Om shanti Om at No 11, Saawariya at 24

Contrary to my previous post actual numbers are out and it looks like OSO made it to No 11 and Saawariya slided to No 24.

CORRECTION: OM Shanti OM may be ahead! Saawariya steals the march from Om Shanti Om, atleast in US!

Update: According to Other US Reports, it looks like OSO made almost double of Saawariya. Even though my source says it otherwise, I would like to put the correction on my article.

So there has been tremendous bad reviews for Saawariya and according to Taran Adarsh it has been doing good in UK it's not that great compared to Om shanti Om. However it's a different story in US, according to US Box Office, Om Shanti Om doesn't feature anywhere where as Saawariya made a very impressive $6,00,000 in it's opening weekend debuting at No 17.

Looks like numbers speak larger than all the kiss my ass reviews and politics in big bad world of bollywood, at least in US.

No Smoking - Mind Bending, Twisted, One Hell of A Damn Good Thriller!

Let's begin with a few facts -

"Taran Adarsh and Khalid Mohammad will never understand what No Smoking is..."

"A decade later Indian junta will drool over No Smoking as one of classic thrillers ever made..."

"If gotten a DVD release(nationwide not just Indian stores) in US, this will surpass money collected by top 10 blockbusters(2007) of India.."

Someone said that Anurag Kashyap should accept his mistakes like Ram Gopal Verma does. My answer is, sure, but is there a mistake? I watched No Smoking and the moment it ended I wanted to see it again..It's like "The Shining", "Jacob's Ladder", "The cell" and several other mind bending thrillers where you watch it, interpret it your way, talk about it, discuss it, and then watch it again.
Indian public will never like this, well we don't innovate because we believe why reinvent the wheel. It's Ok and smart to do that but that leaves us in a state where we don't want to exercise our brain and if someone forces us to do that we get irritated, upset and disgusted. That's what happened to our dear critics and as much as it is unfortunate to say I would have to say that happened to most of our junta.

I wouldn't have doubted a bit that the movie would fail in interiors, but all people who call themselves intelligent, smart and claim to take India to next level, should like it or rather should have liked it. But all doesn't end here, atleast it gives India a genius director(Anurag Kashyap) who will be to Bollywood what stanley Kubrick was to Hollywood.

To sum it up I would call it "A very very engaging film".

Grand Opening by MASTER BATTER!!

Hello to all the readers on thinkincell… This is Master Batter who would be writing all about cricket (and some other form of sports from time to time). Being an Indian, sports is almost synonymous to cricket for me. This is what I have played and enjoyed all my life, this is what helps me let go of my inhibitions.(as thinkincell put it… well sex helps me let go of a lot of things). As Mathew Hayden, an Australian cricketer, once said
“Cricket is a religion in India and Sachin Tendulkar is their GOD!!! ‘
For me there is no one who has put it better. He is truly a GOD when it comes to playing cricket, the best batsmen in the whole world and still a guy who doesn’t show the slightest arrogance, is the most humble cricketer ever seen and this for a guy who is probably the highest paid sport star in the country. Well if at this point you are rolling your eyes and going… not another guy who talks about cricket… then tough luck, coz I really give a rat’s a**.

I play for a cricket club in Edison, NJ which plays in the Cricket league of NJ. You might think this is just a bunch of cricket crazy people playing in the corner of a street. What would you say about a league which has 40 cricket teams with each team having a roster of more than 40 people!!! Surprised… don’t be!! With the Indian & Pakistani population down here, this was bound to happen. And to take it a little further… there are 4 more leagues in NJ, 15 more in NY, another 10 in DC and so on…. So see Im not the one who is outnumbered here!!!
The other day I was at my club’s annual get-together and the Mayor of the town, who was the chief guest, mentioned that he was invited to watch the Indo-Pak T20 Wcup finals at a local theatre. Even he was impressed with the kind of passion & excitement generated while watching the game.( yeah it was a cracker of a game !!). “Even I got so involved” he said. This was some statement coming from a guy who did not understand cricket and is from a country that plays a game which is cricket’s stepbrother… baseball. Came to office the next day and a few guys at work congratulated me for the win.
That’s when I started thinking about it…. Well baseball is similar to cricket…. Bat,ball, wickets ( ok bases), boundaries ( ok home runs)….. call it whatever u want but they are the same. But both these games have been around for a long time then why was it that people from a non-cricketing nation are suddenly interested in cricket. That’s when it struck me that T20 actually was almost like baseball…. The fast & the furious version if you will. The purists don’t like this version of the game….Australia don’t even consider this as a real game (sour grapes I say)…but India winning the World cup has gone a long way in promoting T20. If the richest board in the world (Indian cricket board for the maximus ignoramus people) wants it, they can get this format of the game even into the US. Coz when Money talks, nobody listens to the grammar.

