Category Archives: Reviews

Items of Interest – 2-Apr-12 to 15-Apr-12

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[Note: This post was drafted on 15-Apr-12, rather than update it with another 15 days worth of stuff, I decided to publish this, and then write another post to cover the additional information.]

I’d mentioned in the last post that my brother spoke at Pecha Kucha Night Hyderabad Vol 8.  Well, the official video for Varun’s presentation is up on YouTube now, and that’s what I’m opening this post with!

Here you go -

Great presentation, isn’t it?  In case you missed it earlier, this post should tell you about what Pecha Kucha Night is.

Recent Trailers of Note

The trailer for the upcoming remake Total Recall is an interesting one, and it looks pretty flashy.  It seems to be following the Schwarzenegger movie quite closely (some of the setups and lines are translated intact here), although this one isn’t set on Mars.  Colin Farrell plays the character of Douglas Quaid, and Kate Beckinsale is Lori and Jessica Biel plays Melina (the character that Rachel Ticotin played in the 1990 movie).  The trailer reminded me of Minority Report a little bit.

I didn’t know this, but my friend Kashyap Chandra had this to say about the tracking shot at around 1:06 in the trailer -

That shot is One Hundred percent practical. Zero CG camera movement. They actually rigged up the RED One cameras to move around the room at speeds of upto 35 mph!

That’s pretty fascinating!  I assumed that was CG.

Talking about trailers though, this is probably the highlight of the recent past – the trailer for Rian Johnson’s science fiction movie Looper -

Incredible, isn’t it?  Just check out that makeup on Joseph Gordon-Levitt, making him look like a younger version of Bruce Willis.  The concept is interesting too, and I really like the music in the trailer.  Obviously I was interested to know what was the exact track used, and a little Googling turned up the answer.  It’s a track called “K.I.L.L.” by Nick Murray and Mark Moore.  You can listen to it on this YouTube video titled Music from the Looper Trailer.

One Year and 15,825 Photos

April 2, 2012 marked one year since I got my Canon EOS 550D camera.  And on that date, the number of photos taken with the camera numbered 15,825.  Interesting milestone, eh?  It has been quite a journey reaching this number, and I’ve enjoyed every bit of it.

@Galactica_gk’s Hyderabad Visit

Between 5-8 April, my cousin Girish visited Hyderabad.  It was a hugely entertaining long weekend.

Here is how I received him at the airport -

I was flashing this paper with his Twitter handle, I thought someone would notice and smile, but no – it didn’t seem like anyone had a sense of humour about this.  There was a guy from a hotel who was also receiving someone and he asked me why I was holding up this?  Had I never seen my cousin before?  I told him it was just for style.

We had a midnight movie screening every night that he was here, and I got to revisit some of my favourite movies – Fight Club, Grindhouse and From Dusk Till Dawn.  Apart from this we saw 3 in the theatre.

Along with family we visited Golconda Fort, Salarjung Museum and had lunch in pitch darkness at Taste of Darkness in Inorbit Mall (this restaurant is the only one of its kind in India).

These two Facebook albums cover the entirety of his visit to Hyderabad – Karthik’s Coverage of @Galactica_gk’s Visit (121 images), Varun’s Set (39 photos).

We also got t-shirts made out of our Ten Commandments of Downloading.

Another interesting thing which happened, is that one day, we were discussing about Jyothika and I wanted to search for the article on Wikipedia, but instead of doing that I typed the name into The Pirate Bay.  And I was wondering why the autocomplete wasn’t working!

You can read Girish’s reviews of the Midnight Features here – Fight Club, Grindhouse (Planet Terror and Death Proof), From Dusk Till Dawn.

On the way back home from the airport, I took the above picture of the moon.  Was shot handheld and is a definite improvement over the moon photo I took a year ago.

Insightful Commentary about Commentary Tracks

At FilmSchoolRejects, they write articles about commentary tracks on DVDs (this feature is called Commentary Commentary).  I recently came across a bunch of these and found them very interesting to go through.  Thought I would share two in particular, which I found very insightful.

“For me Dark City is a film of hope and optimism. It has a firm belief in the individual winning out over the mass mind, and I think that’s a very important feeling to have in this world.” – Alex Proyas

39 Things We Learned from the Dark City Commentary is one of them, very interesting stuff.  Of course, you would need to have seen the movie first, to appreciate this stuff.

The second feature I wanted to talk about is 35 Things We Learned from the Memento Commentary – which is a great read.

Other Links of Interest

 

Two more quotes from Facebook – this one from Arrow in the Head on April 5:

Happy Birthday Roger Corman! Thanks for all them years of monsters, boobies and blood!

And this one from my friend Abhishek:

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. (Tears in Rain Soliloquy) – Karthik Abhiram this one is for you :)

Collection of Tweets

As usual, here is the collection of tweets from 2-Apr-12 to 15-Apr-12.

Tweets 15-Apr-12:

  • One year ago, this awesome thing happened: http://timehop.com/m/W3Xc
  • I tweeted this 1 year ago TH @karthik82 “Boom! And a Bear Co… http://timehop.com/m/Yjh8
  • RT @rob_sheridan You guys. Go see “Cabin In The Woods.” Don’t read anything about it. Just go before someone spoils it. Super super fun and inventive.
  • RT @omgthatspunny Why did the capacitor kiss the diode? He just couldn’t resistor. #punny
  • RT @mihirfadnavis Drinking Mogu Mogu with its little bits of fruit feels like accidentally swallowing your own mucus. #SardiKiGuthliyan
  • RT @AapChutiyeHain People connecting randomly on LinkedIn by mentioning you’re a ‘friend’ without even a message, jai veeru ki dosti ki kasam #AapChutiyeHain

Tweets 14-Apr-12:

  • @Galactica_gk It’s good, as I remember – lots of gore, action, weird stuff, more cartoonish than the previous ones! Writer is Joss Whedon.
  • @Galactica_gk I actually haven’t seen this “Assembly Cut” version… I should also plan a day for watching all 4 back-to-back :)
  • Flat = Funny and Depth = Dramatic http://bit.ly/ILllVh
  • From the end credits of “Planet Terror” – “Mr. Rodriguez’s Chef – ROBERT RODRIGUEZ” :)
  • In kdenlive, I really like the “Technicolor” effect under the Colour Correction tools. Gives a nice boost to saturation in a video.
  • If you see the “scratch-free” version of @RobertRdz’s “Planet Terror” you’ll realise the genius behind its cinematography / lighting!
  • RT @Galactica_gk James Cameron’s Aliens is better than Alien. Could be because of the extra ‘S’ or more Aliens. @karthik82
  • RT @laughbook *Stalking crush on Facebook* * Accidentally likes status from 2009* *Deletes Facebook* *Sets computer on fire*
  • RT @mihirfadnavis I wouldn’t be surprised if someone finds RGV hiding in the bathroom of a girls hostel brandishing a camera and licking his lips.

Tweets 13-Apr-12:

  • RT @psam @dharmeshG Official synopsis for Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’ | http://bit.ly/IuG9Sn
  • RT @rob_sheridan It’s cute how flight attendants tell you sternly to “completely power off your cell phone” and then carry on as if ANYONE actually did that.
  • RT @Deepu2rebel Quentin Tarantino was in India past months, He spent almost 20-30days here. Delhi, Mhmbai and many other places. Should’ve met him #lifetime
  • RT @Nader230 Dropped my N8 while crossing the road. Minor scratches, screen as good as new, still working perfectly! @nokia @Nokia_Connects
  • @Nader230 @nokia @Nokia_Connects That’s not surprising :) I’ve dropped my N8 a few times and I think the phone doesn’t care one bit :)
  • RT @cliffordsouza SRK – “Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahin, namumkin hain.” New York Airport officials – “@AapChutiyeHain!”
  • The Importance Of Being 35mm http://bit.ly/J2LJqv
  • Worm In The Eye! New PROMETHEUS Pictures http://bit.ly/HN8H8F
  • RT @vincentlaforet Canon joins the world of 4K with C500 and EOS 1D C – but at what price? my thoughts: http://tinyurl.com/88x5gz3
  • RT @Galactica_gk RT @denofgeek A new poster for Tarantino’s Django Unchained http://bit.ly/HO2KnU

Tweets 12-Apr-12:

Tweets 11-Apr-12:

  • #NowWatching Anukokunda Oka Roju
  • RT @planet5D #HDSLRscoop Nikon D800 – From A Canon Users Perspective. #HDSLRnews http://bit.ly/IkzIlX
  • RT @psam RT @nokia: #Word, #Powerpoint and #Excel Mobile are now available for you lucky #NokiaBelle users! http://nokia.ly/Hx6Jex
  • RT @funnyhumour When James Bond is out of his home country of England, is he known as +44 07?

Tweets 10-Apr-12

  • Going to Vijayawada for a day (giving a presentation tomorrow). Will be back in Hyd on Thursday morning.
  • RT @abhishekmadan “Ei machaan you are going to Delhi vaa? Meet my anna, he lives in Crater Gailash.”
  • RT @kruttikaS #nowplaying – where is my mind? – the pixies
  • RT @funnyoneliners I never know whether to screw up my taxes myself, or hire a professional to do it.
  • Hahaha!! RT @funnyoneliners Facebook buys Instagram for $1 billion. Idiots, they could have downloaded it for free. RT @pleatedjeans
  • 2 in 1 Movie and TV Poster Art http://rant.to/HDpDhc by @JoeyPaur at @GeekTyrant
  • Devolution of a Beard http://bit.ly/Ht65JS
  • RT @planet5D #VincentLaforet New Zeiss wide angle SLR Lenses – and how they stack up against their Canon EF counterpart #HDSLRnews http://bit.ly/Ik8ud7
  • RT @jakefogelnest Is it true that Friendster just bought Polaroid for eleventy-billion dollars?
  • #NowWatching Kickboxer (1989) – Good oldschool 80s action stuff with Jean Claude Van Damme.
  • So far, “Kickboxer” feels like an Americanised version of a 1970s Hong Kong martial-arts movie!
  • The training montage in “Kickboxer” reminds me of “The Fearless Hyena” and “Kill Bill Vol 2″.
  • Man, what gruelling training Van Damme goes through, to learn Muay Thai… one should take this stuff as inspiration when exercising!
  • Btw… the music in “Kickboxer” is by Paul Hertzog, and if I am not mistaken, he did the music for the Van Damme movie “Bloodsport” also.
  • And I have not seen “Kickboxer” before (if I have, I don’t remember the movie), but I remember liking “Kickboxer 2″.
  • I should watch Kickboxer 2 again, and one bit of interesting info about that movie, is that it’s written by David Goyer (The Dark Knight).
  • Wow, they’ve included a dance number in “Kickboxer”! Van Damme dances!
  • RT @madhulikamathur Forget valuation for now, @om explains Facebook’s reasons for buying Instagram. http://gigaom.com/2012/04/09/here-is-why-did-facebook-bought-instagram/
  • RT @JennyJohnsonHi5 Instagram is now in a relationship and it’s complicated.

