Straight drive

Into the first few minutes of Dhurandhar: The Revenge , the rapper goes "Ladies and gentlemen, you are STILL not ready for this"  In many ways, it captures the impact of the double punch dealt by Aditya Dhar perfectly. I don't think anyone, leave alone the liberals , were ready for this. Note that I use the term ' liberals ' in a purely sarcastic and derogatory sense. The cabal masquerading as liberals in India are the least liberal and tolerant class in the country. Countless Youtube videos have been made of the total meltdown felt by this class. In fact, when the first movie came out, I had no plans to watch it at all. The one clip/trailer I had seen seemed muddled to me and though I know Ranveer Singh is a fine actor, his theatrics overshadow his craft almost all the time which didn't help the movie's cause. However, two days after release, that hag Anupama Chopra, who fooled us for years pretending to be a movie critic, and that supreme jihadi apologis...

Well, to paraphrase the punchline from Jurassic Park, this is a post 25 years in the making.  For folks who are not aware, the Hyderabad Cricket Association is one of the several 'state' organization affiliated to the BCCI. Hyderabad is one of the few cities who have an association of their own, other being Baroda and Mumbai. Other regions like Vidarbha and Saurashra also have their separate association (outside of the MCA and the GCA), but that's beside the point. The reason behind this post is simply this. Hyderabad was allotted a match after 3 long years recently. In fact the  match is on  as I type this, and not for the first time, the HCA made a mess of it, and it wont be the last. This rant is a list of all my experiences of watching Cricket in the city. Seems simple? You wish! It was impossible for anyone born in India in the 80s or 90s, and being even mildly interested in sports to not go cricket mad by the time he/she were 7-8 years old and so it was with m...

Going through older blog posts (a bit too old, admittedly), the one topic which screamed for a revisit seems to be the one on Sci-fi movies . There have been quite a few good number of such movies in recent years, more than a handful since the last blog 6 years back. Here I pick two of these which I think are a 'must watch'. The most high profile of the sci-fi movies this decade was of course - ' Interstellar '. 1. Interstellar (2014) Coming from Nolan, the stakes for this movie were already sky high (pun not intended). Nolan shooting some of this in IMAX was a huge bonus. I don't think any other film maker has understood and used IMAX to its full potential yet, but Nolan has come closest. The Hong Kong night shot in The Dark Knight , and the opening sequence in The Dark Knight rises were outstanding achievements and made for thoroughly enjoyable movie experiences. Coming back to Interstellar though. The movie again tries answering 'the big questio...

Watching Prometheus recently took me back to the various Sci-fi movies/literature I had come across. Numerous writers and film makers have woven dramatic tales of humans grappling with the consequences of new discoveries and inventions, which, while entertaining, also serve as a reminder of the various pitfalls of tampering with mother nature. While the basic theme of a science fiction is rooted in the ‘science’ or the technicalities of the basic theme, it is the drama surrounding its application/misuse/consequences that make it interesting, and results in most science fiction movies ending up as a ‘thrillers’. Here is a list of my  favourite  sci-fi movies, rated 1 through 5. Please note that since I haven’t watched as much of sci-fi as, say,  drama , this might not have many of the movies you would consider to be in your top five. I would love to hear of a few more movies I can watch 5.    Jurassic Park  (1993):  The ‘popular’ choice! ...

As I caught up with a few movies over the new year weekend, it got me thinking over a tool many filmmakers seem to have been using recently - that of retelling a standard classic. Since there is no longer anything of value to be added, they tweak a little something: either set it to a different time, or provide additional layers to the characters or the plot. While most of the time it is an interesting exercise in that it tries to provide an answer to some of the 'what if..' situations we think of, other times the filmmakers take the idea so far out we have a tough time convincing ourselves we are watching the same movie the title seems to suggest! I must admit I had my apprehensions when Guy Ritchie's 'Sherlock Holmes' came out a couple of years back, but the movie was a pleasant surprise. Ritchies' achievement lay in getting away from the stereotypes that Holmes, and especially Dr. Watson, had becomes in the earlier versions and not retelling any of Conan Doyl...

Ah, we are in that cycle again. Every once in a while, during the festive/wedding season or when the migratory birds (read: Desis settled abroad) come visiting or when technology or social networking enables us to connect to people settled all over the world, there is always the inevitable talk of a getting together of old mates. Having lived in the same locality all the bloody time, and owing to my good habit of walking to most places, I do keep bumping into old friends and acquaintances many a time. Rather depressingly, I am starting to feel these meetings end up on a rather disappointing note. Perhaps some explanation is needed. You see, we tend to have these wonderful memories of everyone we knew as a kid, and every time we refer to the person, the memories and stories we evoke conform to that image. Of course, no one is going to stay the same all the time. Hell, I can hardly recognize myself sometimes. If I were to hear myself blabbering on 'official' calls I would probab...