The Kumars hit the blogosphere....

One of my batchmates at IITB, Pradeep Kumar Ravikumar (pkrk) happens to be a really good writer. Back in IIT, I had read some of his really funny postings on newsgroups and was quite impressed by his writing and sense of humor. Last week, during my random blog reading spree, I bumped into his blog and read a few of his recent posts. As an example, read this. And if you like it, bookmark his blog. He consistently writes as well as this post. :)

Moved to the core...

A post about 1984 riots in Delhi that I found via Amit Verma's India Uncut. Easily one of the most moving experiences I have had.

Falling back on Big-B

With not many things seeming to work in apna entertainment industry, people are going back to fundamentals. Which means going back to Amitabh Bachchan. KBC-2 just made its debut (with an IITian being the first contestant, unless I am ill-informed) on TV and two of our more exciting filmmakers have decided to remake old Bachchan classics and see if they can't make it work.

RGV is remaking Sholay (and we have already had a mock casting for this project on Vivek's Space) and the cast is slowly taking shape. Amitabh, obviously, is playing Gabbar and should do great in the role. Abhishek will probably carry off Veeru well enough. And going by the trailers of his debut movie - James - Mohit Ahlawat playing Jai will probably prove to be the jarring note in an otherwise good movie. I don't know what RGV was thinking. Or maybe its just the guys who made the trailers of James who picked up his worst moments from the movie and put them in. I hope so. Going by whatever little I have seen of him, he might very well be the worst thing to happen to bollywood since Fardeen Khan. To compensate for this error of judgement, RGV came up with the inspired casting of Mohanlal as Thakur. I don't know how RGV visualizes Thakur in this Mumbai Underworld version of Sholay, but as long as his vision is exciting, I am sure Mohanlal will fit it to a T. I can spend 10 dollars just to see the "ye haath humko de thakur" and "ye haath naheen faansi ka fanda hai Gabbar" scenes with Amitabh and Mohanlal. (Not suggesting that there will be exactly same scenes in the movie, but there must be exciting analogs planned...)

Also, in a development which shocked me initially Farhan Akhtar has decided to do a remake of Don as his follow up of the brilliant Dil Chahta Hai and pretty good Lakshya. I was expecting something more original from him. But after the initial shock had worn down I am finding myself getting excited about this project. I don't remember much of Don and never knew it was a movie worth remaking but it seems clear that Farhan is a fan of the movie (Didn't Salim-Javed script the original? I think they did...) and has done enough work on it to convince SRK to do the movie. Considering that SRK is now following the sensible Aamir formula of shooting only one movie at a time and doing only about one movie a year, that has to be a good sign. Its also nice to see SRK working outside his coterie of directors. Working with such eclectic mix as Amol Palekar, Ashutosh Gowarikar and now Farhan Akhtar can only be good for him. (Doesn't mean I am against Yashraj-Dharma-Farha Khan style of movies...). Anyway, the buzz is that Priyanka Chopra is reprising Zeenat Aman's role, Arjun Rampal is playing Pran's character, and Kareena has taken up the vamp played by Helen in the original. Isha Kopikkar is the latest to join the cast as probably the girlfriend of the original Don in the movie. Farhan is also set to keep at least two of the original songs (Khaeeke Paan Banaaras Waala and another).

Two projects definitely worth waiting for.

Suicide Club

You are a cricket lover?
You are sleeping?
or.. you are awake but not following Ashes?

I am sorry to inform you that you'll be commiting suicide today when you know what you missed...

An incredible match! An amazing series!!

Update: the match is now over. And it gave all the promised thrills till the last ball bowled. see the full scorecard here.

Sun, Spacestation and Shuttle

A modest tongue-twister of my own. Inspired by this awe-inspiring image from APOD. Read the description. For all the figures you memorize in your general knowledge or science class, its images like this that give you some sense of the immensity of all things astronomical. The Spacestation is JUST about 200 km away from us, its even closer than you neighboring city, most likely. and the Sun is about a million times further away.. and YET, look at the size of it!!

Update: Just noticed that the image link actually linked to the APOD homepage which obviously changed after that day. The link is now updated and points to the correct image.

Ebert reviews The Terrorist

Just found a recent review of Santosh Sivan's The Terrorist by Roger Ebert. As Ebert is one of the few reviewers I read regularly, I thought I should post about this review. The Terrorist was a tad too slow for my taste but is replete with breathtakingly beautiful frames. A lot of Indian big budget movies now have world-class cinematography and Sivan is definitely one of the very best Indian cinematographers. No wonder his own movie looks so beautiful even though it was made at a dirt-cheap budget even by Indian standards.

Read Ebert's review here.

Amazing Rowling Interview!

Wanted to post about it last week itself, but couldn't. Mugglenet - our very own HP fansite - and The Leaky Couldron - another famous HP fansite - had been given the honor of having an exclusive interview with JKR on the day of HBP release. Mugglenet's Emerson and TLC's Melissa were personally invited by Rowling to come to UK and talk with her for about an hour. On her site, she says that she wanted to talk about the books with someone who actually knows the books inside out and not your normal journalists who are more interested in JKR herself and the HP phenomenon than the books themselves, and thats why she invited Emerson and Melissa. The interview transcript was posted on Mugglenet in three parts (as also a three-part report of Emerson's visit..) and is without doubt one of the best interviews I have EVER read. If you are a fan of the books and have already read HBP, then go directly to this, this and this link to read the three parts of the interview. You'll enjoy it completely, take my word for it.

JKR's website and her conduct and interviews related to HBP's release have really impressed me. She comes across as a very down-to-earth woman who has not let all the success change her at all. I know most celebrities like to give that impression, but there is either something very genuine about Rowling or she is just incredibly efficient at keeping that facade. I am a fan of HP books, but, increasingly, I am becoming a fan of Rowling more than her books and characters.

Bombay bedraggled..

I am sure most of you know about the unprecedented torrent in Mumbai that happened recently (and has hopefully stopped by now). Amit Verma has a posting about it that he made right after the rains which gives better insight about the situation there for all the non-mumbaiite visitors here. Read it here.

One of my friends also got stuck in his office close to Dadar. He walked home (close to IITB, in Powai) next morning after the rain stopped. Waded his way through flooded roads from Dadar to Vikroli. Took him 4 hours!!

something to read...

Great article this, on timesonline. About sporting excellence and celebrating it for its own sake, regardless of where our loyalties lie. Found the article via Prem's blog.

And now... the reviews...

Mugglenet has a page which lists some of the major media reviews of HBP that they could find links to and most of them are pretty positive. And most of the individual comments that I have seen on fan sites and newsgroups till now are overwhelmingly positive with a lot of people saying this is one of the best (or outright best) of the series. Some people might have a problem with the romance angle of the book which might be considered to be somewhat overdone. However, for people like me and Jeet who loved Barb's fan-fiction of the closing trilogy - which had much much more romance than this - should like this a lot.

For the list of media reviews, go to this page on mugglenet. Specifically, the Time review is here and the N Y Times review here. Beware of spoilers though. Most of these reviews talk about the plot and I'd have hated to have read them before reading the book myself.