THE DIARY OF Z

All those stories about yesteryear thespian Dilip Kumar being confined to the ICU of a Mumbai hospital are all trash.

He is hospitalised in a private ward and recovering. Apparently, he was being treated for a urinary tract infection.

I wish him speedy recovery!

For more on Bollywood, visit my film-based blog: http://bollywoodviews.com

In today’s times, good efforts are rewarded in record time.

Take the brand new film, Welcome to Sajjanpur.

The Shyam Benegal film about a simpleton trying to turn novelist, is so well made and yet so simplistically, that the film has won the attention of none other than the British Film Institute.

The film is now being shown at the London Film Festival.

Congrats, Benegal. Congrats, Shreyas Talpade and Amrita Rao!

For more on Bollywood, visit my film-based blog: The Bollywood Fix!

I am glad Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par made it as India’s official entry to the Oscars. And unlike his previous Oscar entry, Lagaan, this film isn’t that long and neither do the songs seem out of place. So he doesn’t have to remove the songs to appease the Oscar jury this time, because they are an integral part of the film and carry the story forward.

And that is indeed the art of filmmaking. Every frame needs to be accountable and yet be a commercial film all the way. No Man’s Land (which won ‘best foreign film’ Oscar) had it in oodles. So does this one, though on a different theme.

But what makes TZP all the more global is its universal theme of dyslexia. It can happen to anyone, age, caste, creed, nationality no bar.

So if you still haven’t watched the film, do now. Don’t wait for it to win the Oscar before you watch it.

Oscar or no Oscar, it has already won many hearts. And I am glad that the film is a blockbuster in India having earned more than Rs 65 crore from theatrical business in India alone. That shows the audience has grown up to like well-made films.

Ofcourse, without the presence of Aamir, the film could have bombed. But then, that’s what Aamir Khan achieved. Balanced art and commercial cinema and laughed all the way to Swiss bank.

Congrats, Aamir!

P.S: For more such Bollywood stories, please visit my movie-based blog: http://www.bollywoodviews.com.

Frenetic, racy, and extremely focussed, Bollywood’s latest release ‘A Wednesday’ plays to the gallery. The Naseeruddin Shah starrer film also has a social message and that is what takes it from the purely commercial to a film with a heart in the right place. Watch it and you will know what I mean.

But don’t expect it to be some offbeat art cinema that isn’t entertaining. Far from it. It’s entertaining from the moment you see Naseeruddin Shah planting a bag inside the police station facing the police commissioner’s office.

Yes, you guessed it right. It’s a film on how a ‘terrorist’ tries to shake up the police establishment by ordering them to release four feared terrorists in exchange for information on the five bombs he has planted in various parts of Mumbai, so they can defuse them.
Watch it for the gritty police methodology. You will even get to be inside the mind of the police commissioner and how he works out strategies during an emergency like this one. Anupam Kher does a great job at this, but the one walking away with all the honours is Naseeruddin Shah as the bomb planter.

Buy it, steal it, do whatever you can. But watch it somehow!

P.S: For more such Bollywood stories, please visit my movie-based blog: http://www.bollywoodviews.com.

Shyam Benagal’s first commercial Bollywood comedy, Welcome To Sajjanpur, might well go on to do good business at the Box Office. Released only yesterday, the film has already received many positive reports and could beat the other comedy films released at the same time: the low-budgeted Hulla (Rs 1.25 cr) and the Warner Bros first Hindi film, Saas Bahu Aus Sensex that has received mixed reactions.

I am all for Welcome to Sajjanpur, because it’s a film set in a small town populated with interesting characters that make up the whole film. In fact, the film is nothing but a character study and it is this that will work for you and everyone who watches the film.

It’s a throw back to the times of Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s films in which Amitabh Bachchan played the protagonist. Over here, the superstar is the young and remarkably talented Shreyas Talpade. It is his film all the way. Watch this film for him and the wonderful string of characters that breath life into Welcome To Sajjanpur.

You will want to overstay at this village.

Rock On, the Farhan Akhtar-produced and acted Bollywood film is going great guns! Though, I haven’t seen the film, reports from my musically-inclined friends say it’s a movie not to be missed.

What’s more, to make the most of the Box Office moolah that is pouring in, the producers have already held Rock On! concerts in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi and are now planning to hold it in Bangalore. What a way to ensure a repeat crowd for their film. But more than that, what I like is their commitment to rock music.

Here are people who truly believe in what they showcase on screen. The money is secondary over here and that is why money chases them and not the other way around.

Bravo Farhan! Bravo the entire team of Rock On!

Keep rocking… and rolling!

160GB PS3
Rs 22,500
Size does matter. Atleast to Sony that is releasing a 160GB PS3 in November, which is double the size of the existing model PS3. However, it’s limited-edition. Therefore, book yours now. This new PS3 will include the rumble-ized DualShock 3 controller and two games: Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Pain. This is a Core model with a bigger hard drive, so no built-in flash card reader, no backward compatibility with PS2 games. The addition of the 160GB model comes as the 40GB Core PS3 is being replaced by an 80GB Core model–meaning anyone buying the entry-level PS3 will soon be getting twice the capacity for the price of Rs 18,000.

EOS 50D
Rs 63,000
Bettering the best comes easy to Canon. The all-new EOS 50D to be out this month is an improved version of the popular 40D which will be phased out by the end of this year. Built around the identical body as the 40D, the only differences are the name plate and mode-dial bezel and the 15 megapixels compared to 40D’s 10MP. The new sensor has smaller pixels than the 40D, but claims superior noise and image quality; 1.5 stops better, thanks to an improved manufacturing process. Plus, larger, gap-free micro lenses which effectively result in the same light-sensitive area.

