Friday & Saturday

And so I thought, let's write a post about how I spent my Friday and Saturday. Maybe ten years down the line it might make for some good reading.

Friday
10:00 am: Got up from sleep.
10:30 am: Went to DSP for another day of summer training.
02:00 pm: Came back home.
03:00 pm: Had to go to Arena for my printing and publishing class.
05:30 pm: Came back home.
05:45 pm: Accompanied mom and grandpa to the station to see off Mamu and Bubu.
07:15 pm: Came back home.
08:00 pm: Went to Bubka's farewell party. Had a great dinner (and discovered that I was the only one on a cycle!).
11:15 pm: Came back home.
11:45 pm: Went to sleep.

Saturday
09:30 am: Woke up.
10:00 am: Set out for DSP.
01:15 pm: Got back home.
03:00 pm: Left for my Arena classes.
05:30 pm: Got back home.
08:00 pm: Went to Shristi with Priyankar (Bangla bands came and performed on Saturdays).
10:30 pm: Home sweet home.
01:00 am: Sleep sweet sleep.

Gone were nice two days of my life.

The Best Movie Library you can get for free

It's been a long search for the right movie collection software, but thankfully I can call that worthy. A movie buff like me can do very well with a movie collection organizing software which can also store the film crews, ratings, genres, posters, and a outline of the plot. There are a lot of softwares to this effect in the market, but unfortunately most of them come with a price tag. Now this spurned on a search for a free one which could do the job reasonably well.
With Google as my acting partner, I managed find some of these. Included were Movienizer, Griffith and Movie Manager. The next step was trying all of them out.
Lets start with Griffith. Griffith is still in a developmental state (may be that's why its free). It was quite unstable when I used it as evident from the frequent error messages. It also provides only the most basic functionalities.
The Movie Manager download consisted of an .rar package which lacked an exe file (or anything even remotely similar), thus hindering all my efforts to install it (pardon me if I was doing something very stupid). Couldn't really find a way.
Movienizer was easily the best of the lot. With great search scripts (you can write your own even) and a convenient choice of data fields, it was extremely user-friendly. Maybe its only drawbacks were -- uncustomizable report exports, and the inability to update the database automatically by itself. But one thing was certain, that this was the best you are going to get for free. So guys allow me to recommend this piece of free heaven.
You can get it here.

What's wrong with Karan Johar?

Ladies and gentlemen, let me ask you of this one favour. The unsophisticated answer to the question above. The simple minded may hereupon think me to be not quite sane, or at best take me to be yet another arrogant smartypants. But before you form your own independent opinions of me (of which you are very much entitled to) consider the following.

Mr. Karan Johar has till date directed (or in the process of directing) 4 films. Out of those 4 films, 3 films are set abroad (US or UK).

He has produced (or in the process of producing) 8 films out of which 4 films are set abroad.

He is also the writer of the story or screenplay of 6 films, out of which an unprecedented 4 films are set abroad.

Why such obvious biasness to frame films in foreign lands, I earnestly ask  of you, when the stories are as good (or as bad) of being set up in Indian locales as well. The usual motivation behind the the setting of stories in foreign lands should at least theoritically have something to do with the land itself, and/or its people. Johar's film's alas, fail to achieve either objective. His films and scripts have absolutely nothing do with the ordinary people, their struggles or their opinions. And he most certainly cares neither for the history or culture of those foreign lands. He simply chooses the foreign locations just for the girls in bikinis, high-end and glamorous lifestyle, the 'cool' look and for their exotic beauty. Pretty disgusting for any person who appreciates fine cinema.

For example why was Kal Ho Naa Ho shot in the US? And what difference did that make other than in the categories mentioned above? Nothing. He got even the 'firangees' to dance and sing (really pity them!). The story could just have been set in India too.

That's the real difference between classy directors like Meera Nair and irritating filmmakers like Karan Johar. Films like Monsoon Wedding and The Namesake made full utilization of the lands they were set in. Monsoon Wedding smelled so incredibly full of that Punjabi-Delhi marriage spirit, while The Namesake could convey the meaning of the busy Kolkatan landscapes as well as the loneliness amidst the snowy vastness of the American-scape. But films like Kal Ho Naa Ho, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and Dostana make a mockery of the audience. And I certainly cannot ever appreciate that.

Some people say he is supposedly catering to the NRI markets abroad, and that he is finding new markets for Bollywood films. But I say he is doing nothing other than branding out C grade films in Hollywood packaging to infantile foreign audiences, to the detriment of the art called Cinema of India (and that's NOT Bollywood!).

By the way I am confused about what Johar is trying to show in his films. He most certainly isn't showing India (or REAL Indians for that matter), and he most certainly isn't showing US. Any suggestions?

Damn

Really can't believe I am writing a post after 2 years. 2 damn years man!! That's bad. Really bad.

Writing is such a good thing. It sort of keeps you in the midst of things, of some good, healthy activity. I am home now. College really leaves you with no time to peruse this small and healthy activity. So home might just be able to help me a little in this regard. 

So without any further delay let's start posting man!!! Yahoo!