Dangal: review

Watched a movie after a long long time. Many things made this movie mandatory to watch. Its a sports based movie. I am a big fan of this genre. I have, infact, searched all the list of such movies made across the world and have seen atleast 80% of them. Back then, I used to wonder, why no sports based movies are made in India. But, then came "Chak De" and later few more to follow.

Another reasons to watch the movie, were the ratings given by Times of India review ( 4.5) and huge income made by the movie (155 crores) in just 4 days. Every other person, ended up recommending me this movie. 

But, one of the most significant reasons that pushed me to book the ticket was an attempt to try out the offer given on ICICI credit card of one free ticket for one ticket bought using the card. Apparently, it doesn't work. Every time you try to avail this offer, it says " You just missed it. Try again at 3.00, or 7.00, or ----". So, it was a mistake to get a credit card just to get those free tickets. Luckily, an ad about movie floating on my facebook helped me get me a discount of ~ Rs.150. So, some benefit.

So, finally I gave in, and watched this movie yesterday evening. I must say a commendable attempt in making this movie. Its visible, how much efforts have been taken to make this movie. It also makes me wonder, how Aamir Khan ends up making movies on odd stories, but still manages to be the center point aka hero of the movie. 

To talk in more details, I loved the first half of the movie. It seems like a genuine story. A person, failing to fulfil his dream, tries to follow it again using different route, making girls enter the Dangal. The efforts taken makes it feel realistic. The characters of young Geeta and Babita  played by two girls are awesome. It presents their journey to Akhada in a comical way. The song during their practice session is just phenomenal. The making of Geeta and Babita into wrestlers, that makes the major part of first half is really wonderful and worth watching.

In the second half though, the story kind of become an Indian movie. Quite a lot of cinematic liberty seem to have been taken. The story seem to have been exaggerated a bit to portray better sides of Mahavir Phogat over others. Putting some words in the Australian wrestlers mouth also seemed unnecessary. The story of the coach might partly be true. Having myself played Badminton and seen the altogether different work culture of two coaches, makes me believe it. The real wrestling action has been shot in a most authentic way. While watching those bouts, it felt like we are watching some real wrestling match. Somewhere, I felt, the movie ended up with concentrating  on Mahavir Phogat's attention on Geeta only. It kind became a two character story. Babita is completely sidelined. While there were worries and discussion shownabout Geets's matches, Babita's matches were never discussed, although she also won a silver in the same tournament. How did the coach treated Babita, and how did she responded to that treatment (while strongly believing in her father unlike Geeta). Nothing about it.

Ofcourse Aamir has done everything to fit in the character. But somehow, I could not unsee him while watching Mahavir Phogat. In every screen, I found him Aamir Khan only. Incontrast, when I saw "Chak De", I found Kabir Khan there, and not Shahrukh Khan. But that is my perspective.

So, over all recommendation. It is a worth watching movie. Must see and must shown movie. I don't agree with 4.5 star rating of Times though, I will give 3 - 3.5 stars to the movie.Watch it for the love of sports and upliftment it might bring to the situation of Women in India.

Bye bye Rio, Next stop -Tokyo

Surprisingly, 15 days got over very fast. I was recently getting excited about the Olympic games starting in Rio, and today, the games are over. I must tell you, the two weeks of Olympic games, is one of the most exciting time, which I really look forward too.

video courtesy: GAGALOVER347

This time India couldn't do that well as seen in last few Olympic outings including London, Beijing. But at times, we nearly missed the medal. Most prominently to remember are the missed bronze medals by Abhinav Bindra, Saniya & Bopaana and Dipa Karmakar. They really missed it at the last hurdle. Feels bad for them. Abhinav wanted to finish his career with a medal, which didn't happen. Dipa took so much efforts, even learned the difficult, nearly death level Produnova. Saniya and Boppanna, however did not look that effective in their efforts to clinch the medal. 

