Movie Experiences With Keya

The last movie D and I watched before becoming parents was Avengers: Age of Ultron in October 2015. Our first movie experience…as parents.. with Keya was when she was 13 months old in January 2017. And the movie was Dangal. After reading reviews and news of Dangal breaking all box office records, we had decided to take the risk and watch it in a theater. So, we availed the offer of Buy 1 get 1 free on D’s ICICI card. Worst case scenario – only one ticket cost will be wasted in case we needed to leave the theater so as not to cause inconvenience to others.

Our movie watching was successful with Keya awake 80% of time and without disturbing others. At first she was sleeping so we thought she will sleep through but as soon as the ads before the movie started she woke up due to the loud sound. (Keya is such a light sleeper that I should write a separate post on it) Then she sat n watched the screen for some time. Then I kept her engaged in feeding. The places we mothers have to feed!! Then D took her out in intermission. After that we kept her engaged in eating. In last 45 minutes D walked around the entrance area with her in baby carrier while watching from there. After 15-20 mins she slept off and D could also watch nicely. So overall it was a success!!

Then Keya became a toddler and the risks of going to a movie theater increased. D’s cousin brother and his wife used to go for movies at night when their daughter was of Keya’s age and she used to sleep through the movie. But we didn’t want that because if she will sleep in a night show then after coming we will be sleepy and she wont be (anyway Keya is a night owl…most active evening onwards and definitely not a morning person). Movies came and went and our life went on. Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hotstar are life saviours!!

D and I are both Marvel fans and after marriage we have watched almost every movie in the franchisee at theater. So naturally Thor:Ragnarok was on my list. It was released on 3rd November but we couldn’t decide whether to give it a shot or not. Then reviews started pouring and people started raving about it. It was already running since a month when we decided to take the plunge.

Since the movie was going on since November, there are limited shows now. A nearby multiplex had only 9.30 am show. So D booked tickets for that show and got us sofa seats as they were at the same price. The night before the D-Day, Keya went to sleep wearing the dress she was going to wear the next day. We got up early morning on a Saturday!! Had breakfast and prepared her diaper bag with lots of different food options. While leaving I took her in baby carrier which woke her up. But she again dozed in-car. As soon as we arrived at the mall, she woke up. She was wide awake inside the theater and watched the movie till intermission while eating different things – bread with peanut butter,bit of omelette, two square pieces of dairy milk and one pack of Gems. 🙂 It was a blessing that they let us enter with so much food items.

In second half we put video on mobile which she watched while eating another half packet Gems and  drinking Frooti. Then when last half hour of movie was remaining, she became restless as she was feeling sleepy (Keya is not a morning person). So I took her and fed her (which was super comfortable in sofa seat) and she slept right off. So again it was a successful attempt. It was helpful that Thor Ragnarok was a simple straight story and action movie and one didn’t miss much if one didn’t pay attention to some dialogues. And such was the impact of the movie that Keya remembered the Uncle with the hammer for few days. 😀 😀

So tell me, my reader, how was your movie experience with your kid?

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Movie Review – Shaadi Ke Side/Effects

The sort of prequel to this movie “Pyaar Ke Side Effects” starring Rahul Bose and (shudder) Mallika Sherawat (who surprisingly actually acted and did it well) is one of our (D and I) favorite movies. We love the song “Jaane Kya Chahe Mann” from that movie!! So it was only natural that when the sequel Shaadi ke Side/Effects was announced, we were very eager to watch it. We went to watch it on 1st March and here is the review.

The Story:- Sid (now played by Farhan Akhtar) and Trisha (now played by Vidya Balan) are a modern happily (and newly?) married couple. Soon after a drunken night of love-making where Sid forgets to use protection, Trisha discovers that she is pregnant. Though she wants to have the baby, Sid does not and they agree for an abortion. But Sid changes his mind and they decide to become parents. Thus begins the story of a young couple and more importantly that of a young husband’s journey in becoming a father.

The Review:- To begin with, the movie is almost entirely from the husband’s point of view. So maybe the husbands could relate and maybe the wives could take some jokes on themselves and open their eyes; but the way life changes for a woman, how overwhelming everything becomes for a mother and wife is just done away with a dialogue which upon hearing after the movie has started to stretch and become a bore, becomes negligible and lost on the audience.

