Movie Recommendation: Andhadhun

Vidit Bhargava

Sriram Raghavan’s thrillers are always a great watch. They move steadily, but surprise you when you least expect them to. Take Johnny Gaddar for example, a movie that simply works on the number of thrills that each of its dangling chain of events provides, all of them conveniently paced for maximum surprise. Andhadhun is a similarly executed neo-noir thriller, but with the unpredictability meter turned way up!

Revolving around the events in the life of a Blind Pianist, Andhadhun trods from one sub plot to another, Murder, Deceit, Extortion all conveniently added to the mix, as the story progresses. It delivers jolting twists swiftly and frequently, keeping you hooked throughout the end of the movie, always in anticipation of the next turn in the plot. It’s a story that predominantly invests in the “What Next”, the “Why” behind the actions is usually primal.

But when it’s not busy surprising you, it is Andhadhun’s dark humour that keeps you entertained. In one particular scene we see a body being hastily stuffed into a suitcase, chilly right? Except it’s shot in a Charlie Chaplin-esque silent sequence, with only the background music of the piano accompanying the shot, the effect will leave you chuckling!

Ayushman Khuranna, Tabu, Manav Vij, Radhika Apte and Anil Dhawan are the chief actors here, with Ashwini Kalsekar and Zakir Hussain in worthy cameos. Ayushman Khuranna & Tabu deftly play their neatly written characters. Manav Vij, who is fast becoming a character actor for the muscled cop, (Udta Punjab, Brij Mohan Amar Rahe and now Andhadhun) is expressive as always. Vij is given minimal dialogues, it’s his expressions that do the heavy lifting for him. Radhika Apte has little to do here, but nevertheless plays her part neatly. The actors are one of the major reasons that Andhadhun works, it’s their timing and expressions that make the movie as lively as it is.

Amit Trivedi’s music and Daniel B George’s Background score is refreshing. It’s a pleasant departure from the rap-remixed 90s music that we see all too often these days. Moreover the music complements the narrative, which makes the movie all the more interesting. I particularly liked the piano piece that the Ayushmann Khuranna’s character was working in the start of the movie. The flow of that piece is reflective of Andhadhun’s twisted narrative.

Like Johnny Gaddar, Andhadhun is also heavy on its homage to various artistic works. (All in a good sense and well credited, not in the plagiarative manner in which mainstream Hindi Movies usually do). There’s a bit of Beethovan’s Symphony mixed with Daniel B George’s background score. One of the key scenes in the movie is inspired by Oliver Ternier’s French short film L’Accordeur, aka The Piano Tuner (Do not watch that terrific short film before you watch Andhadhun, or it’ll spoil the latter for you!), There’s also a small La La Land reference towards the end of the movie.

But Andhadhun isn’t perfect. The screenplay meanders way too much at one point in the second half. For most part, Andhadhun’s sub-plots are enjoyable and relevant to the larger story at play. But at one point the movie does take a longish detour, making it go pretty far off its course, only to be jolted back by some more twists. It’s a 5-10 minute slump in an otherwise rollicking narrative, but it’s all the more noticeable because the rest of the movie is so good.

Andhadhun is a thoroughly enjoyable neo-noir thriller, that keeps you on the edge of your seats till the end credits roll. Its also one of the rare movies where nothing happens the way you guess it does. It’s one of the best movies written this year, and one that’ll still have a re-watch value years later.

Rating: **** (Don't Miss this one)

Robotic Food Delivery: My Experience with Kiwi Bot

Kiwi is a Berkeley based “food delivery” startup that offers delivery op- tions from the popular nearby restaurants, and then delivers them to user through an automated vehicle, which can be unlocked by the user to collect the food items. In just about a year, Kiwi seems to have made a decent amount of tie-ups with the local restaurants, and seems to gathering steam in the Berkeley area quickly.

There’s no doubt though, that the real crowd puller for kiwi is the Bot that’s currently trotting the sidewalks of Berkeley. A bright blue flag hangs on the petit bot to make the vehicle noticeable to the people walking on the street. The bot moves cautiously, looking twice before crossing a street. It’s a pleasant looking design which seems as though it was internally designed, as opposed to getting an off-the shelf vehicle.

For some reason, Bay Area’s budding entrepreneurs in the food sector seem to be obsessed with removing human interaction between the restaurant and its customer. Last year it was food being put in lockers for customers to collect, by Eatsa , this year it’s Kiwibot which aims to replace delivery boys with delivery bots. Dominos has had something similar in the US for a few months now, but this is the first time that I witnessed it, and it definite- ly caught my attention. So I decided to give the app and the experience a try.

The onboarding process for Kiwi; Do we really need these screens at this point in the user flow? I think some of the permis- sions could be asked for at a later time.

Straight up, the onboarding experience isn’t very appealing. It’s just a bunch of screenshots that inform the users about the permissions they must give in order to use the app effectively. Personally I found that the app didn’t really need those permissions on first launch, you can ask me to give a permission for notifications when I place the order, my location information can be asked for when I’m looking for restaurants. The images on display weren’t optimised for iPhone X either, I could see text being cut off by the margins, but that seems like a problem which can be fixed with a minor update. The bigger problem is the fact that, the first launch screen exists in the first place, I’d personally do away with it, or talk about the product on that screen instead of prematurely asking permissions.

The layout for selecting the restaurant is pretty simple. There’s just a list of avail- able restaurants and pressing one of them leads you to another simple list of menu items, you can customise them if that’s possible for the particular item (for example you’ll need to customise a burrito from Chipotle). The flow works fine if you’re not customising your order. If you are customising the order it gets con- fusing very quickly, moving back from the customisation screen actually cancels your order, and you need to start again, however if on the customisation screen, you tap the add button, it actually takes you back to the order screen but this time with the order quantity selection element on the screen, after which you can confirm and setup the payment and address information. It’s also surprising that the app doesn’t use a lot of system elements. For example there’s no auto fill for credit card information, so you need to input the card details manually.

Once the order is placed the app should show you a map with the position of the bot (which didn’t work for me during this particular order but I suppose it was a one off bug); The screen also features an unlock button which gets activated once the bot reaches the location.

While the ordering experience wasn’t great, I managed to place the order without much of a hitch. The receiving part was also pretty much seamless. I just had to press the unlock button in the app and the bot opened to show the food item neatly placed in the buggy that also serves as a hot-box. It seems as though Kiwi has spent quite a bit of time perfecting the delivery vehicle.

And the app’s improving quickly. In the month since I’ve used Kiwi there seem to be minor improvements already. It’s good to know that the creators are tak- ing feedback seriously.

But is it really better than having your food delivered by a human being? I don’t think so. Once the novelty of a cute robot delivering your food dies off, the only scenario where this may be feasible is is when its hard to find people to de- liver food items, or there’s an economic benefit for the restaurant to have your food delivered by a bot. While it was fun to see my order delivered by a robot, I wonder if it’s something that popularises any time soon.

The user flow for ordering a customised meal with Kiwi. While it’s better to have a bare-bones approach to the process than to offer fancy animations for no reason, sometimes even the simplest of interactions can become confusing.

In this case it was the app going ‘back’ to the previous screen after pressing “add” that lead me to believe that if I were to do the same, it’ll still retain my order information. It didn’t and I had to start over.

Thoughts on Bhavesh Joshi

Making a movie like Bhavesh Joshi in India is extremely tricky. The movie is almost certainly doomed to fail, if it’s anything but awesome. The few people who’re interested in “Super Hero Movies”, have probably seen the extremely well made Marvel and (some) DC Movies, so they go in with a huge experience of watching these movies and are likely to be disappointed by a familiar storyline or character arc. They want new ideas and innovative execution. Those who couldn’t care less about Super Heros aren’t likely to be excited about a movie which is just that. They probably need a star to pull them to the theatres. Bhavesh Joshi had a tough task at its hands, it had to be both extremely entertaining and offer an innovative storyline for a genre which has had a humongous influx of movies in the last decade.

The predictable happened. I went to watch the first show of the movie on the day it released, only to head back home because the show had been cancelled. The next show I went to, literally had 4 people in the theatre. And in the week that followed, I’ve heard stories on twitter which mention about even more shows being cancelled. The movie did fail, and pretty badly. But was it any good at all?

The movie starts of briskly with Two Mumbai urbaners and their reporter friend who go around the city painted in the “Anti-Corruption” movement of 2011. The two eventually end up starting a YouTube channel where they dress up as masked vigilantes to take on the petty crimes in the city. It’s fun to watch that. It’s a section of the movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously and provides a bunch of laughs, it also sets up the movie for a much bigger conflict, which would require better skills from the two. While it goes on at its own leisurely pace, Priyanshu Painyuli is able to do much of the heavy lifting and is pleasing to watch.

