Arbitrary stuff from Romania - VI - How Caucescu's regime ended?

Caucescu was in Iran during the winter of December 1989 when things got stormy in Romania. Protests and agitations became a mainstay. Caucescu hurried back home and was terribly surprised to see the people's unrest. Strangely, Caucescu was of the opinion that his people are all happy during his rule ! Guess, Caucescu was not in touch with reality.

Earlier when Caucescu was in his zenith, he was an outstanding ruler from the Eastern block of countries thanks to his independent foreign policy intiatives and his courage to stand-up against the Soviet war-machine. Caucescu was inspired by North Korean communist experiment and Chinese communist experiment.

Some policies during his rule include:
i. Every youth must enroll in Army, as long as the individual is not pursuing any higher education(read drop-outs from school)! I believe this policy is still pursued in Romania
ii. Every person should get married before the age of 25, if not tax will be levied on that person(i.e family-tax).
iii. Slums were eradicated in and around most cities and huge apartment blocks were built.(direct influence of North Korean communist philosphy)
iv. Every married couple get a Dacia, an apartment and a job! Note: Dacia cars are omnipresent in Romania - guess it is very cheap! (similar to our Maruti)

Arbitrary stuff from Romania - V - Indian restaurants in Bucharest

There are three Indian restaurants in Romania:
i. Haveli - Is run by a Pakistani and this hotel is close to Gara-de-Nord(or North Station). The ambience is appreciable out here. They play hindi music all through the day and there is also a dancing programme during the weekend-evenings. The best part in the dancing programme is that one will get to see a Romanian dancer dexterously dancing to Indian film-songs with the same enthusiasm as Shah Rukh or Hrithik.

ii. Taj - Cozy/costly restaurant, just opposite to hotel Marriot is another place to have good Indian food. One could get to see lots of celebrities' photos and their signature in the walls of this hotel alongwith the Indian chef. Dont recollect many of the personalities I saw, but remember seeing the photo of Wesley Snipes(hollywood actor).

iii. Karishma - Another good Indian restaurant. Maybe the best among the lot!

All the above restaurants only provide North Indian food and its a shame why the chefs dont cook South Indian food. All the above restaurants are frequented by the locals, wonder how they handle the hot-and-spicy food!

Arbitrary stuff from Romania - IV - Caucescu Palace

Caucescu palace is an amazing landmark in the city of Bucharest. This building's construction was started in the year 1984 and the building was 90% complete in the year 1989. Then, came the revolution which overthrew Caucescu and then the stoppage of the palace-construction. What will upset the visitor of this palace, is the way the palace-guide treats Caucescu's era with absolute contempt! According to the palace-guide, Caucescu plundered Romania's wealth and this palace was a huge waste of money. Caucescu's palace's official name is 'People's palace' though according to the guide this palace was built only for Caucescu and not for the Romanian people. Caucescu is supposed to have spent millions and millions of dollars in building this amazing landmark when thousands of people were on the verge of absolute poverty. The topic of 'Caucescu' will enthuse most readers to goto wikipedia and learn more about this communist dictator. After reading wiki's article, one could come to the conclusion that maybe he wasnt all that bad as he is potrayed!
Strange philosophy of Caucescu:
i. More the human population, more powerful the country will become.
Sounds silly but strangely, Jawaharlal Nehru also had similar notions on human population. Once when J R D Tata(in 1951 roundabouts) met Nehru, Tata explained to Nehru about the need to create an awareness among the Indian people about the advantages of small family, which will improve the quality of life. But, Nehru replied 'human resources are the most valuable resource for any country and there is no question of advising people to have small families'. Note: Later after 40 years JRD Tata got 'World population award' just before his death.
One key point to note is that in Romania thanks to the dictatorship-rule, strange laws like if a man/woman is unmarried and his/her age is above 25, then he/she has to pay more tax.
In Romania, once a man/woman are married then they are provided a 'Dacia' car(something as ubiquitous as Maruti cars in India) by the government alongwith a flat in the city.

When Caucescu started the palace construction, the absolte secrecy surrounding the palace-construction upset most Romanian people and allowed people to speculate and spread rumours about Caucescu's luxurious lifestyle. So, thanks to the palace-construction, suddenly Caucescu could no longer gain the same affection from his people and soon he was overthrown from power. One could sense a strange parallel between Jayalalitha and Caucescu, Jayalalitha was overthrown from power in 1996 thanks to the luxurious marriage function of her foster-son. Jayalalitha was not called by an army court for execution thanks to India's matured democracy!

Arbitrary stuff from Romania - III - Mutu

Romania is a fierce football-crazy country and till now they have most probably produced one football superstar 'Hagi'. But lately with the emergence of Adrian Mutu, Romanians are seeing the rise of another superstar. Adrian Mutu is currently playing for Juventus and he is the darling of this football-crazy nation. Mutu's name is mentioned frequently in the country's late-night national news(for both his on-field and off-field activities).
Some Romanian club teams also are on the rise beating top-teams from the leagues of England, Scotland, Germany etc. in UEFA cup qulaifying matches.

Arbitrary stuff from Romania - II - DA

'Da' is the most often spoken word in Romanian language(which also obviously, happens to be the national language of Romania). Anyone who picks up the phone invariably says 'Da' rather than 'Hello'. 'Da''s equivalent in English is 'Okay' or Yes' or 'Agreed' or 'Done' etc., I am told that similar to 'Da' in Romanian it is 'Ja' in Dutch. Romanians also have adopted quite a few French-origin words like 'salut'(a greeting equivalent to 'best wishes' or 'my regards' or simply put 'my salutes'), 'merci'(means 'apologies'). Romania also has a few Hindi/Sanskrit-origin words like 'chai' (equivalent to 'tea') and 'zaher'(means sugar in Romanian, while in Hindi 'zeher' means 'poison').

Arbitrary info on Romania - I

Romanian language is supposed to be primarily based on the Romantic languages i.e French/Italian/Spanish/Portugese etc., but what distinguishes Romanian language is the strong influence of Turkish language. Turkish rulers i.e Ottomon empire have had a major impact on this country and it shows clearly in the Romanian language and also in the architecture of the Romanian Orthodox churches which one can find everywhere in the country. The Romanian orthodox churches have 'dome-shaped'(influence of Muslim Ottomon empire) tower unlike the usual cone shaped tower that one sees in most churches all over the world. These Romanian churches were once close to extinction thanks to the communist dictator Caucescu who ruled this country for a fairly long span of time from the 1960's to late 1980's. Caucescu had ordered to demolish most of the churches in the country and also barred his people from worshipping God in his country.(this reminds me of an interesting sequence in the movie 'Forrest Gump' in which Gump appears on a national television alongwith John Lennon)

Harini and Shreya Ghoshal

Liked the song 'Piya bhole ... ' song from the movie 'Parineeta'.
The female-lead of the movie Vidya Balan also looks beautiful!
Thought, the way Shreya Ghoshal giggles and sings is similar to tamil singer Harini.
The giggle brings in a good-dose of innocence to the song!

Harini and Shreya Ghoshal with their quick-giggles and the heavy breaths while rendering songs have manufactured quite a few hit songs.

Note: Kartik - what do you think ? - email me or write what you feel in the comments section!

London Blasts

Why all this hype when London is bombed and no hype when some remote town was bombarded with missiles in Iraq or Afghanistan?
This inconsistency really irritates me.

Look at BBC or CNN crying that London is bombed and casuality as 100, when a similar happening in any third-world country is hardly mentioned inspite of the huge casuality. A natural-disastor like Iran-quake or Asian-tsunami will go also go unnoticed.

NDTV with its 24 X 7 channel is also aping its western cousins quite-well! Every channel have their own prefixes for NEWS i.e 'cnn news', 'bbc news', ' 24 X 7 news', 'sun news' etc., funny how news programme and the news-items are getting prefixed with the 'channel name'!

The Interpreter and War of the Worlds

The Interpreter

Ordinary movie!

Fast-paced movie, but with a rather silly plot!
Nicole Kidman kind of overacts!

One could draw parallels with this movie and the recent happenings in Africa. White-men getting kicked-out, child soldiers, western democracy influencing opposition in that country, dictator getting abused everywhere for his excesses etc., - except for the child-soldiers part the dictator seems to bear a resemblence with Robert Mugabwe(Zimbabwe's Prime Minister).

The role which was played by Roshan Seth in Mississippi Masala is more realistic than the role played by Nicole Kidman in 'The Interpreter'


War of the Worlds:

Ordinary movie!

A boring Spielberg movie.
Dont think Tom Cruise could probably repeat with a performance like 'Jerry Maguire'!

Aussies down :(

Peter Roebeck's columns are a treat to read! Just before yesterday's cricket match(ODI) against Australia and Bangladesh, Peter Roebeck had claimed in his column in 'The Hindu' that Aussies are at a new-low thanks to their defeat in 20-20 against and against a county team in an ODI and Peter said that it wont amuse him if England could beat the Aussies.

Peter Roebeck also claims that Aussies are good-starters and once they are on top they go for the kill, thus not allowing the opponents to comeback. Steve Waugh did the same during the last Ashes tour of England.

Now after reading this coulumn, I got to saw Bangladesh beating the mighty Aussies! That's a major achievement for Bangladesh. It is mostly former Australian players including Richie Benaud who were hard on Bangladesh after their infinite miserable performances. Now with this win, Bangladesh have silenced the Aussie critics!

Aussies did not attack enough all through the match. For most of the match they bowled with only four fieldsmen inside the circle, which is a bad strategy that gave lots of singles to the inexperienced Bangladesh-players.

Another strategy of Aussies which might have got most of the viewers by surprise is 'Jason Gillespie bowling the end-overs with a thirdman up in the circle'. Jason kept bowling the slow offies throughout the slog-overs and at one point of time everyone watching the match knew what ball Jason is going to bowl next(if you wondering what ball - it is the off-spinner!). I think Jason Gillespie is one bowler who bowls with a lot of heart(not with brains unlike Venkatesh Prasad, who bowls extra-ordinary slow-balls). Jason should have bowled his heart-out with his superb length-deliveries, yorkers and the fast-bouncers!
Guess, the Aussie think-tank were over-confident!

The Godfather series

Great movie!
Guess I saw this movie for the nth time, but this time I made it a marathon i.e 1, 2, 3 at one go!
Enjoyed the movie like never before.

The slowness of the movie and the rather sober background music was the best part I liked about this movie. On the contrary, it is because of the same two reasons why I hated watching 'Donnie Darko'(add to that an unexplained story!). 'The Godfather' made sense to me because the plots and sub-plots in this movie was explained, but the plots and sub-plots in 'Donnie Darko' is a mystery!

