Sorry Ma, I saw WUS…
Guru Devo Bhava
October 2nd was a holiday. Being a dry day, I asked my ma, what to do, where to go? She told me what any South Indian mother would. “Just a few more moths in Bangalore, why don’t you go to Mantralaya?” I said OK. Nothing could be worse than a ‘dry day’. Man, was I wrong? There was a flood. The whole shrine was under water. There I was stranded… no food, no water… totally drenched to my bone… don’t even mention the cancer sticks.
So before I left for Mantralaya, I told my mom, the prayer routine doesn’t last for more than an hour. After that I will go to the nearest city & watch ‘Wake Up Sid’. Have been waiting for this for a long time now. But after I landed at Mantralaya and told ma about what had happened [the flood & its aftermaths], she told me that as I didn’t take God as seriously, this was bound to happen. I was denied His darshan. I was doomed. That was the payback.
No it wasn’t. I met Sid there. Only his name was Raghav. He shared his story about losing his father while he was a kid. Growing up with his mother, who made career choices for him & how he broke rules and carved a life of his own, despite the tantrums & thumb-rules thrown in by pesky relatives. How he became a DJ on his own. By his own choice. I was damn impressed. And even he was in Mantralaya to appease his mom, who he so much loved. Alike me.
After meeting Raghav, I thought what more interesting or impressive a tale would be that of Sid. A kid who bargains 30 days of work at his dad’s office for Porsche. Did I even spell it right? Fuck it. Man I was freaking wrong. OK, almost. The moment I came out during the interval, I SMSed a dozen friends that WUS sucks and how! A very sane friend replied “picture abhi baaki hai mere dost”. I love her.
Note to self: Never send out SMS to people during the freaking interval.
Chemistry that spelt magik
The second freaking half of the movie! Why the hell did we even need the first half? The bloody second half is a series of goosebumps. Or magikal moments as I would like to call it. Not that the first half was devoid of any magikal moments. It had 3. I won’t spoil it for you, like I played a party-pooper for other friends, right after the interval. My apologies to all of them. I owe you guys a repeat viewing of Wake Up Sid, whenever we meet, on DVD or the big screen.
I can’t just manage to stop gushing about the 2nd half. About Konkona. About the non-filmi moments. About the silences. About the spoken words. About the changing dynamics of a relationship. About a freaking debut of a director. Well, after watching the movie, I have serious doubts, if someone else had directed the 1st half. As the 2nd half was a different zone. It felt as if the bloody director actually came of age while shooting the 2nd half. That was mindblowing.
I had references of DCH, Lakshya & other movies before I went in to watch the movie. But when I came out, I have a handful of magikal moments from WUS. And yea, am feeling a lot goofy about myself and how stupid I was about jumping at conclusions. Even worse, i had almost conditioned myself to hate it, cuz it was backed by erm erm.
All said, it was a nice warm experience. In the same breath it was fantastic for a directorial debut… they guy knew his punches and delivered them right in the soft spot & melted many a hearts in the audience. Anupam Kher, holy cow! he played the rich dad better than my dad plays the poor dad. Supriya Pathak, what do I say. She says so much more when she says nothing at all.
I don’t mind watching this movie again, a few more times, but yes, after the interval. It was a wake up moment for me. About how to quit being an idiot about judging cinema. About many other things, but they are for me to know, you to guess & my folks to suffer 
Parting note: Sorry ma, I shouldn’t have mixed passion with religion. Will remember the next time around. Love you ma.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Pathetic movie saw it yesterday.Just goes to show how critic ratings are being manipulated nowadays.
I beg to differ..i thot it wuz a wonderful movie..!!
Ma should be happy her son grew up like a wise Lama with that “Anupam Kher, holy cow! he played the rich dad better than my dad plays the poor dad”
Nice review!
Dharma goes the Yash Raj bullshit way!
Guru,everything is unexpected in today’s world.u never know what would happen in next moment!!..No one thought, Mantralaya would drown like that despite having blessings of Raghavendra swamiji..Well,the same thing applies to “Wake up sid”,No one thought this movie from Dharma productions will be such a beautiful movie..!!..So,don’t count chickens before they hatch!!
