A load of crap from an idle brain » bollywood

Avatar, New Moon and the Indian Connection

Liju Philip — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:03:22 +0000

Prime Focus, the Mumbai based post production company has worked on significant portions of the recent blockbusters, Avatar and The New Moon.

Prime Focus played an essential behind-the-scenes role in two of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters of 2009 — Chris Weitz’s “New Moon” and James Cameron’s “Avatar.” The company established itself as one of the cutting-edge firms in the visual effects business by producing about 10 percent of James Cameron’s path-breaking 3D superhit and a whopping 80 percent of the shots for the second installment of the Twilight franchise.

“’Avatar’ obviously is the biggest of all,” Malhotra said. “We’ve done some exemplary work in ‘GI Joe’ and ‘New Moon’ as well. But when you’re working on ‘Avatar’ as one of the top five vendors you have got to a lot more credible space than working on just any movie.”

The London Stock Exchange-listed company’s portfolio of work runs the gambit from “Avatar” to top Bollywood hits like the Amir Khan starrer “3 Idiots” to Splinter Films’ DVD release of a live performance by Beyonce. The company already owns the lion’s share of the Indian post-production and visual effects market, and the international business is expanding rapidly.

Full article here

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AR Rahman, Resul Pookutty, Slumdog Millionaire sweep Oscars

Liju Philip — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 05:46:41 +0000

No matter how much some intellectuals tried to wish it away, Slumdog Millionaire like a bad dream comes back again and again. It created history by sweeping 8 oscars.

Meanwhile, AR Rahman scored another massive victory in an impressively star studded career with 2 Oscar awards. One for the original background score and one for Original Song (Jai ho) which was written by none other than Gulzar himself.

Am awesome day at the Oscars for India as the documentary, Smile Pinki, a heart-warming tale of a poor Indian village girl whose cleft lip made her a social outcast won the award for the best short documentary.

Many people look at Slumdog as poverty porn. I look at it as the coming of age of Indians who by sheer determination and hard work are making a mark in the world. They dont crib over their poverty and hardships; instead work hard to rise above all that life has to offer. There are millions of examples around us and we just need to look around.

A perfect example of the same is AR Rahman. From having to support his family as a young man after the untimely death of his father, he took to music and his dedication to his craft has brought him to the place where he is today.

“I want to thank everyone. The essence of the film is optimism and hope. All through my life I had the choice of love and hate…I chose love and I am here” an elated Rahman said.

The composer was overwhelmed and interspersed his speech with Hindi as well as Tamil on receiving the coveted trophy.

“There is a dialogue from an old Hindi film,”Mere paas ma hai” – which means I have nothing but a mother. My mother is here, I have her blessings. I am glad she could be here” said Rahman.

He ended the acceptance speech by saying “God is great” in Tamil, something he says after winning every award.

Meanwhile, sound engineer Resul Pookutty became the third Indian to bring Oscar glory for India by winning the award for sound mixing in Slumdog Millionaire.

“I dedicate this award to my country. This is not just a sound award but a piece of history that has been handed over to me” a beaming and emotional Pookutty said while dedicating the trophy to a billion Indians.

“I come from a country and civilisation that gave the world the word that precedes silence and is followed by more silence. That word is ‘Om’. So I dedicate this award to my country” said Kerala-born sound technician.

Pookutty shared the honours with colleagues Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke.

“This is unbelievable. I share the stage with two magicians, who captured the noise and cacophony of Mumbai to create the soul stirring artful sound of Slumdog Millionaire” he said.

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New Movie Page

Liju Philip — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 12:22:10 +0000

Considering the amount of movies i watch, i felt that a separate page is needed to justify it. So, i have put up a listing of all the movies that i have watched this year in the new page called “Movies“. Yes, its just 11 days into the year but i have already watched 13 movies. Am a movie maniac you see

Its difficult for me to write detailed reviews for each and every movie i see because sometimes i end up watching 4-5 movies over a weekend. And by the end of the week, i have no patience to write anything about it other than rating them on a 1- 5 scale. Though if i do have the energy, i might write a few lines about them.

I soon plan to put up another page that will track all the books that i read. Not that i read a lot. Weekends are spent watching movies, so the only time for me to read a book is when iam travelling to and from work. Also that depends on how tired iam. So, most of the time, i just plug in some music into my ears and doze off (if iam fortunate to get a seat).

Above picture courtesy: Tinypic

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2008 – A recap

Liju Philip — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:40:08 +0000

A lot of good things and humongous amount of ugly things happened in 2008. The global financial meltdown, terror attacks in Bombay and the rest of the country, millions of job losses, more than 20 banks going bust in the US. Big investment companies like Lehman, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns etc down the drain. All the bad things were very promptly covered by the world media. So, let me look at some of the best things that happened to me this year.

Best thing to happen to me in 2008

I got married. Is there anything better than this?

Travel in 2008

I made 4 trips to India this year and contributed my part to global warming. So, other than the regular trips home, 2008 has been a pretty dry year when it came to travel. 2009 seems more promising as i already have lots of travel plans lined up now that i have my wife as my travel partner.

Movies in 2008

Have lost count of the number of movies i watched this year. It should be more than 150. That means around one in 2 days. Fortunately, i dont restrict myself to any particular genre or language, so i have had the honour of watching some truly remarkable movies across languages

Let me emphasize that all the movies mentioned below are not necessarily released this year. These are just some of the movies that i saw this year which impressed me.

