Rang De Basanti: Movie Review

"Rang De Basanti" is a thorough entertainer, no two ways about that. But words like "The best three hours of the Indian Cinema", "An Inspiring Film", "A Generation Awakes" etc. are stretching it a bit too far. The acting, screen play, technique, camera work and all are simply superb. But I don't have many superlatives for the 'solution' given in the film. The first half is very engrossing! Rakyesh Mehra has read the pulse of the youth very well and the characters are sketched very realistically. I'm sure we all have met people like them and can relate very well to their anger against the corrupt system. Many of us crib incessantly about the hopeless state of India and how nothing can be done, knowing that its we who has to do something. That's why we can connect so well to the directionless, indifferent, devil-may-care youth portrayed in the film. But when film descend from a broad perspective to particularities, the script falters. The parallels drawn between the two stories, one in 1920s and one contemporary, seems a bit far-fetched. I'm not ready to accept that the impulsive decision to bump off a mean minister can be kept in the same league as the movement carried on by revolutionaries like Azad, Bhagat Singh, Dutt etc. The problem is - the buck is passed in the end of the movie. "Join Police, IAS, Politics"; may be they should watch Shool, Gangaa Jal, Sarfarosh etc.

To give the due credit to the film, it has atleast got the questions right if not the answers. Still, I won't call it inspiring. Let's forget about the big picture for a while, the movie depicts 5 young people, incised by one personal tragedy and further pissed off by the apathy shown by the authority. Solution, they picked up guns and bumped off a minister. Remember "Ghayal"? or countless movies by Dharamendra where Sadashiv Amrapurkar was the corrupt minister invariently? RDB is a notch above them for sure, but not for the script! Moreover, the young "guns" were not even showed to be sure about the whole thing, still they convicted the minister following their instincts and guillotined him. Pick any "terrorist" organisation and at the root of its birth would be an atrocity. There is no dearth of examples - LTTE, ULFA, Kashmir. Our terrorists are martyrs for some. The point is, its not easy to justify violence! Even in the era of Bhagat Singh, they had a hard time making it clear to the nation (and to Gandhi ji) that they weren't just enthused by the hatred towards Brits.

About the broader picture, the blogosphere is literally painted "basanti". I've read recurrently that this films "made them think". Think about what? The hopelessness spread over the sarkari machinery? Didn't they already think about it when they were asked to bribe a traffic wala? The target audiance - college going, 20 somethings - more or less arrive at the conclusion that its either "do-it-yourself" or "STFU", by this time. At the best, this film would present the questions again to them, wrapped up with out-of-this-world presentation.

As I said earlier, the movie is a thorough entertainer; not to be missed! Perhaps my expectations were a bit too high with the movie; still the first halfl kept up with it. Just don't go in expecting enlightenment and stuff.

(Written for InFiCA.)

Update: Check out the reviews done by Chandrahas & Uma. Whatever I wanted to say, they've said it better.

Wishlist and Jaipur trip

Trip to Jaipur was as whirlwindish as they get. We went there to attend Vyas' marriage. Many of my good friends from college were there at the marriage, so it was a kinda get-together. Was fun. Since it was Jha's first time in Jaipur, we showed him around. Some of the forts and all, even we Jaipuris had forgotten :-). I strongly recommend "Chokhi Dhani" to everyone visiting the city. It's like crash course to Rajasthani music and rural life. Though the rural life isn't as hunky-dory as they have at Chokhi Dhani, still its the best way to spend your 225/- (unless you add 70/- more and go for "India Unbound - Gurcharan Das", but I digress). The thing is, I'm a big sucker for Rajasthani music. And its not very easily accessible! Probably, since I don't get to hear it a lot, that's why I'm so starved for it.

If Chokhi Dhani is a crash course, Bikaner's Desert Festival is the perfect setting to leisurely soak in the Rajasthani music. This time when I was at home, I saw a programme on the recently concluded Desert Festival. I had attended it once when we were in Bikaner, years back. I remember being mesmerized by the charming folk music! The Langas, The Manganiars, The Kaalbeliyas .. total godgiri! I think with good promotion they can get as popular as the Bhangra and stuff. Already Langas & Manganiars are quite popular abroad, but the awareness about them remains low among fellow Indians.

Rajasthani music wasn't marketed well even in Rajasthan just few years back. Not anymore. Veena Music came up about 4 years back and they haven't looked back since then. Already the company has released about 50 popular albums, out of 4 part of 'Ghoomar' has created a milestone in India as well as abroad. The ever increasing demand for "Veena" creation has prompted the company to start making CD of each cassette and around 40 audio CDs have so far been introduced. My parents are big patrons of Veena, I think they've about 6-8 cassettes by them. Personally, I think they concentrate more on the soft melodies and not on the raw folk music. They've hired some upcoming singers to sing for them, I would've preferred if they had recorded with the original folk artists. Anyway, their popularity only proves the point I made earlier - with proper marketing, Rajasthani music has the potential to make it big.

