Movie Review: Wanted.

Don't Watch.

District 9 :: This is NOT a Review

I saw District 9 today. Thank you very much. I liked the movie. But that does not mean that the movie is for everyone. The movie is certainly different. A documentary sort of treatment for most of the parts lends it a strangely realistic touch and the funny thing is that it's almost believable. If I write a synopsis of the movie here, it will take away the juice of the movie, so let's try to talk the gist of the movie in as less words as possible. A lot goes on behind the scenes. The last 20 mins of the movie are worth the Gandhis you spend. There are lot of loopholes and some really unbelievable sequences but hey, what the hell, it's a movie. Reality has more loopholes if we look at it with a criticizing eye.

The thing with movies, I believe, is that never believe what someone else tells you. To hell with the movie reviews, because those are the opinions of the reviewer. What ever a movie critic/reviewer writes is going to be influenced by his views, his thought, his experiences in life, the movies he has seen that stand in comparison to the movie being reviewed. So, never trust a review, go and see for yourself. Even a flop movie might have something that you might connect with and even the most popular movie might be all boring to YOU because you are not able to connect to it. And connecting (or not connecting) with the audience is the sole purpose of a movie, or isn't it?

Bottomline:: Go, and seek your own entertainment. Don't let someone else tell you that something is bad, or good.

If I keep writing like this, I will never take a stand on anything, or maybe I will.

Balle Balle In Chinese :)

A colleague brought this to my attention today. Chinese students in Canada are learning Punjabi. Punjabi is a beautiful language as all languages are beautiful, unlike German which Mark Twain tried to learn, albeit unsuccessfully.

The gist of the link is that the Chinese students in Canada are doing better at Punjabi than the Punjabi students studying in the same university. Here, I quote, from the news report...

Walia said two Chinese students had won the first and second positions in examination in Punjabi language conducted by the university for Indo-Canadian students recently

Which is pretty awesome if you ask me. China is ahead of us in population and we are doing our best to catch up. But how will we catch up in terms of obsession, dedication and madness that these people have? Moving a little farther to South Korea, their ex-President jumped to his death because of allegations on his character that he had taken bribe.

Geez, if Indian politicians follow even 1% of that guy's mentality, we won't have any politicians left!

So, in this short post we have learned that we need to be better at what we are doing and we need be responsible for what we do. 

Sadly, we are Indians (very proudly so) and we have the answer for everything, "Koi na, chalta hai."

Jis din nahi chalega, uss din aayega asli maza.

Oh and by the way, if you thought the Chinese were going to leave cricket alone, here is the Chinese National Cricket Team.

Have We Reached A Saturation Point?

Let's think about it.

In all facets of human living, survival and our pursuit of things, there comes a time when the best has been and done. So, there is a comparison point for everything that comes after that. We have seen the best of the movies, the music, the books, the people, and these things belong to the past.

There will never be another band like The Beatles.

There will never be a book like The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy.

There will never be another song like "Another Brick in the Wall" or "Comfortably Numb"

There will never be great people like (Insert your favorite person here)

Let's look at music, what was the last great earth shattering and generation changing song that we've heard after "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

Let's look at technology, Apple iPods have set a benchmark, not matter how weird the positioning of the benchmark is but every mp3 player in the next 5 years stands comparison to the iPods. Frankly, an iPod is not the greatest mp3 player but, it's got a name, a brand and that what makes the comparison worthwhile.

Looking back home, at India, let's look at us, where is the charisma in our leaders? Where is the beauty in our Bollywood? Where is the skill in our singers?

What am I on about here?

What I am on about here is that this is the saturation point of our generation. Either we are too overloaded with information that we are blind to the things we should be seeing, or the benchmark has been set really high by those in the times past and it just cannot be scaled.

The world needs a hero and in our times, there is none. 

Views on Apple and iPods

Nine September 2009

Technically it is 10 September as I write this, but give me some artistic leeway, right? Right. Nine September it is. Nine September is also the day when everyone had been awaiting the Apple Keynote for 2009. Steve Jobs is back on stage after a liver transplant and there are new Nanos on offer with new features.

The geek division of the internet is going to be joyous and highly cynical about the things that Apple has done to their whole product line. The much awaited Apple Tablet wasn't unveiled at the Keynote. The iPod Nano with a camera was indeed unveiled. The disappointment is also that the camera is ONLY with iPod Nano, not with iPod Touch.

