Wednesday, November 29, 2006

In the line of Fire

Wikipedia now has a detailed review on Pervez Musharraf 's book "In the line of Fire", highlighting common criticism and a brief synopsis of the book.

What surprises me the most, is that I've often come across fellow Pakistanis who can argue for a half an hour during coffee table discussions, and then sheepishly admit that they haven't read the book yet and their facts are nothing but hearsay.

For those of my braderi, read the synopsis please

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Line_of_Fire:_A_Memoir


Here are my initial thoughts after reading the book
- "Hooray , Musharraf is here..and as long as he doesn't get assassinated..Pakistan is on the road to prosperity"

After some thought, here what I think the writer is trying to tell us
- "Mushy is superman, and don't worry..what looks like bad right now is going to be a-ok in the future"


Its definitely something that everyone should read, as it might go against a lot of what you learned about Pakistan's history at school.


Reviews:
K.O has a review here
and behanjee has another one here

Monday, November 27, 2006

One More

I've been too busy reading other people's blogs to write anything on my own. So here's a quick power post with some thoughts and brief comments.

Questions that come to mind:

Why wont they have background music in public bathrooms?
- It would you from the background music that you currently get to hear, and people wouldnt sit in the stall and wait for everyone to leave before getting down to business

What if cricket / sport commentators could use explicit language while commentating?
- Balaji to Afridi..Holy f**k that went miles, balajis getting b*tch-slapped today!

Why do sequels always suck?
- Except Godfather II

Is Ali G /Sacha Baron Cohen/ Borat really brilliant?
- I dunno, I'm inclined to think that he's not. He's got a novel approach to highlighting diversity, but i still feel that its quite distant from 'brilliance'

Are we just optimistic, or is Pakistan still in a never ending cycle of military leaders and idiots?
- I was depressed when I read the economist special report on Pakistan.
- I was all upbeat when I read Mushy's book
- I was depressed when I read Owen Bennet Jones's version of the same picture, where he says..in short..Mushy is just another Ayub Khan...and that we'll all agree with him in 10-15 years
- In short..theres good, bad and ugly happening in Pakistan at the moment. Lets hope it turns out for the best.

Also,

- Pakistaniat
Is a really great blog that has tons of stuff on Pakistan and comments from many people.


I know that there are many concerns/issues with all my above postings, but it never hurts to think.


There are many more questions, but I think its best to save them for the next post..see ya in another two weeks.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Sholay Remake

I saw the remake of 'Don' last week, and was quite impressed. Atleast the 'dishum dishum' makes up for the other let-downs in the film, and obviously that Roma (Priyanka Chopra) is super hot. Hence the idea

Could there be a remake of Sholay??

I start out by thinking of all the roles, and who could possibly play them.

1) Amitabh (Jai)
2) Dharmendra (Veeru)
3) Hema Malini (Basanti)
4) Amjad Khan (Gabbar)
5)

Wait, somone already thought of this one too, damnit!!

As I was writing this post, it dawned on me that someone else (like a real movie producer) may already be working on this idea. And guess what, there is a remake of Sholay in the works.

Ram Gopal Verma is making the movie , and here is the anticipated cast.

1)Jai - Mohit Ahlawat
2)Veeru - Abhishek Bachan
3)Basanti -
4)Gabbar Singh - Amitabh Bachan
6)Thakur - Jeetendra

Before you get all excited

There's a legal battle going on between the Sippy family ( who hold the rights to Sholay) and Ram Gopal Verma, and the results are still not out yet.

Most likely the film will be an adaptation of Sholay, much like the recent film Omkara. Let see what happens.