Quantum of Solace – Review

For all who thought Casino Royale was the re-boot film in the Bond franchise, there is a surprise. Apparently, the re-booting is not done yet and it clearly evident in ‘Quantum of Solace’.

The 22nd Bond film [20 Official and the Kevin McClory's 'Never Say never Again' being the previous 21 films] is actually loaded with surpirses and deviations. To cut a long tale short, this is not your ‘Regular James Bond movie’.

The die hard Bond fans will be quite disappointed with this film, but in my opinion QOS is a good film. Yes, you do feel a bit let down with a threadbare storyline, which probably for the first time doesnt offer you a ‘Bond Villain’ in his lair, or the numerous ‘Bondisms’ we are used to. As stated earlier, this film is still part of the re-boot process where we find a ruthless, emotional James Bond out on his own mission to track down the real people behind the death of his love, Vesper Lynd. Bond for the first time does not obey or take orders from ‘M’ and goes on his own mission and in the process gets himself stripped of his licenses and official status. Bond, we find in this movie, as a trigger happy person who kills ruthlessly with vengence on the back of his mind.

This Bond is not suave and does not floor you with his charm and wit. He does not introduce himself as ‘Bond, James Bond’. Bond this time gets involved in a lot of action and thrashes every mode of transport in land, water and air. Bond this time has no time for the usual casion visits or parties, though for a fleeting moment is dressed in the best of the suits and exploring his hotel suite and looking for some ’stationery’, moments later he is the man out to get his revenge which leads him to dubious organisation ‘Quantum’ akin to the good old S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Probably the next film in the series will unconver the organisation completely and introduce us to the main villain behind ‘Qauntum’.

Watch QOS for some nice action and a good attempt at character development. Lets hope the 23rd film in the franchise returns with the legendary superspy ‘James Bond’ as we know him.

My Music Chart Toppers..

This is the list of My Fav Music as of today. Note that they are not ranked, just listed.

* SONG -> (MOVIE/ALBUM, LANGUAGE, SINGER)

————————————-

* Mastam Mastam -> (Yuvvraaj, Hindi, Sonu Nigam & Others)
* Dil ka Rishta -> (Yuvvraaj, Hindi, Sonu Nigam & Others)
* Meherbaan -> (Ada, Hindi, A R Rahman)
* Sinbad the sailor -> (Rock On, Hindi, Farhan Akhtar)
* Aasmani Chatri -> (Blue Umbrella, Hindi, –)
* Beladingalante Minuminugutha -> (Psycho, Kannada, Raghu Dixit)

The Beautiful Feet

 

One of the most beautiful things that I have seen in my life is definitely an infant’s feet. The feet that are tender soft yet warm, and that never have touched the ground. With toes that look crafted to perfection and the tiny movements that they make is mesmerizing. It’s a great feeling to hold those tiny feet enclosed in our palms. Everything about a new born is special and beautiful, like the divine innocent toothless smile, the excited movements of arms and legs, the high-pitched shrills and gibberish emanating from the tiny mouth and the confused stare from the pearl like eyes when seeing a stranger. I would definitely add the infant’s feet to this list of beautiful things. Indeed a thing of beauty, which is a joy forever!

Axing Words

The editors of Collins Dictionary have decided to give the pink-slip to 24 words in the English Language. Their argument is that, these are lesser known words and have almost ‘nil’ usage in today’s world.

The list of words with their meanings is as follows:

1] Abstergent:- Cleansing or scouring

2] Agrestic:- Rural, rustic, unpolished, uncouth

3] Apodeictic:- Unquestionably true by virtue of demonstration

4] Caducity:- Perishableness, senility

5] Caliginosity:- Dimness, darkness

6] Compossible:- Possible in coexistence with something else

7] Embrangle:- To confuse or entangle

8] Exuviate:- To shed (a skin or similar outer covering)

9] Fatidical:- Prophetic

10] Fubsy:- Short and stout, squat

11] Griseous:- Streaked or mixed with grey, somewhat grey

12] Malison:- A curse

13] Mansuetude:- Gentleness or mildness

14] Muliebrity:- The condition of being a woman

15] Niddering:- Cowardly

16] Nitid:- Bright, glistening

17] Olid:- Foul-smelling

18] Oppugnant:- Combative, antagonistic or contrary

19] Periapt:- A charm or amulet

20] Recrement:- Waste matter, refuse, dross

21] Roborant:- Tending to fortify or increase strength

22] Skirr:- A whirring or grating sound, as of the wings of birds in flight

23] Vaticinate:- To foretell, prophesy

24] Vilipend:- To treat or regard with contempt

There are some people who are opposed to this move by Collins and are trying their best to persuade the editors to reconsider their decision.

