Review - Shor in the city

This started as a Facebook status update, but then I realised that I had so much to write about it that it might as well be a post on my much ignored blog.
So here goes - The promising trailers followed by some strong recommendations from friends, meant that 'Shor in the city' had to be watched.

The movie has 3 parallel story-lines whose characters briefly interact across story-lines. There is Tushar, Nikhil Dwivedi and Pitobash Tripathy who are generally engaged in activities that just lie on the other side of the law. The newly married Tushar has a printing press that makes illegal copies of books and sells them on traffic signals.
Then, there is Senthil Ram Moorthy who has just come back from the US and is in the process of setting up a small business in India until he starts getting harassed by the local mafia. Preeti Desai plays his love interest.
Finally there is Sandeep Kishan, a budding cricketer, who has 2 problems - trying to get selected into the Mumbai team, but needing money to grease the palms of some unsavoury selectors to do so and to win the hand of his girlfriend (played by Girija Oak) whose parents are pressurizing her into an arranged marriage.

The movie promises a lot and delivers some. Firstly, the movie fails due to some horrible casting - Tushaar 'Wooden' Kapoor cannot express, Senthil 'Oily' Ram moorthy is an idiot and Preeti 'Plastic' Desai needs only 3 scenes to let us know that she sucks.
Secondly, the editing is bad. Directors Raj-Krishna better look up some Chris Nolan movies to learn how to tell 3 parallel stories and knit them together.
The pacing is slow, despite having a decent plot, the movie seems to take ages to move forward and I for one never got the underlying philosophy of the movie (if there was one).

However, the movie does have its plus points -
Some characters are brilliant: Radhika Apte (playing Tushar's newly wed wife), Pitobash Tripathy (plays Tushar's friend) and the menacing local mafia who harass Senthil ram moorthy. The music is great (especially 'Saibo').
Dialogues are well written and most importantly the movie makes a decent attempt to follow in the footsteps of some brilliant new age Hindi cinema (Ishqiya, Peepli live, LSD, Dev D, Manorama six feet under, Ek chalis ki last local).

So the movie is definitely watchable, but don't go in expecting a lot.

The response

I received a sms which I will find very hard to forget, it read:

"Superman ud raha hai
Batman dushmano se lad raha hai
Spiderman diwaron pe chad raha hai
aur doberman sms padh raha hai"

Now, the dilemma was around how to respond to such wonderfully expressed sentiments. I could respond with another joke ("an old woman died in her childhood" types), but I always feel obliged to be appreciative of the sms sender's humour (or his makers in this case).

Now this brings me to another set of choices, which always confuse me:

LOL/ROFL - It apparently seems to suggest that I am doubling over with laughter, when in reality I am just typing 3 letters with a poker face. So it feels a little patronizing

VERSUS

Haha - everybody likes a good onomatopoeia, give that one knows what it is (no, it is not a medical procedure). But how many haha's ?
'haha', seems short, almost sounds like a sarcastic laugh, but 'hahaha', seems like a laugh that starts promisingly but ends suddenly, again indicating sarcasm. hahahaha, or anything longer makes me feel like I am beginning to sounds like an idiot.


For the life of me, I haven't yet cracked yet what the apt response needs to be - I normally tend to alternate between the two responses, but wish there was a better way of expressing mirth via sms.

The complexity of ordering food

If I come to think of it, ordering food in a restaurant always involves some complex maneuver's. Firstly you need to tackle the group you are with - At times everyone wants to order, shouting out orders and interspersing it with conversations with each other. This always gets me annoyed. Then there are times when no-one wants to order and everyone goes "Anything's okay".
Over that I am always suspicious of the guy taking the order, I am always certain that he's never got it down correctly! So I am restless until the food arrives.
But in all this, the most complex food order has to be ordering for 'Lime Soda'. Unless people on the table have known each other for year's, ordering lime soda is tough.
Here is how the order goes:
Someone - One 'Lime Soda- sweet' please
someone else - one more 'Lime soda - salt' please
me - 'Lime soda -sweet and salt', please
another person - yeah sweet for me too
last person - lime soda
bah!
Ordering lime soda is always messy

Some cricket...

When in school and college, we had all the time in the world to play cricket, the biggest issue used to be -
1. Risk of losing the cricket ball or damaging the bat as we would rarely afford to keep buying a bat or a tennis/cricket ball.
2. Lugging the cricket bat on a crowded bus all the way to the ground and back.

Nowadays, we can buy an entire cricket kit without worrying about cost and the kit sits in the car which forms our modern transport, but, the biggest issue is finding time to play cricket :)

However, today we did manage to find some time. The same gang from school/college gathered together (well, at least 4 of us did) at about 7:30 am, however we realised there was just no place to be found to play cricket. Most grounds were occupied by school kids for Republic Day (which was quite cool).
It took us close to 2 hours to find a place where we could play. This place turned out to be 7 kms away from our planned ground.
For Raj this ground was 40kms away from his home, for Dilip and Naveen it was about 25kms away!

Anyway, we finally did get to play cricket and just like we have been promising each other since school, we said "Guys, we should continue playing cricket and playing it a little more regularly "

While we may not find the time to get together to play cricket as regularly as we used to, its good to see that we are still willing to travel long distances and take a few hardships to play a game of cricket . Just like the old times :D

Three from the road

Okay, so in last class we learnt how to cross the road. In this class we shall learn what to watch out for when driving.

