Bachna Ae haseeno

Truly a Yash Raj film with all those colorful dresses, songs, dances, beautiful foreign locations or shall I say DDLJ served to you in a new platter with fresh faces. It has lot of reference to the movie as well.

Like DDLJ it also has a flirt and careless person whiling his time away in the first half who turned out to be a mature and ultra emotional person in the second half. It also has a song picturized in Punju wedding. It also has songs beautifully picturized in foreign locations. Australia is looking much more beautiful in this movie than it was in Salaam Namaste. It seems Siddharth Anand is exploring it more and more with his every visit.

Ok now the movie - I loved it, simply because I love songs, dances, romance, good looking people and colorful clothes - its good enough for me to pass 3 hours. I liked Jhoom Barabar Jhoon also. Common whats the smirk for? I really enjoyed that dance competition and Amitabh was looking awesome in the title song. What more do you want?

I am not writing the story here - I am writing why should you watch this movie?

a) Ranbir is looking like a dude, dancing superbly, acting well ( I almost started hating him in the first half and was sympathetic towards him in the second half)
b) Bipasha, even though she is looking elder to Ranbir, but she is looking drop dead gorgeous and performed so brilliantly. Its time you should take Bipasha seriously, she is more than a hot babe now.
c) Deepika is looking the best and the chemistry between Ranbir and Deepika is rocking in the movie. She is very dignified and professional in the movie. Guys you will not mind watching the movie for Deepika and Bipasha.
d) Minnisha is a complete misfit in the movie. Firstly because she was potrayed as 15 years old and she is looking way too older for that age. Secondly, poor thing is lost between the two ultra gorgeous and tall ladies.
e) Khuda Jaane and title song simply rocked; Jogi Mahi and she is a small town girl are peppy; lucky boy is what I hum the most.

All and all - go and watch the movie - big deal!!

YouTube is the new convinient theatre

Sigh is Kinng. I loved this movie. I am so surprised that people get disappointed with the movie stating that there is no story / no sense in the movie. My point is why you had such expectations at the first place. It was supposed to be a funny film and it is just that. I absolutely loved Akshay and Katrina in it and it is a great entertainer. Javed Jaffery and Om Puri as usual are brilliant. Akshay truly is a rock star.



GOD Tussi Great Ho is below average and if you have already seen Bruce Almighty then its a sheer wastage of time. The funny moment between Sohail and Salman are just the same as they were in Maine Pyar Kyon Kiya. Amitabh and Priyanka are wasted in the movie; they dont have much to do. Salman couldnt even touch Jim Carrey. Not to forget that I am a huge fan of Salman.



Mission Istanbul. A very boring movie; Producers has spent so much on special effects and stunts, I wish they would have spent something on the cast also. Besides Vivek, everyone specially Zayed disappoints in the movie. Shabbeer could have been better but he has nothing to do in the movie. Can safely avoid.



Kismat Konnection. OK movie; no harm in watching it on YouTube for free. Vidya is definitely looking elder to Shahid and I dont know why she was paired opposite to him at the first place. It doesnt have the Aziz Mirza charm and freshness. Juhie is funny in her short and comic role.



Money Hai to Honey Hai. Govinda should select his movies very carefully now. When Bhagam Bhag and Partner were hit for whatever reasons; why he want a flop to his credit. He might not get the full credit of the success of these films but he would definitely get the credit for the failure of this one. He cant do a lead role and he cannot, I repeat, cannot dance with Eesha Deol. He is a brilliant comic actor but brilliant comic actor too get old and they cant keep on doing the same thing all their lives. Avoid by all means.

My Favorite Management Books

Managing Radical Change
What Indian Companies Must Do to Become World-Class looks at what companies in India must do, not just to survive, but to rank among the best in their strategy, organization and management. According to internationally acclaimed management gurus Sumantra Ghoshal and Christopher A. Bartlett and industry insider Gita Piramal, the problem is not that managers are unaware of the need for a radical response to the problems and challenges posed by the new competitive, technological and market demands in India. But, trapped in an incrementalist mindset—that change can come only by degrees—deep in their heart they do not feel the urgency that they profess.

