Friday, November 30, 2007

Check your traveller IQ

Think you know a lot about the world? Think you're damn good at geography? Think you can locate any place in the world without a second thought? Well, if so, take the Traveller IQ test to check your traveller IQ. I scored a 115 in my first attempt. So what's your score?

Put your running shoes on

That's right. This Sunday is the time to stop being lazy and to get some of that fat off your body. It's the 22nd Pune International Marathon. And do you know what is so special about this edition? This will be the first time that the AIDS Charity Run would be featuring - me!!!
So are you in or are you out?

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Om Shanti Om

It's been a long time since I saw a movie on the first day of its release. The last time was way back in 1998 when I saw the Govinda starrer 'Hum Tumpe Marte Hain' (Prizes for those who remember the movie). Anyways, even back then I didn't regret watching the movie and even today, watching OSO turned out to be quite an experience.
The start of the movie is lovely. It begins with Rishi Kapoor swaying to the beats of the song 'Om Shanti Om' from the movie Karz. The first half is set in the 70s with all the stars like Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, Manoj Kumar etc being represented by their duplicates. But what I really loved was the first hour or so of the movie. It's full of references to Hindi movies. In fact the story doesn't start at all during the first half an hour - it just has sequences from 70s movies recreated brilliantly using CGI. The way Rajesh Khanna, Jeetendra & Sunil Dutt are brought to life is just brilliant. You wish it never ends.
But unfortunately it does and then begins the story. It isn't much of a story and actually who cares. The main attraction of the second half is a song which features almost all of Bollywood. For further details read the list at the bottom. The portrayal of Bollywood is brilliant. Other than that, the movie goes on and it has its fair share of funny moments. All the songs are a treat to the eye. In fact the whole movie itself is great eye-candy. Not one moment of it is boring - a total masala flick. The songs might not be that good, but there's a lot going on even during the songs so at the end of the movie you remember the video but have no clue about the songs or their lyrics. As I said earlier, who cares anyways? All that matters is that the film is a total entertainment package and is definitely worth a look.
And now for the list. I spotted the following stars in the movie. Let me know if you spot any more:
Sanjay Dutt, Karisma Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee, Abhishek Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Rakesh Roshan, Hrithik Roshan, Feroze Khan, Bappi Lahiri, Akshay Kumar, Subhash Ghai, Rishi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Jeetendra, Tushar Kapoor, Arbaaz Khan, Zayed Khan, Vidya Balan (looking great), Shilpa Shetty, Priyanka Chopra, Preity Zinta, Bobby Deol, Dharmendra, Urmila Matondkar, Aftab Shivdasani, Malaika Arora, Amrita Arora, Dino Morea, Rekha, Mithun Chakraborty, Suniel Shetty, Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Bipasha Basu, Sanjay Kapoor, Lara Dutta (also looking great), Ameesha Patel, Diya Mirza and Karan Johar. Whew! That's it, hopefully.

P.S: Do NOT miss the Sooraj Barjatya reference. It's too good!!

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Height of Cricket Fever

For all of you who thought that I was bit too cricket crazy, read this and change your mind. It combines two of my favourite passions - trekking and cricket. And I wish to do something similar one day.

Monday, November 05, 2007

The truth is out...

Circa 2004: Gen Pervez Musharraf is impressed by Dhoni's locks and begs him not to cut them off
Late October 2007: Dhoni crops his hair to sport a new, shorter cut.
Early November 2007: Gen Pervez Musharraf, disturbed by recent events, declares a state of emergency in Pakistan.

Now we know why.