BJP Triumphant, AAP Dazzling and Congress Omitted

Assembly elections prior to the Loksabha elections are always important. It gives a trailer of how general elections are going to look like. It does not just show the picture of those states but also gives an overview of the mood country is in. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Delhi gave a clear mandate that they prefer Bhartiya Janata Party over Congress (I).  70% seats are won by BJP and congress got only 20% seats. This is a clear victory by BJP. BJP is going to form a govt in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh with clear majority. 

Delhi’s result showed an excellent debut by AAP (Aam Aadmi Party). A party which is just few months old, took on two national parties and came out with more than 30% of votes and is second largest party.  Many ridicule them by saying, “char aadmi ki party”, but people have voted them with hips and bounce. This is a historical moment, not only in Indian Politics but also in World’s Politics. It showed that there is nothing impossible and people can bring the change if they want it. 

Congress though has clearly lost in all states. However positive point for congress is that they have lost only few % of overall votes. Although results are showing major decline, if percentage of votes are considered, congress still got huge amount of votes. Swing in all states is somewhere around 2 to 3%. Chattisgarh, they lost few seats with a margin of less than 5% of votes. So there is a still hope for congress to do better if they listen to the people’s voice. One of the major mistake that Congress did was not announcing their chief minister candidature in Madhya Pradesh. Sonia Gandhi have realized that mistake and indicated that for general election, they must declare their Prime Minister candidate.

BJP must have found relief for hanging on to Chattisgarh which at one point seemed like going to Congress way due to sympathy vote. BJP must be happy seeing Rajasthan result but now comes a very critical stage, where they must not make any mistake in 3-4 months in Rajasthan. They desparately need 20+ seats from Rajasthan as they do not have much presence in Southern part of India. Also, BJP must realize that how Vasundara Raje and Narenra Modi campaiging in Rajasthan has worked. They must bring back Yedurappa if they want major votes in Karnataka. Couple of days back, Namo met Udhav Thackrey to make sure, all is well in Maharashtra for BJP-Shiv Sena alliance. NAMO’s focus for next few months will be around Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and hence he needs to quickly wrap up Maharashtra-Karanataka with U.Thackrey and Yedurappa. 

Madhya Pradesh’s result were expected for BJP due to excellence governance by chief minister Shivraj Chauhan. Also the fact that Uma Bharati joined back BJP in Madhya Pradesh, assured increase of 20-30 seats. Victory in MP also means that if NAMO card back fires from BJP in 2014 general elections than BJP already have the second string ready for 2019. Shivraj Chauhan has shown great capability to be a national leader and he will be the big name to recon with in coming years.

Delhi is going to be the hot spot for few days. Since BJP needs only 4 seats to form the govt some sort of horse trading will take place. Although Dr.Harshwardan (BJP’s chief minister candidate) has indicated that BJP would not like to do such things and are happy to sit in opposition, but general logic says, there will be few attempts. AAP has already indicated that there are folks from BJP calling for it but it will interesting to see what actually happens in few days. Both BJP and AAP’s credibility will go down if such things do happen and both parties will be aware of it. If re-elections takes place, both BJP and AAP will have an advantage and voters will consider either of them more compare to Congress or other candidates. 

Questions though remain on how AAP will be able to handle many scenarios in politics. Do they have experience to handle capital city’s problems from all corners? Can they successfully deliver major events such as Commonwealth? Considering their in-experience will they be able to remain united for 5 long years? It is one thing to get the votes and it is another thing to actually run the government. Yes, it is a brilliant start from them, but can they hang on and actually deliver what they promise? There are question marks for them, but at this moment, they must celebrate because this has changed the Politics of India and probably World.

Crazy College Football Rivalry

Rivalry between Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers is as good as New York Yankees vs Boston Red Sox in college football. They play each year in Iron Ball and games are generally very competitive.  In 2012 game between Auburn and Alabama, score was 49-0 in favor of Alabama. Alabama shut down auburn tigers completely in front of 100,000 fans. Alabama was 13-1 in 2012 season and 7 wins and only 1 loss in SEC (conference) compare to Auburn which was 0-8. (0 wins in 8 conference games in 2012).

