Don 2 - Review

DON 2 - "Traditional Action, Music & Bollywood Masala, with a incredibly slow first half and a good second half. Nothing to write home about, but fun at the movies nevertheless."

The Return of the King, That's the tag line the movie set out with and it's also the legend it had to live up to. I don't think anyone ever claimed that the first Don movie or it's subsequent remakes were classic movies with fantastic plots twists. But the first movie was an Amitabh Bachchan, angry young man classic with song and dance and fight sequences and Shah Rukh Kahn's re-interpretation was a stylized movie with a brilliant plot twist at the end at left most of us really thrilled that we saw something other than just a re-make. But what the movie did more than anything was left the door open for this one. Don 2.

For those that have not seen the first movie, please remember this is a sequel, and does not make much sense without the first one, but anyway it was a fast paced movie that slowed down along the way but picked up steam at the end, but was full of good music, car chases and fight sequences throughout. Good old masala. So anyone expecting anything more would be disappointed.

Let's get to the point. How was Part 2? Well to be honest if I had left during the intermission I would have gladly said the movie is horrible. The first half of the movie is long drawn out and boring, the acting by all actors in the movie is terrible, with not one of them showing an ounce of emotion. Kareena Kapoor showed more emotion in the one song that she came in the first movie than all of them did in this movie put together. But the movie does compensate with a good second half where they actually get into the job of storytelling and the twist at the end though expected, makes you leave the theater with a smile on your face. Does the movie shamelessly borrow sequences from Mission Impossible, sure and you are going to see the similarity all the time. But you will enjoy it.

So my rating? 2.5 would be it. Not good or bad.

A review is not going to make you go watch or avoid this movie, somewhere along the way you will watch it. The action is really good, the car chases are fun and you do recognize the music from the first movie, so like I said before it's Good old masala.

Rahul

Ra.One - Review

Ra.One - "A Bollywood superhero flick with a lot of promise and an excellent first half, got bogged down by too much song & dance, masala and a lackluster story in the second half. But after Endhiran, this is the best special effects I have seen in an Indian movie. And for that reason alone, worth a watch at the theater"

When you decide to watch a superhero flick, there are certain things that should be left at the door. The first one being Logic. We watch these movies to have a good time, for a few laughs and some dramatic action sequences. To a large extend all these rules apply to Ra.One as well. Shahrukh Khan plays Shekar Subramaniam, a video game developer in London, who has a young son Prateek (played by Arman Verma) and tried to live up to his son's expectations of a bad ass game. His son tells him that Villains are cool and that his father should create the toughest super villain in the world. And thus from this wish comes Ra.One (a pseudonym for Raavan). As expected things go out of hand, and Ra.One comes into the real world and creates havoc. It's actually a good premise for a superhero movie, a super villain that's next to impossible to destroy and the hero, G.One created with all the good in Shekar's heart to vanquish him.

I tried imagining the movie without the song & dance routines that showed up every 10 to 15 minutes or so. The movie would have been 2 hours long at the maximum, they might have been able to keep the audience attention for that long and the shoddy ending may have been glossed over and to say make a hindi movie without the songs is not unheard of today. The second half of the movie adds not even half as much to the movie as the first half and as expected Kareena Kapoor is the movie as eye candy and to play the damsel in distress and does not really contribute much to the story, but then to do her justice, it's really a father and son story with G.One taking the place of Prateek's dad.

All in all not a great movie. It's just timepass and a good action & adventure movie.

My Rating: 3 on 5.

Rahul.

Real Steel - Movie Review

REAL STEEL - "It's a feel good movie that provides a couple of hours of laughs and entertainment. Hey, Robot Boxing is action packed fun!"


Sometime in the near future, boxing goes out of style and Robot Boxing is the name of the game. Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is a former boxer who now fights in the ring using the robots, but times have changed and he can't really keep up. After a fight he is approached by some guys who tell him that his ex-girlfriend has died and certain things happen that his son Max Kenton (Dakota Gayo) comes to live with him and travel on the road as he fights this robots. Along the way they find ATOM a robot in a junkyard and they brush him up for the ring.

The movie is really a father-son story of endearment and a little guy taking on the the big guns kind of story. Dakota Gayo puts in a really wonderful performance as Max Kenton, that really makes you connect with the character and cheer the robot along. Hugh Jackman's chemistry with him really is what makes the movie worth a watch.

 The only real reason to watch the movie on the big screen is the Robots, the boxing matches were actually a lot of fun. I'd give the movie an average rating of about 3 on 5.

Rahul

The Lion King - Not Really a Review

The Lion King 3D (2011) - "It's interesting how a movie re-launched 17 years after is was first released tops the box office and is still as entertaining as ever. It's a wonderful family movie, kids will love it & 20 somethings that saw the movie as kids may find the movie nostalgic."


It's funny that we actually decided to go watch the Lion King at the theater. The TV has been filled with advertisements on it's DVD re-launch and I guess it was more of just a funny yearning to watch the movie again after all these years. 3D was just a good excuse to watch it again. We walk into the theater and there was one couple other than us there, every other family that was there were with kids. But hey I enjoyed the movie just as much as the rest of them.

