Dont how this topic came to my head today but its one thing I keep thinking about whenever there’s a hike in fuel price. I have been following the price of petrol, the value of the US dollar and the price of Gold Flake (;-) for almost a decade now. The US dollar is getting weaker as the Euro keeps rising. Demand for Gold Flake in my household is, unfortunately as steady as it always was…! Price of petrol keeps on rising as if there is no tommorow. I suppose it qualifies to be called a giffen good. What bugs me is that despite the rising prices no-one is paying much attention to looking for any other source of energy which would run our auto-mobiles…They say solar energy is the way to go but thats one thing I’ve been hearing for all my life now! When will this ‘next big thing’ will actually become BIG? Why isnt there any source of energy which is as efficient as petrol, found in abundance and less polluting? Do we dont have a solution or is the so called ‘oil-mafia’ trying to prevent a solution from coming up? One keeps reading news articles prophesising that our oil resources getting extinguished by 2025. Then what are we waiting for? Its less than 20 years away people! Do something or let the truth out (i.e. if there is one is there is one)!
September 1, 2006
While attending a lecture I started thinking about the super-successful people of today. All of them have had to do very hard and smart work, to be what they are today. Was wondering what would they do if somehow all their wealth and power were stripped off them? I mean, would they be able to rebuild their empires, reclaim their positions? Like what would Bill Gates, Shahrukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar do if all their wealth, power, fame was gone in a flash! Would Gates be able to come out with a product that could atleast get him back atleast a billion dollars? Would SRK be able to beat the star-sons and once again be counted amongst the very best in Bollywood? Would Sachin be able to get back into the Indian team? How would these people script their return? Or would they be able to do it at all?! What say people?
August 31, 2006
One kick-ass email forward!
1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time … I know where my watch is pal, where the hell is yours? Do I point at my crotch when I ask where the toilet is?
2. People who are willing to get off their ass to search the entire room for the TV remote because they refuse to walk to the tv and change the channel manually.
3. When people say “Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too”. Damn right! What good is cake if you can’t eat it?
4. When people say “it’s always the last place you look”. Of course it is. Why the hell would you keep looking after you’ve found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they? Gonna Kick their asses!
5. When people say “life is short”. What the hell?? Life is the longest damn thing anyone ever does!! What can you do that’s longer?
6. When people say while watching a film “did you see that?”. No Loser, I paid Rs. 200 to come to the cinema and stare at the damn floor.
August 15, 2006
‘The Killer’ (2006) – Pathetic remake of ‘Collateral’!
Posted by pranshu under bollywood[5] Comments
I wasted another 2 hours and all credit to Mr.Nikhil Arora. Go and do something bad to yourself Nikhil! Or buy a mouthwash or somethin’ refresh your taste in movies. Yeah you really need it, seriously! Dont know what made you harp about ‘The Killer’ so much. Bad script & screenplay, bad direction, bad acting- you have everthing here! Irrfan Khan goes about killing his targets as if they are sitting ducks. Not his fault, he tries to raise the level of the movie and gives up. Emraan Hashmi cant act without a good director. No comments on Nisha Kothari’s acting ’cause there was none of it at all. Yes, if there is one thing she can work on, its her smile. Is she trying to look cute or vicious? Keeps you wondering whether she’s with the good guy or is the vamp! What luck?! I get to watch two movies featuring my fave actors and both are duds! I’ll be careful next time when you praise a movie, Nikhil! Ballet Dancer asked me a good question about me watching ‘Corporate’- “Ugh…whats forcing you into it?” The answer – My belief that good actors can make it worthwhile even with a bad script. To my displeasure, I found out that it isnt so. Good actors at most can do their part well. The rest depends on the script and its
execution. Poor Irrfan and Kay Kay. Would have been superstars if they were in Hollywood.
August 13, 2006
This is one movie, my friends, which made me feel like a complete loser. Why?! Half-hour into it and I began to wonder why dont have I anything better to do! Am I so worthless that I have to sit through such crap? This is one bad movie and Madhur Bhandarkar is a bad director and storyteller. Dont know how he made ‘Chandni Bar’. What made me sit through the whole movie? The Kay Kay Menon-fan in me! Yep I just wanted to see him. And I was disappointed on this count too. Its pretty obvious he did it for the money. Has nothing in it for him as an actor. All characters are so cliched. Lillete Dubey, Rajat Kapur were given such lame roles. One person who did get something to do was Raj Babbar and he did it well. Other than him this movie is trash. Bipasha is a star not an actor and ‘Corporate’ reaffirms this. I liked the song ‘O Sikander’ and thats that. Get to see a Kay Kay Menon movie after so long and what crap! Die Madhur Bhandarkar die!
P.S. Yep, I’m baak! My lappy is here and there will be a lot more activity here so keep watchin’ this space! And thank you Ballet Dancer for chattin with me as I ‘went through Corporate’. Wouldn’t have completed this movie without you! Coz I needed something even more boring and pakau than this movie……Cheers!
June 27, 2006
‘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.
June 14, 2006
'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!
June 14, 2006
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!
June 3, 2006
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!
June 2, 2006
Got this one from Tanuja so all credit to her!