Tweets 9-Apr-12:

  • RT @epandu Ever since Flipkart launched Flyte, I have not pirated a single song. I think I can afford spending 150bucks a month on legal MP3s
  • Day 64 #Gym
  • RT @laughbook When I was a kid, I used to sing, ‘A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, ELEMENO, P’
  • RT @mihirfadnavis For ultra hard boiled movie buffs – Russian films on YouTube – http://bit.ly/HoavRS
  • One year ago, this awesome thing happened: http://timehop.com/m/5mZU
  • One year ago, this awesome thing happened: http://timehop.com/m/M1H4
  • RT @iSujayS A note to myself: @AapChutiyeHain
  • RT @kunaladnani @mohitjham @aapchutiyehain #UnlikelyBooks “eating right” by Anna Hazare
  • RT @mastersRback agar agentvinod dekhne k baad aap ko jet lag nahi huva to bollywood ki kasam @AapChutiyeHain

Tweets 8-Apr-12:

  • Yesterday when searching for info about someone, instead of typing in the name in Wikipedia, I typed it in The Pirate Bay.
  • RT @Oatmeal Happy Easter http://pic.twitter.com/rLHh9cOR
  • RT @AapChutiyeHain #UnlikelyBooks Solving Crimes by #DelhiPolice
  • At Hyderabad Airport, having a coffee at the arrivals area. The Cafe Coffee Day outlet there has a drink called WTF!
  • RT @vertikaA RT @autocorrects: Retweet if you love finding money in your clothes. It’s like a gift to you from you.
  • And so, @Galactica_gk’s Hyderabad visit comes to and end. 3 midnight movie shows and a bunch of places visited. Good times.
  • RT @rajith_23 Having Cheez Burst Pizza during Recruitment drive . http://fb.me/1DRfjHBBT
  • RT @omgthatspunny What do you call a royal printmaker? A screen prince. #punny
  • RT @funnyhumour I have decided I’m not going to focus on my past anymore. So, if I owe you money, tough shit.
  • RT @Galactica_gk Taste of Darkness is an awesome unique experience. Eating food in absolute darkness.
  • RT @funnyhumour “Jesus loves you.” A nice gesture in church. A horrific thing to hear in a Mexican prison.
  • Interesting article about movie posters today – http://theanswers42.com/2012/04/05/posterrific/
  • RT @Galactica_gk Post-Midnight Feature #3 From Dusk Till Dawn is slapstick comedy and horror. The perfect combo. + writer is Quentin Tarantino. @karthik82
  • RT @omgthatspunny If the movie hero of the Matrix was a woman, would she have been called Ingrid? #punny
  • RT @funnyoneliners “Doctor! Doctor! How long do I have left to live?” “Ten.” “Ten what? Months? Years?” “Nine, Eight, Seven..”
  • #NowWatching “From Dusk Till Dawn” – Midnight… er… 2 AM Feature with @Galactica_gk

Tweets 7-Apr-12:

  • 3 – Liked it. Felt like 2 movies separated by an interval, a bit overlong and second half had exaggerated drama. I loved the music. 7/10
  • I didn’t understand why the movie is called “3″ though…
  • RT @edgarwright My 10,000 tweet better be something really amazing… oh fuck-
  • RT @SimpooSir To see Anil Kapoor in Mission Impossible 4, plz wear Red glassez. Just did. Mr. India Protocol. #Yuss
  • RT @arocks Titanic wasn’t a tragedy for everyone apparently. Just look at James Cameron :)
  • Just realised that @Galactica_gk and I watched “Grindhouse” on April 6, 2012 – exactly five years after the movie’s US Release date!
  • Midnight Double Feature 2- Grindhouse was very good. Planet Terror is intentionally like a Hindi movie. @karthik82
  • RT @scottEweinberg With respect to (virtually) everyone, WHY REVIEW SCREENPLAYS? Fucking hell! Food critics don’t review the recipe. Assholes!
  • RT @rajith_23 “Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.” – Lao Tzu
  • It’s a great feeling to wake up in the morning and find that your downloads are completed.
  • #NowWatching “Grindhouse” Theatrical Cut with @Galactica_gk – “Planet Terror” & “Death Proof” back-to-back as they were meant to be seen.

Tweets 6-Apr-12:

  • RT @rajith_23 Watched Housefull 2. Liked it. Keep brain at home . Don’t have any expectation. Full fun. Little long but fun..
  • RT @timescapes There is something really special about this particular panel from Mœbius. http://pic.twitter.com/PFUIyFfR
  • RT @arocks To know how theft-proof your home is, you just have to forget your key inside
  • RT @vemana You are either a tea person or a coffee person. Just like either you are a cat person or a dog person.
  • RT @arocks Enjoying the new Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens. Its razor sharp images have revived my ol’ trusty SLR. Thank you Flipkart!
  • RT @WolfpackAlan Dear Vegetarians, if you love animals so much then stop eating all of their food!
  • Listening to “Operation Latte Thunder” from the Fight Club soundtrack.
  • RT @vemana #having That coffee (no)one has somewhere between midnight and early morning
  • RT @Galactica_gk Fight Club is awesome. Already broken the first rule.
  • #NowWatching “Fight Club” – midnight show along with @Galactica_gk

Tweets 5-Apr-12:

  • RT @ankash1009 Department Trailer http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/more/videos/view/id/1427681 love mr. Bachchan in it..
  • Awesome! RT @atulkasbekar: @FarOutAkhtar in full stride. The ‘Flying Sikh’ lives. #BhaagMilkhaBhaag http://lockerz.com/s/198609645
  • RT @psam Happy birthday, Microsoft. Thank you for all your creations and contributions to this world.
  • RT @bcfilmmaker 39 Things We Learned From the ‘Phantasm’ Commentary Track http://su.pr/26MZmb #filmmakers #filmmaking
  • RT @zombeaner Fun flick.”@RobertRdz: Enjoy ROADRACERS (my personal favorite) finally out on DVD now, and coming to Blu Ray April 17! http://kdvr.com/2012/03/22/review-roadracers-blu-ray/“
  • RT @planet5D #HDSLRscoop Hilarious video compares Nikon D800 and Canon 5D Mark III #HDSLRnews http://bit.ly/HeZ2Jc
  • I’m going on a trip to Barsoom – #NowWatching “Total Recall” 1990 – one of the movies I’ve seen many times since childhood :)

Tweets 4-Apr-12:

  • Easy Elements http://bit.ly/HUOjlI
  • RT @chuck_gopal Hahahahaha RT @sumants: Hyuk RT @ashwan Swype just auto-corrected Instagram to underwhelm.
  • Is Twitter the new Google Reader? I find myself sharing more stuff here these days. @rajturl any comments?
  • RT @psam: @karthik82 “live” updates on twitter compared to reading later a factor? @rajturl
  • @psam @rajturl I guess so! Also the ease of RTing contributes, I think…
  • RT @rajturl @karthik82 absolutely. Now that I (or even ppl I know) hardly use G+, twitter serves the sharing purpose. @psam Agree with you.
  • You know you’re a photographer if… http://alanhessphotography.com/2009/01/you-know-youre-a-photographer-if/ Nice list, posted on Alan Hess’s Blog.
  • Day 63 #Gym
  • RT @josephradhik Facebook is the new hunting ground for email forwards.
  • RT @rob_sheridan Cleverly made videos of Facebook in the 90s, Twitter in the 80s, and more: http://bit.ly/HdEbWT – via @wired
  • RT @FarOutAkhtar Your tweet made my day. Thank you so much. “@SoniaMilkha: @FarOutAkhtar Omg u actually look like dad. All the very best.”
  • RT @funnyoneliners My brother’s in prison for something he didn’t do. He didn’t run fast enough.
  • RT @vemana The smell of napalm in the morning… no no.. the smell of mud in the evening. #hyderabad
  • Awesome! RT @ankash1009 Releasing the dubbed version in India. The kickass action movie of the year. THE RAID http://fb.me/XPJ7Cukf
  • Rewatched Rick Jacobson’s “Bitch Slap” 2009 yesterday. It had the potential to be awesome but was disappointing. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1212974/
  • Zoe Bell is the stunt coordinator and fight choreographer for “Bitch Slap”. The movie appeared to have plot elements cut from it.
  • I read that the original cut of the movie was more than 2 hrs long, but the released version is 105 min / 109 min (unrated cut).
  • Just bought 5 tickets for 3 (Tamil) (U) for Sat, 7 Apr, 2012 on @bookmyshow

Tweets 3-Apr-12:

Tweets 2-Apr-12:

  • Wow what a rush, I was just recognized in public! I didn’t think that wanted poster was still in circulation. RT @_theguy_
  • Fun stuff & @vemana take note :) RT @Oatmeal So excited to go watch season 2 of Game of Thrones tonight. OH WAIT http://bit.ly/yCuJRb
  • Karthik Abhiram looted this cool item at @24hoursLoot 3 minutes ago http://www.24hoursloot.com/myorders/becdba08b07fbbad2c0787d9d14e3164
  • RT @zombeaner Now you can watch this nutso trailer! “@TwitchFilm: First Trailer For Akshay Kumar’s ROWDY RATHORE Blows The Roof Off! http://goo.gl/fb/V7Md5“
  • RT @josephradhik I predict 2012-13 to be a crazy war between Canon and Sony for the HDSLR and indie large sensor market.
  • RT @vemana: @karthik82 Its awesome the way you digitally chronicle your life. It seems like you arent missing anything and not overdoing it either!
  • @vemana Thank you! I guess it’s more for myself that I am doing it, but if it’s interesting to others too, that’s great :)
  • LOL indeed!! RT @rajturl #cyanideandhappiness ‘TEST…..’ http://bit.ly/HEN222 [LOLness, this!]
  • RT @stupidusmaximus Happy birthday, Ajay Devgn. Here, have a vowel.
  • RT @YaavanoObba Gangarams closing. | Oh, that’s sad man. I’ll miss their bhujia and khatta meetha. | Dude. That’s Haldirams. | Oh then what’s Gangarams?
  • RT @dharmeshG Ashton Kutcher will play Steve Jobs in an upcoming biopic. #facepalmtree
  • RT @justkalpana this is quote is soo for me. “@kritzeln: Respect your first thought. Don’t worry abt length, grammer, tense. Vomit! #IndiaSocial12”
  • RT @AapChutiyeHain Whenever you feel you’re a failure in life, think of Tusshhaar Kapoor #feelbetter?
  • RT @mihirfadnavis Also, I would not watch a Total Recall movie that doesn’t have the three boobed lady.
  • RT @gurpreet_bhatia: @karthik82 cngrts. U wl never frgt d date of two reasons. #worldcupwin #poonampandey
  • #LinesNOTinTotalRecall2012 “See you at da party, Richter!”
  • #LinesNOTinTotalRecall2012 “Give dis people AAIR!”
  • #LinesNOTinTotalRecall2012 “Get your ass to Mars”
  • My Canon EOS 550D camera is one year old today! 1 year and 15,825 photos – it’s been a wonderful ride!
  • One year ago, this awesome thing happened: http://timehop.com/m/m6bP
  • RT @Criterion This hand-painted KINDERGARTEN COP poster came all the way from Ghana! http://ow.ly/a0F0t
  • @FakeCriterions Did you see this – http://www.facebook.com/CriterionCollection/posts/321766414555530 and Akira Kurosawa visiting the set: http://ow.ly/a0Dwd

