Thursday, May 06, 2004
Main Hoon Naa... kyon fikar karte ho... Main Hoon naa...
WOW!! Well, there are two adjectives to describe this movie -- FORMULA, MASALA -- just the right mix with all the right elements. A complete fundoo movie that you'll enjoy the whole way. Its funny, melodramatic, action and period all rolled into one awesome bollywood fare. This movie could just be what Bollywood has been looking for. The first true-blue hit of 2004, it is packaged absolutely well for fame. A very, very, very brief gist of the movie follows (A FEW SPOILERS HERE!! ).
Major Ram Prasad Sharma aka "Ram" (SRK) is the son of Brigadier General Shekhar Prasad (Naseeruddin Shah). Ram is sent to a school in Darjeeling by the Commander of the Indian Army (Kabir Bedi) to protect his daughter from Raghavan (Suniel Shetty). Word about Raghavan here... he carries off the role of the mindless terrorist very well... he is a lunatic and you get to know how silly and loony he really is in the beginning itself. After a while he just becomes funny, not scary (which is good!!). Anyway, getting back to the story Raghavan is trying to derail the general's "Project Milaap" which is a friendship gesture from both India and Pakistan. By this program 50 prisoners from both sides were supposed to be released to the other side.
Sanjana (Amrita Rao) is the general's daughter and she hates her dad and the army. Ram goes there with two missions. One is to protect Sanjana and the other is to re-unite with this step-mother (Kirron Kher) and brother Lakshman aka "Lucky" (Zayed Khan). Ram is the "naajaayaz aulaad" (bastard child) of Naseeruddin Shah if you haven't figured that one out yet.
Anyway, Ram goes to school as a student. He meets the school principal (Bomman Irani), physics teacher Mr. Rasai (Satish Shah) and hindi teacher Mrs. Kakkad as well as a host of other characters. Then we have a nice time with the kids and connecting with their generation. Kudos to SRK here since he plays the older man "uncle" role very well while giving the limelight as the young hero to Zayed. Here he also meets the absolutely, smoldering hot chemistry teacher Ms. Chandni (Sushmita Sen)!! She exudes beauty, I said beauty mind you, not sexy. Not that I'm implying she is not sexy. But, her beauty is absolutely mesmerizing. Every time you see her on screen you feel like you are transported to a different place, its wonderful. Anyway, there is love in the air until the new physics teacher, Mr. Raghav Dutta (Suniel Shetty) enters the picture.
Then shit hits the fan and Suniel Shetty goes crazy with everyone around him (trying my best not to reveal anything here). Anyway, the story follows the standard formula but does it so well, it is worth watching it just for the way the movie is done.
If you are going to watch it watch it with the whole family. It is a wonderful family fare and takes you back to the 80s, 70s way of movie-making. Definitely not a waste of time and worth your time...
I need to start a way of rating these movies... Let's start doing it now. How about this?
Rating : **** out of 5 . I'll come up with a much more elaborate rating in a few days. That will assist you better maybe.
Major Ram Prasad Sharma aka "Ram" (SRK) is the son of Brigadier General Shekhar Prasad (Naseeruddin Shah). Ram is sent to a school in Darjeeling by the Commander of the Indian Army (Kabir Bedi) to protect his daughter from Raghavan (Suniel Shetty). Word about Raghavan here... he carries off the role of the mindless terrorist very well... he is a lunatic and you get to know how silly and loony he really is in the beginning itself. After a while he just becomes funny, not scary (which is good!!). Anyway, getting back to the story Raghavan is trying to derail the general's "Project Milaap" which is a friendship gesture from both India and Pakistan. By this program 50 prisoners from both sides were supposed to be released to the other side.
Sanjana (Amrita Rao) is the general's daughter and she hates her dad and the army. Ram goes there with two missions. One is to protect Sanjana and the other is to re-unite with this step-mother (Kirron Kher) and brother Lakshman aka "Lucky" (Zayed Khan). Ram is the "naajaayaz aulaad" (bastard child) of Naseeruddin Shah if you haven't figured that one out yet.
Anyway, Ram goes to school as a student. He meets the school principal (Bomman Irani), physics teacher Mr. Rasai (Satish Shah) and hindi teacher Mrs. Kakkad as well as a host of other characters. Then we have a nice time with the kids and connecting with their generation. Kudos to SRK here since he plays the older man "uncle" role very well while giving the limelight as the young hero to Zayed. Here he also meets the absolutely, smoldering hot chemistry teacher Ms. Chandni (Sushmita Sen)!! She exudes beauty, I said beauty mind you, not sexy. Not that I'm implying she is not sexy. But, her beauty is absolutely mesmerizing. Every time you see her on screen you feel like you are transported to a different place, its wonderful. Anyway, there is love in the air until the new physics teacher, Mr. Raghav Dutta (Suniel Shetty) enters the picture.
Then shit hits the fan and Suniel Shetty goes crazy with everyone around him (trying my best not to reveal anything here). Anyway, the story follows the standard formula but does it so well, it is worth watching it just for the way the movie is done.
