Life is beautiful

Golden Globes 2012

2012-01-15T17:23:00.000-08:00

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy

Winner : Laura Dern for "Enlightened" (2011)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Winner : Christopher Plummer for Beginners (2010)

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Winner: "Downton Abbey" (2010)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama

Winner: Kelsey Grammer for "Boss" (2011)

Best Television Series - Drama

Winner: "Homeland" (2011)

Best Original Score - Motion Picture

Winner : The Artist (2011) - Ludovic Bource

Best Original Song - Motion Picture

Winner : W.E. (2011) - Madonna, Julie Frost, Jimmy Harry ("Masterpiece")

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television

Winner: Idris Elba for "Luther" (2010)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Winner: Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn (2011)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Winner: Peter Dinklage for "Game of Thrones" (2011)

Best Animated Film

Winner: The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture

Winner: Midnight in Paris (2011) - Woody Allen

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Winner: Jessica Lange for "American Horror Story" (2011)

Best Foreign Language Film

Winner: A Separation (2011)(Iran)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Winner: Octavia Spencer for The Help (2011)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy

Winner: Matt LeBlanc for "Episodes" (2011)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama

Winner: Claire Danes for "Homeland" (2011)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Winner: Jean Dujardin for The Artist (2011)

Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy

Winner: "Modern Family" (2009)

Best Director - Motion Picture

Winner : Martin Scorsese for Hugo (2011/II)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Winner: Jean Dujardin for The Artist (2011)

Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy

Winner: "Modern Family" (2009)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama

Winner: Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady (2011)

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Winner: The Artist (2011) :)

Best Motion Picture – Drama

Winner: The Descendants (2011)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama

Winner: George Clooney for The Descendants (2011)

The silent Black & white movie "The Artist" walked away with 3 awards out of its 6 nominations, folllowed by "The Descendants" which won 2 globes.. Though the Best Director was touted to be awarded to "The Artist", tonite's awards proved everyone wrong. Atleast for me, I thought Alexander Payne had more chances of winning. But still, I'm happy for Scorcese !! Just look at him.. Two years back, he proved to the world that he can make spine chilling thrillers like "Shutter Island" and now he has proved that he is good at making 3D adventure dramas.. That too at the age of 69!!

Woody Allen might be aging but his ideas never age. At 76, he is still able to create great stories and win awards. He is definitely my biggest inspiration. Meryl Streep won the coveted "Best Actress" for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady". This is her 8th Golden Globe win out of her 25 nominations ! Wow !!

Michelle Williams's portrayal as Marilyn Monroe won her the Best Actress Award for a Comedy / Musical movie. Definitely one of the best performances this year. Steven Spielberg is a specialist in whatever genre he directs. Though Tintin deserved it, I believe Rio was way better than "Arthur's Christmas". Sad, that it couldn't even earn itself a nomination.

Jean Dujardin has high chances of winning the Oscar for Best Acting, having already won the Golden Globes and the Cannes award. Though I liked Madonna's track, I suppose the Alfred Nobbs track deserved better. You can never predict who will win. Sometimes the winners deserve.. Sometimes it feels like they don't even stand a chance. Likewise Hugo's OST was the best in the category. But the thing is, it is finally the jury's choice. Sometimes they like "Techno" (The Social Network), sometimes "Old French music" (The Artist), sometimes "Broadway style" (Moulin Rouge).

FYI, Moulin Rouge was picked from a list which had "Pearl Harbor" and "A beautiful mind" !! WTF !!

Well overall the awards matched most of the expectations except a few surprises here and there. Ricky Gervais proves again that the Organizers are inefficient in picking the right host. I didn't find much humour in his speech. Hope he doesn't think he is funny. Definitely not. Hosting a show with a bad attitude and simply running around with a wine glass is not entertaining.
Ricky stop dreaming.. Snap out of it !!

Lets wait until January 24th. Expecting new names for the Best Picture & Best Director Academy Award nominations..

Waiting for forever

2012-01-09T01:48:00.000-08:00

Some day you will find me
I haven't gone too far
I miss the way we were back then
How we laughed
I can feel you in my heart

There's a world in your eyes I can see it getting brighter
All the hours that we turned into days
We were young seemed like life would go on last forever
All I had was you by my side

Some day you will answer
Remember how we were
When all our hopes and dreams
Floated in the air
I feel it in my heart
I can feel you in my heart

That's the way that it was in the past you remember
When we ran through the wind and the rain
Life seemed like it would go on forever

Now everything has changed.

- Soundtrack by The Mostar Diving Club

Heartwarming Hollywood Love Quotes

2011-09-26T03:12:00.000-07:00

I have compiled some of the most beautiful movie quotes that I have encountered in my life. Hope you like it. Enjoy reading.

♥ Moulin Rouge
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."

♥ Pocahontas
"I'd rather die tomorrow than live a hundred years without knowing you

♥ My Best Friend's Wedding
"Someday, when I'm awfully low, I will feel a glow just thinking of you, and the way you look tonight."

♥ Runaway Bride
"I guarantee there’ll be tough times; I guarantee that at some point, one, or both of us is gonna wanna get out of this thing; But I also guarantee, that if I don’t ask you to be mine, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life... because I know in my heart, that you’re the only one for me."

♥ A Walk to Remember
"Love is like the wind.. You can't see it, but you can feel it."

♥ The Hot Chick
"You are the only person that can make my heart beat faster and slower at the same time."

♥ Sweet Home Alabama
"Why do you want to marry me?"

"So I can kiss you anytime I want!"

♥ Life is Beautiful
"Life is beautiful; life is love."

♥ City of Angels
"I would rather have tasted her lips just once, touched her skin, one time, and made love to her for one night, than spend the rest of my life without ever knowing that."

♥ Before Sunrise
"I like to feel his eyes on me when I look away"

♥ Before Sunset
Jesse: You want to know why I wrote that stupid book?

Celine: Why?

Jesse: So that you might come to a reading in Paris and I could walk up to you and ask, "Where the fuck were you?"

♥ Spiderman
"When you look into her eyes, you know what kind of man you wanna be."

♥ As Good as it Gets
"You make me want to be a better man"

♥ Casablanca
"Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time."

♥ Titanic
“Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to me… it brought me to you"

♥ Waiting for forever
"How can one step away from you ever be anything for me but a step in the wrong direction"

♥ Valentine's day
"When you love someone, you love all of them... you gotta love everything about them, not just the good things but the bad things too. The things that you find lovable and the things you don't."

Love is the foundation. We humans exist because of two important things - Oxygen and Love. Love fulfills our purpose on earth. But first, love yourself ; then only you can love others :)

Steve Jobs quits as CEO of Apple : 2012 prophecy begins

2011-08-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

Nothing is permanent. I guess the 2012 prophecy is starting.. The nation salutes the greatest heroes of all time. His inventions have been the forefront of our technologies. Thank you Steve for everything.. Take Care :)

For more news : http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/25/us-apple-idUSTRE77N82K20110825

Bachna Ae Haseeno : Sweet popcorn

2011-05-28T22:34:00.001-07:00

Hello guys.. Long time.. Just come from a sabbatical. Hope you are doing good. Saw this movie yesterday. Its a nice movie, watch it. I recommend.

Bachna Ae Haseeno is a 2008 hindi movie directed by Siddarth Anand for Yash Raj Films.

The story of a man’s search for true love and his brief encounters with two other’s hearts is Bachnaa Ae Haseeno in short. It is a coming of age drama about Raj, a video game developer who believes himself to be a Casanova and loves in wooing others just for the heck of it. Raj played by Ranbir Kapoor has done a decent job. I liked his subtle performance thought could have been better. But can’t expect more from him. He has just kept his performance simple, silly.

Childish love
Mahi, played by Minissha Lamba is the first of them who falls in his trap. Mahi is a very filmy romantic downtown Punjabi girl who believes in all the childish sweet things. Raj’s attempt to heal Mahi’s unhappy married life is one of the best scenes in the movie. Siddarth deserves a pat.

Mature love
Radhika, the second is a mature lover. Bipasha Basu has done a good performance. Her performance adds beauty and romance to the character and script. Her eyes spoke a lot in her performance. That is something rarely seen in actresses nowadays. Kudos to Bips. Unlike her voice, her performance and character portrayed are indeed sweet.

True love
This is where Raj finally finds his true love with a girl who doesn’t believe in marriage. Gayathri, played by Deepika has done a decent job. She always does a neat job and an expert in playing bubbly roles.

Lovely songs and good camera work always make a movie beautiful. Overall its a nice, colorful film.

All is well that ends well. Somehow people change their heart in movies and start believing in true love at the end. Wish this happens in real life. I don’t think we follow our heart. People still believe in being controlled. How many ever times they get persuaded, they just won’t change. Please guys.
Be true to yourself.
Follow your heart.
Find True love.
Pursue it.

After all, there is no better reason to live, than to love and be loved.

Return to Innocence : Letters to Julianne

2011-03-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Julianne,

Hi love. Long since I wrote you.. 24 hours !! Everything boring here.. In locked doors doing homework. Looking at your photo.. I dont know what.. Its pretty weird.. When I start looking into your eyes, time is running so fast. Its been hours since I sat down, but still feels like a few seconds. Can't describe which part of you is more beautiful. Eyes, nose, lips, neck.. Im confused. Can’t describe which part of you makes me feel more attractive than the other. All the best things in this world have gone into my mom and now into you. That small smile on your cheeks are enough to keep me happy for another hundred years. Your eyes make me want to come to you kiss your cheeks. I am writing this letter sending each and every ounce of warmness from this sunlight to you.

I had a dream yesterday.. Both of us in the hospital. You are pregnant. I was touching your knees. They felt so soft. So warm.. You were looking nervous and thrilled at the same time. Our eyes spoke so long. Finally I saw the smile which warmed my heart. You wanted a boy.. I wanted a girl.. Then they took you inside the operation theatre for delivery.. Suddenly my mom’s voice.. My mom woke me up. It was morning already.. Argghhhhh !!!!.. Couldnt spend a few minutes with my wife. Lol.. Leaving for school.. Thinking about you.. Always.. Every moment.. Bye hun. . Muah J

Get well soon.. We can play a lot..

Yours lovingly,

Jim
4^rd grade
Mily Weston High School

Sure to be the "Blockbuster of the year".. All the best to Rajinikanth and the whole team of "Endhiran"..

2010-09-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

Inception Review : Out of the World

2010-07-17T20:52:00.001-07:00

Inception (2010) is a 2010 thriller written and directed by Christopher Nolan, the legend behind “Insomnia”, “Batman Begins”, “The Prestige” and the “The Dark Knight”. Inception has directly climbed to the best movie in my ratings sharing the space with Forrest Gump. Honestly I went crazy after watching the movie. I couldn’t miss even a single end credit. Theatre authorities were desperately waiting for me to get out so that they can continue their cleaning process. Such was the impact Inception had instilled upon a viewer’s mind. In fact I couldn’t sleep that night. I really started wondering if I was in a dream or in the real world. Each and every scene in the movie was worth a thousand thoughts. If I rated The Dark Knight and Forrest Gump a 10 on 10, I wonder what value does a rating have on this movie. Because it is far ahead of any movie made. For once I thought Inception was much harder to conceive than even “The Avatar”.

You won’t believe me. This story has no specific hero or villain. Each are good and bad in their own ways. But yes, the whole movie revolves around the life of Leonardo Di Caprio. So we can consider him as the hero. Leonardo has again done an Oscar deserving performance. But we could expect something better from others grabbing any chances Leo has for the Best Actor Oscar. His performance in this movie sticks to my mind so strong that I can still relate to him as Mr.Cobb. Ken Watanabe as Satio (Lol I got confused with the Sony Ericsson “Satio”) was good. Nothing great seen from him, but of course standards are always high in a Christopher Nolan’s movie. Marion Cotillard as “Mal” has done a very good job. It is definitely one her very different roles. With less make up and unkept hair matching her role perfectly many viewers missed the real beauty of Cottilard. Another lady in the movie, Ellen page was amazing. From a debut performance in Juno to a much matured performance in “The Inception”, she has made a mark. She is definitely beautiful as well. Couldn’t keep my eyes of her whenever she was on screen. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Cillian Murphy were amazing. I think each and everyone serve integral roles and performance in the making of this classic. And It was an icing on the cake watching Michael Caine, though not for long but was atleast an awesome performance. Just love that guy’s accent.

In terms of the visual content, the effects are definitely mind blowing. One of the best in class. So is the Cinematography. Wally Pfiser was the man behind all of Nolan’s movies and you can expect the HD quality. Particularly the dream sequences in the second half have been picturized brilliantly. Adding to the visual grandeur, my favourite Hans Zimmer has done a very good sound track. Particularly the climax sound track was outstanding and definitely deserves an Oscar. I think both these people have blended so well with Nolan’s mind set and have continued to provide masterpiece-after-masterpiece.

The movie definitely deserves to be watched atleast two teams for the complexity in the story and screenplay. I definitely was able to understand a few concepts better when I saw it the second time, luckily the next day itself. Hahaha.. The visual effects have been made true to its concept and have left me open mouthed most of the time. I wonder how on earth does Nolan think so extensively on these sci-fi subjects. And to define a word not in the English dictionary definitely requires a genius like Nolan. A truly outstanding piece of filmmaking which still makes me wonder how a human was able to achieve it. The best scenes are the freight train sequence, anti-gravity fights and the ultra slow-motion effects and definitely the confrontation between Leonardo and Ellen Page involving the bending of roads. I bet you, with even a single blink you will miss an integral part of the movie. This 200 million dollar movie doesn’t just end in 148 mins as it runs in the mind of the viewers for a long time. Even the last scene conveys a lot of thoughts like even a possibility of another sequel. This summer, your mind is the scene of a masterpiece.

A movie to be surely watched before leaving this world.

Rating:
Infinity/10

Kites movie review : An unforgettable love story

2010-06-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

Kites (2010) is a Hindi movie written by Rakesh Roshan, starring his son Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori in the lead roles. The movie has been directed by Anurag Basu who is known earlier for his remake of “The Unfaithful”.

Kites is a fast paced romantic entertainer about two con people who are somewhat similar to what we saw in “The Priceless”. Well Kites to me is an indianized sequel to the French movie “The Priceless” with an action and soul stirring element. Talking about action, it delivers Hollywood style car chasing and thrashing with lots and lots of sex. Well any Indian would not prefer this much of lust in a movie. But Anurag has done this not only to deliver to a world audience but to also sweeten the romance further with some physical quotient. I mean, the world audience are not sex perverts or something. So for once, lust supported the romantic feel in Bollywood which the director wanted to showcase between two people. But I think the purest form of love i've seen in an Indian movie was in "Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya". Nothing to beat it. Anywayz before starting praising anyone, I would like to tell that if not Barbara Mori, I am not able to think of any alternative. Maybe the director felt the same and that’s why he picked her. Added to her beauty, her eyes speak volumes. Be it love, anger, sadness - her eyes emote faster than her face. She has done an awesome job. Truly world class acting along with well-established acting from Hrithik who has performed the perfect Romeo. His muscles are getting more and more sharper with each film. He fulfills any genre of a hero’s capability and requirements. Kabir Bedi and the one coming as his son have done a neat job. The movie’s highlight according to me is the romance more than the action. Each and every romance moment they shared still stands in my memory so strong making me feel how sweet and important love is. Even the screenplay is exceptional for the Bollywood industry. It clearly shows how focused and willing he is to enter the International arena. The rain dance in the night has been picturized and composed so beautifully and is definitely one of the best moments in the film. Bravo Anurag ! Bravo !. Rakesh Roshan has done a good job. Nothing to complaint of. Background music was very good and Wow! in some of the romance scenes. Bravo Rakesh and Salim-Sulaiman! The songs have enhanced the richness and feel of the film. Rajesh Roshan has done a splendid job again. "Tum Bi Ho Wahi" & "Dil Kyun hain mera" are awesome.

Now coming to the portion that has lifted the film closer to International standards is the cinematography. The name is Ayanaka Bose and he has done a Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow! job. Awesome man. How did you think of these angles and presentation! Im really curious to know as last time I saw shots closer to this style were from Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarantino. Brilliant job. Infact to me he has given the movie a Midas touch. Without him I think Kites would have looked like some normal movie we see often. Kudos to the team of Rakesh, Anurag, Hrithik, Barbara and Ayanaka Bose and all the others for this very well executed product which many fail to deliver these days. I completely liked the movie. Infact I had thought of a few scenes which to my surprise gradually came at the end. The premise was so good and it gave a good platform for me to think. Anywayz though it was a usual run of the mill love story, the treatment given to it made all the difference. Its been very long since we've seen beautiful chemistries between actors and stories sugarcoated with romance.

Te amo Kites.. Te estrano Barbara

Rating:
3.6/5

Robin Hood (2010) movie review : Eagerly awaiting the sequel

2010-06-13T03:50:00.000-07:00

Robin Hood (2010) is a classic epic storytelling of a famous legend of the same name. Directed by Sir Ridley Scott (Gladiator), the movie stars Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong and William Hurt. We have never seen such a cold gripping version of Robin Hood before. On the lines of Batman Begins and Casino Royale, the movie shows the making of a legend. In all these movies, we see the real hero as we know only in the finishing scene. I’ve always loved this kind of storytelling, rather than starting the movie with an arrow piercing into the woods or showing Russell Crowe robbing the riches and helping the poor. Sir Ridley Scott deserves an astounding applause for the unique treatment he has given for this movie. I am eagerly waiting for a sequel.

Russell Crowe (Robin Hood) is as thrilling as we saw him in Gladiator. But I get pissed when I hear comparing Gladiator with this movie. Both are different. Different stories. Different arenas. I think just because Sir Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe combine it need not be a better movie than Gladiator. Gladiator was both people’s life time best movie. It is pretty tough to repeat that success each and every time. You don’t get such good stories and scope for action and inspiration in every movie. I wonder how Crowe still maintains a well toned body. (I could see 4 packs !!). I think Russell understands Ridely’s expectations point blank, which is why their combination is so magical each time. Cate Blanchett was a good choice. She suited the character’s age and a pale look. I think she is that kind of an actor who does any role perfectly. And Mark Strong is irritating as ever. We already saw him in Sherlock Holmes. This is a good movie for his career, but I didn’t like his mouth scar in this film. Very often he reminded me of The Joker. I couldn’t stop laughing imagining him telling Crowe, how he got his scars. Lol. Max Von Sydow as Cate Blanchett’s father-in-law reminded me often of the King in Gladiator. He has done a very good performance. Sir Ridley Scott knows each and every actor’s potential and he knows exactly how to draw the best performances from each. John Hurt was good as ever and all the others did their job well, nothing exceptional.

The music has suited the premise. Well people would have expected Hans Zimmer or James Horner to score the soundtracks for such as mega budget movie. But Marc Streitenfeld has impressed me with his score. If you do not recognize him, he is the one who scored the music for “A Good Year”, “The American Gangster” and “Body of Lies”. I love the music for all these movies, especially “A Good Year”, which had an exquisite touch of French.

Coming to the core of the movie, the action has been raw and splendid in the movie. Shooting the war scenes are always a cakewalk for Sir Ridley. I don’t know how he does them so effortlessly but on screen they appear unbelievably true and gruesome. Though the movie carries a smaller plot compared to The Gladiator, it has been made so lavishly and realistically. The director does deserve praise for bringing this wonderful plot to screen and drawing the best performances from even the smallest character. When Sir Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe make an epic war movie, you can be sure that it will be exceptionally awesome, gritty and realistic.

Bravo Robin Hood! And the thing that truly inspired me the most is the message this movie delivers:
“Rise & rise again, until Lambs become Lions”.

Rating:

3.5/5

Trivia:
“Robin Hood” was made with double the budget of “Gladiator”. Wow!!

Heartwarming love quotes

2010-06-04T02:52:00.000-07:00

Love is not something we can predict or quantify. You never know when it comes and when it strikes your heart like a lightning bolt. Maybe till you experience this, you won't know the beauty of living for another soul for eternity. But once that beautiful angel descends in your life, you know why God chooses the best for you. So please don't cheat anyone. Well I have posted some of the best love quotes I wanted to share with you.. Well Its sure to turn you on.. !!

"Make me immortal with a kiss"

"You are what I never knew I always wanted”

"To be your friend was all I ever wanted; to be your lover was all I ever dreamed."

"What the heart has once owned and had, it shall never lose."

"She walks in Beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies, And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes…”

"I love you; not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you."

"She is the only reason I get up in the mornings."

"Why am I so lucky !"

"When he looks in my eyes I wonder how he saw me when a thousand other people saw him."

"Call me blind. Call me fool. I don’t care. I love you."

"You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly."

"I love you and only you forever and always."

"The best thing about me is you."

"You have rocked my world."

Iron Man 2 : The Rourke effect

2010-06-01T02:49:00.000-07:00

One of the long awaited movie for many of us was Iron man 2. I was completely stunned by the perfect and unique balance of action and comedy delivered in the first movie. And the trailer added even more excitement as there was Mickey Rourke in the lead casting. Iron man 2 (2010) is a sequel to Iron Man (2008), both directed by Jon Favreau. Favreau was promising with his earlier movie. But in this edition he has decided to bring in a new treatment, but has not succeeded. I hear most of the people who watched this movie saying that the first movie was better and a lot of talking portion has spoilt the action. Gwyneth Paltrow’s role was far better in the first edition. In this she looks more like a strict mother to Stark. I do accept that it is different, but it was something I didn’t expect. I think the only few things that have continued to excel are Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron man), Mickey Rourke (Whiplash), Jon Favreau (Happy Hogan) and the special effects. Awesome special effects. The Grand Prix scene and the last half an hour have been breath taking. In fact I was a bit stunned seeing the Rolls Royce being chopped like a fish by Whiplash. The special effects were so special that I am still confused if the car was damaged really. Robert Downey’s moments in the senator meeting and in Pepper Potts office are some of the highlights of the movie. Mickey Rourke was stunning. Man ! What a performance. One of the best performances for a negative role. Awesome. I think it is the right time to call him "The Perfectionist". Villain #2 : Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer was good and refreshing. Scarlett Johansson played one of the worst underplayed role of her career, which is not necessary at this phase of her career. She has literally nothing to do as the Black Widow, apart from a few stunt scenes, which I don’t even know if she did them all. This is ridiculous. She is more famous than Robert. Probably she was offered to play Black Widow in a series of forthcoming films. (Avengers). God knows. Jon Favreau has also focused more on the casting, in terms of Kate Mara, Larry King and a few others who had a few seconds in the movie. Probably he thought a spicy casting would help cover the story’s weakness. But I think the audience are much more clever than what Jon (director) expected. Directors should realize that stories have to be strong and fast paced for action films, especially for a kick ass super hero film like Iron Man. Probably this is lacking in directors at present, which is why we see more of spoof films nowadays. I wish Jon good luck for the third installment of Iron man and request him to delete unwanted soggy talking portions and make the movie more crispy. He can do it, he is an awesome director.

John Debney has done a good job, but some of the tracks like the title one resembles a lot of super hero movies. I think this is what happened if you score music in 4 days. I don’t know what hurry John was in, but this is not something I expected from a person who has scored for Passion of the Christ and The Elf. And nothing much to comment on the cinematography. It was been on par with the Hollywood superhero movie standard. On the whole, Iron man 2 was enjoyable and kudos to the whole team esp., Mickey Rourke.

