Balloon head!

Anything can happen in Twenty / 20 cricket. Even scoring 36 runs in last over is possible. That is the reason T20 is so popular in cricket playing nations, and it won’t take too much of a time to have result. It is like a carnival show, people go to watch their home teams playing straight after the work. Support the home team, have some drinks, cheers, excitement, thrills and little dance show with few DJ tracks. Modern day entertainment after PS3 and Xbox Kinect!

IPL became food for thoughts for few neighboring countries. BPL is not British Physical Laboratories LLC as me and you identify with. It is representing Bangladesh Premier League! The latest buzz is that Pakistan also planning to have their own Premier League very soon, probably sooner than anticipated. PPL wannabe heads already hinting the possibilities of omitting Indian players from their game. The funny part is this discussion took place even before they could take decision on where to play the cricket!

I have hinted in my previous blog posts that Harbhajan Singh is a balloon head! Still if you guys are not convinced enough; just watch that match reply where Mumbai Indians played against Deccan Chargers. Bhaji was ramming towards the umpire and shouting, umpire was looking for a shield to avoid the saliva spray! At one point I thought he gonna slap the umpire like; you know he slapped someone in first edition of IPL?

Umpires make human errors, but a player can’t argue with umpire! Honestly; I was fancying Bhaji to slap the umpire, so his career would be in jeopardy. As again and again Harbhajan Singh is showing the world he is not only fit to play cricket but also any competitive game at large. Someone has to put this mentally gone case to a mental asylum as soon as possible for the best of the game cricket. He is the captain of Mumbai Indians, I am wondering how the hell an illiterate like Munaf Patel would learn discipline from the leader? Munaf can’t read, write or talk in better words. So only thing he can do is just watch somebody and try to learn from him. Unfortunately he got to look at very bad idol and that too all the time!

Virendar Sehwag is having a bad patch in his life. As soon as he got fixed his bald patch on his head all sort of bad patches start pouring at him left, right and center. His prolonged bad form successfully extended to IPL so far, been dropped from the national team, giving the chief selector Mr.Srikanth hard time to explain the media, his best buddy Gautam Ghambhir lost the vice captaincy to comparatively new comer Virat Kohli. Sehwag’s word of war with Dhoni didn’t improve the cause either. Cost him everything including his position in the team. He was probably too ignorant about the change of tide, initially the power shifted from Mumbai to Delhi, now Delhi to Chennai. Look at the opponent buddy; Chief selector Srikanth is from Chennai, BCCI secretary N.Srinivasan owns the team Chennai Super Kings, Dhoni is the captain of Chennai Super Kings, why Suresh Raina is so confident about his position in the team even after lack of form in recent international matches?, he too plays for CSK, why Bhaji is out and Ashwin is in?

Mera Bhai; tum dekha huwa book cover, poora kahani andar hai!

But one thing is for sure, nobody can mess with the HULK of Indian cricket, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar! And everybody including foreign players are aware of his unbelievable popularity in India. Look at Greg Chappel, he has to say something about Sachin to sell his filthy biography, before coming to play IPL Brett Lee was more concerned about himself than Sachin Tendulkar by making a sweet statement about Master Blaster; consequences he may have to face from Indian crowd for blocking Sachin from scoring a run in recently concluded match in Australia could be pricy! Even Dhoni said Sachin is the ultimate batsman India can’t afford to miss, this came right after his statement about rotation policy and slow fielders. So Dhoni was hitting someone in Delhi by this statement, and he is making sure he meant particularly one player when he made that statement. Slow fielder? Ahum…. Harbhajan Singh is a real Chamcha of Sachin Tendulkar, if anybody come up with a statement against Sachin, Bhaji will be the first one to defend the little master, so what did he get out of this?, a permanent position in Mumbai Indians team, and now he became the captain of the Mumbai Indians!

100^th 100 ton in international cricket is unbelievable by any stretch of imagination; Sachin achieved that feat sighting nobody nearby to break the record.  Even Sachin puffed, huffed and gasped to reach there! If not against Bangladesh he was aiming at Zimbabwe, if not Zimbabwe then new comers like UAE or Afghanistan. Luckily he got there against Bangladesh. Now he can play free cricket as some critics says, that means they too not expecting Sachin to retire in near future! As an ardent fan of Rahul Dravid said; Sachin may hang the boot and hand over the bat to his son Arjun when he is ready to play international cricket!