One of Kill Bill's advertisement reads 'Revenge is a dish best served cold' suits 'The Godfather' movie-series.

Friends and Big Fish

Friends:

Got the chance to see the episodes of Friends season 1, 2 and 3, enjoyed the same!
I think the best episode has to be the one in which Ross and party travel to UK for the wedding and then Rachel also wishes to come-in at the last moment!
Joey and Phoebe were great fun to watch!

Big Fish:

Good movie!
Magical Realism in full-flow!

Photo Connect

Photo A 


Photo B 

Connect these two photos!
Type-in the answers in the 'comments' section of this post!
Clue: this question is cricket-related one!

Donnie Darko

Ordinary movie.
Expected this movie to be of the horror-kind(read the title!), which I normally dont enjoy. But the worst part was that the movie is was too-slow and the music too dull. Remember another movie which was way-too-slow and the music too slow, was 'Ek Chotisi Love Story'.

Wonder how this movie pulled-off a casting coup(including Drew Barrymore(also an Executive Producer of this movie), Patrick Swayze)!

Van Wilder and Born on the Fourth of July

National Lampoon - Van Wilder:

Good college-comedy movie.
Tara Ried looked real hot in this movie!
Had earlier seen another top-class Lampoon movie which was a spoof on Independence Day and other alien movies.
But this Lampoon movie was a lot different with an original story.
American teen-comedy as a movie-genre is great fun to watch - including 'Revenge of the Nerds i, ii, iii and iv, American Pie series, Adam Sandler-movies, Trip-movies.

Born on the Fourth of July:

Ordinary movie.
I had earlier seen a couple of movies set in the backdrop of Vietnam-war and when I watched this movie had nothing new to offer.
'American history' is a great-read particularly the turbulent 60's and early 70's.
Best 'Vietnam' related readings/serials/movies according to me include
a. Art Buchwald's columns(mostly a parody on Nixon and his Vietnam war),
b. 'The Wonder Years' and 'Tour of Duty' television serials,
c. 'Forrest Gump' movie

The 300 Spartans

The 300 Spartans:

Ordinary movie. This War-movie which sings praises on the Spartan-army, also insults everyother army.
Wars are stupid and war-movies are no exception to this stupidity. Just like 'The 300 Spartans', the movie 'Troy' also talks about 'omens' which gives warriors and rulers a false-sense of security about the future. This sounded really stupid!

Hoping to learn a little about Greek history via wikipedia before watching any more Greek war-movies.

Seven Years in Tibet

Good movie.
This movie tries to explore few traces of world-history(my favourite subject in school), so enjoyed those sequences.

Had Johnny Depp played the same role as Brad Pitt, the sequences with Dalai Lama(younger) would have been more interesting. Johnny Depp and his pranks are always a treat to watch and Johnny Depp has great chemistry with young-actors!

Woh Lamhe

The song 'Woh Lamhe' by Atif Aslam is good. But the controversy surrounding it really sucks (the Bhatts and the Pakistan 'Jal' band brigade).

Pakistani-pop bands are rich in talent when compared to Indian pop-bands but guess the financial backing is not there!

Dogma

Dogma:

Inspite of the good star-cast the movie is an ordinary one.
The comedy-content is also mostly below-par except for a few scenes.
Even, George Carlin's humour is not entertaining.
The two prophets are funny when they are courting for the female-lead.

KwK - the final show for this season:

Boring one. No usual embarassing questions for the guests and Karan was going ga-ga about AB and SRK all-through-the-show.

Kingdom of Heaven

Good movie!

Found Orlando Bloom's acting to be good.
The movie's beauty lies in letting the viewers draw a parallel between the movie-plot and the current middle-east problem and Islamophobia among westerners.

'Religious zealots' and 'mercenaries' are strange-folks, it is very difficult to understand what actually drives them to this kind of madness! 'Kingdom of Heaven' tries to explore the reason why Muslims and Christians fought such bloody battles for the holy-land and strangely the movie just-stops of explaining 'the reason behind this madness'.

In the last scene of the movie, inspite of seeing the mindless-violence, both Bloom and his love-interest start their journey back to Jerusalem for yet another fight!

Nice segments in the movie:
i. The protagonist says, 'god doesnt speak to me, even in the place where Christ was crucified'.
ii. Saladin says 'nothing' and later smilingly 'everything'.. in response to Bloom's question as to 'why is he fighting for Jerusalem inspite of the heavy-casuality?'
iii. Last scene when Bloom and his love-interest ride their horse enthusiastically to (my guess follows) join the crusaders in their journey towards Jerusalem.

Hitch

Romantic-comedy

Few observations:
i. Music that runs in the background seems to have been pilfered:
a. When Albert goes after Allegra(i.e just before the board-room sequence) - the background music seems to be an adaptation of James Bond theme music(of course, maybe the film-maker wanted it that way ... but it is truly unoriginal of the music director to have done that)
b. When Will Smith jumps on top of the car which Eva Mendes is driving(during the finishing-stages of the movie), the background music seems to have been lifted from the theme music of the movie 'Life is Beautiful'
ii. The scene in which Eva Mendes starts crying while seeing 'Jerry Maguire' is quite funny. Parallel to this can be seen in 'Sleepless in Seattle' where Meg Ryan starts crying when she sees a romantic movie in TV.
iii. The sequence when Allegra asks Will Smith - whether he taught Albert that she cant whistle or to throw the inhaler before kissing her or to dance in a zany way etc., Will Smith says 'No'.. then she asks 'what did you teach him?' and Will Smith says 'Nothing'. In short this sequences encapsulates the entire-movie.

Notting Hill

Good movie.

The best part in this movie include:
i. Hugh Grant playing the role of a down-to-earth Brit, maybe overacting in the last scene of this movie where he gets down from the limo alongwith Julia and walks down a red-carpet.
ii. 'Brownie' scene in this movie was enjoyable
iii. The stupid blushes of Julia Roberts were a treat to watch and all those conversations she and Hugh Grant have without uttering too many words.
iv. The under-achieving friends of Hugh Grant and their conversations were also fun to watch
v. The songs that come in the background were good.(including 'She' by Charles Aznavour and 'When you say nothing at all..' by Ronan Keating)

After Julia-Hugh breakup, Hugh tries to find new girlfriend with the help of his friends - this segment in this movie is quite distasteful.
Wonder why the protagonist has to search a girlfriend?
Isn't the protagonist self-contained as he started in this movie?
Somehow, during that stage, the independent thinking-guy disappeared!

Brit-movies are a treat-to-watch with their good storyline, unlike most of the American-masala movies!

Shifshuf Naim

This is an Israeli movie. Has loads of comedy-sequences in this movie. It could be classified as an 'teen-comedy-genre'. The english name of this movie is 'Hot Bubblegum'. Guess this movie can be classified as a 'mother of all the american-teen comedies'.

Hollywood Squares

Hollywood Squares has loads of trivia for any careful ear. Folks who are deep-into-quizzing will find loads of trivia. The programme is great fun, with the questions and its answers all extremely entertaining. 'Gilbert Gottfried' is my favourite star.

Movies by weekend

Sholay:
Did not enjoy the movie all that much. Lots of western flavour inserted into this movie. One character who came up with a reasonably cool performance is Amitabh Bacchan alongwith Jaya Bahduri. Hema Malini's make-up was atrocious.
Some info: The movie was shot in Karnataka. In the song 'eh dosti..' an advertisement hoarding in Kannada language can be seen in the background.

Revisiting Neverland:
Kate Winslet tells to Johnny Depp that 'we should just act like friends rather than become just more than friends i.e life-partners', for which Johnny Depp says 'No we cant act like this forever'. Johnny Depp later contradicts the same in a scene with young Peter, when he says 'he can imagine that his mother is there everywhere when in reality she is not alive'. Some contradiction, but the best part of course is that we are allowed to do all the interpretation, which I think encapsulates the beauty of the movie.

Life is Beautiful:
Magical realism in movies :-)
The first time I saw this movie was in a theatre in Chennai. Saturday nigh-show in Sathyam cinemas is always a tough proposition for anyone to grab tickets. Me and my friend were very confident that for a foreign language movie there wont be much of a crowd. But we were wrong, the theatre was kind of housefull and we were lucky to grab 2 tickets. While watching this movie, we noticed our former school principal sitting some few rows ahead of ours. I had earlier heard that she got divorced and got married to another man and is soon to shift base to somewhere in Europe. I think she quit her job as a principal shortly after this second marriage. The school administration is mostly old-fashioned and so guess the management would have found her unsuitable to be the principal of a school! Maybe I could be wrong and she could have volunteered to quit her job for moving to some prosperous country in Europe, but just in case she had decided to stay - 'I think the wrath of an orthodox school administration would have pushed her to quit the job'. I think people tend to look down when they see a 'dysfunctional family'. Honestly every family is dysfunctional in their own way. It is very difficult to find a working-kind. What matters is accepting the faults(if any) and move-on!

The Medallion:
Bad movie. Hope 'The Myth' with Mallika Sherawat is better than this!

KwK - Hema Malini and Zeenat Amman:
Hema Malini's views were a bit cryptic, while Zeenat's was straight-forward. Zeenat's english had a lot of accent attached to it. I think this American accent might have distracted the viewers from listening to what she said on camera. My friend felt the same, while watching Zeenat speaking, he got irritated with her accent-part. But I felt accent part is pardonable for someone who has stayed close to 20 years in USA. As for the content she spoke was much better than Hema Malini.

Movies by Weekend

The Alamo:

Ordinary movie.
Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton play American patriots in this movie. This movie sings about american-jingoism - tells us all the story of how Texas was born!

Chandramukhi:

Rajni movie.
Tinge of Sherlock Holmes-style and Byomkesh Bakshi-style explanation of events - makes this movie interesting.
Another movie which dared to be different was 'alavandhan'. In 'alavandan', Kamal Hassan choreographed interesting sequence of events including the gory animated-fight sequences (Note: Kill Bill 1 had a similar fight sequences). Kamal was quite certain that censors would cut those gory fight sequences, so he took the animation route. Guess, Quentin Tarantino also did the same!

Both 'alavandan' and 'chandramukhi' had a not-so-usual-storyline, but the disappointing aspect in both these movies is the 'comedy'! Both these movies lacked the 'sensitivity-angle' when dealing with topics like 'split-personality' or 'schizophrenia' and followed the formulaic-cinema route. In 'alavandan' the psychopath-Kamal looked like a prankster in the climax segment of the movie.

The Peacemaker:

Movie in the Jerry Bruckheimer mould.
Seems like movies like this just keep coming out of Hollywood day-in day-out! Of course, entertaining one.