But this is the real question, should the movie studios really consider re-launching some of the classics that did well in the past, Maybe digitally re-master some of them or maybe just even re-release them. Or was the only reason The Lion King did well was because it was targeted at children for whom The Lion King is a brand new experience and they would have ensured their parents take them for the movie. If some classic movies (not gonna list them) are released, I may actually go to the theater to watch them. Think about this, before the Star Wars prequels came out, the original 3 movies were re-mastered and re-released and were watched by quite a few people. I guess if there is already a definite fan following, it's without much risk.

Coming back to The Lion King, the first time I saw it, I must have been 10 years old. I remembered some funny things while watching the movie this time. Aposter I had in my bedroom, the Hakunamatta t-shirt I had & the really addictive music in the movie. The sound track of The Lion King is foot tapping good. It's uplifting and makes you smile.

Hey this is not a movie am going to recommending watching to anyone, that'll be silly. Watch it if you really want to, it is what it is, it's fun for an hour and half. No strong performances, just good ol' morals & fun.

I think it be unfair for me to rate this movie considering am not really the target audience. So am going give the movie 2 ratings. One that I normally give, and one that I think a child might give. :)

My Rating: 3 on 5
If I was still a kid: 4.5 on 5

Rahul.

THE DEBT - Review

THE DEBT - Every Secret Comes with a price.  - "A gritty fast paced movie, with excellent chemistry between the characters. Definitely worth a watch."


The movie set in two time lines. One in late 90's in Israel and the other in the 60's in East Berlin. It's about 3 Mossad agents, Rachel Singer, David Peretz and Stefan Gould who have been  sent to east Berlin to extract a Nazi war criminal, Dieter Vogel (The Surgeon of Birkenau) who is accused of crimes against the Jews. They want to bring him back to Israel to stand trial for his crimes.

In the late 90's the 3 of them are heroes in their country and Rachel's daughter has written a book chronicling their bravery in East Berlin. But as the story of their bravery is being chronicled you start to realize that the story that the 3 of them have told the world of what happened 30 years ago in Germany may not be the entire truth and the ghosts of their pasts have come to haunt their present.

The character of Rachel Singer portrayed by Helen Mirren & Jessica Chastain, is at the core of the story, being the link between all four characters in that operation in 1966. What ties the two ladies together is the scar on their faces. Faces that tell so much of the story. One with a world of possibilities ahead and the other burdened with the horrors of what happened in the past.

It's quite a long movie, but you don't feel bored at any point during the story. I would definitely recommend this movie for anyone who wants to watch a good story and be entertained.

My Rating: 4 on 5.

Rahul.

For such a good movie, this was one of the stranger ones I've seen in the theater. Just 4 people in the entire theater and half way though, the other couple left (I guess it was getting late for them).

Captain America - The First Avenger - Review

Captain America - "It's what you expect from the movie. It's a lead up to the Avengers movie. But on it's own it's just a good action movie and nothing more."


This movie begins with a bunch of scientists finding the frozen red, white & blue shield under ice. (For the uninitiated, The Avengers are Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor and many others. The premise of the  Avengers is that the Captain was frozen for a number of years before he was found by the Avengers whom he joins to become of the Avengers). Now that we got done with bringing the Captain into current day Marvel myth, the movie can concentrate on telling his story.

Set in 1942 during WWII, the movie introduces "Hydra" the technological & supernatural arm of the Nazi war machine. The movie shows Hydra branch out and try and dominate the world on their own. Steve Rogers is a puny young guy who stands up from himself no matter what. He wants to enlist to fight for his country but has got every known condition known to man. After trying multiple times and being rejected, he gets an opportunity to become the first super soldier. A new breed. But as you will eventually realize, he's the only one who becomes a super soldier, before everything goes crazy. The movie also introduces Howard Stark, Iron Man's dad, who plays a major role in creating Captain America.

For superhero nuts like me, the movie was good fun (better than Thor atleast). This movie is 3 on 5.

But here's my ranking, for some of the superhero movies made in the Marvel Franchise thus far.

Only Marvel Superheros (Batman is miles ahead in the entire list)
1. X-Men First Class
2. The other X-Men movies
3. Spider-man
4. The Incredible Hulk (the second version with Edward Norton, not the first one)
5. Iron Man (part 2 was better than 1, and Robert Downey's version of the character is cool)
6. Captain America
7. Thor (having a tough time deciding the bottom two, they are both awful)
8. The Fantastic Four (they were watchable only for the special effects and nothing more)

Rahul.

Delhi Belly - Review

Delhi Belly - "Laugh out loud funny. A crazy comedy, when they say S#!T HAPPENS.. they mean it. Throughly enjoyable... A must watch if you can handle the S#!T"


Aamir Khan productions. I've started getting my expectations up when I see a movie with this banner on it. It's a bit dangerous to get your hopes up on one production house. It's been putting out some really good movies. When I first saw the trailer for Delhi Belly a couple of months back, I was not very interested to watch it. It seemed too dumb. I really couldn't make out what it was about. And yesterday, all I saw was one sentence "Shit Happens & it's funny" I decided to go watch the movie. Damn it was good.

