The most awaited bollywood battle of 2015 began yesterday with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Bajirao Mastani' and Rohit Shetty's 'Dilwale' hitting the theatres. More than being a filmmaker fight, these two movies are more in limelight due to the star studded castings with the famous romantic duo Srk and Kajol coming together after years on one side and the power packed love triangle between Ranvir, Priyanka and Deepika.



Although, both these movies are from totally different era, they received mixed responses from critics as well as audiences, Bajirao definitely has an edge over Dilwale, due to the enchanting grandeur sets and a well selected periodic drama from Indian history. Bhansali's work to perfection has been appreciated in many of his movies except the debacle in Sawariya. This time if things go well it may be close to a masterpiece with excellent performances by all three main actors. The film though lacks good music as expected from Bhansali but over all it is a good watch.


Dilwale brings us the flavor of old romance with a back drop of revenge and hatred, but it is far from the magic created by DDLJ. Music is not that good, except the romantic song 'gerua' however does not leave a long lasting impression. The movie is totally rolling on Srk and Kajol's fan base.

As both these movies are big budget, it is for time to tell which one will finish first in terms of box office collections. Looking at yesterday's collection, Bajirao managed to earn around 13 crores on the opening day. Both are neck in neck and since the Srk starrer has managed to grab more screens this time, probably since PVR is a major partner in marketing Dilwale, it could be that Dilwale will finish first due to its screen count.

With no new big budget or hollywood movies round the corner this holiday season, it is expected that both these will do good business but may fall short of being a Bahuabali or a Bajrangi Bhaijaan at the box office. Do share which movie did you watch this weekend or both?

Jake Gyllenhaal? Really? No, Yes, What? These were the reactions that came from the audience while watching Nightcrawler at the PVR last weekend. What an actor and what a role? An amazing, and unparelleled movie this 2014. Jake Gyllenhaal has evolved as an actor in these years. I loved him as an investigating police officer in The Prisoners and as the Prince in Prince of Persia but in his latest release he stumped me. His looks, personality and behaviour are totally different. His role is of a common man with big ambitions which overcomes every emotion of a human being in him. He is not a killer nor a psycopath but he is dangerous for people whom he does not like and can hurt them to any extent in order to grind his own axe.

The story is of a jobless loner, Lou Bloom who is a thief and steals for his livelihood and is demeaned by people all around, a nobody who ends up becoming a freelance news reporter by luck and the backbone of news reporting agency. Jake Gyllenhaal was better than ever and no one can match his acting this year. I can loudly say that he deserves an Oscar for his outstanding performance as a crazy but a talented news reporter who is ready to do anything and everything by hook or by crook for a breaking news. He is smarter than a police officer and as determined as a hunting lion who is focused to the tee. He studies his target so well that he charts out a well planned strategy to negotiate against their weaknesses. The best scene in the movie was in which Jake Gyllenhaal screams and breaks the mirror of his washroom after being humiliated by the news agency director played by Rene Russo (played the mother in Thor). The fresh face in the movie is Rick (played by Riz Ahmed), an employee of Lou Bloom who is back-stabbed to death by the lead after he appears to be a threat to him. All the actors have done a great job but Jake Gyllenhaal with his superb acting and apprearance overshadows each one of them. What you see is a crazy guy called Lou Bloom, thats all!

Have attached the trailer below for all of you and the movie is a must watch for all movie lovers:


The movie somehow very intelligently brings out the inhuman approach that news reporters have these days. Their main motive is not reporting the truth but to create an unnecessary hype at any cost for their TRP's. Somewhere down the line I believe we as a society are becoming psyopaths.What we enjoy and what interests us is killing, accidents, massacare, genocide and negativities. The number of views and likes that I observe on you-tube for a normal news would be much lesser than a video on mass genocide. I just hope that the media starts behaving much more responsibly since it is the most important medium of communication for the society including all age groups. We as individuals too should start focusing more on philanthropic and social well-being activities which can bring a positive change to the world if not for us, atleast for our children. 

One of the recent big budget movie released is Gone Girl based on the best selling novel written by Gillian Flynn with the same name. The movie was unexpectedly value-for-money for me with awesome cinematography and unpredictable storyline built up for the characters. The best part about the movie is that it urges you to keep wanting for more specially after the intermission. It is based on today's incompatible and a life full of lust, greed and back stabbing which brings forth the dark side of relationship after marriage and the fierce attempt of keeping it intact as a show-off for the society. It makes you believe in the saying that 'appearances can be deceptive and dangerous at the same time.'

