Missing Economy of Words!

Move Move Move

2007-06-21T10:13:00.001-07:00

I am pulling an Unni here...

moved to Wordpress... so... thats the one that stays.. check out my latest posts there... the older ones will anyway be there!

Update : Reasons - easier URL to remember... http://amitdas.wordpresss.com .. and somehow, when I looked at its functionalities, I liked it more than what I was getting at blogger!

Turnaround

2007-06-20T11:51:00.001-07:00

He turned around and left....

It seemed like the perfect setting. They had been talking to each other for an unusually high amount of time every day for the last 3 months. He was was everything for her. Everything except that one thing she yearned for him to be. They both knew it. They both knew that it could not come to be. Yet they prolonged their agony. The perfect sunset had a dark spot.

He used to wait for her outside her office. Drop her home. Talk to her for hours standing next to the ice cream trolley. Every day, the cellphone would ring. Every day, he said bye. Every day, he turned around and left.

Both of them wanted to end this. The suffering, the pain, the longing. They both knew it was not right. Yet, they continued fooling themselves. The temptation to give in was strong. The pragmatism to hold back, was equally compelling. Who would blink first? While cracking jokes, sharing anecdotes, till the wee hours of the night, thinking about all this, he would turn around and leave.

That day was the same. Yet, it wasn't. That day, they both decided to end it. They agreed that it was not what they ever wanted. That day also, he waited for her outside her office. She finished work, came down, and sat next to him in the car. He drove back silently. After stopping at her home, he did not say anything. She kept looking at him. With hope, a silent prayer going up in the air, she clinged on to the belief that this was also not something that they ever wanted. He still did not say anything. She wanted to cry. It was over. He turned around and left.

The next evening, he said I Love You. It was a Saturday, one of the best weekends of his life...

Movie Review: Jhoom Barabar Jhoom

2007-06-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

I managed to watch Jhoom Barabar Jhoom over the weekend.. Saturday morning first show it was! And I am glad it was so... why? Morning show tickets are cheaper than the evening shows. Much to my agony, in this age of scantily clad actresses and sparkling colors on the Yashraj screen, I was still not able to recover my 90 bbucks. Not even Gulzar's lyrics, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's music, london locales... Nothing worked! Pathetic movie!

Its a movie which revels in mindlessness, below average acting, and poor casting.

The basic plot of the movie seems inspired by the movie Chocolate featuring Anil Kapoor, Emran Hashmi, Irfan Khan and Tanushree Dutta. Not the bank robbery thing, but people cooking up stories on the fly looking at the billboards and magazines lying around. Guy meets girl. Girl wants to avoid guy. Cooks up a story about being engaged. Guy cooks up a similar story about being engaged. (How usual!) Both cookup extremely flimsy idiotic stories. Start liking each other. But can't say! Since the other likes someone else. Mess? No! They go back to their homes. Call up each other. Forcefully and with the right set of incentives, persuade their story characters to participate in a 15 minute long dance and music competition, at the beginning of which know the only surprise element left is - "who will win the dance competition?". Everything else is already fixed. Match fixing, eh? Worse still - even the choreo of this 15 minute marathon is not great.
The constant reference to the guys being from india and the gals being from Pakistan is just not needed. There are better ways of advocating unification of India and Pakistan into one nation!
Absolutely no chemistry being Abhishek and Preity. 2 smooch scenes featuring Lara Dutta (once with Abhishek, and the next time with Bobby Deol). What is the bachchan family thinking now? I heard there were some strong reactions to Hrithin-Ash smooch scene in Dhoom2, including some from Abhishek too! Preity refuses to oblige in a similar way. With her, its back to the flowers in gardens, birds in sky and other such metaphors. Bobby Deol is pathetic, no surprises there. Lara Dutt looks hot, but 1. is there for a very short duration and 2. even that doesn't help.

And those who are wondering where Amitji is in the middle of all this - This really is a new role for him! Special Guest appearance as a singing dancing sensation, who sings and dances everywhere in London, without any invitation. And the same song, over and over again!

Best character - Hafeez Bhai! He has his comic moments!

Music- some of the songs are good. You can see some of Gulzar and SEL in action there! Title Song, Bol Na Halke Halke, and Ticket to Hollywood are the ok.

Overall - Dont watch!

Mirroring at Wordpress

2007-06-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

Have decided to check out blogging at Wordpress. It seems far more cool than blogger so far. Have created the mirror site here

The Name remains the same.. the URL much simpler to remember.. Look and feel? You guys tell me...

The Inductis Killings

2007-06-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

I heard about the layoffs at my previous organization today. And needless to say, I am disturbed. So were Meesum and Rajat. And I am sure a whole lot of us who have already quit the organization. The agony, confusion and frustration of those still at Inductis, is certainly not something that I even want to talk about.

But why I am even concerned?

I left the firm about 6 months back. But a part of me is still there. I still am in love with the people and the company I grew up with (professionally)

How it all started
Today just took me back by a little more than 2 years. October 2004, when I had joined Inductis. It acted, worked and felt like a wonderful place. Energy, Respect and Smartness - 3 words that I would have used to describe the Inductis of then. With 100% of my cribs being genuine, I was in love with the firm. I loved the people. I loved the culture. I cribbed about the faults of the company, fully knowing that there are faults that take time to be taken care of. Those were some wonderful times when Shumeet was asked to go for recruitment at NSIT on the very first day he joined the firm, and Aman was found pushing my car in the parking of First India Place at 10 in the night, ably supported by the lean mean machine, Ashish Bang (I wonder if he can even push move a mosquito, given his awesome physique) !

.. And how it ends
Today, I feel pity. For what remains of an exciting firm, is a bunch of leaders who look and sound more like a petty traders, sitting at the corpse of a hundred aspirations trying to make a few quick bucks.

But Why?

What do I think is wrong with this Layoff* (even though I am all for performance orientation and counselling out* if someone does not perform after repeated chances)?

1. Not giving people a chance to improve. Any employee centric firm should have given the people a warning, a chance to pull up their socks!
2. Catching them off guard. If you are bigger, stronger than the person you are going to hurt, you offer handicaps.. rather than keeping as many as possible with yourself.
3. I've heard that some of retrenchment is not even of under-performers. They are of decent/ok/average performers. Reason given - we have made some losses. I don't think six bad months (especially given that you sold yourself to a "bigger" company that would have enabled you to generate enough cash flow to invest in the business) should lead to such brutality.
4. For me... its the biggest setback to what I have always believed Inductis to be. Till sometime back, we used to talk about it... "We've never asked our people to leave. We believe in staying with them, and giving them more than a chance". Things surely have changed to something where people are let go of without even a warning.

The bottomline is - The company does not care about its people anymore.

Anyone ready to take the blame? I don't think so!

*Layoffs/Firings/Counselling Outs - The way I see it, today, there is a difference between these three terms.
Counselling out is when the firm does not believe that this person fits the company's expected performance levels anymore, and is asked to gradually exit the form in a mutually beneficial manner, where (s)he gets a month or more to find a new job. Usually, in counsel-outs, employees are given a chance to pull up their socks and try and perform (within a 3 month window), failing which they will have to move on. They are put on support/improvement programs.
Firings - When someone is being asked to leave based on his performance levels, or some other organizational issues (such as misconduct, sexual harassment, etc.)
Layoffs- When performance is not the real issue. You just want to let people go and immediately so. Because, you don't think you can care for them anymore. Because they are a burden. Or, maybe, because you've lost the means to support them (and you are too proud to admit so)

[Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer. Based on what he's seen, heard and felt, and do not represent anyone else's views or concerns]

Itsy Bits.. Life in the pits!

2007-06-06T21:59:00.000-07:00

Opening song of the day - Sham-e-gam ki kasam.... (Talat Mehmood, Movie: Footpath)

Chain kaisaa jo pahaluu mein tuu hii nahiin
Maar daale na dard-e-judaai kahiin
Rut hansiin hain to kyaa chaandanii hai to kyaa
Chaandanii zulm hai aur judaai sitam
Shaam-e-gam kii qasam

Dil pareshaan hain raat viiraan hain
Dekh jaa kis tarah aaj tanahaa hain ham
Shaam-e-gam kii qasam aaj gamagiin hain ham
Aa bhii jaa aa bhii jaa aaj mere sanam

Full lyrics here
Audio Link [ here ]

Itsy bits from the newspaper that caught my attention -

The new olympic logo has come under quite a bit of fire. For once, I think I can just stop at saying - I AGREE. This logo SUCKS!

JJ and 8 party co are forming a 3rd Front

When would we start covering our backs? Everyonez interested in opening up a front! Thats obscenely blasphemous! Imagine! Another front?

8 parties - JJ heads! Wow! Now, the front will have a lot of Saree to cover their.. err.. back and front!

AC Local Trains in Mumbai gradually seem like a possibility

I wonder- what will happen to those hundreds and thousands of people who just love hanging by the open gates of mumbai local, ready to inhale the fishy odor and sulphurous fumes of a stinky bandra track? There is an old saying - Kutte ko ghee nahi pachta! A dog cannot digest ghee (clarified butter?)

Its a veryyyy long day ahead with the final presentation expected to go on till about 2 or 3 in the night!

Closing song of the day (based on model predictions!)- Dhanyabhaag sevaa ka avasar paaya (Pt. Rajan Mishra, Pt. Sajan Mishra, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Movie: Sur Sangam)

Dhanyabhaag sevaa ka avasar paaya
Charan kamal ki dhool bana main
moksh dwaar tak aaya

Ghat mein goonja naad nirantar
jyot jali antar mein....
Sau sooraj ke ujiyaare mein..
maine mujhko paaya!
Dhanyabhaag sevaa ka avasar paaya

[ Damn it! No audio links or lyrics links for this song!]

2007-06-03T22:27:00.000-07:00

Well.. I haven't stopped watching movies, or plays, or listening to music that I want to talk about, or books that I have read that I want to let you know about. and its not that I have been totally deprived of time either! Yes, life has been a bit of this and that, but I think its more of outright laziness lately that has stopped me from writing!

So... Wassup? Me? Watched Shrek3, Cheeni Kum, Shootout at Lokhandwala and n number of Naruto episodes lately. [ Remind me to start writing about animation series like Naruto and Avatar-The Last Airbender as well]

Shrek 3 was neat, not as neat as 1 or 2, but neat nevertheless! Time well spent. Watched it at Eros, Nariman Point. It was a pleasant change to watch a movie from balcony for 60 bucks, in a really downtown location (people tell me that it doesnt get more posh than that in mumbai - South mumbai is "the" place!). I guess one of these days I would stop watching movies so frequently because I don't think a movie like Shootout deserves even 25 bucks, leave aside 250 bucks! The movie was pathetic, to say the list. Rediff was right in commenting about the idiots who fund such movies. Cheeni Kum would have been a perfect movie if the length was shortened and Paresh Raval muted a bit! Tabu and Amitabh are cool, and its surprising to notice that they had a pretty cool chemistry! Its a good movie to watch!

At one time I really wanted to blast movies like Tara Rum Pum having watched the early shows. But thats some less blood on my hands! ;)

Watched a play - "Flowers" at NCPA. Its a monologue enacted by Rajit Kapur (Of Byomkesh Bakshi fame). (Here is a review that I largely agree with) . Same problem as Cheeni Kum. The length, though short by the standards of usual plays (90 mins), could have been shortened further. More so, because there was no change in scene, no pause, no other character but the protagonist, and no movements. Its about a priest who's torn between his duties as a priest, his love for his wife and his lust for a courtesan. Its a 90 minute narration where the priest walks through the course of events, his emotions, his agony and conflict, paints images using his words, and makes us all visualize the drama! Rajit Kapoor managed to be ok. But the play was just not my kind. I don't want to take the credit away from Rajit, but c'mon - I have a low attention span. I can't concentrate on something for 90 minutes on the trot! Not a lecture from the greatest of professors, not the same song even if I am in love with it, nothing!

My analytics blog is still waiting for the remaining articles and a response to Amit's comment.

There is a blogger meet on 9th June in Mumbai. I am still debating within myself if I want to attend! Should be fun. Lets see!

2007-05-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

Just to break the silence

Every time I look at Sunshine
There's something that tells me
What the last night must have been like
How the evenin is going to be

Hold me sunshine for a moment too long
Let me live in what matters to me

2007-05-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

Well.. I've been missing.. from the scene!

Just to give you guys an update, I was out at my village for a week or so, and then at Chicago the last week. Spent half a day at Heathrow watching people fight over ManU and Chelsea. Back at Mumbai this morning, and still feeling a bit of the lag!

Nevertheless, all ye folks. I shall be right back from tomorrow! keep watching the space out!

"Kaasid payam-e-shauq ko dena na bahot tool
kehna fakat unse ki ye aankhein taras gayeein"

Soundbytes Of The Day

2007-04-26T05:05:00.000-07:00

Overheard
"What's there tomorrow, that's not there today?"
"Today!"

Said -
"Even though I am a rash driver, If I die in a car crash, my girlfriend would kill me!"

Recalled -
The ties severed are not forgotten. Its funny how broken strings keep tugging at you!

Movie review: Bheja Fry

2007-04-22T23:18:00.000-07:00

After a long time, a completely comic movie. Even if its a lift-off (as I was told by a friend) of a French movie, lets give it to the director. What a novel concept – a modern age upmarket guy who loves his Fridays like anything. Why? Because that’s when he gets to enjoy at the expense of a simpleton! Even the thought is funny (Yeah Yeah! It’s a little mean! ;) but funny nevertheless!)

Anyways, back to the movie. Its an extremely inexpensive movie which uses some of the most amazing actors (except Milind Soman, who cannot be put in the same category) that are inexpensive (they are not the ABs, Shahrukhs of the world) in an inexpensive setup (only a couple of rooms/houses where the entire movie is shot!) and in the most involved manner. The movie’s biggest plus point is that it doesn’t require you to think a lot, but cannot be called mindless either.

Talking about the story, as I expressed, I loved the plot. Just look at the tagline- When was the last time you met an idiot? Well, the movie is about Bharat Bhushan (Vinay Pathak), an Income Tax clerk hopelessly in love with singing and hopeless in terms of abilities as well. Add to it the fact that he is a talkative and dumb simpleton.
Thadani (Rajat Kapoor) and his friends meet every Friday to enjoy at the expense of a dumb simpleton. And Harsh Chaya is winning the race for having introduced the best (the most hilarious simpleton) till now, a guy who can spit spot on (into a glass placed several yards away!). Rajat’s friend chances upon Vinay on his bus journey from Pune, where he is subjected to his antics. From that point onwards, the movie is about the interaction between Vinay and Rajat with the additional elements being Rajat’s relationship with his wife (Sarika), a mistress Suman Rao, and Sarika’s ex-interest Anant (Milind Soman). How things turn tables on Rajat when he meets his golden simpleton is what the movie is all about.

The movie moves (I like the sound of it) on at a rapid pace, and is a very short movie (all of 1 hour 40 minutes or so). All the actors are chosen carefully (with the twin objective of performance and economics). The set is simple, consistent and carefully chosen. I don’t remember a single shot of the movie where I could have said why did the director have to get this in. So, full marks to the direction, editing and scripting side of the movie.
But, as some of the unworthy critics (like Khaled Mohammed who directed Fiza once upon a time, and Rajeev Masand) point out, the director should not get points because the movie is a lift-off from “The Dinner Game”, a French movie.

Vinay is the soul of all situational comedy in the movie – be it the shot where is gradually shifting while talking to Suman Rao on phone even when Rajat Kapoor is shouting at him, or his innocent “Its Ringing”. (I can actually imagine some people pulling this on their bosses) The way he opens the briefcase everytime to take out his “Bharat Bhushan ki kahani, geeton ki jubani” is just hilarious. That multicolored polybag which makes an irritating ruffling noise every time he folds it, the way he holds the thread between his teeth, his conscious upward look when is changing the number combination on the lock, everything is a masterpiece.
Rajat is good in his role. He has mastered these roles of urbane middle/upper income class guys with a nice subtle sense of humor. He comes across as the quintessential theater artist who take their body language, movements as seriously as their facial expressions. However, the flip of the movie is when his broken aching back suddenly becomes fine with no explanation given.

Sarika place a nice little cameo (in terms of performance). But nobody bothers to tell us why she is so frustrated with Rajat, a husband with whom she was seen buying a new car the previous week. Surprisingly, the only reference to a fight is the one regarding the Friday sessions.

Milind Soman is not asked to do much. And that’s what he does. He does not spoil the movie with his wooden acting. And so, he is good!

Ranvir Shorey is a little disappointing, and not an iota because of his acting. The disappointment comes from two separate facts – one, he is asked to carry an elongated face. In a movie which is so natural, that was not needed. Two, he is shown as a muslim character who wants Pakistan to win cricket matches against India. Its such a negative and unjustified typecast to be kept in the film. Moreover, in the same vein, he is shown as a tax official of highest integrity and impeccable knowledge. Tch Tch!

Suman Rao (played by Bhairavi Goswami) is a name that you would want to remember as Suman Rao (quite like Baby Doll volume 3 – Sophia of Pyar Ke Side Effects). The actress is pretty hopeless, even though she has one of the most comical moments in the movie. The point where she asks what a thurkey means, and the sheepish response of Vinay is a big comic high point.

And two more scenes that definitely deserve a mention are –
1. Ranvir Shorey, when he realizes that the guy he is auditing is sleeping with his wife
2. “Aayega Aayega mein kitni baar aayega?” (reference to the song “Aayega Aayega” from Mahal)

Extremely simple, but amazingly funny movie. Must Must see!

