Vishal's Blog

KURBAAN (Published on www.mastradio.com) Kurbaan which released in theatres on Friday is a thought provoking and a powerful movie which has hit theatres in the year 2009. With this movie, Karan Johar provides the thoughtful and intense Indian cine goers paisa vasool entertainment. In a way, this film is as fresh as a wind that easily blows the old thoughts away and it tells us that Karan Johar has an eye for history. The Indian audiences asked for a change and honestly speaking, this film was a honest and a better one. It looks as if Rensil Desilva, the director of the Kurbaan is more like a scientist to whom every drop of titration matters, as every minute of the film is hard hitting and succeeds in gripping the audiences thoroughly. We don’t have to look very far but only as far as early 2009, with Kurbaan its three hits in a row for Karan Johar as a producer (Dostana, Wake Up Sid and now Kurbaan) and he is set for more with My name is Khan to be released in early 2010. Karan s...

SD Burman - The musical legend (Published on mastradio.com - 04Nov2009) Sachin Dev Burman or SD Burman or SD or just Sachinda was a legendary personality. He was an elegance personified and the finest music directors of all time. “Sachinda was one of the most cultured and sophisticated music directors I have ever encountered” Dev Anand once said. Sachin Tendulkar the great Indian cricket player was named after Sachin dev Burman. Sachinda belonged to an aristocratic pedigree. He was born in a princely family of Tripura. Money never impressed him; nothing seemed bigger than music for the great SD Burman. He was also a brilliant and skilful classical singer, singing enhanced his passion for music; it helped him in creating some unforgettable and soulful music. He started his musical career in films from Kolkata. He has sung for more than 200 songs (filmy and non filmy) in Hindi and Bengali. In his hey days as a music composer, he used to phone call singers like Mukesh and Mohamma...

Film Review – Blue (Rating 1 out of 5) The director of Blue, Anthony D’souza wanted to paint the nation Azure during the Diwali festival. He therefore sought the most expensive star cast in Bollywood – Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Lara Dutta and Zayed Khan in addition to some great underwater shots and an imported dame in Kylie Minogue. The 100 Crore film, an opulent spectacle, is a dampener though. The credit should be given to the marketing team of Shree Ashtavinayak films for creating a hype and hysteria around the film that it succeeded in accumulating 16 Crores in the first week itself. I too was a victim of the hype and saw the film on the Diwali day. Blue was supposed to be a jaw-dropping tryst, the first Bollywood underwater film with a huge array of under the sea stunts. However, these stunts by Pete Zuccarini (Pirates of the Caribbean fame) are not as fascinating as predicted and seem straight out of some Discovery channel show. The plot is desultory and dangling too. Sagar (Sa...

Trek to Naneghat - An Ideal Week end Get away Published in The Times of India - Chembur Ghatkopar Plus on 26th Sept2009 We started our journey from Mumbai at 630 am and reached the base of Naneghat by 930 am. The place is about 2 hours from Kalyan (approximately 55 kms). Since it had started raining while we were in Mumbai, we knew we were in for a treat at Naneghat. It is essential to have a nice breakfast before starting the trek and we did just that. This is important because it provides a lot of energy required for the trek and secondly the trek doesn’t offer any food on the way. What Naneghat offers is lush greenery and abundance of natural beauty. It was drizzling when we started moving upwards. A few minutes’ later clouds allowed us to view the glorious and the magnificent thumb shaped peak of Naneghat and next to it was the V-shaped Naneghat pass. We stared at them with reverence and anticipation. In a way, it also appeared like the beautiful woman, who appears unatta...

Monza - 2009 It was a day of huge anticipation for Force India. After the superb performance at the Belgium circuit where Fisichella managed a podium finish, a lot was expected of them. Adrian Sutil, who was never touched by history before, didn’t disappoint. It was a professional performance from the German but he got the rough end of the pineapple. He finished 4th and was denied a podium finish by the Brawn GP who pulled off a 1-2 finish. The bar for this race wasn’t raised too much but Sutil will definitely agree that sometimes the difference between the best and the rest is a matter of only a few seconds. He unfortunately lost 2 valuable seconds because of a small error in the pit stop when he lost control over the brakes slightly knocking out two pit crew. He managed to earn points because Hamilton spun his car in the second last lap. Rubens Barichhello the eventual winner of the race managed to reduce the lead from 16 to 14 for the driver’s championship. Kimi Raikonnen continued ...

Getting Green I woke up with a feeling of relaxation, envisaging a lazy day. The thoughts from the previous day at work were still there. They normally stay with me for the entire day, at times ensuring I am only physically present at home, not mentally. In the evening, I reached the dojo – my Karate school, which to me is a perfect get away from the stress of the entire week. The thoughts I had made me oblivious of the proceedings at the dojo. After the regular jimi ondo session in which we warm up our body and ready it for the arduous training, Sensei Bahadur announced my name. I suddenly realized I was going to get a Vidori Obi - the Green Belt. I passed the Ro Kyu, the 6th test a couple of days back and when the results were announced I was told I did pretty well. Having left the training midway 5 years back, the Green Belt to me appeared as attainable as a Film Fare award to Vivek Oberoi. Sensei Mahesh told me I was a half Kuro Obi – a Black Belt. I felt his words would act as a ...

The Patriotic Poet How do Indians show their patriotism? They say it with a song. Many singers and poets have gloriously conquered the psyche of the Indians with their work. One such artist who had the ineluctable creativity and power to do it consistently was Kavi Pradeep. Enslaved by the fervid love for the country, he wrote many songs which captured the imagination of the nation like Chal Chal Re Naujawan (film - Bandhan), Aao Bacchon Tumhe Dikhayein (film - Jagriti), and Upar Gagan Vishal (film - Mashaal). During the Quit India movement, the ebullient poet wrote a song "Dur Hato Ae Duniya Waalon" (film - Kismet) out of sheer gumption and aplomb which echoed the sharp cry of the freedom struggle and acted as a catalyst to motivate the people. When the British government understood the underlying meaning of this song, they issued an arrest warrant for Pradeep, who was then forced to go underground. The song written for the film Jagriti in the year 1954 "Dedi hamein aza...