And you are sentenced to 2 months of cabbage cutting...

And sooo last night was my cooking turn and I innocently turned to my wily roommate and ask her, "So what shall I make for dinner?" After a pretense of loads of thought she came up with the masterplan.. "Cabbage... Make it our South-Indian Style.. and we can have it with rasam." I looked at her in disbelief... Cabbage? Is that the worst thing she could come up with? For those of you who think I am exaggerating, I suggest you try and cut one yourself.

I have this habit of either standing at the kitchen counter and cutting the veggies or sitting on the sofa and watching TV and doing the chore. This time the choice was obviously the latter considering I was going to be taking forever.. and spot on I was... 35 minutes later, I was still left with 1/8th the stupid cabbage and 2 overflowing bowls of already cut ones, not to mention the circle of mess at my feet from the strewn pieces. I shot daggers at my roommate. She was responsible for all of this. And then I knew it was her revenge to my requesting her to make rasam the other day! Hmph.

And then I realized that our government back in India or anywhere else dont realize that they have a gold mine sitting on them. Imagine sentencing someone like this - "You are sentenced to 2 months of cutting 600 cabbages with a blunt knife." I know what you are thinking. Why blunt knife. Come on.. you are 'sentencing' someone.. you might as well make it hard. I promise you.. once you enforce such a sentence on someone, in a week you will see remorse, in a month even suicidal tendencies (they do have a knife!!) and if they last the 2 months, they are never ever gonna commit any crime remotely big enough to land them a sentence! I am yet to meet someone who "likes" cutting cabbage. And someday, when people are hatching plans to rob a bank, they will discuss - "Pakde jayenge to muhjse gobhi katvayenge.. nahi baba!!" roughly translated as "Should I be caught, they'll have me cut cabbage.. Oh no!" Think about it.. the crime rate dips, the cabbages from the cutting can go into making good food for the jail inmates themselves (or to the neighboring village or something), the frozen cabbage industry can flourish, the economy improves and on and on and on... Ok ok... I know somethings are best left as fantasy. Stew the cabbage!

Sidney Sheldon no more

Read about it here

Guru

Spoiler: Plot details maybe revealed.

So finally I saw Guru. After all the hype surrounding it and everything. Ofcourse most of you know that most parts of the movie are loosely based on Dhirubhai Ambani's life. For you Manirathnam fans (like me!), this wasn't a typical Mani movie. It had an unexpected 'alls well that ends well' theme for one.

It has a fully loaded star cast and the show stealer ofcourse is Abhishek Bachchan as Gurukant Desai. He has delivered a wonderfully genuine performance though in the end, in a couple of scenes when he is supposed to be paralyzed, he seems to have forgotten how he needed to have portrayed that and ends up more than just twitching the eye of that side. A few slips but overall a laudable performance. Ash doesn't have sooo much of a role but to her credit has done pretty well and is very believable as the 'gawar' wife. The 'romance' between the two is surreal and very typical of olden married couples (I suppose!). Ofcourse the start of it was that he married her purely for the dowry he would get which would complete the intial amount he required to setup his business. Mithun da... was a well-kept secret I must say. Till a couple of days back, I didnt even know he was in the movie, let alone that he gave a pretty decent, not-overactive performance and looked very good rather than the ugly 'looks' that he has been given in some of his preceding movies. Vidya Balan as usual is a show-stealer and is making a mark in the Industry. She is not just beautiful but immensely talented as well and I look forward to seeing her in 'Eklavya' also. Madhavan is subtle and bearable in the movie. However his Hindi diction leaves a lot to be desired.

The story is probably pretty well-known by now - the rise of a BIG businessman to state it short. But the rise from chotu bijinessman to the baap of all companies bore likeness to many Rajnikant movies where everything happens within the timeframe of a song. So, about 40% of the movie covers Guru's life from a high school dropout to this big man. The rest of the movie is how with money comes power comes corruption comes trouble. Somehow, Mani has actually left some lose ends hanging. For example, it was never clarified as to what happened later between Guru and his brother-in-law when a huge feud crops up between them. The ending is surprisingly good and everything ends well for Guru.

The songs are alright... a couple are really catchy but the cinematography and the choreography left a lot to be desired. And Mallika Sherwat fades into oblivion.

All in all, definitely worth a watch for some powerful performances.

