The best ever

Any doubts anybody?

Water nominated

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Chennai changes

This is going to be a landmark in the history of public transport at Chennai. Provided it is implemented fully and in spirit also. Provided the auto drivers don’t haggle for the rates despite the rate cards and the electronic meters. Provided the meters are not tamperable.

(Photo courtesy: epaper of The Hindu through flickr)

Click here for the larger image.

Kkkk…oun banega kkkk…arodpati

It was the King Khan’s first day at work. Tense and speaking thirteen to a dozen to cover it up, he tried to add a dash of confidence where there seemed to be none. And it all looked like a big mistake by Star to replace the legendary Bachchan with this present superstar Khan.

SRK, it seemed, went out of the way just to be a complete opposite of whatever AB was. Unfortunately, he also went on to break the norm that AB had set regarding dignity. The ‘petticoat’ joke though drew smiles initially, later showed that SRK was trying hard not-to-be-AB. SRK didn’t have to do that. AB was just being himself and SRK could have been himself and if that meant there were similarities then so be it. Why unnecessarily try to not-be something that you are anyway not?

For my part, I never wanted to compare SRK with AB when I sat down to watch the show. But I had a secret desire to see how better SRK handles the show. I was waiting to see his so-called on-screen charisma translating into this live show and the spontaneity translating into witty one-liners. That combination of charisma and wit combined with the boyish charm that he exudes would have done wonders to KBC. But alas! SRK tries hard to do something he doesn’t need to and fails miserably. And what more, he tries so much not to be AB that you end up comparing the two of them and that’s where the “miserably” failing part becomes a ”disgusting” failure. 

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WI in India | First ODI

I didn’t see it. Neither did I see the 175* by Kapil Dev during the 1983 World Cup against Zimbabwe after India was tottering at 17 for 4.

And I rate both the misses on the same scale. Missing to watch Ganguly make 98 especially when Krishnamachari Srikkanth described the knock on CNN-IBN as ‘He (Ganguly) was in full flow’ is a great miss. Ganguly is a treat to watch when he gets going on Indian pitches. And as Dravid says he set India up for victory. Well, maybe. But I didn’t see it.

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Presence of mind

Photo Courtesy: The Hindu epaper (through flickr)

The latest oxymoron to hit India

Reality Show

It’s either reality or it’s a show – it can’t be both! Whatever these American or Australian channels call their TV shows becomes a mantra for us! Suddenly, we have launched into all kinds of those shows (I refuse to use oxymorons as long as I am not aware of them!). But Indian television screen is a kind of used-scripts market. Any successful foreign show is just copied and pasted onto the Indian screen with even the same sets. The only Indian shows (reality or otherwise, but involving real audience) that did really take off were “Antakshari” and “Sa re ga ma”. Apart from that, every other show was a straight adaptation of the foreign original.

Anyway, I am not here to talk about the Indian shows that are doing the rounds and which ones are copied from where kind of an investigative study here. I was just wondering what’s happening on this ‘Big Brother’ show? Why is there so much of coverage on Shilpa Shetty being called all four-lettered words?! What is the whole issue? And is it an issue at all? These news channels seem to be relaying it on their main news headlines so much that you would begin to wonder if Shilpa Shetty is some official diplomat of the country?!  

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RDB out of race for Oscars

My favourite movie for the last year ‘Rang De Basanti’ is out of the race for the Oscars in the “Best Foreign Feature Film” category.

‘Water’ is in the shortlist of the 9 films that will be considered for the nominations. It is still in the race for the final award. I don’t know why it is called a ’surprise’ when they decided to shortlist ‘Water’ in this category. It was Canada’s official entry and if it wins the award I am sure everyone will pounce to take pride that it’s a movie made by an Indian with all Indian actors and all that. Right! But we just didn’t have the courage to release it in India.

I am waiting for January 23rd, when the nominations for the best song will be announced. A R Rahman has three songs in the race. Keeping my fingers crossed!

By the way, here is the review of ‘Guru’ by Richard Corliss for TIME magazine.

Racism and cricket

The recent two-test match ban on Gibbs is an apt illustration of how the cricketing world reacts to racism. The cricket authorities call it zero tolerance.

The spectators were troubling Gibbs’ teammates and he did the right thing as any team-man (especially senior ones) would do by pepping his teammates up with a little language and attitude. In fact I have no idea what he said except that it was “a bunch of bloody animals” plus some more racist slur as they chose to call it. If team SA got fired up that way then good for them and those of us who are intellectually inclined can go on for hours trying to debate the positives and negatives of that strategy of inspiration.

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GURU | A Review

“My father advised me not to dream. Dreams never come true. But I saw a dream”, says the deep baritone of Abhishek Bachchan with ’Jaage hain’ track trying its best to make its presence felt through the background. Thus begins the movie with high expectations considering the starcast and the infallible Mani Ratnam.

Gurukant Desai (Abhishek Bachchan) is the son of a teacher belonging to Idhar village in Gujarat. But Guru is a failure at studies and has made big plans to go abroad to work. His father though never believes in the ability of his son. Guru is amazingly ambitious and supremely confident about his abilities. So he joins Shell in Istanbul, Turkey, selling oil cans and does very well in that job to merit a promotion within 3 years. When offered the promotion, Guru refuses saying, “Agar main idhar achcha kaam kar sakta hun to khud ke liye kyon na karu!” (If I can work so well for some foreign company then why not work for myself?). He leaves the job and returns to his village to pursue dreams of setting up his own company.

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