Drinking guidelines!

"Don't drink to feel better, drink to feel even better!"

How do you know, 2010

Have you checked AndPictures yet? Here is the link : www.andpictures.net

Avatar - The movie!

I am not sure how I got introduced to it, but I have always admired the views that I got to see on Digital Blasphemy (www.digitalblasphemy.com)

I just came back from watching a 7 pm show of Avatar! Have been reading and hearing about the movie...

It redefines the movie going experience

It takes animation and graphics to a completely different level

James Cameron is at his all time best

and a whole lot more...

Guess what! All of it is true!!!

Follow these guidelines if you plan to watch the movie:

1. Watch it in the largest possible screen... if you have to drive to an IMAX which is outside your town, do it!

2. Sit in the centre

3. Watch it in 3D. THAT is for sure which literally added another dimension to the movie

4. Do not look for a story ( you know the story already, Powerful people wanting resources, natives not willing to give up, powerful people sending someone to know more so that they can plan the destruction well, the insider turning hostile, battle and climax follows, good wins, bad loses... that's all that is to the story)

From how I see it, there are a few ways you could connect with Avatar...

1. Technically : It talks about a network within the living organisms... something that keeps everything going... A tree connected to a different tree through the roots and the entire jungle a LAN/WAN/Network of sorts... you break one important link/hub or the data center, and you have the capability of suddenly crashing the whole network!

2. Visually : It was the digital blasphemy site turning into a movie for me... The colors, the clarity, the detail, the rendering of the thoughts into visual experience, is Abso-fkking-loutely mind blowing... cheers to whoever thought of the images in their mind, and more cheers to who got them out of mind and put them on the screen! The details, the quality of animation is something which is not way ahead of the rest in my opinion, Transformers is equally good! What makes Avatar different is the presentation of things that are otherwise non existent, or let's say we do not get to see them much! Though I found similarities in quite a few characters in the movie and some wildlife that I saw on NatGeo/Discovery documentaries. Having said that, it still does not take away the sheer brilliance of the artwork that has been done for AVATAR. (I was trying to find the details of the team who has worked on the graphics for this movie.. Please share if you have some info)

3. Spiritually : The movie has something that I believe in. Bonds that are not explainable! The visual rendering of these bonds is extremely beautiful too! Bond between man and nature (though I doubt if using man and nature in two different words is justified), bond between you and animals, an unsaid comfort and connection between various elements of nature and the fact that there is no deity or God, but everything is connected and is a representation of HIM or HER ( for that matter)

I am going to see this movie at least one more time! Let's see when!!!

While I am anxiously waiting for my next opportunity, go take out time and open this Pandora's box which now has a completely different meaning!

Hat's off James Cameron!

Oh, and don't forget to visit the Digital Blasphemy site that I mentioned above!

A guy, some girls and two break ups

Its just the right title... Love Aaj Kal... It could also have been Movie Aaj Kal...
Why?

Because this kind of a movie has been made aaj(today) and it has been made Kal (yesterday) and will be made Kal (Tomorrow)

The love that you see in movies Aaj (today), and you must have seen it kal (yesterday) and you will see it kal (tomorrow) too

So in a nutshell, this is a movie you have seen before, with different characters, different situations, different actors, different locations, different trains, different stations, different camera angles, but trust me you have seen it all before... So there is something similar, yet different about this movie....

Some of the reasons why you would like to see Love Aaj Kal

1. Rishi Kapoor stays a fine actor... very natural, very elegant, very easy
2. Saif Ali Khan's suits... I personally think he dresses very well
3. Deepika's Gorgeous Legs...Just can't get enough of them ever!
4. The music... Pritam has done a brilliant job... Neeraj Sridhar, Mohit Chauhan, Sunidhi Chauhaan, Raahat Fateh Ali Khan, KK, all of them are worth listening to... I have been listening to the music of Love Aaj Kal all this week, and I am still not over Twist and Chor Bazaari... Chor Basaari specially...
5. It reminds of some parts of a Delhi... Don't know of many movies which have been shot in Purana Quila...
6. Giselle Monteiro has looked so convincing as a sardarni... infact adorable
7. Saif's Mustang !!! nothing major, I love a mustang so its important!
8. The movies reiterates a couple of facts... Men are mostly slow and stupid when it comes to relationships, Women are simple plain scared when it comes to relationships...and most couples get entangled into the "what if" and "what if not" modes...
9. Some good lights and photography at places...
10. Chor Bazaari is an amazing song! I love the music... Did I say that already? I think I did!


and reasons why you might not want to watch
1. 2 hours and 40 minutes.. umm...
2. Saif has produced the movie, and that means that he speaks atleast 50% of the time, maybe more during the movie... uff! someone has to ask him to shut up...
3. Under-utilization of Rahul Khanna..,he is such a fine artist... and Veer Das I wonder why this guy was in the movie.. he is a fine comic guy! and very smooth at times... what a waste...
4. Useless dance routines! such amazing music wasted... I have been imaging much better stuff in my mind in the last few days... now you know why I need a mind printer!

