Dhoom Dhamaka… The Guru of all times

Guru – the biographical movie of a famous Indian Visionary. The movie is directed by Mani Rathnam, the Guru of all times. Abhishek Bacchan and Aishwarya Rai plays the lead roles. Other supporting cast includes Mithun Chakraborty, Madhavan, Vidya Balan and so on.

Spoiler begins here

Plot:
The story moves along the character of Gurukant Desai (played by Abhishek Bacchan). Gurukant is the third son of a maths teacher of a small village in India. With his studies not going too good for him, Gurukant decides to go to Turkey to seek a living where his uncle gives aid. After several years, he returns to India and decides to start a business much to the dislike of his father.

Just when Gurukant thought finance is a major issue, money comes in the form of a girl named Sujata (played by Aishwarya Rai) whose dad would give Rs.15000 to any guy who would marry his daughter. Sujata’s brother becomes the partner of Gurukant. Thus the path of Gurukant was set as they three head to Mumbai to start a business.

But starting a business wasn’t easy as he thought. At first, Gurukant chose a path of truth, with the help of Manikdas Gupta (played by Mithun Chakraborty) who is the head of a famous news agency, to fight the obstacles that lay ahead of him. But later, Gurukant’s hunger to win makes him to use wrong means to fight the obstacles, such as using the news agency to spread wrong information about contractors.

Strongly objected by Manikdas, Manikdas asks Shyaam (played by Madhavan) who is a reporter of the news agency owned by Manikdas, to let people know the exact truth behind Gurukant’s success and also to stop him. But Gurukant openly challenges Shyaam and Manikdas that none can stop him. Shyaam confidently accepts the challenge. The question of ‘who will win?’ forms the second part.

Spoiler ends here

Characterisation:
Gurukant Desai:
Gurukant Desai is a visionary. He is a keen observer and a good businessman. He can tackle every kind of situation. He is also a loving husband and a caring father. Abhishek Bacchan fits perfectly into the role. He has grown a little bit fat and his body language as that of a business man, such as a fat belly and his walking style and expressions is truly as that of a businessman. Abhishek has done perfectly in the final scene.

Sujata:
Sujata is a very calm and loving girl on the first half and later becomes a determined and a very supportive wife. She is also a bold woman, which can be seen in the second half. Aishwarya Rai fits perfectly as Sujata. From crying in the train to the then-stranger Gurukant and speaking boldly to the judge, Aishwarya Rai has clearly shown the work of Mani Rathnam in her acting.

Manikdas Gupta:
Manikdas is a very stern fellow. He is a man of truth. He guides Gurukant on the path to success but is later frustrated by Gurukant’s bad path and also warns him to stop it or else he would put a stop to his journey. Mithun Chakraborty’s eyes clearly suggest that none would have done the role better than him.

Shyam:
Shyam is a reporter who follows the path of Manikdas Gupta – the path of truth. He is asked by Manikdas to put a stop to Gurukant’s journey as a businessman and Shyam does his best following Gurukant’s own path. Shyam is also a caring person and shows great respect for others. He marries Manikdas’s daughter Meenakshi Gupta. Madhavan is the guy on whom Mani Rathnam never loses his faith. His style and mannerism puts an equal challenge to Abhishek’s acting.

Meenakshi:
Meenakshi (‘Meenu’ as called in the movie) is the daughter of Manikdas Gupta. She is earlier shown in the movie as a little handicapped girl. She is a close friend of Gurukant and supports him even when her dad and Gurukant set apart. Vidya Balan plays as Meenakshi in the movie and though her role was short-lived, she has done her best.

Crew:
Direction: (by Mani Rathnam)
If it is Mani Rathnam’s direction, then it would definitely be special. Mani is the guy who can portray the movie as a novel. Each character in the movie is shown importance. His work can be clearly differentiated from other works. The slow storyline and the slow moving of the movie are all the special characteristics. If you are a Mani Rathnam fan, you should definitely watch this movie.

Cinematography: (by Rajiv Menon)
The story is set in the period of 1950s and you would be amazed if you see the set of the movie. All of it seems originally from the 1950s and even the scenes of Turkey seem to be from that time. Such a good work was done by Rajiv Menon. The misty mountains and the beautiful locations from the Indian countryside are fascinating.