Closer:

Good movie.
Found this movie to be interesting and the leading ladies were gorgeous (Natalie Portman and Julia Roberts). Guess, Julia Roberts gels well into Brit based movies.(include: Notting Hill)

Young and Innocent:

This is the first time I saw an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
Nothing extra-ordinary about this movie. It was a fairly decent thriller, except that you know what the next scene is going to be!

Pink Floyd's 'Fearless'

Pink Floyd's song 'Fearless' has a 'chorus' to end. The last time when I saw Liverpool playing a match in EPL I heard the same chorus-tune which comes in the song 'Fearless'. This song seems to be a regular in every English football matches(whether it is the National team or club teams and infact even during cricket matches).

Source of 'You will never walk alone' chorus song:
click here

Me myself and Irine, The Guide and Jewel Thief

Me Myself and Irine:

Yet another Farelly movie. I think the worst Farelly movie must have been their last movie 'Stuck on You' which starred Matt Damon.

Music Videos of 'The Guide' and 'Jewel Thief':

'The Guide' music videos has the best of everything
i. a beautiful 'Waheeda Rahman'
ii. smart Dev Anand (has a vague resemblence to Elvis Presley and Gregory Peck)
iii. great music
iv. No overacting by both the stars
Hoping to see movie 'The Guide' soon. This movie is based on a book with the same name by RK Narayan.
The first RK Narayan book I read was 'Swami and his friends'. I read this book in a public library and found it very hard to control my laughs while reading at all those comic sequences in this book!

'Jewel Thief' in contrast to 'The Guide' seem to have an overacting Dev Anand with those crazy antics( I had first seen these antics by a Dev Anand lookalike in MTV Fully Faltoo) and Vyjantimala's over madeup face :-(

Nostalgia irks!

There is something about Mary:

Good movie.
Ben Stiller fits the bill as an 'under-achiever overly-self-conscious naive person'.

Thirteen Going On Thirty:

Good movie.
I had little or no expectations of seeing a good movie to start with. Thought it is going to be one of those regular teen-girl movie. But this wasnt. Mark Ruffalo was a great foil to the character played by Jennifer Garner. In some of the quick close-ups Jennifer Garner has a vague resemblence to Steven Teller of Aerosmith band! Some of the soundtracks in this movie were really good. To list a few Madonna's "Crazy for you" and Pachelbel's "Pachelbel - Canon in D".

It really is a great place to be i.e to visit nostalgia and be back. But, it is really good if the stay doesnt last long. Because going back to nostalgia makes you forget the present ( which none of us can afford to )!

This Advertisement Rocks

Check this link:
http://www.epica-awards.com/assets/epica/2004/winners/film/flv/11071.htm

Few more Movies and arbitrary stuff

Mulan:
Good movie from Walt Disney stable.
Eddie Murphy has lent his voice to Mushu( a dragon) in this movie. Till Eddie Murphy came - the movie was a bit drab, but after Eddie Murphy comes-in the movie went bazooka!

The day after tomorrow:
Good movie.
Roland Emmerich has scared one-and-all with this movie. Since geography was one of my favourite subjects in school, while watching this movie, when all those geography jargons were mentioned, I took a trip down the lane trying to remember my geography lessons and the great time I had learning those.
Wonder why any disastor movie needs to have New York as the host!

Warriors of Heaven and Earth:
Ordinary movie.
To me, still 'The Hero' seems to be the best Chinese movie I had ever seen. This movie had AR Rahman as the music director. Nothing significant about his music.

Bad Santa:
Good movie.
Expected this to be a comedy movie, but as the story went on it looked more of a black comedy. Movie was enjoyable!

Discreet Discoveries made in Indian music videos:

Made an interesting discovery, Perizaad appears on a Lucky Ali music video for the album 'sifar', in this video Lucky Ali comes as a clown.

Another discovery is that Farhan Akhtar happens to be the music video director for Shankar Mahadevan's song 'Breathless'. Guess Farhan and Shankar Mahadevan's friendship took-off after this when Shankar-Ehsan-Loy did the music for Farhan's debut directorial movie 'Dil Chahta Hai'.

More movies - this weekend

Aladdin:

Ordinary movie.
Trivia: Robin Williams has lent his voice for Genie!
In this movie, there is a lot of Indian influence - girls with kumkum (aka bindhis aka pottu), few of the characters with the typical sethji kind of looks.

Reservoir Dogs:
Good movie. Quentin Tarantino's style written all over the movie. Guess, Tarantino's movies will never reach Oscars thanks to his adoration of violence and obscene dialogues - this movie had lots of it. Movies that go to Oscars invariably have this 'feel-good' content and I guess, Tarantino wont really make those kind of movies. Wonder how 'Kaante' was?('Kaante' an hindi movie is said to have the same story as 'reservoir dogs').

Shawshank Redemption:
Great movie.
Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman were great all through the movie. The final few minutes reminded me of 'The usual suspects' last-twist. Tim Robbins was good even in 'Bull Durham' - but then his bigger co-star Kevin Costner stole most of the limelight. I felt Tim Robbins was ordinary in the Clint Eastwood movie 'Mystic River', but his performance in 'Arlington Road' was real good . But, 'Shawshank redemption' has to be his best-ever. Feel the same for Morgan Freeman as well, his other movies including his latest one with Clint Eastwood 'Million Dollar Baby' just wasnt in the same class as this movie.

KwK with Vivek Oberoi and John Abraham:

Vivek was tight-lipped and made the show uninteresting. John Abraham just stole the show all the way. John Abraham during the chat said that 'he is a director's actor' - think it is very difficult to be one of such kind. Guess, the actor has to call the shots at some point of time - because in Hindi cinema, I think it is saleability of actors that still counts and not that of the plot. Director just has to move the plot around the main-actor and not the other way around. This also applies to our politics and cricket where politicians and cricketers score over their parties and teams respectively.

The Boondock Saints:

Oridinary movie. The movie started more like a comedy movie under the backdrop of mafiadom. But soon took an ugly turn when the movie became more like a 'right' vs 'wrong' and 'what are values' type. So, became boring and predictable in the end. Ashok Amritraj is one of the Associate Producers of this movie. Similar to most of Ashok's movies it has lots of action-sequences.

Little Terrorist:

I guess this movie went for the Best Oscar in short-film category. A Pakistani boy comes into Indian territory by mistake and gets back to his country with an Indian's help.
Trivia: Guess all the technicians worked for free as per the request by Ashwin(the director) who shot this movie with a very small budget.

Cheaper by the Dozen:

Good movie.
Movie mostly talks about 'small-town values'.

Ghost and the Darkness:

Good movie.
Val Kilmer was outstanding. I think Michael Doglous during his cameo was overacting, he also happens to be the executive producer of this movie. Some of the dialogue delivery pattern of Michael Douglous is similar to the tamil actor Sivaji Ganesan. Om Puri plays a listless role. Some of the scenes including the scene where lion pounces on Val Kilmer's wife and kid(during his nightmare) was really well shot.

Alien movies :(

Encounters of the Third Kind:

Ordinary movie.
I remember another ordinary movie of same genre titled 'The Signs'. Both Manoj Night Shyamalan(dir of signs) and Spielberg built the plot in an exciting fashion, but faltered in the final hurdle by showing 'aliens' on screen.

Starship troopers:

Bad movie.
Most Alien movies are boring. In this movie, one compensation inspite of all those gory-scenes is 'Denise Richards is there in this movie looking-really stunning'

Boiler Room

Good movie. The movie has a good starcast including Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel and Ben Affleck(guest role). Giovanni Ribisi(GR) really stole the movie from the other stars. The dialogue between GR and his father were good. And the monologue by Ben Affleck was good, but Ben could have actually been part of the film rather than a lecture and go kind of person.

One sequence in this movie that is the soul of the story is , when GR was 10 years old he fell down from his bicycle and got badly hurt in his leg. When his father found his child to be crying with pain because of the fall from bicycle, he initially got stunned and then the father slapped the kid. Later GR's father says that he slapped GR to let GR forget the pain of the bicycle-fall.

Vin Diesel repeating the dialogues of Michael Douglous from the movie 'Wall Street' was also good.

Equilibrium

This movie is more of a Matrix take-off. All the masala and with the usual dose of action scenes whether it is of martial arts or the final pistol-fight. Surprisingly, this movie doesnt have a big star-cast. Wondering how it might have fared in the box-office - me never heard of this movie before this!

Joe Pesci

I saw 'My Cousin Vinny' - Great movie! I was expecting Joe Pesci to come up more of an Italian don kind of role, but was disappointed when Pesci was shown more of a struggling-lawyer. But as the movie started moving - it was more of a 'as good as it gets' kind. Me enjoyed all the sequences in this movie thoroughly. I remember Joe Pesci playing the role of an Italian don smattering some expletives in almost all the movies that I have seen him act. So, this rather funny-role really caught me by surprise. Marisa Tomei's cameo was outstanding and she looked stunning!

George Carlin(GC), a famous stand-up comedian once during his regular stand-up dose about 'Religion' said something like this:

GC: You know who I pray to? Joe Pesci. Joe Pesci. Two reasons; first of all, I think he's a good actor. Okay. To me, that counts. Second; he looks like a guy who can get things done. Joe Pesci doesn't fuck around. Doesn't fuck around. In fact, Joe Pesci came through on a couple of things that God was having trouble with. For years I asked God to do something about my noisy neighbor with the barking dog. Joe Pesci straightened that cock-sucker out with one visit.
I noticed that of all the prayers I used to offer to God, and all the prayers that I now offer to Joe Pesci, are being answered at about the same 50 percent rate. Half the time I get what I want. Half the time I don't. Same as God 50-50. Same as the four leaf clover, the horse shoe, the rabbit's foot, and the wishing well. Same as the mojo man. Same as the voodoo lady who tells your fortune by squeezing the goat's testicles. It's all the same; 50-50. So just pick your superstitions, sit back, make a wish and enjoy yourself.
And for those of you that look to the Bible for it's literary qualities and moral lessons; I got a couple other stories I might like to recommend for you. You might enjoy The Three Little Pigs. That's a good one. It has a nice happy ending. Then there's Little Red Riding Hood. Although it does have that one X-rated part where the Big Bad Wolf actually eats the grandmother. Which I didn't care for, by the way. And finally, I've always drawn a great deal of moral comfort from Humpty Dumpty. The part I liked best: "and all the king's horses, and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again." That's because there is no Humpty Dumpty, and there is no God. None. Not one. Never was. No God.
Source: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:IPIdkTKw_DoJ:www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/carlin.htm+joe+pesci+george+carlin&hl=en

Remember the titans

Out and out Jerry Bruckheimer kind of movie. Lots of masala.
Before Indian team played against the mighty Aussies in 2001(the same test series where Laxman scored 281), Indian team went for a special preview of this movie. I guess this special show was in Sathyam cinemas in Madras. Soon after the movie, John Wright praised this movie and said it gave them lots of lessons on teamwork.

