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26 December 2014

Watched PK: A promising movie thats gone wrong.

I usually express my views in a conservative outlook towards movies and I compile it as my review usually immediately after watching it, but for the new movie "PK", it took a lot more time(more than 3 days after I watched it on Monday, 22Dec2014)! to put my thoughts into words.
With the expectations that zoomed higher than mount everest(including my own expectations and imaginations about the plot), it is going to be a tough job for Raju Hirani when he sets out to work again with Aamir after the fantastic 3 idiots.
The problems with this movie are many:
1. The reason why the alien PK gets into a complicated issues and beliefs related to different faiths is unconvincing and looks like a repeat of OMG.
No matter how carefully Raju might have handled the story, the movie eventually falls into a poor cousin of OMG. The only saving grace of the movie are its dialogues and a good performance by Aamir.
It may surely get almost all the awards in and outside India, but it is certainly not the type that will be remembered for a long time nor is it going to be a classic like the earlier movies by
Raju, like Munnabhai 1 and 2, and 3 idiots. Mixing sci-fi into a controversial movie makes things even worse.
2. There are so many questions: Do we need to get an alien to tell us how to worship?
3. What is wrong in going to a mandir located far away in himalayas?
4. Why is the director hell bent on potraying God in a funny way without minimum concern to the beliefs of hundreds of millions of people? For example the lead actor using God's stickers to save himself from slaps or making a stage actor playing shiva run around in fear? There is also a dialogue that really gets on the nerves of people: "jo darte hain wo mandir jaate hain"(Those who are frightened go to temple).
Will someone tell the director that bashing someone is going to set the cash registers ringing and bring him laurels?He surely may get awards from people purely based on comic entertainment, but for someone who sees a soul in a movie, PK falls flat.
If the makers think that making a stage actor dressed up as Lord Shiva run around is funny, they are mistaken. They cannot take everything in Hinduism for granted. There are certain aspects that are more sacred and as valuable as our parents. Will we laugh if someone playing the role of our parents on screen is made to look like a buffoon? There have been unnecessary tweets from Raju Hirani that expose his total disregard for beliefs of a certain community. Let me tell you, many of them are scientific. Karva chauth is meant for health, turmeric is a well known for keeping bugs away from the entrance, circumambulation of a temple is known to be beneficial to us with generation of positive energy. We can go on and on and prove that religious customs that seem silly to some film makers are actually based on authentic science. When the so called "wild wild west" proves the same, thats when all these people will wake up.
There are many problems in the society like exploding population,  environment pollution, etc and the makers have problems with people going to temples, idol worship, multiple religions and helping cows. Some are spreading news that this has a strong message. Yes, it does send out a strong message in a way, but it is a bad one.
The positives are of course the performance of Aamir and some of the scenes which touches your heart like PK praying to different statues of Gods pleading them to help him, and trying different ways of pleasing them, to no avail. If the filmmaker had concentrated on such nice moments instead of making fun of them, it could have been a better movie, but in its present form, PK, at least for me is a movie that is a propaganda by the makers and promoters, that I completely disagree with.

With love.. Anil

28 November 2014

The name called "Harivanshrai Bachhan"

Having gone through the blog posts of Big B Amitab Bachhan at: http://srbachchan.tumblr.com/, it is hard to believe that someone who is so busy with his films' schedule could squeeze out enough time to publish articles on a daily basis for his online fans/followers(whom he calls "extended family")!
The post on his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan on the eve of his birth anniversary(born on 27Nov1907) was particularly touching!
I read a few poems of him during my school days and though I didnt remember the poems, I still remember an incident where I thought Harivanshrai Bachhan and Amitabh Bachhan are not related(just like how Anil Kapoor and Raj Kapoor are not related). It is only after I joined college and watching on TV that I realized that they are in fact father-son duo!

