Tuesday, 10 October 2017
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Mughal-E-Azam the majestical play

Recently I got a chance to watch the mystic play of "Mughal- E-Azam" which has been presented by NCPA and Shapoorji Pallonji Group However it happened so that one of my friend’s has got two tickets and she was looking for the companion to come along, So when asked I was more than happy to join in. Initially, I took it as any other play which I have seen in past but trust my words it was mammoth of play. Before I talk about the play let me share a bit background about "Mughal- E-Azam" a story.



"Mughal- E-Azam" was a blockbuster epic Indian movie that was released in 1960 after being for 7 years in the making and it broke all records at the box office after its release and shut the mouths of the skeptics. The movie starred Prithviraj Kapoor, Madhubala, Dilip Kumar and Durga Khote in the lead roles.It was directed by K. Asif and its soundtrack by Naushad consisting of 12 songs still evokes awe.It was the love story of Prince Salim and a maid girl Anarkali and it shook the very foundations of the Mughal sultanate.

The play "Mughal- E-Azam" has been directed by celebrated director Feroz Abbas Khan who has also directed Tumhari Amrita, Salgirah, Salesman Ramlal and Gandhi Viruddh Gandhi and many other famous plays etc. So you can imagine my excitements as well as curiosity as to how will Feroz Abbas Khan treat a story that is known to all and has already created records as a film.

The Cast of The play" Mughal- E-Azam”:

 Akbar - Nissar Khan              
Anarkali - Neha Sargam
Salim - Dhanveer Singh
Bahar  - Aashima Mahajan
Jodha  - Sonal Jha
Narrator /Sangtarash - Rajesh Jais
Maan Singh - Ram Bahadur Renu
Suraiya - Palvi Jaswal

                                                          
The play is exactly the same as the movie. It is the story of the turbulent and passionate love of Prince Salim for a maid girl Nadira who was conferred the title of "Anarkali " by Emperor Akbar himself. The dialogues in the original movie were written by Kamal Amrohi, Wajahat Mirza, Ehsan Rizvi and Amanullah Khan. Feroz Khan has retained most of the original dialogues and when delivered by the artists with proper voice modulation and perfect diction. It created the ground for a stimulating performance. The original soul-stirring music by Naushad has been retained with the only change being live singing by the female artists and beautiful Kathak based choreography to accompany the songs. The technical direction, the Sound system, and the stage management were excellent. The background and foregrounds seamlessly and noiselessly would interchange creating a magical film like finesse on the stage. The actors were impressive in their performance and singing especially touched by Salim (Dhanveer Singh ) and Jodhabai (Sonal Jha ) and the singing of Anarkali (Neha Sargam ) was soul-stirring too.




Since the original dialogues have a lot of Urdu words, the director did well to include translations projected on the both side walls.

There were many high profile people who came to watch the play who kept coming late and scurrying for their seats even after 15-20 minutes of the start of the play. Since you cannot really see much of the facial expressions, the dialogues become much more important in a play. Also at some places, I felt that Akbar was not as prominent a force to imagine as in the original movie his performance could have been more influential.

A complete justice has been given to the original in terms of the splendor and lavish aura as in the movie.The same large scale and dazzling sets and beautiful costumes.


FINAL VERDICT - I rate it a 4.5/5  


The play recreates the magic of the bygone era.See it for its great Music, Dance, costumes and technical aspects.Even if you have seen the original multiple times you will still come back spellbound. A must watch for all!

Friday, 22 September 2017
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ASIAN PAINTS LATEST OFFERING ROYALE ATMOS WITH CLEAN AIR

ASIAN PAINTS LATEST OFFERING ROYALE ATMOS WITH CLEAN AIR
Asian paints limited have been a renowned and known name in the paints industry for decades. They have been the undisputed market leader of the organized paints market and beat the nearest competition with a gap of almost 18%.

