Kishor Krishnamoorthi’s WebsiteKishor a.k.a Mjuboy’s Blog

…you do not talk about fight club.”

Quite possibly some of the most famous lines uttered in any movie. While I’ve heard these lines over and over again, I never quite knew what they meant until earlier today when I finally watched ‘Fight Club‘ for the first time.

And I could not have watched it at a more appropriate time. *For those who have never seen it before, there may be a few spoilers ahead.*

Fight Club Soap

The whole theme of having two lives within yourself, fighting yourself struck a chord within me tabout what I was thinking to myself earlier today. Who are we? Are we who we are? Or are we who we want to be? Read those lines again. Surprisingly enough, most of the time, we try to be who we want to be and forgot ourselves in the process. Quipping J.Krishnamurti, acceptance of who we are is the first step in bettering ourselves as a person. What’s the second step? You’ll learn that yourself as time passes.

I am stuck in a similar dilemma in life right now. I am who I am. Or am I? Its a very important question to ask ourselves. Should we become what society expects us to become? Or should we stay who we are? Tough choice. There is no right answer to that question. Sometimes, we do what society wants us to do. Sometimes, we do what we want to. As Mel Gibson once proudly exclaimed in Braveheart, ‘Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.’ Those are important words indeed. Most of the times, listening to your inner conscious will lead us to the right result for both ourselves and society. But following your conscious takes a great deal of confidence, courage and perseverance, and that is what sets the men apart from the boys.

As time flows and the inevitable truth of ‘the big bad world’ looms over me, I need to make a decision as to what I want to do with my life. The career I take up will define me as a person, as a human being, as a son and as a family man. It is easy to follow in the footsteps of others but no man has ever made history by taking the well-worn path. Standing up from above the crowd, making a positive change to lives other than yours, the willingness to give up everything for the benefit of others, these are values that make one man the leader, and the others followers. I will end with one of my favourite quotes from the movie ‘The Emperor’s Club’ – ‘Great ambition and conquest without contribution is without significance. What will your contribution be? How will history remember you?’

Currently listening to – Lemon by U2

Update – This article reflects my feelings perfectly.

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Starring Kishor Krishnamoorthi, supported by his Family, with music by U2 & Ilaiyaraaja and art direction by God.

Directed by Society, this feature film stars newcomer Kishor Krishnamoorthi in the lead role portraying a 1000 different people. Several of the personalities come together during different times in the 876,000 hour film and even though the  lead actor tries his best to do a good job interweaving between them but there are many points when there are just too many characters at mingling at once and it would confuse any first time watcher.

It is still a great watch, maybe a tad bit too long but the level of detail is insane. Background score is perfectly timed in nearly all situations and fits in well with the plethora of plots. The story is clearly quite complex but it can definitely pulled off flawlessly with more effort by the director, Society.

Some of the roles are outlined below -

The Student
One of the central characters in the movie is a student who doesnt like to be free. Doing more things than the average office goer, the student keeps himself well busy and occupied while also managing to excel academically. Juggling the academic and extra curricular lives like a tight rope walker, the student lives life on the edge and never stops.

The Photographer
The role of the Photographer is an interesting one. Torn between film and digital, work and pleasure, commercial and art, the role does much to show the world that it is not easy to be a good photographer. Money is scarce, clients are demanding and economic conditions are bad, leaving the photographer hardly any time to indulge in the expressive medium of film photography which he loves.

The Mentor
Learned and smart, the mentor is one that many people look up to and come to for valuable advise and input. While the mentor definitely enjoys improving everyone’s lives and never hesitates to help, it has taken a toll on his personal life, making him a public man with little time to spend with family.

The Politician
He quotes Lord Chesterfield “Politicians neither love nor hate. Interest, not sentiment, directs them.” The politician is seen by everyone as a pleasant character. While this works well for his public image, he has a confession to make. Its a hard job being a politician, it slowly kills your emotions inside. It changes your perception of life. And the common man will never understand that you need to be bad to be good. As much as he loves the fame and name, he sometimes sits and wonders to himself, is it worth it all?

The Food lover
He would give up a meeting with Bill Gates for lobster. The food lover is a person everyone can associate themselves with. Fitness can go through the window and food gets first priority in life. He lives to eat and travels around the world in search of delicacies to tickle his taste buds. A well known good critique among international hospitality services, his word is enough to make or break a restaurant.

The Family Guy
Nothing would make his day more than seeing his kids smile. The family guy would give everything up just to keep his family happy. Dedicated and loving, the family guy is a hard working man and expects the same from others. He has immense respect for his parents and deeply loves his wife and children.

