SRK's query on Love

While Shiv Sena has pointed all their guns towards Shah Rukh Khan for his comment over controversial exclusion of Pakistani players from IPL 3, the Badshah of Bollywood is all geared up with ‘Love Message’.

In a special promotion campaign SRK will be asking a question on ‘Love’, How far you can go for love? It is a promotional campaign for his upcoming film ‘My Name is Khan’ which is slated to release on February 12.

“Yes, there is this huge campaign that has been designed around the strong essence of love that ‘My Name Is Khan’ carries. As a part of this, Shah Rukh would be travelling across the country and pop this question to the ‘aam janta’. This would be his way of connecting with people who are waiting to catch him in ‘My Name Is Khan’,” Karan, who has produced and directed the film, told IANS

Asking Sena about Love!!

SRK would be meeting the ‘Aam Janta’ with his query on ‘love’; this has become a trend in bollywood in the last few years. Bollywood biggies like Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Abhishek Bachchan applied it for their respective films and even Shah Rukh did it in 2006 for ‘Don – The Chase Begins Again’.

“This is going to be a pan-India initiative and won’t be restricted to metros or cosmopolitan cities. In addition, there would be a lot of other things happening to facilitate the film’s promotion,” Karan said.

“…The idea of asking people ‘How far would you go for love?’ should be quite enticing for many out there. It should be a good participative exercise,” the filmmaker added.

The film is one of the most awaited films of 2010 as bollywood’s most successful ‘Jodi’ pair of SRK and Kajol will again raise the temperature on celluloid after eight long years.

“My Name Is Khan”, which is being marketed and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, is about Rizwan Khan (Shah Rukh), an autist, who is mistaken for a terrorist while travelling in the US. Karan, Shah Rukh and Kajol have teamed up so far for candy-floss movies…so how come they decided to opt for different kind of cinema?

“I just felt that cinema is maturing with every passing year and I should move on with the times as well,” Karan said with a smile.

[Via http://bollywoodcorner.wordpress.com]

how to search for jobs??

• how can you find jobs?
• what kind of jobs suits you?
• kind of jobs you can get into?

ALL ANSWERS ARE IN FOLLOWING TABLE

100 JOBS AFTER YOUR COURSES

Print-Newspaper

1.Reporter ( Rs 5000 to 8 lacs per month)

2.Sub-editor: (Rs 3000 to 30,000)

3.Rewriter: (Rs 10,000 to 2 lacs)

4.Visualiser

5.Designer

6.Photographer

7.Proof Reader

8.Editor

9.Astt Editor

9A Readers Editor

9B Morgue Undetaker

Print Magazine

10.Cover designer

11. Stylist

12.Features Editor

13.Coordination Editor

14. Freelancer

TV

15 Anchor

16 News Reader

17 Cameraman

18 Archives Incharge

19 Video Editor

20 Reporter

21. Panel controller

22 Programmer

23. Programme Designer

24. Researcher

25. Producer

26. Talk show presenter

27 Digitiser

Cyber

28.Reporter

29.Editor

30.Designer

PR

31.PR Executive

32Accounts Executive

33.Event manager

34Celebrity manager

35Marketing manager

36Media Planner

37Event MC

38Copy Writer

39Media Handler

40Image Creator

41 PRO

42 Press Counsellor

43 Media manager

44 Corporate Communicator

45 Speech writer

46 Information Officer

47 Image consultant

Advertising

48 Accounts Executive

49 Creative Director

50 Copy writer

51 Visualiser

52 Media buyer

53 Media Planner

Book publishing

54.Cover designer

55Editor

56.Proof Reader

57 Rewriter

58 Indexer

59 Book publicist

60 Ghost writer

61 Researcher

62 Author Curator

63 Abridgement Writer

64 Annotation Researcher

65 Transator

NGOs

63.Researcher

64.Social Communicator

65.Marketing Communicator

66.Campaign Manager

67.Inter-personal Communicator

Film making

68 Director

69 Asstt Director

70 Spotboy

71 Recee researcher

72.Script writer

73Dialogue writer

74 Screenplay writer

75 Cinematographer

76 Sound Recordist

77 Lightman

78 Film publicist

79 Music Director

80 Actor

81 Location manager

82 Continuity Boy

83. Script in-charge

84 Editor

85 Sub-title writer

86 PRO

Language Handler

87 Interpretor

Service Industry

88 Lists Provider

89 Clippings Provider

HR

90.Newsletter

91.House Journal

92.Wall paper

Research

93.Communication Research

94.Market Research

95.Social research

96.Field research

97.Ethnographic Research

98.Advocacy

99.Campaign

100 Headlines writer.

101 Media Research

33IDIOTS

[Via http://watch4dog.wordpress.com]