Sickipedia Tweets

More tweets from Sickipediabot on Twitter – from the repository of sick jokes -

  • “You won’t like me when I’m angry. Because I always back up my rage with facts and documented sources.” – The Credible Hulk
  • Doctor: “I can’t figure out what’s wrong you, I think its the heavy drinking” Patient: “Well then, I’ll come back when your sober”
  • So “The Rock” won Wrestlemania. Its a good job for him that “The Scissors” beat “The Paper” in an earlier bout.
  • What do African children get during Easter? Sicker, weaker and thirstier.
  • You never realise what you’ve got till it’s gone. Toilet paper being a good example.
  • Tits are proof that men can focus on two things at once…
  • I used to only do blondes, but then I thought “Fuck you criminal profiler” and did a few brunettes.
  • Must have been a nightmare before facebook, having to ring all your friends to tell them what you’re having for dinner
  • What did the Somalian say to the skeleton? Move over you fat bastard
  • How come I can’t get a mobile reception in my house, yet a terrorist can upload his vids from a cave in Afganistan?
  • I only wear glasses when I’m playing tennis. It’s a non-contact sport.
  • Two hours ago I told my kid to shut his mouth and eat his supper. He’s still sitting at the table trying to figure out how to do it.
  • I thought my wife had Tourette’s, turns out I really am a fucking cunt.
  • My mate posted on Facebook: ‘Spending the night in with my girl’ I couldn’t help but chuckle, My Girl is a shit film.
  • I tried to find love on the Death Star, but I was looking in Alderaan places.

Jesus Tweets

I am following this account on Twitter called “Jesus”, and the tweets from that user are interesting!  Here are some of them -

  • ARE YOU READY FOR A MIRACLE!
  • For the record, seat belts don’t save lives. I do.
  • I didn’t see nothin
  • Back up your data.
  • Was going make my second trip down to the surface to get tech support for my iPhone, but now that Steve is here…

Items of Interest – 18-Mar-12 to 1-Apr-12

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I didn’t have an Items of Interest post last week as I’d been a bit busy with work and other stuff.  So this is a double-sized issue again.  As usual, I’ll cover interesting links and events and then go on to the collection of tweets over the last few days.

Pecha Kucha Night Hyderabad Vol 8

For a while now, I have been talking about Pecha Kucha Night Hyderabad on my blog here (this post) and also on Facebook and Twitter.  Well, Volume 8 of this event happened yesterday (31-Mar-12) and my brother Varun was one of the presenters.  His presentation was called “Know Tools, Create Better” and was about how software tools have aided his creative process.

Varun’s presentation was the first of the evening, and it was very well delivered.  He’d done his homework well – and that was apparent as he was presenting.  There were 7 other speakers at this volume and the event’s MC was Varun Todi (who was one of the presenters in the previous volume).  I was there to cheer my brother, and also took a whole bunch of photos as usual.

Karthik’s Coverage of PKN Hyd Vol 8 [Facebook Album - 60 Images]

You can click the above link to view the album of my photos on Facebook.  This time I carried along my flash and used all my lenses, so there’s more variety in these photos compared to what I’d done at the previous volumes.  My mom and dad also had come for the event, as did a considerably big bunch of friends.  Very nice evening I’d say.

Like last time, the talks were all filmed.  So those of you who missed some of the presentations can see them when the videos are uploaded to YouTube.

This is the latest video that the team uploaded on the PKNHyd YouTube Channel: Behind the Scenes.  This is a sort of “trailer” for PKN Hyd Vol 8.  It’s pretty nice, more so since I appear twice in the video!

A couple of other interesting things about this edition of Pecha Kucha -

  • All hail Open Source!  The computer that was hooked up to the projector was running openSUSE 12.1 and presentation slideshows were run on libreoffice-impress.
  • The speakers’ presentations (PPT files) were converted into MOV videos, so as to preserve the timing of 20 seconds per slide exactly.

Some Glimpses of Hyderabad

Last Saturday I had to go to office to conduct some interviews.  I thought I’d use the opportunity to take some photos – so I took my camera along with me.  I took a bunch of photos on the commute to and back from office.

This is the album on Facebook – Long Weekend gets a bit Shorter.  Only 7 photos but I think they’re interesting.

Above is one of the photos from the set.  In this, you can see the poster for the movie 3, starring Dhanush and Shruti Haasan.  This is the movie featuring the song “Why this Kolaveri Di?” and it was released here in Hyderabad on Friday (30-Mar-12) both in Tamil and Telugu.

Galactica’s Season 2 Premiere

My cousin’s blog Galactica resumed publication of posts on March 27 (he calls it a “Season 2″ Premiere).  A couple of days before, I made this as a promo -

I had taken a print of one of the posters he made, held it up and asked my brother to take this photo.  There’s a bunch of movie reviews you can read.

The budget of the movie was $300 million. For that they might have actually flown the actors to Barsoom.

The above quote is from his review for John Carter.  Other notable reviews: Nicolas Refn’s Drive, Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, Kahaani (features my Vidya Balan drawing), The Artist, Scorsese’s Hugo (which I am yet to see).

He also did one Observer-related post, which Fringe fans should see.

Two Movies – “Agent Vinod” and “Dookudu”

I watched both Agent Vinod and Dookudu in the recent past.  The former was seen on opening day in the theatre, whereas the latter was on DVD.  I posted a bunch of tweets about them, thought I would summarise them here.

Agent Vinod from director Sriram Raghavan intended to be a globetrotting spy/adventure thriller.  I thought it was well shot (the director of photography is C. K. Muraleedharan, who shot the director’s earlier Johnny Gaddaar) and stylish.  However, I wasn’t as entertained by it as I’d hoped – the movie was disappointing not because it was incompetent, but I think they tried cramming too much stuff in.  The plot was needlessly dragged out (it’s essentially a lot of people following what seems to be a MacGuffin initially, and then the movie turns into a more conventional action-thriller) and I felt they set scenes in various locations (Latvia, Somalia, Russia, etc) just because they had the budget for it.  Sometimes felt like 2 movies put together.  There was one ‘long take’ sequence which was very nicely done, shaky cam in some action scenes was distracting.  If it was trimmed down and if the central character was more interesting, it could have actually become a nice franchise.  But I’d say it was an interesting letdown.  6/10

That’s the censorship certificate for the movie.  I posted one for Businessman earlier – and like that one, I found the description funny – “Deleted lovemaking sound in the background (replaced with other sound)”.

Dookudu was a huge hit for its star Mahesh Babu, and is a movie that combines action, sentimental drama and comedy all in one package.  If you know what you are getting into, and don’t expect anything even remotely resembling reality, you will have a lot of fun with this movie.  Somehow, despite being almost 3 hours long, the movie worked, I thought it was very entertaining.  The character of “Cool Babu” was… cool, and there were some great one-liners and very funny lines in the movie (“no one can scratch me”).  One rooftop fight sequence in the movie was filmed opposite Inorbit mall, near Durgam Cheruvu.  7/10

Two Songs, and a trailer for a Trailer

Apparently, the Indian release of Joss Whedon’s The Avengers is going to have a Hindi song, performed by the band Agnee.  This is called “Hello Andheron” and it’s pretty nice.

I have been following Matthew Inman’s site The Oatmeal for quite a while now.  The latest entry there is a sing-along video for a song called “The Motherfucking Pterodactyl”, presented by him and Sarah Donner.  There’s more info on this page (you can download the MP3 too).

In a short while, the trailer for the upcoming Total Recall, starring Colin Farrell and directed by Len Wiseman would come online.  A couple of days back though, we had the below trailer for the trailer -

Links

Sickipediabot Tweets

A collection of tweets from @sickipediabot -

  • April Fool’s Day: The day every newspaper tries to fool readers by sneaking in at least one properly researched, factually correct story.
  • If I had to describe my mathematical ability in just one word, it would be “fucking awful.”
  • What a wonderful feeling it is waking up next to a beautiful woman. Oh well, back home to the wife then.
  • “Knock knock.” “Who’s there?” “Don’t fuck around, Buzz. Who the hell do you think it is?” “Sorry, Neil.”
  • I’ve just had a new car horn fitted. It replicates the sound of a gunshot. You should see how fast the fuckers move out the way now.
  • I committed the perfect crime. I put a mime in an airtight glass box. Nobody suspected a thing.
  • To cut a long story short, use fewer words.
  • My grandad asked me what I wanted for my birthday so I told him a ship in a bottle… Shame his hearing is getting bad
  • I think it would be fantastic to actually see a great white shark before I die. Just not RIGHT before.
  • My girlfriend just said, “You’re far too vague.” I said, “Well it’s a lot better than being that other thing.”

Collection of Tweets

And finally, we arrive at the collection of tweets over the last couple of weeks.

