New Bollywood Legends

Looks like bollywood is running out of Legends. The ‘Nautanki’ of Life Time Achievement reached a new height in this years Zee Cine Awards. They had no better choice but ‘Feroz Khan’. Thank god he was sober when he accepted it (Fardeen Khan did the ‘Honour’). Few years ago he made a scene at Filmfare when he showed up with Smita Thakarey to present an award, totally drunk.

So where is this going?? There must be some standards while presenting such awards. Firoz Khan has been around for a long time, but he has not done anything to deserve this award. If you dont have people to give this award to..dont give it.

Dhoom Dhadaka IPL

A lot has been speculated and said about IPL. A few things that I would like to point out-

1) BCCI has shown a severe lack of creativity while naming the franchises. Mumbai Indians is the least imaginative work in entertainment field since Main Prem Ki Diwani Hu. Again, repetition is irritating. Kings Punjab - Chennai Super Kings. Royal Challengers- Rajasthan Royals. Is that significant or just annoying?

2) Outfits-

• Kolkata- Good without the pads. Pads are really nasty
• Baglore- hLd-kuMkU combination with pink helmets…are you kidding me??
• Chennai- Cool….closer to Australian 1s.
• Mohali-Boring!!! The text at the backs is really scary.
• Rajasthan- Shri Lankan..weird to see Lehman in this outfit!!
• Delhi-Real nice!! Good combination.
• Hydrabad-not seen yet
• Mumbai- —–”—–

3) Ads of Godrej and Vodafone during the live telecast is a pathetic show of policy by BCCI and Sony.

4) At the inaugural ceremony, when Sachin was called up, he got a huge response from the crowd. They were chanting his name for next 5 min. It will be interesting to see when he comes to bat in Mumbai.

5) Vijay Mally seems to have bought another team that is going to start from the back of the grid.

6) But I was pleased to see Force India car at Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Chiranjeevi Bhava!

Star Gold has brought real gold for its viewers this month. They can relish a delicious feast of Chiranjivi movies.

I was fortunate enough to catch a few flicks- Bajarang-The Heman (its the hindi version…original is called Bajrang-The killer), Diler-The daring, Naya Don. Looking forward to Indra-The Tiger.

Chiranjivi is my favourite south Indian actor. Most of you must have seen his very famous Horse Skid and Tractor Fight

This trailer of Bajarang-The Heman takes this to a new level. The movie was a typical revenge story (it was kind of lame 1 too!) with Chiranjeevi touch. Action was, as you must have seen, out of this world. Believe me, he is a fantastic dancer. But songs were irritating with Sameera Reddy around. Movie had a full time character devoted to vulgar jokes. A pleasant experience!

icarMijaiva Bava!

MTV on U, Me aur Hum

1] This is in Fond Memory of U, Me aur Hum.

2] Kajol refuses to act in Ajay’s next.

3] Ajay refuses to act in Ajay’s next.

4] Rodies’ next task is to watch U, Me aur Hum.

5] Health minister says cigarette packs will come with new warning- U, Me aur Hum is injurious to health.

6] Jaipur student survives Jodhaa-Aabar…Doctors strongly advice him not to watch U, Me aur Hum.

7] Pirated DVD walas refuse to sell U, Me aur Hum.

8] Ajay blames stunt double for directing U, Me aur Hum.

9] Did you join U, Me aur Hum survivors’ group on Facebook?

10] Even Nyasa says movie not nice.

Chunky Pandey in news

We last saw him in Om Shanti Om where he claimed that he is the best actor, during filmfare award ceremony. ‘Kaun Om Kapoor? Chanky Pandey jeetega bhai!‘.

I was watching a song on Zoom TV and this news flashed at the bottom of the screen.

“Bangladeshi fan robs Chanky Pandey’s passport”

So?

That was my first reaction. But suddenly I noticed the important part…..Bangladeshi “FAN”???? Now thats a news!

But seriously, who on earth except from that chap himself would care about that? Or are there actually people out there who want to know these tiny useless details about utterly insignificant characters like him?

FilmyFare

Every year I watch the Academy awards and then decide not to watch our degraded award functions including Filmfare. But I invariably end up watching them. So this year I made no such decision and enjoyed Filmfare on a quiet Sunday evening.

