dog, man..

Coming soon at a window near you!

Thus concludes the first act of the Window Project. It is curtains for now until the next act. For there will always be another window to explore...

The Window Project: Back Home...

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The window project: To the general store...

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The window project: Evening walk

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The window project: Where is the school bus?

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The Window Project: First Click

In subsequent posts, you shall find, dear reader, some glimpses of a photographic experiment - photographs that have been taken from a window.

Imagine that this person is confined to the room, and the world outside is limited to what he sees through this sole window. So here we go....

Music Review: Kaminey: Exceptional in Parts, Good in Others

Music - Vishal Bharadwaj / Lyrics - Gulzar

Starting off at a dance-creative note with Dhan-Te-Nan, composer Vishal Bharadwaj moves to a more sombre Pehli baar mohabaat, the other dance track Raat ke dhai baje is catchy with Sunidhi Chauhan and the unlikely Suresh Wadkar at the vocals.

Bhawra aaya re is an unusual AIDS awareness song, kudos to Gulzar to placing it poetically, without adding any loudspeaker tone to the social message. The title track Kaminey is worth a listen with a surprisingly subdued tone to it. Overall, four out of five songs stand out of the pack, now how many times do we get that? No consideration for the remixes -  a redundancy for us. 

Listen in
Other soundtrack gems of Vishal Bharadwaj: Omkara and Maachis. Gulzar omnipresent in the lyrics department.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Stretched and lacking spark

Whether you have read the book or not, the latest Harry Potter film is an exercise in patience for nothing much is happening except for some light romance and usual Hogwarts talk,it is almost like a dead TV series, going to the same expected places, except for the death of a main character in the end.

The performances are riveting though - Radcliffe, Watson and Everett are all endearing, while Frank Dillane as the 16-year-old Tom Riddle exudes menace in a brief role and Jim Broadbent digs deep as the new teacher of Potions. Still, when it all adds up for entertainment, adventure and fear, we can only hope that the last part delivers that much needed punch.



A romance flickers between Ron and Hermione


Meanwhile love brews for Harry and Ron's sister Ginny


Draco Malfoy is up to no good


"Once again I must ask too much of you Harry," says a solemn Dumbledore

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows shall be released in two parts in 2010 and 2011.

Movie Review: Transformers 2: Empty, dumb and exhausted formula

One of the most forced and inane action films ever made, this sequel is held together by Shia LaBeouf's acting skills and some money-spilling chaotic action where you have no idea what is going on, except that the good side is winning. Boom! Kaboom! Zooow! and various other loud sounds make up for the confusion.

The director's not-so-subtle showcase of Megan Fox's 'sensuality' is another turn-off.The comedy comes out as crass,so finally it is the special effects that are the film's crutches.

You may still shut off you brain and try figuring out what you really enjoy and what you pretend to because you have paid a bomb for the ticket.

Movie Review: New York:Emotionally wayward, but bearable

After 9/11, the USA government went paranoid, arresting and then torturing people just because they belonged to a particular religion. Most of them were released due to lack of evidence, some, after been detained for over three years. What would be going through the minds of such people? Would such brutal treatment cause them to be terrorists, seeking revenge?

New York tries answering these questions through its main protagonists - Sameer (John Abraham) and Maya (Katrina Kaif) as a happily married couple, Omar (Niel Nitin Mukesh), an old friend who is forced to spy on them for FBI agent Roshan (Irrfan Khan). Despite been overtly emotional at certain instances, the movie just about gets its message across, even though it may not sound convincing.

A good watch for, let us say, honest performances by Abraham and Kaif and a surprisingly 'OK' turn by Irrfan Khan, New York still holds your attention. Niel Nitin Mukesh gets a golden opportunity in a pivotal role, but just about registers. Only if it could have taken us deeper into the whole thing of victimization in the name of security. 

Movie Review: Bolt: Dog, Cat, Hamster and Life Lessons

Minutes into the movie, the uninitiated will see it as another superhero, er...superdog stuff, but it isn't.

Bolt is the star of a action TV series, great pains are taken by the show producers to believe that all that is happening around him is real, even his non-existent super powers. It is when the TV producers decide that Penny - Bolt's cute owner has to be kidnapped by the 'green-eyed man' that things go wrong - Bolt escapes the studio in search of her.

Along with alley cat Mittens and his 'No.1 TV fan' - Rhino the Hamster, Bolt discovers the truth and what's more to be a dog. A marvel in animation, sparkling with funny one-liners and some hard truths, Bolt is an unmissable experience for movie-buffs.

Home Alone: Do the dance!

*We do not induce you to try this at home...

You need a music system, your favourite dance music CD and some empty space among the furniture. Now, there is no reason to be inhibited. Go on, strip yourself of clothing - Button by button, knot by knot, whirl that shirt around, do anything crazy because nobody is watching.

For the usually shy public dancers (demon dancers when alone) there could be some reason to exercise caution.
One, ensure that you do not hurt yourself while going absolutely wild, so adjust your steps accordingly. Two, if you live in a flat with people residing below then do not stomp your feet like an elephant. Instead, take this opportunity to be soft-footed, invent some new dance moves...

Home Alone?: Wipe the floor!

The good old bucket

All you need is an old bucket, a piece of old clean cloth, water and a Sunday afternoon. The cloth is usually the dress you wore on your third birthday or a piece of a discarded curtain. Now collect water in a small bucket and dip the cloth-piece in it. Strangle it savagely to a non-dripping wetness. Now bend down and start wiping the floor from a end or corner, such that you are always moving away from the wiped area.

Go on - Wipe! Wipe!Wipe! Let your reflection show on the tiled floor. Use your arms to cover every inch - Under the cupboard, the refrigerator,the TV stand. Occasionally you may encounter spiders, lizards, baby cockroaches and other denizens of the insect world, who will be as afraid as you will be of them. Let them be. Killing them doesn't make the floor any cleaner.

Please note: After wiping a room, dip the cloth in the bucket, wring the cloth of all dirt and begin again. Happy wiping!