total timepass...

Was it the expectations that killed it? Or was it the content? Any Aamir Khan, Rajkumar Hirani movie builds up expectations for everyone. Their movies have till now all been enjoyable, almost flawless in their flow and script. To the point that I have grown to expect the same from all their movies. And that is where PK lost out for me. PK is conceptually different and strong - using the viewpoint of an alien stuck on earth to highlight how meaningless some of our religious practices have become. But what the movie lacked was a well balanced script. It got too long, too winded and pedantic at times. There were too many typical twists and turns which made it a drag at times. For example, the multiple interactions with the guru and Aamir did not come out as natural as they could have been. And Anushka's acting wasn't natural either. I got disconnected many times from the script because of that. Also at no point did I emotionally connect with what PK, the alien is going t...

Its been a long time that I have come out of a movie theatre, affected. Given the kind of trashy movies that have been coming out of Bollywood recently (and becoming blockbusters!), Haider felt like it was from a different movie industry altogether! Before going for Haider, I had a vague idea that it was a mixture of Hamlet and Kashmir. But the way this was done completely blew my mind. We went for a 11pm show after a very busy day, and came out fully awake still, with my mind alert, awake and running in all different directions.

 The movie starts with a Kashmiri doctor taken away by the army in Srinagar, as he was treating a terrorist in his house. His son, Haider (Shahid Kapur) looks for his father after he comes back to Srinagar and finds his mother (Tabu) cavorting around with his uncle, Khurram (Kay Kay Menon). Haider's searches lead him nowhere, while his mother gets more and more close to his uncle.

 And then a stranger called Roohdaar (meaning ghost) comes to him wi...

After almost 7 years, I went into the Lords stadium recently. It is visible from our living room, so honestly its doesn't seem as exciting now. But still seeing India-England play gives it a certain sense of newness which I enjoyed... Thankfully, the match we saw was the only one in this Test Series which India won. So the whole experience turned out even better for us. Would have been terrible if we had got tickets for any of the ones after this one... Anyways couple of interesting observations based on my day out in the field: Watching a match at Lords feels a bit underwhelming. Its something about the crowd but its very formal and subdued. There are very few spectators holding posters, no Mexican waves, and no loud cheering. All the cheering is what you would call 'stiff British upper lip' type with the men in jackets standing and clapping, saying 'Well done boys, well done'! Its just not how I am used to seeing a cricket match and it just felt too boring...

There is one aspect of the Indian political and social systems which affects me everytime I read about it. Its how we forget our soldiers all the time. They are just there in the background, we remember them when there is a war, like the Kargil war but then they are forgotten and ignored again till the next time they are needed. Being from the defence background, it pains me more but even otherwise I think as a country its always important to remember those people who were willing to put down their life for as selfless a cause as their motherland... Related to this topic, there are a lot of articles being written currently, remembering the forgotten soldiers of the First World War. The thousands of Indian soldiers who fought miles away in foreign lands for a country which was their ruler. They did not fight for our country, but they fought as our countrymen. And we should remember them for their bravery and selfless acts, shouldn't we? One of the articles on these soldiers ...

The leader of the Congress party, Sonia Gandhi is an enigma. And not really by accident. That's a persona that has been created and propagated intentionally, to continue the fascination and patronising of the first family of Indian politics by the masses. It is also a master stroke, to have the President of the party as someone who rarely speaks and never really expresses her mind. The person who controlled the government for 10 years never took any sides. So she was never ever wrong, you could never ever find a fault with her. Isn't it the best? All the power without ever having to take any ownership of the acts when they go wrong. I often wondered about it, and then I read some articles related to this - ' The inside story of how Sonia's spin doctoring works '. Its a series of articles describing how very rarely Sonia's views are heard before any happenings. But if they go wrong, articles start appearing in the press on how Madam is unhappy with what happ...

A Salman Khan movie on Eid - take a guess on how it would do? Of course will do well, and it did...But how? Its been a couple of years since I saw a Salman Khan movie in the theatre. The reviews for Kick were surprisingly not too bad, so I thought of giving it a try and what a bad idea it was. Kick is a bad movie, seriously. Especially the first half. Its just so over the top, with random songs and sequences all over - after a very long time I was thinking of leaving a movie midway. Somehow I made it through, and to be honest the second half was a lot more bearable. So things did definitely get better. But how can such movies be made, and more importantly how can they be such big hits? I think these are questions no one can answer convincingly! Anyways back to the movie, I don't even want to get into the story as its not worth mentioning too. Jacqueline Fernandez looked pretty, though she can't act. Same for Salman Khan. The locations in the movie were pretty. And I gues...

Even though its a bit late, I think this movie deserves a review... Vidya Balan has created a place for herself in the industry - that is something no one can take away from her. I actually will go and watch a movie just because she is there. As some may say, she is the female Aamir Khan of Bollywood. And the reason for that is her attitude - I will do what suits me and what I want to do. The rest can go wherever they want to! Her last outing failed to impress - Shaadi ke side effects . But Bobby Jasoos didn't. A very different movie on a girl from a middle class family in Hyderabad with a junoon in her head to be a detective. After a tough time, she makes it big because of one of her clients who asks her to look for young people who vanish mysteriously after she does that successfully. Lot of things happen on the way, ending with her finding out the truth about the client. But the story in this movie is not the highlight though. Its a lot more about the journey of Bobby - ...

NDTV put up this video uncovered from some British archives, which was made in Bombay 80 years ago. Its an imperialist video which tries to show how the British have taken India out of its dark ages, but leaving that aspect aside, how charming does Bombay look? Uncrowded, smaller buildings, a hustle-bustle which is not crazy. Its worth a watch for whoever has stayed at the metropolis and feels something for it...

