The Great Movie Award Show

As the Hollywood award season slowly winds down to a close with the Oscars, we here in Bollywood are just beginning our so called award seasons. So while the Oscars is all about critical acclamation and how well you can market your film to the Academy voters, here in India to win awards it's your last name that matters.

For the past many years the Oscar's have gone to movie you can slot at boring, because they are too slow and more the thinking masses, kind of our parallel cinema. Nice meaning full movie but for a niche audience. Apart from Titanic and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, none of the movie's have been quite the box office money earners or you could say thorough entertainers. Even the people who act in them, not very often will you find an A-Lister winning the award. But eve then their characters are complicated, complex, well etched and beautifully created. And at times it does help them come in the spot light and give a boost to their movie careers.

And then you have the Indian movie awards. These couldn't been different from the spectrum compared to their Hollywood counterparts. The Indian awards are mostly given to people who have clout in the industry. To win an award it matters what your name is and who you associate it in the industry. That's why if you note the list of winners you just find the same names appearing over and over again. But do they deserve their win, the answer is no. These awards are only meant to stroke the egos of a few and keep them happy. And if the person can't get an award then you create a category for them. That's how the Indian awards work. Even if you see the padma shri awards, which are the highest civilian awards, they have gone to people who don't even deserve it.

Well if the Oscar need to lighten up then the Indian award show needs to get more critical and need to be given to deserving candidates. Hope this happens real soon.

The Great Political Advertisements

For the past so many years we have been seeing so many political ads springing all over the city like unwanted weeds in a garden. Not even a single inch of the city has been spared. And this is not limited to just Mumbai, I've seen plenty of these ads in Pune too and I know at this rate they would be all over in India.

But what so wrong with these ads??? They just a huge eye sore. Images of people looking like a thug, some of it could easily look like mug shots. People wearing chains that are thick, looking like total goons, wishing people, you didn't know exist and would care less if they ever exist, for some very stupid occasion. Wishing everyone for festivals in the worst English or any other language.

And who are the people who puts up these ads??? Useless political parties who have nothing better to do. Students body who prefer to flaunt their power. I wish these people could do better things with their cashes...or I guess they don't even pay for these hoarding.

In short these hoardings are nothing but a nuisance and make the city look untidy. How wish the municipality would just tear these uselessness down. Unfortunately for all you know they would put up one themselves

So You Think You Can Dance (Cont.)

These are some of the routine I absolutely love from the dance reality show So You Think You Can Dance.
Allison and Ivan Contemporary to Why by Annie Lennox, choreographed by Tyce Di'orio

More too come soon...

So You Think You Can Dance

So You Think You can Dance is a dance reality competition from the creators of American Idol. It follows a similar format to American Idol with the only difference being that the people do not have a complete say of is eliminated, at least not until the top ten dancer. Till the top ten is announced each of the participant compete votes as a couple. After the top ten stage is reached then they compete for viewer votes as an individual.


What makes this show fun and great is that each week you get see couple perform different styles that are performed at times beautifully, sensuously, and at s downright weird. What's awesome is the fact that the dance form that the couple performs may not be what they are trained in and these couples need to master them within a couple of days and have to perform in front of an audience and the judges. Bottom three couples perform solos for the judges who decide which gal and guy should be sent home.


I have been following this show for a season and a half and I can say I have absolutely fallen in love with this show. Though the telecast started from Season 2, currently season 3 is being telecasts here. Season 2 I absolutely loved Benji and Donyelle performing. Whether it was was the Cha-Cha, Viennese Waltz (or as Donyelle would say the Vietnamese Waltz), but most of all I love their Broadway performance to You Can't Stop the Beat. But the performance that will be forever in my head would be the contemporary routine by Allison and Ivan to Annie Lennox's Why, which was absolutely beautiful. I would say Allison was best female and Benji was the best male dancer (he actually won it). One thing that the season lacked was sex appeal. Yes they did have Dimitry and Natalie and Musa, but still it lacked in sex appeal. This is something that season 3 doesn't lack. There are soo many hot couple to choose from. There is Lacey (Benji's sister) and Kameroon, Jessie and Pasha, Aanya and Danny, Sabra and Domnic. I can truly that the performance are also heating up too. Danny and Lacey 's Samba (choreographed by Dimitry) to Domnic and Sabra's Rhumba to Lacey and Kameroon's Broadway routine. Though Sabra and Domnic's Contemporary routine to the Pretender's I'll Stand by You was abolutely beautifully choreographed and performed, Danny and Annya's performance of the Viennese Waltz to You and Me by Lifehouse was just heavenly.


And then you have the judges. The resident judge and Executive Producer Nigel Lythgow and the scream queen and in her own words the hot Tomholie, Mary Murphy, giving a great shout out to the performers. The third judge is a guest judge who actually are quite fun. Loved having Adama Shankman, Debbie Allen, Mia Michaels. Last but not the least you have the beautiful Host Cat Deeley.


Can't wait to see what the current season has in store for us and can't wait for the future seasons to be aired.

Shocker for a New Year

They say what happens to you at the beginning of a new year would continue to happen to you throughout the year. However, looking at the way things have been going for me in the past week, I am really praying this isn't true. There have been events that happened in the past week that have really shaken me that I can truly say that I have a shocking beginning to the new year.

