Kites ki kyo patang kat gayi?

Well, I never liked the promos of Kites (Infact I never like promos of any Hrithik movie but end up liking most of movies). Then, i heard the reviews of the movie from different people who had watched the movie and the reviews ranged from "Boring" to "pathetic" to "complete non sense" and I wondered if Kites is another Sawariya! But then yesterday nite, I reluctantly went to watch the movie and to be honest "I found the movie to be quiet decent" Definitely the movie had its drawbacks - some unbelievable chases, weak screenplay at time and slightly slow in some portions but it had a number of positives - Hrithik Roshan was superb, Barbara was excellent and their chemistry was really good, the visualization of the movie was spectecular! So, in the end if you have all these positives and little bit of irritants here an there overall the movie should be rated decent/one time watch right? No, our Indian viewers and critics seem to think otherwise. For them it is perfectly alrite to watch a movie like Houseful or Om Shanti Om and say that "its silly but watchable" but they just outrightly reject movies such as Kites. Its no secret that I am a huge movie buff and I enjoy watching all kinds of movies. I recently watched Shrek and found it really enjoyable. And the reason I enjoy a lot of movies is because I treat each movie for what it is...For me, Housefull is a non sense comedy and should be enjoyed like that, Delhi 6 is like a docu drama on Delhi and it should be enjoyed like that, My Name is Khan is a movie where an indian filmmaker is trying to make a Forest Gump and the leading actor has given his best performance to date and thats why it is enjoyable! Once in a while you do get a movie like 3 Idiots which is enjoyed by almost everyone (Please note almost everyone - I have already talked about this in one of the earlier blogs)
Similarly, Kites needs to be enjoyed for the excellent chemistry between the lead pair and a story filmed in breathtaking locations which is a visual delight!
But I guess when media doesnt like a movie it doesnt like a movie - be it Rann or Kites! and to top it all, people prefer to watch Housefuls and Singh is Kings then a Kites so Kites fate is decided!
Just one last point - The climax of Kaminay was appreciated by critics and audiences alike and was compared to QT movies but i doubt if the climax of Kites where Hrithik goes berserk has got the same response from the same people :) BTW, I believe that Kaminay was just an average movie with too much violence for my liking but I guess thats only me!

Sada Suhagin Raho!

Last month I happen to see (my complete bad luck) a few programs on Colors and Star Plus courtesy my mom and mom in law and I was zapped to see that almost all (infact all) programs in some way related to how a father/uncle/grandfather/kaka is struggling hard to marry his daughter and how the bahu after the marriage is struggling hard to save her marriage inspite of violence/drunkard husband/insanity/fraud? and I thought boss in today's modern India how can these programs be commissioned by television producers? Don't they know the modern and urban india??
But then I looked at a news clipping - Dhania Mirza is engaged to Dekh (Sho) Ab Malik. Dekh Ab Malik's supposedly first wife has filed a law suit against him and wants a divorce. Hair Thackarey has issued a statement condemning the marriage and so on..... On the sidelines of this PCB has banned Malik for one year and his career is at an all time low. There a number of accusations of match fixing against him (even for domestic matches...who will fix up a domestic match??) Malik has denied all these accusations and has said that he married some other gurl looking at some photo and marriage is illegal and so on....
Now we are talking about a girl here who is one of the most renowned sports personalities in India, a youth icon and has a great future ahead (if not in tennis then in other avenues) belonging to one of the more reputed families in Hyderabad and her father is desperately looking to marry her off so that she can have a settled life?? A famous cricketer from the same country as Malik commented that "No sensible gurl in our country would marry a person in so many controversies and having such an uncertain future" Then the question is why our Indian father is so desperate for the alliance and why Dhania is vehemently supporting her future hubby..??

May be the Colorss, Star Pluses and Imagines understand urban indian father and urban indian gurl more than me....!

2009 - Ek Badi si flop story

Well, I am back after a longggggggg time...sorry folks was busy with work! So, 2009 the year when India lost its T20 world champion tag and gained Test Champion tag has ended.
2009 is generally believed to be one of the worst years for Bollywood what with 89.98% (rough estimate) of movies bombing at the box office. The year started with Delhi-6 which couldnt even survive 6 days and ended with Raat gayi baat gayi which couldnt even survive one night in some cinema halls! In between we had the Blues, Kambakt Ishqs, Alladins and Kurbaans.
Personally i enjoyed only a handful of movies last year - 3 Idiots (ofcourse! only an Idiot wouldnt have enjoyed that movie), Rocket Singh, DevD, Wake up Sid (though a lot of ppl slept thru the movie) and only a few more....

But the choice of the worst movie is rather difficult to make. What with almost all (actually all) Akshay Kumar starting with Chandni Chowk to China to Blue, Kurbaan, All Salman Khan movies (minus Wanted), All Amitabh Bachhan movies (except - Paa which unfortunately I havent seen as yet) and all movies by such superstars as Fardeen Khan, Zayed Khan and Tusshar Kapoor.
The year also saw another flop being delivered by Saifina (sounds like a constipation churan isnt it?) and another blockbuster delivered by Aamir Khan. It was actually funny to see in one of the promo programs of Kurbaan at Zoom, Kareena was more excited talking about 3 Idiots than Kurbaan. I guess, she would have seen the two movies.
Well, the first month has proved to be dull so far what with no tickets still available for 3 Idiots and Avataar 3D but all the tickets available for Chance Pe Dance, Veer and so on...
I am putting my money on Rann this week. Ishquia would be another Vishal Bhardawaj movie which all the boys would like to watch alone (minus their wives and girl friends)....