I've not seen a Bollywood English movie that's been this good for a long time. Imran Khan plays a journalist who lives with his roommates Vir Das a cartoonist and Kunaal Roy Kapur a photographer. The movie is Imran's best performance to date.

About two minutes after the movie starts, you hear everyone around you breakout into laughs and you don't really stop till Aamir's item number before the credits roll. It takes a lot of the stupid cliches in hindi movies and takes it over the top. I'd say if you are open to a movie with foul language and insanely funny laughs go watch Delhi Belly.

I'd give it 4.5 on 5.

Rahul.

X-Men : First Class - Review

X-Men : First Class - "Slick, Fun, Definitely worth a watch. The best movie in the X-Men series by a mile"


Every movie, cartoon & comic with Professor Xavier & Magneto has always eluded a friendship. A long history between them, a fork in the the road where they went down different paths. What were they before they became the Professor and Magneto? Why did one turn against humanity & one decide to stand up for it?

After 4 movies from the franchise, there was a danger that this one would not really add much to it. The trailers did not leave me breathless to watch the movie. But nonetheless, I decided to watch it. And oh boy was it fun. It feels like a re-invention of sorts. Going back to where it all started. Charles Xavier, a boy who grows up in the lap of luxury, but has a secret & Erik Lensherr a polish boy in a Nazi concentration camps with a deadly power. The movie shows how their lives were molded by circumstance & choice.

The movie uses it's own artistic licence of course, it does not stick some of the known histories of the characters.  It introduces Sebastian Shaw as the main antagonist, a man bent on.... Oh well you'll find out in the movie. I'm not going to spoil it. The movie shows some of the classic X-Men characters like Mystique, Dr. Henry McCoy & Emma Frost in much more detail.

The movie was really brilliant. Of course the special effects were good. It's a superhero flick after all. But it's aided by a terrific cast. James McAvoy portrays a young Xavier so well that you can actually imagine him growing into Patrick Stewart's character over time. And the same can be said for Michael Fassbender's Magneto. The scenes involving the two of them are fantastic, especially when they go out into the world to find their team using Cerebro.

You walk away from the movie with a smile on your face, when you see the last few scenes. For a fan who has seen all the movies. It feels like full circle. And for the uninitiated it makes you want to watch the next 3 movies on DVD.

I'll say a definite 4 on 5 for X-Men First Class. The name says it all.

Rahul.

Club Vs. Country & The Tour to the Caribbean - My Two Cents

The World Champs on their First tour. 

A stand in Captain and Five heroes of the dream run are missing. 

Club versus Country is being shouted out from every website that cares about Cricket.

April 3rd 2011, just 2 months back I wrote one of my most emotional blogs about Indian Cricket. Pride oozed through my veins as Team India lifted the cup & brought joy to a nation.

But even before it could all sink in, the biggest T20 cricket league set in motion a cricket overdose. 90+ games played between 10 city teams. In the past anyone who enjoys cricket would have followed the IPL with a lot of passion. But this time around, fatigue set in. Even worse was the fact that a lot of the players were wearing different jerseys this time around, you lost touch with the teams. I guess another aspect of this is that I am writing about Indian cricket, sitting in another country. Away from the hungama & action back home. Am sure I'd be watching the matches in the evening if I was there, cheering the Super Kings to victory. Instead I was looking at the points table and hoping the Gayle force didn't knock the stuffing out of Chennai. (it was fun seeing him bowled for a duck)

But it was not that IPL caused the stir. It was players choosing to play the IPL instead of taking a break and coming back refreshed for the West Indies tour. Six big names, Dhoni, Tendulkar, Sehwag, Zaheer, Yuvraj & Ghambir had to sit out of the tour for different reasons. Injury & Fatigue.

Think back a few weeks before we realized that Ghambir and Yuvraj would not be playing either. Not everyone was upset at the entire team. Club vs. Country debates were not as heated. The tour was being looked at in a very different light. It was an opportunity for Ghambir to seal his spot as the next in line for captaincy. A chance for the world cup hero Yuvraj to make a permanent spot in the test side (something he has tried to do ever since Ganguly retired). But then they got injured while playing the IPL. That's when everyone posed their arguments on what mattered more. Club or Country?

Of course Country matters more. It matters more because of the pride involved. It matters more because of the affect it has on the team's ranking. It matters more because of the joy it provides an entire nation. And it matters because we don't think about all the money that's involved in the sport when someone represents the country. We don't think if they have alterer motives when they play for Team India. But when the same player comes out to bat for the Super Kings or  the Knight Riders, we smell the money. But there's the problem. That's what the IPL is about. A chance for the players to make a lot of money, while providing us entertainment in the evening. If in the process a player gets injured or chooses to play a few league games after a long world cup campaign, we shouldn't grudge the players that much.

With the amount of cricket Team India plays, it's about time a Player Rotation policy was instituted. How long can we depend on 6 to 10 players. Yes a Core is needed. But it should be a core of 20 if not 30 players. Barring the opening slot, each of the players replacing players is matched player for player.

