Now this is a bit late for the post, but not too late I guess, its still 8th January. So here I’ll try to sum up what all made 2007 a year to remember. To start with, got a lot of new things, a new phone, a new PC, Dish TV, Internet, lots of clothes and a new job. Had some parties to remember, went on a vacation after a long time to Vaishno Devi, saw a LOT of movies, and played a LOT of games and listened to a LOT of music. Its been a hectic time throughout, job life does make your life tough on you, you don’t have much time for things sometimes. So you have to balance things out and try to do as much as you can. Now don’t expect New Year Resolutions from me, I don’t like to make a promise to myself which I’ll have to keep up for a year. So now I’ll put up stuff in categories:

Movies: I saw a lot of movies like I said. But here are my favorites ones (Not necessarily in the order of liking)
Transformers: This one has to come up first in my memory, it was a great movie and I still remember, that just as the credits starting rolling, I asked to myself…what the hell was this? I was so immersed, the story, the effects, everything. It made me an instant fan of the Transformers franchisee. So much so that it even influenced me somewhat in my cellphone purchase decision. I bought the Transformers Limited Edition phone.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End: It was the year of trilogies and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End was amongst the one which I was most looking forward to. The final installment in the series was again where it ended in the second film. As I mentioned in my review of the movie it was a great mix of action, drama, comedy, romance. I’ll really miss Jack Sparrow.

Spider-Man 3: Another movie from the trilogies, Spider-Man was awesome, really great effects and a good storyline. What I didn’t like was the length of the role for Venom. He is supposed to be a big enemy of Spider-Man but doesn’t quite get the time on screen as a Spider-Man fan would expect.

And then saw a lot of animated movies, Ratatouille, Flushed Away.

And then there were some laugh riots like Partner,  Apna Sapna Money Money, Heyy Baby, Bhool Bhulaiyaa. Some pretty good movies with a good story like Johnny Gaddaar, Om Shanti Om.

Music wise I heard a lot of new artists, Muse, Art Brut, Radiohead, Massive Attack, Foo Fighters, and a lot more. Many of which were recommendations from my friend Vivek.

It was a great year in gaming as well. Played a lot of games, my favorite of all FIFA 07. Awesome game it is, also played Far Cry, Crysis demo, Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, FIFA 08,  Need for Speed: ProStreet.

I went to Vaishno Devi for the first time, it was a memorable experience, had a great time there. Hope to have more such visits to chill out. I also went to the Great Indian Rock Show, GIR in short, my first visit to a music event, and I enjoyed every part of it.

Now how can I miss sports, its a BIG part of my life. Manchester United and Ferrari both were crowned champions. Kimi Raikkonen also won the driver’s title finally, a BIG relief. Saw a lot of memorable events during the season.

So in short it was a great year. Lot of things to remember. Looking forward to 2008 in hope and excitement that it will be even a better year in a lot of areas.

So its been 2 weeks since I got the PC, and its been busy since then. The biggest day was when I ran Crysis on it, and it ran flawlessly in medium settings, I was very happy and impressed by the system’s capabilities. Completed Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault in 3 days, now playing Far Cry, at very high settings and AA at high too. The overall speed is good, but I feel it still needs another GB of RAM as load times are a bit on the higher side on some occasions. Other than that its awesome, working great, especially in gaming. So until next time…

So finally I got my new PC, well sort of, the main stuff is all new, just retained the monitor, keyboard and mouse, but rest is all new. So I went with Sohail, a BIG thanks to him for tolerating me and accompanying me to Nehru Place, man thats one place where you need time, and lots of time to properly find stuff, and not only that, always do your homework as to what you want to buy and what not, and if config A is not available there should ALWAYS be a config B.

Anyways I went, and the motherboard I wanted was not availble at any store, so then it all started. I didn’t have that plan B, so I tried to call Saurabh, couldn’t get him, so called Anuj, got Nimish’s number called and asked for his suggestions, and then again tried Saurabh and got him this time thankfully, and then after considering I finalised the Intel G33 Motherboard. The processor was Intel Core 2 Duo E4500, and the graphics card was a must buy. The XFX GeForce 8600GT 540M 512MB DDR3 was the one which I was gonna buy, and it was available, but to my delight the DDR3 version was also available and cost some 1200 more than the DDR2 version, so I bought that one, and then 1GB RAM, a 250 GB HDD, and a decent looking cabinet powered by a Rs. 1400 ka GlacialPower GP-SL350C SMPS alone. Jeez! that SMPS extended the budget so did the graphics card. But anyways I got the stuff, and got it for assembling, but the Graphics Card was not in stock, so the dealer got it in some 1 and a half hours, and that was really annoying to wait for something that long. But I guess it was worth the wait. I got it all assembled and took it home, installed the softwares, drivers and stuff, and then fired up Need for Speed: Most Wanted to check out the capabilities of the 8600GT. Quite impressive I must say as I was able to play at high settings with one res above 1024×768. Decent speed overall, will try out a few more benchmarks, but I’m sure this will last for another span of 3 years atleast. Thats what my earlier rig lasted, could have lasted more but for the AGP design and some bothering mobo.

