A Comment

on the previous post by Sudeep, which went so long that I had to post it as a blog .. apologies

Sudeepa, I agree Kannada movies lack originality. Most of our hits have been remakes. (so are the songs)... but I think the industry has moved a bit upwards in the past few years .. in terms of script writing and even music.. i do miss old harmonium style of Hamsalekha, Rajan Nagendra etc.. This is a transition phase, the industry is re-establishing itself... and in this growth there will be some crap and some cut copy paste ..similar to the IT industry.. uppi could have been a shankar nag .. (OM is a classic)..but he got carried away and went to acting.. Yograj bhat has had a couple of decent movies .. heard "moggina mansu" is good too.. its novel to have a whole women oriented movie in Kannada .. even the bollywood cannot afford it ..

the scene in hollywood is pathetic too.. its alll comic books into movies now.. spiderman, batman, iron man etc etc etc.. i am shocked that 'The Dark Knight' could replace Godfather as the best movie on IMDB.. that totally sucks.. the days of classic drama/issue based movies seems to be diminishing in Hollywood.. its more like hancok, wanted matrix etc..which feels like Rajini / mithun movies of the 80s with a Sci Fi and tech twist..

Looks like Tamil and Telugu industry have declined too in novelty. Tamil was at the cutting edge of experimentation a few years back.. Now they have found a easy formula.. copy from malayalam movies.. Now bollywood is chasing the similar angles too.. either copy.. or have a superstar .. or stars who can be sentationsalized and capature on the pre-hype of the movie, (market aggressively) have a strong 1 week sales.. recover all the costs, make a decent profit.. through Music sales, DVD, VCD and channels .. Last year I enjoyed movies like Taare Zameen Par, Bheja fry, Ek Chalis ki last local etc which were small budget decent movies and some really good ones.. I thought the trend would increase, but its back to classic Khan's and Kumar's, Kapoor movies this year...

Cuil

The news of a new search engine has been spreading like wild fire. cuil is started by some former google employees.

What's so special about this new search engine ? The index is huuuuuuge!!!!! Which means the web is much bigger than what google had told us. Hope this index does not contain redundant or unimportant information.

The viral marketing and the TV marketing of this new search engine www.cuil.com is in place, but as a fairly intensive search engine user I think there are two main arguable points :-

a) The philosophy of cuil.
b) The release time. (I think it is too early. They should have waited for some more time).

Philosophy :-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance."

I would rather trust 100000 people saying that a website is relevant for my query rather than an algorithm which says this is the relevant website. Many search engine users might not know anything on what they are searching. They might be searching something because people are talking about it and they want a quick summary rather than an authoritative treatise on a subject.
Example :
a) I might have heard someone talking about blackberry censorship in India, and I just want to know why people are talking about it. Never underestimate popularity metrics.

b) If something is popular it is for a reason and more people would like to know/read about it. Only people who are interested in going deep have the motivation to go deeper searching for the "authoritative truth". Example : Compare the search of TCP/IP in google and cuil.

So it will be great if popularity metrics is also taken into account.

But one thing I would appreciate is a search engine which provides ALTERNATE RESULTS than many search engines.

That's something interesting.

Release Time :-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Too early.The pressure of time and money is there, but this is a half done work.Where are the image searches, news etc. etc. or at least something NEW???

This looks more like an academic project rather than an industrial search engine.

They SHOULD put some kind of a spell checker feature. The last time I checked it, Kramer vs. Kramer , Kramer v/s Kramer , Kramer versus Kramer all give different results.

My remark : Lots to improve there is room for improvement.

But all the best to Cuil!!! We need a competitor to google!

Specialty ?

I was going through one of the links of a website called chitratara.com just to check out some new Kannada movies. I heard that the movie "TajMahal" is pretty good. Let me try to catch that movie.

But that's not the point or the purpose of this post. The purpose of this post is cliched shit which Kannada movie makers,Kannada musicians and even the critics have to offer.