A media person asked Virendar Sehwag “actually Irfan Pathan is what in your team?”

After a long pause Viru answered “you know, he is a bowler, he is fast medium slow bowler who can bat a little”

“Fast, Medium or Slow… which one?” the interviewer mystified completely, the answer was nothing but a burning stare!

Adios!

IPL is back and so am I...

The inaugural function of IPL 2012 wasn’t as exciting as it used to be, less glamour or lack of glamour is evident despite of the performance of international artist gone desi Katy Perry, pure desi duo Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. Amitab Bhachan announced his comeback after surgery in a grand way; Salman Khan flexed few muscles and called it dance! But nobody can beat Kareena Kapoor’s never die attitude, she spotted in IPL stage still trying to promote her recent box office dud Agent Vinod!

So who should be foul mouthing about the whole event at first place? Yeah, you are right. Lalit Modi has bunch of his own problems in India and now in UK, but this one wolf can’t resist screaming to the full moon. If he has enough time to watch the opening ceremony of IPL, he urgently requires a physiatrist to overlook his mental condition.

There are few adventurous advertisements come regularly between overs with warnings; these performances are performed by experts, don’t try this home. Jumping from Helicopter and jumping between the building roof tops are not done by experts; even Ramesh Pawar can do those tricks. The one who should be appreciated is the computer graphic artist who creates elevation, dam and helicopters. The point is all those actors doing impossible stunts are not real, all computer generated, but still those hopeless morons try to make an impression as those are real and done by real experts. So you can never over estimate or under estimate by outlook of a team. Look who had the last laugh when Pune Warriors lock horns with Mumbai Indians!

When everybody thought Sourav Ganguly has been restricted to commentary box and few sports news columns he came as a captain to play IPL for Pune Warriors! Man, this guy definitely got some balls! But ironically Pune Warriors is the most boring team in this year’s IPL in absence of Kochi Tuskers!

It is undenying fact that Lalit Modi brought everything to IPL, glamour, sex, advertisement, money (a lot of money for himself, and little for the whole IPL governing body and other vultures) now it seems like IPL is going in reverse mode. Too much play may kill the game.  Even cheer leaders are boring now! No cleavage show either! That South African version of IPL was the best. Glamour show in the ground as well as the gallery, to bring more attractive girls to the event, Lalit Modi introduced a beauty competition. Cunning bastard!

Kochi Tuskers came into IPL to solve India’s two biggest mysteries (I am not counting the top rated one, Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement. Currently nobody is there in India to solve this one.)

1 – Shashi Taroor’s wedding

2 – Lalit Modi’s ouster

Kochi Tuskers left the scene when they accomplished the target. Well done Kochi Tuskers, well done!

How many of you seen Harbhajan Singh getting furious with Sourav Ganguly when the ex Indian captain try to hit the spinner out of the park? I even saw a few Mumbai Indians players distracting Bhaji from the spot! Is this ass hole a real balloon head?

Time only can tell.

Adios for now.

...and the Winners are...(Filmfare Awards 2012 Winners)

Filmfare Award 2012 Winners!


BEST FILM
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara 


BEST DIRECTOR
Zoya Akhtar for - Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara 


BEST ACTOR
Ranbir Kapoor for "Rockstar" 



BEST ACTRESS
Vidya Balan for "The Dirty Picture"

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Farhan Akthar for "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara"


BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Rani Mukerji for "No One Killed Jessica" 


BEST MUSIC DIRECTOR
 A.R. Rahman for "Rockstar" 



BEST LYRICS
Irshad Kamil for "Nadaan Parindey" (Rockstar) 



BEST PLAYBACK SINGER (MALE)
Mohit Chauhan for "Jo bhi mein" (Rockstar) 



BEST PLAYBACK SINGER (FEMALE)

Usha Uthap and Rekha Bhardwaj for "Darling" (7 Khoon Maaf)

Complete List of Winners

Best Film: "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara"

Best Director: Zoya Akhtar for "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara"

Best Actor (Male): Ranbir Kapoor for "Rockstar"

