With Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par appealing the masses, the actor has surely made an impressive directorial debut. The sensitivity with which he has handled the subject is worth appreciating. However, one of the forwards related to the film being sent around on emails talks about what TZP would be like if the film was made by some other Bollywood filmmakers.

If Karan Johar made Taare Zameen Par …

Obvious starcast: Shah Rukh Khan as the arts teacher (duh duh duh!!), Aryan Khan as the dyslexic child (even if he could not act for nuts), Rani Mukerjee as the kid’s mom (assuming Kajol is unavailable), Abhishek Bachchan as the kid’s dad, Amitabh Bachchan as the school principal (who cares if the role is ultra minute, he can afford it).

It would be shot in New York to appeal to the NRI audience.

The story line would obviously be different. SRK would fall for the dyslexic kid’s mom. The last scene would have the mom running to the teacher rather than the kid. And again, like in so many other movies, SRK would get someone else’s girl.

It would have one dance number.

The film would be titled ‘Kuch Taare Zameen Par’

If Sanjay Leela Bhansali made Taare Zameen Par …

Obvious starcast: Salman as the teacher, Rani as the mother,

Of course the whole film would be shot on elaborate sets. The school would be nothing short of Harvard University.

An orchestra would play every time anyone cried.

Slow motion, different camera angles for every scene.

The school uniforms would match the classroom walls even though that does not make a f***ing difference.

The film would cost INR 60 crores.

If Farah Khan made Taare Zameen Par …

Obvious starcast: SRK as the teacher (yawn),

In the original TZP, Aamir makes an entry at the interval point. In Farah’s version, SRK would be on screen on for 2.30 hrs out of the 2.45 hrs and would be introduced in the first scene itself.

The story would be changed to make sure the above happened. The focus of the film would be a teacher who helps the kid fight dyslexia.

To make it a complete entertainer, there would be a romantic angle, comedy, and action thrown in. Oh idea!! Nikumbh’s character likes another teacher and the kiddo helps him… throw in some comedy moments there and you have romance and comedy settled.

For action… hmm.. lemme see.. Oh yah, the kid gets kidnapped and the teacher fights the baddies to save him. Wow!! I’m quite an imaginative writer. I can see how Farah can write a film from scratch in two weeks straight.

The film posters would have a big SRK with the tiny image of the kid in the background.

If Rakesh Roshan made Taare Zameen Par …

Obvious starcast: Hrithik Roshan as the teacher,

Since Rakesh Roshan cannot think beyond science fiction these days, this film would have that too. Instead of dyslexia, the kid would have alienositis or something, a condition induced due to him witnessing an alien abduction.

Instead of Nikumbh being an arts teacher, he would be a physics teacher, and instead of asking kids to be creative, he would ask them to challenge the science we know.

In the scene where Nikumbh asks the kids to open their minds and make whatever they want outdoors, the kid Ishaan, instead of making a boat, would end up making a working spaceship prototype.

Nikumbh would cure the kids problem by making a full fledged version of the kid’s prototype, traveling to the alien planet, and asking them to give the kid his powers back.

The film would have music by Rajesh Roshan ripped off from some world music.

The film’s name would again start with a K probably ‘Kuch Aliens Taaron Se Zameen Par’.

The director would make sure Hrithik gets to show all his abilities. This would mean a scene with Roshan Jr flexing his muscles and a dance competition in the end, instead of an arts competition.

If Priyadarshan made Taare Zameen Par …

Obvious starcast: Akshay Kumar as the teacher, Paresh Rawal as the kid’s dad.

It would be a brainless comedy. The kid’s dyslexia would be made fun of. Half the times the parents will be running after the kid from one room to the other and that, in the director’s opinion, would be funny.

The film will be full of sex jokes. So for example, when Akshay would come to the parents telling them that their son has dyslexia, the ignorant father would say something inappropriate like ‘iss umar mein? par kaise, woh to hamesha boys school mein padha hai!’. And yes, the director would think it is funny.

In the climax of the film, all the characters in the film would run around in the amphitheater for no reason, spilling colors on each other. That’s where the film will end, without any logical conclusion.

And of course, Paresh Rawal would emote like an epileptic himself, making us question the boy’s mental abilities anyway.

Via [IndiaFM aka BollywoodHungama]

Democrat Barack Obama joined the nation’s earliest voters Tuesday as people around the nation began lining up to cast ballots in a historic election pitting Republican John McCain against the man seeking to become the first black president in U.S. history.