1. The airplane landing gear

Modus Operandi:

This is frequently observed in non-geared two wheelers. At the first sign of traffic, the rider (most probably a saree clad lady), will put out both legs from the scooter in mid-air in anticipation of stopping; Just like the aircraft landing gear that comes out right before landing.
But this person will rarely stop and most probably will continue cruising down the middle of the road with their legs out and at the slowest possible speed that will still allow forward movement.

Why they are bad:
The more hilarious they look the more dangerous they are. Just like circus clowns brrrrr.

How to overcome them:
Overtake them from a careful distance at the first opportunity. Unless you want to loiter behind them clicking pictures to show your friends

2. The case of the invisible bus-stop

Sounds like a story from the memoirs of Sherlock Holmes eh?

Modus Operandi:
A bus-stops is supposedly meant to be a pre-determined location by the side of a road which will allow passengers to alight and hop onto buses conveniently, while allowing other traffic to pass by smoothly. Well or so the grand plan was. Only, someone forgot to tell the bus drivers this.
Resulting in chaos every time you happen to trail behind a bus. The bus at times decides to stop right in the middle of the road without any warning, most of the times parallel to the bus stand, but some way away from it, thereby stalling all traffic and if you are driving for the first time, it will give you an opportunity to crash into the bus.

That is not all, it may happen that a convoy of buses have stopped by the road and one of them suddenly decides to pull out of the convoy - again without any warning - at an akward angle.

Why they are bad:
The bus, by design, is a large vehicle. Due to this property that it possesses, any trailing vehicle has no means to see what lies ahead of the bus. Therefore your driving solely depends on staring at the tail lights of the bus. Any sudden moves by the bus can cause havoc!

How to overcome them:
Memorise the bustops on your regularly taken routes, the bus stopping pattern must become a part of your muscle memory.
Once this is the case, then you can use the bus stopping pattern to your advantage. laugh at the stalled traffic as you whizz by!

3. Maruti Ritz

Alright time for what may seem to some like a sweeping generalisation, but rest assured it isn't.

If you ever see a Maruti Ritz in front of you, then be aware that you are in for a torrid 5-10 minutes. God forbid you should have one in front of you on a highway, then you can happily shift to 2nd gear and enjoy the scenery.
The car itself looks like it has recently acquainted its rear with a truck's front, and this could be a reason for its weird behaviour.

For those of you who own and drive a Ritz and who at this moment may have certaing negative feelings creeping in your mind about me, I have just one thing to say: Get a new car and go get a driving instructor!

Tagged: 11 of my favourite romantic songs

Okay Amu has tagged me and I need to come with a list of 11 of my favourite romantic songs.

1. Choo kar mere mann ko - Yaarana (Kishore Kumar)
Why:
Tu jo kahe jeeva bhar,
tere liye main gaaun
geet tere bolo par
likhta chala jaa un

2. Pal pal dil ke paas -Blackmail (Kishore Kumar)
Why:
har raat khwabon mein
tera aachal leheraye
har raat yaadon ki
baarat le aaye

3. Phoolon ke rang se - Prem Pujari (Kishore Kumar)
Why:
Saason ki sargam, dhadkan ki veena
Sapno ki gitanjali tu
Mann ki gali mein, meheke jo har dam
aisi juhi ki kali tu...

4. Dooba Dooba - Silk Route, Mohit Chauhan
Why:
Koyi jaane na, pehchane na
Yeh hua kaise
Tum aagaye, khwabon mein aise

5. Chandan sa badan - Sarawasti Chandra (Mukesh)
Why:
ye kaam kamaan bhawe teree
palako ke kinaare kajaraare
maathepar sindooree suraj
hothhon pe dahakate angaare
saayaa bhee jo teraa pad jaaye
aabaad ho dil kaa wiraanaa

6. Sab ka katega - Bodhi Tree :P
Why:
Teri yaadon mein kal ki raina bitayi thhi
Meri aankhon mein phir se aas bhar aayi thhi
Shaakhon se phool toote, raahon mein jiske
Dil dooba, numm hua pyaar mein uske...

7. Sabse peeche hum khade - Mohit Chauhan
Why:
zamane ki baaton mein uljho na
hai yeh aasan jaan na
khud se agar tum jo puccho
hain hum tumhare ki nahi

8. Aap par arz hai - Lucky Ali
Why:
Aap par arz hai,
laakhon karodo arabo salaam
Aap na hote toh yeh dil
Jaane kisko deta salaam

9. Bade acche lagte hai - Balika Badhu (Amit Kumar)
Why:
Tum in sabko, chhod ke kaise
kal, subaha jaaogi
mere saath, inhe bhi toh tum
yaad bahut aaogi

10. Chal chale - Woh Lamhe (James)
Why:
Na jaha bheed ho, na jahan bhar ke log
na sheher mein basey, laahkon logon ka shor
chand lamhe tu inse mujhe duur kar
chal chale apne ghar, humsafar

11. Humsafar - Mohit Chauhan
Why:
Sur se saji, geeton si teri yaad
Tum bin sanam, bhaaye na koyi baat
Kaise kaho, akele chalun aaj
Aao sanam, Soone hai dil ke saaz


Feel free to pick this tag :)

Entertainment in 2010

So here are the top movies of 2010 in no particular order other than the one in which I recall them:

How to train your dragon - For its interesting plot and great animation!