I just now recalled one of the poems that I read as a kid in our CBSE school. Those days we never had an idea as to who he is, his contribution to literature or other facets of his life! All we knew are some names like Munshi Premchand, Mahadevi Varma, Bharatendu Harishchandra, etc. Below is the text of the poem that I remember: 

जो बीत गई सो बात गई (Jo Beet gayi so baat gayi):
जीवन में एक सितारा था
माना वह बेहद प्यारा था
वह डूब गया तो डूब गया
अंबर के आंगन को देखो
कितने इसके तारे टूटे
कितने इसके प्यारे छूटे
जो छूट गए फ़िर कहाँ मिले
पर बोलो टूटे तारों पर
कब अंबर शोक मनाता है
जो बीत गई सो बात गई
जीवन में वह था एक कुसुम
थे उस पर नित्य निछावर तुम
वह सूख गया तो सूख गया
मधुबन की छाती को देखो
सूखी कितनी इसकी कलियाँ
मुरझाईं कितनी वल्लरियाँ
जो मुरझाईं फ़िर कहाँ खिलीं
पर बोलो सूखे फूलों पर
कब मधुबन शोर मचाता है
जो बीत गई सो बात गई
जीवन में मधु का प्याला था
तुमने तन मन दे डाला था
वह टूट गया तो टूट गया
मदिरालय का आंगन देखो
कितने प्याले हिल जाते हैं
गिर मिट्टी में मिल जाते हैं
जो गिरते हैं कब उठते हैं
पर बोलो टूटे प्यालों पर
कब मदिरालय पछताता है
जो बीत गई सो बात गई
मृदु मिट्टी के बने हुए हैं
मधु घट फूटा ही करते हैं
लघु जीवन ले कर आए हैं
प्याले टूटा ही करते हैं
फ़िर भी मदिरालय के अन्दर
मधु के घट हैं,मधु प्याले हैं
जो मादकता के मारे हैं
वे मधु लूटा ही करते हैं
वह कच्चा पीने वाला है
जिसकी ममता घट प्यालों पर
जो सच्चे मधु से जला हुआ
कब रोता है चिल्लाता है
जो बीत गई सो बात गई
                                                  —   हरिवंशराय बच्चन

With love.. Anil

24 September 2014

Vaagudu(My take on Aagadu)..

After watching Aagadu yesterday, it seems the dialogue writers went crazy and over-creative and packed 100s of dialogues that would have made it into at least 2-3 movies. If there ever was a movie made only with dialogues, its this one. Vaagudu(talking non-stop) would have been the perfect title for this movie. The villains were shown to be so stupid that they fall for any cooked-up-story that the hero says repeatedly. Is it so easy to fool someone? This is where the hero loses some of his strength because for the hero to be shown strong, the villain needs to be made seriously strong and not some buffoon.

The performances of all the actors seem to be eclipsed by the hundreds of lines of dialogues that they have, so much so that the story writers seem to have written dialogues before the story and somehow wove a story around them!
Many of the characters seemed to be a misfit, including the lead actress Tamanna who is used only for songs and fill up an empty space and nothing else.
Aagadu could have been a movie made as a hobby and for rohit shetty's fans, but not everyone. We can easily close our eyes and just listen to the dialogues since there is nothing much visual or intelligent in this movie. Even for a hard-core fan like me, it is only above average(closer to a disaster than average).

With love.. Anil

08 August 2014

Internal battles in sports..

There seems to be lots of internal fighting going on in various sports in India, be it tennis(Paes-Bhupathi unhealthy rivalry that hurt India's morale and chances at major events including olympics), or more recently badminton.
I just saw the comments made by one of the ace shuttlers of India Jwala Gutta against India's best badminton coach Gopichand yesterday on times now and it made me think:
Why is there so much negativity in Jwala Gutta's comments during these comparatively good times of badminton? Are these words of her coach Mohd Arif? Before commenting against other coaches, they need to prove themselves point by point and medal by medal that they won in any major event. Comments like these will only hurt the game and nothing else. Discipline is of paramount importance in sports, and in its absence it becomes a war. India needs medal machines which can bring us golds in mega events, not egoistic meat.
Looking back 2 weeks or so, Sania and Jwala seem to be competing to stay in the news in someway or the other. I just hope they just stop all the nonsense, do their job(after all they are being payed for their game) and bring the nation medals instead of harping on others.
And as far as the commonwealth 2014 scandals involving officials is concerned, it is an insult to the whole nation and it can never be pardoned and should be dealt with all seriousness.

