The Fiscal Year review- The Beautiful Game

The Ronaldo saga

Let's admit it. 2008 belonged to him, and only him. 42 goals in all competitions as Manchester United did a double in the 07/08 season, Ronaldo broke all expectations of what a winger could achieve in terms of goalscoring. A blitzing freekick that sailed straight into the top corner of David James' net against Portsmouth, a chameleon rise to head to the ball past Petr Cech in Champions League final against Chelsea, to a subtle but masterly side-footed poke between the legs of Aston Villa players inside the penalty box into the net, just proves his versatility that he can score from any range, any position, by his head or by his foot. He eventually won a deserved Ballon d'Or for his perfromances but as Ronaldo usually comes with, there was no short of controversy what-so-ever. If his goalscoring exploits and performances stole headlines for the first half of the year, the second half of the year was all about Real Madrid, his infamous transfer which never happened. Who can forget Sepp Blatter's "Ronaldo is a slave" whine during the saga. That's about the biggest comedy of the year. But as usual, Sir Alex Ferguson always gets things going his way. He'll let go only when he wishes, not when Ronaldo wishes. And so it will stay that way.

However, for all his show-boating and off-field antics, (and of course, in on field flying antics), more people wish that Ronaldo do not repeat last season's feat rather than hoping to see his magic again. So how will he provide magic this time? Time will answer.

Afterall, he's having a bit of an inconsistent season in 08/09.

Stevie G becomes Punchie G

He could have ended the year on an exteremely high note, but he didn't, as what he got for Christmas was an inspirational 5-1 away win at Newcastle that made pundits finally admit Liverpool might have what it takes to make a push for the Premiership title in 08/09, but just after that, Santa was in party mood to give Gerrard too much booze and also a sweet time spent in jail crunching over his 'good boy' and 'role model' reputation. But he came back to do what he does best right after that, a storming run from the halfway line set-up Fernando Torres for the simplest of finishes to ensure 'Pool progress to the fourth round of the FA Cup. Everything about him stole the headlines for the past few days of the year. An eventful ode to the year from Gerrard, but we all know he will be back doing what he does best in no time at all. Afterall, we all have beasts planted inside us. It's only about being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Becks' trip to the fashion capital with Don Galliani

David Beckham never ceases to make news. All the more this year for his decision to join the exclusive club which collects the so-called 'past their best' superstars and tries to prove that they still have it. Andriy Shevchenko, Ronaldinho Gaucho, now David Beckham. The jury's still out though, while Sheva's transfer is definitely a miserable piece of business, Ronnie doesn't look bad (have to admit though, he's not much of a magician that he used to be), so how Becks will fare is anybody's guess. But why did Milan acquire Becks when they have no lanky finisher in the team? They could have gone for a reliable striker instead if stretching their wage structure to bring in a superstar to a midfield already packed with Pirlo, Seedorf, Kaka, Ronaldinho, Gattuso, Flamini, Ambrosini, and now Becks. Milan already have many men in abundance to provide service into the box, but hardly any to poke it into the back of the net, and they are yet to address that problem. Probably they will continue to rely on the immature but explosive-in-spurts Pato and the aging Inzaghi. We all know Sheva will just miss them all. I'm not sure whether Becks will return from Milan with a Serie A medal or even more England call-ups, but what I'm sure of is that Victoria will come back from there with half-a-dozen new dresses to sensously address her recent 'chest-boost'. Wuuu.

Barcelona's 'cleanup-the-mess and rebuild'

Hey, it worked. Yeah, it certainly did. Probably the only team in the year to succeed in the revamp lines, Barcelona's vindications of dispersing themselves with the services of Deco, Ronaldinho and multiple title-winning manager Frank Riijkard have all been proven justified so far. Deco and Ronaldinho started their respective careers at currently stuttering Milan and Chelsea as Barca struggled when the season begun. And then all changed. Barca improved and started getting in among the goals, and Deco faded away after an injury, he was never the same again, and Ronnie was inconsistent at Milan. And their new coach Pep Guardiola has proven to be a gamble more than worth taking. And his dressing sense is something to savour as well. Exotic football on the pitch, and stud in the bench pulling the strings. Laporta can smile now, and just like how I felt he shouldn't be vetoed out from presidency earlier in the year, I feel its for the best that there weren't enough votes to dump him out. Stay on, Joan!

