Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Taare Zameen Par - Go Watch It..

Movie - Taare Zameen Par
Producer/Director - Aamir Khan
Music Director - Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Actor - Aamir Khan, Darsheel Sadary.
Date of Release - 21st December 2007
There are Bollywood movies and there are bollywood movies with "Aamir Khan" in it and most of the times these two words make a lot of difference to the movies. Without keeping the suspense any further TZP is undoubtedly one of the best movie to come out of Bollywood this year. Talk about story, acting and direction the movie is splendid in all accounts. Probably the music provides for a weak link which is very well overcome by some great picturization and implementation of the songs.

TZP is a story about a
dyslexic boy Ishaan Awasthi (Darsheel) who has a flair for painting but in dumps in his academics. So the pressure on his parents for him to perform in academics drives Ishaan to a baording school where he is unable to come out of his own shell and his artistic talent also goes for a beating.

In comes the art teacher Ram Shankar Nikumbh (Aamir Khan) who identifies the symptoms of dyslexia in the boy and takes on his own to make sure that the boy comes over victorious against all odds.

Taare Zameen Par is one of this movies which actually make you think about life. All our life we have actually been yearning for more , right from the school - yearning for good marks, in college - yearning for a good course , job - yearning for a good job/salary and so on.. but this movie makes you think beyond this Life is just not about good statistics life is just about living life to the fullest with what you have and this movie does that very well.

The only complain I have with TZP are the songs, they are not as good as were expected of an Aamir Khan movie with such high caliber, but nevertheless they are very well complemented by some great picturisation and visualization in the movie.

All in all a great movie to watch and you would definitely come out enlightened from the hall.
Rating 4.5 / 5

Monday, September 24, 2007

Indian Cricket Team - New look is the new Mantra

Flashback 5 months back. After a humiliating defeat at the hands of Scotland and exit from the first round of the cricket world cup India were really the underdogs for the Twenty 20 world cup and amongst the teams with least experience for this particular format.
A couple of hours ago what most of us experienced was nothing short of pride and happiness which we probably felt after lifting the 83 Cricket World Cup. Looks like Indian team is back with a bang this time. So what could have led to this reversal in the fate of Indian cricket ?
To begin with this Indian team wore a typically new and fresh look. Led in front my the young and intelligent M S Dhoni this team was ready to take risks and most of them paid off. M S Dhoni was really confident about the new players. I could not imagine Dravid handling over the last over of the critical match (both against Australia in the semis and Pakistan in the finals ) to Jogender Sharma especially after he had gone for a hammering in the previous overs. It is this faith in the new players for M S Dhoni which payed back.
Dhoni again displayed some great leadership qualities and led from the front. Never once in any of the nail biting matches he ever looked tensed or worried. He was always pumping in more confidence in the likes of Sreesnath and R P Singh, and look what he got in return the World Cup.
Unarguably one of the best batting performances in the World Cup was by no other than Yuvraj. Literally snatched a couple of critical matches from the opponent. The six sixes in an over against Broad was a visual treat which I would definitely be remembering for a long time now.
So everyone would agree that this change in Indian team is definitely a welcome change. Looks like it's time for Dravid, Ganguly's and Tendulkars (Yes you heard it right, Tendulkar) to move along and give some breathing space to the fresh blood in the team. No doubt that the trio I have just mentioned are one of the best players the game might have ever produced but yes as we all know "Nothing Lasts Forever" and "The only constant thing in this world is change".

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Ratatouille Movie Review - It will make you smile

Release Date : Aug 24, 2007
Director : Brad Bird
Writer : Brad Bird
Voice : Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn

With such a hard name to pronounce, to see such a simple and soothing movie like this was undoubtedly a great experience.

For a movie from Pixar animations (the same studio which brought Cars, The Incredibles) there are always high set of expectations for the technical quality of the movie which this movie has defintely met. The animations of the movie are so stunning that at times the animation movie was looking much more realistic than any real movie.

