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Feb 26, 2010

List of Bollywood Celebrities on Twitter

Here you can find complete list of Bollywood actors, actresses, playback singers and film makers from the Indian cinema industry who have a presence on Twitter.


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Karthik Calling Karthik Movie Review


After the success of Rock On and Luck By Chance, Farhan Akhtar is turning out to be a revelation as an actor as he shows his acting capabilities in Karthik Calling Karthik. Over the last 2 years Farhan has transformed from a debutant to a charismatic actor. Directed by Vijay Lalwani, the movie was fantastic in terms of the drama and cinematography. The story revolves around a guy Karthik (Farhan Akhtar), who lives a drab life in a drab house doing drab work. Farhan was absolutely stunning in this role of a proverbial loser. His life was going unnoticed, exploited and squashed by all around him, make him full of anguish. 

A phone call changed his life one early morning when a caller, also calling himself Karthik, teaches our hero about the real world and he suddenly transforms into the other, savvier and socially adept Karthik. The caller also teaches him about how to get the top job, the hot chick and the happening life. Karthik goes on to win the love of the girl (Deepika Padukone) who hadn’t even noticed him in the last few years and became an equal partner in the success of the company where he works.

Karthik’s life was going smoothly and movie was going as a good romantic one, then it takes a sudden turn in Karthik’s life. His mentor, the other Karthik gets livid when his identity is revealed and threatens to turn mean. Caller spoils all his carefully nurtured relationships and sends the poor original Karthik, into hiding once again. A lot of drama in the end was witnessed. Overall the movie is watchable and a class act by Farhan Akhtar in lead role. Even Deepika Padukone pitches in perfectly as the classy, uptown girl. The thrill factor in the movie keeps the momentum up. I would suggest to the readers go and watch out the movie.
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Feb 25, 2010

Harbin Snow Festival


The temperature in Harbin reaches forty below zero, both Fahrenheit and centigrade, and stays below freezing nearly half the year. The city is actually further north than notoriously cold Vladivostok, Russia, just 300 miles away. So what does one do here every winter? Hold an outdoor festival, of course! Rather than suffer the cold, the residents of Harbin celebrate it, with an annual festival of snow and ice sculptures and competitions. This is the amazing sculpture made of snow greeting visitors to the snow festival in 2003.


Snow and ice sculpture in Harbin dates back to Manchu times, but the first organized show was held in 1963, and the annual festival itself only started in 1985. Since then, the festival has grown into a massive event, bringing in over a million tourists from all over the world every winter. The sculptures have become more elaborate and artistic over time; this bear and cub are just one small part of a fifty-meter-wide mural sculpture.


Most of the sculptures appearing at the snow festival are competitive entries. Each team starts with a cube of packed snow that appears to measure about three meters on a side, and then starts carving away. Teams come in from all over the world - Russia, Japan, Canada, France, even South Africa. Part of the fun is guessing the nationality of the team, based on their sculpture's artistic style, before reading the signs. I believe this was a Russian entry.


The sun begins to set behind the magnificent entryway sculpture. The snow festival is actually separate from the ice festival; both take place on the wide open spaces of Sun Island Park north of Harbin's river, Songhua Jiang. Harbin is situated south of the river, so it's a chilly ride over to the sites. It seems even chillier when crossing the bridge over the very wide and very frozen Songhua Jiang.


I was surprised to discover this sculpture of a Native American sitting in the frozen northeast of China; sure enough, I read on the sign that a Canadian team sculpted this entry. Chinese teams had many sculptures at the festival as well, off in another section, but a vast majority didn't measure up to these amazing works.


Even the sunsets in Harbin look cold. Though only mid-afternoon, the sun was setting over the snow festival and the temperature was falling even further below freezing. But the coming darkness was actually good news, because it meant that the ice festival was about to begin.


The ice festival, a few miles away from the snow festival, is anything but dull and colorless. Crowds flocking to the entrance are greeted by dance music booming in the distance, as if at an outdoor pop concert. And bright neon colors shine everywhere, buried within huge blocks of ice forming structures as high as thirty meters, such as this huge structure beyond the entryway. You can just make out people standing atop its blue and red stairway.


A view from atop that structure, looking back on a Russian-styled building and a mock Great Wall, both constructed out of ice. Making it to the top of this structure is an accomplishment in itself - imagine walking up a stairway of solid ice for two floors with no handrails. The yellow block wall on the right and the balcony work on the lower left are all ice, with no internal support structure - just lights.


The Great Wall doubles as a long ice slide; just sit and go. You can pick up some serious speed and wipe out spectacularly at the bottom if you're wearing a slick coat, but you won't go anywhere if you're wearing corduroy pants.


