Wednesday, October 26, 2005

The “Badhshah” is BACK!!!


After nearly 6 months, millions of fans like me are sure rejoicing today. Sachin Tendulkar is finally back after his recovery from the elbow injury. He is not only back, but back with a bang. 93 runs in 96 balls, 9 boundaries and 2 sixes. No one could have asked for more in the very first match after 6 months. And he was also instrumental in moving Pathan up the order which proved to be a very good move for the match.

I am very happy for Rahul Dravid too. His first victory after being appointed as captain and also for being named “Man of the match”. I hope good times continue for him.

Well, coming back to the title of this post, the peerless Emperor of Indian cricket is BACK and my BEST wishes to him for many more wonderful matches ahead. I am really very happy & excited. I may sound a bit wacky today...well, tell me one reason why I shouldn’t be? ;)

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

'Sania Mirza will change the world' - ???


According to the London's New Statesman, Sania Mirza is listed as one of the ten people capable of changing the world. Some excerpts from the article,

She is the first female Indian tennis player to be ranked in the world's top 40, indeed, she is the first significant female athlete of any kind, in a country where women have been typically discouraged from taking up sport.

She evidently enjoys the attention and delights in confounding expectations of exactly how a young Muslim woman from the subcontinent should behave. At Wimbledon, she wore a T-shirt bearing the slogan: "Well-behaved women rarely make history"; at the US Open in September, where she lost in the quarter-final to the Russian sensation Maria Sharapova, her T-shirt read: "You can either agree with me, or be wrong".

All this means that Mirza is in ceaseless demand - for interviews, billboard advertising, endorsements (her fee is reported to be second only to the great batsman Sachin Tendulkar's) and television appearances.

Though, I am not exactly sure whether Sania will change the world, I know one thing for sure, she has captured the hearts of millions of sports fans…well, to think about it, non-sports fans as well…;)

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Shreya – the lucky one?


It seems like Shreya is going to be Rajni’s heroine in “Shivaji”. She was cute looking in “Enaku 20 Unaku 18”. I have not seen her latest “Mazhai” yet. But I have seen a couple of her Telugu movies though. She seems to be pretty & talented. It is rumored that Rajni & Shankar saw the preview of “Mazhai” and were very impressed with her performance. I hope she makes a good pair for "Thalaivar". And there still seems to be some hope that Aishwarya Rai may also be in “Shivaji”. Until things get confirmed, let’s keep guessing.

PS: Somebody seems to have promptly followed one of the famous Tamil blessing, “Padhinarum petru, peru vazhvu vazhge”. A couple in Arkansas had their 16th child recently and they are apparently thinking of more. God Bless them!

Sunday, October 09, 2005

"Ghajini"


Saw "Ghajini" yesterday. First things first, the movie is definitely a good effort though not a great one. The director has taken an exquisite story line from “Memento” and added the right amount of spice to make it lucid for the ordinary tamil movie buff. I should say that he has succeeded to a great extent at it. But in his efforts to spice up the story, he loses track in the second half and the movie becomes an intolerable drag.

The movie starts well by portraying how a “short term memory loss” patient, who loses his memory every 15 mins, handles his life with no ones help. The flash back scenes in the first half with the charming Surya and exuberant Asin are such a delight to watch. Especially, the scenes when Surya goes to meet the girl who claims to be his girlfriend and she goes on & on to him and where Asin takes Surya to the new year party as fake Sanjay Ramasamy are top notch.



Surya, as Sanjay Ramasamy, a successful business magnet and a multi millionaire and as a short term memory loss patient, has done complete justice to the role. He sizzles in the romantic scenes and excels in the action scenes. He is completely believeable both as a business tycoon and as a patient. His body language in both these roles are laudable. I have one question for Surya’s costume designer, why the hell did he come with an idea of red, orange and violet pants for him? Though his costumes were best in the scenes, it was very irritating in the song sequences. But even for a Surya fan like me, a few scenes where he reminds us of the surya in “Nandha” are very disturbing and which could have been easily avoided.

Asin is a pleasant surprise. She was cute in “Ullam Ketkume” and I immediately liked her. In this movie she is not only adorable but is also full of energy. She is a perfect fit for the role and carries it out remarkably well till the end. This movie will be a very good break for her and I am sure she must have captured millions of hearts, already.



Now coming to the few glitches in the movie; Nayanthara was a complete disaster. To put it in simple words, she is fat and also very artificial in acting. The less said about her, the better. The double role of the villain is totally unnecessary and irrelevant to the storyline of the movie. Asin not knowing who Surya is till the end, is little disappointing.

Music by Harris Jeyaraj was very mediocre except for only 2 songs, “Suttum vizhi sudare” and “Oru maalai ilaveyil”. Both these melodies are addictive. Background score was very jarring in the action scenes. It’s high time he stops using those people signing in foreign language chorus in the background. It’s plain irritating.

If only the director would have avoided the double role of the villain and also reduced the length of the movie in the second half, the film would have been a slick thriller. Setting aside the few mess ups, “Ghajini” is definitely worth a watch for Director Murugadoss’s daring attempt, Asin’s lovable bubbly acting and of course, Surya’s incredible performance.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Smile Plz

Smile, laugh, enjoy, jump around...its official now. Indians are the 4th happiest people in the world according to a recently conducted survey. This survey was conducted in 30 nations and surprisingly, it is not the people of US but Australia who are the most happiest. The most miserable are the Hungarians.

And guess what, a Katrina Evacuee wins a million dollar jackpot. It is no surprise that she wants to get a house with the money. I think this is one classic example to the proverb, “If God closes one door, He’ll open the other”. Ah, what a spiritual thought!

I am officially a "Harry Potter" buff, fanatic, freak...whatever. I finished all the 6 books and I thoroughly enjoyed them. It was an amazing experience. And like every other fan, I'm eagerly waiting for the next one. Hurry up, Rowling ma'am...I can't wait!