West Indies is a team like India in the '90s. You never know what will happen. When playing against a team such as them, it does not matter if the Top 6 are there or not. The youngsters can win on their own. Or lose to a blinding spell of cricket by the Windes. We need to give them a chance to prove their mettle. Maybe Kholi will be the man to fill the gap when Sachin or Dravid finally say adieu. Raina may shoulder more responsibility with captaincy and become a mainstay in the team. And the new comers will provide the bench strength for the future challenges in England and Australia.

Other Views:


An Interesting Article was by Harsha Bhogle on the similar subject. He has a point. It's the players decision not the boards.

Tom Alter on the other hand, had nothing good to say about all the players taking rest. I'm not sure I agree with anything he said.


At the end of the day, if we really want the best team on the field all the time, we need to have some gap between the tours, or build a bench that's the best at all times.

Rahul.

The Conspirator - Review

The Conspirator - "A very delicately crafted movie about life at the end of the American civil war. A very educational, emotional and entertaining movie"


The movie tells the story of a young lawyer, Frederick Aiken who fought as a Captain for the Union on the civil war and was tasked with the job of defending a Southern woman, Mary Surratt, charged with conspiring to kill the President, Vice President, and Secretary of State.


The movie is not a fast paced thriller, but is like a slowly crafted story that takes you through the lives of the people who lived in that time. The chaos that the assassination caused and the aftermath is the center of the story. In a country that was literally split in half the movie goes on to show how clearly the lines were drawn between "us & them". It's this feeling that give the story so much of it's heart. Aiken, a northerner, a man who fought for the Union during the war, defending a Confederate woman accused of a heinous crime. As the movie goes through the first 30 minutes to an hour you see Aiken go from a man who shows contempt & disdain in defending a woman whom he feels is completely guilty to someone who is unsure of her innocence or guilt. He gets the feeling that she's being used as a scapegoat or as bait to catch her son John Surratt, who is known to have conspired with John Wilkes Booth and the rest in the assassination. The ambiguity of the characters, Mary Surratt, Anna Surratt & Frederick Aiken provide the story with a compelling story.


At the end of the movie, you want to know more about what happened 150 years ago. But the more you read about it, the more difficult it is to reach an opinion. That's not really the intent though. It's a well crafted movie & if you are a history buff (I am) then you should enjoy the movie.


A few stunning performances give this movie a rating of 3 on 5.


Rahul. 

Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides - Review

Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger tides - Glad I decided to watch it. Unlike what most reviews say, is actually a lot of fun.

When you decide to go watch a movie with Captain Jack Sparrow what are you expecting to see? A deep thrilling adventure with a convoluted story and swashbuckling adventures. Not really. You are going to watch the movie because you expect a bunch of crazy laughs with swashbuckling adventures & a funny story thrown in for good measure. And that's exactly what you get this time around as well.

If you are honest with yourself. The first time you saw The Curse of the Black Pearl, it was something new and you really loved it. And that made you go see The Dead man's chest. Whether or not you liked the second movie you really did not have an option. It left the story hanging and made you go back for At the World's End. To credit to the series they finished it off well. Jack where he started, on his own looking for his next loot, Turner becomes the captain of the Flying Dutchman & Barbossa is the captain of the Black Pearl.

So did we really need another one in the series? Especially considering most of the main characters were gone. One got the feeling that they were trying to milk one more out of the cash cow. It would be a movie that should not have happened. One that gave a forgettable end to the franchise.

Not if the writers of the latest movie have anything to say about it. The series is still awesome. Jack Sparrow is still really funny & you still love to hate Barbossa.  So what if Turner, Elizabeth Swan  and the rest of the English Navy is gone. Bring on Black-beard, Angelica & the mermaids.

So they are after the Fountain of Youth this time. Go join them in the adventure. I am quite sure you will enjoy it if you liked any of the last 3 movies. It's a bunch of stupid laughs but that's what we watch this movies for anyway.

It's a 4 on 5.

Rahul.

PS.: So that means, at least according to me, it's another one that RT got wrong. Come on this movie deserves a lot more than 34%. But the audience rating on this movie is about right

Movie Reviews - Can you really trust them?

Talking about Movie Reviews on a Blog that has become mostly a review portal is kind of ridiculous, especially considering my take on a movie may not be the same as the rest of the planet. But what the heck, let's give this a shot.

There was also the time when I used to purposely stay away from reviews of movies I wanted to watch, for fear that it would sway my opinion one way or the other. What did that do? Make me waste a lot of time at movies that were painful to get through.

Up until a year ago, I used to go completely by the reviews of a certain few movie critics & Rotten tomatoes. But as I've started to watch more movies, my tastes seem to have evolved & I find myself unable to trust any of the reviews, Good or Bad.

I'll agree that more often than not when a  movie is really bad, the tomato-meter is not way off. And for that matter when a movie is actually really good, like "The King's Speech" or "Inception" there are very few people who get it wrong. But it's the movies that fall between the 3.5 to 4.5 star categories that are the problem.

So here I am, disappointed with the reviews that I've trusted off late, too-good to be true, or really off the mark on a fantastic movie.