Here are the specs:
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E4500
Intel® Desktop Board DG33FB
Kingston 1 GB DDR2 RAM
XFX GeForce 8600GT 540M 512MB DDR3
Seagate 250GB SATA
GlacialPower GP-SL350C Power Supply

The XFX GeForce 8600GT:

The rig installation:

The mess, 3 HDDs, 80+160+250=490 gigs…thats nearly half of a terabyte.

Directed by Sriram Raghavan
Produced by Sriram Raghavan
Starring Dharmendra, Neil Mukesh, Rimi Sen, Vinay Pathak, Zakir Hussain, Ashwini Khalsekar, Govind Namdeo
Music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy

I usually don’t see many thrillers, but this was really good I must say. But this is certainly a great movie and very entertaining from start to finish.

Johnny Gaddaar is a story about a group of a group of people who are going to make a big deal. They were to share the profit from the deal but then one of them decides to take it all for him and then its all exiting and gripping. Neil Nitin Mukesh makes a great debut. The grandson of legendary singer Mukesh and son of singer Nitin Mukesh, Neil does a splendid job and impresses me a lot. Rimi Sen was also very good and This is the second time I really loved watching her. Dharmendra is really good here. I enjoyed watching him. He’s still pretty good and I really wish he comes on screen more often. Vinay Pathak is again very impressive and I’m a fan of this guy. Ashwini Kalsekar is another actress whom I believe should come more on the screen. She plays the role of Vinay Pathak’s wife. Rest of the cast was good. But Neil and Vinay Pathak were the ones who really left a mark.

The presentation is very good, the background score is really awesome. What I loved the most about the movie is the way and the style in which its all presented. A good pace, never bores you and always entertaining and consuming. The music, the story all mixes well and things are smooth in all parts of the movie. Superb cinematography, the screenplay and dialogues are awesome. It does what a movie of its genre should, I didn’t see Sriram Raghavan’s previous film Ek Hasina Thi, though, but this is really good. A great dedication to James Hadley Chase I believe.

Rating 9/10

Directed by Sajid Khan
Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala
Written by Sajid Khan
Starring Akshay Kumar, Fardeen Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, Vidya Balan, Boman Irani
Music by Shankar Mahadevan,Ehsaan Noorani,Loy Mendonsa
Distributed by Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, Eros Labs
Release date(s) August 24, 2007

Sajid Khan is a well known entertainer. We love his comical stuff, and its no wonder really that his first directorial movie had to be a comedy. It had 2 of the best comedy actors, Akshay Kumar and Ritesh Deshmukh. Does it live upto the expectations? Well I think so, especially as it was a first attempt at direction.

Its a story about 3 guys, Aroush (Akshay Kumar), Tanmay (Ritesh Deshmukh) and Al (Fardeen Khan). All 3 don’t believe in love and marriage and flirt and sleep around lot of gorgeous women. But suddenly their life change when they find a very young child at their doorsteps. They suddenly have to take care of the child and then suddenly the mother of the child appear and then they try to get the baby back.

Akshay Kumar just never fails, no matter what sort of role it is, no matter what sort of movie it is he is always flawless. He again gives a great performance in the movie. Ritesh is another actor I like in comic roles. Fardeen Khan isn’t really a comic role material but his innocent looks at certain looks make him decent enough. Here he is similar to the role he played in No Entry and is quite fine. Vidya Balan is very good. She’s really making her mark as a good actress. Boman Irani was as always pretty good at whatever he does. And yeah before I forget, the baby is very cute and lovely. Really adds to the charm of the whole movie package.

Music is good, the tracks Dholna, Heyy Babyy and Mast Kalandar are the best tracks from the movie. Overall its a good movie with lot of funny moments and offers great value of entertainment. I’m sure Sajid will mature enough as a director and should give us more to enjoy.