Tweets 1-Apr-12:

  • RT @r_nikki #AprilFool :Go into a public toilet cubicle. Melt dark chocolate in your hand. Extend same hand to next cubicle & ask for tissues
  • RT @AapChutiyeHain waiting for a text from someone you love must feel like the wait for the reply to a leave request email on a sunday evening.
  • RT @anujgurwara So our financial year begins on #FoolsDay. Think about all the politicians and their scams and it makes so much sense. @roshanabbas
  • RT @justkalpana First 20 Facebook employees and where they are now http://www.businessinsider.com/facebooks-first-20-employees-where-are-they-now-2012-2 (via a friend on Facebook)
  • RT @funnyhumour As I sat down next to a bloke he gave me a realy strange look. typical I thought.D bus is empty,yet I still end up sitting next to a nutcase
  • RT @edgarwright This tweet is not real. April Fools.
  • RT @zombeaner Who decided that Shriya Saran should be an actress? Can I slap that person?
  • RT @ManMadeMoon Going to see The Raid tonight. Never been so excited about the prospect of having my arse kicked before!
  • RT @ManMadeMoon Really enjoyed The Raid. Some bloody marvellous death-dealing!
  • RT @zombeaner Where is the Funny Names blog when you need it? #DicksonPoon http://pic.twitter.com/RZDnGfGi
  • @zombeaner Hahaha! Reminds me of the character “Poon Dong” from Crank 2 :)

Tweets 31-Mar-12:

  • RT @AdorianDeck KNIFE TO MEET YOU, SIR! http://bit.ly/H72LqS
  • RT @RGVzoomin “@karthikfou: we in AP have earth hour everyday. Daily 3hrs..”
  • Charging my camera in preparation for @pknhyd Vol 8! My brother’s presentation is first, so I’ll be there early.
  • @PrashantKV My brother & I will probably reach by 6 – 6:30 PM types.
  • Leaving now for @pknhyd Vol 8! All the best Varun for your presentation!
  • RT @pknhyd Ppl have started coming in already!! :)
  • RT @pknhyd Technical team ready with everything! Lights, camera and sound ready! :) #pknhyd http://pic.twitter.com/d8vYUY7a
  • Pecha Kucha Night Hyderabad Vol 8 – Great show and I loved Varun’s presentation – very nicely done!
  • RT @PrashantKV And it all went well! #pknhyd @pknhyd
  • RT @RGVzoomin On the ocassion of save earth campaign I put all the lights on even the ones I normally don’t put on just to be different
  • Very well said! RT @vemana Fuck up as much as you want. Its all fun and learning as long as you are alive and kicking
  • RT @rob_sheridan Holy hell, @trent_reznor was right, The Raid is an INSANE action movie. Like a martial arts Die Hard on steroids. Nicely done @ghuwevans!
  • Reviews http://bit.ly/HuQQSP
  • @rajith_23 Khnrrrr
  • #NowWatching Dario Argento’s “Tenebre” (1982) (Uncut Version)

Tweets 30-Mar-12:

  • RT @Laugh_Riot How do you get four old ladies to say the F word? Have the fifth one say…. BINGO! RT @Yaminikunjur
  • RT @Laugh_Riot What’s the best thing about turning 65?No more calls from insurance salesmen.RT @Yaminikunjur
  • RT @Laugh_Riot An Empty Web Browsing History Is A Sure Sign 0f Guilt..RT @Chhupa_Rustam
  • RT @kunaldgp: @karthik82 check out this one. Even more hilarious. http://itsasmallweb.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/1-1-ways-to-visualize-lyrics/
  • Day 60 #Gym
  • RT @ID_AA_Carmack I’m going to turn on every damn light in protest of Earth Hour. Lighting the darkness is fundamental to humanity’s climb.
  • RT @ajith27 Today’s edition of the Mint is brought to you by Trollo- the mint with the a**ehole #AakarPatel
  • RT @mihirfadnavis “Critics are C.h.u.t.i.y.a.s, I’m a R.E.S.P.E.C.T.E.D filmmaker” – Sajid Khan http://bit.ly/H2vCet . I look fwd to reviewing your film, sir.
  • RT @zombeaner THE RAID inspired numerous “Oh, FUCK”s at the midnight show I attended. Job: Done.
  • RT @kunaldgp Misheard lyrics from popular songs http://itsasmallweb.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/a-girl-with-colitis-goes-by/ #music
  • RT @pkedrosky Those were the days when you could travel from Okinawa to Tokyo with a Hattori Hanzō sword as carry-on.
  • Nice! RT @m_shinoda OK, it’s time. You guys have been so patient, and you deserve a SNEAK PEEK at our new video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ5LpwO-An4&feature=endscreen&NR=1
  • @m_shinoda Great to see you and Chester trying something different with the vocals here. Can’t wait to hear the full track.
  • RT @Galactica_gk One year ago, this awesome thing happened: http://timehop.com/m/R4pX
  • RT @kevinshahinian Great tutorial RT @vincentlaforet: Get your GREEN SCREEN skills on w/ Epic & 5DMKII – free 34 min tutorial http://bit.ly/HnzNCF
  • RT @zombeaner WATCH THIS & HAVE YOUR MIND BLOWN!! RT @twitchfilm First Trailer For Akshay Kumar’s ROWDY RATHORE Blows The Roof Off! http://bit.ly/H1J5WK
  • RT @mihirfadnavis Goddamn it. Watched ‘London Paris NY’ last night. MY FACE NOW SPORTS RED BLISTERS THANKS TO ALL THE FACEPALMS.
  • RT @zombeaner This crazy ass nutball of a movie is now on DVD. Ghost (Hindi): http://bit.ly/HvVFZr via @AddThis
  • RT @the_moonface I need to invest in whatever company prints those little “Made In China” stickers.
  • Teach Teach Baby http://bit.ly/GZQ6nA

Tweets 29-Mar-12:

  • A Catastrophe http://bit.ly/GY9hgi
  • Successfully managed to break the capo I had for my guitar! Now must buy a new one.
  • Acoustic Chords for Linkin Park’s “Numb” – http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/l/linkin_park/numb_acoustic_crd.htm – Em, C, G, D with capo on 2
  • RT @omgthatspunny Those who jump off a bridge in Paris are in Seine. #punny
  • RT @thevirdas Some day…hopefully soon. A whole day will go by, where no one tweets me asking if I actually drink orange juice, and on that day..I shall.
  • Awesome :) RT @achettup @psam WHERE DO YOU BUY YOUR RAHUL DRAVID MEMORABILIA FROM??? WALLMART

Tweets 28-Mar-12:

  • Can’t wait! RT @m_shinoda First single from new Linkin Park album: “Burn It Down” Coming April 16. #LinkinPark2012 http://viddy.it/HhMIYf
  • RT @funnyoneliners My neighbor’s dog is so popular that every time he barks, the neighborhood dogs RT him. RT @Thedudish
  • RT @m_shinoda Who wants some official news on the new single? Stay tuned TOMORROW. #LinkinPark2012
  • RT @Oatmeal Been catching up on the latest episodes of “People standing outside a farmhouse and arguing”– er, I mean Walking Dead. LITTLE TYPO
  • #307843 http://bit.ly/GY92El
  • #307813 http://bit.ly/Hf0daX
  • I totally tweeted this 1 year ago TH @karthik82 “Manos: The Hands of… http://timehop.com/m/fJFi
  • From Twitch: DESPITE THE GODS Goes Behind The Scenes Of Jennifer Lynch’s HISSS Debacle: http://twitchfilm.com/news/2012/03/despite-the-gods-goes-behind-the-scenes-of-jennifer-lynchs-hisss-debacle.php
  • RT @OMGwhatateen Friend: “What are you watching” Me: “Snakes on a plane” Friend: “What’s it about?” Me: “Horses….horses on a boat”
  • RT @josephradhik Ok byeee tweeple! #tweetslikeaceleb
  • RT @omgthatspunny If you don’t pay your exorcist, you get repossessed. #punny
  • Xavier Gens’ “The Divide”. Really want to see it!
  • The “Don 2″ DVD that I ordered from @Flipkart was delivered today.
  • Don 2 is a 2-disc DVD. Disc 2 has a 40 min making of feature. Other than that there are songs and Talaash trailer, which Disc 1 has already.
  • Censor certificate on the DVD says “Don 2 with Additional Scene”. Wikipedia lists the runtime as 146 min, and the DVD is 148 min.
  • I’ll have to watch the “Don 2″ DVD to identify the additional scene that’s been included. Will report back once I do.

Tweets 27-Mar-12:

  • RT @IMDb Happy Birthday, Quentin Tarantino! What’s your favorite Tarantino film? http://imdb.to/GWNHb6 #itstheonethatsaysbadmotherfer
  • RT @Aashu_Salotra Fool you once, Shame on me; Fool you twice, @AapChutiyeHain
  • A GUIDE TO PRONOUNCING ACTORS’ NAMES http://bit.ly/GSTijo
  • I totally tweeted this 1 year ago TH @karthik82 “I’d hate to run up … http://timehop.com/m/bWHA
  • Reservoir Dogs is awesome as it always has been… give Tarantino his standing ovation!
  • RT @27bslash6 “They have an army of lawyers & you don’t even own a suit. Just change it to a cat or something. Everyone likes cats.” http://bit.ly/GRkb7D
  • Inspired by @Galactica_gk I am #NowWatching “Reservoir Dogs”. Awesome movie no matter how many times you see it…

Tweets 26-Mar-12:

  • RT @edgarwright My friend Brandon is stuck. Can you help? http://www.brandongenerator.com/ Please RT.
  • RT @trent_reznor If you’re in the mood for an ACTION film, immediately go see The Raid: Redemption. God DAMN.
  • Fringe S04E12 had a creepy setup, 13 was good, 14 was great… starting 15 now. @Galactica_gk tells me that it’s even more awesome…

Tweets 25-Mar-12:

  • RT @Galactica_gk Reservoir Dogs is the first masterpiece by Quentin Tarantino. Also has an awesome background score. Loved the song- ‘Stuck in the middle’
  • RT @Galactica_gk Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am, Stuck in the middle with you -from Reservoir Dogs..
  • Yesterday caught up with “The Walking Dead”, today it’s “Fringe”. Now on S04E12, will see till S04E15 today.
  • RT @vemana Indian translation of “Mad Men returns(airs) tonight! ” is “Mad Men will be available on torrents tomorrow morning” :)
  • RT @Veronica OK, that was pretty good. RT @kenyatta: What do they call The Hunger Games in France? Battle Royale with Cheese. #PulpFiction
  • “Shiitake Happens” – from Fringe S04E11 :)
  • RT @This_Is_Hari Agar aap @tatadocomo par vishwas karte hain.. toh kasam USB driver ki – @AapChutiyeHain
  • I totally tweeted this 1 year ago TH @karthik82 Our old French text … http://timehop.com/m/BgVg
  • Done with “The Walking Dead”, few more months to go for S03 to begin. Should be awesome, and the prison arc begins.
  • RT @IIFAUpdates Hitman responsible for death of J Bachchan evaluated as schizophrenic; cannot credibly be traced back to A Bachchan
  • If you ask me, TV Release Groups did the right thing by switching to the x264 codec for encoding their rips. Quality is superior to Xvid.
  • I liked South Park S16E02, much better than the first episode of the season. #NowWatching The Walking Dead S02E11

