Ay Hairathe

This song really took me by storm.
Guess, Hariharan and Alka Yagnik are lucky to have got this song.
Wish, Shreya had got this song though.

The starting of this song, reminded me of mouth-organ tone featured in 'Iruvar'.
Beyond that, 'dum dara duma...' was pretty much okay, though again not mind-blowing.

And alas, suddenly Hariharan sings 'Ai Hairathe.. ', what a start to the song, more like a dialogue. I cant understand much of what is sung but the starting phase of the song(pallavi) really is the highlight of this song.

And my fancy towards lyrics that I cant understand grew more when Alka sings 'Kyon Urdu Farsi bolthe.. '. I cant make out what 'farsi' means, but it really sounds romantic. Guess, it means 'why are you speaking Urdu so bad. .. maybe.. '

Of course Irish filler between pallavi and anupallavi is not really great.

And the 'tabla' accompanied all through the song is also pretty regular one but again nice. Remember my mother used to be a fan of 'tabla'-usage, will try to check with her, if she liked this 'tabla' piece.

'Hey Beauty, Dont go my love'
'Dont keep your foot on the ground'

'why do you speak Urdu like a foreigner'
'when i ask you to speak, you run away'
'the king of lies, why dont you speak'
'wherever i go, my eyes , hearing a poetry'
'which opens the mouth'

'Hey Beauty, Dont go my love'
'Dont keep your foot on the ground'

'2 4 months time have passed by'
'life has gone for a toss..'
'i see whom, who has till now'
'who has forgotten my face'

'Hey Beauty, Dont go my love'
'Dont keep your foot on the ground'

Here, goes my yet another translation attempt. I think I am pretty brave to try this, in spite of not knowing the language in which this song is sung. Guess, it's a Gujarati song?

The violin piece in unison in the final phase of the song i.e in sync with Alka's and
Hariharan's 'Ai hairathe... ' is a fine piece really. Only Rahman can pull off something like this..

Movies by weekend

Being John Malkovich:
While watching this movie, I could not help notice a similarity between this movie's style with 'Adaptation', later came to know that 'Charlie Kaufman' is the writer for both these stories.
The story and the sequence of events were original which must be the USP for this movie.

North By Norwest:
The starting credits for this movie was awesome.
The backdrop of UN for this movie, reminded me of Sydney Pollack's "The Interpreter".
The background music was also quintessential Alfred Hitchcock i.e the fast violin which raises the tempo of the movie.
The long shot when the bus comes from distance through a deserted highway in mid-west also made a fascinating shot, reminded me one of trade-mark David Lean shots.
The movie was an entertainer for most-parts. AH simply rocks!

Water:
The movie was good, the cinematography was also rich.
Fine display by all actors including the little girl, Seema Biswas, Lisa Ray and John Abraham were a delight to watch.

The first few sequences with the little girl walking around the streets merrily and the pleasant sitar chords in the background will remind the viewer of Satyajit Ray's "pather panchali" which had similar visuals with Pandit Ravishankar's
sitar in the background.
The final slide which mentions India still having too many married widows being treated shabbily sounded mythical.
That slide seemed like Director's attempt at selling India's poverty or shady past to West in-parts, which I guess even Satyajit Ray was blamed-upon. This statistic reminded me of Sidhu's famously lifted-quote:
"Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital"

Gandhi's effect on ordinary Indians can never be disputed. If not for Gandhi or Raja Rammohan Roy or Dayanand Saraswati, maybe India's social evils would have never waded away. But still reliance on macho-men like these, is never going to help, in the end it is individual's resolve/courage to stand in his/her own legs and think on his/her own which is more important. Thus, the ending of this movie was greyish i.e expecting Gandhi to rescue the little girl. After all Gandhi himself was accused of sleeping with girls to test himself (of course the veracity of this information is disputed), but still the point to note is that, one just cannot rely on someone else to fight one's battle. One can take advise or support, but in the end of the day, it is he/she who has to fight for himself/herself.

And the background music in some parts seemed to be a lift-off of 'Titanic' theme music.
Otherwise, Rahman's music, Sukhwinder's songs and the flute-solo were awesome.

Don:
Farhan Akhtar is yet to catch up to his "dil chahta hai" standards.
Except for the end and some parts of the 2nd half of the movie which were decent, the movie was a bad-watch :-(

Breakfast at Tiffany's:
This movie was ordinary.
Thought the story was pretty weak and bland, so Audrey Hepburn's role would never really impress the viewer.

V for Vendatta:
Ordinary movie.
Movie has got loads of style, but not much content.
Some dialogues are out-of-place, reminded me of the conversation between "oracle and neo" or "architect and neo" in 'the matrix' trilogy. Wonder why someone would write those "smartypants" kind of dialogues and thus, lose the respect of the viewer.

The Magnificient Seven:
This movie certainly has to be the source for "Sholay"'s story.
The movie seemed like a typical wild-west-story and enjoyable for the same reason.

Arsenic and Old Lace:
Cary Grant movie, so unlike the Cary Grant one saw in 'North by Northwest'.
Almost everyone overacts in this movie, must have been an entertainer during the time this movie was released.

High Hopes

Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young
In a world of magnets and miracles
Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary
The ringing of the division bell had begin

Along the long road and on down the causeway
Do they still meet there by the cut

There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps
Running before time took our dreams away
Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground
To a life consumed by slow decay

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
With friends surrounded
The night of wonder

Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us
To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side
Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again
Dragged by the force of some inner tide

At a higher altitude with flag unfurled
We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition
Theres a hunger still unsatisfied
Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon
Though down this road we've been so many time

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
The taste was sweeter
The nights of wonder
With friends surrounded
The dawn mist glowing
The water flowing
The endless river

Forever and ever


Great lyrics and a super video encapsulates the abstractness, which is so typical of Pink Floyd.

Nostalgia - a baggage?

Why would someone want to visit 'nostalgia'?
I guess 'Nostalgia' is like an easy virtual-meal.
You might be hungry and you might want to eat something
Now, what is it you can do ? :
i. Do some work or sweat and then earn your meal
ii. Or visit nostalgia. In 'nostalgia' one has the luxury of gaining a good dosage of ego-boost by just visualising the amount of hard-work you
might have done 'once upon a time' and the way you relished the fruits you got through that sweat.

Is 'nostalgia' good ?
Sadly no. What nostalgia provides is a fake self-esteem.

Why do we still visit and revisit 'nostalgia' no matter how 'stupid' it is really ?
Hmm.. that's a good question really :-)
I think self-gratification is the key.
And the moment one does not want to sweat any further, mentally one gets transported to nostalgia.
But the sad part of nostalgia is, 'nostalgia' does not pay, since the 'past' does not matter, while the 'present' always does.

Does yahoo groups or orkutting or clubbing onself to groups via alumni network or other groupings based on race/religion/nationality/caste/interests, involve revisiting nostalgia?
Yes, since we are more comfortable with folks we knew or we worked with or we studied with, one is bound to feel more at-home.
Everytime we associate ourself with a community i.e family or friends or religion or race, one is just trying to find a way to be @home rather than explore oneself in foreign places.

Guess, sustaining one's contacts(network) is an impediment, cause that is bound to allow the gradual evolution of onself and instead will provide a 'readymade short-cut' and thus, bound to kill one's originality or individuality.

Movies by weekend

A bout de Souffle or Breathless:

Saw this French movie without English sub-titles.
Thus, I did not really get the hang of this movie.
Though I felt the movie did not have much of a plot or build-up that one would associate with movies in-general.

American President:

Ah, It feels quite good to watch a 'Democrat' movie.
Wonder why too many 'Republican' movies are not getting their due in Hollywood ?

Runaway Bride:

Ordinary movie, though it was fun to watch in parts.

Lucky Numbers:

Lisa Kudrow with her wisecracks makes the movie interesting.
But otherwise the movie is a drab.

Shiva (2006):

This Ram Gopal Varma movie made up a good-watch.
RGV's underworld movies make up very good viewing and I guess it s difficult for people to get tired no matter how many
times RGV tries to make more movies on underworld-themes.
RGV is a genius i.e in the way he shot action sequences, the old-world style of simple fist fighting and simple background
score made up good viewing.
I saw the old 'Shiva' featuring Nagarjuna and Amala, that movie too made up very-good viewing thanks to the pregnant
silences before any action sequence. Raghuvaran's acting style was an added fillip.

Yun Hota To Kya Hota:

I think this movie which also happens to be Naseeruddin Shah's directorial debut, could have been lot more interesting had
the director not mentioned the "date" i.e Sep 10/11 during the various phases of this movie.
Since Sep 10 or Sep 11 dates is mentioned often, one is already aware of the ending and the climax wont surprise most
viewers :-(

Thunderball:

This movie was a thorough entertainer, quite advanced for its time.
Guess, this has to be one of the best Bond movies ever.

Free-hand writing

(In this passage, read skill in the generic sense)

I just have this feeling that, it is really not difficult to gain a skill. Only thing one needs to gain a skill is the motivation and hard-work. I think all men(and women) are born with equal skill, it is the exposure and the interest that really separates them.
For example, I once read an extra-ordinary interview with Gary Sobers(West Indies all-rounder). He once said in an interview that he got to see some extra-ordinary talents i.e better players than him in the islands and considering that Gary himself made this point makes it more astounding to read, but quite tragically Gary Sobers said none of those folks really got to represent Windies or shine like him. That interview made a fine reading.

I guess, there is an inherent difference between acquired and a natural skill. Natural skill has its pitfalls i.e you think you are good and you will be the best in a small-group and there comes the great recognition inside the group, but some rude shock awaits you when you find folks who are better than you in that skill. And the wall would seem to be closing on you from all directions. And it is quite a bad feeling and you will feel like calling it quits. Cause you are totally dependent on the natural skill. And natural skill has its limitations cause you cant improvise beyond a certain point.
And there comes the "acquired" skill. Acquired skill has no borders as I see, cause you are open to get snubbed all the while and learn more in this process. Acquired skill's advantage is that you start from nowhere, while the naturally skilled person is already moulded and thus, difficult to get out of that moulded-shape.

Here an interesting question arises, which is - "is natural skill an acquired skill?"
Guess, it s true.
Considering the fact that nothing is really natural/original. One acquires even the basic skills via copy/inspiration based on an existing skill. But what differentiates the natural skill to an acquired skill is in the mind.

