Mostly Charmless

Mylib

2011-09-19T17:42:00.002+05:30

Finally got around to cleaning up the library, after it was taken over by the kids.

My comics collection, soon to be enhanced after the flipkart order, now occupies its rightful space.

I also moved up the movies books a bit. I still don't like the way some of the shelves overflow, but it can't be helped till we move into the new house.

What I learnt the last few weeks

2011-04-04T11:31:00.003+05:30

I'm still on the emotional high of India's second world cup win. I stress the word 'second' because I am old enough to remember the first, one of the very few folks on my Twitterstream who were not in their nappies then. The win in '83 was a surprise because we were rank outsiders. The win this year was a surprise too, simply because we were the favourites and favourites always faltered. Or so a nation thought.

Till the night of April 2, 2011.

I learnt something from this win. Learnt about leadership. Learnt about the importance of self belief. About confidence. Instilling confidence in others. About bucking the odds, making your choices and sticking to them. Owning up to mistakes.

I also learnt about stepping up and leading from the front.

Thank you, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

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Meatspace

2010-12-15T15:54:00.002+05:30

I have been doing a lot of traveling the past few weeks. Several train journeys, a couple of flights, long drives by car and a bus or two in between. As a result, I have also met a wide variety of people. For a person whose social life has been almost entirely on Twitter and Facebook lately, this was a refreshing change.

The Twitterati are usually sarcastic, smart, clever with words and quick to take pot shots at all and sundry. Most of them work in IT or IT related industries. They usually think and tweet alike, most of the time anyway.

My Facebook friends are mostly people I know in real life. We share family pictures, links to interesting websites and comment how much we have changed since we last met, which is usually a good twenty years back.

The people I met in meatspace the past few weeks came from all walks of life. An architect. A retired military man. An accountant. A business man who used to be a manual laborer. And I learnt something from each one of them.

The accountant taught me to smile at strangers, offer them food if you have some, share a joke with them and help them be comfortable during the journey.

The retired military man showed me the value of being neat and tidy. Of holding your ground and getting people to do what's right. Helping your spouse and making her feel loved and cared for. Of enjoying life post retirement.

The architect gave me tips on how to plan for the future. The laborer turned businessman helped me understand the power of determination, hard work and humility.

I would not have learnt any of these online. The value of going out and meeting people, interacting with them, understanding them and ultimately learning from them, is immense. Even though the travel tired me out, I don't regret a minute of it.

This is not to say there isn't value in being connected and active on the social networking sites. I enjoy that immensely. I have met some awesome people online, some of whom have turned into friends I will cherish for a lifetime. However, I do want to spend more time out in the sun talking to people who are from different walks of life, with different mindsets, different points of view. I am sure I will be richer by the experience.

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Bridges takes on Wayne in the Coens' latest

2010-10-16T18:44:00.001+05:30

Looking forward to this, though I haven't watched the original.

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Movie Posters Quiz

2010-09-25T11:59:00.002+05:30

This is a quiz on movie posters that I put up at @kweezzz, the fast growing quizzing community on Twitter. Simple stuff, really. In all cases, name the movie.
A few easy ones initially, to set the ball rolling:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
7. Not an original poster, but a re-imagined one for TV. Name the film 8. 9. 10. 11.
12. Connect the image below and the now defunct ad agency Dazu, to an iconic movie poster.
13. Often appears in all time great movie poster lists. Name the movie and the person credited with this poster
.
14.
15. Another re-imagined for TV poster. Film?

16.
17. No movie posters quiz would be complete without this all time great image. Name the film.
18. Campy movie, but has a cult following. Great poster, too

19. Identify, should be easy
.

20. The first known instance of legs appearing as an A-frame in a film poster. Used repeatedly since.
21. While on the subject...

22. A classic. The lead actor specifically requested illustrator Adrian G Spear to create this poster.
23. Another easy one, but what the hell
.

24. One of my favorite posters
.

25. A movie no one remembers, a poster that ranks among the best.

26. The first ever film made on this subject, it had just two screenings. Identify.

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Management and the Movies

2010-07-09T15:05:00.000+05:30

Walk into any bookstore and chances are you’ll find at least a quarter of the store stocked with books on management. If the store is in an airport, I’ll wager it’s close to 70%. Luminaries like Peter Drucker, CK Prahlad, Tom Peters et al smile down on you benevolently, encouraging you to purchase their book and change your life forever. You steal a glance at the man in the grey suit, purchasing Tom Friedman’s latest along with the 90 page flavor of the month, Who Moved My Mouse. You feel you are missing out on something, you feel you’ll be less of a manager if you don’t read these books. You feel you need to spend thousands on these hardbound tomes, to earn your pay.

I have an alternative. Go to the movies. Watch films like The Godfather. Twelve Angry Men. Apollo 13. Braveheart. Watch the greatest movie ever made, Sholay. Go ahead and combine business with pleasure. Trust me, you’ll learn a lot.

Need to know how to get someone to agree with your point of view? Make him an offer he can’t refuse. How to convince eleven peers to reconsider their opinion? Observe Henry Fonda’s Juror #8 in Twelve Angry Men. Intense collaboration, critical decisions being made as the clock is ticking away? The pressure cooker ‘Houston, we have a problem’ situation in Apollo 13. Inspirational leadership in the face of insurmountable odds? William Wallace in Braveheart or King Leonidas in 300. Take your pick.

In closing, do consider of course, our very own Thakur Baldev Singh, from Sholay. Recruiting skills? Check. Watch the khote sikka dialog and the train robbery scene. He sure knew how to identify talent. Mission statement? Very clear, very precise: Gabbar, alive. He also displays an amazing utilization of scarce resources in achieving that objective. The Thakur’s only shortcoming though, was that he was a hands-off manager. Not his fault, of course.

Having A Point Of View

2010-07-06T22:36:00.006+05:30

The problem with movie watching these days is not about the quality of the movie or getting tickets. It's about going in already biased, with an opinion about the film. An opinion that comes from what your favourite reviewers are saying. An opinion based on Twitter feeds. Based on Facebook reviews and status messages.

Let's face it, you already know you are going to either hate the movie and post snarky tweets about it or you are going to find it über cool and talk about how it references twenty three Hollywood films no one's heard of before.

Look at Raavan. No, I do mean it. Watch the movie, for crying out loud. Then call it Mani Ratnam's Aag if you must. If you have watched Aag, of course.

Not that I believe the movie is great. I saw the Tamil version and found it quite boring. Aishwarya Rai looked as delicate as ever, jumping over waterfalls notwithstanding. I found the Karthik - Hanuman angle tiresome and forced. I also thought the songs were the worst ever from the Mani Ratnam - AR Rahman combination. On the other hand though, the cinematography is brilliant, Vikram continues to impress and the climactic fight on the bridge is one of the best action sequences I've ever seen in an Indian movie.