Tweets 24-Mar-12:

  • RT @Galactica_gk #Drive is a lovely movie with awesome background score.
  • RT @JonMwords Please keep tweeting the stats from your runs and workouts. I enjoy learning about new and interesting apps to mute and block forever.
  • RT @headius I learned today that @flipkart, the “Amazon of India”, is MRI+Rails frontend with JRuby+Padrino for the backend. #awesome #rubyconfindia
  • RT @DanaDanger HTTP response codes for dummies. 50x: we fucked up. 40x: you fucked up. 30x: ask that dude over there. 20x: cool.
  • RT @IIFAUpdates BREAKING: Private Investigator hired by J Bachchan earlier this month to follow husband A Bachchan killed by sniper in gorilla costume
  • RT @IIFAUpdates: @ankash1009 Sorry about this, this is just for a committee for Model UN at our university – we didn’t mean to have you killed or anything
  • RT @omgthatspunny A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’ #punny
  • Btw: the last tweet about “Slumdog” director Anurag Kashyap being killed was retweeted by @ankash1009 himself :) now following @IIFAUpdates
  • RT @IIFAUpdates BREAKING: “Slumdog Mil.” director Anurag Kashyap killed! Deep connection between Bollywood/mafia puts all in danger.
  • RT @omgthatspunny How do you get holy water? Boil the hell out of it. #punny

Tweets 23-Mar-12:

  • RT @Galactica_gk Agent Vinod is one of the worst Hindi movies ever made!! It’s the interval. :( (
  • RT @poonamkhatri: @PunsNProses If he’s a washer, he’d be called Detergent Vinod.
  • RT @PunsNProses If he is in a hurry, he’ll be called Urgent Vinod. #Sorry
  • RT @Galactica_gk Going for 2 movies back2back: The Hunger games at 5:50 (Finally) and Agent Vinod at 9:45.
  • RT @josephradhik Photo tip: Stop looking at EXIF Info. It teaches almost nothing but lusting after more gear or making excuses for why you can’t take a shot.
  • RT @Nokia_Connects 12MP video power – the Nokia N8 http://nokia.ly/GNirQJ ^TH
  • Catching up on “The Walking Dead”, watched S02E08 and S02E09 yesterday. 4 episodes left to watch for me.
  • I totally tweeted this 1 year ago TH @karthik82 RT @krishashok: #Fac… http://timehop.com/m/8Ip9
  • RT @thehorrorchick Out tomorrow- This may be my first 5-star review ever! Raid: Redemption, The (2012) http://bit.ly/yQv7kG @TheRaidUS

Tweets 22-Mar-12:

  • The Pirate Bay Attacks Censorship With Low Orbit Server Drones http://bit.ly/FPkSlE
  • Michael Bay responds to fans about the TMNT movie’s alien origin http://bit.ly/GJj4f4
  • I plan to buy this. RT @rj_white The new Aziz Ansari special. RT @scharpling: Oh, and buy it at http://is.gd/OTjFej. Five bucks.
  • The Canon EOS 5D Mark III is launched in India. Price is 2.5 lacs INR for body plus 24-105 lens.
  • RT @funnyoneliners Somewhere, a smart Laser eye surgeon has an office full of brochures that are all slightly out of focus RT @funnyhumour
  • RT @supaarwoman Chalo yaar sab log ek ek DSLR kharid lo aur apna Photography page banalo facebook pe.
  • Brilliant stuff! RT @BoingBoing @MouthTapedShut Sony pirates itself with “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” disc http://dlvr.it/1LTczl
  • RT @TheBookofBatman Every house is built by someone, but the Batman is the builder of the Batcave. (Pennyworth 3:4)

Tweets 21-Mar-12:

  • DSLR Basics: Stops and Metering http://bit.ly/GFpBWI (by PhotoExtremist)
  • RT @bobbyllew Top notch Ted Talk on Piracy Maths. Very funny. http://youtu.be/GZadCj8O1-0
  • RT @rj_white Wild Orkut #socialmovies
  • The Facebook of Eli #socialmovies
  • RT @funnyoneliners 7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People 1. Twitter 2. Twitter 3.Twitter 4. Twitter 5. Twitter 6. Twitter 7. Twitter RT @marebytes

Tweets 20-Mar-12:

  • RT @GDBALA 10 Things to Leave Off Your Résumé http://tinyurl.com/7pl7ccu
  • RT @m_shinoda #HappyBDayChesterBennington
  • Day 55 #Gym
  • RT @josephradhik RT @mehrzee: RT @tyrantasorus: Whats common between tight jeans and cheap hotels? No ballroom. @mehrzee
  • RT @reiinamoto The genius of Saul Bass. Proves adding shadow and 3D to a logo ALWAYS makes it worse. http://goo.gl/pSdoD
  • RT @rj_white From James Ellroy’s recent television program: Johnny Stompanato, Lana Turner and a guy on his cell phone in a mirror. http://is.gd/Xg4xaC
  • RT @RGVzoomin You can be on the right track nd still get hit by a train!
  • RT @omgthatspunny What does a mermaid wear to math class? An Algae-bra! #punny

Tweets 19-Mar-12:

  • RT @omgthatspunny What did the buffalo say to his son when he left for college? Bison #punny
  • RT @rj_white Yesterday, I walked past someone explaining the phrase “Epic fail” to a child who had asked about why it was on the person’s Smurfs t-shirt.
  • RT @thedavesherrill I’ve noticed girls like to wear shirts that say “I Love Nerds” but never want to hear all 45 ways I would have improved the Watchmen movie.
  • RT @simonpegg Paul was NOT the third film in the so called ‘Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy’. World’s End will be the final part.

Tweets 18-Mar-12:

  • RT @planet5D #cinema5D Zeiss 15mm T2.8 – an impressive new lens, but it ’s unaffordable #HDSLRnews http://t.co/oPsiWpig
  • RT @clientsfh “I understand that you don’t work on weekends, but I have a very special circumstance. I spoke with my…” http://t.co/kwRaAcZc
  • RT @ilovetypography My next tweet will be profoundly typographic.
  • RT @ilovetypography The secret to RTs: ‘cats’, ‘sex’, & ‘free fonts’ — working on a free font called Sex Cat.
  • RT @planet5D #planet5D The Canon EOS 5D Mark II mates with a 93 year old view camera #HDSLRnews http://t.co/zPjOELHt
  • RT @funnyoneliners Looking up “obsolescence” in the Encyclopedia Britannica. RT @davio1962
  • RT @ravi_mohan A journey of a thousand miles starts with an Amazon order.
  • RT @PrashantKV The best part of what I do, is what I do!
  • RT @funnyoneliners The Cop: “How do you explain all the cannabis in your loft?” The Suspect: “Someone must have planted it there.”
  • RT @predominant “My mom called it Mozzarella Firefox”

And that wraps up this update for now, see you next time.

John Carter 3D

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John Carter is an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, from Disney Pictures and directed by Andrew Stanton.

I watched the movie in 3D on opening night here at Hyderabad.  Having never read the source material, I initially wasn’t too keen on watching the movie.  The trailers seemed interesting and I’d read that they’d spent $250 million on making this.  But I was worried that it would be a bunch of effects that still managed to be boring.

On the other hand, I’d got some good feedback about the movie from friends, and probably the strongest selling point for me, was that it was directed by Andrew Stanton, a Pixar animation director (Wall-E) making a transition to live action.  Another recent example of such a thing was Brad Bird (The Incredibles) who did Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and I absolutely loved that movie.  So, I went ahead and booked my ticket for the 11 PM show.

The movie opens with Edgar Rice Burroughs (Daryl Sabara – I’ll always remember him as Juni Cortez, one of the original Spy Kids) being called in by his uncle’s lawyer.  His uncle – John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) – has mysteriously died, and has left some personal effects and instructions for Edgar.  Among the items is Carter’s journal, which forms the narrative for the story.

Carter is a soldier with the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.  A mysterious medallion transports him to a place called Barsoom – the planet we know as Mars.  On Barsoom, due to lower gravity, Carter is sort of like a Superman (who can “leap tall buildings in a single bound”), and he is taken in by the Tharks (a four handed species indigenous to Barsoom).

There is a conflict between the societies of Helium and Zodanga, and the outcome would have implications for all of Barsoom.  The titular Princess of Mars (actually Princess of Helium), Dejah Thoris (Lily Collins) is at the center of this conflict – due to diplomatic reasons, her father has promised her hand in marriage to the slimy Zodanga prince Sab Than (300‘s Dominic West – who seems to always play this type of slimy character!).

Once circumstances bring John Carter and Dejah Thoris together, the reluctant Civil War solider realises that he has an important role to play in Barsoom’s fate.

As you can probably make out, there is a lot of meat here (characters, story elements), which necessitates quite a bit of exposition.  This made the first half a little sluggish for me but I guess the movie could not have done without that.  It was at least more interesting to me than the Economics / Politics stuff in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (which frankly, totally disinterested me whenever that was up on screen).

As John Carter went on, I quite enjoyed it, and it built up to a very satisfying ending.  The action scenes were nicely done.  There is a tendency for movies to throw in a lot of effects into the mix but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the audience will be thrilled.  This movie I think didn’t fall into that trap.

Imagination is certainly not in short supply here – while we tend to have a cold, jaded view of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs and the filmmakers have portrayed it as a rich human-like world.  The visuals in the movie were great.  The director of photography here is Dan Mindel, who also shot J J Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek.  In fact, though I watched it in 3D, I felt the extra dimension didn’t actually add anything, the visuals would have worked well enough in 2D.  The CGI is well done but at certain points of time, I felt the uncanny valley still was yet to be overcome.

Another J J Abrams / Star Trek ‘crewmember’ returning here is composer Michael Giacchino.  The music was nice but not memorable (in my opinion) like Giacchino’s other works.

All said and done, I enjoyed John Carter, and especially by the end I think the movie did capture a sense of wonder.  Only, as I mentioned in the beginning, I have no familiarity or affinity towards the source material, so this being my first exposure to this character, I liked the movie but wasn’t necessarily blown away by it.