This is only a small preview of the plenty of the different characters in the movie. It is filled with a ton of different emotions, making you laugh crazily, cry, moan, get depressed and laugh again.

The movie does not have a lead female actress but there are a few that appear now and then but none occupy a significant position. There are a small group of friends which have a prominent role in the movie appearing with all the different characters of the lead actor.

Overall, the movie gets a 8/10.

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I got back from my 1 week trip to North India last week. It was a fabulous trip and seeing the Taj Mahal in flesh is something surreal. The heat of Jaisalmer was killing and indeed it nearly killed my white friend, Josh, who I was traveling with.

I did get a bit tired of traveling towards the end of the trip, having already gone to Delhi and South India for a week each. Getting back home was a glorious feeling only to realize that I would be leaving for England soon. I think I’ve made the most of my time in these 3 months, having traveled around, spent quality time with family and friends and enjoyed the feeling of being home to the maximum.

I watched ‘Mallanna’ a few days ago, a movie which everyone warned me about as being a complete torture but a movie which I surprisingly found entertaining. The story itself was nothing complex and the movie wasnt taken very well, but I still found it reasonably okay, perhaps because I liked Vikram and thought the songs were awesome.

I’ve been catching up with friends again, its been fun and nice to see everyone once again before I leave tomorrow night. My next post will most probably be from England, and as always, I dont really want to go since I enjoy home too much, but things must move on…

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Wikipedia informs me that more than 5000 Tamil movies have been released since 1931 when the first Tamil movie was released. What Wikipedia fails to mention is that approximately 95% of these movies (4750 for the number geeks) have the same basic plot.

Typical Tamil Movie Poster

The Plot
Traditionally one would assume that the plot and story of the movie would be instrumental in deciding the success of the movie in the box office. But welcome to South India where all international practices fail miserably in the face of the common Tamil man. Infact, there is only one widely known plot which can result in a profitable outcome. Read the rest of this entry »

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Been just over a week since I’ve got home. The daily routine has mostly consisted of eat, read, watch TV, check teh interwebz with a considerable amount of sleep between these activities. Other stuff included were catching up with lots of friends which was quite nice, definitely good to see some old faces again, have some good meals at our old favourites, and the likes.

On a sadder note, the world has lost two things this week, both of which/whom I have respected. The first one is the legendary Kodak film, Kodachrome, a transparency film which has been manufactured for nearly 75 years before Kodak took the decision to stop production earlier this week. From the point of view of Kodak, it seems reasonable since it accounted for less than 1% of its sales and there is only one lab left in the world which has the capability to process this film since it is quite complex, and Dwayne’s Photo in Kansas has said that they will continue to process the film until late 2010. However, it will definitely be missed by many film enthusiasts including me, who revered the film like a god. It was the same film used to capture the world famous Afghan girl photo by Steve McCurry in 1984. And this momentous calls for Paul Simon’s classic song ‘Mama, dont take my Kodachrome away’.

The other loss was  a man, although some say otherwise, nevertheless, known as the ‘King of Pop’. I must admit his death came as quite a shock to me, I somehow took his existence for granted and regardless of all the controversies he has been in, I’m sure everyone agrees that he made some pretty damn awesome music. My playlist for today has simply been all of the King’s albums on shuffle. May his soul rest if peace.

On a more positive note, I got my exam results earlier this week and I somehow managed to scrape a 70.7% overall, which is a  1st Class and all I wanted. Next year will be tougher, with a 10,000 word dissertation and all, but it’ll be the test of my mettle to score a 1st Class next year too.

Watched Terminator: Salvation today, barely worth the visit. Just 2 hours of mindless violence and action wrapped around a weak excuse for a story. Christian Bale is a normally a good actor but he doesnt come close to Arnie as the classic Terminator, and Terminator 2 still remains my favourite of the series.

Also played Max Payne 2 today, such a beautiful game to play, I do hope Max Payne 3 doesnt turn out as a bad as it looks.

And thats all for now folks, more updates on life and the world soon!

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Roughly 6 months ago, I decided that I wanted to grow a beard like Jules Winnfield, played by Samuel L. Jackson in the legendary movie, Pulp Fiction. After about a month of not shaving and some careful and precise shaving earlier today, I can confidently say that the result has been achieved. I’ve posted a step by step visual guide of the transformation of the beard below. (Click on images for higher res)

The original beard before the shaving began.

Looking like Sabretooth after the first shaving session

Nearly there!