Once you feel your skill is natural i.e you start becoming loyal to it and you stop learning or get drubbed by others and thus, you would stop learning/growing.
The moment you feel you are in the zenith, the learning stops and so does the growth.

Now, arises another interesting question, "does Federer or Tiger Woods or Sachin survive with their natural talents?". I think "no" is the answer. It is truly amazing to see Federer or Tiger or Sachin going on-and-on inspite of breaking any existing record. I guess, these folks would have to create their own demons or competitors to keep themselves competitive.

This thought of creating ones demon sounds like 1984 in a way. In 1984, the government or the big brother wants its citizens to work/grow and thus creates a mythical demon called "enemy state". The citizens listen to the big-brother and do as he says i.e they wage war towards the enemy state. Now, had there been no enemey state the citizens are bound to divert their interests on something else and if these citizens start thinking on their own the position of the big-brother goes for a toss. Thus, creating an artificial enemy helps the cause i.e to keep the status-quo up and running for some more time.

Guess, prodigal folks rely totally on the creation of "artifical barriers" or their own "big brothers a la 1984" in their heads and compete to achieve those "self-designed goals".

And, this cycle is definitely infinite i.e there is no peak in this quest. It goes on and on forever, cause there is no logical end to this search.

Guess, the solution lies in sticking to what one has(or rather relinquish) and not run after these artifical goals. This has got to be nirvana i.e this realisation.

Do we need nirvana or do we want to wantedly aim try to conquer the peak inspite of the knowing "what the logical end for this quest is" ?
Guess, the answer is there in the latter part of the above question i.e no matter what, we still try to invent a logical end to something which has no logical end.

Why do we do this i.e inspite of knowing the inevitable ?
hmm..
wish i know the answer...

Movies by Weekend

Road:

Thought this movie was good.
The plot looked more like a soft-porn movie with action-here-and-there.
And this movie kind of seems to have been inspired from some Amritraj-movie or some Jag Mundhra movie.

The best part include the final-climax sequences(and the real good chase, which reminded me one of those Road-Rash or Need-For-Speed kind of backdrop). Too bad, Antara Mali is not to be seen in many movies.

Swimming Pool

Good movie.
The slow lift that this movie gets is the best part of this movie.
There is hardly anything happening for maybe first 30 minutes of this movie and suddenly the plot lifts off in an extra-ordinary fashion. Guess, "plots" are what make movies exquisite to watch.
The actors were all brilliant. Most of the dialogues were in french and my un peu french was not of much use.

United - 93:

The last scene or commentary is what this movie is all about i.e the part when the narrator says "it s about the fight as to who controls the world".
Good movie to watch out with lots of characters playing as real-world themselves in this movie. It was rather awkward that when the passengers of United-93 revolted against the hijackers one might foolishly hope for a typical Hollywoodish-escape where passengers all defeat the hijackers and save the President of USA and reinstate the honour of USA etc., but that's not the case here.
It's also truly remarkable to see the resolve of the hijackers as well to die for a cause, but again it is very scary that someone will give their life-for-nothing. Afterall nothing really changes in the ground-level except maybe the hostile-attitude between warring-factions will hit the peak.
For the director, to have come-up with that climax-plot was truly remarkable i.e as to how the passengers fought-back against the hijackers.

Woh Lamhe

Dont think I am going to watch this movie after a disastrous visit to watch "Gangster". But thought this music-video "Woh Mujhe pyar hai" was good and not sure what was good, is it the song or the remix tune or the woman - Kangana.

Lost in "Tere Bin"

Pakistani singers are sensational and the best part is the way they mix slow-rock with their Urdu songs. Atif Aslam has really lifted this song to great heights.
Planning to listen to this non-stop as always, to see how long this song can last.


tere bin, main yun kaise jiya, kaise jiya tere bin
tere bin, main yun kaise jiya, kaise jiya tere bin

lekar yaadein teri, raatein meri kati
lekar yaadein teri, raatein meri kati
mujhse baatein teri, karti hain chandni

tanha hai, tujh bin raatein meri
din mere, din ke jaise nahi

tanha badan, tanha hai ruh
nam meri aankhen rahe
aaja mere ab rubaroo
jeena nahi bin tere

tere bin, main yun kaise jiya
kaise jiya tere bin
tere bin, main yun kaise jiya
kaise jiya tere bin

kab se aankhen meri, raah main tere bichhi
kab se aankhen meri, raah main tere bichhi
bhule se hi kabhi, tu mil jayen kahin

bhule na, mujhse baatein teri
bheegi hai, har pal aankhen meri

kyun saans loon, kyun main jiyun, jeena bura sa lage
kyun ho gaya tu bewafa, mujhko bata de wajah
tere bin, main yun kaise jiya, kaise jiya tere bin


Here, goes my translation-attempt of the above urdu lyrics into english:

without you, how can i live, how can i live
without you, how can i live, how can i live

brought your memories, i spend my night
brought your memories, i spend my night
talking about you 'does the moon

while alone, without you it's all night
morning is, is like no morning

...
...
come mine when
cant like without you

without you, how can i live
how can i live, without you
without you, how can i live
how can i live, without you

when ...
"

giving up :-)

Where is Vidyut?

Challenger Trophy was a surprise package this time, thanks to Neo Sports Channel. Guess, Nimbus are really investing hard in domestic-cricket. The coverage was clean, with no irritating advertisements all over the picture frame and no stupid-celebrity commentators.

And the best part of this package was "Sachin Tendulkar". He really got into the thick of action in no time. I think Sachin is really too-good a player for such tournaments, that too when he is in vintage touch. Lately, Sachin has started playing those irritating knocks no one really enjoys, maybe ever since the Syndey hundred against Australia. But not this time, Sachin was playing those usual straight drives and the speciality of this stroke of course is that there is no follow-through with the bat. Sachin also took Piyush Chawla on with those really brutal cross-batted strokes which he had earlier used to demolish Shane Warne or Saqlain Mushtaq(until he got out to Saqlain in that really disastorous Chennai test against Pakistan). Another person who got rather sever treatment from Sachin was Shreeshanth. Sachin came down the wicket to hit him over long on. Damn, that was audacious. That reminded me of a similar stroke Sachin played against McGrath in the Nairobi one-dayer.

One really wishes, Sachin continues to play positive innings rather than the hugely negative, selfish innings that he plays day-in and day-out lately in international cricket.

Sachin stole the thunder of the tournament from a few prospects who were expected to shine in this tournament like Rohit Sharma(who Vengsarkar considers to be a prospective India player), Badrinath(he is still in the reckoning, guess he is yet to do something special to catch selectors eyes). Now, speaking of prospects, where is Vidyut ? Remember some of his really booming shots that he played in the last Mohali Challenger tournament. Too bad, he did not play in this tournament. Guess, he should have cause this venue(Chepauk) is also his home-ground.

Also, one wishes more under 19 players were introduced into this tournament. Maybe India U-19 team can be introduced into this tournament as the 3rd team rather than usual 3rd team. That will really make this tournament a good opening for lots and lots of prospects.

Mediocrity

It's been the story of my life.
I get to know about a skill "A".
I try to learn skill "A" for a while.
And I am simply amazed with my ability to pick up that skill in no time.
I feel extremely comfortable with skill "A" and pursue with it for a while and suddenly I find there are folks who are much better than me in that skill "A".
There comes the frustration cause I cant beat those folks in skill "A", cause I have hit upon a plateau myself and I resign I cant improve my skills in "A" and I say quits.

Soon, I see a new skill "B" and the cycle goes on....

Somehow, it s been always quite easy for me to score 5 or 6 out of 10 in 5 different skills, but never achieved the 10 out of 10 in any one skill. Really wonder how I thrive in mediocrity rather than ever bothered to specialize in one area.

Movies by Sunday

The Thirty Nine Steps:

Alfred Hitchcock movie. The plot was a bit silly i.e in identifying a Mr. Memory to remember the secret and thus pass a secret formula to pass it on to enemy-country, but nevertheless the movie was a good entertainer.
One shot which was truly breathtaking was the one in which two spies(masquerading as policeman) travel in a car alongwith the hero and the heroine in the Scottish countryside. The camera appears to have been placed inside the car(travelling at good speed) in a still-fashion allowing all four people be present on-screen and suddenly the camera pulls away and appears to be on the ground and the car moves on the road at good speed. Thought this was something spectacular considering the year in which the movie was shot i.e 1935.

The Human Stain:

Good movie. The story was spectacular and somehow the "Lagey Raho.. " value of "tell the truth" hit me while watching this movie. Only if Anthony Hopkins had done that ...
Of course, Anthony Hopkins did not and thus we have a good story. Good starcast truly lifted the viewing-experience.

The Road to Guantanamo:

Documentary tale, quite gripping but sadly while watching this movie one's opinion is bound to oscillate between "being tough on terrorists/terrorism" to "adopting a humane approach to terrorists".
Thought some portions of this movie was badly shot. In one sequence the three Brits of Pakistani origin are said to be in Guantanamo but sadly the terrain in the backdrop appeared to be totally barren with rocks and seems to have been shot under a terrific hot sun. But I guess these shots instead of being shot on a tropical/equatorial location (considering the fact where Guantanamo is located), those shots were shot maybe in Iran or Afghanistan.

Movies by weekend

Lagey Raho Munnabhai:

Surprisingly this movie was good.
One forgettable moment in this film is the "good morning mumbai .. " chant -
I know for one Radio Mirchi RJ was a motor-mouth and you wish sometimes RJs really stop talking and play music.

Omkara:

This movie was good, with its brilliant star-cast, except that this movie was a trifle bit too long.

The Corporation:

Strong documentary movie.
After seeing this documentary, one would really have doubts whether he should be working for any corporation.
Concepts dealt in this documentary are a bit impractical. For example, they talk about how Nike is exploiting third world countries as its manufacturing base. I think sometimes the cruel truth is that third-world countries hardly have anything left with them that they are willing to work in sweat-shops. It's an extremely complex topic and guess, unless the haves are willing to forego their wealth the rest hardly have any chance to grow. It is impossible for law/state to distribute wealth to have-nots without the approval of haves(who can take refuge in capitalistic democracy-fabric).