Rating: 7/10

Additional Notes

  • When I think of Mars, the first movie that comes to mind is the awesome 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger classic Total Recall, directed by the crazy Dutchman Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Basic Instinct).  So if there was ever a Total Recall / John Carter mashup, one line from that movie would probably be “Get your ass to Barsoom”!
  • Another thing that comes to mind when one mentions Mars is the classic game Doom.  I wonder what the people of Barsoom would refer to their moons as (was it mentioned in John Carter?  I may have missed it).  We know the moons as Phobos and Deimos, and I know this because of Doom (I even released a Doom level called “The Other Side of Phobos“).
  • As far as I can make out, the font used in the posters for John Carter is Akzidenz-Grotesk.  This was released in 1896, which is a few years after the events of this movie take place.
  • And finally, if you want to read the original Edgar Rice Burroughs novel A Princess of Mars, you can do so on Project Gutenberg.

Kahaani

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Kahaani is a 2012 thriller from director Sujoy Ghosh.  It was released in theatres on 9 March, and I watched it the next day.

If you are going to watch this movie, it’s better to go in knowing as little as possible about the story.  Therefore, in my review I’m not going to reveal much more about the plot than what you can already gather from the movie’s trailer.

The movie opens with Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan), a pregnant woman, arriving in Kolkata during the Durga Puja festival.  She has come here from London.  Her taxi driver points out that most people head home, or go to a hotel, on arrival in a city.  No one so far has ever asked him to drive them directly to a police station – which is what Vidya does.

Vidya is searching for her husband, Arnab Bagchi.  Arnab had come to Kolkata from London on official business a few weeks before.  But when all contact is lost with him suddenly, the worried Vidya comes to Kolkata herself to find him.  A young police officer Satyoki a.k.a. Rana (Parambrata Chatterjee) helps her in her search for her husband – but it appears that the two are looking for a ghost – Arnab seems to have vanished off the face of the Earth.  Just what is going on?

The movie sets up an intriguing mystery and doesn’t let go till the very end, constantly introducing plot turns and keeping the viewer engrossed.  The execution is excellent – Vidya Balan carries the film brilliantly and her character is one of the most interesting protagonists I’ve ever seen in a movie.  Think back – how many movies can you name which feature a pregnant woman as the heroine?

Not only her, the acting from the rest of the cast is also good.  The characters are also interesting and the good guys are likeable.  The movie is nicely shot and captures the feel of Kolkata (and of the Durga Puja) well, and when the ending comes and leaves you with your mouth open, you’ll realise that this is a lean and efficient thriller, with no unnecessary scenes.  I really liked that the setting and Vidya Balan’s character were all actually integral to the story and not just gimmicks.

The movie features a nice rendition of the song “Ekla Cholo Re” with vocals by Amitabh Bachchan.

When I saw the trailer, I was reminded of Anurag Kashyap’s That Girl in Yellow Boots, since that movie also had a woman searching for someone in an alien city.  Both movies seem to have been shot in a handheld, almost vérité style.  But then, having watched the Kahaani, I can safely say that this is a totally different beast.

Overall, a very nicely done movie and a must-watch, in theatre.

Rating: 9/10

Further Notes

  • It’s not too often that you see a Chief Minister thanked in the opening credits of a movie, this one has it.
  • The movie has some relatively realistic depiction of using computers – unlike other movies where one might find some made-up OS, here it’s Windows XP that is shown, and certain other elements that don’t require you to suspend disbelief too far.  Also, realistic use of actual Adobe Photoshop seen!
  • The photography for the publicity campaign is credited to fashion photographer Dabboo Ratnani.
  • As I’d mentioned in my review for Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, the publicity campaign for this movie was handled by the agency Marching Ants.  In this instance too, the art director is Raj Khatri who I am following on Facebook and on deviantART, and it was cool to see his name in Kahaani‘s end credits.  (poster sample)

My first digital artwork – a drawing of Vidya Balan from this movie

When I installed Ubuntu (as I mentioned in an earlier post) on my computer, I noticed that the System Settings page mentioned configuration options for a Wacom Drawing Tablet.  And I happen to own a Wacom Bamboo Fun graphics tablet, which was a gift that I’d never made use of till now.

So I thought I’d use this as an excuse to draw something based on this movie, and I did.  Below is the result – perhaps not that great but I think it’s decent for a first attempt.

I did this one using the GIMP.  And as is usual for me, I used a screenshot from the trailer as a reference image.  Below is the way that I did it – had the reference screenshot open and then painted with the tablet on a blank file.

It was not that easy to do, I still need to get comfortable with drawing this way.  The GIMP seemed to have limited options for altering the brush sensitivity etc (or maybe I didn’t explore enough).  I will try installing the tablet on Windows and use it in Photoshop next.  Digital art should be something interesting to try out!

The Artist

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I watched the Oscar-nominated movie The Artist yesterday.  This is a romantic drama presented in black & white, and as a (mostly) silent film.  It is written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius and stars Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo.

It is Hollywood (or rather, Hollywoodland), 1927 – George Valentin (Dujardin) is the star of Kinograph Studios’ silent film productions.  After a screening of one of Valentin’s films, the star is signing autographs and getting photographed by the press.  A young woman, Peppy Miller (Bejo) bumps into him, and the star poses for a photo with her.  This encounter inspires the girl to audition at Kinograph, and she is initially featured as a dancer in one of the films, but soon rises to become a star in her own right.

As years pass, sound films make their appearance, and Kinograph decides to stop production of silent films.  They sign on Peppy Miller as their new ‘fresh face’.  Valentin though does not believe that sound films have a future.  Will his pride lead to his downfall?

It’s always interesting to see this type of “film about the film industry” (the most recent one I saw before this being The Dirty Picture) – a common thread running through them is that one can fall as quickly as one can rise, and that nothing is permanent.

The Artist is a wonderfully well-made movie – the photography, production design, costumes and music all serve to recreate the look and feel of a silent film brilliantly.  You’ll notice that it is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio as opposed to being in widescreen (check this Wikipedia article on the Academy Ratio).  The acting is terrific by all, including by a dog who steals the show every time he is on screen!  The movie is not 100% silent – as you will see, there are some very clever uses of sound and music.

Apart from the technical aspects, it’s a very charming movie, and if you are watching it, you should enjoy it on a big screen.

Rating: 8/10

Note: As far as I could tell, the typography in the movie is respectful to the period it is set in.  Look at the title of the movie, for example.  It looks like it really came from an old movie.  This use of old-type fonts in a title sequence reminded me of Quentin Tarantino, who used a similar style in Kill Bill Vol 2, and oddly enough, Rob Zombie, whose The Haunted World of El Superbeasto had classic film-inspired titles.

Someone like Mark Simonson would have a field day analysing this movie from a “type” point of view (he’s written a number of very interesting articles on his site about uses of fonts in movies – which are accurate in some instances but not so much in others, like this example from Back to the Future Part III).

Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu

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I don’t normally watch romantic comedies, but I saw Shakun Batra’s Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu on opening day (10-Feb-12) with two friends of mine at PVR Cinemas at Chandigarh.  I’d started writing this review on the day I was travelling back from Chandigarh to Hyderabad, but didn’t get around to completing it.

The movie is still in theatres, so I am not too late in posting this, I guess!  A few days later, and the movie will be out on DVD!

The movie stars Imran Khan as Rahul Kapoor, a 25 year old architect who lives in Las Vegas.  His parents (played by Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah) have planned every aspect of his life (career, relationships) – and he has never gone against their wishes.  The movie’s plot is put into motion with Rahul losing his job.  He starts attending therapy sessions, and at one of these visits, he meets Riana Braganza (Kareena Kapoor).

Riana works as a hair stylist, but she is also out of a job, and has just got out of a relationship.  She mistakes Rahul for a stalker sent by her ex-boyfriend.  When she realises that she was wrong, she tries to make it up to Rahul and they meet in the evening on Christmas Eve.

Riana is free in all the ways that Rahul is not – and she tries to get Rahul to unwind.  As a result, they get totally wasted – and to their horror, realise the next morning that they’ve gotten married to each other at one of those wedding chapels where couples do foolish things like this without thinking.

They decide to get the marriage annulled – but it will take a few days for the paperwork to go through, and in that time, as you’d expect, the two become close to each other.  I thought the movie handled the relationship between the two really well.  Such movies probably have a tendency to turn into a sappy, sugary love story (then again, since I don’t watch many such movies, I can’t say this as a fact).  This one didn’t, it was funny and sweet, and nicely acted.  Being only 110 min long it doesn’t overstay its welcome and is easy to watch.

The movie’s songs are by Amit Trivedi and Amitabh Bhattacharya, and they’re good, as is the music score by Amit Trivedi.  The movie looked very nice (director of photography is  David MacDonald), it looked colourful without being garish and loud.

I had a lot of fun with it – while it’s not absolutely essential that it be watched on a big screen, you’ll be able to enjoy the cinematography and production design better that way.  If you’ve not got the chance to see it in the theatre, you can catch it on DVD once it’s out.

Rating: 8/10

Camera Spotting:

  • Riana presents Rahul with a classic-looking camera in the movie.  It looked like a Leica but since I don’t know about older cameras I couldn’t identify it exactly.  The camera’s brand was not visible on screen.
  • Towards the end, Rahul appears to be using a DSLR.  Again that appears on screen very briefly and it’s a wide shot so I couldn’t make out what type of camera it was.  I’ll look again once the movie is on DVD.
  • The camera is probably a Canon EOS 5D Mark II.  The reason I say this is, I checked out two videos on YouTube after my friend told me about them – apparently, during the filming of the movie, Imran Khan took candid photos of his co-star Kareena Kapoor and had an exhibition of them – Video 1, Video 2.

As evidenced by the red border on the strap, the lack of a popup flash on the camera, and the overall size of the camera, this is a 5D Mark II with an external battery grip.  It’s probably the same camera that his character was using at the end of the movie.

The bright poster designs for the movie are done by the firm Marching Ants, and they were designed by Raj Khatri who also did the posters for The Dirty Picture, Players and the upcoming Agent Vinod and Kahaani.  You can view his work on deviantART here and connect with him on Facebook here.

Items of Interest – 29-Jan-12 to 5-Feb-12

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Like I did some days back, here is a collection of interesting things that I linked to, or tweeted, in the past week.

