Mankatha Movie Review

Director Venkat Prabhu has not deviated from his usual style of film making in spite of this "Mankatha" being Actor Ajith's 50th film. He begins the film with a song and then he brings in comic overludes in the middle of something really serious and post interval there is another song which stamps the Venkat Prabhu mark all over.

Ajith on the other hand has made a good decision by selecting such a script for his landmark film. The movie might look like a deja vu to "Oceans Eleven" but in a true sense, "Mankatha" is a well made film.

Vinayak (Ajith) is a police officer under suspension in Mumbai for helping a gangster escape an encounter. He falls in love with Sanjana (Trisha) who is the daughter of Armugam Chettiyar (Jayaprakash). Chettiyar is a disguised don who is making big money in betting.

IPL cricket season is in and it is about to rain money in his den when suddenly four unassuming boys in Sumanth (Vaibhav) who works for Chettiyar, Ganesh (Ashwin) a police officer, Mahath (Mahath) a bar owner and Prem (Premgi) an IIT graduate plan to loot the bounty.

Vinayak invites himself to the gang of four and they all plan to perfectly lift the bounty worth 500 crores. In comes Prithvi (Arjun) who is the ACP special branch in charge of unearthing the betting racket. Prithvi follows Vinayak and his gang closely and tries to nail all of them. In the end does he get to nail the culprits or is it the culprits who turn out to be triumphant is to be watched in the remaining part of "Mankatha".

The film predominantly male dominated leaves very little scope for the leading ladies. Trisha disappears from the scene abruptly. Anjali has a song sequence for her. Andrea hardly comes in a scene or two while Lakshmi Rai who apparently has a concrete role compared to other ladies comes for a longer duration of time and in that time she does her part in skin show.

Ajith has played the role with class and so is Arjun as a strict police officer. The four guys have played their roles with conviction. Jayaprakash does a neat job as an unassuming don.

Music by Yuvan Shankar Raja could have been better as few songs fade away without making an impact. Editing could have been crisper but the later half of the film makes up for the pit falls in the first half.

This "Mankatha" might not be the best film for Ajith but it will be for Venkat Prabhu. The movie has a running time of 2 hrs and 40 minutes and is sure to be a winner at the box office.

"Mankatha" is a good entertainer and also a jackpot for Ajith's fans.

read more...

Bodyguard

Bodyguard

Director                       Siddique

Cast                             Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Mahesh Manjrekar, Aditya Pancholi, Hazel Keech, Rajat Rawail, Asrani, Katrina Kaif, Raj Babbar, Reema Debnath, Mohan Kapoor, Himani Shivpuri, Chetan Hansraj

Genre                          Action

Year of Release           2011

Eid Mubarak to one and all and much like previous times, the much awaited Eid release starring Salman Khan is out today.  And I obviously had to ensure that I catch up with it at the earliest but this time around I had the misfortune of watching the movie in a really cramped PVR screen 4 at Ambience Mall Gurgaon.  And that too from the 3^rd row. Sorry about that Renu and thanks for patiently sitting through what turned out to be the least entertaining of the previous 3 Salman Khan flicks that released on Eid.  There was a joke that has been doing its rounds over the past few days.  2009 – IPS Officer; 2010 – Inspector; 2011 – Bodyguard; 2012 – Chowkidaar?; 2013 – Chaprasi? Has Salman come to the end of his winning streak so to speak which started with Wanted that I would have easily rated as a 5 on 10 if not more.  Dabangg was not a great movie from a perspective of quality of movie making but it was 100% entertainment to say the least.  I had given it a 4 on 10 but also a 10 on 10 on pure entertainment value.  Bodyguard sees Salman getting down to the abyss from a perspective of quality of movies over the past few years.  One can only hope that the positive is – you can only get better from here.  Only time will tell.

Bodyguard definitely gives the die hard Salman Khan fan and all the women in the house a lot to cheer about and drool over respectively.  There are the magical Salman moments that can only be described as simply stunning & outstanding to say the least.  The burst of water from a pipe that sprays itself with utmost force onto Salman’s torso forcing the buttons of his tight black uniform open – actually sending the buttons flying all over the place – and the shirt in itself is forced off those rippling muscles (at age 46 mind you) and onto to face of his villain who has to really put in some effort and goes by the name of Aditya Panscholi.  An act that can be pulled off only by Salman and no one else (apologies to Rajani Saar but we are talking about Bollywood here).  And then there is the most kick ass of all dialogues – Mujhpe Ek Ehsaan Karna… Ke mujhpe koi ehsaan na karna (Do me just one favour… that you don’t do me any favours).  Just that the best Salman dialogue in this movie pales in comparison to – Ek baar mein commitment kar deta hoon toh mein apne aap ki bhi nahin suntan (once I have made a commitment then I don’t even listen to myself).