It’s the second half the riddled with mediocre acting and a messy execution. It’s also when the all too familiar heroes journey kicks in. Written by three people, the movie is gets confused between showing the origins of a home grown superhero, a realistic setup and environment and following the super-hero’s journey. It’s best seen in a scene where Bhavesh Joshi confronts one of the baddies but is barely able to land a kick, fairly realistic for a software engineer turned vigilante. You can’t just start kicking around people by wearing a mask. It’s also the typical superhero confrontation, which is innovatively shot, but when it all comes together on the screen, it’s laughably bad! I’m not sure if I supposed to laugh at it, but the entire setup from Joshi entering the house to him barely making it out of there, was a bit off to start with, and turned into slapstick comedy by the end.

And given how much of the second half follows the hero’s journey, It’s predictable and boring. Some of the sequences just feel like a drag. You know how the sequence is going to end but the directors decide to spend time on it anyway. There’s an extended bike sequence which again is unintentionally hilarious in parts, boring in others. It’s also surprising how little the movie spends time on the villain, we know very little about him and there’s literally no exploration of the reasons as to why he does what he does.

If you’re not asleep by the end of the movie, it’s because of a great performance by Priyanshu Painyuli and Ashish Verma, Painyuli lifts the first half with his timing and Verma saves the day in the later half of the movie, and Vikramaditya Motwane does show some exceptional direction skills in some of the shots. I just wish he got a better script to work with. As for Harshvardhan Kapoor, while its only his second film, the actor really needs to work on his acting a lot, he can certainly look the part of a Mumbai resident in a Computer firm, but needs a lot of work on delivering his dialogues.

The movie isn’t a complete disaster to watch either. There are a lot of interesting ideas floating around here. For example, I really liked the origins of Bhavesh Joshi. It’s approachable, and breaks the norm of having some sort of a divine super power, to be a vigilante. It’s also interesting how the problem that the movie focuses is on, doesn’t involve an apocalyptic scenario or a super-villain. It’s just a corrupt and powerful individual who needs to be tackled and even then he’s someone who merely pulls the strings, and leaves the dirty work to his subordinates. There’s also an interesting track about how media headlines and news shape people’s perception. These are all innovative threads hanging from a story that never quite manages to tie them into a cohesive and engaging movie.

All said though, I’d love to see a sequel to Bhavesh Joshi. Why? Even though this movie was mediocre at best, the entire movie serves as the origin of a much more interesting superhero character, even if the creation process is messy, a second movie would do wonders to further such a character. It is also one of those movies which “need” a sequel. If the movie was supposed to be a one of story, the writers blew it. Without a sequel, it’s just a hero’s journey that takes way too long to kick in. They could have spent so much more time showing the superhero in action as opposed to spending the time on showing how he goes on from being a total dud to being a half decent vigilante. I’d even be happy with a Netflix / Prime spin-off which gives us a mini season for it. But alas, sequels generally only exist for economic successes.

Rating: ** ½ (Watch at Home, if you must)

Breathe: Deus Ex Machina Overload

Vidit Bhargava

Breathe, the second Amazon Prime Original out of the 18 that were commissioned back in 2016, was a mixed bag.

It's a show that's full of “deus ex machina” moments conveniently placed to move the story forward. Every time the writers complicate things for themselves the lead characters have these flashes of genius that puts them back on track, and these aren't minor subplots, they're critical points in the story, like Amit Sadh’s character getting on to Madhavan trail. Sadh’s subordinate gets the idea of donating organs and wouldn’t stop badgering Sadh about it, which is when Sadh realises that two random accidents are actually murders targeted towards organ donors. It’s like the (metaphorical) hand of god strikes Sadh and Madhavan at just the right time and is taken away at the right time too, so that both can commit stupid mistakes as well.

Despite being poorly written, Breathe is saved by its cast. Of them, Amit Sadh and Hrishikesh Joshi (plays Sadh’s subordinate) are impressive. Madhavan does a fair job of being the amateur serial killer, but overdoes his part of being the doting father of a seven year old. But nevertheless, it’s a fair ensemble of actors who spew life into underdeveloped characters, and make the show watchable.

Breathe focuses on style over substance with all the back and forth in timelines and slightly pretentious art-references. But what makes Breathe watchable for the duration of it’s 8 episodes is it’s ensemble cast and the fact that there’s seldom a dull moment in this bizarre story.

Rating : ** ½

— P.S. Online streaming isn’t Indian Television where the bar of quality content is so low that you get away with lazy writing. I think Vikramaditya Motwane (the co-director of Netflix’s upcoming show Sacred Games) summed it up pretty well a few months ago, “It’s a space where you’re competing for attention with the likes of House of Cards and Stranger Things and so the quality of content has to be that good”, what Prime is is providing right now is barely watchable content which users would watch just out of the shear excitement of something new, and not because it’s genuinely good quality entertainment.

Moreover with the snail like speed with which these shows are developing, you can barely hope for this being a renaissance for Indian Periodicals, it’s at best a fun exercise for diversifiying the catalog of streaming services.

Movie Recommendation: Mukkabaaz

Anurag Kashyap’s movies have a lot to say in general, and there’s a peculiar way in which he puts them together in a gruesome and dark experience. Mukkabaaz is no different. It’s a story on oppression and caste privilege, diguised as a sports films, disguised as a mainstream romantic drama.

Mukkabaaz’s Multi-layered story, it’s earnest cast and a stellar background score from Rachita Arora are the movie’s biggest assets. It’s when these three come together, that you get the movie’s finest moments. Vineet Kumar Singh’s preparation really pays off here. The fact that he spent months, training as a professional boxer shows in the sport scenes. His speed, agility and physique lend credibility to the character. However it’s Zoya Hussain’s acting that really leaves a mark. The subtlety with which she’s portraiyed the character of a mute woman is commendable. Never once would you notice that her disability is an impediment to her communication, something that’s truly remarkable. Her character also benefits from some good writing. It rises above focusing on the character’s disability.

Amongst the rest of cast, Ravi Kishan does a fine job as Kumar’s coach. He’s calm and delivers a measured performance. However, Jimmy Shergill’s delivers a strictly one dimiensional performance as the movie’s “Villain”, and that’s primarily because his character lacks depth. It’s a character that’s just touched upon instead of being explored. In Shergill’s character, Kashyap fills all the wrong doing you that’s shown in the movie. He is casteist, he’s corrupt, he hinders the growth of younger boxers, he’s got no shame in harming those whom he considers beneath him. But why? Why does he do that? What’s with his red-eye look? These are questions that the movie never bothers to go into. The result is a character whom you’d hate, but also one that’s perplexing.

The movie also benefits from a fine soundtrack. Most of the songs are well placed, and are well written, to match the story’s narrative. But too many songs, hamper the screenplay. It’s especially in the romantic sub plot that the movie falls prey to the cliche of filling it with songs. At one point, we get a “pre-wedding song” (It’s almost insanely uncharacteristic of an Anurag Kashyap movie), I wondered as to whether it was just an invitation to a non-existent mass crowd? Seriously, I’m not sure who that particular song was for. The audience seemed eager to get over with it rather than indulge in the nitty-gritties of a pre-wedding event. It’s this song and a couple of other clichés that are some of the weaker points of the movie.

Minor blemishes aside, Mukkabaaz is still a powerful story. It’s great in areas that matter the most. Kashyap juggles through the three major themes carefully. Seldom does the plot goes astray. Moreover, I’m happy that we’ve finally got a Hindi movie that manages a complex script without the entire screenplay falling to pieces.

Unlike most of the other sports films, Mukkabaaz is not a rags to riches story, it’s not even a story of hope! It’s a cold portrayal of the pettiness that plagues Indian sports, it’s one where caste and politics are as deeply intertwined with sports, as skill itself. Anurag Kashyap has a lot to say here, and all of it is worth paying attention too.

Rating: *** ½ (Worth watching)

— P.S. Oh! and don’t miss the Nawazuddin special appearance in the movie. He seems to be having a lot of fun in the couple of minutes of visibility he gets. And it’ll also remind you of one of his other special appearances, from an older Anurag Kashyap movie.

Thoughts on The Last Jedi

Vidit Bhargava
The Last Jedi is a great movie, there’s little doubt about that. It’s a spectacle of some really fine acting and brings a lot to the table in terms of how the franchise could go forward, it’s a delight to see that the trilogy won’t just end up being a reboot to the original star wars trilogy. But The Last Jedi, for all that’s good about it, has its fair share of flaws.