Only the Paranoid Survive
New techniques, new approaches and new technologies upset the old order and change the rules of the game. This is what trucking and air transportation did to railroads, what container shipping did to traditional ports, what superstores did to small shops, what microprocessors did to computing and what digital media might do to entertainment. Andrew Grove calls a very large change in one of the competitive forces in an industry, a “10X” change, suggesting that the force has become ten times what it was just recently. In the face of such “10X” forces, a company can lose control of its destiny. The business no longer responds to the company’s actions as it used to in the past. What such a transition does to a business is profound, and how a company manages this transition determines its future. Grove describes this phenomenon as a strategic inflection point.

World Class in India
World Class in India presents the stories of select Indian companies that have been able to spur their managers to overcome their resistance to change and begin the journey to becoming world class. The cases in this book have been chosen from a cross-section of industries in different sectors and range from family-run businesses to multinational corporations to government enterprises. They are drawn from extensive research done by the authors over several years and show how companies have transformed themselves bottom up, revamping their strategies, organisation and management. Organizations covered include Bajaj Auto and Life Insurance Corporation of India, Reliance, NIIT and Wipro and more...

The Tipping Point
This fascinating book, by Malcolm Gladwell talks about how little things can make a big difference. Though the book covers various social issues, business leaders can learn a lot about innovation, especially disruptive innovation by reading this book. If we think carefully, disruptive innovations share a lot with epidemics. Both result in major changes.So it is useful to understand how social epidemics occur.Social epidemics share a basic, underlying pattern. Tipping Point is the name, Gladwell gives to that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once. Innovators can learn a lot by identifying and anticipating tipping points. The great innovators know how to tip the world.

The Machine That Changed The World
The Machine That Changed the World is a well-written book that highlights comparisons and contrasts among automobile manufacturers. The book is written for a general audience interested in the topic of automobile production. Of particular relevance to the technology educator however, is the time frame and scope of the book. A chronological history of global automotive development and manufacture, from the industrial revolution to the present, provides many useful insights to the technology educator. Among the most important of these insights are discussions of the origins and future of manufacturing technology.

Managing for Results
This is one of the first ever books written on Business Strategy. Drucker mentions that any organization must be focused on making the present business effective, identifying and realizing the potential of the existing business and transforming the business to cope with the needs of a different future. Drucker emphasizes that results and resources always exist outside the business. It is always somebody outside who determines the success or failure of a business.

Emotional Intelligence
Why do people of high IQ flounder and those of modest IQ do surprisingly well? According to Daniel Goleman, the difference quite often lies in the abilities collectively called emotional intelligence. There is a strong link between sentiment, character, and moral instincts. Impulse is the medium of emotion. The seed of all impulse is a feeling bursting to express itself in action. Those who are at the mercy of impulse suffer from a serious shortcoming. The ability to control impulse is an integral part of character. Similarly, the root of altruism lies in empathy and the ability to read emotions in others. Self-restraint and compassion are the two values needed to build a moral society. The author argues that emotional intelligence must be given much more emphasis in schools, colleges and the workplace.

The Goal
Anyone connected to manufacturing industry who has not read "The Goal" should correct the matter as soon as possible. For one thing it is the most readable management book that it is written as a novel with a believable story line. It is also the definitive book on Theory of Constraints, the theory which says look after the bottlenecks and the rest will take care of itself. The novel can transform management thinking throughout the world.

Good to Great
This book is about what separates the great companies from the good companies. The author describes his work as a search for timeless principles – the enduring physics of great organizations – that will remain true and relevant no matter how the world changes around us. The specific application might change (the engineering), but certain immutable laws of organized human performance (the physics) will endure.

