67 years of freedom, yet awaiting Independence. Am losing hope, but still believe in us.

I really don't know where to start, perhaps with the utterly disheartening prime minister's speech yesterday. Nothing but self gratification. It is really hard to believe he went to Oxford and Cambridge. His quote that "the failing rupee is because of the global recession" is malice, a deliberate attempt to fool the millions of Indians who believe anything they are told. I really don't know how he can go to sleep every night after shaming himself by perpetrating lies his bosses ask him to deliver.

It is such inaction and defensiveness that destroys hope, no surprise that the sensex tanked 800 points immediately today after the markets re-opened. I am really sick of this government's lack of motive or intent. It extends the term "policy logjam" to new heights. Decisions / Bills have to either be accepted without any objections or questions or will never be made. And then blame the opposition that they don't let the parliament function if they question any policy. I can woefully accept there is public debate in our society but even no rational parliamentary debate ? This is truly unacceptable. Wonder what the Congress government's understanding of democracy is ?!

It is finally a such of relief that the opposition finally chose Modi as their front-runner because they looked just as hopeless as the others. All Modi haters please have a little bit of respect for our Supreme court, the millions of voters in Gujarat and all the factual accounts of development, use your head, give him a chance !

The media in our country really continues to confound me. There are these absolutely stupid news hour debates and apparent paid news, but there are some great exposé's and brilliant investigative journalism. Online media like news laundry are also refreshing.

Social media has given rise to both the neo socialist wanna be petit bourgeois and abusive right wing extremists. I find it really hard to say who is more annoying but at least understand the motivation of the online hindutva brigade. How much minority appeasement and vote bank politics can one tolerate !

I have not lost hope, I still believe in democracy, in our democracy, the largest in the world. Last time my hopes were fading, people of Tamil Nadu gave a thumping victory to AIADMK and Jayalalitha has so far delivered. I hope the congress loses similarly (DMK didn't get enough seats to even be the lead opposition) and hope Modi delivers "sabka saath, sabka vikas". Jai Hind.

The Dark Knight Rises (really ?)

After being bombarded with "This is the best movie ever" messages on my FB feed, I watched The dark knight rises at the cinema, with huge expectations as I could still feel the joker's whisper and glare from the previous edition of the trilogy. It was such a masterpiece by Nolan. (I had to watch it a second time because I barely heard a word because of the terribly bad sound at a sick cinema in hitec city, Hyderabad)

However, this movie was a massive disappointment and I really do not understand what everyone loves about it ! Movies must either be intellectually, emotionally or visually appealing. This has none, is just another action flick, definitely not bad, but far from the previous Batman movie.

Because people asked me why I did not like the movie and also because they wouldn't tell me why they go GAGA over it (except because its cool to), I decided to put a list down with the problems I have with the movie.

Plot, screenplay and characters

The movie was far from a thriller with scenes and outcomes being very predictable almost always. Characterization was loose with Bane not being even a wee-bit scary ( he is dubbed as a 'physically superior adversary') That's it ? That's all one needs to be better than Batman who is a bit of a cripple already in the movie ?

Lazarus Pit

How many of the movies' lovers know what the lazarus pit actually is ? The movie hovers between reality and fantasy and doesn't really answer any question. The scenes inside the pit are such a drag !

Action and CG

The action sequences are really, really bad ! Batman vs Bane is so funny, its a glorified brawl. Bat mobile and other gadgets seem so incredibly obsolete.

The music is a real plus and so is the presence of Anne Hathaway. There are lots of interesting bits within the movie which makes it a decent entertainer, no more. 

P.S. Social Media has made PR jerks even more powerful

Harry Potter - poor man's version of the LOTR, no wait, poor child's version

Well, finally I watched Harry Potter. Probably one of the last people my age to watch it. I watched them all together from first to last part. I had downloaded each one of them soon as they were available but was never inclined to watch them and well, not even slightly disappointed that I did not watch them earlier.

Right from the beginning what struck me was the movies resemblance to The Lord of the Rings, something that only grew as the movie / Mr.Potter apparently claim to become more mature. I thought let me first make a list of stuff that they're similar in.

1) Terribly Obvious - The Dark Lord, who was destroyed and then lost form and is regaining strength. My god, a blatant copy. Even things like you don't say his name is copied !! Duh...

2) Voldermort's power is in different objects which must be destroyed to kill him. Just because you change one ring to many objects doesn't make it a new story, does it ?

3) Three main characters fighting Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli - Harry, Ron and Hermione
Yeah, but Harry shuffles between the roles of Frodo and Aragorn though every now and then.

4) The mark on Harry ! Mark on Frodo after the Weathertop incident, he can feel him everytime he is close, exact copy

5) Dementors and later Death whatever are nothing other than Ringwraiths or Nazgul. They even make the same screech.

6) Dobby / Kreacher (they called them elves though)= Smeagol

7) When they first wear that locket, they act weird, which is exactly what the ringbearer feels. Sick copy again.

8) The extremely silly attempt to show Harry's struggle to find the Horcruxes and destroy them comparing it with Frodo's journey to mount doom. Its a sick drag in Deathly Hallows part 1

9) Siege of Hogwarts school (castle) - trying to mimic the one at Minas Tirith. What a sick joke it is. Wizards firing away instead of Trebuchets !! I almost vomitted and of course Trolls versus armored knights, huh

I can just go on and on. All Ms. Rowling has done seems to be take LOTR, add unicorns, fairies and other child friendly characters, some silly fairy tales and make millions out of it.

Most of all there are few things that is extremely annoying.

Firstly, There is little character detail unlike LOTR, they are all very shallow, just too many random people.

Second, you really don't really associate with their plight, there is really no sense of danger or urgency. Nowhere do you ever feel that the world is going to end.

LOTR does marvellously well here, throughout you feel there is no hope, that all is over and at that very instant, there is a miracle, timing is immaculate. In Harry Potter, neither do you feel desperate nor are there miracles  (they just randomly keep happening, Harry is more like superman, invincible and for no apparent reason)

What annoyed me most of all is the naiveity of the villain. He just sucks, a weird morph between Darth Wader and the villain from The Mummy, you are not least bit scared of him. He is a sore loser and never seems to stand a chance against boy-wonder Harry. I don't have a clue why all the wizards are afraid of him, he committed a couple murders ?? OMG, that is world domination material ? You believe that ? Just sick !!

I really can't believe Adults can actually like Harry Potter, if you do, please read and watch The Lord of the Rings and you will actually realize how much this sucks.

I am happy am done with the ordeal of sitting through all of Harry Potter.

P.S. Please mail me if you want my copy of HD Rips of the entire series, I won't need them.