Bikes and Guns !!!!!!, A weekend well spent

On a free weekend , (which is hard when u consider 8 guys in question) we decided to do some rounds of the local adventure centres. Initial plan of going of Play Arena X in Sarjapur road was changed when we got a better deal at Adventure Unlimited in JP Nagar where we got close to 47% off via timesdeal . Thus we bought 2 tickets per head and decided to also try Quad biking at Dirtmania.

All of us assembled at Sarakki signal at 10.45 and moved towards our first destination which was Dirtmania on Kanakpura Road right after Sommanahalli abt 20 kms from the Sarakki Signal. But it being a highway we covered the distance within half an hour. Reached the venue , did some bargaining and got a deal of 450 bucks for 4 laps considering there were 10 of us. Quad Biking actually was not easy as it seemed, the steering feels like that of a truck, too tight. Initial 1 lap was spent in getting used to my 300cc geared bike. But in the subsequent laps there was constant thought of getting thrown out of this uncontrollable beast. The dirt-track was well laid with 2 jumping humps where I always accelerated to the max to having a thrilling jump. Others too did pretty well except for PPR and SK who were not able to ride a gearless bike with constant banging into the tires and so on. Anyway they made up for this hopeless show with great performance in paintball fight :P.

A crasssssssssssssshh.. By Manju :)

Black Ops Team

After this we moved towards the paintball venue , (Adventure Unlimited near Brigade Millennium JP Nagar), not before I smashed a rear view mirror of a stationary car. Being completely my mistake I had no other option but  to apologize and lighten my pocket of 1.3k for the damages :(. Reached the paintball venue after roaming around a lot in circles. This was supposedly SK's treat for getting a patent in his name and soon after we geared up to the brim (this sort of safety equipment was missing in Blue Moon Retreat) , dividing the teams (Me, SK, PPR, jenny and Harsha's cousin as Black team)(Manju, Harsha, Vineeth , Shashi and PPR's cousin as Yellow team) off we entered the battle zone to capture the opponents flags. Another comparison is that the bullets here travel a lot faster than those in Blue Moon Retreats and one cannot see the bullets flying towards them and bend over to avoid them :P. The 4 rounds of game we had was a great adrenaline rush and some even having 6 rounds thanks to conserving their bullets. In the end it was a complete washout with us winning 6-0. :). Overall it was a great day of adventure with many of us flaunting our battle wounds in the end.

The Winners and the Losers :)

Snaps Courtesy : Harsha

"The Avengers" will rock u like a Hurricane

To begin with I want quell the first question that comes to everyone's mind and the answer is no, this has not bettered 'the Dark Knight'(the best superhero movie ever made) in any way. But on the other hand this can be considered as one of the best , taking it to the top 10 all time list. When compared to Dark Knight, what this lacks in intensity , it makes up with its wit and what it lacks in the overall storyline it makes up with its awesome special effects.

The all star cast comprises of superheroes reprising their roles such as Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Scarlett Johansson(Agent Ramonoff),Samuel Jackson(Nick Fury) and the Thor guy. Edward Norton is replaced by Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk and actually I like his take of Hulk better than that of Norton. A weak nervous guy and the hyper-destructive green half provides the perfect contrast. As with all the movies created with Marvel, the "Tesseract" is the primary focus of this movie. The power to rule the world , and the power to destroy nevertheless. And here enters Loki, the adopted brother of Thor and the prime antagonist of this movie. A promotion of sorts after being the negative character in the not so famous Thor movie. Loki is after the Tesseract in order to unlock the portal into a different world so as to bring his army down to conquer and rule the world.

Hence when matters look out of hand , Nick Fury the chief of S.H.I.E.L.D.S. assembles all the super heroes to work as a team to fight off the evil. But each superhero has a baggage of their own. They come with their high egos and pretty much none of them is a team player (I actually recalled a mba lecture abt how to work in a group :P ).  The first half of the movie focuses on the character development where there is frequent clashes between the superheros sometimes ego , sometimes physical like Hulk vs Thor, Thor vs Iron Man, Hulk vs Romanoff so on. But its the second half where all the action is. Loki gets his army via a portal and there is pretty much non-stop full blown action "The Avengers Vs Loki and his army" which takes place in the city of New York, so you can expect to see lot of things getting blown off. Even though in the second half there is lot of action , the one character which manages to shine through is The Hulk. Even with his loose cannon kinda action he manages to keep audiences in splits with his physical humor. Other than that the entire movie has some witty dialogue especially by Iron Man/Tony Stark. It kinda reminds me of the first Iron Man installment with all those one liners. Further we have "Robin" from HIMYM playing Nick Fury's assistant, probably her first big movie and you know Scarlett has some serious competition.