Do I recommend it? Not really. But I did walk in thinking the movie was going to totally suck, based on all that I had read online. I'm glad I realized I was being biased. My point of view may be idiotic, but at least it's my own. So there.

Oscar Predictions

2010-03-04T14:28:00.001+05:30

I don't recollect an Academy Awards season when I felt less meh. There were very few good movies last year, very few movies that made you sit up and think. Sit up and watch, yes - we did have Avatar after all. But movies that made you think? Movies that made you scratch your head, go look up the Wikipedia entry on it, movies that made you burst out laughing or those that got you walking on air out of the theater, silly grin plastered on your face? Just compare this year's crop to 2007, when we had No Country For Old Men competing with There Will Be Blood and Juno.

Like I said, meh.

At any rate, here are my predictions for this year's Oscars. Not the ones that I like, but the ones I think will win:

Best Picture - Avatar. Yes, I did like The Hurt Locker, but I think Mr Cameron will be back on the deck.

Best Actor - Jeff Bridges. The dude has it coming.

Best Actress - Sandra Bullock. I hated myself writing that, damn! I really don't think there's a better actor alive than Ms Streep, but one more Oscar? Unlikely.

Best Director - Kathryn Bigelow. No, James Cameron. Nah, Bigelow. I'll stick to Bigelow.

Best Original Screenplay - I'm going out on a limb here and predicting Up.

There, I'm done. Didn't enjoy doing it, but I'm done.

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The best films of 2009 - Roger Ebert's Journal

2009-12-22T17:43:00.001+05:30

via blogs.suntimes.com

Nice list. For the first time in years, I find myself viewing Ebert's top ten year end list without having watched a single one of them. And this time it's more like a top twenty.

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Once Upon A Time In Kerala

2009-12-11T13:51:00.001+05:30

Once upon a time in Kerala, there used to be a very entrenched, heirarchical caste system. Some would argue that this still exists even in modern Kerala, but let's not go there. We are all honorable men and women.

So, once upon a time in Kerala, there was a deep rooted caste system. Some say this started with the advent of the Nambuthiris, who pretty much treated anyone not a Nambuthiri as an untouchable. This extended to other castes soon enough, which meant you had the Nairs who were expected to instantly cut down the heads of lower caste people who presumed to defile them. This defiliation could occur because the lower castes were on the same road as them, were looking at them or were within 72 feet of them. The Nair man - for it was mainly men who walked out on the road anyway - was expected to have a bath in a temple pond immediately, to wash off this pollution. The Nair man was not expected to eat before he did this cleansing and was universally shunned till he corrected this sin.

Thankfully, we live in an advanced society now where this does not occur anymore. We are all honorable men and women and we do not differentiate. Right? Right.

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The Hotmail Scam

2009-10-06T18:11:00.001+05:30

I really can't believe that 20,000 people fell for this scam. Then again, there's one born every minute.

This is the email which found its way into my Inbox. Why do I feel this has an Indian origin?

From: hawkmiller2@hotmail.com
To: windowslivecommunications@microsoft.windowslive.com
Subject: Warning !!! Verify Your Account Now To Avoid It Closed (VJ2G99AAQ)
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:15:52 +0000

Windows Live Hotmail Alert!!!

CONFIRM YOUR WINDOWS LIVE ACCOUNT SERVICES. VERIFY YOUR HOTMAIL ACCOUNT NOW TO AVOID IT CLOSED !!!

Dear Account Owner

This is email from Windows Live Hotmail® and we are sending it to you account user for your safety. Due to the anonymous registration of our account which is causing congestion to our service, so we are shutting down some account and your account was amoung those to be deleted,so the purpose of this email is for you to verify that you are the owner of this account and you are still using it by filling the information below after clicking on the reply button:

* Username: ...............................

* Password: ................................

* Date of Birth: ............................

* Country Or Territory: ................

After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences.

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after 48 hours of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.

Sincerely,

The Windows Live Hotmail Team

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The Aggregated Web

2009-09-11T14:46:00.001+05:30

Everyone wants a meta site. You know, an umbrella thingy which aggregates your twitter, facebook, blogger, orkut, flickr, youtube and bank accounts. Okay, maybe not the last bit, but you get the idea. The good news is, there are sites like posterous which hope to become the master of meta. They can connect to all your social networking sites, they can parse pictures, view videos, you name it. And all this over email, to boot. Impressive, I'd say.

But then, once you have a few meta sites around, what's stopping a super-meta aggregator which would rule them all and in the darkness, bind them? Hmm?

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Back to school

2009-06-03T13:11:00.003+05:30

Rachu started 'proper' school today. She's done with the Montessori levels and has entered Std I. I dropped her off to school in the morning; she was dressed in her new uniform, complete with a school belt and tie. Damn, she's growing up faster than I'd want her to.

Bugged

2009-05-15T12:40:00.001+05:30

I took the easy way out the other day at lunch. The easy way out was to pretend the cockroach in my food didn't exist and get back to work without barfing my guts out. I also resolved never to order food from that stall in the food court again. This resolution should last till end of the week. Hopefully.

It's been worrying me, though. Why didn't I create a fuss and demand to see the manager? Why didn't I demand a full month's lunch, free? Maybe because the cockroach was so tiny, it really wasn't their fault it had sneaked into my plate. Or maybe because the first thing that came to my mind was the old scene in movies where the hero tries to weasel out of paying for lunch by inserting a roach into his plate at the end of the meal. Balachandra Menon in Chiryo Chiri and Jayaram in Nagarangalil Chennu Raapparrkkam, if I remember correctly.

Which reminds me, it's time for lunch.

For the 3rd time

2009-04-07T10:11:00.000+05:30

In case this setting works.

Yet another test

2009-04-07T10:07:00.000+05:30

another test.

Test Post

2009-04-07T08:23:00.000+05:30

For testing the Intense Debate stuff

Karan

2009-02-28T05:08:00.001+05:30

So, I became a dad all over again last Monday. Thanks to technological marvels such as Blackberry, Facebook and Twitter, I could take pics and let people know within minutes of my son's birth. Felt weird, felt good too. Feb 23 was an amazing day for a lot of happy Indians, it became even more special for me.

The baby is doing just great. He keeps us awake most nights as any newborn worth his salt would. His mom is also fine and well, recuperating faster than most, thanks to an excellent gynaec whose only advice after the Caesarian was to run up and down four flights of steps. My wife being who she is, loved the advice and proceeded to do exactly that. She's almost fully back to normal now, within just a few days of the operation.

The big sister went through a mild patch of severe stomach ache and vomiting, which started curiously enough the day the baby reached home. She got a lot of extra attention the next couple of days and is back to normal now, thankfully.

We have named him Karan. Karan Madhav. You know he's going to steal your daughter's heart one day, don't you?