Inception - For its originality

Kick-Ass - For its awesomeness

Band Baaja Baraat - For its fresh look at the Indian Wedding Business

Ishqiya - For bringing Guy Ritchie like movie making to Hindi Cinema

Peepli Live - For its satire

Social Network - For its being well made.

The A-team - For its action with humour (Expedables sucked big time btw)

Machete - For its over the top action

Dabanng - For its over the top action and for getting the real Salman Khan back

LSD- For being scary and funny in parts

Megamind- For its funny script

Wild Target - For Bill Nighy

Avataar - For taking movie making to the next level

More Movies

Leap Year

Romance about an Irish myth about a girl being able to propose to a boy during a leap year, so off goes the heroine to propose to the boy she loves, only to fall head over heels in love with a charming Irish inn keeper.

Average watch.

A Prophet

Brilliant French movie about life in the prison, that grows on you. An illiterate young guy, who also happens to be the protagonist is jailed and has a tough time, until he helps murder a rival. The most powerful gang in the jail begins to tolerate him, little knowing that he will turn out to be the smartest gangster the jail has seen. This movie follows the rise (or fall) of the protagonist, from a confused crook to a big time gangster.
Some brilliant cinematic moments. Fantastic movie!

The Wolfman

Great actors but disappointing movie. Benico del Toro and Anthony Hopkins star in this Victorian era thriller about a village haunted by a werewolf. There are a few thrills and chills, but overall makes for a tepid fare.
Give it a miss.

Pandorum

I am not a big fan of the sci-fi genre, but I watched this movie for one reason - Ben Foster and I was not disappointed. One of the actors whom I rate very high, thanks to "3:10 to Yuma", Ben Foster lives up to expectations.
Mankind has decided to send out a ship just as earth is about to be destroyes, and the ships crew wakes us from hibernation many years after Earth is destroyed. However they soon realise that most of the crew is missing and that the ship has been taken over by a race of mutant cannibalistic "humans" trying to hunt the remaining crew. A good fast paced action thriller with a twist at the end. I liked it quite a bit :)

An Education

Young school girl from a middle class, boring English family falls in love with a wealthy playboy and gets an education she wont forget. Well made. But nothing to write home about.


Many more movie to still be reviewed, I am lagging way behind :(

12 Angry men
Wild Target
Walk the line
Rope
Crank - High Voltage
Interview with a vampire
Perfume- Story of a murderer
Scent of a woman
Dear John
Social Network
The killer inside me
Adventureland
Cemetery Junction
Machete
Almost Famous

Naming the TV serials

Very rarely do I watch TV nowadays, except when there is a match on that I want to watch. Though I must confess that a very average series called "Lie to me" has caught my attention and I have watched a few episodes on TV last week (10pm Starworld , if you were wondering). Also the one episode of 'Modern family' seemed quite funny (11pm, Starworld, if your curiosity was piqued).

But what caught my attention was an advertisement I saw for a TV series on Sony, called
"TERA MUJHSE HAI...pehle ka nata koi" and the voice over says it in the same way, A loud and confident- "Tera mujhse hai" followed by 'pehle ka nata koi' in a meek voice as if she were ashamed to admit it.

The dearth of creativity when it comes to naming TV series strikes me. So much so that they have taken up old Hindi songs and that too ones that don't really fit!

I fear that soon they will have exhausted all the movie songs till the 80's and then move to songs from the more recent one's. So don't be taken aback if you see a serial named
"SEXY SEXY SEXY...mujhe log boley".

This leads me to wonder if there is an occupation that I have discovered here - "Chief namer of serials" or something along those lines.

Movies to tick off my list

I love lists. I keep a notebook at work and make lists of to-do items and when I am done I neatly highlight them with a...err highlighter.

The list of movies watched though has been long growing and here is my chance to catch up on the list...

Inception
Enough has been written about this movie and I loved it too. No, it did not have the same impact that 'The Matrix' had on me. But nevertheless it is a fantastic movie. Just complex enough for people to talk about it and but not so complex as to not being entertaining.
As far as Christopher Nolan movies go I would not rate it as his best work, I am hoping the best is yet to come :)

The man from earth

This movie is what science fiction should be :D Fantastic and mind blowing. I loved every bit of the movie including the ending. There are no special effects here, nor are there aliens, time travel or spacecrafts. There are a group of people talking in a room and that's it.
Take my word for it, this is a brilliant movie, I would rate it amongst the best in genre. Do not miss it.

Insomnia

This beauty of this movie is in the atmosphere it builds. Much like Nolan's previous work - Memento, this movie puts you in the head of the protagonist played by Al PAcino.

Two homicide detectives from the big city land up in a small town in Alaska to solve the murder of a teen. The sun never sets in the town and leaves Al pacino sleepless, nevertheless he almost does get hold of the murderer but ends up accidentally shooting his own partner during a stake out, but blames the killing on the murderer they were chasing.
The murder has witnessed the crime and now blackmails the detective who ridden with guilt can get no sleep whatsoever in a town where it doesn't get dark for months.

With a brilliant supporting cast of Hilary Swank and Robin Williams, this is a Chris Nolan master class.
It is, mind you, a remake of a norwegian movie, but that takes nothing away from the genius that is Chris Nolan.