Best Actor (Female): Vidya Balan for "The Dirty Picture"

Best Dialogue: Farhan Akhtar for "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara"

Best Screenplay: Akshat Verrma for "Delhi Belly"

Best Story: Sanjay Chauhan for "I Am Kalam"

Best Actor (Critics): Ranbir Kapoor for "Rockstar"

Best Film (Critics): "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara"

Best Actor Female (Critics): Priyanka Chopra for "7 Khoon Maaf"

Best Supporting Actor (Female): Rani Mukerji for "No One Killed Jessica"

Best Supporting Actor (Male): Farhan Akthar for "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara"

Special Jury Certificate mention: Partho Gupte for "Stanley Ka Dabba"

Scene of the Year Award: "The Dirty Picture"

Best Debut (Female): Parineeti Chopra for "Ladies vs Ricky Bahl"

Best Debut (Male): Vidyut Jhamwal for "Force"

Best Debut Director: Abhinay Deo for "Delhi Belly"

R.D. Burman Award for upcoming talent in field of music: Krsna (Tanu Weds Manu)

Best playback singer (Female): Usha Uthap and Rekha Bhardwaj for "Darling" (7 Khoon Maaf)

Best playback singer (Male): Mohit Chauhan for "Jo bhi mein" (Rockstar)

Best Lyrics: Irshad Kamil for "Nadaan Parindey" (Rockstar)

Best Music Director: A.R. Rahman for "Rockstar"

Lifetime Achievement Award: Aruna Irani

Best Production Design: Shashank Tere (Delhi Belly)

Best Editing: Huzefa Lokhandwala (Delhi Belly)

Best Cinematography: Carlos Catalan (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara)

Best Action: Action Concepts (Don 2)

Best Background Score: Ranjit Barot (Shaitan)

Best VFX: Red Chillies VFX (Ra.One)

Best Choreography: Bosco-Caesar for Senorita (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara)

Best Costume: Niharika Khan (The Dirty Picture)

Best Sound Design: Nakul Kamte (Don 2)

Complete list of Filmfare nominees 2012 - And My list of Winners!

Complete list of Filmfare nominees 2012


BEST FILM
Delhi Belly
Don 2
No One Killed Jessica
Rockstar
The Dirty Picture
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

BEST DIRECTOR
Abhinay Deo – Delhi Belly
Farhan Akhtar – Don 2
Imtiyaz Ali – Rockstar
Milan Luthria – The Dirty Picture
Raj Kumar Gupta – No One Killed Jessica
Zoya Akhtar – Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

BEST ACTOR
Ajay Devgn – Singham
Amitabh Bachchan – Aarakshan
Hrithik Roshan – Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
Ranbir Kapoor – Rockstar
Salman Khan – Bodyguard
Shahrukh Khan – Don 2

BEST ACTRESS
Katrina Kaif – Mere Brother Ki Dulhan
Mahie Gill – Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster
Priyanka Chopra – 7 Khoon Maaf
Vidya Balan – No One Killed Jessica
Vidya Balan – The Dirty Picture

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Abhay Deol – Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
Farhan Akhtar – Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
Naseeruddin Shah – The Dirty Picture
Pitobash Tripathy – Shor In The City
Vir Das – Delhi Belly

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Juhi Chawla – I AM
Kalki Koechlin – Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
Parineeti Chopra – Ladies vs Ricky Bahl
Rani Mukerji – No One Killed Jessica
Swara Bhaskar – Tanu Weds Manu

BEST MUSIC DIRECTOR
A.R.Rahman – Rockstar
Ram Sampat – Delhi Belly
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy – Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
Sohail Sen – Mere Brother Ki Dulhan
Vishal-Shekhar – Ra.One

BEST LYRICS
Gulzar – Darling (7 Khoon Maaf)
Irshad Kamil – Nadaan parindey (Rockstar)
Irshad Kamil – Sadda haq (Rockstar)
Javed Akhtar – Senorita (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara)
Vishal Dadlani and Niranjan Iyengar – Chammak challo (RA.One)

BEST PLAYBACK SINGER (MALE)
Akon and Vishal Dadlani – Chammak challo (RA.One)
Mohit Chauhan – Jo bhi mein (Rockstar)
Mohit Chauhan – Sadda haq (Rockstar)
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan – Teri Meri (Bodyguard)
Shafqat Amanat Ali – Dildaara (RA.One)

