Marquee Series...Tashan Begins!

It's finally here. This was a series that had fans, connoisseurs, observers and neutrals alike agog with anticipation. The wait seemed interminable when South Africa came to India in the early part of the year and left with a score-line of 1-1. Who was the superior side? It was difficult to tell. Both teams dominated the Tests they won, both sets of fans were left wanting more. At that time, it seemed sheer lunacy that a series between the Number 1 and Number 2 sides should comprise only 2 Tests, and there was talk of the ODIs being a waste of time until Sachin Tendulkar went out and scored 200 not out. While that may have diverted attention from a Test series that seemed only half-done, we can now get back to the business of deciding who most deserves the crown of the Number One team in Test matches. History seems to favour South Africa - especially when they play at home - but then, history had also suggested that no one would breach the double century mark in ODIs. It has been a marked trait in the Indian team of this decade that history has been politely discarded and re-written. To start with the obvious, at the outset, the series looks too close to call. In South African conditions who would you pick amongst Smith, Peterson, Amla, Kallis, AB de Villiers, Prince and Gambhir, Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Raina? If Indian fans say Sehwag and Gambhir have been the most statistially imposing opening pair, South African ones will point to the fact that they haven't been tested in South African conditions while Smith and Peterson have excelled there. If Rahul Dravid is amongst the greatest batsmen in the history of the game, his declining form has been in contrast to Hashim Amla's currently insatiable appetite for runs. If Sachin Tendulkar is the modern master, Jacques Kallis is not too far behind, and has better stats in South Africa. If VVS Laxman has perfected the art of conjuring victories out of nothing, AB de Villiers is amongst the brightest talents that world cricket has seen. India's bowling could have been thought of as a weak link, but both Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma have hit their straps beautifully in recent outings and the troika of Zaheer, Ishant and Sreesanth does not suffer too much in comparison to Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Tsotsobe. India can point to Virender Sehwag as the X-factor in their batting who can turn a match in a session; South Africa can do the same with Dale Steyn in their bowling. Just like Sehwag gives India something no other side has in international cricket, so too Steyn gives South Africa the fire-power no other fast bowler has. Their clash at the top of the order is just one among the many mouth-watering ones that are lined up in this most awaited of series. The one thing India must guard against though, to ensure that the competition stays even, is injury. India's prime focus must be to keep the trio of Zaheer, Ishant and Sreesanth fully fit and functioning through the length of the series. There isn't much back-up to speak of, if one of the three has to sit out, or misplaces his bowling radar. While batting, there is the vastly talented Cheteshwar Pujara alongwith Murali Vijay, and though they might not be in the same league as men they could replace, they are decent back-ups to have. It is the bowlers then, that India must wrap in cotton-wool if necessary. Not that South Africa can simply shrug off injuries to any of their key men in the starting eleven. Dale Steyn may be in a fast-bowling league all of his own, but even if Morne Morkel has a niggle, South Africa will be mighty uncomfortable. The term 'marquee' series is bandied about rather freely in an age when every advertiser and television channel is out to grab their 15 minutes of fame, but for this one, it sits well. Over the years, the Ashes have produced outstanding classics, in the last decade and a half, India and Australia have fought each other to the brink, but the two sides who are undoubtedly the best in the business as of today are India and South Africa, and it is fitting that the last time the term 'marquee series' is used this year, will be for one involving these two teams.

Musical Anecdotes

Here is a good collection of untold short stories from Indian film industry.

http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-the-musical-scandals-of-bollywood/20101201.htm
http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-musical-scandals-of-bollywood-part-two/20101202.htm

Surely, you would like this if you love Indian filmy music.

Keep rocking!!!

A Tribute to Sholay

This is a gratitude post to one of the masterpieces that Indian Cinema has produced ever. This is a tribute to Sholay.