In contrast, some players just gave a big surprise by actually winning the medal. While every one was thinking about Vinesh Phogat making a mark, Sakshi Malik suddenly gave a great news of winning a medal. Although, it was heart wrenching to see, how Vinesh  went into pain while playing her quarter final bout. I can not even imagine myself in that position, the way her leg got all twisted and crushed under Chinese wrestlers weight. On similar line, everyone was expecting a sure medal from Saina. Nobody, though, knew that she is going through a severe injury, which actually needed a surgery. It is really difficult to digest a fact that she reached till pre quarters with the help of killer pains. But she had started in London, had to be taken ahead in this round of Olympic games. Last time, she brought Bronze mdeal for India. This time, another player managed to convert that Bronze into Silver. P.V. Sindhu, the youngest Indian to win a medal, really made all the Indians start loving Badminton in a span of few days. Her match against the World No.2 chinese player is one of the best matches I have seen. She was almost perfect in that games. By the time she reached Semi final, her confidence was evidently grown. It was apparent, the Japanese opponent was not match for her. The finals though was different. The way I look at it, I may be totally wrong here, Sindhu lacked a bit of attack in her  game. Marin was just too good that day. 

All in all, one silver and one bronze is what we could earn this time.

There were many failures, which left us disappointed. Biggest one is Dipika Kumari led archery team. Can you believe it, she is a world record holder. I followed her game in London olympics and again this time. But, I never felt confident about her performance. She is not consistent for some reasons. Ofcourse, I have watched her play on few events only, so my view might be totally wrong also. But, at a bigger stage, she some how fails to deliver. There was a huge expectation from our Men's Hockey team. But they could live up to their expectation. Surprisingly, Argentina, a team India defeated in their league matches, won the Gold. The last and biggest disappointment came on the last day of the games, when Yogeshwar Dutt lost in his first round of match itself. Actually, he is really good in his game. I have seen him developing and growing since his bronze medal win in London. His exit in the first round itself was shocking.

This was India at Rio. It wasn't as expected considering we sent the biggest contingent till date to Olympics games, but, we came to know about emerging talents, which are surely going to make a mark in coming days.

Amul - India's official sponsor of Olympic Team

Since the time Olympic games have started, I have been looking to share this commercial. Amul is the official sponsor for Indian Olympic team. There is an amazing advertisement appearing on TV, where some of the games being played in Olympic games are constructed from milk itself. It begins with the lighting of Olympic torch and from there it goes on constructing visuals out of milk representing different games including gymanstic, swimming, volleyball etc. The ad is beautiful and surely makes you spend 30 seconds worth watching it. Surprisingly, the ad is available on the official youtube channel of Amul India. So, I had to search a lot to find it on net. Finally I found a link by Afaqs, which I am embedding here, though, the quality is not so good.

 There is another good quality of the same advertisement available on net. I could not embed this video because of permissions. But, You may visit the following link for better quality version of the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqq1w4WRWjg

Rio Olympic games: Heartbreaking Day 3 for India

 I think, yesterday i.e. Day 3 of Rio Olympic games, probably could be one of the heart breaking days for India, in its entire Olympic journey. Yesterday, Indians missed opportunities at shortest possible intervals.And even these missed opportunities took place with in a close interval of time. For me, it was more of a shock after shock. Believe me, I never felt so bad after watching any sport event. Not even, when India lost in Cricket world cup finals!

First jolt came in form of Bindra near miss at the Bronze medal. It was really bad that he missed his career's last opportunity to get a medal on the last shot of the career. And it wasn't bad. He scored perfect, but still lost it. The intensity of this loss is evident from his pledge to never try shooting in life time ever after, even as a hobby. He has offered to sell his rifle. This is difficult to digest. Well, even after his loss, he looked calm with any effect on his body langauage.

The other shock we receive with a matter of minutes was the loss of Indian Men's hockey match against Germany. I was so much disturbed when the German hit that 2nd goal with only 3 seconds left for the hooter. It all happened in front of my eyes. I was so praying that Indians will tackle the ball out to the safe zone. They tackled it once, when there were 11 seconds left, but the germans returned and their player hit a shot from a long distance, with only 3 seconds remaining. I was so hoping that it will not reach the goal post, but was worried in mind for the other consequence. Unfortunately, that consequence came to reality. Even I lost cool and was disturbed. I don't how all our players must be going through after that goal. I am just worried, that this goal shouldn't effect their confidence. They still have a good chance to move ahead.