Done! =)

Side Angle

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On Sunday, I went back home to India for a couple of hours. Yep, just 2 hours. But not via plane or train or ship but in a cinema hall. While watching ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. Its a wonderful movie and I definitely enjoyed watching it. Initially, I wasnt so impressed but as the movie went on, it kept getting better and better. And while I thought the movie itself wasnt as amazing as some people told me, it was still really good and it gets extra points for transporting me to a different world seamlessly. When I got out of the movie, I thought I would be facing the exit staircase of Prasads IMAX but alas, I was still in cold wintery England. I loved the movie more for reminding me so much of India rather than the story itself. Its a must watch for all Indians living elsewhere in the world, to remind them of  the culture and diversity of home.

And speaking of diversity, I realized yesterday how diverse London was after successfully getting lost thrice, again. I must have walked atleast 4 – 5 kilometres and my legs feel like they’re going to fall off any moment. I managed to find my destination after much trial and error and time. It was hectic and tiring but in the end, I got my job done and thats the point. Nevertheless, next time I go to London, I shall remember to carry a map with me.

My last Moleskine diary finally got filled up and I had to get a new one. Not wanting to get another Moleskine, I did extensive research on notebooks and stumbled upon this great site which was very helpful. I really wanted to get a Cartesio but it was out of stock everywhere and I ended up buying a Guildhall. I do like it a lot, one for the fact that you can completely fold which makes things a lot more handy while travelling, etc. However, the build quality is not upto the level of the Moleskine but it doesnt really matter since it doesnt affect my writing in any way. Overall, its a great notebook for the price but I think I’ll get the Cartesio next time.

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The folks over at Smashing Magazine were kind enough to feature 3 of my wallpapers for their September Calender. Check them out here, and there are about 25 more really awesome wallpapers there. Thanks to Vitaly and Sven!

The Winning Shot.

And this photo of mine won the 2nd place in the August Hyderabad Photography Club (HPC) Contest. The theme was ‘Hyderabad at Night’ and I got 13 stars narrowly beating the 3rd place one which got 12 stars. Thanks to everyone who voted for me.

And Google has announced their new Open Source browser ‘Chrome’ which is supposed to improve stability and security and make it easier for the simple user. Lets how things unravel tomorrow.

I watched ‘Daniel Defoe’ Robinson Crusoe‘ today which is admittedly, overall a pretty average movie. What I really liked about the movie though is the way the complex relationship between Robin and Friday is portrayed. Some scenes are very heart rendering, especially the final scene when Robin holds Friday’s dying body in his arms and screams at the top of his voice. Good performance by Pierce Brosnan.

Today is also the first day of fasting of the holy month of Ramzan for Muslims. And with Ramzan comes the Hyderabadi Delicacy, Haleem which I happily gorged on.

And come nightfall, I spotted some beautiful stars in the clear sky tonight and hI eaded to the terrace with my trusty tripod. I got some decent shots of the stars and then I attempted to take some Star Trails. Note the word attempted because I hardly got anything worthwhile. I knew it was possible since I got a few potential shots but my China made remote had to mess around at that time thus making me annoyed and also lost the opportunity to capture more the shots. Maybe next time…

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‘Rock On’, possibly one of the first Hindi movie that I had hopes for and it did well to live up to the hopes. Ever since I bought the soundtrack a couple of weeks ago, I realized that the movie had potential to be one of the better Bollywood movies made. The songs were excellent and the very fact that I took efforts to buy a Hindi movie audio CD says a lot about it. Great job by Shankar Ehsaan Loy with the music, a good mix of 80’s style rock and harmonious songs. The lyrics (Javed Akhtar) were quite good too, not the usual meaningless stuff but rather words with some significance. It was the music that made me go to the theatre along with a few friends and watch the movie on the first day.

The movie features Farhan Akhtar, the director of the much famed movie ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ in his debut role as an actor along with Arjun Rampal who sports long hair throughout the movie and a couple of Channel V VJs as the main characters. Acting was good, not amazing, but good enough to keep the flow of the movie. The best performance, in my opinion, was by Arjun Rampal who managed to portray both sides of his life beautifully.

The story of the movie was solid and did a wonderful job of intertwining both the old and the new without leaving the viewer confused. It was well laid out and often left us waiting for the next scene eagerly, not nail biting eager, but just enough to keep you comfortable and not bored. It also did a good job at expressing several different types of emotions which made the audience laugh, cry, think and scream with joy, all in less than a span of 3 hours. Each individual band member’s life was looked into equally so as not to concentrate the movie completely on the main characters which dispersed the story over a wide range of topics.

