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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Some great news all round. India has taken a series winning 3-0 lead against the Sri Lankans in the 5 match one day series. Meanwhile, South Africa humiliated Australia by winning both the one day and test series. To rub salt into the wounds, New Zealand forced a win in the first one dayer against Australia on the last ball of the match.
Brad Haddin lived upto his captain’s reputation as a cheater by dislodging the bails with his gloves instead of the ball and had the gall to question Daniel Vettori when his actions were questioned. Pricky Ricky Ponting followed suit in defending his co-cheatmate. I was waiting to hear a classic in the lines of
If you are questioning my integrity, then probably you shouldn’t be sitting here.
but, unfortunately no such pearls of wisdom sprouted from Ricky’s mouth this time. In other news, Ricky Ponting has been asked to rest. Heh. Great news. If Australia are really serious about mounting any challenge to South Africa or India, they seriously need to get rid of Ricky as captain. He’s still a good batsman and commands a place in the team purely on his batting and fielding. But when it comes to captaincy, he often looks lost when the chips are down.
Roger Federer lost in the finals of the Australian Open and that’s something iam unable to come to terms with. Rafael Nadal seems to be his achilles heel. Nadal has quickly moved from being a good player on clay to grasscourts too. So, Federer has lost his monopoly in Wimbledon now having lost to Nadal last year. Am sure Federer will make a comeback and break Sampras’ record of 14 grand slams, but the delay is the killer.
Watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona last weekend. Scarlett Johansson is yummy and so is Penelope Cruz. I still cant get over the evil role of Javier Bardem in No country for old men and had a tough time thinking about him as a casanova in this movie.
Meanwhile, i will have some great 2 weeks starting this sunday. Biwi ji will join me here in Singapore 
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Posted by Liju Philip | Posted in books, cinema, films, Movies, Personal | Posted on 11-01-2009
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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Terminator Salvation
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdvaP9oNe2M]
Youtube link
Valkyrie
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSy96KB7Dh4&feature=PlayList&p=2E3250E469189C83&index=0]
Youtube link
Che
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvENx90srto]
Youtube link
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Vir Sanghvi makes a chilling comparison between the Joker (villain in the movie Batman) and the terrorists who attacked Mumbai last month.
Consider the plot of that film. Gotham City is gripped by a wave of terror. The motive of the criminal does not appear to be money—in one memorable scene, the Joker sets fire to a mountain of cash—and there are no demands made of the authorities. The villain causes mayhem and murder simply because he can.
Nor do the usual methods work. When the Joker is arrested, the police leave him alone in a room with Batman who beats him up to find out what his plans are. But no amount of violence—even from as powerful a figure as Batman—makes any difference. The Joker is past the stage where he cares about pain.
In that sense, the Joker is the crime fighter’s ultimate nightmare: a villain with no wants or desires, with no agendas and no obvious weaknesses. He kills because he likes it. He keeps Batman alive because he enjoys the battle.
Now, consider the situation we found ourselves in during the siege of Mumbai. We had nothing to negotiate with the terrorists. They did not care about money and they had no political demands. We could not engage them in conversation, listen to their demands and then slowly whittle them down as hostage negotiators usually do.
Interesting read. Read the full article here
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