Monty Python - The Meaning of Life

Did not enjoy the movie. After seeing this - thought that Monty Python is a hyped-up movie but later one friend told me that this is certainly not the best Monty Python movie. Maybe the reason why I really didnt enjoy this movie could be due to other Brit Brit/American parodies that I had seen earlier. One name that comes to my mind thinking about Brit comedy/parody is 'the benny hill show'. 'the Benny hill show' is good but somehow I never enjoyed the song-segment that is always a regular in his show. Hopefully, the next Monty Python movie I will be seeing is a better one!

Scarface

Bad movie. Acting talents of Michelle Pfeifer and Al Pacino are wasted. Not sure when this movie was made - could be early eighties. Al Pacino is more of a rogue don than a watchful sedate don he played in Godfather. This role didnt suit him at all. Quick trivia: Oliver Stone has written the screenplay of this movie.

How ashamed are you about your friends?

Phoebe in 'Friends' series is not really a good-singer but still persists with her singing in 'Central Perk'. Not many in Central-Perk appreciate her singing-exploits, but still her buddies appreciate each-and-every one of her songs. Monica is not very good in this false-appreciation that Ross, Chandler, Joey, Rachael - so she goes before Phoebe and tells Phoebe the truth that 'she is not a good singer'. Phoebe on hearing this says 'I know I am not a good singer, but still I want you and my other buddies to support me in whatever I do'.

Liked the above sequence. The above sequence is a common occurance in everyone's lives i.e expecting appreciation from our friends for the various actions-we-perform nevermind it is good or bad.

Does adverse criticism help anyone? No, me thinks adverse criticism encourages one to go on the defensive. Defensiveness kills the confidence and thus the person refuses to take risks and thus will gain comfort in the way things-are. Guess, it is better if people start behaving the normal way rather than the defensive way! As to answer the question i.e 'should you tell the brutal-truth to your friend?' - No, I guess your friend knows himself/herself better than anyone around!

Sex and the city

Is 'Sex and the city' a cliched programme?
Always wondered why it is that only upper middle class white working career-woman like Carrie always turn-out to be the mouth-piece of feminism? Almost all tele-serials or movies which talks about topics like feminism feature only the priviliged women(from the upper-strata of the society) as the protagonist and not the under-privileged! And the issues that appear in such teleserials are junk but nevertheless entertaining.

Around The World In 80 Days, Laws of Attraction, Cody Banks

Around The World In 80 Days

Ordinary movie. Not the usual Jackie Chan movie.

Laws of Attraction, Identity and Agent Cody Banks were the few movies I saw lately in TV. Guess, Laws of Attraction was the best among the above three. Laws of Attraction reminded me of another movie I saw lately titled 'Intolerable Cruelty' because of the divorce-lawyer connection. Got to say, rest of the movie was completely unlike 'Intolerable Cruelty'. 'Intolerable Cruelty' was really cruel on all its viewers. Only saving grace was the beautiful Catherine Zeta Jones. In 'Laws of Attraction' both Pierce Brosnan and Julian Moore were amazing. Pierce Brosnan seems to be tailor-made for such movies i.e romantic-roles. All his non-James Bond or spy-kind of movies seems to be good.

Be Cool, Vertical Limit and KwK

Be Cool:

Good movie. This is the sequel to the movie 'Get Shorty' which was also good. Lots of major-stars in the movie. Best part of the movie include 'the black gangsters who also happen to be R and B artists'.

Vertical Limit:

Good movie. I had earlier seen this movie some 2-3 years back, so this time when I watched this movie it was more a 'total recall' - nevertheless enjoyed it!

KwK - Aishwarya and Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Aishwarya was amazing with her polite responses all through the show. I think Jayalalitha also responds to most-interviews in the same way. Jayalalitha blames media for all the bad publicity she gets - even if the mistake is hers. Jayalalitha escapes from answering any personal questions. And Jaya hardly responds to any direct question.

Karan provoked Aishwarya by mentioning 'Salman Khan' again and again. But Aishwarya politely ignored all questions even-vagely related to Salman. It was quite surprising to see Aishwarya calm and composed all through the show. Lots of embarrassments for her all through the show - one of those embarrassments goes like this:
K: Most under-rated actor in Hindi cinema
A: Vivek Oberoi

Later Karan asked similar rapid-fire question to Sanjay
K: Most over-rated actor in Hindi cinema
S: Vivek Oberoi

Immediately cameras focussed on her, she just sat there with a stupid smile.

Guess, Aishwarya will be killing herself for agreeing to come on KwK.

Earlier when Jaya had an interview with another Karan i.e Karan Thapar - Jaya got so irritated with the constant harping questions that she kind of staged a walkout and expressed her disappointment with the interview. But Aishwarya beat Jaya by being cool and composed throughout the show!

Toy Story 1 and 2

Good movie. Tom Hanks was amazing giving the voice-over for 'Woody'. The movie lectures about 'old-world-value-system and the regular morals of life'. I have seen a couple-of-similar animated movies. I liked 'Monsters Inc', 'Finding Nemo', 'Shrek 1' but didnt like 'Shrek 2'. Somehow I get the impression that animated movies are mostly about morals, maybe directed towards the universal audience and the USP of animated movies is that 'anyone can watch animated movies i.e adults and children'. I think the 'moral' part in animated movies is too cliched and too predictable! Guess, even children will get bored with this!

Raam

Another fairly decent movie. The plot was carried deftly all-through the movie. Not many unwanted deviations from the actual-plot, quite unlike other tamil movies. Vazhavanthan's role was outstanding ;-)
'Should tamil movies go-away with songs-fight-sentiment masala-stuff and follow-the-sensible cinema approach and be loyal to the actual plot of the movie?' is something I have always wondered about. I think masala-stuff suits the general audience best than any other movie-genre. Surprisingly, both hollywood and tamil-movies adopted the musicals in moving-cinemas during the early stages of movie-making. But Hollywood moved away from moving-cinema but Tamil-cinema industry got stuck with the musical-kind. Now, that musical aka masala cinema (includes fights-sentiments alongwith music) has come to a stay, there is little chance for the birth of plot-based movies without needless sentiments-fight-song-dance. What tamil cinema need is some individual or individuals to start the plot-based cinema. But is there a possibility of this happening? 'NO' is the answer - thanks to cinema being recognised as an organized-industry rather than as an art-form. I think Hollywood suffers with a similar stigma - where innovation is harvested even before the crop matures thanks to commercial-approach.
Q: How to kill art ?
A: Recognize art as an industry!
Surprisingly, amateurs and hobbyists are the ones who bring in more ideas and not the arm-chair professionals. Guess, if movie-making is treated similar to regular art-form, things can really move for the better.

The Italian Job

Fairly decent movie. Complete action-thriller kind. I have heard of the original 'the italian job' movie but never seen it. This new one has good star-cast including Mark Wahlberg, Donald Sutherland, Charlize Theron and Edward Norton. Mark Wahlberg's acting reminds me of Matt Damon's style of acting and Edward Norton's acting reminds of Giovanni Ribisi's acting-style.

Meet the Fockers

Meet the Fockers:

Disappointing movie! Not a good sequel to 'Meet the Parents'.
Most of the jokes were shoddy and were rather predictable ones. Great talents like Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro looked like misfits in this movie.

Guess most sequels have this problem of not living upto the original movie.
'Hyderabad Blues 2' is one movie in the same league, the original 'Hyderabad Blues' was outstanding but the sequel had bad A-jokes and the story lacked substance kind of similar to 'Meet the Fockers'.

Finding Neverland

finding neverland:

Good movie. All the stars in this movie were amazing - Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet and all the kids including Peter. All through the movie I kept associating 'Peter Pan with Michael Jackson'. wondered why MJ always associated himself with Peter Pan than anybody else! Maybe for MJ - Peter Pan represents the quintessential way to escape from daily-adulthood chores.

I think Brit-based movies somehow have more soul than any of the Hollywood movies. Brit-movies require good-acting skills while most of Hollywood-movies encourage its actors to overact. Another good thing about Brit-movies is that they dont have huge funds at their disposal unlike hollywood - so they tend to rely on 'story, acting abilities of stars etc.,' rather than special effects.

Best segments in this movie include:
i. Johnny Depp talking to George(eldest son of Kate Winslet) and telling him that he is growing faster and lost his boyhood for adulthood.
ii. Johnny Depp's pranks as a red-indian and pirate.
iii. Last scene of the movie where Johnny Depp asks Peter to imagine that his mother is everywhere and asks Peter to continue to believe the same.
iv. The first staging of Peter Pan where orphan children are allowed to sit next to the general public seats.

The idea is quite simple, 'Dont get bogged down with what you dont have in real-world. You create an imaginary world around you and start believing that you are having everything'. Its a rather tame way of resigning instead of competing against all odds. But the idea is pretty clear, you compete against all odds to establish a point - which some might agree and some might disagree. So, the things you do is all meant for pacifying others i.e in short ' more of a defense mechanism '. But here(in Peter Pan), we can resign from competing and live your own life without any hassles. But sometimes this logic wont work, because man is more of a social-animal and he requires people around him. When you have people around you, you are pushed to sacrifice and do things that you normally wont do. Thus, being practical is the key. Guess, I really am not able to summarise this thread :-(

Brewster's Millions

Funny movie. Earlier I had seen the movie 'arunachalam' which was based on Brewster's millions story-line. I think unlike other Rajni movies 'arunachalam' didnt really smooth take-off but nevertheless was a hit just like most of other Rajni films. So having known what the story is all about - i kind of enjoyed this movie predicted what the next scene is going to be ...with absolutely no surprises. Quite strange but I guess none of us like surprises not just in real life but in movies also. Maybe that's why pulp movies sell whether it is in US or Uk or India or AU. Long live pulp movies!
But at times the worst part is that the viewers get the horrible feeling of being taken-for-a-ride when the quality of the movie is bad. I think that is when we host ideas for change and that's when change as a concept is welcomed. Maybe that is also why we long for change(aka sensible cinema) and once we see change(aka sensible cinema) .. we move back to pulp after we get bored with sensible cinema ...and this never-ending cycle goes on and on.