Rating 7/10

Bhool Bhulaiyaa
Directed by     Priyadarshan
Produced by     Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar
Written by     Neeraj Vora, Madhu Muttam
Starring     Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Amisha Patel, Shiny Ahuja, Vineeth
Music by     Pritam, Ranjit Barot
Cinematography     S. Thiru
Editing by     N. Gopalakrishnan, Arun Kumar
Distributed by     Eros International (U.S.); Super Cassettes Industries Ltd.
Release date(s)     October 12, 2007

Priyadarshan always manages to entertain you, even if its the same comedy genre with nearly the same stars, but we still love the movies he makes. Bhool Bhulaiyaa is no different. Its a very entertaining movie and gives a great mix of suspense, comedy and horror.

The story of the movie is about a haunted palace which is said to have some ghosts in it. Siddharth (Shiny Ahuja) and Avni(Vidya Balan) come to live in the palace and Avni opens the locked door which prevented the ghost to come out. Now that its out it causes some weird events inside the palace. Siddharth then calls his friend Aditya Shrivastav (Akshay Kumar) a psychologist. He then arrives and solves the real mystery about the haunted palace.

Acting wise its a good performance from Akhay Kumar again. Vidya Balan was good enough. Shiny Ahuja didn’t impress me much in comical scenes. Rest of the cast was good on their part. I felt Rajpal Yadav could have had a better role, or rather more of time on screen. Amisha Patel too didn’t have much to do, but did a good job for whatever role she had.

Not many songs in the movie, but the pick is of course the popular chart buster title track “Bhool Bhulaiyaa”. Rest of the songs are good too. Allah Hafiz and Labon Ko were the other tracks I liked in the movie. The background music was quite good in view of the stuff you need to scare you in horror movies. Cinematography was quite good. The overall presentation was also impressive. The story isn’t as predictable as one would expect initially and both the halves are interesting. So to sum it up its a good movie and you won’t be disappointed.

Rating 8.5/10

Om Shanti Om
Directed by Farah Khan
Produced by Gauri Khan
Written by Topper Alam, Abbas Tyrewala
Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Shreyas Talpade, Arjun Rampal
Music by Vishal-Shekhar
Cinematography V. Manikandan
Editing by Shirish Kunder
Distributed by Red Chillies Entertainment, Eros Labs

I have not seen a movie recently being promoted at this level and so much being spent into publicity. Shah Rukh Khan himself has been at the forefront in this mega Diwali launch “Om Shanti Om”. Farah Khan and SRK have really done well in publicizing the movie and it has paid off very well. The movie is a hit…and its breaking the box office records.

Ok let me just summarize what the movie is…no not the story…but what the movie is…for what I feel its like a tribute to Hindi cinema, a tribute to SRK, its his film, its all about him in the movie, and yes Deepika Padukone does manage to grab attention but it still is a SRK film. But still its a great film mind you, SRK sells doesn’t he? So does this movie. Its a hit and has been breaking records all over the box offices, so it doesn’t come as a surprise. Because its a home production for SRK, Gauri Khan has produced the movie, publicity at this level was quite obvious, be it the “6-pack”, be it the debut of Deepika Padukone, be it the second movie of Farah Khan, or be it anything. It all paid off…and all the money spent has been well recovered.

So lets begin with the story, its about Om (SRK) working as a junior artist in the 70s and he is in love with the superstar Shanti (Deepika) and eventually meets her and then he dies saving her, he is then reincarnated and he gives justice to Deepika. I can’t shorten the story more than this, as its already known, the story, and if you don’t, then go and watch this, I don’t want to spoil it for you.

Its an entertaining movie, worth the money, and another great effort from Farah Khan. It does have some Farah Khan trademarks which reminded me of Main Hoon Na many times. Farah has definitely improved a lot, what I like most about her work is the level of attention she pays to small things. Her way to putting things into place is really good, the effects used in the movie during the shooting sequences with 70s scenes and the OSO scenes were blended very well, sets were great, it really takes you back to those 70s and the movie takes you back to the way movies were made in those days. Its a really good tribute to the Hindi cinema. It does have some similarity to Karz to some extent, but I don’t feel that it was anything like a copy. Its a different movie and both are good.

Acting wise SRK was great as always, this is easily among his best performances of late, very energetic and young. Deepika Padukone, gosh, she is beautiful, and she is here to stay, not just because of her looks but for her acting too. She is really impressive in the movie. She couldn’t have imagined for a better launch to her career than starring in a SRK movie directed by Farah Khan. Its a great launch and she should build on this by working on some more good films. Shreyas Talpade plays the role of SRK’s good friend, and he was pretty effective and good. Kiron Kher is becoming the Rakhi of today’s cinema. I mean she is the best woman to play the mom role these days. She was in Main Hoon Na too, and here too she is just as effective as she was in Main Hoon Na. Arjun Rampal plays the bad guy role and he did a fair enough job.

