Movie Review: Prey Alone

Prey Alone is a short thriller film shot totally in front of the Green Screen. The duration of the movie is around 13 minutes excluding the credits.

It was produced in Ireland and the backgrounds and props are entirely digital. This has been done before in a few Hollywood blockbusters like Sin City and the very recent 300 but with Prey Alone, the digitally rendered settings and props look amazingly realistic.

Other than the fantastic digital visuals what stands out for the movie is its storyline, I didn't expect such an elaborate plot for a 13 minute film. I don't want to give away anything about the plot, you should better watch it yourself.

I have posted the Google Video of the movie(full movie). The movie would be much more fun if you could download and watch it at an higher resolution, Click here.

PS: Post watch, don't forget to tell me how did you find the movie!

Random Thoughts

Haven't posted for a long time for two reasons, first, got nothing much to write about and second, busy with end sem preparations.

Already finished with 3 of my end sem practicals, just 2 more to go before the real thing starts. Really studied hard for the practicals this time.
Aanchal has captured the flavour (flavor for US readers) of the DCE pracs very well in her post The "BRGR" Pracs.

Meanwhile, google just updated their page rank statistics. Third Wind got a jump from a rank of 2 to 3 (higher the better) which I feel great about. My other blog AseemBehl's Reviews still stays on 3 (it dropped from 4 to 3 at the time of last page rank update).

The examinations end on 24th this month, and so would the period of blog inactivity.

Movie Review: Eklavya

This is my first Hindi movie review, and I am writing this for two reasons, one, because I thought the movie was excellent and two, I want the people who have not seen this movie just because it got really bad reviews from their friends, to watch it. Even I didn't have any great expectations from the movie, the first time I saw Eklavya's promotional trailer I thought it was a sequel to Parineeta(almost same lead cast). Also my friends who had seen the movie put it as a boring, slow movie(yeah, I know, I always get these misguiding reviews). But my mother wanted to see it, hence the good old download. Yesterday I saw it with my whole family(4 members) on my massive 15" computer screen. All four of us liked it, me the most.

I think every Indian would(should) know the story of the fictional character of the great Indian epic Mahabharata, but for those who are ignorant to the Indian mythology, I have pasted below a brief summary of Ekalavya's story.

In the Mahabharata epic, Ekalavya is a young prince of the Nishadha tribes, and a member of a low caste, who nevertheless aspires to study archery in the gurukul of Dronacharya. Despite being rejected by the Drona, Ekalavya embarks upon a program of self-study in the presence of a clay image of Drona, and achieves a level of skill equal to that of Arjuna, Drona's favorite and most accomplished pupil. Fearful that Ekalavya will excel him, Arjuna begs Drona to take action. Drona goes to Ekalavya and demands that Ekalavya turn over his right thumb as a teacher's fee. The loyal Ekalavya cripples himself and thereby ruins his prospects as an archer by severing his thumb and giving it to Drona.

Here in the movie, Eklavya(Amitabh Bachchan) is a royal guard who lives to protect a royal dynasty that no longer rules, he also has a dark secret of the dynasty to protect. He is the perfect marksman(which is why he was named Eklavya).
What makes Eklavya a great movie is that it has redefined the concept of Dharma, through Eklavya, Vidhu Vinod Chopra tries to debunk the belief that Dharma is all about following the path of righteousness as defined by tradition, rather, he endorses the view that righteousness is not an absolute concept but has to be rooted in reason- Dharmah Matibhyah Utgritah.(These are not my words)

Other things that make the movie stand out is its superb cinematography(every frame is a beauty) and some brilliant acting by most of the cast, Amitabh Bachchan comes up with a great performance, really deserves the Rolls Royce. Sanjay Dutt is just fabulous in the role of DSP Pannalal Chohaar. Saif just keeps getting better with every movie.
Some guys were not that good though, Jackie Shroff should try to open his mouth before he mouths his dialouges(most of his words were not audible) and Vidya Balan needs to loose some weight.

My two cents: Eklavya is 100 minutes of pure song less cinema with some great performances and an excellent theme, really worth watching.

Nike Cricket TV Commercial

I am not a cricket fan but I just loved this one. It is the first time Nike has ventured into cricket advertisement. The advertisement is produced by Nike India which I think is also a first(previously all Nike advertisements were international ads).The video above is the full version of the 126 second ad, the one on television is an edited slimmer version.
The ad creates a cocktail of crazy cricket fans and chaotic traffic situations in India, both a very common sight for any Indian. The background music is awesome and the execution is almost flawless although I feel there was no need of the Cricket Stars(very sparingly used though).
A must watch!