I'm not kidding

I'm really not kidding when I say I got this email from one of the gazillion orkut (mis)users: Verbatim..

hello jaya
hawar u
u very smart deyar
i like to photo
'u like friend shipe
i friend u
i am a mazherfrom jabal puri
wiat uur massege

Whats with all these losers anyways? I usually ignore all this but this one was a classic I had to post... If they paid me a buck for every random request I got, my name's be up there with Bill Gates on the Forbes Fortune List. These guys honestly need to get a life! Gosh!

KBC 3 with SRK

I had the (mis) fortune of catching the show online. And as usual, my sharp tongue represented by my quick fingers have some smart comments to make. The show was overall not really entertaining. SRK clearly lacks the presence that the Big B commanded. And it seems that he is totally following on his footsteps which sort of makes you think that SRK is Big B's shell without the brain... the latter takes the decisions and paths that they both will follow at different times.

SRK is also lesser intimidating than the Big B. It wouldnt be too comical if the Big B made the kind of seedy, "I'm-not-so-big-a-star" jokes a la SRK. And the "Computerji lock kiya jaye" has also undergone a facedrop. Its now localized to the origin of the participant and ranges from "Computer Da freeze kiya jaye" or "Compaq Da freeze kiya jaye" (label-wise advertisement harvest) for a Bengali to "Computer Garu" - "Compaq Garu" for a Telugu-ite. It was hilarious to hear SRK speak Telmil (the new fashioned Telugu-Tamil hybrid) - "Ye mandi jaragandi...Saapadriya.. Rendu plate idli".

The show seems to have been cut in size and increased in frequency with as many ad breaks as ever. It also drove me nuts that SRK was trying too hard to be pally-pally with the contestants and gave them everything from high-fives to hugs. He also egged them on to the right decisions helping them win the questions and in one case quit with enough money to ward any guilt off. All said and done, it is not entirely fair for me to surmise about SRK in just one episode. It is to be seen if he retains any charisma that was once associated with the show at all.. We'll wait n watch!

A Farewell...

Farewell is a word,
So simple, so dour
Saying what started
but did not endure.

Farewell is a feeling
of something that’s gone
Farewell is a memory
that stays for too long

Farewell is everything
that’s been left unsaid
Farewell is the last message
Of someone who's left to surge ahead.

By Peter Rhodes

Good Luck Vaish...

Entrapment

Its a long weekend. And this is the third long weekend (after X'Mas n New Year) that I am not going anywhere. And slowly but surely the feeling of being trapped in this timeless place has crept in. And its getting claustrophobic! With my OPT starting soon, the feeling that I am bonded to this country is also closing in on me. And yes, I have been here for exactly a year at a stretch since my last India trip.. but the fact that you are on OPT and not in the liberty of leaving is shutting out the air around me.

My thesis would've been long done if my lab wasn't a paper-churning factory, reducing my advisor to an English Professor, correcting formats and sentences, rather than do what he is supposed to -- help his students graduate! Thats just ONE example. Suddenly, everything important in my life seems to have reached a complete stand still. I know when actually the ball sets rolling, everything's going to cascade one over the other and wrap me into a turmoil of activity.

But when the weekend comes, when the house sets into a lull, when there's nothing to do... when all the walks lead you on paths that have held interest in the past and have nothing to offer now... thats when I can't help hoping that my whirlwind isnt far away! For now, the monotony is killing!!

The Prestige

Warning: There are some spoilers ahead

Ah, I am back to my movie reviews and I feel at home again... The Prestige is one of those movies that comes once in many many years and when it does, it shouldnt be missed. I was very late to catch the movie after all the rave reviews from peers but finally I did and am I glad or what...

I have always been fascinated by magic. As kids, my bro and I unknowingly stumbled across a tape of The Magic of David Copperfield and that began a love story with magic and it surpassed everything I ever imagined. We saw all these amazing tricks including the "Statue of Liberty" caper. But I am not talking about David here. I am going to talk about The Prestige and the base holding the movie together was magic. And Christian Bale (Batman Begins) and Hugh Jackman, the 2 magicians are out of this world. But the real winner in this movie is the plot itself. It did open the door to disclosing the trick behind some of the illusions, some shocking, nevertheless. But the way the 2 magicians try to foil one another's tricks is amazing and keeps the audience guessing at every juncture.