One just has to appreciate the abundance of variety in everything around us. Since what appears to be extra-ordinary to me at one point of time could be just ordinary to me after some point of time! Just looking at the change of opinion, at times I feel that it is rather stupid to even call some theory/person/thing as bad since I can anticipate that there is another person who might be quantifying the same as good. Now, this hijacks us to an interesting question - 'is there anything called right and wrong?'...
I think there is no right or no wrong. We created a theory called 'value or constitution or commandments etc.,' but is there any person who is going to validate our value system or constitution or commandments? The answer is NO.
So, suit yourself is the best option on all the things you are doing. Do what you want aka 'Be yourself' in the MTV language is more apt at this moment!
Now, what does 'be yourself' really mean? 'Being oneself' rarely works - because we are not trained to be ourselves. We are more of a process-engine i.e all are expected to behave only in a certain fashion. You just go on and on like the energizer battery doing the same again-and-again without any break. Now, back on track is there a way to get out this monotony and to try to be ourselves? Guess there is a way but it requires loads of courage to act in that way. Not sure any of us want surprises, so we never really try this.

Veer Zaara

I did not enjoy this movie. Bad segments in this movie include the lengthy dialogues, too many crying-sequences, landscapes were all too glossy and even the culture part was over-glorified. Just cannot accept the last part i.e culture-glorification. Why would someone be proud of a culture? Why would someone enjoy that he comes from this geographical-region? Why would someone be proud of nation or religion ? Guess, someone who is having low self-esteem would rely on such farce stuff.

Guess, Samuel Johnson once said 'patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels'
Me rewriting the same as 'Culture is the last refuge of scoundrels'.

Movies by weekend

Lost in Translation:

Really enjoyed watching this movie. This movie had a remarkable love-story. The best part of the entire-movie was when Bill Murray leaves Scarlett Johanson for his hometown-kids-wife etc. Bill Murray's acting ability reminds me of Kevin Spacey. I think the climax was an apt one, Scarlett appears to be ready for the new relationship with Bill i.e ready to dump her current husband but Bill displays maturity in not-proposing to marry her. I think anyone of those usual love-story-movies would have scripted 'Bill marrying Scarlett and live happily forever story' and Sophia Coppalo deserves appreciation for this amazing climax.
Great movie!

Million Dollar Baby:

Good movie. Clint Eastwood as an actor steals the show from the first-scene. And his last-act of pull-the-plug is a rather debatable one. I think 'euthanasia' is something very difficult to comprehend and people tend to react emotionally to this topic. As long as one is speaking out his mind emotionally, the opinion is bound to be wrong. 'Euthansia' sounds logical in case of people suffering due to terminal illness but at the same time it defies human spirit. Humans have the ability to fight against all odds. And I think any human has this inborn-ability to fight against anything which is trying to exterminate him. Going by the natural ability to fight against any virus(thanks to immune system), how come humans at times succumb to few diseases/sickness is something which is very difficult to comprehend. But the point to be noted is that 'humans fight for their survival never-mind the end-result without much regard to the end-result i.e victory or defeat'.

In cases where it is impossible for humans to fight-back - then there arent any option left to the human but to die, but die fighting hard. 'Die fighting hard' is a rather cruel way to die knowing very well about the impending-death. It is prudent for 'medical community' to discuss about this 'euthanasia' rather than a civil-government. If the 'medical community' thinks impending death is inevitable and the suffering could be avoided with 'euthanasia' - then 'so be it'.

Black:

I found the movie to be an 'okay-one'. It certainly not a good movie as critics claim in every magazine or newspaper. I think this movie was hyped-up!

KwK - Rahul Bose and Konkana Sen Sharma:

This show wasnt really interesting, with both the guests refused to divulge into bold issues and refused to comment about 'contemporary bollywood'. The guests of course hinted on the 'disregard for bollywood' but they refused to be come-out boldly about it! Karan's questions were good, but I think his guests are happy to diplomatic and not get muddled into any controversy. This development is bad for the show!

Khamoj

Lyrics of Fuzon's Khamoj song:

'Sawan beto jaye pe harwa
Munn mera ghabraye
Aiso gaye pardes piya tum
Chain humain nahin aaye
Mora saiyann mose bole na
Main lakh jatan ker hari
Laakh jatan ker hari
Mora saiyaan mose bole na

Tou jo nahin to aise piya him
Jaise sona aangna
Nain tehari raah main hare
Nenun ko tarsao na
Mora saiyaan mose bole na
Main laakh jatan ker hari
Mora saiyaan mose bole na

Pyar tumhain kitna karte hain
Tum ye samajh nahin pao ge
Jub hum na hoon ge to pe harwa
Bolo kya tub aao ge
Mora saiyaan mose bole na
Main laakh jatan ker hari
Mora saiyaan mose bole na'

my translation:

when rain comes, there comes the wind
and my mind is scared
if you hadnt left me dear
i wouldnt have got this memory
my love talk to me
my innumberable attempts to contact u
innumerable attempts to contact u
my love talk to me

if you arent there how can i be
...
(i give up my translation... apologies to fuzon for the bad interpretation if any)

Good cozy song, has a melancholic strain attached to it. 'Fuzon' has done a remarkable job with this song. Wonder how Hariharan would have sung the same number instead of the 'Fuzon' lead-singer. Hariharan is lot more persuasive in his songs. I had good opinion on 'The strings' to start with, but after listening to them a bit more often, I lost interest in their songs(Ashok - I am joining your club!). Hope this Fuzon song doesnt fall into that category.

All Pink Floyd or Dire Straits or Led Zep songs never bore me, even if I am listening to them day-in day-out. These bands really have the fuel to 'go the distance'. Even the most remarkable A R Rahman song falls into the 'burn-out' category.

Guess, only songs which have soul and style can sustain for long time. Songs by 'led zep', 'pink floyd', 'dire straits', classical music(western or carnatic or hindustani) always will last long. Reason for classical music to be featured in this 'perennial-favourite' is that they have an enigma associated with them. It is not easily comprehensible and there lies the beauty of the song. So, most of us wont mind to listen to songs of such kind of again-and-again and still not be satisfied with our interpretion of that song. Every time you listen to the song, you will get a different understanding of that song.
Really enjoyed listening to Madurai TN Seshagopalan's rendition of 'kurinji .. nattai kurinji' raga/song. Infact I even enjoyed the song which ran in the 'kill bill 2' final credits, that song was in some Latino language(I guess Spanish) was composed by Robert Rodriguez.
Robert Rodriguez seems to be god of pulp movies and the best part is that like our 't rajendar' he is also immensely talented in either direction/music direction etc.,

I remember listening to 'khamoj by Fuzon' as a music video and also as part of the soundtrack of 'hyderabad blues 2'. 'Hyderabad blues 2' is not a good movie and the movie relied too much on 'rather bad jokes'. 'Jyoti Dogra' was pretty all through this movie but not in crying scenes, not sure whether she matched the acting talent of the previous 'Hyderabad blues' star 'Rajshri Nair'. Cant really comprehend how Nagesh Kookunur made such a bad film. I remember seeing his other movies including 'Hyderabad Blues(1)', 'Rockford', 'Bollywood calling'. I missed out watching 'teen deewarein'. Best among the above list was 'Bollywood calling' according to me. This movie had loads of stars. To me the best and the surprise pick of that lot was 'Perizaad zorabian' - guess, this was her first movie. She was confidence-personified all through this movie.

Constantine

Lots of Matrix hangover all through this film!
Lots of complicated christian mythology stuff inserted all-through the movie!
My knowledge of 'christian mythology' is just below average, so struggled to understand this movie.
If 'Matrix 2 and 3' really irritated you, then skip this movie!

This movie is said to be set in 'Los Angeles', guess the movie 'city of angels' was also set in 'Los ANGELes'.

Kill Bill 2

trivia:
Samuel L Jackson plays the piano in the church
No idea about the role of Kurt russel, Charles Bronson and Burt Reynolds in this movie
Robert Rodriguez(of 'desperado', 'once upon a time in mexico') is the music dir.

Good movie. I had earlier read the script of this movie before seeing this movie. So, guess my mind-sketch of the scenes didnt really get its due place in the movie. I have always found that once you read the story (as a review or a book or a script on a movie), you always have a sky-high expectation of the actual movie when you are about to see it. And it is always the same - that the movie wont really stand-up to your expectations.

Best part of this movie is 'elle's eyeball plucked and crushed ;) , guess no one else could show this on screen other than Tarantino'.
Bad part of this movie involves the sequences from China. The chapter involving China in the actual script was just too good and what you see in the movie is not really upto one's expectations!

Weekend by Movies

American pie : the wedding

Good American-teen comedy movie. this movie was as good as 'the road trip', 'euro trip' and the previous american pie releases.
Sean William Scott is tailor made for 'happy-go-lucky' roles. This movie reminded me of another yester-year American-teen comedy movie titled 'the bachelor's party' which featured Tom Hanks. The pranks of Sean and Tom Hanks(in 'the bachelor's party' are strangely similar.

Cellular:

Enjoyable fast-paced action-thriller movie, similar to most of the 'Jerry Bruckheimer' kind. Kim Basinger plays a lead role in this movie.

Shaun of the Dead:

Enjoyable Brit-horror-comedy movie.
British english accent is not so easy to follow, after watching a few hollywood-flicks. So guess one has to concentrate on the dialogues a bit more. Infact felt the same with Minnie Driver's accent in the movie 'Good will hunting'. Brit teleserials like 'Coupling' but surprisingly never had this problem when Boycott or with Mark Nicholas doing the commentary during cricket matches.

Koffee with karan - Preity and Abishek:

This talk-show was not really the best of the KwK. But nevertheless it had a few funny segments.

The legend of the drunken master:

One of those usual Jackie Chan movies in the backdrop of colonial rule.

The hero:

Thought it was a good movie. Splash of colors all around.
The pattern in which 'the defeat of the 3 assasins' are told was good.

The 'splash of colors' reminded me of the movie 'The Cell' which was directed by Tarsem and it featured Jeniffer Lopez. The 'story-telling' part reminded me of an old tamil movie 'antha naal' which had Shivaji Ganesan in the lead-role.

The Manchurian Candidate:

Ordinary movie. Jonanthan Demme has directed this movie.
Guess, the movie is a 'pro-Democrats' movie and would have been handy publicity tool for Democrats against the Republicans. This movie could be funny if you could draw a parallel to the 'vice presidential candidate' in this movie to the current US president 'george w bush'.

Without a paddle:

Good movie of American teen-comedy movie genre.
Burt Reynolds(in a guest role) comes in this movie as some kind of yeti.

A parallel thought, another famous actor who once appeared in a guest role as a 'yeti' was Kabir Bedi in the movie 'Anita and me'.

Sehwag and 'as if there is no tomorrow'

Kind of made for each other i.e 'Sehwag and First-Innings'. He has a really high first innings average, which I think is next only to Don.

My friend was telling me that today 'Sehwag is 95/3'- what he meant was he had three lives today. Quite surprisingly, lives hardly matter to Sehwag. He just goes on scoring in a feverish pace 'as if there is no tomorrow'.

