My opinion – most influential people in 20th-21st century

It has been a while I have last updated by blog. But I am hoping that I will keep putting my Hawa Thuts moving forward. Anyway, I just happen to watch documentary on George Foreman, and I am darn impressed with this guy as boxer, as social worker and as business man. And I started put down the list of 20 most influential people in 20th century and unfortunately George Foreman didn’t make a list.

Here goes my list. Have your say.

Mahatma Gandhi
Albert Einstein
Pop John Paul
Charlie Chaplin
Micheal Jackson
Bruce Lee
The Beatles
J.F Kennedy
Nelson Mandela
Mohammed Ali
Princess Diana
Pele / Maradona
Mother Teressa
Ophray Winfrey
Bill Gates
Barack Obama
Led Zepplin /Rolling Stone
Bill Clintons
Yasser Arafat
Stephen Hawking

Slumdog Millionaire – the winner with a unjust controversy

The one of the most unjustifiable controversial movie in India Slumdog Millionaire is a big winner in Oscar today.  The reason I say unjustifiable is because it doesn’t really make a sense to me why there has to be controversies. Just because one Brit dares to explore the subject based on reality that Indian Film never would have thought about? Is it because they can’t make movie to that standard or make a movie without copying a foreign movie? I doubt majority of Bollywood Film makers would even have brain to think at that level of creativity to come up with such a gripping subject. In fact they could do is sit on their ass, rewinding a foreign movie thousands times to make a another bollywood version. Do these guys even know about plight in their nearby slum until they have watched this movie? Instead of whining it would be far more justifiable if these people extend the help to the children from the Slum. But wait, this is Goras’ job – when it comes to helping the need one. I am sure since this movie has been so noticed; westerner will definitely pour their help to the children of the Mumbai Slum.

Now Slumdog with 9 oscars with the best picture award the same people bashing Boyle and A.R. Raheman will now consider them a true genius. Boyle will no longer be a Gora while Rahman will become a Jewel of the country (indeed he already is – there you go bollywood at least you have one thing to be proud of A.R. Rahaman). I don’t know what exactly is this – “Hypocrisy”?  

Ghajini – Hit or Miss?

Honestly, I haven’t yet watched Christopher Nolan’s Memento but I watched Ghajini, “the first day first show”. Given the hype of the movie I was not slightly captivated in the movie (may be because I went to this stinky theater that I had to tolerate for 3 long hours).

I have heard that Memento is one of the masterpieces. IMDB rating is among the All time Top 100. Now here is the copy of it – Ghajini, may not be exact copy but few sequences and concepts. But copy is copy anyway, and not to be surprised, some Indians never admit it – be it music or movies. What surprises me the most was – the Actor in the lead role, Aamir khan, with his stature became the part of this plagiarism.

Now, I want to keep Momento out of equation and try to put my honest opinion about Ghajini. This movie is out and out the bollywood masala with everything in it – song, comedy, tragedy, feel-good-ending, action and flawsJ. Flaws? Absolutely, that’s what I just said. What exactly this movie is about – is it “the guy with short term memory seeking revenge on his girl friend murder”?  As the matter of fact this whole business of the 15 memory loss thing doesn’t hold grip to the story, so much so, that most of the time I have to remind myself – “oh this guy have short term memory”.  The biggest miss in this movie is the story and screenplay which is very loosely written with no direction towards that concept. I can feel the writer could have been writing not just while he was watching Mememto, but he could have possibly watched “Kill Bill” as well.

Besides story, acting is well delivered by the lead actor and the actress. But villain looks like a joker to me. He doesn’t have good dialogue to deliver and irony is this movie is title after villain’s first name. Also some sequences such as the cop is in this guy’s house and reading the diary, the business man being portrait like a don, always being accompanied by his more henchmen than associates, this irritating medical student who doesn’t even look like matriculated and few others are hard to digest.

Compare to some of nonsense bollywood flicks this is OK movie if you just stick to the action, aamir and enjoy some twist. Else this story has been told so many times that anyone can come up with the movie with different twist but the conceptually same story – wallah there would be another movie called “Rajini”. You won’t regret for not watching until it’s the DVD arrives. Given the fact Aamir has movie like Lagaan and Rang De Basanti, Ghajini should be below par.

Election 2008 – one more day, who will be the next?