The new Kannada film makers guys copy. Of course everyone copies. But the Kannada guys just flick from Tamil/Hindi and make movies. At least let them flick from English/Japanese/ French etc. But no! They flick from Tamil/Hindi. Take a DVD and make the movie scene by scene. A Tamil Goundar is automatically translated into a Kannada Gowda including the mooch. And Mr.Ambareesh looks more like a Tamil Goundar than a a Mandya gowda. It is an insult to audience by copying movies left right and center.

First let's talk about the critics. Let me show you an example :-

Look at the "specialty of the movie" starring some two new people according to the some film journo :-

This is a love story for Andrita but either she or he the protagonist Prajwal will be telling I love you in this film till the end. This is the specialty of the film. Janardhana Maharshi after seeing the photographs of sweet looking Prajwal and Andrita Ray has stitched the story

I love you till the end of the movie. Interesting.

And the songs are shamelessly lifted. Any damn Kannada song you listen to these days, you get a sense of Deja Vu. Kaddalu Manasanna is thoroughly inspired by one RHTDM song. Patra barayala illa chitra bidisala is a mix of two old Kannada songs Jotheyaagi Hithavaagi , Sweety nanna Jodi and Airtel tune. And the beats, support music are extremely predictable with the drumbeats on an infinite loop till the end of the song. I think these are possibly programmed using some amateur software like Fruity Loops or Reason (especially Mano Murthy and Gurukiran generate a lot of computer music). There is absolutely no soul on the songs, just composed due to the pressure of deadlines. No artistry in the songs.

My opinion : Music sounds best when composed with passion and when you mean what you sing/play. When a music instrument is played rather than generated with a computer (no matter what the degree of sampling) it gives a human touch and makes it sound more human. More human means more durable and not a passing fad. Electronic music is good, but not always. Raghu Dixit is OK, but I feel he is very much inspired by Euphoria and Folk.

The lyrics are also pathetic. Kariya needs a mention here, and now Hotappa hotu sakkathu hotu maga lifted from Radio Mirchi slogan. Otherwise the songs contain some esoteric words which a guy never uses when he loves a girl. Example of esoteric words include : amrutha dhaare, inchara, saniha etc..

And the actors. They are the yuckiest of the lot. Forget acting skills. That's too much to ask for. They neither have style or originality or common sense or the desire to improve. Dullards and idiots. They look like a bunch of celebrated and pampered fools who think that if they carry a "long" with some blood on their face with a fancy hindi word in the title name (like Duniya or Zindagi), they are great actors with great performances. And their inrto songs usually feature them in front of Lord Ganesha or some other god with flowers and one long thilak.

And the actresses. Where are the Aartis/Bharathis/ Manjulas / Kalpanas ? They bring some fair maiden from the north, show her legs and midriff and thats it. Over. All acting finished.

I really miss the heyday of Kannada film when Puttanna Kanagal made some lovely movies, followed by Shankar Nag. Ok, if these people were very arty, even the Vishnu-Dwarki-Manjula , Rajkumar and Udaykumar days were also too good. The new guys have spoiled the enthu to go to a new movie.

Asian Phenomenon

Blasts have become a day to day life routine in Asia........ Its really tragic that most of the countries in Asia have such awful security set up .. the matter of fact is we dont care ..not sure if this due to population levels in Asian countries .. lack of political will.. lack of political impact .. or availability of jehadis and ammonium nitrate in abundance .. few cities in the past few days which have witnessed the blasts

Istanbul
Ahmedabad
Bangalore
Kunming - Yunnan
Shanghai
Guangdong
Jaipur
Varanasi
Hyderabad
Karachi
Islamabad
Bombay
Bali
Bangkok
Jakarta
etc etc etc ........... frankly there is a long list

The last European blast was Madrid ?? And the US has not had an incident after 9/11....???
Why is Asia ( in particular India ) so vulnerable .. ? is it 'cos we dont care ..

Ram Sethu

Sometimes you need to be really tactful in getting things done in India especially when the issue on hand is of "RELIGIOUS" in nature. Things could really go erratic on religious issues and effect everyone one from common man to primeminster.. The president is in a safer position

One such issue has be the Ram Sethu demolition and DMK/Congress' stands on it.. Finally there is a tactful story to put up .... look below

The Centre on Wednesday asserted that Lord Ram himself destroyed Ramar Sethu after his victory over Ravana and “we cannot worship something that has been destroyed.”

