IPL Pics. Feroze shah Kotla - Delhi Vs Mumbai - 17th march

Avatar Deja Vu, this one in Orissa.

Final Verdict: Ishqiya 'Ran'n

Last weekend, it was a movie marathon for me with two back to back movies : RANN and Ishqiya. And the public verdict was that Ishqiya was an outright Box office winner and did well in comparison to RANN.

In my opinion, RANN is a very well made movie and Ishqiya is a bad one. Being a Amitabh fan had nothing to do with that.RANN was a clever ensemble of able cast who put up a noteworthy performances to justify their selection. Amitabh lead the pack followed by Riteish who also did come up with decent performance. RGV did showcase the nuances of the Media world and its incessant struggle to balance the actual News with commercial reasoning for its existence.

And Ishqiya started where "OMKARA" ended in terms of Dialogues. The east UP dialect filled with profanity was the showcase of the movie with a weak story woven around to support it. It was a clear contrast with RANN where good dialogues supported a good story.

And as shown in RANN, commerce always win in short term. Hence, Ishqiya with more commercial elements ( songs, beautiful heroine, bombs, gun shots, and profane dialogues) is an outright winner.

what a bite sirjee

awesome hunger to win a match.This eternal teenager could not control himself to grab a bite.

View from Petronas Skybridge

I tried capturing the view from the skybridge of petronas tower, Kuala LumPur

I See you

Still to come out of my avatar experience, yet to experience the 3 D effect, i am posting this latest music video by Leona Lewis - I see you:

Interesting pic

Pic from a oriya film poster : Now this Bond will definitely give Daniel Craig a run for his money.

High Time that cricket be made be the national sport

With this current fiasco on Indian Hockey, the non payment of paltry 25 grand to the hockey staff for their international travel and washing dirty linens in public, i strongly feel that there is a long standing need that we need to replace our national sport to cricket for the benefit of all other sports - if not hockey.

If this what happens to a national sport, then its high time that we replace hockey with cricket. By doing that, we will not feel pity about hockey every year and play a blame game without doing anything. We will not get inspired which will fizzle out in short term on a release of a hockey related movie. We will also not feel bad when we read a small article about Indian hockey team beating the world champions in a neglect corner of a newspaper. This is not what a good team deserves - they require encouragement and not pity. I hope by removing the national sport tag, we will be forced to encourage them.

The above paragraph stated why we do not need hockey as our national game. These are the same reason that we want cricket to face the same ordeal which the great hockey has been facing over the last couple of decades. Small news about cricket are made headlines, players made idols, mediocre performances are glorified (with due respect to dew :)), commerce ruling over performance( ICC softening on Kotla Fiasco) etc. Indian cricket is on decline, world no. 1 is a misnomer and if performance of the team is any indicator then we are in to see a "mortgage crisis" type of a disaster in India cricket ( the reason being same - the valuation exceeds the underlying asset).

Then we need to pity on them. And hence to make the entire nation again to "feel pity and do nothing" about it , we need to make it a national sport.

Idiotic Anger

With this "idiotic" fiasco on and tempers flying all around, it seems that the so called celebrities are resorting to very shameful activities to find the media share to market their products free of cost. My visit to a local book shop just made me realise that the people are buying the book in hordes and the movies sales have also broken all the records unforeseen in Bollywood. The logical end to this staged drama is nobody will do anything and one party will apologize to another when the entire hype and hoopla about the movie will die down. So then they will again get their media share which will again give a boost to their book/ movie sale. Its a big bad commercial world out there where nobody hesitates to malign each other ( even though staged) to get monetary benefit and media space. Its all about TRP nowadays - Good Bad and Ugly. Again will Media realize this or still carry to play to their tune. One More question, what would have happened in case the leading actor of movie had washed his hands off from the controversy as he is not a affected party. Would the media taken this amount of interest then....some questions are better not answered. Like the common man R K Laxman, we will not speak at all.

In search of another blog platform, i tried with Opera blog which is quite cool.

http://my.opera.com/subhankar42/blog/bride-hunting

2010: happy new year

As i bid adieu to 2009 and eagerly wait for 2010, i just wanted to highlight 10 things from the top of mind as i recall

1.) Swimming : learnt swimming and could complete a full lap in a 50 m pool.

2.) Touched snow: My manali trip.

3.) Had a camel ride in a desert safari: Jaisalmer Trip

4.) Started blogging regularly. This site was created in 2005 and had only 2 blogs till June, 2009

5.) Quit tobacco, the biggest economic boost which i got. My savings has gone up. 20 rs saved each day for the last 6 months. Roughly a saving of 12K in last 6 month.

