Life Etc Etc

Every four years Olympics graces our homes, lights up our expectations and leaves us with painful memories. The pain of near misses, shattered dreams and unfulfilled ambitions lingers and reignites itself every time a member of the Indian contingent falls at the last hurdle and every time India's performance at the Olympics is discussed. I still remember Dhanraj Pillay's tears when Poland scored a late equalizer in the 2000 Sydney Olympics to nip India's medal chances. In the stinging rain Dhanraj slumped to the ground as though he was appealing to the rain gods for one more chance. That moment never left me because I could feel Dhanraj's agony and was disconsolate that a team as good as the one we had was returning home empty handed. While the pain is real what's even more real is the respect that each and every contender who has given their heart and soul for the nation deserves. Yes Dipa Karmakar , Satish Sivalingam , Abhinav Bindra , Sania Mirza and Rohan...

This is going to be a bit of a rant but a perfectly legitimate one on a day where I believe it's extremely essential to know who your true friends are. Yes, I am speaking about Friendship Day and No, I am not against Friendship. I have great friends whom I admire and respect a lot. I cannot emphasize how much their presence has enriched my life and enlightened my soul. But for every great friend I had, I also had a plethora of ' So Called Friends ' who were a scourge on my heart. Their chauvinism exasperated me, shallowness disappointed me and depravity numbed me. Today's blog is dedicated to dishonoring these friends for never . No, don't worry I won’t spoil my blog by taking names. I am just classifying these ‘So Called Friends’ into broad categories for the benefit of humanity. With friends like these who needs enemies Entitlers:  We start with the worst category of friends first. The 'Entitlers' get their name from the fact that they feel en...

It's time to delve into the memory lane and remember a time when yours truly was a college fresher in his teens. It was a lazy weekday afternoon and I had no choice but to look forward to the Physics class which was up next on the schedule. Just when the class was about to begin my good friend Vikram burst in. " JJ come, we gotta participate in What's the Good Word Contest " " Vik What? What in the royal hell is What's the Good Word Contest? " " I don't know but we will know everything once we get there. " Although I wasn't in love with Physics I found no fun in flexing my brain muscles at some random contest either. But when you have a friend who is almost 4 inches taller than you are and broader in every sense of the word you don't have much of a say. Before I could say ' No ', Vikram had already dragged me out of the class. On my way out I muttered a feeble excuse to my Physics professor who glared at me as thou...

The Plot Aakash Oberoi ( Amit Sadh ) founder of the Pro Takedown MMA league is desperate to pump some life into his floundering promotion which is on the verge of closing down due to poor viewership. Aakash's father (veteran Parikshit Sahni ) cites the lack of homegrown talent as a reason for the league's failure ( Valid Point! ) and recommends Aakash to bring in Sultan ( Salman Khan ) a former world champion wrestler, to boost audience interest. ( Why not bring in a native MMA fighter instead of a wrestler? ) Aakash traces out Sultan only to find out that Sultan is  a shell of his former self and  is eking out a meager existence. Sultan summarily turns Aakash's offer down. Not one to give up Aakash approaches Sultan's best friend Govind ( Anant Vidhaat Sharma )  who lets him know of Sultan's past. ( Flashback Begins ) Sultan, a carefree bachelor ( Super Stars never age! ) falls madly in love with Aarfa ( Anushka Sharma ) an aspiring wrestler. Sultan immediatel...

" Jerry Burton arrives in Lymstock along with his sister to recover from a bad crash. The peaceful country side, the fresh air and the benevolent families of the village immediately take the brother-sister duo in. Everything seems rather idyllic and rather perfect until an anonymous letter arrives with a spiteful message. The nasty letter is quickly forgotten as a mischievous prank until Jerry discovers that people across the village have been receiving such slanderous letters. The anonymous letters soon become the talk of the town leaving everyone in a tailspin as to who this sick mind could be. Just when the letters are about to be dismissed as nothing more than a prank, the first victim falls. Before the community recovers another one goes down. As the body count rises, everyone's a suspect and anyone could be the next victim. It's a race against time for Jerry to stop the culprit as the next one to fall might well be his own. " The Moving Finger Now that...

Independence Day 2: Redundance. No, I didn't get the name wrong, the title exactly describes my opinion of this movie. I didn't want to follow my review of Te3n  with another movie review but I had to pen this entry after watching this ' 20 years in the making '  sequel of ' Independence Day '. 'Independence Day' was one of the favorite movies of my childhood. It was a throwback to the disaster movies of the 70s and was punctuated by fast paced action, colorful characters and a slick screenplay. The icing on the cake was an unbeatable antagonist who always seemed to be one step ahead of the heroes. Independence Day: Resurgence lacks the punch <Courtesy: 20th Century Studios > Twenty years on the machismo doesn't look as cool, the tempo doesn't rally and the bravado doesn't impress. A major reason for this is, you have already seen everything showcased in this movie a zillion times before and the movie reeks of cinematic redundance . ...

I always felt the movies which I watched with the least expectations were the ones I liked the most. Te3n once again confirmed my theory. The story of an old man hunting for the individual who cost his granddaughter's life could have been woefully depressing boring us (the audience) with its unending melancholy (Read Talaash ).  But fortunately Te3n's deft screenplay ensures the movie rumbles along at a brisk pace. So here are three things which make Te3n an engaging watch apart from the screenplay (read on there are no spoilers ahead): Te3n The Performances: Amitabh Bachchan , Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vidya Balan breathe life into their characters. Amitabh plays a feeble old man run down by the scars of time and punctuates his role with a steely resolve. Nawazuddin Siddiqui turns in a restrained performance as a cop turned priest while Vidya oozes toughness as a no non-sense police woman. They say great actors convey emotions through their eyes. Amitabh, Nawazu...