Count Your Chicken Before They Hatch
Count your chickens before they hatch is a bestseller by Indian business guru Arindam Choudhary where he discusses his theory "i" management, apart from general business theories. The book starts off detailing qualities, skills & attitudes required to succeed in the business world today and goes on to explore examples of people who made it big against all odds. Choudhary also explores the Indian psyche in depth and looking for qualities such as passion, patriotism & integrity among the employees of various Indian companies he interacts with. He emphasizes the need for Indian corporations to follow management practices that are suitable to Indian culture rather than blindly aping western management theories.

The three Mistakes of my Life

So finally I got hold of Chetan Bhagat’s latest book and finished it on the same day. He continues to have his charisma of storey telling in this book as well. The description of Amdabad is so interesting that you almost feel like visiting the place. It has all the spices of life that every Indian love – Cricket, Love, friendship, Religion and Business. Still, you will find it is less gripping and entertaining than his earlier books because 1) you will feel you have read this in Five Point Someone 2) You will find the end rather abrupt.

Like his previous book, he has started the story again with himself giving a little peek in his life. He also buys the furniture with his wife in the same way all the other Indian husbands do.
This is a typical story of confusion that any boy from an Indian town will have - What to do with the career?; Parent pressurizing you to leave your hobbies for your studies; Father expecting his son to follow his profession and a big hoard of other people, problems and pressures. It’s about how they react, solve and live with those problems.

In this story, there are three boys – Govind, Ishan and Omi. They opened a sports shop in the temple complex with the help of Omi with three different objectives:

Govind – He is an ambitious businessman with a talent in mathematics and not much money. It was a natural choice for him to start a shop.
Ishan – He wanted to get away from the constant nagging of his father and moreover being in the shop means being closest to his first love – Cricket
Omi – He has no better option; he has to do what his friends are doing.

The shop did well and the boys planned to get some extra income by Govind giving coaching on Maths; Ishan training kids for Cricket and Omi giving physical training. Story keeps on moving around these friends with almost all the spices added to it.

There is a factual angle of the story; the author has roped in every major incident that happened in 2001 be it Gujrat Earthquack, Godra controversy, Kolkata cricket match between India and Australia and even the bombing on WTC towers.

There is a romantic angle of the story, to add spice to otherwise all boys story and their adventures, between Govind and Ishan’s sister Vidya.

There is a dramatic angle of story by the name, Ali, a miracle child with an unbelievable talent in cricket who hits sixes like you drink your tea. Ishan wanted Ali to get what he could not get and with the little money they earned from shop, they have to take Ali to Goa and even Australia just for the sake of Ishan. Boy; that’s some friendship!

There is a religious and political angle of the story describing the riots happened after Godra controversy.

Finally, there is an abrupt end to the story. All in all, it’s the story about all these incidents and the impact they have in the life of three young Indian boys and with a price of Rs. 95/- only; it’s worth buying.

Aeonflux

In 2011, a virus destroys 99% of earth's population. The movie started in a beautiful walled city survived on earth called Bregna after 400 years. As the movie is about future; there is a lot of scope of imagination which director has used beautifully. I found the buildings, roads, trains and dresses quite imaginative.

Charlize Theron played the title role of Aeonflux; an assassin from the group of rebels called 'Monicans' under the leadership of The Handler. The group's mission is finding out the reason behind the strange events of people disappearing suddenly. Aeon’s sister is also murdered for unknown reasons in the beginning of the movie.

Aeonflux and Sithandra (both assassin member of Monicans) got an assignment of killing the government's chairman Trevor Goodchild. For me, the most enjoyable scenes were the scene when they coup into the government’s building and later when they fight with each other following the Aeon refusal of killing Trevor.

Aeon got hold of Trevor in the building but something prevented her from killing him. Ultimately she discovered that she is a clone of Trevor’s late wife Cathryn and not only is she, the entire city populated by clones. The virus made people unfertile and to continue life on earth Trevor was recycling DNA of dying people and cloning them as new born babies. Trevor himself died and reborn 7 times in the movie.

