Something I agree with

A Top Ten list of hotties who should stop acting.



P.S. : Some of them are not even HOT!

A matter of choice

On the nomination of Meira Kumar for the post of the Speaker, Congress party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi makes the following statement.

Congress would be creating a historical milestone by opting for the first dalit woman speaker. In the past also, Congress chose the first woman PM, youngest PM, first woman President.

Great! History has been created again. By the Congress party's refusal to accept the fact that they were always a 'crowd around a family'. My only question to him is - Did you have any choice, at least in the first two cases?

Sick!!!

I hope not, Harsha

I hope not.

Its bad. But it ain't so bad!

And the mandate goes to The Congress Party esp Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi.

Looks bad? Isn't it? It took me exactly 48 hours to figure out that this 'has' happened and probably 'why' this has happened.

This is not a vote for the UPA. This is a vote for the Congress, overwhelmingly. All across the country urban or rural, there has been a wave towards the congress. And so strong has been this wave, riding on socialist and populist measures of the UPA regime, that it has been able to overcome the non-performance of the Manmohan Singh govt.

Rahul Gandhi's positioning has been very clear. We are pro-poor whereas the NDA is the party of stock brokers and the rich(Yep he actually said that) which is ironical. While the NREGA, reservations in higher education, Loan waiver took care of the rural voter(unemployed youth as well as farmers), the Jyotiradityas, Sachin Pilots, Milind Deoras and Sandeep Dikshits ensured that the urban voter connects with them. If you don't agree with me then kindly check out the margin of victories in Delhi and Mumbai of Congress candidates(a fact also mentioned by Swapan Dasgupta). So a combination of youth with a heavy dose of socialism did it for the Congress.

About the BJP, well what to say. Varun Gandhi, 'weak' PM, not supporting the nuclear deal and some other factors like MNS were the main reasons I feel. The congress had supported the BJP in passing many bills(including private sector insurance) during 98-2004. But the way the BJP including Advani behaved in the nuclear deal was disgusting. Dunno about Modi. Even if he had any effect, the congress wave was too strong for him to withstand. He could hardly manage to hold on to his own seats in Gujarat.

Will they learn their lessons? I don't think so. Last I heard, M M Joshi was ready to take over any responsibility given by the party.(sic)

And now for the best part! Third grade politicians with ten to thirty MPs wanting to be PM have been resoundingly KICKED. So no Maya, no Mulayam, no Amar Singh(Sunil Bharti Mittal must be relieved), no Karat, no Yechury, no Pawar. Which means no statues, no ban on english, no moneymaking, no arm twisting, no dhamki-dena. For all these factors itself, this election has been worth it.

Lessons to learn from this election

1. Youth is the key
2. Negativity will not help
3. Socialism is back
4. Charisma is essential

Some other great columns on this verdict

Vir Sanghvi in HT
Tavleen Singh in Indian Express
Shekhar Gupta in Indian Express
S S Aiyar in TOI

The most controversial

Top 10 movies of all time. Compiled by Rediff's Raja Sen.

My Review - Syriana

If you are interested in the petropolitics and the violence of the middle east, if you are amazed why America never takes one step to reform the stone-age country Saudi Arabia is, if you wonder why Iraq was invaded, if you marvel at the fact that there are virtually zero democracies in the gulf region and if you wanted your own "How to be a suicide bomber?" guide, Syriana is the film for you.

Starring hollywood biggies like Matt Damon, Chris Cooper, William Hurt, Jeffrey Wright and George Clooney(who won a Best Supporting Oscar for this one and doubles up as the executive producer), Syriana is slow and confusing initially as you get introduced to a myriad of characters going about their jobs in a ruthless manner.

Harvard educated Prince Nasir(played brilliantly by Alexander Siddig) wants to reform his oil rich country by bringing in democracy and granting voting rights to women. Assisting him in his reform process is Bryan Woodman(Matt Damon), an energy analyst who is loosing touch with his own family based back in the US. Somewhere else, Robert Gates(George Clooney), a veteran CIA officer, is entrusted by the US Govt with assasinating Prince Nasir.

What happens next is something to be seen - sibling rivalry, corporate greed, preservation of national interest(read OIL), treachery, assasination attempts and the birth of suicide bombers. Syriana is an eye opener for those who don't know and a confirmation for those who do.

Don't miss it!!!