Music: (by A.R.Rahman)
If it is a Mani Rathnam’s movie, then it would definitely be ARR who would be scoring the music and ARR reserves his best tunes for Mani. The music keeps you tapping your feet. The slow moving of the movie is balanced by the fast background score. The background score also plays a very important role in the movie

Altogether, the movie was fantastic. I recommend this movie to everyone. I like almost all the scenes especially the interval scene and the climax scene. If you are a fan of any of the above cast and crew, you should definitely watch this movie.

Quotes from the movie:
Manikdas: Shyam, can you stop Gurukant’s journey and put an end to it?
Shyam: Yes, I can do it
Gurukant: No, you can’t do it. None can do it.
—–
Gurukant: Shyam, this success came from hard work. You should work hard to pull me down and for that, you should become Gurukant.
—–
Gurukant: You gave me 5 minutes to speak. But I took only 4 and half minutes. 30 seconds saved. 30 seconds profit. That’s business!
—–
Manikdas: If it is a lie, then I would come and break your bones.
—–
Sujata: Just give me some time, I will get my husband back to normal to fight back with you.
—–
Gurukant: My fate is already written.
—–
Shyaam: We are all responsible for what happened to Gurukant. If you want, I can stop it right now.
Manikdas: We are publishing only the truth right. If so, publish it!
—–
Sujata: Really speaking, Gurukant is a bravo and intelligent. He makes money out of empty boxes.
—–
Gurukant: Not just now; yesterday, today and forever, it’s Gurukant, Gurukant Desai.
—–

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Dhoom Dhamaka… The Guru of all times

Guru – the biographical movie of a famous Indian Visionary. The movie is directed by Mani Rathnam, the Guru of all times. Abhishek Bacchan and Aishwarya Rai plays the lead roles. Other supporting cast includes Mithun Chakraborty, Madhavan, Vidya Balan and so on.

Spoiler begins here

Plot:
The story moves along the character of Gurukant Desai (played by Abhishek Bacchan). Gurukant is the third son of a maths teacher of a small village in India. With his studies not going too good for him, Gurukant decides to go to Turkey to seek a living where his uncle gives aid. After several years, he returns to India and decides to start a business much to the dislike of his father.

Just when Gurukant thought finance is a major issue, money comes in the form of a girl named Sujata (played by Aishwarya Rai) whose dad would give Rs.15000 to any guy who would marry his daughter. Sujata’s brother becomes the partner of Gurukant. Thus the path of Gurukant was set as they three head to Mumbai to start a business.

But starting a business wasn’t easy as he thought. At first, Gurukant chose a path of truth, with the help of Manikdas Gupta (played by Mithun Chakraborty) who is the head of a famous news agency, to fight the obstacles that lay ahead of him. But later, Gurukant’s hunger to win makes him to use wrong means to fight the obstacles, such as using the news agency to spread wrong information about contractors.

Strongly objected by Manikdas, Manikdas asks Shyaam (played by Madhavan) who is a reporter of the news agency owned by Manikdas, to let people know the exact truth behind Gurukant’s success and also to stop him. But Gurukant openly challenges Shyaam and Manikdas that none can stop him. Shyaam confidently accepts the challenge. The question of ‘who will win?’ forms the second part.

Spoiler ends here

Characterisation:
Gurukant Desai:
Gurukant Desai is a visionary. He is a keen observer and a good businessman. He can tackle every kind of situation. He is also a loving husband and a caring father. Abhishek Bacchan fits perfectly into the role. He has grown a little bit fat and his body language as that of a business man, such as a fat belly and his walking style and expressions is truly as that of a businessman. Abhishek has done perfectly in the final scene.

Sujata:
Sujata is a very calm and loving girl on the first half and later becomes a determined and a very supportive wife. She is also a bold woman, which can be seen in the second half. Aishwarya Rai fits perfectly as Sujata. From crying in the train to the then-stranger Gurukant and speaking boldly to the judge, Aishwarya Rai has clearly shown the work of Mani Rathnam in her acting.