Review:

3.5/5

Mystic River : Mind blowing Screenplay

2010-05-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

Mystic River is a 2003 masterpiece directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood. It has an ensemble cast of Sean Penn (I am Sam, Milk), Tim Robbins (Shawshank Redemption) and Kevin Bacon. Though the movie begins in a very slow pace, it somehow creeps out from that melodrama feel and gives the viewer a strong feel of suspense. Somehow movies like these, with just dialogues has managed to keep me glued to my seat. The credit should go to the novelist, Clint Eastwood and his screenwriters. Not one scene I was able to get up from my chair. Sean Penn is amazing. Man!! What a performance. What a well toned body. Even with that macho look, the scenes which he cries, makes the audience feel sorry for him as well. We’ve seen Tim Robbins in various portrayals in films such as “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994), “Nothing to Lose” (1997), “War of the Worlds” (2005), etc. But this portrayal of a man haunted by his past has been a treat to watch. Each and every scene he has been a real competition to Sean Penn. I think both these performances of a frustrated ex-con who lost his daughter and a disturbed man being framed for murder by everyone surrounding him have been really exceptional. Kevin Bacon (The Hollow Man) has always done a great job. He has never disappointed me. So nothing to complain or glorify. Cinematography has been good and great at times. Lighting and camera angles have been awesome from this guy, Tom Stern. Right from "Mystic River", "Letters from Iwo Jima" to "Invictus" he has been awesome. His handheld camera work was too awesome in Invictus. Tom has been Clint’s great asset and will continue to be. Music suited the premise. It’s not the kind of soundtrack that you will be humming about. In fact you will not even remember. But for Clint to participate in so many departments of filmmaking is something extraordinary. Its not something we see often in Hollywood. The climax had the best of what Clint wanted to offer us. In fact it is one of those climaxes you can never think or even come close to. Suspense has been well handled. But I didn’t like seeing a police officer leaving a murderer scot free just because he has been a neighborhood friend. Let him be a hunk or a gang leader. But what’s the point of having police. It weakens our impression of cops. One murder is fine for commercial cinema, but even after two murders. Man.. Clint could have worked better on this. But anyway Kudos to him and his unit. It’s a great movie. It is a double Oscar winning movie. So nothing to deny the fact that it is amazing. I know it’s a pretty old movie to be seen and reviewed now, but it’s never too late.

Review :

8/10

Trivia:

Sean Penn won the Academy for best actor, Mystic river (2003)

Tim Robbins won the Academy award for best supporting actor, Mystic river (2003)

The Wolfman. Stinks !!

2010-02-16T01:40:00.000-08:00

One of the worst movies I have seen in 2010, is The Wolfman. Apart from a handful scenes attempted to scare us, the movie was bad. Infact I don’t even feel like reviewing this movie. But on the other side when I saw some average reviews for this movie, I was shocked and decided to share my opinion on this movie. There are two important factors to keep in mind before scripting a well known story.

1.) The story has to be eligible to be converted into a mainstream movie.

2.) If not, keep the essentials and change the script.

But it is evident that Joe Johnston, did not do both. So I don’t blame the Wolfman story. It lies in the director’s hands to make anything look interesting. In fact he atleast did one clever thing – Make an interesting cast. That was the only reason why I saw this movie. If not for Anthony Hopkins, Benicio del Toro and Emily Blunt, I would have been watching some other movie. The graphics were not upto the mark. But I really don't know why Oscar winners like Anthony and Benicio accepted this offer. Anthony looked like a teddy bear in that wolf graphic. Disappointing movie. Simple music. Simple graphics. Simple story. Joe has done great movies like Jumanji and Hidalgo, but I have no clue, why has he disappointed us, or atleast me. Looking forward for better stuff from Joe in Captain America and the upcoming Jurassic Park 4. All the best Joe. You can do better.

Reviews:

1/5

Trivia:

Joe Johnston won an Oscar for Best visual effects in “The Raiders of the Lost Ark”. He has also directed Honey I shrunk the kids and was the art director for all the Star Wars movies.

My Name is Khan review : Sweet and Inspiring

2010-02-12T23:22:00.000-08:00

My Name is Khan (2009) is a Hindi movie directed by Karan Johar who is coming back after a long hiatus following the debacle, Kabhie Alvida Naa Kehna. It has Shahrukh Khan and Kajol in the lead roles depicting the present day misconception of the Islam identity. Shahrukh is absolutely awesome. This is the first time I suppose he is playing a character with more substance. He still sticks in my mind as Rizwan Khan (screen character) and not Shahrukh. Kajol has done a good role with no over acting. But one thing still lingers in my mind. Man! How is she still so hot? I mean, we have seen actresses marry and bloat or transform from a hot actress to a homely image. But Kajol still looks the same, in fact more hot than before. Kudos to her diet and exercise. All the others who are a part of this movie have done an awesome job. But the main praise should go to Karan Johar. Man, what a screenplay. What direction? What performances? Excellent job, well handled by a man who we were assuming would give us only tear jerkers. Now he has proved everyone of us wrong. And there is another issue, where he has proved many of us wrong. All muslims are not terrorists. Terrorism can be in anyone’s mind. Even the man who killed Abraham Lincoln is a terrorist. Because he has done an act of violence or terror. It doesn’t mean that only people appearing on T.V with their faces covered and speaking a different language perform an act of terrorism. Osama is not the only representation of the terrorism. Each and every person thinking, supporting or making an act of terrorism is a terrorist. But Osama loves doing it more. Anywayz, I’m tired talking and even thinking about Osama. Because whatever films we make on terrorism, whatever articles our people write, neither does Osama or his beloved followers of the wrong path give it a thought if they are doing the right thing. But atleast our only mission is to change perverted people’s minds, rather than trying to let Osama know that he is doing a wrong deed for humanityl. Thumbs up Karan for joining this mission and for having given us two good films recently, Kurbaan and My Name is Khan. I feel the film has small similarities to Forrest Gump in terms of the storyline and presentation (Mommy's dialogue, hero's disability, meeting presidents). So in a way, I can tell this is India's Forrest Gump. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are awesome. They lift the sprit of the movie and give us goose bumps with their enchanting and inspiring music. My favourite cinematographer, Ravi K.Chandran has transformed Karan’s ideas into a great masterpiece. If not for Ravi, the film would not look even close to this one. Sabu Cyril has done an awesome job in the hurricane hit area set up. Wonderful. The other best part of the movie is the dialogues. After Swades and Rang de Basanthi, I have been truly inspired by the dialogues. The best one being, “My name is Khan and I’m not a terrorist”. Each time this dialogue came, audience gave an astounding applause. The audience give a standing ovation for three reasons.

A. The movie is funny

B. The movie is a disaster

C. The movie has captured their hearts.

I say its option C, the movie has captured their hearts. Overall, the movie looks rich like a Hollywood movie, though more sentiment could have been added in a few places. To achieve this, I cant imagine what effort they took. Great job Dharma Production and Red Chillies Entertainment. Awesome. Awesome. Looking forward to more classy stuff like this.

Review:

4/5

Trivia:
Even a dumb headed fellow would understand seeing this film, that terrorism lies in one’s mind and not in religion.

Avatar in 5D

2009-12-28T22:15:00.000-08:00

Avatar (2009) which released on December 19th worldwide, is directed by James Cameron, the man behind Aliens, Terminator, Terminator 2 and Titanic. Looking at this line up you would be knowing the prowess of this show maker and why he is known to be one of the best Hollywood film directors. This movie is a master piece in visual effects and surely something all the film technicians around the globe. Just imagine how sharp and innovative his thoughts are. The movie takes place in a distant planet, Pandora. The word ‘Pandora’ is derived from the term ‘Pandora box’ which we all should have heard in our childhood. And Pandora just like the Pandora box is a lushy place filled with nature’s wonders like a infinite variety of plant and animal species. Literally James Cameron has played God in imagining this planet and its species. I mean, you can’t imagine different species with a variety of features and so beautiful with a million colours to achieve that gloss and shine. After watching this movie, just as James Cameron said, I am dying to live in that planet. People are so much bonded with nature. They love nature and nature loves them. But it’s totally different here. People love money and money loves people. So comparing Pandora to Earth, the present Earth is shit. Reason : Us. But anyways I’m not getting too deep into this.

Acting

Earth
Sam Worthington has done a neat job. He has no scope for any exceptional acting. Sigourney Weaver is exceptional. I think she is the kind of actress who does any role exceptionally well, making even a small cameo well registered in the audience mind. She still has that cute smile at the age of 60. Wow…. Michelle Rodriguez is so hot. So good for this tom boyish adventurous-pilot kinda character. It seems Cameron was so impressed with her performance in her first movie, Girl Fight.

Pandora
Zoe Saldana as the Neytiri is awesome due to two reasons. One, her cute expressions and two, the mix of reality and graphics making her one of the most beautiful heroines in Hollywood. (I didn’t mean the real Zoe Saldana (Vantage point). I meant Neytiri, her graphic counterpart). Other than her, all the others, who I have no idea of have done their jobs.

Music
Music is good. Another James, I mean James Horner (Titanic) has done a good job. I liked it. But it’s not great, maybe because I expected a lot out of a 10 year old movie in the making. But it’s good for the movie. Suited the visuals and gave goose bumps in several scenes which were awe inspiring.

Cinematography
This is the department that has made filming this movie a possibility. Initially when Cameron wrote the script about 15 years ago, he decided not to film it, because there was not enough technology to support this imagination. It was some kind of a camera wherein the graphic environment could be simultaneously viewed with the actors’ virtual characters which was easier for the director to shoot by watching the scenes as though it was shot live in a real Pandora. You would have seen scenes been shot in green rooms wherein later the graphics was added. But this technology has set the benchmark for directors all over the world. Interesting !! But apart from this, there were shots that were zoomed in at moments giving a closer look for the audiences. This was a visual treat. I was waiting for this after each appearance.

Direction
James Cameron has scripted an unbelievably imaginative story in the 90’s which still looks awesome in 2009. It’s a truly inspiring tale of unity and brotherhood. 5 stars for Cameron to everything he has done. Hail Cameron !!

Overall experience
The movie is awesome. I am proud to have seen it in 2D and 3D. It is truly an honor in my life to have seen this movie in theatres. It’s a 160 minute vacation in Pandora. However good this movie is, Terminator 2 still stands out to be his best in my perspective. But I am not eligible enough to comment negatively about Avatar.

It is the best of the best of the best of the best.

Oscars should be priveleged to get this kind of a nominee. Minimum 1 Oscar guaranteed.

Rating:

10/5

Trivia:

1.) Avatar is one of the most expensive movies ever made.

2.) Sigourney Weaver has appeared in a James Cameron movie after 23 years.

Batman 3 : Who would direct the sequel to the cult classic "Dark Knight" ?

2009-11-19T21:44:00.000-08:00

Hey Folks. In recent times there has been a lot of discussion as to who would direct the third installment of the most successful superhero movie saga, The Batman. Each person has a different perception as to who should direct. I think Nolan is the best. But just for fun, let’s look how Batman 3 (tentatively titled : The Caped Crusader) would look if other directors direct it.

Sam Raimi (Spiderman) – A typical take of a children’s comic book hero. Nothing dark or thrilling.

Ethan & J.Coen ( No country for old men) - Movie will be a dark thriller

Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy) - Movie will be a fantasy thriller

Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) - Some part of Batman would be shot in the exotic locales of New Zealand. Batman is a descendent of the Hobbits.

Jason Reitman (JUNO) - The movie would look simple like a light romantic comedy.

Marc Forster (Stranger than fiction) - Slow and steady

Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby) - Hillary Swank is the new Bat girl. Eastwood is the new Batman. Eastwood replaces Hans Zimmer for the original score.

Shekar Kapur (Elizabeth) - Batman costumes are altered

Michael Bay (Transformers) - Destructions unlimited. You are sure to see an awesome car chase scene. Movie would travel to multiple locations. There would be a scene showing Batman walking in slow motion and a voice over depicting him to be the hero for the people of the United States of America.

James Cameron (Terminator : Judgement day) - Sure to be cool. Comic tale becomes sci-fi tale.

Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon) – Batman is a Samurai.

Roland Emmerich (2012) - The Villain is set to destroy the world. The story revolves around how Batman saves the people from the artificial, earthquakes, volcanoes, Tsunamis and twisters artificially created by the villain.

Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill) - Yellow subtitles. Story divided into chapters. Old music. Zoom out and Zoom in of the characters’ eyes during fights. Batman and the Villain would have a sword fight with a lot of blood shed.

Gus Van Sant (Milk) - Batman is Gay.

Joel Schumacher (Batman Forever) - Oh, shit. No more Batman from him.

Martin Scorcese (Departed) – Batman is the 1960s. Di Caprio is the new Batman.

Robert Zemeckis (Beowulf) - Batman animated in 3D.

Wachowski Bros. (Matrix) - Death defying graphic stunts.

Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) – Death defying real life stunts.

Tony Scott (Deja Vu) - Denzel Washington is the new Batman.

Dennis Dugan (I now pronounce you Chuck & Larry) - Rom com revolving around how Batman and the Joker pose to be gay and win over cat girl.

Tim Burton (Sleepy Hollow) - Batman Vs. Jack the Ripper. Johnny Depp is the new Batman.

Robert Rodriguez (Once upon a time in Mexico) – “Once upon a time in Gotham”.

Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) - Batman comes to Bombay. Falls in love with Latika. The rest of the movie is how he wins her over Jamal, who is currently contesting for "Who wants to be a Trillionaire".

Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) - The perfect dark Batman Movie.

Nolan, You Rock !!!! We want you to continue the successful trend created by you. But we also want you to do other subjects as well. So take a break ; make other movies as well. Long live Nolan. Long live Christopher Nolan !!

2012 movie : HD (high definition)

2009-11-15T03:32:00.000-08:00

Right from the first poster to the latest trailer, 2012 has raised all expectations by a great deal. And more higher after I did my research and wrote on this about a year ago in this blog. I have been counting days to watch this true-to-become disaster movie. Every department has excelled. I think the movie starts of on a different note. I thought it would start showing the Mayans, just like in Transformers 2. But Roland wanted to do something innovative. Many people who know enough of this theory, would have been unhappy due to the minimal references on the Mayans. But I think I have to congratulate Roland for that. Mayans theory is a belief, but not convincingly proved yet. Of course I have high respect for the Mayans and their theories, but to convince 6 billion people is a not an easy task. So Roland has safely banked on the proved scientific theories. Because people are ready believe something told by scientists rather than history. John Cusack has done a very commendable performance. Amanda Peet, my sweetheart is ravishing. Infact all the actors have done their parts to excellence. It was nice to see Danny Glover don the role of the U.S President, which was repeatedly played by Jon Voight. Oliver Platt and Woody Harrelson have done memorable characters, that won’t fade from our memories very soon. The cutest actress I have ever seen is Morgan Lily, who plays daughter to Amanda Peet and John Cusack. Not only is she cute, her character too is cute. Liam James, who plays her brother is really lucky to do such a great role. It is rare to see such good characterizations. Again, Zlatko Buric, Beatrice Rosen and Thomas Mc Carthy have landed themselves in good roles. I completely loved the finishing scene. You’ve got to see it. I am not breaking the suspense. The graphics is out of the world. Man ! What software is that???? It has been long since I have seen an edge of the seat thriller in theatres. I think I must be one of the very few people, other than the film crew to see it back to back continuously. Infact I didn’t sleep a bit, when I watched it again in a 30 min gap. Music is good. Suits the occasion. Its rare to see the Producer to be a Music director and as well the writer. Great juggling of roles man !!. Music is not Oscar material, but sets the mood for the film. On the whole it is 160 minutes of wholesome entertainment. Disasters can’t get better than this. If you liked the effects in “The Day After Tomorrow”, you’ll love “2012”. The only cons were that Roland could’ve given a better and lengthier sentimental touch, which Michael Bay excels in. But anyways, the movie is stunning. Though the visual effects are Oscar material, it will only be secondary to “Avatar”. Wish “2012” was released when “Avatar” wasn’t.

Whoever is criticizing this movie, you gotta be kidding !!!!

Rating:
3.75/5

Trivia:
1.) Director Roland Emmerich has stated "2012" to be his last disaster movie, which is why he wanted to include all disasters.
2.) Roland was initially interested to direct "Transformers", but was later given to Michael Bay.

My Pennings | the poignant tale

2009-06-13T04:51:00.000-07:00

Earth is one among the paradises created by God (or whatever you believe). Then Man was a creation of God. Everything from the animals to plants were a creation of God. But sorrowness and happiness was not created by Him. It was created by Man based on what kind of situation he has faced and how he has tackled them. Mankind has been thriving over billion of years through several cultures and traditions that had been set for those regions (countries). There is so much to talk about every country in terms of how rich it is and how nice the people are, how good the food is, how scenic the country is. But I believe at some point or the other, there is a need to talk when things are not going normal, when things have changed from past, when you really have something to share about what you know, about what you’ve seen / heard. This is one such writing of mine, wherein I’ve shared some of my views accumulated over the years.

There is a popular saying that is usually related to the country India – “Unity in Diversity”, which means that despite the innumerable cultures and traditions thriving in India, the people here stay united always. This might’ve been the case when this saying was first quoted for India, but I don’t see even 1 % of this saying suited to the present occasion. Just like the Indian Premier League, states are competing with each other, but not in the right spirits to make India a better nation. Its always a good practice to ‘compare’ with something or someone better than you, from where you can learn things for self-improvement. Not only India, each and every country in this planet has something to learn from another. But the main reason I’m writing this topic, is because till date, children are thought in schools that India is a country with unity in diversity, which is not the case now. This is in no offence to the country as whatever written is what I feel from the bottom of my heart. When people pin point or identify your mistakes, you try taking it in the right spirit and better yourself, right?. The same applies when one talks in a nation’s level. Lot of things are attributed to this ranging from Leaders to the very common man. The main fact that India is a diversified country is true, but the main part of unity is missing. India should be really proud that over 1500 languages are being spoken in this 3,000,000 sq. km land of varied cultures and traditions. With demarcations on all four sides, India is still viewed as North and South India. More often, people living in both these directions don’t even realize that they belong to the same land. The percentage of people in North India having a feeling of discrimination towards the South Indians has been steadily increasing. Take for example, more often Tamil (a south Indian language) movies that are remade or released in the North bomb at the box-office. This maybe attributed due to two possible reasons. Either due to the feeling of inferiority towards Southies or due to the differences in cultures which causes a lack of nativity for the audience.

On the other hand, there were recent protests in Mumbai, claiming people from other states were sidelining the native Marathis (of Mumbai)

[P.S : Mumbai (Bombay) is a metropolitan city in the state of Maharashtra, which is one of the 28 states in India) ]

See, finally people among the states are considering people from other states as foreigners. And where do you think unity still lies in this country? Take, U.S.A for example, the name itself transcends the message of being united. And moreover, I don’t think people from Texas would prohibit the entry of people from Washington or people from Eastern American States like California would show any distinct discrimination towards people from Western American States like Florida or New York. There are 50 states in U.S.A, but the common language uniting all is one – English. But ironically though there are just 28 states in India, there are over 1500 languages being spoken. But what’s the use? There is not one language that all can speak. Each and every language will have one culture here. There are people thinking that their culture is the superior, compared to all others, without even knowing about other cultures. Of course, discrimination among cultures exists in all religions. But the main question is, whether it is prevalent to this extent?

Religion is something that some are ready to give or take life. The 2002 Gujarat Riots is the best example for this worst practice. People’s torcher went to the extent of pulling out the baby from a mother’s womb, because they were of the opposite religion. If they could’ve had 1% of humanity more that their craze for religion, that baby could’ve seen the world in a better way.

“India is no more a country with Unity in Diversity.
It is a country with Mutiny in Diversity. ”

Marriage is another humorous topic to be discussed. Of course, many people all over the world don’t like marrying their son/daughter to someone from the opposite religion. But due to the abundance of cultures and religions it is more strictly followed. There are so many people here, who think that only by marrying someone of their caste / creed / language, they can lead a happy life. What nonsense? What has caste / religion to do with leading every day in your life with the one that you love, who is there to give that cute smile when you return home from work ; whom you can see first thing in the morning after getting up to get that fresh and boosted feeling ; whom you can fight with anytime and smile back the next moment ; whom you can see all through your life, always getting the feel of having seen the whole world in his/her eyes. Does religion have any miniscule connection with any of these ???? Absolutely No ….

This is the stupidest thing that I have ever heard and will ever hear in my life. If a donkey / horse proposes to you for marriage, then there is a logic that you both can’t lead a happy life. But, lol what is the problem if it is a human just like you who loves you so much asks you to marry? Looking at all this, it really seems to me, that maybe if animals had castes / religions, then these people would surely prefer the-same-religion donkey for a different-religion human. Lol.

Language might be a small barrier for mode of communication initially, but that is just a lame excuse people who think religion is God, give. People fall in love just with a distant eye contact. That split second is enough to love a person. There is no propehcy that humans can love only those who know their language. Language is also something that we invented. But falling in love is something that is destined to happen.

What if there was no religion or caste? Won't she marry the one who loves her the most? Of course she will. Or won’t the parents marry their girl to someone who loves her so much? Religion is something should only be taken to your mind. Once you take it to your heart, problems arise. God is one. God is the single force behind life on earth. God has no religion. God has no caste. God has no language. It is we who give different names for God and worship according to our religion / culture. People going to temples need not have an odd feeling towards people going to church or a mosque. Ultimately all are going to seek blessings from that single Force attired and idolized differently.

“Religion is not God. God is religion.”

And finally people blame politicians for the present condition of the country. Poor politicians. What will they do? Except a handful all the others' only motive in politics is to earn 100000 times more than they are actually worth. They do not care about the country. It’s just about their families ; how much money they save for their family ; but finally they do not realize that they can’t take anything with them when they go to hell. The body of a person who lived as a beggar and a person who lived as a king is buried in the same sand and not some golden sand for the rich poeple. There is no value for it. All of us need not become saints or great sages devoting all your lives to the betterment of mankind. Atleast live your lives peacefully and happily with no harm to anyone. Give more critical importance to human values more than anything in this earth. Henceforth, happiness will prevail not only in India, but among people in all man-marked territories on E-a-r-t-h.

Words that swept me away......................................................

2009-04-03T21:45:00.000-07:00

"Kaise Mujhe" - Ghajini

It is to-date the best romantic hindi lyric ever from what I’ve heard all through my life. Each and every word here is so poetic. And the best part is, both “Kaise Mujhe” and “Lukka Chuppi” (mentioned in my earlier post) was written by Prasoon Joshi, who is one of the best in the business and is also the regular lyricist for Academy award winner A.R Rahman. Now let’s go those b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l words of love.

Male:
How did we unite ?
I thank my destiny
You descended on the darkness
So gently and gracefully as the moon

You caressed me like the crooning sunlight
With your rhyming pulse
Do I witness your beauty or
listen to your sacred words?
You are my peace
My passion
Why didn’t you arrive earlier?

I used to despair at the Lord
for ignoring me.
But now I worship him
For having created you.

