Premieres - Ghajini and CC2C

Earlier I had written about why I like to watch movies on the first day . You go in the theatre with absolutely unadulterated thoughts about the movie, and you hope that it will be a paisa vasool.
It was either one of the above for both the recent movies I watched - Ghajini and CC2C.

I had previously seen the Telugu(originally Tamil dubbed into Telugu) version of Ghajini, and I was pretty glad with the experience, except for the fact that I knew only survivable amount of Telugu and the climax was unbearably ridiculous. I went to Aamir's Ghajini a month ago, with the same hope that the movie would be good and prayed he would polish the movie a bit especially the ending, which he did. The rest of the movie stayed true to its predecessor, but no qualms from my side, I just loved Asin, can't imagine a Mallu pulling off Hindi dialogues with such ease. Am sure she will go a long way.
This movie was sure a full paisa vasool.

Last week I went to the Chandini Chowk to China premiere, and I wished big time to have read the reviews before venturing into the hall. But alas, that was not the case. I had fallen for the movie marketing, what with all the hype of Kung-fu filled hindi flick, with tall and slender Deepika kicking some butt, and the legendary Shaolin hero Gordon Liu being the baddie ( I mean I thot if the villan is such a good kungfu fighter then the hero would be better and the fights would be amazing), I sure did fall for this movie.
But not for too long, 30 minutes into the movie, I was hoping the next reel would be better, and that never happened. The movie could not stay focused with one element, either stick to pure slapstick comedy (with Akki doing some weird cosmic thumb attack) or stick to emotional drama( drag of Mithunda, and the separated twins). One cannot emote to both these diametrically opposite scenarios, and I found myself cursing more and more with every passing minute. Shradz sms at the time about her blog Stepney made the matter even worse.

Anyway, the day was not all bad, we did have fun with a bucket of popcorn, ice cream, chips and some passing remarks on the way back. This is what you get when you go out with the family be it to a premiere or not or a paisa-vasool or not.

PS: CC2C has not bogged my spirits, planning to get ticks for Raaz this Fri :)

-RN

MTV Makeover

MTV has gotten itself a makeover, its more colourful and the framespace is well utilized for the logo on top-right, new-shows ad on the top left, marquee tickr on the bottom. I would give a full 10 on 10 for the look. But what it lacks is the quality in the shows it airs.

DND - Discover and Download has replaced the SuperSelect, this is definitely a good watch, though if you are a Internet junkie, you might be discovering more cool sites and downloading more fun stuff yourself than taking a hint from Niks.

I was a huge fan of Raghu and Roadies, I remember every Sat 7Pm last year, Shradz and I would watch it together and chat about it over SMS. I was hugely disappointed in everything that followed the much enjoyable auditions. The roadies were a bunch of losers, the tasks were lame, and the worst- roadies who couldn't ride a Bike, wasn't this show supposed to be all abt bikers??!! Quite expectantly I don't carry the same enthu to watch a whole new episode of Roadies - Hell down under coz I am sure, no matter how Raghu and Rajiv ridicule the contestants they will manage to pick the lamest of them all as roadies.

The other day I caught up on Gtalk, ex-roadies Shambhavi and Anmol host this show in weird costumes, I wonder if they decided to replace Mia, anyway this is yet another lame show with 2 blondes talking about things that doesn't concern you even in your wildest dreams!! May be the reason I hate this show is the fact that both these gals were the meanest foulmouthed characters on earlier Roadies. Is this the kind of message we want to spread - to be mean, arrogant and you get to be famous, what happened to all that "honesty is the best policy" motto that we studied when we were kids, I think its high time we go back to Moral Science books.

PS: I would give my 2 cents if they could play some good music at length in the least.

-RN

When will we learn?

I get down from an auto, walk upto the gates of the hotel I am staying in and the security guards asked me to have my bags checked. I am delighted, and more than glad to oblige.
Seconds later,
A firangi gets down an auto, walks upto the gates, and security guys wish him a "Good evening, sir!!" and lets him in without any baggage check!!!

Talk about geared up security after experiencing a nightmare just weeks earlier. I was staying up in Taj, Pune.!!! Gawd, when will we learn.

Silence...

After the mumbai attack there has been a million blog notes updated on the same. One such blog in particular caught my eye coz' it trashed all post-attack events like the parade in Delhi, Light a candle events held in localities, quoting that these were just mere actions by mere mortals and were useless. It said that there is no possible use that one might get out of lighting a candle far off from the place and time of attack, and is just a waste of time.

I beg to differ with the author's point of view, I strongly believe that as a mere mortals in a Democratic developing country, we need a voice and it gets stronger only when people get together and bring out issues outfront, this is the best, one like you or me can do.

We had a minute's silence in office today incidentally just after I had read the blog. And I believe gestures like these bring us all together, brings out an assurance that no one is alone out there in the midst of terror. We are all in this together, putting up a brave front for our peaceful existence.

-RN

Us and the Market slowdown.

The drastic downfall of the market has become the talk of the town, sensex, inflation, job cuts, cost cutting are just few jargons you hear each day in the workplace. Scary mails floating around about hundreds of job cuts in this company or that company. My office is no different everyone is holding on to their dear jobs, though our senior managers have assured that wouldnot be a threat and I have not seen myself any layoffs "yet", but what we have noticed is a big time cost cutting some subtle and some can't-be-missed.

Things that affect us day-to-day, for eg, the soft drink vending machine in the cafeteria has been out of order for a fortnight and the refridgerators are not replenished with new coke cans quickly. They are aggressive in letting employee-travels, there was a hulla made when I had to travel which was anyway duly taken care by my manager stating I was indispensable (hehee!!) and I needed to travel. It was only to Chennai and Pune and not even out of country and there was so much fuss. I am still yet to get a reimbursement, till then I am gonna be a bit skeptical. We are still skeptical about the bonus and the salary rise that we are to get starting this month. Best performance awards generally monetary have been slashed down, you have to be truly genius to get one those these days.

Recently I was asked to be a mobile worker(meaning work out of any office) and give up my cubicle, coz there has been a shortage of workspace and the company is not ready to invest into buildings, atleast for now.

A new policy was pulled out early this week, which mandates all US and Canada employees to take casual leaves the last week of December, and the offices will be shut for the whole week, thus saving the power, employee transports and so on. It is being tried hard to implement the same in India too. Come to think of it, it affects people like me the most, the ones who dont have any plans for the New Year's, what am I supposed to do sitting home for a week? I will be doomed and the worst is yet to come.