“I voted,” Obama said, holding up the validation slip he was handed after turning in a ballot at his Chicago neighborhood’s precinct. Accompanying the Illinois senator for the trip from their home to the polling station were his wife, Michelle, and their two young daughters. He planned a final campaign event in nearby Indiana before speaking to a massive evening rally in Chicago.

In Delaware, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden went to the polls with his elderly mother.

McCain was expected to vote later in the morning in Arizona before taking a last-minute trek to Colorado and New Mexico.

McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, arrived in Anchorage overnight to wait for polls to open in her hometown of Wasilla. She was to return to the airport to fly to Phoenix to join McCain in time to watch results come in.

Although the path to an Electoral College triumph appeared narrow for McCain — polls showed Obama with an advantage in many of the battleground states they have contested in the campaign’s final weeks — the Arizona senator remained hopeful for a surprise victory.

“I think these battleground states have now closed up, almost all of them, and I believe there’s a good scenario where we can win,” McCain told CBS’ “The Early Show” in an interview broadcast Tuesday.

“Look, I know I’m still the underdog, I understand that,” McCain said. “You can’t imagine, you can’t imagine the excitement of an individual to be this close to the most important position in the world, and I’ll enjoy it, enjoy it. I’ll never forget it as long as I live.”

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said he was confident that new voters and young voters would fuel an enormous turnout to benefit the Illinois senator.

“We just want to make sure people turn out,” Plouffe told “Today” on NBC. “We think we have enough votes around the country.”

Standing in line in one of the battleground states, Ahmed Bowling of Alexandria, Va., said the election “will mark a significant change in the lives of all Americans, and so we do have to come out as early as possible to cast our votes.”

In Brooklyn, N.Y., 49-year-old Venus Kevin said the line at her precinct was “already down the block and around the corner” when she arrived shortly before 6 a.m. EST.

“Obama is the man,” said Kevin, who is black. “His message and his vision has reached a lot of people, not just African-Americans.”

The contest put the 47-year-old Obama, a first-term Illinois senator who rocketed to stardom on the power of his oratory and a call for change, against the 72-year-old McCain, a 26-year lawmaker whose mettle was tested during 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

“I’m feeling kind of fired up. I’m feeling like I’m ready to go,” Obama told nearly 100,000 people gathered for his final rally Monday night in Virginia.

“At this defining moment in history, Virginia, you can give this country the change it needs,” Obama said to voters in a state that hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential nominee in 44 years.

The Illinois senator’s final day of campaigning was bittersweet: He was mourning the loss of his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who helped raise him. She died of cancer Sunday night, never to see the results of the election.

[Source]

Rosa sat so that Martin could walk with a dream.
Martin dreamt so that Barack could run. Barack runs so that our children can fly!

[Nice Article Here]

OBAMA WINS!! *YAHOO*

CHICAGO – Chicago has a reputation as a working-class city for a reason. Sure, there are fancy Gold Coast shops and $500-a-night hotel suites, but it’s also possible to see Chicago’s famous lakefront, eat its famous food and enjoy distinctive cultures on the cheap.

FIND YOUR WAY: Chicago’s network of buses, subways and iconic elevated trains are a steal at $2 a ride. The Chicago Transit Authority offers unlimited-ride one- to five-day visitor passes that cost between $5 and $18.

For a free ride, catch one of four color-coded trolleys that shuttle tourists to and around Chicago’s most popular destinations. It’s a useful service considering the city’s museum campus can be miles (and a $20 cab ride) from your shopping trip on Michigan Avenue. There’s also a separate Lincoln Park trolley. Schedules and maps at http://www.cityofchicago.org/Transportation/trolleys/.

For an affordable but fun way to get around, the Chicago Water Taxi travels on the Chicago River between Chinatown and the Magnificent Mile at a cost of $2 a ride, http://www.chicagowatertaxi.com.

ACCOMMODATIONS: Hotel rooms in downtown Chicago can be pricey. There are other options. Hostelling International — http://www.hichicago.org — operates an all-ages building in Chicago’s Loop with 500 beds. Prices are between $28 and $34 a night.

HOT DOGS AND PIZZA: When it comes to cheap and authentic food, try a Chicago-style hot dog — pure beef on a poppyseed bun with tomatoes, relish, pickle spear, onions and celery salt.

Hot Doug’s “The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium” is a favorite on the city’s Northwest Side. Hot dogs are $1.75 and a Polish sausage $2.50. If you’re there on a Friday or a Saturday, don’t miss the duck-fat fries for $3.50. More at http://www.hotdougs.com/

Another option is Superdawg — http://www.superdawg.com — on Milwaukee Avenue, where you can get a hot dog with fries for $4.75. No worries if you can’t make it to one of these recommendations, there are hot dog stands all over Chicago.