Female:
The Lands might part
The rivers might part
The dunes might part.
Life might spark new desires
As raindrops hum a different tune.
Though times shall alter their course
I will remain with you forever.
In your sweet embrace.
For every moment.
Always.

Male:
Life is now become like a sitar.
Like a melodious song of rain.
I can’t believe our destinies united us....................................................................................................

Happy Women's day

2009-03-07T21:37:00.000-08:00

A woman is the calm of a hurricane's eye
where a man finds transquility
as the storm passes by

A woman is the softness inside the shell
when the shell is bonbarded
by man's creation of hell

A woman is the pillar of a temple foundation
where a man comes and goes
with renewed inspirations

A woman is the cloud that carries the rain
giving life to man's soul
parched from anxieties and pain

A woman is the bank of the river flow
shelping man's direction
by being the woman she knows

A woman is the sound of a Lark's song in the morning
when mist covers life
and man feels forlorn

A woman is the emotions
shared with a man
the climax of giving
by the touch of a hand

A woman is the flesh that holds the seed
the miracle of birth
fullfilling human need

A woman is the mother of a new generation
a man is the direction
of that aspiration

___________________________________________________________________________(source: luvbluez)

Wishing on behalf of all we good hearted men, Happy Women's day, to all the women wherever life exists, for your unmatched support and dedication without which we Men wouldn't exist.
Lets not just celebrate one single day in the future, in return for their love and affection towards us, but respect them and love them in return, every minute and every second.

2009-03-06T22:26:00.000-08:00

Hello to all my dear and lovely people reading this site. I've been stuck up with work for some time. Due to which i was unable to write frequently. This is to inform you that i will write in a more frequent basis from now. Thank you for visiting. Enjoy your visit. Take care..ByBye... :)

Words that swept me away......................................................

2009-02-27T02:11:00.000-08:00

"Lukka Chuppi" - Rang De Basanthi
If there was any song that touched the depths of my heart was Lukka Chuppi from “Rang de basanti”. This is a song sung between a loving mother to her brave dear son, who just expired in an army plane crash.. A.R Rahman has rendered a heavenly music to these lovely words sung by the legend - Lata Mangeshkar.

Mother:
Enough of hide and seek, come before me.
I searched for you everywhere.
Your mother is now tired.
Its evening and I'm worried about you
Hazy is what my sight is, come to me

Son:
What do I tell you about the place where I am, mother?
There is freedom and independence like the vast sky here.
Like your stories it is innocent and beautiful here
Its like a dreamland here.
My kite (I am) is flying without any worries mother.
Nobody to steal or cut my kite's string.

Mother:
My eyes are waiting for your arrival.
My heart is going through various emotions.
Slowly darkness in creeping in the courtyard, where is my brightness (son)
The sun is setting and gesturing to the moon, where are you?
Where are you my son?

Son:
How do I show you what is here?
I've drunk water from the fountain, mother
I've touched several clusters of my dreams
The sunlight along with the shade is here
The atmosphere is so different and new
All that I want is here mother... but still...
Loneliness is what I feel here without you :(

My Oscar Predictions

2009-02-22T04:03:00.000-08:00

The 81st Academy Awards 2009:

Best Picture:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ****
Frost/Nixon*
Milk**
The Reader***
Slumdog Millionaire ****

My thought:Honestly I want The Curious case of Benjamin Button to win this coveted award, but the critics and bookies favour Slumdog Millionaire to win. Slumdog Millionaire is in no way the best film of this year.

Best Director
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ***
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire ****
Stephen Daldry - The Reader ***
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon *
Gus Van Sant – Milk **

My thought:I feel The Curious case of Benjamin Button again deserves this award, but in reality, today night either The Slumdog Millionaire or the Reader will win this award.

Best Actor:
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor ***
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon **
Sean Penn – Milk ***
Brad Pitt – The Curious case of Benjamin Button *
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler ****

My thought:Tough decision here. Considering the high graphics involved in the Curious case of Benjamin, people consider Mickey Rourke or Sean Penn to win this award for their extraordinarily natural performances. But Richard Jenkins and Frank also have some chances of winning. I think Sean Penn or Mickey Rourke would win this award.

Best Actress:
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married ****
Angelina Jolie - Changeling **
Melissa Leo – Frozen River **
Meryl Streep – Doubt **
Kate Winslet – The Reader ***

My thought:Though Anne Hathway and Kate Winslet have strong chances of winning, Meryl Streep could be a pleasant surprise.

Best Supporting Actor
Josh Brolin – Milk *
Robert Downey, Jr. – Tropic Thunder **
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt *
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight *****
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road ***

My thought:It’s a sin to even discuss this award with other names. Heath Ledger should’ve been nominated for the Best actor award. But alas, the Selection committee went blind while nominating. My apologies to the others in this category who have performed very well.

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams – Doubt *
Penélope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona ***
Viola Davis – Doubt ****
Taraji P. Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button **
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler ***

My thought:Lots of doubt in this category. I meant Amy and Viola. Viola is a better option than Amy for sure. But as a whole, Marisa and Penelope also have good chances of winning with no room for Taraji P.Henson.

Best Original Screenplay
WALL-E – Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter **
Happy-Go-Lucky – Mike Leigh ***
Frozen River – Courtney Hunt *
In Bruges – Martin McDonagh ***
Milk – Dustin Lance Black ****

My thought:Just because of last year’s controversy of not nominating Ratatouille in this category, its not a clever decision of nominating Wall-E for original Screenplay on hopes of Wall-E winning it. It is a good movie, but not worth being awarded the best screenplay for 2008. Milk has strong chances of winning followed by In Bruges or Happy-Go-Lucky, then the rest.

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Eric Roth and Robin Swicord ***
Frost/Nixon – Peter Morgan *
The Reader – David Hare ****
Slumdog Millionaire – Simon Beaufoy ****
Doubt – John Patrick Shanley **

My thought:Its clearly Slumdog Millionaire having the most chances of winning this award, followed by The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Reader.

Best Animated Feature:
Bolt – Chris Williams and Byron Howard **
Kung Fu Panda – Mark Osborne and John Stevenson ***
WALL-E – Andrew Stanton *****

My thought: Wall-E is the clear winner in this category with the best animation ever in World Cinema. Though as a film, Kung Fu Panda is the best, this being a animation category, Wall-E is the clear winner.

Best Cinematography:
Changeling – Tom Stern *
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Claudio Miranda ***
The Dark Knight – Wally Pfister *****
The Reader – Chris Menges, Roger Deakins ***
Slumdog Millionaire – Anthony Dod Mantle ****

My thought:THE DARK KNIGHT is the movie with outstanding Cinematography in 2008.

Best Film Editing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall ***
The Dark Knight – Lee Smith *****
Frost/Nixon – Mike Hill, Daniel P. Hanley **
Milk – Elliot Graham **
Slumdog Millionaire – Chris Dickens ****

My thought:This is a tough decision again. All these fllms nominated are set to have great editing, though The Dark Knight again is the movie with the highest eligibility of winning though Slumdog Millionaire is the next choice.

Best Makeup:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Greg Cannom ****
The Dark Knight – John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O’Sullivan ***
Hellboy II: The Golden Army – Mike Elizalde, Thom Floutz ****

My thought:Well, The Curious Case and and Hellboy are equal contenders for this award with Dark Knight having less chances of winning this award.

Best Original Score
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Alexandre Desplat **
Defiance - James Newton Howard **
Milk - Danny Elfman *
Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman *****
WALL-E - Thomas Newman ***

My thought:Wow, look at this list! All of the greatest composers in one list. Though it looks like a tough decision, A.R Rahman’s Slumdog Millionaire is the obvious choice for this award. Not one film here has a diversity in music. Unlike Slumdog Millionaire which has beautiful scores from rap to classical all in one album. If Slumdog Millionaire is not awarded for this, that means this year the focus was not on the Best Musical Score for 2008, but on something else.

Best Original Song
"Down to Earth" from WALL-E – Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman (music), Peter Gabriel (lyrics) **
"Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire – A. R. Rahman (music), Gulzar (lyrics) ****
"O Saya" from Slumdog Millionaire – A. R. Rahman and M.I.A. *****

My thought:Slumdog Millionaire again. If Wall-E is awarded for this, it’s a disgrace to 2008’s music. Even Wrestler could’ve beena strong contender for this award, but not Wall-E for god’s sake.

Best Sound Editing
The Dark Knight – Richard King ***
Iron Man – Frank Eulner, Christopher Boyes *
Slumdog Millionaire – Tom Sayers ****
WALL-E – Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood ****
Wanted – Wylie Stateman *

My thought:Tough decision again. But Wall-E might be a surprise winner for this category. But there are more chances for Wall-E followed by Slumdog Millionaire/The Dark Knight.

Best Sound Mixing
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, Mark Weingarten
The Dark Knight – Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick Slumdog Millionaire – Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty
WALL-E – Tom Myers, Michael Semanick, Ben Burtt Wanted – Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño, Petr Forejt

My thought:I seriously have no idea. Hahahaha

All the best for all the nominees and my regards to all the winners. You have won for your outstanding work , being the best among all in the respective categories (maybe not for some). Anyways, I hope we have equally good films as in 2008 to contend for next years’ Oscars.

The Road to Recession

2009-02-04T03:01:00.000-08:00

Debt.Default.Financial dip.Media spoke.Public panicked.Bankers panicked.People lost confidence.Bankruptcy.Rece$$ion.

Confusing ??? Well, initially it is, but a very simple concept indeed. I'll explain it in a gist. In common terms, recession is a period of reduced economic activity. It might last for a few months or even a few years. Or in true economist’s words it is a decline in a country's gross domestic product (GDP), for two or more successive quarters of a year. Now recession is different from depression, though many correlate both to be the same. Both these vary by the magnitude of economic decline. To be more clear, a depression is more like a severe recession. These recessions have been coming and going from a long time. They can be dated back from the First World war, when the economy was at an all time low. The GDP fell by 10.9%, which was a depression. Now the GDP is the Gross Domestic Product which is nothing but one of the widely used measures of finding a nation’s income. Its simply the sum of all expenditures made on the final products and services by a country in a year. Due to this not only the nation but you, me and everyone suffer from it. Even we are in a recession, since it affects our expenditure too. Companies reduce the employees pay and in turn, the total income in our houses reduces by X percentage, where X is something like the GDP of a country. Global Economic growth was nearly 5% per annum between 2004-2007, whereas in 2008 it has reduced by around 4% which is less than 1 percentage at present. Most of the Major foreign banks have eased their policies recently in response to the economic crisis. It is also predicted that 2009 is going to be the slowest year of global GDP growth since 1982.
Though the global economic growth has slowed this year, the developing world in general would probably continue to experience positive economic growth, albeit at a rate that is significantly slower than the average of the past few years. The main factors that I can attribute to this recession are :

The Global Oil Crisis & The Credit crunch

The Global Oil Crisis:
Crude oil exists in the upper strata of some areas of the Earth's crust. Crude oil is used mostly, by It is also one of the most integral sources for many chemicals, including solvents, fertilizers, pesticides, and plastics. If you were to walk through your home and office, you would become shortly overwhelmed by the thousands of items you use everyday that would not be available to you without our access to oil.
Crude oil which was around $20 per barrel in 2003 rose to historic heights of $147 per barrel in 2008. This not only led to high fuel rates but also led to drastic high food prices. Wondering how oil prices are related to food price hike? Well, this increase in oil prices further heightened the costs of fertilizers & chemicals used, food transport and in general, the industrial agriculture, which is how it lead to the drastic high food prices. It is estimated that the Earth was endowed with approximately three trillion barrels of recoverable conventional oil resources — of which only about one trillion has been produced to date. It took us roughly 200 years to extract this first trillion barrel of oil. And in 20 years it is said that the world will consume 40% more oil than today. Reason being that things have changed from the past. There are many factors behind this - The population, due to which the needs have increased excessively. Maybe at this rate, it might take just another 100 years or less for mankind to use up the remaining 2 trillion barrels, which is nearly double the rate of ueage.
Who knows, the earth might get destroyed in a few years or so. But we will still keep large stocks of each and every innovation made in safe underground warehouses to be used for generations. Whether earth will get destroyed or not, we have made sufficient replacements like, (i) an energy replacement for oil. It’s a kind of battery that never needs recharging by mixing hydrogen and oxygen in a fuel cell to produce an electric current is certainly not new. Scientists have been working on this capacity since the 1980's and while we know more now than back then about this type of energy system, the largest companies in the world involved with the research and development of hydrogen fuel cells have scaled back or reduced their staffs dramatically and after seeing their stock prices crash during the recession. This idea as such might take some time to come into commercial use due to its high costs involved and (ii) another revolutionary innovation called the “biofuel” which is a replacement for petoleum or any kind of fuel. But as such there simply is nothing equal to oil. But anyways I’m not getting into the end-of-earth subject now. One clear fact is that, energy will be one of the most defining issues of this century.

The Credit Crunch:
Credit Crunch is another crisis, wherein there is a shortage of the availability of loans. To explain it in a simple way - the main reason behind this is, when people who can’t afford to build a house get loans from banks and later do not repay or become repetitive defaulters, the banks in turn incur losses in terms of the money available for them to lend. Which means eventually they would not have enough money, if the defaulters increase day by day, making them ‘Bankrupt’. Once the banks become bankrupt, there starts the lack of trust in banks amongst everyone. Later, the companies would suffer lack of capital availability from banks, thereby slowing the growth of companies resulting in reduced salaries, zero appraisals and finally employee lay offs. At this situation obviously, consumers / citizens reduce their spendings resulting in decreasing demands in the economy. So when none is ready to spend on something which is produced in the same quantities as before, the manufacturing companies incur great losses in their margins. The end result of all this is most of what we face now called the “R e c e $$ i o n”.

Famous example : The Lehman Brothers bankruptcy - Lehman Brothers, an international bank went bankrupt last year, with debts over 700 billion dollars.

As populations grow and economies take off, millions in the developing world are enjoying the benefits of a lifestyle that requires increasing amounts of money and energy. Analysts all over the world have been studying a lot and have been forecasting the future. What most feel is that currently we're dealing with a cultural problem dealing with over 200 years of exponential growth culture. Rapid growth is and has always been a transient, temporary phenomenon. Its like a cycle. We are at the bottom of it now. Everything will revive. Each and every day we sleep peacefully hoping to see a better day.
Let’s pray for that day to come, hopefully by 2010.

Slumdog Millionaire - The Movie Review - "As good as it proceed$"

2009-02-01T07:55:00.000-08:00

Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British film directed by Danny Boyle. It has been adapted from the Indian novel Q & A by Vikas Swarup. To start off, my first appreciation goes for Vikas for such a novel storyline. But it was better on screen due to Boyle’s direction and the excellent screenplay by Simon Beaufoy. Its for sure a never-before-seen kinda movie anywhere in the world. But I really think its for sure not 2008’s Best movie. It’s a good movie. A simple movie handled awesomely. That’s it. It can never beat The Dark Knight. Cmon, people must’ve forgotten how Dark Knight was. Its surely one of the best movies ever made and it deserves a #5 slot in imdb, but not a #34 slot for Slumdog Millionaire or a #39 slot for Wall-E.. That’s totally dumb ! Slumdog Millionaire is a good film. But doesn’t deserve #34 over Taxi Driver, Forrest Gump, The Departed, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Reservoir Dogs, Terminator 2, Rashomon, Reservoir Dogs, Batman Begins, Gladiator, Fargo, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Prestige or A Beautiful Mind. Seeing some lame ratings like these makes me feel imdb is no more a place with the perfect fan ratings. Maybe its because it had a completely new, not-so-usually seen style of filmmaking / story handling for the world audience. For adapting a completing new Indian culture & filmmaking style by a person from another side of the world is awesome. This shows his excellency as a director who can film anything on this Earth.

Dev Patel, the protagonist of the film is just tolerable. That’s all I can comment on him. Friedo Pinto as the female protagonist is good, not great. Anil Kapoor as the show host is good. Irfan Khan as the inspector is good. The best performances have come from the small children who enacted the childhood counterparts. That’s a shame for Dev or even the guy who played his brother Salim. So, three cheers to, Azharuddin Ismail (youngest part of the hero, jamal), Ayush Khedekar (youngest part of the hero’s bro,Salim), Rubiana Ali (youngest part of the heroine), Tanny Chheda (middle Jamal), Ashutosh Gajiwala (middle Salim). These kids where the winning points of the film other than Rahman’s outstanding score, Anthony Don’s superb cinemtagraphy, Chris Dickens’ crisp editing, Simon’s screenplay and Danny Boyle’s direction . Loveleen Tandon deserves special appreciation for her directorial & scripting support. Could'nt have been so good without her. As many have always commented, that this movie is just potraying the slums of India to the whole world. I think it was not just this movie. It was through this movie that eventually made people of India to burst out on this issue.

Any hollywood movie filmed in India or had any scenes in the movie would be showing the slums or beggars or people pulling horse-carts. Eventually this trend passed on for years and finally it bursted out. Well, i just like that can't propose any solution for this, because stories are made having such connections here. but maybe we can have more movies showing less of slums. That's not only for India, it applies the same for any country. Every country has its own slums. But showing only those constantly to the world, would change one's perception about that place. Hope issues like these are not taken/ shown to affect the movie's quality or an interesting script. Secondly, people say that the word “Slumdog” is being considered to replace the word “beggar”. Crap ! That’s racist according to me. You cannot call anyone a dog, just because he is from a poor family or doesn’t have money. People who enjoy / support / encourage racism should be dealt with seriously. But one good aspect this movie has woke up so many people is the ongoing severe racism being followed all over the world. But the bad aspect, it might increase the same ongoing racism. Anyways. If not for Danny Boyle’s film, the original novel, Q&A would have been unnoticed. The relevant awards it has to win are Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography (a tough decision considering Dark Knight’s astounding cinematography), Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Sound Mixing / Editing. But the honours actually predicted from it are the Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Original song, Best Sound Mixing / Editing. I’m sure Slumdog Millionaire will walk away with atleast 4 Oscars ! Man, what a film it must’ve been, to capture the interests of so many worldover !!

Jai Ho Danny Boyle !!
Jai Ho A.R Rahman !!
Jai Ho Vikas Swarup !!
Jai Ho Simon Beaufoy !!
Jai Ho Anthony Dod !!

Rating:
3.8/5

Vicky Christina Barcelona - Review

2009-01-21T00:04:00.000-08:00

Vicky Christina Barcelona is a 2008 Golden Globe Award winning film directed by the famous American director, Woody Allen. It tells the story of two friends, Vicky & Christina who decide to go to Spain to spend their summer together. It tells the tale of two American friends, Vicky & Christina who decide to go to Barcelona in Spain for their summer, wherein they experience many things or to be more clear many relationships that temporarily seemed to have changed their lives forever but ended up the same as they were before this memorable vacation of theirs. Woody has showcased some unexplored areas of love, or rather many unseen to me. Frankly this is the first time I came across something like polyamory. I mean that’s so weird. But other than that, I totally got immersed in the film, watching it. It was so well written. Only an experienced writer like Woody Allen can do it. He has taken the movie in his usual not-so-dramatic, not-so-funny and not-so-serious style. Apparently I have not seen many of his movies, but I’m sure VCB is not his best. Of all the characters, Rebecca Hall as Vicky stands out. She has given one of the best performances of this year, which is makes it very obvious why she won the coveted Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy. She stays in your mind for some time after watching the film. Penelope Cruz (my evergreen crush) as Maria Elena has acted to perfection. But its different in Rebecca's case. She lived that role. Even one minute she didnt show herself that she was acting to the director's claps. But Penelope being a Spaniard herself, it was all the more easy for her to act as a Spanish lady. Scarlett as Christina has also done a pretty good job along with and Javier Bardem. Javier, another Spaniard, has nothing to prove of his acting in this film. Maybe his character gave him less scope. But he serves a good supporting actor for this film. Most of the movie, Scarlett had an amnesia-struck-childish look on her face. Maybe her role demanded that look. I don't want to just baselessly criticize. But the best thing about her that noone can deny is her unmatched beauty. And on that, all the three actresses in this movie are very beautiful.

Coming to the music, its fully Spanish. Nothing to comment on the music, because it suits perfect with Spain as the backdrop. But I really liked the Spanish guitar music in this movie. Its obvious why Vicky loved the Spanish guitar in this film too.
The cinematography is excellent in this movie. Javier Aguirresarobe has done an excellent job. But I won’t give the whole credit to Aguirresarobe for his breathtaking frames. The maximum credit goes to Barcelona. Man, what breathtaking locales !! I've made a commitment in life after watching VCB - to visit Barcelona atleast once in my life. No wonder why its called one of the most romantic cities after Paris.

Overall, its a decent movie and there is no harm watching it. In fact i recommend you to see it. Not many movies are made nowadays featuring three beauties. (Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz & Rebecca Hall ("Prestige" - Christian Bale's wife) I'm sure you will either be swept away by the beauty of one these ladies or the beauty of Barcelona.

Rating :

3.5/5

2009-01-20T12:51:00.000-08:00

My Hearty Congratulations to Mr.Barack Obama.. All the Best !!!!

Ghajini - The movie review - "Revenge @ any cost"

2009-01-18T04:17:00.000-08:00

Ghajini (2008) is a Hindi film directed by A.R Murugadoss which has turned out to be the ultimate blockbuster Hindi cinema has ever produced, starring Aamir Khan and Asin Thottumkal in the lead roles. Well, the basic concept has been inspired from Christopher Nolan’s “Memento” and a remake of the Tamil film by the same name, which had Surya and Asin in the lead roles. The movie explores the life of a rich businessman, his one-man struggle for avenging his lost love narrated in a very thrilling style. Aamir is at his best as always with his portrayal of the delicate life of an anterograde amnesia patient ; which means he can’t remember anything for more than 15 minutes. The 15 minute remembrance logic has been dealt with utmost care, making the viewers themselves feel sometimes of the tough life this amnesia patient faces. The thought of a 15 minute amnesia patient planning to avenge is by itself an innovative & thought provoking storyline, for which the whole credit should go to the Nolan Brothers. But though it as a remake/inspiration, it has enough stuff to stand by itself. But frankly this movie has more than one inspirations. The scene where Asin helps a blind person to reach his destination has been neatly taken from the famous French movie – Amelie. Well, though inspirations are more righteous than copying, I personally think this scene has well suited for Ghajini. Asin is cute in the movie. She has improvised a lot compared to her Tamil version. She has not overacted in a single scene. Though some do think so, forgetting that her character in the movie by itself is very bubbly, making us feel each time we see her on screen that we could’ve had someone like this in our lives. I’m sure she has a great future after making a mark in Indian cinema with this lovely role of a tender, caring & loving young girl. Pradeep Rawat, the villain is deadly. He gives us the feeling of watching a wild bull.

Now coming to the technical department, we have A.R Rahman scoring some enchanting scores topping all other albums of 2008. And I was totally impressed with the background score of the movie. That too in certain scenes like – the Amelie scene, the New Year scene & the scene just before interval are the highlights of Rahman’s excellence. The next strong point of the movie is cinematographer Ravi K. Chandran who is also my favourite cinematographer in India. He has indeed took the movie to the next level with some spell bounding work behind the camera. Each and every scene in this movie can be used as a wallpaper for this movie. The camera work is so good. Watch it to believe it. Next, Prasoon Joshi the lyricist of this movie has penned beautiful, soul touching words as always for Aamir khan in particular. I was totally moved by the song “Kaise Mujhe” which according to me is the best lyric of Ghajini. Overall I don’t care what Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN or Gaurav Malani of Indiatimes or Raja Sen of Rediff have criticized about this movie, it is a stylish thriller well laced with some good comedy in the first half and some racy action in the second half (with a superb climax) making it a total winner.

