Tragedy!

Whoever said lightning never strikes twice is wrong. My laptop crashed again and this time it took with it 4 years worth pictures, music and documents. No backup, cause I always beleived that laptop crashes happen to others and not to us. Tooo late now and I'm sulking away to glory. Might be a while before I post again, so try not to miss me tooo much! (I know it sounds like boasting, but its atleast helping me feel slightly better for whatever that is worth!)

Belated Happy Birthday!

My blog finished an year on Nov 6th and I missed the birthday.

Belated Happy Birthday!

Tongue Firmly in Cheek!

Om Shanti Om rocks!

I realize that I need to finish gushing before I can write up about the movie - here goes. Hats off to Farah Khan for lighting up my Diwali with a pataka of a film, the explosion of which will resonate for a long time to come. Hats off to the King Khan for backing up Farah and fulfilling her every demand as a producer, the movie is as lavish as it can get. And I'm in love all over again...Deepika Padukone looked ethereal in the movie and I cant wait to see more of her. The music is fabulous, the songs are spectacularly mounted, the camera work is flawless, the sets are fantabulous, the dialogues are apt and the acting topnotch.

Alright, gushing apart and out of the way, Farah Khan, who showed us how all the cliches in Bollywood can be used to create an endearing effect, how the old movies can be revamped to brilliant effect, how the over the top scenes of yore can be used to evoke humor...quite a master of the spoof, she proved herself to be. With Om Shanti Om, she takes the spoof genre to an altogether different level, much higher than anyone can hope to take it in a long time to come and much better than anyone has done in the recent past. All the references to the movies and movie stars of the time when they grew up are so ingeniously thought of and so well executed, you find yourself laughing your guts out and wishing we could get to see some more of those old melodramas from the Manmohan Desai era. The entire film industry makes an appearance in the movie...half of them appear in the special number and the other half during the superbly conceptualized Filmfare Awards function. The awards nite is a riot and Akshay Kumar will walk away with all the plaudits for that one (and he should really ask Farah to make Return of the Khiladi with him). Abhishek Bachchan is there too and so are a lot of other people who show that Bollywood is beyond petty issues, evident in the way all of the stars sportingly spoof their own movies.

Standout sequences include all of Shahrukh's scenes as a junior artist (dacoit, Quick Gun Murugan etc), all of his scenes as a superstar (Apahich pyaar, Mohabbat Man), all of his dream scenes...King Khan had loads of fun while doing the movie and it shows. Deepika does not have much to do except look pretty and that she does to stunning effect, my jaw kept dropping so often, anymore and I would have moved around with an open mouth for the rest of my life. Kiron Kher is tailor made for the role she plays in the movie, the over the top, has been junior artiste who thinks she should have played Anarkali must have been written with her in mind. Shahrukh's line in the movie describes her the best when he calls her 'meri filmy maa'. Shreyas Talpade is good and Arjun Rampal rocks as Mukesh and later Mike!

All in all, King Khan will rule yet another Diwali. If it was Don last year, it is Om Shanti Om this year. With the kind of feedback Saawariya is getting, it is obvious that Shahrukh will not eat his words - "Diwali is all his".

PS: As KK says, don't be in any sort of hurry to see the movie, it is going to be around for ages, so catch it at leisure. And have to include one of his gems, according to him Deepika Padukone played a sensuous ghost (deyyanni chooste bhayam veyyadam maanesi mood ostondi raaaaaa - exact words).

Catching up!

I've managed to catch up with Johnny Gaddaar and Jab We Met this week. Both highly recommended.

After having read all the good stuff about Johnny, there was a lurking fear that I might be disappointed. But the fears were entirely unwarranted as the movie was all that I could hope for and slightly more. The movie starts off with the hero reading Erle Stanley Gardener and the heroine reading Guide (a pointer to his deceit and her adultery?) and moves along surefootedly in the very manner of a Gardener novel. The premise being simple, one of the best things Sriram Raghavan, the director, does is that he does not intend the movie to be a whodunit. It simply follows the travails of our Gaddaar once he goes through with his gaddaari. Each of the five gang members is given a distinct touch by which to remember it...Even the first to be bumped off, Shiva, has a south indian girlfriend, Vyjayanti, obviously south indian, who brings him 'lemon rice' when he is about to set out on a journey. Dharmendra turns in a likeable performance, Neil Mukesh is restraint personified, Vinay Pathak rocks, Zakir Hussain is snake like, slithery and full of venom, Asha Kalsekar is outstanding and the twist at the end catches you by surprise. All in all a good movie that probably fell flat due to its non-star cast. This one will surely enjoy a good run in the home video section.