BEST PLAYBACK SINGER (FEMALE)
Alyssa Mendonsa – Khwabon ke parindey (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara)
Harshdeep Kaur – Katiya karu (Rockstar)
Rekha Bhardwaj & Usha Uthup - Darling (7 Khoon Maaf)
Shreya Ghoshal – Teri Meri (Bodyguard)
Shreya Ghoshal – Saibo (Shor In The City)




My List of Winners - Filmfare Award 2012


BEST FILM
No One Killed Jessica / Dirty Picture


BEST DIRECTOR
Raj Kumar Gupta – No One Killed Jessica


BEST ACTOR
Ranbir Kapoor – Rockstar



BEST ACTRESS
Vidya Balan – The Dirty Picture (probably she may fetch National Award too)


BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Abhay Deol – Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara / Naseeruddin Shah – The Dirty Picture


BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Rani Mukerji – No One Killed Jessica


BEST MUSIC DIRECTOR
A.R.Rahman – Rockstar (Unanimous )



BEST LYRICS
Irshad Kamil – Nadaan parindey (Rockstar)



BEST PLAYBACK SINGER (MALE)
Mohit Chauhan – Jo bhi mein (Rockstar)



BEST PLAYBACK SINGER (FEMALE)
Shreya Ghoshal – Teri Meri (Bodyguard)


This is the probable list of winners from my point of view, except Filmfare manage to get the date of Akon to perform live on stage of Filmfare Award function; they might give Best Playback singer Award to Akon!


Cmmon - list your choice of winners!

AR Rahman Live in Concert 2011 Dubai - A Real Review

Show was in Dubai International Cricket Stadium – Commercial city of United Arab Emirates. I'd been to this fabulous stadium once for a cricket match, it was long time ago when the stadium just opened for matches. Construction sites everywhere, no proper road, no proper signs. Expecting to change things dramatically like real Dubai within few years was my mistake; nothing had changed, still in very awkward situation!

Show starts at 9 pm according to the event organizers, gate will open at 5 pm for the public. Get there to the stadium was easy, as I left home at 3pm; Fridays are holidays here, so no traffic jams one usually anticipates on Emirates road. But same problems persists, no proper road leading to the stadium, fine dust fog will cover your car if you happen to follow one in the front. Somehow parked the car and took a long walk to the stadium. Nice; I can hear music practice going on inside the stadium, AR Rahman crooning for his favorite numbers, may be they are checking the speaker and light settings one last time before the show starts.

AR Rahman's Grand Entry. 

Definitely Video is not doing justice to the real time experience.

There were a lot of people came even before me, its winter here; very comfortable weather (winter temperature is roughly 24 degree Celsius in this part of the world, almost summer time temp in western countries) I had a ticket for Premium Grand Stand that costs AED 250 (approximately $70). One security guard asked me to go to the other side of the stadium where the Grand Stand entry is. Some Egyptian security guards are there too, when I asked a guy who was always shouting at his colleagues seems like knowing everything about that stadium and event instructed me to stay there in the queue and that is the entry for VIP and Grand Stand ticket holders. I got relieved looking back to the queue; it was growing like an anaconda, decision to come early is paid off. All of a sudden that same guard came out and shouted “this is only for VIP and Standing ticket holders!” I got surprised; what the fuck is he saying? How come you put VIP and standing ticket holders together through one entry? Apparently nobody has a clue about the whole thing! I had a small spat with the guy who mislead me. Now I have to find the Gate 15, and for sure I will be the last one in the queue. No signage, nothing is written at the entrance except the gate number. Luckily the queue was just forming as the guides themselves just found out where the Premium Grand Stand gate is; so many unlucky ticket holders are just finding their right entry from different other queues where there were initially in.

People started pouring in, queue got larger and larger, the gate opened at 6 pm instead of 5 pm which they initially announced. It was very cold out there; because of open area and probably higher from the sea level the cold wind is blowing through hair and ears.

AR Rahman at his best! Humma Humma!

