Valu – The Wild Bull

Saw "Valu - The Wild Bull", a Marathi language film. I don't remember the last Marathi film I saw in the theatre. Did I ever see one?

Valu is about a small village in Maharashtra, which finds itself in fear of a destructive wild bull. Two city officials arrive to catch the bull, which they find far more tricky than they anticipate. They travel with a documentary filmmaker from the city who films their mission. The camera interests and involves the village folk far more than cornering the bull. After many adventures of their own and with the village elders and inhabitants, they finally succeed. The film looks at village life on many levels, ranging from political rivalry, family tensions, forbidden love, all of which is observed with wit and subtlety. What emerges are aspects of the human mind: on one side a sense of curiosity, mystery, competitiveness and friendship, and on the other, abrasive egos, the blinkered one-sidedness of religion, and the tenacious will and need to survive.

Source: http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php?content_id=18673

Everyone of us liked the film. Lakshmikant also gave his mark of approval on the technicalities of the film.

Pros:

  • Well defined characters and strong performances.
  • Universal humor. More of situational and character based humor.
  • Compact. Not even for a second did my mind wander away from the movie.
  • Beautiful picturization. The village has been portrayed realistically.
  • Relief. No fake looking enacting of popular Bollywood movies.

Promo of the movie:

View other promos.

A sure must see after Shwaas.

What made me smile?

Was having a not-so-interesting day until I stumbled upon this rant of Zed Shaw. That`s what made me smile. I even wrote him a fan mail 🙂

Then I continued reading his blog bits and I couldn`t stop smiling. Thanks Zed for making me smile. It is reminiscent to the kind of smile Ravi would evoke from me when he would go on word bashing spree at someone. It was FuN. Where are you dude? Miss you!

P.S: I neither agree nor disagree with all of it. His writing just brought a smile to my not-so-interesting day. I feel Rails solves a real world problem, which is the most important thing.

I am off on a road trip !

Remember this post few months back? >> 'Ready for an adventure?'

Time has come and I am off...

Here is the rough plan:

Alibaug to Goa - Coastal Biking Expidition

Maharashtra is blessed with 720 km of coast line. The expiditon aims to cover 500 km of on bike visiting all the sea forts on the way.

Schedule :
Day 1 : Saturday Dec 23, 2007
Early morning departure from Pune/Mumbai. Aim to reach Alibaug by 9 am. Pune / Mumbai - Alibaug - Korlai - Revdanda - Murud - Janjira

Day 2 : Sunday Dec 24, 2007
Kansa, Diveagar, Srivardhan, Harihareshwar, Bankot

Day 3 : Monday Dec 25, 2007
Harne, Kanakdurg, Fategad, Anjarle, Suvarnadurg, Anjenvel, Gopalgad

Day 4 : Tuesday Dec 26, 2007
Guhagar, Velneshwar, Vijaygad, Jaigad, Ganpatipule, Ratnadurg, Pavas

Day 5 : Wednesday Dec 26, 2007
Purnagad, Ambolgad, Yashwantgad, Vijaydurg

Day 6 : Thursday Dec 28, 2007
Devgad, Bhagwantgad, Bharatgad, Sarjekot, Sindhudurg

Day 7 : Friday Dec 29, 2007
Tarkarli, Nivti, Vengurla, Mochemad, Terekhol, Goa, Fort Agauda

Day 8/9 : Sunday Dec 30, 2007 - Monday Dec 31, 2007
Chilling in Goa!!!

Day 10 Tuesday Jan 1, 2008
Back to Mumbai.

Catch you once I am back.

Happy New Year !!!

Update: I am back. Amit has just posted on his blog about the trip and some pictures to go with it here. It's a must read 😉

Paintathon = Painting Marathon

Oh! did I tell you all about the Paintathon I had taken part in? No. « wondering how could I forget of blogging about it » Shame me 😐

Remember I was in Ahmedabad in August? There I spent most of my time at Prayas' place. Some of his paintings adorned his walls and there were others lying in his studio. We also took time out to visit School of Architecture and hang around the campus for lunch. Laxmikant had also come down for the post-production of his film. So art was the flavour of the month. I have always been curious about various forms of art because of the obvious influence of my bro. Painting on a canvas was something completely new for me and I was game for it.

A couple of days before I was supposed to leave for Mumbai, I asked Prayas if we could paint. Felt like he was all ready for it and he was just waiting for me to prompt. He hadn't had a brush with painting for a long time now. He said lets take part in a Paintathon. "Wow Paintathon sounds cool," I exclaimed. I was thinking, Marathon... Hackathon and now Paintathon. Next I remember we went out to get a some canvases and extra colors and brushes.