5 years ago at Filmfare, King Khan SRK and Chhote Nawab Saif put up a great show with extreme arrogance toward the film fraternity. I have to admit I enjoyed it thoroughly. Next year, they did quite ok trying lamely to apologise for all the disrespect. For last couple of years, Filmfare was very boring and aimless.

This year, the duo was back with a bang and dominated the whole show. But the old charm seemed to have vanished this time. Some of the jokes were ok. But they seemed totally lost in their aim of insulting everybody. Their dialogues were not ‘Offensive’ enough. Saif was off the mark for most of the time. They were completely disoriented during the presentation of ‘Na-real’ awards. ‘Na-real’ awards to Vidya Balan and Ramesh Sippy were pointless. I liked only the one given to Akshay Kumar.

This year the traditional crown of ‘Show off business’ was forwarded from The Bachchans to the fresh couple- Saif-Kareena. The exhibition of ‘Love’ by Saif and Kareena was ridiculous.

The performances were as usual, totally useless, although they were fewer in number than usual. Himesh did his share of irritating people sincerely. Deepika did her 1st ever live performance. She did quite well.

Most of the awards were predictable. Everybody knows Aamir doesn’t attend award function. But I think he should have been polite enough to let the organizers use a clip from TZP during announcement of nominations. Instead, a note flashed across the scene saying ‘Clip was unavailable from the producer’. I think this was unnecessary.

There is always a talk amongst the celebrities that the nature of award functions should be changed radically. But no organizer is brave enough to do so. I think the reason is their mentality. They cannot think in a broader sense. This is why, barring a few exceptions, we have had some ridiculous entries from India to the Oscars in the past including this years Eklavya. Its not like we dont make good films at all, but the selectors conveniently forget about them for some unknown reasons. Instead of doing this just for the sake of sending an official entry, they should just declare “You people dont understand our great movies (Or rather what we think as great movies) so we dont want to compete at all. We are a class of our own!”

V for Victory!

They have done it. MS Dhoni will be the happiest man on the earth today. Team India sealed a comprehensive victory today at Gabba to win the CB series. And this is a very special victory considering the controversies that took place down under in last 2 and a half months.

According to me, there were two key point in both the victories in the finals. First of course was Sachin’s incredible form. He showed everybody, not for the first time, why he is one of the greatest Oneday player of all time. His smooth innings steered India to two stunning victories on the trot. He played well when it mattered the most. The second key point according to me was Bajji dismissing both Hayden and Symonds (He helped in Hayden’s run ot today). He couldn’t have proved his point better. I think he will be the most satisfied man in the Indian camp. Well done Bhajji!

Dhoni’s experiment with the youngsters can now safely be called as successful. All of them responded well to the opportunity given by the skipper. Gambhir did extremely well throughout the tournament. Ishant Sharma showed why he is worth $950,000 in the business. Uthappa and Rohit Sharma performed well under pressure. Pravin Kumar impressed everyone with 10 wickets in last 3 games. Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth could have done better but never mind!

Dhoni is a wise and bold captain. His presence on the field is very encouraging for the team. His bowling strategies worked like anything. He showed the spirit with his bat also. Future is bright for MS.

Aussies deserved this loss. They only behaved like champions, but did not play like ones. They tried very hard to distract Indians off the field. But did not succeed. Hehe! So to sum up, Australia are losers, on and off the field. Now they should concentrate on their game more.

This was the last game for Adam Gilchrist. What I admire most about this man apart from his wicket keeping skills is that he is one of those few cricketers who walks off the pitch when he is convinced that he is out. He has showed that time and again. Great sportsman spirit! I will miss him.

India plays South Africa starting month end. It will be a new team for tests in a new tournament. But lets hope that they continue to play in the same rhythm.

