How I Avoided Lifting The Brush

Cause: An irresistible urge to go back to the long dead and buried dreams of painting....

Effect: An amateurish attempt at MS Paint...

Result:

Inspiration:

P.S. : Its all handwork...No tricks/converting softwares involved...any imperfections r a result of my limitations at painting wit MS Paint....any perfections are a result of persistence and luck! :)

A twist in the tale!!

The extent to which human mind can go to "ensure a few laughs" is outrageously wicked :D
(with all due respect to the players involved in the game!!)


Pray define an "honest" effort!!

'Sifting' towards the future...

What if objects were intelligent enough to interact spatially and 'understand' each other through their colours, orientations or relative positions? MIT grad student David Merrill ws puzzled by the same question and he and his team came up with an answer thts not just amazing in nature but also in implications...Siftables opens up an entirely new world in interactive computing and cud well prove to be the next HCI tht will become a household phenomenon, provided a practically feasibl and inexpensive prototype is possible....
Watch the video if u hvnt seen or heard abt siftables already....

Finally F1!

The season hs been kick-started by an amazing Australian GP and looks lik, aftr long, this season is gonna be really interesting....my interest in F1 hd kinda reduced aftr Schumi retired and i hardly watched any races in the last 2 seasons, altho i did keep track of the results...but somehw ths yr, somthng inside me wants me to get back to my old self and watch all the races incl qualifying, just lik it used to b few yrs back....so heres to an awesom season ahead!! and as always, m willing to bet my bucks on Ferrari yet again, altho Brawn Mercedes seems the team to beat ths season...but this is just the beginning...the field is wide open! only time will tell whos gonna top!

Aarambh hai prachand...

Anurag Kashyap's Gulaal is perhaps the best film ever made on student-politics...Altho it mayb argued tht the crown belongs to Haasil, i'm tempted to say Gulaal scores, basically bcz of the power in the screenplay and dialogues....not to forget the impact it creates by the time the mindblowing journey on-screen culminates!

Gulaal comes really close to becoming a flawless flick, especially bcz of the straightfwd and raw handling of the subject by AK and the towering performances...KK is amazing as usual...Raj Singh Chaudhary, who hs also co-written the story wit AK, is perfect as the submissive nerd who gets entangled in things he hs zilch knowledge and attraction abt, thru circumstances totally out of his control....Abhimanyu Singh as the brash, rowdy Ransa is simply superb and leaves a strong impression....AK's Asst. Director Ayesha Mohan makes a sparkling acting debut as Kiran...more thn her performance, the graph of her character is so well-etched, u cant help but accept her ways of life...the manner in which she uses Dileep is one of the numerous high-points of the movie...Deepak Dobriyal is pitch-perfect as KK's side-kick....Aditya Shrivastava, Jesse Randhawa and Mahie Gill are good in thr small parts...especially Mahie Gill, who conjures up some of the most entertaining scenes in the film...and to top it all, the sucker punch is delivered by Piyush Mishra, whos also the lyricist of the film, in the role of KK's elder brothr, Prithvi Bana, a brooding, bordering-on-insanity individual, who seems to hv lost it, but is in fact more on terms with reality thn any1 else....his monologues r the peaks of the Alps...in fact he deserves double kudos, for writing such amazingly pithy, dark, profound lines and then delivering thm so well, be it thru prose or song! Piyush Mishra is the real star of the movie considering hes responsibl for most of the profundity in the lines as well as the music and the vocals...the songs, once again lik Dev D, are used to carry the narrative ahead and tht registers a really strong impact...of note especially is Aarambh, as it makes u dizzy by the tim the song climxes...

again, thr r plenty of subtle references and sly remarks towards society for ppl who appreciate such art, and altho not all of thm are readily tangible, the ones tht can be deciphered raise ur opinion of the film so much tht the ones tht dont, not only remain few but also insignificant! The references to John Lennon, Gandhi, Hitler, nihilism and America's war on terrorism are simply brilliant and light up the proceedings with thr wit and the manner in which they r portrayed!