6.) Booked a flat in costly gurgaon : Expensive. Still reeling in the aftermath ( read bloodbath)

7.) My sister wedding.

8.) Joined the football club in my company.

9.) Exceeded the 80 KG mark. Now painfully trying to get back to the 70's. Its tough especially when you are lethargic and addicted to chocolates and coke.

10.) Saw good movies like Avatar and 3 idiots. Thankfully, good movies were released at the fag end of the year.

All these things would not have been possible without the able support of my wife :)

Thats it. Hope 2010 is more eventful and i see more good movies, visit new places and learn/ experience new things ( read Bungee Jumping). And i ll try to update more in this log.

Wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous new year.

3 idiots

Its munna bhai MBBS deja vu.

Just try co-relating these character instances.

• Munna Bhai here becomes the Rancho, the protagonist, who swims against the tides in a "dead poets society" brandishing against all the norms. So the Doctor/ Radio Jockey is replaced by an intelligent engineering student.
• Here the role of Arshad Warsi is played by the duo of Sharman Joshi and Madhavan. They also double up the hapless "Jimmy Shergill" of both the version of Munna Bhai.
• Jadoo is Jappi / Gandhigiri is replaced by "ALL IS WELL".
• And eternal villain Boman Irani with his comic behaviour and predictive apologies at the end.
• Mistaken identity of the protagonist.

Raju Hirani has tread the tried and tested path of the formula for making a hit movie.

And able marketing. Trying to tap the large alumni market of all colleges in the growing indian economy who are willing to succumb to their newly inhabited habit of emulating the west and shed more money to be taken back to their memories by watching this movie. What else will make Aamir Khan still in demand and it just confirms that it is the same public who have grown watching Aamir movies since school days.

And it did have its result. Its is predicted this movie will the highest grosser of all time ( excluding Inflation and due respect to Sholay and DDLJ).

Without sounding too acerbic, this movie has its place and that works. And the new actor Omi Vaidya ,who palys Chatur, the alter ego of Rancho is a revelation. His dialogue delivery and his comic timings are second to none ( even Aamir's). Watch out his scene where he delivers a speech in "glory" of his professor.

Although all the jokes were a rehash but they were utterly enjoyable.

Overall, its a MUST Watch...in case you need to be taken back to your engineering days. And watch it with your friends if they are around.

AVATAR

My take on Avatar. Another interesting reading comparing it to the fight of vaishavism and Shaivites. Very apt and creative

Namak Haram revisited

If you remember the plot of this Hishikesh Mukherjee classic - Rulling class plants their agent amonsgt the working class to dictate norms. The agent turns "Rogue" ( doing a David Headly) and fights for the cause of working class.

Creative Insights

And we add global warming, more greenery, more creative angles and shoots by James Cameron. Each canvas of the pandora is colorful and fascinating. That might be the reason that all the creative directors like Cameron's and Zemekis of the world are resorting to Anime to fulfill their creativity. Where else can you shoot a burning horse without offending the PETA and the animal lovers.

Salwa Judum gone wrong

Salwa judum, is a state sponspored group supposedly formed to revolt against the maoist extremism in Jharkhand.At the same time, a few reports indicated that people had been displaced in large numbers and were living in miserable conditions in camps. While this was officially attributed to Maoist threats and retaliation against those joining the Salwa Judum, stray news also came in about the forcible emptying out of villages as part of the government's anti-Maoist policy, and of excesses committed by members of the Salwa Judum and security forces. It was alleged that it was covert operation to vacate the tribal population from mineral rich areas as a gift to India's Private sector.

These are some random thoughts. Would appreciate comments.

Kur "BAN"

It was a deja vu scene of the numerous movies starring Prabhuji, Dharmendra, even Amitabh in (Ganga Jamuna Saraswati) which i had seen a decade earlier . Hero hit by bullet and heroine helping him pluck out the bullet from his body with such elan which can put the tea picker from Assam to shame. Overall you ll get a feeling that the director had given up by the last frame. Brilliant Build up unsupported by a lack lustre climax. My sixth sense says that somehow the prior release of "New York" played the spoil sport in the weakened climax. There seems to be a forceful effort to make changes in the characterization of the key actors and plot to make them different from New York which added to more confusion.

First about the plot: Mix of Fanaa and New York. A undercover terrorist having a massive detruction plan using the leading lady as a shield to get his work done. And more confusion. The climax scene was a utter mayhem.