This phrase 'as if there is no tomorrow' kind of started a huge clash between Azharuddin(when he was dating Sangeetha Bijlani) and Sunil Gavaskar. Sunny on the commentary box during one-of those usual Sharjah cricket matches on seeing Azharuddin getting himself run-out in a suicidal fashion said 'Azhar is running as if there is no tomorrow'. Azhar had all media against him during that time when media was complaining that he was only behind Sangeetha and not cricket. Azhar got irritated when he came to know that it was of all the people 'Sunny' who made that comment. So Azhar came out bang-bang over Sunny and said making such comments is not expected from a former-player like Sunny. End of the day, both got agreed for a cease-fire.

Hopefully, lets see another Sehwag big-hundred during day 3 of mohali test.

The Aviator

Glad I saw this movie yesterday.

Guess, this movie was much better than his earlier one 'Gangs of New York'. Surprising how this biopic missed out in Oscars in Best Picture and Director categories. And Leonardo DiCaprio was quite outstanding in his role.

The movie had lots of trivia. Surprising how one man pushed aviation to what it is now. 'Obsessive compulsive disorder' exhibited by DiCaprio is hard to understand.

In India, the aviation industry got the biggest push from 'JRD TATA'. Guess, a movie about JRD should be made. JRD was be one real disappointed man since Indian bureaucracy is far worse than any USA. And inspite of all this bureaucracy, JRD still managed to do miracles for Indian Aviation industry.

Hoping to see 'Million Dollar Baby' and find out what makes it better than 'The Aviator'. I remember Leonardo in an interview saying that, "It is a joke that Martin Scorcese not getting an Oscar for 'best director'". I believe DiCaprio is right!

Forrest Gump

Best sequences in this movie include:
i. Forrest reaches Jenny's apartment and is happy to see her and her son and says,
forrest:'so you are a mom'
jenny: 'yes, his name is forrest and i named after his father'
forrest couldnt understand that jenny is referring to him
jenny: 'you are his father'
forrest bewildered and finally sits alongwith his son to watch a children's programme.
ii. forrest asking jenny 'will you marry me' and jenny kind of rejects it politely. and now forrest tells jenny that 'yes, maybe i am not smart ...' and goes outside his alabama house and looks hurt
iii. forrest asking jenny to go to 'Alabama' instead of boarding the bus to Berkeley with the student union leader who earlier slapped jenny.
iv. forrest telling to the old lady in the bench, 'so i went to the white house again. to see the president of united states of america ..'

and more...

This movie is a class-act. The first time I saw this movie, I didnt understand much. Then, my knowledge of American History or Music was really bad. and the worst part is I could not even guess that Forrest was a special-child - I guess, then I just didnt concentrate much while watching this movie. When I said 'I didnt like this movie' - my friend Kartik bounced on me! He just could not accept how one could not like 'forrest gump'. Later when I got the 2nd , 3rd ... nth chance to watch this movie... I really started enjoying this movie. This movie really will scare someone out of the theatre for someone who cant appreciate american history/music.
I think Robert Zemicks has made a simple plot a very complex one. He really excelled in the art of interwining Forrest and Jenny with American history/music.

A strange coincidence I noticed in this Robert Zemicks-Tom Hanks movie i.e Forrest Gump and Castaway was the 'scrap-book'. When Forrest visits Jenny's apartment, Jenny shows Forrest the scrap-book with Forrest's run-clippings and similarly when Tom Hanks visits Helen Hunt, Helen shows a scrapbook with the aircrash-news clippings.

The Sound of Music

This movie is a class-act.

I was under the impression that :
i. this movie is about filthy-rich folks
ii. this movie is hyped-up by an entire generation, who liked the songs in this movie
iii. this movie tells you about the good-things in life without any regard to the not-so-good-things.
iv. this movie is about rich people who get worried with rather trivial things like 'new dress getting dirty' and stuff.
v. this movie is about rich folks who dont know what poverty is.
vi. this movie is about highly-irritating cute little children and their wierd innocence
vii. i dont like these musicals, didnt like 'chicago' for one

and I always thought why would someone watch such a movie.....(all this before I watched this movie)

After I watched this, I found this movie to be a rather-clean movie. I found it very hard to dissect this movie, because this movie is more of packaged-movie feel-good movie than anything else.

Wondered why I am against this feel-good-movies. Somethings like this(feel-good-movies), immediately hits us - 'oh forget it, it cant be true. The are fooling you'
But still inspite of all the negative-feelings that are in the air, one still looks up to these feel-good-movies to get one out-of-the-blues. There really is some magic about these feel-good-movies.

When a recent Govind Nihlani movie starring Amitabh, Fardeen, Kareena got released, it showed the whole society in bad-taste. I didnt see the movie, but read a few reviews about the same. Some journalist questioned Om Puri (another key cast in this movie) as to 'why would someone take a film like this?'(i.e to show the rotten part of our society). Om Puri responded saying that, ' films like these are a necessity'. And according to him it is more important for films like these to be released when feel-good-factor is in the air. According to Om Puri, it is only when there is a 'feel-good-factor is in the air' can people appreciate the 'feel-bad-movies'. I feel Om Puri got it spot on.

Kareena Rani and Karan

Rather a bad topic to blog about.
But last week I saw 'Koffee with Karan' and the guests were Kareena and Rani.
Kareena was intimidated all through the show by Karan and the way she handled those intimidations was kind of funny. And both Rani and Karan kept mentioning "Shahid kapoor's" name all through the interview and Kareena kept blushing all through the show. Quite pathetic to see her this way.

One little trivia about Kareena, 'kareena' in Russian means 'darling'. But got to say, there is nothing really darling about Kareena Kapoor neither is she too daring nowadays.

Cricket by Numbers

Today, early morning when I was watching Aus vs NZ 4th ODI in Wellington. When Gillespie bowled his first ball of the match, Fleming flicked it for a four down the legs. Immediately, Ian Smith in commentators box said that the reason behind that could be attributed to the dreaded '87' for Aussies. Incidentally, Gillespie was playing his 87th ODI. Wondered what is so 'crazy' about this 87, so googled a bit and got the below number-information. Guess, this is a must-read for cricket-enthusiasts.

Answers to some hyped-up cricket-numbers(in australian context) is revealed by the this blog. For eg, why is 87 unlucky for aussies, what's the significance of 9994 etc.,


1. 99.94

Don Bradman strode to the wicket at the Oval in 1948 for his last Test innings needing four runs to leave him with a career average of 100. That he fell so tantalisingly short – bowled second ball for a duck – was instantly the stuff of legend, but it failed to stop his average becoming a totemic figure in Australian sport.

Charles Moses, general manager of the ABC for three decades, enshrined the figure in the Australian psyche with his suggestion to include it in the national broadcaster's postal address, which became P.O. Box 9994 in every state capital.

2. 334

Bradman's highest Test score, recognisable to the most casual Australian cricket follower, was compiled at Headingley during his phenomenal Ashes tour in 1930. A few weeks short of his 22nd birthday, Bradman came to the wicket in the second over of the match. By the end of the opening day, he was on 309. His dismissal the next morning heralded a record that would be unthreatened for almost seven decades.

In 1998, at Peshawar in Pakistan, Mark Taylor declared the Australian innings when he was on 334 because he was unwilling to outshine the Don.

3. 501

Brian Lara compiled his unbeaten 501 during a purple patch that only Bradman has matched. Just weeks after posting the then highest Test score, with 375 against England at Antigua, Lara flayed the Durham attack while playing for Warwickshire at Edgbaston. His innings surpassed the 499 that Hanif Mohammad had made for Karachi in 1958 before being run out – attempting a two from the penultimate delivery before stumps. (A mix-up by the scoreboard operators meant that Mohammed thought he was on 496, instead of 498: "I decided to take a couple of twos if a boundary wasn't possible. Had the correct score been shown, I would have planned differently ... I was very upset.")

4. 87

The superstition about Australia' unlucky number supposedly began with Keith Miller, who – aged 10 – went to the MCG to watch Bradman bat for NSW against Victoria during the 1929-30 season. The young Miller's hopes that Bradman would score a ton were dashed when Harry "Bull" Alexander bowled him; in Miller's memory, the Don was on 87, an unlucky 13 runs short of a century.

When Miller began playing district cricket with South Melbourne, he was fielding alongside Ian Johnson in the slips when he commented that many batsmen seemed to be dismissed on 87. In years to come, while playing for Victoria and Australia, Miller and Johnson would nudge each other when a batsman or the team reached that figure.

Richie Benaud later picked up on it and the myth grew. The fact that, all those years ago, the Don had been bowled by the Bull for 89 seemed to make no impact. England's unlucky number, 111, was inspired by Admiral Lord Nelson, an English military hero who, when he died in 1805, was said to have had one eye, one arm and one leg. Umpire David Shepherd acknowledges scores of 111 with a low hop on one leg.

5. 45

Cricket's reputation as the ultimate game for figures received a glorious fillip in 1977 when Australia won the Centenary Test against England at the MCG by 45 runs, the precise margin by which the Australians had won the first Test a century earlier.

For fans prone to poring over exercise books, the 1977 celebratory Test was a colossus, yielding some of the most cherished figures in the game. Besides the winning margin, Derek Randall made 174 on debut and David Hookes struck five consecutive fours off Tony Greig.

6. 16

The West Indies' record of 11 consecutive Test victories, compiled under Clive Lloyd before coming to end in 1984, was eclipsed by the Australians under Steve Waugh. From October 1999 in Harare to March 2001 in Kolkata, the Australians pushed the record out to 16 before V.V.S. Laxman inspired India to victory with an innings of 281, a figure that itself has become totemic.

7. 43

On the flipside of batting excellence, Courtney Walsh's 43 Test ducks is a record that should take some beating. Immediately below him is Shane Warne, on 30, and Glenn McGrath, whose swashbuckling half-century against the Kiwis last weekend was an entertaining distraction from the fact that he has scored a doughnut on 29 occasions.

8. 229

Until January 2003, the lowest individual score never made in Test cricket was 228. That changed when South African opening batsman Herschelle Gibbs made 228 during a Test against Pakistan in Cape Town. Now, the lowest score never achieved in Test cricket is 229.

9. 356

Michael Slater was so happy with receiving Australia's Test cap No.356 that he got a tattoo of the number, as well as a personalised number plate (MS356) for his new red Ferrari. His pride later turned to horror when he learned that Brendon Julian, who made his debut in the same Test at Old Trafford in 1993, should have been ahead of him on account of alphabetical precedence (as opposed to batting order).

Australian authorities let Slater keep his cap – and tattoo – but ruled that, in future, if more than one player were to make their debuts in the same Test, alphabetical precedence would determine the order of caps.