That there are a dime a dozen cheap dialogues thrown in by the ridiculously fat new comer Rajat Rawail who plays the role of Tsunami do nothing to add value to the movie is just one of the low points.  These dialogues not only dilute the punch that Salman carries all the way through to the end.  Performances from anyone else just don’t come upto the level that he has.  Kareena will prove to be just well dressed eye candy to most people who are her fans but to those who aren’t fans like this writer it is just one painful scene after the other.  The music by Himes bhai (Himmesh Reshammiya – with all the m’s in the world) is decent but not one of his better works.  Overall, you will struggle through Bodyguard and will survive if you are a Salman fan. And of course Katrina looks heavenly in the 2 minutes that she comes on screen.  3 on 10 overall.

The trailer can be viewed on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoF4OJkWH3U

read more...

CRISPY BREAD ROLLS INDIAN STYLE

CRISPY BREAD ROLLS INDIAN STYLE

Its Tea time again and I’m pondering over what snack to make for my kids. I thought why not make bread rolls as it’s a really long time I haven’t made them as I am trying to avoid fried foods. But heck its raining isn’t that reason enough to have something fried with a mug of piping hot tea. Bread rolls is a dish that can be made with ingredients at home. So dunk into this crispy and delectable snack. I am sure the kids will enjoy it too.

BREAD ROLLS

Ingredients

Slice Bread - 1 Packet

Potatoes - 5-6 medium sized

Green Chillies -2

Ginger paste – 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds –  1 tsp

Asafetida – a pinch

Cumin powder – 1 tsp

Coriander powder – 1 tsp

Salt as per taste

Coriander Leaves

Method

Boil the potatoes. Peel and mash them. In a wok, add one tablespoon of oil. Add the cumin seeds and when they start to fry, add in the ginger and chilly paste, the coriander powder, cumin powder and asafetida. After a minute or two, when you see they are fried well, add in the mashed potatoes and salt as per taste. Mix well. Finally garnish with finely chopped fresh coriander leaves. Mix well. Allow this mix to cool.

Now take a slice of bread and dip it gently in water from both sides

Do not cut the sides of the slice bread, they hold the entire roll together.

Squeeze the bread to let out the water, do this gently or the bread will break.

Add the potato filling in the bread and turn the bread into an elongated roll-shape or round shape.

Deep fry the roll in the hot oil.

Fry until golden brown, remove the bread roll from the hot oil and drain the excess oil on a tissue paper.

Serve hot with green coriander chutney, tomato ketchup / chilly sauce.

read more...

Stock market movements: A crucial factor to investment decisions or not?

Some days stock market goes up and some days stock market comes down. Some days it closes on green and some days it closes on red. Should all these stock market movements play a crucial role for an individual investor in making his investment decisions?
I have some money to invest.

If I see that market is coming down, then I have two choices to make. Either I can decide to invest today or not to invest. IF I HAVE INVESTED TODAY and the market go up tomorrow, then I will be happy because I have bought it at lower rate. Suppose if the market comes down further, then I will feel bad because if I could have delayed my investment by a day, then I could have bought it at much lower rate. IF I HAVE NOT INVESTED TODAY and the market goes up tomorrow, then I will be worried because I missed an opportunity to buy it at a lower rate. Suppose if the market comes down further, then I will be happy because I can buy it at a still lower rate.

Similarly, if I see the markets are going up, I can invest or postpone. If I invest and market comes down next day, if I postpone and the market goes up the next day……?

The point I am trying to make here is by simply watching today’s market movement and making an investment decision will not help. One needs to forecast the movement of the next day. Not only next day, the next to next day, the next week, the next month and so on. Also by watching the market movements to make investment decision, we allow our emotions –fear and greed- to creep in. When emotions come into play, the possibility of making a wrong decision is more.

So what should we do? Divide and rule. Predicting the market is not possible. The market is out of our control and we can’t do anything about it. It is worthwhile to focus our efforts and energy on the things we can do something about. But what is in our control is the money which we are going to invest. We can do something here. We can choose to invest the money in a staggered manner.

What would be the correct practice? Studying only during exams or studying regularly? Exercising only when we become overweight or exercising regularly? Investing only when the market comes down or investing regularly? I need not tell you the answer because you all know it. By investing regularly our investment will be spread across the ups and downs of the market. Our investment cost will be averaged out. We will not become emotional and we will become a more disciplined investor in this process


The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (http://www.holisticinvestment.in/) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in

read more...