The Spurs revolution with Celine Dion's Titanic feel

"Far across the distance...." thats how Celine Dion has sung unintentionally for Tottenham Hotspurs. They climbed the ladder for two years and went to fifth, and when they failed to improve on that, Martin Jol was bid a goodbye and Juande Ramos was brought in. By using the players Jol had moulded, Ramos steadied the ship. Spurs knew it then that Champions League football won't happne this season, but instead the following season. The following season came and it was de ja vu for Spurs, as Ramos' signings failed to work, and he was sacked, and once again the dream remained a dream. Now there is Harry Redknapp. Another slew of signings and CL dreams for next season maybe? Keep dreaming, Spurs, it may come true one day.

City went to Middle East to dig oil

Manchester City, that is. Robinho is the story. The 32 million pounds in the story. All of them, we know them. From nobodys to the richest club in the world, they just escalated. But not up the table. It was the same last season with Sven's boys going on a free-fall after a promising start, at least they were not in the relegation zone like Hughes' boys now. Hughes however has been honest in his assesment of the situation, so he'll get a Little more time. Just about that. A little time and a 100 million pounds. Is that the solution? Well, here we go....

My best moments for the year...

1. Tears from Moscow

The sight of John Terry and CR7 during the Champions League final in Moscow while the penalty shootout was priceless. The swing of emotion was just overwhelming, from watching Ronaldo fall down and cry in joy when Van Der Sar saved from Anelka, Terry sobbing heartbreakingly, Avram Grant walking down with a runner's up medal and a sour face as if life has beaten the hell out of him, and Ballack receiving one of his, eh, FOUR runners up medal for the year. He does have a big heart.

2. Bentley wagon parks in Arsenal's net

It was a 4-4 draw, an exciting one at that. But the highlight definitely was David Bentley and his one hell of a goal. "I feel like Superman, I could fly home now" he said after the match. He really did make the ball fly. One touch, and the shooting gauge went off. All there was left to watch was amazed and stunned faces. Oh My God! and What the Hell! must have been the only reactions at Ashburton Grove. And thats how Harry Redknapp announced his arrival at Spurs.

3. King Messiah makes poor old Cannavaro bang himself to the post and blabber.

Watching Fabio Cannavaro say that Lionel Messi goes down too easily after Real's 0-2 defeat by Barca in El Clasico at Camp Nou was nothing short of wonderful comedy. Messi was not demanding any fouls like CR7 for one, and most people realized Cannavaro was just dizzy after chasing from the halfway line only to find himself helping Messi's chip into the back of the net and well, banging his shoulder onto the post. Ouch! That hurts.

4. Robinho makes Terry and Cech shout at each other and say 'Why the fuck didn't we sign him'?

Robinho ironically made his Man City debut against the very club who were his original suitors, Chelsea. And he scored from a freekick. The view was beautiful to say the least when Terry and Cech (so often the role goalkeeper-defender combinations) throw rages at each other in fury as Robinho wheels away for putting Peter Kenyon and Roman Abramovich into embarassment for not thinking he is worth 32 million pounds. Take that, Roman and Peter, he must have said.

5. Henry's hat-trick against Valencia.

Quite simply proved that Titi Henry is pegging back to his best. Doubters silenced. And the Pep revolution continues. Breath-taking.

6. The name is Del Piero.

Del Piero became the first person since Ronaldinho to be applauded by Real Madrid fans despite belonging to the opposition team. He took one look in front, and planted a rocket into Iker Casillas' top corner. Simply riveting.

These are what I carry from 2008. Hoping for a better 2009 then. Let the excitement continue.

Joga Bonito.

I'll go to bed as usual

BEDTIME STORIES REVIEW



If I were allowed to have it my way, I would have watched Will Smith's 'Seven Pounds' or David Fincher's 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button', but I ended up watching this film for some laughs and gags as per my relatives' wish. Laughs? Yes. Gags? Yes. But everything else just lingers in plain normalcy in Adam Sandler's first (If I'm not mistaken) association with Walt Disney productions through 'Bedtime Stories'.

Synopsis:

Sandler's father used to run a motel in Los Angeles, and while starring at an apparent bankruptcy, he sells the hotel to a manipulative businessman who develops it as a state-of-the-art five-start hotel. He promised Sandler's father to give Sandler a chance to 'run the hotel' once he grows up. Instead, he employs Sandler as the maintenance man. The story is basically about Sandler finding that by telling bedtime stories which reflect his real life situation to his nephews, the stories manifest into reality the following day. So its all about how he uses these advantages to prove his worth to the world. Duh.