With love.. Anil

16 July 2014

Movies vs the reality

Recently, there was a show as part of a Telugu Quiz show which should be an eye opener for many people who get drawn too much by the movies and believe them to be true, especially the ones based upon history.
One such movie is "Chanakya Chandragupta". The movie is in itself  a fantastic one depicting the relation between the great political genius Chanakya(played by Akkineni Nageshwara Rao), the king Chandragupta(Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao) and Alexander(played by Shivaji Ganeshan). It showed Alexander fighting Chandragupta and a fictitious story was built to just add spice to the movie.
In the Telugu quiz show "Meelo Evaru Koteeshwarudu"(Telugu version of the famous show "Who wants to be a millionaire"), it was asked:
Which of the following Indian rulers fought against Alexander the great in battle? And the options were:

  1. Ashoka, 
  2. Chandragupta Maurya, 
  3. Porus
  4. Chatrapathi Shivaji

And the contestant, owing to the movie, immediately answered Chandragupta and locked the answer. She was wrong.
The answer was Porus(the Greek version of the original name of Purushottam(or Puru for short)), whom Alexander defeated. The movie just added a bit more drama to its story by including Alexander, but the fact is that Chandragupta and Alexander never faced each other. In fact Chandragupta Maurya established the Mauryan Empire(in 321 BC) 2 years after the death of Alexander(323 BC).
So the impact of movies on the general public cannot be underestimated and sometimes can be misleading.
And the contestant paid the price for believing the cinematic story by losing a big amount of her earnings. Sad, but thats the harsh reality that people have to face for not seeing the movie as an entertainment and assuming it to be a historical fact.

With love.. Anil

24 June 2014

The whole noise about hindi vs others!

Ever since the rise of humanity in its present form, there has been a necessity to communicate with each other using some method or other. First it was gestures and later the spoken word came about and later the written word. And groups of these words were collectively named as languages and today we have thousands of languages the world over and many hundreds of them in India itself, with most of the speakers worshiping their native language. So when it comes to one language dominating the other, it is bound to become a critical issue and gets more personal and emotional for those who have a strong bond with their mother tongue.

The recent hungama over the hindi language promotion has been one of them. Some claim that hindi is being unfairly imposed upon some states of India, and it was even termed as unconstitutional and against the spirit of the constitution!
Whoever has read the actual circular will know the reality: It was just an attempt to increase the usage of hindi in hindi spoken areas, specifically in the social media.

"...all officers and employees who operate official accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Google, Youtube should use Hindi and English languages. Prominence should be given to Hindi.."

First things first: In a country like India where there are hundreds of languages, there is bound to be increased level of communication and exchange of ideas between the various regional languages and dialects. And due to this there will be evolution of languages and several dialects emerge due to the influence of one language over another. Now this doesnt mean that one language is superior to another or that there is a conspiracy to eliminate other languages based upon the numbers they have.

With love.. Anil

09 June 2014

सपने हैं

उभरती हुई सूरज की किरणों में
आशा भरी हर एक लड़की की आँखों में
ओस की बूंदों की चमक में
हर नदी की ऊर्जा भरी लहर में
दौड़ते हुए बच्चों की खेल में
अन्नदाता किसानो की पसीना में
सपने हैं सपने हैं..
गैर लोगों से क्या लेना,
स्वशक्ति से है दिखाना
हर एक भारतीय की निष्ठा से
कर्म योगी महानेता की प्रेरणा से
हम सब लायेंगे अछे दिन,
निभाएंगे अखंड भारत की सच्चे वादे

सपने हैं सपने हैं..
सपने हैं सपने हैं..