The lead pair is brilliant in their acting but it is the story that fails. The first half is witty and hilarious and reminds us of the prequel but since we have seen some of the humorous dialogues in trailers on TV, they fail to induce laughter again. The intuitiveness is lacking in the script. The writer has missed out on so many small things of a married couple which could have spiced up the depiction of the side effects!! For example – whether to keep the ceiling fan on or off during the night because in most of couples, one partner feels hot whereas the other one feels cold. Right? 🙂 The only example of a lie is NOT when a wife asks “am I looking fat in this dress” and the husband replies “no dear”. There could have been better examples.

The second half is just like a story moving without direction and purpose.  Too many new characters are introduced with no meaningful contribution to the story be it Sid’s stoned room-mate played by Vir Das or the governess played by Ila Arun. Its sort of confused and exaggerated and doesn’t work towards culminating into a good climax and a superb ending. The crispness of the screenplay is gone. But yes the climax is a bit surprising but not in a pleasant way.

The songs don’t leave an impression in the mind to make us hum later. [After watching Lego the movie I kept singing “Everything Is Awesome” the whole way back home :D] Nothing worth downloading and listening to over and over.

Overall just a one time watch for married couples with or without children.

P.S. # The dialogue “Biwi apne pati ke bina reh sakti hai, bai ke bina nahi” [ A wife can live without her husband but not without her house-help woman] is kinda stolen from ME!!! I always say that to my friends and even tweeted it. I should have copyrighted it!! 😀

# They have tried to show 2 major side effects of a marriage – child and maid. But they missed out the first one which comes in the marriage even before a child does. So as I tweeted, the movie Shaadi ke side/effects is like a dish which lacks salt because they have missed out on the most important side effect – as many of my female readers will agree – the Mother in Law!!! 😀 😀 😉

Day 10: Movie Review – Despicable Me 2

Yesterday we went for the sequel of the movie “Despicable Me”. D and I try not to miss any animation movies that are released 🙂 But since he didn’t like Monsters Inc., he was reluctant to go for the prologue type sequel Monsters University. Now I have to watch it on DVD. 😦 In recent times we have seen The Croods, Epic and Hotel Transylvania and out of my laziness I have not written any reviews.

So Despicable Me was good and though I remember posting a review, I couldn’t find it in my blog. So again laziness is to blame. “Despicable Me 2” is the much-anticipated adventure comedy sequel to the first installment that came out in 2010. Despicable Me 2 starts where Despicable Me left off.

Gru and his three adopted orphan daughters Margo, Edith and Agnes are a happy family now. Gru has left his villainous ways and  has started a new business of producing jams and jellies (which taste horrid) with the help of his cute yellow minions and Dr. Nefario. Meanwhile a top-secret research facility in the Arctic Circle is “abducted” by a villain using a huge magnet for a dangerous serum which has the potential to turn a harmless living being to be ferocious and invincible.

The AVL (Anti Villian League) sends one of its agents, Lucy Wilde, to bring Gru to headquarters to recruit his help to find this bad guy. Meantime, someone starts abducting Gru’s minions for a devious purpose.  The main narrative has the subplots of Gru trying to protect the teenager Margo and Gru finding love. Does he succeed in completing his mission, saving his daughter and wooing his lady? Who is this bad guy? What does he want with Gru’s minions? To know all that watch the movie!

The yellow gibberish-speaking, goggle-eyed Minions had won the audience’s hearts in the first “Despicable Me” and the sequel takes their role to a higher level with a major part of the plot centering around them. And they succeed again!! Like the penguins in Madagascar series, they are the real show stealer. Animation is great but I feel 3 D was unnecessary. Or if it was going to be 3 D, then enthralling scenes should be incorporated. Also crude humor and fart jokes could have been avoided. The movie could have been more witty and the story more taut with little more suspense. The character of Agnes is endearing. But overall it is an enjoyable movie. And soon market is going to be flooded with Minions merchandise 🙂

Don’t just leave after the movie is over. Wait for the end credits. There’s a hilarious little sequence which hints at a spin-off movie to be released starring the Minions.