Hats Off to Aamir for such inspiring top class acting and dedication for whatever he does (8 pack), A.R Murugadoss for such a great screenplay, mixing all the elements of a commercial entertainer, Asin for such a cute performance, A.R Rahman for such a winning score, Prasoon Joshi for such good lyrics, Ravi K.Chandran for such an excellent camera work, Antony for such a slick editing & Peter Hein for the splendid firework stunts in the climax.

If you really want to enjoy this movie to the fullest, become an amnesia affected person yourself for 3 hours, totally forgetting all the moments of Memento & the Tamil version of Ghajini stored even in the smallest portion of your brain.

Rating:
4/5

One obvious error:
Could've included some jurisdiction at the fair end of the plot. Else it looks like Aamir is left scott free for all his felonies.

Slumdog Millionaire - The Audio Review - "World Class"

2009-01-17T03:43:00.000-08:00

O Saya (4:10 Mins)
A.R Rahman, M.I.A
The pick of the album. Exciting to hear a song which can actually take you to the actual background of that song. I will say this is the best situational song ever made in the world with train not only as a background in the film but also as a rhythm in the song. A.r Rahman’s voice lends great support to the song’s excellence. M.I.A is completely unknown to me before this album. I think she rocks.
Mathangi Arulpragasam, a NRI is famously known as M.I.A, or Missing In Action

Jai Ho (6:07 mins)
Sukhvinder Singh , Tanvi Shah , Mahalakshmi Iyer
This is indeed another pick of this album. It’s this particular song that is expected to get Rahman an Oscar. Well, I’d say it deserves. Though it has that clear Rahman’s touch ,its a very different song ; not only for the people of India who have been listening to his songs for years, but also for the whole world. You really can’t judge the genre of this song. Every time Sukhwinder Singh increases his voice for the words “Jai Ho” it brings sort of an inspirational feeling, which wants us to achieve our passion in life. Maybe all won’t get this feeling, but I felt so ; maybe because the word “Jai” means victory in Hindi. Tanvi Shah & Mahalakshmi Iyer have done their jobs neatly, though they just have little to render in this song.

Paper Planes (3:26 mins)
M.I.A
Well, this is again one unique song like O Saya, with the gun as the background. The gun shots and reloading sound lends a different touch to this song. This song is from M.I.A’s 2007 album “Kala” which was used for this movie. Its one of my personal favourites and it will be yours too. There is also a remix version for this song which is also equally good.

Latika’s Theme (3:15 mins)
Suzanne D'Mello
This is the sweetest song of the album. Suzanne’s voice is so lilting that she has transformed this song into a lullaby. I’m sure no only babies but people of any age would have a sound sleep after listening to this theme. I don’t mean its boring, because even boring ones make us sleep. This song not only has made the album special, but also Suzanne’s career as well.

Dreams on fire (4:11 mins)
Suzanne D’Mello
This song is the completion of Latika’s theme with some sweet lyrics. If Latika’s theme was just a beautiful pencil sketch, this one is the same rendered with some eye catching colours. If you really have a childhood love, this song would mean more than it is for me or others.

Aaj Ki Raat (6:08 mins)
Sonu Nigam , Alisha Chinai , Mahalakshmi Iyer
This song was already famous even before the album was released. I’m not telling it was leaked on the internet, but its one of my favourite songs from Farhan Akthar’s “Don – The Chase Begins”. Danny Boyle again used this in his movie. But its good. You’ll have to listen to this track.

Gangsta Blues (3:44 mins)
Blaaze , Tanvi Shah
Coolest Rap A.R Rahman has ever done. Blaaze has sung completely in a different way that doesn’t really sound like Blaaze. But overall he has done an awesome rap. Tanvi Shah has again rocked with her different thin voice. Hope she would be given more to sing in the future. This song will make you to listen again & again if you like rap.

Ringa Ringa (5:03 mins)
Alka Yagnik , Ila Arun
This is a lively dance number more on the lines of “Choli ke peechae”. Its surely an unheard variety number for the world audience, which will surely make you atleast involuntarily shake your head. And its sung by Ila Arun who was the singer of “Choli Ke peeche” for which she was awarded by the Filmfare ( Golden Globes ). Alka Yagnik has made the song more sensuous with her sweet voice.

Mausam & Escape (3:55 mins)
BGM
A sizzling track with a touch of thrill & horror. The way Rahman has used classical instruments for this kind of rock music is completely unbelievable. He has blended the classical music so well with rock music which I’m sure would look great for whatever scene it was used. Again a unique score for the world audience.

Liquid Dance (3:02 mins)
BGM
This is again a good blend of classical and trance music. The beats have perfectly the classical vocal notes. In this song instead of classical instruments, carnatic vocals have been used. By the time, the track makes you remember of Rangeela’s theme music, the songs ends with an awesome unexpected ending. By the time you come to this song the one question that lingered in my head is – “Man ! How did you do this !!”

Riots (2:01) & Millionaire (2:46)
BGM
These two tracks might not capture everyone's interests but i'm sure it would be better to watch it with the movie. But as such, both are equally good compared to the other tracks.

Overall, this is an album which will stay in your mind for quite a long time. You might get bored listening to it again & again, but it has that special Rahman touch which makes it loveable even if you listen years later, more than any music in the world. It has great music, variety & overall the golden A.R Rahman touch. Its still hard to believe, how this superb album was composed in about a month or so, as told by Rahman himself. He also admitted that this was one of the shortest times he took to compose a complete album, which has won the Golden Globe and is sure to bring him the coveted Oscar.

All the Best Rahman !!!!

Revolutionary Road Review

2009-01-11T00:39:00.000-08:00

Revolutionary Road is a 2008 British-American drama film directed by Sam Mendes. It also brings together the famous cute titanic couple – Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet. Well, this time they are not cute. I mean they are characterized not to look cute. Rather, they portray a young couple living in a Connecticut suburb during the mid-1950s who struggle to come to terms with their personal problems. There is nothing extraordinary in this movie. Its more of a simple, natural tale documenting the struggle of a young couple, very suavely filmed by Sam Mendes ( American Beauty , Road to Perdition ). It does have his stamp of a slow paced meaningful cinema. Obviously everyone has acted wonderfully, being a Sam’s film. DiCaprio is one hell of a good actor. I mean he suits any role in any generation, being it the 19th century young lad or the 20th century cop (which he loves doing film to film) . But alas, he has never received an Oscar. Reason being, he still has that chubby childish look in him which we never really associate 100% to his role. He has done a lot of good acting in this movie, but I’m sure he is going to be awarded by none. Then you have the dynamic Kate playing this really irritated with life kinda wife. And I’m not surprised of her bagging the best role in the movie, being the director’s real wife. But she has done a great performance as always. Not one error you could spot in her acting, making her the only contention for Oscars from this camp. The next performance that stands out in my mind is that of Kathy Bates, who again joins with DiCaprio and Kate after Titanic. Remember the woman who played the role of Rose’s aunt in Titanic, who’s the only one supporting Jack & Rose’s love ? I always liked watching her perform.

The next thing standing out is the cinematography by Roger Deakins who also worked in movies like No country for old men, A Beautiful Mind, Fargo and The Shawshank Redemption. You can the expect the quality out of him.

Music is good. Thomas Newman is again a famous composer who has films like The Shawshank Redemption, The Horse Whisperer, Road To Perdition , Cinderella Man and the Good German to his credit.

Overall, by now you could’ve judged what kind of quality you can expect from these established technicians. It’s a film you should watch if you don’t want miss any good quality world cinema. Again, i’m not saying it’s a great film, but its simple and neat. I mean, c’mon it’s a Richard Yates’ novel! Its sure to be good.

Rating:
3/5

Trivia:
It's the first time Kate Winslet plays a character named April, the second time Leonardo DiCaprio plays a character named Frank, and the third time Kathy Bates plays a character named Helen.

Happy New Year !!

2008-12-31T12:01:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear friends,
What a night this has been!! This night looked like a morning. It didn't require a sun to bring light, but rather, hell-a-lot of crackers and the enthusiaism in the faces of the people awaiting the dawn of a prosperous year brightened up the whole world. Different people would've chosen different ways of celebrating these sweet moments. Many excessively drink and enter the new year with total dizziness, . Some would've spent their new year eve in their homes with family/friends watching a movie or just chatting. Well, i decided to spend these final moments dawning 2009, blogging, rather than dozing off. It has nowadays become a regularity in my life. Other than blogging, which other way do i have to share my thoughts & interact with you people. Though practically New year which is something considered from a calendar discovered many centuries ago, its just another Thursday. But we percieve Jan 1st as an oppurtunity to take new resolutions to better ourselves the forthcoming year and not repeat the mistakes we committed, which is a very healthy tradition followed worldwide. Well, i've made a few resoultions. Frankly not just few, i've made a lot of them this eve, lol. You would have made some too, if not specifically on New year's eve, atleast some throughout 2008. Let's bring those resolutions to life,make better things for ourselves, make things better for others and enjoy each and every second of 2009 to the fullest.

I wish you a very very prosperous and successful New Year with luck always by your side. Happy 2009 !!

Dostana : as sweet as candy

2008-12-27T17:38:00.000-08:00

Dostana (2008) to be described in one word is a stylish-sweet movie. Dharma Productions proves its excellence once again. They have always given us good family movies. But this is first friendship-comedy kinda movie. From the first frame, till the last, every frame has been interlaced with style. Comedy is abundant in Dostana. That’s actually the highlight of the movie. My god !! I can still remember how I laughed when I saw. The whole movie hall were in splits. That’s the true success of a director. Tarun Mansukhani has to be applauded. Obviously he has to be a good director coming from the Karan Johar stable. John Abraham is indeed the sexiest Indian alive. Man, what muscles !! He has done a pretty good performance. Never expected comedy from him. The most unexpected element of the movie has been Abhishek’s performance. I always hated him, his performance, his looks. But he has made me feel 60% wrong about him. Cos, he heads the film’s entire comedy department. Without caring about his image, he has done some bold comedy. Not all of his stature are ready do that. Maybe this role looks like a tailor made role for him, lol. But not something like Guru or Ravan. Oh cmon !! He was awful. But this homo role is awesome for him. He has enjoyed it and performed, which is what every actor should do to deliver great performances.

The cutest thing about this movie is Priyanka Chopra. After seeing the movie, you would feel like catching her cheeks as you do for a small child. She is so sute. Great hair-do. Great body. Great dress. Cute acting. How could somebody be without loving her? You really start to feel the plight of John and Abhishek at one point of time.

Shrey bawa as Bobby’s son is another cute part of the movie. Choo Chweet !! And the others ,Boman, Kirron and Bobby deol have played their parts well. Again a pat for the director. Songs have not been of great support to the movie’s success. Of course, 3 of them are good – My Desi girl, Kuch Kum and Jaane Kyun.

Its an out & out comedy of 2 people who pose as a gay couple to rent a house and in the process win their girl’s heart, fully picturised in Miami. Not one scene looks out of place. It’s a perfect entertainer. I just didn’t want the movie to end. It’s a such sweet move. Its one of those movies which make you see again and again.

Rating :
3.9/5

Remember remember the 26th of December

2008-12-26T05:20:00.000-08:00

By now, different topics must’ve hit your minds when I mentioned Dec, 26th. People in the U.K, Australia, Canada and other Commonwealth countries might relate it to the famous “Boxing day” celebrated on the 26th of December every year. Boxing day is considered to be a lucky day for initiating anything. Like, new shops, businesses are started this day, which people believe will bring them good luck starting from the new year. Some others find it a prosperous day to shop and also for families to get together. But traditionally in England, this was the day to open the Christmas boxes to share the content with the poor.
A lot more people remember it to be the day when Tsunami devastated a few Asian countries in 2004. It’s a day that will always stay in our hearts forever. That was the day I came to know about the word “Tsunami” to its full extent. But ironically, December 26th has coincided with nature’s devastations a lot many times.
In 1997, the Soufriere hill volcano exploded, creating an offshore Tsunami which resulted in the death of 19 people. Well, that’s Tsunami #2 on Dec 26th.

On Dec 26th 1998, severe gales hit several parts of Britain causing widespread disruption. This storm was then named the “Boxing day storm”. On the same day, the following year, severe storms hit France, killing over 100 people.
In 2003, a major earthquake of magnitude 6.6 devastated the southeastern Iranian city of Bam, killing over tens of thousands of people.
And the following year, the worst ever earthquake of magnitude 9.0 hit Asia, thereby creating a huge 30 feet Tsunami that took away more than 2,30,000 lives.
Again on December 26th, 2006, a massive earthquake of magnitude 7.1 devastated the island of Taiwan.
Some other people from Canada might relate it to the shootout which took the life of a 15 year old girl which took place in the year 2005. This incident then came to be known as the “Boxing Day shootout”. The Canadian Police named this as “Project Green Apple”. Any idea why this name? It was that 15 year old girl’s favourite food.
Some others in Colorado remember December 26th as the day 6 year old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey who was kidnapped was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her house.

Or some innocent foolish dumbers (with pea-sized brain) who find happiness in killing others, which they proclaim it to be their "Jehad" from Kuran remember this day to be the b'day of their useless coward leader -D.Ibrahim, who is still there somewhere hiding from the world, which is obviously not the attribute of a leader, which is what some people claim him to be.

And some historians claim December 26th to be the day that gave birth to more than 10 leaders worldwide. Many treaties have been signed this day. Several wars were waged this day. Several leaders died this day. Several great writers were born, several died . As far as written history goes, Dec 26th has been a day that has coincided with several events worldwide. Exactly a year back, it became an important and unforgettable day in my life too. It changed my whole life.

It was the time when I was totally depressed in life. Every friend of mine were employed or either pursuing their higher studies. I wanted to work for some time, before taking any further step of doing higher studies or not. But none were ready to give me one. Any place I went , the first question was what I was doing? I was totally speechless. More than my embarrasment, it was so painful to see my parents expressionless with their heads down. These were the moments that made me to think, what I really achieved to make my parents feel proud of? People around me laughed at me to the extent they could. I couldn’t anymore stand the defeated look on my parents’ face. I felt so bad of myself. It went to the extent of feeling my birth was the worst thing that ever happened to my family. This was the time, I started lifting my spirits. If not for me, I wanted to succeed for my parents ; for the sacrifices they’ve made for my pleasure ; for the reason that I’m the son of these good people. Days passed by. Nothing positive was in sight. The day was December 26th . It was an usual bright sunny day. I got a call, that there was an interview. I went . I got selected. That was the moment I knew how it felt to succeed. It’s a great feeling. It makes you to get that feeling again & again. I can never forget the happiness I saw in my parents’ face. I got totally charged. I went past all the people who mocked me, with my head held high. Wow. What a feeling !!
But, not all know what happened that exact day of my interview. For some whom I told, said its weird. Some said it was funny. But if you ask me, I would probably say they were “a series of unfortunate events”, which I will share with you in the near future .

Trivia :
December 26th also coincided with the day a great legend who was responsible for almost all of the technology we enjoy day to day - the computer. Yes, i'm talking about the great Charles Babbage.

Perfume : The story of a murderer

2008-12-21T04:34:00.000-08:00

Perfume : the story of a murderer is a 2006 movie directed by Tom Tykwer, based on the acclaimed novel, Parfum. Set in the 18th century France, this is the unusual tale of a ruthless murderer and his quest for the perfect scent. The story unfolds with the birth of Jean Baptiste Grenouille in a fish market, which is also where the story ends. Interesting no..!! Now this baby is born with an extraordinary talent. He can smell anything, anywhere no matter how far it is and also differentiate which smell belongs to what. Cool stuff. Being born in place of stink, he goes in search of the world’s finest scent, which was once told by the ancient Egyptians, that it had the power to make a person feel he/she is in paradise, till the scent fades away. Now how such a sweet story is related to the story of a murderer is how this movie stands out significantly from other movies. Everything is perfect in this movie. The director has maintained the serious mood throughout the film, which is commendable. He has shown goriness in a different way. Not how Eli Roth does with his silly “Hostels”. Hope no more Hostels in the future. Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) impressed me from his first scene till the last. Has a lot of similarities to Eric Bana (looks-wise). There is no prominent leading lady. Many come and go. But on the every character has done a neat job. The surprise element of this movie is Dustin Hoffman. Man, I’ve always loved his acting. He plays a very different role and has done it impressively as always. Music doesn’t stand out in this movie. It just goes on with the scene. The visual element dominates the background score completely. It’s visually so good. I’ve to appreciate Frank Griebe for his excellent cinematography. It has been the real hero of this film. The second hero has been the direction. Third has been the different storyline. Fourth has been the one of most unexpected climaxes ever. Its movies like these that make world cinema proud of. On the whole, it’s a move not to be missed. If you get a chance to watch on TV, don’t miss it. If not rent a DVD and watch it a.s.a.p.

Rating :
3.5/5

Trivia :
Hollywood greats like Ridley Scott, Tim Burton, Stanley Kubrick & Martin Scorsese expressed interest in filming this classic novel. Can’t imagine how better this movie would be if one of these legends had directed.

The ethics of "Office Politics"

2008-12-20T01:54:00.000-08:00

There is a popular saying that “No one exists without work even for a tiniest part of their lives". We do have something to do all the time. Everyone has. It doesn’t matter whether you like or dislike it. Cos’ you’re not just living for yourself. If that would be the case then there is no difference between you and a animal. You toil so much and work so hard to live for your family , to support them. That’s what we call “responsibility”. It’s really a great feeling to live for someone. The nature of work differs from person to person. Some work in offices, some write music, some make movies, some teach, etc, etc. Most of our lives are spent working . And for survival, everyone need to work. If not, you won’t exist for long. And I don’t think anyone is willing to waste this one valuable life we’ve got. Well, I joined work just like any young Jack. And its been a really good learning experience. The best thing to succeed is to learn from every small experience; be it good or bad. I’ve gone through both phases. Being the start of my career, these initial experiences of mine will always stay in my mind forever.

After joining office, I’ve learnt a great deal about “Office politics”. It all depends on how you deal with situations that are not in your favour, how you tackle them. These are situations that measure one’s strength. A strong man is not one who can break a brick into two or sorts, but one who can deal with situations and win over them , when his heart is one the verge of breaking, when hope is miles away, when love and affection are light years away.
Working in an office is something like being on a war field. Every minute there, matters. If I’d say “As long you are efficient and sincere in your work, then everything is sure to go smooth in your office”, I was considering it right before I joined office. But later on, it proved the other way. Even though you are efficient and sincere, there are a lot other things which you have to be careful with. And particularly if you’re a first timer, you need to be more careful. You need to know the rules and regulations, the culture, the co-workers, seniors and subordinates and of course managers or the boss of that organization. Certain things are expected from you and certain things are to be avoided. Many of us find our jobs a necessity of life, very few of us love our jobs and rather many of us find it dull and laborious. It’s a reality whether one has a blue-collar, white collar or pink-collar job; employees generally, are frustrated, and dissatisfied on the job. But to convert frustration into friendliness, and satisfaction , I feel one needs to avoid the following mistakes, when you are new on the job.

First of all, never talk ill of the organization. Avoid criticizing any person or their performance. Just watch people working, learn the task and use it for your work. You might want to get everyone’e attention with your sense of humor, but that might be the road to your end. Expose your humorous attitude in other areas, rather than using it on your office/employees because there are people around you who will want to earn a loyal name by informing the person concerned. Secondly never talk of your personal problems. Once you are new on job, be very careful in speaking or sharing your personal problems with others. Try to avoid sharing your personal matters; this may reflect your weakness. People may under-estimate your capacity or may create more problems. Then you never say you are more skillful. You may be more qualified, more knowledgeable and even more skillful, but it does not mean that others are less qualified, less knowledgeable or less skilled. Let your work speak for your knowledge and skill and not your word. Never favour disgruntled employees. Satisfaction and dissatisfaction are the two sides of the same coin. Some employees may be disgruntled in an organization, due to various reasons, but you, especially if you’re being new on the job, are not supposed to be on the side of disgruntled employees, because you don’t know the reason. It also projects a wrong image of you.
Never be a barrier, become a bridge. Never allow your ignorance to be a barrier to your growth. Be ready to learn always. Allow your knowledge to become a bridge and equip yourself with relevant information leading to perfection in performance. Never decide by yourself. Share your plan, process, and results of task assigned to you with the team. There may be a risk of wrong decision if you decide individually, hence, allow others to participate, and let the team decide. Never point out the mistakes of management. There is a saying that ‘a boss is always right’. As you are new in the organization, you may not be aware of all the plans, processes and practices, therefore, you are not supposed to point out what you think are mistakes of the management. You might not know the agenda and execution of management, therefore, observe silence, be aware, and watch carefully.

Never say I quit. It is not necessary that when you are new, you like the job. It may not suit your qualification or you may not be able to adjust to the new people or new workplace, but never show your unhappiness or dissatisfaction and your inclination to quit the job. Then the most important, never be late. You need to be punctual in your timings. Maintain discipline, it makes you honest, sincere, committed and devoted to duty. If you work and utilize your time properly, it will surely show that you are more productive.

Cultivating all these habits would surely make things better personally & professionally. Of course different people find it differently. Maybe not all would accept with me. People might sight this post of mine as just an over exaggeration of my few bad experiences. All I want is to share my experiences and what I learnt so that it could be useful if not for all atleast for someone in some corner of the world. If you are optimistic (which is a good aspect) you can take these as preventive measures. But in general, nastiness pervades our work environment. It can take the shape of in-sensitive bosses, rude co-workers or malicious team mates. Your manager may play favourites or cut you out from a well deserved position. A colleague may steal credit for your work or humiliate you in front of everybody. These kind of petty behaviours hurt us for sure. The tit-for-tat culture most people consider is to think in terms of keeping scores and taking revenge. Many are so are keenly focused on taking an “eye for an eye”, which might mar your career prospects. Well, retaliating and getting even can only give momentary satisfaction, while true forgiveness will actually lighten your heart forever. Forgiving doesn’t mean you have to just forgive him for whatever he has done and go on with your life. Well, forgiveness is just to stop you from doing a more worse deed. Else there is no difference between him/her and you. Instead save all your anger, frustration and humiliation. Use it as a tool for achieving more than what you had before which made them jealous of you. Use the same amount of energy out of your frustration & anger to mould yourself into a better person and succeed in front of the eyes that wanted your downfall. Taking the high road to forgiveness calls for great courage.

Think whether the consequences of holding on to the grievances are really worth it. It can create conflicts and stress as you try to avoid contact with the wrongdoer. Constantly plotting revenge can also block your energy. Persistent anger and frustration can also take its toll on your physical and mental health. It may also make you miss work days, change jobs also. Instead forgiveness will lead the way for healthy relationships and a peaceful life. Just give a thought, why do you want to give someone power over you and your performance. The best revenge I would suggest is not to let those unpleasant occurrences affect you and just carry on as if nothing happened. You don’t even have to explicitly tell the other person, that you have forgiven them. Instead it should come from within your heart and reflect on your actions / behaviour.
Real forgiveness may take some time, but it will definitely free you off your emotional baggage and I bet, it will make you a better person.

