Mere Baap, Pehle Aap'
(My Father, After You)

Plot Outline:
Janaradhan Wishvanbhar Rane (Paresh Rawal) is a widower who has spent his life bringing up his son. He has done everything to ensure the upbringing has gone in the best possible manner. Now that the son is all grown up, Gaurav (Akshaye Khanna) takes up the responsibility of his father. They both manage the household chores and their business to the best of their abilities.

Though he is the young son, he treats his father as though he were the elder in the family. With the vigilance of a disciplined parent. He shouts, threatens, fights - even locks up his father occasionally so that his friend Madhav (Om Puri) does not spoil him.

He does this with good reason. Madhav is a divorcee, desperate to re-marry, On the sly, Madhav and Janaradhan are always sneaking off in search of a bride for Madhav, but they forever land up in trouble, and every time this happens Gaurav has to bail them out and face the embarrassment, until he one day comes to realise that maybe his father needs a bride too.

Happening, The'

Plot Outline:
Originally titled 'The Green Effect' the film opens in New York. People in Central Park, start to get confused, repeating their words, standing still and some begin walking backwards. We hear a few screams. A woman reading on a bench takes her silver chopstick-style hair pin out of her hair and stabs herself in the neck with it.

Enter, science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg). He talks about an event science can't explain about thousands of disappearing bees, no bodies left, no trace. A natural event that was never fully understood or explained scientifically. While speculating on this phenomenon, Elliot is called out of class to a staff meeting warning about an apparent "terrorist attack" in New York in which some kind of gas has been released in Central Park, and that school is cancelled so that people can make get out of town, in case of further attacks.

As Elliot and his estranged wife (Zooey Deschanel) pack their things and join their friends at the train station, we learn that it begins in parks, and quickly spreads to nearby populations. Though initially believed to be a bio-terrorist attack, this is soon ruled out as the events increase in frequency and target lesser populated areas.

Something is certainly happening..

Palaver

The Back Story
Semi-cheating here. It was the word of the day on the widget on my Mac. To build a little story around it though, it sums up our lunchtimes at work quite well. 1pm-2pm in the communal kitchen, a few of us gather & talk a pile of total rubbish. We've recently decided to record our 'palavers' & perhaps even build a podcast out of it if all goes well.

Even if not, the jibberish that we splurt can' go to total waste, there's content there that will come useful in one form or another, so documenting it is definitely a good idea. It make me feel better about my 40 wasted hours a week, at least 5 go to some use. :)

The Incredible Hulk'

Plot Outline:
This sequel to Ang Lee's Hulk (that is almost ignoring it) tells the story of Dr. Bruce Banner (Edward Norton), who seeks a cure to his unique condition, which causes him to turn into a giant green monster under emotional stress. We find Bruce, living in shadows, scouring the planet for an antidote, whilst constantly on the run from military which seeks his capture.

The warmongers who dream of abusing his powers won't leave him alone, nor will his need to be with the only woman he has ever loved, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler). Upon returning to civilization following a lead to an antidote, Banner is ruthlessly pursued by a drugged super soldier, Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth).

As his situation escalates he becomes a nightmarish beast of pure adrenaline and aggression whose powers match The Hulk's own -- The Abomination. A fight of comic-book proportions ensues as Banner must call upon the hero within to rescue New York City from total destruction.

Dexterity

The Back Story
A blog post I read some while back spoke of dexterity, my initial thought was to relate it to Dexter (not the kick-ass TV show, but the meaning) ie; to be on the right side as opposed to the left one. So, as I stared at the picture on the post & saw nothing that made the right side of the picture stand out any further than the left. A little confused I went ahead and looked it up. It now made sense, the picture was of a bunch of tailoring which required adroitness, (& yea' it also meant that I learn that adroitness is a synonym for 'skill' but cooler sounding.)

So, Twitter's been a shamble.. 'stressing' all day. The reason was the huge announcement that the whole interwebz seems to have been waiting for ...