-अनिल कुमार रेड्डी

04 June 2014

Expanding power capacity through solar panels

An idea of increasing power generation and feeding to the national grid: why can't we make the public a partner in power generation by encouraging them to rent out or lease their rooftops for solar panels that generate power and feed to the grid? Let the public invest in setting up the panels and let the govt pay them back by discounts in bills.
This policy is already encouraged in some states like TN and karnataka and it would be good if it is promoted on a national scale.


The advantages of the above policy would be many:
1. Zero pollution: It is completely noiseless, without any exhaust gases.
2. The public will take ownership of the solar panels since it will be their investment of their space and thus a culture of partnership can be promoted. They become partners in nation building since they provide any extra power to the national grid.
3. Consistent and wide spread potential for power output unlike the wind mills which work only in certain windy areas.
4. Virtually infinite source of energy: the sun.

One of the detailed articles is here.

With love.. Anil

27 May 2014

Team Modi's time starts!

Good morning all! This fresh day feels like a new start, a new beginning. Now that the new NDA government lead by the 15th PM of India Narendra Damodardas Modi is ready to take charge
today morning at 9am, one most important phase of democracy has started that will and should involve people's active participation:
Things I will be tracking of the new government:
1. How punctual will it be: Are the ministers going to deliver the promises on time?
2. Timely updates about the new policies of the new government: There have been so many times in the past when we were left groping in the dark as to what is happening with the bills
in parliament, what are they doing there and why are they shouting at each other.
3. How clean the ministers remain: One big issues have been the thousands of crores of public money lost in the face of huge scams all throughout the last 10 years. This needs to
change.
4. Impact of government schemes on the economy(+ve or -ve): Though we expect a positive effect on the overall economy, there will be a bitter side to face as a side effect. The ailing
economy does need a bitter pill to recover and I guess we need to brace up for initial hard times to reap the benefits later.
5. How much will they improve the infrastructure: The various infrastructure projects that are being implemented do have so many bottle necks that need to be cleared on a war footing.
One example is the Bangalore Metro which was never able to beat a snail!

Why all the above concern? Because I have invested the next 5 years of my trust in this new govt! So I do feel anxious how my investment is going to perform!

Anyway, wishing the Modi Team all the best in their quest to full fill the promises!

With love.. Anil

26 May 2014

Uurvashi vs PVR, courtesy Godzilla!

This weekend was a smokey, enormous one with a visit to the latest Godzilla in the town which is wreaking havoc in theaters across the world! For a change, this time its not in my default choice for imax-like experience of Bangalore: Uurvashi, but in the top multiplex in India: PVR. For a change, there is not much difference in ticket price due to the morning show, but the experience was completely different and as similar as chalk and cheese.
Now coming to Godzilla, I can imagine how it would have felt in 3D, on the large screen  of Uurvashi and the sound effects that it has, but at the same time, PVR excels in other departments that make movie watching comfortable, like better seats, better ambience and better rest rooms.
Uurvashi has a much better Meyer sound that is used in music concerts the world over and a much better and bigger screen, but has the feeling of a low quality ambience. Of course watching with a larger audience(1161 seats vs PVR's 
) will be thrilling to some, so that they can hear their comments and enjoy too!
So as expected, PVR is for those who doesnt want a earth-shattering sound system but want a comfort. Just hope PVR can upgrade its sound and screen to the levels of Uurvashi! 
Finally, as always, change is the only thing constant in this world of entertainment and we can surely hope that Uurvashi and PVR will improve things that they lack in their respective theatres right now!

-With love,
Anil

21 May 2014

देश केलिए जीओ!..దేశం కోసం బతుకు!.. Live for the nation!

What a slogan it is! There are people who incite innocent people into dying for a region, which is stupidity. But here is a new thought that needs to be strengthened. Why don't we think in terms of how precious is this life and what we can do in our lifetime? A simple habit of giving a whole hearted "thank you" to a customer care or a car driver or anyone who is serving you, can make a difference. I always believe progress starts with compassion and destruction starts with anger and indifference. A small contribution from every citizen would make a great society and a better world. A speech by a proven leader makes a huge difference to a society. It's similar to how pumped up a whole cricket team gets when one of their top players inspire them to do better! A team will achieve greater heights when the leader leads from the front and this is true even in administration of a large and diverse nation like India. Yesterday's  parliamentary meeting of the NDA was like a team lead by a man of conviction, determination and who believes in taking pride of being a citizen of an independent India and I hope this energy continues while going forward.