Wall Street:

Another Democrat movie.
Made up good viewing and it was fun to watch the cocky Michael Douglas.
The talk on Republican/Democrat between Martin Sheen with Daryl Hannah was an interesting one, when Martin Sheen enter's Charlie Sheen's apartment.

Unsent

Listening to Unsent non-stopped for a while. Nothing like only one song getting played in winamp and you force yourself to listen to the same song again-and-again until the song totally sinks into the head.

Here goes the lyrics:

"Unsent"

dear matthew I like you a lot I realize you're in a relationship
with someone right now and I respect
that I would like you to know that if you're ever single
in the future and you want to come visit me in california
I would be open to spending time with you and finding
out how old you were when you wrote your first song

dear jonathan I liked you too much I used to be attracted to boys
who would lie to me and think solely about themselves and you
were plenty self-destructive for my taste at the time I used to say
the more tragic the better the truth is whenever I think of the early 90's
your face comes up with a vengeance like it was yesterday

dear terrance I love you muchly you've been nothing
but open hearted and emotionally available and supportive
and nurturing and consummately there for me I kept drawing you in
and pushing you away I remember how beautiful it was to fall asleep
on your couch and cry in front of you for the first time you
were the best platform from which to jump beyond myself what
was wrong with me

dear marcus you rocked my world you had a charismatic way
about you with the women and you got me
seriously thinking about spirituality and you wouldn't let me get away
with kicking my own ass but I could never really feel relaxed and looked out
for around you though and that stopped us from going any further
than we did and it's kinda too bad becasue we could've had much more fun

dear lou we learned so much I realize we won't be able to talk for some time
and I understand that as I do you
the long distance thing was the hardest and we did as well as we could
we were together during a very tumultuous time
in our lives I will always have your back and be curious about you
about your career about your whereabouts


The crushes story makes super listening and so was the music-video(when I first saw it on TV)

The Devil Wears Prada

Thought this movie was very good.
The best part about this movie include the climax when the Anne Hathway has to decide which path to choose.

For pulling off a Anne Hathway kind of decision i.e to pursue the dream-career, one really has to be passionate towards the same and have loads of confidence in oneself. I guess not many of us really do what we really want to do, instead we do what pays us better to enjoy the mortal-pleasures of life. Maybe we are not all that passionate on the dream-career, to give up what we have got or what we might get at the moment. It's a clear case of "The Road Not Taken".

Really wonder, small kids who are into sports and have sets their sights high on what-they-want and work-very-hard towards the same, losing their childhood/adolescence to sports instead of idle-fun.

Guess, most of us think of Plan A, B, C.. and so on before we even take any decision. But there might be some moments that what is in-store is just Plan A. Guess, the availability of only one 'plan' pushes the achievers to achieve something out-of-the-blue.

Unbreakable

Lion King 2:
I wish I hadn't see this movie. But somehow the compulsive movie watcher in me took over and I just hoped that the movie will end !

Dude Where's the party yaar:
Bad movie. Wish I had not seen this movie, but blame it on my bad-selection of movies sometimes.
Now, I think I am going to become a little more selective in watching movies.
Kal Penn - huge waste of talent like his, in this movie.

Unbreakable :
This movie is one of my all-time favourite one.
I remember seeing this movie for the first time in a theatre in Madurai called "Manicka Vinayagar". And it was a night show and I was keen not to miss out this movie. It's quite a trend there to dislodge any movie which does not have full-house immediately and replace with tamil-dubbed some English/HongKong action movie. So, I did not take a chance of post-poning my watching this movie for the next-day. I went to the theatre without much of an expectation. Then, I have not seen "The Sixth Sense", but just came to know about Shyamalan's meteoric rise.
"Manicka Vinayagar" theatre is well known for their motley editing-crew who cut short any given movie. You might really get irritated with all these random cuts then and there, but it wont bother you if you are watching the movie for the first time, cause you never know what scene really got cut. After watching this movie, I had a fairly long walk back to my place for a nap. The walk was extremely memorable, cause that really got me thinking into the overall plot of the movie. Somehow, Shyamalan clearly bowled me clean then.
And after approximately 6 years after watching this movie, I got hold of "Unbreakable" again in my computer. And I could not really wait for long to watch that movie again, with more attention than ever. And did I not enjoy this movie !
It's a real class work by Shyamalan for sure.
The best part was the search by Samuel L Jackson as Elijah for Bruce Wills as David Dunn. I think all of us sometimes really wonder the reason for our existence in this planet. And one just cant do much but appreciate Elijah in not giving-up, but trying to find out 'why he is here(earth) in first-case?'.

And the interest Bruce Wills shows to really identify "who he really is" is spectacularly portrayed. I think there are folks who really show tremendous interest in spirituality or sports or astrology or work, which are nothing but avenues through which one really find out who they really are.

It sounds such a perfect story and one cant but really wonder how Shyamalan pulled-off such a fantastic movie.

Vettayadu Vilayadu:

Got to saw this 'hot' movie in PVR after a huge-delay. Surprisingly it was housefull even for a weekday night-show. It's quite a boring movie. Gautham with his rowing shots and sometimes the overindulgence of animation/graphics was too predicatable right from the start. Kamal looked awful in a role of a policeman and so many sequences in this movie were taken in a rude unaesthetic sense that you wonder why the director had to include them in the story. Wonder if Jyothika has really set the standards for female-lead to overact in tamil movies. There are so many aspiring actors(female) who copy her over-acting style.

Sillendru Oru Kaadhal:
Yet another forgettable movie, but seems to be better than VV. Bhoomika looked brilliant for most part of the movie, forgive her outlandish costume she wears during the closing stages of the movie. Santhanam gets poor screen presence and so does Vadivelu, so nothing much left for slapstick comedy fans.

And I happen to saw Arul Mani(http://al-lude.livejournal.com/) in the theatre but could not speak to him :-(

I remember reading Beatzo's spectacular post(http://beatzo.livejournal.com/116945.html) on Sillendru Oru Kaadhal songs infact that was nothing but a damn good tribute to A R Rahman.

Aicha

Guess, Khaled makes all the difference to a song like this.
The lyrics are mostly in French except for a few lines which are in Arabic.

A romantic song like this in a romantic language like French sung by an expressive Arabic crooner with those real strange pronounciation of "h" or "g" and other syllables makes it an absolute delight i.e the experience to listen to this song.
Remember seeing some interview by Priety Zinta sometime back which was shot soon-after the release of "Veer-Zaara". During that interview Priety said that she had to really work on her pronounciation cause her dialogues were in Urdu and she gave a demo on the pronounciation of certain syllables like "h" or "g" in Urdu. The way she pronounced it appeared like these syllables will need lots of air in-them(like Shreya Ghosal or Harini who have this particular style which appeases the listener thanks to their innocent voice and pronounciation of lyrics). Guess, the same rule applies to Arabic(from which Urdu is supposed to have been derived).


Comme si je n'existais pas
Elle est passée à côté de moi
Sans un regard, Reine de Sabbat
J'ai dit Aïcha prends tout est pour toi
Voici les perles, les bijoux
Aussi l'or autour de ton cou
Les fruits bien mûrs au goût de miel
Ma vie Aïcha si tu m'aimes

J'irais où ton souffle nous mène
Dans les pays d'ivoire et d'ébène
J'effacerais tes larmes tes peines
Rien n'est trop beau pour une si belle

Oooh!
Aïcha... Aïcha... écoute-moi
Aïcha... Aïcha... t'en vas pas
Aïcha... Aïcha... regarde-moi
Oooh!
Aïcha... Aïcha... réponds-moi

Je dirais les mots les poèmes
Je jouerais les musiques du ciel
Je prendrais les rayons du soleil
Pour éclairer tes yeux de rêves

Oooh!
Aïcha... Aïcha... écoute-moi
Oooh!
Aïcha... Aïcha... t'en vas pas

Elle a dit garde tes trésors
Moi je vaux mieux que tout ça
Des barreaux sont des barreaux même en or
Je veux les mêmes droits que toi
Du respect pour chaque jour moi je ne veux que l'amour
Aaaaah!

Nbghik Aïcha ou nmout allik
[Je te veux Aicha et je meurs pour toi]
Hadi siyet hayaty ou hobbi
[Ceci est le conte de ma vie et de mon amour]
Inti omri oua inti hayati
[Tu es ma respiration et ma vie]
Tmannite niiche maake ghir inti
[J'ai envie de vivre avec seulement toi]
Oooh!

Aïcha... Aïcha... écoute-moi
Aïcha... Aïcha... ana nbghik
Oooh!
Aïcha... Aïcha... t'en vas pas
Aïcha... Aïcha... ou nmout allik
Aïcha... Aïcha... réponds-moi
Aaaah!
Lalala....lalala... ya layli.... lalala....


I had earlier learnt French and eversince been a fan of anything which is French :-)
I cant understand some of the lines in the above lyrics but still nothing stops me from enjoying this Khaled's song.

Kevin Costner/Nicolas Cage by Independence day

Open Range:
What a waste of talent - Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Annette Bening :-(
Movie had loads of typical Hollywood sentiments and way too many cliches.

WaterWorld:
Movie was a bit too long, felt like I was watching this movie forever.
Full marks to the bold-storyline.

Dragonfly:
Boring movie again. Really wonder how come I watched such a movie :-(

Revenge:
Again a typical Hollywood masala movie with was too many cliches.
Best if avoided!

For the love of Game:
Good movie.
I had earlier seen "Bull Durham"(another Kevin Costner-Baseball movie) and thought this one was not really in that class, but still was enjoyable.

Lord of War:
Nicolas Cage had tried to pull-off a "The Rock" kind of movie with this one.
The movie does no justice to the cause(against arms-trafficking) that Nicolas Cage tried to patronize, nor was it an entertaining :-(

Matchstick Men:
Good movie.
Ridley Scott has pulled-off a blinder with this movie.
Not really of the "The Usual Suspects" class, but still a decent one.

