Aditya
I had gone home recently, and my bro whipped out a movie I had been meaning to see. 28 days later.




Here are the things that went through my head when I was watching the movie.

  • Never let a shieking chimp out of a cage. Thats stoopid. Especially when the scientist says they are infected. You deserve to prove Darvin's survival of the fittest right, woman. This year's Darwin award goes to you.
  • Running zombies. oooooh. OMG they r not running, they are SPRINTING. We're dead.
  • Everybody's a zombie? Now what?
  • HELLO? What the...?

Good movie, though :) Go see it.

3.5 out of 5 stars.
Aditya

A good ninja is never seen.

What about a good ninja movie?
Trick question. ;)

I never see movies at this time of the week - it's Wednesday. But, due to some strike or the other, my cousin bro Ankit wasn't able to go to med school in Warangal. So, we planned to hit Ninja Assassin, along with his dad. I have seen ninjas being portrayed in a bad light - The Hunted (1995) and The Last Samurai (2003); as well as cheesy - All the ninja turtles and american ninjas you can take. I was curious to see what would be dished out by a movie titled Ninja Assassin.


Maybe a guy riding a Kawasaki Ninja, killing dudes? Naah.


One thing you will see a lot of in this movie, is blood. Lots of badass fights and lots and lots of blood. The movie begins and ends with blood flowing like someone turned on the tap and left the house. Our hero basically is in a room, doing all sorts of crazy ninja training and then getting flashbacks of his life gone by when he was a kid, training in a secret clan called "the black sand clan", who kill their targets, but not before making them wail in fear by mailing them an envelope with black sand inside it.


Like this, but it will say "You're dead"

So, basically, the movie is all about how this ninja clan is so secretive, and brutal - if you go AWOL, you basically are terminated with extreme prejudice. These guys supply their assassination services to people who have more than a hundred pounds of gold to give them.  Our hero is the star student, but he goes rogue when they kill his girlfriend who ran away during training. So, in spite of graduating at the top of his class, he doesn't get his diploma. He does get a death warrant though.


He missed out on this plushy Ninja diploma.

The rest of the movie is one big crazy fight sequence. Ninjas fight on the autobahn, ninjas fight in warehouses, ninjas fight in dark rooms, ninjas fight in secret government prisons, ninjas fighting the hero, ninjas fighting soldiers, and basically introducing the sharp end of their sticks to the backside of whichever butt they are currently kicking. The story is non existent - don't go to this movie expecting something so fancy as a storyline. I can tell you the story in 3 sentences, and it won't spoil the movie experience. (But I won't.) The USPs of the movie are the fight scenes. You will need bullet time vision to actually understand the moves these guys make. Also night vision, and maybe infra red. And you will be dead by the time the systems boot up, you know what I'm saying? Guys, go see. Gals, tag along :D - after all, you make us go to all the chick flicks with you!



3.5 stars out of 5. Signing off.

Aditya
Ever so often Bollywood picks itself up by the bootstraps, rises above the typical "running around the trees" formula and delivers something so different, you simply get blown away. I was lucky enough to see an example of such an effort today.

Kurbaan is yet another proof that the Hindi film industry is maturing. Given a good story, and a good budget, you can do wonders. This movie is an attempt to show a terrorist strike, but the protagonists whom we observe this time are the the terrorists, and not the good guys. We get to see their rationale behind their acts. Saif plays a gray character who takes advantage of a girl to get into USA under the radar. The movie is frenetic, and I was beginning to think that they won't have a break in the middle, the story seemed to move from climax to climax.

Without revealing too much of the storyline, I can tell you that each character has been played beautifully.There are no song and dance routines to disrupt the story, the music is great, and camera work fantastic. Don't miss it.  4.5 out of 5 stars

SPOILER ALERT don't read further if you hate spoilers. My brother forwarded me some really funny imaginary tweets the main characters would have made were they in twitter. Read on and enjoy :D

Saifu:
Hi..I am Ehsaan
I want to go onsite.
I like coffee.
I love Avantika.
I am jihadi.
I am planting bomb in plane. Excited!
I love Avantika.
I want my child.
I am jihadi.
Let’s have 9/11 once again.
But I love Avantika.
I am DEAD!
Wait..my name is Khalid and now I am DEAD!!
O wait for a second, ‘he vivek, don’t look at my Kareena, and don’t forget, your Diya is also up there in heaven and I am going just there!’

Kareena(Avantika):
I don’t like coffee.
Infact I do.
A lot can happen over coffee..I like saifu..
I am going to NY..Saifu is also coming.
NY is great but damn..my TV doesn’t have Star Plus. I need to peep through neighbour’s door to get some family drama. But that’s fun!
Saifu is good boy, but our neighbours are terrorists.
OMG..Saifu, u liar!!
I am on diet..Zero figure calling back!
U old woman, u shoplifter, so cheap! I am embarrassed.
I hate Saifu.
I am pregnant..that saifu is saying it’s his child. ;)
Why that old lady is again taking me out for shopping? Hope she doesn’t embarrass me again!
O my purse has bomb. Saifu defused it..so sweet!
Police is killing my Saifu..he just told me his real name is something else, I forgot!
Omg..why this vivek is now looking at me like this?