18 May 2014

Lessons to be learnt for the Congress and its allies

Finally the election euphoria is over and the results are out. the biggest question now is why and how did a large party like congress lost along-with its allies. There are so many reasons for this and my analysis is given below:

Never underestimate the power of a well-informed, common man:
If you think that you can cover up the weakness in leadership and governance by playing dramas in front of national media by claiming to tear off ordinances or use their father's or granny's death for sympathy, wake up as the public knows the real story and the plot, thanks to the vigorous debates on so many news channels. It even applies to those allies who joined hands with the congress.

Never take power for granted and misuse it:
During the AP Reorganization, the way the central leadership brushed aside the people's movement is too much for the people to digest. Congress tried to play politics with the emotions of the people and it paid the price. They wanted 10 more seats by splitting the state? They got the answer where they were wiped off completely on the coastal part of AP and dropped to a pathetic #3(not even in the position to be an opposition) in the hyderabad area.

Discard bad apples or else the whole basket decays:
When people are corrupt or when someone was convicted clearly by credible investigation agencies, the leadership should acknowledge the fact and take a strong action against them. Instead what the UPA has done is try to shield its tainted ministers with some ridiculous arguments. People saw the facts and taught them the lesson that they need to learn atleast now.
The APCC too committed a suicide by giving in to anti-social elements, encouraging corrupt leaders and passing the AP reorganization bill against the people and got wiped off in the state.
This holds true even for BJP Karnataka as it could have been in power if it had took a strong stand against tainted leaders, dismissed them and gave a stable govt at the state. They tasted the result in 2013.

Take note of the early warnings:
In the 5-state assembly polls in december 2013, BJP swept almost all the states and congress was routed in some key areas. And what was the response from the congress? We will analyze the results. What will be effect on the national polls next year? They claimed the national polls are independent of assembly polls and went ahead in the same denial mode.

Do not play the exhausted pseudo-secularism cum minority card:
The nation didnt vote for people who continuously split the people by claiming to be the saviors of minorities and nothing else. Ever since the campaign started, the congress kept running behind minorities and their president even went to the extent to say to few minority leaders: "...do not split the secular vote...". Does that mean the majority population are not secular?

And yes on a closing note, in one of the shows on the CNN-IBN, how can we ignore the Majlis's claim that by not having a muslim candidate from BJP, it is against secularism, here is my response:
If they still live in the illusion of this so called pseudo-secularism, then they are going the congress way. In fact I would call it reverse secularism where the majority feel threatened by the minorities. If having muslims as their party candidates means secularism, then its medieval thinking. I for example never saw the caste/religion of any candidate while voting. If the Majlis feels that muslims are not represented only because BJP didnt select any muslim candidate this time, the simple answer is: The door is open to everyone. Those who genuinely want to work towards development can come on their own but there should be no reservations in the field of religion atleast. In any case there are parties who are exclusive to muslims and let them play the minority appeasement game instead of a nationalist party. The problem is they feel religion is more important to them than the country and that is where the main problem is. In fact, religion should be a personal choice and cannot be a scale on which secularism can be measured. On a personal level, I would say "worship your religion and respect the others but not the vice-versa".

With love.. Anil

14 May 2014

#SuperNDA and the #patheticUPA?