Mr. Nariman said “Kamba Ramayanam also expressly says the bridge was destroyed by Lord Ram so that no one can cross over to Sri Lanka and ships can sail through. Even the Telugu version of Ramayana says Lord Ram destroyed the bridge.”

Here is the full story..
http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/24/stories/2008072460211300.htm

Now the people who are fighting for the bridge, apart from your previous stands you should do something unique in order to save it .. (not sure if it needs to be saved really, I do not have any stand on it as I have not analyzed the Pros and Cons)

- how about getting a UN cultural heritage status - not an easy one ..
- how about involving Lankan government on your side.. saying destroying it might have some effect on the island .. may be lanka gets washed away till antartica .. (oops the bridge is holding it close to india you know)

comeon guys do something .. just dont start another religious fight and start burning down people and property..

I think Indian inflation would be far lesser if we bar strikes, public burning and looting by political outfits .. and ofcourse the political processions

Retirement_age ++;

In Karnataka, the retirement age has been advanced to 60 years.

So my dad and other people of his age who had to retire the next year can continue to work for some more time. Shortage of skilled labor in other areas, I guess ?

Although my dad is happy that he can keep himself occupied, he is concerned like the college authorities. He told me the college could not find anyone who could teach Electronics course for +2 students. He has to take the Electronics Course.

The BSc Electronics Guys, it seems, are not even applying. For CS courses, a fresher from an Engineering College offered to teach the +2 students but this guy may not be around after sometime as they could get better prospects and opportunities.

The sad state is that the quality of teachers could go down. Many students can study on their own, but some people need a push to study and understand things.

Moreover guest lecturers don't take a very good commitment. If the going gets tough/boring, they can escape.

Nuclear Deal - Quote Unquote ..

"The UPA's victory is not due to their policies but a well thought-out political conspiracy by both the NDA and the UPA to check the BSP and prevent the daughter of a Dalit from becoming the Prime Minister of the country,"

"Both feared BSP and prevented me from becoming the prime minister. Had the NDA not helped the ruling coalition, it would not have been saved on the floor of the House," said Mayawati

"It is a sad day for Parliamentary democracy in India when all norms are sacrificed for a nuclear deal which is against the interest of the country," CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat

"The opposition parties should now pave way for Rahul Gandhi," said Puneet Sharma, an enthusiastic party supporter

" I urge him at least to change his astrologers so that he gets more accurate predictions of things to come" Manmohan Singh

SP leader Amar Singh "today is the happiest day in my political career".
"The politics of Prakash Karat, A B Bardhan and L K Advani has been exposed,"

"The BJP and NDA seem to believe that nuclear isolation should end but no one is clear about the Left parties. Yet the two groups are voting together.
"The NDA has no problem with the strategic relationship with the US. The Left parties have ideological opposition to it. Yet the two groups are voting together.
"The NDA believes in India becoming a nuclear weapon state. The Left parties have always opposed nuclear weaponisation. Yet the two parties are together.
"The NDA says if it comes to power, it will renegotiate the nuclear deal. The Left says it will everything to scuttle the agreement for ever. Yet they are voting together.
"I don't think in the history of Parliament there is anything more bizarre than two disparate groups voting together," the Finance Minister said in his spirited speech.


But the day belongs to Manmohan Singh.. His conclusion in the speech is inspiring..