And, in case you failed to catch it, the camera is VIDEO ONLY. So, no you can’t go clickety clickety with your shiney new iPod. Yea, you can shoot a video at 30FPS. The price drop comes as a welcome surprise. But then again, Apple is the NAME which sells. Because, come on, let’s face the bitter truth, in terms of sound quality the devices from SONY fair much better than Apple. Most people do not use the included Apple earphones anyway.

And above all anything that Apple brings in the iPods, MOST of the features have been in the phones that were available say, 2-3 years back too. A camera and a radio, are pretty basic function in a cellphone and who’d need an MP3 player for that? Plus, a phone can be used to make calls too.

Yes, there is lot of fancy-shamcny stuff included in the iPods, but frankly, at the end of the day, all you want to do is listen to some music. The Apple iPhone/iPods/iTouch all have the backing of a brand and the Apple Apps store. But come on people, wake up a little. These devices are not something that is breaking new ground and showing some innovative features. It is the brand which is selling and the brand is what the people are buying. For being a fanboy or a fashion geek, but I do not see myself buying an Apple product anytime in near future. Because I can do 80% of things on my old W550i that an Apple iPhone can do. I’d stick with Sony any day.

I just don’t get the hype. Apple is just releasing a wide range of products (I love this phrase) with almost similar functions (that are outdated), different memory capacities and price that is low. Something is fishy here. I do not know what, but I DO know that time will tell.

While Coming Back From Delhi

I was coming back from Delhi on Sunday evening. I had a bag full of books purchased from Delhi Book Fair. Sitting in the Volvo, conditioned air sending giggles of pleasure down my neck, I stretched my legs in the ample leg space and plugged in the earphones to listen to some rock n roll music.

Then I made the mistake of looking out of the window.

I saw a row of faces staring at me. A truck was moving parallel to our bus. There were people standing on a plank in that truck and there were six or seven faces staring at me intently. A strange hunger, longing, desire or maybe something insatiable poured forth from their eyes.

I stared back at them as I ripped open a chocolaty Five Star and gulped down more Red Bull down my throat.

Those people kept staring and I pulled down the curtain.

Comfortable Journey I must say.

Volvo. Good bus.

Turn Off the Music

Right now, I am feeling more spiritual than I have ever felt in the past few years. This is 2.48 AM on Friday. I just turned off the music and somewhere far away I can hear trucks rolling down the roads, to destinations unnamed from destinations unheard of. It is a curious sound that a truck makes as it moves on the road, whether it is the sound of the truck's tires on the road, or the sound of a big vehicle rushing through the air, it is somehow magical. 

Someone has pet peacocks nearby, at least I think they are peacocks. I mean, if it sound like a peacock and it screams like a peacock, it must be a peacock. Maybe not. I like to imagine the weird sounds as some kind of alien night time plant that grows under the earth and makes these weird sounds when the wind blows the clouds over the moon. There is a dog barking, but it's far far away. I can hear crickets. If I close my eyes, I will still be here. In this moment.

This is night. Without music made by man, I am with the music made by nature, and ofcourse the sound of my fingers dancing on the keyboard. Yes, after lot of typing everyday, I have finally learned how to type without looking at the keyboard.

So, turn off the music, listen.

2.54 AM

The Problem With Social Networking

Increasingly, I have found myself distracted and dismayed by the extent of social networking on the internet. We were all on orkut, most of us still are but we rarely use it. Then along came facebook and after that the latest toyboy of the internet. The blue bird, twitter. The social networks play on one of the most basic human fear, that of being alone, and in effect that translates into surrounding oneself with others. Or not. 

The Internet has been the most successful inventions of our time. Better than toilet paper or light bulbs. Why so? I mused and thought that it is because Internet gives in to the an expression of the most narcissistic desires of a human being. It is about being given an identity. Which one of us was not excited as hell on getting the first email id? Where was it? Hotmail? Or Usa.net? The point being, the "I" in the Internet is what makes it tick. 

Everyone is given the illusion of thinking that they are someone, and someone whose opinion is valued and understood and appreciated.

When, in reality. No one gives a damn. They just pretend to.

I feel like shutting my Facebook and Twitter account every once in a while, but then I think, "hey, these are the only two avenues keeping me connected to the friends I have."

No one really believes in calling these days. They all say, "I'll call you in evening."

Did I just say Damn up there?