Despicable Me

I had been waiting for ages for this one and when I did watch it, I was not disappointed at all. The 'hero' of the movie is a super villain Gru, whose life long dream is to steal the moon.
But for this he needs the super shrink ray that is guarded by his arch-rival and seems unobtainable until Gru realises that his rival has a weakness for cookies, sold by 3 little girls from the orphanage. Gru adopts the 3 girls in order to get to the ray gun, but realises there is more to life than just the moon.
The best part of the movie are the minions who help Gru with all his 'nefarious' activities, adding a lot of hilarity to the proceedings.
Immensely watchable.

Layer Cake

I am not a big fan of Daniel Craig as I think he is the sole reason for destroying the entire James Bond series.
But here he does a decentish job as a rich and suave cocaine dealer who gets into trouble on the eve of his retirement, as his boss gives him a couple of difficult assignments.
Given that this movie is from the same producers who gave us 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and 'Snatch', one would rather expect what follows.
This movie does not disappoint and even the ending is a little unexpected.

Edge of Darkness

Edge of darkness, as the name suggests is a dark movie, with revenge being its main theme. Mel Gibson, plays a cop who sees his daughter killed on his doorstep. He thinks that one of his enemies accidentally shot his daughter when trying to kill him, but soon realises that this is not the case, as he uncovers a few things that he did not know about his daughter which made her some enemies in high-places.
Mel Gibson in true Mel Gibson style wants revenge and revenge he does get.

A fast paced movie, that pulls punches at every twist and turn. Mel Gibson excels in the role.
Reminded me of another brilliant revenge flick of his, called 'Payback', which has been one of my most favourite movies.
A good watch, but not a feel-good watch.
Harry Brown

Another revenge flick, but this time with a difference. Micheal Caine plays a tired, retired ex special forces man, who day in and day out sees the senseless violence meted out my young gangs in his neighbourhood, but turns a blind eye to it. After his wife dies, the only thing left for Micheal CAine is his friend with who he plays chess in the local pub.
However when the gang of youth ruthlessly murder the old man, Micheal Caine has had enough and now wants revenge.
Brilliant movie, especially when it makes you wait and wait for Micheal CAaine to get angry You just want him to get out and kick ass and that he does!
Be warned that this is again not a feel good movie, but a fantastic one!

Blue Powder

The only good thing about this movie is Jessica Biel and the amount of Jessica Biel on display. You see, she plays a stripper.
Even the awesome Jessica biel is reduced to nothingness in this senseless movie about 4 strangers. The story aimlessly tries to get a common thread between the strangers, but fails miserably
I hated it.

A history of violence

Viggo Mortensen is as impressive as always. He plays a simple family man running a cafe in a small peaceful town.
But his world is shattered when he becomes the local hero after killing two psychotic criminals trying to rob him. He soon gets into the limelight and gets noticed by some underworld elements who seem to know him from the past.
Awesome movie that starts slow, but soon breaks into a super duper action flick as we see a mild family guy turn into a menacing individual.
Liked it a lot.

The Vampire's assistant

Any movie that has Salma Hayek with a beard can be safely deemed as a weird movie and this one is no different.
The movie starts off promisingly, as a a couple of teenage boys, go visit a freak show in town, only for one of them to be turned into a vampire.
But there the coolness ends and the movie gets quite boring and drab. Don't really watch this one unless you want to Salma Hayek with facial hair. brrrrr

Leap Year
A Prophet
The Wolfman
Pandorum
An Education
12 Angry men
Wild Target
Walk the line
Rope
Crank - High Voltage
Interview with a vampire
Perfume- Story of a murderer

Saturday :)

There were plans of a road trip to Hogenekal today, but we canceled due to the rains last night. But that leaves me with a nice and lazy Saturday.

I have already achieved waking up at noon on Saturday and today I want to - discover some new Jack Johnson songs, watch "12 angry men", go to Blossoms and buy an Iain Banks book, figure out the song that is in my head for the past 2 days, but that I have been unable to find out so far :(

Some movies pending a review...

Shutter Island

Brilliantly made movie! Though one can see the twist coming from a mile away. The cinematography and the direction make this movie a great watch. Oh and if you are lucky enough to not see the twist coming, then I suspect it will be a shocker!

The Escapist

I got this movie thinking of it as an out and out action movie, because I did not read the summary. It turned out to be a prison break drama/thriller. Nevertheless, I liked it quite a bit. The ending is a little unexpected and it adds the icing.
Very watchable.

Give em hell Malone

Now I picked this movie because again judging from the cover it seemed like a modern film noir and I looooove film noir (Watch 'brick' its brilliant). It turned out to be absolutely horrible. What were they thinking? Thomas Jane is an idiot.

Green Zone

I thought it was okay. I guess it may have to do with a bad quality print or it may just be that I do not like war/political "thrillers". It was a bore.
Now this is not too difficult to guess. Look at the poster that I flicked from some website and the unimaginativeness of it all -If such a word exists- should be evident.

Shutter

Oh I like Korean movies, In that... a horror flick that came highly recommended was a must watch.
Boy is a pro photographer, one day when driving back from a party, boy and girl hit a girl and weird things begin to happen.
It will not disappoint you. A decent horror movie throughout with a super duper ending. Watch watch. But make sure you watch the original, not some crap Hollywood remake.

