TEES MAAR KHANCritic’s rating: ★★1/2Readers’ rating: ★

Here’s why TeesMaar Khan (TMK)

failed to strike a chordwith the audiences...

Disaster unlimited� A big letdown. No story. Abrainless script. An out-of-place and low class humour.I HEMA� This is one of the lousiestmovies in recent years. FarahKhan has taken the public forgranted. I S BALASUBRAMANIAM

� One of the worst movies.Don't waste your time andmoney seeing on this movie.It's worthless! I DEB� This was really a disaster.Don't waste you money andtime to watch this silly movie.I PUNEET� Tees Maar Khan is a disas-trous movie. It's a total wasteof time and money. I SURESH

For the dumb lot�The film-makers have madethis film with the basic prem-ise that the audience is brain

dead. No plot combined witha poor script and loud spoofsmakes you want to get out ofthe theatre. I GANEASH� This is what happens whenyou think the Indian audi-ence is going to digest anystale cookie you throw atthem! Akshay has been ham-ming and churning out non-sense. I DANNY

58888 Codes for movies● Ada: A Way Of Life (ada)● Bhoot And Friends (bho)● Gulliver’s Travels (gul)

Type rev <space> short code ofmovie as it appears below<space> your rating (choose from1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5 or 5)<space>. Add your name <space>and comments, if any, and send to58888

e.g. rev ala 3 anu cool movie

To read/rate a movie you can also,go to review.timesofindia.com

RATINGS EXPLAINED1 Poor, 1.5 Below Average, 2 Aver-age, 2.5 Above Average, 3 Good,3.5 Good, 4 Very Good, 4.5 VeryGood, 5 Outstanding

READER REVIEWERS MY TIMES, MY VOICERATING SCALE POOR★ AVERAGE★ ★ GOOD★ ★ ★

VERY GOOD ★ ★ ★ ★ OUTSTANDING ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

TOONPUR KA SUPERRHEROCritic’s rating: ★★★Readers’ rating: ★★★1/2

Read on for our re-aders’ reviews of To-

onpur Ka Superrhero...A good movie

� Toonpur is a good enter-taining movie. A must watch! I PALLAVI� It’s a fantastic movie. A per-fect treat to watch! I BISHALRAJ GIRI� Go and watch Toonpur. Itsfull of fun like other good an-imation movies. I SHOURAV� An outstanding animationmovie. Both adult and chil-dren alike will love this movie.I MAHADEV� A good paisa vasool anima-tion movie. Ajay and Kajol

look good together. I KUMAR� Toonpur Ka Superrhero isone of the best Indian ani-mation movie. Ajay is good asalways. I SUDHA SARASWAT

A good attempt� There should have been

more life to the toon charac-ters. Also, the second half wasmore interesting. I UMESH� It’s a good movie, though thecharacters could have beensmarter. I RAMI KHAN� Good movie. Not a mustwatch, but still worth appre-ciating! I PANKAJ

'Toonpur... is a good entertaining movie...'

‘Toonpur Ka Superrherois one of the best Indiananimation movie. Ajayis good as always...’

‘No plot combined with apoor script and loudspoofs makes you wantto get out of the theater...’

'Tees Maar Khan is a disastrous movie!'

Meher Marfatia

You could trip over theshiny row of buckles andbows, too tiny to spot atfirst. Like something in

Alice in Wonderland’s surreal open-ing sequence, the smallest fist-sizedshoes colourfully line the entranceto a room from where baby lispsand catchy tunes waft out.

Enter Aditi Shah’s MusicalBonding class to meet thefootwear’s elfin owners, happily en-grossed in a flurry of ringing, clang-ing and tapping to beats from “in-struments” no bigger than theirpudgy little hands. Egg shakers,ribbon sticks, miniature castanetsand palmtop tambourines strikeraw chords as reedy toddler voicestry the notes and words of agelessmelodies. All this from a parent’scocooned lap or a comforting dis-tance of a foot.

If the enthusiasm at a MusicalBonding session is infectious, so isits basic premise: that imagina-tively strung together music andmovement can unite a fledgelingfamily in a holistic way. Personal-ly powered by this belief, Shah, anarchitect and mother of two tod-dlers, creates an intimate group dy-namic at her suburban centres.Kids between the ages of sixmonths and five years gently findtheir own level of rhythm and pitch,

teaming musical aptitude withphysical coordination. No maidsare allowed; it’s parents and grand-parents who bring and bond withtheir kids, says Shah.