Book Review: Amulet of Samarkand

2007-04-22T12:15:00.000-07:00

Its by a stroke of luck that I chanced upon the book (well, you can’t chance upon something good just like that, unless luck is on your side!)

It’s a good book for a weekend read. First of a three book series, known as "The Bartimaeus Trilogy", its a book that you can pick up, and keep running with it unless you’re done with it. The pace of the book is so good that you will anyways end up running with it.

A fantasy novel set in London, the book operates in a world which is controlled by magicians that control djinns, afrits and imps, and their incantations, summons, curses are the source of their power. In this world, where the control of power is so important and malicious that this power, through an explicit rule, is not transferred through generations. It is transferred to someone outside the family whose previous identity is erased before he/she is molded into becoming a magician. In such a world, Nathaniel, adopted by a weak magician in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Arthur Underwood, as his apprentice, summons Bartimaeus, to avenge the insult handed out to him by Simon Lovelace. But the whole plan unravels itself as he finds himself getting deeper into a very dangerous game against a very formidable foe. Let me not spoil it all by telling you the story here.

Trivia: Surprisingly enough, the Djinn in this novel, Bartimaeus, derives his name from a biblical character of the same name. However, that Bartimaeus was a blind beggar healed by Jesus Christ, and he later became a follower of Christ.

The book can be read for its imaginative storytelling, extremely fast pace, simple characters (the author does not bother with too many sub-levels of characterizations), true to its genre, and his away from the realms of everyday reality. Yes, it confirms to my check list of what defines a good book.

But I would qualify the simple characterization bit. It holds, unless you start thinking about the book at the third or the fifth plane, as Bartimaeus would have said.

The book can be seen drawing a lot of parallels with modern world, where the commoners are being controlled by magicians (wicked politicians who can’t even be true to their master, and change loyalties at the drop of a hat), who know how to control the djinns and afrits (the powerful governmental organizations that can but never fight back because of the stronghold of charms - (money?)). Some of the more powerful afrits like Ramuthra can cause a rummage, a disturbance at elemental level (Watergate scandals, et al.). Even the mildly powerful but intelligent djinns like Barthameus (the intelligence departments) can be controlled (Late Indira Gandhi would know that!), but can cause the downfall as well. The Tower of London can crush the imaginativeness and powers of all powerfull djinns. Every powerful magician has own djinns and afrits. Pity, the novel does not talk about the commoner’s life. Though it does talk about a “resistance”.
Additionally, there are a lot of references to history (Ptolemy, Disraeli, etc.), contemporary places (Tower of London, Westminister hall) and so on.

I am sure I will discover more as I read through The Golem's Eye and Ptolemy’s Gates.

Good work Jonathan Shroud! It’s a good read.

An Idle Weekend: Captured On My Cellphone

2007-04-20T04:24:00.000-07:00

A sunset near Bandra Fort

Some hard and spicy realities of life.. Struggle for survival

Some more sunsets at Bandstand (PDA was not fined at that point! and the tides weren't so high. Check them out today!)

And a play at Prithvi

And some light reading through the night....

Can an idle weekend be better than this?

Book Review: The Namesake

2007-04-20T03:52:00.000-07:00

Well! I promised I’ll do this. And I don’t think I regret having made the promise.

The book is much better than the movie (of course). Somehow, things seem to fall more in place when you read the book (but, of course). Gogol does come across as an idiot, but not so much. Ashoke seems more mature. And Ashima, true to what her character should be, seems as lost as she should seem. The sister’s character has some sense (Sonia). Moushumi has a more meaningful role to play. Her past, present and future makes more sense. So does Maxine’s.

Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The Namesake”, as opposed to Mira Nair’s “The Namesake” is an extremely mature book written in a style that bridges the gap between India and America, just as Ashok and Ashima’s life tries to. At times, it moves into the narrative style of an Indian author, where there are graphic details around the mundane details of everyday life, the way people walk and talk, their cultural heritage and how that impacts their way of thinking. At several other occasions, she is at consummate ease with the American accent, style and ways. Jhumpa gets into the skin of these characters completely, and everyone is identifiable.

GOGOL: Gogol, coming across as an ABCD in the movie, is pretty much an American with Indian parentage. He is not a wannabe American, as ABCDs are supposed to be. On the contrary, he is as Indian as anyone else. His way of thinking, getting frustrated with weekend Bengali parties, are not something that I won’t see in an Indian metro of today. Just because the setting is that of USofA, it does not make Gogol any different

ASHIMA: Ashima is the quintessential taken away from her roots, Indian woman, so diminished in identity already, being forced to find/create a new identity in an unfamiliar land. She does not share the eagerness of new-gen IT geeks who would probably hang by the wheels of an airplane to go to the States, if that could take care of the H1B issues! For her, its about speaking a language, talking about things that seem so alien to her. Especially, when you are coming from a country where talking to your relatives and neighbors is the biggest social activity. Her ordeal as her children move from her side of the world to their side of the world is very subtly laid out in the book.

ASHOKE: A very mature, and subtle individual, wizened through the age, experiences and literature he devours, Ashoke comes across the most compromising and far-sighted individual in the book. He talks in a language that smells of the future, handles situations in a way that tells you how much he is thinking, has an unwavering integrity about his character, and a simplicity that you end up loving. And his character, somehow, is one the least covered and most powerful characters in the book.

MAXINE: What the movie failed to do is to highlight Max’s lifestyle and her family. From the word go, in the novel, you can feel that their relationship is doomed, despite all love and comfort between the two. Unlike the movie, the breakup does not happen at a time when Gogol is not able to think about anything, but beyond that time, when Gogol is still not able to think of anything. A severed relationship at the time of crisis can be mended, but a relationship severed because of a drastic change in life, probably cannot.

MOUSHUMI: Does get a bit of attention in the novel. The movie again, does not do justice to the complexity of her life. The presence of Dmitri in her life, a long time fetish, her love for Paris, her inability to fit Gogol in her social life, and a dying relationship (which still survives in India because of the social boundaries) are all well detailed in the book.

Starting off with the birth of Gogol, and explained through Ashoke’s accident while he still had Nikolai Gogol in his hands, Namesake explains the need of some people to remain commoners and not really stand out in a crowd. Gogol’s biggest grudge against his name is that it makes him stand out. Nobody names their children Shakespeare, for instance. Gogol wanted to be a part of the crowd. In addition to the brown skin, which never really stops him from dating or being accepted by whites, he has a unique name to contend with. While I think about this, I am sure there must be a lot of people out there who would love to explain the history of their unique name. It makes them stand out and they probably love that!
This struggle to be a common man makes him the son of Ashoke and Ashima, common Indian people, who have a preference for being a part of the crowd. Isn’t that what defines, in large parts, what Indian society think like.
Gogol struggled to find his own place by keeping both the worlds happy. When he could not, he chose one over the other. At times, he tried to understand what the other world is like, and at times, he gave up.

For me, there are 4 things that I like to see in a book

1. Content- story – I would not call it a great story, but its high on content. The story does not tell me something that I, as an individual, have failed to notice. But it does present itself beautifully. . What does make the whole story intriguing is the way people handle their own set of challenges.
2. Attention to detail – Awesome! This is the area where Jhumpa Lahiri nails it. Even the rituals of walking, driving around the blocks, switching on the lights when Ashoke dies, the use of rooms on different occasions,
3. The pace of the book – is a little slow, but in tune with the mood. There are pages that you can quickly run through because they are quick. There are times when she wants you to devour the details, and the pages are a little slow there. But not meaningless.
4. Loyalty to the genre (a thriller should thrill, a classic should have something to stand the test of time, and should be reflective of the times when it was written) – I don’t know where The Namesake belongs. But it seems to be in place! That’s as vacuous a statement as I don’t know if Tendulkar should continue to play cricket, but I think he is playing well. Bottomling – it’s a nice book to read! It does not give me a feeling of reading a boring thriller

Read it.. especially if the movie disappointed you. At least you won’t blame Jhumpa Lahiri for writing a mundane story!

Movie Review: The Namesake

2007-04-15T21:34:00.000-07:00

I saw the movie more than a week back. However, I was thinking of writing the review only after I have read the book as well. As Diamond would have it, the book has taken steam in the last day or so, and the review has been pending a while.

Yenniways, back I am. To talk about Gogol, Goggles, Ashoke, Ashima, America, India, Bengal, and all their Namesakes.

Of all the classical literature I have followed, somehow, I never ended up reading Nikolai Gogol. Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Tolstoy were as much a Russian repertoire as I could get comfortable with. Anyways, the plan is to read and figure out if I have also come from Gogol’s overcoat.

The movie seems to have impressed a lot of people, but yours truly wasn’t really impressed. And for a change, the biggest disappointment was Tabu, who just doesn’t seem Bengali enough. IrfanKhan is extremely convincing in his accent and demeanor of a Bengali. Kal Penn disappoints (with due respect to his comic timing and my appreciation of his several other movies). Others don’t really have a role.

The Namesake is the story of Gogol Ganguli (or, Nikhil Ganguli) (Kal Penn), the namesake of the great Russian author Nikolai Gogol, with his unique name bestowed upon him by his father Ashoke Ganguli (Irfan) given his love with Russian literature and a past haunted by an accident.

However, rather than getting into the story, which I will definitely get into in my other post on the book review of The Namesake, I will focus on the movie.

The things I did not like about the movie (there are n number of blogs talking about how good the movie is!)

A. Settings

Calcutta (then, and now Kolkata) of 1974 hardly seems authentic.
Ashoke’s accident occurs in 1974, and he is bed ridden for one year. He goes to the US for 2 years, and that would take us to 1977. Getting married in 1977, and with a son who is nearing 25+ years at the time of going to Maxine’s house in New Hampshire, would take us to something like 2003+. I am surprised that neither Max nor Gogol had a cellphone. Surprisingly, no one in the movie had a cell phone till the time Moushumi flips one open. And even at that point, she is the only one with a cell. Everyone else uses landlines all the time.

B. Performances & Characterizations

Tabu’s accent is just not Bengali enough. Her accent reminds me not of a Bengali turned American, but the recent metro English movies like 15 park avenue, etc. where the artists add a musical tinge to their English. “What Rahul! I tell you. These kids no! They are just taking our generation down the drain. You don’t trust me? How mean?”
Kal Penn doesn’t look young enough to be a 14 year old (at the time when Ashoke gifts him the book). And he never seems irritated enough! More importantly, the story belongs to him. Somewhere Mira Nair has gone wrong in showcasing the conflict between Nikhil and Gogol.
His sister’s character is totally sidelined. With her first half looks, it was a good ploy, but the second half is where she should have had a role to play. However, the book is about Gogol. And Gogol’s sister probably is not important for Gogol’s existence.
The events are simplified a bit too much – Gogol’s hatred for his name is long drawn phenomenon where he doesn’t hate the name as much as its strangeness, its un-indianness or something like that. The trauma on his face (for the first 5 minutes after Ashoke tells him about the accident) is lost without any further analysis. And guess what - changing his name from Gogol to Nikhil is the most important thing he has done ever.
The divorce between Gogol and Moushumi just happens. Moushumi’s side of the story is never explained. And she does look pretty hot in some of the sequences. So my sympathies are with her. Not with the confused brat Gogol.
Breakup with Max! but why? What went wrong? In her own way, she wanted to be a part of the family. What went wrong there? No explanations given!
Gogol’s choice of being an architect. Again, too simplistic. What was he doing till the time he saw Taj? There is only one point where he is shown sketching. But what about the career shaping forces known as Indian parents, who want their kids to become doctors/engineers!!
I can go on and on and on. But the point remains. Some of the underlying struggle of being a namesake, a fact that haunts Gogol forever, are hardly dealt with.

I feel, as I write this review, and as I walked out of the theatre, that The Namesake is another book turned movie gone average, a fact I would never understand. When a novel is written, the authors usually creates exquisite detail around who a person is, their life, their environment, their dresses, the walls, the colors. Someone converting it into a movie, needs to be honest to the spirit of the book. But they edit and re-edit it. Thinking they are making more logical sense than the original. They underestimate the viewer. Moreover, they make the mistake of assuming that the viewer has read the book.

However, having said all this, let me take some of the harsh words back. I am being overcritical because I had high expectations from the movie. I don’t remember having the feeling of walking out of the movie during those 2 hours. SO, its definitely worth a watch. It’s a decently narrated story in chunks. Its a collage of small snippets that Mira Nair tries to walk us through in her journey of understanding Gogol. Or, maybe, that’s her understanding of Gogol. It’s a reader’s interpretation!

Overall Rating -5-6 out of 10. Bulk of that 6 is Irfan Khan. And the fact that the movie is not a bore!

Gul Hui Jaati Hai : Faiz

2007-04-12T22:08:00.000-07:00

This is one of the most beautiful Faiz compositions that I have heard. With Abida Parveen's voice adding soul to these beautiful words, its the perfect setting for a nice quiet evening. I have seen a lot of people wondering about what the ghazal means. Thats when I thought I should just write this bit out. Listen it here

गुल हुई जाती है अफ़सुर्दा सुलगती हुई शाम
धुल के िनक्लेगी अभी चश्म-ए-माहताब से रात
और मुश्ताक िनगाहों की सुिन जाएगी
और उन हाथों से मस होंगे ये तरसे हुए हाथ

Gul hui jaati hai afsurda sulagti hui shaam
Dhul ke niklay gi abhi chashma-e-mahtab se raat
Aur mushtaaq nigaahon ki suni jaaye gi
Aur un hathon se mas hongay yeh tarse huay haath....

The morose evening is lost in the silhouette of a fading sun
But soon, it will come out bathed in the moonlit night
And those eager eyes will be heard to, one more time
and these longing fingers will be entwined with those fingers again

उन का आंचल है िक रुखसार िक पैराहन है
कुछ तो है िजस से हुई जाती है िचलमन रंगीन
जाने उस ज़ुल्फ़ िक मौहूम घनी छावं में
िटमिटमाता है वो आवेज़ा अभी तक के नही

Un ka aanchal hai ke rukhsaar keh payrahan hai...
Kuch to hai jis se hui jaati hai chilman rangeen...
Jaanay us zulf ki mauhoom ghani chaaoon mein...
Timtimataa hai woh aawayzah abhi tak keh nahi...

Is this the decorated end of your sari, or the colors on your face, or the way you've dressed
There has to be something, that has made the curtains (that hide you) so colorful
I wonder, if in the thick dark tresses of her long hair,
does it(the moon) still twinkle, hanging, suspended, still yearning for thee?

आज िफर हुस्न-ए-िदल-अारा की वो ही धज होगी
वो ही ख्वाबीदा सी आंखें वो ही काज़ल की लकीर
रंग-ए-रुखसार पे हल्का सा वो गाज़े का गुबार
सन्द्ली हाथों पे धुन्धिल सी िहना की तहरीर

Aaj phir husn-e-dil aaraa ki wohi dhaj hogi...
Wohi khaabeedah si aankhein wohi kaajal ki lakeer...
Rang-e-rukhsaar pe halka sa woh gaazay ka ghubaar...
Sandali haathon pe dhundli si hina ki tehreer...

Tonite, the beauty of my beloved will show itself in the same resplendent glory
Those dreamy eyes, and those black eyelashes
the color of her cheeks flushed with the pink of roses (cosmetics/powder)
and those hands smelling of sandal, decorated with beautiful Hina designs

अपने अफ्कार के अशआर िक दुिनया है यही
जान-ए-मज़मून है ये शािहद-ए-माना है यही
अपन मौज़ू-ए-सुखन इन के िसवा और नही
तब्बा शायर का वतन इन कॆ िसवा और नही

Apnay afkaar ki ashaar ki duniya hai yehi...
Jaanay mazmoon hai yehi, shahid-e-ma'anaa hai yehi...
Apna mauzoo-e-sukhan inke siva aur nahi
Tabba shayar ka vatan inke siva aur nahin

This is the world of the couplets and my thoughts
Such is the essense of my writings, such is the fate of this doomed poet.
there is no other subject of my conversataions,
The mood of the poet wanders in no other kingdom but that of the beloved

ये खूं की महक है िक लब-ए-यार िक खुशबू
िकस राह की जािनब से सबा आती है देखो
गुलशन मे बहार आई के िज़न्दा हुआ आबाद
िकस संग से नगमों की सदा आती है देखो

Yeh Khoon Ki mahak hai ki labe yaar ki khushboo
Kis raah ki - Jaanib se saba aati hai dekho
Gulshan mein bahar bahaar aayi ki zinda hua abad
Kis sang se naghmon ki sada aati hai dekho

Is this the warm smell of blood, or the sweet fragrance of beloved's lips
From which direction is this wind blowing, someone go and check
Can you feel, with the arrival of spring, that the estranged have come alive
You must go and check who is the stone-hearted that sings the song of serenade!

Its difficult to do justice to such a marvellous nazm given my limited vocab. But an attempt is always on! :) Let me know if you can think of some better lines.

BCCI jokes..ON NEW RULES....good ones!

2007-04-09T04:43:00.001-07:00

Hilarious.. Received on mail from Rushank Vora :)

Drat... These people show this all the time and keep insulting us..

Sir, they are fans, they want their ticket amount refunded if the team doesn't perform well..

Brother, anyways you gonna get out after making 10-15 runs and get only a % of your salary. Why don't you get out now at 0. I will make sure you get your full amount...