In short the movie is all about the idea of a great chef in Paris, France who prophesis that "Anyone can Cook", and how this sentiment drives a cute little rat to believe that he can become a chef and finally does so in great style.

Agreed that the story of the movie is quiet predictable and is a regular underdog story and how he achieves his dreams. What makes this movie a touch above the regular suff is the fact that the way this movie has been presented is really beautiful.

In short go for a movie and you sure would not be disappointed.

Rating - 3.5/5

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Apne is watchable

There are just a few hindi movies which i miss watching in the first
couple of weeks and then he ahead to watch it in the third week. Apne
is one such movie and honestly i do not regret this decision. i went
in the theatre not taking with me very high expectations and i came
out quite satisfied.
In short apne is a movie about yesterday s boxing champion (played by
dharmendar) and how he wants his unfulfilled boxing dreams being
fulfilled by his sons (played by bobby deol and sunny deol).
Eventually as expected they come out victorious and give this movie a
happy ending.
The biggest problem with apne is the heavy dose of stereotyping which
this movie exposes us to. Why are the foreigners always cruel and
selfish , and indians always the other way round . In another in the
boxing ring bobby and sunny never actually look like boxers with the
extra kilos of flab on their bodies. In addition the scene in which
bobby's childhood handicap is fixed just by a simple fall on a bench.
This one was real hard to digest. In addition the heroines of the
movie have moving more to do other than just dancing and smiling.
The star of the movie is undoubtedly dharmendra who holds the movie
from the start till the end. Although i have never been a big fan of
dharmendra but have to admit that in this movie he still has enough
charm left to leave the viewer spellbound. Though at times the speech
is not too clear but is manageable.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Thank god its friday

Finally here comes the day of the week which we all wait for very eagerly the whole of the week. Any ideas what makes a friday evening so special and a monday morning so horrible ? As far as i believe its all in the mind. Any thoughts ?



_____________________________
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Get push email, news, IM on your mobile phone for free at: http://www.morange.com

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Turn your Mobile in an PC.... Morange

After losing my brand new Nokia 5300 (cmon' it was only 4 months old) I finally settled for Nokia 6233 this time primarily because of it's stereo sound speakers, but honestly I wasn't too impressed, though the phone is not that bad. Now that Airtel in Delhi is providing GPRS/EDGE facilities even in prepaid mobile I started searching for some java based Google talk chat application for mobile which might work on my Nokia Series 40 v3 phone.

After googling for the same for a while I came across a java app called morange which as per them converts the mobile into a full fledged PC. At first I was apprehensive as I had not heard about this application and wasn't too sure whether it would be safe to install it on the mobile or not. On further searching I visited it's official site and it looked kind of genuine.

Morange installed pretty smoothly on the mobile and it supported both HTTP connection and socket connection from the mobile (At the moment I guess Airtel in Delhi is just providing HTTP connection for prepaid). The features in the application are great right from support for google talk, yahoo messenger, msn, RSS readers, en email client that works over a HTTP connection, remote file access program for accessing files from the computer and so on. The application comes in standard edition and VIP edition . Standard edition does offer most of the stuff and with some payment ( I guess its around $30 per year if I am not wrong, kindly check with the website www.morange.com for the correct rates) you could opt for the VIP services.

Two days after using Morange I would like to recommend it to all the people out there like me.. who would like to convert their mobile handsets in a full fledged PC. Visit www.morange.com for more details.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

One Love - A magic woven by A.R. Rahman....

Some people are built up with a golden heart. Whatever they do does is nothing short of wonder, especially when it's gotta do something with a good cause. The person in discussion here is the great music maestro A.R . Rahman. In his debut film he did wonders with his patriotic song "Bharat Humko Jaan se Bhi Pyaara Hain.." followed by list of his patriotic songs or songs for a noble clause. "Vande Mataram" in my opinion is one of the greatest work of Rahman, followed by a beautiful adaptation of our National Anthem in "Bose - The forgotten hero." Patriosm wasn't left behind even in films like "The Legend of Bhagat Singh" .
 
