24 Carrot cake :)

Today I tried my hand at Carrot cake for the first time.....

Inspiration "Rahul's favorite cake"
Motivation "Bored of working" :P :D

Anyway....with lots of adventures and misadventures (like realizing midway that the flour is not enough and other stuff is already in...dashing in rain to get it......I know i know that was not very efficient of me...) and waiting with fingers crossed..here's the end result.



It turned out quite yummy (Caution: you need to like the idea of having carrots in a cake first...many don't).

For anyone interested here's the recipe that I used:

MOIST CARROT CAKE:

Carrots shredded - 4cups
Sugar - 2cups
Maida(flour) - 1.5cups
Cornflour - 1.5cups
Oil - 1cup
Eggs - 4no.s
Baking powder - 3tsp
Cinnamon powder - 2tsp
Salt - 1tsp
Vanilla Essence - 1tsp
Optional (Nuts, raisins, fruit chunks etc.)


Sift the flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt 3-4 times and keep aside.
Beat eggs till fluffy and keep aside.
Put 1 cup sugar on the carrots, mix and soak for 20 mins (u can add the raisins here too).
Mix the other cup of sugar with the oil and beat till smooth.
Blend in the eggs, cinnamon powder and vanilla essence.
Gently fold in the flour mix to this and finally add the carrots.
Grease baking dish with oil and dust with flour, pour in the cake batter.
Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 30-40 mins. (toothpick test to see if its done).

And lo.....its ready :)

Enjoy!!!

Kuch bhi....

Have been idle here for a while and feeling guilty about it too.....so many posts came to mind and went away.....
Finally today I thought of writing at least something......and here it is

"Something"

Coming back with more soon.....

Found this on NPR ( National Public Radio)...

It seems that a bunch of carrot farmers + ad agency came up with this idea glorifying carrots by calling it "Junk Food". They approached a local school to set up a vending machine for baby carrots to which the school readily agreed to. Guess what .. Initial results are +ve, though we should not forget that none of the other vending machines were working. Seems children don't mind buying carrots (as a last option) when thrown out of a vending machine. It more cool.

Kakaji shines..

I knew this is a beautiful song.. but check out the dance moves.

insightful SMS

Today morning I received a SMS. It said "Your true character is defined by how you treat the people who can't do anything for you"

I promptly replied to my friend "How do you treat politicians?"

Unbelievable! Incredible!!

Every year there is one performance that just comes out of the blue and becomes an instant star. This is this year's instant star. A 10 year old with a voice that just cannot cannot CANNOT come from her tiny frame. I could bet 100 dollars that this is just a child lip-syncing to an adult opera singer's recording.

And her expressions! She reminds me of a 8-10 year old Dakota Fanning whose eyes and expressions seemed to spookily mature.

whoa!

What just happened???

Econ-animation 101

Complex Subject ... Simple Message ... Interesting presentation.
I wish all regular school/college lectures could be like this :). Let me know you thoughts on this.

Thoughts to ponder

A post after a long long of time. And this mail compelled me to post following reply.

I received above said mail from my relative and I was like "ye kya chal raha hai? who creates such a damn mail?". Generally we all get such mails where the only action you need to take to prove yourself as true Human/Indian/Hindu/Marathi/Punjabi/Tamil etc etc etc is to FORWARD mails to your friends. (I wrote about one such mail on my blog here).

So the reply is like this:

"Very true, But the point is why should we expect someone serving us for free?

If someone is doing a hard work, that's right being a politician is a very very hard work, why should he not be paid adequately? If you are running a company or holding key position in corporate world, you will earn much more than what a politician earns. (I mean legal income for both ;) That's why talented persons don't opt for political career. I am of the view that political remuneration should be such that all the talented persons should view it much above IT/Banking/finance/consultancy jobs.

In the present scenario only ones who does not get any job enters to politics. Few others enter politics because their business is politics. All the second/third generation leaders are only carrying their family business forward. Their pa/grandpa have invested so much in politics that if they don't harvest the crop, who else will? They will make fool of themselves if they don't cash the crop.

Any type of work which needs dealing with people having lower IQ/awareness than you is painful. (Thats why I am happily designing buildings from office but not dare/willing to enter the actual construction business). Honestly ask yourself why you are not entering politics? The immediate answer comes there is a lot of "gandagi". So a person who is dealing with this gandagi day in and day out is ought to be "ganda" himself. Ralely people remain clean in politics. Because unless you have very strong will and very high vision you are bound to be trapped by the people surrounding you.

So Rather then blaming the politicians, many times I think that they are doing a great job by filling the position where none of "US" want to be. After the independence there was a shortage of higly-educated people entering in the politics. In the struggle of independence all top leaders were lawyers, journalists, teachers, philosophers, scientists or such. But I don't know why very few people opted for politics after independence. So there was vacuum. This opportunity was sensed by people who did not have great visions. Thus they entered into politics and subsequent generations tried to make politics difficult to be assessed by others so that they can have monopoly over it and run it as business.

Many time I also disturbed by the gravity of the situation of our nation. But a little deeper thinking reveals that everything is in the place where it should be. If the kind of politicians we have in our Vidhansabhas and Loksabha they deserve to be there, because better than those did not dare to fight elections.

It also happens that many times we are so obsessed with dark/dirty part of politics (and for that matter any other aspect of life) that we dont see gray or white shade of it.

So the problem is multidimensional. And the last line of the mail really makes no sense. 855 crore is not even sufficient for a flood relief of a small state. It can only make life's of very few few people livable."

I keep replying to such mails with unexpected replies, and I guess some people have removed my name from their "forward" list. At least my replies did save me if not humankind/India/Hindu/Marathi/Punjabi/Tamil etc etc etc.

Please also share your views on this.

college kids got talent...

Remember the Super Mario thing from last year's 'India's Got Talent'? No? Here...





Now, take it to another level altogether... in America's Got Talent 2010...

Trailer Park 3

Let's start with Frieda Pinto... Julian Schnabel... and Bombay Theme!



One for fun....



And the rest.... interesting for one reason or another...

Who would not want to buy this..

.. Atleast the ads are really cute!!

Also check out the links at the RHS of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niOCmIuts90&feature=channel for more if you want to see more similar ads.



