Thursday, September 25, 2008

OU #1

Ok, USC just lost to an unranked team! Where is Jason White? May be he can apply for a 10th year of eligibility and take OU to the National Championship game!!!

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Burn After Watching


Subramaniapuram:
This must be the sleeper hit of this year. A simple story, lot of attention to details and a linear screenplay with lots of nativity are the highlights of this movie. The 4 (or 5) protagonists hide very well into their characters (and their beards) and amaze us with some casual acting. The story is not original by any means – unemployed youth being exploited by the local politician for his personal benefits – but the treatment given to it is original, with the early 80’s Madurai as the backdrop and a love story as the sidetrack, which would have looked completely stupid in any other movie. The director has made the job of making it look like the 80’s easier by confining the screenplay to a few streets, a couple of ambassador cars and a scooter. As I was trying to find the face behind the beards, two of them seemed very familiar. One was that comedian Ganja Karuppu who always has a beard. As I was pulling the rest of my hair out trying to figure out the other familiar face, it struck me halfway through the movie that he was that same guy from Chennai-600028, the one who moves from Royapuram and joins the rival team. I had no idea that he could pull a Chandrasekhar with so much ease. Yes, that’s who he reminded me of, the way he smiles whenever he sees his girlfriend, with his head shaking a little, he looked like a clone of the yesteryear hero Chandrasekhar. May be that’s what the director wanted from him. The music too was reminiscent of the 80's reminding me of some of Ilaiyaraja's best BGMs. If you get a chance to watch this movie, don't forget to burn yourself a copy.

Phoonk:
I don't know why I make the mistake of watching a Ram Gopal Varma movie again and again. I guess I don't learn my lessons that easily. Phoonk was advertised as the scariest horror movie ever and I even read somewhere that RGV announced he'd give Rs.5 Lakhs to anyone who dares to watch this movie alone. Of course, it came with strong recommendations from my friend Vaibhavi, who is my horror movie partner. Well, RGV has managed to make a stinker of a movie once again. The movie did not have a single genuinely scary moment. I have never felt so guilty about wasting almost 3 hours of my life. I don't know what else to say about this stupid movie other than RGV should do us all a huge favor and stop making movies anymore. If you happen to make the same mistake, do not forget to burn the dvd, literally!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Droh Kaal Vs Kuruthipunal

Watched Droh Kaal, the original version of Kuruthipunal a couple of weeks ago. I had major expectations, what with it being the source of one of the best Tamil movies ever made and having all the three people of Hindi Cinema - Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah and Amrish Puri - who can really act. I have only one word for this movie. DISAPPOINTED! At the end of this movie, I was so glad that Kamalhassan made this movie in Tamil.
I can still remember, when Karthik and I walked out of the theater after watching Kuruthipunal, I was trying hard to comprehend all the immaculate details and the realistic portrayal of the way terrorists operate, we met this friend of Karthik's from BITS, who had the guts to tell us that the dialogues were more powerful in Droh Kaal. If I had seen this movie then, I would have laughed my ass off. OK, I don't know how to speak Hindi, but I can understand most of it. I swear people, I am not the "Ek Gaun mein, ek kissaaaaaaan, raghu thaatha" kind of person! Kuruthipunal's intensity was mainly achieved by dialogues written by thalaivar. For example, "Veeram na enna theriyuma, bayam illadha maadhiri nadikaradhu dhaan. Un bayathai un kannule naan paathuten, adhai medhuva nithaanama veliye kondu vandhu unakke arimuga padutharen". There was not even a single dialague in Droh Kaal that was even remotely close to that.
Forget the dialogues. Let's compare the terrorist leader in both the movies. Aasish Vidyarthi looked innocent at best, to the extent of "Vaaile veral vecha kooda kadikka theriyadhu". Nasser's Badri on the other hand was more than an equal to Kamal's Aadhi. Right from the beginning, we know that Nasser couldn't be killed that easily and it's confirmed by Kamal's battles, both verbal and physical, with him.
Overall, Droh Kaal was inferior to Kuruthipunal is many aspects, including production quality, which was truly below average. Of course, star power helped the Tamil version a lot. I have only one thing to say to the guy who commented on my post "Who killed my favorite actor?": Watch the Original first and then you'll know how good the remake is. This is truly a case of the remake being a far better movie than the original.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Nuggets

  • Love the new job despite all the negative things I heard about the place before I took the job. Guess it all comes down to the team that you are in and how cool your manager is.
  • College football is back and so are the sooners. Welcome back Bob Stoops!
  • Still don't care about the NFL.
  • Been playing tennis for the past 3 months and loving it.
  • Started playing cricket after 5 years and loving it more.
  • Want to do skydiving before the beginning of winter.
  • Planning to take snowboarding classes this winter. Hope I don't break anything.
  • Can't believe it's already a year since I went to India.
  • Still can't decide between Xbox 360 and PS3.
  • Want to change the title of my last post to "10 down 1 to go". Courtesy: Shiva