Manikdas Gupta:
Manikdas is a very stern fellow. He is a man of truth. He guides Gurukant on the path to success but is later frustrated by Gurukant’s bad path and also warns him to stop it or else he would put a stop to his journey. Mithun Chakraborty’s eyes clearly suggest that none would have done the role better than him.

Shyam:
Shyam is a reporter who follows the path of Manikdas Gupta – the path of truth. He is asked by Manikdas to put a stop to Gurukant’s journey as a businessman and Shyam does his best following Gurukant’s own path. Shyam is also a caring person and shows great respect for others. He marries Manikdas’s daughter Meenakshi Gupta. Madhavan is the guy on whom Mani Rathnam never loses his faith. His style and mannerism puts an equal challenge to Abhishek’s acting.

Meenakshi:
Meenakshi (‘Meenu’ as called in the movie) is the daughter of Manikdas Gupta. She is earlier shown in the movie as a little handicapped girl. She is a close friend of Gurukant and supports him even when her dad and Gurukant set apart. Vidya Balan plays as Meenakshi in the movie and though her role was short-lived, she has done her best.

Crew:
Direction: (by Mani Rathnam)
If it is Mani Rathnam’s direction, then it would definitely be special. Mani is the guy who can portray the movie as a novel. Each character in the movie is shown importance. His work can be clearly differentiated from other works. The slow storyline and the slow moving of the movie are all the special characteristics. If you are a Mani Rathnam fan, you should definitely watch this movie.

Cinematography: (by Rajiv Menon)
The story is set in the period of 1950s and you would be amazed if you see the set of the movie. All of it seems originally from the 1950s and even the scenes of Turkey seem to be from that time. Such a good work was done by Rajiv Menon. The misty mountains and the beautiful locations from the Indian countryside are fascinating.

Music: (by A.R.Rahman)
If it is a Mani Rathnam’s movie, then it would definitely be ARR who would be scoring the music and ARR reserves his best tunes for Mani. The music keeps you tapping your feet. The slow moving of the movie is balanced by the fast background score. The background score also plays a very important role in the movie

Altogether, the movie was fantastic. I recommend this movie to everyone. I like almost all the scenes especially the interval scene and the climax scene. If you are a fan of any of the above cast and crew, you should definitely watch this movie.

Quotes from the movie:
Manikdas: Shyam, can you stop Gurukant’s journey and put an end to it?
Shyam: Yes, I can do it
Gurukant: No, you can’t do it. None can do it.
—–
Gurukant: Shyam, this success came from hard work. You should work hard to pull me down and for that, you should become Gurukant.
—–
Gurukant: You gave me 5 minutes to speak. But I took only 4 and half minutes. 30 seconds saved. 30 seconds profit. That’s business!
—–
Manikdas: If it is a lie, then I would come and break your bones.
—–
Sujata: Just give me some time, I will get my husband back to normal to fight back with you.
—–
Gurukant: My fate is already written.
—–
Shyaam: We are all responsible for what happened to Gurukant. If you want, I can stop it right now.
Manikdas: We are publishing only the truth right. If so, publish it!
—–
Sujata: Really speaking, Gurukant is a bravo and intelligent. He makes money out of empty boxes.
—–
Gurukant: Not just now; yesterday, today and forever, it’s Gurukant, Gurukant Desai.
—–

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -

Being a Guinea Pig…

I always wondered how it felt to be a Guinea Pig. Wonder why? Guinea pigs are animals which are always used for experimenting (too sad,rite?). But the topic of this post is in present continuous, which means I am a Guinea Pig (not literally). But it is not only me who is a Guinea Pig, if you are a local resident of Chennai, then you are a Guinea Pig too. Amazed?

Before you read any further, I would like to tell you something. If you are a guy who sits in front of the TV and you are well satisfied with the number of channels you get and if you are content with paying just Rs.75 for it, then this post isn’t for you. But if you are still curious to find out whats below, go ahead

By now you would have guessed what I was speaking about. Yes I was speaking about the Set Top Box system. How this all happened? Some four or five years ago, there was some problem with the cable TV operators ( I dunno what it is). They demanded extra money. Lets skip what actually happened.

