Damn! India lost a contest they should have easily won. Anyways its history now. Here’s my two cents on the Indian players. I’ll begin with the captain- Venugopal. He had a pretty ordinary outing. Actually he disappointed. If this is the way he’s going to bat I don’t see him playing int’l cricket after the Windies tour. Then we have Robin Uthappa. He did well for himself but again I’m not impressed. He’s didn’t bat as well as he could and went for the ’safety first’ approach, and that isn’t what he’s known for. Sehwag is slowly getting back in form and Uthappa will really have to pull his socks up if he wishes to stay in contention. Shikhar Dhawan was the other opener and he had a great time. He looked more in command than Uthappa. Don’t know when he would get his ODI debut but yes if he continues the good work he may get to play tests soon i.e. if Jaffer wastes another chance. The player who really impressed me was Rohit Sharma. He looks pretty decent. I had read somewhere that people were saying he could even play the WC2007. That might happen if Kaif and Venugopal don’t get busy. This kid is the one to watch out for! I was very eager to see Reetinder Singh Sodhi and he looked like a shadow of his past self. He has put on weight, bowls slower and his batting doesn’t look as good it was earlier. And yes he isn’t a sardar anymore, he has cut his hair. He was ok in Abu Dhabi and not good enough to play for India again.
Dinesh Karthick was the keeper and in a way the captain of the team too. You could see him all over the play, encouraging his team and even lending a few words of advice. All this while Venugopal stood in a corner, his mind somewhere in the Caribbean! Karthick did well, both with the bat and the gloves. He’s unfortunate to be around when the Great Dhoni is at the peak of his powers. Karthick won’t be India’s Gilchrist but he surely can become a Mark Boucher or Kumar Sangakarra. Yes he’s way ahead of Parthiv and is India’s no.2 keeper. Now we come to the bowlers. First up is VRV Singh- the leading wicket-taker. VRV picked up wickets but will have to work harder to qualify for the Indian team. His line & length needs a lot of attention. Though the statistics may have other things to say, he still is the kind of bowler an aggressive batsman like KP would love to face. RP bowled well in patches. He has lost his rhythm after he was made to warm the benches for no fault of his. I don’t want to see him waste away. He’s got movement, discipline and he can generate pace too. Hope the real RP is back soon. SS Paul was the 3rd seamer in the squad and going by current form- the best amongst the three. And he only got to bowl seven overs in these two weeks. Really sad. Hope he gets a bit luckier when India-A tour Australia. Ravinder Jadeja and Piyush Chawla were the two spinners. Chawla picked up more wickets but didn’t look in complete control. He can do much better. I had seen Jadeja bowl earlier in the U-19 WC finals and wasn’t impressed with what I had seen then. I must say my opinion regarding him has changed considerably. Good exposure will see this guy become a very fine left-armer. Hope that does happen. Vidyut, Badrinath, Jhunjhunwala? These three didn’t get many opportunities…
India-A will soon be touring Australia where they not only play the hosts but also teams from Pakistan and NZL. My team for that tour would be- Dinesh Mongia (captain), Robin Uthappa, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Venugopal, Gautam Gambhir, Joginder Sharma, Dinesh Karthick (wk), Ravinder Jadeja, Piyush Chawla, SS Paul, Praveen Kumar, L.Balaji, Ashish Nehra. No VRV for me. RP is already getting the required exposure. Balaji and Nehra are coming back from injury so this would be a good opportunity to get back in contention for the India team. I prefer Joginder over Reetinder, as the all-rounder. Praveen Kumar is the new face. He’s a medium-fast bowler. He not only was UP’s top wicket-taker but also got runs when needed. And no, I don’t think the ‘chayankarta’ would select this team. VRV will surely be there. I just hope Praveen makes it.
