Directed by Jon Favreau
Produced by Avi Arad, Kevin Feige
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges
Music by Ramin Djawadi
Distributed by United States: Paramount Pictures

I am a big comic fan. I love superheros. But still I didn’t know much about Iron Man. Although I didn’t know anything about X-Men either before I saw X-Men 2. Anyways, I came to know about Iron Man movie sometime back when the trailers started arriving and they looked pretty good, and the reviews after the release were very good, so I decided to watch it. And after watching it today I’m pretty much more into comic book superheros more than ever, but Batman still is and will forever be my favorite superhero.

Iron Man is about Tony Stark, a rich industrialist and genius engineer, who runs the company Stark Industries specializing in weapons for US military. After one such weapon demonstration Tony Stark is captured by some terrorist group and forced to develop the same weapon for them, a missile. But instead he secretly makes this strong armor and escapes from there. And then the bad guy lays his hands on one such armor and develops a highly developed version to wreak havoc, and Tony Stark becomes Iron Man to stop him.

So thats about the story, now about the acting. Robert Downey Jr. did a fantastic job for a 43 year old, which he doesn’t look that old in the movie. He’s a very good actor and did a really good job with the role. The action scenes he performed where very good. Gwyneth Paltrow plays the role of Virginia “Pepper” Potts, assistant of Tony Stark. And even she did a good job in the movie. Special effects are very good, nothing is overdone. The gadgetry and technology shown amazes you and doesn’t look unnatural. Action scenes are well done with perfect amount of effects used. The whole Iron Man suit thing is pretty good, the suit looks very cool. Background music is also good.

So overall its a very nice movie and you should really watch it. The movie entertains you with the tech gadgetry, the good storyline and action packed scenes and also some humor. So its a very good summer entertainer.

Rating: 9/10

If you are wondering how to calculate your income tax, don’t worry, Nithya has an answer to that, with his superb tax calculator. I made a blog post for the last financial year too about the 2007-2008 Income Tax Calculator, so here is the new version of that for the 2008-2009 financial year. Get Nithya’s Tax Calculator and fill up the excel sheet with the various inputs you need to provide and it will calculate the tax. Its covers all the aspects of it and works great. I was not that aware about income tax last financial year, so I didn’t plan well. This time though, and with the help of this tax calculator, I’ve been able to plan my investments to save tax. Thanks a lot Nithya!

Here are the Income Tax Rates in India:

* No income tax is applicable on all income up to Rs. 1,50,000 per year. (Rs. 1,80,000 for women and Rs. 2,25,000 for senior citizens)
* From 1,50,001 to 3,00,000 : 10% of amount greater than Rs. 1,50,000 (Lower limit changes appropriately for women and senior citizens)
* From 3,00,001 to 5,00,000 : 20% of amount greater than Rs. 3,00,000 + 15,000 (Rs. 12,000 for women and Rs. 7,500 for senior citizens)
* Above 5,00,000 : 30% of amount greater than Rs. 5,00,000 + 55,000 (Rs. 52,000 for women and Rs. 47,500 for senior citizens)

Surcharge

A 10% surcharge (tax on tax) is applicable if the taxable income (taking into consideration all the deductions) is above Rs. 10 lakh (Rs. 1 million). The limit of 10 lacs was increased to Rs. 1 crore (Rs. 10 million) with effect from 1st June 2007 for corporate assessees.

Education Cess

All taxes in India are subject to an education cess, which is 3% of the total tax payable.

The popular video sharing website, YouTube.com launched its Indian avatar, www.youtube.co.in. The site is exactly as the main international version, but this would carry more “desi stuff”. News sites report that they have also got some partnerships with some media groups in India like NDTV, UTV, EROS, and a lot more. Apart from that I don’t think there are much changes to the site.

Apple iPhone fans in India can be happy about this, Vodafone is bringing iPhones in India. Lot of news sites are reporting that Vodafone has made a deal with Apple about releasing iPhone in India and nine more countries, but the actual release might only be around August. One of the sites also mentioned the could be prices, 8GB version of the phone could be priced at around Rs 28,000 while the 16GB version will be rolled out at a higher price tag. Anyways its a great news for iPhone fans, who were waiting for the phone to be officially launched in India.