T20, for me, can work wonders in promoting the cultures from cricketing nations in non-cricketing nations…. Promote tourism and all the jazz along with it!! Why am I writing all this… so that I don’t have to take a vacation to actually go and watch India play international cricket in a stadium. So that I can actually watch a WORLD cup on American television (not World series which has the US states playing against each other)….so that I don’t have a game which is so controlled by television that there are official breaks in the game meant just for TV ( come on how can the last 2 mins of a basketball game go on for half an hour)…. And lastly so that you don’t have to hear me rant about this again.!!

Adios Amhi… goes!!!

Sex, Talk, Cry or Blog

Let go of your thoughts and frustration. Do it the way you feel best...sex, talk, cry or blog. I feel so light when I write something. Like a selfish pig I think we should just let go of it. We don't speak a lot of things thinkin' that may be I am weird...but that ain't the case. For a long time I thought that I look at a chick's ass and that how weird I was, But no...90% of men like ass...
I guess statistics prove that either I am not weird or 90% of men are weird. Hmm...Interesting...

Anyways...Spoke to Sujit. Want him to blog about cricket. I think he eats, drink and sleep (read masturbate) cricket. When they can invest $250 million on a mannequin (David Beckam, what else would you call a guy who changes his hairstyle every 3 months), they should probably invest a few in Sachin Tendulkar or Ricky Ponting. Anyways more on that from our sports columist, Sujit.

Bollywood…
Anurag Kashyap is real furious about all the crap butted out for No Smoking…Can’t comment till I see the movie. One thing I give to critics, I decided not to spend $10 (by not watching it in theaters) and would watch it on DVD. On the other hand, I read Anurag’s blog on PFC , man he is always drunk when he writes, I don’t know whether he is really angry or it’s the keep walking frocky man??

Great ideas don't come in vacuum....

Now onwards I'll have 2 sections in my daily article Life news and Bollywood news.

Life News - Great ideas don't come in vacuum.

Had drinks at the get together, spoke to people in tangible product business, the are too happy with what they have. They don't understand the dynamics of Internet business. Have to tap in to find somebody already in software business for funding. Why the F*** do I have to think so big. I can think small and start a online shop on yahoo small business..But I want something different..I constantly have to remind myself -"Great Ideas don't come in vacuum". But no harm in trying. My assembly line is lines of code, my factory is a server and my target audience is users, who don't have to spend a dime getting my product (which I haven't thought of, Yet!).
If I can't succeed in it, can't succeed anywhere.
I dream of making a Larry Page or Steve Jobs out of me. Who knows may be I will?

Bollywood news - Mutual masturbation

Anurag kashyap is one guy I admire...I just love the way he coins up these phrases.
The latest to come is Koffee with Karan(An indian talk show) is a mutual masturbation club! Awesome choice of words for a sissy f*****' show.

Made my first F****n' Penny, Long live GOOGLE!

Alright...the payday is here. Made one full whole polished penny out of my blog...
Thats one hell of an achievement...Whew!! Lots of work, lots of efforts and google rewards me with a full blown penny! Alright so what do you want me to do with it...shove it somewhere?? It ain't gonna be my ass, so that's right, you heard it, It's your big giant ass that's gonna take the brunt of a one full penny you got there for me!
Well, it's not google's fault, I got some 80 impressions but even with that my cost per CPM works out to be some meager 10 cents. Huh! google, has it's monopoly, they won't disclose how much they are making out if it. Is it fair? I dunno but I know for a fact if google wasn't there, I wouldn't have made the f****n' penny I made. Long live GOOGLE!

Tik Tik Tak Tak..

This evening gotta go for an after hours SOBA(Scindia old boys association) get together.
On one side I want to network to increase my visibility, on the other hand I haven't really gained much from any of it in the past.You go drink, have a good time, laugh and then go home and sleep.
Next day you forget all of it. You feel hesitant to call the guys you met and then you meet them again in another get-together. Oh..long time...I know...Really busy..How is life..And again you drink, laugh and then forget all about it...Ah! I have to be more productive, talk business, but wait..wat business? I don't have any
business..did I forget..I don't have a f****n business. Thats the whole point. Figuring shit out for myself...
May be I should play a character, just like in movies.those 10 bucks an hour actors who play Rupert Murdoch like characters. Acting all pricey and throwing weight around..have some slapstick one liners that no one wants to laugh too..lots of hand movement(that I do), cigars and b*****s.
Good Idea...I'll do that of course except the b*****s part.

