Movie - No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men is a subtle, violent, thriller movie set in texas - western background is enjoyable fair for intense movie goers.

The three key characters are fascinating, and the performances of the actors playing them are just as good. Javier Bardem gets the over-the-top role, as psycho killer (Anton Chigurh), hired by bad guys to track down $2 million that’s gone missing from a drug deal gone bad. Josh Brolin plays the noir anti-hero, (Llewelyn Moss), an alienated Texan who stumbles upon the cash and then sets out to keep it, even if Chigurh’s pursuit is relentless and a brutal outcome seems inevitable. And Tommy Lee Jones adds the western element – and much of the subtlety – as the world weary Sherriff Ed Tom Bell, who pursues both Moss and Chigurh

Many of Bardem's scenes are memorable. Slow narration, dark and natural photography, limited dialogues make the movie very interesting to watch. Background score hums only when it is absolutely necessary.

This movie is a lesson for movie makers who try to scare the viewers with hell lot of fights, bombs, sound effects.... Hence, dont miss it.

Movie - Borat

Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
is a very funny movie (or documentary) as it captures the narrator shifting from Kazakhstan to USA to make documentary. His experiences are captured as it happens and he finally gets back to his town.

Amazingly hilarious movie barring couple of incidents, beautifully narrated script, lovely natural set-up for the movie makes the narration believable. Some scenes like driving school experience, dinner engagement with guests, or his english (learnt with set of blacks boys) getting backfired in hotel by white guys... damn funny.

Some of the antics of Borat (Sacha Baron Cohenare) are really funny and it is convincing due to his smiling face. Very different movie... Watch it... Can we call this as mocumentary ?

Movie - Superbad

Movie - Superbad: Two guys (looks kind of laurel and hardy) are always together and they are going to complete their schooling and likely to be separated for their college days. As you have guessed, they talk a lot about sex but unfortunately they are 17 year old virgins. They are invited to a party and they are looking forward to having sex during the time of party. But they are supposed to procure alcohol before joining the party. Glorious turn of events occur like accidents, cops spoiling the party etc... and how the movie ends is something one can enjoy thoroughly...

Jonah Hill as Seth performed amazingly well and carries the movie on his shoulders. Christopher and McLovin provides damn good support compared to the second hero Michael (Evan).

Movie narration is very natural and doesnot provide great laughs post first 30 -40 minutes but this movie engages you fully and convincingly.

Terrible cops spoils the show to some extent and the over all rating is "worth watching". Far better than some of the americal pie series.

Indian Stock market Outlook - May 2008

Stocks have rallied smartly through April 2008 and placed at good levels. I predict this current rally to fizzle out around 18250 to 18500 levels some time in May. Cement, Steel, capital goods sectors are ignored, Technology / IT stocks, Banks (private banks in particular), real estate, telecom, pharma,Oil and FMCG rallied considerably in april.

The markets rallied due to shortage of stock supply rather than a strong apptetite of buying - lack of volumes are a proof for this logic.

Hence, it would be difficult for this rally to gain strengh above 18500 levels. Inflation, airline bankruptcies, US credit card defaults and US housing market trends would decide the future course of markets.

Q4 – India Earnings Report

I record my ratings to this Quarterly result of Indian Corporate, not in any particular order…. Strictly based on what is reported and not based on future outlook or movement of stock prices;