The NDA's masterstroke

Well great minds do think alike! The other great mind here is the inimitable Swapan Dasgupta, who writes

"The Narendra Modi-Nitish Kumar photo-op in particular was good piece of showmanship. NDTV was particularly agitated and made it appear that Nitish's main crime was to have reneged on an assurance to Barkha Dutt. However, I don't think that Nitish was too happy over being ambushed by Modi--such public displays are not his style."

Since this unspeakable act of communalism, doublespeak and treachery(pun intended) has happpened, NDTV is at it. As if Nitish and Barkha are committed to each other and having made a statement on a horribly biased news channel is treated as signed confession in the supreme court of India. Not that I believe Nitish will NOT move to the UPA if the numbers are with them, I am just happy at the plain simple fact that NDTV is bloody hurt.

Whoever conceptualised this(Was it Jaitley?) deserves a pat on the back!

On a totally unrelated note, is it just me or are Priyanka Gandhi's clothes really getting tighter and tighter as the elections are nearing the end phase?

We must hit back

Says Vir Sanghvi. I have to say, Vir Sanghvi never fails to surprise me. Apart from Shekhar Gupta of the Indian Express, he is becoming one of the saner voices of the TOTALLY BIASED Indian media.

Pleasantly surprised!!!

I knew nothing.....

I knew nothing about the Babri demolition - Says Kalyan Singh

Close on the heels of Kalyan Singh's confessions on the Babri demolition, some other notable public figures are readying their confessions. A sneak peek :-

I knew nothing about cricket - John Buchanan and/or Shilpa Shetty

I knew nothing about 'getting elected from the Lok Sabha' - Manmohan Singh

I knew nothing about socialism(read NREGS) - Sonia Gandhi

I knew nothing about hair oil, only gel - Shivraj Patil

I knew nothing about the flight to Kandahar and Jaswant in that flight - L K Advani

I knew nothing about Hindi - Pranab Mukherjee

I knew nothing about unbiased reporting - Barkha Dutt/Rajdeep Sardesai

I knew nothing about whose son I am - Sanjay Dutt

Kung fu Panda Redux

Glossing over the events which have happened over the last 20 days, I am reminded of that beautiful line from Master Oogway in Kung Fu Panda.

"One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it."

Rajnath Jee listens

finally. Remember this guy from good, old doordarshan?

Get your own Sehwag

Says Harsha Bhogle, in his usual style.

Finally Aamir apologises

Isn't this google ad priceless?

Where have all the speakers gone?

It's funny right! For the last five years we have had a spineless PM and a spineless govt.

• A PM who needs 'permission' even to go to the loo. A PM who slept while 'Indians' were getting killed in blasts and 'could not sleep' when Dr Haneef was in an australian jail.
• A home minister who spent more time putting gel in his hair than running the ministry.
• An external affairs minster who was incomprehensible and un-understandable, in either English or Hindi.
• And lastly, a heir-apparent, indulging in poverty tourism and dalit-house-hunting, which seems to me racism of the worst kind and also tells me he was born even further away from his mother's birthplace Italy.
  

In view of the above, I thought the BJP had it on a platter. But they are fumbling. There was a time they had the best speakers(Sushma, Mahajan, Jaitley and the best of all Vajpayee). And look at them now. Last saturday I was watching 'The Big Fight' and the topic was Hate Politics. Balbir Punj of the BJP, whilst facing NDTV Aunty Brinda Karat and Mani Shankar Aiyar, was not only fumbling, mumbling and doing a Sonia i.e. reading out from his notes in a live debate, his debating skills left much to desire. The media as such does not give them any leverage, we know that. Add to this, some stupid statements here and there. And some stupid actions, too.

If the BJP wants to, or should I say, needs to improve its image in the minds of first time voters, they 'have to' get some new anchors fast which means, simply, add some new products to its portfolio. They might be a little foolish like Manish Tewari of the Italian National Congress but they have to be fluent, presentable and debatable.

Rajnath Jee, are you listening?

P.S. - Where the hell is Arun Jaitley? I know he is strategizing, but we need to see him on NDTV, Times NOW and CNN IBN day after day everyday taking on the likes of Sibal and Brinda.

The story of my life

I understand that there's some problems
And I'm not too blind to know
All the pain you kept inside you
Even though you might not show
If I can't apologize for being wrong
Then it's just a shame on me
I'd be the reason for your pain
And you can put the blame on me

By Akon

My Review - Love Actually

You must be wondering - a rom com, with nine different stories and starring Hugh Grant?!! Is it me or something has changed? Well actually after watching the extremely witty Notting Hill I wanted to check out 'any other great works' of the said writer(Richard Kurtis) and Love Actually was the only unseen one on the list. (other ones being the Bridget Jones series). Incidentally, this is one of Grant's and Curtis' highest grossing films worldwide.