The election campaign has now headed to final stretch. Two days remain for the verdict – but who will win? I have been paying little attention to this election though I couldn’t even vote. I have been reading news, blogs and have been listening to interview from few political pundits. Some of them seem to have little biasness in their opinions (I am not going elaborate what kind of biasness). Then there are polls result from different sources which are showing Obama still leading McCain over 6-10 points. Again the poll results vary depending on the source that did the survey.

I am neither a political scholar, nor I know anything in profound – but here is my simple thought on who will be the next president of United States of America, and on what ground he will be. You can call it my hunch or the honest opinion from deep down my heart.

Again this is just a thought and I do not approve this thought J. Do not come back to remind me how wrong I was.

I think – Barrack Hussein Obama will be the next president of United States of America. I am not predicting this on what I have seen in the polls. In fact whatever polls are saying, I think McCain is no match to Obama in experience and guts. McCain is so much so capable to run country as president than anyone I could think about. Despite the fact that what McCain has and has to offer to the country he will lose the election, poor McCain.  

Having all said, on the other hand Obama is not an easy opponent to McCain either. If he is capable of slamming Hilary Clinton, he would be equally hard on McCain too. In spite Obama’s lack of experience in political arena his charisma, personality and intelligence has brought the new wave among young American and to the date he has stand very prominent political figure among large American.  Even, if I have to factor in all eminence or quality he has – McCain would have won the next president but (again) he will not. Here are the few things how old chap provided a competitive advantage to Obama.

1.   The worst decision that McCain had ever made was – choosing America’s hockey Mom as his running mate. That would (maybe) make someone think on what ground his decision as the President would be any good.

2.   He is little too old – which wouldn’t have been problem if he had equally strong VP. American can’t imagine the country being run by Sarah Palin.

3.   He spent lot of his time convincing others on how inexperience Obama and ironically picking the most inexperience and ignorant Sarah Palin for VP. Then his comments and opinions on Obama become questionable.

I think in US Presidential election, regardless of what – democrats vote for a Dem nominee and republicans vote for GOP nominee. But the outcome will base upon who the independent voters will vote (I may be wrong but this is what I think). My point is McCain has done so much so damage to his credibility by choosing Palin as his running mate that would cost him losing independent voters. Then this is where Obama will emerge as the President of United States. Did you get my point?

2008 Election map – My prediction. Find what yours

This is what I have predicted. I think NPR shows the clean sweep on Obama’s favor – 286 Obama /163 MCCain electrol votes – that’s I think little too much of miscalculation which I believe, other’s may vary.

Find out what is yours @ http://www.npr.org/news/specials/election2008/2008-election-map.html#/president-nprOvM/

Incredible Green Hulk

I shouldn’t be talking about any movie in this economic turmoil but what the heck, I just watched The Incredible Hulk which has just been released in DVD. Being a hardcore super hero’s movie fan, I deliberately waited for this one until it came in in DVD and I think I made a good decision.

This is the second attempt on the Incredible Hulk movie. Has this been any better than the first one? Yes and NO. The first one with Eric Bana was very badly executed good storyline. The second one is better in visual and score – The green monster looks somewhat real this time. Other than that I didn’t find anything interesting about this movie – I like surprises in Superhero but there was none. Have you watched the trailer of this movie? Yes, the whole story is in the trailer. I knew in the first 10 mins what will be coming out of the movie.

About the character – Edward Norton is wasted in this movie.. This is not his movie and he shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Liv Tyler, she has nothing to do other than running after after Bruce Banner, I didn’t even notice her at all. Tim Roth as Major Blonsky was OK.

This movie is not that good as compare to other super hero movies, given that, Hulk is very popular comic character. I know there are lots of people who know about Hulk more than Iron man – but to my surprise the second attempt of the incredible Hulk is still the under achiever. So, what I like about this movie is the end. Seriously just before the end when Tony Stark (The Iron man) appeared in some cameo role. At first I thought this could be plot to bring Hulk and Iron Man together which I would die to watch but again I thought it could be another commercial gimmicks. Sure it is.

Sarah Palin – Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

From the small town mayor to the Governor of Alaska and finally she is republican vice president candidate, Sarah Palin. As everyone might have, I had also thought McCain threw a big, fat political punch to Obama selecting this pretty Governor from Alaska as his running mate. And it appears to be the “maverick’s” decision as she made her presence very strong to the mass during Republican Convention in Minnesota and in few other gatherings. But soon after she’s been approached by media for interview I found her unbearable, embarrassing, stupid (nothing personal) – given that she is running for vice president of this country in November 08 Election. By any means I don’t even see if this lady was ever knowledgeable enough to be the Mayor, let alone a Governor or a Vice President.

