Wall-E is here!!!

Teaser for much awaited movie is out. (Yeah, yeah, I know I am little late) PIXAR. Sirf naam hi kaafi hai....

Welcome 2008

No, I am not going to write anything for welcoming new year but will rather point you to one of the funniest post in recent times around blogosphere. 2008 in preview by Aadisht. A must read. Sidin, Greatbong, you have a competition here, don't tell me, I didn't warn you.

Related links :- 2007 in preview by same author.

Most disgraceful moment in test cricket

1981, when Greg Chappell asked his bowler, his brother, Trevor Chappell to bowl underarm. New Zealand requiring six runs off the last ball to tie the match, which obviously couldn't be hit considering the underarm delivery. Many till date consider that as most disgraceful moment in the history of One-day cricket. Today I am in front of TV watching most disgraceful test I've ever known. Umpiring, sportsman spirit all gone haywire.

Umpires are human and hence prone to mistakes. Please for the sake of the universe, please don't give me this excuse, at least for this test. Umpires have crossed all the limits. Australian first innings : Ricky Ponting clearly nicks with big sound, verdict not out. Plumb in front of stumpts, verdict not out. Let me not even talk about hundred survival Symonds got, courtesy Benson and Bucknor, during his match saving innings of 162*. Indian first innings : Jaffer out on a no-ball and guess what umpire doesn't even know. Series of pathetic decisions continue. Indian second innings, final day of the test. India surely playing for a draw, which will be big boost. Australia going for kill, damn right they want world-record of 16 wins and for that they have decided to put aside sportsman spirit. Dravid's catch is dropped at second/third slip off a no-ball, but no no-ball declared! Dravid defends a ball outside off stump, with his bat behind his pad and far far away from the ball, Gilchrist fervently appeals and verdict? OUT!! Ganguly is playing the superb knock to save the test match and just completed his half century. Suddenly ball takes outside edge and flies to third sleep, where ball not once but TWICE touches the ground before Clarke completes the catch. and what does Brenson do? He asks Ricky Ponting, standing in second sleep. Ricky Ponting even without a blink of eye blatantly says "I think he is out" and the verdict? Umpire immediately raises the finger, without even looking at Saurav Ganguly who is standing there firm!!!

Now coming to vaporized sportsman spirit of Australian team. Symonds blatantly declares that he knew he was out when he was 30 during his epic innings of 162. When ball passed way away from Dravid's bat and Gilchrist is standing close to the stumps, Gilchrist is the only person whom you can think as the one who won't appeal, if he knows it isn't out, but he appeals and Dravid is out. Ricky Ponting fella who is lying blatantly as mentioned above, does it again. Ball bounces (off the pad), Ponting dives and takes the catch, takes a diving catch. His hand is ABOVE the ball when ball TOUCHES the ground, so you can't be in doubt whether you have taken it clean or not, but he still appeals and fervently appeals???!!! Thank God that was off the pads otherwise who knows, umpire might have given that out!!! Let me not once again recount all those illogical appeals from Australian team.

If India didn't deserve to win this match, they surely didn't deserve to lose this one either. This is not loss of India, but LOSS OF CRICKET. However, World champions Australia may be, I don't have slightest of respect for the team for this win. Aussies, you DID NOT DESERVE THIS.

Time ripe for GOTOT?

So India is poised at level where, it's almost impossible to pull even a draw now, but after looking at Tendulkar's innings in first Indian innings, I think time for GOTOT is ripe now.

Times ago, Gaurav asked for a GOTOT, which has not arrived yet. Stage couldn't be better. Two days and 500 runs to achieve. In almost similar situation, Sri Lanka would have pulled a victory right under the nose of Ricky Ponting, thanks to the charge led by Sangakkara, but courtesy a bad decision they lost by 96 runs. The way Tendulkar hammered Australians in first innings, I don't think it's too hard for Tendulkar to achieve such a high target in 4th innings. With Ganguly finding his confidence back, one of the prolific pair of ODIs might be able to pull a miracle against Kangaroos. I know I am being too optimistic, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for sure.

