Jodhaa Akbar - Second look

Indiafm calls it the First look. But that had come a month ago with the shield and the sword. So theoretically this has to be the second look. That being cleared, what a way to increase curiosity among junta...revealing their look in the film, but not their faces. The poster looks very grand, with great choice of colors. I'm guessing the movie is gonna be great in terms of production values. I luv Hrithik's armor suit, especially the lions. Aish no doubt wud look gorgeous. And hey!! Hrithik sports a moustache throughout the film. Atleast its not as big as Mangal pandey ;)

Hi, I'm a Marvel....and I'm a DC ( Mac PC Parody )

One of my biggest hobbies, is to collect Action figures of all superheroes. While I'm at it I thought may be I should do something with them, some kind of a short movie, give life to them. And then one day while browsing youtube to look for a scene from the movie Batman Begins, i came across this video which involved Spiderman and Superman action figures. It was created by ItsJustSomeRandomGuy and called "Hi, I'm a Marvel...and I'm a DC. (Mac PC Parody)".

Remember the series of Mac ads which made fun of Microsoft. Now put Marvel in the place of Mac and DC in the place of Microsoft. Absolutely brilliant right ? He's created 15 videos so far and used almost all superheroes from both DC and Marvel comics. Every series is highly creative and they all feel like "behind the scenes" episodes where the superheroes themselves are characters and they talk about their own movies. The best part of all is that there's only guy who renders voice to all characters, the creator himself. And his voice totally fits the toys and makes it funny. I always crack up whenever Spidey comes..he's made Spidey look very cute and lovable. Genius stuff.



I have left my plan/dream of making short movies with action figures ever since i came across this series. Coz I'm tellin ya..it just can't get funnier than this. Now i'm one of the thousands of subscribers waiting for new episodes to come out..and if he ever plans to release a dvd which includes all the clips and much more, i might even buy it :).

You can see the first video in his series here, but don't forget to check out all his videos @
http://youtube.com/user/ItsJustSomeRandomGuy

Yahoo! Photos is Closing on Sept 20th !!!

This is the mail I got today from Yahoo! :

" We will officially close Yahoo! Photos on Thursday, September 20, 2007, at 9 p.m. PDT. Until then, we are offering you the opportunity to move to another photo sharing service (Flickr, KODAK Gallery, Shutterfly, Snapfish, or Photobucket)."

The company has decided to focus all their efforts on Flickr now. I kinda saw it coming after they acquired Flickr in March of 2005. But for some reason I thought they would'nt do that coz Yahoo! Photos is doing just great. It has almost the same number of users as Flickr and people still luv it. And also they are like two different websites, one completely for professional photographers and the other for sharing pictures, with no photography value, with family and friends. But hey...i think they didnt follow the old saying which goes ~

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

meaning - any attempt to improve on a system that already works is pointless and may even be detrimental.

I'm sure there's gonna be a lotta complaining from all Yahoo! photos members. For a simple fact that if u hav more than 200 photos in a single album, and u wanna transfer all of them to Flickr, u would get this message which one of the members got :

“You’ve run into one of the limits of a free account. Your free account will only display the most recent 200 photos you’ve uploaded. All of your photos beyond 200 will remain hidden from view until you either delete newer photos, or upgrade to a Pro account. None of your photos have been deleted, and if you upgrade, they’ll all come back unharmed. ”

And to upgrade, u hav to pay $24.95 per year, which is meaningless. So be careful. Look into other options like Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly, or Picasa. I heard Snapfish aint that good. Or just download all photos to your computer and upload them to any of your other favorite website. I just had 55 photos in my yahoo! and so i transfered them all to Flickr. However due to the major limitation of 200 pics and 3 sets, its still not THE ONE for me. I guess Yahoo! is aware of this limitation and thats why its letting users choose between 5 options.

Meetings - such a waste of time

I can't believe i just spent 3 hrs in my office today, being in a meeting, to which we were called, to discuss something which we received as an email just yesterday. What a waste of time...I mean seriously, i sometimes feel managers are so jobless that just to show other's that they are working, they call for meetings. After all we are engineers, not some dumb brainless animal which needs to be fed with the same information 2 - 3 times. I can't show u my frustrations and inner struggles in the meetings, but i can atleast show u this dilbert strip which amazingly depicts the same situation, but handled in a much cleverer way...i think i should try this sometime...

"SuperBad" is Supercool

Waaawaaaweeee ...what a surprise this movie was...generally i kinda know wat movies i'm gonna watch in the next 4 - 5 months, coz i've already done ample research. and sometimes an unknown movie becomes talk of the town and i read lotta reviews and then go watch it...but this time me, my better half n my buddies just wanted to kill sometime and so went to watch this week's highest grossing movie " Superbad ".