I am writing a movie review after a long time. The major reason for this is the lack of good Hindi releases recently. Anyways given this drought of watchable fare from Bollywood, we ended up going for Ek Villain without really checking out the reviews - how bad could it be? And honestly, I have come out confused. I don't really know how I feel about it. The story is about Guru (Siddharth Malhotra) - a gunda who converts to a honest and loving person when he comes in touch with Aisha (Shraddha Kapoor). But their happiness is short-lived as she is murdered, and Guru thereafter seeks revenge. The good - Its a different story, not really seen before in Hindi movies. And Siddharth Malhotra looks good, as well as does not over-act. He looks so effortless in his acting - a definite plus to the film. As was Riteish Deshmukh - as the bhola-bhala looking middle class telephone repairman, hen-pecked husband with an alternate story. He acts superbly and plays the character wel...

The NHS is one of those coffee table topics discussed quite often in the UK. The theme is generally the same - frustration with how inefficient it is, and horror stories that everyone shares on how their experience has been. Till now, I had not had to interact with them, so for a long time I did not hold any view. But now that I have crossed 30, and need to reach out to them more, my view about them has become very consistent with what I had heard till now! To be honest, I think that if its an emergency or a life-threatening situation, their services are still efficient and quick (apparently), but if you are just a little sick, they are terrible. And there are multiple levels of inefficiencies in their processes. The ones I have experienced myself is at the GP level. I think either it was my bad luck with the GP I registered with, or maybe its the norm, but my experience was quite bad. For one, they make it impossible to even meet the doctor! They make you do all kinds of jumps be...

Here is a chart showing world migration, from and to different countries .... This is a page showing indian memes . Its hilarious and you can read it for long and keep laughing the whole time gives its all so true!! And another one listing things we may not have known about India !

I am generally not a fan of self-help kind of books, and a feminist one at that, would definitely be a no-no. At least that's what I always thought. But then there are good self-help books too, so its definitely not right to just discard an entire genre. I have read two such books, which I think at least point out to the right problems, even if they may not be able to give the perfect solution! One of these is, 'Men are from Mars, Women from Venus' and the second one is 'Lean In'. And I just assumed that to be the truth:) But then recently, I realised that Lean In, which to me feels like a good book tends to polarise women a lot. And hence, I thought of submitting my two cents in support of the book. This is not a review, but just my synthesis of what I think Sheryl is saying in the book (or at least what I take away from it, which makes it seem logical to me...) and which answers some of the criticism that comes its way... IF women want to focus on their...

In recent years, I have diversified from reading only fiction, to sometimes reading history books. And I just love them. One because they are still stories (so I don't miss fiction) and second because there is so much more that you can understand about the current world, its intricacies and under currents if you can understand and follow its history better. I was always interested in understanding the events in the Middle East, especially the Israel-Palestine conflict and realised I had only a half-knowledge about the issues for a long time. Reading Wiki helped, but not enough as Wiki is good enough to get some information about something, but if you need a detailed insight about anything, Wiki too falls short. So one day in the library, I just picked up this book randomly. And it turned out to be a successful experiment. Of course I learnt a lot about the Middle East through it. But I realised two other things which I tend to sometimes forget. One, its fun to pick random boo...

In recent time, criticism for Apple has started to dominate the news a lot more than appreciation. And maybe justifiably so, Apple has started to lag Google/Samsung products. But one thing even Apple critics will accept, their products are way way ahead of Microsoft, which is still used by the majority in the world. The fact that it took Bill Gates an entire day to setup his own built software is testimony to that! I wonder if this news article is true or not, but its definitely believable!

I know its not right to compare India with a Scandinavian country, they are way ahead from even the rest of the world, that comparing them with India is just not fair. Still it does increase the irony.. My question is this (la Arnab style), what would India have been if like in Norway, a huge oil reserve had been found in India. Am sure the result would NEVER have been this . In 25 years, the sovereign fund has (notionally) made every Norwegian a millionaire. If this had happened in India, what would have been the result in 25 years? The mind runs wild, The Gandhis could become multi-multi billionaires The Mulayam/Laloo Yadavs could become billionaires Amma, Maya could become billionaires A Raja could be a billionaire ........... The options are infinite, except every Indian becoming a (notional) lakhpati even! That is the one option we all know is not realistically an option. How sad is that?

Strangers on a train is a play based on the Hitchcock movie by the same name, but with a storyline of its own. It is based on quite an interesting idea, that two strangers who meet on a train agree to murder a person for the other. And they think they will never get caught, because the police will never suspect them as they are not connected. One of those people is a rich heir (Bruno), who wants to have his father out of the way, and the other is an architect (Guy) who is troubled by his ex-wife. What follows is a psychological thriller, where Bruno carries out the murder and then blackmails Guy into committing his part of the deal. But Bruno does not leave Guy alone, he vitiates his life, his soul, his relationship with his wife, and ruins him to the point of destruction. The play is very well acted, and Bruno as a psychologically challenged person is the highlight. There did feel a homosexual tinge in his acting, I wonder if that was also part of the story or not. The sets in t...

There are many authors that I have been impressed with, but Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a world apart. There are authors who write, and then there are authors who make you feel.. And Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of them... I have read 'Love In The Times Of Cholera', '100 Years Of Solitude', ' In Evil Hour' and ' Leaf Storm'. And each book had the same effect on me, it made me flow with the words. The whole writing style is so dreamy, so unreal, so poetic; its very tough to describe what you feel when you read his books. The stories are actually very average, they are all over the place, unrealistic, sometimes even confused. But its his words which create the magic! They take you through a journey, where you forget yourself and just see the world that he wants you to see.. Its almost as if you are cut off from the rest of the world when you read his books, you flow with the stories, and come back to the real world only when you keep the book down... ...