TGIF: Songs to hum - 6

On Friday afternoons, after I am done teaching for the week, I sit in my office, put my feet up on my desk, lean back in my chair and softly hum songs to myself, unwinding and releasing the built-up tension of the week so far. Youtube is a good companion during these times and I have my own version of Chitrahaar, with the songs following some unfathomable pattern, changing per my mood and wishes.  (Previous TGIF posts are here).

Note:  The links may be broken as Youtube links tend to come and go.  I apologize in advance if that happens here.

Here is today's trip through Youtube:

1) My absolute favorite song of 2013 was Tum Hi Ho from Aashiqui 2, sung by Arijit Singh.  I did not see the movie but have seen/heard this song innumerable times.



2)  By the way, if you want to hear all the songs and also find out how Aashiqui 2 starts, begins, and ends you can watch this video of all the songs and some of the dialogues.

Splash or splat?

Acrophobia (heights) and Aquaphobia (drowning) are my two biggest fears.  Later this year, in a park near where I live, I may get a chance to conquer both of them at the same time.

I present to you, without any further comment - Verrückt in Kansas City :

(In case you are wondering about the chances of me ever being on that ride: No way, no how!)

2013: Year in review - My favorite movie

The next few posts will discuss some of the things that caught my attention (mostly positive, some negative) in the year gone by.  I am leading off with my favorite movie of the year.

These were the top-10 grossing movies in Hollywood:
1. Iron Man 3
2. Despicable Me 2
3. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
4. Fast & Furious 6
5. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
6. Monsters University
7. Man of Steel
8. Gravity
9. Frozen
10. Thor: The Dark World

Of the top 10, I saw 6.  Not a bad ratio for me.  The ones I missed were Despicable Me 2 (since I have not seen the first one), The Hobbit (No interest whatsoever after the ponderous Lord of the Rings trilogy left me cold, Monsters University (liked the original too much to ruin the memories), and Frozen (I am a Pixar snob, what can I say?  Though I may well end up watching this one.  (I will revisit the Top 10 in a separate post with some pet peeves and concerns).

Among the Bollywood releases, I liked Kai Po Che!, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (not the ending, though, as it reinforced stereotypes that I think it is time Hindi movies got away from), Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (even though it was too heavy-handed and syrupy), and Dhoom 3 (more on this and Krrish 3 in the afore-mentioned separate post).

But, by far, my favorite movie of the year was one that featured just two actors, one of whom is there for only about a third of the screentime.  Strap your seat belts and watch this extended preview first:


Some movies are meant to be seen on the big screen.  This one definitely was. Wow.  The movie combined my love of astronomy/outer-space with my fear of being adrift with no one but myself to pull off a rescue.  Sandra Bullock and George Cloony give Gravity the right amount of heft and their persona is so likable you start rooting for them within minutes.

If the movie is running in a nearby theater, go see it.  Don't worry about the 3D. The movie is a combination of an edge-of-the-seat thriller, how-dun-it with some spectacular visual effects and perfect acting.

I could tell you more but that would only spoil the fun.

The morning after

The after-life of a Wimbledon champ.  Here's a quick peek on what happens the next day as various media outlets try to find a nugget of information that will make for a different story than the rest of the competition.

My admiration for Roger Federer goes up even more.  What a gentleman!

Backhanded complement

When Roger Federer was ruling the roost, his backhand was a fairly simple stroke, harking back to gentler times of serve-and-volley tennis.  While he was quite capable of the top-spin version, he much preferred to set up points by slicing it back with varying levels of spin and then running around it to unleash his forehand, once described by John McEnroe as the "greatest shot in tennis".

Reacher said nothing

My views on Tom Cruise reprising the role of Jack Reacher have been previously documented.  A couple of days ago, the first teaser trailer for the movie based on the book "One Shot" was released.  This isn't the Reacher I know and remember but since it is Reacher I am gearing myself up to embrace it.

Why couldn't Tom Cruise have been a foot or maybe even an few inches taller?  *sigh*

The best form of flattery

If imitation is the best form of flattery, where does that put someone who imitates and plagiarizes himself?!

Aaron Sorkin is one of the more sought-after screenplay writers for political TV shows and movies.  Here's a mash-up of the many times he "repeats" himself.  While you may have never seen any of the shows, the self-plagiarism is oddly hypnotic.

Beauty and the beasts

If you wonder whether the Earth is still worth fighting for when the (inevitable) destruction is at hand, here's a reminder of all the wonderful things we may lose when we do so:

Run, Forrest, run!

There are some things you can hide on the silver screen and some that you cannot.  One thing you cannot hide is how you run.  At least for a long distance, in a long shot.

For years, in my mind, the champion runner was Amitabh Bachchan. No one ran better or more impressively than him.  Check it out:



(The dude also got shot in the back quite a few times, didn't he?  I guess he couldn't outrun a bullet).

In Hollywood, the undisputed leader is Tom Cruise.  I have yet to see a movie of his where there isn't at least one scene of him running.  It's almost as bad as Paresh Rawal and eating scenes or Sridevi and monochrome saris in a song.  Here's a compilation of Tom Cruise running and running.



For what it's worth, I still think Amitabh is the better-looking runner.

Maggi Noodle Review: Hugo

I had no intention of seeing Hugo.  I am not a big fan of 3D movies.  I feel it is more of a gimmick than an artistic improvement on 2D.  On top of which, I felt the the preview for the movie was about a Dickensian orphan living by his wits in a French station.  Been there, seen that.