All the other events, where Indians participated, doesn't really need a mention. Laxmi Manzi just managed not to loose in straight sets in Archary. Swimmers just managed, not be the last one among all the competitors. All other shooters managed to get a ranking going in the double digit. 

So, one more disappointing day for India.

Today, we have a chance in Rowing (skull) and again in archary.

Lets see, if Indians make a mark today.

Olympic games 2016

 One big sports event is about to begin in less than 48 hrs. Yes, we all are eagerly waiting for the Olympics 2016 to watch some sports other than Cricket or for that matter, Football. Olympics and Asian games have always  been a part of inspiration for us as kids to take up non-familier games and enjoy the excitement and thrill of those games. Out of such events only, I took up the game of Badminton and  practised hard to play at higher level. 

This time, the host for the games is Rio de Jenerio, Brazil, where all the sportsmen will gather and try their metal. This place has always been, kind of intriguing for me. My first encounter with this country was in connection of a song. Way back, when English was still a difficult to understand, kind of language for us, there was one song, we were very well verse with. It was "Brazil". The song has only one word in it "Brazil", and rest of it was all music. That is how, we came across this amazing country named "Brazil".

Somewhere down the line, we heard about Brazil Carnival, that we tried knowing from all possible sources available.

But, the best connection of this country came in the form of Football World Cups, where starting with  Pele, we went on becoming fan of all the players including Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, coming from this soil.

With this event of Olympics, taking place at Rio, we are inching more closer to this country from South America.

But, even before going to the venue, lots of issues cropped up in our teams. Mostly the issues related to Doping. This issue with Narsinh Yadav doping case, has really brought up the dirty political background, which our players have to get through, to make a mark and win laurels for the country. It is a very sad state. Some players apparently are struggling to get financial assistance, even though they have qualified for their respective competitions. Probably, such things are part and parcel of sports events.

Though, the inauguration of the event is still awaited, few pre-qualifying rounds of matches have already started. To be specific, Women's football matches are going on. No event involving India as such are going on as yet. As the event will begin in 2 days, our players will have chance to make their dream come true. If you want to follow Olympics  you can probably check this page:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/full-schedule 

Just to end, if you have ever given ear to the music during the prize ceremony in Olympics, there is one music piece, which always get to hear. It is one of the most awesome, soothing sound, you might have ever heard. I am talking about the music piece of "Chariots of Fire". This music piece is a part of the movie by the same name, which again is based on the real life events of a couple of sthletes who represented Great Britain in 1924 Olympics held in Paris.

The movie is also fantastic and the music piece by the famous "Vangelis", is still one of the most heard music piece in the world. It makes sense to keep it as a back ground music during the prize ceremony, because of its close association with the games.

If you wish to hear it, follow this link:

https://archive.org/details/ChariotsOfFire

Infact, I request you to hear it at least once. I bet, you won't be able to stop listening it again and again. You can also download the audio file from the link.

Yahoo! No more

 If you started using Internet during late 90's or early 2000, then probably, your first email address had a domain name of Yahoo.Back then, gmail did not exist, at least, I was unaware of it. There is a competition between Google and Yahoo search engines. I had friends who used to advocate Yahoo search engine like anything over Google. I was a newbee, so, my acquaintance with internet started with friends suggestions, and that is how I landed with my first email address, opened on Yahoo. Then, Yahoo started spreading its wings. And we started getting into confusions. Whether, our address is yahoo.co.in or yahoo.com? If someone didn't receive a mail, then probably it was because it was sent to something@yahoo.com instead of something@yahoo.co.in. God only knows, whether there was any such issue or not. \

In those days, only easier way to access internet was through Netcafe. I had a friend running netcafe back then. There was a scheme started by Yahoo for netcafe people. Number of yahoo email accounts opened from their netcafe would help them earn them some extra money from yahoo.  I don't know, if this was correct or not. But my friend made us sit and open such email accounts from his netcafe. The deal for us was, if we open such accounts, then he will make arrangement to play the combined mode of "Need for Speed " game. I remember creating lot of email addresses. It got saturated and then we started making random logins. I probably made of a series of addresses with names like hut1@yahoo.co.in; hut2@yahoo.co.in .... upto ........hut250@yahoo.co.in.