The Family Man:
Ordinary movie.
Best part in this movie, of course has to be Tea Leani

Found a strange coincidence, most of the Hollywood movies featuring the big-stars seem to have the actor as the producer as well from Tobey McGuire to Sylvester Stallone to Kevin Costner to Nicolas Cage. Guess, this allows them the liberty to call-the-shots over-ruling the director. But there are some star-director combination which has worked too well like Zemeckis-Hanks or Soderbergh-Clooney.
Even in Indian movies this trend can be seen, but it is still slightly rare cause Aamir or Shahrukh or Kamal or Ambitabh dont try this all-that-often. Rajnikanth is slightly differnt in this aspect cause he is in-charge of distribution for a number of his movies, which reflects on the confidence he has in his movies or maybe in his fans.

Eagles consumed

What is Peace-of-Mind?
Nothing comes close to hearing songs that you like, when you are down and out.

Do you really need people around ?
Of course one needs, but never too close

Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest

Cant really follow the movie. Maybe a revision of 'The curse of the black pearl' would have helped. I guess the best pattern for watching such movies is to go for a marathon session i.e watch all sequels at one go. I did something similar for LOTR and it kind of helped, though quite draining in the end of the day.
So, guess it makes sense to wait for the Pirates 3 and get a dvd and watch all 3 at one go.

6 Weird Habits

Six weird habits:
1. i used to avoid walking on floor lines, of course this was some long time back(when i was a kid, before the jack nicholson movie "as good as it gets" got released)
2. watching movies in theatres was a painful experience cause of the screen-brightness and dark-surroundings and lousy noise inside most movie theatres, so most of the times i will be out of the theatres with a big headache. but still gave this a shot, so in the long-run this irritant stopped bothering me
3. use my left-hand for handling computer-mouse(though i am a natural right-hander)
4. always wait till the 11th hour to do anything (guess, this is not really weird, most of us will be in this category)
5. compulsive newspaper reader ('the hindu' mostly)
6. cant help thinking that i know french, even though my french is a real disastor

thanks afj for the tag

passing the tag to : bidda, ashok, pras, rahul, eshwar, aquaM

Child Labour

Are we really a party to child-labour?
Sadly yes, but most of us think the answer is "no".

Go to any shop/hotel/establishment, one can see that almost all shops/hotels/establishments employ kids for regular chores :-(
And we just take a sorry look at those kids and then continue to buy the lesser-priced products(quality) coming out of their hands :-(

Cruel really! :-(

Remember most school-kids/school-establishments avoided buyin deepavali-crackers cause they felt that buying such child-laboured products is "wrong". But do these same folks really bother to think about the children they employ directly or indirectly, tough question really!

Sidhu - My God

"If one-day cricket was pyjama cricket, then Twenty20 is underwear cricket."


Navjot Singh Sidhu waxes eloquent, but he doesn't stop there...

Bowled over by Eagles

Currently listening to 'New York minute' and 'The Last Resort' by 'the eagles' back-to-back and in that too in an infinite loop :-)

Damn good songs both..

Vive les bleus

Today, it s gotto be France winning 2-0 against Italy.

Yesterday, the match between Portugal and Germany was good.. both teams played attacking game.

I think Trezegeut is going to be the pick of the finals!

Movies by Weekend

Pudhupettai:

Ordinary movie. Wish Selvaraghavan could have made a better movie :-(

Superman Returns:

Ordinary movie. Not worth the watch ..
Some sequences reminded me of watching 'captain' movies... "shock ku ke shock adikkum"... :-)

Rockumentary: This is Spinal Tap:

This Rob Reiner's documentary was fun to watch in phases, but it was difficult for me to appreciate this rockumentary cause I had never heard 'spinal tap' earlier.

Hell Freezes Over:

Nice rockumentary this one. Enjoyed listening to songs 'New York minute' and 'The Last Resort'.

Freedom from the known

Some excerpts taken from the book "Freedom from the known" by J. Krishnamurti...

"We are trying to understand violence(which is fundementally the problem,either from you to others or from others to you) as a fact,not as an idea,as a fact which exists in the human being,and the human being is myself.And to go into the problem i must be completely vulnerable,open,to it.I must expose myself to myself - not necessarily expose myself to you because you might not be interested - but i must be in a state of mind that demands to see this thing right to the end and at no point stops and says i will not go further.
Now it must be obvious to me that i am a violent human being.I have experienced violence in anger,violence in my sexual demands, violence in hatred, violence in jealousy and so on - i have experienced it, i have known it, and i say to myself, 'i want to understand this whole problem not just one fragment of it expressed in war, but this aggression in man which also exists in the animals and of which i am a part.'
Violence is not merely killing another.It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear.So violence isnt merely organised butchery in the name of god, in the name of society or country.Violence is much more subtle, much deeper, and we are enquiring into the very depths of violence.
But to be beyond violence i cannot suppress it, i cannot deny it, i cannot say,' Well, its a part of me and that's that ', or 'i dont want it'. I have to look at it, i have to study it, i must become very intimate with it and i cannot become very intimate with it if i condemn it or justify it.We do condemn it though; we do justify it.Therefore i am saying, stop for the time being condemning it or justifying it.
It is no good just sitting back and asking, 'How am i to get such a mind?' You have to want it as you want your next meal, and to have it you must see that what makes your mind dull and stupid is this sense of invulnerability which has built walls round itself and which is part of this condemnation and justification.If the mind can be rid of that,then you can look, study, penetrate, and perhaps come to a state that is totally aware of the whole problem."

--
This passage was sent by my friend via email.
Somehow me thought this had some amazing similarity to 'Johari window', the problem of course is the workability of this total-introspection !

Allez les bleus

It s going to rain goals on the finals of the world cup.
France Vs Italy

I think France will win this match 2-0.

And in the semifinal seeing Ronaldo(Portugal) diving for no reason was slightly irritating. Fellow does some amazing dribbling, disco dancing, moon walking, salsa etc., but still tries some cheap tricks like diving :-(
If the fellow grows up maybe he would make a real good star!

Find the Variables (Movie Connect: Great Depression)

Name the movies 'A' and 'B'(and also, try to find out 'C' and 'D').

Both the movies 'A' and 'B' were set during the 'Great Depression' times(real-stories).
The protagonists of 'A' and 'B' had to struggle a lot during the Depression days, but with typical Hollywood-grit they fight back and show the rest the 'art of fighting spirit' and everyone can leave the theatres feeling-good.

Clues:
-> The character(playing the title-role) in 'B' lived for just 14 years.
-> The movie 'A' had actor 'C', who got nominated for Best-Supporting Oscar for his role in 'A'.
-> 'C' is currently playing the lead role in the movie 'D'.
-> The director of 'D' had earlier famously told:
"I'm going to stop making movies if they end the cinema experience. If there's a last film that's released only theatrically, it'll have my name on it. This is life or death to me. If you tell audiences there's no difference between a theatrical experience and a DVD, then that's it, game's over, and that whole art form is going to go away slowly. Movies will end up being this esoteric art form, where only singular people will put films out in a small group of theaters."

Surprisingly, both of these movies 'A' and 'B' did not make much of an impact in Oscars.

Leave your answers in the comments section.

Gaming Question

"Pilot Geneva's spaceship through the mission to defeat the alien forces. Fly a spaceship in space and explore planets with a ground vehicle. ....."


That's how the story goes on... (in bold). Identify the name of the game.
Leave your answers in the comments section.

GI

How do American Marines fighting in Vietnam during 60's and 70's call Vietnam rebels as and why?

Clue: for the first part of the question,
Almost all American movies on Vietnam wars will have American GIs or Marines calling Vietnam rebels with this name.

Leave your answers in the comments section!

FIFA Cup - Semifinals

Hmm... things really didnt go well for England. Becks leaving the ground with an injury and Rooney red-card spoiled it all!

France did what I thought i.e win over Brasil but the margin being just 1-0(real surprise, as one would expect Brasil to score for sure).

The matches are mostly turning out to be real bore to watch with the negative tactics adopted by all the teams :-(

Now, the predictions for semi-finals:
Germany wins over Italy 1-0
France wins over Portugal 2-0

FIFA Cup

Nothing really goes as per my plan.
Yesterday, Germany pulled off a miracle by beating Argentina!
I was expecting Argentina to pull-off a 3-1 win, going by their agressive-game. But sadly, after goal one, Argentines went on the defensive(a needless move, instead of going for the sucker punch) and that cost the match.
The match was overall boring otherwise(except for these two goals and the Argentine offensives from nowhere). Quite brave of the commentators to make the prediction earlier in the match that 'if the match goes for penalty kicks, then Germany will win thanks to their home-advantage' and it became true!

Next match, I was hoping Italy will win 1-0 going by their defensive-game plan. But alas, Italy did attack after goal one!

My predictions for today's match:
France vs Brazil:
Though I think Brazil is strong on paper than anyone, France will pull-off a win this time.
Scoreline:2-1 for France

England Vs Portugal:
I think England will win this match 1-0.

Movies by Weekend

"Rumor has it..":
Nice start for the movie i.e 'The Graduate' connection, but otherwise the movie was a bit ordinary..Shirley Maclaine's role was entertaining!

"Guns of Navrone":
Did not like this movie much, maybe because I had seen better war movie-thrillers.

"Sing in the Rain":
Good movie. Enjoyed watching this movie. All credits of course goes to Vadivelu for popularising this title song 'Sing in the rain... I am sing in the rain...". Cosmo(real name: David O'Connor)'s dancing was simply awesome and fun to watch. The man who plays the role of a producer in this movie has some striking similarity to the way 'Ranga Rao' would have played in any tamil movie adaptation of this. And Cosmo has some striking similarity to Nagesh or Chandrababu.

"Tin Tin":
Saw a few Tin Tin episodes lately (Red Rackham's treasure and The Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun). Not sure whether I really enjoyed watching those episodes again, but noticed 'Blistering Barnacles, Thundering Storms, Greats Snakes' all too well that I might use these phrases often :)

"Who is afraid of Virginia Woolfe?":
Absorbing drama. Initially thought this movie was really going nowhere with the slander between the husband and wife going-on-and-on, but was hoping that climax would be interesting after all the real redundant slander. And found the climax to be quite good, not the violent one that I had anticipated which might have introduced blood bath into the plot.

"Lost Highway":
One of those really confusing David Lynch movies, but not as confusing as the 'Mullholland Dr.'. Nevertheless enjoyed getting confused with the plot that this movie had to offer.