Finally good news for Indian bikers. The Ferrari of two wheelers, Ducati, is coming to India. The bikes will be sold by Precision Motor India Private Limited. News is that five models are expected to be launched by the Italian manufacturer. Now thats a lot. Their current lineup internationally has the 695 and 696 Monster, 1100 Multistrada, GT 1000 SportClassic, 848 and 1098 Superbikes and the Desmosedici RR, where RR standing for “Racing Replica” of their MotoGP racing bike. And I don’t expect this model to make it to the Indian roads as its too exclusive a bike and will be too costly to own and maintain here. The rest of them should be here and I guess the five models will be the two superbikes, 848 and 1098, and the monster versions, and either of the Multistrada or the SportClassic could join them. The bikes’ selling prices will start from somewhere around atleast 10 lakhs. The Ducati 848 and Monsters should really do well here as both are going to appeal the majority of Ducati hopefuls. With Suzuki planning to launch the Hayabusa and Honda too planning to launch the 1000RR, times are finally good for serious bikers here. After Ferrari and Lamborghini came to India last year it doesn’t come as a surprise that the big names of biking world comes to India. Infact they should have been here long back, anyways its better late than never. Welcome to India Ducati!

I love the summer season, not for the intense heat of course, but for the huge huge huge number of movies coming my way. I’m not expecting much from the Bollywood, not many big movies coming already, but Hollywood is packed with movies during that time. Action, comedy, romance, adventure, some sci-fi, you name it and you got it.

So lets just have a look at what Bollywood has to offer then we goto the mega Hollywood summer. Now like I said not many movies, good ones or rather the ones which I would wanna watch, are coming this summer. And the one which I “might” wanna see is “Bachna Ae Haseeno”. Now I put some stress on the word “might” because its true, I’m not sure if I “might” wanna watch it, reason is, the way highly anticipated movies come and crash at the box office is just too much to tolerate. I mean you cant really trust the promos anymore. Tashan for instance had me convinced that I’ll watch it, come the reviews and its a different story alltogether, anyways its not about Tashan its about whats coming, so “Bachna Ae Haseeno” is what I’m waiting which is releasing on 15th August, long time that. It stars Ranbir Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Minissha Lamba and Deepika Padukone. I’m only concerned about Minissha Lamba and Deepika Padukone coz the rest of them I really don’t like much. This would be Deepika’s first movie after the grand Om Shanti Om. But anyways its long time for that, and before that I really don’t know if there is a good movie coming up. Lets see what else is there, umm…Bhoothnath, no way, Jimmy? ummm…nope. Jannat might be good, but I’ll wait for the reviews. Emraan Hashmi is a fine actor, the music is very good, but lets see hows the movie. Its from the Bhatt camp and it has some expectations, but I’d rather stop expecting much. Then there is Sarkar Raj on June 6 starring Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, which I’ll probably safely skip. Then there is Priyadarshan’s Mere Baap Pehle Aap on June 13, now this I could be watching as usually Priyadarshan’s movie carry some good entertainment value. Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic on June 27, the title which in itself says, its confused, so I’ll skip it. Then sometime later comes Love Story 2050 on July 4. Now I have no clue whatsoever about this one, its ofcourse set in futuristic times, and its a love story, gosh! Bollywood will still have love stories in 2050!!! I hope not. And there are lot more movies but none of which makes it to my must watch, none of these infact. So a dull looking Bollywood summer.

Ok so lets get onto the Hollywood factory. Things start off with Iron Man releasing today, and its been getting very good reviews, so I’ll probably watch this one. Although I don’t know anything other than just that fact that he is some kind of a superhero with a metal suit. I might be wrong, but thats all I know.

May

Speed Racer is releasing on May 9th and its surely a promising movie. The trailers look good, ok let me make it clear, Hollywood movies don’t always disappoint so I’m ready to risk my money here and watch it. So like I was saying, Speed Racer, which is directed by the Wachowski brothers. They don’t need any introduction do they? Now c’mon don’t tell me you havn’t heard of them…you have not? Ahh never mind. They brought you “The Matrix Trilogy”, yeah yeah you always knew it. Ok so this time they make a movie based on the old anime series called Speed Racer and I know a lot about the series as I used to watch the original cartoons when I was a kid, so I would love to watch it as a movie. On May 16 comes “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”, sequel to “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. I’m not too sure if I’ll watch it on the release or wait for the DVD. I do want to watch it, but lets see. Then we have on May 23, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. Indy is back! You just don’t wanna miss it, directed by Steven Speilberg himself, you can’t miss this adventure. I’m surely going to watch this one.