Jab We Met is for people who like to go to the theatre and see how delightful a slice of life movie can be. RamGopal Verma, with all his underworld sagas, had almost convinced me that a real life movie means it has to be extremely dark and depressing. But here, with characters that do not talk in the "Mooh haath dholo betaa, gajra kaa halwa khilaadoongi language", the movie proves to be extremely refreshing. The other guy, for example is actually fedup with Kareena's constant chatter about 'ghar kaisaa hogaa, balcony kaisaa hogaa, parde kaise honge' etc instead of being enamored by all the sweet talk. And the movie really came down to Kareena...full of wide eyed innocence and non-stop 'I'm my favorite' chatter, she was a delight to watch. This delightful, gullible character so pulls you in that you feel bad when she becomes a sober person in the second half. You want to tell her that all that has happened to her was not because she was an idiot, it was because she chose the wrong idiot. This identification is what you take back home, because the characters stay long after the lights have come on and you go home. Dont be surprised if you find yourself full of hope when you step out of the theater, Imtiaz Ali's second feature can do that to you!

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!

World Champions!

These were the scenes of jubilation in Hyderabad last night after India beat Pakistan in the T-20 finals...I have never seen so many Indian flags at one place (except if u count the number of small flags that we would have pinned to our shirts on Independence Day or some such occasion in school!). Was smiling for a very long time last night!

India - Pakistan - Bring it on!!!

"Glorified prostitution of the game" was just one of the many denouements I heard when the T-20 World Cup was about to begin. People said that the ICC was trying too hard to take the game to the US and this was purely a way to cater to the notoriously short attention spans of the Americans. And regarding the Indian team, it was supposedly a joke being played on the Indian populace...a team without any of the stalwarts full of green horns was never expected to win any matches at all.

Today, the final of the tournament is going to be played between two teams whose games put the legendary England - Australia rivalry to shame. The English - OZ rivalry has long been reduced to a joke thanks to Australia's domination - except for the Ashes series that England won a couple years ago, the other matches have been such non-contests that they are almost a yawn. India - Pakistan, on the other hand, is a rivalry that will never lose its sheen. Both teams are known for their legendary inconsistency, their eternal process of rebuilding, their internal squabbles due to which they never really reach their true potential. And the enmity between the countries (which is all hogwash going by the last time India went there) adds so much spice to the proceedings that the match becomes something much more than just a match. It is a fight to finish with the winner also winning the hearts of millions and the loser inviting the wrath of millions. That personal angle adds so much to this clash that today's match that it will set pulses racing and adrenaline throbbing through out the world.

That apart, this tournament has well and truly brought alive the age old adage that Cricket is the Great Leveller. The long drawn out and boring ICC WorldCup served to show that in the effort to spread the game far and wide, the ICC had brought in too many rookies and stretched the tournament to 51 games, even the most hardcore enthusiast of the game would lose interest over that long a period. T-20 on the other hand offers us a fresh perspective...the action is fast and furious, the game is over before an innings can end in a one day game. Inspite of the bowlers having a very important role to play and all that in the game,cricket, in the end is a batsman's game. Anyday, big powerful hitting, a century from their star player, this is what captures the imagination of the paying spectators. T-20 showcases some displays of unbridled aggression is the impression I was under, but the Indian team has shown over the course of the tournament that it is not all about brute force. The way India has worked to preserve wickets in the first 10-12 overs followed by some frenzied hitting in the final overs has proved to be its biggest advantage.

The margin of error in this format of game is extremely small, there is just not time for rebuilding. This is where India will have to score today...the smallest of errors - one big over, one dropped catch, one wicket thrown away to a moment of recklessness, any of these can prove fatal. So, Chak De! India, one more time. Just like the ad before the campaign went - WORLD CUP ABHI MANGTA HAI!!!