Cheers!

2010... the awards so far...

I have seen Inception only about an hour ago, so clearly this post will be unduly colored because of that. But that's ok.. we'll not consider this my "movies of first half of 2010" post, but a part of my "let me salute Inception" posts.. :)

Note: the foreign Language movies are mostly of 2009, but got proper US releases only in 2010. so....

so.....

Best Supporting Actor: John Hawkes (Winter's Bone), Guillermo Francella (The Secret in their Eyes),  and Niels Arestrup (Un Prophete)
special mentions: Pablo Rago (The Secret in their Eyes), Nana Patekar (Raajneeti)

Best Supporting Actress: Priyamani (Raavan/Raavanan) and Olivia Williams (The Ghost Writer)
special mentions: Soledad Villamil (The Secret in their Eyes), Dale Dickey (Winter's Bone), Ellen Page (Inception) (well, she looked great.. and we KNOW she is a great actress... didn't have to do all that much here though.. still, they are my awards, aren't they? :P which reminds me.. I think I'll give one to Marion Cotillard too!!)

Best Actor: Tahar Rahim (Un Prophete)
special mentions: Leonardo DiCaprio (Shutter Island/Inception), Filippo Timi (Vincere), Naseeruddin Shah (Ishqiya), Vikram (Raavanan)

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone) and Giovanna Mezzogiorno (Vincere)
special mentions: Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Vidya Balan (Ishqiya), Hye-Ja Kim (Mother)

Best Screenplay: Christopher Nolan (Inception)
special  mentions: Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3), Park/Bong (Mother), Sacheri/Campanella (The Secret in their Eyes)


Best Director: Christopher Nolan (Inception)
special mentions: Roman Polanski (The Ghost Writer), Debra Granik (Winter's Bone), Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon), Juan José Campanella (The Secret in their Eyes)

Best Picture: Inception
special mention: Toy Story 3
slightly less special mentions: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Secret in their Eyes, Vincere, The Secret of Kells
ohh.. and some more: Mother, Winter's Bone, Ishqiya, The Ghost Writer, Shutter Island

ohh.. wait.. Best Picture isn't the last award here.. I have another...

Master of Rahul's Movie Universe: Christopher Nolan :) :)

Update:


After seeing Inception second time....

I'm replacing Ellen Page with Marion Cotillard in best supporting actress... :)

Also... needless to say, Inception takes all the technical awards... Best Editing, Best Sound Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Music Score (a very special mention to Toy Story 3 but, really, Inception's score is something else entirely), and maybe even Best Cinematography (with Shutter Island and The White Ribbon giving it tough competition... perhaps even sharing the award).

They knew you loved them already....

Was reading a post on Slashdot about extreme caving, and found this one comment...

I second the statement, "I'm not claustrophobic, but this is insane". It's the sheer un-rescue-ability of it all, if you simply get wedged, that gets to me.

A young man died cave diving in the Rockies not far from Calgary a few years back. The awful bit was that he got delayed coming back, wasn't sure how far it was, went to the limit of his air, turned the little knob that gives you the last five minutes, and used that time scratching out a goodbye to his family on the air tank.

Right around one more corner from where he would have seen the flashlights of his friends waiting for him.

Lessons I took from it:

1) Cave diving is insane.

2) If you're ever certain you're at that last moment of your life, nevertheless spend it trying to survive. Your family actually knew you loved them already.

United Colors of Music..

Udaan.. Aisha.. and now Puli is out too (and I hear good things about Pritam's Once Upon a Time in Mumbai too). Have to hear them for some days before saying much, but overall I'm sure between all these albums there will be definitely a few songs that will be part of my playlist for quite some time (unless Endhiran comes and kicks everything else out :P ).

Puli, specially, seems pretty good even after just one hearing. One of those "very catchy in the first hearing itself, which means it will probably never reach the status of one of ARR's great albums but a very fun listen nevertheless" albums. The one song that doesn't fit this desription, because it might rise to being one of those "greats" finally and is decidedly not a "fun listen" as the rest of the album is, is "Namakame". ARR brings together Chithra, Madhushree and Harini and the song definitely lives up to the high expectations I'd have had after hearing this "starcast" :)

Here.... listen and be happy...

Amit Trivedi Strike 2

Aisha's music is out!
This is the second album after DevD by Amit Trivedi whose every single track is likeable (at least for me ;)). Some of its tracks (esp the Punjabi ones) may not be to everyone's tastes....but I quite like the foot-tapping number...perfect for that DJ-night :D

Check out one of the best songs from the album "Lehrein" here :




and one of the "fun" songs "Behke Behke" here:





I like how his music captures the mood of the movie but gives individuality to each song. Same was the case with Aamir, DevD and now also Udaan alongwith Aisha.

Speaking of Udaan.....the movie that I am really looking forward to :) here are two must-hear songs from its album.





and this Theme song is simply awesome!! (the video is 5:39 but the theme ends at 2:40 I think).

Christian the Lion

Found this lovely video on youtube. there are many videos on youtube with the same name.

"You can see now?"

One of the most moving scenes of a great movie ....... A MUST watch movie :)



Wish I had words to do justice to this movie ...... maybe someday when I am relatively free(er) ... till then this should do.

Wonderful piece of work.

Cynical!!

Udaan Trailer

Coming soon in India, after having opened in Cannes this year.. Looks pretty good. (Pesc. somehow didn't think this trailer is worthy of this blog. :D  she posted it on her blog, but not here!)

So true.. So true...

Looney Luna Loves Laddoos

Looney Luna had heard about them.. but never had anyone conclusively proved anything.

As the myth went.. when Merleshwar Appoliosus planted his wand on Mount Everest, there sprung a fountain of youth which showered Magical Besan ke Laddoo. Anyone who ate those laddoos could gain eternal youth and attain immortality.

Magical Besan Laddoo

When the Patil sisters had their first nephew, their family sent over a large package to the twins at Hogwarts. A huge parcel arrived with the morning's owl post and a large tawny dropped off the package painted with cauldrons of gulab jamun and mithai-laden flying saucers. Padma opened the parcel with gleeful anticipation knowing it was going to be filled with goodies from home to celebrate the arrival of the young one.