As Mahatma Gandhi once said,
“The weak can never forgive.
Forgiveness is always the attitude of the strong.”
Its upto you to decide which side you are in………........................................................:)

Birds of America

2008-12-15T09:04:00.000-08:00

This is one very odd movie I’ve seen lately. Without seeing the movie, you won’t get a very clear picture from this poster nor the synopsis. That is really a good strategy from the director, which makes you to see what’s in it, as I did. Well, its got nothing big or promising stuff that you’d expect, which might initially seem to you like “A Little Miss Sunshine”. But it takes a different course as the story unfolds. Though it has nothing great, alteast its bearable , unlike movies like “The Daredevil” that make you puke. Craig Lucas could’ve worked more on the story and direction. The Cinematographer, Yaron Orbach ( Never heard of this guy ) has tried something, but it looks like he has not delivered even what he intended. Its amateur, to say in a word. But, he has done a decent work for an offbeat movie, I should say. All the best to you career, Yaron. From the acting department, Matthew Perry looks perfect for these kind of middle class husband characters and he is almost the only known face apart from Hillary Swank and Lauren Graham. Hillary has nothing great in this movie to boast off in her career. But I’d say, though it seems strange for her to take up these small just-another-character roles, I can see her interest in doing all kind of roles. That’s something to be appreciated. Coming to Lauren, the darling wife of Matthew Perry, she has always been true to her role. She comes delivers her role perfectly and parts. But I don’t know why, out of two of her movies I’ve seen, she parts away from her husband temporarily and then she returns in the climax. I was talking about Evan Almighty and Birds of America. Anyways, that is just a silly coincidence. Ben Foster as Matthew Perry’s Bro, and Ginnifer Goodwin as Perry’s Sis, have been two good new finds. They have lived their characters on screen. They surely have a long way to go in Hollywood. Other than these , there is nothing much great to talk about. Its all about a normal middle-class American’s struggle on how he raises his odd younger siblings.
I didn’t like the director’s interest in giving such importance to shit. But anyways, that is the climax portion, that the director has intended to give a complete feel to his story. Try giving more meaningful climaxes hereafter, Craig.
At the end, if there is no other movie to watch, you can give a try watching these American Birds.
Some families do defy classification.

Rating :
2.5/5

Blood Diamond review - As beautiful as a diamond

2008-12-15T02:21:00.000-08:00

“A true epic” is one of the first few thoughts that crossed my mind when I saw “Blood Diamond”. Now I understand why it got nominated for 5 Academy Awards. I would’ve been more happy if it had won 5 awards. The key factor to a movie’s success is when it excels in all departments. If you notice in detail, only those kind of movies make it to the Oscars. Apart from our personal liking, this is how it is in Oscars. And moreover most of the successful movies portray true incidents. Blood diamonds and their true stories behind were totally unknown to many like me. To look at so many people suffer was so hurting. That’s when it really made me feel that I was wasting this safe happy life of mine doing nothing. Just imagine if you were born as one of those villagers who have their lives at stake every minute they breathe to escape from those butchers who were chopping other people’s hands to prevent them from voting ; and that included small children. That is were the movie begins in Sierra Leone with the capture of Solomon Vandy ( Djimon Hounsou ) and is separated from his family. Alongside this, Di Caprio ( Danny Archer ) comes to Sierra Leone to take away a precious pink diamond, worth a fortune. As the movie proceeds further, the condition worsens in Sierra Leone. Parallely Di Caprio meets Jenifer Connelly ( Maddy Bowen ) in a bar, who is a journalist tracking this story on Blood diamonds. The rest of the movie deals with how the three help each other, and does Djimon find his family, does Caprio finally get his pink diamond and does Jennifer capture the gory true story behind this. The climax made me really feel for them. Very touching. I’d say that’s the true success of a movie. Also all the actors have excelled in their performances. Caprio has left a mark for himself in this movie, which stays in your mind for a couple of days. He has done an excellent job and has always been this secret agent guy from the army in almost 3-4 of his films lately. Maybe it suits him well. Jennifer Connelly is ravishing & hot as ever. I’ve always been a die hard fan of her. So it was a treat watching her movie, lol.

Anyways, I think the one shouldering the whole movie’s success was Djimon Honsou. Man ! What an acting ? He should’ve got an Oscar for this role. I feel so bad he wasn’t given. The best acting from him is at the end of the movie, when he stands on stage looking at the people applauding at him. That’s what I call “ World class acting “. I felt so happy after watching a perfect movie which had awe inspiring cinematography , great editing , awesome music by James Howard and ( no words to describe ) direction by Edward Zwick. The soundtrack is awesome. Do listen to it. Edward has indeed gone to the next level with Blood Diamond. I’m looking forward to his next – “Defiance” with our dirty bond, Daniel Craig.
I can indeed assure you its success.

Rating :

4/5

Trivia :
1.) De Beers Group, which is the largest player in the diamond trade, has expressed reservations that the film will reduce public demand for diamonds. De Beers maintains the trade in conflict diamonds has been reduced from 4% to 1% by the Kimberley Process and it has been suggested the company pushed for the film to contain a disclaimer saying the events are fictional and in the past. De Beers has totally denied this.
2.) According to Time Magazine, a computer generated tear was added to Jennifer Connelly’s face in the scene were she is conversing on a cell phone with Leonardo Dicaprio's character, at the end of the movie. Interesting no !!

Quantum of Action

2008-12-09T07:08:00.000-08:00

Quantum of Solace is a decent bond movie. But it’s a very good action movie. Daniel Craig is awesome as Bond. The best part is he has done most of the stunts by himself, which is not a regularity in a bond movie. I specially appreciate him for that. Dan Bradley’s stunts have always fancied our expectations. Spell bounding stunts man !! The best of world cinema. My god, the bike chase scene in between the boats is a treat to the eyes. And for once i liked the bond girl, because she was not just another martial arts known usual-action-heroine stuff. Olga is the cutest bond girl ever, among all the bond girls who are usually just hot. I'm waiting to see more of her in the near future. Judi Dench is good as ever except maybe they could've changed the scene wherein she applies some facial while speaking with Bond on phone. I'm not telling its a bad scene. But i thought something else could've helped the seriousness of the situation better. Just a personal thought. And Gemma Artherton as M16 agent Fields is the least important character in the movie. I still wonder how she was chosen amongst 6000 girls for this role. She is neither hot nor cute,lol. But her death initiated an unexpected seriousness in the film's 2nd half. Mathieu Amalric as Mr. Greene is not the bond villain I expected to be. He is more of a realistic villain than a fantasized villain with one eye or with a metal arm. On that aspect , Marc is to be appreciated. I couldn’t believe when I heard that Marc was going to direct the next Bond. I was like “What ? Marc who ?” He is one of those few directors in Hollywood who make films with 100% reality. Spot one scene in Quantum which was absurd or made you think “No. That’s not possible !!” And its also good to see a realistic bond movie for the first time. The titles were good. But they didn’t know what to do at some portions. It felt like extra junks added to equal the titles' running time with the beautiful bond song. For once, I liked the background score in a bond movie. Overall it was a decent bond flick. And Marc has completely done justice to the ‘dirty’ bond character that Martin Campbell successfully initiated in Casino Royale. The film lacked a heavy theme, but was well covered with edge-of-the-seat action scenes. The film’s main enemy was the high expectation set by its prequel, Casino Royale which i would rate ( 4.5/5 ). But overall, Quantum of Solace is an enjoyable movie as long as you go without expecting for a strong gory villain.

Rating :

3.5 / 5

Trivia :

1.) Daniel Craig recommended Marc Foster to direct this movie.

2.) Daniel Craig was injured at least three times during the making of this movie. The most prominent ones included an injury to his face, which required four stitches; another to his shoulder, which required 6 surgical screws to be inserted in an operation and his arm in a sling; and then his hand was injured when one of his finger tips was sliced off. ( Now that's what i call, dedication. )

Stepping Stones

2008-12-06T02:25:00.000-08:00

Its been quite some time since I wrote. I was held up with some work. Anyways I’m glad I am back. This time I’m here to share my thoughts and experiences about something which is the most common and frequently occurring one among all of us and no one has ever escaped from it. I'm talking about 'failure'. It is during these failures that life makes us feel so bad. Something like a totally saturated feel for life, when you want no more of it. Maybe its because of your fault, or maybe not. They may come in intervals or everything coincides at one point as a series of failures. At that one point you really feel totally ignored and long for comfort from someone, if not from your close one, atleast from some person or the other. Although some people do not agree, it does happen. It happens from within your heart. You may not cry, but your heart does. I’d say that these are the times that make you feel the true sense of life, and the time for you to realize the strength within yourself. It gradually teaches you the art of resistance and gives you the courage to face any damn situation in your life. You only have to withstand that initial phase of failure where you cry and feel so bad, which is said to be the toughest of all.

This is also the phase where jealousy germinates from within. You start envying those whom you suppose are enjoying and having a better life than you. Maybe its not their time for this phase or who knows, maybe they are covering it up with a happy attitude – which is a very good sign of self control and optimism. Even from them small things like these can be learnt. There is no gain in showing your anger out of failure on somebody else. Is that gonna give you what you lost ? Or is that an attempt to indicate the ones who were responsible for your failure, that you’re REALLYYYY ANGRYYYY ON THEM !! Crap…But it does happen. People do burst out of frustration. Not that they willingly do it. Of course there are some exceptions, like the ones I see regularly on a day to day basis.

Sometimes things happen out of your control which might result undesirably. You do have people around you always looking for your downfall in your success. Their only motto is “Survival of the fittest”. Well to those people we have to go by their same motto and multiply your success rate. Its when you take them to the peak of jealousy making them literally cry over your success is when you are really successful. The more and more jealous people around you, the more and more successful you are. I’m not asking you to hurt people and induce jealousy by squeezing their good natured heart. And in this regard, office politics is something I really want to share with you elaborately in the near future. Its like playing a game of cards. It all depends on what cards you choose and how you play with them, though its not your usual style of play. Its like a battle ground. You might’ve been a good soul in your office, finishing all the given work much better than how people would’ve expected. But in some course of time you might end up being the least respected and most mocked up person there ; if you don’t adapt yourself there. You have to act cleverly. And adding to this, maybe something like a love failure might surface and do all the more damage. Everything would seem to be going fine. Then suddenly you come to know that its not what you expected. Don’t get dejected and sad. Of course you do feel, but don’t let that sink inside. Instead build your immunity towards these kind of issues ( As I said in one of my earlier posts - "An insight into the painful side of love" ). There is no rule that a failure is always succeded by a success and vice versa. Life is unpredictable. Its tough in the beginning. But that’s how you learn things. Love failures are very hurting initially. Very very hurting…. You feel a stab in your heart. Your heart will bleed. But as time passes it will cure. Eventually everything will fall in place.

As you suffer, so do you grow stronger and stronger. Times do try our souls, and through these trials, we should come out successful. All it requires is the same good side of yours, with some more perseverance and a never dying attitude.

Life is like a commercial movie. Love + Failure + Pain + Sorrowness + Some Action + a Happy Ending is what makes a commercial movie. And that’s how our life is too. A hero is always a hero no matter how many times he is hit by the villain. All that matters is when the hero is going to hit back with just one shot totally collapsing the villain. And to tackle each and every villain in your life with that much strength, you need to learn from every failure of yours. I am.

All the
very
best............................................................................................................................... :)

to be contd......

Cradle to the Grave

2008-10-23T05:08:00.000-07:00

We live in a paradise called “Earth”, which is fully filled with all the treasures of life. Whatever we desire is around us to experience and enjoy. You name it, you have it. But there are some among us who want to experience all that is hazardous, even when there are so many good things around. Just tell me one good reason why people love smoking and alcohol so much, even after knowing that its not healthy for the human body. Of course we have some studies done, wherein they are trying to prove that there is something good in tobacco/alcohol , blabbering they are useful for our body, etc....etc. Bullshit… I think even bull shit might have some useful purposes compared to smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol. You never know.

Usually anything in less is not that harmful . But the NIAAA (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism) states that moderate alcohol use may be beneficial to users. I really don’t know how useful it is. But moderate use of alcohol which can be defined as up to two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women and older people is not generally said to be harmful; not sure how useful it is. Now I’m not hinting all to start drinking alcohol in moderate quantity.

Originally, alcohol was introduced in cold countries, to withstand the chilling temperature . It is said to warm up the body to a certain extent , which was why people living in those countries started consuming. Later people there used it in parties / get togethers as a socializing custom. Later it spread to all countries, including tropical ones having soaring temperatures. And the humorous part is , people living in these tropical countries like India also started this custom of having drinks in parties. How stupid !! The whole purpose of alcohol has been changed.

As years passed by, it became an addiction. Man could not pass even a day without having a few sips of that precious portion. Later he started thinking, why to wait for a week or two to consume one full bottle, why not do it in a single day . Thereby he started consuming a bottle a day. Poor man, he never realized that “ A bottle a day takes life away “ Lol…. Consuming too much of alcohol , destabilizes the person, and the person doesn’t even know what he/she is doing.

As doctors say, alcohol is a mood-altering substance. With inhibitions low and emotions high , its easy for underlying anger to pop out. People have murdered their own families, died in accidents and eventually have killed themselves too. Just imagine how many drunkards are torturing their families, hitting them making the whole atmosphere of a happy home into hell. I’ve seen it for myself. I know the pain. Abuse is the only way some people know to handle anger . Over time, the abuser makes up the issue as though it's the victim's fault for provoking the abuser's anger. People nowadays percieve alcohol as some super-human portion & on having it they can react on any issue that might've hurt them. Maybe they might've got this idea seeing some bull fight, wherein in some places, bulls are given alcohol before they enter the arena.

It is said that children growing up in violent homes are six times more likely to commit suicide , sixty times more likely to be engaged in delinquent behaviour as adults and 1000 times more likely to become abusers themselves..

There was a case that i read in paper. It was about a poor family. The wife had gone to a shop leaving her daughter and a drunkard husband at home . When she returned home, she got the jitters of her life, having witnessed the gory scene of a small child being raped by her own father. Now if he wasn’t drunk, this would’ve never happened. Now I’m not asking people to refrain from drinking. Drink…Drink some fresh fruit juices to your heart’s content. Drink Coke, Pepsi, Soda, etc..etc… Because drinking these would never bring in any craziness inside us.

And people generally have the perception that they numb their pain with alcohol, but end up expressing their frustration on the ones who care for them. What the hell !! If it really numbs our pain, the government would've recommended it to all citizens by now. These can be called as excuses to have it, wherein they are not able to control their addiction towards it.

Why do we have to consume something which destabilizes our mind and not only make us do crazy things but also spoil our own body ? Its equal to consuming a drop of poison. If it is sold under some famous brand , he will surely start drinking that also. Our body is not a waste basket to dump in all the filthy stuff inside. Atleast if its tasty and man claims that he is not able to resist its taste though he knows that its hazardous , there is some logic in it. But even the taste of these drinks are so horrible , that you can feel that horrible taste just by sniffing it. Even the people consuming it do not like the taste. But once you are addicted, its difficult to quit drinking or even smoking for that matter. Some start smoking/drinking stating that they have a very high power of self control in them. And eventually they fall for it. If its not that easy to quit these habits, why start it ? Giving up alcohol is a powerful fear for an alcoholic....

Nowadays it has become a style statement, wherein alcoholics/smokers consider themselves "funky". Inspired by movies, man started thinking that smoking a cigar or having a drink only makes him a complete man. He poses this rough and tuff attitude in front of girls while smoking just like the heroes in movies. But never realizes that he is actually breathing smoke !! Yakkk !!..............

Why do you want to consume something which is not only hazardous , but also having a filthy taste, when there are so many good things to have around us ? Have something tasty man. Lol…. Even people around won’t respect you , no matter what you’ve achieved in life.
Its just one life. Enjoy it to the fullest !!!!
Live for your loved ones.

Atleast live for yourself.

Why do you want to ruin it by falling to cheap tastes ??
"It is never too early to think about quitting"
Think about it….Move on….. & Live :)
But do not Continue….. Lose…..R e p e n t :(

Trivia :

1.) Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of death and illness in the world. Both lung cancer and emphysema would become quite rare if people would stop smoking .
14 times greater risk of dying from cancer of the lung, throat, or mouth
4 times greater risk of dying from cancer
2 times greater risk of dying from a heart attack

2.) An alcoholic is prone to pancreatitis, epilepsy, polyneuropathy, alcoholic dementia, heart disease, increased chance of cancer, nutritional deficiencies, sexual dysfunction, and also death....

Check "LIVE" scores here !!!!

2008-10-20T04:00:00.001-07:00

2012 : The End of days

2008-10-15T04:00:00.000-07:00

2004......2005.....2006.....2007......2008.....2009....2010.....2011.....2012......

This was exactly how the Mayan calendar ended. This mystery created a stir among experts all over the world. Its not just another year passing by our calendar. It seems to be more serious than what we've thought . No, i'm not discussing about the London Olympics. Regarding this, thousands of theories have already been proposed from time immemorial. What adds weight to this date is the fact that with each passing hour more people are becoming aware of it, adding their energies to the consensus . Many believe. Many don't. But the most believed theory of all is said to be "The Mayan Theory".

The Mayan predictions :

The life of the Mayans revolved around the concept of time. Time was of such importance that children were even named after the date on which they were born. They were truly a unique civilization of people. They developed their own system of writing and were expert mathematicians and astronomers. They lived for thousands of years in an area very difficult for human beings to inhabit.

The Mayan Calendar is so remarkable and respected, that it is considered as the most accurate calendar to date ! A Mayan date utilises three calendars. The third calendar, known as the "long count", is a continuous record of days that starts over every 5000 years or so. The current Long Count began in 3114 BC which is said to end very soon.

In Mayan mythology each Long Count cycle is a world age in which the gods attempt to create pious and subservient creatures.
The First Age began with the creation of the Earth, and it had upon it vegetation and living beings. Unfortunately, because they lacked speech, the birds and animals were unable to pay homage to the gods and were destroyed. In the Second and Third Ages the gods created humans of mud and then wood, but these also failed to please and were wiped out. We are currently in the Fourth and Final Age, the age of the modern, fully functional human. Is it possible that these Ages referred to evolutionary change? If they did, then what might occur when the current age finishes on December 21, 2012 ?

This Long Count Calendar measures time in cycles of years. The current cycle, or baktun, is scheduled to end in 2012. This cycle is the last in a series of 13 baktuns, the first of which started in 3114 B.C. No one knows why the Mayans marked the beginning of creation on that particular date. Every year the Sun, Earth and the Milky Way galaxy align in a particular manner in the days leading up to the winter solstice. What is special about 2012 is for the first time in 26,000 years this alignment will occur on December 21, the actual date of the winter solstice. This has led to rampant speculation that the Mayans believed something catastrophic will happen. However, if we continue to turn a blind eye to such issues as pollution and global warming , we will not need a calendar to tell us the world is ending. All we will need to do is look out our window .

[ The winter solstice marks the first day of the season of winter. The winter solstice is the day on which the Sun is farthest north. ]

One of the research experts met with the Mayan Elders and has been doing an extensive study on this. What he found was that, the Mayan elders considered the calender as something which foretells Earth changes and changes in consciousness and that they occur within a seven-year period of time around 2012. Also the Mayan prophecy stated the major changes would start when a ”large blue star” appears.

On October 24, 2007 , a Comet shocked astronomers, with a spectacular eruption and brightened, becoming a clear naked-eye object in the evening sky. By mid-November, the comet was the largest object in the solar system, even bigger than the Sun.

There have been predictions from all quarters.

1.) The Bible Code claims that, according to certain algorithms of the Bible code, a meteor, asteroid or comet will collide with the Earth.
2.) The Orion Prophecy claims that the Earth's magnetic field will reverse.
3.) McKenna's mathematical novelty theory suggests a point of singularity in which a great
number of things could happen, including "hyperspatial breakthrough", planetesimal impact,
alien contact, historical metamorphosis, metamorphosis of natural law, solar explosion,
quasar ignition at the galactic core, or just nothing.

4.) The Nepalese ascetic Ram Bahadur Bomjon, the predicted successor to Buddha reportedly
told his followers that he will return around 2012, which some believe is to save the world .

The Pyramid connection :

Now back to the building of the pyramids. The pyramids, as you know have been searched and excavated to an extraordinary amount. But not long ago, scientist began to see an incredible pattern in the great pyramid. They figured that if they start at the bottom of the pyramid and count every inch of stone as 10 years or so they might find a pattern. And they did. They found that at the bottom of the first hallway was the year 0 which was the birth of Christ. Then they kept measuring up to find that every top and bottom of a room or hallway was a very famous event in the history of the world. Then when they arrived at the top hallway, the bottom was the first year of World War 2. It might have seemed to be coincidence, but at the top of the highest hallway, the very last year was indeed 2012. This must be the most extraordinary coincidence in the history of the world. Or could it be real? Could the ancient Egyptians have known? Another scary thing to think about !!

The Bee effect :

Also, the dramatic decline in the bee population all over the world is likely to impact crop production. In U.S alone, bees pollinate more then $14 billion worth of seeds and crops every year. Scientists in Europe call it the “Colony collapse disorder”, wherein scientists have recovered evidences that the immune system of bees has been adversely effected by modern agricultural practices.
The other cause, odd though it may seem, relates to so-called “sunspots” – which is the effect of solar activity. At first glance it seems a bit far-fetched to make a connection between the life of bees and mobile phones. However research suggests that bees showed a marked change of behavior when in the vicinity of power lines; bees appear to be very sensitive to energy fluctuations.
Some scientists take the view that there is going to be maximum solar activity by 2012, a phenomena that last occurred in 1958. It is said to be one of the most intense ever .This sunspot will generate intense magnetism that can be felt on the earth. It is even believed that electronics might be effected, for example GPS and mobile phone technology.
Since the solar cycle began in 2007, it’s possible that the behavior of bees is already being affected to some degree .

Natural Disasters :

Toba in Sumatra experienced the massive super volcano 74,000 years back, wherein the global temperature was reduced by 10 degrees killing almost 80% of the life on earth .
According to experts, somewhere in Sumatra, there may be another super volcano getting ready for eruption underwater thereby accompanied by a massive tsunami.

The recent series of volcanoes in that area have increased the level of alarm. Some of the quakes mistaken as aftershocks were harmonic tremors signifying lava movements. If this volcanic eruption takes place, it can bring the human civilization to its knees, that can be so devastating that earth may experience a drop in temperature of 30 degrees Fahrenheit for many years. It is expected to be the worst ever.
Most countries are reporting unusual weather patterns and excessive major and minor quakes.
However some say that the 2012 prophecy does not say that life comes to an end, only that the age that we have been living in for 5,000 years ends, which we will have to witness to understand it.
According to the ancient Mayan solar priests, the end of this age would be precipitated by an era of increasing earthquakes, which is already happening on a wide scale all over the world .

During this research, I was extremely shocked to know that in
1950's about 4796 tornadoes devastated our Earth.
1960's - 6813
1970's - 8580
1980's - 8196
1990 - to date 10,000+ tornadoes have hammered us.
Reports from certain scientists say that the real cause of climate changes, volcanoes activity, intensification of the seismic activity etc., is due to the planet Eris, which is getting closer to our solar system .

