Movie Review - Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna - KANK

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (KANK)- Movie Review

This weekend I managed to catch only one movie - Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. A much hyped movie that super flopped, I had heard lots of awful stuff about it. I sat and watched it when it played on cable to check it out for myself. Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna is directed by Karan Johar and stars Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Abhishek Bacchan, Rani Mukherjee and Amitabh Bacchan.

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna a.k.a KANK (Never say Goodbye) - 1/10 - I would have given it a zero but I am too kind. An awful script and no character development. The dialogue seemed copied from different Hollywood films and looked wrong coming out from the mouth of an Indian. Abhishek Bacchan is as wooden as ever and Shahrukh Khan is repetitive. Amitabh Bacchan is wrongly cast as 'Sexy Sam' - maybe he's a good actor but he can't just 'ghusao' in every movie in unsuitable roles. Yeah, Karan Johar - you may have got all the top stars (real close buddies) in on the 'deal' but your product is real lousy !

Overdose of Rona Dhona (crying). Shahrukh Khan looks his age and ugly when his makeup starts running. The music - I got a free CD of Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna with a new Sony Ericcson camera phone that my sister bought. I listened to it once and it reminded me of numbers from old films with a new beat.

Story makes no sense either - Nobody would divorce someone just cause they were depressed with life (accident/no kids). Take a look at the promo pics on the left and right which show the 2 couples happily married. All in all, it is no surprise that 'Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna' flopped in India. Ok, so Karan Johar managed to recover the money through sale of the film in US markets, marketing of merchandise and on in-film ads...for which he has only his business manager to thank !(buy a new car)

All in all, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna is a film I just would not recommend - spoilt my Sunday Afternoon ! KANK really Stank !

Tags - Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna Movie Review Karan Johar Shahrukh Khan Amitabh Bacchan Preity Zinta Rani Mukherjee Abhishek Bacchan

Mosquitoes Vs Health Officials in Delhi

Mosquitoes and MCD Health Officials

Mosquitoes are real troublesome. Once a week in my neighborhood, I hear a strange rumbling sound followed by a lot of white smoke and a disgusting smell. No, it isn't a giant letting off wind but only health officials with their malathion thermal fogging machines who are spraying insecticides to control mosquitoes. These mosquitoes lay their eggs on the surface of standing water in tins cans, tires or coolers and bite at night spreading different viruses and causing diseases.

The area I live in has been named by the Muncipal Corporation of Delhi to be specially vulnerable to mosqitoes. Mosqitoes somehow don't like the taste of my blood and I am fortunate that they don't bite me ( The only things that bite me are my cat and the fleas off his back).

Mosqitoes are known to cause many diseases which can kill people, and I know lots of folks who have gotten real sick. The female Anopheles mosquito causes Malaria. The female Aedes mosquitoes bite leads to Dengue and Chikungunya which is a form of viral fever is spread by the female Aedes Aegypti or Tiger Mosquito.

Whenever the man on the bicycle with his malathion thermal fogging machines comes around, my cat goes berserk and hides under my bed. Kids chase after the fogging man like he is Santa, breathing in the harmful pesticides. I have absolutely no idea how they can stand the smell from up close. Health Officials then come to check our cooler for mosquitoes breeding in the water. Last time the civic official came, he poured lots of kerosene in the cooler even though we had already added quite a bit of disinfectant.

After hearing that legal notices have been sent to over 29,000 houses and that nearly 13,000 folks have been fined, we decided not to allow the official to check our home anymore. Some officials just fix challans and fines arbitarily to collect cash. So, the next time the official came to check, we just told him we don't have a cooler - only an air conditioner.

Here is some surprising information I read about mosquitoes. Mosquitoes mainly feed on nectar from plants and it is only the females that require a meal of blood that contains protein for the development of her eggs. The female mosquito sucks blood from all mammals which includes pets and humans. She locates her victims by scent and primarily goes for males who are overweight and have 'O' Blood Group.

Ok, I am a skinny female with 'A' blood group, so that explains why mosquitos don't bite me. Another point could be the fact that I sleep in front of the cooler which creates a strong breeze that drives mosquitos away.

My Dad has tried almost every mosquito repellent available that includes Baygon Spray, Flit by Godrej, Odomos Cream, All Out Liquid Repellent and Good Night Mosquito Mats, but they still bite him. It is good that the MCD is regularly spraying malathion to get rid of mosquito eggs in stagnant water, atleast a few people can get a good nights sleep.

Bats are known to prey on mosquitoes, but they are too scared to enter our house. Mosquito nets on the windows are of no use since they fly in through the balcony, kitchen or air conditioning vents. We even hung bunches of neem leaves around the house to drive off their incessant buzzing but to no avail.

Do mosquitoes bite you ? Do you know of a fast easy way to get rid of them ?

Tags Mosquitoes Delhi India Mosquito Repellent Malaria Dengue Chikungunya

Review of Social Networking Websites

A Review of Social Networking Websites


Every other day my friends send me invites to join social networking websites or online communities. After signing up at a few popular ones I thought I'd write a review of these social networking websites. This review is based on the amount of activity at the website, safety of members and other features.