When I decide to watch a Hollywood movie, I don't shop around for reviews, I go straight to Rotten Tomatoes. Why? Well, it's the way they get their ratings. It's a average of what all the critics think of a movie. When you put a whole bunch of opinions into a hat you should get a reasonable estimation of the movie right? Wrong!

When I realized that  the best example of this I guess is the last 2 movies I saw, Source Code and Thor had really good ratings on RT. 86% and 78% at the time when I saw the movie. Those are really good ratings for movies. You would go in expecting the movie to expecting something really cool. Both the movies were average at best (keep in mind movies like The King's Speech, The Fighter & Inception have ratings in the 90 to 95% range).

And then there's the other side of the story, going by the review of one single person. At one point in time, I liked Rajeev Masand's reviews they seemed to match mine and I skipped a lot of bad movies thanks to him. But then over time I guess tastes changed & I find that his reviews don't really match mine in any way (of course other than the really bad ones). This situation is way worse than RT. Going by one person's opinion of a movie (esp. when you are not sure if your taste in movies is the same) is not the best way to do it.

Did I just say that? You can't trust one person's opinion of a movie? Damn, am alienating my target audience.
Oh Well, not like I had a huge target audience anyway. If you do decide to come back & you find that you can trust my reviews, there are new movies coming out every week. You should see something or the other new on this blog.

In the meantime, I continue to look for a Movie Critic with my tastes. One that can give me a "Useful" opinion on new movies.

Rahul.

THOR - 3D - Review

THOR 3D - "Blah!! Not like I was expecting a story anyway. Good Special effects, a fun way to spend an hour and half."

First off - if you want to watch the movie. Don't watch it in 3D. There's hardly any 3D scenes to talk about. A couple of weeks ago, when I saw the trailers, I had made up my mind to watch it on DVD. But then the tomato-meter was at 78% for 2 weeks. That's  quite good for a super-hero movie. And then a couple of long weeks at work. THOR seemed like a pretty good way to relax. But my first instinct was correct.

I'll give MARVEL this much. They are trying to build up to the Avengers movies with all their stories. And if you are a super hero geek like me, that may be one of the only reasons to watch the movie. But really, is he really a super hero? He's a Norse God.  Not a super hero.

The action sequences are quite cool. But some of the scenes with Natalie Portman could have been cut and replaced with a few more action sequences.

Conceptually, the idea of 9 realms and a worm hold bridge connecting them is cool. Stargate like concept. Any hey, if someone has seen SG-1, you are going to think of the small grey alien when you think of THOR or the Asgard.

What's next for the Avengers franchise? Captain America. There was a trailer at the movie yesterday. It looks like one I'd actually want to watch. Here's hoping it's better than THOR - God of Thunder.

My Rating: 3 on 5 (hey and that's being generous - just because I'm a sci-fi geek.)

Rahul..

Source Code - Review

SOURCE CODE - "Blah!" 8 minutes over and over again. Don't bother, just wait and watch it on DVD if you really want to see it. 


86% on Rotten Tomatoes really threw me off. Normally that means are really entertaining movie. Given that it was a thriller, I was expecting a cliffhanger. Instead what I saw was a really run of the mill movie with a terrible ending.


It's about a guy that wakes up on a train in another man's body and is really confused what's going on. After 8 minutes, there is an explosion on the train killing everybody. The guy (Capt.Colter Stevens - Jake Gyllenhall) wakes up to find that he's in some closed room and was in the mind of a dead man trying to find the bomber on the train. He's sent back so many times (I lost count) to find the bomber. The movie has a good flow and keeps you watching but that's until they tell you what's actually going on.

On the whole the movie is not one I would recommend. I'll say 2.5/5.

Rahul.

An Emotion that's difficult to express - Ecstatic

2011 ICC Cricket World Champions - Team India - happiness beyond measure. 


A couple of days ago I blogged about The Last Hurdle. As a fan I really wanted India to win, but I was nervous that Sri Lanka would be a banana peel that would cause India to slip up.

But never the less, I was up at 3.30 in the morning to cheer the team on from Ball 1. It was amazing to see the team contain the Sri Lankan batsman until the batting power play, but at the end of it when the score read 275, I felt really nervous about the team's chances & when we lost a couple of early wickets it felt like 2003 all over again. But then, slowly but surely Ghambir and Kholi consolidated the innings and brought back hope. It was such a thrilling match. I couldn't even take my eyes of the screen. When Dhoni walked in at the fall of Kholi's wicket, to keep the momentum & the left-right partnership going, I thought for the first time that we may be on our way to the cup. But every time a commentator said something good, or bad I was looking for wood to touch, nails to bite. So many miles away I could feel the tension. I felt like I was there, every time Chak De or Vande Mataram played it boosted the tension and you felt for Dhoni, Ghambir and Yuvraj.What must they have been feeling? The weight of a billion hearts on heir shoulders. As we inched ahead, the thoughts of an Indian win started surfacing, but tried not to think those thoughts for fear that it would jinx the team.

But when Dhoni hit the last ball for a mighty six, I let out a load roar, felt such happiness, exuberance and delight. Pure Happiness, "We are the champions". A few tears rolled down my cheeks. Tears of Joy. Team India did it.