The victory of Gulaal lies in the fact tht it manages to tk the viewer into an unknown era and surroundings and yet manages to convince him hw and why, wt happens, happens...if living-the-movie ws one experience u hd been missing all ths time, heres wt the doctor ordered! :) undoubtedly one of the best movies of the yr! and thts a feat considering its just april....and in the first 3 months, v hv hd path-breaking stuff lik Dev D, Luck By Chance and Delhi-6!

Mirror mirror on the wall...

After the revolution-inducing RDB, ROM is back with a different kind of a journey...while RDB sparked a mass awakening, Delhi 6 is more a journey into ones own psyche...a journey of discovering our own prejudices, convictions, biases and putting them in perspective of the society...a journey of a deeper, more meaningful, inner realisation...

While Delhi-6 is a study in metaphors, what limits its overall impact is the fact tht not many in our society hv the patience and open-mindedness to delve deeper into the layers and absorb the morale...ths is precisely why the movie hs flopped...nevertheless, such movies cn never be measured in terms of the money they make...D6 succeeds in wt it sets out to prove and tht is its biggest victory, despite the cliche-laden, icky climax...I personally loved the metaphors used to depict the maladies ailing our mindsets, and consequently, our society...the acting by the ensemble cast is apt and drives home the point with elan...of particular note r the acts by Atul Kulkarni, Pawan Malhotra and Divya Dutta...the music is fitting and used intelligently...the cinematography is visceral and creates a perfect ambience for the tale to b told...the background music, however, is jarring at times and the fact tht ARR complted it in 5 days, in the week b4 the release, explains why!

ROM is in sublime form, especially with the Kaala Bandar bit and the mirror incident...however, subtlety is somehow lost in the climax, whr BigB had to make an appearance and spoil the party :( sadly, it ensures dilution of the impact tht the movie hs created til thn...and the consequent re-birth of AB ws totally uncald for...a populist gimmick for sure...yet, u hv to giv it to ROM for having the gumption to paint such a gutsy revelation on celluloid...for in todays society, whr ppl r busy minding thr own business, nobody likes to be told wats wrong with thm as a society...tht is wt elevates the movie to dizzyingly honest heights...unfortunately, it also proves to be the movie's bane, commercially...

nevertheless, masterful effort....which sadly went largely unnoticed and unappreciated... :(

Glumdog Gazillionaire... :D

http://bedusworld.blogspot.com/2008/12/slumdog-millionaire.html

Kaminey firft look...

Lookf like Vifhal Bharadwaj if back with another adaption -thif time itf Fhakefpeare'f Comedy of Errorf...

Check out the theatrical trailer....fundoo :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Z61ue5G4Q

Will he do an encore after converting vintage literature into mafterpiecef twice already with Omkara and Maqbool? Letf hope fo :)
DhanTaDaaaaaan....TaDaDaDaaaaan :)

The Wonderdog! ... and the others...

For all those wondering what all the brouhaha abt Slumdog Millionaire is, here's a revelation....Slumdog may not be a gr8 movie in the 'Oscar' sense of the word but fact is its won 8 of the 10 categories it was nominated in including Best Picture and Best Director.... ya ya...i know....everybody knows tht! wats so new abt it?!! every damn news channel worth its rock-salt is shouting frm the rooftops abt surmounting Mt. Oscar ever since the news broke....

Well...the news is...some "biggies" hvnt been taking it the rit way! What surprised me most whn Slumdog released abt a month ago in India was the way some ppl reacted to it, as can be read here...while i cudnt digest wt Bachchan said thn, i still decided to leave his opinion to him....until....this happened!
Right at the bottom of the post, BigB goes
"SlumDog is ok and Delhi 6 not ??"

