Mangal Panday - The Review

I took Friday off from work, woke up early and stood in a loooong queue in front of Urvashi Theatre and bought tickets for First-Day-First Show. After all, my favorite Indian Actor was appearing on screen after a gap of nearly four years. Was all my effort worth the final result i got to see on the large screen? Sad to say, but it most definitely wasn't.
Okay, it is a historical, and we all know how it's gonna end, no matter how much rabble rousing Khan does throughout the movie. But the movie itself is shot so amateurishly, what with innumerable songs that seem totally out of place being inserted at whim, that you wonder why on earth it took them 2 years to film this rot.
For your Information, Khan plays Mangal Panday, a Sepoy in the British Army, and Toby Stephens (of Die Another Day fame) plays Captain William Gordon, who shares a special relationship with Mangal, as Mangal has saved his life when he was wounded in a battle in Afghanistan. Some Kusti fights and drunken revelry later, when you wonder what is happening (Kirron Kher with so much cleavage...C'mon, Be Serious), the infamous catridges laced with cow and pig fat make their appearance. And things go haywire from there. What could have been a taut and interesting part of the movie, becomes a sham with a Holi song in between!
Performance wise the movie rocks, with both Khan and Stephens at their best. Rani Mukerjee is wasted. Amisha Patel has 3 to 4 lines in the movie, but she looks pretty. So much for the big break she has been raving about. Ketan Mehta (director), what is happening? Sardar was much better.
All in all, watch it on a lazy sunday afternoon when you have nothing else to do.

Spin me up

I wonder how many kids play with tops these days. A "buguri", as it is called in Kannada, used to be a major source of entertainment to me and my friends. We used to form teams among ourselves, and have one-on-one contests and the like. Used to be great fun. And it was not all easy, 'coz a lot of technique and skill was involved in having your top as the last one spinning, and being able to lift the buguri from the ground to your hand without disturbing it's motion implied you had finally mastered the art of buguri.
Today, it's more about Pokemon and other violent games played in a virtual world, with no people interaction what so ever. What are we allowing our kids to become? I honestly beleive that the simple pleasure of scoring a goal (in real football played in the rain, not a video game, mind you), or spinning a top does a lot more good that climbing one more level in a stupid video game.
Get your kids out.... Give them something more to remember than a dark room with a bright computer monitor.

Game, Set, match....Ms Mirza

Who would have ever imagined that a tennis player from India, female at that, would generate so much interest that her voice would be heard over Radio promoting jewellery, and more so, would have her face on hoardings promoting a Petroleum Company. Just maybe 2 years back, people, specially the advertising gurus would have laughed outright on your face if you dared to suggest so. But now, Sania Mirza is doing exactly just that. And it's about time that we Indians begin to look for role models away from the cricket field.

Sania Mirza is the new face of young female go-getters, who know what they want, and go all out in making their dreams come true. True, Sania has achieved nothing much when compared to other tennis greats, prompting snide remarks from people. But at least she's done something which no Indian woman has done before ie won a WTA event. Hats off to you, Ms. Mirza.

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Have you ever heard a song for the first time and immediately felt a connection to it? Well, I have and i have to thank the guys from Green day for giving me such a song. Definitely the song of the year so far. Even made me spend 125 bucks in buying the tape!!

Boulevard of Broken Dreams
_______________________

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
and I'm the only one and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone

Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah,Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah

I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line
Of the edge and where I walk alone

Read between the lines
What's fucked up and everything's alright
Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone

Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ahAh-ah, Ah-ah

I walk aloneI walk a...

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone...

I Fear the worst....

Imagine a scenario where it rains as hard in Bangalore, as it has recently in Mumbai. If such a huge Metropolis, which people claim, has better infrastructure than Bangalore, can come to a grinding halt, then imagine... You'd shudder even if you thought about about it. I wonder what our taxes are being used for. I barely see any development happening.

Irony of the Day : When the Maharashtra Government announced a Public Holiday for 2 days, even the Corporation(BMC) people (who were supposed to be actively involved in releif work) took the days off!!