My Wishlist :-

Rajasthan Folk (VOL 1): Langas & Manganiars
Someone please buy me this :-). I'm eager for the "Nimbuda" song in particular.

The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity
Waiting to get my hands on this book for some time now.

P.S. - I like surprizes too :-)

The new iPod Shuffle

This Saturday I went to The Oberoi to collect the iPod Shuffle my essay won at the contest held by the Tuck School of Business. Its a tiny thing; I expected it to be a little bigger, but I was pleasently surprized. I'm loving it! I can dump about 100 songs into it and its battery is supposed to last for about 12 hours. It adds something to the life I was missing for long - the background music. Its foreground music rather, who would prefer traffic's ruckus over Sukhbir's music? Now I want big sunglasses, just like Sukhbir's and a boom-box! And global wireless LAN. And a DSLR. And a studio with all cool lighting equipments. Never ending list, eh?

Ah, about the image. It reminds me of the dialogue from Iqbal between Naseeruddin Shah & Girish Karnad, where Shah tells Karnad - "Main aapse, apne baap se aur har us shaksh se jo mera bhala chahta hai, bahut dino se ek baat kehna chahta tha ... go to hell!". Best dialogue of the movie (umm.. the main character was a deaf-mute guy ;-). *sigh* Only if I wasn't looking that constipated.

Paki batting vs Indian Batting.

India ended up with a meagre, yet moral-boosting lead of 15 runs over Pakistan in the first inning of the second test against Pakistan. The second session of the third day was worrisome for India and they lost wickets in a flurry. Solid resilience from Dhoni & Pathan and some innovative shots from lower order took India from a position where they were looking in the face of follow-on to a position where they've taken first innings lead. While this is a befitting reply to the total posted by Pakistan, Indian batting worries me. Take a look at the graphic (courtesy CricBuzz) on the left; while Pakistani innings had many healthy partnerships, Indian inning was marred by spans where the batsmen just lost concentration and wickets fell in quick succession. It had just two over-50 runs partnerships, which turned out to be real big ones. Other than these two partnerships, our batsmen couldn't build partnerships. Its ironic that while there are many contenders for the middle order and it has been the eye of the controversies for some time now, we still haven't got someone as solid as "The Wall" in there. Yuvraj Singh, with all his flamboyance and talent, again failed to pull team out of the rut. Sachin is playing quite uncharacteristically for quite some time now. He looks like getting very negative in his approach, while for the better part of his career his extreme positivity has been the key to his success.

I hope the top order doesn't skittle before the Paki bowlers at a reportedly fast pitch at Karachi. I feel top-order will have to shoulder the burden there since all-rounders like Dhoni & Pathan can't be expected to have the supreme technique to tackle the pace & swing of Paki bowlers in a more suitable setting.

Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics

Take a look at this insanely cool website - Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics. They've vowed to bring out all the basic flaws pertaining to Physics in the Hollywood Movies. If only they knew about Bollywood and Rajnikant & Mithun da. Their introduction says -

Since its start-up in 1997, "Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics" has received hundreds of thousands of visitors including NASA scientists, high school and university physics teachers and at least one published science fiction writer. We have received many helpful suggestions and constantly consider them as we improve our site.

"Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics" has been reviewed or listed in Physics Today Magazine, The News Letter of the American Physical Society, The New York Times, and The Hollywood Reporter, as well as numerous other publications. It has been listed on Fark and Slashdot and been featured on the Osgood Files and NPR as well as many other radio stations.

Now, how cool is that?! They've devised their own rating system for the movies -

In the name of physics decency, to protect the minds of children everywhere, so that they may grow up in a world where they know the difference between speed and velocity, we have taken the responsibility to rate movies for their portrayal of excessively bad physics. The system is as follows:

* GP = Good physics in general
* PGP = Pretty good physics (just enough flaws to be fun)
* PGP-13 = Children under 13 might be tricked into thinking the physics were pretty good; parental guidance is suggested
* RP = Retch
* XP = Obviously physics from an unknown universe
* NR = Unrated. When a movie is obviously a parody, fantasy, cartoon or is clearly based on a comic book it can't be rated but may still have some interesting physics worth discussing.

