Ra.One - A Review!!

So yes! 20 days later, here I am with a post again!

We saw Ra.One. Hey! We see all movies, good or bad don’t matter!! And we also drag our unsuspecting / sometimes-unsuspecting friends for them!! Especially midnight / late night shows!! Like Dabangg for eg!! ;-) I am not sure I have been forgiven completely for that one!! 

If you are the kind who keeps up with movies, Bollywood movies in specific, then you would have read umpteen reviews on it. One more is not going to make any difference! :P

We went for a midnight show here. That was how excited we were about the movie. Ok! Scratch that! That was how excited I was about the movie. I mean, think about it! For the last 6 months, if I am not wrong, ever since the Cricket World Cup, SRK with his blue eyes and a-la Iron Man look has been popping up in all places, even in Western Union money transfer ads. For crying out loud! For a moment there, I was wondering what the connection was! 2 slides in the whole “We wish to thank the following people” kind before the movie starts, was only about Ra.One’s brand partners. And there is a full truckload of them! Like one of my friends put it, 3 reality shows, 3 grand finales, same day on TV and SRK was a part of it all. Talk about Marketing!!

So there we were, 12:30 a.m. in the theatre, waiting to see what the hype was all about. And then after 2.5 hours realization dawned that it was all fluff and no stuff. And the worst part – Why bring Rajnikanth into this? Seriously!! And why did Rajni agree to do this? Why oh why!! It was more like a – I have Rajni in my movie and I need to put in a scene with him somewhere! Slightly insulting, if you ask me!

So there is a noodles & curd slurping, ‘ayyayyo’ Tamil speaking geeky scientist, Shekhar Subramaniam, his wife – Kareena, who’s working on a thesis about swear words and a smart-alec kid who likes villains more than heroes. Ok! I am not going to list out the movie here scene by scene since it’s been done to death everywhere else on the net. Here are my thoughts on the movie.

·         SRK Sir – please kindly stick to romantic films or films like Swades, Chak De India! You rocked in them! In this movie, the rocks were better off. You Sir, do not make a good ROBOT. Chitti is CHITTI and G.One is just GONE… !!! :P :P

·         Kareena Kapoor looks smokin’ hot in the ‘Chamak Challo’ song! The song by itself is catchy. And her few minutes of wickedness were awesome. I am tellin’ you, she will do well as a villain. She has that wicked look down pat.

·         Arjun Rampal. He looked very good. Menacing and Evil. He looked the part and he acted the part. And in most scenes where he was, he owned the scene. The chap who played Akashi – Good work dude!

·         Some of the special effects were pretty darn good. And the sound effects – AWESOME! Background score – not so much!

·         Emotional scenes in a sci-fi movie have to be kept to a bare minimum. It ruins the pace of the movie. What could have been a damn good sci-fi movie is brought down by the disjointed emotional scenes and the awkward jokes.

·         SRK – please stop the sliding on the floor arms stretched as if to hug someone. It doesn't belong in this movie. Looked really stupid if u ask me. And please, why did you choose to be a Tamilian of all people? You struggled with the language. It broke my heart to see Tamil being mutilated like that. Yes! I am partial like that!

At the end of it all, Ra.One is nothing but a mish-mash of Terminator 2, Iron Man, Matrix and most of the super hero movies out there.

If you have watched them all, you are not missing anything here.

PS: Did anyone else notice that G.One read as GONE!! :P :P

How old am I?? Apparently not very!! :P :P

So I came across this site while I was blog-hopping!!

www.urlai.com – it’s a site that analyses your blog !!

Of course, I had to analyze my blog url as well…

And this was the result..

"My Expression!! My Life!!"

"Text analysis"

"aishwarya-ananth.blogspot.com is probably written by a female somewhere between 13-17 years old. The writing style is personal and happy most of the time."

You don’t believe me!! Check this!! http://urlai.com/url/aishwarya-ananth.blogspot.com

Sigh!! So, that’s what my writing style comes across as – teenage, adolescent. Wow! Brilliant! Just brilliant! And I thought I had crossed that bridge ages back!! Double Sigh!! :-(

Oh well.. So long as it is young!! :P Maybe this is the silver lining I gotta look out for! ;-)

A post that is as random as random gets!!

Yoo-hoo… Anyone around??

Sigh! I thought as much! Hmmppff..!

Come back! Come back! See I have put up a post.. ...

This is the worst case of blogger’s block you’ll ever see.. Me that is! I have no ideas in mind, nothing eventful to share, no news at all.. Blank! Zilch! Totally clean slate here!!

Ah yes! You might ask now why I called you all back saying I have put up a post..

Err..! Would it be very cheesy if I said that I missed blogging despite not having one single thing to write about… yep! I can see you nodding yes!!

By the way, just to remind you all, my blog turned 5 on Sep 10.

Yes! That was a couple of days back and yes I missed it! No need to point that out to me.. I feel guilty as it is!