Of Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Saawariya

Eagerly awaited and hopefully looked upon time by Bollywood is approaching as Diwali nears. This year, Diwali is going to witness two mega-budget releases Saawariya and Om Shanti Om. As for, whole versus thing, I will reserve it for another post. For now, I am here to talk about Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his latest offering Saawariya.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali silently entered with not-so-successful Khamoshi, but he really hit the marquee with Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, which went on to become one of the most successful in the year and put Bhansali at front of successful directors. Bhansali continued his success march with really-mega-budget Devdas, churning out enough money to justify the big budget, even resulting in the selection for India's official entry to best foreign-language film at Academy awards, only to be ousted too early just like most of Indian films. Strengthening Bhansali as one of looked upon figure of Bollywood, but surprising was yet to come. In 2005, Bhansali came up with "breakthrough cinema", "critically-acclaimed", "beautifully crafted" et al BLACK. Now let me try to put Saawariya into my own little perspective about Bhansali and his films in general. I won't dig too much past, just little something from recent past. Devdas and Black.

Now, as everyone knew Devdas was an adaption of a novel, which was already adopted twice before and in fans' words immortalized by K. L. Saigal and Dilip Kumar respectively. Bhansali roped in Shahrukh Khan, baap of all of them, atleast as far as melodrama is concerned. Gargantuan sets, full of colours, two beautiful leading ladies, graceful choreography and dependable Shahrukh Khan made this movie a huge hit. Devdas, as a novel and even as a movie is classic example of all the drama/melodrama that can be incorporated. Bhansali did just that, so although people might have described it as gaudy or anything, one needs to understand that it needed to be gaudy. So far so good.

Then came BLACK. Bhansali set his eyes on critics and junta both this time around and decided to remake Academy-award winner The Miracle Worker. A story of deaf and blind girl and her teacher inspired from Helen Keller. Decided to go for black and white instead of colours. Name of the film is black you see. Whatever came out was darling of critics and not to mention a huge hit. He got all the praise for venturing where no Hindi movie director had gone, lifetime role of Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee etc. etc. Now here is where my problem starts. Black was a good watch alright, but it went little too far. Let me try to put it into words. Raja Sen, one of the prominent hate-figures on rediff message boards and among my favourite movie reviewers, in his article Why Paheli is better choice than Black for Oscars raised a few good points. I may not agree with all good things he said about Paheli, but for black.. sure!! (No wonder people hate him like that. I mean "how can he bash ah-so-great, movie of the century, Black like this..."). Greatbong, in his review rightly described movie as A technically polished weepy is all that I can call it. Baradwaj Rangan properly describes Sanjay Leela Bhansali as unapologetically melodramatic. That works for Devdas, but not quite for Black, mate.

Now coming to Saawariya. As we know, Saawariya is adaptation of Fryodor Dostoevsky's short story White Nights. Russian authors are known for their dark, depressing love stories about unrequited love, with most of the stories ending in agony, nervousness and depression. As a screenplay, story is good alright but why do I have this serious apprehension that all of that is going to get lost between sets, songs and Ranbir's bottom? (Rediff insanity at its peak. What do you mean Should INDIA see Ranbir's bottom????. Oh, let's keep nuclear deal aside for sometime, while INDIA discusses the utmost national security issue such as this). Or is it only me that has this feeling that Bhansali will be as unsuccessful in doing the justice to the subject as he was in Black. Well, only time can tell that but as of now let's just say that I am apprehensive about Saawariya and would rather wait-and-watch.


(cross-posted to DesiCritics)

Too far Ponting, too far...

Now we all know that Australians are good at sledging and I don't say it sarcastically. They really know how to sledge, unlike few of our hot-headeds like Sreesanth. Mr. Ponting I know you are able leader of all of them in all matters, but this time around you stretched it a little too far and stretched it beyond your limits.