Apparently, it did not work. My friend did not get any money for opening these many email addresses. But, we got to play NFS for free for over a month.

Another interesting memory of yahoo, is about yahoo chat. It felt really fascinating, that just sitting at one computer, we can instantly chat with anybody anywhere around the world. I remember my first experience of chatting. Apparently, I was online (I did not know), and one of my friends dropped a chat sitting somewhere in Chicago. The chat window popped up, and I pretty much got scared, thinking, something went wrong, and closed the browser window, shut down computer and was wondering what did just happen!!

That was the time, when Yahoo was pretty much our guide to internet. It introduced us to the world of internet.
From my point of view, the decline of Yahoo!, started somewhere, with the entry of Orkut, Facebook and Gmail. These things came with some interesting packages, which were really attractive. They had lot to offer to us. Somewhere down the Yahoo chat lost it sheen. Gmail addresses were created, FaceBook page were made. All the important emails started coming to Gmail, and recently, I was instructed to login to my Yahoo account or it will be closed. Well, I thought to login once, but couldn't remember the password. Tried a bit to recollect, but then gave up.

Today, morning, I heard the news of Verizon taking over Yahoo! for a mere 4.8 billion $. A drop from its value of 100 billion$. 

Its sad to see some big companies die down infront of you like this. I remember, writing a similar post for one such big company in camera "KODAK".

Then, there was NOKIA, which was taken over by microsoft.

And now this, Yahoo!

These names have made a mark on our mind. Now, seeing them dying in front of us is little painful. But that is how difficult and competitive, the outside world. Where do we as individual, then stand!

Madhya Pradesh Tourism Advertisements - always the best

Very recently, different states of India have started advertising about their tourism opportunities. Under the domain of Incredible India, every state is highlighting their best features and attempting to attract the tourists to visit different destinations in their respective states. Since I remember, Madhya  Pradesh started this trend very early, while all other states even don't had a faint idea on how to grow tourism industry. Not only did MP took a lead in advertising their tourism opportunities, they did it in style. Their advertisements have been the most artisitic, colorful, innovative and attention grabbing ones in the lot. It caught my attention for the first time, when they came up with this shadow based advertisement. Each one of us have at some point of the time tried making images with different hand gestures (thanks to night time power cuts in India). Such a innovative use of that concept, immediately caught my attention. I just couldn't ignore this advertisement, anytime it appeared on TV.

Next attempt was even more wonderful. Infact, I should say, more colorful. The theme here was the color. How foreigners get attracted towards the colorful Holi festival. The use of slow motion has been made in an awesome fashion.The way, people are looking at the color, which is about to hit, make you take a gasp. During this slow motion, the wonderful use of color in bringing up  different structures like Sanchi Stupa, or the image of Mahakal, actually makes you concentrate on that structure. And then sudden change to normal motion speed, makes you virtually experience, how that color might fall on you. I wonder, if a 3D version of this advertisement was ever made. It would be really awesome. 

Recently, they came up with this new advertisement, which tries to signify the handicraft legacy of the state. Similar to shadow practice advertisement , this commercial also highlights all the famous tourism spots of the state, but with the help of wooden toys. The theme of this ad is "MP mein dil hua Bachhe sa". Well, I have spent my childhood in MP, so definitely, this ad connects with me at different level. 

While the theme takes up major points, the background music, lyrics and the voice given to the songs add more flavor to the commercial. They complete the package, and make you feel to visit those fantastic places as soon as possible.

So, what are you waiting for?

Video courtesy: MP Tourism
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl2DCj3sY2pNoHWzP9NjrMg