The screenplay is a complex mess of multiple twists and turns and subplots that don’t always amount to much but feel more like a digression from the plot, instead of supporting it. While some of the twists are valid and did surprise me, when they occur too frequently it begins to feel as though the writers were unsure where to go with the script, or what to do with their characters. There are just too many course corrections which make parts of the movie almost look unnecessary and dragged. Then there’s this detour to a planet of casinos and filthy rich arms dealers, While it is an extremely well written and rich reflection of the prevailing greed for money, it ultimately only amounts to being a hat-tip to an Empire Strikes Back subplot. At 2h 30m the movie feels a tad too long and could’ve done with fewer twists, in my opinion.

But even though it’s got a screenplay problem, The Last Jedi is also a movie where they’ve put a lot of thought into the mindset of the characters, the message they want to convey through the story, and the theological references to the force and the Jedi. These are what give The Last Jedi its finest moments. Rian Johnson does a fantastic job at capturing the conflict that Rey and Kylo feel. They both have their moments of conflict, confrontation and clarity, all of them are extremely well executed. I also felt that Luke’s role in the movie was very well written, he’s neither Obi Wan or Yoda. He too is vulnerable, even somewhat naive (when compared to Yoda) and yet when the time comes, he’s the formidable Jedi. It’s good to see Luke get enough screen time and depth to justify his place in the modern Star Wars universe. Apart from the characters, The Last Jedi is also visually stunning. and for its many twists and turns, some of them do induce clap worthy moments.

I really enjoyed the Last Jedi, I even found it empowering to an extent, and I’m glad that the movie isn’t a remake or reboot of an older moive, but offers new conflicts and new ideas to take forward the story. But I also found it hard to ignore the messy screenplay, I can’t help but hope for a simpler and clearer movie.

Rating: *** ½ (A great movie but has its flaws)

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There’s a reason why I haven’t tagged my thoughts on the movie as a review. I feel it’s hard to recommend or not recommend The Last Jedi. For anyone who has followed the previous movies, it’s reasonable to assume that they’ll want closure, so watching The Last Jedi is sort of a no brainer for those people. For anyone who hasn’t watched the previous Star Wars yet, I don’t think they’d start with Episode 8 or whether it being great or terrible would have any impact in them wanting to watch the series.

Laakhon Mein Ek: Show Recommendation

Vidit Bhargava

The phrase “Lakhon Mein Ek” usually has positive connotations and is used for someone with unique skills. It is also a phrase that best describes an average Indian high-school science student preparing for engineering entrance examinations, someone who is quite literally just another student amongst the 14.5 lakh students that try to get into something that has much fewer seats than that. Clever choice of words from the makers of this new Amazon Original show, which showcases the tale of one such engineering student.

The show begins promisingly. The story of students being forced to pursue engineering is all too familiar, it’s also something most of the viewers can empathise with and are probably waiting for it to be told to a larger audience, and Lakhon Mein Ek does justice to the story for most of the part. It manages to show a mirror to the ridiculous process of preparing for an entrance examination. The hostels which take students’ time for granted, the institutes which are nothing but chambers of hell for anyone with an iota of interest outside that of academics. The weird class system followed by coaching institutes across the country where intelligent students are milked with better teachers, better facilities and more attention (they’re after all the poster boys which these institutes would tout in newspapers after they get selected for great colleges), and the less intelligent folk are left behind in destitute conditions where teachers don’t care to teach and the management doesn’t care what they make of themselves. It’s all a part of the show’s extremely real setup.

The central characters are well written and relatable, we’ve all witnessed them in the classroom at some or the other point in time. The show also benefits from good casting. Ritwik Sahore as Aakash (the focus of the show) is the perfect fit for the role. His acting strength really shows in he’s required to pull off a nuanced and layered performance in the later half of the series. Shiv Kumar Subramanyam as Moorthy (the institute’s head) is dependable in the corrupt but in-power official role, something that he’s accomplished multiple times in his career. Alam Khan and Jay Thakkar get to play the supporting roles and are fairly good at that. Khan’s sponteinity makes for many a-engaging moments in the first few episodes.

Biswa infuses the show with a greatly detailed setup. From the characters attire, to the topics being tought in class, notice how, as the show begins students are studying the concepts of frame of reference, but midway they’re being tought more advanced concepts like Fluid Mechanics. The usual suspects like NCERT Physics books and HC Verma also make an appearance. The hostel conditions and the classroom environment are all true too. All points to the show makers for getting the setting spot on.

There’s also this binge-worthy ness to this twenty-five minute per episode format. The makers manage to end the show at a cliffhanger on all occasions, making it absolutely essential to at least peak at the next in series. I watched five of the six episodes in a sitting (roughly 2 hours)

While the first three episodes of Laakhon Mein Ek are great. The story begins to take some hyperbolic turns as the series moves into the later half. Trivial issues like ‘cheating’ end up forming the genises of much more serious turns that the show takes, and by the end of the show, the writing is all over the place. There’s a sub-plot about a dengue epidemic, a sub plot on drug abuse and student bullying, another one about Aakash’s mental health. There’s just too much in a span of 3 episodes to pay any proper attention to and in the end many of the subplots are left dangling and unfinished. And while most of the characters are well written, the character of Chandrakant is particularly one dimensional. He’s never really given the screen time to look ‘real’. All his character is reduced to is the studious guy who pops in to create trouble.

Minor issues notwithstanding, Laakhon Mein Ek is a great show. Definitely one of the best Indian series I’ve seen in a long time. At just 6 episodes, each of them only 25 minutes, the show doesn’t ask for your atttention any longer than it should. Beautifully edited, written and directed, Biswa Kalyan Rath’s first series as a director is worth watching.

Rating : *** ½

The Type of Dunkirk

Vidit Bhargava
I had the opportunity to watch Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk recently, and it’s one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. I really liked the interplay between the three parallel timelines, the sparing use of dialogue and the haunting cinematography but what I found really intriguing was their consistent use of the Akzidenz-Grotesk type.

What’s interesting is that Akzidenz-Grotesk is a late 19th century sans-serif typeface from a German foundry. At surface it seems ironical to use Akzidenz in a movie based on World War II with the chief characters as the British.

However, If you put some thought to it, maybe it isn’t so ironic. The primary emotion is pure faceless-terror. The terror is induced by the German forces, of which we don’t see so much as a shadow. The presence of German forces is only validated by dropping bombs, gun-fire or mass destruction Of ships. It’s terror, and there’s not just a minimalist character of violence attached to it.

What’d be the type of faceless terror to the British forces at Dunkirk? Akzidenz isn’t a bad choice for that. It’s got a ‘monoline’ structure, it’s pretty non-descript and it’s undeniably German!

The only other font that comes to mind is a much later released Helvetica, but then it wasn’t released until 1957, long after the Dunkirk evacuation, and was itself based on Akzidenz Grotesk.

However, during the inter-war period, a completely different sans-serif evolution was taking place in Germany, that of geometric typefaces and “Futura” is one of the most popular typefaces from the era. Having said that Futura has a lot more character than Akzidenz and the entire idea may have been to offer a less characteristic typeface, since the enemy doesn’t even appear on screen.

To me, it’s one of the best Type choices for a movie. The best part is, they remain consistent in its using. It’s the same typeface that is used in the credits and the same type face that’s used for titles.

For a typeface of faceless terror for the four hundred thousand soldiers stranded at Dunkirk, Akzidenz is a great choice.

Restaurant from the future: Eatsa

Vidit Bhargava
The world’s first automat, a restaurant where food and drink were served by vending machines was first introduced in Berlin in 1985. The concept of getting food from a vending machine enjoyed a good 80 years or so, until it was eclipsed by fast food chains, like Subway, which had a greater flexibility of food selection and payment options.

However, as if in a revenge plot of sorts, an automat has surfaced in the United States, which aims to disrupt the Fast-food market by combining the flexibility of a counter-preparation model and modern day automation technologies to deliver food faster and cheaper. The experience is as though you were being served food by robots.

As you walk into an Eatsa, you’ll find yourself in a room with an array of iPads lined up to take your order And a grid of cubby-holes which‘ll host the food you order. It’s a futuristic experience, in the sense that there’s minimal human interaction involved. You’re expected to interact with the iPad, place your order and get your meal, all in a couple of minutes. You’re aren’t even supposed to know that there are humans preparing the food behind the cubby holes. Much like how Elves prepared the great feast in the kitchen below the large dining tables of the great hall in the Harry Potter series, and you wouldn’t know they were the ones toiling away in the dungeons unless you were Hermione. It’s the quickness of the service and the ease of placing an order that really transforms Eatsa’s experience and Eatsa’s proprietary automation tech is to be credited for it.

The Experience of Ordering food

Food ordering was a relatively simple process. You just need to sign up for Eatsa, pickup your nearest restaurant and begin preparing your meal, either either by selecting a preset food or by “Starting from scratch” and selecting your own ingredients.