It was nice to be able to see a Hindi movie in a cinema in Milwaukee... liked it :)

and today I made the best DAL EVER... someone needs to give me a "you can finally cook" certificate!

Cidade de Deus

• A small town near Rio de Janeiro
• Grass and Cocaine
• Drug Lords of a different kind
• Gangs with guns and kids not more than 15 years shooting each other
• Many very impactful stories together...

That's Cidade du Deus or City of God for you!

If you have not seen it, find it and watch it!!! you will not regret spending the time!

I will not spend any lines talking about good the movie was and how I did not move for 130 minutes from in front of the Television.. if you want to know more, google it or read about it on IMDB!

Harry Potter and no Half-blood Prince!

I don't know about the book, and I would let someone who has read it comment on that front, but I was very disappointed with the latest movie!

Its a teenage love story which has "some" magic as well! that's it! I doubt if the thickest of all Harry Potter books has such a weak story.... Please please please someone tell me that the book is way better than this movie!

I am not really saying that I did not like it... I did... Hermione is beautiful, and Harry looks smart(er) feels a bit smart(er) too; the teenage love story was sweet! but c'mon I want to see some magic... not what I saw!

It was a 10 minute story ok 20 min tops, that was showen in 2.5 hours! Half blood prince? really!

now I want to read the book!

I have recently started liking the Irish and the British accent a lot., call it "being in America effect".. That was another reason why I liked watching this movie...

For Autobots !!

In the list of movies I can watch any times over and over again... Transformers would probably in the top 10 maybe top 6 or 5 as well...

I just cannot get enough of the movie... small screen big screen anything works... but this movie is not really made for a small screen or regular audio... No screen is big enough and no sound system is good enough !!!

The character of Optimus Prime just demands respect, right from the first word he speaks, and that truck he transforms into... oooooooooooooo.... and bumble bee has to be my favorite of all of them... he is such a cool dude... and I so so want to have one of those junk looking crazy sounding mind boggling camaros...



And the line in the movie, "A driver don't pick the car, a car picks the driver." I guess thats what exactly had happened that September in 2004 when I bought my car... She picked me !

ok, back to the movie !

I LOVE IT... Period.

And I saw a blue Chevy Camaro today and was so so so so wanted to drive it... someday!

p.s. I think Jyoti had taken this photograph. I am not too sure.

And while we are talking about Machines and Cars and emotions, have a look at the video below...

Percussions and Strings "Rocking On..."

I have about 30 pictures from my Utah trip uploaded already to a draft post and I was going to write about it tonight, but I just happened to "Rock On"...

Farhan Bhai, aap mahaan ho !!!

Very natural on the screen, and phenomenal on the vocals (though I heard him shaking a lot in the live version of a song from the soundtrack, making me feel that his voice has been digitized)... but still boss, 10 on 10 for you !!!

Arjun Rampal looks good... fits in just where he should be !!!

The cast of the movie looked very carefully chosen... Can I miss talking about the fantastic score by Shankar Ehsaan Loy... one of the finest percussion and strings that I have heard in long time now !!! The way they have used Lead in their music is mind blowing... I am sure I am going to love listening to it full blow with Radha, as soon as I am back... Honestly speaking the lyrics are not really needed at places, because they just go in a different tangent for me.. for example the Song Zehreele... I heard it twice... and the second time, I was only listening to the music... What amazing music !!!! and ditto with Pichle Saath Dino Mein... there are parts of the song, where the vocals interfere with the music and I don't like it, because the vocals are good and so is the music, just were just not going together !

Now I have to look for Du Hast and listen to it soon... ask me for this song if you have not heard it yet !!! but make sure you have good speakers if you are listening to it !!!

Brilliant vocals and acoustics on Phir Dekhiye... and not to miss the lovely piano !!!

I really liked the movie too and it reminded me of my days in college, the green room, the band Nakshatra, the numerous rounds of Sweet Child of Mine, the rock remixes of Altaf Raja, the amazing guitar Solos of Rahut Patrick (The simplest and the best, rather simply the best guitarist I have met), joining Nimisha for her English Solo Competitions, hearing the band practice and just being there enjoying the music, that trip to Pilani with Ankur and Pradeep where we sat in the rock competition and concert for 13 straight hours....

