Just saw the Dark Knight yesterday after college. The movie more or less lives up to expectations (which is a bit rare these days). It opens with a slickly executed bank robbery orchestrated with the Joker. Later on we are introduced to a new Gotham in which the fortunes of the mob are waning with the renewed assault of the new DA Harvey Dent and the Batman on the underworld. The mob in a moment of desperation hires the Joker, a mysterious sociopath who hides behind a painted face. Batman in the meantime considers giving up the mask as Gotham’s new protector the DA Harvey Dent seems to be doing a good job. However the peace is not meant to last. Soon the Joker begins his campaign against the Batman and the people of Gotham and its up to the Dark Knight to stop him. Read the rest of this entry »

The Dark Knight releases on July 18th worldwide. Be there !!

I’ve been wanting to watch this movie ever since it got rave reviews from all the film critics. Finally after almost three weeks, I finally went and watched it yesterday.

Aamir is one of those rare Hindi movies that are about 90 minutes long, without any songs and completely plot and character driven. It was an absolute delight to watch this gem of a thriller. Aamir is loosely based on the Filipino movie Cavite, and follows the main character called Aamir through one hellish day. Aamir is a muslim doctor from London who decides to settle back in India. So he gets back to Mumbai where his family stays. At the airport, two people on a motorbike hand him a cellphone. The phone starts ringing and a voice on the other side tells him that unless he does as he is told, his family (which has been kidnapped) will be killed. Forced to follow the whims and fancies of the voice on the phone, Aamir begins his journey through the filth and grime of Mumbai’s side streets, old chawls, restaurants, lodges to finally a red briefcase. Asked to deliver the red briefcase as the last task, Aamir begins his journey to the briefcase’s last destination and the climax of the movie.

I loved the way the movie was shot, in real mumbai locations. The city looked fabulous, de-glamorized and very real. The subtle and not so subtle allusions to the end of the film, all throughout the movie added a nice layered touch. And the movie’s soundtrack was absolutely mindblowing. The moment the movie opened with Peggy Lee’s “It’s a good day”, synched to Mumbai life, you knew that this movie was going to be a great ride.

The only regret I had after watching this movie was that I spent Rs.180 on the ticket. Before you jump to conclusions about the movie not being paisa vasool, hear me out. After watching the movie I was browsing around in the DVD store in the mall. Guess what, I found a VCD of Aamir for Rs.199, which is when I realized that I could have owned this gem of a movie for life, instead of watching it once

Still Aamir is worth every penny spent. If you haven’t watched it, I suggest you either go and watch it in your nearest movie theater or at least rent the DVD and see it. If you want to wait though, Aamir plays on UTV movies in about two weeks on 18th July. Watch it then.

Technorati Tags: Movies, Reviews, Aamir

Finally at long last got a chance to head out for a trek. We went to Kothligad which is near Peth village, Karjat. Five of us viz. Me, Antonio, Glen, Hansel and Mandar decided to head off on this trek over the weekend.

On all the treks that I have been on previously we have never really started on time. However for a change, we started on time. At about 5:30 am most of us had gathered at Dadar station. Somehow we managed to just about catch the 5:58 am local to Karjat. We reached Karjat about 2 hours later.After alighting from the station we went to see if we could get one of the “tumtums”, those long 6 seater auto rickshaws. We managed to find one pretty easily, and after haggling on the price we were on the second leg of our journey. We finally reached the point where the trail starts after about an hours ride.

From there the trail climbed up a small hill, snaking it’s way around it to the top. The trail was moderately steep when the climb began and eventually tapered off at the top. At the top, there was a small plateau with a majestic view of the valley below. In the distance we could clearly see the fort.
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Haven’t been trekking or outdoors for quite some time now. So this Saturday, I’m hoping to head out for a trek with some old college pals to Kotligad Fort near Karjat. The weather so far seems to be fine (just a tad humid), so I’m hoping to have a great time on Saturday. Will post again once I’m back.

The Dark Knight viral campaign continues to blow my mind. This campaign absolutely rocks !!! The lastest site launched is The Gotham Cable News website. One of the programs on this fictional Gotham City news network is Gotham Tonight. Gotham Tonight features a tabloid style report on Gotham city’s beloved playboy, Bruce Wayne. Taking a cue from flashy reports, the piece presents Bruce Wayne’s life right from a biography of the Wayne family, the death of his parents to the his birthday party that burnt down Wayne Manor (See Batman Begins).

Most importantly the report also cleverly lays the ground work for the movie. It explains how Wayne comes to live in a penthouse, his current estrangement with Rachel Dawes and how Harvey Dent fits in. It also takes a look at some of the cutting edge technology that Wayne Industries has invested in like stealth rotors (Batcopter anyone ??).