"The Italian Job"(the original):
This movie was fun to watch, not the action-packed-thriller that had Charlize Theron and Mark Wahlberg which had no comedy whatsoever(maybe that's its plus). This movie had Michael Caine in the lead role and one would really enjoy watching the 'Lord' Noel Coward as Mr. Bridger who finances the loot. The movie had decent action sequences as well, but having seen better action sequences one would really not get moved with these action sequences. Mr. Bridger's antics are enjoyable, but surprisingly Benny Hill's antics are not really all that rollicking.

Some Trivia on Michael Caine: For all soccer addicts who got to watch the documentary-style matches(episode produced by FIFA themselves) of previous FIFA world cups, the narrator in the background is none other than Michael Caine himself!

"Basic Instinct 2":
Total disastor of a movie. Really bad sequel for the original.

"Shadow of a Doubt":
Good Hitchcock movie this. The movie did not have much of a dull moment. Hitchcock is really a master of making-thrillers!

Movies by Weekend

Deconstructing Harry, Match Point, Husbands and Wives, Love and Death, Anything Else are some of the Woody Allen movies I got to saw lately.
Almost all the movies from the above list were typical Woody Allen style movie except for 'Match Point'.
'Match Point' is a truly classy movie and I really liked the part when the protagonists talk about 'lucky' part. I think this luck part really helps for those who help themselves. One would really have to appreciate the important part that 'luck' plays in our day-to-day lives. For example, take the latest cricket matches in which India played against West-Indies, Kumble bowled some awesome spells, but still went wicketless against such a lowly ranked team like West Indies. Same holds good true in football as well and one has to just see the football matches played in Germany to appreciate the fact 'luck' plays a crucial role in a team winning/losing.

'Cindrella Man':
Truly awesome movie. One would really have to shed a tear or two while watching this movie. The movie was similar to another feel-good movie 'SeaBiscuit'. Both movies shot under the backdrop of 'The Great Depression'.

'The Da Vinci Code':
Decent watch. Thought I had seen movies of similar style earlier as well, last one I remember was 'National Treasure'. But this movie is a decent thriller and at times racy, so always keeps one absorbed to the screen.

'The Piano':
Not sure whether I really enjoyed watching this movie. The plot seemed to be a bit barren.

'Mission Impossible 3':
Nice thriller. This movie did not have the boring romances that one got to see in 'MI 2' and had out-and-out action thriller sequences.

'Mean Streets':
The last 10 minutes was lost when the cd failed, but thought this movie was fantastic mostly. The NY mafia story was interesting particularly the part which dealt with Irish-Catholic part. That reminded me of the movie 'The Boondock Saints'.

Freeze Camera

While watching the Eastern Conference finals match between Pistons and Miami Heats, got to saw some brilliance from Wade and Shaq. Added to that, saw one exciting technology called 'Freeze camera'. What 'Freeze camera' does is, freeze a given frame for a second or two when the camera tries to close-in on the other images of the same frame, which we would not really consider a careful-look during the old-school method of action-replays.

One wishes this this technology is introduced during the FIFA 2006 world cup and of course it would be great if cricket also adopts this technique.

Movies by Weekend

BMW movies:

Got introduced to a novel way of movie-making through this set of BMW movies(it is freely downloadable), which lasts just 5 minutes. The best thing about it is that, one will get the feeling of seeing an intense climax while watching this movie without any pretentious plot build-up etc., that one gets to see in most other regular movies. The directors have all done this film in a stylish fashion. The lead actor for all BMW films was Clive Owen. Clive Owen looks real cool, guess he would have been a perfect replacement for Pierce Brosnan for James Bond.

Ambush, Chosen, The Follow, Star(best of the pick - directed by Guy Ritchie which featured Madonna), Powder Keg, Hostage, Ticker, Beat the Devil.

Bridget Jones Diary - Edge of Reason:

I have not seen the earlier Bridget Jones Diary movie, but still this movie was really appealing. This romantic comedy with its feel-good content is a nice entertainer.

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex:

Ordinary movie. But the movie had its fair share of humour - typical Woody Allen style.

2001 - A Space Odyssey:

Felt this movie was a longish one and those long shots of infinite space induces sleep for sure. Could not really understand the ending of this movie.

Rope:

This one was a pretty ordinary Hitchcock movie.

Rear Window:

This was a real-stunner of a Hitchcock movie. It had a really superb plot and the way this concept was picturised was pure genius. Hitchcock movies have got to be the 'mother of all thrillers' for sure.

Someone has got to make a movie out of this..

Check this link
The plot seems to be splendid. Waiting to watch a movie made out of this book 'The Endurance'

Gangster

Gangster

Some shots were stylishly done in this movie, lots of Hollywood influence but who cares as long as they are good. But some parts in this movie were really silly. For example, one could see the entire crew in the back-side of the rear view mirror of Emraan Hashmi's bike when he drops Kangna Ranaut( shot in Seoul), to me somehow it seems horribly silly work. And Kangna looks good, but doesnt seem to fit her character in this movie and the garish make-up also is to be blamed for that. The movie hardly moves, it is an extremely slow one, worst part is that the story is also bad. Shiney Ahuja is the best part in this movie, he seems to be good.

Hitchcock by Weekend

Dial M for Murder:
This movie was similar to stage plays with its perfectly well-timed dialogues.
It was in the same mould as a Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie novel.
The plot of this movie was lifted and was internalised for the movie 'The Perfect Murder' which had Gwyneth Paltrow and Michael Douglous in the lead.

Psycho, Strangers on a train :

Yet(both) another Hitchcock movie, which I could not really appreciate much cause I have already seen countless movies which are of the same-genre i.e thriller, killings, multiple personality disorder, etc.,
It is widely conceived that Hitchcock is the father of all such thriller-dramas etc,. genre of movies, but sadly I find quite happy to watch those cover-versions of Hitchcock movies than the original cause the cover-versions were able to build-well on the basement already provided by Hitchcock.
Guess, the same logic also applies to all those remixes I get to hear, particularly those old hindi classics. Somehow, the same remixes of English pop-songs really get me irritated, cause I could not digest the remix of something that I knew already. I get to enjoy the remix as long as that song is new to me.

Vertigo:

Good movie.
This has to be the best Hitchcock movie I have seen. The plot was refreshing and the pregnant silences also made up nice viewing. This movie was based on a French book. Remember Kubrick also makes movies based on novels mostly. Guess, making movie out of novels must be an easy task i.e since the director knows the plot in-and-out and also difficult at the same time, cause they have to bring the words in the book alive on screen.
I feel Manoj Night Shyamalan must have derived lots of inspiration from Hitchcock climax style, where the protagonist tries to recapture all the events that had happened and finds the solution. Shyamalan's movies are classy i.e 'The Sixth Sense', 'Unbreakable'(my favourite), 'The Village' (forget 'The Signs' - the worst), thanks to their novel way of allowing the viewer to understand all the missing pieces of puzzle that they were exposed to for atleast 3/4ths of the movie and finally in the last 15 or 20 minutes of the movie, the 'reason' is provided alongwith clips of past-events which supports this reasoning.

The Longest Yard:

Bad movie.
Not the usual Adam Sandler movie one gets to see, with mindless fun. In this Adam Sandler takes himself a bit too seriously, which actually doesnt suit him. And the movie is full of cliches and extremely boring and you also know what is going to happen for sure in the climax. Hardly any surprises in this movie.

S J Surya - My GOD

Lately heard this song titled 'eno kangal un mugame ketkirathe...". That song really made up good listening, I was not sure regarding the name of the movie, but instantly liked that song thanks to yuvan and sadhana sargham. Yuvan's music was stylish in this song, with a generous mix of rap and reggae. And then, got to know via a friend Raman of The Raman Empire about S J Surya acting well in the video for this song. That was something I could not digest. Imagine, S J Surya has been my god for a while and I did not know that this song is from SJ Surya's movie. I saw his interview in Doordarshan on Jan 1 2006(New Year special programme). As most people reading this post know that it is not often that DD(read Podhigai) shows good programme for its viewers. During the interview I was too pulled into SJ Surya's quotes and actions.

SJ Surya said, all his movies have message(no not massage). And said Kushi had one important message for young people, "NO EGO". Damn, I remember seeing Kushi, but really missed out this important life-safing message. At that moment, I promised to see all SJ Surya movies one after the another, but somehow that promise is still not implemented :-) !

But it s not often that I miss out SJ Surya spoofs. One has to see 'Lollu Sabha' in Vijay TV. These guys(Santhanam used to be in this programme before he saw greener pastures), have super sense of humour and they go to any limits of abusing the originals to enthuse their audience. I am a huge fan of spoofs from the factories of Adam Sandler, Jim Carey, Leslie Nielson(the KING), Mike Myers, Lollu Sabha team, SunTV top 10 team and Venniradai Murthy's "Meendum Meendum Sirippu". And I got to saw "anbe aaruyire"'s spoof in Lollu and I could hardly blink my eyes all through the show. And I made another resolution on that day, i.e not to miss any more SJ Surya originals, cause that will rob the fun I can have while watching the spoofs!

Nevertheless, now coming back to where we started. I really have to thank Mohan Kumar's for allowing me the privilege of downloading the video song of "eno kangal...". If not for Mohan Kumar's imagine what might have happened to the Tamil movie industry! The video had SJ Surya coming up with incredible foot-steps, super duper make up and really fantastic facial expressions. And of course his hand movement were quite awesome, one has to see it to enjoy it.

I think this song will be placed in the all-time best moments of Tamil movie industry alongwith Vijaykanth's incredible typing ability over Windows Media player in Ramana. Poor guy Bill Gates fainted while seeing that. Enga captain yaarunnu nenaichenga? And of course, the incredible close ups in Narasimha which revealed to us super-contacts that are available in the market and finally those incredible dialogues like 'WE WILL MEET, WILL MEET, MEET' in Vallarasu.

Captain beware, SJ Surya is going to break all the records you created!

Movies by May Day and Karl Marx Day

Matador:
A very unlikely Pierce Brosnan movie. Movie was a drab all the way.