Coming to the special effects.. There is just one word... MINDBLOWING!!!!!!!. As mentioned the special effects are one of the USP's of the movie especially the second half, with gigantic monsters floating over Manhattan and what not. But I must confess the 3D seemed a bit half baked. Looks like they have added 3D in post processing and not actually filmed it keeping it in mind. Overall I would rate it a solid 4.25/5. A very entertaining movie even for non-action buffs.

Battleship : A Better Than Expected Fare

"From the makers of Transformers" and the first assumption I had was this is gonna be another run of the mill mindless action flick from the stables of Michael Bay. I was so sure of this fact that I didnt even bother to confirm it. On a saturday evening when I had nothing better to do after a energy sapping Corp Fin exam , couple of friends wanted to catch this movie , so I tagged along at the last moment and was mildly surprised with this movie, thinking that Michael Bay has improved from his last flick (the utterly mindless Transformers 2 & 3) until the moment the end credits start rolling , which gave away the director as some Peter Berg (Hancock), and I signed a big sense of relief.... 

Coming to the movie the plot was pretty decent with a group of alien ships(humanoid  race apparently) raiding the earth which looked like a invasion plan. But just 5 ships to conquer the entire earth, which were not bigger than any of the navy ships of the earthlings, and you know there is a serious plot hole (atleast they should have been the size of those in Independence Day , which set the benchmark for alien invasion movies ). A multinational group of navy ships is sent to intercept and explore it.  Anyway the aliens create a sort of force field around them so that none of the navy ships can enter it other than 3 navy destroyers which get trapped inside. So starts the cat and mouse game between the navy ships and the alien ships, a perfect adaptation of the actual grid based "Battleship" game, and I loved the way they adapted it.  At one instance they actually are looking at a grid based display and calling the shots trying to intercept the alien ships. 

Another honorable mention is the soundtrack which was bombastic in the real sense bringing the full experience of watching this movie in the cinema. Special effects were also very good, with a lot of explosions, destruction, blazing canon's, sea battles keeping the action buffs rooted to their seats. But again when you have a WW-II era battleship thrown into the sea battle (which supposedly was not even started for the past 10 years) and you get distracted a bit with the plotholes in the script. I was like "WTH????" when the actual operators of the decommissioned WW-II era warship (the oldies of course) appear from nowhere to crew the ship !!!!! Even then the final climax was fitting and satisfying. Rihanna in her first apperance as an actor is a bit irritating sometimes. An awesome actor like Liam Neeson is completely wasted. Dont know what the heck was he doing in this movie. Brooklyn Decker (apparently she is a SI model :) ) plays the female lead and is an absolute eye-candy. Oh ya.. the lead actor Taylor Kitsch is OK. 

 A decent action movie with a few story line, few comic scenes thrown here and there. But what impressed the most was navy maneuvers they have adapted in this movie. Apparently this movie is released here in India almost a month before US for reasons unknown. Anyway a rating of 3.5/5 even after overlooking some major plot holes. 

Why So Single ???!!!!!

(NOTE: My attempt at satire comedy. All the characters in this blog post are works of fiction, but if you might find a strong resemblance with any particular person living or dead, then give yourself a pat in the back and shut up.)

They say opposites attract, if that is the case all the not so fortunate people with respect to looks and bank account would have attracted the rich and the sexy, but is there any truth in that. The rules of this world are indeed strange. Anyway check out the profile of a guy, a very close friend of mine... Close enough that we are like 2 souls inside a  single body.

Age - 27
Height - 5 feet 11 inches
Build - Good enough to give Govinda a complex
Looks - Mirror Cracking (Phrase courtesy FB or was it Orkut ???!!!!.. who cares)
Hobbies - Like an endless borewell (especially those borewells in Bangalore)
Education - BE, MBA in progress from IIM-B .... (Woohoo... big bucks)
Job - Works for a Korean Tech Multinational...In short is made to work like a dog.
Hair - More than he can handle, after getting to know that this is one of a prime criteria for girls.
Relationship Status - Single since the past 27 summers and counting. (and winters ofcourse)

For an impressive profile as above, the last pointer stands out like a sour thumb. Naturally people including me assume my friend  to be surrounded by attractive females and being actively pursued by countless others. But sadly that is not the case. He has been a single since the day he was conceived in this world. So as a true friend I am trying to analyze what went wrong in his life. Some of the questions people usually ask are....

Is he gay ????....
This is the first question everyone asks when I describe his situation. And people especially stress on this point when I do mention the above comment of  "2 souls single body" crap. But I assure you that is not the case, he is 100% straight and so am I, to set matters straight. There is literally nothing in the closet for him to come out with apart from a pair of stinking socks, which I presume was mine a long time ago.

Did he forget to spray his body a with truck-load of  "Axe-effect" or "bed-wet" ..oh sorry "set-wet""???!!!!!....
 Answer is Nope.... He has been a dedicated follower of all these thesis and effects since those ideas were  broadcast on prime-time television to shock women activists and to the enjoyment of pubescent boys like my friend. Some of these boys growing up in a conservative South Indian family, were made to cover their eyes, while others were downright threatened by their parents for ogling at these images with an open mouth. But my friend was one of the few who understood the underlying hidden truth, "Axe डालोगे थो..... Even Angels Fall !!!!!!"

