I am alive and well

Since it has been over a month since I wrote something, you might be wondering what happened to me. I assure you, all is well with me. So why this long hiatus, you ask me. Have I developed an aversion to my keyboard (which is mightier than your pen and your sword)? Have I run out of things to talk about? Have I decided to not share any more of my profound wisdom with you guys? Or worse still, is it that a long forgotten foe, having raised his ugly head, has finished me off, after making me reveal my GMail password so that the despicable fiend can be online under my guise and write nice status messages? Worry not, for none of those has happened. I do admit that I have been at a loss for words. Literally. So many things to talk about and time and again when I tried to weave a nice post around that, I found myself unable to do it, and I have spent the last month-and-a-half being locked up inside a cocoon of wordless ideas, not willing to come out, not able to write. But all that is history now, and I am back at my keyboard doing what I do best (no, I am not going to write code now).

Like all good K serials, let me do a quick recap of what has happened so far. June came and went, so now it has been more than an year since good old JC unleashed its ‘07 graduates on the poor unsuspecting world.  Also came and went the twelfth of July, and with that I completed one full year at AllGo.  Lots of things have changed between then and now, but I don’t really feel like ranting about that right now. Let’s just say I have learnt a lot of new things, technical and otherwise, and leave it at that.

Now that that is out of the way, I still have this annoying question of what exactly to write about to salvage my nosediving hits. Maybe I can write about “Ten things I like” or “Ten things I dislike” or “Ten movies you should avoid like the plague” or something like that. But I seriously don’t think I can compile ten things of anything, so that’s out of question. Maybe I can write about how much I hate it when people use SMS lingo, but there is really nothing much to write about, other than what I just mentioned. Nope. None of those. I’ll just make this a frivolous post. So presenting a review(?) of the four movies I watched last week (actually I saw five, but everyone has seen Mungaru Male, so what’s the point?). Read and be amazed.

1. First up, a Telugu movie called Happy Days. Was waiting for a long time to watch this one, and I finally got a DVD print of that. The movie starts off pretty well, invoking nostalgia of those glorious college days. The first half is decent enough, inspite of those overdone ragging bits and that ridiculous cricket match. It is the second half that disappoints. What could have been an unforgettable movie about college days and friendship, turns out to be a familiar tale with four different love stories, fights and happy (or sad, depending on the person in question) endings. Still, the movie does have some memorable scenes, has an amazing music score and manages to keep you entertained. 2.5/5.

2. Then, there’s Bommarillu, another Telugu movie. Put in a nice script, throw in some comedy, have your actors give fine performances, and most importantly, include Genelia in the cast and what do you get? An out-and-out entertainer, that’s what! It has been a long time since I have enjoyed a movie so much. This one gets a 3.5/5 .

3. Jaane Tu.. Ya Jaane Na: Another Genelia movie. Saw it last weekend at Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai. Decent movie, you can watch it once. Nice story and good acting, with lots of laughter thrown in, you’re sure to come out of the theatre happy that for once your movie ticket has not been a bad investment. I give it 3/5.

4. Memento: When I was trying to choose a good movie from my collection, I remembered Vivek mentioning this one. And it doesn’t disappoint. Memento probably has the most unusual narrative I’ve ever seen. The hero has short-term memory loss, so he can’t remember anything more than two minutes ago. So how does the director decide to tell this story? Backwards, of course! It’s like a conventional movie split into a dozen pieces and all those pieces are shown in the reverse order. You’ll really need to use your brains to keep track of the story, so this one is recommended only if you are open to giving your brain some serious exercise. For sheer innovative film-making, I give it 4/5.

So that’s it. I feel my fingers deserve a little break right now, and for that matter, so do your eyes. I’ll be back.

PS: This is the first post of mine which doesn’t have a single link. A result of wanting to keep the post free of those annoying underlined words that jump up at odd moments. And lazyness on my part.

Jab I Watched Sonu Nigam Live!

It has been an extremely entertaining week for me. For two major reasons. The first, because I watched Jab We Met at Fun Cinemas here in Bangalore in the first week of its release. And a very entertaining movie it was. Well worth the money you spend on the multiplex ticket.

The second and the more important reason is that I got the chance to watch Sonu Nigam live in concert yesterday evening at the Cisco Family Day in KTPO, Whitefield. Having got passes for the event, me and Kaari reached there at around 7, well in time for the major attraction of the evening. Sonu Nigam finally came on stage at 9 30 and gave an absolutely electrifying performance for two hours. As is usual with such concerts, a grand stage entry was arranged for him and an assortment of screens marked with a huge “S” (which certainly did not stand for Superman or Slytherin) were held up hiding him until the precise moment. And when he emerged, the crowd went absolutely wild.

A couple of slow songs later, Sonu raised the tempo with a few dance tracks. And with the many fun tricks he had with him, he made it clear that he was not there just to sing songs – he was there to entertain. His “on the spot” brand new song composition with the words “Aloo, Gobi, Mooli, Mutter-paneer” later seemed to fit perfectly with the music of “Aaja nachle ve” (Ta Ra Rum Pum), much to the amusement and delight of the crowd (well rehearsed with the band it appears, but hey, I am not complaining!). More fun was in store when he pretended to forget which “Bijuria” song the crowd wanted, singing two completely different versions, one sillier than the other, then finally jumping down from the stage and asking a front row guy to remind it to him by singing it, which he gleefully obliged (damn those lucky front benchers!!).

For me, the best part of the evening was when he picked up a file of Kannada songs, asked the crowd (thrice) to forgive him for any mistakes and then gave an almost flawless rendition of “Mungaru Male” and “Anisutide”. The last song of the evening was the title track of “Kal Ho Naa Ho”, which he interrupted after the first stanza to thank the crowd, and then sang a completely westernized version of the second stanza (and it sounded beautiful!) to finish the day. Not since Jayciana have I enjoyed an evening so much. I had only two complaints though – one, Sonu did not sing my current favourite “Ninnindale” and two, the concert didn’t last all night, which if it did, I would have happily stayed there the whole night.

A zillion thanks to you, Jyothi, for the passes. I owe you one.