And that's when Luna spotted them. Nestled cozily in a large pile, golden brown spheres jeweled with greenish nuts. Besan ke Laddoo!! Were these the legendary Magical Laddoos? They seemed innocent enough. Parvati reached in and grabbed a few. One by one came everyone's turn.. the whole school got to try the celebratory Laddoos.

Finally Looney Luna got her prize.. it lay in her hand like an ordinary candy-ball. But when she lifted it up to eat, the laddoo leaped right out of her grasp! Darting and twitching, left and right it whirred.. she tried to grab it.. but it wasn't easy to catch the little devil! Everyone around her was doing the same... jumping and leaping, trying to catch their laddoos!! Luna turned to Parvati, "How do we eat these?" Parvati smiled annoyingly, "Of all the people here, you should be the first one to get your laddoo!!" she said enigmatically.

Looney Luna was mildly miffed. She couldn't imagine what would be the use of giving out candy if one couldn't eat it! Oh well, life's intricacies did not bother Luna for long. She simply left her flying laddoo alone and started to pack-up for class. As she made her way through the Great Hall her laddoo followed her, zipping around her, taunting and tempting her with every move. But Luna politely ignored it.

On her way out she remembered that she had forgotten to wear her radish earrings!! As she fished them out of her bag, gazing idly at the Wrackspurts hovering over Ginny's head, it struck Luna that her laddoo was slowing down and getting closer to her. She noticed tiny little golden fluttering wings on the laddoo. Could they actually be the endangered Golden Snidgets enchanted illegally to look like laddoos.. ? The more Luna analyzed this possibility, the more the laddoo slowed down and the closer it came. That was weird.. was the laddoo suffering from Loser's Lurgy?

That was it! The laddoo plonked right into Luna's hand and just sat there waiting for her to eat.

Why this abrupt beneficence from the prank-laddoo! Hmm.. reminded Luna of the recently published work on Duality in Quantum Phygic! Incidentally, Luna was a staunch supporter of the latest theories in Quantum Phygic and Mathemagic. She particularly adored Booleo Maradona, the young Mathemagician who had boldly challenged established Seers, claiming that his “equations” could be used to predict the outcome of Quiditch World Cup better than their tea leaves. Ron and Harry's laddoos, whizzing in the air near Luna, were now also starting to slow down and approach her..

That was just about when Padma Patil announced in the Hall, "Everyone who has never eaten Magical Laddoos before... we celebrate birthdays with fun and laughter. So you need to think something silly and funny if you want to eat these laddoos."

Interesting, thought Luna, this silly thoughts strategy could be the laddoo’s way of forcing people to remember their childhood, in effect imparting eternal youth!!
The myth of the Magical Laddoos was true after all. Just as Luna had always known! Perhaps she could get the Patils to send a few laddoos as evidence to the Quibbler.. and some more to Booleo Maradona..

Plonk! Plonk! Plonk!
----------------------------

PS: This is our 100th post!!

Trailer Park -2 (The animation edition)

Some pretty good trailers of upcoming animated features. All of the movies might not turn out  to be great, but definitely all of them do look promising to some extent.

Apna Mithunda

Yesterday, along with the hyped I Hate Luv Storys, another movie released which surprisingly got more coverage than expected. I say "surprisingly" because it is a Bengali movie, and usually non-hindi movies that release do not get much coverage.
This one's called "Shukno Lanka" or "Dry red chillies". Till now, I have only heard/read good things about it, including good performances.....

Take a look here:

http://www.washingtonbanglaradio.com/content/7913910-shukno-lanka-2010-bengali-movie-review-aditya-chakrabarty

or here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1ObCvqK-Kc

TOI says "For those who still remember Mithun Chakraborty's sterling act in Buddhadeb Dasgupta's Tahader Katha, here's another chance to discover the true colours of the thespian actor who has the ability to grab eyeballs with something more than his disco dancing abilities."

The trailer does not say much...but with the praise as above...I would like to go watch it (let's see if I can make it).

Oh Boy!

The timing is perfect, no? As we more oh-so-close to our 100th post, Warner Bros have decided to help us out with our HP posts. I *love* this poster. Gave me shivers. I don't know why, but it did.

Moria

"Someone should really bring them a ladder and remind them to build the Endless Stair *first* next time."

Trailer Park -1

Ok, this is a new series by me. I'll post, for the busy world's benefit, any trailers of upcoming movies that I find interesting. Some of these would be great trailers of movies that will eventually turn out to be crap. Some others will probably be crappy trailers of the movies that I have high hopes for. Hopefully there will be none that even I won't have an idea about why I posted them. Hopefully. We'll see.

So, here goes, sans any comment (and in no particular order of interest)...

Computational Origami

Harvard and MIT do it again :)

They have transformed a art of origami into a programmed self-driven process!! OK.... staunch origamists may protest....but at least these guys have done it for simple shapes....which in itself is awesome work!!!

Quoting from the article in Nature news "The engineered sheet is effectively a shape-shifting robot — or, looked at another way, a kind of protean 'programmable matter'."



The original article can be found here if anyone's interested.

The motion picture event of a generation....

Pardon the lame villain though...

3X9

:D :D :D
Don't forget to view it on xkcd

Hail the Rain Lord!!!

Dear Rain Lord,

I know whenever I was in Bangalore and you made your presence felt galore, there were times when I cursed! What was I to do, when all my favourite chappals broke, had almost nothing to wear as most my clothes were wet, and suffered from allergies because the room went damp harboring fungal spores??!!!
But, then again, you must also remember, that it was the same me who also enjoyed dancing in the showers, jumped with glee in puddles and marveled at your lightning bolts. And I do admit that I had more fun with your presence felt than not.
Well, too much of anything is bad, as were the showers at times!!
Don't you miss me??? You know I love listening to rain patter on walls, windows, roofs and everywhere else; and I can spend hours just listening to it while staring into oblivion, letting my mind flow freely; or cuddle up in a corner with my favourite book, or if I am in an altruistic mood, maybe make some hot chai and goodies to eat for everyone around me :) then everyone will gather and amidst all the hullabaloo, keep repeating "Oh how wonderful is this weather!! How wonderful!!"
People have claimed that I am crazy to walk in the rain....but you and I know better.....don't you??
So, come visit me in Delhi soon....I am waiting!!! I promise not to complain and have lots of fun ;)
As a reminder, I am putting up this picture I had taken capturing your essence on a wonderful day...... do hurry :)