Pizza, another Chicago food staple, also can be found on most neighborhood corners.

Other deals: Penny’s Noodle Shop — http://www.pennysnoodleshop.com/ — has cheap, good Thai food. The most expensive dish is $8.50. During lunch, Ronny’s Original Steakhouse in the Loop offers an 8-ounce steak, baked potato, garlic bread and salad for $6.99.

Neighborhoods: Chicago’s ethnic neighborhoods offer lots of food deals. If you’re in Greektown or Chinatown you can feast for a few dollars on gyros and egg rolls; Indian and Pakistani fare is plentiful on Devon Avenue, on the city’s North Side.

GREAT OUTDOORS: Start the day with a stroll down Chicago’s lakefront trail. The strip runs from the far South Side to trendy neighborhoods on the North Side, with a great view of Lake Michigan and the skyline. A tourist favorite is Oak Street Beach for its downtown vista.

The crown jewels of Chicago’s lakefront are Grant Park and Millennium Park. Grant Park has free concerts, classes, outdoor movies and festivals. Millennium Park is home to Crown Fountain.

Admission to Lincoln Park Zoo — http://www.lpzoo.org/ — is free and it’s open year-round, even offering ZooLights displays during the holiday season. Plant lovers will want to visit the free Garfield Park or Lincoln Park conservatories.

CATCH THE VIEW FOR LESS: It costs between $15 and $25 for an adult to enjoy the view of Chicago from the John Hancock building’s observation deck. But here’s the local trick: Take the elevator to the Signature Room restaurant on the 95th floor and for the cost of a drink you can take in the skyline. It’s cheaper than the Sears Tower Skydeck, which costs from $12.95 to $25 for adults, plus you get a drink, http://www.signatureroom.com/.

CULTURE: Chicago’s museums can make for a pricey day with entrance fees nearing $30 for some attractions. But most offer free-admission days — the Chicago Children’s Museum offers free Thursday nights and the Art Institute is free on Thursday and Friday nights. Check the museums’ Web sites.

Some other Chicago museums are always free, including Navy Pier’s stained glass displays and the National Museum of Mexican Art in the largely Hispanic neighborhood of Pilsen.

THEATER: Chicago’s burgeoning theater district offers everything from glitzy musicals to independent dramas. Find day-of discounts at http://www.hottix.org/

WALK THE CITY: Chicago is a diverse city teeming with different ethnic groups. Grab a map to discover African-American, Indian, Irish, Italian, Polish, Greek, Chinese, even yuppie, cultures with a self-guided walking tour.

If Chicago Blues is your interest or Millennium Park caught your eye, the city provides free audio tours of both in five languages for download to your iPod or MP3 player at http://www.downloadchicagotours.com/.

VISIT DURING THE WINTER: The city offers a Winter Delights program that features special hotel rates, shopping and dining deals and hospitality packages. The deals run from Thanksgiving through New Years.

OTHER DEALS: Be sure to visit the Chicago Office of Tourism’s special values Web site for printable coupons at http://www.chicagoofficeoftourism.org/specialValues/

The Go Chicago discount card — http://www.gochicagocard.com — can be a deal if you’re planning to hit several of the city’s tourist spots.

NEW YORK – Let the debates begin: VH1 has compiled its list of the 100 greatest hip-hop songs, and Public Enemy’s black power anthem “Fight the Power” tops the list.

The cable channel will count down its list in series of shows starting Monday. At No. 2 is the Sugar Hill Gang’s groundbreaking song, “Rapper’s Delight,” followed by Dr. Dre’s “Nuthin but a ‘G’ Thang” at No. 3. Run-D.M.C.’s “Walk This Way” with Aerosmith and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message” round out the top five.

Salt ‘N Pepa was the only female act in the top 10, with their early hit “Push It.” Two of rap’s biggest names — Jay-Z and Eminem — didn’t make the top 10, though they are in the top 20.

Other acts on the list include the Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Biz Markie, Black Sheep and J.J. Fad.

The list comes as VH1 prepares to honor the pioneers in rap once again as part of its annual Hip-Hop Honors show, which this year celebrates Slick Rick, De La Soul, Cypress Hill, Naughty by Nature and Too Short. That show airs Oct. 6.

___

VH1 is owned by Viacom.

One of last year’s biggest hit, Chak De! India, one of my all time favorite Bollywood movies, catapulted 15 relatively unknown women into the limelight. But since then, we have lost touch with most of Shah Rukh Khan’s rag-tag, superb and fun hockey team.