Hitting the scales with equal har-mony, innocence meets innovationas kids revel in a warble-and-whirlroutine at Priyanka Seth Pandit’smidtown workshops called MusicTogether. The synchronicity is root-ed in a basic philosophy: all chil-dren are born musical. Pioneeredin Princeton, New Jersey, this caters

to a mixed age group, engaging new-borns to five-year-olds.

The universally recognized mu-sic and movement approach to nur-turing childhood musical intelli-gence is supported by handpicked,dedicated teachers who have for-mal training in either western orIndian classical music. Once smit-ten by Music Together, its follow-ers trigger off a whole family sen-sory experience which builds storesof visual, verbal, linguistic, math-ematical and spatial intelligence.

Almost 20 years before either ofthese programmes took root here,

Banoo Jasubhoy introduced the cityto Fit Kid and then Fit Tot. Of these,the latter, a physical play pro-gramme involved close parental in-volvement with a strong emphasison movement to music. Fit Tot hassince evolved, adapting a combineof internationally practised modelsto present three types of age-spe-cific classes. Fit Tot’s Diaper Gym,for babies from seven months towalking age, provides them withspecial equipment to explore as theymove to the beat of very simplesongs and rhymes. Then, Fit Tot en-ergises young tykes by challengingthem to balance on beams, climbropes, sing on trampolines andmove in a variety of ways to peppymusic. Finally, a Play and Learn Ac-tivity Hour includes action songslike “Wake up, warm up, clap yourhands”, musical instruments andpuppets to coax broad motor andmental core skills into full bloom.

Jasubhoy ensures that each songhas a concept attached to it with amatching exercise. This could be adiscovery of human body parts, theinsect world or language expres-sion. “Our aim is ‘Activate to Edu-cate,” she points out. “Everyone isa winner at Fit Tot.”

Fit Kid Fun Factory:9820937904/9870058590Music Together:9833115370Musical Bonding: 9769910499

THANK YOUfor the music

Parents andkids bond overmusic andmovement inthese sessions

Gulliver’s Travels (comedy) ★★★Cast: Jack Black, Amanda Peet, JasonSegal, Emily BluntDirection: Rob LettermanDuration: 1 hour 25 minutes

� Lemeul Gulliver (Jack Black), anordinary mail room clerk in a news-paper, sets out on an ordinary jour-ney, after being assigned to write atravel piece on Bermuda by the pret-ty travel editor, Darcy (Amanda Peet).However, the journey turns out to bean extraordinary adventure, whenGulliver’s boat capsizes and he landsup on a strange island called Lilliputwhere he must help the tiny islanders

to defend themselves against the evilgeneral Edward (Chris O’Dowd).

Don’t even think this is goingto be an encounter withJonathan Swift’s 18th-centu-

ry classic that makes for an excel-lent read even today. Jack Black’sGulliver is a born-again hero whotries to grab eyeballs in a post-Avatar world as Gavatar. And whenhe's not gassingabout survivingthe Titanictragedy, he isbusy trying toconvince thequaint Lil-liputians of hislarger-than-lifestatus as theFirst Citizen ofthe Island ofManhattan!

Hey, butwhat kind of aPrez is this Gul-liver guy? Hecan’t even savethe islandersfrom the despot-

ic designs of a pompous General whotramples all over the natives in aTransformer-type armour and wantsto marry the princess (Emily Blunt),even though she is terribly bored byhim. Left to herself, Princess Marywould like to spend her life with thecute commoner Horatio (Jason Se-gal), specially after he is being tu-tored in the state-of-the-art style ofwooing by the lovelorn Gulliver. Thisnew age Romeo may not have beenable to express his own feelings forhis travel editor, Darcy (AmandaPeet), but he sure can make Horatiosing and dance his way into thePrincess’ heart.

But can the man from Manhat-tan end up as a zero? Never. It’s notlong before he realises what size ac-tually means—you got to be enor-mous inside, rather than outside,to actually make a difference to theworld. The Lilliputians do find theirhero who wages a final battle to savetheir honour.

Shot in 3-D, this revisionist takeon Swift’s novel may not be spec-

tacular interms of spe-cial effects,but it hasenough funand games toengage thefamily. Watchout for JackBlack’s zanyrendition ofthe classichero who isfirst held cap-tive by pint-sized peopleand thenp u n c h e daround by a gi-ant-sized doll.

