Movie Review of Love Sex aur Dhokha (LSD)!

Folks,

I ain’t telling you the plot or the story here, rather my admiration for the movie and all about it on a very high-level. So, you could still go ahead and enjoy without a sense of déjà vu!

LSD/LSD-25 is Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, a semi-synthetic psychedelic drug per se! And I thought firmly, that the movie is going to be all about drugs and sex! Then I thought may be something like Kalyug. But, No….NO!!! Fortunately it ain’t the run-of-the-mill stuff. It’s simply more to LSD.

Now, I feel I should be given the “Corporate Employee of the Quarter” award for having bunked the first half of my office-day, just to catch First-Day-First-Show of LSD…….Love, Sex aur director ne diya Dhokha….Naay!! NOT AT ALL! It’s Love, Sex aur Wow, Kya movie maine Dekha….! Watching a movie in solitude at the theater was never my cup of tea  + gives a sombre experience for me, (only once before) but thanks to Dibakar, I was glued to my seat.

This is the movie ‘Love, Sex aur Dhokha’, acronymed as LSD by the talented Dibakar Banerjee, with the type that is one of its own kind or say, first of its own kind. At the outset, if you just went to this movie expecting to satiate your sleaze balls or get a whip of titillation on the big screen, or just apprehending a good starcast, then this movie is definitely a big NO for you.

This ain’t a single setting movie but opens up in 3 different subplots, with each story beautifully hyperlinked that eventually intersects with the other which is what got me fascinated with this pattern of story-telling. Not sure if I could call this a “Dark” or “Thriller” or a  …and definitely isn’t a “Drama” but may be a potpourri  of all genres.

The entire ‘runtime’ of the movie happens to be on multiple video footage shot by a handheld camera akin to Paranormal Activity but then this has more to offer than just horror or docu-drama! Moreover, it is so very well justified that I could not find a single chink in the armor wrt the video footage shoot as compared to other masala bollywood movies where you can find something unrealistic or well-nigh unthinkable!!! Pretty well justified by the director and hats off to him.

Btw, I personally admire DB/Ekta Kapoor for being gutsy enough to have got this movie out in an IPL season when most of the viewership would have gone into the regional team leagues than multiplex hits. Sure, this movie will give Madhur Bhandarkar’s movies a run for money.

This movie is definitely hilarious with all the mundane northy slangs, as well as the lingo. One more good aspect is, the movie has a bunch of novices who, either are theater-stars or just freshers, have meted out their characters so well, is certainly praise-worthy.

Overall, I loved the movie and don’t give a damn on the TOI ratings or what-so-ever but I would rate it a ★ ★ ★ ★ .5/ 5.

Being actively involved in the #LSDKnockOffs league since last evening on Twitter attempting knock-offs of the movie title, here are some of the funny knock-offs:

• Love, Sex &  Jhadoo Poccha – Shiney Ahuja’s expectations from his maid
• Love, Sex aur Sloka – The rise and fall of Nithyananda
• Love, No Sex, Viewer ka Dhoka – The Tale of the Indian Censor Board & its puritan nonsense
• Love, Sex aur Mocha – A lot can happen over coffee
• Love, Sex aur Mocha – A Caffeine kick
• 0-6 Aur Dhoka – What we can expect from Sania Mirza
• Love, Sex aur Poda – The Mallu Playboy Philosophy
• Gov, Sex & Dhoka – The story of ND Tiwari.
• Love, Sex aur Oprah – Because women really want to talk.

Last but not the least…if ever my Boss stumbles upon this blog post in the near future, then I would like to say, “Boss, I am crazy with my whims. Please catch LSD asap!!!”.  😀

Snort it OR Watch it….Enjoy LSD!!!  😉

Interactions with American clients – Useful tips.

Hi,

Right from early adolescence, had been fond of English and its many vagaries. Jumping into Corporate World has taught me more than many things. Although, Americans are pretty cool about lingo, (sometimes end up using ‘WTF’ (What The F*ck) in the review comments) and erroneous too, it wouldn’t be prudent on our part to show an unpolished  linguistic skill. Here’s something really useful when you deal with the American counterparts:

1.  Do not write “the same” in an email – it makes little sense to them.

Example – I will try to organize the project artifacts and inform you of the same when it is done. This is somewhat an Indian construct. It is better written simply as:

I will try to organize the project artifacts and inform you when that is done

2.  Do not write or say, “I have some doubts on this issue”

The term “Doubt” is used in the sense of doubting someone – we use this term because in Indian languages, the word for a “doubt” and a “question” is the same. The correct usage (for clients) is:  I have a few questions on this issue.