What was supposed to promise loads of adventure and a good-natured comedy is turned completely into a very typical Adam Sandler fare, only that it excludes a few more dirty jokes like what appeared in the recent disgusting 'Zohan'. When Disney are associated, I hoped they would make something along the lines of 'The Polar Express', and also with decent use of CGI to create cute fictional characters. When i saw the extremely cute big-eyed guinea pig, I set my hopes high of what was to come. End of the day, the guinea pig is all I would take home with me. So, its thumbs down story-wise.

But the film saves its own facet by providing plenty of laughs, the normal Sandler gigs are coupled with more decency so its a good time spent in the theatres. But nothing special for me to take it home and keep thinking about it. Few days down the road, I almost forgot that I have already watched the movie. Oh, I have. And its just that. That less than two hours in theatres is all that it lasts with. No ongoing impact. No strong reccomendation.

Adam Sandler is at his typical best, doing what he does best, provides a performance that carries the film on its shoulders. Courtney Cox looks old and aged as his sister, and looking at her brings back memories of watching 'Friends'. She's 45, but 45 is not too old an age for her to appear so disfigured from her normal self as she used to be in 'Friends'. And her character is not sketched well enough either. The scenes during the character's childhood indicate that it will become an ineteresting character, which in the end only came across as a pedestrian character. Teresa Palmer looks stunningly hot as the negative bitchy character of Violet, so much so that she still remains more desirable compared to the film's main female lead Keri Russell. The plot just isn't strong enough for us to feel sympathy towards Keri because the school is closing. Another weak character. Richard Griffiths make it an interesting watch, Rob Schneider in his regular Sandler cameo provides good laughs. To round it off, there is Russell Brand, is his sidekick role providing decent laughs, even if his 'sleeping disorder' gig is not that funny and looks dumb.

All in all, just something to pass your two hours with (if you are indeed that boring and in desperate need of some laughs.).

And watch out for that guinea pig.

My rating:

5.5/10

Verdict:

Watch it if your two hours is empty. Passable.

Raaja's eyes

Bharathirajaa is the name. An acclaimed director in Tamil cinema whose forte is village subjects with heavy dose of realism, he is well-known for his signature monologue at the beginning of each of his film. But, after watching his latest 'Bomalattam' recently, I can't help but to think- this guy has some eyes. I mean when it comes to pretty girls.


I have always thought that my favorite director Mani Ratnam is the master when it comes to mentoring talent in various fields. True. He still is. But Bharathirajaa has a decent eye in spotting not pretty, but really hot (with a capital H) bidding actresses and casting them in his movies. He could live forever with the pride of having introduced to the industry an actress named Sri Devi. She lasted in the industry for two whole decades, and paired with almost every legendary actor which happened to be active her era. Nobody who watches Tamil cinema, or even Indian cinema to boot with, would be blind as to who Sri Devi actually was. She was quite simply that- an icon. And that thanks to this man, Bharathirajaa.




Here she is, looking all elegant well into her 40s:


And for the past decade, Bharathirajaa has only directed four films (age has finally playing catch up). But his eyes for a gorgeous lady, for one, never died. Not all of them may have been a success but nevetheless all the actresses he introduced would very well in the list of the most searched for actress in the industry at respective times.





In 1998, he wanted to launch his son Manoj as a hero. So he made 'Taj Mahal', and paired him with Riya Sen, a northern cutie. This is how she looked in the movie:






She was a pathetic excuse for an actress really, with robotic expressions, she helped alot in making this film the flop that it turned out to be.


But, few years down the road, this is how she looks:
















Yes, she is still surviving the industry, solely as a model due to her ultra-hot looks and a cameo appearance every now and then, here and there, and she is one of the most typed names when an Indian guy searches sites to look for 'Hot Indian Actresses' pictures or wallpapers. When you want hot and sexy, she is all over the place.






