The Joker & The Taj

26 November 2008 will not go easily down my memory lane. At the start, the day was as normal as I hoped it to be. The night before that I saw " The Dark Knight" which I hadn't seen till then(shamefully).
I was very impressed by the movie.Especially by the Joker, Heath Ledger in a truly unforgettable role. I was totally bemused by the Joker's idea of fun - causing as much destruction as possible just for the sake of it. As the joker says " Introduce a little anarchy......upset the established order...& everything becomes chaos ".
The evening was fine with India completing another thumping victory over England to make it 5-0. But the trauma started when night was falling silently in Mumbai.Several terrorist started firing & throwing grenades at crowded places when it was least expected.This started the terrifying drama which lasted for almost 3 days and left 200 dead & hundreds injured. The terrorist were as mindless as the Joker in their modus operandi causing as much destruction possible without any real motive. Their efforts were rewarded by the panic & fear felt by all of us during that time.
The attack may be over but the planners are still at large. I wonder how short-sighted we can be at times. A few months back,when we were busy in our little quarrles of Marathi vs Non-marathi & Hindu vs. Muslim ; the real enemy was out there, planning d big attack. I hope we realize our folly at least after this attack. Though we have won this battle, the Joker is not dead .He is still lurking out somewhere. And sadly,we dont have a Batman !!! :P

"The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming,but on our own readiness to receive him;not on the chance of his not attacking,but the fact that we have made our position unassailable."
-The Art of War, Sun Tzu

Lehman Brothers

Much has been said & written about the famous fall of Lehman Brothers in news papers & magazines. But this cartoon is by far d best .......;)

Salvation lies within!!

Generally, , I dont watch many movies . I am not really a movie bluff and I watch them only after strong recommendation from many of the devotees of this fine art of watching movies...Recently I had the opportunity to see 2 great movies and i thank my fortunes that i had the wit not to miss that opportunity...
Both movies r really gr8. The first one is "The Shawshank Redemption" & the other one is "Forrest Gump". The Shawshank is the one of the best movies i have ever seen.Its not about prison-break as many wrongly presume. It is more about redemption of a prison by a man. The cast is really gr8. Morgan Freeman is solid as usual portraying the convict "Red" while Tim Robins is absolutely phenomenal in his role of sophisticated, urbane investment banker "Andy Dufranse" .This movie has gr8 storyline especially breathtaking climax.The dialogues r just superb...I just couldnt get over some of them...like the 1 when the warden meets the convicts for the first time..."I believe in 2 things- bible & discipline....Place ur faith in god, ur a** belongs to me". & the 1 about hope from Andy " Hope is a very good thing..& like all good things it never dies...." the 1 of Red about life sentence "When they send u for life , its (life) what they take from u.....".But my favorite is "Salvation lies within...". It comes twice in d movie & in 2 totally different contexts. Hats off to the makers!!

This movie got 6 nominations for d Oscars but surprisingly didnt win a single award. Furthermore, it was Morgan Freeman who got nominated for d Best Actor award instead of Tim Robins...Gr8 movies dont always win Oscars .;)

Perhaps, d reason behind Shawshank failing to win d Best Movie award was d presence of another equally gr8 movie,,,Forrest Gump. Nothing about this movie is ordinary..Its story of a man Forrest Gump who is just below normal intelligence(with an IQ of around 75) having crippled legs...Still he achieves extra ordinary things throughout his life...and believe it or not i always feel that this movie is love story .. it may not have the happy ending as our movies have bt still it is.....
The main highlight of this movie is obviously d marvelous acting by Tom Hanks...He has shown is his capability in no. of other movies like Saving Private Ryan , Da vinci code & many more...He is at his best in this movie...His slow & weird way of talking,his typical walk perfectly elucidate an under intelligent but truly prolific man... Deservedly Tom Hanks won d Oscar for Best Actor for d year 1994(both d movies were released that yr), his second in a row..