I am not sure if I was watching the movie, or living my college days again in those two something hours of the movie...

Ah !!!!

What a feeling !!! I Yum Loooving Eet !!!



*now listening to Session - Linkin Park !!! yummy !!!

Insecure somewhere...

So the Devil Wears Prada... well thats what I just learnt in the last hour and a half...

I start in a job...

I like it..

I work hard...

Did I mention I had people I loved and People who loved me?

So back to working hard...

and very hard...

And one day I tell someone that my personal life is hanging by the thread, and what I am told is, "Congratulations, you are doing great at work!!!"

And what next?

Well... the day you think you have lost your personal life, congratulations, its time for a promotion...
So I keep doing great at work...

Oh, yes and there are people I love and people who love me... but then what do I do... work needs attention... I just CAN'T do anything about it... doesn't matter if that attention to work means no attention to the people who now are not getting any time... but I just CAN't Do anything...

so I move on.. they move on...

and one harsh reality and I am back to normal... back to the people I love and people who love are back...

But then, that was the movie... It was a movie that was supposed to end with happiness all around...

I guess I am just insecure about myself, that because I treat work as something that pays my rent and is a necessary evil and having said that I still manage to do pretty well there (God Bless) and put in a lot of soul in it... but at the same time have something else that I have a larger part of my heart in... I might grow up to be an insignificant person for people who today love me and want to stand by me, but will probably move too ahead and away from me while they were working their way higher up the ladder...

I don't want a day in my life when the trade-offs become too big to handle....

Or maybe I should not be watching movies alone :) they make me think..

or maybe I should take a nap... its been almost 24 hours that I have not slept...

Good Morning Life... Good to know you more !!!

आग

Ok… I have seen BOOM…. And I thought the director/producer was under a heavy influence of drugs right from the moment he thought about making the picture to releasing it…

And not too long ago, I tested my patience with HR’s आप का सुरूर … and I somehow managed to survive the movie till the very end…

But there is something that happened that suddenly made me feel that both the movies mentioned above we nice movies… and no points for guessing that I am talking about Ram Gopal Varma’s आग … no fun in going into the details of the movie, but there are a few bullet items that I would still like to mention…

1. Nisha Kothari, does not look good even with half her clothes off her body. Ok she is a woman, and she got a decent figure... but see her act in this movie and there is li’il about her that is going to be attractive anymore…
2. Urmila Matondkar definitely got a boob job done… there was no other reason why there was song sequence featuring her and Abhishek Bachchan…
3. Ram Gopal Varma, and everyone else who was associated with the direction, production, acting, post processing etc etc tried a li’il too hard to make it different than the Sholey and yet not loose a similarity touch… and they miserably failed… the failure was worse than the Indian Cricket team getting all out on 50 runs… who ironically managed a great win over England in yesterday’s match… super exciting cricket after a very very long time… I miss Saurav Ganguly as the captain of the team for some reason…
4. मौसी was now गंगू Mummy… yes… exactly… “Gangu Mummy” what the fuck … who thought of that title?
5. Ajay Devgan acted pathetically in the movie… he was tried to be funny, and all I could see was a repeat of the hairstyle and the dialogue delivery from the “Phool Aur Kante” days…
6. Zero Chemistry between the friends…
7. Useless dialogues… including the one where गब्बर ... oops... बब्बन , this time, says “कब है दीवाली ”…
8. What was Amitabh Bachchan trying to do? Please someone help me get an answer to that question…
9. साम्भा is थाम्बे … and he was also cleaning the gun when the almost physically challenged बब्बन makes an entry…
10. It took me a while to figure out if बब्बन was coughing or laughing… then I realized that he was laughing…
11. The scene when वीरू threatens to commit suicide because Basanti’s मौसी is not agreeing to the marriage has been repeated as if some third standard kids thought of doing the same scene again with वीरू enacted by हीरो , बसंती enacted by घुंघरू , Mausiji enacted by some “Gangu Mummy”
12. The blind चाचा of the “इतना सन्नाटा क्यों है भाई ” fame is also there... only this time he is pretty aggressive and an angry old man…
13. Rajpal Yadav tries to make up for सूरमा Jagdeep भोपाली in a seemingly funny but very irritating accent…
14. The movie’s plot is based out of a place called Kaliganj in Mumbai… and there are gun fires, huge bomb explosions, AK 47 wars, and not a single Mumbai Policeman around…
15. And have I already talked about the songs? I do not remember even one of them as of now… all I can remember is that all of them came when they were not needed… and useless music!!!
16. There is Mohanlal the southie superstar as well… the poor guy, I do not think, knows that damage he has done to himself by acting in this movie... he has been decent at a few places for sure… but like ठाकुर even he did not have the limbs… they were cut off by babban because the inspector had used the hands to kill his brother…

Overall… a pathetic experience… worse than what it sounds like from the post above…

The only good thing that I personally liked was the lovely use of lights and some intelligent camera angles at times… Photography benchmarks… good ones…

I think Ram Gopal Varma should give a public apology for making this movie... the tremendous caliber that I think he has was WASTED in this his आग … not sure it caused some heat on the boxoffice…but it sure did leave a burning sensation somewhere inside me… Acidity maybe!!!