There is a certain batch of people who were able to get their babies on their own. If the population increases and they lose control on who is getting clone from whom; they are running the risk of losing power, therefore, Trevor’s brother Oren was killing all the pregnant ladies in an attempt to stay in power. In fact, Aeon's sister was also killed because she was pregnant.

Aeon and Trevor fight against Oren and Handler together. Ultimately, Aeon managed to convince her friend Sithandra and Monicans to fight against Oren and his men against Handler’s wish.

Aeon also convinced Trevor that humans are meant to die and babies should be born naturally, otherwise, with every cloning their minds will be destroyed. Trevor allows her to destroy a constantly floating airship used to clone DNA.

Charlize Theron is a visual delight in the movie. She has performed all kind of stunts from jumping; running; slinking, diving, and gliding and she look gorgeous in the white gown while receiving her assignments.

The Core

Director: Jon Amiel
Star Cast: Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart, Tchéky Karyo, Stanley Tucci, Delroy Lindo, DJ Qualls, Bruce Greenwood, Alfre Woodard, Nicole Leroux

The movie starts with some strange incidents happening all around the world like 32 people dying suddenly due to pacemaker in Boston; thousands of pigeon suddenly lose control and created havoc in London. As an analysis of all these incidents, a geophysicist professor predicts that The Earth's magnetic field is collapsing because the outer core of earth has stopped rotating due to some reasons unknown in the beginning. Since, the field is what's protecting us from deadly cosmic rays and microwave radiation from space, so life on earth will be finished in a year or may be sooner.

At the outset the movie looks goofy and there are many controversies regarding the scientific concepts used in the movie but I don’t want to comment on them as I am no expert myself. As a movie; I found it entertaining and attention grasping.

The special effects used are as good as any other sci-fi movie. I like them better in Day after Tomorrow. There was hardly any scope of emotional bonding or humor amongst the team of five (2 scientists, a weapon expert, a professor and 2 NASA astronauts) but it has been weaved in quite brilliantly during their visit to The Core. There is not much of an action; mostly graphics and special effects are used for the thrill and excitement.

They used a sonic boring device and a remarkable material "Unobtainium"- name given by the scientist to his compound made of 37 materials to construct a Ship, Virgil, for taking the team into the core. As predicted, they met with some difficulties in their journey to save the world by starting to rotate the core again by blasting some nuclear bombs in the molten metal thereby giving it energy for rotation.

I was interested and involved throughout the movie to know what’s next. The only annoying things was the director has been too kind to his characters and no suspense was lasted for long; for everything they found the solution in practically 2 min, thus, the excitement was lacking.

Aamir - Just OKAY!

Aamir is a story of a muslim doctor who works in London and supports his family in India. He comes home to see his family and turned into a scapegoat by one the extremist group for some mission unknown to Aamir throughout the movie. He was bound to follow his instructions as his family was kidnapped. The entire movie is all about Aamir dancing to the tunes of an extremist terrorist and exploring the worst of the slum areas of Mumbai.

I was excited in the beginning as the suspense was building up and I was curious to know what will happen next or why this is happening but the same situation has prolonged too far and then I got bored and was waiting for the movie to finish. How long you can be interested in one situation that’s been shown to you for the last 1.5 hours. Aamir is an excellent debut for both the director Raj Kumar Gupta and actor Rajeev Khandelwal. I am not a die hard fan of Rajeev akka Sujal unlike many girls but to give him the right credit I do agree he is a very talented actor. After the movie I am waiting to see how he will fair in a regular Bollywood masala flick.

First of all there is no Bollywood masala stuff (item numbers, romantic angle, song and dance track etc) to break the monotony of the hero following the directions from villain over the cellphone; on the top of it the movie is tragically slow. A hard core bollywood ishtyle fan like me won’t appreciate it that much.

I didn’t like the end as I don’t like good guys dying in the movie at the end. Alt least in the reel world things should be ideal. Even though the good guy is struggling in the entire movie he should meet a happy fate in the end.