And i've gotta tell u that this must be the BEST TEEN SEX COMEDY movie ever made in hollywood. i was almost laughing the entire 115 mins of the movie. u would be hearing lotta F's , D's, B's, S's ....and wat not. Its a simple story wherein two high school friends (enacted brilliantly by Michael Cera and Jonah Hill) set on a mission to party and hook up with girls before they graduate and go off to different colleges in the end. but the whole journey is packed with so many funny situations n one-liners that u'll for certain laugh out loud until it hurts.

This movie may not be for all people, but for those who appreciate some raunch and sharp dialogues, and ofcourse crude humor, you r in for a wild ride. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the writers, r believed to have written this script in their high school days....genius stuff man. Finally if you enjoyed the 40 year old virgin, Talladega Nights, Knocked up, American pie, Anchorman, Wedding crashers, and Animal house, you gotta watch this.

"Heyy Babyy" Jeene le de is pal ko - music review

Its touted to be one of the most awaited movies of the year. Its also the directorial debut of the host of famous TV show Ikke pe Ikka, Sajid Khan. " Heyy Babyy " is all set to release in theaters on Aug 24th, and looks like the entire industry is keeping its fingers crossed, coz this is supposed to be the most expensive comedy film ever made here, with a budget of 42 crores. Also Sajid Nadiadwala had done what he does always with his movies....grab everyone's attention with catchy promos. I especially love the enigma / old spice music which comes in the end of the latest promo when the baby's diaper flies towards akshay and fardeen...hehehe. But i didnt understand why they used "This Love" by Maroon 5 song's music in background in their first trailer. Thank god that song wasnt there in the album, else it would have been a blatant lift and a blackmark on SEL's clean musical journey.

Ok as this post is regarding the music review of Heyy Babyy...lets go straight to it.

Title track "Heyy babyy" is an instantly catchy and a peppy club number. Its my favourite song from the entire album and is running @ number 1 position in my ipod most played list. If u think its a tad bit slow for a club number, then there's the Big 'O' remix of the same song for u. The antara portion of the song is what elevates the song to the top level. Of the 3 singers, pervez quadir's voice stands out as its very casual and cool...esp when he sings ' madhoshi mein kho jaane de, hota hai jo bhi yaara...ho jaane de '..main sachi mein kho gaya. Sajid khan has also used 21 'not so famous but hot' actresses in this song, so i'm sure the picturization is gonna be awesome and ice creams wud melt instantly.

Next tracks "Dholna" and "Mast Kalandar" are pretty ordinary tracks for me. We've heard better dholna style and bhangra songs in the past..however sonu nigam and shreya's flawless singing makes the former a good listen. If the previous track has more Ehsaan n Loy's touch, then these songs belong more to Shankar. I like the part of the 'dholna' song where shreya goes 'dholiya dholna raaze dil kholna...'. "Mast Kalandar" will feature Shahrukh Khan which might push it to top of the charts, but i'll pass on this song for now. Then there's "Dholna Remix" which has additional beats, but same tune. "Heyy Babyy" featuring the girl band sounds like its sung in a concert. Same tune different pitch, the only difference being the use of " Jaane jaa o jaane jaa " which we hear in the trailers...Skip to the next and we find a situational song " Jaane bhi de ". Not very impressive, but a passable song. The remix version sounds better.

Just when we feel that after a great start to this album, none of the other songs r catching up, we have a beauty in " Meri duniya tu hi re". This song is simply very sweet (Cheeni bahut Jyaada). Especially the soulful humming of all the 3 singers, Sonu, Shaan and Shankar. This song just touches your heart right from the starting music. I can't wait to see the song in the movie. I'm guessing it would come in the second half after they learn their lessons and start loving the baby.

Indiafm calls it "Undoubtedly the best soundtrack of the year so far." I hope they havnt included Salaam-E-Ishq and Guru in this years list, coz this album just has 2 outstanding songs and 3 ordinary songs and the others being remixes, compared to the other 2 movies which had all superhit songs. However, the title song and Meri Duniya are more than enuf for me to go and watch the movie. Also the lyrics by Sameer are very good for these two songs. SEL are turning out to be one of the most consistent and dependable music directors after churning out hits after hits. Go for it !!!

My meeting with Shimit Amin, the director of Chak De

Date - 08/12/2007; Time - 9:30 pm; Location - Naz8 cinemas, Cerritos.

