Miss Ya Babe

Sitting 1500 kilometres away from my child, who by now has turned into a fine lady, on her birthday, was indeed a sad day. The choices were narrow…brood and sob at her absence or remember her on those good and happy days. The father-daughter duo has always been quite a happy pair when it came to watching movies together. Our tastes are so similar and we watch the same movies over and over again. To the utter disgust of the mother, who is unable to fathom how we keep watching Malamaal Weekly every time it comes on any channel, how a father can watch No Entry with his young daughter and how does the whole world come to a stop on the bed with everything being served there...food, water, snacks and more while watching Potter-Namas…If watching some of these movies repeatedly wasn’t good enough, we have also bought the VCDs of most, if not all,…so that just in case the Star, HBO and Sony forget to play them, we can do it on our own. So today I share with you some of the movies we love watching along with a line from the movie script…some memorable, some mundane and some philosophical. So here’s my Happy Birthday Selection for the Bestest Girl in the Universe.

This is where her love story with movies began and this one is her all-time favourite. Since that very day she has always been Sallu ka Fan.

Log kehte hai khoobsurat ladkiyan jab jhoot bolti hai ... toh aur bhi khoobsurat lagti hai

The mother bought her some of  the all time classics and she fell in love with them as well. Fiddler on the Roof, Roman Holiday...the list is long but The Sound of Music is evergreen and we can watch it anytime.

The hills are alive with the sound of music. With songs they have sung for a thousand years.

The house is full of his books, wands, memorabilia and she still wants more! With most books bought on Day One of release as well as First Day First Show for the movies...

Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.

We can both narrate almost every dialogue of this movie we’ve watched the most number of times and yet laugh even more every time we see it.

Zyada chapad-chapad kiye toh mooh mein chaata ghusedh doonga aur kholonga bhi

I couldn’t appreciate this one movie the first time I saw it but then I love every time they show the trilogy. The Return of the King is so inspiring that both of us often quote from Tolkien's Tales.

A day may come when the courage of men fails… but it is not this day

For a change her mother also enjoys this one especially with Nana Patekar selling alu and kaanda.

Agar yeh aasoon nahi ruke na ... toh iss shehar mein tsunami aa jayega

He is an utterly crazy guy and so are his movies but the first few of the series were just brilliant and highly philosophical. There has never been a more lovable pirate in the history of mankind. 

Lots of rum, lots of women. That's Jack for you

This must be one movie other than Padosan that everyone would have seen and will rank it high in the list of all time comedies. Every character was portrayed brilliantly. Priyadarshan was at his best.

Yeh Babu Rao ka Style hai

Neo and his digital world have always been a challenge for me. I still prefer the Superman-Batman type toon stuff but the action gets you hooked when you see it over and over again. The movie for us is right up there.

You have to let it all go, Neo. Fear, doubt, and disbelief.  Free your mind.

She is now an eye surgeon and in this movie Johnny Lever is the surgeon who fixes a goat’s eye on a patient and we still found it ridiculously funny then and now as well.

Kabhi kabhi dil jodne ke liye dil todna padta hai ... aur dil todkar jodne waale ko ... pata nahi kya kehte hai

This is truly a movie which makes you laugh and learn…just right for any Learning & Development Trainer as to how Po, the Panda is trained and groomed by Shifu into the Dragon Warrior.

The secret ingredient is... nothing!

A truly inspiring and wonderful movie which made you sit-up and love the rebels...Apni toh Paathshala, Masti ki Paathshala...

I always believed there were two kinds of men in this world, men who go to their deaths screaming, and men who go to their deaths in silence. Then I met a third kind.

This must rank among the most watched English movie for the Father-Daughter duo and we could do the dubbing for the real actors…almost.

My daddy'll kick your daddy's ass all the way from here to China, Japan, wherever the hell you from and all up that Great Wall too.

This one’s my Biwi’s X-rated movie where we are asked to shut down the TV set as she walks into the room. The last sequence of nagin music as the heroes are hanging from the hill is just too funny.

Kutta jab gaadi ke peeche bhaagta hai toh ... usko gaadi khareedni hai yah chalani hoti hai?

This one is so special and often makes me think whether I too shall be like Steve Martin when the D-Day arrives…worried that someone will, one day, take away my little precious one!

This was the moment I'd been dreading for the past six months. Well, actually for the past 22 years.

The fun, the sensitivity and intensity of this movie with brilliant music and the actors fitting into their  roles perfectly, just makes it an all-time favourite. Who can forget Saif sitting on a pillow and narrating his tale of how he was duped in Goa by a pretty firangi babe.

Hum cake khane ke liye kahin bhi jaa sakte hai

There are many more I could write about Darling but for now remember the first picture we took on our Kodak camera….Ain't she a Beauty?

Happy Birthday My Dearest Princess.

Just when happy memories were filling my mind, came the sad news of Miss Hawa Hawai. Long ago when my daughter was just a tiny tot, we had an old lady taking care of her, when we went to work. The maid would be bored and we were lucky to get an old, used, small B&W television set from my friend Rocky who by then had a colour Sony set in his house. One night, we were all watching Sadma where in one of the scenes Sridevi makes a little puppy do a roll on the grass by saying, “Ram Lal palti khao.” So whenever our old lady wanted M to do a cart wheel, she would say, “Shyam Naal palti kao,” and the little one would smilingly do it.

All I want to say now is, My Princess, make your Life a Happy Movie!

SS