a movie that leaves u thinking

Yesterday I got a send-off party from my long-time PESIT buddies: Prashant, Veda, Harsha & Khalid.
Despite the largely looming terror threat in Bengaluru, we decided to go for the much awaited movie, Taj Mahal.

Few of the songs on the promos were good & the posters indicated that it was pretty quality stuff. But half of our josh was down when Veda indicated that the feedback was lukewarm. We've seen this pattern reccuring: good promos--all of our spirits are high, can't wait to get a First Day First Show ticket---later, u come out right after the interval, as though you are escaping from a prison.. :) I was thinking we are heading for such a disaster once again..

Overall, the movie seemed to be like a ODI between the good-parts of the movie & the bad-parts. The initial opening was a movie-crazy young boy running away from home fearing his father & finding a diary of the protagonist. This seemed like story telling with-in a story that was well presented. Then the bad-part took over: which place on earth had a number plate with S-143?? Switzerland??
Then following that, the hero puncturing his bike to wish good morning to our heroine (sakkat hot Pooja Gandhi) & ending off with an insequential romantic song. This was enough to put us off.
Then the movie continues with many absurdities, such as: the heroine, who has never talked to the hero & admittedly doesn't even know his name, agrees to go for coffee with him!! Unfortunately, it seems, the director didn't know that real girls in this real world aren't that liberal :(
Its only the occassional dialogs by Rangayana Raghu that really keeps the spirits up at some places.

But the highlight of the movie, that makes it worth wathching is the metal pressure that the hero goes through in choosing between his extreme love for the heroine & his duties & responsibilites towards his parents who have have sold their everything & living in extreme poor conditions so that their son studies well & becomes an engineer.
Its isn't that difficult for any of the guys (esp. me at this juncture of my life) to draw an analogy to the hero's state that really makes the impact on all of the guys.
The parents fetch more brownie points by forgiving the son who comes back & surrenders himself in front of this telling his bad state & parents accept him for what he is & forgives him. This again, seems to be a gentle reminder that parents, from the times of the Prable of the Prodigal Son, are a trove of forgiveness.

At the end of the movie, you really start thinking what did the hero achieve, after all?
Couldn't have he lived happier if he hadn't gone out of his small village or hadn't fallen in a wierd love with that girl?
This's what makes the movie a memorable one, even thought there are quite a few absurd, vague & far-fatched scenes.
Here's a link to one of my fav songs in the movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYs-InGHMtQ&feature=related