And on it goes as each tries to better the other in the ultimate magical game, building one unbelievable trick after another before finally both of them stand to lose everything that they have. Over the movies that I have seen, I have realized that I have a special soft-corner for Scarlett Johansson, who shines in this movie as well, as the mistress of both magicians. In a highly fast-paced and strongly gripping plot, one magician finally gets the better of another.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who needs some food for his intellect after having seen a whole bunch of particularly brainless movies in multiple languages. Bale and Jackman have done commendable jobs with the role and I cant imagine a better person for looking the part of magician than Jackman (except my David maybe :)) This is honestly one of the better movies I ave ever scene and I highly recommend it! If u havent already seen it, you should be seeing it RIGHT AWAY!

J'apprends le français

How long is it since you learned a language? For most of us, the languages we know were the ones we learned way back in primary school. So if you're like me, you won't even remember how it felt to learn a language. The grammar, the prose, the verbs, the sentence constructions etc are sooo trivial that we don't even notice the way we use it. If you know Hindi, you'd realize like many foreign languages, even our good own Hindi has "gender" for things. Aam ka ped, neend ki goli - ok you get it. Its sooo imbibed in us, we dont realize that its monumental for someone who doesn't know the language.

So, I started learning French out of pure boredom by myself a couple of weeks ago before the brainwave that I could actually "sit through" a French 101 course at school struck me. However I kept at the self-learning and built a cute little vocabulary. Ofcourse anyone who knows French knows that NOTHING is pronounced the way its written or vice versa. The only saving grace is that the sentence construction is pretty similar to English and once you build your vocab collection of verbs, you will be failr good with practice. Ofcourse learning the language and practicing in front of your computer is one thing and speaking it with a native is a whole another thing.

Today was the first French 101 class. The instructor was a Frenchman, a PhD student was a sweet guy who spoke English with the easiest-to-distinguish French accent (sorry to disappoint you - he was NOT cute looking!) And so after a couple of sentences from him, we were all to introduce ourselves in French (if we knew it) or atleast try. When my turn came, I took a deep breath and started out "Je m'apelle Jaya" and so on. And to my own surprise I did fairly well. Except that though I knew my age in French, I was shy to pronounce it! Overall it was a good first class. It gave me that flutter which I hadn't felt in sooo long.. The feeling of knowing absolutely NOTHING while you sit in the first class. That too its a romance language... how bad can it be? With no crediting to worry about, this one should be a breeze. In all my excitement, I bought my first textbook in the US for this class!

On the "downside", I donno how long I expect to stick around here to do justice to this class.. But for what its worth, from the "Je ne comprends pas", its slowly becoming "Je comprends" :-)

Until later, Au revoir!

End of an era...

Its the end of the year... for many reasons, its the end of an era...

Well, this post is the last one of the year... I have mixed feelings about this year... while some moments I cherish and can never exchange for anything else, overall I felt that this year for me was a year in wait... literally for many many reasons... I have been waiting for many things to end. And nothing has.. So, for selfish reasons, I can't help but push this year behind and look forward to a more fulfilling 2007. However on the bright side, I have matured as a person, learned more about people, maybe lost a lot of my innate innocence in not-so-pleasant ways, gained new perspectives on things and people - so maybe it involved a lot of pesonal development. But I am not sure it was necessary for me at a stage in life where I am looking forward to many important things, a Masters Degree amongst many.

It was the end of an era of pure bliss with my dear Nokia 3100 which I still cherish. With the technological advancements, it was but natural for me to go savvy and choose a more loaded phone like the Samsung T629 which I have now had for just over 24 hours.

It was the end of life for Saddam Hussein. He was the first political leader I knew when at the time I was 8, he (read Iraq) invaded my then home country, Kuwait. The only positive I attach to the whole traumatic episode that me and my entire family were very lucky to have been on vacation in India at the time it happened - 2nd August 1990. So we didnt have horror stories like all our neighbours and friends who went hungry for days as they evacuated the country. It wasn't easy as a 8-year old to understand why we'd been uprooted from one place to an alien country - my good old India was alien to me having lived most my life till then in Kuwait. My bro's this post gives a better perspective of things. However, the point being, no matter what a cruel ruthless man he may have been, I couldnt but help feel pity at the way his "illustrious" life ended... at the gallows with media coverage and people dancing over his remains.

This year...


People use me... England wins the Ashes

My jobsearch's kickstarted... Saddam Hussein is executed abruptly and people dance over his remains

My advisor won't look into my thesis... Google buys Youtube

I have papers published and more invitations for technical writing... Italy beat France at the World Cup

My bro drops in for a surprise visit... The biggest hurricane in 50 years strikes Australia

I have a tizzzzzzy vacation... Aiswarya Rai marries a tree to rid her "Manglik" stamp

I have developed truckloads of patience... Movies like KANK are called BoxOffice Superhits!