Towards the end of their main page is the list of reviewed movies. Apparently, King Kong failed to impress them thoroughly (I am no great fan either). They've given King Kong a rating of PGP-13. Their review says -

As for the death scene, at an estimated weight of over 16 tons it's unlikely that King Kong could leap in the air, smack an aircraft, and land back atop the Empire State Building as depicted without doing major structural damage both to the ape and the building. The gigantic ape was repeatedly raked with .30 cal machine guns fired from biplanes. Given the size of the beast , he would most likely have died slowly from blood loss, yet little blood was shown. When he fell, Kong's gravity to air resistance force ratio would be about 3 times that of a human sky diver. A human jumper would hit the sidewalk at a terminal velocity of around 120 mph (193kph). Kong's terminal velocity would be about 3 times higher but he would never reach it. Even without air resistance the maximum velocity of a fall from the top of the Empire State Building would only be 193 mph (311 kph). Kong would hit the sidewalk with the explosive power of between 10 and 27 lbs of TNT. Ape parts and blood would be splattered all over.

What fun!

The Bangalore Bloggers' Meet & Akshara Foundation

Met few fellow bloggers from Bangalore today. We had a nice time chatting over coffee at the St. Mark's Road Barista. Surjo left early but not before telling me about the NGO he works for - Akshara Foundation. After he left Bhaskar, Aravind and me chatted for another 30-45 minutes, discussed almost everything under the Sun. Got some valuable insight about the IIM GD/PIs from Bhaskar, who is an IIMI alum himself. Aravind brought up the issue of dismal attendance at the meet and the stagnated growth of the group. We need to address these issues soon. I think I'll post about the group at Bangalore community at Orkut. If you blog and are from Bangalore, join the gang at "Blogger's of Bangalore" group at Google Groups. Please spread the word among your friends/colleagues.

Among various interesting topics discussed, the Akshara Foundation demands the foremost mention. Remember all the discussion about India which ended up cursing illiteracy? The problem happens to be a lot worse than it seems. Even though we claim two-thirds of the population to be literate, the number of functionally illiterate people can be much higher than one-third of the population. Counting someone among literates just because s/he can write her/his name seems rather absurd to me. Its time to tackle the problem or atleast acknowledge gravity of the problem. I quote from Deccan Herald's second edit (21/01/06)

.. 98 per cent of children aged between 6-14 years are enrolled in schools in rural Karnataka. While this is creditworthy, what is shocking is that 45 per cent of them cannot solve simple numerical sums of subtraction and division. Around 53 per cent of children in the 7-10 age group cannot read even a small paragraph with short sentences from a Standard I text book. The Pratham survey reveals that standards of education in states other than Karnataka are no better, but this is no consolation.

It would be unfair to blame the teachers alone for the state of affairs. As a matter of fact, government school teachers are well-qualified. But the trouble lies with the kind of education provided. While the emphasis in Standards I and II should be on developing reading and writing skills, the focus is now merely on teaching from text books, which makes learning boring for little children.

The Akshara foundation is a part of Pratham Network which did the survey for this report. They have specific programs to deal with this particular problem. They call them Accelerated Learning Programs. Being a non-profit NGO, they need the support of the community to achieve the goals they've set. The bangalore blogosphere is contributing; a blogspace is maintained to keep other's posted about the proceeding - Everyman's City. Please read through their call for volunteers. Please join in and/or spread the word.

iPod-wa mil gawa!!

Beta, aaj tere pitaji yahan hote to kitne khush hote.
(koi nahi, Jaipur mein khush ho lenge)

I participated in the essay competition of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in December. The topic was - "How can strategic innovation be applied to solve real-world problems such as corruption?" and the competition was open to only Bangalore people. The first prize was a swanky iPod Nano and I think the second prize was an iPod mini. I sensed an opportunity and muggofied things about Strategic Innovation and penned an essay for them. I had forgot about it amidst all the turmoil of last 2-3 weeks. Now the luck has turned again (I think with such a start of the year, it can only get better :). The results are out and my essay took the second place! One more thing to boast about in my IIM interviews :-). The essay -

Any company has to make strategic decisions on three basic levels: (1) Who are the customers? (2) What values are to be delivered to them? and (3) How to create them? All firms try to answer these to optimize profits. To outsmart the competition the only way isn’t to just play their game better, one can always bent the rules or introduce new rules of the game. It is known as Strategic Innovation.

Though practiced vastly in the corporate world, Strategic Innovation is just as relevant in solving the real world problems. We just need to put the real world problems in the right perspective. Let’s the example of a government, as a firm which is trying to provide various services (What) to the citizens of that country (Who) through various processes (How). Now we can start the analysis to explore the three-dimensional equation looking for gaps which can be exploited.

Taking a further narrowed example – corrupt traffic police is a quite common nuisance in the urban life. Let’s tackle this problem borrowing the ideas from Strategic Innovation. The firm here is the traffic police which is trying to provide smooth traffic & ensuring vehicle security on roads (What) to the citizens (Who) using their numerous procedures (How). Corruption is highly prevalent in the checking & fining process, i.e. when a motorist is found guilty and is asked to pay bribe which is less than the fine. In such a case, the bribe goes into the cop’s pocket & the motorist had to pay a lesser amount. The fact that both the parties are better off by paying the bribe, makes is all the more dangerous situation.