Hey buddy, try and take this catch or else your salary 15k is gone...

Friends, I am gonna resign from this captaincy post. Even if I lose the toss they are frightening me that they won't give me my salary...

Sir, I think I am gonna take VRS and become an umpire like you. Even without making runs or taking wickets I will get my salary right...

__._

For The Love Of Thumri

2007-04-08T11:39:00.001-07:00

I have been meaning to write this for some time. What prompted me today, was my success in finding a particular composition– Balam Tere Jhagde Mein Raiin Gayee (Sung by Shubha Mudgal – Album: The Versatile Shubha Mudgal).

And what I wanted to write about was my love of Thumri. I owe it to Mrs. Vidya Rao, a Classical/Thumri singer who was brought in for a guest lecture by Prof. Ramnath Narayanswamy for his "Tracking Creative Boundaries" course during the second year of my IIM – B stay.

I still remember a lot of that particular lecture (a series of 2 lectures devoted to the history, nuances of Thumri). The fact that I and another friend of mine were privileged enough to be invited for an up-close and personal meeting with the lady at the professor's home later on where she did enthrall us with a couple of thumris just made me fall in love twice over.

Thumri, as a classical vocal form, originated in the Kothas of Benares. Unlike most of the other dance heavy forms originating at the Kothas, Thumri focused on the rendering of the lyrics, which can be intensely complicated. The theme of the song – the pivotal line – such as "Balam Tere Jhagde Mein Rain Gayee" can be interpreted in multiple ways depending upon the mood and the rendering (and technically speaking, depending upon where the emphasis is). A thumri singer traverses through the multiple interpretations with the help of additional lines around a theme. These additional lines can be shers from ghazal writers, or dohas from poets, or complete stanzas from some other poets.

Let me take a minute to explain the example of what the different interpretations can be, depending upon the point of emphasis -

Emphasis can be on "Balam" where the beloved is trying to blame the lover.
It can be on "Tere" where she might be complaining about the fight only because it concerns something/someone unworthy of being fought for.
Emphasis could as well be on "Jhagde" and the futility of a fight between lovers.
If the emphasis shifts to "Raiin", the beloved suddenly seems to be complaining about the night that was wasted in a quarrel. Too short a night, too many things to fight on, and too many ways of fight. The same emphasis can be interpreted in a naughty/amorous way as well.
And finally, if the emphasis shifts on "Gayee", then the interpretation could be of future action, of let the lost night be the lost night and focus our eyes on the morning!

The Thumri singers were exemplary in their diction and knowledge of languages. Extremely fluent with multiple languages (usually Urdu, Awadhi, Persian/Farsi, Khadi Boli, Sanskrit), these singers created and passed through generations a form of singing that is not just beautifully rendered but is also a poetic delight. Another factor not to be missed about Indian classical music is the love for the god (if it can be called Romantic Mysticism). In almost all vocal musical forms, the poet treats God as his/her lover and through love, one tries to achieve salvation.

Lucknow and Benares continued to be the two prime centers of Thumri, which in the later decades led to other singing forms as well.

If you wish to explore the complexities of Indian Classical Music through a seemingly lighter musical form, Thumri is prescribed! Transcend to another world of love, longing and devotion.

Theatre Watch: Karode Mein Ek

2007-04-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

A Makarand Deshpande play, Karode mein ek is a very sensitive portrayal of a patriarch who has gone insane after losing his wealth due to the betrayal by his own brothers.

The story starts at a point where Bansidhar’s (Makarand) son (Yashpal Sharma) and his daughter-in-law are struggling with the whims and split identities of Bansi, who refuses to believe that he has lost his wealth and stature. He revels in his lost glories, has forgotten his young daughter who cannot stop caring about his father, remembers small anecdotes from his yesteryears, is in love with his younger son’s (an imaginary one) wife(again, imaginary!). Yashpal, on the other hand, is trying to fight for respectable survival, keeps running around courtrooms and people who can help him. The daughter’s husband keeps coming up with ideas that never work. Yashpal’s wife keeps living and enacting multiple identities (mother, daughter, wife, daughter-in-law) to meet Makarand’s whims. Yashpal’s son and daughter are trying to make a name for themselves so that they can earn some money for their family as well. And there is the “Sarkar” angle of a friend for whom Bansi used to write speeches, and who later becomes the parallel government of Mumbai. The story ends at Bansi’s split personality killing his brothers and acting like the police inspector who is in charge of arresting Bansi. Bansi eventually kills himself, and Yashpal, with all his frustrations with his father and of being a failed son, becomes partially insane himself.

It takes a while to realize how much pain everyone is going through. The frustration of loving someone, and the difficulties in dealing with reality are the essence of this play. Makarand, Yashpal and Ayesha take this play to a higher level through their performances. The use of stage is phenomenal with the “other room” where Bansi sits, the partial illumination to give the effect of hope that never dies, and the interplay of shadows to highlight split personalities, being just a few masterstrokes. Background score is good, but could’ve been better. The story does not seem very new, but the dialogues are extremely tight and smooth. The disappointments were some of the support actors like the son-in-law and the (imaginary) daughter-in-law.

If you get a chance, do watch it. Its fairly experimental, with a lot of comic moments and some great performances!

Book Review: In Spite Of The Gods

2007-04-03T00:22:00.000-07:00

Before I start commenting on the back, for the uninitiated, here is a 2-line spiel on Edward Luce, the luminary writer of this book.

Edward Luce is a Financial Times journalist who has covered India for a considerable period of time. (And his wife is an Indian). As part of his journalistic experiences, he did get to read, write and experience a fair bit of India. And the true enigma that India is, Edward is tempted to share his understanding of the profound through this book.

The name of the book – In Spite Of The Gods – The Strange Rise Of Modern India, itself tells you how a lot of people feel about India. Despite all that plagues modern India, people often surmise about what has brought India to this stage of exploding growth. Why is there so much talk about India being the next big thing in the global economy? The real answer is – Nobody Knows! It reminds me of this joke where the whole of US is baffled about “Jugaad” - a technology which ensures a 5 year tenure for a government with 20% of the seats in the parliament, which tilts the scooter at 5 degrees to start it, which provides food and shelter for those thousands of good for nothing young ones in villages who think sitting at the chaupaal and talking about Indian Politics is the biggest form of entertainment (besides periodic consumption of Chai and Gutkha), and which sums up the sentiment behind this golden statement – “Ho Jayega Saab! Aap chinta mat kijiye. Kuch jugaad to lag hi jayega!”

Anyways, back to Edward Luce and his rendition of the great (and not-so-great) story of Indian evolution. The book is very good when it comes to research, and sharing experiential learning. However, the book suffers from a very common problem. People who have not felt India, often misinterpret the chaos that prevails. Particles moving in random motion with a specified purpose often contain a powerhouse of energy within. Luce’s attempt to generalize a lot of Indian undercurrents fail at striking a chord with an Indian. Some of the opinionated generalizations are unwarranted too. However, there is no fun in reading an author if he does not have an opinion! [;)]

The thing that struck me the most was the elevation of Sonia Gandhi’s character from the common perception of an opportunistic politician. Sonia is portrayed as someone who was and is naturally averse to politics and is there in the Indian politics for a social good. Sentiments I could not just wait and see what they were trying to do with the country sound nice, but very untrue. At the same time, the hatred for Sangh Parivar and the fact that BJP has played a puppet in Sangh’s hands for long are bloated magnanimously, with there being no equal stage sharing for some of the other forms of religious paranoia plaguing our country. Not one to support the extremist acts of religious atrocities in Gujarat, it somehow paints an incomplete and unjustified picture if a “journalist” never bothers to look at all faces of the coin before forming an opinion.

The place where this book suffers the most, according to me, and I am not great orator or journalist, is that it confuses personal opinions with research facts. In the same breath, Edward talks about the facts and figures of economic growth, Nehruvian model of socialistic economic growth, and his opinions about Ravi Shankar, Sonia Gandhi, etc.

It’s a good read for those who like hypothesizing about India and the way going forward (I am one of them!), and those who love reading (seemingly) interesting anecdotes concerning popular people (oxymoron – anything related to popular people is an interesting anecdote. That’s how they became popular, right?). A little depressing for die hard Sangh fans, a little too upbeat for Congress supporters, the book is a spicy read, if nothing else!

Au Revoir.. Hope, Optimism and Indian Cricket

2007-03-24T01:52:00.000-07:00

Before writing this post, I wrote a 3 page long post about Indian cricket team. And then realized that I was seething with anger. Like a true Indian fan.

And like a true Indian, I am opinionated. Here are 10 things that I think should be done –

We, as a nation, need to go back to celebrating one off victories and stop looking for grandiose performances. We should act like minnows of international cricket and save ourselves some heart wrenching moments.
We should stop calling our batting lineup the best. We have dogs that don’t bite or bark.
Our batsmen should be paid on the basis of the amount of time they spend on the crease and the number of runs they score. Dada will win the race given the amount of time he takes the score the runs that he scores. Hmmm, let me revise the metric – A function of absolute number of runs scored, and runs per minute. Strike rate is meaningless. Its like counting the number of girls you hit on without having any affairs.
There should be a pay per win policy. Tournament wins would get you more money. If you beat an Australia or SA, you get 3x, if you beat SL and Pak, you get 2.5x, if you beat England, NZ etc, you get 2x, for beating minnows, you get 1x. Bangladesh has just been promoted to 1.5x.
Sehwag should be given a Titan watch (TCS and Tata Group company style) for long service and be given a subtle hint to retire.
Utthapa should be given a frying pan. Flash in the pan brilliance, which comes and goes like a flash. He can also be given lifetime supple of the Rs.2 Nepali batteries also. That will help him keep flashing cheaply (pun unintended) all his life.
Agarkar should be asked to take motivational sessions for MNCs. How to make money by being just 66.66% accurate. His knack of being back in the team despite bowling only 4 decent bowls every over is not a skill that can be replicated easily. He can think about Patenting his Agarkarizma (If Miracle?)
Tendulkar can start a TV show - Who wants to be a Tendulkar? The reason I am saying that is that it’s a fading business opportunity. He needs to cash out. Soon, there wont be anyone wanting to wear the shoes of one of the greatest batsman ever, who never led India to any important series win (well, except that one innings in Sharjah!)
The entire team should be made to watch Gunda at least a couple of times. There should be a quiz on what they learnt from the movie. Things like “Nothing is impossible” (Mithun is a coolie at the Airport), set yourself real and achievable targets (Do Char Che Aath Das- Bas!), you don’t need to confirm to the conventional standards if you want to win (Gunda is a commercially viable venture), etc. are only some of the lessons!
And yeah.. one big request to the media – Lets start focusing on other games. PHL is nice. Sania Mirza looks good even when she is losing. Narain Karthikeyan can do with some support. Our chess players are great. And we have soccer fan clubs in every city. Its time we grew beyond a lost cause!

Inzing Away Into The Sunset

2007-03-22T01:44:00.000-07:00

The tall monolith, moving with a poetic gait, cause of many a silly runouts and executioner of many a great innings in the world of cricket, Inzy Bhai called it quits last night. In the face of great shame (Pakistan ousted out of world cup, beaten by Ireland), and lots of despair (death of Bob Woolmer), he waves goodbye, but the Pakistani team will miss his services and his on-field composure for years to come.

1992 World Cup, where a great captain Imran Khan brought Inzamam’s heroics to the fore, and the world saw him mark his stamp of arrival into the cricketing world (the great innings against New Zealand in Semifinal), 22 year old Inzamam was all about grace, style and ease when it came to batting. I have never been able to figure out how he managed to have so much time to play his shots (especially, with his bulk).
His 378 matches, 11000+ runs, 39.72 average and 10 centuries don’t tell you the real magnitude of his impact on the game. Usually the smiling Buddha of Pakistan team, Toronto is the only place where someone saw him loose his temper.

Faras Ghani talks about his 5 best innings, while Osman Samiuddin bids him an emotional farewell. But nobody talks about one of the biggest banes of subcontinental cricket – the enormous pressure it puts on all cricketers. Houses are vandalized, effigies burnt, and slogans shouted everytime they lose a match. Why? Because they bring shame to the nation? Those slogan shouters forget that these are the players who put a lot of heart and soul behind those matches. That it hurts them as well when they lose. That when you lose, you want your supporters to rally behind you, urging you to keep the chin up. Inzy has lived through his own set of pressures and boiling moments. And has come out calmer all the way.

And if he seems soft, lets remind the cricket world about the walk-off Pakistan team did under his captaincy at the Oval. It takes a lot of courage to take such decisions.

So Long Inzy Bhai The generation of cricketers to come would not forget that batting might be science, but it’s the artful craft of players like Inzamam-Ul-Haq that makes cricket such a delight to watch. We will not forget those effortless sixes, delicate late cuts, fearsome pulls and elegant drives.

(c)RICKETY Affair

2007-03-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

It takes a lot from refraining from commenting on the World Cup and the Indian Cricket Team. and I have done that a bit here with my previous post on cricket being about the fight between Gavs and Ponting. That fight took multiple dimensions with the entire Aussie team trying to defend their on-field behavior by not referring to it even once, but talking about how Gavs should not have brought Hooksie in this discussion! Well, hmm.. hmph!

But thats not what this post is all about. This post is about India, the WC and the Indian team..

1. We lost to Bangladesh. Greatbong rips our performance apart here.

My biggest grievance. If you have a wound, you treat it. If you don’t, it becomes gangrene. After a while, you need to remove that rotten part of your body because the infection starts spreading to other parts of the body. At one point in time, the Indian team (even though it was administered a little brutally) did this to good effect by letting Ganguly go. The left and the deft hand of Indian cricket for a good time, Ganguly, did come back with a vengeance.

Sehwag’s situation is worse. Its affecting the whole team. The recklessness that is considered the bane of all sports became style. Sehwag was joined by Dhoni. And now it seems to be the flavor of the season! Even the perspiring Dada [who is not ready to get off the wicket in this stint of his career, even if it means scoring once in 6 balls (the last deliver, to be precise)] played a reckless shot at 67 (and later on, against Bermuda).

Bowling was petty at best, and streetside on an average.

2. We thrashed Bermuda. I should be happy, right? Am I? not quite! After reducing them to 50-odd runs for 5, we still let them score 150 odd runs. That tells me that the body language is still not one for the kill. The batsmen were having fun making records, and that explained the 400+ score. Bowlers, too comfortable after getting the top 5, started reveling in that glory!

Dada was still perspiring. Two back to back half centuries against (presumably) below average bowling attacks would air a picture of a dada dancing down the crease to clear the stands far too many times. I would have wanted to imagine a dada slashing through the gully region and driving through the covers. Not this time. It was a hard toiled effort. But still, hats off to him for perspiring.

Some of the media folks have started reading too much into the comeback of Viru! But Mumbai Mirror has got it spot on– back all swell, against Popatwadi XI. Those who saw the match yesterday would recall the umpteen hit n miss shots played by Viru. The number of times he did not get out was more than the times he would get a chance from any other team.

Yuvraj still seems to be the best bet. Zaheer remains the pick of the bowlers, ready to bend his back, slog it out.

Movie Review: Hat Trick

2007-03-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

All right All right. Yes I am on a blogging binge. But this is part of the series of stuff I wrote over the weekend but never managed to post because of my erratic internet connection at home.

And so, here I am, trying to review another below average movie which I shouldn’t have watched in the first place.

Anyways, Hat Trick is another useless attempt by a seemingly good director (Milan Luthria) to weave multiple stories together without there being any common thread. One story is that of a rather acidic doctor (Nana Patekar) being brought to life (humor, fun n all) by an ex-Cricketer (Danny). Second – of an obsessive cricket fan (Kunal Kapoor) being brought to his senses by his wife’s (Rimi) love for Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Third- of an airport janitor (Paresh Rawal) in UK desperate to get citizenship.
Why is the movie called Hat Trick? Well, I will exhaust two guesses-
1. Three wicket taking deliveries, three audience killing stories!
2. Hat Trick requires you to really pull some magic out of thin air. Here, the crew is trying to pull a story/movie out of thin air.

Paresh Rawal, the great actor that he is, has taken his greatness too seriously. He is overtly loud in this movie. His character required a certain desperation, an ABCD kinda mentality, a clear generation gap, and a personality for whom nothing really is going right. What he does is similar to what Amitabh was trying to pull off in his “Jadugar” and “Toofan” era. Dish some crap. People won’t realize because my crap stinks better than cK Eternity!
Paresh Rawal is so loud in this movie that you are almost about to shout at the theatre guys for being in love with him and turning up the volume every time he comes on screen. But of course you realize that these guys are not DJs who turn the volume down almost instantaneously when his wife/daughter is talking. And the tragic nature of his character can be bettered only by Ekta Kapoor’s K-series.

Nana Patekar, typecast long back, sleep walks through his role with ample ease. It’s a character that he is used to playing – angry with life for some weird reason, but a gentle and nice person at heart, extremely righteous, has fun towards the fag end of the movie, etc etc. Danny shines as an ex-cricketer. But then, there is no point wasting ink and space on these two guys unless they do something that they are not used to doing – acting badly! (Which Paresh Rawal has done in copious amounts)

Kunal Kapoor is good, ok, decent, etc. But is not the same he was in movies like Minaxi or RDB. His pairing with Rimi in the movie adds a lot of absurdity to the movie. Though there are a couple of comic moments, but barely so. The pair could have been dispensed with. And while I think about it, the movie could have been dispensed with too.