3. The term “regard” is not used much in American English. They usually do not say “regarding this issue” or “with regard to this”. Simply use, “about this issue”.

4. Do not say “Pardon” when you want someone to repeat what they said. The word “Pardon” is unusual for them and is somewhat formal. You can say, ‘Please come again or could you please repeat.’

5.  Americans do not understand most of the Indian accent immediately – They only understand 75% of what we speak and then interpret the rest. Therefore try not to use shortcut terms such as “Can’t” or “Don’t”. Use the expanded “Cannot” or “Do not”.

6.    Do not use the term “screwed up” liberally. If a situation is not good, it is better to say, “The situation is messed up”. Do not use words such as “shucks”, or “pissed off”.

7.  As a general matter of form, Indians interrupt each other constantly in meetings – DO NOT interrupt a client when they are speaking. Over the phone, there could be delays – but wait for a short time before responding.

8.  When explaining some complex issue, stop occasionally and ask “Does that make sense?”. This is preferable than “Do you understand me?”

9.   In email communications, use proper punctuation. To explain something, without breaking your flow, use semicolons, hyphens or parenthesis. As an example:

You have entered a new bug (the pop-up not showing up) in the defect tracking system; we could not reproduce it – although, a screen-shot would help. Notice that a reference to the actual bug is added in parenthesis so that the sentence flow is not broken. Break a long sentence using such punctuation.

10.     In American English, a mail is a posted letter. An email is electronic mail. When you say “I mailed the information to you”, it means you sent an actual letter or package through the postal system.

The correct usage is: “I emailed the information to you”

11.     To “prepone” an appointment is an Indian usage. There is no actual word called prepone. You can “advance” an appointment.

12.     In the term “N-tier Architecture” or “3-tier Architecture”, the word “tier” is NOT pronounced as “Tire”. I have seen many people pronounce it this way. The correct pronunciation is “tea-yar”. The “ti” is pronounced as “tea”.

13.     The usages “September End”, “Month End”, “Day End” are not understood well by Americans. They use these as “End of September”, “End of Month” or “End of Day”.

14.     Americans have weird conventions for time – when they say the time is “Quarter Of One”, they mean the time is 1:15. Better to ask them the exact time.

15.     Indians commonly use the terms “Today Evening”, “Today Night”. These are not correct; “Today” means “This Day” where the Day stands for Daytime. Therefore “Today Night” is confusing. The correct usages are: “This Evening”, “Tonight”.

That applies for “Yesterday Night” and “Yesterday Evening”. The correct usages are: “Last Night” and “Last Evening”.

16.    When Americans want to know the time, it is usual for them to say, “Do you have the time?”. Which makes no sense to an Indian.

17.     There is no word called “Updation”. You update somebody. You wait for updates to happen to the database. Avoid saying “Updation”.

18.     When you talk with someone for the first time, refer to them as they refer to you – in America, the first conversation usually starts by using the first name. Therefore you can use the first name of a client. Do not say “Sir”. Do not call women “Madam”.

19.     It is usual convention in initial emails (particularly technical) to expand abbreviations, this way:  We are planning to use the Java API for Registry (JAXR).

After mentioning the expanded form once, subsequently you can use the abbreviation.

20.    Make sure you always have a subject in your emails and that the subject is relevant.

Do not use a subject line such as HI.

21.       Avoid using “Back” instead of “Back” Use “ago”. Back is the worst word for American. (for Days use “Ago”, for hours use “before”)

22.    Avoid using “but” instead of “But” Use “However”.

23.    Avoid using “Yesterday” hereafter use “Last day”.

24.    Avoid using “Tomorrow” hereafter use “Next day”.

Corrections and additions are welcome. Hope this helps. If yes, do acknowledge! 🙂

Russell: Happiness

“Fundamental happiness depends more than anything else upon what may be called a friendly interest in persons and things. … The kind [of interest in persons] that makes for happiness is the kind that likes to observe people and finds pleasure in their individual traits, that wishes to afford scope for the interests and pleasures of those with whom it is brought into contact without desiring to acquire power over them or to secure their enthusiastic admiration.

The person whose attitude towards others is genuinely of this kind will be a source of happiness and a recipient of reciprocal kindness. … To like many people spontaneously and without effort is perhaps the greatest of all sources of personal happiness.”

‘ The Conquest of Happiness’, Bertrand Russell