Bad Teacher

Director           Jake Kasdan

Cast                 Cameron Diaz, Lucy Punch, Jason Segel, Justin Timberlake, Phyllis Smith, John Michael Higgins, Kathryn Newton, Matthew J Evans, Kaitlyn Dever

Year                2011

Genre              Comedy

What are the words or thoughts that come to your mind when I would utter the two words Cameron & Diaz? Lets see.  Blonde. Hot. Bimbo.  Tall. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Drop Dead Gorgeous. Luscious Lips. Charlies Angels. Anything else? Come on, I am sure you can come up with some more adjectives to describe Cameron Diaz.  But I am quite certain that the noun “Actress” would be used by very few to describe her.  Am I right or am I wrong? I have always found Diaz to be an exceptionally attractive woman but never one who can claim to be an actress.  Rest assured she has more expressions in her repertoire than most “actresses” in this part of the world I assure you.  But she still doesn’t make the cut to compete with the more intense genuine actresses in her part of the world.  Which gets her relegated to the slapstick comedies like Bad Teacher or at times the more sensible RomComs like Holiday (which I believe is one of the best RomComs ever made and in my all time favourite list of movies as well – have I lost a few followers? :P).

The one thing Diaz doesn’t have that quite a few other actresses or “actresses” can boast of is a nice rack (I hope children don’t read my blog and that would also be the case of taking them to watch Bad Teacher.  Don’t take children with you).  Which seamlessly merges into the story of the life of Elizabeth Halsey (Diaz) whose only purpose in life is to enhance her assets.  Her obsession with money and the boob job get her engagement to a millionaire fiancé to breaking point.  The mother-in-law to be, ensures that it breaks off with little ado.  Halsey who has just quit her job as a teacher – a job that she absolutely dislikes – finds herself back within the blink of an eyelid to sharing an apartment with a Hobo and with little or no money in the bank.  Therefore, the only option left was to go back to the school and ask for her job back – which she duly gets. 

What follows is the classic American Slapstick variety of Comedy which I believe goes very well with the crowds these days.  People find anything and everything humourous.  I am convinced that it is just me who doesn’t appreciate this genre where Justin Timberlake behaves as if he is a class A loser – and Timberlake showed with his performance as Sean Parker in Social Network that he is not a bad actor at all.  Cannot pay the same compliment to Lucy Punch however.  Don’t recollect her from any of her past movies although I have seen some of them – Bad Teacher will leave you with the same feeling.  Nothing but irritation for her character – Amy Squirrel.  The only guy who seems to be comfortable on screen is Jason Segel who does a decent job as the “never say die” gym teacher whose only intent is to get into Halsey’s pants (now that I would definitely not mind).  Bad Teacher lived upto my expectations of being a 5 on 10.  Easy watch for those who enjoyed the likes of American Pie. For the others, avoid.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3131219225/

read more...

Not a Love Story

Director           Ram Gopal Varma

Cast                 Mahie Gill, Deepak Dobriyal, Ajay Gehi, Urmila Matondkar, Zakir Hussain, Neil Bhoopalam, Darshan Jariwala, Ganesh Yadav, Rasika Joshi

Year                2011

Genre              Drama

Ram Gopal Varma could not have picked up a better time for the trailers of his movie to be released and then the eventual movie release.  It was bang at the time when the verdict on the Maria Susairaj case was about to be announced.  A couple of weeks into the trailer and one of the most absurd verdicts (that’s what I believe – it is totally personal) ever by the Indian judiciary was announced.  I guess it has been a little under a month since the verdict and unfortunately for RGV, Anna and the World Champions, for totally different reasons, have hogged the lime light.  As of now, everyone in this country is interested only in the Jan Lokpal Bill.  And maybe a few would be interested in knowing the build up of the Susairaj case and where it finished. 

And why in the blazes would RGV start the movie with a disclaimer that this is a work of fiction.  Surely all of us know that the movie is about the Susairaj case and it would only mean that Maria Madam and Jerome Sir refused to co-operate with the RGV Factory in terms on the money that was offered.  Maybe they will cash in on it over time at a much higher level – crime is after all a very lucrative profession as has been proved in the past in more developed economies.

That being said, RGV also ends the movie with 4 dramatic statements – please don’t hold me to this because it may not be verbatim but I am quite certain it was something to this extent.

“The Prosecution wanted both of them to be killed

Their lawyers wanted them to kill each other

The two of them wanted to die together

Finally the verdict is still awaited”

RGV Sir – Gross!!!! How much cornier do you want to get?