June

June starts with this action comedy “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” starring Adam Sandler as Zohan and also the sexy Emmanuelle Chriqui releasing on June 6. The trailer suggests that it will be a funny movie, and this I might wanna give a shot. “The Incredible Hulk”, the big green mean fighting machine is back on June 13. I didn’t see Hulk released in 2003, and this is not a sequel to that, as many of you might be expecting, but its more like a reboot to the series, so I could be watching this one. Next on 20th May is “The Love Guru”. Now I’m a Mike Myers fan, and thats convincing enough thats its gonna be a pretty good one, add in the lovely, sexy, Jessica Alba, do I need any more convincing? Naa, I’ll be watching it for sure. Next is “Wall-E”, which I’m not so sure about. I do want to watch it, but whether I see it on the May 27 release or wait for the DVD, I’ll decide later. Then on the same day we have “Wanted”. Ok here is a thing to lure you, how about Angelina Jolie in an action flick. Mouthwatering isn’t it? Wanted should be a kick ass movie. Lots of cool action scenes and a hot looking Angelina Jolie should make the summers hotter. I sure am watching this one.

July

Then we have “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”, releasing on July 11 the sequel to 2004’s Hellboy, which of course I haven’t yet seen. So I could be thinking of skipping this one as well. Also releasing same day is “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D” starring Brendon Fraser. The trailer was good but I will probably wait for the reviews.

Now comes the most awaited movie, which I have been waiting for ever since I saw Batman Begins in 2005. The same team brings you the sequel to Batman Begins on July 18, “The Dark Knight”. Trailers are very good and the movie should be even better. Its a must watch for me as I’m a big Batman fan and Batman Begins was such a wonderful movie. Heath Ledger plays the role of arch enemy, the Joker so its pretty much a must watch.

August

August starts with “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” releasing on August 1, in which we have Brenden Fraser returning to fight the mummy, who is played by Jet Li this time. Its directed by Rob Cohen, so it might be good on the action front and with Jet Li in, I’m sure there will be action in plenty. I’m yet to watch the trailer and if its good enough I might wanna watch it.

August 8 we have “PIneapple Express”, funny name, the movie might be even funnier. Comedy and the Judd Apatow gang go hand in hand it seems. This one starts Seth Rogen and James Franco. With Seth Rogen in you can be rest assured that its going to be a very good movie with a lot of comedy and some action. Must watch, needless to say.

So thats it fellas, there are of course a lot more movies coming, but I’ll keep my eyes on the ones I mentioned only. Have a great summer!

Whenever there is a big release from YRF (Yash Raj Films) comes up, the music is the first one to be on the top of expectations. Vishal-Shekhar are the music composers for the movie starring Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Anil Kapoor. So with such a big starcast, the music has to be very very good. So does Vishal-Shekhar deliver to the expectations? Yes they do, and even more. The Album is a very different one and gives you plenty new to listen to. The first track “Dil Haara” sung by Sukhwinder Singh carries some of his trademarks, and like always, Sukhwinder Singh does a great job with it. The song doesn’t belong to the mainstream Bollywood music at all, and its a very different music we are listening here. It starts off very well, and the tune in the beginning is the main tune of the movie. A mix of hard beats and folkish tunes, “Dil Haara” is a very good track with a job well done from Sukhwinder Singh.

Now after every track we find some definitions of “Tashan” in the words of all the 4 lead actors. ‘Pooja Ka Tashan’, ‘Jimmy Ka Tashan’, ‘Bachchan Pande Ka Tashan’ and ‘Bhaiyyaji Ka Tashan’. Each one of these are inserted between two songs. So after ‘Pooja Ka Tashan’, comes the favorite track from the album ‘Chhaliya’. Again a very different song, Sunidhi Chauhan takes us to this fast track with lot of good tunes and beats. I just love this song, although I found it somewhat long, which could have had some better job in the middle, but the starting makes up for it.