REVIEW: Road To Sangam

It was only the other day I was discussing the spate of Bollywood’s new age films like Aamir, A Wednesday, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Firaaq et al and why more and more people are falling for such films despite being made on shoe-string budgets and dished out on deglam platters. I realized the best part about these films are its screenplays which hits you instantly and compels you to think, ponder about facts of lives which we otherwise ignore. One needn’t be prudent or preachy all the time to communicate in the simplest possible way, isn’t it?

Amit Rai’s Road to Sangam is yet another addition to the marquee that talks about the age-old bitterness etched in the hearts of several Hindus and Muslims during the 1947 partition.

Raju Hirani’s Munnabhai did instill in us a new hope with his ‘Gandhigiri’. He made us respect the man all over again, the man who got us independence. Amit Rai’s film too has the powerful message of humanity and non-violence practiced by the great Mahatma.

Road to Sangam is a simple story of a devout Muslim car mechanic, Hasmatullah (Paresh Rawal). He runs a workshop in one of the prominent Muslim localities of Allahabad. He is also the secretary of the local mosque committee but doesn’t share a cordial rapport with the president Nawab Kasuri (Om Puri). Life goes on until one day he is entrusted with the job of restoring an old V8 Ford Engine within a week’s time.

Hasmatullah is elated to take on the vintage machine, completely oblivious to the fact that it was the same engine that carried the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi to be immersed at the Sangam (the point where the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati meet).

As Hasmat works on his new assignment, a powerful bomb explodes in his town leading to the arrest of many innocent Muslim youths.

President Kasuri along with Maulana Qureshi (Pawan Malhotra) calls for a strike and orders the shopkeepers to shut shop as a mode of protest against the government. Hasmat joins the boycott only to realize the importance of work at hand.

Hasmat is in a fix. Will he support the protest and abandon the repair of the engine or go against the wishes of his community. Thus begins the journey of a true Muslim with a real Gandhian spirit.

Paresh Rawal is excellent in the film with his fiery spirit masked with a calm demeanor. The way he approaches the issue by subtly adapting non-violence is too good.

Pawan Malhotra as the Maulavi who keeps provoking the committee men in the name of religion deserves a special mention. Boy! With his voice modulation, kohl eyes and beard, he definitely looked the part.

Om Puri is good, but this is certainly not one of his best performances.

The film also sees Tushar Gandhi, the great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, debuting on the silver screen. Tushar plays himself in the film.

First timer Amit Rai does an admirable job in making a thought provoking film that drones the message of equality and humanity without getting clichéd.

The story is gripping but the pace is extremely slow giving the film the feel of a docu-feature, which somehow evaporates the tremendous impact it made at the interval.

Although the director insisted to keep the visuals exactly the way he wanted, I suggest he should have done away with the prolonged clippings of pre and post independence period which for some reason didn’t get merged with the film seamlessly. The special effect used in the last scene to create a ‘mob sequence’ looked exactly as a cut-copy-paste job. Tighter editing was the need of the hour.

Coming back to histrionics, if you have actors like Paresh Rawal, Om Puri and Pawan Malhotra shouldering the onus of the film with a reasonably good storyline, something good is sure to come out, right?

Well written dialogues mouthed by Paresh Rawal like: Hamare liye uske apno ne uski jaan li or Main mahan kam nahin ek mahan aatma ka kam kar raha hoon, supports the film and its cause.

The music by Sandesh Shandilya, Vijay Mishra, Nitin Kumar Gupta and Prem Hariya is soothing.

VERDICT: No doubt the film got the best film award at MAMI and rave reviews at the International Film Fest of South Africa, Los Angeles Reel Film Fest and so on. And what better time to release the film when we are so close to commemorate Gandhiji’s 31st death anniversary on Jan 30. It’s a journey worth exploring.