I did most of the work for my Masters... And the temparature on Dec 31st in Cincinnati is 56 F

I could keeeeeep rattling n rambling.. But the bottom line is

Bye Bye 2006! Happy New Year 2007!!!!

New Look

After getting inspired from Bala, I got this new template for my blog... But well, thing is, I was working on modifying this other template I really liked. I tried making it 2 column from 3 column format and I am having a hell of a time doing it. Meanwhile, this is my blog for now.. Enjoy it!

~Toll-free calls~

Ever haggled with the CSRs of any organization? Most likely, it took you an hour to get through to a human voice after making the multiple choices to a computer and listening to umpteen music notes and promotions that they keep running you through. I have dealt with a whole bunch of CSRs and most of the electronic companies route your call, right to guess where? Good Old India... the flourishing BPOs.. The Padmanabhans become Paddys, the Thirunavukarasis - Tinys, the Margabandhus - Marks (ok- u get the point!)

So when I spoke to the HP guys, it was an Indian dude who promptly started with "Hi I am John" and the second he realized I was an Indian (and a southie at that), said"Actually Janardhanan.." and started flirting! Gosh! But well, he did help me out.. The reason all this came to me was my tryst with T-Mobile yesterday. I wanted to switch the whole account from Ali's name to mine and so I haggled on and on and on (I also wanted a phone upgrade) and was put on multiple holds which disconnected twice! And each time I called back I had to explain everything again. On the third occasion I really snapped. Spelling 'Jayalakshmi Parasuraman' is no cup of tea! And not a holiday for certain!! I couldnt blame the new CSR who picked up and however, an hour after I started, I was done! Whooooooooooooooooooosh! Actually that reminded me of the funny time I called the "No more offers" number to stop the whole lot oof junk credit card offers I was getting. After painstakingly spelling out my 22 letter name, and my address, the computer said, "Please say your name and spell out any words that could be difficult." I was dumbfounded. One attempt later, it said "Please confirm, you address is: 5-0-6, 112363597503, Wrightman Road." I hung up.

But then I remembered the time Time-Warner had overcharged me and I rang them up on a weekend thankfully and from my cell-phone thankfuller-ly (for those who don't know, we can make free calls from our cell phones on weekends). So, I tapped it on Speaker and did my work as I kept hearing the buzz of advertisements, and music for precisely 47 minutes before the call dropped! My roommate was telling me recently that she had called the Reliance people recently for some problem and had ended up spending an hour with a rude woman who refused to understand ehr problem or help her out and transferred her to multiple people with no avail! Whats with these people? I mean, why are they in the business if they don't wanna help? And why have these toll-free numbers at all if they are going to spew their domestic temper on us? From the customer's point of view, he's first been cheated (or overcharged or some thing) and then he has to put up with some random person's vile temper! (I must accept that many people are sweet.. it just rattles your brains when some aren't!!)

In retrospect, we all have troubles with something or the other and at some point will resort to calling these guys for some help. It just makes sense to not have wait times of more than 10 minutes or atleast have a queue information system that tells you you would have to hold for another 6 minutes (like out phone information system in Chennai) and keep up its electronic word! Most times like this, I wanna be in a wizarding world, where a Reparo or something would probably accomplish in ridding my woes!

PS: All you Harry Potter fans, await my post on the latest book/movie or both.. Coming sooN!

~Vivah Reloaded!~

Ok ok... Of late, I have been writing soo many movie reviews, I have been thinking of either renaming this blog to "Random Reels" or making a new blog, possibly by that name. (Any other suggestions will be welcome as well) So, I thought I should spice up this review. This will no longer be a simple review of the movie. Many people have done that. So, before scooting to the other part of this blog, my vivid imagination, lemme quickly summarize what I thought about this movie.