Since the What and Who aspects of the equation are pretty much invariant in this case, we need to analyze the How part. Since making a challan and fining the motorist doesn’t provide any incentive for the policeman, providing some share from the daily fine collection to the duty officer should provide some motivation to fine rather than accepting bribe. The risk attached is minimal, since no documentation is done. The risk can be increased by surprise inspections. The punishment for anyone caught red-handed should be severe so that the risk involved outweighs the reward. The motorist too should have some incentive to demand the challan - tax exemption on the amount paid can be introduced. Implementing such ideas should reduce corruption by some significant degree.

Zinda: Movie Review

Cinema is an art but not a pure art. Its a highly commercial venture involving huge sums & everyone is in there to make profits. Hence, I don't scoff at movies "inspired" by some Hollywood success or by any film from elsewhere. It increases the chances to get a hit, or atleast so it seems. In the end, the movie should be entertaining to make money. Thus, it get very important to adapt the story & screenplay to suit the likes of Indian audiences.

I'm told Zinda is a frame-by-frame copy of a Korean film which goes by the name Oldboy. No one would've heard about the Korean movie, so no problems there. Infact the extreme dull-n-dark cinematography & Kill Bill style fight sequences were never seen before in a Bollywood film. The story & presentation are different too. But being different and being good are two very different things. That's what Zinda is, it's different but not good. Not even average!

The first half of the film is intriguing. The viewers are left amidst a mystery when Bala (Sanjay Dutt) is kidnapped from his home in Bangkok and without any explanation or reasons is kept captive for fourteen years. An old television, a cryptic painting and fried wantons are his companions for fourteen years. And one day, he is let out of the hole, without any notice or clue. He is determined to find the person behind his 14 year long exile. He meets an over-the-top taxi driver, Jenny Singh (Lara Dutta), and his school time buddy, Joy (Mahesh Manjarekar). Eventually, he reaches the man behind all this - Rohit Chopra (John Abraham), a multi millionaire and Bala's junior from his school. You'll have to watch the movie to get the logic of the movie after this point!

The second half of the movie is a big let down after the "almost good" first half. The screenplay doesn't have the fire to carry the film for the duration of two hours. It simply gives in to the cliches prevalent in Bollywood since eternity. The reason why Bala was kept in that hole for such a long time doesn't get down smoothly. Sanjay Dutt has done decent justice to his character Bala. He does the roles with more action + style and less dialogues with great success. However, his hairdo is plainly irritating! You keep on guessing which bird made it it's nest. John Abraham looks too immature to play a 35 year old millionaire, doesn't go well with his image. Lara Dutta's character is a total misfit in the dark story! The chemistry between her & Bala is missing and thus the scenes involving them both are big drags. Mahesh Manjarekar isn't given much screen time, but even in his limited time on the screen he doesn't miss any chance to irritate. I think he overrates himself very highly as an actor! The songs are good and fit well into the screenplay. The locations (Bangkok) are great. The dialogues are minimal and effective.

Overall, the movie starts very promisingly. The silver wrapper wears off around the interval and the second half totally puts you off! Don't waste your money on this.

(Review done for InfiCA. )

Main, Meri Biwi aur Woh - Movie Review.

Bollywood has a very limited perspective about India. Their stereotyped India consists of Punjabi families living in a big posh city (Mumbai) and never hesistating from breaking into see-my-armpits dancing routine at each and every joyous moment. Recently, they've moved out of Mumbai, out of India for that matter, and started to focus on NRIs. What about the rural India? and the small towns lost on the maps? What about the rustic cities in the hindi heartland? No sir, that doesn't translate well on to box office success! OK, we'll give you some imaginary Fursatganjs filled with idiotic "ganwaars". OK, show 2-3 tempo and cycle-rickshaw and voila! that's India for you!

Chandan Arora doesn't believe in that and has a point to prove. His last film, "Main Madhuri Dixit Banana Chahti Hoon", focussed on a small town girl and her dreams of making it big in Bollywood. His latest offering, "Main, Meri Biwi aur Woh", has the same flavour of middle class India living in "theth" hindi heartland of UP. Believable characters & realistic, yet fancy storyline and Rajpal Yadav have become the trademark for Arora's movies.