Waiting eagerly,
Pescy :)

Ratnam Remixes Ramayana

By the time I went to catch a show of Raavan, it had already been mauled by almost everyone online. The good reviews, and I have seen many of them now, came much after I myself had seen the movie, one of them, from my favorite indian movie critic, Baradwaj Rangan. It is still easily one of Mani's worst reviewed movies yet. Dil Se had about as bad reviews as this, as I'm sure Thiruda Thiruda would've had. I don't remember how much I liked Thiruda Thiruda, but I really do like Dil Se even though the last half an hour or so is quite cringe-worthy. I have met some people who like Dil Se and don't know/remember that it got some pretty bad reviews; I've also met people who didn't see Dil Se when it released because of the universal jeers it seemed to be getting in the media at the time, but caught it on TV later and wondered why anyone would consider it to be so bad. That was the hope I was holding on to when I went to see Raavan. The hope that while some of the bad reviews might be from critics who really don't share my taste anyway, at least some of the others might be overcritical for the simple reason that this is a Mani Ratnam movie and you *do* expect him to do better than this. The rating at allbollywood was about 50% which doesn't make it the worst movie ever (it makes it about the 10th best movie of 2010 so far with reasonable number of reviews considered), it certainly is much lower than what I normally consider to be my threshold for being "worthy of a watch". Also, MNIK is 74% and Raajneeti 62%, and I considered the former to be just about watchable, the latter entirely forgettable, making Raavan sound like a horrible movie that would be unbearable to me.

All I'm saying is that I was hardly expecting that I'll be going to see this one twice.

Now, lest you assume that my watching the movie twice means that I really liked it, let me explain my "watching twice" philosophy to you. There was a time I watched almost every movie more than once before forming any stable opinion on it. But that time was long, long ago. Still, I found that there are some kind of movies that are likely to improve on second viewing - movies that are obviously "have to see it again to really get everything in it" type like The Usual Suspects, and the movies that seem annoying/awkward because of unexpected/unfamiliar/difficult stylistic choices. The latter includes films that are partially or fully slower than one expected (2001 A Space Oddysey, Dekalog etc), unfamiliar style (early kurosawa, Farewell My Concubine etc), off-putting yet intentional pace inconsistencies (Kill Bill, Rang De Basanti etc). What happens is that the first time these things happen, I'm not really prepared for them and they affect my overall enjoyment of other things that actually might've been better than I thought. Once you have already seen the movie, you know what is coming and it doesn't bother you that much. So, unlike Raajneeti where the bad parts were just bad content and not style and the good parts weren't good enough to merit a second watch, Raavan seemed a perfect candidate for being such a movie. Not that it improved to the level of being a really good movie, but certainly some of the worst things seemed much less bothersome. What were these things? Read on...

I am still to make up my mind as to what really killed this movie. There are many candidates.

1. A screeching Aishwarya in about 30% of her scenes that happen to be mostly in the first half. I can understand that it might've seemed a good thing to make Aish scream in a hoarse voice indicating her tortured and agitated state, but it certainly didn't translate on the screen as well as it might've been on paper. It just seemed annoying. 
2. Abhishek's way over-the-top "mad Raavan" act in about a similar fraction of his act that was just plain annoying and unintentionally funny. Again, it probably seemed a good idea to justify the title "Raavan" by making it "ten heads.. as in ten different ideas running in the mind simultaneously" thing, but things like that are very hard to show on screen, unless you have a really charismatic performer to carry them through. Expecting Abhishek to do a Gabbar, a Joker or a Jack Torrence is hardly fair on the guy.. that sort of thing is just not his strength. I can see a Manoj Bajpai do wonders with this role.. even Madhavan would've probably made this work.... Anyway, I hear Vikram is able to bring much more physicality to the role much more convincingly in Raavanan. That itself should make the movie better by some margin for me. 
3. Almost complete lack of "action" in the first half, and by action I mean worthwhile forward motion of the story... it is completely replaced by what we normally consider "action" sequences.. they just don't go anywhere. The way these action scenes are shot, it makes one think (and expect) that things are moving very fast but when you think about it, all that we are being shown are glimpses of a random "search in the jungle" with all the important parts of the story happening off the screen where Ragini must've done some seriously impressive stuff to muddle Beera's mind so much. I know that everyone can imagine their own effective stories about how exactly did things change in the minds of Beera and Ragini, but surely you can't blame the audience to not feel for your characters if they don't really see them doing much. This is even more frustrating because this is exactly the sort of thing that I love about Mani - two characters interacting.. playing with each other with just dialogue. As wonderful as all those jungle scenes with Dev running around look, all that time could easily have been used to use 10 pages of interesting lines for Ragini and Beera to speak. 
4. Speaking of which, the lines that WERE spoken had hardly anything engaging about them. And this, I think, might be the single biggest factor in making the movie such a bland experience. Look at any Quentin Tarantino movie and you know that a scene doesn't necessarily HAVE to move the overall story forward for it to be interesting. All you need is some wonderful writing, and I don't mind one bit what it might be adding to the overall picture. The dialogue is one of the best things about Mani's movies. Even if some of the charm probably gets lost in subtitles, they are still pretty good. Dil Se and Yuva had some interesting writing by Tigmanshu Dhulia and Anurag Kashyap respectively and even Guru (with Hindi dialogue by the same Vijay Krishna Acharya who worked on Raavan) was actually pretty engaging througout (other than the silly climax, of course). Raavan, on the other hand, is full of simplistic, banal dialogue. It is perhaps difficult to separate banal acting from banal dialogue, and perhaps the same words would've worked had the performances worked, but I do think that they really needed some better lines here. 

Phew!! Ok, so much for things that didn't work. Why did I go to see it again, then? Well... mainly because the second half seemed so much better than the first half. The first half just seemed so uneven, that I thought maybe the unevenness will be less bothersome the second time and it will make for an overall better feeling. More importantly, there were some truly good things going on. Like I said, the good things in Raajneeti were not good enough for me to want to see them again.. unlike that, the good things here were actually really good and I really wanted to see them again. So, the good stuff.... 