Over a year after the film released on India’s 60th Independence Day, we catch up with some of the girls, and see what they have been up to in pictorial form. Take a look!

Sagarika Ghatge (Preeti Sabharwal)

Shilpa Shukla (Bindya Naik)

Anaitha Nair (Aliya Bose)

Shubhi Mehta (Gunjan Lakhani)

Raynia Mascerhanas (Raynia Fernandes)

Seema Azmi (Rani Dispotta)

Arya Menon (Gul Igbal)

Dress Code:

1) You are advised to come to work dressed according to your salary.

2) If we see you wearing Prada Shoes and carrying a Gucci bag, we will assume you are doing well financially and therefore do not need a raise.

3) If you dress poorly, you need to learn to manage your money better, so that you may buy nicer clothes, and therefore you do not need a raise.

4) If you dress just right, you are right where you need to be and therefore you do not need a raise.

Sick Days:

We will no longer accept a doctor’s statement as proof of sickness. If you are able to go to the doctor. you are able to come to work.

Personal Days:

Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year. They are called Saturdays & Sundays respectively.

Bathroom Breaks:

Entirely too much time is being spent in the toilet. There is now a strict three minute time limit in the stalls. At the end of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, the stall door will open, and a picture will be taken of you. After your second offense your picture will be posted on the company bulletin board under the “Chronic Offenders” category. Anyone caught smiling in the picture will be sectioned under the company’s mental health policy.

Lunch Break:

1) Skinny people get 30 minutes for lunch as they need to eat more so that they can look healthy.

2) Normal size people get 15 minutes for lunch to get a balanced meal to maintain their average figure.

3) Chubby people get 5 minutes for lunch because that’s all the time needed to drink a Slim Fast.

Thank you all for your loyalty and continued support for our company. We are here to provide a positive employment experience. Therefore, all questions, comments, concerns, complaints, frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations, accusations, contemplations, consternation’s and further inputs should be directed elsewhere.

Sincerely,

The Management

The greatest thing about owning a next-gen console is that you know you won’t be needing to upgrade that puppy to play the latest and greatest games on it. Gone are the days of the Nintendo 64 era when one had to go out and buy the Expansion Pack to increase the console’s memory from a whopping 4mb to 8mb, just so you can access all the bells and whistles of Perfect Dark. No sirree, we gamers of the 21st century expect to be able to play all the latest games on our beautiful next-gen consoles until the day the post-next-gen consoles are released. At least that is what we want, although we see a danger for the Xbox 720 and PS4 all the same.

So when it was announced that GTA IV was going to be seeing its inevitable iteration on the PC, keyboard and mouse gamers around the globe started saving their spare change in case they required an upgrade. Well the news is in today that said PC gamers who haven’t had the chance to play GTA IV on a next-gen console will not have to necessarily break open their piggy banks to enjoy it on their gaming rigs. In fact, most PC gamers will get to experience it for cheaper that their console brothers!

The official Games for Windows site’s posted recommended specs for the PC version of GTA IV, and looking at them, you may well have a computer able to handle it.

• OS: Windows XP SP2+
• Processor: Dual Core Processor (Intel Pentium D or better)
• RAM: 2GB
• Hard Drive: 18GB of free space
• Video Card: 512MB DirectX 3D 10 compatible video card or DirectX 3D 9.0c card compatible with Shader.
• Drive: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive.

…
All things considered, the recommended settings could have been a whole lot loftier. For the PC exclusive crowd out there who haven’t had the chance of playing GTA IV yet, look forward to exploring Liberty City later this year.

[Game Trailer]

Can’t wait to get my game on!

Here we go folks, the moment many of us loyal and enthusiastic fans have been waiting for about a year now, is finally upon us. Season Five of HBO’s Emmy®award-winning hit comedy Entourage begins tonight, Sunday at 10 pm EST. The season opener, 55th episode of the series is titled “Fantasy Island” – With Medellin being slammed by critics and having been reduced to a direct-to-DVD release, Vince hides out in a Mexican paradise with Turtle. Meanwhile, producer Carl Ertz is willing to give Vince his first movie in six months. Eric, Ari and Drama head out to Mexico to convince him to take the role, and as Vince sits down with Ertz, a phone call by Ari’s old rival changes things drastically. Drama turns prima donna during a Five Towns photo shoot, and kindles his “virtual” romance with Jacqueline, his Cannes girlfriend.

