Inside Man

Since we are having Ramadhan timings, we have much time in our hands and hence all those movies that were waiting to be watched are now being enjoyed.

Inside Man is about a Bank Heist Thriller... the main actors being Denzil Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster. I have always liked Denzil.

We enjoyed this movie and it is the first time that I watched an American Action/Thriller movie where none gets killed!

This reminds me of the day I was first introduced to an American Action movie. It was Arnie’s Total Recall. Until then I never had a chance to see such movies since the place where I grew up did not have a theatre showing English Movies. The nearest theater itself was many kilometers away and our Father used to drive us there only once a month, whenever a new movie was released.

It was in the year 1990 that this picture was released and I was in Trivandrum. It was in Sreekumar theatre and we were a bunch of cousins and friends. As you know Total Recall is a science fiction full of gore and violence. My senses were shocked and jostled around. I just couldn’t take the violence in the movie. It was the first time that I saw a gun being used so freely and dead bodies falling every scene. Somehow I managed to sit through the whole movie. When we came out I from my naivety blurted out how they can show such movies. My cousins who were all veteran American movie goers started laughing. I told them that this could affect the minds and dull the conscience of the movie goers. I guess I did not think about PG rating. But even with PG rating, I still think that some movies go beyond normalcy in showing crime and gore. I am not talking about American movies alone, the same goes for others too. Even now I cannot watch violent movies.. I still close my eyes or watch elsewhere!

Jai Hind

We won! We won! We won.. after so many years.. finally we have done it.

What a game it was! The second we settle down and think that India is going to win, the Paki’s turns it right back! And finally the tension ended. I think both the teams deserve great applause and even this time I wouldn’t have minded if our boys had lost to the Paki’s. It was fantastic cricket.

Hope you caught the Pathans piggy riding, Dhoni shirtless, Bhaji with his moustache turned up and his dance! And what were they digging on the ground? Each of our boys gave their best shot.

And then comes the comments from the veterans. 20-20 is not THE cricket. It is test cricket that tests a cricketer and after that the 50 overs one-day. They talk about “Temperament” . My dictionary says temperament is quality of mind. So did our boys lack it? Dint they continue playing smartly without buckling under pressure? Even when they lost the mighty Yuvraj and their captain dint they take the score to a decent level. But then for them to prove themselves they should be allowed to play for the coming series. Then let us judge them. But for now let us enjoy this moment.. dint we wait too long and to a point where most of were disgusted with Cricket.

Dhoni is a good study material for a "Leader". I loved the way he came running whenever one of his boy's faced a tough situation. I also hear that after the win with Aussies, he let the boys celebrate instead of continuing with practicing. For a team that went as underdogs, each win was a victory.

As Kapil Dev pointed out, it is good to remind ourselves that this in only a game. Maybe we shall have to wait again but until then we should stop throwing stones at those players even if they lose. Can we? Dhoni's house under contruction was razed to the ground and now he has collected enough and more money to build a complete steel structure! Oh.. it is cricket and neither the players nor their fans are going to change!

I still remember the year we lifted the world cup and also the Sharjah cup. And once Ravi Shastri visited Trivandrum for a match while I was in college. I forgot the year. But some of our girls visited him in his hotel room and that was a scandal! I still remember the bickering and snickering behind their backs. How dare they visit a hotel to see a cricketer!

I think the whole country and the Indians all over the world are celebrating. Yesterday we watched on TV the crowd in front of a shop at Calicut. It could have been half a stadium!