The story is based in the town of Lucknow. Mithilesh (Rajpal Yadav) is a librarian at the Lucknow university. He is forced into meeting a girl since he is well into the marriagable age. At first he was very hesitant, but when she finally meets Veena (Rituparna Sengupta) he falls for her immediately. Low on self-confidence, he doesn't feel that he deserves someone like Veena but to the surprize of many, Veena too falls for his simplicity. Mithilesh is very happy after marrying Veena, but somehow he can't do away with his insecurities. Just when he was getting a bit secure about his taller-than-him wife, Veena's college time friend, Aakash (Kay Kay), arrives in their neighbourhood. This pushes Mithilesh further into depression and insecurities. Watch the movie to see how he deals with all this and sorts it all out!

Rajpal Yadav won an award for his performance in "Main Madhuri.." and he has only improved on his performance in this movie. The movie belongs totally to Rajpal Yadav and he has played his role superbly. His character, Mithilesh, is a very lovable person, loaded with his insecurities and anxieties. Yadav has depicted the various moods and stages of Mithilesh's life very meticulously and right to the dot. Rituparna Sengupta & Kay Kay both have done very good work.

But the clear winner is the script. I'm sure everyone can relate to the script and the characters & incidents. The script contains some real rib-tickling moments and has ample space for emotions too. I was most happy to finally watch a movie which deals with the India which is not already sterotyped by Bollywood, which is still attached to the reality, which features real life people in real life situations. Its a simple and straight forward story but then simple things are the best in life!

(Review done for InfiCA. Yup, they need better web design :-) I'm sure they're gonna look into it pretty soon. Cut 'em some slack fellas!)

Pappu pass ho gaya!

Got job.
Joining next Wednesday.
Good work, handsome salary.
Happy today.

Imran Hashmi vs Gobhi Pakoda

Imran Hashmi is everywhere! His movies are coming (and quietly going) almost every month. No one gives a rat's tush for his acting but the tag of "serial kisser" is more than enough to sulgaao-fy many hearts! In his limited (thankfully!) stay in the tinsel town he has played tonsil tennis with more babes than the number of dialogues he has delivered. No wonder he works only in those "stree-pradhaan" (wink,wink) films from the Bhatt camp. Whenever he opens his mouth in his movies, bets are made about whether this is to kiss another girl or to actually speak. He doesn't disappoint too often. I mean, why cry over the casting couch & sting operation and show Shakti Kapoor in his lungi to the whole world? This Hashmi dude is "casting couching" his heroines right on the silver screen! I don't think any girl in his senses would kiss something which looks like Hashmi unless she is offered something big in return or unless Hashmi has kidnapped her entire family and is hanging them upside down over a pond full of hungry albino Alligators & 12 feet Anacondas.

For someone who looks as hedious as Imran Hashmi, its very hard to guess how he got so much *success*. He has kissed more chicks in his nine movies than Devanand would've kissed in his 90 (or is it hundred already?) years of film career. I'm hopeful for Dev sahab tho', that man has got what it takes. Probably he should giveup on movies like "Mr.Prime Minister" (just like the rest of the world) and enter the world of Hashmi! I hope his false dentiture doesn't come up as a hinderence to the lip locking venture. I can't help but feel sorry for any girl kissing Dev Dude (the new avatar), kissing him would look more like inflating a baloon with all those wrinkles and popla mouth.

Anyway, I digress. Coming back to Hashmi and Gobhi pakodas. Now, Hashmi is definitely worse looking than the ugliest Gobhi Pakoda I ever had (No offense to Gobhi Pakodas). And mind you, I've eaten much more than my share of Gobhi Pakodas. Why a Gobhi Pakoda, you ask. Now, we have Dal Pakoda, Palak Pakoda, Pyaaz Pakoda, Aloo Pakoda, Besan Pakoda, Mirchi Pakoda & Gobhi Pakoda, and many more I'm sure. Let me educate you more about the coolest of them all - Gobhi Pakoda. So, you have Gobhi and besan paste. Dip gobhi in the paste and deep fry them in oil (Try this sometime, DQ). Most of the pakodas are done now, not Gobhi Pakoda. Now you pachakao-fy (squeeze, duh!) them well and only then serve them to eat. The point is the Gobhi piece is a bit too big to eat at once, squeezing makes it feasible to chomp it down in bits. Also, squeezed Gobhi Pakodas somehow look like human heads (you need to have the wild imagination of a 10 year old!). So there I was, a kid of 10 yrs, fancying myself to be Saboo's neighbour from Jupiter, eating heads of Dhamaka Singh & Patakha Singh (Never Gobar Singh!). Last night, while watching Jawaani-Diwaani, his latest dim-film, all of a sudden I started to slabber just like Pavlov's dogs (and not because of Celina Jetly's bikini). After hours of tossing in my bed and opening various closed doors of my subconcious mind I found out the Hashmi-Pakoda connection. I hope no one from the Gobhi Pakoda species is reading this - Hashmi does look a bit like a Gobhi Pakoda, only that Hashmi has got a rougher deal in the looks department.