Mirror O Mirror, Tell me dear! Who is the ugliest of them all?

Well, Big Boss 3 is back and its bigger and badder this time round! The group is as diverse as you would possibly find in a Harvard Business School MBA class - there is a pehalwan, a gay, a joker, a fighting couple, an item girl, an item girl's mummy, an ex-(popular) heroine, an ex-(flop) heroine, a doctor-cum-model, a slumdog millionaire (Lotus khan aka KRK), an ex-music director and so the fun begins....
The only weak link seems to be the sutradhaar (anchor) Aladin Bachchan who almost seems to be embarrased at being part of this tamasha. The other day he was interviewing Bhag(Ran)bir Kapoor and BilloRani(CatRina) and was blushing so much as if usne Rekha ko dekha!
But the best moments of the show were when KRK was still there... I tell u Maharashtra government will be well served if they shoo KRK on SRK (Raj) Thackarey.

Racial discriminitation against Indians or by Indians?

There are three news items dominating all the educating and thought provoking news channels in the last few days

• India's dismall performance against Kiwis in the practice match - Some of news channels are reacting as if India has already been knocked out of the T-20 WC
• Air France crash - A very very sad event indeed and I pray for the families of all victims of the crash

And

Racial attacks on Indian students in Australia

Well, I was fortunate enough to visit Australia as part of the Business Badao actitivies for my company last year and I must say that I found Australia to be one of best countries I have been to with friendly people, stunning beauty and a great passion for the game of cricket! So, indeed was really unfortunate looking at the developments that have taken place in the last two weeks or so.

But Is racial discrimination applicable only across countries? Can an Australian or for that matter an Indian be discriminated in his own country? I surely believe yes.

I live in the great Garden and IT city of India - Banglore (Bangaluru) and I come from the political and union capital of India Delhi and have found myself to be on the receiving end of racial discrimination in Bangalore. One of the common places of this discrimination is Auto stands but there are some shopkeepers here and there who continue with this tradition of "North Indians ne Bangalore me aake Bangalore ko barbaad kar dia hai"

So actually racial discrimination is not racial after all - its actually regional/linguistic and so on...

The 7th Fundamental Right

How many of you are browsing channels on idiot box and wondering are there really 150 channels in your cable or the cablewallah has made a fool out of you! How many of you are picking up the newspaper on a Friday/Saturday and checking the cinema this week section on TOI to check may be there is some movie which is still playing which you have missed by mistake? Guys..I am really one of them!
I normally don't get bothered by strikes. If it's a petrol pump strike and there is no petrol in my car, I take an auto paying him 10 bucks extra as NBBRI tax (Non Bangalorean Born Resident Indian tax). If there is a transporters strike and there are no vegetables at home, I go out and eat a healthy and nutritious McChicken burger. But what can possibly replace the charm of watching a Hindi movie on a Sunday afternoon? I tried watching Indian Payjama League with double gutso this time around and also tried following Indian elections more intensely but now I am getting a yawn just thinking about these two things.
Ladies and Gentlemen - the time has come that we ask the govenment to give us our most basic right of survival on weekend - right to watch a movie! I just hope one day when all the Chiranjeevis, Rajnikanths, Amitabh Bachhanns and Shah Rukh Khans will plunge into politics and will pass this resolution and will give us the 7th fundamental right as an Indian citizen.
P.S. - Did I hear you say that Chiranjeevi has already plunged into politics? I also thought so but couldn't see any seats for his party in this election. May be time has come for me to get my eyes tested and brains twisted!

IQ badi ya Bhais

When I was a kid, GK was the most exciting subject for me (perhaps because it was the only subject with a multiple choice question paper and I was a very good student of probability) and since this is summer holidays across all schools let's refresh our GK.
Question No. 1 - Which Indian politician is responsible for the pathbreaking 1991 economic policy introduced in India?
Easy?
Question No. 2 - Which Indian politician was the first union minister in Indian history who had to resign because he was convicted in a murder case?
Did I hear...what was that?
Question No. 3 - Which Indian politican was responsible for formation of the first state government of India led by an independent?
Did I hear...Are u crazy?
What if I tell you that the answer for all the three questions is same....yes, the same politician is responsible for these three biggest and brightest (as bright as Fu(Si)doo's jokes) events in Indian politics.
OK. All of us will agree that the first question is the easiest one...so what is the answer for the first one...Did I hear Manmohan Singh? You must be kiddin...Manmohan Singh was not even a politician at that time...PV ke aaya Rao....no way!
Then who could it be?......My dear friends that great great politician is none other than Mr. Chi-Boo Soren. Yes, the same guy who had the vision to support PV ke aaya Rao's government in the no-confidence motion at that time. If you thought he did it for money you are grossly mistaken (just like No-Jeet Agarkar is about his batting/bowling/fielding/etc..etc abilities) He did it because he knew something great is about to happen which will change India forever. What's wrong if he charged a fees for that? Don't consultants charge enormous sums of money from innocent (actually very very innocent) companies for telling them what to do in a situation where nobody can do anything and hence the situation demands nothing should be done and at the behest of a consultant's advice actually nothing is done for doing nothing!
Confused! me too!! No wonder I consider myself to be a good consultant.
So, my dear friends the next time Shah Ruk Ruk Khan asks this question in the program"Panchvi phel se fudoo kaun" then you know what to answer!