My Review - The Dark Knight

Finally I saw The Dark Knight today. Just a couple of hours back. I am still stunned. Heath Ledger is not around. I mean when you like a cinematic performance, you want to listen to the person concerned(actor/director) bask in its glory and live the moment. It could be anybody - Farhan Akhtar after Dil Chahta Hai, Ashutosh after Lagaan, Aamir after TZP etc etc. Unfortunately Heath is not around. So I will put it in these words which were sent to me by a certain Mr "Lost-in-his-own-world" from Chicago. Verbatim.

"Ok So we believe that the days where we "live" the characters of the movie are gone. I did. I thought I had grown up. "Acting" like a movie character after watching it was a thing of the past. It had to be either really smart or really artistic. Something has to be really "convincing" or "captivating" to make me do that..The Joker did.Very few things live up to the hype that surrounds them these days.. Joker's potrayal by Ledger is one of them. I was "acting" like him after the movie. Really well supported by the "eerie" music whenever he comes on the screen .. no overwhelming-orchestra-music here.. normal superhero movie.. has its moments.. 2.5 hrs long.. watch it for heath...! Javier Bardem, make way for the new bad man!"

The Ultimate Bad Guys list

An impressive list which has The Joker(Heath Ledger), Hannibal Lecter(Anthony Hopkins), Jack Nicholson(The Shining), Kathy Bates(Misery) and the recent Mr Chigurh from No Country for Old Men.

Harsha Bhogle

on England's 20-20 league, Toyota Prius and the economics of cricket. As usual, brilliant!

Digging its own fuckin hole....

Thats for the BJP - the stupid and arrogant "Hindu Nationalist Party". For the six years they were in power they built a strategic relationship with the US, they initiated an agreement and when it came to partnering with the Italian National Congress and passing the very same-but-improved agreement(and in the process, making the Left and Amar Singhs look like non-entities), they put their respective foots in the mouth and did this. In the process, they gave an alternative to all the other Laawaris parties aka UNPA in the form of "Bahen Mayawati".

Manmohan Singh has won and I am happy. For my country and my country alone!

I still don't like Manmohan Singh - he's weak, he's incomprehensible, his record as PM is worse than Kishan Kumar's stint in movies and he does not even have a Lok Sabha seat to back him up. But on this issue, I am with him, behind him, totally.

The things to do List

That I like the Travel and Living channel(TLC) is no big secret, what is not known about me is that I have a huge fascination for adventure. I might not have the stamina or a previous skydiving/mountain biking/bungee jumping record or the money(LOL! for now that is) but I have always had a huge inclination to go for a (mo)bike ride across Ladakh or take the Jism(Ahem the film!) route from Chennai to Pondicherry and the biggest of them all - the Trans-Siberian Railway. I dont know when did I read about it, I guess it was in some travel magazine - maybe Outlook Traveller. But its hung up on me. The very thought. 7 days of a train journey acoss Russia, the landscape, the experience, the people, the culture shock. The kind of stuff you tell your grandchildren about. Right?!!

But yesterday I saw something even more exciting on the TLC channel. The name of the show is Long Way Round. Its a documentary of a 31,000 km journey of Evan Mcgregor(acted in Moulin Rouge and Black Hawk Down) and his friend Charley Boorman from London to New York on BMW bikes in 2004. In between they pass through Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, SIberia and then via Alaska, Canada to New York. I saw one episode yesterday and it was actually mindblowing, something which could better the Trans-Siberian Railway. What do you think?!!

Hancock Vs Harman

A run of the mill comment from Bollywood makes up for a dissapointment from Hollywood. I saw Hancock today. After Spidey 3 and Hulk remake, this also comes as a dissapointment(I haven't seen Iron Man). The movie has an excellent first half with Will Smith clearly at his best. Just when you expected the momentum would carry forward(along with chicken nuggets and a cuppa coffee)....BAM...bollywood comes in with a superwoman, a centuries old love story and a hospital ending. Gawd!!!

As for Harman, how do you expect the junta to like you when even your girlfriend won't kiss you? LOL. Note the lines guys - "That's exactly why she didn't do the kiss. She couldn't make a concession with me because then other filmmakers would've accused her of preferential treatment. So we simply scrapped the smooch." Great!

Hit SMS

What did one Congress MP say to the other after SP decided to extend support to the UPA?
Pehle Lal Salaam, ab Dalal Salaam!

Source : Swapan Dasgupta's article in today's Sunday Times

Bol na halke halke

Listened to this song from Jhoom Barabar Jhoom almost seventeen times tonight. Pata nahi kya baat hai is gaane main. I get addicted to it especially when I am all alone.

P.S. : I know the singer is a paki but the music directors are Indian!

