Been a While!

Yup, yup, I know I've been away for a while and the posts in the last few weeks have been more perfunctory than anything else, but I have been swamped with work like there is no tomorrow and the ride has been pretty rough. Things are pretty settled now, so thought I would pen down some thoughts...

No movie reviews as the last one I saw, Athidhi left me so disappointed that I did not have the courage to break the news to all the eager Mahesh fans. Read somewhere recently that the concept of the Hero (read DEMIGOD) beating N (N tends to infinity) number of goons to pulp not even suffering a scratch in the process persists only in Tamil and Telugu films these days and I'm compelled to agree...absolutely true, I must say! Also, when an actor has a hit film, it means people liked him in the role and does not mean that they want to see him again and again and again play similar roles. And Mahesh does not always have to be chased by the heroine, he does not always have to use swear words to appear cool, he does not always have to utter derogatory words to the vamp in item numbers, he does not always have to have an intense stare and a thousand other things...u get the drift! These things that he did worked in a couple of movies but that does not have to be the reason for you to hoist the same things onto us again and again!

Want to see JAB WE MET. Will most probably do it this weekend, God (and friends) willing.

One of my nieces was here last week. She had come down from the US...all of ten months, she was the cutest thing on Planet Earth. Took an instant fancy to me and I ended up carrying her around for three days. Had dimpled cheeks that would put Preity Zinta to shame! The pic at the top is of her.

And that is about it! Will try and get back to blogging regularly as soon as possible.

Happy Dussera!

Here is Wishing All of You A VERY HAPPY DUSSERA...
May Vijayadasami herald the beginning of a year full of victories for you and your family!

Come out into the open!

Another blast yesterday at Ludhiana...Hyd, Ajmer and now Ludhiana...all purposeless, all heinous and cowardly acts. Come out into the open, you cowards, lets see u show some courage for a change. I hate the fact that because of all this, our festivals are now celebrated under heavy security cover. Everyone views everyone else with suspicion. But as always, I'm sure we will bounce back and show these cowards that by doing these things, they are only losing whatever sympathy they had, if they had any in the first place!

When my lappie died on me!

My laptop suddenly decided to die on me last Tuesday. I shut it down, I go out, I come back, I try to turn it on (NO PUN INTENDED) and it decides it wont start. Cost me a healthy sum to get it back to shape. Would have thoughtlessly traded this for another one at another time in my life, when I was an employee. I have realized that one of the other sacrifices an entrepreneur has to make is that he will get his old laptop repaired and wait before he can get himself a new one!

PS: No, being an entrepreneur is not that bad!

Cuppa Joe!

Coffee Day...Sunday evening lazing around!

Go watch Happy Days!

Sekhar Kammula is a gutsy character. Due to some unavoidable circumstances (read Chiranjeevi's sons's movie release) he could not release his movie as planned in India. But he knew that the theatres in the US would not be able to afford a similar delay and went ahead and released his movie there. It required courage as any negative feedback from there would adversely affect the prospects of the movie here. It does seem like his confidence is paying off...Happy Days opened to a fab response abroad and the opening in India that I witnessed today was no less. Here is a director whose name is enough to pull the crowds enmasse to the theatres - a feat that a RamGopal Verma would have difficulty matching these days.

I saw Happy Days today, buoyed by all the expectations. One of my friends has acted in the movie - the curly haired Sravanthi was played by Sonia - an ex-colleague and a friend. Thanks to one of our mutual friends, we were able to get tickets to the first day first show. Firstly, the scene outside the theater was fantastic...you could only see youngsters - college goers mainly, today being a holiday, they made the most of it. Infact, I felt a little old standing there! The movie was great stuff from Sekhar once again. Agreed, the movie takes its own time to make its point, agreed the pace is still leisurely, nevertheless the young director makes sure that he packs in enough entertainment in the first half and some strong emotional punch in the second half. He takes some of the tricks too far, but he is not making a documentary afterall. The music seemed kinda slow when I heard it, but on the screen, the songs meshed beautifully with the theme, not speed breakers, but infact lovely additions that will stay with you for some time to come.

Then comes Sekhar's trump card, his cast. His decision to cast newcomers pays off spectacularly well. No one is a hero and you dont expect them to do anything great. This helps as almost all of them are in trouble constantly in the movie and they come out of it like we do, not like superheroes do. Tyson is an endearing character and his love story with Sravanthi is one of the best tracks. Even when it ends and Sravanthi is leaving his house, there is a fleeting shot wherein she notices that he has a load of chickens all of which look like the one she has. The Appu-Rajesh track was also endearing inspite of its many KKHH inspirations. The Sangeeta-Shankar track really came across as half baked, but after seeing so many multi-track movies fail so spectacularly this year, I thought it was better off this way. Trying to give equal importance to each track invariably ends up prolonging the runtime of the movie and this was really a track that was there to strengthen Tyson and Shankar's friendship, not to show us Shankar's love story. Chandu and Madhu, the main leads, per se were good (strictly good).

Simply put, the movie was slow paced, it had its share of cinematic liberties and it really had no strong storyline, but at the end of it all, if you come out of the theater with moist eyes and a smile on your lips, you have had your money's worth. That is what Happy Days does to you! Go watch it!