Wacky dream blends life and news

In the middle of heavy traffic I am running to the only bus out of town..All I have is a bag full fo change. I drop the bag out of anger and run to the bus, I pause, look back, someone is trying to steal my change, I yell at him, run back to get the change, I collect my torn up bag of changes, all my dollar coins are gone, all I have is quarters, dimes and nickels. I sob, run back to the bus. Now all of a sudden I have my IPod on. I am dancing like that wierdo shadow in IPod ads, there is fire e very where, I run to the bus but the bus is right ahead of me and BAAAM! I am hit by the bus..and then I wake up. What a wacky dream that was!

Knee pain and brain teaser

Monday, toughest day of the week got even more tougher. Had knee pain, couldn't commute for 2 hours to the city, so took sick day. Thought of doing something at home, may be a little work but ended up licking techcrunch and gigaom. I go there to take inspiration for my work. looks like I am taking too much inspiration and doing too less actual work. It sure does look like the beginning of end. But wait, I am hopeful, Look at the brighter side, I found 10 things not to work on either because someone else made money out of it or lost it. Either case, I win or may be I loose if I had thought before all. But then I didn't think. I think I am mixing 2 passions of my life, technology and writing(films). I know a guy started a firm sold it for 20 mil and is noe a director of some 3rd grade movie. DOn't want to end up like that. Want to have a clear vision. want to make up my mind. Want to succeed, well does that mean I am not successful right now? I am, Mark says that. I don't.
Ah..time for beer...more later

Om malik replies...

Got my comment replied by Om Malik. Felt like on top of the world. Nobody replies to me on http://www.techcrunch.com. They think I am just trying to get attention. May be I am. Like a helpless kid, no where to go, I am trying whatever I can to get noticed. is it good? ..I don't know. What should I do. I don't know anybody. People around me are helpless, just like me.

Alright...the weekend is finally here. Finally feeling good. had some scotch and watched some TV. Felt guilty for watching TV. Why am i doing this? Why am I wasting time. I don't have time. All I have is 2 hours after work each day and my weekend to finish off my work. Lot of work, lot less time. I hate myself, could have gotten away with just some basic stuff and poor fast coding. But no, I want the whole object model. The whole plan of my new product has turned out really well. I can;t believe I am that good. I remember my previous manager at DowJones said, You are a terrific programmer. But I want to be more of a business person. Thus the need to do something of my own.
Don't know why people live in the city. I love the commute, so much time just to think and beyond. Spoke to mark and vlad. I want them to start blogging too, they are just shy I guess. Sujit, wants to try it out too. Let's see when he gets started.

I called my wife facebook....

Ok...the day started on a bad note. Slept at 1 in the night. Woke up at 6. Had terrible headache, don't know if it's lack of sleep or just too much that is going on in my life. read so much about facebook that called my wife facebook. Was dreaming about an argument I had with someone about facebook and it's future. Who knows where will all the facebook hoopla take it. My bottom line for any business is - hey if it makes money its a good business today. If it can make money tomorrow it will be a good business tomorrow. Facebook is making good money today, if it sustains it it will the pioneer. Google was in loss before it went public. Facebook knows one thing for sure, Innovate or you will be dead.
I think on the same line, I want my first product to be for public, just for public. Will take the risk. I don't need any angel investor. I'll do it myself. Tried partnering, Didn't work. Work load is too much. Nobody wants to work.They want million dollars to fall in there lap...snap..just like that. Ain't happening in this world.
Work is hectic..Can do stuff very fast..but then there are hours when I don't do anything. Everyday in train I feel sad for wasting time, Can't help it. THe only consolation is that I realize it. May be I'll correct it someday. want to work in team.looks like no one can cope with me. Is it that I am too fast or just too confused? Don't know! I guess everybody wants that answer. Either you have a problem or you are pretending to have a problem. Happens to me all the time. Happened today, didn't know if I had headache or was pretending. Took a tylenol, it went away, I guess I really had headache.
Going for a meeting..later

Taran Adarsh is a viewer NOT reviewer

So like every morning I go to http://www.indiafm.com and try to read(notice that try) movie reviews by Noted Journalist Taran Adarsh. Over years I have contained my frustration and have developed a habit of not reading entire review written by Taran. This guy just likes giving away the plot. He used to do that towards the middle of his article, but now he does that in first couple of paragraphs itself. Like me, any ardent bollywood lover would agree to what Mr Taran Adarsh does.

Mr Adarsh, you should atleast consider that a moviemaker is trying to find audience for his movie. Maybe movie's USP is the secret of the plot that you vomit in you review. I don't know how could you even do it. I don't know if it's money or hobby that makes you write. Whatever it is do it on your own laptop not on IndiaFM. I think Khalid mohammad is one of the worst filmmaker but he is an ace film critic. You should learn from him how to express your opinion without narrating the story.