10. 36

According to James Grant in The Longest Game, Melbourne University batsman Ian Dunne was annoyed at losing his wicket to a rash stroke on 36 during a district cricket match in the 1970s. His response was to hurl his bat against the dressing-room wall and declare: "That was a scum shot."

Before long, not only had Dunne earned the nickname Scum, but mathematicians in the team had begun referring to scores of 36 as "scum". At 18, a batsman was on half-scum. On 72, his score was twoscum, and so on.

The practice circulated throughout Melbourne district ranks, with fractions and multiples of 36 earning much comment. During the 1977-78 Ashes series, which featured two former Melbourne University players in Jim Higgs and Ian Botham, the "Scum phenomenon" achieved new heights when Australia was six for 36 in the first innings before recovering to make 116, thanks to Rodney Hogg's top score of 36. Of course, there were 36 extras. During the next Test, Hogg made 18 and Bob Willis took one for 36. Scum fractions and multiples kept popping up until late in the series, by when 48 was beginning to make its presence felt.

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/Cricket/The-Ten/2004/11/27/1101495455123.html?from=moreStories&oneclick=true

Good Will Hunting

Great movie.

All those conversations between Matt Damon and Robin Williams/Math professor/Minnie Driver/Ben Affleck were excellent.

Ben Affleck displayed good acting skills all through the movie, but wonder why he never became a big star.

Robin Williams in conversation with the Math professor was also a treat to watch.

Ramanujam is revered all through the movie.

Shark s Tale

A decent movie, but guess lots of hype behind this movie.
The credits that was shown during the end, was a sensational i.e lots of major Hollywood stars including Scorcese have lent their voices to the charaters in this animated movie.

Saw a curtain-raiser programme which talked about Martin Scorcese's strong bid for this Oscars' Best Director slot. I have seen his earlier movies "Casino", "Bringing out the dead" , "Gangs of New York", but didnt really enjoy any of them. Hoping to see if "the aviator" is really that good. Lots of hype all around that he will get the Best Director for "the aviator".

The usual suspects

Out of the world movie.
Last ten/five minutes is the best part of the movie.
Kevin Spacey did give the absolute knock-out punch when he starts walking from limped foot to the normal way.

Benecio Del Toro kind of comes and goes in this movie, not so memorable performance unlike "the traffic" one.

Sense and sensibility

"Sense and sensibility" is a good movie. Really liked the way Emma Thomson has acted in that movie.
Small trivia about Emma,
Source: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000668/bio

"She was initially cast as the lead in Basic Instinct (1992), but refused later on. About Sharon Stone's appearance she said: “As far as I can see, from Sharon Stone's love scene in "Basic Instinct", they molded her body out of tough Plasticine. She was shagging Michael Douglas like a donkey, and not an inch moved. If that had been me, there would have been things flying around hitting me in the eye.”"

I saw the movie "kandukondein kandukondein" before seeing this movie "sense and sensibility". Thought "kandu... " was a good movie. Infact all the while, while watching this movie I kept comparing the actors of "Kandu.. " and "Sense and...".
Sometimes, I like those old-hindi remix songs that get played in channels. Agreed, the videos are bad most of the times. But the actual remix of the song seems to be good. I think R and B and our old songs kind of jell really well. My old hindi songs knowledge/awareness is bad. So, I get to listen to remix first and soon when I happen to listen to the original, I have a problem in appreciating the original. Maybe it is because the remix was the one I heard first.


I saw "Love actually" movie , in which almost "who is who" of Brit film industry appear. And only via "Love actually" did I get to know Emma Thomson and Robert Hardy.
And in "Love actually" they play more of a middle-aged role so, at times found it difficult to see them as relatively young folks in "Sense...", though Robert plays only a middle-aged man in "Sense..." but he looks lot older than that.

Ghosts ?

Ghost-town is something that you will get to see when you visit a place after a long time and you are in company of old-friends or in short when you in old-environment. Old here can be thought of as an abstract span-of-time i.e old = 1 month to n years.

Ghosts could be people or places will be omnipresent. You cant survive a minute without this ghostly or rather ghastly thought!

Drowning myself in nostalgia is not something I relish. True, nostalgia is like plesant break but I think nostalgia takes you away from reality and the minute the honey-moon ends you will be stuck with reality staring infront of you :-(

Guess, it is better to sit and go through the reality motions than chasing the mirage.

Hordes of movies

I got to see hordes of movies last week.
I saw "the forgotten", "alexander", "national treasure", "office space", "braveheart" and "rounders".

"the forgotten":
Bad movie, might have got inspired by "The ring". Nothing much to type about. Certainly will scare you out of your seat when you see men/women suddenly pulled from land towards sky in a second when they are about to utter something that is important about "how juliane moore's girl got lost in the plane-crash or why people lose their memory?"


"Alexander":
Bad movie. Oliver Stone has given a sketchy idea about Alexander, nothing really impressive. Few sequences that will amaze you is:
i. alexander as gay
ii. No decent collector's details about "porus, the king of Punjab region". In this movie "Porus"'s name is not even mentioned.
iii. origin of the name "alexandria" a port city in egypt which was named after alexander
So, historical details are mostly left forgotten all through this movie.

"National Treasure":
Nice movie. Very fast one. From Nicolas Cage and Bruckheimer team. This movie has way too many historical/trivia details. But some no one can vouch for the authenticity. Few sequences that might of interest include:
i. DST or Daylight Saving time invented by Benjamin Franklin
ii. All the theory about "Crusaders" and "the progressive thinking americans of that era"...
iii. good fast-paced adventure similar to indiana jones kind of movies.
iv. maybe this movie might have got inspired by da vinci code

"Office Space":
Nice Comedy movie. Has Jeniffer Aniston in not so cool role. Few funny sequences include:
i. Michael Bolton (not the singer but the software engineer who likes Rap) !
ii. Michael Bolton and the fax machine
iii. The next-door neighbour who overhears all the conversations
iv. The project manager during assesment describes his role as "i get the specifications from client and give it to engineers, because engineers cannot speak to the client". The manager kindof accepts that he is more of a postman.
v. Best part is when our hero quits his IT job and finds demolition job more interesting.
vi. And the mumbling fellow in office, who no one bothers


"Braveheart":
Bad movie. Too much hype. I get a feeling of deja vu almost after every sequence in this movie. I hope Kamal Hassan doesnt make 'MaruthuNayagam" in the "Braveheart" lines as most journalists claim.

"Rounders":
Great movie. Check this movie. Best part is when the law-student with a steady love-life decides to quit the secure atmosphere around him to enjoy the fascinating world of poker/gambling/insecure life as if he has nothing to lose.
Contrasting theme to that of "Eyes Wide Shut" where the plot doesnt encourage fantasy for normal regular-folks!

Eyes wide shut

Through Jayakanthan's blog http://shakuni.blogspot.com, I came to know about a few exhaustive links/articles about 'Stanley Kubrick'.
Stanley Kubrick's ideas are out of the box. I had seen only one Kubrick directed movie "Eyes Wide Shut" as of now. Did not really enjoy watching "Eyes Wide Shut" .

But really enjoyed a few sequences in that movie, including one scene when Tom Cruise kindof gets himself stuck very badly in the shady world of some cult and wants to get out of it for good. I think Kubrick via Cruise is telling that "cult-following or doing things out of the box is not for you, and go ahead and continue your regular boring day-to-day work in your office". Adventure particularly of this kind sounds cool, but wont suit you or me! He could be telling you and me to "Enjoy the movie and get alongwith your life and forget about the 'fascinating' world of cults/adventures"

The Hours

A few days back I saw the movie "the hours".
Found the movie to be interesting, mostly due to the style in which the movie was taken. Three characters different years/places, but similar emotions.
Nicole Kidman was not recognisable at all in her role as an english-author.
The characters are complex and it required good concentration to understand the characters. Meryl Streep cries a lot in this movie!
Claire Danes was cute all through the movie.

I liked the novel interpretation of "suicide", in this movie.

'The Score' - De Niro, Ed Norton

Few days back I saw the movie "the score". This movie had Robert De Niro and Edward Norton in the lead role. De Niro with his method acting skills kind of steals the movie from Edward Norton. I enjoyed the movie for the good-thriller element that it had.

De Niro's role is similar to most of his other roles. He is more of a listener and doesnt talk much in this movie. Ed Norton is the exact opposite of De Niro. De Niro and Ed Norton have some fissures, but nevertheless go ahead with the plan of snatching a priceless artifact from a museum. In the climax, when the heist is almost done, Ed Norton double crosses De Niro. At this point Ed Norton tells De Niro how he hates De Niro's way of doing things. Not sure whether this is just my imagination or rather my interpretation but that Ed Norton's dialogue showed contempt for the method acting style. Enjoyed that part of Ed Norton's performance. The plot really thickened during that time till the time when we get to know that De Niro had actually out-classed Ed Norton again. My interpretation, maybe method acting has won again.

Anyone who likes the fast-thriller movies, will enjoy this one.

More cricket round-up

Dinesh Kaarthick played some fantastic knocks to make TN one day format champions in the south zone. Surprising, how people like Sriram, Balaji, Kaarthick make it a point to perform outstandingly when they play for their state team and certainly not-so-good performances when they represent the country. Maybe Balaji is the best among the lot. Balaji truly bowled well in Pakistan and fairly okay in Australia except for that Brett Lee six in the last-over.

Ricky, as always is in blazing form in down-under. West Indies were drubbed badly. The best part of the match I think is the announcement that McGrath is the 12th man for Australia. Replacing McGrath was Brett Lee who bowled a fiery first spell taking 3 west-indian wickets. Now, wondering who McGrath will replace in the next match?
Brad Hogg replaced Shane Warne for this one day match. Hogg has taken a fiver in this match. Now, lets see how Shane Warne will replace in this team.

Ajay Jadeja is performing well for his ranji team. He is helping his team post big scores and he himself is scoring hundreds at ease. A tainted player to come back after a ban and play such comeback knocks is really cool-stuff. I am sure Ajay Jadeja knows that it is impossible for him to break into this Indian team. But still the committment shown by him for Ranji tournaments is just great. Another Ajay who showed great committment to Ranji tournament and was exceptional for Delhi in Ranji is 'Ajay Sharma', he too was a tainted player. Quite a coincidence!