One fine friday night, on one channel, they were showing one of my fav movie(JP III). If you had seen this movie, you would know the scene where they first fly in the plane to Isla Sorna. I was enjoying the movie when exactly at that thrilling moment, a message displayed on the screen (“Due to some problems, we are shutting down this channel”) and like magic, the channel was gone. I was like “What is this all about?”

After a few controversies over this, the channels (some other channels behaved had behaved in the same way) were brought back. Later they finally made an agreement and then came this Conditional Access System (CAS) by which one can access channels only via payment (payment means extra payment rather than the usual cheap payments).

Most of the channels agreed and then they were made as the paid channels (as they were started to be called so). By this, one has to buy a Set Top Box (quite expensive) to access view to paid channels and also they have to pay for each channel. There were some free channels which people can enjoy free of cost.

Unfortunately, this system was implemented only in Chennai (outskirts of Chennai not included (was shocked to see them in a town outskirt of Chennai)). Obviously, this system wasn’t a big success (was a success to only those who brought this system). I will call it a mega flop. This was mainly due to the free channels. They provided more than enough entertainment and the rent was less.

Many people thought that the CAS system would be taken back. But unfortunately, the answer was a big “NO”. The paid channels didn’t bother about this, as they gained a lot from all the other cities. The citizens of Chennai didn’t bother about this either. Even the introduction of DTH services weren’t able to shake the citizens of Chennai. :p

But viewing all this from the outside perspective, why was this system implemented only in Chennai? Actually, this system was supposed to be implemented in other metropolitan cities as well, but following the flop of this system, this wasn’t implemented in other cities. The wait for the CAS system to become a success began. The wait is still going on (for four years or more) and there isn’t any sign of success. Finally, they (the ones who brought CAS) decided to implement this in other cities. But as far as I know, this statement was said six months back and was never implemented and now there has been another statement.

As it then turned out, we, the Chennai-ites, are Guinea pigs, used for testing the success of CAS. Ofcourse these Guinea Pigs aren’t tired. They have got adapted to its conditions. I had even sent an article about this to a famous News Agency. (I wonder what happened to it) Well anyway, we are Guinea Pigs, aren’t we?

Being a Guinea Pig…

I always wondered how it felt to be a Guinea Pig. Wonder why? Guinea pigs are animals which are always used for experimenting (too sad,rite?). But the topic of this post is in present continuous, which means I am a Guinea Pig (not literally). But it is not only me who is a Guinea Pig, if you are a local resident of Chennai, then you are a Guinea Pig too. Amazed?

Before you read any further, I would like to tell you something. If you are a guy who sits in front of the TV and you are well satisfied with the number of channels you get and if you are content with paying just Rs.75 for it, then this post isn’t for you. But if you are still curious to find out whats below, go ahead

By now you would have guessed what I was speaking about. Yes I was speaking about the Set Top Box system. How this all happened? Some four or five years ago, there was some problem with the cable TV operators ( I dunno what it is). They demanded extra money. Lets skip what actually happened.

One fine friday night, on one channel, they were showing one of my fav movie(JP III). If you had seen this movie, you would know the scene where they first fly in the plane to Isla Sorna. I was enjoying the movie when exactly at that thrilling moment, a message displayed on the screen (“Due to some problems, we are shutting down this channel”) and like magic, the channel was gone. I was like “What is this all about?”

After a few controversies over this, the channels (some other channels behaved had behaved in the same way) were brought back. Later they finally made an agreement and then came this Conditional Access System (CAS) by which one can access channels only via payment (payment means extra payment rather than the usual cheap payments).

Most of the channels agreed and then they were made as the paid channels (as they were started to be called so). By this, one has to buy a Set Top Box (quite expensive) to access view to paid channels and also they have to pay for each channel. There were some free channels which people can enjoy free of cost.

Unfortunately, this system was implemented only in Chennai (outskirts of Chennai not included (was shocked to see them in a town outskirt of Chennai)). Obviously, this system wasn’t a big success (was a success to only those who brought this system). I will call it a mega flop. This was mainly due to the free channels. They provided more than enough entertainment and the rent was less.

