Ganguly Returns: Back to Dada-Giri...

Abhishek Deshpande — Fri, 1 Dec 2006 09:09:49 EST

Sourav Ganguly is back. But how can a person who was dropped on charges of under performing, come back to Indian team. His recall is strange but still an expected event. Presence of Vengsarkar in the selection panel means there are now more power centers in the Indian cricket team other than the captain and coach.

It must be a strange feeling for Mr. Chappell as of now, with Ganguly back in the side and the so called experiments going to back to where it all started. The return of Laxman, Zaheer and Kumble was a precursor to the main event.

Although I am still skeptical about how things will work out between Chappell and Ganguly, only assuring factor being the presence of Dravid. He as a captain faces one of his biggest task now, a rollback of everything he tried to do in one year and prepare the team for World cup next year. As of now he should better concentrate though on playing full 50 overs in a game.

But all this can't take away anything from the Man of the Moment Sourav Ganguly. If he makes it possible it would be promoted as the biggest comeback in Indian sporting history. The Kyon Hua Kaise Hua ad campaign generated a lot of sympathy for Dada in the days the other Cricketers were also not clicking.

Sourav has a big challenge on his hand, if he fails people can pardon him as person who fought for a year to get back into the team and made it, but the bigger challenge lies ahead for the Dravid and the Indian team. What if they fail again? It is sure that if Indians don't play well in Test Series everyone won't play well, and Ganguly will be the one giving all his effort (atleast it is presumed that way). Even if there is 10 times more pressure on him than the others to perform, I think finally Ganguly emerges as a winner of this unwanted battle.

A battle never fought on Cricket ground, but went across all the way from streets of Kolkata to the Indian Parliament, to a Cola commercial. And what more is on cards, a one day berth for Ganguly or even more a return to Captaincy (I may be dreaming...). But Indian cricket seems to learning from its neighbours Pakistan in making things complicated.

As of now everyone is praying whatever happens India at least draw one match in the test match series. Winning what's that!

Bollywood Celebrates Diwali and Eid With Don and Jaan-e-Mann

Abhishek Deshpande — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 09:56:59 EDT

Like every year holiday season is back. Other than the country celebrating Diwali and Eid nowadays it's about the big movies releasing on this weekend, and this year its Don and Jaan-e-Mann.

The Diwali/Eid release syndrome can be traced back to Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994) A movie that brought back the family audiences back to theatres after more than a decade long of overdoses of action or silly college style romances. From then the last few years have created a long list of movies releasing and getting successful on Diwali/Eid weekend.

It's more than being auspicious for the release. Like some good lessons learnt by Bollywood in marketing movies, this is another thing that they have executed to some perfection. Last year saw average enough movies like Garam Masala and Shaadi no.1 doing well. Obviously with the sheer numbers involved it's always a safe bet.

Anyway coming back to releases this time. It's a Khan tussle at the box office but surely both have their territories and fan groups earmarked out. And with everyone running off to see the movies surely both can be declared hits before hand. While the NRI audience, multiplex-going city audiences and families tend to bend towards Sharukh movies, Salman rocks at small cities and obviously with the big city audiences too.

Don is one of the movies in a long list of wanna-be remakes of classics from 70's. This is will be a acid test and some good lesson for other movies following suit. The trailers point towards quite slick and stylish version of the original Amitabh starrer. Though I must say the "Khaike Pan Banaras" number seems to be a let down. Though Shahrukh traditionally not made for such kind of roles and he looking somewhat similar to the bad guy in Duplicate (remember it was a Mahesh Bhatt directed disaster) but I personally am a big fan of Farhan Akhtar and obviously Shahrukh. Add to that Kareena and Priyanka and the movie won't be a let down for sure. Kareena in "Yeh Mera Dil" is something to watch out for.

Jaan-e-Mann, by the looks of it seems to be a love triangle. For figuring that out you definitely don't need to be a Pythagoras. Whatever is the hatke thing in movie the look of Preity and New York is sadly quite repetitive. But good enough music, the presence of Anupam Kher as a dwarf (something which hasn't happened after Kamal Hasan's classic Appu-Raja) and Salman and Akshay make the movie promising. Akshay Kumar, the most successful non-Khan actor in Bollywood, definitely adds value to the movie in an effort to continue on his string of successes.

But it's festive season so most times it doesn't even matter what you see, but still this Diwali and Eid should be lots of fun for movie-buffs like me.

Desicritics Author: Abhishek Deshpande

Ganguly Returns: Back to Dada-Giri...

Bollywood Celebrates Diwali and Eid With Don and Jaan-e-Mann