Best of Jerry Maguire

In my opinion, scenes in Jerry Maguire that were a treat to watch include:
i. Man with the coat's punch-lines. His quotes and his appearence sometimes remind me of IMG founder 'Mark McCormack'. I am sure most of the people who had read 'what they dont teach you at Harvard' will agree to this.(I guess he could be professor or maybe Tom Cruise's mentor)
ii. The cute kid of Renee Zellweger in conversation with drunk Tom Cruise.
iii. When Tom Cruise proposes to Renee, she tries to hide her happiness with her black shades.
iv. The last scene of the movie when Tom Cruise visits Renee s home to apologise to her.
v. The sequence when all the family and friends are watching the marriage video and find Tom Cruise sad. Now, Cuba Gooding Jr pitches in and tries to divert the attention to something else.
vi. Cuba's in-studio interview, where he promised he wont cry.

Guess that's it. The bad or not-so-good scenes include:
i. Tom Cruise leaving the office with the gold-fish when he is chucked out.
ii. Tom Cruise's animated hand-movement when he tells Cuba Gooding Jr. what the coaches and club-managers think about Cuba's ability.

I didnt find the 'show me the money' sequence all-that-good.

Steve -> sorry if I had disappointed you with the last comment.

Tsunami match in MCG

Ricky has proved his class again.
Ricky really slammed all the Asian bowlers in the 'tsunami' charity match in MCG.
I think if there is one bowler who can fool Ricky it has to Anil Kumble. But even Anil was clueless for a moment but later took Ricky's wicket after Ricky did all the damage on Asian team. Anyway it could have been far worse had Ricky gone towards scoring a big 150+ score. The stumping of Ricky by Sangakkara was out of the world stuff. The delivery that got Ricky stumped was a fast-one(as most of Anil's deliveries are) and reached the keeper in half-volley length, guess that was just way difficult take. I am sure most of keepers of the world would have missed, but the Sri Lankan keeper didnt and got handsome praise from Richie Benaud.

Another out of the keeping stuff, that comes to my memory is the Ian Healy stumping by Nayan Mongia in the 1996 Delhi one-off test against Australia off the bowling of Kumble. Nayan had earlier got 150+ score but till took a tremendous take when the ball was going doing the leg-side and the length was again a half-volley to the keeper. Mongia's effort out-classes Sangakkara's because Mongia took that impossible take down the leg side and knocked off the bails.

Heard of 'bloggers block'

A week or two back, I had some content to blog about in this page. But as I am trying to make blogging a habit, I find content eluding me. Not sure, how regular bloggers beat this block.

French women in H'wood

Yesterday, I saw the movie 'Diabolique'. This 1996 movie had Sharon Stone, but surprisingly the person who stole the screen from Sharon Stone was the beautiful Isabelle Adjani. Isabelle is a french actress.
Another French actress who has a striking resemblence to Isabelle Adjani and acted in Hollywood movie is Sophie Marceau, the villian woman in the Bond movie 'the world is not enough' .
Virgine Ledoyen, is another French actress who got a major role in hollywood movie. She acted in the movie 'the beach' opposite to Leonardo Dicaprio.
Isabelle or Sophie or Virgine didnt survive long in Hollywood movies.
Isabelle/ Sophie/Virgine have a different style of acting which is so unlike the Hollywood-way. I think French movies dont allow their actors to overact unlike their Hollywood counter-parts. And, the plot itself is so different in French movies from that of the usual Hollywood-masala that actors dont have the opportunity to overact.

Aishwarya Rai's fate might be kindof similar to that of Sophie/Isabelle/Virgine. But in the case of Ash, Hollywood movie audience might feel Ash is overacting!

free hand writing

Bruce Wills advises Haley Joel Osment to try 'Free hand writing' to get out of his worries in the movie 'the sixth sense". The very phrase "free hand writing" sounded interesting to me.

In the movie, Bruce Wills wanted Haley to do this "writing whatever he felt like instantly".

I find it hard to practise this "free hand writing". I feel it is a very difficult activity to follow for anyone, since most of us are 'conscious' of what we do and our 'consciousness' will stop such honest delivery of thought.

I feel blogging could be a place where one can try this 'free hand writing'. Guess 'free hand writings' makes good reading for all.

jiddu krishnamurthy and george carlin

j krishnamurthy and george carlin are fierce anti-establishment personalities, who have a huge following.
quite surprising why j krishnamurthy went ahead forming an institution when he was against the very idea of institution. george carlin is smart entertainer.
not sure, comparing an indian who came out of avatar-hood and an american who pisses-off the americanism and other isms makes any sense. i find both of them to be interesting because they have the audacity to stand-up against establishment.
not sure why we have this j krishnamurthy cult following when he himself was against cult-hood.

i enjoy george carlin and his famous stand-ups. guess, he must be the most hated man in america.

kerry o keefe

hi all,

now, why did i hv the title as ' kerry o keefe', after seeing yesterday' s ricky ponting knock against pakistan. keefe instantly came to mind as a person who had tremendous 'foresight'.

if title sounds strange ' kerry o keefe'. let me give a brief intro abt keefe. keefe represented aussie cricket team in 19 70's. keefe's cricketing prowess is not well-known or documented, u cant of course compare keefe with superstars in cricket.
but in the commentator s box, keefe is top-of-the-charts.
sometime back they broadcasted a channel called 'australia television' and in that channel there was a program titled 'at the wicket'. it s a cricket chat-show, which featured lots of aussie superstars commenting about world cricket and the cricketers. some of the comments are undiplomatic. and keefe is the leader of the whole team when it comes to slandering any cricketer. of course his views are brutally honest.
in 1999 when india toured australia, i had the opportunity to see 'at the wicket' quite regularly.
that tour had indian team performing badly in bowling or batting or fielding. during that series, ponting thrashed india. he scored his runs very fast even in test matches. at that time, keefe made a point in one the 'at the wicket' shows that 'ponting' is the best player in world cricket. some of the other cricketing greats in that talk show include greg mathews, geoff lawson. when keefe made this point the rest of the crowd in the studio were surprised and mentioned the name of 'sachin tendulkar'. it was only few months back then, that bradman himself said that 'sachin is the best'. and sachin made it a habit of thrashing aussies also. but during that series, sachin was pathetic, particularly in the adelaide test when he played his first-of negative innings.
sachin didnt try to score runs of mcgrath. he kept leaving most of the deliveries. and to make matters worse, dravid was in the other end. and dravid also played slowly. so the post-tea session when sachin and dravid played india had a run-rate of maybe 1 or 2 runs per over.
i liked that point that kerry o keefe made about 'sachin being not the best' and 'ponting is the best'. sachin is good enough only in indian wickets. infact nowadays, sachin bats negatively even in indian wickets.
somehow ever since then, i didnt really like the sachin s negative game. but to be honest, sachin s straight drive(in early 90s), and sachin s down the wicket sixes of spinners are really a treat to watch, too bad he doesnt play them often. i am sachin s fan when sachin gives scant respect for bowlers just like maybe richards or powell or ponting. but not when he trembles whether he plays shoaib or mbangwa.

now to summarise, keefe is correct according to me in calling 'ponting as the best'.
another point about keefe is that he s a lousy commentator but popular among masses. i think his frankness isnt appreciated, maybe that s y he doesnt figure in channel 9 line-up of commentators for major international matches. some aussie survey on best commentators two people who featured prominently include keefe and richie benaud. another commentator who surprisingly was favorite among aussies was 'harsha bogle'. i dont like harsha much because he kindof supports superstars even if they play bad. i dont like 'ravi shastri' s commentating in particular bcos of his inconsistent opinions.

bfn

jan 3 2004

my hope of seeing amitabh/abhishek bachan in koffee with karan was dashed when i found out that it is meant to telecasted only on this coming friday.

bad news for tn ranji team fans. tn inspite of a victory in their last league match didnt qualify for semis.
i think had they qualified then it would have been 3 in a row.
as for tn ranji team, i believe they are really unlucky this season to miss out balaji. had balaji been there then it would have been a good season for tn.
i think tn had too many away matches this time during league stage, so didnt do all that well. they just drew most of their matches.
extra-ordinary performance by lax sealed tn s coffin as far as this season ranji goes.

aussies are on rampage against pakistan. i think aussies will pile up a huge score and innings defeat pakistan.
kindof fait accompli.

i read "life of pi" by yann martel. i am not able to appreciate writings of such genre i.e "magical realism". earlier read "midnight s children" by salman rushdie, another book from this magical realism -genre.
i am able to appreciate honest as-is writing, but certainly not this kindof writing.

jan 2 2004

Today I saw the movie 'serendipity' and found it to be good.
plan to watch oceans twelve/alexander/incredibles didnt materialize.

saw a program 'koffee with karan' which featured kajol, shah rukh khan and karan johar(host) today morning @ around 02 00 am. found it to be funny. shah rukh was diplomatic and he sucked all thro the interview, while kajol was honest and was great all thro the program. hoping to see the same program today evening as well, this time guests are amitabh and abishek bachan.

today played a decent dose of cricket(tennis-ball). i was trying to bowl fast, but actually couldnt. the run-up area inclination was slightly steep, so couldnt actually get a proper run before releasing the ball. i remember that i bowl a lot faster if the run-up area is even.

i saw a few jay sean (who i guess was part of rishi rich project) music videos. really liked his songs. i think this punjabi r and b style is really different and catchy. one video that stood-out featured bipasha basu. bips for a moment reminded me of naomi campbell.
other brit r and b artists are also good. for eg, bally sagoo, hunters, raghav. i listen to them mostly in bbc asian network online radio.

another tv program which i enjoyed was 'coupling'. the cast and their activities are kindof similar to friends.
but unlike friends stars who were a bit naive, coupling stars are bold.

bfn

Dec 31 2004:

Dec 31 2004 is just another day in office. I find it quite silly to wish happy new year to people around me Since I am not into partying, I prefer to stay at home and do the things I normally do i.e watch TV on new year's eve. I saw "swades" and "raincoat"(hindi movies) lately, and found them to be good. Since my understanding of hindi is poor, I had my friend do the translation of difficult words that was spoken on screen :-)

chk out this page: this is the guy who did all the tough hindi translations for me while watching raincoat.
http://www.blogger.com/profile/5113789

I enjoy watching "the simpsons". the characters are really down to earth. really enjoy watching "lisa simpson" and "bart simpson" when they are in each-other s company.

another serial that i liked is "the wonder years". i think i must have seen this serial years together maybe from 1992 to 2003(they kept replaying this serial in star plus, star world) again and again.
enjoyed every episode(even if it is the n+1th time that i am watching it)

bfn

hi

i am really interested in knowing about things(unimportant ones always interest me).
i am try to check out articles related to History, Current affairs, Music, Movies and sports.
i follow cricket religiously. i hv become a movie phreak lately, infact checking lots of mediocre and horrible ones as well. Liked 'Mona Lisa Smile' movie, i think that is a really good movie.
my all time fave movies include 'american beauty', 'jerry maguire' and 'good will hunting'.

bfn