Varsham - A neat movie

Being in US, one might not get to watch English movies, but Telugu movies, you get in abundance. I happened to watch the Telugu movie, Varsham, which is a Trisha starrer. Not an out of the world movie, but good enough to spend two and a half hours without boredom! The songs were certainly catchy and no wonder did it become a musical hit. I don't want to talk more about the movie and in any case, I am planning to keep my reviews short in future. With the number of movies I am watching everyday, I guess I have lost the patience to write pages and pages of the same old stuff about movies!!

BCCI selection committee a big joke!

Anything in the world makes logical sense but for the selection committee of the Indian cricket team. Kiran More guffaws and grins as if he is going to talk something wise for the first time in his life and almost invariably answers the media with a clownish, indecipherable and a worthless comment with absolutely no sense of maturity. Sourav Ganguly is dropped from the squad for the third test at Ahmedabad against the Sri Lankans and More attributes it to developing a squad for the future. Ok! Everything sounds fine! What does the selection committe do after a week? The BCCI president Sharad Pawar meets every Tom, Dick and Harry to set things right and finally Lo and Behold, Sourav Ganguly finds his place in the elite squad to Pakistan. Now how does More defend himself : We need stability in the middle order! Oh my God! Can it get worse? What a remark! The richest sporting body in the world selects a team to an all-important tour of Pakistan based on the whims and fancies of a few irresponsible individuals. How does the goalkeeper Parthiv Patel fit in the scheme of things? How the hell can he find a place in the squad? He is the player because of whom we lost a chance to win the Sydney test match against the Australians and an overseas series win against the Aussies for the first time. Maybe he really motivates the bowlers. Obviously, the bowlers toil for 14-15 wickets in a match instead of the normal 10 thanks to Parthiv's genius behind the stumps. He would have made a great goalkeeper and his misfit in the team was easily noticeable, but obviously he is from Gujarat, and More too!! But, fortunately More didn't make a statement : Parthiv is in the team since he is from Gujarat!

If

My all time favourite poem and certainly, Kipling's most famous poem! A poem to get me out of the dumps! This poem was written by him with his only son in mind who he lost to war. He has carved a masterpiece that will be there for generations to come!

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Why does she still sing?

Listening to the song Tere bina zindagi se koi shikhwa from the movie Aandhi, one gets transported to an ethereal world. This song is rendered to perfection by the melody perfectionists Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar. The song has that enchanting appeal and one can compare the contrast in the songs of today's cinema. I have listened to this song innumerable times, and each time, the song renders a new meaning and neatly fills my heart with solace. This album has awesome tracks sung by the duo. The track Tum aa gaye ho is another piece that can take the listener to dizzy heights. Gulzaar's lyrics makes it a perfect combination of a great musical.

Fast forward to today's cinema. Lata Mangeshkar renders her voice to some meaningless movies like Dil to pagal hai, veer zaara, mohabbatein and other terrible movies. Lata's hoarse voice makes us wonder where has she lost that wonderful voice? Obviously she can't render the same perfection in today's musical. What beats me is why should she continue singing today? She definitely has lost that charismatic appeal in that voice. In any field one should always bow out with dignity, and I certainly don't want to relive my days listening to the latest crap of music from Lata's voice.

Let's see how much more of nauseating music is in store for us from Lata Mangeshkar!!

Back to blogs!

After a rather hectic fortnight of exams and projects, it is time to spend the holidays with books, movies and blogs. Not that I was missing out on the movies. I have watched quite a lot of them since the purchase of the Pioneer home theater system. Its been quite a list of movies.

The Apocalypse now
Basic Instinct
Sholay
Ram Balaram
Teesri Manzil
Jaanwar
City of God
The Bourne Identity
Hyderabad Blues
Iris
The Legend of Bhagat Singh

and with many more to come...

All in all, a good fortnight that I am looking forward to!!!