It all started when I learnt that one of friend lost his dad. What was terrible was that the cause was not natural and was violent. His dad was robbed and assaulted. Knowing that this friend had to go and claim the mortal remains of his father really shook me up (I have been there and experienced that). Loosing a loved one, especially a parent can be really hard, but then loosing someone in this manner is really painful.

Then the next day when I was leaving for Pune, I overslept in the local train only to wake up at a distant station with just a couple of minutes to catch my train. And if that wasn't all I had forgotten my house key along with Scooty keys at home. And to add to that my roommate was still in Mumbai. Lucky for me my Bhai had a key that I had given her. And yes there was no sign of work, the reason why I left Goa in a hurry. Only to find out that the company is giving a flat 5 per cent hike to all and pushing the appraisal cycle to later in the year (they say June).

And then today I learn that my roommate has been given the boot from the company. Once again i was shocked, shaken (don't know if I was stirred) and I really couldn't work (as if its a possibility to work on Friday to knowing that the weekend ins upon us). Anyway, this quite upset me and trouble, firstly because he was a good friend and kind of a foster dad who looked out for me, and secondly (and mainly) now I have to either look out for a new roommate or find a new place. So that would men trouble once again.

So there you have it, the first working week of my new year. I just pray to God that the rest of my year doesn't follow the same pattern.

Goa

I have always envied who spent their New Year's Eve on the beaches of Goa, or even been in Goa during that period. It's probably the hip thing of being in Goa to bring in the new year. So my Friend Noella's wedding provided the perfect reason to be there this 31st. And the added bonus is that you had your love accompanying you, to be with you at the bewitching hour when you say goodbye to the old and hello to new.

So what so special about being there. Goa has everything a beach town needs and yes even more. Beautiful beaches with pristine clear water, architecture steeped in history. Friendly people and and that laid back feeling. And what away for me to ring in the new year by visiting religious place around Goa, like the Basilica of Bom Jesus in old Goa, the Shantadurga and Mangeshi temples. Especially when you have that someone special with you and both of you praying for blessing for the other. Each of these places holding us in awe of their beauty and architecture and that feeling of reverence by the sanctity and peace these places offer you.

Though only managed to go only to Calungute beach but was taken in by its beauty. The clean sand and the alluring blue waves and people walking about freely. A unique mixture of people from all over the country and even the world, just walking about on the wet sands, swimming in the water, indulging in sunbathing and water sports, snorkeling in the shallows. Newly married couples busy clicking each other and indulging in some PDA, elderly couples, families with children running in and out of the water, making sand castles or randomly digging in the sand. People trying to lure tourist to their shacks or their restaurants or their wares. People getting temporary tattoos (me and my love included). All in all people enjoying a beautiful day on the beach in the sun. And yes not forgetting the beautiful lunch at Souza Lobo of chicken biryani and sausage fried rice, while looking at the beautiful shore.

But most importantly participated in one of the most important days in Noella's life, with my love by my side.

2009

Once again we find ourselves at the beginning of a brand new year. Gone is 2008, here to stay is 2009. So what can we expect from this brand new year??? Obviously all we can pray is for less terrorist attack. We don't want to live in a constant state of fear. Just wished people would understand that we can't take what's not ours to take in the first place. Just wished that the political leader understood their responsibilities and duties and state and religion sponsored terrorism would stop. But of most of all we need to realize that the we ourselves need to change and stop trying to find someone to pin the blame on. We need to improve ourselves and then only proceed to improve our surrounding. How I wished these celebs would shut up and stop their raving and ranting on how they lost their friends and how inept the present Government and the police force. Just wished they'd go away and do their own stuff.

On a personal front there is a lot I know I need to achieve in this year. Firstly on that list to achieve a good, no great physique. I know I've gone from good and lean to bulky and fat over the past year. Now is time I need to reclaim and surpass my past glory, so that I can flaunt it (not in the Salman Khan kind of way) and make my love proud of me. 2008 brought my first trip out of India. I know I, and yes, along with Ganesh were able to prove ourselves to the client. Now I need to capitalize on it I need to go forward and yes up on the corporate ladder without loosing my morale. I need to be a better human being. I need to be a great friend, a good son, brother, and great and trustworthy lover. I made mistakes in 2008 now is the time I need to learn from it.

So I hold my glass up high and toast to a new and beautiful and yes peaceful 2009.

Love: A Many Splendid Things

They say that love is a many splendid things, but then the truth be it, love is more than a many splendid things. At times it can be a many painful things. But then there is pleasure in pain and there is no gain without pain.


When you love so deeply every seconds seems like an hour when you are not with them. A dull room is seamlessly lit up when they enter it. A beautiful stretch of beach becomes even more beautiful when you walk with them hand-in-hand down it. You are more aroused by their very presence than any other human form in all its nakedness. You notice the way the smell and feel sensitive to their touch. all you want to do is to hold them tightly and never let go, and hoe so that their smell rubs on you. All you want to do is to bathe in their fragrance and in their love.


You go out of your way to make them. Sacrifices is a two way street, but you really don't mind going that extra mile down that street. They have their flaws...but then who is perfect???? There is perfection even in imperfection. Though you don't overlook their shortcoming, you help them overcome it (and hope they do it for you too).


All you want to do is to see them happy...because you find your happiness in it.