If you are going to watch it watch it with the whole family. It is a wonderful family fare and takes you back to the 80s, 70s way of movie-making. Definitely not a waste of time and worth your time...
I need to start a way of rating these movies... Let's start doing it now. How about this?
Masti: Arre waah, kya masti
This is possibly one of the worst Bollywood fares I have seen. Now, I am not going to go out and say that I have seen many bollywood movies these days. But maaan!!! I could not sit through more than 10 minutes of this movie. It is aboslutely horrible. It is a disgrace to the art of filmography. I mean this is absolutely terrible...
Firstly, there is no story to follow. The premise is just based on 3 guys who are unhappy with their family lives after having a great time in college. This part was okay but after that things take on such a double-meaning that it is impossible to even laugh. I mean it just feels dirty, not funny. There is a fine line between being funny and being an asshole shaking his thing on the screen.
I mean the first 3 songs have these 3 guys who have no clue how to act. I used to think Vivek Oberoi was goood but this movie may just change that... However, having not seen the whole movie I'm not going to pass any judgment on the story and its handling. Besides I don't think I'm ready to put myself through that movie again... Sorry, but it was terrible.
Wait up for a review of "Main Hoon Naa..." I'm watching it as I'm writing. It'll come up soon.
Firstly, there is no story to follow. The premise is just based on 3 guys who are unhappy with their family lives after having a great time in college. This part was okay but after that things take on such a double-meaning that it is impossible to even laugh. I mean it just feels dirty, not funny. There is a fine line between being funny and being an asshole shaking his thing on the screen.
I mean the first 3 songs have these 3 guys who have no clue how to act. I used to think Vivek Oberoi was goood but this movie may just change that... However, having not seen the whole movie I'm not going to pass any judgment on the story and its handling. Besides I don't think I'm ready to put myself through that movie again... Sorry, but it was terrible.
Wait up for a review of "Main Hoon Naa..." I'm watching it as I'm writing. It'll come up soon.
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Gmail a-rockin...!!
HEY!!!! Maybe my previous post had some effect. Well, even if it didn't I will believe that it did and the world is a better place because of it. Anyway, I am trying Gmail now...
It has a much cleaner interface than many of the other webmail services. Definitely a good reduction in the amount of advertising that is usually present on these services. You'll especially appreciate the elimination of the flash and other ads at the top and the bottom of the page which is a staple in Hotmail and Yahoo!! Though I love Yahoo! to death it just does some things like the flash ads in the introductory page that are just way too annoying to ignore.
One little feature that I seem to be using more and more often is the keyboard shortcuts. Though being an ardent Mozilla Firefox user I have had problems with the browser not understanding whether I'm typing a google command or using "Type Ahead Find" feature. This situation is a bit confusing and I'm not sure what exactly is going on there. If anyone out there has any information on how Google's keyboard commands work please let me know. Maybe I can alleviate this problem in Firefox.
Also, the "Labels" feature is definitely interesting and could find more acceptance as its usage gets more widespread. I'm finding it useful already though I don't have a lot of mail in the inbox. It seems to work by just labeling each email that you get. If it is a reply to a previous mail that you sent then it is automatically added under the original email's label. Of course these labels don't contain your email and you can delete them willy-nilly (very unlike folders). So, you can delete the labels but the email remains intact somewhere in the innards of your inbox. Believe me after a few months of trying you will fill-up the box and the search feature will definitely come-in handy.
I haven't had much time to go through the thorough user experience. There is still a lot to explore such as the "Starred" feature that I still don't completely understand, anyone care to explain? Anyway, keep a watch out for more Gmail experiences right here...
Meanwhile, check out a sample screenshot:
gmail.jpg
It has a much cleaner interface than many of the other webmail services. Definitely a good reduction in the amount of advertising that is usually present on these services. You'll especially appreciate the elimination of the flash and other ads at the top and the bottom of the page which is a staple in Hotmail and Yahoo!! Though I love Yahoo! to death it just does some things like the flash ads in the introductory page that are just way too annoying to ignore.
One little feature that I seem to be using more and more often is the keyboard shortcuts. Though being an ardent Mozilla Firefox user I have had problems with the browser not understanding whether I'm typing a google command or using "Type Ahead Find" feature. This situation is a bit confusing and I'm not sure what exactly is going on there. If anyone out there has any information on how Google's keyboard commands work please let me know. Maybe I can alleviate this problem in Firefox.
Also, the "Labels" feature is definitely interesting and could find more acceptance as its usage gets more widespread. I'm finding it useful already though I don't have a lot of mail in the inbox. It seems to work by just labeling each email that you get. If it is a reply to a previous mail that you sent then it is automatically added under the original email's label. Of course these labels don't contain your email and you can delete them willy-nilly (very unlike folders). So, you can delete the labels but the email remains intact somewhere in the innards of your inbox. Believe me after a few months of trying you will fill-up the box and the search feature will definitely come-in handy.
I haven't had much time to go through the thorough user experience. There is still a lot to explore such as the "Starred" feature that I still don't completely understand, anyone care to explain? Anyway, keep a watch out for more Gmail experiences right here...
Meanwhile, check out a sample screenshot:
gmail.jpg