The organisation started in a garage, in 1942, by 4 friends namely Champaklal Choksey, Chimanlal Choksi, Suryakant Dani and Arvind Vakil. By 1967 the company gained the market leader position and since then the organization has only grown in size. One of the strongest points of the organization has always been bringing new and innovative products in the marketplace. They were the first to introduce a “washable distemper” in 1950 to the market that was predominantly dependent on powdered Chunna for their decorative needs. This was truly a product that occupied the large gap between the Chunna and the expensive plastic emulsions.


The organization has successfully changed the market game moving it away from a painter driven commodity to a consumer-led business whether it is there paint tinting machine called “Color world” or their painting solutions and estimates over the customer helpline.



The latest offering from the house of Asian Paints is Royale Atmos. The product aims at the decorative paint market and uses the power of activated carbon. Carbon as an element has unique properties that make it useful to create stealth in fighter aircraft to toothpaste.  One of the after-effects of a painting job is the chemical smell that lingers in the household for days. The chemical smell is the first thing that we notice before even the walls. The product uses the power of activated carbon and results in no after the smell of the paint. Moreover, the Atmos on the walls continue to give out a pleasant smell weeks after the painting. The product when applied on the wall absorbs formaldehyde that is a major air pollutant in the house. The activated carbon in the paint breaks it down into harmless molecules and thus making the air inside the house pollution free and fresh. 

The product is very efficient in absorbing the foul smell of cigarettes and rotten eggs. Royale Atmos from the house of Asian strictly complies with their policy of GREEN ASSURE and is available in the smooth rich matte finish and is with TEFLON SURFACE PROTECTOR thus making the paint film strong and long-lasting and fortified against any household water based stain. The paint gives a superior coverage with 2 coats of 140-160 sq ft/LTR and is available in 1750 special shades for the consumers.
So readers time to get rid of the bad smell and color your world with beautiful vibrant colors this festive season.



Tuesday, 19 September 2017

BOOK REVIEW - “NICE MEN FINISH LAST BY PRAVESH VIR SIDDHU”
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BOOK REVIEW - “NICE MEN FINISH LAST BY PRAVESH VIR SIDDHU”




​ The Romance has always been something that has caught my eye whenever i have a choice to pick a book. As the name suggests the book is about romance and the writer makes it so much worth reading.

The story revolves around Nandu, shattered. As his ex-girlfriend, Noor leaves him for another ‘not so nice’ guy, he feels like his world has collapsed. Unable to deal with this brutal heartbreak, he decides to change the way he leads his life. From being a guy with morals, he turns into a guy who lies to sleep around with girls, following the steps of his commitment phobic friend, Sattu. The circumstances described henceforth, involve Nandu behaving like a womanizer and have been written convincingly enough to make the reader dislike Nandu for his crass behavior. As the story progresses with Nandu’s niceness reinstated, Tanishq enters the story. A beautiful dentistry student, Tanishq creates quite an impact with her beauty and Nandu falls in love with her. From here the story turns into a sweet love story with lovers frolicking about. However his newfound happiness is not to last long as he realizes that his triumph while ‘scoring’ girls is a pretty depressed one and this leaves him feeling empty.

The narration actually differentiates a good writer from the average. This is so evident in this book. The narration of Prakash  with just enough characters in the book makes an ordinary story worth a read. The narration keeps in mind the everyday lingo that we use. The other character like ved is like friend everyone has. To explore the talent of the master storyteller you need to read this book.

Now my Positive viewpoints:

The positives of the story are the characters easily identifiable. Even though the narration is again easy to read and allows us to easily go through the entire story, the story sways through various emotions and makes the readers feel along with it. And the author gracefully weaves the character throughout the story. Like these lines, he keeps the storyline entirely simple, yet elegantly intersperses it with rich emotions.
Some suggestive points:

Although the narration of the story is good but in my opinion, the character of Nandu and the relationship with Tanishq could have been explored in detail. Even Sattu looks a little underplayed.