Now comes 2013. Alabama has gone to BCS Conference games two consecutive times and are ranked number 1 team in pre-season. Alabama maintained their number 1 position throughout the season. Alabama did not lost a single game and just 1 second before the season ends, they were scheduled to play in BCS Final. Auburn on the other hand, with 0-8 in previous season was not ranked team till 7^th Week of 2013. Week 7, they were ranked 24, Week 8 they were ranked number 11, and then week after week they kept improving by winning every game.  Before going to Alabama’s game, they were ranked number 4 and after that last crazy second, they are now favorite to be at number 2 positions and if they beat Missouri in next week’s game, will play in BCS Finals. What a turn around!!! 

Truly, from Zero to Hero and as their coach describe, it is a team of Destiny!!! Entire game against Alabama was a roller coaster ride. 7-7, 14-7, 14-14, 21-21 and then finally 28-28 just before the 1 second left on the game clock. Alabama was fighting to get that 1 second, which was a dramatic moment of the game. Very little Alabama knew that one second will ruin their chance to be it in the BCS Finals and probably winning it. Destiny had written a different fate for Auburn and as radio broadcaster described it, it was a  Holy Cow moment. 

Auburn-Alabama was not the only game which went to the wire this week though. Oregon vs Oregon State, another rivalry game ended very similarly with score line as 35-36 in favor of Oregon. Duke also won with a last minute field goal 27-25 against North Carolina.  Baylor vs TCU was also decided with a difference of one field goal (41-38) and another big rivalry, Michigan vs Ohio State Buck Eyes ended with a 1 point difference. There were too many good games and what a way to end College Football regular season game week!!!

India Australia 2nd Test Preview

Australia needs few thinking to do and perhaps use some of its bench after 1^st Test. Australia must fancy their chances at Mohali to win the test match. Bounce at Mohali is going to be good for not only Pace Bowlers of Australia but also their batsman, who like ball to come on to their bat at decent height. However before Mohali comes Hyderabad. 

Although Australia would love to go to Mohali with series level at 1-1, but winning a test match at Deccan is going to be impossible dream. However, Australia must look to bat better and hope for at least a draw, so series remains still alive when they reach Mohali. 

Australia must make few changes in order to survive or do better at Hyderabad. Even if they do not change playing XI, surely, they must consider having Michael Clarke bat at number 4 and Moises Henriques to bat at number 5. Both of these batsmen looked in supreme form and have the technique to survive against Spin Bowling and score big runs.  

Out of top 3 left handed batsman, Only Cowan looked in control. It would be difficult to drop Warner after he scored a half century in first inning. P.Hughes after failing and looking totally lost must make a way to someone else. Ideally, Khwaja looks technically sound to replace Hughes and can bat at number 6, but considering Smith can bowl little leg spin and his experience of playing in IPL and knowing conditions better, might not be a bad option.

Starc looked little lost and may be Mitchell Johnson might be better choice, considering he can bat as well, down the order. If the pitch is offering a turn like Chennai, then Australia might consider having Doherty in the side as well. 

Preferred Australian Eleven: Cohan, Warner, Watson, Clarke, Khwaja, Henriques, Wade, Doherty, Siddle, Pattinson, Lyon. 

Australia lost the test match by just one session. If Australia could have played in either of their inning for one more session, Test Match might have gone draw. So, after making one replacement to out of form Hughes, may allow the new batsman to play for minimum of 2 hours in 2 innings and that could help them at least draw the game if not win it. Australia must aim to score 800 runs in a Test Match combining both the innings, ideally, 450+ in First Inning. 

India on the other hand, depending upon pitch may consider getting Ojha back in the squad. If the Pitch offered is same as Chennai then B.Kumar will be of very minimum use and hence Ojha might be better choice. Considering R.Jadeja got few wickets in the game, he is probably going to be still preferred over A.Rahane. As far as Opening the batting is concerned, M.Vijay’s spot at the top of the order must be under Radar. 

