Lootera Movie Review - Poetry on Celluloid

Vikramaditya Motwane gained name and fame with his first movie Udaan which was a brilliant slice of life drama. His second outing is nothing short of a gorgeous poetry on celluloid. Motwane through is second film proves that he is here to stay.

Adapted from O' Henry's ' The Last Leaf', Lootera is an engaging tale that reverberates with emotions and passion and aptly shows the highs and lows of a relationship. Motwane makes no commercial considerations in the movie and makes a slow-burning and an awe inspiring movie.

The film is a period drama set in 1953 in Manikpur in West Bengal, a time of great upheaval in Bengal aristocracy. Zamindari system has been abolished and the Zamindar of Manikpuri (Barun Chanda) is about to lose it all. Varun (Ranveer Singh) walks into the zamindars family and impresses one all especially his daughter Pakhi (Sonakshi Sinha). Varun and Pakhi’s stolen glances metamorphose into love but Varun does the inevitable and disappears and as fate

would have it, walks back into Pakhi’s life when she almost makes up her mind to forget him.

Lootera has a classic look about it. The visuals, the milieu, the apparel, the way each and every character communicates at an easy going pace takes you back to the bygone era. The sparkling chemistry between the actors, storytelling, Lootera is a demanding film to make, but the accomplished storyteller does that so easily and comes up with such wonderful scenes that moistens your eyes at varied junctions.      

Ranveer and Sonakshi are both first rate. Each of these two actors is known for masala movies, but watching them in Lootera, no one would be able to believe that these are the two actors playing Pakhi and Varun. Infact, Sonakshi plays a well defined character for the first time in her career and kudos to her for carrying the role of Pakhi so magnificently. Ranveer in one word is fantastic. Playing such a character so early in his career is a demanding prospect and he does it so wonderfully.

The support cast irrespective of footage time, make their presence felt. Divya Dutta is good in cameo. Arif Zakaria is terrific. Barun Chanda, as a zamindar is top notch.

The music by Amit Trivedi and lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya is so poetic that it takes the movie to another level especially “Sawaar loon”, “Shikayatein” and “Zinda” which stand above the rest.

The cinematography by Mahendra Shetty is fantastic. From rural Bengal to white snowy Dalhousie to the very last leaf on Pakhis tree, each and every frame of Lootera is delight to the eyes.

On the whole Lootera is an earnest and heartwarming story that would stay in the heart for a long time to come. I am going with 4 out of 5 for the magnificent cinematic gem.

IPL 6 - The Super Heros and the Super Villains so Far

IPL 6 - The Super Heros and the Super Villains so Far 

The Indian summer during the recession year changed drastically. Not due to the economical conditions or due to sweltering heat but the cricket madness gripping the nation for 45 days at a stretch and giving the cricket crazy nation its daily dose of action, drama and entertainment, the heights of which that no saas bahu serial could ever fathom.

Now, as the sixth edition of IPL is almost halfway through, we can analyse the hero and the villains of this edition or rather in a cricket crazy nation the super heros and super villains who have lived upto their franchisee and fans expectations and those who have let them down.

The top 5 Super Heroes:

1) Chris Gayle: The list of heroes for sure needs to start with this man especially after that blazing 175 of just 66 balls including 17 sixes and 13 fours. Gayle has hit 34 sixes in the tournament so far and the next best is 17 sixes by Rohit Sharma, the feat of Sharma was achieved by Gayle in that single match itself. Astounding statistics. No wonder he currently holds the orange cap ( Which Mike Hussey might take it post the match against KKR)

2) Dinesh Karthik: Not in the reckoning and out of mind of the Indian selectors and publics mind, Karthik played some terrific knocks at the start of the tournament for Mumbai Indians to give them a terrific platform for the Pollards and Rohit Sharmas to build on. The IPL team can only have four foreigners in their line up so keeing that in mind, an Indian giving the impetus to Mumbai Indian side who are still looking for their elusive title comes as a welcome sigh of relief.

3) Sunil Narine: The "mystery spinner" has been a constant in KKRs dwindling fortunes at this year IPL journey. There are still many batsmen who are not able to read which way his deliveries would turn. Among the top wicket takers last year and still at top of the table this year, the West Indian not only insures that he takes a wicket or two but also keeps the run rate in check.

