komal 🤸🏽‍♀️

NOVEMBER DAILY STEP CHALLENGE I will complete 10k steps each day of this month. Join me! You can have your own goals. Doesn’t have to be 10k. I’ll quote post step count at end of each day 💪🏽

Ramayana is MAGNIFICENT! Visually, it is one of the most stunning films I’ve seen in my life. Many frames are so beautiful that they feel like paintings. The locations have been so beautifully designed. The colours and lighting pop on the big screen. The film has a strong soul. It makes you feel those strong emotions, whether it’s the Vanvas sequence or the final Jatayu fight. The soul is never lost in the spectacle. The music was more Western Operatic than I would have liked. I thought it lacked a traditional touch in many pieces but it is epic and bombastic nonetheless. The songs were a mix bag - some work and some don't. The actors have done a solid job, both the main cast and those in smaller roles. A special shoutout to Ravi Dubey, who has done a phenomenal job as Laxman. I have one complaint though. When you hear Ravi Dubey speak shudh Hindi, you realise how easily the words are flowing. But you don’t get that sense from a Ranbir or a Rakul Preet. You can tell it's a Juhu-Bandra person trying to speak shudh Hindi. I’m sorry but too many Bollywood superstars talk in English all the time. Whether it’s creative discussions or interviews or on set. Even the scripts are written in English, not Devnagri. Hindi is just another costume they put on. You can get away with sketchy Hindi in films that are set in contemporary times, but you get found out in period films. That nitpicking aside, go watch it. Ramayana is an experience. Watch it on the biggest screen you can, in the best format possible. Don’t listen to joyless ideologues whose whole world revolves around words like “communist”, “marxist”, “leftist”, “anti-Hindu”, “anti this”, “anti that”. Stay away from people who are bitter about everything in life. There is nothing objectionable in the film. The team has done a phenomenal job to present our culture in the grandest manner possible. Congratulations @malhotra_namit and @niteshtiwari22! I wish the team the best, and I hope the film travels far and wide. If a film gets to represent India globally, I would rather it be this story than any other. More power to them, and I wish them best for Ramayana 2. Let me leave you with a controversial opinion: Ramayana was far more enjoyable than The Odyssey. :)

Watched Ramayana Part 1. I am pleasantly surprised. Extremely engaging. I really really enjoyed it and I went in with low expectations. Please do an experience it in imax. Do it!

When the last several Harry Potter books were released, we had midnight book launches attended by millions. Children, in some cases very young, finished these 700 & 800 page books in a single day. And now people are telling me I made it up, that this couldn’t ever have happened.