About the actors: All are good. Just wished they were supported by good screenplay.

Music: Background score had traces of "Pirates of carribean" theme and songs were good and well picturised.

Effect of Feedbacks on the global Financial systems

This is the work currently pursued by one of my Professor Prof. Indranil Chatterjee ( AKA IC).

The following is a transcript of a lecture given by George Soros at Central European University on October 27, 2009.

Negative feedback occurs when the output of a system acts to oppose changes to the input of the system; with the result that the changes are attenuated. If the overall feedback of the system is negative, then the system will tend to be stable.Examples are : Geasers, Appraisals

Positive feedback seeks to increase the event that caused it, such as in a nuclear chain-reaction. It is also known as a self-reinforcing loop. Positive feedback loops are more interesting because they can cause big moves, both in market prices and in the underlying fundamentals. But positive feedback processes do not necessarily run their full course; they may be aborted at any time by negative feedback.

Using this logic we can understand the pattern for each Boom Bust behaviour in our markets.The current boom bust process is not over yet and there might be more skeltons left in the cupboard .Also it is very complex as we have mortage, green, and much more complicated instruments involved in it. We will try to analyse the another comprehensive bubble of 1987 in the global markets using the feedback system.

I have developed a theory about bubble-bust processes, or bubbles, along these lines.

• Every bubble has two components: An underlying trend that prevails in reality and a misconception relating to that trend. A boom-bust process is set in motion when a trend and a misconception positively reinforce each other. The process is liable to be tested by negative feedback along the way. If the trend is strong enough to survive the test, both the trend and the misconception will be further reinforced. Eventually, market expectations become so far removed from reality that people are forced to recognize that a misconception is involved.
• A twilight period ensues during which doubts grow, and more people loose faith, but the prevailing trend is sustained by inertia. As Chuck Prince, former head of Citigroup said: we must continue dancing until the music stops. Eventually a point is reached when the trend is reversed; it then becomes self reinforcing in the opposite direction.
• Let me go back to the example I used when I originally proposed my theory in 1987: the conglomerate boom of the late 1960s. The underlying trend is represented by earnings per share, the expectations relating to that trend by stock prices. Conglomerates improved their earnings per share by acquiring other companies. Inflated expectations allowed them to improve their earnings performance, but eventually reality could not keep up with expectations.

i realize that my theory of financial markets is still very rudimentary and needs a lot more development. Obviously I cannot do it on my own. So I may have been premature in putting forward my theory as the new paradigm. But the efficient market hypothesis has certianly prooved inadequate: has been conclusively disproved. The entire edifice of global financial markets that has been erected on the false premise that markets can be left to their own devices has to be rebuilt from the ground up.

http://www.soros.org/resources/multimedia/sorosceu_20091112/financialmarkets_transcript

Indian Media

It was a memorable day for Indian Cricket. It witnessed the surpassing of 11000 mark by a living legend. It was a hectic day at office and i was following the web news religiously throughout the day in expectation of watching the highlights which i thought would be flashing incessantly across all news channels. All the classic pulls, hook and cover drives of the hero has been replaced by the brazen ( read stupid) news discussing the criticism of Mumbai patriarch against Marathi Manoos batting genius quipping that he is "Indian" first. All the biggest "brains" in Indian Politics, Cricket in greed of TV footage also hogging to this opportunity rather than appreciating the "poetry" created on the cricket pitch in today's match. They say that Indian Viewers have very short memory. The media could have played its part in elongating this memory. It was a small expectation considering that it was the same media which carried out a week long campaign to celebrate the completion of two decade of successful cricket by one of greatest cricketing Icon. In the frenzy to out do each other this occasion, they conveniently forgot to celebrate the children's day and 120th anniversary of our first prime minister. One leading daily carried a front page full of eulogy for our cricket maestro.

Its high time that they should do away with some commerce and give importance to the sole purpose for which they exist.

Now some of the records broken by the cricket legend which should have been highlighted today are:

Highest number of 100+ partnership is now 78+

Second Indian to cross 11,000 Mark.

Steve Waugh toppled from the 5th position from all time highest run getter.

Congratulations Rahul. Looking forward for more records from you.

2 video

One , the Israel Gymnast team dancing to a Bollywood song in the beijing Olympics.



Two, a nice song featuring Adnan Sami and Germaine Jackson about Mumbai.

Quiz on Bollywood

Please post your answers in the comment section.

