‘Gangster’ is a beautiful film. One usually expects ‘Hollywood-clones’ with some sleaze thrown in from Vishesh Films but once sometimes they come out with some original stuff which makes you sit back and admire. ‘Gangster’ is one such movie. Daya (Shiney Ahuja) is a gangster on the run – from the police and his associates whom he has disassociated himself from. Holed up in Seoul is his alcoholic wife Simran (Kangna Ranaut) who has befriended a club-singer Akash. The lonely and depressed Simran falls in love with Akash. Daya learns of this and is shattered. He vows to give up his criminal past and return to India. Simran realises she’s pregnant with Akash’s baby. He convinces her to turn Daya in so that they can lead a settled life. She falls for him, the cops finally get Daya and then Simran finds out that Akash is a cop on special duty!
Shiney Ahuja doesn’t have many dialogues but he is the show-stealer. He very effortlessly conveys his emotions of anguish, desperation through his eyes. Don’t know whether he’ll be a big star or not but on the acting-front he’s gonna go places. Kangna in her debut proves she’s an actress to be reckoned with. Not once do you feel that this is her first movie and she doesn’t have any theater background too. The only thing I didn’t like about her was her voice or maybe it was her diction. Will be interesting to see what kind of movies she gets to do in the future. Though I don’t like this guy but must admit that Emraan Hashmi does justice to his role. But he still has a long way to go. He’ll grow as an actor only when he stops doing the crappy movies he’s known for. Gulshan Grover has a came and he’s effective, does his part well.
‘Gangster’ is easily Anurag Basu’s finest effort. Though ‘Murder’ grossed more its ‘Gangster’ which will take him to the next level. And hey, ‘Gangster’ has done good business which got better thanks to its great music. The only part I didn’t like was the press conference scene. Only that segment isn’t entirely convincing. Otherwise ‘Gangster’ is a beauty. If there is one movie ‘Gangster’ comes second to, it’s ‘Rang De Basanti’. Good to know that Vishesh Films are finally getting it right.
'Wow' is the word you'll keep on saying as every scene goes by in 'Phonebooth'. This is one great movie. Larry Cohen wrote a brilliant script and director Joel Schumacher executes it as well as it could have been. 'Phonebooth' has just two lead actors, three supporting ones and one location, that’s it! 72 minutes of dialogue and you wouldn’t ever want to leave your seat!
Stuart (Colin Farrell) a slick New York publicist, is a dishonest man. Everyday he calls up his girlfriend (Katie Holmes) from a phonebooth so that his wife (Radha Mitchell) can't trace the phone call. And one fine day, after he's done talking to his girlfriend he gets a call on the payphone in the phonebooth telling him that if he hangs up the call he'll be shot dead. The caller seems to be some kind of extreme moralist and boasts of eliminating dishonest people. He forces Stu to confess and plays all sort of mental games. And then you have what is called a 'Hollywood ending'!
Most people may be put off when they read that it’s got just one location movie. Yep this is an all-dialogue movie but believe me it’s a pacy edge-of-the-seat thriller. You wouldn’t want to miss one word! I read somewhere that none other than the great Alfred Hitchcock gave the idea of this story to Larry Cohen. No wonder it’s so engrossing and keeps you guessing till the very end.
This movie made Collin Farrell a star and deservedly. He does a great job of playing the part of the slick, and smooth talking publicist who's forced to become a loser. CF's next big movie was 'Alexander' – a big flop. This guy has got great potential, one to watch out for. Keifer Sutherland (the Caller) has a great voice, just the kind needed for this role and the one you wouldn’t want to receive a call from when you are done seeing this movie.
'Phonebooth' was released in 2002. For some or the other reason I could watch and now that I have it sure feels that it was worth the wait. If you haven’t seen it go and rent it as soon as possible. Will take only 72 mins. of your time and…….. nope it'll take more. 'Phonebooth' isn’t a movie you watch only once!
Football season is here! This season comes to India every four years, that’s when the Football World Cup is on. We do have fans in Goa, Kerala, Bengal and the North East who are always hooked onto the game buts it’s the World Cup when football really captures the imagination of the public. I follow the Euro Cup and some of the big UEFA games too. But I must admit I still don’t understand football very much. I don’t get the off-side rule and I don’t understand why commentators call a deliberate attempt to trip the other guy a brilliant tackle! I also think a lot of footballers are very good at faking the injuries on the pitch. They cry and make faces as if this is the end of the world when replays clearly show that their fall was just another fall.
But football still is the beautiful game. And players like the Brazilians, Zidane, Shevchenko, Nedved are artists. Bekham I think is over hyped. He is a decent player but not as good as he is made out to be. Don’t know what the English would do if they had Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos in their ranks! Have heard a lot about Italy's Totti, but he's more famous for taking AS Roma, his club to great heights, not Italy. Same for Thiery 'Fiery' Henry. More for Arsenal less for les Blues. I like Zidane, Pavel Nedved and ofcourse the Brazilians a lot.
On paper Brazil again have the best side in the world- Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Adriano, Emerson, Roberto Carlos and Robinho in the reserves! Won’t be surprised if Brazil win again. But I'd hate to see that. I am sick of seeing Brazil win! It’s anyone but Brazil for me. They say Argentina have a very good chance, and so do Germany. I am rooting anyone who can beat Brazil. Here in India, most are Brazil fans. Some in the metros root for England. I won’t get to watch all games as my MBA program begins on the 4th of July. Hoping the best team wins and that isn’t Brazil!
More than a decade back, Netscape had declared war on the Internet Explorer and had made major gains too. IE struck back hard and consolidated its stand as the no.1 browser in the world. Now the WW-II of the browsers is on and in a way Netscape is back! Firefox is the new browser which is taking the WWW by storm and as per estimates has an 11% market share. And then you also have the darkhorse Opera. It will take time before these non-Microsoft products beat IE. That’s because IE comes bundled with Microsoft's flagship product – Windows. So whether you have Firefox/Opera or not, you'll always have IE by your side.
I avoid using IE as far as possible. IE just isn’t safe. You surf a couple of websites and then check with Ad-Aware and Spyware Doctor and you can sure that you'll find some junk which was forced into your PC through IE. Not to forget those annoying popups. Using Yahoo/Google toolbar does help to some extent, but that’s that – 'to some extent'. IE is safe only when you are browsing known sites like Yahoo, Google, Cricinfo, etc. Otherwise you'll PC might be in deep shit. If there was a way I would have removed IE from my PC but Windows won’t allow that. So it’s best to just ignore it and go for Firefox/Opera.
I'd say Firefox is the quickest and the safest browser. It’s the best because its quick, it’s very customisable and ofcourse it’s FREE! Firefox is what you can call your own browser. With so many options and extensions you can give it your own look, and make it work your way. Use Firefox with the No-Scripts and Ad-block extensions and you can forget about the security aspect. Opera is another very good option. I'd recommend it to those who think they wouldn’t be very comfortable with customising Firefox. Just go for Opera then. It’s as quick as Firefox and very safe too. I have tried Opera-9 beta and it’s really cool, especially the Widgets. Firefox too have released Firefox-2 beta (called Bon Echo). Haven’t tried that yet. People say its Firefox who's taking on IE. I say it’s the Firefox-Opera combo which is giving IE a run for its money. It will take time before this combo even get one-fourth of the market but that day will come.
Had a look at IE-7 beta. It looks cool and MS have finally incorporated tabs into it. But security wise its bad as ever. Why risk your PC's health when one has such great options in Firefox and Opera. Love your PC; use Firefox-Opera, Cheers!
Got this one from Tanuja so all credit to her!