The Management and governance of the world’s largest, most diverse and most vibrant democracy is the greatest challenge any person can be entrusted with, in this world. It has been my good fortune that I was entrusted with this challenge over four years ago. I thank with all sincerity the Chairperson of the UPA, the leaders of the Constituent Parties of the UPA and every member of my Party for the faith and trust they reposed in me. I once again recall with gratitude the guidance and support I have received from Shri Jyoti Basu and Sardar Harkishen Singh Surjeet.
I have often said that I am a politician by accident. I have held many diverse responsibilities. I have been a teacher, I have been an official of the Government of India, I have been a member of this greatest of Parliaments, but I have never forgotten my life as a young boy in a distant village.
Every day that I have been Prime Minister of India I have tried to remember that the first ten years of my life were spent in a village with no drinking water supply, no electricity, no hospital, no roads and nothing that we today associate with modern living. I had to walk miles to school, I had to study in the dim light of a kerosene oil lamp. This nation gave me the opportunity to ensure that such would not be the life of our children in the foreseeable future.
Sir, my conscience is clear that on every day that I have occupied this high office, I have tried to fulfill the dream of that young boy from that distant village.
The greatness of democracy is that we are all birds of passage! We are here today, gone tomorrow! But in the brief time that the people of India entrust us with this responsibility, it is our duty to be honest and sincere in the discharge of these responsibilities. As it is said in our sacred texts, we are responsible for our actions and we must act without coveting the rewards of such action. Whatever I have done in this high office I have done so with a clear conscience and the best interests of my country and our people at heart. I have no other claims to make.

I am happy for Manmohan Singh and the Nuclear Deal

Piracy..

Last month, the Kannada film fraternity raised the issue of Piracy and sought the government's help in crubbing the same.

I am not sure if this was a joke and really looked hard for some pun in text or cartoon, but there werent many. If anything, the Kannda movie industry should encourage piracy. To be very honest how many of you have the DVD of the recent (remember blockbuster in Kannada movies may occur once is 5 years, by this standard the word recent is apt) Mungaru Male? At first you dont intend to get it, and even if you want to desperately watch the movie, drawn by its sucess, the only theater would be Sapna in the way lanes of Gandhinagar (Majestic)...

On the other hand, if you have pirated DVDs, VCDs or online streaming this movie would have reached a bigger audience (even tams and gults) and increased popularity of the movie( not that its extra-ordinary.. that makes me think whether they wnat to prevent piracy so that others are prevented to understand whey it was a blockbuster)...

Hindi movies are rampantly pirated, you get a dvd rip within a day of the actual release. Piracy could be a serious threat for bollywood and is already a very serious threat for Hollywood.

But if there are no channels for an audience like me .. residing in the Canton country, with a meager kanndaiga population, we should encourage some piracy in Sandalwood.....

I am not actually encouraging piracy, just asking for a channel (which is also cheap) to access Quality Kannada movies in Hong Kong.. ;-)

Well ...

I have opened this big textbox to write something but my mind is kind of blank. It's probably got to do with so many things happening at one shot that i am not able to concentrate on one thing.

Reminds of one of my favorite sarcastic comedies called "The Big Lebowski"

Because of one single action (some random guy comes into the hero's house and pees on the hero's carpet) , the character in the movie lands in a mess. The impact of his one action starts off a chain of dependent events. The character is too confused to think of the consequences. He starts seeing the impact and feels that it is too screwed up. He doesn't want to think of the impact and he says to his friend, "Fuck it, Dude . . Let's go bowling"

I want to go bowling now. Or rather thats the reason I am blogging.

I saw Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa. The songs are good except for one song (the title song which sounds like a Jazz song straight out of a 1930s or a 1940s jazz).

Smooth Criminal

We've grown up seeing this dance move, but little did I know that this dance move is patented. [ Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion Michael J. Jackson et al ]. Whacko-Jacko also has a patent to his name and a nice one!

I thought of it as some clever camera move and later editing the video, but it is not the case.

From what I understood, Michael Jackson and other people had come up with the idea of attaching the shoe to the dance floor and then balancing even though the center of gravity does not permit. Looks like the shoe's heel is fixed to the floor, through some nails.

Federer vs Nadal..

It was truly and epic final.. the best I have seen in years..
Beats the Aggassi vs Sampras US semi-final (steffi was pregnant then)..
Me and Naga watched it through the night .. before some exams at Teju place ..
me betting on Sampras and Naga on Agassi.. I had won a pepsi then..

this time I bet on Federer and lost HKD 500 .. but still Federer would be my bet until he retires .. just the way I used to bet on Sampras till he retired. :D

Nadal - He is a freak.. :-) ..

Rajinikanth Re-invented ..

