Guzaarish...

What a well made movie!!! Simply beautiful!

59th Indian National Film Awards - 2011

Indian national film awards 2012 are just out & the accolades swept by Marathi movies/personalities are just impressive!

Notably -

Best Film – Marathi film ‘Deool’ - (shared)

Best Marathi Film – Shaala

Best Actor – Girish Kulkarni (Marathi film ‘Deool’)

Best Child Actor – Partho Gupte (Stanley Ka Dabba) and Chillar Party kids

Best Costumes – Neeta Lulla (Bal Gandharva) - (shared)

Best Playback Singer Male – Anand Bhate

Best Adapted Screenplay Writer – Avinash Deshpande

Best Dialogues – Girish Kulkarni (Deool)

Other noteworthy ones (Hindi/Marathi) are -

Best Actress – Vidya Balan (The Dirty Picture)

Now Vidya Balan continues to impress... Her performance in "The Dirty Picture" was indeed top-class!

Best Makeup – Vijram Gaekwad (The Dirty Picture)

Best Costumes – Neharika Khan (The Dirty Picture) and Neeta Lulla (Bal Gandharva)

Best Choreography – Bosco – Caesar for ‘Senorita’ (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara)

Best Visual Effects – Ra.One

The full list of National Award Winners for 2011 can be found at -

http://dff.nic.in/59thNFA2011.htm

Hmm...

Can't believe I haven't scribbled a line here for so long...

And not sure where to start!

So much has happened in the last 2 years...

And so much is happening right now.

Feels like I'm reacting to so many new stimuli one after the other.

Anyway, long story short - I hope to be here more regularly.

Maybe this is my "new year's resolution" ;-)

Interior decoration...

My heart melts when I see birds gathering feathers to be placed in their nests to comfort their little ones... And this one just outside my window is smaller than my thumb! Sometimes life throws so much beauty at me that I am incapable of handling...

Kim

Hats off to you, Kim Clijsters... Totally respect you, lady!

H1N1 and the city...

Today I was greeted by a very unusual sight that I've never witnessed in my city before... I saw majority of the people wearing green-masks to protect themselves from the virus. The masks are being sold like hot-cakes at every chemist shop.

With two deaths so far and so many fresh cases being reported, the fear and the panic is understandable. With most reported cases being kids and students, schools are closed. Quite a few office-colleagues of mine have taken off or are working from home as there's no-one to babysit their kids who are now happily staying at home for the schools are shut. Also there's apprehension amongst parents regarding the spread of this virus at creches. Most private doctors, fearing backlash, are referring every damn case with diagnosis of a flu to the over-burdened Government centres for H1N1 screening. The crowd outside the Naidu Hospital is overwhelming.

Pune is ailing. My city has never looked this sick before :-(

Madhya Pradesh Tourism Ad...

I was clean-bowled by the creativity behind this ad!

Disclaimer

What I find very irritating is the fuzziness and the fine-print involved in EULA's. Hence when I came across this disclaimer, while looking for a software-tool, I was absolutely delighted. It said -
"This code is offered unsupported. If it breaks you get to keep both halves."

Meghadoot...

The early messengers of monsoon are here! Today Pune is tucked in a blanket of fluffy gray clouds. It rained yesterday... thundered & poured... and I just loved it.

Yes, there was water-logging, traffic-jams & the power was off. Water must have gushed into the homes of the poor, their roofs must have leaked, many bikes must have skidded and cars must have hit their brakes a thousand times... Soon the roads will start telling and as every year, Pune & Mumbai will re-confirm their unpreparedness for the rains.

But inspite of all that, I simply can't stop loving this phenomenon of water pouring out of the skies! The fields besides my home are happy & I can sense that. The green they are wearing today is a different green. Birds are twittering non-stop and the termites have taken their feeble maiden flights. Way above, kites are flying aimlessly in circles.

I've spent the last hour admiring the games that the clouds & the winds are engaged in as Louis Armstrong's "What a wonderful world" plays in the background in an endless loop...

Vodafone Zoozoo ads

I've been an admirer of O&M as year after year they've delivered some of the most creative ads. This time too, they have come up with the most creative ads for Vodafone aired during this IPL season! Watch the "Related videos" for others.

What I found truly creative, besides the fact that a new ad is aired daily, was that "the characters were enacted by professional ballet artists in white body suits to mimic animation"! Such a paradigm-shift & out-of-the-box thinking! This article gives some insights in the making...

Relatable, concise & brings home the point in an impactful manner. This is what good advertisement & for that matter, good story-telling, is all about!