Hot Chicks:
Good movie, in the class of 'Van Wilder' or 'American Pie' ..
Fun at the expense of rich white girls who have nothing to worry except for trivial stuff like the 'page-3' stuff was super stuff. All the girls listening to Venessa Carlton's song 'a thousand miles' while on car and getting emotional about the song made up nice viewing. One another segment in which the girls look into the picture of 'starving African people' get upset by their skinny bodies and wondering when these girls can have such kind of physique was really enjoyable scene. Also, the sequences in which Ivory Waynes comes across as a person who thinks that he is one among the white-rich folks is also good fun to watch at.

Mughal e azam:
The songs in this movie was classy. The movie was interesting maybe for atleast 2 hours but soon became a drab with war-sequences coming in.

12 Angry Men:
Good movie. The dialogues were great fun to listen to. Dont think one will get to see such dramas anymore. Henry Fonda helps the movie unfold all the way which made up spectacular viewing.

Hostage:
Ordinary movie. Bruce Willis has tried an encore of 'Die Hard' style typical thriller. The movie went along nicely in typical thriller style, but soon lost its way when it reached the climax.

FreedomLand:
Bad movie. The movie kind of went along in similar lines as 'Forgotten' which was also an awful movie. But this movie is even worse than 'Forgotten' thanks to its pathetic plot.

Shall We Dance:
Good movie. The movie's climax was fantastic. Richard Gere hides some of his activities from his wife Susan Sarandon, who soon finds out what his husband is upto and shows her regret to her husband on this. Richard Gere is stuck by guilt and soon gets reprieve by devoting his time for Susan Sarandon and comes out of his infatuation for Jeniffer Lopez.
Remember me getting disturbed when I get some information on them only from someone else and not from horse's mouth. It s so irritating if you feel you are very important to that someone, but that someone feels it's okay to neglect you.

American History X:
Ordinary movie. Cant figure out why the title is 'American History X'. Thought this movie will deal with variety of topics like 'Black movements' or 'KKK', but somehow this movie could not deal with any topic in full. So, it comes across as an ordinary film, though it could have been a super movie.

Just Like Heaven:
Reese Witherspoon movie. Lots of stereotypical 'young white rich female' mannerisms and the cliched humour - makes this movie real ordinary.

Lolita:
What a class movie!
I think the story was fantastic. Have not read the Nabukov book though.
Stanley Kubrick really has the knack of picking up good novels which are movie-material.
And Kubrick's innocent/ignorant man who tries his hand in 'not-so-usual' stuff and then suffers with guilt and finally gets his fingers burnt can be found in this movie as well.
Surprised, as to why Kubrick has not shown any 'bed scenes' between Lolita and Humbert. Maybe the book itself didnt have any bed-scene sequence or maybe the censors might have clipped it.
The ending could not have been any better!

Annie Hall:
Good movie!
Really enjoyed watching the self-derogatory pattern of speech by Woody Allen.
Guess Woody Allen's description as a 'short-spectacled-jew-leftist' was real fun to hear.
Also, the intellect is really there for all to see in his dialogues, one might feel like one is actually watching a good-old drama(stage) or maybe some good-old-movie(of 50s or 60s) with good dialogues.

About a Boy:
Nice feel-good movie.
I think I am a sucker to most narrative-style movies. I think they really give you a better insight into the head of the protagonist than most other movies.

Movies by weekend

Payback:

Class-act. Really enjoy watching movies like these which have a really cool way of picturising the stylish-revenge story a la Kill Bill or the wild-westerns or the good old Hong Kong movies.

Pather Panchali:

Saw maybe 3/4ths of the movie but due to some player-malfunction could not see it completely. But liked the way the movie was shot. Guess, Satyajit Ray was class-personified in the way he shot the father-mother-grandmother-girl child-boy child.. kind of takes you through the memory lane, his characters seem to be very real.

Choker Bali:

The story was originally written by Tagore. Surprisingly there were not any of those Victorian-inhibitions expressed. The story also reminded me of Kalki's 'alaiosai' which again was set in pre-independent era (during quit india movement, while Tagore's 'Choker Bali' was set during early 1900's I guess i.e coinciding with the partition of Bengal). Both these stories will give you a glimpse of orthodoxy-class and their culture and their ideas about independent-India.

BluffMaster:

This movie was stylishly taken. Really liked the theme-music which comes in the background everytime Abishek walks into Priyanka Chopra.

Munich:

Steven Spielberg movie. One will get stuck with the thought whether the Israeli ordinary citizens recruited for
assasinating Palestenians were right or wrong in whatever they did. I think this took the charm away from the movie. It might be extremely tough in taking the 'who is right or who is wrong' call in crisis like these, but I think decision has to be taken at some point of time. Guess, the director could have tried to pull-off something bold rather than sticking to 'indecision' part. Another movie which also had slightly boring ending was 'Kingdom of Heaven', in a somewhat similar way.

Transporter 2:

Not as exciting as 'Transporter'. Amber Valletta was a stunner!

Capote:

Was expecting some sudden turn-of-events in ths movie when it reached the climax-phase i.e some twist in the tale and the convict is not exactly the killer but someone else.. or something along those lines... but sadly not much drama in this movie. The movie wasnt the 'biograph' nor was it a 'close-up on the crime' that happened on one night in Kansas. So, the movie seemed to have been lost as to 'what it was all about'.. i.e neither a drama nor a biographic one.

Syriana:

This movie was fantastic all the way. The story telling had a tinge of 'Traffic', which made it appear classy.
The movie talks about how America's brutal capitalistic expansionism is harming not just the rest of the world but even themselves. Capitalism is an extremely risky proposition, unless nice folks are there in the top. Thus, over-dependence on the system is dependent on individuals(leaders).
Clooney-Soderberg partnership again has produced a super-movie.

Movies by April Fools Day

Love Story:

Kind of liked this movie. It was a really clean movie and the theme music was good.
Remember hearing one Landmark final quiz question based on this theme music, guess this theme must have been picked
from some Bach's symphony.

The Hitchhiker's guide to Galaxy:

This movie appeared to be more like a TV serial or talk-show that they show on TV.
The comedy part in this movie was a bit stale.
Though the last 15 minutes of this movie was good.
I think I will try to read this book, which I feel will be more interesting than this movie-adaptation.

Grapes of Wrath:

Really good movie, based on Steinback novel.
Quite sad how rural poor or the rural unemployed gets manipulated by all for their own ends.
The rural poor have nothing to do except for moving to prosperous regions. And the minute they migrate, they join the nobodies of this world. They are paid lowest wages because they dont have another job. If the law or the employer uses his muscle they just have to be spectators against this injustice, if they talk-back they are silenced.
The parting-off conversation between the mom and the rebel son was interesting, the son wants to change the exploitation of the poor folks and mom wants him to stay with her, but realises that he also cant stay with her, because he s a bit of an idealist himself so he would be off-place here with her where she and her other family members just crawl before the mighty since they dont have a job.

Memoirs of Geisha:

Not a good movie, wonder where the hype came from.
The lead characters didnt look like Japanese i.e Zhang Zhiyi and Michelle Yeoh. Though Zhang Zhiyi looked brilliant without make-up. Rob Marshall was quite pathetic in Hollywoodising many of the components in this movie. The bright colours all around seemed to be too artificial. For similar reasons I found 'The Last Samurai' movie too nauseating, there is hardly any realism in any of the sequences. The role of Michelle Yeoh seems to be similar to the role of Rekha in the movie 'Kamasutra'.
Akiro Kurasawa movie 'Drunken Angel' was top-class Japanese movie, guess one cant see a better Japanese movie than that..

Origin of 'Charlie' (nickname for Viet Cong soldiers)

Got interested in the trivia related to the origin of the word 'Charlie' that was used to refer to Viet Cong soldiers after coming across an article about 'Apolcalypse Now' and the similarlity between Kurtz and Pol Pot.

Check the url about Viet Cong
and NATO phonetic alphabets to understand the origin of this word 'Charlie'.

Movies by Ugadi

Mathrubhoomi - A nation without woman

Quite a shocking-futuristic movie.
Explores the option of polyandry in Indian hindu rural society because bride is hard-to-find for elgible bachelors, which is already plagued with its caste-conflicts.
Latesh Chaudhari as the bride looked real good in this movie, kind of resembles Neha Dhupia.

A fish called Wanda:

Good-racy fun movie.
Jamie Lee Curtis was looking good in this movie.
The American vs Brit fight featuring Ken Kline made up superb viewing.
Ken Kline stole most of the comedy parts in this movie.
Brit-accent also made up entertaining listening all through the movie.

Being Cyrus:

Good movie.
The plot is an oft-repeated one and extremely simple one, but this movie had loads of style with its chic-makeover, one can compare this movie with the presentation style of Rang De Basanti. And the movie had super actors and the dialogue, the background score and the narration by the protagonist all made the movie a pleasure to see. Saif Ali Khan, Boman Irani and Simone Singh had interesting roles-to-play in this movie, though its out-and-out a director's movie.
One worry is that I did not understand much of the Parsi-language(guess Gujarati) that was spoken during some phases in this movie.

Movies by weekend

Monty Python - The Life of Brian and The Holy Grail:

Saw both these movies back-to-back. Guess, both the movies had a fairly decent share of humour(political).
But, these two movies still fall-short of most other parodies or spoofs.
Guess, Adam Sandler or Leslie Nielson or Rowan Atkinson will always be the god of all spoofs or parodies.

Hazaron Khwaishon Aisi:

Good movie.
Concepts like 'naxalism' or 'emergency or police-raj' or 'absolute corruption' are handled in this movie. It takes you down the memory lane.. i.e into days where Indian democracy really fought against evils-within.

I feel naxalism wasnt deftly handled, one reason could be due the large-number of key-characters in this movie. Quite difficult to manage a movie which has many protagonists, since the story always shifts from one key character to another. No director could ever do justice to plots which has many characters. Sudhir Mishra though has tried his best to pull off a coup.

Had Siddharth been the protagonist or Vikram been the protagonist then things would have made spectacular viewing, but here both of them happen to be key characters and thus no justice is done to the ideology(or lack of) to both these characters.

The female-lead Chitrangada Singh was beautiful in this movie.

Taxi Driver:

Good movie.
The work-fatigue that was showcased in this movie by Robert De Niro as an over-worked taxi-driver was kind of similar to another Scorecese movie 'Bringing out the dead' in which Nicholas Cage also goes through similar motions, in which Cage suffers with overworked syndrome as an ambulance driver.