The moment which i'll remember for a long time.
1) coz i met one of the most promising directors of bollywood and also spoke to the first ever celebrity in my entire life.
2) The moment which forced me to start a blog of my own where in i can share this and many more of my experiences n incidents with all u guyz n galz out there.

I was watching Chak De india on sunday nite 8'o clock show @ naz8 cinemas in cerritos. And before i go further, lemme tell u that its one of the finest movies made in india. It belongs to the category of movies which are deviating from the usual Bollywood ishtyle formula of hero-heroine-song-dance-romance-comedy
-villain-fight-family-happy ending. There used to be a time not long ago when there were few directors who dared to go off-track to make a more meaningful, close to reality sorta movie. A time when audience were totally transported to a world where they r made to believe there is a hero who has strength equal to 30 - 40 well built heavy duty goondas, and at the same time has a heart as soft as a rose petal which can melt anytime. He sings, he romances, and he also fights. woww !!! a feat only achieved by superheroes in hollywood movies. Thankfully audience have become more matured now and are not accepting any shit thrown at them. This is paving way for some realistic, hard-working and passionate directors to showcase their work, of which i met one of them, Shimit Amin,the director of Chak de India.


Come intermission and we were standing in the line to get our masala tea and samosas. My brother-in-law, Anand, had just arrived here from India the day before. So he was all excited to watch his first hindi movie in US. When i was just explaining his excitement to the theater manager, he told me to hold my breath for a bigger surprise. And then he calls over this very shy guy whom normally nobody would notice and tells us to meet Shimit Amin, the director of the film we are watching. And we all were like ....WHAAAAATTTT !! i mean honestly i was taken aback completely surprised. I didnt know how to react...my first words to him were like " R u for real Shimit Amin " hehe...i have to agree that i've never seen his picture before in my life. So i had to make sure they werent playing a prank on me. and he jokingly said " no he's jus kiddin "...and then agreed that he is THE director. the incident is so clear in my head right now that i'm gonna give u a screenplay of our conversations :

Me : i can't believe i'm talkin to the director of the movie i still am watching right now :)
Shimit : how did u like it so far
Me : oh its excellent. I mean i always wanted to see SRK in this kinda different roles. I luved him in Swades and now in Chak de.
Shimit : all credit goes to jaideep, the writer of the movie.
Me : luved ur ab tak chappan.
Shimit : thanks

( here i got a mental block....i was so excited that i forgot wat to ask ...its like when i had the moment, words didnt come out ...ahh i got another question )

Me : how did it all happen..i mean who approached whom first...did u talk to aditya chopra or did he come to u ?
Shimit : nono Jaideep first came up with the story and presented it to Adi. And when Adi finalised it they approached me for directing it.
Me : i'm really happy that yash raj banners r coming up with such diverse movies as kabul express and now chak de.
Shimit : yeah
Me : so was Shahrukh ur first choice or did u go over few other actors.
Shimit : Jaideep wrote the story keeping Shahrukh in mind.
Me : wowww...well u guyz have made a great movie which is so different from the current lot, but seriously when i first heard of this movie, i was wondering who will watch hockey and that too girl's hockey. also no heroines...how wud it become a hit...what a big risk taken here...but now after watching it, i feel so happy and proud that there r people in this industry who really can make the impossible possible.
Shimit : ( got bored at this time i guess..he was looking around to make sure nobody spots him )
Me : wats ur next movie gonna b ??
Shimit : i dunno ...we just finished this movie now...it took 3 yrs to make it...i'll look for a good script.
Me : i'm really happy that we have gr8 directors in bollywood right now like Rakeyesh Omprakash, Ashutosh and yourself.
Shimit : Yeah Rakesh is very good
Me : one last thing sir, do u think u'll make a movie with AR Rahman in the future.
Shimit : ( smiles and says ) ohhh...he's too big for me :)
Me : nono...actually u'll be surprised how humble a man he's. ok how about one autograph and a picture.
Manager: nono he's not gonna take any pictures. sorry guyz intermission is gonna be over..go now...
Shimit : hey its ok...chalo lets take one quick photo
Me : THANK YOU VERY MUCH SIR......all the best for the future projects

and thus ends my convo with Shimit which lasted about 10 - 15 mins...as soon as i came home, i went to the web to see if i'm not fooled by them...but then i was thrilled to see that i had just met one of my first film personalities and even talked to him for 15 mins. A moment which i'll surely remember in the future....and which i hope wud happen again with some other star ( hopefully AR Rahman )...and when it does....it wud strike me as Deja Vu....and thus i got a title for my blog :) ...yayyyy