RedDevil's Turf

Its that time of the year again, when you look back at the year and recall how it has been. Like last time, I once again take a walk down the memory lane and figure out how the year 2008 was.

So to start off, I have been more regular in blogging compared to last year or probably even the years before that. This year hasn’t been that good, I really didn’t enjoy most parts of it. Quite simply because life has been a little tough, hectic and out of order. Anyways I visited Auto Expo again this year, enjoyed it. Visited the Great Indian Rock aka GIR again, enjoyed it. Wanted to again goto Vaishno Devi but couldn’t. That’s it about some memorable events I had during the year.

Movies I again saw in huge numbers. Iron Man, Indiana Jones, The Incredible Hulk, The Dark Knight, Quantum of Solace, Dostana, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi & Ghajini to name a few. Many movies disappointed really, like The Love Guru & Speed Racer. In music, heard a lot of it, found some new artists, played some games, not as many and as much like last year though. Gaming has been less frequent these days.

Over to sports, Manchester United had a year to remember, after winning the Premier League, we also won the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup. Ferrari managed to win the constructors title, but Felipe Massa lost out in the drivers title. Kimi Raikkonen somehow disappointed.

On the international arena, the Mumbai attacks were a dark patch, the sliding economy made it only worse, so there were lot of dark areas in 2008. Heath Ledger, Bernie Mac and Stan Winston passed away, so in them Hollywood lost some important figures.

So thats about it. I didn’t buy any new gadget or device, I didn’t buy anything worth mentioning. Its been a low key affair 2008. Hopefully I’ll have much more to write about in 2009.

So here’s looking forward to having a great year ahead. Happy New Year Everyone!

About Me

Ghajini Movie Poster

Directed by A. R. Murugadoss
Produced by Aamir Khan, Allu Arvind, Tagore Madhu, Madhu Mantena
Written by A. R. Murugadoss
Starring Aamir Khan, Asin Thottumkal, Jiah Khan, Pradeep Rawat, Riyaz Khan
Music by A.R. Rahman
Distributed by Studio 18, Adlabs
Release date December 25, 2008
Running time 181 mins

I became a huge fan of Aamir Khan after I saw Taare Zameen Par, and with all the hype surrounding Ghajini I was anxiously waiting for its release. The initial promos did let me down, a bit, when only the song “Guzarish” was being shown on the television. Make no mistake, its a great song, but Aamir Khan movies are much more than just music isn’t it? So then while watching Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, I also saw the theatrical trailer of Ghajini. And I was taken aback by it, and I really wanted to see it. Now that finally I’ve seen it, TWICE, I must say its really a wonderful experience to watch such a film. Bollywood movies have really come a long way now, and its all really getting better and better. Its much more of a real cinematic experience now. Ghajini only took it one step further. Lately there have been many movies with the hatke storyline. But not everyone of them carried this level of commercial cinema in them. Welcome to Ghajini.

This might be a remake of Memento, which I haven’t seen yet. I want to see it sometime soon,  anyways comparisons it might draw, none are needed. Ghajini is a Bollywood film with the superb performance by the brilliant Aamir Khan, good direction by A. R. Murugadoss and some wonderful music and background score which makes it a great experience. Ghajini is about Sanjay Singhania, a businessman, and how his lovely life suddenly takes a very wrong and unintended turn and changes his life forever. Read the complete plot here.

First things first, Aamir Khan, he really deserves all the accolades out there. He really puts in a fabulous performance. The role demanded a lot and Aamir did all the justice he could. He carries the movie brilliantly. He really worked out his body for the movie, which looks great. Asin Thottumkal is not a newcomer by any means. She’s already won Filmfare awards for her Tamil & Telugu movies, but being her first Hindi film, she really did a great job. I was impressed by the way she handled the various kinds of dialogues. Her dialogue delivery was pretty apt in whichever situation. Not to mention she looks great too. Jiah Khan was somewhat a bit off color at times. I didn’t like her much, but she did a couple of scenes well. Rest of the actors did a good job. A. R. Murugadoss handled the direction well, but just one concern here, the action scenes were too South Indian movie style at times. Rest all of it was very good. What I really liked was the way the whole story was carried and shown.