You know every time September rolls around; I know that one of the dates in there is my blog’s birth date (exactly as cheesy as it sounds)… and I always miss it. And I always have to figure out whether I am putting up the right number of years. I end up doing all sorts of weird calculations. I was not so sure whether this year my blog turned 5 or 6. Well, I was never really good at math anyways!!

In other news here, I bought a new phone. Technically, my husband bought it for me. Its Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc and no sooner than I had bought it, I had to give it for servicing.. For some strange reason, the screen kept popping out. But now I have gotten it back after servicing and all’s well for now! Fingers crossed…

I also went to a couple of book sales here and realized that I hate book sales. Point to be noted, I love books but I hate book sales. The whole concept of hundreds of books just lying there in cardboard containers while people rummage through them is so not my scene. For one – Claustrophobia!! Yes! Too many people milling around for you to have a peaceful look through. Nope! Not my cup of tea at all. The one book sale that I thought I might find something good turned out to be an event that was more crowded than the Kumbh Mela. Not that I have been to the Kumbh Mela, but you get the drift!! There was one single queue to bill the books at 4 different counters and that one queue was like a mile long, with loops in concentric circles. Yes! I am not kidding!! It’s exactly as complicated as it sounds. I scooted from there as soon as I could find my way out. Phew! Too crowded! I hate crowds! I’d much rather go to a nice book store and pay a little bit extra but find the book I want in a peaceful place.

Oh! And I saw that movie – Mankatha. Interesting concept! I could not figure out where the heck the movie was heading until the last scene. Which by then was the whole clue to the puzzle types. Ajith is literally in full form and all over the movie, what with this being his 50^th movie! He looks good in that salt ‘n pepper get up! Good movie! Or at least worth a onetime watch! That also reminds me, I saw two good Malayalam movies – Salt ‘N Pepper and Chappa Kurishu! Malayalam cinema seems to be testing unchartered waters… Chappa Kurishu is one helluva movie!

Right! So that’s the most random post that you will have read in recent times! So now you know that I was not kidding about my bloggers block! I am honest about such things, if not anything else! ;-)

So with that ladies and gentlemen, I take your leave for the moment…

I shall be back soon… famous last words!! :P :P

Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers!!

So I lost my phone. Yes the same phone that I kept bragging about here. Looks like someone up there thought I was into it a little too much! So there you go! I lost it!

There I was returning from a well-played hour of badminton, super-happy in my winning 3 games out of 4 (looks like I never learn about bragging! Hmm!), and I left the phone in the cab. Funny how these things happen, eh! And usually, I am not a careless person. I take care of my things with a maniac like precision! Serious! The cab driver hurried me into getting out of the cab, I had like a pile of stuff in my hand and thus the phone that was almost-always a part of my arm got left behind! And of all the days that I get a receipt for the cab ride, that day I did not! Mr.Murphy was right with me!! And the worst part!! I noticed that I did not have my phone the minute the cab revved up and left… I looked it like I was looking at my best friend speed away! And then I sprinted like Usian Bolt up to my friends place and started pulling out stuff out of my bag in a bid to see if my phone was there somewhere. See in my mind’s eye, I still could not believe that I had left it in the cab. 

Anyways, what followed after that was a couple of hours of calling my phone, filing reports with the police, the cab company, calling up the bank to see if we can trace the cab through my payment transaction id, changing required passwords, etc etc. Nothing helped, of course! Now I am back to using my old phone, the same old Sony Ericsson… Sigh! My contact list on the phone has exactly 10 numbers, close friends and family! I do have a backup of my old numbers, but I am much too lazy right now to enter all those into my new sim card. I feel handicapped sometimes without the 3g. I was addicted to it, to say the least. I am back to using my 1 GB mp3 player.  The one that I got with my first ever salary!! Sure, using the old phone and the player brings back a lot of memories. :-)

The next day after I lost my phone, I was searching for it on my side table the first thing in the morning. Yes!! It was my alarm clock, my music player, my connection to the world, all rolled into one! Right! I know it is just a phone, I know I can replace it with something else; I know there are always alternatives to staying connected! But I also know that I miss my phone and I miss it in my hand! It felt right there! Go ahead; call me a loony-bin! I don’t care! So much for the melodrama eh! :-P

Well, until the search for a new phone ends… the rock-solid (literally!) Sony Ericsson and the sturdy old Philips player it is!

The end of the 10 day challenge. Last 4 days in one post! Phew!

Oh my god!

This has to be the longest anyone ever took to complete a 10-day challenge! Damn! And I thought it was going to be easy, and good for me, because it’s talking about myself for 10 days! I mean who would not have liked that! Turns out it’s not as much fun as I thought it would be. For one, it’s unbelievably boring! Talking about myself I mean! I simply have to rack my brains to think up of stuff to write and at the end of it, I feel like I am back in school, filling up a slam book. Maybe it’s just not for me. Kudos to all you others who took it up and finished it on time too!