Brokeback Mountain:

Seems to have been a very difficult movie to pull-off on gay relationships.

La Mala Education:

Another movie which involves gay-relationships, the origins of this can be traced to catholic school.
This is a Pedro Almodovar movie.

Yes Minister - Benji episode:

Classic Brit-comedy.
Enjoyed seeing this small episode which makes fun of bureaucrats and how they manipulate politicians

Petronas Advertisements

Petronas advertisements seems to be quite good. Some are funny, but most of them seem to be values-oriented.

Got Marooned

Liked Maroon's song 'She will be loved...'.
Check out the lyrics here

I feel the singing style of Maroon's leadsinger seems to be kind of similar to Coldplay's leadsinger Chris Martin. Some of Chris Martin's songs has this swooning ability thanks to its mushy-factor. Also, Darren Hayes is another singer who also has this falsetto-factor.

Sweet Home Alabama

While listening to 'Sweet Home Alabama' by Lynyrd Skynyrd, first thing that came across my mind was 'Forrest Gump'. Really cant find words to appreciate the super song-picks in that movie. Dont think there will be ever be another movie like Forrest Gump.

Soon, while listening to the same song for the 4th or 5th time, the 'Forrest Gump' part of the flash-memory evaded from me and I was wondering how come Governor Wallace's name is coming in this song. So started googling for this song's lyrics, but could not figure out much info behind the context of this song.

So tried wiki for the 'Sweet Home Alabama', got a good education of American history yet again.

Movies by weekend

The Shining:

This movie is certainly not a Kubrick classic, but more like a Stephen King-one.
The movie had its share of usual pregnant silences which is quite a cliche in most horror movies. The best part of the movie was the trolley shots following the kid riding the tiny cycle.

Found a small technical defect in this movie. When the movie starts with Jack Nicholson driving his car into this hotel-resort in the middle of nowhere, one gets to see some amazing landscapes, forests and valleys, but sadly one also gets to see the shadow of the helicopter from which the aerial shot is taken. Surprisingly this appeared in a Kubrick movie, but I am told this shadow-defect can be seen only in the DVD and not in other prints.

Locks, Stocks and Smoking Barrels:

Guy Ritchie movies are simply awesome. The Brit way of speaking English makes good hearing. And the plot looked more like a Crazy Mohan-style, which made it really entertaining. The movie had a good mix of good-old revenge plot alongwith comedy-sequences.

Crash:

Movie had dark-shades all-around, but in the end brought in the usual feel-good tempo. I think this feel-good factor might have helped this movie clinch the Oscar. The movie was brilliant in the way so many different characters were shown , their stories, kind of reminded me of the movie 'The Traffic' another spectacularly shot movie!

Funny Clip - Call Center

This is a short clip titled Call Center. It runs for just 12 minutes, but it is packaged real good!

Guess, it's all in the mind

Lately came across a theory called 'Johari Window. Take a look into that article, it sounds interesting. I could not add anything much beyond that observation. According to this technique, it allows a person to open up and be brave to accept one's vulnerabilities and tell the same to others. Also, it also requests one to be open to suggestions coming from strangers.

Following Johari technique is requesting a person to walk naked on the road. Guess, for someone who has got so much used to fancy clothes or even simple basic clothes, the very idea of walking naked will put one-off from this!

Movies by weekend

Fun with Dick and Jane:

Movie was fiercely ordinary. Not the typical Jim Carey comedy, but some sequences were good. Including one sequence where Jim Carey gets irritated with the way his lawn was bereaved of green grass and is dirt-brown. He resorts to stealing of grass from his neighbours and then plants the stolen grass in his barren lawn, after completing this planting he goes to sleep. And the next morning when Tea Leoni wakes up, she sees Jim Carey's soil-browned hand-print on her shirt.

Brother Bear:

Ordinary animation fare. Typical feel-good kind, seems like an overkill with most animation movies totally turning out to be out and out feel-good kind.

For a Few Dollars More:

The villain role in this movie reminded me of mannerism of Gabbar Singh in 'Sholay'. Guess, this movie has to be the inspiration for 'Sholay'. Really enjoyed this movie, classical western movie! The simple background music, the long stares, the eerie silence once-in-a-while, the gun-battle, the macho-style and most importantly the barren land all have created a perfect setting for this movie.

Fiddler of the Roof:

Movie is made out of a west side story on the same name. The Soviet-Russian and Jewish context kept me watching the movie. Poignant tale!

Apocalypse Now:

Thought the movie was out-of-place i.e the ending part. The movie had some really super sequences like the helicopter bombing and napalm spray. Having seen other Vietnam movies, I feel nothing comes close to 'Full Metal Jacket' and the way Kubrick tells how ordinary people hope to do something extra-ordinary in their lifetime and when faced with such extra-ordinary circumstances how they wilt under pressure. Kubrick is a master in that!
Francis Ford Coppola pulled off a casting coup. Though I felt both Sheen and Marlon Brando were not so suited for their respective roles! The idea that you have to really rout out the enemy completely, inorder to avoid further conflicts sounds logical, though sounds terribly absurd! Remember my friend Bugjhi, telling something along similar lines in one of our usual marathon chats. For someone to tell something like this, they have to either horribly stupid or a unbelievably intelligent! And the worst part is I could not judge whether it is stupid or intelligent.

The HitchHiker's Guide to Galaxy:

Got to see this BBC serial(first part), yet to read the novel though. Will try to see the remaining five parts...

The Incredibles:

Enjoyable one, with some quick action.

On the Waterfront:

Movie seemed to have been released in a time when USA was fast-moving to identify themselves as a capitalistic country and went cynical about socialism or communism. The movie's feel-good ending doesnt seem to fit-in well.

The leftists, socialists (equivalent of Democrats in USA) are slowly on the rise everywhere in the industrialized world thanks to their non-rising economies of late.
Eshwar might sure will have a point or two on this.

Drunker Angel:

Classy Akiro Kurasawa movie. The shot of sewage simply epitomises the movie. Seems to be in the same mould as 'the Bicycle Thief' which also tries to indicate to us that big-cities are not kind to all its citizens.

Stand by Me:

Another classy movie. Movie had a few interesting sequences including the last line the protagonist types on his computer telling us that he did not have a true friend lately and the last time he had a good friend was when he was 12 and poses the same question to us. Another sequence in which the boy-protagonist tells the story about a fat-kid who got his revenge! This movie is based on a Stephen King novel.

Dr. Zhivago:

This movie looked more like an epic just like David Lean's 'Passage to India'. Not really a fan of such epic movies, which kept going-on-and-on without an end in-sight. This movie also has the usual long shots, wide landscapes, stillness that is there in most of David Lean's movies.

Chronicles of Narnia:

This movie looked like a poor-cousin of Lord of the Rings, not just the story, but even the visuals. Guess, the budget must have been on shoe-string.

Hanuman:

This movie was a total bore. Though, the songs that appeared in this movie were good.

Jack Black simply rocks

Lately heard the song 'This is the greatest and best song in the world... Tribute' by Jack Black( Tenacious D ). Thanks to my generous cousin!

The respect I have for Jack Black is growing since the time I saw the movie 'Orange County'... and then.... 'School of Rock'.....and then 'King Kong'... and lately this song 'This is the greatest song.... '. Fellow has to be multi-talented to do something of this kind. Also, heard another comedy actor's song lately i.e Jim Carey's 'Somebody to love'. Think this song was part of the soundtrack for the movie 'Ace Ventura'.

Everytime I listen to Jack Black song, I feel he is referring to Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' as 'the greatest song in the world....'!

Movies by weekend

Flight Plan:

Fast paced masala movie. Jodie Foster looked a bit too old and haggard.

Rainman:

'Yeah.. Yeah...' and Who's on First were great fun to hear.

Dustin Hoffman really stole the thunder all the way.
In phases, the characterisation of Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise reminded me of Kamal and Madhavan in the movie 'Anbe Sivam'.
Lots of sequences in this movie including the casino sequences were an absolute delight to see.

Secretary:

This movie starred the beautiful Maggie Gyllenhaal. The story was kind of drab.

A Killer Within:

The movie was a bit too predictable, looked more like a B-Grade movie!

Rang De Basanti:

This movie was stylishly made, just like Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's earlier movie 'Aks'. And this movie was also lucky to have had a good starcast. This movie's ending looked more like a Shankar-style ending with all the public supporting the heroes' actions. The movie had a slightly overweight Madhavan and slightly cool Sidharth. Sidharth was lucky to have got this role. Aamir was a bit too old for this role. The time spent on comedy throughout the entire first half was kind of cliched. Rahman's songs were below part except for one or two songs. Rahman's punjabi, arabian tunes looked like plagiarised ones.

How to Steal a Million:

This movie was good fun to watch with Audrey Hepburn stealing the show rightaway with her innocence. Audrey must have been a role model for actors like Saroja Devi.

Goodbye Lenin:

Saw this German movie without English sub-titles. So, the dialogues didnt make much sense to me. The movie shows the impact Communism had on East Germany and how East Germany quickly adopted capitalism in their land. Movie was slightly in the slower side.

T M Krishna @ IIMB

Thanks to a friend @ IIMB, went to Carnatic kutcheri after long time.

Went to the venue a few minutes ahead of TM Krishna's kutcheri, so got the chance to see Mishra brothers in action(of course not for long).
Earlier I had been to T M Krishna's homepage and so got interested in seeing him concert. Actually, never listened to him earlier via tapes/mp3. So went there to the OAT venue with interest.

Both me and TM Krishna were introduced to a major hitch in 'microphone'.
The microphone system was off-the-mark and so the concert started maybe 30 minutes late from the scheduled time. But that was not all, soon TM Krishna and his co-artists started complaining about the microphone system. According to them, there seems to be some humming sound which kept coming up, when he was singing. TM Krishna's and his co-artists' irritation was for all to see. After the initial song 'Vatapi Ganapathim..', TM Krishna said 'I cant continue like this' and said it is difficult for him to sing. He soon requested all the audience to come front near the dias and said he will sing without microphone.

