Avant Garde Bloggies Awards was conceived in 2008 by Visceral Observations. Duly supported in organizing and conducting by fellow Bloggers, the awards last year was huge success. Especially for me it was double treat as I was nominated in 2 categories and I won both hands down (Modesty Sucks... Haha). However, this year I am not nominating any of my posts as I am part of the organizing committee and in all probability a Judge too; hopefully.

For uninitiated as well as those who are aware of it, I request you to read the post on this year’s Avant Garde Bloggies Awards by Visceral Observations. PLEASE CLICK HERE. Avant Garde Bloggies Awards aim to recognize the best posts from your blog. It is an award competition where your entries are voted and judged by fellow, expert bloggers. It is a competition to recognize your blog. And as always, it’s meant to be fun and healthy.

Here is once again the link to everything you need to know about the Awards as well as how to nominate your and other’s posts. CLICK HERE.

Conceived by Visceral Observations

Badges Designed by Chirag. Have a look at the Badges by CLICKING HERE.

Volunteers Vimal, Vee and Magik

Publicist Nikhil

The Categories CLICK HERE.

Official Video CLICK HERE.

I would appreciate if you too could spread the word to have worthy nominations pouring in for each category. Please join the Avant Garde Bloggies Awards Group on Facebook. CLICK HERE TO JOIN US ON FACEBOOK.


P.S. Go through the categories and start nominating posts now.
P.P.S. Revert back in comments section for any queries.

Thanks for the little mercies, I have something to post. Ava presented me with this award. I have 6-7 topics at any point of time running through my mind which goes up to 12-13 when I am high under influence of alcohol; but I am super duper lazy to put them in words. I always have something to say. If I talk of last couple of weeks or so, I had so many things to write on. I wanted to write on decriminalization of Homosexuality and the reverse of it that followed; the ongoing Ashes Test Series; Rakhi ka Swayamvar; Rita-Maya feud; and more such blahs. Sometimes I have started but stopped after 2 or 3 sentences and that has prepared the posts in my draft to 43 as of today (almost close to the number of posts I wrote in last one year). Also, I have realized that nothing gives me more pleasure than watching World Cinema and writing on Cinema which constitutes 95% of my posts.

Anyways, here I go and flaunt my award which Ava gave me. This also comes with few rules and set ups:

The rules that follow are as follows:

* Link the person who tagged you
* The display of award on your blog with these rules
* Reply to the questions
* Tag 7 people deserving the award according to you
* Come back to BLoGGiSTa iNFo CoRNeR (PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THIS LINK) at http://bloggistame.blogspot.com/ and leave the URL of your Post in order for you/your Blog to be added to the Master List

My Answers to the questions:

* The Person who tagged you : Ava
* His/her site’s url http://thepinkbee.blogspot.com/
* Date when you were tagged: 18th July 09
* My top 7 fav blogs….in alphabetical order

Ava – She has three (or may be 4) blogs but I like ‘The Pink Bee’ the best. She changed the template recently making it more apposite to the name given to the blog. Never to mince words, she has been inspiration to me as a writer since Mouth Shut days for saying things the way they are without being impolite (impolite part I am still trying to overcome)

Bhargav – A fellow movie enthusiast whose reviews are unbiased and succinct. He is quite young to be that knowledgeable about the yesteryears of Hindi Cinema. I sometimes see my adolescent days in his writings.

Garbles (Mystique Dew) – When it comes to being funny and sardonic, she is the best. She writes once in a blue moon but the wait is absolutely worth it.

Rakesh – The versatile writer. A fellow movie fanatic as well. He can write on anything and everything. Of late we have started sharing our bachpan ke days of watching movies on DD National/VCR/Theater. Now, he can say he saw his adolescent in mine.

Sam – Straight friendly gay blogger. A very honest, down to earth and talented blogger. He has got the nicest template and amazing header done for his blog. And whether he shares his unhappiness for movie ‘Dostana’ or talks of 377, he comes out thoroughly genuine.

Smita – Be it Books/Life in general/Movies/Music or Salman, words come easily to her and her posts are utterly engaging. Also, she is the one who pulled me into Blogosphere with her constant nagging which actually was nothing but harassment.

Vimmuuu – When we started interacting on each other’s posts, we realized we for sure are twins on Blogosphere. We now have stopped sharing the likes and dislikes as almost everything came out alike; yes including our love for certain Rakhi Sawant.