Sachin Tendulkar is the best I've ever seen, good on him for playing 400-odd games - still it's a bit easier when you don't have to field in half of them.

You have mouth and you have ability to speak, but when it comes to Sachin Tendulkar, I get little worked up and that too totally irrelevant and false comments. What do you mean when you say you don't have to field in half of them?? Mr. Ponting, don't you challenge Sachin's commitment to the game. May I remind you that Sachin holds world record for most consecutive one-day matches that's 185 at the beginning of his career. 185!! That's almost half of the matches he has played till now and I don't believe he would have ever sat out during when Indian side is fielding. Even after that when he was hit with back problems and tennis elbow, it was rare sight, if any, not to see Sachin on the field. He is and has always been perfect contributor with ball and his commitment in fielding. Who can forget those magical overs that he bowled against Australia and South Africa to snatch thrilling victories for India?? Did you notice Mr. Ponting that when Indian side was playing for a draw to secure the historic series win against England, it was only Sachin who was playing with zest and enthusiasm for win?? So Mr. Ponting, although I know you had been saying these statements to provoke us, but next time make sure you stay within your limits!!!

This is the stuff dreams are made of...

© Ankur Gupta

A view from Brahmagiri peak. Brahmgiri Trek, September 14-16, 2007

Just a question...

How the hell does he serve that atomically precise ultra-fast ace at T's in 2nd serve? Hats-off Master...

Home!

There is no place like Home.
-Dorothy,The Wizard of Oz

There is no place like 127.0.0.1
-Douglas E. Comer, Author of Internetworking with TCP/IP

Marigold

I had no intension of watching Marigold whatsoever and this start of a review on Desicritics just strengthened belief.

Did you know Marigold is the name of a flower? You did? Oh well, tough luck then - this movie is not for you, because that is about the most interesting thing you come out with. Yeah, it’s that drab.

I know it's not *that* funny, but I ROTFLed for atleast 3 minutes after reading it...!!!

Sunday musings....

As we get older (as opposed to grow older), we start to make certain assumptions about ourselves. As time grows, we start to think that we are beyond certain feelings. Certain things can not happen to you ever again. You assume for yourself that set of negative feelings/emotions you were so sure are way behind. All it takes is just a small shock to tell you that Don't be too judgmental about yourself, dude. You still have a long way to go.... Keep note of such incidents and you will have a reality check for yourself.

Internet Radio on your Google Talk

I just love when different technologies come across to make a gadget that makes you say.... WOW!!! Although less popular than its peers Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger, I love Google Talk primarily because it's built upon open protocol jabber. Using this gtalk2voip has made an internet radio application. Just follow following steps and do let me know your feedback :

1. Add service@gtalk2voip.com to your GTalk friends list.
   
2. Add 110@radio.gtalk2voip.com
   
3. Make a call to 110@radio.gtalk2voip.com, you will be directly connected to teen taal FM radio station.
   

How was that?? Just make sure to use MUTE on your side to ensure privacy, just in case :)

Leave your feedback in comments section.

Ek Surati Ghazal

One of the least known things about Gujarati language for non-Gujarati people is how many different accents Gujarati actually has. Whenever any movie/serial tries to capture Gujju people they have a typical Ketaki-Dave-ish Gujarati accent prominently known as Kathiyawadi. One of the other accent, prominent in South Gujarat is mainly attributed to Parsi people. Whenever captured,like Being Cyrus, always highlighted as Parsi language, but it's common to most South Gujarati people. So here is a tribute to it. Obviously it's beyond translation, but even if you know Gujarati, you might not enjoy it unless you actually have been in touch with people.

પન્નીને પહતાય તો કે'ટો ની,
વાહણ જો અથડાય તો કે'ટોની.

અમના તો કે'ટો છે પાંપણ પર ઊંચકી લેમ,
પછી માથે ચડી જાય તો કે'ટો ની.

અમના તો પ્યાર જાણે રેહમની ડોરી,
એના પર લૂંગડા હૂકવાય તો કે'ટો ની.