All these days, I've seen friend after friend put up status messages on Facebook during the match. Almost running commentary of what was happening on the ground. I found it funny, to comment about a cricket match on Facebook. But then it happened. A few minutes after that Six, there I was, putting up a congratulatory message of my own, liking status messages of the Indian win, trying to be a part of something great.

After the match, as the scenes of celebration were unfolding, you could see tears in the eyes of so many. The players, the support staff and even the fans. It was so clear how much this series meant to all of us. We are champions in 2011. All credit to Kapil and the 1983 team. But this victory is for the current generation. It resets the clock from 28 to 0. Here's hoping it stays at 0 for a long long time to come. :)

All I can say is... Thank You Team India, you brought so much of happiness to so many. Congratulations you deserve all the accolades you will receive.

"A Fan Following" - Rahul

The best photo of the victory is this one... Sudhir Gautam, the biggest Indian fan that you see at every match, with the flag painted from head to tummy got a chance to hold the cup. Very nice gesture by Sachin.

And India broke the jinx as I hoped... "An Host Team Won World Cup".

Bleeding Blue more than ever before..

2011 ICC Cricket World Cup - One Final Hurdle

The hopes of an entire nation on the shoulders of 11 men (not to mention the support staff). I've not felt more passionate about the Indian team in a long time, it's a wonderful time to watch cricket. This is just a fan's perspective on the road to Saturday.

Leading up to the World Cup, Team India was playing really well, they handed New Zealand a white wash, took South Africa to really close in an away series and raised the hopes of many. Which is why seeing India scratch around to beat the minnows was sad, they have not been the most convincing world beaters, but here they are. One step away, from making people stop talking about something that happened 28 years ago. The team is at a stage they were at 8 years ago when Saurav Ganguly brought India to the doorstep of the World Cup, but the final was too big a hurdle for Team India to cross, despite all the improvements in the tournament, the Aussies were just too good. But now, this time around there were no world beaters around. There are a bunch of teams that  really really closely matched. It makes for some amazing cricket to watch.

Watching the group matches with England or South Africa, was meant to be the appetizer for the fans and the tough tests for the team before the main event of the knockouts started. The matches went back and forth & watching the team skittle away good positions to tie one match and lose the other was heartbreaking. But it brought back the hunger to watch the team play, watch the team succeed. I've always been an ardent follower of the game, but over the last couple of years, I've not spent late nights in front of a TV watching a cricket match.But this world cup has made me wake up at the crack of dawn to see my favorite team battle it out for the glory.

The road to the quarter-finals was paved for India, despite a mediocre performance against some of the teams in their group they still came out second, with the only team to beat them a cut above. That's when this World cup changed though. An India - Australia quarter final. A match against the world number one team. The team that denied them glory in 2003. India outplayed them in Ahmadabad, another all round performance by India's left arm spinner and finisher Yuvraj. I could not watch that match live. But I think I watched the highlights 2 or 3 times. It was fun to see them lose to India. The rivalry has been so tense with Australia over the past decade & it has  produced some epics. The end of an Era. After 1999, for the first time, the world cup will leave Australia.

But even that match seems so insignificant now, in comparison with the one that followed. India vs. Pakistan. The second semi-final, a chance to meet their sub-continental neighbor in a match for all the marbles. The match took on some epic proportions, with anyone who had anything to do with either country saying something or the other. The premiers of both nations used the match as an opportunity to try and mend broken roads, and many of us thought of the "what if" questions again. One country, one team. Imagine the possibilities.

The world descended on Mohali, all eyes were on their favorite teams. The world remembered the significance of an India-Pakistan match. All Indians will say one thing, when it comes to the world cup & India-Pakistan matches, India is undefeated. Everyone in India was hoping that record remains untarnished. But at the same time everyone knows that Pakistan on their day can be the best in the world. This world cup had seen some of their best performances and seen them beat all comers (except of course for a piece of brilliance from Ross Taylor, that handed them their only defeat in the tournament till that point). The alarm went off at 4AM, and we were there, in front of the laptop with the match on it's way. What a match it was. Despite having a lot of packing & moving to do, we were transfixed. It was India-Pakistan. It was a world cup semi-final, it was India's best chance to go for gold (and that too at home). After a see-saw battle with during India's innings, the team battled their way back into the match with really good bowling spells from their second line quicks & an ever improving Yuvraj. And towards the end even though it was quite certain that India would pull it off an make it to the World Cup final in Mumbai, the tension was still in the air, you found your self unable to move till the last ball was bowled & you saw Kholi throw the ball in the air and signal India's victory.

With that win, a lot of cliches stayed true. South Africa continued to Choke at crucial moments, New Zealand reached the semis and lost & India beat Pakistan.

As team India travel to Mumbai for the Final, to face Sri Lanka, a team who have been incredibly dominant in this tournament (their only loss coming at the hands of Pakistan), all eyes will be on Wankhede, to see if India can pull off a victory and break one cliche that's been certainty since 1975. No Home team has ever won the world cup. It does not help that the team that they are facing was the one that won the last sub continental world cup, or the team that one the last world cup before Australia began their dominance or most importantly the finalists of the last world cup. Team India will need to play well to win & I sure hope they do. All the best Team India

"A Fan Following" - Rahul.