The song Rabba Khair Kare is nice (situational, in the backdrop, and interspersed throughout the movie). Harsha Bhogle, in his movie cameo, is not as natural as he is otherwise. But he is better than Paresh Rawal.
And Milan Luthria, after Kache Dhaage and Taxi No. 9211, and even movies like Deewar, is expected to make a slick fast paced movie. The pace of Hat Trick is sluggish, snailish at times!

Overall – Rating 3 on 10. Avoidable! Unless, you are in love with Kunal Kapoor who does pull a Salman Khan for a couple of minutes (not the receding hairline bit silly! The bare all Salman!)

One of the finest renditions of our National Anthem

2007-03-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

A R Rehman's arranged version of National Anthem featuring some of the finest exponents of Indian Classical Music- both hindustani and carnatic. One of the finest musical arrangements that I have seen in years. Not to mention the fact that it makes me proud of our cultural heritage, our music and of these great artists. The fact that its the National Anthem makes me prouder.

The closest I've been to this was the "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" on national integration!

Difference - Those were times than people were proud to be an Indian (my guess). These are times, when people are wondering what being proud to be Indian means(my guess)...

Ek Ghazal

2007-03-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

TeriI SadiYOn meIn jii rahaA hooN maaiN

SAans lene ki kise fursat haii

MujhKo hairAani se mat dekhaA karo

Mera visAal hi aE dost merii furqat haii..

JAane do lamhon mein kyaa kyaa yahaan bikhraa paaya

JAane kis kis ki tamanNaon ka silaa paaya

Do ghadii ruk gaya to waQt badal jayega

Ajnabi aasmAan merii pehchan, merii jaroorat haii

Baandh lo mujh ko merii Umr ke viraAne meIn

TumSe firr mil sakooN bas itni merii hasrat haii…

Theatre Watch: "One Small Day"

2007-03-18T04:47:00.000-07:00

I happened to catch a performance of One Small Day at NCPA. Not quite sure if it follows the mood of watching an idyllic sunset at Marine Drive with special someones, but the play was good in some parts, and average in some.

Backdrops first – Directed by Jayant Kripalani, Produced by Anish Trivedi, and enacted by Dipika Roy and Anish Trivedi himself, the play traces the interaction between two very different, yet similar people, caught in a room together where the lady has come to kill the gentleman (in a self-redeeming effort of avenging her sister’s death).

First, about the cast and the people. Jayant is known for his wit, timing and acting, right from the days of the TV Series – “Khandaan”. Truly a man of great theatrical skills, Jayant lends his credibility and touch to this play. Anish, an ex-Investment Banker turned playwright, with his previous play “Still Single” going off the streets after an year of performances, started the Banyan Tree production company, and has a radio show on 92.5FM. Banyan Tree is one of the largest radio programming companies in India. Theatre, has been a recent foray for Anish and Banyan Tree. And for encouragement, the previous act (Still Single) did win him some good and some bad press. Dipika Roy has also been around in the theatre circuits for quite some time and has a list of impressive plays to her credit. Anish’s partner at Banyan Tree, she is Anish’s muse for sure given her role in Still Single as well as One Small Day.

Trivia: In the initial running of the play, Jayant was acting and Anish was directing. But for some reason, within a month or so, the roles were reversed.

Back to the play, which apparently is an inspired play. The original required people to take sides, define things as right or wrong, while Anish and Jayant’s effort is more on the humorous side. It’s not an intellectually challenging play, and plays for approximately 2 hours on the humorous/ satirical side of things.

Sheila (Dipika) barges into Bollywood Producer Hari Kapoor’s (Anish) office to kill him. His crime – Sheila’s sister Seema has committed suicide, after Hari failed to live up to his promise of casting her in a role. A heartbroken Seema ends up taking her life, but not before telling her sister why she is doing it. Having had a troubled childhood (after losing her mother at the age of 18, and father at the age of 22, Sheila raises her 14 year old sister all by herself. She has lived her life by the social norms of right and wrong, doing all the right things and sacrificing her “life” in return. She blames Hari for having lost the most important person in her life- Seema. Hari, over the course of a long conversation which fairly wittily tries to address the question of different personalities, insecurities, actions, motives, reality, people, emotions, individuality, sacrifices, choices, careers, and most importantly, the futility of it all, end up liking Sheila, and making out with her (not on the stage, of course! Indian audiences are not ready for that real a play as yet!). Sheila, however, having been pulled out of her shackles in the first half of the play, digs out Hari’s insecurities in the second half, and shooting him (not fatally, though) towards the end.

The play continues to hit upon the broken dreams and failed aspirations of each of the characters (Sheila, Sushma and Hari) and the roles they played in making them the kind of people they were. And the undertone used is –humor and sarcasm. The play is quite funny, with its wisecracks. However, the essence of a powerful script is that the audience should carry the play with them when they move out of the theatre. That does not happen here!

Background score used in the play is quite involved and in sync with the theme. The stage handling is very apt, and so is the use of the stage. The two actors have played their parts well. However, some of the estrangement and grief that two torn lives should have was missing in their performance.

Overall- a good effort. Can definitely be watched. Much better than spending a weekend on movies like “Just Married” or “HatTrick”

Moview Review: Just Married

2007-03-17T21:15:00.001-07:00

An ensemble cast full of losers, largely loser performances, mediocre editing, average music, and an ok storyline. Chef Comment – Passable Movie!

The story is about the lead couple Fardeen and Esha having gotten married (arranged marriage) and going on their honeymoon where they are staying with 4 other couples (Bikram Saluja-Perizaad, Mukul Dev- Sadia Siddiqui, Raj Zutshi-Tarina and Satish Shah-Kiron Kher). Each of these couples has its own story, set of highs and lows, and a love & hate relationship. Finally love is supposed to triumph, and so it does!

Performances

Fardeen and Esha - Its surprising how Fardeen can make Esha look like an actress! Fardeen is pathetic as usual. With 70% of the dialogues being delivered by Fardeen (explicitly or through a voiceover), it reminds me of how li'l kids participating in elocution competitions are supposed to memorize the lines by rote with no real importance to the emotional punch. The only difference being - Fardeen is worse! He does not have the kiddish innocence required to carry that off!
Esha (even without the Deol) is supposed to giggle, shy away, look confused and act dumb. She is given minimal dialogues, and I wonder if that was Meghna Gulzar's (the director) mega strategic maneuver. Asking lousy actresses to just stand there and do whatever they feel like doing is a good way to save time and energy.

Bikram Saluja has still not realized that for anything beyond the Grasim and whatever suiting shirting ads he does, some importance is attached to how you act. People are supposed to have a bit of variation in their dialogue delivery. I wonder if his fights with his girlfriend(s) have the same tone as the romantic evenings!
Perizaad Zorabian (and sadly) Irani is wasted as she tries to put some semblance of credibility in this movie through her character. Pity, she didn't get to build on the tragic side of her story. That she looks good and can act is something that we know!

Mukul Dev and Sadia Siddique are like a TV couple. Sadia knows how to play those small roles well and she does, and one look at Mukul tells you why he was thrown out of movies' world!

Fourth couple - Raj Zutshi and Tarina Patel - is also a good for nothing, and I don’t know why you are there in the movie couple. Raj has few dialogues. Tarina- fewer

Saving grace of the movie - Satish Shah and Kiron Kher. They rock! Their banters as a couple, their comic timing, and the fact that they are the only ones who add what the real element this movie should have been - Comedy! The scene where both of them are sleeping with their monkey caps and mufflers on is cute and funny. While the continuous "phir bus beech mein rukwaoge" kinda comments are hilarious. And the fact that their concluding sentiment is the only message that this movie could have stood for - You need to stand by your life partner, whatever may happen!

I wonder if Meghna Gulzar identifies and relates more with that generation more than this. While her current day couples are stories that you probably can find in your lifetime, the treatment of what their problems are and what they go through is extremely shallow, her treatment of Satish-Kiron couple is just perfect!

Any other high points- can’t remember!

Overall - Watch it if you have nothing better to do. Or, if you get a free DVD or something, keep skipping to the parts where Satish Shah and Kiron Kher are! You'll think you watched a gun movie!

Movie Review : The Pursuit of Happyness

2007-03-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

I happened to watch "The Pursuit Of Happyness" over the weekend.

Based on the original story of Chris Gardner (the man behind Gardner-Rich brokerage firm), the screenplay and characterizations are just perfect. The movie ranges from tragic to funny to inspirational.

The title of the movie has Happiness misspelled as Happyness - in the memory of the day care where Christopher (Chris's son) goes everyday.

Overall sentiment : Must watch.

Biggest draws - 1. The performances of Will and Jaden Smith 2. The Screenplay.

Biggest Flaw - Another story about the Great American Dream. While the story still inspires you, there is not much new in terms of the storyline

Will Smith in the lead role has pulled off another marvelous performance. As a struggling yet positive father whose only dream, probably, is to keep his son happy, Will packages poise, understated pain, downright humor in one nice packet. As most of the reviews point, Will Smith elevates the movie to a different level.

Jaden Smith, the little boy playing Christopher Gardner (Chris's son) is equally amazing.

There are some amazing wisecracks, which I dont know if they are inspired by real life incidents that the real Chris Gardner lived through.

Reference to Thomas Jefferson's declaration of independence and the right to "pursue happiness" keeps the theme moving. But the best is when the narrator says - probably he was right. we can only pursue happiness. We can never have it.

The wisecracks are good. (e.g. the brokerage firm interview of Chris Gardner - One of the men asks him "What would you say if I told you we once hired a man who came in without a shirt on?" Chris pauses then wittily replies "Those must have been some really nice pants." )

There are those tragic moments as well - especially the shot where Chris and Christopher are spending the night in a rest room.

People may have different views about the movie but for me the endgame was Will Smith's portrayal.

Some movies are not meant to be analyzed for "is it really possible?". They are just feel-good movies (yeah! The great American dream.. hmph!). What makes such movies great are performances such as Will Smith's.

Couple of first timers for me -
1. I watched a movie all alone, all by myself. And its a pretty good experience - if the movie is good, there is no disturbance whatsoever. If the movie is bad, you can just walk out without having to convince anyone else to walk out as well!
2. The first shot of the movie was the intermission break. Thats a neat one! The show was going to be an uniterrupted one - no intermissions later. I wonder if the popcorn and pepsi sales are higher for such uninterrupted shows (with people wondering what if I feel like having it later!)

The Big (Mouth) Fight - Ponting vs. Gavaskar

2007-03-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

Subhra just pointed me to this post quoting Mr. (We cant do anything wrong) Pointing

I am not a great supporter of Mr. Gavaskar.. but Ponting should know the (cricket) history (at least!) right, and should not link two extremely unrelated issues without establishing the six degrees of separation!

Gavaskar was pointing to Asutralian team's behavior on the field, and not their success rate. And Ponting, epitomising the truly defensive attitude that the whole team has about their big cavities, starts blabbering. The only equivalent that he has for his big mouth is Andre Nel!

And if the big mouth has a correlation with being victorious and good, I don't remember the whispering deaths of 1970s (West Indies team) ever having to swear at someone to prove their point. But the pansy li'l babies of current Oz team cant help whining everytime someone slams a boundary! And I am sure the 5 consecutive one-day losses are not helping their wet pants.

Back to the quoted incident, it was more about the number of bad umpiring decisions than anything else that prompted Gavs to walk off! But of course, li'l Ricky wont remember those things.

And hmmm... isnt it high n mighty of Mr. Ponting to remind Gavaskar of what's right n wrong!

Couple of weeks of missed reviews!

2007-03-07T11:59:00.000-08:00

Few snippets that've been lost in the sands of the last few (phew!) weeks -

1. Double deal - I decided to catch up with this fairly well known play. Experience - 4-5 out of 10.
Sandhya Mridul looks very beautiful. But Mahesh Manjrekar acted better. Even if I am the only person to think so - I always got a feeling that both the people are acting at 2 levels - 1. when they are trying to have this continuous conversation in English (I find it normal for Indians to intuitively think in their native tongue and then translate before conversing), and 2. The play itself.
It must be difficult to pull these multi-stor(e)y acts!
Also, its a one-act play split into 2 halves. 2 characters. Talking continuously.
Sense of humor - ok. Sense of drama - average. plot - good. Use of stage - minimal. Use of props - minimal. Characterization - could be better. Background music used- average.
Final comment - Its that one thing you dont want to do for fun when you want to do something for fun.
2. Ghostrider - Again.. Pathetic! Of all the comics turned movies, I have ended up liking X-men and Spiderman. Superman- the older ones. The recent one was not quite there.
Ghostrider is that Ajay Devgan action movie where even if he jumped from the 50th floor to land on 2 bicycles, there would be some B-grade movie watchers hooting for him. And the director would still say - my movie is different. It appeals to a different class of people.
Nicholas Cage, and Eva Mendes disappoint. Cage looks like a doped patient of running-stomach-syndrome. I want to go somewhere but I am too doped to understand where I want to go kinda looks! The devil is useless - does not evoke a laughter, definitely does not scare. Villains are more funny with their frozen white makeup!
Action sequences are basic, stuff that can be seen in every third movie.

High point of the movie - Emraan Hashmi, the serial kisser of Bollywood, was standing next to me in the washroom. And I realized that he is shorter than me (for those who havent seen me, someone has to be extremely extremely short to be shorter than me). God bless Indian Cinema!

3. Chennai - the city deserves a mention. I was in Chennai for 3-4 months in 2003. While talking to Bonnie and Tushar, we all agreed on two things -
a. Anyone who stays here for more than x months, should be a given a certificate of appreciation. X is a function of how far north of chennai the person is from.
b. If you see a beautiful girl in Chennai, then most probably she is a tourist. And its not about them not being good looking. They just dont have the attitude to look good.

In 2006, with probably 60% of educated families having one family member who is/has been abroad, the city is down in the pits with its conservative nature. The autowallahs havent changed in the last 40 years it seems. The roads continue to be messy (though definitely better than Mumbai roads). People on the street still cannot come out of the north-south divide and their biases. Extremely unfriendly. And any johnnie can become a hero down south!

4. Saving the best for the last - Prithvi Theater- Celebrating Poetry. I was there on a saturday when they were showcasing the emergence of progressive poetry. However, the story went back to as far as Bulle Shah, Kabirdas and covered Ghalib, Nirala, and contemporary Nida Fazli sahab as well. Beautiful collection of poetry. Couple of the actors could have done better by memorizing their lines completely.

Final suggestion - The Babbar family kids (Raj Babbar's son and daughter) - they should stay away from theatre. Those who cannot act in movies, will never be able to act on a stage. and especially, if the stage is like Prithvi!

Friends Series (2) : Those Nothing Guys!

2007-03-01T10:16:00.000-08:00

Another Phoebe-ism
Oh, oh, but y'know, you always see these really beautiful women with these really nothing guys, you could be one of those guys.

1. The practical theory of relativity - Those guys are really "nothing guys". They just look like "nothing guys" because they are with these awe"some" women!
and usually, if you like the girl, you are better off believing that she made a wrong choice!
2. An analogy I use - "Just because their is a goalkeeper on the goalpost, that does not mean you stop shooting at the goal" and "Just because you are a goalkeeper, that does not mean you cannot score goals"
3. Another MBA quip - Everyone who graduates out of the IIMs in this country, wants to replace the CEO of his company. Their hopes are high, but hopes from them... low! (Unhe badi umeed hoti hai, lekin unse.. badi kam!)
4. Norman Vincent Peale - with due apologies to all his lovers.. all those who have seen small town book shops at the bus-stations lined up with titles like "Dont say yes when you want to say no", "You can be a winner" and blah and bah.. This Phoebe-ism is definitely inspired by that. I mean, come on! There are these losers going out with these babes! But they are not complete losers like Chandler ;) They have cars, money, or girlfriends who think with something that's kinda below the knees.
5. A phrase I love - Night is always darkest before the dawn.

and

Nothing is something, and the not the lack of everything!

Friends Series (1) : I didnt have anything on that topic

2007-02-25T11:28:00.000-08:00

I just realized that in my friend circle (especially the IIMB one), a lot of us have this habit of cracking one liners from friend. And I thought I should pay homage to Friends through this episodic writing on some of the most amazing one-liners I've seen people pick.

Phoebe has a knack of cracking phenomenally universally applicable statements like this one -

I didn't have anything on that topic, so I went another way. (Context: Season 1 - Ep. 6 -The One With the Butt.... Chandler narrating the story of his date with the Italian girl Aurora who is married to Rick and has another boyfriend Ethan and the "friends" are discussing about the uncomfortable feeling around going out with someone who is going out with someone else. Joey cracks the landmark - When I'm with a woman, I need to know that I'm going out with more people than she is )

What does that remind me of?

1. ACP - Arbit Class Participation - a phenomenon that every MBA has definitely been through, and especially in courses where faculty members/professors have additional weightage for participating in class discussions. People come up with such garbage CP as "In the multidimensional and prospective interest of the economy, its important for organizations to add value to the pet allowance of the third strata of economically imprudent and strategically deprived dogs sleeping in the garbage cans of south mumbai." (Background questions could have been something as simple as "Do you think Maneka Gandhi and her animal activism is the way to go?"
This ACP reminds me 2 more things - First, A2Z CP where people had explanations of A to Z of CP, e.g. BCP - before class participation, CCP- creative class participation, DCP - Desperate class participation and so on.
And the second was bullCP - where backbenchers would float 5 random keywords which had to combined in a single participation - whoever does that successfully, gets to float the next set of keywords. Example - Intoxicating, Aliens, Titan, Paradigm Shift, Professor - There are organizations known to have made paradigm shifts in their strategy without realizing any benefit because a bad strategy could make a customer feel like an alien, say something like customers perceiving Titan not as a brand of watches but as a company that is disposing intoxicating wastes in space simply because they agreed to a professor's suggestion of coming up with a brand called Titan WaistLine. Beat that!