“Bullet”ined

This post was destined to be a movie review post but due to bad Internet connection, laziness, busy life and travel it got delayed and more delayed till it has now become a casual bulleted post giving my readers some random updates instead of a post having paragraphs. Sigh!! Such is the influence of Twitter. But then brevity is the soul of wit! 😀 But this is not a funny post either. Sigh!

Tag: All Time Top Three Movies

Destination Infinity tagged me to list all time top three movies that I have watched in at least two languages. That is an almost impossible task for me! But still I will try.

General guidelines for the tag: List all time top three movies that you have watched in at least two languages (Even one or three should be ok, I guess). Write a brief description about each mentioning why you liked it. Also, do tag others.

Ok so here goes…

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Watched the movie on the first day of its release!! 😀

The Story :- Dumbledore is dead and Harry Potter is the Chosen One…one who will defeat Voldemort. As he leaves Privet Drive forever, he knows his life’s aim now. Harry, Ron and Hermione have decided not to go back to Hogwarts this year. Their secret mission is to find all the remaining Horcruxes and to destroy them which will eventually destroy Voldemort. The first losses Harry has to suffer on this arduous journey are the deaths of Hedwig and Auror Mad Eye Moody. The first part of the finale of Harry Potter vs Voldemort is about this journey and discovery of  not only Horcruxes but also of themselves; not only facing dangers like never before but facing their innermost fears and insecurities and overcoming them.

Movie Review:Shrek Forever After

The first movie of my vacation and it had to be the final chapter of Shrek of course!! After all I am a huge animation movies fan. Saw it on Saturday in 3 D. Here is the review :-

A Thief,A Frog and Wonderland

At last I got some free time to watch few movies I had been waiting to see and of course to write their reviews 😀

Movie Review – 3 Idiots

I celebrated Christmas by watching Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots – a movie I had been looking forward to; not because it is based on Chetan Bhagat’s book Five Point Someone but because it was a Rajkumar Hirani movie. Here is my review of probably the most anticipated movie of the year, without any spoilers.

Movie Review – Twilight and New Moon

Yes you read it right. I am going to write the review of  Twilight – a movie which was released in theaters on November 21, 2008 ..one year ago!! But not in India. It was released in India just few weeks prior to the release of its sequel – New Moon. ..almost an year late. Twilight had grossed US $35.7 million on its opening day; US$ 384,997,808 in worldwide box office and as of December 2009, $175,255,138 in North American DVD sales. So I had to watch it to know what was the hype all about!! Its sequel “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” took in $72.7 million in its first day to break the single-day domestic box office record set by “The Dark Knight”.

Here are my reviews of the two movies :-

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince

British boy wizard Harry Potter conjured his magic at box offices again, as the sixth film in the highly popular movie series earned a record $22.2 million at Wednesday midnight showings in the United States.

I had been very disappointed when the release of Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince was postponed to July 2009 from Nov 2008. The movie was released world wide on July 16 but it hit the theaters in my city on July 17th and that too in Hindi (in the whole of Chattisgarh in fact). Even then I was determined to see it as soon as possible.

Hollywood Bonanza

I have been on a Hollywood movie watching marathon but didn’t get time to write my short and crisp reviews that you all love so much 😀 😀 So here goes :-

# The Hangover :- A bachelor party gone very wrong. The groom is missing. There is a baby and a tiger in the suite. And this is just the beginning. A hilarious movie about four characters. The story is well paced and really weird yet possible sequence of events make the movie plot interesting and funny. A total Dude movie 🙂 Must watch for guys.

Three-In-One Movie Review

At last I got around to watch some movies. Here are the reviews :-

1. Duplicity :- Clive Owen is an ex-MI6 spy and Julia Roberts is an ex-CIA spy, both of whom now work as corporate spies for two business rival companies. One of the companies is about to launch a new product and the rival company is out to get the secret. But the spies are involved in an hot affair. The narration and the music are quite similar to Ocean’s 11/12 and I think the director has tried to make it as slick as Ocean’s 11. But in the end the movie comes out to be all confusing and god-knows-what-is-happening type. The acting is good but the story is scattered and too much twisted. If any of you has seen the movie please explain the ending to me on email 🙂