this is one of them which flatters to deceive. rahul bose is a good actor but he has his limitations which are very clear in the movie. it would have been more interesting to see javed jaffery in the role of a protagonist for a change.
the director has done a decent job but he has been unjust to the story and goes off on a tangent about racism. the characters are very sketchy and subsequently look unconvincing.
KK menon(antagonist) is again a good actor but he looks too weak to carry off the role of a I am GOD character.
the incident  on which the movie revolves has not been given the treatment it requires but the director must have thought the romance between rahul bose and the actress is more central to the storyline.
the movie has a dull pace which makes it very real and the scenes of north india(srinnagar or whereever the movie is shot) are beautiful and if nothing the movie may just add to the tourism.
we do require such movie makers who try and highlight the racist issues which are ingrained into the deepest corners of our society. well done.

i have been asked this question many a times, initially i would have a good laugh at this but then i realised they were serious.
i think these people watch a lot of those hollywood b-grade futuristic movies where the society is at peace and everybody loves everybody else and no one is fighting. everyone is contributing to the society. case in point: this happened some years back, 6am in the morning i was chatting to my wud be wife on the phone and smoking. i was in me own happy world. i drop the cigi on the road and on comes a middle aged woman shouting at me for such an act of indecency that too as she stated from a smart and educted person. i but naturally had no choice but to say sorry and could not help but add that did she really hope the other 8-9 billion people to also change?
fine me and many such people and see the miracle.
a must to put in a beatles line from a song at this point " all "these insightful" people, where do they all come from".
ambition is another interesting subject, we normlly link our bank balance to ambition. and sadly everyone has to earn a lot of money to be able to say that money is not your ambition or goal in life.
for a fact i know one person who has a bloody decent job(IT) but he does not harbour any ambitions. his only aim in life is to provide for the family the way his father did and raise his kids, give them the education he can afford. and mind you,  not many people are as clear as him about what they want and i for one, respect that. but the irony is his wife does not respect that. but lets not go there.

was thinking of writing a funny piece on the current situations but i think its better straight up.

we are at it again, seduced by politicians who have done absolutely nothing for state or country on the contrary they have been bleeding the coffers dry. mostly all the people are doing nothing but trying to get ahead in their political ambitions be it the person(lowest level of political hierachy) on the road or a political bigwig. one person dies in nashik who has nothing to do with this and the government does absolutely nothing.
our government's inability to handle such situations keeps alive our
belief that nothing can be done and this is our birthright curse.
we, the common man work too hard to have our lives depend on such acts of violence. we just want to have a good job, pay our taxes and strive to provide for our family. we want to work hard, raise our kids and die(just like how we have a loud burp after a good meal).
so please give the government a standing ovation for keeping our faith alive. well done. 

what a movie ! this movie has given us a glimpse of  what was a very small part of our history and makes us craving for more of such story telling. Hrithik's charisma as the king of kings has us enthralled and aishwarya rai's beauty keeps us spellbounded. Add to this Ashutosh gowartrikar's expert handling of the subject makes this a spectacle of a movie. Hrithik's dialogue delivery is some scenes reminds me of prithviraj kapoor in Mughal-eAzam and i wont be surprised if he had studied the master.
what did surprise me were people cribbing in the movie, they could possibly be expecting something that was not in the history.
when you know that our history is not well recorded and is sketchy then you want to stand up and applaud to this man for the sheer courage to do such a movie and after seeing the finished product, you know you have seen a master at his best.
this movie will test everyone's patience as its long but but its fantastic for people like me who love history.

so the bhajji incident is over, cricket goes on and everyone is happy or ateast want to get on. people all over the world have taken this as the money power of the BCCI and accepted it.but lets have a look at the trial conclusion;
bhajji is fined for 75% of his match fees for abusive behaviour ! thats all fine but if you conisder that andrew symmonds started being abusive and started this altercation with bhajji then Mr Hansen you should be fining Andrew symmonds and not bhajji but then you always looked more like a prop then a judge.
Anyhow, its clear that the BCCI muscled the ICC which in turn dished up a good drama for us and cleared Bhajji. In the process it looks like it was accepted that Bhajji did call symmonds a monkey but then we should have been big enought to accepte the punishment as bhajji being an international cricketer should be watching what he says. But but but if that was not the case then Symmonds should have been fined for abusive behaviour(he started it) and also Ricky Ponting for his role to make this into such a big mess which shows that he had acted irresponsibly as a captain.

but we will never have that will we? BCCIs action have ensured that its clear to everone that Bhajji is guilty.

this is a movie specially for the beatles aficionados and for the people who have seen or loved the 70s.
i by no means am telling anyone to see this movie, infact we were lucky to get a ticket to the 11.10pm show in pvr juhu, the show was going to be cancelled as not enough people(they require atleast 10 to hold a show) but luckily a group of 10 people came and we could see this.
i am a beatles fan and i did enjoy.
the movie is about the 70s against the vietnam war backdrop and with references to chuck berry(the bloody greates guitar player ever), lesbianism(those time it was openly accepted in usa) and ofcourse the flower power scenario.
its a simple story of love, pain and then a happy ending and all through we have beatles numbers.
i really think the director has done a good job of capturing so many moments of those times and seamlessly included them in the story.