"એની આંખોના આભમાં પંખીના ટોળાં..."
પછી ડોળા દેખાય તો કે'ટો ની.

હમ, ટુમ, તન્હાઈ બધું ઠીક મારા ભાઈ,
પછી પોયરાં અડ્ડાય તો કે'ટો ની.

Secret behind Himesh Reshammiya

This has got to be one of the funniest forwards in recent times, after the airtel advertisement ofcourse.

Click To Play

This post is made totally with humorous intension and no harm is meant to any community, especially to any wolf community.

Partner -- The Review

Just a question. What do you do if you have a script of proved hit comedy film from Hollywood? Answer. If you are David Dhawan, you rip-off the script, you mess it with as much as you can and turn it into a slapstick, Govinda-ish comedy. Yes that's Partner for you.

As you already know Partner is a rip-off from Will Smith, Eva Mendes starrer Hitch. Partner, which our good old Taran Adarash defines as, It's stylish, it's crazier, it's a bigger entertainer than David's last two laughathons. I have only one question. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Partner is as bizarre as it can get. Now copying Hollywood movies is not anything new we have heard in Hindi movies (What else do you expect when you have the very word Bollywood derived from Hollywood just because it's located in Bombay?). Directors have forgotten that people actually watch Hollywood movies now-a-days. Anyway, all David Dhawan had to do was remake the movie frame to frame and would have turned into a decent entertainer, but my frustration gets even bigger after they try to put some intelligence into it. Sanjay Gupta did it with Zinda and now it's David Dhawan's turn to prove his "superiority".

As for plot, a loser trying to pataofy a rich, simple-minded, kind-hearted girl with help of a love guru, who has problems of his own with the girl whom he is trying to pataofy and all's well that ends well. Well, that's pretty much it. Flavour it with child scientist making accurate missiles and cool-dude child helping other dude so he can marry his mother. All the crap about Salman-Govinda chemistry and Govinda's applauded comeback non-sense doesn't make any sense.

Verdict : Strict no-no. Rather go to a local DVD shop and watch Hitch again.

PS:- While you are at it, don't watch Naqaab - Shaatir Iraade - Disguised Intensions either. Worse of the two? Difficult to pick.

So near yet... so far...

The other day I was listening to the song Bairi Piya... from Devdas. Now I agree with Eliza when she says Devdas has very moving songs, strongly dependent on the mood you are in. Anyway, so while listening to the song I came across the line, Tu duur jo thaa to paas hi thaa, ab paas hai to duur hai kyun?? and chain of thoughts led me here...

Be it your love or your best friend, you want to keep him/her near to you and subconsciously focussed on you. Now holding someone near to you is not a bad thing, but expecting the same thing in return is dangerous. If the person is even away from you for a while for whatsoever reason, you start getting feeling that he/she is ignoring you and you can't come up with a reason, mainly because THERE AREN'T ANY. Still it keeps haunting you that something is definitely wrong and charm/chemistry/bonding is not there any more. If you are "rational", you start explaining YOURSELF. Things change, People Change... , One needs to move on... and what not. Not that these thoughts are wrong, but did you give a pause? Are you sure things have changed? Are you sure the person is changed? We tend to get feeling that we are being ignored, we are being sidelined, we are not same as we used to be in the other person's eye and you have this decision that For greater good, we have to accept reality and move on. Did you ever put it in other person's perspective? Do you even have faintest idea that your best friend needs your attention as much as you do? It might be situation that has turned the way he/she lives has changed his/her approach? You don't gossip as much as you used to, you don't laugh together as much as you used to, you don't spend the long hours on phone you used to. Does that in any way make him/her love you any less? but as you would say people change.... In short, the point is, Being irrationally "rational" and "for greater good" is as much dangerous to a relationship as much "not letting go" is.

PS:- Phew, I have written what I wanted to, but I bet it sounds Hebrew to many readers. (MANY is a misleading term here, considering number of people who read my blog).