IT for sure is A MISTAKE

ITS a MISTAKE...

that's what he shouts only 5 minutes into the movie... and he is so right... for the first and the last time... "Aap ka Suroor" is such a mistake... and I became a part of it by watching it day before yesterday...

All I wanted to do was to test my patience and see if I could manage to sit through the entire movie... and what I did was keep smiling throughout thinking why was I doing that to myself !!!

Here are a few things that I noticed in the movie...

~ Himesh tells his friend Sravan, " Sravan dekh to Germany mein meri naak mat kata dena". Sravan says, " Nai yaar, main aisa kaise kar sakta hoon, teri naak kat gai to tu gayega kaise".
~ No two scenes in the movie seemed to be continuous in nature... though they were connecting the story, but the editing was done pathetically... It seemed like they had made 5-6 hour long movie about Himesh, and then shortened it to about 2.5 hours.
~ Hanshika Motwani has done extremely well with her immitation of Sushmita Sen's voice and style of speaking... If you are not looking at the screen, you would think that its Sush only who is speaking...
~ Himesh has the irritating, almost about to cry, face in the entire movie as if he is suffering from piles... The only time he manages to laugh and that too in the most plastic fashion is when a li'il girl makes fun of his cap...
~ When Himesh meets Ria the first time... the scene has Gayatri Matra playing in the background. I have never seen a mantra being used such pathetically ever.
~ And then Himesh also bothers to sing the Gayatri Mantra in its worst form ever... and he managed to screw up the Rishi Kapoor/Kishor Kumar song too... Main Shayar to nahin...
~ For some reason, Himesh was also seen rubbing his chest in a strange manner in a few instances in the movie... yuck...
~ He does not have a body to wear button less shirts, but still he was trying to flaunt something that was there under his shirt by wearing the buttonless shirts throughout the movie... atleast i did not notice a cleavage or chestcuts for that matter...
~ Oh... there is this classic scene where Himesh is being taken away by the Police in their cars and out of nowhere (in Germany) there are 3 autowallas in uniform who make him run away... the camera also was frozen on these 3 super heroes for their 5 seconds of fame...

Overall this was a ridiculous movie... ONE of its kind.. you really have to watch it to hate it the right way... not watching it and not liking it is something thats not really worth it !!!

The only good thing about the movie was Mallika Sherawat... I have kinda started liking the way she carries herself after Pyaar ke Side Effects... and how natural she can look at time...

Oh... and when the movie finishes, the song Mehbooba Mehbooda appears out of nowhere... for no reason at all... Not sure what the editors were trying to do with the kilometres of reel that they have for the movie...

The Pursuit of Happy-ness

There is no WHY in Happyness, it has to be spelt with an I...

Fair point... why ask questions... let Happiness be with I only...

The thought comes from one of the best movies I have seen of Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness... A movie based on the true story of Chris Gardner, who used to sell Bone Marrow Density Scanners and struggled to make ends meet... His wife left him with a 5 year old kid, and there were times when he stayed in shelter homes, and churches, and even the bathrooms of the metro stations in the night..

Determination, and hard work saw him get a job as a broker @ Dean Witter Reynolds, where he worked/got trained as an intern for no salary for 6 months...

During all this time, this guy never let his son down...

Coming to the movie.. Will Smith and his real life and the reel life son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith have done wonders in this movie... The way both of them have played their respective roles, is something that is beyond words for me... Keep it up Smiths...

About the movie experience now... Friday night... thanks to the India Srilanka Cricket match... the theatre did not have a long line... none infact... However, I have a feeling that there would not be any for most of the english movies here... I have not really seen people who are comfortable talking in English... I am assuming the charm for english movies except action would not be much around here either...

So loud strange songs playing in the mall... a decent one though, no lines... and the theatre with two kinds of seats...
Silver : the front three rows with minimal leg room for 120 bucks..
Gold : the rest of the rows with i guess better leg room and seats...

Anyway, there were only about 20 people in the hall with a capacity of over 200 so the movie was a good experience...

Oh, and irrespective of you watching the movie... do check out the links...