England wins the T20 World Cup 2010

Yes finally English Team has won the world Cup. It took 35 Years and 18 attempts to get this far. No other team has taken it thus far. Even SriLanka, (a team considered to be minnows like Bangladesh is now in 1979 WC) won their first World cup in 17 Years and just their 5th attempt. Therefore this has got to be the longest test that any national fan could have for a team. The fact that it has come on the brink of so many South Africans playing for England should not take any sheen out of the triumph. After all they did undergo the normal process to get this far.

Coming back to the tournament itself, it was the most clinical triumph seen from a a cricket team excepting Australia. No cricket team has won a world cup with so much domination except Australia in recent past. The two standout performers were Kieswetter and Petersen. Petersen being a star performer and a batting stalwart, he was expected to deliver but Kieswetter was a complete novice at least as far as international audience is concerned. To deliver in such a big tournament and in such a big stage (WC Final) speaks volumes on his abilities and promise that he holds in future for England. Another one man who needs special mention is Graham Swann, England have always been known for the pacemen or swing bowlers that you rarely get to see an attacking spinner come from English soil. It is perhaps for first time in my memory that I have seen England unearth a really talented and definitely the most promising spinner that England has ever had. In fact he is arguably the best spinner presently in International circuit on current form (with all due respects to Murali, Vettori and Harbhajan).

England lost only one match in this tournament but that too only due to Duckworth Lewis method otherwise they have been very clinical right from the start. Special mention should also be made of their final match. The way they played it so professionally and not even once letting Australia to claw their way back into the match was very refreshing to see for a neutral fan. This was exactly the need of the hour for a cricket fan to see some healthy competition developing between the rival teams and more importantly to see English team showing more interest towards shorter formats. English teams in past have always had tendency to ignore shorter versions of the game)

All the English fans should be rejoicing this victory and hoping for a similar triumph in the purer version of the game when the Ashes start later this year. I think this is a very good platform for England to defend their Ashes and to win a series in Australia after around 20 odd years. English team have all the firepower in all the departments of the game for winning Ashes series in Aussie soil and perhaps for first time in a very long time would start as favourites for the series. I sign off wishing England All the Best for Ashes.

Movie Review: 3 Idiots

Well I was very lucky to get hold of a movie ticket to this movie for almost first day first show (actually it was second day). The reasons were obviously Aamir and Hirani. Both of them haven’t delivered a flop or a dud at box office for a very long time. I knew the perfectionist that Aamir and the entertainer that Hirani is, this movie is sure to be engrossing if not fulfilling. I have to say that I was more than happy with the outcome of the movie. It was natural, soft and last but not least touching.

The Movie started in all too familiar way of a search for a person. It is not uncommon in Hindi cinema to search for a person. But the difference here in was not the search component but the person they were searching was quite different from any normal person. Well the name itself was very different Ranchoddas Shaymaldas Chajaad. This guy was not either the typical Hindi romantic hero or even the typical action Hero that we come across in each and every Hindi cinema. He was sensible, charismatic, entertaining and also very joyful character. Well I have to say that Aamir fitted in perfectly into this role and it didn’t seem odd at all that a forty plus person was playing a college student.







The other characters in this movie are also equally contributing and make a difference to the overall feel of the movie. The work of Sharman Joshi and Madhavan from RDB fame was expected to be good but what caught everyone the most attention and also the real surprise component in this movie was Chatur character. He was well suited to his character and made everyone in the theater to laugh his heart out. His Balatkar scene and his atypical Hindi accent were all the more good moments of the movie. The scene where Chatur impresses the most is when he reminds Madhavan and Sharman of the oath that he took of revenge and here he is delivering a perfect kickback. It sounded too childish and laughable but to think of it that is how a normal elite student of a premium institutes pit against each other nowadays. It is childish for us but that is the dirty world out there in those premium institutes.

The theme of the movie is very much coherent with the Taarae Zameen Par and the script of the Movie also had the feel of Munnabhai part one. The difference was the delivery of the whole package by different character with different story, screenplay and direction. The Movie is sure to be loved at first shot by everyone and may be people will not mind spending some more on the repeat viewing too. It is already breaking Sholay records and looks like becoming the all time favorite of Hindi cinema. Even then this Movie had certain shortcomings which needed to be addressed like for example not everyone will be as successful as Madhavan’s character if he goes away from the prescribed path. One example could be the US where every person has the maximum freedom that one can actually wish to have and you now have US president requesting his people to concentrate on Science and Maths. Well in a country like India it becomes doubly difficult to cross the paths.







Kareena Kappor did not have much to do in this Movie and it seemed more of a small role for her and Boman Irani’s character was again like his Munnabhai part one role where he was the same strict principal albeit in a engineering school. The NASA pencil scene and Balatkar scene is something we have heard of in our emails and school jokes yet it seemed different when it was put in as a movie scene. Javed Jaffrey’s brief stint was a nice gripping moment before interval but unexpectedly he just withers away after the interval.

Music didn’t seem all that great on TV and CD players but when seen in the context of the story and script, it seemed to make the cut. “Give me some sunshine” song had a nice feelings attached to it and seemed to cut across many people’s college days. Aamir’s courage in dealing with sensitive issues like student suicides, Indian education system, youth power, crossing new bridges are positive moments of the Movie. Overall this Movie felt like a complete package of message, music, masala (pregnant scene), sentiment and some non hand fights (between Aamir and Irani).