Game, Set, Match
Striker sets out to achieve a lot in its limited canvas of 2 hours and 7 minutes. It shuffles through two different timelines – the Bombay of the 80s and then the infamous ‘December 1992′. Siddharth as Surya is a Bombay bred n brought up lad, who moved to Malvani in his childhood along with his elder brother, sister Devi and parents [ Rajendra Gupta 'member Chandrakanta's Pt. Jagannath and Seema 'Bandit Queen' Biswas ]. Life in the underbelly is a constant struggle. And if Slumdog Millionaire tried to higlight it in a way what the critics call it as ‘poverty porn’, Striker does it in excruciating details. From the dark bylanes to the darker money churning Seths, the hustle and bustle of the Local train to even the brown and battered vests, Striker strikes the right chords. After all it’s a game. And it suceeds in achieving what it set out for, more or less.
Now this is a first. The power of social networking and the Web 2.0 is taking Bollywood by storm- with celebrities tweeting and movie publicities and marketing campaigns running through Facebook pages. But the new Studio 18 movie – Striker takes it to a whole another level.
The movie premieres on Feb 5th in India in theatres. But, the worldwide release will be on YouTube. As far as my knowledge goes, this is a first for a major Bollywood production, and apart from Sundance indies, we haven’t seen anything like this before even from Hollywood. Except for the US [where viewing the movie will cost 5$], viewing this movie on YouTube will be free [MUFT MUFT MUFT] 
The movie will be screened here [ Studio 18's YouTube channel ]. There is a lot more on the channel – from exclusive footage of making of the movie, to Siddharth – the lead actor giving us reasons to watch the movie. There’s more to it – they have an iPhone app – a Striker version of the carrom game Now that’s another first.
So, what’s this #strikerwatchalong?
All across the world, awesome Bolly lovahs are coming together to watch this movie simultaneously, on Feb 7th, 6pm GMT and will also be group-chatting about the same on Google wave. Exciting stuff indeed.
The idea of the group chat wave for #StrikerWatchAlong was initiated by Beth and thanks to her, there are already 24 people who have joined the Wave, and still counting. It’s so awesome to see people from Abhu Dhabi to Australia to Dubai to London to Chicago to Germany.. you get it.
And if you feel like joining, just add your Google wave ID in the comments section below.
See you on the 7th awesome peeps.
——————————————————————————–
Some stuff about #StrikerWatchAlong on Beth’s blog.
I have been enjoying these flurry of Storm Troopers Memes that I get in my inbox – thanks to my awesome Geek mates. And before I get on with my Back 2 Back routine of watching all the six Star Wars movies today, I thought I’ll have a go of creating my own Star Wars Storm Troopers Meme.
Of course the way to start this is with our house favorite: Kuch Kuch Hota Hai… or should we say?
Or????… ‘Inspired’ by Family Guy’s “Something Something Something Dark Side”…
And for the Meme that you’ve been waiting for, here it is:
Hindi Gyaan: Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in Hindi means – Something Something is Happening [ a metaphor for Love]
Bah! Ek Rahen Veer
We are back with the concluding part of the Movie Review. There was no reason to spread this across two posts other than my laziness. Trust me when I say that. I am not capitalising the interest in Veer to make it a blog merchandise kinda shit. I am not corporate minded. Actually, that’s not true, I am a bit. Forgive me, let’s get back to the post.
TAKE 2, SHOT 1.. ACTION
Yeah, so that Jaggu Dada in the black outfit calls himself the Yuvraj of Madhavgarh. He somewhat reminds me of the drunkard Chunni Lal and everytime I talk to him, I get the intuition that he might spit out the words – Hey Bidhhu!! any moment. Anywho, so he betrayed us, and killed lots of our Pindhari bros. And I cut his arm. That was so awesome Veera.
ANYWHO!!! Yeah, so now I have the eyeliner in place.
———————————————————————————————————————
I’m gonna rob that lady’s brooch just to throw it back. Hang on, I’m gonna do it in Sholay style which co-incidentally my Bilogical Dadde had written.
And I’m gona win her heart, I mean the princesses.
And you know what, while doing so, I am gonna fly through the coaches,split my thunder thighs and still maintain my Ninja discreet look and my eyeliner intact.
———————————————————————————————————————
*Smitten*
———————————————————————————————————————
Much more occurin’ after the Jump. And there’s the Moral of the Story!!