A few useless facts:
1. The last 3 surviving teams in the tournament are also incidently the finalists of the last 3 world cups.
2. The finalists of the last 2 world cups are now the finalists of this world cup.
(for anyone that's been under a rock for the past 15 years, the team in all of the earlier finals was Australia)
3. The only teams to have knocked out Australia since 1996 in a world cup are the 2011 finalists, India & Sri Lanka.

PAUL - Review

PAUL - "Good for a few dumb laughs... Fun way to send a couple of hours if you have nothing better to do.."


PAUL was just what I expected it to be. I wanted to go today and watch a movie just for the dumb laughs, not some serious story with amazing acting or  awesome action movie.

The movie started off slow with the 2 British nerds (sci-fi geeks) at COMIC-CON looking to experience the science fiction landmarks of the US. But the moment Paul enters the scene, the movie picks up steam. The graphics on Paul's character really rocks. He has the standard Martian look but looks really realistic and eyes have some tremendous depth. Seth Rogan's voice acting really carries the character and makes him really funny.

You get a few laughs every 5 to 10 minutes or so when something ridiculous happens.Hey, it was fun. If you are bored, go watch it. Not a classic so 3 on 5

Rahul.. 

The King's Speech - Review

The King's Speech - STUPENDOUS! A wonderfully crafted movie which captivates you throughout. (no wonder it won so many Oscars)


The King's Speech is such a simple story, but the way it's told leaves you filled with all the compassion, admiration and respect for King George VI.

The Duke of York, the son of the then King George V, had a severe speech impediment that caused him to stutter in any public conversation. Multiple attempts with various doctors did no good to him, until his wife found a common man, Lionel Logue with a reputation for unconventional methods to treat his patients. You also see the shackles that royalty puts on the family, the constraints of role, the detachment from the common man and you see how different the two worlds really are. But, at the end of the day it's about the relationship between two men, the Duke of York and Lionel Logue his speech therapist.

The movie takes a good 15 minutes or so to sink it's teeth into you. It does not let go after that. You are riveted. I guess it's the scene during their first encounter, when he makes the Duke read a passage from Shakespeare that you realize this is going to be good. Over the course of the story you see the friendship between the soon to be King and this common man develop and the King fight to overcome his impediment to a great extent.

It's a fantastic movie, Colin Firth & Geoffrey Rush. Hat's Off.
I'll say 4.5/5. Please watch it - you are guaranteed to enjoy it. 

Rahul.

No One Killed Jessica - Review

No One Killed Jessica - A movie that deserves a watch because of the subject matter. Not the over the top acting.


The Jessica Lal murder case was one of the biggest stories in the Indian media in 2006, because of the unjust verdict that was delivered the first time around. The story shows the fights that the family, her sister Sabrina in particular had to endure to secure justice for Jessica. The media reports that followed the initial verdict went on to show the miscarriages of justice, the changes to the truth. It showed the common Indian try and get her justice. The media took it upon themselves to get the case re-opened. It's a sad story, which showed India at it's worst and best.

The story deserved to be immortalized in a movie so that the story would be told through the years. Maybe it would shake a few consciences (?). But I really don't think the movie needed to be so, "Bollywood". The story was there and the way Jessica's story and eventual death & Sabrina's fight was portrayed in the first half was very tasteful, touching and made you feel for the family. Especially because you knew what was coming (every Indian knows the story). But in the second half, the media character portrayed by Rani Mukerji stands out as very "filmi", it takes the seriousness out the story and takes away a bit from the story. They told the story with all honesty, but if not for the fluff, it would have been a wonderful homage to Jessica and a salute to her sister and the Indian media in general.

Watch the movie. It'll touch you despite the tamasha that it has thrown in.
It's 3/5 for this one...

Rahul

dhobi ghat (mumbai diaries) - Review

dhobi ghat (mumbai diaries) - four people living in a big city, different perspectives, their lives intertwined by strange coincidences.


dhobi ghat is a movie that signifies the new types of movies that have become the staple of aamir khan's production house. You can always go for one of his movies confident that you will not leave bored or frustrated.

With this movie though, I had my doubts, it was his wife's production, they billed the movie as, "not for everyone". But I felt the movie was really worth a watch, if for nothing else but the sheer honest acting by all 4 main characters.

The four characters in the story are so completely different, that they bring completely different perspectives to the story.

Prateik Babbar, plays Munna a dhobi and rat killer in Mumbai's slums. A boy who came to Mumbai from Bihar because he was starving. His introduction begins with him telling his brother that, even though being a rat killer is disgusting, it's at least an honest days work. But he has dreams as well, he wants to be an actor he wants a better life.

Monica Dogra plays Shai, an investment banker in the US who goes to India on a sabbatical looking for inspiration and a change of scene. She brings into the story a kind of naivety that she has developed with her many years outside of the country.

But the best performance in the story is from Kriti Malhotra who plays Yasmin, a young bride who has come to the city immediately after he marriage. She has a video camera with which she is writing a video letter for her younger brother back in the village and her entire story is told from behind the lens.