Forget about what came after that, he made another movie which virtually went unnoticed, but it was a darn good one and well-directed. Lets skip and go to Kangalal Kaidhu Sei (Arrest me with your eyes). Once again, he was in the mood of introducing new faces and he did with Vaseegaran (the hero) and Priya Mani (the heroine). Forget about the hero, he was a good-looking guy with no brains for acting whatsoever, so the film flopped. Coming to the actress, she looked like this during the movie:























Somewhat tanned but busty and cute, she is now a National Award (yeah!) winning actress who is among the most sought after and highly paid actress in the industry. Now she looks like this:










She is most Tamil chaps' 'dreamgirl' right now, and I have to admit I'm one of those chaps as well. Like many others, I thought I'd just say thanks to Bharathirajaa for the years in cinema and the beautiful women he introduced but he wanted more. Came 'Bomalattam' (puppet play), his latest film, which was a thriller par excellence. In this film, there were two new face ladies. One was Kajal Aggarwal. Here she is, for your eyes' pleasure:

























She debuted in this film but due to the delay in release, she acted in several other films already and her stock is already on the rise. She's undisputably Hot and Sexy so it was little wonder she has found fans and followers (and droolers of course!) so quickly. And then there was Rukmini Vijayakumar. Her debut wasn't publicized at all for the film, but when it came, it surprised all. It was a wonderful debut by her to say the least, and then i was becoming a maniac, seaching to find out who she really was.







A dancer with complete elegance and definitely a beauty, she may not be Hot at an instant like Riya Sen and Kajal, but like Sri Devi and Priyamani, she, given the right opportunities, will be the next big 'thing' in Indian cinema.




So, let me mention a bit about the film. Its class. Anybody who wrote Bharathirajaa off, will be silenced. The guy is nearly 70 years old, but he still has an eye for beauty in women, but above all, when he says in a monologue of his film that the climax of the film will be 'unpredictable' by all means, it rings absolutely true when you watch the film.

And at that age, he still delivers a quality watch in 'Bomalattam'. As they said, wine doesn't age. And Bharathirajaa is that. He is a born genius with a overwhelming passion for film-making, there is no such thing as losing form or losing talent, it never wears. Mistakes are inevitable, but genuine genuises return always with a bang. And Bharathirajaa is just that.

Hats off.

Welcome 2009, Ta-ta-ta 2008

It would almost be absolutely ironical that I would start blogging at the dawn of 2009; it was nothing which was planned to be that way. It is going to be a determining year for me and my fellow colleagues as well, as this is very well our last year in Lim Kok Wing University, probably for some the 'last year' has already passed, as they are jetting off to the Gold Coasts of Australia to complete their studies. So, what 2009 has in store?

First of all, 20 days into this new year, I shall raise hand to Barack Obama, who will take office officially on January 20 this year. He will be faced with probably the most daunting tasks a newly-elected president has ever faced in the history of US. Firstly, we have to witness how he tries to restore global economic order in the wake of the recent economic meltdown that is causing continous recession everywhere. However, his more immediate challenge lies in how he will react to the Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza strips in Palestine. He will have to intervene to promote truce between the two, and how he does it wil be interesting to see. Furthermore, there will be the whole process of calling back all American soldiers from Iraqi territories.

Then, we Malaysian, we better embrace ourselves, as Datuk Najib Tun Razak takes office in March as our new Prime Minister. Who will be our new deputy is a million-dollar question, as there will be a tight race leading up to that. Many think Najib would hold forth a steadier ship than Badawi has done in the tumultous past five years in Malaysia, but what are Najib's exact proficiencies and idealisms is subject to greater controversies. I will put aside the Altantuya murder allegations, my main question lies in how well exactly has Najib handled the economic downturn in Malaysia, given the fact that he exchanged his Defence Ministry profiles with our current PM exclusively for the purpose of handling this economic situation. I have read it time and again in the newspapers of Najib and financial experts trying to sound convincing when they say the global recession will not affect Malaysia as badly as other countries. He even refused to take the Malaysian ringgit off the share market as per Mahathir's suggestions. The result? The Malaysian ringgit now translates to a rate of 2.42 ringgit to every Singaporean dollar, and for those who remember, the standard pricing used to be at a rate of 2.2. When I had set my hopes high of earning good money when I was given the opportunity to intern at Microsoft Singapore, my friends (on the perception of what they read in the news), said that Singapore is suffering badly from recession that their dollar value certainly wouldn't be much to the ringgit as it used to be. That can't be further away from the truth. At 2.42, the Malaysian ringgit looks at its weakest in years and it wouln't be a surprise to see Mahathir beginning the slamdunk games on Najib as well as he did with Badawi. So, we have a controversial figure taking helm of our government and how he handles the international policies and any kind of racial issues remains to be seen. With Anwar experiencing trouble-roubles in balancing his Pakatan Rakyat frictions, and also expressing a vote of no-confidence in the state PKR leaders, probably for all the political enthusiasts in Malaysia, the proposed 'change' in government may not happen in 2009. In all probablity, we might have to wait till the next general elections to hope for one.