The main thing I was waiting to hear: "iPhone 2.0 will be available in early for July. Free for iPhone owners, $9.99 for iPod Touch owners."

A small snippet of other interesting stuffs:

• "Apple has learned so much with the first iPhone. They have taken everything they've learned and more and created the iPhone 3G. Even thinner, black plastic back, solid metal buttons, same gorgeous display, camera, flush headphone jack, and dramatically improved audio."
• "GPS support now integrated into the iPhone. With GPS, the iPhone can do tracking. A pulsating dot is moving across the Google map as a car drives down Lombard street."
• Now on to the final challenge -- affordability. Started at $599 for an 8GB iPhone, now $399. The iPhone 3G 8GB will sell for... $199. $299 for the 16GB -- a white version of this size will be available too. The iPhone 3G will be available July 11th in 22 countries. The maximum price around the world is $199 USD

I still have that 2 pending questions:
- When will it be open to all networks 'officially' ?
- Where does UK fit in? part of the 22 countries or not?

The announcements are happening live at http://www.macrumorslive.com/ ... now that the iPhone2 details are done with, I hope the online world will calm down again ..

Update: Ooh... Apple has updated their site too: http://www.apple.com/iphone/

Update #2: BBC confirms UK is one of the 22 countries & the 8GB model will be priced £100 .. I hope they're not hypothesising.

Update #3: Interesting find ... a difference I note between the UK & US Apple Stores: Does this mean UK gets an unlocked iPhone for £100? .. wishful thinking I'd say, but not impossible.

So, Gmail has recently changed a bit & now has a loading bar as below:

Very pretty, but is having a progress bar 'really' progress? Especially is the damned thing loops, grinding your browser down to a halt. Admittedly I have this problem only on Firefox. (No problems on Safari or Internet Exploder), but this is what I noticed fixes the issue.. http://www.gmail.com diverts you to http://mail.google.com/mail/ which has the loops issue.

If you instead go to https://mail.google.com/mail/ ... it works fine!
So guess what I updated my Gmail shortcut to?? Hint: It's not hotmail.com ;-)

They'll probably fix this at some point, I simply post this as it may help someone in the meanwhile, and it makes me look cool. I like looking cool.

Silent Salutes,
_ram-jaane'

It just seemed too funny not to post ...

Sarkar Raj'
Ruling of the Government

Plot Outline:
When Anita Rajan (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), the CEO of an international power plant company, brings a proposal to set up a power plant in rural Maharashtra, she is told that she has to get the permission & blessing of the Nagre family, as this is their area of ruling.

When she brings the proposal before the Nagres, insightful Shankar (Abhishek Bachchan) is quick to realize the benefits the power plant can bring to the people. After convincing Sarkar (Amitabh Bachchan) who is initially against it, Shankar undertakes a journey along with Anita to the villages of Maharashtra to mobilize support from the masses.

However, things are not what they seem to be and Shankar's dream project gradually becomes a political minefield. It is in this backdrop that evil forces mightier than ever, mushroom and gang up to bring down the regime of Sarkar and obliterate Shankar's name from the political horizon.

Harold & Kumar
Escape from Guantanamo Bay'

Plot Outline:
The newest adventure of Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) pretty much picks up where the last one left them. We follow the pot-smoking duo, this time, to a cross-country adventure as they try to outrun the authorities, who suspect them of being terrorists when they try to sneak a bong on board their flight to Amsterdam.

Overall Impressions:
The lovable idiots haven't changed & nor have their adventures per se, but it is a laugh a minute adventure if you appreciate this brand of humour.

Personally I wasn't a large fan back in the day, when the first one released, however upon repeat viewing I've loved it & though I thought a sequel was a bad idea, they've proved me wrong. In fact, if the writing were to remain consistent or better itself as it has done in this instance, I would welcome another chapter with open arms.

What I will say is that the title/synopsis are perhaps a little misleading, the escape actually occurs within the first act of the film, what follows is the pursuit of cleansing their name of the fake accusations.