Om Shanti Om- Ajab Si ( exclusive song promo)

I'm waiting very very eagerly for this movie...Deepika Padukone's dimples are to die for and the song is oh-so-romantic!

Sunset - from Tank Bund

A picture of the sunset taken using my mobile phone while I was stuck in a traffic jam on TankBund (the old TankBund) road!

Ganapathi Bappa Morya

Wishing all of you a Very Happy Vinayaka Chaturthi!

The Kite Runner - Stunning!

I've been away for a while...did not go anywhere, just been tied down by work...from hardly working to hard working is quite a transition, u see! Neywayz, after all the things that happened in Hyderabad, the city is making a full attempt at going back to normalcy and the impending Ganesh Chaturthi is lending more than a helping hand to the attempt.

I have finished reading Khaled Hosseini's Kite Runner in the mean time and I must say I found it quite stunning. A childhood in Kabul is not something that I quite imagined about.As far as I have seen, Kabul was always in ruins, always the war ravaged city wherein war was a way of life rather than an aberration. The description of the childhood of the author and his friend took me by surprise. There was a Kabul that existed before the war and Taliban, a Kabul that knew music, laughter and merriment, not one that was ruled by bearded suppressants.

The book was made special by the author's focus on the human element. There are very few moments that the human heart forgets...the mind might not be able to remember everything, but the heart seldom forgets. All of our life's events are stored in some corner of our hearts and at the slightest provocation, they come pouring out like they had been waiting for that moment. This is what I learnt from a lot of characters in the book. Amir could never forget his betrayal, Baba could never forget his mistakes, Hassan could never let go of his loyalty, Sohrab could never let go of his childhood, Soraya's father could never let go of his regal past...these and many more experiences in the book tell us that we will never be able to run away from our past.

The description of post war Kabul, the executions, the commodities (fathers) that war had made scarce was heart rending. It left me wondering if humans were truly capable of such barbarity. The book left a deep impact and made me say a silent prayer to my maker for having made me so lucky. There is not a soul who would impose on me the rules to live, rules for growing my beard, rules for listening to music, rules for talking or cheering loudly, rules about how to pray best to the god that has been imposed upon me, rules about who to be friends with...saying rules about everything would not even cover it. We live a free life and should be eternally greatfull for that.

One line from the book will remain in memory forever..."For you a thousand times over". Ask yourself if there is one such person in your life to whom you can say this line and be better off for it!

Blasts in Hyderabad - time for us to show our unity!

Twin blasts in Hyd have rocked the city. This is the time when all of us have to rise above our petty differences and show the cowards who attacked us that we are made of sterner stuff. Lumbini Park and Gokul Chaat are both favorite destinations and Im sure the Hyderabadis will bring them back to the old status very soon.

May the innocent people who lost their lives rest in peace. God Bless...

Images from Chennai!

It just cannot get any better than this! A fantabulous Sivaji poster featuring the Mottai Boss in all his glory. Wonder how many accidents this caused!

Dekh le!

There is an element of predictability about sports flicks...you know that the underdog will win in the end, you know that the team will come together in the most crucial moments and a lot of other things about these movies, but they nevertheless set the adrenaline pumping and occasionally, a movie like Chak De! actually manages to raise some patriotic fervour.

Chak De! India, directed by Shimit Amin and produced by YashRaj productions in what turns out to be a classic departure from the tradition of Yashraj movies, was a smart movie. It has every element that a sports movie generally has and shows SRK in a role that the superstar carries off with aplomb. The movie has clapworthy moments aplenty, almost all of Shahrukh's lines are punchlines and the women players acquit themselves well. The second half of the movie, has more hockey than anything else, but I found myself hooked. The girls play their part to perfection. The good part about the movie is that it is not dialogue heavy and the emotions it arouses are a result of carefully built situations rather than long drawn out scenes. The songs are not really put in there without no purpose, you really do not register them as they flow along with the story.

