Singh is Kinng?No way!!

The sky was overcast and the day had an unexplained gloominess to it.Having digressed from my atleast 7-8 hr of sleep this week, I was looking forward to a good night’s sleep in the cosy warmth of my home. However,at the insistence of my room mates and friends, I agreed to a 11:15 pm show of “Singh is Kinng” at Fun Cinemas,Lokhandwala. After a lazy yet tiring day of work, the rains towards the late evening seemed to be the harbinger of impending doom.

As we entered the hall, I noticed some indiviuals talking amongst each other ” Bhai yeh toh hamaari movie hai,hit honi hai hai”, “yaar 30% occupancy lag raha hai is show ke liye..kya baat hai?” “nahi bhai, aane toh do logon ko…70% toh hai hi…baarish ke vajah se bhi kaafi log late ho gaye honge”…seemed to be some individuals associated with the film fraternity and they were right. Soon the hall was almost full.

The movie started and in anticipation of some authentic slap stick humor, I was able to laugh at some of the stupidest jokes known to mankind. The anticipation extended through the first half and my optimism forgave the multiple songs which crept up.

The second half started.I was now a bit apprehensive…Apart from a couple of good dialogues and okayish humour scenes, the film wasnt helping me much in staying awake. As my eyes drooped, I could hear the individuals from the film fraternity laugh away to glory…”were they the dialogue writers?” was the one final thought that flashed through my head.

Sleeping through a movie is one behavior that I frequently exhibit. Its the respect I accord to a dumb,unwitty,boring movie. As for the cast, Kathrina Kaif looked nice and Akshay Kumar looked as if he needed a bath. Amongst the lot of Singhs, I felt the best Singh awards should go to Javed Jaffrey and Yashpal Sharma. Good acting in the midst of a sinking ship

Hancock and social media!!

I am no critic…In fact the eternal optimist in me has only appreciated movies–all movies. As far as Hancock’s concerned, the movie was an excuse to meet up with my friends from MBA days.

Saturday morning rising was a bit different from the other saturdays. My room mates had gone to Bandra the previous night to watch Hancock and were unfortunate enough to find me in a sleepy and impatient state by the time they returned. Anyway the first words I heard, as I attempted to awaken my senses, the next morning were “Accha hua tu aaya nahi”. The expected question “Kyu?” brought forth a detailed summary with reasoning as to why the movie was “f**** all”.

As chance would have had it, the same afternoon I found myself with a tub of caremalized popcorn at Fun Republic, Andheri watching the same movie I had been warned against.

Now let me directly proceed to what i found interesting in the movie. Will Smith did an amazing job and so did Charlize Theron. The Script writer…hmmm I think he lost track of whether he was writing a romantic flick or a “super hero” script.

What was most interesting was the mention of “Youtube” in the movie. There is this scene where
Jim Carter( a PR professional) is trying to explain to Hancock how he is perceived by the masses. He proceeds to show him some ‘user generated videos’ on the site.
Now I dont know if there was a clear advertising effort by Google, but it surely shows Social Media’s increasing role and prominence in our daily lives.

Two months back I was looking for a good “net connection” in Mahim. When asking for reviews, some of the answers were based on You tube video streaming speeds. ” Good connection but video streaming is slow” and “If you’re a active You Tube user xyz connection is the best” constituted a fraction of the opinions I got….The Inference is clear: Social Media and User Generated Content is arriving….slowly

Heard the movie’s not doing well but it sure seems to have been a success on “Youtube”

The Hancock Channel