4) Amit Mishra: The leggie was out of mind of the selectors but with his hatrick and Bhajjis continued misfortunes may get him back in the reckoning. Playing the ideal folly to Steyn and Sharma by coming in as first or second change, Mishra has caste a spell this season with terrific leg spinners and googlies.

5) The Young Indian brigade: IPL teams can only consist of 4 foreigners thus, the young Indian brigade play a huge part in helping the team go over the line. Quiet a few youngsters have made a mark with bat, ball or in the field. Hanuma Vihari from Sunrises has shown great temperament to handle pressure situations, Gurkeerat was just terrific with that catch to dismiss Ross Taylor, for me that is still the catch of the tournament. Rajat Bhatia for KKR with his skill of bowling slow leg cutters and stopping the run flow and then contributing with the bat lower down the order adds balance to the KKR franchise. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has also been a revelation, the only silver lining in Pune warriors terrible show till now. His temperament was tested to the core when Gayle was going at full force and yet he came out with flying colours. He has been the find of this years IPL.

The other names who could not feature in the top 5 are: Mitchel Johnson, Rohit Sharma, Kohli, Vinay Kumar, Gambhir and James Faulkner.

The Super Villains:

1) RP Singh: Who bowls such a huge no-ball when two runs are required of the final ball. That was a mind blasting last ball by RP Singh that made Ravinder Jadeja come back into limelight. Even if one forgets that terrible outing, he hasnt performed as to the standards that skipper Kohli would have set for him.

2) Ricky Ponting: After not playing in the IPL for 4 years ( played in 2008 for KKR) Ponting and Sachins opening stand was one of the highest billed affair. Unfortunately, that affair fizzled out even before it started and add to that Ponting has been sitting out since last 2 games for MI. Fortunately, they have won both under Rohit Sharma.

3) Yousuf Pathan: The sorry run of the elder Pathan brother continues in this years IPL as well. It is hard to believe that the same player during the first 2 seasons of IPL contributed significantly for Rajasthan Royals under Shane Warne and has hardly scored runs with bat or bowled well to actually deserve a place in the playing eleven. Hope he comes good in the coming matches, if not for his sake atleast for his captain Gambhirs sake who has backed him throughout.

4) Adam Gilichrist: The captain who won the cup for Hyderabad in the second edition doesnt even look a pale shadow of the player that he once used to be. Getting out almost every time in single digit, Gilly has not only put pressure on himself but the team as well who rely on his electrifying starts to get going. No wonder Punjab is struggling at the bottom half of the table.

5) Sachin Tendulkar: Age is just a number for this iconic batsman. However, this year IPL thus far has shown that Gods falter too.Having just a couple of good scores and few bad ones and few unlucky dismissals, the master has been way below average by his own standards. Hoping for some fireworks from this little genius.

The other notworthy players who couldnt make it to the top 5 super Villains are this years highest paid player Glenn Maxwell for not making it to the playing 11 even once, Sangakkara, Cameron White, Harbhajan Singh and Murli Vijay.

Hoping as the IPL mania goes into the second half few villains achieve the highs of a hero if not super hero for their franchisee and the super heroes continue to do the good work.

Ironman 3 - Reviewed

Ironman 3 - Reviewed

Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Kingsley , Guy Pearce, Don Cheadle, Rebecca Hall, 

Director: Shane Black

The third installment of Ironman is the superhero's journey played by Robert Downey Jr of finding the demons he created and destroying them. The third installment takes cues from The Avengers rather than the second installment of Ironman and it works for the movie.

The movie starts with Tony Stark partying hard and ushering the new millennium in Switzerland, while the crowd waits with bated breathe just to understand how Tony creates his own demons. Flash to the present day where a new bad guy Mandarin ( Played flawlessly by Ben Kingsley) threatens to get the US government down post the attack in New York. Tony is mentally worn out and has anxiety issues to deal with. He is unable to get even his siestas, forget about sleep which strains his relationship with Pepper Potts ( Gwyneth Paltrow). 

