total timepass...

'Ek Tha Tiger' is a typical Salman Khan movie, a mindless masala entertainer with lot of action and pretty locales to keep you entertained throughout. The story is simple: a RAW agent falls in love with a Pakistani ISI Agent while on a mission, and then both of them run away to lead a life away from the enmity of these two countries. The story being so simple and straightforward, the whole movie is just about Salman in a lot of action scenes, and the background being a travel advertisement for Ireland, Cuba, Istanbul and so on. There is pretty much nothing else in the movie. Some songs, not worth remembering either. Salman Khan looks funny though, he doesn't fit the role of an agent. He is so fat and when he tries running around and jumping from here to there, he looks out of place. And he is different from the rest of his recent movies, like Ready, Bodyguard, Dabbang etc too. Its a different but still Salman role that he does. Katrina looks good as usual. As I said, n

Since I am not an action-hero movie buff, there are not many in-depth views that I have about the Dark Knight Rises. All in all, I can just say that the movie was enjoyable, with a decent script and lot of good special effects to be fully involved. But there were a couple of interesting things I thought of after coming out of the theatre. For one, in the Dark Knight Rises, the focus is on Batman rather than the villain which was very unlike the last movie. When you came out of the movie theatre, you thought about Batman, his troubles, his doubts and his rise rather than Bane. This was in sharp contrast to the Dark Knight where all that was in your head was the Joker and Batman was relegated to a supporting presence. Also, Bane as the villain was too plain, just a strong body and a couple of people he controls. Not too much about him to remember. Another interesting point in the movie was its portrayal about what may happen when the 99% take over from the 1%. I am not supporting ei

Cocktail, is it part of the new age Indian cinema that we see so often nowadays, a different and more realistic look at what we are rather than the nice image we still have of our society? Frankly, no. It's a bad movie, terrible actually but I would still recommend a watch. Why? Just because it is different and it does start out in a new direction even though it loses its way in between and ends up where it always has been... Anyways, let me first start with the characters. Deepika (Veronica): the first thing about her is that she looks hottt! I mean, really hot! And surprise surprise, I never thought I would say this but I think she acted, quite well in fact. Which is something new for her given her earlier movies. As for her character, its a rocking one. I wudn't go into whether what she does is right or wrong, but its just a well etched character, she is who she is, fun, carefree, independent and always partying. Its something different too, don't remember seeing many

The issue of 'Reservation' in India has been debated endlessly for years now: in online forums, in social gatherings, in educational institutes.. everywhere. It's pitfalls have been debated, the advantages have been discussed, changes have been advocated to the system and so on. But it has still not been sorted out, it is still a highly inefficient and misused system which is not serving the purpose it was originally introduced for. There are endless stories coming out regularly on how the system doesn't work properly. The latest I read was this article  which shocks you with the fact that you can get an entrance into an engineering or a medical college by scoring a 0 in the exam!! Does this not make you feel frustrated? And shocked? And angry? Is this correct, is this what we want in our future? Don't countries achieve greatness based on merit alone? And we are creating a generation seeing merit give way to other considerations. The reason given for such a sys

Ted, the latest from Mark Wahlberg, is a comedy unlike most of his previous movies which were mostly action-based. To be frank, I am not a fan of animations or other children's movies and don't enjoy them much. So expectedly, I wasn't keen on watching Ted either. I went in with minimal expectations but surprisingly enjoyed the movie! To be honest, a movie about a walking-talking Teddy Bear has to be a children's movie! But Ted was more than that. It started out just like that, where a small boy's wish to have a friend of his own, a talking Teddy Bear brings joy to his life. His 'thunder-buddy' forever is the friend to him he never had, his constant companion and they both share a happy life together. But once in adulthood, the same friendship weighs him down. He is not able to outgrow the carefree days of his childhood and the presence of Ted in his life makes sure this never happens. This is the premise of the movie, when Mark's girlfriend wants hi

Some days back, a Delhi Court passed a judgement saying as per Muslim law, a Muslim girl could be married at 15 if she had attained puberty (as against 18 which is the law for 'other' girls in India).  As expected, there was a lot of hue and cry about this judgement and articles being written about whether this is right or not? I was also expectedly shocked by this judgement. It does not make sense at all. When there is a law in India for the legal age for any girl to get married, how can there be another age for a certain Indian girl? Is she different, is she special or not-so-special? It seemed completely outrageous. My first thought was of the court being incorrect in its judgement. But then as I researched this a little more, I realized that the courts are not to be blamed, they are simply following the law. And the law is the one which is currently faulty. And then I remembered all the articles I had read earlier about the demand for a Uniform Civil Code in India. It

Recently I saw this BBC 4-episode miniseries based on a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell called North & South and totally loved it. For one, have become a big fan of BBC shows and secondly I love all these old Jane-Austen-type of English novels. So combine the two, and am halfway a fan of the series too! Anyways, North & South is the story of the move of Margaret Hale from southern England to the northern town of Milton. This itself is the basis of the novel, depicting the contrast between the idyllic and rich towns of the south to the working class and cold culture in the north. Milton has many cotton mills and the residents of this town include the (rich but still working class) mill owners and the poor mill workers which is very different from the life and people Margaret was used to in the south, the more classy and rich southerners. The novel showcases many issues throughout the story: the different living conditions in the working class towns, the workers and their problem