2. Wheel of Fortune - and hence, Shilpa. I have associated WoF with a random turn of wheel leading to a random topic on which someone asks questions, etc. Shilpa has a knack for that - On a table where strong discussions on credit cards is happening, she can end up asking a question like - who killed Lala Lajpat Rai.

3. The way people live their life - like defeated warriors. I could not change the tide of things, so I decided to do something else. I tried a couple of times, but realized that I cant change this. So I decided to do something else.

4. The need to be counted- A lot of people have this problem. I have that. I feel a little left out when I dont have anything to say on a topic. Either I try to paraphrase. Or, I go back to the drawing board and learn something new. But most of the people have an urge to be counted.

There are so many things that you can read in this ...

Movie Review: Black Friday (2007)

2007-02-19T20:44:00.001-08:00

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind – Mahatma Gandhi

I watched the censored version of Black Friday a couple of days back. I have been thinking of why it was banned. It was said that it will bias public opinion in favor of the charge-sheeted offenders. Will it?

Since eternity, all wars/battles have been master minded by some and executed by several others. These several others are made to believe that they are fighting for a cause. That the cause is greatest cause one can fight for. At times, its revenge for the brotherhood, at other occasions, it might be a struggle for existence and survival. But the cause is always fair. Wars shall cease to exist if people believed in Gandhigiri – someone slaps you on one cheek, offer him the other cheek for slapping. Keep doing it till he is tired, confused, and shocked out of his wits and that's precisely when his thinking becomes clear. That's when he would apologize and seek mercy.

Does that mean once my sanity is restored, I should justify the reasons for the fight and the motives of the offender? Hmmm… I don't quite think so.

Black Friday is a very well researched and well made movie(?). I would rather classify it as a documentary. Or, the serialization of history as shown on History Channel. The bottomline remains – it's a great movie.

But that does not take anything away from the star-cast full of enraged, confused, frustrated, cheated, lost common people.

Pawan comes up with a truly superlative performance. And Kay Kay comes up with another good restrained and underplayed performance. All the other supporting actors have done justice to their role.

The movie has its comic real life moments as well. Imtiyaaz Ghavate chase which goes on for a long time, and the policeman eventually saying "Ae Imtiyaaz! Yaar ruk ja yaar!" and the shot where a hungry Kay Kay peels off a banana to eat and a hungry constable walks in.

The screenplay is realistic and gripping. The editing is slick and fast paced. Cinematography is just what it should be – scratchy, real, and not with a lot of jazz. The real footage shown from the then Newstrack videos adds the element of nostalgia.

Music – Indian Ocean don't need a mention. Bandeh is the probably the pick of the lot. But its an album you can keep for the keeps.

Vote- Watch it. Unless you are a pig headed religious captain who cannot absorb reality the way it is. It's a must watch.

Movie review: Eklavya - The Royal Guard

2007-02-16T20:20:00.000-08:00

How many times have you had a great meal followed by a bad dessert? Or a lot of drinks and a great feeling before you puked and destroyed it all? Or, a JJWS kinda feeling where someone pulls that final gear and beats you in the race just when you thought you had won it?

The movie is a pretty good one, but for one haunting memory of the India-SriLanka one day match (the second ODI of the recent series). Everything cruises on so smoothly that you forget that it’s a contest. You are ready to give India a thumbs up on their performance. And suddenly, they lose the match! Eklavya is just that. A great movie where Vidhu Vinod Chopra just decided to go bollywood in the end and come up with a very very very typical climax.

Eklavya – Amitabh, is Eklavya’s movie. Just that Amitabh is the Lord Krishna of Bollywood. Movies, Media, Scripts, Characters, Stories are all centered around him. And he never disappoints. Saif Ali Khan stands tall in front of Amitabh, and that speaks volumes about his performance. Amitabh and Saif are the Maharaja Mac and Coke of this happy meal. And there are plenty of tiny little French fries.

Story, Screenplay, Dialogues, Cinematography are the big plusses. Obviously, in addition to the performances of the stars. Characterization is the biggest strength of this movie. Eklavya’s love for tradition and his innermost conflicts are well portrayed. All the characters – Harshvardhan(Saif) as the heir apparent who realizes his true origins after his mother’s (Sharmila) death. Rana (Boman) and his anger at realizing that his royal palace guard is the father of his children. Nandini (Raima) as the mentally retarded daughter and her joys and fears. Pannulal (Sanjay Dutt) as the low caste DSP is good in his cameo. Rajjo (Vidya) as the poor-girl-love-interest of Harsh & Jyotivardhan (Jackie)- the deprived brother of Rana – these two could have been built better. But considering that the movie is really about Eklavya only, creating these strong profiles is a big achievement.

The element of suspense as the drama unfolds is quite intriguing. It’s a well tightened 2 hour movie, implying no embarrassing song and dance sequences.

Movie does not have a consistent pace – it varies with different stages of the movie. The average movie goer will be disappointed at times. And the yash choprization of the climax where everything falls together is the worst thing about the movie.

And the last big take home – a Trailer of Munnabhai chale America in the intermission

Wow with Windows Vista and Tata Indicom

2007-02-15T07:05:00.000-08:00

I had not quite liked the WOW advertising Windows vista folks had done with Coffe day tie-up.

But here I am sitting at the MUmbai Airport, and suddenly the usually paid Tata Indicom Wi-Fi Service is being offered free by WOW. Catch - you have to download and view a demo which takes about 15-20 seconds. Takes you through some catchy sections and walks you through the features. Even though you are in a hurry to get through the demo, you end up walking into their hands and notice a few nice features like instant network, 3D flip windows, instant search, etc.

But the baseline marketing problem - how do you catch the attention of a customer effectively, has been answered pretty effectively! Hit the pain point (need to be connected) of a user segment (corporate travellers/ with wi-fi enabled laptops) at a location where they need it (airports in India- minimal connectivity, high idle time if you reach in time). Bingo!

The interesting bit would be -
1. given that the websites visited via this gateway is an information that would (hopefully) be available with Tata Indicom, and can be snapped by WOW. Can they effectively use this data?
2. More simply, whoever registers with this access code, also ends up providing an email id (maybe a personal one). Here, you are talking about people who have already seen a demo of the product. Can you think of the next stage marketing strategy for these guys?

(Ticket)less amusement

2007-02-13T20:01:00.000-08:00

here.. another proof that Lalooo gets as much media attention as Ash-Abhishek

However, the most interesting part of the coverage is 3-4 versions of the same incident by different people, all closely related to the event!

Frontrunner Paradox

2007-02-12T22:47:00.001-08:00

Nice post by Seth.

The frontrunner paradox is not something new. However, from a totally experiential perspective.. I have seen the big become bigger with consummate ease. Small becoming big is news item, yes. but big becoming bigger is the most obvious thing to happen!

The big question is - are the front runners, who more often than not, lose (as per Seth), lose so hard that they cant win again? Or, is it a vicious cycle of winning and losing?

Indian Blog Awards!

2007-02-12T19:57:00.001-08:00

... are on here

Lets vote for the GreatBongs and the India Uncuts or whoever you guys support.

I gave in to Bong's plea for the most humorous blog award!

Vodafone wins the race

2007-02-12T04:01:00.001-08:00

Valued at $19bn, hutch gets sold to Vodafone (link) - average valuation of every hutch customer is $778, and Airtel is $900 plus! :)

Reminds me of the INR1.8MM annual salary that MBAs were getting after graduating from IIMs back in 2001. And when I graduated, I had a feeling that I belong to the bottom 1 percentile of salaries! :) .. This time, I feel like the top 1 percentile! I knew I wanted to go up.. but certainly not here!

Update: Salam-e-ishq

2007-02-08T20:02:00.000-08:00

Great Bong writes this hilarious piece on salam-e-ishq here

If only we were like Dhritrashtra's Sanjay.. we would not have to go through the torture of going to a theatre to write all this!

Intimidating Gootube

2007-02-08T19:29:00.000-08:00

Interesting entry from blog maverick -GooTube's Smart!

Not that I am much of a moral policeman on copyright infringement, but it seems right to be on the right side of things. :)

Movie Review: Parzania

2007-02-06T18:55:00.000-08:00

I usually take pride in myself as being someone who does not get emotionally attached to a movie and/or get affected/disturbed by a movie, even though I am a big movie buff. The last movie that seriously got me depressed was “The Passion Of The Christ”. Last night, Parzania did end up affecting me a lot. (The tagline is justified - Heaven and Hell on Earth)

For a very long moment after the movie was over, noticing that I was still at a loss of words, I realized my true emotions. I was ashamed. For once, I was ashamed. Of being in a country where such vandalism happens. And goes unpunished. Religious fanaticism and its monstrous manifestation. How I hate the politics of this country (not better or worse than a multitude of other countries) for reducing the common man to a petty existence. Where the cheapest thing on the street is someone’s life. When will we start appreciating the value of people’s life? I can’t forget the communal tension on 1991-92 when some people decided that it was high time the religious atrocities of 15th and 16th centuries be avenged.

Let people live in peace. Who wants to sit in a classroom fearing the guy sitting a couple of chairs away from him? Think of the poor kid who might end up being a religious minority in that room.

Coming back to the "movie" - It’s a very well made movie (purely speaking in movie terms). While the first 25-30 minutes seem a little slow, the performances are absolutely top notch. Sarika, who in her own era, seemed to be meant more for B-class movies, has come up with a spectacular act. In the testimony scene, she just blows you apart. I can write one more time about how great an actor Naseerudin Shah is. The realization, the agony and the futility of existence – all in one scene, I can’t really think of someone who could have pulled it off with such consummate ease. The other artists have played their part very nicely. But the movie hinges on Naseer and Sarika, their little daughter (Dilshaad) and the boy (Parzan)-of Dhara's "jalebiiii" fame!

The background score makes you cringe. There are times when you think that a hindi movie with English subtitles who have been more effective. Local sentiments in a local language. But that does not take anything away from the movie! It’s a must watch for everyone.

Let me leave you readers with a question – If killing avenges, what’s your plan B? Sooner or later, someone’s gonna get you!

Rating - 9 out of 10. Maybe 10.

Some other views on the Parzania-Gujarat controversy and Parzania as a movie

Bollywood Gupshup - State of Gujarat has managed to score another ace with this moronic act of banning the movie.

Rediff

Amit Goyal-Wordpress

Link to other reviews from TOI, Mid-day et al.

Rajdeep Sardesai on Modi(y)s - The man who made a fortune and the man who lost a son

Movie Review: Salaam-E-Ishq

2007-02-02T03:10:00.000-08:00

Sili Sili Jalti Raaton Mein
Jalta hoon main barsaton mein
Bhiga bhiga har pal yaadon mein
Dil kya kare

Kuch bhi kare, par ye movie na dekhe! (Whatever you do, please don’t watch this movie!). Serious advice from a movie lover.

A bad rip off Love Actually, hamming stories, meaningless editing, a lot of average performances, and wrongly placed focus. That’s what this movie is.

Basic mathematics suggests that six couples in a movie would mean 30 minutes per couple in a 3 hour long movie. 10 minutes for everyones background, 10 for setting up the love story, and another 10 minutes for the culmination, emotion, drama, et al! Is that enough. Well, it might have been. But… But I forgot to mention that 5 minutes per couple should be dedicated to Songs. Where would bollywood be without all this song and dance drama! Worse still, there are some couples who should not have, have got 30mins plus! And those who shouldn’t have, have got less than 30 mins in the movie.

Priyanka Chopra and Salman Khan- The first and the worst couple of the movie are the lousiest.
Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla – the golden oldies have put in a good show, but for a worthless script.
Akshay Khanna and Ayesha Takia- Akshay is believable as the young “I-don’t-want-to-commit” dude representing the youth of this country. Ayesha has been wasted
Sohail Khan and Isha Kopikkar –I don’t know why they are there. Even though they are funny, but the director could have done away with the 5 minutes of wasted footage on this deprived couple.
Govinda and the foreigner girl – The best couple of the movie. Govinda is not quite back to where he was, but he still is the best act in the movie. And the girl doesn’t disappoint a lot.
John Abraham and Vidya Balan – decent, but useless. They keep crying for 70% of their presence in the movie. But the good part is, the climax of their story is not about everything falling into place. They just decide to make do with whatever they have!

Best thing about the movie – the music. Title song, Dil kya kare are the winners so far. But my favorite is Kailash Kher’s Ya Rabba. Another song where this amazing singer showcases his talent!

Rating - 3 on a scale of 10.

Sitemeters and my blog

2007-02-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I discovered a lot about sitemeters. While the regular blogger, I am sure, knows a lot about them, for me it was a new thing to understand where all my page visits have been from, and for what.

The most interesting things –

I realized that I had a very recent visitor from Australia!

I also realized that a lot of the visitors had come to the site looking for a review of Bhagam Bhaag! That, I think, was the most blatant lie I had written on my blog to have a bit of fun. A big sorry to Anupam and a whole lot of other people who might have watched the move based on my review. Bhagam Bhaag, let me correct, is one of the worst movies I had seen around that time! ;)

A lot of the visits to my blog had originated from my orkut profile and some of the floating emails that might have had my blog address in my email signature.

One thing however, that the blogs cant help with is the US IP addresses that I lot of PCs in Indian IT companies have. Probably because they are on a VPN and stuff! I don't understand that side.

And yeah, there is a place called Alipur in Delhi, India.

Fishes, Turtles n Whales

2007-01-31T22:04:00.001-08:00

Fishes, Turtles n Whales
Originally uploaded by dingydas.

Pics from my trip to Shedd Aquarium (Chicago). You can always question

- WHY AM I POSTING THEM HERE?

Well.. Just like that.. Or, its my "not just birds need be beautiful"

counter to my Bharatpur trip!

On the road, who do I blame?

2007-01-31T21:17:00.000-08:00

Came across this interesting read sent by a friend! I am not really subscribing to the doomsday prophecy here, but the first couple of paras do strike a chord with me!

While questioning someone's eligibility to give advice, I can also advocate the sheer objectivity with which an outsider adds perspective. While it may not be possible to avoid the nails when you are driving at a breakneck speed, the old age maxim tells you that speed thrills, but kills. The question is - do you want to blame the road? or do you want to blame the nails? OR, are you better off questioning your style of driving?

Forwarded by Dhaval Dalal -

Avoiding Nails On The Road

Many years ago, when I was barely out of college, I knew a teenager named Bhola who worked as an assistant at a roadside tyre puncture repair shop. I didn't have much in common with him so it was interesting to have a chat with him whenever I would go to that shop to get my scooter's tyres patched up. And since the worn-out rubber of my second-hand scooter seemed to developed holes almost spontaneously, I used to meet him quite often.
One day, as he fished around inside my scooter's rear tyre for the nail that had just slashed the tube to ribbons, Bhola told me that the reason people got punctures was that they didn't know how to drive. He said that all one had to do was to look at the road carefully while driving and then swerve whenever one spotted a nail. Now, I was such an inexperienced driver at the time that for a moment I actually took this statement at face value and started wondering that why, in fact, did everyone not do this.
And then realisation dawned. Actually, Bhola didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Not only had he never driven a scooter or a car, he had probably never even ridden any vehicle except a bus. He really had no idea at all that it was humanly impossible to do what he was describing. Bhola had observed activities that he had never performed. He had then formed a theory and was now dispensing supposedly practical advice based on that theory. It was almost as if he was preparing for a career in consulting.
But if you think about it, all of us who have anything to do with equity investing, either professionally or as investors, are Bholas today. We've never been in the situation that we are now, and we all think that we know what to do based on some theory that we have. Consider the situation objectively. India's economy is growing like it has never done. There is an optimism in the air the like of which none of us have ever experienced. The stock market is at an all time high and this all time high is not a trivial one. The BSE Sensex is now is almost three hundred per cent higher than the levels at which it has spent a majority of the last decade. Moreover, not only is it at such a high, it has gotten there through a journey of ups and downs that has a most solid, believable and sustainable ring to it. A huge mass of people have made an enormous amount of money through equity investing over the last four years. On the other hand, some of the dark clouds that are gathering are also the kind that we have never seen.
In balance, this seems like a good time to make one's investments grow but I think we should all sit down and admit that we are in a profoundly Bhola-like situation. We are driving down a strange and wonderful road where we've never been before and it seems to make more sense to stay focused on the horizon than to try and look for nails on the road. You see, since we are anyway going too fast to be able to swerve in time to avoid the nail, it's probably better to cover as much distance as we can before the inevitable puncture happens.

of Gurus.. Ganguly.. and Gunners… isn’t this GGGGGGGGGood

2007-01-22T19:31:00.000-08:00

Over the last week, I witnessed a 3G performance.

Abhishek Bachan, after getting completely washed out by Hrithik Roshan in Dhoom 2 (the movie itself being a washout is a different story altogether), marks his finest performance till date as Guru – A Villager! A Visionary!! A Winner!!! The Dhirubhai Ambani modeled story of Gurukant Desai is a fine portrayal of human characters. Guru does get to see a good performance by the good ol’ Mithunda of Gunda and Mrigya fame as well.