KickAss

What-e-movie. It starts off almost like a teen movie. A young nerdy guy dresses up as a superhero and tries to kick butt, we think we know where this is going and suddenly the movie gets to be full of blood, gore and violence.
The characters are all caricatures but the violence is seriously gory. Fantastic movie!

Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Super psychedellic movie. Well known as Heath Ledger's last film.
Doctor Parnassus has a traveling road show, with a mirror that can lead into an imaginary world. The doctor however had struck a deal with the devil and the devil is here to reclaim his part of the deal, i.e the doc's young daughter.
Jude law and more importantly Johnny Depp fill in for Heath Ledger. I liked the movie but beware that it is a little weird.

Butterfly on a wheel aka Shattered

We are introduced to a happy family, Mother(Maria Bello), Father(Gerard Butler) and child. Things all go wrong when the parents are car-jacked and held hostage by a psychotic guy(Pierce Brosnan, in what seems like an uncharacteristic role), whose motives are not very clear.
The movie has its share of thrills and spills, but has too many twists and turns in the ending, to make it all seem very unbelievable. Abbas-Mastan may as well remake this movie.

The A-Team

Based on a TV series this out an out action movie is awesome! I loved all the characters (I am a huge fan of Liam Neeson) and there was a plot albeit a little convoluted. I have not followed the TV series too much, but if the movie is anything to go by, the TV series must've been awesome!
Must watch!

The Expendables

The Expendables pales in comparison to the awesomeness that is the A-team. Its like an ode to yesteryear action heroes. The Line-up has a tired looking Sylvester Stallone, a menacing Dolph Lundgren, The boring Jet li and Jason Statham. The only scene that had some element of awesomeness was the one featuring Jason Statham kicking ass on a basket ball court all 'Transporter' style.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis show their faces for 2 minutes and Mickey Rourke keeps painting and Tattooing Sly. (I think we see a little too much of Mr. Rourke nowadays after "The Wrestler").
The villains have Steve Austin and the movie has almost zero plot. Annoyed with this movie.

Other movies that will come up in the next review post:
Inception
The man from earth
Insomnia
Despicable Me
Layer Cake
Edge of Darkness
Harry Brown
Blue Powder
A history of violence

Road Crossing for dummies

So I have started driving a lot more regularly than I used to, and other than the auto's/two wheelers that try and squeeze into every nook and cranny available on the road, the other feature of Bangalore roads are the people crossing them.

I have managed to identify a few popular techniques of road crossing.

1. The Test match opening batsman


People who follow this technique of road crossing are super cautious and have a "great temperament".
Just like Sunny Gavaskar, who would wait for ages for a bad delivery off which he could score a single, these people will wait for almost ever, before they feel it is safe to scurry across the road.
They are especially irritating when you want to cross the road and they are "the lead" . They never make use of those promising gaps in traffic!

note: "The lead" - in road crossing jargon means to be the one closest to the approaching traffic. Though this person may change frequently, especially if you are standing in the middle of chickpet or K.R.market. The lead is responsible for crossing the road first, the rest just follow cue.

2. The "Kaho na pyar hai" dance step.

Now this a step that has been popular on Indian roads for ages . Much before Hrithik displayed it in the title song of the hit movie Kaho na pyar hai.

The step comprises of 2 movements: one step forward and one step backward, alternate this with flailing arms and you will have mastered this technique.
This is the best technique for people with commitment issues- step into the traffic and suddenly go back onto the pavement, repeat step till you finally want to commit to getting to the other side of the road.
If you are driving, you need to be able to ascertain when the person will come forward and when he/she will go back. You will be able to identify this technique only with experience of driving on Indian roads.

This step is demonstrated by Hrithik in this video watch closely from 1:21 to 1:25 of the video

3. The Matrix

This technique is fast gaining popularity thanks to the incessant flow of traffic. To master this technique - think Neo stopping bullets in the Matrix.



This is the simplest of techniques. Do not look left or right, put out your hand at the approaching traffic and walk across the road. The traffic will stop and give you way.
Note - you will have to have an expression of disdain and 'I don't give a damn' on your face. The traffic will NOT stop if you look like a cornered rabbit.

This can only be executed if you are super confident of the driving abilities of all the other Bangaloreans and have calculated the probabilities of brake failure on an average day.

As with all things 'Matrix', I cannot tell you more about what the technique is. You have to see it for yourself.

4. Flash

This technique is as old as the dinosaurs. Look left and right. If you notice the tiniest of gaps in the flow of traffic, put your head down and run at top speed across the road. Keep eyes closed till you think you have reached the other side.

5. Equated Installments

This just like the EMI concept, this is based on the divide and conquer principle. Don't wait for the traffic flow to dry out. Just cross the road a few feet at a time.
If its a 30 feet wide road, cross 10 feet first, thus making yourself an island as the traffic goes past you. Wait for the remaining traffic to slow down or take pity on you and then cross the remaining section.
This requires good agility as there arise a need to be able to duck out of the way of a speeding motorbike that is overtaking a slow moving bus from the wrong side and trying to occupy the same space of the road that you are standing on (or were standing on a fraction of a second before you ducked out of its way).

6. The parasites

Now this is the recommended technique for beginners and amateurs. Just stand on the pavement looking busy staring at the sky or at something across the road. Wait for an expert to arrive at the scene (This will be the person who will immediately take "the lead"). The expert will use one or more of the above mentioned techniques and you can just tag along.