So what did I think of it? Better than Notting Hill. No. Wittier than Notting Hill. At some places.

The best stories are the ones with the aging rockstar(Bill Nighy) and his manager, the boss(Alan Rickman, the baddie from Die Hard) and the secretary and the stand-in body doubles. The story about the Prime Minister(brilliantly played by Hugh Grant) and Sarah(played by Laura Linney), who likes a fellow colleague at her office, have a good start but are not developed quite as well.

A highlight of the film is this scene where the PM addressess the media alongwith the President of the US. And for this reason alone I give this film 3 stars.



Needless to say the Bollywood copy of this film was the very boring Salaam-E-Ishq!

I wanna be the PM tooo

Dear readers and countrymen, here are the possible candidates for leading our great country into the 21st century.

1. L.K.Advani
If Manmohan Singh can work as the (remote)PM and do a great job, why the hell can't I?
Claim to fame
Currently is on the 'I love Jinnah' & 'I did know Jaswant had a ticket' communities on Orkut.

2. Mayawati
If I can be number one in corruption, why can't i get the number one job in the country?
Claim to fame

1. Statues
2. Corruption
3. More statues
4. More Corruption

3. Sharad Pawar
We need a Maharashtrian PM especially since we have such a dynamic maharashtrian President.
Claim to fame
He is a Maharashtrian(Didn't I say that earlier?)

4. Jyoti Basu
The time has come to rectify the historic blunder.
Claim to fame
His leadership. His vision. His age. His walk. His talk. His coverage on NDTV.

My Review - There Will be Blood

There will be blood is about the struggle and rise of Daniel Plainview(Daniel Day Lewis), a manipulative and eccentric oilman during the oil boom of the late 19th century in the US. In his pursuit of oil and wealth, he comes into regular conflict with Eli Sunday(Paul Dano, the elder brother from Little Miss Sunshine), a young preacher who is himself looking to make some easy money from the same boom.

Like all of Paul Thomas Anderson's previous movies(Punch Drunk Love and Magnolia), the narrative of the movie is slow. But that does not bother you because of the wonderful cinematography and some equally wonderful acting.

Somehow I felt that the film was more about Plainview's rags to riches story and subsequent loneliness than the fight between him the young preacher as suggested by reviewers.

Daniel Day Lewis, who won an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe for this one, gives a powerful performance as the eccentric Plainview.

Definitely a one time watch for a lazy Sunday afternoon!

My Review - Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder starts with a promo of Scorcher, an action film starring Tugg Speedman(Ben Stiller), ready with a gun and a baby(?!!!) to save the world. Then come the promos of Scorcher II, III, IV and V. In this hilarious satire-action-comedy partly written and wholly directed by Stiller himself, three actors from different genres come together to make a war movie. So Stiller plays Speedman(modelled on Stallone), Downey, Jr. is Kirk Lazarus, an australian actor(loosely modelled on Russell Crowe) who goes great depths to 'get into' the character and Jack Black is Jeff Portnoy, an actor who has done films like The Fatties(a take on Eddie Murphy) and is addicted to drugs. Speedman is desperate for a hit, Lazarus is desperate to be in character even between shots and Portnoy is desperate for cocaine.

The story is simple, the screenplay is apt and the satire is immensely enjoyable. Watch out for the scene where Lazarus(Downey) advises Speedman(Stiller) never to go full retard while playing a mentally retarded character. There are cameos by almost half of Hollywood including the much appreciated cameo of Tom Cruise as Less Grossman, the producer of the film.

I give it four stars and put it on my must see list.

Also See

Roger Ebert's Review of Tropic Thunder

I love the Third Front

The third front has been (re)launched with a new vigour and a new avataar, which will be pro-minority, pro-dalit, pro-OBC, pro-farmer and pro-poor(whatever that means).
What this means that some unemployed politicians dying to get some votes(and ministries thereafter) and prove their SECULARISM will get together at Deve Gowda's residence and watch him sleep. BTW, our former PM also has the ability to sleep with his eyes wide open. Don't believe me, check him out yourself.

P.S. - What the hell is A B Bardhan doing?