I saw ‘Crash’ today and ‘Brokeback Mountain’ almost a week ago. I wanted to write about ‘Brokeback’ immediately but decided to wait until I have seen ‘Crash’ too. I wanted to see for myself why these two movies bagged the top honours at the Academy Awards. I really don’t give a damn who wins movie awards. All of them are bogus, fixed and prejudiced to some extent. Find it hard to believe that Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar, Quentin Tarantino is kept at bay, Martin Scorsese is always ignored and that all Satyajit Ray managed was a lifetime achievement award (and that too after a lot of lobbying by some faithfuls at Hollywood)! I’m not sure but as far as I know even Kurosawa never won the golden statuette. Never mind, its not these awards which matter but the creative satisfaction the film-maker gets. Yeah it’s nice to know that people appreciate and acknowledge your work, but that is only secondary. 
Anyways, enough of drifting from the main topic! First of all I must admit that I’m doing great injustice to both movies by writing about them together. Both deserve their own spaces. But these two were the best of 2004-’05 so the comparisons were inevitable! I don’t have really much to say. While ‘Crash’ is a great movie, ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is a milestone. Both movies have an excellent script, great direction and great acting. Both deal with very sensitive and important issues. And it’s very difficult to decide which one is superior. All we can do is state our humble opinions. IMHO, ‘Brokeback’ has the slight edge. And that’s only because of its theme. Ang Lee has taken on a difficult subject and come out with a brilliant movie. Homosexuality is a taboo subject and Brokeback is able to capture one’s apprehensions. This is one movie which makes you ask questions to yourself. ‘Crash’ does that too, but in today’s world people are more tolerant towards another race than they are to homosexuals. A homosexual is still seen as someone weird, one who has a serious problem when it’s just a question of preferences. I am neither for it nor against it. But yes I do believe that we all have the right to live in the society, the way we want to i.e. as long as one doesn’t engage in anti-social activities. That’s what these two movies are all about, that is the message in both of ‘em- Tolerance. Live and let live. 
It isn’t fair to pit such good movies against each other but if I had to decide the best amongst the two, it ofcourse would be ‘Brokeback Mountain’. But that doesn’t mean ‘Crash’ should go unrewarded. As I said I don’t really care who wins the awards but must say the Academy Awards were fair on the count of the best director and best movie awards. ‘Crash’ was declared the best movie while ‘Brokeback’ got Ang Lee the best director award. Call me an ignoramus but I really don’t see the difference between the best film and best director awards. I mean how can you win the best movie award and not the best direction. What is a movie? A project undertaken by the director. So if you aren’t the best director how can you make the best movie? Ofcourse the best movie award means that the particular movie had the all-round best ingredients- script, direction and acting. But then if you aren’t a good director you wouldn’t pick up a good movie. Neither would you be able to extract a show by the cast. Maybe there are some directors who are able to get even average people to give great performances and can bring the story on the screen in a way that it looks better than it did on paper…maybe. For me these two awards are more or less the same. Koi unnees-bees ka difference hoga. So for me it’s like both, ‘Crash’ and ‘Brokeback’ being declared the best movie. And deservingly so, Cheers!
Just read on DesiTrain that ‘Paanch’ is all set to release in June! Yeah, I know we have had this kinda news more than once but this time it’s straight from the horse’s mouth, the director-Anurag Kashyap. Hope ‘Paanch’ does make it to theatres this time. It has been a very long wait for us, the fans. Wonder what Anurag and the cast must be feeling…Anyways here is a 4-minute ANI-report on ‘Paanch’. Don’t know when it was made. It says in the report that, ‘Paanch will release in July’, which July? 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005-no idea! Also don’t remember where I downloaded this video from…all credit to you ‘Mr.Source’! It’s 4 mins-23 secs long and features a small interview with Kay Kay and Tejaswini. Size? Only 1.45 Mb! You’ll need Realplayer for it. Here’s wishing AK and the ‘Paanch’-team the very best of luck and a big middle finger to the Censors!
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD!