RATING: 2.5/ 5

[Via http://reelstories.wordpress.com]

Phir mile sur filmiwaalon ka

Hands down the original Mile sur is way better than the newly redone phir mile sur. For one thing it looks more like Bollywood integration than national integration. While the original managed to cover personalities in most of the walks and most of the states, the newer version reeks of publicity and blatant self promotion. It is quite sad, that a truly beautiful and inspiring song has been reduced to this cheap take of bollywood reunion.I am more mad at the video than the newer music itself. The music was not bad, but the original is still better.

In fact, I am not sure why famous personalities’ sons and daughters were even featured. None of their children are as famous or as successful as their parents to be featured prominently.

A host of missing personalities from various fields – Tendulkar, Dr. APJ Kalam, Carnatic vocalists or instrumentalists, scientists ( chandrayaan anybody?), Narayan murthy, Kiran Bedi, Latika Saran and the list goes on.

Some things are better left alone…and Mile Sur is one of them.

[Via http://genosign.wordpress.com]

WHAT'S YOUR CONSTITUTION?

WHAT’S YOUR CONSTITUTION?

Just because my cousin is getting married in March inshAllah, I have to visit various dress designers with her and my khalas.This time, we also considered going to a fresh graduate from a school of fashion design, who was a really pretty, green eyed petite girl mashAllah.

So she showed us the beautiful clothes on display and we discussed them with her. My khala fell in love with one of the dresses there. It was a white chiffon gown which was richly embroidered with silver sequins and gems, and it came with a white silk shirt and a pair of trousers. My khala stared at the dress and then asked the designer reluctantly if the dress and the colour would suit her, because she wasn’t fair and was debating whether she should go for another shade; and here’s the good part, the reason that made me write this article; the designer’s reply was,

“Yea absolutely! Because ‘white’ complexion is so ‘out’!!”

 I repeated what she said in my head, because I couldn’t really digest that and I asked myself whether our skin colour could be obsolete and classed as ‘out’- how in the world can complexions be out?? I laughed out loud because according to the ‘fashion world’, I was ‘out’ and thus to fit in I had to bronze or tan etc myself- I mean cows!!- Who decides really what’s ‘in’ and what’s ‘out’??

 I stared at myself in the mirror there and I told myself, speaking quietly to myself in my head that if I started following those who live to impress others, those who are in dire need of fitting in, and those whose constitution is ‘Libas’, ‘Vogue’ ,‘Cosmopolitan’ , ‘Bollywood’ or ‘MTV’ for that matter, then I would definitely go insane.

 How many people do we know of who compete in this world for glory, fame, wealth and power? How many people do i know who want to be just like Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Nancy Ajram or Angelina Jolie? People want to emulate what? people?? Those People whose intellect is also ‘out’.Life is not all about that. When we realise what our purpose in life is, we stop participating in this rat race for glory.

When we realise that we have to emulate our Holy Prophet sallallahu alyhe wasallam, we love for others what we love for ourselves, and we leave this sickness of competeing with others by showing off our designer dresses, bags, shoes, big houses, gadgets, schools, careers etc.

As far as the colour is concerned, im just so glad that Allah subhanahu wa ta’alaa is the Most Just, the Most Merciful, the Most Impartial.

Allah does not judge you by your faces but keeps eyes on your hearts’,(Bukhari and Muslim)

–We just have to work on our hearts and then subsequently, the rest will fall in its place. We have to educate our hearts, our minds and our souls. We have to remember that our constitution was written more than 1430 years ago and that it is the Quran and the Sunnah- and we have to adhere to that no matter what the world says…*lol im ‘out’-in your dreams ya dunya *

 Allah subhnahu wa ta’alaa knows best.

[Via http://momo17.wordpress.com]

Missing deadlines, Making moves!!!

Sorry I’ve been negligent/tardy in my postings. I’ve been meeting with agents and producers and directors to get some of these awesome scripts in production and on the big screen! I can’t name names, but some major movers and shakers in Hollywood are super-interested. Also some Bollywood producers have been calling. Which is great because the Indian film market is blowing up these days. Anyway, sorry for the no posts, but I’m back today!

