Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows

July 21, 6.30 am...Like all Potter-maniacs, Sowmya and me joined the long queue in front of Strand Book Stall to collect our pre-ordered copies of Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows. It felt like waiting at the gateway of King Cross station, waiting to cross the barrier and enter the platform 9 3/4, out of the Muggle world, into the magical world. It was a good 15 minute wait before we laid our hands on our copies. We quickly got out of the store, and on the way back, I read out the first chapter for both of us. We had breakfast together, discussing the first chapter and what might be in store for us in the book. We parted promising to message (but no spoilers) when we finish the book. I couldn't spend much time reading that day. Decided to spend the night with Harry ;-)

Finally finished it at six in the morning on Sunday. Sowmya and me had the following discussions...

Me:
Great...
Book is a little disappointing in-between...esp when they are hiding....and some questions are unanswered...also not too much humor in the book...

Sowmya:
Till around page 400 or so, I was really disappointed in Harry. Always
thinking of something else instead of the task in hand.. he says the name
'Voldemort' because of which Dobby ends up being killed. Neither harry nor
JKR seems to have noted that point..

I was thinking that he isn't anything special then, Hermione did most of
the work.. this guy didn't really do much. Only after Xeno tells them about
the horcruxes does harry actually start acting. I was impressed with the
deduction about the ring and all that from there on.

The end was a little typical that all the magical creatures are finally in
Hogwarts finally fighting one side or the other.

Rowling shows a liking for the big stage here. When the castle calls war
with Voldemort it was likely that somebody would die. I didn't like Fred
dying. Actually Harry dying would have made things nicer. We all would have
hated it but the book would have been nicer :). And the end where they are
all old and married to who they wanted to get married to was very
Bollywood-ish.

There are a few things unclear still. About the connection between wands
and then the fact that Harry says to Voldemort in the end that he died to
save the people in the castle and that's why Voldemort was not able to
effectively put a spell on anyone.. if just dying for somebody would do the
task and protect people again Voldemort, then Dumbledore could have done
that himself instead of asking Snape to kill him, that way he would have
protected the people...

I liked the first 3 books on the first read. The other 4 I didn't know what
I felt after the first read, only after reading 2 times did I appreciate
them.

Me:
I actually liked that Hermione did all the thinking...it
justifies that she is the cleverest witch...all the other books JKR kept
claiming that but HG didn't have anything to do....
I agree with u for the last chapter...I don't think it was needed...
I would have liked more coverage on Snape...there was so much on him in HBP
and he just comes a bit in the beginning and in the end to die!!!
I'm a little confused with the explaination that Dumbledore gives Harry as
to y he survives (the love thing)...my deduction is he survives because at
that time he owned all the hallows with him...so death can't take him. I
agree with that protection thing that Harry gives..
I felt that too much of Dumbledore's past was a little
unnecessary.....there are 4/5 different versions of it...
and instead of thinking about the horcrux....Harry keeps thinking about
Dumbledore's past....

Ya, even I'm going to read it again maybe some of my doubts will be
cleared...

Sowmya:
Yeah I felt that too about the insight to Dumbledores past. Till now we
have always thought of him as this extraordinary old man, they did much to
show that he was only a normal man with extraordinary powers.

Snape too was a little suprising. The fact that Dumbledore tells him to
kill him if Draco fails and that Snape's cool with the idea, and actually
executes the task.

Harry says in the end that the wand was taken by Draco. Did he pick it up
when Dumbledore fell? Then who put the other wand in his hand in the grave?
Then don't say that.

And this diadem thing. Voldemort thought that only he knew about the room
of requirements. When harry had gone in the first time to this room, many
books back, rowling had indicated that this room held the artifacts of
thousands of people who used the room to hide some stuff. When voldemort
hid the diadem there he would have seen all these things too. Didn't it
occur to him that there were other people using the room?

My brother had said when the 6th book was out that harry was a horcrux. I
scoffed at the idea. Thought it was interesting but still scoffed. God save
me when he reads that part and starts gloating. He'll keep saying 'see I
was right' for days..

Me:
Arvindh had already guessed about Snape...so same here...when he finishes the
book, he'll start gloating...
About Snape...I don't think Snape was cool abt killing Dumbledore...I think
he understood...Dumbledore was anyway dying of the poison from the
ring...by killing him Snape would become close to Voldermort and also
fulfill his Unbreakable vow...
I re-read HBP ending...didn't find anywhere that Draco had taken
Dumbledore's wand when he disarms him...
Also the ending reminded me of Lord of the rings...where all creatures come
together...