Preferred Indian Eleven: V.Sehwag, A.Rahane, C.Pujara, S.Tendulkar, V.Kohli, M S Dhoni, R.Jadeja, R.Ashwin, H.Singh, P.Ojha, I.Sharma.

Oscar 2013

Seth MacFarlane made Tommy Lee Jones laugh, but rest of them cry.
It was a long musical (read boring) show. Daniel Day Lewis Speech was simply awesome.
Jennifer Lawrence was looking hot. Anne Hathaway looked miserable.
Oscar will make it into top news when Maryl Streep or George Clooney does not attend the ceremony.
Tarantino should do what he does best , that is to make movies, rather than showing up.
Adele was fantastic but James Bond 5 minute presentation was not.
Halle Berry, Charlize Theron and Sandra Bullock need to consult with their make up artists as they were looking 50 year old.

Here are some of the funny quotes from Seth MacFarlane:

1. The quest for Tommy Lee Jones laugh begins now.
2. As we all know, winning an Oscar guarantees a long successful career in the industry. Look at last year: Jean Dujardin won Best Actor for "The Artist," and now, he's everywhere. I am kidding everyone. His is actually a tragic, age-old Hollywood story. He couldn't make it in the talkies.

3. [On Roman Coppola's "Moonrise Kingdom" nomination]. He is the sixth member of the Coppola family to receive a nomination. That's got to be a fun house to grow up in. "Mom, I got an A in Spanish." "Really? Literally everyone you're related to has an Oscar."
 "Nutty Professor" movies.
& The Oscar Goes To:

Best Picture : Argo (Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney)

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln

Best Director: Ang Lee for Life of Pi

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway for Les Misérables

Best Original Screenplay: Django Unchained: Quentin Tarantino

Best Foreign Language Film: Amour (Austria)

Best Short Film, Animated: Paperman: John Kahrs

Best Achievement in Cinematography: Life of Pi: Claudio Miranda

Best Animated Feature Film: Brave: Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman

Best Adapted Screenplay: Argo: Chris Terrio

Best Original Song: Skyfall: Adele, Paul Epworth ("Skyfall")

Best Short Film, Live Action: Curfew: Shawn Christensen

Best Achievement in Visual Effects: Life of Pi: Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik De Boer, Donald Elliott

Second winner in Best Achievement in Sound Editing goes to Skyfall: Per Hallberg, Karen M. Baker

Best Achievement in Costume Design: Anna Karenina: Jacqueline Durran

First winner for Sound Editing is Zero Dark Thirty: Paul N.J. Ottosson

Best Achievement in Production Design: Lincoln: Rick Carter, Jim Erickson

Best Original Score: Life of Pi : Mychael Danna

Best Achievement in Editing: Argo: William Goldenberg

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing: Les Misérables: Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson, Simon Hayes

Best Documentary, Feature: Searching for Sugar Man: Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn

Best Documentary, Short Subject: Inocente: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling: Les Misérables: Lisa Westcott, Julie Dartnell

Australian Confidence

M.Taylor, M.Slater, G.Blewett, M.Waugh, S.Waugh, R.Ponting and Ian Healy (1997)

Hayden-Slater-Langer-M.Waugh, S.Waugh, R.Ponting and A.Gilchrist (2001),

Hayden, Langer, S.Katich, M.Clarke, D.Lehmann, R.Ponting and A.Gilchrist (2004)

Hayden, S.Katich, R.Ponting, M.Clarke, M.Hussey, S.Watson, B.Haddin (2008)

S.Watson, S.Katich, R.Ponting, M.Clarke, M.Hussey, M.North, T.Paine (2010).

These were the batting line up of Australians in last few series. Some of the greatest batsman of modern times featured in that batting line up. Only S.Watson and M.Clarke has experience of playing in Indian conditions at Test Level and rest of the line up looks completely new. D.Warner and wicket keeper Wade are a familiar face due to IPL but Cowan, Hughes are completely new and to go in against India with 5 regular batsman and announcing team 48 hours ago, is something which we can only associate with Australians. They are such a confident cricketers and that confidence is their biggest strength. 