So here I am completing the challenge all in one go! In one post! And may that be the end of it!

Day 7 - Four Books

Book 1: The Godfather! I can go on and on about why I love this book and how dreamy I find Michael Corleone. Actually Michael Corleone. Enough said.

Book 2: Books on hindu mythology. The latest in the pack being – the Immortals of Meluha! And add a whole lot of other books like  - the Palace of Illusions, The Pregnant King, Ashok Banker’s Ramayana Series, The Mahabharata etc to it!

Book 3: I have said this before and I will say it again. The Harry Potter Series. You gotta give it to that woman for the imagination that she has! I know a lot of my friends criticize the book, but its one of the best things that has happened to the literary world! Whats the world without a bit of fun, fantasy, magic and villains?

Book 4: “There is a song for every dance – Mridula Martis”. The book is about a lady who quits her high-paying job and goes to learn dance! And then starts a dance school! Need I say more?? And she gets a dancer tattoo too!! :-)

Day 8 – Three Films

Ok! This is HARD!

Random choices off the top of my head!

1 – Memento.

2 – Social Network. 

3 – Manichithrathazhu. Love the movie. Can watch it n-number of times. But only the original.

Day 9 – Two Songs

Ok! Again randomly

1.     It’s the time of my life – Dirty Dancing

2.     Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji – Ishqiya. (Haunting song and lyrics!)

Day 10 – One picture.

Here you go! I am putting up two pics here. Yes, I am vain like that! I love both these two pics! Both clicked by friends at various times! I normally am not very happy with the way I look in pics but these two I love!

Thank you Dileep and Manu! :-)

Pic 1 - Clicked by Dileep

 Pic 2 - Clicked by Manu

Ah it’s done! The 10 day Challenge is over! 

Phew! 

The Ten Day Challenge: Day 6 - Five Foods!!

Day 6 - FIVE FOODS

Yes! When you look at me, it will look as though I don’t eat much! Actually I don’t.. But whatever I like I eat quite well!! 

This is gonna be a short post… here goes!

1.     Idichakka Poduthuval – ‘Idichakka’ is tender jackfruit. Idichakka thoran / poduthuval as we call it at home, is a mouthwatering dish when it is prepared well. It’s quite a tedious and messy job cleaning up the jackfruit but the taste compensates for it all.  

2.     Fried rice and Gobi Manchurian – An all time favorite. It’s a standard order when we go to Indian restaurants.

3.     Grandmom’s Potato curry – I have no idea how a simple dish like this can be turned awesome. And I still can’t get it right even when I try my level best. All she does is fry up the potatoes till its golden brown and I can never quite manage to get the same taste how many ever times I try! She makes it all the time when I visit her in Coimbatore and serves it simple rice and ghee. Tastes divine!

4.     Mom’s Vegetable Pulao – Love this! Of course this one I never tried making. Too much effort and I am as lazy as they come!

5.     Curd Rice and Egg Omelets - :-) This combo rocks! :-) 

The Ten Day Challenge: Day 5 - Six Places!!

And now its day 5 – Six places!

Ok! Frankly I don’t know what this refers to! Whether its places that I love to be in always, or places that I loved going to, getaway places, or just ones that capture my fancy!

I am going to put here 6 random places from my list because I have a lot of places that I love going to depending on my mood and they all won’t fit here on the list!!

Here we go!

1.     Meenakshi Gardens – Rajagrha! :-) Also easily referred to as ‘kalam’ or the ‘farmhouse’!! It’s the place that I spent a bit of my childhood in and I love this place! It makes me feel all good and nice and warm whenever I visit there… lots of trees, and some amazing memories!

2.     Home @ Sumukham. There’s a place that I never get bored these days at! Probably because I don’t get to visit and stay there as much as I would like! Yes! I miss home!! Don’t rub it in!

3.     Hyderabad! I love that place for a whole lot of reasons. :-) The first flat that we all stayed in, the subsequent move to a PG, the office anecdotes …..

4.     The best place for a getaway for me is a place where there is a lot of quiet around, lots of calmness, lots of trees etc… Ashwin’s home at Kerala is one such place. It is very calm, lots of greenery with a river running along the backside of the home and when it rains, you feel like you are in a hillstation! :-)

5.     Singapore. If I ever had to leave this place, I would miss it sorely. There are so many memories associated with this place, good bad and ugly. But the good outweighs the bad so there’s that! All thanks to a great bunch of awesome friends! :D

6.     If there’s one place that I would be in, given a choice, it would have to be INDIA. Any place in India works as long as it’s India. No I am not saying this because I am fiercely patriotic or anything like that. But I love being in India. I love everything about it. I will crib and complain and be disgusted at a lot of things about it but it’s still home in a larger sense and it’s the place that I want to go back to after my “around the world in a few years”  :P :P