Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Movie Review: The H.A.R.T. breaker(Ra.One)

Posted by at 7:41 PM
Rating: ♦♦/5


What word defines a movie, with, despite having numerous good opportunities, brings out, the maximum number of "Alas!" and "Seriously?!!" from the viewer? If there is none, then I would say that we propose "Ra.One" to be a collective noun for such movies.

They had money, they had appreciable CGI expertise, they had a few of the top-billed actors of the industry, and of course, they had King Khan....then what did not work out for the movie? The answer, perhaps, lies in the 'H.A.R.T.' of everyone who has watched the movie- the unnecessary masala, which always constitutes an SRK movie-but sadly, all those comic sequences, and all that masala, did not work, for Ra.One-not to mention the countless lift-up from movies like Iron Man, The Warrior Way, The Last Airbender  etc.

Being the self-tagged , most expensive Indian movie ever made, I think, I was, initially, getting into the groove of the movie, but thanks to some(actually many) sequences of the movie, everything was just, spoiled, for e.g., how can you expect the viewers to believe that a 12 yr. old, can work like a pro engineer, to revive a Hertz Advanced  ResonanceTransmitter(H.A.R.T.), which was almost reduced to ashes, in the previous sequence? And there are many such scenes which actually kill the even bleak mood that might be building up in course of watching the movie.I think I won't do injustice, if I compare this movie with Robot...because, the not only the CGI but the storyline of Robot was far better and the scenes were far too convincing than Ra.One.

It is just sad that a fine actor like Arjun Rampal was simply wasted, in the movie, by giving a screen presence of what,  20 mins?He makes an entry so late,and yet he delivers such panache with his role that if only he were given some more screen-presence, then maybe, he would have become the best super-villain, among the ones the Indian Film Industry has produced so far. Pointless.


 And oh-oh one more thing: Vishal-Shekhar's background score.....seriously guys, if you are daring enough to insert the cult "Eeeeedaaaaa-Eeeedaaa" scream by Pancham Da, in the serious and seemingly appreciable fight and chase sequences, then I would say just one thing: SRK, you did a grave, grave mistake by overlooking the work by your composer-duo, because, those scenes were , again, KILLED , thanks to the background score!

Okay I discussed the bad points of the movie, but let me highlight the good points too....don't worry it won't take long because there were only few good ones.
-Chhammak-chhallo and Criminal- dance numbers were a treat to watch.
-The amazing fight and chase sequences-only if you subtract the horrible background score.
-Arjun Rampal as Ra.One.

But I think that, if you hype a movie to this extent, then only 3 good points are not enough, especially when there are so many low-points the movie has to 'offer'.
In short, choose any movie which is a good comedy, even brainless comedy will do....to spend your Diwali week....but alas! this is not Diwali 2010, when we had Golmaal-3 to suffice our appetite for a good time.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Sunil and his fetish for frame-less!

Posted by at 12:06 PM
We all are great...the world we live in is great...the people around us are great..the friends which enrich our social circle, are great...and perkiness, well, that's everywhere!

I narrowed down to 'friend circle', because that has everything to do with today's post.

Well, we all have friends, of all kinds...we have weirdos, we have showmen, we have hipsters, we have emo, we have the impulsive(wait, impulsive n emo, come under same category right?), we have the romantic, we have the talented, we have the chatterbox, we have the friend-who-is-always-seemingly-on-weed, and of course, we have, geeks, and lastly, we have friends who are a combination of all the aforementioned traits.

So I have this friend of mine, who is as geeky as me, but why I am focusing on him is because, there is something about him, which I want to share, in my creative way(I am not bragging, you will know how boring it is when you finish reading the post), with all my readers. No, I won't discuss love-stories, and I won't discuss other cliché stuffs. I am here, today, to chronicle his fetish, for, a very specific item-and that is, his frame-less-spectacles.

Now you will think, "Well this is what writing has come down to? Bloggers are blogging anything, as in, ANYTHING!!" but I assure you, I will try my best to make the read as entertaining as possible...and I know after finishing and publishing this article, my friend will be the first on whose wall I will share the link(now don't run away if you came here only because of me spamming your wall), so, a direct message to him, "Most of the following stuffs will be original, while some would to be fictional. So please don't sue me if you find something offensive or unpalatable."
So here it is, the story:


"6th! 6th one gone this year!" Sunil entered  the class, declaring as if something really important has abandoned  his life. Although we, his 'loyal' friends, knew already, what the matter was, but still, sometimes, one must listen to what the person has to say, else, confusions might arise.


"Yes so? What happened? Lost a pen or something?" I asked him. "No man, Nilesh broke my specs yesterday night!! That was the 6th frame-less specs I purchased this year" he said. "But you got it just a month back if I am not wrong? I mean, how could I possibly forget?" I said, and other people of the group joined in.

You see, the discussion was boring, but with your Prof. not coming to class, you will actually want to do anything that is less boring than just sitting idle.

"Ya man, how could you forget? Because YOU were the one who broke that 5th one!!" Sunil gave an expression that was neither accusing(he cannot, because all those 6 specs were broken mostly by us, in some way or other!) nor natural. "And also, the one before that!" I giggled. "Ya you should be fortunate that I settled for a burger and an ice-tea at McD." he said. "Saste mein saltaa diya"I wondered. And that too, thanks to some coupons I got from a website. Hostel life you see.


"By the way, how did Nilesh break it?" we all inquired. Nilesh was laughing all this while."Stop laughing! Your stint just cost me 450 bucks!" . "Okay-okay man, tell them what really happened!"Nilesh was still finding it hard to control his laughter.