Final words:


Overall if asked I would say this is good job done by the author, the book is interesting and a fast read. The writer makes an ordinary storyline interesting with her narration abilities. I would give 4 stars to this book.

Sunday, 17 September 2017

BOOK REVIEW - “THE GIRL I LOST LOVED BY SMITA KAUSHIK”
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BOOK REVIEW - “THE GIRL I LOST LOVED BY SMITA KAUSHIK”



BOOK REVIEW - “the girl i lost loved by smita kaushik”


​ The Romance has always been something that has caught my eye whenever i have a choice to pick a book. As the name suggests the book is about romance and the writer makes it so much worth reading.

The story revolves around Akash and Kasam and takes you through their highs and lows of the relationships. The writer narrates it beautifully taking the reader in flash backs and in present times from time to time. This way she is successful in catching the emotions of the characters in their teens and in their adulthood. The best part is the way she relates and weaves those emotions from different times together. Smita uses the poetry beautifully to portray the emotions in the book. The other characters like the parents of kasam and Akash have been given adequate weightage. The storyline is simple and interesting. The writer has done an excellent job of portraying the emotions. The story talks about Akash falling in love with Kasam in teen age. He is not able to materialise his relations as a teen and then bumps into her when he is a successful man. They go through separation again due to an emotional turmoil that they go through. The narration actually differentiates a good writer from the average. This is so evident in this book. The narration of Smita with just enough characters in the book makes an ordinary story worth a read. The narration keeps in mind the everyday lingo that we use. The other character like ved is like friend everyone has. To explore the talent of the master storyteller you need to read this book.

Now my Positive viewpoints:

The positives of the story are the characters easily identifiable. Even though the narration is again easy to read and allows us to easily go through the entire story, the story sways through various emotions and makes the readers feel along with it. And the author gracefully weaves the character throughout the story. Like these lines, she keeps the storyline entirely simple, yet elegantly intersperses it with rich emotions.
Some suggestive points:

Although the narration of the story is good but in my opinion, the character of Divya and the relationship with Akash could have been explored in detail. Even Ved looks a little underplayed.

Final words:


Overall if asked I would say this is not a fair job done by the author, the book is interesting and a fast read. The writer makes an ordinary storyline interesting with her narration abilities. I would give 4 stars to this book.

Friday, 8 September 2017

BOOK REVIEW - “GLITTER AND GLOSS BY VIBHA BATRA”
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BOOK REVIEW - “GLITTER AND GLOSS BY VIBHA BATRA”




​ Inadvertently I am the one who enjoys reading romance more than any genre for that matter when it comes to reading.

The story revolves around Misha who comes from a broken family. She goes through her share of highs and lows and works as a beautician. She falls in love with Akshay, a rich guy, from a business family. Vibha keeps the storyline simple and fast to read. The narration actually differentiates a good writer from the average. This is so evident in this book. The narration of Vibha makes an ordinary story worth a read. The narration keeps in mind the everyday lingo that we use. The other characters like Sammy and Paulomi seems like the friends everyone has. The character of the Jeejaji surprises the reader and Vibha weaves the characters beautifully be it the mother of Misha or her younger lover. To explore the talent of the master storyteller you need to read this book.

Now my Positive viewpoints:

The positives of the story are the characters easily identifiable. Even though the narration is again easy to read and allows us to easily go through the entire story, the story sways through various emotions and makes the readers feel along with it. And the author gracefully weaves the character throughout the story. Like these lines, He keeps the storyline entirely simple, yet elegantly intersperses it with rich emotions.

Some suggestive points:

Although the narration of the story is good but in my opinion, the character of Akshay’s sister could have been explored in detail. Similar was required for the character of Misha’s mom and her lover.

Final words:


Overall if asked I would say this is not a fair job done by the author, the book is interesting and a fast read. The writer makes an ordinary storyline interesting with her narration abilities. I would give 3 stars to this book.