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Showing posts from April, 2017

La La Land: Biggest Snub of Oscars 2016?

I clearly remember the race to 2015 Oscars..It was one of the most memorable ones in recent times because of the quality of films on display. No one really knew till the end which film was gonna win the Oscars. It needed not to be The Revenant, well Leo and Tom were good in it but the first itself was an excruciating experience and unfathomably grim. And thus Academy surprised us with it's decision of awarding best film to 'Spotlight'. A pretty fantastic decision considering no one begrudged it afterwards. But does the Academy really need to surprise us every year just because it wants to elude to most important of decisions? Why can't it like the most overwhelming of films to give the award to like it did with The King's Speech and Slumdog Millionaire? Or so Academy wanted me to test it's incredible selection decision once more? Come Oscars 2016. I believe I watched the name of La La Land topping every prominent critics' list leading to this ceremony. Moo

Book Review: Another Tale of Two Cities

I have been offered this book by it's publishers and initially I was hesitant in reviewing it. However, one thing about this book I found very interesting and it was the mention of 'Angkor Wat'. When I was student of Class 7 or 8th (I don't remember correctly), my Hindi book had a chapter about the famous Angkor Wat temple which has various Hindu Deities as its guardians. The mere indication that my religion and country had its traces of identity elsewhere in the world gave me goosebumps and I wouldn't be shying away from the fact that it became one of my most favorite chapters in that book and I visited it innumerable times. So Dr. Ezhuth Aani's book had one interesting thing for me and that was enough to bring me on-board. So I started reading it. The first thing I noticed was that it was originally written by Dr. Aani in Tamil and received critical acclaim in Tamil literary community. So my expectations, having read this mention, rose manifolds. Secondly, 1

The Undertaker Retires: The Day Pro-Wrestling World Stood Still

It was 2004. WrestleMania 20, yes.....That was the time I first acquainted myself, in real, with WWE. I never got a chance to watch that ruggedly notorious 'WWF' where fights were fought to the extremes. Pro wrestler of that era, Attitude Era WWE calls it now, were used to shed their blood in bucketful. They cut themselves, threw themselves in fire and whatnot, jumped from 30 feet high cages or 20 feet ladders, buried themselves in mud and cement and above all, did them all for their fans' sake. They came up with a new definition of 'entertainment'. They were the real Supermen. But by 2004, internet had arrived. And things were bound to change. So 2004. Yes, the time WWE relaunched themselves in India after a two year period hiatus. The reasons of hiatus were and are still unknown. I had cable TV in my home. It was April and when I switched on the TV, a new TV channel named Ten Sports was flashing across my screen and the very first thing I saw broadcast there was