Another proof that life isn't fair!

The Auto Wallah

- Boss, forum chaloge?
- Baitho saab.
(10-15 mins)
- Boss, ye auto ruka hua hai to bhi meter chalta hai kya?
- Nahi sir, distance ke hisaab se paisa aata hai.
- Idhar forum pe wait karna hai, saab?
- Nahi, main to picture dekhne ja raha hoon. Raat ko hi wapis jaunga.
- Saab raat ko dhyan rakhna, aajkal auto wale loot lete hain. Usi auto mein baithna jahan sirf ek hi aadmi ho. Do wale mein lafda rahega.
- hmmm..
- Waise koi bhi Hindu autowala aisa nahi karta. Ye sab to muslim log hi karte hain.
- hmm..
(silence)
- Saab, aap kya? Hindu ya Muslim?

Thank you Digital Camera!

Digital Camera, especially cheaper digital cameras, have revolutionized the way junta takes photography. Earlier, it used to be on holidays & birthdays stuff, with very basic point-n-shoot film cameras. While albums from those days make great nostalgic items, it was really clumsy to get the negative developed & buy new films everytime, not to mention costly. With the advent of digital cameras & cell phone cameras photography is now almost a spend-once affair. Just buy the camera, click as many as you want and the battery allows, download on the computer, upload on the net, share with the world wide web!

This has given a new vent to the creativity of masses for whom serious photography was a too expensive hobby & films camera don't encourage them to experiment with their amateur skills. The result - the web is filled with all kind of amateurish, yet very interesting, experiments with the art. Take the website - http://www.photofriday.com/ - for example. It publishes a theme every week and accepts entries from anyone & everyone. Just check out the entries to see various interesting interpretations of the theme. Most of those pictures are taken by amateurs and are not really technical masterpieces, but they are interesting nonetheless.

The need for infinite web space to store this huge load of images was natural. Various websites came out offering free webspaces to the users but most of them died down under the enormity of the requirements. Flickr is one photo-sharing network (my flickr profile). For a free user it allow him to save upto 200 pictures as public (visible to anyone). Though the number of images aren't limited, a limit is there on the amount of upload that can be done in a month. The best feature about flickr is the concentration of photo-enthusiasts who are genuinely interested in reviewing & critiquing your work! The fact that you can link images from external websites/blogs is another big plus. Their professional membership at $24.99/year is a bit towards the costlier side, especially if you're paying in Rs. like me.

If you need to dump all of your photos on the web as a backup, Sony Imagestation is a great website for that. Be forewarned though, it doesn't allow linking to the images stored. They do have a limited free membership, but their basic Silver Membership costs a meagre $4.99/year. It is advisable to take the Silver membership, if not higher level of membership. You can order printouts or backup on DVDs, this feature is available with Flickr too.

Various online tools have come up recently to provide interesting options to the people who don't have the luxury of having PhotoShop or other highend photo editing softwares on their machines. Take FD's flickr tools - they have a captioner, a framer; you can make a movie poster or a magazine cover from your photo. The poster above is made using the motivator tool from the site.

Keep clicking, the future is bright!

Shikhar - Movie Review

(Review done for InFiCA)

Seems like the latest fad in Bollywood is making "meaningful", yet mainstream, cinema. Director John M. Matthan's latest movie - Shikhar - tries to pass on a meaningful message to the audience, but fails miserably due to a weak screenplay & some mediocre performances. The underlying message is not new, it tries to present the perennial clash between capitalist & socialist ideologies. However, the story treads on rather hard to believe incidents & turns.

Gaurav Gupta (Ajay Devgan), better known as GG, is a shrewd builder who has seen meteoric rise in very less time. He doesn't mind getting the job done by hook or by crook. He has his eyes set on the Songarh area for his dream project - Golden Gate City, which will be a self-sustained city with all the modern facilities & luxuries. The only problem is a small aashram - Rishi Van - which is mentored by Guruji. Guruji himself owns a big garment firm but has abdicated it in pursuit of his dream - to turn the desolate hills of Son Garh into rich forest by planning trees and thus making the lives of natives better. Guruji's son, Jaydev (Shahid Kapoor), is a young fresh-from-school boy given the responsibilities to hold the reins of the corporate empire by his father. In order to get his work done, GG lures Jaydev into a partnership & feigns friendship with him. GG doesn't stop short of even using his girlfriend, Natasha (Bipasha Basu), to seduce Jay. How Jay deals with the contrasting values of his father & GG and the inevitable clash between the two, is the story of Shikhar.