Old fashioned romance rocks!! For the life of me, I can't picture me or any of my girl friends ever pull off the Poonam character E-V-E-R! I can't imagine being intrigued by a mere brush of fingers (even from the guy I am to marry) or the half-glances, etc. And thats why I thought it was sweet. So out of place in the contemporary society of miniskirts and Mallika Sherawats. Subtle.. sweet... surreal and feel-good. Ofcourse, the movie had a storyline, and its exactly that, a line - the caption of the movie: A journey from engagement to marriage. True to their word, or line if you like, there wasn't anything else. The people's characters are all unbelievably good. And there are hardly hassles or hurdles till a very predictable climax. And ofcourse, all's well that ends well. And you knew that the second you saw the Rajshri banner and not after 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Ok.. so what would happen if you (if you're a girl) or your girlfriend/fiancee (if you're a guy) were like Poonam? That head-bowed, tow-staring, hardly uttering a word, a-perfect-advertisement-for-a-lapel-mic kind of girl? Someone who's heart flutters at every touch, whisper, glance? Someone who would burn from one glance of your beau's? Simple, beautiful, salwar-kameez clad? Well, on some level, its probably every man's dream.. But the minute he realises he has all the reins on this relationship and he is not just going to have to come up with great ideas to keep the romance flowing but also to hear a few golden words from those forbidden lips, he's gonna lose it pretty soon (unless he is a male chauvanist who wants every iota of control on his woman). I tried imagining me as a submissive (Ok, I am not implying that Poonam is submissive in the movie, but there was no evidence that she was not!), docile woman who nodded to every khwahish of her man and it cracked me up. Me never looking up at the guy, never voicing my opinion, wow! It will be a totally new perspective and probably worth a try (on a day I wanna get someone to LAUGH!) And I'd like to hear all your views (not on me, DUH!, but on the girl u're with - or would like to be with, or just yourself-should you be a girl) Will be an interesting analysis...

Go Post!

Woh Lamhe

Disclaimer: This blog has spoilers

And I am back to movie reviews... I have been busy over the past few weeks with multiple paper submissions, etc but I did take time out to watch this movie, something I wanted to see since I read its first promos.. For those of you who don't know already, this is a movie based closely on famous erstwhile late actress, Parveen Babi and her torrid romance with Mahesh Bhatt. What makes it "authentic" is that Bhatt is the producer of this movie.

The basic starcast is Shiney Ahuja (of Hazaar Khwahishen Aisi fame), Kangana Ranaut (hadn't heard of her before this one) and Shaad Randhawa. So, the story is something we've heard of (even if not in retrospect of Babi's life). Famous actress, Sana Azim (Kangana), struggling director, Aditya Garewal (Shiney) and pimp-cum-boyfriend, Nikhil (Shaad). The actress, though beautiful, talented, immensely rich does not control her life. She is instead controlled entirely by her creepy, all empowering, multiple-timing, no-good boyfriend. Contrary to a boot-licking director, Aditya is a man of attitude who not just thinks Sana is ugly, having covered her natural beauty under layers of make-up, and also covering her real persona under the wraps of stardom, all controlled by a jerk of a boyfriend, but also choosing to voice this very vocally in a party with Sana as the guest-of-honour! She doesn't take this easily and as with most women (I wonder why!!), with her ego challenged, can't resist Adi as a director and agrees to tone-down her artificiality and act for him in his movie. Shiney has some very good dialogues in the movie at this stage and doesn't lose them and my respect for him as an actor is still on a high shelf after I first saw HKA...

As the story progresses, you would think that Sana who'd broken free from her boyfriend's shackles would blossom in the obvious love that Adi showered her with. Instead, though the love is on either side, she falls prey to Schizophrenia, with her personalized mental element being a woman who follows her around threatening to ruin her. Admitted in a hospital and helpless, Sana is forced under the mercy of her greedy mom who is willing to subject her daughter to multiple shock treatments if that means that she can be on her feet soon and keep the money minting going. Adi, unable to see this kidnaps her away from the hospital to his sister's in Goa where he nurtures her to health.

And so it progresses... before ofcourse she neglects her medicines, attacks Adi, runs away, disappears for 3 years before attempting suicide and turning up in a hospital before well, dying.
The whole movie has this poignant feel about it and though its downright not moving to tears and stuff, it makes you actually relate it to the life of a real person and how sad and wasted it was. With stardom, the money, and everything that an ordinary woman would dream of, this one woman was reduced to her shadow before she caved in to death.

Ofcourse, though the movie was based on a real-life scenario, the end and some parts of it are fictitious. And towards the end, Shiney does overact! :)

A good movie... no extra add-ons... very down-to-earth.. worth a watch.

The good launderers~

Dig for quarters... pile up the clothes... take the detergent and the fabric softener and importantly, check if the machines were free... Sounds familiar? It was laundry day again! But luckily for me n my roomies, the laundry is right next door! And so, I waded across to find it empty and then dragged my basket across the carpet next door and dumped the clothes into one of the free machines and chugged up the machine. I placed the basket under the counter and let out a sigh of relief... 12:16PM...No hassles for the next hour atleast! Phew!