Search Engines be it Google, Yahoo et al are like a Bible, Quran, Geeta, Guru Granth Sahib and so and such for us these days. Do not we type whatever pops up first in our mind whilst looking for a specific thing? Yes, we do. We all do. To cite a recent example, I in my half-asleep approach read the news of Spanish PM fucking up big time and when online, I had forgotten whether that Spanish guy who made a sexual gaffe was whether PM or President or whatever of that country so I typed Spanish Man+Prime Minister+President+Fuck+Russia (as Russia was another word apart from Spanish and Fuck that got registered noticeably in my mind) in Google search. The first search itself cleared things. See how Google bails us out.

So, this write-up is to make you acquaint with what kind of words/phrases people across the globe have used to search anything remotely connected to the movie Slumdog Millionaire and ultimately ended at my ‘Slumdog Milllionaire’ review, Thanks to FEEDJIT.

Sample my five favorites:

"does salim sleep with latika".

"asshole amitabh blog on slumdog"

"the man with the colt 45 says leave slumdog"

"slumdog jaya ho american review".

"slumdog's euphoria in india-- how much justified".

I am still ROFLing and LMAOing at the keywords used by people for Slumdog Millionaire. Jaya ho? Salim Sleep with Latika?? Justified? Asshole Amitabh?? hahahahaha

Ain’t those keywords funny!!!???

I found "asshole amitabh blog on Slumdog" one quite funny… Which one you think is the funniest?

Out of context, Nominations for the MovieManiax Awards – 2008 are out. Do check out. The voting will start next week.



To know more about the MovieManiax Awards, CLICK HERE.

It was nothing less than a Nonsensical Attyachaar seeing the Star Screen Awards. Ashutosh-Sajid feud, Akshay’s sacrifice reeked of two-facedness and in due course the secret which almost everyone knew was out in open. That year after year the awards go to a good number of unworthy ones, that they are already decided in the closed bed-rooms of people with power, money and high libido, long before the premiere show sometimes. Few deserving ones do get nominated (percentage would be negligible) to bring about a balance (all pretense) but the deserving ones never win. Filmfare Awards are the Oscars of India they say, (much above the National Awards) that I guess has reached a ludicrous stage.

It was after the Star Screen Awards and getting acquainted with the nominations of upcoming Filmfare Awards that I decided to come up with my own version of Awards. Why not? I might be a small fly and my appreciation might not be acknowledged in open by people whose movies, performances and contribution to the cinema I enjoyed in the year gone by. But that doesn’t dissuade me. Is it worth? For me, yes, it is. Do not we talk of changing the structure when we see the immoral events around us and do not few of us stand up and indeed bring in the change? So, that’s what I am doing.

The idea was put off by few in all possible ways, in a roundabout way to right on my face calling it useless. What is the purpose? I would be lying if I say not for a moment I was discouraged. However, after initial hiccups, here I am to announce the launch of Bloggers edition of awards.

Yes, it is by us and it will be for the best. Let’s welcome and honor the best. I would need support from fellow Bloggers in making this a success.

I approached few of the fellow Bloggers. To my surprise, they all readily agreed. Well, not exactly :). Reema, Poonam and Vimmuuu are helping finalize the categories and nominations. Nikhil is roped in for anything and everything related to promotion. Smita is supervising the overall job and is strictly kept out of ‘Categories and Nominations’ decisions for obvious reasons. After all who wants to see Salman being nominated in all the categories? And finally, this would not have been possible without a friend who pushed me to go for it, a friend who requests to be anonymous. I wish I could say ‘as of now’. I hope he changes his mind. He is the brains behind the name given to the awards (with our feedback) and he designed the poster for the awards. And soon he will be done with the award badge.


Work on Poster, Badge, Categories, Nominations is in progress and will be released soon. Keep watching this space for more.

Reema. Wooyay. Applause, Claps, Trumpets, Gun-Shots, Red Carpet.

The answer is: It's the flower of Guava (or Amrood in Hindi) tree.

So, the floor is now yours Reema for the next 'Riddle Me This'.