Our first choice of name was Kabir, though. It's sad that we live in times when we had to rule out a child's name, for fear of giving him an unnecessary handicap when he grows up. Kabir, you see, is perceived as a Muslim name in the south, especially in Kerala. Sindha and I thought of conversations which would go:

- "What's your name, smartass?"
- "Kabir"
- "A-ha! What's your father's name?"
- "Madhav"
- "Oh! We have a live one here. What's your mother's name?"
- "Thomas"

This would ensure him getting beaten up by all three communities. The Sikhs might also join in, given the importance they give to Kabir's poems. As much as we both loved the name Kabir, we just didn't want to setup our son for trouble later on in his life. The above scenario could very well turn out true, the way things are going these days, especially in Karnataka. I'm not very proud of it, but we chickened out finally.

At any rate, the baby is here and all of us are happy and well. We are four now.

Stick-my-neck-out-dept v2009

2009-02-19T19:38:00.000+05:30

Here we go with my predictions for the Oscars:

Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

Actor in a Leading Role: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Actress in a Leading Role: Kate Winslet, The Reader

Actor in a Supporting Role: Robert Downey Jr, Tropic Thunder. I'm kidding. Heath Ledger of course, for the picture that should have been nominated as Best Pic.

Actress in a Supporting Role: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Original Screenplay: Wall.E

I'm not going to try and predict the winner for Best Original Song and Best Score, for some reason.

What, me worry?

2009-02-13T22:52:00.000+05:30

*From /Film

What is common to the following songs?

2009-01-23T16:14:00.000+05:30

1. Desolation Row – My Chemical Romance
2. Unforgettable – Nat King Cole
3. The Times They Are A-Changin’ – Bob Dylan
4. The Sound Of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel
5. Me & Bobby McGee – Janis Joplin
6. I’m Your Boogie Man – KC & The Sunshine Band
7. You’re My Thrill – Billie Holiday
8. Pruit Igoe & Prophecies – The Philip Glass Ensemble
9. Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen
10. All Along The Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
11. Ride of the Valkyries – Budapest Symphony Orchestra
12. Pirate Jenny – Nina Simon

Ans: They are all tracks from Watchmen. The last is featured in the end credits of the Tales From the Black Freighter DVD. Excellent collection, don't you think?

Cinescape 2008

2009-01-03T16:05:00.001+05:30

A fantastic montage of the best of 2008. I haven't watched half the movies featured, but I really want to, after viewing this.

Five of the best from my 2008

2008-12-31T21:56:00.000+05:30

Movies: The Dark Knight, Wall-E, No Country For Old Men, Juno, Rock On!

Books: Norwegian Wood, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, No Country For Old Men, In Spite of the Gods, The Road

Music: Khwaje Mere Khwaja, Kabhi Kabhi Aditi, Viva La Vida, Millionaire, Pappu Can't Dance

Happy New Year!

2008 & 2009

2008-12-31T21:27:00.000+05:30

It's been a mixed year, like most others. Ups and downs, professional and personal. A year of very little interaction on LJ, though. I didn't post much, you guys didn't either. Blame it on Twitter, Facebook, Orkut and what have you. Blame it on laziness. Old age. Ennui.

Or perhaps blame it on the fact that society itself is moving towards instant gratification, capsule reviews, micro updates. No one wants to spend more than five minutes on anything anymore. And even if you do, why do you watch a movie? Because everyone's talking about it, because you won't be cool if you don't talk about it too. Why read a book? Because it's won the Booker and everyone's talking about it. Because the movie had millions of teenage girls queuing up, shrieking. Why have an opinion? You don't need to. Not when you can copy paste others viewpoints to your twitter.

I am getting old. 37 in a few months, for crying out loud! I never believed I would be this old, to be honest. Nor did I think I would lose this much hair.

And you guys have aged too. and , did you ever think you'd be a dad one day? , did you know you'd write for Rolling Stone magazine? , did you see yourself being rated India's #1 Twitter user?

What I'd like for 2009 though is to write more and read more. Read what you guys really think about these days. Put aside that damn Twitter or Facebook status update for a few minutes. Write about language, ! About Delhi, about Mumbai, . About comics, about music, . About technology, about the sheer magic of being a geek, . About life itself, all of you. Don't be comfortably numb. Please.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Upcoming movies: Posters and Pics

2008-10-24T20:06:00.000+05:30

And of course, our very own...

Most of the images are from the excellent FirstShowing.Net site.

A New Age

2008-10-09T17:26:00.000+05:30

Another reason why I love Roger Ebert. Go read it, please. And the original post which kicked off the whole ruckus.

And oh, while you are at it, please read Poe's Law too.

:)

Gold!

2008-08-11T16:26:00.000+05:30

Abhinav Bindra wins the gold in the 10m air rifle event. India's first ever individual gold medal at the Olympics! Woo-hoo!

Blasts in bangalore

2008-07-25T20:53:00.000+05:30

7 bomb blasts in Bangalore, reportedly. I'm ok. Shutting down office, getting people to leave. Take care, all.

Couple of movies, couple of books

2008-07-14T20:24:00.000+05:30

Don't get me wrong, I thought Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Hey-nonny-no was watchable. I did laugh at times, especially when Ratna Pathak Shah was around. The cameos were well done and some of the one-liners had zing. That said, I found the gang of friends quite insipid. Everyone in that group save Jai (Imran Khan) was one dimensional. I couldn't really figure out what made the group tick. Why was Aditi popular? What do the others do apart from hanging around the leads and singing chorus? Hmm. Pass, could do better is my verdict, Mr Tyrewala*.

Aamir, now. The movie, not the director/actor/producer/blogger. A bit fantastic, the way the protagonist gets into terrible trouble a few minutes into the film. However, the excellent direction, sets and acting make up for some of the harder to digest moments. The lead actor, Rajeev Khandelwal, seems to have had a blast.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Christian reading two books, each of which have the word 'God' in their titles, must be very devout and will pull you into church and get you baptised at the drop of a hat. Even if the books were titled In Spite of the Gods and The God Delusion. No one is safe.

*Which reminds me, I need to go to the gym.

KQA's 25th

2008-06-28T06:46:00.000+05:30

The KQA's 25th Anniversary is being celebrated with a two day quiz festival starting tomorrow, the 28th of June. and I are setting the Entertainment Quiz, scheduled for 3pm tomorrow at the St Joseph's Boys High School, Bangalore.

FYI & A, as they say around here.

Going Legit

2008-06-11T21:42:00.000+05:30

Like the Corleone family, I'm going legit. I've stopped my visits to National Market, avoided visiting torrent sites and have turned over a new byte.

Honest. All my recent movie acquisitions have been from stores. Spent money on the Final Cut edition of Blade Runner. Bought the 12 disc special edition of Lord of the Rings. Bought a bunch of games like Sid Meier's Railroads!, Shogun, F.E.A.R, Age of Mythology, etc. Downloaded a valid version of World of Warcraft and after some epic quests, managed to get a paid account that works from India*.

Why, you may ask. Because I can. So there.

