Taare zameen par

One of the nicest movies that I have seen this year. Apart from the fact that it is pretty lengthy, everything else about the movie is amazing. After a long time we have a hindi movie which doesn't deal with the same old crap of rebirth, love and romance and is entertaining at the same time... The story is different, which everyone can relate to and very heart warming...and just like 'Chak de' even this had a strong message with it... I guess bollywood movies which try to convey a message to the society seem to click with the audience :)

I went to watch it with high expectations after reading all the reviews (and the fact that it wasnt hyped like OSO or saawariya!) and it really didnt disappoint me. I have loved Aamir khan as an actor since the days of QSQT and now he has done a good job as a debutant director too. The kid, Darsheel Safary (Ishaan awasthi) is truly brilliant. He has very well portrayed the emotions of a 9yr old kid who suffers from dyslexia... at least as a first time actor, I felt he was great! Aamir (as Ram shankar nikumbh) walks in after the intermission and takes the movie to a different level. He could have cut down a few details in the movie to reduce it to 2hrs and still managed to keep it as good... the length just made me a bit restless towards the end...

Coming to Shankar-ehsaan-loy's music, at first when I heard the songs during the movie, they didnt appeal to me much... but later when I downloaded the songs.. i realized quite a few are awesome... The songs raise the emotional content of the movie to a great extent... very soft and melodious. I have got so addicted to 'Kholo kholo darwaze...' and 'Jame raho...' that they are the only 2 songs on my playlist currently and I keep listening to them all thru the day :)

Anyways, this movie hardly needs any recommendation.... am sure it has generated enough curiosity for people to go and watch it...

Read more about him and his movie on his blog - http://www.aamirkhan.com/blog.htm

FuquaVision - Damn It Feels Good to Be...

A cool MBA related video..u can connect to it better if u are a B-school grad :) The video is pretty close to reality actually!

Pondicherry

Samarpan beach guest house, which is part of the auroville community is one of the nicest places i've been to... you really come back rejuvenated and inspired :) More info here.

view from the beach house...

clear blue water with light blue sky... nice sight...

coconut trees on the beach side..

Twilight...

Pics that I took yesterday evening just after sunset... The sky was really beautiful with interesting patterns and colors...

My playlist...

My current set of favorite songs....

1. Laree Choote..(Call the Band-Singer: Xulfi) - also in the movie 'Ek chalis ki last local'
2. Kuch is tarah.... (Atif Aslam)
3. Aakhri Alvida.... (Strings)
4. Doorie.... (Atif Aslam)
5. Tum hi tum..... (Bandish)
6. Mahi Ve.... (Faakhir)
7. Tera mera rishta ....(Roxen)
8. Aajao.... (Bandish)
9. Tere Bin ... (Atif Aslam) - also in the movie 'Bas ek pal'
10. Aasman ... (Call-The band) - very nice piece of guitar in this song...

Bandish is a new band formed by people who have disintegrated from various bands... they are pretty good though they have just one album to their credit so far... Watched them live at Bangalore habba last weekend... they performed really well.... a band with a great potential!

I just love each one of these songs.. and just dont seem to get enough of them :)

Lead India Advertisement

"Tum chalo... to hindustan chale..."

This Ad, which is shown very often on TV these days is so beautifully made that I just had to post it here! The message is conveyed in such a subtle and simple way..... and it is so pleasing to watch :) Just loved it!

A fish called wanda

It's a very old movie released in the year 1988 *ing Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and John Cleese. Brilliant cast, Brilliant script and Brilliant direction!

One of the greatest comedies that I have seen in a long time. It is so perfectly made that at no point during the movie did I feel that 'oh it could have been better'! The performances are just awesome, above criticism and comedy timings are way too perfect. Kevin Kline really stands out all thru the movie.. no wonder that he won an academy award for the best supporting actor role. The movie has a very common plot- a boy meets girl kind of romance with a gang of 4 people trying to pull off a robbery; of course all of it with a lot of comedy. But what's different is the way it is scripted and enhanced with brilliant acting by all 3 of them.

There are so many funny quotes from this movie, but something that I can't forget and makes me laugh everytime I think about it is this line told by Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) to Otto (Kevin Kline) when he keeps telling her 'Dont call me stupid'... :-))

"Oh, right, to call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people! I've known sheep that could outwit you! I've worn dresses with higher I.Q.s!"

I don't want to give out too much about the movie for people who havent seen it but if you havent watched it then you are missing something!

All About Ads...

I've been watching NDTV profit for the last few days and I really feel it's a pretty neat channel.. very informative and they have some real good shows like Just Books - a show for book lovers which hosts interviews about authors and other celebrities talking about their choices of books...Gadget Guru -gyan about all the latest and happening gadgets and Car and Bike show - the name says it all..

Watched another cool show yesterday (Sunday) called 'All About Ads' for the first time. When I saw it I wished i hadnt missed the previous episodes... It's all you want to know about indian and global advertising. Yesterday's show was about branded entertainment; how it's the in-thing in advertising/branding these days. For those of you who are not sure what it is, it's about product placements in the entertainment channels such as movies... The best and recent example is Om Shanti Om (OSO). I think with the release of OSO, shopper's stop and maybelline really made some big bucks... These days most of the movies seem to be doing product placements.. it's just that few of them are done so subtly that they don't really catch the eye.... but some are so heavily done that u just cant stop noticing it and cant forget even after the movie! e.g Optolabs for the movie Sarkar ... almost every single character in the movie was wearing spectacles unnecessarily... Am sure you can find loads more if you think about it...

The example discussed in the show was about the movie 'Cast Away' (which i havent seen) in which Fed-ex was the associate brand... it's said that it was almost as if the brand was the character and it made the story happen... interesting!! So that's going to be the next movie on my list... :)

Jagjit Singh - live in concert

What could have been better than me getting to watch one of my favorite singers live in concert?! I had missed the last 2 concerts of his and this time I was waiting eagerly.. only to get a bit disappointed at the end.

A fund raiser event organized by 'Chaitanya Welfare Society' on account of world AIDS day yesterday (Dec-1) was a big let down. The whole organization of the event was pretty pathetic.. people had to wait in long queues for nearly an hour to get inside the venue and it was total chaos. And the next most important thing - acoustics, was totally screwed up..along with the lighting... I felt that listening to him on a CD would have been a much better option! Crowd handling was quite bad too.. people were just moving around all the time while the show was on which was pretty distracting and there was no way one could really get involved in listening to his music... To top it all, he didnt even sing many of his great ghazals which we were all waiting to hear.....I really didn't feel my soul stirring in the same way as it did in the days when I grew up to become his huge fan.... His recent albums seem to have lost that variety and innovation and they dont seem to appeal in the same way as his old ghazals used to...

I also heard from people that his concerts have become very predictable. (I have no comments here 'coz this was my first time..) He follows the same pattern every time, cracks the same jokes and connects with the audience in the same way... and that when he picks up the usual 2 or 3 punjabi songs, thats when u know the show is going to end!

The sad part here was that they priced the tickets at 550,1100 and 2k.. and it was absolutely no value for money. I understand that if someone is raising funds for a noble cause this is still fine and it makes sense, but at the end of it people who come there to watch the show should be able to enjoy it at least!

Am hoping that sometime in future I'll get to hear a better Jagjit Singh live in concert... along with Ghulam Ali would be even better! :)