Whats wrong Mr. Bachchan?? y do u want to compare every damn movie to Slumdog? and y do u hv to defend every damn movie ur son decides to portray his thespian skills in??
I must admit here tht i hvnt yet hd the chance to watch Delhi6...and i am very much looking fwd to it...ROM is probably one of the most responsible directors around and he makes socially relevant cinema which is the hallmark of an aware and awake citizen! but wt i do not undstnd is y the "so-called" superstar of Hindi cinema is unable to digest the success of Slumdog!! and y cant he take commercial failure of his son's movies in his stride?
Now, i did read the entire post, and tht guy surely seems to be having problms with critics...but at hs age an experience in ths field, u wud thnk he wud hv outgrown all ths stuff, wudnt u? he on the othr hand hs begun to tk everythng very personally and startd reacting to all and sundry....some maturity tht!!
Mr. Bachchan sir, thr r millions around the globe who still believe ur a good actor, urs truly being one of them.....but ths barrage of uninteresting roles, crappy adverts, constant nepotism (yeah thts wt it is!) and venomous immature statements tht u hv unleashed on the 'big,bad world' is totally uncalled for...whn u say 'Slumdog represents India as a third-world nation to the globe, is tht wt we r?', do u realise wt 'Boom', 'Bunty Aur Babli' or for tht matter even 'Amar Akbar Anthony' made out of us Indians? thank God, not many watched those movies globally, or mayb we wud never hv got the chance to showcase a rare Monsoon Wedding or Namesake or Slumdog to the world! With all due respect, I think its time to get back into action sir...Let ur 'bat' do the talking....shut down tht prejudiced blog for a few months and let the creative juices flow whr they ought to!
Amen!

Meanwhile, a certain Mr.Priyadarshan hd also taken potshots at Slumdog calling it cheap, trashy and mediocre....really sir? mediocre?? tht coming frm the director of gems such as Mere Baap Pehle Aap, KyonKi, Dhol and Bhool Bhulaiyya!! (yes, i am pointing out ur trashy, cheap and mediocre films only...bcz isnt tht wt u hv done!) ....for some1 who thrives on remakes of acclaimed malayalam movies, a story based on a novel is cheap only bcz of reasons as mundane as these: (in his own words)
"Why has Danny Boyle not taken one shot of Marine Drive? Do his slumdwellers exist only within their slums? And look at the absurdities…A boy becomes a national hero on a game show. One cop takes him under arrest and interrogates him relentlessly. Where is everyone else? Is this kind of confinement possible in this day and age when television cameras enter your bedroom?"
Ya right Mr...if i tried to apply so much logic to one of ur Bhagam Bhags or Billu Barbers, i wud b insane before i said B! look at ur own torn pajamas b4 pointing at someones trendy shorts and calling him naked! i kno, u hv made some good movies...and virasat is one of the best hindi films i hv seen till date...but tht doesnt giv u the right to judge any1 else's work so viciously...ur entitled to ur opinion and u cn keep it...dont say it out loud simply bcz ur in the same business and the day ur next movie releases, ur gonna hv a taste of ur own bitter medicine!!

Mumbai Meri Jaan...

First of all, i deserve a kick for not watching this movie much earlier, while at the same time ensuring i watched mindless crap lik Rab Ne, Race, Tashan within hours of release...Now, lets get to the point...

Mumbai Meri Jaan is sensible, sensitive, thought-provoking, subtle and responsible cinema... (Note how frequently the word 'subtle' has been used recently! hindi cinema IS changing after all!!)...the story is good, the characterizations are brilliant, the portrayals are almost-perfect, and most importantly, the direction is extremely apt and competent...thr r several moments in the story which touch u, move u, choke u, blast u away with thr simplicity and impact! i for one, cudnt hold back my tears at multiple points in this journey, notably KK's realization, Madhavan's visit to the hospital, Paresh Rawal's last scene and Irrfan Khan's redemption...Technically brilliant, the movie has its heart in the right place...and manages to put our hearts in the right places too...

Each and every actor deserves a standing applause for not just doing this film, but doing more thn full justice to it...one of the best ensemble casts ever! The end is so fitting and moving, tears refused to stop rolling down my cheeks whn Rafi's timeless rendition of 'Aye Dil Hai Mushkil Jeena Yahan...Zara Hatke Zara Bachke...Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan' began...

Truly the city rocks...and Mumbaikars rock the most! A fitting tribute to thr spirit! (and by spirit, i dont mean the gutless indifference tht the media keeps blabbering abt...i mean the real 'spirit'...watch the movie and u'll kno wt i mean :) )

P.S. : You can check out the official movie site here...creative!!

P.S. : If u read this post before sunday noon and if u hvnt seen the movie, u hv a golden chance to watch it on zee cinema sunday 12 noon....enjoy :)