Overall it’s slick execution is awesome, one of the most clever pieces of viral advertisement that I have seen. In addition to this the presenter makes some very sly allusions to the Joker.

Gotham Tonight will continue two weeks from now with a show on Detective Jim Gordon and profile of the new elements in Gotham’s underground (Joker ??). Just can’t wait for the movie now

Technorati Tags: Viral Marketing, The Dark Knight, Batman

The Dark Knight viral is back with a bang in the run up to the movie’s release next month. In this edition, the viral ran an online election to the DA’s post. Dent has emerged a winner in what has been described as an landslide victory. Here is the press release from Dent’s Media Manager:

If someone were to tell me four months ago that Harvey Dent was going to win by the biggest margin in Gotham City history, I would have directed him to Arkham Asylum. But that’s the big story today. Thanks to the incredible efforts of people like you, we have changed the fate of Gotham City.
Harvey Dent won every precinct, every neighborhood, every demographic, and every gender and age group. His sweeping victory shows just how far the desire for real change goes in Gotham City.
This is not just Harvey Dent’s victory, it’s your victory. You passed out flyers, rallied, marched, created political videos, and got out and voted. You made your voices heard. And today, the entire world can hear you. Today, “Take Back Gotham” is not just a slogan – it is a reality.
This is the last campaign email we’re sending out. Now, we turn our energies to the hard job of fighting and winning the war on crime and corruption. We’ll need your help – to keep the pressure up on the politicians, to show the criminals our will, and to support Harvey Dent’s crackdown on corruption.
Together, we will save Gotham City.
Allan Cypes

Media Manager

With Dent as the DA, the stage is almost set for the movie to begin, having suitably set the mood and the events between the first and second films. I’m curious to see what direction the viral takes now. Lets hope it’s one heck of a ride.

Technorati Tags: Viral Marketing, The Dark Knight, Batman

Watched Sarkar Raj yesterday after work. Sarkar Raj is the sequel to Sarkar and forms the second part of Ram Gopal Verma’s retelling of the Godfather Saga. The movie seems to be loosely based on the Dabhol Power Plant controversy in Maharashtra. It follows Shankar Nagre’s quest to set up a mega power plant in Maharashtra to solve it’s power woes, while at the same time a number of deal makers and other sundry elements plot to end the Nagre family’s political rule. It’s upto Sarkar in the end to unravel the conspiracy and put an end to things.

The movie takes off where Sarkar ended, and takes it forward from that point on. It has some great all round performances by the entire cast as well as an excellent story. However the soundtrack and some of the camera work didn’t do justice to movie. The camera seemed obsessed with lens flares and against the light shots which got a bit irritating after a point. But beyond these minor issues, Sarkar Raj is definitely a must watch movie.

Technorati Tags: Movies, Sarkar Raj

The current “green” wave sweeping the planet has caught up with the military. An article on Yahoo! News talks about efforts to build “environment” friendly explosives. Apparently the current generation of explosives leave a lot of toxic residue behind after the explosion. The new generation of explosives based on tetrazoles (which use Nitrogen for explosive power) has turned up less toxic residue in tests. The “only” really toxic byproduct is hydrogen cyanide gas. Though scientists are confident that even this can be eliminated through the use of appropriate oxidizing agents. The U.S. Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering center is one of the agencies funding the research.

This in my opinion takes what I would call the “green hysteria” sweeping companies, marketers, nations and people in general to whole new heights. I mean what’s next, green firearms ? Instead of wasting taxpayer money on such “green” deeds, maybe the US would be better off taking the climate change minotaur by the horns. And in the end if better weapons are needed, maybe designing a bomb that didn’t leave rubble in it’s wake (or radiation) would be much more green. What say ?

Technorati Tags: Environment, Greenwashing

Greenwash - Term used to describe the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.

This term was coined by suburban NY enviromentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986, in an essay regarding the hotel industry’s practice of placing green placards in each room, promoting reuse of guest-towels, ostensibly to “save the environment”. Westerveld noted that, in most cases, little or no effort toward waste recycling was being implemented by these institutions, due in part to the lack of cost-cutting effected by such practice.

Of late there has been a deluge of products claiming to be “green”. From light bulbs (CFLs) that promise to end global warming one bulb at a time, to electric cars that claim to end dependence on polluting fossil fuels to green data centers. Even Reliance has jumped on the bandwagon claiming to use “environment friendly construction practices” for its Versova-Ghatkopar railway link project.

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