Movies to wait for

It's a well known fact that I am not a BIG English movie buff but occasionally I do end up watching some movies in the theater. There are a couple of movies that I have planned on watching over the next couple of weeks.

Spiderman 3: The tagline "The greatest battle lies within" is one of the main reasons for me to wait for this movie. Spiderman 2 movie showcased Peter Parker to have the same kind of emotions as human beings (Even while he has extraordinary powers). A similar fare might been in store from this one. It is releasing on 4th May and I am hoping to watch it on 5th May.

Pirates of the Caribbean - Part III: I started watching the "Pirates of the Caribbean Part I" movie last week and was blown over by the taut screenplay and the brilliance of Johnny Depp. (I have not completed the movie yet and have no clue on how the Part II of the movie fared). Something about the way the script was handled combined with the acting prowess of Depp drives me to expect this movie. It is releasing on 24th May here in India.

Remember Woolmer , ICC?

It has been 40 (Yes, it is indeed FORTY) days since Bob Woolmer was found murdered in his hotel room and still there is no news about who the killer(s) might be. Are you kidding me, ICC? With the body of Woolmer allowed to be flown to his country this sunday only, there is a strong suspicion that the arms of the Jamaican police have been twisted by the ICC to not reveal the "Significant developments" till the world cup gets over. The conspiracy theorists have been working overtime coming up with possible & plausible reasons for getting Woolmer eliminated.

Theory #1: The Westindies vs Pakistan world cup match was a 'Fixed' one with Pakistan losing to Westindies being the final outcome that was expected. The unexpected twist in this story happened when Pakistan lost to Ireland. Obviously, no one included Ireland in the 'Betting' game. They are, after all, minnows in the game of betting! Pakistan lost its chance to make it to the 'Super 8' stage and all hell broke loose with the coach coming to know of the conspirators.

Theory #2: The book that Woolmer was writing was too revealing & had too many names. This made the 'Betting' powers unhappy and they decide to eliminate the coach. The fact that the transcript of the book is missing adds the necessary authenticity to this story. The only flaw in this 'proposed' theory is that the they could have got to Woolmer anytime before or after the world cup campaign of Pakistan. No sane thinking murderer (Oops!) would try such a stupid thing in the middle of a world cup.

With the CCTV footage revealing the likely suspect, the chances of the murderer getting exposed real soon has dramatically increased. One word of caution: Do not be surprised if the Jamaican police or the ICC come up with the theory that the likely suspect in the CCTV footage is Bob Woolmer himself and that he might have murdered himself!

The only thing that we can do is to pray for the soul of Woolmer to rest in peace and hope that justice prevails.

Unnale Unnale -- Movie Review

The cinematographer turned director Jeeva impressed me with his first directorial venture '12B' with its amazing screenplay, brilliant photography & interesting music. Even though I didn't get to see his second directorial venture (Ullam Ketkume), the general review that I got was that it was also an interesting movie. This had my expectation soaring and with the music becoming very popular even before the release of the movie, I was very interested in watching this movie.Did the director meet the expectations?

What would happen if a director reads the books "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus", "Why men don't listen and women can't read maps" and decides to make a movie out of them? You would probably end up with something similar to the story of this movie. Men & women, being different from each other, find it tough to get along with each other smoothly and the hero & heroine of the movie are no exceptions to this universal rule. If that is the case, what keeps this whole world running? The director wanted to suggest that it is the ubiquitous "Love" that keeps the world spinning. The way he goes about narrating this had my head spinning for sure!!!

Some of the scenes involving the hero and his two friends(In the first half) are directly taken from the hindi movie "Dil Chaata Hai". Another scene involving the Hero and the second heroine (Which incidentally is the sister of Kajol), according to my friend, is a lift from another hindi movie "Hum Tum". Even with these irritants, the director succeeds in giving a very hilarious and gripping first half. The first half is so slick that before you know it, the interval slide comes up on screen. Then something goes terribly wrong with the movie and the only plausible reason that I could think of is that director must have lost his story and screenplay after completing the movie till this point. With just the theme left, he tries very hard to move the movie to a reasonable conclusion and he fails pathetically in that attempt.