Orkut - 8/10 - most members are from Brazil or India usually in their late twenties or thirties. I found orkut relatively safer as no member can join without being invited by another member. As all members can be traced back to the person who recommended them, there is little chance of making fake profiles and getting away with mischief. I liked the interface, the testimonial and friend rating features. There are also various communities - offices, educational institutes or other interests that you can search through and join as a member. I managed to find and get in touch with quite a few of my long lost friends. The only problem are a few bugs - as orkut is still in beta version.

Hi5 - 5/10 - By Yahoo - lots of fake profiles here. Plus you have to have your own blog at hi5 you can't add your blogger url.

Friendster - 3/10 - Heard a lot about it, but when I first checked it out the site was closed for maintenance. It says it has thirteen million members but I'm willing to bet more than half are fake profiles. Lots of ads on knee pain here !! I wonder why ?

Ryze - 3/10 - Is a business networking site, so I don't use it much. Has many ads.

Gazzag - 2/10 - Is another online community that has very few members and uses lots of ads. Free signup.

MySpace - 4/10 - This Social Networking site is very popular in the United States among teenagers. Quite unsafe as it has free signup which leads to lots of fake obscene profiles by older persons. Offers popular blogs and videos.

Care2 - 7/10 - Is a Social Networking site for those concerned about the environment and animals who click on ads to donate money to various social causes and petition the govenment to deal with certain issues. Has folks of all ages from around the world.

Bebo - 4/10 - Is an online communities popular among school and college kids in North America, UK and Australia only. Anyone can register which leads to lots of folks causing mischief.

Fropper - 1/10 - Indian Dating and online community website......boring

ApunDesi - 2/10 - a social networking site optimised for ads which is dedicated towards Indians and Pakistanis commonly known as Desis.

So have you joined any of these sites ? What was your experience like ? Perhaps you know of a cool one I've missed out on ?

Tags Social Networking Online Communities Blogging

Movie Reviews - Omkara and Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar

Movie Review of Omkara and Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar.

This weekend I watched two movies - Omkara and Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar and this is what I thought of them -

Omkara - 4/10 - a dark movie based on the classic play Othello written by William Shakespeare. The casting was good - Saif (Langda) and Devgan (Omkara) should always be cast in negative roles. The only problem being they are below average actors with a limited range of facial expressions and should'nt be given too much to handle. The dialogue was in a local dialect of Uttar Pradesh abundantly sprinkled with abuses and swear words. Most actors especially Konkona just could'nt get the accent right which made the film seem fake. A shocking scene - Viveik Oberoi singing 'I Just Called to say I love you' with a guitar in an american accent.

Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar - 5/10 - (Marriage has trapped me, my friend ) Salman Khan plays the character of Ayaan - a shy guy who cannot express his feelings to girls while Shilpa Shetty is a bold talkative girl. The movie was quite interesting but I managed to see only half of it due to a power cut......too bad.

Did you catch these flicks ?


Omkara Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar Movie Review Bollywood

Vande Mataram Controversy

Is the Vande Mataram relevant today ?

The last time I mumbled through the National Song ' Vande Mataram' was sometime during my school days on maybe Gandhi Jayanti. Even then I had a hard time learning the lyrics which were in a different language, and today remember only the first line which went something like Vande Mataram - sujalam, sufalam.....etc.

Even the National Anthem - Jana Gana Mana is known for having obscure words which are not in mainstream use today. Though I know the lyrics to Jana Gana Mana as it was strongly drilled into my head in school, I could'nt say much about its meaning until I checked out wikipedia while writing this post. What's more I have witnessed most folks being either silent or mumbling gibberish whenever the National Song or Anthem are sung at functions.

The National Anthem - Jana Gana Mana was originally written in Bengali by our nobel laureate bong leader Rabindranath Tagore while the National Song Vande Mataram was also written by another bong in a Sanskritized form of Bengali named Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Both have a language and style which may have been considered 'cool' in the early twentieth century by their fellow bong nationalist leaders but is quite unrelated to the language spoken today. Forget about South Indians even many Bengalis are unaware of the words or meaning.

My point is should'nt the 'National Song' or 'National Anthem' be in the 'National Language' like Hindi or maybe even a language that most people would understand - like maybe a combination of hindi-urdu-english with simple words. If the national flag can go through various changes and the constitution be amended, then why not change the words of the national song/ anthem too ?

Thinking about the Muslim position about 'Vande Mataram' being a song of worship to a goddess, I ran a search for the term 'Vande Mataram' on Google image search to see what results would be thrown up. Other than photo's of stage theatre and the CD cover to AR Rehmans music album of the same name I got pictures of a goddess that was supposed to be Mother India but looked surprisingly like Goddess Durga who is widely worshipped in Bengal.

There are so many other patriotic songs or songs from films that touch the heart of the common man more than these politically chosen national songs - for example Sare Jahan se Acha, Meri Desh ki Dhartee, Mere Watan ke Logon. A national song should be one which every citizen is proud of and has no objection to on any grounds. A true nationalist should always mean the words he sings or says.

So what do you think ? Is it feasible ?

vande mataram national song Jana Gana Mana india muslim