The plot revolves around the band ‘Magik’ which was formed during their college days and seemed to be doing quite well. But incidents happen, and over the course of 10 years, the members lose touch with each other until one meeting by coincidence after which a whole lot of reminicising happens and brings the band back into the limelight. A simple but beautiful story very well executed with humour, emotion and the works.

Cinematography was superb using Hollywood-like camera angles and lighting. One feature which struck me in particular was the fact that all the bokeh in the movie was perfectly circular and the director must have known this because there was lots of it. Everywhere. And I’m not complaining, it only made the movie look better.

The seats were possibly not the best, being 3 rows from the front, but I was just happy watching the movie on the first day and fuelled by almost a litre of Coca Cola, the experience was enjoyable. And the fact that I had gone with 3 girls did much to make it a good movie overall. The other main influence of the movie was that it gave me some hope about Bollywood and that all of the new Hindi movies are not complete bullshit.

The movie had a nice message at the ending to not download the music but rather buy the CD which I thought was nice. Being anti piracy myself, I had already bought the audio CD sometime ago and you should probably do the same.

Definitely watch the movie if you have time and if you dont, make some and go watch the movie. A must for all musicians, upcoming or not, and music lovers in general.

If you have watched the movie, please give your opinion in the comments.

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A movie filled with Rajnikanth style special effects, unbelievable actions scenes, wounds that heal in a second and a stupid plot. Sounds familiar? No, its not a Bollywood or Kollywood movie but rather the latest offering of Hollywood, ‘Wanted‘ starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman.

The movie kicks off with a pretty unrealistic scene filled with leaping from one building to another and shooting in mid-air with pinpoint precision. So therefore, around a couple of minutes into the movie, I realised that I would be sitting for the next 2 hours watching a Hollywood remake of a Rajnikanth movie defying every single law of physics, enough to make Einstein roll in his grave.

Agreed, this review is quite late and I probably should’ve watched the movie earlier, being an avid Jolie fan but the only saving grace of the movie was the 2 seconds of Angelina’s butt. And she too is evidently  getting old and growing too thin to be healthy.

Angelina Jolie at her best.

By now you probably have understood that I did not enjoy the movie much but I have my reasons for this. The plot of the movie, in plain words, is quite bad, and doesnt really go anywhere. It twists and turns unnecessarily since it’s main motive appears to be a reason for more shooting and bullet dodging rather than anything else. Oh, and the bullet bending! God, this isnt some David Beckham football movie to bend and twist balls as you like! Of course, this was bullets, not balls, but that doesnt mean that you can alter the basics of shooting and introduce a new method of ‘bending bullets’ which was anything but convincing.

The soundtrack of the movie was possibly the worst I ever heard in a movie. I’m not blaming the sounds during the action scenes, those were perfect, but the choice of background music during the scenes was, quite frankly, very sad.

As for the acting, I have concluded that if I ever direct an action movie, I’ll make sure to never cast James McAvoy in it. He is not built for the character and cannot act like an assassin to save this life. Angelina’s performance, on the other hand was quite good and she did an excellent job at the action scenes, and I’m not saying this just because I love her. Morgan Freeman did a decent job as always, but his character in the movie was not the best and I strive to find out why he accepted the role which, under other circumstances, would’ve been played by some unknown son of the producer.

James McAvoy? Assassin? Really?

Most of action scenes were well executed using good camera angles and I was decently pleased with them. There were some scenes which were nail biting, some which made you cringe and some which were simply bad. The CGI quality during the movie varied a lot, with some very realistic looking ones to some which looked very fake.

Realism appears to have been given the least importance in the movie, seeing the various things that would not happen in real life unless god himself descended upon earth. The wounds which ‘magically’ heal in consequent scenes after having been covered in a layer of wax are only the beginning. I never knew a mere accountant could inherit superhuman properties and take any amount of beating, slow down time to get the perfect shot but yet have the least amount of common sense. I may sound a bit harsh at this point, but when you make a movie, you should either chose to make it completely realistic or completely fictional but not leave it hanging halfway between both of them, like this movie and leave the viewer in a weird state of confusion.

Morgan Freeman with his stern look.

But after having complained so much about the movie, I would say that the average viewer would probably enjoy it. One reason being that they would not dissect and analyse it as much as I do and reason two being that, just before we left the theatre, I heard someone behind me saying ‘Amazing movie’ to his friend and before we watched the movie, one of my companions told me that it was a ‘Killer movie’ which increased my expectations only to be crashed right back to the ground. Also, the fact that we got the smallest screen in the multiplex and the most uncomfortable seats didnt make the experience any better. 5.5/10

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