Meanwhile, a good looking bio-tech and geneticist Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) teams up with Mandarin, so its super villains versus super hero and also along the way Tony Stark discovers his answer that secretly haunted him for all this while - does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

Shane Black takes over from Jon Favreau in this epic 3rd installement and makes Tony Stark more mortal than the first two installments. The 3d visuals are spectacularly shot. The cinematography along with the computer generated images and 3D merge seamlessly into frames making the entire movie watching experience amazing.

The actions set along with the stunts are breathtaking. The mid-air rescue operation (ala Dark Knight Rises) as well as the Iron Man suits either flying or fighting on their own is a visual treat for the audience.

Ben Kingsley adds a great comic dimension to this Chinese looking Osama-bin-Laden-esque villain. While Gwyneth Paltrow and Rebecca Hall have nothing much to display, Guy Pearce nails his character to the T. But it is Ty Simpkins as Harley, the smart kid who surpasses expectations with a terrific performance as a friend and ally to Tony and lays the foundation for the next sequel of the franchisee.

Overall, it is the grand canvas of Ironman 3 that is enough to engage the audience for 130 odd minutes and do wait for the end credits to roll on to get the surprise package of the movie.

I am going with 3.5 out of 5 for this installment of Ironman, go watch it to enthrall yourself on a lazy weekend.

KALQ – Now Faster Texting

KALQ – Now Faster Texting

Ever wondered, if QWERTY is typing made easy on a physical keyboard, than what should be the typing layout for touch screens? Well, as they say curiosity often gets the better of us. Something similar happened with researchers at Max Planck

Institute and the University of St Andrews and Montana Tech when they pondered over the thought of a keyboard layout which is more comfortable for two thumb texting.  And what evolved as a better and faster option is – KALQ.

What is KALQ?

KALQ is the latest development of a keyboard layout specially designed for two thumb texting. The research team worked on millions of different permutation and combinations before it finalized on the more superior of all – the KALQ layout.

It has made texting much faster than ever before on your touch screens. The trick to achieve this is to reduce the long sequences with a single thumb, says a researcher at Antti Oulasvirta. Reducing the sequence length meant minimizing the moving time of the thumbs.

The New Look- KALQ

KALQ has separated the letters in two halves. It has all vowels, except ‘y’ on the right side and KALQ in the bottom row, while the left side has more keys. There are 16 keys on the left side compared to 12 keys on the right each side including a ‘space’ key.

Typing Made 37% Faster

Today’s generation knows no waiting, and thus KALQ adapts to the faster generation enabling you to typing 37% faster than QWERTY keyboards. Your typing speed on touch screens today is significantly slower than your typing on a physical keyboard. It is because of the ease to tap on the letters is different when typed using all your fingers on a physical keyboard to using only your thumbs on a touch screen. According to researchers the average speed of typing on a touch screen using the QWERTY layout is 20 wpm, which will soon be replaced by a whooping 37 wpm.

Will the Legacy of QWERTY Finally Come To an End?

Now, the question that stands before us, with most of us switching over to touch screens is that will the legacy of QWERTY come to an end. I believe not, though KALQ is a great innovation and will definitely help us text faster yet there is time before QWERTY loses its sheen.

However, what would be really interesting to see is the speed by which we adapt ourselves to KALQ. Even though QWERTY is slower, it has now become habitual. Yet, KALQ provides great incentive to switch from QWERTY. So it might take some more practice before kids at schools and colleges can again start texting looking at the lecturer. Happy Texting the KALQ way!

Now Buy High Quality Music in a Click - YouTube

Now you can check out and buy music just like you shop for your clothes and accessories online. Yes. YouTube presents you with ‘Click to Buy’ option. So next time you watch a video you love all you need to do to make it your forever is simply Click on the ‘Click to Buy’ option. This brilliant feature was launched last year, in UK and US.

This latest addition not only helps the users to watch and store high quality videos but also helps their partners like iTunes, Amazon, EA, and EMI to scale their business to greater heights. Another advanced benefit in addition to all this is its contribution towards one of the most urgent tribulations in today’s industry - Piracy.

Know what is ‘Click to Buy’

You Tube now offer a ‘Click to Buy’ option below their videos; this program began initially in US and UK. It has been a great success model and is now being expanded beyond UK and US to Spain, Netherlands and Germany. This option enables users who like a video or song to purchase it. This way it’s a win-win for users, partners of You Tube, and industry at large; as users get the favorite video in high quality and partners get better business while the industry can slowly yet certainly get rid of the devil called Piracy.