* Thanks, and

Celebrity blogs

2008-06-03T22:24:00.000+05:30

Ram Gopal Varma seems to be the latest to hop on the blog bandwagon. Though I didn't particularly care for his blog, I found some of his responses to comments quite amusing. This, for instance:

Comment: Please make commercially successful films.

Ans: Thanks for the advice. It didn’t occur to me.

And:

Comment: A study on you would be incomplete without AAG.

Ans: Ahhhhh! You are telling me! The greatest education I have ever had in my life with regards to cinema, my life and my self is due to AAG and its aftermath. I must have had one million twenty seven lakh thirty thousand and twenty three advises, and criticisms not including the ones I deduced myself. Now you can see how much more richer I am. Want any charity?

I think they are human too, these actors and directors.

Tech Notes

2008-05-29T22:52:00.000+05:30

So there I was, trying to use the World of Warcraft downloader and it telling me some of my ports were blocked. It apparently needs a set of ports to be open and enabled. I googled and found that I need to setup port forwarding for faster downloads. But that assumes a static IP for my computer. My setup is something like this:

Airtel --> Huawei modem with DHCP enabled --> Netgear router with DHCP, which doles out IP addresses to my VOIP adapter, my laptop, my desktop and any rogue machines in the wireless vicinity that are aware of my SSID.

Fixing a static IP for my desktop was the first step. I could set it up in my Negear router itself, by assigning a fixed ip to the MAC id of the desktop. Then I moved on to the Huawei modem and went into the Virtual Servers section. Added the ports needed by the WoW downloader. Restarted the modem. Moved to the router and went to the Port Forwarding section, ditto. The final part was configuring my Comodo firewall to allow TCP-in on those ports. Everything worked like a charm and I felt so proud of myself.

Until I found the Vundo trojan happily resting in my machine. Sigh.

I just can't wait...

2008-05-27T21:21:00.000+05:30

From left to right: Silhouette, Mothman, Dollar Bill, Nite Owl, Captain Metropolis, The Comedian (kneeling), Silk Spectre, and Hooded Justice.

March 6, 2009. I just can't wait.

Image from Ain't It Cool News.

W

2008-05-09T12:55:00.000+05:30

Good Josh!

This is from Oliver Stone's upcoming biopic, W. Should be interesting.

Convergence

2008-04-26T15:33:00.000+05:30

It's all coming together. The three great obsessions of Indians - cricket, politics and films. Add a dash of eye-candy and music, and you have the perfect masala mix that can keep a nation enthralled for a month and more.

We have Shah Rukh Khan, that matchless actor. We have Vijay, the younger chieftain. We have Preity Zinta and Akshay Kumar. There's Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, Prime Ministers in waiting, along with current and past Chief Ministers. We have businessmen. Beer and cheerleaders. Not to mention the scandals and the spice. Inconsequential cricket matches get higher TRP ratings than saas-bahu serials? Of course. You have slap-happy characters on the cricket field too. You have tears. You have what it takes to keep everyone's eyes glued to the telly. Ads galore, buy more, spend more.

Everything is condensed into a tiny capsule, fit for mass consumption. The Times of India-fication of our nation is now complete.

Words

2008-04-17T15:52:00.000+05:30

When I was reading books and growing up, both at the same time, I used to come across words and phrases that weren't used in regular conversation. Not in Thiruvananthapuram, at least. No, not the words you think, but stuff like "chuckle", "what the", "darn it to heck" and the like. Me and my cousin found out that "chuckle" meant smile or laugh. After that, we often chuckled at each other. Literally. For example, he'd say something funny and I'd say "Chuckle, chuckle".

"What the" came out of comic books, mainly the superhero variety. On a side note, it wasn't until I met the illustrious that I realized there could be other varieties. Anyway. I used to read a lot of Superman those days, which usually had characters like Jimmy Olsen or Clark Kent who, when confronted with a super villain, went "What the..!". I used to wonder, this time without my cousin, what this expression meant. I didn't really think I was missing a word, it seemed to be complete in itself. I finally figured it was an exclamation of surprise, but nothing much more. As a result, while playing cricket with the neighbourhood kids, I used to often cry out "What the!" when the ball I thought was a perfect yorker was launched right out of the park.

We now come to "Darn" and "Heck". I confess I went twenty seven years without knowing that these words were substitutes used by God-fearing folks when they wanted to curse. I realized this when I was on a chat site long back and I said "Heck" in conversation. One fellow chatter, from Canada if I remember right, immediately said "Oh, we have a devout Christian boy in our midst!". It was then that enlightenment dawned. Since then, I've always been fucking explicit when I chat.

Vuja-de and a compulsive confession

2008-04-11T13:28:00.000+05:30

I experienced the opposite of deja-vu yesterday night. Rachu brought her toy phone to the dinner table and was carrying on an animated conversation with her best friend, Malavika. I had to yell at her to stop using her phone at dinner. I can clearly see myself repeating this in a few years.

I have a confession to make. You've read the Rediff message boards, haven't you? Well, that's all me. Yup. The folks who commented on reservations yesterday, the Amitabh controversy, even the Valentine's day comments. All mine. Yeah, you knew those were too good to be true, right? Right.

Inspirational Music

2008-04-01T18:41:00.001+05:30

Sigh.

Was the Death Star attack an inside job?

2008-03-28T20:55:00.000+05:30

An excellent analysis on the famed Death Star attack. Asks a lot of uncomfortable questions.

Shower vs Shower

2008-03-25T12:39:00.001+05:30

Compare and weep:

Second RIP entry for the day

2008-03-19T19:52:00.000+05:30

And now Raghuvaran is dead. Not that I was a big fan, but still. He was good in Shiva, Anjali and Daivathinte Vikruthikal, from the movies I've seen.

RIP Clarke

2008-03-19T12:51:00.000+05:30

He's on his way to Rendezvous with Rama, probably.

His three laws:

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

I hope the David Fincher - Morgan Freeman film gets made.

Nice line

2008-03-17T13:15:00.000+05:30

Homage without innovation isn’t homage, it’s karaoke.

From Matt Zoller Seitz's review of Doomsday.

No more Mr Nice LJ

2008-03-14T13:01:00.000+05:30

Great. For the first time, I'm unhappy with LJ. Not the site per se, but the management behind it. Take a look at this news post which sneaked in something totally under the radar. I had read it yesterday, dismissed it as another one of those crappy pat-ourselves-on-the-back announcements which don't mean anything much, but are harmless. Turns out a lot of LJers read it the same way, till this one comment. All hell broke loose after that, and I'm glad it did.

Check out 's view on this (thanks, ). was quick to respond to the user community with another post, making their position clear.

I have two problems with this. One is of course the fact that it is no longer possible for a new user to have a basic, ad-free account. The second is the sneaky, underhanded way this was announced to the LJ community:

Other changes you may have noticed are the logged-out homepage and registration process for new users. We streamlined and simplified things so that now it’s faster and easier than ever to create a LiveJournal account.

Right.