I really liked the customisation options here. You can select whatever base you want, and while quinoa is pretty much the central attraction, you can even pick stuff like “Channa Masala” or “Pinto Beans” and then of course there’s an assortment of sauces and crunchies to pick from.

Eatsa’s offerings are vegetarian (with the exception of eggs, which appear to have a vegetarian status in US) and in general focus on a healthy diet and given that Eatsa’s target audience is primarily office-goers or students in need of a quick lunch, these options seem specially lucrative. Moreover, Eatsa’s app is intelligent enough to inform about potential allergens and offers filters to remove items which may contain them. This is especially handy for some one like me, who’d otherwise have to check with the staff and rely on their word for such information.

I also liked the attention to detail and the polished user interface of the app. The interactions were fluid, information clearly presented and the experience reliable, whether you’re using a kiosk or an app on your iPhone. It feels like a premium experience, at a cost that’s even cheaper than your local McDonald’s or Subway.

Once the order is placed from the app, and the food ready, your name appears to on one of the cubby-holes, which you can then double tap to unlock and get your food. While the food is still being made by humans, there’s a good deal of automation going in the background to get the food ready in a very short span of time. Usually the waiting time for something like this would be 5-6 minutes. But Eatsa’s service is a lot quicker than that. If you were placing your order at home / office and going to a store for pickup, you wouldn’t really have to wait for it to get ready. You can just walk-over to your cubby hole, pickup your food and get working.

That’s why I feel the experience is futuristic, it eliminates a lot of traditional concepts that’ll be in such a restaurant, and ultimately offers food at a very affordable cost. The experience is friction less, extremely convenient and even somewhat /delightful if you are watching this happen for the first time, these factors should really help Eatsa get a foothold in the Fast-food space quickly.

Food Quality

The food being served is no gourmet fine-dining replacement. It’s just a quick and healthy bowl filled with items you’d like to have. It’s more in the range of a chipotle or subway than your local fine-dining eatery, and for that it’s pretty tasty. It certainly feels like a very wholesome meal.

I especially liked the texture of the roasted potatoes and tofu. They were all well cooked and blended well with the rest of the ingredients.

If I were to eliminate the fact that I was visiting a restaurant that felt straight out of a Jetsons episode, I’d still want to visit the place again, since it provided a pretty delicious lunch.

But here’s the thing, Eatsa doesn’t have a lot of outlets right now. There are a couple of them in San Francisco, one near UC Berkeley, and a couple of them in New York and Washington DC. Eatsa’s only two years old right now, but it’ll need to be in a lot more places very soon to be able truly unleash the second coming of Automats.

Kaatru Velliyidai Movie Review

Vidit Bhargava
Kaatru Velliyidai by Mani Ratnam marks 25 years of his collaboration with A.R. Rahman (my favourite music composer, and also the reason why I end up watching random Tamil movies even though I have no knowledge of the Tamil language at all), and in many ways it is also a near perfect expression of what Mani Ratnam and his fairly consistent team offer best: great music, stunning visuals, innovative angles, interesting metaphors and a fresh perspective. However, movies aren't just about stunning visuals and great music, and Kaatru Velliyidai is far from Mani Ratnam's best.

Set in the 1990s' Kashmir, Kaatru Velliyidai is more of a character sketch of on an INA pilot (played by Karthi) and a young doctor (played by Aditi Rao Hydari). There's depth to the two characters and there's a decent story that's told here. But where Kaatru Velliyidai really excels is the visuals. From the Himalayan expanse that makes up for the landscape of more than half of the movie, to the some really well directed scenes which are beautifully captured. If the story is just a tad bit slow, it's complemented by visuals that brighten your day. Ravi Varman's visuals accompanied by Mani Ratnam's direction manage to capture the beauty of the Kashmir Valley.

The setting is well laid out, the Honda Kinetic, the Willies Jeep, the Delhi house with a central courtyard (which I'm sure is the same house that Mani Ratnam used for the residence of Preeti Zinta's character in Dil Se), the VHS tapes and the CRT TVs all subtly remind you that it's the 90s that the movie is set in. It's always great to see attention to detail in a mainstream movie. It also helps a lot that some of the best work of the director came in that very era.

Kaatru Velliyidai also benefits from stellar performances by Aditi Rao Hydari and Karthi. Aditi Rao Hydari is effortless in her role. Karthi even though a little loud at times, shows prowess in the later parts of the movie where he's playing a more subdued role. The support cast for most of the part doesn't really shine though. They are all good performances but there's little that stands out. However, that only works in Kaatru Velliyidai's favor, as the focus is kept on the two lead actors.

There's a lot of implicitness in the screenplay. Which is pretty interesting. The first time Leela (Aditi Rao Hydari's character) mentions about her brother, it's only a passing reference made to VC's (Karthi) senior. It's not until a good 15 minutes later that it was her brother she's talking about. The reasons for why the characters behave in the way they do, all lie in the implicit hints dropped around. At one point, the movie shows a glimpse of VC's family, which when you think of it also gives you an insight as to why VC's character is so flawed and reckless. However, this implicit nature also makes the movie look incomplete. There's so much to be filled in the gaps, that it's a little discerning and frankly not the ideal experience.

The entire implicitness of the screenplay and the fact that the story gets a little stretched and even a little outlandish towards the end makes you wonder if this is an incomplete movie. There must be more of it, surely the director's leaving a lot for the audience to interpret. While the last hour is not disastrous, it's nothing special either. The screenplay leaves a lot to be desired.

A.R. Rahman's music is top notch. The combination of Vairamuthu, Rahman and Mani Ratnam produces some really meaningful and melodious tracks. Amongst the songs, Nalai Allai, Saratu Vandiyile and Azhagiye are my favourite. Tango Kelaayo is innovative, Hariharan dubbing both the male and female voice. But in general, I've been listening to the entire soundtrack for the last 4-5 months and it feels like another winner from the trio.

Ultimately Kaatru Velliyidai is a visual treat with an interesting story, bogged down by an ordinary screenplay. Great music, visuals and acting lead it quite far, but not far enough. I'd only recommend it for the visuals And music. If you are looking for a good story and screenplay to go along with it, this is not the Mani Ratnam movie you're looking for.

Rating : ***

Movie Recommendation: Raees

Vidit Bhargava
A typical Hindi Crime thriller (or in the broad sense this is what a rags-to-riches story would generally look like) follows this screenplay:

An outsider rises up the crime ranks by becoming an apprentice to the existing biggies, rises to new heights overshadowing his own mentors, but ultimately peaks, and then follows your great Greek tragedy.

There have been quiet a few of these in the past, & for me Sathya was one such movie that stands out (probably because it breaks the template a little and tells the story of the 'master' rising to his peak with the help of his apprentice) In the recent times, Vasan Bala experimented with this format when he wrote Bombay Velvet, and the movie was slightly underwhelming, primarily because it had one too many distractions that it couldn't narrate a coherent story At the end of the day.

Raees is the latest entrant. A story, coincidentally set in the same age that these type of movies started coming around. Inspired by the life of “Abdul Latif”, Raees is a crime thriller directed by Rahul Dholakia.

What works for Raees is the fact that it's constantly engaging. Well shot Action sequences ensure the much needed adrenaline rush for the movie. The good part is that the action sequences aren't sprayed around, Dholakia uses them at the right time for a good impact. Seldom did I feel that a sequence wasn't needed at the point in the movie.

But more than the action sequences, it's the acting that really makes the day. Shah Rukh Khan is phenomenal in his potrayal of Raees, carefully treading the line between Angry, kind and shrewd. It's a pleasure to see him think on his feet; in one scene he's offered tea at a police station and he casually remarks about its miserly small quantity, the very remark goes on to plant the seed for a new idea. In another sequence, he gets his escape idea while absent-mindedly tossing a matchbox, this is something that could easily feel cliche with a different actor, but Shah Rukh Khan handles it surprisingly well. Zeeshan Ayub as the loyal friend is dependably great, and Nawazuddin Siddique shines in his role of the righteous cop. I wish Nawazuddin had better dialogues written for him though, it's a shame to see his character feel so off-colour in comparison to his anti-establishment counterpart. (Should have taken a cue from Adil Hussain's character in Lootera perhaps)

There's something to be said about Rahul Dholakia's prowess in establishing the period setting . The subtle references to the period that movie is present in, the small but visible changes that make Shah Rukh Khan look young in the start of the movie, and considerably older by the end of it; all speak of an attention to detail that shows the care with which this movie was made. You can track the timeline of the story by the small details like the visual style of Raees' spectacles, they are accurate in identifying the different styles each decade had; right back to the 70s when a much younger Raees' gets a much more utilitarian looking spectacle. But sunglasses aren't the only thing indicating the period of the setting here, it's even in the dialogue, paraphernalia, and the cultural references too. If you were to divide a movie's story in three parts, Idea, setting and Screenplay, Dholakia absolutely nails the setting part.