And Happy Birthday Harry Potter & JKR...

SIRI 777

The build up to the event was amazing. There was a positive buzz, an enthusiasm bug had suddenly bitten all (almost all) Sirians. One of the side effects of the bite made the creative side of our brain work overtime. There were thought provoking slogans, fascinating logos, absorbing poster designs and intriguing T-shirts. The whole office resembled like a college during its annual fest.

On the the-day, we arrived at Club Cabana by 10am. After welcome drink and group meetings, we finally started dodge ball by 10.45pm. The first game was between us (Ravens) and Hawks. There was some confusion regarding the rules and this lead to one of those arguments where no one knows whats the right thing to do. Finally we agreed on a 1 min rematch after the Bathawks and Falcons game. JS made sure that there was no confusion in the rules and Falcons won that game. In the 1 min rematch, we won easily thanks to the strategy by Mahesh and Radhakrishna. In the final, the Falcons steamrolled us.

Then came the Stock Market. By the end of it, there were more people with sore throats than partners. We headed straight for lunch. After lunch, all teams were engrossed in last minute rehearsals for their presentations. The presentations were the most amazing part of the day. There is such immense hidden talent in the company!! All of us were good, but the Bathawks were a class apart or should I say society apart. They were just too amazing. You could easily mistake them to be pros.

Then came the points distribution. By the end, all teams except for Hawks, were tied. Hawks were a point behind the rest. So the final event, Tug-of-war would decide the winner of the day. Raven lost to the Hawks and Bathawks to Falcons. The final between Hawks and Falcons ended when it had started becoming interesting. The Hawks proving too good for the Falcons. Their slogan Born to win, justified.

Parting notes, hope we have many more events like this.

Here are a couple of lines I wrote...

A day most awaited, a buzz in Siri,
For fun, frolic and merry.

Hawks, Bathawks, Ravens and Falcons,
Logos, T shirts, posters and slogans.

Will complete it sometime...

Angoor - Confusion Unlimited

Willam Shakesphere's work has been a favorite with many film makers, in all the 'woods' - Hollywood, Bollywood, etc. One of the best adaptations of his work in Bollywood is Gulzar's Angoor, based on 'Comedy of Errors'. The plot is so convincingly modified to suit the Indian social setup, that it feels original. The plot, if you haven't read Comedy of Errors, is a little complicated. Let me try to explain.

Raj Tilak (Utpal Dutt) and his wife are on their way to a holiday with their twin sons, both of them are called Ashok (bada & chota Ashok to differentiate). On their way they adopt an abandoned set of twins whom they call Bahadur. Raj Tilak thinks once both sets of twins grew up, the Bahadurs will serve the Ashoks. During their sea travel, they meet with an unfortunate accident in which they are all separated. One pair of Ashok-Bahadur are with the mother and the other with the father, but in a different town. Soon the father dies and the pair are raised by one of the town's businessman.

Now to understand the plot, lets name the father's pair as Ashok1(SanjeevKumar) & Bahadur1 (Deven Verma), and the mother's pair as Ashok2 & Bahadur2. Fast forward a couple of decades, Ashok1 is married to the ever-nagging Sudha (Moushumi Chatterjee),the elder daughter of the businessman who raised him. Sudha, Sudha’s sister Tanu (Deepti Naval) and Bahadur1 and his wife Prema (Aruna Irani) complete Ashok1's family. Ashok2, single and a detective novel buff, decides to buy a grape yard. So, he and Bahadur2, single and a bhang lover, come to Ashok1 & Bahadur1's town.

The day Ashok2 and Bahadur2 land in the town, Askok1, tired of Sudha's nagging for a necklace, wows not to return home until he gets the necklace. Elsewhere, Ashok2 goes to the grape yard after instucting Bahadur2 to take care of the money he has got for the deal and not to leave the hotel till he returns. Sudha sends Bahadur1 to the market where Ashok2 sees Bahadur1 and asks him about the money and why he left the hotel. Bahadur1 thinks his master is mad and tells his mistress. Tanu, thinks its all because of her sister's nagging and sends Bahadur1 to find Ashok1. But she meets Ashok2 and Bahadur2 at her concert and gets them home. Elsewhere Ashok1 is worried about the necklace and spends the night waiting for it to be made. But, after the necklace is ready, it lands in Ashok2's hands, and the jeweller is asking Ashok1 to pay up. Finally the pair of twins meet and the confusion is cleared.

The plot is made more confusing by the clothes of the characters. Both the Ashoks wear a long white kurta and white dhoti and both the Bahadurs wear a grey shirt and white dhoti.