They are going to rely heavily on experience of Watson and Clarke to play in the middle overs when India will be operating spin at their both ends. Series will be decided on how well, Watson and Clarke are going to play against Indian Spinners.

Another key confidence thing to notice about Australians is how they are ready to throw their inexperience at the first three batsmen and Wade at number 6. If India is without Dravid and Laxman, Australia is without R.Ponting and M.Hussey.

Playing in Chennai where opposition team has selected 3 spinners, to go with 4 fast bowlers is another confidence thing. Perhaps, they are out of option in that area as their back up spinner is not that good enough and hence they want to stick to their best playing eleven, ignoring the pitch and conditions.

It will be battle of two re-building teams and contrasting bowling line up but if India has advantage of home conditions, Australia is going to rely on their Confidence.

Hyderabad Bomb Blast Reaction

Although I am sad due to Bomb Blast at Hyderabad and hope and pray that survivors get well soon, I must say, neither I am surprised or shocked hearing the news. It has become regularity now days, that there has to be a bomb blast once in a year in India. Credit must be given to toothless government at center, a very minimum infrastructure of intelligence and few unpatriotic sold out souls who help in arranging these kinds of inhuman activities.

Now the same saga is going to get repeated in every news channel. People will criticize the bomb blast, gives few repetitive statements, order an inquiry, someway blame Pakistan or some unknown terrorist organization, Ram Gopal Verma will visit the site and make a movie on it, Congress will give out few Lakhs rupees to ensure 18 died congress voters 180 relatives votes for them, few debates will be arranged where each political parties will blame each other. And Above all, there will be another year of post poned dialogues between India and Pakistan and there will be no cricket played between two nations. Such a sorry way of handling things but then what else we expect?

Oh not to forget, all news will be forgotten once Sachin Tendulkar hits a century in two or three days against Australia. India is incredible indeed!!!!

Azhar and Tony Greig

It is very natural for Mumbaikar’s to play with Straight Bat, because we grew up in narrow streets, where best shot to play was straight. But if you look at it from bookish knowledge perspective, it is very “Natural” to play straight. Ball is coming from that direction and you are hitting it back with straight bat. Good coaching will teach you also how to play cover drives and whenever width is given natural swing of bat will hit the ball square on off side. However, “Natural Talent” comes into picture when a batsman is able to hit the ball on “On Side” and with authority and consistency. “Hook”, “Pull” , “Flicks” and “On Drive” are therefore comparatively difficult shots to execute and you need to have a natural skills to play those shots. Perhaps, that might be the reason, why, “Brian Lara” or “Mohd Azhar” or “Saeed Anwar” looked attractive and graceful players, because they could play difficult shots with ease and consistency and then the second benchers such as “Ganguly” or “Gower” or “Mark Waugh” etc comes into picture with their exclusive timings and then comes a “Feel Good” hitters such as “Richards”, “Kapil Dev” , “Dhoni” , “Gilchrist”, “Inzamam” etc where every shot of their gives back a punch like we are watching a Boxing in a circular stadium.

I was watching coca cola cup 2000 final between Pakistan and S.Africa. Close game, with S.Africa needed 67 runs in 60 balls to win with 6 wickets in hand. Easy enough isn't it. Well not so easy when opposition has, "Waqar Younis". In one over, he got 2 wickets, next over 1 more wicket and next over 1 more wicket. 4 more wickets gone from S.Africa and game totally turns in the favor of Pakistan. These are "Winners" we are talking about. Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Shane Warne etc etc, They change the game in their favor in the matter of minutes.

One other observation, Voice of Cricket, "Tony Greig". Its not the wicket of Waqar until Tony Greig goes crazy in commentary box, "Oh yes, Got him, bowled him, clean bowled him, Look at the celebration, Its party down there, Smiles and claps are back in the ground, Waqar Younis just got Pakistan back in the game" What a voice, Cricket will never be the same without you Tony Greig. Good cricketers like Kallis, Tendulkars, Lara, Donald, Ambrose will come and go, but cricket will miss your voice the most.

