Monday, November 29, 2010

Social Network - Review!

The tagline says - “You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies."

It is based on one of the biggest / famous social networking sites that has taken the world over by storm - Facebook.

It has a rating of 8.3 on 10 in IMDB.

And it is definitely one of the best movies in the recent times that I have seen. It’s definitely up there among one of the most interesting movies ever made, not only because of the fact that it is based on Facebook; but because it keeps you riveted all throughout.  

This is a movie that could have easily been tagged as a documentary or a business school case study had it not been portrayed so well. What works for the movie is the script. It’s intense and it’s brilliantly directed. There is no single time that the pace of the movie falters. It maintains the same steady pace right from scene one till the last scene. And it keeps you hooked. There are a lot of things going for the movie. The fine direction, the performances of the main actors, the dialogues, actually everything!

The actor who plays Mark Zuckerberg does his role exceedingly well. He is one guy to watch out for. Him and Andrew Garfield who plays Eduardo Saverin. They have both given fine performances and some of Mark’s dead-pan expressions in certain scenes are just too good. The dialogues help the movie keep the viewer’s attention in check. One thing that stands out for me in the movie is how the present situation as shown is interspersed with the flashbacks. Most of the times when a movie is shot this way, there’s a high chance that it can get botched up. But this one was superbly handled and it made the movie very interesting.

At the end of the day, when you look at it, without considering the tag of Facebook attached with it, it’s just a story of a college-going kid who wants to make it big and invents a social networking site that has a certain amount of exclusivity attached to it. It’s the story of the protagonists who struggle for social acceptance in one of the most prestigious institutions in the world. And this is something that most of us can relate to. They make mistakes. They learn along the way and then they invent something that now most of the world is hooked on. There is not one single scene in the movie which says that this person is right or that person is wrong. Instead, it’s left to the discretion of the viewers to come up with their own conclusion about the movie and its characters. And for a movie that has a controversial subject as its theme, Social Network does a fine job of doing everything just right. Not overdone. Not below par. Just right.

This one is a must-watch! 

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Long locks cut short..!!

Nice Feeling: - When the stylist cuts your hair the way you want it, blow dries it and it makes you look so good that you feel great. :-)

Not-so-nice Feeling: - When you wash it a day or two later and then it goes back to the original frizzy / wavy / curly / limp way it was before she styled it perfectly. :-( And no matter how much you try to restyle it the way she did it, it never gets that perfect look again!!

Getting a haircut is therapeutic!! Whenever I feel really down, I go get a haircut done…. But having said that, I am paranoid about getting my hair cut. I keep thinking, re-thinking, taking opinions from friends, finding out where I can go get a good cut done, etc etc…. I told you! I am paranoid about it. I always keep wondering what if it goes wrong and I don’t feel good about it and then I have to wait for it to grow back and live with it until it grows back!! Sounds familiar to anyone out there???

I had long hair until a few years back. Until a few years back, when I joined for my graduation and then I went and cut it all off.. I told my mom that I was going for a hair trim and went and got it all chopped off at the friendly – neighborhood – parlour. I still remember that day very vividly. My mom almost threw me out of the house. According to her, my long thick hair was the one good thing about me. Nothing else! :P Sometimes, looking back, I think she was right!! ;-) Oh and she did not speak to me for a couple of days. She was THAT pissed!!! But trust me; it was a pain to maintain it. A real pain! The whole process of washing it, drying it and all that took ages and when you’re in school/college, you don’t want to be spending your time waiting for your mane to get dry before you can go out! And then on it has always been short hair… through MBA tho’ it was a little longer than I would have liked, but when I joined work at Hyderabad, I got it cut short again! The fact that my parents would be seeing me only after 3-4 months was one of the factors that played a big part!! ;-) I had a good decent hairstylist at one of the Lakme parlors there and I was happy with the cuts she gave me! After that for a long time, my mom kept urging me to grow my hair so that I could have some decent length of it at my wedding. But after the wedding, the first weekend after I landed in Singapore, I got my hair cut again!

And that was where I met Bebe. She was the one who cut my hair that first time here in Singapore. I was walking around in this mall, looking and choosing options of where I can get my hair cut without it wiping out my wallet, and I narrowed in on this small salon that was crowded. So I went in there and asked the lady to trim my hair. She assigned me to Bebe and I felt so good when I saw the cut she had given me that I was up in the clouds for the rest of the day! And then all my haircuts have been with Bebe. Until we moved houses!! But even that did not deter me. When it was time for me to get my haircut, I went all the way to Bebe’s shop. Only the shop was not there anymore. :-( I searched high and low, looked for some glimpse of her shop at some place but did not find it. I was heartbroken. Ask my friend who accompanied me.. She was in splits looking at how despondent I was then! I still get my haircuts done! From a whole lot of places!! But no one has given me such a good cut as Bebe. And none of the cuts have made me feel that good. I miss you Bebe… !!!

Well, all said and done, like a lot of people, I have a love-hate relationship with my hair… some days, it makes me look the way I want it to, and some days it’s like a spoilt brat… much like me again!! :P

That’s the story of my tresses!!! ;-) But one of these days, hopefully, I will find a good stylist again who will give me the cut I want and then I shall be at peace with my mane!!

Monday, November 15, 2010

For want of a better phone...!!

I am looking to buy a new phone… change my handset to one of the newer models, one in which I can browse the internet and check mails on the go and stay connected with my friends and family… Ok! Yes! You caught me there!! I mean FACEBOOK!! ;-). Anyways, I just found out that this is not an easy enough choice to make.
You ask me why I want to change my phone!!!
Well.. It’s now got a mind of its own... Much like a moody person. Switches off and on, as it pleases. Draws up certain menus when I don’t want it to and altogether tries to tell me that it’s not going to listen to me anymore!! Of course the way I have abused it over the past couple of years, says a lot too. It’s been dismantled and put together again, thrown at walls, fallen down flights of stairs, been wrecked in general and still it’s almost rock solid. Notice how I said almost!! :P Yes.. These days, it functions also as a paperweight sometimes.
Some people I know call it a rock… others say that if it’s got a mouth, it would probably use up all the foul language it knows at me for treating it so… some others don’t like to take it in their hands for fear of contamination… or so they say. Trust me; my phone is not that bad!! It’s just been overused and now it needs some rest… oh you want to know which model it is… Sony Ericsson z550i!! Ever heard of it?? No?? Check this out!!
So coming back to my story, of wanting to buy a phone… I started trying to find a suitable phone… Every single day for the past 2-3 weeks, I have been trying to find a suitable phone… I narrow down on some model, and then I talk to someone or the other who changes my mind completely. Some suggest the iPhone, some HTC and so it goes on… And I am back at square one, right in the state that I started. Confused!! Then I go back to searching again… without any luck... It’s like a vicious cycle and I am still stuck in it… The heights of my inability to choose a phone became evident when I asked this friend of mine – a guy who’s interested in gadgets of all sorts and kinds – to help me choose a good phone. He directed me to this website where you could enter your specifications and then it tells you what phones are suited for you…
Guess what it told me!!
0 matches found!!!
That’s right!!!
That’s what it said when I entered in my specifications. Seriously!! At this rate I think they will have to manufacture a new phone just for me… lol.. :-)
And again we are back at square one!!
 I need a new phone and I am unable to choose one!!
Now what?? !!! ?? Any suggestions?? 

Grahanam - A review!

It has been quite some time since I penned something on this blog, and even longer, since I wrote a movie review. But there is no good time ...