So we have the latest term "superNDA"(#superNDA) after the UPA1&2(#patheticUPA) gave us the "superPM"! Anyway, #superNDA vs the #patheticUPA, especially on the TV is an amazing duel. I feel this aggressive and non-complacent approach of the BJP is surprising even for its supporters. Of course the counting is still nearly 24 hours away, but the way the media is creating hype about this whole 2014 elections is good for the public's senses and healthy for the TRPs! I personally feel nice to believe that BJP is trying to make the new NDA stronger than ever so that crucial decisions relating to governance could be taken without hiccups and delay-free. As Narendra Modi has time and again: Minimum Government, Maximum Governance, and what I believe is that the ugly flab and wasteful expenditure of the govt should be trimmed and made lean and make it work more for the people. The latest trends where the experienced leaders of BJP went into a huddle seem to suggest that it is planning something big, really BIG.
Watching a timesnow debate, I heard a comment from one of the panel members: "...Congress house is full of scams and snakes!.." That was a good humour for which even the Congress spokesperson Ragini Nayak gave a full-mouthed gaffe with the mouth so wide open that an anaconda can easily slip through! And for the next few minutes, she didnt speak. Yes. Instead she underwent a verbal diarrhea of the most severe levels until Arnab came to her rescue!

With love.. Anil

05 May 2014

My reactions to news..part 1

Over the past weekend or so, there have been some news and statements which actually has a lot of things not said. Look below:

News: Rajnath Singh offering an olive branch to the fiery, cat-on-a hot-tin-roof TMC's Mamata, and Mamata says: "...We will never, ever have an alliance with the BJP.."
My Reaction: OMG! Mamatha ate away the BJP's olive branch! You don't get a chance to ally with Modi often and it would be an opportunity of a lifetime! Anyway since she says she cannot ally in her lifetime it means she is going to take a new incarnation(avatar) and join with the BJP! Remember Mamata n Modi both start with M! After all friendship involves lots of friendly fights! There is certainly a bigger story unfolding behind the bars which will unfold after May16!

News: DD claims that the Narendra Modi interview was edited due to "technical" reasons:
My Reaction: When loksabha tv got blacked out during the Telangana bill(remember that ill-fated, conspiracy-filled day of 18Feb2014?), it was a technical issue, and now when Modi's interview got edited it was again a technical issue?

News: Priyanka Gandhi says "My father is Rajiv Gandhi. He laid down his life for the country. He cannot be compared to any other person"
My Reaction: Of course Priyanka is and should be Rajiv's daughter to make all those speeches. Who denied that and who can stop that? If not for her father, will anyone even care about her? What are her individual credentials? Born in the gandhi family. And the way congress behaves, they always take advantage of their ancestors' death. Rajiv's death benefitted the congress the most and it will always reap rich rewards of the same by labeling him as a "martyr"! Same is the case with YSRCP who keep calling YSR the martyr or a kind of God after an ill-fated helicopter crash. Wonder who else will sacrifice their life for the nation next!


With love.. Anil

Amazing Emma Stone-Jimmy Fallon lip sync battle!

Just amazing to see the talent of the leading lady of Amazing Spiderman 2 as well as the perfect pronunciation of words! Loved the video below. #amazingspiderman #spiderfans #spiderman #emmastone


With love.. Anil

02 May 2014

Akshaya tritiiya: misconceptions and marketing

I know this article will ruffle some feathers, but its my view that everyone is given a right to express.
Ever since the medieval ages, there has never been a special festival called "Akshaya Tritiiya". On the FM Radio today, I heard something like: Whatever you buy today will increase/appreciate over time, so people buy gold! What a logic!
By their own above logic, anything bought today should increase: buy a phone worth 25k and its value will grow to 30K in a year, buy a cow today and it will become 2 cows next year, so on and so forth! But why do they insist upon buying only gold? Is it the most auspicious metal in the world or in the whole universe?
Whoever try to bring the religion into this festival is doing a big mistake. There was never a festival called "Akshaya Tritiiya".
A huge marketing cloud is being created every year to push gold down the people' throat. It never was a festival about gold at all, but rather an auspicious day to start any new work.
And who will be the ultimate winners? It is the jewelers who create an environment where anyone with gold is going to become legends and prosper forever. In fact the hype over this festival is nothing different from hype over a new iPhone or a new movie.
Yes, marketing tactics are not bad and in fact good for the economy, but creating a false link with religion is an absolute mockery of ethics. And people who fall into their trap will ultimately realize that its not what they imagined to be. Its not about gold but about starting any new work, whether it is a new business or a new job that would have been beneficial to the family and society at large. Pity them.

