6 Sixes - A Video History!

The cricket fever continues!!!
After watching yesterday's match where Boucher Plummelled Nehra for consecutive Boundaries, i was taken over by a desire to watch Yuvraj's 6 Sixes in the ICC Twenty20 World cup. Then, i saw Gibbs 6 Sixes in the same tournament and for history's sake, searched for a video of Sir Gary Sobers hitting 6 Sixes!
Here are all the 3 Put together at one place!
Again, i couldn't find copyright info for any of these videos. If anyone knows of an active infringement clause here, do let me know and i'll change them.
Meanwhile, Have a blast!! Must Watch!

The Godfather - My Experience with the Movie!

I Should have seen this movie long long ago!!!!!
Whenever we decided on watching an English Movie online or getting an English DVD, i always chose the ones with a lot of Buzz. And the reason i kept skipping this title was because i saw Sarkar and Nayakudu (Dayavan in Hindi) and thought it's the same!
(Though not relevant here, Nayakudu was much better than Sarkar)
The Godfather by Mario Puzo was one of the first novels i remember reading and Mafia is one of the first Big Video Games i played.
In an earlier post i've written about books being made into movies (Saving Private Ryan) i opined that all of the movies made from books are letdowns when compared to the original book.
This movie turned that around!
What a movie!!!!
And this was the first movie i've seen of the awesome Marlon Brando and also of the equally fantastic Al Pacino. No wonder they are Superstars!
If you think Amitabh Bachchan's performance in Sarkar was intense, watch Brando!!! Wow!
Now that i think about it, innumerable Indian movies have been 'inspired' by this movie in whole or in part - and no regrets!
Coming to the actual movie, 'The Godfather' is the first part of the story of the Corleone Family starting with Don Vito Corleone (Brando) and ends with Son Michael Corleone taking up the reins once dad's days are over.
The best part of the story is the unwilling conversion of Michael (Al Pacino) from being a Soldier into a Don. Truly a masterpiece!!!
I won't spoil the fun by writing about the story here. That's why i've titled this post as an Experience rather than as a Review.
The actual reason i watched this movie in a hurry (on Veoh) was because of IMDB.
Yesterday, while writing about Apocalypto, i was searching IMDB for the number of awards for the film when i stumbled upon the all-time favourite rated movies. Which one was the best??
Yup. Godfather scored 9.2!
Watching this 175 min movie is such an intense experience! The book literally came alive on screen. It's actually a surprise that the movie won only 3 Oscars (Best actor-Brando, Best Picture and Best Story / Screenplay - Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola) inspite of 11 nominations.
After watching the original, i'm raring to watch the sequels. Hope they won't let me down!
Meanwhile, go watch this one!!

Awareness Test - Awesome Video!

I absolutely loved this video!!!
Again, no info about copyright, but i guess the producers won't mind :)



Do leave your comments!

Apocalypto - My review.

Actually, throughout this movie, i was thinking about the Doordarshan Sunday 1 pm movie days. Remember the days when we used to sit in front of the TV and wait for a movie in our language to begin (even if one was telecast last week)!!
And when we see the movie begin in some other language, we used to sit on for some time (till we fell asleep) not understanding one word, but still enjoying the movie!!
Now, Apocalypto took me back to those days!! This probably is the only movie to date that i did not understand one word of, but still watched from the first to last frame!!
PS - The movie is entirely in Mayan!!! Depend on the sub-titles!

Since the days of 'The Patriot', i've been a big fan of Mel Gibson. This movie released in Vizag, but played for about a week and i missed it!
Today i saw this on DVD.
Apocalypto falls bang into the genre of films like 10000 BC and 300. It probably started the genre and did a pretty good job too.
Apocalypto is set in the 15th century in a South American Jungle. It is the story of Jaguar Paw's (Rudy Youngblood) family and friends, whose village is destroyed by slave traders from the Mayan Capital. Jaguar Paw manages to hide his 9 months pregnant wife and kid in a well before he's captured. After an arduous trek thru Dense forests, Raging rapids and Swamplands, the captured are taken to the city, where they are meant to be sacrificed for the crazy Mayan tradition (apparently) of beheading men and burning their hearts so that the Gods are appeased and the Mayans regain their lost glory.
You must watch that part of the movie!! Real spine-chilling!
By a quirk of fate and a timely Solar Eclipse, Jaguar and a few other prisoners are saved for the moment, but they have worse fate awaiting them!
I won't spoil the pleasure of your watching the movie, but will tell you this much - While the first half of the story revolves around character specifications and our getting into their way of life, it is the second half that's the awesome part - where the caption of the movie - 'When the end comes, not everyone is ready to go' comes true!
The director holds you hard and doesn't let go till the last scene of the film!
This is really one helluva movie, though a bit weird in the sense that we, in India aren't exposed to that mysterious civilization at all! Consider the names of the characters for an illustration - Jaguar Paw, Seven, Flint Sky, Blunted, Turtles Run, Curl Nose, Smoke Frog, Cocoa Leaf and Sky Flower!! Ouch :)
Apocalypto has been nominated for 3 Oscars and for tons of other awards.
Awards aside, the fact that a foreign language film has been a super-hit all over the world holds testimonial to the brilliance of the movie.
You must watch this one - irrespective of where you are from!
More info here - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472043/

