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Random.next()

A bad or neat joke, depending on which end you’re at:

You: What’s your mobile service provider?

Unsuspecting Hutch user: Hutch.

You: Bless you!

or the variant:

You: Hey, what mobile service does (insert name of some unsuspecting Hutch customer here) use?

Unsuspecting non-Hutch user: Hutch.

You: Bless you!

In both cases, be prepared to run.

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Alfonso Cuaron rocks. Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban kicks the first two HP movies and grinds their noses to the ground and makes them holler “Uncle!” real loud. Much of the plot has been cut, and I still can’t get over Fred and George getting a raw deal throughout the movie (the entire series, in fact), but visually the film is stunning. I love the way the camera seems to be in constant motion, sneaking in and out of events. Great editting and direction. However, Daniel Radcliffe better be replaced by someone else –  and fast, his scenes of angst were more laughter-inducing than Hermione’s Sucker Punch was.

Alfonso Cuaron rocks even more. Y Tu Mama Tambien is a brilliant movie, which makes you forget about the fact that it’s in Spanish and makes you realise just how universal guy-things are. You know, macho talk, smoking pot together, eternal horniness etc. Splendid movie, which  I can’t write to CD, unfortunately, because the damn file is 704 MB. I also cannot edit it using VirtualDub, because the encoding is not proper. Ah, well, I shall have it in my PC until the next hard disk crash.

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In other news, I have discovered that Cinema Paradiso, Hyderabad now carries Amorres Perros and George Romero’s original Night of The Living Dead and Martin. Hmmmmm.

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absolut69 ‘s birthday treat at a Ghazal bar yesterday. That’s basically a bar where there is a guy singing Ghazals and playing the harmonium and there’s another guy accompanying him on the tabla, and there is a bar so you can drink ( or rather, others can drink while you can crack bad jokes *see above). Funny thing was that inspite of being a non-Ghazal following guy, I could recognise most of the songs. Which effectively means the guy was singing the same popular stuff that one hears on TV. Hoshwaalon Ko Khabar Kya was sung twice, so was a ghazal version of Baar Baar Din Yeh Aaye,  a birthday song that someone requested for someone else. A little more time and he would started singing a ghazal version of Kaanta Laga, perhaps. Well, the food was good, and my no-lunch-before-birthday-dinners policy did pay off, after all.

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38 thoughts on “Random.next()

  1. Azkaban is actually better than both the previous movies. I always maintained that smart franchise movie making is about making wise choices. The kind Bryan Singer, Sam Raimi, and now Alphonso Cuaron made.

      • oh, the choices the directors make while adapting a franchise or a book to the cinematic medium. The liberties that actually make the movie experience better, even if it is not true to the book. The story and the narrative in Azkaban, the non yellow spandex uniforms in X-Men, the webbing straight out of Spidey’s hand in Spider-Man(just wait for what they do to that in 2), that kind of thing.
        Choices about translation of concepts from the source, casting, use of effects, and character development. Azkaban, X-Men, to an extent the LoTR movies… are perfect examples of why it’s not always the best idea to translate a franchise so literally.
        Azkaban in particular is not always a faithful translation of the book like the first two were, admittedly. That is exactly what makes it fun… the movie is not just a translation, its an experience that is different from the book, and you are glad to have read the book as well as seen the movie.

        sheesh, do I get carried away or what?

  2. Ghazal and guzzle bar?

    Hmm! I always had fantasies of going to one such place. But it would be a letdown if all I get is Kaanta Laga ;)

    • Re: Ghazal and guzzle bar?

      The place happens to called Mehfil. It’s part of Hotel Baseraa in Secunderabad. The singer was pretty good, the songs were all ghazals – no Kaanta Lagaa anywhere, but considering how the guy was responding to requests from the guzzlers, I thought he would start off kaanta lagaa sometime or the other.

  3. I need to rent “Y Tu Mama Tambien”, one of these days (dunno what’s keeping me… It’s either $1 or $2 at my corner rental place), and I still need to see “Azkaban”, but I’m glad to hear it’s good. It’s my favorite of the book, and the trailers make it look like it’s handled well.

      • “A Little Princess” is really very good, even watching it as an adult male… It’s because of Cuaron’s work on “A Little Princess” that I’ve been looking forward to Cuaron’s version of “Prisoner…”

  4. azkaban

    you liked that movie?? i thought it was totally shitty.
    i thought i would never watch another movie derived from a rowling work. ever. but then i realised i would watch the next parts because a certain ms. emma watson exhibits promising signs of post-puberty-hermoine portrayal.

      • Re: azkaban

        I knew you wouldn’t like it. There were no purple bedsheets anywhere. :-D

        but there were purple bedsheets. watch the scene where the students are asked to sleep in the common room after the fat lady’s portrait has been slashed by sirius black.
        in fact, after observing this, i was thinking how tickled you would’ve been. tchah, you disappoint me, holmes.

        • Re: azkaban

          they were purple?????? I was specifically looking for the colour in that scene. Dude, don’t tell me I am colour blind!!!!

  5. File Size

    “Splendid movie, which I can’t write to CD, unfortunately, because the damn file is 704 MB”

    dude, u can zip the file n then write .. it works quite well.. 704 MB should write man.. i think ive burned something like a 706 MB movie on a cd recently .. also got the OST to Kill Bill Vol.2 but its in one track.. ill burn u a copy if ur willing to fwd it to get to a particular song ;)

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