Film's first half is relatively engrossing. The characters of GG and Jaidev are established in details. In the second half, movie gets derailed from the track. The climax of the movie fails to impress and looks somewhat ludicrous (If the CM don't see the plants, the lease will be cancelled - so burn the plants and the chief justice giving an arrest order on the spot!). Ajay Devgan appears once again as a cunning & shrewd 30-something. He could've done better with a little less styling & a bit simpler clothing. He has put honest efforts to play his part, but the script looked to let him down, especially in the second half where the spotlight shifts to Shahid Kapoor & Devgan's role loses the flow & smoothness. Shahid Kapoor looks highly inspired from Mohan Bhargava of Swades, down to the cotton check shirts! Its not without any reason that people take him as a SRK clone. His acting is the biggest drawback of the movie. Neither does he look mature enough, nor does his wooden acting skills make it any better. The ladies of the movie - Bipasha & Amrita Rao - are mere fillers & of no significance to the plot. Bipasha is restricted to his "Eye candy + 1 fight + 1 item number" routine. Amrita Rao plays a simple girl with strong values and blah blah blah for the thousandth time. Her character gets really annoying just after the interval. Her character could've been scrapped to save some time & to save audience from some serious torture. Tough luck for her, most irrelevant & irritating dialogues are given to her character, "Tum anaath nahi ho na", "Tum bigad gaye ho Jai"..etc. Javed Sheikh, who plays Guruji, is average. That role could be as well played by Aloknath, Anupam Kher, Kulbhushan Kharbanda or any other character artist. Then we have a apparently highly inspired from Paris fashion designer, who keeps on saying "Voila" anytime & every time at every single slightest opportunity. You feel like hanging him from the Eiffel Tower shoving the Eiffel tower up his @ss! He isn't the only unnecessary & tangential character in the movie. There is one shuddh-hindi-bhashi MA,LLB dude (Sushant Singh wasted in such a pathetic role) & Farha as workers at the Rishi Van.

The music of the movie isn't good enough to keep the viewers interested. No other song than the hit song - "Fitna Dil" - can be called good and most of them appear to be put in at irrelevant places in the movie.

Though Shikhar is a movie made with the right ideas in the heart & brings forth a relevant issue of our times, the slow and shady script makes Shikhar a below average affair. This is the second movie by Mathan after Sarfarosh which came out six years ago. Shikhar doesn't stand any chances against the chance less blockbuster, Sarfarosh.

My rating: 2/5

The Zero Income Credit Card

- Hello, is this Mr.Varun Singh?
- Yeah, this is Varun.
- Sir I'm Sharmila from ABC Damroo Bank. Would you be interested in our life time free credit card?
- No.
- Sir, do you have any other credit card?
- I've a credit card from Eye-See-Eye bank.
- Sir take our card too. We've excellent benefits.
- Sharmila, my income is zero. Would you still be interested in giving me your card?
- Your card limit is zero, sir?
- No, I'm out of my job. I earn nothing at all. But I so dearly want your card.
- (nervous laughter) Wait sir, I'll talk to my manager.
(fus-fus-fus-fus)
- Sharmila, please give me that card. I very dearly want your Damroo card.
- Sir, let me call you back after some time.
- I'm noting down your number. I'll call it again and ask for Sharmila. Please give me your credit card.

Heh! This really happened. I'm still waiting for her call. It seems I've made many of you worry for me by the news of my company shutting down. I'm very thankful for you concerned mails & calls, but the fact of the matter is things aren't bad at all. Infact I'm kind of enjoying this time off the office. The only problem is that I'll have to prepare and appear for job interviews again. When you know how big a farce this whole thing is, its very difficult to motivate yourself :-/.

The shock value of my company's news is enormous. I broke the news to many of my friends with a smile and most of them were shocked beyond belief. I guess, since its a rare situation & leaves an impression that I'm depressed/distressed - it gets people very worried. But the situation isn't that bad either. I've no liabilities (loans etc.) and I'm confident of getting a decent job sooner or later. I have decent money to survive the wait, so no big worries there.

The wheel is already set rolling. I'm taking interviews with some of the better software firms here in Bangalore. I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, thank you all for the support :-)

Home Delivery: Movie Review

(Recently I joined the Indian Film-viewers' Critics Association (InFiCA) as a critic. They have established a systematic method to rate and review the Bollywood movies. The following review is my first contribution to the website. They are looking out for more guys who would be interested to review movies for them. Please take time to read more about it on the website.)

Confused actors & misguided script,
Ends up getting viewers flipped,
Put in some trust,
Avoid you must,
Movie like this better be skipped.

The expectations from Sujoy Ghosh were very high after his last movie - Jhankaar Beats. While his latest offering - Home Delivery - is *not* a beaten-to-death theme movie, just like Jhankaar Beats, it lacks the punch that JB had. The movie tries a tad too hard to look different and "cool" that it loses the its focus on the script. If the most essential part - script - is missing, its very difficult, if not impossible, to come up with an entertaining movie.