Piracy – The Devil Within

Piracy has been since long eating up the industry from within. It is like cancer which is continuously spreading, and if not curbed will destroy the creativity and innovation of any industry may it be music or movies or any other form of art and literature. Every year piracy accounts for a loss of $12.5 billion in the music industry alone, with music being the least pirated items on the web. 71, 060 jobs are lost in USA every year due to online piracy. It results in a slash of $2.7 billion in worker’s earnings every year. Online piracy accounts for a whopping 95% of illegal music download which results in loses of billions. China (91%), Colombia (90%), Russia (80%), Malaysia (75%) and India (60%) are the top 5 countries where online piracy is massive.

The Bigger Picture

What is more important to understand is the bigger picture this small addition has brought out. It is well known that when you watch a video mostly music, trailers, tutorials etc you opt to see a video of high quality. You then later download an inferior quality video to store. This option of enabling users to buy a video they liked instantly will encourage users to buy the high quality video. This has a two way advantage, one the video downloaded is downloaded legally and second once users are encouraged and accustomed to high quality feeds they piracy industry will eventually cease to exist.

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Nautanki Saala! Review

Nautanki Saala – Review

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Kunal Roy Kapur, Pooja Salvi

Director: Rohan Sippy

The last couple years have proved that 'small films' [in terms of pricing] have big stories to tell with huge hearts. Recall films like DELHI BELLY, KAHAANI, PAAN SINGH TOMAR and VICKY DONOR, and one would agree that the content is the king.

 Rohan Sippy, who has worked with formidable names in his earlier endeavors, casts several relative newcomers in his new outing, NAUTANKI SAALA! Nautanki Saala is an official remake of the French film Apres Vous. Crafted on a small budget, has Ayushmann Khurrana and Kunaal Roy Kapur cast as the lead. Thanks to spot-on star turns by the two male leads, Ayushmann Khurrana and Kunaal Roy Kapur, and a stable flow of amusing, if not outright hilarious, comic punches, Nautanki Saala! is, in the main, a watchable film. 

Ram who portrays Raavan (Ayushmann Khurrana) – ha, ha, get the irony guys? – On stage is such a nice guy that he allows the portly Mandar (Kunaal Roy Kapur) to blow his life to smithereens. Seems Mandar is hopelessly in love with a florist sales gal (Pooja Salvi), but she isn’t, and so our Ram-cum-Raavan must play Cupid. The story is about a good soul Ram (Ayushmann Khurana) who saves a stranger, Mandar Lele (Kunal Roy Kapur) on the verge of suicide, post his breakup. Ram traces Mandar's ladylove, Nandini (Pooja Salvi) and then tries to befriend her so that he can salvage Mandar's gloomy life. But eventually he falls for Nandini (shown very crisply). Between emotions of love and guilt, he is left in a catch-22 situation.

The second half slows down a bit but to its credit, the film is showered with dollops of tongue-in-cheek humor, a pleasant change from the slapstick or nonsensical gags that most recent comedies have to offer. The theatre backdrop makes for a unique setup and Mandar's audition for the role of Ram and his subsequent stage antics make way for some hilarious moments. Nautanki Saala also boasts of one of the most side-splitting scenes in recent memory where Ram has to strike a conversation with a complete stranger in a restaurant. Ayushmann's comic timing along with the stranger's expressions in the scene is just priceless! 

Technically, the cinematography is cool but uneven. The songs in the second-half, marvelously composed but indifferently shot. The background music is as attention-seeking as it gets.

The camaraderie between Ayushmann and Kunaal is magnificent and the best part is, the roles are clearly divided. Situations such as trying to outdo the other, therefore, just don't arise. Ayushmann gets yet another demanding role and the actor, who impressed us with his acting skills in VICKY DONOR, casts his spell yet again. Kunaal is tremendous too. The actor, who scored brownie points with DELHI BELLY, is incredible.