What if the 'Director' Jeeva fails to turn up in this movie? The 'Cinematographer' Jeeva turns up with his entourage and leaves you spellbound by his work. Is Australia really this beautiful? Is it heaven on earth? With his camera work, Jeeva makes everyone believe it is that way. The photography is pleasant and sits nicely in the eyes. Another factor that has helped the movie still stay in the theaters is the music. Harris Jeyaraj has come up with some really good songs & the background score peppered with short & sweet songs are really the assets of this otherwise insipid movie.

A movie review without a mention of the hero & the two heroines and their performances? The characters are wafer thin and the story offers no scope for these people to showcase their histrionic talents (or the lack of it). Tanisha(Sister of Kajol) is probably the only one who has some scope for acting and she has done a decent job. With a strong storyline, she can be expected to go places in the tinsel world.

Last Cut: This is probably one of those movies which had a great start and then failed to capitalize on the raised expectations. It falls so much short on the raised expectations that you leave the movie with a disappointment that takes a few hours to wear off. If you are a person who doesn't worry about the story/screenplay, watch this movie just for the songs & photography.

Rating: 5/10

Photos for FUN!

Photo #1

Photo #1: I used the slow shutter speed to take this photo of water droplets falling from the water pump. The only modification that I have done to the photo is cropping it to show just the relevant details. The glistening blue things are the water droplets!!!

Photo #2

Photo #2: This photo was taken with me lying down in the beach sand with the camera almost touching the ground. The 'Beach' mode in the SCN (scene) selection of the camera was used for getting the appropriate colors of the beach, the sky & sand.

Photo #3

Photo #3: In one of the online photography lessons website they had stressed the importance of making a closeup shot REALLY close. I tried it with the badam tree leaves in my house and the results came out real bad............. This photo is one of the exceptions where I was able to get the focus right where I wanted it.

Photo #4

Photo #4: A closeup shot of the water bottle that hangs from the water pump. Even in this photo, the focus is not where I wanted it to be but still the end effect of the photo was something that pleased me.

A new kind of body armor!!!

A new kind of body armor has been discovered(Ohh yes, it is indeed a discovery). And it has the capability to store videos, songs and a 40 GB hard disk to shoot!!! It is one of the latest innovations of the great "Apple Computers" and is called as the iPod. You would be pardoned if you had started thinking about the possibility of me coming up with yet another 'innovative' baloney. According to this site, it is indeed a fact and a terrific news. The authenticity of the news is anybody's guess though..............

How to talk to anyone -- Book Review

Author: Leil Lowndes
Year of Publication: 2003

This book chose me when I caught its attention while browsing through the books section in Landmark. Two things were salient about this book. One is that it had a topic that has always fascinated me. The other is that when I started flipping the pages, I saw a reference to Dale Carnegie (Author of the biblical book "How to win friends & influence people). The author Leil Lowndes had mentioned that the techniques of Carnegie were applicable for the 1930's but the 21st century required new rules for effective communication. Did the 'New' rules that Ms.Lowndes suggests in this book make more sense than Carnegie's? How effective would these 92 'Tricks' be in the present world?

The book is categorized into 9 different parts with each part dealing with a particular situation like talking in a party, over the phone and various other stuff. This book reeks with insincerity and some of the techniques suggested stink for lack of genuine concern for the other person. The motto of the book seems to be that of getting done the things one wants and stooping down to feigning interest in the other person's hobbies or pretending to share the same values are to be considered as options.

If one could get over the utter lack of sincerity & continue reading, this book does indeed prove to be a worthy read. The witty writing style interspersed with brilliant anecdotes makes for a wonderful read. The fact that the book has 92 little tricks makes it simple for the reader to grasp the crux of the trick. And the best part is the keyword kind of summation that the author has come up for each one of the trick. The keywords being funny yet relevant to the point discussed makes for easy remembrance of the tricks. The small highlighted summary at the end of each trick is also a very effective technique and would come handy when one needs to recap the techniques they have learned.

Bottom Line: Throw away the fact that the tricks suggested in the book are insincere. The techniques suggested, when catalyzed with sincerity and respect for fellow human beings, would create a magical reaction that could produce all the results that you had yearned for & more. Get a copy of the book to keep as a handy reference in your desk. And DO NOT forget to add sincerity to those bag of tricks.