Venus Transits :

Venus Transits are much like lunar eclipses only the planet passes between the Earth and Sun. It is a fairly rare celestial phenomenon occurring. While going through this, I stumbled upon certain facts where things got very interesting and even disturbing. A Venus transit tool place during the period 1518 – 1526. During this 8-year period many paranormal events are said to have occurred in Mexico. Strangely enough it is also said that “shields” [ aliens ] appeared in the skies booming out dire warnings to the citizens of the Aztec Empire. Several temples were set afire by “curious beams of light” flashing down from the heavens.
Perhaps even more chilling, a decade [10 years] before these events took place unexplained events accompanied a lunar eclipse. Just after the lunar eclipse occurred, Mt. Popocatepetl, which had been dormant for many years, erupted.
In 1991, a similar sequence of events took place. As the residents of Mexico City lined the streets to watch a full lunar eclipse, strangely a UFO appeared over the city at 1 pm. Mount Popocatepetl and nearby Mount Colima began erupting shortly thereafter and they have remained active ever since. UFO sightings have become common throughout Mexico over the past decade. So, a decade from then onwards , which is the present 8-year period [ 2004 – 2012 ], people are expecting something similar to what happened in 1518-1526.
I somehow believe this incident can be correlated to the increasing sightings of UFOs from 2002 onwards.

The Monks :

Some beliefs exist among the Tibetan monks that terrorism will take over the world in the near future. And the World powers will threaten to destroy each other, thereby bringing the whole world to an “Ultimate Doomsday “. As quoted by a monk, “By 2012, the world will start plunging into a total destructive nuclear war. And at that time something remarkable will happen. Supernatural divine powers will intervene. The destiny of the world is not to self-destruct. Scientific interpretation of the monks’ statements makes it evident that the Extra Terrestrial powers are watching us every minute, which is a sensible explanation why UFO sightings have increased to a great extent. Who knows, maybe they will intervene in 2012 and save the world from self-destruction. When asked about recent UFO sightings in India and China, the monks smiled and said the divine powers are watching us all. Monks also mentioned that beyond 2012 our current civilization would understand that the final frontier of science and technology is in area of spirituality and not material physics and chemistry. Beyond 2012, our technologies will take a different direction.
In recent days most UFO activities have been seen in those countries who have indigenously developed Nuke capabilities. In India and China UFO sightings have increased in many folds. Many say the Chinese and Indian Governments are being contacted by the Extra Terrestrials. Who knows ??

They will reveal themselves in such a way that none of us are scared ; when they are our only hope. Maybe when the mankind is on the verge of extension, when the skies go red, when hope is lost, when we spend our last hours holding hands with the people we love, thinking about all the sweet incidents that happened in our lives, angels will descend from above and shelter us to safety. They might be the so-called UFOs we spot now and then just roaming here and there, which many of us feel weird of.

Everything here is just a belief. I can’t really say without any sound proof that this is going to happen surely . But I strongly believe this is something we might shortly encounter. Maybe 4, maybe 8 or maybe even 50 years. Who knows …….

Then why fight ? Why hurt others ? Why make things hell here ?
Lets forget , forgive and enjoy every single moment of our lives on this beautiful planet .
Enjoy it for everything its worth, because life indeed is very beautiful. :)

My recommendations :
Do watch " 2012 - The Apocalypse " (2009) by Roland Emmerich & "2012 : War of the Souls" (2010) by Michael Bay . I'm very eager to see these two movies.

Scroll down to play Mario Bros. game....

2008-10-06T05:44:00.001-07:00

The House of D e a t h

2008-09-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

Not all times do you fall in love at first sight and eventually become 2 lovely life partners. Only the ones who’ve experienced it knows the beauty in it. Its not that you fall in love with anyone beautiful you see ; like some still think. Its something that is decided up above there , by the Gods , to join two lovely souls and bond them for eternity. Well, that was how Luis Padilla and Janet Padilla fell in love and decided to continue it for eternity, when they married in 1996 after 2 years of dating at school , when Janet was still 16.
Both had attended Socorro high school in El Paso and lived in the US from childhood. Both remained Mexican citizens, ( resident aliens ) with green-card work permits.
Life was heaven for the padillas till Jan 14th 2004, when everything they ever knew changed forever.
It was a bright sunny day, as Luis had, as usual, left for work at 6am. Janet had called her husband in the morning after taking the children to school. When he did not answer the first call Janet made, she assumed he was busy. A mysterious feeling crept in her that something might have gone wrong when she again called her husband a couple of times at lunch.
So she called her dad, who owns the truckyard where he worked and he told her, "He hasn't been here". She then called her in-laws and they hadn't seen him either, and they were already worried because his car was outside their house with the windows open and the keys in the ignition. Janet knew he would never normally leave it like that.
By 4pm, Janet was on the point of calling up El Paso (Texas) police when she received a call from a friend in Juarez. Her friend told her, "I've just seen Luis over here. He was with some cops - they were putting him in a truck".
Janet couldn't figure out why he was in Mexico at all. At 8 o'clock she couldn't stand it any longer and so she went over there by herself. She went to all the different police stations. Nobody had him. Nobody knew where he was.
Two weeks later on 26th January, Janet got a call from the Juarez police. Juarez police told her they had found some bodies. She was to meet them at the city mortuary.
Janet – “I went in there and they had four bodies at that time. There were still ropes around their heads and their eyes were sticking out because they had been suffocated. It was horrible, horrible. “
Janet still did not believe this could have anything to do with Luis. “He never took drugs and he never drank, beyond the odd beer. He never got into fights. He was still really into the church and he'd just been asked to coach middle-school sports. How all this ? “
The police phoned again. This time they asked her to meet them at 3633 Calle Parsonieros. The place looked familiar. It was the hotel where they spent their honeymoon night .
This was the moment she came to know the truth, which literally ripped her soul within.
”I saw his shoes and his jacket. I went into the garden and they were probing the ground with a pole. That's when they found his body.” The police exhumed him, “but it was hard to ID him because he was so decomposed. I looked at his hands and touched them. The flesh fell off.” Tears came pouring by when she uttered the final words .
Luis Padilla, 29, had been kidnapped, driven across the Mexican border from El Paso, Texas, to a house in Ciudad Juarez, the lawless city ruled by drug lords that lies across the Rio Grande. As his wife tried frantically to locate him, he was being stripped, tortured and buried in a mass grave in the garden - what the people of Juarez call a narco-fossa, a narco-smugglers' tomb or the “H o u s e o f D e a t h”.

The Gruesome truth :
His murder, along with at least 11 further brutal killings, at the Juarez 'House of Death', is part of a gruesome scandal, a web of connivance and cover-up that has its roots spread right upto the top government officials.
The story turns on one extraordinary fact of an US government informant, Guillermo Ramirez Peyro, known as Lalo, who was paid more than $220,000 by US law enforcement bodies to work as a spy inside the Juarez cartel. (Mexican drug trafficking organization)

In February 2000, Lalo began supplying information to ICE (then known as US Customs) but also the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol, & the Firearms and Tobacco after which he was recruited back by Santillan, a man notorious for acts of savage violence.
In August 2003 Lalo had his first involvement in the Juarez Cartel’s activities in the murder of the Mexican lawyer Fernando Reyes, which also involved two policemen. Lalo secretly recorded this with the help of a wiring provided by the ICE (U.S Customs).
In the days after Reyes's death, officials in Texas and Washington held a series of meetings. Finally word came back from headquarters - despite the risk that Lalo might become involved with further murders, Ice could continue to use and pay him as an informant.
From there on, the garden of the house at 3633 Calle Parsonieros began to fill in with 12 bodies , all witnessed by Lalo. Throughout the period, Lalo says, he continued to talk to his handler up to four times a day - usually in person, their office. He says his meetings with Santillan were all covertly recorded with the help of ICE’s wiring.
Ice got Lalo to arrange a meeting with Santillan in El Paso and on 15 January, 2004, he was arrested.
Two days later, ICE finally revealed that the garden at 3633 Calle Parsonieros was a mass grave. After bureaucratic delays, digging began on 23 January. On 18 February, Santillan was charged for trafficking and five murders - including those of Reyes and Padilla.
On 19th April, the Attorney announced a deal with Santillan - in return for his pleading guilty to trafficking and his acceptance of a 25-year sentence, the murder charges were dropped.
Now no one had any further use for Lalo. ICE, the agency that had cherished him, decided that his US visa was irregular and began legal proceedings to deport him to Mexico - without doubt a death sentence. He is now in a maximum-security jail.
Two other men had been murdered on 14th January, both of them from Juarez. Santillan had told Lalo,” I was asked to kill them as a favour for some associates of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes (Drug Lord). I have nothing against them personally. In some circumstances, murderers can make mistakes”.

Janet smiles at the memory: “I liked everything about Luis straight away. He was silly, funny, a popular guy; he played a lot of sports. He was very religious and I started going to the same church, where he was president of the youth section. For our first date he took me to a Mexican restaurant, and then a children's park. We just sat there on the swings, talking as if we'd known each other for years. “
For the three children who lost their father, and their mother, now struggling to make ends meet, it is difficult to cope. “It's worst at night, when I put them to bed,” Janet Padilla says. “I guess that's when it hits them. I tell them, ‘come on you guys, we got to make a prayer. Don't worry. Your daddy's watching you always.’ But you know, it's very hard to make it as a dad as well as a mom. I miss him a lot” :(

It is said that even now a lot of people disappear in Juarez and you never know what happened to them................................................................................

Let's pray to God, for all their souls to rest in p e a c e .

Trivia :
Mexico has the second-highest number of kidnappings in the world .

Vaaranam Aayiram Audio Review - As pleasant as a lullaby !!!!!!!!

2008-09-25T06:35:00.000-07:00

1.) Adiyae Kolludhe…………………( 5:18 )
Krish , Benny Dayal and Shruthi Haasan
This is the first song that I got to hear in this album. It happened a few months back, when some fool leaked the songs through internet . From that day I’ve been completely fascinated by this song. I was sure it had Krissh’s voice. It has that evergreen feel, that can be enjoyed any number of years, just like Manjal Veyil from VV. Shocking to know that Shruthi haasan sang it. It was pretty decent , never expected though .You have a bright future in this field Shruthi .This song is my favourite in this album. And I just love the way the song ends. Superb !!

Location Forecast : I’m pretty sure, it was picturised in U.S showing the love between Suriya & Sameera Reddy, which is sure to be a chartbuster.

2.) Nenjikkul Peidhidum………. ( 6:12 )
Hariharan , Devan , V.Prasanna
I was completely carried away by this song, the first time when I saw the trailer. It’s a soft lilting number that is sure to give you a peaceful feel and how much ever you increase the volume, it won’t sound like a pain for the ears. It’s the kind of song, which is best suited when you think of all the sweet incidents that happened all through your life, and most importantly about the girl who captured your heart .And particularly the guitar gives that fresh feel. Nobody other than Hariharan can give it this soft “lovely” touch.

Location Forecast : The scenes covering this song might most probably be a mix of his love scenes. Might also be like a song of all the nostalgic memories. But you can never say. It might also be the end credits song or the opening credits song.

3.) Oh Shanti Shanti !!!!…( 3:06 )
Clinton – S.P.B Charan
I was listening to this track again & again & again ( Maybe 5-6 times ) . It’s like the retro version of “Nenjukkul Peidhidum”, done totally with an English song feel . A very cool track done totally with guitar and drums, which has really given that fast paced track which could bring in instant happiness when heard. The song is like the happiness and responsibility a guy feels when he wakes up the day after coming to know that he is loved by a girl . Its nice to have S.P.B charan back with a bang again. Its his second best song after Kadhal Sadugudu according to me.

Location forecast :I think it would be mostly be the end title credit song, showing all the pictures from the movie in the background with the titles, which would surely give a cute finishing touch to the movie

4.) Anal Malae…….. ( 5:23 )
Sudha Raghunathan
This is the subtle, sad track of the movie. The bgm ( sounds like the old tamil tracks ) is not something Harris has used before, sounds quite odd at the beginning, which should be fine when watched with the movie . But its good as you hear it again & again. Its will give you some comfort in solace. But I somehow find the main tune somewhat ( 40%) on the lines of “Inji Idu Palagae” from Devar Magan and some its of his earlier compositions.

Location Forecast : Sounds like a situation where the protagonist is in distress and is finding some comfort / peace. Might be that of a female protagonist. ( Supposedly Simran/Divya )

5.) Ava Enna Enna……( 5:21 )
Karthik , V.Prasanna
Its undoubtedly a song for a very sad situation . Its made in the “Gaana” style, wherein the one singing is in a very bad shape of life or situation, which makes him to sing a song just to appease himself. This song is evidently about a girl, whom Suriya loves very much. Its very sentimental towards the end. Karthik has lended his voice for this song along with V.Prasanna, who has already sung “Nenjikkum Peidhidum”. This song would surely go well with the masses. I just love Harris Jeyaraj’s style of working with all genres and does them so well.

Location Forecast : As mentioned earlier, its for a sad situation , maybe for a death situation or a separation sequence. Might feature Divya more than Sameera.

6.) Yethi Yethi ……….( 4:56 )
Benny Dayal, Naresh Iyer, Solar Sai
This song is more of a casual song among all friends, on the lines of “O Mama Mama” from Minnale . It gives a mixed feeling of “O Mama Mama” from Minnale and “Chicku Bucku Rayilae” from Gentleman { and a 2% feel of “Raja Rajathi Rajendar Raja” from Agni Natchathiram” for the Raja Raja…. lyrics. ) Harris Jeyaraj has always been successful in these kind of songs. This time, to bring a difference , he has added blended some rap. Both Benny & Naresh ( Lol, god knows, how this name came ) have done a very good job, as always. Lol, and there is ‘Solar’ Sai. Never heard of him. God knows how this name came , lol.

Location Forecast : Obviously should be coming among all friends and other group dancers. Other than that, it might come in Suriya’s school period . Or otherwise very light chances of it coming in the period after he comes from U.S.A, after finishing college there. Cos, it surely sounds like a song happening in Chennai

7.) Mundhinam………..( 5:44 )
Naresh Iyer , Prashanthini
This is a cute lovely song between two people. I loved it totally. Lovely..Lovely...Lovely……. Surya’s voice brings an additional joy on hearing.

Location Forecast : I have a strong feeling that this song will for sure feature Surya in his old age ( with Simran ).Its like a duet song between an old married couple. So, as I said, this song will come towards the end of the movie .

On the whole, it is a lovely movie, which is sure to be a hit as all the other albums from the combination of Gautam Menon & Harris Jeyaraj . Each and every song is done so well, and Harris Jeyaraj has taken such care and has indeed churned ‘7’ beautiful chartbusters.
Bravo Harris !!!!
And I am sure that the movie is going to be just as sweet as the songs are.

A Salute to the Stalwarts !!!!

2008-09-23T07:05:00.000-07:00

Usually when something comes up in our mind, like any term, we immediately relate it to something else . All this happens involuntarily . Like if the word love is mentioned or thought of, we immediately relate it to something. Might be friend / lover’s face or Sister / Brother / Mom & pop’s face [ lol, usually not the pop’s face ] , or your pet or something else in the world that has shown you the word’s [love] true meaning . Or if not the face atleast their name or something related to them . Like that, whenever I hear or think of the term “Acting” or “Hollywood” for that matter, some of the names that come up are [ Steven Spielberg for sure ] Then Jack Nicholson [ image as in Departed when he laughs in a satiric fashion ], Anthony Hopkins [ Silence of the lambs’ scary look, when he is brought in a plane and stares at Jodie Foster ] , Morgan Freeman [ image from Batman Begins ], Ridley Scott [ for Gladiator ] , Dustin Hoffman [ image from Kramer Vs Kramer, when he consoles his son with tears ] . The reason why these few images strike me on the thought of their name, is the extent to which their performances in those films mentioned, have been locked up in my mind forever. Not that , the names of Michael Bay / Christopher Nolan / Robert De Niro / Tom Cruise / Tom Hanks / Heath Ledger do not strike me. The ones I mentioned were just a few of the several names that struck me now , when I decided to write this. Some of the recent performances that amazed me were that of Dustin Hoffman from the movies – “Kramer Vs Kramer” & “The Graduate” . Simply Superb. I just saw the funny side of him in “Meet the Fockers”, but just witnessed his excellence in these movies, which he does it with such an ease. The next one – one of my favourites is Jack Nicholson’s satiric laughter. Particularly in the movies “Anger Management” & “The Departed”. But his performance in ”The Departed” interested me more. Because it’s a serious villain kinda role that he plays, and regardless of that, he laughs at the oddest of moments. My goodness, he is one example of an ever-chill attitude. But I somehow find Jack Nicholson and Anthony Hopkins so similar, except for their difference in attitudes. Anthony Hopkins shows more of a serious attitude, whereas even those serious roles are done in a satiric fashion by Jack Nicholson.

I particularly like this Freeman guy for the characters he chooses ; Scientist , Almighty, Sick old man ( Bucket List ),etc…. Apart from that, his deep majestic voice is something that I was always fascinated with. It makes the scene even more better , when he is in the frame. Now, coming to Ridley Scott . Ridley Scott is like one of my all-time favourite directors . He is a master in scripting , particularly when it comes to period films. And I strongly consider “A Good Year” as one of his best , which didn’t go well in the box office.

Lol, it might’ve struck some by now,
Why am I writing all this ?
Who needs to know what strikes my mind first ?
Its just about these stars, which many already know ; of course more than what I know.
& What’s so extra-special that I chose to write this here ?

Hmmm ….. Maybe from now on, whenever on the mention of “1937” , the first thing striking my mind would be the names of Jack Nicholson, Anthony Hopkins, Morgan Freeman, Dustin Hoffman & Ridley Scott , who have literally shown us the true colours of cinema . Cos’ that was the year, these 5 Gods of Hollywood touched Mother Earth. And I would indeed call the years following 1937 as the “Golden Era of Hollywood” .
Now I really feel so glad that I can proudly tell my grandchildren, that “Your grandfather lived in the times of J.Nicholson, A.Hopkins, M.Freeman, D.Hoffman & R.Scott !! “ :)

Facts [ Trivia ]:

Jack Nicholson ( April 22nd , 1937)
1.) Turned down the lead role in Close Encounters of the Third Kind , even though he knew the movie would be a hit as he felt that the special effects would overwhelm any actor in the movie
2.) Has the most Oscars by a male actor.
Best Quote :
“ When I read the part, I knew I'd win the Oscar for it." ( For the movie “Terms of Endearment” , 1983)

Sir Anthony Hopkins ( December 31st , 1937)
1.) Though Dyslexic, he always possessed a great memory for scripts .
2.) Reads each script 250 times out loud before filming .
Best Quote :
“ I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen ”

Morgan Freeman ( June 1st ,1937 )
1.) He is often called the greatest living actor in film, a title he humbly waves off and says he is just "lucky."
2.) Founded a new internet start-up allowing customers to download movies while they are still in the theaters (http://www.cstar.com/ )
Best Quote :
“ Is there a movie I think I should have won the Oscar for? Yeah. All of them “

Dustin Hoffman ( Aug 8th, 1937 )
1.) Entered into The Guinness Book of World Records as "Greatest Age Span Portrayed By A Movie Actor" for Little Big Man (1970) in which he portrayed a character from age 17 to age 121.
2.) He took an acting course because he was told that "nobody flunks acting."
Best Quote :
“ One thing about being successful is that I stopped being afraid of dying. Once you're a star you're dead already. You're embalmed. “

Sir Ridley Scott ( Nov 30th , 1937)

1.) Was working on the script for, "I Am Legend" in the early 90's itself . But this project was never finished by him .
2.) He cast his partner in life, Giannina Facio, in all of his films since Gladiator (2000).

Best Quote :

I think I have less patience, mainly because I'm so experienced. Because I'm so experienced I need the very best people around me. Because people say, "Well you don't need a terribly good camera" or, "You can go and do this," and I say, "No, no, no, no, you don't understand. I want the Earth. And I want the Earth in 10 minutes."

Dumb Facts :
“1937” = 1+9+3+7 = 20 = 2+0 = 2 , which is also my lucky number !!!! Hahahahahahaha .................

kramer vs kramer

2008-09-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

The moment i heard the name, it sounded like some russian movie , lol.

Anyways, Kramer vs. Kramer is a 1979 drama film adapted by Robert Benton from the novel by Avery Corman. It won 5 oscars including Best actor, Best actress,Best director & Best picture. The film tells the story of a married couple's divorce and how they cutely deal with it . I usually don't watch old movies . But i won't exactly term this as an old movie .[ '79] It completely took me into the film, just like any forrest gump or titanic or even "The Thirteenth Floor" for that matter, which was a very good movie, just on the lines of "The Matrix" . This movie gave a much cosier feel, maybe because it was taken more in the indoors - sort of a feeling when you stay in your house when its snowing terribly outside. As mentioned above, both the actor and the actress were awesome, which is so obvious why they got an oscar. But i expected an oscar for that kid who essayed the role of their son . Beautiful acting with perfect timing. You won't see that all the time. I'd say, it's the best child performance i've ever seen in these 21 years. I saw a bit of myself in that role. Dustin Hoffman ! Man, I never knew you were smart. Look at that hair...Wow... And meryl streep was so beautiful and cute in the film. She potrayed it so elegantly . Kramer vs. Kramer reflected a cultural shift which occurred during the 1970s and the period of second-wave feminism, when ideas about "motherhood" and "fatherhood" were changing. Cheers to Robert Benton for equally weighing both their roles. On the whole, it was 105 mins of Hollywood's pride that I totally enjoyed and i want you also to enjoy. Rent it somehow, or don't miss it when it comes on Tv. Because, if not, i bet you are missing something.

3.75/5

trivia :

* At the end of the very last scene, Meryl Streep, speaking as herself, believing that the scene had ended, asked Dustin Hoffman if her eye make-up was messed up from crying. The director kept it in the movie.

* The woman that Hoffman suddenly kisses at the party is Ingeborg Sørensen, a former Miss Norway and Playboy Playmate

* Dustin Hoffman, having just lived through divorce himself, contributed many personal moments and dialogue to the film and was offered shared screenplay credit by director Robert Benton, but turned it down

Best Movies of all time - Forrest Gump

2008-09-13T23:23:00.000-07:00

I will certainly term it as ,"The most loveliest movie ever to be made by mankind" . Of course i'm so ashamed to see this so late. I should have seen it 14 years back. I would've corrected myself a lot . But anyways, its not too late. [There are many more who wouldn't have seen it yet .] Atleast from now onwards i can correct myself. The reason why i consider this film to be loved more than anyone else in the world is because it carries a message which is a part of my motto in life . And this served to show me that in visual . And that is " Be positive " . Wow. Just look at [Tom Hanks] Forrest's attitude in this movie. Every event of his life is so sweet. It has so much to teach us. I don't know how this was made. But i just can't believe it. What a movie ! Every character coming on screen are a part of hollywood's best ever creation. Not every other movie can win 6 oscars, which i think is not enough for this movie. This movie is a perfect textbook for all those aspiring filmmakers to learn about the nuances of making a cinema. Tom Hanks [ as Forrest Gump ] has delivered the performance of a lifetime. Sally field [ as his mother ] is always a delight to watch, in a mom's role. She has been the stereotype mom for ages. Robin Wright [ as his better half ] is so cute . Particularly at the end where she comes in a bob cut , looks so ravishing. Her character is so delicate and confused with what's perfect for her in life. And just to remind, she is the one who comes as the queen of Beowulf in the movie "Beowulf" . And i should talk about Gary Sinise [ as his Lt. ]. He plays a very unique character, not often you see in films. His best performance comes when he asks "Sorry" to Tom Hanks . Robert Zemeckis is undoubtedly in the list of all time Top 50 directors. From the music department , Alan Silvestri has done a memorable score , which lifts the spirit in each and every scene . And the climax is so touching. No words to express . On the whole, at the end of my life , when i look back at all the things that happened in my life, i will never forget these 140 minutes that i spent watching this movie. And a special request to all those who have seen it or yet to see, take the message the movie says " Be positive " and try imbibing it in your life. Believe me, i felt a lot lot better.