Hindi Movies Final Cut

View more presentations from Subhankar42.

Answer

Answer

A cute love story - APKGK

Rajkumar Santoshi (RKS) always lives up to his reputation of being a class apart director. I am not sure any director who can follow up a social drama "Hala Bol" with this cute love story.

The story is a simple as told earlier in many of Katrina Movies i.e Singh is King, London Namaste etc. I believe the story of multiple suitor for Katrina is quite apt given her Cleopatra like beauty which just spell binds all the writers and prohibits them to create something new.

Taking analogy with corporate presentations, this movie stands out on 3 pillars:
No pretension of being a stupid film - The director goes out of his ways to entertain the viewers even Making Lord drive a Van with a Good Shepherd nameplate. Also, creative spoof on melodramatic dialogues, bollywood names - Jenny, Tony Braganza, Rahul ( who always is the first favorite for girls), hero named Prem. You must see to the trivial detailing that is taken care in the film making. Only a director of RKS could have done justice to it and apt he has done it.

Simple Story: After a deluge of complex stories in the recent movies it was a welcome change. Its the same story of a silent lover going all way out to impress the girl who is already in love with ubiquitous lover boy Rahul. The interval scene where the hero falls from the terrace is symbolic of his desperation of being so close to his love and still far from her. He is hurt but still smiles with a thumbs up.

Hero: Had it not been the hero who has intertwined all the missing links, the film would fallen flat on the ground. It required screen presence and acting of Ranbir Kapoor caliber to make the film what it is today. Good to see the scion of our first family of bollywood keeping up the good name.

Its a good movie and may be RKS could arrange for a better music composer for his next comedy which i am eagerly waiting for.

Jaisalmer Trip - To be completed

Day 1:

We took the delhi - jaisalmer train intercity express.
About the train: Very Slow. It takes around 19 hrs to reach Jaisalmer.The train has around 38 stops between Delhi Interesting train- It separates out as 2 different trains from Jaipur. The 3rd AC compartment was dirty. Please be sure to carry your own bedsheets for the journey. The sleeping gear provided by the IRTDC may cause some inconvenience to some of you.

Journey till Jodhpur and Lost Baggage:

We had a nice time with our co passengers who were travelling to Jodhpur ( which is around 400 km before Jaisalmer). We gelled along well. The train reached Jodhpur in the dawn hours after 12 hrs of Journey. The family along with their luggage mistakenly took our luggage with them. We couldnt have known about that had priyanka not asked me to check our belonging. The luggage had all our clothes. Luckily all the expensive items were in a different bag which was with me. Immediately i rushed outside the platform to trace them. But as usual they had gone. It was a horrible time. The train stops for around 1 hr in Jodhpur. I utilized this time to put a complaint with the railway official. I was sure that it was by mistake and we could get the luggage once we trace the family once we are back in Delhi. Still i was hopeful that the family once they realised that they had mistakenly taken our baggage would definitely make an attempt to return it in the railway station as the staoppage time was whopping more than 1 hour. And it happened. While unloading their luggage at their home they realised about the extra "bag" and immediately rushed back to railway station to return the bag. So nice of them. Meanwhile Priyanka had made her mind about all teh extra cloth shopping she would be doing in Jaisalmer.

Jodhpur to Jaisalmer - the desert journey:

After a stoppage of more than one and half hours, Train began its journey again. It was a journey where we will be travelling in the desert for the next 5 hrs. As there were no prominent station where we can find decent food, it is advisable to have full stock of water and food from Jodhpur. The one station in between where you can find food and water falls midway - POKHRAN. I always wanted to visit the site which is supposedly the temple of Military prowess. But you see the number of people who got down to have the delicious "Mirchi Vada" and water at the station

Salute a car or speak english

In a heated lunch table discussion, i had fervently advcated for India being a better nation than our neighbour who forced the school going children salute the car on roads. But evening news diappointed me. In one of our states, children were punished and humiliated for speaking in their native languages and not in English. Just curious enough, i dig deep into such interesting diktat which were imposed on People of late:

1.) a peculiar style of Salute by a Diplomat raised couple of eye brows

2.) Diplomat need to salute the minister in a peculiar style in a particular state.

3.) Producer forced put a disclaimer in his movie for using the word "Bombay"

Although most of the these were not approved by Govt but they still happened. Does it mean that i was wrong in my passionate argument for my country. May be Not.

On a separate note, i today pulled up the first music video which i had seen after the advent of cable Television. It was by a group called Erasure and song called Always