A few good movies

A Wednesday
Dasvidaniya
Mumbai Meri Jaan
Ramchand Pakistani
Ghazini
Rock On
Welcome to Sajjanpur
Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Jodha Akbar
Aamir
Superstar
Black N White
Tahaan
Khuda Ke Liya
Shoot on Sight
Shaurya

As the year 2008 ends, I feel satisfied that this year has given a lot of good films. Based on reviews of movies released in 2008, I have made certain observations.

1) Low budget movies were the most successful ones.
 If you notice closely, you can see that most of the films in the list are low budget movies. This simply show  that these low budget movies have made it big without any  glamorous stars or exotic shooting locations. They also didn't get the media hype which proves that the smaller movies have survived purely on their script and good direction.

2) Promotion of films is the new mantra.
Promotion is today's mantra for making money before and after the movie. The importance of the movie has shifted from the script to the stars and promotion of the film. Even the news channels feel that film promos and stunts are more important for their TRP, rather than their daily news. Many movies simply suffered for the lack of media hype. Although promotion of the movie may not always prove to be the success formula, but no one would take the risk of skipping the promotion part.


3) Male acting has risen whereas the female acting has declined.
 The actors like Ranbir Shorey, Rahul Bose, Vinaya Pathak, Irfaan Khan, Shreyas Talpade, Naseeruddin Shah have shown that acting is still a thing revered by the audience. On the pit side, there is a shortage of acting skills in today's actresses who prefer showing off their body and making news in media rather than refining their acting. Perfect examples are Kareena Kapoor and Minisha Lamba.

However, lets hope that a few good movies like this year's keep coming up, so that one can still feel the presence of better directors of Bollywood and can expect some masterpieces from them in the next year.

England –The pioneer in sports

Although recently England has lost badly in both One Days and Tests, that doesn’t stop me from appreciating their innovativeness in sports. If not for the English people, there would not have been so many different outdoor varieties of sports today. Almost all the sports, widely known today, have been invented and popularized by the Britishers, be it football, cricket, hockey, tennis, rugby, basketball or badminton.

They don’t stop after inventing a game. They keep on researching and are always on the lookout for new rules, different strategies and techniques. They always keep on trying different ways to make the game more interesting and enjoyable to the audience. Cricket can be a good example to prove all the above statements. When the English invented cricket, it was Test type of cricket. Then they refined it and shortened it with new rules and developed One Day International form, which was gradually accepted by all the cricket boards of other countries. But they went on further to shorten it to a Twenty20 format game, which is yet to find acceptance by all, including country officials and critics.

Even within the cricket game, they continuously researched and found out better techniques of batting, bowling out, etc. For example, the famous controversial “BodyLine Technique”, was also as a result of innovative British ideas.

Today England still gives lot of respect to its traditional and purest form of cricket, namely Test Cricket. People still find time and turn out in large numbers to enjoy this sport. We can always find young English ladies and gentleman out there in the stadium under a sporty umbrella passionately watching and enjoying cricket. Now there is talk of cricket being included as a proper sport in Olympics. “When so many sports are already there, then why not the popular cricket” is the typical argument of Britishers. I am sure when the next Olympics 2012 is hosted in London, cricket definitely would be an Olympic sport as well, thanks to the British Olympic organizers. Perhaps cricket being in Olympics would give them a sense of achievement and satisfaction.

Even though England has never won the World Cup in both One Day and Twenty20, it still holds cricket in high esteem. It still plays all formats of cricket and enjoys them. That would never happen in India where a defeat or victory decides the fate of sport. The domination of cricket over hockey proves it. We should learn from England where despite defeats, all games are still alive and very much popular.