I had converted to a paid account a couple of months back. Not because I wanted the features offered, but I thought it was time I gave something back to LJ. This is my 7th year running on LiveJournal and I've benefited tremendously. Made some great friends, learnt a lot of interesting stuff, recruited some amazing people and frankly, had something to look forward to when I logged into my computer every day.

None of that changes, of course. But I'm no longer as big a fan of LJ as I was earlier. And I don't think LJ gives a damn.

Tropic Thunder

2008-03-07T22:58:00.000+05:30

The pic below is from Ben Stiller's upcoming film, Tropic Thunder. The plot, sounding quite similar to ¡Three Amigos!, deals with a group of actors who are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying. Hopefully, it should be as funny as Stiller's last movie as a director, Zoolander.

Anyway. Guess the man in the circle.

Avial

2008-03-06T13:18:00.001+05:30

Heard of the Mallu rock band Avial? Their album came out recently, it's available on Musicyogi. Highly recommended.

This is probably their best song, the one that got them noticed:

My vote

2008-03-03T20:55:00.000+05:30

Can't think of a better President, really.

Courtesy Smoke Signals.

No Country For Old Men

2008-03-01T13:30:00.000+05:30

Loved the movie, need to watch it again.

I didn't find the much talked about ending ambiguous. There wasn't any ambiguity, there really wasn't anything to misunderstand. The ending was just way different from traditional movie climaxes, especially when you've been led to believe you were watching a convetional albeit very well made thriller.

Yeah, right. The Coens and conventional.

The first reaction me and my wife had was quite similar to this. You can find a more serious discussion here, if you have watched the film and want to know more.

I'm happy No Country.. won Best Picture. Very un-Academy like, I'd say.

Latest Loot

2008-02-28T14:44:00.000+05:30

Make Your Movie Wall

Flixster

And the winners...

2008-02-25T15:56:00.000+05:30

Well, 5 out of 7 ain't bad.

Stick-my-neck-out dept

2008-02-21T15:31:00.000+05:30

Ok, here are my predictions for the Oscars. Bets, anyone?

Picture: No Country For Old Men

Director: The Coens

Lead Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis. He will drink your milkshake on stage.

Lead Actress: Julie Christie for Away From Her. Alzheimer's, come on.

Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody for Juno

Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men

Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There

The egg on my face will be wiped clean on the 25th, of course.

Another Guess Who

2008-02-21T12:52:00.000+05:30

Yup, this is an image from Zack Snyder's movie version of Watchmen. I love it that Jackie Earle Haley (from Little Children) is playing Rorschach. He seems perfect for the part.

Be Kind Rewind

2008-02-15T13:31:00.001+05:30

Ladies and Gentlemen, movie buffs from far and near, this is a must-watch trailer. Try spotting the movies featured. My personal favourite - Driving Miss Daisy!

This concept, called 'sweding', involves making your own versions of classic movies - short clips at least. In the film Be Kind Rewind, Jack Black and Mos Def run a VHS rental store. Black accidentaly erases all their tapes and, stuck with no option, they decide to remake the movies themselves.

From what I hear, this is fast becoming an online phenomenon. Check out the site Filmmaking Frenzy, which is running a sweding contest. Some of the films featured are absolutely hilarious.

I can think of a desi equivalent, made before the sweding craze began of course: Raja Sen's sweded Saawariya.

Forbidden Kingdom & Pineapple Express

2008-02-13T13:25:00.001+05:30

I'm not a big fan of martial arts movies (unless titled Enter the Dragon), but this looks very promising. Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Enough said.

Also watch the trailer for Pineapple Express, before it gets taken down. It's already off from You-tube, by the way. Seth Rogen doing his stoned act again, but as funny as ever.

November 2008

2008-02-08T13:10:00.000+05:30

Those-were-the-days dept

2008-02-02T17:05:00.000+05:30

My first few entries on LJ. Nothing much has changed, really. It's still all about movies and beer.

Two Trailers

2008-01-31T13:18:00.001+05:30

1. Star Trek begins. Also known as What I Want for Christmas 2008.

2. Son of Rambow. No, it's not a spoof.

Listening Lagaan

2008-01-31T13:13:00.000+05:30

An excellent analysis on the background score of Lagaan. A must-read for anyone interested in background music, Rahman fan or not.

Gopi

2008-01-30T01:09:00.000+05:30

Every great actor carries a little bit of himself into the role he plays. Al Pacino, for all his skills, can still be spotted as Pacino in most of his movies. Ditto Robert de Niro, ditto Naseeruddin Shah, Nicholson, et al. Only the greatest really become the character they play in the film. You never know what they are like in real life, for the minute they step into another role, you forget the previous one. To me, Brando is an example. Om Puri is another.

Gopi is a third. And Gopi died today.

The moron from Kodiyettam is as far removed from the moronic politician of Panchavadi Paalam as the despicable tabalist of Yavanika is from the psychopath of Sandhya Mayangum Neram. The professor from Kaathathe Kilikkoodu. The mute sculptor from Ormakkayi. The anguished writer from Rachana. The father from Ente Mamattikuttiyammakku. The wanted terrorist from Marmaram. Christ, was there a better actor in Malayalam films?

Ever?

Bond 22 - Quantum of Solace

2008-01-25T23:21:00.000+05:30

The new Bond movie has got a name: Quantum of Solace. I don't suppose the movie will have anything to do with the short story of the same name from the book For Your Eyes Only, but the name is interesting.

Quantum of Solace.

I like it.

In other news, A.O. Scott from The New York Times says the new Rambo film has its own kind of blockheaded poetry. LA Times writer John Mueller has put together an impressive kill chart which lists out the gory details from all the four films.

Pics from the upcoming Grindhouse DVD Box Set

2008-01-19T12:53:00.000+05:30

Courtesy Moviehole

Whacka!

2008-01-17T21:11:00.000+05:30

Ooooh! The WACA pitch is a fast bowler's paradise. Ooooh! They've called in Shaun Tait. Ooooh! The Indians can't handle pace. Ooooh!

Quite.

Best and Worst Oscar Winners - Male leads

2008-01-10T23:37:00.000+05:30

Edward Copeland is running a survey on the best and worst performances that have won Oscars for Best Actor. If interested, check out the site, read the list and mail him your votes.

Best:

1. Robert de Niro (Raging Bull)
2. Jack Nicholson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
3. Marlon Brando (The Godfather)
4. Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront)
5. Gregory Peck (To Kill a Mockingbird)

Worst:

1. Roberto Benigni (Life is Beautiful)
2. Charlton Heston (Ben-Hur)
3. Russel Crowe (Gladiator)
4. Yul Brynner (The King and I)
5. Humphrey Bogart (The African Queen)

Nano

2008-01-10T19:44:00.000+05:30

I can't quite explain why, but the release of Tata's Nano makes me happy and proud.

Me too

2008-01-09T23:06:00.000+05:30

Man, U2 3D sounds fantastic!