Another big strength of the movie was its music. A.R. Rahman as always brings out another fantastic album. Guzarish is a very nice song. Aye Bachchoo & Latoo were not that great, but Kaise Mujhe is a wonderful track. I’ve been hooked onto this song ever since I have heard it. Behka is an ok track, but the picturization was very nice. Background music was also superb. Added to the quality of the whole experience. The starting credits sequence was again very thoughtful, going with the theme of the movie. Cinematography was also very good.

All in all definitely a must watch. Aamir Khan puts in a stellar performance and the movie really keeps you hooked onto it right till the end.

Rating: 8.5/10

Movies Aamir Khan, movie review

Finally I got my hands on the “The Dark Knight” DVD. It came for Rs. 599 from Planet M. I got the 2-Disc edition with Disc 1 comprising the movie and Disc 2 having some special features like:

• Gotham Uncovered: Creation of a Scene: Director Christopher Nolan and creative collaborators unmask the incredible detail and planning behind the film, including stunt staging, filming in IMAX®, and the new Bat-suit and Bat-pod.
• The Dark Knight IMAX Scenes: View these 6 action-packed sequences–shot on the largest format possible–in their original IMAX framing, just as they were intended
• Gotham Tonight: 6 episodes of Gotham Cable’s premier news program
• The Galleries: The Joker cards, concept art, poster art, production stills, trailers and TV spots

Check out the pics in my flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32989484@N02/tags/thedarkknightdvd/

About Me, Movies batman, dvd, the dark knight

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Logo

The first trailer of the X-Men spinoff, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, is out today and its looking good. I’m a big fan of Wolverine, him being my favorite mutant in the X-Men universe, I’m really looking forward to see it. Its releasing on May 1, 2009 in U.S. with the Indian release also on the same day (Check worldwide release dates). Directed by Gavin Hood and starring Hugh Jackman, reprising his role of Wolverine from the previous X-Men movies, this is the first of the X-Men spinoffs in the line. X-Men Origins: Magneto will follow after sometime.

The movie is set around 20 years before the first X-Men movie, and its all about who Wolverine is and how he bonded with the adamantium skeleton in the Weapon X program. Other main characters in the movie are Sabretooth played by Liev Schreiber, William Stryker played by Danny Huston and Gambit played by Taylor Kitsch.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Official Website
X-Men Origins: Wolverine on MySpace (with trailer)

Movies Hugh Jackman, movie preview, Movies, trailer, Wolverine, x-men

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi Theatrical Poster

Directed by Aditya Chopra
Produced by Aditya Chopra, Yash Chopra
Written by Aditya Chopra
Starring Shahrukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Vinay Pathak
Music by Salim-Sulaiman
Distributed by Yash Raj Films
Release date(s) December 12, 2008

I’m a big fan of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge aka DDLJ, and Shahrukh Khan is my favorite actor, and the movie is directed by Aditya Chopra, so you can probably imagine how much I was looking forward to this movie. Expectations were high, but not skyhigh that it would make it unrealisticly unachievable. The movie marks the return of Aditya Chopra after a 8 year hiatus, and although I still haven’t seen Mohabbatein, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi aka RNBDJ was a must watch.

The movie had generated enough curiousity and publicity for the new look that Shahrukh Khan had in this movie, which I didn’t like much. Although it was what the movie required, but he looked really very thin in that plain look. The movie is about a love story of a common man, read the complete plot here (Spoiler Warning). The movie is set in very ordinary environment, unlike YRF movies which mostly has a foreign location with big houses and rich clothes. RNBDJ has pretty ordinary locations, ordinary clothes and it all looks very apt for the storyline. Shahrukh Khan once again gives a first rate performance, really he always does a great job, and this time again he doesn’t disappoint. He portayed the role of a normal common man very well. Maybe why I didn’t like him much in that look was because I’ve never seen him in that look, but anyways he did a fantastic job, he really looked like a common man and did an equally impressive job with the other role that he plays of Raj. Anushka Sharma really impressed me a lot in her first movie. She really pulled it off very well. Even in her first movie, she showed signs of supreme comfort and confidence. She shares the screen space well with SRK. Looks really pretty and beautiful I must say, and is a fantastic dancer too. I just hope she gets good movies and gets good roles. Vinay Pathak is a fantastic actor. He plays the role of SRK’s best friend, and he was really very good in his role.