My initial feeling of seeing the stage was not very impressive; stadium too is not at all a big one comparing to other stadiums in the country. I chose a very good seating position where I can watch without any disturbance. Seats are dirty; I cleaned with bare hand and washed the hand with the mineral water which I bought it for AED 10. Outside I can buy 10 bottles for that money. OK, that’s how the events make money. That’s why they don’t allow bringing any food or beverages to the stadium as well.

Crowd started building, but not that much as I expected, or was I expecting too much? On time 9 pm the whole lights gone off, the stage bathed in a pool of blue light. Huge roar from the crowd…

Then beam of lights started blinking there and here with the escort of Sivamani’s drum skills. A thunderous clap and roar from the crowd, the reason, there is a man standing in the middle of the stage like a silhouette. It just looked like he appeared from the smoke. More lights to the man, his face showed on the big screens that placed both sides of the stage. With a goggle. Unmistakably he is the reason for all these people are here including me!  In unremitting clap and cheer, a very familiar voice rose up

“Nadaan Parinthey…” AR Rahman!

Surprisingly the sound quality wasn’t good enough. Stage was superb with a lot of digital displays and projector lights, the sound quality wasn’t up to the mark compare to ARR’s other music concerts. Not even close. There is no pristine sound, it all sounded like under the blanket! The sound engineer should be fired or cut his salary for two events!

Aaromale.... Superb rock!

As usual AR Rahman stole the show. He was there from the beginning to end. Incredible energy, superb selection of songs, still you will carve for more from the maestro. This time he did not come with a lot of established singers like Hariharan, K.S Chitra, Sukhvinder Singh, SPB etc. And that shows in the show. I think from now on AR Rahman should take at least Hariharan with him! Whatever it takes; he can lift the whole event into another level. No doubt!

Shivamani was in full form, so is Stephen Devasya. Mohit Chouhan is one lucky bastard, now he is the new talk of the town, sharing the stage with none other than AR Rahman! The Rock Star Movie changed his fortune, became a very busy man and even bigger celebrity over night!

Slum dog Millionaire music bit...

My pick of the lot from the event is the Rock version of "Chiku buku chiku buku railay" sung by AR Rahman’s childhood buddy Suresh Peters! It was mind blowing! I think with those heavy metal rock beats and lead guitar; even today it can be a block buster! Even after nearly 19 years it sounds fresh and joyful!

Another master piece was ARR’s combination song with the great Lata Mangeshker where he played the track of the legendary singer and her video showed on display screens. It almost looked like she was there in the stage singing with AR Rahman. Great idea and execution.

Next one is where a Saxophone player (kindly let me know his name if anybody knows – definitely not Kadri Gopalnath) came to the stage and started playing cat and mouse game with the crowd. He plays one piece and crowd repeats it, it lasted a minute or so, people started laughing and suddenly a very familiar tune he played along with Shivamani’s big bang drums. It swept me off the ground! OMG, crowd erupted, people gone mad…

It was the very famous “ Humma Humma” song from the Maniratnam movie Bombay! Unbelievable response from the crowd, AR Rahman sang the song. No rap insertions, neither Blazee nor Fernadous. Still it sounded too good!

Alphonse sang the rock number “Aaromale…” perfectly. He won few young hearts for sure as there was loud applause from the audience.

Finally the youth anthem, the happening number…

Sadaa Haq!

Again wonderful rock music, I only hoped for the better sound quality.

AR Rahman packed up with his patriotic song Vande Matharam.

It was a 3 hour show, while coming out of the stadium I was carving for more like thousands there, 3 hours are very little time.

Torture again to come out of the stadium; I must say driving centimeters away from the car in front is a skill. Only one way available for all those thick crowd to go out. It took more than an hour just to go out of the stadium area.

Very bad organizing, very bad event management, really bad location, and poor sound quality. Despite of all these shortcomings I would definitely go again if there is an AR Rahman show. He is rewriting even the way the music show is conducted on the stage! He is god gifted real Rock Star! His humbleness and way of talking like an innocent child would melt your heart. His voice is recognizable even in sleep. When he dedicated two songs to his fans by saying “these songs are only for you” everyone sitting there including me felt personal.

Thank you AR Rahman for endless entertainment; thanks for surprising us with your sheer innovation and guts to experiment. You are the music guru, and you will be the only one!

Jai Ho Rahman!