In recent times Rahman composed an anthem for Tsunami victims, followed by "Pray for me Brother" for the support of A.R. Rahman foundation. Now after all this noble work A.R. Rahman had once again come up with what he does best - music, singing and that too for a noble cause. In support for "Vote for Taj" campaign Rahman has come up with a single "One Love" with mindblowing music and some great lyrics. To top it all its been released in 6 lanugages including Hindi, Tamil, Telgu, Kannada, Malyalam and Benglai and is definitely one of it's kind piece of art. The song actually transforms you into a land of love and really grows on you after a few listening.
 
So as usual A.R.Rahman gets a "thumbs up" for his great effort for his tribute to the one and only "Taj Mahal".

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom - Movie Review

Movie - Jhoom Barabar Jhoom
Director-Shaad Ali

Date of Release - 15th June 2007

Music Director - Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Actor-Abhishek Bachan, Preity Zinta, Bobby Deol, Lara Dutta, Amitabh Bachan
Producer - Aditya Chopra

With a star cast as good as this and some rocking music from SEL , I was really expecting this movie to do some wonders in this hot Delhi summer, but alas even this movie failed as miserably as does the prediction of the Met department fails regarding the arrival of monsoons in Delhi ;-).

The movie had nothing going it's way from the word go. Preity was looking stale in the role, with Abhishek overdoing his part. Bobby and Lara are perhaps the only saving grace of movie well supported by some good music and well picturized songs. In short the movie is all about Preity and Abhishek waiting for their fiances at the waterloo station while the train gets delayed by a couple of hours. The conversation between them extends their relation from just being mere acquaintances and what happens next is told as the movie unfolds in the second half.

Irrespective of a rather childish story and script, the movie does have some humorous moments which does leave you in splits but I am sorry that they are easily overpowered by the otherwise boring movie. To add to your woes you have Amitabh Bachan jumping into the screen wearing a funny colorful jacket whenever the movie tries to pick up some pace.

All in all this movie can be easily be defines as an opportunity well wasted and should very easily be avoided.


Rating 1.5/5

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Hailstorm in Delhi on 11th May 2007




A few years back if anybody would have had even suggested about a hailstorm in the scorching heat of May, all of us would have probably passed it off as another joke. But this joke was turned into a reality on the evening of 11th May 2007, when a hailstorm hit Delhi in May for the first time as far as I may recall.

Call it as an impact of global warming, or whatever id sure did have some big impact on bringing down the temperature in Delhi, but I guess along with it also came a huge loss to the farmers who probably slog for months to see their crops ripe. In addition India still being far from beliving in the concept of insuring their crops, the whole burden would have to be borne by the farmers.

So is there any way we may help the situation ? The least we could do is to ensure we conserver what we know for sure is not gonna last for long, and also help the environment (which includes and is not limited to power, electricity, petroleum water etc.)

So lets join the world together and make the world a better place to live.. :-)

Friday, April 06, 2007

Will be back after a break.. :-(

Have the final sem exams for the next week, so would start regular blogging again starting 15th April...

Cheers..

Vikram

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Is India actually ready for the expressways ? -- A critical analysis of the newly built Delhi - Gurgaon expressway. Is it a time saver or a life taker ?

From Dhaula Kuan to Gurgaon in 15 minutes, always looked like a dream to be around 5 years back when the construction work on Delhi - Gurgaon NH-8 expressway started. But after 5 years of sand, gruelling traffic jams and almost non existence of proper roads this is almost a reality.
 
The new expressway which is almost ready now (except a couple of bottlenecks at the border and the Palam T point) is a breather for most of the people who have not option but to commute between Gurgaon and Delhi daily. Agreed that the new expressway has been saving a lot of time for us, but at what cost ?
 
