don’t you hate when a promo comes with something like – “free for a month, and unless you remember to cancel, we’ll start charging you”. Ugly, sneaky and cheap.

Back to the [...]]]> Where Omkara and Gangaajal paved the way, Raajneeti takes it forward. These are the films that take you in the wonderful landscape of India beyond the 100km radius of big cities. Yeah, the kind of world the urban yuppies go into for ‘excursions’ over weekends and take pictures as if they are foreign tourists.

Back to the film.

Firstly, it’s an ensemble cast film. Prakash Jha (director) has done a great job of putting the perfect actor in the perfect place (even the hip looking Arjun Rampal seems to oddly right in place with the character). A subdued and underplayed Nana Patekar was fantastic, to begin with. Ajay Devgan, big shot he is, playing a non-central character only added to the underscoring what his character was about – which was of a reluctant second fiddle. Manoj Vajpai did well to get back from his excursion into lead-role dreams, and Katrina Kaif is a worthy wallflower, until you see Kubrick-esq transformation – the audience is perfectly setup for that bait-and-switch.

Secondly, with about 8-10 strong characters, it’s near-impossible to develop characters at the same time as building a story (look up the film Salaam-E-Ishq). For instance, Arjun Rampal abuses a female party worker in one his early scenes, who, later in the film, becomes a pawn in the opposition hands. Flows flawlessly into the story, without an awkward jump in narration. This would’ve been written as a simple drunken-assault scene in any other film – but here, the abuse is linked to party nomination process run by Arjun Rampal, shedding a ton of light into the ethics of his character. Simply put, story moves forward from shot-one, and characters build along the way.

Though somewhat of a longish film at about 3 hours (with some very good-sounding songs cut nicely short), this movies is brisk due to some very compact scenes. Fantastic pace and editing to keep you in the story and in your seats. I found myself stepping back into the film a few times to catch the nuances of the story. Definitely not a lean-back film., and not definitely for those that can’t appreciate the earthy hindi language (use of the word ‘yone soshan‘ for promiscuity).

It’s nice to see sophisticated well-films for the rest of the country, by the masters of the craft. Watch the film – but not in a multi-plex. That would be somewhat of a incongruous – like eating pani puri in Oberoy. Watch it in a “Cinema Ghar“, as the trailer puts it.

sub note: the grocery stores used to charge a rental for the videos. then, it turned to giving the rental for free if you bought $20 worth of groceries. now they are giving away the damn DVDs – no need to even bother returning them.

some (actually most) reviews of the movie were glowing, forcing me to make an unusual trip to the theater mid-week for a 7pm show. some said it was a tear-jerker, so people i guess were willing, ready and looking forward to shed a few tears at the theater. some reviews even [...]]]> such a great opportunity missed.

some (actually most) reviews of the movie were glowing, forcing me to make an unusual trip to the theater mid-week for a 7pm show. some said it was a tear-jerker, so people i guess were willing, ready and looking forward to shed a few tears at the theater. some reviews even said that the film would tug at the heart strings.

what a disappointment. the movie is good in the first hour or so, mainly because of the tried-and-true bollywood formula played out between shah-rukh khan, kajol and karan johar – the master of the craft. and just when mr.johar tries his hand at non-formula piece in the later half of the film, the script falls apart, the editing horrible, and the movie hurtles towards nonsense like plane about to crash to the ground.

how else can you explain made-up scenes in stupid looking town in georgia. people shuttling back and forth between georgia, san francisco and los angeles within a span of literally one picture frame? kajol going all stone cold on shah-rukh khan all of a sudden? how else can shah-rukh khan be captured, be on television, and then go away incognito?

what a mess. karan johar’s craft is no longer relevant. not when we have kaminey, devD, isqiya and such coming out of bollywood, the nautanki-style thumka movies are pretty much done. karan johar now tries to modernize his film making and it’s a big disaster.

of all things i feel really sad about de-valuing the debate of indian muslim identity, the mind of an autistic child and the american way of life by way of incorporating them into this directionless excuse for a film. bollywood took a step backwards.

but the movie is fantastic. it’s not one of those movies that grabs you and demands attention. it is very [...]]]> checked out Wake up Sid on my TataSky. btw, the ordering experience on this cable box is like it was in the US about 10 years ago. you’ll have to subscribe and wait for it’s start time.

but the movie is fantastic. it’s not one of those movies that grabs you and demands attention. it is very consumable, allows you to sit back and comes to you slowly and steadily, leaving you with a great cinema viewing experience at the end of it.

ranbir kapoor seems to have employed two expressions in this movie – at once he has a petulant frown on his face and at other times, he’s this happy-as-a-clam fella. konkana sen sharma is fantastic, plays within the role and, what perfection. she probably should’ve played all those roles that go typically to vidya balan.

though it drags a bit towards the middle as it transitions from sid’s discovery of his self-worth to his discovery of his love for the lady. the script is very tightly and carefully written with no awkward jumps in narration and no wasted motions.

the story is about this rich brat that is a failure academically, and takes things for granted. it’s about how he meets the harsh realities of life outside the comfort zone of his dad’s business, and discovering his true passion in life. konkana sen sharma has her own story line, but the key element is for her to be the ‘guide’ for sid in his journey of discovery.

waiting to check out rocket singh. with shimit amin and co, it’s sure to be a good film.

just look at the load pattern : 250,000 total test takers, taking the test over 10 days, spread across 105 testing centers, where they have 2 test sessions per [...]]]> it appears like the testing system for Common Admission Test (the aptitude test for admission into Indian business schools) crashed on the first day it opened to students.

just look at the load pattern : 250,000 total test takers, taking the test over 10 days, spread across 105 testing centers, where they have 2 test sessions per day –> pretty much yields 12,500 concurrent test takers across the entire system, and 119 test takers/center.

Update: each test taker takes about 150 questions over a 3-hr period, so that’s about 1.875M transactions over 3 hrs, 173 transactions per sec. Can India not achieve THAT? What a shame.

not being able to handle this type of load pattern is outright pathetic. blaming it on a virus is even more tragic attempt at someone covering their butt with a transparent plastic sheet.

the folks that took the test wont get a credit if the entire testing method is invalidated. those that didn’t take the test need to go through the stress another time. those that took the test will stand at a disadvantage because the question bank gets leaked in nano-second.

Update 2: according to WATBlog, here’s the notice against leaking, provided to test takers: “Disclosing, publishing, reproducing, transmitting, storing, or facilitating transmission and storage of the contents of the CAT or any information therein in whole or part thereof in any form or by any means, verbal or written, electronically or mechanically for any purpose, shall be in violation of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 and/or the Copyright Act, 1957 and/or the Information Technology Act“.

Are they really going to hit with an 1872 law?? really??

whoever deployed this solution should be fired for massive incompetence.

… and ironically, i found this ad in a newspaper couple of days ago. this is one sure way to solve all scalability problems – beg users to spare the system.

You call THIS simple?

contrast the state of simplicity elsewhere – e.g. designing simple personal web pages made simple -

was shocked and saddened to see this email from my bank, touting a SIMPLE design. my first reaction was you call this simple? is this the state of design expertise in India?

You call THIS simple?

contrast the state of simplicity elsewhere – e.g. designing simple personal web pages made simple -