What I've been upto

2008-01-05T20:22:00.000+05:30

It took me only 5 years, but I've finally managed to get my recently watched, read and listened to lists up on my profile. I would ideally like to get them all on the sidebar of my journal, but I couldn't get the embed tag to work there. Oh, well.

The last list from 2007, I promise

2008-01-02T23:46:00.000+05:30

Just so I don't forget - Alex Billington lists the best 19 movies you didn't see in 2007. I've watched three from this list - Grindhouse, Lookout and The Host - and liked them, more or less. I think I should watch the rest too. And oh, maybe add Once and Juno as well.

Five of the best from my 2007

2007-12-31T20:44:00.000+05:30

Movies: Taare Zameen Par, Ratatouille, The Rules of the Game, Knocked Up, Grindhouse

Books: We Need to Talk About Kevin, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Mahabharatha: A Modern Rendering, From Hell

Happy New Year, everyone.

Taare Zameen Par

2007-12-31T14:56:00.000+05:30

To quote Anton Ego, the food critic from Ratatouille:

In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgement. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so....The world is often unkind to new talents — new creations. The new needs friends. Last night, I experienced something new, an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source...

Last night I too experienced something new and extraordinary, something magical, something heartfelt, moving and brilliant. A movie called Taare Zameen Par, from a new director named Aamir Khan. I confess I didn't have very high expectations from the film and was prepared for a three handkerchief tear-jerker. Tear-jerker it definitely is, but in the most natural way. The acting is excellent, the music spot on, the screenplay taut and the direction top-notch.

My daughter probably identified herself with the child protagonist and was upset initially, she wanted to leave during the first half. Later on she watched, enthralled, while her parents did their darndest not to cry. As we sat through the end credits, she kept saying she wanted to watch it again. I looked around and saw the theater half empty, the ushers trying to move everyone out before the next show. All the people who stayed back though, had kids on their arms and a look of wonder in their eyes.

Thank you, Aamir.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

2007-12-21T14:25:00.000+05:30

From Roger Ebert's review:

This is a Mouth Agape Movie, during which your mouth hangs open in astonishment at one preposterous event after another. This movie's plot doesn't play tennis without a net, but also without a ball and a racket. It spins in its own blowback. And, no, I don't know what that means, but this is the kind of movie that makes you think of writing it.

I don't always agree with Ebert's likes and dislikes, but there are very few reviewers around who can write like him. Trust me, I've checked.

2007 & '08

2007-12-17T18:18:00.000+05:30

Slant magazine has a pretty good list of their top 10 movies of 2007 here. Don't miss the 'Superlatives' section towards the end.

I haven't watched a single film from those lists yet - my must-watch list grows longer and longer, sad to say.

As for my most anticipated movie of 2008....

The Last Leaf

2007-11-27T20:28:00.000+05:30

The last leaf will always be there, buddy.

Movie Quiz

2007-11-24T15:56:00.000+05:30

I'm conducting the annual Movie Quiz for the KQA, at the Daly Memorial Hall, Nrupathunga Road, Bangalore, on Sunday the 25th. Prelims at 3pm and finals at 4. Teams of 4. I'm thinking of burning a few movies as audience prizes, time permitting.

If you are bored and at a loose end on a Sunday afternoon, do hop over.

T20

2007-09-25T13:16:00.000+05:30

GreatBong says it well.

News flash

2007-09-14T20:54:00.000+05:30

Dravid resigns. You know what this means, don't you? Agarkar for captain! Yay!

What's up, d00d

2007-08-20T23:09:00.000+05:30

I'm planning to go visit a few cities all over India, trying to get some quality .Net developers. Does anyone know good tech leads and development manager types who are interested in working in Chennai? Product dev work, satisfaction guaranteed. Please contact the undersigned.

In other news, I bought Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. Looks very promising. Have tossed it onto the Currently Reading pile, where it rubs shoulders with Stephen King's boring Lisey's Story and Lionel Shriver's intense We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Onam approacheth. Looking forward to the thadya.

Movies and books bought this time round

2007-08-11T20:13:00.000+05:30

1. Raising Arizona
2. Ruthless People
3. Se7en
4. The Producers (the original, of course)
5. Assault on Precint 13 (ditto, ditto)
6. Deathtrap
7. Grease
8. Paris, Texas
9. The 3 Poison Ivy movies, in one DVD
10. Swimming Pool
11. Miller's Crossing

All at fairly good prices. I'm particularly happy with The Producers, Ruthless People, Deathtrap and Paris, Texas. Haven't seen them in local shops.

Books:

1. Twilight Watch - Sergei Lukyanenko. , thanks again for the tip. The books actually seem to get better as the series grows
2. Seven Habits of Highly Defective People - Scott Adams
3. My Wicked Wicked Ways - Errol Flynn
4. The Complete Stephen King Universe - Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden
5. Neruomancer - William Gibson. Got this and the Flynn for about a dollar each, gihahahaha.
6. Deathly Hallows - You know who.

I watched The Big Lebowski and downloaded Blood Simple too. Now for Barton Fink and The Hudsucker Proxy.

Baradwaj Rangan

2007-08-08T18:36:00.000+05:30

One of my favourite reviewers won the National Award. Yay!

Pardon my language, but

2007-08-03T14:48:00.000+05:30

Just who the fuck is Sanjay Dutt?

Death won, finally

2007-07-30T22:59:00.000+05:30

Crossroads Guitar Festival

2007-07-28T15:51:00.000+05:30

Damn! Would have tried to get tickets if I had known about this earlier. Just look at the lineup - Clapton, Jeff Beck, Sheryl Crow, Buddy Guy, BB King, Los Lobos, John Mayer, John McLaughlin, Willie Nelson, Steve Winwood..man! Hosted by Bill Murray to boot. Sold out in ten minutes, apparently.

Knocked Up

2007-07-26T17:09:00.000+05:30

Knocked Up is the quintessential guy movie. I had a great time watching it and would strongly recommend it to any male, especially those in my age group. The jokes are brilliant, the male bonding stuff is so real, so cool, it makes you want to call your closest buddies and head over to the nearest pub.

If you are a wife/girlfriend/significant other, you might want to give this a miss. Seriously.

Deathly Hallows

2007-07-23T13:52:00.000+05:30

Is very good indeed, but for the twee epilogue.

Movie of the year

2007-07-19T03:23:00.000+05:30

Guys, watch Rataouille. No, really. Drop whatever you are doing right now and watch it. Go!

One of the best films I've seen in a long, long while.

Traveling Again

2007-07-17T17:59:00.000+05:30

At the Frankfurt airport again. What joy! On the way to Indianapolis this time. What does one do there, I wonder.

Oh, well. Once more unto the breach.

Kiddie Tales Vol 4

2007-07-04T21:10:00.000+05:30

It helps having your parents over to babysit your kid, especially during the long summer holidays. One problem though is that the kid gets influenced quite a bit by the grandparents. Having your child go through the usual Ramayana-as-told-by-grandma routine is to be expected, of course. What one doesn't expect though is to see the kid look at a spoonful of salt and go,"Oh, King Lear!". Not to mention said kid lifting left arm and pointing out,"Biceps, triceps and deltoid!".