Then follows ‘Jimmy Ka Tashan’, a prelude to “Dil Dance Maare”. “Dil Dance Maare” is another VERY different song, and the lyrics are even, now I have to be careful about the adjective I’m going to use, but I’ll use the word “Weird”, as the words are not what you really expect. But hats off to Vishal-Shekhar, they really did an amazing job with the song. Even after having some pretty unconventional lyrics, the song does manage to hold onto the listener.

Then we have “Bachchan Pande Ka Tashan” followed by “Falak Tak”. “Falak Tak” is definitely one of my favorites in the album. It reminds you of “Bol Na Halke Halke”. The music, the voice of Udit Narayan & Mahalaxmi Iyer, everything is just pretty good in this song. Its a slow paced track, different from the ones we’ve heard till now in the album. But then follows ‘Tashan Mein’. Ofcourse after Anil Kapoor defines his “Tashan” in “Bhaiyyaji Ka Tashan”. “Tashan Mein” is a very fast song, full of rocking beats and a voice to give it that tough and rocking feeling.

Overall the album is very good, deserves a lot of airplay, and I’m sure you’ll listen it a lot on the radio. The music has certainly anticipated the release of the movie, as none of the tracks in the album give the idea thats its just another movie. Its so much different, and I hope the movie lives up to the wonderful work done by Vishal-Shekhar.
Rating: 8.5/10

My last post was on 14th February, and today is 14th April. 2 months since I last posted something on my blog, so in case people are wondering where I was, well I was just a bit lazy maybe, and I didn’t find/think much to write about. But just to fill that void, here is the first post in two months. So what did I do all this time? Well pretty much the same old stuff, office, gaming, music, movies, sleep. I’ll start with the movies I saw, so I’ll start off with Race

Race Review
Race was a good movie, I liked the cinematography, the performances of the main starts, and for its music. The plot had too many twists in it, and for once you did feel like what was going on. That said, its a good watch, and worth the penny. The car race in the end of the movie was pretty good. Saif Ali Khan was very good, and Akshaye Khanna was even better. His performance was very impressive. The same can’t be said about the girls though, I felt Bipasha was somewhat off in the film. Didn’t impress me much, neither did Katrina Kaif, infact she rarely does impress me. Sameera Reddy’s role was small, and she was only used for being the center of the jokes from Anil Kapoor, who himself was pretty much ok in the movie. Music was the strength of the movie, and some of the tracks are really very good. Overall a good and entertaining movie with lot of style and substance.
Rating: 7.5/10

Sunday Review
Then I saw Sunday, a little late, it was a ok movie, not great, but the suspense factor with some comic scenes saves the movie. Ajay Devgan gives an ok performance, Ayesha Takia, was good. The plot was main strength of the movie. Arshad Warsi and Irfan also did a good job in their comical roles. Vrajesh Hirjee was also a nice character in the movie. The starting scene of his was pretty awesome. Anjana Sukhani looks very pretty. Music wise, other than the title track not much was there in the movie. So overall its an ok watch.
Rating: 7/10

Shaurya Review
I went to this movie, with no clue whatsoever about the movie. Which is quite rare for me, as I usually have something in mind as to what to expect from a movie, but this was a different case. The movie was good but had some flaws in it, but not that big to make it a disaster. Acting was the main strength here, and Rahul Bose, Kay Kay Menon, Javed Jaffrey and Minissha Lamba all did a good job. Minissha Lamba looks very good, and acts very well too. Kay Kay Menon gives a solid performance, especially in the end. Rahul Bose was ok, Javed Jaffrey was in a different role, much different from the comic roles we have seen him in recently, and was quite fine. Music wise not many songs in the movie, but one song was very good. The guy who played the role of Javed was very good, his expressions were very good and impressive. Overall its a nice movie and delivers the message it wants to give. Flaws wise, the movie could have been better on some occasions, especially the build up to the whole story.
Rating: 7.5/10

Juno Review
Juno is a comedy about a 16 year-old who gets pregnant. Ellen Page plays the role of Juno, with Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, and Jason Bateman also starring. Its a very fine made movie, and Ellen Page gives a great performance. Its a great performance for a 21 year-old, and she was nearly flawless in the movie. Michael Cera wasn’t much in the movie, but was pretty ok. The direction was pretty good, and I liked the simplicity of things. Overall its a very good movie with Ellen Page taking the center stage and delivering a great performance. A good watch.
Rating: 8/10

So thats all about the movies, now for some music. Well not much to write about in here, but recently I’ve been listening to 2 albums quite a lot: Jannat and Tashan.