CINEMA OF THE WEEKNIKHAT KAZMI

STRIKING THE RIGHT NOTE: Children at Aditi Shah’s Musical Bonding class

MUMBAI FOR KIDS

Uma Kadam

THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAISATURDAY, JANUARY 1, 20114 TIMES CITY

Bella Jaisinghani | TNN

Mumbai: As Friday midnight drewnear, few Mumbaikars shed a tearfor the outgoing calendar year 2010,a time few will mourn for its litanyof scams and tribulations caused byan unbridled price rise. Instead,across public venues like Gatewayof India, Chowpatty and Juhu beach,families and strangers greeted oneanother in the hope that 2011 wouldbring a turnaround.

Fireworks, the clink of glasses andloud cheers of celebration markedthe welcome to the New Year as ta-bles groaned under the weight of del-icacies and spirits. Across the city,people chose to celebrate within theirhousing colonies or in the comfort oftheir homes. Thousands attendedmidnight thanksgiving servicesacross Catholic and Anglican church-es.

Housing colonies that were host-ing parties for their members were

glad that the deadline for loudspeak-ers had been extended. At Basant So-ciety in Borivli's Saibaba Nagar, aband of children aged 10-12 ha-rangued their parents for a largewhite shirt and a pair of jeans thatthey could use to dress up the Old Manof 2010, before burning him up. “It isthey who have taken all the efforts.We adults followed orders,” said res-ident Anand Ganesh Mankatty.

Houses of prayer across the cityprepared to host a surge of devoteeswho arrived for thanksgiving cere-monies. Former Indian Police Serviceofficer Y P Singh and his wife Abha,the postal services director at the GPO,visited Siddhivinayak temple to offergratitude on December 31. “Ratherthan ask for favours in the New Year,we prefer to thank Lord Ganesh forthe blessings of 2010,” said Abha.

Nearly 2,500 people were expectedfor midnight mass at St Peter’sChurch, Bandra. Parish priest Fr Er-rol Fernandes got his team to openup the spacious loft above the prayerhall. “We can accommodate arounda thousand people below but given thesheer numbers that turn up on NewYear’s Eve, we decided to make use ofthe similar space above,” he said. TheAnglican Afghan Church hosted a spe-cial service at 11 pm on Friday. An-other will be held at 9 am on Satur-day “half an hour later than usual aspeople rise late on New Year’s Day”,said a considerate Rev Graham En-gineer.

Many Sikhs visited the iconicHazur Sahab gurdwara in Nanded forthe annual midnight ardas. Trans-port union leader Bal Malkit Singhchartered a flight for 100-odd mem-bers of his inner circle.

“Young Sikhs are increasinglydrawn to this spiritual experience,where we pray as the New Year un-folds. They prefer this over alcoholparties,” he said.

As peers partied away at night-clubs, actor Sushmita Daan headedfor Kolaad with family and friends,while event manager Esha Joshi trav-elled to a resort near Pune with a bandof 25 friends carrying supplies for apotluck dinner. Each was anxious toget past the toll nakas before a traf-fic pile-up.

Advocate Waris Pathan enjoyedthe winter nip in Panchgani. “Half ofMumbai seems to have arrived here,”he said on Friday night. “Hotels andresorts are filled to capacity and weare keenly waiting for the New Yearbash to begin.”

As the night progressed and amood of reflection took over, conver-sation centered around the year thatwas: The 2G, Commonwealth Gamesand Adarsh scams, and the Aarushimurder case. A collective prayer wentup for a happier 2011.

Lalbaugcha Raja Ganpati Mandalmembers sent smses pointing to thesequence of the date 1.1.11, a coinci-dence that will not occur for a hun-dred years.

‘I resolve to log on toFacebook less often’

Pratibha Masand | TNN

Mumbai: Zenith Sahai, a 23-year-old student, has been ina dilemma for the last fewdays. Even though her handsitch to start typing furiouslyon the keyboard, she has beenpracticing great self-control.Her friends are bewildered,and with good reason, asZenith has stopped logging onto Facebook as often as sheused to.

“My friends had startedteasing me that I had becomea Facebook addict. I used tolog in every half-an-hour tocheck updates,” rued Zenith.However, Zenith made a NewYear resolution to stop doingthat. “It is very difficult. Butnow I log in only twice a day.I hope I can keep up with myresolution,” she said.

As English scholar JohnSelden said: Never tell your

resolution beforehand, or it’stwice as onerous a duty.”Mumbaikars, it seemed, areready to shoulder that dutyhappily. Even though NewYear resolutions are made tobe broken, Mumbaikars do

not shy away from makingnew ones every year. Whilethe usual ones like losingweight, quitting smoking,helping others and cuttingdown on alcohol consumptionstill top the list, many havespent a lot of time thinking

up some whacky resolutionsthis time.