See you on the other side of the road!

Of strange weekends...

So the past 3 weekends haven't been great - I had to work one Saturday thanks to the bandh. Spent the other weekend in Gurgaon. Was super ill and on top of it subjected to Akshay Kumar's "khatta meetha" the weekend before this.

That Saturday in particular was weird. We were returning from a nice evening of talking movies with friends at "Infinitea", and as we were hurtling down Bellary road, we saw a couple of guys lying on the middle of the road. The other vehicles were giving these guys a miss, but we decided to stop and see what was up.

As I got down from the car, I realised that I was the first one at an accident scene! There was blood all around and one guy did not seem to have made it. The other guy ,when I held is hand , stirred and opened his eyes, luckily 2 other guys came to help me and we managed to call the ambulance.
I was a little skeptical about the ambulance arriving quickly, so I ran to the nearby Baptist hospital to get an ambulance, meanwhile though the emergency ambulance we had called arrived.

By now loads of vehicles had stopped and the people in them were gawking at the accident and its victims, thus causing a jam and not letting the ambulance get to the accident! Some frantic shouting and hand waving ensued and we cleared the road for the Ambulance.

One thing that got me furious is the fact that people refuse to stop and help out victims of an accident, because they do not want to get involved and get into "trouble" with the cops. I have no clue how long those guys were lying there with vehicles passing by before we got to them!
The same people have a morbid fascination with accidents though. They have no qualms in stopping their vehicles and staring at an accident, at the cost of not letting an ambulance get through.

The one positive I saw in the entire incident was the prompt response of the ambulance. Please keep in mind that if you were to come upon such a situation, call the emergency number 108 immediately. They are very good!

Some spring cleaning

There is scurried activity at home, as Mummy and Amu go about preparing to host a dinner for some friends later today.
I, however have not been part of any scurried activity. I have spent most of the morning lazing around reading the Sunday morning newspaper at leisure, lying down staring at the ceiling and watching highlights of a cricket match on TV (I have no idea why sports channels show highlights of such inconsequential matches - NZ scored 163 and SA chase it down for the loss of 6 wkts in 43 overs).

This time though, nobody asked me to do any chores and this induced some guilt which led me to the long pending task of cleaning up the book shelf.

The return on investment of time spent is this -
1) I get to show that I have done some work
2) I get to pick out books to give my friend, who is collecting books for kids at her school in Kashmir

As I was lining up books by authors and height order I came across some really old Archie, Flintstones, 'Diamond Comics' comic books, along with the usual fare of Gokulam, Chandamama, Thak Thak and Champak's.
Lovely to see these after so many years.

I also came across the wonderfully written 'Original Script' of our away day play "Chronicles of the Dark Knightie" :P which was a joy to see and read through, though I still know it by heart.

Despite having loads of books, I only came up with a handful of books that I thought I could give away. So there goes the false notion I had, that I was one of those for whom letting go was super easy. Siiiigh.

However, if you can get your hands on any books that you think will be a good read for school kids, then get in touch with me now!

Till then I am going back to my lazing about *grin*.

Loads of movies

Well, I have close to 19 movies that I remember having watched... here they are

Alex is a pediatrician, who is on holiday with his wife, out having a leisurely swim in the lake, when his wife is murdered and he is knocked out cold. Alex is the prime suspect but has his name cleared. 8 years later, he gets an email from his murdered wife and from there begins a taut thriller, as Alex tries to uncover the mystery of his wife's disappearance, chased by a group of assassins and the cops, but with help from a Mafia type friend who is indebted to Alex for saving his son's life, Alex goes about finding his wife.
Good movie, the plot is a little over the top, but good in the thrills and car chases department. Oh did I mention it was a French film? You shall need subtitles.



Super film. To me this was like watching a modern film-noir. A child is missing, and a detective couple are hired by the child's aunt to trace her back. A couple of cop's lend a hand, but the couple must solve the crime themselves.
Like in most suspense thrillers, nothing is what it seems to be and there are loads of unexpected twists till the last minute.
It 's got Ben Affleck's little brother Casey Affleck (whiny accent annoys for a bit, but othewise he does a great job) and Michelle Monoghan (who looks like Liv Tyler) in the lead, with Morgan Freeman playing top cop.
Wonderful watch. But be aware it may leave a you a tad bit depressed. (wow ,I got to use one of my favourite phrases: "a tad bit").



Iron Man 1 was fantastic, Robert Downey Jr. made the role and the suit his own and was brilliant.
Iron Man 2 is also nice, though not as nice as the first one, for a couple of reasons:

1. The villain is not menacing at all. In all the confusion of what they want to do with Whiplash, they forgot to develop his character.Also, Mickey Rourke does not seem to have gotten out of his Wrestler Character, so half the time he walks about looking forlorn. The only saving grace is the Monaco Grand PRix scene, which was fantastic!

2. Iron man is a DJ and dancing. Well to me that was super un-cool. I know they wanted to show his as a troubled alcoholic, but errr there are more subtle ways of showing this than making him a DJ in his own party.