  1. Before the new expressway was built on an average I used to see 2-3 serious accidents on the highway, this figure has almost doubled now wherein I am easily able to see around 6-7 serious accidents on an average per day.
  2. For almost the complete stretch of the expressway, I couldn't even find a single pedestrian crossing (Except for maybe an underpass below a flyover, but they are separated by kilometers ?). How do the NHAI expect people to cross the roads ? Are we waiting for a tragedy to happen ?
  3. For long stretches on the expressway there have been no lanes drawn out , even after almost a couple of months the expressway has opened.
  4. Although the speed limits in the expressway have been set as 50 for cars, and 40 for trucks & buses both of them never ply below a speed of 80-90 on the same. Maybe they are just planning to be the next schumacher, but what are the traffic cops doing ? Are they too busy doing what they do best ?

I am not prophecising anything or even trying to take the credit away for the excellent expressway we have achieved due to the hard work and struggle (of both the people who were building the same, as well as the people who were commuting during that time.). But all I wanted to communicate is that unless we are more disciplined and educated about using this expressway, instead of reducing the commuting time it might as well reduce our life time.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Water Movie Review -- A great experience

Movie - Water
Director - Deepa Mehta
Music Director - A.R. Rahman
Actor - John Abraham, Seema Biswas, Lisa Ray, Sarala
Date of Release - 9th March 2007

More than an year after it was release in US/Canada and after being nominated in the best foreign film category in the Oscars(Representing Canada, and not India) Water finally saw the light of the day in India.

The story based in India about the plight of widows in the late 1930's also highlights the transition of Gandhiism which was going on at that time in terms of fighting the older rituals. The story talks about the plight of a young widow "Chuhia" played excellently by Sarala when she enters a ashram (meant for widows) and how things change after that.

In a sense this movie questions some of the old Hindu Rituals regarding widows, and probably the reason, why the shooting for the same was stopped in Varanasi a few years back. But in simple words this is beautiful cinema. The simplicity and the Indianess with which the whole topic is dealt is beautiful. In addition the highlight of the movie is the Sri Lankan child artists Sarla who plays the role of Chuhia in the movie. The way the role has been enacted is one of the best I have seen in the lifetime. Seema Biswas has also given a strong performance well supported by John Abraham who falls in love with Lisa Ray (another widow).

A.R. Rahman's haunting music is top class as usual, and the rain song (aaya re..)is actually very well picturised. The cinematography is good and so is the direction and editing.

The only weak point in the movie is it's pace and the lack of entertainment value. Obviously one couldn't expect this movie to be on the lines of Lage Raho Munnabhai , but still a bit of fast paced movie definitely would have been liked by the audience.

All in all a movie very well made, and definitely worth the wait for us in India.

Rating 3.5/5

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Double Bonanza for Rahman fans in India

Last week was really a good one for Rahman's fans in India. As far as my memory takes me back it was the first time that two of A.R. Rahman's albums released within a span of 1 - 2 days. First to hit the store was Oscar nominated movie "Water" followed by Rahman's Anti Poverty Anthem "Pray for me Brother". Both the albums are real gems and no doubt that A.R.Rahman in an interview had himself given Water a rating of 10/10. Water really deserves that. Listen to it to believe it.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

A R Rahman's "Pray for me brother" speaks about his thoughts..

I just noticed as you open A R Rahman's latest single "Pray For Me Brother" CD Box you read the following messages

Our world spends 736 billion every year on WAR
Our world spends 130 trillion every year on WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
This can provide food, shelter & clothing for all the people in the world, 20 times over
Our world needs a prayer

Really great thoughts by the great man.

Even A R Rahman's "Pray for me brother" speaks about this thoughts..

I just noticed as you open A R Rahman's latest single "Pray For Me Brother" CD Box you read the following messages
 
Our world spends 736 billion every year on WAR
Our world spends 130 trillion every year on WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
This can provide food, shelter & clothing for all the people in the world, 20 times over
Our world needs a prayer

Really great thoughts by the great man.

Monday, February 19, 2007

"Eklavya - The Royal Guard " - Movie Review - Do watch it for actor's Performances....

