You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘up’ tag.
It is Oscar season and I saw 2 nominated movies recently that were based on true stories. The first, Invictus, was the better of the two and a satisfying watch. Morgan Freeman’s Oscar nomination is something I don’t quite get, but I didn’t find much to complain about in the movie.
The second, The Blind Side, was an interesting movie — in the sense, the story was amazing. I would recommend giving the movie a skip and instead, reading this 2006 feature at the The New York Times. That is the story of Michael Oher, the central character of The Blind Side. I didn’t read this before watching the movie, so the movie seemed interesting. Post reading, it became very obvious that the movie was being used as Sandra Bullock’s Oscar vehicle. There were many scenes that seemed not-essential to the plot, but I am sure those very scenes contributed to her Oscar nomination — which again I do not get.
I haven’t seen Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, but most other acting nominations were disappointing this year. George Clooney for Up In The Air was incomprehensible. Among the 10 movies that were nominated for the Best Movie, I have seen a handful. In my very humble opinion, the only deserving nominations were The Hurt Locker and Up.
Anyway, the Oscars are over and there isn’t much point debating the nominations.
I was late watching this Pixar movie too. I usually cannot get myself to watch animated movies, which is strange as I haven’t hated any. The last one I saw in this genre was WALL.E, which was overrated in my opinion.
Back to Up, I loved its simple plot, the execution, the adorable characters and almost every aspect of it. If you haven’t already seen it, don’t miss it. Everything is kept very simple and linear, but done perfectly. Animation is top-notch, as is expected of Pixar.
May I add that ‘actors’ like Upen Patel would do well learning acting from the animated characters.
This is exactly what I have been proposing all along. Adopting democratic tactics to protest against injustice.
The MNS leaders and workers finally got their long deserving punishment; watching Deshdrohi, that too at a sub-standard cinema hall in Andheri : Link
I am sure they will think twice before attacking a north Indian in the future !
Thankfully the senseless regional politics in Maharashtra is coming to a close sooner than expected :
No north Indian name for Maharashtrian road.
Wonder how long before they realize that Ram and Krishna are both ‘bhaiyyas’ and turn atheists ?
.. comes from the father of the youth from UP, lynched in a train in Mumbai, who was offered Rs. 2 L as compensation by the Maharashtra government :
Take Rs 20L, give me MNS chief.
To be honest, I woudn’t advocate such a thing too. That would just mean moving further away from a democracy.
A certain M.K. Gandhi had said “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. What if the people are already blinded ?
Rajdeep Sardesai writes in an open letter to Raj Thackeray pretty much what it is on everybody’s mind. Hope we get an answer :
When you started your party a few years ago, it had been pitched as a party committed to a “modern” Maharashtra. If that vision still stands, why don’t you take it forward in real terms? Why don’t you, for example, set up vocational courses and technical institutes for young Maharashtrians to make them competitive in the job market? Why not, for that matter, start English-speaking classes for Maharashtrian students to equip them for the demands of the new economy? If cultural identity is such a concern, why not launch a statewide campaign to promote Marathi art, theatre and cinema by financially supporting such ventures? If Mumbai’s collapsing infrastructure worries you, then target the politician-builder nexus first. And isn’t it also time we realized that Mumbai is not Maharashtra, that the long suffering Vidarbha and Marathwada farmer needs urgent attention? Why not use your political and financial muscle to start projects in rural Maharashtra instead of focusing your energies on Mumbai’s bright lights alone? An employment generation scheme in a Jalna or a Gadchiroli may not make the front pages, but it will have far greater value for securing Maharashtra’s future.
Jai Hind, Jai Maharashtra!
Methinks the answer is obvious : Because .. it is tougher.
Neither.
I am hoping everyone would have heard about Rahul Raj (and no, he is not Shahrukh Khan’s alter ego).
A youth from Bihar comes in to Mumbai at dawn, holds a bus at ransom in the morning and by noon is history, leaving behing a tale of politics and continued hatred, the end of which is nowhere in sight.
Sadly, almost no one has reacted as a responsible citizen.
The police are yet to disclose details of the incident, which could well be a deciding factor in the argument. Either way, if a passenger’s life was threatened, I would go with the Mumbai police here. They were not netting a butterfly here. This was an armed person they were dealing with.
Maharashtra Home Minister R.R.Patil made the famous ‘bullet for a bullet’ quote. And this, when he was in Sangli with hardly any details about the incident. Wonder why he did not apply his same logic all this time while the MNS was happily rampaging the streets of Mumbai.
Politicians from Bihar, weirdly united and most of whom are hailing Rahul Raj as a martyr, with even lesser details about the incident. Lalu Prasad Yadav calls it a murder and not an encounter, just because the police were not injured.
Mr Shivraj Patil, the Home Minister of India. It would be fair to say that a cute little kitten might scare me more than his words.
Lastly some people of Mumbai, who incidentally, also happen to be citizens of India. Very possibly as an indirect consequence to the recent incidents, a youth from UP was lynched in a train in Mumbai.
Whatever your opnion might be, I think across the board we can atleast agree that the recent incidents have brought out the worst in everyone.
And that terrorists are not born, we make them.
Amidst all the violence, politics and nonsense that generally clutters the life of an average Indian, this is a moment we all need to be proud of. The launch of Chandrayaan-1, which by definition proves that there are more to follow !
Firstly, about the name; I have heard many variations (which includes one friend referring to it as Chandranarayan) but the right pronunciation is चंद्रयान-1 (Courtesy : Wikipedia).
So we are back to the good old times. Back to kids saying they wanted to become an astronaut; technically weird, since this was an unmanned mission (or maybe being a pilot didn’t seem too attractive courtesy Jet Airways).
Among its other minor achievements are a mention by Barack Obama, a discussion in the Ubuntu Forums (where people are learning about India) and of course, a mention in the Stanford Daily here (information by Raghu).
Chandrayaan-1 had a textbook launch (which lead to one wise person at RDB wonder if there was a textbook inside) but there are serious concerns that it might run into some trouble in space very soon :
Image via email from Tushar B.
But to be honest, I am doubly excited about our forthcoming manned mission to the moon, with the hope that we get to vote whom to pack off.
Yes and to follow the rich tradition of our mostly otherwise media, you can send in your wishes to the ISRO team who made all the Indians proud, by writing in the comments section below !! Let’s write to them and boost their morale !
P.S. : You can also send in your good wishes/messages in case your neighbour’s dog gave birth to a litter, your manager was caught cheating on his wife, India’s victory over Australia in the 2001 Kolkata test and any random occasion. Just like our news channels, I will make sure the concerned party reads it, even if it is a dog.
While a lot of bouquets and brickbats have been thrown at Raj Thackeray recently, this is something which stumped even me :
Raj’s act dangerous for Hindutva: Puri seer.
I did not get head or tail of his reasoning. But a smart move to be in the news, considering the media is a sucker for anything related to Raj; including what he ate for dinner last night – chappati, vegetables, fruits and a cup of tea. I am rather disappointed that TOI did not report whether his digestive system processed the food well.
The news of the day would have to be : Trio uses toy pistol to loot Rs. 13 lakhs.
I blame Abhinav Bindra !
Link Courtesy : Nikhil