Thought it was a wonderful decision by TM Krishna, cause I was also sensing that the sound system was quite dismal. There seems to be too much of feedback(same as the ones we hear in old-style rock concerts), resonance and sometimes strange 'dub ... dub...'. I think there were too many microphones close to each other and that probably might be the reason. The microphone-man came close to Krishna and asked Krishna what the problem was. TM Krishna slightly rudely responded, 'I am not the technical person here, you should be telling me 'what the problem is!''. That made up a rather sorry viewing, imagine losing your cool infront of your fans. That was not the end for this rather sorry episode, soon the compere requested TM Krishna with folded hands to continue singing with the existing sound system. Thought maybe this compere need not have embarassed TM Krishna by requesting this. Poor man TM Krishna must have felt terribly sorry for no fault of his and went to on to sing with the rather stupid system. It was more like a Led Zeppelin/Pink Floyd concert, with feedback thrown in now-and-then :-( ( of course unintentionally by the artist)

For a moment, I was wondering how is this microphone supposed to be that important and soon thought about those Pink floyd's rock-concert videos. Pink Floyd was one of the techno-savy bands of their time and they were good musicians alongwith good sound engineers. They trusted no third party sound system or equipment, so they always carried their our gadgets for whatever concert they went whether it is in UK or outside UK.

Concert was okay, considering all the sound-hitches. Was expecting him to sing some Bharathiyar song or maybe any Tamil song, guess, he did not sing any tamil song.

Ripper of a Ranji Final

Guess, all of us are waiting to witness a ripper of a Ranji final between Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

Bengal has a few India-rejects like Deep DasGupta, S S Paul(fairly decent line-and-length bowler in NZ-style), LakshmiRatan Shukla and Rohan Gavaskar. Of course, without Ganguly this team looks out-of-colour, but still they have experienced campaigners in their team which will help their tital-cause.

Uttar Pradesh has a bunch of prospects like Suresh Raina, Kaif, Piyush Chawla and JP Yadav(not exactly a India-prospect considering his age and his baldline ;-) ). They have an old workhorse in Ashish Winston Zaidi.

UP will start as the favourites thanks to their astounding win over the perennial favourites Mumbai! UP also has some amazing talent in Raina and Piyush, hopefully these guys get a good break into the Indian team, with Greg Chappel keen to push-in youngsters into Indian team!

Movies by Pongal-weekend

Mr. and Mrs. Smith:

Ordinary movie. Angelina Jolie was the saving grace for this movie. 'Jolie' in French means 'Beauty'.

Winner - Vadivelu Rocks:

Thought Vadivelu kind of tries to act/speak like Vijaykanth i.e the slow way of delivering dialogues ungalalam partha enakku pavama irukku.... and vendam... enakku kovam varanthu...
But all these dialogues suited Vadivelu and from then-on Vadivelu has successfully adopted this style in his other movies as well.

Memento:

Memento had an interesting way of telling the story i.e end-to-beginning. But the story is cryptic, leaving questions like 'who is the murderer of Guy Pearce's wife'. Guess, Memento's claim to fame is that it happened to be the inspiration of Surya's character in the movie 'Ghajani'.

Kung Fu Hustle:

At last got to see the complete movie 'Kung Fu Hustle ', but this time in Chinese itself without no English sub-titles. The climax of this movie was a good spoof on how Neo(Keanu Reeves) went to sky far-up-above and then listens to some divine signs and then fights back his opponents in 'The Matrix Revolutions'. Guess, the best part about all the Chinese movies and Western movies is that they have a superb way of 'hero getting revenge over his enemies'.

American Pie - Band Camp:

Ordinary movie. The movie was below par for the genre of American teen comedy.

Bicycle Thief:

Vittorio De Sica's 'Bicycle Thief' was extra-ordinary.
The best part in this movie was the last five minutes of the movie, when the protagonist tries to steal a bicyle after getting disillusioned about the prospect of finding back his lost bicyle. The decision of the protagonist to steal a bicyle in the end made our protagonist more human and vulnerable to mistakes. And it was really disappointing to see him get caught by police/public in this act.
Another sequence which made good viewing is when the protogonist after joining his job, thinks that he has a secure future and tries to advise his wife to start believing in themselves rather than spend money in religious activities.
But, when he loses his bicycle, he himself pays his money to the soothsayer.
Guess, this movie inspired Satyajit Ray to enter film industry and make movies.
Hoping to see Satyajit Ray movies soon!

15 Park Avenue:

This Aparna Sen movie was lucky to have so many good actors. Best of the lot has to be Shabana Azmi.
The ending of the movie was more of a puzzle, but nevertheless this is a novel attempt in Indian movies.

S J Surya and his antics:

During this Pongal, whichever channel one sees whether it is Raj or Vijay or Pothigai or Sun or K or Jaya, it s all the same face which greets us 'Happy Pongal' - S J Surya. S J Surya's interviews were great fun. In one interview, he said all his movies has a 'message' and went on to explaining what is the message in all the movies he has directed.

Mumbai Knocked Off

Atlast, Mumbai is close to being knocked-off from this year's Ranji trophy. I think Mumbai is close to Australia in getting the distinction of being the 'team-to-beat'.

Sometimes, Mumbai has been awfully lucky to have Sachin Tendulkar during the quarters/semis/finals, who might have missed all the other matches and then play some blinder of a knock during these stages and massacre lesser grade bowlers! Tamil Nadu, a strong Ranji team lately, has been in the receiving end thanks to Sachin's flying visit knocks. This time, Mumbai is struggling against a talented Uttar Pradesh(UP) thanks to no Sachin or Wasim Jaffer. The desperation was there for all to see when Karsan Ghavri, Manager of Mumbai Ranji team requested board to release Wasim Jaffer from India duties if he is not in the playing eleven for playing for Mumbai during their crucial semis match agains UP, inspite of their home advantage.

UP seems to have some talented bowlers. One of them is Piyush Chawla, a leg-spinner. Piyush has been highly rated by lots of current and former India players including Anil Kumble. Hope Piyush makes an impact in international-circuit ones Kumble retires.

The other semis might also be an interesting affair thanks to no-superstars syndrome. There is no Pathan or Zaheer Khan or Sourov Ganguly. So, things are bound to be competitive.

One good pattern that I have noticed in most of the Ranji games is that, there seems to be lots of result-oriented matches for a Four-Day match. And home teams are keen to make sporting wickets(read bowling ones). Only if, India prepares bowling wickets for international matches....

The 8 things tag

I have been tagged by AFJ. The rules of the game are:

1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover.
2. Need to mention the sex of the target.
3. Tag 8 victims to join this game & leave a comment on their comments saying they’ve been tagged.
4. If tagged the 2nd time, there’s no need to post again.

My woman should:

1. Be bold
2. Be careless about her behaviour in public(instinctive)
3. Must talk-the-talk
4. Must have interest in sports/fitness
5. Must not be overtly obsessed with cooking
6. Must be enthusiastic about music/movies
7. Be independent
8. Be rational


I really had to think(extremely difficult job) for long for this. Passing across the baton to:

1. Ashok
2. Prasie
Trust Prasie will have lot to contribute :) !

The remaining six places are wild-cards open for visitors. Please feel free to take it.

Jack Black Rocks!

King Kong:

The starting 60 minutes of this Peter Jackson movie was superb thanks to Jack Black! But soon, Peter Jackson because of his 'LOTR' hangover started scripting a few wild action-sequences(gory ones) and that really took the spotlight away from what could have been a superb movie. These giant creatures and its gory activities and sometimes its really humane activities is over-exploited and Peter Jackson would have done a far better job had he made 'King Kong' off-the-screen and tried to continue to build the aura about King Kong(just like how Manoj Night Shyamalan or Hitchcock will do).

School of Rock:

This movie was good thanks to Jack Black again!
Jack Black comes across as a below-par guy just like Adam Sandler and rocks the movie. He was exceptional in a similar role like this in the movie 'Orange County' as well. The way he picked up the monitor of the class as 'manager' and african-american kid as 'security' was fun to watch!

Freaky Friday:

Movie was okay, but of course some predictable humour. Ordinary fare!

Movies by Weekend

Irreversible:

This movie was novel in the reverse way of telling story and the picturisation.
I think it is quite impossible to pick up such a simple subject and explore it so superbly. Remember seeing Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin i.e 'This night has no morning' and this movie was similar to that in telling the story as to what happened in one night.
And the way each scene starts, with concentric circles it reminds me of old tamil/hindi movies where circles go in tortoise fashion to remind us that this is a 'flashback' scene.

Abre Los Lojos or Open Your Eyes:

The cover-version of this movie happens to Cameron Crowe's 'Vanilla Sky'. Quite disappointing to find that Vanilla Sky was a scene-by-scene retake of this movie. The visuals of Alexandro Amenebar's 'Abre Los Lojos' was kind of Hollywoodish and not the usual European cinema-like, maybe the story-line would have prompted major studios to pitch-in and make it a global hit. The dream and reality also kind of reminded me of David Lynch's movies.

Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios or Women on the Verge of Nervous Breakdown:

Pedro Almodovar's movie. Antonoio Banderas comes in a young kid role. The movie was a fast-paced one and it reminded me of the usual Crazy Mohan kind of plots.

¡Átame! or Tie me up Tie me Down:

This movie has to be the original of the tamil movie 'Guna' which had Kamal in the lead role. I think Kamal had customized this role to suit his audience's tastes. This Pedro Almodovar's movie was fast-paced and enjoyable fare, of course the ending was more of a feel-good kind, which was a bit not along the expected lines had one seen 'Guna' earlier.

Pink Floyd - Live at Pompeii - Director's Cut:

Most importantly, this album has the 'Pink floyd' style in the songs, the video picturisation, the interviews. The footages related to Moon, Earth, Pompeii and other outer space footages(thanks to BBC, NASA, ESA etc.,) which were shown with the Pink Floyd's songs playing in the background, brought in a sense of abstraction that only Pink Floyd is capable of! As David Gilmour said in the interview, only they could pull off such a thing.

Scooby Doo 1, Scooby Doo 2:

Movies had nothing much to offer and thought I enjoyed the animation series in TV a lot better than this! Scooby Doo 2 had lots to offer interms of advise to viewers: 'dont forget past', 'enjoy your work not for fame/money but for the fun of it', 'try to be yourself' and more such punch-lines. Guess, a good start for 2006 in terms of listening to punch lines ;-)