Vivek:
Iraq is in mess. But my GF is not.
But my dad is..grow up old man!!
Met Avantika..not bad!! Let’s hope her husband is not a terrorist!
My GF is gone! Bomb blast! BOOM!!! Btw, RIP dear !!
I know terrorists but not telling cops. I don’t want movie to end before interval.
I am feeling alone ..joining some classes to end my loneliness.
There’s one cute gul in class but she is asking me to leave America.
Saifu invited me to his home. Excited!
oh..Biryani is delicious..btw, seems like their family business is ‘terrorism’..but who cares? Biryani is awesome!
I think this old man liked my cell. Go man..see your face..consult some dermatologist first!
I have asked Kareena to help me finding map. Let’s see what happens tomorrow morning.
Saifu is looking happy..very happy! Dunno why!!
Again this old man wants my coffee..whats his problem man??
O they found my true identity..1..2..3..run!! Wait a minute..take this old man..SHOOT..SHOOT!!
C’mon cops..come with me. I will show you where Saifu is. Go kill him.
Kareena is crying alone..poor soul…but wait a minute..Kareena >>>Dia..wat an idea??
Don’t listen to Saifu.. Diya doesn’t like coffee.
Aditya
This is a rant.

I hate idiots who add a twitterfeed to update every few minutes from their blog, or worse, from THEIR SUBSCRIBED RSS FEEDS, to their twitter account. I don't have ANY interest in your RSS feed. If I do have an interest, I don't want to read it via twitter. I use twitter to know what are you doing, not what your RSS feed is doing.


How the heck can he have so many followers with just a RSS feed?

Twitter etiquette demands that you don't update your twitterfeed so blatantly, for if you do, you will result in spamming a timeline and thus spoiling the experience of other users of twitter.

What is the solution? Currently, except unfollowing the jerk, none whatsoever.

What I would like to do? To block updates from my timeline, using rules having "user" and "user-agent" for example, if @jerk updates his twitter using "twitterfeed" then block that update from my timeline. There may be others who use twitterfeed properly, so I won't mind looking at their updates.

Twitter, or greasemonkey scripters, or firefox add on developers, are you listening?
Aditya

Twitter has its uses :)

Ever since I have shifted to Hyderabad, interesting things have started to happen.
  • I have a lot of friends from college in this city, and so I have been able to meet up with them, 
  • I have my folks in Secunderabad, so I can drop in and meet my cousins anytime I want. 
  • It's much closer to home - Kolhapur - which makes going home easier.
Basically, my time in Hyderabad has been much more awesome, so far, than Chennai.

So, extrapolating, it's really no surprise that I end up winning not one, but TWO contests on Twitter, resulting in yours truly being in the hospitality suite as a guest of Lalit Modi, watching the semi finals and finals of the inaugural T20 champions league. I won't analyze the matches themselves, that's part of history. Here, I will tell you about the experience of being in the ground and watching those matches.

The ITC hotel where the cricketers stayed in Hyderabad is next to the office where I work. So, its pretty natural that I bumped into a lot of cricketers when I came to pick up my pass for the matches.


 Rhymes with Bruce Lee

I have activated google maps on my phone, which took me to the ground through roads I have never been before. Since I was in my first few weeks in Hyderabad, I had never been through MOST of the roads anyway. I reached safely, though.


View Way to cricket ground in a larger map
I also gave the famous Hyderabad Traffic Jam a miss


The Rajiv Gandhi International cricket stadium is still under construction, and they say it will be one of the better grounds in the country.


It still looks awesome

The corporate box is airconditioned, has seats for 15 people, and we can even catch the action from the LCD inside the cabin. Of course, the best way to view the action is from the balcony!


Action from the balcony.They don't show this on TV

Not to mention awesome food and drinks, served by the hospitality staff. Its total 5 star treatment. When I went to the finals, guess who dropped in to the party.



Yeah. This came on Getty Images. I'm famous :D

Lalit Modi is very friendly, and knows how to work the crowd. He came out on our balcony and the crowd went ballistic, trying to get his autograph. I think we came on TV that time, not really sure though ;) We had spotted Gilchrist on the floor above us, and he obliged our request to get him down here with us. Flipped out his cellphone, called "Gilly" and asked if he could come down to meet us :D


Did Gilly meet us? OOOH yeah :D

I'm tellin' ya, the next time this guy has a contest, you better participate. He makes sure you have a good time! The local guys here were excited because a certain "Venky" was in the balcony near us. I was more excited about Sania Mirza, although I couldn't spot her balcony.


 Spotted these two guys wandering about, though

The finals concluded with a ton of fireworks going off, which kept my aunt awake, she told me later. Going to a cricket match involving India to this ground will be awesome, me thinks.