East meets West videos

Today evening, I saw this short film by Siddharth Sikand filmed on Dido's song "Let's do the things we normally do". Really liked the film. Here it is.

An East meets West concept for a music video reminded me of a video "The Whale" had shown me in Nirma. The song is "Afterglow" by INXS featuring the Indian singer Sona. Not much to speak of in terms of the video here, but really love the way the song plays out.

Enjoy.

Slumdog? So what ??

Okay. The world is raving like mad about "Slumdog Millionaire", the Oscar panel of elite film reviewers definitely think it is the best thing to happen since sliced bread or, as Great Bong reminds us, since "Gandhi" trumped "E.T." at the 1982 Oscars (ironic that the Best Picture award this year was announced by Steven Spielberg? Did he go "Damn," as he opened the envelope, "Kingsley then, Boyle now... why the hell do the Brits have to be so fascinated by their former colony?")

Anyway, I haven't seen the film in its entirety, but whatever little I saw on Sunday gave me a headache. Sorry guys, there are more chances I'm gonna agree with the "Slumdog is poverty porn" brigade rather than "Oh! What a great uplifting film this is". Agreed, Frieda Pinto is gorgeous (hey, I'm still a 26-year old bachelor :D ) but I don't consider this to be India's greatest moment under the Oscar sun. That would be (fingers crossed) when an Indian director directs a film on an Indian subject and shoots the film in India using Indian artists and that wins an Oscar (just so that I leave out space for confusion for a Shekhar Kapur or Deepa Mehta film based abroad to win an Oscar).

Of course, Danny Boyle must feel proud. He has every right to. But as an individual who's fairly patriotic (and not in a jingoistic, "uproot hand-pump and bash up scores of Pakistanis" way), I am more excited about the two Oscars that A. R. Rahman won and the Oscar that Resul Pookutty won.

Broaden your horizons

(pic courtesy: www.jackenhack.com)

Entrepreneurship ka apna khud ka hi ek nasha hota hai.

Sample this.

Horse and me, sharing chips and a sandwich and discussing business. In the midst of an engrossing discussion about finances, he very matter of factly goes "What are the first quarter numbers we are looking at?"

And I just paused.

Bang in the middle of it all, I realised how entrepreneurship had suddenly broadened our scope of thinking.

"Just listen to that statement again," I told Horse.

Horse couldn't help but smile.

And that very moment, where I realised that I'd broadened my horizons, was in itself a big reward for me.

Of marriages and emotional attyachar

Hi folks. Sorry for the unintended break from blogging. Quick post on a Monday morning before I head off to work.

1. Bulla got married !!! Wrong to say that the fact hasn't sunk in yet, but the very fact that on Saturday night (the day after his wedding), he said that maybe we all (Mrs. Bulla included) could go out for coffee and then backtracked owing, I guess, to "family concerns" tells me that things are obviously NEVER going to be the same. ~sigh~ But what the hell, the guy deserves a wonderful life ahead and I wish him and his sweetheart ALL THE BEST !! :) [Separate post on the pre-wedding bachelor bash coming up!!]

2. No ! Don't even dare ask me how I spent Valentine's Day. Last Valentine's Day, I was roaming around the dusty streets of Ramnagar (a town in Karnataka) and this year, I was sitting at office and figuring out various field-sales reports. Grrr !!

3. Caught up with Motabhai (Gujju talk for 'elder brother'), my cousin bro, at a cousin's wedding last night. After the wedding, we decided we could go for a movie and ended up going for 'Dev D'. I'd heard mixed reviews about this film. My review? 2 words... "Mind-blowingly fantastic!!". Abhay Deol rocks !! Anurag Kashyap is brilliant !! And the music.... WHOA !! If you thought 'Emosional Attyachaar' was charmingly street-side band-baja waala music, wait till you hear the rock version of that song. Plus, keep an ear out for Amit Trivedi in 'Nayan Tarse'. I have a feeling the next couple of days it's just gonna be 'Dev D' and 'Delhi-6' on my iPod.

New business venture

Horse has just left my house a couple of minutes ago and we were on the phone speaking to Ridhi. We're planning on starting off something of our own and the excitement is really visible every time we start discussing 'work', even though it comes at the end of a long tiring day at office. More on this soon. Keep your fingers crossed and wish us all the best. :)