My Review - Dus Kahaniyaan

Last Sunday I managed to catch Dus Kahaniyaan on Sony. Most of the stories in the film are good but what lets you down is the direction. Also, the film moves at a very fast pace. Arre Gupta Saheb kisne kaha tha Dus Kahaniyaan dikhaane ko. Saat dikha dete! Anyway, the stories which I liked are Zahir(*ing Manoj Bajpai and Diya Mirza), Gubbare(*ing Rohit Roy and Nana Patekar) and Rise and Fall(*ing Sunju Baba and Sunil Shetty). Rice plate starring Naseer and Shabana was also good but I am not comfortable with pseudo-secularism so I let that pass.

Obama condoles Maneckshaw's death

I am pleasantly surprised.

Greatest General Ever

Rest in peace!

Reviews - Aamir & The Incredible Hulk

I saw two films over the last four days. Different Worlds. Different Genres. Different Industries. One is a superhero trying to live upto his name and a weird first outing. And the other is by a debutant trying to make his mark in a star obsessed industry.




THE INCREDIBLE HULK
I felt TIH was not upto the mark. There seems to be no story, casting is terrible, the Abomination comes in way too late, chemistry is missing between the lead pair and kanu dear, yes, Liv Tyler "HAS" grown old. In the Univerisity fight scene it seems for a moment that The Hulk is the bad guy and Emil Blonsky is the good guy. The long fight scene at the end will remind you of the boring Spiderman 3 scene at the end - too dark and too 'difficult to make out'. Really dissapointed. Was waiting for it for a long time!

AAMIR
I expected Aamir to be a typical secular rant but it's actually a smashing debut by Rajkumar Gupta and a sensible one by Rajeev Khandelwaal. I was made to see the film by my friends on a 'pirated' CD which I don't normally do but eventually it turned out to be a pleasure. A typically good muslim vs bad muslim story. I like the scene especially where he tells the guy on the phone - "I was not lucky. I studied in govt schools and colleges, worked hard, got a scholarship and made my destiny on my own". Brilliant line! The 'checking of luggage four times' scene at the start was unnecessary. Best film of the year?!! We will see! :-)

A much simpler time

The iPhone 3G is here!

Big One in the IPL

So its Chennai Vs Rajasthan, finally. I have to admit, before the IPL started, I wasn't a die hard fan of Shane Warne. I loved the fact that he never could actually do well against India. Although I did like the fact he turned the ball by 45 degrees, I did not know what he did with New Hampshire. I did not know that as one day captain in 10 matches, he won nine out of them. Thank you, Mr Chappell for that bit. And I also did not know about this whole "the best captain Australia never had" bit.

But watching him in the IPL has made me fall in love with him. While watching the Indian fab four(Dada, Sachin, Laxman, Dravid) fail miserably in this version of the game, its been total paisa vasool watching Warnie execute his plans with ruthlessness. He had the cheapest team consisting of nobodys and yet he is at the top. It seems he is out to prove a point or two. And I pray to god he does.

Shekhar Gupta, as usual

bang on target. On why the Italian National Congress lost in Karnataka. He makes some excellent observations and lashes out at the usual Rajya Sabha coterie around Sonia.

"This has subsequently reflected in its actions as well, and in its desperation to find favour for its rural schemes it has strangled the urban voter with a panoply of new taxes and cesses on goods, services, and most importantly salaries. Then to squeeze out liquidity to contain headline inflation, it has brutally increased interest rates. Most ordinary folks in cities, most of them not at all rich but low/lower middle class, are now paying up to 500 basis points more even on small loans for two-wheelers and essential white goods and for their children’s education. They curse the UPA every month as they pay their increased EMI. It’s only a party that refuses to understand this new sociology of Indian politics that overlooks the killer impact of EMI inflation on its voters. It is these follies that have lost it so many elections since 2004."

IPL Dairy - May 31st

Glenn Mcgrath is a competitor, a great bowler, accurate, this, that etc etc. But Glenn Mcgrath is also someone who never kept his mouth shut whenever he was bowling. His sledging of Sachin is well known. His run-in with Sarwan is well known and documented. And in the match vs Rajasthan Royals yesterday, he once again demonstrated why he is at the top of my hatelist.

After Graeme Smith(who was limping as a result of a hamstring injury) had hit him for three consecutive fours, Mcgrath did the worst possible. He mocked Smith and tried to walk with a limp. Smith, needless to say, did not respond. The funny thing is that no newspaper or website has found worthy of putting this in their respective columns. Shame on you, Mcgrath!

Fainted....

The least politicians can do for the people of this unlucky country is to have ministers who do not faint when the finest young officers of the Indian Army are passing out!

Atif Aslam can't sing

says Sunidhi Chauhan. Yeah right! Try telling that to my wife!

IPL Dairy - May 27th

Common sense. In the post-match interview, Sachin mentioned this word at least 4 times. Yep common sense! Which is

• Mr Dilhara "Godzilla" Fernando, that you take a sitter of a catch,
• bowl straight, especially if the opposition needs just 3 of the last bowl,
• Field well aka collect well Mr Jayasurya.

It was more like Mumbai loosing(their cool and the match) than Rajasthan winning.

Laloo Jee feels "Dhoni style zyada maarta hai!" and GreatBong's excellent IPL roundup.