Movie - Eklavya - The Royal Guard
Producer/Director - Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Music Director - Shantanu Moetra
Actor - Amitabh Bachan, Saif Ali Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Jimmy Sheirgil, Boman Irani, Vidya Balan, Sharmila Tagore, Jackie Shroff, Parikshit Sahni.
Date of Release - 16th February 2007

So another movie, with a host of stars ranging from the Big B, Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan , Vidya Balan , Boman Irani etc... but do they actually deliver ? to some extent yes.
In short Eklavya is a story about a Royal family taking the background of Rajasthan and talks about the various aspects of jealousy, betrayal , conspiracy etc. This movie to some extent be branded as a thriller but in the end, its filled with emotions (Luckily this movie is not flooded with many songs, but only a single song that lasted for 2 minutes).
Filmed in a total of 105 minutes Eklavya is a brave attempt at breaking the traditional formula of Hindi films movie making. The cinematography against the Rajasthani background is breathtaking. The movie actually takes you into a Rajasthani palace and after some time you start feeling a part of it. The background music is good but the main aspect which holds the attention of the viewers all the time are the splendid performance of the various actors. It seems that Vidhu Vinod Chopra has developed a knack for extracting the best out of its actors. Amitabh Bachan is good in the title Role "Eklavya" where he gives up almost everything to guard the Royal Palaces. Boman Irani as the king is good but we have seen better performance from him. Saif Ali Khan is definitely the highlight of the movie, as the heir to the palace carrying on his role with complete chutzpah. In the end Sanjay Dutt though has a small role in the movie but does pull it out to perfection.
Some of the scenes in the movie also have a lasting effect on the viewer to name a few - the scene of Amitabh Bachan aiming at the pigeon is one of the best Hindi movie scene I have seen for a long time. In addition just before the interval Amitabh's attempt to save the "Rana" from attack is also worth a watch.
Another good concept in the movie is challenging the act of Eklavya (i.e. cutting his right thumb as Guru Dakshina for Dronocharya). Instead the movie emphasised the fact that "whatever your heart and mind feels is right should be your religion" which I feel is quite relevant in the current times.
So where does the movie fail ? In spite of being a short movie the first half drags at time. Also after watching the movie though I enjoyed it but felt a little something missing in terms of punch and power. But all in all it's a very brave attempt by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and is definitely worth a watch.
Rating 3.5 / 5

Friday, February 16, 2007

My Valentine Day's Gift - Nokia 5300 Xpress Music

Hmm.. so after almost 15 months of juggling around with Nokia 6021, I finally decided to go for a new mobile phone partly because it looked quite old (but probably the real reason was that I got bored of it). So what better way to do so, than by getting the same as gift from my dear wife :-).

So after a day of browsing on net, and visiting 3-4 shops we finally settled for Nokia 5300 Xpress Music (http://www.nokia.co.in/nokia/0,8764,98256,00.html) for Rs 11,400. The contents of the package besides the customary mobile, battery and travel charger were a 256 mb miniSdCard, Stereo Headset, Data Cable for attaching the mobile to the PC , CD and a 3.5 mm earphone adapter. The first impression of the phone is that while not slid open its quite compact, and you can do most of the music operations and some of the dialing functions in the same manner. Of course for dialing in some numbers or typing some characters you need to slide down the phone to open the keypad. Contrary to the expectations the sliding operation was quite good. So all in all has this been a good buy ? Following are my observations after using the phone for a couple of days....

Pros

  • Looks are awesome
  • Display at 256 k colors is great at bright. A good screen size(320 X 240) works to its advantage.
  • Dedicated music keys for playing, changing tracks, volumes etc. comes in quite handy and are addictive :-)
  • Comes with some neat application and games (like Mp3 cutter, 3d Soccer etc) in its 256 mb card.
  • If you are a real music freak you can use the bundled 3.5 mm audio adapter to plug in any normal Earphone to the mobile.
  • 1.3 MP camera with the phone does give good results, but a 2 MP+ camera would have been desirable.
  • Combo memory with 32 MB flash and 16 MB RAM though not great but is decent enough. But on a new phone with pre installed applications you get about 5 MB of free space.