Its an Ad Ad Ad Ad world

During the CB tri-series, I was bombarded with all sorts of ads. I liked some of them, while some of them were very irritating. So I decided to rate them. So here u go-

(1) MotoYuva- Father scolding his son, son tunes in ‘Garam Masala’. Great idea. Amazing synchronization of dad’s actions with the music.(Especially the last bit..’Tune Jadu kar…Tune Jadu kar…Da…La’)- (5/5)

(2) Vodafone Alerts- Except for the 1 with husband waiting outside maternity ward, looking tense, waiting for scores.. I feel other ads were totally off the mark. (3.5/5)

(3) Bingo- Mad ads. Especially ones with the old doctor (Crash testing and pregnancy test). Other ads were also quite ok.(4/5)

(4) Pepsi- Deepika…(5/5)

(5) Fanta- Boring!! An idiotic trying to get his head banged. I dont buy stuff like that. (3/5)

(6) Havels- Touching ad of cables that dont catch fire. Fine ad of fans with the kidnapped guy. (4/5)

(7) Eclairs- Looks like a scene from Govinda movie. Swapnil Joshi n some girl with That 70’s look, come running in sunflower fields and BANG! Haad. (2/5)

( Center Fruit- Kaisi jeeb laplapai!! Humanized ATM. No electricity. No A/C. Nothing. Just a couple of guys and a centerfruit. Good thinking…but too weird. (3/5)

(9) Cream Fill Alpenliebe- Nice ad. Son mimicking his father in front of guests. Mummy-papa looking all impressed. Suddenly boy says”Papa Ghar me..”, takes of his shirt and starts washing it. I liked this 1. (4/5)

(10) Crab tree- Toilet fittings. Family bidding farewell to newly married daughter. Groom switches on or off her crying with an invisible knob. As simple as that. Not bad. (3.5/5)

(11) GMR- Getting India ready. Great ads. All of them. Family eating chillies, people trying to do Bollywood eeshtyle dance, a couple trying weird pronunciations. Very nice. (4/5)

(12) Karizma- Hrithik, his bike, some goons and mud. The most pathetic ad! I wont even bother explaining the part where mud transfer takes place.But seriously think about it. You are advertising for a bike. You are only showing Hrithik roshan in your ad. Nothing shown about bike except that you can use it to throw mud on anyone. Guys not interested in hrithik and know that its milage sucks. Girls will love this ad…but sadly they dont ride bikes! (0.5/5)

(13) Mentos- Evolution! Sahi ad! Great animation. Catchy background tune. Well done (4.5/5)

Ride on Cowboy!

There is a very obnoxious reality dance show on Zee Marathi…’Eka Peksha Ek’. The Mahaguru of the show is Sachin Pilgaonkar. And the host is Aadesh Bandekar. Now take a look at this pic.

Yesterday he was wearing this terribly made cowboy outfit. No need to explain the finer details to be focused on! His hat was missing in this pic. And imagine him walking like a cowboy with the standard background music of The good bad and ugly and making noises which sounded not entirely unlike gunshots aftre he announced a break.

I am not complaining abt the designer. People make all sorts of things under the name of fashion. But just bcoz they make it doesnt mean you hav to wear it. Mr Bandekar wore plus his stupid dialogues and childish acting made it worse.

24 at Daytona

Today I saw a new type of race. (new for me) It was titled Rolex 24 at Daytona. It was a 24hr stock car race on a closed track. Basically it was a typical NASCAR type oval track, only the space inside the oval was used to add turns (it had 14 turns according to the commentators). Teams were changing the drivers but still each driver was driving for atleast 2-3 hours at a stretch. It was 5.30am local time when i started seeing the highlights and there was not a soul inside the track except for drivers, crew and officials. So I thought for whom these drivers are driving for. People complain about Formula-1 being monotonous and boring (Forgive them O Lord!) , imagine there reaction on these kinds of races.

Later I learnt that this type of racing is called endurance racing. The purpose of this race is to determine who can drive farthest in a fixed time period, rather than the shortest time over a fixed distance as in most of the other races. Acceptable, I said, but still it is so boring! Rally races are fun because the tracks are damn good. But as far as I can see, no aim is achieved in this kind of racing than a very very long engine and tire test. Probably this was just a warm up session before the NASCAR season kicks off.

Oh and by the way, the winning team had a familiar face. Juan Pablo Montoya! Poor chap had to leave F1 because of inferior treatment as compared to Kimi by Mclaren. It was kind of cool to see him.