"Well you see, we were hungry, and it was Maggi-time, so I asked Nilesh n Sudhir if they had some spare Maggi packets..." Ah! College life and the hardship of an engineer. Udhaari ki zindagi!
I wondered.

"...so we all managed to get 3 packs of Maggi, and started cooking..." "Abe rasoiye, we don't want to hear your cooking, and then your smooching, and then your love-making, and then your..." shouted someone untraceable, in the group, although we were pretty sure it was the slapstick Pankaj who, naturally, to save himself, would say, "Abe kisne bola be?!! Kaun hai, saamne aa!!".

"Yaar you people always keep digressing from the central topic to all your bullshit!"Sunil was getting restless.
"Okay-okay everyone, please pay attention to what he says...Bichaare ka Dil, I mean, chashmaa toota hai" Vinay, the class-neta announced as if this was another important announcement similar to staging a hunger-strike-support march for Anna Hazare.

"Haan toh Maggi banaate-banaate suddenly I remembered, that I don't have clean plates and spoons. Toh I told Nilesh to clean the utensils up, as it was his turn." Sunil was going on, less as a roommate, and more as a mommy-figure.

We were already exchanging glances,and seeing this, Sunil skipped the "cleaning" part and continued,"...and then, a quarrel followed. Nilesh said he did not agree to this, while Sudhir supported me that it was really Nilesh's turn."Sunil continued.

"And so, a fight started, and then Nilesh punched you in your face, and your chashmaa broke, right?"Ashish always reminds me of those advertisements by a famous biscuit-brand(20-20). "Yeah but that would have been natural be! There is a reason why I am laughing!" Nilesh was in splits.

"Shut up you a**!"Sunil continued. "Ya you guessed it right, it was getting to a fight, so I told Nilesh to wait, let me keep my specs aside, otherwise tu aise haath chala dega ke it might break.." he said.

"And then, masti-masti mein we started fighting, and..and...fight khatm bhi ho gayi.." he stopped.

"Then?" I asked, already yawning. "Then what, whilst talking to me, he was fondling the table on which he kept his specs, and a slight nudge, and his specs fell down on the ground, and it broke!" Nilesh wrapped it up, still laughing.

A brief pause.

"Achchha khatm ho gaya kya?" Pankaj broke the silence.

"You %$^&*%^%$#!!!! Subah-subah dimaag kharaab kar diya!!! Yeh koi story hai?!!" the whole group started shouting.

"Then why the hell do you always get a frame-less? I remember, I just tried slapping you on the cheek, and the slap landed on your specs instead, and there it was, your 5th one, in three pieces" I said. "Nahi yaar, I like frame-less"Sunil stated.

"But if you cannot maintain it then what is the point of buying frame-less? Get a half-framed like me?" I said. "I don't know man...Okay." Sunil said.

And as our classes continued, and we got busy in our regular nonchalant actions, I wondered, why is it that he always buys the same frame-less even if he keeps breaking it? Some sentiment attached? Or he just loves the design..

...Well, we will never really know the real reason behind this, but in the evening, Sunil was back-with the same, frame-less pair of spectacles, and as we all started betting money on how soon it would break, I wondered,oh madness! that surrounds an engineer-to-be, in his 4-yr. long college life!!!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Remembering Steve Jobs..

Posted by at 11:13 AM
I did not have much of a knowledge as to who Steve Jobs was, until two years back,when I started my college, and got a new laptop.
I started watching movies, like never before. I got assorted recommendations, huge lists, mostly from my seniors, and that's when I actually got the recommendation to watch a movie, titled: Pirates Of The Silicon Valley.

The title seemed interesting, and when I asked what is the fuss is all about, they replied, "You know it is the true story of how Microsoft and Apple came into existence. The stories of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs". I wondered, Bill Gates, who doesn't know him? But Steve Jobs, who is he?

And even today when I think of that moment, I laugh so hard! " Steve Jobs, who is he?" as if he was just another famous personality! But, going back to the day when I watched Pirates Of The Silicon Valley...I watched the movie, and understood many things about the work-policies of Apple and Microsoft in their initial days, which makes them what they are today. This only resulted in me taking deep interest on Steve Jobs, and I started scrambling whatever I could read from the net in a short span...from sites like Mashable, TechCrunch to famous blogs, I got to know quite a many things about Steve.

A pioneer of innovations, he always stressed on the creative edge that is, the quality of design of the products of Apple, the sharp, robust architecture-nothing could be compromised. There were times when Apple went downhill, and once again it was Steve who revived the stature of the company. Thrown out once, owing to his arrogance, he was to be brought back, more mature this time, scaling new heights.

I saw his famous Stanford Speech once-a truly inspirational piece. Amazing orator as he was, his instances, showcasing incidents from his own life, and what he learnt from them-were something which made me understand, how to introspect. 

I am not going to discuss the details of his advent, and his success story, his life with Apple-I believe anyone can look them up on the net anytime. All I did here was to express my thoughts as an engineer-to-be, on Steve Jobs, and  celebrate the life of a great persona, as a small thread, from my memory!

I am yet to own an Apple product, but I am sure that if people around the world gasp, scream and spend sleepless nights outside iStores every time a new Apple product is launched, then there has to be something special, really special about Apple, which upholds the vision of a great icon, who dreamed big, achieved big, but died too soon.....
...that bitten apple has lost his embalmer, but the tale lives forever...
RIP Steve Jobs (1955-2011) 
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