What's that?

I was at this exhibition in Bangalore on agriculture. These two pictures were taken there. I couldn't but guffaw at the punchline of this seed company. The other one's all 'gas'.. :)

Fever pitch

I’m glad IPL’s started and I at least have something to watch on TV (apart from news, i.e.). I’m surprised at the way Royal Challengers have bounced back after the mauling they received at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders in their first match. Jaques Kallis has been superlative for them (and amazing supporting roles by Kumble the magician and Uthapa the unpredictable).

It’s saddening to watch the fortunes of some teams go so bad so soon – Rajasthan Royals and Kings’ XI Punjab. The first edition of IPL had seen them surprising several teams (and RR went on to win the finals while Punjab lost in the Semis). It reminds me of the fortunes of the ladies who own these teams who hail from the tinsel town. Both Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty were popular heroines (okay, Ms Shetty was NOT exactly popular but known). But their careers have long been on the wane and there’s only one way to go for them – down. Looks their teams too are headed the same way along with them. And, come to think of it – these blokes in the side can’t even claim to be ‘reading scripts’ and get away when their losses seem to have been scripted by the bad team-building choices by the owner-nis. But as Jadeja said they still might be laughing all the way to the bank despite losses in the matches! But it surely is NOT the best thing for the future of IPL.

For now I’m placing my money on Royal Challengers and Deccan Chargers to reach the semis along with Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings). Seems the Kolkata and Delhi teams are losing steam faster than one thought now. And the battle for the wooden spoon seems to be the toughest – between the Punjabis and the Rajasthanis.

Movie Review - LSD

Even if you guys haven’t heard of Dibakar Banerjee most of you would’ve heard of (or even seen) the movie ‘Khosla ka Ghosla’ and/or ‘Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’. DB established himself as a moviemaker to reckon with these two films. Well made, well acted and movies that pleased both the critics and the crowds (yeah, yeah). ‘Chak de patte’ from KKG is a number that’s still heard regularly (sung marvelously by Kailash Kher). LSD, the latest movie from DB is not in the same mould. It’s NOT light-hearted fun, breezy movie. It’s not even a conventional movie (even by Dibakar Banerjee’s or even Anurag Kashyap’s yardstick).

LSD (Love, Sex aur Dhokha) is a realistic, hard-hitting cinema captured on hand-held camera. It tells three different stories that run into one another albeit briefly. The stories don’t seem disjointed and the acting by the entire ensemble cast is uniformly superlative (everyone is new; you won’t find a single face that you might recognize from anywhere unless one of them is your friend). The movie is influenced by the happenings that have grabbed a lot of footage on news channels – the Nitish Katara – Bharti Yadav love story and its aftermath, the MMS scam and the sleazy stings.

So the three tales are about an Aditya Chopra-addicted film institute student who falls in love with the heroine of the movie he’s making (for his graduation), a youth-in-trouble-over-money willing to sacrifice emotions for cash and a dancer who’ll go any length to get featured in a music video (and a journo team into sleaze stings).

But beware before watching the movie! The language’s street lingo – filled with expletives and profanities, the violence (and sex)is graphic and disturbing and there are no cinematic conclusions. The entire movie more akin to a docu-drama or better still, appears to have been told from a neutral perspective, “It happened thus” way. It reminded me of an old movie (which bagged National Award then), ‘The New Delhi Times’ starring Shashi Kapoor and Sharmila Tagore.

If you don’t mind thinking about the movie long after it’s over and you don’t have a queasy tummy go watch it. It’s ground-breaking in more ways than one. If you want your movie to be even remotely ‘enjoyable’ or have moralistic issues then this ain’t your cuppa!