The story revolves around Vivek (Viieeviek ?!) Oberoi - Sunny - who is a "Gyaan Guru", an agony uncle who gives "gyaan" on love, relationships and almost everything under the sun and still finds time to work on a script for Karan Johar. However, he himself has serious commitment issues. By sheer stroke of luck, he bumps into his teenhood fantasy, Mahima Choudhary - Maya - and his lust for Maya leads him to a breakup with his steady girlfriend, Ayesha Takia - Jenny/Naani. Well, almost. It took an annoyingly imbecile Pizza delivery man, Boman Irani - Michael, to get Sunny back on the track.

The main problem with the story is that its very hard to relate with it. Especially the character of Sunny, other than some of the scenes, the character is so full of gas that after some time it gets very irritating. Its a complex character and both the writer and Vivek were not able to define it well. In the second half, the script gets really haywire. I'm still at loss to grasp how the incidents on that day changed Sunny OR what was the significance of the serial killer in the movie OR how come the "besura" neighbour got the contract! Sujoy has managed to put in some interesting moments in the movie but they are hardly good enough to salvage the movie.

The acting part was disappointing too. Vivek Oberoi is totally over the top in his attempt to portray the lecher gyaan-guru. Other than his efforts in Masti & Company to some extent, he has been far from impressive in all his films. Probably, its time for him to think a little harder about his career. Ayesha Takia has a relatively small role, which she has done fairly well. Mahima Chaudhary as the sex-siren Maya looks repulsively bawdy, which is perhaps the effect the director wanted! Other than the cleavage show, Mahima's role is quite limited. The two annoying neighbours were supposed to provide additional dose of comedy, but they end up stretching the movie unnecessarily. Biggest waste of the movie is Boman Irani. With an actor of his calibre & talent in your cast, it becomes utmost important to give him a decent role to deliver. His character - Michael - is really annoying. You need not be irritating to be an imbecile - Forrest Gump was too an idiot, but he wasn't irritating!

The music part doesn't have much to talk about other than the "Cuckoo-Cuckoo" song, which I feel was picturized superbly as a spoof on South-Indian movie songs. Extra care is taken to polish the look of the movie with neat sets & well-suited costumes for the actors. But all the embellishments look hollow as the movie doesn't have a good base to start with.

In the end, I think Sujoy should be given due credit to try and make a different movie than regular masala Bollywood stuff. Not to deny the fact - Home Delivery might be different from rest of the Bollywood movies but its not worthy just like most of them.

My rating: 2/5

Happy New Year - hah!

Be careful what you wish for... you might get it!

Don't know who said that, but whoever it was - s/he hit the bull's eye. Not long ago I was thinking about how blessful it would be to get hospitalized for a while and thus having a good solid reason to skip the mundane routine of going to office and waiting for the evening. Reason I got and a real solid one too - my company is closed! In short the story is - they got sucked into some law suit and it was sent back to lower court for a jury trial. Attorneys cost about $3.5-$4M US and with this the risk of getting an adverse result was another factor. So, the investors pulled the plug. It came as a bolt out of the blue for all of us working here in the India office. What a news to get on the first day of new year :-).

Though I didn't have much work for last few months, I did work on some interesting things here. It was good till it lasted. Only thing pinching me is that we won't be getting any compensation. I don't think anyone, even among the higher ranks, is getting anything out of it, so it isn't fair to expect any compensation, I guess. Even without the compensation the situation isn't too bad. The job market is quite hot here in Bangalore and some of the consultants have already contacted me. I'm planning to take interviews from next week, should get some decent job sooner or later.

Another "good news" for the day - CAT results are out. I still haven't got hold of my percentile scores, but have got the call-results. IIMA & IIMB didn't find me worthy enough, I've got calls from rest of the IIMs. That can only mean that what I had expected (and mailed to many of you) to be my score isn't true. When I first calculated the scores, I was hopeful of getting all 6 calls. When I didn't get call from IIMA, I didn't thought much of it - they are known to hold strange criteria. But I was positively hoping for IIMB. Whatever. IIMC interview is scheduled for March 14th, I've decent time to prepare. Hopefully, I'll make it to IIMC.

What did I do after such a sterling start of the year? Went out to buffet at Three Quarters Chinese with ex-office mates (now the office is reduced to just a high-speed broadband cyber cafe), went out to eat a lavish dinner at The Legend of Iskandar, coupled with a movie at Inox :-). Shikhar - avoid it like plague!

P.S. - New year at Goa was fantástico, just that the 18 hours drive in Qualis was a big pain in the ass (literally). Check out some of the pictures I took there at my flickr page. I'll upload more soon.