Indian Idol 3 - Gala

What KBC did for Star Plus, Indian Idol (season 1) upto some extent did for Sony. Although not as huge as KBC, but it did manage to bring back some viewers to Sony. Indian version of American Idol is a program Sony looks upto and as expected has turned into season 3.

Indian Idol, for me, has been some sort of guilty pleasure viewing for me. I have been vociferous against such so-called reality shows with may be 1% reality and 99% drama with judges fighting, judges walking out and what not. I never watched Indian Idol season 1. Courtesy my roommate, I started watching Indian Idol season 2. N. C. Karunya was probably the best talent I have seen in reality shows, but as it happens most of the times, it's not always that best man wins. After all the drama of world tour, elimination, Piano round have passed, I have started watching Indian Idol again and already picked up my favourite . Ankita Mishra.

The first performance of this 17-year old girl, which I saw was Golmaal Golmaal... from Golmaal. I was shocked. The attitude with which girl carries herself is amazing and reminded me of one of my favourite singers, Sunidhi Chauhan. When I started, as a singer, she was not that good, but may be it's Kanpur Connection ;) She chose the songs which didn't require much of variations like Aayi re aayi re khushi, Aisa jadoo dala re... Although I was pitching for her, I was not sure for her progress, but as time is passing she is growing into a good singer too. She has proved her variations with a bhajan and Kaisi Paheli Zindagani. As judges put it, Kanpur ki complete package!!!. After that Rangeela performance,I have high hopes. The way she performed the song, not many can pull it off. I don't know how far she'll go, but I am surely backing her. Go girl... you rock!!!!

Related links:- Ankita's performances videos

Bollywood plagiarism at its best(???)

Bollywood has done it again. After blatant rip-offs from Hollywood masterpieces including Reservoir Dogs (Kaante), Usual Suspects (Chocolate), Old Boy (Zinda) and many many more, bollywood has struck again.

Read synopsis of new David Dhawan-Salman Khan-Govinda comedy. Does it remind you of anything? Straight lift from Will Smith, Eva Mendes starrer Hitch you might say, but David Dhawan won't even use a word inspiration or remake and who knows might deliver another hit from the shoulders of a successful Hollywood comedy. God bless us!!!

INDIAN GRAND PRIX 2009

INDIAN GRAND PRIX 2009. If this line doesn't send chills down through your spine, probably you don't understand how huge this news is. Suresh Kalmadi, in rarest display of wisdom, announced that India will be hosting F1 race, as soon as 2009, at Delhi. Indian Olympics Association will be taking all the responsibilities for the same.

Since last few years there has been growing interest in Formula-1 in India. Majority of people became aware of the terms like Ferrari, Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, when Narain Karthikeyan debuted in Formula-1 in 2005 with Jordan team and became first Indian driver to do so. As of now, fan-following of India has been dedicated to Michael Schumacher and Ferrari, but India has definitely one of the prime market for Formula-1 in recent times.

"It is not vital to Formula One to be in the United States. There are bigger markets for us to be in other parts of the world. We could be in India soon instead of the United States", said F-1 boss Bernie Ecclestone. There had been various talks of Hyderabad hosting Formula-1, until Chandrababu Naidu, who initiated the talks, was thrown out of the power.

FOA (Formula One Association) has laid out lots of terms and conditions, but Kalmadi has promised to satisfy them all before September 20, 2007. FOA has lots of Infrastructure requirements pertaining to travel, accomodation of teams and supporting crews. eg., a city hosting F-1 needs to have 5000 five star hotel rooms for total crew including all teams and many more. India is already lacking behind in the schedule of 2010 commonwealth games, also being held at Delhi. Added responsibility of F-1 will surely add up lots of responsibilities, but we can only hope that Suresh Kalmadi lives upto his word, which doesn't go too well with his past records.

They need huge land to build the track around Delhi, which I am sure will take up loads of time in bureaucracy and add to it stadium building and other overhead. Tough times. I hope he does live upto it and this dream turns into a reality. If Delhi is indeed hosting 2009 Grand Prix, you bet I am there. Are you game?