Music was good, I’ve been listening to the songs for quite sometime since they were released, and Haule Haule was really a sweet number. Tujh Mein Rab Dikhta Hai is also a nice song. The background music was also good with the signature tune played very well whenever required. Locations were of a ordinary man’s world, so everything looked pretty realistic. Direction was fine, but I must say that Aditya could have done a little better with the movie. It was not what we really expected, but then don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad by any means, it was really a lovely movie, but unlike in DDLJ where there were so many scenes which are in our memories forever, RNBDJ hardly had that many. Its just that this movie wouldn’t be remembered that long as DDLJ.

Its really a nice way to show a love story of a common man, and so the SRK fans would love it and so would be the aam janta. It might not be a blockbuster material but is far away from a disaster. Do watch it for having a nice time in a lovely story with nice flavor of simplicity. Oh and yes before I forget, dont miss the end credits, its worth the watch.

Rating: 6.5/10

Movies movie review, Movies, Shahrukh Khan

My favorite cinemas’ website www.pvrcinemas.com goes under a complete redesign and it looks a lot better now. I didn’t like the earlier design and the redesign was long overdue. The new avatar is a welcome change. And it looks really good. It has a book ticket box on the right side this time, earlier it was on the top. The now showing and coming soon thing is again a good addition. Rest is not much to talk about.

Here is the redesign

Movies PVR, redesign

Just upgraded WordPress to 2.7. Its simply awesome, its faster and everything is now so easily accessible. Amazing use of ajax. The best blogging platform just got better. God bless open source.

General wordpress

A “Pink” football boot? See it to believe it!

I have seen red Mercurial Vapors, orange Mercurial Vapors worn by Cristiano Ronaldo, but pink! Thats a first! And I’m not sure if I liked it or not. But yeah Nike does manage to make boots in all sorts of colors, especially the Mercurial Vapors, and the T90 Laser.

NikeFootball.com

Sports football, football boot, nike

If you believed that sometimes people forget giving credit where its due, time to think again. The Dark Knight, aka TDK, has been breaking records and is going to hit the $1 billion mark at the box office soon, and the fans and Warner Bros are making efforts that Dark Knight atleast makes it to the nominations for the 2008 Academy Awards aka the Oscars. The latest from this effort has been the “Dark Campaign“, which has been making news. Especially for that poster which got the Joker treatment and their video. I’m a big time Batman fan and for me The Dark Knight was some kind of a Batgasm. It was really a superb sequel to a already superb movie Batman Begins; more on the superbness in my Batman Begins Review & Dark Knight Review. Anyways Dark Campaign has a very strong message in their About Page, and it surely is a great effort at the grassroots levels.

Watch the video for the campaign on the Dark Campaign page:

Please popularize this video and lets bring the message infront of as many people as possible. This movie deserves the recognition.

Also the poster which I was talking about is created by Josh MC

Get the full size version from here.

My personal view is that this movie should get the nominations and then go on to win them, primarily for Christopher Nolan in Best Director and Heath Ledger in Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Heath Ledger especially deserves the award for his superlative performance in the movie. With news about Warner Bros to Re-Release The Dark Knight on Jan. 23, it should only add weight to the whole idea.

The Dark Knight for the Oscars!

Movies batman, christopher nolan, heath ledger, the dark knight

What is wrong with the system, the things related to normal functioning, its all missing. The world is going absolutely crazy and the people who take care of the law is even crazier.

Watch this video for a start.

Read more…

General