1. The beginning!! The 4-5 min long sequence that comes before the opening credits is a really, REALLY great piece of cinema. It reminded me of Godfather at times, and that can never be a bad thing. Perhaps it helped that VKAcharya didn't have anything to do in that sequence as it is almost entirely devoid of spoken words. This is as good an opening to the movie as one could've expected. 
2. The photography! This one is a seriously good looking movie, even from Ratnam/Sivan standards. Ratnam has set almost the entire movie in and around jungles and waterfalls and that makes for some truly wonderful frames right from the first scene to the last. So much so that I think I would've enjoyed this movie more if it had been on mute! :D
3. The songs. This isn't even close to being one of Rahman/Ratnam's best collaboration, and for once Mani seems quite uninterested in spending too much time on songs. But, in this case, even a less-than-interested Mani is good enough to give some good songs/picturizations. The album itself is good enough, specially if you add the "Jaa, ud jaa re" to it, but most of the songs actually seem that much better on screen. Kata Kata, Behne De and Khili Re all worked pretty well for me... Khili Re, specially, is really well choreographed. Surprisingly, I didn't even mind "Thhok De Killi" in the movie. The song hadn't really worked for me before.. the trailer actually made it worse, but, for some reason, it doesn't seem bad at all during the movie. Perhaps it is positioned well. Or perhaps it just seemed better in comparison with some things in the first half. :D "Jaa, ud jaa re" is a pretty haunting song and it is used pretty well in the movie too. 
4. Some memorable scenes which are vintage Mani. One scene, in particular, reminded me of something from Dil Se.. Abhi and Ash talking while he is on a boat, rotating all the while.. There are scenes in Dil Se where a similar thing happens. The actors are talking, and something goes on in the background that doesn't really have to. You could have Amar and Meghna saying the same lines without that woman continuing to pound whatever it is she was trying to pound in the background... or when they are talking in the AIR office when people are walking past and the door in the background keeps opening and closing... these things dont have to be there at all.. and are perhaps pretty distracting for some people... but the effect is memorable.. I might not remember anything about what they were talking about in those scenes, but I will never forget the visuals that were quite beautiful and distinctive... 
5. The whole flashback with Priyamani works really well. The credit should probably go to her charming and convincing performance. That part of the movie is probably the only part where I actually cared for the characters on screen. 
6. Govinda in some of his scenes, and Ravi Kishan throughout are quite good. Even the guy who plays the other brother of Raavan (Vibhishan?) was good, even though he only had 2 notable scenes. I think Ravi Kishan's convincing portrayal actually makes you realize even more how much better Raavan's role could've been done. While Abhishek seems adequate in most of the scenes where he doesn't have to do the 'mad Raavan' bit, you still find it hard to believe that he and Ravi Kishan's character are brothers. Ravi Kishan brings a certain earthy/rustic quality to his role that is just not there in Abhishek's performance. As for Govinda, they really could've done without the referencing Hanuman bit in his intro scene but I don't quite mind that as much as many people seem to have. 

Which brings me to another point. I think some people were turned off by what they think were "literal adaptations" of Ramayana scenes, just like the Hanuman scene, but it didn't seem all that bad to me. I felt most of those things were actually tongue-in-cheek references to the epic rather than trying to force some direct references to remind people that it is Ramayana after all. Surely, it seemed to bother me during the first watch, but something changed the second time round. And it wasn't just that I already knew that they were there. (Now what follows in this paragraph is full of big SPOILERS, so please don't read it if you  havent seen the movie... ) I think that by the time this movie ended, it seemed pretty clear to me that Raavan is not a typical anti-hero here. There is nothing that they show Raavan doing which would make you think that he is the bad guy (well, almost nothing) and there is nothing that Dev does that might make him a hero. You sort of go in with those expectations because you know your Ramayana, and because Ratnam seems to confirm those assumptions by making Dev a cop and Raavan an outlaw. But, really, this is a movie where Dev really is the villain and Raavan is the hero. Seeing the movie again from this perspective actually made things much better, including the fact that I now wasn't thinking that I am watching an "adaptation of Ramayan", but more like a normal hero-villain story with some tongue-in-cheek story and character references to Ramayan thrown in. While Hanuman jumping around in the trees and the 14 days/14hours/14 min thing are direct references, almost every other reference is actually twisted around to make them interesting, rather than boring. The polygraph test reference that just seems horribly forced the first time around actually seems rather clever way of using audience expectations to hide what the real meaning of the scene is. Every other time when one sees the Ramayan parallel, Ratnam twists your expectations to make things unpredictable. Hanuman goes to meet Sita and gets caught? Next must be him giving them a slip by something like "burning the Lanka"? Nope... Ram finds an injured Jatayu on the way? He'll tend to him.. be nice to him? Nope... Vibhishan goes to meet Ram? He'll probably join them or help them in any way? Nope... Ram, the villain of this story, is never more villainous as in that scene.. Even the Surpanakha's nose thing was put in quite convincingly with her mocking the cops by saying "police ke kutte" and sniffing pointedly... 

So... so many good things and bad things.. where does the balance lie? I think probably towards negatives. Raja Sen, at the end of his review, says something that I agree with.. "Raavan's deadliest sin, however, isn't in the clumsy dialogue, hammy acting or lame, oversimplified adaptation. All of that can be forgiven if the tale engages us". And that is very true. For all of the good things going on, I really was just sitting there and watching things quite passively. If only the Raavan-Ragini-Dev trio could generate in me any sort of emotion at all, this would've been a pretty good movie. But they didn't, so it isn't. I've heard good things about Raavanan, so I'm looking forward to it. But this one will be added to the list of disappointments. What else can a movie like this be, coming from the people who made Iruvar?? Does that make it a bad movie? Nope. Not even close. There are quite a few redeeming features that are way better than most other one-tone banal movies around. 

I haven't seen "Robin Hood", so that part excepted, my feelings about Raavan are exactly what Richard Corliss says at the end of his review in Time: As a showcase for some of Indian cinema's most renowned talents, Raavan has to be considered a disappointment. But as a big summer epic about a forest bandit, hey — it's better than the Russell Crowe Robin Hood. And, thanks to A.R. Rahman's infectious songs, this one you can dance to.