[Via http://epicscreenplays.wordpress.com]

Koothrappali's Tunes

A witty little show you may not be watching is The Big Bang Theory.   The show is about a geeky group of physicists and how their world turns around when a hot neighbor moves next door. While the series is primarily about the hot neighbor, Penny, and the guys across the hall, Sheldon and Leonard, we wanted to feature someone else on the show: Rajesh Koothrappali.  He is the shy ine who doesn’t have many lines but often he steals the scence much like the Marx brothers’ Harpo…but instead of chasing girls, he is often found running away from them.

He is physically unable to speak in front of women, a condition Leonard’s psychiatric mother called selective mutism.  This social anxiety is suppressed with alcohol, but Koothrappali is an obnoxious drunk.

As you can guess by his name, Koothrappali is from India.  While he despises Indian food, we think he would listen to Bollywood classics.  He is obviously a fan of the genre, because when discovered a planetary object beyond the Kuiper Belt, he named it “PlanetBollywood.” Stayed tune for songs from Koothrappali’s iPod.

[Via http://moviesinthenewspaper.wordpress.com]

Movie review - Rocket Singh: salesman of the year

The title ‘Rocket Singh:salesman of the year’ itself sounds a little tacky and I did not expect much from this movie.However I was proved wrong as a good story and some great acting made it one of the better Bollywood movies I have watched in the recent past.

The story is simple but the screenplay and characters make it very interesting and give an insight of how the life of a salesman is and the pressures they face.The message that character and trust builds a greater business than influence is very true in today’s professional context.

Though this movie has not done well in the box office Shamit Amin should be praised for some very effective story telling.The music is not great but blends very well with the story.Ranbir Kapoor plays his role very well but it is the part actors who eclipse him, especially the guy who plays his boss and Koena, the receptionist who steal the scenes.Shazahn Padamsee who plays Ranbir’s love interest looks hot but plays a very small part in the movie . All in all it was time well spent on some quality cinema.

My rating – 3.5/5

[Via http://bisilukudure.wordpress.com]

आख़री रास्ता ... The Last Option

One of the Indian Cinema best movies of all times.. A 1986 production that made me stare into my laptop screen throughout  it’s 164 mins, amazed with the marvelous performance of Amitabh Bachchan in a Drama movie plotting the war between beliefs and duty …sympathizing the Father willing to help him take his revenge and proud of the son who is trying to do his work faithfully.

David (Amitabh Bachchan) spent 24 years in prison, for no reason except corruption. A Parliament member, a police inspector and a Doctor conspired on him after the first rapped David’s wife leading her to commit suicide ,burnt the only evidence for this – a letter she wrote before hanging herself- and witnessed that he tried to kill the parliament member. He is now out of prison, and seeking revenge because law never gave him his right. Insp. Vijay Sandaliya (Amitabh Bachchan) is David’s only son and he doesn’t know the truth, he as been raised as the son of  Mahesh Sandaliya – David’s closest friend – and in love with his boss’s daughter Vinita Bhatnagar (Sri Devi), happens to be the police officer responsible for David’s case.The movie ends with the father taking the mother’s revenge and the son keeping his duty as his first concern even after he knew the truth, but proud with what his father did.

Amitabh Bachchan credited as “your favorite Star” on the movie opening titles and one of  Bollywood’s most recognizable faces in the last two decades, had a hard mission of performing both the father & the son that turned into a stunning performance. I loved him being the old man who loves his wife and willing to take her revenge and believed him being the young enthusiastic police officer trying to apply justice.

I couldn’t hold my tears in two parts, when the young Amitab knew the truth and in the final scene. Unlike any other Indian movie i saw, it wasn’t easy to predict the end …

The war between beliefs and duty has been explained when the father stood against the son and Drew no. 9 on his hand then he showed it to him to appear as no. 6 … both the 6 and the 9 are right depending on from where do you look.

The idea is easy to be addressed in a movie but in real life -in my opinion- one, in some cases, gets emotional or do what he really beliefs in, no matter how his work duty says. The reaction of  the son – deceiving the man who raised him to know the truth, saving the Parliament member life and chasing his father till the end – can never be achieved, although as i said in the beginning i was proud of him doing it, may be because i am sure it’s 100% correct if i am looking from his point of view. However, when i put myself in his place, even if i could chase my father or deceive the man,  at least i won’t save the life of the man who lead to my mother’s death.