The most unbelievable catch!!

We're completely in the grip of the IPL Cricket fever!!!
Hence, the last post was about cricket, my daily image is about Cricket and most of my searches on the net are related to Cricket!!
Meanwhile, one of my friends put up this fantastic video on his Orkut profile.
This undoubtedly is one of the best catches of all time!
You must look at Hayden's face after Collingwood took this stunner!
Note - I can't find copyright info for this video. If i'm infringing, do let me know.
Meanwhile, Enjoy!

Karmayuddh ka shuruwaad!

Finally, all the hype has translated into action.
And what action!!!!!
I still remember the first T20 world cup in South Africa, where Chris Gayle opened batting and went on to score the first ever 100 in Twenty20 History!
Today, Brendon McCullum opened for Kolkata Knight Riders and not only went on to score a 100, but to score the highest ever individual score in T20 history - and the first 150!!!
Now, that in itself was such a treat - 11 Fours and 12 Sixes - Wow!!!
As far as the match was concerned, it wasn't really a match with the Bangalore Royal Challengers getting skittled out for a mere 82!
Now, this post isn't about the match in itself, but rather about the whole experience!
Each time McCullum hit the ball beyond the boundary, the camera immediately panned to show Shahrukh Khan dancing in the aisles - Even the cheerleaders did not get as much camera time!!
Accompanying him were his wife, kids, Juhi Chawla, Arjun Rampal and obviously Karan Johar. Nice footage to show on TV, right?
On the other side were Dr Mallya himself and his entourage of biggies!
Still, celebrity power won the day with the Kolkata Knight Riders winning with a handsome margin!
I'm still not very clear about IPL and it's workings, but i know one thing - It's gonna be one helluva summer!!!!
I'm sure that right now, DLF would be happy, Nokia would be happy, Hero Honda would be happy, Vodafone would be happy, SET Max would be very happy BCCI would be extremely happy!
And CEO Lalit Modi will certainly sleep a happy man tonight :)
Here's more info from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Premier_League
Looking forward to tomorrow!! 2 encounters, double the fun!

Hakuna Matata - What a Wonderful Phrase!!

Actually, The credit to this post should go to our dear Mr G V Lu!
When i changed my Orkut Profile to 'Aditya - Hakuna Matata' , he sent me a scrap asking what's this. I knew that the meaning of the phrase was 'No Worries', But Mr Lu isn't the kinda person one can just bluff with half-knowledge.
So, i looked it up on Wikipedia - You can do so too!
Actually, Hakuna Matata is a Swahili phrase meaning 'Take no worries' or 'No problem'.
This phrase became popular for the first time in the Awesome Disney Movie - 'The Lion King'.
And when i looked up Wikipedia for the phrase, i found a lot of other interesting things - The song was nominated for Best Song in the Academy Awards and also the Music Composer Elton John and Lyricist Tim Rice picked up Oscars for Best Music and Lyrics respectively!
Also, the song features among the 100 greatest movie songs of all time compiled by the American Film Institute!
Actually, i wanted to put up a link here to some site where you could hear the song in streaming audio. Then, i did one step better - First look at the lyrics and then play the video below!!
Even better if you could sing along - A real soother of a song - No doubt, you'll walk away feeling happier and all smiley :)

Lyrics -

Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase
Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze
It means no worries for the rest of your days
It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata!
Hakuna Matata?

There's quite a few enjoyable conversations between Timon, Pumba and Simba in the Song too - Watch!!