the movie had to be cancelled as per the people at the theatres, its pretty obvious its not for everyone. the missus told me that this movie was badly rated and severely
criticized; even a 3 year old could have criticized it but putting your likes/dislikes aside and actually trying to understand what this was about but then they would not be critics would they?

i remember i had seen "a hard days night" at regal and most in the theatre including me were singing along. was a good experience.
   

what is going on in australia right now is sad state of affairs that time and again have shown ICC's attitude towards asian teams. the law somehow  differs for asian teams and other teams. there are so many examples and all of them crystal clear.
-if shoaib akhtar, murli  were bending their arms then what about brett lee? or is his arm beding cause of the guitar playing, but that could be allowed.
-the ICC did something about darell hair when they did not have any other choice, it took them a long time to act.
-remember the allan donald - rahul dravid affair? donald had abused rahul dravid a lot but no action.
-glenn mcgrath on numerous occasions has been abusive but always spared.
-some incident with michael slatter.
time and again the asian teams have been punished while the australians and english have got away clean.
prem panicker has written a very good article http://www.rediff.com/cricket/2008/jan/07prem.htm which is a must read.
i think symonds is using his race for his own sad little needs and he should be held up for that. if i was his race i would have been ashamed of the way he is abusing it to corner the indians.
the current controversy is nothing but ICC flexing their muscle and showing australia their support, clearly indicating to us where their loyalties lie(being fair is not the motto of ICC).
i think its high time the BCCI flex their muscle. we are the richest board in the world and any match involving india is a multi million dollar business. do you really think that people like ian chappel, dean jones, greg chappel etc can make a decent living had it not been for the indian board or indian TV channels?
if harbhajan has done anything that he should not have then he should be punished for it, fair enough but butt buttt should we not be asking for ponting to be banned for a longer period and 75-80% of his match fees? after all he is the captain.
as for mr symonds, he is a very good example of how to take advantage of being the race he is. is this not racisim??     

second test australia.the great autralian team has won many a matches by the fantastic bowling of glenn mcgrath and the best leggie ever, shame warne.
they still win a lot of matches by now its the due to the theatrics of ricky ponting and his team. i honestly feel the most talented person left in this team is now adam gilchrist and am bloody unhappy to see him become a part of pontings charade.
we have Andrew symonds accusing harbhajan for racists comments. i mean come on mr symonds have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and the movie predator, do you see any similarities between yourself and the alien? you could be his twin brother for all we know. lets also get one thing clear here, harbhajan singh's dad would also not know which race andrew symonds is from and being accused of racism is farce but now we have a lawyer(a white one).
calling n opponent/team mate bunder/monkey is very normal in sports in india but you cannot say that to people like symonds as that is racism(i am not saying harbhajan said that but just the gravity of the situation).
also, in this match, we are in this position due to the umpires hara kiri, right from the first innings where symonds scored 150 odd, then the umpires in the indian second innings have been in tremendous form, australia need not worry about india beating them in this series. its like 11 vs 13.
more on umpiring, whenever we have gone to australia, the umpiring has been nothing sort of galli cricket standard. i do remember sachin having the worst of decisions a couple of series ago.
also, steve bucknor should not banned from umpiring even in his home, the person truly is anti indian, not sure if anyone remembers his finger ponting at parthiv patel apart from many many of his decisions against india.
we have seen allan border make australia into a good fighting talented unit, steve waugh made his men fighters and now ricky ponting has a team of cheaters/actors and its just sad that this team will go down in history as a great team.

but hey we still will be fighting, we are not coming out with excuses like we do not have any experience in the fast bowing  department but only rookies but we will try and either draw or win the series.

so the new aamir khan movie yesterday, though i am not a big fan of him and consider him a meglomaniac, but but but i was impressed with the movie. impressed in the way aamir khan has kept to the story rather then making it about himself.the last two of his movies are actually with a message and some social cause(rang de basanti and this one).
there are some soulful moments and my mum and the wife were almost or rather were in tears in some of the scenes.
the movie is about a boy and his anguish to survive in a world of expectations and cut-throat competetiveness. the parents focus on their children being the best in everything is evident and am glad someone got this to the theatres.one of the lines in the movie goes(by aamir khan ofcourse), "if you want to have winners then breed race horses and not kids".
all the parents want their kids to be no1 or get 90+ etc. its like raising kids on an assembly line.
anyhow, though the movie is a bit slow and tedious in parts it has enough moments to carry it through. this may not be everyones cup of tea but worth if you are appreciate the taste.
 

we middle class are the providers of the money to the government and the rich. we spend money by the lots to have an existence which we call life. we have a lot of money power due to the sheer number of us.we have made many  a people millionaires by telling them we are ready to spend and they have provided the means(retail is booming).
we are the maximum users of public transport systems, we pay every little tax the government can dream off(all the taxes are passed on to us).
we put our money into life policies and the government bonds etc fully trusting that this money will  be tax free after some years.
we put little fix deposits into the banks which ofcourse are the lifelines of banks.
we coach our kids to do the same and have a good life.
and the cycle continues.

hail the great middle class, the most unappreciated bunch who are making millionaires and also turning the wheel of our great country.