Performance wise, SRK puts in a fine turn as the disgraced player turned coach seeking redemption. It is refreshing to see him in this avatar with no hammy lines or romantic scenes. The ladies all put in great performances, almost everyone has atleast one or two scenes to themselves and lines that stay with you long after you have left the theater. Shimit Amin scores in the direction department, managing to incorporate all the cliches required of such movies and yet managing to make a taut engaging movie. The scene at McDonald's, the men vs women game and its conclusion, the end of the first game at the world cup, the conclusion and a lot of other scenes leave an impact. In the World Cup final, you see ShahRukh preparing for imminent glory, he is pulling up his coat as the first penalty is scored and is pulling up his collar as the second one is scored, once the win is completed though, he can barely manage to stand straight, his knees give way and he only manages to grab the sideboards and look at the tricolor.

I would recommend this to everyonewho wants to see a good sports flick...SRK fans will of course enjoy this, but those who hate SRK in his stereotypical roles, you have to see this one so you can feel that all your cribbing has forced him to take up something different.

PS: Unrelated, but had to put this up here! I was sitting in a McDonald's with my friends before the movie and the India - England test was in progress. The moment Kumble reached his century, the entire crowd there burst out in spontaneous applause...It was great to be there and be one of the crowd celebrating unabashedly what definitely was a great moment for Kumble in his 17 yr long career...

Shame!

Two main rant points in this post: One - the attack by 'Fundamentalists' on Taslima Nasreen yesterday in Hyderabad, Two - the deteriorating quality of the news shown on all the exclusive news channels...

The attack on Taslima Nasreen by the so called Islamist fundamentalists yesterday in Hyderabad was a shame...I very proudly tell all my friends that Hyderabadis are very tolerant and friendly. After yesterday's incident though, I will have to think twice. The fact that three MLA's were involved in this incident makes it all the more distressing. How can these so called representatives of the people involve themselves in such heinous acts? The language they used was not worthy of a street ruffian. One of these MLA's even went to the extent of saying that he did not care about police cases nor about his MLA position...firstly he was a Muslim and he would kill the author the next time she came to Hyderabad. One political party said that if the other party had not resorted to the unplanned attack, they would have killed the author in a planned manner. What kind of people are these? Are these our elected representatives, is this the kind of example they are setting for us? The kind of cowardice these people display by resorting to such acts is laughable. Since they do not do anything worthwhile using their powers as an elected member of the state legislature, they resort to such cheap tricks to grab eyeballs and gain their fifteen minutes of fame. Without getting into deeper issues, lemme just be content by saying that people like you give Islam a bad name. You are not upholding any honor doing such things...you are only further scarring an already scarred group of people.

That apart, one rant that has been long due is about the news channels. They just keep getting worse by the day. Star News is one particular channel that is particularly sad. They keep going on and on about the most insignificant and trivial of things. Mandira Bedi's saree on a TV show, a woman walking semi naked to a police station to complain against her in-laws, a kid who has a tendency to drink petrol...everything, in their eyes, deserves a half hour special with so called experts debating on the same. Recently, it was reported that a news channel actually forced a couple of people who were threatening suicide to do it...as it would make a good visual. They actually died during the incident. During the recent police firing in AP, none of these guys had any social resposibility to help the injured or do anything useful, all they could focus on was getting exclusive pics. One of the reporters proudly proclaimed that the first pics of the woman who fell and fractured her skull while running away from the police were shown only by their channel. For god's sake, stop this kind of yellow journalism. Last evening there was a half hour show on Star News about a fight for survival by a buffalo and a fight between a group of buffaloes and a herd of tigers. This was an email forward that I received a couple months ago about a video on YouTube. It was funny to see this 6 minute clip shown for 30 mins on a TV show with some stupid hindi commentary.

The media is an extremely powerful tool, one that can make or break a nation's destiny. As of now though, it is becoming a mockery in the hands of money minded bosses who have nothing but financial gains on their minds. This is my request to all the reporters out there, ask your conscience if this is what it wanted when you took up this profession. If the answer is a resounding no, as it will be, then everyday before you go to sleep, look back at whether you are satisfied with the reporting you did during the day and ask yourself if it has done an iota of good to the society. It will be a long time before you mangage to catch your forty winks!