Ganguly, in a different setting, was marking another fine comeback. After being written off by all TDHs, Ganguly decide to take the sword to the WI attack. It was a fine display interspersed with a six that only he can hit (dancing down the wicket, sailing over the long on/off boundary with an effortless precision), some arrogant strokemaking and a sad ending (2 runs short of a century). He should stop focusing on Dada ads, and concentrate on Gadha, I mean, Ganguly ads.

Gunners, on the other hand, took ManU down. Three strokes off three fine crosses helping ace scorers find the net (Henry, v.Persie and Rooney). The game was not quite up there considering the 22 dancing daisies adorning the field. But then, ever since Henry has come back from injury, Arsenal too have started showing a steady improvement and a lot of faith in their abilities.

What does it all tell you? That this week, I will worship Lord Ganesha, eat Good/Gult food, listen to GnR, or, The Grateful Dead, talk like Gulshan Grover, wear Green shirts. And yeah, I will rename myself GAmit Das. On second thoughts, Amit Gas sounds better.

GAS – An MBA! A Consultant!! A GasBag!!!

Bye Bye Birdie

2007-01-09T04:51:00.000-08:00

Goodbye Current Job!. My home close to home for 2 years. :) It takes a lot to drag yourself out of office here to go home.

A lot of silence at home to continue with the unfinished work
A lot of angry family members at home.
A lot of anger/frustration/diffidence.
A lot of energy to have some still left for driving back home.

Before I go - some "quick n dirty comments" about the "nature of the beast" which is "still evolving" in a "high growth environment"

The upside - the long hours mean that you end up making a lot of good friends. Your partners in crime, your darlings in distress!

The clincher- Inductees are a Smart bunch of buggers. You can take a smart bugger out of Inductis, but you cannot take smartness out of Inductis buggers. That probably is the single biggest reason why it took me 2 years to say No!

The frills - The IT security policy is still not fool-proof. :) So, at any point in time, LAN has a lot of movies, cartoons and music!

The Ayes - its interesting work!

The Nayes - its too much of work!!

The irritants - Too much confusion!

The downside - Its a small company wanting to become a big company. So it adopted the big company culture while they were still too small to act big.

Future.. remains futuristic.. 'ere I come!

For Whom The (CAT) Bell Tolls

2007-01-02T23:27:00.000-08:00

Every year, a couple of lakhs of students participate in the annual festival known as CAT (Common Admission Test). How the deities look upon your performance decides which temple you get to go to, that is, for 2 years of penance!

Why? Because you think its taking you closer to the heavens- IIMs.

Today, the list of god's own children came out! Some expected successes, some disappointments, some who are great but not godly enough.

The funny thing is - nobody realizes that to be a God, you can either be a God or you can create your own religion!

All the best folks!

Perchance he for whom this bell tolls,
may be so ill,
as that he knows not it tolls for him;
and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am,
as that they who are about me and see my state
may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that.

...

God employs several translators;

some pieces are translated by age,

some by sickness,

some by war,

some by justice;

but God's hand is in every translation,

and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves

again for that library

where every book shall lie open to one another

...

Any man's death diminishes me,

because I am involved in mankind;

and therefore never send to know

for whom the bell tolls;

it tolls for thee.

(John Donne)

Pictures from My Trip to Ghana Bird Sanctuary

2006-12-31T00:12:00.000-08:00

My sentiments after I came back (Yaar ... Ullu Bana Diya!!)

A Kingfisher!!

Herd of Spotted Deer

A stork?

A crane??

A heritage site - Keoladeo National Park

Golden Duck- Find of the day!! Indian team is in love with them ! :)

Oh Media Media! Where art thou?

2006-12-24T10:19:00.000-08:00

Two interesting news items... here and here.

While 1. reminds of some systemic deficiencies in the way Media is evolving in our country

2. reminds me of Manusmriti -which had prescribed fines for such behavior. Read the history section here

I guess its time we have some changes here! Media - wake up! You can play a constructive role in this country..

Movie Review: Bhagam Bhaag

2006-12-24T09:49:00.000-08:00

What I am going to write is going to be nothing short of blasphemy. But let me do it.

I was actually scared of watching this movie. But then, I was the one who got 15 people together, and convinced them to watch this movie. So, even after hearing/reading the reviews that came out during the day, I could not pull out!

Those uncertain steps were certainly not needed. The movie is actually a laugh riot! And as the name suggests (it would means – Utter Chaos! Or Run-Run! Or something like that), the movie should be a runaway success!

The movie has a proven comical duo – Paresh Rawal and Akshay Kumar. And Priyadarshan has pulled in the No.1 Comedian – Govinda as well. The comic timing, as expected, is brilliant. Paresh Rawal, as usual, keeps the story together as “Sethji”. Govinda looks old and a little fatigued, but he still is doing what he does best. Meaningless gabs and witty gags. Akshay Kumar must be thinking – Why the hell did I waste so many precious years trying to kick people around in jeans and full sleeved t-shirts.
Bottomline – the movie rocks! Must watch, irrespective of what the serious critiques tell you. There are times when meaninglessness is shown in an amazingly funny way. And that’s what bhagam-bhaag is all about

Now, I wouldn’t ever become a critique worth my money if I don’t tell you the downers –

Music definitely is one of them. The “Signal” song is pretty much the draw of the lot. The other songs don’t quite measure up.
Lara Dutta looks pretty as ever, though her role and character could have been defined slightly better. But then, she would have looked lost when sharing the frame with three of the best comical actors of modern times.
And lastly, the end-sequence could have been made a little more normal. This time, Priyadarshan has overdone it!

Oops – why is my review a blasphemy? Well, I don’t think I have too many people out there giving out positive and raving reviews about the movie! But then, aren’t we a democratic country?

The Bombay theory of Peasants.. Part 2

2006-12-21T08:12:00.000-08:00

3. Queuing Theory

©Sathish Krishnan

In Mumbai, people are so used to standing in queues, that they queue up for going to loo at their own homes!

Being in touch, is it? ;)

Trivia : Magical Match of 1983

2006-12-20T10:13:00.000-08:00

Today, I discovered a trivia about one of the greatest innings in ODI Cricket, and definitely the bravest innings of Indian Cricketing history. I am talking about the 175 Not Out innings played by Kapil Dev against Zimbabwe way back in 1983.

The trivia that I am talking about is that "This" was the "FIRST" Indian ODI Century EVER! Beat that! The first and most probably, the greatest! India were reduced to 17/5 , and one of the finest allrounder of all times did not just produce a fine innings, he broke a barrier that had existed since 1974 (when India played its first ODI)

Another interesting trivia about this innings - Exactly 100 runs were scored in boundaries (16 4s and 6 6s). :)

This is one match for which none of the media channels has got any video footage.

Statistically, in this match, Kapil scored more than 65% of the runs scored by the Indian team, while facing 38% of the deliveries. Impressive, Huh?

Kapil also took the last wicket of Zimb innings (John Traicos) to seal the match for India.

And a couple of matches down the line, he did take one of the most memorable catches (Of SIR Viv Richards, running backwards) for Indian cricket.

History is truly made of magical stuff!

The Bombay theory of Peasants.. Part 1

2006-12-13T10:37:00.000-08:00

1. You are as good as your deodorant
©Amit Das, Prabhat Prabhakar

Local trains – the lifeline of Mumbai, the highest form of proof Darwin could have offered for his Theory of Origin of Species and Survival of the fittest. Mumbai local follows all rules of civilizations, with every individual standing on the platform being marginally better off than a lactobacillus bacteria in a glass of milk. With innocent people from down-south (like, Phanimitra) not being able to board a churchgate local at 8:30AM from Kandivli station in first three attempts. With people like Ranga afraid of boarding one, just in case their laptop bags are not able to cope up with the peer (or, is it sheer?) pressure!

A. In this Mumbai local, when you are holding on to the metal jacks while balancing yourself in an inhumanly crowded train, the only thing that can save you is either your deodorant, or the deodorant of your neighbor. But then, the neighbor has a right to say – “kya re? bot shaana samjha kya apne ko? Apna soongh, main tere liye scent maara kya?” (What’s your problem mate! You think you’re too smart or something? Smell your own. You think I have perfumed myself for you?).

B. A related theory is that there are three kinds of people in Mumbai local – Idiots (who do not use deodorants and smell their own), Educated (who use deodorants and smell their own) and Wise-Men(who do no use deodorants, but smell the educated deodorant users). What differentiates the wise-men from the idiots is the skill of identifying educated ones!

C. And the final one – The first class and second class compartments in Mumbai Local. The only difference is in the quality of deodorants used. Not a single genius has been able to win the spot the “two” differences” contest!

“Putting your nose in other people’s matter!” isn’t right? Isn’t that what we were taught?

2. In every city I work for four months for the government. But Mumbai is different.
©Sathish Krishnan

In Mumbai, you work for four months for the government, and another four months for your landlord. The remaining four months, you work for yourself and your family.

Applicable to the 30% bracket guys, I often wonder if despite its amazingly conked workplace, all the banks in Mumbai have a low attrition rate only because these banks are ready to pay-up the 5Lakhs deposit needed to get flats in good localities in Mumbai.

There is more.. But, as Mumbaikars would have you believe - there is a charm in mumbai local. It’s the lifeline of Mumbai

Dekh tere sansaar ki haalat....

2006-12-06T23:08:00.000-08:00

Just got this forward from a friend. Was reminded of my incomplete discussion with Shivani (I don't introduce Shivani as Gullu's wife anymore!) J

The conversation was around how much information there actually is with the intelligence agencies in India. About terrorists, terrorism, blasts, and what nots. And if there is so much information, as we think there is, why do such incidents happen?

While reading the forward below, the only thought that came to my mind was – Maybe a lot of these people who do not act on the information they have, are reminded of their kids, and of their bread-earner status! Maybe, media would not give their kids the status of "Prince" and cover her for the next 3 days. Maybe, no channel would agree to finance their studies for a lifetime.

Life, sure, has a saracastically funny side to it!

******

The body of Major Manish Pitambare, who was shot dead at Anantnag, was cremated with full military honours at Thane on Wednesday

On Tuesday a news swept across all the news channels 'Sanjay Datt relieved by the court'. 'Sirf Munna Not a bhai' '13 saal ka vanvaas khatam' 'alhough found guilty for possession of armory, Sanjay can breath sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are withdrawn'

And then many experts like Salman khan saying 'He is a good person. We knew he will come out clean' Mr. Big B 'Datt family and our family have relations for years he's a good kid. He is like elder brother to abhishek'. His sister priya Datt 'we can sleep well tonight…it's a great relief'

In other news, Parliament was mad at Indian team for performing bad; Greg chapel said something …..; Bomb scare in gorakhpoor express; and Shah Rukh Khan replaces Big B in KBC and Sonia asked PM to consider reducing petroleum prices (I wonder who's the PM …anyways that is not the topic so leave it…) But most of the emphasis was given on Sanjay Datt's "phoenix like" comeback from the ashes of terrorist charges.

Surfing through the channels, one news on BBC startled me, it read, Hisbul Mujahidin's Most wanted terrorist 'Sohel Faisal' killed in anantnag, India. Indian Major leading the operation lost his life in the process. Four others are injured.

It was past midnight, I started visiting the Indian channels, the ones who are 'Sabse TEZ', but Sanjubaba was still ruling. They were telling How Sanjubaba pleaded to the court saying 'I am the sole bread earner for my family' 'I have a daughter who is studying in US who will look after her'. And then they showed how sanjubaba was not wearing his lucky blue shirt while he was hearing the verdict. Also how he went to every temple and prayed for last some months. A suspect in Mumbai bomb blasts, convicted under armory act…..was being made into a hero.

Sure Sanjubaba has a daughter; sure sanjubaba did not do any terrorist thing as in bombing some place or hijacking an airplane etc. Possessing an AK47 is considered too elementary in terrorist community and also one who possesses an AK47 has a right to possess a pistol so that again is not such a big crime; Sure sanjubaba went to all the temples; Sure he did a lot of gandhigiri but then, people please read on.

Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about the terrorists' whereabouts. Wasting no time he attacked the camp killed the Hisbul mujahidin's suprimo and in the process lost his life. To the bullets fired from an AK47

He has a wife and a daughter (just like sanjubaba), age..18 months.

Major Manish never said 'I have a daughter' before he took the decision to attack the terrorist hide out in the darkest of nights?

He never thought about having a family and he being the bread earner

No news channel covered this since they were too busy hyping a former drug addict, an actor in real and reel life, a suspect who's linked to bomb blasts which killed hundreds. Their aim was to show how he defied the TADA charges and they were so successful that his conviction in possession of armory had no meaning. They also concluded that his parents in heaven must be happy and proud of him

Parents of Major Pitambare are still on this earth and they have to live rest of their lives without their beloved son. His daughter won't ever see her papa again.

Definition of a Star has changed Major it really has. So sanjubaba always has a gun in every one of his movies then in real life if he has an AK47 then what's the big deal;

Even if one of the bullets from one of such AK47's took a Real Star's life…..

rang de basanti aayi thi tab bhi log aisehich kuch toh bolein they…

Finally Sir, to my generation there is no greater hero than one who laid his life in the name of this great nation. Hence Sir, I salute you. You are the real Star, Vande mataram.

(Forwarded by Nitin Sood)

Another Loss! Whoz the Boss?

2006-11-29T12:10:00.000-08:00

Third ODI against South Africa in the current series. Back to Back losses. Extremely pathetic batting display. Irfan Pathan top scored with 47. Another comprehensive victory for SA.

I was trying to look at the Indian lineup for this match. We had Jaffer, Sehwag, Tendulkar, Kaif, Dinesh Karthik, Dhoni, Pathan, Agarkar, Sreesanth , Kumble and Zahir Khan.

One close look will tell you that we went in with four bowlers who can hardly bat, one bowler who is an aspiring allrounder, 2 wicket keepers and 4 out of form batsmen! Would I call that a winning combination? I have my reservations!

Lets question this lot a bit.

Sehwag has been out of sorts (oops, shots!) for quite some time. Like so many great Indian stars, there are a couple of shots from him that show some promise and glimpses of old time sorcery , but that is just an eyewash. The real thing is the nervous energy and reckless attitude that will become his undoing in the future!

Jaffer.. yippee!! Another example of flashing when its just not required. How many times have we seen that? I have lost count. You play a few nice drivers. And then there is a ball swinging away from you outside the off stump. You are supposed to be a good batsman with a good temperament. But alas! Jesus couldn't stop you from being led into the temptation!

Tendulkar – Cricinfo tells me that Pollock got him for the 9^th time. Only Chaminda Vaas has managed to do it so many times. Story – edgy beginner, Tendulkar manages to pass one to the keeper/slips a bit too often against these two! I want to criticise him for being out of touch and getting out like that. But my respect for the master stops me!

Surprisingly, Kaif did not hole out. He did not get bowled out. He did the most unexpected thing of him. He got himself run out!

All these four top order guys are in absolutely topless form. You can't make a blockbuster when the lead actors of your movie want to play only a guest appearance!

I don't want to talk about the brave Indian batting tail, which seldom does the job its supposed to do (containing the batsmen, that is). But I do want to wonder about Karthik's place in the team! Wasn't he a keeper who could bat a bit? Do we really think he is better than Laxman in batting? Whats this world coming to? Are the selectors morons?

Damn it! We deserve to lose, with brains like that! Its surprising that we don't stop playing international cricket for a couple of years! At least , stop playing cricket in other countries. We are good ol momma's boys. We like playing in our backyard! Are the selectors listening?

Muse Rues

2006-11-28T13:27:00.000-08:00

Part I

The poet in me
Woke up
This fine morning
As she called my name.........
Oh lord!
Why aren't mornings
Always the same...................

Part II

One man's destiny
Attached to another...
Feather by feather...
Makes me fly....
This endless joy
Of you being you
And you being the one...
Whats so special
That drives me insane......
Takes me away
From things so mundane.....
Why isn't everyone
Sooooo like you
Why ain't the sky
Always blue................

One Day In The Life Of An Estranged Consultant

2006-11-18T10:16:00.000-08:00

It's a number I have seen in so many places.

The morning sings about a story of hopes. I look at the morning sun. I think of her. How she makes it all look brighter. Brighter than sunshine.

I turn back. I look at the trivialities of life. And the essentials. I look at people around me. I know that the only meaning of sunshine is that the day has begun. I need to be up and about. I need to go through the chores.

I look back at the sunshine again. I long for it.

You with me?

The day walks by. The evening begins. In between all this, I lose a bit more of myself. Just trying to keep track of all that I have done in the infinte. Yeah. That's what the day looks like. A struggle to count till infinity.

Why aren't the numbers matching?

The night is an ordeal. To make things fall in place. To make the different numbers match. To storyboard another life. To live for happy endings. To create opportunities within happy endings. Continuity is essential.

Lets pack!

Yeah. Just hope that the morning does not begin the way this night has ended. Its dark. No-one's out there. You want a hopeful morning, not a morose night. Nobody likes dropping shoulders and falling eyelids. You look drunk?

Dormant Ambitions Make A Heady & Potent Cocktail

A short story : Lets sleep over it

2006-10-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

I live alone. I sleep in a messy little corner of my room. Or, is it an apartment? Are there other rooms? I think there are. It seems like yesterday. There were a couple of people in the other room fighting with each other. Some minor squabble , I remember. They don't seem to be fighting anymore. They seem to be debating. About rights, duties, Karma, and Dharma! Someone switched on the TV

You fill up my senses

Like a night in the darkness….