(Cross-posted to DesiCritics)

Finally Federer!!

Finally the shout came. The shout I have been waiting for since what seems like eons. A shout ran like a tremor through my building as I gave into the moment. The Mighty Federer defeated "The Clay King" Rafael Nadal on his own turf.

Roger Federer was going through a so-called slump in this point of his career. Ever since he grabbed the top spot in the ATP rankings in February 2004, this was the first time when he entered four consecutive tournaments without actually winning them. As if that was not disheartening enough, he lost only one of them to Nadal. This was surprising because just before this so-called slump he was riding high on his win from Australian Open and Dubai Open. Fans got a semi-shock when he split with coach Tony Roche and declared that he would enter the French Open and Wimbledon without a coach.

Fans of the lesser gods had a reason to rejoice and discussions like 'is this end of Federer?' were abuzz, while fans continued to crumble when he lost again to Nadal in the battle of surfaces, an exhibition match played on half-clay, half-grass court.

So when he entered the Hamburg Masters 2007, few expected him to keep his streak unbeaten on the German clay court. Initial signs weren't looking good either. Federer survived a scare when he beat a qualifier in a tense three-setter. Except for the match against Ferrero, where he showed the sign of a true champion, he kept struggling. The quarterfinal match against David Ferrer and the Semifinal match against Carlos Moya couldn't be won without a decider set. The number of unforced errors were rising. Coming onto the net wasn't as successful as had been expected. Something was certainly wrong. On the other hand, Rafael was almost flawless and triumphant, except against Lleyton Hewitt in semifinals where he was forced to drop a set.

The stage was set. May 21, 2007. The date was bound to go into history books as one of the glorious moments of Roger Federer's illustrious career. When it's Roger vs Rafael, you are supposed to be glued at your TV set, but fans in India/Pakistan were not lucky enough. The live telecast of the match was scheduled to start at 1830 IST, when the match actually started at 1730 IST, so there was no option but to stick to live scoreboard from Official ATP website. In the very first game, Roger had to save two breakpoints, but the pressure kept on mounting and finally he surrendered the set at 2-6 with two breaks of serve. That's when the live telecast began in India/Pakistan. The pressure was still mounting. Roger again saved a break point in the very first game of second set. Then what happened in the 4th game, no one expected. Before anyone could realize, Federer was leading the game 0-40 and had triple breakpoints and he finally managed a long sought break and lead the set 3-1 and after that there was no looking back for the emperor. He held on to his serve elegantly and won the set 6-2.

Then came the decider. You can't expect a fighter like Rafael,who was riding high on his unbeaten streak of 81 matches on clay surface, just to witness Federer rolling. You have to expect a backlash, but there was no stopping this juggernaut. Nadal couldn't hold on to a single serve and the game,set, match went to Roger Federer. 2-6 6-2 6-0. He won 8 consecutive games and won the last 11 out of 12 games.

Although Federer has won the Golden Bagel Award,a light-hearted award given to the player who has served the most bagels (sets won by 6-0) in a year, twice in three years, I bet no Bagel tasted sweeter than this one. Beating one of the greatest players on the clay court by a bagel?!! That has to mean something. I bet Federer won't forget that for a long time to come. It was a much needed mental and psychological win for Federer against Nadal and that too when Nadal was chasing an ever elusive streak of triple figures, which no one in the history of tennis has achieved.

He has tasted the blood now. It will definitely provide a necessary boost for Federer to add the missing trophy of French Open to his collection. Nobody summarized it better than the philosophical Nadal himself, "I was winning for consecutive 81 matches, I know it had to end sometime, then who better than this man to do so." Bravo!!

The history of tennis has rarely seen such an extremely competitive yet healthy rivalry. Don't expect him to lose his heart. This wounded tiger will be passionate and furious like never before to defend his Roland Garros title. Could the French Open '07 have had a better curtain raiser? I don't think so.

(cross-posted to DesiCritics)