Howdy folks. Past two weeks have been pretty uneventful. So, let me review some books/movies that I was (un)fortunate to view.
1) U, me aur Hum: Whatever.
Thats it. Yup. you have seen world's shortest movie review :) With that review I have not only saved 3 hrs of movie time for you but also 10 mins of junk reading the crap about why that movie is bad. I rarely watch Hindi movies. Somehow they neither have original plots like some hollywood movies nor good comedy like telugu movies. I can literally count the number of Hindi movies I watched in last two years on myt finter tips. However, occasionally I fall prey to a third rate movie reviewer and end up going to movies like that. It was supposed to Ajay Devgans debut directorial venture. Ajay, sorry dude. Your direction is on par with your acting. God bless you.
2) Jalsa : Now a days, every telugu movie gets released with unbelievable hype. This was no exception. Trivikram, known for his good writing skills, donned the directorial cap and tried to do his best. I have n't watched a pavan kalyans movie in theater since Khushi. So, I thought why not give it a shot. Yaar Trivikram, please stop creating these super-human, all encompassing Hero characters. Seriously, audience are really really sick of watching these kind of characters.
There were times when Hero and Heroine used to carry the movie on their shoulders. Rest of the characters did not matter much to the movie. These could have been done by any one. But, because of these super-human hero characters, now a days, main characters are replacable. Whether its chiru, bk, mahesh, ntr, pk all hero characters are same. They are super human. All side-actors are irreplacable. For ex: Characters done by Ali and Brahmanandam in this movie, can be done only by them. My suggestion : 'watch the movie on cassette if you are a telugu movie buff otherwise thank me for saving your three hours.'
3) Gamyam: When I was told by my dear friend S that this movie was good, I had to watch it. About 2-3 years ago, I took couple of my friends to 'Motorcycle diaries' in US where we were the only three audience. It was an awesome movie. Both my friends were happy to watch inspite of it being labelled as art movie. Gamyam is inspired by Motorcycle diaries. But, the debut director cum script writer was adept at adapting it to Telugu commercial movie. This is definitely one of the good movies that I watched in the recent past. I would nt rate it among all time best. But, this is worth the 1:30 hrs you spend watching the movie. I wont talk much about story here as there are lot of sites which do that. My recommendation: "Watch it even if you are not a telugu movie buff".
If I were a reviewer I would give it a 4/5. If I were a critique, I would give it a 2.5/5 (To give you an idea of my scale, many desi movies do not cross 1/5 on my critique scale :-) )
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
The week that was...
This blog is going to be different from the rest. I am going to share a few snippets instead of writing one big bore essay/rant.
1) Race: When I was a kid, I grew up in a village on the banks of Godavari for few years. After a long play cum bath in the river, we used to hold the hand woven cotton towels on both ends and twist in opposite directions till the last drop of water was squeezed out. Like many silly things boys do, we used to be hyper competitive in making sure we have the driest towel. That, extreme twisting used to spoil the towel is anybody's guess. I could n't help but remember this incident as I was watching hindi movie, Race. The movie is slickly made. Production values in high-budget bollywood flicks have definitely improved. Unlike many Hindi movies, editing is also very crisp. Twenty minutes into the movie, twists in the story start. They never seem to end. They keep introducing a new twist every fifteen minutes. So many that, even after the movie was really over, I was wondering "is this really over? or are they going to come back with a twist?". To give you an example, there are two brothers A and B. C and D are introduced as prospective girlfriends of A. A somehow leases his girlfriend C to B. D is in love with A. then B and C kill A. D says she married A. Then we realize B and D are wife and husband who hatch a plan to kill C and then A comes alive to save C though he is married to B. If you are still clear abt the story, E and F are introduced who in cop and bimbo asst. E exposes B and then colludes with B. In the end, A and E are showns as friends anyways, you get the gist. Overall slickly made time pass. Get a dvd and watch in ff mode if you are hindi movie buff.
2) Ad wars: Remember the time when world cup was held in India and Coke introduced themselves as official drink. Pepsi came out with this new campaign "nothing official about it" and stole the fizz out of Coke. Well, ever since, the fight is on it seems. Deepika Padukone (daughter of erstwhile badminton player, Prakash padukone) and Ranbir Kapoor (son Rishi Kapoor) are hottest stars in India right now. So, pepsi comes with this funny theme.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SI8LzqIdvU
Sprite soon warms upto the idea and spoofs it up. Its quite funny. Check out the videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_N-FVryV1I
3) Pulitzers: Alright, Pulitzers for 2008 are announced. A friend of mine forwarded the winning piece by pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten. Beaufiul article. Take a print out and read in your leisure.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html
1) Race: When I was a kid, I grew up in a village on the banks of Godavari for few years. After a long play cum bath in the river, we used to hold the hand woven cotton towels on both ends and twist in opposite directions till the last drop of water was squeezed out. Like many silly things boys do, we used to be hyper competitive in making sure we have the driest towel. That, extreme twisting used to spoil the towel is anybody's guess. I could n't help but remember this incident as I was watching hindi movie, Race. The movie is slickly made. Production values in high-budget bollywood flicks have definitely improved. Unlike many Hindi movies, editing is also very crisp. Twenty minutes into the movie, twists in the story start. They never seem to end. They keep introducing a new twist every fifteen minutes. So many that, even after the movie was really over, I was wondering "is this really over? or are they going to come back with a twist?". To give you an example, there are two brothers A and B. C and D are introduced as prospective girlfriends of A. A somehow leases his girlfriend C to B. D is in love with A. then B and C kill A. D says she married A. Then we realize B and D are wife and husband who hatch a plan to kill C and then A comes alive to save C though he is married to B. If you are still clear abt the story, E and F are introduced who in cop and bimbo asst. E exposes B and then colludes with B. In the end, A and E are showns as friends anyways, you get the gist. Overall slickly made time pass. Get a dvd and watch in ff mode if you are hindi movie buff.