Aamir
A Wednesday
Mithya
Oye Lucky Lucky Oye
Jodhaa Akbar
Tahaan
Subramaniapuram (Tamil)
Dasavatharam (Tamil)
Gamyam (Telugu)
Slumdog Millionaire
Dark Knight
Children of Men
Death at a Funeral
Before Sunset
Taken
21
3:10 to Yuma
Transsiberian
Rebel without a cause
The Towering Inferno
In Bruges
Traffic
Gran Torino
28 weeks later
Rang-E-Khoda (Colour of Paradise) – Iranian
Bacheha-Ye aseman (Children of Heaven) – Iranian

Books in 2008

Kaoboys of R&AW – B Raman
Eleven Minutes – Paulo Coelho
Reluctant Fundamentalist – Mohsin Hamid
Freakonomics – Steven Levitt
Barefoot Investor – Scott Pape
Undercover Economist – Tim Harford
It happened in India – Kishore Biyani
We are like that only – Rama Bijapurkar
The World is Flat – Thomas Friedman
Intelligent Investor – Benjamin Graham

Investments in 2008

At the begining of the year even though there were predictions that the world economy was in for a rough ride, no one would have believed if the markets would be at a situation where it is now. From 20,000 to 9000, the Sensex has been on a mother of all crashes. My portfolio is totally in the red. But then as some great soul said…

Buy when everyone sells and sell when everyone buys

Iam buying and have built up quite a bit of my portfolio by now. I averaged out quite a lot of my losses and surely dont need the market to climb back to 20k to see a positive portfolio. I still cant believe why people keep advising me that i should start buying only when the market is stable.

How does one judge when a market turns stable? The worst thing you can do is to time the market. Its practically impossible for anyone to guess the top and the bottom of the market. The only thing a long term investor can do is to religiously invest a bit of his savings in the market and cash out when he hits paydirt.

Career in 2008

Nothing interesting happened in my career during 2008. In fact, hanging on to the job one has is the mantra in this gloomy economy. In fact this is a good time to start studying and get certified in some courses that can make a difference when the economy rebounds.

My resolution for 2009

…. is to have no resolutions

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Now Watching

Liju Philip — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:28:42 +0000

My Blueberry Nights (*** 3/5)

To End All Wars (**** 4/5)

Mean Girls (* 1/5)

Hero (**** 4/5)

Max Payne (** 2/5)

Karzzzz (** 2/5)

Children of Men (*** 4/5)

Above pictures from: IMDB & Santa Banta

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Dev.D – Promo

Liju Philip — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:14:22 +0000

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRLjycn11Rw]

Woohoo…. Anurag Kashyap is back, after No Smoking and Black Friday. Dev D is the story of Devdas set in the current age.

The only Deol that i like, Abhay Deol. Am very much impressed by his selection of movies – Socha Na Tha, Manorama 6 feet under, Ek Chalis ki Last Local.

Aankhon ka hai dhoka, Paisa tera pyaar,

Tera emotional atyachaar

Produced by UTV Spotboy and a rocking soundtrack, this is one movie am waiting for.

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Ghajini Promo

Liju Philip — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:54:03 +0000

Aamir Khan is back… and how. The trailer of the much anticipated Murugadoss directed, Aamir Khan starrer Ghajini is out. And by the looks of it, looks like a super violent movie.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_VLLlLR7dU]

Is it a 6 pack or the very elusive 8 pack? Lets wait for the verdit to happen, but boy am sooooper excited. Cant wait for the music to release. The tamil version had some terrific foot tapping music by Harris Jayaraj and a muscular Surya to boot. Honestly, i was not impressed by the Tamil version. Especially the climax which i though was a letdown. But with Mr Perfectionist, Aamir in the lead, am waiting with bated breath.

Above picture courtesy: Aamirkhan.com

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Movie Reviews & 500th post

Liju Philip — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:11:01 +0000

Edit: Ya, just saw that this is my 500th post. Yay

Cold Mountain (2/5)

Inspite of the splendid acting, cinematography and music, the movie left me cold. Dunno why.

Inside Man (2.5/5)

Spike Lee directed movie starring Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster and Clive Owen. Sure recipe for a taut thriller, right? Unfortunately not. But its not a bad watch. Watch out for the opening and ending credits of the movie with AR Rahman’s Chhaiya Chhaiya playing in the background. No reason for the song to play there. It felt more or less like watching an english movie with an item song in it

Prom Night (0/5)

Pathetic, boring, stupid slasher flick.

Drona (-1/5)

Abhishek Bachchan and superhero? hahahaha. That is the joke of the century. Wish wifey dear Aishwarya would do something about hubby’s flabby body. Half of the time, Abhishek is so sissy and stands with his heads bowed that you wonder if the superhero is suffering from a bad case of ‘inferiority complex’. And now, Goldie Behl (who?) is planning a sequel. May God save all of us from this Groana.

For the first time i have used a negative rating and the honour goes to Drona.

Kidnap (1/5)

A unique movie where mother (Vidya Malvade) and daughter (Minissa Lamba) compete on screen to see who has the better cleavage. Trust me, its still not worth it. Sanjay Dutt looks haggard and wonders what the eff he was doing in this movie. As for Imran Khan, he has miles to go before he can even be a patch on his mamu jaan, Aamir Khan. Sanjay Gadhvi, the director is an a$$. He is better off in the company of the morons from Yash Raj. Only they have the balls to promote his movies.

Pictures courtesy: Santabanta and IMDB

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