I came home and chilled with my thesis and almost forgot about my clothes churning next door. Almost! I glanced at the clock on the microwave. 1:26PM. I remembered the bunch of times I had gone to the laundry in the past to find water trickling out as the machine drained the last time. It was boring. I thought I'd give it another 10 minutes before checking. 10 minutes melded into 30 and it was 2:00PM when I realized. When I got there, I saw this note atop the next machine (the one I hadn't used) - We came down twice. You had'nt taken out your clothes. We've put it in the dryer for you. Surely, they didnt mean me? I opened the machine in which my clothes were supposed to be. Sure enough some unfamiliar clothes sprung out at me. I opened the dryer. And sure enough, my clothes were all sitting in. Blessing the soul who did it, and scribbling a Thanks so much :-) at the bottom of their note, I put in the quarters and cracked up the dryer. 2:05PM. No worries for atleast the next 75 min.

Or so I thought! It was 3:45PM when I looked at the clock next and hurried over next door. Another note - We came down thrice. You hadn't taken your clothes out from the dryer. We put them in your basket for you. We found your credit card and left it lying on top of your clothes. I tilted the lid up and there it was, right on top. Another Thank you note later, I left with clean clothes and I sent out a little prayer...

If it weren't for the good samaritans!

The Ring

No no.. This is not one of those horror movie reviews or a praise of the Lord of the Rings or anything like that! This is something that really happened and drove my cousin nuts and indirectly, well controlled my own life for the possible 3 hour obsession.

So it happened that I used to have an amethyst studded sterling silver ring which I used to wear on my right middle finger (no intentions though I have fantasized showing the finger in the process of showing people my beautiful ring - wicked me! :)) It turned out to be pretty lucky - don't ask me why I think all this jewelry stuff has a lot of luck attached to it. I have been told by preachers that diamonds are real luck deciders - either they are reaaaaaal lucky or they aren't. Luckily the one(s) I have ended up with have been good for me. Ok to cut the long story short, this ring over the couple of years that I have worn it lost each amethyst steadily and soon was barren and poverty-stricken so much so that people asked me alll the time - "What happened to the ring?" I also have another funda that if you dropped the used ring into a river (not lake, not sea, not well, you get it, not any other waterbody), a wish made alongside would come true. So you must be thinking Ohio River was the lucky one - nope, not that murky river! Some river did get the blessing and I sure hope my dreams come true!

Anyways, so while I was at New Orleans, we got into Claire's (sure every woman in America knows of it) and saw this sterling silver ring ( a li'l thicker than I wanted.. but the right color and with very few stones likely to fall). I tried it on my left hand, same finger and with the tie-wrap around it it was a snug fit. I asked for my cousin's opinion and got the green signal and bought it! I was excited!! I had been missing playing with this ring ever since I foolishly threw it away and no sooner was I out the store, I ripped the tie-wrap off and tried it on my right hand. Imagine my horror when it just wouldn't go through! Frantically, I took off the ring from my left middle finger and tried it. It was a snug fit. Thats when the biological mess struck me. The right hand, being my primary hand was a fraction larger than the left. I had never noticed it till I got this horrendous confirmation now.. Sob sob..

So we got home... me midly heartbroken and my cousin unaware of what was going to hit her. We'd rented a bunch of movies to watch over dinner and I played "Beyond Borders". All along, I didnt realize I was doing it, but apparently I was subconsciously fiddling my three rings amongst the 6 fingers (leave out the thumb n pinkie) I could. And also I was slowly dawning into the realization that this was bugging my cousin and she was throwing me these intermittent doleful glances. But I couldn't stop it! It was almost like I was possessed and I kept trying them in combinations that made me unhappy that my ring finger of my left hand remained occupied. (It indicates engagement, you know?!?) And I uttered the dialogue that she is unlikely to forget.

"I understand how Frodo must've felt..."

The look of exasperation on her face left me in peals of laughter and was worth every cent I paid for the ring. When I told her that I was dissatisfied with the arrangement the rings were finding on my fingers without me feeling like tearing it out and that I was thus going to leave it behind for her, I got the paisa vasool factor from her 'Are-you-really-now?' face. And when I told her my ring and river theory, I gauged that if I left the poor ring behind, it would probably feel itself flushed down the potty.