Excellent

1. GVK Power
   
2. Axis Bank (Set some standards – excellent management)
   
3. Infosys Tech
   
4. Satyam Comp
   
5. India Bull Securities
   
6. Motilal Oswal Securities
   
7. India Infoline
   
8. BILT
   
9. Sintex
   
10. HDFC Bank
    
11. Bank of India
    
12. CEAT
    
13. Yes Bank
    
14. Reliance Capital (Topline growth is outstanding)
    
15. IDFC (Future Heavyweight of finserv)
    
16. CESC
    
17. Glenmark
    
18. BEL
    
19. Sterlite Industries
    
20. Mahindra Lifespace
    
21. Titan
    
22. Bharti (Airtel)
    
23. Nicolas Piramal
    
24. NOIDA Toll
    
25. MMTC
    
26. Power Grid
    
27. Mindtree Consulting
    
28. Karuturi network (KNL)
    

Okay-Okay or Neither Here Nor There

1. Reliance Industries
   
2. ICICI Bank
   
3. RCOM
   
4. IDEA (Topline growth not good)
   
5. Ranbaxy (Profitability is not improving)
   
6. Cipla
   
7. HDFC Ltd
   
8. R-Com
   
9. Bhushan Steel
   
10. Canara Bank (Struggling to grow)
    
11. Indian Bank (Struggling to grow)
    
12. LIC Housing
    
13. Jain Irrigation
    
14. NTPC Ltd
    
15. HCL Tech
    
16. ZEE television
    
17. Videocon Industries
    

Bad

1. IFCI
   
2. ACC
   
3. Gujarat Alkali
   
4. Wockardt Pharma
   
5. BHEL (Abysmal relationship between topline and bottomline)
   
6. GE Shipping
   
7. DLF (Still a proprietory company !!!)
   
8. Aditya Birla Nova (Insurance premium googly)
   
9. Grasim
   
10. NALCO
    
11. SRF Ltd (Re-structuring only option to improve)
    
12. Essar Oil (Washout Q4 but no indication from management)
    
13. Siemens Ltd (Consistently failing market perception – No hope on OPM)
    
14. Maruti Udyog (Surprise depreciation decision – but only good representative of Indian car industry)
    
15. NDTV Ltd (120 crore loss – come on Prannoy – do some re-jig)

Kamalhasan's Dasavatharam Audio Release

Himesh Reshammya (Himesh Bhai) has composed tunes for the first time to a south indian movie. We know him for his techno sounds, nasal Ooooo's in Hindi. Let us see whats in store for us...Good that i didnt have any expectations :)

Mukuntha: A soothing bhajan song on Lord Krishna, well sung by Sadhna Sargam. On the final stages of the song, one grandma's (Kamal ?) voice adds up and contributes as distraction !!!

Ulaga Nayagan: Clean techno song. Full of glorification to Kamal. Nothing beyond that. One line of the song goes like this "United Nations will invite you" by Vairamuthu, utter nonsense !!! Gentle feminine voice of Vinith carries this song nicely. Irony of this song, "come dance with me before you go" is the most attractive line which keeps lingering on our minds:)

Kaa Karupanukkum: Another techno song, well sung by Shalini Singh. But forgettable song.

Kallai Mattum Kandal: Energetically sung by Hariharan and excellent tune. Looks like Kamal puts his "baktha" acting rather than "aetheist" acting. His character name is most likely "rangarajan" (Ah what a kandupidippu !!!). This song catches the attention immediately and ending with nice aalap. Vaali has written this song very well.

Example:
Saivam endru parthal deivam theriyathu

theivam endru parthal samayam kidayathu

kallai mattum kandal kadavul theriyathu

kadavul mattum kandal kall-adhu theriyathu
(If one looks at saivam then one cant see god

if one sees god then one cant see community

if one sees idol / stone then one cant see god

if one sees god then one cant see the idol / stone)

Oh Oh Sanam: Himesh bhai has sung this techno tamil song. Another forgettable song.
Oh Oh Sanam: Kamal has sung this slower version - so that one can understand the lyrics :); Nothing more that. Beat which comes after pallavi and before the first stanza sounds like the beat of "Ah Ah aashiqui hain meri" of 36 China town.

Audio release function: I caught up with this function on May 1 on TV. My opinion of this entire program goes like this:

Oscar Ravichandran built his early career by successfully distributing Jackie Chan's movies. So., he invited Jackie to this function. We respect the sincerity of the producer for not forgeting his past. You are very nice sir....

But things happened on that day can be classified as utter nonsense, sheer waste of money, time, energy of everyone concerned. The entire tamasha can be called as "self glorification by you scratch my back and i scratch yours" and "kakkai pidithal or ice" of dignitaries. TN CM has got better things to say about Jackie than Kamal !!!!!

By the way, Dhaam Dhoom song " Pudhu Pudhu" is the only song which sounds attractive and weird for the first 2-3 times. But it sinks in fast after 2-3 attempts and sounds as real cool song of the recent days.

Glorious Indian IT Industry

Indian IT industry started way back in 1970s came to the forefront in Y2K and exponentially grown over many years. I wanted to pay tribute to this glorious ride to top…. As I worked in this industry for the last 7 years, my reading is un-biased & is based out of experience… No special point for timing of this write-up !!!

Things to cherish:

• Healthiest, powerful growth of middle class (responsible for the growth of Indian Economy)
  
• Provided alternative job opportunity to traditional industries
  
• Abroad travel
  
• Young turks' spending culture
  
• Got global recognition by work
  
• Exposure to new technology
  
• Flat org structure
  
• The best application ever developed – Indian railways ticket booking system – by CMC
  
• MS Office Suite – most useful application for daily survival
  

  
  

• Side Effects – Casual Sex as culture, Night-Outs at work, made fire fighting as culture
  

Things to focus in future

• Quality of deliverable
  
• Pro-active Customer service rather than reactive to customer complaints
  
• Focus on Bug reduction
  
• Development of Re-Usable components
  
• Proper project management
  
• Consultative approach