Movie: Hulchul

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Went to see the movie Hulchul this Sunday with Divya. Didn't have too much expectations fromt the movie as I'm not a hindi movie buff but still knowing that it was a piece of Priyadarshan had its effect and I expected it to be much better than it later turned out.
The movie hits on the ultimate formula of hindi movies, vis a vis:
i) Khandani Dushmani
ii) Ladka ladki mein bhi dushmani in the beginning
iii) Then they fall in love
iv) Family opposes
v) Finally they agree after a lot of fighting
vi) and they live happily ever after

Rubbing salt to the injuries was the mindless dialogues that happened. And also the unusual coincidences that everyone knew where to find anyone else at any poi8nt of time and he/she reaches there in an instant (be it the midlle of the road, a mansion, college, hostel) or anywhere else to have a dialogue.

The much promised comedy was missing. Just abt a total of 20-30 mins of comedy in the total movie and that too of a childish sort. You laugh more at the director's antics rather than the actors.
In my case I forced myself to laugh at whatever i could remotely connect to comedy, after all i had paid 150 rs per ticket out of my hard earned money (well, soft earned as am a software engineer ;-))

If comedy was missing, this didn't mean the movie was emotional. Actually every sort of emotion was missing. Acting looked like over-avcting. Especially of the MAa Lakshmi of anpara village.

Songs were meaninglessly crammed in, lacked good lyrics, music, choreography. In short, it was as good as not being there. The only song that might enthuse some ppl (the rickshaw wallas and auto wallas, that is) the item song " lut gayi lanka ravan ki".

In all, my opinion about the movie: worthless.
my rating: ** (out of 5 *'s)
My advice: Instead of going for this movie, u'll be better off having an extended nap in ur bed at home.

Me and My Bike

I've moved to http://tech.shantanugoel.com, http://blog.shantanugoel.com and http://www.safercode.com/blog/
Shantanu's Technophilic Musings
Never Knew I Was Living In The World
Programming Safer Code (Secure Coding In C \ C++)

Me and My Bike
Originally uploaded by shantzg001.

w.bloggar

I've moved to http://tech.shantanugoel.com, http://blog.shantanugoel.com and http://www.safercode.com/blog/
Shantanu's Technophilic Musings
Never Knew I Was Living In The World
Programming Safer Code (Secure Coding In C \ C++)

Hmmm. Kewl tool. Just got hold of this tool w.bloggar for posting on blogs. Kewl features, nice looks. Integrates with almost any blogging service/tool out there.
My recommendation granted. w.bloggar website

For more pics

I've moved to http://tech.shantanugoel.com, http://blog.shantanugoel.com and http://www.safercode.com/blog/
Shantanu's Technophilic Musings
Never Knew I Was Living In The World
Programming Safer Code (Secure Coding In C \ C++)

For more pics, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/shantz/

"Me, dancing away"

I've moved to http://tech.shantanugoel.com, http://blog.shantanugoel.com and http://www.safercode.com/blog/
Shantanu's Technophilic Musings
Never Knew I Was Living In The World
Programming Safer Code (Secure Coding In C \ C++)

"Me, dancing away"
Originally uploaded by shantzg001.

"Me, checking the ID of a *lowly* earthling"

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Shantanu's Technophilic Musings
Never Knew I Was Living In The World
Programming Safer Code (Secure Coding In C \ C++)

"Me, checking the ID of a *lowly* earthling"
Originally uploaded by shantzg001.

"Me, with my fellow Dwarpal"

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Programming Safer Code (Secure Coding In C \ C++)

"Me, with my fellow Dwarpal"
Originally uploaded by shantzg001.

Diwali Bash at HSS

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Diwali Festivities at my office are over (Diwali is celebrated at my office a week earlier than the real date cuz then most of the people have gone home).Well, the celebrations started on 1st of november and continued till 5th Nov. So it was a whole week of fun and frolic.
The celebrations were named Phooljhadi 2004.
The week began with daily events like crossword, who dares wins, etc. Good fun games there. Especially the dare to roam around the office dressed like Superman. Alas, no one came forward to try it.
Then we had a quiz contest, in which I also took part. My team outshined all the others in the prelims. We were the top team amongst the finalists and that too by a huge margin. But then, our luck ran out, and we failed miserably in the final round, finishing last. :(. Our claim to fame lasted for a very short time, I think.
We had a talent show, which had to be stretched over two days, from the initially planned single day event, due to the large no. of entries. With everyone vying to show their talent, rangin from poems, mono acts, songs, instrumentals, and all, we had a fun time cheering them on (read hooting ;-) ).
Then came the antakshari, one of the major events. It was an interplot event. (My company has offices on 9 plots in the same area). The scenario was very competitive, with participants on their toes for each and every second of the game. The audience was going wild cheering for their respective plots. My plot led the game till the end but due to a small mistake (both on the part of our team as well as the compere), we had to settle for the second.
The last event was Plot Decoration Contest. Again, an interplot event. We collected about Rs. 40,000 for this. The theme was ramayana. It took us two days to deck up our plot as "Treta Yuga". We showed the ground floor as Ayodhya, the land of Rama and the first floor as Lanka, the city of Ravana.
All the small events of ramayana were also depicted with our cubicles being made to look like jungles, rivers and all. (Will post a few pics soon).
We made a person Rama, there were two women depicting Sita (one in Ayodhya and one in Ashok Vatika) and tthe best part was Ravana. I became the dwarpal(the door keeper to the treta yuga) and the fun part part was when I asked our CEO (who was judging the decoration) for his ID card before he could enter the plot. :). Guess wht he replied.He lifted his glasses and said, "Is this ID okay?".
We won the hearts of the whole of the HSS (my company) with the efforts we had put in.
Fianlly, we had the Diwali Bash at a nearby place where my company's new campus is being built. It started off with excellent performances in terms of skits, dances, and songs. We also had a lazer show that left us wanting for more and more of it. It was just stunningly amazing.
To top it all, I just got a Philips Food Processor as a Diwali Gift from the company. So, in all it was my best diwali ever, and that too even before Diwali has come :)

Diwali

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Shantanu's Technophilic Musings
Never Knew I Was Living In The World
Programming Safer Code (Secure Coding In C \ C++)

Its midnight and I'm still in my office decorating my deptt for diwali. This is so much fun. More details later. Gotta catch up on that rangoli now.