BDP-S550
Rs 18,000
A price slash before its release. That’s how much the market is hotting for gadgets this festive season. Sony will be dropping the prices on its as-yet-unreleased step-up model, the BDP-S550 by $100 and will now sell it for $400 (Rs 18,000). Until recently, none of the free-standing players have been capable of handling all of the features included in the Blu-ray standard. The BDP-S550 could be a big hit with home theatre enthusiasts because it offers a couple of key step-ups that make it a particularly solid standalone player–DTS-HD Master Audio Decoding and 7.1 analog outputs.

PALM TREO PRO
Rs 24,000
Palm’s all-new Treo Pro is looking good inside out. It comes fully loaded in a sleek black casing, a 320×320-pixel resolution touch screen and a screensaver that will show you the time, any missed calls or new text/multimedia messages at a glance. Not to mention, a full QWERTY keyboard with an all-new navigation keypad, business users are its target. It runs Windows Mobile 6.1, complete with the Microsoft Office Mobile Suite and Direct Push Technology for real-time e-mail delivery. It offers UMTS/HSDPA support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. The Palm Treo Pro will probably be available in India through Vodafone and Airtel.

MOTO W388
Rs 3300
Motorola is getting really restless. After rolling out three all-new Rokr models, it is adding three more multimedia-centric cell phones this season: Moto ZN200, Moto W388, and Moto W396. We are betting high on the W388. The candy-bar phone boasts of a robust music player and a claim of long battery life - 9 hours of talk time and 16 days of standby time. There is the Moto ID feature that helps you identify songs and artists on the go. There’s an FM radio and micro SD slot with 2GB card support. The W388 is a quad-band GSM phone and has Motorola’s Crystal Talk audio-enhancing technology. Truly economical!

CINDERELLA MAN
145 mins, 2005. Director: Ron Howard
Evocative, manipulative and yet so simplistic, the unwavering script and screen portrayals bludgeon you into submission. Director Ron Howard’s movie skilfully delivers that primal, heart-pounding satisfaction that is the promise of all boxing tales. An excellent drama that relies on heart and action instead of schmaltz and melodrama. The fight scenes have a stinging authenticity and, although at 144 minutes it outstays its welcome, this is Howard’s best film since Apollo 13. Superbly edited, beautifully shot, sensitively acted, and with fantastic grit and texture. Based on the life of athlete Jim Braddock, a once-promising light heavyweight boxer forced into retirement after a string of losses in the ring, it’s the story of a boxer who has known his best days and worst. The crux of the story is how he fights back into the ring to support his wife and children during the Great Depression when money and food are hard to come by.

SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME
113 mins, 1956. Director: Robert Wise
Watch the film for Newman, Paul Newman. He worked himself into peak condition for the role, lifting weights and sparring with top professionals, and his portrayal of the scrappy, often tongue-tied, but wholly likable boxer is superb. Couple this with Robert Wise’s direction – it is fast, aggressive and bright, and the picture is edited to give it a tremendous crispness and pace. He keeps the action fresh and lively, drawing excellent performances from Newman. This adaptation of boxer Rocky Graziano’s autobiography chronicles the middleweight champion’s life from his underprivileged childhood through his juvenile delinquency and his ultimate climb to the top of his profession. It’s a story of courage and dignity. Pay special attention to the first half that depicts the frenetic life of Newman’s early life – there are quotable quotes galore, power-packed performance and razor-sharp editing.

SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER
111 mins, 1993. Director: Steven Zaillian
The mystery of Fischer’s talent and torment adds depth to Searching for Bobby Fischer. It’s about a young New York chess prodigy who doesn’t want his genius to ruin his life. Strange dilemma, eh? Yeah, well, but it’s an intelligently crafted celebration of introspection and decency that is perfectly realized and exquisitely acted. Most of all, it’s a thoughtful and absorbing family drama. And mind you, it takes a lot to make the story of chess-playing little boys as absorbing as this one. In hindsight, the film revolves around chess but really focuses on those precious values that make life worth living – balancing your masculine need for mastery and your feminine feeling side. The film’s simple message is that no one thing should ever dominate anyone’s life, no matter how good he or she is at it. It is about being true to yourself. Watch it for Steve Zaillian’s evocative screenplay.

THE HUSTLER
135 mins, 1961. Director: Robert Rossen
Director Rossen presses all the right buttons in this classic dark masterpiece, and the atmosphere of the pool halls is brilliantly conveyed by Shufton’s black-and-white photography. This film shows timeless struggle and is a classic in cinema. An unusually coherent and accomplished pool drama with a top-notch turn from Paul Newman, as a jaded and disillusioned player. The Hustler packs a cool punch with Newman playing an arrogant and amoral hustler haunting pool rooms to get a crack at bringing down his competition, only to land in a dilemma over his feelings for a woman. The Hustler belongs to that school of screen realism that allows impressive performances and accomplishes the basic goal of pure entertainment. It is indeed a wonderful hymn to the last true era when men of substance played pool with a vengeance, with Newman delivering line after line of crackling dialogue.

The Z Files completed one year of its existence this month. I thank you all for making this happen. As a thank you, i give to you top THREE posts that got the maximum attention from my online readers…

Here they are…

Happy reading!

1. My five best comedy films

2. The life and times of Vijay Mallya

3. Will Apple recall iPhone 3G

Welcome to my own domain. After blogging on Wordpress for a year (asterix786.wordpress.com), I thought of owning my domain name and blogging out here. I am in the process of importing my wordpress blog out here since there are 187 posts out there and i intend to keep them all here as this website/blog is going to be a compendium of everything i have written for the web, including stuff that I have written offline, which is online out here.

Please give me sometime to figure out the technical part of this.

Thank you for your patience!

Until then, you could visit my Wordpress blog and keep reading… http://asterix786.wordpress.com.

Thanks again!