Many people thought that the CAS system would be taken back. But unfortunately, the answer was a big “NO”. The paid channels didn’t bother about this, as they gained a lot from all the other cities. The citizens of Chennai didn’t bother about this either. Even the introduction of DTH services weren’t able to shake the citizens of Chennai. :p

But viewing all this from the outside perspective, why was this system implemented only in Chennai? Actually, this system was supposed to be implemented in other metropolitan cities as well, but following the flop of this system, this wasn’t implemented in other cities. The wait for the CAS system to become a success began. The wait is still going on (for four years or more) and there isn’t any sign of success. Finally, they (the ones who brought CAS) decided to implement this in other cities. But as far as I know, this statement was said six months back and was never implemented and now there has been another statement.

As it then turned out, we, the Chennai-ites, are Guinea pigs, used for testing the success of CAS. Ofcourse these Guinea Pigs aren’t tired. They have got adapted to its conditions. I had even sent an article about this to a famous News Agency. (I wonder what happened to it) Well anyway, we are Guinea Pigs, aren’t we?

Or-cut – A review

Since I have been in Orkut for more than a year, I would like to review on it. Orkut is a cool place to hangout if you have nothing to do. I first got introduced to Orkut by one of my friends. When I joined Orkut in December 2005, I didn’t see many of my college mates there; maybe there were altogether ten from my college. But since the beginning of 2006, people from my college started joining and now there are more than 150 from my college in Orkut.

What is it so special about Orkut that lured millions of people? What made
The people to come out of other online communities such as Hi-5 and to join Orkut?
Orkut was invented by Orkut Büyükkökten, a Turkish software engineer and also an employee of Google. Lets see what is special about Orkut. Before that you also may consider reading the article on Orkut at Wikipedia.

1.Orkut brought a new concept called scrapbook. According to the dictionary, a scrapbook is an empty book where one can stick their own collection such as pictures, articles, etc. But the Orkut’s scrapbook is used to chat with other members of Orkut.

2.Orkut used much features of a forum, such as, maintaining one’s identity, having avatar, private messages,etc.

3.Orkut allowed users to classify their friends in Orkut into several categories such as a good friend or a best friend or an acquaintance, etc.

4.Orkut allowed users not only to add friends but also let them join or also create communities thus expressing the user’s liking.

5.The forums in communities allowed the user to chat about their favorite topics and also to get new friends.

6.Users have their own unique profile to express themselves

7.Users can search for other users with similar interests of their own.

- >Bugs in Orkut:
If you had read the Wikipedia article about Orkut, you would have seen that there are nine bugs in Orkut (which might have been debugged by now). Some of them can be found even by a normal user of Orkut, such as not showing the actual friends number (this problem was there one year back) but showing one extra or one less.

–>Bad Donut:

This problem occurred frequently in Orkut where a page “Bad Donut, No server for you” occurred when the user clicks on any link in Orkut. This problem would exist for a few minutes.

–>No data:
Sometimes, seen very rarely, Orkut, sometimes, is unable to fetch the data to the
user such as displaying the message “Data currently not available”.

But put altogether, is Orkut a very good place? Most people would have been aware that Orkut has a bad side too. But Orkut allows users only above the age of 17 which ensures that the users are of legal age to accept it.

->Underage:
As said above, Orkut allows users only who are above the age of 17 but would that stop underage people from joining Orkut? I have seen many boys and girls who are under the age of 18 in Orkut. I didn’t know how they joined in. Maybe they gave a fake birthday year. I was shocked to see a user whose age is 14 and also in the 9th std in school has an account in Orkut.

->No Privacy:
As the users of Orkut may know, Orkut has no privacy. A scrapbook is a user’s open room where anyone can come and talk and also listen to what others speak. But this is normally accepted by the users of Orkut as they don’t seem it much bothering.

->Hatred:
Orkut has users from around the globe. There have been cases of discrimination and hatred among the people. People express their hatred openly on other people. Let it be in the scrapbook or in the forums in communities, the hatred started growing everywhere.