Gulzar saab as the writer and director is simply superb. The dialogues are rib tickling and witty. The screenplay never looses its grip and Gulzar saab extracts flawless performances from his artists. He has also used small characters aptly. Like there the goldsmith and his assistant, the diamond cutter, the taxi driver and the inspector - all of them take the movie to a classic level.

Angoor is SanjeevKumar’s masterpiece. His expressions and voice modulation make the movie a must watch. Deven Verma as both the confused servant and bhang lover is excellent. Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma share brilliant on-screen chemistry as twin duos. Deepti Naval and Moushumi Chatterjee though having small roles leave you impressed.

But the chink in the armour is the music of Angoor. Though it is composed by the genius R.D. Burman, its disappointing. Except for the song Roz Roz, the others are mediocre and halt the proceedings.

This is the 'baap' of all one of Bollywood most trusted formula in the 70s and 80s - 'bichde hua bhai'. Enjoy the fun ride.

Bugging or Debugging....

For the past few days I've been trying to identify memory leaks in the application we developed. And the debugging is bugging me. First there was Just-in-time debugger which would always launch itself at the wrong time or rather when I don't want it to launch. And one called Dr Watson refused to share my computer with it. It took me an entire day to throw JIT out and make way for Dr Watson. Now Dr Watson is living happily in my computer. He is also giving me some 'Greek-n-Latin' stack trace. Actually he is pretty helpful.
Chalo Dr Watson ka bulava aaya...

Cheeni Kum...

It had been a few months since I watched a movie with Arvindh. I was cribbing for the past week, more on Sunday, and of course, he gave in. I had 2 movies in mind - Pirates of the Caribbean or Cheeni Kum. Then we heard that Pirates is pretty boring, so decided for Cheeni Kum. The promos looked good, so expected it to be at least an OK movie.
But I was in for a pleasant surprise. The movie was really good. Its a mature love story, with absolutely no 'cheeni'. Amitabh is cool, and Tabu is better. Then there is the colgate/'zafrani pulav' and the kid called Sexy who make the movie a must-watch.
More on the movie when I have time. I want to do full justice to the movie with a nice long review sprinkled with appropriate adjectives.

Rang Birangi – Hrishida's Pati Patni aur Woh

Last year Bollywood lost one of its acclaimed directors – Hrishikesh Mukherji. Hrishida, as he is popularly known as has made many well known movies like Abhiman, Golmaal, Chupke Chupke - to name a few. I have choosen a lesser known Rang Birangi for the review.

The film is a take on BR Chopra's Pati Patni aur Woh. The story begins with showing us the life of two couples, first Ajay Sharma (Amol Palekar) and Nirmala (Parveen Babi), married for seven years and second Jeet Saxena( Farooq Shaikh) and Anita Sood (Deepti Naval), who are seeing each other for a long time. Anita is Ajay's secretary. Nirmala is unhappy because Ajay spends most of his time at work and doesn't give much attention to her. Jeet and Anita are waiting for Jeet to get a good job to get married.

In this comes Ajay's friend, Ravi Kapoor (Deven Verma). He wants to spice up the life of Nirmala and Ajay. He asks Ajay start flirting with Anita by telling her that his wife has been paralyzed for 6 years and there is no one to take care of him. Anita becomes sympathetic and starts taking care of him. The guilt in Ajay makes him give more attention to his wife.

One day Anita, comes to meet Nirmala and gets to know the truth. Nirmala requests her to carry on with the drama. Nirmala gets to know that Ravi is behind all this drama and joins him in plotting against her husband. On Ravi's instruction, Nirmala tells Ajay that she wants to work. Nirmala then plays the same trick on Ajay – she says that her boss's wife is paralyzed and her boss needs some sympathy. Jeet poses as Nirmala's boss.

Jeet poses as Dhurender Bhatavdekar, a private detective and blackmails Ajay with photographs of Ajay and Anita. The plot further complicates when the actual Dhurender Bhatavdekar (Utpal Dutt), a police inspector, turns out to be Nirmala's uncle and promises Ajay to capture the blackmailer. And this shatters plans of Ravi – perfect recipe for chaos.

Other characters in the movie include Mr. & Mrs. Bannerjee (Om Prakash and Chaya Devi) with whom Anita stays.

The comedy created by all confusion and chaos makes it a laugh-riot. The movie has great performances by all the actors – Amol Palekar, Deepti Naval, Parveen Babi and Farooq Shaikh. The dialogues are witty and the script has a plethora of aptly placed film references.

