We saw Kurbaan starring Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor yesterday. This movie is of the same story type as New York, about post 9/11 islamic terrorism, the US, and the Muslim family in that order. Unlike New York where 100% of the shooting was in the US, in Kurbaan about 25 to 30% of the shooting is in India in New Delhi, the rest in the US. Like New York there are a lot of US actors employed for the roles of the FBI, and the police. And more important none of them speak in Hindi;-) Heh! Vivek Oberoi is a second gen Indian American and does manage to speak English in a US accent, unlike Abishek Bachchan in Delhi 6 or John Abraham in New York who both spoke in their normal Indian English accents. BUT that doesn't mean to say that they spoke Hindi in a US accent, nope, Hindi is spoken in the normal Indian accent.

No song and dance routines to spoil the movie's plot, very nice songs in the back ground, very nice sound score, good camera work. Diya Mirza and the lovely Nauheed Cyrusi get very tiny roles in this movie and are credited with the Special Appearances tag. They both should be happy. While Saif's acting is very good as usual, Kareena has been far better. She wowed you in Jab We Met and wows you here too. Vivek Oberoi is unable to match either of them.

The movie is very gripping and very enjoyable.

Sore points: Well one character instead of contacting the FBI decides to conduct his own investigation. The FBI are unable to get the culprits in time even though they get a car and two bodies as a lead, but I am assuming here that the movie makers forgot to tell us that the car was untraceable [stolen?]

Critics point: It seems Anupama Chopra in her TV spot said that Kareena is shown teaching only one class [in a background song sequence] as a college professor. Well I would like to tell Ms Chopra that in addition they don't show her going to the loo every morning, brushing her teeth and doing other important things too. Heh! Ms Chopra is the wife of Vidoo Vinod Chopra and so should not nit pick too much;-)



Disclaimer: Just because I liked or didn't like a movie or book doesn't mean you should share the same opinion as you. I am saying this since Kurbaan was a flop and yesterday for the 10pm show the screen had just a dozen people.

I finished reading Ford County Stories bu John Grisham.

In this Grisham narrates a set of short stories, apparently the first time he has written a book of short stories. And all stories relate to a place called Ford County, and their people. Each story is interesting and gripping. And you wish that Grisham had packed more stories, since you can finish off his book in just under a day.

Last week I finished reading Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple, the first book of his that I read was At the Court of the Fish-Eyed Goddess [titled Age of Kali outside India]. Subsequently I have read his other books last being The Last Mughal : The Fall Of A Dynasty, Delhi, 1857. With Nine Lives he once again does what he likes best, travel around India [and around, he visits the Sindh for one story] and meets a bunch of people [as you'd guess nine of them] from varied cross sections of Indian society and religion, and as is apparent in the book virtually stays with them to get their stories. In between the story of the character he gives a back drop of the character's belief, religion or performance.

Unlike the history books of his that I read prior to this [Last Mughal, White Mughal] this one is a faster read.

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is a lovely romantic comedy starring Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif. The theatre was full and all of them were laughing along with us all of the time. There is a decent enough story, which means the necessity to leave your brains behind [like in a Akshay Kumar thriller] doesn't exist.

Ranbir has done well and I find he has less of his duh look which was prevalent in his previous three movies. His pairing with Katrina is quite good, and he seems to have a knack for it. He paired well with Sonam in the disaster called Saawariya , Minisha-Bipasha-Deepika in Bachna Ae Haseeno and even with Konkana Sen Sharam in Wake Up Sid.

Katrina has dubbed her voice in this movie and we can make out from her accent which otherwise we had heard only in her TV interviews. For someone who has come from London and who is half not Indian, and who learned to speak Hindi after coming here, she is doing very well indeed.

We saw the MJ movie This Is It yesterday at Big Cinema. I was thinking we'll be shown grainy footage, with lousy but maybe remastered sound or something. After all it was supposed to be back stage videos of the rehearsals and how good could that be. Turns out very good indeed with theatre quality sound. The movie will be out only for two weeks world wide and thereafter you will never get to see it again in any theatre. That is what I have been given to understand.