P.S. After Dev.D, Anurag is ready with his next offering 'Gulaal'. Click here to watch the trailer. Oh Gosh!!! What A Trailer. Jack and Jill went up the hill, To fetch a pail of BHOSADI-KA! (I will clarify later that I am not saying 'what a trailer' for that phrase in particular). Watch it to believe what Anurag is made of. 13th March, there I wait for you.

P.S.1 - Read Shobhaa's this entry and my comment there (4th comment). Don't I make sense there? Isn't she losing it completely these days, Brains I mean!!!

P.S.2 - My 'twin brother' is celebrating his 28th Birth-Day today. And I am damn excited about it. So, no more rant and it's fucking party time.

I am often told that my posts are by and large very long read. I am not going to ask which any writer rarely dares to ask, “Did you read it till the end?” or “Did you yawn while reading it?” Alright I asked already. Anyway, do not worry this time as this post is just to show off.

Vimmuuu and Smita presented me with Butterfly Award and a Trophy.






Vimmuuu and WIAN presented me with ‘Este Blog Investe e Acredita Na… PROXIMIDADE!’ (Portuguese) award which made no sense till I read the translation in English.


This award is given to a blog that invests and believes in PROXIMITY – nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.



Thereby I present this to the following bloggers: (I am not presenting it to those who already received it.)

- V (Small B)
- Gokul (The most honest one)
- Sam (He is crazy..:))
- Avionic (Missing since 2 months)
- E-I-S-I (Should write often)
- Mystique Dew (Missing since 1 month)
- Vinz aka Vinu (Missing since 5 weeks) And lastly
- Shobhaa De (Oh, I love her!)

Moving on, Poonam announced the results of ‘Avante Garde Bloggies Awards’ couple of days back. I was nominated in two categories and I won both i.e. Best Movie Review and Best Blog Design. I thank each and everyone who voted for me.






Well, I fooled you in beginning when I said this post is just to show off. I also wanted to say that:

2008 is one of the worst years for our Film Industry. Probably I will write a different post on that. Hopefully 2009 would be a better one as I am going to present you with the trailer of three upcoming movies which look very promising.

Dev.D (Pronounced Dev [dot] D)

What’s common between Bimal Roy, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Anurag Kashyap. Devdas: brooding and alcoholic loser. However, Kashyap will present Devdas in totally bizarre form. In his own words the characters in his new flick Dev.D are not based on Sarat Chandra’s classic book Devdas. Yea, the hero is called Dev, there is girl named Paro and there is a prostitute Chanda, but that’s where the similarity ends. Ah, that says all. I have a feeling this is a work of mockery. I cannot wait to watch the new age Devdas played by Abhay Deol. I love Abhay Deol. The first five movies of his short career have been well appreciated. Call it coincidence or his innate impulse that all five have been made by debutant directors. His sixth and seventh (OLLO and Dev.D) are the only ones not made by debutant directors. I am dying to see Abhay in the role of cocaine-snuffing alcoholic.

Check the trailer and poster here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRLjycn11Rw




Slumdog Millionaire

Now this is the movie which looks very very promising if trailers are to be believed. If the trailer can blow up your mind imagine what would movie do? ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is directed by Danny Boyle whose earlier works include Trainspotting and Sunshine. The movie has already won many awards at various film festivals and will be released in India next year. The movie is based on the book Q & A written by Vikas Swarup and runs on the line of famous reality show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’.

Check the trailer and poster here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIzbwV7on6Q




Luck By Chance

The third in list is Zoya Akhtar directed ‘Luck By Chance’ and has her brother Farhan in the lead along with Konkona. The star cast gets alluring with Rishi, Dimple and Juhi. Apart from them Zoya has roped in half of the Bollywood for cameo but the one that every one is excited about is that of Hrithik Roshan.

Check the trailer and poster here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doTBkTc8lXM

So, I had a very interesting fortnight.

So, I watched A Wednesday and The Last Lear. And I was disappointed with the later. ‘A Wednesday’ was a good attempt for a debutante, so I would ignore couple of flaws but ‘The Last Lear’ was a lot disappointing. Btw, an interesting article about ‘A Wednesday’ here.