2) Ad wars: Remember the time when world cup was held in India and Coke introduced themselves as official drink. Pepsi came out with this new campaign "nothing official about it" and stole the fizz out of Coke. Well, ever since, the fight is on it seems. Deepika Padukone (daughter of erstwhile badminton player, Prakash padukone) and Ranbir Kapoor (son Rishi Kapoor) are hottest stars in India right now. So, pepsi comes with this funny theme.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SI8LzqIdvU
Sprite soon warms upto the idea and spoofs it up. Its quite funny. Check out the videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_N-FVryV1I
3) Pulitzers: Alright, Pulitzers for 2008 are announced. A friend of mine forwarded the winning piece by pulitzer winner Gene Weingarten. Beaufiul article. Take a print out and read in your leisure.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html
Monday, April 7, 2008
happy ugadi
Dear Friends, Family and blog readers,
Wish you a very very happy telugu new year.
"Sarvadhaari naama samvatsara Subhakankshalu".
-v
Wish you a very very happy telugu new year.
"Sarvadhaari naama samvatsara Subhakankshalu".
-v
Saturday, April 5, 2008
A day out at stadium
Alright, The story from last post continued for another day. Just at the right moment, when an Indian player is about to play biggest match of his life, DD sports switched to showing beach volleyball between kazakstan and some other stupid team. (I am surprised womens lib has nt spoken out yet about bikin clad women playing games right in the middle of the city. Did the organizers catch culture police sleeping? hehe) On Friday, Chetan Anand beat world no.4 Chen Yu from China in quarters. Saturday was a rare occasion for India. A lowly ranked (no.70) player was in semi-final of a grand prix. For the badminton uninitiated, this is equivalent to an Indian playing in a semi-final of a grand slam :). Competition are being held Gacchibowli. Kashi and I decided to go to stadium all the way to Gacchibowli and watch the match live. Boy, that was worth all the trouble.
We arrived at the stadium around 5pm, all the while doubting if the match was already over. As I mentioned earlier, Organizers are doing a great job. They scheduled Chetan's match at 7pm. Inspite of the big occasion stadium was half-full. The stadium is awesome, built with international standards. We found seats with a good view and settled in. Womens singles semifinals was going on. Chetan was sitting in the arena talking to Jwala Gutta (his wife, India's no.1 doubles player) and other friends. Lot of people think, whats the big deal in going to a stadium when you can watch the match in TV. Folks, believe me, going to stadium is worth every penny. After the women's singles, it was mens doubles semi-finals between 2 teams both of which were ranked top 5 in the world. You get to see what kind of warm-up routine players use before the match. Shadow practice et al. The doubles semi-finals was AWESOME. If you are a keen observer, you can watch all the mind games, strategies so clearly in a stadium. (Somehow, badminton is not covered live in our parts of the world and those who cover show some silly commentary with out adding much value.)
Jwala started distributing inflated sticks just before Chetans match. Chetan started his detailed warm-up routine. Stupid me, I did nt carry my camcorder :(. Crowd started shouting Chetaaaan..Chetan and noise was reaching its highest level. Finally the big moment came. Chetans opponent was Andrew Smith, an English player. He was like a deer in the headlights. Totally out of place, right from the go. Crowd was behind Chetan for every point. Chetan anand won the match in 20 mins with 21-16, 21-9. You really get to know what is home advantage. It was a tame surrender from the brit. Anyways, we were really happy. Crowds, media did not let Chetan do his cool down routine for 30 mins. After everything was over, Chetan walked to the galleries and greeted almost every one. We congratulated him as he was passing us by and took autograph on the half-torn ticket stub. It was really worth every penny. Quality badminton (not in the Chetans match though), gotta see Gopichand and many Indian players, got an autograph. Seriously folks, next time there is a match in your town, go to stadium and watch it live. It is really a worthy experience. More so, if you have a child. They will have a great memory for rest of their lives.
We ended the day with a dinner at chutneys, Himayatnagar. I had to mention this as the food was sooooo good. Folks, next time you are in town, go order a south indian thali in Chutneys. I wont go into details but this thali does not have a match in twin cities :)
ciao.