After all, Life is a like a box of Chocolates. You never know what you get :)

5/5

[ trivia ]

Paramount Pictures is currently planning to make a sequel to this movie which is also from the same author. Its called "Gump & Co". Here Gump stumbles through important US events in the 1980s and early 1990s. He plays football for the New Orleans Saints, sells encyclopedias door-to-door, works on a pig farm, and helps develop the infamous New Coke. He accidentally crashes the Exxon Valdez, helps destroy the Berlin Wall, and fights in Operation Desert Storm. He meets many celebrities, including Colonel Oliver North, the Ayatollah Khomeini, John Hinckley, Jim Bakker, Ivan Boesky, Ronald Reagan, Saddam Hussein, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Tom Hanks himself.

One-line reviews special

2008-09-13T19:41:00.000-07:00

Felon :

Astounding piece of filmmaking. A very well made movie of bravery and relationships.

3.75/5

Wall-E

A very well animated and innovatively made film for all ages. Felt like in the skies.

3.5/5

Into the Wild

Wow ! I was touched . A Totally unforgettable movie.

4/5

In Bruges :

An unexpected good film, centered around 6 unique lovely characters.

3/5

Saroja
Perfect time pass movie, laced with well-timed comedy in the most unexpected situations.

3.5/5

Dhaam Dhoom
Felt so sad seeing every moment of it, as we can't expect any more movies from Jeeva.

I love Kung fu Panda !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-26T19:09:00.000-07:00

It is the kind of a movie which is best for fun loving people, which is everyone of you, except some who still pretend not to be. From the start (lol , I was late by 5 minutes ) till the end credits is purely embodied with fun / well-timed humour / Josh, etc. The Plot begins with Po, a big fat panda dreaming of becoming a great kung fu master , who works in a restaurant owned by his goose dad. And the rest of the plot is all about how he becomes a real Kung fu warrior. I’m not revealing anything. See it to enjoy it. All the stars who have dubbed (Jack Black – Panda , Jolie – Tigress , Dustin Hoffman – Master ) have done a really good job. It blended so well with the characters that only after I saw the movie I came to know that these people actually were the voices behind those characters . The main ingredient in the movie is well-timed comedy, which is not there in every other movie we see. Comedy is different from well – timed comedy. It is the well-timed comedy that reaches the audience better and stays in their mind for a long time . The best scenes are those where our Panda does these Kung fu stuff . Its been a long time since I laughed throughout a movie. Animation is excellent, needless to say , it comes from Dreamworks Animation. The plot is good too. I read it took some 2-3 years to plan and make this animated masterpiece .But anyways that’s why maybe its too good. Another strong plus-point was Hans Zimmer. The moment I got his name in my mind while writing this, some thousand words of praises came gushing by. Ofcourse, lol I can’t write all of them . You will understand it when you watch the scene where Oogway, the turtle ascends to heaven. That is the best track in the movie. If you want that track , just leave me a comment. I can give you that, but only on one condition – Watch the movie !! In a theatre please (if possible)……. Not just because of that reason u’re thinking right now. The main reason being ,its only if you watch this in a theatre you can really enjoy the spectacle of the film ; the graphics ; beautifully animated Chinese landscapes ,etc..etc…
So, all im saying is, Go watch it.. You will Enjoy it.. I assure you !! But one thing..

Please don’t go late !....................................................................

Rating :
4/5

“ An epic tale of a Somalian Knight “

2008-08-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

The Beijing Olympics was an event that changed the histories of many countries , breaking all records possible. It was indeed a proud moment for a remote African nation called “Somalia” . This is the Olympic story we have never heard. I felt tears in my eyes when I came to know about this story ( rather I would term it as an epic tale of a “Somalian Knight” )

It’s about a girl whose Beijing moment lasted a mere 32 seconds – the slowest 200-meter dash time out of the 46 women who competed in the event. Thirty-two seconds that almost nobody saw, but that is what she carried home with her, swelled with joy and wonderment, the feeling of having represented her nation in an event where all the countries display their years of practice & training into action. Now she was back to meals of flat bread, wheat porridge and tap water.
Samia Yusuf Omar headed back to Somalia on Sunday, returning to the small two-room house in Mogadishu shared by seven family members. Her mother lives there, selling fruits and vegetables. Her father is buried there, the victim of a wayward artillery shell that hit their home and also killed Samia’s aunt and uncle.

“I have my pride,” she said through a translator before leaving China. “This is the highest thing any athlete can hope for. It has been a very happy experience for me. I am proud to bring the Somali flag to fly with all of these countries, and to stand with the best athletes in the world.”

There are many life stories that collide in each Olympics – many intriguing tales of glory and tragedy, but none like this touching tale.

It was Aug. 19, and the tiny girl had crossed over seven lanes to find her starting block in her 200-meter heat. She walked past Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown – the eventual gold medalist in the event. Samia had read about Campbell-Brown in track and field magazines and once watched her in wonderment on television. As a cameraman panned down the starting blocks, it settled on lane No. 2, on a 17-year old girl with the frame of a Kenyan distance runner. Samia’s biography in the Olympic media system contained almost no information, other than her 5-foot-4, 119-pound frame. There was no mention of her personal best times and nothing on previous track meets. Somalia, it was later explained, has a hard time organizing the records of its athletes.

She looked so odd and out of place among her competitors, with her white headband and a baggy, untucked T-shirt. The legs on her wiry frame were thin and spindly, and her arms poked out of her sleeves like the twigs of a sapling. She tugged at the bottom of her shirt and shot an occasional nervous glance at the other runners in her heat. Each had muscles bulging from beneath their skin-tight track suits. Many outweighed Samia by nearly 40 pounds (18 kilos) !!

The country of Somalia sent two athletes to the Beijing Games – Samia and distance runner Abdi Said Ibrahim, who competed in the men’s 5,000-meter event. Like Samia, Abdi finished last in his event, overmatched by competitors who were groomed for their Olympic moment. Somalia has only loose-knit programs supporting its Olympians, few coaches, and few facilities. With a civil war tearing the city apart since the Somali government’s collapse in 1991, Mogadishu Stadium has become one of the bloodiest pieces of real estate in the city – housing U.N. forces in the early 1990s and now a military compound for insurgents. That has left the country’s track athletes to train in Coni Stadium, an artillery-pocked structure built in 1958 which has no track, endless divots, and has been overtaken by weeds and plants.

“Sports are not a priority for Somalia,” said Duran Farah, vice president of the Somali Olympic Committee. “There is no money for facilities or training. The war, the security, the difficulties with food and everything – there are just many other internal difficulties to deal with.”

That leaves athletes such as Samia and 18-year old Abdi without the even the basic comforts and structure enjoyed by almost every other athlete in the Olympic Games. They don’t receive consistent coaching, don’t compete in meets on a regular basis and struggle to find safety in something as simple as going out for a daily run.

When Samia cannot make it to the stadium, she runs in the streets, where she runs into roadblocks of burning tires and opposition by some people (idiots). She is often bullied and threatened by militia or locals who believe that Muslim women should not take part in sports. In hopes of lessening the abuse, she runs in the oppressive heat wearing long sleeves, sweat pants and a head scarf. Even then, she is told her place should be in the home – not participating in sports. Even Abdi faces constant difficulties, passing through military checkpoints where he is shaken down for money. And when he has competed in sanctioned track events, gun-toting insurgents have threatened his life. "Once, the insurgents were very unhappy,” he said. “When we went back home, my friends and I were rounded up and we were told if we did it again, we would get killed. Some of my friends stopped being in sports. I had many phone calls threatening me, that if I didn’t stop running, I would get killed. But I wanted to make my nation proud of something before I leave this world .Lately, I do not have these problems. I think probably they realized we just wanted to be athletes and were not involved with the government.”

But the interim government has not been able to offer support, instead spending its cash and energy arming Ethiopian allies for the fight against insurgents. Other than organizing a meet to compete for Olympic selection – in which the Somali Olympic federation chose whom it believed to be its two best performers – there has been little lavished on athletes. While other countries pour millions into the training and perfecting of their Olympic stars, Somalia offers little guidance and no doctors, not even a stipend for food.

“The food is not something that is measured and given to us every day,” Samia said. “We eat whatever we can get.” On the best days, that means getting protein from a small portion of fish, camel or goat meat, and carbohydrates from bananas or citrus fruits growing in local trees. On the worst days – and there are long stretches of those – it means surviving on water and Angera, a flat bread made from a mixture of wheat and barley. “There is not even a grocery store,” Abdi said. “We can’t go shopping for whatever we want.”

When the gun went off in Samia’s 200-meter heat, seven women blasted from their starting blocks, registering as little as 16 one-hundredths of a second of reaction time. Samia’s start was slow enough that the computer didn’t read it, leaving her reaction time blank on the heat’s statistical printout.

Within seconds, seven competitors were thundering around the curve in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest, struggling to separate themselves from one another. Samia was just entering the curve when her opponents were nearing the finish line. A local television feed had lost her entirely by the time Veronica Campbell-Brown crossed the finish line in a trotting 23.04 seconds.

As the athletes came to a halt and knelt, stretching and sucking deep breaths, a camera moved to ground level. In the background of the picture, a white dot wearing a headband could be seen coming down the stretch.

Until this month, Samia had been to two countries outside of her own – Djibouti and Ethiopia. Asked how she will describe Beijing, her eyes get big and she snickers from under a blue and white Olympic baseball cap.

“The stadiums, I never thought something like this existed in the world,” she said. “The buildings in the city, it was all very surprising. It will probably take days to finish all the stories we have to tell back in my home to all of them who still have it as a dream to even see the Olympics on Tv.”

Few buildings are beyond two or three stories tall in Mogadishu, and those still standing are mostly in tatters. Only pictures will be able to describe some of Beijing’s structures, from the ancient architecture of the Forbidden City to the modernity of the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest.

“The Olympic fire in the stadium, everywhere I am, it is always up there,” Samia said. “It’s like the moon. I look up wherever I go, it is there J.”

These are the stories they will relish when they return to Somalia, which they believe has, for one brief moment, united the country’s warring tribes. Farah said he had received calls from countrymen all over the world, asking how their two athletes were doing and what they had experienced in China. On the morning of Samia’s race, it was just after 5 a.m., and locals from her neighborhood were scrambling to find a television with a broadcast.

“People stayed awake to see it,” Farah said. “The good thing, sports has become the one thing which unites all of Somalia.”

That is one of the common threads they share with every athlete at the Games. Just being an Olympian and carrying the country’s flag brings an immense sense of pride to families and neighborhoods which typically know only despair.

A pride that Samia will share with her mother, three brothers and three sisters. A pride that Abdi will carry home to his father, two brothers and two sisters. Like Samia’s father two years ago, Abdi’s mother was killed in the civil war, by a mortar shell that hit the family’s home in 1993.

“We are very proud,” Samia said. “Because of us, the Somali flag is raised among all the other nations’ flags. You can’t imagine how proud we were when we were marching in the Opening Ceremonies with the flag.

“Despite the difficulties and everything we’ve had with our country, we feel great pride in our accomplishment.”

During the final moments suddenly, the half-empty stadium realized there was still a runner on the track, still pushing to get across the finish line almost eight seconds behind the seven women who had already completed the race. In the last 50 meters, much of the stadium rose to its feet, flooding the track below with cheers of encouragement. A few competitors who had left Samia behind turned and watched it unfold.

As Samia crossed the line in 32.16 seconds, the crowd roared in applause.
Several days later, Samia waved off her Olympic moment as being inspirational. While she was still filled with joy over her chance to compete, and though she knew she had done all she could, part of her seemed embarrassed that the crowd had risen to its feet to help push her across the finish line.

“I was happy the people were cheering and encouraging me,” she said. “But I would have liked to be cheered because I won, not because I needed encouragement. It is something I will work on. I will try my best not to be the last person next time. It was very nice for people to give me that encouragement, but I would prefer the winning cheer."

And there it was. While the Olympics are often promoted for the fastest and strongest and most agile champions, there is something to be said for the ones who finish out of the limelight. The ones who finish last and leave with their pride.

At their best, the Olympics still signify competition and purity, a love for sport. What represents that better than two athletes who carry their country’s flag into the Games despite their country’s inability to carry them before that moment? What better way to find the best of the Olympic spirit than by looking at those who endure so much that would break it?

“We know that we are different from the other athletes,” Samia said. “But we don’t want to show it. We try our best to look like all the rest. We understand we are not anywhere near the level of the other competitors here. We understand that very, very well. But more than anything else, we would like to show the dignity of ourselves and our country.”She smiles when she says this, standing next to her Somalian flag that she and her countryman Abdi brought to these Games.

They came and went from Beijing largely unnoticed, but may have been the most dignified example these Olympics could offer.

This was what she said before she left..
“I knew it was an uphill task and will always be……..I will come back next time.”

Just look at the determination and aim they’ve set for themselves coming from a country where people dream of food. And what are our people doing. Ofcourse I’m happy for the medals my country has won. I’m in no way criticizing them . All I’m saying is to learn from them. That is the level of determination we’ve to have while stepping on the Olympic ground (or anything in life for that matter ). I’m just not gonna feel responsible after posting this and consider my job is done. And its upto the athletes to learn. No…..Not at all .
We have to have this all through our life if we want to achieve any dream we’ve dreamt & not just laugh at that thought & forget it as a dream the other day. At any times of despair or disappointment you ever come across, just think of this Somalian Knight’s tale once.

"I’m sure it will make you better" :)

IFC World Cup [ Match update --> Russia Vs Georgia ]

2008-08-22T03:16:00.000-07:00

International Fight Club [IFC]
Russia Vs Georgia
Venue : Georgia

Current Scenario
Georgian troops recently launched an aerial bombardment and ground attack on its separatist province of South Ossetia . South Ossetians want to join up with their ethnic brethren in North Ossetia, an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation. Seeing this as an act of aggression Russia launched bombing raids against Georgia, vowing to defend its citizens. More than half of South Ossetia's citizens are said to have taken up Moscow's offer of a Russian passport. Many believe that "the hypocrisy of the international community knows no bounds for if the West forced the issue of Kosovar independence then the independence of South Ossetia should also be on the cards."

[ Brethren is the plural form of "Brothers" , mainly used in Christianity ]

In Detail
Georgia is a strategic so-called democracy in the Caucasus since the 2003 US-engineered Rose Revolution, which was a bloodless revolution to throw the then President Shevardnadze.
Georgia desperately wants to be a part of NATO. It provides the US with 2,000 troops in Iraq & also wants to be part of US missile defense shield. It hosts a stretch of the BTC pipeline, primarily belonging to Russia. Basically, it's a US client state in the middle of the Caucasus. Maybe its name was inspired from the U.S State Georgia, formed in 1733 , who knows...

What’s the exact reason they are fighting like this. There has to be some past for something of this magnitude to happen. Well there is & Here goes the History….

History :

Origins of the conflict

"Both breakaway republics – Abkhazia and South-Ossetia are striving for a future that is independent of Georgia, but each have very different histories"

Abkhazia and Ossetia were two regions which were a part of Georgia. When Georgia was annexed by the Russian empire in 1801, it came without either of the two regions. South Ossetia, then part of a larger Ossetia region, had been absorbed into Russia 17 years before, through an agreement with the Ottoman Empire. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Georgia declared independence on May 26, 1918. Abkhazia, was incorporated separately in 1910, as Russia gradually gained control of the South Caucasus.
Later again in 1921 again Georgia fell under the Soviet’s complete control .
The South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast was created in 1922 after the Soviet occupation of Georgia. Right from that date, they were continuously fighting opposing each others’ policies.

[ Autonomous oblasts of the Soviet Union were administrative units created for a number of smaller nations, which were given autonomy within the republics of the Soviet Union ]

On November 10, 1989, the South Ossetian Supreme Soviet approved a decision to unite South Ossetia with the North Ossetian Soviet Socialist Republic, which is a part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. However, a day later, the Georgian Supreme Court revoked the decision and on 23 November, thousands of Georgian nationalists led by Zviad and other opposition leaders marched to Tskhinvali, which is the South Ossetian capital, to hold a meeting there, which finally ended in communal clashes between them. On 20 September 1990, the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast declared independence as the South Ossetian Democratic Soviet Republic, appealing to Moscow to recognise it as an independent subject of the Soviet Union.
The independence has not been diplomatically recognized by any member of the United Nations – which continues to regard South Ossetia as part of Georgia .

Some consider Mikheil Saakashvili ( the Georgian president , implicated in a few monstrous corruption scandals ) thought the Beijing Olympics gave him a fabulous opening to solve the problems Georgia has with separatist South Ossetia, since 1989, for that matter. Most claim he staged a surprise invasion supported by the US, though there are some who say the opposite that the Russians attacked first .
North Ossetia is completely in Russia and South Ossetia is in Georgia, both just separated by a thin border. It is a situation wherein these 82,000 people ( S.Ossetia ), don't want independence. But they just want to unite with North Ossetia, which is in Russia. From a voting poll conducted , 99% voted for union with North Ossetia and Russia. But this was totally ignored by Georgia, the US, and in Europe.
It is also said that the US troops had just finished teaching Georgians how to ethnically cleanse an area, which was a part of the "Georgian-US Immediate Response 2008 Military Exercises." More than 2,000 civilians were killed in this attack & also destroyed the capital, Tskhinvali, killed 10 Russian peacekeepers, at least, provoked an exodus of 35,000 people to North Ossetia.

[ Exodus is a journey by a large group of people to escape from a hostile environment ]

People claimed this attack by Georgia was made to profit from the spotlight being mainly on the Olympics & also since the Bush administration was shortly on their way out .
The Georgian President is already being blamed by the Georgian opposition for this reckless adventure of ignoring the fact that US badly needs Russia to solve the Iranian nuclear dossier. And he's also being blamed because he ignored that Europe is in the middle of a very complex negotiation with Russia for access to Russian gas ( the whole of Europe depends on Russian gas )

The main reason Russians claim is that Russian citizens were killed in this attack [ a major percentage of the population of South Ossetia is ethnically Russian ! ] Yes..true.. It is said that Russia was planning to make a re-union to form the U.S.S.R again to level themselves to the present superpower - U.S . Having this in agenda, they started issuing Russian passports to S.Ossetian citizens some time back. And hence this gave them a good platform to attack Georgia. If that is the plan, well then its good news for countries like India ( Good friends of the Russians ) As some say, whatever the reason be, U.S have always taken sides with countries like Pakistan. But after the dissolution of the U.S.S.R, India was left helpless without their major support, which was & is a major setback till today .

But apart from taking sides in this issue, the rise of another superpower is expected to boost the world economy and at the same time bring more m-a-y-h-e-m .

[ Mayhem means violent and needless disturbance ]

& what I mean to say is that, there is no need for a comet or some bulb-headed Alien race to destroy our mother Earth. People like these who think “Violence is the mother of all solutions” are more than enough to destroy every trace of happiness prevailing in every nook & corner of our planet , which is exactly a “dead planet”

[ A dead planet is a ….. Er.., Well, if this is the case & we are not going to do anything about it , you are going to see it anyway….] :(

An Ode to an adolescent's BirthDAY .......

2008-08-14T05:37:00.000-07:00

[Disclaimer : The context appearing below was not written wholly on my personal experiences ; rather with a general perspective, including the experiences that i've come across ]

It is one of the most happiest days of our lives, of course some don’t consider so. There is a lot of excitement when it comes to our B’day.
Excitement 1 : One week before
Excitement 2 : A day before
Excitement 3 : Minutes before
Excitement 4 : On the b’day

But at the same times there are certain worries also , (as some consider)
Worry 1 : One week before
Worry 2 : A day before
Worry 3 : Minutes before
Worry 4 : On the b’day
Ok..ok..I’ll be more clear. I must’ve confused you by now. Feel boring..?? Ok ,then ..

We’ll keep shortforms for each item.(i.e) Excitement 1 = E1 , Ok.. fine with you ?? Good....
Now grouping ,

The ones…

The E1 is that initial excitement wherein we desperately wait for that D’day to come. Expecting to have a day full of enjoyment with no scoldings from our parents ( which is an already well discussed issue with our parents and also assured by them )
W1 – this is when we gonna start worrying slightly if all would "wish us or not ??" . Mainly about the ones close to us & some people we like , would wish us at 12:00 in the night or atleast on the B’day or not. This initial worry seldom occurs in people .

The two’s…

E2 – Have the feeling that the day we were eagerly waiting for is getting closer & closer :) And also we start getting that initial happiness of expecting gifts – if not for many ; atleast one or two .
W2 – This is when we have a heavy feel of the disappointments mentioned earlier in W1. And we really start making our minds if we could really face those disappointments .

The three’s…

E3 – Desperately waiting for those few moments to fly and start getting those lovely sweet wishes from our dear friends and also from those we seldom talk or never talked before ( an over expectation slighty starts to rise within ,lol )
W3 – Apart from the disappointment getting heavier (which you should’ve guessed by now ) , we start worrying if a situation would arise wherein we should necessarily give a treat. And we start calculating among ourselves what would the cost add up to. ??

And finally on the DAY,….

E4 – If our friends would’ve wished by now, we would be eagerly waiting to 'see' them & the others who haven’t wished - in college. If noone wished till now, then we would be eagerly waiting to see them, expecting all would wish us when they see us atleast . And there is also that "extra-special" happiness awaiting us from the wishes to be given from the ones we like/love ,though seldom spoken to.
W4 – This is the most nervous feeling of all. If none has wished us or just one or two have wished, we start making up our minds to handle the disappointments of all forgetting our b’day, which was the day we were awaiting so much !! . The other main worry parallely developing at this time is “B’day BUMPS !!” Only being a boy one would know what kind of a feeling this really is. It is something which would make us feel - “Goddddd !!!! Why was I born this particular day ??? :( The next immediate feeling is , eventhough its a happy moment to think that our friends have actually brought a cake for our b'day ,(eventhough they never take a penny out from their pockets immediately , just expecting the other person to spend , which they consider as the ultimate smartness , lol) they utilise half the calk not by eating, but to test their creativity in painting art on our faces !! :(

But crossing all these feelings, its only after we go there we would come to know how much of affection each has for us , lol, but definitely not the birthday bumps episode, where the same affectionate people would make all ends felt with their gentle soft touches !!!!.. I don’t even have words to describe this episode.. Cos , I can still feel the pain “there” , Lol . And after all this at the end of the day we keep counting time , wanting some more of this day to continue :)

Whatever bad phase you are going through, when you realise that your b'day is fast approaching , you tend to loose that pinch of tension, hoping that atleast on your b'day you can really enjoy , forgetting those worries ; you being the centre of attraction .