The latest from Farah Khan and SRK is the overrated Happy New Year released last Friday. An advise from my side is that if you really want to watch the movie leave all the grey matter and logical cells of your brain back home. Well, actually it is not a movie worth 250 bucks at the theater rather take the 100 bucks ticket on Thursdays and watch it on the big screen. You would not even be losing out on anything if you miss this movie since in a month's time you will have Sony or any other TV channel premiering the same on the small screen. The movie is a mix of the Hollywood hit Ocean's Eleven, a pinch of Amitabh Bachchan's Deewar in which his father was also sent to prison on charges stealing and the copycat mud fight scene of Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes with garnishing of Bollywood twists and turns, songs, dance, illogical humour and wrongly placed emotions before being served. I wish Farah Khan who had such a talented star cast like Boman Irani, SRK and Deepika would have made a more logical masala movie like Om Shanti Om.

The story is empowered by the same age old 'badla' factor. SRK's dad is cheated by Jackie Shroff, who plays the head of the world's largest security agency and sent to 12 years of imprisonment on charges of stealing. SRK starts bringing his old pals together and plans to steal 300 crore diamonds that will be kept in Jackie Shroff's custody in Dubai in order to humiliate him and send him to jail. The catch is that these pack of losers need to win a dance competition in order to go to Dubai unnoticed to the hotel where the diamonds will be kept. This is where Deepika comes in as their dance teacher. In the later half of the movie SRK discloses that his father is dead when Deepika confronts him and asks if his father would be proud of him on realizing that his only son is stealing to avenge him. The entire movie revolves around diamonds, SRK's old movie dialogues, dances, a show of patriotism, pj's and over the top satires.

Undoubtedly, the movie has a few very nice songs to watch out for composed by the talented duo Vishal-Shekhar. Deepika looks gorgeous in every scene in the movie except that her fake accent seems fake and there is not much acting scope for her. Abhishek Bachchan is ok in the movie, I guess his role demanded such disgusting behaviour. Anyhow, these roles do not suit the Bachchan clan. Jr. Bachchan has some very good movies in his kitty like Guru, Raavan and Yuva. These roles seemed tailor-made for him but in HNY, the vomiting and drunk look of him was "yuck". Boman Irani has done a good job as far as his role demanded, playing a less brainy 50 year old partner of the group of thieves. Sonu Sood playing a crazy ex-army man with hearing issues plays a fair role too. Then comes the youngest of the lot Vivaan Shah, son of Nasseruddin Shah. He plays a hacker and has done justice as a debutante. Last, but the one and only hero of the film, SRK, the badshaah of Bollywood has been himself and there is not much complaint against him apart from the story-line and screenplay. He could have played a better role in the making of this movie since he is one of the finest actors our industry has.

I do not know but may be it was a movie for Farah and SRK to come back together and the sole purpose was to earn big time which it has been successful in by breaking records after records since its release. I do wish, at least Shahrukh for the kind of status he holds in Bollywood does take a step ahead in making and pushing for more meaningful story-lines rather than these stupid and senseless concepts.

The never ending Indo-Pak conflict at the border has been the major reason behind the underdevelopment of South-East Asia. What we fail to understand or rather remember is that both India and Pakistan were born of one big nation during the unfortunate partition in 1947 which was a massacre day with communal hatred and violence at its extreme. Pakistan has repeatedly tried to play the victim card in front of United Nations and particularly United States for its personal propaganda against its own big brother, India. Pakistan's hostile nature and the shaky undemocratic political will has contributed in making it a failed state today. Even though, India has progressed and made strides in technology and science all over the world, the small and narrow mindedness of Pakistan has pushed it back from a developing to an under-developed nation.

The other day I compared the GDP (gross domestic product) of both these nations. India's GDP is $6776.0 billion in comparison to $856.0 billion of Pakistan. It is a terrible state of affairs, but even the young generation like, Bilawal Bhutto is more interested in making a mockery of himself in media by claiming to be the one to take away Kashmir from India rather than talking about improving the standard of living of the common people of Pakistan. If these are the foreign returned educated individuals of the self-proclaimed developed nation then one can imagine the mindset of the locals in this country. Pakistan when after the partition was rich in fertility of land, culture and tourism but the ISI and politically backed terrorism against India has taken away all the glory of this beautiful country. I mean, imagine what power and prosperity this nation along with India would have achieved had they not been fighting and creating problems for their own people!

No matter how pathetic the state of affairs in Pakistan become, the politicians and the goons residing in this country will never let the growth mindset develop in the youth of this country. There is no pleasure or achievement in war. There is no constructive vision in fighting for a piece of land. I hear so many debates among the Indians and Pakistanis, but in none of them have I come across a peace loving and growth-oriented approach. It is still not too late, Kashmir is not going anywhere but the people of the region are suffering because of the inhumane violence by the terrorist groups supported by Pakistan. Stop this blood shed, rather concentrate and work for development of your nation and your people. I appeal to the youth of Pakistan, make your elders and well-wishers understand and most importantly choose a government which has an agenda for your betterment and not the same old Kashmir before the hatred engulfs your entire nation.