Tweets and Retweets

  • 5-Feb-12: RT @funnyhumour My superbowl.com site has been getting loads of hits this week. It seems people are finally appreciating the sheer quality of my owl
  • 5-Feb-12: We want a better quality JPG :) RT @MouthTapedShut The Girl with the #DragonTattoo Blu-ray/DVD cover: http://tmblr.co/ZuxP2xFvR_w_ #MOUTHTAPEDSHUT
  • 5-Feb-12: RT @josephradhik @gottabreakfree EPIC!! RT @RobKH: “Guy Pearce in Memento.” “Guy who?” “Guy.” “Who’s there?” “Knock Knock.”
  • 5-Feb-12: Can’t imagine what that would be like! RT @Lozatron_ I am tireder than a tired person who is very tired.
  • 5-Feb-12: RT @mihirfadnavis RT @SethMacFarlane: If you say “an historic”, you’re probably an hasshole.
  • 5-Feb-12: RT @Galactica_gk It’s so much more darker than the Swedish Version. David Fincher is a genius. #TheGirlWithDragonTattooEnglish
  • 4-Feb-12: Expert Mode http://t.co/gjUHQnMM
  • 3-Feb-12: RT @BaggadBilla Guess karo mein kaun hoon? (text from unknown number) me: @AapChutiyeHain
  • 3-Feb-12: RT @R_beccaBlair Life is too short to give your time to rude people. =)
  • 2-Feb-12: RT @atulkasbekar Lol! http://t.co/2wGpQcUN
  • 2-Feb-12: RT @rob_sheridan @jonjensen0 … Unicode 6.1 is out, and it includes this amazing new character: PILE OF POO (U+1F4A9) http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/1f4a9/index.htm
  • 2-Feb-12: RT @funnyhumour I’ve recently stopped using products that are tested on animals. My dog hasn’t had a meal in 2 days.
  • 1-Feb-12: Angel Heart – Atmospheric, dark and creepy horror/thriller. Mickey Rourke and De Niro are excellent. 8/10
  • 1-Feb-12: RT @funnyoneliners @the_moonface Me: I’d like to report a disturbance. Police Dispatcher: Okay, where sir Me: In the force, I can feel it.
  • 1-Feb-12: Nice review… RT @Galactica_gk Män Som Hatar Kvinnor http://t.co/YprUN9EF
  • 1-Feb-12: Total Carnage http://t.co/fC0UoYkw
  • 1-Feb-12: RT @RGVzoomin “@sirasri: its not the dips u take, its the depth which counts.. Its not the steps u climb, its the height which matters.”
  • 1-Feb-12: RT @designersays RT @VerifiedDrunk: I wouldn’t make a very good doctor cause I don’t give a fuck how you feel.
  • 1-Feb-12: RT @funnyoneliners 10 times out of 9, you’ll find me exaggerating about something. RT @clarkekant
  • 1-Feb-12: “A Room Filled with an Obnoxious Amount of Money” http://t.co/tdR1OLsw
  • 31-Jan-12: RT @funnyoneliners Sure you can follow your heart… just don’t forget to take your brain with you. RT @newfylover1
  • 31-Jan-12: Agreed 100%, Creamstone = Joy of Ice Cream RT @vemana Creamstone ice cream has been had. Joy of ice cream has been rediscovered.
  • 31-Jan-12: RT @HaaaNaaahh RT @funnyorfact #WeAllHaveThat one song in our playlist which we always skip, but never delete.
  • 31-Jan-12: RT @RGVzoomin “@Praveenraj_: We all damn well know that the whole world’s a stage, but none of us have a fucking idea what the script is?.”
  • 30-Jan-12: Awesome poster! RT @ResidentEvil Evil Goes Global. Fall 2012. #ResidentEvil http://t.co/p7eJpqgt
  • 30-Jan-12: Atari and Gaming History http://t.co/XcOnai54
  • 30-Jan-12: RT @zombeaner David Fincher Refuses to Cut ‘Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,’ India Release Canceled http://t.co/Du4oBlO3
  • 30-Jan-12: A nice hot cup of tea at the right moment (when you feel you need it the most) = heaven.
  • 30-Jan-12: RT @josephradhik RT @Koquettish: He asked her to unzip. She downloaded winRAR. #AwkwardErotica
  • 29-Jan-12: Before Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross’ In the Hall of the Mountain King from “The Social Network”, there’s another version I used to listen to.
  • 29-Jan-12: That is “In the Hall of the Mountain Thing” by Mark Anthony Klem. I have a MIDI file of it along with some of his Doom music.
  • 29-Jan-12: I am not able to find a proper link / download of it now, to link & share. I don’t know whether I should upload the MIDI file that I have.
  • 29-Jan-12: That MIDI file of Mark Klem’s “In the Hall of the Mountain Thing” I have is a whopping 11 KB in size and was downloaded on 26-Apr-01.
  • 29-Jan-12: Nice! RT @rajturl Didn’t know @ankash1009 had something to do with Talaash, ‘additional dialogues’. It makes it even more awesome …
  • 28-Jan-12: And a couple of days back, I registered the domain KarthikAbhiram.com. Right now it just points to Karthik82.com.

Other Links

  • Timehop – Timehop is a neat web-based application that integrates with your social networking accounts (I linked it to my Facebook and Twitter accounts), pulls past updates from them, and sends you an email on what you did a year ago.  For example a year ago, I posted this on Facebook.
  • Lee Bermejo’s Rorschach – They are apparently doing a set of Watchmen prequels with some big names attached to the project.  This is Lee Bermejo’s cover for Rorschach, and the story is written by Brian Azzarello.
  • Image Quality Comparison – Nokia N8, iPhone, Samsung Galaxy SII – Interesting comparison of the cameras on these smartphones.  According to that page, the N8 is the winner (yay!).
  • Ultraviolet FAQ – No, not the Milla Jovovich movie, Ultraviolet is a system of electronic media distribution, kind of like a non-physical DVD/Bluray.  I looked this up since the recently-revealed cover artwork for the Bluray release of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo mentions Ultraviolet and I didn’t know what that was.
  • India’s Incredibly Cool Hand-Drawn Movie Posters – These are awesome!  Done by a Bangalore-based artist.
  • Two wonderful pieces of art from deviantART – A Study in Paper by ~ldhenson and Television by ~boo21190.
  • Star Wars Rock Out – I was looking for a trope to mention in my Chronicle review post, and came across this.
  • Kevin Smith on Superman – An old one, but worth re-sharing.  A 20 minute excerpt from one of Kevin Smith’s shows, where he talks about his interaction with producer Jon Peters when he was given the chance to work on a Superman script.  Very funny.
  • Sherlock Holmes – Discombobulate Music Video – Amazing video!  I didn’t know this existed till my friend Kartheek told me about it.
  • Observer Series – My cousin Girish and I are big fans of the show Fringe.  He’s been posting about references to “Observers” in his school notes and various other places.  Four posts so far – One, Two, Three, Four.

Speaking of my cousin, his blog Galactica will be on hiatus for about a month.  I was mentioning that this is like a break between two seasons of a TV show.  This led to us creating posters advertising Season 2 of his blog.  This poster by him has got to be the best one of the lot -

I thought this was a very clever piece of work.  The design and text recalls the poster of The Social Network, and the background is from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  Two David Fincher references in one poster?  Class!  Click the image above to see more of the posters – one more by him and one simple poster by me.

On Saturday evening, I attended Pecha Kucha Night Hyderabad Vol 7, which I will write about in detail in a separate post.

Panjaa DVD – Camera Spotting and other observations

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The Pawan Kalyan movie Panjaa is out on DVD from Volga Videos.  I’d seen the movie earlier on an IMAX screen and enjoyed it a lot.  Therefore, when the DVD was released, I bought it immediately (on Friday – when I went to see Chronicle at Prasad’s).

When I’d seen the movie earlier, I posted a few tweets about a couple of cameras I spotted in the movie.  I’m able to show you now, thanks to screenshots from the DVD.

There – you see it?  That’s a Canon EOS 5D Mark II being used to photograph Brahmanandam’s character Paparayudu.  The camera appears to have a 50mm f1.8 II lens mounted on it.  You can click the image above to see a bigger picture.

This screenshot is from slightly earlier on in the same scene -

Here, the camera appears to have a bigger lens mounted on it.  I can’t confirm this though, since it’s difficult to make out in this screenshot.  Perhaps a shot from a Bluray disc would make things clearer.

Either way, a 5D Mark II is an impressive choice of photography gear for a village!  The way the guy has the strap on is also cool.

Earlier in the film we see something more retro – a Yashica Twin Lens Reflex camera.  I don’t know much about classic cameras so can’t identify the exact camera.  But I believe something like this was seen in Agneepath also.

Another photography-related observation from the end credits -

The Publicity Campaign Photography for the movie is by Sharad Haksar.  The reason I know that name, is that I attended this event called BlogCamp back in 2006 in Chennai, and one of the most interesting presentations I got to see at that event was Sharad Haksar’s presentation on photography!  Check these two old blog posts: mine, Varun’s.

I enjoyed the movie greatly, and I thought the cinematography (by P S Vinod) was very good.  The “Veyira Cheyyi” song sequence is artistically shot -

This is a nice “in motion” example of what a lot of photographers do in their still photos – use a very shallow depth of field and cross-processing.  I am not sure if the DOF effect here was achieved in camera, but either way, it looks great on screen.

Volga Videos have released the DVD with what appears to be ‘variant covers’.  I saw at least two different covers at Sangeet Sagar, where I bought it.  I was actually tempted to buy two copies of the movie just to have the two different covers but I stopped myself.

The back of the DVD cover contained something interesting -

It says “Punchline: the war within”.  Isn’t that supposed to be tagline, since a punchline is something that comes at the end of a joke!  Genre is “Action/Love” and the final part will make one say whisky-tango-foxtrot: “Type: Straight”.  Really?  Straight?  As opposed to what other type?

The top of the cover also advertises “The Ultimate Guide to Anamorphic Widescreen for Everyone!” which would lead one to believe that there’s a documentary about Anamorphic Widescreen on the disc.  But sadly, that is not the case and all we get is the typical warning that tells you to switch to letterbox mode if you have a 4:3 TV.

I wasn’t aware that the NTSC format had an official logo.  After I posted the above photo to Facebook, my friend pointed out that the logo appears to be the result of a Google search for NTSC.  That is actually taken from a page titled Nuclear Technology Safety Center.

I also bought the DVD of the Mahesh Babu movie Dookudu at the same time – that is also released by Volga Videos and is also labelled as being “Straight”, and that also has the above NTSC logo.

These DVDs cost Rs 149 each (if you buy them in Andhra Pradesh, it’s Rs 155 in other states).  It’s worth getting them.  The covers of both discs indicate that Vedam would be released on DVD soon – a long wait considering that the movie was released in 2010, but as that is a very well done movie, it’s a DVD I’ll definitely be buying.