Other than that, it was all good. We got to see Thor's hammer as well (ahem, that sounds weird)

Confessions of a dangerous mind

You will know Sam Rockwell from Iron Man 2 where he plays Tony Stark's not so glamorous business rival.
Here he plays Chuck Barris, a game show host and creator, who is also an assassin on the CIA's payroll. The story is based on the memoirs of Chuck Barris, who claimed to be a CIA hitman in real life, though whether it was a fantasy he played out or whether it was true is debatable.
Its a great watch, especially, with Julia Roberts, playing a fellow CIA assassin. Super movie.


Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler), has his home broken into, his wife and child raped and murdered in front of his eyes by a psychotic thief and his aide. The aide gets death penalty, but the guy who commits the crime is let off after a few years in jail. Jaime Foxx plays the attorney who convinces Clyde that the best the law could do has been done.
But soon everyone associated with the case start dying horrible deaths. Clyde apparently works for a clandestine govt agency and now wants revenge. He tortures and kills the guy who murdered his family (which is gruesome but super awesome as well) and goes after everyone else associated with the case. Jaime Foxx must now try and save the innocent people who are being targeted by the erstwhile "Law abiding citizen".
The revenge bit is great, the manner in which he goes about killing is also good, but again the plot is a bit unbelievable.
Decentish watch.



Kevin Costner plays Lt. Cmdr. Tom Farrell and Gene Hackman plays the US Defence secretary, David Brice. Tom works for David Brice and both are in love with the same woman.
The lady in question is in love with the dashing commander whom she meets at a party, but is stuck being the mistress of the Defence Secretary. Brice does not know that the man who is wooing his mistress away from him is Tom Farell. In a fit of rage, he accidentally kills his mistress and tries to mislead everyone into a hunt for a mole in his department who he says was the mysterious boyfriend of the lady who was killed.

He hands the case to Tom Farell, who knows the truth (since he himself is the mysterious boyfriend) and must now get the Defence Secretary to pay for his crime.

Good thriller, with a super unexpected twist in the end.

Ryan Reynolds stars in this movie that deals with his character's daughter trying to identify how he met her mother and who her mother is. In a bedtime story he makes up the names of the 3 women he dated and was in love with, and lets the daughter guess who her mother is.
Average movie. No wow effect.


Horrible movie. Nagesh Kukunoor is an idiot.


I loved this movie! It pans out like a Hindi movie and is very well made and directed. Nit surprising for a Woody Allen movie.
The plot is pretty straigh-forward. The hero is a middle class, ex-professional tennis player who is ambitious but wants to earn it all on his own, without help from anyone. He takes up coaching and meets a rich young guy whom he soon befriends.
At a party at their country house he meets the guy's sister and who takes a liking to him, and they fall for each other. He also meets a beautiful lady(Scarlett Johansson) who he falls heads over heels in love with, but she turns out to be the rich dudes fiance.
Having married the rich girl and having landed a plush corporate job (thanks to his father-in-law), but still madly in love with Scarlett Johansson. Our hero is in a dilemma. And so it heads to an awesome last 30 minutes.

Watch it.

The rest are in a different post :D

A good weekend takes all of 5 days to come by

Thursday is the day I hate the most in a week, because I have already slogged out for 3 days and its still not Friday.
The weekends, to state the obvious, are a joy :) I haven't been out traveling a lot ,unlike the last few years when I was out every other weekend, but there is seemingly enough to do.

This weekend was super. Friday we discovered 'Couch' on M.G. Road. The match was a good watch (Brazil lost), but playing dumb charades in the crowded pub was even better :P

Saturday was time for getting our Karaoke set out to Apsara and Yogesh's place and belting out Hindi songs :D, followed by watching Germany thump Argentina, siiiigh. To round off the evening we watched 'The Others', one of the movies I rate quite high in the horror movie genre.

Sunday was supposed to be Tree Planting day, but just could not wake up to head out and plant saplings early. Nevertheless, Fava at UB city in the evening, The Oval bar at Mantri in the night and 'The A-team' with the boys to close out a good Sunday.

Okay! Till the next weekend then!

As I read this post I realise it would have been best if I had started with "Dear diary...". But well what the heck, a post is a post.

Lists of 10

Most over-rated !

I am going to ruffle a few feathers...

10. Harry Potter

9. Loots Bosman - South African Cricketer.

8. Golf

7. "Franny and Zooey" and "The Alchemist"

6. Indian authors who write in English (With the exception of Ray of 'Feluda' fame)

5. Chaats in Kolkata (though the sweets and the non-veggie stuff is superb!)

4. Micro-blogging

3. USA

2. Twilight - the movie/book series

1. Wayne Rooney


Most under-rated !
(I could only think of 5 :P )

10. Malgoa mangoes. As good as Hapus, if not better :)

9. Terry Pratchett - I know loads of people love his writing, but not enough.

8. Samurai Jack

7. Nikola Tesla

6. "Swades" - The movie

5. Mohit Chauhan - Especially his music with 'Silk Route'

The review post

Its been a few long, tiring weeks at work, so much so that I am struggling to finish off the book I am reading. This also means that there have been fewer movies watched between my last review post and this.

The wife has asked me to blog about other things, but I cannot resist a few reviews.