Maybe you are the optimistic kind ( experiencing more of the E's ) or the pessimistic kind( experiencing more of W's ) but at the end it is a day you would have to wait for "another" year to experience it again . So be happy for it as in the future it might turn out to be a day the whole nation would take off from work.. --

" You never know !! " :)

The name speaks everything ................................

2008-08-05T18:41:00.000-07:00

Kuselan deals with the true sweet friendship between Barber Balu (Pasupathy) and Superstar Ashok Kumar (RajiniKanth). From the first reel to the last - the movie completely takes you to that village and just after the movie ends i felt like i started missing those people , asthough i was there for 3 hours. To that extent the characters have been beautifully woven with the storyline . Ofcourse most of the credit goes to the malayalam makers for making such a neat simple script. But P.Vasu is surely to be congratulated for the casting, good changes in script and not to be congratulated for bad makeup which he always carries through in his films . Please Vasu , kindly work more on Thalaivar's wig before you even decide to do a film with Him & reduce the amount of powder applied on His face. You have made him like a child getting readied for school wherein the mother applies lots of powder to the child's face only to keep him fresh throughout the day without realising that her child looks like a white board, lol. Anyways without Rajini, the film was a well made painting , after Rajini came it became a true masterpiece . ( Hmm..of course a bit cheap masterpiece ..not a costly one...lol, bcos remember its a P.Vasu film )

Anyways lets talk more of positives :-

* Pasupathy

* Vadivel

* Good songs - (Sollamal was excellent)

* Excellent Cinematography by Arvind Krishna (Selvaraghavan's favourite cinematographer , right from thulluvadho ilamai - Adavari Matalaku Ardhalae Verulae )

* Simple script - to be understood by any lad

* Decent graphics - (By Soundarya Rajinikanth )

* Thoughtful climax - " U'll love it !!"

Negatives :-

There is lots to observe & learn if you focus only on the positives in this film or any film (or anything) for that matter. Lets learn more and then start commenting only on the negatives as the review of the film like many people do.

Anyways Find out if any & tell me :)

Rating : 3/5

When Darkness falls, the KNIGHT will rise.................

2008-07-21T18:05:00.000-07:00

I was speechless after the movie ended with Batman fading away on his mobile and the title at last. I dont know what kind of vocabulary to use praising this movie. Because i wouldve used almost every common word like - "wonderful / splendid / marvellous, etc" to praise movies. But i need a much better word to differentiate from all of the movies ever made. And again ill have to start of with the same lines often used. "Christian Bale is awesome. Heath Ledger is awesome. Christopher Nolan's Direction and Screenplay is awesome & etc is awesome. But you know what, beneath all of this there is a moral that everyone of us have to take and imbibe in our lives if we want to succeed over the evil. Go, watch it. & you will know what i mean, if you really understand the movie . It has no happy endings like Spiderman defeating Sandman, Waterman, Airman , Superman...err...sorry..superman came in a flow, lol...Anyways what i was telling was, Spiderman would defeat all of his nemesis and then pose in front of the American Flag and there ends the movie with some more crores spent on the end credits graphics . But The Dark Knight is a futuristic film. It will surely revolutionize film-making in the world . I can spill no more about the movie. lol..i never told anything much about the story no....Hehe..

Anyways the things standing apart in this movie are - Heath Ledger's last performance-of-a-lifetime , Screenplay on the sorts of Godfather , Tragedy , First Half Action Scene before the interval & Soundtrack really make this movie an experience of a lifetime . :)

Rating :
5/5

An insight into the painful side of Love............

2008-06-28T00:19:00.000-07:00

"(P.S) --->> This context was written with no disrespect to women"

Are you a nice guy who has always wondered why the cocky guy -- the one who barely appears interested in the girl -- is usually the one who gets the girl?
Have you suffered from hearing the words, "You're a really nice guy, but I only like you as a friend," from a woman who you would do (or may, in fact, have already done) just about anything and everything for -- only to turn around and watch her date (or even chase) a guy who treats her like she's nothing special ? And are you stumped wondering why she would date a guy who treats her like that when she could have you who would treat her like a princess and give her everything she wants? Well, you better brace yourself because I'm going to tell you a couple of secrets that you might not want to hear.
First, "nice" equates with boring and predictable. Look up "nice" in the dictionary and you find: pleasant; agreeable; satisfactory. In other words, average -- not exceptional, not exciting, and not sexy.I'll bet you've never heard a woman say she didn't want to date a guy because he was too confident, too passionate, or too exciting -- have you? But, I'll bet you have heard women say things like, "He's such a nice guy. He's so sweet and he's always there for me, but I only like him as a friend." Or, "He's such a good guy -- kind, thoughtful, generous, honest, loyal -- but there's no chemistry. He just doesn't turn me on." Sadly, I hear it all the time. The fact is, Mr. Nice Guy, you cannot bore a woman into feeling attracted to you or into wanting to date you. And as obvious as that sounds, if you are one of those guys I described that is exactly what you are trying to do. And it won't work my friend. That doesnt mean that being nice is something that you should feel unlucky of yourself or I am not suggesting that you mistreat women or disrespect them in any way.
What I am suggesting is that you value and respect yourself more. If she is not able to understand what your warm heart felt for her, she will never be able to. Maybe she is not your kinda' girl. Just because someone is very beautiful or very nice to you that doesnt mean that she is the right partner for you. She maybe. She may not be.
To illustrate what I mean: The answer to the question, "Why does the guy who doesn't appear to care as much about the girl get the girl?" is simple: The nice guy cares too much, too soon. He has made the woman too important and too valuable and it shows in everything he says and does. He is too available, too eager to please, too accommodating, and he gives too much -- all without getting anything in return. By doing so, he has made himself appear desperate, insecure, needy of this woman's attention, affection, and approval -- and he has stripped himself of any value in her eyes. After all, if he's already doing and giving everything, without her doing or giving anything - why would she value him? She won't. She is not going to value him any more than he values himself. What she is going to do is look for someone else, someone who she perceives as being more worthy, more confident, and more valuable.
It works like this negotiation.
Once you need something, or you want it too badly, you forfeit your strength and lose all power of negotiation. You are in a position of weakness and you are perceived as weak. Someone (or something) else is in control of you, the situation, and it's outcome. Men in this situation appear to be anything but confident, strong, and exciting. More, they are perceived as being unworthy and as lacking value.
Translation: Things that are easily acquired, obtained, or maintained, without any effort or sacrifice, lack value... it's human nature.
The secret to why the cocky guy wins with women, over the nice guy, is that he is perceived as being a stronger, more confident guy with more value. How? He never invests everything -- his entire being, ego, and self-worth in what one woman's response or reaction to him is. He doesn't gush with compliments; he isn't always available; he doesn't give too much; and he knows he isn't going to die if a woman says "no" to him. More, his attitude is, yeah, I'd like to go out with you, but if I can't, that's OK -- I'm a busy guy, with exciting things going on .

Nice things take time for some to realise. Best things always take time to happen. Wait with patience. You will get A perfect (a much loving) person who can understand you more than you do :)

We do have (serious) Company ...............

2008-06-12T05:57:00.000-07:00

I don’t know how many people believe in extraterrestrial creatures. Evidence of aliens and their contact with the human race and life on planet earth can be traced back as far as written history goes. There is evidence in every culture around the world, including those lost millennia ago. Nobody is sure whether their visits indicate a future invasion or just to create a friendly contact.

(Our) History of Aliens :
Several ancient paintings from around the world showcase their bonding with alien culture. This is a photo of Nefertiti the Goddess who lived in Ancient Egypt, notice this Goddess's head. Her skull is extremely elongated, this would mean her brain would be much larger than a normal human's. Therefore making her extremely intelligent. This is actually a statue of her, it is in a museum in Egypt currently. Several pictures in Ancient Egypt portray some of the Gods or Goddesses with extremely large elongated heads.

This is a photo of a skull found in Peru, notice the elongated back of the skull. This is clearly not a human skull, we have been fed a variety of unlogical explanations as to why this skull has this formation. Several like it were found in Peru with small variations

We were told in schools that the great pyramid of Egypt took 40 years to build and it's purpose was to bury ‘a’ pharoah. Come on guys, are we that dumb and were they?Of course not, who would spend 40 years of hard labor building a pyramid just to stuff a dead body in it after 40 years of hard work. That hardly sounds logical for such an obviously advanced culture as the Ancient Egyptians. They invented their own language for god sakes, are we to think they were dumb enough to spend 40 years sweating their guts out for only burying 1 body. That is one the stupidest thing we’ve been told of.In Mexico the group of pyramids including the pyramid of the sun are known by people in Mexico by legend as "Place where the gods touch the earth." In all evidence this probably means where the aliens landed. Where they touched the Earth... Think about it, the pyramids are large stone monuments in Mexico with steps going down the sides. What better purpose for the steps than to allow the aliens to climb down the pyramids to the ground. That is the most logical reason for their construction. And to think that a primitive race could build something so incredible is not that logical.

Strange suited figure found in Kiev. It dates to ca. 4,000 BC.

A disk shaped object is shining beams of light down on John the Baptist and Jesus - Fitzwilliam Musuem, Cambridge, England - Painted in 1710 by Flemish artist Aert De Gelder. It depicts a classic, hovering, silvery, saucer shaped UFO shining beams of light down on John the Baptist and Jesus. What could have inspired the artist to combine these two subjects?

On the eastern side of Puerto Rico there is a place called, "El Yunque" rainforest.It is the only rainforest that United States of America owns. This forest is kind of a controversy to the government and the citizens of Puerto Rico. Problems have arisen between the government of Puerto Rico and the USA involving the ownership of said forest. But what comes to mind is, What is there in "El Yunque" that really interests the USA so much as to prohibit the entrance to the populace at certain hours at night, the strange involvement of military exercises late at night, the seeing of strange alien craft and its occupants?.
The island of Puerto Rico was inhabited by Indians who believed this forest to be a sacred mountain where gods set foot from the sky, they believed their good god Yuquiyu lived there and often came down to teach them the ways of life. (Aliens)
Christopher Columbus discovered this island in 1493-1500 AD in his travels near the island at night he saw flashes of light coming from the mountains of the island calling them "Fires from Saint Peter", what today we would call a UFO.
Either the aliens loved the rainforest ambient, or they couldn't find a way to repair their ship and so opted to live inside it (this brings the theory that it was a passenger or colony ship). And so the Indians saw them as gods.

Alien Abduction :
There have been many unknown cases of Alien abduction .About 2500 odd people in the world have experienced missing time (abduction) .One of the most famous of them was the incident that happened on the night of October 10, 1973, wherein there was a UFO sighting by fifteen different witnesses who saw a strange, unknown object fly over a housing project in St. Tammany Parish, New Orleans, Louisiana was a redefining point of their lives. What happened exactly has still been kept under wraps.

The Unknown : (Classified information)
Likewise when a ufo crashed outside Roswell in July 1st, 1947, and was recovered by the military, their presence in our lives was broadcast around the world, only to be covered up the very next day by our government.
Major Philip J. Corso stumbled upon a few alien artifacts sent from Fort Bliss, Texas on 6th July, 1947. He had come across a goods vehicle in a warehouse that was off-limits and was just about to reprimand him, when the driver opened his truck door and showed Major Corso something both would’ve never even dreamt of. When the major gave a look inside one of the several crates he was dumb struck to see a four-foot, human-shaped creature with...bizarre-looking, four fingered hands...and a light-bulb shaped head. The eye sockets were oversized and almond-shaped and pointed down to its tiny nose, which didn't really protrude from its skull'. Corso found an army intelligence document that described the creature as an inhabitant of a craft that had been retrieved from Roswell, New Mexico As he shone his torch around the warehouse, he noticed that there were over 30 similar crates stacked against the walls. Major Corso quickly covered the crate , gazed at the driver and asked him to forget whatever he saw and that nothing of that kind was ever in his truck. It was later classified as a national secret .This information was recently enclosed by Corso in his book “A day at Roswell”.

Later when the spaceship was checked by the authorities the first object that was found was a set of clear, flexible filaments, made of something like glass, wherein each individual strand conducted a beam of light along its length.t They then found several wafer-thin squares of material that were about 5cm across and that appeared to be made from a type of plastic. A tiny pattern had been etched into the plastic. It was understood to be some type of advanced circuit board, the likes of which mankind had never seen before. The next item out of the crate was a greyish material, which, could not be bent, cut or torn without the material springing back to its original shape. It was a metal fibre with the physical properties of what we would call today 'supertenacity', relatively common now, but unheard at that time.Next was pair of dark, elliptical eyepieces. These were as thin as human skin and had originally been attached to the eyes of the creature allegedly recovered from the crash. The eyepieces illuminated images in low-light conditions. Although they didn't provide perfect night vision, they allowed the wearer to pick up shapes where previously none could be seen. He also came across a description and sketch of another device. It contained a power source, and looked like a stubby torch. However, the beam from this interstellar 'flashlight' was so intense that it caused objects to burst into flames. Scientists linked cattle mutilations with this device.
In this cattle mutilation, huge oval shaped incisions around the jaw bone and in most cases the exposed jaw is completely removed, and the tongue removed from a precise incision deep in the throat. Also observed is the additional removal of at least one eyeball, the sexual organs on both sexes. All organ removal and incisions are being done with surgical precision. This has led investigators to believe the use of some sort of high heat cutting device, such as this torch like device had been used.
But why cattle ? Well the most feasible explanation might be that cattle blood is so similar to humans that it can be used in the lab to create human blood plasma. Indicating the aliens may be studying the cattle, to find out more about us. The investigators came to a conclusion that these alien creatures had just one intent in mind. That they were genetically altering humanoids and that they were harvesting biological specimens on earth for their own experiments .
Based on all these alien abductions scientists predict that crosses of aliens and humans are being made, so that they will be able to live amongst us without our knowing !!

Throughout the 1960s, several companies brought about a number of so-called 'miracle breakthroughs', and nearly all the objects that Corso saw and read about were in the documents or crates he examined that day in 1961. Fibre optics, integrated circuit chips, night-vision goggles, lasers and supertenacity fibres became commonplace. Corso claims that anyone who has used a CD palyer, a modern computer or made a transatlantic phone call has come into contact with alien technology.
If the aliens were hostile, and wanted our planet for its resources, they would have taken it away from us centuries ago when we still thought the earth was the center of the universe, not now when we have nuclear weapons, lasers, and space crafts of our own.
They may just be hiding it from us, I don't want however to go into conspiracy theories. I don't have any proof of that. The following picture and paragraph are in my mind absolute proof that advanced beings were here on Earth in Ancient History. To think that we are the only planet amongs the many billions of other planets in the universe with intelligent life on it is kind of arrogant and misguided. What makes us so special? Life can form in the most inhospitable of places like in the bottom of the oceans where there is no light, and where temperatures are very unfriendly. There is no doubt intelligent life out there somewhere. Someday we will surely meet some of them. The overwhelming evidence of UFO's from past civilizations on Earth is the most convincing proof I can think of. Giant stone edifices like the Great Pyramid, or the Nazca Lines in Peru are some of the best proof. They still stand today while modern day UFO sightings only last a few minutes. There is no possible logical way found that our ancient cultures could have build such amazing monuments such as Machu Pichu, the Great Pyramid, The Nazca Lines or even Stonehenge. What most likely happened is that after doing many great things on Earth, these aliens took their stuff and left Earth leaving behind many proofs that they were once here.

Whether we choose to see the truth or not is up to us.

Its all in your mind - to keep it hot / cool ............

2008-06-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

There are some days in our lives when we feel so moody and irritated even though the climate is chill with cool breezy winds and so pleasant. Even cases wherein our girlfriend wakes us with a sweet phone call and though listening to her soft lilting voice we feel so tired-with-life-kind’a attitude . We never know the reason behind such irritation-cum-frustration , but we do accidentally behave rash with whomever coming & speaking to us, be your Mother to your close friend . Are there any instant mood boosters that we could incorporate to get better ? Maybe some go for a workout or snap out with friends or go for a nice shopping to feel better. Well, I don’t think there are any of that kind recommended by docs or physicians. But maybe I do have a small easy solution , rather than you going back and crawling into your bed .

Try getting a change of scenery . Ofcourse you don’t have to necessarily plan an expensive trip to some exotic place just to boost your mood that morning . Even the tiny changes you make in things in the most accessible ways can alter the perspective on much bigger ones. Stand up while talking on phone instead of the usual sitting. Or take a different route to your school / workplace . Lol, you can even have dinner in the terrace enjoying the cool breeze instead of having it on the dining table . Hey, c’mon , you can even turn the most outrageous tantrum of a baby into a giggle by giving him/her a new toy . Why not for big people like us ?? It all lies in the way we look at things.

Try listening to someone else’s story (for a change) . When we are feeling down about something, it can be hard to be a good listener. But many times, pausing to really hear about someone else’s life can do wonders for our own heads. Inspiration hits us when we least expect it. There have been many situations when I was struck down by negative energies by my family members (disappointments) on some decision. I sat totally dejected, feeling that was the end of my happy life. At that time I started thinking about great people who actually carved great careers out of themselves , faced the biggest hurdles in life. I started asking myself - "If they can do, why can't I ? Why can't this be the start of a great person's life ?? This may sound humorous to the ones around me , who think im the last person to succeed in this world. Well if that's how you people encourage others in a bad phase , thanq very much . Because its situations like these that have thought me how to transform those incoming negative energies to colourful positive energies .

Try helping a stranger . Hold the door for someone. Offer to carry a heavy package or box. Give directions when asked. Give a gentle smile to a person who is in some unknown worry and show them that door to positiveness which could involuntarily give him/her a pinch of confidence to deal with that situation. A little kindness goes a long way. You’ll immediately feel happier when you take a minute to assist another human being—even in the smallest way.

Try calling a friend . Talk to your good friend with an open heart . Don't hide a single fact if you really , not only want to lighten your heart, but also desire to get the best possible solution. Because I know what all situations this can prevent . I lost my dear friend , who passed away crying out his worries. If he could've discussed his problems with his friend whom he really believes , he could've been on earth right now. But now he is just a part of my memory which brings tears whenever thought of .
" I don't want this happen to you or any of your friends .
Do believe in me & try them ". .

[---> my heartfelt thanks to Heather <---]

2008-06-03T07:47:00.001-07:00

Get an exclusive first-look of this upcoming action thriller here. Be the first to view this !! (Excluding me, lol!!)

more about "", posted with vodpod

The best movies of all time - Review 1

2008-06-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

THE SEVEN SAMURAI :

The Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai) made in 1954 is still considered to date as one of the world's most influential movies of all time. It follows the story of a village of farmers that hire seven masterless samurai to combat bandits who will return after the harvest to steal their crops . I longed for a long time to watch it. but alas! i didnt get the Dvd. Finally i got the oppurtunity to watch it when it was premiered on tv. This was also the first complete Black & White movie i watched . I usually don't watch them bcos i always have a feeling of sleepiness / boredom - no matter how classic they were . But watching this movie I didnt get even 1% of that feeling . Each and every scene (comedy, fight, melodrama) made , was so good to the core like it was watching some 2007/8 movie . Each and every person & particularly those seven samurais lived in that particular role. No over action- No camera consciousness - Perfect timing for each & every emotion . The art work was splendid , music was excellent (Never felt like a 1954 movie , as i said before). The climax rain sequence was the best. Akira is said to be the first person to idealize having rain in the climax fights. Similarly he used icy winds, fog, etc in his later films . The "Kikuchiyo" character in the movie is the best played role ive ever seen . That guy Toshiro Mifune performed that role with such an ease, similar to drinking a full glass of water after an hour of jogging in the hot sun . The camera angles were so so perfect that would really make you think "How did this guy Akira think all these man !! Wow..Never thought one could shoot a scene from this angle "....." Im not exaggerating anything here. Whatever written here is right from my heart - not from my mind. Because there is a difference between both. When you think/act something from your mind its always not the best choice - bcos our mind sometimes might get influenced by others/outside information. But when u do that from your heart - its purely from within you ; what u think is the best.

Anyways, i heard its being remade next year. But first made is & will always be the best. I kindly recommend all of you reading my blog (if any !, lol) to watch this movie if you really are the person who values artisitic skills. If so im damn sure u will love it. Cos it totally takes you to 207 minutes of the 16th century Samurai world , back in time. Enjoy people .

Trivia :

This was the first film on which Akira Kurosawa used multiple cameras, so he wouldn't interrupt the flow of the scenes and could edit the film together as he pleased in post-production. He used the multiple camera set-up on every subsequent film .

Rating :

4.5/5

One line reviews special

2008-06-01T05:31:00.000-07:00

The Mighty : [4/5]

Well balanced emotions - good screenplay makes it a must watch film before u die, if u believe in true friendship..

Things we lost in fire : [2/5]

A better ending - a better script - music are the things that the director might've lost in the fire..lol.

Three Men and a little lady : [3.5/5]

One of the cutest films of all time.

Lars and the real girl : [3/5]

Kudos, for such a novel & unique way of showing love, but i doubt if it'll go down well with all.

Semi-Pro : [2.5/5]

An Usual Willy-silly kinda cute comedy movie - strictly for his fans.

Forbidden Kingdom : [3/5]

Gr8 watching 2 Martial art Gurus fight among themselves and team up against the baddies.

Next : [3/5]

One of those not-so-realistic Sci-fi movies, which i dont usually recommend wasting time on - only & only if u wanna watch Jessica Biel. :)

Kuruvi : [1/5]

Undoubtedly the worst movie of all this week ,with irritating performances by Vijay, Suman & Ashish - except for the crafty cinematography throughout the film.

Snapshots : [3.5/5]

Something more in the climax would've made it one of my all time favourite movies , but anyways its a classic romance movie.

2008-05-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

IronmaN

The first Super-Hero movie of 2008 actually didnt disappoint me . Yea !!.. It was thoroughly enjoyable till the last dialogue , where Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark) tells to the press "I am not some superhero kind , well errr, actually - I AM THE IRON MAN" and the end credits begin . The first thing u feel after seeing this film is "Ok ! not bad..Hmmmmmmm...actually good. yea...It was good only. Hmm.. Thank God my money didnt go waste ." Impressions about this movie waver inside our brain in two directions - Good movie - Bad movie.

Good Movie :-

1.) Graphics

2.) Unlimited Subtle Comedy - which really lifts the movie & brings a difference among Superhero movies .

3.) Though many of them dont know Robert Downey Jr. they would definitely have a small place for him in their hearts.

4.) Perfect Screenplay for a Superhero movie .

Bad movie :-

1.) Gwyneth Paltrow looks so skinny. She is totally made to look awful. I was totally disappointed .

2.) The climax fight cud've been made lengthier and better.

3.) Not the best of soundtracks.....

Having all this in mind, its a tough situation to rate it among our hearts. Thts the reason why it takes little time to really know its good /bad/average....Anyways i found it to be a decent Superhero flick .

Rating :-

***1/2