Month: October 2005

ICC World Series: A little too much Johnnie Walker?

The recently concluded World Series cricket between Australia and the Rest of the World was quite aptly called Johnnie Walker Super Series. Whoever came up with the idea for this series certainly had lots of Johnnie Walker before coming up with the idea and forgot to setup a few practice games for the World XI. Overall it was a pathetic show. The World XI was like a bunch of individuals hangin out because they were told to and paid to do so. No motivation whatsoever was evident on the part of the World team players. How else can you explain such a dismal show?

The Aussies on the other hand had plenty to play for after having lost the coveted Ashes. Warne was at his best. Brilliant to say the least. Muralitharan was superb. Barring a suspect action, this guy is a real genius. No one but he seems to know which way the ball will turn. His control, variation etc was simply phenomenal. His one over to Katich in the Australian second innings was truly legendary. The only one who could really read his bowling was Ponting. Though Hayden scored so many runs, he hardly looked comfortable against Murali. Boucher was a mistake, when Sangakkara, a good batsman and a perfect keeper for Murali was available. Inzy slept through the test. I never saw him speak to anyone of his team mates or to the opposition. He was always on the boundary line! Kallis’ batting reminded me of Yashpal Sharma (remember this guy?) — far from graceful, but very effective.

Movie Review: Kana Kandein

Kana Kandein (Tamil) (Title Translation: “Had a dream” or “I dreamed”)
Starring: Srikanth, Gopika, Vivek and others

The story revolves around the life a young man, Chemistry Ph.D from Anna University, striving to develop his Ph.D thesis into a product/service that will help transform the lives of the common man. The problem he is trying to solve (for the benefit of Silicon Valley types!) is the water problem in Madras. De-salination is the solution according to him. The secret sauce? He has developed his own formula for how to do this at a low cost! He needs investment to realize this dream. And guess what, there are investors interested in buying him out. Start-up ideas storm Kollywood or what? Well, in case you thought this was a Silicon Valley thriller, wait till you read the rest.

A childhood sweet heart is thrown into the mix. Then there is living together and pre-marital sex (and no Khusboo is not the heroine!) thrown in. Of course, there are a few duets and one cabaret type (“club dance” as it was known in the past!) song. There is some cool tech stuff — computers of course, cameras that record all activities in an office, content stored on hard drives to be copied on to CDs by the hero etc. etc. Then, there is Vivek with his standard comedy (I have seen this guy in a few films, and he seems to do the same thing in every film — friend of the hero, generally hangs out, cracks a few jokes, imitates a few people famous personalities, gets into trouble with his spouse after BS-ing her etc. etc) that does produce a few laughs but is a highly modularized plug-in for the film. His entire part could have been cut and paste in another film with little damage to either film!

Last but not the least, there is a villain too. Prithviraj (son of the late mallu movie star, Sukumaran), a Malayalam movie import plays the role of the villain. He has a strong mallu accent and plenty of English dialogues thrown in to make his life easier. He plays a fixer/financier in the film who tampers with contracts and makes life miserable for his clients. He does the same to the hero and ends up in a few stunts sequences until good prevails over evil in a grande finale as always!

Firstly, hats off to the movie makers for coming up with a “different” idea for the film. In the midst of the boom happening in India, this theme is certainly apt for the times. But the movie makers didn’t want to focus exclusively on this core idea but instead chose to be “all things to all people” clearly with an eye on the box office. Nevertheless, the movie is certainly watchable. Vidyasar’s music in this film is pretty average. All the actors do justice to their roles.

Aussies vs World XI

The Aussies thrashed the World XI yet again. It just shows that putting the best players in the world together doesn’t necessarily make a winning team, at least not in ODI.

Lets see what the Test match has in store. Perhaps some of Graeme Smith’s magic might turn things around for the World XI?

Hot from Kollywood

Check out the latest controversy in Kollywood.

“Actress Khushboo had reportedly given an interview to a magazine in which she had said it was fine for girls to indulge in pre-marital sex after taking precautions to keep unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases at bay. Later, she justified her statement by saying no educated man could expect his partner to be a virgin….”

Another Globalisation side effect? 🙂

Australia thulp World XI, again

The Aussies are back in full form! Chasing 300+ was a tough to start with. Plus many of the World XI big names are struggling for form. Viru continues with his 20s and 30s. Dravid, what has happened to him? Sangakkara and Chris Gayle were simply awesome! As for the Aussies, there batting lead by Gilchrist was simply too good for the World XI.

The World XI can avoid a hat trick of losses?

Gilchrist is back!

Man, this guy is back at his best and see what a diff it makes to Aus! His poor form was the BIG reason for the Ashes loss. He has just shown with this innings (and the prev ODI against the World XI) that he is far from over and is still any bowlers worst nightmare. Just look at how badly Shoaib Akthar is getting mauled!

It appears as though the World XI is going to have a hard time winning this one either!

Google-Sun Alliance

I think the Google-Sun coziness is a great move for both companies. Those with common enemies automatically become friends. Though the specifics of this alliance are few at this juncture, I personally think this is great move. Though everyone on the planet (including Sun employees) appear to have given up on Sun, I think the company is not over yet. For starters the StarOffice product which has been languishing for years might at last gain some momentum (with help from Google) as a re-furbished web-based solution.

As for Google, this is just an extension of the their grand scheme of taking over the world (and of course doing no evil!).