The Sane Lunatic

On my way to watch War Dogs last week, I saw a giant hoarding with a cycle on it, and the only bit of text I could read in that brief moment was the name of the event (I guess an inappropriately large logo size in a layout does work in this case), Pedal for the Planet. I looked it up and went to their website to find that there will be a cycle race on 28th August, and there were plenty of categories to choose from. I hadn't gone cycling for over a month, nor had I been going for long walks to keep my leg muscles in a fit condition. So, I went for the one I knew I could finish in a relatively decent time, ie, the Men's Amateur 25 K event. There was a registration fee, which added to the proceeds which are all together supposed to go to a charity called 'Colours of Life' (aimed at helping the impoverished children in government schools) and they probably do. There was another extremely lucrative factor, which was a pick and drop service for participants, which was fo...

"That's how it is, can't help it" is a phrase applicable to way too many things in life. While there are motivators out there talking about not being that guy, we all know there are some things that really can't be helped. If you go out in the cold without a sweater, you WILL feel cold. If you eat something that is heaped with hot chili sauce, you will be crying for some way to soothe the burning sensation in your digestive system. That's how it is. But there are a lot of things when if you don't like how it is, there is the appropriateness of the phrase "Fuck this, I'm out!". Now, I admit, many situations where we feel like we would want to say that, we don't, we can't. That's because the repercussions of 'getting out' would not be worth it, which is also completely justifiable. But if that is not the case, why stay in a situation that can't be helped and is something you're not comfortable with? Why bend? Why ...

The trailer here pretty much shows all the decent bits of what is otherwise a 100 minute reel that will make you grimace and hold your head in your hands. The only thing you might enjoy is Jason's jawline and jaw dropping physique, and the plentiful you get of Jessica Alba's cleavage and bikini bod. Jason Statham's return as Arthur Bishop has been a major let down. There is no plot, no story, just a series of close ups, lazily-written rip-off cliches and some mindless explosions. Even the special effects for this film seemed to be on a budget, probably because they spent whatever money they had on Bishop's poorly choreographed stunt scenes. To the followers of Statham's work, you can almost tell which move was from which of his previous hit films. They have ruined Arthur's character from the first installment of the remake (which wasn't that good either but still much better than this one), with Jason doing his best to try and bring some depth to it....

Alright, here's the final installment of the posts from Loon's first trip to Mumbai. Starting off from the last one, day 8 was also spent mostly lazing at home, just watching TV and reading on my tablet. I helped a lil in the house chores and just chit-chatted with my cousins. Day 9 would be pretty much my last day as I was flying out the next afternoon, so I headed out to town one last time. I had a clear check list of where all I wanted to go, and that's exactly what I did. I left near noon, took a share-cab which meant an alternative route that I hadn't seen previously. That's pretty much the only time I'd take those share cabs, when I don't need to reach in a hurry and to explore a city. Anyway, once there, I headed for the Leopold Cafe for a nice lunch and a cool beer. Last time I had enjoyed the pasta, this time I had some BBQ chicken and fried rice, which was actually a better buy. T'was a good meal, and here are some pics: The next...

"This isn't about being pro-war. Its about being pro-money.", a sentence that can almost sum up the American weapons industry. Todd Phillip's latest fun reel, 'War Dogs', based on a true story about how two young men in their 20s managed to land a defence contract with the Pentagon for over $300 million to supply arms to America's allies in Afghanistan. As the trailer suggests, the film is narrated by David Packouz ( Miles Teller), who at age 22 was a massage therapist for the rich and sleazy in Miami. At a friend's funeral, he runs into his childhood best buddy, Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill), who is in the gun running business. Not long after that, David learns he is about to become a dad, and he won't be able to sustain a family as a masseuse,or like his buddy Efrain calls it "jerking off old guys for money". Efrain offers to take David under his wing in his 'company', AEY Inc. where he gets a crash course on how to cash...

Let's start right from where we left off in part 2. I still had the evening planned out ahead of me for day 4, and this was in a part of Mumbai called Lower Parel. I had to reach there by 8 but I didn't dare take the local trains at rush hour so I went in a share cab. For the most part, we were heading in the opposite direction of the rush hour traffic so it wasn't too bad and we were making good time. But for the last stretch, we came across a full-stop traffic jam at a crossing. Being a first timer, I figured this was just another one of those infamous peak hour traffic jams of this city, but once our cab finally made it to the front of the jam I got to see what caused the block up. In a very recognizable fashion, the busy intersection was being manually managed by the traffic police, which consistently enough manage to make things worse at rush hour. Anyway, I finally did reach my destination, just a lil late since I left ahead of time. I was visiting a close f...