Cons

  • The Nokia guys could have done something to give the mobile a more non-plasticy look ;-)
  • I was unable to find a way of creating play lists from within a mobile (It can be done easily via Nokia PC Suite though). From a XPress Music edition making play lists was definitely required.
  • Headphones could have a better quality. With the bundled headphones the bass is not good.

Some Glitches in the Phone

  1. While transferring music onto the phone via buletooth or USB cable at times we get an error message that the destination space is full (whereas the memory card still has a decent amount of space left.) Works fine, when I transfer the files considering the phone as a normal external drive and not using the Nokia Music Manager.
  2. Another interesting bug which I found is that, whenever the phone is in Silent Profile and I am listening to music or Radio then in that case as soon as I make the GPRS connection the volume autmatically turns mute (though the music is not paused). Not too sure though whether this is a bug or a functionality which I am not able to understand.
  3. Till now I am able to create playlists from within the phone, but am able to add a max of one song in that phone :-). Funny I guess - probably I have missed something here......

Overall, looks a decent handset to buy with the price tag it holds.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

A couple of flyovers open on Delhi - Gurgaon NH-8 highway amid chaos and confusion.....

So finally the day had arrived. As I was going to office in my car, I noticed that on a couple of flyovers temporary gates decorated with flowers had been deployed. So the time had finally come for the Radisson flyover in Delhi, and the Udyog Vihar flyover in Gurgaon to be inaugurated by some VIP.
Dreaming of a smooth drive in the evening I headed for office screaming to almost everyone in the way that the "Drive back home today evening, is going to be a drive of the lifetime....". Only I know how i passed my time in office eagerly waiting to drive on the brand new expressway which would been opened by now.
Leaving office at 6:30 in the evening, I had no idea that instead of a smooth 40 minutes drive back to my place what lay ahead of me was a bumpy ride back home haunted by dust, madness and yes LOTS OF TRAFFIC. Yes you heard me right "LOTS OF TRAFFIC". Putting it candidly after a couple of flyovers were opened on the Delhi - Gurgaon NH 8 expressway for me the travelling time increased by 30-40 minutes, and I was able to reach home only at around quarter to nine. Blame it partly on the bottlenecks formed due to opening of new expressway stretches. Nevertheless the major blame goes to the people driving on the roads, who have absolutely zero driving sense, unknown about the concept of lanes on the roads. In addition they seemed to have a certain hatred towards red color so that every time they see a red light they feel its right to JUMP it.
Adding to the woes is the pace on which the work is being done on the highway, and the new routes which are formed, blocked everyday. In fact going home every day on the expressway one never knows what route are you gonna take. Reminds me of the punchline of one of the famous software companies "Where do you want to go today ?"
Anyways what I have learnt since my childhood is that "Life is for the fearless", and keeping that in mind I would take the same expressway going back home today, not fearing the various challenges which might turn up my way. Do wish me "All The Best".. as I really need it and possibly deserve it tooooo.......
Will post my today evening's experience with you as soon as I reach back home today.
Updates - Exactly a week later
After the initial teething problems, it does seems that the couple of new flyovers which have recently opened up, on Delhi Gurgaon NH-8 expressway do provide some relief to the commuters esp. in the non - office hours. The commuting time during these hours has come down to 25-35 minutes, and even during the peak hours the time taken from office to my home (approx 27 kms now) is a max of 1 hour. So a bit of relief or I guess maybe a trailer of the big dream (i.e. from my home to office in 25 minutes any time of the day) ahead. India is truly shining in some aspects. :-)
Updates - Three weeks later
Some more good news now. Travelling time in the morning (even during the normal traffic hours) is down to an average of 35 minutes compared to about 60 minutes a month ago. In addition during the evenings also, it take around 60-70 minutes to reach back home. So all in all all this wait has been worth the effort :-)

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Linux on a pen drive !!!