Nevertheless, the movie is a a MUST see if you are interested in the Indian Cinema.

[Via http://thoughtsofmarconsi.wordpress.com]

Mumbai hits the Mainstream

To warm up this bitterly cold beginning to the decade, Channel 4 will be putting the Indian city of Mumbai and beyond under Western scrutiny in an Indian Winter Season. (At this time of year, Mumbai is actually quite toasty, with average temperatures of 30-ish degree Celsius).

The promotional video full of bright lights, colour, cricket, rickshaws and ritualistic undertones quite successfully encompasses the India I’m familiar with. The featured programmes look to give us an insight into the realities of the diverse city, with inhabitants from all over the subcontinent.

Unsurprisingly, following the enormous success of Slumdog Millionaire last year, much of the focus is on the slums of the modern city. But there will also be insights into architecture, cuisine, and culture within and beyond Mumbai.

So get your Sky Plus remotes at the ready. The line-up so far looks like this:

Wed 13 Jan, 9.00pm – Slumdog Millionaire – nuff said

Thur 14 Jan, 1.15am – Rang de Basanti - starring one of Bollywood’s old-timers Amir Khan

Thur 14 Jan, 9.00pm – Kevin McCloud: Slumming It (pt 1)

Fri 15 Jan, 8.00pm – Kevin McCloud: Slumming It (pt 2)

Sat 16 Jan, 10.00pm – Om Shanti Om – starring Shah Rukh Khan (Bollywood’s answer to Tom Cruise) and the gorgeous Deepika Padukone. This tragicomedy pays tribute to all the Bollywood legends except Amitabh Bhachchan due to an ongoing feud between himself and the lead actor. Bit of Bollywood gossip there for ya!

Sun 17 Jan, 9.00pm – Slumdog Secret Millionaire

Sun 17 Jan – 10.5pm – Dhoom 2 -  It’s crap. Don’t bother.

Mon 18 Jan. 9.00pm – Gordon’s Great Escape (pt 1) – starting in North India

Tues 19 Jan, 12.45am – Jodhaa Akbar – historical movie about a Muslim emperor who  marries a Hindu princess. Ooh, controversial!

Tues 19 Jan, 9.00pm – Gordon’s Great Escape (pt 2) – moving to the North-East of India

Tues 19 Jan, 10.00pm – (on MORE 4) Cowboys in India - not listed as part of the Indian Winter season, but a rare look into the dark realities of mining towns in India.

Wed 20 Jan, 9.00pm – Gordon’s Great Escape (pt 3) – concluding the journey in Kerala

Thur 21 Jan, 9.00pm – Dispatches: The Slumdog Children of Mumbai – exposing the factual elements of the Slumdog movie.

Tues 26 Jan – News from India with Krishnan Gurumurthy

I think the documentaries should be pretty insightful, although I’m never really convinced that all the full impact of a necessary message can be squeezed into a single hour.

Some other Bollywood movies I would’ve expected to see but apparently didn’t make the cut are Lagaan and Devdas. Both are stand-out epic movies among the other generic, uninformed clutter that the Bollywood industry likes to churn out.

I promise to move AWAY from the Bollywood theme  in future posts – I just can’t seem to escape that shit!

[Via http://potpourriexpress.wordpress.com]

Plagiarism in Forthcoming Movies – 3 - Veer(?!)

Poster design in Bollywood is getting slicker .

For the rustics, there is always a primer on  how to create banal posters - whether it is for a political party or for a movie.

Then, there is the standardised poster version of the Four Step Plan. Lift  Karadey!

Some original creations exist; Interesting perspectives &  colourscapes used. You can see hints of “borrowing”, but overall, as the Fab 4 would have put it, it is getting better All the time.

The next 3 posts have 3 movies which have various degrees of inspiration.

Veer – This  is Salman’s Magnum Opus. I can see bits & pieces of Magadheera ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ). The 2 horses which Maximus mentions in Gladiator are visible on the breast-plate (The in-joke was that the horses were Scarto & Argento – which translates to Trigger & Silver – Roy Roger & Lone Ranger’s horses). There is also a bit of Troy in the posters. See for yourself.