As for the screenplay, Raees sets up a great first half with engaging sequences leading upto an interesting story helped by some great acting. It sets the stage for its self to rise above its template storyline and really make for a meaningful watch in the final act. But then Raees fails. It gets too preachy when handling the riots' sub-plot, the screenplay is distracted by way too many things leading up to the climax, a political alliance, a romantic sub-plot, riots, did we really need them in this movie? Perhaps not. Even the quick-wittedness of Raees' character feels repitative and less appealing after awhile. It's these problems that entangle Raees, which ends up just being a +1 to the long list of Bollywood crime thrillers, ultimately offering very little that's new to the table.

For a movie that could have gone down as a classic crime thriller, its a bit underwhelming that Raees ends up being just an entertaining action movie. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed watching Raees. Something that I can't say for a lot of great movies I saw last year. There's this trend building up with Hindi movies that unless a movie doesn't offer this life changing, completely un-heard of idea or a social message relevant to the media rants around it, it's worthless. I'd like to differ from this view. I think an ideal movie is one that keeps you entertained for its entire duration and offer a well written story that interests the viewer. Great ideas are a sign of a great story, not necessarily the only sign you should be looking for in a movie. So, is Raees is the ideal movie? Far from it. But is it a good, entertaining watch? Yes.

Rating: *** (I really enjoyed watching it)

Don't Peep in the Kitchen just Yet

Sometime back, while I was designing the Watch app for LookUp, my brother (and the Co-Creator of LookUp) arrived at my desk, looked at me designing the interface and exclaimed, “This Looks Terrible! I hope we aren't shipping that!”, my response to him was simple, “Don't Look into the kitchen while the food is being prepared”, I meant to tell him that while I was in the process of designing an interface, there'd undoubtedly be things that I'd change, improvise on or remove before I finish making it, and in general it's not a good idea to critique the design during the process.

Sometimes I feel the same is true with Apple bloggers and rumor websites. Sometimes, they peep into the kitchen too early, set their expectations too high, and when the final product is ultimately different, or all together scrapped, there's an altogether different slew of rumour on rumour reports.

By now you've probably guessed what the post is about: Rumors on the Apple Car. Sometime in 2015, rumor began that Apple was planning to make a car. They'd insist that the car would be ready by 2018 and have self driving capabilities and would be an electric car. Months passed, Now the ambitions were reportedly toned down, and the first version was to just be an electric car And self driving would come later. A few months later, reports started pouring in that Apple had scrapped the idea all together, and was focusing on the software instead. Confusion ensued, is Apple making a car or not? Is even Apple clear about what they want to do with their car project? (Given a new reports suggesting that they working with law makers to work on self driving tech) Apple's Famed Car project was now termed the failed car project.

What!? Failed Car Project!? Were they even making a car in the first place? This to me appears to be a Peeping to early in the kitchen problem. Apple was probably working on a car, like they work on almost everything And the rumor went out rather earlier than it should have, and the result? Everyone assumed Apple would be ready with a car. They didn't even think of the possibility that they wouldn't eventually go ahead with it, or possibly shelf it. It's as if you were told of a touch screen Mac back in 2003, subsequently being told that Apple had “toned down” the ambitions and were focusing on building a touch screen phone instead.

Book Recommendation : Snow Crash

Vidit Bhargava
For some years now, a popular question in Technology quizzes has been about the inspiration behind Google Earth being a piece of software called “Earth” from Neil Stephenson's Sci-Fi novel Snow Crash. Turns out, describing a software like Google Earth isn't Snow Crash's biggest futuristic prediction. Stephenson's book is more deeply researched than that.

Back in the 1980s Neil Stephenson wanted to create Snow Crash as a computer generated graphic novel and got deeply involved in scientific research going on at the time in the field of computers and religious symbolism. In a conversation with a Jaime Taffe, Stephenson first came across the idea of a “Virtual Reality System”. Because Stephenson was spending so much time in Mac software development, he decided to design his fictional VR System called “Metaverse” using Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, following the design philosophies mentioned to lay the foundation for the most important part of Snow Crash. The Metaverse Virtual Reality System. Metaverse is what inspired the creators of Oculus Rift to make their VR Headset.

Given Snow Crash's rich technological heritage, I decided to read this book, sometime back. Like one would aspect, Snow Crash is set in a time where the next big thing after the internet is a VR System called “Metaverse”, a digital universe where users can log onto to interact with people and share information and knowledge. Metaverse has the stream of advantages that any digital universe would have. Following the plot of a certain “Hiro Protagonist”, Snow Crash explores the themes of the Mafia, religious symbolism, Sumerian Mythology and a modern day info-calypse. It's a gripping story, one that draws you into the novel from the beginning.

Snow Crash works because it's always got some or the other surprise up it's sleeve. Moreover its fascinating to see the futuristic gadgetry from the late 1980s that eventually turned into products in early 2000s. The central characters are quick-witted and every character is highly competent in what they do, resulting in scenarios where some or the other is always thinking two steps ahead of their opponent, making for a highly engaging read. Stephenson even manages to slip in humorous moments, which is good, as this book is always at a risk of being too heavy with all the different genre it's trying to merge, the humor helps maintain a lighter environment.

But where Snow Crash falters is the parts in which Hiro goes on an exploration trip about Sumerian Mythology! It's boring and takes up a good chunk of the book. I wish there was a little more focus on Uncle Enzo's Mafia or Juanita's character, both of them, while important, seem to be ignored for a large part of the book.

Snow Crash is worth a read because of the interesting futuristic tale that it has in store for us. I also found the concepts of “Namshab” and other elements from the Sumerian Mythology to be interesting, and it gets me wondering if anyone's trying to figure that out too (just like people dwelled on Virtual Reality for years)

Dear Zindagi Movie Review

Vidit Bhargava

Movie: Dear Zindagi
Director and Writer: Gauri Shinde
Actors: Alia Bhatt, Shah Rukh Khan, Rohit Saraf, Kunal Kapoor
Running Time: 2hours 30 minutes

Somewhere towards the end of the Movie, Shah Rukh Khan's character says “Genius is to know when to stop.” it's ironical that this movie doesn't know just that!

Starring Alia Bhatt in a lead role, Dear Zindagi follows the story of an ambitious director of photography who eventually ends up seeking therapy from a queer psychologist (Shah Rukh Khan) who treats people with his unconventional means.

This is director Gauri Shinde's second movie, her first movie English Vinglish was an extremely delightful movie watching experience and remains one of my all time favorite movies. So it was only natural that I'd go to Dear Zindagi with equally high expectations. Just like English Vinglish, Shinde is able to narrate a powerful story with a good female character at its center. At an interview sometime last year, Shimit Amin had mentioned about the dearth of female directors actually leading to a dearth of stories which focused on them. The situation still persists, and at the moment someone like Gauri Shinde is just one of the few directors who are keen on presenting such stories. Which is a good thing because there's a new perspective to see whenever you goto watch a Gauri Shinde movie.

A major part of the movie's more-or-less successful execution can be attributed to Alia Bhatt. This is easily one of her best performances, (ranking right up against her performance in Udta Punjab and Highway). She's effortless in her role and even when the character's story goes into an hyperbole post intermission, it's her acting that keeps the movie from completely falling apart. She's also aided by an equally flawless, Shah Rukh Khan (whom you could fit in any role and get the same level of awesome acting from him), Shah Rukh Khan's role of a doctor / mentor while reminiscent of his character in Chak De India, is still fresh and somewhat comical. Most of the laughs (there are a plenty) are provided from him. This is also the second time in the year when Shah Rukh Khan has shown some seriously good acting prowess or got a character to play, coming after 3 years of presenting us with Mind-less crap in the name of 'entertaining' movies.

But Dear Zindagi is far from a perfect movie. The writers are so occupied with the idea of showing an independent woman's plight that they end up dividing their focus on a lot of issues. There's a consistent lack of focus here. A sub-plot too many about the lead characters woes. There's a constant ring about being judged for work over anything else, a sub-plot about having to leave an apartment at the landlord's whim, and a subplot about the career choices and settling into a “job”. To top that, there's also a back story, just meant to justify our lead character's exceptionally mercurial behavior. Had they instead, focussed on one of the many problems, we'd have a better story perhaps. At this point it's just a little better than a documentary on the many woes of women.