After seeing the movie all I can say is MJ was quite healthy!

Empire of the Moghul: Raiders From the North is a lovely little hard cover book by Alex Rutherford. Quite an impressive name for an author right! Has to be, since it is a pseudonym. For whom! For two people! Yeah folks this book is written by the writer couple Michael and Diana Preston. And this is the first in a set of five books they will be writing.

Raiders from the North is the story of Babur, founder of the Moghul dynasty, starting from his ascending his father's thrown in some hamlet in Afghanistan till he reaches and occupies the throne of Ibrahim Lodi at Agra after the first battle of Panipat.

Except that unlike most history books this is written in the form of a novel! The authors have filled in fictional characters as and when needed, and have used the Baburnama, Babur's autobiography for most details.

Their next book will be Empire of the Moghul: Brothers at War

Tere Mere Beach Mein hosted by Farah Khan on Star Plus on Saturdays and Sundays at 9pm I find is a show that is a must see. She has so far called Bollywood and Indian cricket celebrities only. Each show is about a theme, like the one on Salman Khan and his mom was about mother son bonding, Shilpa Shetty and Bipasha on single ladies coming up strong in Bollywood on their own. Irfan and Yusuf Pathan on brother bonding. Towards the end of the show she brings a person or a couple from the general public. Carefully selected that they match the theme. Usually they have a tale to tell, one of courage, and if need be Farah makes a donation of Rs 1 lakh to their charity or to them. She then asks the stars to donate some item that she will auction off [on ebay.in/star] She then donates a lakh of Rupees each to a charity of the celebrities.

We saw The Taking of Pelham 123 yesterday evening, and I have to confess that it was not me who initiated to see the movie but Suchitra. I have not read the novel or seen the previous movie and didn't even know the story. And so wasn't overly eager in watching it. But Suchitra noted that Denzel Washington and John Travolta where in the lead and hence we decided to see it.

Both of us enjoyed the two hour movie, and after reading the Wiki details of both versions I find that this version is very true to the original movie except that they have incorporated modern day gadgets. Both lead characters do a good job though the bad man uses the F word a little much than desired. I mean he manages to sound menacing enough without using the F word and then spoils it all by using the MF word. Was not required.

The cop car convoy speed scenes was very well done.

I have started reading The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg. I came across this book in the Strand Book Stall booklet. It was priced quite high, but being sold for Rs 295/- and about the English language [and so not about the adventures of a chap called John English or something heh] and thought I should try it out. And so when our person in Bangalore was getting those books for Sneha he also got this one. Once again instead of a slim volume that I was expecting I get this rather beefy hard cover [I did know it was a HC] and started reading from yesterday. And what do you know, it is very readable.

The Strand Book Stall website lists this book thus:
Pages : 354 Hard Back List Price : £20.00 (Rs.1654.00)
Our Price Rs.550.00 You Save: Rs.1104 (66.74%)

Actual price was what I paid above.




This rating given for the high quality of the book, ie printing and presentation. Readability rating will be a separate post after I finish it.

We saw Terminator Salvation yesterday evening. This one departs from the previous three in two aspects, one of course is that Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't there, and also the movie doesn't start with a flash of lightning, crackle of electricity, and a nude person/machine appearing out of nowhere [future actually]. Why? Because we are finally in the future dudes!

My sis-in-law asked "How was Christian Bale as the Terminator!" and was quite surprised to know that he his John Connors and not the Terminator. The movie is very nice, and since it is set in the dark bad future, you don't get to see bright colours at all. Bale has acted just as he acts in previous movies, eg The Dark Knight, Equilibrium. So compared to Schwarzenegger he was not bad at all;-)

Besides Suchitra there was just one other lady in the theatre. And surprising Suchitra liked it!? She said not just to me, she said that to her sister too?!?