Is his outward presentation a problem ???!!!!
Well as a matter of fact "hardly". He is one of those maniacs who shaves twice a day, once in the morning and once before going bed, I guess he  somehow got this confused with brushing his teeth, which he still does only once in the morning. Always trimmed hair, ie military cut hence exposing those big brains 24x7, man this guy is just short of being a total show-off.  His dressing style is top notch and this guy even wears pink to show his feminine side. Easily the heights of desperation.

Did he not try to patasify any girl ???!!!!!
Well not really. His policy in life is to be like a street lamp, attracting all the mosquitoes and bugs in its own right. Further he imagines himself to be a peacock, with all those colorful wings and dancing in front of females in order to attract them. Just imagining this scene gave me 3 sleepless nights. Awwwwhhh !!!! the humanity.   

Doesnt he "like" the FB posts posted by attractive females ???!!!!!
He religiously does this. So much so that he doesnt even look at the actual posts before liking them. He even liked a post by a girl which was "Lost my beloved Bow-Bow today..Sad. Sad Sad :(:( " and he was promptly removed from the friend list by that girl. Even after this incident he has never learned, just like Bow-Bow 's tail. May the soul of Bow-Bow rest in peace.  

Is he shy ???....
Not really..He is one who gives everyone his piece of his mind when the situation requires. But unfortunately when he comes face to face with an attractive girl his knees go weak and he starts acting like a mentally challenged person. People start hearing only monosyllables during that time, similar to the signals generated by a Morse code machine. Girls start feeling pity and all the initial attraction they had towards him goes down the drain. Hmmm, atleast some progress. Might be he has to improve on this point. 

Finally people might ask why I am  taking so much pain to solve his problem. Well frankly speaking I have a hidden motive in this. Now imagine all the expenditure my friend might have to endure to maintain his high maintenance girlfriend, movies , restaurant, petrol expenses and so forth . Imagine if they get married they would have to buy tons of gold,  marriage halls rents, food preparation costs and million other things. Imagine if they had a baby and the expenditure they would have to endure to put that kid into school and then higher studies. Now imagine that kid finds someone and starts his own family... The loop is infinite. And if you were not sleeping in your economy classes you would have listened that increase in expenditure/consumption would increase the GDP of the country. And increasing my countries GDP is what this is about. Hence I am doing all this for my country and not my friend. Mission 2050 and for this my friend is the first stepping stone.. WOOHAAHAHAHAHA (evil laugh if u didn get it).. I am a genius.

Now imagine what would happen if my friend stays single for life......

P.S. > I know d ending sucks. but couldnt think of a good one. Suggestions are welcome :P

Kahani : The Rise Of Vidya Balan

SPOILER CHECK PASSED: NO SPOILERS

Vidya Balan is on a roll with her roles. And looks like having Vidya as a prime protagonist in a movie is also raking in all the moolah, not once (which can be termed as one time wonder) but twice that too back to back. Even-though I didn like "Dirty Picture" as much as reviews made it out to be, "Kahaani" is something which I loved especially for the story line. Even though I got the feeling that this movie was a bit inspired by some western movies, the fact that I couldnt pin point the exact movie makes up for the talent of the writer/director. (Similiarly the great SD Burman got inspired by some brazilian/latino music and composed the tune for "Mere Sapno Ki Rani", but the fact that even if you listen to both the tunes together you cant confirm the inspiration---- That is talent :)  )

Movie starts with the Vidya Bagchi(Vidya Balan) a heavily pregnant women,  landing in Kolkata from London in search of her husband who is missing from the past 2 weeks. When she starts visiting the places frequented by her husband, everyone denies having seen/met her husband. But she is determined in finding the fate of her husband , but the locals think that either her husband has left her for good or she is imagining things that never existed in the first place. The story telling is done in a great fashion, as and when the story unfolds a new layer is revealed. Even though the professional reviewers hailed the cinematography as top notch, exposing the underbelly of Kolkata I couldnt find anything striking or unique.

Thankfully there are no song and dance routine in the thriller/serious movie which makes it all the more gripping. I can understand item numbers in masala movies popping out at random times, but when such a thing happens in a serious thriller then it would surely messes up the intensity , which was the case with "Chikni Chameli" shocker in the latest Agneepath. The actor playing Sub-Inspector Rana does a commendable supporting role (the closest thing to a male hero u get in this movie :P). Even though there are some plot holes in this movie, considering the entire package it can be forgotten with ease. Overall I would rate the movie a 4.5/5, with the majority of it being for the storyline , followed by Vidya's acting. The best bollywood movie of 2012 so far. Dont miss it.