 

 

 

 

Bollywood Top 10 2012 Part 1

The year 2012 was a year of great movies for Hindi cinema, from the perspective of the arts, commerce and even science. On the commercial front, Salman Khan rocked the box office with two huge chartbusters, ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ and ‘Dabangg 2’ while Khiladi Kumar also chipped in with ‘Rowdy Rathore’ and ‘Housefull 2’. All these movies made it to the top 10 box office hits list. A couple of monster hits from Ajay Devgan also made it to the top 10, such as ‘Bol Bachchan’ and ‘Son of Sardar’. Last year also saw Karan Johar shaking his legs as the judge of a Dance Reality Show. Johar went on to re-make his father’s biggest hit, ‘Agneepath’. The year gone by also featured the last epic love story from Yash Chopra – ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’. Aamir Khan’s return to commercial cinema via the movie ‘Talaash’ was not the big success it was expected to be. There was however, “Barfi” which perfectly bridged the gap between business, art and entertainment.

While some of these movies made it to the Top 10 box office list, not all of them will go on to be actual Top 10 movies. From among all the commercial hits, ‘Dabangg 2’ stands out as a completely entertaining movie in terms of acting, drama, action and very importantly highly trendy and catchy music. So, “Pandeyji” might be “Daagabaaz” but surely can seat on number 10 position with “Fevicol”.

‘Talaash’ missed the 100 crore mark and even though it is a very thought provoking, serious story, it lacked in entertainment value. However with a different concept, a unique story line, out of the market but very soothing music and of course an ace Khan, meant it got to the number nine slot.

‘Paan Singh Tomar’ is a non-commercial biopic based on real life story of an athlete. It had an amazing and novel concept, something that has not been tried and tested in Bollywood. Credit must be given to Tigmanshu Dhulia for the great idea and to Irfan Khan for portraying the character. However there are many more “sad” moments in the difficult life of Paan Singh rather than happy moments. This makes the movie more dull and sober rather than being joyful and entertaining. Also, being a real story, it’s hard to introduce new twists, turns and funny moments. While not exactly stories of athletes, many other stories of real-life people come to mind. The stories woven around a dacoit- ‘Bandit Queen’ particularly jumps to mind straightaway. So, definitely, this is a concept which is appreciated and it is a good movie to watch. However, the lack of interest to watch it again and again reserves it the spot of number eight.

As far as the soundness of concept is concerned, ‘Vicky Donor’ definitely steals the show. The movie is a complete entertainer, laugh riot and a very original romantic comedy which was brilliantly executed by two newcomers, Ayushmann Khurrana and Yami Gautam.  Antakshari (Annu) Kapoor got the role of a lifetime, acting as Dr. Baldev Chaddha, which remains one of the biggest highlights of the movie. The hugely popular song Paani Da Rang was performed by Ayushmaan himself (which also gave him the Filmfare award for Best Singer) and the song titled Rum Whiskey became one of the top chartbusters at clubs. This movie will not only be remembered for its story of a sperm donor but also for portraying the lifestyle of the fun-loving Punjabis, particularly the scene where the mother and mother-in-law are shown drinking together. Perhaps the single drawback of the movie is that it moves very slowly (but brilliantly) in the beginning, giving very less room for the second half and the love angle to grow and develop fully. In my rating, this movie sits comfortably in the number seven spot.

We got another milestone movie of the year when Umesh Shukla touched the untouchable story of a lawsuit on God. If Annu Kapoor and Irfan Khan were brilliant in ‘Vicky Donor’ and ‘Paan Singh Tomar’ respectively, then Paresh Rawal was outstanding in ‘Oh My God’. There is hardly anyone else in the industry right now (perhaps Sanjeev Kumar in 80s could have done it), who could have done justice to the role of Kanjibhai Mehta. A satire on the political, corrupt and blind trust of today’s generation towards God, the concept has been brilliantly exploited. The dialogues and screenplay were outstanding. Mithun Chakraborty also gave a riveting performance as the villain and Akshay Kumar does full justice to a jeans clad ‘God’. The song Mere Nishaan is flawlessly rendered by Kailash Kher. However script was not original, being based on a Gujarati play and an Australian movie. This prevents this movie from going any higher in my list and it will have to settle for the number six position.