Now that I have seen the movie, I am super-duper glad I did.  it is a gem of a movie, an ode to movie-making, and the 3D is non-intrusive, making you (the viewer) a part of the action as opposed to the target of it.

I should have known.  Martin Scorsese, the director, is a man who has long professed a love for the movies and probably sees 3D as the wave of the future and wanted to make a definitive movie for the medium.  Much like James Cameron's Avatar (the only other 3D movie that I recommend must be watched in 3D), Hugo is a movie that relies on the story as the hook on which to hang the visuals where a lesser director would make the mistake of doing it in reverse.

Some of the side characters are caricatures, behaving in a typically predicable manner, but at the heart of the story is the connection between the eponymous hero and an elderly gentleman who own a toy store played with great elan by Ben Kingsley.

Go, see the movie while you can on the big screen and in 3D, if possible.  Then we can talk in more detail about the story and how it is, at its heart, a love story.  A love story between a director and movies.

P.S.  The only jarring (and sad) note for me was that the main protagonists speak in a decidedly English accent even though the entire action is taking place in Paris.  *sigh*

Beefing up one's obituary

Ignore the fact that he is selling some random brand of beer.  You will become a little more intelligent simply by listening to the Most Interesting Man in the World.
   

The Prestige

This video is just 13 seconds long, but you MUST look at it. Two kids attempt to pull of an amazing magic trick and succeed beyond their wildest imagination.

Don't try this at home.

On second thoughts, DO try this at home.  Just be sure to record it while it happens.

Bad to the bone

How dangerous/fabulous must a villain be if it takes so many super-heroes to fight him?  Get ready to root for the bad guy!

Don't people know?  Dream Teams rarely work out (just ask the Miami Heat, Philadelphia Eagles, and the Indian batting line-up, all of recent vintage).

Hello, world.

In my review of Casino Royale, I had written:

In the third act the movie meanders a little bit as Bond recovers from the trauma of his last encounter with the bad guys. Then there is a twist, and from the wreckage emerges a more definitive Bond. At the very end he walks past a fallen bad guy, the iconic Bond music playing for the first time in the movie, and then he looks into the screen and identifies himself. I do not get goosebumps often enough in a movie theatre these days, but after this scene I was tingling.
James Bond is back, and how!

Trolling the web, I finally came across the scene I was talking about that day.  Yay for Youtube!

नदिया किनारे ...

A few weeks ago, while the Indian cricket team was getting shellacked in England, Hasha Bhogle and Sanjay Manjrekar took some time out to have some fun by the Trent River.  (Sanjay is quite a singer).

(Update:  It is mostly in Marathi, but if you listen carefully, you'll understand the gist of what they are saying.  Wait for him to sing, it is worth it.  Also interesting is the choice of songs.)

TGIF: Songs to hum - 5

On Friday afternoons, after I am done teaching (or preparing for teaching, as the case is this week) for the week, I sit in my office, put my feet up on my desk, lean back in my chair and softly hum songs to myself, unwinding and releasing the built-up tension of the week so far. Youtube is a good companion during these times and I have my own version of Chitrahaar, with the songs following some unfathomable pattern, changing per my mood and wishes. 

Here is today's trip through Youtube:

How could I not start with a Shammi Kapoor song? I should probably elaborate on this some other day, but for now let me just say that the songs of Junglee were the first songs I knew the lyrics to. All of them. Bar none. And I still know them after all these years. (More on that some other day, I promise). In that movie, this was my favorite song, though it not the one that is most commonly associated with Shammi Kapoor.

Maggi Noodle Review: Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

At first glance it would appear that ZNMD is an updated version of Dil Chahta Hai. After all it does have a Farhan Akhtar connection. I went in with the same impression but came out with a different one.

ZNMD has a superficial resemblance to DCH in that it features 3 friends, a road trip, and a woman at the heart of it. But it is different in that the entire movie is a road trip, the woman at the heart of the movie is not Katrina Kaif, and the resolution is not quite what you'd expect. I will not say more except that the writers play fair and do not cheat you with the ending.

Seasons of change

As time goes by, Hindi movie previews are getting as polished as anything Hollywood dishes out, even exceeding them at times. Check out the preview of this upcoming Shahid Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor movie and tell me you are not in the least bit intrigued about it.

What if...

a) This is just mesmerizing....what would some of the planets look like in the night sky if they were the same distance from the earth as the moon?

b) What if the Earth had rings, just like Saturn does? How would it look from different cities across the world? How I wish this were true...*sigh*

c) And finally, if you have ever wondered what Hyderabad would look like if covered by snow, wonder no further. Here it is, courtesy some very imaginative CGI (from about the 1:35 mark).

Random musings 3 - Bits and pieces

(In this column of I shall put forward thoughts that course through my mind - too small to be separate blog posts but too long to be mere passing fancies).

1) MS Dhoni is one of the most successful captains in modern day cricket (and is fast moving up the ranks of the all-timers). I have read as many articles about him as I can in an effort to figure out what he thinks. Lately, he has openly admitted that he does not attend the bowler's meeting prior to a match as he does not want to go in with a pre-conceived strategy. This is admirable, because it clearly shows that he is willing (and able) to think on his feet during the game.