Ind Vs Pak - Resumption of the battle

I have more important things to do than worry about a cricket match. But I have been doing this mistake for years together now, the heights being watching the Netherlands Vs UAE match hours before my XII grade Maths exam. Today's ODI is being played between the two neighbours after more than year, and hence the heightened sense of tension and an overwhelming desire for an Indian victory. Few of the Pakistani players have made all the right noises, including their captain-Younus Khan, whom I equate to Wasim Akram in the stakes for artificial behavior driven by camera consciousness. The injury to Yuvraj could not have come at a more inopportune time, with Sehwag and Zaheer already nursing their injuries back home. The Centurion brings back good memories for an Indian fan, owing to that spectacular chase against Pak in 2003 world cup; thanks to the superlative batting from Sachin and co against the likes of W&W and Shoaib. Experts say Centurion, with its relatively low bounce and even carry, would suit players like Raina and Yusuf whose suspect technique against short stuff was brutally exposed during the world cup. However, it is no secret that Pak batsman arent too good on seaming or bouncy tracks either. So things are even-stevens with regard to the pitch conditions.

Many encounters between the two sides have been decided by individual heroices, however, the strength of the current Indian team lies in having a cohesive batting unit. Stats do support that theory and Sachin too rightly pointed it out. One can also expect the current team to stand upto the verbal abuse by Afridi and co, with Gambhir and Bhajji leading from the front. The best performances of many new comers have come against India ( remember Franklyn Rose, Jimmy Adams etc ) and hence special attention has to be given to the performances of Umar Akmal, Saeed Ajmal, and Mohammed Aamer. Prior to the last 5-6 years, Pakistan were for most part the favourites. Things have become better since then, with the Indian team growing in confidence with the emergence of some quality players backed by aggressive instincts, while Pakistan team hit new nadirs owing to one controversy or the other. Since Younus and Intikhab have taken over, things are looking better, with the W20 cup being their biggest gain so far. The leak of the India team dossier prepared by Kirsten, on the eve of an important match is yet again a stark reminder of how the feudal BCCI functions.

Cant wait for the 6 PM start, when after the first few overs, the nerves start to settle down. As always, wishing for an Indian victory and better performances from Mr.Nehra ( who grimaces at a misfield off his bowling, as if he is the epitome of modern fielding standards ), Ishant ( he definitely has some injury concern or is on a high most of the time ) and our own RP ( talk about pedestrian fielding standards and inconsistent bowling form ). No wonder, MSD is greying since he took over the captaincy.

Unnaipol Oruvan - The remake

Me and my dad dont agree on things normally, but we agreed that the hindi version - "A Wednesday" was better than the tamil remake - "Unnaipol Oruvan". Naseeruddin Shah is good at underplaying his roles and the "common man" billing fit him to the tee in the movie. The biggest disadvantage the tamil version had to do with the aura surrouding the two super stars - Kamal and Mohanlal. While it was a very subdued performance from the former, the malayalam star played his role with aplomb. Casting of Lakshmi as the chief secretary and the May Madham kid as the IIT dropout with his forced accent was a real letdown. Adding Santhanam Bharathi as one of the mercenaries diluted the seriousness of the context to a certain extent. The two police officers aiding Mohanlal, were too fit to be believed to be from the Tamilnadu police. Kamal for all his creative skills, is often culpable of trying to be too preachy in few of his movies ( his trademark...aaa....aaaaa....was missed in this movie ); luckily in this one he doesnt go over-board on that count.

Shurti Hassan's debut score is pretty average and I believe the rocker image of hers is evident in her music too. Believe Kamal did strain his vocal cords for an operatic segment of the background score.

Strong points : short duration, muted patriotism, no glorification of the superstars, no songs
Weak points : mis-casting, the reason behind Kamal's reason to do what he did in the movie isnt as convincing as one in Hindi, dubbing was out of place in few segments

Still a very good movie, compared to the punch dialogue laden fare from Kollywood.

The wonders of driving on Chennai roads

1. The rip-off that is called the toll – Rs.17 to use the road leading to the toll and the one beyond it is littered with moon craters that need special driving skills, especially if one is driving the Zen.

2. The 3 kings of the road – cab drivers ( tata indicab ) and the shared autos ( the regular autos look less menacing ), and the screaming yellow lorries ( fully loaded dump lorries really make you hold your breath, and if you trail them long enough, they will even take your breath away )

3. Live spitfest – few samaritan bus commuters and drivers, socially aware and environment friendly auto drivers, biker boyz with a hung-up attitude who want to paint the town red.

4. MotoGP wannabes – zipping through crowded roads with helmets resting peacefully on the petrol tanks or slung stylishly by the helmet locks, and a riding posture to remind us of the professional bike racers taking high speed turns.

5. Unofficial Force India F1 circuit breakers – the sparsely seen Mercs and BMWs and the custom made desi brands, who give a run for your money and life too.

Disclaimer : This by no means includes all the straight thinking citizens who also just happen to use the roads for pure travelling reasons and pleasure.

My Friend Sancho - A quickie

Amit Varma's "My friend Sancho", short listed for the Man Asian Literary award is a very quick read. Published by Hatchette, the book costs 195 Rs and is around 220 pages. With a larger than life font size and ample spacing between short paragraphs, it is a fast food novel readable in an hour or so. This book was listed on the most selling list in Odyssey and Landmark, on each of my visits within the last month or so. I finally visited his blog www.indiauncut.com a few days back after hearing so much about the man and his blog. He apparently has received some kind of journalism award and he contributed to telegraph, HT etc over the years, in addition to serving on the editorial board of Cricinfo. After reading numerous coming of age, new age early 30s indian male drunk on booze and lost love, ABCDs type stories, I had become kind of tired. But the quick visit to his blog made me buy this book and give it a shot inspite my tight schedule. So I gave in and bought the book, with the usual guilt feeling.

The story is wafer thin. Abir Ganguly, the protagonist, is a bong who is on a crime beat with the Afternoon Mail. He is called upon by a typical police wala - Inspector Thombre, who wants his share of fame, to cover an arrest in one of the city's suburbs. A case of mistaken identity resulting in killing of Mohammed Iqbal is covered up by Abir in his article. The victim's daughter Muneeza ( named Sancho by her father who himself was Don Quixote ) enters Abir's life when Abir is directed by his superfluous boss to cover the life of Iqbal. Romance is in the air between the two and Abir gives a peek into his life led as a bachelor hard done by laziness and creative urge to cook up stories for his paper. Meanwhile, his new boss at work, Sandhya, gives him the veiled managerial talk to cover not just Iqbal, but also Thombre and leave the judgement to audience on who really is the culprit. Inspite of loathing Thombre, Abir does take the pains of getting to know his subject and in the due course empathizes with the police wala and his like. The chemistry between Abir and Muneeza is not evocative and is done in by Abir's revelation towards the end that he was witness to her dad's killing. As expected, she does flee from him and the book ends with Muneeza saying just a "hi" to him. I was left with, "what the heck" type feeling, but since I didnt waste too much time on the book, I came over the disappointment and went back to what I want to do best....snooze.

Abir's supervisor at work and few other bosses are caricatured along predictable lines. A talking jealous lizard from Abir's delusional mind is supposed to be his alter ego or rather his straight talking self-conscience. There are few really good laughable lines, such as the unique way of stating something outlandish towards the end of a very normal list of things, and then disclaiming that he didnt really mean the last sentence. I guess, those things and their essence cant be recreated in any review or blog. So if one is curious, please feel free to borrow it from me :-)