Now that these words are to be ‘exuviated abstergently’ do not use them and ‘embrangle’ your conversations or writings!

Humour

Among the forward mail jokes doing the rounds, I found this interesting one.

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An Old Story:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter.The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or
shelter so he dies out in the cold. 
Indian Version:
 
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant’s a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper
next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant’s house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that
Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter ..

Mayawati states this as `injustice’ done on Minorities.

Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for
not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.
The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the
Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt
support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) .
Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for ‘Bengal Bandh’ in
West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.

CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard
in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.
Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the ‘Grasshopper Rath’.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ‘ Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act’ [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter.

Arjun Singh makes ‘Special Reservation ‘ for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services
The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,it’s home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.

Arundhati Roy calls it ‘ A Triumph of Justice’.

Lalu calls it ‘Socialistic Justice ‘.

CPM calls it the ‘ Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden ‘

Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.

Many years later…
The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley, 100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India,

Gold at last

Abhinav Bindra gave India the long desired individual gold medal at Beijing Olympics. It was a great day for India and Abhinav.

Needless to say, as it always happens in our country, Abhinav was instantly rewarded by various state governments, or should we say ‘politicians’, with cash rewards. It is indeed a good thing to recognize one’s achievement and reward the person. But I was just wondering, if these politicians ruling the various states, divert a part of their so-called development funds to build real world class infrastructure for sportsmen, we would not be in a situation to pray for that ‘ONE’ medal at Olympics.

Every time the Indian contingent fails to deliver more than one medal at Olympics there are talks from various quarters on the pathetic state of infrastructure for development of sports. These accusations and counter accusations lasts for a few days later forgotten till a new contingent returns from Olympics with a disappointing show.

All I feel bad about is that our country with the second largest population in the world fails each and every time to put up a decent show at Olympics. In contrast smaller countries (in terms of population and size) like Poland, Cuba, and Ethiopia etc. manage to win more medals than us.

Lets just hope the ‘Kumar’ trio in the boxing camp help us to increase our medal count this year from ‘ONE’.

Update on star bloggers

More celebrities join the ’star bloggers’ list:
Shekar Kapur – http://www.shekharkapur.com/blog/welcome.htm

Karan Johar – http://www.mynameiskaran.com/

My ‘Special’ Music Chart Topper..

This time I have only one special song, that tops my music chart.

* SONG -> (MOVIE/ALBUM, LANGUAGE, SINGER, MUSIC DIRECTOR)

——————————————

* Sahana -> (Sivaji – The BOSS, Tamil, Udit Narayan and Chinmayi, A R Rahman)

Bawarchi – tastes good!

Bawarchi – is one of the Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s classics that I wanted to watch from a long time, but somehow had not managed to. I caught up with it on a late Saturday night being aired on SET MAX. I have heard and read a lot about this classic movie and was all excited. So was I disappointed? Well, Hrishikesh Mukherjee had cooked a sumptuous feast, good on mind and health, with no extra garnish of garam masala. It was a fantastic fare.

It has a novel opening, with no title cards to display but a narrator gives the details of film’s crew.

We have this story of the loud and squabbling Sharma family in their home, ironically named ‘Shanti Nivas’, who are in constant search for a new cook, as every other person who is employed in household seems to pack his/her bags in a few days unable to bear its occupants’ attitudes. Enter Raghu [Rajesh Khanna], a simple looking ‘Bawarchi’ – cook, who seems to know everything under the sun from algebra to music and of course the right cuisines to pamper the taste buds of Sharma family. He then goes on to analyze and solve the disputes in the family, and preach the family members to enjoy the simple moments in life. In between he does stare intently at the jewel box that is so closely guarded by the head of the family, which adds the suspense factor in the movie. The story, screenplay and the dialogues are simple and realistic with the usual trademark of the Hrishikesh Mukherjee films. The characters are sketched out as the next door family people with no super heroism to display. Finally all is well that ends well, with a message to the society on how to live happily with the family members. Others in the cast include A K Hangal, Jaya Badhuri, Asrani and Durga Khote.

Great movie that makes you think of why you don’t get to see such movies being made nowadays. Splendid Hrishikesh Mukherjee classic! A must watch!

BOND will be back in NOV – 2008

The official teaser of the next BOND adventure, Quantum of Solace, is out.

Watch it here.