Chronicle

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Chronicle from director Josh Trank is a “found footage” movie that explores what would happen if a ‘normal’ person was given superpowers.

Andrew (Dane DeHaan) is a shy and troubled youth with a sick mother and an abusive father.  He decides to document his life by recording video – that’s how the movie starts.  Through the footage that Andrew records, we encounter the other two main characters in the story – Andrew’s cousin Matt (Alex Russell), who is Andrew’s only friend, and Steve (Michael Jordan) who is running for President at their high school.

The three encounter a mysterious force that grants them telekinetic powers.  The remainder of the movie shows us what they do with these powers – told mostly from the point of view of Andrew’s camera.  If a ‘normal’ person is given telekinetic powers, would that person use it to do goody-goody stuff?  No, they wouldn’t – and that’s what Trank’s take on the subject matter is, which results in an engaging and very well done movie, that does turn quite dark as it progresses.

Coming in at less than 90 minutes, Chronicle actually covers a lot of ground (origin and a whole story arc for the characters), and builds up really well.  It’s well written (screenplay by Max Landis, who is John Landis’s son) and the acting is very good.

The standout performance for me was from Dane DeHaan as Andrew, who was really believable in the role.  Towards the end, the movie reminded me of Akira, though the two are not related, Andrew’s character does have shades of Tetsuo from that movie.

The visual effects are very well done – they blend in very well with the supposedly ‘filmed’ footage.

The film takes a lot of artistic license with the “found footage” aspect (I don’t suppose the filmmakers have officially claimed it as a “found footage” movie, have they?).

Early on I suppose it could pass off as footage that was ‘found’ as is, but later on it freely breaks from that mould, since we’re shown footage from more than one camera.  Therefore, what is shown in the movie cannot possibly be found footage, as anyone who’s edited video would tell you.  If what we’re shown is true, much of the film is supposed to be shot with a Canon HD camera but I doubt that it would produce shallow depth-of-field effects like what we see.

In reality the movie was shot with Arri Alexa cameras (so yes, it was shot digitally) with Cooke S4 and Angenieux Optimo Lenses (technical info courtesy IMDb).

Of course, complaining about the video aspect not being plausible, in a movie about people who get telekinetic powers is needless nitpicking, I realise (see Bellisario’s Maxim)!  So it’s best not to think too much about that and simply enjoy it as a unique storytelling device employed by director Trank.

Overall a very nicely done movie.  Definitely worth watching and Josh Trank is a name to keep in mind!

Rating: 8/10

Note: I saw this at Prasad’s, entered the hall in time to see the trailer of This Means War (first time I’m hearing of this movie – it’s directed by McG).  My friend informed me that I missed the trailer they showed before that – the one for Prometheus!  Granted, it’s the same one I’ve already seen dozens of times, but it would have been awesome to see it on a big screen.

Another Note: Praise to whoever decided to release this movie in India, the same praise as I would attribute to the people who released Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive in India.  Drive was also shot (Newton Thomas Sigel) digitally, with Arri Alexa cameras.  Apart from the lenses mentioned above, the IMDb page lists Zeiss Master Prime Lenses as being used.

Collection of Tweets – end Dec-11 till today

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This is a collection of tweets from me and others that I retweeted, between 30-Dec-11 and today.  I thought I’d post these on a regular basis to archive these links.  The below set essentially recaps the important stuff that I posted or shared this month.

  • 28-Jan-12: #NowDownloading Romero’s Night of the Living Dead 1968 in 720p HD – http://t.co/UTyI9Qn6 – MP4 file is 1 GB in size. 1080p is also there.
  • 28-Jan-12: Twitter’s Awful But Amazing Recruitment Video [Video] http://t.co/gg42Ad4b
  • 28-Jan-12: If you run a self-hosted WordPress blog, search for and install the Jetpack plugin – http://jetpack.me – it enables advanced plugins.
  • 28-Jan-12: MOVIE REVIEW: Josh Trank’s Chronicle (2012) http://t.co/rcCQRMig
  • 27-Jan-12: Agneepath – Acting was good, especially Hrithik’s. But I felt it was too long and had too much exaggerated drama. 6/10
  • 26-Jan-12: Famous Photographers With Their Even More Famous Photographs [Photography] http://t.co/Jj6HClur
  • 26-Jan-12: Is This the Canon 5D Mark III? [Cameras] http://t.co/C8ZZD9yl
  • 26-Jan-12: RT @Galactica_gk The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo not releasing in India as David Fincher isn’t willing to cut 3 scenes in the movie.
  • 24-Jan-12: You should get married soon. Or else.. http://t.co/AnEZEzj1
  • 22-Jan-12: Underworld: Awakening 3D – Decent & good looking movie with stylish action scenes. Fun while it lasts but you won’t remember it later. 7/10
  • 22-Jan-12: Drawing face-off between @justkalpana and her son: the results: http://pic.twitter.com/oWzIbGDU (mommy) and http://pic.twitter.com/ngziMePf (son)
  • 21-Jan-12: “‘The Raid’ features some of the bloodiest, impressive, and most inventive action sequences in recent memory” – http://www.movieline.com/2012/01/20/sundance-everything-youve-heard-about-indonesion-actioner-the-raid-is-true/
  • 21-Jan-12: RT @OfficialBrookeT Life is too short to be sitting around talking about how short life is. (:
  • 20-Jan-12: Just bought “The Illuminator: Access To Universal Intelligence by Rajith Rajappan” from @flipkart http://t.co/HqvibO7Q
  • 19-Jan-12: RT @Galactica_gk Really America?? Really? RT @denofgeek CBS orders contemporary Sherlock Holmes show http://t.co/pOrydLzU
  • 19-Jan-12: Sad news if this is so… AICN: Are We Getting A PG-13 EXPENDABLES 2? http://bit.ly/xFBc6C
  • 18-Jan-12: RT @mihirfadnavis I like Len Wiseman – Die Hard 4 was great. But the Total Recall remake looks like it won’t last.. *puts on sunglasses* #TwoWeeks. *YEAAAAA*
  • 17-Jan-12: Five directors and their questionable filmmaking techniques http://t.co/BM4DSkjb
  • 17-Jan-12: What makes Prince Of Persia so enduringly popular? http://bit.ly/xoO43g Pls note @psam @rajturl
  • 17-Jan-12: Businessman – Loved it! Mahesh Babu carried the movie with his tremendous attitude, storyline kept one interested & music was good. 8/10
  • 14-Jan-12: Lee Bermejo – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo http://t.co/BgWq1irg
  • 14-Jan-12: RT @GDBALA Exclusive: Quentin Tarantino’s favorite films of 2011 & more! http://t.co/2nAn9Wbs
  • 13-Jan-12: Journey – Two love stories told as flashbacks, in the context of an accident. Very nicely done. I watched the Telugu dubbed version. 8/10
  • 12-Jan-12: RT @RGVzoomin Extreme heights of craze for Business man..Mahesh babu himself is not getting tickets!
  • 12-Jan-12: Attn @rajturl @psam RT @mihirfadnavis If you used to dig Baba Sehgal and are feeling nostalgic, here – http://t.co/rR5dOiW5
  • 11-Jan-12: Extended cut? RT @FarOutAkhtar Off to the gym now and then to do background music for Don 2 additional scenes to be incorporated in the DVD.
  • 10-Jan-12: RT @gurpreet_bhatia @AshuMittal Photographers are violent people. First they frame you, then they shoot you, then they hang you on the wall.
  • 10-Jan-12: RT @krishashok Me: have you heard this new Harris Jeyaraj song? @hariflute: No. Me: yes, you have heard it before
  • 10-Jan-12: RT @krishashok The @hariflute – “Tamil physicist to waiter: There’s an MC-squared in my soup”
  • 8-Jan-12: If I attach my new flash on my camera, and put a telephoto lens on it, I can do bicep exercises with it.
  • 8-Jan-12: I bought a Canon Speedlite 580 EX II flash today. The flash looks big compared to my diminutive EOS 550D :)
  • 7-Jan-12: RT @mihirfadnavis I didn’t dig ‘Tinker Tailor’ because it was a cool old fashioned spy tale. I dug it cos it had Sherlock Holmes punching Bane in the face.
  • 7-Jan-12: IMO – The Darkest Hour > Skyline > AVP: R :)
  • 7-Jan-12: The Darkest Hour – An effortless watch if you switch off your brain. To it’s credit was never boring. Dialogues unintentionally funny! 7/10
  • 7-Jan-12: RT @mihirfadnavis #IamSoMiddleClass I go to Landmark but avoid the DVD/BluRay section, so I can buy the Moserbaer 40 rupees 3-in-one VCDs.
  • 7-Jan-12: “Hello Amanda. Tum mujhe nahin jaanti ho. Par main tumhe acchi tarah se jaanta hoon. Main ek game khelna chaahtha hoon.” – SAW Hindi dub :)
  • 6-Jan-12: RT @io9 An Exclusive Look at the Making of Dragon Tattoo’s Stunning Titles http://io9.com/5873372/
  • 5-Jan-12: RT @Violent_Gandhi_ @Chiken_chameli ‘SHERLOCK HOLMES’ is a Poor Mans ‘ACP PRADYUMAN’… . :)
  • 5-Jan-12: Great poem in the beginning… Geekolinks: 1/4 http://t.co/YKyUUcju
  • 4-Jan-12: RT @purisubzi A tome, if there ever was one, on Roboto – the font used in Android 4. http://bit.ly/y8Mdum #TypeNerdsOnly
  • 4-Jan-12: 70 Science Fiction and Fantasy Movies to Watch Out for in 2012 [Io9 2012 Preview] http://bit.ly/A7cWOu
  • 3-Jan-12: RT @zombeaner If youre havin girl problems i feel bad for you son/It took me under 12 parsecs to make the Kessel Run – Han Goin’ Solo
  • 1-Jan-12: Mihir Fadnavis – The 35 Most Anticipated Movies of 2012 http://t.co/3D9l8xwQ
  • 1-Jan-12: What do colorblind people see? [Biology] http://t.co/KfM03x2Q
  • 1-Jan-12: RT @clientsfh “How many SEO experts do you need to change a lightbulb lightbulbs buy light bulbs neon lights sex porn” http://t.co/DwaaxtwA
  • 31-Dec-11: Alien trailer, Prometheus style http://t.co/Vm4gOHAD
  • 30-Dec-11: RT @josephradhik RT @sickipediabot: What do you get if you cross a left leg with a right leg? A squashed bollock.