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.

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