I herded it back. It is now sitting somewhere on our front room divan. Soon, I am going to have to decide its future... Maybe it will just hang around my neck as a weird locket on my gold chain... who knows!

PS: That pic is not really The Ring. I shall put up its own pretty pic soon!

Dhoom Again..

Warning: This blog is sprayed with a few chosen spoilers. I have tried to write without giving away much. But if you still think its a risk, don't bother reading further!!

And so it was a pleasant night in New Orleans and my cousin and I decided to stick to our original plans of watching Dhoom II that night with her friends. We got there early enough for the 9:45PM show and good too. The theatre filled up briskly enough and a few trailers later we were underway... The first robbery strikes you as downright cheeky and I found it almost impossible to digest. And soon, I thought up of a few flaws in the ploy and started vocalizing it when suddenly I had an epiphany -- Leave the brains behind and enjoy the movie!!!

One if the things that struck early and struck hard was how good Hrithik was looking. He was smoking H-O-T! Even men could probably find enough to ogle at -- a tanned, 6-pack ab treat, shirtless enough of the time, just made my day (or night!) To top it, Bips was looking gorgeous too.. She was smouldering and looked a million bucks. This mismatched pair sold out what might be the real-life couple! All in all, I liked the fact that everyone looked soo earthy and brown, rather than the pale-heroine look that most women have been getting over the years. This look made them look appealing and fresh in a very earthy manner and well, made you eat your heart out!

Performance-wise -- Hrithik really needed this movie. Though Krrish was a hit God-knows-why, you can be guaranteed he worked up a decent performance here. Abhi baby has never been short of performances, however, here he looks constipated in almost all of the song sequences and his dances never stood a chance against Hrithik anyways. Aishwarya Rai once more proved that she was the bimbo variety and could'nt act for nuts. Her introduction was a total disaster and proved once more why good-looking people should stick to the ramp and not wander over to the silver screen! But I warn all u Ash fans and oglers, there's nothing even on that department here. She looks quite shabby and her character is very very bimbo like with an annoying parlance specific to her in this movie. Gosh! Maybe the position for bimbo-hood or whatever it is that it is called didn't feel filled enough for the director. He came up with a way of reducing Bips' perfectly well formed charcater into a twin bimbo! Why?!?!? Uday was his usual self with a bunch of well-timed crack-ups that made it more entertaining.. Some things didnt change from the previous movie!

The plots are great, some of them leave you feeling wonderous about the ingenious thinking on the visual design front (always a good feeling!) ...The stunts are unbelievable (exactly that - great to look at, totally flawed at logic and not worth 2 hoots of science - Einstein n Newton can be found turning in their graves!), the cinematography terrific and the action, good. The music was a letdown after the catchy numbers of Dhoom I. A couple of numbers, Dhoom Again and Crazy Kiya Re are the only ones that stick to your head... But the background score is rocking and leaves you humming forever!! The choreography was great and all in all, the movie is a total masala flick, all entertainment... It lasted about 2hrs 45 min and ran soo smoothly that you hardly felt the time pass. One of the major improvements over its prequel was the cut in the final chase sequence which was annoyingly long in the former. Here it is crisp and is over before you know it. I am not going to give anything more away... I am just going to conclude by saying - Dhoom II - definite babe magnet (Hrithik hasn't ever looked more appealing and for me, he was the show-stealer!) - A complete entertainer, a total worthwhile watch....

Happy Holidays!

First up, for all those people with end-sem exams still around the corner, don't curse me just yet. Its Thanksgiving! And I am Thankful to the United States Government for having a 4-day weekend this time of the year (Believe me, when you are doing your thesis and nothing else, everyday is a holiday. But the pressure is sitting on you and you can't relax!) But TG is when everyone has a holiday (unlike Veteran's Day in OH) and you could fly places or have people visit you and thats what it is - 4 days of FUN! Not to mention the sales in most stores for the holiday season. Whats sad is that u dont have paid holidays.. but well, u can't have the cake and eat it too!

Lately, I have had the feeling that I have been travelling a lot. And it is true.. Every month, I have been away for atleast 4 days.. Its been great.. I have seen a lot of unseen places, done a lot of new things and travelling is one of my passions... I just love seeing new places, cultures and people. Its all soo entertaining and rich and leaves you content with a whole new experience on your stride.