An overview of the ice festival from atop the Great Wall of ice. It's like a Disney theme park, with multiple attractions and food hawkers and kids running around and people lined up for bathrooms. The only differences are that the temperature is about a hundred degrees colder than the typical Disney park, and all the structures are made out of ice rather than plastic - and slipping and falling here doesn't result in tremendous lawsuits.


One of the popular activities at the festival is climbing a wall of solid ice. Amazingly, I didn't see a single person fall, and most everyone made it to the top. All the ice comes from Songhua Jiang, the nearby river, which provides a limitless supply; huge chainsaws are required to cut through the ice, which can be meters thick .


The snow festival is mostly a display of art; the ice festival is mostly a display of architecture. Nevertheless, a number of sculptures can be found at the ice festival, such as this life-sized horse. Agile youngsters with good balance climb atop the horses to have their pictures taken. Notice the layers of ice in the horse; blocks of ice are fused together to form larger blocks so that sculptures - or huge buildings - can be made.


An entire ship constructed of ice, with passengers onboard. Though it might not be seaworthy, the ship would certainly float - after all, it's made of ice. Hundreds of years ago during the Manchu days of ice lantern art, the sculptures were lit only by candles.


A Thai temple of ice, complete with hallways and rooms inside. Long ago, Disney made a Circle-Vision 360 film called "Wonders of China" - still showing at the China pavilion in the World Showcase at EPCOT - which includes a brief section on Harbin's ice festival. In the movie, the sculptures are quite low-key, little more than blinking light bulbs inside small globes and ice carvings. Things have changed a bit since those days. I trust you enjoyed the ice show.
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Sachin becomes first batsman to score 200 in an ODI

GWALIOR: Milestone man Sachin Tendulkar re-wrote the record books on Wednesday, hammering the first double century in the history of one-day cricket to add another feather to his well-adorned cap. 


The capacity crowd at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium witnessed history on Wednesday as Tendulkar, statistically the greatest batsman the game has ever seen, pushed a Charl Langeveldt delivery through the off-side and ran a single to achieve a feat which no other cricketer has achieved. 


One-day international cricket, since its 1971 inception, had to wait nearly four decades to see a batsman score 200. The previous best mark was shared by Zimbabwean Charles Coventry (194 not out against Bangladesh in 2009) and Pakistan's Saeed Anwar (194 against India in 1997). 


As the crowd erupted with unbridled joy, Tendulkar, tired but composed, took off his helmet, looked skyward, closed his eyes to offer a silent prayer. 



His captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni came down from the striker's end to shake hands and hug him. 


And as Tendulkar set on his way back to the pavilion after the completion of the Indian innings, a tumultuous celebration greeted him. 


The crowd gave him a standing ovation as the entire stadium erupted in euphoria while his teammates were simply ecstatic as they clapped and hugged each other, basking in the glory of their senior teammates. 


Tendulkar batted like a man with a mission on Wednesday and the South African bowlers simply had no clue where to bowl. 


Once he crossed the 150-mark, the crowd anticipated something special and Tendulkar did not let them down. 


A six off Roelof van der Merwe took him past Kapil Dev's 175 not out and in the next over, he hit Jacques Kallis for a four to equal his previous best of 186 not out that had come against New Zealand in Hyderabad in 1999. 


The crowd got restless as Tendulkar approached the 194-run mark and a couple off Wayne Parnell saw him eclipse it. 


His teammates and spectators were on the edge of their seat with a double century round the corner but with Dhoni going berserk at the striker's end and facing most of the deliveries, it was an agonising wait for all. 


Dhoni took singles off the final deliveries of the 47th-49th overs and Tendulkar finally took strike with four balls left in the innings. 


The first ball he received from Langeveldt was steered past point and Tendulkar ran for a single to remain unbeaten after an unforgettable unbeaten 200 that came off just 147 balls with 25 fours and three sixes in it. 


It was yet another milestone for the man, who has some 30,000 international runs under his belt, including 93 centuries (47 in Tests and 46 in ODIs). 
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Feb 23, 2010

Indian cricketers official websites

Now cricketers are very much concerned about their publicity, brand image and media attention. we are surprised to know that most of the Indian cricketers have their official websites . Popular Indian cricketers like Virendar Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Mahendra singh dhoni, Yuvraj Singh have their personal home pages on internet. they also have profils on social networking sites like twitter, orkut, myspace and facebooks to get in touch with their fans.


Some of the official websites of Indian cricket players.


Virendar Sehwag’s www.viruworld.com

Harbhajan Singh’s  www.bhajjiworld.com

Ishant Sharma’s www.ishantworld.com

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s www.dhoniworld.com

Yuvraj Singh´s www.yuvrajsingh.co.in

These cricketers are also there on Twitter ::

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Feb 16, 2010

Nokia launches mobile money transfer platform

Nokia, the global leader in the mobile handset industry, on Monday announced the launch of the world’s first money transfer platform
through mobiles in India as it enjoys the market leader’s hip and a wide distribution network in the world’s one of the fasting growing handset market.