Before we move on, I seem to have caused distress from some of my posts earlier. If you are one who has felt offended by what I have been writing, then I guess you will just have to live with it :)

Here come the movies

Where the wild things are

This is a movie about a lonely kid, who runs away from home and seemingly lands up on a fantasy island, where there are wild creatures whom he befriends and who make him their 'king'.
Each creature really is a person that the kid knows in real life and the creature takes their characteristic.
So what we have is a kid building a world from the figment of his imagination. Not a bad idea, its from a book after all. However the kid they have cast in the main role is psychotic. So I intensely disliked him, which meant that I did not think too highly of the movie either.
It could have been that I was drawing parallels with the brilliant Pan's Labyrinth(Which has a very similar plot).
Watchable, if you don't hate the kid, like I did. But please watch Pan's Labyrinth instead, its definitely a much better movie.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

A fantastic stop animation movie, with George Clooney as the thieving Mr. Fox who has mended his ways to lead a quiet family life, or has he ? :)
Brilliant soundtrack and some really fun characters, as Mr. Fox decides to raid the farms of 3 dangerous farmers, who in turn decide they want vengeance!
Please watch.

Half Past Dead

What do you get when you mix Steven Seagal with a movie with a tagline that goes 'The good, the bad and the deadly' ?
A crappy 'action' movie that generally makes no sense.
That's all I have to say about this movie. Don't judge me for watching this movie. It was coming on TV at the same time as I was looking at the TV screen.

Manhattan Murder Mystery

A superb Wooddy Allen movie, about a couple who seem to be undergoing a mid-life crisis, thanks to a routine life and boredom, just as they are drifting apart, they encounter what seems to be a murder of a neighbour and off they go to solve the mystery, this is set in Manhattan and hence the title.
Very well made movie and Diane Keaton and Woody Allen get together with their weirdly wonderful chemistry.

Date Night

Very similar to Manhattan Murder Mystery in terms of the plot. A couple leading a content but boring life, decide that they need to get some excitement back into their life by going out on date to a posh new restaurant in the city. Having taken somebody else's seating reservations, they get into trouble with the mob and bad cops, who mistake them to be a couple on the run, who have stolen some mobsters flash drive.
Steve Carell does a good job as usual in this mildly entertaining fare which is great Saturday afternoon/evening watch.

Shattered

A man and his wife have an accident, the man loses his memory, but things do not seem to be what they are as he struggles to get back to his old life. A web of deception and deceit (I love this phrase) seem to cover his new life.
I must mention this movie for one scene which most of us would inadvertently have watched time and again.
Which is the accident. This clip of a car breaking through a wall on a dark winding road and crashing into the hillside with glass shattering, was used by most Hindi mystery/detective serials of the late 90's!

Taken

Brilliant fast paced action movie about an ex-spy rescuing his daughter who has been kidnapped in Europe by sex-slave traders.
Awesome action sequences and Liam Neeson make this movie a must watch!

Wanted


Pathetic and Unwanted.

How to train your dragon

Easily the best animated movie in a long long time! Dragons are the most hated creatures in Berk, village of viking warriors, where the kids are trained to fight and kill dragons. Hiccup the main protagonist is a contradiction of sorts to his father who is the village leader. However Hiccup does manage to trap the most fearsome dragon of all 'Night Fury', but ends up befriending the dragon, to soon realise that these beasts are misunderstood by humans.
Wathing it in 3-D was a great experience in itself. Fantastic animation and pretty good story line makes this one of my favourite animation movie.
"This is Berk. It snows nine months out of the year, and hails the other three. What little food grows here is tough and tasteless. The people that grow here, even more so. The only upsides are the pets. While other places have ponies, or parrots... we have dragons. "
- Hiccup

The other man

Liam Neeson plays a quiet unassuming family man, who is tortured by a conversation he had with his wife before she left, where she tells him that if she fell in love with another man she would just go away. He soon discovers pictures of his wife's lover (Antonio Banderas) on her laptop and the rest of the movie is about finding out who the man is. Both Liam Neeson and Antonio Banderas have likeable characters and it is a decent movie with a nice little twist in the end :)

The great Indian MRF blimp

Oh GOD! I had never ever seen a blimp in my life! That too one from MRF...oooh wow.

Ever since I managed to get through kindergarten, I have been tortured by these questions day in and day out - What is this MRF? What do they do? How many brand ambassadors do they have? What is this pace academy they have founded? Who will be the first one to get the blimp to India? Does MRF really stand for Madras Rubber Factory? Why is MRF so great?

Now, thanks to the IPL, all the questions I have ever had about MRF have been answered and many more have been pre-empted.
The commentators are like an endless ocean of knowledge when it comes to factoids about the blimp. They can tell you who owns MRF, how many times that person eats curd rice in a day, what brand of dhoti he wears etc etc

Other than the annoying bits where they show the ongoing match every now and then, the IPL and the MRF blimp is a joy to watch.

The charming Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, seems to love the MRF blimp so much that I suspect that once the IPL gets over, he is going to take the blimp home and introduce it to his parents. Danny Morrison also seems to suddenly get excited when they show the blimp, but then Danny Morrison has the ability to get excited even if they show Mukesh Ambani on screen, so one cannot read much into his display of emotions.

Anyway here is Siva taking his blimp for a walk on a pristine caribbean beach.

I leave you with the very eloquent -

What you gon' do with all that junk?
All that junk inside your trunk?
I'ma get, get, get, get, you drunk,
Get you love drunk off my blimp
My blimp, my blimp, my blimp, my blimp, my blimp,
My blimp, my blimp, my blimp, my lovely little blimp (Check it out)