Alright!! Lets  get to it! This post will take up from day 3 and we'll try to cover all the stuff till the time of me starting to write this post. A lot happened in these last few days but I'll try and keep it entertaining and not too long. So day 3 was working day, which meant my cousins went to work and I had to figure out for myself what to do and where to go. I spent the first half relaxing at home and then decided to hit another touristy spot, the Prtihvi Cafe. I took an auto, but somehow when I said "Prithvi Theatre" and he said "haan", I still managed to be dropped off at the wrong location. From there it wasn't too far either so I walked to my destination. Now, I had heard a lil about this place and the kind of crowd that comes here, a lot of cool folk, some hipsters, some for business and some just to hang out. My regular readers would know I don't prefer crowded places, especially if they're popular and I'm trying to have a go...

I don't know why but I seem to wanna start these kinda blogs as if it were a vlog. Anyway, let me tell you about my first ever trip to Mumbai so far. So, I landed here on Sunday noon, and I gotta say, quite a view as your plane begins its descent towards the airport. O nce I was out of the airport, the weather hit me. It was warm & humid but with a nice cool breeze. My cousin who I'm staying here with  came to pick me up and we took the iconic 'kali-peeli'  taxi to get home. I spent the whole drive asking my cousin about Mumbai and my head just kept swiveling trying to take in as much of it as I could. We reached home base where I saw what I've heard about living in Mumbai. A middle class guy doing well will pay crazy amount of rent for a SINGLE room, not 1 bedroom, 1 room house. An amount for which he can get a 2 bedroom house in Noida or Gurgaon in a society with nice amenities. But for a working lifestyle, its quite an efficient way to live. Tha...

In a world of over-achievers and young entrepreneurial giants, the life of the average folk has become even more frustrating. While it may seem like a whine of the middle class, it extends to more than that. Especially in India, for those who didn't study sciences or engineering, for the hundreds of thousands college graduates who weren't top of their class or particularly outstanding in extra-curricular fields, there is barely any appreciation.  They say that the economy is slowing down, yet those few at the top are still headlining with amounts in the millions. While I understand that those figures are credited to their companies and not to their personal accounts, but it is a tad bit annoying how the hundreds and thousands of regular people who help that guy at the top make those millions are rarely appreciated for just doing their job right.  The fact that enough global leaders today are not those who were born with a silver spoon, but those who struggled and fough...

The return of Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in the franchise's fifth installment got everyone's hopes up, especially after the let down that was Bourne Legacy. Unfortunately, it's another summer blockbuster that does not live up to the expectations. David Webb is dragged back into the world of shadowy government agencies and black ops and top notch killers when fellow former operative of Treadstone, Nicky Parsons comes to him with the idealistic ambition of leaking all the CIA's dirty secrets to the public. But she knows that Bourne has no interest in such ideals,  so she baits him with his one weakness, his desperate attempt to recall his past that haunts him every sinlge day. And that's how the plot gets David Webb to come back as Jason Bourne and the CIA with its unlimited resources manages to track them down, which them becomes a cliche of chase sequences of the CIA being just one step behind. The plot is poorly explained, nor well developed, near predi...

Okay, so this is gonna be the big one. The one that is gonna salvage the DC universe of big movies. Right? Well, it was supposed to be, but it doesn't feel like it even tried. The poorly written plot and the dull hoard of evil minions was only partly responsible for why this movie wasn't everything it could have been. It is what the trailers suggest and what the comic enthusiasts will already know, a shady US government department puts together a team of anti-heroes, a mix of sociopaths and meta-humans, in anticipation of a 'terrorist' type of Superman. The cold-hearted mastermind behind this task force of villains, Amanda Waller (played by Viola Davis) has loyal soldier Rick Flag ( Joel Kinnaman) in charge of these lunatics. The film has the same problem that some of the recent superhero movies have faced, too many characters in one film to have enough time for any story-building. All the team members, Deadshot (Will Smith), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Cap...