Back on the block :)

Ok....so I am back after a short break :) and of the few posts that'll be coming up soon this ought to be the first. The verdict is out.

Raavan or Raavanan?

After watching both movies within 12 hrs :P I would say ..... definitely Raavanan.
I'm sure sooner or later Rahul will definitely (hopefully) delve into the details of the beauty and flaws of Raavan ;)
All that I will tell you is Vikram is DEFINITELY the better performer here and somehow Aishwarya is less screechy and more under control in Raavanan. Plus, I believe that they could have done better by simply translating the Tamil screenplay rather than write a slightly different and fresh Hindi one, especially for the first half of the movie (second-half is pretty much ok upon comparison). Then again, Vikram also does a better job of being cold-blooded Ram in Raavan rather than Prithviraj in Raavanan.

So...was it as bad as the critics' verdicts floating around? NO
Was it worth a watch? YES
Was it worth a double watch within the same day? Definitely
Would I recommend it to you? It does not live up to the Mani Ratnam standards, but is way ahead of several flicks that release all-year round. So, its your call. :)

Two down, one to go...

Summer, to me, meant three movies. Two of them released on the same day and, in a flash, 2/3rd of the summer is over. Verdict? Mixed, so far... Read on...

Toy Story 3 (and Day & Night) :

Out of the three movies, this one I was least excited about. I know I shouldn't have been. It is Pixar, after all. Still, a part of me was never quite convinced that Pixar could do what Godfather and Star Wars couldn't - come back after decade(s) to make a worthy sequel. Specially, because this TS3 seemed to be a consequence of Disney taking over Pixar. One could never be sure of what direction things will be going. Is is just Disney forcing Pixar into their usual 'make box-office-hay while the sequel-sun shines' model or did the Pixar wizards REALLY have something Pixar-worthy to offer? After all, the other sequel in the pipeline is Cars 2!!! What other reason can they have to go back and make a sequel to the only Pixar movie that seems to be less than adored by everyone other than model-car loving toddlers and the merchandizing-loving Disney execs. If that is not a Disney finance-driven decision, I don't know what is. And yet, isn't this exactly what I had thought when Miramax had announced that "Quentin Tarantino's Fourth Film Kill Bill" was actually going to be "Quentin Tarantino's New Films Kill Bill Vol 1 & Vol 2". We were all cynical about it and chuckled when Quentin said "it really makes complete sense. This is a creative decision." Turned out, they were right all along. How can anyone even imagine combining KB1 and KB2 now? We learned that there are some things we should take on faith. When QT says something, listen. And if there is one thing you can have full faith in, it is that Pixar never fails. It just does not. Nope. Not possible. Having said that I am still apprehensive about Cars 2, but if TS3 is anything to go by, I need not be.

One of the reasons I was apprehensive about TS3 was that I have never really been as much a fan of the Toy Story movies as almost every other Pixar movie (other than Cars, and perhaps A Bug's Life). And I have never really understood why that is so. Every time I see TS or TS2, I end up thinking "hmm.. this was really entertaining.. why do I not seem to love this as much as the others"? I think the reason is that as good as they are, they are still probably the closest Pixar comes to making a Dreamworks' like movie. You know, an action/adventure/comedy movie targeted mainly to kids that seems to be full of pop culture references a la Shrek. The problem with that is that as great as you might make it, you can perhaps give me full paisa-vasool entertainment for my money, but you are never really going to touch the greatness reached by things like the "Carl and Ellie's life together" sequence in Up or the entire cute, touching, astounding first hour of WALL-E.. or the scarcely believable decision to make "critique of critics" sequence the climax of Ratatouille. Now, THAT is what Pixar can do. To me, the least impressive parts of Pixar movies are those fast paced action/adventure parts that they do as well as anyone else, but doesn't make them stand out in any manner. The "run from the pack of dogs" sequence in Up, the "malfunctioning robots spreading chaos in Axiom" in WALL-E.. the "chase among the thousand doors" in Monsters Inc.. the climactic battle in The Incredibles, etc. And Toy Story movies, as well as they are made, seem to always leave the impression in my mind that they are almost entirely full of just these sequences. And I find that I am wrong every time I see them again. Perhaps the other things aren't as memorable in them as in other movies. Anyway, the bottomline is, Pixar has made another Toy Story movie and it has done it as well as the first two.. maybe even better. This one is, again, just a REALLY well made and entertaining action/adventure/fun movie for about 70% of its length but it ends on a note that makes it entirely worthy of those other great Pixar movies. For about 70% of its length it seems another great Toy Story movie (and that itself isn't something easy to do... how many movies do we know where the essential charm doesn't completely vanish after the first sequel?), but what they do with the last 15-20 minutes took my breath away. And I came out of the theater entirely satisfied, and appropriately ashamed of my lack of faith in Pixar.

This isn't a review. It wasn't meant to be. It doesn't have to be. After all, all of you are going to see it anyway, aren't you? :) Rest assured that if you liked the first two, there is absolutely no way that you aren't going to love this one too.

Oh... and there is also the small matter of catching one of their cutest short films. Day & Night is as good as most other Pixar shorts (which makes it a masterpiece :P). Go, watch NOW!

Coming up next... How Mani made a disconcerting movie that seemed bad enough for me not to recommend it to others and yet intriguing enough for me to want to go and see it again....

Is this true for you?

Roger Ebert writes about the possible impact of websurfing on our brains. I think I relate to what he is saying. Do You?

Read here.

Sand Art

Hello peoples...... :)
Have been off-blog for a while....have loads of pending posts...but when I saw this...I could not stop myself from posting it here.

Watch this:



and read about it over here

Awesome talent.....she would have practiced a lot for art such as this...but even then....it is simply WOW!! :)

You really don't stand a chance...

Woohoo!!!

I know I know. I was never one to get very excited about a HP movie, but it has been so long since the last book's release. :( The only thing left to celebrate is the movies' release now.

Update: Thanks Ashish for pointing out that the video on that link isn't available. I'm posting another link (with really good resolution this time!). Let's hope this also doesn't vanish soon.