Today the master blaster celebrates his 33rd birthday and here's wishing him the best of health, and form! I won’t harp on Sachin's earlier conquests. That’s history now. Forget about all the records in his name and the ones he's close to breaking. I want to see the Sachin of the 90's. He had to carry the burden of the entire team for most of his career. Now that isn’t required. All he needs to do take good care of himself and go out there, play is natural game, enjoy himself. Play as he has never before. Don’t care if other batsmen surpass him. How many of them can claim to have such a long career and such consistency. Not one. Sachin will ofcourse have to win over his personal demons-fitness and self-doubt and make the WC2007 his crowning glory, Inshallah!
Was a bit surprised 'Being Cyrus' being released on DVD so early. I guess it didnt do very well. But it is a good movie. Homi Adajania makes an impressive debut. Its not easy to convince to get such a fantastic cast for one's debut. I won’t waste words giving you as synopsis of the movie. Just that it is a must-watch. It’s what one would call a 'Psychological thriller'. A good script, good cast and equally good direction. Naseer, Saif, Boman Irani are all flawless.
Naseer impresses the most. What a great actor he is, flawless. Saif and Boman do justice to their roles. Simone Singh is competent. Manoj Pahwa and Honey Chhaya are the surprise packages. Most of us have seen Pahwa on TV-serials like 'Office Office' and he does a good job here as well. He should look forward to getting more good work. Mr. Chhaya, I've seen him in a couple of adverts and wasn’t aware of his immense talent. He does the role of the hassled father very smoothly. Can’t think of anyone in his place. The only person who didnt seem to fit was Dimple Kapadia. She doesn’t look like Katy or maybe the director wasn’t able to get the best out of her. Nonetheless 'Being Cyrus' is a commendable effort. Adajania can do even better, though.
What a comeback Jason Gillispie is enjoying- 8 easy wickets and a 201 runs! Forget about the wickets, Gillispie or Horsie as he's also known as, became the first night-watchman to score a double ton! Well we knew Gillispie was a good night-watch but he overdid himself against Bangladesh. They simply had no idea as to how to get rid of him and he sure the best use of it, didnt he?! As the innings progressed one could see his strike-rate climb. What next? A regular place, once again in the test squad.
Bangladesh were whitewashed as expected but they must be happy with the show they put up. Mohammed Rafique was most impressive and Bangladesh are lucky to have a competent Enamul Haque Jr. as his successor. Not to forget Shariar Nafees and Habibul Bashar's contributions with the bat. Ashraful disappointed. Hope he puts some runs on board in the ODIs.
Medha Patkar ended her fast (not today, that was actually a couple of days back) and slowly & gradually this issue (the NBA one) is getting out of news. I really don’t know what the fuss is all about. It’s so clear and simple. The height of the Mansarovar dam should be increased only when all the villagers (who have been affected by it) are suitably rehabilitated. Ofcourse the rehabilitation process needs to completed first and then the increase in the dam’s height, and not vice-versa. But this is idealist talk. The government will ofcourse go ahead with the dam work. It’s much more easier and above all, who can forego the political mileage. Being fair and relocating the affected first – to do what is right, requires courage and strong political will. And sadly we find these very rare in India. The most we can do is keep raising the issue repeatedly so that it isn’t forgotten. Medha Patkar is an extra-ordinary person. But why don’t we have such people in politics? Because it’s beyond even these extra-ordinary beings to survive in this rut. I’d like to see more celebs like Aamir Khan to come out in the open and support the cause. Some may say that they do it for publicity. Who cares really, as long as the issue gets highlighted.
Another hot topic is the Salman Khan-black buck poaching ‘kaand’. I can’t believe how stupid some people are. They are supporting the actor just because he’s a star. God damn the details, what happened, who cares. Nobody raises a finger on someone we adore. All I can say for them is that they are ignorant. And very stupid. Salman will have to pay for all what he’s done. Not only for the poaching case but also hit-and-run case. Nobody’s above the law. No-one. I know there are a lot of people who do similar crimes and get away. Yes Salman will be severely dealt with because he’s a celebrity. Celebs are humans too but then don’t they have brains too? He wasn’t drunk was he? The people who support him inspite of all this be damned. I just hope the courts don’t take all the time in the world and deliver their verdict as soon as possible.
