

Cellphones work on the London subways while underground.

If you want to woo an old flame, blackmail is the way to go.

If you stand in the middle of the streets of Muslim Lahore, Pakistan, and proclaim your love for a Muslim girl while you yourself are a Hindu guy, and she accepts, religious looking people in beards will cheer rather than shout about the gazab of Allah.

Overall the movie was ho-hum. Nothing ahamori, or extra-special as they say in Bengali, but OK. You won't feel your money being wasted. Some people had told me the 3.5 hours (yes!) would make the movie seem long, but to be honest I didn't feel the movie dragging at all.

Dear Diary, you know Vidya Balan, my current fav? Well, despite being sans make-up for 80% of the time, she still looked good. Her acting was one the best in the movie. Just to prove I am not biased though, Priyanka Chopra did the best job though in the movie. The songs were well choreographed, especially the title song. Akshaye Khanna was the worst actor, hamming awfully with zero comic timing, while surprisingly Govinda was the best. Six average love stories, an average movie, but stylish visuals and the multi-star cast obviously being the main draw.

Snakes On A Plane. Now there's a fundas movie! Total B-grade effects, acting, but I had a ball of a time watching the movie. The predictability of the plot did nothing to hamper the fun, it was buckle your seat belts and hold on for the corny script, cheesy special effects and some R-rated fun. Paisa Vasool, as they say.

You ask about the show I am in? It's on March 16. The last time I was on stage on such a show was three years ago. It's different now, even though some of the people I know are family friends it's such a younger bunch, but as a graduate student I expected that. It might be the last year I can do this, so I wanted to.

You know what's funny? Sometimes now when I see someone, let's say four or five years younger than me, and he's wearing baggy jeans, tight t-shirts, loads of gel, some bling bling, and I laugh. I can so see right through those characters now, and what they are trying to do. Then when these girls walk into the room in a coat that is chic but really does nothing to protect them against -30 degrees outside, when they emit a fake laugh at some corny joke, you gotta laugh again. Not at them, but that few years back, I was one of that crowd.

God I feel like Anil Kapoor plus Akshaye Khanna now.