The Homeopathy Delusion

I have had discussions about homeopathy with a lot of people in the past. Perhaps some of you here too. So perhaps there is nothing new here. Still, two articles on the amazing Yahoo India columns this week are worth reading. The first one by Girish Shahane says everything that needs to be said, and then changes everything in the final paragraph, like a good (even bad) Shyamalan movie. Read it here.

Amit Varma then posted his own views yesterday - and I'm sure it is that last paragraph of Shahane's article that made him do it. He has done this before on his blog, but this one has a nice collection of links that make it a worthwhile read. Here.

Where do I stand? Almost firmly behind Amit. I actually even somewhat agree with the last paragraph of Amit's article, except that I perhaps often lack his restraint. That is probably an effect of reading too much Dawkins (the title of this post says as much). Or perhaps it is the effect of not meeting many people who don't go out of their way to try and explain their faith and prove that it IS the truth, not just that it has its advantages. Then again, perhaps the advantages work only when you treat it as a truth. well... perhaps the thing to blame is not the faith itself, but the instinctual need to spread it around too. After all, that is why I am posting this in the first place....

Back to paper art

I remember a post about paper art. Here is another link. Found it through a Yahoo india blog. Some truly stunning stuff.

Presenting.....Shreya Ghoshal

Undoubtedly, Shreya is one of the best singers in Bollywood today. What a sweet voice and amazing control over it!!

The music of I-Hate-Luv-Storys is out, and this song has grown on me in the past few days :) Check it out:



I like three more tracks from the album which you can check out here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KabTaycHFq4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6aM000RuRM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2rNG8UY3-0

The title track is one which i call a "good-bad song" :P i.e. it has some funny rhyming lyrics but foot-tapping music......not everyone's cup-of-tea ... but i like it :)

Also the promos look decent enough....looking forward to it :)

Now in Mumbai

few months back I was trying my hand at long exposure photography using my Nikon D60. One of my such favorites shots have been street photos at night. So I set up my instrument in balcony and tried lot of combination in manual mode. Here is one of the best shot from that evening after almost 20-25 trials.

For those who are interested in technical details, this image is captured at ISO-100, F/32 aperture size and 25 sec exposure. I had read that smaller aperture helps creating ray effect from a light source. I could get that from the halogen light above hoarding. Though I am not very happy with the overall frame but a balcony on the fifth floor does not allow much freedom to decide your frame. Specially the black hoarding on my side of road taking away the effect of traffic flow.

All in all I am happy with the result considering my first attempt. But your opinion may differ. How do you feel about it?

If you were thinking of hitting the gym..

.. do it this way!

My favorite optical illusions.

Pesc's post inspired me to post some of my favorite optical illusions. Here...

1) Same Color Illusion.

copyright: Edward H Adelson and web.mit.edu

Look at the image above. Which of the squares A and B do you think is the darker shade of gray? A? Well, as it turns out in every such optical illusion, the answer is - None. They are the same shade. Exactly the same shade. :) The brain interprets the intensity based on the context. Ever wondered why sunspots are dark? As in, it's not as if those regions aren't bright and hot  themselves, so why do they appear dark? It's because they are embedded in much hotter and brighter regions of the Sun. This is exactly what is happening here. A seems darker because it has light squares around it. B seems light because it is surrounded by dark squares. I feel that the strength of this particular image is in the fuzzy boundary of the cylinder's shadow.  This means that B's shade merges into the light square's shade seamlessly fooling the brain into expecting that B must actually be the same shade as the light squares, only that they are slightly darker due to the shadow. But same as A? No way! well, it is. :) Perhaps the image below will help in visualizing it.

copyright: Edward H. Adelson and web.mit.edu

2) Blue or Green?

Copyright Akiyoshi Kitaoka 

You know what's coming. But you can't believe it, can you? The spirals that are clearly blue and green are actually neither blue nor green, but a combination (RGB=0,255,150). i.e. they are EXACTLY the same color. unbelievable? I know. This one actually makes one forget the first illusion entirely. I mean, it was difficult to believe that one, but surely this is simply impossible? Well, copy it to paint/photoshop and see the RGB values. Or, just crop some pixels from the blue and green spirals without their pink/orange context and juxtapose them. Or, if you don't really have to do it yourself to believe it, just head on to this article at the badastronomy blog and see for yourself. This really is stunning.

3) Ok, this one is fun. Look at  this one. Which direction is the (apparently nude, but I digress... ) spinning? Clockwise? Counter-clockwise?

No idea about copyright, but I found it here. Anyway, once you know your initial answer, look again. Perhaps looking at the shadow of the feet will do it the first time. The spinning direction flips instantly! It is actually much easier to flip the interpretation in your mind after you succeed in seeing it once. I can do it within 5-10 seconds now, and yet it is such a rush everytime it happens! :) Specially when I focus on her face. Suddenly the hair jumps from front to the back. :) I think this is essentially the same thing as flipping the 3-D interpretation of the Necker Cube in your mind. But, somehow this spinning girl makes it much more fun! :)

4) And now, the killer. Hollow mask illusion. I don't need to say anything as they say it all in the video.



Incredible, no? I have always wanted to have one of these masks at home. Specially this next one, with einstein. But it is definitely not worth 60 dollars....



Do you have any favorite illusions? Do share in comments.

Kata kata

raising my head from the posting-less abyss all of us seem to have been roaming in (except Pesc, of course.. who is keeping the every flavor flag flying high)...

New trailer for Raavan. This is actually surprisingly good. Surprisingly, because I was apprehensive about this song picturization.I was thinking something on the lines of "Ek lo ek muft", but this is actually pretty well done.

Cheeky program in controversial soup

Freshmen of the College of Letters and Science at University of California, Berkeley have a unique thing in their welcome kit this year....a cotton swab!

The Same Page program of this college gives new students something to talk about and discuss, say something like a book or a movie or an idea. This year, they’ll be exploring the theme of Personalized Medicine—the set of emerging technologies that promises to transform our ability to predict, diagnose, and treat human disease. Therefore, the cotton swab. Students can choose to return a sample of their cheek cells to be analyzed for three genes that are identified as "useful" for daily lives......the genes that help regulate the ability to absorb folic acid, tolerate lactose, and metabolize alcohol. Results of this nutritional genomic study will be confidential, however the sample donors through secret codes can access results of their samples.

