Musings

Saw this movie alone two days back at viviana mall. Based on a novel by Colleen Hoover, the main part of Lily Bloom the florist is played by Blake Lively. Ryle is played by Justin Baldoni. The love story is scarred by domestic violence by Ryle who is extremely possessive and jealous of Lily's former boyfriend who meets her just when her relationship with Ryle is taking off. The movie is a bit slow in the first half. Most of it is shot in Boston. A baby is born to Lily from Ryle but she decides to divorce him for the violence she had been subjected to. The relationship ends with the birth of the baby. Blake Lively has played Lily Bloom with great flair and Baldoni plays the violent Ryle perfectly. Ryle's sister Alyssa is portrayed by Jenny Slate with expertise. Atlas is played by the good looking Brandon Sklenar. Movie is worth watching in a cinema hall. Ravindra Shenolikar 

Evening I listened to the raag puriya on you tube music sung by Apoorva Gokhale. Puriya is based in Marva thaat. It's notes are the same as raag marva but the vaadi swar is gandhar and sanvadi is nishad. In marva the vaadi swar is rishabh and sanvadi is dhaivat. This too is a raag that creates a serene atmosphere like marva. It is sung or played during the evening when it is beginning to get dark. Apoorva Gokhale's rendition of raag puriya was excellent. The nuances of the raag were well captured by her. She is blessed with a good voice and has obviously taken a good taalim from her guru. I had seen her name in many concert advertisements but heard her for the first time. She started with a vilambit, followed by a drut and ended with a taraana. She was successful in creating the perfect mood of puriya. YouTube music is a blessing with so much content available. There are recordings of live performances of longer duration of forty to fifty minutes that are a delight to listen to...

There is a nice park just opposite to where we are staying in New Jersey. I went out for a walk there in the morning. The weather was beautiful at 20 degrees, neither too cold nor too hot, very pleasant. There's lot of greenery in the park and walkways in between. Nice benches on the walkways and very few people, mostly with their pets. There is a nice fountain at one end of the park. Blue skies and wonderful quietude. The squirrels were feasting on the grass. They are so fearless here. They do not run away like they do in India. Rather, they stand their ground and are unwilling to be disturbed. Perhaps they sense the fearlessness and sense of liberty in the country only too well. Birds do have a very acute sensory perception. A squirrel was busy eating in an upright position and it allowed me to take a picture.   Ravindra Shenolikar

So far Mumbai Indians have won 3 matches out of 6 and are placed at no.7 in the Points table. It is a miracle that they have earned six points. Their middle order is hardly doing anything. The captain Hardik Pandya has not yet found his touch with the bat. Rohit, Ishan Kishan and now Surya are doing bulk of the scoring. Importantly, they have a poor attack. They have only one world class bowler in Bumrah but he can bowl only 4 overs. The rest are pedestrian. They don't have the skills required for T20 cricket. Very few can bowl the slow ball well. Spinners are extremely ordinary. If you compare MI with other teams the difference can be easily noticed. Most teams bat deep. Punjab has exciting young players in Shashank and Ashutosh. Chennai has Dhoni who comes to bat at no. 8 or 9. Abhishek Sharma, another blazing young talent, is giving Hyderabad the edge. In terms of skills, this year's IPL has moved ahead a few steps. The teams who are not keeping up will perish. Perhaps that ...

Replacing Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya as captain of Mumbai Indians for IPL 2024 has unleashed myriad reactions from all quarters. It seems to have strained relations between the two. It is only human as Rohit has led MI to 5 IPL trophies and is well liked by his teammates. However, if you consider Rohit's performance both as a batsman and as a captain in the last two years, you would feel some justification in the decision. Both the players need to handle it professionally rather than emotionally. Now there is news that Rohit will leave MI next year. That would be quite unfortunate. This might have been a factor in MI's loss of first 3 matches. But this sort of start is customary for them. One can see that Rohit is trying his best to come to terms with the new situation. The booing that Hardik is getting from the public is quite unfair and should stop forthwith. Team has spent last few days at Jamnagar facility to bond. Hopefully, it will help and reflect in today's mat...

We visited Pune last weekend. We drove on the 21 km long Atal Setu in the morning that further went upto Panvel and connected to the Mumbai Pune expressway. It was a smooth drive as compared to the usual Thane Belapur road which is heavy with traffic. We reached Pune in four hours with a half an hour halt for breakfast at khopoli. In the afternoon we went to Pavillion mall on the Senapati Bapat Marg which also houses PVR multiplex. We watched the movie Article 370. The movie is well made depicting the story behind the dismantling of Article 370 of the Constitution of India. The performances of Yami Gautam and Priya Mani are quite brilliant. It was good to see the marathi actor Vaibhav Tatwavadi playing an important role quite well. The role played by Kiran Karmarkar of the home minister is also quite superb. However, Arun Govil's depiction of the PM was not so convincing. The movie was engrossing and well directed. Next day we visited a show titled 'Van Gogh 360', showcasin...

A web series having above title is running on Netflix. There are seven episodes, each of approximately 55 minutes. It is a thrilling, fascinating, action packed series well worth watching. The main character is played by Evin Ahmad. She is an undercover agent in London, helping the police. She is well trained in fights, arms etc. She infiltrates a gang taking the name Kate and helps the police to bust it. She comes across Lena, a member of the gang, who has a little daughter by the name Harper. Lena carries Harper with her wherever she goes. Kate likes Harper and developes a genuine kinship with Lena. When the gang is busted by the police, Lena gets shot. Thinking that she is dead, Kate takes Harper with her. Kate feels that she is being used by the police and carries a grave risk to life. She flees London carrying Harper with her and settles down in Barcelona in Spain. She starts a new life with Jordi, a decent young man, and Harper. She tells him and Harper that she is  Harper's ...