This review should have come much earlier but as they say-better late than never! I first heart RDB-songs on the radio when I was seated at the back of the car. I was having my driving lessons, the instructor seated next to me. Then the local FM station started dishing out one RDB number after the other. Well my instructor wasn’t pleased with the progress I was making and I wasn’t pleased what I was hearing. Not the driving lessons stuff, I wasn’t the least impressed with Rahman’s latest compositions. ‘What kind of music is this’, I wondered as I changed gears. Nothing made sense. Except ‘Rubaroo’, everything else sounded trash. Then after a couple of weeks the movie came out. We’ll talk about the movie later. As soon as I was done with the movie I switched on my desktop, enqueued RDB’s album to Winamp, adjusted the volume, switched off the monitor, and closed my eyes. Everything made sense now. Dunno why but I just couldn’t make myself to like RDB’s album before I had seen the movie. Now, I think RDB is one of Rahman’s best. ‘Paathshala’, the title song, ‘Rubaroo’, ‘Khalbali’ and ‘Tu Bin Bataye’ are classics! My fave is ‘Khalbali’-a very intense and an addictive song. Reshamiya, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Vishal-Shekhar are very good but Rahman is the best, in a league of his own. Some in the west call him the ‘Mozart of the East’. Haven’t heard Mozart but I’m sure AR Rahman doesn’t need such titles. He is an institution himself. Pop that old ‘Roja’ cassette in your stereo and you won’t feel it was composed more than a decade ago. The shelf-life of Rahman’s works is simply amazing. Listen to any of his stuff and you feel the freshness of his timeless songs. Don’t think bravo would be the right word. It should be ‘I bow at you feet, master’!
And now for the movie…
Another new director and another great movie! Don’t know how good the rest of releases this year would be but for now one can safely declare ‘Rang De Basanti’ as the movie of the year. Yeah it’s that good. Fresh, hard-hitting and entertaining. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra made a bad copy of ‘Face:Off’ in ‘Aks’ but a comeback he has made with RDB. A great script, good direction, good acting, good music-it’s almost perfect. Why just ‘almost perfect’? Because no national-level politician would be in such a tearing hurry to disperse a non-violent gathering through violence and even terrorists get a chance to lay down their arms before the Army launches a full-fledged attack on them. These are the only flaws I find in the whole movie. Otherwise it’s as good as there can be. Aamir Khan gives another memorable performance. But I was more impressed with the other leads. Siddharth, Kunal Kapoor, Sharman Joshi, Soha Ali Khan-magnifico! I don’t how they zeroed upon the cast but whatever they did, they couldn’t have done it better. Atul Kulkarni is one of the finest actors in India. Hope to see him more often now. Prasoon Joshi will now be an even more sought after lyricist now. He truly is the successor to the likes of Gulzar and Javed Akhtar. Good to see that such movies are made and do well. People have been complaining about the message this movie gives out. All I have to say is desperate times call for desperate measures. If violence is the solution to the end of evil, so be it. Mind you, the director hasn’t advocated mindless bloodshed. Ofcourse we live in a civilised world but unfortunately there live many characters that use this to their advantage and slaughter humanity. And if violence can weed them out, I don’t think anyone should have any problem with it. Its simple- you cross the limit, you face the music.