Hmm... so what have I got myself involved into now ? Linux on a pen drive!!! Actually while working on my Open Source Research paper, I came across a wonderful site http://www.pendrivelinux.comwhich basically has quite a good tutorials for installing full fledged Linux on USB Pen Drives starting from capacity of 128 MB.

This looked quite interesting to me, and the power of carrying your OS with you wherever you go sounded really good. Without wasting any time I ordered for a 2 GB Pen Drive(Transcend Jet V30) for about 1500 Rs from E-Bay, which surprisingly arrived in less than 36 hours at my place. Within a few minutes I was able to install Damn Small Linux (DSL) on my pen drive, which barely took about 60 MB disk space on my flash drive, leaving the rest for my file storage.

Tonight I am planning to install slax (Based on slackware Linux http://www.slax.org) on the pen drive. If it works all I would need to do is just stick in the USB pen drive into a computer and make it boot through the pen drive instead of the hard disk... and vroom.. you would be able to enjoy Linux.... Now who says installing Linux is a tough task?????

Update 01 5th Feb 2007 - Managed to install Slax on the pen drive very smoothly and it works great. Also managed to save the settings on the USB drive (like adding users, other users preference etc.) . The best way to do so on your usb drive would be to write the following command
configsave /mnt/sdb1_removable/slaxconf.mo
where sdb1_removable is the name of your USB drive. After this is done everytime during startup and shutting down, it would ask for the loadig/saving the user settings for Linux.

(check out this link, it would give you the complete details of the same - http://www.shewbox.org/?cat=9


Disclaimer
Kindly try all the above action mentioned above at your own risk. I would not be accountable for any data/hardware loss occurring due to following my suggestions/comments.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Help me with my open source research project....

Hope you are doing good. Well to begin with I am pursuing a part time MBA and as a part of our research project (for which I have taken up the topic of Open Source), I require your assistance in getting a small questionnaire filled up.

The questionnaire should not take more than 7-10 minutes. So request all of you to fill the same which can be accessed via the following location. (If possible, you could also refer some of your friends to fill this survey)

http://www.myjavaserver.com/~coolviki/
or
http://opensourcesurvey.vikramkumar.org
Once again thanks, and your help would go a long way in assisting me to complete this course.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Guru Movie Review - Abhishek excels in a demanding role.

Movie - Guru
Director - Mani Ratnam
Producer - Mani Ratnam, G Srinivasan
Music Director - A.R. Rahman
Actor - Abhishek Bachan, Aiswarya Rai, Mithun, Vidya Balan, K Madhavan
Date of Release - 12th January 2007

Maniratnam, A. R. Rahman, Gulzar , Rajiv Menon and a lot of hype had really raised my expectation from this film. In addition after Abhishek's performance in Dhoom 2 he really needed a platform to prove his mettle, which he got and delivered in a way no other could.

The film from the starting to the end belongs to Abhishek Bachan, and you never know but this could become one of the best performances of Abhishek's career and may even ring the box office registers. The movie begins with a shot of Gurubhai (Abhishek Bachan) standing in a huge empty stadium saying that "Bapu kahete hain ke sapnay nahi dekhne chaihe"..... flashback 30 years before where Abhishek is shown as a young teenager migrating to Turkey to work as a delivery boy in a oil company. Seven year later hard work, intelligence and luck is earning him a fat pay package and a promotion. The entrepreneur bug inside Gurubhai prevents him from working any more for anyone else but rather starting his own "biziness".

Landing back in India he decides to marry his friend's sister Sujatha (Aishwarya Rai) for dowry which would enable him to start his own business. Together with his wife and brother in law he heads for Mumbai where he starts off as a textile trader. In the beginning of his career Maneck Dasgupta(Mithun Chakraborty) who runs the "Independent" paper, acts as a mentor to him.

Few years down the line Guru manages to build up a big empire (Shakti Enterprises), but has that been done in an ethical manner ? That's the question which troubles Nanaji for which he assigns Shyam Saxena (Madhavan) the duty of exposing the real insight of Shakti Enterprise , and how it might be growing expsing the loopholes of the laws or by bribing various officials. What happens next is a cat race between Madhavan and Guru is quite an experience to watch. Madhavan is hellbent on exposing Guru whereas Guru seems unfazed by the same. Some of the confrontations scenes are really a delight to watch esp. the scene in which Vidya Balan (Don't know what's she doing in the movie) is kind of stuck between the Nanaji and Guru based on their ideologies.