[Via http://inspiredposters.wordpress.com]

Best of 2009

Well since everyone is doing the best of 2009 movies list so i thought to do mine as well

Here are the best of 2009 in order of release:

• Luck By Chance: a brilliant movie with awesome performances by everyone.
• Dev D: a modern day devdas, Anurag Kashyap does a brilliant job and Amit Trivedi easily gives the best music for the year.
• Gulaal: Anurag Kashyap weaves a shakespearean tale based in a fictional Rajasthani town with some outstanding performances definitely the best story of the year.
• Little Zizou: a nice comedy centering around the Parsi Community with brilliant performances.
• Firaaq: Nandita Das brings out the turmoil of the gujarat riots brilliantly in this one.
• 99: an awesome comedy.
• Kaminey: easily the best performance of the year Shahid Kapoor as Charlie and Guddu does tremendously well.
• Wanted: it delivered exactly what it promised Salman Khan doing action after a longtime.
• Wake Up Sid: Ranbir delivers one of his best performances and Konkona as usual does well a good debut by Ayaan Mukerji.
• Paa: the Big B shines in this one, though the movie could’ve done without the whole politician act by Abhishek, Vidya Balan steals the show for me in this one.
• Rocket Singh Salesman of the Year: Shimit Amin and Jaideep Sahni do a tremendous job in creating characters that stick with you till long after the movie ends. Brilliant performances by Ranbir, Gauhar and the rest of the principle cast.
• 3 idiots: Raju Hirani proves that he can do more than just the Munnabhai series, outstanding performances by the whole cast.

Now I’m going to list the best characters of 2009:

• Romy Rolly (Luck By Chance) beautifully portrayed by Rishi Kapoor
• Chunnilal (Dev D) a pimped out Chunnilal loved Dibyendu Bhattacharyas portrayal especially his introduction to Dev
• Ali (Delhi 6) an awesome character was disappointed Rakesh Mehra didn’t use him more, again outstanding portrayal by Rishi Kapoor
• Veer Singh (Love Aaj Kal) a very lovable character done brilliantly by Saif Ali Khan and Rishi Kapoor
• Charlie (Kaminey) Main f ko f bolta hoon, Shahid Kapoor was just brilliant
• Bhope Bhau (Kaminey) Amol Gupte does it so well
• Mikhail (Kaminey) Chandan Roy Sanyal as the doped out Mikhail was outstanding especially the showdown between Bhope Bhau and Mikhail the best scene of the year
• Tashi (Kaminey) Tenzing Nima just brilliant, plays it really cool
• Sweety Bhope (Kaminey) Priyanka Chopra does brilliantly as a Maharashtrian girl.
• AGM (99) and Inspector Talpade (Wanted) Mahesh Manjrekar is outstanding in both roles
• Gani Bhai (Wanted) Prakash Raj was hilarious as the don in this one
• Veer Pratap Singh (Dil Bole Hadippa) the only good thing about this movie was Rani Mukerji as the young sardar
• Raghu (All the Best) Sanjay Mishra imitating pran was hilarious
• Auro (Paa) Amitabh Bachchan as a 13 yr old and he delivers yet again
• Chatur Ramalingam (3 idiots) Omi Vaidya plays this character brilliantly especially the teachers day speech just brilliant.

The Best Music:

• Dev D: Amit Trivedi composes one of the best soundtracks of the decade. Emotional Attyachar, Pardesi, Saali Khushi, Dhol Yaara Dhol, Payaliya all are outstanding.
• Delhi 6: AR Rahman does it again with Arziyan, Rehna Tu, Masakali and Dil Gira Kahin Dafatan outstanding
• Love Aaj Kal: Pritam does pretty well with this one Twist, Yeh Dooriyan, Aahun Aahun, Chor Bazaari and Aaj Din Chadiya
• Kaminey: Vishal Bharadwaj lends his voice to one of the best songs of the movie Kaminey, Pehil Baar Mohabbat, Dhan Te Nan and Raat Ke Dhai Baje
• Wake Up Sid: Loved only one song Iktara and it’s Amit Trivedi doing wonders once again
• 3 idiots: Give Me Some Sunshine, Behti Hawa, Aal Izz Well and Zoobi Doobi are brilliant Shantanu Moitra does well.

[Via http://vaarundhingra.wordpress.com]

Best Bollywood Movies of 2009

Despite losing a couple of months of releases because of a dispute with theater owners, Indian filmmakers released a number of terrific pictures in 2009.