The movie starts off with great promise and intensity thanks to Deepak Dobriyal who has put up another stellar performance and kind of keeps the movie alive.  I was quite intrigued though with the choice of Dobriyal for this role but he comes out on tops.  RGV uses his signature camera angles which are a bit off beat and it does make you think that RGV is back. But then one starts feeling a tad giddy in a bit.  But for a couple of specific shots which gave the output that was desired, the other angles only made the movie look more like a horror story and not one that was based on a crime of passion.  Mahie Gill has never been able to get back to the near perfect performance she gave in Dev D.  I guess it will continue to be her nemesis in a manner of speaking.  Needs to stop trying too hard to get there.  The same syndrome as Jr. B after Yuva.  Not much of a support cast with the exception of Zakir Hussain (remember Rashid in Sarakar) who is the only person who comes close to Dobriyal’s performance.

Overall disappointing.  I was so hoping that RGV was back.  I really like RGV and find it quite sad that he seems to have gone onto a different planet.  Either we need to join him there or he needs to get back to Mother Earth.  5 on 10 is what I would give NALS.  Watchable but don’t expect too much.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrbcn2k-FMI

read more...

How to Retire Early? Retire sooner and richer:

The mindset of today’s young professionals is changing radically. They would like to have a semi-retired life in their late forties or early fifties by taking up a hobby instead of a regular job.

Somewhere within all of us, there is a dream to reach a point in life where we have enough wealth to be able to choose the work we would like to do and the pace at which we would like to work, if at all we feel like working; a point also referred to as financial freedom. Financial Freedom is also interpreted as being able to spend whatever amount you like, on whatever things you like, month after month.

Here is a step by step guide to Retire Early.


How long you expect to live?

First of all, you need to decide on “How long you expect to live?” This is going to be the starting point for your retirement plan. This you can decide by your health history and your family health history.

Will you run out of money?

You need to accumulate enough money required to live up to that age. You need to calculate the corpus amount required for retirement based on when do you want to retire?, how much you need to spend every month after retiring?, Inflation, tax, investment returns and the like.

There are two things which can make you run out of money in between. One is inflation and the other one is medical expenses at the old age. So you need to be very careful in assuming inflation when planning for retirement. Also you need to be adequately covered with right health insurance policies.



Retirement corpus Break up:

You need to divide your retirement corpus into two portions. One portion of it is the corpus required to retire at the regular age. It could be 58 or 60. The other portion is the corpus required to live between the early retirement and the regular retirement. Say if you want to retire at 50, what would be the corpus required to live between the age of 50 and the regular retirement age of 58 or 60.

First you need to accumulate money for your regular retirement. Then you need to proceed to accumulate for your early retirement. This way you break your targets and it psychologically gives you a lot of comfort in achieving early retirement.

Don't fall for get-rich-quick schemes

To retire early, definitely you need a sizable corpus. Don’t look for any short cuts and get-rich-quick schemes. Only with the increased risk comes the increased return. If any scheme assures low risk and high return, then it is going to be another scam. So stay away from those schemes.

Don't fear stocks

You need to consider investing in a well diversified portfolio for long-term. Diversified Equity mutual fund schemes are better. By investing in a diversified equity portfolio you will be taking calculated risk and not blind risk. Equities will beat all other asset classes in the long run. So it is an important option for those who want to retire early.
Reduce your annual cash requirements for when you retire by working out a careful budget
The monthly income required after retirement is going to be an important criteria for deciding the retirement corpus. If you are comfortable with lesser income you can retire sooner. So you need to be careful in drawing a budget for cash requirement post retirement.


Investigate a better return on your savings
Better return on your investment portfolio will help you retiring early. So maximize the return on your portfolio as far as possible.

Cut your current spending so you can save more
Money spent is money saved. Spend less; save more; invest smarter and retire sooner. There are more number of ways to spend smarter to save more.
Earn more now
Time is money. Don’t waste your time. Invest your time in revenue generating activities. Apart from your regular income source, there are other opportunities which you can exploit. You can create blogs; you can be a freelance writer; you can do internet marketing. There will be numerous opportunities based on your knowledge and skills if you take time to think and implement.
Take advantage of tax-deferred opportunities

Tax deferment is an important tool for early retirement. Tax deferment means less tax now. If you pay less tax and you will have more money to save. You need to pay tax on FDs on maturity even if you renew them. Income funds and MIPs could be a better alternative to this. You need to pay tax only when you actually redeem.

Find out some ways to have an income

Even after retirement you can have an income by way of a hobby or interest. You need not work on a regular schedule. Say you can be a trainer, you can be a blogger, you can be a consultant, or you can be an advisor in your chosen field. It generates money as well as it keeps you engaged after retirement. One of my clients has written a book and he is able to generate income from the copyright of that book year on year. If you are able to generate this kind of income, then you can retire early.

Retiring early is possible for each and everybody. You need to start planning for it little earlier. Professional assistance from financial planners will be of definitely useful to you, if you desire to retire sooner and retire richer.

The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in.

read more...