No.. its not about the Cartoon movie or Kuselan ..

This is about 'Wanted' starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman..
To summarize this type of movie was done in K/T/B/ollywoods in th 80s and the 90s and everyone ridiculed it. Its now the turn of Hollywood to enter the bandwagon.
- Bullets curl around
- Bullets are cut with knives
- bullets cancel out bullets (as in mahabharata where arujuna nullifies bhishmas arrow)
- there are some twists and turns as you shall watch in any abbas-mastan movie..


when rajini used to do this (catching the bullet, cutting bullet with a knife etc), ppl (esp from north) used to ridicule this.. Now when Jolie (Zeenat Aman) and Morgan freeman (Vajra Muni) does it, it will become a cult .. (Sumanth if you felt Matrix was Mithun movie, you gotta watch this).

The story goes like this..

Morgan is the head of a mill in Chicago .. ( I prefer to call it the Binny mill).. and also a the head of a assassin faternity.. (already sounds familiar to a some desi movie)..
the yarn machine sews out the wool, which our freeman takes liberty in listing ppl he wants to kill.. (they add complexity here by saying it churns out a binary code and you can get a name from this.. too hi-tec)

they find this rajini chap , (who is an accountant before ).. but son of a powerful assassin and has extreme powers inherirted (through jeans oops genes).. and send Jolie to get him .. (this again is bollywood) and convince him that if he doesnt kill the GUY whose name is produced by the Binny Mill machine , then that guy will indeed kill some 1000 ppl .. she does this by narrating her child hood story of her father being duped, tortured and killed (tell me how many desi movies doesnt have a similar plot)..

they train our Rajini chap ..(all the bullet skills he need) using computer graphics .. and make him a superstar (aka rajini).. and then they set him chase to kill this guy who is suppose to be the killer of his father..

but it turns out that man who Rajini is after to kill, is actually Rajini's father and apna Vajramuni ( Freeman ) would have hatached a plan to set the son against the father with a preconcieved thought that the father will not kill his son .. (its shame for me to repeat where u could have seen such a plot)..

and poor Rajini doesnt even understand this when the person he is after to kill (i.e his dad) resuces him from falling of a falling train .. (well need to comment here.. apna desi Rajini has higher IQ here .. he would easily blurted appppaaaa .. and shed some tears and both the father and son would go and finish freeman)...

but the hollywood rajini needs some convincing etc.. (very low EQ and IQ) ..
finally with the help of some rats (cos he has killed his dad by now) he manages to enter the Chakravyooha of Morgan freeman, where freeman defends himself saying whatever he did was right, because the binny mill machine had produced the names of his and his colleagues (including Jolie).. to be killed .. and orders his colleagues to kill Rajini..

but again in true bollywood style, Jolie (Zeenat Aman in Don.. ) fires a bullet which goes in a circle and kills a dozen before she takes into her brain .. (having had some much confusion.. she knows this is the right thing to do )..

by this time you are done.. so am I .. cant write anymore on Wanted ..

Headwear

Why is headgear out of fashion/less diversified? Probably because of inconvenience, I guess. But head gear is definitely fashionable can make a fashion statement.

The conventional Nike cap is a very important gear to a college student. I remember Teju using a NY cap all through his first and second semesters. But now, Nike cap has become cliched. Times are changin'. The nike cap was also be worn frontside back to give the Yo! look.

I am seriously interested in what are the options for some creative headgear :-

a)Golf cap :
If a girl/guy is into hip-hop, you can see them wearing the old style Golf cap. But this kind of cap is something which I will contemplate on wearing after I am 35, maybe. You can also be mistaken to be a bikini killer like this viper, "Charles Sobhraj". That guy is once again in the news for marriage with a twenty year old.

b) Skull Cap:
Suited for round big heads.

c) Mysore Peta : Why not ? It looks very cool as a headgear. The new designers can use the hat's cloth material to go with the suit instead of the traditional ornamental silk. Or maybe a leather Mysore Peta would look different. You would look like the main character of Prince2 - The Shadow and The Flame.

Some designer should consider Mysore Peta as an option ... Tired of Nike Caps.