We arrived at the stadium around 5pm, all the while doubting if the match was already over. As I mentioned earlier, Organizers are doing a great job. They scheduled Chetan's match at 7pm. Inspite of the big occasion stadium was half-full. The stadium is awesome, built with international standards. We found seats with a good view and settled in. Womens singles semifinals was going on. Chetan was sitting in the arena talking to Jwala Gutta (his wife, India's no.1 doubles player) and other friends. Lot of people think, whats the big deal in going to a stadium when you can watch the match in TV. Folks, believe me, going to stadium is worth every penny. After the women's singles, it was mens doubles semi-finals between 2 teams both of which were ranked top 5 in the world. You get to see what kind of warm-up routine players use before the match. Shadow practice et al. The doubles semi-finals was AWESOME. If you are a keen observer, you can watch all the mind games, strategies so clearly in a stadium. (Somehow, badminton is not covered live in our parts of the world and those who cover show some silly commentary with out adding much value.)
Jwala started distributing inflated sticks just before Chetans match. Chetan started his detailed warm-up routine. Stupid me, I did nt carry my camcorder :(. Crowd started shouting Chetaaaan..Chetan and noise was reaching its highest level. Finally the big moment came. Chetans opponent was Andrew Smith, an English player. He was like a deer in the headlights. Totally out of place, right from the go. Crowd was behind Chetan for every point. Chetan anand won the match in 20 mins with 21-16, 21-9. You really get to know what is home advantage. It was a tame surrender from the brit. Anyways, we were really happy. Crowds, media did not let Chetan do his cool down routine for 30 mins. After everything was over, Chetan walked to the galleries and greeted almost every one. We congratulated him as he was passing us by and took autograph on the half-torn ticket stub. It was really worth every penny. Quality badminton (not in the Chetans match though), gotta see Gopichand and many Indian players, got an autograph. Seriously folks, next time there is a match in your town, go to stadium and watch it live. It is really a worthy experience. More so, if you have a child. They will have a great memory for rest of their lives.
We ended the day with a dinner at chutneys, Himayatnagar. I had to mention this as the food was sooooo good. Folks, next time you are in town, go order a south indian thali in Chutneys. I wont go into details but this thali does not have a match in twin cities :)
ciao.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Lords of Doordarshan
First let me present a picture to people who missed it. This is a spoof on rising vegetable prices. Lady in the picture is wife of comedian Jaspal Bhatti. That guy has some sense of humour :)
There is an explosion of television channels in India. Today, bunch of villagers killed a Leopard in a remote village called Matusangam in Nizamabad District. TV9 is presentwith a live camera. So, what is our good old Doordarshan upto? You have to see it to believe it.
So, there is Indian Badminton Open going on in Hyderabad in a swanky stadium. It has a huge prize money and best of the best are here as a warm up to Olympics. It also provides opportunities to lot of upcoming Indian players. Fortunately, organizers are smart and scheduled all the players involving Indian players on court no.1 in a sequence. DD Sports starts telecasting them. Chetan Anand, one of Indian players expected to go deep into the draw is playing, he is one game down and leading 11-7 in second game. Suddenly, an anchor turns up and says, "alright, you watched it enough. Now lets go to Asia beach volleyball tournament Opening ceremony " (by the way, beach volleyball in Hyderabad? Don't get shocked. They put some sand courts by Hussain Sagar. ) OK, I thought, that sounds crazy enough, let me come back and watch the match for a minute. After 15 minutes, I tune into that channel to watch most ghastly opening ceremony I have ever seen. There five people dancing on the stage for tune "Kajra re". I could not detemine the sex of atleast one of them with their dresses and movements and that is telecasted live in DD Sports Channel. What do you say for that?
Guess we need some good "babu"s in DD too. OK I had to vent my frustation somewhere :) you all have a good weekend.
There is an explosion of television channels in India. Today, bunch of villagers killed a Leopard in a remote village called Matusangam in Nizamabad District. TV9 is presentwith a live camera. So, what is our good old Doordarshan upto? You have to see it to believe it.
So, there is Indian Badminton Open going on in Hyderabad in a swanky stadium. It has a huge prize money and best of the best are here as a warm up to Olympics. It also provides opportunities to lot of upcoming Indian players. Fortunately, organizers are smart and scheduled all the players involving Indian players on court no.1 in a sequence. DD Sports starts telecasting them. Chetan Anand, one of Indian players expected to go deep into the draw is playing, he is one game down and leading 11-7 in second game. Suddenly, an anchor turns up and says, "alright, you watched it enough. Now lets go to Asia beach volleyball tournament Opening ceremony " (by the way, beach volleyball in Hyderabad? Don't get shocked. They put some sand courts by Hussain Sagar. ) OK, I thought, that sounds crazy enough, let me come back and watch the match for a minute. After 15 minutes, I tune into that channel to watch most ghastly opening ceremony I have ever seen. There five people dancing on the stage for tune "Kajra re". I could not detemine the sex of atleast one of them with their dresses and movements and that is telecasted live in DD Sports Channel. What do you say for that?
Guess we need some good "babu"s in DD too. OK I had to vent my frustation somewhere :) you all have a good weekend.
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