Deltoid, indeed.

Thoughts from the last few days

2007-07-03T15:55:00.000+05:30

Facebook trumps orkut hands down. The first social networking site I've been impressed with.

Last.fm is a pretty good site for music. Plugs in well - I think - into your music player too.

Ocean's 13 has quite a few in-jokes. I got one Godfather reference - when Reuben is sick and asks Danny,"I hear cars coming and going, I hear Linus crying. I think you should tell me what everyone seems to know." I missed the others - two characters named Virgil and Turk, Danny telling Banks "What I want, what's most important to me...." and the fact that Scott Caan is the son of James Caan.

The last dialogue between Danny and Rusty was good. Rusty - ok, Brad Pitt - telling Clooney to try and keep the weight off between jobs next time, which is a reference to the weight Clooney put on for Syriania. Clooney responds by asking Pitt to settle down and have a couple of kids, which doesn't need to be explained.

Linus' fake nose being called The Brody was pretty funny too. Hope Adrien Brody is laughing somewhere.

Edward Copeland's top 100

2007-06-30T02:51:00.000+05:30

Pretty good list, for anyone interested in movies. His blog should be on your reading list too.

Wherever I roam

2007-06-27T22:44:00.000+05:30

I post.

Ha ha ha.

And then

2007-06-26T01:49:00.000+05:30

And then you have a few friends who can cheer you up by just being there, talking about anything in the world, just being there with you and not judging you, not giving you advice, listening without prejudice.

You know who you are. Thanks, guys.

Rocky Revisited

2007-06-19T06:15:00.000+05:30

I keep coming back to Rocky. When I get depressed, I turn to the Gonna Fly Now theme music, or the rejuvenating Eye of the Tiger. When I feel I need to exercise but just can't be bothered enough to go out and run, I watch the training montages and make myself believe I can do all that.

Saw Rocky Balboa the other day and just broke down, completely.

The guy is old, over the hill, there's no way in hell he can win. No way he can pull off a miracle, trying to compete with someone young.

He loses, of course.

Not without a fight, though. He did what he does best - continue fighting, last the distance. Because that's all he knows to do, that's all he can do. Keep fighting, knowing that he'll lose, not giving a damn.

Continue fighting, go the distance.

Quiz

2007-06-14T21:30:00.000+05:30

http://www.drinknation.com/urinaltest.php

I got a 40 / 60.

Spider-man 3

2007-06-14T19:02:00.000+05:30

I saw Spidey 3 the day it was released in the US, some six weeks ago. The only thing I remember from the movie is Peter Parker's singing and dancing act in that NY club, a la Shammi Kapoor. A total waste of time.

A Film by Arvind

2007-06-14T10:27:00.000+05:30

Not bad, at least the first half. I liked one particular moment in the climax too, when the scriptwriter..ok, no spoilers.

The story is about a Director-Actor duo who hit the road to plan their next movie together. The director has half a script with him, which he finds interesting. He finds it even more interesting when the script comes alive, as he and his friend travel in their Tata Safari (of course) and pick up a hitchhiker or two (natch).

The pace isn't sustained till the end and the movie just gives up after a couple of hours. Still, worth a watch, at least for its novelty value. Thanks, Jayasankar.

Shrek the Third

2007-06-14T10:17:00.000+05:30

A.k.a Shrek the Worst. Doesn't generate a single laugh, not even from my four year old who has been looking forward to this movie ever since she learnt the art of how to look forward to movies from her dad.

My biggest complaint is that Shrek has been reduced to a caricature of himself, a figure who is forced to look upon his own story from the sidelines. Gone is the mean, green fighting machine from the first and second parts.

The movie drags from the beginning to the weary, lazy, slipshod finale. Wish I could find something positive to say. Tough. Sad.

To-do list

2007-06-12T16:43:00.000+05:30

1. Offer to coach the Indian cricket team.
2. Visit all cab drivers in Bangalore in the calm of the day - since they are awake at night - and drive a stake into their hearts. Dance on their graves if possible.
3. Send stink bombs to all directors of the various Part 3 movies that have been released this year. Ok, maybe not to Mr Soderbergh.
4. Sire an offspring from the Tatas, name her Thiruvananthapuram Taj and unleash her on an unsuspecting American public.
5. Kidnap all RJs in Bangalore, lock them up in a room and make them listen to Aap Ka Suroor 24 x 7. Allow brief pauses for vacuous talk on how to analyze a person by looking at their fingernails.
6. ~~Get drunk.~~

100 Greatest Movie Lines

2007-04-27T14:51:00.000+05:30

From Empire magazine:

100. "I see dead people." — Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) in The Sixth Sense (1999).

99. "I'd hate to take a bite outta you. You're a cookie full of arsenic." — J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) in The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

98. "You want me to hold the chicken, huh?" "I want you to hold it between your knees." — Waitress and Robert Dupea (Jack Nicholson) in Five Easy Pieces (1970)

97. "You're tearing me apart!" — Jim Stark (James Dean) in Rebel Without a Cause (1955

96. "Yippie kay-yay, motherfucker." — John McClane (Bruce Willis) in Die Hard (1988)

95. "I'll be back." — The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in The Terminator (1984)

94. "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death." — Mame (Rosalind Russell) in Auntie Mame (1958)

93. "Precious" — Gollum (Andy Serkis) in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

92. "You can't handle the truth!" — Colonel Jessep (Jack Nicholson) in A Few Good Men (1992)

91. "I am big. It's the pictures that got small." — Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in Sunset Boulevard (1950).

90. "Old age... it's the only disease, Mr. Thompson, that you don't look forward to being cured of." — Bernstein (Everett Sloane) in Citizen Kane (1941)

89. "No wire hangers!" — Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) in Mommie Dearest (1981)

88. "We find the defendants incredibly guilty." — Jury foreman (Bill Macy) in The Producers (1967)

87. "How am I funny?" — Tommy (Joe Pesci) in GoodFellas (1990)

86. "Can I borrow your underpants for ten minutes?" — The Geek (Anthony Michael Hall) in Sixteen Candles (1984)

85. "It was beauty killed the beast." — Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) in King Kong (1933)

84. "Oh, behave!" — Austin Powers (Mike Myers) in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

83. "I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way." — Jessica Rabbit (Kathleen Turner) in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

82. "Dave, my mind is going... I can feel it." — HAL the computer (voiced by Douglas Rain) in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

81. "You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?... They call it a Royale with cheese." — Vincent Vega (John Travolta) in Pulp Fiction (1994)

80. "Show me the money." — Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) in Jerry Maguire (1997)

79. "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" — Howard Beale (Peter Finch) in Network (1976)

78. "Hey, don't knock masturbation — it's sex with someone I love!" — Woody Allen as Alvy Singer in Annie Hall (1977)