Dhoni has climbed to no.2 in the ICC ODI rankings. Was wondering if he is really that good. I mean he has to have some talent to make those many runs at more than a run-a-ball-rate. Yes we do have a wkt-keeper who can bat. But most of the 40-odd games he has played have all been in the sub-continent. I don’t doubt Dhoni’s capability. He does have an unorthodox technique but what matters are the runs. What I really want to know whether he can do his stuff on seaming pitches (ENG, NZL) and bouncy tracks (AUS. SAF). There he’ll not only encounter different conditions but also more disciplined bowlers who can do a lil’ more with the ball. My gutt feeling is that he may have some problems adjusting but as soon as he’s through that stage he’ll immediately move into his blitzkrieg-mode. What makes me feel so is the way he has batted when India were in a bit of a fix. If everything’s pretty okay Dhoni hits the top gear whereas when the going isn’t as easy he tends to take up the responsibility of steering the ship out of danger. When Dhoni was tearing the Paki-bowlers apart he was hailed as India’s Afridi by the Paki-media. I’m sure even they would admit that isn’t so. Dhoni, unlike Afridi, is way more consistent and has the ability of not only making biggies he’s once he’s set but also bat responsibly. Hopefully he’ll also turn out to be a trendsetter in Indian cricket-of wkt-keepers who can also be trusted with the bat! IMHO, Dinesh Kaarthick may pose a threat to him, later. Kaarthick does a neat job behind the stumps and with more experience will become a better bat. Provided he keeps putting in the hard work he will get opportunities. Might not become a Gilchrist like Dhoni but surely a Boucher or even a lil’ better. Parthiv? I like the guy’s gutts but not his keeping skills. He’ll have to work a lot on that. As of now its gonna be Dhoni and only him butt yes if he needs a break or is injured or heavens forbid, loses his golden touch, we have Kaarthick. And just before I sign-off a side note: Could someone please tell Dhoni to let the man-of-the-match ride his bike himself?! What is he doing?! Making sure TVS Apache gets some free publicity or is the official chauffeur of the team?!
Another good win for the Indians! This one was surely England's best batting effort and again they fell short. Also their bowlers let them down, again. The Indore-pitch was what you call an ideal ODI wicket. The ball comes onto the bat, there is something for the quicks and the spinners too. So it really didn’t matter whether you won the toss or not. It came down upon Pietersen, Collingwood, Jones to deliver and they did it but I'd even if one of them has stayed at the pitch till the last over, England would surely have crossed the 300 mark. And that would have helped them to finish the tour on a happier note. Instead they ended up with a Test win (all credit to them for leveling the series) and an otherwise disastrous tour. Not only did they lose the ODI series 5-1 but also lost two warm-up games!
Sreesant picked up 6/55 and was instrumental in preventing the English from getting close to 300. His bowling wasn’t special but he did the basic stuff right and lady luck smile on him. Six wickets in a match is a good reward for the effort he has put in recently. Pathan got 2 and is now one away from 100 ODI wkts. So the 100th one should be a Paki! Great! Powar, I think was hit for 3 sixes and still gave only 43 runs in his 9 overs. He's gonna play a big role in the near future. Uthappa finally got his debut and made good use of it. His innings of 86 runs wasn’t flawless. But even then 86 runs on your debut is very good. He could have got a 100 had it not been for the cramps and some very smart work from Jones. Dravid did his job. Both of these Kannadigas fell in quick succession and Yuvraj-Raina took good control of the situation and India were home with 7 wkts in hand.
Yuvraj won the man-of-the-series award for 2nd time in succession. The previous one was against the Pakis. Raina's success means Kaif will have to be left out. Now if Uthappa can get some more good scores it could even mean Kaif being left out of the squad itself. But if we have gained Raina and Sreesant, we have lost RP. He was made to warm the benches as D&C didn’t want too many left-armers in the team, even if it meant leaving out an inform RP. And spending too much time on the reserves list has had its toll on RP. He surely has gained a yard in pace but his line and length seems to have gone for a toss. He will get his chances and hopefully he'll be back. VRV has been a big flop. He hasn’t been generating the pace he is famous for and more importantly his L&L is non-existent. He'll hafta work harder to be able to get his next cap. Rather have Agarkar than him. Munaf has now played three games and is yet to take his maiden wicket. Dunno what’s wrong with him. Is he our Matt Hoggard or what?!