Maamu!! Meri jaan!! this is a brilliant review plus a beautiful piece of writing by itself!!! Gorgeous by George! Not a single line which didn’t tickle!!! Hafta see the movie but those buggers are selling it for 200/- per ticket. Now since my dad aint ready to exchange my month worth of work for a porché (or whatever else heck) I guess I would need to wait till the end of the week when it comes to a more ok level!
Anyways, cheers to Waking up!
Such a heartfelt post on boys loving their mothers!
Seriously PFC, Wake Up!!! Is it some “celebration of medocrity week” on these pages??! This and that other juvenile review on WUS, sure makes it look like it
totally agree with u that the 2nd half was much better than the 1st half. in fact, 2nd half is the only reason to tolerate the 1st half. but on the whole, it was just an average movie. my 2 cents about the movie is here
Ah! I did have mixed thoughts on the movie before watching it.But after watching it there’s no confusion- its a nice simple tale thats well told.A good debut for Ayan and Ranbir certainly fits the bill indeed.Loved Iktara- superb.
So Magik whats mom saying for next week?
I enjoyed Wake Up a lot! My heroes of the film – Ayan, Ranbir and Iktaara! I agree on the second half bit.. Maza aa gaya..
And yeah, I think Rahul Khanna has never looked better! But I didnt know you didnt like Karan Johar!! I think he is an intelligent Producer. Apart from Kaal, I think Karan has always known what he is doing.. Even when he made a Dostana. Of course, you and I need not like everything he makes. The money he made from Dostana has helped him fund a WUS. And if this is his strategy, it seems to be working! And I am not complaining! Skip the Dostana, pay for WUS!
Well said Arati… I guess i need to wake up too!!! thanks for dropping in!
Ha ha!! Good morning !
Refreshing. Stimulating. Uplifting. Inspirational. Invigorating. Energizing. Bracing. Revitalizing and Cool….thats wut i can say about the movie (and your post too).
Ayan has created a engaging enough script worth investing time and money. Its one of the film i wud love watching back to back and I am sure you wud have done that only.
The film is refreshing for its unusual casting, with mostly unknown faces entrusted with important roles. Loved Supriya Pathak for playing Sid’s English-learning mom. Best were Shikha Talsania and Namit Das who played Sid’s best-buds.
I must say, go and watch WUS, you will realize that there is a SID in you, and am sure after the film, it will definately come out. (do watch it in theatre guys, its worth every penny)
Impact on me: I am off to provogue to buy the Wake-Up SID t-shirt collection. Am also searching for the tom and jerry socks (help!!)
~Ashu bhai MAPRM Wale
In Maharashtra there are seven dry days this month. Oct 2, October 8 (End of prohibition week), Oct 10, 11, 12 (Elections), Oct 14 (Counting day) and Oct 29 (Ashad Ekadashi)
+ve or -ve, praise or trash…whatever! The only thing matters is, it made you wake up and more than that ‘u realize it.’ So, what else u need bachhe. Rock it now…
It was a nice read …. as usual. Though i dnt totally agree with you about the first half being so lame. See some MAGIKal moments are MAGIKal for a clique and some for individuals …… as far as i am concerned , i found more than 3 rather plenty of MAGIKal moments in the first half itself. Things as small as the ‘Atom Ant T-shirt” were MAGIKal for me. I have one doubt though ….. in all these DCH, Lakshya and WUS the lost boy had rich dad ….. poor dad’s lost kid isnt interesting enough ?? or is he not real enough ?? …….. btw people can be passionately religious or religiously passionate !!
Kahan hai bhai saab…reply-to-comments bhi time me nahi lagri….
Anyways, tu toh bach gaya…..good that you dint start a bit late….Complete Kurnool is down under water…
WUS did it! For you ;)
I liked the Amit guy, Munir Kabani. I thought Konkona would fall for him, but he was gay probably
Most creative/ artistic/ successful men are either married or gay or just a ‘boy’.
Nice take man, agree on Supriya Pathak- she is like a silent signboard.
What makes you think so. He liked Konkana. Did you miss the part he invited her for Jazz show or when he read her article despite showing initial reluctance?
@ Jahanpanah: UH is referring to the photographer guy who Sid interns under, the ramta jogi… daadhi-moochh-lambe-bal wala… not rahul khanna, who plays konkona’s boss!
Ahh! My bad.
Most creative/ artistic/ successful men are gay or just a ‘boy’. ‘Not married’ anymore.