I live alone. I lie down for a bit of rest on the bed that I cleaned up just now. I cannot sleep on messy beds with unclean bed-sheets. This is my sweet little one-bedroom apartment. Me , myself, and my poochooo. Poochooo? My teddy bear! Let me call up someone. Or, maybe pick up that MB I have been thinking of reading. Where's my iPOD?

You say it best…

When you say nothing at all…

We live together. It's a 2-bedroom apartment. We haven't been to the other room in the last three months . Its meant for our guests. But both of us have hardly spent anytime at home. I work till long past midnight. Me too! We haven't had guests. We haven't had time to have guests. It's a weekend. We manage to somehow spend sometime together on weekends. A few hours? The saving grace! I like candlelight dinners. Someday, you would cook me a special dinner at home. And I would set the table, near the red colored curtains. For the large glass windows that overlook the garden. And there will be candlelight.

Kabhi yun bhi aa, meri aankh mein..

Ki meri nazar ko khabar na ho

Mujhe ek raat nawaaz de

Magar uske baad sahar na ho...

(Let there be that moment, when you walk into my dreams, so sweetly that I dont even notice

I just want that one night, but let there be no dawn to that night of my dreams!)

I am sleepy!

CSD - Goes Public

2006-10-27T03:39:00.000-07:00

Noticed Today!! Cars from CSD (for the uninitiated, its Canteen Stores Department (CSD) of the Indian Armed Forces - meant to provide the warriors of the nation some subsidized items). Only those who have served in the India Armed forces are allowed to buy from CSDs

I was just wondering if the uptight - stiff collared- we-can't-do-nothin'-wrong because we-are-so-righteous army-men take offense to this poster? Hmmm... still wondering....

Ooh Aah India.. Aa Yaa India...

2006-10-26T00:30:00.000-07:00

Was watching the pre-match coverage on Max.

There was this (second) good looking babe (Mandira Bedi is the first) Shonali trying to give some updates from the stadium - and here is the what I heard

"There is an old lady standing outside the stadium and she has a lot of tickets in her waistpack or something.. She is selling Rs.150 tickets for 300, 300 tickets for 650 and so on.. The lady took a loan to buy these tickets. Moreover, now, there are money lenders and blah coming into the equation."

Talk about entrepreneurial spirit!

Triveni

2006-10-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

Triveni - a form of short poetry where the (vocal) meter should be maintained and the third line creates the effect that the first two lines refer to (but in an unobtrusive manner)!

Highly inspired by Gulzar's works - and posted under the Triveni thread on Gulzar community (Orkut) - these are some of the trivenis written by me -

kashish chand lamhon ki dhadakti zumbish mein hoti hai
bekhud sangon ki beintehaa parashtish mein hoti hai

kabhi tum aao in lamhon mein, tumhe khuda kar dein...

****

kitni sadiyon se apne hi hathon shikast khata raha
girte, toote lafzon mein apni kahani sunata raha

sadiyon ko lamhon se azaadi muft nahi milti....

*****

mere kaatil ko meri maut ki saza na do
gam-e-furkat na sataaye, ye maza na do..

koi jalti hui shaama ko bujhaata kyon hai?

*****

ishq wo kashmakash hai yaar mere
sadiyan lamhon mein guzar jaati hain..

aur wo aaine se dil lagaye baithe hain!!!

****

fitna koi kehta hai, kaafir kahe koi
kehta hai koi manzil, musafir kahe koi

umr ki daraj mein tasveer hai adhoori

*****

Mwafi mil gayee, nazaron se kuch baatein bhee kar li hain
humne unke tasavvur se fariyadein bhee kar li hain

dekhte hain chand se pehle chaand nikalta hai ki nahi..

****

dua ko haath uthaya ki sar jhuka paaya
khud apni khwahishon ka arsh bhi ruka paaya

jab khuda the, khudai thee, juban pe lafz na the...

*****

Ye azaadi hai ki ek jhootha sach
Ye khuli aankhon ka sunehra sapna bhee tha

Aur jaane kitne dhokhe kar gaya wo paarsaa....

****

hazaar lashon ka manzar tha
hazaar asmaanon ki cheekh

Jalianwala aaj bhee zinda hai meri aahon mein

****

Movie Review: Don- The (Meaningless) Chase Begins!

2006-10-23T01:22:00.000-07:00

I watched "Don- The Chase Begins Again" last night. It was a disaster, relatively speaking (relative to the original). I could have spent those three hours watching a Real Madrid match where they defeated Barcelona, or I could have watched Schumacher pull out a real good one to end up at fourth, when even the stars were against him. But, however, alas! I watched DON! A meaningless chase.

First up – the background score sucks . Too loud, too "not-required". Unlike what he could achieve in Lakshya and Dil Chahta Hai, Farhan Akhtar and team have gone completely berserk with the background score of Don. Its jarry, incoherent and so distracting. And yes- distracting, the movie is!

Starting off with the golden scene where Amitabh picks the phone only to say - "Don!" in his deep baritone, and replacing it with a K.K.K…Kiran kinda Don voice (c'mon! you can't really compare the baritone of Amitabh's voice with Shahrukh's baby voice, can you?). Every dialogue then-immortalized by Amitabh goes begging for some more justice! SRK is just not there! He does have a strong screen presence. But that's where the similarities end. Don probably was written for Amitabh. SRK cannot be force-fitted in such a role. Just as I find it difficult to imagine Harish (remember, Prem-Qaidi, debut movie with Karishma Kapoor!) beat 20 guys at one go , I find it difficult to see SRK do justice to Amitabh's Don. For me, the movie will always remain – "Amitabh's" Don!

The songs are a disappointment . Morya re is probably the pick of the lot. Ye Mera Dil is not there. Simply because the song has such strong memories of the ethereal Helen dancing the way only the Apsaras of Lord Indra's court (religiously speaking) could! Kareena Kapoor does not look as hot , as luscious, and certainly, not as flexible. I could not understand why that Don did not give in to the temptation completely. But this Don, I understand. He just didn't get a good deal! Thank God , she is not there for too long. She looks a sack of potatoes moving around with great difficulty. Aaj ki Raat and Main Hoon Don are just ok. But the music arrangement could have been a little less obtrusive. Khaike Paan does not have the same punch that Kishore da packed.

The movie might have sold off well had it been an independent creation, simply because its brilliant in cinematography and editing. Technical details are well taken care of. Action sequences are involving and pretty much at the international level of film-making. The end is interesting and it leaves a lot of scope for a sequel. The first half of the movie puts you off because you compare almost every shot of the movie with Amitabh's Don. The second half is Farhan's creativity- but a little lost! Its difficult to retain the flair and flavor of the original Don , unless you retain the story. Farhan, to that extent, has fallen into the trap of trying to beat the excellent.

Lets do one on one comparisions –

Amitabh Vs SRK – no comments! It will be an insult to the Big B!
Chandra Vs. Farhan – Chandra was/is a no-name beyond Don. Farhan has DCH and Lakhshya , two amazingly well made movies. Vote for Farhan. But in the case of this movie, Chandra has kept it taut and flowing, while Farhan has succumbed to the pressure of altering the classic to show his creativity.
Zeenat Vs. Priyanka Chopra – I am inclined to vote for Priyanka. While I do think the modern Roma had a more curtailed Role , compared to the old Roma, I think Priyanka has looked good, has acted well and has timed her expressions well.
Salim-Javed vs. Farhan – Legendary S-J were the gods of Masala movies. They knew how to weave it all together. I think it would have been their era when RJ's on vividh bharti started explaining movies this way – Isme action hai , emotion hai, drama hai, suspense hai, thrill hai, romance hai aur song and dance bhee hai! Dekhna na bhooliye apne nezdiki theatre mein!! Farhan's biggest problem was trying to better a script written by the legendary duo. Farhan is good at natural expressions , and not at grandiosity of emotions. Don is not about subtlety. Its about magnanimity of that one character jise 11 mulkon ki police dhoondh rahi hai!
Iftekhaar vs. Boman Irani – vote for iftekhaar. Iftekhaar was the traditional Indian cop who knew how to underplay himself while keeping the emotions/expressions natural. Boman , has a bigger role than iftekhaar and a different shade to it, but he is not in the same league this time.
Om Shivpuri vs. Om Puri – Actors like Om Puri should not be wasted the way he has been in this movie. He could have taken one of the more meatier roles (maybe DCP De Silva or Narang). Lets not compare. Both are good!
Narang and the side kicks – Mac and Narang are two characters everyone remembers. They are like the sambha and kaalia of sholay. And I missed the originals. They were better. New Narang (Pavan Malhotra) hardly looks menacing.
Arpana Chudhrary Vs. Isha Kopikkar (Anita)– The character of Anita had more emotion and meat in the older version. Maybe , Farhan is saving Anita for the sequel.
And finally, Pran Vs. Arjun Rampal – Whooooooooooaaaahhhh… There are times when I wonder if Pran was/is better than half our star lot put together. Pran had charisma, personality and an extreme amount of versatility in his performances. Arjun doesn't look half as suffering/determined as Pran looked.

All in all – watch it if you are totally madly in love with SRK, or if you have absolutely nothing to do. Otherwise , I would say – rent out the original Don DVD (buying might be a good option) and Ensoi!

Happy Deepawali & The S(hort) M(essages) S(wiftly) Generation

2006-10-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

I dont remember having wished so many people Happy Diwali ever in my life. I mean, I always had a lot of friends.. but wishing Happy Diwali was never such a big deal. You just met friends, family, relatives, acquaintances, new people. You ate a lot of good food/sweets, burst a lot of crackers, and had a good deal of fun. This explicit expression of Diwali bringing great joy, happiness, prosperity and a whole lot of other things was never soooo important. It "used to" go without saying that you mean well!

All this- before I got a mobile phone, and my friend living across the street got a mobile phone, and the friend living in the other city, and my aunty, and my servant, and my grocery store guy, and the tailor, and the barber and everyone else that I knew decided to get a mobile phone. Before 70% of my office folks got my cell number. and before all of them decided to send a Diwali message to all the people in their extended phonebook (thats a selling proposition - 500 numbers on phone memory and another 300 on the SIM! With the latest N series and x series and extendible memory blah, you dont need to worry!)

Simple maths - I wished more than 120 people today, some of them living overseas. I spent, thus, more than 60-70 bucks on wishing people. And i used orkut friend list to wish some 300 people or so! I have received more than a 100 message during the day. Thats 7-8k telecom revenue in the vicinity of my near and dear ones! And I am not even the most popular person around! I would always wonder how many messages the babe living down the street got!! With every company claiming to have a few million subscribers, I wonder what the daily revenue looks like for these companies. Several millions/billions? On such "simply" important days as new year, diwali, holi and "extremely" important days like Friendship Day/Women's Day/ Mother's day!!

On a separate note, before the age of media glorifying the ritual of simple love, I always thought that everyday was Mother's day and Friendship day! And being a little unbiased when it comes to gender, every day is Men's day and Women's day as well!!
I wont be surprised if a couple of years from now, people start sending "Gandhigiri" messages on 2nd October, and "Republican/Long Live Democracy" kinda messages on 26th Jan/15th August.

This is my explicitly spoken apology to all those who feel happy/get bugged with the continuously ringing/beeping cellphones carrying the same "May the goddess of light..." messages from n different people. Some call back to say - Thanks for remembering. Some message back with another deepawali forward that they got from someone else. Some choose to ignore. Some feel important.

But here is my last word - check the cell phone model of the person who's making you feel important. Can he send a message to more than 5-10 people at one go? Does he/she need to write/forward that message to important people, one at a time? Is he/she taking the pain to write just one extra phrase - "Hey Dingi!" or something like that? Well.. with an N-series, you dont need to worry!

And those of you who did walk the extra small message yard swiftly, Thanks for making me feel special! :)

Sports: Tendulkar- You can't write him off!

2006-10-15T05:25:00.000-07:00

Its impossible to write-off great batsmen like Tendulkar. I had to say this, as I watch India open their innings against England. The chase is a minimal one (126 in 50 overs), and critics would come back saying that there was no pressure on him this time round!

But
1. There always is pressure, when you are playing the highest form of cricket.
2. There always is pressure when you are playing for your country, and a game that a billion people follow!
3. I am not talking about the attacking form of cricket. The class of a batsman is visible when he is defending the ball, with the full face of his bat, the front feet stretching all the way to meet the ball, no gap between bat and pad and a completely still head! Look a some of the defensive strokes he played early on in Today's match in Champion's Trophy

The embedded video is the attacking display, but I would want you guys to think not of the pulls and the blasts, but of the punches of his backfoot, when his body is partly in air! Isnt this poetry in motion??

Can you ever write him off????

Sports : v.Persie scored and I was back!

2006-10-14T06:48:00.000-07:00

I have been searching for this goal. This goal marks my comeback to following whats happening in the world of sports! :) It was an interesting weekend when Persie scored this goal, which though it looks like a freak hit, is one of the most precise and difficult shots to be hit!

Any sportsperson would tell you that you need your body to be still at that precise moment when you're making a shot. Be it cricket, soccer, basketball, or any other such formof sport, this maxim applies everywhere. Commentators prove that they are worth their salaries by showing how still Sachin's head was, while playing that exquisite cover drive! This v.Persie goal is another example of that!

Sky is my Limit?

2006-10-10T23:27:00.000-07:00

A life full of hopes...

A night full of dreams...

A morning full of sunshine...

All you need

is to define

Whats my Sky? Whats my Limit?

Book Review: Hindu Reviews King of Ayodhya

2006-10-05T05:59:00.000-07:00

Read it here

I am sure the reviewer isnt as mesmerized as I am. But I am equally sure, that the reader missed a lot of finer points about Banker's narration of Ramayana not just being about the magnanimity of Rama's character. For that, Ramacharitmanas is good enough!

More importantly, the three more times refers not to Jai-Vijay but the Dashavatar of Vishnu! And the most interesting bit - Dashratha, DashAanan, Dashavatar. Indian mythology can be quite intriguing!

For those who would want to read some more, read the blogs on EpicIndia

Of Blogs here and there

2006-10-04T12:28:00.000-07:00

Was reading Mug's blog on Sleeplesss nights... though not quite in Seattle..

Qatil Shifai suddenly came alive

"Humen to aaj ki shab pau phate tak jaagna hoga
yahi qismat hamari hai, sitaron tum to so jao...."

Tonight I need to be up until dawn,
Thats my destiny, O heavens! You should go to sleep now

Was reading Dhoomketu on Jose Mourinho and...

.. Ghalib was peeping this time

"Har ek baat pe kehte ho tum ki tu kya hai?
Tumhi kaho ki ye andaaz-e-guftgu kya hai?"

With every phrase, you ask me- Who am I?
Is this the language of the learned and the wise?

And the last was Sunil's Porch when it was Ghalib and Zafar engaged in a battle of wits-

"Hui Muddat ke Ghalib mar gaya par yaad aata hai
Wo har ik baat pe kehna ki yun hota to kya hota...."

Its been ages since Ghalib died, but not his memories
Especially his style- Especially his What ifs?

"Mohabbat karne wale kam na honge...
Teri mehfil mein lekin hum na honge...."

There won't be a dearth of suitors, I am sure
You'll still crave for my love, mon amour

A Fraudie's Marriage

2006-10-02T22:57:00.000-07:00

Sagai Pics.

Not Really Good! But Memories, even if they are faded, are worth having!

Marriage Pics

The Holy Couple

Saat Phere!!

Arunima.. Lucky Girl

Luckier Bugger! :D

Book Review: King of Ayodhya - Ramayana- Not the way WE know it!

2006-10-02T01:29:00.000-07:00

Background –

Couple of weeks back, I was seen walking around with "King of Ayodhya – Book 6 of Ramayana Series by Ashok Banker ":. My fetish with the book was so strong that I would keep it at my desk, in the car, near the pillow, to steal those 3-5-10-15 minutes where I would read a few pages from the book. People were wondering – Why? Whats so special? After all , its Ramayana!! A story that we already know inside out. And I used to just smile at them and pass on a very friendly suggestion – If you are not averse to printed words, read the first 50 pages of Prince of Ayodhya – Book 1. We can discuss these questions at that time. One of my colleagues Sulabh tried it and he curses me even today – He had to spend 1800 bucks or so to get all the six books (he could not wait a month for me to give him all the six books for a read)! For the records , Sulabh is my eighth direct marketing success story (all for the same book)!

King of Ayodhya

A story that starts on the shores of lanka, and ends at Ayodhya, KoA is an excellent example of what a magnificent storyteller can do to a story you have already heard so often. What Banker does , incrementally, is to add his imagination, wisdom, and perspective to a story that every Indian lives and breathes! End Result – a book that you can just not put down!

The book is fascinating, the storytelling is spellbinding, and the events – quite unlike my imagination (largely inspired by Ramanand Sagar's Television Series).

Its about war, war strategies, mind-games, Rama's mortal life (and not-the demi god life where he smiles at even problems of huge magnitude). The only thing that has always confused me about the book is that after you have completed reading all the six books , you wonder if Hanuman is the GOD in the book, and Rama the mortal. Gods descend to help Mortals (as part of all Heavenly gameplans!) in Indian mythology. And Rama, though a higher mortal with his (seemingly) infallible poise and adherence to Dharma , he needed more than just inspiration from Hanuman to win this battle.