I was astounded to hear Palin repeatedly making a dumb metaphor of the foreign policies to “looking Russia from her Window” and national security to “being her Son in US Army”. Now imagine if she ever has to pull the table against the leaders of rest of the world or she has to make decision of another bailout plan, given that she will be a President? Does she even know what exactly the recent bailout plan was about? This is how she dragged “Ultimately what bailout does is help those that are concern about health care reform… it gotta be all about job creation”. She never answer straight to any of the questions, be it a foreign policy, the recent economy or a national security – at least I didn’t hear relevent answer to any of these issue in any of her interview. Charles Gibson got lost in the blizzard of words, so do I :).

As the election is getting closer, McCain’s choice of his running mate seems to be a very poor decision. It has rather counter effected the McCain’s position, than people empathizing on Mccain-Palin. What I am still not clear is why Mccain picked her in first place? Just because she is pretty! Or to gain supports from evangelical! Whatever it is – it is a huge blunder and a great miscalculation. Some may turn to Mccain now and say “how stupid one is, to befriend with another stupid”. 

2012, Hoax or Havoc.

Based on Mayan long count calendar, the new age prophecy of Dooms day or the end of the earth is coming closer, i.e December 21, 2012. Just like everyone else I am little perplexed on what exactly is going to happen, how it is happening and how come Mayan knew about it, or perhaps they didn’t know about it?

Mayan civilization is known to be originated around Yucatan Peninsula in 2000 BCE, and it flourished between 900 BC and 1000 AD. Throughout this period Mayan practiced different types of calendars based on their needs. Perhaps, it is also found that they had used the combination of these calendars under certain circumstances.

Ok so what about Dec 21 2012, this is what I think from what I found from reading different books, resources etc. Dec 21 2012 is the end of the cycle based on Long Count calendar. It marks the span of 5,126 years era and that ends on Dec 21 2012. So, did Mayan really predict apocalyptic or did they really predict the new age with tranquility after Dec 21 2012? Honestly, I didn’t find whether Mayan had referred to the end of era and nowhere had I found where they had clearly indicated so called dooms day or tranquility. But what I found were the modern age prophecies based on Mayan calendar. And of course there are lots of very tempting explanation on what is going to happen in Dec 21 2012, but only few of them backed by scientific evidence, others are just trying to link the dots and seem more coincidental than fact.

Why Mayan calendars suddenly become sources for doomsday prophecies? Only logical explanation behind this is because of its complexity and accuracy. As the modern day astrologers deciphered the complexity of the Mayan calendar and discerned that the calendar ends with 5,126 years era, it was so obvious to come to conclusion on transition of civilization or earth itself.

Were Mayans the first to have the accurately calculated calendar? May be not! Long before Mayans had their calendar, Hindu’s Purana predicted 4 different cycles which could be the Galactic Cycle, Kali being the last one with time span  of 4,32,000 years. According to the great epic Mahabharata, Kali started around 3000 BC. So do we have evidence to support any kind of mammoth transition in earth just before Kali started? Not that I know of. I think it is just the end of some sort of cycle, analogy to which is, there is a day cycle as the earth rotates in its axis, a year cycle as the earth revolves around the Sun. Mayans could have referred it as Solar Cycle calendar just like Hindu calculated the Galactic cycle, and Mayan could possibly never have extended their calendar.

One thing is dwelling in my mind, if Mayans had such a notion of predicting the future, they could have possibly foreseen the Spanish conquest in Yucatan around 15^th Century?  At this point of time, since the end of Mayan calendar era is coming closer, it is open for any interpretation.  If I don’t have any logic to support my construal, then I can simply say some cataclysmic event will end the human civilization.

Hoax or Havoc, again it’s open for any interpretation.

 

Kagbeni, a good attempt to set a bad example.

It’s too late to comment about recent Nepali Movie “Kagbeni”, it’s been out for Six months already? But I can’t resist pouring some of my thoughts on how and where it would lead Nepali Movie.