The climax of the film is definitely one of the highlights of the movie in which he delivers and the audience is spellbound. The voice at times resembles to that of Amitabh Bachan and the performance is also nothing less than that. Without revealing much about the end Guru is sure an enjoyable experience.

The highlight of the movie is undoubtedly Abhishek Bachan who has shown his real class in the movie. Aishwarya has also done a great job though her role was not as demanding as that of Abhishek. Mithun comes up with a good mature performance showing the class he is made up of. Madhavan also does a good job though he does not get a chance to offer much. One of the surprise of the film was Vidya Balan whose role was not that significant but still I guess any role in a Maniratnam movie is not to be missed.

A.R. Rahman does a great job for the background music. In spite of being a great fan of A.R. Rahman the songs definitely do not match his high standards though they have been picturised to perfection. "Jaage Hain" and "Guru bhai.." are positioned as the theme of the movie and are really a pleasure to listen any number of times. One more song, which plays in the background for Vidya Balan is also hummable but for some strange reason was not present in the Audio CD(like the Guru Bhai.. song). Most of the other songs has not been played to their full length and hence does not hamper the flow of the movie. Gulzar saab's lyrics are great and so is Rajiv Menon's work.

Finally hats off to the great man Maniratham for extracting so much from Abhishek Bachan and giving us a pleasurable movie experience. There are quite a few scenes in the movie which Maniratnam has crafted beautifully and probably like no other could have. The starting of the movie, the climax and the confrontation scene between Mithun and Abhishek to name a few.

All in all Guru gives a great start to this new year and definitely not a movie to be missed.

Rating 4/5

Friday, January 12, 2007

Guru Movie Review.....

Guru Review #1

Planning to watch Guru on Sunday Evening. Till then would be linking to the various reviews I find in the net
http://www.naachgaana.com/2007/01/11/guru-movie-review/

Enjoy.....

Guru Review #2
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/masands-verdict-thumbs-up-for-guru/top/31056-8.html

As for the music, what can one say about A R Rahman's score that hasn't been said before, except that he seems to reserve his most
versatile best for Mani Ratnam

Rating 4/5

Its celebration time ...............

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Museum ke Ander Phas Gaya Sikander - Movie Review

Movie - Museum ke Ander Phas Gaya Sikander (Night at the Museum) Cast - Ben Stiller, Carla Gugino, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs, Jake Cherry, Robin Williams
Director - Shawn Levy
With a name like this, and with my past experience of dubbed movies, I didn't had too much expectations going into this movie, but quite pleasantly I was wrong. The movie is about good-hearted dreamer Larry Daley (Ben Stiller), who is not successful in both personal and professional life is in a dire need of a job. He manages to land up in a job of a security guard in the night shift at the "Museum of National History". What happens next is worth a watch when in the evening everything in the museum comes alive till dawn early next morning. How Larry handles the situation is worth a watch, and the dubbed Hindi dialogues are really funny at times.
Of course the movie also has it's own share of villains who try to steal off some valuables from the museum, but are stopped by Ben Stiller with the help of everyone kept in the museum who come alive passing on the message of "United we stand, dividend we fall.". Kids are sure going to enjoy this movie as it contains everything they could ask for.
All in all a good clean entertainer which is definitely worth a watch.
Rating 3.5/5

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

"Kuch Sawaal Zindagi Badal Sakte hain" (The new KBC ad featuring Shah Rukh Khan)

I wasn't too excited by the fact that SRK was replacing Big B for the hugely popular gameshow Kaun Banega Crorepati. But nevertheless I did get a chance to have a look at the new KBC ad featuring Shah Rukh Khan. The ad has a really cool concept.. just check this out...