And then there is Arun (played by Aamir Khan), the artist who looks all around Mumbai for his inspiration. He calls the city his muse, his whore and his love. His character serves as the bridge between the other three as the story is told.

The movie starts off slow and never really gets much faster, but then it's just the story of 4 people, I guess it's not meant to be fast. You see how different each of their lives is, while despite a number of people around them how lonely they actually are.

I would say the movie by itself is a work of art and not for everyone. I liked the movie. Go ahead and try it for yourself. I would rate the movie a 3.25 on 5. But I wont be surprised if you either love or hate it. 


Rahul.

Where's has my Cricket gone?

IPL - A runaway train - a wreck waiting to happen (Players Won, Fans and Cricket Lost)

The first season of the IPL was wonderful, with new teams being formed, a concept developed and icon players in each of their teams. It was a gala of cricket with some of the best names thrown in for a bit of fun. T20 cricket was just evolving, people were already calling ODIs dead and test matches was the premium product that was served in small doses. It was a great event with really high quality cricket and all the teams played brilliantly.

Despite the tournament moving to South Africa for a year and then coming back to India a year later, all 3 seasons of IPL provided wonderful entertainment and action for all involved. The amounts of money involved was ludicrous for 6 weeks of cricket, but India is the money spinner of cricket, and more money for everyone can't be a bad thing right? Maybe it can. Over the last 3 years, for a lot of the cricketers the importance of international cricket has gone down. They have started calling themselves Professional freelancers (Flintoff, Symonds). Folks are retiring prematurely to play jut T20 cricket, all sort of stuff happened with the cricketing world. No other cricket league has since formed, which has the scale this one does.

But early retirement and professional freelancers not withstanding, the rest of the world still thought of international cricket as the holy grail. No one is quite sure anymore what the priority for Indian cricketers is. There was a time when cricketers were dropped from the national team and they slogged and slogged in domestic cricket to make their way back. Even Saurav Ganguly had to fight his way back to international cricket before the IPL. But now, cricketers who have been pushed aside by the selectors still have a flood gate to fill their pockets, the glorious IPL.

This year has been nothing but scandal after scandal for the IPL. To be quite honest I didn't understand all the nitty-gritties and legalies of why RCB and KPXI were removed by the BCCI. Purely from a fan's standpoint, all I could care about was that I would have 2 less teams in the IPL to watch. Two teams that I had enjoyed watching. RCB for the way Shane Warne had groomed the youngsters who were playing with him into good players, who eventually represented India and KPXI, just because I liked watching them lose. Don't know why, but I didn't really like the team. Months of speculation and at the end of the day they were cleared and IPL was all set to have 10 teams. That's a good number, the season should be fun.

But then this auction came along and left a very bad taste. Why does the league need an auction every 3 years.Why can't it be like 10 companies operating for the best cricketing talent in the world. the spending cap makes sense to level the playing field, but if you have 16 players in your squad today, shouldn't you get the first right of refusal for each of them. Shouldn't players get to choose who they play for? So tomorrow if Delhi wanted to buy Dhoni for $2 Million, shouldn't the three parties hash it out like a company and trade for players? New players show up on the scene, set a salary cap for them until they have played for their countries for a year or two (or set a number of games as the criteria), at the end of the day these are companies, they are not going to throw a huge chunk of money at every player that comes along. But these player retention, open auction, uncapped player rules along with the amounts of money shelled out for the Indian cricketers makes the head spin.

Do you think Irfan Pathan would have any more incentive to try and get back into the national setup with a paycheck that reads $1.9 Million. He was a brilliant fast bowler, a good all rounder until he fell out the form and the national team. I really think he could have a second burst like Zaheer and become one of India's better players. But would he still have the incentive to do that?

Then there's also the simple fact about how you build team loyalty. Come on, if the entire structure of the team changes every 3 years, how can you really keep following that team. Think about it this way, you come together as a team today, build strategies and skills together. Now as long as your core stays you can grow, but changing the entire team means re-building from scratch. If one or two guys move to a different team, that may give you some money to go get some new talent and will create an interesting situation when you have that one player in the opposition you knows your tricks. But putting them all back in different places causes chaos. That's why I think the Chennai team is best placed with the number of players they have retained and retrieved, the core has remained, I would always support my home team, but I feel for the internationals who follow the IPL, they may had some favorite cricketers, Gilchrist & Symonds maybe and would have built and affinity towards the Deccan chargers. But now one's the captain of Punjab while the other is in Mumbai. It devalues the franchises.

And then people keep asking the question if future players will now aspire for the Indian team or an IPL team. IPL is a distraction for the fan, international cricket at the end of the day is the real deal. Do you think if the Indian team starts doing badly in international cricket, people will still like the IPL. People would start looking at the price tags more cynically and would start criticizing the salaries.

So now I ask the question. Where has cricket gone in all this mess?
I say, let's forget the IPL for a while. Look forward to the World Cup, the real cricket.
This entertainment extravaganza will come and go.. Hopefully some better Tests and ODIs will follow so that we forget this ever happened, until the auction comes around 3 years from now. (or maybe by IPL 7 people will learn and things will change. Hey, we can always hope!)

Rahul.