Music for the movie is by RD Burman. It has a classical number which is shot on the Bannerjees. The other song 'Kahin kuch pal jeevan ke' is a nice soft number.

Some scenes to watch-out are:

1. The hotel scene where Jeet poses as Nirmala's boss.

2. The actual Dhurender Bhatavdekar chases Jeet.

The movie can be watched over and over and you will always have a good laugh.

Sehar

I'm not a big fan of gangster-cop movies, but I loved Sehar, mainly for its simplicity and honesty. There is no over-the-top dialogues, no unwanted bloodshed(or should I say tomato sauce!) and there are no songs to stop the pace of the movie. Its like a like watching a compelling gritty documentary on a gang of cops who decide to eliminate organised crime from Uttar Pradesh.

The movie, set in the 90s, begins with the murder of a gangster by another rival gangster Gajraj (Sushant Sharma). SSP Ajay Kumar(Arshad Warsi) is asked to investigate the murder. As he goes about investigating, he figures out that the crime world now headed by Gajraj is very well organized. A deep nexus runs between the gangsters, local politicians, the builders, the railway contractors, student union leaders and of course policemen. He also gets to know that Gajraj has a lot of well wishers in the political circles.

To counter this, he proposes a Special Task Force(STF), which has special powers and is answerable only to the SP. Initially there is resistance for such a force. But when the CM’s friend's kin is kidnapped STF is given a go ahead with state wide power. The STF now goes about systematically eradicating crime. When they realise that the goons are using mobiles for their communication, they get a telecom professor Prof. Tiwari (Pankaj Kapur) to help them understand mobile communication technology. Tiwari soon becomes an important part of STF's working and success. The rest of the movie tells us how STF is able to eradicate Gajraj and ruin his nexus.

There are also a couple of deviations in the movie - the short and sweet love between Anamika(Mahima Chaudhary) and Ajay and a story about Ajay's father. These give us an insight of Ajay's character and don't affect the pace of the movie.

Writer and director Kabeer Kaushik has done a fine job in all departments. The editing is crisp and you never feel like taking a break. The background score is excellent and maintains the tempo of the movie.

In the acting department, the movie belongs to Arshad Warsi. He gives memorable performance and proves that he is truly an underrated actor. Sushant Sharma's character is a little sketchy, but he does a good job of that. Pankaj Kapur and other are fine.

A movie definitely worth a watch, even if it has a documentary feel to it.

Einstein, The Bird

I got a forward of this video long ago. Its an amazing bird and calls itself 'Superstar'. Today, while reorganising my folders, I found it and wanted to post it. Did a quick google in YouTube and found it. YouTube zindabad!!!

Finally they are married!!!

Finally Abhishek & Aishwarya are married. So finally we won't see "Breaking news" on TV announcing their wedding guest list or caterer or flower decorator or dress designer... Please give me a break!!!

And looks like their marriage has rubbed a lot of people including the Indian media the wrong way. Check out this Hindustan Times article and another one I found on Google News. And yes...I'm tired of getting forwards of their wedding photos. I got 7 forwards in a day!!! Nrutya got 3 in 17 mins!!!!

A walk down the memory lane...

I had written this a couple of years back. Its my memories of my college life. Found this when I was cleaning my yahoo inbox.

Gone are those days when we used to sit in parking lots around Bangalore...
Gone are those days when we drove around Bangalore in our bikes...
Gone are those when we used to be chucked out of canteens...
Gone are those days when we had lunch in Tatha's class...
Gone are those days when we played DC in class....
Gone are those days when Sowmya would sigh in DJ's class...
Gone are those days when we set our timetable and also the portions...
Gone are those days when fought for marks...
Gone are those days when we would go to canteen at 8.30 in the morning...
Gone are those days when we experimented in Sweta's kitchen...
Gone are those days when we would go for boating in the rain...
Gone are those days when Aamir Khan was more important than some experiments in the lab...
Gone are those days when we whistled our heart out when Aamir came on screen...
Gone are those days when we could talk for hours on phone after college...
Gone are those days when Nrutya was the only one attending Bullet's classes...
Gone are those days when Sumana used to decorate our names in our books...
Gone are those days when Sneha used to correct our English...'tonight'...
Gone are those days when Sweta would be the 'teacher' for all of us...
Gone are those days when Aparna would score 25 even without studying...
Gone are those days when Sowmya would enter the a class instead of the loo...
Gone are those days when you all kidnapped me to Benergatta...
I can go on writing...but my vision's blur now...having tears in my eyes...
Hope you all have taken a walk down the memory lane.