There are several interesting facets about this book-

The war is fought at a level which is not heavenly. Not a lot of fancy arrows in multiple colors and doing funny stuff. Vanars do get massacred. They have to retaliate not in anger , but with wisdom to win the battle.
Ravan has some strategic gems too, up his sleeve. And some esoteric powers.
Kumbhakarna gets killed by Hanuman, and not Rama.
Most of the seemingly important stories of Ravana's warriors (such as Atikaya, Akampana , Kumbh, Nikumbh, Trishala, etc.) which we have heard of in good detail, as they got killed by various Rama warriors and not just Rama/ Lakshmana/ Hanuman, have been discounted to give us a view of what the war being fought at a mental level.
Ravana finally kills Supanakha. And more importantly, Supanakha, in many ways, is Ravana's source of power

Questions that still remained unanswered –

Ravana, with all that he achieved in one night before the war started, did not chose to demolish the Vanar Army at one go. Despite the fact that he had the powers to do so!
What happened to the Amrit Kalash story and of Ravana being immortal?
Hanuman, with all his might, could have changed the course of the war at any given minute? Why did he
While Ashok explains why he is not writing Book 7 (Uttar Ramayana), I would still want to read his explanation of Ram banishing Sita.

The more I think about this book, the more questions I will have. But, for the time being, let me tell you guys – READ THIS BOOK. AND THE ENTIRE SERIES. Its not just good storytelling, but a fresh insight into a story that you "think" you know!

Rating - 10 on 10

Movie Review: Pyar ke Side Effects (Damn The Side Effects)

2006-09-30T01:32:00.000-07:00

Had someone told me that one of the side effects of watching this movie would be my utter discomfort in asking a girl out for coffee (just in case she has also seen the movie) , I would have not taken the plunge. However, having taken the plunge, I did not regret any minute of it.

Pyar Ke Side Effects has an unusual star cast - the metrosexual Rahul Bose with an upmarket appeal, and can-it-get-any-shorter Mallika Sherawat (Fido- mujhe sabse jyada Curvy bana do!) with an amazing downmarket appeal. But as Shilpa pointed out after the movie- if you are in a relationship , you can relate to almost every scene of the movie.

I dont know where the movie started, because like every other movie, I was late for this one as well. Had to send out a client deck , and drive to the malls, park the car (thats one big piece of mess!), find Golu (Sulabh) and then wait for a family phone call to end before I could get in. But, from the point where I saw the movie (where RB is meeting his sister) , it was all about modern boy meeting girl, loving and regretting every moment of it all the time! :)

Its a hilarious comedy riot all throughout. The beauty of a good movie is that it leaves you with a few keywords - If Munnabhai had MAMU , PKSE has "Baby Girl Volume 3" and "Coffee".

Naam Gum Jayega, Poster Ye Badal Jayega

Mere keywords hi pehchaan hain.. gar yaad rahe

There was a time when people might have had to pay me for watching a mallika movie (yeah! yeah!! we know that one!). I have walked out of Murder , Shaadi se Pehle. I havent seen any other. But after this movie, I would say that she has definitely tried to act and not just play 'show'-biz!! And that reminds me of one of the high points of the movie -

Mallika (to Sophiya) - Nice dress! Main to himmat hi nahi kar pati aise kapde pehenNe ki. (I cant even dare try such clothes on me!) I can't carry them off, you know!

And the cinema hall went crazy after that! All this while we were thinking that poor kid must be stuffy in the kind of clothes she was wearing in this movie.

Rahul's expressions are 'fantabulous'! Thats a word that Scott uses quite often. However, the unsurety of Rahul's being is nothing compared to the surety of Scott's whims. We'll leave that aside and 'take it offline' <that damn phrase bugs me off more than anything else>.

Naanoo (that MTV VJ - I think Ranveer) is awesome in the movie. His treatise on how women train you for years, and how your leaving them mid-way wastes their time and energy , and how that is the reason why women would stick on to you, is a philosophy that every guy would want to hold on to. But guys are basically insecure. They always think that they are on the losing side of a relationship if it comes to an end.

Some more philo-gems from the movie

Guys dont want to get married and girls dont want to remain unmarried (marriage is the end of all things fun!! Yea!)
Guys dont want kids but girls do! (If a guy is a little organized , he is considered pansy/chom!)
Tears/Extreme emotions are women's forte – Imagine yourself crying right in the middle of a heated argument. Guys would rather die than give up on a chance to have an argument
You need sad songs in your life if you want to cry (applicable to guys only)- Now I know the origin/need for sad songs and why it is said that Sadness helps you discover yourself
Whatever is going wrong with your life, blame it on the guy (And some moron tried to suggest that behind every successful man, there is a woman)

Watch it! It's a must watch movie. Especially if you are in love, or planning to be in love (forced, maybe).

Watch it, if you are Tushar Thakkar (You can always pity the guys who ran away with your "first" love).

Watch it if you are Mannu Bhai (One night-multiple affairs and non of them materializing is better than One that makes you go through all that!

Watch it if you are Buchi (I am sure he never played sad songs in his room after the fiascos!).

Watch it if you are Mama (new strategies – gals tend to dig you if you are already engaged! Whats the harm in claiming that you are engaged!).

Watch it if you are Gullu/Lala/Me/ Honorary Member of the Gossip Circuit (gives you ways of reading into whats happening in other people's life)

Watch it if you are Sarin – Baby Girl Volume 3. Yeah Baby! That's the way to go! Coffee please!!

Watch it if you are anyone else – Sooner or later, you will graduate to one of the earlier categories!

Movie Review: Dor - How far can you go.....

2006-09-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

People keep asking me - what the heck is this analytics thingy that you do? How is the analytics done by you different from what we're doing and how we're doing it?

Dont expect an answer in this post. This post, however, is about what I think of the 2 recent movies I saw.

Lets start with "Dor" first.

I missed the first ten minutes of the movie, but my friends did not mind getting into the gory detail of what happened in those ten minutes. However, my comments would reflect the remaining part of the movie.

Its largely about Zeenat (Gul Panag) and a little about Meera (Ayesha Takia), and still lesser about Behroopia (Shreyas). But the man who does leave his mark is the 'man'- Shreyas. After a very silent performance in Iqbal, iqbal's delivery in this movie takes us through his imitations of bollywood icons and I must say that he has done a good job. His performance has a level of sensibility and timing that is very refreshing. Especially, the portrayal of conflicting emotions - smiling when doesnt want to, loving zeenat but realizing that he is helping her save her husband, restraint and effervescence. If history is the reflection of future, I think he is a good find for the industry, along with Shiney Ahuja.
I should not take the credit away from Ayesha either. With no makeup and the fact that half the world likes her because of her looks (that is, before this movie), it was a bold move to get into such a de-glamorized role. And she has pulled it off with consummate ease. She adds that element of freshness to an otherwise serious storyline, with her take on Kajra Re, and You are my Sonia.

Gul Panag, on the other hand, had the msot powerful character in the movie, and well, she hasnt done wonders to it. She hasn't spoilt it either. But its these roles that distinguish the goods from the me-toos.

Now lets talk about the defining things about the movie -

1. Direction - Very tight, crisp, and to the point. There isnt much beating around the bush, trying to create situations where a heavy dialogue is delivered by the protagonists, trying to glorify the goods or the bads. The characters are well defined, the music is in the background, not interferring with the movie.
2. Cinematography - I loved it. Widescreen, panoramic views. Rusty locales that speak of tradition, culture and heritage. Villages and kothis that look like they belong, and not pulled out of some king's palace. Long Shots that do justice to the sunset. Deserts that look intimidating, and at the same time, you can feel the comfort that someone who's been there for a long time would feel. In short, a beautifully done movie.
3. Music- nice and unobtrusive. You dont feel that you've already heard 3-4 songs.
4. Acting - good overall. Shreyas shines with his cameo. Ayesha looks pretty even without makeup and has done a fabulous job. Gul Panag - decent. Girish Karnad - wasted!
5. Script - nice dialogues. fitting the characters. Zeenat does not talk in long winded sentences. Meera has her initial confused statements where she finds it difficult to express her real emotions. Behroopia talks the sweet language of behroopias. Touch of Rajasthani accent. They could have added a bit more of rajasthani accent to Meera's family.

Part 2 of my blog, which is blog-in-waiting, will cover my serious take on Lage Raho Munnabhai

I think I can still write a bit! ;)

2006-08-06T01:35:00.000-07:00

Closer to horizon

And a dark night's end.

Holding on to each other

in a moment's silence,

for a lifetime's worth.

A promise made.

And a promise kept.

In the twilight zone,

day and night wept.

Sweet symphony.

Romantic irony.

You and I,

what else?

Nostalgic Times

2006-08-06T01:33:00.000-07:00

This is one forward that I would like to keep on my blog. Reason? It reminds me of what I have been through over the years! And yes - Chitrahaar and Rangoli were great!

*****

When gulli-danda and kanche (marbles) were more popular than cricket...

When we always had friends to play aais-paais (I Spy), chhepan-chhepai and pitthoo anytime ...

When we desperately waited for 'yeh jo hai jindagi'...

When chitrahaar, vikram-baitaal, dada daadi ki kahaniyaan were so fulfilling ...

When there was just one tv in every five houses...

When bisleris were not sold in the trains and we were worrying if papas will get back into the train in time or not when they weregetting down at stations to fill up the water bottle...

When we were going to bed by 9.00pm sharp except for the 'yeh jo hai jindagi' day...

When Holis & Diwalis meant mostly hand-made pakwaans and sweets and moms seeking our help while preparing them.

When Maths teachers were not worried of our mummys and papas while slapping/beating us...

When we were exchanging comics and stamps and chacha-chaudaris and billus were our heroes...

When we were in nanihaals every summer and loved flying kites and plucking and eating unripe mangoes and leechis ...

When one movie every Sunday evening on television was more than asked for and 'ek do teen chaar' and 'Rajni' inspired us...

When 50 paisa meant at least 10 toffees...

When left over pages of the last years notebooks were used for rough work or even fair work...

When 'chelpark' and 'natraaj' were encouraged against 'reynolds and family'...

When the first rain meant getting drenched and playing in water and mud and making 'kaagaj ki kishtis'...

When there were no phones to tell friends that we will be at their homes at six in the evening...

When our parents always had 15 paise blue colored 'antardesis' and 5
paise machli wale stamps at\nhome...

When we remembered tens of jokes and were not finding 'ice-cream and papa' type jokes foolish enough to stop us from laughing...

When we were not seeing patakhes on Diwalis and gulaals on Holis as air and noise polluting or allergic agents...

The list can be endless... On the serious note I would like to summarise with...When we were using our hearts more than our brains, even for scientifically brainy activities like 'thinking' and 'deciding' ...

When we were crying and laughing more often, more openly and more sincerily...When we were enjoying our present more than worrying about our future...

When being emotional was not synonymous to being weak...

When sharing worries and happinesses didnt mean getting vulnerable to the listener...

When blacks and whites were the favourite colors instead of greys...

When journeys also were important and not just the destinations...When life was a passenger's sleeper giving enough time and opportunity to enjoy the sceneries from its open and transparent glass windows instead of some superfast's second ac with its curtained, closed and dark windows ...

2005-11-19T01:39:00.000-08:00

Just thought that I would keep throwing my view on the game.. while the game is on!
5.4 overs down. SA 18-2. Have you ever felt the power of someone else's desire sweeping you over. When Pathan got Smith trapped leg before the wicket, I am sure his war cary of "COME ON!!!!" woud have lifted the fighting spirit of the entire team. The raw power behind his cry would have given everyone the confidence that is needed to rip an entire body apart with bare claws. That's power! that's desire! and that's the hunger to win!!

Kallis is still in good touch. Bad news so far. its only 6.2 overs down, but the fist few touches have been interesting. And that takes care of Kallis!!! Edged to the keeper. Flashing his bat hard at a ball going quite far outside the off stump. Pathan Strikes again. and A MIGHTY BIG WICKET THIS!!!
Kemp was not dressed! Lets see whos gonna walk in next!!

Second match of the series. India are already 1-0 down in the series. SA won the previous match quite comfortably in the end. Despite the glitches here and tehre, and a competitive fight by India, the end is what matters, and a five wicket victory always seems like a comfortable victory to have!
The match is being played at Chinnaswamy, Bangalore. Date - November 19, 2005, Saturday.
Back to Part three of my post-Its Mr. PRINCE on the wicket now.Showed a few good touches in the last match. It was the partnership between Prince and Kallis that kinda nailed the game down for India. I watched precious little during that match but whatever I saw of him, was quite impressive indeed!
Seven overs. 20-3. Indian team is charged up. SA against the wall. Bhajji is brooding about his strategy next! Pathan is in rocking touch. And rocking- the SA boat is!!!
NExt few posts are gonna be without the title!
That was a cracking shot between point and the covers. Hall is flashing his bat. So far, so good!
Eight overs. 24-3
beginning of ninth. Pathan. Another four. Straight drive from Prince. SA is 28-3
Its a torture being a supporter and a commentator both. There are these moments when your side is being thulped.. there will be those few overs in every innings. These are moments when I become unsure of whether I should be praising the brilliant batting display or ruing my own team's fate! :)
Back to the game, Andrew Hall glances one really fine down the leg side. Keeper Dhoni couldn't do anything there, and thats another boundary in the over. 33 is the score now.
Andrew Hall is considered to be one of the untapped talents of SA team. Someone who has a lot of potential, but hasn't done any justice to himself with an average of 22.75. The good news is - SA has persisted with him!

Only Human

2005-10-16T07:59:00.000-07:00

Another one of my incomplete musings....

******************

The world of prejudice seldom draws its inspiration from the skies above. The skies that are the same everywhere. HTe skies that are so different! Like the human heart. Pumping blood- all the same. Pumping emotions- Oh! So different!!

Tomorrow may not be the definition of uncertainty that could have saved immorality a thousand blushes. Today saves the face. People who look at tomorrow and its uncertainties have prejudices against immorality. People living in today- love them. Because- the uncertainties of today help them experiment with the possibilities of tomorrow.

Lets live the prejudice with a self-debasing immorality.

Time is running, the motion is fast,

Keep on dancing, the music wont last....

Time to go home....

2005-10-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

Its time to go home
We’ve hung about just long enough
We’ve cared a bit too much
We’ve always known it’s a shadowless road
Guess its just the time to go home..

Holding hands may kill the past
A bit longer.. the future…
‘fore every word becomes a lump in the throat
Its time to go back home…

Lets go back to where we both belong
Caring but just not enough
Counting on, but never believing
The guidance of lady luck
Before the sun sets on us both
Its time to go back home

Lets call it quits while the sun still shines
The rights and wrongs go beyond our sight
Lets not regret what we’ve enjoyed the most
Its time to go back home…

Why?

2005-02-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

Its a little late in the night, as I sit down to right this. And the first thought that comes to my mind- WHY?

Its a funny question! This friend of mine, (I will call all my friends pappu here, for anonymity's sake), proposed this very beautiful girl. "I love you", he gushed! "Why?", was her response. Kids often say- I want to be a Kurt Cobain, or a Sachin Tendulkar. The moment they grow up, their parents ask- Why? Why can't you have a more normal choice of career? Kids retort- Why do you have such a narrow view of a career?

The best answer to a Why is a Why! you may ask Why? Even I dont know why!! but what I have seen over the years is that a Why is never satisfactorily answered using a because, what, where, how!! the series of Why is an infinite sequence unless another Why clause is added to end the loop!

The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind
the answer is blowing in the wind.....

Another example of why neutralizing why is this famous incident- Roughly 40 years ago Robert F. Kennedy eloquently argued for idealism in a time of great conflict. He said, “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not." Speechless! right?(you may want to ask yourself- Why?)

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

2005-02-10T02:46:00.000-08:00

my tongue gets tied.
And that's no Lie..

Irrelevant! the remaining part of the song in the context of this post.

But this is how it is! I get down to write when I am bored, or when I have a lot of time. Wondering, whether thats the best time to write, and giving in to the temptation, 'coz therez so much to write.

the difference between then and now, probably, is that somoene else is also reading it.

A writer's block
Someone told me that Shaukat (Sanjay Dutt) in the movie Shabd (Word), has a writer's block. And he is not able to figure out his next story. And he plays a game which involves his wife! I wonder, if it's that easy to overcome a writer's block. But then, I am assuming that I am a writer. Many would disagree. But then, I am not here to live up to people's agreement! Am I?

The long and short of it- I get into a block, everytime I write ;) but writing an introduction is easy!

The Story of my life
I grew up as a small town boy, moving from one city to another, finding, or defining his identity. Born in a small town in Darbhanga, Bihar (India), I spent my early years in Raebareilly (1980-1986, 'then' constituency of Smt. Indira Gandhi) and Bhopal (1986-87, capital of Madhya Pradesh). Completed most of my schooling in Ranchi (now Jharkhand, then Bihar), before moving to Delhi to finish off my undergraduate studies in Economics. My college was one of the most rowdy colleges, and my second week in college explained why it was so! For those who know Delhi, I saw more than 25 buses standing back to back, from Dhaula Kuan to Nanakpura Gurudwara, with not a single window pane intact.
Not long before I could get over the smirk on people's faces when they realized that I was from ARSD (Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma) College, better known as SD, I joined IIM Bangalore (which was the other extreme of image and sophistication).
Two years at IIMB taught me more than a lot of places put together. And not just in academic terms.

Started off my career with TCS, large, beauraucratic and slow. Not my kinds. Quit after 16 months of rationalization to myself and joined Inductis. Small, moving and exciting.

Will write more later. Am running out of time now