To top that, the editing isn't great either, the movie is filled with long conversations between Bhatt and Khan's characters. The conversations while noteworthy and important to the story, eventually get too long and boring. At a point, you're no longer even listening to the characters, you end up just staring at their faces, looking for a clue as to where is this going. Long Conversations also have the habit of feeling cliche, it's not surprising that Dear Zindagi suffers from that too. Snappier Editing or perhaps a greater focus on the lead character's profession would have made it a much better movie.

But even with it's many script problems, Dear Zindagi is one of the better films of 2016. It's a good, positive movie which brings a new perspective and a new story to the table. It's also nice to see some comedy coming back to movies, it's after a long time that I found some genuine humor in a hindi movie. I'd recommend watching Dear Zindagi. It's seldom that you see such fine actors working together.

Rating : *** (Worth a watch, despite some problems)

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P.S. It is worth mentioning that Dharma Productions itself has a great graphics and cinematography crew. Their knowledge of colours, font matching and their attention to detail even in the end credits is worthy of an award.

Mirzya Movie Review

Vidit Bhargava

In the last few years, while there's been an outburst of innovative and somewhat dystopian stories. There's been surprisingly little innovation that's gone into the design of a movie's narrative. Not a lot of directors have dabbled into the non-linear narratives. Mirzya aims to provide some innovations in the storytelling space.

The movie's actually built over three parallel settings; All showing the same story. The first one is the traditional Mirza Sahiban tale, the second, a contemporary take on the same story, set in modern day Rajasthan And then there's this third tale, which moves in and out of the story, and which is more abstract than the first two. It's the story of how Gypsies narrate the Mirzya Sahiban tale (which I believe is the origin of the propagation of this legend) through song and dance. It is the most interestingly shot of the lot too, the gypsie setting blends in so smoothly for most of the part that you hardly notice that there's a story in there too and yet, it strikes you as the stories conclude, that there must be a conclusion to that tale as well (There isn't. The gypsies just keep narrating the story.)

There's another unique part to Mirzya. It has very little dialogue in it. So, basically what you are seeing is a movie adhering, not to a dialogue based script, but a visual representation of poetry. Dialogues are confined to the tale involving contemporary characters. The songs serve as the connection to the tale of gypsies and the contemporary characters And Gulzariyan connect the traditional tale to the characters. Together Gulzar and Rakesh Omprakash Mehra try to create a truly unique movie watching experience. As a literary work, Mirzya is as unique as it gets. Relying so heavily on the music, Mirzya also benefits from the fact that this is possibly one of the best works of Shankar Ehsaan Loy. So, the songs are usually a pleasant distraction from the narrative.

On paper Mirzya should really be the path-breaking, genre defining movie that it aims to be. But it isn't even close. The execution isn't great. The result is just a string of events. Moving from point A to B, and since this is a story that's been told so often, it's also predictable. It's hard to enjoy a movie that is both predictable and one whose characters fail to make any connect with the viewer.

Mirzya is one of the rare movies which I feel are too short. It tries to be too snappy, too quick paced, in a story which needed subtlety and time to seep in. But the filmmakers are interested in anything but building up the chief characters or giving them the depth, which was needed to drive the second hour of the movie. They are more interested in the grandeur of the legend and its timelessness. With no depth, it's just hard to care for the characters. The result is a visually stunning but ultimately hollow movie. Had the movie been a little longer, perhaps giving more screen time to the leading characters, we'd probably something better. What good is a tragedy where you can't root for its characters (This is a recurring theme in almost all the recent Hindi tragedies (Ram-Leela, Bajirao Mastani, Ranjhanaa, to name a few) I've seen in recent times. baring Ranjhanaa, by the end of every other movie, one couldn't careless if the leading characters lived or died in the climax.)

Mirzya also bets big on new comers and it pays of to an extent, Harshwardhan Kapoor, Anuj Choudhary and Seiyami Kher are impressive but don't get much to do with their depthless characters.

Pawel Dyllus' Cinematography is top notch. It provides the movie with a stunning landscape. The colours are vibrant, some of the shots could just be used for wallpapers. It'd be a shame to not watch Mirzya in a theatre Or on a wide color gamut display. There are so many subtle colour variations which I fear would get lost on a computer display that doesn't support P3. In terms of technical expertise, 2016 is really the year for Colour Correctness. Right from Kapoor and Sons, to last month's Baar Baar Dekho and now Mirzya, these movies are really picking up the right colours to produce a visually delightful experience.

In an interview sometime back, Rakesh Omprakash Mehra talked about the inspiration behind the movie. He mentioned how he was intrigued by the question of why Sahiban breaks Mirzya's Arrows And that he wanted to seek an answer to that And ultimately decided on making something that'd be open to the viewer's interpretation. Mehra largely succeeds in doing that. Towards the end of the movie, you do get a sense of why she broke the arrows. It's one of the few things that the screenplay successfully executed.

Mirzya is like the v1.0 of a concept. It's an ambitious project. One that aims at providing a new form of poetic storytelling and a unique non-linear narrative But it's also one that's too much in awe of the concept. So much so that it misses on many of the other important aspects. It's a miss fire but one that'll ultimately benefit the musicals to come. At least someone tried to tinker with Storytelling and Narration, when all that we are getting these days is either commercial crap or hyper-realistic, ugly and dystopian message movies. It's also a watcheable movie. If nothing else works, you still get to see some great cinematography and experience awesome music.

Rating: ** 1/2

__ Gulzariyan is a phrase that was used to credit the short poetic verses in the soundtrack which appear to be fragments of a song but are actually part of the narration.

Cafe Turtle

Vidit Bhargava
Hidden above a bookshop, Cafe Turtle is a tiny cafe with a seating capacity of not more than 25 people. The cafe, it would appear, is always bursting at its seems. It helps that their food is just too good to be missed if you are looking for vegetarian options in Khan Market.

The cafe, it seems has a single agenda. To provide as many lacto-vegetarian options as possible. They aren't particularly tied to one cuisine, you'll find a greak salad sandwich and an Aloo Samosa in the same menu. One would think, this type of variation would generally end in being just a mish-mash of Indianised versions of the purported options. However, that doesn't seem to be the case with Cafe Turtle, as they try to be just as close to the original food item as they can get.

In this visit, I had a greek salad sandwich, some bruschetta and an Iced Mochaccino at the cafe. The food is good. While the olives dominate the taste slightly, the overall preparation is very carefully done. The Greek Salad Sandwich never seemed to be oozing out of it's shell (something that could have made it incredibly messy), and the bruschetta had a a good balance of garlic and tomato flavour.

Personally, I'd recommend the Greek Salad Sandwich more than anything else. It's filling and it comes in a nice, soft bread which is something new I got to try. In terms of the taste, there's nothing at particular that grabs your attention, it's a very balanced sandwich with none of the sticking out. However, if you are not a fan of hummus you might want to look at other options too.

As much as I liked Cafe Turtle's food, I felt that the Cafe could have been bigger and quieter. A lot of cafe's in order to give themselves a cozy European feel to them, go for high-ceiling and smaller room. As a result, the place feels more chattery than it is. The moment I walked into the cafe, the place felt full of people, even though only a few tables were occupied, the voices felt very loud and hardly something you'd enjoy, if you just wanted to have your meal in peace. But that's just me, a lot of people prefer the noise (or are the noise makers themselves).

While the noise and some of the architectural choices reminded me of Soda Bottleopenerwala, the Vegetarian Only options and a balanced authentic taste give Cafe Turtle a unique identity of it's own. This one's only recommended if you are going with a small group. 

Stop showing Athletes as Superheroes

Vidit Bhargava
Over the last few days the social media is ripe with all sorts of posters depicting the Indian athletes competing in olympics as super-heroes. Draped in Wonder Woman and Superman costumes the posts presumably follow the general trend of telling the crowd how amazing these athletes are.

To me, this is just an hyperbolic reaction. We see very little of these athletes to acknowledge their strength and so every two years we feel the need to tell the crowd at large about the mistake they are doing by ignoring these sportspersons and so this year, taking an hyperbolic turn the social media has decided that the 2016 Olympics for India are about Woman Power, Athletes being larger than life superheroes, and in general some sort of legends, instead of athletes showing a lot of promise and doing well in a lot of fields (an ideal pitch for more investment in fields like gymnastics and rowing, as they've shown potential for great performance)

This is wrong whichever way you look at it. First, we are not doing anything to acknowledge the fact their sports need more respect in the country. By displaying them as Wonder Woman or Superman, we're sending out a message that their profession lacks appeal.  We are also setting sky-high expectations from many athletes who are still learning to compete at a global stage.

Personally, I feel that I'd like to know Srikant Kidambi, PV Sindhu and Dipa Karmakar or Dattu Bhokanal as Badminton Players, Gynmasts or Rowers. I'd like to know them for their profession, and the fact that their sport is just as important as something like Cricket. Every time I look at them in a hero personification, I fear we'll loose the plot. The plot of investing heavily in training them and turning the half-chances from this year's olympics, into gold medals for the next time.