Cool Commercials

We all know that the quality of programing on Indian television is deteriorating at an alarming rate. The idiot box for the past few years has been hijacked by this huge number of indistinguishable and regressive daily soaps.
The only silver lining in all these years of television is the tremendous growth that has taken place in the advertising industry. In terms of creativity, production, reach, budget the growth has been phenomenal. There have been brands like Hutch and Pidilite(of Fevicol fame) which have received a cult status with some memorable advertisements.

So to salute the creators for their effort, I will be posting here some of the groovy commercials running on Indian television and some glorious old classic stuff.

Movie Review: Little Miss Sunshine

Although the movie released in Indian theaters just a week back, it was available on the internet for a long time. It got great reviews at IMDb and a few Oscar nominations as well(finally received 2 Oscars). I liked the storyline and decided to download it. My friend who I share my movies with had already downloaded it and deleted it before sharing it with me. His excuse:"There is nothing in the movie, Bekaar hai". But after reading a rave review(a four-star rating) for the movie from Hindustan Times's Vinayak Chakrovarty(I trust his reviews, simple and unbiased), I finally put it on download. And now after watching it, I can surely say that it really deserves the appreciation it has received. Below is a very well-written plot outline proudly copied by me from IMDb.

Olive is a little girl with a dream: winning the Little Miss Sunshine contest. Her family wants her dream to come true, but they are so burdened with their own quirks, neuroses, and problems that they can barely make it through a day without some disaster befalling them. Olive's father Richard is a flop as a motivational speaker, and is barely on speaking terms with her mother. Olive's uncle Frank, a renowned Proust scholar, has attempted suicide following an unsuccessful romance with a male graduate student. Her brother Dwayne, a fanatical follower of Nietzsche, has taken a vow of silence, which allows him to escape somewhat from the family whose very presence torments him. And Olive's grandfather is a ne'er-do-well with a drug habit, but at least he enthusiastically coaches Olive in her contest talent routine. Circumstances conspire to put the entire family on the road together with the goal of getting Olive to the Little Miss Sunshine contest in far off California.

Its not like the regular Hollywood nobrainer comedy. It is more of a dark comedy with some amazing road movie situations. The movie has no big stars but the casting is perfect, really everyone is nothing short of excellent in the movie. It has been made on budget smaller even than the Bollywood movies produced these days.

My two cents: You shouldn't miss it unless you are not much of a fan of dark humor. It is still running in theaters in India.

Hurray! My first pay

I have been waiting for this for a long time and finally it arrived just before the midsems. Yes, I have received the first installment of my pay, a rocking Rs 6239.01 and there is more to come. As I don't have a scanner with me, I will have to leave you with a mobile phone camera snap of the cheque.

(Click on it to see the enlarged view)

I am still not sure what to do with all this money, I am thinking of saving it to buy a Nintendo Wii. Don't forget to bomb me with ideas for spending this cash.

White is the new Black

You people must have noticed the blog's new white clean look. Other than the white template, I have made some other minor changes to the blog like a neat recent readers section powered by MyBlogLog and a silver NavBar at the top. I have also switched my blogs's feed back from Feedburner to the Blogger default.

Tell me how did you like(or dislike) the new appearance of Third Wind. To me it looks much better now, the black had started hurting my eyes.

I am still experimenting with my blog's look so if you know of a cool blogger template website, just drop me a word about it.

Internet Safety Tips

This is for all those orkut(or maybe hi5 or any other social network for that matter) addict guys looking to find the woman of their dreams by just sitting on that comfy chair in front of their computer. Wake up guys!

These friends are not going to jump out of your computer screen when you need them. Go out and make some REAL friends.

For guys vulnerable to this, my advice is please stop using that crappy IE6, upgrade to a safer browser.

I am back!

Finally my mid-semester exams are over, so here I am writing my first post in almost a month. Midesms were different this time from the previous three semesters, and that is because I studied too hard for them this time. I hope the results are different too this time around.

On the blog front, expect to see a lot of action on the blog in the coming few days. I will be coming up with something different now, there has been too much of my college life crap. So watch out!