I am a Sholay fan. And one of my friends once asked me – “How many Sholay characters can you recall?” I came up with – Jai, Veeru, Basanti, Radha, Gabar, Thakur,  Ramlal, Samba, Kaliya, Mausi, Jailor, Ramlaal Naai, Surma Bhopali, Imaam Chacha, Ahmed, and Dhanno.

I am sure while reading, each of these characters must have flashed in front of your eyes and their signature dialogs must have reechoed deep in your ears.

Now do you remember more than this or at least this much characters from any other movie? That’s Sholay. It successfully boasts of everything from star cast and their life time performances to dialogues to script, songs, music, direction, cinematography and so on. What could be right mix of art, performance and charisma is seen in Sholay. There are millions of Sholay fans who can tell you the characters and their immortal dialogues. The number of fans who watched this bonanza for multiple times on screen is also not less. None other film has been ever watched so repeatedly by fans, and there will be any seldom. Sholay is also talked about its making time stories and for its production. This speaks the volumes about this film’s popularity. It’s not a mile stone in Indian Cinema, rather an elusive and the most dreamt end that every director wishes for his film to reach.

It’s a tad difficult to fit ‘Sholay’ into a single post. Arguably the most complete and entertaining film of all times, the film boasts of some of the biggest stars of its time-Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri. It also made a star out of a character called Gabbar Singh -the most imitated character of Hindi cinema. The legendary Gabbar’s dialogues are now folk-lore ( Pachas pachas kos door gaon mein jab bachcha raat ko rota hai to maa kahti hai beta soja ..soja nahin to Gabbar Singh aa jaayega ) peppered with his quirky vicious laughter showing his tobacco-stained teeth or the trademark ferocity ( Yeh haath mujhe de de Thakur ), Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh is a true blue cult-figure. Each and every character of Sholay is a part of the cinematic folklore, but apart from Gabbar the other most popular characters are Hindi cinema’s best-known buddies, Jai- Veeru and Veeru’s blabbermouth love interest, Basanti. The two friends singing ‘ Yeh dosti hum nahin chhodenge’ makes the most enduring image of screen friendship. Hema Malini as the chatterbox Basanti was a laugh riot. The three share some of the most memorable scenes in the film. Sholay is a classic to be watched again and again. Asrani and Keshto had made the jail scenes immortal (Aadhe idhar jao aadhe udhar jao, baki.. mere pichche aao). AK Hangal’s panic struck “Itna sannata kyon hai bhai” makes audience even panic. Amitabh’s dialogue with maiusiji (Leela Mishra) is world’s best ever marriage proposal on behalf of best buddy.

This is the film I have never bored of watching again and again. Each time it gives me new bundles of joy and zeal. It has done the divine job of spreading happiness in lives of millions of its fans. It has given them something to be proud of.

Sholay has created history in Indian cinema, but it will never turn into a history until fans like me are there. History swallows things, but will it dare to digest it? Hence today also it’s shining in the midst of Indian Cinema galaxy where it was before 35 years ago when it was released. There won’t be any end for Sholay mania. Generations after generations are watching it and falling in love for it.

Some facts about Sholay:

Sholay began as a four line idea that Salim-Javed pitched to Ramesh Sippy. Sippy liked the concept and hired them to develop it. The original idea was simple. An army officer decides to hire two ex-soldiers to avenge the murder of his family. The officer was later changed to a policeman as Sippy felt it would be too difficult to get permission to film from the army. They completed the script in only one month, borrowing many character names and personalities from their friends and acquaintances.
Ramesh Sippy, the director, at first wanted “Shotgun” Shatrughna Sinha to play the part of Jai, but Dharmendra convinced the producers that Amitabh Bachchan would be the right choice. The producers wanted Danny to play the part of Gabbar Singh vald Hari Singh, but he was committed to other assignments. Amjad Khan was a second choice. Khan prepared to play the bandit chief by reading a book titled Abhishapth Chambal, which told of the exploits of  Chambal dacoits. The book was written by Jaya Bhaduri’s father - Taroon Bhaduri.
Gabbar Singh was modeled on a real-life dacoit of the same name who menaced the villages around Gwalior in the 1950s. He terrorized the local police. Any policeman captured by the real Gabbar Singh had his ears and nose cut off, and was then released as an object lesson to other policemen.
During the film's production, four of the leads became romantically involved. Bachchan married Jaya Bhaduri four months before filming started. This caused problems when shooting had to be postponed because Jaya became pregnant with her daughter. Dharmendra had begun wooing Hema Malini during their earlier film Seeta Aur Geeta and used the location shoot of Sholay to further pursue her. During their romantic scenes, Dharmendra would pay the light boys to spoil the shot, thereby ensuring many retakes. The couple eventually married in 1980, five years after the film's release.
The film was a lavish production for its time. It took two and a half years to make, and went Rs. 300,000 over budget. One reason for its high cost was that Ramesh Sippy re-filmed scenes many times to get his desired effect. The "Yeh dosti" sequence took 21 days to shoot while two short scenes where Radha is lighting lamps took 20 days due to lighting problems. Another shoot for the scene in which Gabbar kills the son of the Imam lasted 19 days. The scene was later cut from the film by the censor board as was the scene in which Thakur's family is killed.

Cricket is back again...

Last Year's (2008-09) Cricket Team

From left to right (standing) : Kiran, Rahul, Kapil, Atul(C), Rajesh(WK), Mahesh, Vaibhav, Shashank, Soumen, (sitting ) Sachin and Harshal "Bhau".

Cricket is back again...

This is my first post. And I wanted to have a look at how do I feel after writing my maiden post on my brand new blog. This was what I intended to do a lot before but never had the great feeling to have my own space. But as you can see there’re so many people today who are keeping pace with world through this new medium, particularly celebrities, politicians, tech-savvies. They find a way to express out their mind, their thoughts. Great, technologies applied nicely. Some does it for fun. Again not bad, collect the joys from wherever you can. But I thought some days back, that one of my idols is doing this religiously since more than a year. He is spreading his feelings, views to his fans. He is nothing but most adorable Indian Icon Big B. So this is just my try to do something like he does or something for expressing my views/thoughts? or for the sake of enjoyment. Am I confused? Ok, here I am…
To inaugurate with, I find rarely any topic other than cricket. Like millions of Indians, I am also a big fan of cricket. But hold on, I won’t be expressing my views on international cricket or anything about cricket stalwarts. Rather my topic is about my freshly started journey into a cricket tournament.
My company cricket team has enrolled into a tennis ball cricket tournament. Couple of years ago, few of my die hard cricket loving colleagues formed a team. We bought kit and started playing on weekends. Since then we are enjoying about it. Many colleagues joined us, many left us but still we are moving. The love for cricket has kept us going.
Last year also, we enrolled in a tournament. But we failed to win any of the eight league matches that we played. Earlier we used to play amongst ourselves and had not known to real matches in recent past. Many of us were playing a tournament after a good gap of decade, the last being played in school days. And many were there debuting in a tournament. We used to practice a lot before tournaments. The frequency increased to 3 times a week. We used to attend office after playing in the morning. There was absolutely no pressure on work due to this practice as we all loved doing it profoundly and religiously. Childhood was back again in our lives.
The atmosphere was fascinating. Those were the days, our team was shaping up. We used to discuss a lot before and after the practice about the improvements, game plans and strategies. Everything was magical. Cricket was the only topic discussed during lunch, tea breaks in those days. We entered the tournament and existed after consecutive 8 losses. We were heart wrenched but also enjoyed our tournament.
Again the days are back, this year. We are enrolled in a tournament. Some of our old team mates are not with us. But we have new bunch of colleagues who are practicing with us since more than a year. We are a team now. I’ll be commenting on our journey. Wish my team. Cricket is back again.