77. "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow." — Marie Browning (Lauren Bacall) in To Have and Have Not (1944)

76. "They call me Mister Tibbs!" — Sidney Poitier in In The Heat of the Night (1967)

75. "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!" — Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) in Gone With the Wind (1939)

74. "Don't you fuckin' look at me!" — Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) in Blue Velvet (1986)

73. "I gave her my heart, and she gave me a pen." — Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) in Say Anything (1989)

72. "If they move, kill 'em." — Pike (William Holden) in The Wild Bunch (1969)

71. "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown!" — Walsh (Joe Mantell) in Chinatown (1974)

70. "Greed... is good." — Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) in Wall Street (1987)

69. "Come back, Shane!" — Joey Starrett (Brandon De Wilde) in Shane (1953)

68. "Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!" — Bill Murray as Dr. Venkman in Ghostbusters (1984)

67. "Go, get the butter." — Paul (Marlon Brando) in Last Tango in Paris (1973)

66. "The horror... the horror... " — Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) in Apocalypse Now (1979)

65. "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." — Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) in Casablanca (1942)

64. "I am Spartacus." — Antonius (Tony Curtis) and other rebelling slaves in Spartacus (1960)

63. "We belong dead." — The Monster (Boris Karloff) in Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

62. "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." — Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

61. "I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man. Know what I mean?" — Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) in Tootsie (1982)

60. "Licorice, mmmm. If there's anything I'm a sucker for, it's licorice." — Adam Bonner (Spencer Tracy), biting off the barrel of a candy gun he has pointed into his mouth, in Adam's Rib (1949)

59. "Gentleman, you can't fight here! This is the war room!" — President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) in Dr. Strangelove (1964)

58. At a press conference in A Hard Day's Night (1964), a reporter asks Beatle Ringo Starr if he's a mod or a rocker. "I'm a mocker," Ringo replies.

57. "Wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet!" — Jack Robin (Al Jolson), speaking what's frequently cited as the first spoken movie line, in The Jazz Singer (1927)

56. "Yeah, I was in the shit." — Mr. Blume (Bill Murray) in Rushmore (1998)

55. "I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!" — Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) in Snakes on a Plane (2006)

54. "Michael... we're bigger than U.S. Steel." — Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg) in The Godfather Part II (1974)

53. "All of a sudden she's playing Hamlet's mother!" — Birdie (Thelma Ritter) in All About Eve(1950)

52. "Hello, everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine." — Janet Gaynor in A Star is Born (1937)

51. "Bond. James Bond." — Sean Connery in Dr. No (1962)

50. "Get away from her, you bitch!" — Sigourney Weaver (Ripley) in Aliens (1986)

49. "So I got that going for me, which is nice." — Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) in Caddyshack (1980)

48. "E.T. phone home." — E.T. (voiced by Debra Winger... maybe) in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

47. "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars." — Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) in Now, Voyager (1942)

46. "You shouldn't ask me for advice... When it comes to relationships with women, I'm the winner of the August Strindberg award." — Isaac Davis (Woody Allen) in Manhattan (1979)

45. "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." — Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall) in Apocalypse Now (1979)

44. "That is one nutty hospital." — Bill Murray's Jeff Slater in Tootsie (1982)

43. "You know, you haven't stopped talking since I came here? You must have been vaccinated with a phonograph needle." — Groucho Marx in Duck Soup (1933)

42. "I stick my neck out for nobody." — Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) in Casablanca (1942)

41. "You're gonna need a bigger boat." — Brody (Roy Scheider) in Jaws (1975)

40. "Lovely... lovely." — Bob Rusk (Barry Foster) in Frenzy (1972)

39. "I just want to say one word to you - just one word... 'Plastics.'..: There's a great future in plastics." — Mr. McGuire (Walter Brooke) in The Graduate (1967)

38. "We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives." — Criswell in Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)

37. "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti." — Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

36. "Here's Johnny!" — Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) in The Shining (1980)

35. "Gentleman, you can't fight here! This is the war room!" — President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) in Dr. Strangelove (1964) - A repeat!

34. "Top of the world! Made it, Ma!" — Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) in White Heat (1949)

33. "I'll have what she's having." — An older female customer at Katz's Deli, in When Harry Met Sally (1989)

32. "Mother of mercy... is this the end of Rico?" — Rico (Edward G. Robinson) in Little Caesar (1930)

31. "He was the village idiot!"
"Yeah, what'd you do, place?" — Boris Grushenko (Woody Allen) and another Russian soldier in Love and Death (1975)

30. "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine." — Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) in Casablanca (1942)

29. "You owe me money!!" — Bert Gordon (George C. Scott) in The Hustler (1961)

28. "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthing babies!" — Prissy (Butterfly McQueen) in Gone With the Wind (1939)

27. "The first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club." — Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) in Fight Club (1999)

26. "Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!" — Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers) in Dr. Strangelove (1964)

25. "You won't bore him, honey. You won't even get a chance to talk." — Miss Caswell (Marilyn Monroe) in All About Eve (1950)

24. "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." — The Wizard of Oz (Frank Morgan) in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

23. "Go ahead. Make My Day." — Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) in Dirty Harry (1971)

22. "May the Force be with you." — Han Solo (Harrison Ford) in Star Wars (1977)

21. "Get in my belly!" — Fat Bastard (Mike Myers) in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

20. "As far back as I could remember I've always wanted to be a gangster." — Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) in Goodfellas (1990)

19. "Well, there's something you don't see every day." — Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) in Ghostbusters (1984)

18. "I wish I knew how to quit you." — Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Brokeback Mountain (2005)

17. "I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart." — Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in The Godfather Part II

16. "Hello, Clarice." — Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in The Silence of The Lambs (1991)

15. "You sly dog! You got me monologuing!" — Syndrome (Jason Lee) in The Incredibles (2004)

14. "I am the author. You are the audience. I outrank you!" — Franz Liebkind (Kenneth Mars) in The Producers (1967)

13. "We didn't need dialogue. We had faces." — Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in Sunset Boulevard (1950)

12. "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night!" — Margo (Bette Davis) in All About Eve (1950)

11. "There's no place like home." — Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

10. "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse." — Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) in The Godfather (1972)

9. "Adrian!" — Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in Rocky (1976)

8. "You talkin' to me?" — Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) in Taxi Driver (1976)

7. "I coulda been a contender." — Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) in On the Waterfront (1954)

6. "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." — Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in Sunset Boulevard (1950)

5. "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me, aren't you?" — Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) in The Graduate (1967)

4. "I'm the king of the world!" — Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Titanic (1997)

3. "Rosebud." — Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) in Citizen Kane (1941)

2. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." — Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) in Gone With the Wind (1939)

1. "Here's looking at you, kid." — Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) in Casablanca (1942)

Goodbye, Lara

2007-04-21T19:36:00.000+05:30

Damn. Can't believe he won't bat anymore.

Big B

2007-04-20T00:23:00.000+05:30

Talking CCTV scolds offenders.