So this sums up the movies that ranked 10 to 6 in part one of this blog. Any guesses on which five movies make it to my Top Five? Do let me know.

Super Bowl 47

It was one hell of a game with lots of up and down. Pre-game match up involved renaming super bowl game to “Harbaugh Bowl” as twin brothers Jim and John were coaching two teams, 49ers and Ravens.

49ers started tentatively with loosing the coin toss and giving penalty yards away before they begin the first play of the game. They were tentative throughout the first half and Ravens took the lead with 7-3. Joe Flacco was fantastic while Boldin was brilliant. They pair together many times in crucial 3^rd down situations to bail Ravens out. 49ers had themselves to blame in first half as they kept on missing crucial 3^rd down situations both defensively as well as offensively. First half ended in favor of Ravens as they were leading with score of 21-6. One of the biggest highlight of first half was Go Daddy commercial in which Bar Rafaeli kissed a nerd.

Half time show involving Beyonce Knowles was hip and happening. Game changing moment came when the Ravens opened the second half with a 108-yard kickoff return by Jacoby Jones for a touchdown. It put Ravens totally in control of the game with lead of 28-6. However there was a delay of game with more than half an hour due to power outage. It changed the momentum of the game as 49ers scored 17 points in the span of 4 minutes with scoreboard showing 23-28 still in favor of Ravens.

Both team put up a great show till the end of the game with pendulum swinging from one team to another but Ravens never allowed 49ers to take the lead. Eventually, time ran out for 49ers and game ended with 31-34 in favor of Ravens. 

Baltimore Ravens became the Super Bowl 47 Champion !!! 

Salman Khan’s Success Story

Salman Khan’s last five movies total collection goes around about 1000 Carores (approx. 200 Million US$).

Worldwide Approx Gross
    •    215 Carores: Dabangg
    •    230 Carores: Bodyguard
    •    184 Carores: Ready
    •    307 Carores: Ek Tha Tiger.
    •    150+ Carores: Dabangg 2 (In first 2 weeks)

There has been lot of talk about these movies marked as dumb, classless, brainless etc. Critics are also claiming that Salman Khan is doing only one type of movies. Now answer to them is why not? There are particular types of movies which are working for him. It is a Genre that Salman Khan has re-invented himself into, genre of having action, a bit of comedy, good music, and different dancing steps. In the past, Rajnikanth used to get such a big mass following in South or Amitabh in late 70’s and early 80’s, and they never got criticized for doing the films that works for them and public, then why put a finger on Salman Khan alone?

After all Salman Khan has tried different genres in the past.

•    Romantic: Saajan, Pyar Kiya to Darna Kya, Jab Pyaar Kisise Hota Hai, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Tere Naam.
•    Family: Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hai Kaun, Hum Saath Saath Hai
•    Comedy: No Entry, Partner, Andaz Apna Apna, Biwi No. 1, Judwaa, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi
•    Action: Karan Arjun, Veergati, Suryavanshi, Garv, Wanted

Salman realized, his forte is in Action, Comedy, Family and Romance, so he mixed them all together to give blockbusters. He has excelled in those sorts of movies. They are not mindless movies; they are mind-free movies. It relieves tension and put a viewer in a two and half hour drive of fun filled entertainment. If Aamir Khan is being credited for doing movies on social issues such as Dyslexia for Taare Zameen Par, then Salman also did couple of movies addressing social issues such as Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega and Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, which addressed the issue of surrogate childbirth.  Salman also did an Epic movie such as Veer (but failed at box office) or Baabul on remarriage of widows.

Salman Khan, now has became a synonym of success at box office. Every thing he is touching is turning it into Gold and it is high time, he gets credited for some of the amazing work he has done over last 23 years.