“I will think of a passwordother than ‘password’ or ‘hel-lo’,” said a professor, whofinds it difficult to rememberpasswords. “I end up keepingpasswords for all my accounts.I realized that I really need tochange the habit,” she said.

Priti Mann, a health freak,has started keeping re-minders on her mobile phoneto drink water frequently. “Mydoctor said that I need todrink more water. But myproblem is that I don't feelthirsty enough and I forget todrink water. So I have kept re-minders to stick to my reso-lution of drinking water reg-ularly every day,” she said.

Amrita Mohan, a 26-year-old newly married media pro-fessional, spoke about bal-ancing her professional andprivate lives.

HNY 2011TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: Twenty-five-year-old Tanay Soham, who wasdesperately trying to makeplans for New Year’s Eve, wasexcited when he got an smsparty invitation from afriend. However, he was dis-heartened to know later, thatit was a joke.

“I had started preparingfor the party. But when I readthe full message, to check thevenue, I realized it was a joke.It said: ‘67th floor, suite no 25,Burj-E-Khaleefa, Dubai’,”said Tanay.

With 2010 drawing to anend, hordes of messages havebeen doing the rounds. Apartfrom the normal bulk oneswishing each other a happynew year, Mumbaikars aretapping a range of emo-tions–from optimism tonaughtiness.

One such sms read: ‘Likebirds, let us leave behind what

we don’t need to carry-grudges, sadness, pain, fearand regrets–in this New Year’.

Philosophy enthusiastsspent a better part of theirtime looking up funny conno-tations to age-old sayings. Oneof these by Bill Vaughn read:‘Youth is when you’re allowedto stay up late on New Year'sEve. Middle age is when you'reforced to’. Another philo-sophical one read: ‘For lastyear’s words belong to lastyear’s language and nextyear’s words await anothervoice. And to make an end isto make a beginning. HappyNew Year’.

Some took digs at NewYear resolutions: ‘Now is the

accepted time to make yourregular annual good resolu-tions. Next week, you can be-gin paving hell with them asusual’.

People couldn’t help takingdigs at soaring onion prices.‘Robin Uthappa is going tochange his name to Onion Ut-thappa in 2011 and become thecostliest player in the world’.

Others anticipated the jam-ming of networks and sentmessages before December 31itself. One of them said, ‘Be-fore the golden sun sets, oldcalendar is destroyed and mo-bile networks get jammed, Iwish in new year every mo-ment is enjoyed’.

Some, irritated with thehorde of messages, replied tofriends: ‘Merry Christmas,Enjoy New Year, Happy East-er, Good luck on Valentine’s,Spooky Halloween & Happy

Birthday. Now buzz off anddon’t annoy me for the next

12 months!!!!’

Vijay V Singh | TNN

Mumbai: The police received 44 ap-plications from clubs, gymkhanasand hotels seeking police permis-sion to organize New Year’s Eve par-ties. But, this time, the parties werea bit different. Many Mumbaikarspartied till the early hours of theNew Year as the deadline was re-laxed by the court and police.

Police bandobast began at 8 pmon Friday and continued till 6 amthe next day, as indoor dance partieswere permitted till 5 am. The policehad permitted the use of loud-speakers by organizers, which in-cluded big clubs, till midnight.Closed-door parties were allowed toplay music, and dances and orches-tras were permitted till 5 am.

The police visited many venuesto ensure that the organizers fol-lowed their security instructions,additional commissioner of police(west region) Amitabh Gupta said.

A senior police official said thatthis year many housing societies or-ganized private parties, but only fewapproached them for permission.The police had given them permis-sion after basic verification, as theywas no security threat to such pri-vate events.

Deputy commissioner of police(licensing) Vijaysingh Jadhav said,“All establishments approached usfor permission, and had told us thatthey were closing their parties at dif-ferent timings. We noticed that peo-ple did not want to party till earlymorning.”

Most of Mumbaiparties till dawn

Fireworks, The Clink Of Glasses And Cheers Of Celebration Mark A Warm Welcome To The New Year

NO TEARSFOR 2010

Hordes OfMessages For New Year

To new beginnings.Have a healthy, happy & fulfilling newchapter. May all yourtroubles be as short-lived as your New Yearresolutions, love

—SRK on Twitter

Mahesh Benkar

Product: TOIMumbaiBS PubDate: 01-01-2011 Zone: MumbaiCity Edition: 1 Page: TOIMCP4 User: mahithip1309 Time: 12-31-2010 23:54 Color: CMYK