Among the story lines for the fifth season will be the return of Domenick Lombardozzi, the actor who plays Dom. Ellin wrote him in intending for Dom to be a permanent fixture of the entourage. Unfortunately, he didn’t anticipate the audience’s negative reaction to the character, which ultimately led to Lombardozzi’s early exit. Ellin has a personal goal to bring Dom back, but this time with a storyline viewers can empathize with. Giving him terminal cancer is one idea that was considered. It is also rumored that rapper Saigon will return to the series in Season 5. Also Emmanuelle Chriqui will be reprising her role as Sloan for one episode this season.

I just wanna say that I love this girl – Emmanuelle Chriqui!!

Anyways, it has been confirmed by various news outlets that Rapper Bow Wow will play Eric’s newest client: Charlie, a young, up-and-coming comedian trying to get a break. Ellin says he has four more seasons of material in reserve, implying that Entourage will probably run through season eight. T.I. is also expected to make a guest appearance in the fifth season. Among the other celebrities appearing on the show are Jamie-Lynn Sigler who will be playing herself and a potential love interest for one of the boys in a 3-episode-arc. TV Guide reports that appearing as themselves will be Mark Wahlberg, Tony Bennett, Los Angeles Lakers’ stars Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza, golfer Phil Mickelson, and actor Eric Roberts. Other guests confirmed include Lukas Haas and Giovanni Ribisi (as screenwriters), Fran Drescher and Kevin Pollak (as a Beverly Hills couple). Martin Landau is also set to reprise his role as Bob Ryan. Leighton Meester will be reprising her role as Justine Chapin for one episode.

Season Five also promises Johnny Drama a hit show, a break-up and a daytime meltdown on “The View”. The scene, taped outside of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, includes The View co-hosts Sherri Shepherd, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Whoopi Goldberg.

TV.com, Wiki

I absolutely love HDR photography and I wish I had the camera and the skills to take pics like these. You might not think these are real or photoshopped/animated/cartooned up, but these are infact real photos of the beautiful city of Montreal, Canada. For those who don’t know about High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI), well simply put it is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows. In layman’s terms this produces really cool looking images as can be seen perfectly illustrated in the examples below.

Make sure to check out this site for the complete collection of all these high quality and full sized HDR images. Simply superb, no other words to define the awe of this level of masterpiece photography.

Anyways ever wondered what the components of Universal Comedy would be? Well wonder no more, here’s a handy comedy flowchart to relate all the different topics that are universally funny all across the range.

And finally I just uploaded on YouTube this hilarious music video which was a sketch song featured on the premiere episode of a New Zealander show “A Thousand Apologies” :: Too Many (FOBs).

Today the angels looking down on Scranton, Pennsylvania are crooning “Beers in Heaven”. Steve Carell has signed on to star as Dunder Mifflin’s quasi-top dog, Michael Scott, on NBC’s The Office for three more years. An understandably elated, Ricky Gervais, broke the news on his blog.

Steve Carell (now one of the most bankable film stars in the world) has just signed up for another three years with us. He is the hardest working man in Hollywood and the harder he works the better it is for me. I mean well done Steve you are wonderful. Steve had to do months of that in Evan Almighty and I heard he didn’t complain once. He is a very nice man and deserves all his success.

Gervais went on to mention 2009’s The Office spin-off starring Aziz Ansari but kept mum*. The news is a welcome surprise given Carell’s consistent box office draw in hit comedies (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine), sleeper dramas (Dan in Real Life) and passable summer fare (Get Smart). That this rare flexibility has worked out so well on both sides was no doubt a contributing factor in the deal. Why not celebrate by picking up some cupcakes on sale at the grocery store during your lunch break to cheer up your office’s fluorescent-lit hangout room? “That’s what she said!” is going nowhere.

NBC ordered a fifth season consisting of 28 half-hour segments. Season 5 will premiere on its usual Thursday night spot later this month on September 25th, with a double episode, one hour special. BTW, here’s a teaser/promo from the upcoming season to get you hyped up a bit for yet another fantastic series.

*EDIT: in August 2008 NBC decided that a special hour-long episode of The Office would be shown instead of the spin-off during that time slot. The spin-off will take audiences on “another comic journey, complete with new faces and new locations, but with the same unique sense of humor and brand of quality from Daniels and his creative team. It’s the next chapter of what viewers have come to know and love about The Office“. Rashida Jones, who plays Karen Filippelli, is rumored to be in the spin-off. Aziz Ansari, from Human Giant, is also being reported to appear in the spin-off. In July of 2008, comedienne Amy Poehler, of Saturday Night Live and Baby Mama fame, also announced her role in the upcoming spin-off. Some more info here.

TV.com