Monday, August 24, 2009

Kaminay: Treat to the brain

There are those good movies which make you watch them again and again. But very rarely you will find a movie which while you leave the theater you want to feel the pride of making one such movie. I felt the same pride this sunday when I watched Kaminay.

Kaminay is from one of my fav bollywood directors Vishal Bharadwaj. The feeling you get after watching the movie is that of reading a fool proof novel. The writing is so powerful. The best thing about the movie is its boldness. No, I don't mean the boldness in the dialoghes and the handling of the story. I meant the boldness in the director saying that if you have come for mindless entertainers go to the other screens in the multiplex. Because if you leave your brain at home, better be at home. When I spend so much money,brain and energy in making a movie, you ought to spend at least a part of it in watching it. And no I am not spoon feeding you.

It was an entirely new feeling for me , may be because I have not seen movies by Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie and the Coen Brothers, which many claim are the inspiration of this movie. But the dark humor interspersed with unpredictable turn of events are a treat to watch. All the characters in the movie will remain etched in memory for a long long time. Though I am not very convinced with all ends well ending, nevertheless I believe that was a compromise done towards commercial success.

If this is how a Kaminay is, then Kaminay's are wow and I want more of them.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Life rolls on...

Life's been rolling on. To say I have been busy with work would be a false statement ,but yes I was busy with so many other things. One after the other, the twitter bug and now the linked.in and lastly facebook bugs have had their toll on my blogging time and hence, could not write in earlier. So here I am giving an upate on whats been happening all these days.

I have suddenly realized the immense free time we have during weekends and am trying to put it to some good use apart from dozing around and spending time watching movies. Not that I did not watch any during this time. In fact I watched some very good movies. Subramanyapuram, yeah I know, but I could watch it only now, is indeed a path breaking movie in all aspects. Superb. So was Nadodigal a new phase in tamil cinema , I would say; Love aaj Kal, well it is like a chat item at your favourite shop, you know it would be good and it was good , only that nothing in it was original; Angels and Demons, though I am no big advocate of the story itself, which I feel is very meek in comparison with Da Vinci code, the movie though was watchable; Hangover, one of the most hilarious English comedies I have ever seen, though I don't watch many english comedies, I just missed the company of people I would have loved to watch this one with.

As for ashes, it is always there to thrill me. I somehow predicted the outcome of the last test match that Aussies will win it. But I never thought it would be this big. Now I think Aussies are all set to win ashes or at best retain the ashes. For me, England do not have the fighting spirit to pull back things from here. Just hoping Freddie gets a good farewell.

Things like 63rd independence day celebration and Shahrukh Khan being detained at the airport and all the media hulla surrounding it, well I felt there is no need to sensatinoalize either of these and there are other pertinent issues in the country which deserved more attention.

That's it from me.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Ashes Rises from Ashes

It was a typical case of old wine getting tastier with time. Ashes always lives upto the expectation. This time the expectation was sky high as this ashes was supposed to challenge the might of aussies, who this time have one of the weakest bowling attacks among australian teams of all ages as per me. Surpassing all the expectations, what we were treated to was an absolutely thrilling experience which brings out the best out of test matches dismissing all notions of T20 eating into other forms of cricket. And full credit goes to both these teams for fighting it out. What started as a England's match turned Aussie way and when the extra long Aussie innings went on and on, looked set for a draw. Smart thinking Ponting had other plans. He wanted to bat once and for all in this match and it seemed to work till the last twist in the tale. 10th wicket partnership going on for 11 full overs and surpassing the lead by Aussie was indeed a treat to watch irrespective of which team you are supporting.Each ball was greeted with sounds ranging from pin drop silence to a roar when the batsman survives. Aussies wanted to bowl for some more overs, but the stipulated quota of overs being over, England were a tad luckier than them. Though one felt bad about Aussie losing the game, it was cricket on a whole which was the winner. With just one match over, Ashes promises to raise from the ash like a Pheonix to enthrall one with the pleasure of test cricket.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

T20 World Cup Fixture is Buggy

The fixtures and schedule for the ICC T20 World cup 2009 are faulty. The concept of pooling them into groups based on the previous world cup rankings is pretty justifiable but ranking them this time based on their last world cup's performance is sheer stupidity. For instance, even though England and South Africa have topped their respective pools this time they have been named as B2 and D2 and hence they have to play against the tougher teams A1 and C1. So for the super eights you have a pool which has teams like India,England,South Africa and West Indies. Three out of these four have topped the tables this time around. And the other pool has Pakistan,Ireland,New Zealand and Sri Lanka, only one pool topping team among the four. Ideally the pools for super eight should have been decided based on what ranks the teams achieve this tournament. Now, this has resulted in huge imbalance among the pools for the super eights. Another effect of this mistake is the the last few matches have become inconsequential. For instance, the match between West Indies and SriLanka and the match between New Zealand and South Africa. They just served merely as a practice match where teams tried to seize the momentum as they go into the next round.
I believe the reason for making such fixtures was to boost the sale of tickets and advance bookings as it was known well in advance where will the teams meet for super eights match unless there is a upset like the ousting of Australia. It is time the organizers think beyond petty gains like this which kills the competitive spirit of the game and makes the series a lackluster one.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Memories down under in Coimbatore

Well, somethings don't happen when and where you wish . They just happen when they are destined to. And till then you have to wait for the moment. I had been thinking of going and visiting my college and the beautiful city of Coimbatore where it is situated ever since I completed a year into this corporate world but then the thought had a wait time of 4 years before it finally materialized.

Yes, indeed this weekend I visited Coimbatore and more importantly spent a time of full 2 hours inside the campus taking snaps and recollecting memories of lost times, of times which will never come back again. It was really bad that there was no one in the college except some staffs who were invigilating over some exams happening. So, here I had an unrestricted access into all the hostel and department blocks. Of course, the labs were closed. The Coimbatore weather in June, stayed true to its expectations and was at its typical best. It was breezing all the while with intermittent drizzle now and then. Many things have changed and many new things have cropped up new. Like the new Civil Engineering block. But some things are rock solid and unchanged. Like the hostel and the greenery around. It goes to the credit of the college administrators for not giving in to expansion at the price of greenery. As for around the college, there are a lot of new bakeries which have sprung up. Also, noteworthy for me was the new snooker,billiards and pool outlet which has come up. Brave move by the owner I would say knowing my college mates finances. Nakshatra has become Ponnusamy, K.R Bakes has become K.R. Restaurants , I think this change is all across Coimbatore. Somethings have vanished, like the all famous Karthick mess.

Life has to move on and so have we. But some memories remain etched in ur minds forever though in dormant state. It was like hitting the rewind button on the remote control and then watching the highlights of the play again.