***Veer + Durgati = Veer-Gati ***
When a movie inspires you to create something new, or even pushes you to the limits of inventing a new mashup of two different medium, it certainly is some form of genius in one way or another. Avatar did it with its 360 degrees of Pandora. And Veer has done the same with its Pindharis. Brute, drunk, sexually fertile and hormonally in their teens, the Pindhari Rajputs are not much different from the Na’vis. Now if you believe in every word I have said so far, go wash your face. To take the name of Cameron’s Avatar and Anil Sharma & Salman’s Veer-Avatar in the same breathe cannot be justified by any stretch of imagination. But yes, I do believe that Veer has inspired me to create something new. And that inspiration has resulted me to amalgamate Twitter into the 1860s revolt by the Pindharis. Basically what we are speaking here is -
How Veer [Salman] under the Chatrachaya of Prithvi [Mithun] got drunk, danced on some tribal Tubthumping music, went to London, got the Dulhania, Pwned Jaggu Dada and Saved the day
When the movie begins with the Disclaimer – All animals have treated properly blah blah!, they completely forgot to mention that the movie could be visually, mentally and emotionally extremely torturous to humans. Moving on, here we go – Tweeting the Movie – Veer.
Salman_TheVeer: @Anil_Gadar_Sharma I been writing. Sholay’s train robbery,romance, London, a Jalwa types drunk dance and a Katrina look-alike. Wht say?
Anil_Gadar_Sharma: @Salman_TheVeer Awesome dude. Is Sohail in 2? He’s mah fav.Reminds me of Rajendranath without glasses.
****Anjali Sharma’s Probability Pie-Chart****
****for Prospective Dulha (Groom)****
‘Member Anjali Sharma’s mind is all messed up. Rahul Dude shows up after all these years when she finally learns to dress in a Sari. Aman Verma dude can’t get enough of Anjali love to follow her straight to the Summer camp. And the most cunningly conspiring kids won’t leave a single chance to convert Anjali Sharma into Mrs.Khanna. No wonder she was going through this. This is a state of Anjali Sharma’s mind when she is trying to be all analytical and has distributed the probability of her prospective groom.
Yep, all is not lost for Johnny. There is still Hope 
Yeah right!!.. says Anjali
Looks quite simplistic.Just the eyes and the lips on a white background. But IMHO, it captures the essence of the Joker. I love the menace in his eyes, and the mean smile on his lips. Somehow the dripping effect on his make-up makes it all the more evil. Hope you guys like it.
UPDATE: I know the date on the sketch is wrong. And I can edit, but frankly, I just ain’t bothered 
If you are curious about which software I used, FYI, I used GIMP 2.4.5 which perfectly syncs with my Trust TB-7300 Widescreen Tablet. So what do you think about the sketch? Shout out your comments below.
First post of the decade. And we are looking back at the 80’s. No not the 90’s or the Noughties, but the 80’s. Coz that was when I was born. I AM a child of the 80’s.
Right, so I just got one big affirmative answer to the question of how many people love the Bollywood of 80’s. The answer of course is a Big-Ass YES!! I did this post on one of my most favourite cinema blogs called PassionForCinema.com [Please read the post if you haven't. It's titled : Essential Eighties -Tezaab (1988) ]. The post was a tribute to one of the milestone movies of the 80’s and most importantly the one that launched Madhuri Dixit to her Dancing Diva status – Tezaab. Much of that has already been discussed on the post, but more than that people have commented at length about how much they loved the 80’s[and the music associated with them]. I am absolutely thrilled to see the amount of fundoo trivia knowledge that these people have, and it makes me feel very happy to be in their company. While I will be discussing more on Tezaab in a follow up post on PFC, here I am continuing my ‘Khujlee’ on my long-forgotten Say What section. And this time, it is Tezaab ki baari.
Now be warned. This post contains language which could be too colourful for your taste.
And yes, spoilers if you haven’t watched the movie yet. [Never thought I would say that for a 1988 movie]
So, the Kahani begins like this. Shyamlal[Anupam Kher] pours Acid on plants. His daughter Mohini sings Ek Do Teen to make money. Shyamlal owes money to Lotiya Pathan. Lotiya Pathan kidnaps Mohini. Mohini’s lover – Munna is on a Tadipaar.. out of Bombay. But he’s still good at heart. He is the typical 80’s ka dude – much like Robin Hood – Less on personal hygiene, more on sympathy. And yeah! Kick the arse of villains with funny names – like Mukut Bihari. If villains in today’s era in Mumbai had such names, first of all they would have to deal with MNS and Shiv Sena