One of the world's finest morons. The whole Indian forces are trying all they can to prevent him from committing suicide. See how valuable a moron's life has become, eh?

I can't help but to hope for a peaceful 2009 at the very least. If plain stupidity and inhumanity took charge when ten terrorists went on a shooting spree in Mumbai in November, plain idiocy and over-excitement coupled with negligence caused a New Year's blaze at a Bangkok nightclub, killing at least 60 people. What a way to greet the New Year, eh? After fearing so much on the December 31 that there might be bombings in the country, few expected that total negligence would lead to the death of 60 people who are having fun. Coming back to the Mumbai acts, I have a poser that has disturbed my mind for so long. I am not a religious person, but you can't help but to think that 'what the hell are those ten morons thinking when they went on a shooting spree?'. They want attention. Fair enough. They want India to take their hands off Kashmir. Fair enough. But do they seriously think that killing that much of unrelated, random people would actually help them prosper in their country. Well, lets say Indian withdraws its hold on Kashmir today, those morons will live happy, after comitting such murders? Will that country ever move forward, nevertheless prosper? But for Indian politicians, I really hope they drop their egos for a while, and just leave Kashmir alone already. Do not risk your beloved people for the sake getting few kilometres extra in terms of terriotries. I bet not too many people are crying that Kashmir become a part of India now, aren't they?

That brings us to Israel. The situation is similar here. Gaza is Israel and Palestine's Kashmir. But when Hamas tested Israel's patience even ever-so-slightly by firing missiles at the south of Israel, the Israelis reacted like a wounded lion and went on a total rage over Gaza. By constantly testing India's patience, Pakistan may very well be inviting trouble and rage upon them. Soon enough, I won't be surprised to find US and India launching tirades at Pakistan. Not that Israel's act is in any way justified. Even their political figures are not speaking of 'justice' when they talk about these attacks. These attacks are that more of animalistic instincts, blind attacks all over because they want to prove themsleves as then king of the lands. I thought humans have brains, don't they? They don't only act on their four senses of fear and insecurity like animals right? They do have a fifth sense, don't they? It's amazing that they can't seem to use them. Kudos to them.

How do you justify inflicting this man to such death? Well, the animals in Israel can.

Hopefully 2009 will put human race back in a track of progress rather than regress. Its like someone turned the clock in reverse order and for some time, we have been doing some plain stupid acts, such as breaking into a Christmas party as Santa Claus and killing eight people just because one of them is your ex-wife who divorced you. I think nowadays even cetified mentally-ill people are far more secure to live with rather than people showing themselves off as 'normal'. We created this whole mess, so I hope at least few of us sense that and stop losing our minds for no reason. Let's stop insanity from taking over us again. If i shall let it take over me, I shall throw this laptop onto the floor at the very moment of writing, and walk away. Reason? No reasons, its just that I felt like doing it at the moment, thats all. Spur-of-the-moment thingy. But will I? No, because I have sense and brains. Yesterday I was at a shopping mall starring down from 23 floors, I felt like jumping. I might have done that as well, but I didn't, because I have my senses right. Its not like I'm frustrated with life that I want to jump from that height, i just feel it at the moment. How insane are we? Very. Yet we pretend to be very normal. To my friends, stop doing that in 2009. Stop being regular and stand out from the crowd. You will be less insane at the very least.

Before I end this entry, I shall enter a reccomendation of what movie all of you should watch for 2009. At the very soonest, catch 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' at your nearest theatres. For the cinema un-enthusiasts, it has Brad Pitt in it. And don't go watch the movie because you think he's cute. Watch it because it celebrates life in an unique way. It could be a life-changing experience for some. (For Malaysian movie-goers, its about time you begin appreciating really good cinema, good job with Dark Knight last year by the way, you were good audiences, stand up and appreciate yourselves, but I hope you liked Dark Knight because if its story and underlying themes, not because of the cool bike and cool car with the collapsing of a three-metre long truck.)

On a happy note- Why so serious?

Ram Anand