Overall its a great movie, good music, great presentation, and its entertaining. Farah…a job well done. SRK once again rules the box office and shows us why he is the King of Bollywood. Deepika’s debut is impressive. So in view of all this its definitely a must watch.

Rating 8.5/10

Read the music review of Om Shanti Om

Happy Diwali everyone.

I just logged into my orkut account and saw a “Happy Diwali” message and a picture of deepak next to the logout button. And when you click it you get a new skin based on the festival of Diwali. Looks nice, but can’t use it forever, so there is a revert option, click on the”Happy Diwali” message on the top of your screen, and it changes back to the blue theme.

Orkut also added a new feature, “ask friends”, it lets you ask some questions to your friends in private. It can be found in add stuff option in the left navigation. And you can now add upto 100 images in your album, hmmm…now thats a lot.

Here is a screenshot of the new “Diwali skin”

So finally after being in the double-mind state as to whether I should or I shouldn’t for quite sometime now, I, suddenly, in 5 minutes decided to get a new phone, and voila!. Now I’m still surprised and smiling whenever I look at the phone. Actually its all thanks to my sister, she was going to get one for her today, and god knows what happened to me, I also got in the mood, and we both ended up getting the same phones.

Its a Nokia 5300 XpressMusic “Transformers Limited Edition” phone. Color is the red variant ofcourse. I always had this phone in mind, for the features it provides in the prices it retails for, is really outstanding. I was going to get the new Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, but then this one comes for just a little more than half of 5310’s price, so I thought this is better, although it ofcourse misses out on some features but I will use the money saved on upgrading my PC.

Its a slider based design and its only my second phone, well third actually if u don’t count my Nokia 2600 which I had to use for a while, thanks to me loosing my Nokia 3120 earlier this year. So now this is a good upgrade, and it has good set of features, a 1.2 megapixel camera, bluetooth, best thing was 256 mb memory card with the pack. So will be great time to pass now, with all the music I can carry along with me now.

Ahh and yes before I forget, the limited edition for Transformers had a phone cover with Transformers text and Autobots and Decepticons sign on the back. And also bundled was a strap with 2 coins kind of things hanging form the strap with the Optimus Prime and Autobots logos on it.

Here are some pics of the phone, the black model is just for visual, mine is red model, didn’t find an image for the slider out for red model:

Kimi Raikkonen won the Brazilian GP to win the 2007 Formula One World Championship by just a single point! F1 hasn’t been so closely fought over the recent years, and it was a fitting finale to a dramatic and eventful season. I’m glad I saw the race, exiting from start to finish.

Lewis Hamilton got so close to winning it, and even Alonso, but for Kimi to take the title eventually by a point’s margin. It must be said still that Hamilton came on the verge of making history by winning a F1 world championship in his maiden attempt, he still created waves nevertheless and it hit Fernando Alonso as well. I don’t quite imagine that I will see Alonso in McLaren next season. Its going to be tough for the relationship that he has with McLaren to get better and last another season. Anyways its Ferrari’s day and it was a fabulous teamwork in the end which saw them winning the crown. Kimi’s in-laps for that final pitstop made all the difference. Those scorching laps gave him enough gap over Massa that he could just come out ahead of the Brazilian to win the race. Some might want to call it a team order, but I don’t quite think so, it was Kimi’s pace rather than anything else which won it for him. I do feel for Massa that he couldn’t win the home Grand Prix again, but then I’m sure he will get more chances for that. Kimi deservingly won the title and after all those heartbreaking season at McLaren he won it with Ferrari in his first attempt. And also I think that the first corner of the race defined a lot of things, but ultimately it was the gearbox problems which ruined the day for Lewis. I’m sure he must be feeling bad about that but still his achievements have been far more impressive. Rosberg, Kubica and Heidfeld too had a great battle of their own for the fourth place. It was Rosberg’s best finish till date. Kubica and Heidfeld were as always consistent and BMW finishes as the runners up in the championship. I must admit its a great achievement for the team.

It was a really memorable season and certainly provided a lot of excitement, be it the spy scandal, be it Lewis Hamilton or be it anything. F1 wins in the end as still being among the most exiting sport.