With love.. Anil

The Thrilling Spiderman!- My review of Amazing Spiderman-2

In many ways, The Amazing Spiderman-2 could have been named "The Thrilling Spiderman"!
After yesterday's evening show at Uurvashi with the cosmopolitan audience of Bangalore, it was evident that the movie certainly meets the expectations of the public and gives complete value for the money spent. Despite not being as luxurious as a multiplex, the quality of the sound system and the larger screen certainly makes it one of the most loved theaters of Bangalore and on the international workers' day it was nothing different. The full house applauded each and every stunt that spiderman did and there were many whistles and "woowww"s and "ohhhhh"s during the movie that was as good as a roller coaster ride, taking the audience into the world of spiderman! The director's way of making us experience the heights that spiderman takes were nothing short of awesome, with his now trademark style of super-slow shot that shows spidey almost stop mid air during high-octane chases!
With the first shot of the "sony" logo on the big screen, young crowd reacted in their own way by screaming other mobile brands like "samsung", "apple", "moto g", "moto x", "nokia" that were popular in India too!
I personally felt that the movie looked much more colorful compared to the first part.
Coming to the story and the treatment, it lacked a certain emotional connect, but still manages to hold up and justifies the reason why people come to see spiderman films: the action scenes and witty spidey dialogues.

Though some people may say this movie resembles spiderman-3 in the sense that too many villains were packed against the wall crawler, it doesnt too heavy, because the story cleverly uses them to introduce spiderman, open up his vulnerabilities of being a superhero, the epic climactic battle with the electro and goblin and finally laying the foundation for the next installment 2 years from now(planned on 10 June 2016).

My personal feeling is that Spiderman's fights can actually move to other cities or new landscapes to keep the movie series interesting. Maybe a sequence in front of the Egyptian pyramids or a Taj Mahal or atop Eiffel Tower or India Gate? That would give a break for the audience from the New York's skyscrapers! Not that they seemed boring, but fresh content in fresh locales will certainly be welcome, like how the Transformers series went to the deserts of Egypt from cities of America!

Overall, the movie is a complete entertainer with amazing action sequences, funny one-liners, thrills,etc which all make up for a good cocktail of a near-perfect movie for spider fans like me (and even for those who arent), even though the original movie series starring Tobey Maguire was my personal favorite! The original series has a boyish charm of the 2000s but after watching this movie, I feel the movie franchise can go to greater heights from now on with a transformation of Peter's character with the personal tragedy that he encounters(there are enough spoilers on the web to check for yourself!). The platform has been well laid for the next part and has interesting to see how Peter's personal life goes from here(an expected return of Mary Jane) and how many villains he has to fight in the future! Go spidey go!

With love.. Anil

30 April 2014

The Newshour on Times Now(29Apr2014)

Looking at the way yesterday's Newshour progressed on Times Now, I can easily say that the topics were well selected and the party in power remains exposed to the hilt.
Some of the debates that I personally felt on this program was the one about Priyanka gandhi getting more mileage than her brother Rahul, who is on the backfoot these days. Infact it seems to be a silent time for Kejriwal as we didnt hear much from him about either Rahul or Modi!
So why did Priyanka come to the stage and why was Rahul taken away from the scene completely?In simple words, I would say: Congress is out of petrol and thus using kerosene. It has run out of genuine heroes and falling back on item numbers not to shore up some seats but to save their modesty. Priyanka(whether Gandhi or Vadra, its her choice) is a clever, homely lady who can churn out huge crowds through her glamour once every 5 years! Rahul might have lost some of his looks but Priyanka looks fresh to pull the crowds. After all, if someone comes out so rarely, their glamour will obviously be intact! Anyway in Rae Bareli and Amethi, any living thing with Gandhi in its name will win!

With love.. Anil