Its time to wake up guys …

When you are in goa on a vacation of just 4 days, spending 3+1 hours in watching a Bollywood flick is not really worth. But then again, when the movie is Rang de Basanti, those 3+1 hours become as good as the time spent on the beaches. This statement in itself tells my feelings about this movie. Simply put, RDB is one of the best if not the best patriotic movies I have ever watched.

The whole story is about 5 guys living life the way it comes, not bothered about future, just hanging out all the time; one incident changes their life and they sacrifice their life for the good of the country. So it seems like any normal patriotic movie. Why is this movie so special? The reason why this movie is special is because of just one man. No, I am not talking about Aamir Khan. I am talking about the director of this movie; Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra who, I believe, is the real hero of RDB. He was writing script of this movie for around 3 years. And the hard work he has put in has paid off in a big way. Each and every seen of the movie is so well thought out. The scenes where the characters from the history (Bhagat Sing, Azad etc) are interlinked with the life story of the 5 guys is a real master piece. Reheman has given his typical music where in you don’t really like the songs at first time but as u hear them more u start loving them. Also, the way the songs are integrated with the movie is also worth praising. It is worth noting that no character actually sings any song. All songs are kind off background songs and add to the whole feel of the movie. Another plus point of the movie is the way Aamir Khan’s character is handled. When someone of stature of Aamir is in the movie, it can very easily happen that all the focus goes on his character. This has not happened in RDB. Aamir is just one of the 5 guys. Again, the credit for this must go to the director. Speaking abt the performances, all the actors have given a top notch performance. Mr Perfectionist, Aamir Khan, has lived up to his reputation and has given another flawless performance.

But this is not all. While watching the movie I was actually getting the patriotic vibes. I felt like life should be more meaningful than sitting in front of the computer and coding the whole day. This is a huge thing since there are very few movies which have managed to make me think about what I am doing. The feeling you get after coming out of the theater is something which cannot be put into words.

So those who have not seen the movie, please go, watch it, get impressed, THINK and WAKE UP.

Always remember that “Koi Desh perfect nahi hota, hume use perfect banana padta hai”(No country is perfect by itself. We have to make it perfect.)

Jai Hind.

Zinda hu mai ….. I wonder how?

The start was decent, till interval it did grip, after interval I felt like killing myself. This was the experience of watching the movie Zinda. How this movie got a 4* ranking in Sunday Times is a mystery. I don’t think I will write anything more about the story. I don’t want to relive any of those moments. I just wanted to alert you people before you even think of watching this movie.

I must confess that I was expecting entertainment from this movie. After all it was directed by Sanjay Gupta, the legendary director of films like Kaate and Musafir. He is the guy who makes the kind of movies which make u laugh ur pants off .... sorry let me rephrase it ... he is the guy who makes the kind of movies on which u laugh ur pants off. But anyways what matters is u laugh and when u go in a group, these can be real entertainers. Zinda was nothing like that though. It was such a depressing movie with such a gloomy feel to it.

In last few weeks itself I have watched Neal N Nikki, Sikhar, Ek Khladi Ek Hasina, Garam Masala, Dewaane Huve Pagal, BluffMaster and Zinda (There are few more which I don’t remember). Apart from BluffMaster all the rest have been more or less disasters. People might think that I am just a crazy guy who doesn’t know how to spend the money but that would be wrong thing to think. I have changed my strategy of movie watching. Instead of choosing the movies wisely, I have started to choose the theaters wisely. I watched most of these movies either at WestEnd (50 bucks balcony) or at Neelayam(40 bucks balcony). So if you want to do some time pass but don’t want to spend much then this is a good way to do that. Moreover, you always get the tickets. No advance booking, no standing in queue.

Coming back to the movie .... well lets not do that. Let me just stop by saying that watch Zinda if u feel that u r at the lowest point of ur life. After watching the movie u will realize that that point was not so low after all.

Its all about Shoaib ….. Pakraman-2

if(inform == shoaibAkthar)
{
bPakistan = bGetsAdvantage;
}
else
{
_tcscpy(tszIndia,_T(“Series Winners”));
}

People might think that the above made C statement is highly irrational and unthought-of. But I believe that in upcoming indo-pak war, it cannot be truer. I saw the Pak-Eng series and the kind of form Shoaib was in is frightening from India’s perspective. He always was a lethal bowler on paper but the commitment he showed against England has made him a real threat. Facts don’t lie. He bowled more number of overs than he has ever bowled in one series. Credit must go to Bob Woolmer for giving Shoiab’s aggression a perfect direction. I really hope that he returns to his old wayward self in this series or else it will be a hard fought battle for the supposed best batting lineup in world.

In series against England, Kaneria proved to be another star performer. However, I feel that if we tackled Murli with relative ease, Kaneria should not pose a major threat. Others like Rana Naveed and Sami are good bowlers and can be perfect second fiddle to Rawalpindi Express. But I don’t really see these guys winning matches single handedly.

As far as the batting threats are concerned, I feel there are 3 guys we should be really worried about. One is the big man Inzi. In outstanding form as a player and as a captain, he is one of the top 3 batters at this stage in the world. Second is Mohomad Yousuf. He is another class act and if he gets in then the we will not be able to win anything …. draw is what we will have to play for. The 3rd I feel is Salman Butt. His kinds of players have always troubled Indians. Last time it was Yaseer Hamid this time the un-exposing Salman. He is the kind of guy who just plays through line and for some reason we always face trouble to get these people out. On top of it he is a leftie and traditionally we have been poor against the lefties.

To end with, here is a food for thought for India’s batting. Sunil Gavaskar brought this up and I feel this is very sensible. Don’t pick Ganguly. Don’t Pick UV. Pick 3 openers instead. Jaffer, Ghambir and Sehewag will be our top 3 ….. worth a try for the first match at least !