Professor Jasper Rine, in-charge of this project, says “We want to get people to appreciate that there are things you can do that enhance your health based on the genes you have. There are concrete, actionable, specific steps that do enhance quality of life. This is the message of the post-genomic era.” Students will also get the chance to enter contests of creativity and talent and winners will be offered a more complete genetic analysis of their ancestry and health, with compliments from the personal genomics company 23andMe.

Medical science and biotechnology post the "Human Genome Project" is aiming towards better health care and effective clinical solutions. Though today, personalized medicine seems like a Utopian dream, hopefully someday it will be cost-effective and bring therapeutics suited to individual needs and responses.

This project, however, is not without it's share of controversies. Following a ban by FDA on retail selling of personal-genome-testing kit by Walgreens ( a US based drugstore chain), a Berkeley-based public interest organization is calling for the suspension of the UC project. They say "If selling genetic tests directly to consumers is a problem in the eyes of federal regulators, how can the University justify pushing them on thousands of eighteen-year-olds?"

The kit with the swab includes a consent form and details of the study to be undertaken, the advantages of the program and a confidentiality statement assuring prevention of misuse of genetic information. Where is the abuse??? If the donors consent to give samples for research, understanding what they are signing-up for....then why not?? Surveys and sample collections anyway take place for various research programs across the world...then why not this?? People can, for a minimal fee, send their DNA samples to laboratories for testing and genetic analysis, so why not allow the sale of these kits? Is it not up to the customer to think what they want, need, require and find useful??

Gravity defying ramp

Found this in a news article in Nature where they talk about the Best Optical Illusion of the Year. The winning illusion makes downward-sloping ramps appear to run uphill :)

Watch it here:



The competition, hosted by the Neural Correlate Society, is the "Oscars of perception," says society president Susana Martinez-Conde. The trophies are themselves visual illusions — wooden sculptures that look vastly different depending on the observer's point of view.

Now, isn't that cool!!!

I like what one finalist says..... "Illusions are cool and fun, but they're important because they are mistakes of the visual system that give us clues about how the underlying processes work when they're functioning properly."

Funny workings of the brain!

ISS-Atlantis transit over Sun

Image of the solar transit of the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle Atlantis 50 minutes before docking, taken from the area of Madrid (Spain) on May 16th 2010 at 13h 28min 55s UT.




Photolink via : Discover blogs and Thierry Legault

Click on image to view enlarged version.

Hrithik on Fire

Just watched this song promo on TV from the movie Kites.
Love the feel of the music and Hrithik's dance moves are awesome. He has always been a good dancer; this video re-affirms it!!

Take a look:



Looking forward to the complete dance sequence :)

and here's the full song if anyone's interested:

You got to be joking....!

Seriously, would someone please assess the science reporters of Times of India before hiring them! or maybe just hire editors who make sure that the news reaching out to masses is not a distorted truth!!??
Here's an article from today's paper:

"Eat breakfast to have a baby boy"

The article boldly claims "Want a baby boy? Well, then eat full breakfast and fatty diet during early pregnancy, suggests a new study ", but very conveniently forgets to mention that what the scientist is actually saying  is that their hypothesis is that diet, either directly or indirectly (e.g. through hormonal changes in the mother), influences the nutrient conditions within the reproductive tract of an early pregnant female. These changes in turn could alter the relative abilities of either X- or Y-sperm to effect fertilization. Alternatively, an altered uterine environment might lead to preferential survival of embryos of one sex over the other. Also, that these preliminary studies have been carried out only in mice! and several experiments need to be done to decipher the actual mechanism!

Normally I would have brushed away articles such as these labeling them as "preposterous" or search articles giving scientific evidence for their claims (if there is any tiny curiosity as to what the original claimant really wants to say). But, a conversation with a non-science/biology background person involving discussion on the various "health" articles led me to wonder how much such "half-truths" influence people's thinking.

Eat breakfast and high fat diet for a baby boy!! Maybe we should leak this news to television mom-in-laws, their bahus will have a good time eating! :P

Cannes via Ebert

Roger Ebert has been tweeting (and blogging) from Cannes, and I'm reading every word that he types, trying to fool myself into thinking that I am at Cannes myself. :) This (and hopefully some other upcoming posts on my own blog, if not here) post is to suggest everyone else who might be interested and lukkha enough that following Ebert might be a pretty good way of keeping an eye on Cannes.

For those, who are interested but not lukkha, this post and others in the series will point to whatever I find interesting. If I am able to pique your curiosity about any particular movie etc, you can always head on to Ebert's blog later.

So far he has talked about a possible animated movie nomination for next year's oscar, a french movie by the maker of "The Triplets of Belleville" called The Illusionist; an english movie with a rather intriguing concept directed by Hideo Nakata, the director of "The Ring", called Chatroom; the "Wall Street" sequel by Oliver Stone, called Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; and a korean movie called The Housemaid.

Out of these The Housemaid seemed pretty interesting to me. Ebert mentions that some people are already speculating that it might be a frontrunner for Palme d'Or, though it is still quite early in the festival. Ebert's synopsis -

It takes place almost entirely within the huge modern house of a very rich man, and centers on the young woman he has hired as a nanny. It involves the man, his wife, his daughter, the older woman who runs his household, and the mothers of the wife and the nanny.

This is a house where living is an expensive form of art. The couple are smooth, calm, sophisticated. They value themselves very highly. The nanny forms a bind with their 7-year-old daughter, and assists the wife during a pregnancy with twins. More than that I choose not to specify.

But look at the mastery of the film's construction. The nuanced performances. The implacable deliberation of the plot. The way the house acts as a hothouse to force the growth of anger. And the film's unforgiving portrait of people damaged by great wealth. This is a thriller about the ideas people have of themselves.

The trailer is pretty exciting too. Thrilling, as the movie promises to be, with some pretty good music and interesting look.



This is another South Korean movie that seems exciting, after Mother that released earlier in the year and is one of the best movies that I have seen in 2010 so far. Hmmm... I should write about Mother one of these days.. perhaps for my individual blog.