For the Paintathon, we reserved the morning of the day I was supposed to leave for Mumbai. You can read up on how the events unfolded at Manjushree's blog.

Here are some of the pics:

Prayas in free flow Canvas in progress Canvas in progress Prayas paints with his left hand

Here are the finished paintings:

Prayas:
Canvas complete - Prayas

Manjushree:
Window art at the Paintathon

Akshay (my):
Canvas complete - Akshay (me)

For inquiries to buy and order use the contact form. Offer till stocks last. 😉

Look at the complete album here:

Updated the links to the pictures

How is the T-Shirt?

Had been to BarCampMumbai2 at IIT Bombay yesterday wearing the socialsync.in t-shirt. Tell me how do you like it?

socialsync-tshirt.jpg

Here is the reciepe:

Ingredients: Adobe Photoshop, T-shirt printing service, Watch, Mom, Friends, Bike
Preparation Time: 55 mins
Procedure:

  • Decided on getting a T-shirt at the very last moment. For me it was around 7:05pm
  • Fire-up Adobe Photoshop and start experimenting
  • Ask mom for help with colors, placement etc.
  • Keep track of time all this while. You can't expect a shop getting it printed for you after 10 pm
  • Freeze on the design only when you are satisfied position and color of all the pixels. (18 mins)
  • Call up and ask friends if they have any clue of T-shirt printing services nearby?
  • Get your bike and reach the shop with all the PSDs (22 mins)
  • Consider yourself more intelligent than the shopkeeper as finally its you who is going to wear it. At the same time seek and value his strategic advice. Its routine for them but special for you.
  • Wait patiently first while the negative gets printed (15mins) and then while it gets ironed (2mins) on the T-shirt
  • Show it off 😉

Credits:
Mom (Color and Design inputs)
Sankool (For pointing out the small shop at Spencers in Inorbit Mall where I could get the T-shirt printed.)

P.S BarCampMumbai2 and SocialSync.in deserve dedicated posts 😉

Is it the Bee Season?

Today, I watched Bee Season on Star Movies. The movie was griping gripping enough for me to watch it through till the end. Its a big thing because I haven't sat through a movie off late on television. It's different when you pay to watch movies in the theaters.

What I liked most about the movie was the characters, mystery around them and for a change things were inconclusive all throughout.

You can read more about the movie here. Oh, looks like the movie is adapted from this novel.

Update: s/griping/gripping

School_Friends meetup

Am back from an awesome trek to Peb fort via Matheran. It was much needed and was at just the right time. Not sure if I would be able to organize/attend any treks anytime soon. Though, it was my second time to Peb, the terrain was much different than last time.

Some highlights of the trek (straight from our mailing list):

- A Dropout Log of friends who dropped out at the last moment could have also been written. Wat say GuysNGals? though I refrain from it as I believe all of them wanted to come but just couldn't because of unavoidable circumstances. Hope you guys make it a point to come next time surpassing these circumstances.

- Trek was amazing. We made our move from green cover sometimes as tall as 5 feet, rocky patch and the final dip in the river 3 feet deep (shallow) was just the icing on the cake.

- Since we were fewer in number, we could be adventurous which at times meant we could be fearless and be lost (momentarily) and walk the road less travelled. Need I say that has made all the difference. 😉

- Hats off to Akshat to take that extra step and accompanying us for this trek. He had an implant in his left elbow.Wish you speedy recovery from all of us.

- All along the trek belonged to Bala. I am sure he would remember it for loooOooong and because of him we would too 😉 No wonder he has posted the Trek Log too.

- Hip Hip HUrray !!

- Pics from Karthik: http://picasaweb.google.com/7.kartik/TrekToPEBFortNeral?authkey=u99R3-O-8_s

- Pics from ME:
DSCN0955.jpg DSCN0958.jpg DSCN0967.jpg DSCN0972.jpg DSCN0979.jpg DSCN0984.jpg DSCN0991.jpg DSCN1009.jpg DSCN1013.jpg DSCN1022.jpg DSCN1027.jpg DSCN1028.jpg DSCN1042.jpg

- Browse the complete album by clicking on the image below:

Leaving you guys to read some post of the previous school friend's meetups:
- Mahuli
- Juhu
- Karnala

Overnight Travel

Traveling overnight with myself here
with my destination nowhere near.

Sitting alone with an eager soul
I have many thoughts to console.

With innumerable uncertainties
and very few certainties.

Closing my eyes springs so many expectations
Each having a question mark notation.

Can't keep my eyes closed for long
Its difficult to answer questions for that long.

For a change I stared at the naked moon
And then a lightning thought made me realize soon.

For now if I have the answers I need
Why do I have to answer questions from others indeed.

With this last thought I close my eyes
And soon the tornado dies.

- Akky


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