It was my dream to send my parents for a wonderful trip to the mystical mountains of Kashmir valley. I was planning for quite sometime now and this year seemed to be the right time since I had saved some money for their vacation. In July, I booked flights from New Delhi-Srinagar and back for my parents for the 22nd of Sep'14 and 29th of Sep'14 respectively. The tickets cost INR 8500 as Spicejet and Indigo had announced a monsoon season offer for its customers.  I booked the tickets through Goibibo since it seemed to be the easiest and the most convenient for me instead of going through the different websites of the service providers. I was really very excited and looking forward for their trip in this season. But the things did not turn out that well and God's fury embarked upon the 'heaven on earth' through massive floods in the valley leaving over hundreds dead and lakhs homeless. I discussed the situation with my parents and called goibibo for the cancellation of tickets. To my utter dismay, the cancellation process was very time consuming and moreover the representative on phone was rude to the tees. The worst was not over yet. Although it was a natural calamity due to which I had to cancel the tickets, there was INR 1500 for each passenger and INR 1500 for each leg deducted from the refund leaving only INR 2500. And on top of all this even goibibo deducted their own cancellation charges of INR 1000 and their convenience fee mounting to around INR 500 which only left INR 996 as the refund to be credited back to my account.

Although I happened to cancel the tickets way before the departure, there was no consideration taken either by the aviation companies or the travel agency. My only concern is if railways have the ability to refund the money based on the cancellation dates, why cannot an aviation industry have the same norms? And moreover in special cases the private companies too should be considerate enough for its customers. I will certainly raise this issue with the appropriate authorities of India so that some corrective steps can be taken in putting a stop to these irrational policies. Until then my advise to all of you would be to be careful and prefer travelling through the Indian Railways. At least your hard earned money would not be lost the way mine is.

After years I was thrilled to see Rani Mukherjee on the big wide screen at a theatre near my place. She has been one of my most favourite actors in the new-age bollywood. I still remember her chirpy role in Hum Tum and Bunty aur Babli. She was like a youth icon for me. Beauty with brains and talent, that summed up Rani for me. I must say that Rani has made a 'bang on' come back with her latest movie under her home production- The Yash Raj banner. She is fresh and has very intelligently touched a sensitive topic related to child trafficking which is one of the major crimes in our country today.

It is a story about an orphan girl named 'pyaari' who gets kidnapped by the local goons. Rani plays Shivani Shivaji Roy who is an honest, diligent and fearless Sr. Inspector of the crime branch. She is married and also supported against all odds by her husband played by Jissu Sengupta who is a popular Bengali film actor. The whole movie is about the famous 'chor-police' chase in order to capture the master criminal played by the newbie Tahir Bhasin. Although his first movie, Tahir has done a commendable job in playing the lead villain in this movie. Director Pradeep Sarkar did bring out the best from both these actors. Rani is a seasoned actor, but this role was one of its kind for her and it is one of her best so far. From push-ups to kicks to boxing and dialogue delivery, she lives up to the role of a lady officer and must have made all the woman police officers proud. The movie in totality is not a great one but is a one time watch for all. It may not have the special effects of Singham or Kick but it does have a great and senseful concept with great acting from Rani. It is a female oriented movie and may not appeal to the local mass or prove to be in the 100 crore club of the industry but am sure it will definitely make an impact in our hearts and make us think of the dirty mess we are in and motivate us to try and change things around.

Lately I have been watching a show called Webbed on Mtv which focuses on the real problems faced by teenagers in today's fast moving world. It is based on real teenage stories on cyber abuse and reflects how easily a young mind can be poisoned due to factors like jealousy and greed. The show brings forward the heavy pressure that a youngster goes through, from peer to parents to teachers who all have different and high expectations which lead to stealing, kidnapping, smuggling and even killing. Teenage is a difficult time both for parents and children however a parent has to be more understanding and more or less treat his child as a friend. A young mind is full of aspirations, curiousness, innocence and rage that even a small aberration can corrupt their minds intensely. Friends become the most important part of life and for a moment may be even more than family for a few. Children often say that no one understands them. Anyone who does not agree to their views or whims becomes their biggest enemy. One feels humiliated if an elder shouts or scolds in front of ones peers which in turn brings in ego even among close relationships.

Youth is about energy, power, society standard, speed and adventure. Very few teenagers think twice before following the footsteps of their friends. They take internet as their best friend and a source of guidance. An internet is a powerful tool but every information on the internet cannot be relied upon. People can be fake and trusting anyone on the basis of a chat or conversation over the phone can be a danger. One should depend on elders and take their advice instead. Proper education at home and in schools or colleges can make the transition from teenage to adulthood smooth for the kids. I believe it is more advisable to be an understanding elder than to be a strict and disciplined parent. Times have changed and unless and until the teenagers are treated as adults, they will be susceptible to crime and risk. I must say Mtv has done a great job in bringing the problems of youth to the limelight. Everyone should once at least watch this programme which can be an eye-opener for the elder as well as the child and save one from getting webbed. It is always better to be cautious since precaution is always better than cure.