–>Bogus Reports:
Orkut has a very useful option called as “Report as Bogus”, which can be used to report people of their misbehavior or their inappropriate action which might have caused displeasure of others. If a certain fixed amount of such reports is reached, the person or the community would be deleted by Orkut. But this was used by people to delete and insult the innocent.

–>Anti-communities:

The hatred among the people and societies even went to the formation of anti-communities where one insult and destroys their target in words. This in turn invokes the supporters of the attacked to reciprocate the same. A large number of anti-communities are growing proportionally to the communities.

–>Revolutionary communities:
A number of communities such as Revolutionary ones were spotted everywhere. These communities were formed in order to revolutionize Orkut, to change the way it is; some mainly focused on the anti-communities and the ones who misused Orkut to disturb others in any form.

->Viruses:
Orkut was not any exception to get infected by virus profiles. These profiles spread unwanted messages asking the user to click on a link which may lead to a severe virus.

–>Scanning Links:
After the virus spreaded a lot, Orkut decided to put an end to it by introducing the word verification system to it everytime an user types a link in a scrapbook or in a forum.
But some new viruses were able to overcome the verification system and were seen in a few places.

->The photo problem:
Some months back, a message was being spread that the photos in a users’ (especially girls) Orkut album were being misued and also being faked. This led to panic among the users.

->Orkut vs Messenger:
Though Orkut was popularized, there was still one thing Orkut lacked – the interactivity and features that messengers gave. Messengers were still a faster way of communicating between friends. Hence one could have expected, there were many transitions from Orkut to Messengers.

–>Third-Party softwares:
Though Orkut didn’t come forward, there were third-party softwares that helped Orkut get what it didn’t have. At first, Orkut didn’t have the reply option immediately below the scrap, it was once provided by a third-party software developed for browsers such as Firefox. One more problem that users faced is the lack of interactivity; such as not being informed that they have got a new scrap. A Third-party software called Scrapboy was getting popular soon which informed users of new scraps and also provided a single click from sending a scrap.

–>Integration of Google Talk into Orkut:

Orkut atlast came forward in introducing its own messenger into Orkut. Now Orkut shows whether a user is online in Google Talk, hence Orkut easily integrated Google Talk to let users switch into Google Talk easily.

Orkut has made many changes in the past years. There are just under 4 crore users in Orkut. Thats what Orkut has brought into the people. Some people like Orkut because it connects old friends, or maybe because they wanna find new friends, but whatever it is, Orkut may still rule this year.

-> sub-topic.

–>sub-sub topic.

The 007 begins!

Welcome to the New Year 2007! I hope it all went with a bang! There are two things to be noted for me in this month.

1. My next sem(4th sem) is starting tomorrow.

2. By the end of this month, I would have completed my one year of blogging. cheers to me

Now that I have completed my one year of blogging and Blogger has converted into a new Blogger, I am in a dilemma whether to switch to the new version of Blogger which might result in loss of some data in my blog.

For those who read my blog, if you would like to give some suggestions, or if you would like to see a change in my blog or if you feel that any post is inappropriate, you may do so

Thank you all

The 007 begins!

Welcome to the New Year 2007! I hope it all went with a bang! There are two things to be noted for me in this month.

1. My next sem(4th sem) is starting tomorrow.

2. By the end of this month, I would have completed my one year of blogging. cheers to me

Now that I have completed my one year of blogging and Blogger has converted into a new Blogger, I am in a dilemma whether to switch to the new version of Blogger which might result in loss of some data in my blog.

For those who read my blog, if you would like to give some suggestions, or if you would like to see a change in my blog or if you feel that any post is inappropriate, you may do so

Thank you all

The 007 begins!

Welcome to the New Year 2007! I hope it all went with a bang! There are two things to be noted for me in this month.

1. My next sem(4th sem) is starting tomorrow.

2. By the end of this month, I would have completed my one year of blogging. cheers to me

Now that I have completed my one year of blogging and Blogger has converted into a new Blogger, I am in a dilemma whether to switch to the new version of Blogger which might result in loss of some data in my blog.

For those who read my blog, if you would like to give some suggestions, or if you would like to see a change in my blog or if you feel that any post is inappropriate, you may do so

Thank you all