Of the leading ladies, Gaelyn Mendonca [as Chitra] is most confident. Pooja Salvi could do better if she spruces up her acting skills, though she flaunts the vulnerable look well. Evelyn Sharma's presence is restricted to a few sequences only. Sanjeev Bhatt [as Chandra, the theatre producer] is a riot. He brings the house down every time he appears on screen, especially during the sequence when Kunaal is being auditioned.

I am going with 3.5 out of 5 for NAUTANKI SAALA! On the whole is uncontaminated, witty and amusing, offers an interesting premise with plenty of good laughs. 

What’s In The Name!

What’s In The Name!

So you know why is Google called Google and not googol (from which it was originated) and how was Accenture named, but do you know what’s Mercedes named after? Or what’s that symbol in the logo of Zynga? And why is the Linux called Red Hat Linux?

Read ahead to learn how these companies arrived at their names today, it is pretty exciting!

7-Eleven – The famous Convenience stores; renamed from "U-Tote'm" in 1946 to reflect their newly extended hours, from 7:00 am until 11:00 pm. I sure didn’t know that!

Adidas – No it isn’t All Day I Dream About Sports. Alas! I liked it that way though. It actually is originated from the name of the founder Adolf (Adi) Dassler.

Bridgestone – This one always puzzled me. I’m glad to have found the connection after all. It is named after the founder Shojiro Ishibashi. The surname Ishibashi (石橋) means "stone bridge", or "bridge of stone", and hence the name.

Coca-Cola – One of the biggest brand, stuck to its roots. It is derived from the coca leaves and kola nuts used as flavoring. Coca-Cola creator John S. Pemberton changed the 'K' of kola to 'C' to make the name look better.

eBay – eBay one of the most sought out websites by Pierre Omidyar, who had created this Auction Web trading website, had formed a web consulting concern called Echo Bay Technology Group. "Echo Bay" did not refer to the town in Nevada, "It just sounded cool", Omidyar reportedly said. Echo Bay Mines Limited, a gold mining company, had already taken EchoBay.com, so Omidyar registered what (at the time) he thought was the second best name: eBay.com

IKEA – The furniture giant came up its with names as a composite of the first letters in the Swedish founder Ingvar Kamprad's name in addition to the first letters of the names of the property and the village in which he grew up: Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd. Woah! That was some thought process I must say.

Kodak – No it isn’t the sound of the shutter of the camera. Both the Kodak camera and the name were the invention of founder George Eastman. The letter "K" was a favorite with Eastman; he felt it a strong and incisive letter. He tried out various combinations of words starting and ending with "K". He saw three advantages in the name. It had the merits of a trademark word, would not be mis-pronounced and the name did not resemble anything in the art.

Lenovo Group – It is a portmanteau of "Le-" (from former name Legend) and "novo", pseudo-Latin for "new". This Chinese company took over IBM's PC division.

 Mercedes – It came from the first name of the daughter of Emil Jellinek, who distributed cars of the early Daimler company around 1900. Now we know why is it such a beauty!

Mitsubishi – the name Mitsubishi (三菱) has two parts: mitsu means three and hishi (changing to bishi in the middle of the word) means diamond (the shape). Hence, the three diamond logo.

Oracle – If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you! This one is one of my favorites. Larry Ellison, Ed Oates and Bob Miner were working on a consulting project for the CIA. The code name for the project was Oracle. The project was designed to use the newly written SQL database language from IBM. The project was eventually terminated but they decided to finish what they started and bring it to the world. Later they changed the name of the company, Relational Software Inc., to the name of the product.

Reebok – Reebok is an alternate spelling of rhebok (Pelea capreolus), an African antelope. I’m yet to figure out the idea behind the logo though.

Red Hat – The company founder Marc Ewing while at college, was given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (with red and white stripes) by his grandfather. People would turn to him to solve their problems and he was referred to as that guy in the red hat. By the time he wrote the manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux he had lost the cap, so the manual included an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found. Now that’s touchy, isn’t it?

Volvo – It comes from the Latin word Volvo, which means "I roll". It was originally a name for a ball bearing being developed by SKF. Now that must a really proud ball bearing today.

Zynga – And finally one of the very inexplicable of names. Zynga was named after founder Mark Pincus's American bulldog, Zinga. So now we know what the logo stands for.

_{Source (Info) : Wikipedia}