Niklas Savander, executive vice-president, services at Nokia, told a press conference that the pilot project has been launched in Pune last week in partnership with Yes Bank and Obopay, which runs mobile payments platform. He, however, did not divulge the time of the commercial launch of the project.

Nearly 30 handset makers are battling it out in India’s telecom handset market. Brands like Nokia, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericson and Blackberry dominate 85-90% of the Rs 20,000-crore market. Nokia is the leader by far with a 57% share while Samsung is the distant second with an 8% share. LG is ranked third with a 5% share.


Christened as Mobile Money, the service will enable a customer to transfer money to other individuals, pay utility bills as well as recharge pre-paid SIM cards by using their mobile devices. The service will also be available on non-Nokia handsets.

Consumers will also be able to pay merchants for goods and services through their mobile devices. This is a first-of-its-kind service providing customers the ability to initiate mobile payments through multiple channels such as SMS, IVR, WAP, JAVA and FIRE.

D Shivakumar, VP and managing director, Nokia India, told ET the service will “create a financial ecosystem which is inclusive, sustainable and scalable”. The service will compete with cash and not with plastic money, he said, adding that it will grow the size of e-transfer of money in India.

He said the potential of the service is “enormous” as mobile phone users outnumber the bank account holders. India has nearly 500 million mobile phone users and 200 million bank account holders. There are nearly 80,000 branches of banks across the country.

Suresh Sethi, group president of transaction banking group, Yes Bank, said the service will enable educational and government payments to create an ecosystem for financial inclusion. “This service eliminates the dependence on the physical presence of a branch or availability of internet banking services and will successfully ride on the deeper penetration of mobile services in India.”
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Feb 7, 2010

'Striker' Movie Review

Director: Chandan Arora

Star Cast: Siddharath, Aditya Pancholi, Anupam Kher, Seema Biswas, Ankur Vikal, Nicollete Bird

Striker’ is another Bollywood tale of an innocent man being driven into the puddle of money-making. The movie is the story of Surya (Siddharth) who happens to be extremely talented carom player. But owing to the circumstances, Siddharth had to give up the passion and move on the conventional path to be the bread-earner for the family. The movie oscillates between the past and present and one gets to see Surya’s childhood and youth simultaneously.

Surya reaches Mumbai after his out of town trip and finds himself in an environment of communal riot. Surya is stopped by the police official, Faroukh (Anupam Kher). He gets trapped in the course of movie and eventually loses all the money that he had collected to go to Dubai. It is at this stage that he is re-introduced to carom but this time it is not just a game. He plays carom for gambling and stands face to face with the dreadful gangster, Jaleel (Aditya Pancholi) whom he hates since his childhood. He had always tried to keep away from Jaleel and his wickedness but ultimately finds himself standing in front of him.
The movie is made with the best of intentions and with a sensible theme. Dialogues are crisp and powerful. Like any other Bollywood movie, ‘Striker’ too has a love plot which never finds scope to grow fully. Noorie (Nicolette Bird), the love life of Surya gives a fresh impact to the audience. Friendship shared between Surya and Zaid (Ankur Vikal) is commendable and forms one of the main veins of the story.

Producer-director Chandan Arora makes a fruitful attempt in story telling technique and manages to keep the audience watching. However, at times the plot weakens and tends to confuse the audience with the introduction of sub-plots. Songs are pleasant to ear and contributes to the progress of the movie.

Coming to the actors, Siddharth poses a natural acting and shows his capability to shoulder a Bollywood movie on his shoulder. His work is highly appreciable and succeeds in maintaining the ‘Rang De Basanti’ magic. Nicolette Bird is pretty but finds no chance to show her acting skill. Anupam Kher and Aditya Pancholi show themselves to be experienced actors. Ankur Vikal, Anup Soni, Seema Biswas and Padmapriya suit their role perfectly.

Though the acting and plot of the movie is good, it fails to leave an unforgettable impact. Probably this is due to the lack of a well-written script. Again, the movie will be acceptable only to limited audience, leave alone the weak hearts. One may feel the smoky atmosphere of the movie repulsive.

To his credit, the Rang De Basanti [ Images ] star channelises his spontaneous presence to slip nimbly under the skin of a carrom genius, shifting his body language from a concentrating player to a smooth-talking, snarky lad entangled in a web of crime with restraint and conviction.

An interesting film with a lot on its mind, Striker isn't comfort cinema but I will recommend it anyway.
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