Certainly not for everyone, but those that know what these characters are about (very little) & enjoy this brand of mayhem, they will be glad to know, the quality has not dropped as is the trend with such sequels as a general. Top-notch!

Idiosyncratic

The Back Story
It was an interview on the DVD for House M.D (Season 1), referring obviously to Dr. House & more specifically the perfect portrayal of him by Hugh Laurie.

Gone Baby Gone'

Plot Outline:
Dorchester, one of the toughest neighborhoods in all of Boston, is no place for the weak or innocent. Its a territory defined by hard heads and even harder luck, its streets littered with broken families, hearts & dreams.

When 4 year old Amanda McCready disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl's aunt hires two private detectives Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan). The detectives freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons - they're not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live.

They cave eventually & open an investigation that will ultimately risk everything from their relationship, their sanity, their lives -- to find 1 little lost girl. As the case progresses, Kenzie and Gennaro face drug dealers, gangs and even paedophiles.

Teeth'

Plot Outline:
High-school student Dawn (Jess Weixler) works hard at suppressing her budding sexuality by being the most active member of the local chastity group. Her task is made even more difficult by a string of male admirers and her bad-boy stepbrother's provocative behaviour at home.

However, previously a stranger to her own body, innocent Dawn makes a shocking discovery about herself. At first terrified and upset, she soon realises she has a formidable defence mechanism to ward off unwanted advances - a set of teeth where you'd least expect...

The film begins with a young Brad and Dawn O'Keefe swimming in a pool. Mr. O'Keefe yells at his son to be nice to his new step-sister. Brad takes his penis out of his swimsuit and tells Dawn to show hers. Brad shrieks in agony as Mr. and Mrs. O'Keefe rush over to see what happened. Brad's finger is bleeding and it appears to have been bitten. Dawn smiles innocently at Brad.

12 years later, all grown up Dawn is in high school, she likes a guy at school, and he likes her. However having taken a pledge to remain chaste until marriage, they date in groups, watch G-rated films, and don't kiss, even though temptation beckons. When they do cave into their temptations... well, you can do the math ;)

Woodstock Villa

Plot Outline:
After a successful businessman's stunning wife disappears, hostile & taunting ransom demands follow. As the true nature of stakes for the captor and his captives unfold, the tables turn. A simplistic kidnapping soon transforms to a web of murder, mystery, deceit and suspense.

Overall Impressions:
Why such a small & vague outline? Well, because the content just isn't all that complicated past this. This 94 minute film has songs in it, pointless pace-hindering songs majorly (only the one with Sanjay Dutt seemed plot relevant), but I suppose they were seen as necessary due to this being the debut vehicle of Sikander "and Neha Uberoi".

Since Neha has little scope to do much in the story, filling a glamour quotient through song after song would have to do for her I suppose. So removing her (by which I mean the songs) the true duration is close to 70 minutes.

Closer to 60 if you count all that shaky cam and over-done Tony Scott style seizure shots. Hey.. Let me clarify, I'm all for style, just like Man on Fire was style, but then you get Domino which was basically a seizure captured on film, thats what part of this felt like.

Breaking this down further, the first two thirds of this is highly engaging. You do find yourself wondering about the intention of each character & how these twist & turn situations can ultimately be resolved. Unfortunately, the end they decided upon is a bit of an anti-climax. It sort of works for the story but it breaks the pace of turns in events that we've got used to by this point.

What I can say works positively is that they make the character of Sikander pretty believable, likeable and as some master-mind bad-ass. There is no better way to kick start your acting career really is there? :) This said, he does a perfect job carrying it off. He isn't conventionally handsome, overly built or anything that makes the traditional hero, but this friendly neighbourhood look will be fruitful to his career I'm sure.

A great debut, for Sikander anyway, I can't even remember who what the girl looked like in this. Past the refreshing debut, not so much going for it. Let down by its mediocre resolution. Seemed lazy and so not quite enough to make it worth a watch.