India Uncut

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Tuesday, May 10, 2005

But daddy, why did you name me Water?

I just spent the evening watching the awful film, Waqt, a mistake I only committed because it was written by Aatish Kapadia, the man behind two of the funniest shows on television, Instant Khichdi and Sarabhai v Sarabhai (both on Star One). But while the (intentionally) funny moments in the film were nice, there were too few of them. The film was essentially an inane family tearjerker, and my viewing experience was made much the worse by an old gentleman sitting besides me and saying "Yes yes!" enthusiastically after particularly emotive pieces of dialogue. At one point after the interval, he broke into a loud quarrel with his (equally old) wife and had to go buy ice-cream for her.

Anyway, this post is about the most ludicrous scene in the film, when Amitabh Bachchan lies dying shortly after holding his newly born grandchild for the first time. As he gasps for breath, everyone starts imploring him to name the child before he dies. (If he doesn't the child will presumably remain nameless.) He gasps, and gasps, and managed to blurt out a name. Then he dies and Akshay Kumar, playing his son, bares his teeth and makes funny noises. (Some people in the audience laughed out loud here, and the old man besides me seemed rather miffed at this.)

But imagine if instead of the kid's name, Amitabh's last word had been something else.

Update (May 11): Varun Singh wants his money back.
amit varma, 10:34 PM| write to me | permalink | homepage

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