Now coming to TLL, Why do our actors fake their accent whenever they act in an English language movie? By accent I don’t mean they put on Brit or Yankee or any other accent. It looks our actors are speaking forced English. They are very good at the language but there is something insanely foolish about the way they mouth the dialogues, it is a big put off. Watch Divya Dutta to know what I mean. And critics are going gaga over her. Shefali Shah suddenly takes a spin in her mind when she is asked to do an English film. She becomes a totally different person. Her whole body language suggests ‘I am the Queen’. Watch any of her English movies (including 15 Park Avenue) and you will know what I mean. She is a good actor but I prefer Shefali of Satya any day. Preity, Amitabh and Arjun were just about ok. There was nothing amazingly awesome about them and same goes for the script. Ghosh and Arindham created much hype and hoopla which Neeraj ‘Wednesday’ Pandey did not and ultimately grabbed all accolades and also got his movie short listed in top 5 contenders to be sent for Oscars. So, that made TZP a winner. Would Aamir nail it this time? I wonder. I doubt actually.

I do not fathom why but TZP always reminds me of ‘Bacheha-Ye-Aseman’ (Iranian) film which I saw once again this week. From BYA (later dubbed in English as ‘Children of Heaven’) which won the Best Foreign Language Film at Oscars in 1998 till ‘Leben Der Anderen, Das’ (German; dubbed in English as ‘The Lives of Others’) which won Best Foreign Language Film in 2007 each and every movie was class apart in their own way and TZP is no where closer to any of those. So, I question what likelihood TZP has got now?


So, I bumped into both current and previous ex-lovers (were we??) of mine. How interesting (of course, at different locations and occasions). Ok, before that, a suggestion. Unless you are sure of how things are going in relation, never ever take your date to you favorite hang-outs. NEVER. Once you guys have things talked and all going smooth, take wherever you want. But, before that strictly no. So, what was she (current ex) doing there with a random guy? I am not too uncomfortable in such situations to be honest and can handle it quite well. However, what pinched me was ‘I brought you here once and that was your first time here and it's my favorite you are aware. Go, somewhere else please'. But, It’s not my baap-ka-place in first place. Anyway, so I massaged my ego thinking, ‘Ah, probably she had inkling I would visit the place so she was just dying to have a look at me’. Whoo!!! Whoo!!! Worked.

The previous ex crossed my path at Multiplex. I was going for ‘Rock On!!' and she was coming out after watching it. “What’s with the hair”? She exclaimed. What right she has to make a cry of it? “Well nothing, it’s my new style and punk coloring I went for this time, something other than burgundy”. I said remembering she had always suggested burgundy for my hair in our togetherness days. “Eeewww, It’s not done”. She always reminded me of Janice of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and it had taken me some time to forget her ‘Eeewwws’. “And what’s that goatee thingy without mush”? She continued. “Its Ramadan days so I thought this would be appropriate look”. What was I thinking when I said that? She asked, “What”? "Nothing, catch you later. Tata. Ciao".

So, she was the one I referred in the tag when I said I was trying to kill but she escaped.

So, nowadays I don’t like crowds, I prefer to stay away. There were times when my presence was felt in a crowd. It’s the same now, just that more than speaking much, I am speaking sense now. And when I don’t think I can contribute, I prefer keeping my trap shut. They feel I am depressed these days. I feel I am beginning to realize things. Don’t take anything at face value anymore.

Then when someone asked me about the number of friends I had, I would quote a 3 digit figure! Now the number doesn’t go beyond 3 fingers. It’s not that I've lost them; I’ve realized what 'Being Friends' is all about. Though the people who matter have come down, the extent to which I can go for them has increased by infinite times.

They feel I've become more serious. I feel I've grown. Finally, I have started mattering to me. I am slip sliding on the continuum.

So, three wonderful ladies presented me with some random awards on blogger. Preeti gave me ‘Thoughtful Blog Reader’ award. Reema presented me with ‘Certified Honest Blogger’ award. And lastly, Avdi honored me with ‘Brillante Weblog’ award here and wrote some nice words for me. I am eternally appreciative to all three of you. And before I forget I need to pass on these.

So, here I go:

Thoughtful Blog Reader to Vimmuuu, Preeti and Reema.

Certified Honest Blogger to Mystique Dew and Avdi

Brillante Weblog to Vicky and Smita.

So, I rambled big time here. I cannot write daily so whenever I get time I prefer saying the most. And yes, I rambled on Bollywood here. So, that means I won’t be using my other blog for Bolly rant. Guess I am too lazy to maintain more than one. Peace.