My latest conquest placewise is going to be New Orleans. My cousin sis is doing her PhD there and we haven't seen each other for over a couple of years. And with a good deal, there is no good excuse. And so, off I am for a good 5-day TG vacation to see her and the Katrina-hit place. I will have more to talk about once I am back.

For all those with no holiday plans, don't fret... Christmas is around the corner too and thats a loooong vacation to look forward to. And for those with plans, do share what you're doing... Happy Holidays everyone!

The brownie candlestand...

It was my Birthday yesterday and my friends had already had a surprise party for me on Friday (the aim was to really surprise me and surprised I was!). And so to commemorate the actual occassion, my roomies baked a brownie for me. And the area they spread it over was huge and so the poor brownie barely rose.... With the candles embedded, it was a perfect candlestand... the most yummy one I have tasted (I haven't tasted any other!) There are some real funny pictures of me trying "cut" the flattened surface and feed my roomies... But I'll save that up for later. For this brownie's part, it had the honour of being the reason to name one of my gifts after it... a teddy bear that one of my roommates gave me.... Isn't he adorable?

Don -- A twist in the tale

Warning: There are spoilers ahead. In case you haven't seen the movie and intend seeing it, you shouldn't read further.

Ah.. Here I am.. back with a movie review... late again... but nevertheless... I probably can't sleep if I don't put my thoughts on my blog! It was another SRK movie and it took most of my will-power to convince myself I wanted to see this movie. And I am going to be honest and accept here that I voted to see this movie this past weekend amongst the few other lousy choices I had. I must mention here for the benefit of the non-existant few that this is a remake of the 1978 Amitabh starrer cum cult hit movie. Many songs are reproduced and given a, I want to say fresh whiff, but I'm afraid I don't lie

So, amongst us we had V who'd seen the movie, raved a bit about it and was going to keep us informed about it should we miss a few golden moments. And the movie starts in a cafe in Paris where SRK is using a RAZR and just utters "Don" into the mouthpiece. While it zooms out on his face, the first thing you notice is that he's aged. He really has. At 42, he looks every day of it, lines on his face and everything. Plus, they've given him this hideous hairpiece - a chinese wig as we all christened it (the hair was too shiny n sleek n silky to be Indian). And for most part, I couldn't keep my eyes off the reflection from the hair.

One of the first things you tend to notice is that the movie is slick. The cinematography rocking. The sets good. Locations foreign. Modern gadgets, et al. No waste of time. It cuts scene by scene very swiftly and doesn't drag the wee bit that its predecessor did. Comes the song, "Ye mera dil..", the Helen seducer number, you are shocked by how incredulously out of place Kareena Kapoor looks. Not only is she an average dancer compared to the smoking siren Helen was, you are certain to feel that she is suffering to catch up with the pace of the song and unless a man were thoroughly desparate, he would hardly wanna be in the same room as her, let alone be seduced. In contrast, Priyanka Chopra wasnt so bad a replacement for Zeenat. But she could've been better. Boman Irani who plays the inspector is his good self and Om Puri's involvement seems abbreviated. Arjun Rampal has done a decent job. And obviously poor SRK has done his bit to emulate the master (in the villainous part, I must accept he is good. But the other part makes up for this good perfomance - a total fiasco

When the simpleton SRK is introduced is the moment of truth that SRK was good for all the anti-hero roles he's done. His two roles in this movie contrast so much you can make the stark difference. As a villain, he is slick, and importantly believably wicked. Whereas as the innocent guy, a Bhaiya at that, he comes across as plain and artificial, especially because his dialect undergoes rapid changes from "humra" to "humara" and "ka" to "kya". Its distinct and is a big hole in the whole plot.

The biggest credit for the movie must go to the story tellers and the cinematographer who have certainly used the mold of the old movie to fashion something new. A big word of praise must go to the guys who thought up the theme of the original Don. To think such a complicated theme at a time of limited resources and making a blockbuster of it is something. This movie is smooth, sleek and slick. It moves rapidly and you hardly realize you have gotten yourself into a 2 hr 47 min commitment.

There's a big twist in the tale. In this one, the Don kills the simpleton way at the beginning and misleads everyone to think he is the simpleton posing as the Don to get all the benefits of the innocent man. This is tastefully revealed in the last scene and though there've been hints thrown all along, its only at that scene that one tends to pick the fragments and piece the puzzle together. And that literally spread this warmth inside of me that instantly endeared the movie to me.

And for this, Don to me, is a good movie. Definitely worth a watch -- Go for it.