Aamir (2008)

Rajeev Khandelwal as Aamir Aamir is a tantalising story of a young man who gets trapped in an intriguing web of crime. Rajeev Khandelwal makes his big screen debut after enjoying huge popularity on television with soaps like Kahiin to Hoga and Left Right Left.

Aamir Ali (Rajeev Khandelwal) returns to Mumbai from London and is rather unwelcomed by the immigration officer. His polite demeanour notwitstanding, the religiously biased officer is bent upon harassing an innocent man because he’s a Muslim. The real drama starts to unfold outside the airport when two suspicious bikers hand him a cell phone and speed off. The gentleman on the phone wants Aamir to follow his directions in exchange for the freedom of his beloved family. The ordeal similar to a treasure hunt leads him to the ghettoes of the city and makes him puke disgustedly at the living conditions. In an attempt to win over his emotions, the voice mentions the purported brutality of the majority community over the Muslims in India and across, how the Muslim brethren globally are financing the jung and how Aamir, who’s name literally means a leader is not caring for his kaum and fighting for them. It’s shown while the man on the phone eats and drinks merrily in his chambers, he ensures that the terrified Aamir is made to run across the city without food, water or any respite. It’s clear that this racket of terrorists is well organized and is dedicated to mislead the Muslim youth into forcing them to commit serious crime.

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Sarkar Raj (2008)

Before I start to say anything about this movie, I must make a note of a few things that occurred with Ram Gopal Varma, the director of the Sarkar series. Last year he took the liberty of remaking one of Indian’s best known cult movie called Sholay (1975), aptly titled Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag. It was hardly a coincidence that it crash landed at the box office. What followed later was even spectacular and not astonishing for the class of media publicity that we sometimes prefer. He was mocked and scoffed at every awards function, FM and TV program, even flash animations were utilised to depict the “torture” inflicted by his imbecilic work. He was in short, written off by the media at every level. Since I come from a creative background, I could understand Ramu’s dilemma. In his zest to recreate a 21st century masterpiece he forgot he was toying with a movie that many in India consider to be a landmark film in cinema. At the same time it could only take the guts of a man called Ram Gopal Varma to even attempt something like this. Don’t forget that his CV has the colurful Rangeela (1995) that launched the careers of many including Urmila Matondkar, Raat (1992) and Bhoot (2003) that were successful experiments in the genre of horror while his Shiva (1989), Satya (1998) and Company (2002) showcased his class in making gangster movies. It’s unfair then to judge the likes of Ram Gopal Varma (RGV) with just one ‘Aag’ from his ‘Factory’.

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Simply Putting Matters Off

I realized that I have not written on my blog for a month now. You might wonder what the matter is. It is just that I have mastered the art of developing excuses for postponing matters. Things seem to be back on track after I came across this article and realized I needed to do something about my behavior.

Over the past month, a lot of things have occurred around my natural surroundings; some not worthy enough to be mentioned publicly. To begin with, I had started to write a short love story which I managed to complete half-way and paused at a point when it became interesting. It’s too early to say if I have abandoned the idea but I have managed to put it off under the pretext of my ever increasing “mood pangs”. I have often put my work off by saying I do not get enough time which is not true. I have plenty to do but as I said I have learned to postpone things for unexplained reasons.

My daily exercise routine is another victim of my laziness. On early mornings I find it difficult to motivate myself to get out of the coziness of my blankets and work out those muscles to keep healthy under the pretext of sleep and rest. Somehow I think I need to push myself a bit more than I usually do (if at all I do) to kill this pest called procrastination. Let’s say for encouragement — if I am able to respect my personal commitments and time, I am also bound to do well in my professional career. And now I feel nice to have pushed that button and publish this post. I must say thanks to Cindy Loughridge for writing this eye-opening article. Thanks so much Tina.

Mumbai Indians: A Story of Hope and Despair

Mumbai Indians Official LogoMumbai Indians lost horribly by 10 wickets against the Deccan Chargers yesterday. Gilchrist struck a mammoth 9 sixes for the Chargers scoring the fastest hundred of the tournament in 42 balls to blow the Indians away. This makes Mumbai Indians the only team to have lost all their 4 encounters in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Being a true blue Mumbaikar, I support Mumbai Indians whole heartedly although my loyalties are wearing thin after the successive losses and the Harbhajan controversy which is the saddest thing to happen in Indian sports. On the other hand the team doesn’t seem to be gelling together and there seems to be a complete lack of strategy and decision making. The openers Ronchi (pronounced ‘Ronki’) and Jayasuriya are waltzing to different tunes. Ronchi in particular got out to a wide R P Singh delivery yesterday trying to hit it over the slips. As for Jayasuriya, in the 90s he along with Romesh Kaluwitharana were the dashing Sri Lankan opening pair who instilled fear in the opposition with their explosive batting style in the first 15 overs. The match was normally won during that period as well. At present he seems to lack a good batting partner at the other end and looks over burdened by the huge responsibility and expectations of scoring big runs. Everyone is aware that if he gets going with Sachin, there will be enough runs on the board to demoralize any opposition of the day. I believe Sachin’s recovery would coincide with that of the team’s as well and that’s the best that I can hope for.

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The Intriguing World of Spam

I wouldn’t be misplaced if I say the internet is like my first home, since I spend more time there than on real earth. It’s a virtual place where I love exploring its alleys and partake the various benefits almost all free of cost — reference websites, address books, social bookmarking, email clients, et al. In short while I am surfing, I have a global passport of visiting any place without worrying too much about safety unless I download something that’s detrimental to my system. During my office hours, I am advised (rather compelled) to curb my sojourns across the information superhighway to protect the internal network where thousands like me are traveling on business purpose. Every morning though I check my mailbox for any new communication which I might have received during the course of the night. And while doing so I cannot resist the temptation of visiting the spam folder (or bulk email folder depending upon the client you prefer), to see and be intrigued at what the underground world has offered me today.

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