The Puck is not going towards a Technology

Vidit Bhargava
There's a popular Wayne Gretzky quote : “A Great Hockey Player plays where the puck is going to be”. In recent times, we've heard the quote being referred to predict the future of consumer electronics. You'd often hear people say, “What's next after the GUI? Where is the puck going to be?”

And if you've followed technology news for the last couple of months, you've probably heard people say, “AI is the future.” ; “The next big thing is Virtual Reality” or more recently “Augmented Reality has finally made it to the masses.” All of them stating that the metaphorical puck is going towards AI, AR or VR.

Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are all extremely interesting fields of technological research. In fact, Artificial Intelligence has for long captured the imagination of people. There have been books, movies and TV Shows about what happens when a Machine or a Robot or an AI Powered cyborg takes over the city, In fact, Elon Musk clearly feels that we're living in a simulation! So, it must be where the puck is going, right?

But here's the catch. The puck doesn't go towards a technology. It doesn't even go towards a particular design paradigm. The puck goes towards a Human Problem. Technology is just a means of finding a solution to that problem. The solution may include the use of sophisticated AI but it's equally likely that the in final product that the user uses, AI is just a footnote.

The same can be said for Augmented or Virtual Reality, it's evident that they'll exist in some form in the future (To Be Honest, They've always existed in some or the other state), but there's a strong likelihood that they won't drive the products they're a part Of. Take the example of Pokemon Go. What makes that game so successful? Is it the AR Mode? No! It's the idea, that you can be a real Poke Master, that you too can move around the city and collect Pokemon like Ash Ketchum did, that makes it so exciting to a group of people. AR Mode? It's just an icing on the cake (it's not the cake).

The tiny keyboards and displays of the early mobile phones, were extremely limiting to what one could do with them. Modern day Touch Screen technology helped solve the problem, it provided a bigger canvas for mobile phones to do anything they liked. The keyboard wasn't limiting anymore. It could pop up whenever you wanted it to, stay down when you didn't. But it wasn't the touch screen technology alone that enabled smartphones to be the computers of the post PC era. It was the mixture of, a carefully crafted operating system which was meant to be used by your fingers instead of some kind of a navigational tool; the extremely complex hardware that made it possible for a powerful computer to fit into a hand-held device, the materials that gave it a light weight casing, making the experience of holding it in your hands for a long duration more comfortable. All of these technologies came together to form the basis of a modern day smartphone, There was a lot that the computers of the time couldn't do, or were less efficient in doing because of their size and lack of portability. There were a lot of things that a smartphone was capable of but couldn't because of it's limitations, the puck was definitely going towards more portable computers that enabled people to do their work more efficiently. Problems and challenges unlocked diverse possibilities in ways that helped people, all the cool technology involved, was just a tool used to achieve that. Had the puck been going towards touch screen technology, we'd still be using Palm Pilots or even Newton Message Pads.

Movie Review: Sultan

Vidit Bhargava
Overtime I've observed, that there is a recurring theme in Salman Khan movies. Kids in the movie seem to like him for no reason. Almost always, you'll see a bunch of kids come out of no where and shower love and affection on him. This, and a bunch of other almost Cartoon Network broadcast like scenes randomly show up on screen, to which you are bound to hear some or the other group of people laugh in the theatre. Fans of the actor can directly associate with all this but for us aliens it seems like watching a foreign language movie whose cultural nuances we're hardly familiar with. Can his movies be genuinely liked if we take away these cultural nuances (or as some may call it; Salman-isms) from the equation, like we'd sometimes do while reviewing a foreign language movie? Probably not, because it's not really a cultural issue but just lousy writing for Salman's character, that the writers end up using the same tropes over and over again. But there must to be a movie that shines despite all the fan-pleasing material inserted without any context. Sultan, it seems is that movie.

Divided into three major subplots, Sultan's story is one that hardly ever stated in a sports movie. Sultan doesn't just stop at being a rags to riches movie, it goes beyond and discusses the post-medal story, one that resonates with so many athletes of our time. Third time director Ali Abbas Zafar has a good idea at his hands, which he more or less manages to turn it into a Good enough story which is was inviting enough to sit through the length of the movie.

Adding to that, Zafar directs the wrestling sequences beautifully, managing to capturing the various traits of the game. There's some thrill to be had in watching the state championship wrestling matches. There's genuine earnestness in the training sequences, or the state championships. Anushka Sharma as Aarfa has the right demeanor of an athlete. Salman Khan manages to play the earnest but brash sports star nicely, even though his heavily accented dialogue feels forced and unconvincing but the part that he's really good at, is that of the beaten down, forty-something, has been, Khan just cruises through that part.

Sultan also benefits from a very strong supporting cast. One could argue that Anant Vidhaath actually outperforms the leading crew, in a role which seems he was born for. He's the best of the supporting actors I've seen since, Zeeshan Ayub in Raanjhana and Kumud Mishra in Rockstar. Speaking of Kumud Mishra, he's in the movie too, and leaves a mark as Khan's mentor. The rest of the cast chips in with their witty dialogue, and are the ones to give a realistic setting to the movie. Amit Sadh as the rich owner of a failing sports league is rusty at start but eventually slips into his role and gives a good performance. The movie also benefits from real world MMA fighters who are introduced in the movie as Salman's competitors. Their fighting sequences are convincing and make for an engaging 20-30 minutes which could easily have been a bore!

Sultan is far from perfect though. Along with all the sense-less fan-pleasing content that's randomly inserted into the movie, the movie also fails to provide sufficient depth to any one but Salman's character. The biggest casualty of lazy character sketching is Anushka Sharma's character. Starting of as an ambitious athlete with an eye on the Olympic gold, Her character is abandoned midway, ambitions thrown in the river and all that's left is a sulky face. It's hard to overlook the injustice her character is subjected to in the shadow of being “strong”. Frankly with better writing could have given us a story of not one, but two great athletes.

Anant Vidhaath's character of Govind also deserved greater depth, but all of his acting is put into a role that is ultimately never more than a sidekick. The same can be said for Randeep Hooda's character who leaves a lot of questions in the audience's mind, the writers give him a convincing build up but ultimately abandon him, to make way for more of the MMA content which could frankly have been cut down.

It's been a long time since I last saw a decent Salman Khan movie. Go in with Modest Expectations and a broader tolerance zone for Salman Khan's various fan-pleasing tricks, and you'll hear an interesting sports story, one that's firmly rooted into the current state of Indian Sport, incredibly aware of the times we're in and a reminder of what Sports are really about.

Rating : *** (Watch it for Anant Vidhaath's terrific performance and a good story)

Travelling as a Lacto Vegetarian

Vidit Bhargava
Being a lacto vegetarian in San Francisco or any other city around the world can be a little tough. Given that most of these places have started to consider eggs as vegetarian, you're likely to get Vegetarian options but equally unlikely to get any 'lacto-vegetarian' meals for yourself. You could either go to a restaurant or cafe and tell them to avoid eggs in the preparation or just ask for something vegan (at which point you are just handed over a Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette), it's a pretty tough experience either way.

Pizza

Dominos has a variety of vegetarian options in its menu and they are fine, except Domino's in US offers really thick crusts and has this concept of diced tomatoes (which have a horrible taste, btw), something that I'm not looking forward to have anytime soon.

Piccolo Forno a small Italian Dine-In near North Beach , offers a couple of vegetarian options, which are very good. Being pretty new on a street that's filled with Italian Restaurants and cafes, Piccolo Forno is a quite place, the weekend I went there, the only noise was of a couple of fans watching a Euro Cup match between Portugal and Switzerland. I liked that very much, I've never been fond of ultra-noisy cafes that make it difficult to have a meal in peace.

They offer a Vegetariana Pizza where they add fresh vegetable toppings to a wood-fired Pizza (which, from the description in their menu, may change by the day). The Pizza I had, was topped with Broccoli, Aubergines and roasted Eggplant along with some of the regular toppings. Never has this combination tasted as good as it did on that Pizza. One of the unlikeliest Pizza toppings I encountered, but also one of the tastiest Pizza's I've had in a long time. This is something you don't want to miss, if you ever visit Piccolo Forno, you should have one of these.

Sandwiches

With Sandwiches, luckily Starbucks decided to offer something vegetarian in their menu that didn't have a dash of Mayonnaise. So you'll almost always be able to grab a Roasted Tomato and Mozzarella Panini from a Starbucks near you. Almost. The thing is, this particular Panini isn't stocked very well, so you'll be out of luck if you landed at a Starbucks late for lunch, you'll then probably need to search for 'vegan' options like a glorious fruit basket of preserved fruits.