Like what you have done with Nanhe Jaisalmer, I hope you don't repeat with any other review. If et all you have work ethics I think you shuold apologize to the readers and filmmaker for screwing the review by revealing the plot. I wouldn't want to mention what you have written there but I am sure you know what I am talking about.

Why facebook is not microsoft

Facebook v/s operating system

I read this interesting article on techcrunch that draws parallels between facebook and microsoft and that how microsoft built windows as a common platform for developers to work on and likewise what facebook has done now. technically, I think what facebook has done is not a big deal. After all how much technical expertise is required to open up ur systems and api for others to interact with? Doesn't all products do that already? Doesn't all languages do that? This is core concept of extensibility. On the other hand developing an operating system is quiet a task in itself.

facebook v/s google

However, I'll have to agree that marketing department of facebook did a great job of hyping the news. Concept wise it is similar but implementation wise it's stupid to even think about it. Agreed that it gives a better platform for entrepreneurs to put there application out there with minimal expense and see how market reacts to it but then if you have 1 million applications in facebook, how is it any different from 1 million search results in google. Personally me at any point would go with google results than facebook. So with all the hype surrounding facebook it may get a better deal for a buy out or IPO but then this is definitely what will make them microsoft.

Mark on his own

On a different note I would applaude mark's creativity in thinking out of the box which can be a selling factor if facebook comes out with IPO. our stock market has a penchant for young guys who think out of box.

Bheja Fry - Irritating, Disgusting....

A good buzz, great reviews and excellent box office collection lead me to think that this one is worth a watch. Wait...read the title carefully, 'cause that's exactly what this garbage does to you..BHEJA FRY. Far from making you laugh it makes you wonder 'cause you won't know how to react to those drag and pale and dumb scenes. Read Anurag Kashyap's blog on http://www.passionforcinema.com . He finds this movie funny..Dude, you got a serious missense of humor....

These fellas(Vinay, Rajat and Ranveer) are great actors but one got to think before doing crappy stuff like this piece of shit.

Recommendation - Hide from it! DO NOT WATCH

Lunch of 4 - Live from New york....

This is the first post of a new series that I start today "Lunch of 4 - Live from new york....".

How it all began -

Four crazy minds working at the world largest exchange for Oil. What would you expect?

Billion dollar ideas - Nahhhhhh
Trading Strategy- Nope
Complex algorithm - Can't u get one thing right???

BULLSHITT - That's correct!!

The Founders of bullshit -

Dhiren a.k.a Dhiren- You know the perfect guy!!

Balan a.k.a Manisha - He went on maun vrat(vow for silence) for 5 mins once, ever since he has been unleashed. What google finds with all the intelligence, he does it with pure imagination...

prashant a.k.a Veeru - Ever since his lookalike got killed, this former bandit has been trying to smell computers for some sandlewood!

Jassi a.k.a Jassi- well how do I describe him..hmmmm...Let's just say he is a 8086 in the world of Pentium...Slow ain't the word...SPECIAL is!!


The lunch talk

Veeru is enjoying his last few days at work before he is shipped back to his native zoo in kerela, never mind he will be with us in spirit. May his soul rest with plenty of chicken, jassi’s rotis, though he may hate to admit some of my food and of course balan’s Olive oil…Ughhhhh…I don’t know what that means. Balan came up with a million dollar idea. You know to be all “resourceful” at work, more on that later. Jassi asked a few questions about evolution and concluded that he hasn’t evolved yet…LOL! Our guest Varsha came with 2 pieces of chicken 1 roti and some rice. She is yet to get a hang of what is happenin’ around her. God save her before it’s too late. Our other guest Sujit just kept laughing with his head down …Don’t know what he was doing …too much of self love I guess!!

Bollywood Movie Review - Life mein kabhie kabhie

Ok, so you see a poster with bunch of young boys and girls in fancy designer clothes and bright colors splashed all over, the conclusion is yet another cliched movie about desi youth. Well, I started watching this movie with the same notion but first 15 minutes and I was just glued to it.

The way director navigates thru the lives of 5 individuals and the ones around them is amazing. This is one movie with a message and the viewer gets that unlike other movies where message is lost somewhere in the trash they build up for audience. I am still surprised how Namastey London made over 50 crores worldwide !! It's a torture, military should use it on terrorists.

Anyways coming back to the LMKK, I think as a writer one can choose to traverse thru any path but I think wrtiing is about being real, mapping it as closely to real world as possible. With that I wonder that in one of the tracks why the girl chose raj zutsi's character over Dino Morea's. After all he was stinking rich too. Few minor blemishes rest all looks SAVVY.

Recommendation: Go watch it!

Angel Fund

This is my first blog.