Jannat Music Review
Pritam makes another musical hit for Bhatts. After some great music in movies like Gangster, Woh Lamhe and Awarapan for Bhatts Pritam gives another album with great music. The first track, “Zara Sa” is a lovely track with the main tune capturing the mind of the listeners. Its superbly done, and KK always sings such songs beautifully. Then the song “Judai” was another good song in the album. Sung, written and composed by Kamran Ahmed, its a nice song, well sung by Ahmed. ‘Door Naa’ is a somewhat slow paced track, but its pretty good. Lots of areas where the song really grab your attention. The other songs were good as well, but the ones I mentioned were my picks from the album.
Rating: 8/10

I have done music review of Tashan separately. Please click here to read it.
Apart from these two albums, I got some Elvis Presley albums which I’ll listen to. I’m also listening to some old tracks as well for a change.

After music, its time about some gaming. Well pretty much the usual gaming, FIFA 08, Need for Speed: Most Wanted. But I played a new game, Aliens versus Predator 2 and its expansion pack Aliens versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt. I like the AvP franchisee so this game was surely I wanted to play. It lets you play as the Alien, as the predator or as a marine soldier. I completed the Predator levels in the game and its expansion pack. I started the Alien campaign as well and completed some half of it. Its a pretty good FPS and AvP fans will love it. Its kinda old, released in 2001, so the graphics look like of old games, but it still is very good to look.

Now about some sports. I haven’t played much football over the last few weeks, but Manchester United has been putting up some good performances, and so was Ferrari. Manchester United entered the semifinal of the UEFA Champions League and is also comfortably on top of the Barclays Premier League to retain their title this season as well. Ferrari got a 1-2 in Bahrain as Massa took the win after some forgettable first two races.

So that was my update about the last 2 months. Hopefully there won’t be another gap between the next post.

Its February, and March is nearby, and most of us salaried employees are going to be fazed by the term “INCOME TAX”. Well most of us really don’t know the real deal when it comes to computing tax, and I was no different, and this being the first year that I was under taxation, so I started some online research as to what and how much tax do we need to pay. So I found this pretty cool tax calculator made my Nithyanand. I’d like to thank this person for making this pretty useful utility. So for those who want to know how much are they going to be taxed, you can go over to the website and download the tax calculator from there. Its in Microsoft Excel format and you just need to fill in the details. It has some sheets in the bottom with first being instructions, which are quite detailed and I’m sure you won’t have much problem in using it. Don’t forget to configure the details on the bottom right in the IT 2007-08 sheet.

Get Nithya’s Tax Calculator http://www.ynithya.com/taxcalc/

Some important points regarding Income Tax for the financial year 2007-08:

Tax Rates
In India, Individual income tax is a progressive tax with three slabs.
* No income tax is applicable on all income up to Rs. 110,000 per year. (Rs. 145,000 for women and Rs. 195,000 for senior citizens)
* From 110,001 to 150,000 : 10% of amount greater than Rs. 110,000 (Lower limit Rs. 145,001 for women and 1,95,000 to senior citizens)
* From 150,001 to 250,000 : 20% of amount greater than Rs. 150,000 & less than Rs.2,50,00(Rs 4,000+20% above amount 1,50,000 for Individual, For women: Rs. 500+20% above Rs 1,50,000 & 20% on above amount 1,95,000 to 2,50,000 For senior citizens, the lower limit is Rs. 195,000)
* Above 250,000 : 30% of amount greater than Rs. 250,000 + Rs. 24,000 (Rs. 20,500 for women and Rs. 11,000 for senior citizens)

Education Cess
All taxes in India are subject to an education cess, which is 3% of the total tax payable.

Source: Wikipedia

So this happens to be my second visit to the Auto Expo, the 9^th Auto Expo, held again like always in Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. It was pretty much the same as last time. Most of the exhibits were same, but there were some new additions, and some missing ones. Last time I missed out on taking pictures, but this time I had my 1.3 megapixel equipped mobile phone. Although nowhere close to a fully fledged digital camera but still serves the purpose, and the photo quality is pretty much OK.
continue reading "I went to the Auto Expo 2008"