Kagbeni is a good attempt to set a bad example of how one can expect the main stream Nepali Movie without buying the concept from Bollywood masala. But before pointing out uncountable flaws in the movie, let me pick on some of the good sides of the Movie. Unlike other mediocre typical 90’s Bollywood style Nepali movies, Kagbeni at least has a style of its own and managed to stand out from the others. The songs are almost non existent and still one can feel the Nepali vibes in it. This movie tries to explore the very existence of the remote beauty of Nepal, which is what I think is the strongest cinematography till date, except Himalaya. The art direction is good and authentic as story demanded. So those are the only things that I liked about the movie.

This is it. There are more flaws in movie to talk about than there are the good things. I didn’t expect much admired debutant director Bhusan Dahal would fail as the movie director, given that he had lots of video directions under his belt which were indeed very prolific contribution in Nepali Television Media. I don’t even know what goes behind making a movie but still I can tell all it takes is a good director. And I am not expecting it to be as good as Hollywood movie or even comparable to good Indian movie. But, I don’t know what went into the director’s mind while making this movie, it seems like the movie is so under developed. The first half of the movie revolves around 2 friends who are indeed the best friends but it looked like as if they just want to get rid of one other for no reason. That is at least what I got from their lame conversation and fake emotion. Was there even any kind of emotion? The second half was little better but there was lack of content. In an attempt to fill the time; the characters were staring at wall for no reason.

All along the movie there were some stupid scenes that didn’t even linked or referred to anything. Lots of time I even asked myself why there are the characters with no contribution whatsoever, like supporting lead actor having conversation with his Aunti and Grandma, the Lead actor having conversation with shopkeeper which doesn’t make any sense at all.

One thing director should have known that good movie definitely needs good acting, good script, good dialogue and relevant flow of the movie, which Kagbeni lacks the most.

Whatever it is, but Bhusan Dai has paved the new direction for Nepali Movie industry and everyone should at least thank him for that. He showed it can be done without buying the concept from our neighbor. This will definitely motivate our upcoming directors to follow the new approach. I hope to see good movies in Nepali Film industry.

My thoughts are nothing more than that of the ordinary movie goers.

Rock On ! Indian Movie

I just watched it. Same guy who directed Dil Chahata Hai, produced this one. So its an outstanding movie? May be not… Better than Dil Chahata Hai? Of course not. Dil Chahata Hai was one of the finest movies ever made in Indian Cinema History. The strong star cast gave life to the movie. Dil Chahata Hai was out an out commercial yet superb movie in every aspect – story, direction, acting, cinematorgraphy, you name it. So I hate to compare Rock On to Dil Chahate in that respect.

Oh well, I am here to put my views on Rock On.. Overall Rock On is a good movie, if not, far better than some of the latest commercially hit flicks. It is as different as Dil Chahata Hai and different than Dil Chahata Hai of course. The first obvious thought, that might come to someone’s mind is, it could be about friends getting together, breaking apart and again getting together, as promo had suggested. It is sort of like that but the motive here was different than the former one. It was Music.

The story really tried to articulate the band dreaming about being successful and then suddenly splitting apart and getting together for one last biggest performance – and it has succeeded in delivering what is intended, at least that’s what I believe. Here are no mediocre scenes unnecessarily. The music is in  place where it should be. And the best parts are concerts pictured as the best live performance. Seriously they should have made movie goers’ hands on the air.

So what exactly fails in here then? Without any doubt it is star cast. Only person who delivers the best was Arjun Rampal, he was superb, perfect as the egoistic yet struggling, frustrated guitarist, guilty husband and loving father. He has delivered to the fullest and did the greatest justice to all of his characters. BTW he doesn’t have lots of dialogue but his expression delivered everything the dialogue would have. He is the star of the movie.

Other than Arjun Rampal, 3 band members are so so. Faranh seems to be the lead actor in the film but I didn’t see him delivering any performance. Actually I noticed flaws in his acting even when he was walking, watching, not doing anything at all. Would I have muted the volume of my screen, looking at his expression I wouldn’t have known if he is frowning or happy. Sorry Faranh you are not made to act. Nevertheless, he stands still as a rock star flawlessly in all concert scenes.

Now music. I would just say Shankar Eshaan Loy, they rock. Really, really they rock. The music is outstanding. Again it’s different – but you should have taste of alt. rock to like it. I didn’t like Faranh voice, but who cares music was so good, a street singer would have sounded good as well.

The climax was exactly like DCH, and I didn’t see if there was any better way, than quickly summarizing the 4 band members. Had there been sobbing and crying over Keyboardist’s death in the climax, it would have sucked big time.

Not everyone would like this movie but for generation “us” this is a good movie.