Russel Peters is a comedian of Indian-Canadian decent. Apparently, he’s been gaining recongnition through the use of internet streaming videos. I got an email this morning from a friend (thanks Rabi) with links to few streams and it was good fun watching. Check it out -
Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad.
Aamir and Kajol were reasons enough for me to watch Fanaa in its opening weekend. The last time I watched Aamir’s movie in its opening weekend was Mangal Pandey Rang De Basanti and I went in with a lot of expectation only to come out disappointed and I enjoyed it. This time around, I was careful not to expect anything out of the movie. And…? Well I enjoyed it too despite its skewed story.
It was pretty disappointing to see such poor storytelling in a big budget movie like Fanaa. But that apart, the performances were top class. Aamir is among those rare breed of actors who can emote really well. I mean really well. Which other actor can move the audience to tears without the help of a background score? Kajol, on the other hand has moved up a few notches on my list of beautiful women. The chemistry between the two was fantastic and I wouldn’t mind watching it a second time just for that.
Bollywood has always maintained this larger than life image in its movies and its this very image thats been drawing audiences all over the world. Fanaa is pretty much a Bollywood movie and its only fair to view it from that perspective. I’m not here to discuss which parts of the movie were flawed and how it could’ve been shot better. I’d leave that to the viewer.
So, is the movie worth watching on the big screen? For Kajol’s return, Aamir’s performance, the infectious music, the brilliant colors (lots of blues), it definitely is.
I’ve cast my first vote ever for the 2006 State Assembly Elections in TamilNadu.
This has been a first not only for me but also for my family. Its only recently that we’ve moved back to India (all of us) and I’m pretty happy that we exercised our franchise. We set out early this morning and were pleasantly surprised by the security arrangements made for the voters. My only gripe is that the entire list on the electronic polling machine was in Tamil - a language that I unfortunately cannot read or write. It would be better if they had English in addition to Tamil as it would help a significant section of the population in casting their votes. I did, however, know the symbol of the party I wanted to elect and that helped. Nonetheless, it was a good experience and there is a sense of pride somewhere.
Adobe acquires Macromedia.
P&G acquires Gillette.
AOL and Time Waner merger.
Daimler Benz and Chrysler merger, and the list goes on.
I’m a little worried about these mergers and acquisitions. Its scary imagining the kind of products and services we use everyday being controlled by very few companies in the world. The reason why I’m feeling particularly annoyed is because of the disapperance of Macromedia’s website. Its perhaps one of the first websites I remember browsing and was always a regular reader but recently, much to my dismay, the website has been taken off. vanished. kaput.
I’ve always felt macromedia to be a strong brand and they’ve made some of the best products in the world. Yes Adobe too has some of the finest softwares one can get, but I dont think re-branding macromedia as adobe was a good idea.
Somehow, I also feel mergers and acquisitions slow down innovation. Bigger corporations may have plenty of money to spend, but real innovation is done by smaller groups that are really passionate about what they are building. Too much money can sometimes get in the way of building great products and may even complicate things.
A minor digression..
If you’ve read some of Dan Brown’s books like Angels and Demons, or the more popular Da Vinci Code, you do get an idea about secretive groups like the Knights Templar and Free Masons. In recent years, the Freemasonry (whose origin is quite interesting) has become less a secret society and more of a society with secrets. The Free Masons are known to attract some of the most charismatic and influential people into its fold for carrying out its activities. The best part is most of these people are not aware that they are working for the Free Masons. A Free Mason can be anyone from your local club secretary to the president of a country. There’s a list here on some of the famous ones
Interesting. So, umm.. what are you getting at?
Well, while doing some research on the Free Masons, I came across a term interestingly called New World Order - a plan to rule the world as a unitary government. If the recent mergers and acquistions across the world are an indication, this could well be part of the plan. Its just a thought and thats quite disturbing.