If you are looking for San Francisco's signature Sourdough bread, you should head over to a Boudin Bakery Cafe which offers a few vegetarian options, including a Tomato Soup served in a hollowed out Sourdough Bread or you could ask them for a california veggie without mayonnaise. But Boudin doesn't publish any allergen info, so you'll have to rely on their word when they say their Breads aren't glazed with Egg White.

Mexican

San Francisco has a lot of options in terms of Mexican food (Did you know San Francisco was a part of Mexico until 1846?). And while I didn't explore much of Mexican Food available, I did go to a Chipotle, which seems to be similar to Subway in terms of how they make their food. Chipotle has an organic Tofu (Sofritas) filling to offer, so you can easily order a vegetarian Burrito, Bowl or Taco, which makes for a decent lunch meal. And if you are a fan of spicy food (which I'm not) there are ways to make your chipotle meal very spicy.


To be honest, Lacto-Vegetarian food is a very small subset of a subset of any menu at an international city but there's enough to make you not give it up. For me, being allergic to eggs, makes it a compulsion to look for lacto-vegetarian options anywhere I go. For a lot of people it is also for religious reasons, and some of them seem to give it up on the pretext that there aren't enough options. I hope this post helps people get a decent vegetarian meal when they visit SF next time.

Seen here is Boudin's California Veggie

Movie Recommendation: Udta Punjab

Vidit Bhargava

Given all the posters and the promotion, it comes off as a surprise that Udta Punjab's lead actor is Diljit Dosanjh and not Shahid Kapoor, which is possibly a good thing, because Dosanjh so effortlessly fills in his role that he overshadows almost everyone else in the movie.

The good thing about Udta Punjab is that it's an extremely to the point movie. It spends little time beating about the bush, and gets its point conveyed without much frills. Structured around three different people; a rising pop-star, a cop's teenage brother and a farm worker trying to make a quick buck, Udta Punjab tries to talk about the state of drug abuse in the state and how it's more of an internal fight against drugs, instead of just rehabilitation or social awareness. It's a previously un-explored territory and it's dealt with uniqueness.

Having a good idea at hands, Abhishek Chaubey and crew also nail down the setting, set in fictional towns of Punjab, the movie is pretty well researched right down to the slightest of details. The dialogue (much talked about, in the last two weeks) is natural and even though laden with expletives, never feels forced. Amit Trivedi's refreshing music, with a blend of pop and local tunes is a pleasant addition as well.

There's something to be said about the humor in Udta Punjab, even though this is a pretty grim storyline, Chaubey manages to find some light and genuinely funny moments, helped by a terrific performance by Satish Kaushik.

While I thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie, Udta Punjab isn't perfect, in fact I felt that the screenplay felt a bit choppy. For a two and half hour long movie, I felt they tried adding too much to the mix, inclined to make the three stories converge, they include subplots that are quite unnecessary, the time could have been used to give depth to the to stories for Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt's Characters, but frankly it's the story about Diljeet Dosanjh's character that matters the most here being the one that most people will relate to.

Udta Punjab is a well made, well intentioned movie. It's definitely worth a watch for it's unconventional storyline, an important story and some brilliant acting. It's also a movie that should be enjoyed at the theatre and not from some shady torrent. Having said that, I did leave the theatre wanting more from Udta Punjab.

Rating : *** ½ (Worth a Watch for it's Story)

Hotstar uses TV Cuts for their Movies

Vidit Bhargava
This morning, the makers of the award winning movie "Masaan", took to the Social Media to bash Hotstar for censoring of their movie for the internet. Hotstar seems to have retorted back saying that they put what the producers give them.

In reality, neither Hotstar (they are, but they didn't do anything that they should be targeted negatively for), nor Drishyam Films is at fault here. Hotstar, is a media streaming service by Star that aims to be a chord - cutting solution for television viewers. What Hotstar does is, they use the television cuts of the movies they upload. Take a careful, look at the CBFC certificate on the movie. It's for the movies made available for viewing on Television channels.

To be honest, this is just Hotstar being lazy about getting the rights to show the Theatre cut. Such Parental Guidance doesn't make sense for online viewing as these On-Demand Services.

Personal Take on the Hotstar service: They had a good idea. But their content lacks basic options like Subtitles or Closed Captioning. Making it a painful experience to watch movies as it is. Top that with the TV censorship in place and you'd want nothing to do with this thing.

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PS : In a sharp contrast to what Hotstar is doing, their competitor Netflix, doesn't even put up a CBFC Certificate before the movie, let alone using a Television Cut for it :)

Security and Some Changes

Vidit Bhargava
A few hours ago, this blog experienced something peculiar. Google Chrome had started to list it as a security threat. Suspected for possible phishing attacks, from a particular website that seems to have been referenced somewhere on my blog.

Here's what the problem was : I help my blogposts with images. Some of them are linked to third party websites. I've been practising this for about a decade now, without facing any serious security issues. I don't like to save them and then upload it because I feel it's somewhat immoral as it then removes the credit from the people who originally obtained it. But a recent blogpost of mine linked one of those images to a website with dubious credentials, and this started a chain of action that resulted in my website being blocked by Google's security systems that help chrome keep phishing websites at bay,

This is had never happened before and this will never happen again. I've taken a few steps to stop and prevent such security issues from happening.
To start with, The blog has been updated with SSL encryption.
The link in question has been removed And
There will be no further blogposts with images other than the ones I clicked / once from trusted sources like wikimedia commons. 

The brighter side to this is, that it only seems to be a suspicious link that triggered this. To the best of my knowledge, the website wasn't able to operate any phishing scam through this blog. But it's a lesson well learnt for me. 

Movie Recommendation: Kapoor and Sons

Directed By Shakun Batra (Director of the spitefully underrated Ekk Main Aur Ekk Tu, and the viral YouTube video called Alia Bhatt: Genius Of the Year), Kapoor and Sons, is an important story told with a tinge of fun and humor.

The first thing that you'll notice about Kapoor and Sons is the fact that it's extremely visually appealing. I'm not aware if there were people other than the cinematographer involved in making this happen but the combinations of colors at any point of time on screen is just perfect. It's almost as if a graphic designer was given the camera. The result is a movie that's hard to take eyes off.

Set in the idyllic town of Coonoor (Tamil Nadu), Kapoor and Sons is a story of a regular family, with some skeletons in their closet. As the story proceeds, we're given more details about each of the characters. The narrative just dives in deep with everyone here, giving a microscopic view of all the members of the Kapoors. The movie reminded me of the short play in our English Textbooks that'd generally give a third person's view into a family, panning out every basic task in meek details, basically getting us familiar or acquainted with the members, and this is something that Kapoor and Sons, couldn't have worked without. To get a grasp of the entire story, it's important here to know each and every character pretty well, and it comes as no surprise that the screenplay takes its own time to take off, and once it does (pretty late into the second half), it just shoots off from there. And to be honest, yes, Kapoor and Sons has some of the finest actors of the country and yes, the direction is brilliant but the biggest strength of Kapoor and Sons is its screenplay. There have been about 4-5 movies on similar topics in the last year itself, and very few capture the essence of the family drama, this well.

Like I said before, Kapoor and Sons has one of the finest star cast to support its story. And it comes as no surprise that there's not even a single under performer. Rajat Kapoor, Ratna Shah and Siddharth Malhotra lead the pack here. They leave a lasting impression. Kapoor and Shah, shine in their constant banter. Rishi Kapoor does a great job too as he gets along with the heavy makeup pretty well. Alia Bhatt in her little role is amazing. Her character is extremely difficult to pull of, as its one that's easiest to forget Because it's of so little consequence in the end but Bhatt delivers an extremely nuanced performance, and to be honest I was expecting that from her, after how well she did in Highway, this looked like a walk in the park. But it's Fawad Khan who's surprisingly amazing. He is effortless and earnest in the extremely complex role he's given. I can think of few actors who could have pulled of such a performance as Fawad did.

Where Kapoor and Sons didn't work for me though, is the parts where it tries to be too cool. Rishi Kapoor's character has this tendency to pull out some or the other random tidbit, which is intended to get a 'Woah! That's cool' reaction but instead it ends up feeling forced and unnecessary. The same goes for some of the humor that runs through in the barrage of conversations this movie has, it sounds pretty forced and is hardly funny. There's this constant swing between uber realistic conversation that works very well and this fake plasticky chatter or hyperbolic actions that just weren't needed. The result is pretty much an okeyish first half. The biggest problem is the fact that these are the only minute issues with an otherwise amazing movie, making them stick out like a sore thumb.

On the whole, Kapoor and Sons is a great movie that's got much more than it appears at a glance. Minor issues aside It's a family drama worth watching.

Rating : ***½ (Don't miss this)