Dramas Kurbaan and New York addressed terrorism with boldness and honesty. Delhi-6 dealt with religious differences in a manner both compelling and accessible.

A live-action version of Aladin was a novel update of the classic tale, appealing to adults and kids alike.

Romance was, as always, a popular theme, from comedies like Dil Bole Hadippa! and Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani to modern love stories like Luck By Chance and Wake Up Sid.

The best of this year’s romances was Love Aaj Kal. By telling love stories from two different time periods, the movie embraced traditional Bollywood romance conventions, while showcasing contemporary relationship issues as well.

But the Best Bollywood Movie of 2009 has to be 3 Idiots. It’s a great comedy about friendship — with just a hint of romance — that features nuanced performances by Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi. The jokes are funny whether you’re listening to them in Hindi or reading them in English subtitles.

More importantly, 3 Idiots represents a step forward for Indian comedies. Most Hindi comedies released in recent years (excluding romantic comedies) have relied on slapstick humor: childish sound effects, comic violence and chase scenes that defy logic. There’s certainly a place for slapstick in modern cinema, but I don’t think this type of humor plays well in the international markets that Hindi filmmakers are looking to break into.

3 Idiots has its share of silliness, but it’s shown in a more subdued, realistic way that makes the characters relatable. It’s easier for the audience to cheer for the guys in 3 Idiots than for the farcical nincompoops in a movie like Do Knot Disturb (my Worst Bollywood Movie of 2009), because in 3 Idiots they seem like real people. When they succeed, despite being a bit goofy, it gives hope to the rest of us goofballs.

[Via http://accessbollywood.wordpress.com]

Mission "Image Processing".

Hello Folks,

This holiday reminded my old days when I was crazy about Photoshop and spent much of my free time in practicing Photoshop affects. Now that Photoshop had become one of my necessary softwares to edit the pictures from my cam. A plan had been put up to purchase a new version of CS4 PS, but still negotiating as it is too costly.

Last two days were pretty boring and so I spent most of my time on Web. I was reading too many blogs, especially the controversial series by Chetan Bhagat regarding the latest Bollywood movie 3-idiots.  It was surprising to see Aamir acting little rude (in his words) in the press meet. I’ve never seen him over reacting before the media. On the other hand, I see that all the points raised by Chetan were valid and reasonable. Lets wait and see where this issue ends.

Apart of reading, I was also doing much of photoshop and going through different tutorials on the net. One that impressed me is a blog by Michael Rather. This blog has lot may useful video tutorials which you might want to try. I have seen many tutorials on web which seem very easy while watching but not while implementing. Unlike this, Michael’s tutorials were simple, understandable, and doable.

With time passing by, the technology kept on increasing and things becoming more sophisticated and advanced. When I started getting to know about photoshop (Way back in my college days), I just know it as a tool used by digital photographers and is developed based on Digital Image Processing (My Favorite subject in Engineering). But now, It had advanced way ahead in its abilities. I saw photoshop moving its way from PS 6.0 to CS1 to CS2 to CS3 and finally to CS4. And people are now talking about HD Image processing by which an image can have a dazzling dreamy look. Having technology, running like a High-way express, I feel that I am still crawling way behind, like a small tiny snail. I am sure, by the time I get to know what is HD Image Processing, there will be a completely new kind of image processing.

So My dear friends, Don’t crawl like me. Be fast in getting to know ongoing things that suits your interest and get carried away by them.

Happy New Year Again. Take Care.

Durga Prasad

Mood: Sitting Very lazy. Searching for new music on internet. Waiting to go out to have a delicious food. Deceived by a Pizza Hut delivery (which was ordered 4Hr’s back).

[Via http://prasadspeaks.wordpress.com]

Kal Ho Naa Ho

Artists: Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta, Jaya Bachchan, Karan Johar, Javed Ahktar

Track Listing: Click to Listen Live or Right-Click to Save as MP3.

1. Kal Ho Naa Ho

2. Kuch To Hua Hai

3. It’s The Time To Disco

4. Maahi Ve

5. Pretty Woman

6. Kal Ho Naa Ho (Sad)

7. Heartbeat (Instrumental)

[Via http://v2thaj.wordpress.com]